Twilight gathered up her purchases for the day; groceries mostly, along with some writing supplies and a few extra odds and ends, and piled them all into a bag. She made her farewells to the clerk and worked her way through the bustling customers to get back outside. She checked the last few items off her ever-present lists, then stopped to look around for Spike. Ah, there he was, in the market’s garden.

Spike had elected to remain outside while Twilight did her shopping. He did that sometimes, when it was crowded. Long gone were the days when he was small enough to just hop up on Twilight’s back and ride along. Twilight missed that sometimes, though she couldn’t quite say why. It was certainly more convenient, having an older, bigger, more independent assistant. And he was big now: tall, long-limbed, and growing broader by the day. But still…

Twilight had been about to call out to him, have him help her with all this stuff, but she hesitated. He was looking away from her, staring intently at something she couldn’t see over the crowd. He sat on the edge of the town fountain, his awkwardly lengthy limbs hunched up into a in a classic ‘thinker’ pose. Deciding to have a little fun, Twilight crept up behind him. Maybe she could give him a little scare.

Twilight snuck up behind Spike, edging silently up to the side of her quarry. She had assumed he was just staring off into space, as he often did these days. He had that look about him; intrigued, maybe a little confused. He was tapping his pinkie claw against the scales of his lower jaw like he did whilst pondering those unknowable things that teenage dragons pondered. He was usually rather reticent on the subject; his accustomed response to questions on what his idle thoughts were about was ‘Nuthin.’ Sometimes he wasn’t even that articulate. It was maddening.

Finally sidling up next to her victim, Twilight took a moment to follow his eyes. Oh hey, there was Rarity, standing at Applejack’s cart. She facing away from them, laughing at something her friend had said. Splitting her attention between Rarity and Spike’s eyes, Twilight watched as Rarity’s tail bobbed about with her movement. Spike was following it closely. Er, no, wait. He was actually ogling her…

Twilight’s brain deadlocked in a timeless moment of spastic panic as ten or twelve different impulses all tried to force their way out at once. Twilight felt a surge of embarrassment, for him or for herself or for both, she couldn’t tell. It was shot through with inexplicable anxiety, and maybe a bit of… pride? Part of her wanted to smack his gaze away like a scolding mother, another wanted to calmly advise that, nice as the view was, it was impolite to stare in public. A third made her kind of want to give the little guy a hoof-bump for having good taste, if nothing else. Yet one more demanded that she run away and pretend she had seen nothing. Nothing! The sum result of all these conflicting impulses was a simple, anticlimactic “Grrk!”

Spike popped out of his reverie, whatever it may have been. His eyes went wide as he took in Twilight’s terrified stare. To his credit, he immediately jumped to his feet, spines bristling.

“Twilight!? What’s wrong? Are you-“

“Hahaha I’m fine! Just fine! I just um…” ThinkthinkthinkIdon’tknowrunaway! “I have to go!” And with that, she turned tail and fled straight back to the library, recently purchased graceries scattering behind her as she ran.

Spike blinked once, then slowly returned to his seat on the fountain with a raised eyebrow. He watched her run for another second, swishing his tail through the cool water.

“Weirdo,” he concluded. Spike figured he should probably give Twilight a few minutes to get over whatever thing she was freaking out about this time. You got used to this sort of thing after a while. Anyway, what had he been thinking about? Oh well, probably wasn’t important.

Twilight Sparkle slammed her own door open and bolted straight for her writing desk. She cobbled together a parchment, pen, and ink, and hastily began scribbling out a letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have a huge emergency and I really need your help and I have no idea what to do! This is a total disaster! The fate of all of the stuff forever could be at stake here! It’s Spike! He’s

Twilight paused over the scroll, heaving for breath. Her initial frenzy of fear was spent, and Twilight finally started to catch up with herself. She stared at what little she had written, willing herself to stop and think. Twilight thought back to that look on Spike’s face. Intrigued, but…confused? She tried to remember what had gone through her head in those panicked seconds. She frowned, looking again at her words.

It’s Spike! He’s…Well, he’s what? Checking out the best-looking pony in town? Doing something that’s completely normal for his age (or any age, for that matter)? He’s…there was a lump building in her throat. Twilight tried to swallow past it.

He’s…

Growing up.

It was hard, much harder than she could ever have guessed, to write those words. But it felt…well, not good, but right, to put it out there like that. On a page. Where she couldn’t ignore it anymore. She took another deep breath and wondered…When had this happened? How had it snuck up on her like this?

Twilight thought about that time he’d left the library to join the other dragons in their migration. It seemed crazy now, that she had just let him go. Not that he’d ever really been alone of course. Twilight and her friends had followed him the whole time, but still. It hadn’t gone the way he’d wanted. The other dragons had turned out to be jerks, and Spike had learned a bit about the nature of family, but Twilight could tell the whole experience had affected him. How could it not? That must have been awful, but he’d never really wanted to talk about it…

And even before that, there was that whole thing with his hoarding reflex. What was it like, to grow that fast, to get so huge and powerful in a matter of hours, and then have to choose between all that might and your friends? What stopped him from doing it again? Why hadn’t she ever thought about that?

She thought about the day she had given him his own room. Well, she’d mostly just kicked him out of hers. Once she’d started bringing home dates, she’d pretty much had to. Twilight had helped Spike clean the little storage room out and make it his own. He’d been so happy. She’d gotten the feeling he’d wanted it all along, and just never said anything…Was it then?

And, more to the point, there was this thing with Rarity. Everypony had just assumed his little episode of puppy love would pass once he got older, but it never really had, had it? They’d all just pretended not to notice. Nopony ever talked about it. He was a dragon, after all, and she was a pony. That had been terribly unfair of them, hadn’t it? It wasn’t like he had a whole lot of options here in Ponyville…

How had it snuck up, then? Well, it hadn’t. She’d chosen to ignore it. Duh. The signs were all there. Had been for years. This little freak-out she was having was just her finally having to admit the obvious.

Twilight floated the letter from her desk to hover over the trash can. She almost dropped it in, but her librarian’s instinct held her back. Be a shame to waste a perfectly good scroll like that…and, now that she thought about it, that panicked bit of scrawl was honest, if nothing else. It expressed her feelings better than anything she could write intentionally.

Please disregard the sentences above. I was panicking a bit. You know how I get when I don’t understand things.

So…

This has been going on for quite a while, of course, but there was a particular event that forced me to realize that my baby dragon isn’t really a baby anymore. I was out with Spike this evening, and I noticed him

Twilight wrestled with how to say this part.

I noticed him taking a great deal of interest in certain parts of a certain pony’s anatomy. More so than usual, that is. As you can surely tell, I did not respond to this as well as I might have. It seems he and I will have to have a talk about this soon, and I must admit that I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to go through with it. I know this isn’t your favorite thing to talk about and, finally, I see why. I mean, logically, it should be easy, but…it’s Spike. He’s always been my little guy. I guess

That lump in her throat came and went as she ran the next sentence through her head. She waited for it to pass before she continued.

I guess I can’t really call him that anymore, can I? Any advice you have to give on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Ever your faithful student, even if I do have wings,

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Was that too brusque? Too informal? Twilight fired up her horn and sent the letter, refusing to give herself time to worry any further. Celestia would understand, even if it wasn’t perfect.

Twilight sighed and busied herself with cleaning up the perpetually growing mess that was her study, letting her mind work on the Spike situation in the background. How in the hay was she going to do this? His being a dragon in a world full of ponies certainly wasn’t going to make it any easier. Actually, now that she thought about, she had heard about such things before. Oh, right, back when she had gotten this talk from Celestia. There was that book. The one with the pictures. She’d have to ask to borrow that; the Library didn’t have one, what with all the foals in town.

It wasn’t five minutes before a return letter *poofed* into existence and bounced lightly off her head.

Huh. That was quick.

With only a bit of trepidation, Twilight unrolled the scroll. She could hear Celestia’s benevolent amusement from the very first word.

Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
Ah, yes. That wonderful/nightmarish rite of passage that we call ‘the talk.’ I seem to recall a similar situation that came up between a curious little filly and her very indulgent teacher. Of course I’d love to offer advice on Spike’s emergence into adulthood! My first suggestion is that you take a moment to think about this from his perspective. Consider that Spike may not much like having to discuss these things with you. You should not be offended by this. Imagine how you would have felt if you had had to learn such intimate tidbits from say, Shining Armor.

Twilight pondered that for a bit. She hated the idea that there might ever be things unspoken between her and Spike, but…Ugh. That would have been awful. She returned her attention to the letter.

Fortunately, I just happen to know somepony who is quite, shall we say, proficient in this area? With your permission, I’ll forward this letter to Luna. She’s a bit of an odd one; she is the only being I’ve ever known who enjoys giving the talk. She loves it! If you should choose to do it yourself though, I have a few more words of hard-won wisdom for you.

With much love and commiseration,

Princess Celestia.

P.S. You don’t have to worry, Twilight. He’ll always be your ‘little guy.’

There was that stupid lump again. Twilight tried to ignore and it read that part about Luna again. Huh. That…hmm. Twilight would have loved to pawn this task off onto somepony else, honestly. It was just, Luna was so…Hmm. What if she…Ya know what? Celestia knew what she was doing.

Right?

Twilight grabbed a quill and penned a reply before she had time to stop herself.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Twilight Sparkle.

And with a quick burst of violet flame, it was sent. The die was cast. The deed was done. The decision was ma—

There was a quick knock before the door opened.

“Are you good now, Twilight?” It was Spike of course.

“Oh, um, sure! Why wouldn’t I be good?” responded Twilight, with masterful subterfuge.

Spike looked at her through bemused eyes.

“I have no idea. Anyway, I—”

There was a sharp *BAMF!* as Luna, Princess of the Moon, popped into existence atop the library table. Even her magic spoke in the Royal Voice.

“Ah! Sparkle!” said the alicorn. “Tell us, where is the ‘little guy?’ We are very enthused to have this Talk!”

“I, uh…” intoned both Spike and Twilight.

Luna glanced eagerly about the main chamber of the library. On sighting Spike, her smile widened in glee. She hopped off the table and wrapped an arm about his shoulders.

“Come with Us, young adventurer! We shall guide thee on a wondrous and magical journey into an entirely new world!”

She looked back at Twilight.

“Perhaps We could have use of the library for a time?” Luna watched Twilight expectantly. She gave a little flap of her wings, politely but quite irresistibly shooing the smaller pony out the door.

Twilight fidgeted for a bit. Spike was giving her something of a ‘why are you leaving me with a crazy pony’ look, but…Not knowing quite what else to do, Twilight darted around Luna and inflicted a quick, awkward hug on the dragon. Then she turned and, for the second time today, fled the scene…