CH1
As the Evening Sun continued raining down a blanket of warmth, radiating light onto the small town of Ponyville. Resident Princess, Twilight Sparkle as well as her group of friends were all enjoying a group picnic they had planned days prior as a way to help make up for many of their busy schedules the past week having left them scarcely any free time to hang out.
Only after a week could the group finally managed to clear up their schedules, or in some cases ask a friend or sibling to cover for them. Such as Fluttershy who had asked Discord to watch over her animals while she went to the picnic and Applejack who only managed to make it because her Big brother, Big Macintosh or Big Mac had offered to cover her daily chores so she cold join her friends. And in return she'd cover for him some time next week so he could go on a date with his mare friend Sugar Belle.
And while one among the eight currently present may think this picnic was just a usual friendly meet up, he would be very mistaken as the creatures he cares for the most in his life have plans for the young dragon from his pony friends and family to the Draconequus Discord and every Changeling King and Dragon Lord in between. They have all been informed of the plans which Spike himself can never know of, until they are ready to act upon them.
"Hey Twilight, can I head back to the castle and get some more gems?" Spike asks beginning to stand from his current spot on the picnic blanket with Applejack on his left enjoying one of the many baked goods brought by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to his right enjoying one of the many sandwiches he himself made just for the picnic.
"Sure Spike just try not to take to long we're getting ready to start packing up."
Twilight replies glancing to the setting sun before giving her surrogate son a playful smile, watching as he stepped past her and began back towards their shared home. Leaving the mares to continue on with their conversations moving on to one rather important topic.
"Hey Twilight I was wonderin' if ya still need any help with Spike's party next...Wednesday was it?" Applejack asks the lavender alicorn wishing to offer her friend help if needed.
"Thanks for asking Applejack and yes its Wednesday, but I talked to Cadence and Shinning Armor about it a few days ago and all we need to do now is head over to the Crystal Empire and set up and with all of us pitching in that shouldn't take long at all." Twilight finishes watching as the others nodded in agreement except Rainbow Dash who quickly questioned sounding more annoyed then anything.
"I still don't see why his party is all the way at the Crystal Empire. I mean Ponyville isn't scheduled for any storms or anything all this and next week." She says hovering just above the picnic area, crossing her front legs in front of her chest.
"What the hay does that got to do with anythin'?" Applejack asks picking up one of the multitudes of cupcakes Pinkie Pie had brought, listening as the rainbow maned mare began to explain.
"It's going to be clear Sky's all this week and it's perfect for throwing a party here in town. I mean it his home after all doesn't it only make sense to have it here?" She asks looking over to Twilight.
"Well technically wouldn't Canterlot be considered his home town sense he was hatched there?" Pinkie Pie quickly asks continuing to bounce in place.
"Well... yes Pinkie if your basing it off where his egg was hatched then Canterlot is his home town." Twilight says to the pink pony, before turning and explaining further.
"And Rainbow were having the party at the Crystal Empire because we're hoping Spike won't expect anything of us simply going to visit Shinning Armor ,Cadence and Flurry Heart." Twilight finishes taking a quick drink of water out of her cup allowing Pinkie Pie to quickly speak up in excitement.
"Yeah and plus this is going to be Spike's first party in nearly five years since his little greedy rampage through town and we need to make sure its one to remember!" Pinkie Pie finishes with her signature smile plastered across her face leaving the others with the slightest hint of concern growing in the back of their minds as Rarity who had just finished her second glass of grape juice looked to Twilight before speaking up.
"Um, darling I cant help, but ask if your absolutely sure Spikey isn't going to become greedy again." She asks hoping to not offend the lavender alicorn only for Applejack to speak up as well, both mares having concern for the young drake being thrown back through the original cause of his greedy growth spurt, let alone in a place made of crystal.
"Rarity may be right sugarcube if the little fella starts getting greedy in a Empire made of crystals we're gonna have a big problem." The southern mare finishes with the other not being able to help, but feel the same. Only for Twilight to quickly begin explaining in an attempt to calm any fear her friends may have.
"Well I was concerned about Spike's greed at first to, so I told Ember about what happen during Spike's last party and she explained that all Baby dragons go through a stage of greed from the ages of 5 to 14 called the Greedy Behemoth were anything they see can be viewed as even more desirable then gems and gold and if not stopped the dragon can easily grow beyond the normal size of a naturally full grown dragon, and when I mentioned that Spike manage to grow to the size of a full grown adult dragon within a day she did seem surprised." Twilight finishes taking a quick pause allowing the information to sink in, which didn't take long as it also brought up a few questions.
"Is this Greedy Behemoth thing the reason Spike stole all the apples off the farm?" Applejack asks having never been sure to why a dragon would steal apples of all things.
"Oh, and Fluttershy's chicken coop or all the cakes from Sugar Cube Corner?" Pinkie Pie excitedly asks popping up next to Fluttershy, wrapping a leg around the shy mare as Twilight answered.
"Yes, during this stage of greed something like a apple or even a pebble could be treated as a piece of gold or gems and while I was personally fascinated to learn about all I could on the subject, I did get more specific, for Spike’s sake, and asked Ember if we needed to worry of Spike still being able to go through this greed again. And she told me that it only happens when the dragon is between the ages of 5 and 14, so when I said Spike is 15 turning 16, she assured me that he was in no risk of his relapsing through it." Twilight explains allowing the girls to breath a sigh of relief.
"I bet the little guy was happy to hear that." Applejack says to no one in particular.
"Well... he actually doesn’t know yet." Twilight explains only to quickly notice the questioning and confused looks from the others.
"Um, Twilight dear, may i ask Why he doesn’t know?" Rarity asks, with the others just as curios to the alicorn's response as herself.
"Ok yes, I understand it’s wrong to keep him in the dark like this, but when I was heading to his room to tell him about it, I-” Twilight tried to explain further only to be cut of by Rainbow Dash as the cyan mare quickly asked.
“Wait, why would you have to go tell him? I mean don’t all your letters and stuff go through him?” She asked unsure of how the young dragon wouldn't of already seen the letters himself.
“Well since he already has to send and receive letters from the other princesses, I decided I do use my own magic to teleport scrolls to Lord Ember to avoid Spike being over whelmed by having to receive messages from so many sources” Twilight explained before moving back to her original point.
“Now, as I was saying before, when I was going to tell him, I had an Idea... Unfortunately it was after I had already gotten to his room and knocked on his door. So I had to make up something to say." She says with unsure expression causing the others to become all the more curios before she continued.
"And well, I was kind'a caught off guard when Spike opened the door after I was stuck waiting on him to what I'm assuming was him putting away what ever toy he was playing with at the time. so when he actually opened the door and asked if I needed help with anything, I just said the first thing I could think of and sort of blurted Rarity really needed his help." Twilight finishes only for Rarity to quickly speak up in realization.
"Hm, so I have you to thank for Spike showing up at the Boutique the other week thinking I was in dire need of help with something." The unicorn says with a slightly accusing tone aimed at Twilight. Who's eyes quickly shot open in both realization and concern.
"Oh, my Celestia! I'm so sorry Rarity, Spike coming over wasn't a problem was it?" The Alicorn asked her voice full of concern as she never apologize for sending Spike over, but to Twilight surprise and slight relief Rarity simply chuckled as she spoke.
"Oh, don't worry Twilight I'm simply messing with you, besides having little Spikey Wikey over is never a problem." Rarity finishes watching as Twilight let out a sigh of relief only for the sigh to be cut short as the fashionista continued.
"Although I must ask that next time would you at least send me a letter in advance, since now I know you can do so with out Spike.
And while it really wasn't a bother to have Spike over for a time, he did unfortunately arrive while I was in the middle of finishing an important outfit for one of my bigger clients. And while He spent most of if not all of his time over, hanging out with Sweetie Belle. It was a bit of an annoyance constantly worrying about the two of them running around or getting into things around Boutique."
She says receiving another apology from Twilight with the lavender mare speaking in an sheepishly regretful tone as she began rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, glancing to the ground while she did.
"Did they mess anything up? if you don't me asking." Fluttershy asks in concern looking to Rarity hoping for an answer to which the fashionista happily explains.
"Well no actually they didn't run around or get into anything that I could notice. All they did was stay up in Sweetie's room, and I actually stopped working several times just to go check up on them. And to tell you girls the truth, I believe I may have wasted more time checking on them then I did actually working." Rarity finishes seeming close to embarrassed before Starlight spoke up to ask.
"What were they doing the whole time?" She asks with Twilight and Fluttershy joining in her curiosity.
"Oh, well from what I could tell most of the time they seemed to be simply talking to one another and around the end of the day the last time I went and checked on them, which they seemed to be getting quit annoyed of as I believe I heard Sweetie asked, “if this was what Applebloom had to deal with, with Applejack?” or something to that matter. I haven't the slightest clue what she meant by it, but she sounded more irritated then anything."
She finishes with most of the group turning towards Applejack with curious looks, which the southern mare simply stated.
"Its a long story which if ya girls don't mind I'd rather not talk about it." She awkwardly says not meeting their gazes, before taking the opportunity to change topics while simultaneously asking the question that had been on her mind for several minutes.
"So Twilight could I ask ya what type of idea could be worth keepin' a secrete this important from Spike?"
Applejack asked changing the subject while glancing to the purple maned mare.
"Ok well I'm sure you girls know Spike hasn't had a birthday party sense his greedy rampage?" Twilight asks, her voice gaining a depressed tone as the others didn't even try to hide their own saddened expressions never to go with out any sort of parties.
"Well If Spike doesn't know he can have parties then he wont be expecting to get one this year Twilight finished with nearly Pinkie Pie levels of excitement in her voice as she looked at the 5 mares around her ,each of them either with their own happy smile or in some cases simply nodding their heads in agreement as some of the mares had their mouths full with what ever snack they were munching on, only for the topic of focus to quickly change as Starlight asked.
"Um, girls?" She states almost as a question. Gaining the attention of the others.
"Is somethin' the matter sugarcube?" Applejack asks with many of the others now wearing looks of curiosity, except Rainbow Dash who was too busy enjoying her 7th mug of apple cider, paying little to no attention until Starlight asked the simply question.
"Where'd Pinkie go?" She asked, looking around trying to find any trace of the party pony, with the question managing to gain even Rainbow Dash's attention from her cider as the rest of the mares joined her in looking to see no sign of Pinkie Pie. Yet after years of knowing her, the girls had gotten more than use to the antics and tendency of their odd ball friend,
with proof of this being that the girls find themselves more curious then surprised at Pinkie Pie’s sudden disappearance
"Wait... yeah, where the hay is she?" Rainbow Dash asks to no one in particular.
"How in tarnation do we never notice her leave like that?.. I mean her coat and mane are both pink she shouldn't be this darn sneaky" Applejack says as the mares begin taking quick glances around the picnic area and surrounding grassy hill trying to see any sign of the missing pink mare ,seeing nothing other then the small wavering glow of several lighting bugs that had began to come out for the night.
"Um, I think she left a note." Fluttershy says in her usual near whisper tone, gesturing to the rolled up parchment laying beside Applejack.
"What, where?" The farm pony asks as she and the others looked down to see the parchment, before it quickly became encased in a purple aura being carried towards Twilight.
"What's it say?" Starlight asks finishing off her second cupcake as Twilight unrolled the parchment and began reading aloud for the others to hear.
"It says "Sorry I had leave so soon girls, but I still have a few orders left to fill at Sugarcube Corner
and afterwards I'm going to start making my own preparations for Spike's party. I'm gonna make sure its going to be the best party ever!!!
Oh, and p.s. You might wanna put this note away before he see's it." Twilight barley finished before another voice spoke up from behind her nearly spooking her out of her lavender coat.
"Hey girls sorry I took so long I got caught up talking to....hey where'd Pinkie go?" Spike asks startling the group to some extent with his rather short silowet being well concealed by his mother's stretched out shadow making his approach to the group hard to notice even for the mares facing in his direction.
"Spike! hi uh, your back?" Twilight blurts out quickly turning to face the drake and more importantly block his view of the note as she now with the note to her back quickly crumpled up the parchment before the unprepared mares were momentarily blinded by the flash of a teleportation spell as it filled their view, only for the violet light to vanish as fast as it appeared revealing the ball of paper to be long gone.
"Oh, Pinkie right she uh, had to finish an order at the bakery." Twilight say's .
As Spike seeming to not have not noticed the parchment or the flash of light took a seat next to his adoptive mother's side as he picked up a yellow gem to munch on before speaking up yet again.
"Oh, ok then I hope she gets whatever they are finished."
Spike says choosing to ignore the violet flash he saw when he arrived knowing if it was that important Twilight would tell him sooner or later.
"So... what'd you girls talk about while I was gone?" He asks looking throughout the mares awaiting any possible answer getting nothing other then what Spike would consider awkward silence before he turned to the mare he knew couldn't lie.... or at least couldn't lie well enough to hide anything.
"Well we uh, talk about a couple of things." Applejack says noticing the drake's gaze aim at her leaving the southern mare in a relative tight squeeze as she knew she couldn't very well tell what Twilight had said prior to his arrival ,but she also wanted to do anything else ,but lie to her young dragon friend to which the others knew all to well.
"Oh, it was nothing to important dearie we were just um, planning out our dresses and ideas for the next Grand Galloping Gala." Rarity say's quickly getting his attention off the southern mare only to realize her story wasn't as good as she might of hopped as Spike confusedly questioned.
"Ok?... you girls do realize the next Grand galloping gala is still 5 and a half months away right?" He asks clearly confused.
"Well Spikey it's never to early to plan for such things." Rarity awkwardly states hoping Spike would except her excuse which to her and Twilight's relieve he did simply shrugging his shoulders speaking in a still confused tone.
"If you say so." Spike says seeming almost bored of the topic before he quickly asked.
"Ok ,but this year can I just stay home and maybe hang out with Sweetie Belle and the others or something?"
He asks looking to Twilight for an answer only for Rarity to speak up in near disbelieve.
"Spikey why wouldn't you want to attend one of the highest class parties in Equestria?" She asked only receiving.
"Well it might be fun for you girls, but I'm more into Pinkie parties where I don't have to worry about all the ponies mistaking me for a butler and even when they do ask me to do something their nice about it." He says sounding annoyed if not angered with small puffs of smoke coming from his nostrils as he exhaled.
"Spike if that was happening why didn't you ever say anything to us?.." Twilight asks receiving a shoulder shrug as his mouth was filled with crunched up gem fragments.
"I'm sure we could ask Princess Celestia or Princess Luna to go over the speakers and explain to the guest your there as my son?" Twilight says in a reassuring tone gaining the quick response of.
"What! no way." Spike blurts out, nearly doing a spit take of gems, unintentionally startling the mares.
"Okay Spike, we can say your my assistant if you want, I mean at least then nopony else should ask you do anything?" Twilight quickly says hoping that may work as she knew Spike didn't like telling ponies his mother was now a princess sense it only made him stand out further then being a dragon did.
"It's not just that... if any Princess even you just come out and said "The little baby dragon walking around is not a butler" do you know how much attention that would draw to me? I mean ponies stair at me enough for just being a dragon.
The last thing I need is a Princess pointing me out to a bunch snobby ponies." Spike finishes with snobby pony remark annoying Rarity to some extent, only for groups attention to be drawn to Starlight as she let out a sigh of relief before asking.
"Oh, you think those ponies are really snobby to? I honestly thought it was just me." She says looking to Spike.
"Well yes, but apart of it might just be like I said before they kept confusing me for a butler so they constantly asked me to do stuff." Spike says in annoyance while picking up another gem to eat.
"Well either way I've only been to two Gala's so far and I already don't like the ponies there so I might just stay home this year with you Spike." Starlight says only for Spike to quickly explain to most of the mares surprise.
"Well actually Starlight I kind'a told Sweetie I'd hang out with her that night...." Spike explains using Sweetie Belle's nickname, to Rarity's surprise as her younger sister wasn't a fan of ponies other then their parents calling her that name and it took nearly a year for even herself to use it with out Sweetie Belle complaining.
"Just Sweetie Belle or will Applebloom and Scootaloo be accompanying you two?" Rarity asks becoming quit curious.
"Well I actually don't know, I just mentioned to Sweetie the other week how I didn't want to go to the next Gala and she asked if I wanted to hang out with her, but I don't know if she meant her and the others or just her?"
He finishes shrugging his shoulders before beginning to dig through out the bowl looking for another blue gem which were his favorite despite nopony believing him when he claims the color of gems affects the flavor. Although he wasn't digging long thou as he along with the rest of the group quickly turned their attention to the familiar voices in the distance.
"Isn't this where Spike said they were at?" Asks the unsure voice of the unicorn filly known as Sweetie Belle.
"How the heck should I know? your the one who asked him if we could come out here in the first place." Replies the annoyed voice of the Pegasus filly named Scootaloo to which a third voice speaks up with a southern accent all to similar to Applejack's.
"Will y'all two quit your arguin' ;besides their right up there." Applebloom says her in relief, pointing a hoof to the group at the top of the nearest hill before the three quickly trotted up to the group.
"Took you three long enough" Spike says in a joking tone, watching as the three quickly made their way to the group with each filly taking a seat amongst the mares with Applebloom choosing to sit next to her sister Applejack. As Scootaloo took a seat next to Rainbow Dash who was now well known for being a surrogate sister to the younger Pegasus ,but as Applebloom and Scootaloo chose to sit next to their siblings to Rarity's slight surprise her little sister Sweetie Belle took a seat next to Spike instead of her and while this did leave the white coated mare slightly confused she didn't let it bother her as she simply brushed it off as her Sweetie Belle's and Spike's friendship had seemed to be growing stronger over the past few months ,but at the moment Rarity's focus and concern was less on the location of her sister and more on her appearance as Applebloom spoke up explaining.
"Well we were still helpin' out Zecora find herbs when we ran into ya in town." Applebloom states picking up a apple before taking a quick bite out of it. As Scootaloo following in her southern friend's lead choose to eat one of the left over cupcakes Pinkie Pie had brought.
"And is that why you three are covered in dirt?" Starlight asks looking over the three dirt coated fillies with little to none of their natural colors showing through the dried up mud and dirt.
Leading to Scootaloo quickly explaining half way through her cupcake.
"Yeah... earlier when we first started helping Zecora, she was busy mixing up some leaves or herbs or what ever they are
and while we were waiting we got bored and decided to have a mud ball fight." Scootaloo's finishes before eating the rest of her cupcake either ignoring or just not noticing the looks of confusion from most of the mares with the only exceptions being Applejack ,Rainbow Dash as both were more then use to the fillies getting dirty due to the multitudes of times the three had attempted to gain their Cutie Marks and while Rarity also knew of their many attempts she had never seen her little sister actually dirty as Sweetie Belle made it a custom to always go to the Apple's family farm to clean up as to not have to deal with Rarity's rants of how a proper lady should not get dirty.
A rant Sweetie Belle had sadly become all to familiar with due to her cream white coat being all to easy for anything to make dirty.
"What in Equestria is a mud ball fight?" Rarity asks only for Sweetie Belle to answer.
"It's like a snow ball fight just replace the snow with mud." She says before turning her attention to Spike as he offered her one of the last few remaining chocolate cupcakes with green frosting to which she happily excepted due to chocolate being her favorite flavor.
"So y'all basically just threw a bunch of mud at each other?" Applejack asks with the smallest hint of a smile forming at the corners of her mouth.
"Well.... yeah." Scootaloo states shrugging her shoulders only to feel Rainbow Dash begin playfully ruffling her what should be her purple mane causing both dirt and clumps of partly dried mud to fall to ground.
"Sounds like fun how about next time I'll join you three?" Rainbow Dash playfully asks glancing over to each of the three. Seeing Scootaloo with a joy filled smile as she quickly answered in a joyous tone.
"Absolutely!" She says ,bouncing in place much like Pinkie Pie with her brown wings assisting her while simultaneously removing the dirt reveling the orange feathers beneath as she quickly continued.
"With you playing the game would be at least 20# cooler" She stops bouncing as Rainbow Dash spoke up in a jokingly cocky tone. "Yeah, your right I make every game I play cooler."
Rainbow Dash finished placing a wing around the younger pegasus before pulling her closer to her side into something close to a hug as the others either chuckled at Scootaloo's excitement ,rolled their eyes at Rainbow Dash's comment or, in Fluttershy's case, smile at the sweet scene before her. And moments later after the two Pegasus separated from their hug as neither were the biggest fan of hugs even with each other,Twilight spoke up noticing the sun has now fully descended leaving the only light source being the Moon that has long since taken its place in the night sky.
"Its getting pretty late isn't it?" She asks no pony in particular receiving several nods in agreement from the others as Rarity quickly points out.
"Indeed it is darling and Sweetie and I should really get home soon so I can get her cleaned up before bed." She says to Sweetie Belle's annoyance.
"What! we just got here, do we have to leave already?" Sweetie Belle asks looking to the ground in a close to sad tone with slight frown forming on her face. Only for the frown to vanish as she quickly looked over to Twilight and Rarity and asked.
"Wait could we sleep over at Twilight's tonight?" Sweetie asks looking to her sister for an answer.
"Well whatever for?" Rarity counter asks, her tone full of generally curiosity.
"I was hoping I- uh, we could hang out with Spike tonight." Sweetie says waiting for Rarity to answer. All the while Twilight for her part couldn't help, but notice the familiar look in Sweetie Belle's eyes and while the lavender mare knew she had seen the look before she couldn't put a hoof on it, only to be pulled from her thoughts before she could continue thinking of the topic as Rarity spoke up asking.
"Well I'm not sure, what do you girls think?" She asks looking to the others for their opinions.
"Well if it's okay with you three then they're more then welcome to stay the night." Twilight say's looking to the three older siblings.
"Lets see it's a Friday and we won't need Applebloom's help until tomorrow night so if she want's to stay the night it's okay with me." Applejack says looking to see the happy face of her younger sister.
"Yeah same with me if you want to stay the night and it's ok with Twi then go ahead Scoot's."
Rainbow says giving the younger Pegasus a reassuring smile before the group looked to Rarity for her answer.
"Well if Applejack and Rainbow Dash are ok with it ,then I am to." Rarity says to her younger sister ,seeing the joy growing in the filly's eyes as she answered. "Well then let's pick up and head back to town."
Starlight says as she and the others begin to pick up the used bowls ,plates and empty trays ,it being an easy task with three ponies using their magic to clean and pick up. With Sweetie Belle helping as much as she could mostly just carrying the container of left overs only for Spike to offer to carry it for her which she excepted.
"Good night girls ,Good night Spike." Fluttershy says waving a hoof good by as she began to walk back to her house wishing to check on her animal friends to ensure Discord, who was watching over her animals, hadn't tuned Angle Bunny into chocolate. Leaving the group one mare short as Twilight ,Applejack ,Rainbow ,Starlight and Rarity all continued making their way towards the castle with the fillies and Spike several feet ahead talking to each other about what could only be ideas of what they could possibly do during the sleep over. Leaving the older mares to discuss relatively private matters with Rainbow Dash deciding to walk with the group appose to flying above due to her wings beginning to get tired.
"Girls may I ask if any of you notice how much Sweetie Belle wanted to stay over at Twilight's? and more specifically with Spike?" Rarity asks using a tone quiet enough to rival Fluttershy as she tried to ensure the question wasn't heard by their younger companions.
"Yeah it would've been hard not to notice." Rainbow says.
"I must agree with you on that." Rarity says with her own voice taking a humorous tone, only for the humor to quickly turn to curiosity as she continued.
"Now that that I think about it every time Spike's been over assisting me for the past few weeks Sweetie Belle seems insistent on being in the room. It's quit cute watching her try to act busy so she can stay in the room." Rarity says before looking forward noticing her sister's attempts of staying close to Spike only to come to one realization.
"Do you girls think Sweetie Belle might have a crush on Spike?" The white mare asks turning back to the others.
"Well she might ,earlier when Sweetie first asked if they could stay over ,I noticed she had the same look in her eyes that Spike use to have whenever he talked about you." Twilight say's looking to Rarity who gained a slight blush remembering Spike's massive crush on her. And while Rarity did always care for Spike being that he acted more like a gentle colt then most of the stallions she's met ,her feeling were just never as intense as his crush for her.
And the fact that Spike was simply to young for a relationship with a mare her age wasn't any help as Rarity found herself as one of the oldest mares in their group of friends with her age being nearly 25 although based on her figure most would guess her age to be closer to 19 or 20.
"Well why does it matter?" Rainbow Dash begins.
"I mean doesn't Spike like Rarity?" She finishes looking past Applejack who joined her curious gazed to Twilight and Rarity, with Starlight on the other side of the two mares as both gained looks of uncertainty.
"What?... did Spike stop likin' ya or somethin'?" Applejack asks in a close to disbelieving tone remembering just how Spike use to act around the unicorn, to which Rarity quickly answered.
"Well that's just it ,I don't know anymore?...Spike hasn't been nearly as...well um," She stops trying to think of how to describe his actions with out sounding mean or offensive.
"All googly eyed for ya?" Applejack asks hoping she had described it right.
"Well.. yes, thank you dear, but even when he's over at the Boutique, if he's not helping me he's off with Sweetie Belle, if she's not out with Applebloom and Scootaloo that is." Rarity says glancing forward at the dragon in question as he walked next to Sweetie Belle with the two seeming more then happy being next to one another. The sight bringing a small smile to the white coated unicorn's face as she continued answering Applejacks earlier question"But from the looks of it he very well might have moved on from me." She finishes with her smile growing ever slightly.
"Hey we're here!" Spike shouts back gaining the attention of the mares all of whom look seeing the three fillies and Spike who have all climbed up and began standing on the front steps waiting their respective sibling/parent to catch up, which didn't take long as the mares were only a few feet behind the younger group. But as the mares reached the steps Rarity jokingly warns.
"Now you three do be good for Twilight and Starlight."
Rarity say's to the fillies who all quickly respond giving the fashionista a simultaneous.
"Yes ma'am" Along with sarcastic salutes before breaking up into fits of giggles as Rarity giving her own slight chuckle at the fillies began towards her home.
"Well then good night girls ,good night Spikey." She finishes with one last wave goodbye.
"Night Twilight ,night Starlight ,night Spike, now if the girls give y'all to much trouble I'll come over and straighten them out for ya." Applejack says in a joking tone waving a hoof goodbye as she began walking in the direction of the Apple's family farm.
"Well night everypony see you tomorrow." Rainbow say's beginning to fly back towards her cloud house for a good nights sleep leaving the 6 alone in front of the castle doors before Starlight spoke up.
"Well girls and....drake let's head in side shall we?" Starlight asks walking the fillies and dragon through the double doors leading into the massive crystal castle.
"Spike why don't you lead the girls through the castle show them where they can wash up. Then find a room you four want to stay in tonight." Twilight asks picking up the container of left overs from Spike's grasp as she and starlight began to carry the picnic supplies within their magical grasp into the kitchen.
Leaving Spike to began leading the three to the bathroom allowing the three clean them selves off using what was originally Twilight's personal washroom ,but she never liked being pampered like a Princess and so declared it the spa room with it rivaling Ponyville's own spa run by Ms. Lotus Blossom and Ms. Aloe as it was now open for any ponies and or dragons use. but much like the castle library which Twilight also announced open to the public ,nopony felt comfortable walking into the castle of a princess even after she announced it free for public use. And while nopony out side her friends used the spa room the large 350 gallon bath tub made it easy for the girls to get clean as they could share the massive tub to take a three pony bath quit literally tripling the cleaning process.
And while Spike found himself simply waiting outside the bathroom for the fillies to wash up, not wanting to risk being gone to long and leave the fillies with no guide through the massive castle. Only to his surprised the girls were done and clean in a matter of minutes.
“How the hay did you three get clean so fast?” He asks, half thinking they hadn't even gotten into the bath. However, their still damp manes, tails, and coats to quickly dispelled that thought.
“Well, we got pretty good at cleaning up after so many failed attempts at getting our cutie marks. Sweetie Belle explains while Applebloom began putting her bow back in her mane, getting a little help from Scootaloo to make sure it was on right. After, Spike then began leading the three towards his room, with Scootaloo quickly speaking up to ask.
"So Spike do any of these rooms have any games or something?" She asks walking up behind the drake ,with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom walking along either side of them.
"Well as much as I asked Twilight if we could ask Discord to put in some kind of arcade room she keeps saying no." He finishes with his tone being close to annoyed.
"Well why the hay would she say that?" Applebloom questions thinking of how fun it would be to have a arcade in their barn back on the farm.
"She said if there was an arcade room that ponies would only come to the castle for the games instead of the library."
Spike explains only to get another question from Scootaloo moments later.
"Do ponies honestly come to the castle to use the library anyway?" She asks trying to remember if she had ever seen any other ponies at the castle.
"No...no they don't." Spike says with a sigh of defeat as the group reached his door.
"But while nopony comes to the library, I, on a change of topics, do have some games and stuff in my room." He says glancing back towards the three fillies seeing the three smiles simultaneously appear as he turned the nob leading the three into the room flicking on the light switch activating the magical crystal torch on the ceiling illuminating the room, and to the three's surprise Spike's floor wasn't plain crystal, but a light emerald colored carpet with the walls being a light violet back round with a dark purple flame pattern circling the room.
But while the fillies were busy being fascinated by the flames on the wall.
"You know if you girls want to keep staring at the wall, I can go get us some marshmallows to roast over it?" Spike asks in a sarcastic tone, before he walked over to and began to dig through his large 6 drawer dressier pulling out different toys and knick knacks from the different drawers.
From Action figures of Mega Morphing Power Ponies to snow globes of different cities around Equestria. After the dresser was emptied minus the bowl of gems Spike kept in the bottom left drawer he then moved on to the closest pulling open the doors before beginning to pull out different stacks of comic books with some seeming years old or at least close to it based on their appearance and others being brand new as they were just recently released in stores mere weeks ago.
"Wow Spike how the heck did you get all this stuff?... I mean I know Twilight's a princess now, but I didn't think that meant you got spoiled." Scootaloo says to the slight annoyance of Spike as she quickly walked away from the wall over to the action figures and began messing with they figures posing them i different battle stances, doing a much better then Spike would of expected with her lack of opposable anything, but feeling slightly annoyed by her last comment Spike quickly Spoke up.
"I'm not Spoiled." He says in his own defense before quickly wishing he had said some snappy come back as Scootaloo spoke up in a sarcastically mocking tone.
"you sure about that?, I mean there's nothing wrong with Twilight buying-" She tries to say only for Spike to quickly interrupt.
"Twilight didn't buy any of this." He says gesturing to the stuff around them to the girls combine confusion.
"She Didn't?" Scootaloo asks ensuring she heard him correctly.
"No...no she didn't" Spike says in a matter of fact tone, crossing his arms hoping it made him seem more confident.
"If Twilight didn't buy any of this." Sweetie Belle says looking around the room before focusing on Spike.
"Then who did?" She asks trying to think of any pony else she's knows of who would buy Spike stuff.
"Well I did." He says crossing his arms as Scootaloo asked once more sounding confused.
"How the Hell did you buy all of this crap?" She questions seeming to be taking up Rainbow Dash's common use of the words of profanity. Which neither Spike nor the others cared that much as long as she didn't start insulting them or anything, which normally only happened when she was beyond angry and even then her insults were more sarcastic then hurtful.
"I use gems to buy stuff." Spike explains walking over to his dressier bending down onto one knee pulling open the bottom left drawer before reaching into and pulling out a small bowl full of different colored gems
" Are gems really worth that much?.. I've always know there not worthless or anything, but aren't they just shinny rocks?" Applebloom asks watching as Spike walked back and sat down in front of three fillies handing Applebloom a ruby as he began explain.
"Well I guess they are just shinny rocks ,but one normal sized gem is worth around 100 bits each so all I need to do is save up a few of the gems I get from Rarity and Twilight as snacks then I go buy stuff."
He finishes using one of his claws to carve a smiley face into a green gem before handing the gem over to Sweetie Belle who happily excepted with thankful smile which Spike responded with his own smile to the young unicorn before turning to offer a light blue gem to Scootaloo who accepted yet seemed more bored then anything.
"So Does your Mom know about this?" Scootaloo questions holding the blue gem up to her eye trying to see through the transparent rock like objected which seemed to be working as Spike could see her eye through it as he replied.
"Well yes...I think, I mean, I don't tell Twilight every time I buy something new, but she said as long as I'm carful and I tell her if I ever start to feel strange or weird, I could buy stuff with out her being there." He finishes biting into one of the last few gems with Sweetie Belle now being curios on another topic wanted to ask a question only for Applebloom to speak up first.
"Well why would ya start to feel weird?" The southern filly asks tilting her head to the side.
"Well from what I understand I start to feel weird with this sensation of wanting everything i see when I'm becoming greedy again... Or at least that's what happened the first time."
Spike finishes with a close to awkward tone as Sweetie Belle attempted to ask her previous question.
"So Spike do you just walk down to the toy store when ever you want to get something? cause its all the way on the other side of town and that's a big walk just for a toy?" Scootaloo asks unknowingly cutting off Sweetie Belle's question.
"Well technically no because I wait until I'm already walking to that part of town for something like to buy more quills or scrolls and on my way back I stop by and buy something. And sense Twilight used to stop an question me every time I got something, I just started sending the stuff into my room through my fire breath and just brought the stuff I went to get in with me."
Spike finishes seeing the looks on Applebloom and Sweetie Belle's faces turn to curious as Scootaloo's turned more into excitement as she quickly began asking.
"You can send shit through your fire!?" She practically blurts out startling the others while using her wings to hover several inches above the ground before landing back on her sleeping bag as Spike began to explained.
"Well yeah I can send stuff through my fire." He says as if it was the most obvious thing.
"I mean you've seen me send the Princesses scrolls right?" He asks with a hint of sarcasm aimed at the orange filly.
"Well yeah we've seen you teleport scrolls!, Hell you sent them the picture of us after we got our Cutie marks."
Scootaloo says clearly annoyed by the dragon's sarcasm.
"Oh, yeah I remember Princess Luna came into our dreams and congratulated us that night." Applebloom says in a cheerful tone only for yawn to quickly escape her as Spike now being the curios one quickly asks.
"Wait you three get visits from Princess Luna?..." He asks with a look of near disbelieve on his face as he received nods from all three fillies.
"Yeah Princess Luna links our dreams together all the time so we can all hang out and talk." Scootaloo exaggerates with a smirk seeing and using her chance to get back at Spike for his previous scroll comment. With Sweetie Belle rolling her eyes in annoyance to Scootaloo before asking.
"Has Princess Luna never been to your dreams?" She asks with the slightest hint of sadness in her tone.
"She's came into my dreams a few years ago when I had a nightmare in the Golden Oaks Library, I mean I woke up before she could stop the nightmare, but when I finally went back to sleep she was waiting for me so we discuses what my dream meant." He finishes with a depressed sigh which Scootaloo didn't help as she questioned.
"How bad of a nightmare could it have been to have a big strong dragon like you scared?" She asks trying to be comical only for it to come out much more insensitive then it sounded in her head only realizing her mistake as she received glares from both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.
But to the three's surprise Spike did not respond with his own smart remarked as Scootaloo had hoped as she always enjoyed when she and the dragon butted heads, but instead the dragon simply spoke.
"I don't want to talk about it." Spike says in a strangely stern yet some how fearful sounding tone not being able to help, but think back to his nightmare.
"Spike are you okay?" Sweetie Belle asks seeing what she could only guess to be tears forming in the corner of his eyes which he quickly began rubbing away with his arm before changing the subject.
"I'm fine Sweetie just tired is all." He says with a small yawn before looking to the alarm clock seeing the current time with Sweetie Belle realizing Spike didn't want to talk about his dream quickly asked helping change the subject.
"Its already 11:47pm?" She asks with the others over hearing the time.
"Is it really that late?...I mean didn't we just get here?" Scootaloo asks with nopony having an answer except Spike who took a guess.
"Yeah we just got here about two hours ago or something like that sense I think it was like 8 or 9 when we first got back." He finishes seeing the look of surprise on the fillies faces.
"Has it really been that long?" Sweetie Belle asks through a yawn pulling her front hooves up to rub her tired eyes.
"It seems to be that way Sweetie Belle." Spike says glancing to his bed room window seeing the sky practically black due to a layer of dark grey clouds that seemed to have appeared along with the already dark night time sky. With the clouds effectively blocking out the stars with even the moon light failing to pierce the blanket of clouds leaving the visibility of the town below virtually none existent.
"Uh,.... is it suppose to storm tonight or something?" He asks looking to the three fillies seeing if anypony could answer him.
"I honestly don't know." Applebloom says shrugging her shoulders before quickly bring a hoof up to cover her mouth as she yawned.
"I don't remember Rainbow Dash saying anything about it storming." Scootaloo says already laying down in her sleeping bag with Applebloom following her lead climbing into one of the last three sleeping bags Spike had laid out for the four of them to use. As he thought it rude to sleep in his bed while his filly guests were sleeping on the floor.
You girls ready for bed?" Spike asks seeing the three all either in their sleeping bags or in the process of getting into the sleeping bags as he received tired nods from the fillies as he headed towards the light switch, but only getting a step away from his sleeping bag before stopping as Sweetie Belle spoke up.
"Where are you going?" she asks propping her self up with one of her front legs and the using the other to pull her covers up as Spike replied.
"I'm gonna go ahead and turn out the lights." He says pointing to the light switch by the door with Sweetie Belle turning her head to see the switch before offering the idea of.
"Oh, I could do that for you?" She asks with her horn quickly being covered in the green glow of her magic before pointing her horn to the switch as it was quickly encased in the green magic as well.
"Oh,... well thank you Sweetie, but hold on real quick." He says opening one of the drawers, pulling out what Sweetie Belle could only guess to be a lava lamp which was quickly confirmed as Spike flipped a small switch on the bottom causing the little vial of water to illuminate with dull yellow light along with several small blobs of blue wax already beginning to melt as they floated around the water.
"What's with the lamp?" Sweetie Belle asks bringing a hoof up to cover her mouth as she yawned.
"Well if there isn't going to be any Moon light thanks to those clouds, then I thought this would make sure if one of us needs to use the restroom we can see enough with lights out." Spike explains walking back over to his sleeping bag.
"That’s probably for the best, this way we don't have to worry about tripping on anything or anypony." Sweetie Belle tiredly says with a smile.
“Exactly, I mean the last thing I want to do is step on a sleeping chicken" Spike says in what would of been a sarcastic tone, if not for the small yawn that forced it’s way through his words as he made his way to his sleeping bag. Yet despite the yawn Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but giggle at his comment as she flipped the switch leaving the room dark with the only dim source of light being the small lava lamp on the dressier.
"I'm not asleep yet, and don't think just because I'm not a earth pony doesn't mean I cant bust your gemstones!" Scootaloo states lifting her head from her pillow just enough to glare at Spike who quickly let out a sheepish chuckle before saying.
"Well good nights girls, see ya tomorrow." he quickly says, raising an arm to give a quick wave before rolling over facing the dressier to avoid Scootaloo's glare which itself only lasted seconds before she shook her head in annoyance and laid back down. As both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't help but smile and chuckle at their friends antics before the four let themselves fall into sleeps embrace, unaware of what would be awaiting them the next day.