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// I Know She Isn't Perfect 
// Story: Spike's Poem Anthology to Twilight 
// by Zephyr Spark 
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He chained me to the wall and left me in darkness
He whipped my scales but I did not yield
He grabbed me by the throat and snarled
“Why hold out for her? She doesn’t love you slave. She didn’t invite you to her last birthday party, to Cloudsdale, or even to a gathering of friends. She never does anything for you. She’ll help her friends with their problems, but you? You are a problem to her. That’s why she always leaves you behind on adventures, why she never considers your feelings, and that’s why she hasn’t rushed to save you. Can she really be your friend, when she won’t ask Celestia who are your parents? You mean nothing to her.”


I raised my face and met his scowl with narrowed eyes 
I opened my mouth and
Drew up my courage to say 
“You think I don’t know? Yeah, she doesn’t always come through for me. When she adopted me, she was just a kid. How could anyone expect that she know how to mother or how to sister? Maybe she isn’t always there when I need her, but she comes through more often than not. Sure, she spends time with her friends and goes on adventures, but I’m the only one she trusts enough to watch over her home. Never considers my feelings? How often do we turn to consider the feelings of a passing stranger? Not often I would guess. Twilight does care about my feelings. I know because I care about hers, and I am who I am because of her, therefore she must care. Certainly she can lose herself in her studies. But studies never kept her from tucking me in at night, or feeding me gemstones, or teaching me. She told me over and over that I am no slave, but a friend. She does not lie. Yes, she can fall short. She never takes to solving the riddle of who I am, but how can she when threats like you exist? I am not the child of my parents, I am the child of Twilight’s magic, the child of her care. We both have flaws, we both fall short, but that doesn’t mean we have no love for each other. And if she isn’t here now, she soon will be.”
He smacks me with the whip, “Stubborn child.”
I stare through swollen eyes, “You mistake stubbornness with faith.”

A door breaks down, violet light flashes, in a second he’s crumpled to the ground, and I am freed from my chains.
She has me on her back, as a spell numbs my pain
She whispers in my ear, “I love you, Spike.”

My lips tremble but I do not struggle to reply 
I say, “I love you too.”