After Spike had had his mental battle, he slept a dreamless sleep, wanting to put his entire damn, confusing thoughts out of his mind until another day.

***

Spike’s eyes snapped opened as the loud, annoying shrill of Peewee screeched in his face, either to play, or wake him up for the hell of it. Spike, guessing it was the latter this time, swatted the phoenix off his chest.

“Ugh, Peewee, go away. I got to work in a few hours,” he groaned.

Peewee was persistent, however, as he grabbed the pillow under Spike’s head in his talons and dragged it out from under him. A claw reached for it, underestimating the mystical bird’s skills of flight because he missed, twice.

“Shit, Peewee, give me the pillow. I still got time,” he growled, turning his head to look at the clock. “It’s only eleven a.m." he shouted after Peewee, who ignored him, but Spike paid the phoenix no mind. His eyes glanced back at the clock on the dresser.

“ELEVEN A.M!” he screamed, jumping from his bed before rushing into the bathroom, not even noticing it was closed. He almost tore the curtains from the rack to jump in, scarcely hearing the water running in his haste, and screamed as Twilight covered her body from him with her hooves.

“What the buck, Spike?!” she screamed.

Spike closed his eyes and backed away rather swiftly. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, had no clue you were here. I’m late for work,” he said and was about to run down stairs when Twilight’s voice stopped him.

“Wait, Spike…listen you’re already here, so why not just join me? We can just let the water wash off-”

“Are you out of you bucking mind, NO! I gotta go. See you later, Twilight,” he replied, slamming the door.

The mare sighed sadly. “Well, it was worth a shot,” she whispered before washing the rest of her mane in the warm, relaxing water that poured down from the showerhead.

As Twilight was finishing her hygiene, Spike rushed out the door to the library to get to Sugarcube Corner, pushing ponies out of the way, forgetting to even apologize. He could not be late again, but he had forgotten to set his alarm clock and cursed himself for that.

He swung the front door open, almost smacking Roseluck in the flank and completely disregarded everypony, including the mare he almost hit. He stopped, though, once he reached the counter, panting as both Mr. and Mrs. Cake glared at him, Pinkie Pie poking her head from the cupcake mix she was stirring. She frowned.

“S-sorry… sorry, forgot to… set my alarm last night… so sorry,” he wheezed out, about to go behind the counter and wash his claws to get to work when he was stopped by Mr. Cake’s right forehoof on his chest.

“Spike, we told you that if you were late again, then you could not work for the day. This is the fourth time you were late for work because of one reason or another. I’m warning you now Spike: if you’re late one last time, and Cupcake and I agreed with this, then you'll be fired. Understand?” he spoke, his tone serious.

Spike’s ear fins and tail drooped in shame and he nodded. “Yes, Mr. Cake,” he answered slowly, his eyes dropping. He turned around, disappointed that he had let down the Cakes again and that he would not get his hours or pay.

As he trailed out the door, his tail dragging behind him, he felt a hoof tap his left shoulder. He turned to see Pinkie Pie with a sad smile on her face; she kissed him.

“Sorry, baby. But you really DO need to get to work on time; it’s not fair to me or Mr. and Mrs. Cake if we have to take over your shifts just because you’re tardy all the time. They're pretty serious, Spike. You CAN’T be late again…they won’t give you another chance if you are," she whispered.

Spike only nodded, depressed that everything kept going wrong for him for today of all days.

“I’ll see you after my shift. Stay out of trouble,” she giggled. She planted a kiss on the left side of his cheek and trotted off to get back to work, leaving Spike to say he was sorry to Roseluck.

He walked along the streets of Ponyville, not sure what he was to do today since he was supposed to work until six tonight. He rubbed his forehead and sighed loudly.

He was about to reach towards his left ear fin for a cigarette when he remembered that he had rushed out of the house so fast to get to work that he had forgotten one. He gritted his fangs in frustration. He was having a very bad day today, and without a smoke, it only made him more irritated. He blew out a small stream of flames out of his nostrils, not wanting to go back to the library while Twilight was still there after his…accident.

His mind tried to shift to thoughts of anything other than the unicorn. He tried in vain to rip the thought of Twilight’s wet furred body and enticing violent eyes whispering words of lust from her tongue as she rubbed his chest scales with her tail, her dampened watermelon scent from the soap sliding slowly on his own as-

“Shit, what the buck is wrong with me this week?!” Spike growled at himself. He twirled around, intent on stomping off to be left alone from anypony when he bumped into Snails, an amber furred stallion unicorn.

His black eyes blinked in annoyance that Spike did not even say he was sorry before moving away from him, lost in thought. Snails’ best friend, who was walking beside him, a grayish opal furred unicorn stallion, glared at the drake before shouting over his left shoulder to get Spike’s attention.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, you clumsy reptile.”

Spike stopped in his tracks when he heard that he was being addressed with such disrespect.

“What the buck did you say to me, Snips?” he growled. Already very much ticked off by the events that happened to him today, he was in no mood to be talked down to like he was a foal or baby dragon, in this case.

Snips walked up to him and stretched out his neck to speak to the creature, who used to be his friend, but after the fillies and colts went to high school, they started to stay away from Spike, afraid of him and not wanting to have anything to do with the creature, who would eventually be so harsh towards the town’s most famous and rather only fashion designer. With this and so much more Spike had done, Snips and most any of the former children who had befriended Spike drifted away from the dragon.

Spike was a full six inches taller than Snips, but Snails reached up to his height with his long legs. Snips did not stand down, a full improvement from acting as a slave for The Great and Power Trixie, who had appeared to them years ago and was in the mindset that he could really take down a teenage dragon.

“I said, watch where you are going, rep-“

Were the only words he was able to utter before a sharp, curled claw made contact with his jaw and sent him flying, straight into Roseluck’s flower cart where she worked with her other two sisters. The cart broke from the sudden heavy weight, the entire roof slamming down on the stallion before Daisy screamed and ran to get away from her sister’s broken shop. She also ran to get help for Snails and the police to detain Spike, who was beyond furious.

Snips groaned, lifting his body from the rubble that was weighted on him. Snorting the dust that went up his nose and sneezing, he only blinked just in time to see Snails tackle Spike to the ground, pounding his front hooves hard into Spike’s face.

The dragon wrapped his tail around Snails’ neck and threw him straight into Bon-Bon’s own candy stall which broke under his weight. Standing up and ignoring the hurt lacing his face, Spike roared into the air, a large jet of emerald flames spewing from his mouth. To this, everypony began to scream and run away, nothing but terror across the market.

Spike stomped towards Snips when powerful hind hooves slammed into the right side of his body, throwing him to the ground. He lifted his eyes to stare into Apple Bloom’s golden hues, Big Macintosh standing beside her, a frown and narrowed eyes across his face. The drake stood up, pissed that his former friend dared to assault him.

In hindsight, Spike should have kept his temper under control, feeling his natural dragon rage for those who dared to challenge him overpower his thought process.

“You're such a bully, Spike; you really want to act this way, then you can get the buck out of our town!” Apple Bloom shouted.

Spike was about to turn around and swat her in the face with his tail, not seeing Big Macintosh about to charge at him, when a large, pure white bolt of lightning slammed into his chest, knocking him to the ground with a loud thud. Before he lost consciousness, the last thing he saw were four police stallions and two Royal Guards galloping towards them, fully armed, as Spike finally blacked out.

Spike awoke, disoriented and annoyed, not understanding where he was. He lifted his head and winced, feeling a blaze of pain flare in his left eye and his scales. He felt a black eye from one of Snails’ blows, growling before a sharp pain came from his right hip, remembering that Apple Bloom had slammed her rear hooves into him, hard.

His nose also bled, which he wiped with his right arm. He looked around the gray colored walls, with no windows and black colored bars six feet in length from top to bottom but only six inches in width, separating him from the other cells, his back laying on a green mattress stained with the smell of urine, tears and… semen. With a sigh of disgust, he stood up from the bed, seeing it had a small, gray blanket and a very firm, dirt stained pillow.

The room also held a silver toilet and small sink, as well as another bed chained two feet from the ground to the wall across from his own. On the other bed rested a mare, her light gold coat covered by an orange jumpsuit, a hole in the back cut for her tail. She had cyan eyes and a light cyan mane, the cutie mark of three raindrops on her flank, which Spike managed to see when she shifted the suit to scratch her ass.

She yawned, smacked her lips and blinked before seeing Spike, who wore a larger version of the orange jumpsuit which he realized he had on just now as well as a large hole cut for his own tail. She chuckled.

“Well, well, look who's bright eyed and bushy tailed. Welcome to Tartarus, handsome,” she joked, gesturing throughout the room.

Spike scowled and turned away from her. “Where am I, and who are you?” he growled, not knowing just how he had gotten to this cell.

“Seriously, Spike, you don’t know? Shit, everypony has heard about the rampaging dragon who assaulted two stallions. You’re famous—well, at least to the other cell mates, that is. Sorry, name’s Raindrops. I know you because you’re the only dragon in Ponyville who’s not a complete greedy, humongous bastard… no offense.”

She laughed, to which Spike snorted smoke from his nostrils, clearly offended.

She held up her hooves in defense. “I’m only kidding, sheesh. To be honest, the other cellmates would not even be near you when you were dragged in chains by four of the Royal Guards; they were too busy pissing their suits and crying in terror, but I wasn’t scared. Told them to bring you into my own so I could get to know you more. Been years since I've seen you, though. I was part of the team that would bring that tornado of water to Cloudsdale, remember?” She grinned.

Spike shook his head before placing his claws on his temples, getting annoyed by this mare’s constant talking.

Raindrops sighed loudly, knowing that the dragon was in no mood for talking. She turned to her side. “Not everypony thinks you’re a monster, Spike,” she whispered, having no other choice but to sleep, causing Spike to feel guilty that he had not even said one word to the kind mare.

He was about to open his mouth to say something so he could get to know her a bit more when a Royal Guard unicorn mare trotted towards their cell and opened it. “Spike the dragon, you got visitors,” she announced.

Spike had no other choice but to stand from his cot and walk with the mare. She put his arms behind his back and hoof cuffed him, the cuffs small enough for the prisoner not to escape, but wide enough to not be firmly around his wrist. Spike only growled as he was led to a white walled room with a large window, a single gray metal table, and three gray colored chairs. Two of them were occupied by Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, whose eyes widened seeing the dragon brought over.

The mare Royal Guard undid his hoof cuffs, meant for a pony’s legs, and forcibly sat him down in the chair across from his friends.

Spike narrowed his eyes at the guard, turning his head and looking at the mares before him. Tapping his claws on the table, he finally asked when the silence was almost unbearable, “Anypony got a cigarette?”

The next thing Spike knew, Twilight reached across the table and slapped him hard across the face, her face red with rage. He pressed a claw hand against his right cheek and sighed, not feeling the pain as much as he felt Twilight’s disappointment and fury from the blow.

“You got arrested, Spike. Are you SERIOUS?!” she screamed, slamming her forehooves onto the table and rising from her chair before Pinkie put a hoof on her shoulder, slowly calmly the mare down. She sat but glared at the reptile before her.

“What were you thinking, Spike?” Pinkie whispered, wounding the drake’s heart for hurting Pinkie Pie, the mare who had been there for him for many struggles in his life seem so depressed.

Spike sighed, not having a single clue how to answer her question. He could not lie to her; she was his marefriend, the one who loved him, and so he told the truth.

“I wasn’t thinking, Pinks… I was just taking unnecessary action towards those who mocked me. I was just venting out my rage in a way that could have been avoid,” he said.

Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes. Pinkie glared at Twilight before turning her attention towards Spike and shook her head, ashamed at her mate.

The three were completely silent before Pinkie broke the silence with words Spike seriously did not want to hear. “Big Macintosh fired you,” she said calmly, as if what she had just said had no effect on her and would not matter to Spike.

“WHAT?!” he screamed.

The Royal Guard with them took a step towards him. Twilight waved her down with a hoof.

“He said he didn't want a criminal working at their farm. Applejack really tried to defend you, honest, though for some reason, Apple Bloom was excited, which I find mean. Granny Smith agreed with Big Mac though. To be honest, the Cakes wanted to fire you, too. But I pleaded with them to let you keep your job. But once you get out of here, you won’t be able to come to work for a week. Mr. Cake wanted it to be two, but I convinced him to give you one week. Spike, were you really so upset that you had to go to jail for not coming to work?” Pinkie whispered.

Spike nodded, groaning.

The two mares talked to him, telling him about a court date he had next month, and how Snips and Snails wanted to press charges. However, Spike allowed his mind to wander as their words of nonsense changed into those he thought he wanted to hear, which confused him very much, not sure his mind was thinking.

“Spikey, you know that I love you and really want you, my sexy reptile. We can go back to my bed and make love, just like I know you been wanting to do for a few weeks now. Hay we can kiss until you make my body nice and wet with that skillful tongue, then I can put whip cream and cherries over my body as-”

“Spike, I never told you how much I loved you, did I? How when you were older, I started to have feelings for you, how I was so tempted to kiss your rough, scaly lips now that you grown so big and strong, and how I want us to make love by the fireplace? Spike, I want us to be married, to have a child of our very own, the first hybrid born in centuries. Did you know-”

“Why the buck would he ever find love with you? You’re like his mother, or at least his older sister. That’s sick if you think he would ever want to be with the pony that raised him, Twilight.” Pinkie Pie shouted at her.

Twilight touched her nose to Pinkie's own, her eyes narrowed in fury. “It is NOT! I was only six when I hatched him. Celestia raised him as I was completing my studies; I didn't even get him to stay in the same room with me until I was ten. Besides, I've known him much longer then you ever have. I know everything about him. You probably don’t even know his favorite type of gem, Pinkie Pie!” she sneered back.

Pinkie Pie gritted her teeth and pushed her snout harder against Twilight’s. “If you’re so in love with him, why have you never made a move? Clearly-"

“I was waiting for the right time, but then you had to run to him first, you-"

“That’s a lie, Twilight, and we both know that. You just want him for your damn studies of what being in a relationship with a dragon would be like, then discard him, you floozy. I-”

“Floozy?! Excuse me, little miss 'I don’t have a single brain cell'. I’m sorry that you wouldn’t know what a serious friendship turned to something more is if it bit you in the ass. I’ll bet-”

“Well, who’s it going to be, Spike? Twilight or me? Who do you love more?!” Pinkie screamed.

For once since they fought, Twilight agreed and turned her head to glare at Spike.

“Yes, Spike, which one of us do you love more? Tell us, Spike-”

“I need the answer now, Spike-”

“Spike-”

“Spike-“

“Spike-”

“Spike? Spike, SPIKE!” Twilight screamed into his right ear fin, making him jump back to reality and put his claws over his ear fins.

“I DON”T KNOW!” he roared.

The mares looked at him in confusion and a hint of fear. He cleared his throat.

“Um…what?” Pinkie asked softly.

Spike sighed and said it was nothing.

“Anyway, you’re lucky Princess Celestia didn't come to detain you. Shining Armor wanted to come, but I told him that I’d handle it. To be honest, Spike, if you were any other dragon, and we did not know each other as long as we did, I would've sent you to the Dragon Kingdom…but you’re not. You’re a very special dragon who I love and care for very much,” she said with the ghost of a smile on her face.

Spike smiled, too, before he took her left front hoof into his own left claw making her blush. She tried to hide it, apparently doing well in that since Pinkie did not see her expression.

“That seriously means a lot to me, Twi. You’re like a sister to me. Thank you very much. It honestly means a lot that you care so much about me,” he whispered, his smile wide and honest.

He saw her frown and look away from him, taking her hoof back from him with a sigh. He blinked, confused at her action.

Pinkie blinked and leaned over to kiss Spike’s right cheek. Twilight’s eyes narrowed. Neither Spike nor Pinkie saw and pulled away. Twilight sighed loudly.

“Well…we better leave; visiting hours are over. If everything works out, I should be able to get you out of here by tomorrow night, the bail being seven hundred bits. But you have more than enough, even though it will come out of your money stash,” she said teasingly, even if she was a bit serious about it.

He nodded, then groaned before faceclawing himself. “Great, can’t wait to leave this hell hole,” he laughed.

Pinkie smiled and Twilight chuckled. With that, the two stood, Pinkie stopping to kiss him, which the guard ignored. Spike saw, out of the corner of his eye, that Twilight was frowning again, making him question just what the mare thought of him and Pinkie being together and why she looked so against it.

After they pulled away from the kiss, Spike was hoofcuffed again and escorted back to his cell, where he saw his roommate, Raindrops, bouncing a small rubber ball from her hoof to the wall and back again. She turned and, upon seeing the cell door open, grinned, ignoring the ball as it bounced back on her cot.

“Hey, welcome back, Scales. I’m guessing everything went well with the ponies you were meeting?” she asked.

He grinned. “Yeah, something like that. So tell me, Raindrops, what brought you here? You know my story, so I want to hear yours. I’m sorry for ignoring you earlier; I was just under a lot of stress,” he said quietly.

The mare merely waved a hoof, forgiving him as if it never happened. “My story, huh? Hmmm…well, I came back home after getting rejected from joining the Wonderbolts three weeks ago. Some bitch named Lighting Dust really kept me from showing my skills, and I came home from a long day to my marefriend, Derpy Hooves, who was chilling with her friend, Carrot Top, or Golden Harvest as Ditzy says her real name is, but I don’t give a shit about that. Anyway, I got into a fight with Derpy about her having to work extra late one night and Carrot Top, being a damned saint, stepped in to defend Derpy. So I got into a physical fight with her and threw her out a window. She’s either in the hospital or in another cell now; I don’t care.

“Anyway, I’m glad Derpy still allowed me to stay with her. I really love her. But after I get out of here, it’s going to be pretty tense between us for a while, so...yeah, that’s my story. Been here two weeks because neither Derpy or I got the money for bail; it’s five hundred and sixty bits. We only got four hundred now. Don’t know why she would even want to stay with me, to be honest,” she said softly.

Spike felt bad for her, being best friends, or rather former friends, with Derpy's little sister, Dinky Doo. And he knew Derpy was very loyal, but he did not think she would be so loyal as to choose her marefriend over her best friend.

"Maybe all it takes is looking past a pony's faults to know how much you’ll do for them, just as Pinkie would do for me… or Twilight." Spike thought before telling Raindrops that she was lucky to have a marefriend such as Derpy, to which she agreed.

Spike sighed loudly and chuckled. “I really need a cigarette,” he muttered, causing Raindrops to laugh out loud with him.

“Gods, yes, oh, it’s been forever since I had a smoke. You know, Spike, once I get out of here, we should hang out more…I like you,” she whispered.

Spike nodded and promised that they would. With that, Raindrops turned her body, closed her eyes and did her best to fall asleep.

Spike put his claws behind his head, not sure how he was able to sleep with his racing thoughts. Exhaling through a deep breath, the last thought in his head was an agonizing question as he closed his eyes and did his best to sleep.

“Who do I truly love more: Pinkie Pie… or Twilight Sparkle? And do I really see Twi as only family...or am I lying to cover my real thoughts from her....and myself?"

Author's Note

Here is chapter two, I'm sorry for every creature seeming so OOC, not sure if I should put an AU tag on this story or not. Thoughts? And Miss Dark Angel and I worked hard on this, so please be respectful of her, but honest. Next chapter should be in a day or two, I REALLY need a smoke:(