Please, please. . . I'm begging you, let me sleep! I only want to forget about her just PLEASE!
Spike laid there in a cold sweat as he did for the past three weeks, begging his mind to allow him relief from his emotional pain in the physical world in exchange for something better in the world of unconsciousness. He tossed in turned for what seemed like an eternity to him, when in reality, it was only a few minutes. He had done everything from working himself to exhaustion to simply smoking hayweed to help him fall asleep; but the result was always the same. He moved from his bed to look out to the dark blue sky of night to look at the glistening starlight that dotted the shroud of darkness.
Spike had grown into his body, thanks to maturity. His once small and pudgy body has grown in length to the size of a colt and has become more serpentine and muscular. The once rounded spikes on his head and back have sharpened into pointed spines that bended slightly backwards. His face has become more defined as he aged, and more teeth hanged out of his mouth as a result as well, however he had noticed these changes, and so did the residents of the small town of Ponyville, it was hard not to when the same being nearly destroyed said town. The residents didn't drive him out of town, but they were extremly cautious when his birthday rolled around. Spike was a little hurt at first, but when his best friend, Twilight, explained how he had already been fully grown, the residents began to settle, and so did Spike.
However, Spike could not settle down, not this time; and how could he? After what he had discovered, he began to think he would never be able to sleep ever again, and it all began on the night that all of Ponyville decided not to sleep. . .
Spike could feel the pulsating, repeatitive bassline as a very chilled sounding guitar played along with it, all the while, a synth masqueraded as a violin accompanied the song. There were flashing colours everywhere as it provided the only source of light in Sugercube Corner, the premire party destination of Ponyville. Spike was in attendance, of course, but he had only one goal in mind that he was determined to accomplish; to tell Rarity that he loved her.
He managed to locate her on the dance floor in the main lobby of the shop as the flashing lights made her rhythmic dancing seemed to appear in stop-motion, she looked just as beautiful as ever. Spike managed to take a deep breath and cautiously walked over to her proximity, though she didn't seem to notice his exsistance, so he decided to speak up.
"R-Rarity. . . hey, RARITY!" Spike shouted over the vocals to the song just loud enough for Rarity to open her sapphire eyes and turn towards Spike's general direction.
"Oh, hello Spike, how are you, darling?" Rarity asked.
"I'm good, I'm good." he replied, "Say, Rarity, there's something I gotta tell you."
"What is it?" she asked in a curious tone.
"Well," he paused as he took another deep breath, "I-"
"Hey, Rarity, how's it going?" A brown earth pony with a darker shaded brown mane asked the snow white unicorn, interrupting Spike as a result. Spike could only wonder who this stallion was and how he knew Rarity.
"Oh, Spike, I want you to meet Doctor Whooves, my new coltfriend." she stated. Spike was completly shocked to say the least, he couldn't believe what he just heard.
Rarity. . . with someone else, the sheer thought made Spike wanted to break down crying, set the stallion on fire, or both. He had to get out of here NOW.
"What was it you wanted to tell me Spike?" Rarity asked after she introduced Spike to the doctor, not that he noticed.
"Uh, Rarity, I-I think I might of eaten a bad cupcake. I need t-to go, now" Spike said as his voice started to crack and his eyes grew watery.
"Hey, Spike, are you okay?" Doctor Whooves asked in a concern tone, but Spike was already out of ear shot to hear him, not that he would of answered anyway. Spike opened to an unusually cold night in Ponyville,as if it sort of knew how Spike was feeling and was taunting him of it. He made his way through the streets until he came to the familiar tree house that he and Twilight called home. He opened the door to find that the house was empty, so he closed the door and fell straight to the floor to cry hysterically. He must of cried for hours, and how could he not? The love of his life had just indirectly told him she wasn't interested in him! He decided to go to the bedroom to get some sleep. He managed to get in the bed that laid adjacent to Twilight's, but he kept falling in and out of sleep, and before he knew it, morning had come.
After awhile, he just stayed awake, but he didn't dare tell Twilight about it, she had more important things to worry about than how Spike felt on something, so he just stayed awake.
Spike began to squint as a new light began to form over the horizon, the sun was coming up, which ment a new day started, and more noticable bags compounded under his eyes. He made his way back to the bed to create the illusion that he slept last night to Twilight. He could hear sheets rustling minutes later and moments after that, he felt a hoof shake his body from the otherside of the blanket.
"Spike." Twilight said in a hushed tone, "Get up, we got work to do today."
"Okay, just let me rest for one or two more minutes." he replied.
Twilight had taken note of the heavy bags under Spike's eyes the past few days and with a quick "Alright." she trotted down the stairs to start her day's work. Spike did nothing but lie down for the past few minutes, but he needed time to recover. However, there's not enough time in Equestria that can mend his wounds.
2:54 P.M., and Spike was doing his daily routine of organizing Twilight’s books, cleaning up after her, and probably sneaking a gemstone for a snack if he was lucky. However, on a day where you didn’t get any sleep last night again, you tend to be less than enthusiastic about working and you don’t do a very good job of it.
Spike had just finished organizing the first shelf of books, which he started around 8 o’ clock this morning. He could barely even stand on the ladder he occupied, and his limbs were shaking from doing the daunting task of picking up book after book and putting them back on a shelf, all the while, getting another one for his friend.
‘Ironic,’ Spike thought, ‘How I keep track of these books made out of dead trees and I live in a tree house.’ Spike was trying to keep his mind preoccupied with anything to try and forget the fact that the one he loved was with someone else. How he wished that Twilight had a spell that could send him back in time. ‘Time,’ he pondered, ‘I remember a time when I was a baby and I could this kind of work easily.’ He remembered when he was littler and he went on a rampage across town trying to take random things that didn’t belong to him, then he remembered how he turned back to normal with the help of Rarity, and how he almost confessed….
Twilight was engrossed with her textbook, as per the usual, and she was reading this rather interesting text at that. It was about the rise of the Griffin Republic and how Tyson Lead-Feather II led his people to the land of Equestria after the old kingdom got sacked by the-
“CELESTIA FUCKING DAMMIT!” Twilight heard, but just barely, for she couldn’t think of one person who would dare take Celestia’s name in vain. She was utterly shocked, because no one was in the library today, except for her and…Spike.
“Spike,” Twilight shouted, “Why in all of Equestria would you use Celestia’s nam-“. She had to stop right there, for her assistant was on the floor, sobbing. She looked at him; he seemed to look like he had lost all hope in life, and he couldn’t continue on.
“Spike?” Twilight asked in a more calm and gentle voice, “Are you alright?”
Spike just looked up at her with (even more) bloodshot eyes, how he could be so insensitive to his friend by talking about her teacher in a negative connotation. He picked himself off of the floor and groped Twilight’s neck as if there was a force that was sucking him from existence and Twilight was the only thing keeping him in this state of being. He cried into her fur as Twilight just wrapped her hooves around his neck and tried to comfort him the best she could. Spike spent a few good minutes like this until he finally listened to all of Twilight’s shushes, and finally looked into her eyes.
“Now please, Spike, tell me what’s wrong.”
Spike told her everything about what happened, the party, the stallion, the insomnia, and she listened with an open ear and took every word to heart. She always wondered why he was falling behind in his work, and from the looks of things, she found her answer.
“Why haven’t you told me before?” she asked.
“Because, you have more important things to worry about than my feelings.” he replied.
“What?” Twilight said, surprised, “Spike, you’re my friend, of course I care about how you feel.”
“Really?”
“Of course, you were with me since I was a little filly. You were my first real friend, of course I care about you and don’t you forget it.”
“Well, that’s good to know Twilight, but what about Rarity, what about the stallion and how I feel about her?” he asked.
“Well, Spike, you always sort of just said it was a crush, right? You never really said you loved her before.” She stated.
Spike had never thought about this, but what Twilight said actually held some weight. In all his years in chasing her, Spike never said that he loved her. He remained silent due to this epiphany.
“And besides,” Twilight continued, “If you do love her, you would want her to be happy, right?”
“I-I guess.” Spike said.
“So stop worrying, chances are the doctor can’t stand Rarity’s dramatics and leave her, and then you can get your chance to ask her out again.” Twilight said, reassuringly.
“Geez thanks Twi.” Spike said as he pulled her into another hug, “I feel a lot better now.”
Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at how she could solve problems like this.
“Now could you do me a favor?” she asked
“What?” Spike replied.
“Could you try and get some sleep?” she asked again.
“But, what about the library, I still have a lot of work to do.” Spike stated.
“Don’t worry about it, I can clean this up, you just worry about getting some sleep for now.” She responded.
Spike didn’t feel like arguing with her anymore and decided to head up the stairs and into the bedroom. He crawled under the covers of his bed and laid his head on the pillow and he closed his eyes, and finally fell asleep. The dream was nothing but an unintelligible series of blurs and smears, but it was something. Before long, Spike felt a hoof shake him awake.
“Spike, wake up, we got to go see Applejack down at the farm today.”
Spike slowly opened his eyes to the image of a familiar lavender unicorn, and without a second thought, he got out of his bed and wrapped her in a bear hug.
“It worked, I got some sleep! Oh, thank you Twi, thank you!” he shouted ascetically. He spun her around as he lifted her off her hooves, he could sleep again and it was all thanks to her comfort. He-
“Spike… can’t… breath” he heard.
He looked at Twilight’s face and saw that he was strangling her with his hug. He let her loose as she took a big gulp of air. When she finally caught her breath, she turned towards the dragon and gave him a dirty look.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “but you just really helped me out, I can’t thank you enough.”
“It’s alright, Spike. Now come on, we got to go see AJ, remember?” she asked.
“Yeah, yeah, but can we get some breakfast first? I’m starving.” He responded.
“I’m sure AJ will give you a few apples when we get there, now hurry, before we’re late.” She said as she was already making her way down the stairs and out the front door. Spike just followed suit as he made his way towards Sweet Apple Acres, looking forward to seeing his friend and filling his stomach.