It was a few days before Rarity heard from Spike again, just at the week’s end and just after she’d fulfilled a shipment of ballgowns, tuxedos and their various accoutrements to Trottingham for the upcoming post-Summer Wrap-Up festival there. As a matter of fact, she heard the knock at the Carousel Boutique’s door so soon after signing for the pick-up that she thought the deliverypony had forgotten something.
She swung the top half of the door open. ‘Is there anything else–’ she started, then realised she was talking to thin air and looked down. Spike was standing there, and he looked up at her.
‘Spikey-Wikey, what a surprise! ...How are you? Come in, come in, come in!’ she said, opening the bottom half, ‘How have you been since we talked, darling?’
Spike walked in and Rarity shut the door behind him. ‘Sorry, can I just… are you busy?’ Spike said. He seemed deflated, but not nearly as badly as their last talk. ‘I was wondering if I could help out while you worked.’
Rarity had hoped for news, but there was no point in pressuring the poor boy. ‘Well I mean, I do have an appointment for a fitting in an hour, but didn’t you see the cart full of dresses leave here just a moment ago? I just finished my big order for the week and I was about to relax with some tea and cake in the meantime. Would you like to join us?’ She walked Spike from the boutique’s shopfront to the parlour.
‘Us? Oh, yeah, are Yona or Sweetie Belle around? I guess that’s fine, but, uh…’
‘No, silly, Yona doesn’t work Fridays through Sundays and you know Sweetie Belle tutors at the School of Friendship today. I meant Opalescence and I!’
‘Oh, uh, right. That’s cool.’ Not that he didn’t enjoy either Sweetie nor Yona’s company, but Spike had hoped to get Rarity alone, and her cat’s presence was as good as that. ‘Tea sounds great. Um, mind if I help?’
Rarity chuckled. ‘Always the helpful one, aren’t you? Dear me… it won’t take me two ticks, you just sit and relax while I put the kettle on. I hope chai’s alright with you, it’s all I’ve got… I just haven’t had the time to pop into the tea shop this week!’
Spike wasn’t that fond of chai, but he didn’t decline. As Rarity left the room he sat on the ornate chaise-longue next to where Opalescence was snoozing – it was the seat he’d preferred in the past, though it’d been a few moons since he’d visited. He approached hesitantly in case temperamental Opal tried to scare him off, and after scooting his rump onto the seat he hazarded petting her while Rarity tinkered around in the kitchen. She didn’t seem to mind this time.
‘All ready!’ Rarity cooed after a few minutes. Filled porcelain teacups and lemon cream cake floated into the room and came to a rest on the oval table a moment before she trotted back in and reclined on the chaise-longue that mirrored the other upon which Spike sat, and Opal unceremoniously dumped Spike for her mistress’ lap. He felt faintly betrayed.
Spike looked at the tea he’d been served – it wasn’t chai, it was black, as he liked it, and it had a rainbow streak swirling around its centre. ‘I found a tad of zap apple jam and some black teabags at the back of the cupboard,’ Rarity explained, ‘So I stirred a spoonful into a cup of black tea. I know you like that more than boring old chai.’
He removed the teabag from his cup onto its saucer and lifted it to his lips for a sip, pinky claw extended. It was refreshing, the electric zing packing a kick he hadn’t enjoyed in a while – Gabby only ever bought instant coffee. ‘Mmm! Thanks, Rarity. This is really nice.’
Rarity giggled and blushed, just a little. ‘Oh, it’s really nothing. I was lucky to find that at all, as I said…’
As she took a dainty slurp of her own tea and a bite of cake, Spike made small talk. ‘So, uh, nice weather we’re having?’
‘It’s been bright all week, but it’s gotten chilly early for the time of year, I’ve noticed… I could see my breath when I stepped outside earlier. That’s probably why that order to Trottingham I just sent out was noticeably premature compared to last year’s – they might be doing their Summer Wrap-Up slightly early.’
‘Oh… I don’t really notice small changes in temperature, or mist breath, being a dragon and all. Did they pay you well for the dresses?’
‘Well, I get paid a little more for the express service, but you know, it’s less time to get everything done… at least I have my process streamlined and Yona on hoof to help and everything else I had booked this week was local and anyway what happened with Gabby how is she how are you feeling tell me everything! I simply must know!’ Rarity lurched forward with widening eyes as she finished the sentence, her voice compacting from her usual warble into a breathy growl. Opal leapt off her in alarm, glared at her then washed herself on the floor.
Spike flashed her a sardonic look, and Rarity slapped her hooves over her mouth in embarrassment. ‘Oh, dash it! That just slipped out, I swear… I’m so sorry, but I must admit I have been wondering.’
‘It’s alright, Rarity; it is why I came over. Yeah, we’re officially through, but it was weird,’ said Spike, ‘Theatrical. Stuff happened I didn’t expect. Thanks for the heads-up about the wicker statues, I dunno if I could’ve handled what happened if I hadn’t been prepared.’
Rarity relaxed back into her seat and looked serious. ‘“Weird” how? Elucidate me if you will, dear.’
Spike took a considered, bulging mouthful of his entire slice of cake before continuing. ‘I’m still processing it. Like, this just happened an hour ago or less? I’ll just tell you everything – offloading a bit might help get my head straight.’ Opalescence chose that moment to hop back onto Spike’s couch, and he leant slightly to his left to make room.
He clinked his half-emptied teacup onto the table and inhaled in preparation for regaling Rarity with his story. ‘Twilight sent me over to Ponyville this morning to secure an antique chair Sunburst told her about, for one of the libraries in the castle,’ he said, ‘And I figured, “It’s now or never, Spike.” About Gabby, I mean – you know I’ve been having trouble plucking up the gumption to see her and who knew when I’d be back in Ponyville next? So I took care of my stated business then flew over to her place.’
Spike continued as Rarity nodded and queried along. ‘As I approached the birdhouse I saw some of the wicker… should I say statues? Figures,’ Spike deliberated, contemplating petting Rarity’s cat again, ‘Littering the grass nearby. I wasn't sure what Gabby was going for with those, but I didn’t like it – they were a mishmash of various creature shapes all knitted together however, near as I could tell. Sorta like Discord but not really. Kinda freaky. I wasn’t sure knocking on the front shutter was a good idea, but I did it anyway. There was this rustling noise inside for a while before she answered, and when she opened the shutter a mess of twigs poured out.’
‘She’d been busy, plainly,’ said Rarity, resting her elbows on the table in concentration.
‘Well, keep listening, it gets stranger,’ said Spike, idly scritching behind Opalescence’s ear. She’d yawned while Rarity was speaking, which seemed like as good a go-ahead as any. ‘When Gabby swung the shutter open and saw it was me, she was real perky – like she normally is? She greeted me with a hug and said it was delightful to see me! I was prepared for her to be depressed or mad at me, so that was disarming, but she didn’t invite me in, she left the house and closed the shutter behind her. She spent a little while talking at me about what she’s been up to the past few weeks, during her rounds, creatures she’d met and what I’d missed out on, I wasn’t listening real hard to be honest with you. Eventually I had to interrupt her and tell her we needed to talk. Properly.’
‘So what did she say?’
Opalescence melted from sitting to lying down, popping her head on Spike’s lap and purring into his thigh. Spike wasn’t the world’s biggest cat dragon, but it was fine – stroking her fur gave him something relaxing to do with his claws while he relayed things to Rarity. ‘She agreed with me very enthusiastically, then turned towards the clearing behind her house and told me to follow her because she had something to show me. I asked if it was more of the wicker figures, and she said “My chimeras? Sure do, I want you to meet the whole family!” That was… forboding, but I wanted to see things through so we both flew over to the clearing. It was a lot bigger than it used to be – there used to be hedges and such back there that I guess was fuel for the figures – and it must’ve been, because there were dozens of the things!’
‘She landed on this round stage in the middle with some stuff on it, that wasn’t there before, but I stayed airborne to take a look at them. They were arranged all in a semi-circle around the stage and they were all different shapes and sizes and species – griffons crossed with dragons crossed with ponies crossed with hippogriffs crossed with zebras crossed with kirin crossed with griffons – some species I’ve never set eyes on, even. I’d’ve been impressed by the, uh, range and originality of the designs if I wasn’t getting disturbed by her monomania.’
Rarity’s eyes widened a bit. ‘Goodness, Spikey… you weren't in any danger, were you? That sounds like the set-up for a scene from one of those ghastly horror stories Rainbow Dash likes, right before the gore goes flying!’
‘You’re telling me. I was getting worried, but we were in broad daylight and I wasn't scared of Gabby. Anyway, after drinking that in, I lowered a bit; she was saying something but I was too high up to hear. She introduced me to some of the figures closest to the stage, and then more of them, then more of them, and she kept going… each of them had a name, a personality, preferences like food, hobbies, favourite colour… after the seventh or eighth I’d had enough and I told her to stop, this was insane! I was about to tell her that it was incredibly over, especially after this, but she interrupted me and said, since she’d been able to make all these without my help and I obviously didn't appreciate them, that it was over between us. And she was so cheerful about it, too!’
‘Oh. Was that it, then?’ asked Rarity.
‘I thought so, but it wasn't. She’d planned out this entire… performance. She told me to sit down, so I sat nearby the stage for some reason instead of getting the heck out of there… morbid curiosity about where this was all going, maybe? There was a gramophone attached to a big pair of speakers on the stage she was on, and after taking a moment to gain composure and clear her throat, she put the needle onto the record.’
‘So, she’d prepared a break-up song?’
Spike withdrew from petting Opal in favour of downing the dregs of his teacup before continuing. ‘Uh-huh. She grabs a microphone from atop one of the speakers and begins singing this, uh, gothic power ballad, I guess? About what our relationship meant to her and how we were soulmates, and how upset she was that it was over. And she was pretty sad. The more I watched the worse I felt.’
‘Well, I’m hardly surprised. Somecreature as habitually upbeat as Gabby must take solace from art as catharsis during trying times,’ reflected Rarity.
‘Cathy-whatnow?’ asked Spike.
‘Art as an outlet for emotions, Spikey. Excuse me, do continue.’
‘Sorry, sure. So the song went on like that for a few minutes until she started to reach a crescendo, and when she hit it, oh man…’ breathed Spike, ‘The tone of the song exploded.’ He jumped in his seat and made an expanding motion with both arms for dramatic effect, suddenly enough to frighten Opalescence into a “mreowl!” from her resting spot onto the floor for a second time.
‘Spike! Please be careful!’ admonished Rarity. She coaxed the visibly annoyed Opal back onto her seat with her favourite toy mouse, and held her close as an apology. ‘Oh, Opalescence, darling… mommy’s sorry, baby,’ she whispered, and gently smooched behind her cat’s ears. ‘And Spike’s sorry too for giving you such a fright! Aren’t you, Spike.’
Spike blushed. ‘Uh, yeah, I didn’t mean to do that. Sorry, Opal.’ said Spike.
Opal looked bored as she laid back down on Rarity’s lap. ‘She forgives you, dear, not to worry. Do continue?’
‘Sure, where was I? Oh yeah, after she’d been singing for a while the song’s tone exploded, and so did Gabby’s singing voice – she can really belt it out! And so did the wicker figures. I have no idea how she rigged up the pyrotechnics for it but somehow, she’d set it up so gouts of flame shot out of the ground and razed the lot of them! The bigger ones had fireworks inside them that shot into the air, not that you could see them in the sky because, well, it’s been sunny all day.’
Rarity stroked her cat and glanced at the window behind Spike’s head – she’d been too busy to be outside for the lion’s share of the day despite an awareness of how bright it’d been, and while she’d been working she’d lost track of the time. It was a little surprising to her that the sun had come around to the west. ‘My goodness, I suppose that is the time,’ she said, looking back at Spike, ‘And my goodness! It was all safe, wasn’t it? Nothing burned that wasn’t supposed to, I hope?’
‘She’d thinned things out enough that there was enough distance from the figures to the forest’s edge that it was probably fine, but besides that, she used magic fire. Mine, actually. It doesn’t really spread the way normal fire does. Y’see, a while ago I gave Gabby a candle for her birthday,’ Spike explained, changing the subject for a moment, ‘She likes candles. When I gave it to her I lit it with my own breath. I thought it was romantic at the time, and,’ he chuckled, ‘It is kind of a nice thought. And when those flames went up, Rarity, they were green, and I knew immediately. She hadn’t just torched all the weird figures she’d spent weeks crafting, she’d done it with my dragon fire! She must’ve kept that flame burning all that time…’
Rarity smiled incredulously – she’d kept a straight face throughout Spike’s story so far but this was too much. ‘Dear, dear me, a literal torch song. Symbolic, you suppose?’
‘It wasn’t lost on me, trust me. She kept going with the song for a while longer, describing her feelings and her plans for a future without me – I caught something about finding somecreature new, preferably another dragon, and living on a canal boat with them, if you can believe that – and the song wound down and that was it. There was a long pause until I applauded – she was obviously waiting for that – and she bowed, and leant forward to shake my claw with both of hers, and said, “Well, hope you enjoyed that, Spike! We had a good time, don’t you think? It’s too bad you came over while the sun’s still up, it would’ve been better at night but I think that went pretty well, don’t you? Well, it’s getting late and I’m tired after all that singing! Toodles!” And then she hopped off the stage, and flew inside, and locked the shutter. I took the hint and saw myself back to Ponyville. I got myself two scoops from Sugarcube Corner, then came over to see you.’
Rarity finished off her tea, which was starting to get cold. ‘Well! That sounds rather final indeed. Good for her for dealing with it in a… strange, but nominally healthy manner. From what Gallus told me I thought she was in deep denial of the possibility.’
‘Yeah… I feel like a, a real idiot for running away and crying about it, now,’ said Spike a little bitterly, ‘I just didn’t know how to deal with it until you talked me into seeing her. Turned out all I really needed to do was show up, and she took care of the rest. Which…’ he sighed and trailed off.
‘Come again, darling?’ Rarity prompted.
‘Oh, nothing really. I just heard myself say that, and, I dunno, these past moons I’d been feeling that a lot with Gabby. She’d lead everything and I’d follow, I guess? And that was fine when it was something I wanted to do, but when she said she wanted kids all those times, I couldn’t go along with it and I bailed.’
‘Hmm.’ Instead of answering further, Rarity magically gathered the spent cups and saucers into stacks.
‘Anyways, enough of that – I just have some regrets, is all. It’s not really anything to do with you. Can I help you clean up? I’d really like to,’ asked Spike.
Rarity seemed distracted for a moment before she responded. ‘It wouldn’t take long for me to clear this myself, Spikey. It’s fine, really…’
Spike smiled and hopped off his couch, ‘It’s the least I could do, Rarity. You’ve been there for me for some real personal stuff this past week. You didn’t have to be, but you were, and I appreciate that…’ He stepped around the table and looked into Rarity’s eyes, and was surprised that they looked watery around the edges. ‘Rarity, are you okay?’
She clutched Opal close and looked guilty, shrinking away as Spike looked at her. ‘No, no… I mean, yes! Yes, completely, I’m absolutely fine.’
‘Rarity. You’ve listened to me talk about my relationship problems for goodness-knows how long and suddenly you’ve clammed up on me, and I can tell when something’s bugging you. It must be something I said, right?’
Rarity relaxed a little, but not much, and Spike’s brow furrowed. ‘Well, I’m taking these cups and saucers into the kitchen,’ he said, ‘If you’ve nothing else to say to me once I’m done, I’ll get on my way – you said you had an appointment soon, right? And I guess I’ll need to check in with Twilight soon, anyway. I told her about Gabby so she won’t be expecting me home right away, but if I hang around too much longer I’ll be flying back to Canterlot in the dark.’
She sighed in response, and Spike did as he’d said. Rarity moped on the couch as Opalescence squirmed out of her grasp and made for her water bowl, somewhat displeased by Rarity’s clinginess a minute before. She listened to the porcelain clink and sploosh around in the sink as Spike cleaned up. He was right, he had said something that had troubled her, but she was having problems with the why, and the how of expressing it. After a minute’s light sulking she jumped off the couch and headed for the kitchen where Spike was. It just wouldn’t do to leave things like this. She needed to be straight with him about her concerns.
‘Spikey?’ said Rarity as she trotted in where Spike was just draining the sink, task complete.
Spike took off his rubber gloves, turned around and hopped off the stool he’d been using to reach the countertop. ‘Hey, Rarity. A bit for your thoughts?’
‘I just wanted to say, I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘For how I acted just now, but also, I… I realised something. You know how you said, and I paraphrase, “Gabby led, and I followed”?’
‘Yeah…?’
‘I feel like I shoulder some blame for that, that’s all, darling. All those years we were friends before you hit it off with Gabby, I… did you ever think of the times I did things that you wanted to do when you asked?’
‘Uh…’ Spike thought hard for a moment, ‘Did we ever do that?’
‘No… noooooo. No, we never did. Everything, everything we did together was at my behest! Don’t you think that’s wrong, that you were at my beck and call for years like that?’
‘I never really thought about it like that, but I guess you’re right. I mean, I didn’t mind, Rarity. I’m used to doing assistant stuff for Twilight, so when I… when we made friends and you wanted to go mining, or shopping, or whatever, it was my pleasure to help you out. We got work done, we did fun stuff and we had a good time together, don’t you think?’ Spike stopped himself for a moment, again pondering his own words. ‘Wait, is there an echo in here?’ It was meant to be, but it didn’t sound much like a joke.
He followed Rarity back into the parlour as she spoke again. ‘It makes me wonder somewhat, that’s all. Have I… have we, I mean generally, all of us ponies, always treated you fairly? You say you don’t mind assisting me, or Twilight, or anypony who needs it for that matter, but are you sure it’s really okay?’
He didn’t reply to that, and Rarity looked closely for his reaction – he looked perturbed and more than a little unhappy. ‘I’m so sorry, Spikey. I’m making your break-up with Gabby about me, aren’t I?’ she said, ‘Oh, dear, I am selfish…’
Spike eventually answered. ‘Maybe I should go.’
Rarity felt teary again. ‘Oh, I’m so so sorry, truly! I didn’t mean to–’
‘It’s not that. I think I need some time to think about what you just said. About me.’ He flapped his wings and hovered. ‘I’ll come back, honest. Really, I promise, Rarity. I just, bye.’
‘Spikey-Wikey, come back!’ Rarity called after him, ‘At least take some cake back to Twilight!’ But he was gone. After waiting a moment in case he returned, she sat down and clutched a pillow. ‘Oh, drat,’ she whispered to herself.
She stayed like that for a few minutes, during which time Opalescence rubbed up against her back hooves, before looking at the time – her dress-fitting appointment with Flitter was just fifteen minutes away, her final job of the day. She sighed one last time before she fed Opalescence, put on her gown-face and left the parlour to prepare the shop floor for her customer’s impending arrival.