It's been two days since their mountain climbing trip, and Spike was still lightly recovering from the trip as most of the muscles in his legs ached occasionally. It didn't help Scootaloo actually came up with a few ideas Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were willing to try, thus dragging him along. He had to admit, he admired the young fillies' energy and enthusiasm to find their true calling in life.
Fortunately for Spike, Scootaloo hasn't had much luck convincing the others for an attempt at completing their climb up the mountain and to the cave area; anypony who could and want to supervise them were too busy, Rainbow even had her work piling up for her to supervise. Aside from her usual job keeping the skies above Ponyville clear, it was near that time of the week again when she had to help move clouds into the skies for a scheduled downpour. Unfortunately, finding a proper scheduling was proving rather difficult. Any other time, Rainbow had actually been trying to avoid Scootaloo so she could nap and relax from the stresses of her job.
At the moment, it was late in the afternoon and Spike and Applebloom were sitting on a hill that lightly overlooked the apple orchard, while Twilight and Applejack were close by minding their own business. Applejack was busy bucking apples into baskets awaiting for Big Mac to cart them off back to the barn. Twilight was sitting at the base of a tree almost out of sight, once again divulged into that little pink book. The rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, had already gone home. The three decided not to go adventuring that day, and chose to simply just hang out in the orchard playing a game. It would've been a lazy day of playing for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, had Scootaloo not add an interesting and more energy-consuming twist.
"Is Scootaloo always like that?" Spike asked as he tried stretching to ease a few aching muscles.
"Yep, Scootaloo has always been like that, and we all don't mind, cause that's who she is." Applebloom replied
"She's definitely taking this 'being like Rainbow Dash' thing too far, though I will admit, it was kinda fun."
Applebloom gave a small smile.
"I don't usually get to have this much fun as Twilight's assistant, I'm usually just doing whatever time consuming chore she has for me to do."
"And ya'll don't mind it?"
"Well...no, now that I think about it. I guess it's just my way earning my keep as well as my title as her number one assistant. Besides, Twilight has always taken good care of me and she's always made sure I was safe." Spike simply replied as he gave what looked like a shrug, "Lately though she's actually been doing more than usual. For the last two days, she's been tucking me into bed properly and been feeding me so much it's getting annoying."
Applebloom remained silent for a moment, considering every word Spike spoke before saying in slightly sad tone, "Sounds like y'all miss it...bein' normal ah mean."
"I mean I don't mind it that I'm not tied down by chores, but if Twilight is gonna end up stuffing me like an apple pie...."
Applebloom then looked at the ground, obviously more than a little bit saddened.
Spike noticed the gesture before distinctly remembering their conversation from a couple of days ago, "Oh yeah, I remember now. You said you actually liked me being a pony, and I think you were saying you also liked me liked me. Is that...that really true?"
Applebloom didn't say a thing, but blushed as she lightly scrapped the ground with a hoof.
"If you don't want to talk about...that's-" Spike was saying as he looked away and scratched the back of his head.
"N-no, it's okay. Ah'm the one who brought it up first."
"Would you mind if I ask, why? I mean, we've never really talked much before."
"Ah'm not sure if ah can put it into words. But...ah suppose a-ah could try." she'd reply and gently press her head against Spike, who blushed at the gesture, "Ah've just been feelin' a bit funny around ya Spike. At first it felt strange, kinda like havin' somethin' like a...a stomachache ah suppose. Like after ya'll end up eatin' a few dandelions or somethin'."
"Um...I've never had dandelions before."
Applebloom laughed a bit before saying, "Consider yerself lucky then." she gave a pause before continuing, "Sometimes though, ah suppose it ain't too bad. Sometimes it feels more like butterflies in mah stomach. Ah feel weak, but at the same time ah feel like ah have the energy to buck all the trees on the farm. Ovah time, ah figured it out, why ah feel like that around ya, and why ah feel happy whenever ya'll are around."
"And you really believe that this is the answer?" Spike asked as Applebloom positioned her head under Spike's chin and tried sinking the side of her face into his purple coat.
"Can ya'll find another reason why?" she simply retorted as she allowed that feeling of content to persist as she rested her head under Spike's.
Spike gave it some thought, and he had to admit, he couldn't. Applebloom had effectively named off a few symptoms he, himself, was familiar with as well when it came to Rarity. The only one she didn't mention was the whole matter of the heartbeat racing and their chest hurting like the organ itself wanted to burst out of their chest. He had to give it some thought; he still held a torch for Rarity, but, at the same time he did feel like he was beginning to enjoy Applebloom's company as well, especially now that they've had more time to spend together. The more Applebloom made it obvious how much she actually cared for him, the more those familiar feelings welled up within him as well. Soon a blush was trying to make its presence known through the purple fur that covered the young colt's checks. Eventually, Spike just gave gentle smile and lifted a hoof to wrap around Applebloom into what looked like a hug, only further earning gleeful smile from the young filly.
The gesture didn't go unnoticed though, as a pair of green eyes occasionally took glances at the two. Applejack gave a curious look before instinctively kicking her hind-leg against a tree to continue her work and finish up on time. She was interrupted by a sudden yelp.
Looking back she found she had accidentally bucked at a tree that had Twilight under it instead of baskets.
Twilight stuck her head out from under the pile of apples looking dazed but otherwise fine.
"Mighty sorry about that Twilight, ah didn't mean ta do that ta ya." Applejack apologized as she helped her friend out from under the pile.
"Just...just be careful next time Applejack." Twilight said as she shook her head to clear her dazed mind. "Any particular reason for that Applejack? It doesn't seem much like you to be distracted during your work. Especially when it comes to your family's apple orchard."
Applejack gave a sigh as she gently looked through the pile of apples she had kicked out of the tree for any rotten or heavily bruised ones, "Ah'm just havin' some concerns with Applebloom n' Spike. Ah've been feelin' that those two are gettin' rather close."
"Well considering those two have been spending a lot of time together since this whole incident started, I would think it's normal that those two would form a friendship." she stated in a manner-of-fact-way as she levitated an apple out from the pile, "May I?"
"Heh, least ah could do after droppin' the entire tree on yer head." Applejack replied with a slight chuckle, "Ah mean, ah think those two might be a courtin'."
Twilight replied with a confused look as she took a bite of the apple.
"Ah mean that they're seein' each other in a different light."
Twilight still gave a clueless look and slightly shook her head to indicate such.
"Oh for pony-sake!" Applejack face-hooved before looking at Twilight, "Pinkie's right Twi, ya'll really need ta get out of the library more. Ah mean, ah think they like each other. Not like as friends, but more like a crush."
"A crush?" she repeated questioningly, "Are you sure Applejack?"
"Ya'll don't have ta believe me if ya'll don't. Ya can see fer yerself, those two are just over on that hill over there." She pointed a hoof right at the hill where Spike and Applebloom sat.
"Um, Applejack, are you certain? I don't see them there." Twilight stated with a raised brow.
Applejack looked and noticed their absence. "Well, they were there a moment ago."
"Come on, let's look for them. They couldn't have gone far." Twilight said as she placed the book her into her saddlebag.
The two young ponies didn't go far at all. They had gone to the trail where they found Big Mac. Right now, Applebloom was asking Big Mac if she could have whatever chore she was meant to do tomorrow so she wouldn't have to worry about it, while Spike was standing nearby, looking a bit nervous and his face almost as red as the hardworking stallion standing in front of him.
"If ya'll really want ta take care of those chores, ah'd suggest talkin' ta yer older sister."
"Ya'll don't know?"
"Nope."
"Applebloom, Spike, there ya'll are." they heard Applejack say as she walked over with Twilight just behind her.
"Applejack." the young filly simply said before rushing over, "Can ah know what mah chores are fer tommorow?"
"What...? Why do ya'll want ta know what yer chores are all of a sudden?"
"I...uh...wanted to hang out with Scoot and Sweetie Belle tommorrow. If ah can take care of mah chores now, the more we can look for our cutie marks."
Applejack gave her a suspicious look, but decided to go with it for now; after all, her chores were gonna have to be done sooner or later anyway, "Well, ah was thinkin' about askin' ya'll to help me with the rotten and bruised apples so we can feed them pigs somethin' otha' than greens; but, why don't ya just help me with the apples? Ah don't reckon it'll be too hard givin' them to the pigs mah self."
Applebloom gave a cheer before bolting to where Applejack was working to start.
"How about ya'll Spike? Wanna help out? Considerin' ya are a member of them crusaders till ya get back ta normal." the earth pony asked as she turned her attention toward him.
"Sure, I guess. I got nothing else better to do at the moment." he stated with a shrug.
"I'll see if I can lend a hoof too Applejack. It'll give me a chance to talk to you about that issue you were talking about earlier." Twilight rang in.
Applejack just gave a nod, and said, "Mighty neighborly of ya."
As the four of them started working, Applebloom and Spike started picking up the bruised or rotten apples that were left behind from Applejack's work while Applejack and Twilight worked on organizing the big pile of apples she incidentally made a big mess of.
"Yep, just flick the apples with yer tail into the basket." Applebloom instructed as she demonstrated for Spike, her experience of course guaranteeing she would make it into the basket.
"What if I miss?" he asked as he prepared himself to do the same.
"Well ya'll never really tried before, so that'll be okay. Fer now just focus on doin' it."
"Well...alright if you say so." Spike got into position and whisked his tail, flinging a bruised apple. The apple flew, but it didn't even come close to the barrel as it flew over.
"Just keep tryin' ah'm sure ya'll will get it eventually." she stated, again hitting an apple with her tail, and perfectly making it into the basket.
Spike attempted a few more shots, all of which missed, at one point he even almost nailed Applejack and Twilight with a particularly rotten one. Applejack admitted it wasn't a bad throw though, even if it was an inch from hitting her face. Eventually Spike did get the technique right and got one in the basket.
"See? Ah knew ya'll would get it eventually." Applebloom stated with a grin
"Yeah, after missing so many times and almost hitting Applejack." he replied with a slight frown, "Sorry about that apple Applejack." he shouted out to her
"Ah already said it's alright, just work on yer aim." she shouted back before turning around. "It was already alright the last four times ya asked." she thought to herself.
"Well Spike, come on! We gotta keep working if we're gonna hang out tomorrow" Applebloom said to Spike.
"About that, are you sure? I mean about making tomorrow-" Spike was saying before a rotten apple hit him square in the muzzle, part of it breaking and splattering fermented juices all over his face.
"Oh, GROSS!" Spike yelled.
Applebloom had tried to shoot an apple, but had made the mistake of not looking where she was aiming and accidentally sent it flying toward Spike, "Ah'm sorry! Ah didn't mean ta."
Spike gave a groan as he wiped his face with a hoof, "It's alright." A mischievous grin slowly crept on his face. "But a little payback never hurt nopony." and threw what was on his hoof right at Applebloom, hitting her in her face.
"Yuck! Yer not suppose to do that to fillies." Applebloom exclaimed.
"I did say payback is fair play." he replied with a smirk
"Oh yeah?" Applebloom stated with a grin herself and aimed and hit another apple at Spike
He managed to duck in time to avoid it, before bolting in one direction. Applebloom was soon behind him, holding a rather soft rotten one by its stem ready to hit Spike with it.
Twilight and Applejack only smiled and chuckled at the two as they watched the two young ponies play. Though, it was only a matter of time before Spike and Applebloom got too careless; as they ran around chucking apples at each other they came close to where Applejack and Twilight were. Twilight was caught in the crosshairs as a rotten apple flew right into her shoulder.
"Sorry Twilight!" Spike said quickly as he ran by, still in pursuit of Applebloom.
Twilight only gave a sigh then looked at Applejack, "You wouldn't happen to know how to get rid of this would you?" she asked, indicating the slight mix of mushy apple and apple juice dripping off her shoulder.
"A wet towel should fix that right up. Jus' go down to the barn and tell Big Mac what 'appened." she replied with a grin, "Ah suggest ya hurry though, if ya'll let it dry the smell will stick with ya fer the rest of the day."
"Thank you Applejack." and started heading for the barn, "And...sorry about the mess."
"Don't ya'll worry about it. Applebloom is makin' as big a mess as Spike is makin' as far as ah'm concerned."
After a while or so, Applebloom and Spike ran out of ammo to use and had left a small portion of the orchard littered with broken and rotten fruit everywhere. Fortunately for Applejack, most never really were that damaged and she could just put them in a basket, like they were suppose to, and the whole ordeal was contained so she didn't have to go looking through the entire orchard. She just figured she could try corralling some of the pigs later into the orchard to clean up.
Applebloom and Spike weren't really far. Both were out of breath and in good need of a quick hose down later, but both were pretty much content with their "break" from picking up fruit. Soon after Applejack asked the two to help her and Twilight with what's remaining.
The four kept working till just after the sun was setting, and Luna was just seconds from raising the moon into the sky. After a quick hose down of Spike and Applebloom to get rid of fermented fruit juice smell, Twilight and Spike were ready call it a day. Twilight and Spike bid the two Apple sisters a good night, though Applebloom made it a point to quickly remind Spike of tomorrow before so, which made him once again act a bit nervous. He smiled though at the thought.
Once back home, Twilight decided to make them both some dinner, which is really just a sandwich and some hayfries, while Spike tried organizing some of the books that Twilight had laying around the main room of the library. After a few minutes or so, Spike actually found a method of shelving that worked and was essentially able to clean up most of the books that were laying around.
"Spike! Dinner!" she shouted out before coming into the main room with two plates levitating in the air in front of her, "Did you clean this up?"
"Yeah, I found a method that actually worked."
"Wow, nice work Spike. Now come on, eat up." then went over to a table and placed both plates on it
"Yeah, I try." he stated before going over to the table and began eating.
As the two ate, Twilight brought out the copy of the counter-spell book from Luna. While she did figure out the spell, she wanted to keep that fact a secret from Spike; besides, it never hurts to be absolutely certain of the spell's effectiveness outlined in the book. Spike didn't say much as Twilight's eyes scanned each and every page of the book, and chose to watch his long time unicorn friend do her work. After a moment or so, Spike started to just nibble at what bit of hayfries were still on his plate, already feeling full. His mind then went back to how the last couple of days this has been quite frequent, Twilight being a little bit more generous with servings than usual, and even then he got full.
Twilight eventually noticed that Spike was just slowly nibbling at his food, "Not liking the food Spike?"
"No, I don't mind hay, especially now, but I'm feeling a bit stuffed right now."
"Try to finish up though. You don't exactly have that much left." she stated before she went into the kitchen to dispose of her used plate.
Spike gave a groan before taking another mouthful of hay. He then looked over to Twilight's saddlebag, which was near her side of the table. It was on it's side and apparently that's where Twilight was keeping the counter-spell book, no big surprise, but what interested him was the fact he noticed that same unfamiliar pink book in it as well. After swallowing what he had in his mouth, he walked over, pulled the book out, and placed it on the table.
"'Mothering 101: Connecting Mother, and her young foal'?" he read the title, "Why would Twilight need this?"
There was a bookmark in it. Opening it, is showed that Twilight was on a portion that spoke about sleeping habits, and was just a page turn away from a section about food. Skimming through the food chapter in particular, he noticed that Twilight was seemingly following it. Of course that was hard to say considering Twilight didn't know many recipes to begin with, and usually only made hayfries when she was in a rush and was in the middle of a study session, but it did mention something about hayfries nutritional for a foal. A chill ran down Spike's back as he began to realize what was going on.
"Spike, are you done?" Twilight asked before coming back into the main room. She turned pale as soon as she noticed that Spike was reading out of the mothering book.
"Is this what you've been up to Twilight?" he asked curiously, a bit of shock in his voice, "What about the counter-spell?"
"Well I've been working on it, but I thought I could-"
"So you've been mothering me?" he interrupted abruptly, "Twilight, I'm not your son, I'm your assistant."
Twilight could feel herself falter mentally as she bit her lip, "Well, yes, I know, but I thought I could-"
"Twilight! I'm not your son...I'm not even suppose to be a pony, remember? I'm a dragon." he said loudly with a slight tone of anger and disappointment echoing behind his words, "Or do you just plan on keeping me this way?! So I could be."
"No, it's-"
"If you're just gonna keep me this way, you should just tell me." Spiked huffed before he drooped his head low, "I can at least stop hoping you'll figure it out soon and try accepting a life as a pony." The anger Spike felt against Twilight's actions slowly begin to dissipate and began looking very depressed.
Twilight's ears flattened against her head, "Spike...I don't mean to do that. I do plan to figure it out and change you back, I promise, but I thought I'd try seeing what it was like, to act like your mom. Just this once." she tried getting closer to hug him, but Spike simply moved and kept the gap between them.
"You're not my mom Twilight, and you should know that...I'm just your friend and your assistant, nothing more. So please...just figure out the spell already and turn me back." Spike stated, his eyes just starting to tear up.
Twilight could feel and understand how hurt Spike felt as she felt a pang in her chest that felt like a cold stab at her heart.
Spike then started toward the staircase, "I'm gonna head to bed, alright? Thanks for dinner Twilight." his posture changing as his hung his head low and his tail dragging on the ground. He only pulled his head up to look up the stairs so as not to trip, and quickly went up so to hide the fact he couldn't hold back his tears any longer.
Twilight kept her eyes on Spike until he was out of sight, before hanging her head down low as tears welled up in her eyes. She was saddened by not only what Spike had to say about the matter, especially now that she actually wanted to have that title, but by also the fact she more than likely just broke her trust with Spike and was gravely upset at herself for letting it happen.
"Why did this have to happen...? Why did I let it happen?" she asked herself as she sat there for a moment, letting her tears roll off her face and hit the ground. She knew that was the one thing Spike looked forward to all week, finally being able to return to his old dragon self, and she just let her own feelings keep her from that.
Twilight then looked to the pink book from Fluttershy and almost grew angry enough to want to destroy it. It was its fault Spike found out. It was the cause of this tension between him and her now, but, in the end, she knew it was her fault. She tried lifting it up to bring it to herself, but to no avail. In her saddened state, she felt too weak to even put some heart into the action, so she walked over and used her horn to move the cover and pages. At least she was able to do that.
Not finding anything in reference to this situation, a pang of disappointment flared in Twilight; she almost wanted to smack the book off table in frustration. Instead, she closed the book and sighed. "Nevermind." She composed herself a little to at least finish cleaning up the main room before heading to bed herself. It didn't take much time to do so, but she still felt the pain of what happened that night.
Walking up to the bedroom area, she found Spike in his basket curled up like a ball. Only his head was in clear view, as the rest was covered by his blanket. Twilight quietly walked over and looked down at him, what she saw sent even more spears through her heart.
Spike indeed looked asleep, but it was clear he had cried a bit before falling asleep, as clear dark lines led down his face onto his pillow. Thankfully though, his pillow wasn't too badly soaked.
Twilight grabbed the blanket with her teeth and gently adjusted it so he looked more comfortable. She could've easily just turned him back now, it was clear acting like his mom was a failed attempt, but hesitated as she tried fighting back more tears when she tried. She needed to recollect her thoughts, at least for now. "I'm sorry Spike, I really am." she then gave him a kiss on the cheek as a tear rolled off her face, "Please forgive me." then turned around and crawled into bed.
It took her a moment to again recollect her composure to avoid soaking her pillow in tears, before falling asleep.
Spike slightly woke up this time around, so Twilight's words didn't actually fall on deaf ears, but stayed still and watched the unicorn crawl into bed before once again giving into his body's desire to simply sleep.