//------------------------------//
// Stars Don't Matter... If the Moon is Mine 
// Story: The Moon is My Friend 
// by B_25 
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The Moon is My Friend
B_25


It had always been the moon that captured him, picking him up and slowing him down, giving him cause to catch his breath. The breeze had been brisk in the barren town. Night washed over the ground and was combated by the faint illumination of streetlamps. 

Spike walked to dirt crunching beneath his foot, fields of grass on either side, the sway of the spades keeping his stresses at bay. He'd been wandering and wondering, waiting and hoping, moving for the sake of motion, that action, in of itself, would spark the unexpected. 

The dragon slowed on the path away from the town, the spilling of moonlight suddenly warmer on his back, a cause to turn around. He did so already looking up, smiling, knowing what awaited him. Not on this earth but what laid forever beyond his reach.

The moon itself. 

It loomed in the sky, closer and larger than ever, two subconscious wishes granted within this otherworldly state. It consumed his view and spanned well beyond his peripherals. Twinkling stars were luminescent next to it; an ethereal beauty blanketed the screen.

"Sometimes you worry me." The voice came from above and beyond, only this time, it wasn't out of reach. His view dropped from the moon to the last building before the lane. On the inward curve of the roof, draped over its front and edge, was the mare. "Tell me with your eyes alone. Which is more beautiful to your view?"

Spike chuckled as he stepped toward her. "It'll always be you."

She wasn't supposed to smile. It was the apparent ability of a princess, invested in the art of appearances and politics, to repress genuine feelings and reactions. Yet that quality was lost once she was around him. That beaming of the lips, glinting, due to the view of him. "Cheater. You were supposed to use your eyes."

He opened his arms. "I already have."

Princess Luna pressed a foreleg into the beam, the other still laying over the edge, raising from her curve. Her expression was bemused as she stared down at him. "Is that so? Tis a lie." She laid down on the perch with a cute tilt of her head. "Some of my love is owed to your ability of words. Tell me, dragon." Giggle teased from the side of her lips. "How do you plan to talk your way out of this one?"

"Don't have to when I get to speak the truth." Spike let his arms drop to the side as he allowed himself to stand bare. No grand gesture or fancy spiel to roll off the tongue. No having to pass Twilight's wisdom of his own. "These eyes always have to be closed to see you... don't they? Doesn't that say everything you need to hear?"

Luna lost her smile to an expression of growing surprise, one joined with an open mouth, a period twitch of the lip. The feeling behind it was mysterious as were most things about the mare. It made her harder to decipher... but what was underneath was always worth the effort.

"That's gotta count for something, right?" Spike lowered his head as well as a sudden seriousness washed over his soul. "That I would rather look at you more than anything else?" He shook his head. "Not even the sun or the moon, the real ones, compared to you. No pony either. Even Twilight and Celestia don't stand a chance to you."

He lifted his face to gaze at Luna. "I'd rather close my eyes to the world just so I could see you again." In realizing how over the top and cheesy his words had been, the dragon chuckled, nervously, turning his head and scratching his neck. "Not that I meant to exaggerate or anything like that. My bad."

But he must have done something right, in the seconds that were to come next, were the beating of wings. Composed and contained with a gentle tempo. He turned to watch the goddess's slow descent. How the moonlight shone around her as the moon became a mere halo to her figure. 

Slowly her hooves touched and sunk into the pebbles of the lands, a delicate crunch beneath the metal over her soles. Luna strode toward him with a turned head and an eye covered by mane. The other was cast away, daring to glance at him occasionally, a smile, always, fighting to remain on those lips. 

The lips soon to be his. 

Spike lowered to a knee and, before he could do much of anything else, watched her blur forward. Her hoof sunk into his thigh as the other rose to his chest. The coat of midnight blue was warm as it brushed over his scales. Soon enough, her lips were inches before his own. 

They hovered there, waiting, a want to be taken.

The dragon didn't need further cues as he leaned in to retake her, sinking into that embrace, the calm of the night striking woes from his mind. Day meant to be awake. To endure either hum-drum or a frenzied state of living. Much had to be done, and there was still so much for him to become. 

But it was in the night, in the moon, where he found peace. 

It was being allowed to walk that town lived in the wind brushing across his scales. The soft cracking of footsteps and glimmering of stars in the sky. It plucked him from chaos onto a grassy hill where the only sounds were the crinkling of peaceful spades.

More than that—it was her. Her. This perfect princess of a mare allowing him rest and respite from the toils of daily life. To close his eyes and to indulge in the serenity she represented. Feeling those lips on his own, soft and coated in fuzz, a delicate layer of plush that meshed into his own.

The greatness of the kiss was matched by the fact a mare like her would be willing to give it to him.

Spike hadn't been expecting the extra weight. He'd grown tall and become strong as to support the weight of the lithe mare. But there was something different about tonight. As their eyes remained close and their lip-lock remained true, her body pushed harder into his, a greater collapse into his frame.

Ever so gently was how he lost his balance. Without having to think, his arms crossed over Luna's frame. He tightly hugged her barrel as its softness depressed over his scales. They fell back without breaking the kiss. Before his head could crash from the attack, the world changed, done, of course, from a glow at the tip of her horn. 

Spike's head was gently laid on the grass of a hill, a solid proof of his mind being read, something that bothered him not. There'd been a lone, great tree behind them, its branches dancing to the breeze, the bristling of leaves a gentle melody.

Luna was first to break the kiss as her muzzle had pulled away. But she wasn't resolute in her decision as, after each pull, she inched back down to peck him again. Three seemed to be key until she was able to beat a retreat. She beamed above while gazing down at him. 

Smiling. 

"What's gotten into you?" Spike asked as he laid on the bed of grass, his neck tickled from the spades. Another breeze washed over them, possessing a few particles of water, enough to tease his scales. "Think this is the first time you've ever pushed me down before."

He reached up a claw to her cheek, which she laid inside his palm, sinking within it, delighting, nearly purring at his digits stroking over its surface. She leaned harder against it as if to indulge in the influx of sensations. "Tis because of the sweetly sad thing you told me."

Spike blinked and froze. "What? About my eyes being closed?"

"About being closed to the world.” Luna's body peeled from his front as her hooves came to press into the ground on either side of him. Her muzzle yanked away too from his claw, which inched toward her again, an action instinctual. "Your words touched me so. In none else have I seen a love so true. It's... been a necessity of mine, long since denied, for countless decades."

Luna rolled her eyes and did the same of her head, a teenage flick of her hair, everything followed by the turning and flopping of her body. Her side crashed into the grass until laying on her back. The two were side by side, their shoulders a foot apart, both of them gazing through the foliage of the tree, a joined gaze to the stars beyond. "Tis funny... never did I dare to envision such a fate."

Spike scrunched his face and propped a claw to support the back of his head. He glanced over at her with an eyebrow raised. "That's crazy. You're the kind of mare that can easily get laid." 

Her body tilted on its side, the girl releasing a single giggle. A playful hoof swatted his chest. "Hush! I will not have your... perversion taint our dream!"

The grass flattened beneath the back of the dragon's head. "I can never catch a break. First Twilight says I can't do it in the shower anymore." He exhaled any lingering tensions away. "And now I can't even have wet-dreams about my marefriend without her finding out."

Luna's eyes widened as genuine surprise captured her expression; her lips parted, unable to say anything, a shade of crimson washing over her cheeks. With a shake of her head to the frizzing of her mane, she looked away, and, at once, the dragon worried if she was okay. 

"Hey! Luna." He cleared his throat. "You know I didn't mean—"

"Would you like that?"

Now it was Spike's turn to possess an open mouth without words. It lasted for fewer seconds on his part. "W-What... what do you mean?"

"It's just we... I-I mean I... have conducted research on the matters of... m-males..." Luna's head laid into the grass as branches and leaves became tangled in her billowing strands. "It must be to my admittance that I... I never expected to become so close to another again."

Spike's shoulders slumped as the rest of his body felt the same. "That's a dream you can cut short, Luna. We're not in a race or a rush. Don't you remember my promise? I have the years to wait before you feel okay." He returned to gazing at the night sky. "You don't have to make anything up to me. Dating you... is already beyond my wildest dream."

"Corny."

"Wanna cite some verses for me Miss 'I speak mostly in poetry?'.”

"Perhaps to compliment you." Luna covered a hoof over her mouth to hide the resulting giggles. "But then you would hoard them like a greedy monster."

"I'd steal them all and the moon itself." He then chuckled. "Actually, I would steal you from the castle and dash away to some distant cave. Leave the world to watch the sky like we do in these dreams."

Luna had her muzzle tilted to him as he spoke, watching how the definition of his jaw flexed to produce all of his spoken words. She'd loved the whole of his face. But each part spoke to her. The patch of green scales coating his jaw and cheeks complimented a dashing charm to his overall aesthetic.

That, and his eyes. Dim at first glance but, if peered at for a few seconds longer, would reveal their subtle and brilliant glow. They'd pierced through all in which they saw, but did with a glint of kindness. It had been those eyes seeing through her first. But it had been their kindness that assured that, what laid beneath the surface, truly, was a good pony.

Princess Luna decided to relax on the hill, a contentedness in knowing he would not leave, and joined him in looking at the stars. For whatever reason, despite the scene, she was still sad. "This... is the greatest craft of all dreams. The placements of stars in the sky exactly replicate what you would see on this hill we lay on now."

Spike lurched from the ground as he chuckled. "So you were plotting our date well in advance, were you?"

Princess Luna giggled to herself and, for the first time, not shameful of her blush. "You were kind enough to humiliate yourself plenty this night. It has given me cause to do much the same as well."

Spike fell back into the grass. "Already mastering the art of backhanded compliments? I just keep prouder."

Luna had kept to the sky. "Yet... regardless of what happens here... none of it will be real." Her head rolled as he had done the same. Spike bore a concerned look, but she broke it before he could rise. "And you can save your romantic semantics. I already know what we feel is real and the sensations are close enough. But none of it feels like enough."

She gazed into those eyes open to her alone. In truth it was all she had needed in her life. The lifetime of neglect had caused regret for the invention of Nightmare Moon. But if she had him. Just a single pair of eyes focused on her alone. 

Then she wouldn't have cared for fixations of the world. 

Out of all the dreams and the apparent loves held for her, in all of the dreamscape where ponies and griffons and dragons were greatness a canvas for their every fascination... one alone was painted in her hues. This dragon had become hers and hers alone. It had been the last desire of her life to be granted a bond such as this. 

But the selfishness of the request, once accomplished, revealed itself. 

Knowing those eyes belonged to her transition into more than enough. Now she wished for it to see the world, other ponies and other dreams, to be filled with images beside her reflection. Luna's desires tugged into a newness that frightened her.

"Never have I been blessed to feel your scales across my coat," Luna said without thinking or blinking as the consciousness of her being was allowed to be revealed. No longer did she hide behind a calm composure. "Or the sensation of your kiss on my lips... already, I am sure of your love... but I would love more."

Across from her showed the dragon's expression sinking into sadness, one that fought, of course, to keep focused on her. "But... you know we can't be like that, right? Think of your image. You're a princess! And I'm just a dragon."

"Not just a dragon to me."

"I know I know! Trust me I know!" Spike's jaw moved around to find words, ones that came slow, butchered on their approach. "I wouldn't sleep my life away otherwise to be with you. But so much would change if ponies found out. The sake of your image and how all will view you. This will be our hideout."

"Hideout for how long?" Luna shot back in return. It's always been him to fight for matters and for her to defend but, somewhere on the way, their roles had changed. "Taking those naps during the day to wish me well. I love each time you suddenly appear. But how many opportunities are you sacrificing to be with me?"

Spike propped himself onto a shoulder as he laid on his side, the span of his body doubled the length of her own. The broadness of his front to the tautness of his abdomen had tightened the beating of her heart. "How many times do we have to go through this? I'm a loner! Always have and always will be. If it weren't for you... I'd have nothing to do."

"That is a lie not twice thought about." Luna pouted. "That might have been the way as we met—but you have since changed. Has it not been because of my presence that I've beckoned you to attend more of those 'parties.'"

Spike exhaled steam and looked away, a seconds pause to refill his lungs on the coming breeze. The second break allowed him to return and bear a smile. "Only if you admit to attending a few more balls at my request."

Luna laughed. "Tis so! Two preferring to be alone, because of the other, now more social with the world! We are good causes for each other." She shook her head and inched closer to him, only a spot of grass between them now. "So why do we still hide away from it now? Why do we not come to face it together."

"Because too much would change."

"Why do you fight this so persistently? Is this not a change you crave?"

"It's the very thing I want the most!" Spike cried back to the widening of his eyes; they kept like that as his next words were whispered. "You don't think it kills me not to be with you? That the greedy dragon inside of me doesn't want to steal you away to some cave if it meant I could keep you to myself? Because  that's what I'm fighting against, Luna, is being too greedy in wanting you."

Luna kept silent for a few seconds, but didn't turn away, as bashfulness had finally left her. "So that is the reason for the sacrifices? Because you are not stealing me away to your desires?"

"Something like that," Spike tried again in a gentler voice. "You're a princess of this nation and far more important than I will amount to. Maybe there will come a time when you're ready to have me in the real world. But until it comes naturally to you... I don't want to be the one that forced you into something."

Luna laid like that for a moment as she thought about his words and her feelings and the casting of the dream surrounding them. His words weren't hollow as they tingled with the truth. For her to be caught would be a change to the castle and those who knew her. That, and his life would be drastically changed. 

How dragons viewed ponies, and how ponies viewed dragons, would be changed from their discourse. But that hadn't been the dragon's point. Spike wanted that change, that choice, to be natural. When it felt right for her, without feeling forced, to make that call for them both. 

He'd given up fairness all so he could be with her.

"I understand your request, Spike, and understand your guilt well." Luna dipped her muzzle as she processed what exactly it was she wanted to do next. Steeling her will, she nodded, gazing at him again. "We've both struggled in casting decisions entirely our own. Just as I am joined to Celestia, you are joined to Twilight, and in their shadows, we keep."

Spike chuckled to himself. "Can't lie and say I haven't been tempted to talk to Twilight about all this." He glanced at the stars while keeping his face on her. "But keeping this a secret meant keeping it from here. Everything that's happened between us, it's all been my call, and I've been unable to decide if I've been making good ones or bad ones."

"My fate has been much the same," Luna added as his gaze returned back to her, "without the input of Celly to dictate my course." Without needing to ask, the mare inched toward him fully, snuggling into the curves of his frame. "But perhaps that is the reasoning of fulfillment here? Our choices, success and mistakes, are ours alone."

Spike also didn't need words to cross his arms over and down the mare's body, a pull that brought them closer. Luna purred as she nuzzled into the warmth of his chest, lulled by his heart, longing to hear its real beat. Not what her mind envisioned but the actual gift and case of reality. "Learning and coming into our own—like they had to do back in the day."

Luna giggled into his scales as they washed across the surface of curved muscles. "To think, as equally as long ago, I detested another's touch—much less their embrace." As his body relaxed around it, he slowed in his breathing, in his moving, his words becoming fewer. It was an issue she hated but he couldn't be blamed for. This was a time for him to be truly asleep but, in coming here, a part of him had to keep awake. 

And there was only so long he could keep awake here... before he needed to fall asleep for real.

"Spike?"

"Nnngh? H-Haaaa! Oh, ha, heh, hu, hmm." Spike snorted a snore and did his best to hug the mare extra tight. "I didn't fall asleep. What you were saying was super important. I totally didn't zone out when you—"

"Can you grant me a final kiss before you close those eyes to me?"

Spike didn't bother with the ploy as her muzzle rose on his chest, pushing up before it could lay flat on it. She gazed up to his face, which smiled down at her, leaning only seconds later, Luna doing the same. They melted into the kiss again as the world of the dream lost its textures.

Until it was only them floating, in nothingness, filled by the other.





Sunlight had spilled through the curtains as they spread heat across his thigh. Slowly, painfully, the dragon attempted to snap to life—pausing at the first impression of soreness. Daring only to blink open his eyes, they saw his body on a chair, leaned back into it, a night slept this way.

And his muscles and bones detested him for it. 

There was a window to his left and a desk to his right, a narrow passage meant to be his hiding place. On the desk, however, was a plate of cookies next to a glass of milk. There was a card before them both, Twilight's name written across it. Each 'i' was marked with a purple and then green heart. 

Spike chuckled as he dared to roll his neck forward, enduring the soreness of muscles as he rubbed a claw against it. The other reached for a cookie and he munched away happily. "Sometimes, Twilight, I think you already know."

With the plate cleared and the milk down, a fullness in a belly previously hollow, the dragon turned to face the blinds. His digit lifted one to peek through the space provided. Dimming sunlight splashed over the buildings and streets. The late evening saw many enjoying the late Summer weather.

"Guess I have a few errands I still need to run for you—don't I?" Spike chuckled as another object had been left on the desk. Some packages needed delivery to the mayor. It needed to be a gift from a 'dragon' for whatever reason. "Ah well." He smirked. "Back to the rise and grind."

Deciding to go with a loose long-coat and torn pants, the dragon tossed on a cap before dashing to the door. Sleeping through the afternoon meant the evening was going to be double the work. All, of course, which needed to be done without an extra second spent.

Or else he wouldn't get to spend as much time with her. 

It wasn't before long that sunlight was awash over the exposed scales of the coat as the dragon carried himself down the street. He waved and smiled and with closed eyes to the passing ponies that greeted him. Everything in the day sped him. All were centred on the world rather than him. 

But Spike didn't care. He didn't mind needing to speed up in the sunlight as he could slow down once the moon appeared. Greeting ponies and doing jobs and out-talking those with class drained a lot from him. There was always the feeling he needed to do more and more throughout the day.

That was an exertion, however, he could handle. 

Spike had been walking down the pathway to the light crunching of dirt beneath his feet. He was jogging and breathing out through his mouth, the next destination being outside of the town, a location needing to be reached before dark. 

But a voice had caught him.

"Tis no wonder why thou are so sleepy in thy dreams." It caused him to choke on his next exhale as his foot clipped the ground. He lost balance and stumbled forward, the package tossed onto the grass. Finding his footing once more, Spike slowed into place, nearly unable to turn around. "But it livens my heart to see the power I still hold over you here."

Spike gulped as he turned around on the path. His gaze travelled across it until the bottom of the first building, climbing that with his view, ever upward, until seeing the mare perched at the peak of its roof. "L... Luna?"

"Your eyes do not deceive you as this reality cannot be as we please." Luna was draped over the beam of roof, a curved foreleg propped into her cheek. With a giggle at his befuddlement, her wings unfurled at her rising. "But I'd much rather exist in a plane of fairness that allows us to finally be equals."

The dragon was silent as opposed to the dream, his claw reached out toward her, wanting her, not allowing his words to betray them both. In order to meet it, her hoof extended as well. Nearby ponies watched as the princess lifted from the roof in the mighty beat of her wings, gentle descent to before the dragon.

Until he paused and she hovered before him. 

"It was your wish for us to join after nature had deemed it so." Luna shook her head without letting her eyes leave him. "What I realized, however, is how the timing will never seem right. Perhaps your greed is something I share." Her hooves grabbed for his claws, causing them to be held out. "For it is desire, rather than nature, I'd rather listen to."

Luna floated into his presented arms and furled her wings, forcing the dragon to catch her. He did so without hesitation in hugging Luna into his chest. Neither seemed to care for the stares of ponies. Only in the true sensation of feeling each other in reality. 

Soft fur brushing smooth scales and her lips reaching up to kiss his.