Like Something's Missing

by Icecane

Teasing Tome

The skies above Equestria shined with the auras of the lands rulers. Caught between the light of day and the darkness of night, the land of ponykind was silent and still as the last vestiges of Luna's moonlit skies were cast away by Celestia's coming dawn.

As it was for the other pony civilizations, the humble town of Ponyville lay still as its residents remained in their beds to hold onto their last few minutes of rest. However, in a home of bark and leaves, the covers of one bed stirred as the sleeping form of a baby dragon awoke.

Spike, assistant to the one and only Ponyville librarian, slowly crawled out of his woven bed. The purple scaled dragon remained as silent as possible with each groggy movement, attempts to not disturb the still resting Twilight Sparkle who lay just a few feet away from his basket.

Soft cracks filled the room as Spike stretched his stiff joints, a muffled yawn escaping his closed mouth. It didn't take long for his drowsiness to finally leave him, allowing the dragon to make his bed and complete his first task of the day. A momentary smile crossed his face as he caught Twilight still in bed, a book opened over her face as she had tried reading in bed, failing at it once again.

It was an odd change for the young assistant, he could remember how not long ago the tables were turned and it was Twilight waking to a steadily rising sun, the sleeping form of a stubborn dragon soon within her sights. Perhaps he was simply growing out of it, though he had his doubts about that. Truthfully, a plagued mind was what kept his laziness at bay.

With small footsteps, Spike moved across the room toward the far wall. There, in its rightful place, a mirror stood tall. The small scratches on the wooden floor below it going unnoticed, Spike stepped before the imposing piece of furniture. It didn't take long for a second dragon to appear within the room, looking back at him with the same emerald green eyes.

Just as he did every morning, Spike examined himself in the mirror, his indifferent expression going unchanged. Soon, the young dragon began searching over himself for anything out of the ordinary. Though he searched all over his scaled body, his primary focus was on his back, the small claws of his toes lightly digging into the wood under him as he leaned forward on them to twist and turn his body for better views.

There was nothing, no change, no significant alteration of his body that wasn't there the day before. A heavy sigh escaped him as the mirrored dragon looked at him with sadness. The heavy weight of disappointment changed little, even as he heard the rustle of bedsheets behind him.

“Spike...” Twilight murmured, sitting up in her bed looking down at her assistant with drowsy eyes.

“Morning, Twilight,” the dragon replied with another sigh, not bothering to look at his caretaker, instead greeting her reflective self.

“Is something wrong?” the lavender unicorn asked, rubbing her eyes before sliding off her bed. “I know you've been looking at yourself for several days now. And you become so gloomy afterward.”

“Well... I...” Spike began, looking down at the floor uneasily. Though as he thought on it, he realized there was no reason to keep his inner troubles secret from his dear friend. “I've just been wondering what I'm supposed to be, what kind of a creature I am...” His gaze turned back to his reflection, his hand running across the smooth surface as mirror Spike did the same.

“You're a dragon, Spike,” Twilight said comfortingly, showing a soft smile as she moved toward him, “just not like all of the others. I thought you realized that during the Great Dragon Migration.” It had been nearly a month since that fateful day, Spike running off to find himself. The unicorn mare was certain her little assistant was satisfied with what he found out, now it seemed such problems were resurfacing.

“I-I know,” Spike replied, shaking his head in distraught sadness. “I act differently because I was raised by ponies and not dragons but... that doesn't explain how else I'm different.”

“Else?”

“Look at me,” the dragon said, turning to her, the watery outline of tears forming on his eyelids. “Look at what I'm missing! What kind of a dragon doesn't have wings?!”

Twilight was taken aback by the outburst. To be honest, Spike's lack of wings was never something that made itself a concern on her part. Though she knew he didn't have the necessary appendages for flight, ever since he was hatched as a matter of fact, it wasn't something that she saw as a problem. As far as she knew, Spike was a typical baby dragon, excluding a few personality traits.

But she couldn't deny that a problematic idea had crossed her every now and then. To simply assume that the bone and flesh would miraculously appear one day seemed farfetched, even for one magically gifted as herself. It would be smiler to expecting that a pegasus grew wings through their foalhood, a laughable concept seeing as they were born with them.

Twilight was at a loss. Once again, she was beyond helping her little assistant. Just as when Spike wanted to know more of his kind, all the years of sticking her nose in books for their juicy information failed her, having no idea about dragons other than her experiences with the purple one before her now.

“Spike,” the concerned mare said uncertainly, “I know you're upset by this but you need to realize something. Neither of us know about dragons, certainly not how they grow or how their wings might appear. It might simply be an issue of age and m-”

“But I know it's not!” Spike blurted out, his inner turmoil making itself clear.

Perhaps once, Spike's wingless body was ignored by him, being looked at as something he would have to wait to grow into. But as he saw others of his own kind, following their path during the migration, he came to realize just how different he was from them.

Even as he conversed with his own kin, their attitudes and amusements differing so greatly from his own, it was the physical differences he became aware of. Every dragon, regardless of age or size, had wings. Spike even caught sight a young baby dragon, no more than a year away from it's hatching day, wearing a small set of wings as it tried staying off of the ground for a few moments as it's mother watched.

Though the young dragon was able to accept how different his upbringing made him from the rest of his kind, but what cut deep into his being was the physical side of his separation. Now, no matter how many times he tried to look at the mirror, he knew nothing would ever change it. He felt just as lost as before.

“I'm sorry Spike,” Twilight finally said, pausing for some time as the little dragon's temper fizzled. “But even if there is an abnormality with you compared to others, there's nothing we could do for insight. Even if I had shelves upon shelves of books on dragons, I'm certain that a wingless one would be too rare to have any real information on.”

“So other dragons couldn't help me...” Spike said dejectedly, “and neither can books.” Growing up around a scholar like Twilight, the young dragon had learned to look at books as bountiful fonts of knowledge. Now, all he could see were piles of trash stuck together to put useless words inside.

“Please, Spike,” Twilight begged, lowering her head to nuzzle the dragon comfortingly, “if there was any way I could help I would. But you know there's little we can actually do.” After another long pause, Spike wiped away the remainder of his tears and nodded his head silently. “Come on, how about we go make some breakfast? I'm certain getting something to eat will make you feel better.”

---

It took some time for Twilight to actually make their breakfast. Constantly being reminded why Spike was the one who usually cooked anything, the lavender mare again realized how terrible she was at it. Pancakes were her breakfast of choice, knowing that the stacks of syrupy goodness was just the thing that could put a smile on a downtrodden dragon's face.

As they sat down to enjoy the freshly made confection however, Twilight's high hopes for an immediate flood of joy from her assistant crash landed horribly.

To call what lay before them both pancakes would be a lie by any right. Seemingly random spots on each seemed burned beyond recognition, a traditional circular shape was impossible to spot from the blob-like forms that the batter decided to form into, even the batter itself didn't seem to be cooked all the way through in some areas as the pancakes sagged in such spots. The added butter and syrup seemed to only make things worse as the light brown and yellow mixed it all into a viscous goop.

“Mmm, looks good,” Twilight said, her voice carrying a facade that made her want to slap herself. As though to make a lair out of herself, her fork developed a magenta aura around it as the utensil was lifted into the air. Taking several attempts to find a solid enough piece that wasn't burned, Twilight levitated the now filled fork into her mouth.

Her eyes widening immediately, Twilight felt as though her taste buds had suddenly revolted against her, the small bit of pancake easily being the worst thing she had ever tasted. It was all she could do to not make it show, even as she subtly put the fork down and lifted her glass of milk.

Spike sat still, hardly giving any attention to Twilight's obvious distaste with her own cooking. Fork in hand, he simply dug the utensil about into the gooey mess, picking at it with little interest in anything else. Even Twilight's comical chugging of her milk, quickly draining the glass to wash down the tiny morsel of pancake she had ingested, did nothing to lift his spirits.

“Oh, Spike,” Twilight moaned, hardly able to take how little she could actually help her dear assistant. “I really am trying, but there are just some things you can't-” The young scholar was then interrupted by a loud crash just outside their front door, followed quickly by a groan that seemed to fade away slowly. “Uh... I'll go see what that is.” Her quick departure from the table leaving her unaware of Spike excusing himself as well, taking his plate toward the trash and dumping the condemnable breakfast within.

Outside, Twilight looked high and low for what had just occurred. To her surprise, she noticed that a bush growing beside her library appeared to have been trampled, or at least crushed by something. Another key difference from the usual appearance of the front door was the small pile of white envelops that were laying on the welcome mat.

It didn't take long for the unicorn to deduce what had occurred, having seen the signs before. As though she had seen the future, Twilight looked up into the sky to the west and caught sight of a pegasus with a grey coat disappearing within the layer of clouds above the town.

Twilight smiled and shook her head dismissively at the clumsy mailmare, having grown used to the usually minor destruction that was caused in her wake. Still however, the mare couldn't help but frown at the letters scattered in front of her now, immediately spotting wrong addresses on most of them. With a sigh, she levitated the pile of mail and trotted back into her home.

“Let's see,” Twilight muttered to herself as she looked through the different names. As she suspected, the majority of the letters belonged to other ponies. But her gaze soon turned to one of curiosity as something other then a letter was found amongst the mail.

A small crate, roughly the size of one of her books, was addressed to her specifically. Setting it down on the table within the main room of the library, Twilight's magic was focused on the nails that kept the crate shut. The metallic objects glowed for a moment before removing themselves from the wood they were hammered into, allowing the unicorn to lift the lid off of her package.

Waiting snugly within the now opened crate, a rectangular object was neatly wrapped. Twilight noticed the precaution the wrapping had, used to protect whatever it was that was sent to her. With cautious movements, she levitated the object out of the crate and set it down on the table, slowly removing the wrappings to see what they hid.

As if just now noticing what its shape would mean, Twilight gazed upon an old tome that was now in front of her. It was a simple enough book, small compared to the many others she had seen over the years, yet something told her that it was extremely old. A simply divine mixture of age and care left her wondering just how old the tome might have been. Not even a title was present on its cover, showing just a simple depiction of what looked like a reptilian wing stretched across it.

But Twilight's eyes widened as she fully realized exactly what she had received.

“Spike, Spike!” the unicorn called, levitating the tome as she dashed through the library.

It didn't take her long to locate her assistant, the baby dragon was upstairs, giving small bits of food to the phoenix hatchling Peewee. But the baby phoenix was quick to fly upward as Spike felt the weight of a pony crashing into him, knocking him to the ground as Twilight loomed over him.

“T-Twilight? What's going on?” The unicorn's large smile was quickly beginning to scare him.

“Look, Spike,” Twilight said, excitement brimming in her voice as she lowered the tome down for him to see. “Remember after the Great Dragon Migration we sent a request to Princess Celestia? You know, asking her if there were any books on dragons within the Canterlot archives. Well, this must be her response!” An elated squeal escaped the mare as she sat down and began looking through the first few pages of the old tome. “I should have known she wouldn't have failed. Well, at first I thought her lack of a response meant she didn't find anything. But silly me, I completely forgot about her big trip to the Griffon Empire so of course she would be far too busy to search through a few books. She must have sent this just before she left!”

“Twilight,” Spike said, snapping the mare out of her tangent, “so that book has stuff about dragons in it?”

“Well...” Twilight hesitated, looking over an explanation on the subject matter of the tome for a moment, “it seems to be more about legends rather than actual facts.”

“Legends?” Spike parroted, tilting his head to the side as he tried to remember what the difference was.

“You know, old pony tales that are more just stories and not real things. Really, this tome seems to be written specifically about several dragons of legend, but I doubt any of them ever existed or that the facts about them are at least exaggerated.”

“I don't care,” Spike said determinedly, “if it's about dragons, then I want to see it.” Twilight couldn't help but smile, seeing the dragon's attitude shift for the better so quickly at the proposition of learning a little bit about his kind.

“Okay then,” the lavender mare said with a nod, levitating two cushions for them to rest on. Taking their seats and making themselves comfortable, Spike leaned against Twilight's side as he looked at the aged pages opened before him.

“So it's just about specific dragons then?” Spike asked, looking up expectantly at his companion.

“Yes,” Twilight answered, turning to the beginning of the book where a row of names were written neatly, a page number beside each one. “Let's see, there are a number of names here, now what one sounds more interesting... There's Draco, Palewing, Spiral, Doomaught Razormaw... ugh he sounds unpleasant... Serilex the Flightless, Falc-”

“Wait!” Spike shouted frantically, jumping up and nearly ramming his upper head-spine into Twilight's jaw. “Quick! What was that last dragon's name?!”

Regaining her composure after her near injury, Twilight found her place on the list of names again and re-read the last name. It seemed odd to her as it seemed to come with a title. “Serilex the Fli....” She stopped suddenly, her eyes wide as she stared at those three words.

“Flightless....” Spike breathed, looking just as stunned as Twilight. “C-could that mean he didn't have wings?”

Without giving an answer, the unicorn looked for the page number that this particular dragon was mentioned on. It took only a moment for her to find the specific place, but hearts sank the moment they looked upon it, seeing nothing but a simple paragraph waiting for them.

“'Serilex the flightless,'” Twilight read, “'an ancient dragon who has appeared in multiple tales on the oldest of dragons. Perhaps unique among his kind, his title is one given for his wingless form. Very little is truly known about this dragon, save for his name, title and age. Only a few scholars have ever attempted research of this elder beast, bearing little fruit for the effort, except for one. Refer to The Dragonium, chapter ten, page three fourteen.'”

A long silence fell over them, both Twilight and Spike didn't move or speak for sometime. Peewee soon flew down to land on the dragon's head. After several pecks of his beak, the young assistant stirred and looked back down on the tiny passage that was just read.

“Is... is that it?” he asked, trying to hide his disappointment with hopeful optimism. Twilight's gaze focused back on the same paragraph, her brow furrowing as her eyes formed into a furious glare.

“How can that be it?!” she snapped, turning the next page to make sure there wasn't any missing information. “How could a book give so little information on something so important? I mean, a wingless dragon! That has to be a big thing, right? But to give us nothing but a reference to another book... Why that's just... that's just a tease!”

“So...” Spike muttered in confusion, “does that mean we need to find this... 'Dragonium'?”

“I really don't see how that's possible,” Twilight answered sadly. “This tome seems to be very old, so the one it's referencing must be just as ancient. That will make it that much more difficult to find.”

Spike held his head down in dismay. Just when he thought he might find a quick answer to his plight, everything seemed to become lost once again. But, as the gears in his mind began to turn, his eyes focused on the book still in Twilight's magical grasp. It was then, an obvious conclusion made itself known.

“We can go to Canterlot,” the young dragon said with a rising excitement. When Twilight simply looked at the dragon quizzically, the assistant huffed in agitation before explaining himself. “This book came from the archives right? Well, they must have other books on dragons and what better place for such an important book other than the castle, under the care of the Equestrian royalty.”

“But, Spike,” Twilight said, a frown appearing on her muzzle, “I told you before that Princess Celestia is off on her trip to the Griffon Empire, it will take several days for her to return” Spike was undeterred by her words however, his determination knowing no bounds now.

“What about Princess Luna?” Spike said, immediately finding a solution. “She's supposed to be running the castle while Celestia's away. We can go to her and ask to find this book.”

“Spike,” the unicorn muttered uneasily, not liking the idea of disturbing a probably overburdened princess of the night. “I really don't think-” She paused, seeing Spike's cheeks turn red with frustration as he crossed his arms stubbornly.

'Didn't you say that if there was any way to help find out about myself, that you would do it?”

Twilight's own words now came back to bite her. Despite how she felt about going on a wild chase to research a dragon that probably never existed anyway, the words she had said to Spike about helping were indeed genuine. Now, the determined little dragon was putting her to the test.

“Alright then,” Twilight relented, smiling down on her assistant, “let's go.”

Comments

[EverlastingKnightmare]

This has my attention, I will read this later.

Do not disappoint young one.

[sgtnolisten]

Hello interesting concept. How are you today? Didn't I see you over at a few other fics today?

I will be reading this later, when I don't have a back-log of 20 different stories.

[*Squee*]

^^^ What he said.

[mariosalvatore]

an thus the longest journey begins Twilight and her loyal baby dragon shall cross the snowy mountains, explore the ancient ruins and caves that fill Equestria. Seeking the ultimate truth of dragon kind, culminating at the point they face the ultimate enemy...[img]static.fjcdn.com/large/pictures/c0/4f/c04f4b_3379344.jpg[/img]

[RayearthNinja]

oh yeah, im tracking this.

[PrometheusDark]

Looks good. Let's see how this all turns out, eh?~

[BenRG]

Based on Spike's greed-induced adult form, I suspect that he's a Gojira

[Scathecraw]

An interesting concept for a story, but the prose is a little lackluster. The word choice is acceptable, but the way you constructed your sentences feels like you either speak English as a second language or are trying to make your writing more flowery and eloquent. Keep practicing though. You have genuine talent, if you keep working at it.