A Small Change for Smaller Voices

"You should have seen her Spike! She was nodding off on her -feet-!" Twilight emphasized her words with a shake of her hooves, but the dragon bent over the kitchen sink just shrugged.

"She probably just stayed up too late last night Twi," Spike said, sliding another dish into the clean stack.

"Try 'she didn't sleep at all'. She wouldn't even let me help buck the orchard."

"Twilight I don't understand why you're so stuck on this," Spike turned around and placed his wet claws on his hips, "She's a little tired. Big deal."

"Nevermind." Twilight replied with a grumble. Spike watched her trudge out of the kitchen, her tail and ears hung low, and sighed. Turning back around he fished the last spoon from the bottom of the sink, this one caked with a gloss of peanut-butter. Frowning, he turned up the hot valve on the kitchen sink and let scalding water run over the thick residue.

Now of course, the little dragon did care. A little bit, at least. AJ had seemed a bit underwhelmed at having an entire town honor her as basically a model citizen.

And he had totally looked like a tool when he was heard as the last one applauding AJ's supposed arrival at the ceremony. Oh yeah lets not forget that Ms. Fluttershy was in the crowd too, barely a few feet away.

That aside, he figured he might suggest she was working too hard when they were in private lest somepony bring up the ceremony again. Sliding the freshly washed spoon into its place on the drying rack, he hopped down from his stool and wiped his wet claws along his belly scales.

Though he didn't look at the event as a success or even particularly joyous, he did get a very good idea from the occassion. Basically, he reviewed in his head as he took up his trusty broom from its place next to the refridgerator, Fluttershy and Applejack were to take census of the newborn rabbits for the year. But Applejack was in no condition to work right?

"Aw gee Ms. Fluttershy, AJ looks really tired doesn't she? How about you and me finish up and let AJ go home for the day?" Spike giggled devilishly at the genuis of his own plan. On one hand, Applejack would have a burden taken off her and would probably thank him. And on the other he could show Fluttershy how good he was with animals.

'Actually,' Spike thought, pausing his sweeping to chew on the end of his claw, 'I've only ever had a pet goldfish Twilight let me keep at her parents house."

Said goldfish, creatively (creative-for-a-newborn-dragon) named Fishstick, had lived for a good year and a half before it mysteriously vanished. Mrs. Velvet, Twilight's mother sat him down one day while she fed him lunch and explained the whole story to him.

****

"Oh Spikey-Boo!" Velvet leaned over and nuzzled the baby dragon, who wobbled a bit before hugging the mare's neck. "You'll never guess what happened to me today!"

"What happened Momma?" Spike asked just as he pulled back the chair from the dinner table. He stood on his tip-toes and struggled to pull himself up, before he felt Velvet's head beneath his rump push him up the rest of the way.

"Did you know Fishstick could talk?" She asked, her eyes wide as she tapped the three-year old dragon on the nose.

"She can? She never talks to me!" The dragon grabbed the back of the chair with tiny claws for support, positively rocked by the revelation of Fishstick's hidden abilities.

"She sure can, she said only mommies can hear fish though." Mrs. Velvet said, not missing a beat as she wove her tale. "By the way sweetheart, do you want some eggs?"

"Yes ma'am." Spike said, turning carefully around in his chair to search for utensils on the tabletop.

"But yes, turns out she's a very polite fish."

"I knew Fishstick was nice. She always eats her breakfast in the morning." Spike said, noting the tiny goldfish's enormous appetite for the smelly flakes in the cupboard. Sometimes he wondered if the three shakes Velvet had stressed was enough for her.

"Yes she does. But just this morning before I took Twilight to school she jumped clean out of her bowl and started talking to me!" Velvet could feel the baby's eyes on her, and knew they were probably wide and shining.

"What did she say?"

"Well she said that she wanted to go swimming in the ocean!" A few years later, Spike would see the flaw in this innocent logic as he came to find that Fishstick couldn't be too fond of saltwater. But for the moment, the baby dragon was floored by the obviousness of Fishstick's plight.

"So I put her in a baggy--"

"Like the one Twilight brought her home in?" Spike interrupted, suddenly remembering the plastic sandwich bag his caretaker brought the fish home in. Twilight had apparently been a natural at the ring toss at the Canterlot Fair. She had turned down the large stuffed aligator swinging on a safety chain overhead in the game tent for a simple goldfish.

"Mhm!" Twilight Velvet answered back, her mouth busy cracking an egg against a skillet, her magic busy manipulating a butter tub. Spike waited politely for Mrs. Velvet to finish pouring the syrupy yolk into the fry pan, where it sizzled upon contact and slowly began to whiten.

"Anywho, I brought her out to the ocean and poured her out into the water. And by gosh you know what she said?" Velvet turned around to look at the baby with wide, cheery eyes. A wooden spoon alive with unicorn magic danced cheerily behind her, poking at the cooking eggs like a playful foal at a grumpy crab.

"What?" He nearly shouted, standing up in his chair to hear about his apparently talented little goldfish.

"She said that she liked the Ocean ssssooo much that she wanted to live there!"

Spike's excitement turned slightly cold upon hearing the answer, his precious fish seemingly abandoning him.

"B-but Fishstick is still coming home right?" He said, his claws immediately intertwining nervously.

Upon turning about, Twilight Velvet immediately felt the stings of guilt pierce her resolve. She had been so proud the day her daughter took on the Magic Aptitude Test, especially considering she was taking a test most grown unicorns fail. And that day, not only did she return home with a letter designating her the personal student of the Princess of Equestria (she had nearly fainted, Nightlight weeped openly) but she had been carrying a cooing bundle on her back. From that day onward, Velvet had loved him like her own. And his pain immediately became hers.

"Now sweetheart," Velvet said as she turned off the skillet and trotted to his side, "I think Fishstick was homesick. We all get homesick sometimes."

Spike looked away and held his claws down to his belly. Velvet could see tears beginning to form in his bright green eyes, not of anger frustration or pain but that of an infant in anguish. As soon as the first of the warm drops fell, Velvet immediately sat back on her haunches and scooped the dragon into her forelegs.

"Hey hey hey," she cooed, lightly rocking the little reptile, "its ok sweetheart. Fishstick is very happy back home with her friends. You wouldn't like it much if someone took you away from me or Twilight would you?"

Spike scrubbed his left eye with the back of his claw, sniffling uncontrollably as he did so.

"No." He forced out, trying to calm his tears.

"And you love Fishstick right?"

"Yes." He said, this time with more control. Velvet leaned her head down to his face, feeling the warm tears sink into her fur.

"Well I'm sure she loves you, and thats what counts right?"

Spike drew a long breath, filling his tiny body as much as he could. His anguish left him bit by bit as he exhaled.

"I think so."

"There you go, who's my little man?" She leaned further and tickled his belly scales with her nose. She was met with squirms and fresh giggles, until finally the dragon wore a large smile under the drying tears. Twilight Velvet decided she would simply have to out-do herself that day.

"After you eat you wanna go to with Mama to that little toy store on the square?" She wiggled her brow at him. "I hear there's a new Mistress Mare-velous figure somepony wanted..."

*****