Wanting to concentrate on the checkerboard, Spike kept getting distracted by Gabby across the table. In the summer afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows of his Canterlot Tower rec room, she was noisily fidgeting with two of the checkers she'd captured from him, her mind obviously not on the game.

Which would've been fine. Except that she was still winning...

He made another try at focusing on his next move, but then Gabby cleared her throat. "You know Mistmane, right?"
 
Spike blinked at her, but they'd been friends for long enough that he was used to her just bringing stuff up out of the blue. "Well, yeah," he said, sliding one of his pieces forward on the board. "I mean, we've talked a couple times, I guess."
 
Gabby nodded, reached out, and jumped three of his checkers in a move that Spike couldn't believe even as he watched her do it. "So you, like, know where she is right now?" She scooped the checkers up to join the others rattling around in her talons.
 
It took some effort not to scowl, but Spike made that effort. Gabby didn't [i]mean[/i] to be better than him at everything. She just kind of [i]was[/i]. "Last I heard, she was up in the Crystal Empire," he said like it didn't even bother him. "Working with Cadance to get all the crystals polished or something."
 
"Huh." Gabby rummaged the claws that weren't fiddling around with the checkers into the mail sack on the floor beside the table and pulled out a box wrapped in the weirdest, fanciest, shiniest, dark-red wrapping paper that Spike had ever seen. "So you'd be able to help me deliver this package to her, right?"
 
"Me?" Spike looked from the package to her and back again. Anything was better than looking at all the moves he couldn't make on the board... "Why can't [i]you[/i] just do it?"
 
Something shivered behind Gabby's eyes. "'Cause she's Mistmane! I can't just go up to Mistmane and say, 'Here's your package, ma'am.' I'd, like, melt into a big, gooey puddle!"

Spike stared at her for what felt like five minutes before he could manage to ask, "But isn't that literally your job? To go up to ponies and griffons and other creatures and give them their packages?"

The shivering behind her eyes froze so quickly and completely, Spike almost thought he could hear a crackling noise like water turning to ice. "Fine!" she shouted, leaping into a hover above the cushion she'd been resting on. "Forget I even asked!" She grabbed her bag and zoomed out of the library—

Leaving the red-wrapped box sitting on the edge of the checkerboard.

"Gabby!" Spike snagged the package in his claws—carefully, though, so he wouldn't tear the paper—flexed his own wings, and took off after her.

She was a strong flyer, no question about it, but he'd noticed from their very first race that she was much more about distance than speed. Which made sense: the routes between Griffonstone and anywhere else needed a lot of slow-and-steady endurance. So she was still in sight at the end of the hallway when Spike whirled out the rec room door. "Gabby!" he yelled again, but she didn't seem to pay any more attention this time than she had before.

Fortunately, the Royal Guard had gotten a lot less uptight about flying in the hallways since Twilight had taken over running Equestria four months ago. Just having Rainbow Dash stopping by on a regular basis had pretty much meant they'd [i]had[/i] to relax the rules, or she would've been spending most of her time in a cell somewhere.

Stretching and straining muscles he didn't use all that often, he sliced through the air and started gaining on her, wheeling around the white-marble-and-gold corners toward the entrance to the palace living quarters she'd come in by. Fortunately, the doors were propped open to let the breeze blow through, and Gabby blasted out into the warm blue above Twilight's reading garden with Spike right on her tail feathers. "You forgot the package!" he managed to pant out.

She pulled up and spun in midair. "The package!" But she must've pulled up too quickly because her wings suddenly went sort of sideways, her body now tumbling instead of spinning. "Whoa!" she gasped, but by then she was dropping, falling, hitting the grass and sliding beak-first a couple ponylengths before coming to a halt, her back legs sticking up from the heap of fur and feathers she'd become.

"Gabby!" Using a more controlled descent, Spike landed beside her just as her hindquarters flopped onto the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she more groaned than said. "I just...just..." But lying there with her eyes closed, she didn't go on.

Spike puffed out a little smoke ring. Whatever was going on here, she definitely didn't want to talk about it. But, well, she was his friend, right? "Gimme a minute," he said, setting the package down gently in the grass, "and I'll let Twilight know we're heading up north."

Her eyes opened, the shivering back behind them. "Thanks, Spike," she said.

[hr]

"But why?" Gabby stepped into the train car like a cat walking across wet grass. "We can just fly!"

Spike gave a half-lidded look over his shoulder. "Big bruiser griffons like [i]you[/i], maybe." He touched some claws to his chest. "Some of us, though, while we may be friendship ambassadors at large, are still delicate little baby dragons."

That got the expected laugh out of her, but even after they'd taken their seats and the train had started off, Gabby still didn't relax. "Look," she said, squirming so much on the bench that she ended up standing in the walkway between the seats, "I'm not used to all this sitting. How 'bout I...I just fly along beside the train, okay?" She crooked a claw at the window. "I'll be right out there, and that way—" Her eyes darted sideways, and her beak pulled shut.

"Really?" Spike couldn't keep his tone from arching just a little. "You'd rather fly all the way to the Crystal Empire than tell me what's going on between you and Mistmane?"

"Nothing's going on!" Gabby clapped her foreclaws over her beak, her eyes doing some more sideways darting. The two of them were alone in the carriage, though—Spike had flashed his Royal Advisor badge to the conductor and asked if he could arrange that. "I mean," she went on at a more reasonable volume level, "it's just that she's a big shot, y'know? And you, you're the hero of the Crystal Empire, right? I see that statue of you every time I make a delivery up there. So I'd be with you and give her her package, and it wouldn't be like I was bothering her or anything."

As much as he wanted to say, [i]That makes absolutely no sense[/i], Spike didn't. Ever since Gabby had brought Mistmane up, Spike had been trying to remember if he'd actually spoken with the old sorceress during or after the whole Pony of Shadows thing, but nothing kept coming to him. All he could recall was his first snarky impression of her: that for all the more-than-a-thousand-year-old ponies he knew—the princesses and the Pillars and all—this was the first one he'd met who looked her age.

So why was Gabby being all weird and rambling and obviously not saying what she really meant?

He'd seen this sort of thing from ponies before, of course. He even used to do it himself when he was still crushing so hard on Rarity. But—

Wait. Was Gabby in love with Mistmane?

No! That was crazy?

Wasn't it?

He cleared his throat. "And you...want me to introduce you...so you can...ask her on a date or something?"

"[i]What?[/i]" Gabby reared back onto her hind paws, her wings spreading and her eyes going wide. "A [i]date[/i]? No! She's, like, a thousand years old! And, y'know, female! And, y'know, a pony! And, y'know, a legend beyond all other legends..." Her crest feathers slicked back tight against her head, and she leaped up, her wings now beating as fast as a hummingbird's. "I'll be right outside." And before Spike could even lift a claw, she had flashed down the end of the car, thrown herself out the window, and was swooping up into the puffy clouds above the train.

Huh. He thought about going after her for maybe half a heartbeat, but no. All he'd likely end up doing would be getting lost and crashing into a tree. Gabby'd be back. This whole trip was her idea, after all, and more importantly—he glanced over at the shiny red object peering from her courier bag on the seat next to him—she'd forgotten the package again.

The next few hours didn't exactly fly by, but Spike did manage not to get all obsessive and Twilighty about what was going on. Gabby would either tell him or she wouldn't, but since he was going to be right there when Gabby and Mistmane met, the odds were that he'd find out then.

So he went up to the dining car, used his Royal Advisor badge to get a sandwich—he'd brought a little pouch of garnet shavings along in his pack because he pretty much had to everywhere he went—ate it, took a nap, and wakened to the conductor standing beside him. "Crystal Empire next station stop, Sir Spike."

"Thanks," he said with a stretch and a nod. A glance out the window showed Gabby gliding along. She was kind of fiddling her front talons together, her forehead wrinkled, but when Spike waved to her, she waved back. He also pointed a claw at the spire of the Crystal Castle plainly visible above the hills ahead in the light of the sun starting to set off to their left.

Gabby nodded, banked toward the train, and caught the frame of the window she'd gone out earlier. "That was easier than I thought," she said, shaking her wings before tucking them to her sides. "Drafting off the heat of the engine, I barely had to flap the whole way. I should probably start shadowing the railroad when I make my regular deliveries."

Spike arched an eyeridge at her, and when her crest feathers fell, he sighed. "You still don't wanna tell me what this is about, do you?"

Eyes fixed on the floor, she shook her head.

Again, it took some effort, but Spike swallowed most of the things he wanted to say, things about how she didn't have to be ashamed about whatever it was and how he would always be her friend—

Unless, of course, the box was full of poisonous snakes and she was secretly trying to kill Mistmane!

Which was the sort of thing that only happened in the cheesiest comic books, so he wasn't really worried about it happening here. Mostly, anyway...

What he [i]did[/i] end up saying was, "We'll go to the palace after we get off the train and find out from them where Mistmane's at."

Her gaze darted up to meet his. "Thanks, Spike."

[hr]

The walk from the station almost got Spike grinding his teeth, but no. He wasn't doing anything like that. Because he was being supportive!

Even if he didn't really know what exactly he was supporting...

Besides, he could never hang onto a bad mood in the Crystal Empire. Not only was his big brother in charge around here—well, the number-two-in-charge, at least—but every step he and Gabby made along the road, it seemed like somepony gave a gasp or a grin or a murmur of, "Hey, isn't that Spike, the Brave and Glorious?" And then, when they stepped into the central plaza outside the palace, there was the giant statue of him, of course.

So he was feeling better and better the further along they went, and he couldn't stop himself from strutting just a little at the palace gates, the two Crystal Pony guards there snapping to attention while the one on the right barked out, "Welcome back to the Crystal Empire, Sir Spike!"

"At ease," he said, something he'd heard Shiny say in situations like this. "Are Cadance or Shining Armor home?"

"Yes, sir!" the same guard went on just as forcefully. He then did a weird, shuffling sort of turn—not being at ease at [i]all[/i] as far as Spike could tell—that swung him around hard and fast to face the other guard. "Private! Escort Sir Spike and his guest into the presences of Her Divine Majesty and her Prince Consort!"

"Yes, sergeant!" The second guard didn't look like he was being any easier than the first guard, and he whipped all the way around till he was facing the gate. "Open the gate!" he shouted. "Sir Spike, the Brave and Glorious, demands entrance!"

Spike could feel his face heating up. He was embarrassed, sure, but he couldn't deny that all the attention was a little great. Glancing over at Gabby, he opened his mouth to say as modestly as he could that he hadn't meant to demand anything—

But Gabby wasn't gaping in awe or wonder at the guards still not standing at ease or at the gate slowly and silently swinging open ahead of them. No, she was sitting there fiddling with the strap to her courier bag and looking at the city all around them. "You think Mistmane's here somewhere?" she asked.

Which brought Spike back down to the ground quickly enough. "Well, if we follow the guard, we'll maybe find out." And as much as he tried not to sound snippy, he couldn't quite manage it.

That brought Gabby's attention to him, her forehead feathers wrinkling and a half frown curling her beak. "Spike? Is something wrong?"

This time, he kept himself under control, didn't say anything about how rough it rubbed his scales that she didn't seem to trust him, didn't think she could confide in him about whatever the hay was going on with her. Instead, he just gestured to where the guard was marching in through the gate.

She blinked another few times, then nodded and followed the guard. Spike brought up the rear, his head spines feeling too tight somehow.

The guard didn't lead them to the throne room but down a side corridor that Spike recognized as leading to Cadance's office. Two more guards stood outside the only door at the end of the corridor; their eyes went wide and their ears went back when the guard leading Spike and Gabby shouted, "Spike, the Brave and Glorious, is here to call up our Divine Empress and her Prince Consort!"

"Uhh," Spike said, wanting to ask if maybe the guy could tone things down a little.

But before he could even start thinking of a way to put that politely, the door opened, and Shiny stuck his head out. "Balustrade," he said with a sigh, "what did I say about being too loud and too formal?"

"But Your Highness!" The guard stomped his hooves and straightened to attention so stiffly, it hurt Spike's back to watch it. "You and Her Majesty saved our people from the fiendish machinations of the Enemy!" Just the way he was saying the words made Spike absolutely sure that the guy was capitalizing the titles. "Our gratitude to you should know no bounds, and we should always endeavor to—!"

"Private?" Shiny stepped out into the corridor, and his face tightened into an expression Spike knew all too well from his younger days. He hadn't seen it very often—few ponies were anywhere near as laid back as Shining Armor. But when those nostrils flared the way they were now, those eyes narrowing and that voice getting deep and quiet, Spike had known it was time to stop whatever he was doing and pay attention.

Apparently, the guards here knew it, too, judging by the way the two behind Shiny slid into [i]another[/i] expression Spike recognized: relief. He'd often seen it years ago on Twilight's face when Shiny would be glaring at him instead of her...

The guard who'd escorted them in, though, wasn't so lucky, and his drooping tail showed that he knew it. "Perhaps," Shiny was saying, every syllable as jabbing as a chunk of diamond stuck between the teeth, "you recall why I assigned you and Sergeant Pomade to the front gate?"

The strange little liquid sound that squished against Spike's ears, he was almost sure, was that sound of the private swallowing hard. "Because of our zeal, sire?"

"Zeal." Shiny cocked his head. "That's a very nice way of putting it, Balustrade." He didn't take a step forward or anything, but he seemed to loom even larger in the hallway. "A not-so-nice way of putting it is that you two are unreasonably annoying fanboys who get in the way of real guard work but can be counted on to provide a colorful show in the main square for the tourists." He cocked his head the other way. "Would you call that a fair assessment, Private?"

Balustrade stayed frozen at attention.

Shiny sighed, and the whole aura around him dissipated like fog exposed to sunshine. "You're a good soldier, Balustrade, and it's because of ponies like you that the Crystal Empire has bounced back so completely from the mess Sombra made of things. Cadance and I couldn't've done a thing around here, in fact, if the Crystal Ponies hadn't been supporting us every step of the way." He waved a hoof at the private. "So this...this veneration, it just isn't...it isn't helpful. Or healthy. Or anything that either Cady or me really [i]wants[/i]."

The private kept on not moving.

Hanging his head, Shiny gave another sigh. "Dismissed, Private."

The salute that the private leapt into almost crackled, it was so sharp. "Yes, sir!" he shouted, then he did that smooth, quick, one-hundred-and-eighty-degree spin and marched past Spike and Gabby as if they weren't even there.

The silence that followed seemed even quieter to Spike than a regular silence, but when Shiny looked back up, he was smiling. "Hey, Spike. And this'd be your friend Gabby, right?" He stepped forward. "It's great to finally meet you, though I've seen you flying into town with deliveries before, of course."

Spike grinned and rolled his eyes. "That's my big brother, Gabby." He turned his grin toward her. "Nothing gets by him."

Gabby was staring at Shiny like someone had kicked her hard in the face, her eyes wide and shivering, her beak partway open, and her crest feathers almost vanished into her regular plumage. She quickly shook herself back to something close to normal, though, reached out a slightly shaky set of talons, and bumped Shiny's outstretched hoof. "Thanks, sir."

Shiny nodded, turned, and started toward the door. "So c'mon in, you two, and tell us how we can help with whatever's brought you all the way up here."

Not quite sure what was going on with Gabby—but what [i]else[/i] was new lately?—Spike tried not to stare at her obvious discomfort and gestured forward. "After you."

That she didn't whirl up and around and make a break for the exit like she'd done earlier surprised Spike a little. Instead. she nodded, something that might've been part of a smile twitching across her cheek. "Thanks, Spike," she more whispered than said.

[hr]

"Hey, Cady!" Spike heard Shiny say from the room ahead while he was still out in the hallway. "It's Spike and his friend Gabby come to visit!"

"It's nothing!" Gabby blurted out, stopping so quickly right inside the door that Spike almost crashed face first into her lashing tail. "Really! Nothing at all!"

"What?" Skipping sideways, Spike bunched his claws into fists, rested them on his hips, and glared up at her.

Gabby had flopped back to sit on the marble floor, her front claws sort of clutching at her courier bag. "I just, y'know, had a delivery up here, and I thought it'd be fun if Spike and I...if he...if we..." Everything about her drooped again.

Cadance had risen to her hooves behind her desk, but the smile she'd been wearing was now crumpling into something much more confused. Her horn began to glow, and at that exact moment, a thought crashed through Spike's head.

Was all Gabby's Mistmane talk just a smokescreen? Was it maybe that she...that she—

That she was in love with Spike?

Everything inside Spike shouted [i]Impossible![/i] And he had to agree. She was a great friend, sure, but he'd never felt anything other than that from her or toward her.

The way that the confusion wasn't clearing from Cadance's face backed him up, too. If there was any love involved between Gabby and him, Cadance would pick it up and be grinning like a crazy pony: Spike was absolutely sure of that. Which only left—

"Mistmane," Spike said, grasping at the one clue he had. "This whole thing was because you wanted me with you when you delivered that package to Mistmane. I dunno why, but, well, we're here. So—" He turned to Shiny and Cadance, both of them blinking at him and Gabby. "Do you guys know where Mistmane is right now?"

Cadance and Shiny glanced at each other. "Well, yes," Cadance said, turning back to Spike. "She's out on the west side this week adding some finishing touches to the park before the Summer Flower Festival."

"But that's okay!" Once again, Gabby leaped onto all fours. "We don't wanna bother her, y'know? So we'll just head back to the station, and be on our way!"

"[i]What?[/i]" Spike couldn't keep his fists clenched: he waved one set of claws in the air while pointing with the other set at Gabby. "You asked me to bring you here so I could introduce you to Mistmane!"

"And?" Gabby did some claw waving of her own. "Now I don't want you to! I've...I've changed my mind, okay?"

"No!" Spike didn't like to yell, but one thing he'd learned dealing with Twilight and Rarity and Rainbow and the other ponies in Ponyville was that, well, sometimes yelling was the only way to get through to them. "It's [i]not[/i] okay!"

Gabby's head went back on her neck, one set of talons drawn up to touch her chest, but Spike couldn't worry about that now. "Obviously," he said, doing a little better at the whole 'not yelling' thing, "you have something you need to do here, and Mistmane's obviously involved! I mean, you're bringing her that present, and—"

"What?" Fiddling with her mail pouch, Gabby seemed more to be trying to hide it from view than anything else. "It's just, like, another delivery for me! What makes you think I'm the one who—?"

As much as Spike wanted to stomp a foot, he didn't. "It's wrapped up in wrapping paper, Gabs! If it was going through the regular mail, it'd be in brown paper or something with the name and address of where it's going written on the outside!" He pointed to the bag, her claws nowhere near enough to cover it. "Now, I don't understand what's going on 'cause you won't tell me anything, but I'm not [i]about[/i] to turn around and let this go just because you've suddenly got cold paws and claws or whatever!"

Turning to Shiny and Cadance, he gave a bow. "Thanks, guys. I'll stop in for more of a visit when I'm not on some sorta super secret mission. But right now?" He flared his wings, leaped into a hover at Gabby's eye level, and got his glare going again. "I'm gonna go out to the west side of town and find Mistmane! Whether you come with me or not is entirely up to you!"

Giving her a crisp nod, he flew for the door: not at top speed, sure, but at a steady, no-nonsense clip. And before he was halfway down the corridor leading back to the throne room, he felt a pulse of air wash up behind him. A glance over his shoulder showed Gabby flapping along, her face downcast, but then he had to look forward again so he wouldn't run into any walls.

At the gate, the two guards made another commotion about Spike, the Brave and Glorious, seeking egress from Her Divine Majesty's palace, but Spike definitely wasn't in the mood. Neither was Gabby to judge from the way she flinched at every word the two Crystal Ponies shouted. They got the gate open, though, and Spike flew up through the plaza till he was above the buildings that circled it.

The top of the sun was settling below the rolling hills to the west, so Spike headed that way, Gabby drifting along as quiet as a shadow behind him.

Spike stifled a snort. Not even a "Thanks, Spike" from her this time...

[hr]

Fortunately in summertime this far north, dusk came late and hung around awhile. So it was still light when Spike spotted a lone figure moving through the crystalline flowers and trees of the big park on the west side of the capital. That she had a horn in this land of Crystal Ponies would've been enough to tell him it was Mistmane, but the length and curve of the horn removed any sliver of doubt.

He didn't bother pointing her out to Gabby. They'd been flying this whole time in complete silence, and he still wasn't sure he was done being mad at her.

Well, not [i]mad[/i]. It was more that he was a little upset that after all this, after she'd dragged him most of the way here and he'd then dragged her the rest of the way, she still hadn't told him—

He pushed the thought away and descended into the park, Gabby still behind him. Landing on the part of the path that wound nearest to where Mistmane was brushing her hornglow against some delicious-looking ruby begonias, he called. "Mistmane?" He waved to her when she looked over. "Hi. I'm Spike. Maybe you remember me from the time we all—"

"Yes, of course, Spike." Her voice had a weird quality to it, not really old but not really young, either. Sort of like Princess Celestia...except nopony in the world had a voice like Princess Celestia.

He shook that thought away, too, when Mistmane gave a little chuckle and went on. "I see your statue every day, after all, and I've even had occasion to tell the youngsters hereabouts the vital role you played in rescuing Stygian from the Pony of Shadows."

Spike blinked. "But...I wasn't even there when it happened."

She raised a hoof. "But you were there [i]before[/i] it happened, were there when Twilight was growing up. You helped her become the mare who saw how to save Stygian when the rest of us were all too prepared to consign him to the depths of Limbo." Lowering her hoof, she gave a nod. "All of Equestria is extremely fortunate that you were involved."

He'd never thought of it that way, but it washed most of his earlier sour feelings away. "Well, thanks, Mistmane. That's really nice of you to say. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to introduce a friend of mine." He turned so he could gesture to Gabby—

And she wasn't there.

Blinking, Spike was about to shout, "Oh, come [i]on![/i]" But then he saw the tips of her gray pinfeathers sticking out around the edge of a little shed a dozen or so paces away. So he gestured in that direction instead. "That's my friend Gabby hiding behind that shed. She's got something she'd like to give you."

"Me?" Mistmane looked from Spike to the shed, and Spike couldn't help but notice the feathers pulling completely out if sight.

The little smile that spread over Mistmane's snout made Spike think that she'd noticed it, too. "Well, that's very kind of her." She spoke a bit louder, but that only made the gentle good humor behind her words stand out more clearly. "Would you prefer that I come over there, Gabby?"

"No!" It popped around the corner of the shed as part shout and part moan, and after another few seconds, Gabby slouched out following it, her wings dragging and her face pointed at the ground. "I...I'll come over there..." Her claws and paws moved as slowly as if she was fighting against a strong wind. "I just...just don't wanna be a bother..."

Mistmane gave a little chuckle. "Oh, now, don't you worry about that at all, Gabby. I've finished my work for the day and am more than happy to have a little friendly chat."

Gabby jerked to a stop, and her face came up, her beak and eyes wide. "There!" she said, crooking a claw at Mistmane. "That! Right there! That's just...that's the whole...you just—" She spun partway around, her talons clutching at the sides of her head. "Gahhh!"

Spike stared, not exactly sure what he was looking at.

Even Mistmane seemed a little taken aback, her ears dipping just a bit. "Gabby?" she asked, and if her voice had been calming before—and it had been—it was now at a whole different level of soothing. "Is there something I can do to help?"

Facing away from them, Gabby slumped. "No." It was a whisper this time. "You've done so much already. You showed me..." She took a breath, straightened, and turned those big, shivering eyes toward Mistmane. "When I was a kitten, and the other kits were wrestling and arguing and playing 'loan sharks and debtors,' I was by myself in the library, reading through whatever books weren't too moldy or worm-eaten or still had pages that nogrif had taken for kindling yet."

She looked away again. "They were mostly pony books, and the one that grabbed me and held me the hardest was all full of stories about you." Her gaze darted over to Mistmane, then away. "Your stories were all about how you weren't what you looked like, and the ponies you helped, they weren't what they looked like, either. And to a griffon like me who wanted to be kind and friendly and helpful, not having to be what I looked like was so...so...so..."

Movement caught the edge of Spike's attention, Mistmane walking slowly over to Gabby and sitting in the grass beside her. If Gabby noticed—and Spike was sure she did—she didn't react, her face fixed forward at a slight downward angle. "It took a while," she went on, "but reading the stories about you made me realize that I could love being me even if I didn't much like being a griffon. That's when I decided that I wanted a griffon cutie mark, not a pony one." She shrugged. "Even though, y'know, griffon cutie marks don't exist."

Her talons gripped at the strap of her bag. "So when I learned that you'd come back to Equestria from Limbo, I started...I wanted to...I just..." She slipped the bag over her head and set it down in front of her. "This was supposed to be for Hearth's Warming Eve, but I kept thinking...I mean, how creepy would [i]that[/i] be?"

She snapped her head around, and Spike felt his stomach clench to see actual tears in her eyes. "Some random griffon you don't know and never met being all fawning and stammering and annoying." Swinging around further, she made eye contact with Spike, and his stomach clenched even more, almost certain he knew what she was going to say next. "It'd be like those guards making everything so awkward with Cadance and Shining Armor! And I'd rather [i]die[/i] than do that! Not after everything..."

With a sniffle, she looked at Mistmane, then back at the ground. "After everything you've done for me..."

The evening kept deepening in the silence that followed, but nothing about it felt cold or awkward to Spike. "I'm sorry, Gabby," he said, though he wasn't really sure what he was apologizing for. Still— "I didn't mean to make things all, I dunno, weird for you."

Gabby gave a little laugh. "It was me making things weird for myself, actually..."

"Ah, yes." Mistmane reached a hoof out and gently set it on top of Gabby's claws. "A little self-consciousness is often a very good thing if it allows us to remain calm and low-key when we meet those whom we admire. But too much of it can paralyze and make it almost impossible to get out anything as simple as a 'thank you.'" She leaned toward Gabby with a smile. "Little gifts are often welcome, of course, for then we can exchange 'thank you's. That's something I quite enjoy doing."

Another little laugh, and Gabby pulled the red-wrapped package from her duffle. "I've been carrying it around with me since last winter, but when Princess Twilight took over and Spike became the big friendship ambassador, I figured it was now or never."

She set the package in front of Mistmane, and Mistmane's horn took on a glow. Light delicately sliced through the paper, removed the lid, and reached inside to raise up—

The most perfect carnelian Spike had ever seen, about the size of his fist and a deep reddish brown. And even better than that, it had been shaped by what he guessed would've been flowing water into something that looked a lot like a rose.

"Oh, Gabby," Mistmane more breathed than said, her hornglow slowly rotating the rose. "It's beautiful." She looked over at Gabby, their eyes shimmering just about equally. "Thank you."

How Gabby didn't blow up like one of Pinkie's party balloons, Spike couldn't guess. But she sure looked like she wanted to.

"So!" Mistmane set the carnelian back into the box, put the lip back on, and levitated it as she rose to her hooves. "Let me invite you both to dinner so we can continue this delightful conversation."

"Really?" Gabby leapt into a hover. "You mean it?"

"Of course." Smiling, Mistmane nodded. "I can in fact hardly wait to get to know you better, Gabby."

The feathers in Gabby's crest spread open like a daisy in the morning, and the next thing Spike knew, he was being caught up and spun around in a big, griffony hug. "Thank you, Spike! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome," he managed to say.