//------------------------------// // The Cutie Mark Crusaders / Spike's Friends // Story: A Friend of A Friend // by 8686 //------------------------------// The Cutie Mark Crusaders Spike stopped halfway across the low, arched bridge over the stream which served as the Ponyville town boundary and, for no reason he could really think of, hopped up onto its wall. He sat with his legs dangling over the outer edge, elbows on his knees, the cheeks of his face resting in his claws, and simply gazed at his own reflection as it rippled and swirled forlornly in the slow-moving brook beneath him. He sighed. And he stared. And he thought. A minute became five. Five minutes became ten. Ten minutes turned to half an hour. He thought about his friends. Had Twilight been in his place today, or even just with him, everything would have been different. But because it had been him alone... well he'd ended up here, alone. That was the long and short of it. Twilight would use every interaction with her friends as a way to learn a new lesson about friendship. He thought of all of the experiences he'd had with his friends today, and what he had learned from them. Rarity: They don't notice you. Pinkie Pie: They don't listen to you. Fluttershy: They treat you differently. Applejack: They don't need you. Rainbow Dash: They don't spend time with you. It all begged the question: Are they really your friends? And, with his stomach slowly turning into a lump of ice, Spike realised he didn't know anymore. It wasn't that they didn't like him. He knew that. But to be a real, true, honest friend was to be so much more than just, 'liked.' Rarity and the rest of the gang... they were Twilight's friends. And great friends they were too! He was Twilight's friend. In fact he felt closer to family and she certainly felt the same. So he'd always assumed that Twilight's friends would be his friends too. But... it didn't necessarily follow, did it? There was actually a degree of separation there. One that he'd always dismissed but which, after today, he couldn't simply pretend didn't exist anymore. He wasn't really their friend. He was only a friend of a friend. He let out a slow, slightly ragged breath. It shouldn't be so bad, should it? After all, this was apparently how it had always been. Nothing had really changed. The gang were still there. They were, and would continue to be, nice to him. He'd still hang out with them... as long as he was with Twilight. Never on his own. Today had proved that. So nothing had changed, but at the same time, he felt he'd lost something very important. Even if it was something he'd never really had, it didn't make it any less painful. For the first time ever since he'd come to Ponyville, he felt alone. The face of the reflection beneath him suddenly looked almost on the verge of tears. Then, all of a sudden, it was joined by a second. The new face appeared to the right hand side of his reflection, and gazed curiously into the water. The gently swirling, babbling stream distorted the image some, but he could clearly make out a lemon-chiffon coat and a shock of crimson hair topped with a large pink bow. Then, to the left hand side, another face appeared. This one with a white coat, green eyes and a lilac mane. It too looked purposefully at the water. And finally, from behind his reflection, inexorably rose another. An orange coat with a mane of purple, accompanied by a furious buzzing sound in his ears. Then weight pressed on him as Scootaloo alighted, her hindlegs on his shoulders and forelegs resting on the top of his head, peering over him down into the stream. She was literally standing on him, like it was nothing. And all three of the new faces gazed curiously and captively into the brook below. And waited. Nothing happened. Then, after a minute, nothing continued to happen. "Okay, I give up," said Scootaloo at last from her improvised perch. She looked at Sweetie Belle. "What are we looking for?" "Shh!" admonished Apple Bloom, not taking her keen eyes off the water for even a second. Another minute passed in silence before Apple Bloom joined Scootaloo in conceding defeat. "Okay, I give up too." She looked at him. "What're ya looking at, Spike?" "Is it a jumping frog?" asked Sweetie Belle, keen to guess. "Or, a really big fish?" "It's nothing," Spike sighed. "Nothin'?" asked Apple Bloom, returning her gaze to the water as though honestly expecting to catch sight of the elusive, 'nothing.' "Then, why are you staring down there?" asked Scootaloo from directly above him. She still hadn't felt inclined to remove herself from his head. "It doesn't matter." Spike sighed again and shifted his weight slightly, gently prompting Scootaloo to hop off him and back down onto the bridge. Then he dragged himself to his feet and hopped down himself, walking dejectedly away into Ponyville and leaving the three Crusaders behind. "Spike?" called Sweetie Belle's voice. "What's wrong?" "Oh, nothing," he said, still walking. "I've just been to visit all my friends. As it turns out, I don't have any. No biggie." He left it at that, and without destination in mind, his feet began to carry him of their own accord. Oddly enough, they seemed to be carrying him towards the new castle on the edge of town. Well, it wasn't as if he had anywhere better to go. * * * Staring after Spike, the Crusaders were all sorts of confused. "What do you think is wrong with him?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom looked thoughtful. "Nothing?" suggested Scootaloo. "I mean, you asked him and he said nothing?" "I'm pretty sure that's code for, 'something.' Didn't you see how upset he was?" said Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo nodded slowly. "Did he say he didn't have any friends? I don't get it. What was he talking about?" There was a brief pause. "Crusaders?" Apple Bloom piped up, stepping forward. "Are we Spike's friends?" The question was rhetorical, but the answers came nonetheless. "Well... yeah," said Scootaloo. "Of course," agreed Sweetie Belle. "Okay then," Apple Bloom said, reaching a decision. "Our Crusadin' is cancelled for today, y'all. We're gonna have to wait to find out if we're Cutie Mark Crusader Lumberjacks." "It was always a long-shot anyways," accepted Scootaloo with a shrug. "Aw, I was looking forward to the song," said Sweetie Belle sadly. "We've got a more important mission," continued Apple Bloom. "One of our friends is in trouble, and we're gonna help him!" "We're gonna need a plan," said Scootaloo. "He said he'd been to see his friends today. We should find out what's happened with them to make him so upset," suggested Sweetie Belle. "Good idea," agreed Apple Bloom. "Scootaloo, you follow Spike and make sure he don't vanish. Sweetie Belle and I will start with our sisters an' go from there." The three fillies tapped their hooves together and then broke. They began to trot in separate directions away from the bridge, each to their own task. * * * Spike's Friends Frowning through her glasses, Rarity completed the final adjustment to the dress with absolute precision. Finally she took a step back and let out a satisfied breath. Finished. And what a work of fashion she had to show for it. The dress was stunning, even if she did say so herself. A symphony in green and gold, with just the right shade of blue to accent it as it flowed gracefully from withers to haunches and beyond. Before she could remove it from the dress-pony though, a knocking came to the door. "Spike darling, would you mind getting the door while I hang the dress up?" She'd have to do something nice for him. Buy him dinner perhaps. He'd been so patient and so helpful after all. She took the dress in her aura and skillfully hung it on a hanger on an empty rack that, in a few days, would house the rest of the dresses and suits in her new line. But the familiar sound of the door opening was strangely absent, while the knocking continued. "Spike?" she asked, turning to regard the empty room for the first time. It was still covered in the glorious after-effects of her whirlwind of creativity. Not mess, oh no. Perhaps to a lesser-trained eye it might look as such, but to her: organised chaos. But the room was quite devoid of a familiar, helpful purple dragon who had surely been there but a moment ago... When was the last time she could say for sure he'd been there? It had only been a few minutes, surely. She checked her clock on the far wall, and with dawning horror, realised that those few minutes might actually have stretched to a few hours! Had Spike left while she was distracted? Rarity realised that she'd been so caught up in her work that she honestly couldn't say. She had to admit that no matter how unintentional, her manners in relation to her favourite dragon had been rather poor. She would have to find Spike to apologise right away and make it up to him. Right after she dealt with whoever was knocking at the door. Even as she moved to answer it, the door opened of its own accord, admitting an impatient, worried Sweetie Belle who looked up in quick surprise when she saw Rarity already approaching. "Sweetie Belle? What's the matter?" Sweetie Belle's eyes narrowed slightly. "Sis?" she said, half-accusingly. "Have you seen Spike today?" That was too much of a coincidence. "Why... yes. In fact I thought he was still here," she admitted, looking abashedly back around at the, 'mess' still littering the room, and scrunching her nose. "I was just about to go and find him to—" "Rarity, Spike's really upset," said Sweetie Belle seriously. "What happened?" Hearing that caused Rarity to flinch, and guilt prompted her to explain as honestly as she could. Which involved admitting that she'd just been too wrapped up in her work to devote any attention to him; that a few minutes seemed to have become a few hours; and that Spike seemed to have slipped out in that time without her even noticing. "So Spike came to see you... and you just ignored him?" said Sweetie Belle, her voice squeaking a little with surprise. "It wasn't deliberate!" pleaded Rarity. "I just... it was only because..." but she stopped there. There really was no excuse was there? How could she have behaved so poorly to dear little Spikey? "Sis?" said Sweetie Belle. "We just saw Spike. He was saying he'd been to see all of his friends today. And that he didn't think they were his friends anymore." She shared a worried look with her big sister. "I think you need to go talk to him," she said finally. "Oh my. It sounds like I might not be the only one, doesn't it?" * * * It was probably nothing. But ever since Spike had walked off with that odd look... a gnawing sense of guilt had been building in Applejack. She'd very nearly gone after him, but... he'd said he was fine. And he probably was! It was probably nothing. But she'd feel a whole lot better if she could just check to make sure. She hadn't even got halfway to Ponyville before she met her sister coming the other way. Apple Bloom trotted in front of her, blocking her path, and fixed her with a look that was not quite a glare but which still held an accusatory edge. "Applejack?" "Apple Bloom, there y'are! Listen, have ya seen Spike around? I'm fixin' to find him." "I've seen him," said Apple Bloom coyly. She narrowed her eyes. "Why are ya lookin' for him?" "He came to the farm earlier," Applejack explained, not quite hearing the hard edge in her little sister's tone. "When he left he seemed awful put out by somethin'. I just wanna make sure he's okay is all." Apple Bloom frowned at her older sister. She raised her chin and drew herself up. "Park your rump, missy," she said sternly. Applejack's eyes widened in surprise at the firm command, and her rear end discovered the ground in short order. It was as though suddenly Apple Bloom had become her older sister, and she was the one getting a dressing down. An unusual experience for sure. "I wanna know exactly what happened when you saw him earlier," said Apple Bloom, still fixing her sister with a cool stare. Applejack, still partly shocked, found she could only do as her sister demanded. She ended up relaying the scenario of Spike turning up at the farm in detail, even though really, there wasn't much to tell. She'd been halfway through singing to the water, Spike had arrived and said he could help, she'd told him it was okay because she was nearly finished, and then he'd left looking oddly down in the mouth. "Applejack, how could you?" cried Apple Bloom once she'd finished. Applejack could only look stunned. Her little sister had obviously found her behaviour reprehensible in some way, but she couldn't fathom what she'd done wrong! "Spike came to you for help!" said Apple Bloom. "And you turned him away!" Taken aback, Applejack at least thought she'd found the root of her sister's misunderstanding. "No, AB. Spike was the one offering to help, y'see? He didn't ask for..." She left her sentence hanging there. Apple Bloom was shaking her head slowly, suddenly looking very disappointed at her older sister. "Applejack... you're supposed to know better than that," she said softly. "Just cuz Spike didn't ask for help, don't mean he didn't need it." Her little sister fixed her gaze with serious eyes once again. "If Spike came to you needin' you to do somethin' for him, would you?" "Of course I would," said Applejack without hesitation. "Even somethin' as difficult as spending time with him?" Apple Bloom didn't break Applejack's gaze for a moment. "Spike's in town right now real upset. And I reckon it's because all day, the folks he thought were his friends have been turnin' him away just like you did. How's he supposed to feel when his friends won't even make time to talk to him? He's startin' to think he ain't got friends at all, and I can't blame him." "But that's crazy," said Applejack, a little too defensively. "Spike's a good friend. A great friend! He knows that." "Does he?" asked Apple Bloom simply. "Sis? When was the last time ya told him that? When was the last time ya really talked to him? Cuz it sure wasn't today." Applejack could only look blankly for a moment, her mouth hanging open and a sudden feeling of panic descending. "Sis?" she asked, trying to keep desperation from her voice. "Please tell me you know where he's at?" * * * Apple Bloom led Applejack into Ponyville proper, and the pair were almost immediately met by Rarity and Sweetie Belle as they left Carousel Boutique. It didn't take them long to compare notes, and with worried frowns, Rarity and Applejack agreed they needed to round up their remaining friends and get to Spike, post-haste. Or darn quick. Whichever was faster. By sheer coincidence, they stumbled upon Rainbow Dash almost immediately. Making their way toward Sugarcube Corner they found her reclining on the branch of a tall oak in town. She lay with her back propped up against the trunk, sipping a hay smoothy through a straw and apparently content to simply look at the world from behind her dark sunglasses for a while, watching afternoon slowly become evening. "Dash?" asked Applejack, catching her attention from below. "Hey guys," said Rainbow Dash casually, taking another lazy sip of her drink. "Rainbow, have you seen Spike today, perchance?" asked Rarity. "Sure have," said Dash, languishing on her branch. "He came out to watch me practicing some new moves. I'm perfecting one for Nightmare Night that's just awesome. Funny how none of my other friends came to watch," she finished with a little, playful grin. "And then what happened?" asked Rarity. "Huh? Oh, I ran out of lightning so I came back to Ponyville. Then I was thirsty so I got a drink, then I was tired so I got a tree, and then two ponies I know came by and started bugging me." She gave her playful smirk again and resettled herself against the tree trunk. "And... what happened to Spike?" asked Applejack seriously. That finally got a reaction. Rainbow Dash sat forward on her branch and the sunglasses came off, her expression worried. "Well, he... uh... I'm not sure..." "Spike walked all the way out from Ponyville to watch you practice..." Applejack pressed, "...and when you were done, ya just left him out there?" "Hey!" Rainbow retorted with an annoyed frown. "It wasn't... it wasn't like that," she finished weakly. It was exactly like that. "You're not the only one dear," said Rarity, sharing a guilty look with Applejack. Dash spread her wings and floated down to ground level. She exchanged a look with Rarity and Applejack, before frowning a determined frown. "Alright. I gotta go make it up to him—" "We all do," Applejack interrupted, before Dash could vanish in a blaze of colour. "But we gotta find Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy first. Sounds like it might've happened to them, too." Rainbow Dash looked at the ground in front of her for a moment, her eyes darting quickly as though thinking at a frantic pace. Then she looked up. "All right," she said firmly. "Well, I know where Pinkie Pie is." * * * Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stayed outside while the other three ponies ducked into the colourful patchwork tent that was Madame Pinkie's domain. They found Pinkie sat strangely still at her table, her head cocked to one side, staring into space. Seeing three of her friends enter, she sat up straighter and greeted them. "Hi girls! I'd love to chit-chat, but I'm with a client at the moment." "You... are?" asked Applejack, scanning the otherwise empty tent, and the vacant spot opposite Pinkie. "Uh-huh!" Pinkie nodded. Then she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "It's Spike!" "It... is?" said Rainbow Dash. "Pinkie, Spike's not actually here, is he?" queried Rarity. "Well, no. Not at the moment," admitted Pinkie. Then she perked up. "But he's coming right back! He's going to tell me the story about the really cool adventure he went on to get Twilight's birthday present." There was the briefest of confused pauses before Applejack spoke again. "You mean the adventure he told us all about at her party? Where he climbed that mountain? Pinkie, you've heard that before," she insisted. "That's what Spike thought too," said Pinkie, looking upward and bringing a hoof to her chin, racking her brains. "But I'm sure I'd remember something like that if I'd heard it." "I'll field this one," Dash cut in briskly. "Pinkie actually doesn't remember much of anypony talking at that party. In fact, as far as Pinkie's concerned, it was an unusually quiet party. Am I right, Pinkie?" "Well, yeah. Everypony was really quiet. You were all moving your lips like you were talking, but you weren't saying anything. Wasn't it a mime party?" Everypony looked confusedly at Dash, who grinned and rolled her eyes. "Okay. So Pinkie Pie jumps out of the cake, remember? And frosting splatters everywhere? And I happen to notice that Pinkie's got a whole bunch of like, sponge and icing and jam stuck in her ears. So I spend the next hour making random noises behind her and she can't hear a thing!" Dash was laughing now, lost to memory. Everypony stared at her until she stopped. "What? I didn't know this was gonna become like, a whole big thing three months later."  "Oh well," said Pinkie. "It doesn't matter, because any minute Spike's gonna tell me all about it anyway! He's just outside getting some fresh air." Some realisation seemed to strike her. Pinkie's mouth remained open in a silent 'O', and she looked worriedly at her friends. "Isn't he?" Three heads shook sadly, and Pinkie's happy face slowly fell into a look of pure dejection, heartbreaking to watch. "I'm sorry, Pinkie. Spike seems to be having a rather poor day, and we may all be partly to blame," said Rarity. "Do you think he thought I wasn't listening to him? Or that I forgot his story? Or that I don't like his stories? Or that we're not friends?! Or that—?" "That's probably about the size of it," said Applejack. Then, just as Pinkie's face jumped into horrified shock and prepared to crumple to tears, Applejack continued. "Don't worry Pinkie. We're all still Spike's friends, and before the day's out, he's gonna know it." "Now, we need to find Fluttershy," said Rarity to the room at large. "Found her!" came Sweetie Belle's high-pitched voice from outside. A moment later, Fluttershy ducked inside the tent, looking surprised to find so many of her friends within. "Oh, hi everyone. Has... anyone seen Spike today?" "Okay Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash, cutting to the chase. "What happened when he came to see you?" "Wh—? How do you know he...?" started Fluttershy, her surprise growing. "Pretend it's the Crystal Ball," interrupted Dash. "It's not a fake!" squealed Pinkie in the background. But Dash was wearing her impatient expression, prompting Fluttershy to begin again. "Well, he came to my cottage earlier and I gave him some tea and some carrot cake. I offered him a massage, and then suddenly he left looking upset." There was an odd pause. "That's it?" asked Dash. Then she looked around at the rest of the group. "What the hay is wrong with that one?!" "We'll figure it out on the way. Come on, y'all," said Applejack, heading for the tent flap now that their party was complete. "W—where are we going?" asked Fluttershy. "I... I have to make sure Spike's alright." "It's okay, Fluttershy," Applejack said softly. "That is where we're goin'." * * * Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom led their sisters and their entourage right to the foot of the new, large castle on the edge of town, the front entrance to which Scootaloo was watching like a hawk. Seeing them approach, Scootaloo stood from her patch of grass in front of the large, heavy doors. "He's been in there ever since the bridge," she said. "He really looked down the last time I saw him." All of the ponies looked at the castle, within which one of their friends was alone, quietly hurting. "So, how's this gonna go?" asked Dash. "Somehow, I don't think a rousing round of, 'For He's A Jolly Good Dragon' is gonna do it." "Ooh, ooh! I know!" said Pinkie Pie. "We can throw him a 'We're-Really-Sorry-Spike-We're-Still-Bestest-Friends-Forever-Please-Forgive-Us Party!'" "Nah. He'll be expecting a party," reasoned Dash. "I mean... you know what I mean. I say we do something totally awesome for him. Like... we could all take him for an epic day out to a rock concert. Or a theme park! He'd love that. I think there's even a dragon-themed one at Drake N. Manor." "Well... I think we should just talk to him," said Fluttershy quietly. "I agree," said Rarity in support. "As lovely as a... 'party,' or a day out would be, I don't think either would really get the message across." "Spike's in there feelin' rotten because of us," said Applejack. "I reckon the first thing I'm gonna do is say I'm sorry, and go from there." There were several solemn nods. "Well," said Dash. "Unless you're planning on shouting it through the door, we should probably go in."