//------------------------------// // Pink Party Pony // Story: )Between Spikes and Thorns( // by TheGrownSpike //------------------------------// )Between Spikes and Thorns( written by TheGrownSpike Chapter 2: Pink Party Pony -”Woah, wait, what do you mean with “Pinkie's getting married”? I thought she said more than a million times that she didn't want a ring around her hoof to tie her down!” I asked after snapping out of my temporary state of shock. It's not like I wasn't happy for her, far from it, it just seemed awkward that a free spirit such as Pinkie agreed to something like that. Back when I was still allowed to live in the library, when I was still only big enough to reach the tallest shelves of the bookcases, I loved when Pinkie came to visit. The pink party pony, the celebrity of celebrations, the mistress of casual meetings, so many nicknames she earned as she got older, her bright attitude was kept. If anything changed was the occasional change of how her mane was styled. From time to time, instead of her “poofy”-looking mane, which I liked to compare to cotton candy, her mane would be combed over to lay neatly by the sides of her ears, like how it used to happen when Pinkie felt really, really sad. The difference was that she smiled as brightly as ever when she had her mane like that; he liked it that way. I still remember when she came to Twilight to tell everything, and I mean EVERYTHING: how she was going to become the best baker in all Equestria, about how Gummy began growing larger and larger and she couldn't release him in the swamp because he meant so much to her, how every stallion was an insensitive jerk that didn't care about her feelings when she was dumped, how every mare was an insensitive jerk because they didn't care about her feelings when she was dumped again, and so on... I could never figure out why she started hanging out with Twilight so much around that time, as far as I know, she still hanged out with the rest of the group, just not as often as she did with Twi. But like I said before, I enjoyed her company, and the routine was almost always the same: Pinkie arrived, Twilight would be usually sitting at the table in the center of the library and then nod at me so that I would go to a small kitchen at the back, recently made too, and go make some tea. ============================== -”Can you believe it, Twilight?!” the pink party pony waved her front hooves around, pulling her mane down as if she was stretching it and biting down on her lower lip. Twilight sat in front of her sighing and rubbing her head with her eyes closed, as if she needed some alone time with herself to understand what was happening to Pinkie. -”So, wait, you've been dating him for, what, a week now?” Pinkie quickly reacted by taking a large, round shaped clock from her still poofy mane, making it swing in front of Twilight's muzzle. -”Six days, seventeen hours, twenty three minutes and four hundred and fifty five seconds!” Twilight moved the clock away with her right hoof, arching a brow at Pinkie, who was now leaning on the table with a rather adorable pouty face. It really looked like she was hurt with whatever he had done to her. -”Pinkie, there's only sixty seconds in a minute...” -”That's not the point! How could he forget about Gummy's birthday?!” Pinkie planted her face on the table with a big sigh. -”How can he forget such an important date?” Twilight reached forward to rub Pinkie's mane gently with her right hoof, smiling down at her, even though she couldn't see it. -”Pinkie, you know you can remember birthdays and other important dates much better than anyone else. Just because he can't remember it doesn't mean you should be so upset... Give him some more time to get used to be around with you this often.” Pinkie's eyes then popped out among her mane, covered in tears. I could question how one could move her head under her mane like that, but, we're talking about Pinkie here. -”Twilight, why does it hurt so much to love someone...?” The pink pony whimpered, making Twilight sigh once again and pulled her up from the table and onto the side, giving her a big hug and using that tone. You know the tone I'm talking about. It's the tone that a mother uses to comfort her son or daughter, the voice that makes it all better and scare away any worries. I loved it when she used that tone. -”That's the kind of love that's really special. And you know he's a special one, we all know it. We've known him for a long time now, after all. Everypony I know loves him.” -”Make that everyONE, Twi.” I chuckled as I made my way into the room, carrying a metal tray with two cups of tea already filled half way with some daisy tea, and laying it down on the table. My paws straightened the pink apron I still wore, only that now it had been adjusted for my size. Pinkie gasped and sat down by the side of the table again, looking at the tea and inhaling its scent. -”Hmmm, Spike, that smells so good! I didn't knew you had talent for kitchen stuff!” her smile broadened across her cheeks. I still haven't met anyone who could smile as widely as that girl. -”Oh, c'mon, hehe... It's just tea, it's nothing complicated. You're making me blush... but carry on.” -”Spiiiiiiike...” Twilight trailed off, looking at me with that brow arched and smiling at the same time, as I blushed from embarrassment. Not my fault that I liked to get compliments. -”It's alright Twilight, Spiky just likes to be told how good he is! You're growing into a big handsome dragon, you know? Oh yeah, what about your back?” -”Still hurts like a stepping on a thorn.” That was the time when I had really bad back pains, which made me grunt from time to time as I tried to find something to make it hurt less, but with no avail. -”It doesn’t hurt as much as yesterday, I think I'm getting better, actually.” No use for worrying others about my problems. -”It's not like I can do anything about it, sadly.” Twilight used her horn to levitate the book about dragon curiosities, which was always in the same spot: third row, right next to the latest story of Daring Do and "Don't Do what Danny Dragon Does", a children's book that taught them how to not run around with scissors or annoy parasprites. A quite nice illustrated book with pictures of a dragon doing bad stuff and ponies then pointing at him and saying “Danny don't!”. Couldn't be more specific than that. She brought the book closer to her on the table, right next to the tea, and flipped through the pages until she stopped at the chapter she wanted, showing it to Pinkie. -”That's Spike's wings growing, that's why he has two two lumps on his back, see?” she grabbed me and turned me around for Pinkie to look at what she was mentioning. Luckily I was able to not stumble and fall. -”Hey, careful! I almost tripped, Twi.” -”Oooohhh, wow, that's gonna be sooo important, Spike! I can't believe how fast you're growing up! Pretty soon you're gonna get a girlfriend, and then you're gonna get a wedding and then kids and then cake andasupermassiveultrapartythatI'mgonnamakebutdon'tworrybecauseit'sgonnabeultraawesomenandI'mgonnamakesurethatit'llhaveeverythingadragonlikesand-” And Pinkie began the motorboat mouth. I still have no idea how she can do that, those lips opened and closed so fast that they almost seemed like a blur to me. This was the time when we would just let her speak and nod at whatever she said, trying to not make our smiles too awkward. -”...And that's how Rainbow Dash won the race!” I think our ears did a little cheer when she stopped talking. Oh, how silence could be so golden! -”I don't think Rainbow Dash is gonna race for quite some time, Pinkie. No doctor would ever let her do that. Even flying around should be taken to a minimum.” Twilight managed to speak when Pinkie seemed to try regaining her breath back. Trying to get back on topic was pretty much useless when Pinkie began ranting like this, so we all just agreed on changing the topic to whatever she stopped at. So now we would have to talk about Rainbow Dash... Oh joy... -”Oh yeah, she's pretty upset about it. Well, that's what happen when you-” ============================== “-Spike? Hellooooo?” Twilight waved a hoof up high, as if trying to reach my face. I shook my head and looked down at her. -”Oh! S-Sorry, I was just thinking about some stuff. “ -”Oh Spike, even as a big dragon you're still the same as I remembered.” she giggled and hugged my leg, making me smile once again and reach my right paw down to rub it along her back. How could such a short pony -at least short compared to me- bring so much warmth to my heart? The scented candle's flame swooned according to the direction of the wind that blew from time to time, making the rain change direction as it fell from the sky. -”Hey, have you... been alright by yourself?” Twilight asked as she held against my leg. The second time she asked me this, only with a slight variation on the way she made the question before. -”I wish I could be here everyday, but I'm still needed in Ponyville.” My wings unfolded, stretching as far as they could inside the cave and then wrapped around the purple mare that seemed to cling against me as hard as she could, as if she was afraid I would vanish at any moment. -”I'm going ok, don't worry. I got used to live in here, like I said, I just need to make it more... homely. Actually, I think I'm gonna use the gems Rarity gave me to start making my hoarding pile.” -”Oh, I've read about that. It's like a symbol of power and masculinity, isn't it? Sorry, I couldn't help in reading a lot of dragon lore before I came to visit. It's... weird how much time we've spent together and how little I learned about your species.” -”Hehe, if it makes you feel any better, I'm still leaning it as I go along! So who's coming to the wedding?” I asked, trying to make Twilight feel a bit more cheerful again. I didn't want to cry at that point, it would ruin the purpose of her happy visit. -”So far, pretty much everyone we know. Rainbow is the one that's having some trouble.” Twilight giggled with a hoof in front of her, moving to sit on her haunches by my side now. The wings covered my view of her, so I folded them behind my back. -”Hmm? Why is that? Didn't she get the invitations or something?” -”No, no, she did, and so did Soarin'. It's the other one they have to worry about.” I needed some time to think about what she meant, and when I did, I let out a big laugh at the same time she laughed. -”That kid of theirs is being troublesome as always, hu?” -”Yeah, try putting a fancy tux on that little colt and he might buck your teeth out.” -”Like mother, like son...” Twilight simply nodded in agreement.