Spike awoke to the soft morning chatter of a group of birds outside and with guilt, thought of the ones he had nearly hit with a gem on the previous day. He soon realized that a warm hoof lay limply across his body. His heart pounded gently as he sluggishly opened his eyes and saw Twilight’s beautiful face glowing in the early morning light, her eyes peacefully held shut in sleep.
Not wanting to wake her, he slowly and silently moved himself closer so their bodies touched. After cautiously wrapping his arms around her, he pressed his face into her soft lavender fur and basked in its blissful embrace.
“Good morning, Spike,” the mare’s voice resonated through her chest, causing his body to jolt slightly before he looked up.
The dragon spoke softly. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“No worries,” she yawned, rolling onto her back and turning her head to see what the clock read, “we needed to get up a bit early anyways. The library’s closed for re-shelving today, remember?”
“Re-shelving? Already?” he grumbled.
“Yes, those books are an organizational nightmare,” Twilight sighed. “What happened to the assistant that was willing to do anything to help me? I was really starting to like him,” she teased.
“I wasn’t complaining,” he quickly mumbled, rolling onto his back and shoving away the warm blanket as he sat up. “I’m ready whenever you are…just one question, why do you still run the library anyways? Since you know, you’re a princess and stuff now.”
A soft smile appeared on her face as she too sat up. “I at least want to do something productive while we figure out where those keys are. Besides, I think I’d be neglecting my duty as a princess if I didn’t provide my subjects with the knowledge they want or need,” she explained.
Spike let out a yawn, his sharp fangs gleaming in the bright sunlight pouring in from the window. “I guess that makes sense,” he responded with a shrug.
“Actually Spike, if you don’t want to help me, you don’t have to. After all you did yesterday, you deserve a nice rest,” she cooed sweetly.
The dragon sighed lazily, the prospect of extra sleep sounded quite enticing, but he knew he must help. “I can’t let you do that all by yourself. It’d take ages.”
She nodded her head appreciatively. “Thanks Spike. We might as well get an early start on our morning so we can get started on that too.” Spike let out another yawn in response before hopping off the bed.
With his mind in a daze, Spike went about his normal morning time routine of eating breakfast and cleaning himself up for the day, seemingly unable to awaken fully. His mind was once again lost with the thoughts of his newfound crush. Today was the day that he’d tell her how he felt, after they finished re-shelving of course. Pleasing her even more than he already had would certainly give him a better chance.
Before he knew it, the bookshelves were emptied and the floor filled with their contents. “Spike, you start with fiction, authors’ names ending in A and I’ll do the same with nonfiction,” the alicorn stated, her attitude becoming more business-like.
“Yes ma’am,” Spike replied, rummaging through the mountainous, multicolored pile before him. He monotonously set aside those that didn’t match his category and put those that did in a stack beside him. “Here’s an A, nonfiction,” he mumbled after a few moments, lifting up a book with a hard, dark green cover and golden text. With a quick thank you, the book was surrounded by magic and lifted away, leaving him to continue his sorting.
After what seemed like ages, but was likely not even half an hour, Spike was unable to reach the top of his towering stack to add another book. The assistant bent down and lifted it up with a grunt before stumbling over to the correct shelf where they would be placed.
“How many of these have you actually read?” he asked, reading the title imprinted upon the spine of each book he set on the shelf.
“I don’t even think I’ve read half of the books here,” she laughed. “These shelves can hold a lot more than you think.”
“Trust me, I’ve re-shelved them plenty. I know,” the dragon sighed teasingly.
“Actually now that you mention it, I’ve really wanted to catch up on some of these,” Twilight stated, pulling a few books from the pile before her and suspending them in front of her face. “Let’s take the day off…or at least…put off re-shelving until a bit later.”
“Wait…what?” Spike asked, dumbfounded by the response. “You’re just going to leave all these books on the floor and not have a panic attack about how messy it looks?”
She rolled her eyes. “Spike!”
“Well, that’s what you’d normally do,” he admitted.
The pony sighed and nodded her head in defeat. “You’re right Spike, or at least you would’ve been right not too long ago, but I’ve a learned a lot in the past few years. One of those things is that there is a lot more important stuff to be doing than reorganizing a library, like spending time with your friends. Besides, I’m a bit worried about you. You’ve been off in your own little world all morning long. I think it’s for the best if we both take a break.”
“Well it’s just that-”
Twilight quickly interrupted the dragon before he could comment further. “Let’s head up to the balcony and we can have a little talk before we read.” With that, she tucked a couple of books under her wing and made her way up the stairs. “Grab your comic or whatever else you want to read on the way up.”
Spike gulped, wondering what exactly was meant by “little talk.” Was it possible that she knew? If not, it’d still be the perfect time to tell her. He grew nauseous with anticipation as he too headed up the stairs.
***
“Here you go, Twi,” Spike stated as he pulled her Starswirl book from beneath the stack of comics he had put together. “Thought you might wanna finish this one first.”
“Thanks Spike, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she responded, finding a comfortable position after laying down on the balcony’s wooden deck and then tucking her hooves beneath her chest. She drew in a heavy breath of air, admiring the multitude of fragrant scents, ranging anywhere from potted flowers and freshly mown lawns to the aroma of coffee and baked goods.
“Sometimes I forget how beautiful Ponyville can be,” she expelled, turning her gaze from the peaceful town below to the empty, blue skies above.
“Yeah,” the dragon breathed dreamily as he took a seat, gazing at the much more beautiful sight to his side. He was rather unbeknownst to the fact that mare stared right back at him, a questioning look upon her face. For a moment, his bright emerald eyes locked with the dark violet hue of her own before quickly turning to the street below, a few ponies treading its surface. “So…what’s up with all the reading lately anyways?” he mumbled nervously, hoping she hadn’t noticed. “I mean, I know you love reading and all, but you’ve been doing it even more than usual.”
“Well Spike, to be honest, I haven’t been able to read all day like I used to for quite a while and I miss it. I just thought I’d do it while I had the chance,” Twilight responded, causing the assistants head to nod understandingly. “Before we moved to Ponyville, this is practically all we did,” she laughed. “Things would be a lot different if we never would’ve came here.”
Spike’s mind filled with thoughts of the alternate reality where Twilight was still an aspiring student in Canterlot who concentrated on her own ambitions rather than friendship, but quickly realized that instead, Canterlot may not even exist or Equestria for that matter. “You and the girls would’ve never saved Ponyville or Canterlot or the Crystal Empire…or Equestria,” he stated grimly.
The alicorn’s entire body shuddered at the thought, but she spoke in a consoling tone. “You mean we wouldn’t have. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
The dragon gave an agreeable nod. “Yeah...I guess.”
“Thinking about it, you were my only true friend besides Shining before we met the girls.” He turned his eyes up at her silently. “You’ve been by my side through thick and thin, and I don’t just mean back in Canterlot. You’re truly a great friend, Spike.”
“I don’t know if I’m that great of a friend,” the assistant mumbled, his cheeks beginning to flush.
“You don’t have to be so modest,” she sighed with a frown. “You followed me when nopony else would have. Spike, if you wouldn’t have come back to Ponyville with me when we were searching for the Tree of Harmony and stayed with the others instead…I’m not sure anypony would’ve ever known what happened to me when Discord “convinced” me to go back…I-I don’t know if I would’ve made it…” her sentence trailed off and tears filled her eyes. “You…you saved my life.”
Spike was unable to hold back his tears as he watched the pony’s own trickle down her face. He wrapped his arms around her neck and felt as her strong wing surrounded his body once it had unfurled. Twilight caressed her chin against his head before speaking once more. “You followed me through the portal when I went to stop Sunset Shimmer even when you were specifically told not to. You were there when I climbed the tower to save the Crystal Empire, actually you were the one who saved it. Without you, I would’ve failed… you’ve been there for plenty of other times too.”
The dragon tightened his hold as he began to sob, but instead of burying his face into the solace of her chest as he had previously, he pulled away and gazed directly into her eyes. “I…I just couldn’t let you go it alone. What if you got hurt… or worse? It’d be my fault.” He gulped loudly, pushing the growing knot from his throat. “…W-what would I do without you? I love you so much, Twilight.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, a tender smile on her face. She brought a hoof to his sodden face and gently wiped away the tears. “You’re one the best friends that anypony could ever ask for. I was wrong yesterday when I said you were taking me for granted. In reality, I’ve been taking you for granted this whole time.”
“You’ve done plenty for me too,” the assistant responded sincerely.
The mare lifted her head, pondering the thought a moment before she spoke. “I guess in a way we sort of balance each other out. We’re a team, and a great one at that…speaking of teams, there’s something you want to tell me, isn’t there? I didn’t mean to make this so…emotional, but in a way this adds to what you wanted to say, doesn’t it?”
Spike’s previous emotions were suddenly replaced by that of fear and anxiety. He had anticipated being shoved into the spotlight during the talk, but not so suddenly as it was. Even though he wasn’t fully primed for the interrogation, he had to speak his mind. If not, he knew he never would. It was the fact that she seemingly knew exactly what was going to come out of his mouth that oddly made it harder.
“Well…there’s somepony else I like besides Rarity.”
“Is that so?” Twilight questioned, although it could easily be heard in her tone that she was just playing along. “Do I know her?”
His gaze escaped to the smooth wooden boards beneath him as he nodded his head, their stained surface gleaming in the sunlight. “…you know her pretty well.”
“Hmm…Applejack? Fluttershy? ...Pinkie?” she questioned, the dragon shaking his head after each response. “Then who?” she asked sweetly, a smirk on her face.
“Well, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie are great and all, but this pony is much more important to me. I’ve known her a lot longer too.”
“Really?” the mare asked in false surprise, her smirk growing wider by the second.
Spike felt as though he was about to suffocate or at least vomit from the overwhelming sensation that overcame his body. His breathing quickened as he wiped away a few growing droplets of sweat from his brow. “It’s uh…you, Twilight,” he somehow managed to usher out.
Twilight’s smirk transformed into bashful smile as he spoke, her cheeks even pinker than his own. “I know it is. You’ve made your feelings pretty obvious,” she teased in an attempt to drive away a small amount of the discomfort which had effectively commandeered the chat. The dragon continued to look downward in an almost shameful manor, still unsure of how exactly she’d react. “We would’ve talked about this sooner, but I wanted to give it some thought and I…I just don’t know,” she sighed with a few gentle shakes of her head.
Spike clenched his eyes shut and braced himself for another heart breaking experience. “I understand,” he stated calmly.
“I’m not saying no per se,” the alicorn commented in hopes to alleviate his worry, but was sure not to lead him on falsely as did his previous crush. “I do love you, but I just don’t know if it’s in that way yet…not to mention our age difference. I know you’ve matured a lot and that dragons age differently than ponies but…”
The dragon was quite surprised by his reaction to this announcement. Instead of his mind being clouded with disappointment, anger, and sadness as it was with Rarity, it was instead filled with empathy. He cared more for her well-being than his own. “Don’t do it if you don’t want to, okay? I get what you’re saying and if you’re that worried about it, I don’t want to force anything.”
The mare’s eyes grew wide, not expecting such a response either. “I…you didn’t let me finish,” she stuttered out. “I’ve followed instructions and advice from books and texts my whole life, but I just can’t rely on something like that to tell me about a subject that’s just so unexplainable. Sometimes ‘rules’ that are set out just don’t apply. I think I want to give this a trial run and then we can see where it goes from there. We make a pretty great team like I said, after all.”
“So, that’s a yes?” Spike asked with a shimmer of hope, looking up to see the most awkward of smiles. Both of their cheeks reddened further as they came to the realization that he was still surrounded by her wing’s embrace. Twilight gave him a sheepish shrug then promptly and without hesitation, brought her muzzle down to Spike’s and lightly touched her lips against his. The dragon’s entire face grew red as he felt the pony’s soft, delicate lips brush against his own only a moment before she pulled away.
“Oh Spike,” she groaned, turning away shyly. “I hope I’m not letting my emotions cloud my judgment.”
“But isn’t that what love is all about? Emotions? Feelings?” he added longingly, rubbing his claw against the smooth fur of her neck.
“You’re right…it’s just that…I’ve never done this before. It seems like it would take a lot longer than a day for me to decide that 'oh, I’m in love with Spike!' Or am I completely wrong? Does it just…happen? I don’t know. There aren’t many books on this either, unless it’s some cheesy romance novel,” she blurted out in an almost panicked tone.
“Whoa, chill out, Twilight. It’s my first time too. We’re in this together and I thought you said you weren’t gonna play this one by the books?”
“I’m not,” the alicorn asserted slyly. “Although, using them as a bit of a guideline isn’t a bad thing, right?”
Spike couldn’t help but laugh gleefully at her rather silly, but still very attractive personality. “I guess not,” he sighed. She responded with a satisfied nod and smiled excitedly as she thought of the new found prospect of love. “Ya know, you’re really beautiful, Twilight,” the dragon breathed ecstatically, “and I don’t just mean the way you look.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, the blush upon her cheeks spreading across her snout. She leaned forward once more, locking them into a much deeper kiss. Spike’s eyes slowly clamped shut, again enjoying the sensation of her smooth lips pushing down on his own. He moved his claw from her neck to her ear and fondled it tenderly to which it twitched in affection.
The mare then let out a contented sigh as she broke the kiss and rested her head against him. “Well, now that that’s over with, want to read? I was thinking we could go get what little books on love I have and maybe study them together?”
Spike laughed and brushed his claw through her almost weightless, silky mane. “Sounds like a plan. I’d study with you any day…and that was really cheesy, huh?” he mumbled as she attempted to cover up her snickering with a hoof.
“Maybe just a little…but it was cute,” she teased and gave him another kiss. Although lighter than the last, he could tell it held just as much love.