A small, sobbing figure was running on night streets of Ponyville. His watery eyes glimmered in the moonlight as he rushed through the alleys, aiming for the hills.
They... they never truly wanted him. He was there, always. He was there for each of them for years! Especially for Twilight and Rarity. He did things for them that nopony would ever do! He… he even allowed Rarity to use him as a pincushion!
But... but for them... he was just a little dragon boy. A foreign creature from the opposite gender. A not-pony. He even saved the Crystal Empire, but nopony cared.
It was that afternoon, when his friends had gone after Maud Pie. Spike had been completely left out the whole event of seeing Pinkie Pie's sister. When they had first seen her, he had been asleep, fine. But after that? He had been tasked to go shopping, then clean the library. Like if they hadn’t wanted him to see her! He had only catched a glimpse of them as Twilight had teleported them away with lots of rock candy.
When they’d returned, all they talked about was Maud. Their new best friend. The newest member of the ‘Mane 7’, as Rainbow Dash called them.
Spike knew it would sound awkward to call them the Mane 7 with him, as his body completely lacked the pony hair, but still...
He had been left out again for this new... freak!
Spike clenched his eyebrows as he kept running uphill. Despite his friends’ effort, Spike’d seen her. He’d seen her emotionless expression, heard her bored voice. And they’d replaced him for… her.
How could they?!
When Spike opened his eyes, he was at the top of the hill. A lonely tree was standing there, shadowing the grass around the dragon. He sat down and buried his eyes under his arms. After a few minutes of crying, he noticed the music of the crickets playing gently, like if they’d wanted to comfort him. He glanced at the black beetles. Would they care for a lonely weeping dragon? Or did they just play whatever they wanted, ignoring him, like his ‘friends’?
Spike glanced up on the moon. "This is how you’ve felt, Princess Luna? Being always neglected and ignored? Never being appreciated for your work? Forgotten by your own… sister?"
He bent down his head. "How can you put up with it now? How could I put up with it? Even a princess like you couldn't."
"Spike! Spike!"
Spike didn't move. He knew that voice. The voice of his big sis... No, she wasn't his sister. He’s always wanted her to be one, but she just wasn't. A real sister would’ve never done such a thing to her brother. She was just his... employer.
The hoofsteps stopped behind him.
"Oh, there you are, Spike. Why did you run away?"
Spike sniffed. "Why do you care? Just go back to your now-six best friends. I'll clean the library tomorrow."
"Now-six? What are you..."
Spike jumped on his feet and glared into the violet eyes of the alicorn. "Don't play around! You exactly know what I'm talking about!"
Twilight stepped back. "Spike... if it's about Maud—"
"Of course it is! You see, you're smart enough to figure it out!" He turned his back to her and plopped down on the ground with crossed arms.
She touched his shoulders.
“Leave me alone,” he said.
“Spike, please listen to me.”
Spike didn’t look back. Why should she care, she was just his… his employer… right? He felt a knot forming in his throat.
A deep sigh came from behind. “Spike, you misunderstood what Dash said. She wasn’t serious about that Mane 7 thing. Heck, personally I think even her previous Mane 6 sounds so stupid. I mean, ‘Mane’? What kind of a title is that even?”
He sulked. “She didn’t sound like that.” Spike turned and began mimicking Rainbow Dash. “She was like ‘Ah, this Maud’s so awesome!’, ‘Maud is best mare from Rock Town!”, ‘With Maud we can be the Mane 7!” ‘Maud’, ‘Maud’, ‘Maud…’ Spike collapsed on his knees.
“Why does nopony care about me? Why don’t YOU care about me? Why do I have to always feel like a freak!” The tears began flowing again on his cheeks as he closed his eyes.
Something warm embraced him. “Spike, I would never EVER think about you as a freak.”
Spike sniffed into the lavender coat. “But then why do I still feel like it?”
“I’m so sorry, Spike” He felt Twilight caress his crest. “I never thought I would be such a bad friend to the one closest to me. To even let him think about himself like that.”
Closest? What... what she? She really meant that? He released her and looked up into her eyes. “Closest? You... you... why would I be the closest?”
Twilight smiled back. “Oh Spike, if you would know…” She sighed and looked away. “Since you broke out of your egg… I… I can’t even count how many times I thought about you as my… my little brother.” She looked back at him, and continued in a gentle tone. “My little brother who’s always with me, even when my BBBFF or my parents are not there. Even when things got crazy, you were still there for me: when my friends left me because of Discord, when I messed up their cutie marks before I became an alicorn. You were always there, like a good brother.”
Brother? But… but… “But I’m a dragon, Twi. How could you even…” He closed his eyes. He just couldn’t finish it.
“When did that bother us, Spike? You were the one who sent the letter to Princess Celestia, that you chose to be a pony, regardless of being a dragon by nature." She looked away "Could you… could you accept me as your big sister? I… I really wanted to ask this from you before but I…”
“YES!” He hugged Twilight harder than he ever had done before. “I never wanted anything more than that in my life!” He began crying again, but his tears were no longer from sadness, but from joy.
Twilight hugged him back. He felt something wetting his shoulders. “I’ll never ever let you think about yourself in any other way, my little brother.”
THE END
Author's Note
Special thanks to Sensei_Dash from EQD, who inspired me to write this little fiction, and to OkemosBrony, my faithful proofreader.
