Twilight Sparkle stepped into the library later that afternoon with a saddlebag thrown over her back, loaded with various supplies for studying peppers and for cleaning. As soon as the purple unicorn stepped in, every muscle in her body froze at what awaited her.
The library had been wiped down to a cleanliness that sparkled in the sunlight coming from the window. All the books had been neatly arranged on the shelves and all the dishes clean. Fluttershy was in the back of the library, dusting the top shelf with a rag as her little wings flutted gently. Rainbow Dash was scraping a final blotch of cake frosting from the ceiling while Applejack arranged the dishes neatly where they belonged.
"What is this about?" Twilight asked the five other ponies in the room.
A hopping, grinning pink pony awaited Twilight at she entered. "Hiya, Twi! Lookie what we did! Lookie what we did!"
Fluttershy turned around to face the source of the voice, giving a startled little gasp as she did. "Oh, hi Twilight. Rainbow Dash told us you were having trouble keeping up on your chores and convinced us to help clean up."
"Wow. Thanks, everypony, this is so thoughtful of you." Twilight turned her head to pan the library, still in awe at how clean it had become in only the hour since she'd left.
"Aw shoot, don't you fret about it, sugarcube." Applejack gave a wave of dismissal. "After all, what're friends for?"
After descending to the floor, Dash stood on her rear hooves, cupping her forehooves behind her back. "I'm really sorry I broke your statue, Twilight. I might never be able to make up for it but I figured this was a start."
"About that," Rarity said as she stepped in from a seperate room with a fully restored statue hovering in front of her. "I used my magic for beautifying to repair that priceless bust! Rainbow Dash, you simply must take more care when flying around indoors." The statue floated in the air until Rarity placed it back on the stand it once sat on. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
"Wow, everypony… thanks." Twilight took a few more moments to look around at the sparkling clean library and the statue that had been perfectly repaired. She supposed she should have been happy, but all she could do was exhale and hang her head in disappointment. The other five watched their friend mope up the stairs to her bedroom, then looked at each other in confusion. Something was definitely wrong with Twilight, and it was obvious it wasn't how messy the library had been.
Taking point, Rarity didn't need to invite the others as she followed Twilight up the stairs into her fellow unicorn's bedroom. The violet pony stretched out across her bed with her head buried into her pillow.
"Twilight, dahling, whatever is the matter?" Rarity's voice was filled with genuine concern.
"Oh, my," Fluttershy's soft whisper came from behind Rarity, "were we intruding? I'm sorry… I hadn't thought of that."
"No, I appreciate it, really." Twilight replied, her voice muffled into her pillow.
"Then let's turn that frown upside down!" Pinkie shouted with a smile. "We worked really hard to clean this place up!"
"I'm fine," Twilight replied in a voice that contradicted her statement.
"Don't sound much like yer fine to me, sugarcube." Applejack looked around the room at the other ponies, then back to Twilight. "I can't speak for the rest of us, but I ain't budgin' 'till you tell me what's eatin' you."
"Yeah, we cleaned up your library and fixed your statue, so what's the problem?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight lifted her head from the pillow and sniffed. Her eyes, puffy and wide, scanned each of the five ponies in the room. All of her friends were there, and they'd worked so hard to help her. All of her friends, except for one little dragon. "It's Spike. I think he's been avoiding me on purpose the last few days, and I don't know what it is I said or did to him. He left this morning without even telling me! Did I work him too hard? Did I violate some sort of dragon code of conduct?" Frustrated, Twilight slammed her face back down into her pillow.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud, it's got nothin' to do with you, Twilight!" Dash shouted. "Spike just found himself a girlfriend, that's all!"
"Wait, what?" Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash in confusion. "Since when?"
"At least the last couple of days. He's been spending his time with her."
"Um, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy whispered, "I thought we weren't going to tell…"
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I hate to see a friend so down like this," Dash replied.
Twilight turned to Fluttershy, looking incredulously at the pegasus. "Fluttershy? You knew, too? And you didn't tell me?"
As Fluttershy wilted under the volume of Twilight's voice, a sympathetic hoof touched her shoulder. Twilight turned her head to find Dash with her hoof stretched out to her. "We were going to let Spike tell you himself, but I guess he lost his nerve."
A look of confusion that melted into a smile spread across Twilight's face. "Spike… a girlfriend? Is this a joke?"
"Ok," Rainbow Dash answered, "maybe I'm the kind who might pull a fast one like that on you, but would Fluttershy?"
"It's true," Fluttershy replied. "A girl dragon."
A few silent moments passed as Twilight assessed the situation. Spike had a girlfriend? That little dragon was growing up faster than she'd realized. How long would it be before last night's dream came true and Spike was fully-grown? With the way the years had flown since she'd hatched Spike, he'd be an adult in no time.
Rarity had remained silent in disbelief during the discussion as she felt an odd mix of happiness and disappointment at the news. Of course, it was positively darling that he'd found a young female dragon to give his heart to, but a brief surge of emptiness hit. What about…her? Rarity sighed through her nose. If only Spike were about ten years older…and a pony. He was one of the sweetest and most generous beings she knew.
"Well, that is certainly splendid news," the white unicorn finally spoke, feigning the best smile she could. "I'll bet they look simply darling together."
"What's with that tone?" Applejack asked. "Rarity, yer not jealous, are ya?"
Gnashing her teeth to fight the sudden embarrassment, Rarity giggled. "Who, me? Come now, Applejack. That is a ridiculous implication. Why should I be jealous?"
Smiling wide, Pinkie Pie resumed her cheerful bouncing in place. "Ooh! Ooh! We should tell Spike to bring her to Ponyville! We could throw her a great big party with cake and ice cream and punch and soda and candy and games!"
Ignoring Pinkie Pie's excited characteristic rant; Twilight rubbed her hoof on her chin in thought of what to say to Spike when he came home.
"Feelin' better now, Twigh?" Applejack asked.
"A little bit. And when Spike gets home I'm going to get to the bottom of this!"
Meanwhile…
The two little dragons walked paw-in-paw through a sandy trail that cut through a thick blanket of trees, their leaves dancing slowly in the breeze. Spike looked down at his waist. He'd strapped a small leather belt with an attached pouch to his waist that morning just before leaving the library. Recalling how Sapphire had frozen the lake the day before, Spike stopped and rubbed the pouch with his free hand.
Sapphire jarred from Spike's sudden stop, dragging him forward a couple of steps. Taken by surprise from the sudden movement, Spike fought to maintain his balance and buckled his knees.
"What's wrong, Spike? Why'd you stop like that?"
"Well, I was just thinking. You showed me a cool trick yesterday. Would you like to see a cool trick of my own?"
"Sure!"
From the belt strapped to his waist, Spike produced a scroll of parchment and a feather quill. He unrolled the scroll and scribbled something on the sheet before rolling it back up to belch a small jet of green flame on the scroll. In an instant, the parchment faded away. Before Sapphire could make anything of the display, a belch of her own forced its way out of her maw, along with the same scroll Spike had just made disappear. Without a word, she grabbed the scroll from midair, unwrapped it and read the letter Spike had written.
"Hi."
Sapphire looked up at Spike. He could teleport letters with his breath? Maybe she could do it, too! Without asking permission, Sapphire snatched the quill from Spike's paw and scribbled a note of her own on the parchment. She held the scroll in front of her mouth and belched a cloud of icy breath on it. Within a second, the scroll vanished and Spike spat it back out.
"Hello."
Spike looked at Sapphire for a few seconds. So he wasn't the only dragon who could teleport letters with a breath, and Sapphire wanted to make a little game with it.
With a sly smile, Spike took the quill back away from Sapphire to write another, much longer note underneath hers. Sapphire attempted a peek, forcing Spike to turn around to hide the letter from her prying eyes. A duet of belches followed, and Sapphire unraveled the scroll to read Spike's note out loud.
"You are the most beautiful dragon in all of Equestria." Smiling wide, Sapphire looked back up at Spike, who was blushing and twisting his foot into the sand. "Awwwww!"
The dragoness took the quill one more time and wrote yet another note underneath Spike's before belching the scroll back to him. Spike grabbed the scroll from midair and unrolled it. "You are the sweetest dragon in all of Equestria."
Spike looked up at Sapphire, who was smiling and blushing at him. Their eyes locked for a few moments; then both dragons fell over on their backs, clutching their stomachs in laughter.