"Extra squared bales of hay... extra sweet oats..."
With a resigned flourish, I wrote yet another two red items to our already meagre budget of this month. It was then Spike came to me with a welcoming tray of tea.
I wasn't as a big a tea person compared to Twilight, whose affection to tea mainly stemmed from her time with her mentor. But tea breath was a thousand times better than coffee breath.
... Please don't ask why I felt so strongly about that.
Ahem, so... for some reason, he looked positively annoyed when he put the tray down on the table. Abruptly, he began. "Tell me, Twi. What is Trixie doing in our home again?"
"I think this is the third time you've asked me that question, this morning alone."
"She just threw a tea cup to my face!"
"Oh dear!" I gasped and reached out to his forehead. "Are you hurt then?"
"I ducked in time, and it went out of the window."
"Thank goodness!"
"I heard a clang of broken china, and when I was out, Dust Sweep was already there cleaning up the debris, and he gave me a really sour look."
I blinked again, and then wordlessly added the third item - new teacup - to the book.
Hearing no response from me, he continued with an irritated voice. "Apparently she can't even touch any cup that is not pink with purple laces and sized exactly the same as her hooves. What kind of pony does that? Is she some sort of tea cup fanatics?"
"... ... I will give you the bits to buy new cups." After a protracted silence, I subconsciously patted my invisible saddlebag with a gulp. "Uh, after this weekend."
"What? That's all?" He exclaimed in disbelief.
I made a helpless face to the indignant dragon, and took a sip of the tea. "Look Spike, it's already a blessing that Mayor Mare did not make us pay everypony out of our pockets. We injured a lot of-"
"Excuse me? It's Trixie who provoked us with her constant baseless bragging!"
He took a big breath, and promptly added. "Besides, the stampede is none of our fault! It isn't our fault that this town has no crowd control plan whatsoever, none, zilch! It surely isn't our fault that ponies weren't taught about how to behave in a public emergency. And it certainly isn't our darn fault that the Ponyvillians never learnt anything about stampedes, when they see the cows do it to them every darn year!"
"..." I couldn't exactly look at the face I was making, but I probably looked like a cashier at a hayburger place being yelled at for something completely out of her control.
Spike then pointed to my snout dramatically. "Also, Starlight might've gone overboard with her flashy blast, but that insufferable fraud totally got what it's coming for her!"
"Shhhh-! She might hear that!" I pointed downstairs in dread. The last thing I wanted was a redux of the head-splitting, ear-piercing fracas back when Trixie just woke up... Yikes.
He looked down the stairs cavalierly. "She knows exactly what she's doing, Twi. Even the doc said what she got was just a minor concussion."
A faint but still stinging voice then emanated down from the staircase, as if on cue. "What takes you so long, dragon? Where's my new cup of tea?"
A particularly fake-sounding 'ouch' was heard, followed by another sentence. "You're not trying to deny me, the Great and Powerful Trixie, basic sustenance such as tea, right?? Oh how scandalous! This is no way to treat a patient! Not to mention a magician as famous and skillful as Trixie?"
The dragon then pressed his temples tightly. "She's just trying to squat here, having a comfy bed to sleep on and the like. Of course, she also wants to enjoy my first-rate catering, all the while massaging her enormous ego by ordering me around and being so Celestia-damned difficult!"
I had no mood to chastise him for the dirty mouth, primarily because I heard with my very ears how tiresome the blue mare could be. I tried to be conciliatory. "Hey, isn't that a testament to your excellent skills to pamper?"
After being shown a particularly severe stink eye, I sighed and explained. "Look, she is injured. We're obligated to take care of her, at least until the hospital finally has spare bed for her."
"Like Tartarus she would move out willingly." Spike rolled his eyes up. "Of course, she can sleep outside for all I care. It's not like that she's not used to living it rough on the streets."
"That's not very nice-"
"Niceties are wasted on somepony who can't see past the end of her snout." He then raised a claw to stop me from speaking up, and then patted his forehead in frustration. "I just don't understand. You would never have put up with this kind of stuffs."
"Huh?"
"When we were in Canterlot, even the smallest amount of ruckus would've gotten on your nerves. Like, when you're studying magic in the Ivory Tower... Your, uh, 'friends' back there didn't even dare to visit you, even during the day. They're so afraid that they might interrupt your study and get yelled at. But now, when against an annoying braggart and when a backbone is sorely needed, it isn't anywhere to be found!"
I was a bit shook. Slowly, I shook my head and meekly offered. "... Sometimes, perhaps, we've got to be more patient with people around us-"
"Patience, yes-pony, totally the same thing." Spike sarcastically huffed, and then he did soften for a bit. "That troublesome mare aside, I heard Starlight had almost finished working her shares for Mayor Mare."
"Ah! It has been some time, hasn't it?" I exhaled. "Didn't even see her often."
"She was working community services, and she slept in the town hall for the last few days. I met her when I was delivering cloth for Rarity. She looks tired."
"Aw, poor thing..." A sense of sadness and shame welled up inside, and I was again regretting why I did not firmly stand ground, when Starlight insisted to take on all the work from Mayor Mare.
"... but she still sounded so excited about something she's finally going to do for you. I don't know what that is, but it sounds like she's super into it."
"O- Oh." There was a vague but palpable sense of gastronomical unease, as I recalled esoteric recipes such as pancake made with whipped-up seaweeds, molasses and overly-aged cheese. I suspected it would look like the slime monster in O&O, probably after it endured a few shots of magic missiles.
I shook myself out of the perturbing imagination, and noticed that the dragon was still going on about Starlight. "She's not a bad pony as far as I'm concerned... But surely there can't be three mares living inside one damp dinky tree library? Two are quite enough!"
I reflexively protested. "Excuse me? What do you mean by that?"
"What do I mean? Of course this isn't gonna fly! I don't recall anything good from having three mares in the library the last time around."
Touché.
He crossed his arms. "This time, it isn't even Rarity or AJ. Starlight has such an unbelievably short fuse on everything, managing to vent on a good upstanding dragon like me out of the blue. Plus, she's the kind of unicorn who would keep pumping magic into problems, and, if the problems aren't solved, rinse and repeat. That can't be good for this treehouse's structural integrity if anything happens."
I knitted my brows, but he simply continued. "And the less I talk about that Trixie the better. Speaking of which, Starlight's the pony who publicly humiliated Trixie, how in Equestria is it a good idea to put the two of them in the same place?"
I pulled at my bangs with defeat, yielding to his labored argument. "... But there's nothing else we can do, Spike. I promised Starlight to let her use the library for research, and Trixie is our responsibility."
I said with a helpless smile. "Maybe they would find peace somehow?"
Spike gazed at me long and hard, then his little shoulders slumped with disappointment, the word 'Seriously?' left unsaid.
Silence again reigned, and it was making me uncomfortable. I struggled to think of a way to cheer him up, until something lit up in my mind. Something that I hadn't got around to ask him because of all the ruckuses.
"Aha, how about us talking about something else? Something that is much more joyous?"
"... Like what?" He raised a single brow.
I smirked mischievously. "Like whether you've progressed with Rarity when I was gone?"
It succeeded, at least in producing a spit-take. "Wh- What? What in Equestria are you suddenly talking about, Twilight?"
"I did leave you with something to help, didn't I?" I grinned and patted his head. "So how was it, champ? Is she receptive or not?"
Spike puffed his cheeks, turned his head and mumbled for a bit.
"Hmm?" I asked quizzically.
He first set his gaze at me, but then wandered off for several times, until I said with a disappointed tone. "Oh, did it go wrong? I'm so sorry if it's that. Or... or do you not want to tell me?"
"It's not that!" Spike snapped, and then wavered somewhat. "Well, a bit, but that's not all!"
"Hmm?" My ears perked up again. That might sound weird, but knowing if and how Spike the dragon got with his crush still gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
He muttered under his breath somewhat, and then put on his best impression of an embarrassed Fluttershy. "Well... it mostly went well."
"How so?" I leaned in with a giant enthused grin, as if I was a dragon again and he was an oversized fire opal.
The dragon shrank away from my intense gaze, but he confided. "We went to movie theaters... and sat through some really sappy dramas. I did as you told, staying focused and never yawned for once!"
"Splendid!"
"Then I helped her mine gems. Mainly helping with the digging, and also checking the qualities of the gems. It's one Tartarus of an undertaking not to just swallow them whole, when I was gently biting to make sure they're good gems, but by Celestia I pulled through."
"Good job!" I chuckled heartily. All those sounded bog-standard so far.
"Then I went to the market and bought her the most fabulous shoe, the most smashing hat, the most shiny necklace and the most extra- extrava-"
"Extravagant?"
"Yeah, that kind of dress. Totally according to the sheet you gave me, even up to the designers, shapes, styles and dimensions. If not for you, I would've thought a seamstress like her might be too proud to wear somepony else's design. But you're right, she loves a good dress above all things. I'm glad that all the gems I sold weren't a waste!"
Spike then shyly grinned and scratched his cheek. "And by Celestia, did she swoon around! She held my hands and danced around for a bit, even tip-tap like an excited puppy because she's so giddy."
"Hah... I can almost imagine that."
"And last we went back to her place-" Spike paused, while my eyes grew round. "- because she wants me to help her out with some left-over boutique work."
"Oh." I thought that was going somewhere. But eh, not bad for the first date.
"Well, I helped out as usual, and then we bid each other farewell... She was acting a bit weird when I was helping, though."
"Such as?"
"For instance, she was holding all these pins over there with her magic, gawking at me. I told her to stick the pins on my back if her pin cushion wasn't around like last time."
"Wait, what?" My mouth opened wide in shock. "That's what you do? That'd hurt like Tartarus! The skin between the scales is very sensitive, and they heal really slow! Even if the wounds don't get infected, they would still ache for at least a week!"
I gasped for air, and then continued passionately. "And scales that were pried loose, they don't just grow back! Not to mention that would've triggered even more shredding, it's like random aggressive mane loss! Imagine having to look at all the battered and tattered scales getting up in the morning... It's very depressing!"
After my sudden burst of rant, Spike was speechless for a while. Soon enough though, he showed me a ear-splittingly large grin. "... Hehe! Wow, Twi. You sure know what a dragon has to go through. Been casting transforming spell on yourself in secret, haven't you?"
I blushed and stuttered, realizing I have somehow instinctively shifted gear to dragon mode. "U- Uhh- I don't-"
"Yeah, being a dragon is awesome sometimes, I don't blame you." He threw me a jokingly smug look, and then shook his head. "But I am a grown dragon, I know what I can take."
"But-"
"Look Twi, I know you care. But sometimes you've gotta go a mile further, like, for someone you really care about."
"Hmm..."
He then chuckled. "If it would calm you down, let me tell you that she did not use my back as a pin cushion this time anyways."
"Really? Do tell."
"She walked around the boutique holding the piece of cloth, and looked weirdly bothered. She kept looking at the pins and at me, and at the end said 'screw it' and gave up on the work altogether."
"I see..."
"We then sat on the sofa and chatted some more, and she laughed, like, really laughed at my jokes, even though some of them went quite flat, to be honest. At last, she sent me home with a fire opal, and she never gave me a gem as precious as that before! So yeah, it's a bit weird, but it turns out well I guess."
Oh, most intriguing... So Rarity hesitated with the pins. She actually felt bad if they could hurt him, which probably meant she grew to care more about him than before. And she laughed even at the not-so-funny jokes. All very encouraging signs.
So did that mean...? Oh my! There was very good progress after all! I would've been over the moon if it was me! But then, I wouldn't have realized much of that if it was still me. Whelp.
But then his mirth suddenly faltered. I then remembered that he said the encounter was only mostly positive, and sat straight.
"I know I shouldn't be so bothered. But..." He shifted around with clear discomfort. "But it just feels too... made up."
"... Made up?"
He looked to me, with doubt on his face. "I mean, Rarity was so happy that 'I' seemed to have an eye for fashion, and she was so excited that 'I' could eyeball her dimensions so easily. She looked as if she had finally found someone who was on her wavelength in this town."
He frowned with worry. "But it wasn't me, right? It was you who planned the whole thing. The next time she asks me to pick a dress, or help serve her clients, or anything, it'll all come crashing down. And I'll just be as a fraud as Trixie is."
I felt turmoil in my heart, the words were piercing. Still, I said, if just to calm the dragon in front of me. "... But not all of that is made up, right? Both you and Rarity are good at seeking gems, so you two do have common ground. And you care about her enough to spend so much time and bits with her, so does she."
He looked at me, conflict apparent on his face. "Yeah... but that's about it. I don't really love watching those movies, or dressing up for that matter. I'm not really that good at tailorship as she thought me to be."
After another big sigh, he shook his head glumly.
"What she saw and liked in me is just pretend, and little more."
"We are what we pretend to be and little more too, my good dragon."
Spike gasped with shock at the sudden, third voice. I also turned reflexively, somewhat dazed with the implications of the words.
A light purple mare was leaning on the worn wooden wall near the staircase. On her lips hung a tired grin, a half-filled saddlebag strapped lazily on her side.
Noticing our surprise, she calmly waved her hoof at us.
"Starlight!" I gasped.