Sweetie Belle was in a high state of excitement as she galloped back toward Ponyville. Momentarily bemused by what she’d just witnessed, she was now quite elated. Her sister and Applejack, special someponies! She’d had no idea! She knew the two were good friends, but had never even imagined…!
Sweetie had had enough experience from the consequences of love-poisoning Big Macintosh and Cheerilee to know what excessive love could do. She could only hope Rarity and Applejack never ended up like that, as she had asked them when she encountered them at the pond. She had a feeling Apple Bloom would be of the same opinion, and wondered if she knew about this already.
She was, however, slightly puzzled about Rarity’s choice of somepony. Now, that was in no way a disparagement against Applejack. She liked Applejack very much, had once wanted to be her little sister when she and Rarity had un-sistered each other. She had just always assumed, after her bad date with Prince Blueblood and heartbreaking at the hooves of Trenderhoof, Rarity would find some other handsome stallion to fawn over. She’d never even considered the idea that two mares could be special someponies. She wondered, with interest, how many others were like that…
She was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice at first where she was going. Then, with a *bump*, she collided with somepony, somepony close to her size.
“Oof!”
“Whoa!”
Sweetie Belle staggered backwards, shaking her head to regain focus. Her green eyes fell upon the pony she’d bumped into, only to find it wasn’t a pony at all. It was Spike, knocked flat onto his back, clutching his head, a comic book sitting in the grass beside him. He’d evidently been reading in the shade of the tree looming over the pair of them now, right before Sweetie Belle slammed into him.
“Oh, gosh!” said Sweetie, rushing to help him back up. “Sorry about that, Spike!”
“It’s all right, Sweetie Belle,” said Spike. “You really knocked me for a loop, though.”
“What are you doing reading out here?” asked Sweetie.
“Twilight’s meeting with some dignitaries at the castle,” said Spike, “so I opted to stay out of their way until the meeting was over. I was gonna just stay in my room, but the hallways were echoing every boring word they were saying, and it was driving me crazy!”
He pulled a disgusted face, then held up his hand, flapping his claws up and down like a mouth, and saying, in a pompous, elderly-sounding voice,
“Blah-blah-blah, agreement of fair trade this, appointment of Equestrian delegation that, yack-yack-blah-blah! Boooooo-ring!”
Sweetie Belle giggled. Even though Spike was close to her age, she and her fellow Crusaders didn’t often hang around with him, so she’d forgotten how funny he could be sometimes. Spike grinned, pleased that his bit of humor had amused her.
“So what were you running so fast for?” he asked.
“Huh?”
In the hubbub of crashing into Spike, Sweetie had momentarily forgotten what she’d been so excited about. Now, however, the memory returned full-force, and her eyes widened, her face splitting into a big smile.
“Oh! Oh, Spike, it’s wonderful!” she squeaked. “The best thing ever’s happened just now!”
“You got your cutie mark?” asked Spike, eagerly.
He leaned to the side to get a look at her haunch, but it was still resolutely blank.
“No. nothing like that,” said Sweetie Belle, waving her hoof impatiently. “This is something even bigger!”
Spike looked amazed.
“Something even bigger than getting your cutie mark?”
He stared at her in some surprise, then asked, frankly,
“Who are you and what have you done with Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie giggled again.
“Just listen,” she said. “I was on my way to the pond for a swim, when I saw Rarity there with Applejack.”
“So?” asked Spike, nonplussed. “Those two hang out all the time.”
“I know, but that’s not the point!” said Sweetie Belle. “I walked in on them playing around.”
Spike raised an eyebrow.
“Playing around?” he asked.
“Rolling in the flowers,” said Sweetie Belle. “Playing in the water. Acting like they were foals again.”
“Whoa,” said Spike, with a grin. “That must’ve been quite a sight.”
“It was. And then, Applejack rested her head on Rarity’s tummy.”
Spike looked puzzled.
“Why would she do that?”
“Well, Rarity’s getting kinda...you know...big,” said Sweetie, delicately. “She ate a dozen gallons of ice cream once, and ever since, she’s been kinda...snacky.”
“Ohhhh,” said Spike, comprehending.
He knew about that all too well. When Rarity had been bemoaning a creativity block once, she had gorged on comfort food until he’d brought her the Inspiration Manifestation spell. At the time, Rarity didn’t seem to have gained a pound.
“I thought she was looking a little bigger lately,” he said, “but I always figured it was just my imagination.”
“I thought she’d be really upset about gaining weight,” said Sweetie Belle. “but she got over it really quick. She even said she could do more work for plus-sized models now. And besides that,” she added, with a cheeky smile, “she’s super-soft to hug now. I’ll bet that’s why she was letting Applejack rest on her.”
“Heh, I can imagine,” grinned Spike, who knew, from a plethora of Pinkie hugs over the course of his and Twilight’s stay in Ponyville, how it felt to be embraced by a plumper pony.
“So that’s when I gave myself away,” Sweetie Belle went on. “I wanted to know what was going on, so I asked, and...and…”
Sweetie’s smile was growing so wide, her eyes were becoming narrower and narrower, though they twinkled like stars.
“And?” Spike urged, unable to take the suspense much longer.
“And Rarity said they were...they were special someponies!” Sweetie Belle squealed.
Spike’s face went blank. His brain felt like it had ground to an unpleasant halt. As the full force of this revelation sank in, he seemed to go limp, his verdant eyes staring straight ahead, as if looking at something beyond the gleeful Sweetie Belle.
“...Special someponies?” he mumbled at last, his throat suddenly feeling very constricted. “She said that?...”
“Yep!” said Sweetie Belle, oblivious to Spike’s expression and tone. “She even kissed Applejack! I forgot to mention that.”
Spike felt as though a dart of ice had struck him in the chest.
“Kissed?...”
“Yeah! A lick right on the cheek! And then I asked if they were going to be all mushy and lovey-dovey, like Big Mac and Miss Cheerilee were when me and the girls accidentally love-poisoned them, but it’s just so wonderful! Don’t you think so, Spike?”
“Yeah...great…”
Sweetie blinked, her smile fading. This reaction was not at all what she had imagined. Spike’s whole body appeared to be sagging, his arms hanging loosely, his eyes blank, his ear frills drooping. He had the distinct look of a foal who had just been told there was no Santa Hooves. That idea was ludicrous, of course, Sweetie Belle knew this, but she had seen that look before, usually because of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon trying to get under foals’ skins. She couldn’t understand what was wrong with Spike, though...
And then, with a horrible pang in her stomach, the truth dawned on Sweetie with the force of a stampeding buffalo. How could she have been so stupid? Spike had a crush on Rarity! He’d had it ever since he’d first laid eyes on her, when he and Twilight first moved to Ponyville. Rarity knew about it, of course. Heck, Sweetie doubted there was a pony among their circle of friends who didn’t know! Spike wasn’t exactly the most discreet dragon in Equestria, after all. However, Sweetie never thought it was that serious. He’d barely said a word about Rarity’s attempts at wooing Blueblood and Trend. Did this news, then, really cut him so deep?...
“Spike?” Sweetie Belle asked, tentatively.
Spike made no answer. He just stayed as he was, mute and unseeing. She sat beside him, putting a hoof to his shoulder.
“Spike? I’m sorry. I forgot that you...that you liked Rarity...I just didn’t think…”
Her words trailed off. The happiness that had been flooding through her was evaporating fast. She hadn’t meant to cause Spike pain…
Then, Spike spoke, still staring off.
“It’s ok, Sweetie Belle,” he said, his voice disconcertingly hoarse. “It’s not your fault. ...I should have known this would happen. I should have realized long ago, but I was just a stupid kid. I still am...I always knew I couldn’t measure up to ponies like Blueblood or Trenderhoof-”
“But they were jerks!” Sweetie Belle interjected. “Blueblood treated Rarity like dirt, and Trend didn’t even care that she had a crush on him, when he was trying to win over Applejack. They were all wrong for her!”
“Yeah,” said Spike, the corners of his mouth twitching. “If you wanna know the truth, Sweetie...I kinda hoped her dates would fail.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened.
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. I hoped, if she crashed and burned with these crushes of hers, I might stand a better chance. I’d never abandoned her. I was always ready to be there for her when she needed somepony. I’d look like a knight in shining armor compared to them...but I was being stupid. I’m too young for her. I know she likes me as a friend, but…”
Sweetie let out a quiet gasp, as Spike’s eyes grew wet, a tremulous light glistening in them.
“But I’d always wished we could...we could be more than that…”
He shut his eyes and turned away from Sweetie Belle. He didn’t want her to watch him crying, but he couldn’t help it. He hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, his tears leaking through his closed eyes and down his cheeks. Sweetie’s lip trembled. Her heart ached to see her friend like this...
“Oh, Spike…”
She put her hooves around him and rested her cheek against his. It was the sort of thing Rarity would do when she, Sweetie Belle, was having a nightmare: hold her in her hooves and speak calm reassurances until she was calm again. Rarity...what would happen when she knew how Spike was grieving now?...
Spike seemed to relax under her touch, and, after a time, he sat up straight, taking a wipe at his eyes and nose.
“Thanks, Sweetie Belle,” he said, huskily. “I think I’m all right now.”
“You sure?” Sweetie asked, gently.
“Yeah,” said Spike, with a small smile. “I feel better. I’m glad I had a friend to lean on.”
Sweetie Belle smiled back.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
Spike took in a deep breath, sighed, then said,
“Well, Twilight doesn’t seem to know about this. Heck, I didn’t know until you brought it up, so Rarity and Applejack are probably gonna let everypony know that they’re a…”
He swallowed. He seemed unable to say what he was meaning to say,
“That they’re together,” he finished, finally. “I’ll be ready for her when she does.”
Sweetie Belle looked at him with some concern, but there was a resolve in his green eyes that seemed to validate his words. She nodded.
“Ok,” she said. “I’m gonna go find Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, if they don’t know already.”
“Ok,” said Spike, casually.
“You sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah. I’m ok. Thanks, Sweetie.”
He put his little arms around Sweetie Belle, returning her hug. Sweetie smiled, gave him an extra squeeze, then, the two letting go of each other, she got up and trotted off. As she went, she chanced a glance or two back at Spike, but he’d already picked up his comic book, and seemed to be reading it again, as though nothing had happened. So, she went on her way, but if she’d taken a closer look, she might have noticed that although Spike appeared to be reading, his eyes weren’t moving at all…