Chapter 8 - A Day with Spike

Chapter 8 – A Day with Spike*Joshua’s P.O.V.*

“…osh…”

“J…ua”

“Joshua,” said a voice.  I felt myself being gently shaken as I woke up.  I opened up my eyes and saw Nyx looking at me smiling.  “Good morning, sleepy head,” she said, “Did you sleep well?”

“Mm-hmm,” I said getting up.  When I sat up in the bed, Nyx wrapped her forelegs around me.  I gave her a hug back.

“Oh good, you two are up,” Spike’s voice said behind me.  I turned around and saw Spike at the top of the stairs looking at us.  “Twilight told me to go wake you two up for breakfast.”

“Good morning Spike,” I said as Nyx and I broke our hug, “What’s for breakfast?”

“Twilight made some haycakes this morning,” Spike said going back down.  Nyx and I climbed out of bed after Spike went back down.

“I need to change clothes Nyx,” I said, “I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”

“Okay,” she said going toward the stairs.  I went into the bathroom, took off my pajamas, and put on the clothes I wore yesterday.  After that, I went downstairs.  While looking for the door to the kitchen, I felt something land on my head.  I got nervous not being able to see what it was.

“Twilight?” I called out.  I saw her coming out of a door next to a bookshelf.

“Good morning Joshua,” she said, “I see you’ve met Owloysius.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Owloysius,” Twilight said slower.  She then held out a fore hoof and whatever was on my head jumped off and flew over to Twilight’s hoof.  It was a little brown owl.  He turned his head around and looked at me.  “He’s my pet and nighttime assistant.”

“It’s nice to meet you Owloysius,” I said.

“Hoo,” the owl said.

“Um, you,” I said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hoo.”

“I said, ‘It’s nice to meet you.’ “

“Hoo.”

“Do you know what he’s saying?” I asked Twilight, confused.  Twilight giggled at me.

“He can be mysterious sometimes,” she said, “But you’ll get used to it.  Anyways, why don’t you come in the kitchen and have some breakfast?”

“Okay,” I said following her.  We made our way to the table in the kitchen and Twilight sat down.  There was an empty seat between Spike and Nyx, so I sat down there.  My plate had what looked like pancakes in front of me.

“Just so you know, Joshua, I’m going to be doing some shopping today, and Nyx is going over to Sweetie Belle’s, so Spike is going to be watching you,” Twilight told me.

“Okay,” I replied, taking a bite of breakfast.

Later, after we all finished our breakfast, Twilight and Nyx left the library, leaving me and Spike alone.

“Hey Joshua,” Spike called.

“Yes?” I said walking over to him.  I saw him pulling a wagon that had a shovel and bucket in it.

“Hop in,” he told me, “I’ve got something fun for us to do.”

“What is it?” I asked climbing in the wagon.

“We’re going gem hunting,” he told me.

“That sounds fun,” I said.  Spike then pulled the wagon out of the library, and we started going through Ponyville.  We then left the town and were in a place where there was no grass.  I then noticed a big castle farther away.  “What’s that castle over there Spike?” I asked pointing at it.

“Oh, that’s where Nyx ruled Equestria when she was Nightmare Moon,” Spike said, “The town is still unsure of what to do with it.  Well this is the best spot to find gems.”  The wagon stopped and I climbed out.  Spike then gave me the shovel and bucket.  “I brought these along for you to dig with.  I dig with my claws when searching for gems.  Whatever gems we find, we’ll split them evenly, okay?”

“Okay Spike,” I said.  I began digging where I was standing.  When I turned around, I saw Spike digging with his claws like a dog would.  I didn’t find anything where I was digging first, so I moved to a new spot.  A few minutes later, Spike called out to me.

“Find anything yet, Joshua?” he said.  I was about to say no when I felt the shovel hit something hard.

“I think I got something!” I called back.  Spike ran over to me as I began digging more.  Spike came up next to me and we saw a small pile of colorful gems.

“Nice work buddy!” he said patting my back.  We then pulled the gems out of the hole and put them in the wagon.  They looked pretty.  We then went back to digging.

After more digging and finding more gems, I heard something in the bushes behind me.  “Spike?  I think I heard something in the bushes,” I said.  Spike looked over to me.

“Probably just the wind,” he said.  I was about to dig some more, but I heard something else.  It was a voice that wasn’t Spike’s.

“Shhh,” it said, “Do you want them to hear us?!”

“Spike, I heard someone in the bushes,” I said backing up from them.

“Uh oh,” Spike said, “Get behind me Joshua!”  I did what he said.

“I’m scared Spike,” I said shaking.  Then three big dogs jumped out from the bushes in front of me and Spike.

“You mutts again,” Spike said.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“We are the Diamond Dogs, and you two have something we want,” said one of them.

“Forget it dogs!” Spike said, “These gems are ours.  You may as well back off.”

“You will give us those gems, or else we’ll take your friend for ransom,” said another one.  I then felt something grab me and lift me off the ground.

“Hey!  Let me go!!!” I yelled.  Spike ran up and kicked the dog in the knee.  The dog dropped me on the ground.  My tummy hurt when I fell.

“You mutts leave us alone!” Spike said to the dogs as he stretched an arm over me.  I started crying again because I was scared.  I stood up and placed my hands on his arm.  “Don’t worry Joshua, I got this,” he said to me.  He then took a deep breath and blew green fire at the dogs.  The dogs yelped and jumped away.  They then started walking closer to us again, but Spike blew out a bigger green fire.  This time it burned the dogs’ legs.  They started hopping on one leg because it was hurting them.

“RETREAT!!!” the lead dog said.  The three of them ran away from us as fast as they could.

“Yeah you better run you mongrels!!” Spike yelled at them, “And if you show your faces around me again, you’ll get worse than that!!”  He then turned around to face me.  “You okay buddy?” he asked.  I got up and quickly hugged him crying again.

“Thank you Spike,” I said, “That was so scary.”

“It’s okay buddy,” he told me patting my back, “It’s all over now.”  After we finished the hug, I stopped crying.  “Let’s head back to town.  I think we’ve done enough gem hunting.”

“Okay,” I said.  Then my stomach growled.  “Can we have lunch too?”

“Sure.  Hop in the wagon and I’ll pull you back.”

I did as he said, and we were heading back to Ponyville.  We stopped by the library and left the wagon and gems we found there.  I then followed Spike to a gingerbread looking house.  We walked in and I saw Pinkie Pie behind a counter.

“Hey Spike!  Hey Joshie!” she said waving at us, “What’s up?”

“I took Joshua gem hunting today,” Spike said.

“Ooh!  Sounds fun!” she answered, “So, what can I get for you two?”

“Can I have a chocolate chip muffin?” I asked her.

“Sure!” she said handing me one, “How about you Spike?  Something with gems?”

“If you have anything with them,” he said.

“You eat gems Spike?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said, “You didn’t know that?”  I shook my head taking a bite of the muffin.

“Here ya go Spike!” Pinkie said giving him a cupcake with gems in it.  Spike took the cupcake and gave her some gold coins to pay for our treats.  We then went over to a table to sit down and eat them.  “Hey Joshie,” Pinkie said coming up, “Would you like to meet the Cakes?”

“The Cakes?” I asked.

“Yep!  The owners of Sugarcube Corner!”

“Is that what this place is called?”

“Yeppy-deppy!” she said.

“Okay,” I said answering her question.  She then bounced over to a pair of swinging doors and went through them.  I then head the front door open up and saw Derpy coming in.

“Hey Joshua!  Hey Spike!” she said waving a hoof.

“Hi again Derpy,” I said.

“Hey there,” Spike said, “How’s it going?”

“Not bad,” she said, “Got finished with the mail run.” She then noticed what I was eating.  “Hey, you like muffins too?”

“Yeah, chocolate chip muffins are my favorite kind,” I said.

“Nice flavor choice,” she said.  She then walked up to the counter and waited for someone to help her.  Pinkie then came back in the room with four new ponies.  Two were earth pony adults, one was a baby pegasus, and the other was a baby unicorn.

“Here he is everypony!” Pinkie said, “Cakes, this is Joshua!  Joshua, this is Mr. Carrot Cake, Mrs. Cup Cake, Pound Cake, and Pumpkin Cake!”

Mr. Cake was yellow with an orange mane and his cutie mark were three pieces of cake with white frosting.  Mrs. Cake was blue with a red and pink mane and her cutie mark were three pink frosted cup cakes.  Pound was the pegasus.  He was light yellow with a brown mane.  Pumpkin was the unicorn.  She was yellow with and orange mane that had a blue bow in it.  The babies didn’t have cutie marks.

“Hi there,” I said, “It’s nice to meet you all.”  Pound and Pumpkin looked up at me curiously.  I then remembered something my mommy used to do with me when I was a baby.  I hid my face behind my hands and asked the babies, “Where’s Joshua?” After waiting a few seconds, I pulled my hands away from my face quickly and said, “Peek-a-boo!”  The two of them started giggling at my game.

“Hey!” Pinkie said, “That’s a lot like something I do with them!  It’s their favoritest game in the whole wide world!”  Mrs. Cake walked up to me and used a hoof to pull me into a hug.

“It’s very nice to meet you Joshua,” she said, “Pinkie told us about what you’ve been through.”

“I’m feeling a lot better after what happened.  Almost everypony here has been very nice,” I said, “I’ll still miss my mommy and daddy though.”

“Well, we’re glad that you’re getting over what happened,” Mr. Cake said, “We’re sorry that it had to happen though.”

After Mrs. Cake and I finished the hug, I heard Spike making funny noises.  Then he burped a green flame.  A sparkling dust came after and then a rolled up piece of paper.  “What’s that?” I asked.  Spike picked it up and unrolled it.

“It’s a letter to Twilight from Princess Celestia,” he said, “We need to go pick up Nyx from Sweetie Belle’s and get back to the library, Joshua.  Twilight needs to see this message.”

“Okay Spike,” I said.  I then turned to Pinkie and the Cakes.  “It was nice meeting you all.”

“You’re welcome to come back any time at all, Joshua,” Mr. Cake said.

“Bye Joshie!” Pinkie said waving a hoof.  I waved back to Pinkie, and Spike and I left Sugarcube Corner.