Spike waved his free hand. "Sure, get going. Don't keep Pinkie waiting!"
Twilight nodded, smiling. "Of course! Be right back!"
Spike slotted the book into place on the shelf as Twilight left the room behind him, his ears easily picking up the sound of hooves on wood as she walked down the hall. He relaxed, relieved to be putting his weight back onto the whole of his feet after standing on tip-toes for quite a while, having been stretching to reach the shelf the book belonged to. Having no idea where a ladder was, and with no desire to look for one, the young dragon had spent a few minutes attempting to place the book in its rightful place. He glanced across to the small pile of books at his side. There was only about five or six left to shelve, and then he would be done for the day. Luckily for him, the library was closed that day, so that meant he had the rest of the day to do whatever he wanted.
Re-shelving the last few books took very little time, only about quarter of an hour, and so Spike was soon in his bedroom, reading comics and snacking on some small gems. He had bought several comics the other day, but hadn't really had a chance to settle down to read them. However, by the time he had worked his way through his new comics, which took up about an hour, Twilight still wasn't back with the cake. Spike wandered around the library for a while, but soon got bored, and eventually decided to head into town, scribbling a quick note to Twilight in case she returned before he did.
Leaving the library, Spike headed for the town centre. He planned on visiting the village's ice cream parlour, and maybe Carousel Boutique later on, to see if Rarity needed anything done. Along the way, he said hello to several ponies. One such pony he came across was Colgate, who had apparently met Twilight earlier on in town. The exchange was brief, Spike beating a hasty retreat from the dentist's reminder of his upcoming check-up.
Dragon dentistry was, of course, different from pony dentistry. His substantially tougher teeth needing little in the way of care, for example, meant that his appointments should, in theory, be fairly short. In reality, however, Colgate would often discover chunks of gems stuck between his teeth. This, to a dragon, is a similar situation to a pony having sugar or plaque on their teeth. Because of this, finding bits of gems in between his teeth would mean a very long session of Ponyville's dentist slowly working the gem fragments free with the help of a hoofheld drill, of the kind usually used for carving fine detail into stone statues. This, despite sounding rather painful, actually generated little more than general discomfort for Spike. The drill, although capable of grinding away at gems and rock, was nevertheless not strong enough to damage his teeth. Approaching Ponyville's ice-cream central, he glumly poked at his top right molars, where a piece of topaz had been wedged in for weeks. It looked like he was going to be spending the entire afternoon at the dentist's next time, if it was as big as it felt.
Entering Frozen Delights, the best makers of ice-cream for miles, Spike headed straight for the counter. He had already decided on his order whilst walking, and was soon holding a cone with a double-scoop of mint chocolate chip. He paid the pony at the counter, and moved to sit down at an empty table. The shop was decorated brightly, with the theme of ice-cream prevalent throughout. The counter itself was painted cream, like a vanilla ice-cream, whilst the walls were stripes of Neapolitan. The tables were modelled after ice-cream cones, and the seating consisted of comfortable wooden chairs, which had detailed ice-cream cones engraved into their backs. The shop itself was relatively new, and had a friendly rivalry with Sugarcube Corner. Although Pinkie Pie's sundaes were amazing, Sugarcube Corner was nevertheless primarily a bakery. This meant that Frozen Scoop, the proprietor of the parlour, had been able to find a niche in the market. The summer months in particular had proved to be a great source of income, with ponies flocking to the store.
"Hey, Spike! Over here!"
Spike looked around, surprised. He spotted the source of the call- Apple Bloom. She, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sitting at a corner table. They waved him over.
"Hi girls! What's up?" asked Spike.
"Nothing much." replied Sweetie. "We were just having some ice cream before doing some more crusading. Wanna join us?"
"Uh..." Spike hesitated. Did Sweetie just mean join them at the table and eat his ice cream? Or help with their crusading? Maybe both? Spike gulped. It would be rude to refuse, no matter what Sweetie meant. But on the other hand, he wasn't keen on joining the CMC on a crusade. Who knows what might happen?
"Come on, Spike!" said Scootaloo, jolting Spike out of his musing. "It'll be fun! I promise we won't do anything too dangerous, alright?" Oh no. They wanted him to go crusading with them. And they were doing the puppy-dog eyes.
Gulping, Spike hesitantly agreed, and joined the three fillies at the table.
How bad could it be?
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
Bad. Very bad. As his cart hurtled down the road, Spike screamed. He was going way too fast to come out unscathed. The premise had seemed innocent enough. An attempt at racing cutie marks, courtesy of a soap-box derby. Apple Bloom had quickly pieced together a basic cart for Spike, and the CMC had decided to race together against him. They were, of course, using the wagon and scooter set-up. He didn't know where they had ended up. They had gotten separated after coming off the course at the first corner. Turns out that doing a sharp turn after tearing down a very steep hill wasn't as easy as Scootaloo thought. He should have known better.
Unfortunately, he hadn't. So now he was hurtling down a street, scattering ponies left and right as they scrambled to get out of his way. As he clung to the cart for dear life, he heard three familiar voices calling out a few streets away.
"Soooorrrrrryyy!!!"
He gulped. Either they'd knocked someone over, or they had just rammed into something and broken it. Either way, he was going to held responsible. He should have stopped them. It was obvious that something would go wrong. Spike was older than them, after all. His title as 'baby dragon' was only applicable in terms of dragon lifespans. Although he did often have a somewhat childish mentality, the fact remained that, in reality, he was in his late teens. Unfortunately, Spike had trusted the fillies to know what they were doing. He had reasoned that Scootaloo was experienced in this sort of thing, and wouldn't overestimate her abilities. He had, sadly, failed to recognise that this was the cutie mark crusaders. Something almost always went wrong on their crusades. His only hope was that the incident wasn't too serious. Hey, maybe it was so minor no-one would bother even complaining!
With that hopeful thought in mind, Spike turned his attention to getting out of his predicament in one piece. Fortunately, there was a gentle upward slope coming up, which should help to slow him down. Sure enough, as his makeshift cart flew up the hill its overwhelming momentum decreased. Not enough to be fully under control, but it was now slow enough to at least be directable. To an extent, at least. The best he could do at the moment was turn 'left-ish', or 'before I crash into Roseluck'.
Eventually, the cart ground to a stop on the opposite side of Ponyville to the starting point. This was, of course, wildly off course, but Spike didn't care. He was just relieved to finally get off the mobile death-trap the crusaders had built. What he did care about, on the other hand, was the fate of the crusaders. The fillies were nowhere in sight, and Spike couldn't hear any buzzing wings or loud cra-
CRASH!
Ah. Well, that was one problem sorted. Heading in the direction of the noise, Spike found the crusaders in a heap at the base of a tree. Worried, he rushed over, anxious to see if they were ok. As he got closer, he quickly took stock of the situation. The scooter had disconnected from the wagon, and ploughed into a bush along with its rider. The wagon was overturned, and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had been thrown out and were now lying in a daze at the base of the tree.
Spike moved to help the fillies. First, he pulled Scootaloo out of the bush in which she was stuck. The pegasus filly had several scrapes and scratches, but her safety gear had protected her for the most part. After setting Scootaloo down, Spike turned his attentions to the other two crusaders. Apple Bloom, as an earth pony, was the hardier of the two, and was already shrugging off the worst of the shock. Sweetie Belle, on the other hand, was clearly dazed. Spike hoped neither had a concussion. He helped the two to their feet. The two leaned on him for support as Scootaloo roused herself and joined the three.
"Are you three alright?" she asked anxiously. It had been Scootaloo's idea in the first place, and she was obviously scared that her decision had hurt her best friends.
"Ahm fine, Scoots." smiled Apple Bloom, albeit slightly weakly. "That crash wus nothin' to worry about for an earth pony!" Her words reassured Scootaloo, whose panic was softened. This was short-lived however, as she realised that Sweetie was clearly worse off, and had none of an earth pony's strength to protect her.
"Sweetie! Are you alright!?" Spike could see Scootaloo's worry and concern growing. He was quite worried himself, but had to put on a brave face.
"Don't worry, Scootaloo." he said. "Worst thing she'll have is some bruises and a headache."
"Y-yeah...I'm fine, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle finally spoke up, bringing a sigh of relief to all. Scootaloo's shoulders sagged slightly, the confirmation of her friend's well-being a huge relief to the little filly. Apple Bloom eyed the bruised forming on her and Sweetie's bodies.
"Ah don't think we should be doin' any more crusadin' for a while." she noted sadly "Ahm sore all over, and Applejack ain't gonna be happy when she finds out what happened." Sweetie shuddered in agreement, thinking of her own big sister's probable reaction to their activities. Spike nodded an agreement. Scootaloo was silent, he noticed.
"Ah reckon we all oughta head home. Does anypony need help gettin' home?" asked Apple Bloom.
"No, I'll be alright" said Sweetie Belle, straightening up. She winced slightly as she put weight on her feet, but ignored the pain. "How about you, Scoots?"
"H-huh? Uh-um..." Scootaloo hesitated, her eyes darting to Spike, silently pleading for help. Spike sighed internally. She still hadn't told them, then.
"I'll take her." he offered. "You ok with that Scootaloo?"
"Y-yeah" she nodded, smiling gratefully. With that decided, the group broke up. Apple Bloom headed back to Sweet Apple Acres, which wasn't all that far away. Sweetie Belle headed to Carousel Boutique, and Scootaloo followed Spike. The pair soon came to where Scootaloo lived, and limped inside. The pegasus stood silently as Spike calmly explained the accident. He explained how the filly was not to blame for what had happened, and that if anybody was it was him for not realising the dangers. He was, after all, older than the trio, and therefore had the greatest share of responsibility. In any case, his words calmed the wrath of the mare in charge, and Scootaloo was not punished for her actions.
Scootaloo walked Spike back to the front door, and the two said their goodbyes on the front step.
"Thanks, Spike." smiled Scootaloo.
"No problem, Scoots." replied Spike. "I'm happy to help."
"I mean it. You could have just sent me on my way. you could have just left me at the door. You didn't have to come in with me and explain. Or take responsibility. So, thank you."
"You still haven't told them, have you?" asked Spike gently.
Scootaloo nodded, ashamed. "It's...It's just so hard to say..." She lowered her head, looking at the pavement below her.
Spike smiled, understanding her predicament. "It'll be ok." he said. "I reckon you ought to tell them soon, though. Better you tell them now, than they find out from someone else later."
"Yeah..."
"Hey, don't be like that! It'll be fine, honestly. You and I both know that Apple Bloom will understand what what you're feeling, and I know Sweetie is going to be fine with all this as well. Ok?" Scootaloo elected to forgo an answer, instead giving the young dragon a strong hug. A big, long hug. From a girl. Spike turned red. Eventually, Scootaloo released Spike, and he said goodbye.
On the way home from the orphanage, Spike, still rather red, pondered the day's events. It wasn't a surprise that Scootaloo was still keeping her orphan status a secret. She had apparently been keeping that secret for a long time, in order to stop bullies from getting even more ammunition to hit her with. Her inability to fly was the source of much taunting and teasing already, and she was clearly desperate to avoid even more pain. Spike only knew that Scootaloo was an orphan because he had accompanied Twilight on a visit to the orphanage, as part of a literary promotion scheme for the village's foals, and seen her in the corner.
He had, of course been sworn to secrecy. Scootaloo was very insecure about her situation, to the point where she had struggled to tell even the crusaders the truth. Hopefully she would get the courage to do so soon, before keeping secrets turned to outright lying to her friends. It wasn't like the crusaders would push her away, after all. Apple Bloom in particular knew the pain of losing your parents.
Spike headed home, with thoughts of Scootaloo's predicament filling his mind. In the back of his mind, another curious thought grew. The memory of Scootaloo drawing back from the hug. There had been a moment when she had avoided eye contact. A mere few seconds, before they had said their goodbyes for the day. That awkward moment of silence....had she been blushing?