//------------------------------// // Explanations... Sort of // Story: I don't belong here // by Clawder //------------------------------// “...And that's how it happened,” Spike finished the story on how he had misunderstood a very serious situation and took the opportunity to kiss Rarity. He wouldn't admit it, but in his mind, the moment was totally worth it. Sure, it turned very dark very quickly but he had enjoyed those few seconds of personal victory. Twilight sat confused, listening and her thoughts spinning “I...” she cleared her throat and tried again “You...” Nope, that didn't fit either “Uh...” she stammered. “Did I confuse you at some point?” Spike tried to help. “I just can't picture it!” she almost yelled “I mean, quite literally I can't imagine you kissing her!” “Well, I couldn't imagine it either up until that point.” “She didn't break the kiss, you say?” she followed immediately. Spike shook his head “Didn't move an inch,” he sounded proud of himself. As Twilight still tried to fully comprehend by trotting slowly in circles, her friend added “She was kinda weirded out though, does that help?” “No!” she turned her head to face him “It doesn't help at all, who knows what she was thinking at that time! What's even worse, Rarity left the castle crying! You were right about what you said, Spike. It's going to be more complicated than a get-together for her.” After some silence, Spike asked for advice “What should I do?” “I don't know. As you're probably aware by now, I'm not the best when it comes to those things. That would be-” “Rarity,” he completed. Both of them shared a sigh of defeat. “You know what, screw it.” “Spike! language.” “I'll figure something out later. Right now I'm going back to middle-of-nowhere to return these things.” Twilight nodded “Right, we will discuss this later. I'll go too in case you need me for something.” “Actually, I think it will be better if you stay and help me out with the others.” Twilight raised an eyebrow “Help you how?” “Cheering our friends up, of course! You always go together to do girly things don't you?” “What kind of statement is that? We all like to do different things in different places. What do you mean by 'girly'?” Spike shrugged “Forget it, the thing is, I need your help here. Pretty please?” “Are you going alone then? How will you carry all of this things? What is something happens in the way?” “I've done the trip before. Besides, I can take care of myself. As for the items... Do you have a cart around here?” Twilight gave him an incredulous look “You are going to pull a cart by yourself,” she said simply. “Alright, not the best idea, but I still prefer that you stay in Ponyville.” “Spike, this is not about whether you like it or not. I'm not letting you go on your own there. What if they want to hurt you?” “They won't hurt me, they're ponies!” “So you're saying ponies are inoffensive?” for some reason, that small display of racism bothered her. “Nah, just not hostile. That's a good thing, isn't it?” “I guess,” for a moment, she lost herself in thought. It was a misconception that ponies in general were always welcoming and joyful; but at least it was a good misconception. Unlike dragons and griffons, ponies had a nice reputation across the nations. Twilight snapped back to the present “Either way, I'm not letting you go alone.” “Then who do I go with? And don't volunteer, because I already asked you to stay.” The princess tapped her chin “Hmmm...” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Why, I'm flattered one of my dearest friends considered me as one of the best options for a mundane task such as this,” Discord hovered holding a nail file with his lion paw, using it to make the talons on his other one grow. “Again, you were almost last on the list,” Twilight replied annoyed. “Isnt' the last one who gets the last laugh?” Discord smirked. “Look, I just want Spike to get in and out of there as soon and fast as possible, can you help or not?” Discord gasped “Are you doubting my capabilities? Of course I can help!” he snorted with simulated anger. “Right, sorry, I asked the wrong question,” Twilight hovered at his level “Will you help or not?” In an instant, the draconequus turned from supposedly angry to uninterested “Oh, I guess I could,” he returned his attention to his sharpened talons “Depends on what I'll get from it.” “Learning about friendship,” she said enthusiastically “Spike learned a few lessons I bet he'd like to share!” “Bleh,” Discord ate the nail file, unattached his horn and began to polish it “I have more than enough learning of friendship twenty minutes a week, thank you.” “Well, what do you want, then?” Discord teleported himself and Twilight back to the ground “First and most important, I'd like to hear my probably soon-to-be traveling companion's opinion on the subject,” he grinned while looking at Spike, who had stayed silent during the whole talk. The dragon absently glanced at him for a second before returning his gaze to the horizon “I don't mind.” Discord's left eye twitched. This was not a pleasant reaction. Out of the many cretures to torment out there, Spike was specially vulnerable to the ways of the spirit of chaos: He wasn't as innocent as the cutie mark crusaders, who sometimes didn't even notice when Discord was joking; and he wasn't as mature as the adult ponies to see through one of his illusions. What could lead somedragon his age to just answer 'I don't mind?' There was something off about Spike. He was getting pessimistic... Or negative, Discord didn't actually care. What did matter was that if he kept that attitude, the greatest prankster of all time would lose one of the greatest prays of all time. “It's settled!” he cheered. ”What is?” Twilight asked. “The travel! Use some logic now and then.” “Wha-How?! He just said he didn't mind you to go!” “Which is precisely why I must go!” he lifted Spike off the ground, earning a 'hey!' from him “Let us embark in this fabulous quest for...!” He looked down at Spike, who didn't struggle to break free, but looked bothered to an extreme. Then he lowered his neck to whisper in Twilight's ear “Why are we going to that place, again?” “Return stolen merchandise.” “To return stolen mer!- wait, really?! Wohoho, and here I thought nothing interesting ever happened in boreyville!” Discord held Spike with both of his paws and elevated him ”And this is the responsible of the villainous scheme? Hahaha! Looks like there's more to this guy than meets the eye, haha!” he kept laughing oblivious of Spike's anger. Spike had sure expected Discord to be a pain to deal with, but making fun of him that way? How could he rejoice in his suffering? How could he be so careless about the others? “Discord, stop!” Twilight yelled “Put him down this instant!” “Oh?” he took a moment to stare at Spike. His eyes and fists closed, mind wandering off to anywhere but the present... “Hmm, alright.” He threw him up. “Ahhhhh!” he immediately opened his eyes to see what was going on, and there he was, flying directionless and then losing altitude, soon to hit the ground. Twilight screamed his name and hurried to reach him, but she was stopped by Discord, who put himself in front of her “Please, do you really think I would just hurt him for no reason? There,” with a snap of his fingers, a trampoline appeared below Spike... Then it exploded and burst into flames when it made contact with the dragon. “Spike!” Twilight rushed by his side, this time the fire was the thing to stop her “Can you hear me?!” “Yeah, I'm okay,” he walked out of the fire without a scratch “It's just fire, remember?” “What about the explosion?” she asked with concern “Did that hurt?” “No it didn't!” once again, Discord teleported in front of her “That's just for show, you wouldn't expect an exploding trampoline, would you? It's all in the visuals.” “That scared me! Why don't you warn before going mad?!” Spike finally showed an emotion. That's more like it. So it seemed there was still hope for the pitiful creature. As a former villan, it would be a piece of cake to find out what was on his mind and use it to have some fun. This time though, Discord's intentions were different. Obviously, Spike felt sorry for apparently stealing something, but there was an additional problem that the spirit of chaos couldn't figure out, yet it was there. He would get to the bottom of it before the dragon fell into depression. Weird as it was, depression is an emotion he totally hated. Sadness was fine; when somepony was sad and got pranked, they would often scream 'leave me alone!' or get angry. Speaking of which, anger was also great to deal with. Being chased was one of Discord's favorite hobbies (If that could be considered a hobby). Each and every emotion delivered a different reaction from his victims, and he loved all of them. After those, there was good ol' depression, which didn't trigger much more than a 'hmph' or small complaint. What kind of fun can you get out of that? Even if it meant getting to be nice to a pony, or dragon in this case, Discord would fight to free them from that dreadful feeling. “I'll try to remember warning you next time,” he said with a devilish smile “Let's go now, there's no time to lose!” another snap, and he was gone. “Where did he go? Weren't we leaving?” Twilight shrugged “I can only guess he's getting ready to go.” “What could he need?” Spike began to walk back to the castle. Now that he had a companion, he only needed to load a cart “Can't he like, create stuff out of thin air?” Twilight joined to walk by his side “Only he knows the rules of his magic, if it has any.” It wasn't early in the morning, but it wasn't late to leave either. Back at the castle, Twilight prepared some rations of food for Spike, while he finished packing what he needed. Not a word was spoken during that time. And now they stood at the gates expectantly. “Discord!” Spike called “Are you coming or what?” No response. He sat down and sighed “Well, I'll just wait for him I guess.” Twilight decided to stay by his side until Discord arrived. Just to pass time, she took a quill and paper to write down the possible places to go with her friends. She wasn't sure if they needed to keep their minds from thinking about Spike, or if she should try to assure them that he was still the friend they always knew. Unfortunately, not many options were plausible; Rainbow Dash would be back in two days and she didn't know how busy the others would be. Even if she managed to come up with the perfect day, it would be hard to have a good time after the recent events. Especially for Rarity. “Spike, be careful out there,” she began “I'll try to help you here, so you must promise to help yourself too.” Spike wrapped his arms around her neck “I will.” After a little display of affection, Discord emerged from the ground “D'awww, ain't that sweet...” Reflexively, Spike took a step back and, to divert attention, he changed the subject “Where have you been? We were waiting for half an hour!” “Twenty seven minutes is not half an hour,” Discord objected “And to answer your question, I was packing up.” “Packing what up? you're not even carrying luggage.” “Seriously? Who 'carries luggage' nowadays?” Discord engulfed the cart with a dark blue aura and made it vanish in a curtain of smoke ”There. Easier, right?” “Whatever,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “That was actually very cool in my opinion.” “Thank you, looks like at least somedragon acknowledges my power,” Discord said as he flexed his muscles. He was also wearing a white robe and a garland ”So, what are we waiting for? I have a job to do.” “Don't you mean I have a job to do?” “No.” “...” “...” “O...kay? Let's just get going, shall we?” “Lead the way, scaly,” Discord stood in his rear legs for the first time in the day and walked. “Good-bye, Twilight!” “Good-bye, Spike! ...And Discord...” “See you soon, furry,” he waved without looking back. What's with those names? Twilight thought as she went back into her palace. Her plans for that day consisted in resting a well-deserved nap after the agitated week and checking on the pendings in Ponyville. Lots of things happened in her absence, so she needed to catch up on the news. Just as she was about to lay in her bed, there was a knock on the gates. Ugh, what now? she took her time to go down the hallway “Coming,” she said in a singsong voice to disguise her frustration. Luckily for her, the frustration was gone when she saw Rarity standing with a half-hearted smile on her face. She wasn't wearning any makeup and her mane didn't look as elegant as it would look any other day. “Rarity! What a nice surprise to see you!” “Hello darling, sorry to come by unannounced.” “That's no problem at all, I wasn't doing anything important anyways,” Twilight opened wide the gates to let her friend inside, but Rarity just peeked inside. “Is Spike here?” Twilight felt a sting in her stomach after that question “No, he left a few minutes ago.” “Oh, really?” she laughed nervously “W-well, it doesn't matter, I was looking for you.” Twilight bowed her head to the right “Everything alright? You seem to have some trouble holding it together.” “Whatever do you mean, Twilight? Hehe, I'm doing p-perfectly-” “Rarity,” she cut her off. “...Y-yes?” “Do you want to talk?” Twilight smiled understanding and invited her to enter again. Instead of moving, Rarity collapsed, covered her eyes with her hooves and began to cry. Between sobs and whines, she muttered more meaningless syllables than words “Wh-a wha t'm a gonna dooooo?!” was the most understandable sentence. Having to deal with 'dramarity', as they sometimes called her, was hard enough. But when she was being dramatic over a serious situation it often took more than time and ice cream to calm her down. Twilight sat by her side and hugged her awkwardly, waiting for the unicorn to let all the stress out. After five long minutes, Rarity regained her composture. Both ponies entered the castle silently, not eager yet ready to talk. After they found a comfortable place to sit, Rarity felt the need to begin the conversation “I'll be completely honest, Twilight. I really don't know what to do.” “I think I know what the problem is,” Twilight tried to assure her. “But you don't! How could you know? There's just so many things I have to tell you!” “Then let me speak first. After all, I'm also informed on Spike's recent whereabouts and... Other recent events...” “You are?” Rarity felt a mix between relief and embarrassment. Twilight nodded “When you left the castle running, I assumed you were in a hurry, but then I heard Spike screaming and found him in his room crying. At first I thought it was your fault... Then he opened up. He told me everything.” Rarity's heart beat increased slightly “Everything?” she asked shyly “As in, everything?” Twilight sighed “Yes, Rarity, even what happened during your conversation.” A light shade of red lit her cheeks. She turned her gaze away from Twilight and opened her mouth, but said nothing. Instead, she decided to take a sip of the tea she had on a table in front of her. It wasn't a mature way to deal with it, but Twilight let her drink in peace. After she was done, Rarity herself resumed the chat “Did he mention how he got our... 'gifts'?” Twilight nodded again. “Is he planning to do something about that?” “He already has.” “Really?” Rarity was still upset, but it was good to hear Spike wasn't staying with crossed arms “How so?” “He's going to return the items. They left about half an hour ago.” “They?” "Spike and Discord.” Rarity gasped “You let him go with that monster?!” “Now Rarity, Discord might be crazy but he's still our friend.” “Why didn't you go with him? Or asked one of our friends to take him?” “Again, whether we like it or not, we have to count Discord as a friend. And I didn't help because Spike asked me to stay here in Ponyville.” “Why? Is there a problem that requires your attention?” “Close,” Twilight stood up to refill the tea jar that Rarity had emptied by herself “He asked me to spend time with you and the others. So we could finally have a good time after what's happened lately,” she smiled “That's very thoughtful of him, don't you think?” “Yes, I suppose it is...” Twilight sat on her chair again and noticed Rarity was done with the visit, or it's purpose, at least. But she wasn't. It's not gossip... It's research “Sooo... Ehm,” she cleared her throat, getting Rarity's attention “Spike mentioned... You didn't stop him while he kissed you?” “Twilight! What an uncouth and straight way to ask!” she also cleared her throat “He only... Caught me by surprise.” After a short pause, she ventured “Did you like it?” Twilight was blushing more than Rarity by that point. “...I” recalling the moment, Rarity tried to remember exactly what she felt “It was... Sweet.” Twilight listened, very curious about the chemestry behind this type of affection. “What I'm trying to say is, it wasn't forced,” she shook her head "But the simple thought is strange to me. I never imagined Spike would do that.” “Neither did I, or him.” “What was that?” “He said he couldn't imagine it either.” Rarity stayed silent. “I just have one more question though.” “What would that be?” Twilight was hesitant “...Do you like him?” Rarity disconnected from the world and entered her mind. She delved into her memory looking specifically for Spike. A seventy percent of the time, he had been a playful child. A cute baby dragon always at service with a great enthusiasm. He was great to hang out with and he was reliable for simple and complicated tasks. The other thirty percent in her mind, was the big dragon who once threatened to destroy ponyville, the dragon that risked his life to save her from danger multiple times... And the handsome dragon that had given her a delightful kiss on the lips. Strong and more caring than any stallion. Spike had been many things to her. And everytime, he was the ideal gentlecolt for his age. However, he was not the refined stallion she always wanted. His table manners were lacking, and some times his humor was childish. The biggest problem Rarity had had while interacting with Spike, was his size. No matter how old he was, he never grew an inch. Even Sweetie Belle was bigger than him. A relationship like that would look... Wrong. Anyhow, he had proven himself many times. He was no kid and even though he wasn't a high-society pony. He was one of his very best and close friends. Taking all into account, Rarity got her final answer. “No.”