//------------------------------// // Act 1, Chapter 1 // Story: All That Glitters... // by Comet Burst //------------------------------// "Spike... I," the stunning white unicorn stammered. Her wondrous blue eyes sparkled at the sight of what the little purple dragon was holding. In his outstretched claws sat the most magnificent diamond she had ever laid her eyes on. The sparkling gem was cut flawlessly into a pentagon, each face polished to a mirror sheen. It glimmered in the light, casting tiny beams of pure light in every direction. It almost didn't look like a rock; more like a piece of ice carefully and painstakingly carved into a priceless gem. It's size boggled her mind as well. It was well over the size of most normal diamonds, as large as Spike's head. Such a gem could give the unicorn whatever she wanted. The bits it could fetch would secure her for life, allowing her time to design dresses and fashion at her leisure. Spike grinned sheepishly at the white unicorn mare, Rarity. The object of his affection was clearly floored by his gift, giving the young drake some courage. He was pleased she liked the gem so much, even though he knew she would. Her cutie mark was three diamonds! Steeling his will, he managed to talk. "I'm glad you like it," he murmured, staring at his toes. For some reason, the speech he had prepared got stuck in his throat. "S-so Rarity, I was hoping that, uh, that you... and me. Well, we kinda could, uh," Spike felt his cheeks burn bright red. He had thought about this moments for a long time now, but none of it was going the way it did in his head. Forcing himself to look up, he saw Rarity's bottom lip quivering as the diamond sparkled. Her beautiful blue eyes were getting glassy, so Spike returned to looking at his feet. "Rarity," he spoke with as much determination as he could, "Will you please be my-" He felt a hoof press against his mouth and looked up. The most adorable pony he had ever known had her pristine hoof up against his mouth and had her eyes shut tightly. "Spike," she moaned as if hurt, "Please, don't do this." Confused, Spike tried to say something, but Rarity cut him off. "This won't work, darling. You and I, we're just too different. Not just you're a dragon and I'm a pony, but I'm also much older than you. We just, we can't be together." Rarity refused to open her eyes as she spoke. Upset, Spike knocked away her hoof, determined to make his case. However, before he could utter a syllable, Rarity spun around. "Spike, please forgive me," she whimpered before running through the door. Spike watched her run and felt his chest tighten. He wanted to chase after her, but his feet refused to move. Why did he think she would say yes? His vision started to blur as he looked down at his feet. Spike had pictured this moment in his head for days, often daydreaming about how happy he'd be when she said yes. Instead of glee, Spike had never felt more sad in his life. The silence around him screamed at him what he had done wrong, but it was soon broken by a more horrible noise, that of hoofbeats. "Oh my," came Pinkie Pie's voice, "I didn't think that would happen." Spike wiped his eyes of the water and ran out of Sugarcube Corner, leaving his pristine diamond on the tile. Several ponies sat in an awkward silence, some playing with parts of their sweet treats. Behind the counter, Mrs Cake stood there, looking at a purple and white cupcake. Spike looked down into his own blurry reflection as water rolled down his still burning cheeks. The reflection was all distorted from the water dripping onto it. He sat on the railing of a bridge, the same one he and Rarity almost died at. He rubbed his left cheek morosely, the discussion still in his mind. As he sat there, a set of hoofbeats slowly made their way up to him. "Wow, look at the big, scary dragon." Came a mocking voice. "What's he doing here all by himself? Crying that he doesn't have a fillyfriend on Hearts and Hooves Day?" Spike sniffed, but refused to answer. He didn't care what she was saying, he was too upset to answer. "Hey!" came the voice again. "I'm talking to you!" Spike still didn't answer. "Fine! Be that way, you big scaly foal! I don't even want to talk to you. You know why? Cause you're just a big baby! You know how I can tell? Because you're sitting here crying, just like a baby would. I should find whoever made you like this and be their friend, 'cause you're just a big baby!" "Stop it already!" Spike almost shouted to the pony talking. He felt his sadness slowly turning into anger towards this pony. "Aww, is the little baby gonna cry some more?" Came a bittersweet taunt, "Is he gonna cry some big dragon baby tears?" Now angry, Spike turned to face his antagonist. Behind him, at the base of the bridge, stood a pink filly with a purple and white striped mane and tail. His eyes momentarily flicked up to the piece of jewelry on her head, a sparkling tiara with several diamonds inlaid into it, before returning his gaze to her light blue eyes. She was grinning menacingly and Spike scowled. "Just who do you think you are?" He demanded. The filly tossed her mane back and proudly puffed herself up. "I'm the great Diamond Tiara, thank you very much! The prettiest and richest filly in all of Ponyville." "More like the most annoying." Spike retorted. Diamond Tiara immediately dropped her proud demeanor and scowled back at the baby dragon. "Like you have any room to talk, crybaby!" she growled, "At least I'm not crying on Hearts and Hooves Day!" "Whatever," Spike sighed, turning his angry gaze to the river, "At least I had a date." Diamond Tiara gasped before baring her teeth at him. "What's that supposed to mean?!" She demanded. Spike looked back at the angry filly and frowned, burrowing his brow as well. "You've got such a terrible attitude, I'm sure no colt would ask you out." The pink filly looked ready to burst into flames, like Twilight did when she was angry, before shouting, "Like you know anything, crybaby! I could've gone on twenty dates today!" "Yeah, but I bet you went on none." Spike glowered, knowing he was making the filly mad. "You probably couldn't even get that colt Snails to ask you out." That did it. Diamond Tiara gave an angry shout of frustration before charging up and tackling Spike, both of them flying over the railing. She had only been this mad at Applebloom before, but Diamond was more irritated with this annoying purple dragon than she had ever been. She wanted to shout at him, but the cold water that splashed over both of them stopped any malacious intent from either of them. The river was actually deeper than she thought and Diamond kicked away from Spike, flailing her hooves around, trying desperately to swim. Spike, on the other hand, easily swam up to the surface. He wasn't a sea dragon, but he knew how to swim instinctively. He broke the surface and gasped for air since he didn't have time to hold his breath before falling into the water. A loud splashing and a hoof to his jaw caught Spike's attention as the pink fully, Diamond Tiara, broke the surface, gasping for air and yelping as she sunk back under the water, emerging seconds later coughing up water and flailing some more. Spike easily swam to the shore, rubbing his cheek where she had hit him before turning around. "Help me!" Diamond Tiara shouted as she flailed around, "Somepony, please! *glub*" Spike, immediately forgetting how much he disliked the pony, jumped back into the water and swam out to a hysterical Diamond Tiara. The pony wasn't easy to get a hold on, giving Spike two more shots to his face as he swam up underneath her before scrambling to hold on to his tail. Once she had a hold of him, Spike deftly swam back to the shore and the pink filly scrambled onto the bank. Spike coughed a bit, accidentally swallowing a bit of water when Diamond dunked him while trying to hold on. Shivering, the pink filly wobbly got to her legs and instinctively reached up to her head. The familiar tiara she wore wasn't there. "My tiara!" She wailed, pushing past Spike and scanning the water from left to right. As Spike breathed rather heavily to restore his lost oxygen, Diamond Tiara wailed loudly and sunk to the ground. Spike turned around to watch the pink filly as she cried and, as much as he didn't like her, felt a little sorry for her. "Hold on, I'll find it." He said as he jumped back into the water. Diamond Tiara stopped crying just enough to see his purple scaly body disappear below the surface and sniffled as she waited. Without her tiara, she felt incomplete. After a few seconds had passed, a clawed hand clutching a very familiar tiara shot out of the water, followed by the head of a baby dragon. Diamond Tiara squealed happily and once Spike got ashore, tackled him into a huge hug. Spike and Diamond both plopped into the muddy bank, but Spike hardly noticed. His eyes were transfixed on the jewel encrusted headdress currently clutched in his hand. It had diamonds, lots of them, encased in a stunning sterling silver. Each diamond shined brilliantly in the sun, each sparkling and almost inviting him to pick them out. The baby dragon had barely noticed when the pink filly let him go, but instantly saw her hoof grab for the tiara. It was hers, of course, but Spike found his hand wasn't working. The filly gave it a little tug, but the claws of his hand didn't let go. The little pony tried again and this time the dragon let go. A little flustered, Diamond went about putting her tiara back into her mane. With it soaked, it was quite difficult to position it in the right way. It sagged to the right, then to the left, and then slipped backwards down her hair. Diamond growled angrily as she fought with it, realizing how stupid she must look. When it finally sat still, Diamond Tiara risked turning around and saw Spike staring blankly at her with his mouth hanging open slightly. The pink filly stared back at him too, unsure of what to think. She was going to say her thanks and leave, but the little dragon was staring at her like she was Princess Celestia. It didn't take long for a small blush to work its way onto her cheeks and, knowing she was blushing, Diamond tried to hide her face in her mane by messing with it. Spike, for his part, was still staring directly at the jeweled headpiece. The diamonds weren't flawless, but they were pretty close. The silver shined brilliantly, complimenting the sparkle of the gems perfectly and giving it a radiating aura. Spike had not noticed this when he met her, but it grabbed his attention like never before. He... wanted it. He wanted it so bad. Before he could do anything, though, the pink filly finally worked up her courage and trotted over to the young drake and muttered something. Spike, who focus was still on the tiara, replied with an aloof, "Wha...?" "I said," Diamond spoke up louder, putting more effort into it this time, "Thank you for rescuing me and my tiara." Spike's attention broke from the tiara and his mind slowly processed what she had just said. Shaking his head, he grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Aw, it was nothin'" he responded. "Hey, what's your name?" Diamond asked timidly. "Uh, Spike?" the drake answered. "Okay, Spike. Do you, uh, do you want to, uh..." Diamond started to ask. She had no idea what to say since she only planned to go shopping with Silver Spoon later. The pink filly had no idea if the dragon even wanted to be around her. She finally noticed she was looking at the ground and straightened up, like a proper mare should. "Do you want to..." Her mind raced for something to do when she noticed he was splattered with mud. She looked around at herself as well and saw mud caked on her pristine coat. That was when it struck her what to do as she supressed a snort of disgust. "Come over to my house for a meal?" the pink filly continued her thought, "We have a bathtub you can get cleaned up in." Spike looked himself over and saw the mud. He chuckled a bit and said "Nah, it's okay. I should get back to..." "No!" Diamond cried out and stomped a hoof, "You saved me, so I should repay you." Spike looked dumbfounded at the filly and worded, "It wasn't that big of a deal..." "Come on, Spike," Diamond stated as she trotted past him, head held high despite the water still dripping from her mane, "My home isn't too far away." Spike sighed to himself, but followed the pink pony. With his bust with Rarity, Spike had little else to do today other than clean up the library and Owlicious's perch, a job he particularly didn't like.