Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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He hadn't gotten much sleep.

Tossing, turning, rolling over and over to stare at a clock for hours on end.

Not much sleep at all.

"You look terrible." It must be particularly bad if Twilight had noticed it.

Tutoring had ended as of the end of the last school year. Twilight Sparkle and he continued to meet up, still on the same days, to go over their schoolwork.

"I know." He slumped back in his chair. Today was going to be a nightmare. "I barely got any sleep."

"What kept you up?" She leaned forward in her chair, propping her elbows on the table and her head on her hands.

"I met up with an old friend from home." He reached under his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "She's out of her depth, no idea what she's doing and probably going to be this close to missing her flight home."

He held up his off hand, his index finger and thumb less than an inch apart.

"She doesn't recognize me at least, that would have made things a lot more awkward." How was he going to explain he'd been thrown out of time?

With some luck, he wouldn't.

"Oh... Err, that's nice?" She leaned back and put her hands in her lap, looking away. "What kind of friend was she?"

"I never really thought about it." He opened his eye and looked at Twilight, puzzled by her body language. "I mean, she took care of me for a while, she was also kind of my boss. And a friend, we'd go on adventures together. There was a lot of things I couldn't talk to her about, though. It kind of felt awkward because when it came to that stuff I wasn't sure if I was talking to her as a boss or as a friend."

"Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about... an old crush." She'd brightened back up considerably.

"Nah. I remember her pretty well, thought I was a lot younger than I was. Think I creeped her out near the end." Time and distance can do wonders for perspective. He still wanted to impress her, make her see him in that kind of light.

He just didn't feel an absolute need to do it.

"What was she like?"

"Who?" He started fiddling with his eye-patch, a habit he seemed to have when he was thinking back.

Before he met her.

She'd seen under it a few times, when he thought she wasn't paying attention and got tired of it. It didn't look quite right, but it was just an eye.

She didn't care if it was slitted.

Well, okay, she did. But she just wanted to know why, she didn't mean to make him feel nervous.

"Your crush."

"Ah. She... Was really focused on appearances. She was gorgeous, but that was all hard work. The real character trait she had, where she was really beautiful, was her generosity. She liked making things, she was an artist. You know the kind, right?" Twilight nodded uncomprehendingly. "She'd go out of her way to make a dress, or hat, or just something for anyone who met her. She didn't even ask anything in return, at least, not unless they asked for it first."

"So, she was an artist?" Spike yawned and nodded at her query. "Was that what you liked about her?"

"Maybe? Or it might have just been that she was older and confident. For someone who doesn't feel like they have any control over their life, just looking at someone who seems to have that... I don't know. It was a crush, it doesn't really need to be well founded." He'd spent a lot of nights wondering the same thing. Countless hours where he should have been sleeping pondering Rarity.

He never found out what she thought of him, though he had an inkling she knew what he thought of her.

"I guess. All the books say that a crush is an attraction to an idealized image of an individual, regardless of the less than pristine reality that most crushes actually live." All the books. Lots and lots of books.

"Yeah, I can see that." When he was with Rarity, all he could focus on was how beautiful she was, how generous and kind she could be.

The two settled into a comfortable silence, the scratching of pencils breaking the monotony. Occasionally one would ask the other a question regarding the homework. Spike for help or review, Twilight for an opinion. It didn't take much longer for them to finish up.

"So, are you going to see her again?" Twilight sounded worried.

She probably thought this was bad for him.

He thought she was probably right.

"Yeah. I've already thrown a few wrenches in the gears. It wouldn't be responsible for me to wash my hands of the whole mess now." His head dropped down to the table.

After yesterday, after last night? He was already so tired.

And he knew everything was just going to go wrong.

"Can... Could you promise me something?" She almost never asked him for a promise.

"It depends." And after she'd explained why to him, he wasn't too quick to jump on them anymore either.

"If something does go wrong, or anything bad happens or you just want to talk, you'll call me. Alright?" Twilight shifted nervously in her seat for a second before frowning, piecing together her next few words. "I know there's a lot of stuff you won't tell me. Or can't. And I'm alright with that! But you're barely sleeping, your schoolwork is slipping and you seem distracted. I just... I worry, you know?"

He stared at her for a few seconds where she refused to meet his gaze.

That hadn't been too much, was it?

"Twilight." He held his hand across the table. She grabbed it and he squeezed before letting go. "If anything goes wrong, I'll call you."

"I promise."

Author's Notes:

I'd initially thought I'd end this at fifty chapters. I can see it's going to be going for a bit longer.
I've got some big plans for the big reveal though. It should be fun.