A Dragon Grieving

About a moon of Spike ignoring the problem and staying busy with meaningless tasks passed. He would brush off Luster Dawn whenever she offered a hoof to help or an ear to listen, so eventually, she just let him be while occasionally checking in on him. Celestia and Luna made that announcement about Twilight’s death and were ready to move back into the castle and allowed Spike and Luster Dawn to still live there with them. One day, as Luster Dawn knocked on Spike’s door, she was greeted a little differently.

“Go away!” Spike shouted from behind the door.

“But Spike, it’s time for breakfast. Aren’t you hungry?” Luster Dawn took an involuntary step back when she heard the dragon shout.

The door opened and Spike glared at her, the smell of fermented apple cider wafted from his room. “Couldn’t you send somepony to my room with it as you have been?”

“I… I could,” Luster Dawn stuttered, “But you should come down to join us. It’s not good to keep locked up in your room.” She looks around Spike to take a look inside his room, empty bottles of cider and other alcoholic drinks litter the floor. “Are you alright Spike?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. The mare who raised me from an egg is dead. Didn’t even say goodbye before she found a way to kill herself from the grief. Who wouldn’t be fine? Send my food up and don’t talk to me.”

Luster Dawn winced as Spike slammed the door shut. She stood there for a moment, debating on if she should knock again, but ultimately, she decided against it. She sighed and made her way to the kitchen where Celestia and Luna were waiting for her. “He still won’t come down. What am I supposed to do?”

“There is nothing we can do other than be ready for him when he decides that he needs us,” Luna spoke first.

Celestia nods in agreement. “Everypony, or dragon, in this case, grieves differently. If Spike wants to be left alone, then we should respect that.”

“But he’s clearly hurting! Why won't he just let us help him? He’s up in his room drinking the day away, and the sun isn’t even at its highest point yet.”

Luna gets up from her chair and makes her way around the table to pat Luster Dawn’s back. “I know this is difficult for you, Luster Dawn. It is difficult for us too. But if we will not let us help him, we cannot. It will just make him angry with us.”

“I think he’s already angry with me.” Luster Dawn sighs sadly as she prepares two plates of the pancakes the staff prepared. She hovered one over to a nearby unicorn. “Please bring this up to Spike.” The staff uniform nods and takes the plate in her aura and heads up the stairs to Spike’s room. She turns back to the two princesses. “So I’m supposed to just wait until he’s ready to come to me? How long will that take? It’s already been a moon since he was told and he spent it denying that anything was wrong and doing anything but relaxing. I even saw him counting feathers on a chicken for Buttercup on a trip to Ponyville! And Buttercup didn’t even ask for that!” Luster Dawn’s voice gradually raised as she spoke until she was yelling.

“Calm your emotions, Luster Dawn. It is fair to be upset, but getting angry with Spike right now will solve nothing.” Luna speaks calmly.

“Well, what can I do until then?” Luster Dawn asks, looking between the two princesses.

“There might be some books in the library to help.” Celestia offered.

Luster Dawn thinks for a moment. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Luster Dawn quickly finishes her breakfast and heads to the library. “Thank you, princesses!” The two princesses waved her off before standing up to leave the kitchen to attend to their duties.

In the library, Luster Dawn walked up the towering rows of books muttering to herself as she passed each row. “Magic… no. Operations? Absolutely not. Poinsettias… no. Quantum Theory? Even if it were what I needed, I’m not smart enough for that. Railroad history… No, that won’t do.” Finally, her eyes fell on one particular book. “Supporting a grieving friend? Perfect!” Luster Dawn grabs the book and finds a place where she won’t be bothered by anypony to sit and read.

Hours go by and Luster Dawn finds more and more books on the topic. As she read she learned that ponies go through different stages of grief, five to be exact, and right now, Spike seems to be going through the anger stage. The books also went over how to help people and while they were all worded vastly differently, they all said essentially the same things: Be there for your friends, listen to them, offer them any help they may need, and don’t be afraid to talk about the pony who passed. While Luster Dawn knows that those are the best things to do, it’s going to be pretty hard to do them if Spike seemingly wants nothing to do with her.

As Luster Dawn levitated yet another book over to her, she was interrupted by the librarian quietly clearing her throat. “I’m sorry, but we’ll be closing soon, would you like to check any of those out?”

Luster Dawn noticed the large piles of books next to her for what appeared to be the first time. “Oh! I’m so sorry. I’ll help you put all of these away.”

The librarian chuckles softly. “It’s alright. I can take care of it, would you like to take any with you?”

Luster Dawn shook her head. “No, I think I got all of the information I needed. Thank you.” She stands up and stretches, making her way out of the library.

Luna has already raised the moon, she was in there much longer than she thought. She made her way to the library in the still of the night. Walking down the hallway of the quiet castle, she stopped outside Spike's door and knocked twice.

“I said go AWAY!” Spike drunkenly slurred from the other side of the door.

“Spike, I know you want nothing to do with any of us right now, but I just wanted to let you know that we’re here for you. It’s okay to talk about it, and if you need anything at all, just ask us… okay?”

On the other side of the door, Spike sat on the floor drinking from another bottle. He didn’t say anything; he just waited until he heard Luster Dawn shut the door to her own room, finished off his bottle, and flung it across the room, shattering it on impact with the wall. “Yeah, whatever.” He mutters before climbing into his own bed and going to sleep.

Eventually, Spike did let Luster Dawn into his room, and while he still met her with cynical responses to questions and passive-aggressive behavior, it was certainly better than nothing. Luster Dawn is willing to do whatever it takes for however long it takes to help see Spike through this. And it starts by being patient.