Today was an exciting day for one baby dragon as he skipped happily alongside his adopted sister figure and best friend in the world, Twilight Sparkle - the two set on a clear path to a cozy, remote cottage just outside of Ponyville.
Spike couldn't have pictured a more perfect day; the sun was shining warmly upon the creatures of the ground, the birds were singing their enchanted songs of melody and contentment, even the cool breeze that accompanied the weather seemed to express a feeling of joy as the calm sways of the trees danced ever so fluidly. Today was the day of the Dragon Migration - an event that only happened once a generation according to the studious unicorn accompanying him. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in which dragons of all shapes and sizes flew across the graceful skies of Equestria, returning back home to their families and offspring in the fabled Dragonlands. Everypony was excited as this was perhaps the only chance ponies could ever witness dragons without fear of being attacked, or worse, eaten - these rare creatures being studied and watched with awe and fascination by all from a safe distance.
For Spike however, this event held much more personal significance. This was an opportunity to see other creatures just like him for the first time. Being the only dragon residing in Equestria after his abandoned egg was discovered by students of Princess Celestia herself, Spike never really got to know much of his own kind - seeing as ponies were clueless on the topics of Draconian biology and culture.
But today was different; today he would get to see who he was, who he would become, what mysteries and secrets he possessed that no other Equine could. Today, Spike reasoned he'd gain some answers on who he really is, making him all the more excited to witness such an important moment of his young life alongside his best friends. After all, he may be a dragon, but these ponies were his family and no matter how he grew or where he went, he wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.
Especially the lavender unicorn who was waving her hoof frantically in front of the distracted drake's point of view.
"Spike?! Hello?! Are you listening?!" waved a frantically concerned mare.
Spike, finally snapping out of his blissful daydreams, rose in attention to the beloved pony who he could call his guardian. "Wha-- Oh. Heh. Sorry, I'm just excited!" Spike chuckled rather bashfully as he took his eyes away from the unicorn.
Twilight could only chuckle upon seeing her brother's embarrassment. "I know you are, Spike. I am too. This is going to be great. Though.." she trailed off as the two were slowly approaching their destination of the cottage - said to house many different animals under one shy and kind pegasus.
"...I need to get Fluttershy out before we can get going. I heard she and Rainbow have been fighting all morning."
Upon the unicorn's statement, the two quickly jumped at the sudden Bang that originated from their mentioned destination. After the loud noise had settled, the two could hear frantic pleading and begging coming from what sounded exactly like their cocky, tomboyish daredevil pegasus friend, Rainbow Dash. Twilight gulped nervously as several smaller Thud's and Crashes could be heard - some animals even scattering out the windows of the cottage as they heard another voice chorusing a bunch of "No"'s in response.
A confused Spike could only look up at Twilight as he questioned, "Why does Fluttershy not want to go?"
Twilight could only look at her brother as she shook her head, not knowing the answer herself.
"I'm not sure, but I think Rainbow may need some help." she admitted as the two could hear several more Clatters throughout the cottage.
"Why don't I go and help while you stay here for a minute?" she asked, the dragon silently nodding his head with a relaxed smile on his face as he sat over the small bridge that was part of Fluttershy's yard. The unicorn quickly galloped to the front door.
As Spike sat there staring at the water, he thought "I can't wait to see the dragons with my friends...my family. Maybe we could all do a migration together one day..." as he sighed rather happily.
Spike had let his mind wander again after a few moments, thoughts of him finally receiving answers on his heritage and being alongside the rest of his loved ones finally understanding and accepting him for who he was. It was a dream come true for the baby dragon and he wouldn't wish for anything other than to share this memory with the 6 best ponies he ever met. This time, they would be there for him, not like...
"Not like those sleepovers, or the Best Young Fliers Competition, or the Great Galloping Gala, or...Twilight's birthday..." Spike's smile slowly dissolved into a downcast frown as he stared at his reflection in the water - realizing there were several times in the past where the Elements either left him to his own devices or simply had not invited him to their gatherings. "Am I even important to them?" he pondered rather sadly.
But then Spike rose up from his sitting spot and turned his frown into a confident smile as he placed a small claw over his heart.
"No. Not this time, Everypony will be there for me. They wouldn't..."
However, his thoughts ended abruptly as he heard rather large shouts coming from the usually quiet pegasus's cottage. Curious as to what was taking them so long (and more importantly what was going on), Spike tiptoed ever so closer as he ducked down into a nearby bush, able to hear the conversations continuing without fear of being noticed by the others.
He saw Fluttershy clinging to the frames of the front door as a rather frustrated Rainbow Dash was physically trying to force the butterscotch pony outside her home, a concerned Twilight trying to reason with the scaredy-pony as calmly as she could, trying not to add to the stress the rainbow-maned pony was placing on her.
"C'mon, Fluttershy, it'll be fun!" Twilight tried reasoning.
However Fluttershy was not moved as she used her hooves to grip to the door with a strength nopony knew she was capable of.
"There's nothing fun about dragons! Scary, yes! Fun, no!" Fluttershy exhaled as she constantly felt the pressure of Rainbow's relentless pushing and prodding on her backside.
As Spike saw and heard this from his viewpoint, he blinked his eyes in startlement and confusion as a small painful frown etched on his lips.
"But... I'm a dragon." he thought.
"But Fluttershy..." Twilight continued her mental prodding, "...the great dragon migration happens only once in a generation! Do you really wanna pass up a chance like that?"
"Do you want to pass up on helping me?" Spike dejectedly thought as a small pain began building up inside his small stomach.
"Now that you put it that way, yes!"
Spike couldn't help but wince and shutter upon hearing the pegasus's bold confirmation. He had never heard the shy pony exclaim her thoughts so loudly and vividly before. She was so determined to not go and see other dragons, to not join her friends...
"To not be with me..." he thought as tears slowly built up in his eyes.
"Aw, Fluttershy..." Twilight softly cooed in a manner similar to a mother speaking to a frightened child, "... We just don't want you to miss out."
"Miss out on what? Dragons? Big, scaly, fire-breathing dragons?" Fluttershy screamed, Rainbow continuing to attempt to remove her from the corners of her entrance.
"Well... yeah!" Twilight thought before proudly declaring to her friend.
"Thanks, but... no thanks!" Fluttershy retaliated right back, no fear or hesitation in her voice, which only served to draw Spike's conclusion home as he finally shed a few tears.
She REALLY didn't want to go be with his kind.
With him.
Finally the brash and rather hot-headed pegasus decided to speak her mind as she scowled behind her stubborn best friend still clinging to the door.
"Look, Fluttershy, I watched that boring butterfly migration with you, so now it's your turn to watch the dragon migration with me! You owe me!"
"For HER?!" Spike thought bitterly.
What Fluttershy did next however surprised everypony and dragon who had watched the previous scene with their very own eyes. With a loud, hearty, "NO!" the butterfly cutie-marked pegasus managed to release herself from Rainbow's grasp before tackling the shocked daredevil on her stomach and fleeing headfirst to a side window of her cottage. Ok, so maybe she slowly stopped to carefully open the window before jumping out, but once she had jumped out of the small opening she fled with an impressive burst of speed that not even a Sonic Rainboom would be able to catch, leaving the two ponies utterly speechless as to what they had just witnessed.
"All this because of me. I thought she was my friend, but she just... because of dragons... like me."
Spike sighed as he slowly peeked out from the bush he was hiding in and quickly returned to the part of the bridge where Twilight had left him. Despite his now rather depressed state, he didn't want her to find out he had been eavesdropping on them; Twilight always told him that respecting privacy was a big part of friendship after all.
"But, is this really friendship? Fluttershy. I thought she liked me like the others but..." he pondered before his thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of two ponies approaching him.
"Man, I'm going to feel that for the next week..." Spike could hear Rainbow mutter as Twilight looked over at her friend with a sympathetic smile.
As the two got to the bridge, they soon found the dragon in question sitting silently in the exact same position as he was found before. He quickly put on a brave face to hide any of the thoughts or feelings he had in regard to their supposed "private" affair.
"Sorry about that Spike..." Twilight apologized as she walked over to her little dragon brother, "...things took a bit longer than expected. Fluttershy had some...errands she couldn't afford to skip." Twilight reasoned, hoping to hide the slight pause in her voice as Rainbow also looked at the dragon with a sort of sheepishness.
But even if Spike hadn't overheard the previous charade, he knew Twilight long enough to know when she was hiding something - the slight pause in her explanation hadn't failed to go noticed by the dragon.
"It's...it's fine." Spike quickly tried to reassure the two mares with a somewhat forced grin of his own, pretending he hadn't recognized the obvious lie or the hesitation on their faces.
The truth was that he had one less pony in his life than he had thought. A pony he thought would be there for him vanished because of his supposed family roots.
"So what does that say about me?"
"Let's go get the others." he quickly proclaimed, jaunting off the bridge before seeing the other two follow closely behind.
"At least you're here." he muttered quietly, one last tear drop fell from his eye before anypony could notice.
The Dragon Migration and the events that followed were certainly not forgotten by anyone. After a successful and quite fascinating view of the dragons breezing with ease through the skies of Ponyville, the gang of Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and even Rarity in her alluring but very shiny outfit all sat back and reminisced about the perfect afternoon.
The events afterwards were a different story.
It all started with the others pointing out (basically teasing in Rainbow's case) how Spike didn't "act" like other dragons. Spike personally took this very hard as his efforts to find himself with the love and support of his pony family felt like they were in vain.
So a fed up Spike decided he needed to discover who he was on his own.
After convincing Twilight, Rarity, and surprisingly a equally concerned Rainbow Dash, Spike ventured out to the fabled dragonlands on his own (with the three equines closely behind of course).
What Spike ended up discovering was that he didn't need to be and feel with other dragons, he needed to be himself. Sure, it may have taken the baby dragon a while to discover this - but after flopping into a pool of lava, climbing a rock hill, and possibly a few stolen phoenix eggs in the mix, Spike came to realize that he could be his own dragon and grow the way he wanted to.
Well that's what he thought at least as he and his trio of pony pursuers ran from the teenage dragons Spike had desperately tried to appease on his quest. Hopefully he never had to see them and their brutish antics ever again.
After that eventful evening, when Spike and the others were safe back at the library, Rainbow and Rarity had decided to call it a night, which Twilight and Spike eagerly agreed to having realized their sudden exhaustion from the conclusion of the Dragonland adventure.
After a series of pony hugs, "welcome back's", and even a sincere apology from the athletic pegasus for making fun of him and his apron, Spike quickly approached his beloved basket bed as he felt all his worries and stress vanished when his head hit the fluffy pillow.
Twilight quickly followed right behind him, having settled into her bed with a sigh of relief herself before looking her brother below her with a warm smile.
"I'm glad you're back." Twilight said, sleepiness gradually taking over.
"Me too. I missed you." Spike affirmed with an appreciative grin before yawning as he felt he could doze off instantly.
Twilight yawned in response before muttering back, "We should do something with the others tomorrow now that you're home."
That statement alone had halted any drowsiness the dragon previously possessed as he suddenly remembered an important event that had slipped his mind during the supposed quest. The others. Fluttershy.
"Miss out on what? Dragons? Big, scaly, fire-breathing dragons?"
The quote from the aforementioned pegasus currently replayed in the dragon's mind as he slowly turned away from Twilight's gaze to hide any sort of reaction he may well have.
"Yeah...maybe." Spike whispered, before uttering one last phrase "Good night Twilight."
"Good night Spike." he heard back before silence met the pair for what felt like an eternity before the drake could hear the sounds of light snoring coming from the unicorn.
However, Spike had not fallen asleep quite as easily as his mind seemed to torment him with countless thoughts running through his head.
"Fluttershy's my friend...and she cares for me...right?
After all, Spike had remembered the very first day he and Twilight came to Ponyville (Of course, it was originally a setup by Celestia to have Twilight check on the planning for the Summer Sun Celebration and unknown to them, eventually defeat Nightmare Moon and free Princess Luna). He remembered the day he met 5 special ponies who would become a very important part in his life. Although they seemed to regard him with very little interest outside of grouping him with Twilight, there was one pony who truly thought he was special:
"A baby dragon! Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before. He's sooo cute!"
"Well, well, well...!" he was surprised at the time to see someone who displayed such interest in him. Back in Canterlot, he was either seen as a walking, talking pet owned by Twilight, or a freak of nature that shouldn't be in Equestria. Even further back, thoughts of ponies screaming in terror at him and bullies constantly harassing him made him wince in memory.
Needless to say, he greatly appreciated the friendly mare in front of him.
"Oh my, he talks. I didn't know dragons could talk. That's just so incredibly wonderful I, I just don't even know what to say!" she had spoken in great awe and utter fascination.
"Well, in that case we'd better be going!" huffed an angry Twilight, clearly frustrated at having been thrown into the bushes by a quiet, yet insistent pegasus.
"Wait, wait! What's his name?" she had curiously asked.
Spike, having positive attention sent his way couldn't help but beam at the pegasus following him.
Maybe he could make a friend even if Twilight didn't.
"I'm Spike" he had said.
"Hi Spike, I'm Fluttershy. Wow, a talking dragon! And what do dragons talk about?"
"Well, what do you wanna know?" he asked as he smiled appreciatively at the beautiful mare he was looking at. While he didn't find her as beautiful as Rarity, Fluttershy, in his opinion would always be second.
"Absolutely everything" she had said.
And with that, Spike and Fluttershy had talked the whole trek back to the library in Ponyville, much to Twilight's visible annoyance. Spike couldn't explain it, but he felt close to Fluttershy that day - she had taken a loving interest in him and he very well thought they could be best friends as he and her chatted back and forth, never finding awkward pauses in their conversation. Spike even remembered Fluttershy trying to coddle him and put him to bed before Twilight snagged him back; he had thought it was weird at the time, but looking back at that moment, he couldn't help but smile.
But as soon as the memory ended, his smile faded away back to deep contemplation on his part. "What's happened since then?"
Despite the fact that Spike had been left out of the gang's activities multiple times in the past, he could still remember times when he had spent time with each of the ponies individually. Times in which they proved they were friends with not just Twilight, but him specifically.
He had helped Applejack at the farm before and she had always appreciated his hard work (even having him over for dinner with the family on multiple occassions), He has been there for Rarity on multiple occassions and she always appreciated his company (whether or not she was familiar with his feelings for her. Though that moment they were plummeting towards their doom after his growth spurt suggested she did), He and Rainbow had pranked Twilight and the others numerous times and they were always there to laugh with each other, He even had been a co-host with Pinkie Pie for the "Running of the Leaves" competition and he had a blast with the party pony (she even made cupcakes with sapphires just for him which he loved),
and Fluttershy....
Spike paused at this statement for the longest time. As he kept trying to think of examples, he realized he never actually spent any quality time with the Element of Kindness outside of their first encounter. But there had to be something.....right?
Well there was that time he had helped Fluttershy with waking up the animals for Winter Wrap Up?
But he was with Twilight and she had paid him no mind, except for when he saw her laughing with the others when he had fallen asleep and almost drowned in the middle of a thawing lake.
She gave him a birthday present and even happily attended his birthday party. Yeah, that was pretty great!
Except....
He remembered after the party, when he in his greed-obsessed growth spurt had stormed towards her place and stolen her chicken coop. Despite his memories from that experience being particularly foggy, he could still vividly remember her screams of pure terror as she skyrocketed away from him. Unbeknownst to Twilight or the others though, Fluttershy has screamed a particularly awful thing in her flight.
"MONSTER!"
Even though Spike knew Fluttershy had no idea it was him, the words didn't hurt any less. If he ever grew to become an adult dragon permanently one day, would she still run in terror and call him a beast? Would she ever see him for who he was, or just simply what he was.
Needless to say, the birthday was soiled by a memory that chilled him to the core.
Other than that, the only thing he could think of was him watching over Angel and her other animals while the six ponies stopped...the dragon....at the peak of Ponyville. They had fought against a being of his own kind while he played babysitter for the one who was afraid, yet silenced the dragon. A dragon like he could be.
Spike suddenly felt sick to his stomach as he realized he had no positive memories of Fluttershy after his first day in Ponyville. The others all took the occassional time to spend with him and while he preferred it to happen more often, it was better than nothing.
With Fluttershy, he had nothing. She wouldn't even attend an important moment in his life.
He was simply a tool with which she could pour a chore or two onto before leaving his presence. He was simply a creature for which she feared.
True, she did have a point - as Spike would never want to grow like those jerks he and his friends encountered in the Dragonlands. But what if he grew afterwards? What if he had become someone with which she could only associate fear?
Would it even matter what was in his heart if he was a big, booming reptile?
Spike finally started to silently sob as he realized Fluttershy's true meaning to him. She wasn't his friend, she wasn't someone he could rely on. She originally saw a new interesting creature with which she could study before she realized what his potential could be. She never cared for him, she cared about it. What she had originally seen as a new animal was now....
"There's nothing fun about dragons! Scary, yes! Fun, no!"
Tears quickly filled Spike's vision as he turned his head over to smoosh it with his pillow before any tears or wailing could wake up the sleeping form next to him. He sobbed profusely, yet silently throughout the night before he eventually collapsed with exhaustion as the night placated a dark, empty aura.
A monster. Spike was a monster.