Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests

by B_25

23 – "Thank you."

~23~

"Thank you."

The moon had reached its apex in the starlit indigo nighttime sky by the time the rain finally ceased, and the gray clouds responsible for the frozen droplets to fade out from existence. Most of Ponyville’s citizens already laid asleep in their beds and their unconscious state cared for by Luna’s dream embrace.

There were those by choice, and those by chance, who stay awake despite whosoever celestial orb may dominate the sky. Such was the case of the ponies who sat in a hushed chatter inside the barn of Sweet Apple Acres, but more relevant to this story, the dragon who crept across the living room of a certain cottage.

“Signed...by your temporary assistant, Spike the Dragon.” The reptilian tongue had slithered out at some point while the dragon was composing the letter, coming to lay rest upon up his cheek. “Feels weird to be handing in a second resignation so close to the first…”

He placed the scroll next to the lit lamp upon the wooden table, letting out a sigh that carried a weight from his chest, as he turned around for the door. Only, it was then that a second shadow was cast upon the wall by the tiny flame.

“I knew...that you...would be here…” Fluttershy’s head heaved back and forth as she stepped out from the archway, not closing the door behind her. “...the girls thought you might wind up making a great mistake while such a horrible rain was beating down, so I left as soon as I could to come find you.”

“Fluttershy.” The dragon couldn’t help but gulp at the puddle to form just underneath the mare’s form, igniting a fire of care that sent his claw grasping for the blanketed that laid folded atop the couch, then walking over to the mare to cover her in the dry and warming fabric. “You’re positively soaked! Please tell me you didn’t come looking for me right away, and that you came home right away?”

He began to wrap the blanket over her back and underneath her tummy until it conformed well enough to her fur for the blanket tucked into place just above her shoulder. But as his claw fell into the combined plushness of the fabric and her even softer coat, he felt the suppressed trembles that were coursing through her body.

Fluttershy decided it best not to lie to the dragon who believed his actions had caused her such a discomfort that opened her body up to the possibility of sickness. “I left not too long after you did, only after I made sure that the girls were alright and wouldn’t be hurt if I left a little early. I tried right away searching and calling out your name in the woods, but it was so dark tonight that I couldn’t even see the trees a few feet in front of me.

“I even bumped my nose against a branch.” She added with a giggle and a small blush of the cheeks.

Spike’s face quivered as ever as his talons slowly approached her nose, and carefully, wiped off the dirt that had collected there. “I.” He inhaled deeply, then looked away. “I...I’m sorry I put you through this, Fluttershy.”

The pegasus merely stared at him for a moment before she shook her head, a determination lit a flame in her heart for the dragon. “It wasn’t any trouble for me to come find you, Spike,” she said with as much as that flame embracing her words, “especially once I had the realization that sent me trotting home as quick as possible.”

That managed to trick the dragon once more into looking her way, where she was able to capture his emerald eyes amidst her own. “And just what did you realize, Fluttershy?”

She smiled up at him in such a way that froze his heart for the duration of her words. “That I and Spike have become too close over the past week for him to now leave without him saying goodbye.”

Once blood began to pump again in the dragon’s heart, he could only feel cold blood course his body. “Oh.”

The claw that had been purposely left the mare’s shoulder in hopes that she’d never swat it away was now stripped away from her warmth, as it came to rest at the dragon’s side as he stood up. “I’m afraid that was never my intention, Fluttershy,” the dragon said, stepping aside as to grant her sight to the scroll upon the table.

“I can never quite get the words out right whenever the situation is too severe, or when it’s to someone I care about. My last goodbye ended in severing a life-long friendship, so I figured leaving my feelings clearly upon the paper would be the best way for me to disappear temporarily.”

The ever dancing flame illuminated the black text upon the scroll, which reflected upon Fluttershy’s eyes before she blinked and looked back to the dragon gathering his pouch next to the couch. “You don’t mean to tell me that you plan to leave tonight, do you Spike?” she stepped out a little from her blanket, standing up in a hope to reach him. “I know tonight must have been hard for you, as it was on everypony else. But that’s no reason to leave before Celestia’s sun has even come up!”

Spike took a glance at her from over his shoulder as his claws worked below to tie the pouch to his side. “I’m not leaving because of tonight.” He finished the knot and turned to face her. “I’m going because I made a promise to myself to go out and explore the world, and find whatever it is I’m searching for.”

He approached her once more and settled down onto a knee so that their eyes could meet upon the same level. “Living with you has been such a blast that I’ve forgotten most of my worries and insecurities, though the questions that they bear affect not my heart, but my mind.”

A claw shot forth behind her neck and drew her inwards until the scales of his chest met the fur of her’s. “When I’m with you, these things that used to hurt me are now only rendered into questions. But my mind is too weak to not go on a quest to find their answers.”

Pink became of the yellow cheeks as her body trembled for another reason.

“It’s because of this, that even though our friendship is superficial to the point of awkwardness.” The claw that had reassured Fluttershy into him fell away from her neck, as he once again rose. “That I will still forever consider it to be the greatest friendship I’ve ever had. Thank you, Fluttershy.

“And I’m sorry as well. But this is my temporary goodbye.”

The mare returned fell back onto her haunches as the blanket covered her form once again. His footsteps creaked against the wood with every step he took, slow, as if he were waiting for something to stop him.

“I don’t understand.”

The footsteps stopped, but Fluttershy did not turn around.

“You say you had so much fun, but then that you must go off to find some answers. I don’t get you, Spike.” She swore she heard him open his mouth, but not a single word drew out from his throat. “I had so much fun with you over as well. The guilt that plagued me because I felt I had taken you from Twilight disappeared once I heard your voice across the hall. And our conversations over tea had caused them to go cold far sooner than I liked.”

Finally, she turned to face him, with a smile adorning her lips. “That’s why I’ll wait for you here, Spike. Even if your actions tonight were brash and hurtful, and your plans to leave causing my heart to ache. I’ll forever wait for you here, Spike, with the door to your room always open.”

The flame continued to dance. The shadows upon the wall staring into the darkness of one-another, and still completely lost to the beauty of one another. Just above to the small window with the view of the sky, the moon began its graceful descent.

Spike slowly closed his mouth, and swallowed once his lips at met. He took a claw to above his heart, and the other to his lower back. Then he bowed forth to his excellent host, keeping his head bowed towards her.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but nod her head as well.

When the drake arose once more, he spared not another glance her way, as he stepped before the door that had been left open. Curling his claw closed, he took a breath, then unfurled the claw.

“Thank you, Fluttershy.” He stepped outside and prepared to close the door behind him. “I promise not to be too long.”

The door came to a close, and then, the dragon was gone.

“Promise me that you’ll never lie.” The mare said only to herself, as she rose once more with the blanket firmly attached to her. Just outside the window, the dragon began to cross the bridge and went to approach the tree that he had slept under his first night out.

The tree where he saw Fluttershy for the first time in a while.

The tree where all of this began.

Inside the house, the flame continued to dance to the shadows of the furniture it cast upon the wall. Soon Fluttershy approached the table with the lamp and the scroll, just as Spike lifted the card out from his pouch and placed it against the bark of the tree.

A green fire streamed forth onto the card, burning it into the tree as a neon green line short across the tree. Black goo began to spill out from inside the lines, screeching into the nighttime breeze, as it lunged forth onto the dragon. He attempted to scream but found he had no mouth to do so with, as he was sucked inside the tree, where no longer his body existed.

Fluttershy then began to read the resignation of the dragon who was once at her service, and responsible for a part of her happiness. When she had reached his signature that he had signed in a way exclusively to her, the virgin mare couldn’t help but begin to weep upon the page.

The moon disappeared behind the mountainous horizon, just as the sun rose past it to take its rightful place in the blue sky.

Comments

[Sharp77]

I love this story so far

Have a spike with a mustache

[Not so New Brony]

This story probably needs a drama tag for everything that happened up to now.

[Draconicus the Reaper]

Really interesting
And good

[andybeta]

the characters speak really oddly in this chapter. like thheyre doing some play from old england