Refusal

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

----

"Hey Twilight?"

She'd gone to bed early tonight.

Not that she'd gotten any sleep.

She'd been tossing and turning atop her covers. Spike had taken up a spot just next to her bed, in a little basket she was sure he'd outgrow. She'd been looking up blankly at the cieling for a few minutes before she'd check her phone.

No missed calls. No texts.

She knew he was going to call tonight. He'd promised.

"It's Spike."

She wasn't sure if it was nervousness, anxiety or something else, but she felt like she was missing something important. Like she was supposed to be somewhere or doing something.

"I think I did the right thing. I helped out that old friend, I think I managed to keep another one from screwing things up too badly."

She dropped the phone next to her head and stared straight up at the cieling, her mind somewhere far, far away.

"Well, helped her anyway. Twilight..."

Countless scenarios went through her mind.

Spike leaving, being taken away. Abandoning her.

Picking his old friends over her.

"Twilight? I think I messed something up."

Her phone rang.

"Everything hurts."

The caller I.D. said 'Spike'. She pressed the connect button.

"Hello?" She said into the device.

She listened intently for a few moments before she flew out of bed.

She threw open her closet, grabbing the first set of acceptable clothes she could find and practically warped into them.

Spike woke up at the commotion and started running around her, barking excitedly.

"Spike, where are you at?" She sat on the edge of her bed, wiggling her shoes on one handed. "Right now. Just read the nearest street signs!"

She grabbed a leash and deftly clicked it onto Spike's collar with experience that belied years of practice.

The next instant she was out the door.

----

Initially she'd passed him on the street, a few blocks from Canterlot High School and roughly halfway between her home and his.

Spike had stopped her though.

He'd frozen at the end of his leash, sniffing at the air and whimpering.

"Spike! Just leave the garbage alone!" He still did that, he still got distracted by whatever he thought smelled interesting.

"Okay." She hadn't expected it to answer. The huddled mess that spoke was in the shadow between a trash can and the curb, she'd mistaken it for a lumpy bag of garbage at first.

"Spike?" As she got closer, he became more defined. His clothing was in tatters, he was holding on to himself and shaking.

It couldn't have been from the cold, it was still very early in the fall.

"Y-yeah Twilight?" His voice was still a little too high, kind of airy and slower than normal.

"What happened to you?" She crouched down, noticing the smell as she got within arms reach.

It would definitely explain why her puppy had nearly frozen mid-stride.

"I'm not- I'm not really sure." His muscles all tensed for a moment, his face drawn in a grimace before he relaxed. "I know what happened. I just- I just don't know why it's doing this."

She reached over, putting her hands on his chin and making him look up at her. His green eyes were unfocused, tears brimming at the edges.

"Just talk to me Spike. Tell me what happened." Spike, her puppy, jumped on Spike, her friend's lap and stood up on him, licking his face.

"My err... My friend from ngh!" He lurched forward, almost dislodging Spike while he clutched at his stomach.

"Spike! Hold on, I'm calling an ambulance." She pulled her phone up before another hand grabbed her wrist.

A hand freezing and coated with purple scales.

She screamed, scrambling back from her friend once she broke his grip.

It hadn't been difficult. There hadn't been any strength to his hand.

"What's going on?!" Any louder and she'd have been screaming. As it was, her pitch was just below a holler.

"That always happens when I'm teleporting or levitating." He was taking fast, shallow breaths. "I just never did so much of it all at once."

"Teleportation and levitation aren't real!" And people didn't have scales or claws!

"Neither are dragons, right?" Exactly! Dragons weren't...

"Are you a dragon?" She was scooting forward again, taking in every detail she could see.

His hair was slowly unmatting as she watched. The scales she'd thought to be the ruined sleeves of his hoodie were fading their way down his arm, leaving unblemished skin behind.

"Y-yeah. Not much-" He exhaled slowly before sucking air back in. "Not much of one though, am I? Get hit by one- by one friendship powered rainbow laser and I just, hah, I'm just falling to pieces!"

He sounded like even he didn't believe what he was saying.

Which just made it even harder for Twilight to piece together what he meant.

She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly.

Stop.

Pause.

Think.

Do.

She exhaled.

Twilight grabbed onto his wrists and pulled him with her, awkwardly, to standing up. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled, getting him to start moving.

"I'm sorry I got you into this, Twilight." He was shuffling, barely moving faster than a stand-still. "I'm sorry I'm such a bad friend."

"You're not a bad friend, Spike." If she'd wanted a set of bad friends, she'd go out in the hallway of Crystal Prep and pick a student at random.

"I kind of am. I mean... I didn't know about her problem until you told me. And I've been keeping this a secret for so long, next thing I'll blab about will be the time travel and I'll feel even worse for keeping it from you."

Time travel? Time traveling dragon? What next? Was he from some world of pastel colored ponies, too?

"Time travel?"

"You know?" His head lolled forward for a second and he stumbled before getting his feet back under him. "Twilight Sparkle, of course you know. Stupid unicorn and his stupid spells."

She was being sarcastic!

"Unicorn?" Maybe he could introduce her to one, when he was feeling better?

Probably not. That was one childhood dream she seriously doubted would ever be fulfilled.

"Yeah, you know the one? Starswirl the Bearded? Guy left some unfinished spells behind, like the one that rewrote history and took an editors pen to destiny." He usually said a lot, but not like this. Not with this much substance instead of empty prattle and observations on the present.

"Spike. Do you want to tell me what happened?" Half-carrying him was miserable, he was a lot heavier than her.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to."

"I didn't ask if you were supposed to." Both green eyes focused on her for what she thought was the first time.

"I asked if you wanted to."