Blood Ties

by Noble Cause

Different species, but a shared heart

Clack. Clink. Thunk. Rattle.

Twilight’s ears twitched, rousing slowly from sleep at the noise, mentally cataloguing the sounds. Plate, glass, bowl, tray being lifted.

Pat pat pat pat...

Spike coming down the hall.

“Whup!” came the stifled yelp.

Spike nearly tripping over his own two feet, for that matter. Must have caught himself, there wasn't even the rattle of dishes. There was something about it. Something that nagged at her mind. He made breakfast, sure, but rarely brought it to her...

Rattle... click.

Doorknob. Her door opening. Her eyes half-opened in sleepiness to see Spike coming closer with a tray. Nose kicked in.

Haycakes, extra syrup. Lavender. Mint? Odd, he didn’t make that except for... special occassions...

He smiled sheepishly at her, setting the tray on her night stand, then leaned over to kiss her cheek.

“Good morning, Twilight... happy Mother’s Day,” he murmured quietly, blushing.

Oh. That special occassion. He really was too good to her sometimes.

She reached out with a smile of her own and pulled him close, then into bed and under the warm sheets with her, hugging him tight and giving him an affectionate nuzzle on his frills.

“Thank you, Spike. You’re such a good boy. I wonder sometimes if I really deserve you,” she said. He snuggled back into her, then turned to hug her properly.

“Of course you do, Twilight. And I deserve you. You hatched me. I... I can’t ever possibly repay you for that.”

She thought back to that time, smiling faintly. There were rumors, even now, that it was rigged. That it was somehow luck, or strength, or a plot by the Illuminated Naughty to ‘further consolidate Celestia’s power’ or some such silliness. The group was comprised of old money Canterlot nobility that had the crazy notion that it was their money that actually ran Canterlot, and that everything else really bowed to their will. Though it was funny when Celestia heard about it. She then gave them to Luna as a gift for her to read the riot act. In the full Royal Canterlot Voice. With no earplugs.

Spike sighed happily, hugging her tighter, and murmured something.

“What was that, Spike?” she asked, looking down. He pulled away, and looked up at her, shyly. It was hard to remember sometimes that he was still so young, both by pony and dragon standards, yet there were times he acted much more mature than his age would belie. He swallowed, blushing.

“I said... that there’s no place I’d rather be than right here. I miss the tree, sure, and this castle is taking some serious getting used to, but... as long as we’re together, as far as I’m concerned, we’re home. I... I don’t know what I’d do if I... lost you,” he said.

Twilight hugged him tight and nuzzled him again.

“You’re never going to lose me. Not as long as I can help it. I can’t imagine life without you either, Spike, and I’m sorry that I’m so thoughtless sometimes in regards to your feelings,” she answered. The ‘nacho incident’ involving Twilight Time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders came to mind, for one thing.

“How about we both admit we’ve made mistakes and move on?” he suggested, sounding remarkably like something she’d offer. He learned fast, a lot more than she gave him credit for. She just hoped that she was leading by good example.

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” she said, nodding, and inhaled the scent of breakfast, though her eyes were closing again in sleepiness. Spike sat up and pulled the tray closer, picking up the fork and cutting a portion of haycakes, syrup dripping from them. Twilight opened up, Spike giggled, and popped it into her muzzle. There was a happy sigh that escaped her, and she chewed, savoring it. “Definitely too good to me...” she murmured. Spike just offered her another bite, humming.

Ten minutes later, breakfast was gone, Spike had vanished to take the dishes and tray to the kitchen to clean later, and had left his apron behind. He closed Twilight’s door and rejoined her in bed, where she hugged him with a happy sound.

It was now or never. On the tip of his tongue. Spike opened his mouth and squeaked a little, before coughing lightly. Twilight looked down at him. He blushed in embarrassment, before looking up into her eyes and clearing his throat. This was serious Spike at the fore. Something he didn’t do very often unless he really needed to say something important.

“Twilight. I’ve been thinking. We’ve been together since you’ve hatched me. You’ve helped raise me, you’ve loved me, you’ve seen to my every need. Every time I had a bad dream, you were there. You made sure I was warm on cold nights, and had a way to cool on hot days. You’ve kept me fed, indulged me when I was being silly, encouraged me to pursue my dreams, and warned me off when I needed to take a step back. You’ve been my mother, my sister and my best friend my whole life. I have no way to properly express how much that means to me. No way to really show you the simple fact that you mean more to me than life itself. I know I don’t say this enough. I know, and you know I know... that I love you, Twilight. I only wish there was more I could do to show you that. I’m trying to be grown up, and mature, and be as big of a help as you need, but nothing ever seems like enough. I’m sorry for that.”

Her heart leapt into her throat, and tears came to her eyes. Her muzzle worked soundlessly, and her brain went into overdrive to try and find the words. After a few moments that seemed to stretch into an eternity, she gave up, and gave him a tender kiss on the forehead, just below his frill.

There was only one thing she could really say, reduced to simplicity.

“I love you too, Spike. Forever and ever. Don’t ever think you have to apologize for anything. You’re still learning and growing, just like I am. My son. My little brother. My best friend. I love you.”

The two of them held each other close, crying tears of joy, and eventually slept, dozing off lightly as the sun began to rise over Ponyville.

It wasn’t skill, or strength, or cunning that led to Twilight hatching Spike’s egg that day. It was love. They both knew that, and that was all that mattered.

Author's Note:

Written for the July 2014 Secret Santa fic prompt challenge, with the prompt being "Turns out luck wasn't a factor at all."

Also written because I don't think Spike doesn't get enough love in the show, and there's not enough 'quiet moments' with him and Twilight.

Comments

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

That . . .

That was beautiful. Unimaginably so. I've read many stories where these two are shown having a very intimate moment, displaying their familial love to each other in. But this is . . .

Well, it's special. It stands out above the rest because it doesn't try to overstep its bounds. You preferred simplicity, capturing a moment in the life that happened to hold a very cute and heatwrenching moment. Generally, it's something else that most stories use to spur on this moment. Like Spike being sick in that other very well-written fic with Spike and Twilight.

And that's commendable. This truly epitomizes the Slice of Life tag, and it goes a step further to bring home a very good point.

Spike knows it. Twilight knows it. They both know it.

They're family. And they love each other.

P.S.: Very interesting utilization of white space towards the end. As things became more important and necessary to be emphasized, the white space allows it to sink in more. That's one aspect of writing that is truly lost on the Internet. With our bright screens and dark rooms, it's unfortunately unappealing to the eyes on many occasions to have massive blocks of text, and therefore normal paragraph structuring is forgone. But it also takes away the white space.

Fantastic story.

[Noble Cause]

4757866

Would you believe adding in the white space was completely unintentional on my part? not a typo, just the way I instinctively write, sometimes. Not quite stream of consciousness, but more the flow of it in my head.

[Swashbucklist]

the Illuminated Naughty

One of the top ten best puns I've heard in this fandom, and it's not even a pony pun. A Laughing Dash for you:

You’ve raised me, you’ve loved me, you’ve seen to my every need.

Might wanna edit or omit that first claim. That implies once upon a time, a child was responsible for the health, safety, and upbringing of a newborn. And that's disturbing. Just because Twilight is the closest thing Spike has to a maternal presence in his life (and she barely is), that doesn't mean she should ever be given such a backstory.

I'm sure some actual adults were around to raise Spike, in which case, you may want to have him say that Twilight helped.

Drawback notwithstanding, it's very heartwarming. It would be wonderful to hear Twilight say how happy she is with Spike in her life, because oftentimes, the show gives me the impression that she wouldn't care much if he wasn't in it. JustAnotherTimeLord says everything else perfectly.

4757913 You pulled off a literary technique by accident? Damn you're good.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

4757913
Interesting. I can't say it is a bad thing whatsoever. And it DOES make sense, which is why I loved it. XD

[Noble Cause]

4757919

I was feeling pretty inspired with that 'Illuminated Naughty' bit, I'll admit. Consider that other line fixed, too. I hadn't considered that.

And I'm not that good. You want good TwiSpike, go look at The Descendant's stuff. HE has actual talent!

[Albi]

This was lovely. And I agree, I think there needs to be a whole episode dedicated to the two of them.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

Loved it! Loved every bit of it. The touching and emotional parts were beautiful, and the comedy was spot-on. I especially enjoyed the secret society being given to Luna to be viciously yelled at.

[schpeelah]

Illuminated Naughty

I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out why is what sounds like a porn mag consolidating Celestia's power before I got the pun.

Since 'illuminated' was very old-timey for 'illustrated'.

[Inquisitor M]

Totally got the feel-good vibes at the begging when the realisation hits. I actually kind of impressed out blunt it was without losing any of it's effect – a really good bit of basic misdirection.

Beyond that, though, I have one major and one relatively minor issue:

1. The PoV feels like a powerball tossed into a boxroom. Okay, so in a sense that's hyperbole, but in such a short story, the couple of sharp shifts are a bit of a bell-ringer. Firstly, we start really tight in on Twilight, tight enough to be hearing her direct inner monologue, and then we get 'He really was too good to her sometimes', which feels utterly at odds with where your PoV was two seconds before. Then, later, it switches to Spike's PoV without pause or warning and it gave me some severe whiplash. After a wonderful start, it kinda fell off a cliff.

2. Regarding prompt use, I don't think the story really does anything with the prompt at all. I call it a minor issue because I'll take the excuse for a cute little fic like this and I don't really care about the prompt (and I doubt you actually care they much either, to be fair), but even taking the fic into account it could still totally have been luck. That or it cheapens the notion of love in a way that I'd be uncomfortable with.

Anyway, still enjoyed it, for what it is. People say I'm hard to please, but it only takes a lack of pretence and to not do something stupid :P

-M

[Noble Cause]

4771496

Fair enough on both counts. I was going for a slow drawing-back of the POV to encompass both of them. I don't think I succeeded, though. Ah well, live and learn and try again with something else, right.

[PresentPerfect]

Illuminated Naughty

I literally can't even XD

[Noble Cause]

4834226

I was rather inspired with that, yes

[Carnation83]

SO SWEET!! I get the Feels with this one!

[Ko777]

Dawwww I just heard this on ponyandwolf it’s so beautiful

[TheOneAJ]

[Ko777]

Why didn’t we get more of this in the show :(