The ride back to Ponyville was peaceful. Instead of her usual fast and loud flying style, Rainbow Dash eased up and made the ride smooth. They took their time, enjoying the scenery that the Equestrian morning had to offer.
Why? There were a few different reasons that may or may not be obvious. For one, they weren’t quite ready to go back home and face the music, which was sure to be as pleasant as cats scratching their claws against an old chalkboard. However, there was something worse to worry about. They knew that once they were back in town, they’d be going their separate ways again. Spike needed to go back to his home and seriously consider how his life choices led to this point and Rainbow needed… Well, she needed somepony to talk to about everything going on. Regardless of why they’d separate, the simple fact was that neither of them were quite ready to say goodbye yet.
It was a beautiful morning though; their way back contained some of the most gorgeous vistas that Equestria had to offer. Waterfalls trickling down the sides of cliffs, sunlight pouring out in golden streaks through distant clouds, unveiling the landscapes little by little as it rose into the sky. The fresh, cool breeze brushing her mane and rushing over his scales, it was a gorgeous time to be alive, indeed.
But, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. That’s precisely what happened as they made their way into the outskirts of Ponyville.
“Let’s land at Applejack’s farm, Spike,” Rainbow said as she began descending toward the town. “It looks quiet enough.”
“Hopefully there aren’t a bunch of ponies and who knows what else hiding out in the trees this time,” Spike said with a chuckle. “That was kinda creepy, not gonna lie.”
“Tell me about it,” Rainbow responded. “But it’s still early enough I don’t think they’re awake yet.. I hope..”
“True that.”
Rainbow Dash circled around and down until she finally touched down right outside the gates of the Apple family farm. Spike released his grip on Rainbow’s mane and hopped off her back. Rainbow, meanwhile, dusted herself off from the landing and shook her mane out. The sun glistened through her mane, creating a cascade of reflective colors, and Spike could only look on in amazement as if he were watching it in slow motion.
He shook his head. He really needed to get his brain straight and functioning again.
“Alright,” Rainbow said, releasing a sigh. “Looks like it’s time to part ways, huh?”
“Yeah,” Spike replied. “Thanks for the… interesting night. When I checked my schedule for the week, spending the night with Rainbow Dash on a clifftop wasn’t quite on the list, heh.”
“Same here,” she replied, punctuating her sentence with a similarly awkward laugh.
The two took another moment, just enjoying the silence that hung in the air before they finally waved their goodbyes and split off in different directions. Spike travelled his way back home on foot while Rainbow Dash soared into the air and took off to Celestia knows where. It wasn’t much of a goodbye, but neither really had the words to say to properly express how they were feeling.
If only life were that simple.
Spike meandered his way back inside his home and immediately checked the clock on the wall, which read nine. He’d normally consider it a criminal act to be awake this early in the morning, but there wasn’t much normal about this morning..
He immediately headed for the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. He wasn’t a huge fan of the stuff, but you know what? When you need it, you need it, and he needed it. Going back to bed wasn’t in the cards, as restless as his mind was, so he needed the caffeine.
“Spike!”
The dragon jumped in the air, spilling most of the boiling hot coffee on his scales—not a problem thanks to his natural dragon heat resistance.
“What’s up, Twilight?” He replied as casually as he could, considering the cascade of bean water rolling down his scales.
Twilight looked like she hadn’t slept a wink overnight. Her mane was poofed out in all different directions, her fur was matted in several different places and even her tail wasn’t spared the wreckage. Her eyes were bloodshot and adorned with bags underneath them, but despite the exhaustion written all over her face, her eyes were wide with frantic nervousness.
“Where have you been, Spike?” She cried out, running over and wrapping him up into a suffocating hug. “I looked everywhere for you last night! In your bed, down at the ice cream shop, Rarity’s house, and even under the rocks at the pond. I was so worried!”
“Twi… Please… You’re choking me!”
“Oh, sorry!” She released the poor, suffocating dragon, allowing him to live for at least a bit longer.
He immediately took a few deep breaths to regain his composure. “Sorry about that, Twi. I just, you know, needed to get away for a bit. Between the chaos of getting followed around town and nearly starting a war, things were getting too heavy for Rainbow and me. I needed some breathing room.”
“Oh, I totally understand. I just—“ Twilight paused as his words processed inside her brain, instigating the twists and turns of the gears that made up her mind. “Did you say you were with Rainbow Dash?”
The dragon immediately covered his mouth with a claw. “Oh, well, you see...” He looked around the room and tried to find something to deflect attention away. “How about this coffee, huh? Good stuff!”
“Oh no, Spike!” Twilight cried out. “Please don’t tell me you’re falling for her? You’ll lose the competition!”
…And here we go.
“Look, maybe it’s not too late!” Twilight said, pacing back and forth across the kitchen. “I can just keep you sheltered away in here and nopony has to know about it.”
“Twilight,” Spike spoke up, trying to interfere with her racing mind.
“Or, I know!” She continued. “I’ll just write a letter to Princess Celestia and see if she’ll ban romantic relationships until this whole contest is over!”
“Twilight!”
“Even better yet, I’ll go find Zecora and get her to whip up some kind of magic potion to reverse the effects! Then you definitely won’t have anything to worry about and we can all just move on with our lives and—“
“TWILIGHT!”
This time he caught her attention. She immediately stopped her pacing and looked at Spike, who had a few rolls of steam coming from his nostrils. “Yes?”
“Look,” he said, calming himself down. “I appreciate your help and how concerned you are with me winning the bet, but it’s not what you think. Rainbow and I… We’re really good friends, okay? And this contest, all it’s doing is pulling us apart. We want it to end and we’re tired of having to deal with all the pressure from it. Both of us.” He shook his head and let out a deep sigh. “So yeah, we both disappeared last night just to get away from everything. It’s really stressing us out.”
Twilight paused and looked the dragon up and down. He definitely didn’t look happy.
“I understand, Spike,” Twilight replied. “So you’re saying that you’re not in love with her?”
The dragon rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not.” He paused his words for a moment, carefully selecting the next ones to come out of his mouth. “At least I don’t think I am. I mean, I don’t really know how to describe it. I love being with her and spending time with her, and maybe there’s a little something there, but falling in love isn’t that simple and it can’t happen just because of some dumb bet.”
Twilight was taken aback by his sudden wisdom. It wasn’t something she was entirely used to with him. “Well, I’d say you’re right about that. But, the entirety of Equestria is banking on this contest, so whether it’s dumb or not, you are in a bit of a hole here.”
“Oh trust me, I know,” he said with a slight chuckle. “And I have no idea what to do next except just keep playing along until everypony gets bored and does something else with their time.”
“Knowing how ponies around here love to gossip, that could be awhile,” Twilight said. “Besides, to my knowledge everypony everywhere is involved at this point.”
“How did this even happen?” Spike said, throwing his arms in the air.
“Well, you know Pinkie,” Twilight retorted. “She gets around at light speed when she has a mind to.”
“No, not that,” Spike replied. “Just… This whole situation in general. I make one comment on a random day and now this has become a story all about how my whole life is flipped and turned upside down. I’m being followed by half the world’s population and my best friend and I are practically at war with each other’s feelings. Nothing makes sense anymore.”
Twilight sighed. “Love rarely does… Or so I’ve read.”
Spike rolled his eyes. “You’re telling me. Now I just have to wait around for the next hair-brained scheme that the townsfolk are gonna come up with. It’ll probably be something ridiculous. They’ve already begun interfering on their own accord to try and get their side to win. Somepony nearly pushed me off a cliff for Celestia’s sake!”
A knock rang out from the front door.
“Who could that be this early in the morning?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, don’t worry, somepony probably noticed I came home,” Spike said with a grimace. “I guarantee you that nothing good or wholesome is behind that door.”
“Well, I better check anyway,” Twilight replied.
She trotted over to the front of the library while Spike stayed back in the kitchen area. He really had to battle with himself to decide if he wanted to be a part of this or not, but eventually he resigned himself to his fate and followed closely behind Twilight as she opened the door.
“Good morning!” She said aloud as she opened it up. However, her words were for naught as the doorstep was empty. “Huh…That’s weird. There’s nopony here.”
It was then that Spike noticed a small envelope sitting on the porch. “Oh boy, here we go again.”
Twilight used her magic to retrieve it and look it over. It was a very neatly packaged piece, eggshell white with a small, red stamp holding it shut. Of course, much to Spike’s dismay, it had a lettering on the front in a very fancy font that stated ‘To Spike’.
“It looks like it’s for you, Spike,” Twilight stated, levitating the letter over to him.
Spike snatched the letter from her magical grasp and looked it over. He felt a small pit opening up in his stomach. Actually, scratch that. The pit was more like a wormhole, sucking in all hints of a normal, relaxing day that he could have had. He just knew that no good would come of opening this letter.
But he needed to anyway.
He used a claw to slit the seal and open up the envelope. Inside was a very neatly written letter in the same fancy font from the outside of the envelope. Spike read it out loud:
Dear Spike,
You have been invited to a special dinner for two at the Canterlot Bistro tonight at 7p.m. Please wear your finest and come prepared for a romantic night of great food, laughter, and relaxation. Please do not be late.
-A Friend
Spike deadpanned after finishing the letter. “You see, what’d I tell you? Nothing good came from this.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight responded. “This doesn’t say it has anything to do with the contest, does it? I mean, it could be somepony’s way of trying to make it up to you and Rainbow Dash.”
“Unlikely,” he replied, scanning his eyes over the letter again. “Something tells me this is just gonna be another ploy to try and get us together or apart.”
“You know, Spike,” Twilight said, snatching the letter from him and looking it over. “If this does end up being a scheme to make something happen between you and Rainbow, we may be able to use this to our advantage.”
“How so?” The dragon asked.
“The fact that they didn’t bother to sign a name means they probably want you to think this is just going to be a normal dinner date with no strings attached right?”
“I guess that makes sense,” he responded, rubbing his chin.
“But since you do know this is probably going to end up like the picnic did, maybe we could turn the tables on everypony, set the stage and come up with a plan to put a stop to everything!”
Spike continued to rub his chin. “So, essentially, we set something up to try and get them to leave us alone. Like, an act of some kind?”
“Yeah!” Twilight said. “I mean, why is everypony doing this in the first place?”
“Because everypony’s bored and there’s nothing good left in the world?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, it’s because they want entertainment! They want a show. And if they want a show, we’ll give them one!”
Spike snapped his claws. “You son of a gun, I’m in! Let’s do it!”
Twilight nodded. “Okay, first things first, we’ll need to come up with a foal-proof plan to get the ball moving. Then, we’ll need to get Rainbow Dash over here and let her in on the details. With any luck, everything will be back to normal by midnight!”
“Claws and hooves crossed,” the dragon stated.
Maybe… Just maybe this plan would work. Hopefully. Spike really just wanted to get things back to normal and then he could figure out where he and Rainbow Dash stood. This plan could be the perfect step in the right direction.
…
..
.
Assuming nothing else went wrong in the meantime.
Meanwhile outside the direct view of Spike and Twilight’s home…
“Yes, yes… that’s right.” Pinkie peered through her binoculars whilst hiding in a nearby bush. “Open that envelope. Read those contents. Hook, line, and sinker!”
“Shh!” whispered Cloudchaser, who was hiding in the bush with her. “I didn’t go through the effort of dropping that thing off just for you to blow our cover. Come to think of it…” Cloudchaser scratched her chin. “Why are we hiding in the first place? After the picnic, they know we’re following them..”
Pinkie gasped. “Huh! Because this is a covert operation of course! It’s not very covert to just be out in the open, now is it?”
“If you say so…”
Pinkie turned back to Flitter. “So, is everypony else in perfect position for tonight?”
Cloudchaser nodded, trying her best not to get scratched by the branches whilst doing so. “Yep. Flitter is tracking down Rainbow with the other letter right now and most everypony else is already heading up to Canterlot as we speak. I think that we’re golden!”
“Perrrfect!” Pinkie rubbed her hooves together and let out a laugh that bordered just enough on evil to make Cloudchaser take a step back. “Everything is going off without a hitch. Tonight will be a party to remember!”
And with that, the two ponies snuck out from behind the bush and headed back into town.
“That’s enough covert operation for one morning,” Pinkie said with a sweet smile. “Now it’s snack time!”