Rediscovery

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

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It was summer when things first came to a head for Spike.

He'd gotten an old rotary lawnmower and was mowing the lawns of almost a dozen people, trimming bushes and cutting back weeds to earn some spending money.

He'd even gotten himself a cell phone with a basic, pre-paid plan. His number of contacts was short, Twilight, Marley, Beaming Wings and a few other friends from school he never talked to.

Twilight on the other hand?

She burned through his minutes almost as fast as he could afford them. She always had something she wanted to talk about and Spike had never had the heart to tell her to stop.

Either of them.

And he wouldn't trade it for the world. She was always happy to talk to him, to tell him about everything she was doing or had done during the day.

Today for instance was a simmering afternoon, the sun high in the sky and the temperature soaring. It didn't seem to affect him too much, he was sweating and hot, sure, but he wasn't feeling uncomfortable.

Quite the contrary, the balmy weather was comparably fantastic.

Pushing the rotating metal was boring, tedious in the extreme but it kept him busy and made him a little money. It also didn't make a horrendous amount of noise like the gas-powered ones or cost him much by way of effort besides running a whetstone over the blades in the evenings.

He got started earlier in the days and finished later, but in the evenings when he could get a bite to eat for himself, it was worth it.

His musings drifted apart like dandelion seeds when he heard his phone going off. He flipped it open and brought it to his ear, awkwardly pushing the mower with one hand.

"What's up?" He hadn't been able to check the caller id, but only a few people would be calling. Marley about some chore one of the other kids had forgotten about, or Twilight to give him an update on her day.

"Spike?" It was Twilight, but something was wrong. "Are you busy?"

"No Twilight, what's wrong?" He looked over the lawn, ignoring the empty brown patches in the grass. He was, at best, half done.

Old Mr.Henderson wouldn't care in the slightest, assuming the old man was even half-here today, so long as Spike promised to finish up tomorrow.

"It's Garble! He's... Spike, the vet says we need to put Garble down." That would definitely explain what was wrong. The old curmudgeonly dog had been Twilight's friend since she was a toddler. She'd never explained why he was allowed with her at school, Spike never asked, but he knew there was something important there.

"I need to drop off my stuff at home and I'll be right over!" If this was a good part of town he'd just leave the lawnmower in Mr.Henderson's backyard. But he didn't have that luxury, not here.

He'd been working on something though...

"We're still at the vets. We-we'll be home soon, I think." He heard a snippet of another voice in the background, but it was too muffled for him to hear clearly. "Yeah... I'll be home in an hour. I-I'll see you then, okay?"

"Yeah Twilight, I'll see you then." Twilight hung up, and Spike put his phone away.

The defeat in her tone, that finality...

He knocked on Mr.Henderson's door, ignoring the expletives the old man was shouting as he came to the door.

"Murkle-durned comm- Spike? Izzat chu? The lawn ent half-durn mowed." The old mans eyes were glazed over, the smell coming from the house was foul.

"My friend is having a family emergency. Would it be okay if I finished up your lawn tomorrow, no charge?" The last part grated on him, but Twilight was more important than twenty bucks.

"Free eh? Yeh, free tomorrow is better 'en paid today. Go on 'en. Scat yeh little wyrm tongue hoozits." Spike always had trouble understanding the man, but he seemed amiable enough, especially about not having to pay to have his lawn mowed.

Spike was halfway down the block when he heard the man start shouting, almost like clockwork.

"Me wee men! Blast all darnabbit, whodun took me wee men!"

Spike turned the corner and disappeared, he knew better than to be nearby until the man was medicated again.

----

Spike turned the corner to Marley's home, his back itching something fierce and dragging the lawnmower behind him. He just had to drop it off in the back and then get going...

But he was so much more tired than when he'd been mowing at a sedate pace.

Maybe just a glass of water?

Spike steeled himself, thirst could wait.

This was important.

Except...

Spike went inside, opening a cupboard in the kitchen and pulled down a glass. He ran the tap, filling it with cool water and then went upstairs to the bathroom.

He was well ahead of schedule.

He grabbed a fresh set of clothes on the way over, khakis and a zip up hoodie, and went into the bathroom to change.

His shirt was filthy, covered in fresh stains, his shorts only less so.

Freshly changed, freshly watered, Spike rushed out the door of the silent, empty house.

He checked his phone, it had been a little over half an hour since Twilight called. He picked up his pace to a hurried walk. It would only take fifteen minutes to get there, and Twilight told him it would be an hour...

But she had a habit of being generous with the amount of time taken to do something when other people were involved.

And not generous enough when it came to setting her own timetables.

Their car was already back, and another look at his phone suggested he was fifteen minutes early.

He knocked on the door. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, a crying Twilight, a somber Velvet maybe...

Not a tall young man with a shock of short blue hair.

"Oh, uh, Spike right?" Shining Armor, Spike guessed.

"Yeah. Shining Armor, right?" The young man nodded at Spike's query. "Twilight talks about you a lot."

"Mom and them aren't back yet, do you want to come in?" Shining Armor stepped back, making room for Spike to come through.

The kitchen light was on, living room too. Spike gravitated straight to a well worn couch in the former and sat down, fidgeting nervously.

"Twilight mentioned you, in her letters." Shining Armor sat down in a chair across from him, the one Twilight Velvet preferred.

"That's nice? She just called me a little bit ago, about, err, about Garble?" Spike always felt small compared to Twilight's older brother. In Equestria, he was the commander of the guard, master of shielding magic so powerful only a few could break it.

Here he was a lieutenant, slowly working his way up a structure that was decidedly less inclined towards individual merit.

"Yeah... Dogs his age getting cataracts aren't all too uncommon. I guess there were other complications though. Dad called me a little bit ago, they were going to... Put the old guy down, I guess." Twilight's older brother didn't seem to know what to do or say either. "Listen, you're her friend, right?"

Spike nodded, not quite sure what to say.

"Then you might be a little more aware than mom and dad are. I know she doesn't have many friends at school but, well, can you tell me how she's doing?"

"She doesn't-" Spike had barely gotten those words out when he was tackled by a purple blur.

His arms were pinned to his sides and Twilight's head was pressing painfully into his chest.

"Twilight!" Spike wheezed, his breath pushed out of his lungs and struggling to return. "What happened?"

"Garble!" She hiccuped. "He's gone!"