His steps were slow and hesitant, but even so, he did not stop. Spike was doing his best to try and make sense of everything that had happened to him in the last few days. The fact that his entry into adulthood had been marked with such a momentous change in him was bad enough, but the fact that it was forcing him to look at his closest friends in such a different way was, to say the least, not something he ever thought he would have to cope with. The only thing stranger than that was the fact that not only did they not shy away from him upon learning of this, but that they had actually agreed to help him through it.

And that was why he was here now. Making his way to the home of Applejack. That her and all the others were willing to do this, to be with him in the most intimate way a person can be with another, it made him speechless. The only comfort he could take in all of this was that nothing was expected of them yet, and that thankfully, his instincts hadn't kicked in again like they did at the party. Looking up at the ground, he gave a somewhat contented sigh as he finally saw his destination. Sweet Apple Acres. This place looked good at any time of the year, but now, after Applejack and her family had finished harvesting, it's massive green fields, all covered in trees, were truly a sight.

Still, he knew he couldn't enjoy the scenery just yet, and he had an important job to do. He was to spend the next few days here, helping both himself and Applejack to get used to being around each other. He didn't know if this plan of Celestia's would work, but if there was even a tiny hope that it would make things easier for his friends, he knew he had no choice but to go along with it. Taking a deep breath, he made his way towards the family home of the Apples. Being the size he was, it would have taken very little effort to just break the door down with his fist, so, like many other things, he had to restrain his strength as he knocked.

It didn't take long for there to be an answer, but when the door opened, it was not Applejack that answered, but her brother. Spike looked upon Big Mac and noticed very quickly that the older stallion had a rather angry look upon his face. Being as close to her family as she was, it was clear that Applejack had probably told them what was going on. Mac knew why Spike was here and what was going on, and that made the young dragon quite nervous. True, at his age he was larger than this stallion, but he knew from experience how strong the latter was. The two had never openly compared their strength to each other, and Spike was in no hurry to make such a comparison now.

Before either of them could speak though, there was a sound from behind Mac. A clearing of somepony's throat. The red stallion turned around and looked upon his sister standing there, as did Spike. Applejack gave her brother a gesture with her head, giving him permission to leave. The stallion gave one last glance at Spike before letting out a long sigh and nodding to his sister. Spike stood aside as Mac made his way past him, before turning to look at Applejack again. She gave him a smile, albeit a very small one, and waved him in with her hoof. The young dragon entered, closing the door behind him, and the two made their way to the kitchen.

Once there, they sat on opposite sides of the breakfast table and just started staring at each other. The only sound that could be heard was that of the nearby clock going "tick-tock". It was quickly becoming unbearably silent, but thankfully, that silence was broken by Applejack.

"So..."

Spike cleared his throat before replying to that.

"So..."

Then, much to Spike's annoyance, the silence came back. Thankfully, he'd suddenly thought of something to say.

"I...I notice Applebloom isn't here. She with Scoot and Sweetie?"

Applejack shook her head at that.

"Nope. She's down at the market. It's her turn to work the apple stall today."

Spike nodded at that, shortly before twiddling his thumbs. Applejack seemed to be just as uncomfortable with this whole scenario as he was, and raised both hoofs to the sides of her head. If she had fingers like he did, Spike had not doubt that she'd be trying to rub her temples right now. He looked down at the table, trying to avoid her gaze, before speaking.

"Maybe...this was a bad idea."

He began to get up and move away from the table, but was stopped by a sudden slamming sound as Applejack brought her hoof down on the table. One look at her rather angry expression gave Spike more than enough incentive to sit himself back down, which he did. Then again, he'd known Applejack long enough to know that when she agreed to something, she was going to stick to it. The earth pony looked at him and knew just from one glance that this wasn't going to be an easy time. So, rather than just sitting here uncomfortably for who knew how many days, she did the only thing that came to mind.

"Spike...we need to try an talk bout this."

The young dragon kept his eyes off hers as best he could, but even so, he knew she was right. As much as he wanted to just go back to that cave and bury his head in a desperate bid to make this whole situation go away, he knew it wasn't happening. So, he finally looked her right in the eye.

"Applejack...I'm sorry."

The mare tilted her head in confusion, prompting Spike to explain himself.

"It's obvious this will cause problems for you. Your family alone is clearly taking this badly. And...I just never wanted this for you."

Applejack looked at him intently before narrowing her eyes at him.

"Spike...listen to me. I may have given up mah element a long time ago, but honesty is still important to me. More than that, it's what I always told mahself I'd look for in a partner. So I need y'all to be honest with me now."

The young dragon looked at her, curious as to what exactly she was going to ask of him.

"Y'all say you don't want this. But is that the truth?"

Spike's expression became a mixture of shock and anger, and he was clearly offended by the idea that this was something he wanted to happen to him and his friends. Before he could give an answer, which would have undoubtedly been a rather aggressive one, Applejack raised a hoof, silencing him before he spoke, and giving her a chance to explain herself.

"I know y'all wish this hadn't happened. So do I. But ask yerself this. Y'all have known me an the others fer years now. I know y'all used to crush on Rarity somethin fierce. But what about the rest of us? Can you look me in the eye and say that there's never been a day, not even one moment, where you never thought about you an me? Or you an Fluttershy? Or you an...any of us?"

The dragon opened his mouth, ready to give the obvious response, that he'd never thought of any of them in that way before. But when he tried to get the words out, he suddenly found that he couldn't. The way this mare was looking at him, with those eyes that always knew a lie when they saw one, seemed to look right into him. His mind looked back over the years he's lived in Ponyville, and, more importantly, at the moments he spent with her and the others. He'd grown close to each of them over these past eighteen years and, in all honesty, there had indeed been moments, albeit brief ones, where he had truly considered wanting to be more than friends with them. And even though such thoughts had long since passed for him, it would still have been a lie to say that they had never occurred at all.

So, with Applejack's eyes still locked onto him, Spike found he could not look at her, and turned away from her gaze. Seeing this, Applejack let out a sigh.

"Ah thought so. I ain't judgin ya, but that want of yers is there, and y'all need to admit that, to yerself if nothin else."

He wanted to deny it as much as possible, but the last thing he needed right now was to make this situation worse by adding lies on top of everything else. He exhaled deeply, wondering once again how this whole mess could have begun, before looking his friend in the eye again.

"I'm...I'm sorry."

Applejack stared at him for a moment and saw the genuine remorse he felt right now. Slowly, a small smile crept back onto her face.

"Hey...it's fine, Spike. Still, this does make me pretty unusual as far as Apples go."

Spike looked away again upon hearing that. Over the years he'd heard plenty of Applejack and their family, and one of the most important things to them was tradition. For as long as their family had been around, it had always been the same thing, that their partners in life were ponies, and earth ponies at that. Then, in comes Spike to break that tradition. He knew how important family was to Applejack, and knowing that he was going to cause this much of a wrench in her relations wasn't making him feel any better. He'd have probably continued wallowing in that rather depressing thought, had it not been for a sudden warm feeling on his hand. Looking down, he saw that Applejack had leaned forward and placed a hoof upon his hand, and was looking at him with a warm smile.

"Now then, don't y'all go and get down like that. If y'all are gonna be mah mate, ah can't have ya mopin around."

Rather surprised by the earth pony's sudden energy, Spike looked on as she took her hoof off, hopped off her chair and then walked around the table to stand right next to him.

"We've got a few days together, so we might as well make the best of it. There are some chores to do, and the day's wastin already."

The young dragon looked at her with a raised eyebrow, still clearly taken aback by this sudden turnaround in her behaviour.

"You mean...you've accepted this? You and me? Just like that."

The earth pony gave a brief chuckle and nodded.

"Something you gotta know about us Apples, Spike. Family and young un's are important to all of us. Thanks to you, I'll probably have both soon enough. Besides, Apples are pretty brief when it comes to courtin, so don't be too surprised about me being okay with this already."

Applejack then looked off into the distance and looked rather nostalgic for a moment.

"I can still remember back when Granny was still kickin, always goin on about how I should settle down and raise a family of mah own. Don't think this is what she had in mind though."

In this one moment, both of them joined each other in a moment of laughter, relieving both of them of the stress that had painted this entire exchange so far. Once they were done though, Spike simply nodded at her. Whatever issues that Applejack was going to experience from all this, she'd either put it behind her already or was going to want to deal with it in her own time, without dragging Spike into it. Either way, he was certainly a lot happier that she wasn't going to let herself or him get down from all this. So, Spike suddenly found himself being pushed by his friend towards the front door of her house, just before she picked up a nearby shovel in her mouth and shoved in into his hands.

"Well? Time don't stand still fer nopony. An there's new apple seedlins than need plantin."

Spike, feeling somewhat relieved that there didn't seem to be any bad blood from her about this, smiled at her before nodding.

"Sure thing..."

His expression then became one of appreciation as he looked at her, with Applejack herself having now become silent, and was also looking at him just as intently, waiting for him to finish what he needed to say. And when he did, her smile became one of genuine affection for the young drake who would soon become so much more to her than just a friend.

"...and...thank you."

The mare nodded back at him before starting to turn away. However, as Spike began to move away towards the orchards to do his work, a thought occurred to him as he looked down at the shovel in his hand, and he looked back to Applejack.

"Say, Applejack? Am I going to be expected to do a lot of this sort of thing once we've...er...you know?"

Applejack stared at him for a few moments before looking away briefly, her face that of a person clearly pondering something. Eventually though, her face broke into an uncharacteristically mischievous smile as she looked back to her soon-to-be mate.

"Eyup."