Blood Ties

by bestponydash

Behind the Scales is a Broken Heart

"First journal entry...excited for...no." Spike flipped a few pages, "Entry 20...celebration...not this one," [flip flip flip] "Entry 50, today big sis is finally a real princess, yeah yeah yeah..." Spike sighed as he grew impatient with sifting through the endless diary entries of the princess of the night's youth. "Entry 100, Tomorrow i'll finally be crowned a princess! No more taking orders from Tia, no more being treated as just a normal pony...not this one either." As Spike's frustration grew, he began jumping ahead by claw-fulls of pages, searching for what he needed to know. "Entry 250, No pony is telling me what's going on, they think I wouldn't take the news well. But I already figured out that mother and father are sick; it's the only explanation..." Spike paused as he read the next few entries.

"Entry 251,

The guards stay outside our doors at night, but I managed to sneak out once. I headed to mother and father's room to confirm my suspicions and I was right. I saw them laying in their bed, both of them pale and sweating. There were healers surrounding them, wiping their brows and poking them with medical instruments. I don't think Tia knows yet; I don't know if I should tell her or keep her in the dark. Eventually a guard found me peeking through the doorway and escorted me back to my room; he didn't say anything, just nudged me to bed and slowly shut the door behind him."

"Entry 252,

I didn't cry, is that wrong? When they told Tia and me, I simply stood there but I did not cry. Does that make me a bad pony, a bad daughter? Tia locked herself in her room for days until the guards forced her out. They said we did not have the time to grieve properly; we had work to do now that we were the sole leaders of Equestria. I don't know why I didn't shed a tear, perhaps it was because I already knew that this would happen soon. Maybe my heart didn't allow me to feel the pain fully because it would have killed me to face my emotions. Maybe I am just a monster for not feeling the loss."

"Entry 253,

Today was the first time since we got the news that I felt my pain. Celestia came to me in my room; she said nothing, but hugged me tight and let her tears fall onto my back and wings. It was that hug that broke the wall I had apparently built around my heart. The two of us cried together for as long as we were allowed to. Until the guards said we had to get back to our duties..."

Spike could feel the emotion imbedded in these words and pages and he did feel for the princesses, but he could not let curiosity or unnecessary interest in unrelated events hold his attention any longer. He moved on.

"Entry 300,

The past few days have been a constant routine for both my sister an me, but I think Tia is about to crack. With every meeting and public appearance she grows more and more frustrated with the royal members of the court. But I can't say that I fully blame her; for countless nights, now, I have been fending off nightmare after nightmare and yet our subjects seem to pay no mind to my work and give little thanks. Their dreams are filled with playful sunny days and only seem to feature the night when they're being chased by something..."

Spike would find no answers here, he flipped more pages.

Entry 350,

It would seem that the court has at last agreed on our new advisor, a unicorn named Lennox..." Spike's eyes widened, he was getting close, just a few more entries onward.

"...Made formal introductions...seems smart and determined...smiled at me earlier today...I think he's going to ask me to lunch..." Spike read through many entries describing the relationship between Luna and Lennox as it grew more serious, turning into a hopeless romantic's dream story. But this hardly interested the little drake. However, after passing all the filly-in-love talk, he did find something he was searching for.

"Entry 400,

Dragons, large reptilian creatures from beyond Equestria; I could hardly believe it, and I wouldn't have had I not seen the new species for myself..."

"Finally!" Spike said, trying to keep his voice down so as to not wake the ponies sleeping around him. Unfortunately, that would unavoidable as Spike suddenly heard hoofsteps galloping towards him. Spike new this had to be Twilight returning and quickly blew out his candle. As she got closer, Spike shut the book with his claw holding his place and layed down in Twilight's bed, trying to make himself unnoticeable.

Moments later, Twilight burst through the doors of the guest room, very effectively waking everypony up with quite a fright. "I know what happened!" she screamed.

"What who where why?!!!" Rainbow jumped from her bed in alarm.

"Twilight?" Fluttershy wearily said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Twilight continued, "Everypony follow me, I think I have the whole picture now; I know what happened."

"Know what happened? Darling, what are you talking about?" Rarity asked.

"I'll explain once everypony is together, now come on," she beckoned with her hoof and zoomed away.

The rest of the mane six looked to one another and shrugged their shoulders. "Should we follow?" asked AJ.

Dash sighed, "I don't think we have a choice." The ponies agreed with sleep deprived nods an got out of their beds to follow their crazy purple friend.

Spike was still lying prone on Twilight's bed, watching everything. Should he follow Twilight as well? She said she knew the truth, but what if she was mistaken; got the story mixed up? Spike did not doubt Twilight's ability to effectively decode a text, and every instinct he had said to trust his friend and believe every word of her explanation. Yet his body did not move, he did not join the mane six as they chased after the princess. Instead, Spike sat up and lit his candle once more; he opened Luna's journal and continued to read.

"Entry 405,

Why him! Why did they choose him to be the pony representative. My choice was much more suited for the job. Is it not bad enough that my own subjects do not appreciate me and my domain. Now they want to send away the only pony I feel comfortable talking to, the pony I ever... It is not fair..."

"So he was the representative," Spike whispered. It seems that Lennox's story had at least a slight truth to be based on. The dragon kept reading entries until he at last came across the one passage he had been searching for.

"Entry 415,

After all the talk, all the rumors, the accusations by the dragons, I find that what they say is true. Lennox came to me and showed me my sister's dark secret; he showed me the egg. I could not believe that Celestia could do this but when we confronted her she did not seem to even try to explain herself. 'To secure our future' she said. She would not give us more than that. After everything Lennox, myself, and the nation as a whole has gone through with this war, that is all we get. I don't know what to think of my sister right now, but...I want to believe that there is a reason why she has done this. I must believe that."

Spike halted, staring at the words, reading them again and again. It was true, Celestia took Spike from his parents as an egg and kept him magically suspended in time until Twilight hatched him. There was a war between the dragons and the ponies, a war with no discernible reason other than those words of Celestia: "To secure our future." Spike looked around the room as if he would find somepony who could help him understand all of this. Then he turned his attention back to the book; surely the next few entries would shed more light on this, give some form of answer as to why Celestia did what she did. But as Spike kept reading, he only found loss; the loss Lennox felt as his friend fell, the loss Luna felt at having to banish the pony she loved to tartarus, his own loss.

Spike had read enough; he threw the journal against the far wall and ran from the room. Twilight said she knew the truth; she must have found Celestia's reason in her book. Spike ran and ran, holding in the tears pushing against his eyelids. He ran until he reached the throne room, where he heard the voices of his friends. Spike peeked in through the doors and could overhear their conversation.

"So, let me get this straight," said AJ, "Celestia did actually take Spike?"

"Yes, but she had no choice. The elements needed me to hatch Spike, needed us to become who we are." It was then that the newly-made Lennox statue came into Spike's view. He had fought the ponies and lost.

Spike listened to his closest and oldest friend defend his egg-napping, the war against his kind. His mouth gaped and he took a step back, closing the door. Spike fell to his knees in anguish, tears fell down his cheeks. How could Twilight support this? How could she be okay with what was done to him. He lived his entire life knowing in his heart that Twilight would never harm him, but this appeared to be another lie. Spike's sense of self, his being, had been broken. He did not know what to do, how to react to this, so he ran. He ran from the castle as fast as he could, leaving a wet trail behind him. He did not stop until mid morning, hiding in a back alley at the edge of the city.

The broken dragon sunk to the ground and buried his face in his knees, sobbing. "What's wrong little fella?" asked an old earth pony, passing by. Spike lifted his head and the pony knelt down to wipe his face. "Are you lost?"

"Y-Yes."

The pony smiled, "Where are you from and how did you get here. Perhaps I can help you find your way home."

Spike looked down, "I-I...okay."

---

"Spike, are you in here? I need to tell you what going on; it's important," Twilight called into the guest room. The princess grew nervous after failing to find Spike in any of the rooms nearby. She went to her friends, "Have any of you seen Spike, I can't find him anywhere."

The mane six and the princesses shook their heads and Twilight shook in fear. "Oh no, what if he...I have to find him."

"Don't worry, dear," said Rarity, "He couldn't have gone far; we'll find him and tell him everything, you'll see."

Twilight took little comfort in her words, "Where could he be?" she said to herself.

The mane six returned to their room and sat on their beds, tired from the fight. Twilight was still worried about her missing dragon and decided to have a quick scan of the room for clues. Eventually, her eyes glanced upon a lone book on the floor. The book seemed familiar and she approached it. When she was close enough, Twilight gasped and grabbed the discarded journal. She quickly read a few entries, looking for what she was afraid Spike had read. After a minute or two, she dropped to book and the rest of the mane six turned to her.

"Darling...are you alright?" asked Rarity.

Twilight slowly looked off into the distance, "Oh no."

Author's Note:

Opinions in the comments

Comments

[bestponydash]

Labor day bonus chapter!! Enjoy!

[ShadowXper]

Now we are all caught up one both sides of spike and twilight story now we can advance and I can’t wait to see what happens

[spike2000]

MORE!!!!

If that okay

[FanficReader920]

Personally, I think Spike’s reasoning for being mad at Twilight is a bit half-baked. He knows how much Twilight cares for him, abd I don’t think he’s accept that or was all a lie just like that. I would say this causes Spike to AT LEAST confront her about what she’s saying. He’d get angry. Not run off.

Like this:

“Do you even hear yourself, Twilight?! You’re JUSTIFYING. The KIDNAPPING. Of a CHILD.”