~Spike~
It felt like it had only been a couple of minutes since I had left, but I knew better. I knew that it had been an hour, at least. For all I knew, more time than that had passed. It would have been good if, by this point, I had some idea of where it was that I could go to spend tonight at.
The only good news was that the sun was still up, I have a few hours before I have to make the decision. That didn’t mean that I wanted to take the rest of the day, I actually wanted to decide at that point.
So I decided to sit down and do just that.
There was always Applejack. I thought about whether or not she would support me staying there, and if she would support what was happening. In my mind, there was something about her that screamed ‘old fashioned’. I thought about it some more, trying to figure out if I was being unfair.
I probably wasn’t, and this was something that was too important to be put out there on a hope.
The next person was Fluttershy. I knew that she was nice, and that she probably wouldn’t say anything if I went there. The real question, the one that was in my mind, was what she would really be thinking. I didn’t know if she would approve, or if she would be happy. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to be down there right now, given the situation with her.
Then there was the fact that I was sure she would try to get me to talk to Twilight again.
That wasn’t a horrible idea, but I wasn’t ready to do it yet. I knew that she wasn’t going to listen to me, that she would just steamroll me, it wouldn’t end well. Part of me still wanted to head back, to try to talk, but that was something that overall didn’t seem like a great idea yet.
That left Pinkie Pie, really.
I thought about everything that Pinkie Pie might have to say about the situation. and it wasn’t horrible. I knew, in my heart, that she would want me to talk to Twilight. I also knew that she would help me out, that she wanted every one of her friends to smile. It would also be something that could have ended up helping with me seeing Rainbow later on.
Pinkie Pie definitely would help me find Rainbow.
That actually didn’t take as long as it could have. Or maybe it had, I really didn’t know how long I had been sitting there. The fact that my legs were numb, from the way I was sitting, told me that it might have been longer than I had thought. Either way, I successfully made a decision that was going to stick.
Maybe Pinkie Pie would also be able to help me figure out how to get a place for myself in the future, and a job that could help out with that. As hard as it was to think about moving out for good, I still haven’t come to terms with the idea, it was something that might have to happen. Part of me wanted to go ask Celestia for help, but that would come later.
Right now, I needed to go talk to Pinkie Pie and figure out if I could spend some time there.
It didn’t take long for me to walk over to Sugarcube Corner, and it took even less time for me to get the Cakes to let me talk to Pinkie Pie. I knew that the thing that would take a long time would be when I had to explain everything to her. There was a lot to explain, and part of me knew that she was going to ask a lot of questions.
Some of the questions might have even been relevant.
~Pinkie Pie~
This had to be the most amazing part of today, and that was saying something. I had taken care of the twins today, I had baked one of the largest cakes I had ever baked, and there was something else that I had forgotten. I think it had to do with a spider, but I couldn’t remember it for the life of me. Maybe it would come back later.
This thing had to do with Spike.
It was always super-terrific to see my super-awesome dragon friend. I was used to seeing him with Twilight. I almost immediately went to get a cupcake for him, and maybe some brownies for Twilight. They always came in here together. This time, though, he was alone. As soon as he walked into Sugarcube Corner, I walked out from behind him.
I liked surprising my friends, and now was no exception.
“Hey there, Spike.”
It was always super-awesome to see my friends’ expressions when I surprised them. I didn’t startle Fluttershy much, but everypony else got the same treatment. This time, I got to see Spike jump at least six inches into the air before he landed on his feet. I couldn’t help myself, I started to giggle.
Apparently, he didn’t find it as funny and he simply glared at me.
“Ooops, I’m sorry. Need some cupcakes? Brownies? Cake? Pie? Stru-”
I was cut off with a shake of the head, and a few fingers pressed against my mouth. This was so much better than when Rainbow cut me off. When Spike did that, cut me off, it didn’t taste like ground. That is one taste I didn’t like, dirt. Maybe it just wasn’t sweet enough, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I have to know what it was that he had stopped me for.
“Sit down, Pinkie, I need some advice.”
“Well, the first thing you have to do is make a giant batch of cupcakes. Then you hand them to whoever’s mad at you, and they’ll stop being mad at you.” That was the good advice that had always worked for me. I couldn’t think of a single incident that couldn’t be solved with cakes or cupcakes or brownies or some sort of sweet.
“It’s not that, it’s something... a little more complicated. Nopony’s mad at me.”
“Then you could give the cupcakes to me … wait, where are the cupcakes again?” I looked at him, confused. I could have sworn that this had something to do with cupcakes. Had he made cupcakes yet? Wait, no, it hadn’t happened yet.
“There are no cupcakes, Pinkie.” It looked like he was frustrated, but that didn’t even make any sense. I was the one who wasn’t getting any cupcakes.
Wait.
He never mentioned cupcakes before, that was my mistake right there.
“Oki-doki-loki. So, tell me what you need advice about then...”
I couldn’t remember the last time he looked so serious. Not only that, but there was a hint of melancholy. I think that would be how I would describe him. Or maybe angry would be a much better description. No, no, my final answer would have been conflicted. I saw him look conflicted.
“Promise me you won’t repeat any of this to anypony?”
I still didn’t like secrets. At the same time, I didn’t like the idea of letting down a friend. There wasn’t even a second wait before I started. I zipped my mouth, locked it, took the key. Then I dug a hole, put the key in the hole, then built a library over it. All of those motions should have been obvious, but all I got was a confused look.
That same thing had happened with Twilight, and I was forced to explain it again. This was the least fun part about it. All of that seemed to be enough for Spike, who smiled and took a deep breath.
“Alright, it starts off a few nights back. I had gone to tell Rarity how I felt, it was going to be so amazing.”
This was the type of thing I had wanted to hear. It might not have had anything to do with Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy or Twilight, but this was always good. I had always been cheering Spike on, in a meteorological sense anyway. Or was it metaphonological? Either way, I had been hoping that this sort of thing would have happened. This was also an awesome reason for a party. I knew they would all show up, everypony I invited.
The only thing that took the idea of a party put was when I saw that Spike didn’t look happy in the slightest.
“Did she tell you no? Why, I have half a mind to go over there and -” Again, I got to taste Spike’s fingers. They didn’t have a unique taste, really, aside from dragon sweat. If I had to describe that, it would be something really bad.
“It turned out that Fluttershy had gone there before me, and told Rarity that she loved her. And by the time I got there, I saw them kissing.”
I was so confused. There were new ponies in Ponyville that I apparently knew more about than my friends. Did they all have secrets that they kept from me? In my head, there was a file on everyone. This isn’t some metaphorical reference, I had once taken a look inside my head. Secretary Pinkie did a lot of good work, and I sometimes gave her some time off.
Right now, she was trying to figure out when it was that Rarity had started to look at Fluttershy like that. It was actually pretty organized up there, all they had to do was look up Rarity and cross reference Fluttershy and all that mumbo-jumbo that I remembered Twilight saying at some point. It sounded business-y enough to be real, and my head was serious business.
Nothing, there was nothing.
All of that aside, this gave a perfect opportunity for me to throw more parties. I couldn’t think of a better use for news like this.
“By the end of the night, I had gone out with Rainbow Dash and we really hit it off, and …”
I couldn’t stop myself anymore. This all made no sense. There were a lot of things that I was thinking about, I really tried to put it together, but I couldn’t. “Woah, woah, woah. Slow down there, Spikey. I thought you said you had gone there to tell Rarity about your feelings. Then you went out with Rainbow Dash? Don’t get me wrong, she’s my best-est friend in the whole world, but this whole thing just makes about no sense to me.”
Spike looked at me for a couple of moments, and then he took in another breath. “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought that I was just taking her out because I had booked it anyway, but... well, she’s awesome. She’s fun to be around.” I noticed that he looked up, and blush showed on his cheeks. “And I hadn’t really noticed how beautiful she can be.”
This wasn’t happening, I was sure of it.
“Pinch me.” This was the only thing I could think to say. If none of this made sense, it had to be a dream. This was a weirder dream than the others, and it didn’t have any chocolate-alligators, but this was still a weird dream. I wouldn’t feel pain if this was a dream, so obviously I had to make sure that he did this.
And he looked at me like I was crazy.
“Huh?”
“Pinch. Me.”
Apparently, the second request was the charm. Spike reached over, grabbed my cheek in between his fingers, and squeezed.
It hurt more than I thought. That also meant that this was all real, which didn’t make any sense. I would have to fire Secretary Pinkie if she kept this up, and I didn’t like that idea one bit. Maybe I would just have to make sure that I remembered that knowledge from now on, she would just have to work harder to make sure that everything was up there safe.
“Oki-doki, you can continue.”
Spike continued with his confused look for a moment, and then I saw him shrug.
“Twilight... well, she hasn’t been happy about all this.” My question had pulled him from his thoughts, it seemed. “See, it started off a while back. I might have accidently caught Rainbow Dash and got a couple of injuries. I think she was doing some stunt.” I noticed that he had started rubbing the back of his head, and the smile had become a smirk. “Well, Twilight had me bandaged up way beyond what made sense. In the end, Rainbow helped spring me out and we spent some time talking. I even ended up getting some advice from her.”
“Was this before or after you guys went out?” This was more to make sure everything fit in my head. I was finally starting to remember everything that had happened, and now I just needed a few more details.
“Long before. So, she finally brings me back.” His tone was becoming more anxious, and I was actually starting to become excited by this story. “And then Twilight overreacted and sent her straight to her house with magic... after doing something that stopped her from moving. It ended up being ten hours instead of ten minutes, something she apologized for profusely.”
I remembered that. The reason why I remembered it, aside from the work of Secretary Pinkie, was because I remembered the giant party that I had thrown afterward. At least now I knew the cause of the entire problem.
“Fast forward to today, and it kind of happened again. Twilight walked in on Rainbow kissing me, and she freaked out. She decided to do the same thing, send Rainbow away while also paralysing her.” His smirk was gone, though I couldn’t blame him. I couldn’t even smile at the idea, this sort of thing was something that could end friendships. I really hoped that Rainbow would forgive her, but that didn’t even turn out to be the problem.
“Actually, that was kind of why I came here in the first place.”
This was the type of thing I was born to do. I was so glad that he came to me, this would be something that I could fix. All I had to do was go over to Twilight, talk to her, and everyone would make up. Then I could throw a party, and maybe another for the two couples. It might be good to throw them separate parties, I would have to figure that out later. “Oki-doki-loki, I’ll head down to Twilight’s right now a-”
“Woah, woah woah.”
I felt my tail being grabbed as I moved past him. It wasn’t the best feeling, I could have sworn a couple of hairs got pulled out. Had I forgotten something? Oh yeah, I forgot to bring the cupcakes, or the pie or something else that would have gotten her talking.
“Well, we might have gotten into a fight, and I might have just walked out. I was kind of hoping I could stay here a couple of days... and then work on getting a job.”
For some, this might cause some conflict.
For me, this wasn’t something that I had to think about twice. It might have been because he has my tail, or because I knew that he would talk to Twilight in time. Maybe the most awesome thing was that I’ve never had a slumber party with a dragon before. And here Spike was, he wanted to have a prolonged slumber party. Oh, I was so excited that I was barely able to keep it contained.
Actually, I didn’t keep it contained. I jumped up into the air, my hooves being pumped as I jumped. This was the best idea ever.
Or it was the worst, sometimes I mixed those two.
“Let me go talk to the Cakes about this. I’ll do anything to help my friends.” It was only when I started to walk away that it all hit me. I didn’t know what I was doing, or why I was doing it. Was I betraying Twilight by helping out Spike? Would I have been betraying Spike if I helped Twilight? Then there was Fluttershy and Rarity and Rainbow to think about, and each of them brought a different angle into all of this.
Right now, friendship was complicated.
I needed at least one cupcake, maybe two, and maybe a bag of candy.
~Spike~
She was a lot calmer about this than I thought she would have been.
Now all I could do was wait, and hope for the best.
It turned out that me waiting meant that I was going to curl up and take a nap. When I woke up, I didn’t know how it happened. I was looking up at the ceiling, all I had been doing was thinking about what was going to happen, and then apparently I fell asleep.
Then Pinkie Pie woke me up.
“They said yes. But only until we get this whole thing fixed.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but it was likely something that would involve Twilight. That was probably for the best, really. I would have to talk to Twilight eventually, and so would Rainbow Dash. Right now, though, I thought that it would be in my best interest to get a little more advice.
This time, it wasn’t from Pinkie Pie.
“Oh, hey, Pinkie. I was wondering if you could help me with something to write with .. and on.”
“Oki-doki-loki.”
Soon enough, she came back with a quill and some colorful paper. It certainly looked normal enough, at least for Pinkie Pie. I took the quill, and I tried to think about the best way to word this.
Dear Princess Celestia,
This is not Twilight, this is Spike. I have something that I need to talk to you about at your earliest possible convenience. If you could please come down to Sugarcube Corner, whenever possible, I would very much appreciate it.
This has to do with Twilight, as well as Rainbow Dash.
Thank you in advance.
Your loyal subject, Spike.
It felt bad being so vague, but this was something that I didn’t think would be good to put in a letter. I quickly sent off the letter, and Pinkie soon led me to her room. Apparently, she had set up a cot for me to sleep on while I was there.
That was nice of her.
It would be a few hours before I went to sleep, but at least I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping outside tonight.