“Spike I think we’ve finally found your birth family.”
The sentence echoed in Spike’s head over and over again, he could not believe what he had just heard. At least now he knew why everypony had been acting so strange in the last 2 weeks.
It all started when Princess Celestia had sent him a scroll with a note asking him to forward it to Dragon Lord Ember. Then things just started getting weirder after that. For one Twilight was taking more trips to Canterlot without him, then getting more letters from Ember that needed to go straight to Twilight. He was almost tempted to open one just to see what was going on, but he respected Twilight too much to do so. He never told anypony because he felt embarrassed but never really saw Twilight as a friend let alone a sister, to Spike Twilight was more of a mother to him. Though that never stopped him from thinking about his real mother and father and what they might have been like, even before Sludge showed up Spike believed that he might never find his real parents...until those words came out of the Princess’s mouth.
Today Princess Celestia had requested an audience with him and Twilight. When they had entered the throne room Spike was surprised to find not just Princess Celestia, but Ember there as well along with a unicorn he didn’t recognize. She was sky blue with a pink mane done up in a short pixie cut and her cutie mark was of a purple star with 5 navy blue diamonds in between each corner. Her name was Crystal Star, there was also another dragon waiting in the hallway when they walked in Spike also did not recognize him. The dragon was blue with green scales and eyes, he was one of those dragons that at a certain age their bodies change to where they’re now walking on all fours.
Why did he look at me like that? Like he knew me or something?
“-ike!...Spike! Spike! Snap out of it!” Twilight’s voice snapped him out of his shocked
“Huh?! Wh-What did you just say?!” Spike shouted at the sun princess and dragon lord.
“Spike...we do believe that we have located your birth family.” Celestia started then turned to the unicorn.
“Crystal Star..please tell us your story.”
“Yes princess.” She nodded and trotted closer to sit in front of the two “Better sit down it’s a long story.”
They did and Crystal took a deep breath before speaking
“Now you’re probably wondering who I am, why I’m here, and most importantly what role I have in all this. Well Spike...I am the one who found your egg and brought it to Princess Celestia.”
Spike froze once again and Twilight had to shake him awake before she could continue.
“About 9 to 10 years ago I was watching the dragon migration…when something I’ve never expected happened.”
...Enter flashback…
Crystal Star was sitting in her hiding spot inside the forest near Canterlot well hidden by trees and bushes. Her binoculars were being held up by light pink magic as she watched the swarm of dragons flying overhead.
“Amazing.” she whispered as another family of dragons came flying by a father, mother, and three younger ones flew together.
“Huh? What’s that?” she zoomed in closer to the parents and noticed something, the parents each had an egg wrapped securely within their tails.
“Fascinating...so the parents carry their eggs wrapped in their tails when traveling.” Crystal whispered as she wrote information down in her notebook.
Suddenly there was a commotion in the skies and Crystal looked up to see another dragon she hadn’t noticed before is now fighting with the father. Her ears flattened against her head as she zoomed in close watching in horror as the two fought, keeping her eyes locked on the egg as the father’s tail started to slowly unravel from the precious unborn lifeform.
“Watch your egg Papa! Watch your egg!” Crystal gave a whispered shout and watched anxiously. Then to her horror what she feared would happen...happened!
The egg slipped right out of it’s father’s tail and began a long dangerous descent to the ground!
“NO!!!” Crystal shouted as she raced out of her hiding place and ran to catch the egg! Her heart racing a mile a minute as she got close she jumped towards it wrapping her whole body around the fragile egg and using her magic to create a shield softening both their fall.
She huffed and panted as she slowly unwrapped herself from the egg to examine it, the egg itself was a light purple with purple spots covering it and fortunately no cracks.
“Sigh...thank Celestia it’s unharmed.” Crystal stood up holding the egg with one forehoof.
Growl…
Gulp...Oh dear Celestia save me…
Crystal turned slowly to see one of the dragons now standing behind her looking all but pleased.
“Oh...um...hello there y-you seemed to have dropped your egg...ehe...well I-I’ll go ahead and leave it here.” She stuttered as she gently set the egg down in front of him and disappeared behind a tree quite a few feet away watching and waiting for him to take the egg and leave.
But what the dragon did or was about to do shocked her. He walked up to the egg as an evil grin spread across his face before raising a claw high in the air.
“No way! He isn’t! H-he won’t!” he claw began to rapidly decent
“HE IS!” Crystal rushed to the egg’s rescue once again!
Scooping it up with her magic just seconds before his claw smashed it to pieces and she took off running.
WHAT THE HAY?! HE JUST TRIED TO SMASH THE EGG!
“I’m starting to think maybe that wasn’t your dad.” Crystal said to the egg as she ran and hid behind a couple bushes then used a camouflage spell to hide the two of them as the dragon stalked around searching for them.
Sorry little guy looks like we’re gonna have to wait for that one to leave before getting you back to your parents.
But I had waited too long...and when I finally came out of hiding it was too late…
“Okay little fella...I think the coast is clear now…” Crystal slowly lowered the spell as she began to crept out of the bushes, scanning the area before coming completely out.
“Phew...What in Equestria was with that other dragon?!” Crystal exhaled as she trotted back to her spot with the egg resting in her forehoof.
“I mean I know dragons are aggressive! But...to try and smash another’s egg! A child! That-that’s just low even for them!”
She took a deep breath to calm herself as she neared her hiding place, gathering up her things in her saddle bag and resting the egg inside one before finally looking up. And the fear rose inside of her once again.
“...no...nononono!” There wasn’t a single dragon in the sky...the migration had passed.
“NO! This can’t be happening!” Crystal ran in the direction the dragons were headed.
“They couldn’t have gotten that far! A huge group of dragons can’t be that hard to spot!”
End of flashback
“I ran through that forest for hours and couldn’t spot a single dragon…It was getting late and I had no choice but to take you home. Now using what knowledge I gathered from watching previous migrations as well as common sense I concluded that dragons used their own fire to keep their eggs warm. So I had kept you in my fireplace until I could think of something. I had to keep you a secret knowing other ponies would call me insane for keeping a dragon egg. But dragon or not you were still a child, a baby, and I wasn’t just going to leave you all alone. You were with me for a week when I finally came to the conclusion that there was only one pony in all of Equestria who could help.” That’s when Crystal stopped and Princess Celestia spoke up.
“Crystal Star had brought you to me in hopes I could return you to your parents.” than she bowed her head in guilt
“But sadly even I was wary of entering the Dragon Lands and had merely taken over the task of caring for you. When Twilight first arrived at my school and showed emince skills one of them being the test of hatching you as well as a great sense of responsibility especially for a filly at her age. I knew she would be the perfect candidate to care for you, when my royal duties got in the way of me doing so myself.” She stopped, giving Spike a moment to process it all before continuing on.
“2 weeks ago Crystal Star returned to me asking if I could try searching for your parents now that the dragons and ponies are friends. I had agreed and that is when I had sent you that letter to send to Dragon Lord Ember.” She stopped completely as it was Ember’s turn.
“As soon as I got her letter I ordered any and all dragons who lost an egg during migration to come forward. Then sent a letter back to Twilight to bring you to the Dragon Lands to question the families.” now Twilight spoke up
“But I told her that it was a bad idea to put you through all that stress only to have you heart broken so many times. That and it wouldn’t help either way since you were an egg and don’t even know what your parents looked like. So the princess, Crystal and I traveled to the Dragon Lands each day to question the potential families and see if any of their stories matched Crystal’s.” back to Ember
“Unfortunately none of the families' stories matched...but then a new dragon I hadn’t seen before came to me explaining that he is from a group of dragons my father had banished because they weren’t acting like ‘real dragons’. And by ‘real dragons’ he meant ‘not being nice and trying to make friends,’ they weren’t super competitive or aggressive like we used to be. They basically acted like ponies!...um no offense.”
“None taken.” Twilight added
“That made my dad mad and he told them that if they couldn’t act like real dragons then they are forever banished from the dragon lands. Anyway back to what we were talking about, he asked if he could speak to the ponies and see if their stories matched up...well they did.” back to Crystal
“He explained to us how his father was attacked by another dragon whom they’ve always had a huge rivalry with.” now Twilight
“He explained to us how his father fought him off but it wasn’t until after the other dragon left that his father realized the egg he was carrying was missing. They had stopped flying and searched all around the forest for hours before they finally lost hope and joined back with the migration.”
Princess Celestia waved to the guards at the throne room doors and they opened it letting in the dragon from the hallway.
“Spike, I would like you to meet Torque...You’re older brother…”
It’s been hours since Spike was left alone with his older brother, he mostly sat there quietly as his brother talked about their family. Spike was leaning against Torque as he had his tail wrapped around his long lost younger brother.
“Spike…” he nuzzled his scales
“...I have waited so long just to hold you in my arms. While everyone else lost hope and thought you gone forever.” Torque held Spike closer
“I never gave up searching, I’ve always known that one day I’d find you.”
There was a moment of silence before Spike finally spoke to him.
“S-so...What are they like?..our family.”
“Well Dad...he’s like a natural born leader, smart, caring, and kind. Ehehe but don’t let that fool you when Torch gets mad he can be scarier than any dragon. He’s purple with dark and light blue scales, he also has a few battle scars from his constant altercations with Astarot. Then there’s Mom. Her name is Emerald, she got that name because of her beautiful green coloring. She’s the kindest, most loving and I may be biased for saying this but mom is the most beautiful dragoness you’ll ever meet. Then there’s the twins Jet and Viper, Jet’s the prankster of the family. She’s green with blue scales, her twin sister Viper is purple with green scales but her coloring is a little darker than yours. She’s the one who always knows how to start a party. Next is Spines, your twin sister, she’s basically a female version of you with a real happy go lucky personality. Somehow she always finds a way to cheer up any dragon no matter how upset they are. She’s the favorite among everyone. Lastly is our youngest sibling who is still an egg. Mom had chosen a gender neutral name of Blaze since we don’t know yet whether it’s a boy or girl.”
Torque paused for a minute then chuckled
“You know what the funny thing is mom and dad were planning or naming you Spike. So it looks like the princess got your name right without even trying.” His laughter slowly faded as he felt Spike wrap his arms arm him.
“ Sob Hic I-I’ve wanted to meet you for so long!” Spike sobbed as he hugged his big brother close, as a small smile spread across his face.
Twilight couldn’t help but cry as she watched the two.
…
After thinking about it for some time Spike decided to travel with Torque to meet his family. But it’s not going to be just him, he asked for Twilight, Shining Armor, their parents, and the other mane 5 to travel with him so that his birth family could meet the family that raised him.
In the Crystal Empire...
Shining Armor was just finishing packing up when Cadence trotted in with Flurry Heart on her back.
“They’re here, Shining are you almost ready?”
“Yeah.” his response was so quiet that Cadence barely heard him
“Shining what’s wrong?” she went to sit next to her husband as Flurry jumped into his lap. But Shining Armor didn’t say anything he just stared blankly at his suitcase.
Cadence stared at him for a moment before the realization hit her and she put a hoof on his shoulder.
“You’re worried that...he might want to stay.”
Shining Armor just nodded as tears trickled down his cheeks, Cadence wrapped her wings around her husband pulling him into a hug as he cried. Scared that his baby brother might want to leave them.
And Shining Armor’s not the only one pretty much everyone taking the trip is worried that their little Spikey Wikey might want to stay with his birth family. Twilight Velvet even argued that
“He’s our baby! They can’t take him away from us!”
Despite the fact that no one said anything about taking Spike away from them, which is what Night Light tried to tell her.
“It’s his decision honey, no one’s making him do it and no one said anything about taking him away. Please calm down.”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks
“But...but we…”
“Honey, put yourself in their shoes. You lost your child, you thought they were dead only to find out they’re alive and living with ponies who you know nothing about. Wouldn’t you want to finally meet them, to talk to them, to know who your baby grew up to be?”
Velvet to a deep breath before answering
“Yes...yes I would.”
Then she buried her face in her husband’s fur as her crying slowly subsided.
...
Fortunately the Mane 6 were a lot more understanding and not as worried...or at least that’s what they tried to make it seem like on the outside. While inside their hearts were breaking terrified that they might lose their precious baby dragon.
And because of that nopony really said anything while packing worried that the dam will break and nopony wanted to upset Spike or make him worry more than he already is.
Of course Twilight had put Starlight in charge of the school while they’re gone. She too was worried that they might return without the young dragon. But kept her composure as she needed to be strong as not just a friend but a guidance counselor and temporary headmare mare.
…
Spike had just finished packing and was staring at his Heart’s Warming doll. He had decided to bring a few things he liked to share with his birth family. But he was worried as to how the reunion would go.
“Will they even recognize me?”
A tear trickled down his cheek as he shook
“Will they...how will I... whimper …”
“Spike? Are you ok?”
He turned to see Twilight standing outside his door a worried look on her face
“I...I-I’m…” He choked on his words as he felt Twilight wrap a wing around him and he did the same nuzzling closer into her as he cried.
“I-I’m scared Twilight I’m so scared I don’t know what to do!”
