The Days Passed

by SilverEyedWolf

Table Conference pt II, On the Move

"Spike, dear?"

He nodded, staring out the window. "Yeah, they're more common up here than around Ponyville," he said, slowly scanning the crowd. He felt his lips quirk up at the ensuing, vaguely awkward silence that he broke by leaning to the white mare beside him and stage whispering, "That was a joke."

He turned and smiled thinly over at Rarity, sitting next to him on the plushly padded bench seat.

"I'm okay guys, really," he said, reaching over with a paw and placing it on her shoulder as he turned the smile to Fluttershy, across from them. "It's a lot to take in, I'm just processing it all."

"Not bottling it up again, though?" Fluttershy said, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him, her mouth in the tiniest frown.

"No no, Pinkie promise," he said, reaching his other arm across to gently run his paw up the side of her neck. "Really, I'm mostly worried about how Twilight is going to react, she just had me move out after all. Plus, well," he said, dropping one of his arms as the other moved to scratch at one of his ear spines, "I'm kind of worried about making you jealous, too."

"Ah, that was one of my initial concerns as well," Rarity said, also smiling over at Fluttershy. "Especially with our history, and the relatively short amount of time you've been together..."

Fluttershy opened her mouth before pausing, taking a moment to consider herself for a moment before she shook her head. "I guess I am jealous, just a little," she quietly admitted. "But I'm not worried about you two, at all," she stated, smiling a bit at them. "I know that you have a history, and I supposed a tiny bit of me is worried that you'll pick up where you left off and leave me behind..."

She sniffed, tears forming in her eyes as she blinked heavily. Rarity switched seats, leaning on her as Spike reached across and laid his paws on her shoulders, hopefully comfortingly.

Her smile reassured them.

"But I trust all of us to talk," she finished. "And I know Spike wouldn't just leave me like that, and Rarity wouldn't either," she said, turning to bury her (thankfully dry) nose in Rarity's mane.

"Besides, even if you two just pick up right away," she said, starting to blush a bit, "maybe you could bring me along?"

Spike snorted, Rarity only blushing in response as Fluttershy giggled into her hair.

The group of them were interrupted by the short blast of a whistle, and a smooth-ish lurching under their seats let them know they were on their way.

Their train was moving, back to Ponyville.

ĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦ

Cadance had been the first to move at the table, her horn lighting as she turned her head towards the door at the side of the room.

Instead of one of the kitchen personnel appearing, one of the guards poked their head in.

"Please have the guest's effects packed and transported to the train station," she said with a smile. "They'll be leaving soon, in the Royal cab."

Spike made a quiet noise as the guard nodded, dipping fluidly from the room.

"Just like that, huh?" Spike asked, looking at the other two, who had looked slightly less flustered than he was feeling at the moment. "You tell me to move in with my ex-ex, and expect that to just clear everything up between the three of us?"

"Nope," she said, smiling sweetly over at him. "I expect all three of you to pay attention to each other, take care of everyone in your group, and..." She let herself trail off with a wide grin. "I expect progress reports."

It took Spike a moment, but he nearly had a visceral reaction when he got it, making a strangled gagging noise in his throat. "You want us to write you Friendship Reports about our relationship!?"

Cadance winked over at them, the two mares near him giggling while Flurry Heart was outright pointing at him and chortling.

"Yes, I think that should do quite nicely," she said, nodding with the same wide grin and adding in a pair of lidded eyes to make it into a smirk. "You'll live together with at least Rarity, and I'll expect a report from at least one of you either weekly, or whenever something happens. And before one of you go Twilight," she said, giggling for a moment before finishing, "a report of nothing special or outstanding happening is still a report."

Spike groaned, muffling the sound with his paws as he slumped in his chair and leaned his head back. "You know how many of those I wrote over the years?" he asked the ceiling, eyes tightly shut. "The scrolls dance in my dreams sometimes, whispering of the plants that were sacrificed to make them..."

Cadance snorted before looking over at Fluttershy, still in the drake's lap. "Is that acceptable to you two?" she asked as they ignored the traumatized reptile.

"It's been a while, so I might be rusty, but I'm okay with that," Fluttershy said with a grin.

"I have no issue practicing my penmareship," Rarity said, leaning over and fluttering her eyelashes at Spike, who peeked between his digits when he felt her hoof on her shoulder. "Unless I could impose on you Spike dear, your writing was always neater than mine?"

He groaned loudly again, slumping further in his chair as Fluttershy had to grab onto the table for balance, then eventually joining in the other's chuckling at his theatrics.

"I guess I could be bothered," he said with a lopsided smile.

ĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦĦ

He blinked as two white hooves came together sharply in front of his muzzle twice, Rarity giving him a slightly worried look.

"Sorry," he said, smiling and reaching up to take her hooves. "Got lost again. Anyways. Did you enjoy the short trip up to the Crystal Empire?"

She blinked, and he smiled as he watched her mentally flounder for a moment before she smiled wryly.

"You know I didn't have near enough time to do anything, Spike," she said, nudging Fluttershy gently with her shoulder. "But what about you two? Surely you got up to something fun before I stumbled in?" she asked, eyes widened slightly as she looked between the two.

Spike leaned back in his seat, smiling as he noticed Fluttershy slightly flushed as Rarity leaned against her, making a noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a verbal shrug.

"I mostly did some counseling therapy with Cadance," Spike said, giving a physical shrug. "I think it straightened out some of my perceptions. Otherwise, you were there for the big things. Fluttershy was living it up though," he said with a smile and a wink to the mare, "I even heard she visited a library. After the zoo, of course."

She blushed harder at his gentle tease, sticking out a hind leg and gently tapping his knee with a hoof. "I did indeed visit the Crystal Library," she said, raising her nose towards him with a tight smile. In a stage whisper, she said to Rarity, "They had some books there on the rarer animals in the Everfree."

The two of them started to laugh, Fluttershy joining in until she made a stricken face. "Oh no," she said, pulling her suitcase up from under their seat. "I checked some out based on the castle's credit, I wonder..."

When she opened the case she found the three books nestled carefully in between all of the overnight supplies she'd packed.

"Oh my," she muttered, opening the cover and looking at the stamp on the paper flap inside. "I wonder if they still want these back in two weeks? Maybe I can mail them back..."

"It's alright Flutters," Spike quickly soothed, "Twilight has an agreement with the Crystal Empire's libraries, if you turn them in to her she sends a letter telling the librarians in the Empire that she's sending them back with the Pony Express mail, she's already got a circulation system and everything."

Fluttershy took a breath, smiling and nodding at his quick reassurance.

"Of course she does, thank you for making sure I knew Spike," she said, leaning forward and letting him meet her in the middle for a quick muzzle nuzzle.

Rarity giggled behind a hoof as they blushed slightly, leaning back in their respective seats. "Ah, but you two are cute together," she said with a small grin. "Then again, I suppose Fluttershy here would be cute with anypony, no?"

Spike smiled as Fluttershy flushed a gentle crimson, tapping his chin with a digit. "Wouldn't she just be?" he said, leaning over and lifting an eyebrow. "How lucky we are, hmm?"

"Oh no," Fluttershy whispered, hiding her muzzle and eyes behind her hooves. "Is this a thing now? Everyone teases Fluttershy?"

Spike felt worry flicker over his face until he noted the bright red mare's slight smile between her forelegs. Winking over at Rarity, he leaned over and whispered in Fluttershy's ear, "Well, if you'd like, we could always coordinate and tease you at the same time?"

Rarity couldn't quite hear what he'd said, but watched her ear flick back before straining forward, Fluttershy dissolving into a giggling mess as he leaned back with an ever-so-slightly smug smile on his face.

"Well don't break the poor dear, Spike," she said with a smirk, wrapping a leg protectively around Fluttershy's shoulders and pulling the mare to her barrel.

Chuckling lightly, he held his arms up to his shoulders before leaning over and putting a gentle paw on Fluttershy's neck, massaging her slowly. He kept it up until she relaxed, leaning forward and dropping her hooves away from her cherry face, her smile soft and demure.

"Alright, we can give her a break," he said, smiling as he leaned over to give her a gentle peck on her nose. "Besides, we have some more important things to discuss anyway."

Sighing, he looked at the door that lead into their compartment before shrugging and shifting to sit on the floor in between the seats, his arms wrapping around the sides of the two mares in front of him, his paws spreading and resting on their haunches as he wriggled into a more comfortable position.

He sighed as the other two looked down at him, Rarity's head cocked a bit to the side, Fluttershy's blush fading slowly.

"We should really talk living arrangements," he said, running the tips of his claws along their cutie marks, looking down at the floor for a second before blinking and looking back up at Rarity. "Like, should I just move into the boutique, or are we going to move into my new place? Find another place closer to the carousel?"

"Oh, that hadn't occurred to me," Rarity said, blinking as her eyes unfocused a little. "Well, that depends on Fluttershy, really."

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise.

"Yes," Rarity said, smiling and rubbing her nose against Fluttershy's neck, just below her ear. "Cadance said Spike and I should live together, but never once said that we can't all just move in together. None of our current abodes will hold all three of us, I don't think, so someplace in between where we all work would be nice. I could convert my bedroom in the boutique into storage, or maybe even a dressing room? It would let those mares with flair walk dramatically down the stairs..."

She trailed off, murmuring under her breath as she stared over Spike's head and into the wall opposite her. Spike gently cleared his throat, and she gave a slight jump as her eyes refocused.

"Ah, hmm, excuse me," she said with a blush. "That's if you even want to move in with us? You could do much the same with your cottage if you did, I imagine. Maybe a medical room for the more injured of the animals that come to you?"

Fluttershy grew still, her ears the only movement she made as they flicked back and forth before slowly lowering. "Uhm, sorry, but I haven't really given much thought to moving away from my cottage," she said quietly. "I have thought about living together with Spike, but I suppose I always thought he'd move in with me..."

Rarity made a noise in her throat and moved to hug Fluttershy with her forelegs. "Oh, I'm so sorry darling, of course you haven't thought about moving," she quietly exclaimed, squeezing her gently. "That was insensitive, I'm so sorry!"

Giggling a bit, Fluttershy rubbed her muzzle along the top of Rarity's head and hugged her back. "It's okay, I just hadn't considered moving out of my home."

"Well," Spike said slowly, "the boutique and Fluttershy's cottage are on the same side of town," he pointed out. "Maybe with Twilight and Applejack's help, we could expand the cottage to include space for Rarity? That way she could still walk to the boutique, we all could live together, and Fluttershy wouldn't need to leave her home for us."

Fluttershy shifted in her seat, looking indecisive, and Spike chuckled before gently ruffling her mane. "But no pressure, 'Shy," he said, looking her in the eye. "If you're not sure about moving in with us or us moving in with you, I can just store some of my stuff and live with Rarity in the boutique for a while."

She smiled at him, looking relieved and whispering a thank you before she kissed his snout.

"I would like some time to think about it, is all, please?" she asked, smiling as the other two nodded to her. "Thank you."

Both of her partners murmured gentle reassurances, pressing in on her, and she grinned under the warm, fuzzy onslaught. Leaning forward, she grasped Spike's jaw and pulled it up, kissing him solidly on his lips, before pulling away and giving Rarity the same treatment, albeit with a little less force.

All three sat there, warmth in their chests and in their hearts, as the train chugged on towards home.

Author's Note:

Alright boys, this one feels much better to me. We've got movement, some sweet scenes, talking about the future. Good stuff.

As always, loving you bunch Enjoy

Comments

[lazyreader19]

D'awww

[Alondro]

10087455 Oh, it's one of THOSE stories then.... where all common sense and logic flies out the window, where the 'laws' make absolutely no sense and only exist so the melodrama can happen.

…

I'm going to have fun here, aren't I?

[SilverEyedWolf]

10104532
I feel like it's yes and no. I'm my head it makes sense because I have extra context, but putting it into the story would be pointless filler as it otherwise has no ties to the story

Most people who came here didn't come for legalese garbage, they came for smooches. Myself included

[Alondro]

10104570 I always feel if there's no rationale behind the 'laws' in a story's world, best to find some other way to make it work. Laws tend to exist because someone made them that way for a reason, be it for justice or domination, there's always a basis.

[SilverEyedWolf]

10104729
In short, the rationales are Spike=Noble=Imposed military service, Spike+Mane6Adventures=Hoof-waived military service, thus he gets military trial. Most of the rest of the trial was xenophobic bullshit, and will come back to bite the enforcer of said trial.

All that said, Pony land likely doesn't have the same laws as Eagle land, so there is some weird bullshit definitely baked into their lawbooks that is basically just there so they can throw the elements at big weird things, a la Tirek etc

But! But I haven't included any of that bs because I don't feel like it would add to the story in any way that wouldn't distract from what it's supposed to be about, which is Smooches

[redandready45]

Fluffy story with fluffy ponies.

[Vinyl_Scratch-14]

Finally I got to sit down and read. My only problem is that the chapters are to short to fill my need of this story lmao keep up the amazeing work non the less

[DarkDMan]

Feeling the growing love! Great job!

[Bloody_Tofu]

Ohhh fun series! All caught up though heavily surprised he’s giving Rarity another chance. Don’t think I could do that.

[Desti]

10108973
Show canon doesn't care if there's something other than ponies, until End of Series which would still not be everyone it'd be everycreature

[SilverEyedWolf]

10109064
While true, this story isn't show cannon

[Detsella Morningdew]

10107017
Likewise! Like I said, it's not actually bad, just not what I was hoping for.