I made the trip back to Equestria safely, but I knew I wasn’t here to enjoy the day. I had an objective to complete, and I had to complete it immediately; for my sake, for Celestia’s sake, and most importantly… for Ty’s sake. I arrived back in my room at the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville, where I saw Spike was sleeping peacefully in his basket. It was unfortunate for him because I urgently needed him to send a letter to Celestia requesting another visit.

“Spike… Spiiiiike…” I gently called to him as I tapped his back. He groaned and grumbled as he turned away from me in his comfort. I really didn’t want to bother him, but I REALLY needed him. So I took drastic measures in waking him by whispering to him that there was a huge pile of rubies, emeralds, and sapphires waiting for him. He popped up almost instantly, wide awake.

“Jewels!? Where??” My #1 assistant popped up with newfound vigor as he looked around frantically for the false jewelry pile.

“Good morning, Spike.”

“Twilight? You’re back. Where are those jewels?” asked Spike with a yawn, wiping the sleepies out of his emerald-green eyes.

“Sorry to disappoint you, Spike, but um… I kind of… lied about that.”

“Ohh, why?” he whined in disappointment.

“I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia requesting another appointment. This is extremely important.”

“Well why didn’t you just say so? I would’ve gotten up right away to help you…”

“Really, Spike?” I asked, a bit skeptical.

“Well… y’know, if you had some jewels. Or if Rarity was here.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” I said as I laughed.

“So, what’s so important about this letter?”

“Well… I need to have a little talk with the Princess… about her choices regarding Ty and I…”

“Oh. Hey, speaking of Ty, that reminds me: What was that you were always telling me about finding someone of my own species to fall in love with?” I instantly felt hot with embarrassment. I should’ve known this was coming… “Because you and Ty seemed to be REALLY close…”

"*sigh* Yes yes, I know... Practice what you preach..."

"Uh-huh..." he smirked.

"Okay Spike, I'll admit defeat, but I really ne--!"

"In a sec. I just want to bask in the moment of being right for once..." he stated, crossing his arms and smirking at me as if it was THAT big a deal that I found an extraterrestrial being interesting enough to... to...

“Spike, can this wa—?” I attempted to plea to no avail.

“It’s pretty ironic, don’tcha think?” He chortled. “The very pony who advised me to get over my crush on a pony because I’m a dragon winds up getting one of her own on an alien.”

“He’s not an alien, he’s a human,” I defended.

“Either way, he’s not a pony. Yet, you like him. Tell me, Twi: How does hyp… hypo… hippopotamus…”

“Hypocrisy,” I corrected for him, my patience with his taunting growing thinner by each excruciatingly urgent second.

“Yeah, that. How does THAT feel, hmm?” my little dragon inquired with a cute, smug little grin on his face.

“Listen, I don’t have time to be badgered about this right now, okay? I need you to take a letter this instant.”

“I dunno… Maybe if you give me a day off from my chores, I’ll consider it.” Spike chose the perfectly wrong time to start getting cute with me.

“Excuse me? And if I refuse?” I asked, appalled by such an under-hooved, conniving suggestion; coming from SPIKE of all ponies.

"CLEARLY, somepony needs to be reeducated in morality...!"

“Then certain someponies are going to be informed about a purple unicorn’s feelings for an alien…” I gasped in such disbelief at his shifty, manipulative tactic that I might’ve been able to swallow him whole.

“He’s NOT an alien, he’s human! And… are you… blackmailing me!?”

“Blackmail is SUCH an ugly word… I’d prefer ‘negotiating…’”

“Spike, I’ve had just about enough of this,” I raised my voice as my patience for my assistant’s game finally ran out. “Will you write the letter or not!?”

“Okay, calm down! Jeez, I was just kidding…” he unhappily obliged as he fetched a quill and a sheet of parchment.

“Thank you. Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Okay. Dear Princess Celestia. It is with utmost respect and understanding of your plentifully busy schedule that I request another meeting with you. I strongly feel that I must talk with you as soon as you are available. Your most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Finished,” Spike said as he wrapped the letter into a scroll and ignited it to send it off.

“Thank you for being so compliant, Spike. For that, I’ll hear you out on your feelings for Rarity if you’d like.”

“Thanks but no thanks, Twilight. I actually have a date with her later on today.” He took me by surprise there.

“…Seriously??”

“Yeah. Right after you left to take Ty home, she couldn’t stop crying about how your oh-so precious relationship with him was ruined before it even began. I gave her another hug to try and comfort her and asked her if she’d like to spend the day with me to cheer her up. We have a reservation at the Ponyville café this afternoon,” he informed me with an elated smile.

“That’s great! But are you sure Rarity sees it as a date, too? Not just a--?"

"Yes, she does!" He confidently answered. "She even said it herself when she agreed to it. She told me, and I quote: 'Spike, I would LOVE to spend a day with you. I'm not terribly swamped with work this week, so I shall make it my top priority to arrange a meeting with you...'" the dragon explained, even going so far as to mimic Rarity's dialect to prove his point.

"Rrrrright. I didn't hear the word 'date' in that statement..." I replied, deadpanning.

"Doesn't matter. Clearly, it's a date. Nopony has to SAY the word 'date' for it to be a date, Twilight." I wasn't sure if he was trying to convince me or himself that this scheduled meeting with the fashionista was a 'date' as he described it. However, I didn't want to rain on his little 'date' parade, so I pushed the discussion no further.

"Well alright, then... I hope it all works out for you.” I was sincerely happy for my wonderful little dragon, but a small part of me still worried for him. While I was fairly confident that Rarity would understand his feelings despite him being a dragon, I was also certain that she’d likely be forced to decline any requests he made in terms of starting a relationship together. He’s not much that much younger than Rarity or myself, seeing as he was born when we were but fillies, but dragons are known to grow up at a much slower rate than ponies do unless they begin to instinctually exhibit greedy behavior. In that case, dragons will grow to full size in a matter of hours, which comes accompanied by an exponential increase of their greed. Seeing as Spike has been able to resist his avaricious urges in favor of his life with ponies, he’ll probably have some trouble trying to court Rarity simply because of his physical appearance. Nonetheless, an awkward silence passed over Spike and I as we waited for Princess Celestia’s response.

“So… how are things?” Spike asked as we sat in silence.

“They’re… good. Could be better, but you know…”

“Great…” we both went silent again as we fidgeted around, looking for things to talk about.

“…How do you think your date with Rari—!” *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

“Oh, that must be her now!” Spike said with a newfound sense of excitement as he rushed downstairs to get the door. I followed suit and joined him down in the library, where I saw him open the door to let in a familiar white unicorn mare.

“Good morning, Spikey-Wikey!” Rarity thoughtfully greeted. “Oh, Twilight! I see you’ve returned. Good morning, dear!”

“Good morning Rarity.” “Good morning, Rarity…” Spike and I greeted back, although he sounded more… excited, for lack of a better term.

“I’m terribly sorry for dropping in so early, but I seem to have made a mistake in the scheduling of our date at the Ponyville café."

"And THERE'S the magic word, folks! Out of the mouth of the mare of the hour herself..." I glanced at Spike to see him shooting me an 'I told you so' smirk.

"It appears our reservation was set to be in a half hour instead of in three hours. I was wondering if that was okay with you, Spike.”

“Any time’s good for me, so long as it means spending time with you,” answered the seemingly awestruck dragon.

“Oh, dear Spike. Such a gentledragon…”

"I just need to freshen up a bit. Hang on." with that, he was on his way upstairs to clean himself up.

“Spike, wait!” I called. “I—!”

“I’m sure he’ll be able to finish his chores later, Twilight,” interrupted my generous friend. “Why not give him the morning off? I promise I’ll take good care of him.”

“Yes, but I—!”

“Pleeeeease, Twilight?” Spike begged, giving me a look that made him seem like a lost puppy. I glanced at Rarity to see her making the same face, only she was poking her bottom lip out. It was two to one, and I couldn’t bear to hurt either of my friends all because I was waiting for a letter that would usually come when I least expected it. It didn’t help that they were giving me those unbelievably cute pouty stares, either…

“*sigh* fine…” I reluctantly permitted.

“YES!!” shouted a now-ecstatic Spike, running the rest of the way upstairs for a quick wash.

“Thank you, Twilight!” Rarity said as she cantered over to give me a hug, which I half-heartedly returned out of disappointment. “I assure you, he will be perfectly safe with me. Come, Spikey. If we hurry now, we may be able to make it in time.”

“Gotcha. Right behind ya!” called Spike as he hurried back down the stairs after he was done with his business.

“Oh, and you have my condolences for what happened to Ty, Twilight! I’m sure things will look up for you soon!”

“Can you please hurry ba—!?” I didn’t even get to finish my request as the two were out the door in an instant. I was instantly angry at myself for not standing my ground. But, Spike did kind of deserve a break, and it isn’t very often that he gets to spend time with his crush that didn’t have to do with him helping her around the boutique. Then again, I REALLY needed him here with me in case Princess Celestia sent a response. And I needed one A.S.A.P. so I could get my chance to argue my case.

“Ohh…! Dammit!” *GASP* “…Ty, you and your mouth…” I worriedly muttered to myself as I decided to spend the alone time I’d now had to formulate and solidify my arguments.

Meanwhile, back in Human land…

“Okay, where’s my phone…?” I asked myself as I went back up the stairs and into my room. I saw it flashing on and off underneath my bed. I picked it up to see that the battery was low, so I plugged it into the charger before checking for any updates.

“Le’ss see here… twelve missed calls, five text messages, and two voicemails… I missed quite a lot here…” I mumbled as I began to read the texts. Most of them were simple “hellos” while the others were stupid “Forward this to all your friends if you don’t want a random little zombie girl with a chainsaw to hack you into pieces at 12:57 AM at the 46th second” messages. I moved on to see who’d called and saw that I’d missed calls from my mother, a couple friends, and my job.

I was beginning to get a bit worried before I checked the voicemails. One of them was simply the messenger hanging up, but the other one was a detailed description of what happens to employees who decide to pull “no-call, no-shows,” which is basically what happens if a person simply decides not to show up to work without warning. In any case, I now had a legitimate reason to regret going to Equestria for two days. Lucky me that the first day I’d spent there was my last off day for the week. Turns out I would’ve been fired on the spot, but seeing as I’d had perfect attendance up until this point, the higher-ups decided to be lenient and dock my next paycheck by that day.

“*sigh* crap… There goes $60 for that new game I was hopin’ t’ get… Still better than gettin’ my ass fired, I guess. I suppose I’d better make up some kinda lie t’ get through the day faster… ah, whatever, I’mma jus’ tell ‘em I got a stomach virus or somethin’…” I glanced at the time to see that it read 7:07 AM. I realized I needed to be at work in the city before 8:00, so, with a burst of adrenaline and a disheveled fit of profanity that would shock even a construction worker, I hurriedly prepared to go to work.

Rejoining Twilight in Equestria…

I already had my arguments planned out, so I spent some time (I’d estimate a couple of hours) checking them, rechecking them, then rechecking them another seventeen times over before I felt satisfied with the information I had. After that, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself until Spike got back. I sat and pondered as I scoured the plethora of bookshelves in the library. I’d read all of these books before, but one of them caught my eye in an instant. I cast a telekinesis spell on it and brought it closer to examine its title.

“Whimsical Osculation: A Beginner’s Guide… I don't remember reading this one...” I was at first, confused about how I’d let such a book escape my usually-meticulous watch. Confusion soon found itself turning into curiosity as I opened the book and skimmed its contents. “Mm-hmm… Mm-hmm… Oh… OH… Wow, you can do that…? Oh, my… *GASP* Wow…” I lay on the floor on my back, my eyes widened in not so much shock as they were in intrigue at all the different… techniques that were available to use. I was feeling that "butterfly" sensation in my stomach again by the time I'd finished reading through the advice guide. I set the book down and began to let my mind reflect on all the different methods I’d just learned… If only Ty were here…

“NO! I can’t let myself be distracted! I have to focus!” I snapped myself out of my sudden trance and brought myself back to the issue at hoof; my discussion with Princess Celestia. “Please please PLEEEEEASE hurry up and come back, Spike…” My moments of solitude were interrupted by a knock at the door. I sprang up with joy as I trotted over to answer…

“Uh… Hey, Twilight,” my guest greeted with an apparrent sense of self-consciousness, to my complete surprise...