Warmth, the wonderful sensation wrapped around Spike's cold-blooded body like a blanket, keeping the little dragon in a subdued state even as the early morning rays lit up his sealed eyelids. Spike sensed the slight discomfort caused by the celestial rays, and snuggled closer to the source of warmth, letting out a blissful sigh as soft fur caressed his smooth scales.

'Wait...fur?'

Spike's mind began to start up again as he pondered the, albeit comfortable, un-familiar sensation that wasn't usually there in his mornings. Slowly, his emerald eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the sudden brightness, and he found himself staring at a lavender chest, rhythmically rising and falling in time to its owner's breaths.

'Oh, its just Twili...TWILIGHT?!'

Spike tried to jump away, in shock of waking up next to his love, but accidentally managed to brush Twilight's inner thigh slightly with his foot, prompting a light moan from the mare as she tightened her grip on the little dragon, pulling him closer to her chest. At that point, Spike was starting to feel a little lightheaded from all the blood that had found its way to his head and his cheeks were basically radiating heat.

'Did I just touch he-NO!' Spike was berating himself internally because of the thoughts running through his head, 'Don't you DARE go there, stupid brain.'

As Spike continued to try and block off the stream of images flooding his mind, Twilight began to rouse from her sleep, awoken by Spike's nervous shifting. As her amethyst eyes slowly opened, she took into account all the memory induced dreams she had been wading through the past night, and a loving smile spread across her muzzle as she saw the little purple dragon of her dreams, whom had a blush so hard that it seemed to stretch down to his neck.

Twilight couldn't help but feel different around Spike at the moment, like if there was something missing, and the moment she realized what it was that was missing, she leaned down and pecked the distracted drake on the tip of his snout, effectively snapping him out of his thoughts and back into reality.

"Good morning, Spikey." Twilight didn't even know when she created the pet name for Spike all those years ago, but it rolled off of her tongue like as if it was made of the finest silk bits could buy, adding to the currently building blush on her giggling face.

"G-good morning Twilight...uh, do you remember anything from last night?", asked the red faced purple dragon as he clutched his tail between his claws, his eyes silently pleading for a 'yes'.

Twilight smiled at the recent memory, the night that they had both shared their first sign of true love for each other, it was a memory that would never leave her mind, and she was glad for that.

"Well, that depends Spike," toyed Twilight, "was it something like this?" at the end of her question, Twilight leaned forward and caught Spike on the lips, just as he had opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, and his eyes widened in surprise at the, usually reserved, mare's boldness. The rest of his thoughts were washed away as he began to fight back Twilight's broad tongue with his own. Even though Twilight's tongue was larger, Spike's was more nimble and was able to wrap around Twilight's, tugging and coaxing the wet muscles together. The fight for oral domination broke off after about a minute, and only because the new couple had almost fainted by the lack of oxygen from not pulling out of their kiss earlier.

Spike had completely lost his ability to speak at all momentarily, and all he gave to answer Twilight's question was a slow nod as his eyes focused on any object directly in front of him.

"So, Spike, what do you want to do today?" inquired the bookish mare.

"Whuh?"

"I asked you what you wanted to do for today, my lessons with Princess Celestia aren't until the late afternoon, and we agreed you would choose what to do today back in Ponyville." reminded the mare to her little assistant-turned lover.

'Oh crud, think Spike, think think THINK!'

Spike racked his brain for anything that they could do for the evening. His ideas varied from going over to a coffee shop to some other stray thoughts that he would never see himself actually blurting out. In the end, Spike settled on something calm, slow, and familiar to the pair.

"How about a picnic in the gardens, Twilight?" offered the little drake, "We can go over to that little clearing near the statues that we would always go to when we lived here."

Twilight's eyes lit up as the idea instantly struck her fancy, and she began drawing out a mental checklist for all the stuff they would be needing for the evening.

"That's a great idea, Spike, it really has been a while since we've gone there." praised the lavender mare, with a nostalgic smile on her face.

"How about we swing by the castle's kitchen and pick up what we'll need?" said Spike, seemingly starting to get over the events that had recently happened a few minutes ago.

"My thoughts exactly," replied the mare as she started to get off the bed they had been laying on, with Spike following closely behind, but as she was about to open the bedroom's doors, the dragon spoke up once again

"Hey, Twilight, you might wanna..." Spike ended his suggestion by gesturing to the side of his head in a stroking motion, and Twilight didn't know what he was talking about until she saw herself in her vanity mirror, where a bed-maned mare looked back at her, the sight causing her to blush and giggle simultaneously, with Spike joining in not long after.

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The lifelong-companions made their way through the elegant foliage of the Canterlot Gardens with nothing but a white and red checkered blanket and a picnic basket filled to the brim with treats they had ordered within the castle. If anything even thought of ruining their evening, it wasn't showing. The cyan sky was dotted with spongy clouds, the birds flew in between the blooming trees, and a gentle summer breeze blew through the trail the pair was currently taking.

Spike led the way towards the clearing they planned to use as their picnic spot, and the drake couldn't keep the smile on his face from growing wider as memories he already knew came rushing back into his head in a tidal wave of nostalgia. His thoughts also mingled with what had happened last night and that morning, but they were mostly questions.

A seedling of fear began to sprout inside of Spike's mind as a dreadful thought created itself.

'What happened...does she actually love me back, she said she did, but did she just feel sorry for me, or did she just do it for the fun of it? Does what we did mean anything to her?'

'Don't think like that, you know where it'll get you if you do.'

'But what if it meant nothing to her!'

'Would Twilight mess around with stuff like this? Would she actually do that to you?'

'Well...maybe...I don't know, and that scares me even more! I need to know!'

'ASK HER THEN!'

'I can't jus-'

'YES YOU CAN! YOU'RE JUST BEING A COWARD LIKE ALWAYS! If it wasn't for Twilight hitting it off yesterday, you would have probably never done anything!'

'HOW CAN YOU BE SO SURE ABOUT WHAT I'D DO!'

'BECAUSE, I AM YOU'

Spike's mind, once again, won out the argument and left Spike scared and slightly confused, similar to the state he was in once all of his raw emotions were injected directly into him through his memories.Twilight took notice of the slight trembles traveling throughout Spike's body, so she sped up slightly to walk right at his side before she began to speak in her compassionate voice.

"Spike, is something bothering you again?"

"Well...something is on my mind, but I'll just ask about it later, for now lets just get ready to set up because we're almost there." replied the drake in a soft tone, and, just like he had said, they approached a clearing in the garden's blooming maple trees, where a small pond was situated in at the center.

The two friends made their way over to a particularly large tree, and sat under the natural canopy created by the dense treetop leaves. Spike spread out the blanket and Twilight levitated out a scented candle that she then placed out to the side of the blanket. After they finished setting up, the friends began to take out the treats they had gotten from the castle's kitchens.

Twilight offered Spike some of the chocolate-coated strawberries that she had brought with her, but he declined them nicely and instead got busy eating some sour strips he had brought along. Truthfully, the foods they chose weren't exactly made to be eaten for breakfast, but neither the mare nor the dragon cared as they enjoyed eating their treats, while their sides were pressed together with one another.

"You know, Spike, I really missed doing this, we haven't really gotten any chances to do stuff like we used too since we moved to Ponyville." said the lavender mare, looking over at her draconic lover.

"So did I, Twilight, so did I." returned the purple dragon.

The sun began to rise even higher into the sky as the companions ate their picnic treats in a comfortable silence, nothing was heard save for the chirps of the birds and the splashing of a few fish in the pond. Spike was beginning to lose his resolve at holding back the question that had been gnawing away at his mind since they started their trek towards the clearing they were currently in. Spike couldn't take it any longer, he had to put his fears to rest or enact his worst nightmare.

"Twilight?" struggled to say the purple dragon.

"Yes, Spike?" responded the mare he was about to question.

"W-what are we now...I mean, like us."

"Well," started a blushing Twilight, "what do you want us to be."

"No, Twilight, I mean why now, why during all of this time didn't you say anything, were you ashamed of liking me? Do you even like me?"

Twilight fixed Spike with one of the stares that let the drake know that what he had just asked was something that a smart dragon like Spike shouldn't be asking, but a frown nonetheless found its way onto her muzzle.

"Spike," said Twilight with a few tears welling up in her amethyst eyes, "how could you say something like that? How can you even begin to think that I would be ashamed for loving you, and even go so far as to think that I don't even love you?"

Twilight repeating exactly how paranoid and unexpected Spike's words were stung him horribly, and he quickly tried to rectify things by going over and pulling the mare he had just hurt badly into an affectionate hug, and he started apologizing into her ear in a hushed whisper.

"I-i'm sorry Twilight, it's just that I am scared, I'm scared of how much it would hurt if you were to leave me alone. If it stung pretty badly with Rarity, who was nothing more than a silly crush, I j-just don't want to feel what it would be like if you would do the same thing she did, I couldn't stand to watch the love of my life walk away from me. It's dumb of me, I know, but it scares me nonetheless."

Twilight could hear the repent dripping from Spike's voice, and an undertone of fear still lingering in there as well. The mare pulled back from the hug a little so she and Spike could see each other face-to-face.

"Spike, how many times do I have to tell you that what you think is not stupid? I'm glad you're actually talking to me about this instead of suppressing it all, just like I had.

At the final part of Twilight's statement, Spike lit up in surprise at the mare of his dreams revealing her situation, which greatly resembled his own. Twilight noticed the surprised look on Spike's face and began to explain in deeper detail with a blush on her face, but in a serious tone.

"Yes, Spike, I've always loved you, even when we were younger, but as we grew up, I couldn't help but feel like we started to grow apart, drifting away from how playful and loving we used to be and into something more official-like, and I hated it. I hated our slow separation so much that it drove me to the point of locking away my affectionate side and covering up my memories with the illusion that we had always been the way we were. I suspect that something similar happened to you too, right?"

Spike simply stared in amazement at the mare of his dreams as she puzzled together all of her thoughts and experiences in such a fluid manner, much quicker than he had, and was surprised even further as Twilight guessed exactly what he had done all those years ago.

"Yeah, I-I did. I just thought I was a freak for the way I loved you and I completely replaced my thoughts and memories with things I never said and stuff I never did. D-do you really mean what you say, Twilight, do you really love me the way I love you?" asked the insecure dragon, not expecting Twilight's next line.

"No." stated flatly the lavender mare.

"WHAT!" screeched out Spike at Twilight's sudden change of tone.

"I love you even more than you love me." giggled Twilight at the expense of her little dragon lover, causing his mouth to hang open for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"HEY, that wasn't funny, only I can pull stuff like that off." said a smiling Spike.

"So, Spike, now its my turn to ask an obvious question you had already answered before," said Twilight, leaning forward so that they could lock eyes again, "do you love me?"

At the end of her question, Spike took Twilight's cheeks in his claws and planted a soft and loving kiss on her lavender lips, similar but different to the others. The kiss this time wasn't a battle for oral dominance, it was slow, careful, and tender, as if anything harsher than that would wreck both of the partners. Spike's sour flavor from the candy he had eaten mingled with the chocolaty sweetness in his loved one's orifice, giving them both a balanced blend of the taste in their mouths as they slowly stroked their tongues against one another, and lingered long after the two lovers parted away and looked each other straight in the eyes.

"Do you need to ask?" said a grinning Spike.

"Fine, I guess I'll let you slide this time, Spikey-Wikey." said Twilight in a playful tone as she began to giggle at Spike's pet name.

The newly self-declared couple sat by the candle's soft glow as the sun began to descend from its spot in the sky and give way to the late-afternoon's vibrant display of violet colors, neither the dragon or the mare could tell how much time was spent there or how it was spent, as long as they were together, they were happy.

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A cloaked pony slammed open the doors to the Canterlot Times Tower as she stormed her way past the objecting workers and photographers that had shunned her years ago. She didn't care what got in her way, be it a table or an accountant, she would toss it away but with a flash from her blue horn.

She almost tore the doors to the director's office off of their hinges as she bucked them open, a devious smile that had refused to leave her face since last night was still spreading it.

"Glamour Shot!" roared out the infuriated earth pony director, "I thought I told you that I didn't want to see you in this building ever again!'

"Shut up, Press," snapped Glamour Shot, "shove that little temper of yours up your flank and just look at these."

The cloaked mare pulled out a manila folder from her saddlebags and floated it over to the shocked director's desk. Press took a look at the folder first and then it the cloaked mare, fighting the natural urge to look inside at whatever it was he was given. In the end, his curiosity won out and, with a snort, he opened up the folder to find photos of Twilight Sparkle, savior of Equestria on three separate occasions, making out with a dragon that Press was almost sure he had seen before, and his jaw almost dropped off from his head.

"H-how much do you want for these?" asked the brown earth pony.

"Oh, not much, just an eighth of the spoils." replied the cloaked mare, with satisfaction leaking into her voice.

"Only an eighth, don't get me wrong, this is good for me, but why?" asked the perplexed director.

"Lets just say that..."

The cloaked mare accented her statement by giving a pause as her hooves pulled back her hood, revealing the bald pink mare underneath, with an evil glint in her golden eyes and a grin that sent chills through the brown earth pony's back.