Twilight sighed as she and Spike rushed through town on her bike, the pair deciding to spend some time at one of Spike's favourite dog parks.
Spike was sitting in the basket and let out several sniffs before smirking. "We're almost there," Spike cheered as Twilight turned the corner and spotted the circle of trees that outlined the entire park. "Oh yeah, this is gonna be great. We haven't gotten to go to this park in ages."
Twilight laughed, "I think the last time was a week or so after the Friendship Games."
"Yeah," Spike nodded, "right after I learned to talk. Gotta admit, things have sure been a lot more interesting since I learned to do that."
Twilight nodded. "I guess something good came out of me messing with Equestrian Magic."
"Including becoming friends with Sunset and the others," Spike pointed out as they reached the park. They spotted the gate to the fence that enclosed the place and headed through it, Spike leaping out of the basket the moment Twilight opened it with her magic.
Several other dogs were there, Spike rushing towards them so he could start playing. One had a rope toy and as soon as he reached it, Spike grabbed the other end and the pair began a tug of war. Twilight laughed at this and moved over to a nearby bench, where she watched the two dogs play without incident.
She stayed like this for several minutes until she heard the gate open again. "Okay bud," she heard a familiar voice say. "Now you play nice." She looked over and spotted Flash Sentry, stepping into the dog park with his boston terrier. The little dog ran off to play with the other dogs, whilst Flash looked around for someplace to sit.
When he saw Twilight, he appeared surprised but then smiled. "Hey," she waved at him as he waved back.
"Hey," Flash moved over to sit down besides her. "Didn't think you'd be here. Figured this place would be too far from your house."
"Spike really loves this place," she explained. "Even before he could talk, he would get extra excited whenever we came here." She then thought about what he said, "wait, you know where I live?"
"No, but since you went to Crystal Prep and take a bus to school from the city, it's not hard to figure out you live around there." Twilight nodded, understanding his logic. "So, just plan on staying here all day?"
"If we were talking about the old Spike, then I would have brought a book to read since he would happily play here until sunset." Flash laughed at this, "but he'll probably get bored in an hour or two. That's the problem with having a dog with human level intelligence. Keeping him entertained is tricky."
"Really, I figured he'd be easier to entertain? Just stick him in front of the TV or give him a video game."
"Tried that. He only ever wants to watch reality TV and he has a hard time hitting the right buttons with his paws." Flash laughed again as Spike ran over.
"My ears are burning," he told them. "Are you guys talking about me?" The teens smirked at this, making the puppy realise they were. "It better all be complimentary."
"Oh," Twilight nodded, "it is." But the smirk on her face told the pup another story. In that moment, Banana ran forward and barked at Flash. The teen reached into his bag and pulled out a toy in the shape of a banana, which he held up and squeezed. The squeaky toy let out the iconic sound and the dog got more excited, his tiny tail shaking with joy before Flash threw the toy into the air.
The dog barked and leapt up, grabbing the toy in midair before landing back down. He started running around with it, biting the toy and letting it squeak some more. This drove the other dogs nuts, the lot chasing after him wanting the toy for themselves.
"Ah," Spike leaned against Twilight's leg, "I remember when I was so easily distracted. What a-" He stopped when he caught smell of something, "is that a treat?" He turned to Flash's bag and licked his lips, smelling something delicious inside.
"Spike," Twilight picked him up, "don't even think about it. Those are Banana's treats, not yours."
"Aw man," Spike huffed until Flash took out a bag of doggy biscuits.
"Here," he took a bone shaped one out and threw it at the pup. He caught it and stuffed it into his mouth before Twilight could stop him, the girl rolling her eyes and putting him down as he moaned in delight.
"Yum." She turned to Twilight, "I wish your boyfriend could be this good with dogs." Before Twilight could reply, he ran off whilst Flash gave her a curious look.
"You and Timber doing alright?"
"We're doing this," Twilight sighed. "It's just...he's not really a dog person."
"Seriously?" Flash asked.
"Apparently, he had a bit of a traumatic experience at the camp when he was a kid. Some wolves showed up and cornered him. They might have hurt him if a ranger hadn't shown up and tranked them. It was a one in a million occurrence, but it left a bit of an impact on him. He's not scared of dogs, but he's not comfortable around them either."
"Yikes," Flash frowned, "poor guy. Not being able to enjoy spending time with one of the best kind of pets in the world, all because of a freak accident that happened. I feel sorry for him."
Twilight nodded. "I'm sure he'll get over it given time. At the very least I'm sure he'll grow to be comfortable around Spike." Flash wanted to ask her what she would do if he didn't, but didn't want to upset her. He knew how much Twilight loved Spike and her relationship with Timber was getting pretty serious. He didn't want to make her worry about the chance of having to chose one over the other.
They watched as Spike and Banana ran around one another in a circle, both laughing as they did so. Then Banana did something Flash had never seen him do before. Drop his banana toy so Spike could pick it up, not growling at all when he did so. The dogs squeaked the toy, Spike putting it on the ground and stepping on it to do so. Banana then did the same and the pair continued doing this one after the other.
Flash and Twilight couldn't help but smile at how well the pair were playing together, but with each passing minute Twilight could tell Spike was starting to get bored. "We should probably head off and do something else soon."
"I know of a really great foot path we can walk down," Flash told her. "Banana loves it and I'm sure Spike will too. Lots of grass around it for them to run through, plenty of squirrels for them to chase and, since it hasn't rained in the last few days, no mud for them to make a mess of themselves in."
"Sounds perfect," Twilight smiled. Flash nodded and whistled, Banana grabbing his toy and running over to him. As he did, Flash took out a large bottle of water and a strange rubber disk. He flicked the disk and it suddenly morphed into a rubber bowl, which he placed on the floor and filled with water.
Banana happily lapped away at it, allowing Flash to clean his toy and put it away as Spike ran over to Twilight. Twilight took out a thermos and filled the lid with water, giving it to Spike so he could drink it the way a normal person would.
"You know," Flash started. "Despite all the insanity I've seen since magic made itself known, I don't think seeing a dog acting so human will ever not be the weirdest thing imaginable." Spike smirked at this as he gave Twilight back the cup. Twilight putting the thermos back in her bag before the four of them began their trek out of the park and towards the walk way Flash had mentioned.
The two would spend the next several hours just walking, talking, letting their pets have fun, and agreeing to make it a regular occurrences whenever they can. Neither of them thought to also invite their other dog owning friends, both subconsciously wanting this to be something shared between just them.
It was amazing how much fun two people could have, going for a walk with their dogs. But when it's the right person, anyone can have fun doing anything. Even just going for a walk.