~ Fluttershy ~
“...Spike...Spike...Spike!”
The aforementioned drake felt his head begin to sway, the warm lavender fur in his dreams replaced by the chilling winds of reality as the latter's touch jolted him awake. Spike opened his eyes to a field where the grass stretched on to where the trees were already shedding their leaves to the fall, and where Ponyville loomed in the distance.
“Wha...” Spike breathed heavily, eyes darting around for any shred of familiarity, finding none that could answer the stark contrast of the place he now inhabited. “Where...” Then, the world came back to him in an influx of memories, catching him up to who and where he was now. Upon remembering, the little dragon couldn't help but sigh, looking to his right, and then finding a concerned face hovering above his.
Spike and Fluttershy both screamed upon making eye contact.
“WHAAAAA.” They both jumped back in opposite directions, each breathing heavily as they stared at one another. Then, realization dawned upon them as their breathing began to slow.
“Fluttershy?” Spike asked almost in disbelief leaning forward. “Why did you sneak up on me like that?”
She shriveled up at the question. “I'm so sorry, Spike, I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that.” She began to return to her hooves, keeping herself lowered as she did so. “It's just that the picnic ended a little while ago, and we didn't want to leave you behind.”
“Oh,” Spike said, getting back to his feet, and lightly dusting himself off. “Uh, thank you then, Fluttershy. Say, where are Twilight and the rest anyway?”
Her answer was to point a hoof to the dirt trail in the distance, which Spike followed with his eyes, and then found atop a small hill the mare of his dreams. Twilight stood at the center of her pony friends, seemingly engaged in conversation with each of them, one that prompted smiles and small giggles from each of their lips. Despite it being late fall, the sun shone brilliantly behind them.
Spike was taken aback by the display. Something inside him both filled his veins with warmth, and horribly churned inside his stomach like he had been stabbed by a knife that induces euphoria, helpless to move or do anything about it. Without quite knowing why, he reached out a claw to the group of friends, stretching his arm as far as he could. The space between his digits became filled with each of Twilight's friends, causing him to smile bitter-sweetly as his claw dropped weakly back to his side.
Fluttershy watched the drake in silence, confusion showing on her face as her eyes jumped between the gathered-friends, and the lonely dragon. Then, her eyes widened and brightened ever so slightly. “Oh, my.”
The drake looked back to her. “Sorry I made you worry about me, Fluttershy,” he said, before taking a few steps forward. “We should probably catch up with the others before they leave us both behind.”
Before he could take another step, however, he was stopped by a soft voice behind him. “Spike,” it called, causing him to look back to its owner. The two stared at one another for a few moments, another bitter breeze passing them by, before the mare cleared her voice and spoke again. “Is there anything bothering you?”
“Is there anything bothering me?” he repeated the question with slight confusion, before shrugging his shoulders. “Not really, hard to be when waking up from a nice nap. What caused you to ask that?”
“Well...you just kinda reached out to Twilight and the others...and you looked sad as you did so.”
Spike felt something rise in his throat, doing his best to swallow it down. “Oh, that? I was just stretching is all!” He reached out his other claw to the five, then the other, repeating the process as the kinks in his arms popped. “I always stretch after sleeping! It's something that Twilight and I always used to do when we both...woke up...” He went silent as his eyes became alight with memories, creating a familiar stinging sensation in the corner of his eyes.
Spike shook the memories out from his head, turning around so that his back faced Fluttershy, and stretched out his arms to the cloudy sky above—the hiss of distant thunder growing ever louder. “But don't sweat a thing, Fluttershy.” His voice brought her attention back down to him, where, for just a moment, she swore she saw him wipe his eyes with his claw, before turning around to face her with a beaming smile. “I'm totally fine, but we won't be for long if we don't get a move on.”
Before she could say anything, the little dragon already broke off in a dash towards the gathered ponies. Something shivered along her spine as she saw him get closer to the group, intensifying when he stopped just a few feet away from them, still and unnoticed. Sighing, Fluttershy stretched out her wings and broke out into a small flight towards her friends.
“Twilight would never skip the opportunity to discuss Daring Do to talk about something as boring as agricultural!”
“Just because something strikes your fancy, doesn’t make it boring!” Applejack fired back, pressing her orange muzzle into a cyan one. “And who are you to say what Twilight will and will not do? It's her slumber party—let the mare herself choose what the topic will be.”
“Are you kidding!” Rainbow pulled back, unfurling her wings so she could hover in the air. “If we left everything to Twilight, then she would have the night be about us learning about equations and stuff. Everypony knows that math is dumb!”
“Math is the complete opposite of dumb!”
“Oh yeah? Says who?”
“Everyone who knows math!”
Rainbow landed on the trail and furled her wings. “My point exactly.”
Applejack tipped her hat, letting it cover her face, and released the biggest groan her vocal cords could manage—all coming out us muffled to the surrounding ears. For whatever reason, Rainbow Dash took this as an admittance of defeat, hoof-bumping the air.
Twilight, having watched the two, couldn't help but dip her head with a sigh. From the corner of her eye, a pink pony walked up next to her, though she did not raise her head to greet her. “I'm not sure if this is super-helpful at all, but as long as I get to set the decorations, then I'll pretty much be set.”
Twilight rose her head with a smile, before feeling something brush to her left. She turned her head and found Rarity also standing next to her, a consoling smile on her muzzle. “You can expect the same from me, dear. Allow me to cure you of those black bags, and the night may be free from talks of fashion.”
There were no words to express her gratitude, so in a single instance, Twilight raised both of her forehooves and swung them around the necks of her closest friends, relying on them for support as she brought them in for a hug.
The crunching steps of feet against gravel ceased, though none of the five ponies seemed to notice. Spike came to a stop before the bubble of friends, seeing the mare whom he loved most hugging those who were not him, fur rubbing against fur.
His mouth was opened, but nothing escaped it.
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said, looking in the drake's direction. “Where the heck was ya'?”
Spike turned right to noticed that the yellow pegasus had landed at his side, folding her wings once her hooves touched down on the gravel. She offered him a small smile, before facing the rest of the friends. “I was waking up Spike—no one else had done so when we finished the picnic.”
Rainbow Dash's eyes trailed from her down to him, as if seeing him for the first time. “When did you leave to take a nap, little guy?”
Spike's mouth was still open, and still, nothing was coming out of it. It wasn't before long that all the ponies were turning their gazes onto him, some looking annoyed and others just confused, waiting for him to say or do something. He fought against himself to speak, feeling all so tiny as the ponies looked down upon him. “J-Just a l-little after we began t-to eat.”
Rainbow scrunched her eyebrows at him for a moment, causing beads of sweat to roll down his scaly forehead, before feeling her gaze lessen as she shrugged her shoulders. Her attention returned to Fluttershy, as did the rest of the ponies. “So, 'Shy, you excited for this slumber party or what?!”
“Well, about that....” Fluttershy lowered her head to escape the combined gazes, lightly pawing at the gravel with a hoof. “I don't think I'll be able to make it to this one.”
“What,” Rainbow threw up her hooves. “And just why the heck not?”
“Because...because...” Fluttershy struggled for a convincing lie, the many observant eyes not at all helping the process, but the raindrops falling at her side did. She gazed up from the ground to the sky, seeing that the storm had finally reached them. “Beeeeecause I have to make sure that my animals make it through the storm okay!”
Rainbow Dash didn't relent her gaze, but ultimately crossed her forehooves in defeat. “Fiiiiiine. I guess that’s a good enough of a reason.”
Twilight Sparkle ended the hug with the two mares, stepping forward towards Fluttershy. "Do you need any help?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, catching sight of the little dragon as she did so, and causing her to look back at Twilight. “Well, actually, if it's okay with you, I would like to ask Spike if he would be willing to spend the night at the cottage with me.”
“Really?” Twilight said, casting a glance over at her assistant. “I mean, it's more than fine with me—I highly doubt he would enjoy our slumber parties anyway...but why him?”
“Well...” Fluttershy retreated a step, once again looking around for advice, only to see the confused face of the drake once again. For whatever reason, that sparked something inside her. “It's just, that, I have so many little things to get done, and Spike always does a fantastic job whenever he's helping you. I promise to reward him well for his efforts!”
Her tone was forced, made apparent by the faces all her friends were making, but none of them could ever think why Fluttershy would lie about something so small. Twilight was the first to shrug her shoulders, turning to face the little dragon fully. “Well, it's your call Spike,” she said. “What do you want to do?'
Spike felt all their gazes again, and felt his chest swell up once again. Without quite knowing why, he stepped closer to Fluttershy so that her shadow helped hide him away, feeling a tinge of warmth by just standing close to her. “I'll...sleepover at Fluttershy's if that's okay.”
Twilight studied the odd behavior of her companion, feeling something stab into her at seeing how close he was standing to the other mare. Something stirred inside her, a distorted voice speaking from her subconscious mind, pulling her attention away from the already distant drake. She went to speak, but another voice beat her to it.
“That's awesome!” Rainbow Dash said in an explosion of excitement. “With Fluttershy babysitting the little guy, that means it's going to be all about us. Heck yeah!”
Applejack shook her head, looking up at the pegasus. “Of course your first thought would be about yourself!”
Dash struck her muzzle immediately against the orange one. “The heck is that supposed to mean? I said us, didn't I?”
The two mares returned to where they began, much to the chagrin and giggles of their friends, as all attention was once again placed upon them. Spike merely looked up to Fluttershy, who, surprisingly enough, had lowered herself so that the two were eye leveled, a genuine smile stretching her lips.
“Shall we go?
Spike still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but, for the first time in a long while, he couldn't seem to care. All he had to do was nod in response, a smile forming on his lips by itself. He didn't look back at the group of friends when he began to walk, rather focusing his attention on the friend at his side. His stomach still churned, yet it was quelled by the kind mare's presence.
Twilight watched the two disappear from behind the two auguring mares, not sure why her stomach felt so horribly hollow, but she did her best to ignore the sensation. Her little dragon waved goodbye without looking back, and even though it wouldn't be seen, Twilight waved back just the same.
She then went home with her pony friends.
“Umm, Fluttershy? Can we, uh, have something to drink before bed?”
Fluttershy stopped walking at the archway into the kitchen, looking back over her shoulder, and smiling down at the little dragon that had asked her the question. Had anyone else asked it, she imagined her cheeks would've burned like Celestia's sun and her wings capable of a sonic rainboom to get her to safety.
“Of course we can, Spike,” she said softly, wishing not to disturb the slumbering animals in the next room. She walked into the kitchen and began opening the cabinets, the baby dragon right at her heel. “Tea or coffee?”
Spike's lips twitched at the thought before giving his answer. “...tea, please.”
“Alrighty then.” Her voice came slightly muffled from behind the cabinet door, which closed a moment later, revealing a face with the handle of two tea cups hanging from her mouth. Her next words were still just as muffled. “Why don't you go upstairs to my room and get the table set?”
“Okay them.” Spike the left to do exactly as he was ordered.
A little while later, once everything was set and done, the dragon and the pony found themselves seated at a small wooden table in the latter's room. They both sipped at their tea in silence, the pegasus composed in her posture; the dragon not so much. The whisper of wind could be heard from the cracks of a nearby window.
Spike fidgeted in his seat, something inside of him recoiling at the strange territory that would be his home for the night. Home, now that was a strange word—one that he would ever call a place such as this, which stirred within him a small guilt. Fluttershy had a lovely home and was even more lovely herself, yet the idea of staying here for the rest of his days, much less one night, provoked a pain he did not know he had.
The pain stayed with him. Urging him to pick up his cup of tea, the trembling claw being noticed by eyes that were not his. Back in Canterlot, he had moved from room to room, to hall from hall, to different districts and places entirely, yet not once did he feel like he was leaving home behind. Even when he left Canterlot behind and came to Ponyville, home seemed to follow him there.
So why now did he feel so hopeless far away from home?
“Is everything okay, Spike?” Her kind voice sounded far away, but upon snapping back to reality, he found her face hovering ever so close to his from over the table. “Did I boil the water too hot for you?”
“What? No!” He shook all thought away, reaffirming himself in the present moment. It did little to help his mood. “Heat is kinda irrelevant when you're a dragon, y'know?”
“Oh.” She looked down in thought, face awash in concern, before looking back up at him again. “Did I pick out a bad tasting tea? Should I go put one a better one for you?”
“No!” Spike said again, holding his cup closer to his chest. “The tea is better than it is back at home...” The drake went silent. The mare became piqued. The two found their gazes meeting.
'Can I trust her?' Spike asked to himself in thought, studying the mare for all that she was worth. He had no clue when or why he did this, assessing the ponies he met for everything that they were, almost wanting to know if he would be safe around them. 'She's Fluttershy, so I doubt she'd laugh or get offended. But...I still don't know what I feel about Twilight's friends: what I say something hurtful without meaning to?'
“Spike,” Fluttershy's voice snapped him out from himself once again, “you know you can talk to us about anything, right? That I or any one of the girls are there for you.” She set her tea cup back on the table and looked directly at the dragon. “Part of the reason why I had you over in the first place was because I thought something had you down.”
Spike's eyes widen. “Really?”
She nodded.
Spike sat back entirely in his seat, half in thought and half in reality. 'If she went through all that effort to open up, then maybe, just maybe, it's okay to open up to her.'
Picking up his tea cup, he took a deep sit of his tea, relished in the smooth taste, and asked the question that had been bugging him for most of the night. “Fluttershy,” he took a moment to sigh, “do you...ever miss home?'
“Do I ever miss home?” She repeated the question in a tone of confusion, curling a wing around her tea-cup afterward. “I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean, Spike.”
“Well, you're living inside of this place instead of the home that you grew up in.” His pitch rose almost in excitement, ripples forming inside his cup. “Technically, despite having to share it with other animals, you own this cottage, right? Because you wake up everyday inside this room, make breakfast in the kitchen below, read in the living room and have ponies over, and then come back up here to sleep when the day is over.” He took a inhale. “That's what a home is, right?”
“Uh.”
“But that's also what you did in the home that you grew up in, so why does that home feel more home like this home?” The trembles in his claw urged Spike to put his cup back on the table, quickly returning to his train of thought. “Because, if you do the same things in one place, and then do it an other, what makes the one place more than the other. How come you don't miss your home back at home?”
“Uh.”
“I mean, you sort of miss your home back at home, because that's where the memories of you growing up are. But you don't actually miss it too much, because something about that home followed you to your new home.” His speech began to slow and his eyes began to widen. “And, as long as that things is with you, then you're always at home...unless that thing began to change, then, in which case, you could go back to your first home, and it still wouldn't be...home.”
Surprised lit across the canary mare's face as she lightly put down her drink. It had been so obvious, the signs so clear of what had the little dragon down, but even now, she couldn't entirely be sure. She needed to dig just a level deeper just to be sure, where the truth could be found, but also where the most damage could be done.
Slowly, she rose from her seat; the little dragon too lost to himself to notice. It took her a few steps before she was at his side, a glance to see the tears welling in his eyes, and a gentle clearing of the throat to gain his wavering gaze. In just a few words, Fluttershy broke open the dragon.
“Spike,” she said, “do you miss home?'
“No.” He lightly shook his head as tears leaked like a stream down his cheek. “B-But I do m-miss when T-Twilight u-used to be mine!”
And that was it. Everything repressed found its escape, through tears and sobs, of nonsensical words and little hiccups. All that was under the surface came to concision in a sudden influx, showing what was and now isn't.
Spike couldn't help but cry louder. “I miss h-how we used to c-cuddle by the fire. The g-games we used to play when she got home from school. I miss being her only one...I miss my best friend!”
He wasn't exactly sure when he had done so, but the little dragon had flung himself into the chest of fur, bawling his eyes out and matting the tufts of yellow. Realizing this wasn't like how it was before, he tried to pull away and begin apologizing profusely, only to feel a forehoof pull him back into the wall of warmth.
Spike wrapped his stubby arms around the kind mare's neck as best as he could. A small gasped reached his ears, before the muzzle it came from lowered itself to rub against his frills. Lightly, the voice spoke again. “It's okay, Spike. It's okay. Let it alllll out.”
The dragon rubbed his face up and down her coat. She took that as a yes.
So they stayed like that, for a time unknown; that fact bothering neither one. The sobs were high-pitched at first, muffled by the wall of fur it originated from, steadily declining as time went by. Soon, they were nothing but the occasional whimper, though the hug didn't show signs of ending anytime soon.
Though a yawn might have contested to that thought; the dragon blushed.
Fluttershy pulled back her neck from the hug, looking down at him. “There-there. Feeling any better?”
Spike's eyes climbed the yellow eyes to lock eyes with its owner, giving a small nod—his cheek brushing against her coat. The realization of how silly he must have looked dawned on him, causing him to pull away as much as the hoof would allow. “I am now. Thank you, Fluttershy.” He sighed, pulling further away from her. His heart panged for the opposite. “I suppose we should get to bed, huh.”
“That we should.” Spike wasn't sure why he was so dismayed to hear this, nor why he felt guilt on wanting, no, needing more. But Fluttershy didn't have to help him in the first place, and to expect more, especially as her guest, would be considered rude. “Are you ready?”
The drake nodded, stepping away from the mare, only to be pleasantly surprised when he was held against her once again. Before he could think to voice his confusion, his feet left the floor below, and his stomach fluttered with butterflies. Fluttershy had taken flight, gliding backward in the air with the dragon clinging to her midsection, before her back collided with the mattress of her bed.
Despite the landing, Spike still clung to the pegasus body, so much, that he felt her chest shift when she giggled at him. He looked to see vibrant eyes looking down at him, a smile adorning the muzzle below, as Fluttershy used a wing to cover the duo with a blanket.
“I hope you don't mind sleeping in my bed just bed just for tonight,” she said, lifting the blanket up to his neck and letting it rest there. He looked up at her with confusion painted across his face, something she took notice of immediately. “But if you would rather sleep on your own, I could always prepare the guest room. You were talking about how you miss snuggling Twilight, so I thought I...”
Her voice trailed away. The little dragon had wrapped his arms fully around her, burying his muzzle into her fur and delighting himself in the sensation. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at how much his snout tickled, slithering her wing underneath the blanket, and using her feathers to tickle his feet lightly.
A moment later, Spike joined her in the giggles, both preparatory parts swearing truce for the time being. Soon the laughs began to die down, and the pony and the dragon laid still in their bed, gazing silently into one another's eyes. A smile blossomed on their lips.
“I'm perfect like this, Fluttershy,” Spike said almost in a whisper, unable to do anything about the smile tugging at his lips. It was hard for him to remember that last time he had felt such bliss, and when he did, he remembered the times responsible for his current sadness. That smile dropped. “But...how did you know that I was feeling down in the first place?”
Instead of answering right away, the yellow Pegasus dabbed a hoof underneath his right eye, soaking up any leftover moisture with her hoof. After a moment, she pulled it away. “Because you were acting different from how you normally do, silly.”
“Different from I normally am, huh?” Spike murmured to himself, turning his head slightly away. “I'm not even sure what normal even means anymore.”
“Huh?” Confusion tinged the mare's voice. “What do you mean by that, Spike?”
The dragon's eyelids slipped closed as the world became black to him. His breathing slowed, his shoulders still stiff; the world still existing around him. The bed, the mare—everything about it was absolutely delightful, yet it was a far cry from the place he felt most safe, the place where he could breathe genuinely—if that made any sense.
It was strange, how, solitude was both the place the dragon felt the most safe and most scared in.
'I'm not by myself at home right now,' Spike thought to himself, trying to ignore any traces of the world outside of himself, 'I'm here, in this bed cuddling with Fluttershy. I can trust her with this—she's the only one I can talk to!'
The dragon took one last breath, one last deep inhale and exhale, before his eyes slipped open. Her light green eyes were still gazing at him, still slightly narrowed, still full of concern for a dragon like him. He had made her wait long enough.
“It's just, that, I'm not quite sure what normal really is anymore,” Spike said in a shaky tone. “I don't think I've ever been normal, even before I was even born.” He looked fully to the mare, letting her see full what the emotions raging across his face. “Celestia told me my egg was abandoned instead of being in a nest. That my hatching required a magic different from the rest. Where I then grew up around ponies instead of dragons.” Spike paused, afraid of his voice cracking.
Fluttershy felt his heart racing through the vibration in his chest. She kept silent, allowing the little guy all the time he needed, but still, she was torn at being rendered to do nothing. Hating that, she instead brought the wing that was at his feet up to his back, lightly stroking it as if to coax whatever was ailing him from inside out.
It seemed to work, for, a few seconds later, the dragon spoke again. He'd never broken eye contact. “I don't know what normal is, or what normal is for me, but I won't pretend to anyway, because it's never bothered it.” He took a breath. “The differences between normal and me might hurt, but they'll never bother me, because I wasn't the only one that wasn't normal.”
Without quite meaning to, Fluttershy spoke. “Twilight...”
“Yeah.” He nodded, eyes drifting downward in memory. “The only other being, a pony, that was as weird as me! Twilight was...well, she different from the rest, special in her own way, and just like me, was without any friends.” A smile returned to his lips. “So we were perfect for each other. We even got called the Two Freaks at one point, and I don't think any other nickname could have suited us better.”
The drake had gone silent. Memories of the past were flashing through his mind, as if inviting him back, back to when the times were perfect and safe. But he knew better than to accept to their call, relaxing further into the wing at his back.
Spike emerged out from his memories and began again for the mare willing to listen about them. “Even back then, I knew I needed Twilight far more than she needed me. She was fantastic and great, and it was everyone else that just refused to see it.”
Fluttershy couldn't help but tilt her head, a smirk adorning her lips. “Are you sure that was absolutely the case, Spike?”
He titled his head and looked up. Seconds later the same smirk appeared on him. “Okay, so maybe Twilight was a bit asocial, and she did make me fall on my face a couple of times. But I'm not kidding about the great and fantastic stuff!”
“Alright,” Fluttershy said, falling back fully into the pillow. “Please continue.”
Spike took a few steady breaths, the excitement of the moment leaving him, before he finally continued. “But yeah, I knew that if, no, when Twilight started opening up to other ponies, that I'd be...done for.” The drake knew that came next, but he couldn't be sure of the reaction it could create. He tore away his gaze and settled it on the ceiling of the room instead. “I even had a nightmare about it once, where Twilight had finally made some friends, and...and when she didn't need me anymore, she locked me away inside a room.”
Spike kept still. He knew his voice had croaked. His eyes burned, but he had already been comforted for this issue, and did not have the right to cry again. “I told Twilight about the nightmare when we were cuddling, and she said that something like that would never happen—she highly doubted she'd make friends in the first place considering how weird she was.”
Spike took a deep breath, still staring up at the ceiling. “But, then, Twilight and I came to Ponyville, met you five, and now living here. We didn't even get to say goodbye to our home, but I didn't get homesickness even once, because Twilight was there with me in our new home.”
Fluttershy ventured out her voice again, not daring to turn the dragon back to her. She was glad he was expressing these feelings instead of just repressing them. “But then, because Twilight became our friends, she...changed, and now home doesn't feel the same?”
“It's like she's becoming normal,” he stated, “and my nightmare is becoming real—just in a slower way. She already forgot about me today, so it won't be long until she forgets about me forever.” He sighed and croaked. “It's just...I wish it would happen already. I wish she would just disown me and live a happy life with you girls instead of just slowly watching it happen.”
“Don't talk like that, Spike,” Fluttershy said, in a tone that bordered between harsh and concerned. “You know that Twilight loves you too much to ever forget about you, that all the girls love you as much as they love her.”
“Is that why Rainbow Dash also forgot about me?” Spike fired back, inching his head right. “Because she loved me too much? Why not just tell me the harsh truth, Fluttershy? I already know it, I've already been telling myself it. Twilight finally found other pony friends that like her as much as she likes them, all of them better than a dragon like me could ever be—I'm just useless compared to you girls.”
“Spike...”
“You could all do my chores better. You could be better friends to her. Rainbow Dash can do a sonic rainboom, so she can deliver the friendship letters just as well as I could. There's no point in me being here if I'm just useless, and it hurts seeing Twilight being taken away from me, so why even stay in the first place!”
“Now you listen here, Spike!” Surprised showed on the dragon's face as he felt two hooves take hold of his cheeks, turning his head so that he faced the face of their owner. “Twilight is her own mare and never 'yours.' I understand that you two used to be extremely close and I won't pretend to understand it's depth, but I do know you're being incredibly selfish with how Twilight's been moving forward.”
“But...Shy...”
“No 'buts,' mister!” Fluttershy began again, her hooves keeping his head still. “And our friends did not steal her away from you, and they never will. You may not to get to spend as much time with Twilight, but I know that she'll always make time for you.”
Spike kept silent.
“Do you think I'm honestly lying to you, Spike,” Fluttershy said, the harshness leaving her voice. “That I'm just telling you what you would like to hear? Because I'm not, Spike. Tell me, if you told Twilight all of this and that you'd like to spend some one on one time with her, do you think she would just outright say 'no' to your face.”
“...N-No...”
Fluttershy smiled a little, knocking some sense into the guy, even if she had to give some tough love to do so. “And if you were to give your feelings to any of our friends, do you think any of them would lash out? Have you never thought that, maybe, they're just waiting to get to know more about you.”
“But h-how do you know t-that will be the case?”
“I don't know what the future case may be,” she stated, keeping stern eye-contact. “But I do know that you won't figure out what your feelings are if you keep repressing them. That you—despite how scary it may be—will never change if you don't express your thoughts to the ponies that created them.”
“But...what if they don't like what my thoughts are?” Spike said, voice more clam than it was before. “What if they get outraged and tell me what their true thoughts of me are?”
“Spike, do you hate any of our friends?”
He was silent. Lost in thought.
“Well? Do you?”
The drake blinked, then, shook his head as much as her hooves would allow. “I don't think I could ever come to hate any of you girls. I mean, you're what Twilight needed most in her life, and, more than anything, I'm just jealous of what each of you could give to her.”
That tickled Fluttershy's fancy almost immediately, for, upon hearing it, she used the grip she already had to bury the dragon's face to her chest. He struggled for a few seconds, most likely out of confusion, before ultimately giving into the embrace, hugging her back.
“Oh, Spike! There's nothing for you to be jealous about.” He began to look up at her smiling face, still slightly confused himself. “I'm sure there are things that you give to Twilight that none of us could ever mange.”
“Right,” he said in a sarcastic tone, burying his face in defeat back into her coat. “Because no one else is able to annoy her and do menial chores. It's not like I can show Twilight how to be a hard worker like Applejack, to be as cool as Rainbow Dash, and so on and so forth.”
“Are those the things you're jealous about?” Fluttershy asked. “I'm sure that, if you gave your thoughts to each of the girls and were honest about it, that they would be more than willing to tell you how they do it. Maybe they could even help your past your own insecurities, maybe even deepen your friendship with them if you really do not feel like you have one with them.”
The words echoed in the dragon's mind, as if they had always been known about, but never given proper form. He knew that they were true—that his nightmare would slowly become real and that he'll never grow without change. He tried to change on his own, and yet he remained the same.
Spike needed help. And who better than the same mares that helped Twilight Sparkle.
He let his head rest fully against the yellow fur, his arms hugging as much as the mare as he could, as he snuggled the rest of body as close to her's as he could. With eyes already closed and a mind drifting off to the dreamscape, the drake gave his thanks to the one who assuaged his sadness.
“Thank you, Fluttershy,” he said, in a tone very light. “If it weren't for you...I wouldn't know...what I'd...do...” His voice slipped away to snores, ones that lightly tickled the yellow coat, though its owner didn't seem to mind. All Fluttershy did was kiss the baby dragon on the forehead, embrace him fully with her own wing, and proceeded to drift off to the dreamscape.
One word slipped out from her lips.
“Anytime.”