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// May Drabble - Stainless Key 
// Story: Auto's Authentic Anecdotes 
// by Autocharth 
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Spike and Twilight doing something - no shipping



Justice Itself spoilers! Ye have been warned, mere mortals!





- One week after the defeat of Tirek 


“Twilight?” Spike asked, voice quiet as he relaxed.

It took a few moments for Twilight to answer, her attention fixed to the book before her.  Her candle, she noticed, was burning dangerously low, wax threatening to dribble onto her desk. “Yes?”

“Where do...” He began, only to fade away, hesitation killing his question.

She waited without turning from her book. Nearly a minute passed before she realised he hadn’t finished. Tearing herself away from the book, Twilight looked to her bed and the little drake laying there. 

“Spike?” she asked, a hint of worry entering her voice. “What were you asking?”

He shrugged. “Nothing, really. I just...I wondered…”

“You wondered…?” Twilight gently urged. Her horn lit, a bookmark slipping between the pages as her book closed behind her.

Again, he hesitated, and this time turned over. Not fast enough to hide the look on his face. Twilight’s frown deepened, and her chair scraped across the floor as she stood up from her desk. Clearly this called for more than just asking, and Twilight decided to borrow a page from Pinkie’s book….albeit with some heavy editing.

Spike was too busy staring at the wall to notice her approach until she lay next to him and her hooves wrapped around him in a gentle hug.

“If something is wrong, you can tell me,” she murmured. She felt him go stiff, then, slowly, begin to relax as the hug went on. Twilight smiled; Pinkie was right, a hug could make anypony happy. “I promise, I won’t be mad.”

For nearly a minute, neither said another word. They simply relaxed in the warmth of  family, and they 

“W-where did...where did Paladin go?” His voice trembled, but he asked nonetheless.

Her calm breath caught for a moment, and she felt a tremble in the scaly body curled against her. He’d caught it, but she simply gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“Paladin…” Twilight started. ‘Became Tyrael, and left to protect his own world,’ is what she wanted to say. It was what she knew Spike had been told. It was, from any perspective, the truth.

Spike, from any perspective, was a child who knew that. Yet he asked.

“Paladin,” She began again, “didn’t go anywhere.”

“...huh?” He turned his head to look up at her, brow furrowed in confusion.

Unsure of herself for a moment, Twilight found the words spilling out before she knew what they were. 

“He’s still here. I know, he’s not here in person. He’s not here in the body at the hospital. Paladin didn’t go anywhere because we’re still here. The two of us, and our friends…” Finally, Twilight caught up with her own subconscious, and she nuzzled Spike. “Everypony in Equestria is here, because of Paladin, and that’s why he’s still here.”

Spike snorted, but a small smile tugged at his lips. “Great, you’re being sappy…”

She chuckled, running a hoof along his fins. “A little, but that doesn’t make me wrong. Paladin might not be down in the spare room anymore, but he’s still with us. He’s our friend, and everything we can remember him for means he’s not going to be gone for good.”

“Hrmm…” Spike adjusted himself, squirming against her, and despite her best efforts Twilight felt a giggle rush out as the tip of his tail brushed across her stomach. 

They both went very still.

Spike grinned.

Twilight gulped.

With devious, serpentine movements, his tail began to twitch gently...

“No, Spike, st-sto-opphfa! Ahaha, s-sto-o-opppahah!” Her shouts dissolved into giggling as his tail wrecked ticklish torture on the plush fur of her belly, and soon the quiet peace of the night had been replaced by the laughter of a devious dragon and maddened giggles of his sister.

* Fin. *