As Luna’s night gave way to Celestia’s sun, young Scootaloo began to stir. In her semi-conscious state, she found herself snuggling deeper into her sheets, perfectly content with sleeping in. She loved how they felt much softer, warmer, and more scaly than usual.
Wait, what?
Instantly, Scootaloo’s eyes shot open to see that she was, in fact, laying on Spike’s chest. The young filly could feel a rush of terror wash over her, not to mention a fire red blush cover her face. Though, as she looked to his face, she couldn’t help but find his dopy, unconscious expression somewhat cute. Nonetheless, she had to get out of her current situation, for she couldn’t bear the awkwardness of him awaking underneath her.
‘Okay, maybe if I slowly slide out this way he won’t wake up,’ she thought.
Slowly, Scootaloo began to pull away, but as she did this, she noticed that Spike’s arm was wrapped around her back. As if this wasn’t bad enough, with her every movement, his grip tightened.
‘Oh, you have got to be kidding me!’
Scootaloo tried pulling away once again, but it only caused Spike to pull her in tighter than when she had first awoken. She then decided to close her eyes and assess the situation.
‘Think! Think! Think!’ she thought. ‘Okay, maybe if I jump up really quick he won’t wake up; like ripping off a band aid. Yeah! That’ll work. Okay, one, two-‘
“Uh, Scootaloo?”
In that moment, Scootaloo could see her plan shatter to pieces. Slowly the filly opened her eyes, not exactly wanting to face Spike. Though when she finally did, she swore his blush was even deeper than her own, and his emerald green pupils were mere specks.
“Um, good morning, Spike,” was the only thing she could think to say.
Spike didn’t think his expression could look any more confused than it already did, but that statement proved him wrong.
“Uh, good morning. Mind telling me why you’re on top of me?”
Scootaloo quickly realized that she had made no effort to escape Spike’s grasp since his awakening. So she instantly launched off of him, blanket and all. The blanket in turn obscured her vision, causing her to stumble into the nearest wall. And so began Scootaloo’s losing wrestling match to remove the blanket from her head.
Spike smiled lightly, trying his best to withhold a laugh. In one motion, he yanked the blanket from the top of her head to reveal the orange pegasus.
Once Scootaloo was free, she let out a gasp before looking over to Spike.
“Thanks...” she said, embarrassment obvious in her voice.
“So, you mind explaining why you were on top of me?”
Though Scootaloo’s blush couldn’t possibly grow any brighter, her emotional reservoir of embarrassment still had room to spare. However, she thought it best to counter this attack.
“Well, would you like to explain why you were cuddling me like a teddy bear?”
Spike’s pupils shrank once again. “I was?”
Scootaloo nodded.
“Um, I have an idea. How about we never talk about this again? Deal?” offered Spike as he extended his right hand.
Scootaloo extended her hoof and shook. “Deal.” She then looked away briefly before adding, “Hey, Spike? It was nice having someone to spend the night with. I mean, before all the awkwardness.” As Scootaloo finished, she could feel herself blushing, though this time, it wasn't from embarrassment.
Spike chuckled uncomfortably as he raised a claw to the back of his neck. “Yeah... it was kinda nice.” Suddenly, Spike recalled all that the filly had said about her parents, causing his thoughts to shift more toward last night’s conversation.
“Hey, Scoots, I wasn’t lying last night. If you ever want to talk or anything, just let me know.”
Once again, Scootaloo’s blush of unknown origin returned. “That’s really nice Spike, but I’m okay. I mean, we could hang out later, if you’d like.”
The dragon smiled. “Of course I would! But... I should probably see Twilight, before she thinks I’m avoiding her.”
Scootaloo giggled. “Okay.”
----------
As the noon hour drew near, Twilight and Spike found themselves in Sugar Cube Corner awaiting Pinkie Pie’s famous hot chocolate. Oddly though, it was taking a little longer than usual, so Twilight decided to strike a conversation, in the bluntest way possible.
“Spike, why do you keep hanging out with Scootaloo so much?”
Spike raised his brow. “Because we’re friends. Where did that even come from?”
Twilight shrugged. “It’s just, you never leave the library, unless it’s to go to Rarity’s. Now, you suddenly want to spend time with Scootaloo...”
“Well, it’s because Scootaloo is-“ Spike abruptly stopped speaking, realizing just how close he was to spilling the beans. “She’s, uhhh...”
Now, Twilight was no master at the art of relationships, but she was beginning to suspect that this was the beginning of a childhood crush. She could also see that, perhaps, this could be an opportunity. After all, she had begun to grow quite tired of Spike’s persistence to please Rarity each time she visited.
“She’s cute?” Twilight asked, grinning like a foal.
The dragon’s cheeks quickly flushed red. “W-What? No! She’s… She’s…”
It was beginning to become quickly apparent that Spike really had no explanation that could finish that sentence and simultaneously convince Twilight that there was no romantic interest. So he decided to blurt out the first complement that came to mind.
“She’s nice.”
Twilight’s grin widened. “So, you do like her!”
Spike buried his face into his claws. ‘Of all the words in the Equine language, I had to choose that one?’ So, Spike decided to take the route of silence, for he feared any more conversation would add to his false guilt. Though, in this moment, he realized that Twilight’s remark was somewhat true, at least to a certain extent. However, thinking someone is cute doesn’t translate into a crush, right?
“Here you go!” chirped an excited Pinkie, as she laid down a tray with two massive hot chocolates. Each was topped with whipped cream, coco shavings, and three cherries.
“Sorry about the wait. We’ve been crazy busy today,” she explained as she made a circular gesture around her head.
Twilight smiled. “Thanks Pinkie, but Spike and I were having an interesting conversation.”
Spike, who still hid his burning face, only grunted as a way of replying to her.
----------
Scootaloo sat atop a bench in the Ponyville Park, thinking about this morning’s events. Though she did find one thing quite odd; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the picture of Spike’s adorable, unconscious expression out of her head. And at the time, Spike tried to snuggle her; she never really considered just how cute that really was. Now, the thought brought a smile and a light blush to her face.
Suddenly, Scootaloo’s thoughts were cut off by a blast of artic slush to the back of her head. The young filly was so startled that she jumped out of her seat, and landed in the snow below. Once she looked up, she saw Applebloom and Sweetie Belle a few feet away. Sweetie Belle was sporting a grin and offered her a hoof. She took it, and arose to her hooves.
“Sweetie Belle, you are such a traitor...” Scootaloo joked.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “No I’m not, you were just an easy target.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
“Say Scoots, what had you so zoned out? You almost looked like that thinking pony statue in Canterlot.”
The Pegasus began to turn red, and was about to reply, when Applebloom cut her off.
“She was thinking about her new colt… Er, dragon friend, Spike.”
Scootaloo’s blush deepened. “No I wasn’t!” she lied, “I was thinking of… Um… Uh.”
“Thinking about how much you want to, uh... kiss Spike?” joked Sweetie Belle, who wanted to get in on the action, despite the obvious fact that she had no idea what Applebloom was talking about.
“Come on Scoots, I saw the way y’all kept looking at each other yesterday. Then you go on and leave together.”
Though Applebloom’s last assumption may have been correct, the first was not. This was only due to their encounter the night prior.
“Oh, quiet you two. I don’t have a crush on Spike! Besides, we all know Spike has a crush on Rarity.”
Scootaloo found it odd that the moment she said that, she felt a twinge of sadness.
“WHAT!?” shrieked Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo and Applebloom looked to the filly with faces that read “You’ve got to be kidding”.
“You didn’t know?” asked Scootaloo.
The astounded unicorn filly only shook her head, too shocked to speak.
The other two fillies briefly looked at each other before facehoofing.
----------
After a few more hours of joking and playing in the snow, the Cutie Mark Crusaders began to disperse one by one. Eventually, Scootaloo was left alone once again, so she decided now would be a good time to meet up with Spike, just as she had said earlier.
It didn’t take her long to reach the library from the park, though as she knocked on the door, she quickly tried to think of something to say. Thankfully, it was Twilight who answered.
“Oh, hi Twilight. Is Spike here?”
Twilight bit her tongue, trying to suppress a smile. “Yeah, just a second.”
After only a few seconds of waiting, Spike replaced Twilight.
“Oh, hey Scoots,” he said as he slammed the door behind him, right in Twilight’s face. “So, what’s up?”
The young filly blinked, a little shocked by Spike’s actions. “What was that about?”
He sighed. “You don’t want to know. So, what are your plans?”
“Well, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom are both at home, so you wanna help me build a snowpony?”
Spike perked up. “Sure! Where at?”
Scootaloo put a hoof to her chin. “We could go to the park, but I was just there.”
“Oh I know! Let’s go make it outside of Sugar Cube Corner, that way everypony will see it.”
“That’s a great idea!”
After a little more than a half hour, Spike and Scootaloo had finished their snow masterpiece. Now that it was to their liking, the two took a step back to admire their work. However, two onlooking foals had other plans in mind, for just as the two turned their backs, one of the foals launched a snowball at the snow pony’s head, decapitating it. Needless to say, Scootaloo and Spike were not amused.
“What’s your problem!?” Spike shouted to the pink snowpony murderer.
Diamond Tiara snarled. “Don’t talk to me like that, purple freak. I was just doing a public service.”
“Public service?” asked Scootaloo.
“Well, that snow pony was so horrid, I simply couldn’t allow anypony else to see it.”
Spike took a step forward, ready to sock the pink menace, but Scootaloo withheld him with a hoof. Spike looked down to see her giving him a disapproving look. This caused him to rethink his offensive strategy.
“Are you two really that pathetic?” he asked in his best snobbish tone.
“How dare you!” the two fillies screamed in unison, each looking ready to tackle Spike.
The dragon smiled. “I mean honestly, look at you, going around destroying other foals snow ponies. Do you two have any lives?”
Diamond Tiara was seconds away from charging Spike, when she came up with an interesting counter attack. “At least I’m not some dragon freak who cuddles ponies. Weirdo!” The shock in both of their faces caused her to grin.
“Hey! Leave Scootaloo out of this!”
“What!? Afraid your little blank flank fillyfriend will get upset?”
Spike was beginning to get very upset now, as picking on him was one thing, but his friends was another. “You have five seconds to take that back.”
“Oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it, weirdo!?” taunted Silver Spoon.
“Four.”
“How about you and your little blank flank go make out later! Oh wait you probably already have!”
Small amounts of smoke were beginning to escape from Spike’s nostrils. “Three.”
“You two are absolutely-“
“Two.”
“Disgusting, gross, backwards-“
“One.”
“Freaks!”
Just as those words left Diamond Tiara’s lips, Spike unleashed a massive green flame from his own. Instantly, the two fillies dropped to the ground. Then, just as quickly as it started, it was over. Though the two were fine for the most part, the fire had singed the very tip of their mane. This, however, was more than enough to send the foals running home.
Scootaloo looked up to, a still fuming, Spike with amazement. Never before had someone stepped up to those two in such a fierce way. But not only that, he stepped up for her and her alone, not all of the Cutie Mark Crusaders at once.
Without warning, Spike was almost tackled to the ground by Scootaloo’s hug. “Thank you!”
----------
During the walk back to the CMC Clubhouse, Scootaloo couldn’t help but glance over at Spike every now and then. The words of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were now long lost, all replaced with the image of Spike making them run in terror.
“Well, here we are,” said Spike as he gestured to the tree house.
Scootaloo was a little upset that this would be the end of her time with Spike, but thought that perhaps she could find a way to make him stay longer.
“Hey, you think that maybe you could stay the night again?”
Spike shook his head. “Sorry, Twi wanted me to help her organize a few books before bed.”
Scootaloo sadly looked down. “Oh, well... I’m really happy that we hung out today. And thank you so much for getting in those bullies' faces. I never could have done that on my own.”
The dragon chuckled. “It’s okay Scootaloo, I’m just glad you’re not upset.”
“Upset!? How could I be upset when my friend almost barbequed my worst enemies?”
Spike grinned. “Okay then. I’ll just... see you later.”
Quickly, Scootaloo took his hand with her hoof. “Wait!” she said a little more forcefully than she meant. Though Spike couldn’t see it through the dim light, Scootaloo was blushing heavily. “I just wanted to thank you again.”
“Really, it’s okay Scoo-“
Spike was quickly cut off by Scootaloo pressing her lips to his cheek.