Starlight anxiously shuffled down a hallway.
What should I do? She thought to herself. How should I react? I mean, Spike likes me! Quite a bit judging by that comic. Do we stay friends, or should we date or something?
Starlight stopped in her tracks and sighed slightly. I need some advice. I should find Twilight.
Starlight searched the castle for her mentor. Eventually she found Twilight in the kitchen.
The Princess of Friendship was inspecting the fridge. "Ugh! Discord and the Smooze must've eaten all of our food last night! There's nothing left but a carton of milk."
"Good morning Twilight."
The purple alicorn turned around to see her pupil entering the kitchen. "Good morning Starlight."
Starlight looked around the room. "Is Spike here right now?"
"Nope." Twilight answered. "Apparently he has something he needs to discuss with Fluttershy. Why do you ask?"
The pink unicorn put her hoof behind her neck. "Well…Spike has a crush on me."
Awkward silence filled the kitchen. Starlight and Twilight stared at each other. It didn't last long though, because Twilight started laughing suddenly.
"Ha, ha, ha! Starlight!" Twilight said, attempting to regain composure. "Thanks for the joke! I'm a bit grouchy so I needed something to lighten the mood."
Starlight blinked. "Yeeaahh….." The pink unicorn said with a nervous smile. "Joking, I was just joking. But what if, in a completely hypothetical scenario, I wasn't joking about this?"
"Huh." Twilight responded. "That's an interesting question. We'd have to find a way to tell Spike you're not interested and then…"
"But what if a small part of me was interested?" ,Starlight asked, before quickly adding "In this hypothetical scenario, of course."
The purple alicorn started laughing once again. "Ha, ha, ha! I like this new joke-telling side to you Starlight!"
Starlight frowned. Maybe I should ask somepony else for advice instead.
Twilight opened the pantry to find nothing but a crumb too small for a mouse. "Of course they cleaned out the pantry too."
The Princess of Friendship turned to her pupil. "Starlight, could you go out into town and grab some groceries? Normally I'd ask Spike but seeing that he's not here…."
"Of course Twilight." Starlight responded as she left the kitchen.
Spike walked up to Fluttershy's cottage and knocked on the door. Approximately eleven seconds later, the yellow pegasus, clutching some bird feed, opened the door.
"Hello Spike."
"Hi Fluttershy." The young dragon replied. "Are you busy? Cause I have a few things I need to discuss with you."
"Well…uh….I'm feeding my animal friends at the moment," Fluttershy answered, "But I can talk with you while I'm doing that. Come on in."
Spike entered the cottage, which was overflowing with critters waiting for their breakfast. As Fluttershy started pouring bird feed into a bowl for all her bird friends she asked "What do you need to discuss?"
"Well Discord broke into the castle yesterday without permission." Spike answered. "He also confessed to spying on me."
"What!?" The yellow pegasus exclaimed, turning away from the bowl she was filling. "Discord said he was spying on you? Why?"
"Well apparently he finds my personal life highly entertaining right now."
Fluttershy finished filling the bowl for her finches. As she put the bag of feed away in a cupboard she asked "What would he find entertaining about your personal life?"
Spike sighed. "Well I've been dealing with the fact that Rarity doesn't love me for one."
"Oh dear."
Spike smiled. "Yeah, it was difficult to deal with at first, but I talked with Rarity about it, and I'm feeling a lot better now. Also I'm dealing with my crush on a new pony."
Fluttershy nodded. "I can see why Discord is so amused what you're going through. It sounds real dramatic. I'm glad you brought this to me Spike. Next time I see Discord I'll confront him about this."
Spike nodded. "Thank you."
Fluttershy grabbed a whole salmon from the fridge. "Is there anything else you would like to discuss Spike?"
The young dragon thought for a second. "Well, maybe I can ask you about Starlight."
"What about Starlight?" Fluttershy asked as she gave the salmon to Harry the bear.
"Well…I sort of like her. A lot." Spike responded awkwardly. "And so I'm trying to figure out the best way to pursue her. And I feel like taking things slowly would be best, despite what Discord said."
"What did Discord say?"
"That life was too short, I shouldn't drag things out, live in moment; dumb junk like that." Spike responded.
The yellow pegasus thought for a moment. "What if Discord has a point?"
Spike raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well…" Fluttershy answered, "while I don't approve of Discord spying on you, I do think he's right about you not dragging things out. After all, if you asked Starlight out now, and she shoots you down, it won't feel good, but it will feel a lot better than being shot down after several months of being interested in her."
"Huh." Spike said. "That makes sense; half of the reason it hurt being rejected by Rarity was that I was in love with her for nearly three years. "
The young dragon let a confident smile appear on his face. "I have to tell her how I feel. Thanks for the advice Fluttershy."
"You're welcome Spike. I'm glad to be of help."
Spike started making his way to the door. "I've got to come up with a way to tell her how I feel. See you later."
"Good-bye." Fluttershy said as she prepared a salad for Angel.
The young dragon started heading out the door, but then he stopped. "Oh! I almost forgot, Discord said he also was spying on you. Anyways, see you later, bye!" Spike then left the cottage for good.
The yellow pegasus dropped the bowl of salad she was holding. "What?! Discord!"
"Yes?" A voice responded from behind.
"EEEP!" Fluttershy shrieked as she turned around. She noticed a photo of her family she had framed on the wall. But there was someone in the photograph who was not originally part of the picture.
"I apologize for startling you my dear." Discord said from inside the photo. "I really am."
"Discord!" Fluttershy yelled. "Get out of that photo right now!"
"But Fluttershy," Discord whined, "This is the only way I can interact with your parents, since you won't introduce me to them." The draconequus then took the glasses off of Fluttershy's mom in the photo and put them on.
The pegasus sighed. "I told you before Discord, my parents are….easily startled. They wouldn't react well to all your chaos."
Discord frowned. He snapped his fingers and teleported out of the photograph, reappearing inside Fluttershy's cottage.
"But I could introduce you to my brother, Zephyr Breeze." Fluttershy continued.
"Ugh," the reality warper said, rolling his eyes, "You mean your lazy, arrogant, womanizing younger brother?"
"Womanizing? What's that?" The pegasus asked, before retorting, "Also, Zephyr isn't lazy anymore; he recently got his mane therapy license. He's actually stopping by Ponyville soon to look for a job, which is I offered to introduce you to him."
"Well I'll pass." Discord said with a frown. "From what I've heard, he'd want to give me a mane-cut, and I'm not letting a pony with a stallion-bun style my mane."
"Very well, that's-wait a minute! I can't believe I let the conversation shift like that; Discord why are you spying on me!?"
"Because it's fun my dear!" Discord responded joyously.
"Well it's not right!" Fluttershy said. "And it's super creepy! If you want to stay friends you'll stop doing it."
"Anything for you, my dear."
"And also stop spying on Spike."
The reality warper frowned. "But, Spike is going to confess his feelings to Starlight any day now! I have to know what happens next!"
"Discord." Fliuttershy responded firmly.
Discord sighed. "Very well my dear. I will stop the spying." Then Discord muttered under his breath "For right now..."
"What?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh nothing!" Discord responded quickly. The reality warper then snapped his talons and vanished from the room.
Fluttershy sighed.