Chapter 5
The next few days came and went without incident, but I was aware enough to recognize that Twilight was intentionally avoiding me, since she had taken to teleporting directly from her room or study to wherever she needed to be in the castle, so as to hopefully avoid talking to me. It hurt a bit that she went to such lengths simply because of what I had said to her, but I also can’t say I didn’t expect such behavior, either. With that in mind, after the first day of her antics, I chose to spend most of the following days out among the town.
Rarity had done her best to console me, but despite the whole situation, I took a sick bit of pleasure in laying a surprisingly satisfying “I told you so” speech on her. Fortunately, I knew worrying about what was going to happen between Twilight and I wouldn’t help the situation, so I just spent my nights at friends’ houses to give her the space she needed to think through everything.
Besides all that though, life in Ponyville proceeded as normal, even with a timberwolf encroachment and a group of hydras that had settled in too close to the town, the latter of which I dealt with myself. Ponyville was a flourishing town after all, but the truth of the matter was that it was surrounded by many different dangerous areas, which spawned all sorts of beasties that could terrorize the citizens. Seeing as how I was the most hardy resident that lived in Ponyville, I usually took it upon myself to usher these undesirables further away from town, though I sometimes asked Fluttershy for help. Among my usual duties of tending to Twilight and being the unofficial secretary of Equestria’s most recent princess, keeping the ponies of Ponyville safe from baddies kept things interesting.
It was the day just before the weekend when things calmed down finally, which left me without much to do other than sit by myself in the park and watch the day go by.
The main plaza of Ponyville had been built up into a lush, green park years ago, and that park surrounded the town hall. It was a place for young ponies to play and lovers to bask in nature’s beauty, which only added to the appeal of Ponyville. Ever since Twilight ascended those many years ago, ponies from all over began flocking to the small town, turning it into a near-city in its own right. Because of that, Ponyville as a whole had been renovated, and much of it was modernized. Traditional landmarks such as Sweet Apple Acres stayed the same however, which kept the warm, close-knit atmosphere from leaving Ponyville as it grew and matured.
It was always interesting to see how much the ponies of town had changed over the years. For example, the “Crusaders” had all matured, and while they would still often be seen together throughout town, they were now mares in their own right, with lives of their own. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were still Ponyville’s native upper-class, but their haughtiness had died down, and they were now respected members of the community that while not as kind as Fluttershy by any means, still showed respect where it was due and offered kind words and smiles to strangers and friends alike. New foals had taken the place of the colts and fillies I grew up with, but Ponyville was still a family-centric town through and through, and it was for that reason that I loved living here.
Ponyville as a whole had grown to become very warm and accepting of differences and the uniqueness of those who resided in it, which was also a great attribute.
It was in the park plaza that I found myself, going over paperwork and forms in the comfortable outdoors while life went on around me. The sounds of young ponies playing and laughing could be heard as they reveled in their weekend time off, and even though work bogged me down, I couldn’t help but smile. It was atmospheres like this that made Ponyville such a nice place to live, and I, personally, believed it was why so many chose to stay instead of move away. This all evened out the burden of parchment in my lap, making for a decent workday as I relaxed underneath a sparsely-leafed tree. The past few hours had been monotonous, but easygoing for the most part. It’s true that autumn in Ponyville was famous for its windy days, so I had been forced to chase down a page or two whenever I was caught off-guard by a wayward gust. Still, I enjoyed the cool air of late autumn.
Most of my friends were busy -- especially Rarity, who was working avidly on her winter clothing line -- which left me to get a head start on work for the coming month. Let it be said that the life of a national hero wasn’t all fame and glory; eventually, we all have to get back to normal life, and for me, that meant a lot of forms to sign off on and budgets to balance. Governmental forms and audits didn’t just happen after all, so I took it upon myself to do the more mundane work while Twilight focused on the more political matters.
Just as I was looking over a month-to-date fiscal report for Ponyville, a sharp whistle from off to the side caught my attention, and I brought my eyes up to see a familiar changeling strutting toward me. “Strutting” was the only way to describe the type of gait that Lyla naturally used, as nothing else truly did it justice.
“Yoohoo, darling!” she called to me, adding a bit more hip sway as she made her way to me.
I chuckled and shook my head. “Don’t do that; it doesn’t suit you.”
Lyla focused her shimmering aqua eyes on me before popping her hip out and resting a hand on it. “You like it when Rarity does it.”
“She nibbles my bottom lip after we kiss, too; are you going to do that as well?” I snarked, thinking I had won our short little verbal chess game.
Lyla placed a finger on her lips and turned her eyes skyward, mock-thinking aloud. “That depends...how long is your tongue?”
Checkmate: Lyla 12, Spike 2. To think after years of knowing each other and my own mental and emotional maturity, Lyla still knew hot to make me blush like an idiot. It doesn’t do much to strengthen my facade of being a cool, chilled-out adult in Ponyville, that’s for sure. Neither did it help that Lyla loved wearing form-fitting clothing
“So, why so glum, chum?” Lyla playfully quipped as she took a seat next to me. I sighed and held up the stack of forms I still had left to sign off on, which was nearly an inch thick. She whistled before resting against the trunk of the tree we sat under. “Well, can’t help you with that. I’m open to keeping you company until you finish, though.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I nodded to her. “Sounds nice, Lye.” I continued my work as I felt Lyla’s weight settle against me, just enjoying the cool air and the company of a good friend.
I offered small talk here and there as the hours passed, while Lyla kept my mind off of the boring monotony of my work, as well as...other things. Thankfully for me she never asked why Twilight and I hadn’t been spending much time together lately, though I suppose it wasn’t exactly a secret. For now though, I just chose to enjoy the company of a friend who didn’t ask questions.
In a few ways, changelings were a lot easier to understand than ponies were. Their magic was specialized for the most part, save for levitation and a few battle spells, and their bodies were pretty similar among others of the same caste. Beyond that though, changelings wore their emotions on their sleeves -- you could always tell what a changeling was feeling, and they never tried to hide it. In changeling culture, it was considered an insult to hide things from close friends or family members, and the hive-mind (it was a thing, apparently) pretty much cut privacy out. It took some time to get Lyla used to the pony world, which was a fair bit more private than that of changelings, but she had settled in rather well.
It was by this token that I learned pretty early on just how “connected” to me Lyla felt.
It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I had a personal hand in welcoming her to Ponyville and Equestria as a whole, as well as making sure she was protected from any retaliation because of the event at Shining and Cadence’s wedding. There were a few...less than ideal instances of said retaliation (as well as a hospital visit for Lyla), which ended with Twilight nearly screaming at the entire town from atop our home. After that, Lyla and I became nearly connected at the hip. I nursed her back to health and eased her into friendships with all of the rest of the Elements, which began to slowly change the way the town felt about her. It took some time -- and more than a few talks with the more prominent members of town -- but eventually Ponyville tolerated Lyla just fine...and in time, even grew to like her.
As time went on, Lyla and I spent more and more time together outside of practicality, to the point where we were meeting a few times a day, every day. Our visits with each other toned down once she had her own place, but we stayed close over the years. We met at least every other day since then, more often when Twilight or I needed something fixed (Lyla was good at fixing things), but generally we made it a point to see each other at least twice a week. Being Lyla’s direct contact with the princesses of Equestria wasn’t the reason, though; instead, it was because we enjoyed the time we shared together.
The current time we shared, for example, was quite nice. Resting against the tree with Lyla, I soon found all forms of tension leaving my body as I enjoyed the autumn air.
The day passed unbearably fast for me, though that made sense seeing as how I had fallen asleep in the park with Lyla. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to put all the papers back into a folder before doing so, otherwise my work would have been spread all across Ponyville. Still, I felt a little bad that instead of coming up with something fun and exciting to do, Lyla and I just fell asleep. Lyla didn’t seem to mind, however, and I had a sneaking suspicion she knew I was mentally burnt-out by more than just the paperwork.
Lyla wasn’t like Pinkie nor Fluttershy in the sense that she would try and cheer me up, and nor was she like Twilight and Rarity, who would try and get me to talk about what was bothering me. Instead, whenever I was down for some reason, she would keep me company and offer her comforting presence until I decided I was ready to talk about what had me bothered. I mentally thanked her for that, since I was in no mood to have someone poking and prodding at me for info. Sure she could be a bit of a handful sometimes when she was being particularly amorous, but when it came right down to it, she was a great friend who had proven herself time and time again.
Unfortunately, the day had to end, and I found myself standing in front of the castle doors. I mentally chuckled at how it likely looked as if Lyla had escorted me home after a date, but brushed the thought aside. Besides the fact that I was fairly sure Lyla preferred those of the female persuasion, I had more than enough on my plate at the moment when it came to relationships. Adding a flirty changeling that had little to no shame with PDA would only complicate things, and I didn’t want to damage any more relationships if at all possible.
With a sigh, I turned toward Lyla with a smile. “Thanks for the company today, Lye. I needed it more than I thought.”
With a smile she clasped her hand on my shoulder affectionately. “Of course, Spike. You know I’m always here for you.” She then inclined her head to the castle we stood in front of. “Get some rest. You seem like you need it.”
I nodded tiredly, but smiled nonetheless. “Thanks, Lye. You take care of yourself.” She nodded shallowly before turning and jogging away, leaving me to enter the crystalline tree-castle alone.
The overly-large front door gave way to a long entryway that led to a dais some hundred or so feet away -- which, considering the size of the entire castle, should have been impossible. Twilight had once explained it as “subspace organic spell matrices working in tandem to produce reality-bending compact volumes in real spacetime”. I simplified her explanation to “it’s bigger on the inside”. We happened to be having said conversation at a small outdoor cafe in town, and Timeturner chuckled for some reason when he heard it in passing -- I’m still not sure why. Regardless, because of said somehow-possible magic that the crystalline structure produced naturally, the deceptively-compact design of the castle gave way to an interior that rivaled Canterlot Palace in size. It really freaked me out the first few times, as trying to find my way through our home was like walking backwards through a maze with a blindfold on and one leg, but Twilight had come up with a very simple and practical solution to the entire dilemma: maps. Most public rooms within the castle had a map framed on one of the walls, which allowed those visiting or petitioning to make their ways through the place without getting lost for hours.
“I’m home!” I called through the empty throne room as I made my way toward the rear of the dais, where the stairs that led to the royal apartments resided. One thing was for sure: without Twilight answering me the past few days, the entire castle didn’t feel like home anymore. My voice seemed to echo more across the empty rooms, and the faint ringing of the crystal walls when they reverberated made it seem as if the castle itself was weeping.
Twilight’s study beside the stairs showed signs of work having been done, so I dropped off the paperwork I had finished on the desk before making my way up the spiral stairwell. My gait could certainly be called “trudging” at this point, as I was more exhausted than I would have liked. As I mentioned before, Twilight and I had trouble sleeping if we didn’t mutter our words of affection to each other at least once a day, so it goes without saying that with Twilight avoiding me, my nights had been restless at best. Rarity and I also weren’t at the place in our relationship where we would be sharing a bed every night either, so more often than not I was forced to stare at the ceiling of my quarters as the hours passed.
With a quiet sigh of defeat, I made my way to my room.
Something else that being a dragon made easy was grooming and hygiene. Since I didn’t sweat or have hair to catch dirt and debris, I technically needed to shower much less often than ponies did. Of course, I still showered every day simply because of habit, but if I were to go three or four days without a bath, I wouldn’t stink like a pony would. In addition, I could be in and out of the shower in three minutes, as I only really needed to rinse off unless I had actually come in contact with something distinctly filthy. Twilight, on the other hand, could often take an hour or more, seeing as how she had a coat of fur, a mane and tail, and wings to wash.
This is all pertinent information because of what I was doing as evening gave way to night, since I was bored and too tired to do anything besides clean up and go lay down. With that being the case, I had gathered a clean pair of underwear and walked down the hallway in my robe, towel in hand, to hopefully put another day of mundanity behind me.
Arriving at the shared washroom, I knocked and listened for any indication of occupation before opening the door and locking it behind me. I ran my eyes over the odd setup that Twilight had installed a few years ago, which was a style that she had fallen in love with during her visit to the far eastern nation of Neighpon. It took some getting used to, but being able to soak in a steaming bath for an hour or so after washing was pretty nice, I’ll admit.
Stripping off my robe and placing the towel on a rack, I turned on the faucet that would auto-fill the tub before making my way to the shower head and taking a seat on the small stool. I turned the knob to scalding before pulling on it, causing a spray of magically heated water to come pouring out. I methodically went about washing myself down -- paying special attention to my wings -- before shutting the water off and stepping over to the tub.
The water was pleasantly hot as I stepped in, and I released a sigh of pleasure as I eased myself in, taking care not to sit on my wings. While it was true I barely felt the heat through my hide, I soaked more for the hot, moist air that always seemed to relax me as I breathed it in. With nothing left to do but enjoy myself, I sat against the molded backrest and let my mind wander.
Knocks at the door roused me, and brought me back to the waking world. Realizing I had fallen asleep during my soak, I clambered out of the tub and pulled the plug, allowing the now-lukewarm water to drain. I quickly toweled myself dry before slipping on my underwear and donning my robe, then made my way to the door.
While I should have been happy that Twilight was actually purposefully approaching me (as it wouldn’t have been anyone else), I couldn’t help but snarl out, “What do you want?”
“...can we talk?” Twilight’s cracking voice answered through the door.
I couldn’t help a growl as it escaped my mouth, but opened the door fully and stood before the now-blushing princess. “What do you want, Twilight?”
“I…” she croaked out before clearing her voice, “I just wanted to talk about-”
“Oh, now Twilight wants to talk.” I interrupted, laying the snark on thickly. “Thank the Maiden Ponyville’s princess has decided to grace me with her presence after three days! Oh praise thee Faust, for you have blessed me today!” For some reason I couldn’t stop the words, and all my frustration boiled over for some reason. Flaring my wings and growling threateningly, I took a step closer to the smaller pony and shouted, “You swore you would never send me away or abandon me, yet the first thing you do when there’s any sort of stress between us is run away and ignore me!”
Twilight was nearly cowering now, and while I should have felt bad for how intimidated she suddenly was, I felt too upset to care.
“S-Spike, I just-”
“No,” I spat angrily, “shut up; you don’t get to talk right now. You’re going to sit there and listen to me, because unlike you, I never got to talk with anypony about this.” At her surprised expression, I nodded. “Yeah, I know you talked to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash about this. You know who I talk to -- who I bare my soul to -- when I’m upset?” I reached forward and firmly, yet gently, poked Twilight in the chest. “I talk to you. Not Rarity and not even Lyla are my first choices -- I seek you out first, because I know that you’ll understand me better than anyone ever has or will. And yet, here I was needing you, and you were only thinking about yourself and how stressful this was for you. Must be nice to have the ponies you confide in there for you when you need them.”
Twilight was the very picture of shame, with splayed ears, droopy posture, and eyes unable to meet my own. I never thought in a million years that it would be satisfying to intentionally make a pony feel bad, but wow, was it nice; I’d probably feel bad about it later, but in my emotional state I couldn’t find myself caring much.
I guess it’s true what they say: hurt ponies hurt ponies.
As the inferno bled away, a cold pit of ice was left in my stomach. “You give me no explanation, and instead of doing the sensible thing and politely turning me down, you immediately cut me out of your daily life. I told you I wanted to share my heart with you, and you ran without even telling me why.”
“I WAS AFRAID!” she suddenly shouted, bringing her magical voice to bear for one of the few times since she’d gained the ability.
Surprise warred with smoldering rage, and somehow won out, only to be replaced with concerned confusion. “Afraid of what?”
Twilight fell to her knees in front of me, and began sobbing as she brokenly answered, “...o-of lo-hoo-sing y-you!” She broke down into complete hysterics as she wrapped her wings about her body and shook with tears and sorrow.
At seeing Twilight so broken over such an innate fear for her, the remainder of my anger fled, replaced only with utter concern for the pony I was closest to in the world. Kneeling and wrapping my arms and wings around her, I placed her head under my chin and held her close as she continued to weep loudly.
After nearly ten minutes of this, her cry-heaving tapered off into mere sniffles, at which point I spoke to her once again. “No matter what happens between us or what trials may come our way, you will never lose me.” I sighed and held Twilight a little tighter, and felt her wings unfurl a bit as her own hands reached out for me. We held each other in silence for a few more moments, but I knew the issue between us needed to be addressed. “If you don’t feel for me the way I do you, that’s fine. I knew in the back of my mind there was always the chance that you would turn me down, but that won’t change the fact that I will always be here for you, no matter what.”
“Could you really still be around me if you knew we could never be together?” she murmured quietly, almost pleadingly.
I nodded solemnly. “Yes. It will be a little uncomfortable for awhile, but I’ll get over it and things will go back to how they’ve always been. Our friendship will trump whatever other issues we have every time, and nothing is ever going to change that.” For another few moments all was quiet, until I queried, “So, are you ready to tell me why you ‘just can’t’?”
Twilight flinched noticeably, but didn’t pull away as she muttered, “Romantic love is one of the things I’m just not good at, Spike. Every attempt has ended in failure, and I just can’t risk damaging our relationship. You mean too much to me for me to risk anything like that.”
“Hiding things and ignoring each other damages the relationship too.” I added with a sigh of frustration. “However,” I pulled away from her, holding Twilight at arm’s length, “if you’re really so against it, then I won’t bother you about it again.”
Twilight lowered her eyes and nodded shallowly. “O-okay, Spike. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head with a flat look. “Don’t apologize for saying ‘no’, Twi. I’ll love you no matter what, and that’ll never change.”
Twilight nodded once more before looking down and blushing. “U-um Spike...your robe fell off.”
I glanced down and noticed my nearly-naked body was exposed. “So it has; sorry about that.”
I had never understood the need to wear clothes really, seeing as how all my “parts” were internal unless I chose otherwise, but it was one of the many things I had gone along with to make it more comfortable for ponies to be around me. So, with a flick of my wings, the robe draped itself over my shoulders once more as I stood.
Now “decent”, I turned my gaze toward Twilight again and smiled gently. “Well, I’ll let you get off to bed then. And…” I cleared my throat nervously as I prepared to apologize for my actions, “and I’m sorry for yelling at you.”
Twilight’s face was a little flushed, but she shook her head and smiled at me. “It’s okay, Spike; I probably would have had the same reaction, honestly.” As I turned away, I was stopped as she blurted out, “W-wait!”
I turned around with my brow raised. “Yeah Twi?”
Twilight shuffled on her feet, looking down at the ground shyly as she did a very accurate impersonation of Fluttershy. “Um...c-could you stay with me tonight; you know, l-like you used to?”
Something about the way the situation was headed just screamed “bad” at me, but I couldn’t help but melt under Twilight’s teary-eyed pleading. So, with a sigh, I nodded. “Fine...just let me go and get some pajamas on.”
I knocked at the door to Twi’s private quarters, which only a second later opened by way of a magenta aura. I stepped inside and closed it behind me, seeing Twilight had already settled herself under the sheets, wearing only one of my long shirts that I’d given to her years ago to sleep in on a trip we took out of Equestria. In honesty I didn’t know why she still had the old thing, but that wasn’t really for me to question. I was in her room after all, so if she had chosen to sleep in lingerie or even naked, who was I to say no?
And I’ll admit I had to steel myself as the latter thoughts cropped up.
Twilight pat the space next to her with a gentle smile. “C’mon Spike, I haven’t slept in days. Let’s get to sleep so we can get up early tomorrow.”
Knowing exactly what she meant by the lack of sleep, I made my way to her bed and slid in beside Twilight, shifting for a moment to allow my wings the space to comfortably rest. Twilight then shuffled over to me and grasped my arm with her own before laying her head on my chest and sighing happily. I could only look down at the smaller form against me, thinking about just how doomed I was when it came to getting over Twilight’s refusal.
“I love you, Spike…” Twilight murmured quietly.
Unable to keep from replying, I muttered a heartfelt, “Love you too, Twi. Get some sleep.”
Silence reigned for only a few minutes before Twilight’s soft snores began to issue forth, which left me to stare at the ceiling as my emotions warred with one another. On the one hand, Twilight had pretty much denied my request to join Rarity and I and form a herd, but at the same time she was now holding herself against me in a way I imagined she would if we were together. Sleep eluded me as my heart both throbbed with elation and ached at the same time, so I was able to do little more than lay still and let Twilight sleep.
I turned my head and looked down at the slumbering alicorn, and was unable to restrain a smile from crossing my lips. Maybe, just for tonight, I could pretend -- I could pretend that Twilight had said yes to me, and that she had told me that she loved me the same way I did her.
Pulling my arm from Twilight’s grasp, I instead wrapped it around her and pulled her body right up against mine. A sleepy hum of happiness was her response as she rested her head against me again, and without thinking, I brushed the bangs away from her horn and leaned down to press a soft kiss just at the base. Twilight squirmed in her sleep and hummed once again in approval, and I felt as one of her wings extended to cover my body.
I could only sigh in happiness as well, and closed my eyes for some much-needed sleep.
‘What are you doing, Spike?’
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I don't know what to make of this development, but I get the feeling that this isn't going to resolve itself so easily.
Well, an alright chapter. You are infodumping a lot still, though this time Lye seemed somewhat natural at least.
Man Twi is being an idiot, it seems. Though I frankly don't think Spike is in the right being angry that she wasn't there to talk about it. He is right in being miffed that she avoided the issue, though it is an understandable reaction. But you can't blame your favorite confiding-buddy for not being there to confide in, when the subject is the confiding-buddy. That's just simple logic.
Still, alright little chapter.
Was that last bit his conscious, Twilight, or someone else?
All the yes. Another fantastic chapter. A tad shorter than the majority, but still an excellent chapter none the less. Love it.
I'm glad the tension has tremendously declined between them, at least for now anyway.
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i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/017/204/CaptainAmerica1_zps8c295f96.JPG
Interesting. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Great chapter, but, Twilight needs to pony up and return his feelings in full, if those are the only reasons she has to not be with him.
Other then that, please continue!
...
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Maybe Luna?
5866753 It would make sense.
Yay update
Here you go
5866629 (i know this is two days late. sorry)
i'm hoping that twilight winds up confessing out of sheer personal pressure from watching all these other ponies get to have a happy relationship with spike, while she sits on the sidelines for no other reason than she's afraid. she'll know she has no one to blame but herself, and that fact will tear her apart until she breaks down and confesses.
The more cuteness of all time
... just preceding the most embarrassing moment of his entire life.
Daw cute.
This story is so good. I bet Twilight will slowly end up getting jealous over Rarity and Spike soon and I can't wait to see how the rest of the mane 6 fall for Spike. I bet Rainbow Dash was awake when she slid over next to Spike and I'm sure Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy wants Spike as well, they just aren't open with it...yet.
This story is too good, keep up de magics!
6169973
And here I am, carefully pointing out that AJ is ALREADY in a relationship in this fic, so, no SpikeXComplete-Mane-6
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You can blame them if that buddy knows she is the only one you confide in while she has others to confide in and just leaves you there high and dry to suffer. I think Spike's anger is definitely founded. As well as his apology afterwards greatly appreciated and the right thing to do.
5866682
Pretty much
Yeah twilight is going to join soon or eventually