Gridlocked

by The Young and Free Dragon

Somepony Better

Once again, thanks for the comments. A special thank you to Cerulean Starlight for catching mistakes I missed.

GRIDLOCKED
BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

There is love
Burning to find you
Will you wait for me?
Will you be there?

-My Curse by Killswitch Engage

CHAPTER TWO: SOMEPONY BETTER

Twilight's head slid off her hoof, and her face landed in her book, interrupting her snoring. She sat up, looking around wildly for a moment and then sighed. A frown crossed her face as she realized she had been up all night, looking for answers to her problem with Spike. Thankfully Pinkie Pie had worn him out last night, and he'd fallen asleep towards the end of the party. She hated avoiding Spike so much, but she was afraid he would make another... suggestion. Even worse, what if he made a move at her? She could barely contain the urge to kick him right now, let alone stop herself if that happened. She pressed her hooves to her temples and rolled them in circles.

She had to calm down. This was Spike after all. Her baby brother... practically. He'd been with her for so long now, it at least seemed that way. When she thought about him, she sometimes even forgot he was a dragon until the image of him popped up in her head to remind her. She often imagined a young, handsome stallion. She sometimes wished that was what he was, but pushed the thought away. He was like a little brother. And as her mind became satisfied with that thought, another part whispered; like.

She pushed it all away. She still hadn't figured out what he had been up to while she had been hiding from him, and she still had no idea what she would do to avoid him. She glanced up at the clock and began to panic even more. Spike usually got up in thirty minutes or so. She almost bolted for the door, but stayed her hooves and bit her lip, forcing herself to think. She had studying to do. She was (as always) a little ahead with her study, but she had given no friendship report and she had been giving one every day for the past week or so. Another report or at least an explanation was expected (not required but...).

She grit her teeth and glanced toward the bedroom where they slept. She had to work with Spike today. If not, she would be letting Celestia down, and that simply wouldn't do. She knew of course her mentor would understand, but she'd rather not explain the circumstances behind it. She heard a thump as Spike rolled out of bed and her muscles tightened. He arrived in the library, smacking his lips, trying to rid them of the taste of morning. His eyes were half lidded and she couldn't quite tell from where she was what color his eyes were and she didn't want to come any closer.
“Good morning Spike.” She said nervously.
“Morning.” He said, rubbing his eyes. “What has you up so early?”
“Oh, just getting an early start on what we missed yesterday.” She said, with a small smile.
“We're ahead though, what's the rush?” He asked, starting to walk a bit closer.

Twilight quickly used her magic to drop a load of books in his arms as he approached, stopping him from getting too near. She felt a twinge of guilt over pushing him away but she couldn't help herself. It was all she could do to stop herself from freaking out on him.
“I mean to stay ahead. Can you begin looking through these for a flower like this one?” She said, hovering a book over him, opened to a page of a dark blue flower. She really didn't need to know about the flower, but it was the best she could pull out of thin air.
“I haven't had breakfast yet.” Spike complained, standing up and brushing himself off.
“Well... just grab something to snack on and bring it up here. Nothing messy!”

She didn't mind getting him out of there, though he seemed to be acting as he normally did. As he left to grab something, she suddenly realized her mistake and rushed downstairs slamming the cupboard door shut as Spike was about to reach in for something.
“Hey, what gives?” He asked, frowning at her.
“Let me get you something.” She said.

There was no way she was going to let him get another piece of the gemstone, if he had indeed returned to normal. Spike sighed.
“I can handle it myself, Twilight.”
“I know, I just want to do it for you. I'll make us some flower pancakes for us both.”
“Isn't that all sticky? Didn't you want things non-messy?”
“We can stay down here and eat and wash up afterward.”
“I thought you wanted to get an early start on our work?” Spike asked, raising and eyebrow, becoming suspicious.
“Oh it can wait.” She said, nervously and rushing over to get some bowls and began mixing the batter. “I'd like to have a nice breakfast with you.”

She knew she was making a spectacle of herself and she hated it, but she hadn't had time to think everything through. Spike crossed his arms and frowned at her nodding and agreeing. Once she had finished mixing it, she set the batter out on the counter and looked around the kitchen for some flower petals to season it with. There were none that looked particularly good this morning.
“I'm going to get some flowers from the market for the batter.” She said.
“Ah, Twilight!” Spike groaned, his stomach letting out a moan as well.
“And you're coming with me.” She said, opening the door and stepping out.
“Why do I have to?”
“You need the exercise. Come on.”
“Ugh alright.” He groaned, shaking his head. “Hold on just a minute.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow but nodded and glanced around outside as she waiting. It was a few quiet minutes before he appeared outside. They set off for the market and Twilight found some rather tasty looking flowers and they returned without much event. Spike stirred as she put the pedals in and she began making the pancakes. Once finished they sat at the table with a pile of pancakes each as Twilight summoned the syrup and poured some on Spike's cakes for him. He thanked her and quickly began digging into his. Twilight didn't feel that hungry. She was tired and worried about this whole thing. It seemed to have passed, but she would have to get rid of the gem discretely, as well as find out who sent it, just in case they sent more. As she thought of this and stared at her pancakes, she noticed a red dot on one.

It was rather large and the flower she had used was white. She summoned her fork and used it to dig the dot out. It turned out to be a chunk of a hard red stone. She let out a squeal and pushed the pancakes away with her magic, a little too hard and splattered them all over Spike and his surroundings.
“Twilight...” Spike began, lifting one of the pancakes off of his eye but she cut him off.
“What's this?!” She cried, levitating the stone at his eye level.
“A piece of the gemstone. I thought it might spice of the pancakes and it did.” He said.

Twilight had to grit her teeth from crying out in fear and frustration. She began calming herself in her mind. Okay, so he put it in. You didn't eat any. Spike got through about one and a half of his pancakes, so it probably didn't add up to as big of a piece as he ate earlier that caused him to act the way he did. He isn't showing signs now, maybe it isn't enough to trigger that in him.
“How do you feel?” She asked, tilting her head.
“Um... fine...” He said, tilting his head as well.

Twilight silent whispered; “Okay” to herself and closed her eyes trying to cool her mind down further. As she sighed, relaxed finally by her thoughts she heard something that made her chest tighten up again.
“How about you?”
How about you? Somehow, it just didn't seem like the thing Spike would say. Especially not if he was confused. What he had just asked sounded confident and unfaltering. She opened an eye slowly and saw him resting his chin on his fist, staring at her dreamily. His eyes were now a light pink.

Twilight nearly threw him through the window, but settled for falling back into her seat and readying her hooves to carry her as far away as possible.
“Spike...” She said slowly, cautiously.
“Yes?” He asked, tilting his head.
“Are you... how about... we get to work?”
“Sure thing.” He said, simply.

It was all she could think of. She had no choice. She nodded to herself and they headed upstairs. She directed him to a pile of books and told him to begin searching them for information on the history of the “Running of the Leaves”. She opened a book on gemstones herself and began looking. She didn't remember which book she had found the information before in. Her studying was not made easy by the fact that she could feel Spike's eyes on her, almost every time she looked down into her book, and she kept glancing up at him to make sure that he wasn't watching. If he was, he would quickly put his nose back in his book whenever she looked up. After an hour or so, she decided to test him, to see if he was actually gathering anything useful, or just sneaking peaks at her.
“What have you got so far?” She asked.

He looked up at her, his eyes dreamy as they always seemed to be when under the influence of the stone, and didn't answer.
“Spike!”
He seemed to snap out of it, shaking his head though his eyes still did not go back to normal.
“Oh, yes Twilight?”
“What have you got so far?” She repeated.
He looked down at his book and back up at her.
“Not much really... this book doesn't have anything good in it.”
She had to give him credit, he had thought fast. She couldn't quite counter that but she could try to trap him.
“Then why not move on to this book.” She said, levitating a book called; “The History of the Running of the Leaves”. “In fact, why didn't you start here?”

She could see the gears in his mind turning as he thought of some excuse. She had to say, she preferred this Spike to the one who had previously asked if they were about to have sex. This one seemed a lot less blunt, and more like a clumsy boy, dealing with a huge crush. It still wasn't like Spike, because he was quite confident, but it was at least better.
“You never know what you might find in books like this.” He said, tapping the one he had been pretending to read.
She lifted it so she could see what it was called and raised an eyebrow at him, inwardly sighing to herself.
“Certainly not anything we're looking for. This is a book on leaves.” She pointed out.
“You never know...” He shrugged before burping and with a burst of green fire, a scroll appeared.
He unraveled it and read it out loud: “My faithful student, Twilight. I did not receive a report on your findings yesterday, and I have sent this letter just to check on you. As you well know, you do not have to report everyday, but I was just making sure you were alright since you had kept such steady contact with me. Please respond.”

Twilight placed a hoof on her forehead and sighed. She wished she had something to give Princess Celestia, but she hadn't found out anything, and had been searching for solutions to her own problems. She felt guilty for being so selfish. The least she could do was respond.
“Spike, take a note.” She said, and continued as Spike scrambled for a piece of paper. “Dear Princess Celestia, I am sorry I did not give a report, or send a message yesterday. I was dealing with problems of my own and I forgot to send one. I'm very sorry, and I will make sure to have something for you today.”
She looked to Spike, and was about to tell him to send it when she noticed that Spike was staring at her instead of finishing up the rest of the note.
“Did you get all that Spike?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh.” He snapped out of his daze and read back what he had written; “Dear.”
“Spike!” Twilight cried in frustration. “I need you to pay attention!”
“I'm sorry!” He said. “I was noticing your mane looks a bit frizzy... Not that you don't still look good of course!”

Twilight blushed. She wasn't going to argue with a compliment, and as she drew a hoof through her mane subconsciously, it was a bit frizzy and out of shape. Probably from her long night and not grooming herself this morning. She suddenly felt embarrassed for Spike to see her this way, but flattered that he'd been sensitive to say she still looked good, even if she didn't. Did she really? She was about to ask, but cut herself off and closed her eyes, frustrated with herself, before continuing.
“I know Spike, I didn't have time to wash it and comb it out this morning. But that's not-...”
“I think it's more from stress,” He interjected. “Probably from staying up all night, looking for whatever it was you were searching for.”
“That's... How did you know I was up all night? You fell asleep at the party.” She said, tilting her head and giving him a suspicious look.

Spike blushed and scratched the ground with one of his feet. She drew back a little, surprised by the way he was acting. So embarrassed and sensitive... nothing like Spike really. The gem must have been really messing with his head. She felt bad for him, despite herself. He really had no hoof... or claw in the matter. He had just been being himself and someone had put a spell or something on him that had made him go after her. He would probably be revolted if he knew what he was doing. Fear suddenly gripped her stomach. What if the spell or potion, or even the gem itself was deadly? Could it be venomous to a young dragon like Spike? The common cold certainly knocked the kid off his feet...

She was so caught up in thought that she missed Spike's explanation and snapped back to reality whenever she saw him putting on a face that seemed to be asking for something.
“I'm sorry, what?” She asked.
“I hate to see you looking so worse for wear. Could I wash your mane, and brush it while you study?” He asked, looking at her hopefully.

Something about his pleading, pink eyes was hard to resist and for a moment, he looked cute. In what way, Twilight wasn't sure. Maybe cute as in when he was first hatched, or maybe cute as in an attractive sort of way. But either way, she didn't like it and pushed it away, just like everything else. But it was still hard to resist.
“... Okay.” She sighed finally.
She couldn't keep a small smile from forming on her face as his entire body seemed to fill with joy and he hopped up to go and prepare some water to wash her mane. But she had to get some work done. She began searching for the gem again.

[][][]

Twilight was cursing herself as she looked through the book. Spike was brushing her mane and running his claws through it to bring its smoothness back. She had ended up letting him wash her entire body (except down there of course) and she was frustrated once more. She had only let him because he had offered and... well it had felt pretty good with Spike touching her. Not in any sort of sexual way, and she kept telling her brain it wasn't that. It just felt good to have him touching her, whether he was stroking and cleaning her or punching her (not that he had ever done that). Now she couldn't concentrate on the book as he brushed her. Her eyes would run across the words, and once they got to the end of a line, they would keep going, past the edge of the page and to what part of Spike she could see. He had grown quite a lot...She grit her teeth and focused on a single word in her book, trying to get her attention back to the task at hoof.

Suddenly, she had an idea. Of course! She almost yelled. She would have to put one of her friends in an uncomfortable position but she could explain it later. After all, she simply could not concentrate while Spike was around her.

Comments

[The Dragon Warlock]

I wonder where this is all headed.

[godf0006]

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