//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: All's Fair // by Equestria Buck Yeah //------------------------------// As quietly as he could, Spike crept into the castle's front door, hoping the loud creek from the hinges didn't give him away. It had gotten later than he expected. It was likely that Twilight was still up and about doing whatever, and he had been told more than once that, if he was going to be out so late for one reason or another, she preferred to be with him at such hours. Still, she knew he was with Rarity, a friend she could trust. How much trouble could he get into? It was so much farther to the bedroom in the castle than it was at the library. Spike constantly found himself looking over his shoulder for signs of his guardian and peeking into the few rooms he passed by only to find that he was thankfully alone. As he came to the study, however, the gentle flickering of candlelight made him freeze up. He hugged the wall and held his breath. Barely sticking his head around the corner, he saw Twilight with her nose in a book and a quill floating near her; she must have been taking notes, maybe writing something pertinent down about Rarity's situation and how to handle it. Throwing caution to the wind, Spike took a few tiptoed steps past the doorway, but it was for naught. Whether by coincidence or Twilight noticing some movement from the corner of her eye, the alicorn turned and spotted him right away. "Oh, hey Spike. Didn't hear you come in." She checked her overhead clock and blinked in surprise. "Were over at Rarity's quite a while." The young dragon approached her, nervously tapping his claws together. "Y-yeah, time kind of got away from me. Sorry, Twilight." With a smile, the mare got up and met Spike halfway, wrapping a tender hoof around his shoulders. "It's okay. You were with Rarity, and she needed a friend. How is she doing?" It was hard keeping his cheeks from reddening. "Err, alright. She just...needs some time, y'know?" "Understandable. Either way, I know your company meant a lot to her." He stiffened up and bit his lip. Did Twilight somehow already know? How would she know? No, no, he was just overthinking things. He took Rarity home and they just talked...and nothing else. "Y-you think we'll find who did this to her?" Spike asked, composing himself and staying focused on the conversation at hand. "I think so. It'll take some time, but we have a lot of friends in a lot of places. We'll get them." Spike nodded and shifted his eyes away. There was a second bed calling him that night. "Would it be okay if I turned in? I'm pretty tired." "Of course. I'll be up in a little while. Still got some things to do." Twilight nuzzled him affectionately, no doubt appreciative of what she believed his efforts were toward their traumatized friend. "I'll see you in the morning." "Good night." He was freed from his surrogate's hug and headed off to his basket, waving as he left the study. Once he was out of sight, he let out a sigh of relief that he was able to keep it together. Trying to keep such a secret was harder than he expected, but Rarity was the one who asked him to do so. If it were anypony else, he may have slipped. But he'd do anything for the world's most beautiful mare, especially keep quiet. ----- Spike slept incredibly well that night, probably better than he ever had in his short life. He breezed through his morning chores and practically inhaled his lunch when it came time. In the meanwhile, Twilight had gotten back to work, looking feverishly over legal books and procedures that came with capturing and trying criminals. It may not have been a bad idea to get in touch with the police in Manehattan and see if they had any mug shots based on Rarity's descriptions too. Perhaps they had been caught already or, quite possibly, had been arrested before. Before she even realized it, lunch was upon them. Spike had, as per usual, gone out of his way to fix them something simple yet delicious. If only there was more time in the day. Her original plans were to go around town and stop by their friends' places before it was time to eat and inform them of what happened, keep things among their group of friends, as Rarity oddly requested. She supposed it was typical that time got away from her once she started reading, even if it wasn't solely for entertainment purposes. Before Spike's plate was even dry after being washed, he started marching proudly for the door, completely unconcerned if his guardian had anything else to do for him or what her initial plans were. "Twilight, I'm going to head over to Rarity's, see how she's doing." "Oh. O-okay, Spike. I kind of wanted you here today in case I needed to send a few letters around regarding Rarity's situation, but she probably still needs someone to lean on," the princess remarked. "Just don't be too late, alright?" "Sure. I can send whatever you need when I get back. Sound good?" "That'll work. Listen, if you happen to run into any of the girls on your way, could you let them know what's going on for me? I wanted to touch base with them in a little while." "I will if I see them." ----- While Twilight had managed to speak to the rest of their friends, Spike had spent a majority of his time at Rarity's. At first, his guardian didn't mind much, but there were things he still needed to do around the castle and his work was beginning to pile up. Perhaps if Sweetie Belle hadn't been convinced to leave her big sister be for a little while longer, it would have given Spike a reason to head home earlier than he was. It upset the little filly immensely to hear about Rarity's horrible experience, but she understood Twilight and Applejack's point – the Crusaders could sometimes be a hooffull and the unicorn needed some quiet time to recuperate and hopefully avoid any unnecessary stress. How having Spike around every day was amounting to quiet time was anypony's guess, but over the days, things seemed to be turning around well for the fashionista – and at a rather surprising speed. Strangely, whenever one of the other Elements would pay her a visit to see how she was or attempt to cheer her up, Rarity essentially shooed them away as quickly as she could most days instead of inviting them inside to talk. None took any real offense to it; she was probably still not in her right frame of mind, and they couldn't blame her. After several days of neglected chores, however, Twilight eventually had gotten rather peeved at her friend for constantly snatching Spike away from his duties. She hadn't seemed to make any new headway as far as describing her attackers went. The few times the princess stopped by the boutique to check on Rarity, she wasn't in the process of making any new clothes, even if it would have only been in an effort to take her mind off being robbed. Plus, most of the time, Spike looked utterly exhausted like he had been trying to win a race against Rainbow Dash and would promptly fall asleep when he would return home, skipping out on dinner more than once. Finally, Twilight had had enough. She heard the telltale sounds of a certain dragon's claws skipping their way toward the front door that Tuesday morning in the echoing crystal halls and took to the air, speeding up to catch him before he left. He was just about to reach for the doorknob when he paused thanks to hearing her hooves clop against the floor and her wings folding in. "Morning, Twilight," Spike greeted her. "Was gonna head over to see Rarity." "Actually, I wanted to talk to you before you left," she said firmly. His back-talk took her by momentary surprise. "Ah, come on, Twilight! Rarity said last night she had some things for me to do today and I want to get started early!" As he started to open the door, a lavender light took hold of it and slammed it closed. "No, Spike. We're talking now." Her sudden shift in tone made him cringe. He had heard it more than once and feared it every single time. "Err, o-okay. Wh-what'd you want to talk about?" the dragon asked, shifting his gaze away from hers. "You've been spending an awful lot of time over there. Ever since Rarity returned, you've been there all day every day. I have things for you to do here, and when you do come home, you pass right out half the time. This is getting a little ridiculous now, don't you think? Surely she'd like some alone time here and there. I know Rarity's probably still hurting, but what exactly is going on that she needs you to stop by every single day?" "Nothing!" Spike quickly snapped back. "We just talk and I help her out around the boutique and stuff!" "Don't lie to me!" Twilight growled. "When I went over there a few days ago, there wasn't any evidence of any work being done. There were no new dresses on display in her lobby and there was nothing being put together anywhere else in the shop! If I didn't know any better, I'd say she hasn't done anything work-related since she got back." "She was attacked not even two weeks ago! You think she can just get back to her life like nothing happened?!" "Well, no, but it'd be a good distraction if nothing else after a little while, wouldn't it?" "I don't know!" The little drake folded his arms and snorted in frustration, still avoiding his guardian's angry glare like the plague. "Why don't you just get off our backs already, huh?!" The princess narrowed her eyes, done with pulling punches, and leaned in close, putting herself snout to snout with the youth. A gasp escaped his lungs. There wasn't anywhere for him to look away to without her being in his viewpoint now. "Spike, what's going on?" A bead of sweat started to form on his temple. He tried to spin around, but Twilight simply took him in her magic and held him firmly in place. "N-n-nothing." "Stop it! Tell me what's going on!" No matter how hard he tried to look away, her purple eyes were like magnets to his. More trickles of sweat raced down his forehead. Gulping, he muttered, "Sh-she made me promise not to." Twilight lifted a puzzled brow. What in the world could Rarity have made him not want to mention? The alicorn knew that Spike had a thing for her ivory friend and was incredibly devoted, and while Rarity occasionally did some things she didn't really agree with, it was exceptionally rare when anything bad came about thanks to her...convincing nature. At least she was able to finally get him to start spilling the beans. "What is it she doesn't want you to say?" the princess demanded. "I...I-I can't!" "Tell me!" Fluttershy would have been proud of the stare that Twilight was burning into his soul. He shrank away as hard as he could in spite of the magic he was held in. "Okay, okay! It's...um...well..." "Just spit it out!" Any townsfolks who happened to be walking by the enormous castle a couple minutes later nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard Twilight hollering. "What!?!?" ----- Twilight flung the upstairs balcony door open, nearly cracking the walls from the impact. Floating behind her, struggling against the air, was Spike, still coated in a soft, lavender glow. She took off as fast and furiously as she could, dragging her horrified assistant along with her. Whether or not anypony else could see her racing off in such a state from the ground was something she wasn't concerned with. But before she was to head to Carousel Boutique, she needed to find somepony she could leave Spike with for a little while, and there was only one pony she could think of who'd be able to do the job right now. The princess sped to the large cloud mansion hovering over the outskirts of Ponyville. She had no idea what Rainbow Dash's normal work schedule was like most days, and it was still early. For all she knew, the daredevil was going to punch in at noon and quit only a few hours later. Unfortunately, when she arrived, there was no response at the door and peeking in the windows revealed that she must have already left. Gritting her teeth, Twilight and Spike bolted back to town. The dragon couldn't help but keep his eyes glued to the ground far below, waiting for his livid keeper to lose her focus and accidentally drop him. Eventually, Twilight spotted somepony she knew worked for the weather crew. Certainly she'd know. "Cloudkicker, have you seen Rainbow Dash? I was hoping to ask a favor of her." The young blonde nearly forgot to answer, too distracted by the terrified drake mouthing 'Help!' at her. "Uh, yeah, she's at the south end of town today." "Thanks." With that, she left the confused pegasus in the dust. As Twilight approached the area Cloudkicker mentioned, it wasn't hard to spot the high flyer thanks to her rainbow contrail as she cleared the sky. What would normally have been a welcomed surprise visit from Twilight had Rainbow Dash just as perplexed as Cloudkicker when she saw Spike. The obvious anger on Twilight's face had the speedster scratching her head too. "Uh, hey guys. What's...going on?" Rainbow asked while staring at the flightless captive. "Hello, Rainbow. I was wondering if you could do something for me for a little while." "I'd love to, Twi, but I'm kind of on the clock right now." "If somepony gives you any lip about that, send them to me, alright? I just could really use your help right now." Rainbow blinked, thought for a moment and shrugged. "Okay, why not? What's got your feathers ruffled?" She replied by swinging Spike around and sticking him between them. The dragon gave her a wide, toothy grin and nervously tapped his claws together. "I need you to watch Spike back at the castle for a little while. There's somepony I need to talk to and I don't want him leaving the premises." She looked at him once more, puzzled by such an odd request. "That's it?" "It may not seem like a big deal, but it is to me. I would really appreciate the help." The pegasus looked over Spike's obvious facetiousness and folded her forelimbs. She recognized guilt when she saw it; it was something she was familiar with on more than one occasion across her life. "Somepony's in serious trouble, huh?" she asked Twilight. "You have no idea." The young drake fell limp in defeat as the pair soared back to the castle. "So, what happened, if I may ask?" "I'm not sure I even want to repeat it. I'm just...so upset with him, I can't see straight!" "Ouch," Rainbow winced. "I just don't see what the big deal is!" Spike argued. "It's not like it's hurting anypony!" "Spike, for Celestia's sake, you're just a kid! A pony your age isn't supposed to be doing something like that! And to top it all off, you lied to me about what was going on with her!" It was Rainbow's turn to raise an eyebrow. "With who? Rarity?" The princess groaned long and hard, practically giving herself up. She needed to face facts that Rainbow probably wasn't going to stop inquiring about it. As long as she promised to not say anything to anypony else, maybe the situation could be salvaged. "Yes," Twilight grumbled. "Come on, you can tell me." "It's just...well, you know what happened to Rarity a couple weeks ago. We talked about it. She wanted to keep things quiet, and I can sort of understand why, but now what she did to Spike? I...I know she's our friend and all, but I just don't understand how she could do something like this! I mean, why would you not want ponies to help find your attackers but have no problem with...well..." Twilight leaned in and whispered in Rainbow's ear the more lurid details. The pegasus' wings almost froze in place. "Whoa! You serious?" "Mhm!" "Uhhh, no offense Twilight, but we know how he's felt about her for a while. I...kind of have to agree, what's the big deal?" "You see? Thank you!" Spike interjected. "Look, if Spike was older, I wouldn't have a problem with it, really. But think about it this way, Rainbow – what if, like, Soarin did that to, say, Scootaloo? Even if he was being genuine, how would you feel about it?" The speedster stared into the distance, the imagery playing around in her head. Little by little, her lips curled in disgust. "Yeah, I'd probably want to kick his flank." "Exactly! Now, Rarity's our friend and I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and pray this is all some...colossal misunderstanding. But if it's true, I seriously don't get it. If this got out, it would be career suicide, and we know how much she values her career. Why would she do such a thing?" Twilight rambled. "I don't know. Maybe what happened in Manehattan left her with some problems...y'know, up here?" Rainbow suggested, pointing to her head. "I'm not a shrink or anything, but I suppose it's possible." "Maybe. Let's try and keep this under wraps until we get to the bottom of this, alright? I don't want to accidentally make things worse by throwing wild, possibly untrue accusations around." "No, no, I hear you." Rainbow glanced over at Spike, frowning in disappointment. "That goes double for you, kiddo. You know Rarity wouldn't appreciate it if you went around bragging. She'd probably say that what goes on behind closed doors in a pony's own home is nopony else's business." "I understand," he sighed. The trio descended onto the castle's second story balcony and stepped inside. Spike finally was allowed to put his feet down on something solid, but he wasn't about to run off anywhere. Not like he would get far to begin with. "Thanks again, Rainbow," Twilight said. "I'll be back in a little while. And no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, don't let him out of the castle." "You got it." The doors closed as Twilight took off toward the boutique, leaving Spike and Rainbow Dash to look each other over in awkward silence. The high flier eventually broke the ice. "Well...on one hoof, way to go, Spike. On the other...when she gets back, you're kinda dead." "Gee, thanks." ----- Twilight practically tore Rarity's door down. The bell overhead rang angrily for several long seconds. As was typical on her other visits, the alicorn was met by an empty lobby, and like before, it took a few minutes for her white friend to make her way down the stairs. "Oh! Hello, Twilight. I thought you were Spike." "Yeah, I'll bet you did," the princess growled under her breath. "What brings you here?" "We need to have a talk, Rarity – a serious one." "What about, dear?" the posh mare asked. Twilight bit her lip, wanting to cut right to the chase, but at the same time, not wanting to offend. Still, Rarity must understand that she'd only be looking out for Spike's best interest as well as hers, in a way. With a hard sigh, the princess explained, "He told me you and he have been...doing things all this time when he's been visiting these last several days." Rarity let out a whispered guffaw. "Well, that doesn't exactly narrow it down, Twilight. You and I are doing things right now, technically." "You know what I mean, Rarity! 'Adult' stuff? It's...not true, is it?" "Adult stuff like what? Working, cooking? I'm still not entirely sure–" "Have you been having sex with him?!" Twilight finally blurted, glaring daggers at her friend. The prissy mare rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "I suppose it was only a matter of time until he slipped up," she mumbled to herself. "You mean he was telling the truth? You've been sleeping with him?!" Rarity willed over one of her many couches and laid down comfortably, propping herself up in an almost seductive pose. "I wouldn't say there's been much sleeping involved, dear." "How could you?! He's...he's just a kid, Rarity! How would you like it if some old stallion did something like that to Sweetie Belle?" "I'd like to think she's learned how to be smart in her own decision-making, but this doesn't involve her. Just like I told him, after what happened to me in Manehattan, I realized that there are things in life one stands to lose if you don't seize the day and take hold of them – important, precious things. How long has Spike been smitten by me again?" she asked. "Since he first saw you. You've known this. You also know he's never stopped caring about you like that." The designer's ears fell as did her face. "Yes, well, it was stupid of me not to give him any consideration all that time. I suppose I simply wasn't realizing how good things were right in front of me. Frankly, I think he deserved to be rewarded for how patient he's been with me and then some." Twilight's eye twitched. She could feel her blood pressure rising with each passing second. "Rarity, if he was a little older and he still felt the way he feels about you now, I wouldn't have minded! But you didn't even come to me and talk about any of this! You both just...went over my horn!" "Oh come now, Twilight, do you honestly believe that he hasn't gone behind your back from time to time to do something you would have told him not to do? I have no doubt Sweetie Belle has done so. You can't be with him twenty-four hours a day, and if you tried to do so, he'd hate you for it. Whether you want to admit it or not, he was going to grow up eventually." A coy smirk crossed her face as she mocked the princess with a fluff of her pristine mane. "And I dare say that he hasn't been much of a kid for the past week and change, no?" The alicorn's jaw nearly came unhinged in revulsion and anger. It took a lot of effort to subdue the tirade of insults and belittlement she suddenly wanted to hurl at her friend. A deep breath did just enough to keep them on the back burner for now, but her indignant fury was plain as day on her face nonetheless. "There have been a lot of times where I thought you were leading Spike on, using him to get something you wanted. I never said anything because nothing bad ever seemed to come of it in the long run, but this crosses a line. I have no idea what's come over you lately, but if you consider me a friend in the least, you'll honor my request that you stay away from him until further notice. Understood?" Rarity was taken aback with shock and disappointment. The two sat in silence, sizing each other up, but the fashionista wasn't going to win this battle of wills. Her eyes fell sadly to the floor. "Alright, Twilight. If you insist." "Yes. I insist," she snarled as she turned to leave. The door came open on Twilight's mental command. Just as she was about to step outside, she paused and took a long glance behind her at her downtrodden fellow Element. Her face softened briefly. She didn't want to be so hard on the high-class mare, but she left her little choice. Spike was young and Twilight had deliberately kept that kind of stuff away from him. She was essentially his mother, having hatched him, and she felt he simply wasn't ready to deal with such grown-up material – not yet anyway. She was doing the right thing...right? With a sigh, she left the boutique, closing the door gently behind her. A quiet swish of the wind told Rarity that Twilight had flown off. Her blue eyes shifted toward the window and a satisfied grin twisted across her cheeks. "But, is he going to stay away from me?"