Spike has grown large. Perhaps too large for Ponyville.
“Everything is very quiet,/Everyone has gone to sleep./I'm wide awake on memories,/These memories can't wait.” -Talking Heads, ‘Memories Can’t Wait’
Spike is getting quite large it seems and is even having difficulty just getting in the library. Twilight sends a letter to Princess Celestia about the situation, and her reply both surprises and hurts the unicorn and the dragon.
It was a moonlit evening in Ponyville. In the library of the town, the purple unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle was having a normal Sunday night with her dragon assist Spike. They were reorganizing the shelves of the library after Twilight had another one of her 'crazy weekend reading sprees'. The unicorn had noticed her assistant had brown quite big. In fact, a few weeks ago, he had grown large wings and even passed Big Macintosh in size.
"Hey, Twilight. Where do you want this book?" the purple and green dragon asked on top of his small stool up against one of the many shelves.
"What's it about, Spike?" Twilight asked as she placed a few levitating books down on a table.
Spike looked at the book in his claw and read it allowed, "Uhh….Weather Patterns of Northern Equestria…."
"Oh, that can go on the bottom shelf of the case you are at," Twilight said, moving another pile of books to the table.
Spike hopped down from the stood to the ground, which cased the floor to shake slightly.
"Careful, Spike," the mare worried.
"What? I'm fine," the dragon placed the book where Twilight instructed. He then returned to the top of his stool. It moaned a loud creek as he got back on top to return to his work.
Twilight paused as she looked at Spike on top of his little ladder. She had the look of a concerned mother, "Spike, I think you are getting too big."
"No I'm not! The library is getting smaller!" Spike joked as he continued his work.
"Spike, I'm serious. You don't even ride on my back anymore or anything like that," the mare continued.
"And that's by choice! I'm a big dragon!" Spike defended himself as if he was being challenged.
"Which you are, and still growing. You can't even enter the library from the front door. You have to use the window on the balcony," Twilight trotted over to Spike as she spoke.
Spike's tone became a little more serious, understanding what Twilight was saying, "I know, Twilight. Don't worry, it'll all be okay. Everything always turns out that way!"
Twilight's face was still unsure, "Alright then, Spike. If you want, you can turn in for the night. It is getting late."
Spike nodded, "Okay, night Twilight." The dragon hopped down from his stool again, with a little more care this time, and made his way up the staircase to his bed.
The purple mare watched him as he walked up to the second floor, "Rest well, Spike."
As soon as her assistant was gone, Twilight trotted to her desk. Sitting her flank down, she used her magic to get parchment and a quill. She began to write:
Dear Princess Celestia,
This is your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. It has been almost five years since you have sent me here to Ponyville and cannot thank you enough for giving me such an opportunity to learn. However, I have noticed that as of late, my assistant, Spike, has been growing rapidly and quite large. I am worried that he is maturing into a dragon too quickly and I am puzzled of what to do. I would be honored if you respond to this letter as soon as you can. Thank you, Princess.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
The mare looked at her letter with a crestfallen look. Sighing, she wrapped the letter up with a small ribbon to be sent in the morning. She then placed the letter on the desk and went to blow out all of the candles in the library. The building was dark save the moonlight entering the library from the windows.
She trotted up to the second floor. Something caught her eye as Twilight was trotting to her bed. It was Spike, sleeping soundly in his new bed that he was already starting to outgrow. A smile appeared on her face. She leaned down and lightly kissed her assistant on his forehead before retiring to bed herself.
The next morning, Twilight awoke to the light of Celestia's morning sun shining into the library. The purple mare stretched her limbs out with a yawn before crawling out of bed. She trotted to her dresser to magically take a brush to her messy bedmane. While brushing, she looked to the Spike's bed and saw the dragon sleeping peacefully, just as he was before she went to bed. As she was finishing her grooming, her assistant woke up and opened an eye towards her.
Twilight noticed and smiled, "Good morning, sleepy head."
Spike yawned, "Good morning, Twilight. What's on the agenda for today?"
Twilight set her brush down before thinking, "Other than just sending a letter to Princess Celestia, I think we just have to finish reorganizing the library."
"Awesome, just let me get some breakfast," the dragon said as he got up and stood up on his bed on all four. However, this startled the purple mare, causing her to take a step back. To Twilight, Spike had grown bigger overnight. "What? What's wrong?" Spike asked, looking down at the purple pony.
"Sp-Spike….you've grown….so fast…." Twilight took a step forward to examine him more, "It seems you've grown at double your size overnight."
"Really?" Spike looked down on himself, noticing that Twilight was telling the truth. In his swinging of his new long neck, he hit his head against the wall. "Oww…." He grabbed his head with one of his claws to where he hit his head.
"Let's go downstairs, you can move easier. And please be careful," Twilight said, leading the way down to the main library room. Spike followed, careful to not hit anything with his large wings or his massive tail.
Once downstairs, the purple mare galloped to her desk to get the letter for Celestia, "Here Spike, send this to Princess Celestia. With luck, she will have some answers to help with your….sudden growth."
Spike, who was careful to not break anything, nodded and burned the letter as he normally did. In a puff of magic, the letter was gone and teleported to Canterlot. "Now what?" the dragon asked with concern.
"Now we wait," Twilight replied.
Both of them stared at each other for a few minutes awkwardly. Twilight tried to look at anything that was not her large assistant. Spike was nervous himself. He didn't want to move because he had a fear that he would move one part of his body and it would destroy half of the library.
"So….uh….how are you feeling, Spike?" Twilight broke the silence, hoping to relieve the tension that filled the air.
"Other than being as large as an apple tree, just hungry," Spike lightly joked. It was obvious he was hungry, his stomach made that apparent.
"Well, no eating until we figure out what is happening, understood? I'm really worried, and I just hope we can find out what the cause is," Twilight spoke as she trotted towards the dragon. She took a look at her assistant's new dragon body.
"I agree, I just want to be back to my normal size," Spike replied.
Another pause occurred between the two, but Twilight was quick to break it, "Any feeling of a letter yet?"
Spike was silent before replying, "Nothing yet, but we did just sen-" He was cut off by a loud and fiery burp. Out of his mouth flew a scroll, landing in front of the purple pony. "Wow, that has to be a record for the Princess."
"It must! She's never been so quick before," Twilight picked up the scroll with her magic and opened it up, "Must have some good news then!"
Twilight read the letter to herself:
My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
Upon receiving your letter, I had to reply immediately after reading about Spike's rapid change. While it is not uncommon for dragons to go through sudden growth spurts, it seems Spike's are actually delayed and rapid. Seeing how he is the only dragon in Ponyville, I regret to inform you that Spike must depart from Ponyville for the safety of both him as well as the citizens. I understand this is not an easy decision, but this is in accordance to an official decree of Equestria's past.
Please give Spike my regards.
Signed, Princess Celestia
The purple unicorn was speechless. The letter from the Princess that she hoped would give an answer to Spike's sudden growth and size paralyzed her from hoof to horn. But what really struck to Twilight's core was what her assistant said with optimism:
Twilight couldn't answer her assistant. She didn't feel she could answer Spike's question.
"Twilight? Hello? What does the letter say?" Spike called out to the pony.
She didn't respond right away, but she finally did her words were soft and distant, "Spike….I-I don't know how to s-say this, but….you can't stay here anymore…."
Spike was puzzled, "What are you talking about?"
"The letter….it says you can't stay in Ponyville…." Twilight couldn't stand to make eye contact with Spike.
Spike was quiet for a moment before chuckling, "Ha ha, nice joke. You had you believing you there for a second. Good one."
Twilight's face was stone straight. "Spike….I think you should read the letter yourself."
The unicorn used her magic to levitate the letter to the dragon. He grabbed in one of his big claws and read it. His face went from shock quickly to sadness. The large dragon tried his hardest to keep his face emotionless, but he was failing. He was crying.
"Wh-Wha….why? Why do I have to go? I don't understand…." Spike's voice was distorted. His eyes were quick to form tears and they rolled down his cheeks.
"It's the decree from the past. We can't change it," Twilight tried to explain. She knew that it wasn't what Spike wanted to hear.
"But I don't wanna go! I like living here in Ponyville!" Spike's crying became louder.
The purple mare trotted towards her assistant, "Spike…."
"I don't wanna leave! I don't wanna leave you, Twilight!" the purple and green dragon laid on the floor, continuing his crying.
Twilight went up to Spike and hugged him at his body. She also began to cry. For a few minutes, the two collectively sobbed, holding each other.
Finally, Spike spoke with a hushed but calm voice, "How soon do I have to go?" A few more tears fell down from his eyes.
Twilight didn't want to answer, I would believe it's affective immediately…."
Spike took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay…."
There was another pause as the two hugged. Twilight broken the hug and looked at the dragon as she spoke again, "Would you like to spend the rest of the day saying your goodbyes?"
"Yeah…." Spike's voice was distant despite forcing a smile.
Twilight smiled back to Spike. It was hard, but the pony knew that she had to be strong for both of them. Even if she could barely be strong for herself.
Spike carefully made his way up to the balcony door, the only entrance to the library that he could use. He opened the door and took a few steps out the door. Twilight was right behind him.
Spike heard the unicorn's steps and turned to her, "Um….Twilight? C-Could I go and to them by myself?"
Twilight nodded and smiled, "Of course, Spike. Take as my time as you need."
Spike returned the smile and as he opened his wings out to get down from the library. He was watched by Twilight who was back on up on the balcony. She couldn't help but fully cry as her assistant walked away.
Twilight was sitting and waiting outside of the library patiently for her assistant to return. It was the late afternoon in Ponyville and the busy day for its citizens was coming to an end. She had a saddlebag on her back Celestia's warm sun was hitting her face was it was changing the sky from blue to a mixture of colors. The shades of the sky went from red to orange all the way to a deep blue and violet, showing all of the colors of the spectrum.
Finally, Spike came into view. The large dragon was slowly gliding down from the clouds to land in front of the purple unicorn. Both Spike and Twilight gave each other a small smile. They didn't say anything right away, knowing that it wasn't easy for either of them. It was Twilight who finally spoke.
"You ready, Spike?" the mare asked in a hushed tone. Spike nodded in response. Twilight nodded back, "Alright. Let's get going then, we have a lot of ground to cover."
"Alright…." the dragon spoke with a detached tone to his voice.
The two began their journey northwards and out of Ponyville. Twilight led the way with Spike following close behind. Night quickly set in and Luna's moon began to rise, giving the two light as they past near the Ghastly Gorge.
Spike felt odd as they were walking, because he wanted to talk to Twilight. However, he held his tongue for fear of how she might react. She had been very stone-faced since he returned from saying his goodbyes. In fact, she had not even turned to look at Spike once since they began their trek. Twilight, on the other hoof, wasn't talking or turning to Spike for a reason, she was silently sobbing.
Spike had to break the silence, it was driving him mad. "So, Twilight….how was your day?"
Stopping from walking, she raised a hoof to her eyes to get rid of her tears. Afterwards, she quickly turned to her assistant, "Oh, I-I actually was going to ask you the same. How was it?" Twilight tried her absolute hardest be strong. She thanked Celestia she was able to.
"Oh, well, it was….unique…." Spike didn't know how to put it.
"Well, tell me as we continue going. We are almost there," Twilight instructed. She looked down at the ground and noticed it was getting very rough and rocky. They were definitely nearing the mountains now.
Spike followed along, "I went to see Fluttershy first. It was a bit weird, she asked me if I was alright and all that before asking if there was anything she could do for me. I told her it's no big deal, but she insisted that she do something for me. So that's why she made sure I had a clean bill of health before I left." Spike rolled his eyes as he said his last statement. He still thought it was unnecessary, but he did what Fluttershy said.
A smile came across Twilight's face, "That sounds like her. Fluttershy just worries about you and all. Don't let it worry you. So then who did you see?"
Making sure he didn't step in a pothole, Spike continued, "I went to see Pinkie Pie next. She wanted to throw me a goodbye party. I had to tell her for ten minutes that I didn't want one. So instead, she made me some special treats. She also told me I couldn't go until I ate them all."
"That's Pinkie alright," Twilight interjected.
"Tell me about it. Anyway, I went to see Rarity."
"Ooo, so what did you do there?"
"Well, I finally had the nerve to tell Rarity I liked her," Spike's cheeks became a little red.
Twilight was surprised that Spike was able to tell her, "And how did it go over?"
"Well, she told me she kind of knew. She said she was 'honored to have a friend like me' or something like that. After that, she asked if she could have a loose scale or two to remember me by. I didn't understand why, but I did."
"She likes you back, Spike. You were just as much her assistant as you were mine," Twilight said with a small laugh.
Spike echoed the small laugh, "Huh, guess you're right. And then she kissed me on my forehead as I left."
"That's really sweet of her. So who did you go to next?" Twilight asked.
The dragon continued, "After that, I went to Sweet Apple Acres. I was just going to say goodbye to the Apple family but Applebloom asked if I wanted to stay for lunch. And she used the puppy-dog face on me, so I couldn't back out."
Twilight laughed, "You always were a sucker for a cute face."
Spike's face became red, "Am not!"
"You were like that! Especially with all of female dragons back in Canterlot!" Twilight couldn't help to laugh harder. It felt good to laugh.
"Anyway," Spike tried to continue, "Applejack and Big Mac gave there best wishes to me and then the Cutie Mark Crusaders….well, I wasn't all that fond of their tickling of me."
Twilight's smile was still on her face, "Sounds like it was fun."
"It was, until I ran out of breath."
Twilight laughed a bit more, "What about Rainbow Dash?"
"She was the last one I saw. I saw her on one of the clouds when I was heading back. She said she wanted to race me just once before I left. To nobody's surprise, she won. But she almost seemed like she was sad that I was going. Rainbow Dash never gets sad. It was….weird," Spike commented.
"That does sound a bit odd for her. I think it's because she never expected that you would be such a friend to her," Twilight thought.
"Maybe. We did have some fun times together when she was teaching me to fly," Spike remembered.
Twilight nodded and finally stopped her trotting. Spike did as well and they both saw that they were at the foothills of the mountains. Just beyond the mountains was where most of the dragons in all of Equestria lived. Both Spike and Twilight stared at the landscape lit up by Luna's full moon. Neither spoke a word. A silence grew between the two as both of their faces were stern.
A small giggle broke the stillness. It was Twilight.
Spike was puzzled, "What's so funny?"
The smile returned to Twilight's face, "Oh, I was just thinking about when you were growing up. I remember when I was teaching you to speak, you kept calling me 'Twiwhy Sparky'. It was so adorable."
A smile returned to Spike's face as well, "Really?"
"Of course! In fact, you were really cute when you first hatched," the mare explained.
"Huh, I just remember being a pain to you for the longest time before I finally understood my duties to you," Spike scratched his head with one of his claws.
Twilight laughed a little more, "You definitely were! You had a tendency to burn many of my books! I knew you didn't mean it, but it still was irritating! But I couldn't stay mad at you when I saw you sleeping so peacefully in your bed, cuddling my Smarty Pants doll closely."
A warm smile came across Spike's face as his claw was quick to wipe a tear away from his eye.
A few tears were also forming in the pony's eyes. She didn't bother to wipe them away. "I'd always pull the blanket up to you whenever I saw you like that and then lightly kiss your forehead," she added.
More tears formed in Spike's eyes, "Thank you." He picked up Twilight Sparkle with his claws and hugged her close to him.
"Wh-What?"
"Thank you for giving me such a wonderful life, Twilight," tears flowed from the dragon's eyes.
The purple mare warmly smiled and returned the hug, tears running down her face as well, "Of course, Spike. You are more than just family to me. You've given me memories I will cherish forever."
Spike was sobbing at her words. He felt as if he was saying goodbye to the only being he could call 'mom'.
The dragon finally spoke again, "Can I come visit you?"
"Of course, Spike. I'd love that. All of us will."
Spike smiled. Finally gathering enough strength from within, he set Twilight back down onto the ground. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he looked towards the mountains in the distance and then back to Twilight for one final time.
"I love you, Twilight," Spike was all he was able to utter.
"I love you too, Spike, "Twilight replied, with a smile.
Spreading his large wings, Spike began to flap his wings. He hovered over the ground for a few moments before flying off to the mountain range in front of him. As he flew, his tears grew and fell from his face, slowly to the ground below.
Twilight watched Spike fly away. Her eyes were sorrowful while she had her smile still across her lips. She had a mixture of happiness and sadness. It broke her heart to see one of the most important beings in her life to leave, but she knew they would meet again. She didn't take her eyes off of him until her assistant was gone from her sight.