//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Fool's Diamond 
// by LK 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2



"Hey, Spike? You awake?" Twilight calls as she walks to his doorway. Spike opens his eyes slowly, turning to look at the clock. It's 9:00 AM already. After realizing just how long he had been sleeping for, he is shocked, followed by not caring in the slightest. It had felt like only a short nap to Spike. Mustering up what little strength he has, He sits up in his bed, eyes still half open.
"Ugh, can't I just sleep a little longer?" Spike replies grudgingly, bags under his eyes.
"Seriously? You've been asleep for over thirteen hours straight, how can you still be tired?" She scolds him, annoyed.
"You're just mad cuz I didn't make you breakfast, huh?" Spike manages a smug smile, despite being half asleep. Twilight glares at him as hard as she can.
"Relax, Twi. I was just kidding." Spike laughs, eventually coming to terms with the fact he isn't getting any more sleep. Twilight groans loudly, eliciting a short chuckle from the boy.
"Anyway, I want you to come downstairs and have the breakfast I just made. It's eggs and toast, but if that isn't good enough for the oh-so-fabulous cook Spike then I guess he can go hungry." Twilight says in a matter-of-fact tone. Spike panicks a little, thinking for a second that she is serious.
"Wait, Twilight! Don't!" This time Twilight laughs at his sudden outburst, before getting a glare from Spike.
"Don't worry Spike, you know I would never do something so mean. Besides, I want to have breakfast with you, that way we can talk about last night." Twilight smiles deviously, causing him to blush severely.
"Crap! She remembered! What am I gonna tell her? That I kissed three girls and that's it?!"
After sitting down to a plate of far from fancy eggs and toast, Spike is hesitant about eating anything, or even picking up his fork for that matter. He is too nervous about the conversation that is to come. Twilight simply drinks the coffee she has made, she looks rather refined, much like Rarity does while drinking her tea.
"So Spike, why don't you tell me exactly what happened yesterday?" Spike freezes. Twilight smiles, glad that she is likely going to get an interesting story.
"Well I, I, er, um, well." He stops, he can do nothing but stare at her in fear. Peewee flies down from his small nest and lands on his shoulder.
"Chirp chirp!" Peewee exclaims, Spike sighs in defeat.
"Alright, alright. I'll tell her." He says, disappointed, however slightly amused at the look Twilight is giving him for supposedly being able to talk to the phoenix. "Well, it all started when Apple Bloom and I went for ice cream, then nothing really happened except for me falling and dropping mine like an idiot." Spike grins faintly, his little encounter with the ice cream man making him think a lot about himself. He didn't even realize he thought about it so much until now. 
"Now now, Spike. If you can't learn to laugh at yourself, how can you afford to laugh at others?" Spike remembers what Princess Celestia had told him one day while he was joking with Twilight. He can't really remember the situation, but he remembers that he had said something about Twilight being a bookworm, then she said something about him being clumsy and he took it too seriously. He wouldn't even look at her until Celestia talked to him. Spike pondered endlessly on what the princess said. He knew exactly what she told him, but he couldn't really figure out what it meant. Regardless, he cheered up immediately, even if he didn't know why.
"Spike? Did anything happen after that?" Twilight's voice brings him back from his memories.
"Oh yeah, just thinking." He struggles to continue, not sure what Twilight might have for a reaction. "Well, Sweetie and Scootaloo saw us, but by then it was pretty late, and we all started to walk home together." Spike looks over at Twilight, who is seemingly unfazed by his words, as if he hasn't said anything at all. This only makes it harder for him to tell her the truth. "And Apple Bloom offered me some ice cream because I dropped mine, so I went to eat some, but I guess I tripped or something because instead of eating the ice cream I sort of-" He stops, not wanting to say the next part. Twilight looks at him with an eyebrow raised as he sits completely upright in his seat.
"And you sort of what Spike?" She asks like a mother asks her son what he did wrong, which only makes Spike more nervous.
"I sort of, well." Spike stops again, and Twilight rolls her eyes. 
"Just spit it out Spike!" She yells, and Spike lets out a rather unmanly yelp of surprise.
"I accidentally kissed Apple Bloom!" He spurts out. There is silence for a few moments as Twilight's face grows pink. "Well, I don't know how it happened, but it was an accident. She said she didn't mind, and we were fine until I walked her home." Spike announces awkwardly.
"Wow, I knew she had a crush on you, but I didn't know something like that would happen." Twilight thought out loud, surprising Spike.
"Apple Bloom has a crush on me?!" He exclaims, his eyes wide as saucers. She immediately smacks herself mentally for her blunder, after all she did promise Apple Bloom she wouldn't tell anyone. Twilight remembers what Pinkie Pie had told her when Rarity wanted her to keep Rarity's jealousy from Fluttershy.
"Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way of losing a friend!" Twilight smirks a bit as she thinks of how Pinkie kept randomly jumping out of nowhere.
"FOREVER!" She winces, also thinking of how Pinkie kept shouting in her ear. Twilight regains her composure quickly.
"I thought you knew, i mean it was so obvious!" Twilight says a bit too accusingly. Spike is still racking his brain, trying to sort things out. Twilight regrets what she said, and immediately realizes who she is talking to. A confused, growing teenage boy who doesn't know a thing about relationships, and she is yelling at him for not knowing anything. Twilight makes it a point to be more concerned for what he is feeling. 
"Spike, I'm sorry, of course you couldn't know that she has a crush on you. I shouldn't have assumed you were as smart as me." She stops as she notices how arrogant she was sounding. "I mean, uh, I shouldn't have, uh, well, thought you were super smart is all!" Twilight tries to recover from her mistake, not realizing that Spike hasn't noticed in the slightest.
"What am I gonna do now?! Does that mean that Sweetie and Scootaloo like me too?!" Spike throws his head back, the only thing he can see was the ceiling, his clawed hands over his face.
"What do you mean Sweetie and Scootaloo? Did something happen?" Twilight asks, just as confused as Spike was before. Spike hesitates again, slowly looking down at Twilight.
"Um, well, after I walked Apple Bloom home, me and Sweetie Belle-"
"Sweetie Belle and I." Twilight corrects in an uptight tone. Spike scowls at her and continued.
"Well, we walked Sweetie home to the boutique. But before Sweetie walked in, she ran up and kissed me. She said it was because I walked her home. Then when it was just me and Scootaloo and we started getting close to her house, she kissed me too. She said it was because everyone else did it, but it kinda felt like she was lying." Spike found himself lost in his memories again, remembering each kiss. It seems odd to him, how they all have an equal amount of emotion, even though they were all really different. It was weird, but it wasn't a bad weird, in fact, it made him feel really happy. Why did it make him feel really happy though?
"Well, that's quite the story Spike, how do you think you'll handle this?" Twilight asks, trying not to let him know how little she knows about the subject at hand. Not having any experience with boys was really hindering her right now. All she has to go off of were those human biology books. She cringes at the memories of human anatomy, why oh why did she have a photographic memory?
"I have no idea, I figured I'd just ask them all about it later and see how they felt." Spike looks troubled, his eyes glued to the table.
"That seems like a good thing to do. I think you should go see them after breakfast." Twilight tries to seem like she knows what she is talking about. Spike nods in agreement and they sit in silence for a long while, finishing their breakfast.
"Hey Twilight?" Spike breaks the silence. She looks up at him silently, signaling him to continue. Spike pauses, acting as if he was in a faraway place, totally ignoring the real world. "What do you think love is?" Twilight seems taken aback by this question, not expecting something like that from her "little brother".
"Well, I guess..." Twilight looks out the window thoughtfully, the two now look as if they weren't having a conversation at all, rather they have both gone off to completely different worlds. "I guess I've always thought of love as a kind of magic, not like Rainbow's and Fluttershy's ability to fly, or Rarity's and my magic that lets me control objects and teleport. I think it's more like a special kind of magic, a magic that everyone has inside them." Twilight finishes, both of them still looking as if they were still on different planets. They sit in silence for a couple minutes, allowing themselves to take a break from an already long morning.
Spike sighs loudly. "Alright, I better get going. Anything you need me to do Twilight?" Spike asks as he walks out the door.
"Yeah, Rarity checked out some books a couple of days ago, can you go get them for me?" Twilight requests.
"Ugh, is she reading those vampire books again?" He says with a disgusted look on his face.
"Afraid so." Twilight sighs. "See you later Spike." She waves as she walks upstairs to her room to study.
"Bye Twilight!" Spike smiles and walks out the door.
As he goes into town he thinks about what he should do first. Spike decides that it would be best to talk to the girls first and get the books from Rarity afterwards, he doesn't need to be carrying around books all day. But since he has no idea where the girls would be now, he decides that he should ask Applejack where Applebloom is since her house is the closest.




As Spike reaches the door of the Apple family's house, he hesitates before reaching out his hand and knocking cautiously. This moment in time seems like it lasts for centuries, Spike actually feels so old he would die any minute, then again he might out of anxiety. Every single little movement or sound he can sense, the small butterflies breezing by his ear before being carried off with the wind, the soothing rustling of the leaves in trees behind him. He is so engrossed in the scenery that he hasn't noticed Applejack standing in her doorway.
"Hey there Spike. Whatcha lookin' fer?" Applejack smiles warmly at the boy. Spike jerks himself into attention immediately, a surprised look on his face.
"Well, I was just wondering where Apple Bloom is." He tries to act nonchalant.
"I reckon this is about what happen' last night, isn't it?" Applejack asks, her eyes narrowing. Spike's face grows pink and he gulps.
"Listen Applejack it's not what you think, it was just an accident!" He says frantically, trying to avoid a confrontation with one of the strongest women in Ponyville.
"If it was an accident, why'd ya wanna see her so bad?" She closes in on the boy, to the point where he actually bends backwards to try to create some distance between them. Her face is extremely serious.
"I just want to talk to her." Spike says defensively, Applejack immediately withdraws and chuckles lightly.
"Relax sugarcube, I ain't mad at ya. She's with Sweetie an' Scootaloo at er tree house, go look fer er there." Applejack smiles at him, and he replies with a nervous grin. "Oh and Spike? Apple Bloom's pretty lucky if ya ask me." She winks and shuts the door, only letting Spike respond with a strong blush. Great, he wants the day to be over already and it's still 10:00 AM. He sighs heavily as the red fades from his face and walks slowly towards the forest.




Spike is inches away from the door to the less than perfectly built tree house before he hears the voices on the other side and freezes. He can hear Applebloom talking in a commanding tone. He peeks through the window.
"Alright, Ah think Ah might have an idea on how we can fin ar special talents." Spike sees Applebloom standing behind some sort of pedestal, apparently the unofficial leader of the three.
"So what's the plan?" Scootaloo asks eagerly. 
"It's simple... well sort of. All the grown ups know their special talents right? So all we gotta do is act like wer' grown ups! An' what do grown ups 'ave? Grown ups 'ave boyfriends!" Applebloom shouts loudly, everyone's face turned pink, including Spike's.
"That doesn't really seem like the best idea." Sweetie Belle says quietly, clearly embarrassed.
"I think it's a great idea! What better way to be like the grown ups is there?" Scootaloo exclaims excitedly.
"Um, I guess it could work." Sweetie turns her face away.
"Oh course it will! It's the perfect plan!" Apple Bloom begins. "So we should all pick out who wer' gonna go out with. And since Ah've already kissed Spike, then it only makes sense that Ah'll be his girlfriend." Apple bloom smiles with a smug face.
"Hey! I kissed Spike too!" Sweetie goes straight from being embarrassed to downright livid. "And it wasn't an accident either!" She yells as she stood up. Applebloom's eyes widen in shock.
"What are you talking about? You just ran up and kissed him out of the blue! At least he actually kissed me back!" Scootaloo is standing now, yelling just as loud as Sweetie was. Applebloom and Sweeite stand there with their mouths wide open. 
"Wait... you two... kissed... Spike?" She turns to Scootaloo, tears starting to form in her eyes. "An' he... kissed you back?" Applebloom is literally on the verge of balling her eyes out, as is Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah he did! So if anyone should be Spike's girlfriend it should be me!" Scootaloo scowls and points her thumb at herself. Applebloom can't hold it in any longer and begins crying as she runs out of the tree house. Spike panics and hides on the other side so she doesn't see him as she runs back to Applejack's house, leaving a small trail of tears behind her. Spike peers through the window again, Sweetie is now crying in her seat while Scootaloo is sitting in the corner depressed. Spike goes down the ladder and starts walking to get the books from Rarity, he can't bring himself to face any of them.




"It's all my fault, if only I had never gone with Apple Bloom to get ice cream, if only I wasn't such a klutz and an idiot. All three of them are hurt because of me. All I do is cause problems for everyone, I'm just a monster." Spike refuses to look up from the ground as he slowly trudges towards the Carousel Boutique. The sky grows dark and it starts to rain, everyone except Spike goes inside. By the time he gets to Rarity's boutique, he's completely soaked, but he doesn't care in the slightest. Spike knocks heavily on the door, as if he can barely lift his hand.
"Oh my word! Spike, you're completely drenched!" Rarity immediately brings him inside. "Now what in Equestria brings you here in this horrible storm?" She asks as she hands Spike a towel.
"Thanks Rarity. I was looking for some books you signed out from the library." Spike says, not looking any less downtrodden than before. Rarity gives him a confused look but decides to shrug it off.
"Well you can bring the books back after the storm dies down. Right now we must get you into something dry, I can't imagine being in those wet clothes, it must feel like you're in a nightmare!" She says rather over-dramatically. "Now you're just lucky that I have a spare set of clothes for all my friends." Rarity starts rifling through her dresser until she finds an identical set of clothes as the ones Spike is wearing. "Here, take these and go change. There is a changing room right over there." She points at the open door to a small room. Spike walks in and shuts the door halfheartedly.
"What's this mirror for?" Spike shouts through the door. Rarity smiles and rolls her eyes.
"Why it's to see how good you look, of course." She chuckles and begins stitching fabrics together. Spike doesn't particularly enjoy this idea, and just stands there in silence looking at his deformities. Every single time he looks at himself he remembers the countless people in Canterlot who used to yell at him because of how he looks.
"They had every right to be mad at me, I'm not even human." Spike becomes so concentrated on his memories that he forgets he's still in his wet clothes.
"Spike, are you alright in there?" Rarity stops sewing, noticing how long it's taking Spike to get changed.
"Yeah Rarity, I'm fine." The nervousness was apparent in his voice. Rarity knew something was wrong. 
"Alright, just let me know if you need anything deary." Spike hears footsteps as Rarity paces around the room, probably thinking of a new design. Still he can barely bring himself to move. Spike sighs deeply and begins slowly undressing. However he doesn't know that the door to the dressing room wasn't completely closed, and Rarity just happens to be pacing right outside the door. 
Rarity stops dead in her tracks as a small breeze rolls in and blows the door open quietly, revealing Spike in nothing but his underwear. She instantly realizes how much Spike has grown from when she first met him, he isn't just some naive boy with a little crush on her anymore. He is practically a man now, and he is certainly not the worst looking guy in town. Rarity just stares into space, dreaming of what it would be like to be with Spike. She knows she had some feelings for him, but she never realized that she wants him this badly. In her eyes, he is the nicest, most helpful, funniest guy she has ever met. And no matter how she looks at it, she doesn't want anything more than to be in his embrace.
Rarity stands there, blushing profusely as Spike continues getting into his dry clothes, completely unaware the door is open. After he is fully clothed, he turns around. He sees Rarity, standing there with her eyes fixated on him. Their eyes meet, both looking as if they have stared straight at Medusa. After a while of standing there, staring at each other, Spike speaks up meekly.
"R-Rarity? H-How long have you been standing there?" Spike takes a step back and trips, falling against the mirror. Rarity panics wildly.
"Spike, it's not what you think! I would never do something so naughty!" Rarity tries to defend herself, knowing full well what she had been doing. She slowly begins regaining her composure. "And besides, you have nothing to be ashamed of... you're a very handsome young man." Rarity attempts to calm herself, still blushing quite profusely. Spike just looks down at the floor, more depressed than ever.
"If I have nothing to be ashamed of, then why do I cause all these problems for everybody? I should have never been born, I'm just a monster." Spike starts to cry silently. Rarity walks into the dressing room and kneels beside him. She cups his cheek in her hand, and as soon as he looks up at her she holds him tight and kisses him passionately. Spike sits there, eyes wide as Rarity kisses him deeply. He has dreamed of this moment for as long as he has known her, but it just doesn't feel right. Spike can't stand the fact that Rarity was kissing a monster. He pulls away from her loving embrace with a deep frown.
"Spike, what's wrong?" Rarity asks sadly. "I thought you wanted this."
"No Rarity. I don't." He starts to cry again. "I want to be with you more than anything else, but I just can't. I won't let you be with a monster." He looks at the mirror, now face to face with his own reflection, but all he sees is a monster looking back at him.
"Spike, you're not a monster. You're a human being, not only that, you're the sweetest, kindest, most amazing person I've ever known. And... And..." Rarity stops, If she has ever been sure of anything in her entire life, she knows it's this. "And... I love you, Spike." Spike is shocked, the girl of his dreams has just confessed her love to him. However, he can do nothing but shake his head furiously.
"Just look at me!" He shoves his clawed hand in front of her face. "My hand isn't human. My ears aren't human. I'm not human!" Spike shouts loudly as he recoils his hand. Rarity sits next to him, awe struck by the sight. She reaches out a hand, trying to comfort him.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Spike yells loudly as he lashes out with his hand, lightly scratching Rarity on the cheek. He freezes immediately as Rarity brings a hand to her scratch and winces in pain. Spike slowly brings his hand in front of his face, seeing a small trail of blood running down one of the claws. His eyes grow wide, realizing what he has done. Instantly he runs as fast as he can out of the boutique into the pouring rain.
"Spike! wait!" Rarity runs to the door, but can't see anyone through the storm. She slowly falls to her knees and covers her face with her hands as she cries. The wind blows the door shut.




"Monster, monster, monster, monster, MONSTER!" Spike yells that word to himself so much that it doesn't even seem like a word anymore, however no one but him can hear his screams. He keeps running as fast as he can, far away from the boutique. His face is dripping water and tears as he runs straight out of town. Soon after he doesn't have the strength to run any further. He starts walking, but each step seems like he is carrying a huge boulder on his back. Spike can't take it anymore. He falls to his knees and sobs in his hands. He doesn't want to run anymore. He doesn't want to live anymore.
Spike sits there for a long while, crying loudly. He stops only when he feels a hand resting gently on his shoulder. 




To be continued...