Ripples
"Oh Spike, you can't just sit up here forever! We're your friends, please, you should at least talk to us."
"I'm sorry Rarity, but I just don't think it'd do any good. Now please, just let me be."
The glamorous white pony frowned, sighing in defeat before nuzzling the top of his head and walking back down the hillside to the others.
Stepping forward, Twilight looked at her hopefully, though Rarity could only shake her head, her downcast eyes belaying her lack of success.
Twilight matched Rarity's sigh. "You did your best, Rarity. We all did. Hopefully this is just a phase and he'll pick back up soon enough."
A small tear traced down the fashionista's cheek. "It hurts to see our poor little spikey-wikey so upset like this. And he won't even speak about it to any of us! I just don't know what we could do for him!" More tears followed suit, and her friends stepped forward, pulling her into their hooves.
"He even refused one of my parties.. Nopony has ever done that before," Pinkie spoke from the middle of the group hug, her already deflated hair losing a little more of its usually vibrant color.
"Dontchu worry, Pinkie, he'll be right as rain in no time, jus' you wait an' see," Applejack offered, a reassuring smile on the farmer's face.
"Yeah, I mean, it is Spike we're talking about here," Rainbow dash popped in, her head somehow having ended up under Pinkie's outstretched arms. "He's always come back from whatever funk he ends up in, ...Right?"
"No..pony...hmm.." Twilight muttered to herself, her eyes wandering in thought.
"Something on your mind, Twilight?" Fluttershy whispered next to her.
"Someone actually.."
Spike sighed as he skipped another rock down the hill, watching it eventually roll into the small pond at the bottom. The small mound of rocks was slowly growing, until eventually it would break the water's surface.
"Not like anypony would understand..." He mumbled, tossing another down after it. "None of them ever do."
He pulled out another rock, though this one was different. In the center of it was a deep purple gemstone, easily worth quite a bit of value for its size. However, it was unlike other gemstones. The purple was sickly, and there was a glimmer of muted green if one looked at it at the right angle. The normal rock surrounding it had turned a darker grey, becoming rotted and riddled with holes and decay. It was a Poison Stone, a rare gem comprised of fossilized poisons, made infinitely more potent by its crystallization through the ages.
"Hey, dude."
Spike quickly hid the gem, turning his head to see a taller figure this time, walking up the hill with one of its arms raised in greeting.
"Hey Anon." Spike had always liked the human. He was.. different, for lack of a better word. His input on the world was refreshing at times.
"What are you doing sitting alone up here, little buddy?" Anon asked, taking a seat beside him, the tree at his back.
"Just.. Thinking about some things. You know." Spike shrugged.
"Oh I do? What sort of things?"
"I.. Don't wanna talk about it..." The dragon muttered, looking back down.
"Mm." Anon nodded, looking out at the slowly setting sun. Exhaling once, he reached into one of his pockets and brought out another kind of gem: a deep red ruby, about the size of one of Applejack's apples. He then took out one of said apples and tossed the gem into Spike's lap. "Take your time."
Spike looked at the gem and smiled a little: he had always loved rubies in the autumn time.
The two sat under the tree, slowly crunching away at their treats, the singing of the birds slowly fading away.
Eventually, the purple dragon looked up, half at the human next to him.
"You... You don't think I'm useless... Do you..?"
Anon leaned forward, looking back at him. "Course not. What makes you think that?"
"Well it's just.. Look at me. I'm so little, even for a dragon. My wings haven't come in yet, and my claws are hardly anything to write home about..."
"Spike, dragons live to be eons old. Ages and kingdoms pass while dragons take afternoon naps. You're what, like, twelve? Give it some time bro. We all grow when we need to. Until then, that'll never stop you from learning and growing up here," Anon grinned, tapping the young dragon's head with a finger, "and in here," and tapping his heart.
Spike nodded, looking down at the rest of his snack. "That's true.. Twilight does keep giving me books to read.. But until then, I'm still this small. And the new library is so big! I'm not gonna be Twilight's number one assistant for much longer with Starlight Glimmer here.. She's a unicorn for crying out loud, she could rearrange the whole library in the time it'd take me to do one shelf..."
"Does she know where each and every single book is in the library?"
"..no.. But-"
"Beginner's Guide to Manehatten Economics?"
"Section three, Subsection twelve, Shelf E." Spike rattled off immediately.
"Fertilizers and You; What to Do with all that Doo," the human shot back.
"Section three, subsection six, shelf Q," spike chuckled, that book always giving him the giggles when he reshelved it.
"Twilight's diary?" the man asked.
"Hidden in section sev- hey, she told me not to tell anyone!" He angrily huffed.
Anon raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "I doubt Starlight knows all of her preferences and habits either. You're better than you think Spike, and irreplaceable to boot."
"..Yeah.. You're right. It's just.. Different, having her around, is all."
Anon leaned back into the tree, his hands behind his head as he looked at the stars Luna was slowly pulling into existence. Suddenly, he grabbed one of the pebbles on the ground, tossing it straight into the pond.
"Different isn't bad, Spike. I just changed that pond. I added something new, and different, that wasn't there before. But look, see the ripples? Sure, changes may stir things up a bit, but they always go back to normal and readjust themselves," he said, staring at the water as the surface slowly became calm again. "Life will go back to normality. It always does. It's just natural. There's a reason they say 'go with the flow'. If you fight it, you'll just end up swimming in place."
"But.. What about me being a dragon? That's something that has never changed, but it still doesn't feel normal. I'm the only dragon in Ponyville, do you know how that feels?"
"....Spike, look at me." Anon said, his voice flat.
Looking up, the dragon saw nothing different, just Anon the hum-
"...oh."
"Yeah. You're the only dragon in this town? Try being the only human on this planet. I will never get over that, and nothing can fix it. Even Celestia said she couldn't send me back; I might end up even farther from my universe than I started when I ended up here. I didn't let that change me though. So tell me, why would you want to be anything different?"
The last human placed a hand on Spike's shoulder. "Your friends love you for who you are. That's why they're still your friends. How do you think Twilight felt, suddenly becoming one of four unique beings in equestria, and a princess to top it off? But she still had all of you. Take a look at yourself spike. Despite everything, it's still you." He pat the dragon on his head, smiling, and earning a smile back.
"Thanks... Bro." Spike said, standing up and giving his friend a fist-bump. "I think I'm good now."
"Good. Now, I think you have one last rock to throw into the water, don't you?"
Spike winced a little and looked down, pulling out the poison stone and looking at it. "I'm sorry I ever thought of this.."
"It's okay. We all have moments of weakness. But you can't ever let life get you down. They say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But a better man once said to make life take the lemons back. Get mad! We don't want your damn lemons! What are we supposed to do with them? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give you lemons! Doesn't life know who we are?? We're the guys who are gonna burn your house down! With the lemons!"
"Yeah, Yeah!" Spike jumped up, full of energy, shouting at the last of the sunset. "Yeah, take the lemons!!"
And at that, he threw the poison stone away, making a wide arc before sinking deep into the middle of the pond.
"C'mon man, let's go get some ice cream with the girls. My treat." Anon said, pulling out a bit and flipping it into the air, walking down the hill with Spike running to catch up, a wide grin on his face.
"As long as it's not lemon flavored!" He shouted back, as the two laughed together on their way to Sugarcube Corner.
Author's Note
Needed to get this off my chest
And I think someone needed to hear this too
All too often, those of us with depression don't always want someone to try to fix them, or tell them to cheer up and just be happy. Sometimes all we want is a bro to talk to, a chance to just talk.
If someone you know is having trouble, be that someone they can talk to.
