Youthful Expression Ch.7

Youthful Expression
Written by Closer-To-The-Sun (Joseph Noblit)
Chapter 7: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Spike awoke the around midday to Twilight Sparkle looking him over. The purple unicorn had a worried look upon her face, it was her mother-like instincts taking over.

"How are you feeling today, Spike?" she asked concerned, "Rarity told you weren't feeling good yesterday and you came home to get some bed rest."

The purple dragon rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to wake up, "Yeah….I'm doing better now. Guess it was just something that just past through me or something," he wasn't going to mention anything about Sweetie Belle.

Twilight gave a warm smile, "Well, thank Celestia you are feeling better. And I'm sure the crusaders will be happy to see you doing well, too."

Spike's heart skipped a beat when he heard the mare mention the group of fillies, "T-The crusaders?"

Twilight nodded as she went to get a one of the books on her bed to place back on the upstairs shelves, "Yeah, Applebloom came by earlier today asking if you could come out and play on the farm. She seemed to be really worried when I told her that you were under the weather."

The dragon gulped when Twilight wasn't looking and remained quiet.

"You know," Twilight continued, "I think you should go out and play with them. Getting out of bed and getting some exercise will help you body feel better."

Spike remained quiet but thought in return, 'It's not my body that's feeling bad, it's my head with all of this stuff going on.'

"So what do you say?" the unicorn turned around after placing the remaining books on the shelves.

Spike carefully got out of bed and twiddled the digits on his claws. He wanted to come up with some excuse, any excuse, to not go outside and see the crusaders. He just knew something bad was going to happen if he did. However, he could not think of a lie that would sound plausible, "Sure, that would be good for me," he replied half-heartedly.

Twilight smiled and started toward the stairs, "Excellent! I've taken the liberty in making a few treats for the girls since I felt bad for Applebloom when I told her you weren't feeling well. I made enough for each of you." Twilight levitated a small box of muffins from the table into Spike's claws.

In his mind, Spike really wanted to make a comment about how motherly Twilight was acting, but he just didn't feel it inside him to make the joke, "Thanks, Twilight," was his only reply until he saw that one of the windows was missing it's glass, "Hey, wasn't there a window there?" he pointed with one claw.

Twilight nervously looked back before turning back to her assistant, "Oh, heh, would you look at the time! You really should get to those Cutie Mark Crusaders! I'm sure they are really worried about you!" The purple mare pushed Spike toward the door and closed it behind him when he was outside.

Spike sighed when he was outside. Before he could take a step, he saw that there was a gray pegasus pony with a blonde mane looking at him with her tongue sticking out of her smiling mouth.  One of her eyes was fixed on the box while the other seemed to be staring up at the sun. Spike had seen her around before and knew exactly what she wanted.

Opening the box, he took one of the muffins out and handed it to her, "Here, I don't have much of an appetite, anyway," he mumbled as he slowly started walking to the original Cutie Mark Crusader's fort. He figured they would be there. The pegasus gasped with joy as she was given the muffin.

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When Spike arrived to the fort, he saw the crusaders playing some games, most likely ones they just made up and created the rules as they went along. Taking a deep breath, he walked toward them.

"Hey, girls," he said quietly as he got close.

"Spike!" all three said in unison, happy to see their dragon comrade.

"What's in the box, Spike?" Scootaloo asked.

Placing the box on the ground, he opened the box up to three blueberry muffins. The three fillies were filled with excitement as they each grabbed one and began to eat.

"Aw, thanks Spike!" Applebloom said enjoying her muffin.

"Whaff's tha occashion?" Sweetie Belle spoke with her mouth full, spitting a few bits of food out by accident.

"Oh, Twilight just made them earlier and had some extra after breakfast is all," the dragon spoke, sitting down on the grass, trying to not think what might happen.

Finishing her muffin before the other fillies, the orange pegasus asked the dragon, "So Spike, what exactly happened to ya? When Applebloom went over, Twilight said you weren't doing so well,"

"Oh, well, uh…." the dragon started, "I just wasn't feeling well after helping Rarity and Sweetie Belle yesterday, that's all."

"You went t' Sweetie Belle's?" Applebloom asked, titling her head to one side.

"Yeah, I was helping out Rarity with some of her dresses," the dragon said.

"Well, do ya know what it was that caused ya to feel out of it?" Scootaloo poked at the issue.

Spike looked to the unicorn filly who seemed to be giving a bit of an odd glare as she was still chewing on her muffin, "I don't remember," he lied.

"Come on now, really? Ya don't remember, Spike?" the yellow earth pony asked.

"N-No."

"Come on, think hard! We'll get to the bottom of this! It might get us our cutie marks!" Scootaloo edged on.

"He said he doesn't remember!" Sweetie Belle blurted out angrily, quickly covering her mouth after she realized what she had just said.

The other three looked to the unicorn.

"Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom was confused, just like the rest.

"I was there, and I can tell you that nothing weird happened!" the unicorn's voice was bitter.

"Doesn't sound like nothing," the pegasus spoke.

"It was nothing!" the unicorn snapped back to Scootaloo.

"It wasn't nothing," the male voice spoke.

All three fillies looked to Spike.

"Sweetie Belle….kissed me," he managed to utter.

Applebloom's expression turned to one of horror and disbelief, "No!"

Sweetie Belle sighed, "Okay, yes, fine, we did."

The yellow pony turned to the unicorn, "How could ya?" her voice was full of sorrow as a few tears began to form in her eyes.

"Because….I don't know!" Sweetie Belle blurted out, "Why can't I kiss him? I like him too!"

"How did ya know that I liked-"

"Because I saw you two on the farm after school on Friday!"

Scootaloo was completely lost in this conversation.

"Can't I say something about this?" Spike tried to edge his way into the conversation.

"No!" both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle said in unison.

The two continued arguing until Sweetie Belle came up with an idea, "I know, how about we let Spike decide?"

"Huh?" Applebloom and Spike were confused about the idea.

"Let's have him pick who he likes more, you or me. Simple as that," Sweetie Belle said acting as if she already knew she was going to win.

Applebloom was a bit reluctant but she agreed, "Alright then."

The two fillies then turned to the dragon, "Alright, Spike, who do you like more? Me, or Applebloom?" Sweetie Belle asked the purple dragon.

Spike felt awful. As he looked at the two fillies, his head said that he wanted Applebloom, simple as that. But at the same time, he did feel something when Sweetie Belle forced a kiss to his lips. And on top of it all, he didn't want to hurt either's feelings. They were still his friends.

"Come on, Spike, pick one of us!" Sweetie Belle grew impatient.

"Spike, what's takin' ya so long?" Applebloom's voice was filled with sadness.

"I pick…."

Both fillies leaded forward for the answer while Scootaloo was just bored with what as going on, showing no interest.

"I pick…." Spike took a deep breath and quickly thought to himself, 'Oh Celestia, please don't hate me….'

"Yes?" the unicorn was waiting.

"Scootaloo!" he said in a panic.