Twilight Sparkle felt a soft, downward weight pressing against the left side of her cheek. Actually, no….her cheek was pressing against the soft object. Dimly, she was aware of a blanket laid over her.
Her eyes fluttered open sleepily. A slight shuffling and the faint noise of general conversation drifted its way into her consciousness. Pushing herself up, she saw five other ponies seated to the left of her bed.Pushing herself up, Twilight managed a half-mangled moan before properly scanning the occupants.
“Ugh…my head,” she said. Her five friends turned to look at her. In an instant they were flocked around her bed. Concern was plastered on their faces. “What’s wrong girls?” she asked, righting herself up properly in the bed. “Was I...sleeping?”
“Yes, dear,” Rarity said. “It looked like quite a restless sleep, as well.”
“Why are you all gathered around my bed, then?” Twilight asked. She pulled up the blanket subconsciously as a sense of unease built up.
“You… um... had passed out, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. She offered her a meek smile in response to Twilight’s confused look.
“Wait...why did I pass out?” Twilight asked. She shook her head, hoping to jumble her memories back into place.
“You mean...you don’t know?” Rarity said. Her brow knit with concern for the alicorn in the bed.
The five friends shared a worried look at Twilight’s confusion. Rainbow Dash hovered a little closer, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I think we should just...show you.”
The ponies parted, revealing a young dragon sitting quietly in a chair in the corner. He held a worried look on his face, and despite obviously aging up considering from when she had given him to Mal’Gorath, he was definitely the same dragon.
Twilight promptly passed out again.
**** ****
“I told you it was a bad idea,” a raspy mare’s voice said.
“Ah think it’s a little strange how she’s reacting, don’t you?” a familiar farmpony’s voice replied.
A very elegant voice interjected. “Girls, I believe Twilight just needs some time to... adjust!”
Very quickly, Twilight was aware of her five friends descending into a rather annoying argument of what was best for her. She wanted to shout at them to all stop, but a deep masculine voice did that for her.
“Girls! Please, I’m sure Twilight will be fine,” the voice said. “Give her some space to breathe, geeze.”
The murmuring quickly died down. Twilight opened her eyes again and found them immediately focusing on the purple dragon. He held a disapproving frown on his face, his arms crossed.
“Are you going to pass out on me again?” he asked sternly. When she responded with a shake of her head, his expression lightened up. “Sheesh, Twilight. You had me worried for a second there. I don’t remember you being so fainty before.”
Twilight flung the blankets off rapidly as she leapt towards the dragon, pulling him into a powerful hug. Tears were in her eyes again as the biggest grin spread across her face. “I missed you, Spike!”
Spike’s eyes were wide for a moment, before he, too, smiled. Wrapping his arms around the smaller pony, he hugged her gently back. “Yeah, I missed you too, Twi.”
Pulling away, Twilight kept her hooves on his shoulders, almost sizing up the dragon. “I’m...I’m so happy you’re alive, Spike.” A fresh wave of tears flowed as she suppressed a sob of joy before pulling him into another hug. “I’m so happy you’re home.”
The hug he returned was warm and reminded Twilight of the love she used to share with him as a baby dragon so long ago…
Except he wasn’t a baby dragon anymore.
Gears clicked inside Twilight’s brain as she slowly processed this info. He was taller than her by quite a margin and his voice was certainly deeper. His scales were somewhat larger and definitely tougher than what he had as a baby. His crest and spines had lengthened and his eyes held a weathered look behind them.
Gasping loudly, Twilight pushed Spike away, a look of panic on her face. “Spike! Have you been hoarding again?” Her voice rose in panic as she started prancing on the spot. “Oh no, this is bad. We need to isolate you! Stop you from accumulating thi -”
Spike cut her off with a claw over her lips. “Easy, Twi, I’m not hoarding,” he said in a soothing tone. “Not in the traditional sense.” He broke out into a smile and chuckled lightly, removing the finger. “Al’Gorath taught me a lot in the past year. One of them was the value of family.”
The alicorn’s panic-attack subsided as quickly as it had come. She stared wide-eyed at the young dragon. “You mean…?”
Spike pulled her into another, softer hug. “Let’s just say…” he began, before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. “I’m glad to be home, Twilight.”
The two remained like that for a while, unable to say anything at all.
Twilight’s eyes trailed along to Spike’s left side. “Spike...what happened here?” she hesitantly asked, her eyes taking in the faded scar. The jagged line had cut through his side, the scales missing where it had cut.
Spike’s smile faltered. “It happened a long time ago, Twilight,” he said soothingly. “It’s a story for another time.”
The alicorn was about to interject when a claw pressed across her lips silenced her.
“Another time, Twi,” he said with a faint smile. “In the meantime, I am really hungry. Got any lunched cooked up?”
**** ****
Lunch was a quiet and awkward affair. Their friends had elected to leave Twilight and Spike alone, to allow for a proper moment to catch up. Predictably, all they had done was sit in total silence as they occasionally glanced at each other.
“So…” Twilight began, offering what she hoped was a friendly smile. “How have you been?”
Spike’s eyes glanced up at her, before he ate another spoonful of soup. They hadn’t had time to prepare anything special, so Twilight put together a sweet potato and butternut soup that was left over from the night before. The dragon had offered to help but Twilight was adamant to do it on her own.
“I’ve been good,” he replied, before having another spoonful.
“That’s...good!” Twilight said. She had barely touched her own bowl of soup. Moments earlier she had been so happy to see her adoptive brother, back but now…? He seemed like a stranger. His eyes carefully took in everything around him and even his movements were measured.
What exactly had happened to him during the past year?
“Spike…” Twilight began. She hesitated when his eyes looked up to her, one of the ridges above them raising slightly. “I...I need to know. What happened to you, I mean.”
Spike carefully placed his spoon back into the bowl. Twilight was about to start a tirade of apologies and explanations before he silenced her with an upright extended claw. “Al’Gorath taught me a lot more than I would have expected.”
“What did he teach you?” The question was out before she could stop herself.
The young dragon stood up from his chair, before circling around the dining table. He trailed a claw along the edge of it. Each step he took elevated Twilight’s heartbeat and breathing as panic grew inside of her.
Stopping half-way, Spike brought his open palm up to his face. Taking a deep breath, he breathed out a controlled jet of flame.
“No, Spike!” Twilight yelled as she leapt out of her seat. “What about your furnace?”
Spike just gave her an incredulous look as the flames licked and surrounded his hand before subsiding into a faint glow. “He taught me a little about dragon magic.” The glow intensified before he lifted it away with his other claw, weaving it into an odd and angular letter that Twilight didn’t recognise. “He taught me a little history.” The character floated towards the table before landing on it.
A flash of light and the symbol imprinted itself onto the surface of the table. Spike smiled warmly, tracing one of his digits along it.
“He broke me down and taught me hope,” he continued, weaving another symbol before imprinting it next to the first. “And taught me the value of my friends and family.”
“Spike, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, hesitantly moving closer to examine the strange script. The imprints hadn’t marred the surface of the table at all, almost appearing like a shadow on top of it.
Spike resumed his seat, giving a slight chuckle. “I also learned that I’ll never be able to cast dragon magic.”
The alicorn’s head swivelled towards the dragon, giving a small gasp. “Oh no! That’s horrible, Spike!” A wave of sympathy built up in her as she quickly walked to his side, placing a foreleg around him comfortingly.
“It’s not all that bad,” Spike said, hugging her back. “I mean, yeah I can’t use traditional dragon magic but that didn’t stop me.” He puffed out his chest, holding a claw upwards. “That’s why we invented a new type of magic! Just for me!”
Twilight felt tears welling up in her eyes. That’s the Spike she remembered and loved. Brash, confident and always obsessed with the ‘rule of cool,’ as he put it. “I’m glad that you’re…” she trailed off, trying to think of a proper way to put it, “capable, Spike, but that still doesn’t explain what you wrote onto my dining room table.”
A wistful smile spread across Spike’s face. “Just two words, an amalgamation of dragon, unicorn, and a few other magics. The first is ‘hope,’ so that I know what this place means to me. The second is ‘home.’” He hugged Twilight tightly. “Because the only place that would ever feel like home is where you are, Twilight.”
The alicorn didn’t have an answer for that. Pride swelled in her chest. She nuzzled into the chest of her adoptive brother.
“The girls told me you were worried sick while I was gone.” Spike’s voice was filled with worry. The mare looked up to see that same worry reflecting in his eyes. “How did you manage the past...year?”
She remained silent for a long while. Slowly the gears turned in her mind as the painful memoriescrept forward again. At first she couldn’t sleep, the worry driving her sick to her stomach.
When sleep finally did start coming to her, she was plagued with endless nightmares, almost every one of them needing Luna’s intervention. The cold fear of losing Spike every night had almost driven her insane.
“I didn’t, really,” Twilight managed to say. “I missed you so much that I had nightmares. I thought I’d never see you again - that I’d never get to say how much I care for you and love you, Spike.”
Vaguely, Twilight was aware of the dragon’s arms wrapping around her in a tight hug.
“But...my friends kept me together. They reminded me each day and made sure I didn’t dissolve into a total wreck.” Twilight gave a dry chuckle. “But, I guess the one thing that kept me sane the most was...hope.”
“Hope?” Spike asked.
“Hope that I would see you again. Hope that I’d see my little brother that I’ve cared for since I was a filly.” Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat as she pulled away from the hug, offering a smile. “Hope that even after all this time, my little Spike would come home to me.”
Spike returned the smile. “Hope,” he said wistfully. “Even Al’Gorath recognised the importance of hoping for something.”
Twilight nudged Spike with her hoof, a sudden frown on her face. “Okay, stop. You and Celestia call him Al’Gorath, Luna calls him Mal’Gorath and as far as I know his full name is Al’Mal’Gorath?” She raised an eyebrow. “Am I missing something here?”
Spike chuckled, motioning for Twilight to take a seat as he did the same. “Only a few things. I’ll let you know in time, Twi. Heck, he taught me a lot of things.”
The alicorn paused for a moment, the frown deepening slightly. “Tell me.”