Chapter #2

The faithful young dragon emerged from his chambers at around 10AM EST (Equestrian Standard Time). He took a few steps outside the ground floor chamber of the tree, slamming the wooden door behind him before descending into an enormous yawn. It should be reminded at this point that Spike had long since moved out of Twilight’s room, obviously growing slightly beyond it. Spike was still unaware of how exactly Twilight managed to add an additional room to a tree, but he wasn’t going to question her magic this late on. Twilight noticed the spectacle from the small kitchenette, giggling in response and muttering something about teenagers before turning back to what she was doing.

Spike began to walk slowly through the library in the direction of the small living area, rubbing his eyes as he did so. As he passed the kitchenette, he slurred a brief “Morning, Twilight…” before continuing on. Twilight responded by smiled warmly and quickly broke into an effervescent trot over to him, using her magic to carry two plates behind her. By the time Spike had crashed onto the sofa in a haze of tiredness, Twilight was already half way across the room. As she came near him, she used her magic to gently place one of the plates onto his lap, startling him slightly and causing him to blink aggressively, looking down to note the contents. As if the smell wasn’t compelling enough, the site certainly woke him up. His favourite breakfast lay infront of him; toast, haycon and some fried gems.

Spike made no attempt to hide the satisfaction on his face, expressing his gratitude to Twilight before diving into the plate.
Twilight laughed slightly. “Spike, after all this time, you’re still the same hungry dragon as you were all that time ago! I guess some things really don’t change.”

In response to this, Spike raised his face from the plate, the light from the windows reflecting off of bits of gems around his mouth, which he rapidly eradicated with his claw, grinning. “So, Twilight, are we going to have another session today?” By this point, the dragon felt a lot more confident after the numerous ‘support sessions’ Twilight had held with him since he asked for her help about a week ago. While there wasn’t much she could teach him which he couldn’t find in a book, he did enjoy the opportunity to spend time with her.

A puzzled look came across Twilight’s face. “Spike, I’m not sure there is much more I can say to you. All we can do is go over what I’ve shown you so far, really. Remember to be confident, strong, and yourself, and I think Rarity will almost feel compelled to go on a date with you.” Twilight smiled again, picking at her less impressive oat-breakfast.

Spike slid the plate to the side of him, slouching down a little. He looked down at his claws, tapping them together gently. “I’m not sure, really. It’s not that I don’t feel ready, it’s just… Oh, I don’t know.”

Twilight merely leant out and rubbed the green spikes that are atop his head warmly. “I’m sure you’ll do great, Spike. I believe in you!”

Spike continued to rub his claws together nervously, clearly slightly more uncertain in his abilities, though regardless, he aimed to amuse Twilight by smiling back at her. Twilight leapt up from her usual seating position and picked up the two plates with her magic, giving Spike a small shock as she did so, not expecting her speed. She hastily ran the plates over to the sink, scrubbing them energetically.

“Uh, Twilight, don’t you want me to at least clean up?” The small dragon piped up.

“Oh no, Spike. You’ve got to get ready, I’ll deal with this.” The mare responded, grinning to herself (although to no real avail, as he could not see it from the angle.)

“Prepare myself? For what, are we going somewhere?”

“No, Spike! You’re obviously going to Rarity’s today, aren’t you?” Twilight spun round to face Spike, with a look on her face that looked as if she was almost confused and betrayed.

“Oh, uh…” Spike rubbed his claws together more aggressively, looking down at them and avoiding all eye contact with Twilight. “I wasn’t intending to but… I guess I can.”

Twilight suddenly perked up to her normal self, grinning widely. “Excellent, I’m glad to hear it,” As she turned her focus back to the dishes. While doing so, a thought crossed Spike’s mind. How did a mare with the intelligence of Celestia sometimes have the stamina of Pinkie Pie? Spike decided that there were bigger things to worry about, so he shrugged the thought off.
But right now, Spike wasn’t sure he really wanted to consider the ‘bigger things’. Instead of thinking about it, maybe it would be easier to just head out to the Carousel Boutique and see where things go from there – one things for certain, he was as ready as he was ever going to be. And before he knew it, he had slipped out the door.

Now in the open world, the morning sun was beaming down on his face. It took a short while for Spike to accustom himself to it, and it always amazed him how well the tree filtered it out. The walk to Carousel Boutique was further than one might have imagined, and was on the other side of the Ponyville Centre.

Walking along the old town, Spike tried to keep thoughts of Rarity at bay, which wasn’t too difficult considering there were so many distractions – he continuously found himself smiling and waving politely to other ponies, including Derpy delivering the morning mail, Pinkie bouncing along for no apparent reason, and many others. Spike could’ve sworn he even saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash at one point, though they quickly vanished around the corner of a shop for some reason.

Before Spike knew it, he was closing the gap between himself and the Boutique. Taking a deep breath and avoiding any thought that could come to his mind now, he stood at the doorstep. He extended his claw to knock, though not much happened – he simply found himself standing there idly. Without thinking, he managed to push his small and bony claws gently into the door, producing a frail knocking sound.

Fortunately, Rarity was downstairs to hear it. “Oh, hello! We’re open for business, please do come in!”

Spike began to slowly push himself past the door, looking around slowly in the entrance room of the petite shop. Rarity immediately spotted him, “Oh, Spike, dear! How wonderful to see you, what can I help you with today?”

“Uh…” Spike had already decided that he would begin by browsing the clothes that she had available. “I was looking for something to replace my old suit, hah; I think I’m getting a bit large for it now…” Spike spoke with a tinge of nervousness in his voice, but not overwhelmingly so like he used to.

Rarity beamed, looking over at him carefully. “I’m so glad you’ve taken an interest in fashion, my dear! If you’ll follow me…” The small (but rather curvy, Spike considered naughtily) mare escorted him to a rack.

“If you care to browse here, this is all of my male formal attire. I’ll have to make some adjustments from… well, stallion to dragon, but I’m sure it’ll work fantastically! If there is nothing, I can always make something custom for you!” The purple maned mare said, with ecstatic amounts of enthusiasm.

Spike looked awkwardly, clearly not sharing the same enthusiasm. “Uh, sure. Thanks Rarity.” He began slowly browsing through the array of clothing that was placed sentimentally on the rack, considerately trying not to damage anything. As he did so, he considered what he was to say to Rarity. His consideration wasn’t exactly that, though; he simply couldn’t think of anything. For the first time in perhaps his entire life, his mind was simply blank. He wasn’t particularly nervous, it couldn’t have been that. Something simply didn’t feel right about asking Rarity ‘the question’. Instead, all he could think of were a hundred reasons why he wasn’t ready, but when he thought about the specifics of the situation again, his mind just blanked. It was as if the small chip inside his brain had suddenly made the decision to cease working.

“The selection is great, Rarity. I appreciate the look, though for now I think I’ll… uh… see what Twilight thinks then come back. Thanks again!” Before Rarity had a chance to respond with anything coherent, the dragon was already half way out the door, so all she had the opportunity to do was wave half-heartedly, stunned with confusion.

It was only about twelve paces from the Boutique that Spike was able to consider what exactly had happened. Before even reviewing the situation, he began to feel angry with himself. Why had he done that? What stupidity had taken control of him? As he was walking, he took deep breaths and managed to eventually calm himself down.

Alright, so what happened back there? Things were find, it was the perfect window of opportunity and I blew it. Spike sighed audibly. He knew it wouldn’t be too difficult to sort this out with Rarity, but it was more important to sort this out at the moment.

As Spike was walking home, he began to begin a small trance under his breath. “Stupid dragon. Stupid dragon.” He continuously repeated the phrase. He wasn’t so much annoyed now as disappointed with himself; he knew he’d look the same child he looked before to Rarity, if not worse now. “Stupid dragon. Stupid dra-”

As he was chanting away, he noticed that his path had been blocked. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were back. Spike slowly began to move around them, smiling slightly for the sake of being polite towards them…

“Uh… Spike… hey… uh, have you maybe got a second to talk? Unless you’re busy, in which case that’s fine… in fact, maybe this can wait until tomo-” the shy Pegasus stopped talking as she was jabbed sharply in the thigh by Rainbow Dash. Spike noticed that Fluttershy twisted her head to Rainbow Dash, who responded by purposefully enlarging her eyelids a few times.

“Oh, right…” The Pegasus continued, facing Spike again. “Actually, now would be kinda’ good if you have the time.”

Meanwhile, Spike had a permanent eyebrow cocked, curious as to what exactly was the matter with his shy friend. “Well, yeah, Fluttershy. I think I have time, what’s up?”

“Well, I was wondering if you maybe… you know, want to go out somewhere tomorrow night?” As she spoke, she almost immediately retreated back about three large steps, only to be pushed forward (almost aggressively) by Rainbow Dash.
To this, Spike was dumbfounded. With all the possible outcomes of this day, is this really happening? The single cocked eyebrow stopped, and was replaced with a dangling jaw.

By the time Spike managed to come over the shock of the situation, he spoke slowly and tried to appear calm. “Uh, absolutely, I’d love to?” Spike spoke as though he was inquisitive, not quite sure what he should say or do in this situation. As he did so, Fluttershy’s wings almost shot out, enough to shock Rainbow Dash as well as Spike. A deep shade of red covered her face.

“Uh, that’s… great. Thanks Spike. Well… I’ll see you tomorrow at my house!” The Pegasus flew off so quickly that she nearly fell over, followed by Rainbow Dash, who rolled her eyes and winked at Spike before disappearing after her.

Somehow, Spike gathered the energy to continue down the road. Questions flooded his mind, including where on earth this newly established attraction to Spike came from in Fluttershy. Fortunately, he didn’t need to consider his situation for too long, for he found himself at the front door of the library.

As he lifted the latch and entered, he immediately saw a smiling Twilight, clearly eager to know the news. He said nothing, and immediately made his way straight to the sofa, falling gracefully into its metaphorical arms.

“So, how’d it go? Are you going on a date?” Twilight asked, overly enthusiastic about the situation.

“Yes.”

“So is Rarity excited? How did she respond? Oh my, this is just like the novels I’ve read!”

“No.”

“What do you mean, why isn’t she excited?” Twilight asked, a hint of confusion in her voice.

“She wasn’t excited because it wasn’t her. I’m going on a date with Fluttershy.” Spike sighed loudly for what felt like the millionth time today, rubbing his face aggressively with his claws. This was going to be a long day.

Author's Note

Hi all,

Well, this chapter has taken some effort. I'm still yet to find a good proofreader, though from my efforts to check it, all seems well. I'm really not used to writing long chapters, but I would hope that the length of 2,000 or so words would cut it for you guys - anything more and I think I would be loosing sight of the quality of the story.

I'd like to remind you that this story shall most likely involve some sparity, so for you addicts, don't be upset!

I hope the story so far has created an unusual twist on your perspectives of Spike. I've enjoyed writing this chapter, which is generally the most important factor for me, but I also hope you all enjoy reading it.

Many thanks.

P.S: Don't expect the next chapter for atleast four or five days! I've got some real life stuffs to attend to, unfortunately.