Something small can, and usually does, symbolize something much greater. Flags for empires, banners for soldiers, these are often symbols of war. Sometimes they are symbols for peace, prosperity, unity, brotherhood.

A bit is smaller than a hoof, and yet enough bits could buy a city. But what is a bit? A chunk of a glittery ore that grows in the soil? It is a rock, a shiny rock, granted, but a rock nonetheless. Ponies work their whole lives for these chunks, these bits. They work for gems, bits, trophies, and medals, forgetting that at one point everything they ever wanted was just an unformed clump in the mud.

However, ponies do work for other things. Happiness, belonging, love; they strive for these above all. These things have symbols, but they do not have a cast mold for what they are. In that, their beauty is found.

What is happiness? Some say a smiling face. Some say it is money, mares, stallions, carriages, land, property, houses, castles, books, gems, dresses; some say it is simply happiness.

To her, happiness is her friends. Happiness is her studies. Happiness is an A on a report, any report, be they old or new. Happiness is a knight in a tin pot, a family photo where she first felt how smooth his cheeks were; happiness is all the years she had spent with him.

Happiness was knowing why she was always content when he was around. Always at her side, more knight than assistant.

Happiness was loving him.

True happiness was finally understanding, knowing that she loved him.

Her nose wasn't bleeding anymore, he had stopped that.

Remember to thank him for that again.

She couldn't breath through her nose too well, that and she tasted blood. Contingencies like that couldn't be too attractive.

Twilight looked down at her dragon and he looked back at her.

"Spike?"

"Yeah?" He asked a little too eagerly, he was still worried and it showed. Twilight, however, just looked at him, a little worried herself.

Her foreleg encircled him tighter and she smiled. When he grinned just the tiniest bit, she started laughing.

"What? Twilight?" Spike began to fidget in his caretaker's embrace, half of him wanting to join in and half of him convinced Twilight's brain had finally been knocked loose.

"I", a fit of laughter broke her speech, just knowing she was about to talk and had interrupted herself made it all the more funny. "I completely forgot what I was going to say."

Twilight sprayed air between her lips and fell into laughter again.

Spike didn't want to, really didn't feel that this was the time for it, but he couldn't help it; he laughed too. He had put his face in his claw to try and stop himself, to try and be the cynical voice of reason. That only made it worse. Soon enough they were both laughing like idiots.

There was something nice in that, that moment of idiocy.

Happiness.

The duo calmed down and the laughter subsided as it always does, eventually they had returned to their previous pose. Twilight had here foreleg around Spike and Spike's arms were pushed awkwardly into his torso in accordance to the embrace. Twilight sighed and then spoke. "I know you think all of this started a few days ago."

"What?" Spike asked, completely taken off guard by the question. He must have done something funny, because he had made Twilight chuckle again. Why she was laughing and smiling at a time like confused him beyond belief. It wasn't as if anything funny had happened lately. Everything seemed to be kind of broken, like everything was being torn apart between the two ponies he cared more than anything for, and here he was, right at the middle of it all.

Shining Armor once told him that soldiers sometimes laugh during the calm before the storm, unable to find any other output for the nervous energy that took over their bodies. Was this that? Was this the calm before the storm, that fight being just a prologue for what was to come?

"You're so cute."

"Huh?!" There it was again, the sensation that he'd had his feet kicked out from under him.

"I mean it, you've got that look on your face that just screams 'confusion'." Twilight smiled and gave Spike's head a quick pat. "It's nice, you know? You're confused, but you don't lose your head like I do."

"Twilight, what are you talking about?"

Her smile dropped when the question hit her. It was soon replaced with a demure smile. She removed her foreleg from his body, enjoying his intimate presence all the same.

Twilight turned to look down at him, ready to say it. It would be real this time, she knew it and so would he.

Twilight closed her eyes and steeled herself. "Spike, I love you. I really do, and not in the way I think I'm supposed to; but I really don't care what I'm supposed to feel in accordance to common Equestrian morals." She opened her eyes to look at her assistant; he was stock still, locked in the same position, but listening to her as intently as he ever had. She smiled and continued, eyes never leaving his. "I know you think this all started a few days ago, the way I've been acting, but that's just when this catastrophe started to bloom.

"That's kind of ironic though, you know? The fact that I would only start feeling like this just days before you finally charmed Rarity?" Twilight sighed, still smiling. Spike had his mouth open and she gently nudged it close with the tip of her hoof. "That's wrong though. I've been wrong a lot lately, primarily about instances related to our current plight." She chuckled, "I blame you for that, handsome."

A blush crept onto Spike's face at the sound of Twilight's praise. It was honest, true, genuine; there wasn't a single way to take her words as anything but infallible truth.

"Remember back in Canterlot, there was that new guard that always hung around the library or our hall and called it 'his post'?"

"Uh, yeah?" Spike questioned, not understanding Twilight's disorganized ramble. "He stared at your flank a lot." Twilight let out a groan of disdain in response to his statement.

"Don't remind me, he was a total creep." Twilight gave her hoof a wave and shook her head, "Let's get back on topic lest I completely descend into talking about an old irritant.

"After about three weeks of him being a guard he started to hit on me, not casual flirting, but hitting on me in what was possibly the densest way possible. I ignored him, he didn't like that too much; so, one day, he just up and confronts me. He had the gall to ask me what my 'deal' was and accused me of being a lesbian, in a relationship with Celestia no less!"

"And where was I when all of this happened?" Spike asked, dubiously.

"He never came by if you were near me", Twilight replied, a bit too quickly. "Absolutely terrified of dragons."

"I was napping, huh?"

"Don't ruin the charm."

The two chuckled again, this time with genuine mirth, before Twilight continued. "I reported him and I like to think he got thrown in a snow globe or something crazy like that." The unicorn let out another groan, "Or sent to the sun, he really was unpleasant.

"There were colts after him, and before; White Lightning was a little nice back in Magic Kindergarten, but I'm getting off topic. I will admit that some of them were charming, I actually went on a date or two if I could manage to keep everypony else in the dark about it."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Twilight asked, glancing down at her faithful assistant.

"Why didn't you ever tell anypony, or me? Before today I had no idea you went on a date, like, ever." Spike held his arms out to his sides, waiting for an answer.

"Spike", Twilight deadpanned, "I was a single bookworm with married parents. If they ever even heard me talk about the colt they would try to get me betrothed on the spot; well, mom would."

"Oh."

"Can I get back on topic now?"

"Yeah, sure, you go on right ahead, Twi." Spike shook his head, genuinely wondering if he knew Mrs. Velvet as well as he thought he did.

"My point is that I could never actually get interested in a colt at all. For a while I was kind of worried as the spare research I did only served to drive me further up the wall; a few pages into Freud and I started to get paranoid I was in love with my brother!" Twilight turned to Spike and let out another stream of laughter, amazed by how far an adolescent dragons' jaw could physically drop. "I was just paranoid, Spike." She waited for his confirming, silent nod before continuing, "However, after those few weird weekends at home, I came to a more rational conclusion. I theorized that I didn't need a colt or a special somepony; back then, I already had everypony I needed. I had my B.B.B.F.F., my teacher, my parents, and I had you." Twilight leaned her head onto her assistants', letting the two of them fall to the floor in a sweet embrace, "Most of all, I had you. I had someone who never judged me and always went along with whatever experiment I had planned. I really didn't need anyone else."

Spike, for the last few sentences of Twilight's speech, had tried to reply, to interrupt, but found he couldn't do anything but listen. Now, after the two had fallen, he'd drawn himself up against his guardian. Was it right? Was this whole situation right, was it even okay?

He didn't have the proper answers to his own questions anymore, all he had were ideas that couldn't be properly put together.

Twilight loved him and he loved her dearly as well.

Rarity loved him, and he loved her.

Right? That's the way it goes, right? I love Rarity.

Right?

Twilight closed her eyes, pressing her muzzled onto her dragon's head. "I really didn't. That's why I don't think this entire situation started here in Ponyville, I think it started back in Canterlot.

"Do you remember that little notebook we used to write in?" She asked, going on before Spike could respond, "I don't really expect you to remember all of it, you were pretty young when we had it, but there was this message-"

"I love you, Twilight."

A heavy silence expanded throughout the library before Twilight dared to speak. "What?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"That, you know, that's what the message said. Right?" Spike replied, shakily.

"Oh", Twilight sighed. "Yeah, yeah, that's what it said." She shook her head, trying to abate the burning rush of blood that had filled her cheeks. "Spike", she sat up, bringing him with her, "I need to ask you a serious question. Got it?"

"I", he paused, more than a little surprised at the determination he saw in Twilight's demeanor, "yeah, I got it."

"Good", she turned her eyes towards the shelves as if the words in the books could piece together everything she needed to say. She turned back to Spike, closed her eyes, and asked, "Spike, do you love Rarity?"

"W-what? I", Spike started to stammer, feeling the distinct sensation of plummeting off a cliff.

"Because, if you do, if you really love her, I'll stop." She clenched her eyes and continued, "I'll stop, okay? I'll stop and everything can just go back to normal, okay? Okay? It won't be the first time and I'll", her breath hitched, "I'll understand. I'll understand and I'll just stop, okay? I'll, I'll..."

Twilight stopped speaking anything recognizable after she trailed off, she couldn't even open her eyes; couldn't make a sound above a gentle gasp.

All she could do was cry. She heard the clicking of claws against wood and the clanging cacophony of kitchenware being tossed about before she felt her face being lifted.

"Twi, come on, don't worry."

She looked up and felt her tears fall ever harder.

There, right in front of her face, was Spike clad in a tin pot.

He really doesn't need a cape and a lance.

Twilight sighed and smiled, letting her tears cry themselves out. She would be okay, she knew she would. She would always have Spike, nothing could change that; not Rarity, not the princesses, not anything. "Spike", she whispered, "do you love her?"

"I", he stopped, feeling his heart expand inside his chest. "I."

Come on, say it! You love her, right? You do! You came to Ponyville and saw her and she was beautiful. Sure it was a crush, but then it became love. Right? You confessed, she confessed, that's love! You tried for two years and you got it!

Right?

Right?

"I don't know." He let out a massive breath and shook his head. "Twilight, I don't know", he whispered. "Why don't I know?" Twilight's light giggle brought his eyes from the floor and back up to her.

"You can most likely blame me for that, handsome." She pointed a hoof towards the door and smiled. "You've got to go talk to Rarity."

"What?! Twilight, I never said-"

"I know", she said, wrapping Spike in a caring hug. "I know you're not sure, but I can't allow you to have only one perspective. I love you, but you're unsure of yourself." Twilight planted a kiss on Spike's scaly forehead, bringing a blush to both of their cheeks. "Go, okay?" She gently pleaded, urging him towards the door. "Just know that I'll understand no matter what you choose, okay? No matter what, I'll always be here for you; I'll always love you, Spike. So don't worry.

"Oh", she chuckled before pressing her lips to his. "Thanks for helping me with my nose, Spike", she whispered.

"Twilight, I-"

"Go."

She pointed her hoof at the door, smiling. Spike stared between her and the door, torn over his choices.

A knight does as a lady wishes.

Spike steeled himself and stepped through the door and walked out into the night air. The heavy, oaken barrier swung shut behind him; off in the distance, he could see the lights of Carousel Boutique.