Spike's Nameless Brother

by Cold Spike

Chapter 7: A Cupcake Fills the Soul

It was less than a week before school would start for Shyfrost, he spent the next couple of days preparing. The extra school work was easy enough to get through, but Fluttershy insisted they repeat each assignment, so it seemed normal to him.

“Okay , that seems to be everything, but you don’t start school for a couple of days. What could you do until then?” Fluttershy wondered out loud.

“Actually, I was wondering if I could go see Twilight?” The drake looked up hopefully.

“Well, I guess so; she did say that you were going to be her new research project after all. Were there any other reason that you wanted to see her?”

“I wanted her to take a look at my amulet, it's been acting…funny.”

She squinted her eyes to examine it, then shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“Just feel it.” He brought it up to her hoof; to her it felt hot to the touch.

“Goodness, why is it so hot?”

He shrugged then set it aside. “Sometimes it gets warm, but never this warm.”

“Well if anypony knows what this means it would be Twilight. You know where to go, right?”

“Sure, I’ll be back later, I guess. Bye Fluttershy!” He waved to her and set off into Ponyville.

Okay, I wasn't paying attention whenever we walked to the library. So this would put me… He looked around, then slumped down to sigh. completely lost.

Shyfrost was standing in the middle of the market district, there were ponies all over the place trying to sell and buy goods. He looked around trying to recognize one but everything seemed so foreign to him.

There isn't anyone I know... I guess I could just ask someone.

Every time he tried to strike up a simple conversation, he was pushed aside by another busy pony. Being in the middle of a herd of them wasn't a great idea, so he walked off to the side to simply gaze. Shyfrost let out a great big sigh and sat down next to a few food stands.

“This is boring. I guess I could just explore the town until I find the library.” He was seated with his legs crossed and was using his right claw to rest his head. Nopony had noticed him.

He got up and started walking in a random direction; he noticed plenty of houses but no library. Again ponies seemed to be purposely ignoring him.

“Alright, this is getting me nowhere fast; if I could just see the town better I could spot the library.” He looked around again for something to climb onto, but nothing was tall enough except the houses.

“Would ponies get mad if I climbed on top of a house?” It didn’t seem too crazy in comparison to a mountain and he was literally out of ideas. Nopony was going to talk to him, so he decided to go for it.

He shrugged and began his short journey to the top of a random house in Ponyville. He figured using ice to climb would just tick off the other ponies, so he used his claws. The houses had plenty of wood railings to cling to; it wasn’t too difficult a task. What Shyfrost failed to realize, however, was the time of day. The sun was shining brightly outside giving passers a full view of a baby dragon climbing the side of a house.

Okay, easy, don’t want to fall,... just a few more feet and I’m at the top!

Once he reached the top of the straw covered roofs, he began to latch onto some strands and pull himself up. At this point some of the other ponies in town had spotted him and were gathering around the house.

“I can see Sweet Apple Acres, and there is Fluttershy’s cottage…AH HA I found the library! Finally!” He practically screamed this and for no particular reason, he looked down. He saw several adult ponies staring at him curiously and a few looked rather angry.

Whoops, okay just climb down slowly and…run.

It was a quick descent to the bottom. The whole time all eyes were on him. He slowly turned around to find, at least, twenty other ponies staring him down.

“You saw that, huh?”

The only reply were some angry grunts, but nopony felt like talking.

“Right…well bye!” Immediately he started running in the direction of the library, however, to his amazement, on one followed.

Finally, the library. I hope Twilight is there.

The door swung open with a loud slam. Shyfrost was quick to close the door and rested against it letting out a loud sigh. He failed to realize some ponies in the library staring at him.

“Shyfrost, you seem like you were in a hurry, ” Twilight spoke up eyeing him.

“Oh, um, yeah I was.”

“Any particular reason why?” Shyfrost looked up to the voice of Princess Celestia, who was calmly sipping on some tea.

“Princess! Oh no reason... I just felt like running?” He hoped that was enough to convince them.

“Well it certainly looked like fun,” She playfully responded while sipping more tea.

“I didn’t know you were here," Shyfrost directed at Celestia, then turned to face Twilight, "I can come back later Twilight?”

“Oh no, we were just talking about you. I’m glad you have a name now, Shyfrost.” Again, the princess responded for Twilight.

“Yeah, uh, what were you talking about?” He walked over to both of them while catching his breath.

“Well, I mentioned to her you will be attending school soon,” Twilight finally spoke up.

“Oh , uh, right.”

“Yes, this will be the first case of a dragon student attending a pony school, Shyfrost.” Celestia was smiling down at him.

“What about Spike?”

“I home schooled Spike back at the castle, ” Twilight replied.

“But why didn’t he go to school instead?”

Twilight shrugged. “Well, while there were laws that allowed it…Spike was not that interested.”

“Why not?” Shyfrost was eyeing Twilight and completely forgot about Celestia at this point.

“Because I was afraid.” All three of them turned around to Spike descending the stairs.

The frost drake blinked in confusion. “Afraid of what?”

“Of being the only dragon in class, I mean those classes in Canterlot were huge! Each class had way more than just sixteen ponies.”

“So I’m really the only dragon to attend a pony school?”

“Yes, soon. I know this sounds scary, Shyfrost, but I can assure you school is not that bad.” Celestia has perked up and was still playfully sipping some tea.

“It kind of sounds bad for dragons.” He was getting annoyed while all three of them were giving him awkward smiles.

“Look, were not going to promise you that it will be easy, Shyfrost. Not all ponies are nice but-“ She was cut off by him.

“You’re telling me, aside from you and your friends,uh, Spike... " He trailed off, then quickly looked around and spotted the princess. "And you and Princess Luna... nopony in town seems to want to talk to me.” He sighed in frustration.

“Yes, ponies, sometimes, need to warm up to non-ponies. You just have to give them time, and that goes for school as well.” This time Celestia was talking quite seriously, but with a hint of being as sincere as possible.

“But how come the other ponies like Spike so much? We don’t look that different!” His voice was raised much higher than he realized.

“Hmm, well, Spike has always been helpful around Ponyville and over the last couple of years they have grown quite used to him.” Celestia went back to her tea.

“You just have to be patient dude.” Spike’s claw was now resting on his shoulder with a very reassuring smile on his face.

He smiled back. “Okay Spike, I can be patient.”

The odd tension in the room was now gone.

“Oh Twilight I wanted to ask you about my amulet.” Shyfrost reached into his pouch and brought it out placing it on the table next to their tea pot.

She eyed the thing with only a hint of curiosity. “What about it?”

“Feel for yourself.”

Twilight gently lifted it up using her magic and placed her right hoof on it. Realization dawned on her so she offered it to Princess Celestia who did the same.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a crystal doing this, have you Princess?”

Princess Celestia was deep in thought, her expression never changing to a smile or a frown. In a neutral tone, she responded with a simple no and shrugged.

“But is it magical? I mean I used to think it was a good luck charm. But it's like it talks to me and makes me brave. Does that sound stupid?”

“No it’s not stupid, and I do detect some light magical properties from it, but nothing too shocking.” Twilight was still eyeing the stone keeping it levitated with her magic.

“What’s that mean?”

“It doesn’t mean anything; it has slightly more magic than the average gemstone. That’s all.” Twilight levitated it back in his claws and he put it back in his pouch.

“Now, you said you would let me study you Shyfrost, correct?” Twilight had already levitated a long parchment and a quill to the table.

“Yeah…” He said it longingly looking back at Celestia who gave him a wink and then back to Twilight who looked more excited than a young filly.

“Well do you mind staying for the first steps on this assignment Princess?”

“I don’t see why not, come take a seat next to me, Shyfrost.”

He shrugged and hopped onto the cushion next to the Princess and got comfortable. Twilight was busy writing down some questions to ask him while Celestia was looking down at Shyfrost with curiosity. The silence in the room was making him feel uneasy but it wasn't like he knew the Princess to be an angry pony. At least, in the short time that he knew her. Spike was sent back upstairs.

“Okay, I’m going to ask you a series of questions and you just answer them the best that you can. Alright Shyfrost?”

“Okay.”

“Question one, was Spike the first dragon you came into contact with?”

“Uhh, y-yes?”

She shook her head and scribbled a few things down. “So that means no dragons raised you?”

“Right, I raised myself.” He claimed, though, it was more of a belief to him than a known fact.

“If both of your statements are correct, then how did you know what a dragon was? If no one else was around to tell you?”

He blinked a few times and began to absentmindedly play with his tail. “I guess I didn’t know until I started reading.”

She nodded/ “Did you read that other dragons breathed fire?”

“Well, yeah, why?”

“Well, I was just wondering if it ever bother you that no other dragons could control ice? Surely books would have mentioned if they could.”

“No, I guess I just thought that some dragons breathed fire and others did ice.”

“While it is true that dragons have amazing control over the element of fire, I’m afraid that you are the first dragon I have ever heard of that does quite the opposite, Shyfrost. And I have been around for over one thousand years.” Celestia spoke up with no hint of any emotion in her voice but when she finished speaking she went back to her tea and had to stifle a giggle at Shyfrost’s reaction to her statement.

“Oh.” He was pretty dumbstruck, he knew that his ice power seemed amazing to these ponies, but he didn’t know that he was that special.

“Don’t worry it’s a good thing it means that you’re…special.” Twilight shot him a smile and went back to writing up a few more questions.

Why can’t other dragons breathe ice? If I can then there has to be another dragon that can…right? He was scratching his head and didn’t hear Twilight ask him another question. He looked up, blushing. “What did you say?”

“I said, how is it that you took care of yourself even as a new born?”

“I’m lucky?” He replied sheepishly.

She gave him a flat look and shook her head. “Lucky is right, normally a newborn of any species wouldn't survive if left unattended like you were.”

“I don’t really know, Twilight, I just remember being very young and finding that amulet in the forest. After that it just seemed easier to do whatever I needed to do so I could…live.”

“I see, while I find it very unlikely that you had no caretaker, even for a little while, I still have to point out a few facts.” Twilight was acting quite coldly again but trying her best to remain calm.

“What facts?”

“Well for one I can believe that you raised yourself from birth, dragons have many instincts and are quite intelligent even at young ages. I’m sure you were good at hiding in the forest?”

“Yeah, I was actually pretty good at that, but how did you--?”

She swiftly interrupted him. “Well we do have some information on dragons, obviously some books do exist. Though, their information they carry is questionable. For now." She chuckled, thinking of a book she hoped to write some day. "Anyway, I’m just saying as unlikely as it sounds I do believe what you say, but there are still some things troubling me. Like how did you end up with your prosthetic tail?” She was talking fast enough so he couldn’t interrupt again and pointed to his metal tail end.

He didn't know what prosthetic meant, but he assumed it had to do with the metal thing. “That’s... kind of a long story, Twilight.” Mentioning his tail seemed to damper his mood but he showed no anger.

“Please tell us.” Twilight’s tone was gentle and he gave him a reassuring smile.

“Do I have to?”

“No” Celestia gave him another smile, this time wrapping one of her wings around his body.

“Okay I will.” It was a simple statement that made Celestia smile wider and Twilight give out a perplexed look.

How does she always do that? Twilight was scratching her head but still eager to hear his story. I bet if I I had wings I could get Spike to take out the trash when I needed it... Twilight thought bitterly.

“It happened on a really bad day. I think I was three.”

“This... this happened recently?” Twilight said this with a knowing look from her teacher to keep quiet.

“Yeah, so anyway I was at the edge of the forest, I guess it was near where the griffons live. I didn’t know that griffons don’t like dragons, usually. In fact there downright mean to dragons for some reason.”

“The Griffon Empire have always been hostile towards dragon, Shyfrost. Still you might find some that are friendly.” Celestia spoke up in a rather serious tone.

“I guess, but I didn’t know that and I was just looking around for some food or shelter and I came across a rather large group of griffons. They spotted me and just stared and I stared back. I guess it was extremely rare for any dragon to wander there, let alone a baby one. I finally broke the silence and tried to make friends which just made them laugh for a while. I remember one griffin in particular who wasn’t moving and was just staring at me with those... weird eyes. I thought he was going to kill me but I guess he wanted to "make an example of me", as he put it.”

“SO HE CHOPPED OFF YOUR TAIL?!” Twilight practically screamed her statement at Shyfrost.

“…Yeah, that was the end of it and then they let me go. And just left me there to... " He trailed off again and was silent for a moment. "I don’t know how long I cried.”

“How did you end up with that replacement, Shyfrost?” Celestia pointed to his metal tail end.

“Another griffon came and found me on the ground. I guess I had fallen asleep crying. When I woke up I was in a rather large house, a griffons house. He never gave me his name but had, treated my tail and felt sorry for me. He made me a new tail… I think he was a black smith.”

Celestia nodded. “If he felt sorry for you then why didn’t he take care of you after that?”

“He let me spend the night, but after that he was very clear that I needed to leave. I think I know why now.”

“A wise griffon indeed, whoever he was, if they caught him helping another dragon he would most likely have been killed along with you. If those other griffons were still there, at any rate.” Celestia spoke in a stoic tone. She knew the king would never condone such treatment, but he did not fully speak for all of their kind. No leader truly did.

“Oh Shyfrost, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Twilight got up and was now hugging him, to his surprise.

“It's okay now.” After that Shyfrost did not feel like talking.

“Well, I think I better take my leave, Canterlot needs me. It was nice seeing you again Twilight and to you as well, Shyfrost. Good luck in school and try not to worry so much. You are quite safe here in Ponyville.” She nuzzled her student and to her surprise gave Shyfrost a hug of her own and then swiftly left the library.

“I’m sorry you had to tell me all of that and remember it. You don’t have to answer anymore questions today Shyfrost, alright?”

“Okay." Trying get over his melancholy mood, he looked around. "Where’s Spike by the way?”

“I sent him upstairs to clean his room, would you like to see him?”

“Yes please.”

“Just upstairs, it' the first door on the left, but knock first.”

Twilight put away her notes and watched as Shyfrost walked up the stairs slowly. He found the door and knocked on it a few times.

"Come in!"

He did so and found Spike resting on a chair, reading. “Oh, hey dude, what’s up?”

“Can we uhh...” He couldn’t think of the word so Spike finished his sentence.

“Hang out?”

“Yeah, that!”

Spike smiled, while stretching. “Of course, you want to head into town with me?”

“Sure, as long as we avoid some of the houses.” Shyfrost was scratching the back of his head.

“Why?” Spike gave him a curious look.

“I might have climbed a house to spot the library.” Shyfrost exclaimed while blushing.

“Dude, what’s with you and climbing?” He was laughing pretty hard at this point which finally made Shyfrost smile.

“I guess I’m good at it.” He grinned back to Spike.

“Alright we can head to the park I’ll grab us some gemstones and we can be off.”

“Yeah you do that.”

More gems? They're so nasty! Shyfrost stuck out his tongue in disgust thinking about the time that Fluttershy asked him to try one.

“You okay dude?” Spike had gathered a small pouch of gems and noticed his look.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go!”

They left the library and set off in the direction of the park. Some ponies waved to Spike which made the town seem a bit more friendly, but Shyfrost knew they were not waving to him. They arrived in the park with nothing else to do so they decided to sit under a tree and talk.

“Okay we got plenty of gems so let’s just sit here and chill, well easy for you to do anyway.”

He giggled at his own joke. He offered the drake his gems, but Shyfrost pushed them away with a shake of his head.

“Spike you can have all the gems.”

“Are you sure, dude? I mean who doesn’t love gems!”

“Me.”

“You don’t like to eat gems?” Spike gave him an odd glare.

“Yeah, Fluttershy made me try one and it was nasty tasting, I guess Frost Dragon’s don't like gems.”

“Hmm, we’ll all dragons love gems but all dragons except you are Fire Dragon’s. Maybe you like to eat something else?” Spike guessed, while munching on a few of them.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean maybe there is some type of non-pony food that you love to eat but don’t know it yet.”

He scratched his head, not getting it. “Like what?”

“I dunno dude you’re the Frost Dragon.” He giggled and started eating a fire ruby.

He dropped the idea and sat on his rump, sighing. “Spike, how did you get the other ponies to like you so much?”

“Like we said before, I was just nice to them and they warmed up to me.”

“How can I be nice if they won’t even talk to me?”

“Hmm, that’s a good point. Are you sure you tried everypony in Ponyville?”

“I’m pretty sure, every time I saw another adult pony they just wanted nothing to do with me.”

“Well maybe that’s your problem.”

“What?”

“You said you tried to talk to adult ponies, try some younger ones. If you can wait, you will get to meet some in your class.”

“We’re you really that afraid of going to school Spike?”

“Yeah I was, I mean when I was really young I had no problems being around other ponies. But when I got old enough to go to school I started to…question things like that.”

“Like what?”

“Well for one, why was I the only dragon in Canterlot? The world started to seem a bit scary to me, and I noticed how children treat those that are different. Right before school was going to start they showed me the classroom and I noticed some of the other young ponies on the same tour and they did not like me one bit. It all just became too scary and I guess I became paranoid on how the other's would react to me. Twilight and the Princess noticed my behavior and decided it was best to pull me out and home school me.”

“So the other kids in my class will be the same?”

“Well some will but your class is much smaller, plus I have a sneaking suspicious that three fillies, who will remain nameless, are gonna befriend you soon enough.”

“Three fillies that are in the same class?”

“Yeah, there in this club, but they should warm up to you just like they did me.”

“Okay I guess I’ll just wait for school.”

“Right.” Spike scratched his chin and layed down under the tree while he tried to relax.

It was several minutes before Shyfrost spoke up. “Hey Spike you ever seen another dragon?”

“Well yeah a few times, they were all kind of jerks.”

“Why?”

“Beats me, I guess dragon’s are just naturally angry.”

“But we aren’t,” he pointed out.

“No. I guess not, but who cares?”

“Don’t you want to know what its like to live like a dragon?”

“Well sure I guess, but it's not like we can just run into dragon territory and say hi.”

“Why not?”

Spike had to think about this, the idea seemed crazy but its not something he had ever tried or even thought about before. Sure he had asked Twilight about his kind before, but it wasn’t until recently that he became more interested in the idea. Still, he had no clue where to start and he doubted that Twilight would just up and let him go to the dragon lands.

“Well for one it's dangerous, and two Twilight and Fluttershy would never let us go.”

“It can’t be that dangerous, I mean why would other dragons try and hurt us?”

“I was once in a dragon cave when I tried to run away from home… he tried to burn me with his fire.”

Shyfrost blinked, then nodded. Maybe a few would try and hurt them. “Why did you run away?”

“Twilight got this owl assistant and I thought she had replaced me, I wasn’t thinking. Point is dragons are mean and I doubt two baby dragons just walking into their territory is gonna end well.”

“You just called your self a baby.” Shyfrost was giggling a bit which caused Spike to blush. He didn't need to know that he had referred to himself as one just earlier today.

“Grr you know what I mean, dragons live for over a thousand years so by definition our ages are in infancy. I think.”

“We’re gonna live for that long?!”

“Well yeah, though, other creatures can live just as long. I don't know about ponies, but I guess it's possible. I mean ponies that aren't alicorns.”

“Oh.” Shyfrost was now lying down next to him with both of their claws resting on the back of their heads.

I still think it would be cool to go live with some dragons. Shyfrost thought to himself.

Living with dragons, sounds cool enough and maybe we could find our real parents Spike let out a yawn while he was thinking about what Shyfrost suggested.

“Now what do you we do Spike?”

“Hmm? Well I have some bits, I guess we could head over to Sugarcube Corner and get some snacks.”

“Sure.”

They both stood up and walked to Sugarcube Corner in silence. Spike was smiling but he kept gazing down like he was deep in thought. Any passing ponies that said hello to Spike fell on deaf ears. Shyfrost didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask him what’s wrong. They ended up in front of the desert shop with Spike walking in first who seemed lost in his own world.

Mr. Cake was at the front counter and seemed to notice the two dragons enter. “Well hey Spike and who is this you brought in?”

“What? Oh this is Shyfrost Mr. Cake.”

“We’ll let me guess then, two gemstone cupcakes?”

“Actually.” Spike looked back to Shyfrost who gave him a shrug. “One regular and one with gemstones please.”

Mr. Cake looked over Shyfrost and then smiled and handed them both a cupcake and took Spike’s bits. They both sat down in a booth in the corner.

“What are these?” Shyfrost was poking his cupcake and sniffing it with interest.

“There just deserts, they taste really good. Trust me.” Spike downed his cupcake in one bite and let out a rather large burp.

Shyfrost, on the other 'claw', was still sniffing it and refused to take a bite. He was just about to remove the wrapper when he noticed Spike was looking back at the restaurant’s kitchen.

“Hey can you wait here a minute? I want to talk to Pinkie.” He nodded and watched Spike disappear into the kitchen.

“Psst, Hey Pinkie Pie are you there?” Spike had snuck into the back and was looking around the back.

“Psst, why are we whispering?” Pinkie Pie had shown up out of nowhere when Spike could have sworn the kitchen was empty just a second ago.

“Pinkie how did… Never mind, I wanted to ask you a question.”

“You did?!” She gasped.

“Well how come you haven’t thrown a welcome to Ponyville party for Shyfrost yet? He could really use some new friends.”

“Silly Spike I can’t do that yet otherwise it won’t flow correctly.”

“What won’t flow correctly?” Spike gave her the oddest looking glare.

“What do you mean? Oh dang I need to get back to watching the twins, I’ll see ya later Spike!” Pinkie Pie dashed out of the kitchen at a near impossible speed leaving a bewildered Spike.

When Spike got back to the booth he watched Shyfrost who was still eyeing his cupcake.

“Dude just eat it already, I promise it tastes good.”

He glared back and Spike who did the same. After a while Shyfrost decided to just take a lick and see what the fuss was about. He slowly lifted the cupcake to his face and opened his mouth to take his first lick of a cupcake. When his tongue made contact with the blue frosting it was like time was slowing down for him while his brain tried to comprehend the taste. Shyfrost swallowed the small amount of frosting that his tongue had managed to gather, and slowly lowered the cupcake to the table. His eyes had grown wide, but he showed no hint of emotion.

“Did you like it?” Spike raised the muscle of one of his eyes looking back at him curiously.

He moved his head and tilted it slightly looking back to Spike with that same emotionless stare. Shyfrost then looked back down at the cupcake, just waiting to be devoured, but something was stopping him. It was like he wanted the moment to last forever so he could look forward to eating the cupcake, but once he did he would have to find more. Finally, after a few moments, he picked it up and downed it in one bite.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“How did I go this long without one of those?” Shyfrost uttered, feeling giddy from the taste and the sugar rush..

“Well I’m glad you liked it, I’m guessing you didn’t eat too many deserts out in the forest?” Spike asked while giggling, having already known the answer.

All Shyfrost could do was shake his head and smile.

Okay the cupcake just made up for my day, I think I’m gonna like it here. Now, how do I get more?

Comments

[moguera]

Cupcakes are good, so long as you don't ask where they come from. Right?

[Cold Spike]

I guess some examples would be nice. I have been trying to make the dialogue seem less dry. 1578416

[Cold Spike]

I'm guessing you mean examples such as:

“So many apples I can’t believe this,” The creature said with his mouth wide open drooling on himself.

Would that be more correct than putting a "!" after the word THIS?

[Cold Spike]

I just started working on the dialogue, chapter one should be fixed. 1578416

[GlitchyProductions]

1578542

“So many apples, I can’t believe this.”

[spoonlol]

You say that this is before the dragon migration but much earlier Rainbow Dash mentioned changelings...?

[shashaz]

pinkie pie ur so mean... not throwing a party for Shyfrost...

[Nethaufer]

Ooch, yeah, I can tell this chapter wasn't fixed for grammar yet, but still, not bad. I'm rather enjoying the amounts of Spike in this story. I think I'll wait for the next chapters to be edited until reading on, but don't think that means I think it's bad, it's great, but it will be even better when it's fixed.

[TimeKeeper112]

1577371
Don't remind me

[The Ohvist]

2168498
I think 10 can explain this for us.

[Yitzi]

3495456
That would make sense if the ponies themselves had a non-linear, non-subjective perception of time. Still, funny.