“So, you see, I’m really sorry. Like, really really sorry. Is there any way you can find it in your heart to forgive me?”
Spike awaited a response, but of course, there was none to be had given he was still staring at the reflection of the creek water before him.
“Huh, I guess that sounds good enough to give it a try,” he said aloud, giving his reflection a once over. “It’ll have to be because I don’t think I can do much else.”
It was still early in the day, but Spike had found a way to stall the inevitable time of apologies a bit longer by giving a practice speech at the creek near the town. It was rather pathetic really that he was still having so much trouble after the fantastic pep talks he received from two of his closest friends, but the whole situation itself was pathetic to begin with, so avoiding the inevitable fit right in with everything else he had going on.
...He really needed to evaluate the direction in which his life was headed.
But, there would be time for that later. For now, he had one mission on his mind. That was to get the ball rolling and go apologize to Derpy.
“Alright, Spike,” he said, giving a final stare at his reflection. “It’s crunch time. This is where heroes are born and legends are immortalized.”
He heard a few hoofsteps a short distance behind him and turned around just in time to see a mare trotting with a young colt right beside her.
“Mommy, why is that dragon talking to the river?” the colt asked.
“Because honey, not everypony is fortunate enough to have brains that work normally like the rest of us.” The mare quickly placed a hoof on the colt and pushed him forward faster. “Now, let’s keep moving, dear, and try not to make eye contact, okay?”
Spike frowned as the couple walked off. “You know, we’re living in a society! We’re supposed to act like civilized ponies!” The dragon twisted his face into a scowl and trudged away from the body of water back toward the town.
If nothing else, that little scene he was just exposed to did illuminate one undisputable fact of the universe. His brain definitely wasn’t normal. If it was he would have never gotten into this situation in the first place. He wouldn’t cut his losses and moved on. But no, he’s gallivanting off to apologize to a mare he, truth be told, hardly knows for reasons he can’t even begin to logically explain.
Just another day in the life for Spike the Dragon.
Spike glanced around at the bustling midday streets of Ponyville. Ponies clopped along the cobbled roads, selling items, enjoying the weather or conversing with each other. His eyes took in the sights of many a pony he knew, but the one he was actually making an effort to find was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?” Spike asked, emitting a frustrated growl.
It was just a bit after twelve, so she should be just finishing up her mail route by this time, but he had already hung by the postal office for a few minutes, but no dice. He had also checked out most of the town’s homes to see if he could spot any sign of her. No luck there, either.
He continued walking through the town, determined to complete this task he had set out on. It wasn’t easy, sure, but he knew he couldn’t give up. Another day of stress like this and who knew what kind of irreversible psychological damage he’d end up incurring. Not to mention he’d never hear the end of it from Starlight. And Rarity would be disappointed, too. Then Twilight would find out and the lectures would never cease.
That was a fate worse than death.
He shook off the traumatic thoughts before they had a chance to leave their depressing residue in his mind. He continued to scan the nearby premises for anything that resembled the blonde mare. He really hoped he would catch her before she inevitably went to the hospital to see her sister. Not that he had any problems with her priorities, but the hospital with her sister was neither the time nor place for a discussion such as which he was going to have.
Spike continued his meandering, his willpower to continue decreasing with each step he took. As he eyed all the buildings up and down, taking in the sights of the various ponies around, he finally began to accept the inevitable.
The universe simply didn’t want things to work out for him. Ever.
Spike took a deep breath and slowly released it as his face morphed into a frown. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to take an earful when I get ho—”
“Yes, I’d like two muffins, please. The ones with the pecans in them.”
Spike’s ears pricked up at the sound of the familiar voice. He shifted his body around to where the baked goods stand was, and sure enough, there she was. His eyes examined the specified target taking two muffins from the stand and tossing her bits on the small wooden counter in exchange.
“Thank you! I would say come again, but I know you will, anyway.”
Spike watched as they finished their transaction. Derpy took the muffins and put them in her satchel, and began to turn around. Now was his chance!
“Ahh!”
The dragon wasn't sure what possessed him to show such a great display of cowardice, but for whatever reason, he instinctive hopped into a nearby barrel of oranges the moment he made eye contact with Derpy. In a world of winners and losers, Spike made his spot on the evolutionary totem pole quite clear in this instant.
After a few brief seconds of his nostrils being filled with the smell of Valencia orange peels, his ears once again picked up that familiar sound.
“Umm, Spike? Are you okay in there?”
Curse you, universe. Curse you!
Spike maneuvered his body around into a position where he was able to see Derpy’s cute face and soft blonde mane peeking over the edge of the barrel. “Oh, uh, hey there!”
Derpy waved and gave him a soft smile. “Hey, Spike. Do you need some help? You look kinda… stuck.”
“Oh, me? Psh, no. I was just, just…” Spike attempted to pull himself up and get out on his own, but his efforts to escape the obtrusive oranges bore no fruit. It was time to be honest. “You know what, I was gonna try and make an excuse as to why I’m in here, but I really have no idea. I’d love some help in getting out of here.”
Derpy reached a hoof down which Spike happily took. With a small grunt, Derpy yanked the dragon out of the citrus prison and onto the ground.
“There you go, Spike,” she said. “You gotta be careful about hopping into barrels. I got stuck in one a couple weeks ago and they had to call the firefighters and the Royal Guard to get me out.”
Spike rose a claw in an attempt to ask how such a serious, barrel-related situation could have ever come to be, but in doing so he’d more than likely be asked as to his reason for being stuck in a barrel, and that was a conversation he really didn’t need to be having right now. Maybe later. Instead, he simply needed to save as much face as possible and get to the point.
“So, how you doin’?” Spike asked, laughing off his nervousness the best he could.
Derpy kicked at the ground a bit before responding. “I’m doing alright. You?”
“Oh, you know, same old story, just a different day. Except you know, this day’s story included a barrel of oranges.” Spike made a mental note to facepalm at a later date for that. “So, you know, I’m doing alright, hehe.”
For what seemed like an eternity, the two of the shared nervous glances and subtle coughs and chuckles, not a word being spoken. It was calm… peaceful almost. And if the awkward silence in the air around them got any heavier it could tear a rift through time and space.
Spike cleared his throat and steeled his nerves. It was go time. Now or never. However, the mare across of him seemed to have the same idea.
“I’m sorry!” The two said in unison.
Spike physically tilted back upon hearing the words that just came out of the mare’s mouth. “Um, what did you say?”
Derpy let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. About yesterday and everything.”
Spike scratched his head. “What are you sorry for? I was the one who needed to apologize. I, um, I kinda overstepped my boundaries when I shouldn’t have. I was just trying to make conversation and I stepped into something that wasn’t my business. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Maybe,” she said, bringing her eyes to meet his for the first time during the conversation. “But still, I feel bad about just running away. I was embarrassed and I shouldn’t have done that.”
Spike took a moment before responding to analyze the current state of the situation he was in. It had gone from him panicking and preparing to beg for forgiveness to sounding like one of Twilight’s old friendship lesson letters. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this.
Spike once again was about to respond before he was forced by a tapping on his shoulder. The dragon turned around and was face to face with a large, tan stallion with a noticeable cutie mark that looked suspiciously like an orange tree.
“Excuse me, sir,” the stallion began in a deep, gruff tone that would send Chrysalis running for cover. “I don’t mean to interrupt your lovely heart to heart here, but I couldn’t help but notice that a few moments ago you thought it was high time to invade my barrel of produce.”
Spike gulped as his eyes sized up the stallion towering over him. “Well, I, uh… Yeah, that was me.”
The stallion’s calm expression turned into a grimace. “I see. Now, considering that I highly doubt my customers would appreciate being sold dragon-tainted oranges, how will you be paying for these today? We accept bit or check for your convenience.”
Spike and Derpy slowly walked away from the town center, out toward a grassy patch in the park. Spike, to be exact, had a rather grumpy scowl on his face after his recent interaction turned sales transaction.
“Wow,” Derpy said when they came to a stop. “That stallion sure wasn’t very happy. He always seemed so nice when I see him on my mail route.”
“Yeah, well,” Spike said turning to look at her, “that’s what happens when you mess with someone’s bits. But, if you think that was bad, wait until Twilight sees the bill when the check gets cashed. Not to mention when the barrel of oranges shows up on our doorstep.”
Derpy rubbed her chin for a moment. “With a whole barrel, I bet you could make a lot of orange juice.”
Spike chuckled. “No joke. At least we’ll have meals taken care of for awhile.”
The two shared a brief laugh together. It was a beautiful scene. The calm wind and bright sunshine illuminating the small park. It was a quiet afternoon there, Spike and Derpy being the only ones at the moment.
Spike looked at the mare before him, the sun glinting off her mane. It was quite pretty, to be honest. That shiny, golden blonde hair…
Spike realized he was staring at her for a time longer than was deemed socially acceptable and quickly shook his head clear and picked up the conversation once more.
“Anyhow, thanks for coming out here with me.” Spike took a seat on the ground, his scales enjoying the warmth of the sun. He patted the grass next to him bidding Derpy to do the same, which she gladly did. “I just figured this would be a better place to talk, away from all the craziness going on in the town.”
“Of course,” she said with a small smile, her eyes fixated on the ground. “I like talking to you.”
Spike’s heart skipped a beat at hearing that. Was she insinuating what he thought she was? Eh, probably not.
“I like talking to you, too,” he replied with a bright smile. “Plus, I really needed to talk to you about everything. I’m actually kinda shocked you’re even taking the time to see me. Not gonna lie, when you raced out of the restaurant, I figured you would never wanna even see me again.”
“Of course not, silly,” Derpy said, turning to look at him with a small smile. “It was just… Just kinda emotional for me when you asked that question. I didn’t want anyone to see me like that. Especially you, considering how nice and sweet you’ve been to me and Dinky.”
Spike couldn’t believe what he just heard. ‘Sweet Celestia, Starlight was right.’ It was of utmost importance she never learns of this or he’d never hear the end of it.
“I understand,” Spike said. “If it means anything, before I messed everything up, I was having a great time. I like that you’re not afraid to just eat whatever at a restaurant. I’ve been to enough royal dinners where everyone is obsessed with manners to the point where I couldn’t eat anything without thinking I was breaking some international treaty. Eating with you was great, actually.”
Derpy blushed ever so slightly before continuing. “Thanks, Spike. I was having fun, too. It was a nice little break from everything else going on. I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you.”
“Heh, no problem. But, you know, it’s just part of being me. I’m pretty great, sometimes.” Spike sent a wink at her followed by a small laugh that Derpy shared in as well. “But in all seriousness, like I said, I’m just glad we’re even talking. For a bit there, I thought I was doomed to just be left with a story of how I had the most epic date fail of all time.”
Derpy blinked a few times. “Date?”
And there it was. Spike had once again found a way to take a good, wholesome thing like a sweet conversation in the park and turn it into something awkward and egregious. Why did he have such a talent for these things?
Well, at this point, there was nothing left to do, He was going down with this ship… Or at least he’d dip his toes into the crashing sea.
“Yeah, I guess,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, two friends hanging out together. That qualifies as a date, right?”
Derpy tried to put on a smile but her face drooped into a small frown nonetheless. “Oh, yeah, a friend date. I guess it does qualify.”
Spike didn’t know how to respond. What did she want from him? A second ago he was sure she was put off by the just the mention of the word ‘date’. Now, she seemed almost saddened that he said they were friends hanging out. Rarity was right… Mares are complicated. He’d have better luck deciphering one of Twilight’s calculus lessons than figuring out what to say next.
But, given the circumstances, he’d have to take the same approach here as he does to every quiz Twilight throws at him: He was gonna wing it.
Spike took a deep breath. “Is that a bad thing? Us hanging out and whatnot?”
Derpy quickly turned her head around to face him. “Of course not. It was a lot of fun. Whatever kind of date it was… I’d love to be able to do it again, some time.”
Now it was Spike’s turn to blush. “I would, too.”