//------------------------------// // Dragon at The Door. // Story: Spike: Proof of Concept // by SoullessDCLXVI //------------------------------// Previously, on Spike: Proof of Concept: "What, exactly, is wrong with Spike?" The Princesses tone barely changed, to the casual observer there was no change at all. But Twilight could detect a certain level of coldness. Though that was not nearly enough to change Twilight's answers. "He's not eating, he rarely socializes and when he does he tries far too hard. A month ago he assaulted a psychiatrist simply for calling him a dragon. He also appears to be delusional, believing himself to be a pony. I'm quite worried." The smile returned to the eyes of the princess. ------- "He wasn't a hatchling, father! I swear it! In fact, I'm pretty sure he was a pony in a dragon costume. Why else would he willingly go with the ponies who grabbed him? Not to mention he refused to kill the phoenix!" "Did you say... ponies?" ------- "You have a month." "I'm... sorry Princess?" "If I don't have a satisfactory answer in a month, you will be. Do what you need to do, consult who you need to consult, but I want solid answers in exactly one month's time. Or you won't need to worry about.. well, anything." ------- It had been a year since Basil had begun tracking the strange infant that the ponies stole. It had been a difficult process, often taking to actually talking to the ponies. Basil didn't like talking to ponies, sure they were nice enough but one could only hear "Ah! Dragon! Run!" so many times before it grates. And then there were the guards and "hero" ponies. He almost wished they would run in fear too. But more often than not they tried to kill him. It was.... annoying. He had learned based off the descriptions of the child's captors that he was chasing after bearers of the elements of harmony. Some of the very mares that defeated both Nightmare Moon and Discord. He wished he could thank them, Discord's idea of a volcano was not fun at all. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were kidnappers. He hoped that they would see reason. They seemed amicable enough when they convinced him to leave the cave he was in just a year and a half ago, if a little odd. ------- When he opened the door the brilliant smile on his face that showed even through his pain was replaced by a scowl. And then he slammed the door shut. Spell Cast, having seen the large dragon, only managed to lift an eyebrow in response. She had heard things were active in Ponyville, but it hadn't even been six hours and already a massive dragon had politely knocked on the door. . ...She was going to like it here. . . . To say that Basil was surprised would be an understatement. Of all those that he could have expected to open the door, even subconsciously, an infant drake was not among them. Faust, even a gryphon would have been less out of place. And as if that wasn't enough of a shock, the infant appeared to be the same one he was trying to rescue. So why then did it slam the little door in his face? And how did it do that? And was it wearing a scowl? As far as Basil was concerned this day couldn't get much weirder. Hopefully the purple pony that won't shut up might get him some answers. ...Wait, how long has she been there? -||-||-||-||- Spike slammed the door on the evil monster that had actually dared to knock on the Element of Kindness' door. The scowl on his face quickly evaporating into an expression of abject fear once he realized what he had just done. And what he had just done it to. "Twilight! Help! There's a dragon!" "Spell Cast that doesn't sound like progress!" Twilight yelled back, her voice betraying an equal amount of fear to Spike's. "If anything that sounds like he's gotten worse!" Her voice was accompanied by the sound of her hooves on the thinly carpeted floor as she ran at a near gallop to where Spike and Spell Cast were standing. Spike was hyperventilating while Spell had her mouth hid behind hoof as she tried to stop giggling. The sight only enraged Twilight further. "What did you do?!" Spell couldn't hold it in any more, and rolled on to her back in a fit of laughter. "I... didn't... do... anything!" Spell Cast gasped out in between bouts of laughter. To her credit she appeared to be gaining control of herself once again. "He means... the dragon... outside. Just knocked on... the door." Her laughter finally died down. Spell breathed in a few deep breaths to steady herself and once again got back on her hooves. "What do you mean? Dragon outside?" "Look for yourself." Spell pointed to the front door, Twilight's gaze followed Spells hoof and Twilight didn't need to go outside to believe her. The large front windows full of red scales was proof enough. "That's... odd. Perhaps Fluttershy takes care of dragons as well?" Spike bristled at the unintended insult, but nopony noticed. "And it really wasn't that funny, Spell." "Actually, it was, you just didn't get to see your face." Twilight ignored her and made her way to the front of the cottage. There was a situation developing and Twilight could think of no better problem solver than herself. Though she'd be loathe to admit it out loud. Twilight opened the door and looked at the behemoth that nearly rivaled the cottage in size as it stood there, unmoving. A look of confusion plastered on his face, mirroring the rest of him in its motionlessness. "Excuse me, Mr Dragon, sir? Can I help you?" The dragon remained motionless. Its right claw hovering in the air as though it had been frozen mid knock. "Sir? You knocked on our door. Is there anything I can help you with?" Twilight's smile lost its authenticity. Not that it had much to start with. "Um... if you're here to see Fluttershy I'm afraid she's not in right now." Twilight waved a hoof briefly, thinking it might snap his attention. To her slight relief, it failed. She wasn't sure how safe a dragon snapping to attention so close to her could be. Looking closer at the dragon, a spark of familiarity lit her mind briefly. "Hey, have we met bef--" "How long have you been there, purple pony?" The dragon seemed genuinely confused. Which added to the surprise Twilight felt at his abrupt use of language and movement. "Um, my name is Twilight Sparkle. And I'd say five minutes or so?" "I.... apologize. I... was lost in thought." Twilight could relate, so she chose not to comment. "Well, as I've been saying. Can we help you? You did just knock on our door." Twilight briefly waved a hoof behind her, indicating said door. "Well, you see, a few years back a group of ponies stole a child from one of our camps..." Upon hearing this, Twilight became upset. What kind of awful ponies would stoop so low as to take some else's child from them? She vowed that if the dragon wasn't lying, she'd personally oversee the punishment of such wretched ponies. And while she wanted to communicate all this, all she could manage was a gasp of sympathetic horror. "...And my search for the youngling and his captors have lead me to this village." She lived with these ponies!? The nerve to live so close to the Elements of Harmony, even! Their punishment would be worse to make up for the shame Twilight felt at not discovering such criminals in her midst by herself. "I was told to look for the Elements of Harmony." Whoever informed this dragon knew their information, thought Twilight. A small smile of pride playing on her lips. "As they fit the description of the captors to a T. But it seems I'm not going to need to do all that. The first house I knock on has the child in it. What luck! Now, if you would be so kind, do claw over the child. He doesn't belong with you." Twilight's small smile disappeared, and a sound like electricity fizzling out could almost be heard were you close enough to her head as her mind blanked out momentarily. Her mind needed to be emptied quickly, for if it wasn't the tide of rage and indignation that soon followed would have broken her. Possibly putting her in a persistent vegetative state. "WHAT?!?!" She bellowed. At a volume that was halfway between Royal Canterlot Voice and Pinkie Pie with a megaphone. At such a distance Basil could consider himself lucky to have his draconic endurance. Otherwise his eardrums would have permanently ruptured. For a very brief moment Basil leaned away from the cottage and the white mare with flames for a mane while wearing an expression of shock and surprise before he quickly got over it and shouted back. "What do you mean, 'What?'. You have a kidnapped child in your possession and you dare?! I should slit your throat right here and now and take him home by force! Be thankful I bothered to ask nicely!" The mare before him, still on fire, bellowed back. Though thankfully her volume was reduced to normal levels for yelling from ponies. "IF a dragon child was kidnapped, it wasn't my Spike! I hatched him myself! I raised him myself! And you. You dare to accuse me and my friends of kidnapping?! While you bully your way through me and try to take my SON!" Twilight's voice and breathing calmed down. The flames that served as her mane had been moving wildly before. As though kicked into a constant frenzy by an unseen wind. The fiery mane changed from a red-orange to a scalding blue-white. Her eyes changed color and shape as well. While they had been of normal shape while blood red, they became purple and slitted. Her voice took on a menacing tone that while quiet, was far scarier than it had been seconds ago when nearly all of Ponyville could hear her. "I can take the accusations. I can even take the stupidity of making such accusations to my face. But I will not tolerate threats against my child. You get within 100 feet of Spike and I will ram a Rainbow so far up your ass you'll speak in colors for a year. You got that you little shit?" Growing up Basil had been warned about the protective instincts of ponies. Many horror stories were told about dragons that had hunted in the woods and accidentally harmed a foal. Or even struck up a simple conversation with a pony youngling. And the pain, misery, and fear that followed. A dragon named RazorWing was famous for living through such an event. To this day he bore scars not seen since ancient wars. His left wing was still unable to be fully extended as the flesh of the wing had been fused oddly. He told stories so horrifying that most dragons who had listened to it ran in fright at the sight of a foal. (This had actually been witnessed once by a guard of a town that neared the dragon borders. A dragon was hunting and the guard had been trying to negotiate with it to leave. He wasn't making much progress and the guard had started to sweat a little in fear. But when his son showed up to show off some art the dragon had actually screamed and flew away. No pony believes him.) This was why Basil was whimpering with his claws over his head as the white mare's colors returned to her. She seemed a little tired but Basil wasn't taking any chances. Trying to seem as small as he could he backed away slowly. Unfortunately his frame didn't allow for such movement. He couldn't stop bumping into stuff. "Hey, wait! Mr Dragon! I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, I just... okay, I meant it. But please. If a dragon's been kidnapped I'd love to help you find him. Just, don't threaten Spike again. Okay? He's all the family I have in this town." While Basil was confident that Twilight was protective of Spike. He still couldn't fathom a pony mothering a drake. Or caring this much for one. He still wasn't convinced Spike wasn't a kidnap victim, either. "Do you really mean it, Twilight?" Basil and Twilight looked at the source of the voice. Spike was poking his head out the door. "Mean what, Spike?" Twilight said. Her tone of voice far sweeter than it had been for hours. A smile on her face as she looked at her assistant. "Do you... do you really consider me your son?" Spike said with a hopeful tilt to his voice. Twilight looked like she had been hit. Shocked as she realized that, yes, she did indeed. It hadn't ever really occurred to her until someone had threatened to take him away. She didn't even realized she had said anything along those lines until afterwards. Had Spike not heard or brought it up she might've never truly come to terms with that feeling until much, much later. A tear made its way down her face as she drew Spike into a hug and whispered "Of course I do Spike. I love you." "I love you too.... mom." Basil looked on in confusion. Spell Cast smiled.