The Twilight Years

by Crimmar

Different? Really? That matters?

Spike turned another page of the book he had placed on the reading table in front of him. He had reached the middle of it when he realized he hadn’t been paying attention to the text for the last three pages. He flicked backwards to the chapter’s start and… he had been “reading” the wrong book. He was supposed to be doing math, not reading history. He closed the book’s cover and looked for the correct one.

He frowned. He was sure he had picked it from the shelf but he couldn’t see it anywhere…

“Looking for this, little flame?” Raegdan was waving the thin book next to his head while he kept his attention beyond the door next to him.

“Oh, yeah. Thanks dad. I uh, was-”

“Not paying attention. I figured out that much.” His dad leaned sideways and his long arm brought the book in front of Spike. The baby dragon grabbed it, feeling embarrassed. He quickly opened the book and-

The arm had returned holding white sheets of paper and a pencil. “Won’t you need these too?”

Spike delved into the mysteries of math, solving the riddles of apple trading and figuring out the balance between how many fruits the vendor sold in a day and how many a particular customer ended up enriching his pantry with. It was all terribly exciting. Terribly being the keyword. Maybe that’s why he ended up just staring blankly at the book while his hand was unconsciously scribbling lines on his notes.

Raegdan coughed, taking care to be as quiet as possible, bringing Spike back to awareness of his surroundings. “Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you, little flame?”

“I’m… not sure. Maybe…” Spike said hesitantly.

His adopted father shrugged. “Whenever you feel ready little flame. I’m not going anywhere.” Raegdan turned to look towards the other end of the reading room for a few seconds before returning to blocking the door through scowling harshly at whoever approached.

Spike looked behind him. Twilight was at the furthest table, reading some book on magic theory or something similar that mom- Princess Celestia had given her. The white Alicorn had quietly fallen asleep on the table. Raegdan had taken off the clothing he wore on the upper part of his body and bundled it together, placing it as a pillow beneath her head. It was why he was sitting right on the threshold of the door. He didn’t want anypony to come in and wake her from one of her rare naps. He was succeeding so far.

“She is gonna be so angry with you when she wakes up,” Spike snickered.

Raegdan’s leg shot across to the opposite edge of the door, blocking it until another pony got the all too clear message and instantly decided to move on. “Let her. At least she’ll be rested enough to do so. How many problems have you solved so far?”

Spike read what he had written down so far. It didn’t take any time at all. “Uh, none.”

“If you don’t finish six of them at least, there will be no gem with your dinner tonight,” Raegdan said sternly.

“Ok, ok, geez.” Spike threw himself at his workload. It lasted about thirty seconds. He tapped his pencil on the paper, turned to other side of the sheet, scribbled a bit, anything to make himself look busy while doing nothing at all.

He looked up after a couple of minutes of this to see his father staring pointedly at him. “I’m just… thinking it over,” he excused himself.

“Really?” he asked disbelieving. He took back the math book. “Mind telling me what the problem was about then?”

“Uh…” Spike said fluently.

Raegdan threw the book back on the table. “Little flame, are you sure you don’t want to talk about what’s on your mind?”

Spike let his head hang. He wasn’t sure himself if he wanted to but… he dropped all pretense and put his forehead against his folded arms on the table, letting his eyes hide in the tiny shelter he made for himself.

“Dad… am I ever gonna fit in?” he asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s just that…” One of Spike’s arm stopped being a wall and waved around. “I’m a dragon living with ponies. I walk on two legs, I breathe fire, I eat gems and one day I’ll start eating meat. I don’t have anything in common with them, do I?”

“So, you think that…” Raegdan spurred him on.

“I think that I don’t think I’m ever going to have friends or… or a place in the world. Dragons don’t get cutie marks. What if I end up alone and… why are you smiling?” Spike whined.

“Spike, do me a favor,” Raegdan said. “Repeat in your head what you just said only this time you do it while looking at me.” Raegdan spread his arms like wings, waiting for Spike to do as he asked.

Spike did so… and quickly saw his point. “Oh! I, I didn’t mean-”

Raegdan moved and sat next to his adopted son, his arm holding him from his tiny shoulder tight against his much larger body. “Ok, little flame, first of all… forget about being friendless and stuff. Look at me. At least ponies know about dragons. Who has ever seen anything like me before?” His fingers left Spike’s shoulders and started scratching his back. “Despite that, here I am. I have you, I have Twilight, her family, Cadence, and Celestia.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Secondly,” Raegdan interrupted him, “I am not the friendly little guy you are, am I? Come on Spike, ponies are basically eating out of your hand after a couple of minutes of knowing you. You will never lack friends, trust me on that. Even if you did, you’d still have us, right?”

Spike leaned against Raegdan’s hairless torso, enjoying the hug. “Yeah, you are right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s ok little flame,” Raegdan assured him. “After all, you’re right. You are always gonna be different than anyone, pony or dragon.”

“What?”

Raegdan lightly patted Spike’s back. “You are a dragon raised by ponies… and me. You think there’s ever been anyone similar like you before?”

“But… but…”

Raegdan chuckled. “Oh, quit your worrying. Look. Behind us, what do you see? See that? That’s one of the most powerful unicorns ever and she is being tutored by the most unique being in existence. Now, is it so horrible to think that you will end up being as unique as they are?”

Spike felt ashamed of himself. He had been so self absorbed he hadn’t been thinking at all. He had just been feeling sorry for himself. His dad was right. Being different didn’t mean that he would end up alone, not when there were others even stranger. But still…

“Dad?” Raegdan waited for him, smiling. “If… if being different is not so bad… why did you tell mom that you’ll always be alone and nothing she can do will fix that?”

The smile vanished from Raegdan’s face. “You heard that?” he asked unnecessarily.

Spike nodded.

“That… was something completely different, little flame. I’m… Look, I don’t feel alone because of what I am, or not being liked enough, or anything like that. It’s a matter of experiences.” Raegdan explained.

“What do you mean?”

Raegdan ran a palm over his face. It was obvious he didn’t want to discuss this. “It’s… like reading a book. One day you read a book about an adventure and want to talk about it with someone else. Even if you don’t find anyone else who read this particular book you can still find someone who likes books about adventures in general and you can share views and talk about them with him. Understand so far?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, in my case, it’s like… I read a thriller book. Not only can’t I find someone who read this book, I can’t find anyone who likes or read thriller books at all. There is no one else who reads these kind of books here.”

“Oh. So… you mean, even if I am a dragon, I will still be able to find common ground with other ponies because I have been raised as one and if I ever meet a dragon I will have the fact that we are the same species at least,” Spike said in understanding.

“Right,” Raegdan agreed. “I’m a special case so don’t bother with me. You are going to be fine, little flame. Trust me, you will have a unique, but great, life.” He ran his hand over the top of Spike’s head, tickling the fins there. “But darn, you are smart. You keep paying attention to Twilight and Celestia, it’s really paying off.”

“But what about you?”

“Didn’t I just say not to bother with me? Besides, can you imagine what it would be like with another one like me around? Celestia would scream non-stop,” he joked.

“She only does that when you really step out of line,” Spike laughed.

“Well, there’s no fear of that anyway, so the point is moot. Now, are you ready to stop doodling and actually do your homework?” Raegdan asked as he went back to his former position.

“Yeah, I think so. Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not going to leave me no matter how different I end up being, will you?” Spike asked with some fear.

His dad’s casual answer reassured him more than anything else he could say. “Little flame, you can start breathing cold, walk on seven legs, and eat nothing but celery. It wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Now do your homework,” he ordered.

Spike threw himself at the book, finally being able to pay attention. “Let’s see… Two farmers produce an average of eleven apples per day each if the weather pegasi create rain once per week. How much…”

Raegdan’s leg shot out to stop a pony from entering. “Want something?” he growled.

“I… I have a message for Princess Celestia,” the unicorn said.

“Is it important enough to try going through me?” Raegdan said leaning towards him, his arms crossed over his chest.

The pony gulped and backed off. “I’ll just wait for her then?”

“You do that. I’d go to the throne room if I was you and schedule something with Paisley Leaf. She is holding court tomorrow.”

“But… yes sir, sorry sir. I’ll… I’ll be going now…”

Raegdan didn’t turn to look at Spike. “Six problems, little flame, or no dessert. Get to it,” he said in a friendly tone.

At least he had a good idea of what not to do if he wanted to have friends, Spike thought. He went back to problem solving. His precious gem was on the line!

Behind them, Celestia must have heard him because she mumbled something about cakes as she pressed her head deeper into the makeshift pillow.

Comments

[NickJones]

i realy like seeing the momy celestia dady raegdan dynamic

[wlam]

eat nothing but celery

Now there's a vision of horror.

Well, this one certainly made it quite clear why he eventually latched onto Luna so hard, didnt it? Finally there's someone who actually comes from the same world he does, mentally speaking. They have more in common with each other than they ever did with anyone around them.

[EvilEnchantress]

How does such a bad ass have the ability to create so many d'aws?

[shimonsays]

How does Raegdan sound in your guy's heads? To me, he sounds like a really gruff Keifer Sutherland.

What's your take Crimmar?

[Crimmar]

6859351 To me, he sounds like a combination of Jason Statham's voice and the accent of the guards from Skyrim. If you hear how they talk they got this intonement and pronunciation that sounds off enough to be weird, at least to me. I imagine Raegdan as not being able to properly talk Equestrian, even after all these years as his throat and mouth is different enough to make it not just hard but actually rough enough on him to permanently hurt his throat so he sounds gruff like that. I like to think he sounds peculiar enough to ponies that don't know him that his voice makes him even more alien and threatening to them. Kind of like an Uncanny Valley thing. He ALMOST gets it right but not enough.

[Scarheart]

Did he tell off Blueblood?

[DivinePanzer]

...Did Spike just ask why Reg shot down Princess Celestia?

That explains so much!

[Black--Soul]

Raegdan has seen and lived trough unspeakable baddream scenarios of the worst kind.
Having that in mind? That guy isn't a Saint but a damn fine anti-hero...