Refusal

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

----

Twilight Sparkle sat at her desk, pen in hand and notebook open.

Spike was downstairs on the couch, asleep. Her mom had fussed over him, trying to make him comfortable with pillows and blankets.

She'd wanted to take him to the hospital, too.

And if he wasn't any better by morning, that's where he'd be going. Voluntarily or not.

Her pen met paper and she paused.

She had no idea what to write.

Had no idea where to even begin!

Observations. That would be a good place.

Which one though?

His guardian, Marley, she clearly wasn't in on his secret.

Secrets.

Time travel, dragon.

She wrote those two down. She followed it up immediately afterwords with 'Magic'.

Magical time traveling dragon.

Absolutely unbelievable.

She wanted to doubt it, but the story he'd told her had been too detailed, too emotionally invested.

Magical counterparts in an alternate reality?

Her, popular?

Her dog a dragon?

The last part hadn't sat well with her from the start. Was he, a talking, sapient creature considered a pet where he was from?

He had mentioned being taken to a vet when his dragon nature had kickstarted a kleptomaniacal hoarding urge.

That his crush had never looked twice at him because he was physically a toddler, despite being older than her younger sister.

However he'd also mentioned being raised, mostly, by his country's leaders secretary.

A leader who was immortal and raised the sun.

And he'd had rare 'Play-dates' with her own counterpart.

Who was the chosen student of the demi-goddess princess of the sun.

Twilight took her glasses off and started rubbing her temples.

Too much, there was just too much to go over regarding her best friend.

If... Was he her friend?

He was from the future, he knew, or at least claimed to know, a confident, happy version of herself.

Who had magic and friends.

Let's shelve that under A is B, A does not equal B.

She had enough on her plate without trying to analyze the differences between herselves in a failed bid to emulate successes whilst not having access to the same tools.

"You're perfect, Twilight. Don't-don't let anyone tell you otherwise, you got that?"

No, she decided. His friendship, his sincerity wasn't in doubt.

That left her with a host of other problems.

Dimensions, magic, magical interference in dimensions...

Interference. There might be something there, actually.

Twilight stood up and stretched, grabbed her laptop and sat back down.

She had studying to do.

----

She jolted awake at her desk when she heard slamming on her bedroom door.

"Twilight! Get dressed, we need to go!" It was her fathers voice. Her mother would have just walked in.

"Just a second!" She hollered back. She'd been in the same outfit since yesterday, she needed to brush her teeth, shower, just make herself presentable for the day.

On second thought, if it was that big a hurry she'd probably be fine jumping into a new outfit and applying fresh deoderant.

She was out the door and thundering down the stairs a minute later when she saw the emergency.

Spike was standing in the hallway in some of her brothers old clothes, pale, sweating and shaking violently.

"Spike! Geeze, you look terrible!" She knew she was stating the obvious, but the silence felt terrible, wrong.

"You-your dad said I needed to go to the doctor's." He rubbed his hands along his arms in a futile bid for warmth. "I'm fine though, alright? Can you tell them I'm fine?"

She shook her head. He looked to have a foot in the grave, she wasn't going to lie just to keep him from getting better.

"I know Marley." Her dad stepped in from the kitchen, shoving a glass of water into Spike's hands. "Drink that. He looks like he's going to fall over any moment!"

Spike did as he was told before Twilight started shoving him out the door.

"We're going to Canterlot Primary Care. If you can't meet up with us, at least call ahead and clear things up with their administration." Night Light was right behind them, still on the phone. "Marley, I don't care what kind of light show Canterlot High was putting on last night, or that one of your girls is saying she saw a demon."

Twilight glanced over at Spike.

He'd mentioned something to that effect.

"Thank you, Marley. I'll talk to you when I drop Spike off after we get done at Canterlot Primary. Alright? Talk to you in a bit." Night Light flipped his phone shut and walked around the two, getting in the drivers door.

Twilight helped Spike into the backseat before she joined her father up front.

----

Spike had been oddly quiet during the drive to the doctors, offering only short responses to the nurses when they asked some preliminary questions.

He'd been taken to the back to be seen in private, leaving Twilight and her father in the waiting room.

"...Did he tell you what happened?" Her father asked her, a medical journal idly open on his lap.

She shook her head.

"Alright. If I didn't know the kid, I'd think he was coming off some kind of drug." He was watching her out of the corner of his eye, gauging her reaction.

"If I didn't know him, I'd agree with you." Shakes, fevers and chills. It was close to flu like, but a lot of things shared these symptoms.

"So if drugs are off the table-"

"Miss Sparkle? Would you be willing to come in the back?" Twilight shot her father a puzzled glance when a nurse asked her back.

He didn't have an answer either.

She got up and followed the nurse to the rooms patients were seen in.

"What's going on? Is something wrong? Every room back here had a television, the waiting area was still using standard definition.

"He's fine, he's fine. You don't need to worry about that. He's just a little afraid of needles is all." The nurse opened a door midway down the hallway.

Spike looked terrible in a paper dress.