A Friend of A Friend

by 8686

Epilogue -- Twilight

Epilogue — Twilight

The rest of the week was awesome.

Applejack and Apple Bloom gladly accepted Spike's help with the Zap Apple harvest the following morning. Then he assisted with the jam-making and once the deal with Filthy Rich had gone through he was even able to help them patch up the barn roof, a job which left him oddly satisfied. They talked and joked and laughed the whole day, and when he eventually remembered to ask, Applejack told him that her favourite song was a tuneful but haunting folk melody called, The River Wild. He didn't recognise it, but Applejack gave him a quick, heartfelt rendition, and it was beautiful.

Afterwards, Apple Bloom and the others had apparently had the brilliant idea that what they wanted most of all for a cutie-mark, was a dragon. So he got roped into helping the Crusaders with all manner of activities that, in the end, were just an excuse to spend an evening having fun with friends in good company. And when the day was over and none of the three had a picture of Spike on their hip to show for it, he made a self-deprecating comment about it being for the best that they not have to look at his ugly face forever and they all shared a good, honest laugh.

He finally got the misunderstanding about his story cleared up with Pinkie Pie. Then she absolutely insisted on hearing every single detail as though he were telling it for the first time back at the party. And when he'd finally finished telling her, she squee'd and proclaimed it the Best Story Ever. She especially liked the part where he gave Twilight the telescope at the party; partly because it was a happy ending, and partly because Pinkie herself made a brief cameo appearance, jumping out of Twilight's cake—and right through the fourth wall, as Spike had Story-Pinkie say hi to Audience-Pinkie, to much delight.

He still felt a little guilty for Fluttershy. When she invited him for a critter tea party to make up for the thing he kept insisting she hadn't done wrong, he accepted only because it would make her feel better. He had to admit it wasn't the usual thing he went in for, but they were far more ease with each other, and a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine trading light, easy banter with a good friend accompanied by tea, cake, and chirping animals was—notwithstanding the huge hungry-looking grizzly bear—a wonderful, relaxing way to spend time. When, at Fluttershy's beseeching insistence, Spike told her honestly why he'd been so bummed out at her cottage, Fluttershy nodded quietly and said she understood. She'd been a bit surprised, she explained. Ponies—even those she was friends with—didn't often stop by for no reason other than to 'hang out' with her, and she admitted she might have fallen back too hard on her instinct to make him feel welcome. She accepted that she might need to rein it in in future, but she promised that she didn't think of him as anything less than a true friend. He'd smiled at that and told her he knew. Fluttershy thought of everyone as her true friend, and it didn't matter how many arms or legs they had.

Rarity wanted to make up for her blunder by taking him first to lunch and then to—where else?—the spa. And in spite of his insistence that it was an unnecessary gesture, she simply wouldn't take no for an answer. He was pampered and massaged to his heart's content, and Rarity ensured that for the whole time there, he was the centre of attention for once. It might have been a little much, but while his aching muscles screamed in ungrateful protest, he had to admit his scales had never shone so brightly by the end of that long afternoon.

The same evening, Rainbow Dash invited him and the rest of the gang to watch her practice her aerobatics over Sweet Apple Acres. She'd got a discount on a consignment of surplus thunderbolts from the Weather Factory, and with them she set four storm clouds in a staggered pattern in the dusky sky over the rolling orchards. Then she performed her Cloudburst on all of them at once, ricocheting from one cloud to the next, lighting up the sky with spectacular electric explosions in every colour imaginable, to a chorus of cheering and a party atmosphere. Afterwards, she insisted on flying Spike home on her back, giving him a lengthy and peaceful aerial tour of midnight Ponyville—a sight he'd never seen before. The village by night from the air was breathtaking, especially with the castle catching and reflecting the moonlight just so. When they'd alighted he hadn't been able to thank her enough, but she'd just responded with a warm smile, a quick wink, and an, 'Any time, Spike.'

And when, the next morning, he received a letter sent from Princess Celestia advising him that Twilight was on the next train home a day earlier than expected, he was right at the station to greet her.

"Whew! What a week!" she said happily, disembarking from the train, her saddlebags in tow. "But I did it. I found a copy of every last book! Most of them are on order, but Celestia's agreed to store them for me as they come in until the Mayor and I can agree on a plan for a new library. So, what'd I miss?" she asked as they slowly made their way from the station.

"Oh, not much. Usual Ponyville stuff." said Spike with his typical, relaxed smile.

"It can't have been that usual," Twilight chuckled. "The town's still in one piece, for one!"

They left the station and made their way into Ponyville, heading towards the castle at the edge of the village. As they continued to chat, Twilight glanced down at him with a peculiar, curious expression and he realised he'd been staring.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"No," he said, still smiling. "It's just... I missed you."

"Oh, Spike," Twilight chuckled happily and gave him a soft, playful nuzzle. "I missed you, too." They carried on walking. "So? Did any of our friends come by while I was gone?"

Spike stopped a moment and blinked, automatic reply dying in his throat. He looked up at Twilight. "Yeah," he said. "They all did."

"What, all at once? It wasn't anything serious was it?"

"Uh... nah. Nothing that talking to a friend couldn't fix." He smiled again. "Come on. I'll tell you all about it when we get home."

* * *

Author's Note:

Edit -- 2nd Edition:
Because I am fickle, susceptible to peer pressure and have no artistic integrity, the final chapter and the epilogue have been edited to better recognise the contributions of our diminutive trio of heros, and the epilogue has been further edited to try and give more closure to Fluttershy's segment.

For this reason, I have republished those two chapters. I'll wait and see if I did the right thing.
---
Hi, folks.

Thanks for reading as always. This end piece is a little long and self-indulgent, so feel free to stop here if you'd rather not read the ramblings of a mediocre penman with too much time on his hands..

In keeping with my tradition of writing about subjects that have been done before and far better elsewhere, this is my Spike story.

I will admit that the execution may have let me down a bit on this one, but I liked the idea so I tried to muddle through anyhow. It may not be apparent, but when I'm editing I sometimes spend hours stressing over the phrasing of a particular paragraph or dialogue. And this is the best I could do.

But enough about me: let's talk Spike for a second, because he's an awesome, fascinating character who gets too little love, and a few of the comments from you guys gave me pause for thought. Bear in mind that this is all personal preference and your actual mileage will vary.

First off, Spike's age. I thought it was interesting that several folks pointed towards the difference between Spike's age and that of our heros as justification of sorts for their misunderstandings. Specifically, that Spike was a kid wanting to hang out with older ponies rather than ponies 'his own age.' Now... as far as I know, aside from a few dribs and drabs here and there, (Fluttershy is older than Pinkie; Sweetie Belle is over five) we don't know how old any of our characters are, and it seems logical to assume that different species would mature at different rates. So lets take physical age off the table and talk maturity. When you think about it, Spike is fairly autonomous. He cooks, he cleans, he goes to Canterlot on Royal Business by himself. So while he's specifically a baby dragon, he's really nowhere near a baby. I've always figured his 'age' to be somewhere between our foals and our grown ponies. He could be comfortable with either group, and it has been shown that he is. It's supposed to be Spike's increasing insecurity and the belief that he's different in some way that drives him downwards, and yes, he looks to the age difference to try and explain it. But really, as far as the main cast are concerned, it's just not an issue.

Second, a few people said that Spike's friendship with Rarity had a stronger canon basis than his friendship with the others. This surprised me because, Spike's infatuated with Rarity, sure. But to my mind, the pony that he actually has the strongest reciprocal friendship with, is Applejack, and has done since The Ticket Master. There are more 'little moments' that he has with her than with all of the others, right up to and beyond, Spike At Your Service - which brings me to the point at which I lose all credibility. I love that episode. It's got real heart and it does more to further Spike's relationship with ANY of our other characters than all of the previous two and a half seasons combined. And yet, because he's having the mother-of-all off-days trying to impress her, it's almost universally derided. It's not really until Inspiration Manifestation that Rarity's relationship with him gets the same sort of treatment and, to be honest, that episode left me cold.

Finally, I was surprised at how many people thought I was actually doing the, 'Mane Six really aren't Spike's friends' story. Really? C'mon guys, you know me better than that. Sunshine and Rainbows all the way. I'm actually surprised that no-one has called me out yet. All I do is write pretty much the same story over and over with different characters! If you want shocking plot twists and diabolical schemes, I may not be your best bet. As for the characters' various reactions, I do think I stretched credibility to near breaking point. The idea was that Spike is, and always has been, their good friend. But none of them realised just how much he needed to hear that today - they just assumed he knew. I had originally intended for each pony to have a roughly equal level of culpability for their misunderstandings but... well, Fluttershy can do no wrong, I can't blame Pinkie for what was genuinely an accident, Rarity and Applejack are kind of a draw, and Dash really had no excuse. But they all end up blaming themselves, and Spike ends up not blaming them for anything, so hopefully the narrative still works. I was also surprised by how many folks wanted an exploration of Spike making friends outside the main cast. While that's an awesome idea, that was never the intent for this piece. Spike could go and make new friends, sure. But what he desperately wants is to be friends with the ponies he really cares about.

And he is.

Anyway, story's over. I hope you found something to enjoy in it. As always, bonus points for spotting the references. A couple of them were subtle but you might have seen, Hot Fuzz; 2001 (or 2010); Monty Python; and Hitch-Hiker's Guide.

And I apologise profusely for the Drayton Manor pun.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun!

--The Author.

Comments

[Hurgusburgus]

5027643
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/757/895/8a7.gif

[Elric of Melnipony]

i.imgur.com/nzapftb.png

[Mänic]

you still didn't have Fluttershy's part of it resolved in any way. She still treated him exactly like she would any of her animals instead of her other friends.

[JBL]

An enjoyable read.

[asdjon]

I'm not expecting you to wright it but I do wanna see a darker version of this story, Like this, but crossed with "Silver Scales", great story should read.

[Mister L]

Amazing fanfic :D

[FunFunFUN]

What an exellent read my good sir! Bravo!

[Door Matt]

In keeping with my tradition of writing about subjects that have been done before and far better elsewhere, this is my Spike story.

You shut your treacherous mouth. I most certainly have not seen a Spike story done far better anywhere else. Ignore the fact I haven't actually read that many.

As always, bonus points for spotting the references. A couple of them were subtle but you might have seen, Hot Fuzz; 2001 (or 2010); Monty Python; and Hitch-Hiker's Guide.

Damn. 2/4 for me I guess. And I freakin' love Hot Fuzz and Hitchhiker's Guide! Not sure how I missed those.

Anyway, a very satisfying finale. You did sorta re-tread old ground with the Rarity dialogue, and the confession came a wee bit out of nowhere, but t'is nit-picking. Glad to have read it. Thumbs up and favourite. All that good stuff.

[Hillbe]

A well done story , Poor ol Spike gets down on himself It's what he does, Saves the Crystal Empire,Equestria games ,Stops Mane-iac & has a devil of a time with Rarity, (He's had lots of hugs & kisses from her) He's more than a humdrum , Less than a Door matt, You did well in this Spikey story Very well (Even if you have one and not once ie:' The towns in one piece for once' at the end...
As for age "Time passes at the same rate for us all, Fill it with something to remember"

As Spike & Twilight got to the front doors of the castle Spike put a claw to the side his snout "Ah Twilight How's your aging spells comming?"

[Raichu]

I loved your story!

[OmniFox]

Wonder if Spike can babysit the Cake Twins?

[Flame6666]

While Spike At Your Service did have the relation building for Spike and AJ, it was still a awful episode.
They took Spike and made him incompetent, he couldn't do anything right even though it's been shown in past episodes that he could. And that's in itself is unforgivable.

And then there was that bullshit with the Big Timberwolf, for a species that can rebuild itself and mix together into a bigger stronger version, to be taken down by choking on a rock when it's 100% made out of wood and clearly has no lungs is Bull Shit!
But all that doesn't matter, great happy little story 8/10

[TheGreatEater]

I never really call Spike a kid. Yes, he was hatched when the Sonic Rainboom happened. But ever since we've seen him, he's never gone to school and has held an adult's full time job. So mental development and responsibility wise, he's at an adults level. Biologically, while close the CMC's age, He's hit adulthood twice. Taking that into account. Placing him at an age is extremely difficult with how fluid, and shifting his maturity, biological age, and development jumps all over the place. Especially with how the writers keep on shifting him around to fit a plot [seriously his developmental stages [written] are worse than Superman getting depowered in his comics].

But this fic was all in all pretty good. Had some strong feels throughout the chapters, not all of them happy feels but feels nonetheless. And the last two chapters were rather well done.

[Ninjahzzzz]

All I do is write pretty much the same story over and over with different characters!

...To be honest,With enough skill,You can rehash the same thing near infinitely and keep people hooked,Just depends on the writing style and skill....Which I'd like to say,Quite a fan of yours.Brilliant job on the story,And I (Sorry for being greedy) hope to get to read more of these in the future.

I feel like a greedy bastard now,
Ninjahzzzz

[La Vallett1]

Monty Python reference? Do you mean the part when the CMC wanted to try out for Lumberjack cutie marks and Sweetie was looking forward to the Song?

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm ok
I sleep all night, I work all day!

He's a Lumberjack and he's ok
He sleeps all night, he works all day!

[Fervidor]

5034315

It's supposed to look like this:

[youtube=Your YouTube URL goes here.]

It's part of the formatting this site uses so even if it doesn't work for you for some reason, the rest of us should still be able to see it as long as the url and the tags are correct. If you can see the video links other users post, that means you are either doing something wrong or your Ipad is screwing with the url somehow.

[Greenhat]

Did I miss something, or did Fluttershy treating him like an animal never really get resolved?

[Isumo1489]

5035146

Yeah kinda, but I think if we put any of the Main 6 in the same situation, they'd have been treated the same as Spike. Looking back, that's how Fluttershy treats all her friends, even the animal ones. In her mind, there is no difference between the Pony ones and the non-pony ones save the Ponies can be frightening sometimes. So in that sense, I think it was more Spike looking at it the wrong way...heck I know I did until just now.

Still, overall a feel-good story and I'm ok with that.

[Professor Tacitus]

*Sniff I'm not crying! There are ninjas in my room cutting onions! It's the onions I tell ya!

[J-Russ]

FIMFiction needs more stories like this!

[Brony kaiju soldier]

5035215 It's alright let it out.

[Brony kaiju soldier]

You've really done a good job with the story I can't wait for a sequel.

[Professor Tacitus]

5035330 I won't cry, I won't cry, I won't- *Weeps uncontrollably

[Brony kaiju soldier]

5035344 It's ok it was a nice story and crying can help.

[Echo 27]

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this story much as it seemed to be a "woe is me" Spike story like so many we've seen, but you did an excellent job! Characterization was handled well, it maintained the light-hearted atmosphere the show possesses and you avoided cheese. A very nice job, sir.

[zanthimos]

So much feels! I need a hug now!

[Keepcalmandcupcakes]

The saddest thing is that we'll never see this made into the only ever good Spike episode like it rightly deserves so.

[Professor Tacitus]

5035676 *Gives hug. I know man! It hurts!

[Arctic Inferno]

The intense feels that ripple from this story pierce my soul with the intensity of a thousand suns.
I love it. I absolutely friggin' love it.

[Swashbucklist]

So that was indeed a Hot Fuzz reference. Good to know! Sure hope the Ponyville Neighborhood Watch Alliance doesn't decide to blow the place up.

Don't be so surprised that you took a more gratifying direction than some of us anticipated; being a Spike fan makes it hard to be optimistic most of the time. Tales that are sympathetic to the drawbacks in his very ambiguous existence are rarely so mature or well handled (probably because most top-ranking FiMfic authors seem to have a self-imposed mental block when it comes to focusing their creativity on him). The mane six apology scene has been done before, and the only one coming to mind that was executed so well was in "A True, True Friend?" by Blazewing. Are you sure you're not Imaginary Valued in disguise? *pokes at username, feels for a seam*

You even spent a few words dealing with this facet of his social life...

"Don't take too long growing up though, Spike. Don't you know? It's terrible to keep a lady waiting."

Though there's nothing wrong with it, I think Rarity had also best remind Spike that he should aim to grow into a good, capable person he likes, rather than someone he thinks she would like. If his maturation is marred by the goal of pleasing someone else, the former may not happen, which will definitely negate the latter, which could leave him emotionally and socially stunted, if only a little ... And extra points for breaking up the sentimentality of the group hug with a Dash of humor. For every awesome pegasus, there's a farmin' earth pony to keep her on task! Seems to be a trend, actually.

Thanks for writing this, Chumley! Fics like this—besides being good reads—make being a Spike fan much more tolerable, and this is one of the most appreciable I've ever read.

Really? C'mon guys, you know me better than that.

Unfortunately, we don't. You're not as popular as you should be.

[Emperor Of Nothing]

5035720

being a Spike fan makes it hard to be optimistic most of the time. Tales that are sympathetic to the drawbacks in his very ambiguous existence are rarely so mature or well handled (probably because most top-ranking FiMfic authors seem to have a self-imposed mental block when it comes to focusing their creativity on him).

You should check out The Descendant. He is the best author I know when it comes to writing Spike. (He's no slouch with the rest of the cast either)

[Professor Tacitus]

5035720 thereasonablelady.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/hotfuzzgreatergood.jpg

[Frankie2]

[Radoran]

5036020 A tear for our brother in the friend zone.

[The Letter J]

A good story, but I am disappointed that the CMC weren't involved more. After all, they clearly are friends with Spike and took it upon themselves to help him feel better, but he doesn't seem to realize that they're his friends too. It seems like he probably just sees them as friends of friends.

[Blood Brandy]

I like this. It didn't come off as all hate-y as a fair number of similar fics do, and it has a pretty good handle on most of the characters.

In addition to the other bits, I think it was said Twilight entered Celestia's school at a young age, which could mean she's the youngest, or close to it, of the six and closest to Spike's age. Just an FYI

[Black Hoof]

Very nice story here.
About Spike's friendship with AJ, we can also point out the episode with Appleoosa and the buffalos.
When the Mane 6 and Spike reunite after the train's separation, Spike shares a hug and nuzzling with the cowmare. That sure is a proof of solid friendship.

[Twi-Fi]

This was a great read. I really enjoyed this.

[Trash Boat]

Quality.

[ArcIsDead]

This was an awesome read. Sir, you have muddled nothing! If this is muddling a story then call me a muddler!

[sarkodine]

5035843
Shut it!!

[epicbronytime]

thats good enough to be an episode!!! i'l give it 11: raritywink's out of 10

[lazyreader19]

Jesus, I opened this tab, and meant to read it like, a day and a half ago. It was only two chapters in!
The minute I start reading it I see six! And then read through and it's complete! Holy smoses.

Anyways, thoroughly enjoyed the story! Thanks.

[Leoshi]

A single word I can use for this story is "wonderful." There were so many things done right that I genuinely looked forward to each new scene and development. In fact, the kinds of things I want to say would bloat this review, so I think I'll go for an audio version later on. All the same...wonderful. Simply wonderful.

[BlazzingInferno]

This was wonderful, simply put. There were grammar nits here and there, but nothing too distracting. Most important of all was the solid story and equally solid depiction of all the characters.

[Fugly Duckling]

It's already been said.
But this was wondeful

[Pyro The Reader]

5027643 What the heck dude, we don't need anymore melodramatic, cliched... things we have enough of em.

I like this story, it was pretty well written, well paced and the dialogue was actually very "life-like", a rare trait for sixty percent of fan fiction I've found.

I especially liked that it was centered around a "problem" I had found with Spike, not seeming to be fiends with the M6 except for uh, Twilight of course and it was actually resolved pretty well, except for Fluttershy, but I suppose I can overlook it.

Signed,
--Pyro The Impressed Reader

[Twi-Guy]

you may think it was bad but to me it kinda read like an actual episode.

[Lionblaze103]

I really don't like that ending. It was the same basic ending that every 'Spike gets ignored by the mane 6' fic ever. They even did this in the show, it's that unoriginal. At the very least you could have given more recognition to the CMC who took the day off of crusading when they saw that Spike was down in the dumps to find out what was bothering him and to try and fix it. To me they displayed more traits of being his friend than any of the others combined so just having them brushed off at the end when they played such an important part was a big mistake in my opinion.

[Night Music]

This picture sums up my thoughts for chapter 5

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Warning: NSFW