The Final Year

"But Aiiiideeeeennnn I don't want to," I whined, trying to pull away from the grip on my tail. "I'm not going to school and there's nothing you can do to ma-" I was cut off as Aiden gave an especially hard tug on my tail, making me lose a few feet of ground. I struggled for a few more seconds but ultimately sat down and asked, "You're not going to let me get out of this, are you."

In reply I felt him ruffle my dark blue mane as if to say 'no way kiddo.'

"Fine, I'll go to school," I muttered, "I don't see why exactly I have to though."

I wandered into the grey school building and began to wander the halls as I tried to find the main office. After about thirty minutes of wandering I finally decided to admit that we were lost and I was forced to ask where the main office was. I knocked on four doors, not receiving an answer until I knocked on the fourth door, a stallion yanking open the door a few seconds after I knocked. We stood there for a few seconds as we studied each other and I took note that he had a dark brown mane with a lighter shade of brown for his fur. His eyes were bright blue and he had an hourglass as a cutie mark.

"You're a new student here," he said, not so much a question as it was a statement.

"How'd you know," I asked, a bit shocked that he'd figured that out so fast.

"You'll find out," he said, not even attempting to answer my question. "Quick, what grade are you in!?"

"I'm...a senior," I said, Just a little put off by his erratic behavior.

"Perfect," he said, "I'll get ready right away."

And with that the door was shut in my face. After a few moments of stunned silence I turned to go but stopped as the door opened and the stallion poked his head out and said;

"The office is just down this hall and to the right, you'll know when you get there."

And then he was gone again.

"I really hope that I won't have him as a teacher," I muttered as I continued to the office.

Aiden's notepad and quill floated from my saddlebags and on it he wrote 'You and me both kid.' I laughed and took the right that would lead me to where I needed to go.

"Am I right to assume that this is the main office," I asked sarcastically as I walked up to the main desk.

"What gave it away," the attendant behind the desk asked with a slight smirk on her snout.

I looked around at all the signs labeling this area as the main office and I shrugged as I said, "Eh, it's just a hunch."

I snapped my attention back to the mare behind the desk and took in her appearance in only a few moments. She had gray fur accompanied by a blonde mane and hazel eyes.

"Go on in Trebble, Ms. Scootaloo is waiting," she said, snapping me out of my examination.

"She's..." I started but trailed off as my brain cut in with Just go with it. "Okay, thanks Ms..." I trailed off until I caught sight of the name plate on her desk, "Ms. Hooves."

"No problem," she said as I moved to the door marked 'Prinicpal.'

I never did fully understand why they called them principals. In all of my experience, they were just annoying pricks who did what they could to get you suspended, including extra work and (in my case at least) keeping me after school to work out problems that I had absolutely no problem with. I opened the door nonetheless walked in, my hooves clicking on the chess board style marble floor. An orange mare sat behind the desk, looking up past her auburn mane as I entered the room, her purple eyes gleaming.

"Ah, hello Trebble," she said.

"Please, just call me Trebb, everybody does," I replied as I slowly inched closer.

Something about this whole situation didn't sit right with me and until I got some reason for how they knew I would be here I was going to be on high alert. No need to be too friendly and fall into a trap.

"Oh, yes, your parents did mention that you would prefer that," she mused.

And there it was. I visibly relaxed at the mention of my 'parents'. Even though they'd died when I was a foal they had precautions set in place so I could continue my life. I honestly don't know how they set it up, or how anypony remembered whatever vows they'd taken way back then, but in every town that I visited there was always some force acting as my guardian. It honestly confused me to no end, but made it easy to move to a new town whenever things got a little too hairy where I was staying. Now things were starting to make a bit more sense.

"Since we're talking about preferred titles," she added, "you can just call me Scootaloo, it gets a bit tiring with all the formalities around here."

"Well, it's a school," I retorted, "this is probably one of the most formal places in Equestria...minus the student body that is."

"Okay, you've made your point," she joked, "now if you wouldn't mind filling out this form for your classes, I'd be much obliged." I nodded and she pulled out a form with a list of classes on it as well as a pen. "Just circle all of the extra curricular classes that you'd like to take, we've already got your core classes filed in for the year, so you have..." she seemed to get a bit lost in thought for a minute before saying, "five. You can choose five classes off of that list, so make them count."

I began choosing the classes that I'd wanted and I passed the form back to Scootaloo ten minutes later.

"Hm, interesting selection," she said. "Alright, that was pretty much all you had to do, although there is one last thing that I have to give you," she added, pulling out a package from under the desk. "Your parents left this with me for you. I don't entirely know why, but here you go. Oh and your schedule should be at where you're staying as soon as it's done."

I took the package and tucked it under my wing, the green feathers being disturbed a little from their positions as I settled it against my side, that was fine though, I could preen myself later. I got up and made my way towards the door, flashing Scootaloo one last smile before exiting the room. I made it about twenty feet from the building before curiosity overcame me and I opened the package. Inside of it was a letter and a map, nothing too important although the letter caught my eye almost immediately with the colors on it.

Okay, I'd really like to be formal with you right now Trebb but right now me and Eli are dealing with something big and I can't spend much time writing this letter. Long story short me and Eli have someo-somepony that we have to go rescue in the Whitetail Woods. We'll be gone for an indefinite period of time and as such we've acquired a new guardian for you in our absense. Just follow the trail marked on the map and you'll arrive where we've arranged for you to stay. I know this is a bit different than normal, but trust us, this is for the best.

~Josh

"Well this is certainly new," I muttered as I looked at the map once more, only faintly noticing the path drawn on it. "This looks like it was drawn years ago," I said to Aiden's as I started moving down the street.

About an hour later I found myself at a tree. I stared up at it for a few minutes before finally noticing the door that was right in front of me. I knocked on the door and a few seconds later the door was pulled open, a purple claw shooting out and dragging me into the darkness of the tree.

"Suprise," a solitary voice shouted, the light flickering on a moment after the shout finished.

My eyes were greeted by balloons floating around accompanied by streamers and a banner that read 'Welcome to Ponyville Trebb!' My eyes drifted across the room and took in the sight of the party before landing on the figure beside me. From the looks of him, he was a dragon, and from his tall and lean body I figured he was a teenager. His main scales were purple while the secondary ones were a shade of light green, including his fins, and his spines were a shade of dark green, the same shade as his eyes.

"You like it," he asked.

"You...threw a party for me," I asked, a bit stunned.

"Well yeah, I had a friend once who threw one for everybody new in town...but she's gone now, so I do it to keep her memory alive," he said, a sad look appearing in his eyes.

"You know, the way you talk gives me the impression that you're old," I joked, "but you can't possibly be older than twenty...hell, no more than 18!"

He gave a small laugh and moved over to to couch and said, "well kid, you'd be surprised. I'm nearly 200 years old."

I had made a move to sit down across from the dragon but stopped suddenly as he aid that.

"You're shitting me?"

"Nope."

"What? I mean how? No creature can live that long and still be so young."

"Hold on a minute."

He scrambled across the library, looking for something while muttering to himself about recategorizing. My thoughts had begun to drift towards what tomorrow would be like but we're interrupted by a book dropping into my lap.

"Found it," he announced.

"Thanks for the forwarding," I muttered, "hopefully I won't go sterile. So what exactly is...The Life and Times of a Dragon?"

"Read it and you'll understand how I'm able to live so long," he replied, heading for the stairs. "Your room is the first on the right. You can stay up as late as you want but I wouldn't advise that with your first day of school tomorrow."

"Okay," I said, turning to the book. One thought made me turn around and call out to him, "What do I call you?"

"The name's Spike," he replied, heading up the rest of the stairs and going into his room.

I cracked open the book and began to read from the first page.

A dragon is an age old creature, mainly bipedal until adulthood, that generally lives around the age of 2,000 to 2,500 years old, not counting the years that the dragon must be incubated in an egg. The baby usually spends at least 10 to 15 years in the egg, but the absolute earliest it can hatch without being considered early is 7 yea-

"Oh sweet Luna," I muttered, "this is gonna be a long night Aiden."

I gave an audible sigh of relief as I turned the last page of the book, having spent the past five hours reading. Written on it were two simple lines.

Penned by Spike. In memory of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

"Huh, why are those names so familiar," I wondered aloud.

"I recognize them too," Aiden wrote. "Research it?"

"Nahh, why research it when I could just ask...Spike," I trailed off as I took notice that nothing in the room had been touched since I'd arrived. The cake was still in its covering and all of the games were still as they had been set up. "Damn...do you think Spike will think we don't appreciate him if we don't at least play some of this stuff?"

"I dunno," Aiden offered, "he seemed to leave on his own accord."

"Well I'm going to go and get him," I said, getting up off the couch.

"Do you even know where his room is," he asked.

"No clue," I replied as I moved up the stairs. "I mean there can't be too many roo-"

   I stopped as I reached to top of the stairs, counting out eight rooms total, four on the left and four on the right. I motioned for Aiden to check the left side and I began to check on the right, hesitantly opening the doors one by one. After I got to the third door I felt Aiden give my tail a tug and I turned around, spotting a shaft of light coming from one of the doors on the left. I moved over to it and nosed it open, freezing up as I noticed Spike's tear stained cheeks and the picture held in his claw.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled, backing out the door, "I'll just go."

"No, wait," he said, setting the picture down, "what did you want?"

"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to play some of the games or get some cake," I said.

"You...actually want to try some of the stuff...with me?"

"Well you did take the time to set all that up for us to enjoy, right? So why not?"

"...most ponies don't usually want to hang out with me, after all, who wants to be friends with a dragon."

I thought of Aiden and a small smile came to my lips and I said, "Dude, that's just wrong."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't really want to step on anypony's hooves."

"Come on downstairs with me man, play some games, have some cake, I'd enjoy the company."

The dragon was hiding his face in his claws now and I saw a few tears leak down his face before he looked up at me with a smile on his face.

"Thanks."

I nodded and smiled to him, turning to exit the room, almost stopping as I caught sight of the picture, a group of six mares along with Spike, but continued on and only thought I'll ask him later