Scales and Sweets

by SilverEyedWolf

Added to the List

Spike sighed as he leaned back on his stool, stretching his legs and arms out and wiggling his spine to a chorus of cracking pops.

"Augh, Thursdays suck," he muttered, laying his head on the counter in front of him. Despite his best efforts to make the work stretch, he'd blazed through what shelving and paperwork had been needed around two hours ago, and now he was watching the clock tick away seconds in a library empty but for one drake.

He perked a single eyebrow up when he heard the tiny bell over the door jingle, and he glanced over to see it already closing on nothing.

His spines straightened up as he snapped to attention, glancing carefully around the library for any movement whatsoever. Carefully getting off of his chair, he stood on the desk and looked all around for any motion at all.

"Trixie?" he called out. "Are you and Starlight trying to sneak in and do weird stuff in public again? I told you before that invisibility spell is tricky, and I don't want to see that again!"

He heard a quiet giggle echo through the room, and he narrowed his eyes.

"Not Trixie, Trixie doesn't giggle, and that was higher pitched than Starlight," he whispered, slowly lowering himself onto all fours, his tail whipping through the air behind him slowly. He slowly let his tongue peek from between his lips, trying to taste at the air passing around him.

"Rainbow Dash could have gotten Trixie to cast the invisibility on her to prank me, but her giggle is scratchier and lower-pitched as well," he slowly murmured around his tongue.

Waving through the air, he suddenly tasted something that wasn't the aged flavor of paper and not the mellow chemical that was the glue he used to rebind books. Switching over to his nose, he found that it was distinctly salty and slightly pungent but softly rounded and sweet.

"There's a mare in here," he muttered, flicking his tongue through the salty trail. "You've been working somewhere warm all day and came without showering..."

"Hey now, too far!"

He jumped straight in the air as a pink muzzle popped up from under the table, scowling and blushing. "It's not my fault that I came over right after work without showering; I didn't think you would be smelling me!"

Spike landed claws first, all four limbs sticking deep into his desk as he landed with his back arched and tail sticking straight up.

Pinkie kept the frown for a moment before she giggled. "You look like one of those silly cartoon cats."

Spike kept his gaze on her as his heart slowed back to a normal speed before he sighed and looked down at the twenty new divots on his desktop. "Sorry for, uh, smelling ya," he muttered, wiggling a paw to free it from the desktop. "I thought you were a unicorn with a spell, but most of them forget to mask their scent as well as their movement."

Finishing the process of freeing himself from the desk, he sat on it with his legs dangling forwards into the room as he gave Pinkie a small smile. "You gonna keep making me destroy the woodwork in here, or do you wanna say hello next time instead?"

"Pfft, when have you ever known me to be that boring?" she whipped back with a smile, slinking out from beneath the table and into a chair beside it.

They looked at each other for a moment before Pinkie's muzzle and gaze softened from playful energy to a slightly sad smile.

"Didn't work out, huh?"

Spike let a breath out through his lips, giving the room a raspberry as he thought about the evening a night ago. "It was fine," he said, thinking it over. "Nice to catch up with an old friend, right? But even though we both came to the table openly..."

He shrugged.

"Just not feeling it?" Pinkie asked softly.

Spike made a face. "Too much history, I think?"

Pinkie watched him for a moment before nodding slowly. "I think I see," she said softly before her hoof came up to scratch her chin. "Alrighty then. Any ideas about the next date, or do you want to take a break for a bit first?"

He thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "I don't need a break, but I'm not exactly raring to go either? Like, I'm not burning out already, but I'm not desperate either."

"Could take it or leave it?" she asked.

"Yeah," he murmured back, nodding.

She nodded. "Okey dokey then, I'll make sure that the next mare is okay with taking it slow."

She reached back from her muzzle, and Spike watched as the entire lower three-fourths of her limb reached into her mane before withdrawing with a familiar roll of paper. She unrolled it between them and grabbed the sharpener and pencil that popped out before using one on the other.

She then promptly placed the eraser end in her mouth and began lightly gnawing on it before making a face and looking at the pencil. "Eugch, gotta start taking these out before the conditioner."

He snickered as she licked her lips and stuck her tongue out again before glancing down at the list.

"Wait, really?" he asked, dropping a claw and pointing at the name just after Sunset's. "You don't think the fact that she knew me when I was a toddler might put her off?"

"Sunny knew you when you were a puppy," Pinkie said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, sure, but she never saw me chew on my tail or pick my snout," he replied, scratching his head as he tried to remember all of their interactions. "I guess we didn't spend much time together, since I was with Celestia most of the time she and Twilight were... friends?" he chuckled, turning the last word into a question.

"Well, Spike, let's be honest here," Pinkie snickered, "if you're not sure about dating mares who knew you as a baby, you've kinda ruled out all of Ponyville and anycreature from Canterlot Castle in the last ten years. Did you want to try some blind dating then?"

His face puckered. "No, no, I have a hard enough time with the mares I do know, thank you. I have no doubt we'll get to that bridge, but we'll cross it only once we have to."

He paused, before saying, "Moondancer, though? Really?"

"Well, she measures up to your nearly-Twilight standards," Pinkie said, giggling when he scowled at her, "plus she's been looking to expand her friend group recently, according to her last letter. You let me talk to her first, and I'm one hundred percent sure she'd be willing to try dating as well. Besides, you know how cute she looks out of that weird high ponytail thing she usually has going on. Plus, she's been growing her mane out again," she said, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

Spike couldn't fight off either the slight smile or the weak chuckle. "Alright, alright, I'm convinced. If she's okay with going on a date, I'm okay with whenever she'd be free. Oh, but," he said, smile slipping to a frown, "would you lead with the fact that this is supposed to be a date-date? Sunset skimmed her letter and had no idea."

"Oh wow, awkward," Pinkie said with a small giggle. "I'll lead with that then. I don't suppose you can send her a letter directly like you did last time?"

"Hrmm," Spike vocalized, narrowing his eyes. "I don't know her as well as I do the others on my list..."

He slowly shook his head. "I can estimate a mislanding chance of over seventy percent. That's a bit too much for a letter as personal as a date invitation, for me."

"You can estimate that, huh?" Pinkie asked with a gleam in her eyes as she stuck her tongue out slightly at him. "Well then, why not send a post-it note first?"

Spike narrowed his eyes at her, and they had a short staring contest that ended with Spike reaching over on the countertop and tearing a slip of paper off of a pad there. Maintaining their eye contact, he leaned over to steal Pinkie's pencil. As soon as he touched it, though, his blank face wrinkled, and he glanced down at the implement in his paw and her teeth-marks under his thumb.

"Ewwwww," he moaned lowly, wiping his paw on the counter. "Do you always drool that much when you chew on stuff?"

"Only when it's coated in conditioner," she said sadly, shaking her head before grinning at Spike. "I won, by the way."

"I was there," he muttered under his breath, carefully readjusting his grip on the pencil and scribbling a short note on the small page before folding it over and writing a name. He then closed his eyes to concentrate on the endpoint of his sending. After three measured breaths, he breathed out a small spout of flame and sent the page on its way.

"There, now we just wait until she sends something back," he said, smiling before scowling and wiping his paw on the counter again.

"Yay!" Pinkie said, smiling for a moment. "So, she knows how to send stuff back, right?"

Spike looked at her for half a minute before his eyes narrowed, and he reached over the countertop to pull another slip of paper off the pad. Writing out the detailing of the spell, he quickly sent it to the same place as the first one.

"Alright, now we just wait until somecreature sends something back," he said.

"If they can use magic," Pinkie said.

Spike stared at Pinkie for another long moment before motioning wordlessly at her.

She giggled and said, "Sorry."

They waited for another minute before Spike stood off of the desk and started walking towards the kitchen. "Want something to drink?" he called over his shoulder as he paused between his icebox and his stove.

"I'll take some water!"

He nodded to himself and moved to the sink, filling two glasses and walking back into the main room of the library. Sitting at one of the tables, he placed Pinkie's water across from himself and took a sip of his own.

After another minute passed, Spike tilted his head at the mare across from him. "So, how long do we wait?"

Pinkie thought for a moment before opening her mouth to reply before cutting herself off and staring suspiciously at Spike's mouth. He quirked his eyebrow, and she shook her head as she said, "Sorry, I just really expected it to interr—"

Spike held up a claw, feeling the gurgling magic working its way up his throat before he gently coughed out a cloud of smoke that became the scroll. "Sorry, I missed that," he said as he caught the roll of paper, "what?"

Pinkie's eyes narrowed as she glared at him before waving a hoof at the letter.

Shrugging, Spike unrolled the page and read over it before going back and saying out loud, "While the first two scrolls didn't go directly to Moondancer, they went to somepony working with her, and they've sent on our letter after seeing who it was addressed to. Then they used the second page to write and send this page to let us know what was going on. Signed by somepony named Scroll Scribe."

"Oh, I hope they didn't give the inside a read," Pinkie quipped, looking halfway between teasing and worried.

"It's fine; I just wrote who I was and asked if she minded me writing her."

"Mmm, gotcha." Pinkie paused before raising an eyebrow. "What're ya gonna write her?"

Spike's pupils narrowed. "I thought you'd help me with that, like last time?"

"Oh, you want me to?" she asked, surprised.

Hastily, Spike snatched up a pad of paper and scratched out a note out loud, Pinkie giving him tips and him pointing out stuff about her tips in a frenzy until Spike's throat itched, and he coughed up another small piece of paper.

"Phew, okay, she says she doesn't mind me sending her letters," he said, reading over the note quickly. "Though she's confused and curious. Okay, how about this one?" he murmured, neatly scratching out a letter and showing it to Pinkie.

"Hmm, should work," she said, nodding as he danced on his feet. "Alright, send it off and go! Get! Heeeeeeeeer!" she cheered, smiling as he nervously smirked at her antics.

Folding the page carefully, he stamped it closed with a little picture of Celestia smiling just a bit too widely that he had near the desk for sending off overdue notices. Taking a shaky breath, he blew out a tiny flame and sent the new scroll back along the magical lines that the letter had traveled down.

"Alright," he said, shivering a bit and sitting back down. "Now we just wait for her to read it and then reply."

"That is how mail works!" Pinkie chirped, chuckling at his glance.

"Hush you," he murmured with a smile. "So, how long do we—" He blinked before shaking his head. "How long do I wait? And what do I do if she says no?"

"Well, I would thank her anyways, and then send her a reaaaaally long letter asking all about how she's been and what she's up to and if there's been any changes lately, and if she's still into those little cakes that she was having imported, and—"

Spike waved her back as he laughed. "Okay, okay, that's the Pinkie letter. What's the Spike letter?"

Pinkie shrugged. "I 'unno, I'm Pinkie. I still think the Thank-You is a good start, though."

"Hrmm, point," Spike said, nodding to her before grabbing another scratch piece of paper. He started scratching out another note before Pinkie placed a hoof over the top of it.

"What'cha doing?"

"Well, I thought I'd go ahead and get started on the thank you letter?" he said, looking at her with a crease growing between his eyes.

"But that's not what you're doing, is it?" Pinkie asked, raising her eyebrows. "You're writing a letter that says Thank-You-Anyways. You don't even know if she's said yes or no, and you're writing a letter for when she turns you down."

"Uhm, I guess," he said, scratching his neck. Descending into a whisper, he started to say, "I just wanted to get started, and I went for the most obvious option first—"

Pinkie watched him sigh before he pushed away the page.

"I see what you're saying," he chuckled dryly before nodding. "Alright, I'll wait until the letter gets back before deciding on what to do."

"Good!" she said with her trademark wide grin. "Now, how do you want to pass the time? I've got cards, a couple of board games, a fish, eight billiard balls, three cans of silly string—"

Spike watched soundlessly as she produced each item and placed it on the table before holding a paw out.

"Uh, Pinkie, I appreciate it," he said, one hand flicking out to snag a billiard before it rolled over the side of the table, "but you don't have to wait for me? I think I can handle it from here, especially if she turns me down," he chuckled.

"Oh," she said, and he watched as her mane deflated more than it had when she'd pulled out the assortment on the table. "Oh, yeah, I guess if I'm not needed here, that's fine, I can—"

"Now hold on," he said, shaking his head and offering out the acrylic ball. "I didn't say you had to go or anything." He shrugged. "I just didn't want to hold you up here if you had something else to do or someone else you wanted to meet up with. Just because I don't need you here doesn't mean you're unwanted, right?

"Besides," he gestured with a paw at the table, "I thought maybe you were getting bored, sitting around all this paper and ink."

"Think that I don't read every now and then?" Pinkie said flatly.

"Never said that Pinkie Pie, but I sure don't see you enjoying a good book right now," He said, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows. He stared at her for a few moments before narrowing his eyes. "What's up, Pinkie? What's going on?"

"Noth—" she started to say until he gave her a deadpan look. She sighed, scratched the base of her neck near her right shoulder, and muttered, "Guess I've been feeling lonely for the last couple weeks."

She chuckled dryly at his look. "Yeah, every now and then even I have a slow week, and I've had, like, four in a row. It's part of the reason I started hanging out with you so much," she admitted.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Pinkie," he said softly, leaning back in his chair.

"It's okay," she said with a shrug. "It'll pass, one way or another, and then I'll be fine or busy for another couple of months."

Spike hummed quietly, looking at her and stroking his scaly chin as an idea floated into his head.

"Alright, then. Hey Pinkie?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I have an idea for my date after Moondancer, if she says yeah," he said, still stroking his chin as he started giving her a grin.

"O-Oh, okay?" she said, cocking her head and pulling her list out again. "Well, I have a couple of free mares picked out, but if you want to skip ahead, I can do that! Is it Berry, or Roseluck, or maybe even Lotus Blossom?"

"Nothing against them, but no, they weren't who I had in mind," he snickered.

"Give a mare a hint here, Spike; I've got forty ponies on this list," Pinkie chuckled, waving the long page between them.

Slowly, Spike raised a paw and extended a single digit.

Pinkie looked at it, confused, looking over her shoulder before turning back and pointing at her muzzle.

Spike nodded, and she blushed a bit.

"Me?" she squeaked, blinking at him.

Author's Note:

'Nough said, I think.

Comments

[dzamie]

eeeee it begins
Well, assuming Moondancer doesn't turn out well. But judging by the title of this fic...

[The Sandwich Guardian]

Cute. Good chapter. Hopefully the wait is not as long for the next one. But still take time as needed.

Make sure you ate and make yourself a sandwich.

[DarkDMan]

Do iiiitttt!

[Wydril]

Unbeknownst to Spike, Pinkie sends Moondancer some tips for her date.

M: "Hey there Spikey-wikey, how is Twilight's baby brother doing? Are you still rocking that adorable little basket for your bed?"
S: "I'm doing great, you just helped me make an important decision, thanks!"