A Bottle for Two
B_25
“Perfect! Just... perfect!” Spike exclaimed as he paced along the marble balcony. “Typical even! Typical in how typical it is, that's how typical it is.” He shook his head mid-step. “What am I saying? Typical doesn't hold a candle to how typical this is!” He stomped his feet. “Come along, Spike, it'll be tons of fun!”
Spike made a fist and shot it at the sky. “Crud! Every word... just crud! Wouldn't be the same without you.” He hissed. “Get real, Twilight! Saying that so you wouldn't feel guilty.” His chest heaved and his breath left him quickly. “One of these days, I'll grow big—huge even—and knock this whole castle down.”
His chest was pounding and his claws were shaking. He knew a break was needed from his anger, from his disappointment—everything that constituted at the moment, really. So he took a breath, feeling his heart thumping, which was angered by betrayal but upset by its inability to avenge it.
He was so full of energy, his mouth so full of words, and yet, he was alone, unable to be heard.
He shook the thoughts away. Walking to the end of the balcony, he came to its railing, overseeing the wide open gardens below, which was populated by ponies and filled with friends that had forgotten him.
“Forget em.” Spike looked onto the flatness of the railing, seeing the glass he'd left sometime during his rant. He picked it back up, and without looking, tilted his head back and poured the drink past his lips: feeling the cool liquid burn down his throat.
“Friends rarely should be forgotten.” Spike didn't plan on swallowing glass—the sudden voice had startled him into dropping the glass into his maw. He turned around, a claw on the railing. “Tell me, Sir Spike, the reason for such a proclamation?”
“Lawadu fun.” Spike turned his head and spat the glass out, clenching an eye when it shattered across the ground. “Uck! Ho, ah, I mean, Princess Luna.” He scratched his neck. “I'd bend a knee if it weren't for the glass.”
“We shall forgo the royal recognition for tonight.” Luna's horn lit in a deep blue, her magic enveloping around the shards of glass. With a flash, they were gone. “Perhaps recognition for your troubles will be best?”
“No troubles here, Luna.” Spike laid his rump against the railing. “Just an off night. You should go and join the party.” He gestured to below with a claw. “Most the ponies came here to meet a princess. Just gotta be careful none of them lose a glass slipper.”
“It would be quite strange to see a stallion in glass slippers.”
Spike blinked. “Not really the example I was going for.”
“As for the meeting of a princess, my sister has already performed her function.” Princess Luna approaching the railing, standing next to Spike's waist. “Our guests are entertained and in high spirits—all except for one.”
“I'm alright.” Spike held up a claw. “Really am. Just steamed. Give me some time and I'll be alright.”
“How would you reply if I were to offer some special refreshments?”
Spike arched an eyebrow. “How do ya mean?”
“I believe the term 'heavy booze' applies to what I am suggesting.” Luna looked up at his face and, despite her solemn expression, offered a smile that was both kind and melancholic. “We can take to the quarters inside the castle if privacy is a concern.”
Spike thought on it. Then he thought on it some more. Truth be told, he wasn't opposed to drinking until he was beyond drunk. Granted, he didn't want anyone taking care of him, lest a princess.
But free booze was free booze.
“Alright, I'll drink,” he said. “But ya gotta drink with me, alright?”
“You should have seen it, you really should have!” Spike paced back and forth before the chair, which Luna sat on, a glass cradled between her hooves, a stern expression on her muzzle, and an arched eyebrow that was strangely alluring. “I got in her face, I really did! I said if she kept overworking me... I'd would move out!”
“And would you?”
“Of course not!” Spike came to the chair across from Luna and slumped into it, grabbing the drink he'd left on its armrest. “I barely know how to go grocery shopping. Trying to do my own taxes would kill me!” He shot the drink down with one gulp, being quick the grab the bottle on the table between them and refilled his glass. “It's always been that way. Twilight gets the food, and I cook; Twilight gets the piano, and I play it for her.”
“You two must be very close.”
“Used to be very close!” Spike shook his head, not even waiting for the glass to be filled as he downed it. “Close ain't even close to how close we were! When we were kids, we took baths together—that's how close we were.”
“I take it you two have ceased with the bubble baths?”
“Yeah. Just be creepy now.” Spike sighed and poured another glass, feeling the bottle tremble. “You ever had that before? Close with somepony just for that closeness to die away?”
“Quite literally.” Luna laid fully into her seat. “My close friends of a thousand years died while I wallowed on the moon.” She blinked, lifting her glass to her lips. “I'm sure part of the wallowing was because my close friends were dying.” She took a sip of her drink. “And I couldn't be close with them because of my imprisonment on the moon.”
Luna laid the glass between her legs once more. “Was... that answer satisfactory to your question?”
She glanced up to see his jaw hung open.
“Do you write poetry at all?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Sorry,” Spike replied. “You just strike me as a mare that writes poetry. Like, tons of poetry.”
“I enjoy poetry.”
“I'm... sure you do.” Spike took a moment to shake his head, put the bottle back on the stand, and give his glass some rest. “Sorry, but doesn't that bug you? Like, at all?”
“What do you mean?”
“The whole 'close friends dying while we're thousands of miles apart' deal.”
“Mere miles is a grand understatement of the distance separating the moon and the—“
“You should drink more.”
Luna blinked. “I beg your pardon once more?”
“Forget the fancy talk!” Spike leaned forward, and deciding to be a bad influence, adopted a smirk. “And forget those sips as well. Gulps, Luna, gulp that stuff down.”
Luna glanced down and into her drink. “I'm unsure about that proposition, Spike. It's rather unexpected for a princess to lose her grace in the presence of a guest.”
“Then forget that I'm a guest!” Spike slapped his lap. “Let's get crazy, no, wild!”
“Those words possess similar meanings words, Spike.” Despite her words, Luna lifted and placed a hoof against her fluffy blue chest. “But is your request genuine? What shall I refer to you thereafter?”
“I dunno,” he replied. “Friend, maybe?”
“You wish to be my friend?”
“Of course I do!” Spike exclaimed. “We can be close friends, if ya want! You don't have to worry about me dying, and if you get imprisoned on the moon again, I'll make sure to put these wings to use and pay you a visit.”
“The cold will kill you.”
“I'll bring a warm jacket, then.”
Luna laughed. She didn't mean to—giggles were her forte. They were small, controllable, and kind to those who heard them. But laughter, the sudden and loud thing, caused her happiness one second, then shame for the rest of the night.
“Your illogic and absurdity is quite amusing, Sir Spike.”
“And those words have similar meanings, Princess Luna.” Spike leaned forward, smirking, picking up the bottle again and refilling both of their glasses. Luna, for her part, fought the temptation to smack the dragon. “So how about we drink like friends? You forget my sir and I promise not to stare at your crown.”
“Tiara.”
“Same difference.”
“That's not how that expression works.”
“Please drink with me?”
Luna stared down at her glass, then at the dragon, which inspired her to stare at her drink some more. Then, with a steady hoof, she held out her glass, unable to not smile when it clinked against his—together they gulped down their drinks.
“Aaaaah!” Spike pulled his glass away. “See? One shot is the way to go!”
“I am quite... heh, rather uncertain about this.” Luna blinked a few times, adjusting to the pleasant buzz. “But this is rather enjoyable. You are rather enjoyable.”
“Best compliment I've had all my life!” Spike picked up the bottle again, chuckling while he did so. “Now remember, you can stop drinking at any time, but the goal is to get as smashed as possible. Are ya game?”
“We're playing a game where smashing the bottle is the objective?”
“You need to drink some more.”
“Blasted! Blast how well she has hidden it!”
Spike stalked the halls on his tippy-toes. He kept a step behind Luna, who did not walk on her tippy-toes, simply because she had none. So she resolved to remove her royal hoofwear.
“We can get another bottle, Luna,” Spike whispered from behind her, and while he was at it, getting a good look at her behind. Blue blotched by a darker blue. Her moon jiggled far more than the real thing. “Or go looking for the cheap stuff. We don't need to do this.”
“Silence!” Luna glared at him from over her shoulder. “This drink has been aged for decades. After this bottle, the world shall never know of its existence again.” Her eyes narrowed on him, which made his cheeks go pink. “It is my intent to get smashed, as it is called, for I have not been smashed since the moon.”
“You smashed onto the moon?”
“I do not wish to talk about it.”
Spike really had nothing to say to that. Sure, they were in a long, dark hall, keeping to its sides and avoiding guards. He wasn't really sure why they were avoiding guards, other than they were drunk and silly, both seeking game.
But stealing from Princess Celestia? That seemed like a game taken too far.
“Are you ready, Spike?”
“Ready for what?”
“To sprint!”
Luna came out from behind the pot and made a mad dash forward. But that wasn't a proper way to describe it. More adequately, she stumbled forward, her right legs going left, her left legs going right, and somehow, she still stood tall.
“H-Hurry now, Spike!” Luna cried into the air. “The guards will soon be upon us at once!”
Spike stood up from behind the pot, arms crossed, heart hurt. He didn't have the courage to say anything. He watched Luna sway left and right, never moving forward, but panting like she was sprinting. It was cute... in Luna's strange way.
Shaking his head, he stepped forward. His legs buckled slightly from the weight, but the drinks hadn't worn him down yet. He came next to Luna, feeling her bump into his waist, watching her shake his head. With a smile, he brought his arm down and along her barrel.
“Maybe it's best if I carry you there?”
“Do not hamper my speed!”
“We'll get there quicker.”
“Then fly us there!”
Spike scrunched his brow but didn't say a word. Instead, he wrapped his arm along her barrel, lifting the princess into the air, feeling the softness of her fur on his claw. She'd forgone her hoofwear, but the garb around her neck felt cold against his wrist.
“This is so weird,” Spike muttered to himself, a princess tucked underneath his arm. Everything felt awkward to him. Should a guard or two find him, he reckoned, he would be thrown in a cell for a night... maybe a month. “You said her room's at the end of this hall?”
“Indeed it is.” Luna stared forward but her eyes were blank. “Her guards may still be on their post. We must be ready for them.”
“Ready for them?” Spike looked down at her, though she kept staring forward. “The heck are we going to do?”
“I have the magic of an alicorn,” Luna said, “and you the strength of a dragon. We shall use the wit of our tongues to persuade our entry, but should our lies be found, their bodies must not for the rest of the night.”
“We're going to kill them?!”
“That is an act of treason and murder. We shall be doing no such thing.” Luna shook her head, and by the blink of her eyes, it looked like she regretted doing that. “Princess Celestia would also be upset with me again.”
“Glad to know that's what you think of.” Spike went to say more but stopped at the sounds of hoofsteps. He paused, hearing the distant sounds, deciding the let the princess down on the ground. He missed how soft she felt. “Looks like we're coming up on your sister's room. What's the plan?”
“I cannot make a plan while in this state.” Luna stepped forward, shakily. “We shall do what is commonly referred as winging it.” Her wings unfurled. “Come. We must drink some more.”
“Uh, why are you wings out?”
“We are winging it.” Luna glared back at him. “I know you are what is called a lightweight, but please, Spike, pay attention.” She continued forward and came around a corner. “Maybe this bottle will be consumed alone after all.”
Luna disappeared around the corner. Spike shook his head, sighing. He broke into a jog after he, the walls and window blurring at his sides, the contents of his stomach splashing around. The princess wasn't far from the truth.
“That mare,” Spike muttered under his breath, coming around the corner and to behind Luna. “Hey! Words can hurt you... know... uh, hey.”
Two royal guards stood before them. The stallions were dressed in gold, their weapons held at their shoulders, and of course, their expression barren of anything that would suggest they were still alive—at least on the inside.
“Princess Luna.” Both of the guards bent a knee and lowered their head. “We are honored to be in your presence.”
“And do I get any recognition?”
The two stallions rose. One of them stared at Spike. “Who are you and what are you doing in these halls? Are you a guest of Princess Luna.”
Spike opened his mouth.
“He is not.” Spike closed his mouth and looked at Luna. He could clench his fist at how big her smile was. “He ceased being my guest earlier this night. His own words and actions made it so. I'm afraid it was when he forced me to have drinks with him.”
The other stallion, the one who had remained silent, finally allowed his expression to express something: absolute anger and hatred for the dragon. He stepped forward, taking his spear off from his chest, keeping it clutched in his hoof.
“You would dare inebriate the princess?!” The stallion stepped forward. “Have you no shame... no honor?!”
“This gentledrake, Spike is his name, also wanted to take me to my sister's bedroom of all things!” Luna, with her wings already opened, covered her face behind one. “I rushed here immediately while he chased behind.”
Spike stepped back. “Oh, ya have to be kidding me!”
The two guards advanced past Luna. She stumbled behind them, curling her wings and looking between them, holding up a hoof and giving a smile to the dragon. Spike only shook his head.
“Luna, you call this off right now!” Spike looked between the two guards, both of them with their blades pointed at him. “C'mon fellas, this is just a misunderstanding. Luna just hasn't had a drink in a long time. She's just foolin' around.”
“Like how you were trying to fool around with her?!”
“And that's Princess Luna to you!”
Spike sighed. “Aw crud.”
The stallion on the left was the first to make a step forward. He lunged his spear right for Spike's throat, not to attack or harm, but to lock him into a hold. Spike, being drunk, didn't see things that way, and at once, stepped—more so stumbled—to the left, grabbing the wood of the weapon as it flew by.
“You're crazy!” Spike yanked the weapon from the stallion's hooves, holding it out with both of his claws. “You trying to kill me? Maybe you should drink a little.” He lifted his knee and smashed the wood against it, breaking the weapon. “Next time, it will be you on my kne—“
The weaponless stallion had thrown himself at Spike. He tackled him by the waist, using his weight and momentum to slam the dragon to the ground, holding him down while Spike struggled. For good measure, he jabbed an elbow into the chest of scales.
“Oooh!” Spike's head fell back while his vision blurred. “This is going to be the worst hang-over I'm gonna have in my life.” He glanceed up enough, catching sight of the golden and white blur. “You like elbows, huh?”
The stallion looked up in time to feel something against his cheek. Spike had broken his right arm free and, in the same movement, brought his arm to the left, then smacked his below into the stallion's cheek, the impact sending the guard flying off his body.
“Oooooh, that sucked!” Spike blinked a few times, feeling the fuzz leave his vision, able to see, in perfect detail, the spear held before his eyes. “That's new.”
“Don't flinch.” The other stallion towered over him, seeming taller from Spike's perspective, the spear coming down almost from the sky. He tilted the blade slightly. “You'll regret it if you do.”
Spike blinked. In the haze that was his mind, he tried to work out how he got here, why he got here, and most importantly of all, what was Luna doing in the background of all this. Looking past the guard, he saw Luna at the double doors of her sister, lifting a rather heavy looking case.
Spike squinted his eyes.
“So what is it?” Spike looked back at the guard. He was being spoken to. “Think you can do as you like? I know your face. You're the assistant of Princess Twilight Sparkle.” The stallion narrowed his eyes. “Think that's enough to protect you? Living off the name of a friend?”
“I also live in her castle as well.”
“They always say you're a funny guy.” The stallion lowered the spear to Spike's throat. “But you don't seem all the funny to me. Nothing you've ever done feels funny.” The stallion's eyes narrowed. “Maybe that's why ponies find you so funny?”
“Everypony's has their own sense of humor,” Spike choked out. “If it helps, I laugh whenever I see myself in the mirror.”
“You'll be in tears when you see yourself in a cell.” The stallion pulled the blade back by a few inches. “Now come one. We're walking down to—“
His speech was interrupted by the shattering of glass. In a split-second, blue magic had surrounded his helmet, lifted it off his head, and then a case came crashing down on the back of his mane. He went silent as he fell off to the side, Luna standing behind him.
“Told you we would find a way to wing it!”
Spike rolled his eyes. “Princess Luna... was this really the best way to go about things?”
“It was the only way that became apparent to me at the time.” Luna walked over to the fallen drake, offering him her hoof. “Come up now. We must hide the bodies.”
“We'll get straight to that.” Spike took her hoof, digits clamping down along it, holding it as it raised him up. He came up, stumbling into place, rubbing the back of his head. “By chance, are you able to write a pardon at all?”
“I believe it's within my realm of possibility.”
“Good.” Spike leaned down to pick the unconscious stallion up, throwing him over his shoulder. “Because I'm going to need a letter or two before the night's over.” He looked over the other stallion he'd knocked out, raising an eyebrow at the sight. “Hey, is that guy awake?”
Princess Luna walked over to the stallion, coming next to the marble stand behind his head. Without missing a beat, her hoof slid across the stand, pushing the vase it had off, and a second later, it crashed into the muzzle of the stallion.
“I do not think he's awake any longer.”
“Are you always like this?”
They got the bodies into the room easily enough. Spike carried them both. Luna cast a spell on them—something to minimalize the pain and the damage. That what's she said, at least. Spike wasn't so sure himself what she had done.
But they had stuck a spear in his face, so he didn't care all that much.
“Where should I put 'em?” Spike asked as he ambled into the room, coming to the side of a queen-sized bed.
“The closet should suffice.” Luna went straight away for the dresser, pulling back a drawer. “They can come out together in the morning.”
Spike laughed.
“What is it?” Luna looked back over her shoulder, watching as he slid open the closet doors. He tossed the bodies amidst the clothing. “Is their leaving of the closet amusing to you?”
“Not in the slightest,” Spike said with a chuckle, closing the closet doors. “But there's probably a few stallions in the guard that would be interested in that.”
“Ah, yes, I see.” Luna went back to the drawer, pulling back the top drawer. “They'd dislike having their fellow guards stowed away in such conditions.” She searched the drawer with her hooves, reaching into the back. “An admirable thought, Spike.”
“I... try?”
Spike turned back around to a sight he wasn't expecting. Luna was standing against the drawers, up on her hind legs, wiggling her rump as she searched. Her tail still billowed in its representation of the night sky, sometimes swaying over her flanks.
“Aha!” Luna cheered as her hooves pulled back. Her magic took hold of the bottle, and she turned around to show it off. “Here it is at last! I knew she hid the thing.”
“Maybe she was hiding it for a good reason?”
“Among other things, I presume.” Luna nodded toward the bed. “Please check inside the bedside table for glasses. She should have at least two for us to borrow.”
“Right on.”
Spike came to the said table and took out the glasses. He felt guilt for how the night was going, but on the other claw, was enjoying himself... in a strange way. He was doing something wrong, but at least it was exciting. Plus, Luna was a lot more cheeky than she let on.
And he liked that in a mare.
“Will you be joining me soon?”
Spike shook his head. “Right. My bad.”
Princess Luna was seated on her sister's bed, her legs crossed and her expression still solemn, but her lips, her soft furry lips held a smile missable by the naked eye. Spike gulped as he took a seat next to her, holding out her glass.
“Here ya are.”
Princess Luna took the glass in her magic but kept holding it in the air. “Well?”
“What?”
“Are you not going to pour a lady a drink?”
“Wasn't aware you were a lady now.”
Luna narrowed her eyes.
“Joking! Just... joking.” Spike picked up the bottle and didn't make a cry about how they were stealing. He was on thin ice as is. So he pricked his finger into the cork, hearing it popped as pulled it out, then flicking aside. “Here you are... my lady?”
“Thank you, my friend.” Luna's smile grew as she watched her drink fill. She then aimed that smile at the dragon. “Please pour yourself as much as you like. I will take full responsibility for the acts committed tonight when the morrow comes.”
“You don't have to do that.” Spike poured his own glass, and once done, set the bottle on the table, and held his drink against her's. “I don't mind taking my equal shame in the blame. Doing time sounds like a vacation—just as long Twilight's not the warden.”
Their glasses clinked together.
“That... that is the second time you've said Twilight's name with that voice.” Luna coughed after her words, gently beating a hoof against her fluffy chest.
“I'd use another voice to switch things up, but I'm afraid I only have one.”
“You also make plenty of jokes.”
“It's because I'm insecure about my voice.” Spike sipped from his drink, trying to keep his eyes from going wide. He worried about the liquid burning through his tongue. “Gotta do something to compensate, ya know?”
“I think I... I think I do.” Luna looked across the room, her gaze welcoming his to do the same. “I am a pony who knows the coldness of living in a shadow of another. Even as I sit in good company, my veins burn hot as the sights I am forced to endure.”
“Did you catch my reflection in the vanity mirror.”
“You are very cute.” Luna looked back at him, smiling. “Do you know that?”
“In what way?”
“In all the ways that come to mind.”
Spike felt something prick at his heart. Every beat from then on was pronounced on his mind, paining him with how apparent it was, as it then quickened the closer the mare came to him. He took another sip of his drink, enduring the bitterness to ensure him a moment of silence.
The silence was over quicker than he had hoped.
“I, uh, t-thank you for that, Luna.” Spike scratched the side of his neck. “You didn't have to say something like. Y-You're pretty cute yourself.”
“Oh?” Luna tilted her head and pushed her muzzle forward. “In what way?”
“In an 'unattainable goddess' kind of way.”
“Do you admire me in that kind of way, Spike?”
“Don't most ponies?” Spike said, shaking his head. “You're a princess, Luna. You're... you're... well, amazing and all that!” He clenched his claw. “You're beautiful and powerful. I mean, your mane is literally just the night sky! And your eyes, your eyes!”
He exhaled sharply. “Sorry, but has nopony told you that you're perfect before.”
“I... don't think I've ever had the pleasure of hearing—“
“And cut it with the formal talk too!” Spike looked to his glass, and in an act of utter bravery, poured the remainder of the drink into his mouth—fighting back the tears as courage itself burned down his throat. “Aaack! I... you don't have to speak like an idiot like I do, but... please don't be so formal, alright?”
“I'm unsure if I can comply with that request.” Luna blinked at her words. She too looked down at her glass, and inspired, finished her drink in two gulps. When she was done, opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, eyes clenched as she whined.
“You alright?” Spike said as she watched her. “Liquid death, right?”
“Far worse.” Luna's used her magic to refill her glass. “But I will not endure the night without finishing this bottle.”
“That may be a quest ya gotta do alone.”
“Please, Spike.” Luna stared deeply into his emerald eyes, hovering the bottle above his glass. “This is something I rather not do alone. This... would be a great act of faith that confirms that you are indeed my friend.”
“Then fill me up, sister.”
Spike hadn't known what happened next, only that the bottle was empty, and he was crying.
“She just left me!” He shouted with an unbroken voice, only that tears sometimes leaked into his mouth. “It was me all her life! No friends at school, no friends at home—every night it was just Twilight and me. We even played toys together!”
“Do you... do you still wish to play toys with her?”
“No!”
Luna had herself draped along the dragon's back. He was far too broad for her frame to cover his, but she was still able to drape her legs over his shoulders. When she could, she nuzzled underneath his head—she'd heard it was the best way to comfort someone.
Plus, she enjoyed the way how his body felt.
“I don't want us to be kids again.” Spike shook his head. “It's way too late for that, I get that! But, back in the day, we would go for walks, just... talking. No matter what, we could talk about anything. Even if it was a nightmare that made me wet the bed, Twilight would never laugh at me!”
“And how does she handle you wetting the bed now?”
“I don't do that!” Spike exclaimed. He paused when felt the mare pull slightly away from his body, catching his breath, lowering his voice. “At least, I haven't done that in a long time. It's the relationship we had that I want back.”
“No longer is it the same?”
“I tried talking to her about it the other day.” Spike looked down, and without meaning to, raised a claw to one of the dangling hooves, taking hold of it. “Told her I was fading away back at home, that it didn't feel like I had my own friends... that I hadn't done much with my life.”
“And her response?”
“Because you let it.” Spike gave the hoof a squeeze, something that helped him suppress his anger. “The nerve on that girl! You listen to her whine about ponies plotting to be her friends, or calm her down from a panic attack, or anything else I've done for her in my life, and what kind of understanding I get back? Because you let it.”
“Is she... correct?”
“Of course she's correct.” Spike sighed. “She's freaking Twilight Sparkle.”
Princess Luna kept silent as she laid against him. Her ears were always perked, never once faltering through his tale. It was a tale familiar to her heart—a tale that had cracked it long ago. She wanted to say something, do something, anything at all to make him feel better.
But she was at a loss for options.
There was no answer she could give him.
There was no answer she had found herself.
“You are an odd creature, Spike.” Luna pulled her hoof free from his hold, sitting back behind him. “There is no denying your strength as a dragon. Your scales are hard to the touch, stronger than most rocks, and your size is set the grow only more.”
“Something else for me to worry about.”
Luna shook her head even if he could not see it. “Something for you to worry not over, Spike, for inside you is a softness that I cannot describe. There is more to you than what originally met my eye.” Luna paused for a second to think, which allowed Spike to look over his shoulder at her. “I'm sorry that I've been so distant.”
Spike didn't say anything in turn. He just watched her. He watched as she brought her hooves around her neck, taking off her royal garb, exposing the fullness of her chest. She let the garb fall onto the bed.
“Celestia and I used to be close when were young.” Luna looked down and between her forelegs, smiling as memories phased across her gaze. “Just like you and Twilight, there was a closeness that could not be described, only felt.”
Spike turned around on the side of the bed, bringing his knees onto the mattress and sitting on them. He watched and listen silently, though his eyes, wet by tears, told of his thoughts and feelings. Luna's eyes were still stern and solid.
“But then came the time for us to step up as princesses for the land.” Luna looked up at the dragon, reaching a hoof out for his claw. “Duty itself had set itself between my sister and I. We accepted our roles without complaint.”
Luna took hold of his claw and pulled it back. Spike gave her no issue, watching as she brought his claw to her chest, laying his digits against her fur and flesh.
“But in the silence that came between us, insecurity was left to fester inside of me.” Spike almost gasped at the feeling of her body, of the hoof pressing into the back of his claw, keeping it in place above her heart. “I will not regale you a cautionary tale for you are more clever than that. All I ask is that these feelings must not fester inside your heart.”
Spike could feel tears still burning in the corners of his eyes, unsure if they were old or new, as he then closed his eyes. In the blackness, he focused his attention on only one thing—the coolness of the fur between his fingers, and the warmth that radiated from the skin beneath his palm.
“The heart is something that all possess but few understand.” Luna took her hoof off the claw and brought it toward his face, wiping the tears from his eyes, before resting it on his chest. She smiled as she could feel his distant heartbeat through his scales. “It can allow you to do great and wonderful things.”
Luna had gone silent after her words. She tried speaking some more to further her point, but she knew where the trail led, and her throat tighten when she tried to speak.
“Or it can cause you to bring eternal night.”
Luna looked up to see the dragon had spoken her words for her. She never expected to find someone else that endured the same pains, struggled with the same feelings of inferiority. His scales were cold to the touch, but beyond, where fire welled in his chest, she felt his distant warmth.
“I think I'm a lot like you, Luna.” Spike looked down and gazed at her chest. “I've thought about it far too much. I hate it. I hate it so much.” He breathed in and out, slowly each time, his voice on the precipice of breaking. “I'm always in her shadow. Ponies sometimes look at me like I'm some kind of monster, and I'm always, always tempted to prove them right.”
Luna's eyes widened as she felt his heartbeat quicken. “I dream of sitting the town on fire! I fantasize about becoming this big... this big dragon who just rips this castle straight out the ground! There's no sense behind it! There's something wrong with me.”
Spike started to cry once more. “There's something wrong with me... there's something wrong with me... there's something wrong with me...”
He kept repeating that like a mantra.
And Luna couldn't take it anymore.
Luna threw herself at him. She threw her forelegs around his neck, pressing her chest against his, the two embracing. They cried. Oh, how they cried. His arms came around her body not like she was a princess, not like she was a mare, but like she was a friend who could understand him.
And as they cried together, she kept whispering something into his ear, the sweetest thing one could say to another.
“...there's nothing wrong with you.... there's nothing wrong with you.... there's nothing wrong with you...”
“I've come... to face you... once and for all!”
Twilight stared up at him. “Spike, you're drunk. Go home.”
“I will not go home! Cause... cause it's I'm... I'm... I'mproper to drink and drive!”
“You don't even drive the carriage!” Twilight smacked her face into her hoof. “You could even drink all you wanted to! But you're not.” She shook her head. They were in the throne room, off to the side, standing by the table for punch. “I didn't bring you to this party to be a nuisance, Spike.”
“You brought me here so you wouldn't feel guuuuilllltyyy about leaving me at home.” Spike stumbled back a step and crossed his arms. “And Princess Luna doesn't think I'm a nuisance. She said I'm a young, handsome, charming fellow.”
Twilight looked past him. “You wouldn't be the reason why she's lashing out at Princess Celestia, would you?”
“What?” Spike looked over his shoulder and at the throne itself, which Celestia was sitting on, and Luna was... everything was too blurry for him to see what she was doing. “Ah, crud. She... she needs my help!”
“Spike, you're drunk.” Spike paid no attention to the voice as he stumbled forward, letting his foot catch underneath the red carpet, then falling and hitting the ground. “Gosh, Spiiiike!”
“Hnnnng. What now?” Spike shook his head. Something wet pricked at his muzzle. Bringing a claw to his snout, he felt them become wet and, bringing his digits to his eyes, saw blood dripping from their contours. “Aaack! I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding! We're under attack.”
Spike got to his feet, stumbling as he came into place, and surveyed around him. Looking around caused the room to catch in a white and brown blur, with hazy figures littering his surroundings. At once, his heart caught. “They're... they're everywhere! Quick... Luna? Luna!”
He turned around and saw steps—the worse enemy a drunk can face. He gulped and looked past them, finally finding his Luna. She was struggling against some big white thing. Luna needed his help.
“L-Luna! I'm comin'!” Spike raced up the steps as best as he could. He actually went up them pretty well—for a drunk at least— only falling to his knees on the last step. But he didn't waste time. He cared nothing for his pain. All he wanted to do was exactly that which he did.
“Please Luna,” the white blur said somehow, “you've had far too much to drink this evening. Why don't you have a cup of water and try going to sleep?”
“That's what you would like, isn't it?!” Princess Luna breathed as though she'd run a marathon. Her chest was heaving and it was hard to keep her eyes open. “To have things silent between us like when I was imprisoned on that moon! Why didn't you send a letter?”
“Because I didn't have the means!”
Spike stood at the foot of the throne. He watched the two, particularly confused, not understanding what was happening, but just wanting to be a part of the conversation. For whatever reason, it was very hard for him to speak at the moment.
“You could send an alicorn to the moon, but when it comes to paper, suddenly the odds dictate impossible?!” Luna lifted a hoof and shoved it into the giant wall of whiteness, dismayed when soft fur comforted her. “I've been back for such a long while, and yet, you and I still don't talk about the silence! No more, I say, no more!”
“Because I thought we were over it! I-I didn't know you still felt pain, that you still felt—“
Luna's other hoof slid along the golden rest, causing her to yelp as she fell forward. At once, the white chest took her whole body, a moving body of softness that enveloped her. For so long, Luna had felt cold, but now, thanks to the fire of a certain liquid, she found warmth again from her sister's body.
“Why didn't you confess that something was bothering you?” Princess Celestia said, the white blur giving way to a familiar sister. “You're always so calm and distant. I confess... that's how I thought you wanted things to be!”
“I want them to be anything but!”
“Then I'm sorry, dear sister, all so sorry.”
Spike watched on. He was still as confused. If he was being honest, this was his first time getting really, really drunk, and he only got really drunk because he wanted to impress a mare. Not that he stood a chance, of course, but there's always that hope lurking in the background.
But he watched as the two sisters hugged it out on the throne room. There was something sweet about it all. It made him cry. He brought a claw to his face, and when he wiped the moisture away, he realized that he wasn't crying—he was still bleeding.
“Attack! Attack!” And then Spike lost his mind once more. “Luna! We gotta get out of here! There's no booze!”
“No booze!” Luna stood from between her sister's legs. She stumbled back. “It cannot be! The night is still—Ah!”
Luna's hoof stepped over the edge of the throne. She fell. But she didn't fall against the ground, but rather, into the strong arms of the tall dragon. Spike straighten himself out as soon as he caught the mare, carrying her bridal study.
“Spiiike!” Spike turned around and looked down the length of the red carpet, catching Twilight standing in the middle of it. Her horn was bright but her eyes were brighter. “You are not kidnapping a princess! You will not be drinking anymore. I don't care if I have the guards throw you into a cell!”
“Oh my gosh.” Spike looked down to the mare in his arms. Luna was lying on her back, legs adorable curled in the air, her fluffy chest and underbelly exposed. Her tail was flicked over her hindquarters. “You hear that Luna? They're going to throw us in a cell with no booze!”
Luna's eyes widened. “You cannot allow for that to happen! Escape!”
“Princess Luna, what are you—“
“Charge!”
Spike took the command and gunned it forward. Everything was a blur, either because he was running fast or because he was about to pass out. During his journey across the red river, two golden blurs obstructed his path, but when he only picked up speed in return, they quickly dashed out of the way as he dashed through some double doors.
Meanwhile, back in the throne room, everyone was just kinda amazed by how everything turned out. Those dressed extremely well complained about the events; those in causal clothes simply laughed about what had gone down.
Twilight Sparkle was the first pony to approach the throne. She bowed at once, knees low and head lower. She breathed through her mouth—that's how stressed she was.
“Princess Celestia,” she began with her head still low, “I cannot even begin to apologizes for the events that have happened tonight. I assure you, I and several guards will go and track Spike down, where and when he'll receive the proper punishment for tonight.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” came back the heavy and soft voice of royalty, “please lift your head.”
Twilight did as she was told.
“Tell me, from what you know of Princess Luna, have you ever seen her... act in this particular way before?” Princess Celestia sat still on her throne, and despite her words, a smile stretched across her lips. “Or how about your Spike? When was the last time you've seen him so happy and foolish?”
Twilight stood stunned for several moments. “I... a while, princess. But the gala is no place for him to be foolish.”
“Perhaps not.” Princess Celestia looked past her and down the red carpet. “But as for as we know, those two are not hurting anyone. They'll have something to answer for once morning comes.” She used her magic to levitate a glass of wine before her muzzle. “But tonight is a night for fun for all. Let's give those two a few more hours to be foolish.”
Twilight stared at her mentor for a few seconds. She then looked over her shoulder, where she could hear running and shouting come from past the double doors. She was proud and annoyed, conflicted for only a second.
And then she summoned her own glass of wine.
“I... I think we lost—Uoooh!”
Spike had dashed out some doors and found himself outside. The whole time he ran, he tried keeping an eye on his behind, waiting for more golden blurs to be on them both—but no such thing happened. Or maybe it did. Really, his eyes were on the mare in his arms.
He didn't quite know what he had done at the time, but for whatever reason, the princess herself, Luna, laid along his arms. She was big enough that he required both arms, feeling her softness press against his chest and filling out into his claw.
And the way she looked up at him! Luna's mane of the eternal night covered her left eye, but her right eye, it was on him. It gazed up at him. On the surface, it was calm and reflective, showing back to him a dragon that was smiling.
It did not, however, show him a dragon that was falling. He'd reached outside and across some field of grass, his foot catching on a stone, and once more, he was falling over again.
Spike didn't even think about it when it happened. As soon as he felt it, he turned his body around, letting his back take the impact, holding the mare close against his body, saving her from harm. They didn't slide all too much.
“Oh... wow... heh.” Spike chuckled then swallowed. He looked down at his chest. “You alright?”
Luna had curled herself into a ball on his chest. Slowly, she came out from herself, her mane a mess like she'd slept in. She took a few seconds before her eyes settled on him again. Even in her stir, she smiled at him.
“I do believe I'll be alright.” Luna blinked a few times, bringing a hoof to her lips. “But I think the contents of the night are doing they're best to escape from my stomach.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Spike lifted his head enough so the two could look into each other's eyes. “Want to vomit over the railing? I can hold your mane back while I do so.”
“I do not require that kind of assistance... yet.” Luna exhaled a heavy breath. “However, may I lie on you for a while? I do not feel able to move around for quite a while.”
“Sounds cool with me,” Spike said with hesitation in his voice. “But are you okay with that? That isn't crossing any boundaries or something?”
“Do you refer to the bounders that lurk beyond the realm of friendship, where only a potential romantic partner can cross, which usually involves exploring hooves on one's body and the mutual exchange of saliva?”
“I wasn't thinking that far ahead.” Spike sighed as he could feel his buzz starting to fade. “Like, no offense, but you're a princess. If ponies caught us like this...”
“I do not care about what ponies think of me.”
“But didn't you try casting that whole eternal night thing because of what ponies thought of you?”
Luna sat upon his body, bringing her rump especially hard down on his abdomen. “Has anypony told you that your words can sometimes hurt?”
“All... the... time...” Spike wheezed out, taking a few moments to catch his breath. “And look. I don't have an issue with us lying together. In fact, I really enjoy you, Luna.” Any breath he'd recover was lost in a second—Luna had smiled down at him in a way he'd never seen before. “Spending this night with you showed me just how much depth you really have.”
Luna tilted her head. From Spike's perspective, she sat tall, the moon eclipsed around her head and mane. She was like a goddess that was both close and far away. “Just what do you mean by that?”
“It means that I didn't think much of you at first.” Spike looked aside as he exhaled. “I thought you were just some princess who liked to keep to herself. There wasn't really much special about you at first. You were just a... loner I guess.”
Spike regained the courage to stare up at her again. “But I was so wrong because there's so much in you. You always look so calm and distant, but I know there's so much more locked away.... and... and I just feel like it's a shame that I was the one to experience it.”
“You are rambling, dragon.” Luna looked down at him, shifting against his scales. “There is something you are trying to say but are not saying it. This bugs me. Please, unlike the rest, be honest with me.”
“The truth is that I... like ya, Luna.” Luna's eyes widened at the words. “I mean everypony likes you! You're just so beautiful.”
Luna then squinted her eyes. “There are not many who confess that to me.”
“Because they don't think they stand a chance.” Spike gulped as he fought the urge to bite his tongue. “You're just this perfect, unattainable thing. I can't pretend to say that I know you, but... I just hope you'll let somepony know all of you someday.”
“And me wanting to lie on you brought out this confession?”
“I was going to confess to it anyway.” Spike gave the best guilty smile he could. “Can't confess to a girl I've liked for almost a decade, but you? Maybe it's the drink, but I felt like we hit a chord.” He ended up looking down. “Tonight's been strange, but since it already is, it makes sense to get it all out.”
Luna kept watching him silently.
“You can take a nap on me if you like.” He faced her again. “Now that you're up to speed and all that.”
Luna stared at him for a moment longer, making him fear the worse, all until spoke again. “I do believe your body will suffice as a bed for the next hour or so. That is a boundary I wish to pass with you, along with another.”
“What—“
Spike's mouth was shut and stopped by a pair of firm lips. He blinked a few times as his mind struggled to not be overloaded. Hundreds of sensations clashed with a thousand feelings. The goddess from above had come crashing down from the night, all to meet him again.
He wasn't able to think. The closest he came to think was about how the fur on her lips flicked against his own. They were so small, but something about him drove him crazy enough to actually start kissing back.
Spike met no resistance.
He kept kissing and kissing the princess. He felt the rest of her body slowly fall on his own, her chest pressing again his, her limbs dangling off the sides of his body. They were together as one, drunk and outside, moonlight shining on them both.
And soon, sooner than both would have liked, the kiss came to an end. Luna didn't raise her muzzle after that, instead of letting it fall to the side of his head, nuzzling at his neck.
“You pretend you are unworthy of my affections,” Luna whispered into his head, “yet you are the only one to have gone looking for them. I confess I am unaware of what I am doing, and that the trick of the bottle may be swaying my mind.”
“I can forget the—“
Luna lifted a hoof and placed it against his lips.
“You will be forgetting nothing. When we met, you showed me the joys of acting instead of thinking, and because of that, the most fun I've had is on this night.” Luna raised herself so her muzzle was just before his. “It's become apparent to me that personal changes do not come from long stretches of thinking, but rather, courageous actions in a short span of time and then adjusting.”
Spike smiled at her words. He rose a claw to her cheek, cupping it and stroking it with his thumb, enjoying the feel of fur brushing against it. But he still felt doubt. He still felt like he was cheating somehow.
“But are you sure I'm the one worth adjusting for? You don't think all this happened too soon?”
Luna pecked him on the lips.
“I do not know you as I once originally had thought.” Luna leaned into the hold of his claw. “You are far more deep and witty than I could have ever imagined. There is still a sea of knowledge and personality to explore inside of you, and because of that, I am just as intrigued in you as you are in me.”
Spike couldn't have helped himself. He brought his claws around her barrel, pulling her against his body once more, and hugging the mare that had accepted his heart. For so long, he had thought himself boring and unimportant, and to his surprise, Luna thought the same of herself.
They had spent so much time waiting for somepony willing to explore them.
And now, they finally had.
Spike didn't know the full story about Luna. Just like him, neglect had driven her to madness, and she sought a way to bring revenge through her power. His strength and greed brought him the same opportunists, something nopony else but her could understand the temptation of.
Spike and Luna may not have had a lot on the surface, but below that, they were the same soul split into two. But for now, they were content to just lie together, on the grass, enjoying the night that was far from over.