Chapter 8 - Leftovers

Spike was flying away from Ponyville with a heavy hurt, as he knew he may possibly ever return. Sure, Twilight was bound to continue to love him no matter what had happened, having brought him up for years. But if a good friend like Rarity thought he was a beast, everypony else is bound to hate him and therefore Equestria had no place left for him.

He wasn’t sure where to head to, but then noticed a tall mountain in the distance. He knew there was an empty cave at the top as his friends…former friends…had only recently persuaded a huge dragon to move on. He therefore knew it would be a good, dry place for Spike to hide as he sorted out his future.

Spike banked towards the mountain and sped up, unaware of the scouts of the Royal Guard watching him…

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Princess Celestia was holding day-court when suddenly a scroll appeared infront of her. She noticed that this was sealed with the mark of the Royal Guard, not rolled up in a plain manner like her protégés letters. She apologised to the pony talking, explaining that she needed to read this urgent message. Her eyes scanned over the letter, growing a little wider as she read.

“Apologies everypony, but an urgent situation has developed which I must tend to immediately, for the safety of Equestria”

Everypony bowed instantly, and started walking out of the palace, for they knew if the Princess herself was going to be dealing with it rather than her guard or the elements of harmony, it must be serious. Celestia re-read the letter, surprised to be told that the dragon had returned to the mountain so quickly. Had it not been for the situation with Rarity she would have asked Twilight and her friends to deal with the problem again, but instead she decided to deal with it herself.

She trotted out of court onto the balcony, and leaped into the air. A dozen nearby pegasi guards followed their assigned Princess instantly, flanking her as she flew off.

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Spike explored the cold damp cave he found himself in. The previous tenant had not left with all his plunder, leaving behind low value items. Whilst there was nothing worthy of an adults dragon’s greed remaining, the low quality gems would be more than enough to sustain him for a few weeks. The few broken bits of gold and silver should have meant something to a Dragon without any hoard at all, but Spike still didn't feel the need for physical items - he valued the love of the two unicorns in his life more than anything else!

The cave was way too big for him really, being a lot smaller than the previous tenant, and it’s wide entrance wouldn't provide much cover from the harsh mountain elements. He therefore started digging into the side of the cave to make a smaller hole for sleeping in – having slept in a basket or crib his whole life, except of course for the night before, he found smaller places more natural and comforting. His powerful claws easily dug out a hole the size of Ponyville's town hall, and he was just finishing up when he sensed a powerful being approaching him Has Twilight found me already?

He watched as a group of ponies approached him, seeing that there were six large pegasi, and one alicorn in the middle Oh no, the Princess is coming! I don’t want to have to deal with her right now Spike thought to himself, and hid himself in his newly dug bedroom on the side of the cave. He couldn’t see the cave entrance from his tucked away position, but could obviously hear what was going on.

Celestia and her entourage landed on the flat ground outside the cave. “Wait here whilst I go inside” she ordered her guard.

“What? Princess, we should scout out for any dangers first” the leader responded.

“With all due respect Captain Cherry, you don’t have any magic to defend yourself. Besides, Dragons are honour bound not to eat Alicorns but the same is not true for Pegasi ” the Princess responded with a smile

The guard watched on as the Princess entered. She slowly entered, but was surprised not to see a huge dragon had returned, but instead an empty cave, or more importantly a nearly empty cave. She sensed a familiar presence nearby, and whilst it was slightly different from normal, having help to raise the creature she know instantly who it was.

She continued slowly toward the back of the cave “Well, looks like the cave is empty afterall” the Princess called out a little too happily. Spike heard this, and felt relieved that the Princess had not seen him, for he wanted some time to think rather than deal with the superior immortal being – her knowledge and experience, and excellent debating skills, were bound to mean she would get her way.

Celestia wasn’t sure why Spike was hiding but she wasn’t going to abandon such a young creature, especially an orphan from his own kind, on his own. With a bit of a smirk on her face, the Princess readied to levitate the hiding dragon out of his cave without warning him – she always enjoyed giving Twilight and Spike little pranks, if not just to help teach them to always be prepared for anything. She cast the spell to move him, but she hadn’t fully realised what Spike had become.

The magic repelled off of Spike’s body without him even knowing it, and the feedback came charging back towards Celestia. Being caught completely off guard it struck her with full force, causing her to be flung back against the wall and scream out in pain. Hearing one of his guardians cry out in pain, Spike left his hidey-hole and ran over to the Princess.

The guard came rushing in and saw their Princess with a dragon towering over her. The dragon was only about twenty times the Princesses size, smaller compared to the huge normal dragon, but given it had somehow defeated their ruler they feared just how powerful it must be. Regardless of the danger, they flew towards the dragon, a few of them trying to get themselves between Celestia and the beast, whilst others tried to pull her to safety

Spike roared a little, trying to push the ponies out of the way to get to the Princess to comfort her. The guards were not strong enough to stop him, but Spike was holding back worried about hurting more ponies. The battle therefore wasn't fierce, but was the definition of chaotic given the guards couldn't actually hurt or stop Spike.

“EVERYPONY STOP” Celestia cried out in full Canterlot Voice, and all her guards and Spike just froze. Celestia slowly got to her hooves, shaking her head as if to try to physically remove the haziness “Guards, cease your actions. Spike here did nothing to me, it was just a little prank of mine gone wrong?”

“Wait, Spike?” the captain asked confused, looking over to the dragon who just sort of shrugged his shoulder. The dragon didn't know who the guard was, and the guard knew Spike only as a baby dragon. They sort of stared at each other for a while, until Celestia broke the silence.

“Guards, please wait outside whilst I talk to Spike. And tell no-pony of what you saw today…I don’t want everypony to think I was beaten in battle!”

The guards all saluted, and flew out of the cave, making sure they were gone, Celestia sat down and looked at Twilights assistant. “Oh Spike, what has become of you?”

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The Princess took off her crown, breastplate and shoes, surprising the young dragon. Of course Twilight and Spike had often seen the Princess in casual mode, but it still surprised him even when they spent evenings sleeping with the alicorn in her bedchambers when they were both young, especially during winter thunderstorms.

Spike lay down on his belly, his head resting in his claws, and Celestia lay down facing him, looking him over. She could sense he wanted to communicate, but that like most dragons couldn't actually speak in pony. “Spike, I know you must be going through alot right now. I'm not exactly sure what has happened, but for you to run away from Ponyville, and Twilight, must mean something is wrong”

“But I’m here for you. And I’m not just saying that as the ruler of the kingdom, nor as one of your guardians, but as your friend. Of course we hadn't discussed the future much, but we are going to spend a long time together in the coming centuries”

Spike looked even sadder, with the thought of his life post Twilight starting to come to mind.

“But that is the future, and for now I expect you to be in Ponyville. It’s a great place for a young dragon like yourself to learn about all sorts of things. And of course Twilight and her friends are there”

Spike thought about his friends, and one in particular, and tears started to form in his eyes

“Oh, I see” she cooed and slowly flew into the air. She hovered just in front of the dragon, and lowered her horn to his forehead, carefully casting a spell as she did. Spike closed his eyes and made sure he didn't react in any way, deliberately or by instinct…

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Spike found himself in a cloudy mysterious place, like nothing he had seen before. He looked down at himself and found that he looked like he usually did, just as small soft as a few days ago. He then surveyed his surroundings and noticed a pink maned white filly alicorn laying down on a particularly soft looking cloud.

“Princess?” he stammered out approaching the pony

“Yes Spike, it is me” the filly responded with a soft voice

“Where…where are we?”

“We are in the realm of our minds. It’s not quite the same as dreams, and is actually very complicated metaphysical state, but it’s the only way we could talk”

“Meta-what-itical? But why are you a filly?”

Celestia started to giggle “Well, it’s sometimes fun to remember the simpler times. Is that not why you remember yourself as you do now?”

Spike just stood there looking over his body, and Celestia beckoned him over. He came and sat down gingerly and carefully next to the pony who instantly grabbed him, pulled him into the cloud and jumped ontop of him. He tried to push the filly off, but she was too quick and they wrestled for a while ending up laughing away.

Having successfully made the dragon lighten up, filly Celestia got off of spike and they just lay down together.

“So Spike, what's wrong?” Celestia asked.

“You’ve seen how I am now!”

“And?”

“I’m a beast, a monster, an outcast…”

“Oh Spike, you really think that?”

“Rarity called me a vile beast!” the dragon said despondently.

“Really?”

“Well, she didn't know it was me, but she’s right. Now I’m big, I’m a danger to everypony else”

“Oh Spike, come on and don't be silly!”

“I managed to hurt you” the dragon reminded the Princess, looking very guilty as he did

“That was my fault, I didn't realise how powerful you had become and my prank backfired. I should apologise to you…”

“Princess don’t” Spike interrupted “I am a beast, I can’t even talk to anypony anymore. Nopony will want a huge dragon around.”

“Spike, I’m surprised at you” Celestia said in a bit of a scolding tone, although it still sounded soft coming from a filly “You are underestimating your friends, and my subjects!”

“Do you really think Ponyville will accept me?”

“Have you hurt anypony?”

“No”

“In fact you rescued your friends and saved the day. You’re a hero”

“But nopony is treating me like a hero!” the dragon complained

“Well, firstly I think everypony is really worried about Rarity. I trust Twilight’s instincts, and if she’s worried it’s normally for good reasons. And perhaps everypony else just doesn't know how to treat you right now!”

“You did”

“But then I have dealt with dragons for thousands of years. I have had to fight them in anger, I have had to duel with them to gain respect…I have even had to fight off more than one amorous advance!”

“Really? How would that even work?” Spike asked the blushing filly

“Well, that’s a story for when you’re a little older” Celestia laughed “The point is I’m sure your friends are missing you already!”

The two just sat their in silence for a while, until the whole place started to fade away

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Spike opened his eyes to see Celestia still hovering in front of him. “I must go now. Have a think about what you really want, and if need to talk just come and find me. I’ll inform the Canterlot guards of your current…appearance and I’m sure that you won’t have any trouble should you come to visit”

She landed and gave a hard knock on Spikes armoured scales, causing a large echoing sound “Not that they would cause you much bother anyway” Celestia laughed. Spike looked at his mentor, always enjoying it when she laughed and glad she did so occasionally in real life and not just in her dreams.

The Princess put on her shoes and levitated the crown and armour back over her body and hed. Walking away from the dragon she gave a glance over her shoulder and Spike gave here a bit of a wave with a claw before she was out of sight. Then, he was alone again

A few hours of deep thought later, he gathered as much of the remaining hoard in the one remaining piece of cloth left behind, and started the journey back home. It was dark, but he enjoyed flying under the light cast by Luna’s moon and stars. He was a dragon, and he had a hoard to look after!

Not the items he was carrying, but a hoard of friends back home...