Spike yawned and rubbed his eye with a balled fist. He was up to early, this was torture for him. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed and go back to sleep, but no, Twilight just had to send him to school to teach him some lesson about friendship. You give a mare some wings and suddenly she's the guru of friendship or something. The problem was, he was already friends with the entire class, plus the teacher. I mean, it's not that hard to make friends with sixteen ponies when you're a dragon. That sort of thing tends to stand out, then everyone asks questions and when you're as charismatic as Spike, you end up gaining a friend.
"She's probably just doin' this to get rid of me." He muttered bitterly, only loud enough for the closest of ponies to hear him, which, at five in the morning, meant no one at all. "Now that she's a princess, suddenly she's too good for a fuckin' dragon assistant. Fuckin', who could turn down a dragon assistant? That's like turning down a free blowjob, never happens."
"Well, you're certainly positive today," came a voice to Spike's right. "And vulgar."
"I'm tired, shoot me." He turned to the pony beside him. He glared as he saw the white unicorn mare trot happily along like it wasn't five in the morning. "We all can't be morning ponies like you, Sweetie Belle."
"It's not my fault you have to spend all night studying." She added a bit of bounce to her step, as if to emphasize the fact that she wasn't tired at all.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Thank you Ms. Sunshine. And I don't study, I don't need to, I just have to help Twilight reorganize the entire library for the fiftieth time because the Daring Do books weren't in the order published." He let out a small sigh. "And dragons are supposed to sleep a lot anyway."
"An' yer the prime example of what a dragon should be, right?" Another mare joined the conversation, this one a taller, yellow Earth Pony.
"I'm more dragon than anyone else in this town, so, as far as you know, yes I am." He sighed and adjusted the rope holding his pants up before staring pointedly at the coffee the Earth Pony was holding in her hoof. "You're gonna let me get some of that, right?"
The mare, being the nicest pony to ever live, just handed it over to him. "Jus' take it. 's not like Ah really need it anyway." She smiled at Spike. "What're friends for, right?"
Spike grabbed that drink and downed it like it was the elixir of the gods. "Oh Celestia, Apple Bloom, I love you so much right now."
She chuckled nervously. "Do ya now? Any way you c'n prove that?"
He smirked at Apple Bloom's apparent embarrassment. "A hug is all I can offer, How does that sound?"
"Ah, uh," She tried to stammer out an answer, but Spike was too quick in wrapping his arms around neck in a small, but caring hug. Apple Bloom's face lit up redder than her mane as she gave Spike an involuntary nuzzle that she hoped he didn't notice.
Spike pulled away with a smile. "We should probably be getting to school now."
Apple Bloom nodded absent-mindedly. "Y-yeah, sure." She looked back at Spike. Her ears folded back as she ran off before either could say anything more.
Apple Bloom glanced over to Spike's desk, taking in the sight of the cute drake napping with his head on the desk, snoring lightly. She smiled softly before turning back to the front of the room and looking at the clock. Only a few minutes until class was over and she could finally tell Spike that she-
"Alright class, please pass up your papers." Cheerilee called out, rudely interrupting some important exposition, but hey, I guess it doesn't really matter. She glanced to the back of the room, where two of her students were, very rudely, sleeping in her class. "Sweetie Belle, could you please wake up Scootaloo and Spike?"
Sweetie Belle sighed with a smile. "Yes ma'am." She stood up and trotted to the space in between their seats. Channeling her magic, the area around the three was covered in a muting spell. Next, she tapped her throat and started singing a continuous note. At first, it started out soft and calming, but it quickly reached a fever pitch at the highest note she could form without magical assistance, quickly jolting the two awake and nearly deafening them. Sweetie canceled the spell and took a short bow, to which the class applauded to.
"Thank you, Sweetie Belle." Cheerilee smiled as she collected the papers. "I hope you all have a nice, safe weekend, class."
With that, everypony filed out of the schoolhouse and into Ponyville, barring two. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, very kindly, waited for Cheerilee to finish chewing out their friends.
After a minute, a dragon and a pegasus mare slunk out of the building, one devastated and the other just annoyed. Spike spoke up first. "S-she's going to tell Twilight."
Scootaloo just rolled her eyes at Spike's distress. "Oh c'mon, it's not like she caught you cheatin' or anythin' really bad. You finished your test, you should be allowed to sleep, simple as that." She gave a lopsided smirk at Spike. "And listen, it's not like Twi'll care or anythin', worst you'll get is a slap on the wrist or somethin'."
Spike shook his head. "We aren't dealing with Rainbow here, Scoots. This is Twilight, the mare who almost got tardiness outlawed in all of Equestria." He let out a pained sigh. "I'm so dead."
"You'll be fine, Spike." Apple Bloom said, trying to calm her friend. She didn't want to have to deal with another panic attack in her life time. "If ya want, Ah can be there fer ya. She probably won't yell at ya when Ah'm there."
"N-no, that's fine, Apple Bloom." He shook his head slowly. "I'll just...face certain doom on my own. Sounds fun." With a sigh, he walked off towards his home.
Apple Bloom sighed as well as she watched the handsome drake stumble off nervously. She turned to her friends who were staring at her carefully. "Ah'll see y'all later." She ran off to Spike's side and they walked to the library together.
"T-Twilight?" Spike nervously called out, poking his head into the library. After a few seconds of silence, he opened the door and stepped in slowly. "I guess I have a few minutes of life left."
Apple Bloom followed him in. "Guess so." She sighed and sat down on the ground. "What do we do now?"
Spike shrugged and sat down next to Apple Bloom. "I guess we could just....talk? I mean, that's what friends do, right?" He paused for a second, then leaned over and smiled at Apple Bloom. "Do you got any colts you like?"
Her face lit up red and she lightly pushed him away with a hoof. "What? Of course not!"
"Sounds like you do." He teased as his smile widened. "Oh, let me guess. Is it Rumble? Pipsqueak? Featherweight? Snips?"
Apple Bloom shook her head. "No, too young, too blackmaily, and just no." She sighed and lowered her head. "Yer never gonna guess, so just stop now."
"So, it's me then?"
"What‽" She lifted her head to stare at him with those green eyes that just killed him. "How?"
Spike smiled again. "Elementary, my dear Apple Bloom. Going by how I'd think you'd think I'd think, I deduced that you would think that somepony falling in love with me would be the farthest thing from my mind." He lifted his hand and extended one claw. "Normally, you would be right, but taking into account your actions this morning, the only solution would be that you are head over hooves over me." Can you tell that he spent the past nights reading Sherlock Holmes? I definitely can't.
Apple Bloom's ears folded back as her head drooped low again. " 'm sorry."
"Why're you sorry?" Spike chuckled, making Apple Bloom's head droop even lower. "Saves me the trouble of having to ask you anyway." Apple Bloom stared up at him, unsure of how to continue. Spike sighed and wrapped a scaly, yet unbelievably soft arm around Apple Bloom. "Listen, I'll ask Twilight if I can have this Sunday off, maybe we could go out for some dinner and watch the stars?"
Apple Bloom blinked, looked at the arm wrapped around her, then looked back at the ground. "That ain't funny."
"Good, it isn't supposed to be." Spike smiled warmly at her. "I just thought that, if you do like me, it would be really nice for me to show you that I like you too," He leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek. "And I really do like you, Apple Bloom."
"Ah...Ah, uh." Apple Bloom tried to stammer out an answer.
"Come on, use your words."
She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Ah'd love to, Spike." The corners of her mouth pulled up into a small smile. It faded slightly after a second. "Ah guess I should be headin' home, shouldn't Ah?"
Spike let out a small sigh. "I guess you should. But hey, I'll see you on Sunday, right?"
"Right." Apple Bloom smiled brightly as she stood up. "Make sure ya ask Twilight about it though."
"I will, I will." Again, he kissed her on the cheek. He watched as she left, then when the door closed, he lay back on the hard wood floor.
He lay there, staring at the ceiling for a moment, listening closely. He smiled when he heard it, the slow breathing telling him that somepony else was in the room. "So what do you say, Twilight? Can I have Sunday off?"
He didn't see a purple Alicorn mare appear in front of the romance novels, but he did see the bright flash of magic revealing her. "How did you know it was me?"
"I saw the books moving while I was talking to Apple Bloom." He smiled. "Do you want me to help you with that, or do you have it covered?"
"I've got it." Twilight sighed. "Anyway, yes you can have Sunday off. I kind of have to after hearing you two talk, and I have been working you a bit too hard recently."
"A bit?"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Fine, a lot. It's just that the princess said that she would be stopping in more often and I don't want to disappoint her because if I do then she might strip me of my title," Her eyes widened in horror. "Or maybe even my magic. Do you think she do can that? I mean, I wouldn't put it past her after she gave me wings and-"
"Twilight, you're rambling."
Twilight ruffled her wings nervously. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Spike stood up and started walking to his room. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully."
"Where are you going?"
"Bed." Spike said simply, not even turning around. "I've been pretty tired all day."
"Hold on! I need you to help me with something first." Spike turned around to face Twilight. "I want you to go over to Rarity's and ask her for advice for your date."
Spike stared at Twilight. "You're serious?"
Twilight nodded once and the dragon was out the door. She smiled softly to herself as she reorganized a few out of place books. "He's growing up so fast."
Author's Note
Bet you thought I updated for once, didn't you?
Nope, rewrite.