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Types of Love

by TheGreatEater

Chapter 3: Do I Belong?

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Spike walked forlornly into the Golden Oaks Library. A part of him was glad that everything was out in the open now. He didn’t know what Rarity was going to choose, but knowing how she really felt made him feel like a Tom-sized boulder was lifted off of his shoulders. In it’s place was an icy lump settling in his stomach.

As he walked through the doors, he saw an anxious looking Twilight, who was hunched over looking over a letter. With how frazzled her mane was looking, and the dilated pupils that she got when a few steps away from having a Twilight-level breakdown. Even with his confusion, he cared about Twilight. “Hey Twilight, what’s the matter?”

“Oh hi Spike! Nothing’s the matter, why would you ask if anything’s the matter?” Twilight said, a nervous smile on her face.

“Twilight, I’ve known you since forever. Now you can either tell me what the matter is or I can send a letter to Princess Celestia, so what’s the matter?” Spike replied crossing his forearms and tapping his left foot, while giving her his best deadpan look that he learned from countless hours of Twilight Snarkle.

“I talked to Princess Celestia, Spike… I’m sorry,” Twilight said, looking dejectedly towards the floor.

“Twi, it’s okay. You have nothing to apologize for,” Spike said with a smile.

“No, I do Spike. I’ve been thinking, when you were hatched, I spent hours playing school with you, feeding you, because you were my special little guy. But after time I lost sight of that and treated you as something to make my life easier. I’ve treated you horribly.”

“I won’t deny that you’ve been rough these last ten years, but I wanted to make the most of the time I had with you. I’m sorry that Raindrops had to stick her muzzle in our business, it really made things more difficult for everypony,” Spike sighed.

“Don’t be mad at her, Spike. I’m glad she did what she did. And I’ll be better now that I’m aware of what needs to be fixed. Now let’s go onto a happier topic, how was your talk with Rarity?” Twilight said.

Spike looked at her and noticed that she was at least a little calmer, but the topic she wanted was far from a happy one, “It went. we talked, I’m giving her some space to sort through her feelings.”

“That … that’s very mature of you.”

“Yeah, yeah, it is. Heck, I waited five years, I can wait a while longer for her. Right?”

Twilight Sparkle wrapped a wing around Spike. “I don’t know, Spike, but I do know that no matter what, I’m proud of the drake you’ve grown up to be. I want to ask you something. What do you view me as? Like do you see me like a mom, a sister, a boss ...?”

“I… I see you like my mom. You’re the one who hatched me, and you’ve always been a part of my life,” Spike said with a blush, “Is that okay?”

“Of course. But even though we have to wait until after Raindrops makes sure that everything's right. Why don’t we go to the Town Hall to see what we need to do to make it official? If you want to that is?”

Spike wrapped his arms around Twilight and gave her a tight hug. “Thanks, Twi. Let’s go.”

Spike rode in on Twilight's back, arms wrapped around her neck as she strode into Town Hall. Even if Spike had to wait for an adoption to be Twilight's actual child, rather than just seeing himself as such. The fact that at least one of his dreams was going to become reality had him truly excited.

As they trotted to the receptionist to see about how they'd go about it. Seeing as him less than a pony meant that things were going to be different than they'd be for Scootaloo when she eventually gets a family. Unfortunately Spike could never guess just how different things would be for him.

"We're sorry Princess, but Ponyville doesn't have the forms needed to adopt pets, if you'd like we can request those forms from one of the bigger cities,"

"What do you mean, a pet?" Twilight asked in a controlled, icy tone.

"Sorry Princess," The receptionist, a beige Earth Pony stallion with light brown mane, replied, "But everypony knows that you took him to a vet when he had that episode. And that's just another proof that we're lucky that you semi-domesticated him. No offence, Spike, but everypony sees you as a pet. After all, you're a dragon."

"WHAT'S THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!?" Twilight yelled in frustration, "AND I TOOK HIM TO A VET BECAUSE THE DOCTOR RECOMMEND -- Oh Tartarus no."

"It has everything to do with everything. Butterflies migrate, birds migrate, dragons migrate, non-pets don't other than livestock. The civilized races can be adopted, even such exotic ones as Minotaurs or Quilin. Dragons are uncivilized, greed fueled monsters, and not capable of the thinking needed to be considered anything more than a smart animal.

"And as you said, the doctor that looks after all sorts of citizen species told you that Spike deserved to be sent to a Veterinarian," the receptionist replied, "nothing against Spike, but he's the exception not the rule. As I said earlier, we're lucky that you domesticated him."

Nopony looked at Spike as he waddled sullenly out the door. Spike thought the other ponies saw him as one of them, like how he saw himself after seeing how the other dragons lived.

But to have his eyes opened like that, to see that ponies saw him as just another dragon, something that time grow into a monster and destroy everything at any time...

They don't even see me as anything more than a pet. Is that how the girls see me? Is that how everypony sees me? As a thing that just happens to exist to serve ponies? No wonder Rarity wanted time to think, beastiality is illegal, and who'd want to date a pet? So I guess I never really did have a shot with her, did I? Heck, I can't even have the pony who hatched me as a mother. What chance do I have as a special somepony? No not somepony, somedragonI don't know what to do ... Even when I thought Owlicious was replacing me, I never felt so lost...

Spike was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't see an equally lost Rarity walking down the road. Although lost for different reasons. When she saw the miserable little whelp, she felt her heart break at the sight. "Spike, what's wrong?" She asked tentatively.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Spike mumbled, looking at the ground. His entire downtrodden body, however, shouted the exact opposite.

"Was it about our talk?"

"No, it ... it was ... it was nothing. It doesn't matter," Spike replied.

"Oh posh!" Rarity said empathetically, "We're going to the Cake's Confectionary Emporium, and I'm going to ply you with Pinkie Pie's Ruby Muffin Surprise and ice cream until you open up!"

Lifting him up in her magic, she carried him bodily over to Sugarcube Corner, and walked into the Cake's store. She set a still depressed Spike in a booth at the back for a semblance of privacy and walked to the counter. She said to Pinkie Pie who was mareing at the register, "Pinkie Pie, can you be a dear and make your Spike Special? I feel he needs the big guns, as it were, to cheer him up?"

"Like a Party?" Pinkie Pie gasped.

"I have a feeling that wouldn't be best. Maybe after Twilight does that thing she talked to us about earlier, then we can throw a bigger party... Unless that feeds his greed and causes that birthday incident all over again,” Rarity rambled, “Though he has gotten so much better at handling his greed... but I'll leave that up to you I guess.”

"Okie Dokie Lokie! Just leave it to the professionals, and I'll make sure to make Spike's treats extra special! It really was nice of you to give us gems so that we could make Spike special treats, you know you really are a good friend!" Pinkie said with a cake eating grin.

Rarity sighed. "Thank you, Pinkie darling. I needed that more than you know. And, can you also throw in my usual? I need a little pick-me up as well."

"Now Spike, what's the matter? We aren't leaving until we talk, after all, friends talk about things hurting them, you know?" Rarity said, returning to Spike with a small smile on her face.

Spike quickly grew bored of looking at the swirls on the wooden table and spoke, "I finally admitted that I thought of Twilight as my mom. After all these years, she finally asked and I was finally able to tell her. You can't possibly know how amazing that feels...

"Probably not even if Sweetie told you that you were like a mom to her! Don't know if she does, but with all that time your folks leave her in your care and how she looks up to you, and the friendship letters she writes to Celestia about you I wouldn't be surprised. But anyways, we went to see how to go about it ... and it was horrible!" Spike sniffled, tears of anger and sorrow building in his eyes.

"Sweetie, like a daughter... What does she say about me?" Rarity asked.

"Nothing big ... she says a lot of stuff. How you got over some of your fights, how you helped her with random tasks even when you were busy, how she wants to make you proud of her and be as amazing as you are some day. She really does love you. You don't know how lucky you are to have a sister like her."

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to get side tracked. What happened at Town Hall?"

"They. Don't. Adopt. Pets," Spike hissed, sounding more intimidating since he could actually hiss.

"What!? Who'd think you're a pet!?" Rarity shouted indignantly.

"The receptionist pony, and when I left I could see that Twilight was seeing it too. Heck, they didn't even acknowledge me as I left. He even said that others have saw me as a pet, that dragons aren't civilized, aren't on the adoption papers that the other races are, and Ponyville doesn't have the forms to adopt a pet," Spike recapped.

"I don't, and neither do the rest of the girls," Rarity said, grinning hopefully, "and I'm sure that if you were to talk to Celestia and Cadance they won’t see you as one either. Tartarus, I heard from Twilight that Cadance mentioned you in her last letter about how big a deal you are in the Crystal Empire."

"Yeah, I might talk to them later... But you girls are probably the exception amongst other ponies."

Rarity looked at the whelp before her. If I thought it would make things right, I would date him here and now just so that he sees how important he is to us. But with my uncertainties, and how things turned out last time I did that... It would only end in disaster, and Spike means more to me than to hurt him like that.

Placing a hoof on his shoulder, she looked into his sad eyes and said with a smile, "Spike, I promise you that not every pony sees you as how dragons are made out to be. And those that are, their lives are better for it. Maybe the other princesses can make a law to let others know that dragons aren't what the stories make them out to be.

"And I admit, if I thought I could make everything right by becoming your marefriend right here and now, I would. But before I tell you why not, can I tell you a story? If you're interested?"

"Sure. I guess?"

"Well, years ago when I was a little filly like Sweetie Belle, I was quite popular, as you could probably guess. There was this young colt in my class named Ashen Cog. Now, he wasn't the most attractive of ponies. He was scrawny, other ponies thought he looked odd, and he was quite shy.

"Yet even with all of that, we were friends of sorts. But in the folly of my youth I thought if I was his fillyfriend, even though I didn't quite feel that way about him, he'd be happier and would be more popular, which would help a friend out.

"But that was my mistake. Since I was unsure of my feelings, even more than most foals are with their emotions at that age, I didn't really connect with him. At first things weren't that bad. He was a gentlecolt, just as you are quite a gentledrake, and while we didn't connect all that much, I didn't think anything ill of it. But over the weeks, tiny things started to build between us. My love and devotion to my craft, his obsession with repair work. My theatrics and his eccentricities. Differences of opinions, and eventually it just built up.

"Soon we were dating simply but didn't enjoy it, and we were together just to not hurt the other. Eventually that tension built to the point that we started fighting over every little thing. And I'm ashamed to say that I lost a very special friend that way. Do you understand the moral of the story?" Rarity said, her eyes misty from those old wounds.

"I think so? You don't want to just date me right now because it'd hurt us both in the long run like that Ash stallion?"

"Exactly. Now with that said, if for whatever reason we don't date, or we do and things don't work out... After your heart has healed, I hope we can still be friends, because you are very special to me. And I'd be your wingmare whenever you needed it because even as confused as I am, you are special to all of us. Everypony whose life you touch, you make all the more special. Hopefully someday either myself or somepony else who's more deserving of your love will make you as happy as you do others.

"But never forget just how special you are, okay?"

"Okay... Rarity?"

"Yes Spike?"

"Even if we are just friends after you’ve had time to think, I'm the lucky one to have friends like you and the girls. Thanks," Spike smiled sadly. I'm going to speak with Celestia first. But I'm going tonight, if I go now Twi will freak ... Then who knows, I might be able to call her mom yet.

After Spike sent a dragonfire message to Twilight to let her know he was coming home, he ran into Raindrops and Scootaloo walking down the street. They waved him over and trotted up to meet him.

"Hello, Spike! How have you been? I'm sorry I didn't take the time to chat at Scootaloo's party yesterday," Raindrops asked.

"Not good, to tell you the truth. Twilight's great and really working on those things you talked about, but I just learned that I can't be her son," Spike said sadly.

"Why not? From what I saw, while oblivious in some regards, I saw that she cares about you, so why can't you be her son?"

"Because the law says that dragons are pets apparently," Spike replied angrily.

"What! You're not a pet!" Scootaloo huffed just as angrily, "Sure we might not be friends and hang out and stuff, but you're every bit as pony as I am... Just, a dragon!"

"I have to agree, well not on the pony part. But with how well mannered you appear, and how sentient you are, you are a child, and I would never have acted as I did if I didn't think you were," Raindrops added.

"What do you mean?" Spike asked.

"One of my many jobs is as Foal Protective Services, not whatever pets have. And even though I've never had any of my own, I'm very protective of the foals that I meet. If I didn't think you were every bit a foal as those I'm sworn to Celestia, and Luna to protect and serve. I would never have stepped in, after all pets are trained to do all sorts of jobs and have different rules on treatment.

"So if anypony can't look at you and see a young one that's every bit as deserving as any other foal, kid, or what have you, then they are blind and stupid," Raindrops finished.

Spike spent a few moments looking at the look of indignant anger on her face and gave a small smile. "You know, you might be okay after all. So enough about me for now. I really need to take my mind off me. What are you two up to?"

"Well, me and Scootaloo were on our way to Twilight," Raindrops replied.

"I'll walk with you," he said, falling into place alongside them as they walked to his home.

Scootaloo looked at him as they walked and decided to break the ice. "Hey Spike."

"What's up, Scootaloo?"

"I know we never really see each other, or hang out, or whatever. But if you ever want to chill, you can hang out with me and the Crusaders if you'd like. We might be aquawhatsists-"

"Acquaintances," Spike corrected.

"Sure, that thing. But I'd like to be your friend if you'd like. And I'm sure the crusaders would like to be your friend too. Then everypony can see that you're a cool friend, and maybe think you're a pony like them?" Scootaloo said innocently.

"I might be busy for a while coming up, but yeah. I think I'd like to be your friend," Spike said. Maybe not everypony thinks I'm a pet after all. Still, there's too many for comfort. And Raindrops might not be that bad after all. Even if she is a bit nosey.

Later that night, Spike left Twilight a note saying that he was going to Canterlot to speak with Celestia and maybe Luna, and a few other things. The hardest part of that letter read, " ... I talked to Raindrops earlier. She said that she thought of me like any foal, it really made my day for a stranger to say that. But it drove home a simple fact, I might have been an adult a few times, and I might be an adult mentally, but ponies that see me as an equal see me as a child.

Let Rarity know that I came to the conclusion that we should just be friends. Don't tell her this part, but it wasn't fair of me to dump that on her. I'm glad we talked, and I'm the happiest drake in the universe to know that I'm special to her and all of you. But those who don't, see me as a pet, see me as a child, or both. And I know that she doesn't know whether to see me as a child or an adult. So to clear my head, and get a Princess’s prospective I'm going to clear my head ..."

Sure, he admitted to himself. He was attracted to mares around the Bearer’s age. Since he grew up with ponies of that age group, went to a few correspondence classes where he wasn't able to get it done privately, in places he was seen by most as an oddity, or a fixture of the palace. Other than a few of his older friends.

Friends he felt bad for losing touch with, even though a few of them were in Ponyville. But ever since he came to Ponyville, his workload increased a hundredfold, what with doing all the library work, extra chores, food prep and buying (now that the palace isn't footing that workload), and other extras that popped up ever since Twilight became more social, and it only increased more now that she was a Princess.

But now that he had it nailed in that others saw him as a kid, he wondered if any of them saw him as a peer or just a kid brother playing grownup?

As he stopped at the train station to get a ticket for the night train to Canterlot, he saw the last thing he ever expected to see. Diamond Tiara, tiara-less, sitting on a bench.

While he never was close to her, he had heard enough horror stories, as well as the latest gossip about her getting in trouble for threatening other ponies. But he thought that everypony deserved at least a chance to prove they weren't a monster, and plopped beside her, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, you're leaving too?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to Canterlot where nopony has heard of me and starting fresh," she mumbled.

"So I might not really know why you did all you did but I heard that all you need to do is apologise is that so hard really?" Spike wondered.

"Daddy saw the black book she left me before she left us for Manehatten," Diamond Tiara said, "Mommy said that it's what she used to get rid of the competition that didn't know to leave when daddy was beating them. And that if you ever want to get ahead in life you need to get dirt on everypony and make sure to put others in their proper place. Beneath you were they belong ... Mommy said a lot of things like that."

"Who's your mom?"

"Spoiled Rich. She left us a few years back. And I thought if I was good enough like her she'd be proud of me and want to come back and be my mommy again, and daddy would finally pay attention to me rather than business. Did you know that he wasn't even at my Cutecenera? Even after I invited everypony like he wanted me to? But that didn't happen... And after he found all the stuff about ponies that mommy left behind so that I could be like her he... He... I've never seen him so mad.

"I know he hates me now, so I'm leaving. Starting fresh. And maybe someday... If I'm better than who I was, he'll love me again," Diamond Tiara spilled years of repressed anger and sorrow onto the nearest object, Spike, and cried on his shoulders.

"Hey, Twilight learned a friendship lesson ages ago about giving ponies a second chance. Since we're both going to Canterlot, why don't you come with me and I can see about setting you up somewhere? After all, everypony needs a friend, and if even a pony like Trixie can be redeemed, I don't see why you don't deserve a shot."

"Really?"

"Really. Now why don't we chat while we wait for that train?"

Author's Notes:

This is the part where ToL and Golden Wings split apart. I don't think of Spike personally as a pet, nor a kid. But I get how some more xenophobic / uninformed can see him as such. That and it's the problems he'd face if in a relationship. Both those that see dragons as uncivilized creatures that are monsters at most, pets at the least. As well those who see him as a child.

But it'll make the final product much more satisfying. The next story of this fic might take me until late January / mid Feburary. Giving me time to get some headway on Golden Wings, and some side projects I've been writing. But the Next Chapter, we see some sweet Momlestia fluff.

Also I appologise for the wonky indentions. My Tablet when I copy X paste a fic from GDocs it doesn't carry well. I'm working on trying to get it uniformed. But until then, I hope it's not too jarring.

Next Chapter: To the Castle Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes
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