//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Working too Hard // Story: A Dragon's Depression // by rarityxspike //------------------------------// Rarity looked at Spike. She could see he wasn't his energetic self. "Spike, you look a bit tired, has Twilight been asking you to do too much?" She chuckled slightly, implying it was a joke. Spike looked up at the mare to see her smiling. As Spike gave a weak chuckle, Rarity's smile soon changed to a serious look. "Something wrong Spikey?". Spike looked at the mare's ocean blue eyes. It didn't take him long to realise he was staring. "No. Nothing's wrong". Rarity was not convinced and glared at the dragon. Spike frowned. With a sigh he said, "I wasn't able to sleep last night". Rarity immediately got concerned. "Why not? What's wrong, darling?". Spike didn't want Rarity to know more so he... lied. "I guess I just wasn't tired". Rarity, as much as she hated to do it, gave up and carried on walking. As Rarity continued, Spike couldn't believe what he had just done, he lied to one of his closest friends, or even worse, to Rarity, the love of his life. Within seconds Spike was back by Rarity's side following her to the boutique. They reached the boutique within a few minutes. Rarity unlocked her door and walked in. Spike followed the beautiful mare into her exquisite boutique. As Spike followed Rarity into her inspiration room, he saw fabrics rolls on the floor and needles all over the table. It was more of a mess than usual. Or what Rarity liked to call it 'organized chaos'. "Wow! You've been busy these last couple months" Rarity looked around at Spike and smiled. "Yes, indeed I have" Spike smiled back. "No wonder we haven't seen you" Rarity tried to keep her smile when Spike said this. "Yes. It feels like I haven't seen you, Twilight or the others in ages" "I felt the same way about you" It didn't take Spike long to realise what he just said. "I mean we all did. We all missed seeing you" Rarity chuckled at how quickly the dragon had 'corrected' himself. Rarity walked over to a shelf and picked up a piece of paper with her magic and handed it to Spike. Spike looked at the paper then looked up at Rarity with a puzzled face. "What's wrong, darling?" Spike looked at the paper once more before speaking. "Nothing, I just thought that you wanted help with your dresses" "Oh, you will be as soon as you've done everything on that list" Spike smiled and got to work. Spike looked at the list, the first thing he had to do was to clean Rarity's room. Spike made his way upstairs wondering why Rarity would need her room cleaned. The door squeaked a little as Spike pushed it and walked in. The sight before him was a massive shock, her bed was unmade, her clothes were all over the floor, "This isn't like Rarity" Spike thought to himself. He brushed it off and got to work. Spike started by making Rarity's bed, he placed her pillows correctly then picked up her blanket, made sure it was straight and placed it over her sheets tucking in any excess blanket under her mattress just how Rarity liked it. As Spike started to pick Rarity's clothes off the floor he started to feel a bit dizzy so he sat on the floor for a few minutes to recover before picking up Rarity's clothes again. Rarity was busy making a dress for one of her clients when suddenly Twilight's words echoed in her head 'Can you keep an eye on him while he's round yours? He hasn't really been eating much'. "Oh my!" she gasped as she slowly ran upstairs to check on Spike. When she was at the top of her stairs she saw her bedroom door was open. She made her way into the bedroom. "Spikey? Are you in here?". The sound of Rarity's voice made Spike shoot straight back up on to his feet. When Spike saw Rarity he said, "Hey Rarity, just picking up your clothes" Spike smiled "Thank you, darling. I just came up to see if you were okay" Spike gave Rarity a warm smile. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you Rarity" Rarity smiled back at Spike. "Okay, well, I'm just downstairs if you need me" "Okay Rarity" Spike watched the mare as she left the room. As Spike heard Rarity walk downstairs he sighed in relief. After Spike finished cleaning Rarity's room he took her dirty clothes downstairs to wash them. He got to the kitchen and saw piles of dishes, taller than him. The young dragon sighed. He separated the whites from the colours and put the whites in the washing machine. Spike started on the dishes and had a hard time reaching the top ones. As he was doing the dishes he thought to himself 'Wow! Rarity must be really busy if she hasn't had time to do some cleaning.' Once he finished the dishes he looked at his list and checked off 'Clean Room' next was 'Clean Dishes'. Spike chuckled to himself quietly 'Looks likes I'm psychic'. Spike continued to look at the list, the next thing he had to do was 'Mop the Floors'. Spike went to grab a mop on his way he felt a bit funny. His legs were shaking, his breaths were irregular and his purple scales were going pale. Rarity just finished yet another dress. "Ah! Perfect! Right, that is... 17 finished dresses" She got some materials ready for her 18th dresses, when she thought "Oh, I better see how Spike is doing" Rarity heard him come down the stairs a while ago. She checked in the kitchen, but saw nothing, but clean dishes. As she went into the next room the sight before her scared and worried her. "Spike?" She saw his pale purple scales, ran up to him, turned him around to see his legs shaking, and could see he was breathing irregularly. "Spike?!? What's wrong? Speak to me, darling" Spike could hear Rarity, but didn't have the energy to speak. He just wanted to say 'Rarity, I'm fine', but he wasn't. His vision got blurrier and blurrier. "SPIIIKEEEYYY!!!" was the last thing Spike heard before he blacked out and fell to the floor.