Spike sat alone in his room within the Castle of Friendship and sighed.
“Here I am,” he sighed while lowering the comic he was reading. “Just me, my comics, and an entire castle with nobody in it except for me.”
The purple dragon with grass-green spikes tossed his comic aside, put his hands to his bright green cheeks, and closed his eyes.
“You’d think having a castle to yourself with nobody to bother you while you do whatever you want would be great,” he said. “But it’s not.”
Spike opened his eyes to take in all that his room had to offer. There were certainly a number of posters, items, comics, and other materials that made this room Spike’s own. This was a great improvement upon having to share space alongside Twilight’s bed at the Golden Oaks Library where he had no place to openly display those things that made him special.
“But these are just,” he said while looking at a poster of the Power Ponies. “Just things.”
The little dragon’s attention turned to a doll he had hand sewn of Rarity. He had put a lot of effort into gathering the materials and even more effort into the stitching.
“Is this the closest I’ll ever get to you?” he asked while looking the plush Rarity in its button eyes.”
The young dragon thought on how many times he had helped Rarity and how Rarity had asked him for help. However, after opening her boutique in Canterlot he had barely seen her much at all. He had really hoped to have been a part of helping her with the Carousel Boutique and Canterlot Carousel. However, he wasn’t offered a chance to help at all.
“And who’s this Sassy Saddles?” he asked while allowing the plush Rarity to slip from view. “Am I nothing more than just a convenience? A second thought? The one who only is a part of things when nobody else is, or wants, to do something for you?”
Spike gently placed his Rarity plush on a nearby table that had a collection of parchment. Most of which were doodles of him and Rarity together, or of him being involved in an adventure that Twilight and her friends had gone on that he was not asked to be a part of.
“What am I anymore?” he asked while flipping through his doodles. “I don’t even send letters to Princess Celestia anymore.”
Spike thought for a moment, grabbed a scroll and quill, and wrote a letter.
FWOOSH!
The letter vaporized in a cloud of green smoke.
About five minutes later the young dragon felt the urge to burp something up.
BUURRPPFFF!
From the green gas cloud that emerged from his maw came a scroll in which he eagerly caught in his claws.
“Dear Spike,” it read. “I appreciate your offer to help, but I have no need of your services today. Your truly, Princess Celestia.”
Spike took the paper, crumpled it up, and tossed it into a nearby wastebasket.
“Nobody needs me,” he said while making his way back to his bed. “I’m just… here.”
The young dragon felt tears beginning to form in his eyes. He knew Twilight wanted him to clean the castle while he and the others were gone, but he just wasn’t feeling up to it.
“Not like it matters anyway,” he said to himself while looking towards his pillow. “It’ll just get all dirty again.”
Spike sat on his bed and looked at the pictures he had hanging on his wall. The first being one of Twilight smiling beside him as he sat in an eggshell.
“Did you ever see me as a son?” he asked. “I can remember you teaching me how to read and write, but I can’t at all remember a time where you held me, sang me a lullaby, or called me your son.”
The next picture he looked towards was the one where he returned Pee-Wee to his parents.
“And when I finally got a pet,” he said. “You made me take it back. I mean, a baby should be with its parents…”
Spike felt tears now beginning to make their way out of his eyes as he looked back to the picture of Twilight smiling by him in an egg.
“But..,” he sniffled. “What about… What about my parents?”
The sad baby dragon looked to another picture. This one being of Twilight’s birthday party that was moved to Canterlot at the last minute due to Rarity having business there that kept her from being able to come to the one planned in Ponyville.
“And nobody told me…,” he whimpered. “You all just left for Canterlot while I stayed back all by myself in the library.”
Spike got up from his bed, narrowed his eyes, and flicked off the picture of himself he had attached to the birthday picture.
“There in spirit,” he said. “My spirit’s broken.”
Depression set deep into the little dragon’s heart. He couldn’t bring himself to feel happy, excited, or inspired by anything. Nothing mattered. So he went to his bed and cried himself to sleep.
***
“Hey, Spike,” said Twilight. “Could you take a letter to the princess for me?”
“Sure!” cheered Spike as he brought out his quill and parchment. “What do you want me to write?”
“Dear Princess Celestia,” stated Twilight. “I am no longer of need of an assistant and would kindly like to ask if you’d approve of me relieving Spike of duty.”
Spike gasped as he finished writing the final words.
“But…,” he whimpered.
“Send it!” ordered Twilight.
Spike did as he was told. Within moments the room he was in vanished and he was now standing outside of the Carousel Boutique.
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK
“Come in!” announced Rarity in a merry tone.
Spike opened the door and went inside.
Upon entering, he saw Rarity with Sassy Saddles.
“Oh,” said Rarity. “It’s… you.”
“Twilight doesn’t need me anymore,” stated Spike. “So I thought I could perhaps help you.”
Rarity and Sassy Saddles laughed in unison.
“You?” asked Sassy. “Why would Rarity ever need you when business is simply booming!”
“Perhaps…,” struggled Spike. “I could help sew?”
Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom came running into the room.
“Already on it!” announced the orange Pegasus.
“Yeah!” squeaked Sweetie Belle. “We’re going to get our Cutie Marks through being interns with my sister and Sassy!”
“We’re entrepreneurs!” added Apple Bloom.
“That’s right!” squealed Rarity. “They’re going to help me open Carousel Manehattan!”
Spike watched as he soon became completely ignored as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rarity, and Sassy Saddles talked excitedly about all the possibilities that were to come from their efforts.
“I’ll just let myself out…,” he said while making his way for the door.
“Well, well,” said a teenage red dragon as Spike opened the door. “You still haven’t paid up for humiliating me during the raid.”
Spike stumbled back to find himself now in the crater where he had met the teenage dragons.
“Yeah!” the purple one exclaimed. “Time to pay up!”
A larger, brown dragon took hold of Spike and held him up.
“He’s all yours, Garble!” he bellowed. “Knock the pony out of him!”
Garble snarled as he raised his sharp claw up in preparation to swipe.
“STOP!” cried a powerful voice that appeared vibrantly in the sky.
Garble and company turned to notice Princess Luna making her way down into the crater. They then disappeared and Spike fell on his backside as he was now back in his room.
“Princess Luna?” he asked while rubbing at his sore rump. “This was-”
“-A dream,” she interjected. “One in which I had to bring to an end for fear of what these feelings in inadequacy and loneliness could ultimately do to you.”
Spike sighed.
“Spike,” said Luna. “Allow me to show you something.”
Spike watched as Luna transformed herself into Nightmare Moon.
“…!” gasped the purple dragon.
“Do not fret,” Luna said in her Nightmare Moon voice. “For this is but an illusion.”
Luna returned to her standard form.
“I, too, felt obsolete, uncared for, useless, unloved, and a number of other horrible things,” she said somberly. “However they were all untrue.”
“Untrue?” asked Spike.
“Yes,” said Luna. “It was through my sister’s faith in Twilight Sparkle making friends that the elements I once wielded were able to help me start on a quest towards inner harmony.”
“…,” sighed Spike
Luna wrapped a hoof around Spike and nuzzled him with her muzzle.
“Spike,” she said. “Do not let your perception of the world and those around you make you into something you know you’re not.”
“But…,” said Spike.
“I know,” acknowledged Luna. “And that is why I’m here.”
“So…,” awed Spike. “You know…”
Luna nodded and replied, “I do.”
“So...?” he asked. “…how? How do I not become these dark feelings?”
Luna used her dream magic to make the room blank with the exception of random images of ponies all across Equestria.
“These are all the ponies to whom you have changed their lives for the better,” stated Luna. “All the ponies who, without you, may not have found the happiness, solutions, or opportunities they have now if you hadn’t been a part of their lives.”
Spike noticed Twilight go by in one of the images.
“Yes,” said Luna. “Twilight may not be much of a parent, but she could’ve never unlocked the magic of friendship if you weren’t the first to introduce her to it.”
“That wasn’t me,” Spike sighed. “That was Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and…. Rarity.”
“But who kept working so hard to keep Twilight’s head out of the books and looking into the value of friends?” asked Luna.
“…,” blinked Spike.
“It was you,” she answered.
The room changed to where it was now where Twilight and Spike first began their independent studies.
“Do you remember how you kept track of all of those who were friends with Twilight?” asked the princess. “How it was you who thought of Moon Dancer, Minuette, Lyra, and the others?”
Spike put a claw to his chin.
“I…, I do,” he said.
Luna returned them to Spike’s room.
“Some ponies can’t see beyond what’s in front of their noses,” said Luna. “Me included.”
Spike didn’t know what to say.
Luna used her magic to bring the Rarity plush back over to Spike.
“Take hold,” she said.
Spike held the plush and felt himself grow happier.
“Rarity may not outwardly show her appreciation for you,” said Luna. “However, she does care and cares a lot.”
Luna created an image of a windowless room with Rarity inside of it. It had a manikin in the shape and size of Spike with a number of fabrics strewn about. The white Unicorn’s face blushing as she thought to herself, sighed, and then levitated the fire ruby Spike had given her onto the manikin.
“Oh, Spike,” she said. “You should’ve been the Element of Generosity. Not me.”
Spike couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Even with Coco,” she said. “My so-called ‘generosity’ only got me out of doing work I really didn’t want to do.”
Spike watched tears form in Rarity’s eyes.
“Why can’t I ever do something without having an alterior motive?” she sobbed. “Why can’t I be more like… you.”
Rarity left the room and Luna had the image disappear.
“These are things I wish I had shown to me before forcing my sister’s hoof,” the princess stated. “There is so much you do that is appreciated, but goes without validation.”
Spike smiled towards the princess as he snuggled his plush Rarity close.
“So,” he said. “I am more appreciated than Twilight, Rarity, or others ever say to me?”
“Yes,” agreed Luna with a smile. “One does not need verbally recognized to know she, or he, is an important part of many lives.”
Spike felt his spirits lift.
“Allow me to do but one more thing,” stated Luna.
PHEW-CLICK-TACK
“Now, Spike,” she said. “It’s time to wake up.”
***
Spike arose from his bed. The room was how he left it when he fell asleep.
“Wow,” he said while getting to his feet. “I never realized how important I really am. I may not be told a lot about how important I am, or brought along for adventures, but I do serve a purpose and I’m proud of what I do.”
Spike smiled to himself as he prepared to put on his frilly apron. However, something caught his eye that he did not recall ever having seen before.
“What’s this?” he asked while approaching the new picture that was on his wall.
“Oh, wow…,” he awed while pulling the picture down and looking close at it. It was of Twilight in a rocking chair with Spike bundled up in pink pajamas as she smiled down upon him. Celestia was off to the left side smiling as Cadence and Shining Armoer were on the other. There was also a note attached to the back that read, “Dearest Spike,” along with a series of individually written messages from Celestia, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Twilight. All noting their love for him and how they knew he was something special who would forever change Equestria for the better.
