Circus Days

Chapters

Just Another Boring Day
Come one! Come all!
Birth of the Circus
A Friendship in Flames
Revelations
Rebuilding the Bridge

Just Another Boring Day

It was another beautiful summer morning in the town of Ponyville. Princess Celestia's sun was illuminating the town, brightening the streets and buildings. The town's citizens started to wake up, and shops were preparing and opening for the day ahead. It was still early morning, so there were very few ponies up and about. However, for one purple baby dragon in the Ponyville Library, his day was already in full swing.

Spike was up and looking at the mess that was on the library floor. It was covered with open books, some upside down, and a tower of books that was as tall as the bookshelves themselves. He went around picking up the library books from another one of Twilight's late night study sessions. Spike was used to this, but he always was annoyed as to why Twilight couldn't clean up after herself. It wasn't the first time he had to clean up her mess and it certainly wouldn't be his last. He was still picking up books when he heard the familiar sound of hooves come down the steps. The baby dragon looked to see a lilac unicorn with a purple mane and tail with a pink streak going through it giving a small smile at him.

"Good morning Spike." Said a groggy Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh, good morning Twilight." Said Spike. "How did your studying go last night?"

"Oh it was great Spike." The unicorn responded joyfully. "All that studying of spells and theories certainly makes time fly."

"That's great Twilight. So...what are we doing today? Taking on magical creatures? Practicing spells? What?" Spike asked with anticipation in his voice.

Twilight looked around the library floor and said, "Well, first of all, I need you to finish cleaning up all these books. You know we can't just leave them like this."

Spike looked at the books and remembered he needed to put them away. "Well why can't you pick them up?" He blurted out without thinking.

Twilight stared at him for a moment before asking, "What do you mean Spike?"

Spike cursed himself for asking that question and did his best to answer Twilight's question. "Well Twilight, it's just that you are always staying up late and using books the most. Why can't you use your magic to put the books back?"

Twilight sighed and looked at her number one assistant. "Spike, I don't mean to do that to you. I'm usually very tired after studying for so long, and I barely have any energy left. I usually don't have time as well since I have to meet up with the girls."

Spike wanted to find another way to argue, but just gave up. Arguing with Twilight was useless and she was stubborn in being right at everything; sometimes as stubborn as Applejack.

"I have an idea though." Twilight suddenly said.

Spike broke out of his thoughts and asked, "What is it Twilight?"

"Well how about I make it up to you one day, and I give you a day off?"

Spike smiled a little at this. "Alright, it’s a deal."

The lilac unicorn smiled at her assistant and said, "Thanks Spike, now I have to go meet Applejack. I promised I'd help her with some applebucking."

Spike gave a small wave and as soon as Twilight was gone he let out a big sigh. It was like this everyday and he was getting sick of it. Twilight was always hanging out with her friends, and having fun. Meanwhile, Spike was left behind to do the work and chores. He missed the flying competition in Cloudsdale, Gummy's party, and many other fun things Twilight and her friends did. All Spike did was work all day cleaning up the library, or help Twilight with her magic spells. He knew he would be like a sore hoof sticking out in Ponyville since he was the only dragon, but he was getting sick of being left out of everything. It left the baby dragon not only sad, but angry as well. He often wondered why he was still in this town since many of the ponies in this town were nervous around him.

Spike spent the rest of the morning putting all the books in their proper places and dusted the entire place. By the time he was finished, the clock in the lobby chimed indicating it was twelve. Spike's stomach groaned, decided to have some of Sweet Apple Acres' finest apple slices and a glass of water. The young dragon then thought that since he was done with cleaning up, he could meet up with Twilight and the others and hang out with them. He quickly finished his lunch, cleaned up the mess, and left with a grin on his face to Sugarcube Corner. He figured that's where Twilight was since she and the others usually met up there to have lunch. The baby dragon reached the cake shaped bakery and entered through the door. He looked around to see Twilight and her friends talking and laughing with each other at a large red table.

Spike walked over to the table, feeling a little nervous. "Um, Twilight?"

Twilight and the others turned towards the baby dragon. "Oh, Spike I am so glad you're here." The lilac unicorn said with a cheerful expression on her face.

"Really!? You need me!?" The baby dragon asked with excitement in his voice and a smile grew on his face.

Twilight nodded, used her magic to levitate a large red book, and gave it to Spike. "I need you to take this book back to the library now. It's the new edition of Advanced Magic for Talented Unicorns. I found it for a great deal at the bookstore, and I was going to go back to the library to drop it off. Now that you're here would you please take care of it?"

Spike felt his heart sink and his smile faltered. "Okay Twilight." He said with a tinge sadness in his voice as he took the book.

Twilight beamed. "Thank you Spike! What would I do without you?"

"Hey! Who wants to see my new trick?" Rainbow Dash asked. "It's going to blow your mind!"

Twilight turned back and agreed with every other pony to see her trick. They all left in a hurry to see the sky blue pegasus' new trick without saying goodbye to Spike or anything. The baby dragon was left alone with the book, and with a broken spirit.

Spike dragged himself toward the library, while looking around to see other ponies chatting with one another. He saw the spa twins, Aloe and Lotus, drinking apple juice and laughing. Them, he saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders whizzing past him on Scootaloo's scooter and a red wagon with them shouting something about cutie marks. He even saw Snips and Snails talking with Twist as the three ate lunch together. Spike sighed as he entered the library. He walked up into the bedroom, placed the book on Twilight's bed, and flopped into his basket, staring at the ceiling for what seemed like an eternity. Spike could distinctly hear the sounds of ponies playing and tried to block the sounds out by covering his ears. He had never felt so alone in his life.

'Is this all I am to Twilight? Am I just here to do work and nothing more?' Spike thought to himself.

Spike drifted off to his own thoughts about what he was to Twilight and the others. The library door opened and Spike snapped out of his thoughts. He saw the sky was orange, and Luna's moon was rising, bringing in nighttime. He got up, went out into the lobby, and saw Twilight standing at the bedroom door with a pleasing smile on her face.

She saw Spike standing by the door. "Hey Spike." Twilight said. "Thanks again for taking the book home. Now then where did you put it?"

Spike just gave a lazy pointing to her bed. Twilight used her magic to levitate the book, and took her with it. She turned around and said, "Good night Spike. I hope you get plenty of rest, tomorrow is going to be another great day."

She left, and Spike just collapsed onto his bed, to stare at the ceiling once more. 'Another great day of what? Cleaning up and being left behind again?' The baby dragon asked himself.

Spike wanted to be friends with the other ponies, but nopony seemed to notice him at all. He laid in his bed, feeling depressed and lonely. Spike turned to face Luna's moon which was illuminating the room and saw a bright dot near it. He looked to see that it was the first of Luna's stars. He recalled tales of wishing on the first star would make your dreams come true. He never believed them though; they were old mare tales after all. He was desperate for anything to help him though, and closed his eyes.

"I wish I had some friends." Spike wished. He turned around and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Unknown to Spike, outside the library window was a shadowy figure, hearing what Spike said. The figure took off into a nearby alley before being seen and disappeared into the night.

Come one! Come all!

Spike woke up early the next morning and went downstairs to see what needed to be cleaned from Twilight's latest study session. When he reached the lobby, he saw a lot of books that were scattered around like last time, but he did notice that there weren't as many as yesterday. Just as Spike was about to start cleaning, he heard a knock at the door. The baby dragon walked over to the door, wondering who would be at the library so early.

He opened the door to see nopony was there, and thought it was a prank by Pinkie or Rainbow, but he found it strange that they were pulling pranks this early. Spike looked around and noticed a yellow piece of paper on the doorstep, and picked it up to read it. The paper was actually a flier for a new place Spike never heard of before. The flier had a big tent with red and white stripes, and was surrounded by confetti and balloons. There was a message at the bottom of the flier.

COME ONE! COME ALL!
SEE DEATH DEFYING STUNTS, WILD ANIMALS, AND SO MUCH MORE!
SEE THE SHOW ALL OF EQUESTRIA IS TALKING ABOUT!
MARIK'S MARVELOUS CIRCUS OF WONDERS!

Spike felt overjoyed seeing this. He had always wanted to go to a circus, but Twilight always refused to take him. She believed that circuses were a waste of time, and thought studying was more important than going to see a show of, as she put it, "crazy ponies". Spike thought of a way to make Twilight take him, but as he walked he accidentally tripped over a book and remembered he had to clean up the mess.

Just as he was getting back to work he heard Twilight give a big yawn from the stairs. "Spike who was that?" She asked in a very groggy voice.

Spike turned to the lilac unicorn while clutching onto the flyer. "I don't know, I just found this on the ground near the door." Twilight levitated the flyer out of Spike's hands and brought it over to her, she looked at it and shook her head in disapproval. "Come on Twilight, you've never even given the circus a chance at all." Spike whined.

"Spike, you know how I feel about the circus." Twilight said in a stern tone.

"I know Twilight, but you act like circuses are worse than Nightmare Moon."

Twilight was about to say something, but was interrupted by somepony knocking on the door. The unicorn went over and opened the door. She was instantly tackled by a blue blur and felt disoriented. As her eyes, cleared up the lilac unicorn looked to see a rainbow maned pegasus with joy in her eyes. Twilight recognized her instantly as her pegasus friend, Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight, did you get it?" Asked the sky blue pegasus. "Did you get this flyer?"

Twilight saw that each of her friends had a flyer just like the one she and Spike had. She used her magic to push Rainbow off of her, and got up. "Yes, Rainbow, I did." Said Twilight, a bit dazed. "I could care less about the circus though." The ponies let out a gasp upon hearing this.

"What!?" Rainbow shouted in disbelief. "Twilight, you mean to tell us you never went to a circus!?"

Twilight shook her head. "I see no point at all to them. I can't understand how anypony can be entertained by a bunch of ridiculous looking ponies using slapstick jokes and gags that are older than Princess Celestia's ruling."

"Why Twilight, I am appalled at what you are saying." Rarity said. "I will have you know that I have designed several outfits for circuses, and have been given a free show in exchange for my brilliant designs. They are quite entertaining."

Spike was watching Twilight argue with her friends. He suddenly got an idea of how to end this. "Twilight you owe me one remember?"

The six mares stopped arguing amongst each other and turned to look at Spike. "What do you mean I owe you one Spike?" Asked Twilight raising an eyebrow.

"Twilight you said that since I was so busy with cleaning up all the time, you would make it up to me."

"Well yes Spike, but I..."

"But nothing!" The baby dragon shouted cutting Twilight off. "You said you would make it up to me, and I've never been to a circus anyway."

Applejack stepped forward. "Spike. Y'all mean to say that you have never been t'ah circus b'fore?" Spike nodded and felt Applejack slapped him on the back. "Well, y'all are gonna have a great time. It's funner than mud wrasslin' with a hog."

Pinkie bounced around Spike and gave a large smile. "Oh, and the sweets they have there! Caramel apples, cupcakes, and *GASP*...cotton candy! Oh cotton candy is so deliciously superously sweet! I haven't eaten a bad thing of cotton candy yet well except for that time I found some inside the walls of Sugarcube Corner, and I ate some and got sick from it. I mean it was so..."

"PINKIE!" The other ponies and Spike shouted.

"Hey I was just telling you all to not eat any of that cotton candy you find in walls."

"Sorry Pinkie, but you do have a tendency to go on and on." Twilight reassured her pink friend.

"Um, excuse me?" Asked the quiet voice of Fluttershy. Spike turned to face her. "Spike...the circus has wonderful animals like lion and tiger that you should see...um, I mean, if that's okay with you."

Spike finally turned to Twilight, giving her a hopeful smile. "Well, Twilight, can we go?"

The other ponies looked at Twilight with big grins and glittery eyes. Twilight knew she couldn't win and nodded slowly. "Fine, we'll go." Spike and Twilight's friends gave a big cheer upon hearing this. "Hold it!" The lilac unicorn shouted. "We need to know where it is and what time it starts."

Spike looked at the flyer and saw something on the back and looked at it and saw a map and show times. The baby dragon grabbed the flyer and looked at it. "Here it is." He said. "It's going to be outside of Ponyville, near the Whitetail Woods. It's got a show today at four."

Twilight looked at the map on the back and nodded. "Okay then, it's decided. Let's meet back here at two so we can get going." The other ponies each said their goodbyes as they left, leaving Spike and Twilight by themselves.

Spike hugged Twilight and smiled. "Thanks Twilight."

The unicorn hugged him back and smiled. "You're welcome."

For the next few hours Twilight was getting stuff ready for the circus. She was packing saddlebags for stuff to carry and trying to make a plan of what to do. Spike was helping with gathering stuff while lost in his mind. He was not only going to his first circus, but he was going to spend time with the other ponies as well. The baby dragon thought he could finally fit in with the other ponies, and make them his friends. He was so lost in thought that when Twilight taped on his shoulder he jumped a little.

"Come on Spike." She said. "It's time to go now."

Spike finished packing and made his way downstairs to see Twilight's friends down there.

"Y'all ready?" Asked Applejack. The group nodded and Twilight locked up the library before she and the others left for the circus.

Spike and the others made their way to the edge of the Whitetail Woods, and climbed a steep hill. As they got closer, they heard carnival music and a large group of ponies chatting amongst each other. The group climber over a hill to see right at the base of the hill was the circus. They could see a big tent that looked like the one on the flyer, surrounded by a bunch of stands that sold candy apples, cotton candy, popcorn, and more. There we even some stands set up that had games such as water squirt guns that shot into a clown's mouth, apple juice bottles lined up to be knocked down, and they were surrounded by stuffed bears and other animals as prizes. The whole group was amazed by this, Spike especially. They went to the ticket stand, and each pony paid to enter the circus grounds, except for Spike since Twilight paid for his ticket.

Spike looked around and felt speechless as he looked around the various stands and the big top. "So...what should we do first?" He managed to ask.

Twilight pulled out a piece of scroll to read and said, "Well I have a plan, so listen up."

"Oh look cotton candy!" Pinkie shouted jumping for joy. "It's all you can eat as well! Later girls!" The pink mare took off to the cotton candy stands.

"Hey Applejack." Said Rainbow Dash. "They have squirt gun competitions to win prizes. I bet I can win more prizes then you."

Applejack gave Rainbow a sly grin. "Yer on pardner." The two ponies raced off to the game stands.

"Um...Twilight?" Asked Fluttershy. "I'm going to go see the animals here, so um...bye." The yellow pegasus trotted off to the animals. Spike, Twilight and Rarity were the only ones left now.

Rarity broke the silence and said, "Well at least some of us stick by each other and not go off unlike some-WAHAHAHA!"

Twilight and Spike jumped when the white unicorn screamed. "Rarity what's wrong?" Asked the lilac unicorn.

Rarity pointed to a large wooden stage. Twilight and Spike looked to see a large white sign with red writing in it.

MAGICIAN DUELS: SEE UNICORNS TAKE ON EACH OTHER IN TESTS OF MAGIC AND SKILL AGAINST ONE ANOTHER! TOP CHAMPION WINS BIG! VOLUNTEERS WELCOMED!

"Twilight, we must try this out." Said Rarity. "You and I are the best unicorns in Ponyville, and besides we may face each other and see who the best is."

Twilight gave it some thought. "Well...I don't know Rarity. I don't want to boast or showoff my magic like Trixie."

"Nonsense darling." The white unicorn said. "This isn't boasting at all, it's just a little duel to see who is the best in magic. Besides, don't you remember about the Ursa Minor incident? You were saving Ponyville not boasting."

The lilac unicorn smiled upon hearing this. "Thanks Rarity, I was just nervous is all." She then turned to Spike. "Spike, Rarity and I are going to try this out. Why don't you go take a look around the circus and we'll meet you in the big top?"

Spike just looked down at the ground and gave a sad nod. Twilight and Rarity took off, leaving the baby dragon alone again full of sorrow. Spike wandered around the circus grounds aimlessly and didn't care where he was going. He wanted to be with the other ponies, and yet they all just left him by his lonesome once more like yesterday. He looked to see other ponies talking and laughing with each other, angering him. The baby dragon picked up the pace to look for someplace to remain alone. He continued to walk around in what seemed to be like a trance.

"HEY! This is area is for circus employees only!" A voice shouted out.

Spike broke out of his trance, and looked up to see that he was inside a tent. The tent had striped red and white walls, a messy bed with blue comforters over it, and several black tuxedos hanging in a dresser. Next to the dresser was a desk with various makeups on it and a mirror sitting on the desk. He then turned around to see a stallion who was as tall as Big Macintosh, but a little less buffer than him standing near the open tent flap Spike thought he must have walked through. The stallion was an earth pony who had one of the black tuxedos. He had a forest green coat with a curly black mane and tail, yellow eyes and a cutie mark that looked like a circus tent that looked like the one on the flyer.

"What are you doing in here?" Asked the stallion in a serious, but smooth tone.

Spike felt intimidated by the large stallion standing in front of him. "I...I'm Spike." He said nervously. "I was just uh...wandering around the circus. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm sorry...I'll get out of here."

Spike turned around to leave, but felt a hoof placed on his shoulder. He looked up to see the stallion again giving him a warm friendly smile. "I apologize little one." He said in a soft smooth voice. "I didn't mean to scare you, and you seemed very distraught when I saw you enter the tent. What seems to be the problem?"

"Can...can I ask for your name first?" Asked Spike, sounding a little more calm.

"Oh how selfish of me! My name is Marik, the ringmaster of this circus." Said the stallion. "So tell me what troubles you?"

Spike looked up nervously and he saw the same warm smile and caring eyes. He couldn't help but trust him and decided to tell him how he felt the last few days. He told of how he felt abandoned by Twilight and the others, how he was always working and how they just leave him alone and don't seem to care about him. When he finished Spike saw that Marik had a mix of shock and sadness on his face.

"I'm so sorry to hear that little one." Said Marik. "It sounds so terrible and harsh. I know how it feels to be abandoned and lonely, but I have made friends overtime with these circus performers who used to be lonely as well. However, I think I know what to do to help you."

"Uh...what is it?"

Marik trotted to another tent flap with a sign over it saying Performance Area and waved a hoof. "How would you like to meet my friends? I'm sure they would love to see you, especially a baby dragon."

"You...you mean it?" Asked the baby dragon. Marik smiled and nodded. The baby dragon smiled with enthusiasm, and got up to follow Marik through the tent flap.

Birth of the Circus

Spike followed Marik through the tent flap and saw a huge arena. In the arena were some unicycles, some juggling balls, a high wire rope with a net below it, a few animal cages, and some hoops. He also saw three ponies who looked like they were practicing their acts for the upcoming show. One was riding one of the unicycles, and juggling. Another was pulling a rabbit, ribbons, and a flock of butterflies flew out of a hat. The final pony was on the high wire and was walking across it with his front hooves while his rear hooves were in the air.

"Attention everypony!" Shouted Marik. "Please stop practicing, we have a guest with us."

The three performers stopped what they were doing and walked over to the ringmaster. Spike finally got a closer look at the three performers.

The one on the unicycle was an earth pony who had white makeup on his face with a painted on red smile and was wearing a rubber red nose. He was also wearing a polka dotted tuxedo and seemed to have one of those squirt flowers. He had a very poofy orange mane and tail, was on the chubby side, had brown eyes, and he had a teal coat. Spike looked to see that his cutie mark was a mouth open and seemed to be laughing.

The one doing the magic tricks was obviously a unicorn and was wearing a silk white cape with a matching while silk hat to boot. Spike saw that the cape though wasn't covering her cutie mark and saw that it was a black top hat upside down with magical sparks coming out of it. She had a dark blue coat, had the same body build as Twilight, purple eyes, and had a long flat mane and tail that was brown.

The one on the high wire rope was a pegasus who was very skinny, had a spiky green mohawk and spiky mane as well, with blue eyes, and a gray coat. He was only wearing a red headband on him. Spike saw that his cutie mark was a pony on his front hooves with his rear ones in the air doing a split.

"Spike, I want you to meet my friends and performers." Marik said. "This is Larry, the clown pony. He always wanted to bring a smile to other ponies so he is a clown until he can become a comedian."

Larry gave a smug smile and shook Spike's hand with his hoof. "A pleasure to meet you Spike." He said in a thick Manehattan accent.

"Here is our lovely magician, Alexis." Marik said pointing to the unicorn. "She may be a unicorn, but she always wanted to dazzle the audience and be a performer. She can pull many things out of that hat of hers. I keep thinking it's a portal, but she keeps telling me a magician never reveals their secrets."

Alexis blushed, and muttered in a soft voice that was almost on level with Fluttershy's, "Hi there Spike, I'm uh....hoping you're having a great time here."

"Last but not least, this is our most agile of the group, Pierce." Marik said. "He loves doing dangerous stunts, and acrobats. He's a very talented high wire walker and loves living on the edge. He always has his wings tied up so he won't fly and I have seen him walk across that high wire with his front hooves, do a cartwheel across it, and even a unicycle across it with no safety net. He's a legend amongst us."

"Ah cut it out Marik." Pierce said in a deep voice. "You're embarrassing me."

Marik gave a haughty laugh, and slapped Pierce on the back with a loud clopping sound. "Nonsense my friend, you are very talented just like the rest of us." Pierce scratched his head and looked away to try to hide his embarrassment.

"Um...Marik?" Spike asked. "You said that you and your friends know what it feels like to be lonely. Why? It looks like you all have been friends since you first met each other."

All the circus performers and Marik gave a sad smile. The ringmaster stepped forward and placed his right hoof on Spike. "Well, when we were all eight we lost our parents, and we all were at the same orphanage in Fillydelphia." Marik said. "It was such a terrible place; the walls were peeling with old yellow wallpaper, the floors were always dirty, the food was disgusting, there was barely any play equipment, the headmaster was a cruel old stallion, and the beds were as hard as rocks. We were always harassed, picked on, and made fun of all the time. Each one of us was afraid to make friends since we didn't know who to trust at all and it was like that for six long years."

"One day though I saw that Alexis was crying near a tree, and decided to go over to see what was wrong. She told me that one of the unicorns used magic to trap her hat at the top of the tree, and she wasn't skilled enough to get it back. I decided to give her a hoof by hitting the tree with my rear hooves, and after a few tries I got it down. Alexis hugged me, and then Pierce and Larry came over after seeing what I did. They all liked what I did for Alexis. We all talked amongst ourselves, and we each had a lot in common; we lost our parents, had no friends, and were always beaten up. We hung out with one another everyday from that moment on."

"So how did you all get your cutie marks?" Spike asked. "It must've taken you a long time."

Marik chuckled and said, "Actually it didn't take us that long little one. A few days after I became friends with the others, we all discovered that the orphanage was having a talent show and there was to be a special prize. We were all forced to participate and do whatever category we were given. Our category was circus, and we decided who would be what. I was voted to be ringleader and animal tamer since I was always leading the group and had a way with animals. Alexis learned more about magic and how to do tricks, so she became the magician. Larry was always joking around with us with his silly pranks, so he was the clown. Pierce always said he was very flexible, and it was true. He managed to do several back flips while on the ground, and stood on one front hoof, so he made himself the acrobat."

"We practiced what we would do every day until the night of the talent show. I announced in my loudest voice about the greatest show ever in the orphanage, and dazzled them with my ability to tame a stray dog that the headmaster found, and allowed us to use it. I think he was hoping that it would kill us. He put up a big fight, but thanks to my skills I was able to make that dog obedient and lovable in just 2 minutes."

"Alexis was next, and at first she was very nervous, but we managed to convince her to give it her all. She pulled out of her hat not only a bouquet of flowers, but she also pulled out a book, some apples, and so much more. She even sawed me in half, and for her first time she did wonderful. She felt so happy when she saw that the crowd loved her act. Larry came on next in a polka dotted suit, and while his jokes weren't the best he wowed the crowd with his ability to not only ride a unicycle, but juggle at the same time as well."

"Pierce was the last one, and went bigger than all of us. He set up a high wire tight rope on the roof leading to a tree that was as tall as the building. To ensure he wasn't cheating he tied his own wings up, and instead of walking across it normally he used his front hooves to walk across. The crowd was shocked, but when he made it across he received a round of applause that was so loud it could have woken up all of Fillydelphia. Pierce did a huge finale that involved riding a unicycle across the tight rope again. The crowd was once again lost in shock, and when Pierce got across the rope again he received applause and cheers so loud some say that Canterlot thought that Fillydelphia was in danger and sent the Royal Guards to check on the city."

"When the talent show was over we won, but we didn't care about that. We looked on at the cheering crowd and loved how we made others happy. That's when we all saw something glow, and we looked at our flanks to see our cutie marks."

Spike looked in awe, and couldn't believe what he was told. "So how did you all leave the orphanage?"

"I was actually going to get to that." Marik said. "Since we won the talent show, we found out our prize was a field trip to Canterlot with the headmaster. We saw huge historic buildings, artwork that was as beautiful as the sun setting in the mountains, and much more. While there we saw that there was another circus there called Cirque de Equestria. We all snuck away from the headmaster to take a look, and saw it was nothing like out circus act, but the crowd was entertained nonetheless. We decided at that moment that with our skills we could become big and entertain others."

"When we returned to Fillydelphia, we got off the carriage we all let the headmaster in the front gates first. He thought we followed him, but we actually fled down the street and heard him cry out in frustration. Thankfully, he never attempted to track us down, so we decided to join another circus that was located right outside Fillydelphia called Fantastic Fred's Circus. He showed us how to run a circus, and we even got to perform a few times to improve our acts. Sadly though the other performers died in a terrible accident shortly after we joined. We decided to take charge of the circus and continue the legacy of Fred to this day. It has been four years since that incident, and we are still going strong."

When Marik was finished Spike was left in complete awe and he couldn't help but clap at the story and how hard Marik and the others had it. Compared to this, being Twilight's assistant was a cake walk.

"Here you go, a token of our friendship and thanks for listening." Larry said handing Spike a red flower.

Spike took a whiff of the flower and smelt a sweet fragrance. All of a sudden, his nose felt like it was burning, and scratched it. Before Spike could react, he let out a huge sneeze and his mouth spewed out a huge column of green fire that went across the large arena, and caught every pony off guard.

Spike's eyes were wide, and felt himself blushing from embarrassment. "I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that!"

Instead of being yelled or lectured, Spike heard some clapping and looked to see Marik was applauding with the others.

"Spike, that was amazing! You never told us you could do that!" Marik said happily.

Spike felt embarrassed, but felt proud as well. "Well I am a dragon after all, of course I can do that."

"You don't understand Spike." The green stallion said. "You're a baby dragon, but you already can do stuff like that and you aren't even a young adult. You have a special gift for this, and a wonderful talent."

Spike couldn't believe what he was hearing. He not only made new friends, but he was being praised for a talent he had. He felt a balloon swell up in his heart.

"I have an idea Spike." Marik said. "The show starts in another hour, so how would you like to practice your fire breathing skills, and join us in the show?"

Spike's jaw dropped to what he heard. He was going to be part of the show. "Are you serious?" The ringmaster gave a nod. "I'll do it!" The baby dragon yelled happily. Every pony cheered and chanted Spike's name. That baby dragon couldn't help but blush again.

"Come on everypony." Marik interjected. "We need to practice and get ready. Spike come with me so we can get you ready for your act."

Spike nodded and went off with Marik while the others went to practice their acts. "So what do I do?"

"Give me a few minutes please." Marik responded. The ringamster went over to a part of the arena and set up some logs standing up straight, each column had ten logs each and there were ten rows of them. When he was done Marik went back to Spike to instruct him.

"What you need to do is you burn these logs with your fire breath like you did before, understand?" Marik asked Spike.

The baby dragon looked down crestfallen, and muttered something to Marik.

"Speak up, my friend, I couldn't hear you."

Spike then blurted out, "I haven't really learned how to shoot my flames out like that yet. That sneeze I did was the only way for me to do that." He looked up expecting a disappointed face, but instead saw the same gentle smile from the ringmaster.

"I would have thought with what you did earlier you were already an expert." Marik said. "You have so much potential and you never got a chance to use it?"

Spike nodded sadly and said, "I was always taught by Twilight to never do anything like that at all. She would always scold me for doing that and told me to use my fire breathing for delivering messages only."

Marik frowned upon hearing this. "Your friend may think this is right for you, but for her to suppress such a skill as you have is a terrible waste of talent. There is one way though for you to do what you did earlier though."

Spike looked in to anticipation. "Well what is it?"

"You must let the flames build up in you and then let it all out."

Spike thought this over for a minute. One part of him said it was wrong to use his skill like that, but another side said that he was always being repressed by Twilight. Spike then remembered what happened to him when the others left him by himself, and felt a surge of anger at them. Disregarding his conscious, the baby dragon made his decision.

"Okay Marik, I'll do it." Spike responded.

"Very well then Spike." The ringmaster said with a small smile. "The best way to use your power is to let it build up in you, and then when you feel you can't handle it anymore you let it out."

Spike nodded and decided to give it a shot. He pretended like he was going to deliver a letter to Princess Celestia, but instead of the flames coming out after a few seconds he let the flame in him build up. Spike felt some sort of fire burn inside his chest, and felt sick. He tried to hold on for it as long as he could, but the longer he did, the more pain he felt. He couldn't take it anymore, and spewed out a huge column of fire at a row of logs.

Spike turned to see Marik giving a smile. "Very good Spike now just do what you did too the other columns of logs."

Spike gave a nod, and concentrated hard. He not only burned one column of logs, but he was quickly learning how to keep the spark going by arcing the flames to burn all the other rows as well. When he was done, he saw Marik coming over and smiling.

"You have done very well my friend." He told Spike.

Suddenly a bell rang out and an announcement went through a speaker. "FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" A voice Spike heard and recognized as Pierce's. "OUR BIG TOP SHOW IS GOING TO START IN FIVE MINUTES. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO YOUR SEATS AND ENJOY MARIK'S MARVELOUS CIRCUS OF WONDERS!"

Marik looked at Spike again. "You've done a great job Spike. I've never seen such improvement in so little time. Tonight, I want you to give it your all for the audience, understand?"

Spike nodded and was escorted to the area where Spike first met Marik. He went in to see the other performers stretching and warming up. Larry was putting on some new powder white makeup, Pierce was stretching his limbs, and Alexis was looking at some rope and locks on a table. As he looked on, Spike started to hear a crowd growing out in there performance area that got louder with each passing minute. The baby dragon felt a little intimidated and shaken in fear that he may fail.

"You're going to do great Spike." A voice suddenly said.

Spike turned to see that it was Larry, and the others were standing behind him as well.

"Don't sweat it." Said Pierce confidently. "Everypony gets stage fright on their first time performing, but I know you'll make it."

"You can do it." Said the soft voice of Alexis. "We'll be here to support you all the way."

Spike nodded and said, "Thanks...all of you." He looked back at the entrance to the arena and felt his confidence soar as he was ready to go out there.

A Friendship in Flames

Twilight and her friends made their way through the seemingly endless crowd of ponies to grab some seats. They somehow managed to get front row seats that was in the middle of the performance ring. Each one of the ponies had something with them from their time on the circus grounds. Pinkie Pie had a tower of cotton candy on a stick that was as tall as her, and she was covered in its sticky goo that nearly blended into her coat. Applejack and Rainbow Dash each had two huge stuffed bears, a huge ten gallon cowboy hat with an arrow through it on them, and a small stuffed dragon. Fluttershy had bought a hat with a lion that was smiling on it. Rarity had a small silver medal on her that read CHAMPION OF MAGIC - RUNNER-UP. Twilight had a small gold medal that read CHAMPION OF MAGIC.

"Ah see y'all had yer fun as well." Applejack said to her friends. "Ah was gonna win against Rainbow if it wasn't fer that darn announcer ruinin' mah chance."

"What?! I was about to clean your clock in that last game!" Rainbow shot back. "You just got lucky in the nick of time." Applejack just gave a small smirk and elbowed Rainbow, and Rainbow elbowed her back.

"Oh, you girls should have been with me!" Shouted Pinkie in her usual upbeat manner. "You all missed the greatest most sweetest cotton candy ever! It was the sweetest sugary treat ever! Well except for Mr. and Mrs. Cake's seven layer strawberry and chocolate cake. I mean really there's nothing sweeter than that!"

Pinkie's friends smiled and then Fluttershy spoke up a little louder than her usual soft voice, "Well I had such a wonderful time. I saw some chimps do tricks like juggling a few pins around, and then heard some birds sing the Anthem of Equestria. I bought this hat over at the gift shop they had. That lion looks so cute."

"Well, Twilight and I were competing in a battle of wills, per say." Rarity said. "We competed against 20 other unicorns from not only in Ponyville, but some from Canterlot as well to become the Champion of Magic. All we had to do was levitate as many items as possible, transform various items into other items such as a stick to a quill, hatch a bird egg, and be able to create an energy beam between each other and see who could hold out the longest. It was simplistic enough to take care of the other unicorns, but when I came face to face with Twilight it was a complete stalemate."

"We each levitated fifty items, we were perfect in transforming items, we were both able to hatch our eggs, and we were in a dead heat over the energy beam battle. It went on for twenty minutes before I started feeling woozy and collapsed from exhaustion. While I am sad that I wasn't victorious, I congratulated Twilight on winning." Rarity and the others clapped with their fore hooves and congratulated Twilight for her victory.

Twilight couldn't help but smile a little. "Well it wasn't easy." Said the lilac unicorn. "I was taught by Princess Celestia to conserve my magic in case of a dire emergency. If Rarity held on for a few more minutes, I would've collapsed and she would've won."

Rarity smiled at her friend. "Thank you Twilight you are very courteous."

"So did y'all win anythin' aside from those shiny medals?" Asked Applejack.

Twilight nodded and pulled out seven white passes with a circus tent that looked like the one on the circus' flyer. "Well, I actually won us seven passes to meet the performers after the show. They said that the ringmaster saw us and decided to give me plenty of extras for my friends." Twilight's friends cheered upon hearing this.

"Hey there are only six of us here." Pinkie said. "Who's getting the seventh pass?"

The other ponies looked upon each other looking puzzled and shrugged. Just then the lights dimmed and a pegasus at the top of the tent uncovered a canister that had fireflies in it and was sealed in by glass, and it shined in the middle of the big top floor. Twilight and the others then saw a forest green earth pony stallion with a black tuxedo standing near a megaphone in the spotlight.

"FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" The stallion said in a loud booming voice. "FOALS OF ALL AGES! WELCOME TO MARIK'S MARVELOUS CIRCUS OF WONDERS!" The crowd cheered and applauded wildly for minute before it got quite again. "TODAY, WE NOT ONLY PUT ON A SPECTACULAR SHOW FOR EVERY PONY OUT THERE, BUT WE ALSO HAVE A SURPRISE GUEST WITH US WHO WILL PERFORM WITH US!"

The crowd gasped at this, and murmured amongst each other wondering who it was.

The ringmaster waited for the crowd to settle down before continuing. "BUT THAT WILL BE LATER ON, SO FOR NOW ENJOY THE SHOW! FIRST UP IS ME, YOUR RINGMASTER AND AN EXPERT ANIMAL TAMER, MARIK!"

The crowd looked in awe at first, but then let out a cheer. Twilight was looking at the ringmaster with a suspicious look and thought she had seen him before.

"Somethin' wrong sugarcube?" Applejack asked with a concerned look on her face.

Twilight snapped out of her thought and looked at the orange pony. "No...nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to get a closer look is all." The lilac unicorn responded nervously.

Applejack raised an eyebrow while Twilight gave a forced smile. "Alrighty then pardner, if ya say so." The farmer pony said in a suspicious tone.

Twilight breathed a small sigh of relief and then looked back to Marik.

Marik stepped into a huge cage that and in it was a huge golden yellow lion that was growling at him. He picked up a whip with his mouth, and cracked it at the lion's paws causing it to stop roaring and to stand on its two hind legs. A few stage hooves came out with five hoops that were as tall as the ringmaster himself. Marik turned to the lion, and whipped at the floor again. The lion acted on instinct and jumped through all the hoops. The stage hooves once again came out, and this time they lit rings on fire, causing everypony to gasp. Marik once again whipped near the lion's paws and he jumped through all five again with no burn marks on him.

The crowd let out a huge applause, but Marik raised his left hoof to indicate that it wasn't over yet. He dropped his whip and charged forward with a smirk on his face. The lion growled at him, and jumped at him causing a lot of the audience to scream. Marik dodged the jump, and tackled the lion's rear legs, causing the large beast to lose balance and fall forward. The lion got back up and swiped his claws at Marik. The ringmaster dodged them easily, and started running around the lion. The lion spun like crazy to catch up with his target and soon found himself feeling dizzy and eventually collapsed. Marik then took a lasso and tied up the lion's legs and took a bow.

The crowd cheered for a little bit, and Marik raised his hoof once more and went to untie the lion. He took his whip in his mouth again, and cracked it at the lion's feet again. The beast went from feeling a little dazed to looking alert once more. Marik went up to the lion to pry open his mouth, and then put himself in the lion's mouth causing a huge gasp from the audience. Marik stayed there for five minutes before he got out, and then with one more crack of his whip he caused the lion to clap with his front paws, and Marik took a bow. The entire audience was amazed as to what happened, and cheered for a few minutes.

"Hoo wee, that was close." Said Applejack.

"I just hope that poor lion is okay." Fluttershy said in a concerned tone.

"Ah don't worry Fluttershy." Rainbow told her. "They practice this stuff a lot, and the lion looked fine."

Marik then stepped out of the cage and went back to the center of the ring. "NOW THEN!" He shouted once more. "OUR NEXT PERFORMER IS A VERY TALENTED MAGICAL UNICORN! PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE ONE AND ONLY, ALEXIS!"

The audience applauded once more as the spotlight moved and shinned on a small wooden stage and there stood the dark blue unicorn in her white cap and hat. A stage hand pushed out a table full of props that had dishes, long sticks, and some rope. Alexis started by taking her hat off using her levitation, and then said a few words.

"flores ad me."

Suddenly, out came a bouquet of flowers that exploded and sent the petals whizzing through the air and near the audience. Alexis next pulled out a flock of blue jays and watch them fly off, a bag full of apples, a cake, and even one of the large stuffed bears. When the audience was done cheering she said a new incantation.

"atrox tempestas fulmina." She said and then all of a sudden thick black clouds were in the big top.

A crack of lightning ripped through the clouds causing the crowd to scream in terror. Alexis gave a calm smile, and her horn glowed and created lightning bolts that danced across the sky. The crowd slowly stopped screaming and watched as the lightning went across the clouds in amazement. There were even some bolts that made shapes such as the sun, a crescent moon, a tree, and even a puppy.

Alexis then said in her quiet calm voice, "tempestatem profectus est."

The storm broke apart and then she turned to the dishes and sticks and started levitating them. She put all the dishes on sticks and spun them on the sticks. The sticks levitated toward the audience and floated across the crowd going up and down in the sky. The unicorn magician's horn glowed brightly and all the plates and sticks exploded in a radiant violet color and rained upon the audience. A stage hand then pushed out a huge glass rectangle and it was full of water. Alexis levitated the ropes and tied herself tightly. Two stage hooves came over, and placed some equipment on Alexis. One put a black bracelet with a lock on it on her horn, and then both lifted her into the glass rectangle and sealed her in it. The crowd looked in awe as to how she was going to get out.

"NOW EVERY PONY!" Shouted Marik. "WATCH AS ALEXIS ESCAPES FROM THIS GLASS CONTAINER WITHOUT MAGIC! THAT BRACELET THERE WILL NULLIFY HER ABILITY TO USE MAGIC!"

Alexis seemed calm in the water, and showed no concern at all. Her hoofs were tied together as well as her hind legs. Slowly though Alexis was wiggling her way out of the ropes, and in three minutes she escaped the ropes, and popped up out of the top of the glass where she heard a huge applause from the crowd. Alexis got out and bowed.

"My goodness, that certainly was a fright." Said Rarity. The others nodded in agreement and were in shock to see what happened.

The spotlight went back to the center again to Marik. "FOR OUR NEXT ACT!" He shouted. "THIS PONY WILL PUT THE FUN BACK IN FUNNY! LET'S GIVE A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR OUR OWN LARRY THE CLOWN PONY!"

The crowd cheered and Larry came out and slipped on a banana peel causing him to slip and slide across the ring and into one of the tent poles. The crowd laughed at this and Larry got up and went to a large red ball and hopped up on it. He at first slipped off it on purpose and got some laughs, but eventually he balanced himself on the ball, and walked around on it. A few stage hands then tossed a few wooden pins at the clown and caught them with his front hoofs and started juggling them. He went on with this for a few minutes before tossing the pins aside and jumping off doing a back flip and landing in a tub of whipped cream. He popped up with a huge beard made of whipped cream and the crowd once again laughed at this. Larry went over a unicycle and hoped on it. He rode across the ring for a few minutes. Several stage hooves then came out and threw pies at Larry, but every one of them didn't even come close to the clown.

"Ha!" Shouted Larry as he continued to ride his unicycle. "You missed me!"

Larry accidentally though rode his unicycle into a small wall surrounding the ring and fell over into a huge whipped cream pie. The crowd gave out a huge laugh and the teal coated colt bowed to the audience.

"Oh my gosh!" Pinkie shouted. "I've never seen a pie that big before. I've seen plenty of pies, but wow was that huge! I mean have you ev-mmhhff." Pinkie was cut off by Twilight placing a hoof on her mouth.

Marik once again took center ring to announce his next performance. "I HOPE YOU ALL ARE READY FOR SOME HIGH WIRE STUNTS! OUR NEXT PERFORMER JUST LOVES LIVING ON THE EDGE, SO HERE'S PIERCE!"

The spotlight shinned on the top of one of the tent and there was the gray pegasus with his wings tied. Pierce began walking across it normally with all four hooves on the wire, but he soon raised his hind legs in the air, and walked with his two front hooves only across the high wire. The crowd looked with wide eyes, wondering would happen. Pierce made it across and received a big cheer from the crowd far below.

He then surprised the audience by taking a unicycle a stage hoof handed him, and rode across the high wire rope very slowly across back to where he started. Some of the audience screamed in suspense and looked on to the pegasus. Pierce made it across and received another loud cheer and applause. Pierce went then to go across the wire with the unicycle while balancing two plates on his rear hooves. It seemed to take forever, but Pierce got through it again and went back again across the wire. All of a sudden Pierce slipped and fell off the wire causing the entire audience to scream in terror. Pierce though just smiled and grabbed the wire with his teeth and did circled forward to and then let go of the wire and then landed back on top of the wire and made his way back across.

The crowd exploded into applause and gave a huge cheer that shook some of the Whitetail Wood trees. Pierce bowed and a stage hoof removed the rope around his wings and he flew down. Twilight and her friends were overjoyed byover the last performance.

"Oh my gosh! That was twenty percent cooler than any stunt I've ever done!" Shouted Rainbow Dash.

"That was crazier than a stampede of cows!" Applejack shouted.

Fluttershy was so busy cheering that none of the other ponies have ever seen her do since the Cloudsdale Best Young Flyers Competition.

"That was simply magnificent if I do say so myself." Said Rarity.

"Wowie Zowie! my mind may have exploded twice over what I just saw!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

Twilight was just amazed and speechless as to what she saw. All those years she felt circuses were just wastes of time and were boring were pushed out, and she realized what Spike and the others said was true. Twilight then had a look of panic on her when she remembered Spike.

"GIRLS!" Twilight yelled in a terrified voice. "SPIKE! WE FORGOT HIM!"

The girls' looks of happiness changed to looks of fear and panic, and scrambled to leave to find the baby dragon.

"MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE EVERYPONY?" Asked the voice of Marik.

The crowd settled down and Twilight and the others were trying to leave the stands, but were listening to the announcement as well.

"WE HAVE SEEN PLENTY OF PERFORMERS TODAY!" Marik shouted. "HOWEVER IT'S NOW TIME FOR OUT SPECIAL GUEST. A YOUNG DRAGON WHO MAY BE SMALL, BUT HAS SOME SERIOUS FIRE POWER, SO PLEASE GIVE IT UP FOR SPIKE!"

Twilight and the others stopped over hearing this. "WHAT?!?" They all yelled in disbelief.

"He can't be talkin' 'bout our Spike right sugarcube?" Asked Applejack.

Applejack's question was soon answered as Spike came out with a nervous smile, and looked everywhere. The crowd cheered and applauded wildly. Spike went over to the center ring and some stage hands were setting up four rows logs like in practice.

"SPIKE HERE IS GOING TO BURN ALL THESE LOGS USING HIS FIRE BREATH!" Yelled Marik. "THEN HE WILL PERFORM A REAL LIGHT SHOW FOR YOU ALL!"

Marik went over to Spike and whispered something to him. "Do your best my friend." The ringmaster said in a reassuring voice. "I also want you to do a flame fountain. It's where a dragon shoots his flames in the air, and it creates a fountain."

"But...what if I mess up?" Spike asked hesitantly.

Marik smiled warmly at the baby dragon. "You can do it, I know you can. You have a special talent and everything will be okay." He walked away from the dragon and stood to the side.

Spike looked around to see all the ponies were looking at him with small smiles. He felt his knees shake a little, and was on the verge of fainting. Gulping a little, he went over to the row of logs. He took a large inhale of breath, and concentrated hard on holding the flame in him. He let out a long green flame after a couple of seconds, and was able to hit all four rows of logs. The crowd cheered as to what they saw and clapped a little. Spike saw some logs were place on some towering sticks, and with another inhale he breathed out a long flame and hit all the logs in one clean sweep. The crowd once again cheered, but even harder. The baby dragon continued to hit targets that made shapes such as a muffin, an apple, and even a phoenix. The crowd cheered at this and then Spike prepared himself to do the flame fountain.

He faced up at the roof and gave a huge inhale to let the flames build up in him, and then let out a billowing green fire tower that almost hit the high wire rope and the flames spread out. The crowd watched in awe as the baby dragon continued his act and saw that some of the embers were raining down on them, but they weren't hurt by them at all. After a few minutes, Spike let the tower die down and caught his breath. He felt himself sweating and looked like he ran at the Running of the Leaves five times in one day.

The crowd exploded into a cheer that was louder than any of the other ones that they have given tonight. In the stands Twilight and her friends were not only cheering harder than any other ponies in the audience, but were speechless as well as to what Spike did. Spike felt tears of joy build up in him, and had a huge grin on his face. He hadn't felt this happy since the day he met Rarity. Spike saw the performers line up with him and they all gave a bow.

Marik stepped forward and spoke into the megaphone. "WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR SHOW! WE THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING AND HAVE A NICE EVENING!"

The crowd left slowly, but Twilight and the others were running as fast as they could to see Spike. Spike and the other performers made their way back to the ringmaster's office, and were congratulating each other for their acts.

"You gave me a scare there Pierce with that stunt you did." Said Larry as he drank some cider.

Pierce gave a wide grin and slapped him on the back with his hoof. "Well at least I don't have pie on me, again."

Spike laughed along with the others at this, but then felt a hoof tap his shoulder. He looked to see Marik smiling. "My friend, you were magnificent tonight. You really are a special dragon. You've really proven yourself here tonight."

"What do you mean?" Asked Spike.

"Spike...how would you like to join us?" Marik asked. "With a talent such as yours, you could become a star."

The others nodded in agreement, and Spike was awestruck by what he was told. A chance to make a name for himself and would make Twilight proud. At the though of Twilight, he felt sort of guilty. He was wondering what Twilight and the others would say. Would they still be his friend? His face sulked into a frown.

"What's wrong Spike?" Alexis asked.

"Well...it's just that I don't know how my friends would react when they find out about this."

"Spike we are your friends." Marik said. "Surely after what you told me about them you still consider them friends?"

Spike's mind felt conflicted. What Marik was saying was true, they did leave him by himself. However, a part of him felt he should be with Twilight and the others as well. "Well I..."

"SPIKE!" A group of voices yelled.

Spike turned to see Twilight and the others there with a smile on their faces.

The baby dragon ran over and hugged Twilight. "What are you all doing here?"

Twilight pulled out the backstage passes from her saddlebag. "I won these in a competition. We saw what you did tonight, and we're so proud of you."

"Thanks Twilight!" He turned to Marik and the other performers. "Hey guys, these are my friends!" The four performers bowed, and his other friends bowed in return.

"You were so awesome, Pierce. That stunt you did was amazing!" Said Rainbow Dash.

"Aww it was nothing. I've been wanting to do that for a while." Said the gray stallion with a smile.

"Miss Alexis." Rarity said. "That magic act was simply divine and it was marvelous." Alexis blushed and gave a small smile.

"Oh, I have to know where you got that super duper big pie Larry! I've never seen one that big before!" Exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a grin.

Larry gave a smile and said, "We just have our chefs make a huge pie crust, and make whipped cream is all."

Marik then stepped forward. "Greetings to all of you, I hope you enjoyed the show. I was just discussing about my new star here, Spike."

Twilight and the others gasped at this. "Spike what's going on here?" Asked the lilac unicorn.

The young dragon smiled and said, "I've been offered a chance to be here, and perform Twilight. I can showcase my talent and become a star."

The ponies looked in shock and disbelief. "Spike, you're my assistant and friend. Please tell me you aren't going to go for it are you?" Twilight asked with a slight tone of concern in her voice.

Spike looked at her friends and saw that they each had the passes over their head, but Twilight had two of them. "Hey Twilight why do you have two of those passes?"

"Oh, well we had an extra one." Twilight said sounding a little nervous. "The judges gave me extra ones for my friends, but I uh...was just going to give it to you."

Twilight was hoping her assistant would buy the lie, but Spike was looking at Twilight with a bit of an angry look. "It's not true is it?" Asked Spike bitterly. "If you wanted to give it to me, then why didn't you look for me?"

Twilight was paralyzed with fear. She never saw the baby dragon this angry before in her life, but she figured if she told the truth and apologize it would be okay. "Well Spike...you see, the thing is that well...we accidentally got lost in all the fun and just...forgot about you."

Spike was stunned and in disbelief from what he heard. He felt his anger growing even more. "You forgot me? How could you do this to me?"

"Spike it was an accident." Said Twilight. "We do care about you...a lot. We just..."

"You liars!" Spike yelled at them.

Spike was beyond furious he couldn't believe what he heard, but it was the truth. None of them cared about him at all. He was left forgotten while his friends were out having fun. It was too much for Spike to contain, and felt like a huge volcano exploded in him twice. He looked at the ponies and gave them a look that may have been worse than Fluttershy's stare. Twilight and the others felt paralyzed, and had gone pale.

"So this is it then!?" Spike yelled at them and with each word increasing anger grew in his voice. "After all I did, this is how I'm still treated!?"

The girls were shaking in their knees and were left speechless. "Am I just going to be that dragon who cleans up every pony's mess or run around doing nothing but chores!? Is that it!?" Spike angrily asked.

"S...Spike, please we do care." Said Twilight in a very timid voice.

"Lies again!" Spike yelled. "If you care so much how come I'm always left behind while you all have fun and I work!?"

Applejack came forward to calm the dragon down. "Sugarcube, we never left ya behind. Y'all were never left out..."

Spike couldn't contain his anger and frustration anymore. "YOU LIE! NONE OF YOU CARE ABOUT ME AT ALL AND JUST USE ME FOR LABOR!" He snapped at them. "WHO WAS FORCED TO STAY HOME FROM THE CLOUDSDALE FLYING COMPETITION WHILE HAVING TO CLEAN UP THE ENTIRE LIBRARY FROM A MESS A CERTAIN UNICORN MADE?!" He shot a glare at Twilight, who was looking down at the floor and was shaking with fear.

"WHO ALWAYS CLEANS UP EVERY PONY'S MESS!? IT'S ME! WHO WAS LEFT OUT OF GUMMY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!? WHO WAS LEFT ABANDONED AT THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA AND WOUND UP AT PONY JOE'S!? WHO NEARLY DROWNED AND FROZE TO DEATH AT THE END OF WINTER WRAP UP WHILE SOME CERTAIN PONIES WERE LAUGHING AT ME!? WHO IS ALWAYS CLEANING UP MESSES FROM ALL NIGHT STUDYING!? WHO WAS LEFT BEHIND TO TAKE A BOOK HOME WHEN I REALLY WANTED TO BE WITH YOU ALL!? ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!"

Applejack's jaw dropped and stepped back a little. Fluttershy was behind the farmer pony and was shaking violently. Rarity was at a loss for words and felt tears build up in her. Rainbow's eyes were bulging out, and felt her wings shaking a little. Even Pinkie realized the seriousness of the situation and looked down frowing.

"NOW I'VE BEEN TOLD I WAS FORGOTTEN BY ALL OF YOU!" The baby dragon yelled. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH! IF THIS IS HOW I WILL BE TREATED THEN IT'S OVER! I DON'T WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ANY OF YOU!"

The ponies gasped at this, and Twilight tried to walk over to comfort Spike. "Spike please we..."

Before they could react, Spike inhaled and shot a line of green fire across the floor that scared the six ponies and separated him from his former friends. He looked past the billowing flames and looked at Twilight and the others with a cold glare. "I don't need you Twilight...I don't need any of you." He said bitterly. "I'm not going back with you...these are my real friends. Now go away and leave me alone."

Twilight's mind went blank on her. She didn't know what to do, and tried to think of something to say, but couldn't find the words.

"You heard him." Marik said breaking the silence. "Please leave us now, or we'll get the staff to show you out."

Twilight and the others looked at Spike one more time, but he turned his back and refused to look at them. The ponies looked at the performers who had stern looks on them. Realizing they were beaten and shocked from what happened, they took their leave and left Spike and his new friends alone.

Twilight and the others made their way outside the circus entrance, and up the hill overlooking the grounds. They were all still shaken by Spike's outburst and none of them could find a word to break the silence. Twilight was taking it the hardest. She felt like she lost her brother and recalled all those things that Spike said to her and the others about him being abandoned. The realization cut her right to the core and knew what Spike said was true. She scolded herself for what she did to her friend, and felt tears streaming down her face. She blamed herself for what happened and for not knowing about how Spike felt until it was too late. She thought of those performers that would be Spike's new friends and family. Suddenly something clicked in Twilight's mind when she saw that image of the ringmaster. She thought that he looked familiar, and had a dark realization.

"Twi, we aren't going to leave him here are we?" Rainbow Dash asked breaking the silence.

Twilight was still shaken up over what happened, but shook her head and said, "No...there's something wrong here with this circus. I got a closer at ringmaster, and he...looked like somepony I've read about before."

"So hold on a minute here." Applejack said to Twilight. "Y'all mean t'tell us that you know that stallion there?"

The five ponies looked at Twilight with a worried look on their faces.

"No...but I have read about him before." Said Twilight. "Spike may be in danger though, and we need to let the princess know."

"How darling?" Rarity asked. "Spike was your only way of communicating with the princess, and none of us are fast enough to send a message to her."

"Hey, I can get there in ten seconds flat....well not ten seconds, but I can get there before you know it." Said Rainbow Dash. "I'll go to Canterlot and get Princess Celestia. What do you need from her?"

Twilight summoned a scroll, quill, and ink and wrote something. "Here take this to Celestia, and be quick about it." She rolled up the scroll and handed it to the sky blue pegasus.

"I'm on it!" Said Rainbow and gave a salute. She turned around and rocketed towards Canterlot.

"Twilight, is Spike going to be okay?" Pinkie asked sounding a little worried.

Twilight patted her friend on the back. "He's got to be Pinkie, and if he's in any danger we'll be there." Twilight looked back at the circus tent and shed a tear. "Spike, for all our sake, I hope you'll be safe."

Author's Notes

Translation words

flores ad me = flowers to me
atrox tempestas fulmina = fierce lightning storm
tempestatem profectus est = storm be gone

Revelations

Alexis levitated a bucket of water out and put out the flames Spike created. He looked down at the floor feeling remorse for what he just did. "I'm sorry about that Marik." Said the baby dragon. "I didn't mean to do something like that in your office."

"It's okay Spike." The ringmaster said coldly. "They didn't deserve you anyway. You made the right choice."

"Don't worry about it Spike." Said Pierce in a cold tone as well. "After what they did to you, you're better off with us."

"You deserved better friends then them, that's for sure." Said Larry bitterly.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Spike." Said Alexis in an icy tone.

Spike was wondering why everyone seemed so cold all of a sudden. The baby dragon never saw them like this. He thought that they were disgusted as to how Twilight and the others treated him and were trying to make him better. He quickly put his worries behind him and smiled a little.

"Now that you are one of us." Said Marik in his calm soothing voice. "You will be staying in a cabin wagon like the rest of us. Come, I shall take you there."

Spike went over to Marik and left the tent to the cabin wagons. The ringmaster and dragon passed by the stands that were now closed with a few employees cleaning up the mess on the ground. Spike was shown five cabin wagons that were blue with golden yellow trimming on the outside. When he went into the cabin, he saw that the interior had a bed the size of Twilight's at the library with a red comforter on it and a huge blue pillow, a small closet meant to hold clothing and other props for the shows, two windows that had Princess Luna's moon moonlight shining through them, blue walls like the ones outside the cabin, and a desk that had a clock on it that ticked quietly.

"Welcome home Spike." Said Marik. "Please make yourself comfortable. I want you to see me in an hour at my office so we can discuss how to improve your act. I need to do some paperwork."

Spike nodded and watched the ringmaster left and shut the door leaving Spike to look around his new home. It felt like a dream come true for Spike he not only made new friends, but was now a performer and a star. Spike decided to lie on his bed and it felt like sleeping on a cloud. The blankets were silky and the pillow felt so soft Spike thought he would fall asleep instantly. For a while Spike looked out the window and took in his new life. He felt pleased and satisfied, but a part of him made him feel guilty about what he did.

'Stop thinking about them.' Spike told himself. 'After what they did to me, they deserved it.'

He looked out the window to see a cloud passing over the moon. It looked like a unicorn and reminded him of the tale of the Mare in the Moon. All of a sudden he saw Twilight's face in his mind, and jumped. He felt his heart race a little and shook his head.

"No." Spike said to himself. "They aren't my friends anymore. They never were."

Spike decided to leave the cabin to get some fresh air. The warm summer night air helped relax him, and Spike looked around the grounds passing various stands. He looked to see one stand had a lone caramel apple on it.

'YEE HAW!' The southern voice of Applejack shouted in Spike's mind. The baby dragon took the caramel apple and threw it into a trashcan in panic.

Spike shook his head and continued to move on. He passed a snow cone stand that had a rainbow on the top of the sign. He suddenly imagined Rainbow whizzing past him as she did a stunt. He looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched.

Spike began to feel frustrated, started to walk faster. He made his way to where the animals were, and saw a cage of birds. The image gave Spike a vision of when he first saw Fluttershy practicing with the birds for the music for the Summer Sun Celebration.

Spike grew angry and ran out of the animal area without looking where he was going. He was so frustrated, that he accidentally ran into a one of the stands. Spike groaned while getting up and saw that the stand sold balloons and the sign had three balloons. Two of the balloons were blue, and one was yellow. The image caused the baby dragon to see Pinkie Pie in his head for a few seconds. He looked in panic expecting her to pop up out of nowhere.

"Why can't I get then out of my head!?" Spike cried out. "Why do I keep seeing them!? They aren't my friends!"

Spike ran off back to the cabins to shut himself off and tripped over something. He got up and picked up the item to see it was a big white diamond shaped jewel that must have fallen off one of the costumes. Just as he was about to eat it he saw Rarity in his mind, and he dropped the gem. Spike put his hands on his head and let out a cry of frustration and sadness for a for a few seconds. He then hung his head and felt remorseful for what he did.

"Maybe...maybe I was too harsh on them." Said the baby dragon. "I mean they weren't the best friends ever, but I think I went too far. I need to go talk to Marik now." He got up and made his way to the ringmaster's office.

Twilight and the others sat outside the Whitetail Woods waiting for Rainbow Dash to return. They all trotted around nervously and looked around for the sky blue pegasus.

"How long d'ya think she'll take?" Asked Applejack.

"Hopefully not much lon..." Twilight was interrupted by a gust of wind. She looked to see Rainbow had returned with a scroll.

"Hey, I...I'm back." Rainbow said in between breathes. She dropped the scroll and Twilight levitated to the middle of the group. She slowly unrolled the scroll and they began reading it.

Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,

I regret to inform you that the group of ponies in which you have described is indeed a group of wanted criminals. I have included with this letter the Wanted Poster that has their physical description and full names.

Your Mentor- Princess Celestia of Equestria

The group took a collective gasp and galloped towards the circus tent.

'I hope we're not too late.' Twilight thought to herself.

Spike ran to the ringmaster's office and even though he was too early for the meeting he needed to talk to him now. "Marik?" Spike asked when he stepped into the tent. "Can I talk to you please?" He heard no response and looked to see that the office was empty. "Marik? Where are you?"

He went over to the ringmaster's desk and saw something that caught his eye. There were several pictures of animals like the lion that performed earlier, a monkey that was hanging from a tree branch, and some birds like the ones he saw in the cage. Each one had a red X through these pictures.

In the middle of the desk was a picture of Ponyville and there was somepony walking in the streets. Spike looked closely and saw that it was him dragging Twilight's book home and the picture had a big red circle around it. The dragon then noticed a piece of paper with a red X and red circle on it with words written on it. He read the paper: RED X = TERMINATE AND SKIN. RED CIRCLE = CAPTURED. Spike looked in horror and panicked. He tried to leave the tent and head for Ponyville, but then he was hit with something on the back if his head and fell unconscious.

Spike groaned and opened his eyes. Everything looked so blurry, and it was very dim. The dragon looked to see that he could barely see in the distance some seats, and realized he was in the performing arena. He tried to move, but found that he was tied to a wooden table by four steel clamps.

"Hello Spike." A cold menacing voice said. "I'm glad you made it to my office on time."

Spike looked to see that Marik stepping out of the shadows, but instead of the usual gentle smile he gave he had a smug smile with his eyes glaring. The other performers stepped out as well, each with a cold look on their faces.

"What's going on here?" Asked Spike in a nervous voice.

"Why Spike," Said Marik. "We just wanted to help with your last performance."

Spike looked nervously as every one of his new friends looked at him with a maniacal smile on their faces.

"It's a shame though that you found out about our secret so soon." Said Alexis in a thick Manehatten accent. "We were having such a wonderful time together."

"What do you mean? Please I'll forget what I saw just don't hurt me." Pleaded Spike.

Marik let out a sinister chuckle and shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not possible Spike." He said. "We can't risk that now."

Spike was sweating with panic and tried to free himself, but to no avail once more. "Why do you want to kill me though?" Asked Spike fearfully. "I didn't even know any of you up until today."

"There's no harm in telling him boss." Pierce spoke out in a Stalliongrad accent. "He isn't a going to live to tell anyway."

"I agree with Max here." Said Larry still having his Manehatten accent.

"Max? Wh...who are all of you?" Spike asked.

Marik looked at him and let out a sigh. "Well I guess there's no harm in telling you then." He said. "Allow me to introduce to you my friends.

"This hear is Max." He said pointing to Pierce. "He's our surveyor for land and finding targets."

"Over here is Samuel." Larry bowed and smirked. "He's the sharpshooter of our group."

"Say hello to Maria." Marik said pointing to Alexis. "She's the one who sets up traps for our targets."

"Now yours truly." Marik said sinisterly. "My name is Alec, the leader of this group."

"But...but what do you all do?" Asked Spike.

Marik chuckled and said, "By day we are mere circus performers, but by night we are animal poachers."

Spike's eyes widened in fear, and tried to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth and Alec continued to talk.

"We never did tell you what happened to our parents. They were actually poachers themselves and were friends with on another. Together, they captured and killed many animals for their skins and sell them for a profit on the black market. Lions, tigers, manticores, and even dragons." He said with a sinister grin.

"We were taught at a young age how to capture animals using various tricks such as pits, net traps, and bait. Princess Celestia though was not pleased to hear about what our parents were doing, and set the Royal Guards out to arrest them. Our parents knew that they were going to be caught, so in desperation we were all placed into that horrible orphanage. Days later we learned our parents were arrested and sent to death for their crimes. Despite all that, we stuck together and after that pointless talent show where we got our cutie marks we were ready to leave that place. Since we had a way to fool other ponies, we could continue on what our parents started and plotted to escape. Maria here used her magic to start a fire in that orphanage and it killed all the foals and that old colt in there so there would be no witnesses. We made our way into an ally away from the orphanage and waited until dawn to leave."

"Things though didn't go as planned with our attempt to destroy evidence." The ringmaster said. "A newspaper stand said that there was a witness who saw the four of us flee, and now we were wanted for arson. We fled out of Fillydelphia until we saw that circus that was owned by that oaf, Fred. He took us in and we changed our names so we wouldn't draw suspicion upon ourselves. After being accepted we secretly began meeting after practice to work on our poaching skills. We practiced late into the night and then would come back to get some sleep before the day began. Fred though was probably getting suspicious over how sloppy our performances were becoming and sent one of his stage hands to observe us. He saw us capture an alligator, kill it, and skin it. When Fred and the other performers confronted us, he was furious and was going to call the Royal Guards. Maria though tied all of the performers up and staged an accident where it looked like a fire occurred by accident, and all of them died in it. To make sure the Royal Guards never came, Maria did a powerful memory erasing spell that made all these employees forget about Fred and the others. We then forged a will to let the circus fall into our hands."

Spike was feeling sick to his stomach, and felt like his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets.

"So after that, we fled Fillydelphia and for eight years we set up circus acts as well as poaching rings in various areas like Stalliongrad and Manehatten. We were spotted a few times doing our act, so we had to change appearances constantly and lay low for a while."

"We decided to set up in the Whitetail Woods when we heard a manticore was spotted in that area. By sheer luck though, when I was in town to buy film for my camera, I saw you. I followed you and watched as you entered the library. I was tempted to snatch you at first, but there would be too many witnesses to see me, so I waited until night time. I was going to snatch you by breaking into the second floor, but I heard through the window that wish you made, so I concocted a plan. I had Max make those flyers, then Maria used her magic to make multiple copies of them and then placed them on the doorsteps of all the houses. I waited until morning to knock on your door and then took off, and watched as you fell for it as well as those pathetic pony friends of yours."

Spike couldn't believe what he was hearing, and had no idea what to say. He finally managed to get some words out after a few minutes. "But...why me? There are other dragons that could've..."

Alec shook his head and chuckled to what Spike said. "You're wrong, my friend. You are very valuable to us. Purple dragons' scales are amongst the rarest to be found. Your scales have magical elements in them that can actually increase a unicorn's magic tenfold. We know some unicorns who would love to get their hands on your scales. Now then..." Alec picked up a sharp scalpel and slowly walked over to Spike. "It's time for your final performance."

The baby dragon had tears pouring out of his eyes as he looked at the scalpel. 'I'm sorry Twilight.' He thought to himself as he closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Suddenly something whizzed in the air and knocked the scalpel out of Alec's hoof, causing him to yelp. Spike opened his eyes, and looked to see Alec and the others look at an apple that was thrown at them.

"This act is over Alec." Said a voice.

Alec, the performers, and Spike turned to see that it was Twilight and the others with stern looks on them. Spike let out a cry of joy and smiled.

Alec came up to her with a glare on his face. "You do know that the audience should remain in their seats right young lady?" He asked sinisterly.

"Save it fer the judge you no good snake!" Yelled Applejack. "Ah'm gonna buck ya into last week!"

"I said it once, and I'll say it again, I never leave my friends hanging!" Said Rainbow Dash with a glare on her face.

"How dare you ruffians do this to Spike!?" Rarity shouted. "You all need to be taught a lesson you won't soon forget!"

"You're going down Pinkie Pie Style!" Said Pinkie Pie with a smirk.

"Nopony hurts my friends!" Said Fluttershy in a stern voice with a glare.

Alec just looked at them and gave a smug smile at them. "Well...if you foals wanted to see a show that badly, we'll gladly give you one."

Samuel grabbed a saddle bag full of throwing knives, and hoped onto a unicycle. Max took off into the sky and did a few loops. Maria's horn glowed and scowled at Twilight and her friends. Alec went over to the lion cage, grabbed his whip, and cracked it at the lion's feet. The beast stood up straight, and obeyed. Marik stood next to Spike to make sure the baby dragon was guarded. The two groups charged at each other and fought each other.

Max was flying in the sky with Rainbow Dash on his tail. The two pegasi were going at an incredibly fast speed while maneuvering around the tent. Rarity and Twilight were dodging bolts of lightning, and stunning spells from Maria. They used their own magic to hit her back with objects they levitated and threw at the blue mare. Pinkie Pie was hoping away from Samuel's unicycle with the clown pony throwing one knife after another at the party pony. Applejack saw the lion charge at her and dodged his claws. Fluttershy was trying to talk to the beast to calm it down, but to no avail. The lion roared loudly and swiped his claws at Applejack, but she jumped on top of the lion's neck and held onto its mane to try to wear the beast out.

Applejack was thrown off the lion and landed near the table props for Maria's magic act. The orange mare picked up one of the ropes and made it into a lasso. She spun it and threw it at the lion's front legs and tied them together. Applejack watched as the beast tripped over, causing the ground to shake a little. She got closer to it, believing she defeated it. The lion roared and ripped through the rope tying him. Applejack used this opportunity to once again tackle his back and hoped on him.

Maria was continuing to fire bolts of lightning at Twilight and Rarity and each dodged a bolt, but barely. Twilight levitated a unicycle from behind and sent it flying towards the magician. It hit Maria and knocked her to the ground. She slowly got up and levitated two empty cages and threw them. Twilight and Rarity dodged them with ease, but noticed Maria had a sinister grin on her face. They were suddenly hit in the back by two other cages Maria levitated and were knocked down to the floor. The dark blue unicorn fired a bolt of lightning at them and hit them. The lilac and white unicorn got up and felt slightly dazed, but their horns glowed again and charged at Maria.

Rainbow was able to catch up to Max and grabbed him. They both started throwing punches at each other as they flew around. Both pegasi were flying around erratically as they threw one punch after another, leaving them bruised. They suddenly hit one of the tent poles and both separated. Rainbow felt a little disoriented and looked to see where Max went off too, but she couldn't see him.

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around while Samuel threw various throwing knives at the party pony. Pinkie kicked a few balancing balls at the clown pony, but he dodged them all.

Fluttershy was lost on what to do, and who to help. She saw Spike and charged after Alec in hopes of rescuing him. Alec charged at her as well, and gave Fluttershy a head butt that caused her to fall to the ground. The ringmaster looked down with a smug smile and went back to Spike and watched the fight go on.

Spike looked on as his friends were fighting, and couldn't believe that even after all he said and did they would come back for him. While Alec was looking on the baby dragon, got an idea. He inhaled and then let out a huge flame that engulfed the steel restraints, which caused Alec to jump in surprise. When the flame died down the restraint looked like it had warped a little, but not enough for Spike to get free.

"You idiot!" Alec yelled at Spike. "You can't melt steel that easily! You have no chance of escaping!"

Spike glared at him, and gave another inhale to shoot out another flame. Alec tried to stop him, but an apple was thrown and hit him on the head. The ringmaster looked to see that it was Fluttershy, who was slowly getting up and groaning, that threw the apple. He was tempted to charge at her, but then he remembered his captive and quickly turned to keep an eye on him. Spike though had finished inhaling and let out a huge flame at one of the restraints. Spike was thanking Celestia that he had fireproof scales as he moved the flame tower around. One by one the restraints melted until Spike freed himself and dropped to the floor. Alec had a furious look on his face, and charged at the baby dragon, but Spike jumped to the side and the ringmaster crashed into the table.

Spike looked to see the table of props used at Maria's magic show. He went over there to see the magic resistant bracelet lying there on the table. Spike grabbed it and went over to where Maria was fighting Twilight and Rarity. All three unicorns were gasping and bruised from the fight. Maria then summoned a deck of cards and took a few out.

"Take a card!" She yelled. "Take all the cards!"

Maria shot several cards at the lilac and white unicorn and tried to dodge them. A card hit Rarity's middle section though, and she saw that the card gave her a small cut and was starting to bleed. Spike was furious as the magician just laughed at the other two unicorns, and hopped onto her back. Maria looked back and saw the baby dragon holding on for dear life. She struggled to get Spike off and shook herself violently. The dragon used his claws to hold onto her and reached up to place the magic resistant bracelet on her horn. With one last buck, Spike was thrown off and landed near the props table. He saw Maria come over with an icy glare on her face.

"It's not nice to upstage a magician." She said in a cold voice.

She tried to cast a spell on him, but nothing happened. Maria struggled to get even a spark of magic out, but could only get a tiny little spark. She looked at Spike and saw he had a smug smile.

"Twilight, Rarity, now!" He shouted.

Maria turned and saw that the two unicorns' horns glowed and each one shot a beam at her. It hit her directly and felt . She screamed in agony, and collapsed to the ground.

Rainbow Dash was having trouble seeing where Max was. The ceiling was poorly lit, and the gray stallion seemed to disappear into the shadows. Rainbow heard something whizzing behind her, and dodged out of the way in time for Max to go past her. However, he did a quick reversal and flew up and managed to stun Rainbow Dash. Spike looked up as he heard the sky blue pegasus yell. He looked below to see a safety net below the high wire that was tied to the poles, and he had an idea. He went over to Fluttershy who was still shaken up and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and went over to one of the poles.

"Rainbow!" Spike shouted to the sky blue pegasus. "Fly down here below the net!"

Rainbow nodded at hearing this, and flew down and below the safety net with Max following behind with a sinister grin on his face.

"Fluttershy, now!" Spike yelled.

The yellow pegasus grabbed one of the knots on the rope and untied it just as Rainbow flew below it. The gray pegasus' face suddenly went from smug to a look of panic as the net fell on him and he got tangled up in the net. His wings were stuck and he couldn't move his hooves at all, and he could only mutter through the rope covering his mouth. Rainbow cheered and gave Spike a high hoof.

Pinkie Pie was bouncing around happily and humming as Samuel chased her and he had a look of frustration on his face. "Stay still damn it!" He shouted in anger as he threw another knife at the pink pony, but missed.

Pinkie continued to bounce as Samuel continued to throw knives. The clown pony then got an idea; he pulled out a huge tube of glue and squirted it across the floor. Pinkie stepped in the glue and was trapped there. Samuel gave a big sinister smile as he pulled out another knife to throw, but then a pie came out of nowhere and nearly hit him. Samuel looked to see Spike, Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy each had a pie and was ready to throw them. Samuel dodged the pies as they rained down on him until the pies were all gone.

"Ha!" He shouted. "You missed me!"

"Who said we were trying to hit you?" Spike asked with a smirk.

Samuel looked in confusion and then hit the mini wall that surrounded the ring and fell over. Samuel landed into the huge whipped cream pie like in the performance. He got up and stepped over the wall.

"I'll get the last laugh from you brats!" He shouted.

He struggled to lift a hoof, but he couldn't feel himself move. He looked down and saw the terrible truth; he was in the glue he squirted on the floor. Samuel looked up with a worried look on his face, and saw the ponies and dragon give a smug smile. He then noticed a looming shadow over him. The brown stallion looked up to see the large whipped cream pie was above him being held up by Twilight and Rarity.

"Drop it!" Spike said harshly.

The two unicorns released their magic on the pie. The clown pony screamed as the pie came down on him, and covered him completely. Twilight and Rarity both levitated the pie pan off and saw that Samuel was knocked unconsciousness by the impact and was laying on the ground.

"Whoa nelly!" Shouted Applejack as she was still riding on top of the lion's neck.

The wild beast was still going at it, and was bucking around wildly. Applejack couldn't hold on any longer as the lion threw her off, and was sent flying to the ground. The farmer pony landed on her head as she hit the ground and had trouble getting up. The lion made a charge on her, but then came the sound of a whip. The lion stopped charging and obeyed the whip. Applejack looked to see that it was Spike holding the whip. The baby dragon then motioned Fluttershy to go to the lion. The yellow pegasus went up to the lion, and the beast growled at her.

"Shh, it's okay calm down." Fluttershy said in a soft voice. "You don't want to do this anymore do you? You don't want to keep on doing these stunts do you?"

The lion felt his anger subside slowly. He looked at Fluttershy with a sad look on his face and gave a small nod.

"Don't worry little one." Said Fluttershy in a cooing voice. "We won't hurt you or these animals at all. We'll set all of you free." The lion made a small roar at her. "Yes...even the birds."

The lion's eyes opened in shock, and gave Fluttershy a hug as he licked her face. Fluttershy giggled a little and returned the hug. The lion let go of her, and turned around to leave the tent. Spike and the other ponies looked around to see the performers lie on the ground defeated, and gave a cheer.

A groan suddenly echoed throughout the tent. Spike and the ponies looked to see it was Alec getting up slowly, but steadily. The ringmaster looked around to see that his cohorts were not moving, and looked besides himself.

"You little brat!" He shouted at Spike. "How dare you do this to me!? You're just a pathetic baby dragon and nothing more! You are just meant for three things, to be hunted, to be killed, and to be skinned! I've had enough of you and your friends' meddling!"

Twilight and the others began to move in on Alec, but Spike charged forward and punched the ringmaster in the face. Alec stumbled beck a little, but regained his bearings. He quickly charged at Spike and and pinned him to the ground. Spike saw Alec give an insane grin and saw his eyes bulging out.

"Consider this your last act little one!" He shouted as he raised his right hoof holding the scalpel.

Spike used all of his strength to break free from Marik, and narrowly avoided the scalpel. The baby dragon kicked him in his stomach, causing the green stallion to wobble around in pain. He then punched Marik in the face twice, kicked him in the shins, and kicked him in the back. Alec was barely standing and felt disoriented.

Spike came up to Marik with a glare on his face. "The show's over for you now Alec." The baby dragon said. "It's time to take a bow!"

The baby dragon then kicked Alec in his face, and sent him flying into the lion's cage. The ringmaster gave a blood curdling scream that echoed in the tent for what seemed to be hours. Alec laid there in the cage bloodied, bruised, and unconscious. Spike looked around to make sure none of the other performers were gone and gave a sigh of relief.

"Hold it right there!" A stern voice yelled out.

Twilight and the others looked to see ten white pegasus colts with shining gold armor on, it was the Royal Guard.

"We'll take it from here, Miss Sparkle." Said the guard.

"Thank you sirs." Said Twilight.

The guard gave a small smile, and then turned to the other guards. "Alright men, I want these poachers put into the jail chariot immediately! Get the investigation team here now to start looking around this place!" He barked at them.

"Sir!" Shouted the other guards as they saluted.

Twilight and the others looked on happily as the ordeal came to a close.

"Hey, where's Spike?" Pinkie suddenly said with a worried look on her face.

Twilight and the others looked around to see that the baby dragon had disappeared again. Panic coursed through the mares again and started to look around for the baby dragon.

"Twilight Sparkle." A majestic voice said.

Twilight and the others turned to see a tall white alicorn with a long pink and blue mane waving around like it was in a breeze.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight and her friends cried out as they bowed before her.

"It looks like I made it in time." The white alicorn said. "Why are you so glum though? You managed to save Spike and took down this poaching ring."

"That's just it princess." Twilight said as she rose up. "Spike's gone again, and...I think it's my fault for this."

Princess Celestia looked calm and turned to a Royal Guard. "Guard." She said in an authoritative, but caring tone. "Send out a search party immediately for one baby dragon. Scan the entire area and look in the woods as well. He couldn't have gotten too far." The guard bowed and went over to a group of guards and told them of their instructions. Princess Celestia turned back and faced Twilight and saw that her head was hanging down.

"Twilight." The princess said. Twilight looked up to see her mentor give a gentle smile. "Go find him. He needs you now at this moment. He needs some friends to comfort him."

"But...but what if he doesn't forgive me?" She asked with tears streaming down her face. "I hurt Spike so much for what I did to him."

"My faithful student, dry those eyes." Princess Celestia said softly. "You've shown your friends here the magic of friendship, and Spike needs to be shown that as well. I know he'll forgive you. He was your first friend, and he needs his best friend to help him with what he went through."

Twilight gave a small smile and nodded. "Thank you princess." She turned to her friends and wiped her tears off. "Come on now girls. We need to find Spike." They all charged out of the tent, and went toward the Whitetail Woods. Princess Celestia watched and smiled as her student went to make amends.

Rebuilding the Bridge

Spike ran through the Whitetail Woods as fast as he could. He ran passed thick trees, over glades, and through little streams with beams of Princess Luna's moon lighting the forest's path. He could feel tears streaming down his face as he ran deeper into the forest, but he put that aside. Spike had only one thing on his mind: run away. He came to a clearing outside the woods. There was a small lake where a stream was connected to it, and on the side was a large cave like the one he saw when he first ran away. Spike reached up to a tree branch and took a large stick. He used his fire breath to light the stick, and entered the cave cautiously.

Spike walked through the cave, looking around to make sure there were no dragons or any other large creatures around. He discovered the cave was empty with no animals inhabiting it at all, not even bats. He saw in the center of a large clearing of floor was a huge hole in the ceiling that let Princess Luna's moonlight pour into the dark cave. Spike extinguished the flame and went over to sit by a huge bolder.

Spike sat there on the ground for several minutes, contemplating on what to do. "I can't go back." The baby dragon said to himself. "I can't face them, not after what happened. I don't deserve to be their friend at all or maybe no pony's friend."

Spike just sat on the ground feeling like he destroyed his own life, and blamed himself. The baby dragon not only lost his old friends with how he acted to them, but was also tricked and fooled by other ponies he thought were friends as well, and now he was all alone. Although he was glad to see that Twilight and the others came to save him he couldn't face them again. Spike believed that they were furious at him for what he did to them, and were ready to give him an earful. When he saw the Royal Guards, his fears intensified with thoughts of Princess Celestia banishing him to the moon.

He looked at the moon and saw something familiar, a star that was shining near the moon. The baby dragon recalled what happened last night and felt a surge of anger course through him. The anger quickly turned into sadness and looked down. Spike buried his head in his hands as tears built up in his eyes.

"I wish I never made that stupid wish." The baby dragon said with his voice starting to crack.

"Spike..." A voice said in the darkness.

The baby dragon recognized it as the voice of Twilight Sparkle, but refused to look at her.

"Please Spike." Twilight said. "We were so worried about you, and we want to help you."

The baby dragon still refused to look and tried to shut her out. Twilight went over and placed a hoof on her friend, but he quickly batted the hoof away.

"Spike, all we want to do is talk to you." Twilight said again. "I know your upset and you have every right to be and not only with us, but with those poachers as well. Please, talk to us and let us help you."

Spike built up the courage to look at his former friends and expected angry looks on them. Instead he saw that they were all had looks of concern on them.

"How...how did you all find me?" He asked.

Twilight's horn glowed and Spike saw green footprints that looked like his own shining. "I was able to use the tracking spell with your footprints Spike." The lilac unicorn said. "We followed your tracks all the way here."

"Whatever...just leave me alone." Spike said looking down. "I thought I said I didn't want to see you all again."

"Simmer down there Spike." Said Applejack. "We searched all over the place fer ya 'cause we were worried 'bout ya."

"Worried? You were worried about me?"

Twilight nodded and said, "It's because we care about you Spike and you're our friend."

Spike felt comfort in Twilight's words, but part of him still felt anger at them. "You all have a funny way of showing you care then." He said with resentment in his voice.

"What do you mean Spike?" Asked Twilight. "We do care about you and are very dear to us all..."

"You still don't get it Twilight." Spike interjected. "None of you still don't get what I feel. Ever since I moved to Ponyville with Twilight, I've worked harder than ever before. I've seen you all go out on adventures, sing along, and other fun stuff. What about me? All I've done is clean up messes, do chores all day, and be left behind."

"I thought it was great that Twilight was making friends, but I don't even got friends, and the other ponies seem to be afraid of me. All I asked for was a little thanks for what I do, and to hang out with all of you. Instead, I do the same thing everyday, clean up and be by myself."

Spike looked down shaking and felt tears run down his face. He made no effort in hiding it and saw the tears reflect in the moonlight.

"Listen I....I wanted to say thanks for saving me tonight. I'm sorry for what I said...and you won't have to worry about me causing anymore trouble." Spike turned around away from the others. "Goodbye Twilight...and thanks for everything."

Spike began to walk away into the shadows of the cave when he was suddenly seized by a pair of hooves embracing him. The baby dragon looked up and saw Twilight hugging him with tears running down her face. One by one, the others embraced Spike as well with tears in their eyes as well. They stayed like this for a few minutes and then pulled away from each other.

"You don't need to apologize Spike." Twilight said. "If anypony's going to apologize, it's us."

"Twi's right sugarcube." Said Applejack. "We were treatin' ya like dirt."

"It wasn't cool how we treated you." Rainbow Dash stated.

"It was unfair and rude of us Spike." Rarity said. "A good lady should never take advantage of their friends."

"It's no fun to make others feel bad. It feels super horrible." Said Pinkie.

"I just feel so awful over this." Said Fluttershy. "We never wanted to hurt you."

"We're sorry Spike." The six ponies said in unison.

Spike looked at the others in awe, and gave a small smile. He felt though there was a part of him that made him uneasy. "Why though?" Asked the baby dragon.

"Why, what?" Asked Twilight.

"Why would you forgive me? Even after all I said to you?"

"Spike, when you said those things tonight we realized that what you were saying was true." Said Twilight. "I took advantage of you and your skills as my assistant. I never thought about how you really felt until what you said to me and the girls tonight. We felt terrible about what we did to you."

Spike then felt a hoof on his shoulder and saw that it was Applejack. "Y'all work so hard and do yer best fer all of us sugarcube. Y'all work harder than mah whole family on Applebuckin' season."

"Spike darling, you are quite brave as well." Rarity said. "You helped us defeat those nasty ruffians."

"I...I did?" Spike asked. Everypony nodded and smiled.

"You were really cool out there Spike." Said Rainbow. "Well not that I didn't have it under control as well, but you gave those guys what for."

"You made those meanies think twice before messing with you again." Said Pinkie joyfully.

"You rocked Spike." Said Fluttershy.

The baby dragon looked at all of the ponies and gave him a smile. He felt tears build up in him again, but not of sorrow, but of joy. He went over and hugged all his friends.

"I really am sorry everypony." Said Spike. "I guess I just forgot who my real friends were."

"It's okay Spike." Said Twilight. "It's okay. We're just happy to see you again."

"It sounds like a lot was learned tonight." Said a majestic calm voice.

Twilight and the others looked to see a white alicorn, escorted by two guards, come out of the shadows.

"Princess Celestia!" The group cried out and bowed.

Spike looked up at the ruler and felt nervous about how she would react, but built up the courage to speak to her. "Princess Celestia...I'm sorry for what I did. I understand if you're upset with me and I'll accept any punishment."

Spike looked to see Princess Celestia give a gentle smile. "There's no need to Spike." Said the white alicorn. "You've learned a lot tonight, the hard way." Spike smiled at this, feeling relieved that Princess Celestia was not mad at him.

"Pardon me, Princess." Said Twilight. "I have learned something tonight as well."

The princess raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Oh? Tell me then. What have you learned about friendship tonight?"

Twilight looked at her mentor with a smile. "I've learned that you should never make your friends feel left out and to never neglect them. It can not only hurt them, but it can hurt you and other friends as well as destroy the bond you have. Always make sure that you show them the same love you show for your other friends as well and make them feel appreciated and accepted."

"Well it sounds like you all had quite a day." Said Princess Celestia. "I think though its time you all headed back to Ponyville. We'll finish up here and besides it seems your assistant needs his sleep."

Twilight and the others turned to see Spike had fallen asleep and was snoring peacefully. Twilight and the others chuckled as Twilight placed Spike on her back.

"He's not my assistant, he's my friend." Twilight said with a smile.

The six ponies bid farewell to Princess Celestia and boarded a chariot that took them back to Ponyville. As Spike laid there asleep in the back, Twilight and the others looked at him with smiles and talked to each other in whispers. They all entered Ponyville, said good night, and each pony went their separate way. Twilight entered the library and went up to her room. She put Spike into his bed and gave him a kiss on his head. She smiled a little before going to bed herself.

Spike woke up the next day back in his bed at the Ponyville Library. He felt dazed at first, but remembered what happened last night.

'It was all a dream.' Spike thought to himself. 'It wasn't real at all and everything's going to be back to normal.'

Spike looked at the clock to see that he overslept and panicked. He bolted out the door and saw that the main lobby was pitch black and all the blinds were shut closed. He made his way downstairs carefully to open a blind.

The blinds suddenly opened by themselves. "SURPRISE!" Yelled several voices.

Spike jumped back and nearly fell over. He regained his balance and looked to see a banner say WE LOVE YOU SPIKE! Below the banner was Twilight and her friends grinning at him.

"W...what is this?" Asked Spike.

"It's a celebration for you Spike." Said Twilight. "To thank you for what you've done for us."

"For me?" The baby dragon asked in shock.

"We planned this last night while you were asleep." Said Rainbow Dash.

"Y'all deserve this sugarcube." Said Applejack.

Spike was feeling overwhelmed by all this and hugged Twilight. "Thank you Twilight, thank you all."

"You're welcome." The ponies said in unison.

"So what do I do now?" Asked Spike.

"You can do anything Spike." Said Twilight. "It's your day."

"Why don't Ah take y'all down to the farm?" Asked Applejack. "Ah'll teach ya how to whip up a homemade apple pie that's sweeter than any Red Gala Apple."

"Pfft! Forget that!" Rainbow interjected. "How about I take you to Cloudsdale? I'll show you the factories, the city, and then a Sonic Rainboom!"

Rarity shook her head in disapproval. "Spike, I never did get to thank you properly for helping me escape those disgusting Diamond Dogs. Why don't I take you down to the boutique? I'll make a suit for you and then treat you to a fine dinner."

"Spike, I would love to show you my animal sanctuary." Fluttershy said. "It's so wonderful, peaceful, and quiet. Um...if that's okay with you that is."

Pinkie then jumped in front of Spike and hoped around him. "How about a super awesome party just for you!? We can play Pin the Tail on the Pony, eat tons of sweets, and sing together!"

Spike thought it over and noticed Twilight was missing. He looked and saw the lilac unicorn looking through a book. "What about you Twilight?" He asked. "What do you want to do?"

Twilight looked up with a small smile on her face. "Oh, I won't be going anywhere. I've got to work on finishing some notes."

Spike looked in disbelief and went over to Twilight and the books she was surrounded by. He tossed the books aside and looked to see Twilight give him a shocked look.

"Twilight, you are not working or studying." The baby dragon said. "Today I want to be with all my friends, even you."

Twilight looked at him and saw he had a stern look on his face. She gave him a smile and nodded. "Alright, Spike I'll go." Spike and the others cheered at this and made their way out of the library.

"Twilight?" Spike asked. "What happened to Alec and the others?"

"Well Spike." Said Twilight. "Princess Celestia decided to sentence Alec to death for not only poaching, but she found out about the previous circus owner and performers as well through some old paperwork that had the old ringmaster's handwriting on it."

"So they did find them." Said Spike gloomily.

Twilight nodded and said, "The others got life in the Stalliongrad Prison with no parole. They got it by revealing the location of where the bodies of the previous circus owners were and for controlling the circus employees. The other circus employees had no idea what was happening and their memories were restored by Princess Celestia. They promise to keep the circus going, but they will be hiring honest performers from now on."

Spike was glad to hear that it was all over and that the circus would be back, but he thought to himself he wouldn't go to one for a long time.

"So where do you want to go Spike?" Asked Twilight.

Spike thought about the choices he was offered. "There are so many things I want to do with you all, and they all sound so good."

"Don't worry sugarcube." Said Applejack. "If we don't git t'do everythin' today there's always tomorrow."

"Really?" Asked Spike. He saw Twilight and the others give nod. The baby dragon thought over his choices for a few minutes before making his decision. "Well...I've never been to Cloudsdale before. I also wouldn't mind spending time with Rarity as well."

Twilight and the others cheered and went to get the hot air balloon out.

"One more thing Spike." Twilight told him as her friends prepared the balloon. "I promise from now on I won't be making as many messes and having you clean them up. I'll also do my share of cleaning as well."

"Wh...what about hanging out with you and the others?" The baby dragon asked.

Twilight smiled and said, "You're more than welcome to be with us Spike. Only after you finish your share of the chores though."

Spike grinned and gave Twilight another hug. "You got it Twilight!"

Twilight and Spike got into the balloon, and took off into the sky towards Cloudsdale. Spike talked and laughed with the other ponies, feeling happier than he did in a long time. He looked around at his friends and smiled to himself with content.

'I guess my wish did come true.' The baby dragon thought to himself. 'It's not just an old mare's tale after all.'