Just to clarify, I have my own theory on the way dragon’s age. My belief is that Twilight was around five or six when she hatched Spike, therefore he is fifteen now, and the mane six are in their early twenties by fan speculations. But however, dragons may age slower than ponies, so those teenagers in episode 21 of season 2 could have been thirty for all I know. So pretty much, I just wanted to clarify his age and how I refuse to believe this paring is odd because of it… besides, 5 years isn’t that much if he was twenty five and she was thirty… now that that boring story is out of the way… this story is pretty much a combination of motherly Twilight/Sparity romance, mostly the second one.
With my ramblings out of the way, I hereby declare ONWARD TO THE SPARITY!
-----------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys.
-----------------------------------------------------
“You mean more to me than I let on. I just pray you’ll someday understand that.”
-----------------------------------------------------
A Dragon’s Tale
Chapter 1: The Note
The scratching’s of a quill on a piece of parchment is what kept Twilight Sparkle’s dreary eyes wide open. The owl sitting in the windowsill gave out a hoot into the nighttime sky. As the purple unicorn examined her notes, she sighed out and rubbed her tired eyes wearily with her hoof, desperately trying to stay awake for just a few more moments, if anything just to get these notes on advanced magic spells written for study purposes.
She opened her mouth and let out a large yawn, the snoring of a certain purple dragon from upstairs seemingly tempting her to go to her own bed so her own snores could mix with his. However she shook off the thought, putting sleep in the back of her mind as her quill glowed in a purple light, moving on its own to form words on the piece of parchment.
“For invisibility, mix a freshly made cloud, twelve ounces of morning dew, a rainbow’s colors…” She mumbled off, the quill forming her words. The more she learned about magic each and every day, the more she realized just how little she knew. It was amazing to her, learning new things every day as both her magic and knowledge grew; it all seemed like magic in itself to her.
As she smiled weakly, scribbling down neatly on how exactly to levitate objects using the air around her, she heard the sound of a rather large burp and saw a flash of green light from upstairs from under the crack at the bottom of her bedroom door. She could hear the groaning of a dragon that had been awoken from his sleep come from upstairs.
The unicorn dropped her quill down, gently of course, and trotted gently upstairs and into her bedroom. When she saw Spike, groaning at his now aching belly from the unexpected awakening, she rolled her eyes at his half-fake whimpering as he picked up the letter and rubbed his eyes “What does the princess want this late?” He whined.
Twilight trotted forward and the dragon didn’t protest when the letter was yanked from his hands. “Go back to sleep Spike,” Twilight said gently as not to irritate her number one assistant's head from his sudden awakening “I’ll see what the princess wants, you get your rest.”
Without another word spoken between them, Spike flopped onto his back and was asleep again within seconds. Twilight once again rolled her eyes and used her magic to force his feet back onto his tiny basket-bed, she really needed to look into buying something a little bigger, and she tucked him under the covers, letting out a small smile when his face grinned from how comfortable he was.
It had been two long years since they moved into this old tree-library, but if you asked Twilight, it had been a lifetime with all the fun and adventures she had with her friends. Spike on the other hand had clearly changed. Now instead of being a good foot and a half shorter than Twilight, he could look her in the eye and even stood a full three inches taller than her if he wasn’t slouching, which he usually was from how tired he was all the time. His back had sprouted wings in the previous month, they had started out small any puny, but it turns out dragon wings grew quite fast and they had already grown enough for him to fly for a short distance, and after many flying lessons with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, he had managed to keep himself afloat for more than three seconds at a time.
His fingers now had long, sharp claws that he learned he had to pay attention to, for he had accidently scratched Twilight on a number of occasions. His own teeth had gone from flat to sharp as a full grown dragon’s scale, luckily it seemed dragon tongues were teeth proof the same way dragons themselves were fire proof.
After Twilight’s hooves slowly clicked down the stairs near candlelight so she could read the letter, she used her magic so slowly unravel the letter. She blinked several times as she waited for her eyes to adjust enough to read the letter in the dark light.
“To my dearest pupil, Twilight Sparkle…” Twilight mumbled, her belly fluttering a little in joy about her greatest idol writing to her specially “It has been brought to my attention that…” The purple unicorn trailed off, her eyes scanning the parchment of paper. She paused, her fluttering tummy suddenly knotting tight as her eyes quickly rescanned the letter.
The unicorn fell on her haunches with her mouth slightly open as she stared off into space. Her mouth was dry, her eyes were wide and she couldn’t find the words, or any that she thought of simply became lost somewhere in her throat.
“S-S-Spike i-is…” was all she could get out before glancing down and ordering herself to close her mouth. Her cheeks suddenly felt wet and she wiped her face to see what was causing it, whatever it was it kept reappearing to her face the second she wiped it away.
She was crying… and she was too numb to even realize it…
-----------------------------------------------------
Twilight groaned as water splashed into her face, her mane soaking wet and plastered to her face. She found herself grumbling and stamping her hooves angrily on the ground, causing the ground to vibrate slightly underneath her hooves.
A small hiccup was heard as the unicorn gasped and ducked her head as quickly as she could to avoid the ball of green fire hurling toward her face. The fire shot up and hit a nearby tree, one of the branches catching fire and falling to the ground, luckily going out in midair.
Twilight Sparkle found herself growling into the small, wooden barrel filled halfway to the brim with soap and water, she could barely look over it she was too short. And inside, a tiny purple baby dragon, whose eyes suddenly watered and he lifted his tail to suckle on the tip, avoiding eye contact with the unicorn.
The young unicorn rolled her eyes and focused her magic enough to yank the tail out of the dragon’s mouth “You have to stop doing that, it’ll become a habit if you constantly suck on your tail.” She said in a manner that seemed to stop the watering eyes of the baby dragon.
She had been forced to bath him outside, Celestia told her as part of her magic training, and for part of growing up, she was to look after the baby dragon she herself had hatched. She reached down and gently nuzzled the soft spines on the dragons head to show she wasn’t angry, and he lowered his tail and sat in the makeshift-tub calmly.
The unicorn closed her eyes and focused her magic, when she opened them, the small bottle of soap and a large sponge had risen into the air, glowing purple, the same as her horn. She smiled and watched as the two items began to bathe the baby dragon; the dragon who couldn’t even talk yet began giggling as the sponge rubbed against his head.
Twilight began hopping up and down, squeaking in slight joy at her success.
The baby dragon looked into her eyes, and began to suckle on his tail once again.
-----------------------------------------------------
Spike slowly opened his eyes, looking around before grumbling and curling up tighter, covering his head with his blanket as the sunlight beat down on his eyelids, wanting him to wake up. He grumbled under his breath and smacked his lips to attempt to rid himself of the dryness of his throat.
It was a nice dream he had… he wanted to go back, he felt like he was happy, having fun… and Twilight was there with him… a memory maybe?
The dragon suddenly shot straight up, his gaze shooting straight to the window as he spotted the sunlight. “Twilight…” He said, imagining the punishment he would receive for not waking up early enough.
Spike threw the blanket off of himself and suddenly ran out the door, remembering to keep his wings pressed to his back to avoid them slamming into the door frame. As he jumped the last four steps down to the floor, the ground rumbling slightly, he huffed out air “T-Twilight, I’m sorry I overslept, what do you need for breakfast, eggs? Muffins? Or how about some nice daisy salad?” He called out, only to stop talking as his unicorn caretaker was bent over on her writing stand, her quill moving furiously on the parchment of paper.
She didn’t seem to notice him… how could she have NOT noticed him, he had come down the stairs loud enough to wake up Rainbow Dash in her cloud house over a mile away. He walked up to behind the unicorn and slouched down some to read the letter, squinting his eyes “Dear Princess Celestia…” He mumbled aloud.
“S-Spike!” Twilight called, spinning one-eighty as the dragon took a step back out of surprise “W-When did you come downstairs?” she said, her forehead sweating, she looked a little like when she was, Celestia forbid, tardy.
“I…” Spike said, moving his head to the side to try and read the parchment; however Twilight moved her head to follow his “I… I woke up…” He tried to move to the other side, only to have Twilight’s head follow his like she was a mirror. He made an annoyed face before mumbling “Whatever… do you want me to take that note?” he asked.
“N-No!” Twilight said, the parchment suddenly glowing in a light purple glow before the quill hastily scribbled down a few final words and the parchment suddenly rolled up “Just send this to the Princess, would you?” She said.
“What is it?” He asked, cocking up his left brow in question.
“Nothing…” Twilight said, faking a smile and avoiding the dragons eye “Just a… erm… note on friendship…” She said.
“But when did we learn anythi-” He stopped talking when Twilight glared at him and he took a deep breath and breathed out heavily, green fire erupting from his mouth as the parchment suddenly turned into ash and flew up and out an open window “O-Okay, it’s sent alright?” He asked, breathing a sigh of relief as Twilights glare faded.
Spike watched as the unicorn’s hooves clicked on the wooden ground as she lightly trotted past him “Do you need anything for breakfast?” He asked.
Twilight shook her head “No thank you, I am not feeling rather hungry this morning… how about you, do you want something Spike?”
The dragon’s jaw dropped. He thought things like that only happened in stories, but shock from Twilight offering to do something for him was… no, it had to be a dream. He wasn’t sick… it wasn’t his birthday… how on earth would this unicorn think he diserved any kind of respect? He thought about bragging about finally receiving some respect, however the shock was far too great to make much more than a squeak that was nearly silent.
“B-Breakfast?” He asked, not able to help but run forward and nearly tackle the purple unicorn as he felt her head and grabbed her tongue and pulled it out to inspect her throat. “Are you sick, you feel a little hot, Twilight are you alright?” He asked frantically, wondering what happened to his caretaker and who this imposter was.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes narrowed in annoyance before shaking her head to get the dragon off of her “Spike, I’m fine, I just want to do something nice for my number one assistant for once, is that so much of a crime?” She sounded half joking, but the seriousness in her voice made the purple dragon stumble over his words.
“W-Well er… no, I guess no… b-but… it’s not natural for you!” He said, throwing his hands in the air as he stepped back several steps “I’m supposed to be your assistant… I just…” He paused looking down “It just doesn’t feel right…” he shook his head, unable to comprehend why it bothered him that he was being treated nicely.
Twilight rolled her eyes “I’ll just make some blueberry muffins and if you don’t want it, I’ll just give them to the mailpony!”
“N-No… I’ll eat them…” He said “Besides… I think Ditzy needs to take a break from…” He paused, shaking his head like a dog getting water out of its fur “No, t-that isn’t the point, are you sure you’re alright Twilight, you don’t seem… yourself…”
He could see the fur a tad messier than usual on the unicorn’s mane, her eyes held something deep, almost as if the emotions on her face were wrong, and she was feeling unimaginable guilt. She kept glancing back at Spike, almost expecting him to cough up his own heart by the way she intensely looked at him.
“I was thinking,” Twilight mumbled “We haven’t spent much time together in a long time, just the two of us I mean, why don’t we go out today and just have some fun together?”
Spike ran through possible reasons why the unicorn would be acting to strange, but couldn’t settle on anything “Didn’t you promise Applejack to help her on the acers today?” he asked, cocking up his brow.
Twilight shrugged “I just wanted to spend some time with my number one friend today, I’m sure she’ll understand if I explain things to her…” By the way she bit her lip, Spike could tell she wanted desperately to not break that promise, but something was holding her back. The way she called him her number one friend only meant she wanted him to feel better.
“Twilight… is something wrong?” He asked, walking up and seeing as she avoided his eyes “You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?”
He could hear how hard the unicorn swallowed before forcing out a warm smile “I’m not hiding anything, gee, you’re such a worrywart.”
“Um… Okay?” Spike said, shrugging slightly as he walked forward and rolled his eyes. It likely wasn’t anything he should be worrying about anyway.
However he couldn't help noticing she didn't promise.
-----------------------------------------------------
The warm sunlight beat down on the small dragons scales as he quietly licked an ice cream cone, his spines were flapping slightly in the wind as he glanced up into the sky, using Twilight as a pillow as she read her book, seemingly a little forcefully to herself.
The sky was so clear… so bright… everything seemed perfect. Except however for the question nagging in his mind.
“So Twilight… is there really any reason you are spending time with me today?” Spike asked, sitting up as he threw the rest of his cone down his throat, licking his lips as he smiled slightly at the taste of strawberries.
Twilight shrugged “I…” There it was again. Twilight held those guilty eyes she had this morning, Spike could tell, after many years when she was upset, he could not however read her mind, her poker face was amazing and only Princess Celestia had been able to beat it from the faces Spike had seen “I just think my number one assistant needs a day off.” She put simply as she used her magic to close her book.
Spike opened his mouth to say something as the purple unicorn stood up “C’mon, what do you want to do now Spike?” Twilight asked, trying her best to hide that undeniable guilt under her poker face.
“What I want to do?” He asked. All day it had been the same, Twilight hadn’t imposed on what exactly he wanted to do once, and if he tried asking her, she would simply ask him saying she didn’t know. “Twilight… you…” He stopped, shaking his head. “Why don’t… why don’t we just go and see Rarity?”
Twilight shrugged, rolling her eyes and chuckling as Spike saw a small heart above his head which he growled at “She was supposed to be back yesterday, why not?” She asked.
As they traveled to Rarity’s dress shop, they found the lights to be dim and the door to hold a closed sign on it. Spike sighed, thinking of all the times in the previous year Rarity had been absent from all of the group’s fun. She had been gaining a rather large amount of fame as she and Fancy Pants began to see each other more often in Canterlot to discuss dress expansion deals. Sometimes she was gone a day, other times a few weeks, and this time, it had been over a month.
Spike sighed “She was supposed to be back by now…” He almost whimpered out, rubbing his arm with his other hand and sighing.
Twilight nudged him gently with her hoof “C’mon, I’m sure there was something important holding her up for a little while longer… she’ll be back by the end of the week…” The unicorn seemed like she was trying to convince herself this, and didn’t take the possibility of having the marshmallow colored unicorn return at a later date “She’ll be back…”
“Twilight… maybe we should just go home…” Spike mumbled, seeming a tad bummed out by his crush not being in Ponyville, and instead being where he used to live. How ironic.
“Alright… if that’s what you want… are you sure there’s nothing else you want?” Twilight asked “Really nothing at all, are you sure?” She seemed alarmed, almost shocked at his behavior of wanting to go home so early.
Spike shrugged “Can’t think of nothing.” He said, he could tell Twilight simply wanted to glare at him for his improper grammar, but she held it back… something must be really REALLY off with her today.
Twilight trotted up to him and walked side by side with him. The purple dragon was imagining curling up in his tiny bed as his belly suddenly exploded and his cheeks puffed. He vomited up a flamethrower of green fire and a scroll appeared, landing on the ground. Before the little dragon can grab it, it glowed purple and Twilight lifted it out of his reach as it unrolls only to her eye sight.
As her eyes scanned the page, the little dragon is left to fiddle with his thumbs for several moments before Twilight made a half gasp, half whimper. Spike jumped at the sudden noise. Twilight fell straight back on her rump and curls up on the ground, seemingly hiding tears from her assistant.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted, getting down on his knees and stroking his caretakers head with his scaly hand “What is it, what’s wrong?”
Twilight didn't seem to hear him, for she was too preoccupied with quietly crying her little heart out. In fact it was so obvious, several ponies had stopped walking and stared at her, pondering whether or not to go and comfort her or simply leave.
“Twilig-” Spike cut his speaking short as his knee hit the parchment. He gazed down at it before picking it up and scanning a random line. His own mouth drops as the paper suddenly began to glow purple and was ripped from his grasp. Twilight looks at him with tear filled, furious eyes “Spike, t-this is private!” She shouted, obviously wanting to cry herself to death by the looks of it.
“What that about?” Spike asked numbly.
This throws Twilight off guard, at least more than she already was “N-Nothing… just the princess…”
“Let me see it…” Spike ordered. The crowd now was in a circle around them, almost as if they were waiting for a fight to break out.
“Spike, it’s nothing…” Twilight said, the notes glowing increasing, almost as if Twilight is holding it tighter with her magic. Spike narrows his eyes and suddenly grabbed Twilight’s horn as the Unicorn gasped out in surprise, her magic distracted for a moment. The dragon gives eyes pleading for forgiveness before grabbing the letter and suddenly jumping, his wings shooting out as he flew into the sky.
“Spike!” Twilight yells down below, Spike’s own eyes watering in tears as he begged to be forgiven by his caretaker for potentially hurting her.
“SPPPPIIIIIKKKKEEE!”
----------------------------------------------------
Once…
Twice…
Three Times…
And then four…
Spike read the letter again and again, but each time the words were the same, each time it spelled out to him the reason he was pretty much bawling at the moment, curled up in a tiny ball with tears streaking down his face.
He was somewhere on the outskirts of Ponyville, under a small tree where he decided it was safe to cry in peace. There was a skid mark in the earth where he had crash landed, Rainbow and Fluttershy didn’t have many details on landing it seems.
“S-She doesn’t… she doesn’t l-love me anymore…” Spike said to himself.
That had to be the answer. That had to be why she had refused to tell him something this important. Was that the reason she had been acting so nice today? Had she just wanted to hurt him even more?
He lifted his head, covering and attempting to wipe his eye with one of his hands, only to have the hand become soaking wet with his tears, the parchment becoming soaked in the process.
“You two are such ruffians!” A voice in an unmistakable accent yelled. Spike glanced up and saw Rarity yelling at two castle guards who had likely been hired to return her to Ponyville. The white unicorn threw her head up as one of them tossed her luggage off the chariot. Spike sniffled lightly as he watched her threaten to rip off their head, for it contained “Newly designed dresses with materials from Canterlot”. Rarity usually didn’t get rough, but if her dresses were hurt, in her words “It is on!”
Spike could see the guard stand emotionlessly as he threw the remaining fifty bags off the cart without blinking an eye, causing Rarity to stomp her hooves in frustration “You two are so un-fabulous it is unbearable!”
The little dragon watched this for a few minutes before the guards finally unloaded the last bag and flew off before Rarity could seemingly expel all of her anger. “Wait, isn’t anypony going to carry my bags?” She cried.
Spike, almost as if on instinct after two long years found himself standing up and walking forward, however he stopped, but it was too late. Rarity spotted him.
“Oh it’s my little Spikey-Wikey!” She all but squeaked, trotting forward rather quickly and hugging his face “It’s been forever since I’ve seen him and his cute little face!” She called. The way she acted around him made him blush beyond belief. She felt something on his back and gasped “And you grew your wings, my little Spikey-Wikey is growing up so fast!”
Spike broke away “I-It’s nothing special…” He mumbled, blushing despite his attitude.
Rarity opened her mouth, almost to ask him to carry her luggage. That was however, before she saw his face. “Spike… is something the matter?” She asked, softly, no longer using her “Adorable creature is near” voice.
Spike opened his mouth to say something as his mind stopped thinking of Rarity and her beautiful scent, mane, and voice, and traveled back to the note. His own face was covered in tears, which soon began to become flooded again as he sniffled. “I just…”
Rarity must have seen the note, because within a moment of seeing it, her horn glowed white and the paper was lifted from his hands. He only feebly fought back, feeling a tad numb as the memories hit him again.
She scanned the letter before her mouth dropped a little, she used her hoof to lift it back into place before clearing her throat “Well… Spike,” She said, looking down at the little dragon who couldn’t meet her beautiful eyes “It seems that, you need a good friend right now.”
Spike’s eyes watered, and began to spill over as a leg wrapped around him and pulled him close for a hug, he began to openly sob, not caring his crush saw him at his weakest, he just wanted somepony to hold him to this earth, to hold him to his family.
-----------------------------------------------------
My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,
I understand your concern with you dragon, Spike, and that he is quite dear to you. However, I must strongly disagree and say that we should retrieve him as soon as possible, before he becomes a potential threat to my citizens. I understand your feelings for him, but you must know that even you cannot control him once he becomes out of hand, he has already sprouted his wings has he not?
Either way, I am truly sorry for what has to be done, I will be retrieving Spike in one week from today. I wish both you and him the best, and you will always be in my thoughts.
Yours Truly,
Princess Celestia
-----------------------------------------------------
WOOOOOT I FUCKING LOVE THIS… maybe it’s just me, but compared to my old one… “Shudders” I hope the next chappie will be up soon!