Dog Years

by AugieDog

1 - Eye to Eye

Looking up from his basket at the foot of her bed, Spike gave Twilight as much of a glare as he could manage. "You know what it usually means when they say a dog's gone to live in the country, right?"

Squatting on the carpet, Twilight blushed a deeper purple, and Spike closed his eyes briefly to send his usual 'thank you' to whatever power had given him the ability to think and speak and see the full range of colors more than a dozen years ago now. "The phrase is 'going to live on a farm,'" Twilight more sputtered than said, "and it's got nothing to do with this!" She put a finger to her chin. "Though the countryside in Equestria is very nice, the little I've seen of it. Just exactly what you'd expect a magical pony world to look like." Shaking her head, she got all stern-faced again. "But I'm being serious, Spike!"

"I know." He ignored the crick in his neck and tried to clear the roughness from his voice without making it sound like he was doing so. "And I'm fine, Twilight. Maybe next year we can—"

"You've been saying 'next year' for the last five years." She folded her arms. "As near as Sunset, Fluttershy, and I can tell, your exposure to Equestrian magic has done a lot to keep you healthy this long, but we've got to face facts. You're not getting any younger."

"I'm fine!" Pushing himself up onto all fours, he did some more ignoring: the little stabbing pain in this hips and the little gnawing pain—not so little anymore, he had to admit—in his middle. "Maybe I'm not the bouncy, fun-loving ball of fluff I used to be, sure, but, well, neither are you, Dr. Sparkle. And I'm betting your students at Canterlot Tech would agree with me." He lolled his tongue out in a canine smile and added a human-type grin to the expression.

As he'd known would happen, Twilight's sternness melted, but her lips went all pinched, her forehead wrinkling. "We can't put this off any longer, Spike." She swallowed so loudly, Spike could hear it even through the stuffiness that had been creeping into his ears for a while now. "We need to talk about it."

Seeing her unhappy always made his throat tighten, but the thought of leaving her... "I'm fine," he said again, just managing to control the process of lowering himself back onto his cushion without his knees and elbows giving way completely.

"Spike—"

"There's nothing to talk about!" He didn't want to snarl, but that was how it came out. "I'm not moving to Equestria! My life's here! In the world where I was born! As a dog, not a dragon! End of discussion!" Trying to roll over so he could put his back to her, he had to concentrate, slowly drawing his legs up against his belly so he wouldn't wince at the low-grade ache the movement caused.

As muddy as his sense of smell had become, he couldn't miss the sour stink of Twilight's fear. But her voice scarcely shook at all when she said, "What about just a visit, then?"

He stopped and looked up at her again, her hands clutched in front of the purple sweater she was wearing. This was a new wrinkle to what had become a fairly regular argument by now. "A visit?" he asked.

"For a weekend!" Her smile had way too many teeth showing. "I can talk to Sunset, and I'm sure she'll be happy to arrange everything with Princess Twilight on the other side any time we're ready to go! Because, yes, I mean, sure, you wouldn't be moving there this year! What was I thinking even bringing it up?" Her laugh, every bit as phony as her smile, collapsed just as quickly. "But you said maybe...maybe next year, and...and we could just...just go over now and...and see what it's like?"

Another unmistakable scent—the salty and awful smell of her tears—wavered across his nose, and squinting, he thought he could see her eyes shimmering in the bedroom light.

More than the usual little pain gnawed at his innards, and gritting his teeth, he pushed himself up once more so he could peer more closely at her face. "Just the two of us? Just for a weekend? Or are you planning on getting all the girls together so you can try to guilt me into staying there?"

Her relief washed over him with an almost flowery aroma, then Twilight was bending down, catching him in her arms, pulling him to her chest. "Just us," she breathed, and Spike closed his eyes, the sensation of being held by her worth every jabbing twinge that crackled through him. "Well, I mean, us and Princess Twilight and her Spike." He felt the cushion of his bed slide back into place beneath him, her grip sadly loosening, but she kept scritching the fur at the side of his head. "They'll meet us on the other side of the portal to show us around. That's all: no high-pressure tactics, no hard sell, nothing. Okay?"

Like he could refuse her and her magic fingers anything when she was actually acting reasonable on the subject... Still, he blew out a breath and tried his best to look exasperated. "All right," he said. "I guess it won't hurt to pay a visit and see you turn into a little horse." He aimed a smirk up at her. "So when would we go?"

"Yes!" Twilight shouted, and Spike had to gasp when she scooped him up again, sprang to her feet, and rushed for the bedroom door. "How 'bout now? Is now good for you? 'Cause I'm thinking now!"

"What?" Spike started to squirm, but that just made things inside him feel more stabby; Twilight's arms had come around to support his hind legs, though, so he let his weight settle against her stomach, spread himself over the wonderland of her torso, and rested his head on her shoulder. "So when you said you could talk to Sunset about this," he murmured into her ear, "you meant that you'd already talked to her about it."

"I did," she said, and Spike's fur prickled, the purple glow and lavender scent of her magic stroking over him; vaguely, he heard a metallic rattle, and he glanced down to see her car keys float over to drop into her sweater pocket. "I really, really, really hoped you'd agree, so I had her set it up for this weekend." More rattling and a creak told him she'd magicked the front door open.

The late afternoon sunlight made him squint, and he tried not to think about how long it had been since the two of them had been able to even go for a walk together. "Devious as always, Twilight." He snuggled into her neck. "I assume the girls'll be meeting us at the portal?"

"What?" They'd reached the passenger side of her little Wonder Bolt, the electric car she'd designed and built six years ago while still an undergrad at Canterlot Tech, gaining her several degrees and her first professorship all at once. "No!" She glared down at him through her glasses and settled him into the front seat. "That part was completely true: just you and me and Princess Twilight and her Spike."

She stood, closed the door, and Spike watched her practically skip around the front of the car to the driver's side. "But," she went on, sliding behind the wheel and starting the motor, barely a hum to Spike's ears, "if we have fun, maybe the next time, we could get everyone together and have a major outing like the good old days."

Spike did some more not thinking about the last time all eight of them had been together, how winded he'd gotten just walking through the park to their picnic site, how he hadn't been able to play fetch any more than he'd been able to miss the wrinkled brows and wavering fear scent from all the others. "Yeah," he said, also trying not to remember how much he used to enjoy the sensation of the wind whipping through his ears when he could still climb up and stick his head out the window while she drove. "Just like the good old days."

Comments

[Comickook]

REALLY good start to this story. Yeah, absolutely loved the dialogue between Dog Spike and Human Twilight about twelve years following "Friendship Games" as well as the reflections on how much things have changed.

On to the next chapter.

[AlexTFish]

Wow. That is quite the emotional stakes to set, right from the get go. And setting this inside Spike's head makes it painfully, achingly clear how, well, painful and aching his body is at the moment, in a way that's not getting better. A very compelling start.

[PresentPerfect]

You ever look at a title and an author and just know you're going to be very sad?

[AugieDog]

10827481

When have I ever:

Done sad?

Mike