Spike's Gaiden 2: Nature of the Beast

=== The Conversion Bureau: A New Age, A New Life ====== Gaiden 1.2: Nature of the Beast ===

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[ En-Route to Iral-au-Tran, Eastern Dragon Territories -- March 26, ??? + 1 ]

         Cool. That's what most nights in the Dragon Badlands, as most outsiders called it, were. Luna's sky was clear and full of stars, as a magical fire flickered, keeping Rosethorn and Spike warm underneath their sleeping blankets. Spike fidgeted around as Rosethorn decided to lay right next to him.  Spike still had no idea how to act in the presence of a lady (dragon); at least now, though, he managed to speak without stuttering.

"So Spike, why don't you tell me more about yourself. I mean, we're out here on the road together and all," Rosethorn asked of her travelling partner.

Spike sighed heavily, taking in the crisp air of the desert night as best he could. "Well, it's hard for me to really remember anything soon after I hatched. The most I could remember was a lot of sucking on my tail like a pacifier, and following Twilight around like a pet instead of someone's abandoned child."

Rosethorn noted the sudden spike of anger in Spike's voice from the last few words he spoke. Abandoned? I can't think of any Dragon that'd abandon a whelp to Ponies unless the situation was truly dire...

"Excuse me Spike, but what might you mean by 'abandoned'?" she asked.

Spike was starting to get riled up just thinking about it now. "Ugh, something those guards told me while I was entering Dural-ga-Jafid. They said that Princess Celestia had a habit of accepting abandoned Dragon eggs or some such."

He's one of those whelps, I see... but there are no records of any of those abandoned eggs ever hatching except his... and there are only 3 of those eggs besides his on record anyway... the way it sounds, it was like those guards told him she made a run every few months or something... Rosethorn thought to herself.

"It's, it's just hard - ever since I really started thinking about it since I left the Equestrian Checkpoint. I've just had all this time to think about just who and what I really am. And... I'm coming up blank. It's burning me up inside. I didn't say anything about it yesterday because I was so busy with my reading and with, well, you. But it's coming back now, and with a vengeance," Spike said, his snout half-buried in his curled up knees.

Even though we aren't the most personable species, we have an immense pride in our heritage... To the point where I wonder if it's something that's just embedded in our souls... Now Spike, ever since he technically became an adult, has probably been struggling with the fact he knows next to nothing about our heritage... But it's not like I can take 20 or 30 years to teach him personally... What to do? Rosethorn thought to herself, as she sat up against Spike's cart.

I'd love to follow Rosethorn, and anyone else she knows, for the rest of however long... But I got to get back to Twilight and the others... but I got to know just what I can do... just who I am... and if any of the rest of them can help Princess Celestia... What am I gonna do? Spike thought to himself as he looked up at Luna's night sky, trying to divine some answers for himself.

"Spike, are you on any sort of schedule when it comes to arriving at Karrak-za-Jalve?" Rosethorn asked, resuming the tone of a teacher dealing with a troubled child.

Spike looked over at the face of Rosethorn, and most noticeably her eyes. They looked so warm for a reptilian creature, long maligned for being rather cold and icy. "Well... honestly... no. I don't want to stay out here years and years though. But there are some questions I need to answer for myself, before I can ask any of other Dragons."

Rosethorn's smiled a wide, fanged grin at the answer Spike gave. "Well, we are heading towards Iral-au-Tran. Why don't we just take an extended stay there, say a week..." she began, as she moved in on Spike and draped her long arms over the young dragon's shoulders as she leaned against his back and side.

OH CELESTIA, WHY IS SHE DOING THIS NOW!! Spike thought at the sudden invasion of personal space.

"I want to start teaching you so many things... so many points to start from..." she said as she leaned in, her voice sultry, and her snout right alongside Spike's.

Spike didn't say anything, as he stared out into nothing in particular.

"Um... Spike, would you mind answering my question?" Rosethorn asked of the dear Dragon. His only response was a soft thud against the ground and his blanket. His mind froze like a computer attempting to process one command too many.

Oh dear, I figure I would have come on too strong... Then again, there are a lotof things I will have to start teaching him, and I won't have that much time with him... at least not for this particular go around... Rosethorn thought, as the warm eyes suddenly became very, very cold and calculating.

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[ Iral-au-Tran, Eastern Dragon Territories -- March 29, ??? + 1 ]

          "Iqual Diyan!" Spike shouted as a fountain of water quenched a flame in one of the larger practice rooms at the Iral Training Hall.

Rosethorn looked on with a smirk that would have easily rivaled Celestia when in her scheming mode. He is a total natural when it comes to Draconic Invocation... He would have definitely made it into the Sage's College if he were hatched under normal circumstance... Although, he still needs work on properly regulating his mana output... Hrm, I suspect all that time with that Equestrian Prodigy has rubbed off on him...

"Whenever you are ready to return, I hope I can meet that Twilight Sparkle that you speak so highly of. It seems that some of her attributes have rubbed off on yourself," she said to Spike as he started reading over the next set of chants to practice.

"Well, like I said. You don't spend your life around a study-bug like her without learning quite a bit on how to process information yourself. I just hope I'm performing these chants right, sometimes they come out all weird, at least compared to how the book says they should," Spike replied.

          Rosethorn put a claw underneath her snout to think for a few moments. "Well, some of it has to do with your mana regulation. The chant or phrase is necessary to invoke a spell, but you also have to offer up the right amount of mana when you do. Otherwise the effect will not match what the texts or instructor indicates." She looked around for a bit, to make sure that no one else was watching nor listening in at them, before she continued. "Also, your body has heavy imprints of a mana completely foreign to this world. When we are in a more secure location, I need you to tell me everything you can about whatever that strange energy was when you underwent Flash Puberty."

Spike replayed in his mind the horrible pain he went through, as his body morphed from his usual whelp-self into a true young adult. So much so that Rosethorn noticed Spike appearing to go into a trance thinking about it.

"Excuse me, Rosethorn to Spike... I swear you have a very bad habit of zoning out anytime I talk about that strange, foreign energy..." Rosethorn said as she shook her head at her new student's habits and attention span.

Spike finally shook his head loose as he came back to reality and the current time. "I'm sorry Rosethorn, but anytime I think about that day, it's like... like my mind is being pulled back there to actually relive that incident. It honestly scares anytime I think about it for too long."

Rosethorn clasped her hands around Spike's shoulders, not to tease him like a few nights previous, but to legitimately comfort him. "I can suspect this entire scenario is difficult for you. Not only do you have questions to answer for yourself, but you have other questions to ask on someone else's behalf. But, as you said those nights ago, we have to take care of this first. You can't very well appear in Karrak, not sure of who or what you are, now can you?"

"No... not if I want to make a good impression to the Council of Elders, anyway," Spike said, as he went back to practicing some more phrases for Invocation.

Indeed. They tend to be rather insular and detached for a supposed central governing body... Rosethorn thought to herself.

"Anyway, the thing you have to remember is to consistently pull the same amount of mana every time you want invoke another spell. That way you achieve a consistent effect. The more you do it, the more consistent you will be while in a fight or battle."

"I see... I guess it's something you have to kinda feel out, yeah?" Spike said as he stood at the lectern in the room, reading over some more phrases.

"Yes and you have to consistently practice at it," Rosethorn added.

I wonder how long until I can ask you to show me some of that strange power that started showing up a couple of weeks ago... Rosethorn thought to herself; she needed to get Spike comfortable enough in his own skin before he could start exploiting that foreign power.

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[ Iral-au-Tran, Eastern Dragon Territories -- April 2, ??? + 1 ]

          It was nearly nightfall in Iral-au-Tran, as the Dragon pair were standing at the West Gates ready to embark towards the next town. Rosethorn was brimming with confidence after watching just how well Spike was taking to his Invocation Lessons. She wondered if Spike was truly a natural caster, or if he just learned that much from all his time with Twilight.

An hour had passed and they were out of sight of Iral. Spike had finally worked up the nerve to ask a question he felt was rather stupid, but it needed to be asked anyway. "Say, just why is that Dragons and Ponies really don't get along all that well? I got some weird looks any time I talked about anything Equestrian while we were in town."

Rosethorn wondered when Spike was going to start asking her questions along these lines, it was something she was concerned with herself. "Well, we all have our theories. Some say that the Ponies are too scared of our natural forms. Others think that we steal the Ponies’ gems and valuables. Really, I think it has something to do with a fundamental aspect of both species."

She motioned Spike to start setting up camp off to the side of the beaten path, this was going to be a bit of a long story.

          A short while later, both Rosethorn and Spike were sitting in front of another magical fire, but this time Rosethorn was across from Spike instead of right next to him. She wanted Spike to focus in on the story instead of, anything else about her.

"I want to start with asking yourself a question first: just how long does a Dragon live?" Rosethorn asked as she stared intently at Spike.

"I... um... a thousand years?" Spike answered, flummoxed by the question.

"Hrm, I see. Well let's start with a figure first. According to the latest census of Dragons, which was conducted roughly 18 years ago: the average lifespan of a dragon, even while accounting for those slain by unnatural means, is approximately 35,742 years."

Spike just sat there with his mouth agape. He never once considered just how long a Dragon could remain alive.

"Not only that, you have to realize that a Dragon will remain of sound mind and body for 90% of that time. So you would be able to, in theory, remember everything for a 32,000 year span," Rosethorn added, her voice heavy with gravitas.

Spike felt like he was being crushed by the absolute gravity of the knowledge that Rosethorn was laying on him, and he could sense she wasn't about to stop any time soon.

"Dear Spike, I say this as your impromptu teacher. You have to now begin contemplating all the millennia you have in front of you. This is most likely the primary reason why Dragons get along so poorly with almost every other race in this world. We have such an incredibly long lifespan, and are so incredibly difficult to kill in most cases, we honestly behave like complete assholes in their eyes. At the same time, it is extremely difficult to form a bond with said creatures, due to our incredibly long lifespan," she continued, voice still retaining its gravitas.

Rarity... I... I'd outlive her... her children... her children's children... I could outlive her entire genetic line... Spike thought to himself, only now beginning to understand the ramifications of such knowledge.

"To be perfectly honest Spike -- as a purely sociological experiment, I'm deeply interested in you. The Pony Society is completely built off cooperation and camaraderie. The bonds they form to each other are close to unbreakable once they are fully forged. Compare that to Dragon Society: we live so long and remember so much, that it is difficult for us to forge strong bonds because we remember every little thing that someone has done to us. It's one of the major reasons why we prefer to be nomads. We might grow close for a couple of hundred years to sire an offspring or two, but that's about it," Rosethorn explained.

"Yet... you're different Spike. You were born and raised by Ponies, developing a learned impulse for camaraderie; yet, your own ingrained instinct to be solitary wants to fight against that. That is probably why you are having such an identity crisis. You have to begin contemplating just how you are going to live this phase of your life. Whether or not you will retain your bonds with the Ponies that raised you and you’ve befriended, or if you will live as just a free-roaming Dragon, or whatever have you. But you have to start deciding that for yourself now."

Just the three Princesses... they'd be the only ones left... I'd... I'd... Spike thought, tears welling up in his eyes.

Rosethorn caught this, tilting her head at the odd and sudden display of emotion out of him. "Wait, what's wrong Spike?" Rosethorn asked, genuinely confused as to this reaction.

Spike lunged across the fire into Rosethorn's chest, crying the entire time.

"They'll all the be dead... Twilight... Rarity... Applejack... Fluttershy... Pinkie... Rainbow. Even the four of them... Vague... Storm... Hana... Blaze. All of them... all of them except the three Princesses. They'll all be dead... And I'll just keep going, I'll just keep going..." Spike yelled as he sobbed in Rosethorn's chest.

Rosethorn finally realized what he was talking about. He'd already formed a bond with a rather large group of Ponies, without realizing that he'd live well beyond all them, save the Princesses of Equestria. Rosethorn was soon overcome with emotion; just like Spike, still sobbing in her arms.

Don't change, Spike. Keep that bond, even though you will outlive them all. Don't think you have to give that bond up, please don't.

A single tear fell from her eyes, as she looked up at the stars; before she realized that Spike was lying across the magical fire, and his cloak was probably not fireproof. She quickly put out the fire before his cloak ignited, as he continued to sob into her scaly chest. She wasn’t going to tell Spike to stop at this point, and simply stroked along the back of his head.

Don't you dare forget any of them Spike...

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