A Dragon's Promise
A Dragon's Promise
“Finally,” the purple dragon wiped his brow, and leaned over as he attempted to catch his breath. It was a peaceful time of night; the moon cast silvery light that danced along the cobblestone streets of Ponyville, the stars sparkled brightly overhead, and the only sound to be heard for miles was the light melody of crickets chirping in the tall grass. Everypony else had long since gone to bed, but Spike wasn’t everypony else.
It had been a week since he and Twilight had received Celestia’s assignment and moved to Ponyville. His unicorn caretaker had been swamped with work: reorganizing and running the library, taking inventory, restocking and refurnishing their new home, studying friendship (amongst other things), writing to update her relatives on their new situation and, most recently, writing her first friendship report to Princess Celestia. She had been so engaged in these things that Spike had taken it upon himself to send for a few select items from their old home: an old family photo, a few of Twilight’s favorite tomes that the library hadn’t duplicated, the chestnut music box that had been a family heirloom for three generations… just a few knick knacks that Spike hoped would make this place feel more like home. The items had arrived just before Twilight went to bed, and knowing full well that she would have him worry about ‘more important’ things come morning, Spike had taken it upon himself to redecorate now.
Now, after what seemed like an eternity, the job was done. A crocheted placemat now adorned the library’s simple side table, their old family portrait seated atop like the crown jewel. The old books mingled with the new, though some shelves had had to be completely reorganized so that they would fit. (He hoped Twilight wouldn’t notice.) Spike had repurposed some of Twilight’s old toys as figurines, which now stood sentry over the bookshelves. He’d hung a couple of other framed pictures around the house, and added a vase of fresh flowers to the dining room table. All his labors hadn’t been for nothing- the Golden Oaks library finally looked like a home.
“Last but not least.” Exhaustion showed in Spike’s voice as he wearily retrieved the music box. His eyes were red and underlined with dark bags. His tail drooped and trailed across the floor. For that matter, the entire dragon was stooped, dragging himself up the stairs to their shared bedroom. He was rather dreading looking at a clock to know how long he had stayed up, though he knew that it was well past midnight. Their bedroom housed an old grandfather clock, but Spike avoided eye contact and quietly shuffled over to settle the music box on Twilight’s side table.
“There,” Spike sighed, fangs peeking out as he beamed with pride and relief. He longed to open it and let its gentle tune lull him to sleep, but he didn’t want to wake Twilight. Rather, he gave the box one last farewell pat and jadedly shambled over to his bed. “Finally,” he flopped onto the bed, “I can get some hard-earned sleep!”
Spike’s eyelids were already heavy, and didn’t need any coaxing to close. The blanket’s warm embrace felt like heaven. His puffy pillow could be compared to the softest cloud. Within seconds, Spike felt himself drifting off into a deep slumber…
“Spike? Spike, get up!” Spike was extremely tempted to pretend he hadn’t heard Twilight’s summon, and clutched the blanket tighter. “Spike! Get up, sleepyhead!” Once her hoof began prodding his spines, he couldn’t ignore her any longer.
“Hnnng… wha?”
“It’s time to get up!” the overly-cheery unicorn announced, throwing aside the curtain and flooding the room with blinding light.
“Already? But I just went to bed!”
“Hm! Funny how our minds work, isn’t it? We can be asleep for hours and we aren’t conscious of time at all! It could feel like just a few seconds have passed. But I assure you, Spike, we got a good night’s rest.”
“Speak for yourself,” the dragon grumbled, collapsing back into the sheets.
“Spike,” Twilight scolded, lightly rolling her eyes and shaking her head. She promptly returned to his bedside and swiped the covers herself.
“Hey!”
“You’ve got to get up! This is one day we can’t afford to sleep in. We have a ton of work to do today.”
“You’ve said that every day this week,” Spike tried to substitute his tail for the blanket, and shielded his eyes from the blazing sunlight.
“This is different,” Twilight anxiously began pacing. “Ms. Cheerilee- you know, the schoolteacher?- asked to bring her students over for a reading day. They’re supposed to arrive right after lunch. We have to reorganize the library before then. I want to move the young reader’s books to a lower shelf where they can actually reach it. I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that to start out with… Anyhow, we have to re-shelve, pick out a few books they might like to read, and I have to put together a little presentation as to what makes reading so great. Please, Spike? I really need your help today.” The dragon groaned, but finally rolled out of bed.
“There. I’m up. Happy?”
“You’re the best, Spike!” she lightly squeezed him. Spike sighed, but smiled and returned the embrace. “Okay!” Twilight pulled away. “You start breakfast and I’ll put together a to-do list, and maybe scout out a few books that might interest the kids.” She bolted down the stairs before Spike could get in another word edgewise.
He lingered a moment longer, and happened to glance over at the music box. At first, the sight perked him up a bit, remembering how surprised Twilight would be when she- He drooped upon realizing that his hard work had gone unnoticed. Of course, the music box was a small item, and would easily go unnoticed. Perhaps when she got down to the library, she would realize something was different. Then again, this was Twilight he was talking about, one of the most oblivious ponies he knew. And when she was as focused as she was today, she didn’t hear or see anything outside the task at hoof. Perhaps when this was all over, he’d receive recognition.
That hope was the only thing that gave him the strength to trundle down the stairwell even though his feet felt like lead. Even as he prepared their morning meal, he kept glancing up and peering out into the main living space in hopes that Twilight had noticed. If she realized that something was amiss, she neither showed nor mentioned it, and instead continued to pace across the house with her nose buried in a book, as usual. Spike was almost getting angry by the time he dished out the (slightly burned) pancakes. He topped Twilight’s with chopped strawberries, and drowned both stacks in syrup. His in particular was swimming in the stuff.
“It’s ready,” he called, delivering the plates to the table.
“Great,” Twilight finally set her book down and plopped into her seat just as Spike was returning with a pot of steaming tea. She cocked her head in confusion as Spike began climbing into his chair as well. “Um… Spike? Did you bring silverware?”
“Huh?” Spike drowsily looked over his spread and realized that he, in fact, had not. “Oh.” He started sliding back out of his seat.
“That’s okay, I’ll get it,” Twilight giggled, trotting back into the kitchen herself. She returned and passed him a fork and knife, and eyed his pancakes for the first time. “Whoa! Maybe I should get you a spoon!”
“What do you mean?”
“Those aren’t pancakes. That’s soup!” Twilight laughed, nodding to the pool of syrup at the bottom of his plate.
“Yeah, well, I could use the extra sugar this morning.”
“I dunno, Spike. Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive?”
“Twilight, I. Need. This.” Spike firmly and blatantly enunciated, glaring as if to challenge her to question him again.
“O-Okay,” she finally let the matter drop, no longer laughing. She sat quietly down to her meal as Spike moved on to stare down his pancakes. “Spike?” she picked up her silverware, “are you feeling okay?”
“Peachy.”
“Well, it’s just-”
“What’s on the agenda today?” he interrupted, taking a huge bite out of the stack without bothering with a fork.
“Right!” She snapped out of it, once again zoned in on her work. She pulled out the to-do list she mentioned and cleared her throat. “First, clear all bookshelves.” ‘You mean the bookshelves that I stayed up all night res-helving? Great.’ “Next, separate young reader books, subcategorize by fiction and nonfiction. Third, reorganize remaining books. I figured that if they were interested in any other subject in particular, we could help them with that. Although, it might be a good idea to put some hobbyist books down where they can reach. You never know. Maybe they could help somepony find their cutie mark!”
“Uh huh,” Spike twirled his fork, trying to fit as much syrup on that piece as possible, though it had already soaked up the stuff like a sponge.
“Number two and a half: re-shelve hobby section on lower shelves, organize alphabetically,” Twilight squinted as she inserted this between the two existing numbers. “Hey, Spike, do you think you could handle re-shelving if I organize everything into piles for you? The next thing on the list is to write the speech, and that’ll take a big chunk of my time.”
“Sure thing, Twi.”
“Great!” The scroll rolled up with a *SNAP* in her levitational hold. “I’ll get started organizing while you do the dishes. And find a few books to suggest to the kids. I think I forgot to put that on the list,” she unraveled just enough of it to scrutinize the writing where that item should have been. “Oh well,” she shrugged, retrieving the pen. “Number one and a half…”
Spike gathered the dirtied dishes and silverware and dumped them in the sink. He then returned to the table and prepared Twilight’s tea with two lumps of sugar, just as she liked. Once again, she had forgotten to fix it herself. She was a busy pony, he continuously reminded himself. Spike brought the steaming drink to her in the library, but found her busy scrutinizing and reorganizing all the books she had just dumped from the shelves. Without the colorful array of tomes, the shelves looked bare, and the figures he had recently placed atop were more obvious than ever. Alas, Twilight still hadn’t noticed his hard work.
“I’ve got your tea, Twilight,” Spike called, somewhat disappointed.
“Thanks, Spike. Just put it on the side table,” an extremely distracted Twilight directed. ‘The side table I redecorated? Great idea!’
“Sure thing, Twi!” he happily acknowledged, scooting the picture over an inch to make way for the cup. She was sure to notice, now!
“Thanks,” she said again, still distracted with the books. ‘But it’s only a matter of time before she turns around,’ Spike thought, slyly sneaking back off to wash the dishes.
He’d just finished scrubbing them when Twilight appeared again. “Hey, Spike, I picked a couple of books I want to show to the kids, but I want to narrow it down to three. The Life of Starswirl and the first Daring Do novel are definite, but should the third be Equestria’s Beginnings or Science for Beginners: Understanding the World? History and science are both so important, I just can’t decide!” Spike was rendered unable to answer, because on top of levitating the four mentioned books, Twilight was sipping at a steaming cup of tea. How could she still not have noticed?! Spike had had it. His face turned as red as a beet, and smoke filtered out through his nose.
“Why don’t you find them a book on dragons? I’m sure they’d appreciate learning about us!” The fuming dragon stormed out, fists clenched so tight his claws were digging into his scales. Twilight watched him leave in shocked silence.
“Maybe I need to give Understanding the World another read,” she quietly murmured.
Spike stomped into the library, finding the books organized as promised. He picked up a handful of nonfiction volumes to be returned to the top shelf and climbed the ladder in a last-ditch effort to draw Twilight’s attention to the toys he’d put there. Twilight soon entered so quietly that he didn’t hear her come in.
“Spike? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“Are you… mad at me?”
“Not at all. What would give you that idea?”
“Spike, you know I’m always here for you, right? You can tell me anything. Whatever’s bothering you, I won’t laugh. I promise.”
“I thought you said we had a lot of work today. So let me do my work,” he barked. Twilight’s ears flattened against her head. Spike rarely got angry, and when he did, the cause was always evident. Now, Twilight Sparkle was at a loss.
“Okay,” she timidly nodded, deeming it best to let him cool off. “But if you change your mind, you know where to find me. My door is always open.” She ducked out of the room.
Spike had run out of books, but he stayed at the top of the ladder, silently glowering at a stuffed lamb. All his hard work, and not even a single solitary ‘Thank You.’ He worked his tail off, and never received recognition for any of it. Was it too much to ask to be noticed once in a while? Over ten years he had endured this treatment, and he was at his wits end. He just had to… to…
“GAH!” Spike lashed out, and punched the lamb as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the recoil was enough to shove the ladder out from under him, and slowly, Spike began tumbling down. “Whoa… WHOA!” He was flung into a stack of books, one of the spines jutting uncomfortably into his back. Worse, the ladder came crashing down on top of him before Spike had time to move. “AAAH!”
“Spike?!” Twilight was back in an instant, and gasped in horror at the scene before her. “SPIKE!” Her magic immediately tore the ladder off him and tossed it unceremoniously to the ground. Twilight leapt and cleared it with ease, thinking only of her injured assistant. “Spike, are you alright? Are you hurt?” She dug him out from the mussed mound of books, and gently eased him to his feet.
“Ah!” he cried, crumbling back to the ground when he tried to put weight on his foot.
“Let me see,” Twilight’s magic caught him, and she levitated the dragon back to the kitchen table where she could examine him. He clutched at his left foot all the while. “You need to let go now, Spike. Let me see.”
“Ooh.” It took a lot of coaxing to remove his tiny claws from the site of the injury, but it was evident that the area was already badly bruised. In comparison to his other ankle, this one looked particularly swollen.
“It looks like you’ve sprained it,” she diagnosed. “I’ll splint it for you, and get some ice. Stay put.” The hard part was trying to round up anything that could be used to make a makeshift, dragon-sized splint. After a good ten minutes of searching, she realized that she’d left Spike alone and in pain for long enough, and just settled for a roll of bandages. “I have to apply it tightly. Hold still.” He nodded, and tensed in preparation. She swiftly and expertly applied the bandages, and after tying it off, immediately pressed a cold ice pack to the site.
“Ah,” Spike took over control of the pack, relief evident on his face.
“Come on. I’ll take you to bed and you can tell me what happened.”
“Bed? But we still have work to do!” he weakly protested. Twilight wasn’t listening, and started carrying him up the stairs.
“No, I still have work to do. You have to rest that ankle.” She barged into their room, and rather than depositing him in his little bed, set him on her own mattress.
“But I already promised to help,” the little dragon insisted. Twilight removed the pillow from his bed and tucked it under his leg. Then, she tugged up the covers around him.
“You’ll be of more help to me here, getting well,” she kissed his forehead and turned to leave. “It’ll be a while before you can put weight on your ankle again- a couple weeks, probably. Just rest, in the meantime.”
“A couple weeks?! No way, Twilight! You’ve gotta get me some crutches or something! I can’t be out of commission for a couple weeks!”
“Oh, Spike,” Twilight smiled, returning to his bedside and sitting on the edge. “You do so much for me. Let me have a turn at taking care of you.” A curtain of guilt fell over Spike. So she had noticed.
“No! That’s not how it’s supposed to be!” he yelled, eyes welling up with tears. “I’m supposed to take care of you! That was the deal! I made a promise!”
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, drawing him close as the dragon started to sob. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“On Pickup Day. Princess Celestia made me promise to take care of you. That was the deal. I would become your assistant, and in return, I got to stay. I made a promise, Twilight. And a dragon always keeps his promise.”
“Oh, Spike,” the unicorn sighed, hugging him closer. He had gotten his sobbing under control now, and aside from the occasional sniffle and bloodshot eyes, there was no evidence that he had ever been crying. “That’s not how it works, Spike,” Twilight cooed, rocking them both on the bed. “You promised to be my assistant. And you’re the best friend anypony could ever ask for. In fact, you’re more than that now- you’re my family. And family takes care of each other. See, Spike? This has to work both ways.” Spike pulled away, and met her gaze.
“But I promised-”
“To take care of me. And you have, Spike. You’ve done more than anypony could ever expect of you. I don’t know a single pony who could do what you do. You never complain when you do your chores, you know the Dewey decimal system like the back of your claw, you cook our meals, you keep my desk organized, you manage my mail… hay, Spike, you keep my head on straight!” Spike giggled at that, and settled comfortably back against his friend. “You’re amazing, Spike, and don’t think for a second that you go unnoticed.”
“But that’s just it,” he confessed, remorse clawing at his insides. “I did feel unnoticed. I just got so frustrated that I punched the wall… that’s what made me fall. If I hadn’t gotten so upset, I wouldn’t have ended up like this. Now I can’t help with the reading day and… and I’m just so sorry, Twilight!”
There was no possible way that Spike could have felt guiltier than Twilight at that moment. He’d felt unnoticed? Ignored? And she allowed that to happen. Indirectly, this was actually her fault. “Don’t be sorry, Spike,” she bit her lip. “This was my fault, not yours. Not yours at all. I’m sorry if I ever made you feel ignored. That was never my intention. You’re too special to ever be overlooked. I’m… I’m so sorry!” It was Twilight’s turn to cry. Spike smiled wide and squeezed her tight, completely forgetting about the pain in his ankle. The pain in his heart had healed, and that was all that mattered.
But the longer they stayed like that, Twilight sobbing and Spike attempting to comfort her, the dragon began to gather that he had just opened a wound in Twilight. ‘I’ll be there for Twilight’s every need, physical or emotional, for as long as I live.’ But what could he say at a time like this? That it was alright? That everything would be okay? No. Sometimes actions were louder than words.
With one arm still wrapped around Twilight, Spike reached over to the bedside table, and opened up the music box. Almost immediately, Twilight stopped crying. She blinked a few times, ears twitching with the soft melody of the music box.
“Where did that come from?” she wiped her eyes.
“I had a few things shipped back from Canterlot. They arrived last night, and I stayed up late decorating. You know… trying to make this place feel more like home.”
“You… redecorated?”
“You were so busy with your work for Celestia that you didn’t have time, so…”
“You did all that work for me, and I never even noticed?!” Rather than making her feel better, the music box seemed to have had the opposite effect.
“It’s okay. You’ve been busy,” he hastily inserted.
“I never should have been too busy for you,” she hugged him closer. “Tell you what. I’ll go over to the schoolhouse and tell Cheerilee that we’ll have to postpone the reading day.”
“But-!”
“No buts,” she interjected. “Today will be a day just for me and you. Besides, now that I’m working on my own, I’ll need an extra day or two to get the library back into shape.” Spike nodded, and fell silent for a moment.
“The Little Filly that Could.”
“Huh?”
“The third book that you wanted to show the kids. I think it should be The Little Filly that Could. That was your favorite storybook growing up.”
“That would be nice, Spike, but I don’t think this library has a copy.”
“It does now,” he slyly smiled. Twilight wasn’t sure whether to be delighted or embarrassed.
“Let me guess. You sent for it with the rest of the stuff?”
“Yeah, and a few other books, too. And a couple of picture frames, including that old family picture you really liked, some of your old toys, your mom’s china…”
“How did I not notice all that?! When did you do it? Where did you put it all?!”
“All over the house. Mostly in the library,” he sheepishly scratched his neck.
“Well, we’ll have our day together, but after I go exploring,” she informed, heading out the door.
“And tell Cheerilee about the change in plans!” Spike called from the bed. She winked back.
“What would I do without you?” He smiled, and reclined back in the bed. A day with Twilight sounded good, but sleep sounded better. He curled up beneath the sheets, trying to get comfortable with the pillow between his legs. It wasn’t too hard, though. He was already half asleep.
“I kept my promise, Celestia,” he proudly thought. “A dragon always keeps his promises.”
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Good story
Spike as Tyrion Lanister?
"A Dragon always pays his debts"
images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/53206/drogon.jpg?w=600
I loved this story.
6290827 Now all we need is for him to pimp slap Blueblood and have Blueblood choke on some poison.... lovely.
....so many feels...I ship it so hard it hurts
6291132 Was the Blueblood remark really necessary? He did nothing to Twilight.
As for this story, it's very sweet. Have a like.
6291386 I was just saying it in general. Plus come on he fucking would deserve it.
6291449 Why? Because he treated Rarity like trash?
6291496 I have yet to see a reason why she deserved it and a excusable option.
pre02.deviantart.net/d6fa/th/pre/i/2014/347/9/0/fresh_coco_and_flutterbat_by_hillbe-d89r6ci.jpg
static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/4054086+_7d614fcd710ae2f83c587e5158e4231f.jpg
I was right!
6291508 Well she only went to the ball to find a "Prince charming". She didn't really care about personality or anything else besides the fact he's a prince and of high social status and thus just thought of the gain she could've gotten from someone in a rich, lavish position.
Or more specifically, she was being a gold digger and wanting to date him for his money and social position rather then caring about anything else. Is that a reason?
6294122 That still doesn't excuse his attitude. He could've explained it to her but instead used her like a trophy wife. But that's my opinion not yours so lets not let this get out of hand.
6294122 or she thought bcause he was a prince he'd be better educated, classier, nobler than the average pony.
This was a sweet ending, still focusing on how Spike feels responsible for Twilight, but Twilight making it clear that it's not a one way street.
One small issue: her name is "Cheerilee" not "Cheerily"
Familyshipping is bestshipping.
6431605
Gah! This is why you should never run autocorrect, kids. Thanks for pointing out the typo, it's fixed now.
I'll be completely honest. That was NOT what I was expecting
Nice short and sweet and very nice read
7401768
Me too. I thought it would be about him not being able to take care of alicorn twi because his really long clock was about to stop.