My Little Student

by Lets Do This

A Low-Maintenance Friend

"I passed, I passed, I passed!" Twilight sang, dancing in a circle around Cadance, as Cadance trotted down the corridor away from the Vault, trying thereby to keep both of them moving in the right general direction. "I passed, I passed, I pa-a-a-sssed!"

"Twilight," Cadance warned her, "other ponies are going to start asking me why I have a small filly orbiting me, and I'm going to have to tell them I have no idea who she is!"

"But I passed! Celestia gave me a pop final! And I got every question right! I got every spell right! I got them all ri-i-i-i-ght!"

"I'm happy and proud for you, I truly am!" Cadance said as Twilight started orbiting again. "But (a) you're making me feel seriously dizzy, and (b) you're liable to run into somepony, charging around like that without looking!"

"But I passed! I passed! I -- OOF!"

Cadance hadn't meant it literally but just as they turned the corner Twilight smacked straight into someone going the other way. The impact set her back hard on her haunches. "Ow!"

The other party had been flung several feet back down the corridor. It was a small purple dragon with green spines, who lay face down where he'd landed.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Twilight called. "I wasn't looking! Are you hurt?"

The dragon's head popped up. "Nah! I'm fine! Takes a lot more than that to faze me!" He jumped up and trotted up to her. Even sitting up as she was, she was only a little above eye-level with him. He stuck out a small claw. "Name's Spike! Nice to meetcha!"

"Hello, Spike!" Twilight replied hesistantly, putting out a hoof for a shake. "I'm Twilight!"

"Twilight Sparkle?" Spike asked, his green cat-like eyes widening. "Oh yeah! I knew I'd seen you before! You busted me out of my egg, remember? About time too! They had me sitting on that shelf for ages. I was wondering if they'd forgotten about me!"

"You're that baby dragon?" Twilight smiled. "Wow! I'm... glad I could help!"

"Me too! 'Course, it was a little weird being forty feet tall for a while. But I figured it would sort itself out, and it did." Spike beamed. "Princess Celestia's been talking all about you! I was hoping I'd run into you at some point. Though less painfully... for you, I mean!"

"Sorry!" Twilight got to her feet, just as Cadance came up to join them. "Oh, and this is Cadance, my foal-sitter."

"My lady!" Spike made a formal bow in Cadance's direction.

"Hello, Spike!" Cadance replied, smirking at him. "Are you on an errand, or are you just wandering around again?"

"A little of both actually," Spike admitted. "I'm supposed to be heading back to Celestia's chambers for dinner. But... I'm kinda taking the long way home, to be honest."

"Why, Spike?" Twilight looked amazed. How could anyone not want to take dinner with the Princess?

"Well... it's going to be a working dinner again, with some nobles from the crusty side of town. You know!" He rolled his eyes. "Gotta be on my best behavior, try not to barf when they tell me how cute I am, stuff like that!" He grimaced. "And she doesn't even really need me for stuff like that. I'd give it a pass, if I could!"

"Well, I just got done with my lessons for today," Twilight said, "and we're headed back to my room for dinner. You wanna join us?"

Spike looked sorely tempted. "Uhm... I should be getting back. I've already gotten in trouble a couple times this week for wandering off..." He added a look that made it very clear all he needed was an excuse.

Cadance looked from him to Twilight, a measuring look in her eyes. "I'm sure Celestia would understand, Spike," she said. "If she asks, I can tell her where you were."

"Well... okay! Don't have to ask me twice!" He readily trotted along beside Twilight.

They returned to Twilight's room, where the table by the windows had already been set for them. They set out an extra place and stacked some books on a chair for Spike to sit on. And there followed the strangest dinner Cadance had ever had with Twilight -- one in which Cadance didn't have to utter a word. Spike kept up an endless round of chatter with Twilight. He talked about the things Celestia had him doing to keep him busy, asked about the spells Twilight was learning, and gossiped with her about goings-on in the castle. And Cadance noticed Twilight taking the opportunity to pepper Spike with questions about Celestia. Spike didn't mind answering, though he admitted she kept him so busy they didn't spend a lot of time in the same room, even.

Cadance felt she should contribute something to the conversation, so she spoke up when there was a momentary lull. "Spike, if you don't mind my asking, how is it that you've learned to speak so well so quickly?"

Spike preened a bit at the compliment, then shrugged. "Celestia says it's 'cause dragons are born with language skills kinda built-in. We just need to learn the words, and we can use 'em. Saves a lot of time! Though some ponies assume that because I'm so small I can't talk yet."

"I don't know how anypony could get that impression," Cadance said dryly.

Cadance also noticed that Spike wasn't above playing tricks on Twilight, like pointing out the window at a passing pegasus while swiping a cookie from her plate and stuffing it in his mouth. And Twilight clearly enjoyed letting him think he'd gotten away with it. She also laughed out loud when Spike suddenly made a face and belched green fire.

"Whoah!" he said, thumping his chest with a claw. "Better out than in, huh? 'Specially if you're a dragon!"

Cadance was just stacking a few of the empty dishes to make some room when Twilight suddenly sat up, anxious. "Oh! I completely forgot! Celestia's going to start teaching me about spell construction. She assigned me to look up the twelve base spell components, and write a summary of each of them!"

"Can't you do it tomorrow, Twi?" Cadance asked gently. "It's almost bedtime!"

"She wanted it first thing! Ohhh!" Her horn flared, and a book lifted from a nearby case and thumped clumsily onto the table in front of her.

"Twi..." Cadance reminded her. "We agreed no reading at the table, remember?"

"But I'm all done, really! And this won't take long. I just need to look them up and write them down!" Frantically, she turned pages. "Now, I just need a pen and paper!"

"Oh, hey!" Spike said. "Lemme get that for ya!" He clambered up onto the tabletop, and Cadance quickly steadied it with a hoof as Spike marched over to the carved box sitting in the center, found quill and parchment, and fetched them back.

"Thanks, Spike! Now, the first one is easy, that's linear flow." The quill glowed with magic from Twilight's horn as it scratched hurriedly across the paper. "The next is fork-join, the third is iteration, the fourth recursion..." Suddenly Twilight looked at the paper. "Urhhh! I can't write when I'm in a hurry. I messed it up!" The paper scrunched up and flicked away, and the pen poised over a fresh sheet as Twilight frantically skimmed back a page.

"Here, gimme!" Spike said, reaching for the quill. Picking up the parchment, he held it up and readied the pen. "You tell me what to write, I'll write it!"

Twilight looked at him, surprised. "You can write, too?"

"Well, duh! It's just words, right? Writing's as easy as talking. Only difference is the words go down on the page rather than out in the air. Only problem I have is some of the longer words. I forget how to spell 'em, at least until I'm seen them a few times. But you can just show me those. I'll copy 'em down."

"Okay, the first is linear flow, the second is fork-join..."

"Hold it... fork... join... right, what's next?"

Cadance left the two of them working at it while she stacked the rest of the plates. Then she looked around, trying to find something else to do. For once she didn't want to interrupt Twilight's absorption in a book.

"... and the twelfth is the recursive combinator," Twilight said proudly, pointing a hoof at a line on the page.

"... re-cur-sive...com-bi-na-tor!" Spike muttered as he copied it. "Got it!"

"Perfect! I just need to sign my name, and we're done."

"Wait! Let's make it official!" Spike scribbled busily on the bottom of the sheet, then showed it to her. "How's that?"

"From the desk of Twilight Sparkle, as transcribed by Spike," she read. For a moment she looked uncertain. Then she beamed. "I love it! It sounds just like the notes the Princess sends me!"

"Yeah, well..." Spike shrugged. "She sometimes has me write those for her too, when she's busy doing too much at once. Like she always is!"

Cadance joined them in a laugh at that. "All right, you two! Bed time!"

"Yeah, I should be getting back!" Spike said reluctantly, climbing down from the table to the stack of books on his chair, and from there down to the floor. "I'll really catch it from Celestia if I'm late for my bedtime again!"

"Don't worry about it, Spike," Cadance said. "We'll cover for you!"

"Thanks a bunch... m'lady!" He bowed. "Well, g'night Twilight!" He waved. "Hope I run into you again!"

"Boom!" Twilight said, giggling.

"Yeah! Boom's right!" Spike smiled. "See ya!" He scampered out the door.

"Wow!" Twilight said, staring at the finished homework as if she couldn't believe it was already done. Then she hopped down from her seat and trotted over to bed.

Cadance tucked her in and blew out the light, and was just walking out through the door when she heard a sleepy voice behind her.

"Boom!" Twilight whispered to herself. Then she giggled happily.

Cadance smiled thoughtfully at that.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Let us be clear about this, niece," Celestia said later, in private. "Are we talking about the same Spike? It's like pulling shoe nails getting him to do anything. I have to dump him out of his basket every morning to wake him up! And more than once I've had to send the Guard out to find him when he's wandered off."

"One and the same!" Cadance confirmed. "And I think I know why he and Twilight get along so well." Cadance tried to figure out how to put it gently, then decided blunt force trauma was simpler. "It's because they're pretty much the same age."

Celestia eyed her levelly.

"Life doesn't begin 'til five hundred, you know. But I take your point. I keep forgetting that even though Spike speaks so fluently, he's still very young."

"The lessons Twilight is learning are easier for him to relate to since he's still learning things himself," Cadance pointed out. "And he also sees how much they mean to her, which makes him want to pitch in and help out."

"Spike?" Celestia said, disbelievingly.

"I'm serious! They get along amazingly well. He's so talkative and so undemanding. He's basically a very low-maintenance friend for her. I think she likes that. And --" She played her trump card. "-- he's able to get her nose out of the books."

"You don't say," Celestia replied dryly. "That is an accomplishment."

Cadance smiled at her. "So... may I tuck you in now, your Majesty?"

"Yes, niece. I would be very grateful if you did."

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

That was a very unexpected role for Spike. I quite like it; I've already read a hundred fics about her trying to raise him when she's just a kid herself.

[Tranquil Serenity]

Chapter 8

For a while it seemed that Celestia was a bit OOC to me, since despite the similarities to her canon self, here she could be prone to being a tincy bit snappish, grouchy, or maybe a little less sympathetic and considerate than normal. But then it became clearer as chapters progressed that this was because of the weight of knowing that Nightmare Moon was coming back to take over Equestria, and that she had to adequately train somepony to face her before it was too late, and that's on top of all her regular royal duties - all of which puts quite a bit of stress on her.

This chapter was especially delightful with Spike finally showing up in the mix. For a while everything just seemed so appropriately occupying our attention that I'd temporarily forgotten about Spike being present in Twilight's foalhood. I actually like the idea that Twilight didn't have to care for a hatchling dragon at so young an age like she were an adult mother, but instead the pair just sort of meshed personalities a bit later as fast-friends, Spike being her enthusiastic helper. This chapter was handled very well, and it was rather pleasant to imagine the little dragon's familiar and chattery voice when he spoke. I'm enjoying this read.