NOTICE: It was written before Secret of my Excess and Dragon Quest. I decided to post in spite of the fact in Dragon Quest that Twilight comments that ponies know next to nothing about dragons. So keep in mind this is an older fanfic. Hope you enjoy anyways.
A small hand nudged Twilight's hoof. The pony groaned and flipped over, blinking her eyes open to see Spike, who looked extremely uncomfortable- he was scratching his back madly. She smiled lightly. "Good morning, Spike."
"Morning, Twi- my back itches so badly! And it hurts!" he complained, groaning and searching for anything to scratch his back with, eventually using the wall. Twilight raised an eyebrow and sat up.
"How so?" she asked, yawning and getting up, walking down the steps to her library to begin a search for a book on the matter. Spike groaned.
"I don't know! It just- ack!" He let out a groan of discomfort. Twilight sighed and began to pull out various medical books.
"Try to stop scratching it, it'll just make it worse. Go look for some lotion." she said. Spike grimaced.
"Stop scratching?! Twilight, it's already horrible as it is!"
"I know, Spike, but you might make it worse. I don't want it to get infected." she said. Spike let out a low moan and stumbled off to go find lotion. Twilight began to pile books to read through on the floor. She walked up and began to read. The unicorn scanned each page for something, but could only find things on rashes. When she asked Spike to come so she could inspect the itchy area, all she could find were two very small dots of red parallel to each other; not big enough to be considered rashes. Spike complained that his back was sore in a large area around those dots.
She continued reading. Every so often her eyes would flip over to Spike's back or asked him a question, which was generally answered by "I don't know, they just hurt!" while rubbing his back gently. Halfway through her books, her search was still fruitless. Soon there was a knock at the door, snapping Twilight out of her trance of reading. She stood up and walked up to open the door. Pinkie Pie was waiting outside the door with a smile. "Hi, Twilight! Wanna come hang out at Sugar Cube Corner with me?" she said, bouncing up and down. Twilight shook her head.
"I would love to, but poor Spike's got something wrong- an itchy back, and we're not sure what's wrong yet. I'm reading through my books to try to find something." she responded. Pinkie Pie gasped.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I'll be right back! I'm gonna go get some friends to help!"
"No, Pinkie, wait-" Pinkie paid Twilight no heed as she sped off to go get Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, whether they could help or not. Twilight sighed and went back to her books. A mere ten minutes later and there was another knock at her door. Spike moaned and rolled over, staring at the door. Twilight got up again and opened the door, to find Pinkie and her friends waiting as expected.
"We came as soon as we heard. What's wrong with poor little Spike?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight rolled her eyes.
"It's nothing serious! Spike just woke up with a very itchy back and I haven't found what's wrong yet in the books." she responded. Pinkie giggled.
"Oh, I know it's not serious, silly! It'd just be easier if you had more ponies reading to try to find what's wrong sooner, so Spike feels better faster than you can say 'chocolate cake'!" she declared, rushing in. All the others came in. Rarity walked up to Spike, making the baby dragon turn to her, attempting to ignore his back for a minute.
"Spike, darling, how are you?" Rarity asked kindly. Spike made a strange sort of pained smile.
"I-I'm...just fine, R- Rarity!" he sputtered. Rarity noted his strain in his tone of voice.
"Spike, would you be a dear and let me take a look at your back?" she asked as all the other ponies waited to see it as well. Spike blushed and nervously smiled.
"Of- of course!" he said, flipping around. Twilight's eyes widened.
"Those red spots on your back grew bigger! Ugh, maybe I need to look back in 'rashes'- maybe you scratched at it too much..." she muttered. On the other hand, Pinkie simply gawked at it for a minute, then rushed to the bookcase and retrieved a book. She dropped it on the ground- Dragon Physiology and Health. Applejack gave her a slightly surprised look, and Rainbow Dash poked it and then opened it.
"How'd you find that?" Rainbow asked. Pinkie grinned.
"It was under 'D'!" she said cheerfully. Twilight flipped through the pages until she found a chapter labeled Growing Pains. Her eyes skimmed it, until she reached a certain passage. She read some lines to herself, then read aloud.
"Baby dragon development occurs in different rates for different dragons, much like the different times fillies and colts receive their cutie marks. The first sign of growth to occur is the wings- dragons are born generally wingless, but then years after hatching, they will begin to experience a burning itch on their backs that start out as small red dots which expand to large red circles within a few hours. The spots where wings are going to come out of are the spots where the red dots first began on the back.
It takes approximately two weeks for the itching to subside, leaving small wings that are too small to fly with for the time being. After a year, the dragon will be able to glide. Another two years after that, and they can fly. However, the dragon's full body size only grows a slight bit during these years- keep in mind that it takes many years for a dragon to reach full size. Wing growth is the mere beginning of some growth towards adulthood in a dragon."
Spike hadn't cared so much about the rest of it after he heard that the itching lasts for two weeks. He let out a pained cry. "Two weeks?! Why?!"
Twilight beamed. "Oh, Spike, you're going to be able to fly in a few years! Isn't that exciting?"
"I find it hard to be excited with this pain." Spike grumbled. "Otherwise, I would probably be dancing up and down the library."
Rainbow Dash smirked. "I guess I'll start as your flying teacher in a year, buddy! Gliding is easy." she said. Rarity sighed.
"Not to worry about those nasty itches, Spike. I have all sorts of creams and lotions at home- I'm sure there's something that could help you."
Spike didn't think there was ever a moment where he had a bigger crush on Rarity after she said that.