Spike sniffed in his basket, snuggling the Rarity plushie Fluttershy made for him. Pinkie had left him alone a few hours ago, leaving him his favorite treat by his basket... he wasn't normally allowed to eat in bed but despite the opportunity he couldn't make himself enjoy it. He was too busy crying. The food had long since gone cold.
"Spike?"
The young dragon's head jerked with a start as he recognized the voice. He looked up to see a pair of spiral eyes looking down at him.
"I told you mortals are evil,"
Spike groaned, "Please don't start on that, Screwball,"
"... Sorry..." Screwball said emotionlessly. She looked at the door, as if she was debating leaving but then looked back at Spike. After a moment she floated into the basket and laid down, "Sorry your sleep over ended like that,"
"Is okay," Spike sniffed, "Well, not really but at least your here now,"
"I'm a fairly awesome consolation prize," Screwball smiled.
"Were... were you here the whole time?" Spike asked.
Screwball shrugged, "Kinda, I was in a dimensional frequency which let me perceive you but you couldn't perceive me,"
"... so you were invisible," Spike deadpanned.
"Not really," Screwball shrugged, "invisibility is a result of bending light. I was on the edge of the dimensional barrier so I wasn't really here but at the same time I was... I can teach you how if you want?"
"I can't learn magic," Spike sighed, hugging the plushie tightly as his eyes stopped burning from tears. Talking to Screwball was a nice distraction.
"Of course you can," Screwball rolled her eyes, "What kinda Eastern Dragon can't learn magic," she didn't really ask.
"... I'm an Earth Drake," Spike answered.
Screwball stared at him like he was stupid, then she put her hand on his back, "See this bump?"
"Yeah?" Spike blinked.
"It's there because you are bending your spine in ways that would be unnatural to an Earth Drake. If you stretched it out, you would be a good 6 inches taller. You're not because you are effectively slouching all the time, cuz your lazy," she said the last part teasingly.
Spike just gaped at her, not sure what to say.
"My dad is a god who uploaded all the secrets of the universe into my head," Screwball shrugged, "It be kinda pathetic if I didn't know what type of dragon you were... almost as pathetic as a dragon who didn't know what they were," she smirked teasingly, however Spike was not amused.
Spike hung his head, "Ponies don't know a lot about Dragons,"
"Of course not," Screwball shrugged, "Dragons are isolationist, with a major phobia of other creatures trying to touch their hoard. They don't even like living near other dragons and leave the communal nest as soon as they can,"
"Nest?" Spike blinked.
"Whelps, baby dragons like you, are looked after by the Lord of the territory in a large communal nest," Screwball explained, "When they turn a hundred they are allowed to live anywhere in that lord's territory. Often they will build communities of their own like the one in Manehatten you visited. They live together til they turn a thousand where they are forced to leave due to their size making their resources scarce. That means living together is no longer practical so they fly off on their own, meeting once every 500 years for mating season, then leave the eggs with the Dragon Lord.
"The older dragons will often visit their nest but seeing as they lay a few dozen eggs at a time they don't really have the resources to care for them themselves. But they can pay taxes to the Dragon Lord of their Territory and by pulling their resources they can take care of all Whelps,"
Spike awed, never in all his life did he think he could actually learn so much about dragons in one sitting, "Think you can tell me more... about dragons?"
"Sure," Screwball shrugged indifferently, not knowing just how much this meant to her new friend, especially today of all days.
She looked down at the bowl by Spike's basket. It had a bunch of worms in muffins.
Spike blushed and explained, "Shortly after I first moved to Ponyville AJ kinda... poisoned the town with 'Baked Bads', but since I liked them so much Pinkie makes them for me occasionally,"
Screwball raised an eyebrow, "and you think that's weird?"
Spike blinked, looking up at her, "It's soda and chips baked with worms,"
"... well I don't see why you would put Chips in it but soda is frequently baked into pastries and worms is just part of a basic whelp diet,"
"They are?" Spike blinked.
Screwball groaned, "No wonder you're so small. Don't tell me these ponies feed you all the plant crap they eat,"
Spike blushed again.
A hand suddenly formed at the end of Screwball's tail, seemingly made out of her fur. The fur fingers snapped and a book suddenly appeared floating in front of Spike's face.
"Lizard Gizzards?" Spike blinked, reading the title.
"It's a cook book for Sapient reptiles," Screwball shrugged, "A lot of bug and fish recipes. Figured you wouldn't want a book for typical dragons given they often eat pigs and bunnies, which clash with your pony upbringing. This book is a good, pony approved, substitute,"
Spike awed as he opened the pages. The first thing he saw was a grilled grasshopper dish with cherries and chocolate sauce, "Thanks," Closing the book and hugging it along with the Rarity plush.
"Wanna go try out some of the recipes?" Screwball asked, "It's not bedtime yet?"
"Sure,"
###
Soon after they found themselves wearing aprons and baking the large bugs Screwball teleported into the kitchen. Strangely Screwball didn't have a problem eating the bug muffins nor the pancakes. She explained that, like Draconequus, she was actually an omnivore.
Pinkie blinked as she wandered in but didn't question Screwballs sudden appearance nor the bug muffins, "Finally decided to step out of the 5th dimension?" Well maybe Pinkie asked one question about it, "I know your dad has been trying to get you out of there for a week,"
Screwball, however, wasn't so pleasant, "Well after you so thoroughly ruined Spike's first ever sleep over I couldn't very well stay there, could I?"
Pinkie's mane instantly exploded and became completely straight as she got a broken expression on her face, "Well I'll leave you to it," as she quickly fled.
"Screwball!" Spike snapped, "You seriously need to learn some tact. Pinkie was only doing what she thought was right,"
"You were sitting in your room crying for 3 hours," Screwball reminded.
"Yeah well adults suck sometimes but they only ever do what they think is best," Spike naively said, "You know, so we grow up right and all that,"
Screwball rolled her eyes but didn't comment. Instead she passed him the books version of the worm muffin. It tasted even better then Pinkie's, probably because it was an actual recipe.
###
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Twilight couldn't prevent herself from screaming when she returned early the next day.
Pinkie didn't look so concerned, "It's normal for colts to experiment," she insisted, "Ponies are naturally Bisexual, we just can't afford to let Stallions act out on their natural impulses. All you got to do is explain to colts why what they did was wrong, which I already did. Spike and Button will probably still be curious about each other for a little while but that's normal. Just stay consistent well voicing your displeasure and they will grow out of it,"
Twilight glared, "That's not what I'm upset about Pinkie! How could you not only spank Spike but cancel his sleep over!?"
Pinkie gaped, "Didn't you hear what I said? Spike and Button were KISSING!"
Twilight glared, "And you just admitted that it's natural for ponies to be curious about the same gender. I NEVER agreed with how Stallion couples are treated. If Spike wants to experiment he has that right, like any other pony. It might be taboo but it's far from illegal,"
Pinkie just gaped, not sure what to say.
"I think you should go," Twilight glared.
Pinkie gaped before screaming, "Don't you DARE make me the bad guy in this! You have any idea how hard a life Spike will have if he actually got involved with a Stallion!? Think about what is actually best for him before you push your liberal agenda onto your son!" Pinkie stomped off and slammed the door behind her.
Twilight blinked as she tried to process Pinkie's reaction. It sounded like she thought she had the moral high ground instead of just being a homophobe...
Twilight sighed, she knew Pinkie wasn't one to let her fear control her, and probably actually thought she was just looking out for Spike's best interest but this was more then a "liberal agenda"...
Blue Blood, Celestia's favorite descendant and adopted son, was gay. Celestia loved him but she also made him hide who he really was so as to not create a scandal, even to the point Blue Blood had to entertain the mares at the social events. He made this bearable for himself by tormenting "gold diggers" as he called any mare who showed the slightest interest in him.
Blue Blood had to live a double life, scared of ever being discovered by the public because it would embarrass his adoptive mother, Celestia... scared he would make her regret adopting him... Twilight didn't want that for her ward. She wasn't going to let Spike be ashamed of who he was. If he wanted to date a colt more power to him.
She marched up to Spike's room, intending to give him this big speech about he should ignore Pinkie and make Button his special somepony, if he really wanted... but when she got their she found the boy asleep in his basket with Screwball spooning him... Pinkie hadn't told her Screwball was here... probably because she got mad and stormed out...
Screwball was snuggling Spike in her sleep, treating him like a plushie. This wasn't the type of situation a guardian would like to catch their ward in. Still it was rather obvious this was a perfectly innocent moment.
Twilight was about to leave when the squeaky door woke up Spike, "Twilight?" He rubbed his little eyes with a much smaller hand.
"Go back to sleep Spike," Twilight insisted, "I want you to enjoy what's left of your sleep over, that you can salvage,"
Spike looked like he was going to cry, "I'm sorry!" he insisted, "I didn't mean to be bad well you were gone!"
"You weren't bad Spike," Twilight assured as she came inside.
"But Pinkie said-" Spike tried.
"There are many ponies that will claim what you did was wrong. That your thoughts are unnatural but I promise you they are not," Twilight picked him up with her magic, careful not to wake Screwball as she took away her plushie. The mare hugged her ward / little brother, "You did nothing wrong and there is nothing wrong with you,"
"But... what about the population thing?"
Oh that myth, curse you Pinkie, "There are over a half a billion Stallions in the world. If some of them choose to date another Stallion we aren't going to die out. That has been happening since before Equestria was founded regardless of how much we shame them for it, and we are still here. Besides, limited stallions is what we have herd agreements for," She absentmindedly said the last part.
"Herd agreements?" Spike blinked.
Twilight blushed, "It's... like a much bigger family. Where lots of mares, who are really close friends, will marry the same Stallion. A Stallion that likes the idea of having a bunch of wives and tons of kids and agrees to it of their own free will... many Stallions don't like the idea of being shared like that but more then enough of them do that it easily counters the 10% of them that just aren't attracted to females... It's perfectly okay if you like kissing Button... nothing bad will happen,"
Spike looked down, all kinds of confused. Pinkie was pretty adamant that his life would become Tartarus if he dated a Stallion but Twilight said it would be okay... he was inclined to believe Twilight. Pinkie was probably just overreacting.
###
Later that day, as Screwball and Spike played around town, Twilight went to visit Love Tap.
The Mare opened the door, it looked like she had been crying. Twilight's ears pinned at just how badly she was taking this.
"Your highness!" Love Tap gaped, "Please come in," she quickly ushered Twilight inside and closed the door before anypony could see her, "I am so sorry!" Tap insisted, "Button is a good boy! He's just confused. I tried getting him to stop looking at Stallion magazines. I even tried sending him to one of those reeducation camps over the summer but all they did was shame him and make him cry and I just couldn't-" Her mouth snapped shut as she realized she said too much, before insisting, "He didn't mean to shame your ward! He's never actually acted on his feelings before! Please, he-"
Twilight held up her hoof, "I filed a new law today through Townhall. Our town's first official law as a city state,"
Love Tap gulped, "Y-yes Your Highness?"
Twilight took a breath and stood regal, "In it details how any crime against a Stallion, for being attracted to other Stallions, will be treated as a hate crime," Love Tap was speechless but Twilight wasn't finished, "And any Stallions, that want to legalize their union through marriage, are welcome to do so, with all rights and privileges that entails,"
Love tap's eyes filled up with tears, but they were happy tears this time. She collapsed onto Twilight, crying with heavy sobs. Twilight hugged her with a wing, "I'll make the world a better place for both our boys," she swore.