Of Scales and Feathers

Spike knew that Twilight had never been the type to ask for even the smallest of favors if she could help it. Only recently had she come around to asking her closest friends for assistance in her time of need. She had always been a lone-wolf sort of type, and that kind of habit was tough to break.

It only stood to reason that if she had personally come out to greet Spike and ask him something, the favor had to be monumental. Years living with the pony had prepared him for such an ordeal, but it still never gave him proper amounts of time to take in such random requests.

He was usually the type to jump head-first into a problem in order to solve it, whereas Twilight was the one who might spend more time analyzing the problem than she needed to fix it. But even so, the request she had put forth to him now was beyond random or bizarre. It was downright insane.

"You want me to what," Spike asked incredulously. Perhaps the blank stare he was shooting at Twilight was a bit harsh, but she had made him nearly choke on the tea he made for them both.

"I know it sounds crazy, but just hear me out, Spike," Twilight reasoned, holding up her hooves as a gesture of peace. "You're the only creature in Ponyville that could do this with the minimal amount of danger," Twilight assured Spike, but any sort of danger was still dangerous to the young dragon.

"So you want me to enter the Everfree Forest for.. What was it again?" Spike asked, albeit a bit more doubtedly than he had hoped. He wasn't one to cower in the sight of adventure, but everyone who knew a speckling of anything knew the Everfree was bad news.

"I need you to go into the Everfree to map it out. Any explorers that went in before either came out running, with their studies incomplete or simply gone," Twilight explained carefully. When she caught wind of Spike's draining confidence in this mission she added, "But what you have that differs from those expeditions is a special biological makeup."

"I'm guessing you're talking about me being a dragon?" Spike asked, trying to make sense of his friend's rather cryptic speaking. She had a habit of dancing around an issue if it worried her enough, but he usually could figure out what she meant after a little bit of thinking.

"Precisely! Specifically because you're a drake," she added, levitating a book out and opening it to a page marked with a red feather. Upon the page was an etched depiction of the variant of dragon known as a "drake". The book described him as a wingless version of the common dragon, but with greater quadrupedal movement after entering the adult stage.

Spike took special notice of one section that was carefully underlined, and read it aloud, "In its early years, a drake has the most specialized of all scales among the dragonkin. Where many dragons have yet to develop the scales needed to protect them from various predators of both flora and fauna origins, the drake is able to withstand a greater deal of punishment to any number of scales before one might shed itself from the body."

After reading this, Spike believe he understood just why Twilight had come to him personally for this manner. He gave a small sigh and looked up from the book, his expression now giving way to a small grin. He had to admit - that little excerpt had certainly cleared things up for him and, if nothing else, gave him a boost to his ego.

"Now do you see why I would ask you to go in?" Twilight asked hopefully, but also with a hint of playful sarcasm laced into her voice.

"You want me to go in because I won't contract any crazy illness, right?" Spike asked and with a nod from Twilight, he got his answer. He sat still as he pondered it, leaning against his folded hands. On one side, this was an opportunity for adventure - for experience. He didn't intend to sit at home all day and wait for something to happen while the world passed him by.

On the other hand, this wasn't just "the world". This was an unknown world; it was an unexplored world that lived right beside everything, all whilst going unchecked. He wasn't a fool; Spike knew that a few bad mistakes in the Everfree meant that you weren't coming back. And if you were, it certainly wasn't going to be pretty.

But then he considered the third possibility. If he didn't go, someone else might have to. Someone less adaptable to the harshness of such an environment. It could be Twilight herself, even. And as he looked up from his hands to see his dear friend's smiling face, his heart jolted at even the smallest possibility of her getting hurt.

In reality, it couldn't be anyone but him. Spike understood that well enough now that he eventually forced himself to stop thinking and simply do what he always did. "Alright," he said with finality.

"You'll do it?" Twilight asked, her excitement evidently boiling over with the way she sat up quickly and began to smile.

"I'll do it," Spike said, the smile becoming contagious enough to spread to him. Maybe his scales couldn't stop everything after all.

"Wonderful! Oh, thank you Spike. You don't know how much this means to me!" Twilight said, trotting over to the other side of the table in order to nearly tackle Spike into a hug. He gave a laugh and did his best to return the gesture from his awkward position.

"I think I might have a clue, actually. You're welcome, Twilight," he said as the hug ended. "Now, I have to ask - anypony else gonna join me on this mission of mine?"

"I don't believe so, no. As of yet, I have only contacted you and Zecora, who will be waiting for us at the edge of the forest when I call for her assistance," Twilight answered. "But with that being said, I should bring word of your approval to Princess Luna."

Suddenly, Spike's interest went from curious to full-on intrigued. Princess Luna was a pony still shrouded in legend - even more so now that she had been transformed back from Nightmare Moon. It was a rare sight to see Princess Luna out of her tower, even at night when she was in her prime.

"Princess Luna?" he questioned, shooting Twilight a look that could only be described as shock. "Is she the one who organized all of this? I mean, I know she's into this kinda stuff but she isn't really the type to get involved."

He couldn't say he was really surprised that Princess Luna would take an interest in the Everfree, actually. From what Twilight told him about her, she had a thirst for knowledge when it came to the supernatural; that she would want to explore a place like the Everfree Forest is rather obvious.

"I was just as surprised to find that Luna wanted to lend a hoof in all of this. But don't worry," Twilight continued, mistaking Spike's shock for worry, "she won't be playing any major roles in all of this, and said that she wished to, 'Merely observe and  measure the Everfree.'"

"If anyone is a mare of mystery, it's definitely her," Spike said as he rubbed the back of his head. That was also another thing Twilight spoke of; Princess Luna loved to speak in riddles and cryptic messages.

"But she means well, I promise! This is going to be great, Spike - just you wait until the Princess hears you're up to it!" Twilight said with a giddy little dance in place. It was obvious she was hoping for nothing less than total perfection, and Spike had fallen right into place on that one.

With that, the two said their goodbyes and gave one another a hug before Twilight stepped into the carriage and was sped along her way back to Canterlot. This left Spike standing, hands on his hips, in his doorway. He was smiling, but it was more for reassurance than to express joy.

In truth, the thought of going into the Everfree was nothing less than terrifying. He wasn't so sure that his "special scales" would protect him from that place. Not only that, but he'd be going alone. It was an instinctual thing, in his opinion, that his knees were beginning to buckle at the thought of what he had just agreed to.

With a sigh, he shook his head and headed back into his house. There was no time to worry about this whole ordeal - not yet, anyway. He'd have to prepare for the journey both mentally and physically, and the first thing on his mind was to make sure he had what he needed for the journey.

As he looked at the measly bag of food he had carelessly tossed upon the counter earlier, he shook his head and mumbled, "What have I gotten myself into?"