Spike looked down at his claws, horrified at the red tinge under his nails. “Blood? I drew blood? But I didn’t hit her, I didn’t feel anything, honest!”
Twilight nodded. “I’m sure you didn’t. But you’ve been changing, Spike. Maybe your claws just sharpened because you were angry.”
Spike winced. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, I just got mad at her. Is she hurt bad?”
Twilight smiled and shook her head. “No, she’ll be fine. Filthy Rich said it was just nasty scratch. It won’t scar, and he won’t press charges. But he’s not going to let this happen again.”
Spike took in some deep gulps of air. “Okay. Then I gotta go apologise right now, I have to set this right.” Spike got up and went towards the door.
Twilight held up a forearm in front of his chest and gently nudged him back. “No, Spike, not now. Right now you and I need to have a talk about your behaviour. This isn’t like you, Spike. Did you realise what you were doing? Did you want to slash at her?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah, I did, and I’m sorry. I just got angry, but I know it’s wrong. I snapped at Rainbow Dash too, after she pranked me. I don’t know why, but every little thing just feels off now.”
“Okay, so you’re not losing your senses, at least." She let out a sigh of relief. "That’s good. But you can’t go on like this, you know that. It’s only been two days and you’re already turning into more of a monster than anything your greed ever did. This isn’t right for you.”
“But I can’t stop it,” Spike pleaded.
“Yes, you can. You know just as well as I do that this is because of those pills. You can’t keep taking Cogitin, not when it does this to you.”
Spike groaned. “But if I don’t take the pills, I’ll start stealing again! What do you want from me?”
Twilight bit her lip, and Spike could see a twinkle in her eyes as they watered up ever so slightly. Before he could protest, the dragon found himself caught in a hug, Twilight wrapping her arms and wings around him. He could feel the warmth rushing to her face, and her heart pounding. Her breath almost sounded like she was going to cry. “I want you to be happy, Spike, and I want you to be healthy. I understand being bored or wanting to wait with things, but you’ve had more than enough opportunity to make that gem cake you wanted, and you haven’t even cast a glance at those gems you love so much, the ones you worked for. You’re losing the things that make you who you are, you must have noticed. Don’t you want a tasty pastry with rubies and sapphires and emeralds?”
Spike slowly licked his lips as she let him go. “Not really, no. I can’t even remember what they taste like. I just don’t feel like doing anything anymore, and I don’t feel like eating or making anything tasty, either. I still feel hungry when I need to, but… it’s like I’m losing my taste.”
Twilight sighed. “Guess we can chalk that up to dragon nature, then. Your greed is your motivation, one way or another. If you lose all your greed, then you lose all the desires you normally have, even the good ones.”
Spike threw his hands up in frustration. “But I don’t wanna be bad boy, Twilight! I don’t wanna take things that don’t belong to me, I don’t want ponies to think I’m a monster.”
Twilight bit her lip. “I know, Spike, I know. But what if you don’t get a choice in that? Do you feel healthy now that you’re not stealing, now that you don’t feel like doing anything?”
He wiped his eyes. “No. But the only way I get to choose is with pills. It’s my decision, Twilight, and I say I’m a good dragon. I don’t care what any other dragon might be.”
“That’s very noble of you. But, um, you’re not acting like a good boy with the pills, either.”
“So I shouldn’t take it at all, then? Never take it again?”
Twilight took the bottle of pills in her magic. She read the package and sighed, before looking back to Spike. “Maybe not ever. It did do what it was supposed to do. It took away your greed and you didn’t steal anything while you were on it. But you can’t live your whole life like this. If this is what you get after two days, I can’t imagine how bad it might get in a year.”
Spike sobbed and let his head hang. “Okay, fine. I won’t take Cogitin anymore. But what’ll happen next time I start stealing again? I don’t wanna turn bad.”
Twilight pondered it for a moment. “Well, we’ll have to treat it like we’ve treated any other disease: keep the pills handy in case we need them, for emergencies only. But that’ll only be when your greed gets out of control, when it’s too much. In the meantime, I think it's best if you stay indoors for a few days, get that stuff flushed out of your system so we're sure you're back to your normal self. Does that sound fair?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah, sounds fair. I just hope it doesn’t keep happening. I don’t know why it did now.”
Twilight sat next to him and put a wing over him for comfort. “Me neither. And I owe you an apology for that. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about you needing medical attention, or you needing to act like normal pony children. I just wanted to do the right thing, honest, but I never bothered asking what the right thing was for you. I made a mistake, and I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay, Twilight.”
Twilight shook her head, lost in thought. “I should have paid more attention. I should have stuck up for you more. It’s just that...”
“What?”
“You never had this problem in Canterlot, and in Ponyville it only happened after you got lots of new things in one go. We know what caused it before, and that didn't happen this time. So why would you steal food now? What triggered you? And why didn't it ever happen in Canterlot? You got out more than I did, it should have happened there first. So was there something you had in Canterlot that you don't get here? Do you feel anything else besides just wanting stuff? If we can just find out how it works, then we know what to avoid.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it yet.”
Twilight rubbed his back with her wing. “So try thinking about it now. You haven’t had this problem for most of your life, so what’s changed?”
Spike thought it over. He looked at Twilight’s wing, then in Twilight’s eyes. “Umm… you?”
The windows were open in the library. Another day, another cleanup.
Twilight stood in the centre of the main room. “New books arranged.”
Spike grabbed the list and marked it off with a quill. “New books arranged, check.”
“Dust cleared.”
Spike marked another box on the list. “Dust cleared, check.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay, that’s my part done. Let’s see how yours is.”
Spike gulped. They headed towards a fairly empty section of the library, one in the back. It had remained unused for the most part, save for being a storage room for books no one felt like reading. Of course, once Twilight Sparkle had arrived every book had had at least one eager reader, so the storage had run empty eventually. Now the sign that used to say 'Storage' read 'Private Library, Do Not Enter Without Permission'.
Inside, there were cookbooks to the right, barely enough to fill one shelf of the case, and some comic books arranged by series on the left, along with one graphic novel. All the book cases were equipped with a ladder, as usual, but with the whole thing being mostly empty that was an unnecessary addition, for now at least.
Twilight lifted one of the books in her magic and wiped the wood with a feather. Spike shivered. “And?”
Twilight chuckled. “You did good, Spike. You’re not as fast as magic, but you are most certainly just as thorough as any pony librarian would be. What do you think?”
Spike scratched the back of his head. “I don't know. It feels kinda like having a hoard, only I don't have to keep all of it to myself. I think I like it." He shrugged. "When are the orders coming in?"
“The historical comic books will arrive on Tuesday, along with the other catalogues, and Cheerilee asked if she could place some orders for her class, so we'll probably have to get some pillows in here, too, maybe add a few rooms with a growth spell. You'll have to set up a schedule if she's going to bring her students along for class here, too. But we can worry about that later, the market should be just about getting set up for today. How does rye bread with tomato soup for lunch sound?”
Spike arched an eyebrow. “Just bread and soup?”
“I've got a new mining spell I've wanted to try out. I can grind up some rubies for yours.”
“Now you’re talkin’.” The dragon smirked and licked his lips.
The walk to the market was uneventful. Nopony paid much attention to Princess Twilight or Spike, and nopony made so much as a peep about Spike’s food thefts and subsequent rage.
But still, Spike couldn’t help but feel a little anxious when he realised tomato soup with rubies required tomatoes. Roma, the beige mare at the tomato stand, kept her eyes fixed in a glare towards the dragon, even though he had his hands full with a quill and parchment. He clutched them both tighter for comfort, if only to remind himself he was doing his job again.
Twilight left the tomato stand with a smile. Roma forced out a smile of her own.
Spike sighed once they were out of earshot. “I think she’s still mad at me.”
Twilight shook her head. “Don’t worry, Spike. Some ponies just hold grudges because they like it. As long as she keeps it proper, there’s no reason to worry. And while we're on the subject...” She nodded towards Filthy Rich’s stand, where Diamond Tiara had joined him again. She had a patch on her neck to hide the scratch, but aside from that she looked fine.
Spike held up the quill and parchment for Twilight to take in her magic, before scampering off. The filly hopped off the stool she was on once Spike reached her, and moved to the side of the stand so as not to get in the way of the customers. “Hey, Spike. Feeling better now?”
Spike looked away. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine. Are you?”
"Oh, sure. It's just a little scratch, it doesn't even hurt. You just scared me, that's all. And did you work out... you know, whatever it was that was wrong?"
Spike nodded. "Um, yeah, sort of. Turns out dragon greed isn't really as much of a problem as dragon pride. It's complicated."
Diamond thought it over for a moment. "Oh. So... what? You, like, don't really want a lot of stuff, you just wanna feel proud about having it in the first place?"
"Okay, maybe it's not that complicated."
"Nah, I can kinda understand that, actually," the rich girl admitted.
Spike fidgeted, mustering up his courage. "Anyway, now that I've got that stuff out of my system, I wanted to say I'm really sorry for what I did. I got mad, and I wasn't really feeling like myself, but that's no excuse to hurt you. It wasn't right, and I'm sorry I did it."
Diamond smiled nervously. “Don’t worry about it. I’m, like, kinda getting used to that sort of thing now.”
“Well, you shouldn’t; it's not right. And I’m not gonna do it again."
"I kinda thought you wouldn't."
An awkward silence feel between them.
Spike finally managed to look her in the eye again. "So, umm, what did you wanna talk to me about?”
Diamond looked surprised. “What do you mean?”
“The other day, when you were with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and at the park. Didn’t you want to say something?”
The filly looked away, looking for the right words. “Um, well, I was gonna ask if, maybe, you wanted to hang out with me sometime. Like, next Tuesday, in Manehattan?”
Spike frowned. “You mean the Glamour Gala Fashion Show?”
Diamond perked up. “You know it?”
“Yeah, I always go there. Hoity Toity likes having someone close to Celestia to go to his shows, and Twilight’s not into that kind of thing, so she always gives me her invite. But why would you ask me? Can’t you ask Silver Spoon?”
“Um, no. I have to go with my daddy, and Silver Spoon’s sick.”
Spike felt his heart sink. “Oh, so that’s why...”
“Yeah.”
Spike winced. “Oh, wow. Now I’m really sorry. I just thought you two’d had a fight or something.”
“No, she’s got the feather flu.”
“Don’t you need feathers for that?”
Diamond rubbed over the edge of a hoof. “She does; ‘feathers’ is what you call the fuzz right over your hooves. It’s not really a flu she’s got, but like, pox or a rash something, I don’t know. But look, if you are going, would you mind hanging out with me there?”
Spike smiled awkwardly. “Sure, but why?”
“Duh, because it’s gonna be all boring grownups there. And you, well… you’re kinda like a grownup, but I can still talk to you. You're a kid like me, but you're not a little kid like anypony else I could ask. Every time I go to that show, they all, like, just look at me and ignore me.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I really don't have anypony to talk to there, and it's a big place. I always feel lost there."
“Oh, yeah, it can get pretty boring. The food’s great, though, and the models never take any of it.”
Diamond rolled her eyes. “Obviously. So, um, could you let me know when you leave? Please?”
Spike nodded. “I’ll tell you what train I’m taking, we can go in together so we don't lose each other, and I’ll try to stick around so you don’t get bored. It’s the least I could do.”
Diamond's smile grew. “Thanks, Spike, you're the best. Anyway, I gotta go. See you around!”
Spike turned to leave. “See you around!”
Spike took his parchment and quill from Twilight once he got back to her. Twilight prodded him with a wing. “Everything worked out?”
“Uh, I think so. She said she’s going to the Glamour Gala next week, and since I’m going too, I said I’d stick around her. You know, keep each other company so we don’t get bored around the grownups, or get lost in the crowds.”
Twilight had to suppress a chuckle. “That is really sweet of you, Spike. Gosh, I can’t imagine that was easy of her to ask.”
Spike looked back. “Yeah, now that you mention it, she seemed a lot nicer than usual. I wonder why.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, you both have something in common: you’re both trying to be better than before, you both try to get past mistakes behind you, and you both try to act as adult as you think you are. Maybe she’d just like another friendly face to talk to, now that Silver Spoon is sick. I heard Apple Bloom’s made amends with those two, maybe Diamond wants you to be her friend, too. What do you think?”
“She does know how to get things done, that’s for sure, and at least she can be honest when she wants to be. It wouldn’t be too bad to hang out with her, if she is turning nice.”
Filthy Rich looked down at his daughter. “Everything worked out?”
Diamond nodded. “Yes, daddy.”
A bell sounded in the distance. “It’s that time again, sweetie.”
Diamond huffed. “But daddy, it's making me all dizzy and stuff. I'm fine, really.”
Filthy Rich leaned in and lowered his voice to a stern, commanding tone. “Diamond Tiara, we’ve been through this a million times: stop making a fuss and take your pills.”
Diamond shuddered, before reluctantly grabbing a bottle from beneath the stand. She took out one pill, popped it in her mouth, then grimaced after washing it down with a sip of water. She closed her eyes and bobbed her head back and forth for a bit as the drug took effect. "W-whu what was I doing?"
Filthy smiled. "You were just saying you made a new friend. Looking forward to showing him around the Glamour Gala?"
Diamond returned the smile, if absently. "Oh yeah. The Glamour Gala's gonna be great, daddy. I can't wait."
Filthy Rich patted her on the mane. “There’s a good girl.”
The End.