A couple of days had passed since the treaty party between the yaks and changelings and while those two species had gotten along, things were growing more intense between the griffons and dragons. And it didn't help knowing a pony was working for the griffons so Equestria was now stuck in the middle because of that. Spike was sitting in a chair wearily when looking at Celestia, Luna, and Cadence who were facing Lord Torch in the mirror with Garble and Ember right beside him.
Celestia pleaded before the mighty dragon leader, "Lord Torch, we are certain that the Idol of Boreas was taken from the griffons by dragons since a pony would never help them unless it was true."
Torch roared, "NO! IT JUST MEANS YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN KIND!"
Luna boiled as she used the Royal Canterlot Voice, "THOU DO NOT FORCE OUR SUBJECTS TO SUCH SUBMISSION!"
Torch declared, "This is the problem with you ponies. You are too willful in your state of mind. You princesses have given your people too much leeway."
Cadence scowled, "Our ponies are free to make their own choices. Can the same be said for dragons?" she inquired even though she already knew the answer.
Spike thought cynically, If it did would I even be here right now trying to find a wife to settle a peace treaty?
Torch yelled, "I SHALL SAY IF THEY HAVE A CHOICE OR NOT!"
Garble said to the mirror, "Speaking of choice, Uncle. May I bring up the slowness of my cousin's Selection? He has not yet chosen a bride."
Ember bared her teeth, "That's not your concern, cousin!"
Torch shouted, "It is most certainly his concern! Before he left to protect you, I gave him permission to help speed up the Selection process."
"WHAT?!" everyone in the room except Garble shouted in shock.
Spike wanted to shout out, Oh now that's just great! Now he's going to keep on pressuring me and won't stop until I make my choice!
He wanted to run away right this second and from the looks he was receiving right now from his sister and the princesses, they would not blame him if he did.
Ember decided it was best to change the subject back to what it was before Garble opened his big mouth.
"Look, we have more important matters right now and it's obvious that one side is lying in all this. I think it would be best if I return to Dragonia to further investigate this."
Spike gawked at his sister's sudden decision.
Torch said, "Excellent, with you home we can finally continue with your training."
Ember held her claw up, "Not so fast, Dad. I'll be in Dragonia to find anything on the idol's whereabouts then I'm coming straight back here."
Spike said to her, "But if you're coming back then maybe I can go with you to Dragonia?"
The dragon princess shook her head, "No, you're needed here to keep the Selection going and I am not going to stay long in Dragonia so I'll be back before you know it."
Luna motioned, "And what of Sir Garble?"
Ember replied, "Naturally my dear cousin will be escorting me, isn't that right?" she smiled wickedly at him.
Garble grumbled under his breath.
Spike felt a moment of relief knowing that Garble will be out of his scales for a bit but he didn't like the idea of being separated from his sister in the meantime. Suddenly he understood Applejack's desire to stay with her family and he couldn't help but feel worry that desire will become so great that she would never be truly happy in Dragonia with him…
Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie sat around on pillows in Rarity's guest room. The four mares were having their sleepover now that the treaty party was over. Rarity's hair was in curlers and she was currently helping Pinkie with her curlers. Fluttershy and Applejack were talking to each other.
"Oh, this is so nice…" the timid mare said.
AJ smiled, "Hey, we figure you two needed it after being stuck with Miss Competitive for the past week."
Fluttershy uttered, "She was just awful! She kept ordering us around and was making sure things were perfect for the party."
Applejack inquired, "I take it you did most of the work then?"
She nodded.
The cowgirl just didn't understand it, why does Spike keep Sunset around when she was so horrible to others? He told her once there was more to Sunset then met the eye but she found that so hard to believe that she was afraid that Spike had been overshadowed by lies that Sunset kept telling him.
But as the night wore on, she was distracted from her thoughts about Sunset and just had fun with the girls. They played games and had snacks and s'mores that their maids help provided them with before retiring for the evening. Eventually the girls settled down and were about to go to sleep when Rarity said to them.
"Girls, given how close we've gotten during our time in the Selection… Maybe it's time we be honest with each other on where we all stand with Spikey-Wikey…"
Applejack felt her heart dropping when hearing that embarrassing endearment while Pinkie was trying to contain her giggles and Fluttershy inquired.
"Spikey-Wikey?"
Rarity blushed and cleared her throat, "Oh, dear… I didn't mean for that to come out… but well it's something I call Spike when we're together."
Pinkie gushed, "Awww! That's so cute!"
The girls gave her confuse looks, and Applejack asked, "You're not upset?"
Pinkie shrugged, "Why should I? I think it's adorable that Rarity has a sweet nickname to Spike."
Fluttershy admitted bashfully, "I think it's sweet too…"
Rarity questioned, "So you two are alright with how close Spike and I have gotten as of recently?"
Pinkie motioned, "Heck yeah! Because I have to be truthful about this, Spike's a funny guy and all but it's all I have in common in him! I can't build a relationship with him on humor alone! So hey, I don't care a wit about losing!"
The other three gawked at her revelation.
AJ asked, "So… I take it you're going to tell him that you wouldn't mind being eliminated next?"
Pinkie responded cheerfully, "Yup, next time he sees me, I'll just say, 'Spike, you can go ahead and kick me out those doors because we don't have a future together! You're fun guy but I want more than that from a husband'."
Rarity touched her heart in awe, "Pinkie, what a touching thing to say, I'm sure Spikey would be more than willing to let you go after that speech."
Pinkie asked Applejack and Fluttershy, "And what about you guys? What are your feelings to him?"
The mares both blushed with Fluttershy stammering and rubbing her hooves together, "Well… He is very sweet and patient with me… We enjoy talking together, but never to the point we're romantically involved in some way…"
Rarity asked, "Has he kissed you?"
Fluttershy shook her head, "No, I think he knows a move like that would scare me, so he leaves our relationship as it is."
Applejack was sure she would regret asking this but she had to know and faced Rarity, "Has he kissed you?"
The unicorn blushed, "No, but that's my doing, he would kiss me if I let him."
AJ felt a mix of relief and worry. She was relieved that Spike and Rarity haven't kissed yet but it worried her that Spike wanted to kiss the pretty unicorn and she wondered how long it would last until Rarity would let him.
The unicorn inquired, "And you? Has he kissed you?" there was a tint of concern in her voice.
Applejack could see the curious looks on their faces that they were dying to know. And as she was an honest mare, she had to speak the truth.
She sighed, "He has… in fact, I was his first kiss…" she blushed.
There was a gasp, and she could see the look on each of their faces. Pinkie was on the verge of bursting with happiness, Fluttershy was smiling and gawking at the same time while Rarity looked like her heart was about to break.
She continued to speak, "It was a funny thing, but when I first came here, I never once thought I would feel something toward him… but as time went on… he was so generous with me that it was hard to keep away from him… When we had that kiss… it came so fast as I realize I actually wanted to be part of his life…" she frowned, "But when everything happen with Twilight… well, you know… Now we're just trying to see if there's something still there for us…"
Fluttershy immediately started crying and Pinkie joined in by blowing into a hankie and exclaimed, "That is so sad!" she kept sobbing making waterfall tears.
Rarity sadly uttered, "Oh, Applejack… I knew you were having a rough time with Spike, but I didn't think it was this rough…"
The cowgirl dared to ask this, a question she was dying to find out about but she had been too scared to ask Spike due to her feelings to him but if she got the answer from Rarity it would be less painful.
"How did you get close to him? I know he has feelings for you, but I don't understand how that came to be."
By then Pinkie and Fluttershy had stopped crying so they could hear this. Rarity had slight dreamy look on her face as she explained, "It was shortly after Twilight's banishment was announced; I found him being all sulky in a hallway that I went to see what was wrong and he told me about the dilemma between you two and when seeing how upset he looked I decided to give him my gift to him sooner."
"Gift?" AJ asked.
"It was thank you present for the beautiful fire ruby he gave me on my birthday. It was an emerald I had brought with me. Naturally because of our mutual fondness for gems, he loved it and we talked some more and he invited me to dinner that night."
Applejack was beside herself as it dawned on her that she hasn't given anything to Spike! True she had listen to his troubles and gave him advice but she never once gave him a present! She felt so stupid right now. He gave her so many things with his generosity that she never once thought to repay them! It was no wonder he had a slight attraction to Rarity, at least she was as generous as he was! She thought miserably.
I've been a dawg gone fool…
Parting with Ember wasn't an easy task for him. Given this would be the first time he was ever separated from his sister even if it was for a short time. When Ember and Garble left the room, Luna and Cadence left as well to return to their royal duties. Spike had lingered for a bit and just as he was about to leave, Celestia spoke to him.
"Your highness? Is everything all right?"
Spike faced her and confessed, "I'm not sure. Between my sister leaving and trying to choose a wife, it's very overwhelming."
Celestia gave a sympathetic smile, "I'm sure it is… From time to time, I felt great sadness when being away from my sister."
"And now because of this, I understand how Applejack feels being away from her family, and what's worst if I choose her and take her away she'll never see them again, at least I'll still have my family but she… she would be so sad and miserable that we could never be truly happy in Dragonia…"
Celestia looked serious as she pondered on this information, then a small smile formed on her lips as she said, "I may actually have a way to help with that."
Spike looked at the alicorn in intrigue.
She summoned a spell book and magically flipped its pages. When she stopped at a page she explained to Spike, "This is a spell that I can cast on you that will allow you to breathe fire on a letter and it shall disappear but in reality it will appear in the place where you want to go."
His eyes widen.
She smiled, "I know letter exchange is hard to have in Dragonia so if you send the letters yourself to her family…"
His mouth gawked up.
Then she gave a cheesy grin, "Then when a response comes, you'll um," she cleared her throat, "burp up the message."
That made him furrow a brow and put his hands on his hips, "Burp up a message?"
Celestia did an unsteady laugh, "A side effect of the spell…" then stated, "But it's not harmful to you in anyway. I've tested this on other dragons before in Dragon Town in Fillydelphia and it works very well. If you are willing I can cast the spell on you."
Spike was indeed fascinated by the idea. If Applejack could write letters to her family and get letters back from them… It would make her so happy that they would be able to live their life together without a hint of sorrow! It was brilliant! He faced the princess with a determined look.
"Do it."
The room was dark as the girls slept in their makeshift beds expect one mare was having trouble sleeping over the thought of how she was going to make it up to a certain dragon prince for all his kindness. Suddenly she heard a whisper asking.
"Applejack? Are you awake?"
The earth pony faced the unicorn whispering next to her, softly saying, "Yeah?"
"Given what I heard from the others tonight… I feel at this point it's between the two of us in this competition…"
AJ nodded, "Yeah, I think so too. We're pretty much neck-in-neck given how close we've gotten to Spike during this entire Selection."
Rarity uttered, "Could you maybe do me a favor? Could you give me a heads-up if he doesn't want me?"
Applejack frowned, "If anything, I think you're the one who's goin' to have give me a heads-up."
"How's this then, if either of us feels he wants the other more then we tell that other."
Applejack agreed, "Sounds fair. But you sure you want that?"
Rarity exclaimed in a hush voice, "Of course! I can't marry Spike if he's still hung up on you!"
The cowgirl furrowed her brow, "What makes you think that?"
Rarity sighed, "As much as I have a good time with Spikey on our dates, like when he took me down to see the crystal caves beneath Canterlot. It was so gorgeous that I asked him if he ever shown anyone else the place, and when he said 'no', he had this strange look on his face and confessed that the only place he ever taken someone more than once to was the gardens. Of course, I knew he meant you since after all everyone knows you two met in the gardens, so naturally it became your special place with him."
AJ sadly admitted, "It was… every date we had there was in the gardens but when the griffons attacked again, we were force to stay inside afterwards and had this date in the kitchens and we were having a bake-off of who was the best baker when we ended up having a food fight…" she released a tiny giggle, remembering how funny that was. Then it made her ache that they hadn't that much fun together in awhile. She missed those times before Nightmare Night, she really cared for him and she could tell he really cared for her… Now, it was nothing but uncertainty in their future. Did they even have a future together at this point? There was just no way of knowing.
"See?" Rarity quietly pointed, "I can hear how much you miss him as well. You two still feel something for each other and if you find some way to reconcile then that's it. You've won and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Look, Rarity, even if I do still want him, there still some things that we have to overcome and if we can't then I can guarantee you're the one he'll end up marrying." it pained her to say that last bit but it was the truth.
The unicorn said, "If that is the case, darling, can we promise to stay friends after he makes his final choice?"
AJ questioned, "No matter who wins?"
Rarity nodded and held her hoof out, "No matter who wins."
Applejack eyed the hoof then she held it and they shook on it.