Never Gone

Chapters

A Difficult Situation
Friendship is a Virtue
Never Underestimate Crazy
Prologue: In With A Roar.

A Difficult Situation

Ow...

That’s really all I can say right now.

It hurts to think, and anything else for that matter.

I feel disoriented. My mind is in shambles, and I don’t know what is going on. I can’t see, and even if I did, my eyes were really sore. I feel something covering my eyes. I can feel something on my hands holding me back. There’s something cold I feel on my wrist and there’s some sort of material bounding me to it. How did I end up here? That really depends on where ‘here’ is.

My throat is completely dry and I doubt I want to call for help right now.

I’m laying down, that much is obvious. My back is arched and my head is at a slight elevation above. I can feel something on my side, but I don’t know what it is. There seems to be a cover over me as well, and it sticks to me as I move.

I feel some sort of weird paper on my head. If only I could touch what it is. I can feel the same paper around my chest and on my hips. They feel wet, and it’s really itchy too.

I guess the real question to ask here is, where am I? More importantly, who am I?

I struggle with whatever is tieing me, but to no avail. I have absolutely no energy, and every time I move, I feel some sharp stick at my side. I can hear birds chirping and this inconsistent beeping in my ear. It’s getting really annoying and if I move, the beeping gets louder and repeats more frequently.

I move my feet, only barely considering my lack of energy. They weren’t bound to anything, so I slowly slide them to the side. The sheets covering me were slowly coming off, making a breeze come in. Just a little more and it’s off. With one quick movement, I pick up the cover with my foot and throw it. The wind was now completely over me. Now I had to work on getting my hands free.

I try again to struggle loose, but whatever is holding me down was tight. I need something to cut it, but that’s useless since I can’t see. I can’t do anything, I’m stuck here without a clue of what’s going on. My headache is starting to worsen and that’s really not helping right now.

I don’t know if I should resort to calling for help. It seems like the most logical thing to do right now, but it might have dire consequences. It seems as if something tied me up, but why?

Minus well.

“Hello?” I say, no response. Of course no one is going to respond, I said it super low. I clear my throat again.

“Is anybody out there?! I need help!” I yell at the top of my lungs. My throat hurts from yelling that loud, if no one heard that, I doubt there’s anyone here.

What just trickled down my back? It feels weird, and there’s a sharp stinging sensation coming from it now.

I hear a click, like the sound of a door closing. Did someone just come in? It feels like it. I hear footsteps, and the sound of mumbling. Who just came in here? And once again, where is here?

I struggle with the material behind my back to let go of my arms. I think whoever came inside just gasped. I hear mumbling again, this time I could make out more than just one voice.

“Now, now, quit fiddlin’ so much, yer gonna open up yer wounds again.” The voice has a thick accent, that much is obvious. “Twi, you know what to do.” Who’s Twi?

What is this sensation near my eyes? Whatever it is, it seems to be fiddling with what is covering my eyes. I keep seeing random spots of light, as the cover comes off of me. All I can is white, along with some oddly colored blobs. Everything is painstakingly bright, and it hurts a bit.

I can’t bring myself to speak, even though I yelled a bit earlier.

I try to squint my eyes, though my vision doesn’t improve much. It’s like staring at the sun for too long, maybe even worse than that. I keep seeing the blobs move around, get close up to each other, talking or what seemed like it.

“H-his cut on his back opened up again...” The voice is different this time, it doesn’t have an accent and was a lot lower. It seems to have a small squeaky effect to it.

I feel more fluid rush down my back, was I hurt? I can’t feel any pain, so what is going down my back? It feels thick, like blood, but that’s impossible.

“Yes, I can see that, hmm...” A new voice chimes n, this one sounding much more clearer and sounded much more normally than the others. “I’m no expert on medical science, but I would say he has regained consciousness.”

Are they referring to me?

“I’m surprised he’s still breathin’.” I hear the one with the accent say. “Hey there partner, can yah talk?”

So they are talking to me. My vision is slowly adjusting, but I can make out some figures walking on all fours. The orange blob seems to be coming closer. I guess I should try to speak, but I gave out all my energy from yelling.

What could I say?

“...Nrgh...” I give out a small groan of pain. It’s really all I could muster out, it it hurts to even move, let alone talk. I try to lift my head up to look at them, but I can’t hold it in place.

They seemed genuinely surprised, as I hear one of them gasp.

“Would yah look at that? Feller did survive.”

That adds another question to the long list of things I need to ask. How exactly am I going to speak to something I can’t see? And why am I still tied up?

“YAY! Now we can throw a party, it’ll be filled with cake and dancing and ICE CREAM! And also, we can-” Another voice, this time sounding much more hyperactive and bubbly, starts talking at an extremely fast pace. I almost can’t keep up with it.

“Now, now, Pinkie, we still don’t know what this creature is, let alone if he’s dangerous.” I have no idea what’s going on. I’m tied up on a bed, and they’re talking about how I might be dangerous. Why are there so many people in here? This new voice is a lot more pompous than the others, and seems to have concern when she speaks. I think it’s a she. All of them sound like shes anyway.

“Heh, so he survived an Ursa Major attack, big deal. I could take on ten of them with my hooves behind my back!” Hooves? And what’s an Ursa Major? This sixth voice sounds more smug than the rest of them, and she seems to be showing off.

The material holding my hands is really starting to itch now. I try not to fidget with it, but the itch is too unbearable. I try to rub my hands in between the metal bar, only relieving it a little.

My vision is starting to get a bit better, I can see more of these creatures on all fours. They all have different colors to them, and their hair seems to mix and match. More fluid trickles down my back, it feels weird.

“We should really do something about his wound, Applejack, pass me that gauze and that cloth.” Are they planning something?

I feel something rub against my back, wiping off whatever fluid was flowing down my back before. Funny, I don’t feel anything but the cloth touching me.

“Now, this might sting a little bit, alright?” The squeaky voice says, though I really don’t know why. It isn’t as though I can move. Then again, if I’m in danger now, I would have been in danger while I was unconscious. She sounds like she needs an answer from me. Should I trust them? At this point, I don’t even know if I really have a choice in the matter.

I try to clear my throat, all I get is a useless gulp. “Uh... Sure...?” There isn’t much else for me to say, really, and part of me just wants to get this over with. I hope this means I’ll lose those ropes soon.

This time, I do feel something else touch me, in addition to the cloth. It seems to be delicate, moving gently along my back. I also feel a stinging sensation, though I was sort of expecting that, they did warn me. After what seems to take forever, the stinging stops and I feel something covering a spot on my back.

“Well, that takes care of the wound, but now what are we going to do?” Everything seems to go silent for a bit, until the same voice chimes in again. “Um, Mr. Dragon, sir, can you speak?” Isn’t it obvious?

“Y-yes...” That’s all I could muster out. My vision is now normal again, but what I see isn’t what I was expecting. There are six... horses? They are all staring at me with odd expressions on their faces. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to see talking horses. Then again, I really don’t know what I was expecting.

All of them are standing close to each other. They all have different features to them, the most noticeable would have to be their colors. They all mix and match in their fur and mane. Along with that, they have different features to them. One has a horn on it’s head, two have wings, while the others didn’t have anything. The purple one standing in front of all of them has both wings and a horn. In addition to that, they all have necklaces on. The purple horse has a crown on it’s head, but looked similar to the necklaces.

They seem more surprised than I am right now and that’s saying a lot.

These ropes are really starting to get irritating. I can’t exactly ask them to untie me, the fact that I’m breathing seems to startle them. Do horses even get startled? And how are they even talking?

They might tell me if I ask, but maybe that’s not such a good idea. How can you ask a creature why they can talk, or how they had tied me down, and now sound completely insulting?

“Vitals are normal, and his heart rate seems fine.” The purple one says. I really don’t know if there is anything to respond to that beyond the obvious sigh of joy. Vitals normal, heart rate normal, everything seems to me like it’s going as well as can be expected. Though, I really don’t know what ‘it’ is. By the looks of the stitches on my arms and legs, I might have been hurt.

The obvious question came to mind.

“W-who... are you?” At least I can talk a bit more now.

The purple horse puts a normal look on her face.

“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight.” Princess Twilight Sparkle, huh... Why does that name sound so overly cliche? That is something I definitely need to keep to myself, she might not respond well if I say that. “These are my friends.”

“Nice to meet yah, my name is Applejack.” The orange horse says. Her accent is a bit easier to understand now, but man, it is thick.

I hear one of them clear their throats, and now I’m looking at the prissy sounding white one. “Greetings, my name is Lady Rarity Filigree! But you can just call me Rarity, darling.” Like I was going to call you by anything else? That name pretty much confounds me. Lady Rarity? That sounds like someone who is really into themselves. Then again, I might be wrong. Applejack itself is a weird name, so maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised.

I shouldn’t judge these horses so quickly. I see a pink horse jump into the air, barely touching the ceiling and lands right in front of the bed. She has a giant smile on her face and is squealing.

“Hiya! My name is...”She pulls out some sort of cannon and puts herself inside it. She detonates the cannon sending a bunch of streamers all over the place, some landing on my head as I shake them off. “PINKIE PIEEEEEEEEEEE!”

What an intro...

A rational being might ask why she has a cannon in here, or why she had it loaded with streamers in the first place, but I’m not going to. Something tells me that the answer isn’t something I’m going to like. After all, anyone who would do all of that likely isn’t going to think that it’s anything special. Aside from that, not a single one of the horses have been normal so far, except maybe that purple one. Maybe this is normal for them.

I don’t know if I want to think about that possibility.

Hopefully, this one is the craziest I’m going to see. I shift back a bit, making sure the pink one doesn’t shoot that cannon at me again.

“Now, now, Pinkie, calm down, you’re scarin’ the poor guy.” Applejack says, pulling the pink one into a chair. She is still shifting a bit, but hopefully no more sudden surprises.

“Heh, I don’t get why he’s so scared, it’s just Pinkie doing her thing.” When did that blue horse get into the air? “Name’s Rainbow Dash, and quit staring at me like that, it’s creepy.”

Ok, I take it back. Rainbow Dash is the most overly cliche name I have ever heard. Gah, it hurts to laugh... Seriously, what kind of naming system do these horses have?

“Hey, where’s Fluttershy at? She was right next to me...” Rainbow Dash, I swear I snickered a bit at the name, says.

“O-over here...” The voice comes from below me. I look to the side of the bed to see a pink strand of hair popping out from under it.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing down there?” Fluttershy? Well, I think with a name like that it would be pretty obvious why she’s down there.

“O-oh, um... I thought I saw an injured rat?” She peeks her head out and sees me staring back at her. She gives a small ‘Eep!’ before returning to her hiding spot.

“Fluttershy, come on, he’s not going to hurt you, it’s not like he’s in a position to, anyway.” Finally, someone that made sense.

The yellow one slowly crawls out of the small space under the hospital bed, getting to her fee- err, hooves, as quiet as possible. She goes behind Twilight, hiding behind her enormous amount of hair. It almost seems weird that such a small horse would have so much hair.

“H-hi, I’m Fluttershy."

Flu-something-something. Clearly I need to get my ears checked, because I should be able to understand this. My ears are working perfectly, I can normally hear a pin drop from across the room. Either that, or that cannon earlier made me deaf. For the life of me, though, I can’t understand what the rest of her name is. The only way for me to find out is to ask her.

“Flu-what?” I say in a way that doesn’t make me sound rude. All I get back is a simple squeak. Was it something I did?

“Sorry about that, Fluttershy just has a really hard time around strangers. And she also has a bit of a phobia of dragons.”

“Not to mention the fact that you’re pretty weird, cause you’re a dragon and all.” Wow, ok. That’s a lot coming from someone with six colors in her hair. Not to mention the fact you are all talking horses. I definitely won’t say any of that, though, because somebody has to be diplomatic. And I don’t want to test if they are hostile or not, then again, they did put me in the hospital and treat my wounds, wherever I got them from.

Everything aside, these names just don’t make much sense to me. But, beggars can’t be choosers. Now comes to the real question, how the hell did I end up here?

“Now that you know all of our names, what’s yours?”

...Why haven’t I stopped to consider that? Here I am, judging their names, and I don’t even know mine. No matter how much I think, my mind is just keeps drawing a blank. What should I say? I think they can see how much I’m struggling, because Twilight puts a hoof over her chin.

“Erm... I, uh... don’t know...” I shrug, maybe I shouldn’t have. Rainbow is giving me a suspicious look, almost as if she doesn’t believe that I don’t know what my name is. All of them are giving me looks, I’m starting to notice. It does seem kind of weird, when I really think about it.

“Oh, that must be awful.” Fluttershy seems like she’s able to talk now, which helps me out immensely. She also has a lot more confidence in her voice, which is good, at least. “Do you remember anything at all?”

That is a good question. I look up, close my eyes, and I try to think of anything. The only thing that comes of it, though, is a giant headache. She could obviously see me struggling, I think I could feel veins popping out from somewhere. Then again, I’m still tied up, so I wouldn’t be able to feel them. After all my effort, absolutely nothing comes up.

“N-no, nothing.” Rainbow is still giving me that suspicious look and it’s really creepy. It still isn’t as creepy as that smile that Pinkie Pie is giving me now. Twilight seems to rub her chin even harder and then puts her hoof down.

“Is Nurse Redheart back with the chart yet?”

Do they pull their names out of a hat or something? That’s another thing I probably shouldn’t say.

“No, not yet, she’s still drawing it up. I wonder what’s taking her so long?” That’s something I’m wondering too, Fluttershy.

“Well, he is a dragon, the fact that they are making a chart is a miracle.” I take it that dragons don’t come around here often. Maybe I should cut them some slack then, since I’m probably lucky they were able to fix up whatever happened to me to begin with. That, and for a different species, they are being pretty friendly.

Right then, I hear the door click, and in the doorway stands another one of them. She has pink hair, like Fluttershy’s, except it looks a shade lighter. She has a nurse outfit, which I find kinda strange, since the only other one wearing an article of clothing is Applejack. She has some form of a tattoo on her rear, it looks like a red cross surrounded by small pink hearts. In her hoof, she is holding some sort of envelope.

That must be whatever chart they were talking about just now. I have to say, I’m starting to wonder what I hope to see on there. I don’t think I have my name tattooed on me anywhere, so that’s out. My history isn’t in book form, not yet anyway. Maybe I can figure out how I got here, that might be good.

“We have the data from his recovery, and uh... well, just see for yourselves.” From the way her tone sounds, I don’t think I want to know what’s in that envelope.

She walks over to Twilight and hands the envelope to her.

Wait, why is it glowing purple?

The envelope floats in the air, levitating slowly to Twilight, who picks it up in her hoof. How did she just do that? I probably should say something, but nothing is coming out. It just doesn’t make any sense at all. And why was her horn glowing?

“H-how did you...” That’s all I could muster out. She looks at me with a confused look.

“What, my magic? Oh, it’s nothing.” Nothing?! You just levitated an object in the air without even trying, that doesn’t qualify as nothing. How do they even have magic? Maybe I shouldn’t tread on their bad side, I don’t want to find out what else her magic can do.

She proceeds to open the envelope and pulls out a small paper, this time not using her ‘magic’. The others gather around her and start reading the piece of paper.

Something about their expressions tells me that whatever is written in that paper isn’t very good. I only hope it isn’t some sort of flesh-eating virus or something. I don’t seem to have a craving for flesh. I don’t think I have a craving for anything at the moment. Maybe a snack would be nice, the more that I think about it.

“Dang, that’s gotta be tough.” Applejack says, without taking her eyes off the paper.

What exactly is on there? The suspense is killing me. Maybe I should ask.

“W-what happened?” I couldn’t say much else without sounding rude. Twilight puts the paper on a nearby table, giving me a somewhat nervous smile.

“I don’t know how to say this...” That is never good. I wish she would just tell me straight up, she’s starting to creep me out. She starts to walk toward me, her head shaking every so often. I know that I need to be told, but each second makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t have asked. She stops almost inches away from the bed, and clears her throat.

“You uh... How do I put this...” She scratches the back of her head, somehow. “There was an immense amount of trauma in your-” She is speaking too fast at this point, so I just tune her out. I did pick up on the words ‘amnesia’ and ‘brain trauma’ though.

So, amnesia, huh?

I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting that. Then again, I have amnesia, how would I?

“So, yeah...” She gives a sigh of relief. “How are you holding up?”

I can’t really answer that question with honesty, because if I said I was doing ok, it would be a complete lie. Maybe it’s better if I just don’t say anything at all. I give her my best pained expression, which isn’t very hard.

“That bad, huh?” Rainbow Dash says. “Well, when we found him, that was pretty much expected.”

Well, here goes nothing. I gather up all the strength I have left.

“What exactly happened to me?” Gah, that took a lot out of me.

“Well, we were all returning from an expedition into the Everfree Forest, when we heard something roaring in the distance. When we went to investigate, there was an Ursa Major going on a rampage and destroying everything in sight. Fluttershy had managed to calm it down, but when we were looking around for what had caused it to get angry, we found you, unconscious and bleeding through the back of your head.”

“You should have seen it, so much blood-”

“RAINBOW!” To say that I’m glad I don’t have to hear the rest of that would be a drastic understatement. Luckily, Twilight has my back. “Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted.”

“We took you back here to get treated and now, here we are.” She seems to have something else on her mind. “I am honestly surprised, though. Whenever an Ursa Major attacks anything, it injects it with deadly poison stored in it’s claws. Like a self-defense mechanism. ” With those odds, I’m surprised I’m laying here now. And how did that small yellow horse manage to calm a giant ravaging beast?

I look over at Fluttershy again, maybe I’m missing something. She doesn’t look particularly strong, or threatening, and anything that can take me down is obviously at least one of those two things. “I’m sorry, what?” I look back to Twilight, hoping she might be able to tell me more about how such a tiny horse would be able to calm down a terrifying beast with poisoned claws.

It sounds terrifying to me anyway.

“We found you in-”

“No, not that, the part where Fluttershy calmed it down. It just doesn’t-” I don’t want to say that it makes no sense, even though it doesn’t. That just seems rude.

“She’s actually really good with animals, she could stop a whole army of angry manticores with just one word.” I don’t know what a manticore is, but it sounds dangerous. If she could do that, then I really don’t want to mess with her. I see her hiding behind her hair again.

“So, where am I?” I know I’m in the hospital, that much is true, but what region is this?

“You are in Equestria, more specifically Ponyville. It was a long trek from the Everfree to back here, but we managed to do it.” Ponyville? Why does this sound like some sort of little girl’s fantasy? Maybe I shouldn’t refer to them as horses then.

I have so many questions right now.

“So, what happens to me now? I can’t remember anything from before.” I haven’t thought of the future, mostly because I am concerned with the past.

“The nurse is going to keep you here for a few more days to run some more exams on you. When you’re released, you will come and live with me for the time being until we can figure out something long-term.” She puts her hoof on my head to check my temperature. “But for now, relax. Too much stress will cause your blood pressure to raise too high or your wounds might open up again.” That sounds like something I don’t want at all.

“Me and the others will come to check on you tomorrow, but for now, get some rest.” Finally, I need the relaxation.

“So, wait, what are we gonna call him? We can’t just keep calling him ‘The injured dragon we found in the Everfree.’” Rainbow Dash chimes in.

“Hmm, you’re right, Rainbow Dash.” She puts her hoof to her chin and scratches it.

“Well, he does have pointed scales on his head...” Fluttershy says from across the room.

After about five minutes, Twilight finally lets out a gasp and puts her hoof up.

“We’ll call you...” Please don’t let my name be Sunshine Lollipops or something like that...

“Spike!” ...Really?

That’s all they could come up with? I’m sure the way they got that name was absolutely astronomical. I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

“Well, do you like it?”

No. “It’s fine.”

“Perfect.” Twilight gets up and stretches, while giving big yawn. “Well then, Spike, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Looking back, it could be worse. These ponies have been nice enough, and they even just gave me a name. It is a horrible name, but at least I have one now. Plus, they went through all that trouble of dragging me here and caring for me, so there’s that. My only question would be was what I was doing in that forest, I think it was the Everfree they called it.

I don’t know, but for now, I’m going to get some shuteye. I can tell these next few days are going to be taxing, what with me stuck in the hospital and all. Maybe it won’t be that bad, at least they’ll come and visit me. At least after that, I can get out of here.

Then I get to stay with one of those ponies, just long enough to … I still have no idea. Oh well, that’s a problem for future me.

Two days have passed, and I still don’t know why she needed to do some of those tests. I mean, testing my height to see if it would affect my brain? How does that even work?

I feel a lot better than before, the headaches have almost completely stopped and my wounds have healed enough to not have to wear a bandage. Though, I do have a lot of scars. Applejack also untied the ropes, apparently they wanted to make sure I didn’t do anything dangerous.

Now, here I am, with Twilight as she is preparing for me to check out. The nurse already made the bed behind me, preparing it for some other person. The fact that I still don’t know anything about where I’m going to be living should bother me, but it doesn’t. I’m just glad that I don’t have to be in a hospital anymore.

“Are you ready, Spike?”

Words cannot describe how ready I am. “I guess.” Those words definitely don’t describe it, why did I just say that?

“Oh, cheer up, it’ll be fun.” Fun involves going somewhere you don’t know about with somebody that you have only known for a few days? I seriously need to stop being so negative. Maybe if I ask her about her house, I can at least get some information about it.

“So, where are we going again?”

“That’ll be a surprise.” Then she winks at me, and I start to worry. It isn’t just the wink, it’s the fact that she’s taking me somewhere I don’t know. The wink is actually nothing to worry about. Why does she assume I’ll react well to surprises?

Maybe I should just look on the bright side of things. I doubt it would be anything bad. If they had wanted to do something bad, they likely would have just left me where I was. Positive thinking, Spike... that name is going to take some time to get used to. I don’t want to say anything about it, I’m afraid of getting on Twilight’s bad side.

She could probably do some scary things with her magic. The mere thought of it makes me shudder.

As soon as we head out the door, I almost get hit by something. When I look up, I see a weird gray pony with an embarrassed look on her face. “Oops. My bad.” Is she looking at me, or the floor?

“It’s ok, it was my fault for not looking where I was going.” I try to give my best smile, which seems to work. When I look, she’s gone.

Twilight looks back at me. “What happened?”

“Oh, it was nothing.” I catch up to her; I know that it’s better not to tell her. For all I know, that’s her sister and she’d get insulted. Maybe, with any luck, we can get to wherever it is we’re going without somebody dropping something else and almost smashing me in the head.

Even with the threat of random things dropping on my head, though, at least there’s fresh air. It’s relaxing for a change, definitely way better than the air in that hospital. Too gloomy, too depressing.

From the look of it, I say this is a pretty quaint town. There are various stone houses, a few buildings that look like shops with signs in front of them, and some ponies around that seem to be watering plants. The one thing that catches my eye is the giant gold statue of a pony that looks like Twilight, except she has a much longer horn and wings. She looks taller too. I can see a plaque, but I’m too far away to actually read it.

I follow Twilight to a place that has a bunch of stands with more ponies behind. Almost all of them have different types of fruit in them. At least I’m starting to see a trend here, nobody eats meat at all. Or maybe they do, but it’s frowned upon.

“Howdy, ya’ll!” A voice rings out, when I look to where it came from, I see Applejack behind one of the stands.

“Oh, hey Applejack.” Twilight walks over to her stand and I follow along.

The least amazing part is that she’s selling apples. I really should have seen that coming. Not like she was going to be selling berries or something.

“I see ya’ finally got out of the hospital.” I really have no clue how to respond to this, other than maybe nodding my head. “Must’ve been tough bein’ all cooped up in that room all day.”

“That’s an understatement.” She chuckles a bit to herself.

“So, Twilight, ya’ got that ‘surprise’ ready?” She winks at the word surprise, which makes me a bit anxious.

“He’s right here, Applejack...” Twilight says, giving Applejack a stern look.

“Sorry, sorry, ya’ know how I am with secrets.” Something tells me I should ask, but it’s better if I just stay quiet.

“Anyway, how are the sales coming?”

“Pretty slow day, but everypony that comes by is always lookin’ to buy apples, so it ain’t all that bad.” Everypony? What’s wrong with just saying everybody?

“Of course, everypony knows that apples from Sweet Apple Acres are the best in Equestria.” I still don’t understand why they use these names. “Hey, Spike, wanna try one?”

I could go for something that isn’t hospital food. And who knows? I might actually like these apples.

“Sure.” A gold coin levitates over to the stand, and a single red apple soon floats over to my hand. I open my hand under it, and it lands softly into it. I still don’t get magic...

Well, here goes nothing.

I take a bite out of the apple. It’s the single most delicious apple I’ve ever eaten. Then again, I don’t really know if I’ve ever eaten an apple before. At least I know I like apples. “This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten, what’s your secret?”

“Thank ya kindly, but I can’t tell ya the Apple family secret.” Another wink, I guess that makes perfect sense. If she just tells the secret to everyone, it won’t be a secret for long. Still, it would be pretty cool if I could make these for myself. I doubt she would tell me though.

“Alright, Applejack, we should get going. See you later then?”

“Definitely.”

With that conversation over, maybe I’ll get to see where it is that I’m going to be living. We head back on the path, as Twilight occasionally said hi to some passing ponies.

“So, what do you think?” Twilight says to me while we walk past another small house.

“It looks nice. I can see why ponies would want to live here.” I smile a bit.

“That’s good and all, but I was talking about Applejack.”

“Oh.” I chuckle a little, then look back. “She seems nice enough. Why?”

“Just wondering. Ponyville can be a bit overwhelming at first, so I want to make sure you’re feeling comfortable.” That doesn’t seem like it could be true, this whole village looks like the exact opposite of overwhelming.

“Overwhelming? What do you mean?”

“Well, when I first came here, it was a bit hard to get used to. I wasn’t really the social type at the time, so maybe it was just me.” I never would have guessed. The way people were greeting her, it seems like she’s pretty popular. “It was after I met the others when I started to open up to other ponies.”

Heh, maybe that’ll happen to me.

“So, how much longer till we get... there?” I can’t describe where there is.

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s only a little bit further.” Good, because my legs are getting tired.

Not a lot of talking happens for the rest of the walk, with Twilight occasionally looking at me with a weird grin on her face. It probably has something to do with whatever that surprise is. I really hope I like the surprise.

After a few minutes of silence passes, Twilight stops in front of some sort of tree with windows in it. All the other buildings pretty much paled in comparison to it. The front side of it is decorated with lanterns and such, and there are two balconies, both fitted with telescopes. There is a red door in front of me and Twilight, with a drawing of a candle on it.

“Well, this is it.” She takes a step back, obviously wanting me to go in first. A nod of my head, and then I do exactly what it is that she seems to want. I move over to the door, open it, and see a completely dark room.

Is this the surprise? A really dark room?

Better judgement tells me she wants me to go inside.

I walk inside, expecting nothing to happen. Two steps in, and I hear the pitter-patter of footsteps. I slow down my pace, before the lights burst on.

In front of me, Pinkie Pie is standing there with a party cap on her head and a party blower in her mouth.

Well, at least I know what the surprise is. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy appear from behind a table.

“SURPRISE!” All of them yell, even though Pinkie’s only a foot away from me.

“Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya?!” Pinkie says, jumping up and down.

I recover a bit from the shock. “Ahm... Err... Wha...?”

“Hee hee hee, I knew you would be!” She grabs me and pulls me to her side, while turning to the others. “Come on, everypony, let’s PARTY!”

Well, that was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

There were various activities that Pinkie planned, most of them I didn’t really know about until now. Pin the tail on the pony was a good one, surprisingly. The food was pretty great too. Applejack had made apple pies, apple fritter, pretty much anything with apples in it. I remember Rainbow Dash challenging Pinkie to a dance battle, and yet somehow Fluttershy won. She wasn’t even challenged and she won. I have no idea how she did that, but I don’t want to know.

Twilight, Pinkie, and I were the only ones left cleaning, everyone else had left because of different reasons.

There really isn’t anything wrong with that, the party had been pretty fun. The whole time though, I felt out of place. I mean, everyone was nice enough, but I kept having this nagging feeling like I shouldn’t be here. Maybe it’s because I still don’t know a lot about them beyond their names or that I’m a completely different species than them. Each of them, on the other hand, almost feel like they’ve known each other for their entire lives

“Aw, Spike, you didn’t need to help us clean, you’re the guest of honor!” Twilight says, as she finished cleaning up the last table.

“It’s no problem, Twilight. Besides, you did save my life and all...” I scratch the back of my head.

“That’s what friends do for each, Spike. It was no trouble at all.” Wait, what?

“Yo-you consider me a friend?” Why do I feel so touched by that?

“Why wouldn’t we?” This time, it was Pinkie Pie asking the question. “Everypony or um... dragon, should be given a chance!” That has to be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I’m really starting to feel glad that they found me instead of anyone else... errr …. more glad than I already was.

I don’t know why, but I just broke down right there. A few teardrops roll down my face, which Pinkie and Twilight see. Both of them have the same reaction. Within seconds, I’m being squished between two ponies. Literally squished, as in I can’t breathe.

“Guys... can’t... breathe!” They hear the sounds of my attempts to breathe, and loosen their vice-like grip. I take some deep breaths before talking again.

“Ooops, sorry.” Pinkie is quick to say. “Sometimes I get a liiiittle too carried away with my hugs.”

“It’s alright. Besides, I really needed that.”

I hear a yawn, and it’s coming from Twilight. A few moments later, I yawn as well. I think those things are contagious. Maybe it’s about time that we go to bed, but only after we finish up cleaning the huge mess left from the party.

Twilight waves to Pinkie as she leaves, leaving only the two of us.

“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” She looks at me as she closes the door with her magic.

“Definitely, a bit expected, but pretty good nonetheless.” I sit myself down on the couch.

“That’s all that matters. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about a few things since we are alone.” She comes over to the couch and sits a few feet away from me.

… How can she sit like that?

“Erm, ok, what did you need to talk about?”

“Just a few ground rules about being here, that’s all.” That doesn’t sound so bad. I know I’d want to lay down some rules if somebody was going to stay at my house.

“That doesn’t sound too bad, shoot.” As soon as she takes a deep breath, I begin to get a little worried. I know it can’t be that bad, though, they’ve been really nice enough so far.

“Don’t interrupt me while I’m studying, last time that happened, I nearly blew up the library. Secondly, the pantry and everything else is free to use, just don’t break anything. You’re free to read any books I have here, unless it’s been reserved for somepony. Also, I make breakfast at the crack of dawn every day, so make sure to get up bright and early. Everything else is pretty much common sense. Pick up after yourself, knock before you come into the bathroom, and that’s about it.”

All of that sounds more than reasonable, even the part about getting up early to eat breakfast.

“Oh, and don’t go into the basement without me. There are a lot of really fragile pieces of equipment down there.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.” It seems weird that a library would have sensitive equipment in a basement, but I’m not going to question it. This is her house, after all. Part of me wonders what it is that could be down in the basement. Sensitive equipment could be almost anything, really, as long as it’s fragile and expensive.

At least, that’s what I think when I hear that phrase.

Out of nowhere, a book starts to hover toward me. I can’t say that I had noticed it, but Twilight’s horn is glowing. That’s usually a telltale sign that she was using her magic. “And I was hoping to learn more about dragons while you’re here.” That’s a fair enough thing, it doesn’t seem like there are many to get information from. “So I want you to write down everything over the course of the next few weeks.” Her eyes are wide as she says that, and I gulp.

“After all, I won’t know what’s important until later.”

That only leaves the obvious question of where I’m actually sleeping. The couch isn’t so bad, but something tells me that I shouldn’t assume she’s going to make me sleep here.

“So, Twilight, where am I sleeping? The couch?”

“Of course not, you’re the guest.” Twilight motions for me to follow. “There’s a guest bed, that’s where you’re going to be staying.” I stand up and start following her, it would definitely be good to get some sleep.

Another yawn, and she is soon starting to move for her bed. “Goodnight, Spike.”

Right before I get into bed, I remember that I need to write something down.

Journal Entry #1

So, Twilight said I should start writing down stuff in this journal, which I agreed to. The only problem is I don’t exactly know what to write, besides the fact I’m the only dragon in a town full of prancing techni-color ponies.

Maybe that’s a bad way of describing them.

I guess I should just start out by writing what happened to me.

From what Twilight said, I was knocked out in some forest called ‘The Everfree’, after I was attacked by an Ursa Major. Whatever that is, I probably want to avoid it in the future.

Her and her other friends found me while they were coming back from some expedition. Which reminds me, I have to ask her what she was doing that day. They lugged me all the way back to Ponyville Hospital, where I stayed for about a week before coming here to the library. Now I just lay here on this really small bed that Twilight gave me.

I hope they make bigger beds than this.

I don’t know what to make of this whole situation. I mean, how can I react to it? I wake up in some hospital in a town filled with pastel ponies that know magic and can fly. Is that normal here? I have no clue, nor do I want to find out.

Writing in this thing is a really good stress reliever. Maybe it isn’t all that bad.

I wish I could rename myself, but I’m afraid of asking Twilight. I don’t know how she’ll react, since she seemed like she likes the name. But Spike feels… weird. Like it was meant to foreshadow something beyond the forces of reality into another dimension that I cannot possibly perceive with an inch of my brain.

Or maybe I’m going crazy.

Ok, I should sleep before I end up having to consult Twilight for counseling.

Signed, Spike (I really have to get used to this name)

Author's Note

Ah, finally, this chapter is out.

A question to you guys.

Are we making Spike too much of a douche? And if we are, then tell us and we will tune it down a bit.

Seriously, I don't want to portray Spike as giant walking paranoid asshole.

Other than that, hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

Friendship is a Virtue

That night, I barely got any sleep.

So many questions were rushing through my head, almost all of them having to do with what happened to me. Obviously, I couldn't answer any of them, since the only source of information I got was from Twilight.

Another thing was what was going to happen to me now. I mean, I'm a dragon in a town filled with ponies. Don't get me wrong, they've all been pretty friendly, but I just don't feel comfortable. Like I don't belong with them.

At least it's morning now, and I can ask Twilight some questions in private.

Light pours in from the window on the other side of the room, the rays barely reaching the foot of the bed. I notice a few things in the room that I couldn't see before.

There is a bookshelf adjacent to the door, filled with various items. Half of it is just books, while a few shelves have some picture frames. All of them have Twilight and some other ponies in them, which I assume might be her family or something like that. Next to the bookshelf is a small desk with a stacks of papers scattered across it. There are also some ink pots in a row, along with a quill to go along with them.

It's actually pretty surprising how much ink she has, I wonder how much she goes through on a daily basis.

Focus, Spike, you have more important things to do. Twilight has all of the information, and you have to go get it. There's also a need for food, something that my stomach readily agrees with. I remember what she said last night, she would be cooking food in the morning. That means that she's probably doing it right now, which obviously means I get to head down for some good food.

My stomach rumbles again, leading to the obvious question. What do ponies eat? Well, I guess I'm going to find out.

I pull the covers off, quickly doing my best to make it look presentable. I mean, it only makes sense that I make the bed. It’s weird, I find some coins under the bed. Maybe I should give them to Twilight. Not like I know what to do with them.

With the bed made, the only thing for me to do is head downstairs. I think I can smell something cooking, though I can’t quite place what it might be. Whatever it is, I’m sure that I’m going to like it. At least, I probably will. I take one last look over to the bed, to make sure that I’m done. I grab the coins and head out the door into the hall. I follow the smell to it’s source, which doesn’t take very long.

It seems like she hears me walk into the kitchen, as she quickly turns to me with a smile on her face. “Oh, there you are.” My eyes move from her to the breakfast, a grumble of my stomach soon bringing a blush to my face. “I hope you like pancakes, that’s one of my favorite things to eat in the morning.”

I pull the chair out, right across from Twilight, and plop down. “Thanks, Twilight, it smells pretty good.”

“No problem. I had to learn to cook for myself pretty quickly. Celestia couldn’t cook for me after a while.”

“Erm, Celestia? Who’s that?” If the look on my face didn’t say that I am confused, then I don’t know what does.

“Oh, I forgot, you don’t know that much about us.” This seems like a good of a place as any to start figuring out things about the place around me. “Celestia is the princess of Equestria. She raises and lowers the sun, and her sister, Princess Luna, raises and lowers the moon.”

That doesn’t seem real, it just doesn’t make any sense. She can still see the expression on my face.

“Hmm, how can I put this in an easier way to understand…” She gasps, and then raises her hoof. “Oh, I got it!”

She looks over to the bookshelf, and her horn starts glowing again. A book shimmies out from one of the tons of bookshelves she has, and levitates towards me. I grab it in mid-air and her horn stops glowing.

“That should give you enough information for now. If you have any specific questions, ask me any time.”

The book in my hand is actually pretty big. It’s a big brown book with what has to be a pony on the front. The pony itself is gold, or is painted gold, and the spine of the book also has small gold streaks on it. The book is titled ‘Equestrian History For Foals Volume One’. I open up the book, but before I start reading, my stomach rumbles again.

“Hey, Twilight, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m kind of hungry.”

“Oh.” It’s almost like she completely forgot that we are at the breakfast table. “Guess I just got caught up with the question…” A few pancakes start to levitate over to the plates, and soon enough they levitate over to us.

I look at the pancakes with a giant grin on my face.

“Don’t worry, they taste good.” I look up to see Twilight take a bite, and then poke at it. I wonder how she’s holding that fork. It isn’t magic, I would see the purple glow around it. I can barely wrap my head around this.

I grab the fork and knife next to me and take a huge bite of my pancake. “This is really good, Twilight.”

“I’m just glad there’s somepony else here to enjoy my cooking. I usually just cook for myself all the time.”

I take the last bite of my pancake, gulping it down instantly.

“Way better than hospital food.” She giggles a bit, before levitating a small glass of orange juice and taking a drink. I pick mine up, taking a drink as well. A good meal with a good drink.

“Anyway, Spike, make sure to read that at some point, because you might be a bit confused about what happens around here if you don’t.” I glance at the book one more time, then back at Twilight.

“I will, don’t worry.”

Before I know it, we’re both done with our meals. Before I can say anything, she levitates the plates and silverware over to the sink and starts to wash them. I walk over to stand beside her. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Sure, just dry the dishes and sit them down on the counter.”

~Dishes get cleaned~

“Alright, I thought it might be a good idea for you get to know this town more. After all, you’re going to be staying here for a while.”

I guess that makes sense. It might give me some idea about how I can get a place of my own. Twilight is nice, she would probably let me stay here as long as I needed to, but it might be nice to have a place of my own. “That actually sounds pretty good, considering we didn’t get to see much of it yesterday.”

“Alright, then it’s settled. Though, give me a few minutes to prepare. You should do the same as well, no offense, but you smell kind of… funny.”

Somehow I’m not supposed to be offended by her telling me that I stink. I take a whiff of myself, and my nose crinkles. Yep, I stink.

“Sorry… um, where’s the bathroom again?” She points towards the staircase.

“Upstairs, all the way down to the left. You won’t miss it.”

Now that I think about it, a shower sounds really good right now.

Ah, that is so much better.

I feel way refreshed now and I don’t stink anymore.

Now that this is done, I get to go see the town. I should probably also give Twilight those coins, too. I hold them out for a few moments. “Hey, Twilight, I found these under my bed.” With that, I hand them over to Twilight.

“Oh, thanks Spike. I was wondering where those had gone.” She levitates the coins towards her hoof.

“So, what are those anyway?” I feel kind of stupid asking that question, but I don’t actually know for sure what they are. I assume that it’s some form of money. I mean, what else can gold coins be used for? Still, it might be nice to know what they call them.

“They’re called bits. It’s our what we use as currency here in Equestria.” Bits… Well, at least it isn’t a cheesy name, like ‘Smile Currency’ or something. “But enough about that, there’s a huge town out there that we need to go see.” With that, the two of us left the library.

It’s a nice day, not a cloud in the sky. I hadn’t noticed before, maybe because I was in such a gloomy mood from not being very familiarized with this town. This actually isn’t such a bad place, the more I see of it. Something about just standing here makes me feel happy. That might sound pretty cliche, but it’s true.

“Oh hey, Twi!” From out of the sky comes Rainbow Dash, who keeps looking at me for some reason. I hope this isn’t something bad. Maybe it’s nothing, I really shouldn’t look too far into things like this. I am a stranger, after all. “I was wondering if you had the next Daring Do book?”

“Actually, they just came in a week ago, but you still have to return the last one.” I want to question what Daring Do is, but by the way she just glared at me, I doubt I want to ask her anything.

“Heh … well… I’ll turn it in soon.” Her attention is immediately turned to me for a split second, then back to Twilight. “I’m almost done reading it again, it’s just so awesome.” I could swear she squealed a little, but I’m not sure I heard that right. I know it’s better than to say something about that, though, it won’t end well if I do.

“Just try not to bend up the spine, alright. I’ve had to fix a few of them already…”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry so much. I told you I’d take excellent care of it when I borrowed it. After all, it’s from your set.” This seems to get a glower from Twilight, as if that point is the main one on her mind. I wonder what’s so important about those books, they must be ones that those two really like.

At that point, Twilight seems to realize that I’m standing right there. I look back at her, then over to Rainbow. I really don’t like being the third wheel here, but it doesn’t seem like Rainbow is going to do anything beyond the occasionally glance my way.

Suddenly, my stomach rumbles.

Now they’re both looking at me, and Rainbow is smirking. This definitely isn’t my best moment. I just ate a little bit ago, and now I’m hungry again. Twilight looks at me, she’s probably as shocked about this as I am.

“Huh, I guess dragons eat more than I thought.”

I can’t help but blush when she says that. “I guess we both learned something new today, Twilight.” That probably doesn’t sound as good as it did in my head, but it’s out there now. “Just … ignore me for a bit, Go ahead with what you were already doing.” Anything to take the focus off of me would be good, but it apparently isn’t going to happen.

“Actually, we have a few more things we have to do today.” Twilight turns to look at Rainbow. “I figured it would be a good idea if he saw the town. You can join us if you want to.” I don’t know if I really like the idea. It isn’t that I dislike Rainbow Dash, it’s just something about the way she looks at me that weirds me out sometimes.

Apparently, the feeling is mutual. She looks at me again, then back to Twilight, and sighs. “As much as I’d love to, I’ve got some weather work to do. Make sure to be careful, Twi.” That doesn’t sound good. It isn’t like we’re doing anything other than walking around town. “Remember how everypony reacted to Zecora. It wasn’t exactly the best.”

Oh, okay, so it isn’t me. Well, it is me. It isn’t that she dislikes me or anything, she’s just worrying about how everyone else around here will react to me. That makes sense. Then that leaves the question of who Zecora is. Eh, I’ll ask later. Also, weather work?

“Aw come on, Rainbow. We aren’t doing anything besides going around town. Are you sure you don’t wanna come?” That seems to make Rainbow think for a bit.

“Hmm… well, the sky is clear right now…” She shrugs. “Alright, I guess I got time.”

Rainbow flies over to Twilight and lands right beside her. I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but she seems to be keeping her distance from me.

“So, where are we headed?” Twilight looks over to Rainbow, and points down the road to a path that trails into dirt.

“I was going to take Spike and show him Sweet Apple Acres, then bring him to some of the places around town.” Oh goody, I get to go to a place called Sweet Apple Acres.

“Sounds good, I guess. I still owe Applejack those ten bits from that applebucking contest we had.” She chuckles. “Never diss a professional.”

I don’t know what applebucking is, but maybe that’s a question for Applejack. Her name does start with apple after all. I don’t know if I’ll ever really get used to these names, they still sound a little weird to me. I mean, it’s pretty hard to adjust to the name Twilight Sparkle, let alone Rainbow Dash. And then we have my name, Spike, which I really wish I would’ve said something about. You know what, maybe I should just drop it and move on.

I don’t know how long we’ve been walking, though I don’t mind. There isn’t really an awkward silence, but more of a peaceful one. This whole road looks like something out of a really cliche book. The trees were swaying with the wind, as the birds fly along them while chirping. For some reason it just felt… harmonious.

Huh, I wonder when I picked that word up.

Twilight seems to be thinking the same thing. Then again, I can’t really tell what her facial expression is right now. She always has that calm face on. Rainbow, on the other hand, seems to be doing her best to not look at me right now. All she’s giving me is occasion one-second glares, then continues to look forward.

“Anything wrong, Spike?”

I don’t know if I should really say anything. It might just be nothing. “Nothing at all, Twilight. This whole place is just so … nice in a way. A lot better than the hospital. It feels kind of nice to stretch my legs a little.” Rainbow sends a curious look my way.

“Speaking of stretching, you ever use those wings of yours? I heard dragons have amazing wingpower.”

Now that I think of it, I haven’t exactly tried to fly since I got here. I’ve been walking this whole time. I don’t even know whether or not I can move them.

“No… I haven’t really tried to.” With that, I attempt to move my left wing. I manage to get a small flap out of it, the wind going in Rainbow’s direction. The wind causes her mane to blow back all the way. I think I’m more surprised that Rainbow is, which is a difficult task given the expression she has right now.

“That is so-! I mean…” She folds her hooves across her chest. “That’s alright, I guess.”

Why did she get so excited for a second there? It’s not like I did anything special, just slightly moved my wing. A better question is why she doesn’t want me to know that she is excited about such a small thing. Then again, I don’t think I understand a lot about Rainbow. Maybe later tonight I should ask Twilight if there’s something wrong with her friend. I just have to make sure I word it better than that.

“You guys, quit messing around, we’re here.” Twilight says to us.

I look in front of me to see an enormous field, covering as much land as I can see. On the side of the field, there are trees scattered around in an orderly fashion. All the trees have apples hanging from them, as well as empty buckets beside them. To the left of that is a small farm, with a fence and gate in front with a hanging board that has a carving of an apple on it.

If this doesn’t scream apples, I don’t know what does.

“This is Sweet Apple Acres.” Twilight moves her hoof over the whole area. “It’s where Applejack and her family work, you remember her, right?”

I look up for a moment, making sure I remember the right one. “Yeah, she’s the one with the…” Weird accent? No, that’s mean. “Cool hat.” That seems like the best thing I can think of right now. Orange pony with an accent, blonde hair, and that hat. The hat seems to be the easiest way to distinguish her from the others. Since these ponies aren’t wearing any clothes and all.

“Usually you’ll see her bucking trees around the farm or helping around town.” I still have no idea what bucking means, but okay then. Almost as if Twilight can read my mind, she looks at me with a smirk. “You’ll see.”

We head off to the small dirt road that leads into the pattern of apple trees. As we walk through the underbrush of a few trees, I hear a smack sound come from somewhere. Twilight takes us around to the smacking sound, and we find the source of it. I’m surprised by what I see, Applejack is kicking trees. I’m sure this would make perfect sense if I knew much about this place.

“Yo, Applejack!” Rainbow calls out before flying towards her. Applejack returns to her four hooves before wiping sweat from her forehead with her hoof.

“Hey, ya’ll. Didn’t see ya’ there.”

The sight of a pony kicking trees doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary for the others, so I know it is safe to assume that this is a normal event. As the two of us get closer, Rainbow is already hovering near her, I am able to look into a bucket to see the fruits of her labor. The big surprise comes when I think about the fact that I have only heard one kick for that tree.

It is possible that she had kicked before, but I only have that to go by. If that is the case, then that is one really strong pony. I look at the bucket, then back to Applejack, then back to the bucket, and finally back to Applejack again. "Wow. Was that just from one kick?" That probably seems like an incredibly silly question and was kinda rude, but I'm curious.

Rainbow answers as Applejack opens her mouth. "You better believe it. She's easily the third strongest pony in Ponyville." I don't have to ask who she probably is counting as the strongest, though the second strongest is definitely something I should ask. I only know a few ponies, and none of them look like they're powerhouses. Then again, Applejack just surprised me. I look over to Twilight, who seems to have just pressed her hoof against her face.

"And just who are you sayin' is stronger than me, sugar cube?" I don't think she really needs to ask, considering how Rainbow has presented herself so far, but she seems to be asking anyway. The expression on her face shows that she probably has an idea of who her flying friend is going to say. At the very least, she seems to know one of the two ponies that's going to be said.

Rainbow just looks back at her with a smirk on her face. "Me and Big Mac."

"Big Mac and me,"Twilight quickly corrects.

"No offense, Twi. You're great at magic and all, but I'd hardly say you're one of the strongest in Ponyville. I'm talking about physical strength, after all."

At this point, Twilight just groans and rolls her eyes. I can't help myself, I chuckle at the fact that Rainbow doesn't understand what just happened. This is something that immediately earns me the glares of the two ponies that think I just laughed at them. They aren't completely off the mark, but none of the laughing was mean-spirited. It just amuses me, this entire situation.

Applejack just clears her throat and we all look over at her. "Now don't take this wrong, I love it when y'all visit. But I'm a mite busy right now. Can I do somethin' fer ya?"

That seems to snap Twilight to attention.

"Oh, right. I was actually just showing Spike around. I thought that since he's going to be staying around here, he should know something about Ponyville." Applejack just nods. "And what better place to start than Sweet Apple Acres. Without this farm, there wouldn't even be a Ponyville."

I look over at Applejack, wondering if this is the case, just to see a proud smile on her face. That's enough to tell me that it definitely is true. My expression changes to a look of shock. This is something that is caught by Applejack, who just nods in my direction. It's almost as if she's confirming for me that there isn't a single part of that whole thing that isn't true. "Yep, the Apple Family has been around here ever since Granny Smith found them Zap Apples."

That doesn't sound safe in the slightest.

"There's only one thing that I'm curious about." Twilight says right before I can ask anything about those apples. "Ponyville has been around for over three hundred hundred years, and Canterlot hasn't been the way she described it for about three hundred and thirty years." It seems like Applejack knows where this is going when she just shrugs.

"I don't know how she does it either. But the Riches know her from way back, they helped form this town because of that Zap Apple jam." Applejack looks up for a moment, as if she's contemplating something. "I know it might seem a bit strange, but sometimes I wonder how old Granny Smith is myself. But then I remember that it ain't important." I really wish I knew who these ponies were, hopefully I’ll be able to meet them. So at least I’m getting a bit of insight about these ponies, that’s good. That Zap Apple thing really peaks my curiosity though. While I’m still trying to picture the apple, Applejack gives me a weird look.

“Say, Spike,” I don’t know why, but it felt good that they remembered my name. Or at least, the name Twilight gave me. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Uh, sure Applejack, what do you need?” I really need to talk more, my voice was super strainy just then.

“Mind giving this tree a good whackin’? I wanna see how strong ya’ are.” That seems like a really weird question. Applejack puts her hoof on the tree next to her, which I assume is the one she wants me to hit.

“You want me to just hit it? No special way I should do it or anything?”

“Nah, just give it a good punch.” That seems easy enough.

I head over to the tree, Applejack backing away from me as I get closer to it. Twilight and Rainbow are already next to her, watching me as I prepare to punch the tree. I pull my fist back, before swinging it in full force towards the tree, striking the bark and chipping a bit of it away. Apples fall out of the side of it, landing into the the buckets next to the tree. I back away, not wanting to get bonked on the head by any of the apples.

“Nicely done.” She says as she moves towards the tree, one last apple falling in the bucket. “Let’s see how ya’ did…”

She looks up towards the leaves of the tree, examining it. Twilight and Rainbow just stare between me and her as she continues to view the tree. After a minute or so, Applejack comes back towards us.

“You actually managed to get all of ‘em. Better than most ponies do on their first try.” She chuckles a bit. “You’re pretty strong for a fella that just got out of the hospital.”

All I can do is scratch the back of my head. “Uh, thanks?” I give her a nervous smile before she tips her hat at me. “All I did was punch a tree…”

“Trust me, this is more than enough to feed a small family.”

First, we have Rainbow Dash asking me to flap my wings, and she had seemed fairly impressed, and now we have this. Applejack seems to be happy that I punched a tree hard enough for a decent amount of apples to fall off. According to her, all of the apples from the tree are now on the ground. I look up, just to make sure, and she’s right. There isn’t a single apple left on the tree.

Maybe I should be a little proud of myself.

I can’t help but smile at this point, though I do have to wonder if there’s going to be another request. There’s nothing that Twilight can ask me to do, though, so that’s okay. I look at Twilight for a moment, as if wondering if I’m right. Is there something she can ask me to do? She just looks back at me with a confused look on her face. That makes sense, it probably seems like I’m just staring at her for no real reason.

She then turns to Applejack. “Well, you seem really busy. I think we’ll be on our way. There’s still plenty of Ponyville for Spike to see.” Applejack tips her hat, then looks at me for a moment. I really wish I could say what these ponies are thinking. Even a small idea would be more than I have right now. The one thing I know is that Twilight wants to make sure that I know things about Ponyville. I don’t know why Rainbow just glares at me, and I don’t know if there’s something that Applejack is worrying about when she sees me.

I really wish I could read minds. I doubt people with brain damage can even think of that.

Time to get moving, I guess. From what I could tell, Applejack must have a pretty important job. From what they were talking about, there’s other ponies on this farm. Maybe I’ll get to meet them sometime in the future. Though, from the way Twilight is telling me to move, that might not be today.

We all wave off Applejack, as she goes back to… bucking? Yeah, that’s the word they use. I think she might have smirked at me right there, but I can’t tell. The sun was in my face and she was facing the tree.

Once again, we are walking on the same road, only this time back to town. The sun is still blazing as ever, with the occasional wind blowing in my face. I look over to Rainbow Dash, who is hovering above Twilight’s head. I can tell from her expression that she’s bored. She groans a bit, before facing Twilight.

“Can’t we just fly to Ponyville? This is taking way too long…” She droops her hooves down a bit, with the occasional wing flap.

“I would love to, Dash, but Spike here can’t use his wings, or at least I think he can’t.” She looks at me with curiosity, which I’m sure I know why.

“Nope, can’t do it.” I flap my wing for extra effect, which apparently frustrates Rainbow.

“Aw come on! All you gotta do is just keep flapping your wings and you’re good! What’s so hard about that?” Twilight facepal- hoofs, before facing Rainbow.

“Dash, you know it’s not as simple as that. Heck, if the Princess hadn’t helped me during my inauguration, I probably would’ve fell while I was flying. Besides, how would he be able to see Ponyville from the sky?” She does have a pretty good point.

“Ugh, fine… but isn’t there some way to get there faster?”

“Well, I could use magic, but I don’t know if Spike would approve.”

Wait, please don’t tell me she’s going to levitate me all the way towards town. No, no, that’s stupid. She probably means something else.

“Um… what kind of magic?” I give her a worried look, hoping she will reassure me.

“Just a simple teleportation spell. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you at all.” She mumbles something under her breath before facing me with a smile.

“I don’t know, Twilight, I’m new to this whole… magic thing.” That elicits another groan from Rainbow Dash.

“I thought dragons were supposed to be fearless. Quit being such a wuss! It’s just a little bit of magic. She uses it all the time, she’s an expert!” That triggers a blush from Twilight.

I really don’t know if I should do this. The fact that these ponies can even use magic freaks me out, let alone letting them use a spell on me. I mean, sure, all that I’ve seen so far is just levitation, but still. I don’t think Twilight would purposely mess up, and even Rainbow is backing her up.

“Alright, alright, I’ll do it.” I reluctantly say, as Twilight puts a giant grin on her face.

“Great! Now, all I need you to do is stand close to me.”

Me and Dash both close the distance between Twilight, as her horn starts to glow. All I can do is stare at the purple glow coming off her horn at this point, Dash seems to be doing the same thing. Suddenly, a giant flash of purple envelops me.

A giant light blinds me, going away as quickly as it came. I open my eyes, and see dirt. I get up quickly, wiping off dirt and soot off my chest. Wait, why was I covered in soot.

I look around, and see we are back at the market from before. The ponies don’t even seem to notice us, as Twilight and Rainbow seem to walk off like nothing. They must be used to this. I really hope I don’t have to go through that again, it felt weird.

I look in front of me, and see something I wasn’t really expecting me. It is a building, obviously, but it is way different than all the others. It’s baby blue, with a white streak pattern leading all the way to the top. There are various figurines of ponies attached to the top and around the building. There are two giant windows, with unnecessarily sparkled curtains. At the top of it all, is a small red flag.

I really don’t know what to think about it. This building seems a little … unnecessary. Whoever lives in there really should think about toning it down a little. I mean, I’m pretty sure I can spot this building from a mile away. Maybe a bit further.

“Woah, I didn’t expect to land right in front of the Boutique.” … Oh. No wonder it’s so flashy then. “I must be improving, that spell is a tricky one.”

“Oh no, not Rarity’s place… She’s gonna make me model for her again…” Before either of us can say anything, Rainbow Dash rockets into the sky and away from us. She must really be afraid of Rarity, if a dragon can’t get that response.

There is actually one question I probably shouldn’t ask, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Do ponies even wear clothes? I can’t say I’ve seen them wear any, but I haven’t really see that many ponies in the first place. There was Applejack with her hat, but a hat is hardly clothing. Oh wait, there was that nurse down at the hospital. I don’t know if the occasional pony wearing something is enough business to keep a store open, though.

“Err… where are we exactly?” I say to Twilight as she rubs dirt off her fur. She turns to look at me, a smile on her face.

“This is Carousel Boutique. My friend Rarity lives there.”

I try to remember which one had been introduced as Rarity. The one that comes to mind is a white pony with makeup. I remember that because not a single pony other than her wears it. That seems to fit with the idea of a fashion designer, I would think. Everything I see seems to serve one purpose, to remind me that I really don’t know anything about this place.

“She’s the white one, right?” I shrug, as Twilight giggles a bit.

“That’s one way to remember her. Now come, let’s see what she’s up to.”

The doorknob turns with the purple glow of magic. One of these days, that’s not going to surprise me I’ve seen it a few times now, and it’s still a surprise. Twilight just walks in, and I follow behind her. The inside looks just about like what I would expect. There are some things that look like pony with cloth on them, likely to help her make clothes, and then there is a pony wearing glasses as she puts together a dress.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were busy. We’ll come back later.”

Almost as if she just sees us, Rarity springs up from what she’s doing and quickly moves over to us. “Actually, I was just finishing up one more thing. If you’re able to stay for a couple of minutes, I’ll be right over.” It is around this time that she glances up to see that I’m standing right there looking at her. Her eyes seem to sparkle, and the biggest smile appears on her face.

“I didn’t know you were joining her, Spike. This is the perfect opportunity to see if this design I was working on turned out alright.”

I really don’t want to say yes, but it’s not like I have much of a choice anyway. Soon enough I’m being pulled over by what I can only assume is magic. As I’m pulled, I mouth two words to Twilight. ‘Save me’. It actually surprises me just how strong magic seems to be. At some point, I just give up the idea of actually getting away from whatever she’s about to do.

Everything becomes a bit of a blur for a while. By the time that I’m able to focus again, I’m staring in a mirror at what I hope is another dragon that looks just like me. Part of me says that I should just say thank you and try to get away, but that idea is cut off by the sound of laughing. It sounds like Twilight is having a lot of fun here.

“You were amazing, darling. I barely had to tell you to stay still.”

I just look at her for a few moments.

“But there’s something wrong here.” She is looking over me with a judging gaze. “No, no, that won’t do at all.” Piece by piece, the clothing is removed. I don’t know if I should really be happy about this, she doesn't seem to be happy. “I’m going to have to fix this.”

“Alright, Rarity, we’ll get out of your hair.”

At this point, though, she barely seems to notice that we’re there. All we get is a sound, kind of like she’s agreeing. I hear the door open again, and soon enough the two of us are leaving the building. In the end, I’m glad that she isn't too happy with it. Sometimes tells me that she’d want me to wear that as much as possible, and that will never happen.

Thank goodness I did not have to take that outfit with me...

Never Underestimate Crazy

“So, Twilight, where to next?” I can’t remember the last time I actually asked, I have just been following her wherever she seems to be going. It might be good to know where we’re going. I know that, logically, it is to see one of two ponies. She will either take us to see Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie. Actually, in a shocking change of pace I happen to have both of their faces in my mind.

Whoever we see next, I’ll actually be able to say I remember them.

“I was thinking we’d go see Fluttershy next. On our way back, we can go see Pin-“ Maybe it is because I just looked away, but I have no clue what just happened. Obviously she means Pinkie Pie, right? I look over to see that she had meant Pinkie Pie, but her plans seem to have just changed. I see Pinkie Pie right there, laying on top of Twilight.

“Gah. Pinkie. Where did you come from?” That is a really good question. Another good question is what it feels like to have a pony smashing you. That’s something that I won’t be asking, though, it doesn’t seem like much of a good idea. Instead, I move over to Twilight and reach out. As soon as I touch Pinkie, she starts to giggle.

“Oh my gosh, who’s tickling me? That feels way different than hooves.” I have no clue how to react beyond letting go and taking a step back. It seems like Twilight doesn’t like this, but it just seems weird to start tickling Pinkie. Besides, it might just make things worse if she starts flailing around. She might kick me, or she might kick Twilight. Either of those things would be bad.

“Oops.”

When Pinkie Pie hears my voice, I notice her ear twitch. She quickly jumps off Twilight and soon lands on me. “Spikerooni, so glad to see you.”

Spikerooni? I don’t know if I like that name. I also don’t know if she’s going to change it if I don’t like it.

“Errr…. Thanks? It’s nice to see you too, Pinkie Pie.”

“Oh, you can just call me Pinkie. All of my friends do.”

There’s that word again. It seems like these ponies are pretty friendly, or at least the ones that I have run into are. There’s no reason to assume the others aren’t, actually. “Alright, Pinkie.” I look over to Twilight, who is back on her hooves by now, who just shakes her head at me. I really don’t know what it is about these ponies, but they do seem to take charge fairly quickly.

Pinkie Pie is no exception.

“I was actually wondering if you could get off me, Pinkie. I’m sure you have something more important to do than just lay here on me.” Pinkie just giggles and nods before leaping onto her hooves a good five feet away.

Actually, that’s a pretty good distance.

“So, Pinkie, is there something I can help you with?” Twilight finally gets Pinkie’s attention, who initially responds to her by walking over to her with serious look on her face. I don’t know what this is about, and I’m not sure I need to know. Actually, I’m fairly certain that I’m going to know sooner rather than later.

“Actually, I should be asking you that.” That doesn’t even begin to make sense. Pinkie Pie is the one that just showed up, and now she’s asking if we need help. “I got an eye twitch, itchy left back leg, and chatter teeth. That either means that I’m needed for the story or that my Granny Pie is getting hip surgery. And I know my Granny doesn’t need another round of surgery yet.”

I look at Twilight, she blinks a few times. It seems like neither of us know that’s going on. What does she mean story? I decide to just let Twilight deal with this one, or at least I hope that Twilight can deal with this one. She just keeps staring at Pinkie Pie, as if any moment she’s going to get some sort of epiphany that will make all of this make sense.

I’m starting to think that she isn’t going to be able to deal with this on her own.

“Err… anyways, Pinkie, we were actually heading over to Fluttershy’s if you want to come with us.” Twilight seems to move her hoof to her forehead, inhale and exhale, then return to her normal peppy self. I grin as I look at Twilight, I can tell that this just might work. There’s a giant smile on Pinkie’s face when I ask.

Actually, scratch that. There is always a big smile on Pinkie’s face, or at least almost always, from what I’ve seen. When she starts to hyperactively nod, that’s when I finally am able to say with all certainty that she’s alright with the plan.

“That’s a super-terrifically-awesometastic idea.” I don’t even think that last thing is a word. Something tells me that it won’t do any good for me to say anything at all anyway. I look from Twilight to Pinkie and back to Twilight. “Besides, I’m supposed to be going over to Fluttershy’s at some point to plan the party for Angel’s next birthday. According to what she told me, it should be coming up in only 29 days. Do you know how little time that gives me to plan the perfect party for him?!”

Twilight just sighs and shakes her head. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine, Pinkie. There’s no party like a Pinkie Pie party. Heck, you were able to come up with a party for Spike here over the course of … I don’t even know how long. It wasn’t long, I know that. Maybe a couple days?” She looks over at me, then back to Pinkie. “If you need any help, though, the library is always open to you. Who knows? Maybe you can find a nice book on the subject.”

With that, Twilight turns and takes a single step. Well, no better way of letting everyone know that it’s time for us to head out. “But for now, we should really head over to Fluttershy’s. We have so little to do and so much time.” She doesn’t notice my look of confusion, but she does catch the problem. “Actually, switch that. So much to do, so little time to do it in.” I hear her chuckle, and it seems like Pinkie can’t help but join in.

Soon enough, it spreads to me.

Regardless of how funny it is, though, Twilight is right. There are a lot of things that we need to do today and not enough time to do it if we just stand around.

As we start heading off, Pinkie seems to bounce with every step. Before I could ask, Twilight gives me an impatient look and we go off to… wherever we’re going.

Wow, Pinkie can talk a lot.

I can’t even keep up with half of it. The topic seem to flow from one to another, with barely anything connecting the two of them.

That’s actually a relief on my part. I doubt I would be able to keep up a topic of conversation without it going awkward. Twilight just seems to nod off everything she says with a smile and keeps moving on.

“And THAT, is how muffins are made!”

I seem to remember very little that actually has to do with muffins. I don’t even get the connection between mane styles and chickens, and how any of that connects to muffins.

A zipper covers Pinkie’s mouth, which I find more than a little disturbing. Twilight looks over to us with her horn glowing. I hear some weird sounds, almost as if Pinkie’s still trying to talk despite the fact that her mouth is zipped shut.

“Pinkie, we’re here now.”

I look ahead of me, and well… I’m not actually surprised by this anymore. There’s a house that looks entirely made out of grass, with a small part of wood as it’s foundation. There are a ton of tiny trees around, all with tiny birdhouses hanging on their branches. There’s a tiny river flowing through the path, with a bridge going over it. Hummingbirds seem to be flocking about, singing while they are flying.

Around this time, I look to see a glaring white rabbit looking at me.

I don’t know what is up with this rabbit, but something about it staring at me just gives me the chills. I try not to pay any attention to it, but it just stares on. Twilight and Pinkie don’t seem to notice it. Maybe I should act a bit more dominant.

I glare back down at the rabbit, who has it’s… paws crossed and tapping its leg.

“Hey, it’s Angel!” Angel, huh? I don’t know if that’s the name I would have chosen. Regardless, he soon seems to disappear from out in front of me. I look over to see that Pinkie Pie is holding him up a couple of inches in front of her face. “How’s my favorite bunny doing? We were coming over here to see Fluttershy, maybe you’ve seen her around.” She then points him at the cottage, and then looks him in the eyes. “Please tell us she’s in the cottage. PLEASE?”

Angel seems to squirm around in her hooves for a bit, eliciting a giggle from Pinkie.

“Aw, Angel, I would love to dance! But not right now, we need to see Fluttershy!” I laugh a bit at this, as Angel facepaws from it.

Angel points over to the small cottage, as Pinkie plays with him a bit before letting him down.

“Ohhhhh. You were telling us that she is in her cottage.” She pats him on the head, then bounces off toward the cottage. “Come on, guys, he says she’s right in there. And that’s why we came here, right?” Pinkie stops for a second, taps her head, and then goes back to bouncing the few more steps until she gets to the cottage door.

Then she knocks with her face.

I … words can’t even describe how weird that is. Twilight and I move next to her, as she continues bouncing on. Nothing happens, nobody comes to the door, so Pinkie starts to knock again. I have to wonder if that hurts her face to do that. As she finishes knocking on the door, I start to hear something.

I don’t know what it is, but it sounds…

Pretty soothing actually.

It’s sounds like singing. No, more like humming. Along with it, I can hear a bunch of hummingbirds next to whatever is humming. Twilight and Pinkie seem to notice and go quiet. I’m actually surprised Pinkie went quiet. Twilight seems to know what is humming.

The door creaks open, as Fluttershy shows up in the doorway.

“Oh, hi, I almost didn’t hear you there.” At first, she doesn’t even seem to notice that I’m standing there. It’s almost as if part of her brain just wants to edit me out. She seems to be happy enough, a smile on her face that seems to be from the prospect of seeing her friends.

Then she turns to look at me.

To be honest, I was expecting her to be scared. From her reaction at the hospital, I thought she would. But she’s just standing there, with a smile on her face, and says hello to me. At this point, I have a confused expression on my face as I wave at her awkwardly.

“Is there something wrong?” She says to me, while I stand here with a stupid look on my face.

“Uh… n-no.” Why am I so shocked right now? She’s not doing anything that I can possibly consider scary.

Before she can say anything back, a loud crash comes from inside her cottage… thing, making me, Twilight and Pinkie take a look inside the door.

“Oof, I have to attend to that… come in and just make yourselves at home…”

I’m not going to question what that was, since Twilight and Pinkie are already making their way inside.

I head to the door, ducking under it due to its small size, and enter the small house.

… Why are all these houses so weird looking…

This cottage looks like the very definition of an animal person. Rat holes are scattered everywhere as far as I can see, even in the walls with a little ladder to get to them. Aside from that, there are a lot of bird cages, I can count at least three without turning my head. A few decorative paintings are on the wall, above very lightly colored couches and chairs. Just a few paces away is a staircase, that I would assume leads to her bedroom, or maybe even more animal hiding spots.

“Just… um… just take a seat, I’ll handle that… While I’m at it I’ll get some tea.”

I took slow strides to make sure I didn’t step on anything, or on an animal of some kind. I arrive at the couch, resting myself against it gently. Twilight does the same, but Pinkie decides to jump on the couch.

I will never understand how she can jump that far.

As I lean back on the chair, a loud crash comes from the room next to us. Twilight and Pinkie seem to notice as well, as we start to hear different noises. I think I even heard some form of a banshee in there…

“Oh no… please stop that… if you don’t mind that is…”

… Is this how she handles all these animals?

Soon enough, whatever was causing all that noise seems to stop. I lean back in the chair a bit, sighing to myself.

Funny enough, when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, a few birds fly right in carrying a tray on their back with some teacups.

Just… how. Maybe it’s best not to question these things anymore.

The birds land on the small table in front of us, letting the tray slide onto the top of it and then proceeding to fly off. Part of me wants to know how exactly she trained those birds to do that. I can only imagine how useful it would be to have birds carrying my things for me. Maybe if I ask her some time, she'll let me know. Right now, though, I think it's better if I focus on the things that are happening in the present.

Soon enough, Fluttershy trots into the room, still humming something to herself.

"Sorry about that, Angel was having one of his panic attacks. Don't know why though..."

Angel... does she mean that really weird bunny that Pinkie was harassing earlier?

"No problem, Fluttershy, we were just here admiring Spike's ability to be incredibly silent." I look at Pinkie with a confused look on my face. Admiring my what? "I bet he could beat you at that game you were telling the girls about that one time."

"You mean the... quiet game?" Why do I not like where this is going?

"Yeah! I think Spikey here is going to give you a run for your bits!"

From the look on Fluttershy's face, she probably can't tell where this is going either. Pinkie is still sitting there with a beaming smile on her face, from the looks of it, I think she’s expecting something to happen at some point. For some strange reason, I am really expecting her to pull out her cannon. I really hope she doesn’t…

“So Fluttershy, how are the animals doing?” Twilight thankfully chimes in. “I hear they can be pretty rough this time of year, especially with Winter coming in a matter of months.”

“Oh… yes… they can be a handful…” Fluttershy seems to just shake herself back to reality before quickly answering Twilight’s question. “I just hope none of the Everfree creatures get crazy again, you know how they tried to… take my chicken coops that I have in the back…”

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I’m sure that was just a one time thing!” Twilight nervously giggles before leaning back on the chair.

For a few minutes, everything was just awkward… Twilight would make the occasional sound while sipping her tea, and Pinkie is just playing with her hair. I think maybe I should break the ice at this point. What to say though…

“So, Fluttershy… what do you do for a living?”

“Oh… um… I take care of the animals that I find in need of care and among those things…”

Ok, that was a really stupid question on my part. That should have seemed obvious from her house alone. Alright, next question…

“Animals? What kind?” That seems like a way better question. She seems to ponder a bit before answering.

“Well, it’s mostly injured ones, but sometimes I would find lost pups or stragglers, and I would usually keep them until I take them back to their natural habitat.”

“When did you first start taking care of these animals?”

Twilight gives me a grin, and Pinkie gasps a lot louder than what one could expect.

“Ooh oh oh! I wanna say it, I wanna say it!” Pinkie starts shaking in her seat before Twilight shushs her.

“Now, Pinkie, why don’t we let Fluttershy tell him?” Pinkie settles down in her seat, before nodding.

“Well…”

~An hour later~

As we were walking back to the library, I still have so many things to ask about that story. Summer flight camp? Cloudsdale? Rainbow Dash can do something called a Sonic Rainboom? I had to put a hand to my head to keep myself from getting a headache.

We came up on a odd looking building, and while I do use the term odd, I’m pretty sure it’s normal compared to what I’ve seen so far.

It is a cake with windows and a door on it. I seriously cannot find any other way to describe it. It isn’t an actual cake, but it’s decorated heavily to look like that of a cake. At the very top of it is giant cupcake with what looks like candles in it. Like most of the other buildings, this one has a sign on it, this time with a picture of a cupcake.

Pinkie still somehow manages to jump about four feet into the air, landing square in front of the door, giving me and Twilight a giant smile.

“Oop, I should head inside, Mr and Mrs. Cake are waitin’ for me to close up shop!”

“Oh darn… I was really hoping that we could grab something to eat.” Now that I think about it, I am pretty hungry from the whole day. I never even noticed that it was already getting dark out.

“Aw, don’t worry, Twi, you and Spikey here can come by tomorrow. It’ll be on the house!” Pinkie gives the both of us a big smile, which I’m starting to like now, before she somehow zooms into the pastry-decorated shop.

“That’s Pinkie for you, doesn’t even let you say goodbye.” Twilight giggles before looking towards me. “You ready to head back, Spike?”

“Yeah, definitely.” We both nod to each other before we begin walking back to the library.

The door shuts behind me as I practically flop myself onto the couch, my exhaustion from the day finally catching up. Twilight lazily sets herself next to me, as we both sigh.

“That was actually pretty fun, Twilight.” I look up at her and smile. “It’s gonna take some getting used to, but I think I’ll like it here.”

Twilight returns the smile. “Glad you think so, Spike. You should really get to know the others, they can be the bestest friends you’ve ever had.”

“Heh, I guess.” I look towards the small coffee table, and I see the book that Twilight gave me, Equestrian History I think it was called. I should really take the time to read this now, since everything’s well and done.

“I think I should finally start reading this book you gave me, Twilight.” Twilight gave me a glance, as if she was trying to remember what book it was, before she suddenly realized.

“Ooooh, that book. Yes, you really should read up on it, Spike. That is only the first volume, there’s ten more afterwards… and then you have to read the non-foal volumes as well…” She gives me an innocent smile.

“Oh… well… I guess I should get started then, huh?” I nervously chuckle, before grabbing the book and opening it to the first page.

Journal Entry #2

Well, I finally got around to reading that history book Twi gave me. It wasn’t that hard to understand, I guess. I know the basics now. From what the book said, there’s apparently three races of ponies. Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies. Unicorns use magic to their will (which should’ve been obvious from Twilight.) Pegasi have wings and can manipulate weather, because something allows them to walk on clouds.

Earth ponies have special talents that the other races don’t, kinda like Applejack and her ability to be able to kick a tree and get a bunch of apples. There’s one more race, called an Alicorn, which have both wings and horn. There’s only four alicorns in the world right now, one of which is Twilight. Then there’s these other three ponies called Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who are the goddesses of the land. And then there's this Princess Cadance, who is apparently the Princess of Love.

Then the book mentioned a whole bunch of stuff like some dude named Discord, and something called ‘The Elements of Harmony’. And then it says how one of the princesses turned evil and became something called ‘Nightmare Moon’.

There is a whole lot of stuff here to absorb. But hey, at least I know something now, right?

Signed, Spike.

Author's Note

Yeah, sorry about the delay of this chapter. Oh, and the word count too. I promise to deliver more in the next chapter.

Next chapter is going to be a week ahead.

Prologue: In With A Roar.

Ugh, Drauxie, why do you always love getting yourself into these situations?

I swear, I never can understand him. One minute, he begs to leave the cave, and when he finally gets that opportunity, he decides to slug around in the cave all day.

Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know. He can stay here all day if he wants. I’m going outside to explore, this is pretty much my chance to, after all. I waved off to Drauxie, who just waved back and curled back into his covers, his wings barely sticking out.

I navigate myself back to the cave entrance, which isn’t very hard since I know it like the back of my claw. The light was blinding at first, but my eyes adjusted. I am now overlooking the cliff that the cave rested on, giving me an amazing view of the forest. I scan the horizon for any storm clouds that might threaten a peaceful day. Even if it doesn’t rain much in the mountains, it is still a hassle. That’s pretty much proven through all the landslides along the face of the mountain range.

I wonder if Nautilus would want to go for a hike today? I mean, sure, last time he almost got amputated by that serpent, but it was sort of his fault. He’s the one that went all gung-ho into the swamp without any care in the world. I think his wound is healed up though, us dragons do have that special regenerative trait anyway.

I still remember the look on his parent’s face when I took him home. If I would’ve stayed just a few more seconds, I would probably be vulture scraps right now. I think Nautilus’s parents are a bit overprotective. Sure, your son just got heavily injured by some unknown beast in the wilderness, but don’t go trying to kill me for it.

Maybe I’m just being melodramatic again.

Well, regardless, I should check up on him. He’s probably all miserable stuck in his cave, snacking on his parents endless horde of gems. He is so lucky that he’s royalty. Good trait about him is that he doesn’t go parading around like he owns the place. Otherwise, I would’ve ditched him years ago.

I extended my wings and flew off towards his side of mountain, hoping I wouldn’t get snared by his gods-for-parents. He did tell me that they were off on some huge raid/expedition or whatever. I’ve always wanted to go on one of those, yet my folks would never let me. Probably because most of the dragons that go don’t come back.

I know they have the best intentions. They’ve always been pretty considerate people, even if they like to be a bit more greedier than the rest of the dragons. I could never submit to greed, too much work and it leaves you with a horrible conscious. Here and there, there has been fights regarding more... personal issues, but I still loved them. They’re family, y’know.

Dad is quite the interesting character, now that I look back at it. Every year, he would make up a new ‘tradition’ and force the family into complying. We didn’t really have any say on the matter, considering that Dad was ten times bigger than me and Drauxie combined. Mom never complained that much, but I could tell she hates it.

Mom is really the top gun when it came to family events and such. When she heard about the whole ‘tradition’ thing, she knew why. Dad was always a giant suck up to authority and when he saw the royal families doing this whole ridiculous ordeal, the idea just popped into his head. Still, she was somewhat interested at the idea and decided to give it a try. I think she regrets that decision.

All this time I’ve been thinking to myself, I didn’t realize that there was a giant mountain in front of me, just waiting for me to crash into it. I quickly scissor rolled and avoided the imminent collision. Not gonna get me today, mountain. I was relatively close to Nautilus’s cave as I could see it just a few miles ahead. I wanted to see him as quick as possible, so I can have more time to explore for myself. If he wants to go, fine, but he better hurry up.

I landed near the cave entrance and stepped in, thankfully not having to grab a torch and light it. Nautilus always liked the light, which was sort of ironic in a cool way. Considering a normal dragon’s behavior is to sit inside a dark, damp cave, Nautilus was different. He liked to be high and dry. Did that come out right?

I heard the usual cooing of his pet phoenix, Lars.

Oh man, I remember when Nautilus first got that bird. It was the first thing that would pop up into his mind whenever I tried to have a mutual conversation with him. If I remember correctly, his dad snagged one of their eggs before it had time to hatch. Apparently, it hatched right when he was going to eat it and the bird started causing trouble. Nautilus came and calmed the bird down with one command and he begged his dad to keep the bird. After an hour or so, he finally agreed and the phoenix is where he is today.

I still wonder about that name, Lars. It’s a really weird name for a pet bird. When I asked him about it, he would get pouty and be like “And Razzie isn’t a weird name?” or something like that. I hated when he would get all snooty like that, but I endure.

Still, it’s pretty impressive he managed to get a pet phoenix. Seeing one around here is a rarity, let alone managing to tame it and keep it locked in a cage. Well, not locked up necessarily. I’ve seen Nautilus flying around with Lars on his shoulder a few times before.

I rounded the corner to see Nautilus feeding Lars while keeping his attention averted to the infinite mountain of gems he had stacked in front of him. I could tell he was pretty much in a trance, since he was overfeeding Lars and he was drooling like a dog.

I snapped my two digits together, only getting wind between my fingers as his undivided attention was still focused on those gems. I waved my hand in front of his face, only to get dead air once again. As a last resort, I got up behind him and plucked one of his loose scales, making him wince in pain. He looked over to me in anger, which made me laugh a bit.

He realized the bag of bird food that he completely emptied out in his hand and went to picking up the abundant amount of food and placing it inside the bag.

I saw he was wearing his usual red scarf around his neck, which he always wore as an accessory. He said something about it giving him good luck. Clothes as good fortune wasn’t exactly a thing for me.

“Yo.” I shot him one of my two-fingered salutes, which he returned back. “How’s your leg holding up?”

He finished picking up all the food, leaving the appropriate amount for Lars to eat. He looked over to me, setting the bag down and rubbing the spot that I ripped the scale off. “Eh, I can walk. Also, you didn’t have to rip off one of my damn scales. A simple ‘WAKE UP!’ would’ve been polite.”

“If I did that, we would be buried from head to tail with snow. Anyway, I was wondering if you were willing to go on another expedition. I got the day off from all my chores and I know your parents are away at the northern lands.” I looked at the red scale in my hand and held my hand out to him. “You want it back? Maybe the scale fairy can give you a gem in return.” I snickered a bit at him, which seemed to make him frustrated.

“Dude, you know that’s for hatchlings. Besides, I’m already rollin’ in the gems.” He looks at his leg, which had the scar from the serpent incident. “I don’t know man. I like this foot, I use it all the time.”

“You say that putting a scale under your rock is for hatchlings, yet you act like one.” He looked at me in anger again, which made me giggle a bit. “I’m kidding, cool your jets. I promise we won’t go near the bog again. We won’t have another chance like this, y’know...”

That was especially true, especially since the way our family has been since the whole Dragon Migration thing. Dad was devastated when he heard he wasn’t eligible. Mom, me, and Drauxie have been trying to cheer him up since. Thankfully, he’s recovered, he just regrets all the time he wasted training. Since then, he’s been a bit more strict on us leaving the cave. Drauxie doesn’t mind that at all, but I’m a bit more different on that topic.

“Alright, fine, but if I get hurt, it’s on your ass.” Weird, Nautilus rarely cursed.

“My body is ready.” We start laughing in unison, as he gives me a quick playful punch on the shoulder.

I saw him lock up Lars’s cage as we left the cave and started flying over to the forest.

We were having idle chit-chat about random things, mostly about the more recent events happening around the lands. Same old stuff every year, I grow bored of the topic and change the subject quickly.

“Hey, Nautilus.” I gave him a quick tap to get his attention.

“What’s up?” He looks towards me, while still keeping some of his attention flying.

“You ever wonder...” I point a claw over to the uncharted areas that most dragons have never been to. “What’s out there?”

He rubs his chin in deep thought, delaying his answer as much as possible. “Never really thought about that, Razzie.” He gave me a look of seriousness. “When did you start thinking about that?”

I look over to the vast unexplored area again. “I don’t know, it’s just...”

“Look, promise not to tell anyone?” He gave me a smile, assuring me that I could trust him.

“Alright, listen.” I come a bit closer. “I’m tired of the dragon lands. It’s gotten way too boring for me and lately, I’ve just been wanting to... leave, y’know?”

He looks at me with a stern expression. “Look, Razzie, I can’t stop you from doing what you want and neither can any other dragon. But what you’re looking for may not be what you’re expecting. I know you just want to know more about the world, but be careful about it.”

He is right, who knows what might be out there? Dragons that go beyond that point don’t usually come back and they don’t send any search parties either. Still, it’s tugging at me violently. What is out there that dragons can’t see? Just thinking about it was urging me to go bulleting over, but for now, I had to tend to Nautilus.

I playfully punch him in the shoulder, making him recoil a bit and smile. “When did you get so much insight, know-it-all?”

“The moment you mentioned the word ‘insight’.” He laughs at bit at his own pun.

“Ey, Nautiluuusss.” I give him a sly smile before extending my wings to full length and rocketing off. “RACE YOU TO THE CLEARING!” I yell as he tried to catch up.

“You freakin’ cheat!” I hear him yell back at me. I smirk as we got to the usual clearing in record time, of course, with me ahead.

We were both panting heavily, until it came to the point where we were breathing a light fire out of our mouths. I laid down on the grass as I saw him cross his legs and sit in front of me.

“Good... race...” I say while still hyperventilating. I hear him groan lightly.

“Well, no shit, you got an unfair head start.” he said as he slumps a bit.

“Maybe if you quit snacking on gems so often, you might just be able to barely catch up to me.” I snicker a bit at that comment as he just calmly sighs. Nautilus always has been a sore loser when it came to competitive events. “I’ll let you choose where we hike, I’m too beat to think.”

He starts scanning the clearing, looking at the past spots we’ve been before. The springs, Deadpoint Hill, and the bog. He shudders as he looked back at the bog and put his claw on his leg. I feel a wave of guilt wash over me, but quickly shrug it off. He comes back to me with disappointment.

“We’ve already been everywhere, where else are we gonna go?”

Hearing that makes me a bit curious. I always knew we would end up exploring everything eventually, I just didn’t think we would do it so fast. I start rubbing the back of my head while still trying to think of an answer. I can tell Nautilus was growing impatient, the stomping on the ground is obvious enough.

The truth was, I couldn’t answer that question for the life of me. My nervous face is enough to tell Nautilus I have no idea.

“Well, what now? Should we just book it back home?” I get up and stretch out a bit. I don’t want to waste a perfectly good day on the account that there is nothing to do. Yet, I have no choice. We’ve explored every single nook and cranny in this area and we can’t exactly go anywhere else. Defeated, I look towards Nautilus. He is a bit disappointed too.

“You’re right. Let’s go. Maybe we can get a nice ruby to eat or something.” Nautilus nodded and he flew off ahead of me. I slowly started to ascend after him, still looking over the place. It sucks that this place didn’t have anything else to offer. At least it’ll make a nice place to hang out. I gave the place one last scan before I flew off after Nautilus.

I was really looking forward to that hike, too.

While I was still thinking, I didn’t realize I was way behind Nautilus. He yelled at me to pick up the pace. I increased my speed a bit, until my attention got diverted back to the forbidden lands.

Why was my mind drifting off towards that place again? I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but something about that place just seems so... mesmerizing. Even with all the rumors revolved around it, it still seemed to haunt me. My mind was flustered in ways I couldn’t even imagine and now it was just getting worse. Nautilus was getting impatient, I could tell by the way he’s practically screaming at me.

Was I really going to do this? Was I really going to take this foolish feeling and encourage it?

The answer is yes.

“Hey, Nautilus, you go on ahead, I... uh... left something at the clearing.” I waved over to him as he kept flying slowly, but still in shouting distance.

“Alright, meet me at Red Ruby when you find whatever you need!” He shouts back. I feel so bad just ditching him like this. He’s royalty though, if something were to happen to him, I would get blamed and I might be executed. I almost was from before, and that was sheer luck.

Alright, I already sent Nautilus off, too late to turn back. For some reason, as I started to head over there, the feeling of curiosity starting turning into a feeling of dread. Funny how I was roaring to rocket over there in a few seconds and now I’m hesitant. I guess that’s expected.

The flight over was slow, I’ll give myself that. I didn’t know where I can land, so I stop right by the small boundary line that the founding dragons had set up here. Of course, I doubt anyone has ever bothered to clean it up and fortify it. Just looking at it, I can tell it is ancient. It was literally a big, rusted, chain link fence covered with barb wire at the top. Looks like they forgot about dragons having wings.

I do a quick leap over the fence, using my wings to get a bit higher and gracefully land on the other side. Simple, right? I am so wrong. When I reach the top of the fence, I feel something shock me. It is almost instantaneous, and the pain is still lingering inside of me. There is obviously something covering the top of the fence, I can’t tell what it is though. How am I supposed to get through now?

Wait, there is one more option. If I can’t go through the fence and I can’t fly over it, what about under it? I’ve got my claws out, thankfully I got them sharpened last week. I go over to the bottom part of the fence, where the chain meets the ground and I start slashing at it. The dirt is relatively easy to pull out, considering it is old. Then again, it’s dirt. Of course it’s old.

After about 5 grueling minutes, I manage to make a small tunnel for me to crawl through. Just to be sure, I grab my tail and start patting the dirt down. It’s looks easy enough to squeeze through, I guess.

I put my head first, that is the hardest part, considering the spikes on my head made it that much harder to get through. The ones on my back are much shorter, so I manage to get those through easily enough. I pull my tail out from the hole and I stood up, while wiping dirt off my chest.

I look in front of me and the first thing I see are some really gloomy looking woods. There is no light coming through at all, and that is making me even more anxious than I am now. I’m not gonna be able to navigate through here without some source of light. I really should’ve prepared before coming here, but I’m stripped of time.

I look around a bit, without stepping foot inside the woods, for some source of light. The only thing I find was a large stick that seemed to be covered in tree sap. It’ll have to do for now.

At least it is covered in sap, making it that much more flammable. I inhale deeply and I can feel the familiar tingle coming up in my throat. I breath out my emerald green fire, which ignites the stick as soon as it has contact. The stick is now burning, the light reaching out a few inches in front of me. It isn’t the best light source, but it’s something.

I keep the stick a safe distance in front of me, so the light can reach out farther. There is a small pathway that I could see. I don’t want to go wandering in the deep part of the forest, so I’ll just take the beaten path for now. I start walking, keeping a careful pace. There’s something about the smell of burning tree sap, though, that I’m already starting to dislike.

A few minutes in, and I’m already getting bad vibes from this place. The burning sap smell isn’t helping either and I keep hearing noises behind me. Why did I want to come here? Was it really that interesting? I’m really starting to think that this was a giant mistake. I could be home right now, but instead I’m … I don’t know where I am. Maybe if I turn around, I can find my way back by simply backtracking.

Wait, what is that noise? And why do I feel something breathing down my neck...

It’s definitely time for me to be anywhere else but here. I hear a small roar, before I start booking it down the path. I don’t know where I’m going and I don’t care, as long as I’m far away from whatever is behind me. I can hear its footsteps, I need to hide. I can see a small bush just next to me, so I jump to it, hoping whatever is chasing me doesn’t find me.

I can hear it stumbling around, sniffing, or at least it sounds like sniffing. I cannot move a muscle, mostly out of complete fear and exhaustion. At the same time, I know that I have to do something to get out of here. Nothing makes that much noise unless it’s dangerous. I could try to take it head-on, but I don’t think that’s a very good idea. I can’t even see two inches in front of me and I had already thrown my stick outside. Plus, it sounds like it’s ready to kill. Maybe there’s something I could feel with my hands around me that I could use.

I pat the ground next to me, just outside the bush, in search of anything. I feel something prickly in my hands and I pick it up, not knowing what it is and not caring. If this thing isn’t going to leave, then I’m going to have to distract it. I throw whatever is in my hand at the opposite direction of the bush and I can hear the thing chasing after it. I can hear it chewing on something a distance away. Now is my chance to leave, and I am so taking it. I jump out and the bush and start running as quickly as possible. I use my sense of hearing to detect wherever that thing was and went in the opposite direction.

This is bad, I can’t see anything and now I’m in potential danger of dying. It doesn’t help that the only reason I’m even able to move is sheer panic pushing me forward. I can’t even stop moving my legs, adrenaline is taking full control of them. I try to calm myself by taking a few deep breaths and...

Wait, breath! I can use my fire!

I inhale a bit and breathe out a small stream of fire outside of my mouth. The light isn’t much at all, but it is the only thing I have at the moment. One of the things that goes through my mind as I spew the fire is whether or not that will bring the attention of whatever it was that had made that noise earlier. Survival instincts aren’t exactly my thing, but boy do I wish I had some right now.

If I get out of here, I’m never coming this far ever again. I bet Nautilus is gnawing away at his endless stash of gems right now. Oh, how I wish I was him.

At least, now I’m a bit more calm, but I’m still beat. Ok, what to do, what to do...

Find shelter is obvious, but how? How am I going to build a tent or something when I can’t even see my own damn hands? Maybe if I take a little nap, I’ll get the energy needed to make anything at all. Then again, there’s always the chance that taking a nap in the middle of nowhere might turn out to be a horrible idea. Maybe I can find a safe place to hide for now, just until I can rack up enough energy to navigate my way out of here.

The fire isn’t going to help me very much, I need to find something else. I doubt I’m going to get lucky and find another sap cover stick on the ground. That might not be such a bad thing, I just got over the stench of it last time. Maybe this is why I’m not quite so good at this sort of thing, I can’t even get over a little stink. However, at this point, I’ll pretty much light a bag of manure on fire just to get some light. The darkness has a way of annoying me and creeping me out at the same time.

Of course, I’m not likely to find a bag of manure anywhere around here either.

Enough thinking about manure, this is serious. I guess I could ignite the fire a bit more, but that will make me more exhausted. I doubt lighting a tree on fire would be a good idea. Though, I would love to see this place burn to the ground at any point, but that still wouldn’t help. I wish I could just fly out, but that damn fence is there. Also, the trees here are super thick, so flying out isn’t an option. I can’t fly out, I have nothing to use as a light source, it seems like my two biggest advantages have quickly been thrown out the window. Combat isn’t an option, I can’t see and I don’t have a weapon. I don’t even know what I’d be fighting anyway.

Ok, ok, Razzie, don’t give up just yet. Maybe if I just continue on, cautiously of course, I can maybe find some shelter. Then I can rethink things and figure things out from there. I doubt that thing has given up on finding me, so I better hurry up. I jump when I hear a sound, but it turns out to just be the wind. This whole thing is really starting to get to me.

I should’ve just believed all the myths and stayed out. That’s what Nautilus did and look at him now! Safe and sound in his cave while I am about to be some demonic creature’s lunch.

Wait... cave...

A cave!

That’s it! I just have to get into a cave and I’ll be safe. If I’m lucky, he’ll be way too big to fit into the cave. I doubt that noise just now is from a bird. I better find that cave, considering there even is one out here.

Ok, now I’ve got another dilemma. Either increase the light and get exhausted or stop the light, but not be able to see. Why can’t there just be an easy decision today? It seems like no matter which decision I make, it’s likely the wrong one. Light is important, and so is being able to get away in one piece. I’m not known to be a religious dragon, but if I get out of here, I’ll start believing in whatever it is that priest shouts every day on the street.

And no, not that the end is nigh … though it very well could be for me.

I’ll keep going like this, and if I feel tired I’ll turn off the fire and rest for a few seconds. Rinse and repeat. That seems like the only way to have light while not making myself feel like I’m about to pass out.

I wake my legs up and start moving, while hugging the trees next to me. Bad idea, but at least it keeps me from stumbling around like a damn idiot. That makes it a better idea than everything else that I have come up with so far.

I swear, when I entered this forest it was complete daylight. I don’t even see one ray of sun going through the leaves. Another downside to that is that I have no clue how long I’ve been here or how long I’ve been walking. Navigation is another problem I can add to the pile, along with time and many others.

As I am walking, I could feel something different from the trees. It feels like... rock? I rub the surface a bit to confirm my suspicion. Sure enough, it was rock, I could tell from when I punch it. That makes absolutely no sense, though. If I am feeling rock, then does that mean I’m out of the forest? I can’t even tell anymore, but I’m sticking to it. If it’s rock, then there’s gotta be some formation of a cave around here. I keep following the rock, until I don’t feel anything.

What? What happened to the rock? I backtrack to the rock I am feeling to discover that the rock curves a bit. That can either be a great sign or a bad one, and today’s luck is telling me that it’s a bad one. I really have no other choice at this point, and being rational has gotten me nowhere. I have to follow this and see where it goes, hopefully it leads somewhere promising.

My exhaustion is starting to really kick in and I can feel my muscles growing more and more tense with each movement I make. I have to stop and rest, and pray that nothing attacks me. I put my back against the rock and slowly slid down, landing on my rear and putting my knees up.

I am used to resting against rocks. It’s what I do every day. This isn’t anything different, nor is it any special. In fact, this is worse, considering my situation at the present moment. I remember when I was just a hatchling and how my mom would let me rest against her stomach. How I miss those days. That’s probably going to be the first thing I do when I get out. It might not sound tough to be like this, but at this point I don’t care. Funny how I was teasing Nautilus about being a big baby and now I’m fantasizing about when I used to be a hatchling.

I am seriously thinking about sucking my claw at this point.

I am not going to tell him any of this. Depending on if I get the chance to tell him.

Ok, I think I’m good to go now. I just really wish I didn’t have to...

I got up, picking up my tail and perking it back behind me. Maybe I only have to go a little bit farther. I really hope so.

Whatever is ahead, I really can’t determine that. There really aren’t a lot of good options, though, so I have to move forward. Story of my life, I guess.

I start moving again, breathing out the small fire I had earlier. I think I rested longer than I thought, I feel pretty energized. Maybe finally something is looking up.

I put my hand against the wall and continued my progress.

The sounds I was hearing earlier seemed to have stopped. Maybe I’m out of the forest? Then where am I? This rock feels a lot more smoother than before. Wait... I know this rock...

It’s limestone...

I’m in a cave!

Does this mean I might be safe for a little bit? I have no idea, but now we move on to bigger questions. Like the most important one, what the hell is in this cave besides me? If I’m using this cave for shelter, then there’s a chance that another animal that’s bigger than me is also using the cave.

Or maybe this forest is just having an effect on me.

Either way, I still can’t efficiently look around without a source of light. Maybe I can pick something up around here as a source.

Or I could just yell and listen to the echoes like a bat, but that probably isn’t a very good idea if I don’t have a death wish. And I really don’t have a death wish. Not yet, anyway.

I squat down and start feeling the floor under me, only to find what anyone would find in a cave. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. I doubt there would be any wood anywhere. Think, what is flammable inside a cave?

Wait, that’s a dumb question. Oh no, don’t tell me I got nothing else. Well, I could just pump up the fire, but like I said before, I would get exhausted. Is it really worth the risk?

There’s gotta be something, this can’t be it. I doubt I’d be able to light a rock on fire, and trying to do that would drain me of all my energy. I doubt I would find a rock covered in sap. What I would give for that right now...

I need to start focusing on things that actually have a chance of happening, though. Wishing for tree sap won’t do much of anything to help me survive.

Maybe if I- Wait, what the hell was that?!

All of a sudden, I hear a giant roar ring out from out of nowhere. The roar echoes throughout the cave wall, making it hard to determine where it came from. Ok, screw the sap, screw the light, I have to get the hell out of here!

I run back from where I came from, hoping I’m going in the right direction, and keep feeling on the rock. Something was off though.

While I am running, I hear the roar ring out again, and what is weird is it seems to be a bit closer and it doesn’t echo. If knowledge serves me right, then that means, in a cave, I’m close to the source of the sound.

This is bad, this is real bad.

Right when I think that, I can feel something behind me. Not directly behind me, but it is there alright. And it was big. Really big.

I can feel whenever it takes a step, and I can also hear it huffing and puffing. I am too paralyzed with shock and fear to look behind me. I know I can just run away right there, but what if it comes behind me? It isn’t just something I hear, but soon enough I can smell it too. The sap had smelled pretty good in comparison to this and that’s saying a lot.

If it’s getting closer, then there isn’t much I can do. I have to get out of here right now.

I hear something... groaning? Almost as if something is bending over. That stench was now completely filling my nostrils and I can feel something breathing down my neck. I think this is the second time tonight, if I am remembering correctly. Could it be the thing from the woods? No, impossible, this is definitely way bigger.

It’s right behind me, I can feel it’s ominous presence behind me. The weird part about it, though, was that there was something glowing red behind me. I mean, thank goodness for the light, but I don’t think the source of the light is all that nice.

I don’t know why, it might’ve been impulse, but I stupidly take a step forward. That seems to trigger whatever is behind me. The roar is right by my ears, making me recoil a bit. I snap out of paralyzation and start running for dear life, not caring whether I bust my face on the wall or not. The worst part is that I start to hear it coming as well, I’m barely able to keep ahead of it as the sheer fear of dying makes me move faster than I ever had before.

This is one of those things that makes me feel horrible for not being in shape, I really need to work out more. If I ever get the chance, that is. I can’t describe what is chasing me, but I’m not exactly going to stop and find out. It is huge, I know that. Every single step it takes makes the ground shake under my feet. Every so often, I almost fall on my face as it continues to stomp forward towards me. It sounds angry, maybe I stumbled onto its resting place.

It’s actually more than a little surprising that I don’t trip, really. All I’m doing is charging forward, there’s no time to do anything else. If I stop for one moment, it definitely will not be pretty.

There is one strange thing about this, though. Whatever is behind me is glowing off a weird red light, which let’s me see. This is a good and a bad thing. Good, because I can see. Bad? Because that means it’s right behind me...

Even if I couldn’t see the glow, the sound is getting closer and closer. I have to run faster, but at the same time I think I’m running as quickly as I can. My legs are starting to hurt as I continue, I’m just starting to notice it. I don’t know how my legs didn’t give out before, maybe it was just the rush of knowing you’re about to be killed.

I can see the trees! I must be leaving! I just gotta escape whatever this is and... I make the foolish mistake of looking behind me. I look back and I see a giant red paw coming towards me. What am I supposed to do? There’s no space to dodge it, and if I do, it will probably catch me. Maybe if I try to outrun it?

It only takes that second, that one that I had just used trying to think of something, for the worst to happen. I feel agonizing pain as I go flying through the air, several things trying to stop me as I go crashing through them. I think they’re trees, or at least they were. Whatever I am crashing through feels like bark, I hope. Is that blood I’m feeling? Please let it be some sort of tree sap. There I go again, thinking about tree sap.

I think I’ve stopped slamming through trees. Right as I am thinking that, I slam against another tree, this time coming to a stop. My mind can’t even wrap around what just happened. I’m sure I slammed headfirst into those trees, that much is obvious due to the giant migraine I’m having right now.

I can feel myself slowly losing consciousness. My eyesight is blurring, my ears are ringing, my muscles are shutting down... Is this what it’s like to die? I hope not, there’s still a lot that I want to do. Then again, I’m sure everyone has said that before. I never really expected to go down this way. In the middle of a dark forest, about to be consumed by who-knows-what just got me. To think, this all started because I was bored. I can hear the thing roaring like a maniac, probably just waiting to finish me off.

As my vision finally starts to go, there’s one thought that goes through my mind. I wonder what my family will think, if they will ever figure out about what is happening to me right now. Maybe they are just frantically looking for me right now. Oh, there go my insides. I cough up a bit of blood, or so I think. Wait, did the roaring just stop? Or did I just go deaf? And why do I hear someone yelling?

Can’t think straight anymore, starting to... Ugh...

Author's Note

CLIFFHANGERZ

EDIT: On a sidenote, you all must know that this IS a shipping fic with Spike (obviously).

Who's the ship with and when will it happen? You'll just have to keep reading.

MWHAHAHAHAHAHA