Let's see what Spike and Rarity are up to, shall we? Thanks for reading and reviewing (there, I already said thank you now you hafta review).

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Spike woke up on something soft and plush. He could smell lavenders and he was curled up against something warm and furry. His eyes shot open. Filling his vision was a large patch of white fur. He reached out and touched it softly with his claw, unable to trust his memory. He stroked the fur; it was incredibly soft and silky.

"That means it wasn't a dream," Spike said softly, remembering his night with Rarity.

She rolled over and looked into his eyes. "I certainly hope it wasn't a dream." She leaned in and gave him a long, but soft kiss. She broke away, her eyes twinkling. "I guess we should clean this mess up, don't you think."

Spike looked around. There was evidence of the previous night's activities everywhere: several outfits were scattered across the floor, many were shredded, various other toys were lying in random places, some still turned on.

He and Rarity got up and began hiding the evidence as best as they could. Just as Spike covered up the last box, there was a knock at Rarity's door. "You up yet big sis?" Sweetie Belle called through the door. "We want to get some breakfast." The door opened and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were standing just outside the doorway, yawning and rubbing their eyes.

Scootaloo noticed Spike and nudged Sweetie Belle. "What?" Scootaloo pointed over at the small dragon. Sweetie Belle stared for a second. "Rarity, what were you two doing?"

"Why, whatever do you mean Sweetie?" Rarity asked, sounding a little nervous.

"I mean, why is Spike covered in lipstick?"

Spike looked into a nearby mirror and saw that his face was covered in streaks of lipstick. He looked at Rarity and saw that there was still a little bit on her lips, the exact same shade.

"Well," she said, tapping her hoof against the floor, "I'm waiting." Applebloom and Scootaloo tried to slide away while Sweetie Belle was distracted but she managed to grab their legs with her magic. "Oh no, you aren't going anywhere until she tells us what happened."

"Ah don't think this is somethin' we should be here for," Applebloom said, struggling against the glow around her hooves.

"Yeah, this should be private," Scootaloo was regretting pointing Spike out to Sweetie Belle.

"Oh, me and Rarity were just…" Spike trailed off as Sweetie Belle glared at him.

"Rarity," Sweetie Belle had an odd look on her face.

"Yes, yes I know. I also know that we talked about this," Rarity seemed to grow angry. "It's none of your business what I do."

"Or who," Scootaloo whispered to Applebloom. Her face turned red almost instantly.

Eventually, everypony calmed down and Sweetie Belle decided to drop the issue. "I'm watching you though," she said, staring at Spike and Rarity.

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The rest of the day went by as usual, the crusaders tried everything they could to get their cutie marks and Rarity stitched together new dresses while Spike acted as a pincushion. When it came time for dinner, Rarity proposed that they all head over to the market and see if Applejack had any apples left.

"Yeah," Applebloom yelled happily, "we could bake us up an apple pie!" Everypony else agreed so they all headed out.

They got to the market, but Applejack was nowhere in sight. "Well that's weird," Applebloom said, "she'd never leave this early, there's no way she coulda sold enough apples."

"Maybe something happened to her," Spike said, "look, her cart's right there."

"But it says back in five minutes," Scootaloo said, pointing at the large sign, "she wouldn't have stopped to put that up if she was in trouble."

Applebloom picked up one of the apples and smelled it. "Why this apple was picked at least a day ago," she said, frowning, "we only sell apples that we pick in the morning, helps to keep the freshest apples going around."

"Well, there's no use in standing around here," Rarity said, the wind was beginning to pick up a bit and she feared for her mane, "let's just grab a few apples and leave some bits. Applejack will turn up eventually, she did last time."

"What do you mean 'last time'?" Applebloom asked as Rarity began picking up apples.

She threw a couple of bits into the basket, "oh, the stories I could tell you about that pony. We used to be quite… adventurous when we were younger. In fact, until Pinkie came along, we were the two biggest party ponies in Ponyville."

The three fillies looked expectantly at Rarity, expecting a story. Even Spike had sat down and was watching the white unicorn.

"Oh no, I'm not going to tell you now, we're out in public. Maybe once we get this pie going I'll tell you about the last time Applejack disappeared."

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The smell of apple pie wafted through the boutique; warm flakey crust, soft gooey apples with cinnamon shot through. Rarity sat down and looked at the fillies gathered in front of her. "Well, not long after we graduated from Ponyville High…"

"Hey Rarity," Applejack yelled, "come see what me and Berry Punch whipped up!"

The music was loud enough to shake the floors and Rarity could barely make out what the orange pony was saying. She trotted over, weaving in and out of a large crowd. The strobes lights occasionally caused her to crash into somepony.

"What do you have?" Rarity yelled to make herself heard.

"We *hic* put a milkshake into a jar of *hic* vodka and cider," Berry Punch smiled and slowly wove side to side, her balance ruined by the insane amounts of alcohol she always drank.

"It's actually purdy good," Applejack yelled, waving a huge jar filled with a dark sloshing liquid.

Rarity grabbed the jar and took a sip. Somehow the alcohol combined the chocolaty ice cream and the intoxicating cider to make the best drink she'd ever had. Then she realized that it almost instantly gave her a strong buzz in the back of her head.

For the rest of the party they danced around, jumping through the clouds of artificial fog and drinking huge amounts of the new intoxicating mixture. Every now and then either Rarity or Applejack would be led away by a young stallion, sometimes both by the same one.

As the sun began to light up the sky, Rarity and Applejack began to fight, neither entirely sure what the other was saying but both too drunk to care.

"Well ah jusht abou' had enough of yew!"

"Jush becaush you can't be this amashing," Rarity stopped and began spinning slowly. Her eyes closed and she fell, seeming to be in slow motion. Applejack, still furious, stumbled out the door and into the night.

"Anyways," Rarity finished, "I don't know exactly what happened while she was gone, or for about a week after I woke up. But she eventually came back. Her coat was dyed bright red and she had piercings everywhere. It was simply awful."

"Ah don't know, that doesn't sound like Applejack," Applebloom said, frowning a little.

"After that night we started going a little easier on the partying. Then, after a few months, Pinkie Pie moved in and we eventually faded from everypony's mind."

"I didn't know either of you had ever done anything like that," Spike said.

"I knew about it," Scootaloo said, "Rainbow Dash was telling me about some of the parties she'd been to when she moved here and she mentioned you and Applejack were huge party ponies back then."

"Wha-" Sweetie Belle was interrupted by a loud buzzing noise.

"Pie's done," Rarity said, jumping up and walking to the kitchen.

They all sat around the table, enjoying the fresh pie. Rarity even found a tub of whipped cream, though she refused to have any of that 'ghastly stuff'. "It goes straight to your flanks," she complained as she pushed it away. The others just shrugged and continued scooping it onto their pie.

After they ate, they pulled out a bunch of board games and played until the fillies started yawning.

"Time for bed," Rarity said as Applebloom nodded off in the middle of twister. She fell over onto Scootaloo and they hit the ground in a tangled mess, jolting Applebloom awake.

Rarity tucked the fillies in and Spike read a story. Not long after 'Once upon a time,' the crusaders started falling asleep. By the time Spike got to what the mare in distress was up to, he had fallen asleep, half falling off the bed. Rarity smiled and turned out the lights. She headed up to her room and lay down for the night.

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Rarity woke up to the smell of pancakes. "Oh no," she yelled, jumping up suddenly, "not my beautiful kitchen!" The last time Sweetie had tried cooking breakfast she ended up burning everything, even the juice.

She ran into the kitchen and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders helping Spike make breakfast. Applebloom was busy mixing up batter while Scootaloo flew around pouring globs of mix over Spikes head. Spike would breathe a quick burst of fire, instantly cooking the pancake to an even golden brown. Sweetie Belle carefully arranged everything on the table.

Rarity managed to calm down before anypony noticed her. "Morning Rarity," Spike called, looking away from Scootaloo. He turned back, about to breathe fire when an entire bowl of pancake mix fell on his head. The white goop splashed everywhere. Spike tried to get the bowl off his head but it was stuck tight and he slipped in a large white puddle.

Spike slid across the floor, bowling over Applebloom and sliding all the way over to Rarity. They collided with her legs and she fell on top of them. Rarity's head hit the floor and her horn suddenly started glowing. A shockwave shot out as her horn collided with the ground and the rest of the batter was splattered on the walls. Loud thumps told the ponies that the shelves in the rooms nearby had all fallen over, throwing clothes everywhere.

"Sorry sis," Sweetie Belle said, helping Rarity up. Scootaloo rushed around trying to wipe up as much of the batter as she could. Everypony was waiting for Rarity to explode about the mess. She creased her eyes.

"No, no, it's quite alright," her teeth were clenched in what resembled a smile. "Spike, I think we should head out somewhere after we eat so that these three," she glared at the crusaders, "can show me how happy they are about staying here by cleaning up a bit. Heavens knows the place could use it."

They sat down and ate the steamy pancakes, trying to ignore the constant patter of falling batter. Ignoring the mess, the food was flawless. Each pancake was thick and fluffy, cooked evenly all the way through with no dark spots in sight. As Spike swallowed the last one whole Rarity floated the dishes over to the sink and dropped them in.

"Come on Spike," she said, smiling. Her eye was twitching rapidly, "let's give the girls some alone time." She walked out of the kitchen and said loudly, "I do so love coming home to a clean house. Don't all of you?"

Spike followed along behind Rarity for several streets. Eventually she slowed down and began breathing deeply. "I swear those fillies will be the death of me." Spike caught up and wrapped his arm around her neck.

"They aren't all that bad." A loud crashing noise came from where they knew the boutique to be and a column of dust shot up into the air. Both of Rarity's eyes were twitching, sometimes they would fall into step for a few seconds before beginning to twitch randomly again. Spike laughed nervously. "So, anywhere special you wanted to go?"

Rarity let out an angry breath. Steam seemed to shoot from her nostrils and she began pawing at the ground.

"Tell you what," Spike said, trying to distract her from the construction noises emanating from the direction they came, "I found a great place outside of Ponyville when one of Twilight's spells went bad. I couldn't walk straight for weeks but it's an amazing place, come see."

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Scootaloo sat up. She was on a roof above Spike and Rarity and her scooter was lying next to her. She sped along the roofs back to where her friends were trying to fix the damage they had done to the store.

"They're going to some place Spike knows about." Scootaloo said as she slid to a stop.

"Do ya' think we should follow 'em?"

"Yeah, I don't like how they've been acting lately." Sweetie Belle said, her face forming into a frown, "I don't want Rarity messing Spike up. He's too… nice. Rarity would just ruin him."

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at their friend, unsure how to react. Sweetie Belle just dropped her hammer and began walking the way Scootaloo had come. The other two followed, more to make sure Sweetie didn't hurt anypony than to actually see what Rarity and Spike were doing.

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"Are we almost there?" Rarity whined, "my feet hurt and we've been walking for hours."

"Yeah, it's a good way away from Ponyville but it's worth the walk. Actually, it's so far away that I built a little house to use while I'm there so I don't have to go home right after getting there."

Rarity stopped and looked at Spike. "How far away is it, exactly?"

"Oh, we're almost there now. You might be able to see it up ahead. There's a cliff with a lake in front of it. The cliff is made out of solid marble and has lots of gemstones buried in it." Spike licked his lips, "they're all so perfect." Rarity stepped to the side to avoid his puddle of drool.

"It sounds… wonderful Spike," she said, trying not to think of all of the germs in lakes and how much mud there would be by it.

"You'll see." Spike continued waddling on.

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"Ugh, how much farther is it?" Sweetie Belle was sitting on a cushion from Rainbow and Scootaloo's cloud castle. It was made so that it wouldn't sink through the clouds if anypony dropped it. She and Applebloom were both sitting on one. They were on a cloud being rushed along by Scootaloo.

"I…. don't know," Scootaloo huffed as she continued at a blinding pace, trying to catch up with Spike and Rarity.

"Well go faster."

Scootaloo yanked the cloud to a stop. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle nearly fell off as they were yanked to a halt. She wiped the sweat off her forehead, "you're more than welcome to push this yourself you know."

They started arguing back and forth and were about to start hitting each other when Applebloom stepped in. "Girls! We hafta catch up or we're gonna lose 'em!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stopped and saw that Spike and Rarity were now barely visible dots on the horizon.

Scootaloo revved up her wings and shot forward, angling her body just how Rainbow Dash had taught her when they were getting ready for the flight test. She shot through the air leaving an orange and purple blur; little pieces of the cloud were torn off by the rushing wind. After a few minutes of this, Scootaloo's wings began to slow down. She was gasping for breath and nearly fell a few times. She brought the cloud down to ground level and fell over onto it.

"Your… turn… to push," she gasped. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom climbed off and placed their cushions against the side of the cloud and began pushing it forward.

"I thought… errr… that clouds were… ugh... supposed to be light." Sweetie Belle's face turned bright red as she continued pushing the cloud along. Applebloom was having almost as much trouble.

"Why do you think Rainbow Dash and I were always training?" Scootaloo asked, looking over the edge of the cloud at her friends, "these things take a lot of energy to move, that's why we plan the weather ahead of time."

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"Here we are," Spike said, waving his arm at the scene in front of them. There was a large, crystal clear lake with white, sandy beaches. Fish jumped out of the water here and there and, up against a large cliff was a small doorway filled in with a piece of a log.

"Oh my Spike, this is amazing," Rarity said as she looked around. "You said you ended up here when Twilight's spell messed up?"

"Yeah, I suddenly appeared in the air over the middle of the lake. I swam out and saw a little crater in the wall like something hit it going really fast. I saw a sparkling in the hole and, when I dug through, found a huge batch of emeralds. I kept digging and ended up carving a little house there."

"Why did you leave?" Rarity asked, staring at the glowing patches on the cliff face. Her horn had lit up and nearly the entire wall was covered in the patches of light she knew meant gems, the stronger the light, the higher quality the gems were. The cliff glowed like the sun.

"Well after two days Twilight found me here, I was climbing the cliff and diving into the lake to see how big of a splash I could make. Heh, she thought I was going to get hurt when I jumped off, then I hit the water and sent out a huge tidal wave that completely soaked her."

Spike began running towards the water, "c'mon," he yelled, "it feels great!" He climbed up on a boulder that was near the wall, a pile of sticks were by it and he used this as a ladder. He jumped off and began to do a font flip. He wasn't fast enough and hit the water flat on his stomach. Rarity winced as she heard the smack. She was about to jump in when he floated up holding his stomach.

Rarity walked towards the water, jumping back with a little shriek as the waves almost wet her hooves. She peered into the water and was amazed that she could see the bottom of the lake perfectly clear. She could even see the deepest spot from where she stood on the shore, the water was slightly darker there but she could still make out each rock on the bottom.

She tested the water with a hoof; it was slightly cool and felt amazing on her tired hooves.

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"Look, there they are," Sweetie said as Scootaloo pushed the cloud along, trying to find a trace of Spike and Rarity, "they're in that lake over there."

Scootaloo sat down on the cloud to watch with her friends. The three fillies sat for hours, watching Spike and Rarity splash around for a while.

"Ah wish we could join 'em," Applebloom yawned.

"Yeah," said Scootaloo, "this is boring." She began poking little holes in the cloud.

"We can't, they'd know that we followed them then," Sweetie Belle frowned. "Oh well, at least they aren't doing anything… dirty."

"Why do you even care?" Scootaloo asked. "It's not like Rarity hasn't done stuff like that before. Or that you would have a chance with Spike so just drop it."

Sweetie Belle turned angrily, "Why don't you just-"

Applebloom cut her off, "what are they doin' now?"

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"C'mon Rarity," Spike said, getting out of the water. A few drops caught between his scales but for the most part he emerged as dry as he went in. Rarity on the other hand was completely soaked and her mane hung in thick wet clumps around her face. She dried her fur out with her horn and trotted after Spike. He was carefully shifting the large chunks of wood out of the detailed stone doorframe.

"I've been meaning to get around to making a door for this but I haven't yet."

He led Rarity inside and piled up the wood behind them. He snapped his fingers and a series of torches lit instantly. They were in an exact copy of Rarity's boutique carved from the stone of the cliff.

"It was all I could think of to model it after," he shrugged, "I think it turned out pretty well."

Rarity looked around, stunned. "Spike," she breathed, "this is amazing. Creepy, but amazing. You even got the little hoof marks from when I pace while thinking of new designs."

"I've spent a lot of time here. So much that Twilight set up a little portal to take me home from that closet over there."

"Why didn't we take that to get here?"

"It only works getting back to the library. She didn't want to make it easier for me to get here."

Rarity glanced out the window and saw that the sun was beginning to set. "Has it been that long already," she asked herself softly. Spike heard her and looked at a clock he had carved when he was first stuck here.

"Wow, we should head back soon," he said, pointing the clock out to Rarity.

"Heavens knows what those fillies have been up to since we left. Where's this portal?"

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Scootaloo ran away from the doorway. "Quick you guys, they said they're heading back!" They all jumped on the cloud and Scootaloo started rushing them towards Ponyville. They were going too fast to see properly in the fading light and they crashed into a large fog bank that was beginning to form near the ground.

The cloud broke apart and the fillies fell to the ground. They crashed around Fluttershy who seemed to be watching the ground in front of her. She shrieked and fell over. They tried to ask what she was doing but she wouldn't say anything and ran away quickly the first chance she got.

"That was weird," Scootaloo said watching the retreating pegasus.

"Yeah ah wonder what she was doin' out here," Applebloom said, looking around. She saw what Fluttershy had been looking at. Rows and rows of small dragon footprints left by Spike on his many trips to the lake. She pointed these out to the other two fillies.

Scootaloo laughed and said, "looks like you've got even more competition for Spike Sweetie Belle."

Sweetie Belle hoofed her, "I do not like Spike. Not like that anyways. I just don't want Rarity to ruin him, or to make things awkward."

The ponies began trudging back towards the glow of Ponyville, still a long way off. They were too tired to get a new cloud though.

They reached Ponyville early the next morning, completely exhausted. As they neared the boutique Sweetie remembered that, since Spike and Rarity hadn't passed them on the way back, the door was still locked from when the crusaders left earlier. Scootaloo managed to fly them all up to Sweetie Belle's window and they all lay down and fell asleep.

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After a few hours, they were woken up by strange noises coming from downstairs. They went to investigate and froze at the scene revealed by the opening door.

A door was open showing the contents of a storeroom that Sweetie Belle had no idea even existed. It was full of thin, gauzy fabric and tiny outfits. Rarity was standing just inside wearing one of these outfits, engaged in kissing Spike. The crusaders noticed something weird hanging between Spike's legs.

Rarity heard the young ponies gasp and broke away from Spike. She looked up, terrified. "How did you get in? I locked the door because none of you were here."

Spike slid behind Rarity, trying to hide. As he moved away, the crusaders saw red blotches on Rarity's neck near where Spike's mouth had just been. Several strange objects were scattered across the floor of the storeroom and a few appeared to be rather wet.

As what had been happening clicked into place the crusaders' faces paled. They ran away, horrified, trying not to vomit at what they had just seen.

They tore through the streets, not worrying about where they were going, just trying to get away. Every few seconds Scootaloo's wings would begin to stand up. Then she'd turn a dark shade of green and nearly vomit, her wings flopping back to her sides.

They didn't notice as Fluttershy flew overhead, they only continued running until they reached their clubhouse in the far corner of the apple orchard.

"All in favor of never going back to the boutique?" Scootaloo managed when they stopped running. The others managed to raise their hooves before doubling over again, clutching at their stomachs and mouths.

"Ah don't think ah can ever look at either of them the same way again," Applebloom gasped as she began dry-heaving again.

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"I don't think that went well at all," Rarity said, closing the door.

"When did they get in here?" Spike said, he was horrified at what had just happened.

"I don't know, we locked all the windows and doors right?"

"I thought so, but I'm not sure any more."

Rarity began panicking even more as she saw the clock, "oh no."

"What?"

"Oh no, oh no, ohno-ohno- ohno-ohno- ohno-ohno!"

"Rarity!" Spike yelled, "calm down, we can't fix it if you're freaking out!"

"Fluttershy will be here in about three minutes, I've never known her to be late before."

They rushed around, cleaning the mess up before the shy pegasus could get there. "I don't know what would be worse," Spike said as he tossed clothes onto a big pile for Rarity to fold, "the girls seeing us or Fluttershy seeing us."

"Fluttershy, definitely."

Just then the bell over the door rang and Fluttershy stepped in, she watched them, feeling a little awkward. "I can come back later."

"Oh no, we're nearly done here if you'll just wait a second please Fluttershy dear."

Fluttershy seemed to look knowingly at the door Rarity had just closed. 'Oh no,' Rarity thought, 'I sold her that saddle from the back room just last month.' She managed to hide her fear though as Fluttershy sat in her usual spot in the corner and waited for Rarity and Spike to finish cleaning up.

Things only continued to grow more awkward with Fluttershy as they went through the spa, though she did lighten up after talking with Rarity when Spike left to use the bathroom.

After they left the spa, Rarity invited Fluttershy to come over. 'Maybe we can get the girls to forget about this,' she thought, 'they never actually saw anything… did they?'

"Um… okay, I guess…just let me run home and get something." Fluttershy flew off seeming very embarrassed and even closer to tears than usual. Spike and Rarity sat outside waiting for her to get back.

"She knows doesn't she," Spike asked, glancing over at Rarity.

"It seems that way," Rarity said back.

After thy had been waiting a while, Fluttershy came back, she looked like she had been crying but seemed a little more cheerful than she had been lately. "So," she said as she landed, "what do we have planned?"

Spike though he saw something in her mane sparkle, but didn't think anything of it.

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Okay another chapter finished. Thanks again to those of you who are reviewing. Poo to those of you who aren't.

I'd like to apologize to the Cutie Mark Crusaders for traumatizing them like that, but it's what happened. Maybe they can get Twilight to work a memory spell on them… wait… never mind.

Pinkie should be coming up next, and speaking of Pinkie, it was hard to hint as this really so I'll tell ya, the lake and cliff scene, yeah, that's where Pinkie was corrupted by Nightmare Moon. Spike didn't find that place until long after episodes one and two so he has no way of knowing.

Next Chapter: Prelude to an End Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 39 Minutes