//------------------------------// // Day 4 (Spike and Sweetie Belle's Day) // Story: The Vacation // by Hope Caster //------------------------------// “Spike, it’s time to get up,” Celestia gently cooed. Spike could feel the tip of a wing gently stroke his head. Slowly, he opened his eyes. “No, never, let me sleep forever,” Spike begged. He went to sleep late last night and he didn’t want to get up at six in the morning. He felt a cold burst of air as the covers were torn from his body. Letting out a moan, he slowly lifted himself from the bed. Celestia used her magic to lift him up and place him on her back. Spike knew what to expect as she trotted down the hall. They entered a dressing room and Spike was taken from Celestia. Many cloths were pressed hard against Spike’s hide and spun in a circular manner. Part one of looking good for a visiting king was having a well-polished hide. Of course, this meant that Blueblood’s personal groomers had to wipe his entire body down and then polish every single one of his scales. “I don’t understand why you’re wasting time and talent on the dragon,” Blueblood whispered to Celestia as he watched his groomers waste their talents on the interloper. Celestia’s body grew tense, “Blueblood, he has a name and you will address him as such.” “Of course,” Blueblood sighed. “Any other interlopers that I can expect to see in the castle?” “None that I know of,” She answered with a sigh. After two hours of polishing, Spike was finally placed on the ground. His hide glistened like the do on the morning dew the clung to the grass and he shot off light like a mirror. “I am so glad that I can blind Equestria’s enemies,” Spike sarcastically mumbled. He couldn’t get distracted by his shining body, it was eight o’clock; the Griffin King was set to arrive at nine, giving Spike an hour to prepare for Sweetie Belle’s arrival. Spike quickly ran off, allowing Blueblood to make good use of his groomers, much to their dismay. Spike had one job; he had to make sure Sweetie Belle could get through the front gates of the castle. He ran the entire way to the castle entrance, stopping only when he saw the two stallions that stood guard. “Excuse me, guards?” he tapped on the stallions’ legs. The guards stood at attention, saluting the dragon. “Uh… yeah, hi. Look, a filly’s going to come by later today to pick up a dress. She has a white fur, curly pink and light purple hair, and green eyes. If you guys see her just let her in, okay?” “Sure, yeah, we could do that,” One of the guards answered. With Sweetie Belle taken care of, Spike ran to the throne room, arriving with 25 minutes to spare. Taking his place, he stood at the side of Celestia’s throne. He couldn’t hear much, probably because he didn’t actually care to listen, but from the parts he did catch, Celestia and Luna privately talked strategy for the upcoming summit and judging by the conversation’s intensity, this was probably a discussion of war… or worse. If things went south, he would probably need to abandon his job as a scribe and become an awesome dragon knight that everypony loved and respected. He could see it now, he would be muscle bound, powerful, a true dragon knight in the eyes of all. Even Rarity would swoon at the mere sight of him. He could just imagine how the Griffin King would react. He would probably surrender the mere second he saw Spike. Fan fair began to play and the king entered. Spike’s mouth dropped and his eyes widened when he finally saw the king. “Greetings my friends!” The king laughed as he approached the princesses. Scratch that last thought, the griffin king would probably laugh at Spike. Spike felt small, smaller than he normally did. The king spoke with a loud booming voice, one that could be heard on the other side of Canterlot if the king wanted it to, and every step he took seemed to shake the room. To back up his over powering size, the king was buff. He looked like he could bench-press the castle and then crush it in his bare talons. It was almost as if his skin shrunk to emphasize every muscle in his body. Spike was pretty sure his muscles had muscles. The only question Spike had was what stopping this guy from killing everypony in this room and taking over Equestria? “Celestia, so good to see you again!” The king laughed as he pulled Celestia into a hug. The princess merely laughed and whispered something into the king’s ear. The king chuckled and released her, moving onto Luna. “Greetings, King Beefcake,” Luna said reaching out her hoof. “I see Celestia told you my nickname.” The king said. “Oh, princess, no need for hoof shakes, we’re all friends here!” He grabbed the out reached hoof and pulled Luna in to a tight hug, much to her protest. “So you must be Spike!” Beefcake said, turning to the dragon as he released Luna. Spike could only nod. “I take it you’re the scribe for this meeting?” Another nod, followed by a frightened squeak. He laughed. “I was sure that Celestia would have hired you for security. After all, I hear dragons are quite the formidable fighters.” He ruffled Spike’s spines and preceded with the conversation, “So, how did a princess get a dragon for a son? It must have been quite the tale!” “Well I was found as an egg and hatched, true story. Also, Twilight is more of my… actually, I don’t know what she is…. Friend, I guess? But either way, she’s not my mom,” Spike answered. “Wait, you think I refer to Princess Twilight? I always thought your mother was-” “So!” Celestia interrupted, “I say we begin the summit going, Spike, please go into the meeting room, we will join you shortly.” She gave him a wide grin, shoving the dragon and her sister into the room. the door closed and Spike took a seat in front of a pen and parchment and waited for the last two royals to enter. She couldn’t help but feel a little excited. After all, she was about to get her new dress. Sweetie Belle smiled as she approached the two stallions. “Excuse me, sirs? I’m here to pick up a dress.” “We know, just go on in,” one of the guards told her. Sweetie Belle smiled as she pranced into the castle. Now started the hard part of Sweetie’s journey; finding the fitting room so she could get her dress. The meeting had been going on for almost an hour, and already Spike was ready to kill himself. His head began to bobble up and down as his eyes began to fail him. As each second past, his grip on the pen loosened and his wrist’s movement began to slow. What made it worse was the topic being discussed. He couldn’t even pretend to care about what to serve at the Equestria Games. There was literally one griffin team from the Griffin Kingdom. There were no other reasons why griffins were coming besides that one team. Maybe if he fell asleep he could dream of Rarity… and a mountain of ice-cream. As he drew closer to his dreamland, Spike felt his shoulder tapped. He turned and found Luna giving him a look of disappointment. He forced himself to wake up and write again. Prince Blueblood was a simple stallion; all he ever asked for was that everything be perfect every second of everyday. And with his mane fashioned to his liking, everything was perfect. He looked and smelled divine, his fur was softer than anything he could name, and the lizard his aunt let into the castle was held up in room somewhere attending a summit. Life was good… except for that filthy street urchin that roamed the halls for some reason. Her mere appearance wanted to make Blueblood vomit. She had a disgusting, unkempt curly mane with a white coat that was obviously dirty from her time outside on the streets. Why such a filthy unicorn was allowed into the castle was a mystery. “No, no, no!” He declared, marching up to the filly. Sweetie Belle wasn’t given a chance to respond. Before she knew it, she was trapped in Blueblood’s aura. “Hey, what are you doing?!” “What does it look like? I don’t know how a disgusting child such as yourself managed to get into the castle, but let me be the one to take you out!” Spike’s eyes slowly closed as the jokes and conversations between Celestia and King Beefcake became jumbled. When his eyes finally fell shut, he expected to have a dream involving Rarity, but instead he heard a soft scream. His eyes slightly opened. He tried to hone in on the scream, but faded into the noise that came from the summit he was supposed to transcribe. He shook off any lingering feeling of concern and closed his eyes once again. When he did though, the scream became clearer. Spike’s fully opened his eyes. He swore he heard something that time. He shut his eyes one last time and tuned out the chatter from the summit. Spike thought he was imagining things but the cry for help was real. It wasn’t a scream of peril or one of utter despair, no, it was a scream of annoyance. It took a second to put a name to the voice, but the high pitched, squeaks and voice cracks were unmistakable. After all, he had heard them a thousand times before. It was Sweetie Belle. Whatever was happening he felt obligated to help. After all, he did promise she would be able to enter the castle without any trouble. “Princess,” Spike whispered, tapping Celestia’s leg, gaining her attention. “Um… I think I hear Sweetie Belle screaming for help.” Celestia let out a sigh, as she closed her eyes. She remembered when she hated being in summits, well, she still did, but at least some of the royals like King Beefcake made it enjoyable. “If you wanted to leave, you could at least try to make a better excuse… You can go; I’ll have Luna transcribe the rest of the meeting.” Spike bowed and quickly left the room, following the screams that that had kept him from his nap. It was lucky he had superior hearing; otherwise, the cries would have gone on unnoticed by anypony that could actually do anything about them. He felt just a twinge of anger when he saw what was happening and who was causing Sweetie Belle to shout. “What do you think you’re doing!?” Spike asked with a growl. Blueblood turned to see Spike running over to him. “Oh, great,” He mumbled, “What do you want, Interloper?” “First off, you know that’s not my name. Second, what are you doing to my friend!?” Blueblood rolled his eyes as he let out a loud groan of frustration. He should have known the dragon let the filly in; why else would someone so dirty and annoying be allowed in? “I am just taking this filthy creature you call your friend and depositing of her outside in the streets where she belongs.” “I’m not filthy!” Sweetie Belle snapped. “Oh please you have a layer of dust around your coat that makes it look like you just crawled out of a dumpster!” Blueblood declared. It was true, while the unicorn in his grasp had only an ivory coat; Blueblood had an overly perfect, pristine snow-white coat. The difference was overly taxing. “Don’t talk to her like that!” Spike demanded. “I invited her into the castle. You can’t just throw her out!” Spike was growing angrier with each passing second. Blueblood let out another one of his famous sighs, “… Look, Interloper-” “Spike,” Spike corrected. “Yes, yes. Look, as royalty to Canterlot we cannot allow street urchins to roam our halls, it would look undignified! Dare I say, barbaric!” “Can I say something?!” In response, Blueblood used his magic to hold Sweetie’s mouth shut. She let out a few muffled screams, but fell silent when she realized Blueblood was not paying attention. Spike growled lowly, but knew there was a simple way to deal with this. “I might not be a royal pony, but I do know one thing, my word holds weight with Celestia. What if I went and told her what was going on right now, what would she say?” “… She’s in a meeting,” Blueblood countered. “Yeah, she was also in a meeting during your and Twilight’s incident five years ago and you saw how fast she came. Wanna make the same bet again?” Blueblood froze. Anyway he looked at it the dragon was right. Interloper was Celestia’s pet… her favorite pet. In any situation, the lizard was worth much more to Celestia than he was, and he was a prince. Then there were the insults he flung at the filly that vainly thrashed in his aura. If Celestia did get involved, it was a battle he would lose, and he wouldn’t just lose the battle, he would probably lose his personal groomers... worse, he would be forced to share his groomers for the rest of the dragons stay! “Okay, you win, Interloper.” Blueblood said, dropping Sweetie Belle on the ground. “But see to it she doesn’t spread her street germs everywhere.” Letting out a sigh of disgust, he left down a hall. Spike clenched his fist. “Jerk… Are you okay?” He asked as he helped Sweetie to her hooves. Sweetie Belle kicked some imaginary dirt at Blueblood. Rarity had told her that the Prince was a grade A Primadonna, but trying to kick her out because she looked ‘egg-shell white’ was pushing it. “Yeah, thanks….” “So what were you doing before he showed up?” “Looking for my dress,” Sweetie explained. “I was trying to find the fitting room, but then that jerk stopped me! Luckily, you showed up. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting?” “I was, but scribes are easy to replace. Besides, the meeting wasn’t too important. Wanna hang out?” Spike asked. “We could get your dress together if you want to.” Sweetie Belle nodded and walked next to Spike. Normally, she would have felt embittered about what Blueblood had said to her. She would have normally focused on the insults and become angry, or at least pouty, but Spike proved to be quite the distraction, somehow getting her to laugh every other minute. Spike on the other hand was happy just to have someone to talk with. Being slightly more mature for his age somewhat isolated him from other colts. In addition, his long hours in the library kept him from really making any friends outside the Mane 6. Although the CMC were his friends, calling them close friends was a bit of a reach. Well, calling Scootaloo a close friend was a reach. Apple Bloom and Spike had a small bond between them; they both knew the value of hard work. Moreover, he and Sweetie Belle had grown close over the past few days. Reflecting on his little vacation with her made him smile. If he were given the chance to go back and do things even slightly different, he would probably turn down the offer unless of course, it was a chance to spend the week with Rarity, but then again that was a no brainer. Honey was in the middle of editing Sweetie’s dress. She just loved how it was coming along. She couldn’t lie, this dress was probably in her top five favorites. She heard the door to the room open. “Hey Honey Suckle, how’s the dress coming?” “Not done yet,” Honey said as she continued to edit the dress. “I still need about two hours. Until then, you two need to entertain yourselves.” Spike and Sweetie Belle let out groans of frustration. They walked out of the room and began to aimlessly roam the halls. Spike tried to think of something they could do. They could go to the castle gardens and see the animals, but then again, the animals were scared of ponies ever since Fluttershy’s incident at the gala a year ago. He was about to suggest they sit in his room and do nothing, when he had a brilliant yet potentially dangerous idea. “Hey Sweetie Belle, this is a weird question, but have you ever been in a Princess’s bedroom?” Prince Blueblood entered the fitting room only minutes after Spike and Sweetie Belle left. He had come to collect his suit and like everything else, expected it to be perfect. “Dress maker is my suit ready… what on earth happened!?” He saw that his suit was significantly smaller than when he last saw it. “Oh it’s you,” she sighed. Honey put her tools down and went over to a desk. She opened a draw and took out a flask. Taking a quick swig, she placed the flask back into the draw and closed it. She had practiced the speech a thousand times, but it made her stomach turn now that she was actually going to give it. “Well, your highness, I spent a long while trying to make the suit presentable, but then I had an epiphany, your request is impossible!” Honey said, dramatically turning around. “You asked me to make a suit that makes you shine brighter than any stallion there is, but how can I when you already shine brighter than any stallion there is?” Blueblood was about to argue, but then thought about what she was saying. She was right. “Well… I suppose that’s a valid excuse, but why shrink it?” “Well, there’s a filthy little reptile running around. I know it’s not much but I could use this suit to make him look presentable… although, I don’t think presentable is even a possibility.” “I understand completely. You’re right though, it might not help. I’ll leave you to your work.” Blueblood respectfully bowed to the seamstress and left the room. Sweetie Belle didn’t exactly know why she was so close to Spike. Maybe it was instinctive, that if she stayed close to him she wouldn’t get in trouble for being in Celestia’s bedroom. “Spike, I really don’t think you should do that,” Sweetie pleaded as Spike slid tiles around Celestia’s walls. “What if Celestia comes back?” Spike didn’t pay attention to Sweetie’s pleas; he only seemed to care about the task at hand. He smiled when he heard a loud click as part of the wall opened. “She’s in the meeting room, so I wouldn’t be too worried.” Spike hopped for the best as a section of wall slowly began to open, while Sweetie was just shocked a wall was moving. The newly opened one had a row of books. Some looked like they hadn’t been touched in ages, while others seemed to be brand new. Spike took five books from the shelf he flipped through the contents and grinned. However, before leaving Spike noticed a folded up piece of paper in the back of the compartment. He shrugged, took the piece of paper, and placed it in one of the books. “Okay now we can go.” Spike moved a tile and the row of books became hidden. However, much to his and Sweetie’s collective amazement a separate compartment opened. “Oh, so this is where she keeps her cake,” Spike nodded. Sweetie Belle could only stare. In total, there were sixteen cakes, though some had more pieces missing than others. “Want some Triple Chocolate Heaven, or the MMM?” Spike asked, reading from the labels. Taking a few steps forward, Sweetie looked over each of her options. She took a slice of Carrot Cake and took a small bite. It was the best cake she had ever tasted. Spike stole, no, borrowed three more slices of cake “Okay, now we can go. If reading Celestia’s personal thoughts while eating cake does not kill 2 hours, Twilight has found a way to stopped time.” Taking up the books and the Slices of cake, the two foals snuck into Spike’s room with only about fifty percent of the castle staff seeing them. Celestia let out a painful gasp as she held her hoof to her head. “Princess what’s the matter?” King Beefcake asked. “I heard a slice of cake cry out for me and then silence.” Celestia got up to leave, but was stopped by her sister. “Come on, Luna, I only have one slice of Triple Chocolate Heaven left!” “You are not leaving us alone with King Beefcake so you can check on your cakes! Besides, we’ve done nothing but joke and make fun of nobles, and talk about his daughter and Spike.” Celestia let out a moan as she sat back down. Time slowed to mere crawl for Celestia. The jokes she once enjoyed were now annoying. She tapped on the table nervously like a crack addict that needed a fix. She had to move quickly. There was only one slice of each of her favorite cakes left and she swore she heard two more slices of cake cry out in horror. She read over the calligraphy Luna had written. She cursed when she saw that it was mostly jokes that poked fun at nobles and at their respective loved ones. The main purpose of this summit was to decide on a menu for the Equeastria Games. If she wanted to save her cakes, she would need to finish this now. “So, Beefcake, what would you like us to serve at the games? I don’t mean to rush things, but I do think we should get down to business. So what would your subjects enjoy?” Celestia asked, passing a clean sheet of paper to Luna. Beefcake shrugged, “We would be fine with anything to be honest. Just serve what you were originally going to serve.” “Good, I declare this summit resolved,” Celestia said as she dashed out of the meeting room. “Hmm… Was that just so she can check on her cakes?” “Yes,” Luna deadpanned. “Our sister has a problem. We think had it been anyone but the dragon, the reaction would have been worse.” While sharing laughs at Celestia’s expense, two hours flew by for Spike and Sweetie Belle. They didn’t read anything too embarrassing, it was mostly just entries about childhood crushes on certain guards and days that Celestia seemed to be swamped by the first world problems of nobles. Spike saw the time and got Sweetie Belle’s attention. Helping her to her hooves, he covered Sweetie’s eyes as they made their way to the dressing room. “Okay, are you ready?” Spike asked, arriving at their destination. Sweetie’s only response was a nod followed by an excited giggle. Spike gave Honey the signal. The mare pulled back the curtains and Spike released Sweetie. There was a long silence as Sweetie stood looking at the dress with a blank face. “Do you not….” Spike was interrupted as Sweetie wrapped her legs around his neck. “I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it! Thank you!” Sweetie then hugged Honey’s leg. “Thank you for making it for me!” She loved it, and why wouldn't she? The main dress was a sky blue with blue colored lace that looked to be a blue version of the fabric her sister made when she went to Manehattan. Across the dress was a line of silver fabric that went under a light sky blue trimming. The dress was complete with a silver choker with a heart shaped sapphire embedded in it. “I’m going to look amazing!” She had to wait though; her sister said that a lady only showed off her dress when it came time for the event she was to attend. She was on cloud nine right now and somehow, it was all thanks to Spike. She could have sworn that he only did stuff like this for Rarity. Spike chuckled happily as Sweetie Belle pranced around her dress, singing happily. He didn’t know why but it felt nice knowing that he, in a way, made her smile. What was weird was the fact that he felt his stomach begin to twist and his insides jerk. Before he knew it, he let out a stream of green fire into the air that ejected a scroll. Spike caught the letter and gave it a quick read. All it said was, ‘Urgent, send the filly home and come alone. Celestia.’ Spike looked up at Sweetie Belle. “Um… I might need to cut this a little short. Celestia just sent me a letter.” Sweetie Belle’s face fell and inch, but she managed to keep a good portion of her smile. “O-Ok… See you later than?” “Maybe, I don’t know, it says to send you back to the hotel… maybe we shouldn’t have raided her cake storage.” “Oh… But I’ll see you tomorrow?” “Of course, until you leave, Ms. Cheerilee expects me to make sure you don’t blow anything up,” Spike chuckled, “you’re basically stuck with me.” Spike turned to head out the door. In all possibility, he probably wouldn’t see her for the rest of the week. Twilight once ate the princess’s cake, and she wasn’t allowed to read her text books for the rest of that month, instead Twilight was forced to spend time outside. “Wait, before you go anywhere… Can I ask you something?” Sweetie Belle asked, grabbing Spike’s arm with what little magic she had. “Sure, what is it?” “Well… I have a dance I need to go to Friday, an awesome, amazing dress to wear, but I, a sophisticated lady, do not have anypony to escort me.” Upon hearing this, Honey leaned in closer to the two, taking in every word that came out of Sweetie Belle’s mouth. “So, as a friend, do you want to go to the dance with me?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You mean… like a date? “A friend date; it means absolutely nothing more than we’re friends,” she quickly explained. “I don’t know…” Spike gave it some thought. On one hand, Rarity might find out, think he had moved on, and he would lose his chance with her forever. On the other hand, did it really matter at this point? He practically spoiled Sweetie Belle the past few days. Plus, she was giving him a look so cute he couldn’t think of saying no. Sweetie prepared herself to be turned down until Spike said, “You know what? Yeah, why not?” “Great! It’s a date…. A friend date… because we are friends…. Bye Spike!” She said as she forced him out of the room and into the hallway. She quickly shut the door and leaned against it. “Well… that was embarrassing.” She looked up to see Honey struggling to contain her smile and laugh. “What’s the matter?” “Oh, nothing, just watching. Want me to escort you to the courtyard?” Honey asked with a stifled laugh. “Sure.” Spike stood in the hallway, utterly confused by how Sweetie Belle had acted. He didn’t linger on it too long though, Celestia still needed to see him. He made his way back through the castle and went directly to Celestia’s bedroom. Spike stood in the doorway but looked down at the floor. Celestia sat staring into her cake stock. “Triple Chocolate Heaven, The MMM and The Great Wall of Flavors… all gone.” She whimpered. “Spike, can you tell me what happened today?” Spike held his breath, thinking the worst things possible. Celestia didn’t even turn around to face him. He was dead, no banished, probably to the sun because he committed the worse crime of all; he ate Celestia’s cake. “Um… I kinda took four slices of cake and ate them… by myself…. I then ran into Sweetie Belle, we had a few laughs over some books and then she asked me to go to her dance with her…. I think that sums up what happened.” Celestia opened her mouth to scold him but then quickly went silent. “Wait, you’re doing what with whom now?” Celestia asked. “Well, Sweetie asked me to if I could take her to her dance… it wasn’t too big a deal so I thought, why not?” Celestia remained silent until she finally found the words she was looking for. “Spike, that first night you were here, you know I was joking when I said those things, right? You know you don’t have to do anything with any filly, right?” Celestia asked, hoping Spike would come to some realization that fillies should be the last thing on his mind. “Actually, I completely forgot what you said. The jokes just kinda got jumbled after the billionth time I heard them. It’s not that big a deal, right? I’m not marrying her, it’s just to hang out. So if we’re done here,-” “We’re not done!” Celestia called. She had to think long and hard about his punishment. On one hoof, Spike stole her cake, and that crime was punishable for a week at the very least. On the other hoof, this was a very missable moment, seeing Spike off on his first date. Celestia had missed a lot of his firsts, first steps, first word, first crawl, first spaghetti; first meeting with Santa Pony, first Nightmare Night candy offering, the list went on. If she let this first escape her, Twilight Velvet, Shining Armor, Twilight or Cadance would get to do it instead and ruin it for her. Oh how they ruined moments for her. Shining Armor took him trick or treating and to see Santa, probably to use Spike so he could hit on mares, showing them how responsible and caring he was. Meanwhile, Cadance saw him crawl while Twilight Velvet saw him walk. She could still remember the worst of it though. During her first year as her student, Twilight Sparkle ran Celestia’s throne room one day and shouted, “Princess, guess what, Spike started talking!” She was not missing something like that again. “Spike, you’re grounded for the rest of the day,” Celestia said. Spike sighed happily before he left for his room. “Before you go, did you take anything else from my room?” Spike quickly shook his head, eliciting a sigh from the alicorn. “You may go, but you stay in your room, understand?” Spike nodded and continued on his path. At least it was only a minor punishment. When Spike entered his bedroom, he didn’t hesitate to look through one of Celestia’s diaries. Even though he was grounded, he could still have fun.