Cause and Effect

A Spike/Twilight one-shot.

So . . . looks like it's the end, three chapters of a dragon, a pony, and a bond. Well, to quote a doctor (the ninth) "You were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I." Points if you understand the reference. This isn't me bragging about myself, this is a thank you to you who have read this far into this story. Whether you were here when this started or have just jumped in, or even if you're reading this long after it's faded into the archives of this section.

Thank you.

Twilight Sparkle was known for hundreds of things: her gifted magic, a vast knowledge ranging from hundreds of thousands of subjects, having a dragon at her beck and call. The things that made her famous included her organization, compulsions, and utter lack of social knowledge. She could recite the square root of pi in two breaths, but the prospect of a pillow fight completely baffled her. She accounts and plans for everything, usually with a checklist; personality, known traits and routines, unexpected mishaps to expect. It makes her feel special and how she finds comfort, like she's putting pieces of the world together. It's also one of the many reasons he loves her, plus the smile . . . that wonderful smile she gets from her compulsions, it's so far beyond words.

That little social knowledge brings relief to Spike, the only dragon in all of Ponyville as well as the only dragon in general that has ever dated outside of his own species. It protects Twilight from realizing just how weird ponies considers her for dating something with scales, and it keeps her from noticing the occasional look of disgust. A month ago he could only dream of a relationship with Twilight, now he's actuallt going on a date with her. This was never expected, they had never imagined being more than friends or for anything to develop, but it had. The world was a funny place in that sort of way, when two creatures spend so much time together it's only natural they'll form some kind of bond, this one just happened to transgress past friendship. This was what Spike used to justify the relationship, and he knew Twilight used it too.

Standing by the door, Spike eagerly waits for Twilight, smiling as he had been for the past two weeks. Nothing felt real, not the situation, not the room, not even the ground he was standing on; the entire world seemed imaginary in all regards. It's the oddest thing he's ever experienced . . . well actually it's a close second. He hears a step creak from pressure and nervously jumps a few feet in the air. Hit with a burst of energy, he looks over his appearance in the closest reflective surface; the floor. Nothing looks right, not his spines or his fangs, he can't decide if his claws are to sharp or to short. A second creak brings a hundred more problems with his appearance; another one makes him a horribly disfigured monster.

Last month, when the residents of Ponyville were preparing for the approaching winter, Twilight had noticed a dramatic change in her assistant. Having to wake up early would normally put him in a grumpy mood, but now he was at his happiest, especially on the days where – for the most part – it was just the two of them. Those secret glances he was giving her, the ones he thought went undetected, it was the same look he had previously reserved entirely for Rarity. Speaking of the fashionista, he was drastically less focused on her, barely acknowledging the unicorn when in her presence. Nope, all that attention was now going to Twilight, had been since Owlowiscious received the gift of a jewel encrusted bow-tie from Rarity. Spike's own gift disappeared around the same time, thrown away in anger or sadness or just plain lost, she'd never know.

All things considered, it was a surprise she hadn't figured it out sooner. At first she vowed to not speak of it, hoping that – like his crush on Rarity – it would disappear, after-all their relationship was that of a family, with her taking the role of a sister figure for the young dragon. Why risk losing that over something as unpredictable as love? But, as it typically tends to do, things changed.

Immediately Spike started to grow distant, making excuses to get out of the tree like running out of quills, in one day he used that excuse a total of three times. He believed that the less time he spent around her the quicker things would return to normal, with a little luck his attraction would just go away. This, however, had an opposite effect on Twilight, who began to realize that her feelings for the dragon may actually be mutual. The following week was filled with burning questions, mainly when and how did this happen. Sure, there was a tad bit of jealousy when he swooned over Rarity and a desire for the dragon to just once look at her in the same way; but that didn't mean anything, right?

Perhaps it was sooner, possibly back in Canterlot when it was regularly just the two of them in their dorm, supporting each other like the family they had unintentionally became, a family that was beginning to fall apart. Did this mean she was, contrary to the presented evidence, in love long before he was? Yes, it did. Twilight starts consulting books, reading half of the entire library in hopes that either their both under some weird spell or love has some scientific reasoning behind it. It's neither and she's left with confusion and a major migraine, along with the messiest house in all of Ponyville. Cleaning it up relaxes her though, that's something.

Twilight was feeling more isolated than ever, even on those quiet nights in Canterlot when the only friend she had was Spike. The library was silent with secrets of attraction, the dragon avoiding the unicorn in an attempt to maintain a relationship, ironically straining it in the process. Twilight, with a few suggestions and words of advice from her friends who had received a very vague explanation, takes a step back to look at the bigger picture. It comes as an embarrassingly large shock that the only reason she's losing her closest and dearest friend is because she doesn't want to risk losing him.

Irony is clearly not her friend, and maybe she'd have her I.Q. retested soon. Regardless of her current mental prowess and inability to notice something so obvious, Spike is far too important to her to just let him fade out of her life, and if she has to confess to some abnormal feelings of romance then that's what she'll do. Twilight writes out a speech and checklist of things she'll need including a schedule, some reference guides, and the dragon himself.

For the last couple of days he was out of the library early in the morning and back late in the evening, when he was certain Twilight was fast asleep in her bed. He'd do his chores and finish in just enough time to catch a little under an hour of sleep before waking up and disappearing to start the whole thing over. There was a word for this, he remembered Twilight had read it to him not so long ago; fight-or-flight? That sounded right, except there was no fighting in this scenario, it was more like confess-or-flight.

It's killing him physically and draining him mentally, leaving less than a shell of a dragon that drifted between consciousness while walking about the town. Aimlessly wandering around was pretty boring and served no purpose, though he was looking pretty thin, a small plus in a vast sea of negatives. An auto-pilot like state occurred every half hour that led him back to the library; it always went unnoticed until his claws were wrapped around the brass doorknob. He'd instantly recoil in fright and turn back around, the only evidence being the footprints he left in the newly fallen snow.

He was tired and no longer dedicated to this plan, luckily Twilight had no idea of his feelings and things could just return to normal. Mostly anyway, obviously he remained unchanged, but he'd rather secretly pine for the mare and stay her friend than to continue on this path and drift farther apart. Besides who'd be there to wake her up every morning, or to cook her breakfast just the way she likes it, to tease her lovingly or to listen as she goes on and on about the wonders of whatever four subjects currently interest her.

Any belief he had that this crush would fade was immediately erased, in its place came frustration that he had thought he'd already worked through. The urge to cry and shout is ever-present, often varying from manageable to unbearable. Even after he's returned to the library and resumed his duty as personal assistant it remains in the back of his head, continuously whispering for the dragon to act on any of his emotions. Sooner or later that whisper will turn into shouting, and if he's lucky it'll drive him crazy enough to forget the concept of love.

"Spike, we need to talk." Twilight says one chilly morning.

"About what Twi?" He asked, the aforementioned voice in his head whispering that this was far more important than he could realize.

"Spike, I'm . . ." Her horn begins to glow as she looks down at one of about a dozen index cards floating in front of her, prepared to give a speech that she had written late last night. She clears her throat, "I'm here today to talk about . . ." In retrospect she wished she'd taken a different approach to writing this thing, it sounded more like a lecture than a personal confession of strong emotions. "To talk about the feelings you have for me." At this word Spike's smile is replaced with a look of pure and unrestrained terror, his left eye twitching. Sometimes he truly hates his imagination, case-in-point how it was giving him a picture of what comes next. Would she give him the hoof out, ask for a new assistant, tell him what a weirdo he is for having these feeling for her? Hell, she could do all three if she wanted to.

The voice in his head has abandoned him, taking all coherent thoughts with it.

There are thousands of possible scenarios that can happen from this one minute, his entire world could fall down around him with just a single sentence. It's overwhelming, the sheer amount of possibilities. What's even more mind boggling is that, through all its complications, it counts solely on this. Spike's never been a realist, but Twilight having even a remote shred of attraction towards him was limited to his wildest dreams, so it was probably a good idea to pack his bag and catch the next ride to Canterlot.

Was it just him, or was Twilight taking an extremely long time to drive the figurative sword through his chest and break his heart. Seriously, he's had a monologue of thoughts while hanging by a thread. Maybe his concept of time was off, or maybe Twilight was getting some kind of amusement out of this. "And how I feel the same way."

Well that's certainly unexpected, in fact he's almost positive their not on the same page. "You . . . um . . . sure you know what you're saying?" He asked, nervously twisting his tail in his claws, unaware of doing so. He wants to be absolutely certain that this isn't some trick of the mind.

"I'm in love with you, yes." The answer makes his heart stop. He's amazed with how natural she sounded, as if she were commenting simply on the weather. "Now I've compiled a list of pros and cons that we'll sort through, by my calculation we should finish around seven tonight, unless we skip all meals." Now he's amused, had she actually managed to incorporate love into scientific research? It's amazing, it's stupefying, it's . . . a little creepy.

"Twi?" He releases his tail, and if it wasn't for the high level of pure happiness he probably would've noticed the lack of feeling in it.

"We'll start with the cons, obvious ones like species and age." A stack of papers lands directly between them, towering above the dragon and blocking his view of the unicorn.

"Twilight," He repeats, somewhat annoyed.

"Now while you are a baby dragon, you're around my age in pony years, which I believe ends that one easily."

"Twilight Sparkle!" He shouts.

"Yes Spike?" She had barely noticed.

"Could you just . . . I don't know, be happy about this?"

"Not yet Spike."

"Why not?"

"Because I need to figure out what we do next." He scoffs at this, but it's actually a very good question. It's not like either of them has ever gotten this far into a relationship. " There has to be some reason behind this better than it just happened."

The voice in his head is back in ten-fold and he begins to repeat everything its shouting. "There are hundreds of reasons Twi; you're smart, beautiful, and to put it bluntly you're a little crazy." He waits to see if she's offended but instead she's blushing from the compliments. "You really can't . . ." Twilight's stubborn, not as much as Rainbow Dash or Applejack but it's certainly up there, so there truly is no point in arguing with her. She needs to make sense of this somehow, and this method is how she'll try and do it, though she'll never get anywhere. It's one of the many reasons he loves her, and if being with her means spending an entire day of writing and reading then he's prepared for the biggest claw cramp in the world. At a price however, deemed by the voice that he hopes will soon disappear. "Fine, but could we . . . well . . . if you don't mind . . ." This continues for a minute, the twisting of his tail returns.

"The sooner you tell me the sooner –"

Every thought is urging him to back out now and forget about the request, and if he was a smarter dragon he would probably have listened. "Kiss!" He blurts, his purple scales gaining a hue of red, she's blushing as well. "It's just I've wanted to know what it's like, you know?" It's a miracle his mouth hasn't dried out. She had been curious about this since reading a guide to dating, which was most likely in the pile of books blocking the door and did not cover interspecies romance, obviously. "I mean . . . you know . . . if you don't–"

Immediately Twilight is inches from him, her face was much closer. It takes him a few seconds to realize that they are in fact kissing, at which point his eyes close and he leans towards her. It lasted a total of thirty seven seconds, but for them it felt much longer. Odd sight, a pony and dragon committing such an act, but for what it's worth Twilight forgets all about her need for research. This was new and confusing, and it was weird if she truly focused on all of their differences, but it was nice and for the first time since this whole mess she and her mind were at ease. When they regain personal space Spike's at a loss of words. It seemed like only yesterday this was impossible outside of dreams, in fact this was beyond the dreamscape as well.

Everything just screams unreal, a feeling of numbness accompanying it. "W–wow, just . . . wow." He's at a total loss of words, surprised by how nice it felt. If there was more of this in the future than forget the claw cramp, just take the claw. Twilight is also speechless, which is either very good or very bad. "That was . . . nice?" He's looking for confirmation from the unicorn.

"Certainly different, but enjoyable. I'm sure we'll get used to it." She smiles, putting him at ease. "So what do we do now?"

"You said we should start with the cons." He crosses his legs on the floor near the numerous books.

"Huh," She mutters, clearly she had lost her train of thought. Spike taps a sharp claw on the scrolls. "Oh yeah . . . right." Now she's blushing, embarrassed for something he truly doesn't understand.

Twilight walks down the stairs, her hooves in bright yellow boots, a striped scarf of white and pink wrapped around her neck. He's seen that outfit thousands of times in his life, but it feels new for some odd reason. "Holy guacamole, you look . . . great!" He says, mouth hanging open. All the problems he had with his appearance are completely forgotten, replaced by thousands of compliments he can give her that he honestly means.

"It's a scarf Spike; you've seen hundreds of them." Twilight laughs, approaching her assistant. "'Are you sure you don't need anything, it's pretty cold outside?"

"Positive." Spike states, holding the door open for the mare. The outside is covered in a blanket of snow, the sun was nowhere to be seen. There are few ponies outside, all of them bracing their shops and homes for the harsh weather to follow. Spike closes the door and walks beside Twilight, as he usually does. The glares they receive have significantly decreased over the past few days, hopefully from acceptance but chances are their just old news. It seems they've gotten through things unharmed, with relatively no name calling or hatred. Their still working through a few things, like maintaining the assistant-boss relationship in working situations, or more tender ones like what'll happen when Spike's not so little.

But tonight's different, it's a night reserved entirely for happy thoughts and warm memories. Push the fear of the future into the darkest corner of his subconscious and let it wait, until then he has a dinner and movie plan with a unicorn, who's clearly just as nervous about this as he is. Sure they get an occasional look of disgust, a whispered insult behind their back or the less subtle ones that are said to their faces. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are constantly giving threats to those who insult the couple, as they will always do. At some point all notions of awkwardness disappear and what remains is comfort and pure happiness.

Quiet nights were rare in the library, the statement had a humorous level of irony in it but it was true. Spike moves from the stairs to the bed directly on the other side of the room, stepping over a few books along the way. For once in his life he is the very model of silence, able to climb into the bed without waking his sleeping spouse a mere inch away. For a few moments Spike just lays beside her, letting the unfamiliar quiet sink in. The window to his left softly illuminates the room, the light from a pale moon assisted by thousands of stars. Twilight always said that this window had some sort of magic to it, not the kind she could perform. The way it captured Sugar Cube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, and Carousel Boutique was unexplained, but beautiful.

It relaxes him, giving him some time with his thoughts. Has there been a word for reminiscing about a time when you were having a flashback? If not then there should be because that's exactly what Spike is doing at this moment. The stormy night Twilight had brought him comfort, it felt like forever ago, or at least ten years; when life was simple and they were young, when relationships formed and crumbled, or when dreams never quite took off. Life had changed now, things became complicated and the world changed from simple childhood notions of right and wrong to occasionally bleak and heavy.

But a lot of things never changed; Pinkie Pie was still a party animal, Fluttershy still meek and quiet. The gang was still together and going strong, not to say there hadn't been a few ups and downs along the way or that they never felt like they were drowning. They were still in Ponyville, and often they would meet up at Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow would brag about her celebrity status as a Wonderbolt, Rarity would speak of the latest fashion trends she was setting, Applejack talks of the farm and hardships that come with it, Fluttershy would always just listen and nod while occasionally giving her two cents.

Spike's a writer, which surprises no one, taking inspiration from the adventures they shared. He's been on the bestseller list for what feels like ages and won a few awards over the years. He's still madly in love with Twilight Sparkle, which is a great thing considering the marriage and child that's come out of the relationship. Getting married was the hardest thing he ever had to deal with, not to say he has commitment issues, but the first ever interspecies marriage was no simple matter. Under normal circumstances they would never have been allowed to join in marital unity, but Princess Celestia was able to pull enough strings and make a special exception for her prized pupil, just barely. It was worth every headache and he's proud to have Sparkle as a last name, besides Twilight the dragon did not make any sense.

Spike Sparkle did have a nice ring to it as well.

Honestly he's never felt so lucky, especially since he became a father. He and Twilight had been worried that their beautiful little pony-dragon would be teased over her crossed species, it was the stuff of nightmares. Luckily she looked more like her mother every day, which kept her from being a laughing stock. Eltanin Sparkle, her name taken from the brightest star in the Draco constellation. She complains about how weird it is and insists on being called Ellie. Everypony enjoys teasing her about it, quite often.

She had taken a few things from her father, like her claws or the arrowhead tip of her tail, and even a few spines running down her back. Her sense of humor was one hundred percent dragon as well, but her mental capacity was happily taken from Twilight. Ellie also had a few compulsions, but to a less sever extent than her mother. Watching her learn about life the way they had was such a large reward and in his opinion they were doing a great job as parents. She was fast asleep on the level below them, tucked gently into her bed.

Twilight was a teacher at the schoolhouse, it certainly was not expected. Everpony assumed she would take up the throne over Equestria, being the pupil to the very princess. That plan ended the day she found she would have to move from Ponyville and would have very little time for friends or relationships, talk about a deal breaker. She denied the offer from Celestia and remained in the library, with her best friends close by, it'll never change. Spike and Twilight are the near perfect couple; sure, complications in the relationship arose from time to time, from the typical things like how to raise Eltanin to the odder, cross-species marital problems that only they could truly experience, but they would always work through it.

One night, ten years ago, when rain was falling and fears were rising inside of him, when he believed in a future where he'd have to abandon everything he loved and live the life of a dragon in some faraway place. It seemed ridiculous now, the fear of outliving everypony or being too big to fit into the library. It seems he struck gold in being the weakest type of dragon, with the size and lifespan of a healthy colt. So what more is there to say? Maybe this is where his story ends, with him happy and content, surrounded by his family and friends.

But now he can help his daughter with her story, what more can a father ask for?

I'm just a sucker for a happy ending, and if it comes off a little cheesy than I apologize. So I guess this is the end of the story, well it had to happen sometime but who knows, maybe Ellie will get a small little ficlet for herself tagged onto this. It can't be easy to be a dragon unicorn mix, but from a mental image she looks pretty awesome. I wish I had some drawing capability but sadly I have zilch in that department. Or maybe I'll do a Doctor Whooves/Derpy romance, who knows?

Goodnight.

E1