Holding Onto The Crutch We Call Life

by Soaring

Is It Us?

Author's Note:

Note, the next chapters are going to be completely unplanned chapters. This fic was supposed to end with a chapter that isn't published, but no, you people are awesome and I can't thank you enough for the support and feedback. So, as a result, I've extended the story. So bear with me if it's a bit slower on the updates.

Also, thanks to you all, the next chapter is what I call a 'break' chapter. They're usually short, and usually experimental. As a heads-up, be prepared for the text to be different for that chapter only.

Hope you all are in for a rollercoaster.

Since this is author's note is on top, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and don't hesitate to put your thoughts in the comments! I read them all.

Lastly, song for this chapter:

A Week Later - Starlight Glimmer's Office

"And... done!"

With her magic, she stamped the umpteenth document in front of her with her trademarked seal of approval (it was Trixie's idea to get her a stamp). She set the paper aside, letting the ink sear its way onto the page. The ink had her likeness surrounded by the words "Headmare Starlight Approved!", and that stamp now stayed permanent on the signature line. It made Starlight feel a sense of accomplishment wash over her, her grin apparent as she leaned back in her chair. It felt so much more impactful when that document was added to the stack beside her. The tall flapjack stack of papers stared menacingly on her desk.

The only thing that was missing was Anon commenting on her state of affairs.

She giggle-snorted. She imagined him saying something goofy like:

"Wow, this looks like a mess!"

She looked around. Her room was due for a cleaning. Somepony had left her a cup of coffee, deciding to keep it on top of one of her filing cabinets instead of hoofing it over to her like a normal pony. What were they thinking? She’s not a nasty pony. She wouldn’t have blown up on them! Oh, and there was this thingy-ma-jig set down just beside it. That wasn’t there before.

"Do you normally live in a cave?"

Somedays. Did you normally live in a cave, Anon?

"How's the life of a hoarder going?"

The papers beside her grinned.

She frowned. She hadn't talked to Anon in a couple days, mostly because her work had finally taken over. She also had been cutting into her own break time just to make room for him initially, which, while her faculty understood the situation, she was definitely inconveniencing them for when she was late to her office. She hadn't mentioned this to Anon, mostly because, well, she was and still is worried about him. But when she will, he'll probably be fine with it. Probably. Or he'll be confused, and ask her why she decided to take so much time out of her day to be with him, and then she'll obviously reply with, "Because you're my friend."

And that would resolve that.

...

Maybe.

...

Oh who was she kidding? While things were looking up for Anon now, Starlight was still bothered—no, upset with how things were.

For starters, ever since she heard from Anon that Twilight had rejected him so harshly, Starlight had this thought persistently swirling in her mind. Why had Twilight actually rejected him? Could Starlight trust Anon to tell her the full truth and not suddenly defame one of her best friends? Could she believe what was presumably said?

She could, but not without hearing Twilight's side of the story. Which is why she was here, again, in this state of mind. Why would Twilight reject such a kind, caring man? Any mare would want someone like that in their lives.

Was it for another reason?

She has gone through this circular loop-de-loop for days now. Whenever she wasn’t thinking about work, or her friends, or what she was going to do with Anon tomorrow, it would appear. And she would hate it, hate it so much that she would be so distracted by it, distracted enough to draw up a few hypotheses. They were sworn into existence by the simple fact that, well, it was Twilight who was involved here, and it all ended up in the same spot.

But hey, she had to humor herself. She had nothing else to do now, and she wasn’t expected to be in a meeting room with Gallus for the next… hour.

The clock above her door ticked in response.

Based on what Anon had told her, Twilight was discrediting him because he was not a stallion. While biology is important, and if you’re wanting a foal, go the best possible route, there are other options to fertility than just fooling around with a stallion… right?

Starlight gently tapped a hoof against her chin. “Maybe there’s something else to it…”

Twilight was stressed.

Starlight herself used that reasoning to try and waive all this off. Yet, here she was, thinking about it again. Life wasn't exactly butterflies and daisies for Twilight as a princess. She was busy. Very busy. Even if she wanted to go on an adventure with her friends, there was really not much of an option unless the map told her it was her destiny. And that... had not been an excuse. Apparently, Twilight's been locked up in Canterlot to focus on the issues of the country, whatever that means.

Another possibility grew favor.

Twilight didn’t actually like Anon at all.

This one... this reason made Starlight’s blood boil. How could a pony like Twilight lead on someone like this? Why would that even be an option?

Starlight let out a brief blow and plopped her muzzle right on her desk. She stayed there, even whinnying for a moment, before she settled on slouching in her seat, reclining back like she just did not care anymore.

This was not okay. Not even remotely. But what else was there?

Starlight groaned and, without thinking, threw one of her many pens on her desk at a wall—

It hit the wall. The pen clattered to the ground.

"Oops," Starlight said out loud, only to squeak as she bent over to get it. She then plopped the writing utensil on her desk with an emphatic downward thrust of her neck, making it bounce a little as it rolled to a stop, right next to a paper she had sitting there.

Sighing, Starlight got up out of her chair. She walked towards the front door, turned around, and saw that her room really needed to be cleaned and subsequently walked out of her office.

She needed to go speak to Spike about this. She was going to get more and more distracted if she sat in that room alone for a minute longer. So, with a flick of her hoof, she turned the light off, and locked her door with a set of keys she had on her. Then, she left the school, searching for a dragon that decided to stay behind and let Twilight stew in her goodness, for once in his life.

---

Starlight walked into the castle—well, not exactly walked in. If only it were that easy.

She had to talk to Twilight’s guards.

Yes. Guards. Twilight had them sitting at the entrance of the castle, doing what would be considered a do nothing job. Not that it’s a bad thing. Starlight hoped they were ample prepared for dealing with creatures with awful intentions. After all, when she had walked toward the entrance, there were only two guards there, sitting at a table, playing Go Fish. The one on the left was losing, while the one on the right was just about to win, holding her card in her hoof while happily neighing. The losing one let out a brief blow, groaning with her hooves on her helmet.

Safe to say, neither of them won when Starlight had walked in.

Now that Starlight was in the castle, she only needed to find her friend, Spike, who was going to help her stay sane. Not that she was going insane, no, that’s not the case at all. She was just stressed, and knowing Spike, he was more than capable of helping her out.

Leaving the grand foyer, Starlight walked forward into a rather large hallway. It was long, with doors peppering it on both sides. She walked past them all, before taking a right and walking up the stairs. If Spike was where she thought he was, she wouldn’t need to search any of the rooms on the ground floor. Whenever Twilight was gone, the poor dragon was stuck reorganizing her rather extensive bookshelves. Most of them were in the library on the ground floor, but… there were a few that were on the second floor, most of which were in Twilight’s personal study that only Spike was allowed to touch. And, well, if Twilight was here this week, she would have asked him to organize it whenever she was away.

So, Starlight climbed the stairs to the second floor, exited the staircase, turned right and walked into the next hall. Then, with a few more hoofsteps against the crystalline floor, she turned left and—

“Agh!?”

—ran straight into Spike.

Starlight was currently seeing stars. She was also seeing multiple Spikes. One looked like he gained a few inches in height. One had two more pairs of wings. One had a crooked mouth—that’s not how his face should look! And one just looked… normal.

She shook her head. The normal one stared back.

He gasped. “Starlight?!”

“Hey, Spike. Sorry for colliding into you.”

The dragon rubbed his head with a claw, before pushing himself off the ground. “I thought I ran into one of the guards again. Glad I didn’t, I don’t need another migraine.” He cooed as he cracked his neck. “Phew, glad to see only one of you.”

“You saw multiples of me?”

He laughed. “Yeah. Concussions are hilarious.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your idea of funny, and my idea of funny are two very different funnies.”

“Happy to show you a different way of viewing life,” he said with a smirk, before laughing again. She chuckled too, even if it did hurt a little bit. She’ll have to get her head checked later. Advice receiving was on the menu now, not later.

“Say, Spike, do you have a moment?”

“Hmm,” Spike hummed, now moving his claw to his chin. He rubbed it gently, pursing his lips. “Well, I had a whole lotta nothing scheduled after this, but I can make an exception and pencil you in now, if you’d like.”

“Perfect!” Starlight chirped, snorting. “Mind turning tail and going right back into Twilight’s study?”

“Ooooo, got some gossip to talk about?”

She sheepishly smiled. “You could say that…”

Spike snapped his claws. “Alright, I’ll promise not to say a word as per usual.” He then turned and walked right back into the room.

“Good, because if you did, I’d make you suffer with the guards downstairs.” She walked into the room and smiled.

Twilight’s study was a bit… different. There were books in there, of course. The shelves were stacked high to the ceiling, with books color-coded and alphabetically sorted. But then there was this open area, one that was definitely not what most ponies would even think about, unless they were an internal designer or something. It reminded Starlight of a cozy little study like the ones in the Crystal Empire, where a fireplace would be there, and some bean bag chairs would be set in the room.

The only thing missing in this one was the fireplace. And the bean bag chairs. Twilight decided to go a route where the bean bag chairs would be combined into a bean bag couch. A thick one, one that, if Twilight had company over, would recommend they’d all flop onto it and talk about books to their hearts’ content. It made Starlight jealous, because the light above the couch was set just right for late night reading.

She sighed as Spike flopped onto said couch. Looks like this is where she’ll have her talk.

“Spike did you shut the do—”

“Yep,” Spike finished. He patted the open spot beside him and smiled. “Have a seat.”

Starlight side-eyed the table and open seats to her left. “What about—”

“Bean bag couch or bust, Starlight. There’s no other way.”

“Really?”

His brows furrowed. “Knowing what I think you’re going to talk to me about, I’m going to need this bean bag couch and some gems. But since I can’t get my gem stash because Twilight found them three days ago and confiscated them with a fiery vengeance, I’m now stuck with only the bean bag couch. So, I’m living in comfort this time, what with all this Anon talk.”

Anon. Of course he would know.

See, Spike had been her steady friend in this whole ordeal. Yes, that should be shocking to most, his dating experience is not... that much, but Starlight knew Spike had the wit. Plus, he knew about everything going on, and swore to not tell a soul about what they talked about. And... well, Spike has been just as baffled as Starlight through all this. It even had him scratching his head...

“Does this guy have more mare problems than me?”

That question had killed Starlight when Spike asked it, but now, it was more true than ever.

“Am I that easy to read now?”

“Very,” Spike immediately replied. He watched her slowly trudge up to the bean bag couch, before laying down on it. She sighed and laid her head on her forehooves, before looking up at Spike. He let out a strained ‘O’ sound. “Must be worse than I thought.”

She rolled her eyes. “Distracted.”

“By him?”

A nod. “And by Twilight.”

“Hmm… kind of shocked we haven’t talked about her. Has she talked to you ever since Anon’s confession?”

“No.”

He froze, his mouth agape. “Wait, really?”

She lifted her head up, tilting it slightly to the right. “Yeah, she’s been busy in Canterlot right?”

He snorted. “If you call ‘busy’ as coming back every night to talk to me about how royally she screwed up with Anon, then yeah, sure.”

“Why did you…”

“Not tell you?” Starlight nodded. “Because Twilight said not to. I am only telling you this now because you brought her up. Granted, I could’ve brought her up, since we’re both trying to make sense of this whole ordeal, but…” He brought a claw behind his head, scratching while a sheepish grin wore proudly on his face. “Heh, better late than never. I bet you’ve been thinking about Twilight’s decision-making these past couple days, huh?”

“Spike?”

“Hmm?”

“Why aren’t you a mind reader?”

He laughed for a brief moment, before leaning back in the bean bag plush. “I’ve lived with Twilight for so long that now I’ve started to get too comfortable with her and all of her friends.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you need to go outside more.”

“You think I haven’t tried?”

She giggled behind a hoof, much to his dismay. “After all this is over, the girls and I have to play matchmaker for you.”

Spike puffed up, his cheeks now holding air. “Now that would be adding insult to injury.”

“Even you are infected by Anon-isms.”

“Bless you.”

They stared at each other before laughing hard. They rolled around together, pushing at each other forelegs and arms alike. By the end of it, the two were tangled, having been panting from the fun of it all.

Starlight was the first to act. “Wow, I really needed that.”

“Pink—Pinkie says that… that laughter is the best m-medicine!”

“She’s… phew, right about that!”

The two calmed down further, Starlight slowing her breathing and closing her eyes.

She sighed.

“So…”

“How was your date with Anon then?”

She promptly opened her eyes and shoved a muzzle on his mouth. “Shhh, you don’t have to be loud about that!”

Spike’s eyes became lidded, and he moved her forehoof from his mouth. “I bet you no one is even in the halls. And the guards are too busy downstairs playing Go Fish to even eavesdrop!”

---

Glider had his work cut out for him. He was down by two books, and he needed to pull off a comeback of the century to retain his place in this game of Go Fish.

He was staring at his hand. He’s needing one more card to complete a book, the red two of diamonds needed to pop into his view, but he’s building another one with his pair of eights. He furrowed his brow. He knew his fellow guard, Flow, was playing this tight. So Glider needed to be careful, maybe mislead him somehow?

Mislead… hmm…

“I can’t believe Starlight Glimmer thought we were mares.”

Flow snorted. “She was too busy staring at our cards to care.”

“Right? She looked like she had a lot on her mind.”

He looked at Flow, and saw that the stallion didn’t even flinch. This made Glider pause, before he glared at his own cards. After scanning them, he peered over his hand. “Say, you got any eights?”

Flow smirked.

“Go Fish.”

Glider whimpered as he drew his next card.

---

“You’re probably right,” Starlight admitted, her ears pinned against her head. “But still! It’s…”

“Embarrassing?” Spike said with a raised brow. He smiled when Starlight hung her head. “Hey, it’s only embarrassing if you’re feeling ashamed of it all.”

Ashamed? Not at all. In fact, she was…

Starlight’s eyes widened. “You’re right. I’m not embarrassed…”

“Exactly.” Spike nodded and snapped a claw in her direction. “You’re just—”

“Spike, I… I might like him.”

Spike deadpanned.

Starlight tilted her head.

She waited for a moment to see if he’d stop looking at her like that.

He didn’t.

He stayed deadpanning, slowly bringing his claw up to his face.

“What?” Starlight repeated.

He promptly facepalmed.

“It took you this long to say that?”

Starlight threw her forehooves into the air. “Can you really blame me? I’ve been struggling to help him get back on his feet and with how Mayor Mare described everything to me, it was like she lost a dear friend!”

“Yeah, and then you cuddled with him to ‘talk to him’ about his situation with Twilight.”

She felt a distinct heat pierce her cheeks. “Yeah, well—”

“And, from what else you told me, he reciprocated after a bit, thinking it was a pony thing because of what you told him.”

“But it is!” she shot right back.

Spike deadpanned again.

Starlight gulped. “Okay, so it sorta is a pony thing.”

“Sorta?”

She frowned. “Well I can’t walk that moment back, Spike.”

“Yep, and neither can Twilight with her whole ‘species’ speech. Or her ‘criticism’ of Anon, can she?”

Starlight watched as Spike sank further into the bean bag couch. She placed her head back on her forehooves, choosing to snuggle her flanks into it. She softly exhaled whatever stress she had left, and watched Spike as he shifted, cracking his neck in the process.

“Ahh,” he moaned out. “Sorry, there was this pressure in my neck. Slept awfully last night.”

“Twilight?”

He nodded. “Couldn't sleep with her bawling her eyes out.”

She was… crying? “Really?”

“Yep. She’s probably realizing very slowly that she lost a friend, maybe two.” He snorted. “If she actually talked to you, she’d know she only lost one…”

A tilt of the head again, this time to the left. That’s all Starlight could do. “Does she think she also lost me?”

A curt nod confirmed her suspicions.

“Well, hopefully she’ll talk to me about all this.”

Spike tilted his head up and puffed out some smoke. “Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. You mares aren’t as direct as us guys.”

“Not true at all, Spike! We are totally direct!”

“Right…”

Spike shut his eyes, and put his claws behind his head. “Say, Starlight?”

She scooted closer to him. “Yeah?”

“When do you think you’re going to confess?”

She searched his face, trying to see if he was just messing with her, but no curved lips, no crease in the brow, no anything was there to give her an inkling of what he was thinking. A clever dragon, through and through. She wouldn’t have him any other way though.

“I don’t know.”

He grinned. “Well, I know it has to be soon. Otherwise, you’ll be a victim to another mare picking him up.”

Starlight’s ears perked up. “You… really think so?”

He hopped off the couch and stretched. “Knowing how popular he is with some of the mares in town? Yes.”

“How do you know?”

Spike let out a mix between a laugh and a deep breath. “Starlight, he’s so popular, I thought Celestia and Luna were in town. Instead, it was just a line of mares standing outside his house like they were in some fanclub."

A sudden squeak and a loud neigh came out of Starlight.

Spike held his gut as he laughed. “You never heard about this?”

“N-No!” she exclaimed, her muzzle agape.

“Man, you really need to get better at being friends with him,” he said while shaking his head.

She picked up her muzzle and growled in frustration. “It’s not like I haven’t been trying. He’s… complicated.”

“Complicated?”

“Hurt. Struggling to fit in. Being told he’s not worth it because he’s not a stallion—”

Spike sputtered out a cough. “Wait, run that last part by me again?”

She blinked. “Didn’t Twilight tell you that?”

“No? Are you sure she said that?”

She leaned up to Spike and shrugged. “That’s what Anon told me.”

“Hmm…” Spike pursed his chin. “Do you think he could’ve been stretching the truth? I mean, I don’t think Twilight would’ve said it that way, based on what she told me.”

“Well, what did she tell you?”

Spike snorted. “At first, it was the usual: how being a princess is soooo rewarding and stressful. She'd go on rants and raving about her job duties and all the meetings she had to attend to. To be honest, she wanted to just curl up and sleep the night away, but then she started whimpering and stuttering as she tried to tell me about her lunch she had. I asked her what she was so upset about, and that’s when she told me about Anon.”

Starlight took a deep breath. Would Anon lie to her about this? Maybe, she didn’t know him all too well. But, with how Spike put it, he stretched the truth, so where did the stretch become a lie? She needed to know.

“And what did Twilight say?”

“That he had confessed to her and that she rejected him because of her preferences, and then went too far when Anon asked her to be truthful.”

“Be… truthful?”

Spike licked his lips. “Something about saying he was abrasive to her?”

Anon’s story lined up. His story lined up almost to a T. It was a mir—

“And then he told her that she was being unfair about a lot of stuff, and that she was treating him like an experiment again.”

That… part also sounded familiar, but not right where she thought it was.

“Was that it?”

Spike nodded. Oh Celestia… “Not much else. She rushed out to go meet some pile of feathers from the Griffon Kingdom. Ever since then, she’s been just submerging herself in work and coming home to wake up before you do. That's probably why you don't see her at all and—”

“Spike, you need to tell Twilight to talk to me.”

“Fat chance,” he muttered.

“Hmm?”

He hopped up off the couch to stretch his legs. “She’s not going to believe me if I told her. You’ll have to swing on over tonight.”

“Why?”

“Because if I ask her, she’ll become suspicious, thinking either I’m lying to her or that I told you all about her.”

Starlight blinked. He’s right. He couldn’t tell Twilight. She would know something was up. And Spike covering his tracks so Twilight didn’t suspect him of giving her too much information is very smart of him. Still, why was Twilight so under the wraps about this whole thing? Was she just embarrassed? Upset, of course, but…

“And she’s worried about that, because…?”

“Twilight thinks that you hate her, remember?”

Oh... right. “For what?”

He rolled his eyes. “Twilight knows that you volunteered to help Anon out.” She glared at him, but he threw his claws up. “Hey, I didn’t tell her anything! She saw you walking out of his house. It’s not hard for her to put two-and-two together, and then stress out about it.”

That sounded like Twilight, but wait, how did she not see Twilight? Was she blind?

Starlight shook her head. She’ll get an eye exam once this all blows over. For now, she had all the answers she needed, for the most part.

She looked back over at Spike, who was now standing by the door. He was looking up at the clock just above it and—

“Hey, don’t you have school to go teach or something?”

She stared up at it now.

She had ten minutes to get her silly self back to her silly unkempt office.

Starlight hopped off that couch too. “Uh, yeah, I do. How did you know?”

“You’ve done this a couple times this week, remember?”

Oh yeah. She did. Around the same time, actually. And he…

She shook her head and smiled. “Thanks, Spike, for your help.”

He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her neck, pulling her close to his chest. “Anything for a friend.”

She nuzzled his cheek before pulling away. She began to walk away when she turned around. “Hey, Spike?”

The dragon was dusting himself off when he looked back up at her. “Yeah?”

“We are getting you a mare this year.”

Spike saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”

Starlight giggled. “At ease, soldier.”

The two shared in a laugh. Friends were the best, weren’t they?

---

After Work - Starlight Glimmer - Entrance to the School of Friendship

Starlight was tired. Work had been grueling when she came back. The meeting with Gallus? A toss-up between a detention for a month, or cleaning up the bathrooms for a week. She wasn’t sure why he had been acting out lately; the meeting hadn’t really helped her gain any clues worth mentioning. And then there was Silverstream, who basically added nothing but her smiley, confident self into the mix. She knew Gallus liked her, that much was obvious. Did she like him like that though...? That was another question.

Romance. Drama. It was in the air.

Starlight bit her lip nervously as she walked out of the school for the day. She was not looking forward to going back home to her own little abode in the castle. She didn’t even know Twilight was back there every night—how did she not hear her?

And there Starlight was, thinking about Twilight again.

Starlight groaned. Somepony needed to strike her down with a—

“Hey, Starlight!”

Her eyes widened. She slowly turned around to see…

Anon. His questioning face always beaming. Something about that made her wonder if the world was going upside down.

“Anon! I… I’m glad to see you out and about today.”

He smirked and picked her up into his arms. “Had to come see you after getting out early.”

“Getting out early?”

“Mayor Mare shut down the office this afternoon for maintenance. So, she gave me the rest of the day off with paid leave.”

“Wow,” Starlight said, before she let out a whistle. “Look at you, huh? Good day then?”

“Yeah,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Relaxed in the park for a bit before heading over here.”

“To see me?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

She frowned. “Well, we hadn’t scheduled another time to hang out and—eep!”

He hugged her close to his chest. “Really? You need to schedule time to hang out with me?”

She blinked rather rapidly. He was really affectionate today. “I thought I needed to.”

“I... ran into Pinkie on my way there and we talked about… stuff.”

His tone of voice switching up like that made her cup his cheek with a hoof. “Stuff?”

He smiled, holding a free hand to her hoof. “She told me I was looking pretty down, probably because I wasn’t working and had no idea what to do. So, she told me to go to the park and relax a little, and then, POOF!”

She raised a brow. “Poof?”

“No, POOF!” He laughed. “Like, appearing in some place without thinking about it. Only, I can’t turn that side off y’know? I’m not like her. I had to think about someone.”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “So you thought of me?”

“Yeah, first thing.” He smiled, and then stopped and tilted his head. “Is that okay? Did you have some other plans after work?”

She didn’t, but— “No…”

He grinned. “Then let’s hang out. Anything you want to do?”

She thought about it for a moment. She could go anywhere with him. To the park again. Shopping. Getting dinner. They hadn’t even gone to the arcade yet, or that swimming hole that only few ponies know about! There were so many options.

But her tired self made itself known. She yawned and nuzzled his cheek. “How about you take me to your place, Anon.”

For a second, she didn’t think about the words she said. It was pretty straightforward. She wanted to go over to his place and just relax, not think about the world. And then she realized she was in public, right outside the School of Friendship, getting basically cuddled in Anon’s arms, and then—

She looked at his face. He was blushing red. He was kind of gobsmacked, his mouth slightly ajar, his lips parted. He was trying to look anywhere else but her, and his arm that was holding onto her was shaking.

Oops.

“I didn’t mean it like—”

“—I know, I know, and I’m sorry for holding you like—”

“—it’s no problem, it’s not like you are meaning anything by holding me like—”

“—yeah, it’s just a friendly gesture. That’s what you ponies do, right?”

The two stared at each other, spellbound. Starlight could feel her horn spark a little as they leaned a little bit closer to each other’s faces. It was like gravity was pulling them in and—

Her eyes widened. Her magic flared.

She was on the ground again, her hooves touching the dirt.

Anon looked down at her, confused. “Star—”

“I'm sorry! C-Can we... can we go back to your place and talk?”

She turned tail and walked toward Anon’s house, heat burning her cheeks like a wildfire. Starlight could feel her tail swishing behind her, and her ears were definitely on end, just like the hairs on her back.

Did she… really like him like that?

Comments

[f0st3r21]

I’m very glad that my darker theories are most likely debunked now. No ‘super science’ Twilight trying to test his compatibility with undercover friends or changelings, and she doesn’t appear to be so cold and calculating as to not recognize that mistakes were made.

Still curious why Starlight volunteered to help him when they barely knew each other… and apparently he was super popular but also nopony came to check on him while he was shut-in?

I don’t have a reason yet to believe Anon misheard Twilight about his ‘not being a stallion’ but why wouldn’t she tell Spike about that when she told him everything else? And after all those friendship lessons, Twilight just leaves Anon alone in pain? Didn’t the Table have something to say about that? Does Cadence know what Twilight did? And how did Pinkie not know when Anon was depressed? Did Twilight tell her something, too?

Trixie got Starlight the stamp… but who copywrited trademarked it? This is the question!

[pinkfloydpig]

“Hmm…” Spike pursed his chin. “Do you think he could’ve been stretching the truth? I mean, I don’t think Twilight would’ve said it that way, based on what she told me.”

He's not stretching the truth, he's interpreting what Twi was getting at with her whole "We're not the same species, so it will never work" schtick.

And personally? I think she used that as a an excuse because of her title.

She's the Princess of Friendship, so, to her, it would make sense to have her relationships be strictly platonic and nothing more.

Regardless, Twi is the one that screwed up. She went the scientific/biological route and got it in Anon's head that he aint worth the effort because he aint a pony.

[Noobly60]

This is so fucking precious! Starlight realizing she likes him gives me warmth!

[The Ancestor]

can we go back to your place and talk?

Anon's getting Vietnam flashbacks from these words, lmao.

[Foregrip Butterfly]

Tfw no mare like starlight to reciprocate wholesome affection :(

[Thecloudshiny]

11971589
She made a point of emphasizing, more than once, about him not being a pony (to the point of saying that she would be with him if he were one). So I think there were no misunderstandings... at least in relation to the conversation, she may have said that irrationally because she panicked.

[Negativity enjoyer]

He snorted. “If you call ‘busy’ as coming back every night to talk to me about how royally she screwed up with Anon, then yeah, sure.”

i really like this Spike :)

“Yep, and neither can Twilight with her whole ‘species’ speech. Or her ‘criticism’ of Anon, can she?”

I officially love this Spike.