By Darkryt Orbinautz
His Vector Grey
Chapter 3
Promises
Spike watched as Twilight's purple, pink-striped tail began to fade from his vision, worry gnawing at his scales. What was going on? Was she okay? Was she going to have a breakdown, or a meltdown, or . . . something!?
"Spike?" Rarity said airily, calling for his attention.
Spike, ever the easily distracted dragon, immediately forgot about worrying for Twilight's mental health and swerved around to face Rarity. "Yes?"
"Could you play with Sweetie Belle for awhile?" Rarity said. Had Spike been better at interpreting tone, he would've been able to tell Rarity just wanted a distraction to Sweetie Belle so her younger, rambunctious, messier sister wouldn't try to plead to help with her dresses. But Spike wasn't, so he missed it. Even with that, though, the sight of Twilight reappeared in his eyes.
"I don't know . . . " Spike muttered, looking down. "I'm kinda worried about Twilight . . . she's acting kinda weird."
"I'll look into it." Rarity assured him, though it was clear she was just trying to make Spike focus on her problem, not Twilight's. "But please? She's ever so mes-, er, full of energy!"
"Well . . . "
Rarity smiled kindly and fluttered her eyelashes. Seduced by Rarity's gesture, Spike blindly agreed to whatever task it was that had been set before him.
"Okay! . . . What is you need me to do again?" Spike dazedly asked, having forgotten it already.
"Play with Sweetie Belle." Rarity pointed to the other room where the mannequin Sweetie Belle had place a sombrero on to wake Rarity up.
All right. Play with Sweetie Belle.
How hard could that be?
Spike waddled his way into the next room while Rarity went the opposite direction into her work area to sew and stitch her tasteful dresses. Sweetie Belle was playing with a ball idly, pushing it into the dresser with enough force to make it roll back towards her. The little filly sighed when the ball returned to her lap. She was clearly dreaming of playing with her other friends, excitable fillies just like her.
"Hey, Sweetie Belle!" Spike greeted, walking through the door with what he thought was bravado and masculinity, but Sweetie Belle just thought he looked silly.
"Hey, Spike." Sweetie Belle greeted, bored.
"Rarity asked me to play with you?" Spike informed her, subtly asking for Sweetie Belle's own permission to do so.
Sweetie Belle stared with a spacey look in her eyes, like nothing made sense to her. Just like before, but exaggerated. She had never played with Spike before . . . so it would certainly be something new.
"Uh . . . "
"Okay!" Sweetie Belle squealed in her squeaky voice that alternated between adorable and grating. She rolled the ball towards Spike.
Spike stopped and stared at it. He, personally, thought himself too 'mature' to do something as a childish as rolling a ball back and forth between two laps. But he relented, plopping down on his tail and pushing the ball back towards Sweetie Belle.
They pushed it back and forth, as the game was meant to be played.
After some time passed and a few strokes of Rarity's sewing machine came and went through the air, Spike got an idea.
Twilight had asked Rarity if Spike had asked about anything she and Pinkie were doing . . . but would she think to ask Sweetie Belle, if Spike asked her instead?
Probably not.
Hopefully not, or he was about to get himself in a lot of trouble.
"Hey . . . Sweetie Belle?" Spike asked as he pushed the ball back towards her.
"Yeah?"
"What do you know about . . . I mean, what do you think it means when a pony licks another on the back of their neck?"
Sweetie Belle stared, then cleared her throat and gave Spike a flirty, half-lidded expression. "I know exactly what it means."
"You do!?" Spike and Rarity exclaimed at the same time. Rarity had come along to relieve Spike of his duties at this exact moment, so the thought her little sister knew what that meant was- was heart-stopping! And that confident look she was giving Spike!
"Yup." Sweetie Belle said with a slow nod. "It means . . ."
"What?" Rarity interjected, mortified at the idea of her sister knowing about such things.
"Somepony let Scootaloo shake the whipped cream again." Sweetie Belle explained, making an oblique reference to one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' many, many, many . . . many failures to obtain their Cutie Marks. Presumably involving Scootaloo shaking a can of whipped cream too hard and causing it to explode.
Rarity breathed a sigh of relief and wiped her brow. "Whew! For a second there, I thought . . .well, never mind that now. Spike, I've finished my work . . . for now. You may leave." Rarity turned around to give Spike a clear exit.
Spike didn't catch what Rarity was saying, too focused on Sweetie Belle's rather lacking answer. Somehow, even if he hadn't caught Twilight and Pinkie red-hooved in the act, he got the feeling whatever was going on didn't involve whipped cream.
The door chime rang. Rarity squealed in surprised and zoomed over to greet who it had been. Sweetie Belle rose up from the floor and trotted towards the doorway to peek. Spike ignored her...but then he thought he heard a familiar voice, so he turned around and joined her in eavesdropping.
Pinkie Pie had come over. She looked antsy, anxious, and uncertain about something.
"Whatever can I do for you, darling?" Rarity asked, rolling her 'R's.
"Well . . . " Pinkie scraped her hoof around in circles. It was so odd, seeing bright, cheery Pinkie Pie nervous about something.
"What is it, darling?" Rarity asked, lowering her head to show her concern.
"Rarity, do you know anything about . . . being in a relationship?"
Rarity squealed. "Ooh! Well, isn't that sweet! Pinkie Pie wants to know about being in a relationship! Isn't romance just in the air today!?" Rarity let out an extremely high-pitched giggle, elated that so many of her friends were finding romance so soon in such quick succession. First Twilight Sparkle, then Pinkie Pie . . . maybe she would find her own colt on top of it all!
Hey, wait a minute . . .
" . . . N-no, that would be ridiculous." Rarity muttered to herself, trying to shake the absurd thought from her head.
"What?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, Twilight came in earlier today asking for relationship advice, and then you did . . . and for a second there, I thought maybe you and Twilight had started a relationship! Hahaa!"
Pinkie, without missing a beat, and showing absolutely no sigh that phrase made her in any way uncomfortable, immediately burst out laughing.
Following Twilight's example of absolute control, of course.
"Oh, hahahhaha HA! Me-and me and Twilight!? Twilight and I? Together!? Geez, Rarity, making ponies laugh is supposed to be MY job! Hahahaha!"
Spike stifled a chortle. Pff-ah! A relationship between Twilight and Pinkie! How would that even work!? Could two mares even be in love in with each other? He had never heard of such a silly thing!
The two shared a good, long, hearty healthy laugh before the awkward tension Pinkie had brought in returned.
"So . . . what is it you need to know, Pinkie, darling?"
"What do I do?" Pinkie whined.
Rarity raised an eyebrow, Pinkie's question being one of the vaguest questions she'd heard in recent memory. "Can you . . . specify?"
"Well . . . " Pinkie tapped her hoof to her chin nervously.
"What are you having problems with? . . . Gifts for you anniversary? Something romantic to do?"
Rarity gasped quite audibly, putting a hoof to her mouth in shock.
"Or even . . . trouble in there?" Rarity jerked her head upwards towards . . . her bedroom.
Pinkie stared. "Why would me and-" Pinkie stopped abruptly, like trying to cut herself off from a certain word -or name- before she said it. "My . . . coltfriend be having trouble in your bedroom?"
"Not in my bedroom, in-oh never mind." Rarity hung head, seeing Pinkie didn't understand what she meant. Spike didn't either.
Rarity started to explain the basics. Not because she underestimated Pinkie's ability, but because she wanted to paint a picture.
"Well, normally, when two ponies get into a relationship, it's because they like each other. Do you and your coltfriend like each other?"
Pinkie paused, lost in thought as to how to reply to that inquiry.
"Well . . . what if you're not in a relationship because you like each other? What if you're just in a relationship to keep the other pony happy?"
"But wouldn't you have to like each other before you wanted the other pony to be happy?"
"Uh, yeah, but . . . what if you don't like like them, but you like them, and you don't want them to be sad? . . . What if you just want to keep them from crying?"
Rarity stayed a silent, taking in the sincerity of Pinkie's question. The vulnerably she was presenting. The uncertainty she was making absolutely certain to Rarity right now.
"Then . . . " Rarity said sincerely as she possibly could. "I think you're in a relationship for the wrong reason."
Spike could see the hurt in Pinkie's eyes from this answer. Well, it wasn't so much hurt as . . . what was that? Confusion? Loss? Well, yes, actually, loss, but not...loss. In fact, it wasn't 'loss' at all. It was being lost. As in, her quivering sky-blue eyes showed clearly that she was lost, without any guidance in this mysterious relationship of hers.
"Okay . . . thanks for your help, I guess." Pinkie muttered, turning towards the door and starting to walk towards it with her head unusually down. For Rarity, it was saddening to see her normally cheerful friend so . . . so down in the dumps.
Just as Pinkie was about to exit the door, the door swung open, and nose came into sudden contact with Twilight's nose. Both ponies blushed profusely, though Spike noticed that Pinkie's blush was quite a few shades deeper than Twilight's.
Twilight dipped her head down and took in a big whiff of Pinkie's chest fur like she was smelling a exotic flower.
"Ahh . . . you even smell sweet." Twilight whispered sweetly, giving a look of questionable intent at Pinkie in the process. Then she noticed Rarity. She walked briskly around Pinkie, shoving the pink party pony aside with her tail, before approaching their other friend.
"Hey, Rarity!"
"Hello, Twilight." Rarity greeted. "Here to pick up Spike?"
Spike clenched his fist and shook it. He just got here! He didn't want be taken away from Rarity yet.
"No." Twilight answered. "Just to let you know I was going to be out for awhile, so that you might have to take Spike to the library after dark."
"All righty then! . . . Might I inquire as to what's so important that you're going to be out after dark?"
"It's a surprise." Twilight whispered into Rarity's ear, glancing over her shoulder at Pinkie Pie. "Have a nice day!"
"You two, dears!" Rarity waved as the two ponies walked off. Rarity shook her head.
"Some days, I wonder what's up with those two."
Yeah. Spike agreed in his head. I've been wondering what's up with those two myself...
Sweetie Belle turned her head. "You're breathing on my neck."
"Oh! Sorry." Spike threw his hands up and backed away from her.
"Mmm." Sweetie Belle gave Spike a glare, then walked off to another room.
"Spike?" Rarity asked sweetly, walking towards him. "Did you hear the last part of that?"
"The part about being out late? Yeah. What about it?"
"You can stay here after dark, but don't be afraid to ask me to accompany you home." Rarity told him before walking up the stairs. "I think I'd like to take a nap..." Rarity murmured.
Spike felt lighter than air. There was only a one word to two word difference between Rarity's offer and a request to walk him home – something ponies with hidden affections always do to the target of their affection. Of course, Rarity wasn't thinking anything like that. Rarity was just making sure little Spike knew he could ask for Rarity as a chaperone. But let him have his delusions, eh?
Spike turned and went back into the room where Sweetie Belle and him had been playing, bracing his claw against his chest, thinking a highly fantasized version of events that would result in him sweeping Rarity completely off her hooves.
Spike stood in the room, three times as tall and muscular as he actually was. He was lying on his back, lifting a bar that had Rarity's mannequins on each end, serving as a weight.
Rarity came into the room to gush and admire over him. "Oh, Spike! Those mannequins are so big and heavy! However do you lift them easily?"
Spike chuckled and threw his mannequin-bar off to the other side of the room. He got up, breathed on his knuckle, and rubbed it against his chest, making his chest scales shine. "Well, Rarity, when you're as perfect a dragon as I am, it's more challenging to resist the temptation to lift them and show off then the actual lifting is."
Rarity sighed and swooned. "Oh, Spike! Sometimes I wish we could be together, but Twilight would never approve..."
Before Spike could tell her that he could talk to Twilight and needle her into agreeing to the idea, Rarity got up and left the room.
Spike let his arms fall limp and sighed. "Oh well. Out love is undeniable! We'll be together one day." Taking solace in the knowledge his and Rarity's getting together was inevitable, he resumed lifting the weight, grunting as he lifted even though he hadn't been before. The grunting was more to show off and sound flashy than to release stress.
"Spike!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, bursting into the room. "Scootaloo and Apple Bloom accidentally brought a Manticore into town!"
Spike dropped his weight, took in a deep breath, and clapped his claws together.
"No problem." Spike whirled around and pointed dramatically. "Take me to him!"
"I don't think that will be a problem." Sweetie Belle said. Spike followed her to the Boutique's door, and she opened it. Spike could see the Manticore rampaging, knocking aside apple carts with its massive paws.
The Manticore flexed its huge bat wings and roared, apparently quite infuriated at whatever the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders did to bring it here.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom ran into the Boutique, screaming for their lives. Spike remained calm.
"I guess you won't need me to take you to it after all!" Sweetie suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the door.
Spike peered out and saw the Manticore was charging straight towards the Boutique, knowing Applbe Bloom and Scootaloo had gone inside.
Bravely, Spike used his TREMENDOUS STRENGTH (Trademarked by Spike himself, even though he couldn't have trademark such a stock phrase) to push away Sweetie Belle out of the creature's way.
The Manticore charged straight the Boutique's door, using his blunt, furry head to smash right through the wall, sending plaster flying in all directions. Spike grabbed onto its mane the way a matador grabbed a bull's horn.
Spike grumbled. He wished he brought along his sword today. It would've made this battle take only a moment. The way he liked his battles to take. However, he had not, so this was going to a little longer.
As he held onto the Manticore's mane to keep himself where he wanted to be, he had to take in a whiff after whiff of its horrific breath, and found himself staring at its elongated, pointed fangs longer than he cared to see them.
The Manticore began shaking his head, trying to shake Spike off himself. It was actually quite successful at that, sending Spike into one of Rarity's many dressers, smashing the woodwork. Spike rubbed his head sorely while Sweetie Belle gasped at the Manticore getting a good hit on Spike.
Spike got to his feet and growled at the Manticore, raising his fists.
The Manticore glared, disbelieving that he would actually be challenged.
Spike smirked arrogantly and gestured his claws for the Manticore to come at him.
The Manticore took his taunt and charged, fangs bared. Spike sidestepped him, making the lion-beast hit his head against the shattered drawer. The beast roared in pain, then turned around to face Spike again.
They stared each other down. The Manticore turned and began to circle around the room, trying to intimidate him.
Ha! He was Spike! He was un-intimidate-ble! Never mind that wasn't an actual word!
The Manticore, seeing Spike undaunted from his tactic, narrowed his eyes at him.
Spike reached over and picked up a mannequin, waving it like a club, ready to engage the Manticore in a long grueling match to decide life and death.
All three Cutie Mark Crusaders watched with bated breath.
The lion roared and charged at him again, but he shook the mannequin and smacked it across the face. The Manticore stumbled, but attempted to swipe at him with its claw blindly. Spike ducked it and smashed the mannequin against its leg, making it howl in pain. The Manticore turned around and attempted to lash at Spike with its stinger, but Spike raised the mannequin as a shield, and the stinger pierced it instead, injecting its poison into the polymer, where it was useless on the non-living material.
Spike jerked the mannequin from the stinger, then jumped into the air and began wildly banging the mannequin into the Manticore's face. It raised its paws to shield itself, and muttered something that almost sounded like a pony language, but Spike didn't care much for what it had to say.
Eventually, he started beating it back towards the door, hitting it with the mannequin before it finally literally turned tail and fled back out the hole it made, back to the forest from whence it came.
Huzzah! He had done it! He had beaten back the beast! Surely he would be celebrated by the townsfolk!
He turned around, expecting the Cutie Mark Crusaders to lift him up, cheering his name, and Rarity to leap onto him and start showering him in kisses...
But instead, what he got was an exclamation of shock.
"Spike, what in the wide-wide world of Equestria are you doing!?"
And with that, Spike was snapped back to reality, much to his dismay. Dismay turned to horror and guilt, however, when he saw Rarity kneeling over a knocked-down Sweetie Belle, who had a freakin' shiny shiner.
"O-oh, Rarity!" Spike stammered, forgetting to question what or why or how this happened in favor ensuring he stayed in Rarity's good graces. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize..."
"Hush!" Rarity snapped at him coldly. "Come, Sweetie Belle...let's get you some ice."
Spike stood there, knees buckling, brain wracked as he wonder what happened. He raised his hand to see it a solid ruler in it. Oh... he must have picked up the ruler while in his daydream and smacked Sweetie Belle with it while in his dream. That would explain when the Manticore started to speak a pony language...
Spike could hear the hum of Rarity's freezer as she opened it, and the squish as she pressed a bag of ice to her little sister's eye.
"There, Sweetie . . . now hold that up to your eye." Rarity instructed.
Rarity came back into the room to an apologetic Spike, but she would have none of it.
"Rarity, I'm so sorry! I got up caught in a fantasy I was having . . . I didn't mean to, I promise!"
Rarity whinnied dismissively. "First of all, you need to apologize to Sweetie Belle, not I. However, I very much doubt Sweetie will let you near her at the moment . . . assuming I would, even!"
Spike raised his claw, but Rarity continued on her tirade.
"And you can rest assured, I will be telling Twilight Sparkle about this."
Spike's jaw dropped. If Rarity told Twilight about this, Twilight would probably never let him come over to the Boutique again! "No!" Spike put his claws together in pleading. "Please don't!"
Rarity closed her eyes as Sweetie Belle weakly walked into the room, unable to walk very well with one of her legs occupied with pressing the ice against her eye. Spike was blindsided by the realization Sweetie Belle would probably never want to see him again either. They had never interacted as much they had today, and to have that interaction end on this bruised note . . .
"I'm sorry, Spike, but you've forced my hoof." Rarity said, bringing her sister close. "And I do believe it's time for you to go home now."
As Spike put the ruler down, hanging his head in shame, it took a moment for the emotional impact of the realization Rarity hadn't added her usual "Darling" verbal tick to the end of her sentence...most likely intentional on her part.
As he walked across Ponyville, clawing at his eyes in shame, he started thinking about horrible this was going to get for him. All the consequences that were going to result for this. Twilight would probably ground him for a week, if not a month. All of Twilight's friends would probably not talk to him for weeks. Sweetie Belle would tell her fellow Crusaders, and then they would tell the other fillies at school, who would tell their friends, and Miss Cheerilee would never let him anywhere near one hundred yards of the school building.
Some ponies waved at him as he walked, but he didn't wave back at them.
He got to the library, and Owloyicous woke from his easily disturbed sleep, immediately noticing the dour mood his dragon roommate was in.
"Hoo." The owl hooted as Spike walked past him.
"Hoo yourself." Spike muttered. "I'm going to my basket."
Spike meant that as a determent to the owl for further conversation, but instead, it only spurred the owl into action. Owloyicous spread his wings and flew off his perch, flapping himself up the stairs and into Twilight's and Spike's shared room, just narrowly avoiding getting the door slammed on him.
"Hoo." Owloyicous hooted again as he took up residence on his other perch in the bedroom.
Spike glared at him and grumbled something under his breath before hopping into his basket and pulling his covers over himself.
"Hoo." Owloyicous repeated.
Spike bolted upright, fist raised and mouth open to tear into the nocturnal avian, but when he saw the look in Owloyicous's large, yellow eyes . . . they looked worried, and curious. Concerned, as well, something Spike, in his (entirely imagined) rivalry with Owloyicous for who was Twilight's favorite never thought he would see from the owl.
"Hoo." Owloyicous flew off his perch and into Spike's lap. He nuzzled his soft feathery head against Spike's stomach. The owl patted the edge of his wing against Spike's chest, almost as if he was asking "Want to talk about it?"
Spike sighed and decided to open up to him. The owl already knew he was upset, so there was no chance he'd be able to convince the bird that it was nothing.
"I hit Rarity's little sister while playing make-believe at the Boutique . . . I gave her a black eye, and now Sweetie Belle is going to hate me, Rarity will never want to see me again and Twilight's going to ground me FOR LIFE!" Spike buried his head into his claws in his outburst while Owloyicous nuzzled him.
Spike chuckled, not really feeling better, but appreciating the owl's efforts nonetheless. He scratched behind Owloyicous' ear, which the fluffy bird seemed to like.
Spike sighed and stopped. "Oh, who I am kidding? It's not like telling you about this will make it magically go away."
Owloyicous nodded, as if conceding that was a fair point.
Spike resumed sulking under his covers, waiting for Twilight to get home and for his impending brutal punishment. Left alone to his thoughts, -a very dangerous place to be for an upset pony- he constantly thought of ways this could escalate and escalate and get worse and worse for him, going all the way from being ground for months, to years, to Celestia branding him a traitor to the throne and tossing him in the royal dungeon and throwing away the key.
Twilight wasn't kidding when she said she was going to be out for awhile. It was went from afternoon, to sunset, to twilight before he could hear the door at the library swing open and clicked closed.
Spike sprang out his basket and made a beeline for the foyer, hoping to get to Twilight and try to plead his case before Rarity tattled on him and sweet-talked Twilight into giving him an extra-harsh punishment.
He had made to the bottom of the stairs when he heard the door open again.
Oh no. Spike thought to himself. Please don't let that be Rarity...
He peeked over the corner to see, yup, it was in fact, Rarity. Normally, he'd be elated to see her, but right now, seeing her was like watching a clock count away the minutes to his public execution.
"Hey, Rarity." Twilight greeted, unaware of the horrors Rarity was about to share with her as the bookworm put her bags full of groceries on the table. "What brings you here at this time of night?" Twilight pulled out one of the groceries from her sack to examine it- a carton of eggs.
"Funny you should ask that." Rarity answered. "What brings me here, is Spike."
Twilight seemed baffled at this. "What do you mean?"
Spike covered his eyes, unable to bear the thought of seeing Twilight's expression when Rarity told her what had transpired.
"While at my house today, Spike decided to engage in a little roleplay." Rarity hissed the last word.
"Okay? I don't see how that's bad . . . a young little dragon like him needs to exercise his imagination."
"Even with that imagination results in Sweetie Belle getting a black eye?"
"What!?"
Spike slapped his claw against the side of his head. How bad was this going to get?
"Yes! He was apparently so caught up in his fantasy he didn't realize he was smacking Sweetie Belle with one of my work instruments!"
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry."
Rarity scoffed, waving a hoof. "Oh, please, darling. You're not the one who needs to apologize. Spike, however . . ."
"I'll talk to him." Twilight assured Rarity, putting a hoof on the side of Rarity's neck.
"I do so hope you talk some sense into him." Rarity hissed the word in such a way that made it clear she was using it as an euphemism for punishment.
"I will!" Twilight assured her nervously, scooting her towards the door.
Rarity glared and humphed before slamming the door shut behind her.
Spike expected Twilight to become filled with righteous fury and burst into flame... but instead, her breathing become shallow and she threw herself against the door.
"Oh, Spike . . . please, please, for the love of Celestia, tell me you don't have what I used to have with Pinkie." Twilight murmured under her breath, putting her fore hooves together in prayer.
What, the tongue on the neck thing? . . . No, no, that was in the present, so she had it with Pinkie. Whatever she was talking about was something she used to have with Pinkie . . . not that he knew what that could possibly be either! How was he supposed to tell her if he had it or not if he didn't know what it was!?
Twilight cleared her throat and took in a deep breath. "Sp-i-i-i-ike!" She shouted, unawares her faithful assistant had been eavesdropping all along. "Could you come down here?"
Spike nervously stepped to answer her call. He was expecting her to be mad, to be furious and fuming, but instead...she looked worried and distraught.
"Y-yeah?" Spike stuttered, almost suspicious that her worry was a front so she could 'lead in' to her anger.
"Are you okay?"
What? That was out of nowhere. Sweetie Belle had gotten a black eye, not him.
"Yeeeah?" Spike drawled, not sure he liked where this was going. Granted, he didn't like where he expected this to go, but . . .
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, starting to pace around in a circle around him. "Are you sure you haven't had any...any strange dreams lately?"
"Nnno." Spike answered, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't . . . why?"
"I'm just worried about you. "
Unbeknownst to Spike, Twilight was in fact fretting over a slight problem she had that she had only recently overcome . . . however, while the problem Spike appeared to be having was similar enough for her to sympathize with him for not realizing what he was doing, it was different enough that she had no idea what to do about it.
"I don't want you role-playing anymore for awhile, okay?" Twilight pointed her hoof at him.
"Okay? . . . yeah, yeah, okay!" Spike nodded eagerly, seeing this was a rather light punishment for what he did. Who would he be to not take it?
"Okay." Twilight went back to the table, sorting through her groceries.
As he watched Twilight pick up and pick out the groceries, he couldn't help but notice a recurring theme amongst them... butter, milk, eggs. . . frosting . . . it was almost like Twilight was planning on baking a cake!
No, no, no! That was silly. Twilight would never do that. She didn't bake! This was what she had been out so long for? The ingredients for a cake? Why not just order one from Sugercube Corner? They would probably make a better cake anyways!
Spike shook his head and turned to walk back to his room. But as he did so, it really dawned on him that he had gotten off lightly. He tried to swallow the guilt and breath easy knowing he wasn't about to have all his rights stripped from him, but he heard a little voice in the back of his head telling him he knew this wasn't right.
So he turned around to Twilight, who was using her magic to pull a baking pan out of the cabinets. Wha...she really was making a cake? Ridiculous! Maybe something else was going on . . .yeah, that was it . . .of course, he couldn't think of whatever that might be that would lead to Twilight gathering the ingredients for a cake. What could she do that he didn't know she could that that would involve cake pans and materials that wasn't actually making a cake?
Never mind that right now . . . "Twilight?"
"Hmm?"
Spike shifted his toes nervously. "Aren'tcha gonna punish me for hurting Sweetie Belle?"
"Why would I do that? It was an unfortunate accident, wasn't it?" She adopted an accusatory tone. ". . . Wasn't it?"
"No, no, yeah, yeah, it was!" Spike quickly assured her, flailing his claws out. "But still . . . I did hurt Sweetie Belle . . ."
Twilight rested her front leg on the table, holding her cheek in her hoof. "You did do that, didn't you?"
"Yeah . . ."
Twilight was unusually silent following that. It didn't normally take her this long to make a decision. She sympathized with him probably more than she should have. And not in a "He did a bad thing so he doesn't deserve sympathy" way, but more in regards to her flip-flopping mental health. Fine one week until Saturday, and then she completely flips out...
"Okay . . ." Twilight muttered, trying to think of something that wasn't too harsh on him while still serving as enough of a punishment to get Rarity off their backs. She raised her hoof. "No . . . no, um . . . no sapphires for a week!"
Aww! Spike loved sapphires. There were amongst his top favorites of the gemstones he ate. Oh well. When he compared against what he thought was going to happen, it was in fact also quite minor. However, at this point, trying to get Twilight to punish him more would just be unnecessary and uneasy on both of them. If it meant not getting publicly decried by everypony who knew him, he could go without sapphires for a few days.
Spike nodded in acceptance of his 'punishment' (such as it was) and turned towards the staircase, crawling up it and into his basket.
However . . . as he tried to drift off to sleep, he could hear clanging and fire roaring and the unmistakable scent of pastries . . . so she really was trying to bake a cake? What was the point in that!?
He supposed he'd have to ask her about it tomorrow.
That night, he had a very strange dream.
He was standing amidst a long line of Rarity's mannequins, but . . . they were al-l-l-i-i-ive!
They were all wearing rather girly, in his opinion, pink armor. Very vividly pink, at that. In fact, everywhere he looked, it was pink. Pink armor, pink spears, pink walls . . . the only things that weren't pink was the wooden floor, the mannequins themselves, and himself.
He found himself also wearing the pink armor. Uggh! How very girly frou-frou of him.
Spike, after all, had never heard the mantra of "Real stallions wear pink."
Looking around, he noticed the mannequins were all rather . . . focused on something. Like the blank, vacant emotionless stare of a Royal Canterlot Guard.
He dropped his own spear when he suddenly heard an extremely loud, deep grumbling like the growl of a huge monster. He shirked up, raising his arms to shield himself and closing his eyes in preparation. It took him a minute to realize nothing was happening. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the mannequins were looking down at him, as if the dropping of his spear had brought disgrace to their good name.
"Heheh . . ." Spike chuckled nervously and reached down to pick the spear back up, but then he heard the grumble again. This time, however, he realized what it was.
It was his stomach. He was hungry. Of course that's what it was! Duh! He facepalmed. How could he not realize that? Didn't he know the sound of his own stomach?
One of the mannequins pointed their hoof forwards, and Spike saw he was pointing at some stairs they were also pink. He looked to the mannequin again, who nodded, encouraging him to go up them. It gestured to it's mouth.
. . . Oh! It was probably trying to tell him there was some food he could get into up there. With that in mind, he carelessly tossed aside his spear and waddled his way up the stairs. The mannequins facepalmed behind him.
The stairs went on for a really long time. He was pretty sure if he hadn't been hungry already, then going up them certainly would've made that happen. He even saw a bird out a window as he climbed up it.
Eventually, after going steps and steps and steps and steps . . . he finally reached the top and came face-to-face with a big pink door. He opened it, to be greeted by another pink room. This one, however, had two marble pillars serving as tiny pedestals in it.
On one was a collection of gems, including emeralds, rubies, and . . . sapphires! On the other was a very tasty-looking chocolate cake that kinda looked more like a pie, but whatever.
He walked towards the pedestal full of gems and licked his lips in anticipation. He had almost reached out and picked one up when he remembered he been grounded from sapphires.
"Oh . . . okay, okay, yeah. Well, I can just . . . pick out the sapphires and just eat the others, right?" He reasoned to himself.
He reached out to the gems, fully meaning to pick the sapphires up and toss them to the floor, but iron bars suddenly appeared from nowhere and encased the pedestal, denying him access.
"Oh." he muttered. Well, he supposed he was just gonna have to do without . . . he turned to leave, but then his stomach grumbled again, and even louder than before.
"Hrrm." He mumbled, knitting his brows as sigh of his confusion of what to do. He turned back, and noticed the pie-cake thing again.
"Well, it's better than nothing." Spike concluded. He went over to it, picked it up off its pedestal, sat down on the floor, setting it in his lap, and began scooping it up in his claws and shoveling it into his mouth.
When he woke up the next morning, Spike didn't really think too much of it. He wasn't exactly a seer, or anypony else who worries about what dreams and their symbolism meant. He did, however, notice that Twilight was few feet in front of him, sitting over her work table, probably gazing over her latest assignment.
But then he noticed the smell in the air. It was . . . the scent of cake!
"Twilight?" Spike asked, rising from his basket.
Twilight turned her head around, and he instantly could tell from the bags under her eyes how much sleep she had gotten last night. Of course, what was more telling; the fact he could tell how much sleep she had, or the fact that he could tell she had actually gotten quite a bit for her standards?
"Good morning, Spike." Twilight said serenely. "I'll bet you're wondering about . . . this." She scooted to the side, allowing Spike to see in full-view a chocolate cake that kinda looked more like a pie with whipped cream.
"Yeah. I am." Spike told her. R-really, Twilight? You couldn't have just gone to Sugercube Corner?
"Well, as you may have gathered, this is a cake."
"Uh, yeah . . . I got that much."
"This is a cake that was made by me."
"Okay?"
"This is a cake that was made by me for . . . my friend. The one I gave that jewel of yours to?"
"Uh-huh . . ." Spike nodded his head, motioning her to go on.
"I put a lot of time into his cake, just for her- I mean them." Twilight corrected quickly, covering her mouth with her hooves and blushing. "I didn't go to Sugarcube Corner because I want to show them I am willing to put this kind of time and effort into our relationship. Now, the cake's instructions say to let it cool for several hours after it finishes baking. I don't have the time in my schedule to stay here and watch and still complete my errands for today."
Well, that explained that . . . "All right."
Twilight's face suddenly became worried and serious.
"I need you to promise me you won't touch it."
Spike scoffed and raised his hand. "Geez, Twilight! Relax! When have I ever touched something I wasn't supposed to?"
Twilight glared at him. "Do you really want me to answer that? Because I can think of quite a few . . ."
"Okay, okay." Spike said, waving his claws to calm. "I promise I won't touch it."
"Do I have your word you won't lay a finger on it?"
Spike stood up and heroically brought his arms across his chest. "You have my word, that I, Spike the dragon, will not lay a claw on that cake."
Twilight seemed satisfied by this. "Good." She said with a nod, and took off for the door. "If you need me, I'll be out at the market."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can handle things here by myself." Spike said, jumping out of his basket and getting out of the bedroom before Twilight closed the door behind them both.
"I'm counting on you to keep that promise." Twilight said as she walked down the stairs.
"Stop worrying so much!"
"I mean it, Spike!" Twilight shouted before closing the door to the library behind her.
Spike scoffed under his breath again once she had gone. Since when had he ever let her down before?
He looked at the stairway railing, and feeling rambunctious, he jumped on top of them and slid his way down to the foyer level. However, when he reached the end, he got the knob marking the railing right into his stomach, making him grunt and clench his stomach in pain. He fell off the railing to the side, and laid there miserably on the bottommost staircase for awhile.
Eventually, he manged to stop hurting enough to get up and limb his way to a beanbag chair that was in another part of the house. He may not have been seriously injured, but he certainly wasn't going to feel like doing anything physical for a good portion of today.
Reaching over into the drawer that was conveniently next to the beanbag, Spike pulled out a portable gaming system and turned it on. At least he'd be doing something. Seeing his high score from the last time he played it, he resolved to beat it.
He pushed the buttons madly and wildly, trying to make his little 8-bit…thing dodge and roll to avoid the enemy 8-bit things. The clicking sound was absolutely furious as he slogged through to achieve his goal.
He started wondering about the cake Twilight made . . . she had started on it last night, yet it needed to cool now? Shouldn't it have gone bad or something? Oh, maybe it's like one of those old folk recipes that take days to make, but feed a small village. If that was the case, Twilight must have spent a lot of time and effort on it...
Midway through, he suddenly felt uncomfortable. Like somepony was . . .watching him.
Putting his game on pause and setting it down, he raised up and peeked over the back of the beanbag.
Oh. Owloyicous was perched up on a bookshelf, watching with bemusement as Spike played his little game. He seemed less interested in the game itself and more in watching Spike expend effort.
Spike narrowed his reptilian eyes, intensely distrustful of the owl . . . as always.
He felt his tummy rumble. He didn't even realize he had yet to eat breakfast. He got up off his beanbag and went into the kitchen. He started searching for something to eat. However, his search quickly proved fruitless. There were no gems in the pantry, the boxed instant-fix oatmeal was too low to feed him, let alone a grown mare. There were no granola bars in the cabinets, or fruits on the counter, or even a sweet treat in the fridge.
"There's only one thing to do!" Spike declared to himself proudly, pointing a claw skyward. He had to go pick some gems from his 'secret' stash in the bedroom.
"Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" Spike dashed back into the other room to save his game . . . only to see Owloyicous perched on the beanbag, staring at it blankly. The owl turned its head around to look at him, and the look those big yellow eyes were giving was almost . . . mocking.
"Hey, shoo!" Spike said, rushing to defend his game from this blasted avian who just so badly wanted to make his life miserable (right?). "Get away from that!"
Owloyicous took the hint, and took to the air. Spike picked up his game, and saw something incredulous.
The owl had been playing the game. Not only that, but his high score was three times Spike's best so far! Unbelievably!
"I . . . how did you . . ." Spike muttered, breath taken away. Owloyicous just proudly slapped a wing against his chest.
Spike shook his head, and his stomach growled again. He had to get into the bedroom. He ran up the stairs and grabbed the knob to turn it, but...it was locked. Twilight must have locked it on accident as they were exiting the bedroom.
Unless . . . she did it on purpose . . . no, no! She didn't have that little faith in him, did she?
He scratched his chin, wondering what to do. He wasn't exactly the keeper of the keys in the library...
"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed, seeing a loose paper clip on the floor. He picked up and shoved it into the keyhole, trying to get it unlock the tumblers, but he lacked the ingenuity of thieves that made them able to use such tiny things as lock picks. He pulled the paper clip out to see it bent and twisted beyond repair.
"Oh well . . . " Spike tossed it over his shoulder. Maybe he could wait until Twilight came back, and get her help finding something to eat . . .
His stomach growled.
He couldn't wait that long.
He thought of what he could possibly do, then a light bulb went off in his head.
He snapped his fingers at the brilliance of it, then zoomed out from where he was to the library's main entrance.
Now outside, beholden to the grand library tree in all its uncaring, time-proven glory, he rounded around the house over to the other side. He breathed on his claws, rubbed them together, then dub them into the tree bark and began climbing. He was going to get in through the window! Brilliant!
As he dug his claws from one piece of branch to the next, he realized this was going to take awhile...ooh, he was probably going to work up even more of an appetite than he had before!
He was nearly to the top when he saw a robin eying him curiously.
"What are you looking at it, huh!?" Spike screamed at it. "Haven't you ever seen a dragon climbing a treehouse before!?"
The robin, seeing its company was not appreciated around here, wisely made the decision to vamanos.
Spike dug his claws into the bark, and stopped just before the window to savor his victory. He did it. He climbed all the way up the bottom of the treehouse to the top.
Pushing the window open -thankfully, it wasn't locked- he managed to crawl inside and fall to the floor.
"Ha-ha!" He laughed to himself. He dashed over to the drawer and pulled it open, getting ready to gorge himself on his private stash . . .
Only to see all had left were sapphires. Aaah! Curse words! He was so close!
His tummy rumbled again. What could he do? He was hungry, but Twilight would get onto him for eating sapphires when he was grounded from them . . .
He sighed, wondering what to do, when he turned his head around and saw the pie-cake Twilight had made.
Hmm. He had two options here; either go back against his word and have a slice of the cake, or defy Twilight's authority and eat the sapphires.
He weighed which one would make her more upset. Sapphires, or cake? Authority, or word?
Mmm . . . she was something of a control freak at times, so he decided to nick a slice off the cake instead.
Just one. Neither she nor her friend would even notice it was gone.
Using his pointed tail, he carefully cut a thin slice of the cake off and ate it.
"Wow!" Spike muttered after swallowing. "This is . . . really good! I never knew Twilight could bake so well . . . I didn't think she could cook this well, either!"
He felt himself go into a daze . . .
"Oooh... Huh?" Spike woke from his daze to find himself lying on the floor, chocolate smeared all over his face, crumbs falling from his claws, and the empty cake pan resting on his full stomach.
"Oh no! Oh man!" Spike gasped, gripping his cheeks in terror. "What am I gonna do? Twilight is really gonna let me have it for this! No, no . . . she'll understand, won't she? I was hungry, right?"
Spike quickly got up and set the pan back down where it was.
"There." Spike said to himself in denial. "Like nothing even happened. I'll bet she won't even notice it."
Spike looked down the empty pan again.
"Oh, who am I kidding?" Spike mumbled to himself. There was no way Twilight wasn't going to notice that.
Realizing that he couldn't salvage this situation, he made his way to the restroom and washed off as much of the chocolate as he could. Maybe if had access to time travel, he could go back and have enough time to copy Twilight's recipe. But he didn't, so he couldn't.
He was trying to think of what to do when he heard the absolute worst sound in the world.
"Spike! I'm home!"
Oh no. Spike clawed at his face. He rushed out the restroom to the foyer to greet Twilight, who had some grocery sacks on her hindquarters.
"Great to see ya, Twilight, the number one most powerful unicorn in Equestria!" Spike said, giving her a thumbs up.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Oookay? Anyways, I got some gems for you today. I figured your stash is probably running low." She levitated out a paper bag full of gems from her sacks and placed into Spike's claws.
"You shouldn't have." Spike said with a smile.
No, really. You shouldn't have. Especially not when you see what I did to the cake.
Twilight levitated the bags off her back and onto the kitchen table. "I'm going to go check on the cake."
"Okay!" Spike lied, giving another thumbs-up.
Twilight glared at his odd behavior. She gave him a suspicious look before proceeding up the stairs. Was she on to him? If she wasn't, she certainly would be soon.
"That's funny . . . why is the door to the bedroom locked?"
Spike closed his eyes, hearing the door lock click open. He had probably locked it in his panic when he came out of the room . . .
He kept waiting for Twilight to let out a high-pitched, horrified scream, and then scream his name with a righteous indignation.
Instead, he heard a soft gentle coo. "Spike? Would you mind coming up here too terribly much?"
Spike gulped, but complied, walking up the staircase to his coming doom. He stood outside the door, where Twilight could see him.
Twilight was staring the pan, and noticed his reluctance to come in. She jerked her head for him to come here. "Come in, Spike." She said softly.
"No thank you." Spike declined.
Twilight gave him an imperious iron look. Spike suddenly found himself moving against his will, and the door slammed behind him. Was she really so mad she was willing to use magic on him like that!?
"Explain this to me." Twilight said, brandishing the empty cake pan where he could see it.
"Well . . ."
"And don't you dare lie to me." Twilight snapped sharply. Was it just his imagination running wild from his fear, or was her coat getting darker, and the shadows in the room getting longer?
Spike gulped, figuring it was probably best to just come clean. "I . . . was hungry, really really hungry, and my stash only had sapphires left in it, so I figured it would probably be better to eat the cake than the sapphires . . . I didn't mean to eat it all! I only wanted one slice, and-"
"Shut up!"
Spike did so. He was getting really worried now. It wasn't like Twilight to be so verbally abusive.
"I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses. Let me put this in perspective for you." Twilight rasped, pacing back and forth in a straight line, her hooves thudding heavily against the wood. Her horn lit up and produced sparks, creating a firework puppet show like the one that this one azure unicorn had when she came into town . . .
There was the cake, a pile of sapphires, Twilight, himself, and a copy of himself with his colors inverted, probably meant to represent Twilight's friend.
"Let's say you ate your sapphires instead." Twilight started, making her puppet Spike eat the sapphires. "I still have the cake. I can still give it to my friend. I add another day of you not being allowed to eat sapphires to compensate. No problem, right?"
Spike remained silent.
"Right, Spike!?"
"Right!" Spike squeaked.
"But you ate the cake."
The cake puppet disappeared.
"What exactly do I do now, hmm? Give my friend your sapphires? Yes? No? . . . What?"
Spike gulped, not knowing what to answer, but also able to tell she'd blow up at him any minute now if he didn't say something. ". . . Awww, come on, Twi! I was stuck between two bad options, and I . . . I choose the wrong one." Spike rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
Twilight turned away from him and looked over the empty pan, contemplating it.
"Aw, come on! It's not the end of the world. You can make another cake, can't you? Your friend will understand, won't she?"
Twilight slowly craned her neck back to him.
"I know my friend will understand." Twilight said as she began to stalk towards him.
"I know I can make another cake." Spike began backing up, but he found himself pressed up against the door.
"I know it's not the end of the world! The cake is not the problem! The problem...is you."
Spike's jaw dropped. "Me!?"
"Yes, you. You gave me your word, Spike. You promised me you wouldn't touch it. You said one thing and did another. How am I supposed to trust you now, Spike? That cake was special to me!"
"Well . . . one from Sugarcube Corner would be better anyway, right!?"
Oh. Bad move.
Twilight's eye twitched. "Did you hear ANYTHING I said before I left this morning!? Do you just hear 'blah blah blah' when I talk!?"
Spike bit his lip, his heart racing and his chest heaving with heavy breaths as he broke into a sweat.
"You know what the worst part is? The worst part, is I can understand you hitting Sweetie Belle like you did. I know . . . what's like to be so far gone into your fantasy . . ." Twilight's voice started to crack. "You don't even realize reality . . ." She shook her head. "And I can forgive you for that, even if Rarity and Sweetie Belle can't."
Oh, please don't say that, Twilight. Spike thought. Please don't say Rarity can't forgive me.
"But going back on your word like this! Inexcusable, I don't care HOW hungry you were! You should have ate the sapphires! You might have broken the rules, but at least you would've kept your promise! I...I..."
Twilight stammered, then stopped. The pause in her speech was one of the most terrifying things Spike had ever seen.
But even that didn't quite compare to what she said next. He had truly been underestimating how far gone she was until she said-
"I should spank you."