The Apple for Spike

by Misty Moonshine


Prologue

The Apple for Spike
Prologue
By Misty Moonshine
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Dusk turned into dawn as two ponies trotted along the isolated streets of Ponyville. The clouds shifted slightly every few seconds and the chilly breeze made the orange mare shiver slightly. Her golden blonde mane blew sideways due to the breeze as she turned her head.
Applejack had been pregnant for two months now and she wasn't very keen on the early morning trot around the two ponies home town. Not many ponies left their homes nowadays, it was darker and gloomier than usual. The mare glanced over at her partner with a concerned expression on her freckled face, her bright green eyes sparkled with curiosity as she opened her mouth to finally break the silence surrounding them.

"Caramel?" She called to the light brown stallion with a dark brown that was walking alongside her.
"Could you please do me a favour and please tell me where we're going?" She said in her country accent.
Her finance just gave a confident smirk as his sky blue eyes glimmered with excitement.
"You'll just have to wait and see my honeybun." He said nuzzling his mare friends cheek.
Applejack smiled, she often didn't show her soft side but she really enjoyed all the nicknames her colt friend called her. Being a strong hearted country mare, the farmer didn't want many ponies to think she was a cheesy romantic pony.

As the couple walked along the main street, the small pebbles on the dirt path kicked and flicked, as if they were doing small dances. The air was quite very silent, as only the sounds of birds tweeting and crickets clicking was to be heard. Both the ponies seemed to go silent for a moment before the stallion broke in.

"Fillies first."
The country mare only just seemed to realise the wooden cart parked alongside the dirt path. Two buff stallions were waiting patiently as the mare turned a bright crimson and made her way into the carriage. The cart seemed to fit the ponies personality very well, it was beautifully structured (much like the mare) and wasn't too fancy. There was a pale red cover over the top and was perfect for two. All the features added together made any pony that was looking at it automatically see the romance in the air as both the ponies initials were carved at the back.

"Caramel, you did this for me?" The orange mare said shocked while blushing strongly and looking up at him. The stallion just smiled and stroked her mane lovingly,
"Who else?"
Applejack smiled and looked out into the horizon.
"But why?"
The colt just replied with a small smile.
"To our relationship."
"To our relationship." The mare replied with just as much enthusiasm.
The pair shared a moment before they broke into a passionate kiss.
Caramel couldn't describe his feelings for this mare, but he had a small secret she didn't know.
Applejack on the other hoof loved Caramel more than any other pony in all of Equestria, even more than Apples. She couldn't describe the fluttery feeling she had in her heart whenever he was nearby.
The two colts started clopping off as the sun began to rise.

"How romantic, and he did this all for me..." The mare muttered under her breath as she looked over the hill they were headed off for.
Applejack tilted her head and leaned onto her colt friends shoulder, she gave a small sigh and stroked his coat.


Caramel felt his face go off as his "mare friend" leaned on his shoulder, he gave her a reassuring smile as his eyes wandered over the horizon. He felt as if his heart had been stabbed by a sword. What would happen if Applejack found out that he was only dating her because he was getting paid for it. Would she leave hime? Would she throw a huge tantrum, or would she suicide? He decided at the end that he wouldn't worry about the future until it actually occurred. Caramel gave her a small kiss on the cheek before drowning in his own thoughts.
As he and Applejack grew closer, he kind of felt she was more than the target of bits, maybe this relationship was meant to be something more? Caramel was never the uptight rich snobby pony like Filthy or Spoiled Rich, he was the down to earth caring guy, the guy that was cheating on a mare that
"Deserves more than you..." He said the last part aloud by mistake as it startled a mare that was beside him.

"Car-Car? Are you alright?" She asked concerned.
"Is there something you want me to know?"

Caramel thought in his head "yes" but the words that came out of that big mouth of his were
"No it's alright darling."

Caramel sighed and reflected on his life with AJ, when he first got offered the job and met her, when they went on there first date. When he got her pregnant....
Caramel had almost forgot the event that happened two months ago.... it was really one of the toughest things he had done in his life.

Two Months Ago - Flashback

Applejack was sitting in the corner of her small room with a grin on her face looking all cute and all. A light brown colt with her. Both the ponies looked comfortable and gave each other reassuring looks.

"Are you sure about this?" The Applejack asked her colt friend who was looking around the room curiously.
"Positive." He answered.
"We've been dating for almost a year now, we're engaged so I think it's time to move up a rank."

Why in the world of Equestria did she have to agree.... he thought irritated with himself.
'WHY!?"
Applejack sat up startled.
"What in the world..."
Caramel blushed and rubbed his fore hoof along his foreleg.
'Continue?"
His mare friend smiled and nuzzled him,
"We all get it sometimes, myself included."
Caramel smiled and was thankful his "fiancé" was so understanding, if only he were her real one...

During the time the couple were talking, unknown to them a third being was on the cart, and the third seemed to be a purple and green small dragon.
The small dragon was still a child and hadn't developed the perks of a full grown yet, as he was the exact opposite of greedy. Spike the dragon was curiously listening to Applejack and Caramel talk. It wasn't that he was being a stalker, it was just out of plain curiosity as he thought. Baby Dragons weren't all that heavy and didn't make loud thuds when they walked so Spike was almost invisible. He didn't like the way Caramel was talking to Applejack.
Sure, he talked cheesy and acted that way but Spike had this strange gut feeling that he was plotting something behind the farmer's back. And, of course this was all because they were friends and just friends. Spike still couldn't get the shouts of Twilight out of his baby dragon ears.

A While Ago - Flashback

Spike was sitting on a spotted red carpet drooling over a white unicorn with a fabulous purple mane, that mare went under the name of Rarity. A beautiful name for a beautiful mare. Then, an alicorn princess walked out of the study with booked lifted by her horn.
"Spike," She started with a stern voice (you would see only on your parents when they were grounding you)
"Are you drooling over Rarity again?"
When the dragon didn't answer the alicorn began a long lecture.
"Rarity is a lot older than you Spike, she's a full grown mare and you're only a baby dragon. Besides she's my Best friend. Why don't you slow things down a bit... huh?"
Past Spike looked up at her with large emerald eyes that were watering.
"Spike don't cry! I mean no harm... no harm...shhh...momma's here...momma's here..."
Twilight sighed as she looked down at the photo a Rarity that was in her little dragons hands,
"When would he understand? It was all very mature stuff after all...?"

"Love doesn't count... it doesn't matter whom or what your true love was, it didn't because if you truely loved them you would't care." Spike thought as he continued to eavesdrop on Caramel and Applejack, and he was just close enough to catch him say...

"Dragons are really lame, my little brother had an imaginary friend that was a dragon when he was three."

Spike felt his fists clench as he heard that abusive lame Caramel continue,

"I really see why Rarity never wanted to date a dragon, I mean really!"
Applejack seemed to hesitate.
'Sure I guess, you do make a point?"

Spike felt anxious.
"So AJ didn't like him, what about his dragon's code of honour?"
Spike tried to hold back the urge of a waterfall forming in his eyes.
AJ didn't like him. She didn't. She liked Caramel. NO she loved him.

Spike tried hard to think of happy thoughts of other moments where it was just the two of them. When they were at Pinkie Pie's party and Rainbow Dash tried a stunt indoors and sprained her wing? All the other mares left to help her but Applejack volunteered to stay behind with Spike, then she secretly told him she liked him a lot... like more than friends lot. Like LOT LOT.
That was when his obsession started, and this could be the day it ended. She didn't love him, nor like him. She loved the colt that made all of Spike's days blue, and now that a murderer was on the loose, things felt even worse.