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// 17. Rocky Road 
// Story: Wanderlust 
// by DwarvishPony 
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	"So where are we headed, anyway?" Spike asked alongside the cart. After three days of riding, he and Winona really needed to stretch their legs. Winona was nearby, bounding about grabbing sticks and chasing away birds. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

"Trixie didn't tell you?" Asked Trixie with an expression that mixed confusion and surprise. "I swear I did."

"Nuh-uh. You said you were visiting an old friend, but not who they were or where they were." Spike explained, clearly recalling the details. Live with Twilight Sparkle long enough and her eidetic memory started to rub off.

"Oh, uh... Trixie was headed up to a rock farm nearby to um, visit Maud Pie." Trixie coughed and cleared her throat after saying whom she was off to visit, making it difficult to understand the last part of her sentence.

"What was that last part? You coughed and I couldn't hear it." Spike asked for clarification. "Uh, Trixie? Are you feeling okay? You're face is all red and stuff."

Trixie had indeed turned a bright shade of red as Spike pressed his line of questioning. She was kind of sweaty, too. Like whenever Spike was talking to Rar- Sweet Celestia Trixie had a crush on somepony.

"You like somepony at this rock farm." Spike grinned slyly. "Who is it? Do I know him?" Spike climbed onto Trixie's riding platform and sat next to the uncomfortable mare, eager for details.

"Um, I-I-I was just in the mood for visiting a friend who helped Trixie out after her first disagreement with Twilight Sparkle." Disagreement. She'd boiled down the fiasco that ended with an Ursa Minor rampaging in Ponyville down to the word disagreement. Had Spike not been enjoying seeing Trixie squirm, he would have called her on that one.

"Oh yeah? I remember you saying you worked on a rock farm for a bit. Which one? Do I know anypony there?" At this point, Spike saw staring into Trixie's eyes, as if attempting to mesmerize the poor mare into spilling the beans.

"Perhaps? She's uh, she's one of Pinkie Pie's sisters. Her name is Maud." Trixie tilted her head downward in defeat. Her dragon companion wasn't going to let this one go.

"No way! You have a thing for Maud! How come Maud never told anypony you two were special someponies?" Spike chuckled. Trixie blushed. Winona ran up next to the cart to see what the ruckus was about.

"I- That is- Trixie-" Trixie kept starting her sentence over, unable to find the words she so desperately sought. She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Trixie isn't sure what she feels towards Maud. And Maud probably isn't interested in being special someponies with a mare that's more apt to be travelling the world than spending time with her. Not that Trixie is looking to be special someponies with Maud or anything. Trixie is simply hoping to someday return the favor Maud did her when she let Trixie work on the Pie Rock Farm."

Spike seemed to accept this, and rode in silence from that point on. In truth, his mind was oddly filled with mushy stuff like finding a way for Maud to like Trixie back. But something like that would take something Spike rarely did unless gemstones were involved: planning.