//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The argument // Story: Journey to the past // by Dianabel //------------------------------// Twilight was in her castle´s library at night. Normally, at a Friday´s night, she would go out with her friends because it was Guy´s night. However, since Spike wasn´t in the mood due to what happened a a few days ago, he decided to cancel it. She was truly worried about him. He has been really sad since that day. He didn´t feel like doing anything, and he was most of this free time in bed. Most of Twilight´s activity was destined to support Spike in those days. Right now, she was looking for Spike´s favourite book to cheer him up by reading it together. As a result, there was a huge pile of books on the floor. She couldn´t find it anywhere. “Where is it? Where is it?” she repeated in whispers to herself and throwing books to the pile. After a stressing time of searching, she finally found the book she wanted. “Here it is! Gusty the Great! Spike loved it so much when I read it to him as kids. He´ll feel better this way, I´m sure! ” “Or… we could play Ogers and Oubliettes with him.” another voice suggested. Twilight looked up and saw Discord flying beneath her. She jumped back, screaming and dropping the book. “Discord! What are you doing here? Don´t you know that Guy´s night is cancelled?” “I know.” Discord simply answered. “And that´s why I´m here: To find out! Big Mac´s here too, by the way.” Twilight took a quick glance at the window. She saw Big Mac outside the castle. He waved his hoof with an awkward smile on his face to say hello. She ignited her horn and transported him with her and Discord inside the castle. “Ok. Now that everypony´s here, spill out the tea. There must be a reason why we can´t play Ogers and Oubliettes!” said Discord. Big Mac rolled his eyes, smirking to himself, as he knew that Discord was more worried about Spike than the game. He just didn´t want to show he cares, as always. “What Discord is trying to say is that we want to talk to Spike.” he explained kindly. Twilight sighed. “Maybe you do a better job at cheering him up. Come with me.” Twilight led them to Spike´s room. "Although I didn´t expect you to come, I´m really grateful. Spike´s not in his best moments. He´s been very sad and depressed for days." Discord and Big Mac widened their eyes. "Really? What happened?" asked Big Mac. "If you´re lucky enough, perhaps Spike could tell you." Twilight responded as they got to Spike´s door. She knocked at the door. “Spike?” Spike replied by growling. “Umm, Spike. Big Mac and Discord are here. Wanna let them in?” “I´m fine, really.” But the pain in his voice claimed otherwise. Twilight and Big Mac looked at each other, not so sure what to do. Discord, on the contrary, took initiative. “We both know perfectly that you´re lying. Come on, let us in!” There was a brief silence. The two ponies and draconequus waited anxiously for the dragon´s response. Finally, after a small time of tension, there was an answer. “Fine. Come on in.” Twilight opened the door. When they entered, they saw Spike lying on the bed with a pillow on his head. Big Mac and Discord exchanged worried looks. Twilight approached Spike. “Hey…” she muttered. “Hey..” Spike responded equally. “What happened?” asked Big Mac concerned. “It´s nothing, really.” Spike lied. “Are you sure about that?” Discord asked while raising an eyebrow in suspicion. Then, he scoffed “You are a worse liar than AJ, no offense.” he said with a smirk. Spike glared at Discord. “I don´t want to talk about it.” he told him. “But seeing that you guys came all the way to see me...” Spike sighed. "I guess I´ll have to tell you." Without thinking it twice, Discord snapped his fingers. He changed Spike´s room´s appearance to a psychologist’s office, with Spike being lain on the couch and Twilight, Big Mac, and the draconequus being the psychologists. “Now, tell us everything you feel.” he said as he adjusted his glasses. “Discord!” exclaimed Spike, who was annoyed at his friend´s action. Twilight and Big Mac were also glaring at the draconequus. “Not like this!” “Ok…” he agreed stubbornly. He snapped his fingers and Spike´s room came back to normality. “How eager I was to show off my new gown…” he mumbled annoyed. Despite that, he raised his ears with a smile on his face to listen carefully to his friend. Spike breathed in and out before talking. “Today I was supposed to meet Smolder after school but it turned out she couldn´t. Why? You may wonder. Because that day was Dragon´s Father´s day.” Big Mac bit his lip. Discord´s eagerness dropped when he realized what the issue was about. "Ooooh nooo.... What did I get myself into?" he whispered in frustration. “It made me think: how would my life have been if I had been with my parents? I love my pony family but... I also love my biological parents, even though they´ve never been with me. I would give anything to meet them. Or at least tell me why they aren´t with me.” Big Mac trotted towards Spike´s bed. He put a hoof on Spike´s shoulder. “You know?” Big Mac interjected. “I kinda know how you feel. I also miss my ma and pa. They were the best parents in the world and loved each other completely. Even though they´re not here physically, I´m sure they´re watching us somewhere. My sisters and I think their souls are together in the trees they planted, where Sugar Belle and I married.” Spike put his arms around his knees and turned his back on Big Mac. “But at least you got to know them.” he responded muttering. Big Mac scratched the back of his neck. He turned his head to Discord, asking him for help with his look. Discord nervously snapped his fingers. After the flash , he was wearing a red jacket, a yellow shirt with a brown bow tie, a pair of glasses and grey pants. In his lion paw, he was carring a dark green umbrella and took out a pocket watch with his eagle claw. "Oh! Have you seen the hour? It´s so late! I must head out right now!" Twiligth stomped a hoof in front of Discord, blocking his way out. She pointed Spike with her hoof, telling him without any words to say something to the depressed dragon. "Need I to remind you this was your own idea?" said Big Mac to Discord. The draconequus rolled his eyes. "Fine! I´ll stay!" he reluctantly decided, as he made his outfit disappear. He approached Spike´s bed and sat on it. “Look Spike, I´m going to be honest with you: I wouldn´t be worried about this, if I were you. In fact, you´re really lucky. It´s much better not having parents.” said Discord. “Discord!” Twilight scolded him. “What? I´m just telling the truth! The only things that parents do is underestimate you, insult you and yell at you when don´t do things the way they want. They´re just losers who use their children to succeed in the things they failed before. It´s better to be on your own.” “Discord stop it!” begged Twilight. He was going to follow listing harmful things that parents do, but stopped when he saw Spike. The poor dragon was in the brink of tears. Discord bit his lip. He didn´t mean to make him feel worse. “But of course… Not all parents are like that! I mean, look at Big Mac´s parents! What I´m saying is that you don´t need to know your real parents only to discover the bitter truth that they didn´t love you.” Discord covered his mouth. He saw Twilight and Big Mac glaring at him. He facehoofed at his stupidity. “I´m only making things worse, am I?” “Well, duh!” Twilight said. “We get it, Discord, you have parent issues!” Spike snapped. Discord gave out a small gasp. He frowned. “Listen here, you ungrateful lizard. Be grateful that you have a family that loves you instead of looking for one who might have never cared about you!” “I AM A DRAGON!” yelled Spike as he opened his wings to fly higher than Discord. “Treat me like one! And don´t talk of my parents like that!” “Ok. Spike. Discord. Stop it you two.” Twilight took the two with her magic and separated them to prevent them from fighting. “Stay out of this, Twilight. I can´t let him to keep insulting my parents like that.” “Come on Spike. You know how Discord is like. He didn´t mean to say that.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “Or at least he didn´t have a bad intention. Still, just ignore him.“ said Twilight to lessen the tension. “Stop patronizing it, Twilight! I´m fed up with all of this. From the day I first interacted with a dragon, I´ve been laughed at, underestimated, and conned by them only because I lived with ponies. And now I am told that this is because my parents never loved me?” “I..” “If I had been raised by my real parents, I would have turned out to tough and rough and no creature would have ever treated me this way! But since I´ve been raised by ponies, I´m not taken seriously!” “That´s not true, Spike.” denied Twilight, very hurt by Spike´s comment, which minimized Twilight´s work of raising up her little dragon. “Not true, huh? It´s taken you years to consider me a little brother! Have I only been a servant to you before you did?” Twilight gasped. From the shock, her horn stopped glowing, dropping Spike and Discord in the process. Spike stood up and turned his back on Twilight. She looked at Big Mac and Discord. “Could you leave us alone for a few minutes?” she asked them. The two friends nodded and disappeared in a finger snap. Once they were gone, Twilight approached Spike. “Did you really think that ? All this time?” “OF COURSE I HAVE! Can´t believe the you realize this now. So much for the princess of friendship.” Twilight was in the border of tears. But before she burst out crying, she maintained her posture. “Spike… I- I didn´t know you felt this way. I´m sorry.” Spike scoffed. “As if that would fix my feelings instantly.” “I´m trying to apologize! What do you want me to do?” asked Twilight, desperate and starting to get a little angry. Spike had a lot on his mind right now. So many emotions, so many thoughts mixed up I his head. He needed to clear his mind. “I don´t know. Just… leave me alone.” Spike tried to push Twilight out of his room, but she stood still, which made the task a little more difficult. “No, no, Spike, it was never my intention to hurt you and I´m so sorry you felt that way. But I want you to know that I´ve always loved you.” she said while Spike was sitting on his bed and hugging his knees “Leave. Me. Alone. Please.” begged Spike angrily as his eyes met with Twilight´s. Twilight´s eyes widened. She couldn´t resist her urge to cry anymore. Just like Spike, she needed to let her emotions go. Tears streamed down her face as she talked. “Fine! You can think whatever you want! But raising you up hasn´t been easy either. I never judged you when you started exploring your dragon side and I´ve been nothing but supportive.” she sniffed. “I spent whole nights searching about dragon culture, trying to help you to reconcile with yourself. And every time I didn´t find anything, guilt would eat my heart. You´re no the only one who suffers because of this, you know?” she sobbed. “And now seeing you victimizing yourself... Makes it feel that all this guilt was only for a selfish dragon!" Her last words ripped off Spike´s heart. Now, his eyes were full of tears. He turned his head to Twilight. “I hate you!” he yelled. But then he quickly covered his mouth when he saw his sister´s face. There she stood, tears streaming down her face and falling to the ground. She lowered her head. None of them said a word for some time. Spike tried to approach her. “Twilight…” “Go away…” she replied softly. “But-” “I said GO AWAY!” she answered yelling. “Don´t bother to come with us tomorrow. I should have never taken you out of your egg!” Those words hurt Spike more than the ones from before. He had the urge to yell but he was too tired to keep on fighting. He just wanted to end it. “Fine!” he said. “I would have been much better without you!”. “If you are so fine without me, then go away! I never want to see you again!” Twilight closed Spike´s door abruptly. He stared at the door for some time, trying to digest those hurtful words. Of course she wasn´t serious when she said that! But once again, she underestimated him. “Like always Twilight, you don´t know what I´m capable of. You never do.” It was midnight. Everypony was asleep except for Spike. He was awake, preparing to set out. He had packaged all his things in a handkerchief and tied to a stick. He decided to leave the castle forever. But before he did, he needed to make sure Twilight wasn´t awake. He opened his bedroom´s door slowly and flew towards Twilight´s room, trying to make the least noise as possible. Once he found her door, he looked through the small space the door had left open. There she was. Sleeping on her bed. As she was towards the window, he couldn´t see her face. When he saw her, he started to consider if this was really a good idea. “This could hurt her.” the voice in his mind warned him. But he refuted its arguments with other thoughts. “Bah! She doesn´t want you here. She never has. Why else would she have said that?” He dried some tears from his eyes and flew to the castle´s gates. He opened them and looked back to the castle´s corridor. “Goodbye Twilight. I hope you do well. I really do.” And he flew away.