Spike woke easily the next... well, looking at the clock on the dresser next to the bed, it was only barely still morning.
He shifted under the sheet, shuffling onto his back from his side and stretching, careful to keep his spikes down and not ruin the mattress he was on. Finally, after he relaxed with both arms on top of the sheet and his head staring up at the gentle swirl in the ceiling, he let himself think about yesterday and everything that had happened.
Spike, you're a Dragon.
He grunted, and used his imagination to visualize picking up a plain, if large, brown box and setting it to the side. It was a hurdle, but a race isn't only made of one jump. He sorted through his mind, trying to align everything else he had done or witnessed yesterday.
A lot had happened yesterday though.
The long train ride. The talk with Clear Sights.
The sessions with Cadance. Discovering just how unhappy he had been.
Rarity showing up. Her admitting that she had been avoiding him towards the end.
Her expressing fear of his species. Fear of him.
His literal flight away from here, from her, and the massive set of wings now melted away with the magic overnight.
His brief thought of going military.
Fluttershy's seeming acceptance.
He still cared for her.
He sighed, letting the air flow through his nose and releasing a trickle of the building tension in his spine, as well as a bit of smoke. He needed to be careful, to... Not to keep tight reins on his feeling, that was the opposite of helpful, but to keep a closer eye on them. Make sure they didn't overflow like yesterday. Take a break if they started to go haywire.
He rolled over, propping himself up on a limb as he looked around the room for the mares that had shared the room last night.
The first thing he noticed was that he seemed to be the only one that had slept in this bed, based on how the sheet was disturbed and the smells he could sense. Adding to this was the fact that the other, smaller, bed had two pillows on it that had divots from use.
Lifting an eyebrow he sniffed at the air in the room again, confirming that the only musk there was his own faint background smell.
He hadn't figured for anything to have happened, especially overnight, but curiosity has a tight grip.
He swept the sheet over him away, swinging his legs out of the bed and standing. He felt his spine ready itself to flex, and a half-smile pasted itself on his lips. Standing on his back two legs, he strode over to the door and opened it, looking out into the hallway.
He saw the one guard slowly making rounds through the hallway, and they nodded to each other as the mare passed him, but besides that the place was empty.
Ducking back into the room he inspected the tops of the furniture briefly, then the floor just in case, but wasn't able to find a note or anything of the like. He quickly made his way back to the door and looked down the hallway.
"Uhm, excuse me?" he called, and the guard that was a few rooms down turned and saluted. "Oh, thanks but that's not needed. Did anypony happen to leave a message with you guys about me?"
The mare's hoof returned to the floor as her eyes went slightly unfocused, chewing her bottom lip gently before shaking her head. "I'm sorry Sir Spike, but there was no such thing given to me by the guard I replaced, and my commander said nothing currently pertinent during the brief before my shift this morning."
"Oh, okay," he said, nodding. "Thank you."
She nodded, giving another quick salute before turning smartly and continuing her slow patrol of the palace wing.
His ear-spikes twitched as he watched the back of the mare's head walk away, his mind lost in possibilities and chances of where everyone was. He remained there, lost in thought until his stomach rumbled below his ribs.
He snorted at himself before he shrugged. Closing the door behind himself, he started for the popular dining room he'd been seeing ponies in for the last... day.
Damn, but didn't it feel like a lot longer to him.
The way was already as well as memorized for him still, and he made it there in a few minutes easily. Feeling a little weird he knocked on the door before entering, smiling when he saw Flurry Heart looking at him from the table where she had a book laying.
"Yo Wildberry," he said a bit wearily, taking up the seat directly across from her.
"Yo Grapes," she smirked with a nod. "You crash hard last night?"
"Like a stone chucked off Canterlot mountain," he chuckled. "Still feeling tired, but I think that's mostly mental at this point."
She nodded, smirk fading into a worried smile.
"You should take it easy big guy," she said, standing in her seat and reaching across the table to place a hoof on his forearm. "You've had a long few months, and yesterday was kinda like a massive volcano of those months. Rest up, huh?"
Spike twitched back a bit, surprised by the amount of worry in her voice, before he gently reached forward and pulled her forehead into contact with his, smiling a bit at the action usually taken by their RPG characters.
"I'm chill Flurry, promise," he said, crossing his heart. "I'll be alright, as soon as all of this is sorted out."
"Take your word on that," she said seriously, tapping a hoof on his muzzle as they separated.
He raised a paw and flattened the other over his heart, arranging his face into a cold, unwavering stare. After a moment, he popped his tongue straight out and held it for two seconds before letting it fall limply, hanging from his closed lips.
"Bucking skippy," she remarked, nodding seriously as he recalled his tongue.
"Well, those are words, I suppose," came a voice from the side of the room, Shining Armor walking out of the kitchen with a simple plate balanced between his shoulders. "I wouldn't let your mom hear them from you of course."
Flurry had the grace to at least blush and smile apologetically at her dad, who gave her a wry smile back and a wink before sliding the plate off of his back and tucking into one of the two sandwiches, not even bothering to sit in a near chair.
"Quick lunch today?" She asked, Spike leaning down to look at the simple peanut butter and berry filling.
Shining nodded, chewing and swallowing a massive bite before muttering, "Paperwork push today," and finishing another third of the offending meal.
"I'll let mom know," Flurry said, her horn lighting for a moment before flashing dimly. "She says she's on her way now, but she loves you if you gotta leave before she gets here."
Shining looks at the simple clock on the wall, swallowing the last of his current piece of food.
"I'll stay long enough to see her, at least," he muttered before picking up the other sandwich and starting to give it the same treatment as the first.
Flurry nodded to her dad before glancing at Spike, then returning to her thick book.
Glancing over and giving it a real look for the first time, he gave a small smile at the heavily colored pages.
He rested his eyes for a moment, just breathing and listening to the other two breathe.
And to one of them inhale a sandwich, but that was placed to the side.
After what he imagined to be four minutes he heard the door open and propped open his eyes for the three mares that entered.
Cadance marched to her husband, both of them with soft smiles as their noses came together and their eyes closed, slowly moving back and forth over their spouse's muzzles before their lips met in a cut-off kiss.
"Love you," Shining whispered. "I'll let you know if work keeps me tonight."
"Yeah you will," Cadance giggled, kissing Shining once more on his nose before they parted, Shining jogging out of the room with a sigh.
Spike turned his head away with a small smile to look down at the pair of mares that looked up at him. He grinned outright when Fluttershy beckoned him down with a smile, and they copied the royal couple nearly exactly, down to the kiss.
He pulled away a bit, smiling down at Fluttershy. His smile faded though when she raised her eyebrows and flicked her eyes over to Rarity, who was looking nervously up at him with a tiny smile of her own.
"You're taking a whole lot on faith right now, missy," he groused, plastering on a heavy frown. He gave her enough time for the certainty to fade from her eyes and the smile to slip a bit before he huffed some air through his nostrils, the smell of a campfire filling the air around them as he leaned over to Rarity and nuzzled her gently with his snout, kissing the top of her muzzle before leaning back into his chair.
Rarity looked surprised and pleased, while Fluttershy looked some combination of both nervous and relieved.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking down at her hooves and tapping her fetlocks together, "that was presumptuous, wasn't it? Sorry."
Spike sighed, reaching out with an arm and slowly pulling her up onto his torso, hugging her close.
"I understand it," he said, laying his head on top of hers. "And Tartarus, you're probably even justified. But that's kind of something we have to figure out, is all." He glanced over at Rarity, who was looking nervously up at them. "Unless you're suddenly no longer afraid of dragons?"
Rarity winced before straightening up. "Not as of yet," she said, resolutely. "But it was never as strong with you, and with both of your help, I know I can overcome this fear."
He blinked at her before looking over at Cadance, now sitting by her daughter, and cocking an eyebrow. He shifted as Fluttershy moved, wriggling to face towards the table and press her spine to Spike at the same time, but he kept the look even as he wrapped his arms around her.
"I don't only do amorous relationship counseling, or even stick to only counseling multiple ponies," Cadance said, raising her own brow back. "A happy relationship needs to be had with oneself before they can have a healthy relationship with another."
"Really?" he asked. "Needs?"
She sighed heavily. "Maybe not needs," she admitted, before stomping heavily on the table with a fore-hoof. "But by the Alicorns, does it make it so much easier!"
Spike snorted, but gently, not derisively as he could have. "So was that the menu of the morning? Getting Rarity's fear out to air?"
Cadance looked over to Rarity, who nodded, before she said, "We spent some of this morning in the office talking about that, yes, but we also went to the zoo. There are some carnivorous rescues there, and all three of us spoke with one of the keepers about their diets."
"To say it was stressful would be doing a disservice to the very word," Rarity said, pulling out the seat next to Spike and smirking at the now-cuddling couple beside her. "They asked if we would be interested in watching him... prepare the meats for their consumption. Then he and Fluttershy took a moment to, uhm, compare techniques," she said, sighing and turning to the table.
"All of the animals have to eat," Fluttershy murmured, shivering as Spike moved a palm to her scalp and started to gently massage between her ears. "And the better I prepare the food, the better they can eat, and with some of those skills I could harvest more and thus have to do it less often."
"You know, I still haven't seen where you prepare the food you make for Mr. Bear and the manticores and other creatures that visit you sometimes," Spike mentioned.
He felt her shrug under him. "I prepare it in the same shed I keep the rest of the food in. There's a box in the corner that I asked Twilight and Rainbow to help me make that keeps everything fresh. When I have enough to process I use the table and toolbox next to it, then bag everything and put it back to keep that fresh until some creature needs it."
"Huh," Spike murmured. "I've never smelled it before, I had no idea."
"Another thing Twilight helped with," Fluttershy said, a slight shiver running through the skin on her back before she whispered, "There was a long time where that was my carnivore only shed."
He tightened his arms a bit around her chest, and she lifted her fore-hooves to press against his arms to return the hug.
He felt her jump a bit as a white hoof came from their side and gently pressed itself against her thigh, under her cutie mark. She turned and placed a hoof on Rarity's leg, gently running her frog over the fetlock pressed against her.
They looked over as Cadance cleared her throat.
"This," she said, tapping the table with a hoof, "is the most important part of any relationship between more than two creatures. Every unit of the relationship needs to be there for every other part of the group. I've seen attempts like yours where it was two ponies who were singularly in love with a third, and they agreed to make an attempt like yours.
"I've seen it work once," she said, looking over all three of them. "If this is to work between the three of you, then it needs to be an all for one thought, not two for one."
Spike blew air through his nose, chuckling lightly as he leaned back in the chair, slumping a bit.
Cadance sighed before continuing, "If, of course, all three people wish to be in this sort of relationship."
Fluttershy wiggled in the chair, moving enough that she could face Spike with an apologetic look on her muzzle.
"Spike, I'm very sorry," she said, placing a hoof on his chest. "I promise that we're not ignoring the fact that you're still not decided about accepting Rarity, and we're not taking your choice for granted. This might not sound as much like a for instance as it actually is, but I promise that we're waiting for your choice."
"I'm not," Cadance said across the table, picking up her napkin and throwing it in a ball across the table, the cloth unfolding and draping across his muzzle. "I babysat the brat and we all know what he's going to do, he just has to come to terms with his choice before he says it out loud."
Spike blinked over at her, his nose twitching as his eyes moved to crease and furrow, thankful that the napkin hid the smile he was struggling with.
"You're projecting way too much of Twilight onto me," he griped, reaching up to the napkin and folding it gently before balling it and lobbing it back at her. He watched her cock an eyebrow and start to give him an assured grin even as the cloth caught her horn, coming to rest over her eyes.
"A bit of Shining Armor as well," she said, blindly grinning across at him. "Sorry Spike, but you are part of the 'Light's household. Some of you can be predictable about some things."
Spike sighed, still leaning back in his chair but now staring over at Rarity. He watched her ear twitch towards him, before flicking back to the table. She straightened a bit, letting her muzzle rest so that he had a perfect silhouette of her with a soft smile on her face.
"Well, I guess she is pretty enough," he said, almost dismissively, grin widening when she whipped her head over to glare darkly at him, her carefully spiraled hair bobbing as she stared him down.
He wiggled in his seat, chuckling, as Rarity not only leaned over to not-so-gently smack him in a leg but even Fluttershy nudged his ribs with a sharp elbow.
"Alright, alright, bad joke, messages received," he laughed, holding up a paw to deflect Rarity's still readied hoof, Flurry laughing behind a hoof from down the table. He leaned forward, his left arm cradling Fluttershy to his chest as his right grabbed the edge of Rarity's chair, pulling her to his side with a quiet scraping noise and letting the limb rest over Rarity's withers, pulling her to his side.
He rested there for a moment, letting Rarity awkwardly adjust against him before pulling her close to his side again. Looking over at Cadance, he smiled a bit.
"Alright, it's awkward as all Tartarus, but two has become three.
"What next?"