The Surprisingly Complicated Love Life of Spike the Dragon

by King of Beggars

Chapter 1 - Open Eyes and Little White Lies

Spike stepped out of his bedroom and peered suspiciously down the hallway. He frowned as he noticed that the door to Twilight’s room was open, but none of the telltale signs of snoring or the scratch of quill on parchment were present to indicate she was in.

She had almost refused to go to bed the night before. He’d had to force her to her bedroom with the threat of not making her favorite spinach quiche for her upcoming birthday. If she wasn’t in her bedroom, she had either woken up before him, or had only waited in her room long enough for him to fall asleep and then snuck back downstairs to the study. Considering he’d been up with the sun, and when Twilight did actually take time to sleep she tended to zonk out for very extended periods, the latter seemed the most likely turn of events.

He looked up to the sheet of paper taped to the wall across from his bedroom and followed the little arrow drawn and labeled in his script. The note wasn’t written on the high grade parchment used in official forms or notes meant for archival storage, rather it was just a sheet of plain white paper torn off of a notepad that Spike had with him when the idea had struck. At the end of the hall he consulted another slip of paper and took a left. At the end of that hall a third note pointed him to the stairs on his right.

Even after four years of living in the crystal tree palace, those signs were still up. It had been embarrassing at first, having them plastered all over the walls, but it had been preferable to getting lost all the time in the halls of the overgrown tree fort. Applejack had joked once that the castle had more hallways than doorways, and in those early days, Spike would swear up and down his certainty that the halls were rearranging themselves. Twilight would point out that if that were true, then the navigation arrows would be worthless, which was a fair point… unless the palace was also changing the arrows on their notes…

In actuality the castle wasn’t all that large, compared to Canterlot Castle or the one in the Crystal Empire, but it was unfamiliar. After a few weeks, navigating the halls had become second nature and the signs were no longer needed, but in that time it had become a little joke between everypony that lived there or visited, that such an opulent monument to friendship and magic had cheap binder paper and poorly sketched arrows taped all over the walls. The homemade signs had become part of the décor – part of what made the drafty old castle their home – and despite their eventual familiarity with the layout of the building, they would always check the signs in passing, just in case a hallway had moved since the last time they’d looked.

Spike descended the staircase of the spire that housed his and Twilight’s bedrooms. He went down two floors and stepped out into another hallway. He walked straight until he reached the third door on his left: Twilight’s study.

The study was a bit bigger from the one in the old town library, but otherwise wasn’t much different. There were some shelves for her to store some of her favorite books and most frequently checked references, a small balcony where she kept her telescope, some cushions, a couple of chairs, and a large writing desk.

Twilight was seated on a padded bench and slumped over the desk with her back turned to him. She snored loudly as a thin trickle of drool stretched from the desk to the floor. It reminded him of a game that Pinkie and Dash had taught him many years ago, where the object was to see how far down you could make a glob of phlegm dangle from your mouth and slurp it up before it broke. It had been a lot of fun until one of his phlegm strings broke and burned a small hole in the floor of the library.

It had become a strictly ‘outside’ game from that point on by unanimous decision.

He clucked his tongue in quiet bemusement at her inability to put her own health before her duties as a princess. He went to the small closet in the corner and grabbed the old quilt he kept specifically for this sort of occasion. He wrapped her up as tightly as he could without waking her and slipped the moist parchment she had been writing on out from under her face. The bottom half of the ink was smeared, and likely all over her cheek, but he could tell that it was a list of changes she wanted to make to the Ponyville tax codes.

He took the damp scroll and laid it down flat with a paper weight at each corner, so she could salvage what she could of her work when she woke up. Then he picked a nice clean sheet of parchment and wrote a note for her in very large letters: “No Quiche!”

He left the note where she could see it when she awoke and headed back into the hall, closing the door behind himself. Not that he needed to close the door; it was only him and Twilight in the palace and the walls were thick enough to muffle most noise.

Spike followed his markers back to the stairs and down to the next level where the kitchen was. He scratched his head and looked around the enormous galley, wondering what he should make. Their kitchen wasn’t as impressive as the one in Canterlot Castle, but it was still several times too large for their daily needs. This was a kitchen fit for servants preparing meals for banquets entertaining foreign dignitaries and royalty, not for a little dragon making a couple of stacks of pancakes for him and his sister. It even had a set of those big double doors that restaurants had so that wait staff wouldn’t bump into one another as they shuffled between the banquet hall and the kitchen.

At least the cavernous kitchen was fairly modern. Spike had urged Twilight to have the castle wired for electric lights and a gas stove, but at first she wouldn’t hear of it, citing the need to preserve the palace’s historical integrity. In the end Spike’s point of view had won out with a simple question: “So how far away should we put the outhouse?”

Spike set about cooking a modest breakfast, which, as he always reminded himself, took a bit longer than it would have taken in their old home due to the size of the room.

Hash browns, eggs, pancakes, orange juice.

It was a simple meal for a simple pony, just the way Twilight liked it. The only plus side to cooking in the palace as opposed to their old home was that the walls were thick enough that Twilight rarely caught scent of a meal in mid-preparation. As heavy a sleeper as she was, the smell of food could always wake her, and she loved to poke her nose around in his kitchen while he was busy cooking.

With that in mind, Spike finished his preparations and put Twilight’s meal on a dumbwaiter. He pulled the chain slowly until a little bell dinged above his head, with a matching bell chiming above him in the study. He waited a few minutes, idly chewing on one of his hash browns, until the dumbwaiter began to descend. It reached the kitchen with a ding and he read the note she’d sent back thanking him for breakfast, with the added surprise of a happy face.

He flipped the note around and saw his own note about the quiche, with a freshly scrawled frowny face below it in Twilight’s script.

He laughed softly and put the note in a recycling bin with the others like it before sitting down for his own breakfast. He lumped all the food on his plate into huge pile and began digging in. Twilight hated it when he mixed everything together. She was one of those really prissy types that had to be sure that none of the foods were touching, and that everything was eaten in its proper order: first hash brown, then eggs, and finally pancakes.

“If you’re going to eat like that,” she would say, “why don’t we just get you a trough? Is that what you want? To eat out of a trough like one of Applejack’s truffle pigs?” At which point he, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and AJ would all start oinking and laughing at her.

He finished eating and left his dishes in the sink for later. From the kitchen it was a short walk through the dining hall, back to the stairs, and down to the library on the ground floor.

Whatever ancient pony sorcerer, or force of magic, or whatever, had designed the magical seed that became Ponyville Palace had left one crucial design flaw: the library in the third-floor study had been way too small. To rectify this, Twilight immediately converted all the empty space in the palace lobby and entrance into a fully stocked library for public use.

The first floor still contained the Council of Friendship’s meeting room and the thrones for Twilight, himself, and their friends, but every other available inch of real estate was packed to the ceiling with bookshelves and reading areas. Despite Rainbow Dash’s accusations, Twilight’s choice to fill her new home with books wasn’t simply because of her own personal preference. The battle with Tirek hadn’t just destroyed their home; it had deprived Ponyville of free knowledge. Twilight had felt it was her responsibility as a princess to facilitate the freedom of learning for all of her ponies.

Between both of their recollections, Spike and Twilight had been able to restock their new library with an almost identical catalogue to the original, along with new acquisitions from the library of the Palace of the Two Sisters, since their new living arrangements had the shelf space to accommodate them. Of course, the really dangerous books from that collection were secured in an archive beneath the castle, along with some of Twilight’s more volatile research notes. It wouldn’t do to have somepony come to check out a book about growing carrots and ending up with a cursed romance novel that brought the murderously jealous wife to life, or a talking children’s book with a pervy mind and a thing for single moms.

While Spike’s most important duty was serving on the council as the group’s secretary, that wasn’t an every day occurrence outside of monthly official meetings. It was a small blessing, mostly owed to the lack of local nobility, that their tiny kingdom was nowhere near as busy as Canterlot or the Crystal Empire’s courts. Usually if a citizen needed an issue resolved that couldn’t be delegated to the mayor – who still handled most of the day to day business – they’d just wait to run into him or one of the girls on the council and it’d be handled informally.

Most work mornings for Spike began with him opening the front doors to signal to the citizens of Ponyville that their library was open for business, but as he descended the stairs and heard muttered curses and the clatter of books falling over, he knew that wouldn’t be necessary. He peeked around a bookshelf and found the source of the commotion: an orange coated filly with a violet colored mane and tail in a short, tomboyish style. She was standing behind the circulation desk that faced the entrance, her back to him as she leaned under it in search of something. Beside the girl was a half-toppled stack of the previous day’s book returns. Several similar towers were arranged behind the desk, encompassing a week’s worth of returns, waiting to be returned to their proper places.

Spike quietly maneuvered his way through the stacks and crept up behind the distracted filly. He picked up the largest book he could reach without disturbing the rest of the stack and let it drop to the desk with a bang.

Scootaloo yelped and jumped at the sudden noise that reverberated loudly in the cramped space beneath the desk. A matching bang resounded through the library as she smacked her head against the underside of the desk.

Spike flinched at the dull thud but managed to hold his poker face when she pulled out from under the desk to glare angrily at him. He stepped up on the small stool that elevated him to a little over chest height with the desk and pretended nothing had happened.

Once Scootaloo noticed it was Spike she let her anger melt away and rubbed at her head tenderly.

“Good morning, Scootaloo,” he greeted coolly as he pulled open a drawer and removed a rubber stamp. “The basket for the date stamps isn’t under there anymore; we’re keeping it in this drawer now.”

He flipped open the front cover of the book, made an adjustment to the date on the stamp, and marked the book slip as returned.

“Good mornin’ to you too, Spike,” she chuckled softly. “Nice prank, you got me.”

“Thanks, and thanks for opening the doors for me,” he said as he finished an inspection of the book and pushed it onto the returns cart to be shelved.

Scootaloo gathered the books she’d spilled earlier and lifted them onto the desk with a grunt. “Well, ya know, I was just in the neighborhood on my morning run and I figured I’d do you the favor,” she said dismissively. “Plus, it’s shelving day. Gotta get these books back on the shelves, right?”

A few months after opening the new library, Scootaloo had begun visiting regularly, trying to help Spike with his duties around the castle. Her first visit had been the result of the Cutie Mark Crusaders deciding to try their hooves at being librarians. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had given up on the tedious task pretty quickly, but for some reason Scootaloo had stuck it out, even long after her Cutie Mark had finally appeared.

He’d talked to Rainbow Dash about it, and apparently Scootaloo had decided that Spike was cool enough to warrant her attention after the performance he’d put on at the Equestria Games. Kids seemed to think that enormous plumes of iceberg melting dragonfire were cool, for some reason.

She had become a fairly reliable assistant over the last few years, and usually stopped by at least once a week to help with shelving or just talk while he dusted the stacks and waited for visitors. Most ponies wouldn’t peg Scootaloo as the type to spend an entire day in a library, what with her sport-themed Cutie Mark and active lifestyle, but much like her hero Rainbow Dash, she had a soft spot for adventure novels with lots of action and cocky protagonists.

Scootaloo scanned the spines of the books around them, looking for anything that might catch her eye. She ruffled her wings lightly, readjusting them against her back. The act put a little grin on Spike’s face as he recalled all the time she’d spent worrying that her wings would never catch up with the rest of her.

“How’s the weather team training going?” Spike asked as he slowly worked his way through the books within reach of his stool. Shelving day always took an extra bit of work because it meant inspecting all the books for damage, just in case some housewife had carelessly let her novel fall into the bathtub or a foal had gotten peanut butter all over the pages. Of course most of the books were ones that Twilight had taken down and simply thrown in the return bin, but every book still needed to be checked, even if it didn’t need a stamp.

Scootaloo’s eyes lit up with barely contained pride. “It’s going awesomely, I can finally push around the clouds without popping them,” she gloated, smashing her hooves together with a grin. “The problem was just coming in with too much heat. All I had to do was add a little give when I made contact, and they were putty in my hooves!”

Spike held his stamp in mid strike and tilted his head, looking at the ceiling in thought.

“Do clouds feel like putty?” Spike wondered aloud.

“Not really,” she shrugged. “It’s more like they’re… bubble bath suds.”

“Sleeping on a bed of bubble bath suds sounds amazing,” Spike groaned.

“You better believe it,” she said, running her hoof along the tasseled fringe of the rug behind the circulation desk. “You’d be able to find out for yourself how it is if you ever grew these in.”

She lifted her head and prodded gently at his shoulder blade with a hoof, just to the left of the spines that ran along his back. He shivered slightly at the feeling of her clammy hoof against his scales. He glared down at her in a huff and she returned the look with one of her own that communicated just how amused she was.

“I’ll get them,” he grumbled. “One day…”

“You need to start hoarding,” Scootaloo said wisely. “Twilight said that’s what makes dragons grow. You’re supposed to be way bigger than you are, aren’t you?”

“I don’t hoard, everypony knows that,” he said simply and returned to his work.

“Just saying, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do just a little bit of hoarding,” she explained. “Like maybe a couple bags of coins under your pillow or something. Then you’d be able to do this!”

She flapped her wings and lifted off the ground. As she took off, the downthrust of her wings slapped against one of the small towers of books and knocked it over.

“Oops,” Scootaloo muttered. She looked down at the books from where she hovered, slightly above Spike’s eye line, and sighed. “Just not my day, is it? Guess I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m as graceful as Rainbow Dash.”

Spike bit back the laughter that threatened to erupt from him at the idea of Rainbow Dash being anything resembling graceful at below cloud level.

“What?” she asked, frowning at the pained look on Spike’s face and the little choking noises coming from the back of his throat.

He shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing,” he said.

Scootaloo shrugged and touched down back to the floor. She gathered up her mess and piled a few more books onto the circulation desk. With a sigh she laid her head on the cool surface of the workstation while she waited for Spike to inspect the books. She looked up when she realized that Spike was staring at her.

“Seriously, what?” she asked, blushing slightly under his scrutiny.

“You’re tall enough to see over the desk now,” he said dumbly, pointing a claw at where she rested her chin against the desk.

She laughed nervously. “Well yeah, I have been for a while. Haven’t you noticed?”

“No,” he answered with a shake of his head. He stepped off his stool and held a hand over each of their heads, comparing their heights. “Wait, you’re taller than me now? When did this happen?”

“I don’t know,” she said, smirking. “I’m growing up, you dummy. I mean what have we been talking about the last few minutes?”

“What was even the point of growing that whole extra three inches if the shrimpiest pegasus in Ponyville is going to be taller than me?” he questioned with a defeated groan. Three inches of height in the five years since coming to Ponyville wasn’t much for a pony, but for a dragon that wasn’t quite sure what his non-hoarding growth rate was, that spurt had been a real triumph.

“Get over it,” she giggled. She gave him a light shove and flapped a wing against his face in a half-hearted attempt to blow him over.

Spike simmered a little, less at his mistreatment than at the outright glee the young girl gained from taunting him. He returned to his stool, and began checking books again. He opened a small paperback novel and ran the dull side of a claw against the pages, flipping through them rapidly as his eyes scanned for imperfections.

“If you’ve got so much energy why don’t you go ahead and start shelving the stuff on the cart,” he waved a hand at the cart without looking and nodded towards stacks. “Try not to knock any of the bookcases over.”

“Sure, I can get started on that, I know how much trouble you have getting to those high shelves,” she quipped, sticking out her tongue and flying over his head to push the cart away.

“What a jerk…” he muttered quietly. Despite his comment he wore a satisfied grin, as he always enjoyed the time he spent with Scootaloo. She may not have had the older mare’s cast-iron confidence, but Scootaloo was a lot more like Rainbow Dash than she’d ever realize.

“What was that?” she asked over her shoulder as she flew away.

“I said you’re a jerk!” he called back.

“Thank you!” she chirped happily.

* * *

Twilight stood on the balcony of her study and leaned heavily against the rail. She was still a bit drowsy from the sleep she’d lost, and there was a terrible crick in her neck from having fallen asleep over her desk again. She stood there for a while to enjoy the gentle breeze brushing against her coat. The little chill helped wake her and take some of the edge off the ache in her spine.

She looked out over her town and watched her ponies go about their business. The market was already in full swing, and from her perch she could almost hear the sound of bartering and the clink of bits rattling together. The wind carried the sound of hammers from the distance as construction workers put up the frame of what would eventually be the new state-sponsored theater that Pinkie Pie had insisted on building.

A few pegasi flew by the castle on official weather business and gave neighborly waves. She was their princess, but unless she wearing what Spike mockingly called her Princess Face, the ponies of Ponyville didn’t treat her any different than when she was their humble librarian.

“Good morning, my kingdom,” she greeted with a smile.

It was a common mistake to call Ponyville a kingdom, when in actuality it was more of a municipality or a city-state in association with the United Realms of Equestria. Most ponies didn’t care about the distinction, however, and just called it Ponyville Kingdom.

The inexactitude of calling her realm a kingdom had irked Twilight more than anything else when she’d gained a throne of her own. She’d even had Rarity organize an ad campaign and a street fair to bring awareness of the issue to both their subjects and Equestria at large. Despite months of campaigning, speeches, and proclamations to try and curb the rampant mislabeling, the convention had stuck and Twilight had found herself the ruler of a kingdom with no king.

She’d eventually come to accept it as a lost cause, especially since Celestia and Luna had both laughed and politely declined to join her little crusade. Equestria had always been referred to as a kingdom in conversation and record, and they saw no reason to change it.

Cadance had been no help either, and remained steadfast in calling her realm an empire despite the fact that it did not control any foreign lands through military, economic, or even cultural assimilation. Shining Armor had seemed interested in helping the cause by expanding their dominion and acquiring a few colonies, but Cadance had shot them both down with a glare. Even as an adult and equal member of Equestria’s tetrarchy, Twilight still felt like a bad little foal that ate too many cookies before dinner whenever Cadance gave her that reproachful glare.

Still, it always bought a smile to her face to remember all the fuss she’d made over what had gone down in the records as Ponyville’s first governmental boondoggle. Sometimes she’d still get a occasional polite ribbing from her subjects, usually something along the lines of an exaggerated bow and a greeting of, “Good afternoon, King Twilight.”

Things had smoothed out considerably since that time. Twilight was more familiar with her role as a princess, and the help of her friends and the guidance of the mayor had kept a considerable amount of pressure off her. It was with their help that she was able to hold on to her position as the head librarian of Ponyville, and no matter what she did as a princess, she knew that nothing would give her more joy than helping ponies discover the wonders of reading.

She turned back to the study and checked the clock sitting on her desk. It was still fairly early for visitors to the library, but Spike would no doubt still be in the midst of the shelving day flurry.

Twilight returned to her desk and gave her notes a quick once over before rolling the scroll up in her magical grip. She opened a drawer and selected a violet ribbon with her Cutie Mark emblazoned on it. The edges of the ribbon were dyed silver, indicating that the scroll was a pre-final draft proposal.

She levitated the ribbon-tied scroll behind herself and headed for the door.

“I think Spike and I both deserve the day off,” she announced to the now empty room as a final tweak of her magic shut off the desk lamp and closed the door behind herself.

Twilight walked downstairs to the library and immediately found Spike and Scootaloo in a heated discussion over the merits of peppermint candies.

“They’re sweet, bite-sized, and they sell them at candy stores,” Scootaloo argued. “It’s candy. Hooves down.”

“Only for old ponies,” Spike insisted. “For anypony else they’re just decoration. You put them in a dish next to the cashier at restaurants or on the pillows at a hotel. You’re not expected to actually eat them, they’re just for ambiance. You look down and you see a peppermint and you’re supposed to think ‘Oh, that’s fancy, this place is fancy.’”

Twilight cleared her throat loudly and stepped off the stairs with louder than necessary clip of her hooves on the hard crystal floor.

“Well it’s nice to see that the world-class education provided by Celestia and myself is being put to use on such stimulating topics,” she commented, her head tilted back in a show of smug superiority. “And for the record, I like to think I’m an excellent judge of candies and I love peppermints.”

Spike gave Scootaloo a pointed look. “See? I told you: old pony candy.”

“Spike!” Twilight shouted, maintaining her poise.

“What?” the dragon asked, feigning surprise at her reaction. “I’m not saying you’re old, I’m just saying you like the kind of stuff that old ponies like; like really thick sweaters and bingo.”

“Thick sweaters are comfortable in the winter, and bingo is serious business,” she retorted, tilting her head back a bit more to further look down her nose at him.

“That’s what an old pony would say,” Spike said with a nod.

Scootaloo ducked her head behind a wing and pretended to preen some of her feathers back into place, hoping that Twilight wouldn’t notice her sniggering.

“Just send this to the mayor, you wiseacre,” Twilight said as she bopped the little dragon on the forehead with the rolled up scroll in the way one might correct a dog’s behavior with a newspaper. “And don’t pretend that you’re not the one that eats all the candy canes off the tree every Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

“That’s an entirely different matter!” Spike declared as he snatched the scroll from the air. “Candy canes are peppermint, yes, but they’re not peppermints! Candy canes are festive, and I eat them purely in the spirit of the holiday. And by admitting that I’m not supposed to eat the ones on the tree you prove my point that they’re supposed to be decorative.”

“And you freely admit that they’re called candy canes. ‘Candy’ is right there in the name!”

“I never said they weren’t candies; just that they were more decoration than candy unless you were a very old pony with no teeth!”

“Guys, guys, I think we’re going to have to agree that both sides have their merits,” Scootaloo interjected quickly.

Spike and Twilight blinked, only just realizing that during their argument they’d slowly stalked closer to one another until they were glaring with their noses pressed together as they traded points. They backed away with dual blushes of embarrassment and agreed to table the discussion until they could get Pinkie Pie – Ponyville’s officially appointed Minister of Candy – to settle the matter once and for all.

Spike examined the scroll Twilight had brought down and frowned. “You’re already at pre-final draft? How much sleep did you actually get?”

“I got enough,” she said with a shrug. “I’ll go to bed extra early tonight, promise.”

He nodded to Twilight and sent the missive to the mayor with a tiny puff of fire. With age he’d gained more confidence and control over his fire. It hadn’t been long ago that sending a letter required taking a deep breath like he was blowing out the candles on a really big birthday cake – now he could conjure enough flame for a sending without even trying.

“How’s shelving going?” Twilight asked.

“Going great,” Scootaloo answered as she trotted up to the pair of siblings. “Spike’s just finished with the check ins and inspections, and now we’re just about halfway through getting it all back up.”

“Wow, that far already?” Twilight said, impressed. “You two make a great team.”

Spike reached up and gave her mane a tousle. “Of course we do, she’s my number one assistant.”

Scootaloo’s face flushed at the praise. She walked away quickly and hid her face behind a book from the cart, pretending to double check the date stamp.

“Well how about we take the day off then?” Twilight asked Spike.

“And by the day off you mean…?” Spike asked carefully. Considering the things Twilight thought were fun, that could mean either more, or much, much more work added to his plate.

“I mean you can go out and do some shopping or something and I’ll finish up the shelving,” she explained. “It’s been a while since I got the chance to just relax and spend a day with the books.”

Scootaloo’s ears perked at the suggestion that Spike take the day off for some personal time.

“Of course I wouldn’t mind a little help from my number one assistant’s number one assistant!”

Scootaloo’s ears folded back against her head, betraying her disappointment. Looking up from her book, she noticed the dopey, wide-mouthed grin that Spike wore.

“Y-yeah, sure,” she said, nodding vigorously. “If it means Spike gets the day off, I’m up for it.”

“You sure, Scoots?” he asked.

Scootaloo swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat and nodded again with twice the enthusiasm.

“Of course! I’d do anything for you, Spike! You work hard and you deserve a day off!”

Spike walked up to the young filly and gave her another affectionate mussing of her mane, not noticing the way she leaned into his hand. “Thanks a ton, Scootaloo! You’re a real pal.”

“Any ideas for what you’re going to do?” Scootaloo asked as Spike beat a quick retreat for the front door.

“Yeah, I’m going to head over to Rarity’s and see if she needs any help!” he called over his shoulder. “She’s leaving for some fashion tour thing in a few days so she’s been really busy.”

“Have fun!” Twilight shouted after him.

Twilight levitated a few books off the cart, floating them over Scootaloo’s head, and checked the titles as she walked deeper into the stacks. She began shelving, humming a little tune as she worked. Once she had properly returned whatever book she had, she simply levitated another without returning to the cart.

“He was supposed to take the day off…”

“What was that, Scootaloo?” Twilight asked. She stepped out from between two aisles and looked in the direction Scootaloo’s voice had come from. It had been very faint, but the relative silence had boosted the volume of her voice as it bounced off the cavernous crystal walls of the library.

Scootaloo was still standing next to the cart, where she’d been when Spike had left. Twilight trotted up to the filly, concern clear on her face at the odd behavior from the usually boisterous little pegasus.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

Scootaloo chewed at her lower lip restlessly, some sort of turmoil hidden behind those sharp eyes of hers.

“We just gave him the day off and he’s going to go spend it doing work for Rarity?” Scootaloo asked, her eyes never leaving the door.

“Trust me, Scootaloo, that is a day off for Spike,” Twilight reassured her. “He likes helping Rarity, always has.”

She wrapped a wing around the shorter girl and gave a little squeeze.

“Come on, let’s get a little bit more done and then we can have some lunch,” Twilight suggested.

Scootaloo nodded mutely and pulled a book off the cart. She checked the spine for name and subject and floated off to find its home.

Twilight frowned at the girl’s odd behavior. Scootaloo tended to be more energetic, and definitely more talkative. Something was bothering the filly, but she couldn’t quite place what it might be. She looked back to the front door and deepened her frown.

The wheels in Twilight’s brain began spinning, piecing together little bits of data about Scootaloo collected over the years and comparing them to the events of the day. Twilight’s mind was one of the greatest ever seen by ponykind; the equal to any scholar living or dead, up to and including Starswirl the Bearded. She toyed with the very fabric of reality as a hobby, had unraveled the secrets of magic, and about two years ago had even gotten really close to actually figuring out Pinkie Sense.

All of her mental acuity, her vast, nearly immeasurable intellect, came to a single definitive conclusion: “I’m an idiot…” she muttered as she pressed a hoof to her forehead sadly.

Scootaloo returned a moment later and chose another book from the cart. Twilight lifted a couple herself and followed after.

“So is there anything you want to talk about?” Twilight asked.

Scootaloo gave her an odd look, something Twilight couldn’t place but felt might have been something between annoyance and curiosity.

“I’m just realizing that you’ve been coming to help for so long and we really haven’t spent much time doing this together,” Twilight pointed out.

“We’ve done shelving day together,” Scootaloo stated coolly.

“But only when Spike was with us,” Twilight corrected. “In fact I don’t think you’ve come around just to see me since you’ve gotten your Cutie Mark. You usually come to hang out with Spike.”

Scootaloo flew to the top of a bookcase and shoved the rolling ladder aside to reach the empty spot on the shelf for the book in her arms. She dropped her altitude slightly and floated back towards the cart.

“So is there anything you want to talk about?” Twilight asked casually as she followed Scootaloo. “I mean we might be here a while, and you seem like you have something on your mind.”

Scootaloo rounded on Twilight quickly, the sides of her mouth turned down in a half-frown. “Aren’t you going to shelve those?” she asked, pointing at the pair of books still floating behind Twilight.

Twilight wordlessly brought the books to eye level to read the titles and sent them speeding away with a small burst of magic. She summoned two more books, which fell into place behind her, where they bobbed gently with an invisible breeze.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?” Twilight told the girl. She felt the urge to go up and give the filly a hug, but knew that if she wanted Scootaloo to open up, she’d need to give her some space first.

Scootaloo huffed and turned back to the cart. She landed and nudged the cart further towards the back of the library with Twilight in pursuit.

“It’s just something Rainbow Dash and I talked about a couple of weeks ago,” Scootaloo said.

“Did you two have an argument?”

Scootaloo shook her head. “No, it’s… personal, though, so it’s hard to talk about. I didn’t even really want to talk about it with her, but you know how she can be.”

Twilight trotted ahead of the cart once Scootaloo had stopped. She gave the younger girl a gentle smile and an understanding nod. “I’m not going to push you anymore,” she informed Scootaloo, “but if you need another perspective, I’ve been told I’m kind of good at giving advice. I’ll always be here in whatever capacity you need me for, okay? I’m here as a teacher, as a princess, or as a friend – whatever you may need.”

Twilight checked her books and cracked a wide smile. She scanned the remaining books on the half empty cart and laughed airily.

“Look at that,” she said in amusement, “we’re already up to romance fiction. Never would’ve guessed you and Spike would get there so soon. It’s funny how things work out, huh?”

Twilight began to walk away, dragging her hooves slightly in anticipation of the inevitable.

“Wait…”

Twilight smiled to herself as she paused mid-step. She gave Scootaloo a quizzical look, waiting patiently for the girl to soldier on. Twilight knew that this was the point where Scootaloo would either spill the beans or retreat back into her shell, all she had to do was be silent and let Scootaloo make the first move.

“Can I ask you something?” Scootaloo asked tentatively after a few tense seconds.

Twilight nodded. “Anything.”

“Does Spike still like Rarity?”

Twilight scrunched up her nose, thinking carefully on how she should respond. Once she’d diagnosed Scootaloo’s problem, she’d run through several iterations on what this conversation might go like in her head. None of them had included a start from this angle. Love had always been Cadance’s wheelhouse, after all.

Twilight took a deep breath and realized that maybe it would be best to take a page from Spike’s playbook and just wing it as she went.

“Truthfully?”

Scootaloo nodded.

“I’m almost certain of it,” Twilight answered. “We’ve been in Ponyville for five years, and I’ve never seen any indication that he’s given up the hope that Rarity might see him as something more than a friend.”

Scootaloo’s shoulders went slack and her head drooped a bit seemingly in defeat. Twilight winced and chastised herself internally for being too frank with such a delicate subject. She was really bad at this winging it stuff.

“…well how does she feel about him?”

Twilight motioned with her wing for Scootaloo to follow her as she went to the romance section with her books.

“I know she thinks the world of him and that they’re great friends,” Twilight explained carefully, taking care to stress the word friend. “But I really don’t know if she has any deeper feelings than that.”

“Oh, okay…” Scootaloo muttered, letting the information sink in.

“You should talk to him about it,” Twilight advised. “Let him know you’re interested.”

The little pegasus sat at the end of the aisle, leaning heavily against a bookcase and feigning interest in one of the volumes on the shelf. Twilight had put everything together, and there was no more reason to hide it, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing to talk about. The only other adult she could talk to about this sort of thing was Rainbow Dash, and her advice had been more unnerving than encouraging. Now she was getting similar advice from Twilight and it was becoming clear that there wouldn’t be an easy solution to her problem.

“That’s what Rainbow said,” Scootaloo sighed. “Only she said it more… loudly. She kept telling me that I need to come at this like a new flight trick: to just go headfirst at it with everything I’ve got and don’t give up until I’ve got it down.”

“The metaphor’s a little sporty for my taste,” Twilight assessed, “but it’s pretty sound advice. He’s never going to know how you feel unless you tell him. That little dragon of mine has got one heck of a brain, but it’s hidden deep down inside of a very, very thick skull.”

Despite her somber mood, Scootaloo managed to chuckle in agreement. “I’ll say. I’ve been testing the waters for a few months now and he hasn’t taken the bait at all. I was hoping he’d get the hint and I wouldn’t have to… I don’t know, take initiative or whatever. This is just really scary though. I never thought I’d say it, but Rainbow Dash is wrong – it’s not anything like tackling a new trick. If I bomb on a trick, the worst that happens is I spend a couple of weeks laid up and catching up on my reading, but if I mess this up…”

Scootaloo breathed deeply and held a hoof to her chest, tapping her breast just above her heart.

“If this goes South on me… then I think what breaks is going to take way longer than a bum wing to get better…”

Scootaloo felt a gentle touch on her shoulder and looked up into Twilight’s eyes. The older mare wore a gentle smile that somehow filled her entire face with love and understanding. It felt like a lifetime ago, but Scootaloo recognized it as the same patient, compassionate look that Twilight used to give her and the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders whenever they messed something up during Twilight Time.

“You’re right,” Twilight said soothingly. “That part of a pony is stronger than any other, but that means that when it breaks, it takes that much longer to heal.” Twilight leaned closer and moved her hoof down to press against Scootaloo’s. “But it will heal – I promise you – so don’t be afraid to try. With this sort of thing, the only way you can fail is if you never take the chance.”

Twilight rose back to her full height and grinned coyly. “But then again, who am I to say anything?” she said wink. “Everything I know about love I learned from books and lectures from my sister-in-law.”

Twilight cleared her throat and struck a regal pose.

“Twilight, listen up,” she began in a poor imitation of Cadance. “You need to start wearing make-up, and brushing your mane properly. Not just because you’re a princess, but because you’re a young, eligible, and beautiful mare. How do you expect to land a stallion without looking your very best? And following the Equestrian Dental Association’s guidelines regarding proper brushing techniques and schedules is well and good, but you also need to either start using mouthwash or stop drinking so much coffee!”

“Your breath does kind of smell like coffee,” Scootaloo giggled.

“I was up all night working!” Twilight said defensively.

Twilight’s protests only doubled Scootaloo’s amusement. She held her hooves over her mouth, giggling childishly. Her laughter began to die down though as she realized that Twilight was staring at her, smiling but with a spark of something in her eyes.

“Well, was it funny?” Twilight asked eagerly.

“Well I’m laughing, aren’t I?” Scootaloo answered incredulously.

“Oh good, I’m glad my joke went over well!” Twilight beamed proudly, clapping her hooves at her own accomplishment. “A few months ago I tried to tell a knock-knock joke to the mayor of Las Pegasus that Applejack said didn’t land. After that I read some books on standup comedy that I had Spike pick out for me. The books all agreed that self-deprecating humor and vocal mimicry are easy and almost never fail in an informal setting, so I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to try them out!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes but refrained from mocking the bookish princess for treating humor like homework.

“Anyway, I’m gunna go for it,” Scootaloo announced with all the bravado she could muster. “But not today, I’ll do it tomorrow. I think I need to psych myself up for it first.”

“Why don’t you take off for now, then?” Twilight offered. “I can handle this myself. Maybe go hang out with your friends for a bit; relax a little.”

“You sure you’ll be okay?” the girl asked, tilting her head questioningly.

“Of course.”

Scootaloo turned to exit the library but pulled up short. In a flash she’d turned and wrapped her arms around the alicorn’s neck. Twilight returned the hug with enthusiasm.

“Thanks, Twilight,” Scootaloo whispered softly. “You’re the best.... Well, second best. Rainbow Dash is the best.”

Twilight chuckled and waved as the girl pulled away and galloped to the door. She went back to the cart and gathered a few books while she let her mind wander, lost in the meditative act of maintaining her library.

It had warmed her heart greatly to see Scootaloo was back to her energetic self; mopiness didn’t suit her at all. But lightening the filly’s burden had added to Twilight’s own worries.

Spike had always focused so intently on Rarity that it was difficult to imagine him turning all of that effort towards another relationship. Indeed, Twilight had never actually thought all that much about Spike’s love life. For so many years it had seemed a foregone conclusion that eventually either Spike or Rarity would make a move to end the… courtship wasn’t quite the word, and her vast vocabulary failed her to find something properly analogous to her little brother’s relationship with her friend. Regardless, she’d always assumed that something would happen and Rarity would be forced to make it clear that nothing would ever come of the affair.

But it had been years with that incident never coming to a head, and in that time the circumstances had continued to change. Spike had matured at a pace that nopony could have predicted; maybe not physically, but definitely emotionally and intellectually. Spike had always been very intelligent, if somewhat lazy in that way that unmotivated children could be, but with his rapid maturation came the patience and drive to truly delve into his studies. He still needed to be prompted to study, of course, but he no longer let his mind wander and could really buckle down and get it done.

It had been a pleasant surprise to Twilight to learn that a motivated, focused dragon could absorb knowledge very, very quickly. Spike had become an even greater asset to her studies, and a couple of the recent papers she’d submitted to scholarly journals even had his name as a co-author, rather than research assistant. Spike had tried to turn down the honor, but she had insisted that he receive proper credit for his contributions.

The fact that he would turn down honors of any kind had been markers of his personal growth. Spike had always been the type to get a swelled head over praise; their trips to the Crystal Empire, where he was still honored as a national hero, had proven that much. But now Spike seemed to be more aware that getting too full of himself was a weakness of his character, and though he sometimes still struggled with it, he at least made a conscious effort to curb his own behavior.

In short, Spike was of an age where it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that a grown mare might find aspects of his personality attractive. So the question was: what was Rarity’s opinion of him now?

If she wasn’t interested, why hadn’t she taken the initiative to let him down already?

Twilight sighed heavily. She’d always been content to let the situation sort itself out, but it hadn’t, and now a very nice young filly’s heart was on the line. If Spike refused to let go of his attraction to Rarity, then it might cost him the chance at a comparatively healthier relationship.

But was he even attracted to Scootaloo?

It occurred to Twilight that she knew very little of her little brother’s preferences when it came to what he looked for in a girl. All she knew was that he was attracted to Rarity, and Scootaloo was as far from Rarity as a mare could get in terms of disposition and habits.

“Too many variables...” Twilight muttered. “Don’t like it...”

Twilight knew that there was very little she could do in this situation, but that didn’t stop her from worrying. There were too many hearts on the line, and she cared about everypony involved. It bothered her to not only be powerless to help, but to also realize that she had so little information in regards to Rarity’s feelings on the matter. It made her feel like she’d failed some unspoken duty as an older sibling to not have been on top of a situation like this.

It would be too late to make any difference, but talking to Rarity would at least fill in the gaps in her knowledge – give her a clearer view of the whole picture.

* * *

It wasn’t very often that Spike got to have a decent lunch. Mid-afternoon tended to be a fairly busy time for the library, as ponies often stopped by on their own lunch breaks from work to browse the stacks for something to read at home. Because of that midday rush, Spike’s lunch tended to be a quick sandwich or a bowl of mixed gems, at best.

Happily, today the library was closed and he had time to make himself a great lunch. He looked over the counter at the smorgasbord he’d prepared for himself. It was a mix of breakfast, lunch, and dinner that spread out over the counter tops in quantities enough to feed several ponies in addition to himself; there would definitely be leftovers.

“Maybe I got a little carried away,” Spike mused.

He sat at his favorite stool near the end of the island at the center of the kitchen – he never ate alone in the cavernous dining room – and set about slaying the beast he’d created by grabbing a bit from each plate and mixing it all together into a single bowl. There was a clank of metal settling into place and a splash of water behind him, but he ignored it pointedly and focused on eating his spaghetti-waffle-stir fry-salad. He absolutely refused to even acknowledge the mountain of dishes he’d have to do later.

He propped a book open and read while he ate.

Late last night Twilight had said she wanted to begin a new research project; something about using high altitude lightning bursts as a conveyance point for the transmission of simple messages. It was vastly more complex than dragonfire transmission or scroll teleportation, but it would allow pegasi to set up an emergency communication network of their own.

Since there was pre-research research to be done, Spike had closed the library for a few days so he could familiarize himself with related literature and pre-existing research before they sat down to draft up a plan for serious experimentation. He didn’t know all that much about lightning, but by the end of their study he’d know everything there was to know about the stuff.

It wasn’t like Twilight to spring such an ambitious project on him so suddenly, but he had promised he’d be ready to begin assisting within two to three days, and he fully intended to cram a few weeks worth of study into those days.

“Whoa, what happened in here?”

Spike looked up from his book to find Scootaloo standing in the kitchen doorway.

“Were you expecting company?” she asked. “I sure hope whoever you’re cooking for offers to help you clean up all those dish—“

“We’re not talking about those,” Spike interrupted. “They don’t exist at this moment in time. They’re Future-Spike’s problem.”

Scootaloo cracked a smile and cantered into the room, letting the swinging door flap noisily behind her.

“You and your feud with Future-Spike,” Scootaloo laughed.

“He knows what he did,” Spike answered with a haughty sniff. He waved welcomingly over the spread. “You hungry? Have a seat and help me slay this leviathan I’ve created.”

Scootaloo sat opposite him and grabbed a bit of everything she could reach.

Spike continued reading while Scootaloo settled in. He knew it was rude, but he really needed to at least finish the last few pages of this dissertation on ball lightning before he lost his train of thought. He knew Scootaloo would understand; it wasn’t the first time she’d interrupted him studying.

The time ticked away as Spike ate his way through the book and his meal. Finally, he closed the book and rubbed blearily at his eyes.

“Why do these academic books always have such small print?” he groused.

“I saw the sign out front and almost didn’t come up. What’re you studying that you closed up the library?”

“Twilight sprung a new research project on me last night,” Spike sighed. He grabbed a toasted breadstick and used it to wipe up the last of the spaghetti sauce and ranch dressing from his bowl. “It’s really interesting stuff though, so I’m not too upset by it. Just wish she’d given me more time to prepare.”

“Oh, did you need me to leave?” she asked with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“No, no,” Spike said firmly. “I always have time for a good friend like you, Scoots.”

He looked up and gave Scootaloo a smile. Her wings fluttered a bit at the compliment.

Spike narrowed his eyes and gave the filly a once over. Something about her seemed different. She seemed… less sweaty than usual. As a junior athlete, Scootaloo was always in training mode. Even when she came to visit at the library she was usually on her way to or from a workout of some kind. She was never dirty or smelly, but she did always have the disheveled look of somepony that spent a lot of time outdoors.

Today she looked like she was fresh from the shower. Her mane and tail looked groomed, and – he’d almost missed it over the smell of lunch – she smelled lightly of perfume. She leaned forward to take another bite and Spike saw a quick flash of pink in her violet mane.

“Is that one of Apple Bloom’s bows?” he asked quickly. He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Are you wearing makeup? Is that blush?”

“What!?” Scootaloo asked, coughing slightly as she attempted to clear her throat of the baked eggplant-omelet-potato chip-sandwich that had slipped down the wrong pipe with her outburst. She sipped some water and repeated herself. “What do you mean? Me, wearing blush? Are you crazy!?”

“But your cheeks are all pink,” Spike pointed out.

“Well maybe they’re pink because I’ve been running!” she countered hotly. “O-or maybe I’m just a sweet, pure little rosy-cheeked maiden!”

“A rosy-cheeked maiden?” Spike repeated, raising an eyebrow. “With eyeshadow?”

“Questions, questions, questions!” Scootaloo barked mockingly. “What’s with all these questions? Am I on trial? Maybe I’m the one that should be asking the questions around here, bub!”

Spike scratched his head in confusion. This was certainly turning into a very odd day.

“What kind of questions?” he asked.

“L-like… like do you like me!?” she managed to sputter out, her cheeks glowing with a natural flush that outshined the rouge that Sweetie Belle had helped her apply. It hadn’t been easy telling them what she’d planned to do, and they’d been plenty upset that she’d kept it a secret so long, but they’d really come through for her in helping get ready for this.

“Of course I like you, Scoots,” Spike said dumbly, not getting her meaning. “You’re one of my best friends.”

“No, you dumdum!” Scootaloo shouted, slamming a hoof on the counter as she stood on her stool and leaned towards him.

She closed her eyes tightly as though bracing for a blow and took a breath. She was crossing the point of no return and she’d already said it out loud, all she had to do was make it perfectly clear to him.

“I mean do you like me, Spike?” she asked again, timidly. “Do you like me as a girl?”

* * *

“I’m so very glad you stopped by today, Twilight,” Rarity said to the alicorn across the table from her. “Things have been so hectic with my impending trip. I’ve been an absolute bundle of nerves, I tell you. A visit from a good friend is exactly what the doctor called for.”

Twilight smiled in response and adjusted the sun umbrella at their table. The waitress arrived with their drinks and served them quietly before shuffling off to see to the rest of their patrons.

Rarity and her friends were regulars at this particular café, since it was so close to the Carousel Boutique, so their usual orders had already been placed and added to their running tab by the time they’d found a place to sit. It was lunch so only outdoor tables were available, but that suited Twilight fine – the outdoor seating was less cluttered and afforded a bit of privacy for the discussion she intended to have with her friend.

“I was positively drowning in last minute work, getting my line ready for the fashion tour,” Rarity testified as she sipped gingerly at her tea.

Twilight nodded, half listening and staring intently at her cup of coffee as she levitated a spoonful of sugar into it.

“I simply would not have been ready in time on my own, but then of course Spike galloped to my rescue, yet again,” Rarity sighed happily. “That dragon… I swear he’s pulled me out of the fire more times than I can count. I dare say that at this point he could probably make a fair living as a designer himself.”

Twilight’s ears twitched at Spike’s name but she continued to stir sugar into her coffee. She hummed in response to whatever Rarity was going on about to buy herself some more time to think.

“And once we were done with the dresses, he finally grew his wings and fought off ten thousand diamond dogs, each riding a timberwolf, all to protect the secret of Celestia’s biscuit recipe,” Rarity continued.

“He does that,” Twilight muttered, adding lifting the spoon and sending it back to the bowl for more sugar.

“And then he and I officiated the wedding between Apple Bloom and Fluttershy,” Rarity said dreamily. “It was a lovely ceremony, so sorry you couldn’t be there.”

“Me too,” Twilight muttered. The sound of something tinkling filled the air and drew her eyes towards the sugar bowl. Her tea spoon danced and jangled against the empty glass bowl as it frantically searched for more sugar. “Where’d the sugar go?”

Rarity cleared her throat, catching Twilight’s attention. She pointed a hoof knowingly at Twilight’s cup.

Twilight looked back to her coffee and grimaced at the sight. The once dark brown liquid was now milky white from the amount of sugar dumped into it.

“Twilight, darling, you’ve been sitting there staring into your cup for almost ten minutes. The waitress has already been by twice to ask for our lunch orders. If there’s something amiss please just tell me what it is,” Rarity implored her. She leaned forward and gazed seriously at Twilight. “It’s not official business, is it? Should we be discussing this with the others?”

Had she really zoned out that long?

Twilight quickly shook her head. It was now or never.

“No, no end of the world stuff,” Twilight sighed. “It's nothing to get the girls involved in. I came here to talk to you specifically. It’s about Spike.”

“Is there something wrong with my Spikey?” Rarity asked quickly.

“No,” Twilight answered immediately. “He’s fine, it’s just…”

“Oh, come on, Twilight, out with it,” Rarity snapped. “You’re scaring me.”

Twilight sat up straight in her seat.

“I need to know what you think about Spike.”

Rarity blinked. “Well I think the world of him,” she answered. “What an odd thing to ask.”

Twilight sighed. She knew that Scootaloo was probably at the library at this very moment talking to Spike, and she wondered if the filly was having this much trouble getting through to Spike.

“I mean, what do you think of him as…” Twilight tapped a hoof against the table distractedly, looking for the right word, “…as a male?”

“A… a male…?”

“Yes, as a potential romantic interest, Rarity,” Twilight expounded.

Rarity’s eyes darted around, checking to make sure no one was overhearing them. A lump rose in her throat and she tried to swallow it down, but the dryness in her mouth made it impossible. She levitated her cup of tea up to her lips and took quick little sips to try and remoisten her throat.

“So we’re finally having this conversation, are we?” Rarity exhaled.

“It’s a simple question,” Twilight pointed out.

“No, no it isn’t,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “It’s very, very complicated.”

Twilight crossed her arms over her chest and held her ground.

“Uncomplicate it for me.”

“That easy, is it?” Rarity grumbled. “When I met him he was thirteen years old and he still sucked his claw in his sleep.”

“And now he’s eighteen and he’s getting recognition from the academic community as a serious scholar,” Twilight pointed out. “Ponies may not know much about the way dragons grow, but you and I both know that Spike is not the same dragon he was five years ago. What you thought of him back then has no bearing on what you think of him now.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Twilight.” Rarity brusquely tapped her hoof against the table, rattling the dishes a bit as she used more force than she intended. “No matter how much he matures, no matter how quickly he does so, he’s always going to be the little brother of one of my best friends. I’m hardly the first mare to be the object of a friend’s brother’s first boyhood crush – nothing ever comes of it.”

“You’re still dodging the question,” Twilight said, slowly growing impatient. “Shove aside all of that baggage about the differences in your ages, or his first impression, or whatever is your real hang-up here. How do you really, deep down, feel about him? Do you have romantic feelings? From the way you’re acting I have a pretty good idea, but I want to hear it from you. I want to hear you say it out loud.”

“Why now?” Rarity asked icily. “Answer that first. Why so suddenly demand this of me after all these years?”

“Because the situation has changed,” Twilight answered.

“In what way?”

“Somepony approached me yesterday and asked me what I thought of your relationship with Spike.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow curiously. “And this pony wanted to know because…?”

“Because she wanted to know if she had a shot with him,” Twilight said flatly.

Rarity flinched as though Twilight had struck her.

“S-so… somepony is interested in him…?” she asked timidly.

Twilight nodded. “I won’t say who, because she told me in confidence, but she was worried that his feelings for you might get in the way of her confession. She asked if I knew anything about how you felt, and I honestly didn’t, and that bothers me.”

Twilight leaned forward, and the intensity of her glare made Rarity shrink back just a little.

“He’s my little brother,” Twilight stated simply. “I worry about him, and it really bugs me that I hadn’t asked this sooner. I’m not pushing you one way or the other… all I care about is the truth. The truth is all that matters.”

Rarity cast her eyes downward, unable to meet Twilight’s eyes a second longer. She quietly chewed the inside of her cheek in a most unladylike way; it was a bad habit she’d picked up somewhere but it helped her think.

Twilight sat back and gave her friend a few moments to compose herself. Rarity, it seemed, did have feelings for Spike, but they were buried under a mountain of neurosis and doubts. At least this complication could potentially resolve itself in the end. Rarity was deeply shaken by the news that somepony else wanted to put her chips on the table, so to speak.

Somepony was going to get hurt here, guaranteed. But even if Spike chose to turn down Scootaloo and continue his pursuit of Rarity, it wouldn’t be a wasted effort. By confronting Rarity on the issue, Twilight had forced her to come to grips with her own feelings. With luck, she would be receptive of his overtures from this point on.

“I never meant to be, but I’ve been very cruel to him…” Rarity whispered after a few minutes of quiet reflection.

Twilight remained silent.

Rarity jumped to her hooves and backed away from the table.

“If Spike asks you, tell him that he never had a chance with me,” she declared as she turned and began trotting back to the boutique.

Twilight blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that.

“Wait!” she called, managing to halt her friend as she walked away. “Rarity, I know you don’t mean that. I could see it in your face when I mentioned another mare: you do like him.”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel, Twilight,” she replied, keeping her back to her friend. “I’m making a choice, and that choice is to let him go. It’s for the best.”

“So then I should lie to him?” Twilight inquired. “I should lie right to his face if he asks me? Or if he comes straight to you, you’ll lie to him?”

Rarity looked back over her shoulder. Her face was a mask of emotionless stone, but the façade was broken by the streaks of eyeliner running down her cheeks.

“You’re a very smart mare, Twilight Sparkle… but let me tell you something you might not know: there are more important things than the truth. It’s a lady’s prerogative to tell any little white lie she has to if it protects the heart of a good stallion – and that goes double for dragons, as far as I’m concerned.”

With that said, Rarity galloped home and didn’t stop until she was alone in her room with the door locked and shades drawn.

* * *

Scootaloo had just asked him if he liked her.

Liked her as a girl… like, like liked her?

Like date like?

Romance like?

“Spike?”

She was talking to him.

Her mouth was moving and there were words coming out of it and they were directed at him.

“One minute, please,” Spike asked politely. He put his elbows on the counter and held his hands over his face. He huffed deeply, noting that his hands still smelled like the dressing for his salad. That was a good, familiar scent, something to grip onto.

He risked a peek between his claws. Scootaloo was still standing there, atop her stool and leaning towards him over the counter, staring expectantly at him. She hadn’t moved an inch but somehow it felt as if she were gradually getting closer, bearing down on him.

He lowered his hands and nodded.

“So…” he began deliberately. “I’m going to guess that means you like me.”

Scootaloo nodded slowly as she sat back down stiffly.

“How long has this been going on?” Spike asked.

“About a year,” Scootaloo answered. “Maybe a little less.”

“Can we go downstairs into the library?” Spike asked very suddenly. “I think I’d be more comfortable in the library.”

He got up without waiting for an answer and exited.

Scootaloo gaped as the object of her affections strode out of the room at a pace just below a mild jog. She glanced around at the mess they’d left and shrugged.

Spike concentrated on the sound of his feet hitting the floor as he plodded through the stairwell and descended to the ground floor. Scootaloo caught up to him and the sound of her hoofsteps echoed behind him. He doubled his focus on the sound of his own steps, trying to selectively drown out hers.

It would be much easier to think if it didn’t feel like she was watching him.

At the base of the stairs he made a beeline for the large reading area where he could hide amongst the cushions. This section of the library was further back, nearer to the throne room, and meant to be a quiet, private area for groups to study and discuss their reading. The library was closed so there was very little chance that anypony would interrupt them, but the idea that they were in a place meant to be comfortable and relatively private made Spike feel more secure.

“It was a really bad idea to tell you, wasn’t it?” Scootaloo sighed sadly.

Spike turned and almost whimpered in sympathy at the look of dejection in the girl’s eyes. She wasn’t crying, but she seemed right on the edge of it.

“Look I’m just really surprised,” Spike explained. “I’ve never thought about you like that before, and it was really sudden and I’m… I’m not used to girls giving me that kind of attention.”

“You mean you’re not used to noticing it,” Scootaloo groused.

“That either, I guess,” he admitted. “Is this why you’re always coming over to help out?”

“Me coming to hang out started way before I started to like-like you,” she explained. She walked to the cushions, nudging him with her shoulder as she passed, and plopped down roughly on an extra plump blue one. A little white tuft of cotton puffed up from a tear in the fabric as her rump made contact.

“Way back when we all went to the Crystal Empire for the Games,” Scootaloo began, “I really didn’t think all that much of you. I mean you were an okay guy; nice, but kind of a doormat. But then when that big iceberg almost crushed the stadium and everypony was freaking out, you jumped up and took charge.”

Scootaloo’s wings flared and she began to gesticulate wildly with her arms, her confidence returning and voice rising as she recalled the excitement of that day.

“You were like wooosh, and fwoomp, and pakow! The way you used all those pegasi as platforms was mega cool, and then you blew that big pillar of fire and melted the whole thing! It was so flippin’ awesome! I had no idea that such a little guy could have something like that in him!

“It was inspiring. Like the first time I ever saw Rainbow Dash fly. I was really impressed, and I wanted to hang out with you. You’re kind of thickheaded, so I don’t know if you noticed, but when I was younger I was kind of into the hero-worship thing. I guess what you did that day really stuck with me because I know what it’s like to be a runt… You’ve said it yourself: I am the shrimpiest pegasus in Ponyville.”

Spike opened his mouth to protest that statement, but was silenced by a shake of the girl’s head.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “Shrimp or not, I’m still the second fastest pony in Equestria. Anyway, the shine kind of wore off on the hero-worship thing after a while, but I still found myself wanting to come hang out here. I had fun with you, and I actually really did start getting into reading, so there were worse ways to spend my free time than hanging out in a library with somepony that could make me laugh and always had great stories.”

“What changed though?” Spike asked. He pulled one of the cushions closer to Scootaloo’s and sat down. “What made you start seeing me as something else?”

Scootaloo cracked a smile and actually laughed at the question, as though the answer were obvious.

“I grew up, dummy!” she tittered. “We all did. One day I woke up and it seemed like all Sweetie and Bloom wanted to talk about was boys. ‘He’s cute’ this and ‘But he’s cuter’ that. I never saw the big deal about guys though, I always just kind of tuned out the girly chatter. Everypony kept saying I was a late bloomer, or whatever, but it wasn’t that I couldn’t appreciate if a stallion was hot or not; the problem was that none of them were really interesting. Then after a while of not finding any colts that impressed me, I started thinking I might be into fillies. I cornered my friend Piña Colada at a slumber party and Prenched her a little bit, since I always thought she was cute, but it didn’t do anything for me either, so I checked that off the list.”

Spike’s jaw dropped at the idea of his friend, cute little Scootaloo, locking lips with another filly. This day just kept on getting weirder and weirder.

“Then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that all the stuff my friends were saying they liked about stallions were things I liked about you,” Scootaloo sighed. She pointed in the direction of the Psychology shelves. “I even secretly borrowed a couple of books, since I knew how to check things in and out myself, to look up something I’d read in one of Sweetie’s girly magazines that looked like it applied: ‘attraction by familiarity’. Kind of eggheady of me, huh?”

“That’s really admirable that you’d take the initiative to research a personal problem like that,” Spike complimented.

“You would think that, you egghead,” she laughed. “I could barely read the books anyway. It was a lot of double talk and fancy stuff just to say that spending a lot of time with somepony makes you more comfortable around them, and that that comfort could eventually lead to attraction. And that is pretty much what happened: we were friends, then we were better friends, and eventually I… kind of started wondering what it’d be like if we were even better friends… and the more I thought about that the more it made my heart race…”

Spike held his hands in his lap and twiddled his thumbs. This whole thing was going so quickly. Yesterday Scootaloo had been his little buddy, a filly that he’d seen get her Cutie Mark. He and Rarity had helped her pick out a dress for her first school dance. It was strange to think of her as a grown mare, and one that was attracted to him at that.

But they weren’t really that far apart in ages. Three years wasn’t much, and she was the age that ponies were considered grown enough to start being considered adults. She had always just seemed so much younger to him because of how much time he spent around Twilight and the girls; his usual group of friends tended to be so much older.

It was difficult to see himself in a relationship with Scootaloo. It was difficult to see himself in a relationship with anypony that wasn’t Rarity, for that matter. But Rarity knew how he felt, had known for years. No matter how fervently he denied and ignored it, the fact was that he wasn’t getting anywhere with the older mare, and there was a very real chance that he never would.

The bottom fell out of his stomach at that thought.

“Your face looks like how I felt the day that my flight camp instructor shoved me off a cloud and shouted ‘dodge the lightning bolts’,” Scootaloo mused.

“I’m sorry, it’s just a lot to think about…” Spike explained. “I think I need some time.”

Scootaloo got up to leave but was stopped by Spike’s hand on her shoulder.

“I mean it,” he said softly. “I’m not saying yes right now, but please don’t think I’m saying no. I just need time.”

Scootaloo opened her mouth, the urge to shout “You mean time to think about Rarity!” was powerful, but she wrestled it down back into the dark, jealous place in the pit of her stomach.

She nodded weakly and gave a watery smile.

“All the time you need, okay?” she told him.

* * *

Twilight stepped into the library, noting that she felt none of the usual cheer that filled her heart whenever she looked upon her books. The room was brightly lit by the sun pouring in through the enormous stained glass windows, but the air felt heavy, somehow diminishing the quality of the light and making the room seem so much darker.

She had passed Scootaloo on the street on her way back from the café. The little filly had primped herself up in the hopes of impressing Spike, but the look on her face spoke volumes about how well the confession had gone. Twilight had tried to stop her, to ask what had happened and maybe comfort the girl.

Scootaloo responded with a shake of her head and a humorless chuckle. “Ball’s in his court,” was all she would say on the matter. At least she hadn’t been crying.

All that was left was to find Spike and see if he would be more willing to talk.

Twilight shut and locked the door behind herself as she entered. Their door was never locked, but she didn’t want any disruptions today. She made for the staircase, deciding that his bedroom would be the most likely place to find him. Something gave her pause, however, and she decided to head further into the library, towards the back, near the throne room.

The reading area was simple: a few plush cushions, some low tables, a couple of couches, and a large rug that Twilight used when she and Spike read storybooks to children on the weekends. Every seating area was segregated with a bit of distance, so that study groups could have discussions without disturbing one another. It was all very neat and well thought out.

At least it had been.

The juice stained rug was barely visible beneath a mountain of cushions. Spike had gathered every cushion and pillow in the reading area, including the ones from the couches, and piled them on the rug. He lay on his stomach, face down atop the fluffy mountain in a very dragonish manner – as though he were resting on a hoard of gold and riches.

“You look comfy,” Twilight said, hoping that chapter fourteen of Courtly Quips: Twenty Techniques for Snappy Openers would help her break the ice.

“I need these,” Spike told her, his voice muffled as he answered into a pillow. “All of them. I need their comfort.”

Twilight climbed the cushion mountain and had a seat next to Spike. She began to gently stroke his back the way she had whenever he’d get a tummy ache as a baby. It had certainly been a long time, and despite the circumstances, she found herself enjoying the familiar feel of his back scales under her hoof.

He rolled his head to the side and looked up at her.

“We’re not really starting a new research project, are we?”

She shrugged. “Not right now,” she admitted. “But I do want to get to this one eventually.”

“So then you just wanted an excuse to close up the library, so that Scootaloo and I would be alone?” He received a nod and sighed. “How long have you known?”

“Only since yesterday,” she answered. She increased the pressure on his back, upgrading the motherly caress to a light massage to work out a knot she could feel in his lower back. “I think she really does like you.”

Spike groaned, but whether it was from being reminded of Scootaloo’s feelings or from the massage, Twilight wasn’t sure. They lay that way for a while: Spike chewing his lip in thought while Twilight wordlessly comforted him.

“Rarity knows I’m in love with her, you know.”

Twilight hummed affirmatively and stopped the massage. She replaced her hoof with a wing, hugging him as she lowered herself to his side.

“She still hasn’t done anything about it…” Spike said. “I know she knows, so there’s nothing else I can do aside from saying it right to her face and demanding that she be straight with me… I’ve been thinking for a while that if she was ever going to accept my feelings, she’d have done it by now. At this point I’m pretty sure… that it’s not going to happen.”

Twilight’s heart broke just a bit as she heard the brief crack in Spike’s voice at the admission, but she remained silent.

“You’re being very quiet,” Spike pointed out.

“I’m just listening,” she explained.

“Well right now I need more than a sympathetic ear,” he told her. “I need your opinion. Do you think I had a chance with Rarity? Or was it always a waste of time?”

Twilight’s heart seized in her chest. She looked away so Spike wouldn’t be able to see the conflict in her eyes. She’d told Rarity that the only thing that mattered was the truth, but Rarity’s parting words had followed her all the way home, buzzing in her ear like an angry hornet.

Rarity had made her choice, and she’d chosen to do a noble thing. Did Twilight have the right to take away the gift that she was offering Spike? If she told Spike what she’d gleaned from her talk with Rarity back at the café, he would of course run straight to her, and any hope for Scootaloo’s happiness would be crushed. And Rarity might see fit to continue to deny her feelings, which would lead to a rejection, and only cause more heartache for everypony.

In that moment she decided there was something to be said about a coward’s wisdom, and she took the middle road.

“I don’t know,” she lied.

Spike accepted her words as truth and wiggled himself deeper into his pillow hoard.

“Think I should go see Rarity?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” Twilight answered… truthfully. She decided to try and get off the topic of Rarity’s feelings. “So how do you feel about Scootaloo?”

Spike shrugged. “I like her, but do I like her the way she wants me to…? I’ve no idea. I’ve been running the idea through my head and every pass of it makes it more and more appealing, but I don’t want to rush into this.”

“Do you think she’s cuuuuute~?” Twilight teased with a grin.

Spike returned the smile at the obvious attempt to raise his spirits and nodded. “Yes, she’s very, very cute. I could totally see myself dating her, but when she asked me how I felt…”

Twilight nudged him with her shoulder encouragingly.

“It made me think of Rarity, and it was kind of a moment of clarity where I realized that things between me and her weren’t progressing. Admitting that to myself hurt – hurt bad enough that I almost wanted to say yes to Scootaloo just in the hopes that it’d take my mind off of Rarity, and that’s not fair to Scoots at all.”

“So you told her you needed space,” Twilight surmised. Scootaloo’s comment about the ball being in Spike’s court made a bit more sense. “That was the right decision, I think.”

“Yeah... now I just have to go lock myself up in my room for a few days until I get this stupid emotional stuff sorted,” he laughed.

“You can’t spend all that time in your room,” Twilight chided him.

“Well, Rarity’s leaving for her fashion tour tomorrow, but Scootaloo’s still going to be here,” Spike pointed out. “I don’t want to run into her until I’ve got something to say to her.”

Twilight stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“Maybe you could visit Canterlot for a few days,” Twilight suggested. “Just get out of town altogether. It has been a while since you’ve had a vacation.”

“I need time to myself,” Spike sighed. “Going from one castle to another doesn’t really count as a vacation, since I’ll probably have to dine with nobles.”

Twilight scrunched up her nose. “Did mom ever get the hang of the Dragonfire Sending spell?”

”We are not telling mom!” Spike declared as he sat up to stare at his sister in panic. “I’ve got enough to deal with without mom coming here to measure Scootaloo’s hips to see if they’re regulation birthing width or whatever else she might do!”

“Oh Celestia, no!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m just asking if she’s learned how to send you letters yet!”

“Yeah, she has,” Spike answered, his voice thick with suspicion. “She keeps putting stamps on all the letters she sends but they get to me alright.”

“Well her and dad are on a cruise, yes?” Twilight explicated. “The house is all by itself and we’ve got a spare key. You could tell them that you’re going to be in Canterlot on official business for a few days and ask if you can stay in the house.”

“That… could actually work out…” Spike surmised. “Yeah that sounds good. I’ll go do that right now.”

Spike got up from his seat and gave Twilight a hug before heading upstairs.

“If there’s anything else I can do to help, let me know, Spike,” she shouted after him.

He paused at the base of the stairs and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Would you mind doing the dishes?” he asked innocently. “Scootaloo kind of interrupted me during lunch so I didn’t get around to doing them… there’s even some leftovers if you want them.”

“Of course, Spike,” she said with a grin. “That sounds like a plan.”

“Thanks, Twi, you’re always looking out for me,” he said. “And thanks for being up front with me about Rarity. I can always trust you to give me a straight answer.”

If Spike had waited a moment longer before climbing the stairs, he would have seen Twilight’s happy expression shatter and fall away.

All she could do was hope that Rarity had been right about the importance of little white lies.

* * *

Author's Note:

Well here we go, my first non-oneshot. Rest assured things will be getting more complicated from here on out. Or if not complicated, then at least a little sillier.

If you read my blogpost announcing this story last week, please note that my original quote of one week for chapter 2 will be extended to two weeks, and I will be going for a bi-weekly update schedule for this story, with a 2-3 day margin of error at most.

If you upvote or favorite, please take leave a comment! Comments help motivate me. And if you enjoyed this, why not check out some of my other romances?

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the introduction of this story and that you'll all join me for the next chapter!

Please be excited!

Comments

[Ausbrony]

I'm really liking this so far. The character development is nice and it's well-paced so far.

Though why do I have the sinking feeling that going to Canterlot is going to complicate things even more

[Sharp Spark]

Wonderful as always. All the little touches like the notes hanging up in the castle, that stuff makes your stories feel thoroughly lived-in and vibrant. You build worlds, worlds with characters that I like (Twilight in this is particularly lovely) – places I can't help but enjoy spending time exploring.

I'm quite interested in seeing where you take this... And whether it'll grow even more tangled. Your stories work for me - and in a way that most Spike shipping totally fails - because he's more mature and adult while still being recognizably himself. But this time, he's... right at the point of young adulthood, with a growing maturity but also a kind of uncertainty and doubt that's relatable. It makes the pairing with an equally more grown-up and reserved Scootaloo intriguing, but I'm all for seeing more sides of the situation too.

[SpikeSupreme13]

This was an excellent way to start off this piece of work. With Drama, Emotions, Shocking turn of events, and a plot so dense and full of intrigue, I was thoroughly entertained and thought-provoked.
You sir are a grand inspiration to romance writers out there. I will continue to read more on this, and hope that you have fun with this........

[Azure_Shadow]

Seems pretty interesting. I can't wait to see where this goes!!

[DARKPHANTOM13]

Well dude, you have the set up of another greeat story that could go either way. Personally I'm rooting for ScootSpike. The drama is quite good and the interaction feels real. Though I do hope you give an explanation for Rarity's little white lie. For everyone sake's lets hope this does end in disasters. While little light lies are okay everyone once in a while those things have been known to snowball from time to time. And sometimes those snowballs can get pretty freaking big.

[x-Kiryu-x]

This... intrigues me, carry on good sir.

[MyHobby]

Rest assured things will be getting more complicated from here on out.

I heavily look forward to the insanity of it all.

This was hilarious and cute! I always love the funny little details you sprinkle throughout your stories, like the issues with Twilight's "kingdom." This looks to be the start of a grand journey!

I hope the introduced conflicts get some more attention, despite all the additional attention that is no doubt coming Spike's way.

[ZemaBato]

Very interesting how it played out in this first chapter. I also like the nods to other little quirks that you mentioned in other stories (like the letters from their mom!). Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

[Billy Mays]

Please continue!

[Arcane Howitzer]

Wow, you weren't kidding when you said "surprisingly complicated."
...
I think, if things had been different, if Spike had first come to Rarity as he is now and not five years ago, he would have almost certainly had her.
But like she said, she's been... not terrible to him, so much as too complacent; content with the status quo, letting his attentions go on without a definite yes or no for far too long, until the status ceased being quo and neither answer could be given without pain.
As it stands, I think she took the best course she could have; choosing to give her love to another and take the pain of rejection for herself in a shining display of true generosity.
And judging by the update schedule you've given us, assuming future chapters are about the same size as this one, we've got a month, two at most, until impact.

[Cobalt Trottington]

This is great! I have high hopes for a nuanced look at the Spike/Rarity dynamic; most fics tend to trend to one extreme or the other about whether they have romantic potential. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but it's nice to see a fic exploring the issue in a bit more depth. Following.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

Oh man. This is going to be good. And a 14k first chapter that is incomplete? What, are you Akumokagetsu?

[The Letter J]

For a long time, I have searched for a decent story shipping Scoots with Spike...or anyone else, really. But I have never been able to find one. It almost seems like there's something about Scoots that makes her practically unshippable. But I've long thought that Scoots and Spike had potential, even though I could never find a story for it.

But now, I think that I might finally have found the story I've been looking for. And it's not just decent. It looks like it's actually good.

I will definitely continue to watch this one.

[Fido]

Why is it that in all of your stories you make the characters sound way smarter than they seem in the show. Oh, I guess it's the smart writing. Whatever, looking forward to seeing where this ends up.

[CarcinoGeneticist]

Welp time to follow this one.

It's rare that I read a fic these days with virtually no spelling or grammatical errors to speak of, but this one pulls it off so far. I seriously didn't notice any whatsoever, and on that point alone I am impressed.

The 'ship intrigues me as well; ScootaSpike is a rare one, indeed. The only other time I can recall seeing it was background flavor at best in a fic I really didn't care for. Generally speaking I'm much more of a Sparity fan, but failing that, I've always liked any Spike/CMC shipping as well, and I'm glad that this fic is still acknowledging and addressing Spike's affections for Rarity, rather than simply hand-waving away canon to make room for the Author's Preferred Ship. And so far you seem to be handling the 'ship well; you've really taken the time to properly lay down the groundwork and give the scenario some depth and authenticity that makes us care about the characters before you jump into the romance aspect. I have to admit, when I saw the lack of cover art and sort of generic/lazy winning-verse-style title and weirdly brief summary I wasn't sure you cared enough about the idea to give it this much effort, but when I saw the word count, for just the first chapter no less, I knew that was not true.

So yeah, I'd say you have a follower for this story. And I don't follow too many non-sexy stories, so that's really saying something for me.

Keep up the good work.
--CG

[JC]

I love a good Spike ship-fic, and this one looks like it's going to be great indeed. The dialogue is engaging and the prose smooth, so I look forward to the rest.

[Diamond dust]

“Your face looks like how I felt the day that my flight camp instructor shoved me off a cloud and shouted ‘dodge the lightning bolts’

I'm so sorry , i couldn't resist .
anyway great chapter , it was enjoying to read , have an upvote and a fav

[N7_Spartan117]

Mind if I add it to my new group I am starting called Scootapike?

[Raichu]

I like it.

[FamousLastWords]

Great story! I thought you were a one-shot kind of writer though?

[AL]

WOOOOOOOOOW THIS IS REALLY GOOOOOOOOD

[djthomp]

What a great start to this. As others have said, your characterization is always such a delight to read, as was the bits of world building regarding life in the new castle.

If I might make a suggestion, however, you might want to add Scootaloo as a separate tag in addition to the CMC group tag. Proper categorization is important, after all, and at the moment there is nothing in the story tags or description that identifies the ships that are in the works.

[Ignaltus]

Man, this is going to be one strongest of one history. Please, continue. Without hurry! Take it slowly.

[King of Beggars]

4769693
Feel to add to any group that is appropriate. Same with any of my stories.

4769869
Hey Fame! Yeah I made a blogpost about it last week. I had an idea that I really liked, that I knew was going to be long no matter what I did, so rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I said to hell with it. I mean I already wrote Diamond is Unbreakable, so what's another one of my rules being broken?

4770121
Bloom and Sweetie will be making appearances. Along with a couple of other characters (one of which doesn't even have a tag). Kind of have to work with the 5 tags they give me so I picked group tags where I could.

[REDACTED99999]

I'm motivating you ^^

[OmniFox]

A Spikeloo fanfic? Crude but fun.

[Mister L]

Oh I'm excited, this was amazing and I can't wait to see the next chapter

[FamousLastWords]

4770375 Good point. Who needs rules?

[Ralfil]

This seems like a nice story. I don't know if I'll follow it, but I'll at least give it a thumbs up. Very well written.

[CalmNQuiet]

Triangles, tried and true. Tracking!

[New Lunar Principality]

SPIKEALOO OTP also

“I’ve got enough to deal with without mom coming here to measure Scootaloo’s hips to see if they’re regulation birthing width or whatever else she might do!”

bbbuhhhaaahhajahahahaha

[Setokaiva]

Oh, wow... I think I just found my next great Romance fic! Twilight, Spike and Scootaloo's characterizations were all perfectly solid, and I'm glad Twilight finally got Rarity flanks-down and eye-to-eye about Spike. This fic implies that she's been stringing him along for five years. I mean, seriously. Still, I'm glad that the ground has been laid for Spike to move on with his life. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes! Keep it up!

[tirilee]

I like it

I look forward to the next chapter

[INACTIVE_ACCOUNT]

“Good afternoon, King Twilight.”

So we've got Princess Digi and King Twilight. I like this trend.

[Matthew DePointe]

This is a great start. Really makes me want more. I kind of hate you right now for adding another addiction to my life...

[FL Brony]

Great fic, never really been into ScootaSpike but I will definitely keep tabs on this one.

[PegasusMesa]

I can fap to this

[Vedues]

Knowing Spike's luck, Princess Luna will come visit while he's in Canterlot and confess her love as well.

In all seriousness though, I really enjoyed this story. Logic dictates that he'll wind up with Scootaloo, though I worry that her athleticism will get in the way of their bonding, as he's coming across as more of a bookwym (terrible pun, I know). Perhaps Spike should ask himself why, exactly, he feels so strongly about Rarity anymore. "She's beautiful," is only a valid reason to claim love if you're about fifteen or younger. In the show, he's often trying to act more sophisticated or mature (, for example), to gain her interest. Is that still the case, or has he learned to relax and be himself around her? Anyway, your next chapter will probably answer one or both of those questions for me, and I look forward to reading it!

[Steel Resolve]

The Surprisingly Complicated Love Life of Spike the Dragon

So... both claws and his tail?

[Solarium]

That's some top-notch writing you've got there, buddy.

I'm excited to see where you're taking this story.

[Emperor Of Nothing]

Your portrayals of Spike, Twilight, Scootaloo and Rarity are all brilliant.

Speaking of Rarity, have you ever read On Pins and Needles? Her emotional struggles in that seem to be a lot like what your going for here.

Anyway...
Thumb and added to my recommendation group.

[Keradon]

It is an interesting concept, and the way you weave this is a truly fascinating thing!

You have my attention!

My...undivided....attention....

[Sixscales]

As usual I love your work, favorite author and all that. I've been waiting for this one, ever had informed us that you'd be releasing a multi chapter story for the first time. Spike is my favorite character and amongst the CMC Scoots is my favorite. I look forward to the rest of the story, whether it works out or not it seems that someone is going to get hurt, but that's life. All I have to say is keep up the awesome work, and I'm certain you will.

[one_winged_nightmare]

Well... consider me duly intrigued. I like where this is going so far and it is well done. Stay the course

[WatchTheDamned]

ScootaSpike is a ship that needs more pictures and stories. Glad to see some of it here. Loving the story so far.

[Neutral Mike]

Alright Spike, time to go on a real vacation. Go on that soul searching, feels trip.

[Dark-reaper12]

Mmmm yeeees, this is good. Very good indeed.

Well written, good characterization, nice organic feel to the presentation of the time past since the show, deliciously comedic, and most importantly, proper acknowledgement of Spike and Rare's relationship rather then writing it as resolved some time in the past.

I always found that a lazy man's way out. There had to be a reason why she wouldn't shoot him down early and get the ill-fated romance out of the way of their friendship, or admit she liked him too and move forward that way. I love the fact that this is being handled in the story itself.

Not only that, but your potrayal of Twilight is also spot on, rather then falling into the usual pitfalls of focusing too much on one aspect of her behavior or another for the sake of humor.

These are all only some of the many reasons that I'm looking so very forward to your next installment.

[rogueunicorn]

I can't wait to read more. Definitely favoriting

[Pyro The Reader]

Damn dude, you're starting to turn into my favorite author, I mean great descriptions, fluid dialogue and an actually believable world?

It's honestly a very uncommon thing to see all at once! Keep on trucking dude, I can totally see you be a professional writer!

Signed,
--Pyro The Utterly Stocked Reader

[Kenny]

I didn't think I could be hooked by a conniving love triangle of the first chapter, but I have.

Spike... I do believe the universe, (or King of Beggars) just decided to give you a Discord-style slice of hell.

Oh, mister King, please do be a dear and continue the story! Since this is your first non-oneshot, I feel struck by the need to read over the others to appreciate your skill some more.

--/10 - Additional Supply Depots Required.
- Kenny's Log of Notable Stories