I hope this works!
Sweetie Belle sprayed the perfume she given by Rarity, once on each side of her neck. She quickly put the bottle back into her saddlebag and walked towards the stage that was being constructed, with the help of three of her friends. Three friends were doing construction, and another was pointing out flaws in the construct.
“No, no, Pip! It goes that way!” Apple Bloom shouted out to the spotted earth pony, who was placing planks on the wrong side.
Pip groaned as he picked the planks up and carried them to the spot Apple Bloom pointed to. When he was done, he looked at Apple Bloom irritably as his eyes started twitching. “Happy now?”
“Much better! Scootaloo! Can’t you set the lighting right!?”
Sweetie shook her head and giggled, walking up to where Pip was sitting. “Sorry, Pip, but do you know where Spike is?”
Pip pointed to the back with his head. “That way he be,” he said as he took a bottle of water and finished it with one go. He took a sniff in the air and turned to Sweetie. “Oi! What’s with that fruity smell in the air?”
Sweetie Belle smiled as she rolled her eyes playfully. “Oh, it’s nothing really...” she said coyly as she shuffled her hooves.
“If you say so, just next time though... a shower in the morning always helps.”
Sweetie’s eye twitched as her jaw locked, forcing a smile in its place. “I’ll be sure to remember it!” she said through her teeth and rushed off to where Spike was. He’s so going to get it!
Spike was at the back of the construct, sitting by a table and writing a few notes with his quill being held with magic. Last night wasn’t very pleasant, and even though his mother helped him out as best as she could... he still felt hollow.
As he finished the last page, he felt a soft hoof on his shoulder and turned around to see the happy face of Sweetie Belle.
Spike smiled in return and placed his quill down in the ink. “Hi there Sweetie, what can I do you for?” he asked her as he turned around to face her, noticing something different about her.
“Oh, I just wanted to go over the lyrics to the song again,” she said slowly. “We only have three more days to work on it.”
“Sure...” He sniffed the air again. “What’s that smell?”
Sweetie blushed. Trying her best to be coy, she spoke. “Oh, it’s just a little something Rarity suggested for me. What do you think?”
“It’s okay,” he said, returning his attention to the music sheet in front of him.
Sweetie stood there, unable to move from shock. It’s okay? That was the best it had gotten? That was Rarity’s advice?!
“You think this should be in this tone?” he asked her as he gave her the note he was working on and saw her reading through it.
Sweetie sighed. “Yes... I think it sounds perfect.”
“And are you sure Apple Bloom can get it?”
“She better,” Sweetie sighed, her heart not really in the conversation. “I mean, I learned all of my singing just by picking it up. I’m sure she will too.”
Spike sighed. “Well, we better take it from the top. Hey, Apple Bloom! Come on, practice time!”
“Sure thang, Spike,” the red maned filly said, rushing over to meet the two unicorns. “So where are we startin’?
“Right at the beginning, at the top of the...”
Suddenly, there was a too loud cry of “Oops!” that was far too nasty sounding to be genuine. A splash of blue paint covered all the music sheets.
The cries of the Cutie Mark Crusaders barely disguised a laughing Diamond Tiara, who had been the perpetrator. “Looks like my paint got spilled all over your music, oh how terrible.”
“That was mean, Diamond!” Spike said. “We’re going to tell Miss Cheerilee!”
“Oh, but it was an accident,” she said, in a tone that didn’t sound the least bit apologetic. “Can you prove I spilled it on purpose?” With that she turned around and trotted off, laughing triumphantly.
“Why that ornery little...” Apple Bloom began, but Spike silenced her.
“Don’t worry, my mom made me make copies of everything,” he said, digging through his saddlebags. “Says it helps in case something happens, and boy was she right.”
Sweetie sighed in relieve. “That’s good... but honestly, doesn’t she ever learn?”
Light, having finished his work and seeing what happened, floated down and glared to where Diamond Tiara had trotted off. “I say we teach her lesson, a lesson she’d never forget. How about ants in her sandwich?”
Pip shook his head. “Nay that be too cruel to the ants. Water balloons, anypony?”
“Turn her mane into spaghetti?”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie turned to each other when the colts came up with different means of punishment and they nodded with their brows furrowed.
“Now hold yer horses there, we ain’t gonna do none of those stuff ye hear?” Apple Bloom chimed in to the colts discussion.
Spike turned his head sideways in confusion. “Why not? It’s what she deserves in the end, or have you forgotten how much she’s gotten away with in the past?”
Light nodded and turned to Apple Bloom. “It’s not wrong to stand up for yourself and teach a bully a lesson...”
“Aye!”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Still it’s not right doing bad things to ponies just because they're stupid,” she said plainly, and arched her brow when she saw the others laughing. “What did I say?”
“You just gave a perfect description of Diamond Tiara.”
“I did?”
Spike sat at the table again. “A stupid bully is what she is,” he said to her, not seeing her blush. “Now let’s get back to work shall we?”
The library was quiet today. That was the way Twilight liked it.
But Blaze didn’t know that. The last few days had been filled with talking when there should have been working. Hour-long conversations had been reduced to Twilight handing Blaze his daily tasks and telling him to get to it. To him, it seemed that something was wrong.
Finally, their lunch break came. Used to Spike cooking for her, Twilight had instead sent her new helper to fetch sandwiches and hay fries from the local diner. They sat at the Sparkle family’s kitchen table, happily eating their food.
“...Is everything alright?”
Twilight lifted her head at the question. “Hm?”
“You’ve just been quiet all day. You’re usually more talkative than this.”
A faint blush crossed Twilight’s features. The fact that he could mistake her for talkative was a sign of just how much they had spent together the last few days.
“I’m just... I’m worried.”
“About Spike?” Blaze guessed. “Don’t be surprised. I haven’t seen you be worried about anything else.”
She nodded. “I... I’m worried he’s not getting everything he needs here...”
That surprised him. He arched an eyebrow. “He’s living with somepony who’s backed financially by the Princess. What could he possibly not be getting?”
“Love,” she answered sadly.
Now Blaze was truly confused. “What are you talking about? If anything, you over coddle that boy.” He stopped and considered his words. “That’s just my opinion. I’m not trying to tell you how to raise him, but... from what I’ve seen, you sure smother the kid.”
Twilight sighed. “You weren’t here before he became a pony, you don’t know. I... I haven’t always been the best mother.”
He nodded knowingly. “You’ve made mistakes... look, I’ve made mistakes with Light, too. If I had had any sense, I probably would have stayed in that damn orphanage.”
Twilight looked at him. “How can you say that?”
“Better the draconequus you know than the draconequus you don’t,” he said. “I knew how to handle the orphanage. Bloodwing... he was another story entirely. We might have been miserable, but at least we were safe.”
Twilight stood up from the table and just turned away from Blaze. She could hear him stand up from the table too and making his way to her. She just looked down on the ground, not looking to where Blaze was now.
“Hey, talk to me... what happened?” he asked her softly.
Twilight sighed and sniffed slightly. “Spike... had a nightmare.” she said plainly, sniffing more and could feel moisture in her eyes. “One of many nightmares... about him not being real... him being fake...”
Blaze bit his lower lip as he remembered the conditions Spike was born into the world. “And you feel helpless because of him still having those nightmares?”
Twilight nodded as a tear landing on the ground. “Yes... and I even remembered how I treated him in the past...”
Blaze arched his brow slightly, confused by Twilight’s confession. “What do you mean in the pa-”
Twilight looked up to Blaze, her eyes brimming red from the secretion of tears. “I mean- I... I’ve done so many things that ended up hurting him. Like... every time a book fell on his head or a whole shelf landed on him, I never took the time to see if he was ok... I just told him to clean it up, meanwhile I was just going with my friends to wherever. Like Cloudsdale for Rainbow’s Young Flyer competition... or even my birthday in Canterlot. My own birthday I forgot about my boy!”
“Twilight...”
“I even nearly had him drowned for a prank!” she shouted out as she stomped the ground, inhaling sharply and looking down fast. “How could I been so stupid?!” she asked herself, remembering the shivering whelp in her forelegs as she cradled him and the other ponies looking down in shame of what they contributed in. “I didn’t treat him fairly!” she shouted, not daring to look up. “I-I literally used him! Instead of him being my assistant, I treated him like a slave! I never brought him along for anything! When he actually did, he was there to work!” she cried out and a small pony of tears formed on the floor. “A-and even after he told me he loved me like a son, and even though I promised I would love him like a mother... he suffered so much because of me and I can’t even help my son! ” she clenched her teeth as more tears fell. “I-I..”
“Twilight...”
She fell to the ground and planted her head in her legs. “I’m a bad mothe-ee-ee-eer!” she wailed out and began to sob, though paused for a moment when she felt a hoof on her chin and looked up to see Blaze’s worried face looking at her.
Blaze lifted her head slightly and closed his eyes before opening them to see them slightly misty. “Come here...” he whispered as he help her up, and held her in a firm hug. He felt her cry into his shoulders and he folded his wings over her as she continued to bawl out and wailing.
For a while, the two sat there, their work forgotten. It was clear that Spike’s nightmare had opened Twilight’s emotional wounds once more, her guilt of her past with her son, had been reopened. Blaze thought over his words carefully. He had become skilled at two things during his imprisonment: fighting, and comforting Light. He tried to apply the latter here, but could not make it feel the same. Twilight was not a foal that needed comfort and hope, she was a grown mare that needed reassurance that she was doing things right.
“Twi... listen,” he said slowly, picking his words with deliberate care. “I think... I think what you’re going through is... well, it’s something everypony with a foal to take care of thinks of themselves at some point.”
Twilight looked up, her tears bloodshot from crying. “You think?” she asked. “Even you?”
He smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. Twilight wasn’t even sure she was seeing it, it held a lot of bitterness and regret. “Light counted on me, and all it got him was four years in a cell.”
“That wasn't your fault!” she protested. “Bloodwing was the one who...”
“I was the one who took him from the orphanage!” he said, suddenly angry. He pushed Twilight away. Not hard, but enough for her to get the message and back off. He began pacing, looking for something to kick that his employer wouldn't get mad at him for. “If we’d stayed put, we’d have been miserable, but we’d been safe. He’d have had enough food to eat, a place to sleep... I could have done the responsible thing and trained in my special talent long enough to get a real job after turning eighteen, then adopted him legally. But no, I ran off, and look what happened.”
“You were young,” Twilight tried to reassure him. “It was...”
“Twi, look, I know you mean well, but I had a responsibility,” he shook his head. “I took it without thinking of what I had to do.” He thought a minute. “Was it your choice to take care of Spike? Or did the Princess make you?”
“...Both,” she said. “The Princess decreed it, but I wanted to raise him. I thought it was so cool, having my own pet dragon.” She shuddered. “I thought of him like he was some kind of pet or something.”
She looked at him, expecting a judgemental stare, but she found only an understanding look. “I think that’s how I thought of Light... somepony to take care of... not as a pony...”
Twilight bit her lower lip and looked at Blaze who was now looking away from her. She didn’t know what to do in this situation, not having read up on anything like this before. Something clicked in her mind, and her body moved by instinct. When she reached Blaze, her head was nuzzling against his neck. The ethereal neck band around him didn’t seem to respond by her touch.
Blaze looked down on Twilight nuzzling him with wide eyes. He did not retreat from her, nor push her away. Her touch was welcoming, warm as though she had been sunbathing. Blaze saw her eyes closed and a soft smile on her muzzle as she continued to nuzzle him. He gulped slightly when he nuzzled her in return. Her hair was soft as the summer’s grass and the smell of fresh lavender invaded his nostrils when he took a whiff of smell from it.
After a few moments from nuzzling each other, they separated from each other’s hold and both were blushing madly shuffling their hooves. Twilight was the first to clear her throat and looked up to see Blaze looking at her with half hooded eyes, causing her to giggle slightly. “I-Well... I’m sorry for that, its just-”
“Don’t be,” Blaze chimed in. “You just saw me down and did something to ease the stress... like I did with you.”
Twilight nodded as she smiled. “Yes, I suppose...” she said as she looked away from Blaze’s azure eyes. “I guess we both made some mistakes with our foals.”
Blaze sighed. “Yeah, we sure did... but I guess we learn from those mistakes and become better ponies?”
“Yes...” Twilight trailed off as her gaze went from Blaze’s eyes to the rest of the room, before landing on the clock. She jumped as she screamed, with her eyes nearly popping out and and her hair became a mess.
“What is it?!” Blaze asked her as he looked around the room to see what frightened Twilight so much.
“That!” Twilight pointed to the clock with a shaking hoof. “It’s so late in the day! We need to get all the books sorted before the library closes, or ponies won’t know where to get the book they're looking for!” Twilight shouted out as she marched to the library as fast as she could.
“Hang on a second Twi-” Blaze felt a tug at his neck. ”Light!” and he was dragged along to where Twilight was busy sorting out the library, for the twelfth time that week.
Spectrum looked at his daughter doing flips in the air. She was doing each one with the appropriate speed, never letting her height dip even for a moment. The older pegasus grinned. “Excellent... very good. You’re doing well.”
Rainbow Dash took a heavy breath as she choked out her words. “Why are... you having me... fly all this? This is basic warm-up stuff.”
“The basics are always, always the most important thing you can learn. Not just from flying and sports, but to anything. If you forget them, or get sloppy at them, it makes doing the complicated things all the more difficult. Now, do another set of flips, and then we’ll move on to speed training.”
“I already... know that,” she continued saying, through labored breaths. “I know, it’s in every Wonderbolt manual out there. ‘Every year, go back to basics.’ I know. I do these exercises every day.”
“Well that’s good,” he nodded. “But if you don’t get better at them, you’re not going to be able to pull off my moves. Trust me, there was a ton of practice that I had to put in before I was any good.”
Finally finishing the last set, Rainbow Dash landed near her father, breathing heavily. “What... what is this move anyway?”
He smiled. “It was my signature... the Rainboom Spectrum. Really drove the mares wild when I did it...”
“...You know, just because I have this mane doesn’t mean I want to attract mares,” she said dryly.
He winced. “You got that too, huh? Let me tell you, I had three wingponies try to set me up with their brothers before I finally met your mother.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but grin. “Flight school... everypony thought me and Fluttershy had something going on. She was just my roommate... That little incident with the noodles didn’t help too much either.”
Spectrum tilted his head. “Noodles?”
She winced. “Don’t ask... please don’t ask.”
Thankfully, Spectrum didn’t. “This move I’m teaching you will allow you to light up the sky with color.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I already have a move like that... the Sonic Rainboom.”
“Really?” he said flatly. “Well, let’s see it.”
Rainbow Dash shot into the air with all her power and flew as fast as the could to the highest point possible. She stopped and found breathing to become difficult, due to the lack of air with the height she was at. She squinted her eyes and dived down to where her dad was. Rainbow clenched her teeth as she flew faster with every second, until she finally heard a booming noise and a rainbow ring spread across the sky, with a trail of rainbow coming from behind her. She braced herself as she opened her wings wide, slowing down enough to land safely near her father.
Spectrum stared at the sky smiling, a single tear escaping his eye. He quickly wiped it away and walked to his daughter. “That was impressive, well done... looks like you mastered the Sonic Rainboom,” he said.
Rainbow rubbed behind her head smiling. “Well it wasn’t that easy to be honest, I did it once when I was in the Flight Academy... that’s how I got my cutie mark too!” she said as she pointed to her flank.
The stallion’s mouth was agape for a moment before chuckling, and the chuckling turned to laughter. Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she pursed her lips. “What, you don’t believe me?!”
Spectrum shook his head as he stopped laughing. “No no! It’s just...” he paused for a moment before he looked at Rainbow with moist eyes, startling her slightly.
“Dad?”
“It’s just my wish for you came true in the end...”
Rainbow arched her eyebrow as she scratched her head. “Your wish for me? What was that?”
Spectrum walked to his daughter’s side and sat on his haunches as he looked up to the sky, not saying a word.
“C’mon Dad! Just tell me al-”
“When your mother was carrying you inside her, I could hear your heart beating and wished for something...” he said softly, not turning to his daughter’s face. “I wished that you would become the greatest Wonderbolt Captain ever...”
Despite herself, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile. “That’s so corny...”
He shrugged. “You saved Equestria through the power of friendship.”
“...Touché,” she sighed. “So, did Mom dying really get you that overprotective?”
He nodded. “I... I’m sorry. I know I’ve said that about a thousand times already, but it’s the truth. I couldn’t stand losing you, too.”
Rainbow Dash shifted awkwardly. “Did Mom approve? Me being a Wonderbolt?”
He nodded. “She wanted you to go on to great things in life. I’m sorry you never got the chance to meet her, she would be so proud of you... and would have loved Scootaloo.”
“Didn’t Mom have any family? Any parents or anything?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “Her father was a farmer who got killed in a diamond dog raid. Her mother died of natural causes a few months later. She had nopony else but me... I guess we were alike that way.”
Rainbow Dash had to agree with that. He knew her father’s parents were both Wonderbolts as well, and they had both died in a training accident. Most would have taken that as a sign that they should stay away from flying, but Spectrum had been made of tougher stuff than that. She had to admire her father’s nerves.
Yet with her mother’s death, he had changed drastically from the Wonderbolt he was. All to protect her. Rainbow’s scrunched her lips as she sniffed slightly, her eyes becoming wet all of a sudden. She sat down next to her father and looked up to the sky too.
Spectrum turned to his daughter and saw her moist eyes. His brow furrowed slightly, thinking of a way to cheer her up. An idea flashed before him and he ruffled his daughter’s mane playfully, and heard her giggle at this.
Rainbow laughed as she swatted it away playfully. “C’mon, Dad! I’m not that young to be ruffled with,”
“No matter how old you get, you’ll always be my little Dashie,” he said as he turned and looked up to the sky.
“Dad...”
“It’s getting late... I have to do my own exercises if I’m ever going to get back up into the air.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. “...Alright. I think I’ll head back to Ponyville, give Scootaloo her own lessons... if I can pull her away from her friends long enough.”
He smiled. “You think I could spend some time with her? She is my granddaughter, after all.”
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment. “Scoots is putting in all her time on that talent show project of hers, and I’d like to wait until that’s over before bothering her with anything else.” Rainbow said, but noticed her father’s down look. “But why don’t you come along for the talent show?”
Spectrum tapped his chin and gave a mocking-thought look. “Hmmmm...” he hummed as he sat on his haunches and closed his eyes. He didn’t notice Rainbow looking at him with cocked eyebrow as she tilted her head slightly. “That sounds great to me,” he said finally as she opened his eyes.
The cyan mare nodded as she smiled. “Great! Will you be alright from here?” she asked, with her voice carrying some concern for her father.
He only looked at his daughter and grinned. “For the first time in a while, I think things are going to be just fine.”