The Marshmallow Lighter

Lovely day for a walk and an even more lovely day for the number one girl pastime in history.

“SHOPPING!” Rarity exclaimed, giggling like a school filly.

I gave a drawn-out groan as she tugged at my arm with her magic. I didn't bother walking, instead allowing her to literally drag me along. I offered to take me out shopping, with me paying for everything but I obviously hadn't counted on Rarity's girl instincts to kick in. Quickly, we made our way to a mall in Canterlot and the instant we stepped through those front doors, I let out a howl of horror.

'No, no no. My money, why did I do this? My life savings are about to vanish!' I thought as Rarity dragged me towards the very first store in the mall.

The noon hour was immediately challenging me with the worst. One would think Rarity would be all about going to clothes stores, but she's not. If she needs something to wear, she makes it herself. No no, Rarity was all about maintaining her beauty and improving the atmosphere of her own home. She'd go to the spa for most things, but... we all know how powerful scents can be.

This was a candle shop.

Rarity let out a high-pitched squeal as she entered the shop, attracting the attention of any living creature within a 30-planet radius. I immediately cringed, my mind coming to terms with what was about to happen.

Recovering from the deafening screech, I followed Rarity into the store as she spotted... a candle. Vanilla pillar candle with a set of four vanilla jar candles. That is twenty cents less than it's base price of 15 bits.

“I want it I want it I want it I want it I want it!” she repeated over and over, dancing on the spot.

The clacking of her hooves was drawing much attention to us and I felt my cheeks redden from the embarrassment. I quickly grabbed it along with a basket, putting the set into it before Rarity bolted around the store at light speed. Across the tiny shop, I saw her levitating at least six candles into the basket, all taper candles—cheap. All of them were plain red ones, basically for candle-lit dinners. This noticeably brightened my mood as I was now expecting something in the future, but I probably shouldn't get my hopes up.

Minutes passed with Rarity inspecting literally every candle on every shelf, tossing a random one in now and then until the basket was getting extremely heavy from the number of candles. After an hour (in a goddamn candle shop), Rarity finally inspected every candle there.

“Spikey, I'm ready!” she said in a sing-song voice.

Sighing, I brought the basket with me as we proceeded to the checkout. The lady glanced at me for a moment before shrugging as I lifted the basket atop the table. Her eyes widened a bit at the size of the pile Rarity made and she eagarly scanned each item's price tag before totalling it up. I dreaded the moment, feeling time drag on. Rarity simply kept that giggly grin on her face, eyes closed as she bobbed her head back and forth happily.

“Your total is 123 bits,” the clerk stated with a giggly grin of her own.

My jaw dropped at the price and I glanced over to Rarity who seemed unsure herself. Her eyes briefly met my own and I gave her a reassuring smile. I spat a ball of fire, my coin purse appearing from it and I pulled out exact change. One-fourth of the wallet's weight vanish in an  instant. Sighing, I spat a plume of fire over the coin purse once more and it remained hidden in my body once more.

A receipt popped out of the register and the clerk bagged all the candles for us. Single, double, triple bagging the lot before I picked it up. I was certain I would double my muscle-mass by the end of the day.

“Thank you, have a nice day!” the clerk shouted as we left.

Rarity skipped daintily with glee as we trudged through the mall. I dreaded the next place we went to, but luckily it was merely a fabrics store. Rarity wasn't so trigger-happy that she'd buy a whole store out, only what she needed so that was good. The aptly named Fabric Emporium. The 'emporium' part confused me greatly. Once inside, they seemed to carry everything related to Rarity's profession. She did mention this was her go-to place for most Canterlot-fabric trips.

“Spike, I know how boring this could be for you, so why don't you go take a seat,” Rarity said, pointing towards a set of wooden benches by the store entrance.

Nodding, I shuffled over there to see six stallion sitting there, making small talk while a sign above them explained it all: “FOR THE BOYFRIENDS,” was all it said. Each of them were holding or had numerous bags in possession from different stores. Smirking, I sighed as I took a seat at the end of one of the benches. I got some attention from the ponies and immediately, I was asked what must have been a routine question.

“How long you think you'll be here?” one stallion asked, holding out a box full of money. Confused, I shot a glance towards him and he smirked. “This is a game I like to play. Placing bets; stallions come here with their gals, sit down, and we make bets on how long we'll be waiting. Some wait ten minutes, some wait hours. Some lose 50 bits, some gain a hundred.”

“Ooh, I see. That's clever,” I said, grinning. I glanced over to see Rarity's purple mane bobbing up in the distance, passed the many tables with piles of fabric. “My girl is smart. She knows what she wants; owning a boutique, she learned to manage her time. I'll be out of here in ten minutes tops,” I said, smirking as I pulled out 50 bits of change and slapping it into the box.

AN HOUR AND SEVEN MINUTES LATER...

“So then she starts crying, and it wasn't the wailing that got to me, it was why,” a brown unicorn stallion said as he dropped over seven bags on the floor. “It was just a picket fence, a symbol of all sitcom family homes, and it was a touch darker than the fence on Family Colt, so I offered to go get paint. She agrees and just as I leave, she follows me out the door, saying she wants to make sure. I've been here for six hours, lost over 700 bits and we still don't have the paint.”

The six of us all shook our heads and patted the depressed unicorn on the back as he let out a drawn out sigh.

“We've all been there,” I muttered, turning my gaze towards the shop.

The sound of a cash register closing, that familiar cha-ching echoing, caught the attention of all males on the bench. Ears perked up and all eyes glanced around. I hopefully glanced towards the cashier, instinctively clutching my wallet only to feel relieved as well as dread. Rarity's purchase rang up and it is half of what I have left... but at least I was done here.

“There goes half my wallet,” I muttered.

“Good luck,” the group shouted in unison as I waved back, picking up the bags.

Three more bags added to my load adding up to ten. Shrugging, we exited the store and Rarity continued to skip ahead even though I started to lag behind. After several seconds, she turned around to see me too busy grunting and saving face to speak up about the growing distance. Rarity's expression shifted to surprise and she cantered back towards me, much to my delight.

“Something up?” I asked, attempting to smile through my clenched teeth.

“Spike, give me some of those bags,” she said.

Before I could protest, her horn lit up cyan and four of the bags had been levitated from my grasp. She took a deep breath as she focused and turned around, continuing to trot with a spring in her step. As much as I wanted to seem like Supercolt, I was glad she removed some of the weight off my shoulders.

“Spikey, there is one more place I wish to visit before we leave,” Rarity shouted back in a sing-song voice.

Even though I had been mentally chastising myself for offering it, seeing Rarity's beautiful smile still made the day worth it. Although part of me was dreading what was going to happen to my wallet. Rather than let me tail behind her, a blue aura tugged at my spines, tickling my forehead as Rarity lead me across the street, lets call it.

To my surprise, we passed by numerous clothes stores, jewelry store as well as several makeup and perfume shops. My mind came to two conclusions: We were going to lunch, or she is going to put me thousands of bits in the negative.

Rather than confirm my suspicions, we headed towards one of the exits. A coffee shop on both sides, one specializing in those damn hipsters and one for, well, Rarity's kind.

I mean fancy ponies.

We passed by those as well. By the entrance, there were several vending machines and other miscellaneous items. The largest one we approached and it had a picture of a camera and a curtain covering the opening.

Immediately, she stepped through the curtain and slid the bags in the gap under the bench. A smile grew on my face as I did the same, sitting down on the soft bench as I closed the curtain. Pulling out my wallet, I slid a bit into the slot without prompt from Rarity and attempted to get comfy before Rarity's forehooves wrapped around my midsection and squeezed hard. I felt a bit of air leave my lungs as she pressed her cheek against my soft underbelly and nuzzled me gently. I couldn't stop a smile from popping up on my face as much as I wanted to act masculine and indifferent. Tapping the button, I placed my right hand around her as she glanced towards the lens.

“S-A-Y C-H-E-E-S-E,” the machine spat out robotically.

Neither of us said cheese as the camera clicked once, one of our four photos down. Once again, Rarity was eager to take charge and slid her hooves up, one on each of my cheeks. Turning my head, she pulled me down and planted her lips on mine. Rarity's tongue pressed against my lips until they parted them, brushing my fangs before I started to return the kiss. The camera clicked once more. Rather than separate, I leaned in, my right hand lightly tracing her spine. Her hooves trembled along with her body as she submitted, allowing my hands to travel up her barrel. Pulling back from the kiss, we stared at each other with half-lidded eyes, tongues lolling out and a single strand of saliva connecting us.

*click*

Turning back to the camera, we came off the momentary high we experienced and Rarity sat back up, quickly checking her hair. As she did that, my hands, still around her barrel, lifted her up and gently sat her atop my lap. She let out a little gasp from the suddenness yet relaxed, leaning into my chest. Forgetting about her hair, she brought her forehooves to her chest and smiled at the camera, her face still red from the kiss. Being in the same boat, I rested my head on her left shoulder, smiling as my hands gently massaged her hooves.

*click*

The booth started to whir as I let Rarity slide off my lap, her horn levitating all bags out from under as we left. Looking to the slot, we impatiently waited a few seconds until the four-photo film slid out and we saw each photo in their glory.

“Mmm, I want this duplicated at your film studio,” Rarity said as she levitated  the film up.

“Gotcha, sending to Twilight,” I responded happily. Spitting out a pen kept in my magical cache, I quickly wrote a few words on the back. With a single breath, I blew a flame over the film and watched it fly out of the mall before I placed the film back into my magical cache. “Alright, where to now?”

“Well, we did pass by a cafe,” Rarity mentioned, winking at me.

“Ooh, indeed we did,” I responded, turning towards the fancy cafe.

A blue aura surrounded my snout and yanked me in the other direction, dragging me towards the Starcolts. I felt a massive sense of dread enter my mind as I was pulled towards the entrance, spotting several wannabe-popular kids sitting at their tables with their overpriced coffee and pieces of parchment in their quest to be “writers”.

“Might as well try and understand this new crowd, right?” Rarity said, her voice faltering as it was clear she wasn't fond of the idea either.

. . .

The taxi back towards the hotel was a silent ride, discomfort preventing any chatter as we were both entirely disgusted.

“We're not going in there ever again, dearie,” Rarity muttered.

“Good. Because I may leave you to the hounds if we did,” I muttered, cringing as I attempted to purge the thoughts of the fools attempting to act cool, flirting with Rarity. “Luckily, I had credible writing to counter their attempts at being deep.”

“Puh-leeze, Spike. We both know I'm the deepest,” Rarity responded, nudging my side.

“Perhaps, but—” Freezing, I glanced towards her to see a dirty grin on her face to which I rolled my eyes. “You wouldn't know from how tight you act.”

“I suppose I should mention the couch for tonight for that little comment, right?” Rarity asked, kissing me on the cheek.

“Naw. We both know what's going down tonight,” I responded, getting a smirk of my own.

“What makes you think that?” Rarity asked, pretending to act shocked and offended.

“I'm stronger than you,” I muttered nonchalantly.

A pregnant silence followed before we burst into a fit of laughter. The wind rushed into our faces as the taxi sped forward and as we pulled to a stop in front of the hotel, our laughter turned into giggles. Departing, we paid the fare and stood in front of the hotel, Rarity levitating all the bags as we headed towards the entrance.

“But I do expect some serious 'sweet talk' as an apology.”

After today, I learned that a smile was priceless.