I awoke to two soft lips on my cheeks. I smiled up at Celestia… then tried to leap away as some of the memories of last night came back. I managed to kick off of a table beside me but didn’t get enough air to clear the chair. It went to the floor with me, cracking something as we hit and I kicked again, rolling across the floor and under another table.
My mind was racing with memories of last night, of what the Princess had done with me. Had all of that happened, or had it been something in a dream? Was it all the fault of that bread? Was Pinkie okay?
My train of thought ceased abruptly when I noticed Celestia’s dress in front of me. I watched as she bent at her knees and turned her head to look at me under that table. Her dress didn’t even look stretched, after what I remembered happening last night.
I started stammering and stuttering, trying to apologize for what had happened, knowing I had been in a foreign state of mind. She held her finger up to her lips and shook her head, then offered me her hand.
I hesitated for a minute, then took it and let her lead me from under the table and back across the room to where Luna was sitting near the chair I’d spent the night in.
“Spike,” Celestia started. “I understand that you probably don’t want to talk about last night, or probably ever think about it again.”
Looking at me, Celestia put her face in her hands and rubbed gently. “I honestly don’t much want to think of what you did either. That bread you made doesn’t affect only you, but the people around you. Twilight might have gotten caught in its magic if you hadn’t had called on us.”
Celestia looked straight at me, catching my eyes in hers. “Besides Spike, none of that happened. Not the way you remember it, anyhow.”
My mouth moved by itself for a bit, mind taking in that information and rejecting it. I tried again and it was rejected much more quickly this time.
“Princess, I remember in very graphic detail most of last night’s… activity.”
“As well you should,” she sighed. “It did happen… in your sleep.”
She smiled and gently pressed a finger into the center of my forehead, sending a sharp pain through the spot.
“I cast a sleeping spell while you were… distracted. Your head hit the counter pretty hard, but I think you’re fine. You’ve been in that chair most of the night, while I chanted the spells to get rid of the effects of your… experiment. ”
I looked at the chair laying on the ground, thinking slowly of what I had thought was last night. My mind was much more accepting, with Celestia’s new information and my much calmer mind. This actually made much more sense than last night’s events. I frowned and looked into Celestia’s face.
“I’ve never had a dream like that before, Celestia. Was it just that bread I ate yesterday?”
Celestia made a face and looked over at the wall, seeming to study the spines of several of the closest books. “It was mostly the bread.”
Celestia reached across the table and gently squeezed my hand. “Remember Spike, Luna is capable of entering dreams, and she’s been very lonely for the last thousand years. Because she knows you, it would be easier to find and enter your dreams than those of a stranger. In addition, she would have… sensed the ‘mood’ of your dreams.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at me and I flushed, hiding my face and the flush scrawled across it. “I didn’t ask about what you dreamed,” she told me, “So what happened last night is entirely between you and Luna. Although now that I think of it, if she doesn’t mind, I may ask her what transpired…”
I blushed furiously. “Celestia, you’ll have to pry it from my cold lips. You’ll not hear of it from me.”
Celestia looked over to me, but I was already shaking my head frantically. She looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Someone will tell me,” she said. “Or I shall have Dawnbreak find out for me.”
I shuddered at the thought of her son, a powerful telepath, and began telling Celestia my dream. I didn’t get far before Celestia waved a hand at us, covering her face with the other one. “Spike… you’ve been getting into the forbidden arts section of the library. I thought I stopped that years ago.”
I smiled, still hanging my head. “I never stopped reading any part of that library, Celestia. I just got better at hiding it.”
She started to give me a look, but gave up halfway and sighed. “Spike, you know why I didn’t want you going in there…”
“I do, but I also memorized the list of books Silent Scroll warned me about, all the ones that may be dangerous for me. And if there ever was one I wasn’t sure about, I asked her about it.”
Celestia still looked unhappy, but she waved her hand in the air. “That’s all beside the point. I’ve heard more than enough of this dream. I’m going to go back home, I feel like a nap will do me some good.”
She hesitated. She walked around the table and gently kissed my forehead.
“You didn’t cheat on Ditzy,” she said, firmly. “You just had a good dream. Think of it like that, okay?”
I nodded, and she bent over and gave me a soft hug. Then she left me and my thoughts in the library, alone.
The silence didn’t last long. I heard a knocking from downstairs, through the closed staircase door. I remembered my other guest, and made sure I was clean and completely dressed. I looked again to my shirt, then decided against it. The tattered cloth would merely tease if Pinkie was still… bewitched.
I unlocked the top door and descended the stairs in the darkness, bringing my draconic eyes forward to let me see Pinkie’s heat. She was sitting on the bed, away from the door. I let my eyes return to normal and slowly opened the door.
She had her skirt back on, laid flat against her legs. She was wearing my sheet as a shirt, covering from her waist to the shoulders. She waved, cheery but subdued. “Hi Spikey. I’m sorry about last night, I’m not sure what came over me. I think it was that bread?”
I smiled and nodded. I walked back upstairs, leaving the doors open, then returned with her shirt. I tossed it to her and turned as she got dressed, rooting through my dresser until I found a shirt to pull on.
When I turned she was standing near me, and she lightly hugged me. “Thank you for holding back, Spike.”
I patted her head awkwardly, then smiled down at her when she pulled away. “You’re my friend Pinks, I’d never do anything like that to you in that sort of state. Even if I had wanted to” -which I had, I must admit- “I could never have done that without your wanting me to.”
She smiled brightly. “I suppose I’ve found another drinking buddy then.”
I smiled and nodded, then led her up the stairs and into the main room of the library. I pushed the broken chair out of the way, and threw my tattered shirt on top of it. I walked Pinkie to the door and opened it for her. I received another hug, this one much tighter, and waved goodbye to her as she started skipping down the road, humming a cheery song to herself.
I closed and relocked the door, leaning heavily against it and sighing in relief. I’d been afraid that since she hadn’t had Celestia she hadn’t been able to relieve the magic’s effects, but it was apparently a timed event.
I pulled my wand out and walked over to the chair I’d broken, picking up some of the larger splinters on my way over. I patched the chair as best I could, but it wobbled a bit still. It held my weight though, so I put it back. The shirt I could do nothing for, so it went straight in the trash can.
A knock drew me to the front door, and a red-faced Pinkie. “Uhm… Mr. and Mrs. Cake are still… going at it…”
I nodded and stood aside so that she could enter. She looked at the chair, then around the library. “So… Did they at least look good?”
I looked at Pinkie and tilted my head to the side, a confused look playing across my face. She looked down at her chest and pressed her arms together a little. I blushed and looked away.
“They were very nice Pinkie, I think you have a gorgeous figure. I would have stared a little more if I thought I could have gotten away with it.”
She reddened and smiled a little, looking satisfied with herself. She wandered over to a section of books and pulled something to read, still humming her happy tune.
.............................................
She spent the morning immersed in her book with a bottle of water, while I cleaned around the library. I also walked down to my new bedroom and took the sheets off of the bed to wash. I walked back into the room to make sure that was the only thing I wanted to clean. Walking into the room, I realized why Pinkie had the water.
Sniffing lightly, I picked up my mattress and walked upstairs with it, leaning it against a wall right outside of the back door. Pinkie had not gone to sleep right away, and the thoughts of what had gone on in my bedroom was enough that I had to pretend to clean the counter for a minute or two.
I believe she noticed though, considering her ever flushed face deepened a couple shades and her smile widened before she returned to her book. I gave up the act and went downstairs to open the window, then straightened up my room. There wasn’t anything that really needed straightening though, so it was mostly just fidgeting with stuff in my hands and putting items back where I’d picked them up.
When I walked back into the room Twilight was sitting with Pinkie. They stopped talking when I walked in, so I assumed they were speaking of what had happened last night. Pinkie had apparently gone into great detail, because Twi was extremely red and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Pinkie was grinning conspiratorially and winked at me. “Did you finish your… business?”
Twi and I gaped at her, than she started sputtering syllables while I denied Pinkie’s accusations. She burst out laughing and flapped her hands at us, managing to tell us to calm ourselves between gales of laughter.
“So,” I said, between her bursts of giggles, “Do you think the Cakes have… finished yet?”
Pinkie stopped laughing and gazed, thoughtfully, at the ceiling. “Well, Mr. Cake always has had a lot of stamina… And Mrs. Cake sure can take quite a bit of a beating…”
Pinkie looked into the scandalized face of Twilight Sparkle and shrugged, a neutral mask covering her usually giggling face. It cracked quickly though, starting with red cheeks and ending with her usual broad grin.
“I’m sure they’re on their last legs, if nothing else. I’ll go check up on them, see if they need to rehydrate or something. I know I was pretty thirsty after last night.” With that final quip and a wink she skipped out of the door and started back down the road towards Sugarcube corner, leaving everyone in the library with a blushing face and dirty thoughts on their mind.
Twilight and I sat in awkward silence after I finished my chores and she hers. She was pretending to read a book she’d already read four times, and I was simply staring up at the clock and watching the seconds fall away. Finally the time to open the library to the public came around, and I the door for the first time that day.
I had an idea, and while Twilight got the desk up and running I searched through the section we had on protective spells. Neither book had what I was looking for, so I wrote myself a note and left it downstairs where I could see it. When I went upstairs, Ditzy was waiting at the desk with Dinky, talking quietly with Twilight.
When she saw me she smiled, and I smiled back tentatively. She spoke a good-bye to Twi and pushed her sister over to a section of books for young girls. When she reached me she stood on tiptoe and kissed me lightly, then smiled secretively up at me.
“So, Luna and Celestia, huh? That’s a pretty big dream.”
I stared at her, silently, waiting for jealousy or anger.
Instead, she messed with the collar of my shirt and fidgeted a little, biting her lip in an adorably thoughtful way. She grinned up at me with red brightening her cheeks, and took my hand and led me over to the staircase leading upstairs.
“He moved downstairs last night,” Twilight called across the room, and we halted and Ditzy pulled me to the other staircase, leading down this time, and told me to close the door. I did so, confused but following her down the stairs she bounced down. When I reached the second door she was looking at the frame that would support my bed.
Pointing to the empty spot, she looked at me and arched an eyebrow. “Uhm, Pinkie was enchanted like me, and she spent the night… on my bed…” I raised my own eyebrow at her, and her face reddened further.
“Well, go get it. We’ll flip it if it’s still… not dry.”
“Why exactly do we need the bed? I could go get some chairs…”
She giggled and wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down into her face, silken lips parting slightly to welcome my own. After a minute she let me pull away, breathless from our kiss.
“I’m a jealous person Spike,” she said, looking at me. “Celestia and Luna are very beautiful, and Luna appeared in my dreams last night. She told me what had happened, and begged your forgiveness.” She ran her hands over my shoulders and down to my chest, resting them in between us. “I told her you’ll have to work for your forgiveness,” she continued after a bit, pulling my hands up to where she had been holding hers and clasping our palms together.
She grabbed my wrists and pushed my hands to her heartbeat. She grinned up at me and finished her sentence. “And I do plan on making you work for it. Go get that mattress.”
I tried to lean forward for another kiss, squeezing gently, but she just giggled and turned me around, pushing me at the door. “Mattress,” she said laughing, and pushed me out the door and up the stairs a bit.
I ran up the stairs, stopping and composing myself at the top. I opened the door to find a very startled Twilight Sparkle standing nearby, browsing the shelves and trying to drink out of an empty glass. I ignored her and went to the back door, through the kitchen. I snagged my mattress and rushed back through the room, panting, “watch Dinky for a minute,” and shut the door on Twilight’s puzzled stare, closing and locking the door this time.
I rushed back down the stairs and opened the door, making Ditzy jump a little. I tossed the mattress on the frame and closed the inside door, casting a silencing spell on the door after I’d walked through. I tossed my wand and bracelet on the dresser near me and turned to another puzzled stare.
“Twilight’s upstairs with an empty glass, trying to spy on us.”
She grinned and asked me to take the spell away for a second, then leaned out the door and moaned, as loud as she could. We heard the glass break on the floor and rapid footsteps. Ditzy started giggling, but I was too busy thinking about what was about to happen.
She had bent at her middle when she leaned out of the door, and her butt was sticking out slightly. She’d been planning something apparently. Her jeans fit very snuggly and I could see black lace peeking over her waistband.
Smiling devilishly, I moved over and pounced, slamming a hand over the light panel and shrouding the basement room in near darkness.