Spike stood in front of the full-length mirror.
Deep breaths, in and out. In and out.
He set his rather pronounced chin and gave himself the once-over. The last few years of working out had really paid off lately. Dragons normally grew in size, proportionate to their greed but his increase in height and mass seemed to have come purely from a healthy diet of good, solid gemstones and old-fashioned determination, iron-pumping and elbow grease. His broad chest was thick with muscle. His arms were really beginning to show some mass. He gave a good flex of his pecs and grinned broadly, showing his fangs. "Aw yeah. That's it. Fierce! RAWR!" He examined the ridge of green fins crowning his lavender scaled forehead. He licked a talon and ran it along the tines, energetically drawing them into a playful bouffant. Everything HAD to be perfect. He was only going to get the ONE shot at this and if he blew it there was no going back.
He was even wearing those shiny black pants that showed off his tush...
Spike leaned forward and braced a palm on either side of the mirror. Staring himself down in the mirror, he gave his best boxing ring snarl. "Eye of the Tiger, champ. You've got this." Another deep breath and another long, controlled exhale. "You're the boss. You're the boss. Who's the boss?" He arced an eyebrow, giving the question some consideration. "Well, Twilight's the boss, actually..." He sighed with a slight sag of his shoulders.
No. He shook his head and gave himself a smack across the cheek. "No!" SMACK! His claw whapped against his cheek with an audible clap. "No. No. No. I'm-the-boss-I'm-the-boss-I'm-the-boss." He pointed to the powerful young dragon in the mirror. "You've got this. You've GOT this. Who stared down Queen Chrysalis and Tirek AND that little twerp Cozy Glow when they were all hopped-up on super-magic? That's right! You did! Who told Discord that that was a natural 12 and there's NO WAY it was good enough to turn those ghasts, no matter WHAT bonus he got from Esterbrooke's Ring of Reliquary?" His claw tapped the glass of the mirror with a clank. "YOU did." He curled his claws into a fist and pumped it in the air. "Who pulled Rainbow Dash out of that tree and body-checked her- to the GROUND- when she was getting cold feet at her own wedding, then helped her get into that tux and stood beside his old friend- LIKE A BOSS- and saw her marry the love of her life? WHO DID?!"
He gave the mirror one last good flex and a growl. "YEAH!" With a laugh that was equal parts earned confidence and arrogance of youthful inexperience he hopped into the air. Going fully horizontal, he kicked his heels together and flopped onto his bed.
It had been many years since he had been a tiny baby dragon, sleeping in a basket by Twilight's bed. These days he was all grown up and an important figure in the court. Twilight's official advisor in matters of friendship, ambassador to the Dragon Lands, liason to Queen Twilight's Royal Guard, he was a dragon of many hats and that came with no small amount of perks. Perks which included a good-sized room of his own in the Northeast tower of Canterlot Castle with an ample, dragon-sized plush bed. He sprawled out, positioning several pillows behind himself so he would be just slightly upright- not quite sitting up. He needed to look casual but also show off the goods.
"Okay. Looking good..." He pursed his lips and reached to his nightstand. There was a photo of himself between Queen Twilight and her wife, the Changeling Queen Chrysalis, a half-empty glass of milk and a golden curio case. He gave the photo a thumbs-up for luck and picked up the case with another long intake of air. His chest swelled as he lifted the lid and removed the contents. In his claws he held a large scarab, seemingly carved out of a single magenta gemstone. The craftsmanship of the artifact was so meticulous, he could almost swear it was alive. He could almost swear the pinkish beetle's tiny pink eyes were staring back at him.
He felt the magical statuette hum in his claws and clutched it to his chest as he exhaled.
No more putting it off. Live to win. Do or die. Guts and glory. He could do this.
"Now... How the hay did Thorax say you worked this thing...?"
-------
Far away in the garden glen of the Cuddlebug Hive, the de-facto prince of the neo-changeling Cuddlebugs was engaged in a strenuous exercise of his talent and skill. Thorax set his chin, sticking out his tongue in concentration. His lime-berry hoof moved ever-so-slowly as he delicately lifted the macaroni noodle from a tub of paste. Cautiously, purposefully, he guided it towards its destination on a stretched canvas. He had to be careful. If he placed the noodle too high it would ruin the picture. Truly, this work of art required the utmost in skill and precision. With a soft tap, it landed and completed the circle of noodles, placing a brilliant yellow pasta sun in his sky. He clapped his chitinous hoofs together and beamed his thousand-watt smile.
"YAY!" The satisfaction of a job well done, the perfect way to wind down after a LONG day of important diplomacy.
He had spent the majority of the day in an official capacity as leader of his people at the 4th annual "Equestrian Society For Appreciation of Culture" fair. The gathering had been established by Queen Twilight shortly after her marriage to his then-estranged mother, Queen Chrysalis. With their marriage had come the re-emergence of his former people, the original "dark" Changelings. Now recognized as official citizens of Equestria it had become clear just HOW different their culture was from that of the ponies. Merging the two extremely different kingdoms would require a new focus on cultural awareness, respect for individual perspective and appreciation of diversity. All these things were RIGHT up Thorax' alley. Just the thought of reaching out to fresh faces, learning about a new way of seeing the world and making new friends brought a gleaming smile to his chitinous cheeks.
He had been overjoyed to assist in the initial brainstorming of the idea and his cuddlebugs had been glad to help in the implementation every year. Every race in Equestria and the surrounding territories were called upon to send delegates to represent their respective kingdoms in a good-faith exchange of understanding. Though attendance wasn't a mandatory part of the network of pacts and treaties which kept the peace it was looked upon favorably. The gathering had been quite helpful in smoothing out relations if he did say so himself.
Thorax had been the natural choice to attend, being the leader of his people. He had brought with him an entourage of several of his closest Cuddlebuddies from the Snuggle-core of what passed for a royal guard in his people. He always wished his brother, Pharynx would go but he understood it really wasn't his sort of affair. For his part Thorax always had such a wonderful time. Visiting with the respective leaders of his neighbor-nations, alien and ally alike. Thorax lamented how many he only got to see once in a great while.
Prince Rutherford of Yak-yakistan was there with his massive bodyguard, a very shaggy and extremely hungry blue yak named "Krumkey". As he understood it, the messy blue monolith had earned the nickname "Crumpet-monster" from an eating contest with Pinkie-pie some years ago. He seemed a pleasant enough creature. Yaks always gave the kind of crushing-force hugs that made him glad to have a chitinous body. He didn't know how creatures with skeletons survived affection of that magnitude.
Twilight had been there, as had her wife, his mother, Queen Chrysalis, both being the leaders of their respective peoples. Seeing both was always so emotional for him. It was still so strange to consider how at one time just the thought of his mother would have sent him scurrying into the safety of the nearest shadows. Their parting at the destruction of the original hive had not been a good one, to put it lightly. Still, with Twilight as a bridge between them and the love they shared for her, they had managed to reconcile their differences and find the common ground needed to repair some of the old wounds. As different as they still were, he had to admit, it was nice to have a mom again, even if she could still be overbearing and kind of a grump. Well, maybe that was too harsh. No, maybe it wasn't. Well... They were a work in progress.
Twilight had been there and where Twilight went, so went her right-hand dragon, his best friend of a least seven years now, Spike. Thorax had been overjoyed to see his friend and spend the day with him. Spike always had a way of making him smile. Even when they'd had disagreements, which was incredibly infrequently, Spike was just so... cool. He was fun, funny, as brave as any knight in Twilight's royal guard and surprisingly good at both finger-painting and free-style poetry slam. He and Thorax still held the Cuddlebug Tag-team Champion belts in the latter. The thought made his chest-plates swell with pride. They would be defending the belts next weekend. He would need to beef up his rhymes for the-
BZZZZRZRZRZRZZZZZRRRZZZZZT!
The noise shook him out of his musings. The magenta scarab on his makeshift nightstand buzzed away.
BZZZZRZRZRZZZZZZZRRRZZZZZKT!!
The little magical creature hopped and rattled its wings impatiently. It was a communications device, the Cuddlebug re-tooling of the original model employed by Changeling infiltrators in the field.
Thorax' brow furrowed with the curious tilt of his head. Who could be trying to call him at this time of the evening? He supposed it wasn't all that late but late enough that most of his cuddlebuddies would be in bed. Well, in bed or maybe staring wide-eyed into their nightlights, a popular pass-time among his people. "Oh well", he thought. "Time enough for macaroni art later. Besides, this might be something important." The Prince of the Cuddlebugs set his art supplies down next to his King Snugglemeister bear buddy and perched on his bed. He reached out to the gemstone insect with a sideways hoof. Chittering a few words in the native language of his people, he gave its shell a bop.
The hoof-sized beetle ceased it's aggravated hopping, planted its legs and raised its horned head. The plates of its shell opened up, exposing a pair of beautiful translucent pink wings. The beetle spread its wings as if it were readying itself for flight but instead of taking to the air the tiny creature's eyes began to glow with a bright light, bringing a soft glow to his normally dim chambers. Above the insect a circle of light formed in the very air, roughly a meter and a half in circumference. The disc of light rippled like water as an image began to appear, like the surface of a seeing stone.
Thorax tilted his head to the side. His eyes narrowed as he fiddled with the scarabs tiny antennae. For his efforts the image slowly became less fuzzy and opaque. "Hello?" He spoke in a friendly tone. Surely any creature who COULD contact him via this method must be a friend or at the very least an acquaintance. With a chitter, the tiny gemstone insect hopped into the air and came down with a clonk of it's abdomen. There! The picture was finally clear.
"Hey, Thorax!"
"Spike!" Thorax face lit up. He was overjoyed to see his friend. Spike seemed to be laying on his bed, looking up at the transmitter with a rakish smile in the kind of pose Thorax had seen on a few of Spike's Scales, Tails and Fitness magazines. He had his arms folded behind his head putting "the gun show" on display with a confident smile. He had to admit, Spike had really been filling out these days. It looked good on him, very heroic. "Hey!"
"Hey- I just wanted to give you a call and say that I had a REALLY great time today."
Thorax beamed. "Oh yeah! M-me too!" Thorax stuttered out. "I'm glad to see you made it back home to Canterlot okay."
Spike's smile shifted to a knowing, if playful grin. "Well, you know me, 'The Brave and The Bold'." He deepened his voice giving the title an incredulous laugh which Thorax had to share. "SOMEpony had to make sure the Royal Court made it home safe. Big official hero business." Spike gave a wiggle of his pecs and another belly-laugh. "I'm glad to see you got home safe and sound too."
"Yeah..." Thorax found he had to look away to conceal the growing blush in his cheeks.
He bit his lip.
He actually bit his lip.
He felt giddy inside, bouncy, giggly, like one of those little school-fillies he saw whenever he visited the schools in Ponyville.
Their friendship had grown over the years. From the tense, wary curiosity of their initial meeting to a bond of crown and kingdom as Twilight ascended, Spike was as close to him as any creature he knew, maybe the closest. For a changeling, that was saying a lot. Still, something else had been happening in the recent months. Something VERY different. Maybe it had been there before and he just hadn't noticed until his mother had married Spike's... adopted mother? Housemate? Whatever Twilight was to him... but he could SWEAR sometimes that Spike had been FLIRTING with him. More than that, he'd found that he actually LIKED it.
When he was younger, Spike had always seemed to have his heart set on one of Twilight's friends, some mare or another, a unicorn, if Thorax recalled correctly. Back then, Spike was just a kid and she was his world, his first crush. Over time, those feelings had faded and Spike had given up on his daydreams of whatever her name was.
Thorax winced. Was he being catty? That felt rude. Crud. He'd have to put together a fruit-basket or something and apologize to the mare, if he ever could recall which one she was. But that was THEN and THIS was now. Spike wasn't a kid anymore and unless Thorax was imagining things, Spike had a whole new interest in his sights.
The Lovebug prince shifted on his haunches, trying to contain a chittering in his long neck akin to a nervous purr.
"Sooooo..." Spike intoned, eyes rolling around playfully. "Whatcha doing?" He accented the question with a flex of his biceps.
Thorax felt his chitinous plates ripple. "Oh... N-not much really. You know." he chuckled nervously. He fought furiously to contain the growing heat in his cheeks. "Just... uhm... winding down with a little art project before... uhm... going to bed." Thorax found he couldn't help but keep looking at Spike. The way his old friend was looking at him, that upturned eyebrow. Like that wrestling Stallion, Wayne 'The Stone' Bronson or something... The tone of his voice... the way he was just laying there, just happened to be posing like that... the way his fins were styled... Spike HAD to be flirting with him. He HAD to be. Oh why couldn't he have been better at reading other creatures, like his mom. She would know exactly what to do here, what to say and how. Thorax struggled to contain the butterflies bouncing about in his stomach.
He had BUTTERFLIES!
Spike's smile curled in an almost sinister manner and his eyelids lowered. "Going to bed, hunh?"
Thorax gulped as something inside him caught fire and crumbled into a pile. "Uhm...y-yeah." What would his mom do? Or Twilight? Ember? Any of the other, more experienced and confident leaders he knew.
Should he play it safe and just assume this was a friendly call from an old friend, nothing more? Ask him what he wants? Flirt back? His purple eyes went wide at the thought. Flirting?! Just considering the idea, the very notion sent panicked chills throughout his chitin. Could he even DO that? What if he was wrong? What if he WASN'T? What if Spike was just a friend, just a really, really, really, REALLY good friend- a good friend who called him up on his private magical communicator in the middle of the evening practically REEKING of machismo and laying on his best satin sheets with a come-hither look that made Thorax go weak at the joints- WHEN DID ALL THIS START HAPPENING?
Thorax looked at that smile. The young dragon wasn't a kid anymore. This was a young drake and Thorax was ninety-nine point-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine percent sure that he was being flirted with. "Oh buck me" he thought, giving a nervous laugh and a sigh.
"Just... thinking... " he swallowed hard. What was it Spike often said? No guts, no glory. "About... Y- You."
Well, he said it. No going back now. If Spike was enacting the age-old game of seduction, well, dammit, Thorax was a changeling, wasn't he? He was going to flirt back.
Even if he sucked at it.
"REALLY?!" Spike's eyes lit up as he sat up with a smile as broad as a Las Pegasus Billboard. It was such a genuine reaction, so delighted. It was probably the single most charming thing Thorax had ever seen in his life.
The lovebug prince melted. "Y-yeah..." He raised a hoof and pointed to his old friend as if offering his touch to the image floating in the air.
The two old friends stared at each other in wide-eyed wonder. Effectively, both had placed their cards on the table, if in their own way and each to their own capacity. Thorax' soft green lips quivered in nervous, gleeful anticipation as he struggled for the words to say. A single fang crept from his anxious smile. He shivered, balancing years of ingrained fear of rejection and abandonment with his yearning to say what was in his fluttering hearts. Spike, for all his practiced bravado and rehearsed flair was mutely beaming with a dumbstruck smile from ear-to-finlike-ear. The question was there, floating in the air between them. Who would be the first to reach out, grasp it and offer it to the other? Who would have the courage to irrevocably change the path of their friendship forevermore?
With a sudden pop a green shimmering circle of light clapped into existence in the air between their scrying. Both the young lords jumped back, startled, though Thorax did shriek a bit louder. A familiar face appeared in the circle. Her opaque blue mane of cobwebs framed the ebony chitin of her face. Her features were twisted into a scrutinizing scowl, sabre-like fangs curling over her lip and to the line of her chin, forest-green eyelids hanging like thunderclouds over eyes narrowed into a glare thin and fine enough to cut glass.
"Spike. What are your intentions towards my son?" said Queen Chrysalis. Her tone was low and though not aggressive, definitely menacing.
The young dragon's jaw dropped as he stammered. "I- wha- Who? What?"
------
Thorax' purple eyes went wide in as much alarm as embarrassment, fumbling to collect himself as he tumbled from the edge of his bed to the floor. Somehow in his mad panic he managed to get his antlers caught in his bed sheets. In a cracking voice worthy of any acne-ridden adolescent he shrieked "MOM?!"
The queens snakelike glance shifted from one to the other and back again, taking in the mass of flailing, fumbling awkwardness like a cobra on the hunt. "WELL?"
Thorax struggled to sit upright, wrestling his antler free from the covers. "MOM! How are you even DOING this?!"
The black slits of the dark queens eyes glowed with an eruption of green energy, crackling as emerald fire. The sudden intensity sent Thorax to quaking. "HOW?" she glowered. "With my POWER, which is more ANCIENT and TERRIBLE than you could POSSIBLY imagine." The flames ebbed and her visage returned from the true fires of a enraged god to it's normally disquieting scowl of regal menace.
Chrysalis glance shifted back to Spike. "Something YOU might do well to remember."
A lump rose in Spikes throat. Shifting about on his bed, he tugged at the sheets. For some reason he felt the need to cover himself. He cleared his throat and coughed, rallying. "We were just, uhm, talking, and uh-"
"Chryssi? What are you doing, honeybug?" From somewhere in the ether-space behind the floating vision of the dark queen, Twilight's voice could be heard.
Chrysalis turned slightly towards the sound to address her wife over her shoulder. "Just talking with our son, beloved. Doing MOM stuff." She said the last part with an oddly pleasant and proud smile, even giving a bounce of her mane.
The slits of her dual-irised eyes turned again to Spike. He had the distinct impression that she was regarding him the way a boa constrictor inspected a mouse. "If you're just looking to get your little dragonhood into his cloachal vent, I promise you, your destruction will be slow and your agony, torturous."
"His WHAT?"
"My WHAT?"
"Chrysalis? What are y-" Twilights image came into view just behind that of the Changeling Queen. She gasped, approaching her wife with a shocked glare as she fastened the red silk of her night-robe. "CHRYSALIS!"
"What?" The Changeling turned to her wife as Twilight perched over her shell.
Twilight pointed a hoof in the direction of the scrying screens, looking from Thorax- on his bed, to Spike- also on his bed. "WHAT are you- What are THEY doing?"
Spike gave a sheepish wave, still feeling the need to hold a sheet over his chest. "Hey, Twilight."
Twilight gave a curt nod to the young dragon. "Spike." She returned her attention to the pillar of contained maternal fury that was her wife. "Honeybug? WHAT the BUCK is going on, here?"
Thorax managed to find his voice and raised it sharply. "She interrupted our privacy!"
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and shook her head dismissively. "Oh for the love of- you were never so concerned with 'privacy' in the hive." She turned to Twilight matter-of-factly. "Honestly I could tell you everything from the first time he looked at another stallion to the first time he fantasized about-"
"MOM!"
Chrysalis looked from the growing pool of ire and irk that was her son to the concerned and confused tableau that was her pony wife. "I'm PARENTING" replied the Changeling Queen.
Twilight's brow knit in a patchwork of creases. "Parenting?"
"Chrysalis straightened and gave a haugty look of pride. "Yes. Not like I USED to, of course. I'm doing it right this time. I was using YOUR parents as a template."
"MY parents?"
"Yes." Chrysalis looked to her lavender love with an earnest sincerity. "I was actually following your father's example when he caught your brother talking to 'that little pink hussy'."
Twilight was stunned, mouth agape. "My fa- Shiney-? 'Hussy'?! " Her mind raced to the conclusion. "Wait- Cadance?" She shook her head, her look becoming one of strained disbelief, "My father never called Cadance a 'hussy'?"
Chrysalis pursed her lips as something wicked gleamed behind her eyes. "Specifically, I believe his words were 'cradle-robbing little bit of tail', now that you mention it. 'NO son of mine will be riding THAT town horse-cart'!"
"You've GOT to be kidding me."
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "Did YOU have agents posing as any of Cadance's guards, spying on the late-night private communications from her bed-chambers?"
Twilight shook her head in silent disbelief. Years of conversations between her parents, slight nuances of movement and inflections of speech, all began to fall into place beside one another. "You know, this makes SO much sense now. I remember when he-"
Thorax interrupted the tour of adolescent impropriety and pointed a hoof in accusation. "Twilight, She interrupted a call from my boyfriend!"
Spike's ears perked up and the sheet dropped from his claws. His baby-blue eyes went as wide as the Ghastly Gorge. "Boyfriend?"
The realization of what he had just said tackled Thorax like a hoofball linebacker. A whole new wave of embarrassment hit him. The words had just.. come out, without even thinking. Their eyes slowly met and the two exchanged the sheepish smiles of awkward young love. Twin rosettes perched on Spike's lavender scaled cheeks as he stared in wonder into Thorax. The chitin of Thorax' cheeks likewise grew flush with a grass-green hue as the fire in them threatened to cook his eyelashes.
Chrysalis' ebony ears perked up as well. "BOYfriend?!" The twisted spire of her gnarled black horn crackled alive with green fire. Her eyes blazed with eerie intensity, rolling sidelong to look Spike with that 'morsel on a camping spit' edge of menace. He could swear her fangs just got longer- and pointier.
Twilight looked to her partner with a nonplussed sigh. She gave a knowing huff and booped the towering inferno of serpentine obsidian on the snoot. It was an act of even-tempered awareness, the kind only obtained by truly knowing one's paramour. "Chrysalis." The queen went cross-eyed momentarily. The flames of her horn snuffed as quickly as they had appeared. Her baleful glare shifted from Spike to Twilight. As the lover's eyes met, something exchanged silently between them morphed the Queen's fury into a puffy-cheeked pout. All four stared back and forth in silence for several seconds.
Chrysalis was the first to break the stalemate of wills and anxiety. She turned back to address Spike with a regal air, giving a flip of her mane of azure cobwebs. "Thorax is sen-si-tive. If you think you can just hit it and quit it, you have another thing coming!"
"I WHAT?"
"CHRYSALIS!" Twilight's jaw dropped as Thorax pulled the blanket from his antlers over his face. He wondered if he could shape-shift into non-existence...
The monarch continued, waggling a pitted hoof in Spike's direction with a snarl and an accusatory glare. "Don't think I don't know about hit-it-and-quit-it, little dragon. I know ALL about your heart-breaker hook-up clubs and score-keeping point systems for uggos and-"
"CHRYSALIS!" Twilight interrupted her, silencing the tirade before it got even more graphic. Her own cheeks were growing quite rosy as she looked from her wife to Spike and back again. "Spike is NOT going to 'hit-it-and-quit-it!" Her violet eyes sparked as if she suddenly recalled something and switched her attention to the young dragon. With a swiftness the satin sheets were jerked back up to cover himself again. "You're not going to hit-it-and-quit-it, are you, Spike?"
"I- What? NO!" Spike shook his head emphatically. "How could you even ASK me that?"
Twilight rubbed her temples and gave an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, sorry... I watched an after-school special on abusive relationships and teenage development recently. I guess it kind of got to me. Sorry..."
She looked from the young dragon to Thorax. Though she had known the lovebug for many years she had never seen the prince look quite like this before. Even though his features were more akin to an arthropod than a pony, her time with her own beloved bug had trained her well enough to know that look. She felt her alicorn hearts swelling and her eyes growing misty with the realization of what she was seeing blossom between two of her dearest friends. Something this beautiful and precious was as dangerously powerful as it was delicate and it certainly didn't need the two mares butting in to muck it all up. "Chryssi...?"
Chrysalis looked to her. "What?
"Honeybug? Let's leave them alone now, okay?"
"But I'm Being a MOM."
Twilight touched a hoof to her cheek. "Chryssi. You're doing it again."
The changeling Queen's brows knit as Twilight stroked her cheek. "What? I don't..." Her shoulders sagged. She groaned in the frustration of a indignant demigod forced to do the dishes. "First I don't care enough. Now, I'm what? Caring too much?" Her forked tongue flickered out, tasting the emotions in the air.
Twilight smiled lovingly in response. "You have to let him be his own person, baby."
Chrysalis' features contorted in effort. "His own..." Her face was like watching a raccoon try to fix a toaster with a sack of hammers and a fistful of wet moss. "I'm... not following you, lilac."
Twilight leaned into her wife and kissed her lips with such simple sweetness that a green blush began to crawl up the pitted blackness of her neck. "I know you don't." Her lavender hoof followed the contour of her face. It was funny. Looking at Chrysalis now, like this, she could almost see Thorax in her. The lime-berry features of the prince conveyed such vulnerability and confusion, tinged with hopefulness. His fear of abandonment- of failing the one he loved was mirrored in something she could see crossing the obsidian angles of the mare she dearly loved. She wondered if maybe Chrysalis could see it too but just didn't know how to respond. "But I also know you're trying... and that's what matters."
Twilight pressed her lips to Chrysalis' once again. It was a gentle kiss, tender, simple and sincere. Both mares shut their eyes and shared in that moment of silence. After several seconds of gentle passion, Twilight softly withdrew. Chrysalis slowly opened her eyes and righted herself. There was something new there, a calm that was reflected in her tone. "I AM doing it again, aren't I? Controlling him... because I'm AFRAID for him?"
Twilight stroked her beloved bugs' neck and studied her face with a deep and genuine smile. "We'll talk about it, okay?"
Chrysalis nodded apologetically as Twilight turned to address Spike and Thorax. "We're going to leave you two alone. You boys go back to what you were doing, okay? Please?"
Spike gave a sheepish grin and a thumbs-up as Thorax watched the pair in indescribable silence. The green circle of light surrounding the mares' image fizzled and crackled, fading away. As it did, Twilight looked to Spike with a huge giddy grin, mouthing the words "CALL. ME."
Spike took a deep breath and let it out in a long, musical sigh of relief. The noise drew a laugh from Thorax and he whistled in response. The Cuddlebug Prince clambered back onto his bed, setting his nightstand upright and readjusting the image quality of the magical scrying device.
Spike ran his clawed mitt through his fins. "Well... THAT happened."
Thorax regarded his old friend with a smile, rubbing his cheek. "Yeah... I'm sorry." Thorax' brow folded back to it's usual look of good natured, if awkward concern. "She's trying. You know?"
Spike raised his palms. "Oh, I get it. Believe me, I GET it. Heh. 'Parents'. After living through Twilight's 'nervous phase' really, this is nothing." Spike reset the pillows on his bed and ooched back into a semblance of his former position, if perhaps a bit more relaxed now, a bit more natural. "Remind me to tell you sometime about the night she caught me with an issue of Wet Feathers Illustrated"
Thorax' eyes went wide and he flopped onto his bed, giggling in embarrassment for Spike. "Oh NO! I would have DIED!" He flailed about, kicking at the air with his lime-berry hoofs and shaking with gleeful titters.
Spike rubbed at his neck, watching his friend laugh. Thorax really was SO many things. He was kind, caring, giving, honest, brave, cheerful, understanding, just about the best friend a dragon could ask for. His sincere desire to spread joy and peace was positively heart-warming. He had a strange kind of majesty to him and an earnest charm. But on top of it all, watching him like this, he was something more. Thorax really was... cute.
"So... 'boyfriend'?"
Thorax looked over to the dragon with a bright smile. "W...Well, Y-yeah.... That's okay... isn't it?"
Spike couldn't help but gush. Any of the pretense and heroic antics he had psyched himself up for had disappeared somewhere between the furious onslaught of an irate, over-protective mother-bug and the warmth of knowing for certain that Thorax was no longer just his friend. "Like, pictures on the locker-door, kind of boyfriend?"
Thorax righted himself and rose to his elbows. "What's a locker?"
Spike couldn't help but chuckle as he shook his head.
Maybe it was seeing Twilight earlier. Maybe it was some weird kind of sympathy for Chrysalis. Maybe it was just what felt right in the moment. He raised his clawed palm to his lips and pressed a kiss to the digits. Looking to his old friend with an entirely new light in his eyes, he tenderly raised the ethereal gesture to the screen and offered it.
Thorax blinked as his heart skipped a beat. With an ease which would surprise him time and again in the years to come he raised his hoof to the screen.
Spike was always so cool.
Spike really did know exactly how to make him smile.