In which Spike ...

by 00_02


In which Spike gets to Sleep

Rarity was still reeling from shock as Twilight ripped the picture of hers off Spike's wall and ran back towards the living room.

Following her, the white unicorn asked, fighting her panic: “What are you doing? What are we going to do?!”

Sweeping the table clear heedless of the books clattering to the floor, Twilight answered: “Cast a spell to find Spike.”

Carefully, Rarity attempted to point out: “Darling … I think you got the wrong picture. That one is a picture of me.”

Clearly this catastrophe was affecting Twilight's ability to think straight as badly as it did Rarity's.

Twilight shot her a withering glare: “I need an item of Spike's that he had strong emotional attachments to!”

“Oh.” Rarity felt an ocean of guilt wash over her, drowning her beneath its waves.

Twilight worked in silence, arranging her preparations, quickly pulling a book from one of the shelves, then dropped it to the ground without further thought as she realized it did not contain what she needed, grabbed another and flipped through the pages so fast she almost tore them off. The door was carefully nudged further open, and their gentle, yellowcoated pegasus friend peeked in.

“Hello? What happened?”

Rarity glanced at the furiously working magician, and decided she'd answer: “We need to find Spike. Really quickly.”

Fluttershy looked at Twilight, and the grim determination on her friend's face told her everything she needed to know. Her eyes hardened, and she nodded briefly: “I'll go get Rainbow Dash!” Her small, yellow wings fluttered rapidly as she sped off to fetch the fastest flier in Ponyville.

“Ah HA!” Twilight exclaimed loudly, slamming the book down. Purple light began to waft around her horn as she chanted:

A magic line for me to see,
A path of gentle magic light
be drawn from me to owner thee
to aid him in his arduous plight.

As the echo of Twilight's voice faded, the glow from her horn began to extend in a thin line to the picture residing on the table. From there it continued, out the door, and after barely a seconds hesitation both mares followed. The line of light progressed fast enough that the two had to maintain a slow gallop to keep up with its leading end, and vanished when Twilight reached its trail. Rarity still had to bite her lip from her feet hurting, but she managed to keep up. The magic led them away from town, through rural areas well known to them. The enchanted scarecrows on the fields next to the road seemed to lean in towards them, their wood emitting an ominous creaking,  and while she knew it was foolish, Rarity felt as if those constructs knew what she had done and were judging her.

As they passed the Apple Acres farm Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs: “APPLEJACK!” but would not slow down. Rarity felt fear grip her heart as she saw the outskirts of the Everfree Forest appear on the horizon. It was quite clear where the magic was guiding them. Rarity tried to console herself with that the spell would not have worked if … something unthinkable had happened. But the grim look on Twilights face did not allow her to cling to that illusion.

Following the magical trail of light, the friends approached the huge trees of the Everfree Forest, growing gnarled and twisted, suffused with magic foreign and frightening to the ponies. Many a dangerous creature dwelt here – from cockatrices to timberwolves – some of which the carriers of the Elements of Harmony had already faced together, some which they hoped they would never see.

As they approached the outskirts of the forest both girls slowed down, their pace reduced by the anxiety they felt. Repeatedly their adventures had forced them to face fears and monsters under the dark canopy. There was no telling what they would encounter this time, whether they were even in time to affect anything. Without conscious thought both of them reached out, grasping the hand of the other. Feeling their friendships reassuring warmth, the two girls exchanged a quick glance and a nod. A wordless understanding was reached: they would do whatever it took, face whoever they had to, in order to find their Spike and bring him back, wherever he might be now.

They had barely entered the forest and reached the first clearing when Twilight let out a shocked gasp. Following her friend's gaze, Rarity saw a heap of purple scales and leathery wings, dwarfed by the huge, gnarled tree towering above it.

“Spike!” Twilight screamed in fear.

To both the girls' surprise, the heap untangled and Spike's tear-stricken face became visible.

“Twilight?” he asked astonished, but then recoiled in horror: “No!”

“Spike, please, you have to come with us! It isn't safe …” the purple unicorn implored.

A wail of agony from the young dragon interrupted her. “I'm so sorry, Twilight! I–I failed you! I'm a disgusting, stupid monster, and now even too much of a coward to kill myself! I mustn't harm you any more! Please, just leave me!”

Twilight shook her head firmly, standing her ground: “I'm not going anywhere without you! You haven't harmed me, you have helped me. I need you, Spike!”

“Please, Twilight! Please!” the shaken dragon continued to beg, and to their horror the girls noticed him holding a sharp piece of wood next to his throat, his hands shaking visibly.

SOMNIA PERMANE!

The wave of light and sheer power that radiated from Twilight made Rarity take a step sideways. Instantly obeying her command, Spike collapsed on the ground, fast asleep. Rarity was slightly shocked: due to Twilight's reluctance to use her full abilities Rarity occasionally forgot just how powerful a magician Celestia's most prodigious student had become. The look on Twilight's face, however, quickly convinced Rarity that all was not well.

“We have to carry Spike out of here.” the sorceress stated with worry tingeing her voice. “Using such strong unicorn magic in the Everfree Forest is very unwise. It attracts … things.”

Rarity decided then and there that she really did not need to find out what things were. She quickly moved over to the sleeping dragon, attempting to lift him up, but even with assistance from her magic found that she did not have enough strength.

After glancing around warily for a second longer, Twilight came to join her, and together they finally managed to move the dragon, though it was a slow and arduous process.

“What the heck is goin' on here?” Applejack's voice made both ponies look up in surprise which quickly turned to relief.

“I'll explain later.” Twilight stated. “First I need you to help us carry Spike to my house.”

“Got it.”

Applejack moved in front of Spike, and with a grunt of exertion shouldered the bulk of the weight of the young dragon. Twilight and Rarity still helped as much as they could, but this made them appreciate just how much stronger their earth pony friend was. Applejack set out at a steady pace, panting and sweating a little but never slowing down. As they left the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash flew towards them at great speed, followed in some distance by Fluttershy.

“I saw some light coming from the Everfree Forest and figured you'd be there!” the blue-coloured pegasus explained. “Who needs a butt-kicking? What happened to Spike?”

Twilight looked pained: “I don't know yet. Spike …” she took a deep breath, slightly shaking her head, “Spike tried to kill himself.”

There were shocked intakes of breath from all the other ponies with the exception of Rarity, but Twilight continued before any questions could be asked: “I need to obtain a full understanding of the situation before we decide to take any action. I have an idea of how to proceed, but I want all my best friends around me when we make that decision. Rainbow Dash, could you please fly ahead and bring Pinkie Pie to my house?”

Dash's face held grim determination as she nodded: “Leave it to me! I got this.” before speeding off as fast as she could towards Ponyville.

Fluttershy tried to help carry Spike as best as she could, but apart from her not really muscular physique there just wasn't much space left to really assist. In the end she settled for carrying Spike's tail so it wouldn't drag over the ground, crying softly and silently.


As they approached Twilight's house, Pinkie and Dash were already waiting for them. Pinkie looked the unhappiest the other ponies had ever seen her.

“Oh Twilight, I am so, so sorry!” she exclaimed, “I feel horrible about not having cheered Spike up as well as I should have. I shouldn't have left him alone. I should have organized a huge break up rebound party!”

The sorceress shook her head: “We were all blindsided by this. Spike actually seemed to be doing better this afternoon … It wasn't until I read some books on psychology that I finally started to piece together what was going on. I am the one who feels guilty about what happened … I thought that I should leave him alone, give him some privacy, and now he …” Twilight trailed off, her voice breaking.

Both Rarity and Fluttershy reached over to console their friend, which left the weight of Spike solely on Applejack's shoulders, forcing a strained grunt from the orange earth pony. Twilight immediately caught herself, and used her magic to help lift Spike again: “Oh! I'm sorry! We need to get Spike inside first, then talk after!”

As Pinkie pushed the door open, Fluttershy immediately noticed the bloody footprints on the floor, and quickly connected them to Rarity's light limp and lack of shoes.

“Rarity! Your feet!” the yellow pegasus voiced with concern.

“It's nothing!” Rarity tried to brush it off, still grimacing a little as they moved inside.

Fluttershy however was not ready to let the issue of her friend's wellbeing go: “Rarity, please sit down! Please let me at least look at your feet and make sure everything is all right.”

Rarity was aware that it was pointless to argue with Fluttershy when she was in nurse mode, so she let herself be pushed on a chair next to the door, the pegasus kneeling down to inspect the source of the bloody footprints. As Applejack and Twilight carried Spike forward, Pinkie moved to Fluttershy: “Can I help you any with this?”

“Not right now, but thank you.” the pegasus replied with a timid smile.

The living room the ponies entered featured – much to the unicorn's embarrassment – the framed picture of Rarity on the center table, surrounded by the books that Twilight had swept aside or dropped in her frantic search for the spell to find Spike. Twilight twitched slightly as she saw the books lying in chaos, some on their pages, the paper folded or torn. With a deep breath she pushed the disorder and probable damage to the valuable books as far from her mind as she could. She would deal with that later: no book, no matter how rare, could ever be as important as Spike to her.

“Let's place him on the sofa.” Twilight decided, and after a bit of effort the dragon was resting on his side at the aforementioned spot.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had been gently inspecting Rarity's feet, carefully cleaning out the objects stuck in her flesh. She disappeared to Twilight's kitchen briefly, then returned with a rag, a bucket of water and some bandages.

“It's going to be fine, Rarity.” she told her friend softly. “But this might sting a tiny bit. I need to disinfect the scratches to make sure there won't be any inflammation.”

Reassured that she need not be concerned about Rarity's feet, Rainbow Dash asked: “How long is he going to sleep?”

“Until the first light of morning at least.” Twilight was quick to answer. “Magically induced sleep is not really restful, it's more like a coma than actual sleep, and if you use it too often it may actually cause brain damage …”

Twilight's nervous tirade was interrupted by Rarity's hand touching her softly. Looking at Rarity, Twilight found her smiling gently.

“You did it for Spike.” her unicorn friend reassured her. The sight of her friend's smile and her kind words made some of the tension leave Twilight's body.

“So, um, …” Applejack asked carefully, “is this all 'cause of his breakup with Rising Up?”

Twilight cringed: “Some other stuff happened as well … I'm not entirely sure, I'll tell you more about it in a moment. Spike wouldn't tell me what is up … I have this spell that I have been thinking about using, which would put him in a trance where he will not lie, but it's sort of an invasion of his privacy so I'm really not sure if we should …”

“Let's do it!” Rainbow Dash was as quick to decide as she usually was. “We need to actually understand what's going on, and why Spike did what he did. Going into the Everfree Forest is no joke.”

Twilight looked at her courageous friend, and seeing nodding faces all around, agreed to go ahead with the course of action she had wanted to take all along: “All right, but you all need to promise me you won't say a word. We will be communicating directly with Spike's subconscious mind, so we need to be very careful.”

Another round of nods later, Twilight began casting the spell:

Talk without waking, without fear.
This now be your single task:
Speak your mind for us to hear,
Answer all that we might ask!

The purple unicorn's horn glowed briefly with magic, then the light faded. After a few seconds, Pinkie Pie broke the silence with a remarkably loud whisper: “Did it work?”

A number of angry glares and “Shhhh!”s later, Twilight turned back to Spike and asked imperiously: “Spike, do you hear me?”

There was a definitive reaction, the dragon moved and groaned, but not a clear verbal answer.

Twilight tried again: “Spike, why did you … why did you try to kill yourself?”

This time, there were words. Burying his face in his hands, Spike mumbled: “… failure. … harmed Twilight. Made Twilight cry.”

Twilight started: “You didn't …” but interrupted herself before she finished the sentence. Taking a deep breath, she asked instead: “Why do you think you harmed Twilight?”

Spike's whimpers of pain were heart-rending for all the ponies to hear: “So dumb! So stupid! I'm a dragon! Disgusting monster, scaly, unkissable … Why did I believe that I could be allowed to hope for romance? So stupid!”

“Why do you think you are disgusting or unkissable?” Twilight continued to query.

“Rising Up said it … heard her talk with Lickedy. Why did I believe the lies that I could be a gentleman? I knew what I am! I can't ever have love! But I want to so bad! Mustn't cause harm any more! Mustn't …”

Spike trailed off into groans and whines rather than actual words, and dug his claws so hard into his arms the girls worried he might draw blood.

“Somnia permane!”

Twilight recanted the spell again, much softer this time, sending Spike back to his magically induced sleep.

After a few seconds looking at Spike the sorceress turned to her friends: “Well … that did tell us why he broke down. For now I want to make certain that Spike is never alone until we are convinced he is better. There are other issues that I need to deal with, so I'll have to ask that some of you help me and keep an eye on Spike when I'm gone.”

Rainbow Dash was shocked: “Other issues than Spike?!”

Twilight gave her a sharp look: “Other issues concerning Spike.”

Spike's adoptive sister took a couple of deep breaths: “You all heard Spike about making me cry. What actually happened was … today, shortly before lunch some ponies showed up, claiming that Rising Up accused Spike of trying to blackmail her into having sex with him. Spike heard them before I could deal with it and had a nervous breakdown, so I told them to get lost. He screamed that he never did anything and never intended to do anything and that he did not know that Rising thought kissing him was gross, and also that she started the kiss. Spike was really distraught over the whole thing, and seeing him break down was what made me cry.”

As the other ponies stared at Twilight open-mouthed, Applejack was the first to find her voice: “You're kidding, right?”

“Do you think I would joke about a matter like this?!” Twilight all but hissed.

“Eh … no, sorry! It's just … That someone would … She actually accused Spike of tryin' to blackmail her for sex?!”

Applejack still had great trouble believing that anyone would be capable of such an act.

Rainbow Dash was beginning to work up a righteous fury: “Oh, that little … We should … We should …”

“We should kill her.”

The words, spoken calmly and quietly, shocked five of the ponies in the room. Turning to the source, they saw Fluttershy, a few tears escaping her eyes, but elsewise calm as an iceberg.

“Fluttershy …” Rarity was just this side of horrified, and tried to reason: “Weren't you the one who said that we should have compassion, even with those who are flawed? Shouldn't we show her kindness and consider forgiving her?”

Rarity desperately needed Fluttershy as representative of the Element of Kindness on her side to calm the impending fury of her friends.

But Fluttershy shook her head: “She is not only harming Spike with her slander to the point where she almost caused his death, her lies are harming every girl who actually was pressured, every girl who is being pressured now to do … those kind of things, and she is using their suffering as a shield to hide behind and as a weapon against Spike. If she is the cause of so much misery, if she deliberately hurts others and only cares to use them and then throw them away, then the only kindness that can be shown is to grant her a quick and painless death.”

Rarity felt lost. If Fluttershy joined Rainbow Dash and Applejack in wanting to lash out, then who should she turn to to reign them in? To her surprise, help came from Twilight: “Trust me, Fluttershy, I will do something, and I will not let this go unanswered. But for now, I need your help in saving Spike. Will you please leave dealing with Rising Up to me and aid me in taking care of Spike, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut and drew a deep breath, a few last tears running down her face. With a shaky sigh she looked back at Twilight, smiling again: "Ok."

She could see the other ponies who had been looking at her with shock and concern relax as they again saw the kind and friendly expression on their friend's face that they were so used to.

Rainbow Dash was still a bit worried about her longest time friend: "Are you all right, Fluttershy?"

"Yes, I'm fine. We should focus on Spike. Twilight knows what she's doing."

Choosing to trust the pink-haired girl, Applejack asked a question that had been lingering on her mind for a while: "Can't we just use that spell to talk to Spike's subconscious and tell him that he did nothing wrong, and that he is a fine guy?"

Twilight shook her head with decisiveness: “No. That would be incredibly dangerous, and we would probably do more harm than good. Do you know what cognitive dissonance is? Anyway, using magic to manipulate someone else's subconscious is highly unethical, and went horribly wrong in every single case that I have read where it was attempted.”

Accepting that Twilight just had way superior knowledge on any magical issues, Applejack continued: “I don't get why Spike thinks he ain't prime material. I mean the man's friggin buff!”

Once again the earth pony's brain only caught up with her mouth once the latter was done talking, and she started blushing profusely. Why the heck couldn't she just keep her yabbering trap shut?

Rainbow Dash, however, seemed to see nothing wrong with agreeing: “Yeah, he's quite hot, and really a great guy which is even more important.”

Twilight shook her head lightly: “Spike has been doting on Rarity for years. He is now convinced that whenever someone says something that would improve his self image, they are just trying to be kind rather than truthful.”

Rarity reacted somewhat angry: “So this is all my fault, now?”

Twilight had some anger of her own: “You cannot really deny that you were sending him mixed signals, can you?!”

Rarity yelled in tears: “Well, what was I supposed to do? He was still so small, it would have been like I was robbing a cradle! And he's a dragon!”

The book on dragons Twilight had read was still very fresh in her mind: “So?! Does that mean he is worth any less? Does that make him less of what you call a gentleman? Or is it all just about outward appearances and social status with you? What is it that Spike did wrong? Where did he fall short of those inachievably high standards you set?”

Fluttershy meekishly tried to dissolve the developing argument: “Can we please not fight? We all want to help Spike, right? If we start to get mad and yell at each other that will not make anyone get better. I … Please! Can we not fight?” She seemed to be on the verge of tears herself.

Rarity, no longer able to deal with the stress and the tension building in her soul, just broke down and started to cry: “I … I'm sorry!”

Twilight, her anger from seeing Spike hurt calmed by Fluttershy's words and the sight of Rarity crying, sighed: “No, Rarity. I am sorry. What I said was uncalled for. And you are right. He was so young … too young. It wouldn't have worked. And it will not now, if you just have no feelings for him. I am sorry for lashing out at you, I just …”

Twilight had to stop and swallow, overcome with emotion. “I hope you can forgive me knowing that it was because of how upset Spike's pain is making me. I shouldn't have taken this out on you.”

Rarity looked up, offering Twilight as much of a smile as she could under the circumstances, and the two shared a hug with Twilight shedding a few tears of her own.

“Daaawww!” Pinkie swooned, putting her arms around Applejack and Rainbow Dash and pushing them over to where Rarity was sitting. “Group Hug of Friendship!” she declared, and after a few moments of hesitation from Applejack and Rainbow Dash the two accepted there was no overruling the party pony and put their arms around the other girls as much as they could. Fluttershy staid to the side at first, looking a little lost and forlorn, but when Pinkie, smiling, beckoned her with her hands, she also joined in after just a few seconds of hesitation, putting both her arms and wings most gently on the backs of her friends.


As they calmed down, Pinkie Pie returned to the problem at hand: “So we need to make Spike stop believing no one will ever want to be his mare, but words won't work. Well, the solution is obvious then: we just all need to jump his boners!”

Once again, Pinkamena Pie managed to collect open-mouthed stares from all of her five friends.

Feeling that maybe she hadn't quite made her point clear enough, Pinkie attempted to elaborate: “Rock his world, do the naughties, let him plough our fields or more accurately twats, fuck him senseless …”

Rarity yelled at the top of her lungs: “PINKAMENA PIE!” She thought her head would explode from all the blood rushing into it: “I cannot believe you just said that!”

Rainbow Dash however quickly connected the dots, and saw how she could finally help one of her longest time friends: “Well, I get that you want to make Spike feel better about himself, but isn't it sorta weird if we all start to … um … do it with him? I mean, shouldn't we rather pick one of us who'll be his girlfriend?”

Fluttershy could hear Rainbow Dash yelling at her without moving her lips: 'Come on, Fluttershy! Speak up!'

Pinkie shook her head so vigorously that her red hair was flying. “You all admitted that you find Spike sexy – would you feel good getting hammered by him while you know one of your friends also wants to but can't, because you took that opportunity from them? Isn't being friends about sharing? And if only one of us rutted Spike, he would bond with that person exclusively and if those two then ever have a fight, we'll need to run into the Everfree Forest again! That's not healthy! Friends need to be able to have good, proper fights, so that there can be hot and heavy make up sex after!”

Fluttershy, still keeping eye contact with Rainbow Dash, nodded silently, slowly but with decisiveness.

Applejack broke the brief silence with an awed voice: “Ya know … it always scares me when Pinkie is the one of us who actually makes the most sense.”

Feeling that her good friend went a little to far with that statement Rainbow Dash gave her a nudge and a stare that the earth pony knew all too well: “Hey!”

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck embarrassedly, and apologized to Pinkie: “Sorry. I meant nothin' by it. It's just that if you make more sense than Twilight, then the situation's way off the rails. Your nature's just way better meant at dealing with things getting to that level of crazy.”

Pinkie did not seem to be bothered by any of this, grabbed a notepad and a pen from a desk nearby and began to scribble: “We'll have a raffle! Twilight said Spike shouldn't be alone, so we'll draw names and each of us will in turn spend a day with Spike to watch over him and do as much naughties as we can manage.”

After a second of hesitation, there were nods all around from the other ponies. They could give up one day out of six to make sure Spike was all right, and while it wasn't quite what Pinkie had meant, 'as much as we can manage' sounded fair: if they found that they just weren't comfortable in getting physical with Spike, there wouldn't be any pressure.

Pinkie was taking quite some time writing each of the girls' names on slips of paper she ripped off the notepad. The earth pony's speciality was throwing parties rather than academics as it turned out.

As they waited Rainbow Dash could not resist the urge to boast and banter: “Oh, I will be the one to make Spike completely loose his mind! I'll ride him like a cowgirl.”

Applejack shook her head: “This isn't a competition, Dash. Also, you don't know a thing about ridin'.”

Rainbow Dash struck a pose, hitting her own flank: “What, you scared of competing against the hottest ass in all of Equestria?”

In response Applejack also delivered a solid smack on Dash's ass, drawing a pained yelp from the girl, and laughed: “Hah! You can't even take a single swat from me! If Spike wants to give you a solid spanking, you'll be cryin' uncle 'fore he even gets to thirty! It's on, baby!”

Fluttershy watched the exchange with her hands clasped over her mouth and nose and eyes as large as saucers. Spike might want to … hit a ponies behind? Oh … Oh my …

Pinkie having finally finished putting the names on notes, quickly grabbed Applejack's hat before the blonde could protest and threw the pieces of paper in. She jumbled them around for a while as she fished for one, her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth while she somehow still managed to imitate a drum-roll noise with her throat. After a few seconds her eyes lit up, one of the slips of paper was pulled out, Pinkie brought it to her face and announced:

“And our first winner iiiiiis: APPLEJACK!!!”

The blonde earth pony took the wrinkled paper drawing a deep breath: “Whooo-boy.”

With shorter theatrics the pink earth pony extracted and read the second name:

“And our second winner iiiiiis: RAINBOW DASH!!!”

Her pegasus friend snatched the note from her hand with decisiveness: “Leave it to me!”

Seemingly dissatisfied with just how smoothly that went Pinkie spent a bit more time on selecting the next name to pull out of her hat:

“And our third winner iiiiiis: RARITY!!!”

Rarity was still a little hesitant. “Do we … really …” she trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.

Twilight's tone was calm and collected: “Don't force yourself to do this if you don't want to. We'll do it without you if you say that you just do not feel comfortable with this.”

“No.” Rarity took a couple of deep, shaky breaths. “This is fine.”

Pinkie had no time for this conversation to continue as she was getting into her finest wrestling announcer imitation:

“And our fourth winner iiiiiis: FLLLLLLLLLLLLLLUTTERSHYYYY!!!”

Fluttershy took the small piece of paper with wide eyes, and held it with both hands in front of her mouth as if it was a treasure.

Pinkie's mind had by now completely slipped to the act she was delivering. She now sounded more like a circus announcer:

“And our fifth winner iiiiiis: The Mysterious TWILIGHT!!!”

Twilight was working hard to suppress a nervous twitch. The paper slip in her hand read 'Twilit'.

“And our sixth winner iiiiiis: …” Pinkie had a little bit of trouble unfolding the crumpled paper, then making out the scribbling on it. As she did, her eyes widened and she started jumping up and down gleefully: “Meeeee!!! I won! I won! Do you believe that? I won!”

Twilight facepalmed.