Hawthorne

by Nova Critical

Chapter 4: It's Time to Get Up and Go Go

The sun was over the horizon, and Hawthorne was up. Well, still up. He had stayed awake after Princess Luna had left. Twilight had gone to bed, which left Spike alone with Hawthorne. Again. Neither Twilight nor Spike was worried, Hawthorne had assured them he wouldn't do anything drastic. And truly, he didn't plan on doing anything crazy. Other than the incidents in the basement, things were going well. He just had to be patient and everything would work itself out.

The purple dragon was sweeping and humming a tune in the main section of the library, unable to sleep and simply doing something to keep himself busy. Being unconscious for so long had also made him restless, although he still had heavy bags under his eyes. Hawthorne was in the upstairs bathroom, looking at the mirror.

"So that's why I shouldn't smile.." He said aloud to the strange reflection, baring his teeth. His canines had become more prominent and all of his teeth seemed much...harder, and slightly sharper. It was almost as if he now had fangs, but fangs more akin to a reptile's, not a vampire.

Thank God. He thought. Imitating the grin he gave Luna earlier, he saw why he shouldn't give such a large smile. It was slightly menacing.

Suddenly, an intense pain gnawed at him. He put a hand to his stomach as it felt like it was trying to eat him from the inside out. Hawthorne couldn't remember the last time he had anything to eat, and he was hungry as fuck.

Briskly walking downstairs, he approached Spike and gave him a light tap on the shoulder.

"Hey Scales, you have anything to eat? I'm starving."

The shorter dragon gave a small start at the contact, and quickly turned around, "Oh, it's you. Yeah, we've got some stuff. I'm actually pretty hungry too, follow me." Spike led Hawthorne into the kitchen, opened the pantry, and began to list off their options.

"Uhhhh, we've got some oatmeal... potato chips... bread... Huh. I guess we didn't have as much food as I thought." Spike said, scratching his head. "There's some daisy sandwiches in the fridge, but I'm not sure you'll like those."

"What are those?" Hawthorne asked, pointing at a large bowl that was mainly empty, but at the bottom was at least five of the largest, most brilliant gems he had ever seen.

"Oh, those are mine." Spike was quick to respond, "But, not like I wouldn't share them, it's just, only dragons can eat gems..."

Hawthorne went to the bowl and picked up an emerald that was about the size of a grape. He lifted it up to his mouth, put it in between his teeth and slowly began to bite down on it. There was a loud snap and Hawthorne panicked, thinking he ruined a tooth, but when he spit the gem back into his hand, he saw that the green gem had a large crack going through it.

"No way.." Spike said, his mouth agape.

Hawthorne felt his teeth with his fingers and... yep, they were as strong as they had ever been. Gaining confidence, he popped the gem back into his mouth and bit down on it with more force. It broke apart and he was able to crush and chew it like a piece of hard candy. It tasted surprisingly good, like a citrus fruit, but more smooth and refined.

"Thith ith awesomth!" He declared, stuffing a couple more gems in his mouth.

"Hey! Don't eat all my gems!" Spike protested, grabbing the last two before Hawthorne could snag them.

Hawthorne finished chewing, and swallowed the gems, "Shit, sorry man. It feels like I haven't eaten anything in weeks."

"It's cool." The dragon forgave, "I needed to get some more gems anyway, and groceries. Sweetie Belle told me she stashed some sapphires for me back at the Boutique, and she normally gets there pretty early so... wanna go for a walk?"

"Yeah, why not? Twilight Sparkle won't get mad will she?"

"Well, she never said we couldn't go out, and it's not like you're going to absorb any more magic, so I don't see the harm." Spike said, making his way out of the kitchen.

"I know it's early, but won't anybody freak out when they see me?" Hawthorne asked as he followed.

"Not really. You'll get some looks, mainly because of the bandages, and curiosity, but as quiet as Ponyville seems, enough crazy stuff has happened that you wouldn't cause a huge ruckus."

"Really? Like what?"

"Well, several years ago, I turned gigantic and went on a hoarding rampage and wrecked most of the town, that was when I was just a baby dragon. And after all that, I barely even got in trouble and everyone was still my friend." Spike gloated.

"Damn. Nice." Hawthorne approved, giving Spike a pat on the back.

As they made their way toward the door, Hawthorne noticed he was still without a shirt. His jeans looked like they were washed, but they still had burns on the back. He knew he didn't need a shirt, the bandages covered most of his torso, but he'd feel more comfortable going out with one on.

"Hey Scales- er Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"You wouldn't happen to have a shirt, or something I could wear would you?"

"Nothing I think that will fit you, or that you'd want to wear...but I can check. Wait here." He replied, silently going up the stairs to Twilight's room, making sure not to wake her. A few moments later, he came back down with a blue piece of cloth that tapered up to a white fluffy collar.

"Here." He said, holding out the cloth, "It's Twilight's winter cloak Rarity made her, it's kind of old, and she hasn't worn it too much."

"Thanks."

Hawthorne took the cloak and wrapped it around himself. It was made for the smaller Twilight, and it stopped just above his knees, also the fluffy collar bothered his neck, but if it was the best Spike could do, then, oh well. As long as he didn't spread his arms out sideways too much, it would cover him nicely.

With that, they headed out the door, ready to walk to Carousel Boutique.

---

As soon as Hawthorne walked out of the door, the sunlight hit him, and he stopped dead in his tracks as a feeling of immense energy and warmth seemed to flow through him. It felt amazing. He just wanted to stand still and bask in the glorious light. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before, standing in the sunlight, it just felt... right.

"Hawthorne? Are you okay?" Spike asked, a few feet away.

"Yeah! Do you not feel that?! The sun? It's incredible! Is it always like this?" He practically yelled.

The purple dragon gave him a look, "It's actually kind of chilly out dude.. I mean, it's bright, but not- ooohhhh. I know what's going on."

"What? What do you mean?" Hawthorne asked, not really caring about getting an answer, he just wanted to stay in the sunlight, it was like a fount of blissful energy.

"You're analogous to a tree Hawthorne!" Spike told him, "You absorbed our tree's magic, becoming like it, and now you, like the tree, need and want to be in the sunlight."

"Makes sense to me." Hawthorne replied with a huge grin.

"You are going to freak somepony out if you keep smiling like that though."

Chuckling, Hawthorne stopped smiling so much, but as they began to walk he couldn't help but keep a closed-mouth grin on his face. Walking alongside Spike, he looked down at his draconic forearm, remembering what he did to make it like so.

"Hey Spike... I'm sorry about the basement. I really didn't know you were looking out for my own safety." Honestly, Hawthorne was never this cheesy or apologetic back home, but he couldn't help it.

"Don't worry about it. We could hardly understand each other, and if you didn't do what you did, then we still wouldn't be able to communicate would we? If Twilight and the Princess can turn you back to how you were, then things won't be so bad."

Hawthorne could do without the magic, and the claw, but he knew he didn't want to give up the amazing feeling the sun now gave him.

"Yeah. Then I can go home." Hawthorne said, "No offense to this place, or you, or anything." He quickly added.

"None taken," Spike said cheerfully, "though it'd be nice to have someone more like me around here to be friends with, not that there's anything wrong with the ponies here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for one, you got that from me, so you are part dragon." Spike explained, pointing at Hawthorne's transformed arm, "And in a way, Twilight is the one who brought you into this world. Just like she did with me. She hatched my egg and has taken care of me ever since. We're almost like brothers."

"Yeah...brothers.." Hawthorne said, remembering his own on Earth. Even with the blessed sunlight, he felt a stab of sadness. It was much easier to control his grin now. He gave Spike a sad smile, "Yeah, brothers. I think the ones I have back home would really like you Spike."

"Heh, thanks." Spike noticed his change in demeanor and planned on talking to Twilight about it, "Hey, look, there's the Boutique."

"Looks fancy."

"It is. The grocery stalls in the marketplace won't be up for about another hour, so we can grab the sapphires, hang here for a bit, then go restock the pantry." Spike had it all planned out. "And you can even meet Sweetie Belle, she's really nice.."

The dragon's eyes went blank as if he were looking at something far off, and he had a small smile painted on his face. It was obvious to Hawthorne that Spike was smitten with this Sweetie Belle character.

"So, is she your girlfriend?" The human asked, knowing he would amused with Spike's response.

Spike stopped and spun to face him, "What! No!" The dragon put a claw to his head and sighed, "Not really... I don't know.. It's weird."

"Hey man, don't worry about it," Hawthorne said giving him a shove toward the large white building, "let's go get those gems."

Comments

[Nova Critical]

1488218

I dunno, 'cause you had Frankenstein on the mind?

[Naduran]

1488262

No . . .
I could just see Twilight standing over him, looking like Frankenstein , like a mad scientist with the lab equipment and all, trying to bring life back to him.
All that was missing was the mad laughter, and her career as a villain would been set

[Shpoople96]

1488403

[Miki]

A HiE story with a rather original idea. Just don't go all "seventh element" or "higher purpose defeat the moster of the week" and you'll do fine.

[MyLittleBurger]

Since he is part tree now...... does that mean he is extra burnable?

[Nova Critical]

1490970 Oh, don't worry, Mr. Hawthorne will stay pretty grounded, even if he wants to do something crazy

1491444 Hmmm. Possibly. Although it is easier to kill a normal human with fire than a tree. And setting ablaze a dead tree would be easier than setting fire to an alive one. Well, unless this is Minecraft. But it's not, so I think Hawthorne will be okay

[DrYumekui]

Well you've got me hooked, as long as all the HIE cliches stay to a minimum, i do believe i'll be reading this all the way to the ending.
I also really hope there isn't a tyrannical Celestia (that loathes the human) i've read fics like that and oh lordy, they are bad...well there are few exceptions...and now i've forgotten them, damnit

[MyLittleBurger]

1491668 Maybe, but say his non dragon arm gets lopped off, could possible a living tree branch from another tree get transplanted to the stump that used to be his arm, and in time become a new arm?

[Seri]

Is this daid? Please not be daid, is gud story.