Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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Time will pass, as is its wont. Days shall come and months will go.

For a brief moment, a few days at most, Spike the Dragon, the Unicorn, the Human allowed himself to be depressed.

Such was not, however, his nature.

After sulking for a little while he was swept up, into a new normal. He went to classes, was tutored a few nights per week as he struggled to catch up to the level his peers were at academically and was, for much of his time, utterly baffled with just how little he truly had to do.

A few chores around the house, homework in the evenings before bed. For a dragon used to spending a great majority of his time cleaning up after an eclectic researcher, the free time left him aimlessly adrift.

In the late hours of the night, when he was sure he wasn't going to be disturbed, he tried to practice whatever magic had clung to him in this world.

Countless hours spent focusing, chanting gibberish and made up words while waving his arms around. Countless hours wasted. He felt no closer to discerning how he'd mended his glasses. Why the scales of his original form had dug through his human shell.

School at least was proving more successful.

With this Twilight's help, he'd made leaps and bounds in understanding much of his current curriculum.

He'd been able to do multiplication and division before, even keep a basic checkbook. He knew some of the physical properties of matter prior to joining this world, now he knew the deeper truths of the world, such as the fact that there was a fourth state of matter.

He wondered, sometimes, if Celestia's Sun and this worlds Sun were the same in that way. Or if the Alicorn of the Sun controlled something composed of magic instead.

She wasn't any warmer with him, much as he wished to he couldn't claim her as a friend. They were acquaintances.

He was sure there was something he was missing, some wall to overcome.

Both with Twilight and with magic.

Each month though, during the nights of the full moon he still made his way to the statue at Canterlot High School.

And every night he pressed his palms flat against the stone. After the first few nights the tears had stopped coming when he met the solid surface.

He knew he would get home, he knew that deep down in his bones. He had every faith that Twilight Sparkle would come and find him. Every faith that his friend could figure out what was keeping him from going home.

It was one such night beneath the glare of the full moon that found Spike forlornly sitting against the monument. His back was flat with the square base, the moon reflecting off his eyes.

One slitted, the other not.

He'd grown to hate his eye-patch. Confining and left him half-blind, it still kept some of the less desirable attention away from him.

He was treated with indifference as a cripple, rather than the jeering of a freak.

With that in mind, he truly appreciated these quiet moments. These cool evenings where he could let his eye breathe. He used to find these moments stifling, slowly filling him with anxiety while he waited, cleaned and organized. Now that he wasn't supposed to do those things, he found that he wished he could go back to those nervous, stressful days. They had been less boring.

His mind was drifting aimlessly as he sat, not quite able to focus on anything. Twilight and Twilight drifted through his mind, he had almost decided on what truly made the two unique.

And then he was interrupted when he felt something slam into his back.

He pitched forward, his chin slamming into the concrete while something heavy landed across his back and rolled off. He put his hands under himself and pushed up, propping up on one knee while he looked at what knocked him over.

Red hair.

The most obvious thing, her most recognizable trait.

Red hair flailed to and fro as she scrabbled against the ground, fingers spasming as she tried to grab onto something with numb hands.

"Hey!" Spike hollered as he got up, a flutter of excitement in his heart. "Are you okay?"

Hard cyan eyes were glaring into his own as he held out a hand to help her up. Her grip was harsh and demanding on his hand as he pulled her up to two feet.

He knew, even before she spoke. This wasn't the Sunset Shimmer he had last met.

"Who are you?" So much venom. She didn't even know him but she scorned him none the less.

"Thorn." He hated this. He hated lying to her, who she would eventually be. But this wasn't her. Sunset Shimmer, his friend wasn't this angry. His friend didn't have such cold eyes. "What's a pony doing this side of the mirror?"

She jerked her hand away from his, acting as though his mere touch scalded her. Derision fled her face to be replaced with wariness, fear.

He could change all of this. He could be the friend she needed, teach her the virtues of friendship.

He forced a smile onto his face, wide and fake.

She hadn't wanted friends, and as long as he'd been here so far, he hadn't made any. He was at times left wondering if he could make any friends of his own.

If he could do something right without Twilight to help him.

"No answer?" He didn't figure she would give him one. As a unicorn she was immensely skilled. Here as a human with neither allies nor magic? "That's alright. I've got some pocket change left. I'll get us something to eat and we'll get you walking straight, alright?"

She grabbed onto his outstretched hand with both of hers, stumbling even as she took her first step. Her red and gold hair swayed in the breeze, reminding him of Celestia's setting sun.

Of home.

Author's Notes:

Don't expect Spike to magically fix things.
It certainly didn't work for Twilight when she was trying to...
Well, Spike has figured out what's going on.
I'm sure my audience has as well.