A day like any other, Cheerilee realizes Spike's condition as the Mane-6`s servant, and she won't stay there watching. With a legal process against Twilight, Spike is taken away from her and given the chance to have a real childhood.
A day like any other, Cheerilee realizes Spike's condition as the Mane-6`s servant, and she won't stay there watching. With a legal process against Twilight, Spike is taken away from her and given the chance to have a real childhood.
It was a day like any other, maybe a little bit nicer than usual
It was a day like any other, maybe a little bit nicer than usual
It was a nice day, yeah, the especial kind of day where everypony felt cheerful and full of energy. And for Cheerilee it was perfect, even the little pranks her students pulled during the day helped to lift her spirit her even more.
It was the middle of the day and Cheerilee had bid farewell to the last student of her class and decided to go to the grocery store to do some errands before going home. And then it happened, the event that would change that beautiful day affecting not only the teacher, but everyone involved. The littlest detail could make the biggest difference.
And it all started when she spotted a certain purple dragon caring a huge cart full of all kind of provisions in the line to pay.
“Hi Spike! How are you? Doing the groceries of the month with Twilight?”
“Hi Cheerilee!” Smiled the dragon. “Yeah, doing some errands but for today I’m all by myself. Twilight and the girls had to go to Canterlot to I-don’t-know-what and left me in charge of this.”
Cheerilee seemed confused.
“But hey, are you sure you can carry all this all the way to your home?”
“I’m used to, isn’t that right Quick Sales?”
The sales pony just smiled to the dragon and nodded while putting everything in a paper bag, then the dragon placed a bag of bits on the counter and said good bye carrying what it seemed like a tower. Cheerilee frowned, somehow this seemed wrong.
Spike was turning around the corner when the teacher trotted to him.
“Spike, wait!”
“Oh, need something Cheerilee?” Asked Spike in a very good mood.
“Nothing, just seeing if you needed some help.” Explained the teacher.
Spike tilted his head confused.
“Are you sure Cheerilee? The library it’s a little far from your home.”
“It’s okay, I have time.”
So Spike innocently thanked her and together they walked to Golden Oaks Library. As always it sparkled of clean, especially the kitchen where they placed the bags. Then Spike stretched satisfied and turned to the teacher.
“Thank you for your help Cheerilee, can I offer you something to drink? We have soda and some lemonade.”
“Just water please” asked the teacher politely. “So tell me kid, who does the cleaning and stuff? Twilight, you or the two of you together?”
“Me. Twi likes her home spotless and I make a good effort to do my part. Uf! I’m lucky she isn’t in here for today or else I would spend the whole afternoon cleaning the disasters she makes while studying. And it’s perfect because Rarity also asked me to help her classify the different kinds of strings, buttons, and sequins; then I think Pinkie Pie asked me to separate the new wrapping papers from the old ones and then I have to feed Fluttershy’s animals. Just my Number One Assistant’s chores, so I’m happy to do it!”
Cheerilee shook her head, no, something was definitely wrong in there.
“Ey Spike, how can you be so positive about it? It seems exhausting, even for an adult!”
“Kind of” said Spike shrugging. “But I can relax after I finish making dinner for Twilight and I by reading a good comic before bed.”
Cheerilee nodded slowly.
“I see. And by the way, how old are you Spike?”
“Me? I just turned nine, why?”
This was too much, Cheerilee had to take a seat and bite her tongue in a weak attempt to hide her indignation and not worry Spike; so she finished her water, helped Spike to put everything where it belonged and left after a quick good-bye.
Once outside the library, the teacher ran to the Town Hall demanding to see Mayor Mare.
“Cheerilee?”
“Mayor Mare, I’m here to report of a case of child negligence and exploitation.”
Mayor Mabel Mare didn’t know what to say, but this seemed very serious.
Spike had just finished doing the dusting and was about to go to Rarity’s when somepony called at the door.
“Who could be at this hour?” Asked the dragon.
He opened the door to a couple of unknown ponies, a Pegasus and a unicorn, wearing a black jacket, buttoned shirt and tie. They seemed awfully serious and intimidating, but they turned their frowned expressions to a friendly smile when they saw Spike.
“Good evening. You are Spike, right?”
“Ehem… yeah, why?”
“You see, we’re from the Child Protection Agency” explained the Pegasus kindly while giving an I.D. to the confused dragon. “Do you have a minute? We just want to ask you some questions.”
Spike shrugged.
“Sure. Come this way.” Said Spike guiding them to the living room. “But please, can it be quick? I have a lot to do!”
“Precisely Spike, precisely” said the unicorn. “I understand you have a list of chores. Do you mind if we take a look?”
Spike nodded and gave them the list Twilight gave him that morning.
The two employees exchanged a worried look examining the list and turned to Spike.
“This is a very long list.” Mumbled the unicorn.
“Tell me, how can you do all of this and attend to school at the same time?” Asked the Pegasus kindly.
“Actually I don’t attend school.” Explained Spike a little ashamed. “I mean, Twilight home-schools me when she has time, but she’s too busy with her own studies to worry about mine, but I don’t really mind; so I try do my best to support her by taking care of the house”
The two ponies nodded.
“That’s it. Pack up your things kid, we’re leaving.” Said the Pegasus.
“WHAT? This is… this is foa…”
“No, it’s not foalnapping” explained the unicorn. “You cannot live where you’re getting exploited and ignored, not to mention you seem very satisfied with the situation.”
Spike shook his head.
“No, NO! I’ll write to Princess Celestia, let’s see what SHE has to say about this!”
“Please go ahead” said the Pegasus taking a letter from her jacket. “But please send her this letter as well.”
Spike did as he was told and the Princess’ answer didn’t delayed to appear.
Dear Spike, please go with this ponies, I’ll have a very serious talk with my faithful student tomorrow morning, and for the sake of the two of you I hope this is only a misunderstanding; but the process is already open and I cannot interfere. In the meantime I assure you, you can trust in this ponies.
Princess Celestia.
“I don’t get, it… please don’t do this…” said Spike trembling.
“Don’t worry kid, you’re safe now” said the Pegasus.
“You’ll stay in Ponyville in a safe house while we locate your family” assured the unicorn.
“But…”
“Don’t make this harder kid, we don’t expect you to understand nor forgive us; but this is for your own good.”
So they took the very scared and confused dragon out of the library. What was going on? Why this was happening to him?
Twilight and her friends returned from their little improvised excursion very proud of themselves, another adventure that ended well for everypony.
“Now it’s time to celebrate!” Cheered Pinkie Pie.
Twilight agreed.
“I’ll ask Spike to make some tea. Spike! Spike, we’re home! Would you mind to making some tea please? Spike!”
No one answered.
“Maybe he’s still at my place feeding the creatures” suggested Fluttershy. “It takes some time.”
“Yeah, the kid is taking his time, big deal!” Said Rainbow Dash shrugging.
Twilight nodded, but no, something deep inside her was telling the lavender unicorn that something else was going on. Without hesitation, she trotted inside her home and a couple of seconds later, their friends followed her, finding Twilight completely in shock.
“No… NO!!”
“What happened?” Asked Dash.
Twilight quickly showed them the letter she found on the table:
Dear Miss Sparkle,
This letter we inform you that the minor under your charge, Spike Sparkle, has been separated from your custody due to conditions of negligence and exploitation. A hearing in the Family Court has been scheduled three weeks after the reception of the present notification, until then you or your friends have completely forbidden to be within twenty meters or communicate with the minor.
Child Protection Agency.
And then Celestia’s letter:
Twilight, I’m very disappointed in you. No, I’m furious, and I hope for your sake this is all a misunderstanding. I don’t want to believe this accusations are true but the process is already open and I will not interfere under any chance. Tomorrow first thing in the morning you and I will have a very serious talk about Spike’s conditions, and again, I hope this is all a misunderstanding.
Your teacher, Princess Celestia.
No pony dared to say a thing, this was a very serious problem.
In the meantime, Spike was taken to a small house in Ponyville, as they promised. This somehow helped to comfort the dragon, at least he wouldn’t be that far from Twilight.
Lyra and Bon-Bon opened the door.
“Spike, please come on in!” Smiled Lyra. “Make yourself comfortable, my house is your house.”
“NO, this can’t be! This is all a misunderstanding, I shouldn’t be here!”
“Maybe it is” said Bon-Bon. “I don’t know Twilight that well but I cannot picture her as somepony who mistreats a minor. But the process is open and we must adhere to the law, so we’ll take care of you until your family comes. You know you can trust us, right?”
Spike looked at them and nodded, yeah, he knew Lyra and Bon-Bon very well and he could say they were very nice ponies. Besides in Ponyville everypony trusted each other.
“I guess so…” said Spike.
“And I do know Twilight from school and yeah, I can say this is all a dumb mistake” said Lyra. “So don’t worry, everything will be fine in no time!”
Spike smiled and then he got in the house. The two mares only could smile and do their best to make him feel better, god knows that’s what he truly needed.
The next day was Saturday, a grayer Saturday than usual
The next day was Saturday, a grayer Saturday than usual
Spike sat quietly on the bed Lyra and Bon-Bon prepared for him, looking around in the unfamiliar room. Everything was of very good taste: cream-colored wallpaper decorated with patterns of blue candies intercalated with mint-green lyres, a plain desk in the corner with a small chair; and the bed was big, with pink and blue sheets that reminded Spike of Bon-Bon’s mane. But as much as he tried to focus on the small details, his mind constantly went back to what happened to him minutes ago. Separated out of nowhere from the pony who raised him because somepony said he was being mistreated? What? Was this some kind of sick joke or something? And the worst part was that the ponies who supposedly were protecting him forbid him to communicate with Twilight by any chance and ask her what the hay was going on.
“Are you comfortable my friend?” Asked Lyra getting into the room. “I’m not going to ask you if you’re okay because obviously not, but hey, Bonnie have just made chocolate if you want some.”
Then Lyra levitated a cup to him with her magic. Spike thanked the gesture and accepted the chocolate in silence. He took a sip, and it was wonderful, it was the perfect balance between sweet and bitter, and the temperature was just, right not too hot but warm; precisely what he needed.
“Thank you! This is just great, I don’t want to sound too flattering but this is the best chocolate I ever had!”
“I know, right?” Said Lyra relieved to see the boy smiling even if it was a little. “Bonnie is an artist for chocolate no matter if it’s in truffles, bars or drinkable. And I can told you by experience that a cup of hot chocolate is just the right thing after a bad day. Especially Bonnie’s.”
Spike agreed while drinking.
“Thank you Lyra” he said again, returning the empty cup to the unicorn.
“Whenever you want kid.” Said Lyra. “You know? Between us I fell in love with Bonnie first by the stomach and then by the heart, ha-ha!”
Spike couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You’ll see how everything ends right” assured Lyra giving Spike a small hug. “Before you know it, you’ll be with Twilight again.”
“I hope so. And I hope I don’t bother you…”
“Don’t worry about that kid, on the contrary we’re more than happy to have you even if it’s only for a little while!” Said the minty unicorn. “Why don’t you try to sleep? I know it’s still too early but I can say you had a long day.”
“You’re right, and maybe everything will be better in the morning.” Agreed Spike yawning.
But then Bon-Bon entered to the room.
“Yeah, go to sleep but not before I change those sheets. We haven’t had guests in a while and I’m pretty those need a wash.”
“Let me do it! I always do it at home!” Offered Spike as diligent as he was.
But Bon-Bon gently rejected him.
“It’s okay, Spike, like Lyra said you had a long day so let us pamper you for today.”
Spike obeyed and watched how Bon-Bon changed the sheets making sure the bed was comfortable enough for their young guest. Again Spike lowered his head ashamed since he didn’t wanted to be a bother. But as soon as she finished, Bon-Bon noticed the dragon’s mood and smiled to him.
“Don’t worry Spike, you’re not bothering anypony. Lyra and I do this because we want to and also hope that you enjoy the time we’ll spend together.”
Spike smiled back to her.
“Oh, well, thank you Bon-Bon. I guess you two are right, I could use a rest.”
The cream-coated pony winked an eye to him and left the room followed by Lyra.
“Good night kid.”
“Sweet dreams!”
Spike yawned.
“Good night.”
And he fell asleep almost immediately. Hopefully everything will go better the next morning.
The next day was Saturday, a grayer Saturday than usual. It was common knowledge that the day reflected how the Princess was feeling, and a day that started with gray cloudy sky with cold winds was never a good sign.
But Twilight Sparkle didn’t mind, she didn’t even noticed when it when Celestia raised the sun, she couldn’t sleep the whole night thinking about Spike, her dear Spike. And suddenly the door violently opened letting pass Princess Celestia.
Twilight sighed and pulled a couple of chairs with her magic, Celestia accepted the seat and waited while Twilight sat silently on her chair and sighed.
“Well, I’m waiting” Said the Monarch of Equestria.
“I don’t know what happened” said Twilight softly lowering her head.
Celestia frowned.
“I’m not in the mood for that kind of answer Twilight Sparkle. How do you think I felt when in the middle of my daily audiences a letter from Spike comes out of nowhere saying that some strange ponies were trying to force him out of his home? Not to mention that then I received a letter from the ponies who supposedly tried to foalnap him were nothing less than agents from the Child Protection Agency fulfilling their duty. Now tell me what happened and if you say that you don’t know I promise I’ll…”
“BUT I TRULY DON’T KNOW!” Cried Twilight. “I DON’T KNOW, I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED!”
The lavender unicorn’s attack of crying was enough to soften Celestia, who offered her wing to cry. Twilight then cried under Celestia’s wing for a few minutes.
“Sorry if I overreacted Twilight, is just that this caught off guard”
“I only care about Spike, is he okay? Where is him? Why did they took him away from me? DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN ABLE TO SLEEP? I SPENT THE WHOLE NIGHT WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED, AND…”
She began to cry again and Celestia hugged her harder.
“Feeling better?”
Twilight nodded.
“Again I don’t really know what happened, but I can’t even communicate with him. All I have is a letter that says I have to go to a hearing in three weeks. They say I mistreated Spike but I assure you, it’s a lie! We get along just fine and we argue from time to time but he’s happy most of the time… I don’t understand what’s happening, all I want is Spike back!”
Now calmed Celestia nodded.
“Yes, one more time sorry for overreacting my faithful student. It seems that this is just a big misunderstanding but first of all we need to speak with the plaintiff, don’t you think? Before I came here I sent a couple of soldiers to get her. They’ll be here any minute now.”
Somepony knocked the door.
“Perfect timing!” Said Celestia. “Please come in!”
Two soldiers in golden armor escorted a very angry Cheerilee to the library and proceed to retire in silence while the teacher stood there with the librarian and the Princess.
“Cheerilee! You did this to us? WHY?” Asked Twilight furiously.
“And do you really have to ask?!” Said Cheerilee angrily. “How can you be Celestia’s student if it seems like you have flowers growing in your brain?!”
Princess Celestia sent her a warning-glare, but the teacher just shook her head bravely.
“Oh don’t you dare to scold me Your Highness. Listen carefully: I love children, I live for them so if there’s something I cannot tolerate is child abuse. Yesterday when I went to the grocery store I found Spike doing the monthly shopping. I mean, what kind of irresponsible pony sends a nine-year-old all by himself with that kind of money?! It’s a kid, something can happen to him! Okay, I know we’re in Ponyville and everypony can trust in each other but still that’s something I can’t ignore. Second, he was about to carry all those bags all the way back to the library, so I volunteered to help him, but again, he’s just a kid. Why was he taking care of something you should, huh? Third: he seemed like he was used to do it.”
Celestia’s expression turned cold again as she was glaring at Twilight; and unfortunately for the librarian, Cheerilee was only starting:
“Then he told me he was the one who did all the housework, all the cleaning, dusting, cooking, laundry… all by himself! Oh, but if that wasn’t bad enough, he showed me his to-do-list, a very long one and it seemed that once he finished here, he still had to take care of even more chores that your friends gave him. Why is he doing all this instead of go to school and play with other kids as he should? So yeah, I called the social services and I’m glad they took him away from you. And you know what’s worst? That he is too innocent to realize how wrong is all this.”
Celestia turned to Twilight that felt her somehow threatening.
“I presume he never knew better, right?”
Twilight gulped.
“But… Spike was happy, he’s just happy to help and…”
“It seems that all this time he’s been taking care of you instead of you taking care of him” said Cheerilee angrily. “I only regret I didn’t realize until now.”
The Princess nodded drily.
“I see. Thank you Miss Cheerilee. You can go now.”
The teacher bowed to Celestia and retired quietly. Then Celestia glared at Twilight, who shrank in fear in a corner.
“I’m not going to lie, this is no misunderstanding Twilight. I’m furious, but mostly with me since I was the one who thought you were ready to take care of Spike. Since you hatched his egg I felt a very strong connection between the two of you, but I never thought it could drive you to this poisonous relationship you two had. At first everything seemed fine, he was another son for your parents and a new playmate for Shining Armor and you, when did this happened? When he turned into your servant instead of your little brother?”
Twilight shook her head.
“I’ve always tried to do my best to take care of him!”
“As the teacher said, it seems like he was the one taking care of you. Give that to-do-list. Now.”
Twilight obeyed, and as soon as Celestia finished with the list, she just stared to Twilight in disappointment.
“All the housework, and take care of the library even if that’s your job. No, I wish I realized sooner what was really going on; but this is clearly a case of child exploitation; and the worst part is that it’s not only you but your friends as well. None of you ever considered this was wrong?”
“But Spike… had never complaint about this…”
“In Canterlot he attended to school regularly. Why not in here?”
Twilight gulped.
“Because… because…”
Those magenta eyes usually peaceful and playful seemed now like two dangerous flames.
“Answer me!” Demanded the Princess.
“…because I realized he was more useful in the library!” Cried Twilight.
That was enough, Celestia had to use all her self-control to not hurt Twilight right in there. But she managed to control herself by taking a deep breath.
“You have no idea how lucky you are that I decided to not interfere with this cases when the Family Court was invented two hundred years ago; if it was for me you’ll be already… but no, forget it. As I said, I recognize this is mostly my fault and I have no choice but deal with my own stupidity. But Twilight, this is what’s going to happen: they’ll take Spike away from you, there’s no doubt of that. And even if I wanted to, I cannot help you this time. I really hope they keep him as far as possible from you.”
So Celestia left leaving Twilight in tears, hopefully at this point she would understand what she have done. It wasn’t that Twilight was bad or something, but she proved to be incapable to raise a child, and the worst part was that Celestia thought everything was okay for a very long time.
“Damn it, how could I be that stupid? Having this whole situation right in front of me and I didn’t even realized.”
That day Spike woke up really late, and even if it had been a while since he slept that much, he still felt exhausted for all that happened last night. He look around and sighed, so it wasn’t a dream after all; in fact in his dreams he was with his beloved friends as nothing had happened. But no, it did happened.
Luckily for the young dragon, Lyra and Bon-Bon seemed understanding and kind enough, but what Spike needed more than anything at that moment was to see his friends and especially his older sister. However, he better got up and went to the dining room, where Lyra was reading the paper while Bon-Bon was finishing with the breakfast.
“Hi kid, did you have a good sleep?” Asked the minty unicorn.
“I wish I had” sighed Spike.
Lyra didn’t know what to say, but then Bon-Bon entered carrying three platers of chocolate-chip pancakes.
“Morning Spike, are you hungry?”
“Yes thank you.” Said Spike. “So… chocolate again?”
Bon-Bon smiled to him.
“Shall I remind you I have a chocolate store? Anyway, eat as much as you want, I still have more if you want to.”
Spike thanked to the cream-coated mare and finished his breakfast in less than five minutes. It was like the chocolate from last night, sweet and warm; precisely what he needed at the moment.
“So now what?” Asked the dragon as he finished his breakfast.
“What you mean with ‘what’?” Asked Bon-Bon. “It’s Saturday, what you usually do on weekends?”
“I don’t know, help Twilight with her readings or Applejack, or Fluttershy… actually I help whoever who needs me. Why?”
Bon-Bon frowned and exchanged a worried look with Lyra, who seemed as worried as she was. However, Bon-Bon knew exactly what to do so she nodded to her wife like saying she’ll take care of the situation
“I see.” Said the chocolatier. “You know, Saturday is one of my busiest days on the store, why don’t you come with me?”
“Sure!” Smiled Spike.
Lyra raised an eyebrow but Bon-Bon winked an eye to her, so she stayed quiet. So Bon-Bon and Spike left Lyra doing the dishes and headed to Bon-Bon’s candy store.
“So, how can I help?” Asked Spike willingly to anything.
“Help me with the mixture while I put the candies on the counter.” Said Bon-Bon giving a bowl to Spike.
Spike obeyed happy to help while Bon-Bon waited in silence staring to the door. And suddenly, it opened letting pass Piipsqueak, Feather Weight, Snips and Snails coming for their dose of sugar for the weekend. It never failed, the kids were her more loyal customers.
“Hi Bon-Bon! The usual please!” Said Snips putting a bag of bits on the counter.
“Sure thing!” Smiled Bon-Bon selecting a few chocolates of all shapes and putting them into a small paper bag. Then she took a tray of freshly made cherry-stuffed truffles. “Also, I just made these, what do you say? Want to try some for free?”
“Seriously?” Asked Rumble.
“Just like that?” Asked Snails scratching his head.
Bon-Bon nodded.
“With only one condition: can you invite Spike to play with you for the day?”
“Spike?”
“The dragon?”
“Sure! He’s pretty cool!”
Bon-Bon nodded again.
“Precisely. Spike, can you come to the counter please?”
“Yes?” Asked Spike walking to the chocolatier.
“Go play with them. Okay?”
Spike seemed genuinely surprised but accepted without thinking too much about it, and the other kids of course welcomed the baby dragon with excitement. So the group of colts plus one left happily leaving Bon-Bon staring at the door with a disapproving frown.
“I promised not to judge but not play with other kids? This is wrong.”
That Saturday was pretty unusual for Spike having fun with the other kids. Of course he had fun from time to time, whenever Pinkie Pie organized a party with the girls or when they took him on their adventures; or reading his comics when Twilight didn’t give him chores. But that Saturday in particular Spike had to admit he had the time of his life playing with the other kids. First they organized a rolling-down-the-hill-competition, where Spike realized his spikes could get stuck on the ground, and Snips was somehow invincible in that kind of games. After that the others teased him for a while about his nuisances in the back and all, but Spike felt that even in that jokes there was a sense of camaraderie he missed when he was with the girls. When he had fun with the girls, it was like he was with the group but not really a part of it; no, this time the colts truly accepted him among them.
Still Spike didn’t had the time to think too much about it since Snails suddenly announced that some uninvited guests were approaching to ‘their territory’. Everypony got ready, but ready for what?
It was Rumble Lane and Button Mash.
“Rumble, Button, what are you doing here? This hill is being used by us!” Said Snips firmly. “Get out!”
Rumble grinned defiantly and walked with a skateboard under his wings.
“We reserved it since yesterday, you get out!”
“Really? Where do you make the reservations then?” Asked Snails making everyone face-hoof (or face-claw in Spike’s case.)
“He’s trying to fool us, Snails!” Explained Spike.
Rumble couldn’t help but chuckle, ah, the good old Snails; it never failed. Then the young Pegasus just shrugged.
“Well, I guess you can stay to admire my skills with the skateboard. Five more admirers don’t bother me”
“What’s your problem, Rumble?” Asked Snips angrily.
“Be easy on him, he’s still mad because he can’t beat that girl” mocked Feather Weight. “Get up already Rumble, not even with a year of practice you’ll be able to beat Scootaloo.”
Rumble frowned and took a pine nut from the ground that he threw to Feather. Bullseye! But had Feather prepared a pine nut on his own already and threw it, but he missed. But it was enough to start a battle throwing pine nuts, acorns, weeds, etc. (But not rocks.) At some point the CMC joined the fight making it to grow in intensity, but at the end everypony were just having fun; and they ended up dirty and sweaty but in a very good mood.
“I really need something to drink” said Feather. “Ey guys, want some lemonade? I have a cold jar in my home waiting, let’s go!”
“Did your mom made it or you?” Asked Pip suspiciously. “Because I still have that horrible taste in my mouth!”
“It wasn’t my fault, it was my first time!” Complained Feather.
Spike scratched his head.
“What happened?” Asked the dragon.
“He made it with salt instead of sugar” explained Snails.
“Seriously?”
“It was an accident for Celestia’s sake! And yes, I made it but mom supervised me!”
The rest of the kids sighed in relief and ran to Feather’s home, everyone except Spike who stared at them with a look of both sadness and nostalgia. Luckily Feather turned and looked at him with a smile.
“Dude, what are you waiting for? Or you don’t like lemonade? Because I think I have some milk too, or do you prefer water?!
Spike shook his head.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I think I spaced out. Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Of course, come on!”
So Spike joined the group of kids, he was having such a good time that he forgot about his problems for a little. But his problems returned to him as the group passed right in front of the library. Spike stood still for a moment looking at his former home with a nostalgic look; and he swore he saw a lavender blur watching on him, but it disappeared quickly. He stood there for a little when he was called back to reality by Pipsqueak.
“Come on Spike! We’re waiting!”
“Sorry, sorry” said Spike running to joining them again.
And before Spike realized, he was drinking lemonade, chatting and laughing with the others in Feather Weight’s living room. It felt nice, but also Spike realized this was normal for them; why he never shared a time like this with the girls? Just a nice chit-chat with the others after a morning of playing.
“Ey Spike, and how’s that suddenly you came to play with us?” Suddenly asked Feather Weight. “I mean, I know that Bon-Bon paid us with chocolates, but what happened? Did you get bored to hang out only with old ladies? And since when you’re Bon-Bon’s friend?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, please” said Spike sighing.
“Sure, sure” said Snips noticing it was a delicate subject. “So, how’s hanging out with the oldies? I guess it’s pretty boring!”
“Sometimes, especially with Twilight who only knows about books” said Spike still wanting to avoid the subject.
“But I guess you have a lot with Pinkie, she’s the youngest old lady I know” said Pips.
“Ey, they’re not that old” said Sweetie Belle frowning.
“No?” Asked Rumble. “How old are they? Like twenty? They’re not as old as the as our parents, but they’re old. Period”
“Stop insulting our sisters or I won’t join you in the next pine nut battle!” Complained Scoots.
“Come on, admit it already! They’re old” said Rumble.
“Okay, so if our sisters are old; how ya’ call yer’ parents?” Asked Apple Bloom.
“Really old, duh!” Said Pipsqueak shrugging.
All the kids made a quick toast to cheer for the small joke and continued their pointless but refreshing and relaxing conversation.
“Okay guys, it was fun but I have to go back to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s for lunch. See you!”
“Ey! Before you leave, do you think you can meet us at the park tomorrow?” Asked Feather Weight.
Spike blinked in surprise but then he smiled.
“Sure thing! See you guys!”
And he ran as fast as he could. Once he left, the rest of the foals exchanged confused looks.
“Did he say he’s going to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s? Why not his home?” Asked Snips.
“Do you think something happened?”
“I don’t know, but he seemed somehow… odd”
The next day was Sunday, the most relaxed day of the week for many. And again, Spike woke up really late, but unlike the last time, he felt like he truly rested. Last day was interesting for Spike, spending the morning playing with the other kids and the afternoon listening to Lyra’s lire practice and then playing with her enchanted board games until bed time; it had been a while since he felt exhausted just for playing, he haven’t felt like that since…
“…since I came to Ponyville. Whatever”
He ran downstairs where Lyra and Bon-Bon were having breakfast.
“Hi Spike, you got up earlier than yesterday!” Smiled Lyra.
“Big plans for today?” Asked Bon-Bon with an accomplice smile.
Spike scratched his head.
“Plans? I don’t know, what are you guys planning to do today?”
Bon-Bon laughed.
“It’s Sunday Spike, we’re planning to do nothing”
“But I understand you have an appointment to play at the park today, remember?” Asked Lyra. “So you better hurry up with your breakfast!”
Spike smiled and ate everything with pleasure.
“Bon-Bon, Lyra, this is delicious!”
“Thank you!” Said the cream-coated pony.
Then Spike practically jumped out of the table and ran to the door, but stopped right before open it.
“What is it Spike?” Asked Lyra.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you with something?
“I don’t think so… or what about you help us with the dishes? Then you can go play all the morning, just make sure you’re back to lunch time” said Bon-Bon with a small shrug.
Spike nodded, the dishes, he could do that; he used to do it all the time in his home. So it was a surprise when he saw Lyra and Bon-Bon joining him: he washed, Bon-Bon dried and Lyra put it back on the pantry.
“Wow, it is kind of nice do this all together!” Smiled the little dragon.
“You’ve never learned how to be a kid, right?” Asked Bon-Bon.
Lyra sent her wife a warning glare, luckily Spike didn’t listened and when he finally left, Lyra confronted her mate.
“Bonnie, he’s already having a bad time, you’re not helping by saying such things!”
“I know, and I promised not to judge, but why on earth he have never go play with the other kids? Because he’s always busy doing favors to Twilight and her friends!”
Lyra slowly shook her head disapprovingly.
“We’re supposed to support him until his family comes, not to judge Twilight Sparkle. Right now those comments are the last that he needs so calm down okay?!
“I know, I know. Sorry!”
Twilight was lying on the couch crying when her friends came in.
“Twilight?” Asked Fluttershy softly.
“Hi…” she said weakly. “Want something, I’ll go for some tea or…”
“Are you okay sugarcube?” Asked Applejack.
The lavender unicorn looked furiously at the cowgirl.
“If I’m okay? Are you seriously asking me if I’m okay? WHAT, DO YOU HAVE FLOWERS GROWING IN YOUR BRAIN OR SOMETHING?”
Applejack accepted the insult with patience. She knew her friend was having a really bad time and had been suffering in silence for almost two days.
“A’ve only heard that insult once and it came from Cheerilee”
At the teacher’s mention, Twilight began to sob again; then she took a cushion and covered her mouth with it to scream letting go all the anger and guilt accumulated.
“So Cheerilee had something to do with this?” Asked Fluttershy shocked.
Twilight nodded weakly.
“She was the one who made them take Spike away from you?” Asked Pinkie Pie with a very serious expression, very strange on her. “Why? Was she thinking? She didn’t realize how much she harmed you both?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll go to have serious talk with her!!” Assured Dash already flying to the window.
But Twilight stopped her.
“No, wait please…”
“Twilight, everypony in town haven’t talked about anything else the entire week” explained Pinkie Pie. “They say Spike is staying with Lyra and Bon-Bon because you mistreated him, and they’ve been portraying you as the villain”
Twilight shook her head.
“Don’t you realize? She did what she had to… all this time we’ve been taking advantage of Spike. He haves a great heart and wants to help us all no matter what, and even with everything I’ve learnt about friendship I didn’t realize all this time we’ve been stealing his infancy! NONE OF US REALIZED, NOT EVEN SPIKE!”
“But Spike seemed happy” said Rarity.
Twilight sobbed again.
“Because he never knew something better, he was happy with his situation even if it was completely wrong!”
“Twilight…” tried to calm her Rarity.
The lavender unicorn pushed her away.
“Not even Princess Celestia is willing to help me; neither would I. The most I think about it, the most I see Cheerilee and the social services are right! All this time we’ve been taking advantage of Spike without realizing it!”
She cried again.
“I’m a failure as caretaker, as an older sister, as a friend… and can’t take it anymore!”
The other five mares approached and hugged Twilight.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find a solution together, we won’t let them take Spike away from you forever!” Assured Pinkie Pie. “We’ve made mistakes but that doesn’t mean we can’t change, right?”
“But I don’t get it, all this time we’ve been technically abusing of Spike?” Asked Rarity.
Twilight sent her a death-glare.
“You think so? YOU THINK SO? MAYBE I’M THE ONE WHO HAVE BEEN USING HIM TO DO ALL THE HOUSEWORK, BUT YOU’RE THE ONE WHO STICKS PINS ON HIM, YOU WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ELMENTE OF GENEROSITY BUT BEHAVE LIKE BLUE BLOOD WHEN YOU’RE AROUND HIM!”
Twilight cried louder.
“This is all your fault… THEY TOOK HIM AWAY FROM ME BECAUSE OF YOU!”
“Twilight, you cannot blame your friends just like that!” Scolded Fluttershy.
Twilight nodded cleaning her tears.
“I know and I’m sorry, is just that… I don’t know how to deal with this. I spent the last two nights wondering why this happened; and then I realize how much I exploited him and how it got worse when he began to do favors to all of us. WE ALL DID THIS!”
Applejack hugged Twilight while she thought about what Twilight had just said. She reminded the incident with the code of the dragon and Spike doing his best to help her; she remembered how Twilight was so busy that didn’t realized he left until she came to ask for help to get rid of the dragon, and still Spike never felt rejected because he didn’t know what resentment was. Then she remembered the dragon’s birthday, that day Applejack learnt that Spike was only a year older than Apple Bloom but didn’t bother to ask why he didn’t attend to school. And when they leave to accomplish friendship missions, who took care of Fluttershy’s animals? Who prepared the reception for their return? And who did all those favors for Rarity?
“Sweet Celestia, what have we done?”
By her way Rarity seemed offended, she compared with Blue Blood? How dared Twilight? Okay, she was having a very bad time and all but that didn’t gave her the right to compare her with the most selfish pony she ever met. But then she remembered the pin incident, one of many examples of how she took advantage of Spike’s crush on her; Spike had a golden heart and always tried to help. Then Pinkie Pie, even if she rarely asked Spike for favors, she pulled really cruel pranks on him from time to time like leaving him on a melting ice-block in the middle of the lake; he almost drowned. Fluttershy and Rainbow exchanged worried looks, maybe they didn’t took advantage of Spike as much as the others but they failed to realize how wrong the situation was.
It wasn’t a joke, it weren’t isolated incidents, no; it was child exploitation and eventually abuse… and still Spike was always happy, because the only happiness he knew was helping the others.
“If we promise to change, do you think they give us Spike back?”
“Would you do it?”
Monday, first day of school after a very long time
Monday, first day of school after a very long time
A new day started in Ponyville, and unlike the other days where Spike slept all he wanted to, this time he was awoken by a soft melody from a lyre. First slow and smooth that subtly mixed with his dreams and then fast and frenetic that ended up waking him.
“Huh? What is it?” Asked Spike still half asleep.
“Oh, nothing kid. You just have to get ready for your big day!” Explained Lyra.
“My big day?” Asked Spike scratching the back of his head. “Oh, you want me to help you with the store or…”
“What? No!” Said Bon-Bon getting into the guests room too. “I mean, I would appreciate your help Spike, but it’s Monday and all the kids of your age are supposed to go to school. Breakfast is ready so get up and hurry because Cheerilee asked us you be there at eight with fifteen minutes without excuse”
Spike shook his head confused.
“School? Me? But…”
“Yes, school” said Lyra before he said something that irritates Bon-Bon even more. “Go wash yourself quickly so you have time to eat your breakfast calmly. Understood?”
Still confused, Spike nodded and the mares left him alone. Not knowing what to think of all this, he made the bed and ran downstairs. He wasn’t sure about this new change, but he also was intrigued; last time he went to school he and Twilight still lived in Canterlot, besides he had a very good time playing with the other kids in Ponyville. Why he never joined on the first place?
Bon-Bon put in front of him a plate of eggs, bread, butter and hay bacon with juice and hot chocolate.
“Excited?” Asked Bon-Bon.
“A little, but also nervous” admitted Spike. “It’s been a while since I went to school”
Bon-Bon had to use all her self-control to not to frown in front of the kid, but Lyra came to rescue by giving him an old backpack.
“Don’t be, you know all your classmates already” said the minty unicorn. “So here, we got you a notebook, a few pencils and something to eat for the recess”
Spike looked at the backpack and smiled faintly, so this was going to be interesting.
“Finish your breakfast Spike, Cheerilee will get mad if you don’t show up on time” warned Bon-Bon looking at the kitchen clock. “Also I put you some chocolates for you to share with your friends, don’t eat them all. Understood?”
Spike nodded and finished his meal.
“Okay, thank you Bon-Bon, and I guess I’ll be back for lunch!”
“Do you want us to walk you to school?” Offered Lyra.
“No, I think I’m fine!”
“Okay, have fun!”
So Spike ran to the schoolhouse, it had been a while but he had a feeling that he was going to have fun.
That day Cheerilee woke up really early just to receive her new student. She really wanted that everything went fine for the little dragon; and she had a good feeling since she saw him playing and sharing with the other kids, a sign that he would adapt quickly to the school and the group.
“Good morning Miss Cheerilee!” Greeted the students as they were coming.
“Morning kids! Please come on in!”
Seeing the children arriving from early always put Cheerilee in an excellent mood. And for the kids, they sat on their desk as always; sometimes they came all by themselves or sometimes a family member walked them to school like Pipsqueak with his mom or Rumble with his big brother. Another who was always walked by her brother was Apple Bloom, but this time the one who walked the filly was her older sister. Cheerilee received Apple Bloom with a smile as always, but sent the older mare a death-glare.
“Cheerilee, A’ just came to talk” said Applejack.
“Okay, let’s go outside” said the teacher as she turned to her students. “Kids, I’ll be back soon. Draw something, or read a comic or whatever you want as long as you don’t get into trouble or fights!”
“Yes Miss Cheerilee!” Answered the kids at the unison.
So the two adults walked to the playground.
“A’ know he’ll come today. How is him?” Asked Applejack to break the ice.
“Now you care about him?” Asked Cheerilee dryly.
“Cheerilee…”
“That’s nothing of your business, none of you” answered the teacher firmly.
Applejack sighed.
“A’ know we did wrong and we cannot repair the damage we did. A’ get it, alright? But A’ came cause’ Twilight is bad, like really bad; you didn’t see her, she really misses Spike and needs him at her side. And A’m pretty sure that Spike needs Twilight as well. Yer’ the plaintiff, A’m sure you can do something on the audience to make things easier for Twilight. Please help us, or at least go talk with Twilight and see her in person. The Social Services taking Spike away from her until the trial left her devastated, and A’ don’t wanna see if they took him away forever.”
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow.
“Excuse me? You’re asking ME to help Twilight Sparkle to get Spike back? Get out of my school right now or I’ll call the authorities!”
“Twilight isn’t bad!” Protested Applejack.
“No, she isn’t, but she proved to be an incompetent tutor and I won’t allow her to get Spike back; not after he was in a condition of servitude”
Applejack lowered her head.
“She’s willing to change”
“The damage is already done. No GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SCHOOL!”
“This is public property, you can’t kick me out just like that!”
“I know, but you have a restraining order, and Spike will be her any second now; and if the authorities see you this close…”
Applejack got it, she just nodded and left sadly. In her way back to Sweet Apple Acres, she bumped into Spike, who smiled brightly at seeing her; but Applejack just smiled to him weakly and ran as fast as she could. Spike looked at her running away, but didn’t tried to follow her, after all he was told that none of his friends had allowed to talk with him until the audience; so he hurried to get to school.
“Spike, I’m so glad to see you! Ready for your first day of school?” Greeted Cheerilee with a huge smile.
“I think so, I haven’t come to school in a while, and I’m not sure how this will work”
“Everything will be fine, you’ll see. Now hurry!”
And the two of them entered to the schoolhouse where Spike stood in front of all the other kids, who seemed genuinely surprised to see him.
“Okay kids, from today Spike will be joining us. I hope everrpony get along with him”
The foals mumbled among them confused, what was Spike doing in the school? Didn’t he supposed to help Twilight at the library all day? And by the way, what about that argument between Applejack and the teacher?
“First he join us for a pine nut war and now he’s here?” Asked Rumble.
“And did noticed how she was looking at Applejack? If looks could kill…”
“And what does it have to di with Spike?”
All that gossip just made Spike lower his head in sadness, all those comments only reminded him his problems. And seeing the dragon’s mood, the teacher gently guided him to an empty desk and indicated him the class was about to start, but that didn’t stopped the foals from gossiping.
Only Apple Bloom stood quiet, remembering what just happened. Since last day her older sister seemed unusually sad and thoughtful, she tried to ask her what happened but Applejack only said it wasn’t a problem for children. And when she tried to cheer her up telling her how Spike joined them to play, she began to cry and locked herself in her room.
But still, after the initial shock, they greeted Spike as an old friend; especially the ones who played with him during the weekend.
“Okay kids, enough of the chit-chat, the class is about to start. Everypony open your text books in page 34 and we’ll continue where we left yesterday. Spike, you wait a little, I’m going to make you a small test”
“But it’s my first day!” Said Spike causing the rest of the class to giggle.
But Cheerilee called to order by raising a hoof.
“Enough class. And Spike, don’t worry, this test it’s only to determine in which grade I shall put you in”
Spike sighed but agreed with a small nod.
“Okay…” “That’s the spirit! Now the rest of you don’t try to help him. I’ll be watching”
Bon-Bon was happily mixing the mix for the chocolates as every morning when she heard the front door opening. Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow, it wasn’t like she didn’t had any costumers in the mornings but it was unusual; her sales usually started pass noon. Anyway, Bon-Bon walked to the counter, but she frowned when she saw who it was.
“Hi Bon-Bon” said Rarity shyly.
The chocolatier simply aimed a hoof to the door.
“I reserve the right to refuse service to anypony. Would you be so kind to get out of my store?”
“At least listen to me!”
“You have two choices: one, you walk out of my store with your own hooves; and two, I literally kick you out”
Still Rarity stood firm and put a beautiful backpack on the counter. It had an S embroiled with imitation emeralds (she knew Spike would eat them if they were real) and a realistic-looking dragon. A work of art, but Bon-Bon didn’t care.
“Don’t you think it’s too late for that? Why didn’t you gave it to him when he first arrived Ponyville?”
“I didn’t thought…”
“You didn’t thought that a little kid around your sister’s age would have to go to school? Get out of my store”
“How is he? Is he okay? Did he had enough sleep?”
“He’s better than with Twilight Sparkle. This is your last warning: get out”
“Please tell him I filled the backpack with all his favorite gems”
Enough, Rarity didn’t had time to react, Bon-Bon moved too fast and before the unicorn noticed, she was already in a small pond of mud in front of the store.
“Don’t you dare to come back. None of you!”
Some ponies looked at the scene with concerned looks but when they saw it was Rarity, they walked away shrugging, some of them even gave Bon-Bon an approval nod. At first the unicorn couldn’t believe she was being treated like that; but then she realized it was a small town and at this point most of the ponies knew about the scandal. She didn’t said more, so she lowered her head and walked back to her home for a quick shower.
At that Monday, Pinkie Pie woke up a little later than usual; like the others she had problems accepting what happened with the baby dragon. And like the others, she couldn’t stop blaming herself about what she have done to Spike. But she had work to do so she went downstairs to the bakery; but as soon as she saw the Cakes she knew something was wrong.
“Morning Pinkie Pie” said Mr. Cake looking awfully serious.
“Did something happened, Miss and Mister Cake?”
“Yes and no darling” said Miss Cake uncomfortable. “It’s just we don’t know how to tell you this…”
Pinkie Pie gulped.
“Tell me what?”
“It’s about your job”
Pinkie Pie shivered.
“Am I fired?”
“Not exactly Pinkie” said Mr. Cake to calm her. “Sorry but from now on you’ll be limited to the kitchen. We cannot allow you to keep attending the counter”
Pinkie nodded slowly.
“Okay… but why? I don’t get it!”
“Because ponies talk dear” explained Miss Cake sighing. “And everyone in Ponyville knows that your friends and you are involved in a child abuse scandal. Sorry but we cannot allow you to keep attending the counter, especially since most of our customers are children”
Pinkie sobbed.
“But everypony in town are friends of mine!”
“Maybe, but we’re talking about a huge scandal” said Miss Cake.
“And nopony wants anything to do with the six of you. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll forget soon, but until then, try not to show your face”
And there was nothing to reply, so Pinkie Pie just nodded sadly and walked slowly to the kitchen.
Spike felt that day a little too fast, the recess was especially memorable: all the kids ate their snacks really fast and then started an improvised soccer game, the class’ favorite. But this version was a little different from the one Spike knew: first off all the goals were made of two stones each other, second the new kid (Spike) and the chubby one (Snips) were unanimous selected as goalkeepers; also a couple of times they had to interrupt the game because somepony kicked the ball out of the school playground and had to go find it. But the funniest part was, no matter which team was winning, when Cheerilee announced that in a minute they’ll had to go back inside, the game was decided by: ‘last point wins’. Spike seemed genuinely surprised by all this much for the other’s delight since they took it pretty normally.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never played soccer like this?” Asked Rumble.
“Actually…”
“Dude, you have to get out more” chuckled the little Pegasus.
The rest of the day Spike solved his little test and before he realized, he was invited by the other to another soccer game, this time at the park. And of course he accepted, but before he joined the others, Spike had to run to Bon-Bon’s store to tell her.
“Okay, but I want you home at one thirty for lunch!” Warned the cream-coated pony.
“Of course!” Smiled the dragon while running through the door.
And in the meantime, Lyra and Cheerilee were checking Spike’s exam.
“As you can see, he’s behind the others in some subjects, but really advanced in others; his levels in basic math, urbanity, basic reading and writing are really high; but social studies, science and foreign language he’s below average. I had to send him extra homework just for that”
Lyra nodded.
“This is what happens when you don’t have an order in your education”
“No, this is what happens when your education is on the hooves of certain lavender idiot who only cares about what can you do for her. Spike is really smart and I really think he can reach the others soon but needs a lot of support, and Twilight Sparkle isn’t the one who’ll give it to him”
“Not you too please” asked Lyra patiently.
“Lyra…”
“Forget it, I’ll do what I can to help him. Unless until his family comes for him”
Cheerilee sighed.
“I know. Poor kid, right now what Spike needs the most is stability”
“We’ll do what we can as long as we can” assured Lyra.
It was an entire afternoon studying as he was used to, but this time the one studying was him
It was an entire afternoon studying as he was used to, but this time the one studying was him
Five thirty, Spike only had an hour to finish all the homework Cheerilee gave him before dinner time; but he couldn’t advance. He was on Lyra and Bon-Bon’s living room with three open books, lots of paper, a bottle of ink, and a few pencils both colored and normal; this whole situation reminded Spike when Twilight was busy studying and he was helping, but this time he was the one studying. The day’s assignment was easy: to trace a map of Ponyville marking the most important places and a few two-digit-multiplications; but the problem was that aside of that, Cheerilee gave Spike an extra quiz to help him level with the others in the areas he needed.
“Spike, your level are relatively low compared with the rest of your classmates,” had explained Cheerilee, “so I have to give you this extra assignment, but don’t worry is not for tomorrow. Take all the time you need”
Spike just received the quiz with an annoyed groan, but Lyra gently offered to help him; and here they were, with the minty unicorn waiting patiently and assisting whenever he needed. The problem was that after years of studying with Twilight, Spike developed some kind of automatic rejection to everything related with history or theoretical magic; but luckily for him, Lyra’s specialty was precisely history and also knew how to make it interesting for her young guest.
“Maybe you should look for something that motivates you to study more” suggested Lyra thoughtful after seeing Spike could only answer thirteen questions in half an hour. “Come on, there’s nothing in Equestrian history that got your attention? A legend, a battle, whatever…”
Spike seemed to considerate it but shook his head.
“Nothing, sorry”
“Come on! There must be something!” Said Lyra. “For example when I was about your age I couldn’t stand history neither, but one day I found a legend that made me fell in love with it”
“Oh, which legend?” Asked Spike a little more interested now.
“The Human of Equestroy!”
“The what now?”
Lyra grinned.
“The Human of Equestroy. You see: there was a conflict between Equestroyans and Ponirmidons, and after years of war both armies were stuck. Ponirmidons couldn’t break into the mighty walls of Equestroy; and Equestroyans couldn’t force the Ponirmidons to retreat. But one day the Ponirmidons had an idea: they knew humans were an important part of Equestroyan mythology, so they pretended to retreat and leaving a giant human made out of wood as a tribute admitting their defeat. But it was a trap! Inside of the human the entire Ponirmidon were waiting that the Equestroyans would be so stupid get the thing into their city”
“And what happened?” Asked Spike.
“They fell for the trick and the city of Equestroy was conquered that same night” explained Lyra.
“Oh, that sounds cool!” Smiled Spike. “That really happened?”
“Nopony knows, it’s a legend!” Cheered Lyra. “Now tell me, is there anything you’re interested in?”
Spike scratched her head.
“Well, I always liked everything related with the story of the Windigos!”
Lyra smiled and after considerate it for a little, she showed Spike a couple of questions
“Perfect! There are a couple of questions about them, let’s start for those!”
“But what about the order?”
“Who cares? All you have to do is to finish it, nopony is asking you in which order you answered the questions”
Spike had to admit she was right so he began to look for the questions that seemed more interesting. It was a strange feeling, to do his homework along with Lyra; Spike felt warm inside the whole moment. Again it was like joining Twilight when she was studying, but being him the one studying while being helped felt amazing.
“Okay, that’s enough for today, its dinner time!” Said Bon-Bon walking into from the kitchen.
So Lyra and Spike hurried to put everything back to order so they could eat.
“Thank you for everything Lyra!”
“Whenever you want Spike, I’m here for you” smiled the mare.
They sat on the table and Spike began to eat happily,
“Wow, you always made the best food Bon-Bon!” Said Spike burping satisfied. “But don’t you want me to help you at least for once?”
Bon-Bon shrugged.
“Don’t worry Spike, I love cooking and also I don’t allow anyone in my kitchen. Especially Lyra”
“Come on, I messed up only once!”
“I don’t give second chances sweetheart” said Bon-Bon firmly before turning back to Spike. “But you can help me do the dishes again and then you go to take a bath, okay?”
“Sure!”
So after doing the dishes with a little help from Lyra, Spike got into the bathtub thoughtful. Even with the annoyance of the homework, this routine wasn’t as exhausting as spend the whole day helping Twilight in the library. He missed Twilight of course, but he was getting used to this new situation of going to school and playing with the others. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to get the things back to normal. But no, he couldn’t be that selfish so he jumped out of the bathtub like escaping from those poisonous thoughts. Once he was dry and ready to sleep, he took a piece of paper from his new notebook and wrote a quick note. He couldn’t send it with his messenger breath, the social services warning him Twilight could get into more trouble if she got caught communicating with him without authorization, so he had to think in other way to talk to Twilight.
Somepony knocked at his door.
“Come on in!” He asked sadly.
Bon-Bon got into the room and gently placed a beautiful backpack in front of him. Spike couldn’t believe it, the design, the sewing … and the gems inside. He gulped.
“Is it… from Rarity?”
Bon-Bon nodded sadly.
“Yes, she may not be able to communicate with you, but this is her way to say she’s sorry and she misses you”
“Sorry for what?” Asked Spike much for Bon-Bon’s anger, but she still managed to control herself.
“Nothing, I meant that she’s worried about you” explained the mare. “However, I think you’ll like carrying your books inside of this backpack instead Lyra’s old one”
Spike smiled brightly.
“Thanks. Ehem, can you say Rarity ‘thank you’ for me? You know, since I’m not allowed to get close to her”
“I’ll try” said Bon-Bon awkwardly. “Now go to sleep, you still have to go to school tomorrow”
And she left leaving Spike alone with his thoughts. All he could do now was to write a second note, but not much more.
Twilight was lying on her bed looking at the roof with empty eyes, she didn’t even bothered to open the library since the last day. Now that she was alone, the whole place seemed too big, too overwhelming… and solitary.
“Spike…”
Then somepony called at the door. Now what? Anyway, she didn’t care, nothing mattered anymore for Twilight; but the knocking continued so she automatically went downstairs.
“Yes?” She asked in a monotonic voice.
“Mail” said Derpy giving her a couple of letters.
Mail? Twilight sighed, of course. Usually all her acquaintances communicated with her via Spike’s messenger breath, great, another reminder of her mistakes with her little brother.
“Thank you Derpy. Do I have to sign something or…?”
“No, that’s for packages only” explained the mail mare. It was just Twilight’s imagination or she actually detected a spark of disdain in the gray pegasus’ eyes.
And she flew away. Twilight stood there looking at the letters, they came from Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. The lavender unicorn gulped, usually when she received mail from her parents and big brother she felt excited and happy; but now she shivered. If she thought her mentor’s scolding was bad, was only because she forgot about her family, Spike’s family. Both letters started with an angered:
We received a notification from the social services…
That day at school was pretty similar to the last one, the only significant change was that Spike was given the chance to get out of the goal.
“Do you think you have what it takes?” Asked Rumble, the captain of his team.
“Of course I have!”
“You better or you’ll be in that goal the rest of the semester” warned him Button Mash.
“Whatever, let’s go!” Said Spike kicking the ball to Feather Weight.
But Scootaloo blocked the pass and kicked it to Pipsqueak.
“You can do it Pip!”
Pipsqueak demonstrated huge skill to retain the ball, avoiding the attempts of Spike, Rumble and Feather to take it from him; unfortunately Feather distracted him a fraction of a second, just what Spike needed to recover the ball and kicked it to Apple Bloom; who agilely sent it straight to the goal. Sinps, who was the goalkeeper, screamed in fear and ducked permitting Rumble’s team to score.
“Snips!” Protested Scootaloo.
“Ey last time I received a blow with a ball from her I lost a tooth!” Said the unicorn.
“Don’t be such a crybaby!” Face-hoofed the orange Pegasus. “It was already a little loose and also it was a milk tooth! And couldn’t you use magic?
“It’s against the rules” reminded Rumble with a sufficiency smile. “Or did you wanted me to win su much that you were about to give your own team a penalty? So sweet!”
Scootaloo frowned.
“Wanna fight, Rumble?!”
“I’m not afraid of a filly!”
And the pegasi were about to start to fight when Cheerilee made sound the bell that announced the end of the recess.
“Whoa, that was a close one” mumbled Spike.
“Don’t worry, those two fight all the time” giggled Twist. “All-the-time”
“Love is in the air” said Sweetie dreamily.
“Shut up!” Shouted Rumble and Scoots at the unison.
But before the problem escalated, the teacher appeared and announced that it was time to resume classes.
“Okay kids, are you ready for the next lesson?”
All the kids groaned in protest (the usual after the recess) but she didn’t mind and continued:
“Now open you text books in page 147, the legend of the Human of Equestroy. Button please start reading”
The kid shrugged and began:
“After Prince of Equestroy Rector killed his best friend Patroclus, Equiilles presented in front of the walls of Equestroy and demanded a one-on-one fight with him…”
Spike smiled remembering his little study session with Lyra, when Rumble called his attention by whispering:
“Pst, pst, Spike, and next time you don’t have to be the goalkeeper. You’re great at soccer pal!”
“That’s great, but I like the position too” answered Spike whispering too.
“For real?”
“Sure. Until now I never played soccer before so any position is good”
“Dude, that sounds terrible!” Exclaimed the white pegasus not being able to imagine a lifetime without his favorite game.
But Spike ignored his reaction. Now that he thought about it, why he never had the chance to play soccer until now? To play with other kids in general… but no, Spike shook his head and tried to focus in the reading to erase those awful thoughts.
The rest of the day nothing worth to mention happened, they finished to read Lyra’s favorite legend and then made a draw about it; and after that they solved a few divisions. Then the kids arranged another soccer encounter at the park after lunch and left to their respective homes, but Spike stopped Sweetie Belle.
“Sweetie, wait!” Called the dragon.
“Yes Spike?” Asked the unicorn filly.
Spike took the two letters he wrote the last night and gave it to Sweetie Belle.
“I know it’s unusual, but can you deliver this letters for me? One for Twilight and the other for Rarity?”
Sweetie Belle seemed confused, but nodded happily.
“Sure! Twilight and Rarity, yes? No problem but… why don’t you send them with your magic breath?”
Spike lowered his head.
“It’s complicated”
“Okay, don’t worry then”
Spike thanked the filly and ran back to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s, but Sweetie stopped him before he went too far.
“Spike, something really bad happened, right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it” said Spike sadly.
And something in his eyes convinced Sweetie Belle she didn’t wanted to know.
It was a long day, the longest Wednesday of her life
It was a long day, the longest Wednesday of her life
Noon, the last of the children had go home already and as every fifteen days, Cheerilee had to fill progress-reports, so the teacher stayed on her desk until late. She had a long hour before her but it was okay, it was all part of being a teacher. She was half-way-in when somepony called at the door.
“Yes?” Asked Cheerilee happily.
Right before here, she saw three unicorns the teacher had never seen before: a couple of mature unicors, a soft-gray mare with purple and white mane; the stallion had light-blue fur with navy-blue mane and golden eyes. Finally a younger stallion with snow-white fur and electric-blue mane.
“Ehem, hello?” Asked the teacher.
“It’s a pleasure, my name is Night Light and she’s my wife Twilight Velvet and my older son Shining Armor. Are you Cheerilee Blossom, the town’s teacher?”
“Twilight Velvet? So you are Twilight Sparkle’s family?” Asked Cheerilee frowning.
They nodded. Cherilee took a deep breath and confronted them:
“Yes I am Cheerilee Blossom and no, I don’t regret for what I’ve done. I had enough by explaining my reasons to Princess Celestia and she accepted my reasons so if you have a problem with me you can go talk to her”
“No, no, please! First thing we did was to speak with her” said Night Light sighing. “My first impulse was to come and tell you even how you’ll die… but giving the circumstances I have no choice but thank you for helping our youngest son”
Twilight Velvet let escape a small tear.
“When Twilight announced she wanted to go live by herself to continue with her studies closer to Princess Celestia, it wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was that Spike shouted that he would join her. They were really close and all, but I had my doubts that Twilight would be capable of taking care of her younger brother; I don’t know how they convinced me to agree but now they proved I was right. This situation could be avoided”
“Indeed, how old were Twilight when she started taking care of Spike, huh? What the hay were you thinking?!” said Cheerilee angrily.
“Twilight was always too mature for her age, and Spike seemed always happy around her, that’s why we agreed; and also that’s why we never suspected about Spike’s conditions” explained Shining Armor ashamed of himself. “I think we’re now paying for our mistakes”
“But what our daughter did to Spike is unforgivable, we Sparkles are supposed to be there for each other; not to take advantage between us!” Said Night Light angrily.
Cheerilee nodded.
“I think I understand how you feel. What I don’t get is what you need from me if you talked to Princess Celestia already”
Shining nodded sadly.
“We know, but we need to know exactly what happened. How you did you realize what was going on with Spike? We understand this could be a bother but please. We need to know”
Cheerilee doubted for a little, but at the end she accepted, even if they were complete idiots, they still were Spike’s family and they worried about him.
Bon-Bon was busy accommodating the recently made chocolates on the shelves, when Lyra suddenly entered to the store and ran behind the counter to hug her.
“Lyra, what a nice surprise! Did you left early the rehearsal?” Said Bon-Bon blushing.
Lyra hugged her tighter and then Bon-Bon knew something was wrong.
“Lyra?”
“I received a visit from the Social Services. Spike’s family came for him”
The cream-coated pony let drop the tray where she was taking the chocolates and if it wasn’t for Lyra’s reflexes and magic, all the content would spread all over the floor.
“Bonnie, don’t be sad! We knew this was a temporary arrangement!”
Bon-Bon sighed sadly.
“Lyra, please don’t pretend! You only make this more difficult for me!”
They both nodded at the unison and stood there sadly. Knowing Bon-Bon couldn’t attend anypony in that state, she changed the door’s sign to CLOSED.
“In times like this I wonder if it’s really okay that the two of us are together” sighed Lyra.
“Ly-ly, please don’t talk like that! You’re the better thing that ever happened to me”
“But I cannot give you what you want the most! Do you know how difficult it is to see you whenever a kid enters to the store? Or when we bump into a family in the park?”
Bon-Bon cleaned a couple of tears from her eyes and smiled to her wife. She knew Lyra all-too-well; and this time it was her who hugged the chocolatier.
“Lyra, you don’t have to pretend I’m the only one who wants a foal. Who inscribed us in the Social Services program? Who spent all the time she could with Spike?”
And that was enough, the unicorn began to sob on her own. Bon-Bon smiled to her and after a kiss, they stood there hugging each other when Spike got into the store happily.
“Bon-Bon, Bon-Bon! Oh, Lyra is also here? What happened?”
“We’ll tell you later, you seem to have more important news” smiled Lyra.
Spike shook his head quickly and then smiled very excited.
“Rumble invited me to his home this Friday for his birthday party! He says his parents organized a huge party that will last until the night and I want to go, and since you’re the ones taking care of me I thought…”
The two mares sighed at the unison.
“Spike, we would really want to give you permission to go to Rumble’s party… but that’s impossible. I’m so sorry” said Bon-Bon sadly.
“Yeah, it’s just not possible”
“But I asked and Pinkie Pie won’t be there, I promise; that was the first thing I asked to Rumble” said Spike.
Lyra sighed and placed her hoof around Spike’s shoulder.
“Spike, we better go home now, and take the chance to say goodbye to Ponyville because I don’t think you’ll be back in a while. Sorry”
“What do you mean? I thought it was a misunderstanding”
Bon-Bon hugged him with delicacy.
“About that Spike…”
“It may be a misunderstanding Spike, but the thing is in those cases the best thing for you is to stay with your family; you stayed with us because mail is slow and the Social Services took their time to locate them, but now they’re here to take you home” explained Lyra.
Spike didn’t know how to react to this, for one side he was excited to see his parents again along with his bigger brother; but he didn’t want to say good bye to Lyra and Bon-Bon, and of course his new friends. Then he froze for a moment, his new friends… but they’ve been in Ponyville the whole time, why he began to play with them until now?
“Then shall we go, Spike?” Asked Lyra taking Spike out of his thoughts.
“I guess so” said Spike touching his new backpack. “At least I have something to put on my stuff now, not that I have that many”
They arrived home and Spike hurried to put his comics, school books and some gems Rarity gave to him inside the backpack along with a box of chocolates from Bon-Bon.
“Thank you for everything, you were great friends” said Spike trying not to sound too sad.
“Thank you Spike, it was great having you here” said Lyra with a faint smile.
“And you now you can count on us whenever you need. We’ll be here for you”
So they waited in silence until they heard a soft knock at the door. Lyra opened it with her magic, and as she suspected it was a pony from the Social Services and who Lyra suspected was the Sparkle family.
“Mom, dad!” Said Spike jumping happily to hug the two unicorns.
“Hi little one, how are you?” Asked Twilight Velvet with a smile.
“It’s been a while son, I hope you didn’t bothered this nice ladies too much” joked Night Light.
“It’s so nice to see you! So I’m going home with you until this whole misunderstanding cleans up?” Asked the little dragon.
The two older ponies looked to each other without knowing what to say. Spike seemed so innocent and calmed.
“Didn’t you explain it to him?” Whispered Shining to Lyra’s ear.
“You try to do it, he breaks my heart”
Shining then shook his head and looked at Spike.
“Actually Spike…”
“Yes?”
“We’ve been discussing, darling, and we thought you better stop living with Twilight permanently” said Velvet softly.
“What? Why? I mean, I know there’s a misunderstanding and all but after the hearing at the family court everything can go back to normal, right?”
“Don’t you really get it, son?” Asked Night Light worried.
“Get what?!”
Being direct was the best way to address this problem, but none of the adults wanted to break Spike’s heart. At the end Shining sighed and tried to explain himself:
“Spike, we’ve been discussing this for a while and we think you should go live to the Empire with Cadence and me. I know you love Twilight and all, but this whole ‘misunderstanding’ started because she cannot take care of you as much as you need, as you deserve. Won’t you like that? Go to school in there, playing with other kids; basically what you’ve been doing the last days but… well, at the Empire”
“But what about Twilight? Will she be okay with this?”
Shining grinded his teeth.
“She better”
Spike seemed confused at this but still he asked.
“But what about the school?”
“We’ll enroll you in the best and biggest school of the Crystal Empire, you don’t worry about that. And hey, if you need help with your studies, I’ll help you; or Cadence, she’s smarter than me in any way”
“But what about my friends here? Rumble just invited me to his birthday this Friday, please, can’t I stay in Ponyville until Friday so I can go to his party? Just until Friday and I’ll take the chance to say goodbye to my friends!”
The family turned to the pony from the Social Services, who just lowered his head.
“The family always have the last word”
Lyra and Bon-Bon smiled to each other and Lyra made a small nod.
“We can take care of Spike for extra two days, we don’t really mind”
Shining also thought it was a good idea.
“Considering that Spike haven’t had friends of his age in a while I don’t see it completely irrational. We just have to write Cadence and… mom, dad can I stay with you for this two extra days?”
“Sure Shiny, we would love having you around!” Nodded Twilight Velvet.
“And I can warn Cadence right now!” Offered Spike cheerful.
“Sure, thank you Spike” said Shining finishing a quick note.
Spike happily sent it straight to Cadence and the answer came in half of a minute. The Princess of Love wished him to have a lot of fun at Rumble’s party and she’ll take the chance to finish all the processes to enroll Spike in the new school so he wouldn’t have to wait to start going.
Sweetie Belle was standing in front of the library unsure of what to do. For the tenth time that minute she checked the letter Spike asked her to deliver while she asked what happened. She remembered that when she gave Rarity hers, the unicorn began to sob and ran to lock into her room. What just happened? That’s why she took her time to deliver the letter to Twilight wondering how would she react. Did the letter had something bad? So Sweetie asked Rarity if it was really okay to give the letter, and Rarity’s reaction was to nod furiously.
“Please do it Sweetie Belle. Sorry if I overreacted, but don’t let that to stop you. I just couldn’t with the guilt”
“What happened?”
“I don’t want you to worry about my problems dear, just deliver the note no matter what. Okay?”
And that happened, so Sweetie took a deep breath and knocked at the door. Twilight opened it, she had her eyes red after all that crying, she hadn’t take a shower and seemed that she didn’t sleep in a very long while. Sweetie gulped and Twilight just looked at her sadly.
“Hi Sweetie. Sorry but i0m not in the mood to open the library in those days, can you go home please?”
Sweetie Belle gulped again.
“Eh, Twilight, I’m just here because Spike asked me to give you this” the filly said offering the letter to Twilight.
Twilight’s eyes widened and with an unknown fury, she violently took the letter from Sweetie and ripped the envelope into pieces. Three words:
I MISS YOU
“Spike… SPIKE!”
And before the rally scared Sweetie Belle Twilight ran to the train station. As the letters said, her parents would be coming for Spike that day so she had to see him at least for an instant; that was all she asked. To hell with the restraining order, she had to see Spike. The train station was small and the passengers few, it wouldn’t be difficult to locate her little brother, but there was no sign of Spike anywhere.
Then she saw them, not Spike but her parents and big brother getting into the train. They saw her as well. They didn’t say anything, there was no need; they just angrily turned their backs on Twilight and walked into their wagon. Last thing Twilight saw was her mother’s disappointment and rejection in her eyes.
So Twilight stood there in the middle in the station sobbing.
On that afternoon she reached bottom, but once you get there you can only go up
On that afternoon she reached bottom, but once you get there you can only go up
The train began to move before the hurt Twilight. So it was true, her own family turned their backs to her. It hurt, yeah, the only reason Twilight didn’t cry more was because she was out of tears. The only one who still stood behind her was Spike. And lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t notice the shadow over her head until it began raining. She was surprised at first and then she saw Cloud Chaser over a storm cloud right above her. And again, nopony seemed to support Twilight.
Or almost no pony because suddenly Rainbow Dash tackled Cloud and pushed her back to the ground.
“Don’t dare to mess with my friends Cloud! What’s your damn problem with Twilight?”
“Oh don’t you play innocent, in this town we don’t tolerate those who take advantage of a child! And is not only her but all of you!”
Then it was Cloud who kicked Rainbow precisely at the wing articulation sending her right to the floor. Twilight ran to help Rainbow who rubbed her injured wing while the ponies began to gather around them.
“Shame on you! How can you represent friendship if you treat your family like that?”
“How can you sleep at night?!”
“Get the hell out of Ponyville!”
And kept yelling at the mares much for Twilight’s surprise.
“How long have the things being like this?” Asked Twilight.
“Since Saturday, but mostly they limit themselves to look at us badly; this is new”
The ponies continued booing Twilight and Rainbow, until a voice was heard between the crowd, Cheerilee:
“STOP IT! Seriously, do you want to get us into trouble? Leave them alone!”
The teacher advanced between the very surprised crowd.
“But you were the one who denounced them!!” Objected Caramel.
“I know, and the authorities are already taking care of the problem, damn. And what you get from harassing them? Okay, I get it, you’re outraged by this but I remind you none of us realized what was going on! Stop it!”
“But…”
“Don’t deny it, besides what we have here is an incompetent tutor, at least she never hurt the kid”
So the ponies mumbled and went in separate ways leaving alone Twilight and Rainbow. The purple unicorn couldn’t believe what the teacher just did for her, and was about to thank her but the teacher shook her head.
“I’m still mad at you, but I believe in karma and nothing is lower than kick the fallen”
Twilight lowered her head while Rainbow Dash mumbled an unwilling apology (she was very mad with the teacher for what she had done to Twilight). But ignoring that, she turned to her friend.
“At least you finally got out of your home. What about we gather the others and do something, anything will do”
Twilight just pressed Spike’s letter (that surprisingly enough haven’t ruined with Cloud Chaser’s rain) against her heart.
“Something made me get out. Now I would love to join you guys but there’s something I must do”
Rainbow looked how Twilight’s eyes recovered part of her stubbornness, at least she was taking the first steps to recover. Twilight smiled back to her friend and walked to the counter.
“One ticket to Canterlot please”
There was an hour between both trains and forty five minutes of journey, more than enough for Twilight to take a shower and think about what she would say to Spike. According to the letters Spike would be living with Shining from now on but the journey to the Crystal Empire was long and tiring so Twilight was pretty sure that Shining and Spike would spend at least one night with their parents. She didn’t mind if she was rejected by her parents, all she needed was to talk to Spike and hug him at least for an instant.
And once she was in Canterlot, the librarian ran to her parent’s home. Twilight stood in front of the door a little intimidated, but after a quick nod and using Spike’s letter as a talisman, she rang the doorbell.
“Yes?” Asked Twilight Velvet, who froze when she saw her daughter in the entrance.
Twilight used her own magic to force the door open and walk in before her mother could react.
“I know what you said and its fine, but I want to see him now. He’s in here, right? Spike! SPIKE! I DON’T CARE IF I GET INTO TROUBLE, I WANT TO SEE YOU!”
Twilight Velvet was unsure of what to do or say.
“Twilight I…”
Then Twilight showed the note to her mother.
“I want to see him”
Velvet sighed and guided her daughter to the dining room where Night Light and Shining were drinking coffee. They raised an eyebrow at seeing her.
“To hell with the restraining order, I came to see Spike. Where is he? If you want to forget about me its fine, I don’t care as long as I can talk to him one last time”
Velvet offered a chair to her daughter.
“I’m the first one to admit we overreacted and we need to talk, but for now try to calm down”
Twilight sat.
“Where’s Spike?”
“He managed to convince us to stay a couple of days more in Ponyville, but that’s none of your business. Not anymore” said Night Light angrily.
“It is my business”
“Doesn’t seem like it, how could you do it?” Asked Night Light.
“I’m with dad, we all agree you stained our name by betraying your family; the one who loves you the most. How could you do this to him Twilight?” Asked Shining.
“Shining I promise you… it wasn’t my intention!”
The white stallion took a deep breath.
“Okay, then how you permitted the situation escalate to this point?”
Twilight lowered her head.
“I don’t… I don’t know, I swear I don’t know! I… I… I think it all started when we moved out and Spike began to help me with my studies; slowly I got used to depend on him, but in that moment he still went to school regularly. Then we moved to Ponyville during vacation and seeing he was more useful in the library and the house I forgot to send him to school… it wasn’t like I forbid him to go to, but I didn’t thought about it. Then we began to hang out with my new friends and being so good-willing as always Spike started to do favors to all of them, especially Rarity since he have a crush on her; at first he helped just with minor chores and before we knew we ended up in the current situation. I know I should act differently, send him to school and make sure he had friends around his age but I was so concentrated in my studies that I… I ended up neglecting him…”
Velvet frowned.
“When he insisted he wanted to move with you I argued about it, and still don’t know how I ended up agreeing; but I was afraid that you won’t be able to take care of him. You just proved I was right but I never thought he’ll be the one taking care of you instead you of him…”
“I’m so sorry…”
“How could you do this? Spike is our brother, OUR BABY BROTHER FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE!”
“Shining, I was so busy with my…”
“THAT’S NOT AN EXCUSE! YOU COULD ASK CELESTIA TO LEAVE YOU LESS WORK, OR AT LEAST ASK FOR HELP! Do you have any idea how we felt when we received the notification, and what’s worse, when Princess Celestia told us about your talk with Cheerilee. God damn it, and nopony noticed… BECAUSE HE WAS SO HAPPY WITH HIS SITUATION!”
Shining’s anger was almost tangible, he was always very protective with his younger siblings… and seeing how his sister took advantage of their littlest brother was something he couldn’t stand.
“And all because he never knew better than being your servant; I wish you had never moved, at least we still could notice on time but being that far just made thing more difficult for us. At the end you proved to be nothing but a selfish teenager” said Night light angrily.
“Is like you brainwashed Spike to make him happy with his situation, but you didn’t had to use magic to indoctrinate him, do you realize you stole part of his childhood, and he is so innocent that he never noticed?!” Added Velvet.
“That’s what we find unforgivable” said Shining. “You acted like a selfish bitch!”
Shining’s words hurt like a knife; but the stallion realized what he just said and covered his mouth in horror. He sighed.
“And that’s why I didn’t wanted to talk to you, at least for the moment. I knew I would say something I would regret… sorry Twily, but… I’m just so angry…”
Twilight was still looking at him very hurt. Shining grinded his teeth trying to find the words he needed to apologize, he was very mad at Twilight for what she have done to Spike, but he also couldn’t believe what he had just say. She have made a huge mistake, but she didn’t deserved being treated like that. At the end he was the one who started crying.
“I’m so sorry… I don’t hate you Twily…”
“None of us” said Velvet hugging her daughter. “This is all our fault for allow you this to happen, but you must understand what you did is wrong”
“I had more than enough time to realize, thank you” said Twilight weakly.
“Yeah, we got carried on and forgot this is all about Spike” said Velvet.
Night Light hugged his daughter too.
“Yeah, now we must think what’s best for Spike”
Shining stood apart, still ashamed of himself.
“I can see if we can arrange a supervised visit so you can talk to him without getting into trouble” he suggested.
Twilight looked at him surprised.
“Would you do that?”
“With one condition” said Night Light.
“What?”
“You must be the one who tells them the truth, you must explain to him personally this was no misunderstanding and they took him away from you for a reason. You owe him that much”
The Thursday felt too fast, as everything good that was about to end
The Thursday felt too fast, as everything good that was about to end
Spike woke up ready for Thursday more thoughtful than usual, but he did his best to contain the storm in his head; he still had two more days with his new friends so he would do his best to enjoy it as much as possible. And also there was Rumble’s party, that would be great since the Power Ponies were coming and his parents apparently had hire DJ-P0N3. It was weird, Spike regularly attended to Pinkie’s parties and had fun, but now that he would go to a kid’s party he was more excited than the other times. Why he had never go to a kid’s party? But no, he did his best to clear his mind and went downstairs.
“Oh, hi, you’re awake! I was just about to wake you up. Ready for your next-to-last day of school here in Ponyville?” Smiled Lyra when she saw Spike.
“Yeah, thank you Lyra”
The minty unicorn hugged him.
“And hey, thank you for staying with us a couple of more nights”
“What? Oh, you’re welcome. I just wish I won’t have to leave”
Lyra kissed his forehead.
“What? Are you worried you won’t be able to make new friends? Don’t be, you’re great and kind so you won’t have any trouble. What else? Oh right you’re a dragon! How many kids can say they have a dragon friend? So take it easy and you’ll see everything will be fine. Now come on! I can smell something delicious already, that means Bonnie had just finished breakfast”
Spike sniffed the air and effectively, it smelled like egg with haybacon. Bon-Bon greeted the purple dragon with a smile and served him breakfast.
“You better hurry to eat, remember Cheerilee doesn’t like delays. Have a good day at school”
“Thank you Lyra, Bon-Bon. See you at lunch, have a nice day too!”
The two mares nodded to Spike and the dragon walked happily to school. The teacher received him as always, with a warm smile and a little push to hurry him into the classroom. The students started to come one by one, all greeting Spike in a very good mood. Finally Cheerilee closed the door and began:
“Very well, good morning kids! It’s great to have you here!”
“Good morning Miss Cheerilee!” Said the students at the unison.
“Before we start I have two announcements. First one is from your friend. Rumble, do you mind?”
The young Pegasus flew proudly in front of his classmates and after two stylized bows that cost him some giggles and a couple of paper balls thrown to him. Still he smiled and started:
“As you all know, tomorrow is my birthday, so after school we’ll go straight to my house to celebrate my ten years! You heard it, two digits! So please remember to bring me all the presents you can! Nah, just kidding, but I hope you all be there!”
The entire class shrieked in excitement as a response and Rumble bowed again very proud of himself and then he returned to his seat. And then Cheerilee’s expression turned serious.
“The second announcement is about our new friend Spike. This is his first and last week with us since tomorrow he’ll move with his family to the Crystal Empire”
The entire class began to mumble in confusion and looked at Spike, who lowered his head in silence and nodded.
“Then you won’t go to my party?” Asked Rumble clearly disappointed.
Spike smiled to him.
“Are you kidding? Of course I’ll go! I’ll leave but after your party: I won’t miss it for anything!”
“You better be there!” Warned Rumble.
Sweetie Belle raised a hoof.
“Yes, Sweetie?” Asked the teacher.
“So Twilight is leaving too? Are they shutting down the library?”
“No, only Spike is leaving, Twilight will stay” said Cheerilee dryly. In fact las afternoon she had to fill an especial progress report to deliver to the principal of Spike’s new school.
Unfortunately that called the kids’ attention.
“Now that I remember, you’ve been staying with Lyra and Bon-Bon and started to come to school out of nowhere, did you had a fight with Twilight or something?” Asked Twist.
“It’s hard to explain” said Spike seriously wanting to change the subject.
“Now that I remember, yesterday I saw my brother’s girlfriend arguing with Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Is it related?” Asked Rumble.
The kids pushed more and more until Cheerilee called back to order and started the class. But Spike noticed Swetie Belle and Apple Bloom watched him carefully, they’ve seen their sisters closely and knew something serious was going on because of their depression. This all had to be related.
Then Snips passed him a note.
“From Apple Bloom” whispered the little unicorn.
Spike seemed surprised at first but nodded and open the note:
WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU AT RECESS
He looked at the two fillies and nodded sadly, he had to see that coming.
They met under a tree a little far from the playground so they could talk calmly.
“Spike, something very odd is going on, don’t deny it!” Said Apple Bloom.
“First my sister gets depressed after a trip to Canterlot, then you send me that note for her and Twilight, and then suddenly you’re moving without Twilight. Talk to us, what happened?”
Spike looked at his two friends who looked at him expectant but he had no idea where to start. Noticing this, Apple Bloom continued:
“And just like Rarity, Applejack returned depressed from Canterlot. A’ asked her what was going on but she avoided ma’ question; thought she’ll be better next morning but no, she argued with Big Mac and fought, then she came here with me and argued with Cheerilee. And it all started when ya’ began to stay at Lyra and Bon-Bon’s. What’s truly happening, Spike?”
Sweetie Belle took his claw with her hoof.
“Come on Spike, we’re your friends, we want to help you. Please, tell us what’s happening”
Spike took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to not to cry.
“It’s all my fault… I knew I shouldn’t get it those two ponies last Friday… But I swear it wasn’t my intention! I just wanted to finish my chores when suddenly two ponies from the social services took me to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s house saying Twilight and her friends were doing wrong at making me work so much and next thing I know is that I’m forbid to see them or even talk to them or they’ll be in trouble. I don’t understand what’s going on, I hope is all a misunderstanding, but everypony is looking bad at Twilight and every time I say is a misunderstanding, they get angrier at her! I don’t know what to do except wait, but I couldn’t take it anymore so I asked you to deliver my letter. Sorry I used you Sweetie”
“Spike, if I knew at the time I would do it faster! Why didn’t you tell us what happened?”
Spike nailed his claws on the ground.
“Because when I’m with you, with the others, I forget about my problems. All I do is play and don’t have any worries. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know how I would take it”
The two fillies just hugged the dragon, and this time he couldn’t hold his tears any longer. He cried in silence until Feather appeared out of nowhere and began to tease him:
“Oh look! The boy with two girls, so before we know it, you’ll be playing with baby dolls!”
But the Pegasus muttered at seeing Spike’s and the girl’s eyes.
“Man, I’m sorry… I just…”
Luckily for him Spike took his chance to change the subject and after cleaning his tears he grinned to colt.
“What, jealous? A double date, a man between men!”
Feather grinned relieved he was left out of the problem and limited to invite the trio to the soccer encounter between Rumble’s and Scoots’ teams. The rest of the day was pretty normal and was a little too quick for Spike’s taste. But for the end at the day the group decided to go to Sugar Cube Corner.
“And for today, we’ll pay for you Spike!” Announced Snails.
“What? I mean, thanks but, why?” Asked the dragon.
Rumble rolled his eyes.
“Aren’t you leaving? Duh! This is your farewell-party! Today your party tomorrow mine!”
Scootaloo face-hoofed.
“We get it! It’s your birthday, can you shut up already?”
“Sure, but only if you kiss me!”
And Scoots pretended as she was going to hit Rumble but he saw her on time and began to fly laughing at the other Pegasus. Scootaloo extended her wings and began to chase Rumble while the others just giggled at this.
“Didn’t I tell you? They’re always fighting” smiled Twist.
But leaving aside the little conflict, the kids arrived to the bakery. Spike tried to see if he spotted Pinkie Pie but he didn’t see her anywhere. But again he hadn’t had the chance to consider it too much since his new friends called him back to reality:
“So what do you want Spike? You can ask for anything you want” said Pipsqueak.
“Uh-oh… maybe a strawberry shake and a red velvet cupcake” said Spike shyly.
“Sure, sure, go to find us a table and we’ll join you as soon as we ordered!”
Spike nodded and chose a little table aside a window, and fifteen minutes later the rest of the kids came starting their little party.
“I want to propose a toast for one of the coolest dragons we ever met!” Suddenly said Feather Weight raising his shake.
“Cheers!” Said the others at the unison.
They drank their shakes happily until Spike complained.
“Hey! This one is black berry when I asked for strawberry!”
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.
“Who took the order?”
“Pipsqueak”
“Why I’m surprised?” Groaned Button Mash.
“I bet the cupcake isn’t the right one neither” sighed Silver Spoon.
Spike looked at the unmistakable red velvet cupcake from the bakery.
“No, this is the right one!”
“Miracle!” Exclaimed all the colts at the unison.
“Pip got half of an order right!”
“Celestia have enlightened you pal!”
Pip groaned.
“Ha-ha!” Laughed Pipsqueak sarcastically.
Spike placed a comforting claw on Pip’s shoulder.
“Take it easy, everyone makes mistakes!”
“Thank you Spike! At least I have one true friend around here!”
And the kids finished their drinks happily and to close an already perfect day somepony suggested:
“Pine-nut fight!”
There was no need to repeat it, the kids ran to the same hill they had their little encounter last Saturday and organized a disaster of major proportions.
“They have us surrounded!” Said Pip to Spike looking how Feather, Snips and Apple Bloom have covered their whole flanks.
Their only shelter was a big flat rock, but it wasn’t enough to protect them for the death-trap.
“There’s still hope! Do you trust me Pip?”
“Sure Spike!”
“Then at my sign!”
The first one to arrive was Apple Bloom who dangerously held a pine-nut, when Spike suddenly created a smoke-screen and ran with his friend.
“After them!” Commanded Feather Weight.
But it was too late already, they escaped.
“Damn dragon!”
“Take it easy, soon he’ll be problem of the Crystal Empire!”
The game kept going, and Spike decided to enjoy it fully.
Nighttime. Twilight was looking at the moon through the window melancholically while giving small glances to Spike’s letter from time to time. She knew what she had to do, but she had to wait for the Social Services gave her permission to do it.
“I guess I have to wait until tomorrow or probably I’ll take at train to the Empire” Twilight sighed walking to bed.
She was sad, but mostly exhausted, even if it was the last day, the encounter with her family was exhausting. They were really mad at her and yelled really badly at her, but at least they have released everything at once. Would they forgive her? Twilight wasn’t sure but at least she was sure that she had to focus on what was best for Spike. She would be fine as long Spike could forgive her for her stupidity.
And suddenly somepony called at the door.
“Princess Luna!” Exclaimed Twilight when she saw the purple alicorn at the door.
“Do you mind if we come in, Twilight Sparkle?” Asked the Princess of the Night.
Twilight sighed and let Luna in.
“Let me guess: you’re here to scold me too” sighed Twilight. “Go on, I’m kind off used at this point”
Luna smiled gently to her.
“No Twilight Sparkle, we would never dare to such thing. Do you remember last Nightmare Night when we had a little incident with the young foals? Well, it is the same thing: we know what is like to make a huge mistake that turns everypony against us. No, we don’t judge anypony for their mistakes. If we came tonight is only to see how you are”
Twilight couldn’t believe it but soon enough she cheered up at least a little.
“Thank you, this is the first nice word I hear in a while”
Luna nodded.
“For our own experience we can tell you all you must do is to wait. Everypony is upset, yes, but only because masses are dumb and need something to be entertain with. Unfortunately, this time the victim was you”
Twilight lowered her head.
“My family is upset as well”
“They’re nothing but a bunch or jerks, you don’t worry about them Twilight Sparkle. Everypony portrays you as a bad pony, but what do you think?”
Twilight sighed.
“I guess I acted irresponsibly”
“Then you don’t take any more blame that you deserve; yes, I’m sure they’ll take the kid away from you, but you must understand it isn’t because you were mean to him,. But because you demonstrated not to be ready for take care of him. Everypony can say what they want about you, but nothing is more important than what you think. Do you understand?”
“Well yeah… but I hurt him”
Luna nodded.
“We hurt our sister as well, but at least you didn’t try to kill him”
“Still I have to make it up for him!”
“Everypony haves to make up for somepoy at some point” assured Luna.
“Everypony is really upset. Princess Celestia…”
“Tia haven’t stop loving you if you’re asking. She’s just frustrated for her own stupidity and blindness, and to be honest the notification couldn’t arrive in worst time (sometimes politics are the worst career choice). Just give her time, when the notification came everypony discharged their anger with you but what is done it’s done. Just give them time to calm down”
Twilight looked at Princess Luna thankfully.
“Thank you, Princess Luna”
The blue alicorn nodded.
“What worries us the most is that everypony forgets this problem isn’t about you, but what’s best for Spike”
“I know, I’m sure I’ll have to say goodbye to him forever but…”
“Do not accept any more guilt that corresponds you Twilight Sparkle. If you can understand that my job here is done. And I’ll talk with Tia, okay? She still have to apologize with you”
“Thank you, Princess Luna”
“Whenever you need me. And remember: everypony makes mistakes, sometimes bigger than others, but your mistakes don’t define you, and as I said, do not take any more blame that corresponds you. You have the right to defend yourself when the others go too far”
As last week’s Friday, that was a nice day; a little bit nicer than usual
As last week’s Friday, that was a nice day; a little bit nicer than usual
Just as last morning, Spike woke up by his own. The sun was bright and the birdies were chirping beautifully. Everything indicated Spike that he had a beautiful day before him. School, Rumble’s party and finally meet with his brother to go to the Crystal Empire. The dragon jumped out of the bed and began to make his bed when Lyra stepped in willing to wake him up, but seeing he was up already, she just smiled and hugged the kid.
“Ehem, Lyra?” Asked Spike a little ashamed.
“Sorry pal, is just I’ll miss to wake you up every morning, you know? Maybe you weren’t here under the best circumstances but we enjoyed your company. Thank you Spike”
“Thanks to you” said Spike sadly. “It was nice to know I could count on you during this whole misunderstanding. Now, shall we go for breakfast now or we give Bon-Bon some more time?”
“Let me see” said Lyra sniffing the air. “Yep, it smells like its ready”
Then the two of them went downstairs where Bon-Bon was already waiting for them with cheese omelets, orange juice, chocolate and fruits. Bon-Bon seriously put a lot of effort on it.
“It smells wonderful!” Said Spike deciding where to start.
“Well, is the last meal you share with us. This is our way to say good bye and wish you well with your family. Thank you for the extra days you spent with us, Spike” smiled the cream-coated mare.
And they ate happily, chatting about different subjects until it was time for Spike to go to school; where he was received warmly by his classmates, especially Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle who knew the story.
“Aw, this is what I call a show of affection” smiled the teacher.
“Is just that we’re gonna miss our friend, that’s all” said Feather Weight.
“He’s the best goal guard we ever had!” Assured Rumble.
The kids chuckled at this and a couple of them threw some paper balls to the Pegasus, but then Cheerilee called to order and everypony sat on their desks waiting for the class to end so they could go to Rumble’s. Cheerilee even finished early so they could go sooner.
“Classes are over! It’s party time, come on!” Announced Rumble.
And he flew at full speed and before he realized, he left all his classmates behind.
“This party better worth having to tolerate Rumble this whole week!” Sighed Scootaloo taking her backpack and checking that her present to Rumble was still there.
Rumble’s house was on the outskirts of Ponyville, behind the train station. It was a huge house, not as big as Diamond’s and Silver’s but it had at least four rooms and a perimeter fence decorated with balloons, streamers and such. And the closer the foals get, the louder they heard the Power Ponies theme song.
They got inside the house and much for Spike’s surprise, the first thing they saw in the hallway were two black and blue swords with Princess Luna’s symbol engraved on it.
“Whoa, I didn’t know Rumble’s parents were Lunar Guards” said the dragon to Feather Weight.
The Pegasus colt giggled.
“Yeah, they spend most of their time in working in Canterlot; that’s why Rumble lives with his older brother”
No pony said more and they ran to living room, where most of the furniture were removed (there was only one large table with a tray of cupcakes where somepony draw all the characters of the Power Ponies, a bowl of fruit punch, chips, gummies and much more). In the center of the living room, there was a disco-ball hanging; and right behind it, DJP0N3 was doing her stuff.
“I like it, but a dance floor?” Asked Snips.
“Dance floor? Where did you get that idea? This is a war zone!” Explained Rumble.
Then Rumble’s party came in, they seemed pretty intimidating since they still wore their uniforms of the Lunar Airforce (a long black trench-coat with an embroidered silver moon on the back and blue armor); but they gently smiled and show the kids the piñata they were carrying. It was a piñata with the shape of the Mane-iac. Next, the garden door opened and the Power Ponies came in claiming that their mortal enemy was there and they needed their help to defeat her, and gave Rumble a bat so he could start. Rumble grinned and began to attack the piñata, then the team of heroes gave bats to the other kids and one by one began to destroy the villainess spreading candy all over the floor. With the foals running all over trying to get as much candy as possible, of course somepony ended up receiving a blow on his head (Button Mash). Everypony were having fun, and when the piñata was finally destroyed and emptied, DJP0N3 changed to the Power Ponies’ battle theme.
“Now it’s when the real fun begins!” Shouted Rumble.
All the kids ran to the backyard, where the team of heroes (after pose for several pictures with the colts) gave all the foals masks and water balloons; and as Rumble have said, the living room became a war zone. But soaked and all, the kids were still having fun.
“So this is a kid’s party. I can get used to this!” Smiled the little dragon.
And suddenly, Rumble hit him with a water balloon.
“Hey!” Protested Spike.
“Wake up buddy, or you’ll become everypony’s target!” Warned him the Pegasus.
Spike groaned annoyed and began to throw several water balloons to Rumble, who extended his wings and gracefully eluded them all even if his feathers were soaking wet. But when he landed, he slipped and accidentally threw two water balloons to Scootaloo.
“Rumble!” Said angrily the filly.
“Come on! It was an accident” said the colt.
“Well, this won’t be an accident!” Warned Scoots starting to chase Rumble.
Spike just looked at them with a sweat-drop on his temple.
“This two are going to end killing each other”
“You mean marrying each other” giggled Sweetie Belle aside him.
The games continued until Rumble’s parents, Night Wing and Red Hood, followed by Thunder Lane entered to the war zone carrying some pizzas.
“Who’s hungry?” Asked Thunder.
Everypony, obviously, since all the kids practically jumped over the pizzas and start devouring slice after slice. It was madness, but in a good way.
“Just remember to leave enough space for cake” said Night Wing happily.
The cake looked beautiful, as the rest of the party, it was decorated with the image of the Power Ponies. Spike smiled, he really liked this party and wished this moment to last forever. He didn’t really get why this was the first time he assisted to one of those, but even if he didn’t get it, he didn’t really mind. All that mattered was that he was there with his new friends. They sang ‘happy birthday’ and then gave Rumble his presents, Spike didn’t have one but Red Hood assured him it was okay; they understood. Finally all the guests received an extra bag of candy to take home and everypony returned home.
Spike was confused why his brother didn’t come looking for him, but he didn’t mind. He went to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s ready to meet Shining or his parents, but instead he saw:
“TWILIGHT!”
“SPIKE!”
The two siblings ran to hug each other. It was good to see each other again, this was just what Spike needed to end a perfect day. So everything was going back to normal? He wouldn’t have to live in the Crystal Empire? He realized the two of them were crying, so what? They really needed to see each other.
“Twi, o Twi! I missed you so much!”
Twilight didn’t say anything, she just held Spike tighter.
“Twilight…”
“Oh Spike, you don’t know how happy I am to see you! I thought I couldn’t stand it, but you’re here and…”
“So this means this whole misunderstanding is all cleared?”
Twilight sobbed and cleaned the tears from Spike’s eyes. And then it was the first time when Spike took a glance of the ponies around: Shining, Lyra, Bon-Bon and one of the ponies of the social services. They all were looking expectantly.
“We’ll give you some time alone” said Shining.
So they moved to another room.
“Twilight?” Asked Spike.
The lavender unicorn took a deep breath, how to explain this to him? Shining managed to get permission for a supervised visit, but in exchange to tell Spike the truth. Would he be able to forgive her?
“Twilight?” Asked again Spike confused at Twilight’s nervousness.
“I’m so sorry Spike, but there’s no way things can go back to normal”
Twilight felt her heart breaking when she saw Spike’s look when she said that.
“Spike, I really don’t know how to explain you this but… but… there was no misunderstanding”
“What do you mean?”
“They took you away from me because I couldn’t take care of you properly”
“What do you mean?”
“The thing is Spike, during the years we’ve been together I couldn’t take care of you as I should; no, you were taking care of me and that’s not correct. Before we realized it, I ended up taking advantage of your good will and… at the end I hurt you Spike, making you work for me doing all the housework and… and… at the end I was stealing your childhood Spike”
“What do you mean, Twilight?”
“I mean I met more mistakes that the law and the common sense allows me. Spike, I’m so sorry…”
“But Twilight!”
“I was a fool Spike, and when we arrived to Ponyville our problem only got worse when you started taking care of the girls as well… with all the favors you did for us you didn’t have any time left to play with other kids or go to school. I was nothing but a selfish teenager, so that’s why they took me away from you”
Then Twilight held Spike tighter.
“So that means I would never live with you again?”
“No Spike, for the first time I have to think in you before me; that’s why you can’t be at my side anymore, you must be with someone who can take care of you as it should”
Spike simply separated from Twilight and escaped.
“Oh Spike, it was never my intention to hurt you”
That night everything had to come out for the sake of the family
That night everything had to come out for the sake of the family
Shining jumped out of the train and after made a huge sigh, he headed to the library. He held against him the authorization letter and rang the bell. He didn’t know how to look Twilight to the eyes now, but he did know this was something he had to do. Then Twilight opened the door.
“Oh, Shining, you get the authorization letter I guess” said the purple unicorn in a neutral tone.
“Yes here it is, right now a pony from the social services is talking with Spike’s temporary tutors to warn them” said Shining giving the letter to Twilight.
Twilight received the letter with a smile nod and began to shut the door.
“Thank you Shine, I’ll talk with Spike before you two leave town”
“Twily, wait” said Shining holding the door. “I know you’re not especially delighted to see me after what I said, but at least give me a chance to say I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was saying; I was frustrated, angry and hurt… I couldn’t belive during your time together you’ll… but no, this is about what I say. We overreacted and acted like jerks. Especially me, you didn’t deserve that”
“That’s al you’re going to tell me? Do you actually think that just by saying I’m sorry everything will be fine between us? You really hurt me Shine, and not only you but mom and dad as well. At least you came to apologize”
Shining lowered his head, he did deserve this but still it hurt.
“Ey, I knew you wouldn’t forgive me just like that, but I really needed to take that out of my chest, alright?”
Twilight slowly nodded, she knew Shining Armor and was aware that he never held back when he was angry.
“I guess we can talk. Wanna come in?”
Shining automatically followed his sister inside the library. Twilight offered him some tea and both of them sat in front of each other.
“I understand you’re kind of impulsive but that doesn’t forgives you for act like a jerk. But yeah, I do appreciate you tried to make things up” said Twilight.
“It was the least I could do. Besides if it makes you feel better, Princess Luna came to shout at us… or scold us using her Royal Voice but whatever. The thing is it was easier to release our frustrations with you instead of what’s best for Spike. Even with the relationship you two were having, you made sure he always had everything he needed”
Twilight smiled and hugged the authorization letter.
“Thank you Shining. Yes, we must look for what’s best for Spike and you are right about one thing: I must tell him the truth, I owe him that much along with leaving him in more capable hooves”
Shining saw the resignation in Twilight’s eyes and hugged her.
“I’m so sorry Twily, I should be there for you”
Twilight accepted the embrace but only for a short while.
“You just make sure that Spike is happy, okay?”
“I promise”
They hugged again, this time for longer time and smiled to each other.
“So how you’ve been the last days?” Asked Shining.
“Much better thanks to Princess Luna”
“And your friends?”
“They’re getting better too. What about with Princess Celestia?”
Shining just nodded softly.
“She’s doing fine, she also had her Canterlot Voice scolding session and if I know her well, she’s figuring how to apologize with you too after being so harsh about this. Go to see her if you can and try to make things up as well even if your relationship will never be the same again”
“I’ll consider it, thank you Shine”
They two stood in silence for a while until finally the pony from the social services knocked at the door.
“Spike is still at that party he mentioned, but we’re more than welcome to wait in the house of his temporary tutors”
So they walked to Lyra and Bon-Bon’s waiting for Spike; and when Spike final showed up, he and Twilight hugged tightly in a very emotive encounter. Then Shining made a small nod and said:
“We’ll give you some time alone”
And along with the other ponies, left the room to give them some privacy.
“Sir, you know this is a supervised visit, right?”
“They need to discuss this alone” assured Shining.
“But is it really okay?” Asked Bon-Bon.
Shining preferred not to say anything and wait. Minutes felt awfully long and tedious but Spike and Twilight had a lot to say to each other. And suddenly the door opened and Spike ran away crying out loud.
“Spike!” Tried to call him Shining, but the dragon pushed him away and escaped from the house.
The white unicorn recovered quickly and started to chase his little brother, but when Spike noticed Shining was following him, let escape a smoke screen from his mouth. Lyra, Shining and Mr. Care (the pony from the social services) tried to reach him but when the smoke cleared out, there was no trace of the dragon. Only Bon-Bon and Twilight stayed behind.
“Oh Spike, it was never my intention to hurt you”
Then the cream-coated pony turned to Twilight and began to shake her.
“Ey, what are you doing?” Complained Twilight-
“Don’t you dare to start crying here, I’ve done enough by tolerating your presence in my home so I won’t let you stay here to cry while Spike needs you the most!”
“But I hurt him really badly this time”
“So go to fix your mistakes. He doesn’t need Lyra, your brother or the idiot of Care, he needs you!”
Twilight cleaned her tears with a thankful smile.
“Thank you, I know you don’t like me but still…”
“You’re an idiot but as I said, you’re also who he really needs right now”
“Thank you Bon-Bon. How can I pay you this?”
“Are you deaf? Go find him!”
Twilight nodded and ran. She could hear her brother, Lyra and Care at the distance calling for Spike all over the down so where could she start looking? Bingo! Twilight ran into the library straight to her room. She found a small bulge in Spike’s basket right under the sheet, but she knew Spike and this was only a distraction, so Twilight looked at her bed and noticed a pillow was missing. With a smile, the purple unicorn looked under the bed.
“Spike?”
“Go away” answered the dragon drily.
Twilight moved backwards, but only a couple of steps.
“Spike, why don’t you come out of there?”
“So do you really want us to separate, Twilight? Don’t you need me anymore?” Sobbed the dragon.
Twilight shook her head.
“Is not that Spike, I need you… but maybe a little too much. Don’t you see it? During your time with Lyra and Bon-Bon you lived what you haven’t lived with me: a real childhood. Go to school? Play with other kids? Without realizing all this time I was taking away your precious time as a kid, and even if it wasn’t on purpose, the damage is done. None of us wanted this Spike, but is not fair I treat you as a servant instead of a kid; so that’s why I can’t allow you to keep living with me, because I cannot risk to take away your childhood again. No, the least I owe you is to recognize my fault and let you in more capable hooves”
“It wasn’t your intention!” Cried Spike.
“No, it wasn’t Spike, but I proved to be nothing but an immature teenager unable to take care of a child, no, you were taking care of me instead; so no Spike. Sorry but this is a case when if you truly love someone, you must let him go”
Spike crawled from under the bed to Twilight.
“But what if we change? We can always start all over again”
Twilight hugged him.
“No Spike, the law is clear, and even if it wasn’t intentional you cannot stay with me anymore. Besides this whole situation made me realize I’m not ready to take care of anypony; I mean, if it wasn’t for you I couldn’t even take care of myself. This is a chance for me to learn that, and for you to enjoy being a kid”
Spike held back his tears and kissed Twilight on the cheek.
“I’m going to miss you Twilight”
“And I’m already missing you”
They stood together for a while until they decided to get out of the library and find the others, with Spike on Twilight’s back for the old times. Spike was sad, knowing this was the last time he would see Ponyville in a while; and for Twilight, she was just thoughtful. They wandered for a bit until they ended up in the train station where Shining was already waiting for them with Spike’s backpack ready. Twilight looked to Shining’s eyes.
“Remember your promise”
“Of course”
Then they walked to the train where Twilight’s friends were waiting to say goodbye to the dragon.
“Girls? What are you doing here?” Asked Spike between surprised and happy.
“Let’s say Bon-Bon came looking for us, she knew you wouldn’t be satisfied unless you properly say goodbye” smiled Fluttershy.
There was not much to say, Spike jumped from Twilight’s back and ran to the others who caught him in a group-hug. Pinkie even gave him a tray of cupcakes.
“I always have a bunch farewell-treats in case of emergency” said Pinkie cleaning a small tear coming from her left eye.
“Try to think about us once in a while, after all we still had good moments together” smiled Fluttershy.
“And whatever happens ya’ know ya’ can count on us!” Assured Applejack.
“We’ll be your friends until the end” said Rainbow Dash.
“And I’ll treasure the moments we spent together Spikey-Wikey, even if I was who hurt you the most” said Rarity ashamed.
Spike smiled and hugged the girls one by one.
“Thank you for everything girls. I heard ponies said horrible things about you, but I swear I never believed any of them” assured Spike.
They all smiled thankful and relieved.
“And where are Lyra and Bon-Bon? I would like to say goodbye to them as well” said the dragon.
The Mane 6 moved letting pass the two mares leading all the children of Ponyville, who had come to wish well to their friend.
“We’ll miss you pal!” (Feather Weight).
“The best goal guardian Rumble’s team ever had!” (Button Mash).
“Thank you for everything, it was nice to hang out with you at least for a short while!” (Pipsqueak).
“The Power Ponies sent you all the candy leftover from the party!” (Rumble).
“Take care Spike” (Scootaloo).
“Ya’ better write from time to time!” (Apple Bloom).
“And even if you make new friends, don’t forget about us” (Sweetie Belle).
Almost every kid had something to say and Spike hugged each one of them, it was nice to have met them even if it was only for a week. And finally it was Lyra and Bon-Bon’s turn.
“You were with us for a short while Spike, but we’ll never forget the time we spent together kid. We love you dear Spike” said Bon-Bon.
“And hey, even is this didn’t result as you wanted, remember that everything happens for a reason. Okay?” Comforted him Lyra.
The affections would continue, but the last train to Canterlot was about to leave (they wouldn’t go to the Crystal Empire until the next day) so Spike finally said goodbye to everypony and gave Twilight a last hug to then enter to the train followed by Shining who also gave his sister a last hug before they go. The train marched and got lost in the darkness of the night.
“So shall we go now?” Asked somepony.
They all left except for Twilight who stood looking at the train tracks in silence.
Lyra and Bon-Bon were about to get home when Mr. Care from the social services stopped them.
“Wait, there’s something I would like to discuss with you before I leave”
“What is it?” Asked Lyra.
Mr. Care smiled to them.
“You made a great you taking care of Spike during this with doing your best to be what the kid needed and such. So what I’m trying to say is, in the name of the child protection services I thank you”
Bon-Bon nodded sadly.
“No problem. We love children, that’s it”
“Precisely, I understand you two solicited to adopt a foal and well; I’ll do everything in my power to recommend you with my superiors. I’m sure you’ll be great moms”
The two mares smiled and thanked Mr. Care with all their heart. Mr. Care made a quick nod and walked to Ponyville’s only hotel, he had a long day and really needed to sleep.
And for Twilight, she finally went home crying in silence; it hurt but she was happy if Spike was happy.
“If you truly love someone, sometimes you have to let him go”
The next two weeks were of reconciliation, the past had to stay in the past in order to move forward
The next two weeks were of reconciliation, the past had to stay in the past in order to move forward
Spike was looking at the window all the way to Canterlot while stayed silent deep in his thoughts. The purple dragon had now a very clear idea of why did they took him away from Twilight, but still he didn’t like the situation. He wanted to be with his older sister, and the fact that he created part of the situation really hurt him. Why the things had to end up like this? Why they couldn’t get back to how it was before? But then he remembered this week was the funniest of his life. And now that he thought about it, why did he stopped going to school? Sure, it was boring from time to time, but he wouldn’t change for anything all the time he spent with the rest of the kids of Ponyville; especially their games during the weekend and the party. Yeah, now that Spike considered it, he regretted all the schooldays and playing he lost for working at the library and doing chores for Twilight and her friends… he always ended up exhausted and he barely had time for himself. But he wasn’t capable to hate his sister, none of them had planned that their relationship end up like that.
In the meantime Shining looked at Spike unsure of how to act, he wished Cadence was there, she was good with this things. What to do? How could he comfort his baby brother? He finally decided to hug him. Spike seemed surprised at first by Shining’s contact (unsure and a little clumsy) but he accepted it and cuddled with the white unicorn. Just as Shining, Spike had a hard time dealing with this kind of emotions; he needed Twilight or perhaps his mother. And this was just one of many thing he’ll have to get used to.
“Hey Shine, are we staying with mom and dad for the night?”
“Yes. We’ll leave to the Empire tomorrow at noon so you can sleep as long as you need to. There’s no need to hurry”
Spike smiled weakly to Shining and opened one of the bags of candy Rumble gave him ‘from the Power ponies’ and offered a couple of candy bars, one for Shining one for him.
“Thank you buddy” said the white unicorn accepted the chocolate. “Uh, it’s good!”
“Nah, it’s just okay, after you spend a week living with one of the best chocolatiers in the world, you know the difference” said Spike.
Shining giggled at this.
“Maybe, for me the difference is that you can have these ones in any store and the others only for especial occasions”
Spike couldn’t argue that to his brother and took a couple of more candies to share with him; a relaxing pointless conversation was just what he needed for the occasion. And soon enough they arrived to Canterlot, where Twilight Velvet and Night Light were already waiting for them at the train station.
“How was the trip from Ponyville? Have you eat yet?” Asked Night Light.
“Nothing since the party” said Spike. “Oh I wish you were there! There was pizza and cake, and tons of candy! Even the Power Ponies were there and let us play with water balloons, we made a huge mess and when we thought it couldn’t get worse Button and Scoots teamed up to soak Rumble and… it was great, I haven’t had so much fun in a while. I loved it!”
“I’m glad you had fun with your new friends before you came Spike. Now, shall we go eat something before we go home?” Asked Velvet.
“Thank you, I’m starving!” Said Shining.
So they picked something to eat in their way home. There was no much to say, finally Spike went to bed and fall asleep immediately. It gave the adults the opportunity to speak freely.
“And how was she?” Asked Twilight Velvet.
“She said she’ll forgive me if I make sure Spike is happy. But I recommend you go talk to her” said Spike.
“Yeah, I guess we must” sighed Night Light.
The rest of the night passed without incident, but Velvet and Night couldn’t sleep too worried that they damaged their relationship with Twilight permanently. One more time they remembered when they tried to excuse themselves before Princess Luna. They simply couldn’t.
“First you put extremely high expectances on her, too much for even an adult! And she does her best to make you happy, and then what? You didn’t care that the weight on her shoulders was too big for any pony, no, she makes ONE mistake and suddenly you turn your backs on here. That’s not how a family supposes to act. What were you thinking? All of you!!”
The reproach kept going and was stuck on their minds since almost two days, and they still didn’t dare to face Twilight. But that was about to end, they had to talk to her before the hearing for the sake of family.
The next day the entire family went to the train station; with the two sons in their way to the Crystal Empire and the two parents in their way to Ponyville.
“Good luck Spike. Write us as soon as you get there son” asked Velvet kissing Spike’s forehead.
“Of course mom, thank you”
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine” assured Shining.
“We hope so. But Shine, please tell us immediately if you need help. We will be here if you need us!”
The two brothers smiled to their parents and after a quick last hug, they got in their train and left. And for the parents they still had to wait ten minutes to get in their own train and went to Ponyville where they headed to the library and rang the doorbell.
“Twilight?” Asked Velvet.
The lavender unicorn just frowned.
“My only question is, it wouldn’t be easier that the three of you come together to apologize instead of coming in groups?”
“We know, but there’s a difference: your brother is impulsive and cannot control his mouth when he’s angry. And for us, we are your parents and failed as such. We expected so much from you, and made a terrible mistake by making you mature too fast; so we never realized how wrong were we when we let you take care of your younger brother. It was easier to blame you than accept our part of the responsibility” said Night Light lowering his head.
“We failed to notice that you needed help, and hurt Spike in the process. We were neglected before you and we’re sorry. And the worst part is we acted as jerks when the fault was principally ours” sighed Velvet.
Twilight just smiled weakly.
“We all made mistakes, I failed by not asking help or admitting I wasn’t capable to take care of Spike properly. But this isn’t about us, is about Spike. I want him to be happy, and if I have to let him go in order for him to be it, I accept it”
“Twilight…” said Velvet softly.
“Ehem, you can hit us if you want” said Night nervously.
“Just promise me we’ll concentrate in Spike’s well-being in the hearing”
They nodded and hugged each other, but again it was a quick hug. There was nothing more to say, the family relationship was starting to fix but it would take some time.
Spike and Shining arrived to the Empire around five o’clock, where Cadence received them happily.
“How are you dear, okay?”
“I could be better, thank you” smiled the purple dragon.
“Anyone would take some time to recover after a situation like you’ve been; but give it some time and you’ll see how everything gets better”
“I guess so, thank you Cadence” smiled Spike shyly.
So they went to the Palace where Cadence showed Spike his new room: it was bigger than Lyra and Bon-Bon’s guest room, with walls painted in light blue, with beautiful purple-crystal windows and in the center of it, a big bed with a night table aside.
“I hope you like it Spike, I know it looks empty but I preferred to wait for your arrival so we can fill it together. What you think?”
“It sounds great! Thank you Cadence!”
“Whenever you want Spike”
At the next day, after having breakfast in one of the fanciest restaurants of the Crystal Empire, where Spike’s presence was a sensation (after all he was the one who saved the Empire from King Sombra), they spent the whole morning wandering around stores buying everything Spike needed for his new room; he loved the idea to decorate his room as he wanted, but it also saddened him a little, because he realized it was also a sign that he would never return with Twilight. Spike didn’t liked it but at this point he knew it was the best for the two of them.
“And let’s not forget about your books and pencils because tomorrow you’ll start attending to school” reminded the pink alicorn.
“I guessed so, and how are the schools around here?”
“Big, really bit, but hey, you’ll judge it on your own tomorrow, don’t you think?”
Spike smiled, yeah, he’ll judge it on his own. The rest of the day passed normally, with Spike getting used to his new room and decorating it along with Shining and Cadence. At the next day he was up at first hour ready to go to a new school, where he was walked to by Shining alone since Cadence had audiences to attend from early.
“Do you think I’ll adapt fast?” Asked Spike.
The Prince seemed to consider it but just winked an eye to the dragon.
“Let me see, you’re a dragon, the hero who defeated Sombra and also the Prince’s little brother. Yeah, I think you’ll be fine!”
Spike chuckled and they both entered to the building where they were received by a nice earth pony with green fur and sky-blue mane, the principal, who gently guided Spike to one of the classes.
“Miss Rolling Bubbles, here’s your new student”
A sky-blue colored Pegasus with electric blue mane received Spike with a warm smile.
“Okay kids, from today we have a new student. He came from Ponyville and he’s just getting used to the Crystal Empire, so give a warm welcome to Spike Sparkle. Spike, what can you tell us about you?”
The dragon blushed a little but he thought in something quickly.
“Well, I’m nine years old and love rubies…”
“Hahahahahaha! So you wear jewelry like fillies?” Mocked a kid.
The other kids giggled at this, mostly the colts, but Spike didn’t mind.
“What? No! I always considered a waste to wear gems! I love them as a snack, they’re delicious!”
And that made the whole class to mute in astonishment.
“Wait, wait, wait! You’re telling us you actually eat rubies? What else? Diamonds and emeralds too?”
“Also sapphires and some quartz from time to time, but that one is too dry for my taste” said Spike. “Oh and I love pearls! Especially when they’re fresh as good seafood!”
And after a general laugh, the teacher showed Spike his seat. The dragon sat and a school day as any other began; he missed his friends from Ponyville, but that mixture of mumbling suffocated chuckles and the sound of the pencils on the notebooks felt very familiar. It proved Spike that wherever he was, kids were still kids. And then it was recess, Spike sat on a bench when the same colt who mocked him during his presentation sat aside him.
“Ey, don’t tell me you have gems for lunch!” Giggled the kid.
Spike opened his lunchbox and effectively he showed the kid a big ruby that he ate in one bite.
“Need more proof?” Smiled Spike.
“What? But how’s that possible?” Asked the pony. “Seriously, did you just ate that? How?”
Spike raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t know much about dragons, right?”
“I guess not. By the way I’m Jumper, Sky Jumper”
“Spike. Spike Sparkle”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Spike” said Jumper taking a sandwich from his own lunchbox and starting to eat. “Hey, do you play soccer?”
Spike’s eyes widened.
“It’s my favorite game!”
“Cool! Let’s hurry to eat then!”
They did and went where the two teams were organizing. Cloud Crafting, the captain of the team where Spike was just looked at the dragon and shrugged.
“New kids go to the goals”
“Precisely my favorite positon!”
The kids began to play, and that was what Spike needed to feel like home. and of course by the end of the day he have made new friends like Sky Jumper, Cloud Crafting and lots of more foals. So it was a good day for the dragon.
The time had passed and Spike was getting used to the life at the Crystal Empire: going to school, hanging out with new friends and doing homework with Cadence’s help. He started to like the routine and if he still missed Twilight, she wrote her daily and he answered immediately; it was the advantage of the messenger breath.
On the other side, the things in Ponyviller were getting better. As with any other scandals, ponies lost interest in Twilight’s problem and started to treat the girls normally. Even Pinkie Pie was allowed back at the counter, a huge relief for her since she loved to attend ponies. Yes, everything was getting better, even Princess Celestia cae to apologize with Twilight.
“I know I should came earlier Twilight Sparkle, but at that time I wasn’t on my best mood and I released my frustrations in you. I’m sorry Twilight; and if you need help with your hearing, I’ll help you. It’s a promise”
“Thank you Princess Celestia but I’m ready to say goodbye to Spike. I don’t want to take away his childhood again and I know that my brother and Cadence will take good care of him”
“Oh Twilight, that’s…”
“Spike deserves to live his childhood happily. If he’s happy I’m happy”
The time continued and everypony kept living their lives, until it came: the day of the hearing. The circle finally closed.
And it finally came, the day of the hearing; the circle closed
And it finally came, the day of the hearing; the circle closed
That Friday morning was sunny and beautiful, with a warm breeze blowing around; a clear sign that whatever happens, it would be a good day. Maybe the events of the day would be a little sad, but at least all the hard feelings between the Sparkle family have finally been left in the past. And they all had clear that everything would be for the well-being of the youngest of the Sparkles. Princess Celestia, Cheerilee, Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Shining Armor, Twilight and of course Spike were reunited in the family court waiting for the judge to attend them.
Twilight’s friends were also there, but waiting outside of the building since the hearing was private.
And finally the door opened and a secretary indicated them they can go in. so the family followed by Princess Celestia and Cheerilee entered to the small court-room.
“Okay, please take a seat” said the judge.
They all obeyed as he began to check on the documents of the case.
“So we’re all here to discuss the matter of the custody for the minor Spike Sparkle who only until three weeks ago have been living with his older sister Twilight Sparkle. Miss Sparkle, can you give us your version of the facts please?”
Twilight sighed sadly.
“Yes your honor. Spike and I have always been really close since I hatched his egg during my test for the Academy of Gifted Unicorns. He became another son for my parents and we lived happily as a family since then.
The whole family agreed, and Twilight sighed sadly, this was the hard part:
“So when I turned fifteen I left home to live on my own, and Spike insisted in coming with me. That’s when our relationship began to go downwards. I was so concentrated in my studies that slowly left behind things like chores… or take care of my little brother. Spike gradually began to take care of everything and also of me. I was nothing but a selfish teenager and none of us realized”
The judge frowned.
“My only question is, why the family allowed that a fifteen-year-old girl take care of a kid?”
Night Light and Twilight Velvet didn’t answered.
“Seriouly, somepony should take Miss Twilight away from you when it was still time. Do you realize you were the ones who allowed this situation on the first place?”
Again none of the parents dared to answer so the judge turned to the Princess.
“And Princess Celestia, how did you allowed this? I understand that Miss Sparkle is your personal protégé, why on Equestria you didn’t say anything about her taking care of Spike?”
“I guess that the fact that Twilight was the one who hatched Spike’s egg helped, and she also seemed too mature for her age. And then Spike and Twilight always seemed happy together, nopony would suspect what was really going on”
The judge checked on his notes and looked at Spike.
“What reminds me, why did you never complained? It didn’t bothered you?”
Spike looked down.
“No sir, I was proud of being Number one Assistant”
The judge then turned to Cheerilee.
“So, Miss Plaintiff, how did you realized about the situation?”
“First of all I only know Twilight from a year ago when she first arrived to Ponyville. I didn’t realized anything at first, no seeing what was at plain sight. But one day I saw him at the market with tons of money, and you know the rest from the notes of the case: I offered to help him and talking with him I realized he did all the housework, didn’t go to school and more important, he was nine years old. I had to do something”
The judge nodded.
“Thank you. Why didn’t you sent Spike to school, Miss Sparkle?”
“I don’t know how it ended up like this, I mean, back in Canterlot he went to school regularly. Then when we moved to Ponyville we arrived in vacation and when the classes started I simply didn’t sent him. It wasn’t like I forbid him to receive education, only that I didn’t thought about it. So yeah, I was an inept tutor”
The judge nodded again.
“Sadly I understand the situation. I cannot blame you for what happened Miss Sparkle, but as you said you proved to be an inept tutor so you must understand I can’t give you back Spike. What guarantees that the situation won’t repeat, huh? And for your parents, they proved to be very incompetent as well at allowing Spike to go with you. The only one who seems capable enough for having the kid is Mister Armor”
Twilight let escape a small tear.
“I understand Your Honor. I’m not asking you to give me back Spike’s custody. He deserves to be with somepony who can take care of him properly. I just want you to allow me to visit him from time to time”
“Fair enough. From now on Spike’s custody passes to his older brother Prince Shining Armor and his wife Princess Mi Amore Candeza. And for Miss Sparkle, for now you can go visit Spike at the Crystal Empire first, but if you prove to become more responsible, I’ll allow you to have him some weekends in Ponyville”
The family seemed to agree and the document was signed. It was done.
They left the office with their heads down, but they knew that it was for the sake of the family. Twilight Velvet and Night Light looked at their daughter who just shrugged and was ready to leave when Shining stopped her.
“Wait Twily, our train leaves in four hours, why don’t you and your friends take the chance to hang out with Spike? I can meet you at the station if you want”
Twilight smiled brightly.
“Of course! What do you say, Spike?”
The dragon smiled widely.
“Sure! It’ll be a fun afternoon!”
And so, Twilight and Spike joined the Mane five.
“Spike! What a nice surprise!” Smiled said Pinkie Pie.
“What are you doing here?” Asked Rainbow.
“Shine says our train leaves in four hours so we can hang out until then” explained the dragon.
“Oh it’s marvelous! I know the perfect place!” Exclaimed Rarity.
“And what about we stop at the confectionery first?” Suggested Pinkie Pie.
There was not much to say, Twilight placed Spike on her back and they marched happily, it will be a good afternoon.
In other point of Canterlot, in the Child Protection Services main offices, Lyra and Bon-Bon were sitting on the waiting room when finally Mr. Care appeared with a tiny unicorn baby with bluish purple fur with violet mane with an aquamarine strip in the middle.
“Her name is Tootsie Flute. Unknown father and her mother died in labor. She have been under our care for two weeks but you know that every foal need needs parents. A mom and a dad, dad and dad; or two loving mommies. Would you like to take care of her, Miss Lyra, Miss Bon-Bon?”
The two mares practically jumped in excitement but for the baby’s sake they controlled themselves and took her carefully. Bon-Bon stroked sweetly the baby’s mane, the sudden contact woke up the baby and was about to start crying when Lyra gently swayed her with her magic, calming her a bit.
“Hi Tootsie, my little Tootsie, I’m mommy” said Bon-Bon softly.
“And I’m also mommy. And both of us are here for you forever and ever” added Lyra.
