Smoldering Scales

Spike had one of the worst nights that could ever happen to a young dragon. Running blindly through the streets, he prayed to any pony gods that would listen that no one would see him. His entire crotch was a mess of his own dragon spunk and a foal’s saliva. His face was a complete disaster, covered with the hastily applied makeup from Sweetie Belle. This really was not something he wanted to explain to a passerby.

Also in the back of his head, there was Twilight. If she was still up waiting for him…Sweet Celestia, he wished that she wasn’t. Peeking his head around a corner, he sighed as he saw the Library, all the windows dark as night. He scrambled across the road, and fetched the hidden key for the door from under a nearby rock. Thankful that Twilight was always locking herself out by accident, he turned the key as silently as he could, and snuck inside.

“Whooo?”

Spike jumped three feet in the air, his heart racing as he looked over at the source of the voice. “Oh, damn it Owlowiscious.” He muttered under his breath at the brown owl, his eyes reflecting dimly in the dark room.

“Whoo?” The owl turned his head awkwardly, as if asking what the dragon was doing coming in so late.

Spike ignored him, shuffling off towards the washroom. “You will never understand how much I hate you.” He mumbled. The owl simply fluffed its feathers up in confusion, and went back to sorting through a small stack of books.

Washing up was the easy part. The washroom was downstairs, and judging from what just happened, Twilight was sleeping soundly upstairs. Spike pumped some of the well water into a tin wash pan, and directed a little bit of green flame under it, warming it until it steamed slightly. He took a towel and washed quickly, feeling a lot better as the warm water washed over his scales. He made extra sure to clean every speck of makeup from his face.

Spike went back into the main room, and eyed the stairs with trepidation. The wood planks squeaked, and even after that, he still had to sneak into his bed at the foot of Twi’s bed. He took a deep breath. ‘It’s okay, Spike, you got this.’ He thought to himself. Carefully ascending the spiraled stairs, he grimaced each time a small groan came from the wood. ‘Why are these damned things so loud suddenly?’

He reached the top floor, and peeked his head over, spotting a sleeping purple pony bathed in the moonlight. He may actually pull this off. Placing his first claw on the wood floorboards, he slowly paced across the room. Suddenly the pony shifted in her sleep, and Spike froze in fear.

“Mmm…Pinkie…don’t put the frosting there.” She mumbled into her pillow as shifted onto her stomach. If Spike didn’t know better, he could have sworn she had a huge smile on her face.

Sighing, the dragon covered the last few steps and slipped silently into his bed. He pulled the covers tightly over him. For the first time all evening, he realized it really was late, and how exhausted he actually felt. His brain was still going over the amazing, improbable events that happened to him, as he quickly dozed off in the warm basket.

His dreams were not kind to the little dragon that night. Some of the events of the night flashed past him, but one other image stood out above everything else. He would remember it as long as he lived. When he looked up at Rarity’s beautiful face, and saw only her closed eyes and sunken features, as if he were looking at a corpse. The small dragon shuddered in his sleep.

Roused by sun trickling in through her window, the small pony frowned as she pulled her pillow over her eyes, trying to block the offending light. Sweetie Belle tossed onto her sides as she tried to get back to sleep. Her eyes eventually just gave up and popped open, as she stretched awkwardly on the white sheets. She already felt irritated. This was going to be a lousy day, she could just feel it.

Sweetie hopped out of bed onto the cold wood floor, trudging down the hallway. She opened the bathroom door, washing the sleep from her face and tidying up her mane. She clopped downstairs, feeling slightly better.

As she started making breakfast she started to feel something was slightly amiss this morning. She went over things in her head.

‘Let’s see, got out of bed and actually got to use the bathroom. Then I went downstairs and started breakfast. I walked out to the main room to get something from my saddlebags and walked over an unconscious Rarity. Poured milk on my oats. Got some juice from the fridge.’ She thought.

“Wait a minute.” The foal said out loud. She walked into the boutique, and saw a very passed out white pony propped up on the red velvet couch. She could have almost been sleeping, but she was far too out of it for that. Sweetie grabbed her sister’s white hoof and dropped it, eliciting no response. “Crap.”

“Rarity.” She said slightly louder now. She ran her hoof against her sister’s face, shaking the pony slightly as she tried to get any response. “Rarity!” There was no sign from her sister. Sweetie put her head close to Rarity’s chest, hearing slow, labored breaths. She started to feel a twinge of panic creep up her spine. She hadn’t read anything about this. The next day after ingesting the potion, the subject was supposed to wake up feeling as though they had a hangover at the worst. Something was going terribly wrong.

The pony sighed to herself. Gathering her composure, she went back into the kitchen. She hopped up on the table, and ate her oats quietly as she looked out the window at the new day breaking. Holding the glass of orange juice to her lips, she took a deep drink, feeling the cold liquid flow through her. After finishing her cereal, she placed the glasses back in the cabinet as she did every day. Already she was feeling a lot better about things. She was positive she had a plan.

Sweetie propped her sister up as well as she could to try to make her more comfortable. It wasn’t lost on her just how much the mare looked like a corpse laying there. She backed up from the couch, doubting what she was about to do. On top of worrying what to do for her sister, she found herself far more preoccupied with another thought. Why wasn’t she more concerned about this? In fact, one of the farthest things in her mind right now was taking her sister to a hospital, which was probably the right thing to do. She was far more concerned with what Spike was going to think about her for doing this.

There was really no point in worrying about it now. Sweetie leaned over and carefully grabbed her sister by the scruff of her neck with her teeth, dragging the pony slowly across the floor. Grunting with exertion, the foal was surprised just how much she weighed. This had been so easy last night, but then again, she hadn’t had to drag her across the whole damned house.

Slowly working her way up the stairs, she grimaced slightly as she heard Rarity’s horn knock painfully against each wooden stair. She slipped on the top stair, nearly losing her grip on the prone pony. Struggling against the weight, Sweetie finally muscled her sister to the upper floor, falling backwards and catching her breath a moment, before grudgingly grasping her again and pulling her around the corner and into her room.

Sweetie Belle sighed as she stepped back from Rarity’s bed. The white unicorn looked so peaceful now in the darkened room, splayed out awkwardly on the sheets as her chest rose and fell shallowly. It would be a lot easier to keep her up here, Sweetie reasoned. She did become aware of a pervasive feeling as she stood there. It almost started to feel like a tomb in the dark bedroom. Sweetie backed out hastily as she watched the older mare sleep deeply.

She shut the door tightly, standing in the hallway. It took her a moment to feel warmth flow into her again. The doubt of the whole situation was still infesting the back of her brain. Was this really going to work?

Sweetie Belle banged her hoof on the heavy library door. She was absolutely dreading Twilight answering. Spike of course could have told her what happened. A public shaming and a near inevitable trip to her sister’s house would be fairly inconvenient right now.

Even if he hadn’t said anything, she was the last pony Sweetie wanted to waste time talking to at the moment. If she had to act excited about old dusty reference books one more time, she felt liable to commit ponycide.

So she found herself breathing a sigh of relief when Spike opened up. She felt an excited pins and needles feeling spread over her as she saw his timid expression, and her face lit up slightly, as if she was enjoying this day for the first time all morning. The tiny purple dragon however seemed less than pleased to see the foal on the doorstep. “S…Sweetie! Uh, what are you doing here?” He stammered slightly, as he looked up and down the street quickly.

Sweetie Belle grinned and pushed past him, making sure to bump her rump into his side as she passed. The dragon blushed slightly, looking down at the floor. “Well that’s a silly question. This is a library, right? I came to get a book.” She said, walking into the center of the room, making sure to twitch her tail as suggestively as she could. She looked back at him, feigning confusion. “What did you think I was here for?”

Spike really couldn’t possibly be any more embarrassed than he was at this moment. He wanted the ground to just swallow him up. Turning to his side, he shut the door, and sighed, trying to even find words that would cover what had happened the last night. He couldn’t stop thinking about the look on Rarity’s face as his ultimate dream had finally come true. That dead expression on her face.

Sweetie walked over to a nearby bookcase, absently looking over the titles. “Spike. Is Twilight around?”

“Um, no, she went out to see Applejack.” Spike was still standing at the door, fidgeting awkwardly.

Sweetie Belle noticed the still blushing dragon, and smiled as she walked over towards him. “Come here Spike.” She said softly, flickering her eyelashes slightly.

He really couldn’t control himself. Spike knew he couldn’t just keep avoiding Sweetie Belle forever anyways. Glancing into her eyes, he walked slowly into the middle of the room, meeting her. The foal craned her head in towards him, letting her mane brush against the sensitive scales of his neck. Spike pulled back suddenly, but only slightly. As he slowly relaxed, he felt the foal stroke her head against him gently. He could feel her warmth against him, and his face turned a brighter shade of crimson.

“I know you had fun last night Spike.” She whispered as she nuzzled against his body. “And I know you wouldn’t want Twi to find out about it.” Sweetie could feel his body tense at the thought. “She never has to know, Spike. Nopony has to know. I just need your help with one little thing.” She looked at him with her green eyes, wide and pleading.

The dragon didn’t have to think long. It wasn’t exactly a hard choice.

“Okay Sweetie Belle. What do you need me to do.”