Spike, The Dragon Of Ponyville

Chapters

Prologue
Old places with old faces
Hello, old friend
Flash Back
Meeting the ponies you know
Making up for lost time
The Dragon's Hunt
A Different Dragon

Prologue

Author's Note

Note: This takes place in the middle of the Episode "Dragonquest."

Prologue

The ash never truly bothered Spike. Nor did dust, wind, or anything that could get in a pony's eyes and make them wince. When he asked Twilight about this odd feature, she was left dumbfounded and wanted to write a paper on this discovery and send it to Princess Celestia.

It bothered Spike that ponies knew so little about dragons. He'd thought that Equestria knew all there was to know. But not even the smartest pony in Equestria, Twilight sparkle, could not tell him even one aspect of being a dragon.

Now, here Spike lay, his belly full of gems from the dragon party, and surrounded by ash that couldn't do a thing to bother him. But he still didn't feel like his quest was complete. He had learned what dragons do to to pass the time, but he hadn't learned anything about, well, being a dragon.

Spike sat up and nudged the red and yellow dragon next to him. "Hey uh, Mr Dragon?" He said gingerly, not knowing what else to call him.

"Name's Garble, Spike,” the dragon replied irritatedly, "What do you want?"

"Well uh," Spike stuttered, "I've partied down with you guys, and that was awesome! It's just, I haven't learned anything about being a dragon. Is this all a dragon does?"

Garble sighed. "Dude, there’s way more to being a dragon. We’re just teaching you what we do for fun around here." Garble sat up to continue, "If you wanna be a real dragon then stick with us."

"Stick with you?" Spike said curiously.

"Yeah! Come back home with us dude! This is the dragon migration, where all the dragons come to kick back and relax!" Garble said while getting to his feet.

"You mean, go with you guys? Where?" said Spike, getting up too.

"To the dragon caves!" Garble said proudly. "It's where all dragons go to learn dragon stuff."

"Sooooo, it's a dragon school?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, something like that. Come with us and the elders will make a dragon out of you in no time!" Garble then grinned before saying, "Of course, that does mean you'll have to leave your pony friends."

"What!?"

Spike hadn't even thought once about his pony friends since he arrived here. His pony friends were the most dearest things to him in the world. There was no way he was going to give them up, not for all the knowledge in the world... But, he barely knew anything about himself. And if he didn't know himself, how could he know his friends? Spike's mind tensed under the pressure. He didn't know what to do. He could go home and stay an enigma to himself forever, or go with the dragons and learn everything he's ever wanted.

There was one thing Spike wanted to do for his friends, and that was to help them in anyway. He looked at himself. He was in no way able to help his friends. He needed to learn how to be better, he needed to learn how to be a dragon.

"Well Spike, what's your decision?"

"...I'll go..." Spike said.

"Awesome!" Garble yelled. "Hey guys, Spike's coming with us to the dragon caves!" All the surrounding dragons erupted in cheers. Garble put the small dragon on his back as the rest of the dragons were getting ready to take off.

"Wait! We’re leaving now?" Spike yelled.

"Of course were leaving now," Garble said happily, "The elder dragons will wanna talk to you right away."

The depressed dragon felt a pain in his heart as they took flight, heading for a far off place Spike had never heard of. But not only that... three ponies watched with tearful eyes as their small dragon friend was taken away from them, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Old places with old faces

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Hello, old friend

Twilight Sparkle slowly made her way through Ponyville. She gazed at the sky above and saw that Luna’s beautiful night was nowhere to be seen under the dark clouds. The pegassi had scheduled a rainy night so it must be about to start. The few street lights were on gave out little light.

After a while of walking through the almost empty streets, The Golden Oaks Library came into view. The tree had only grown the smallest bit bigger as the years had gone by, but nothing too big had change about it, nor had the rest of Ponyville for that matter.

She wasn’t alone for the six years Spike was gone. She had her friends, her brother, Cadence and Celestia for support, but she still felt… Empty, like something was missing. Most people know the feeling of someone leaving them… But to watch someone choose a different life over you is truly hell.

She reached the door of the library and as she put her hoof on the handle… But she make herself turn it.

A tears fell down her cheek as she collapsed on her porch, burying her head in her hooves.

“Please, I just want Spike back… I can’t take this much longer… Please” She said sobbing.

After a minute of crying, she looked up from her sorrow… The same mud covered dragon she had met earlier was watching her, tears running down it’s face.

She only watched the dragon that looked right back with the same tear filled eyes…

But as the rain began to fall, it started to wash off all the mud that was covering him, leaving her to see him truly.

The dragon was unmistakably Spike. No other dragon had that colour of scales. Though the dragon had wings, she was still confident it was Spike… She prayed it was Spike.

Twilight got up and slowly walked closer to her suspected number one assistant.

“Who are you, really?” Twilight asked hesitantly. After all these years it was hard to even think of this dragon being her little assistant.

Spike came down to her eye level.

“Twilight, It’s me, Spike.”

Twilight wasn’t fully convinced.

“Spike didn’t have wings… Prove it that you really are Spike.” Twilight said, looking him in the eyes.

Spike smiled. “Well, I know you like your tea with honey and a small teaspoon of sugar, I know you like to have the library books shelved alphabetically from left to right and bottom to top… I know you hatched me because it was part of a test to get into Celestias Magic School for Gifted Unicorns”

Twilight’s mouth was agape. It really was Spike.

“S-Spike?” She asked, more tears came to her face.

Spike smiled.

“Hello, old friend.”

“B-B-But I don’t understand. Why did you not tell me when you crashed into the-” Twilight said stuttering.

“Well” Spike said, fiddling with his claws “I knew how sad you were so I kind of wanted to surprise you by hiding in the library… But I couldn’t fit through the door.”

“And I also wanted to make up for leaving you…” tears began to fall down his face again. “I knew I would’ve hurt you if I left, but I didn’t know anything about dragons, or anything about my past or myself… I would’ve written to you guys, but the other dragons didn’t allow it. I missed you so much!” It was Spikes turn now to collapse in tears and emotion. “I… I just had to come back.”

He confessed everything to Twilight. His wails filled Ponyville’s empty street, Twilight hoped he wouldn’t wake anypony up. It was strange to see a grown dragon cry, but to twilight this was not just a dragon. It was the dragon she had raised from her childhood.

She a little mad at Spike, but then it hit her. Spike had been gone as much pain as she did. Spike was still telling Twilight everything while his tear hit the floor.

“And then I got worried that you might hate me for leaving so I-”

“Spike?” Twilight asked trying to get his attention but he wasn’t listening.

“And then they tried to convince me not to go, but I really, really wanted to see you again and-”

“Spike?” She tried again. Louder this time, but spike continued.

“I mean, sure I did learn all I wanted to ever learn but I wasn’t with you guys and I so-”

“SPIIIIIKE!”

Spike immediately stopped talking. His tears still came running down his face.

Twilight walked up to the broken dragon… And hugged him.

Spikes went wide eyed as the lavender mare wrapped her front hooves around his long neck.

”I guess not even a dragon can hold his tears when it comes to family” Spike thought to himself.

After a minute of teary hugs, Spike finally spoke up.

“Twilight?” He asked

“Yeah, Spike.”

“What will you do with me?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked curiously, breaking up their hug.

“Well, I can’t fit in the library door can I? And even if you and the others accepted me back like this… I don’t think the rest of Ponyville will.” He said sadly. “I mean, Look at me.” Spike extended his wings and turned to the left so Twilight could see the full extent of how big he had gotten.

Twilight had to think about his question for a while.

“It would be hard, but for tonight, I can teleport you inside the library. I’m sure Fluttershy, Rainbow dash, Pinkie pie, Apple Jack, and Rarity will warm up to you in time, but it did hit hard them when you left” Twilight said.

“But you welcomed me back so fast. Out of all the ponies, I must have hurt you the most.”

Twilight sighed and looked down.

“I won’t lie, Spike. It was… Hard for me when you left… I felt betrayed, forgotten, lost.” Twilight looked up into Spikes emerald eyes. “Then I saw you and thought you might have went through as much pain as I have…”

Once again they were silent.

“But what about the rest of Ponyville? What will they think of a fire breathing dragon?” Spike asked.

“…I don’t know…” Twilight placed a gentle hoof on Spike snout. “We’ll worry about that later.”

They both smiled.

Author's Note

Authors note: Yes, I know not much happened in this chapter.

I apologies for any grammar.

Leave a comment. I love to see what you think.

Be kind, be cruel, be honest, as a wise man once said.

Flash Back

Spike had been at the Dragon Caves for two days and he already hated it. When he arrived, he found out that they weren’t lying on the ‘Caves’ part. The entire place was an endless amounts of caverns and caves… so many caves. And the entire place was packed with dragons, more than you could ever see in a lifetime.

When Garble showed Spike to the Elder Dragons, they took one look at him and immediately sent him to where all the other dragons in training were being kept. He was currently in the bottom of a huge chasm, of which a few of the tunnels were connected to.

Only now was he beginning to regret his decision, as another teenage dragon was kicking him in the ribs. He was now being taught how to fight, and sadly, the merciless drill instructor believed in learning on the job.

Spike was supposed to be fighting another teenage dragon. This one in particular a dark grey and white muscular Dragon, with a height ranging to about seven feet.

Spike was Green, purple and chubby with a height of two-and-a-half feet… The odds were not exactly in his favour.

After the dragon stopped kicking him, he slowly and painfully got to his feet, but the much larger drill instructor grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up to eye level.

“A dragon that hasn’t even hatched could fight better than you!” The drill instructor shouted in Spikes face.

Spike wanted to scream he wasn’t a dragon and he wanted to see his real friends again… But he couldn’t.

The truth is that he was trapped here; they said they won’t let him leave. Spike had been given one chance to have the life he wanted… And he had chosen wrong.

The drill instructor put Spike down.

“Again…” He said viciously, pointing towards the dragon he was supposed to fight.

Spike groaned while looking himself over. He was covered in cuts and bruises. One of his ribs was in agonizing pain. He didn’t think it was a break, only bruised but still enough to cause notice. He knew only more was to come. He looked towards the other teenage dragon that was already ready to fight some more.’

Spike fought back the pain and looked at the other dragon. He found out the dragons name was Talon Spire. Did any of them know Spike’s name? No, to them names weren’t important, You had to earn your name here…

Then the fight began again...

Talon Spire grinned and ran at Spike with full force. Spike saw this coming and dived to his right, landing on the stone ground and narrowly missing him. Talon Spire whirled around, already able to charge at Spike again.

Spike scrambled to his feet, but Spire was already in front of him and aiming a kick. He raised his claws in protection, but it was useless.

The scaled kick connected with Spikes stomach, crashing down on his stomach, winding Spike of breath and sending him flying back and hitting a large rock. The agonizing pain left Spike lying his back against the rock. The pain hurt more than anything. He clenched his teeth, he would not scream, that’s what they all wanted… to break him. They wanted him to quit and submit. That wasn’t an option. Apparently, if a dragon submits that he can’t take any more of the life of a dragon, they would kill it. Spike couldn’t let that happen.

Talon Spire and the rest of the dragons laughed at Spike.

“How weak can you get?” Talon Spire taunted.

Spikes eyes fell upon a rather sharp shard of rock lying next to him. He knew it wasn’t the best idea, but he didn’t have much other choice. He picked up the rock and threw it as hard as he could. It caught Talon Spire off and guard and hit him right in the eye.

Talon Spire yelped and fell backwards. He had his eye covered, but as far as Spike could see, it was bleeding. He slowly got to his feet and looked into Spikes eyes with pure hatred. The entire crevice of dragons was silent.

“I’ll kill you for that!” He yelled before clenching his teeth.

He ran at, eye still bleeding, and put Spike in a chokehold against the rock.

Circulation was cut off from Spikes body. His lungs pounded against his chest. He looked to the drill instructor that looked like he had no intention of stopping the scene.

Spike struggled, kicked and flailed his arms, but the pure strength of Talon Spire was too much. He closed his eyes and accepted his fate as his vision started to blur. His last thoughts Spike ever had were of his friends in Ponyville: Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, all of them…

But Spike’s last thoughts were not today.

The grip on Spike’s neck was suddenly stopped. Spike gulped in as much air as possible. When he opened his eyes he saw two dragons brawling. One was white and light grey, obviously talon Spire. The other dragon was red with a sandy colour underside.

‘Garple’ Spike whispered.

Garble was late to training, as usual. He had just walked in when he saw Spike being strangled against a large rock. Garble knew the little dragon had a lot to learn, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t help the little guy. Besides, Garble hated Talon Spire anyway.

Garble’s fist slammed into Talon Spires jaw with the force of a jackhammer. It sent Talon reeling back and he didn’t have time to ready himself when Garble came at him again, this time with a kick right to the ribs. All the air in talons lungs shot out and he fell to his knees, trying to recover.

“Had enough?” Garble said with a snarl on his face.

Talon Spire shook his head. “You wish.” He jumped to his feet and punched Garble right in the chest, knocking him back and making him stumble. Spire ran at him with full force, his talons ready for a kill strike. Garble was already one step ahead. He spun around, letting his tail smack Talon right in the snout, sending him onto the floor. He weakly got to his feet, only to be uppercut by Garble, sending him back onto the ground.

That was when the Drill instructor let out a roar that could shatter glass.

“EEEEENOOOOUGH!”

Birds in nearby forests scattered, bears hid in their caves, inside the chasm, every dragon stopped what they were doing and looked at the drill instructor in fear.

The much larger drill instructor looked at Garble.

“What. Are. You. Doing?” The Drill instructor growled, showing his razor sharp teeth.

Garble only returned the growl.

“You’re suppose to train dragons, not kill them!”

The Instructor laughed and said, “You call that!” He pointed a claw over to a roughed up, beaten Spike, “A Dragon?!”

Garble was silent. The Drill Instructor’s snout went so close to Garble’s they could feel each other’s breathing.

“I will not Train him.” The Drill instructor said.

After a few minutes of death glares from Garble and the Instructor, Garble huffed, grabbed Spike and left. Spike looked up from being dragged along by garble and the last thing he saw from all the dragons was Talon Spire making a cut-throat motion to him.

“I’m sick of this!” Spike said to himself, kicking a stone at the wall.

Spike was now in a small cave by himself. No other dragon came this way so it was a good place for him to sleep.

This place truly was a nightmare. Spike didn’t want this, he wanted to be a real dragon, not get beaten to a pulp until he was dead.

“You gotta’ to stand up for yourself,” Garble’s words went through his head “,dig your claws in his ribs!”

Spike didn’t even think he could even jump high enough to stick his claws in any dragon’s ribs, let alone his claws actually being sharp enough to do that.

That’s why he was leaving tonight. He didn’t care what was beyond the caves and mountains… but it had to be better than here.

It took Spike an hour to navigate his way through the everlasting twists and turns to an entrance.

He was able to climb through a small hole in the wall and instantly collapsed onto the first patch of grass he saw. It was so good to breathe again. The entire cave system smelled of was smoke and some things spike couldn’t identify. After a complete minutes of this, Spike got to his feet and looked around. The landscape seemed to be cliffs of grass and stone. He started to navigate through the cliff-sides and rocks… he barely made it an eighth of a mile…

“Going somewhere, young dragon?”

Spike spun around, and there, on one of the rock he just past was a huge, old, grey dragon.

His scales looked withered, his teeth and talons had blunted and over the years, and a few of his scales were jagged and out of place. His scales were old, they looked as though they were about as old as Equestria.

Spike was completely silent…

The dragon merely moved his position to a more comfortable one on top of the rock.

“So why is such a small dragon leaving the dragon caves?” He spoke in a deep voice. “Is it because he is seeking his own adventure? Or is he running to a calling he doesn’t even know? In my speculation, both plans are idiotic.”

“W-Wha” Came out Spikes stuttering voice. But the dragon lifted a great talon and spoke.

“As for your first question, I am out here because there is so much more to look at up here,” He said, gazing off towards the sunset. “As for your second question, which was most likely going to be, “Who are you?”, does not matter, I am myself, and that’s all you need to know. The more important question is: Who are you?”

Spike stopped stuttering and took a moment to gather his words.

“I-I’m Spike-” He was immediately cut off.

“Ponies,” the dragon interrupted. “You were raised by ponies. Dragons have a bit more of an S in their words, and ponies are the only other creatures who speak this tongue so it seems you were not born here, You would have grown a bit larger by now if you were, so you were raised by ponies… That’s my prediction of course”

Spike’s mouth went agape. He barely said two words and this old dragon figured out something about him already!

“I assume I was right?” The dragon asked.

“Y-Yeah, you were right… But how did you?”

The dragon kept looking at Spike expressionless.

“Young dragon, How old do you think I am?”

Spike was didn’t answer.

“Go on, your best guess” The dragon assured.

Spike thought, looking over the dragons features again.

“Um… eighty-nine?” Spike asked sheepishly.

For the first time the dragon smirked

“I am 6,429 years old… When you’ve lived as long as I have, you’d have more wits than you have scales”

“Wow…” was all Spike could say.

“Now” The old dragon said “Why don’t you explain your problems to me in detail."

“Problem? I haven’t got a problem. I was just… ummm, catching some air”

The old dragon looked at him with a knowing look. Spike sighed and explained his story. He told where he came from, what happened in the caves with Talon Spire and about Ponyville. The dragon just sat and listened, not showing any emotion.

After Spike finished, the dragon was silent… For a few moments, Spike thought he was dead, but then the he spoke.

“I understand your pain… but you can’t leave,” he said solemnly.

Spike wasn’t really sure how to reply. In the end all he could say was, “Why? Why can’t I leave?”

“For a dragon like you it would be impossible. Walking the vast landscape, you would make it back to Ponyville within three weeks. If you don’t starve to death first, the cold, animals and the dragons hunting you will. And that I can’t help you with.”

Spike collapsed, fighting back his tears with all his strength. He curled into a little ball and tried imagine himself back home. The old dragon only watched him… his face forever expressionless.

After a few minutes Spike looked up at the dragon who had moved his head down to Spikes eye level.

“I’m dead…” Spike said “either way I’ll die…”

“Not necessarily, young dragon."

Spike looked up at the dragon with a confused look on his face.

“I can teach you how to be a dragon… in a safer manner for you, that is…”

Author's Note

I wonder if anyone is keeping a tally on how many times this story says "Dragons" :rainbowlaugh:

I might leave this story for awhile to try a few other Ideas, I'm not sure yet. I hope you like the story, I love to read feedback from you guys.

Have a good day. :twilightsmile:

Meeting the ponies you know

Spike shrugged off the memory of his dragon training. There were more important matters at hand.

For the rest of the night, Twilight spent her time finding a place for Spike to sleep. All the while, saying they should save their stories for when he would reunite with the others. After a few minutes of Twilight running around and trying to make some form of “Large bed” to put in the foyer, which was the only place Spike could actually fit in. Spike opted to sleep on the floor, saying he didn’t mind and that he’d slept in worse places.

Currently Spike awoke to some very early knocking on the front door.

He rolled over in a half conscious manner and got to all fours, which was most comfortable for him. Walking around on two legs with a huge tale following you was surprisingly harder than thought to be. Spike gave a loud yawn. many things had changed with Spike, but he still was not an early morning type.

Spike looked over to see where Twilight was sleeping, just next to him by the center table. Spike let out a sigh of relief to see that she was still lying there with her head on a pillow and a blanket covering her. She said she wanted to sleep next to Spike and she didn’t want to be separated from him just yet. Before Spike could say something about the door, her head shot up from her pillow and looked toward it as another knock sounded from it.

Twilight got up, smiled at Spike, and went to answer the door. Spike took a deep breath, trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong. Spike didn’t know who was behind the door, but with his hyper sense of smell, he caught a whiff of a beautiful aroma of perfume…

Twilight opened the door and it took Spike less than a second to confirm who it was.

“Hello, Twilight darling,” came a feminine, upper class accented voice.

“Hi Rarity,” said Twilight cheerily. Twilight moved herself to cover most of the doorway without looking impolite, “What brings you here so early?”

“Me and the other girls don’t have any work today,” said Rarity, “we were wondering if you wanted to join us for a picnic this afternoon.” She then raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright, Darling? You look as if you slept on the floor last night.” Rarity said in a worried manner.

“Oh, you know me. I fell asleep while reading again,” Twilight lied. “Anyway, there’s something I want to show you but-“ Twilight stopped as Rarity rushed into the library.

“Whatever it is, let us discuss it over some tea. You look like you ne-”

Rarity stood muzzle to snout with a Dragon three times the size of her. Petrified, she opened her mouth to scream but Twilight got to her before she could and stuck her hoof in her mouth, silencing her.

“Listen,” Twilight gently pushed Rarity away from Spike and to the door, “I need you to gather up our friends and bring them back here. I’ll explain everything then,” she stated.

As they were almost at the door, she removed her hoof from Rarity's mouth and they stopped moving.

Rarity tried to take in Twilights words. “Of-Of c-course, Twilight… b-but…” She recognised the Dragon as the one from before, but now that he was in more of the light, and not covered in mud, she could have sworn he looked like. No. It couldn’t be… Could it? “I-I wi-w-w-wait… is that… S-S-Sp…-” Rarity tried to say.

Twilight was literally dragging Rarity out the door now. Spike felt she needed some confirmation.

“H-Hi, Rarity,” he murmured “, been long time…”

Rarity went wide eyed as she looked and got one last look at the dragon before Twilight shut the door on her, leaving Rarity outside and dumbfoundead.

Twilight sat against the door and sighed.

“Well… That went well,” said Spike, “do you think she’ll be alright?”

Twilight nodded and said, “Hopefully everything will go okay.”

Twilight looked at Spike, who was looking back at his tail with worry on his face. She walked up to him “Nervous?” She asked.

Spike took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Yeah,” he said, “It’s all happening so fast, you know?”

Twilight nodded. “I know, things are happening at such short notice, but it’s not like I can put off having a dragon in the library forever,” she said in a sarcastic manner. She also made a mental note to find somewhere Spike could comfortably stay.

“I know…”

Twilight smiled and hugged him, well, as much as she could. Then she remembered something. Breakfast.

“Hungry?” Twilight asked.

Spike thought for a moment.

“Well… I did have a few gems before I started traveling… that was… two days ago, I think.”

“Two days ago?” Twilight asked, gasping. Spikes stomach grumbled as if to reply. Twilight giggled and walked off. Luckily she kept a few gems around the library.

After two agonisingly long hours, another knock sounded at the door… It was time.

Spike had spent the hours contemplating on what to say, he still had not a clue. After he heard the knock at the door, he decided it would be best to explain everything and just go with it.

The knocks sounded in Spikes head.

They might as well be death bells. Spike thought. Come on, Spike! You’re a huge dragon. You have been through worse. You’ve got this… hopefully…

Twilight opened the door.

Each one of the five ponies walked in one at a time.

First was Rarity, She was mostly expressionless. She was probably still trying to believe what she was seeing.

The second was Applejack: She walked in wearing her usual Stetson. Spike thought he saw a small frown on her face. It was obvious to Spike that she was angry with him… and Spike wouldn’t blame her.

Third was Rainbow dash: She flew in and gave one look at Spike and gazed in awe. Looking over his large spike, his strong wings and body, she must be thinking he was pretty awesome. But then she remembered herself and tried to cover her face with a frown. It looked like she was holding something to him.

Shortly following Rainbow was Fluttershy: All it took was a second to look at Spike and fear came over her face. She timidly walked over to sit by the others, not taking her eyes off the monstrous dragon.

And last but certainly not least was Pinkie Pie: She bounced in happily and immediately gave Spike the biggest Smile. She looked like she was about to go off on one of her energetic, talkative modes. Luckily Rainbow saw this coming and grabbed Pinkie, covering her mouth, and sat her down quietly.

The five mares sat on the opposite side of the foyer with Spike on the other. Twilight was in the middle of the room.

“Hi, girls…” Spike said timidly, giving the girls a small wave “long time no see.” He got a few small hi’s and waves in reply but not much… Starting the awkward conversation was always the hard part. He looked at Twilight, hoping she could take over the conversation.

“So,” Twilight said clapping her hooves once for attention of the room “let’s get down to business” said Twilight, gaining the attention of all in the room “yesterday, Ponyville got visited by a dragon passing by. Little did we know, that dragon was Spike returning to us after all these years. Obviously he’s changed a little.”

“A little?” Rainbow Dash Spoke up “He’s huge! How did you even get him in the library?”

Twilight ignored the question “It’s of my hope that we can accept him back as he is as the dragon we all once knew… So… what do you girls think?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie appeared on Spike head and began jumping around in excitement.

“I think it’s really cool and awesome and super the Spike is back and I get to through a “Welcome Back Big Dragon Spike Party” and there can be cake andcupcakesandandballoonsbutIdon’tthinkIcouldmakedragonsizecupcakesbutitwillstillbereallyreally awesome!” Pinkie went on… and on… and on… Finally Applejack was walked up to her and whispered something in her ear. Pinkie replied with an “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. Silly me” and went back to sit down.

“Do ya’ know what ah’ want?” Applejack said in an irritated fashion “Ah’ want an explanation. What in Equestria were you doin’ all this time and why did you just leave us all off like that? No letter No nothing’. Ah’ wanna know what in the hay you were thinkin’!”

Applejack finished her rant and for a moment the room was silent.

Rainbow Dash flew down and landed next to Applejack.

“I’m with Applejack on this one” She with a voice of agreement “I’m all about being loyal and… well… you just left us hanging there.” Rainbows face contorted to a frown. “I think we deserve an explanation.”

Spike nodded “Yeah. You deserve an explanation” Spike said solemnly. “Make yourself comfortable.”

They all sat down and Spike began to tell his part of the story.

He explained the choice he made. “I left because I felt there was so much I didn’t know about being a dragon… and I wanted to know what it was like to be a true dragon and nopony could tell me here, so I went to learn it for myself… I never knew it would lead to what happened, and I didn’t have much of a choice either.” He explained where they took him. “They took me to a place they called the Dragon Caves, and it was just that, cave after cave of dragons, you know?” He explained how he regretted his decision. “I tried to send a letter to you guys! I really did, but they caught me the first time and they…” Spike chose to not explain that part. “Made sure I wouldn’t do it again. All the dragons never let me leave, thinking I might conspire with the ponies against them, not to mention it was really hard to actually find paper in a cave!” He explained how he trained to be a dragon. “Every day was a new challenge. Every day was a test in anything, Animal hunting, gem hunting, flying, fighting, fire-breathing, even belching and eating!” He explained how as he learned and trained his body grew. “You remember when I got really greedy? Well that was because it took an aspect of a dragon. They say it is some form of magic in the blood of a dragon that increases growth.” He summed up everything he could until the day he left. “I went there to know what being a dragon was and they turned me into a monster…” He explained the horrible things he did. “They made me hunt, fight, kill…” Spike didn’t want to say anything more since he hated talking about it… But a small part of him… deep inside him liked it… and wanted more. He wasn’t going to say that though.

After Spike finished the girls were silent. After a few long minutes Applejack spoke.

“So why did ya’ come back?” she said not showing any expression. “ah’ understand why ya’ up and lef that place, but why did ya’ come back to Ponyville?”

“I wanted to see you guys again, I just missed you too much. Where else was I supposed to go?”

All was silent…

“Ah’ see…” That was all Applejack said as she turned and left the library.

Rainbow Dash flew up to Spike said “I just… I can’t look at you as a friend anymore… Sorry.” Then she left as well. But as she left Spike heard her mumble something that he couldn’t make out. Barely a whisper, unreadable but audible.

The next to move was Rarity who gave Spike a quick smile.

Fluttershy quickly followed Rarity in pursuit. She was being unusually silent, even if she was scared. She took one last look at Spike before she left.

Lastly was Pinkie who bounced up to Spike and gave him a card. “Here’s the invitation to your Welcome Back party. Don’t be lAAAAAAaaaaate” she said in a sing song voice as she left.

When they were all gone Spike looked at Twilight.

“Well… that could have gone better”

Garble worked his way through the twisting tunnels of the Dragon Caves. If any creature wondered into the Dragon Caves they would probably be lost for years on end, but not a dragon. A dragon had a truly amazing sense of smell. It was completely impossible to map out the ancient tunnels and caverns, that’s why each part of the cave was labelled with a certain smell that only a dragon would notice. That’s why Garble easily worked his way around the underground chasms and sleeping dragons.

As Spike grew over the last six years so did garble. Since he was older he was larger than Spike, about seven feet taller than Spike.

He stopped at one ledge of a chasm and peered down into it. By telling of the smell (and noise), if you flew down this one for about a minute you would find yourself in the dragon nursery, where female dragon mothers guarded their children and eggs fiercely, luckily that was not where Garble was heading. He was heading to where he and his friends slept. It was a mostly secluded cavern.

Spike chose to sleep away from the others in a small side cave saying he needed his space. They respected his choice as he claimed his territory at such a young age and honestly no one cared. But now, Spike was gone and Garble could have a place to himself as he grew tired of Lacewing’s snoring.

When he got to the cave he walked past his friends. One called out to him.

“Hey, garble! Wanna join us?” the dragon asked as he motioned to the others who were gathered around a fire, talking, laughing and eating some form of animal while talking. Dragons could survive off gems and most preferred to but sometimes meat tasted so much better. They still were carnivores after all.

“Nah,” Garble said “I’m good, I’ll join you later” Garble walked off leaving the other dragons to their meal.

As he got to Spike’s cave he noticed it was getting incredibly dark, so dark that it was nothing but pitch blackness at the end of the cave. Even with the eyes of a dragon, Garble couldn’t see anything, but he did notice something he could use as a light source. On one of the cave walls was made up from a cache of Magnesium. By the large chippings taken out, it was obvious Spike had been using it as a light source.

Garble couldn’t be bothered to chip pieces off so he just breathed in a deep breath and blew out some fire, igniting the entire wall and almost destabilising the cave.

But Garble didn’t care about that… His eyes were fixed on the numerous Drawings on the wall, most of them consisting of six ponies…

Garble was speechless.

Author's Note

I'm so nervous about this chapter! I had no Idea on what to do with this scene. I spent hours pacing and I'm damn annoyed that this is all I got... I hope enjoy it.

I will leave now. I have big plans for the holidays.

Good day.

~A very, very... very nervous Solar.

Making up for lost time

For Spike, there was nothing better to relieve stress than flying. The wind parted for his large snout, the air moved with every beat of his wings The rays of sunlight shone down on his scales lighting them up like emeralds gliding through the sky.

The last two days in Ponyville had been very interesting. He had managed to make it up with his caretaker and or sister. The same however could not be said for his friends in Ponyville. Each one gave off a different reaction that disapproved of the older and bigger Spike. He didn't even know why or how they disliked him that much.

Whatever happened Spike thought Whatever I did… It’s my fault and I need to fix this… somehow…

Some of the other ponies in Ponyville had taken a dislike to him as well. Though most of them remembered him when Twilight explained to them that it was indeed Spike, and they were quite happy to see the dragon again… at least to Twilight they were. Spike however could see something they were trying to hide… fear.

Spike realised that he was caught up in his daydreams and had slightly flown off course. He rearranged his course for Sugarcube corner. That was where Twilight would be, and where Pinkie was throwing his ‘Welcome Back Big Dragon Spike Party’.

At first Spike was reluctant to go. He didn’t want to scare anypony but Twilight insisted. ”They all just need to warm up to you” Twilight said. Spike hoped she was right, he began to descend from above the clouds and came into view of Ponyville.

Some foals poked there carer and pointed up at Spike as he flew by. Some ponies gazed up in awe. Some were shocked and dived under carts and wagons. It was nothing that Spike didn’t expect expected to happen. All he hoped is that he didn’t hurt the ponies.

Spike remembered back to the caves. He overheard a dragon that just got back from the Griffon Kingdoms saying how he terrorized a small village.

Spike grimaced and denounced that thought. Spike would never do that! Would he?

Spike shook his head and focused on the sweet decorated house and landed as softly as he could beside it. Everypony stared at him for a while before getting back to what they were doing. Spike thought he saw a few glares in the crowd but wasn’t truly bothered by them. Then, in a pink blur, Pinkie shot out of the candy coated building.

“Hi Spike!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie” Spike said, giving her a small smile.

“Now that the dragon of the hour has arrived we can really get this party started!” She said somehow managing to place a party-hat on Spike’s head, “the Party’s inside!” she cheered and bounced to the door of Sugarcube Corner.

“Um, Pinkie?” Spike asked.

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?” said Pinkie, turning to slowly look at Spike.

“How am I supposed to even fit in Sugarcube Corner?” He asked

Pinkie looked at Spike, then Sugarcube, then Spike, realising her mistake.

Twilight then emerged from the door “And we’re the only ones here, Pinkie. I don’t think the others came.”

“Well that was slightly rude of them” Pinkie said sternly “Oh well, I guess we could have a small party on one of the outside tables.”

Pinkie trotted to one of the outside tables and motioned for Spike and Twilight to sit down. Twilight took a seat next to Pinkie and Spike just lay on his stomach in front of the table. His tale wrapped around himself so it wouldn’t get in the way of anypony passing by.

“I really thought more would come” Pinkie said sadly.

“Don’t feel too bad about it, Pinkie.” Twilight said “I wouldn’t blame them for not showing up to a party for a huge fire-breathing beast,” she then turned to Spike “No offence, Spike.”

“Don’t worry about it” Spike said waving a claw dismissively “I was kinda’ hoping nopony would show up any way.”

Spike looked at Pinkie who zoomed inside Sugarcube Corner and almost immediately returned with some drinks and a few cupcakes.

“Pinkie, can I ask you something?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, Spike?” Pinkie replied shoving an entire cupcake in her mouth.

“Why are you… okay with me? I mean, why aren’t you unhappy with me in some way, like everypony else?”

Pinkie swallowed her cupcake in one gulp and went silent, her mind concentrating.

“Well… I guess I did the same thing as you, Spike…”

“What do you mean you did the same thing as him?” Twilight said curiously “I’ve known you for a while now, Pinkie, and I’ve never heard of you going off into the mountains to learn how to be a dragon.”

“No, silly” Pinkie said giggling then looked back at Spike again. “When I was a filly, living with my family, I was getting really tired of same old routine every day, rocks, rocks, and more rocks… I barely ever got to throw any real parties for anypony besides my sisters… So one day I made my decision and I left. My dad wasn’t too happy about my decision and it was hard saying goodbye to my sisters, but I still left. I came to Ponyville to stay with my aunt and uncle cake and I’ve lived here ever since… I miss my family sometimes; I can still send them letters though. But my calling is here, this is where I belong.”

Spike and Twilight were quite surprised hearing a story like this from a pony like Pinkie.

Pinkie giggled “Isn’t that what you did, Spike? except… you know, you went far far far away with some big dragons and you couldn’t visit us.”

Spike thought about Pinkie’s words. It was exactly what he was doing, even if he never thought of it that way.

Pinkie gave a warm smile. “You left to find your calling. Though I still wasn’t happy about my only dragon friend leaving… I guess I kinda’ respect you for it.”

Twilight spoke up “That’s… very noble of you, Pinkie” she praised.

“Thanks, Pinkie” Spike said “I’m glad to be back.”

“How bad was it?” Pinkie asked cautiously, not wanting to bring up any bad memories.

“I…” Spike remembered back to when he was first there… All the beatings he took… “I’d rather not say” he finally decided on saying.

Eventually their conversation drifted into what seemed like endlessness. Pinkie talked about parties she had threw or pranks she had pulled. Twilight talked about books she’d read which Pinkie and Spike as very stereo typical Twilight, to which they all laughed. Eventually their laughing continued into the evening and it didn’t stop there.

Spike had a lot to catch up on after all.

Author's Note

Oh dear lord... I actually posted a new chapter?! Blasphemy!

Sorry this took so long. The past weeks have been quite hectic with school-work and my Depression, I did intend to put this in with another chapter but I felt like this one needs its own chapter to itself. As for future chapters there is already another chapter in the works, but I don't know when it will be done.

I apologize for any grammar in this chapter (There's bound to be some.) and leave a structured comment if you have the time. I always enjoy hearing what you guys have to say.

Good Day!

The Dragon's Hunt

Spike had been in the Dragon caves for just about a year and the cold winter weather was beginning to form. Ever since he met that old dragon that opted to train Spike safely (and less painfully), Spike had actually started to grow. He was now three times his baby size, but he was still small for his age.

Spike still disliked the Dragon Caves, but at least he had now grown accustomed to the way things worked. Like knowing how to navigate to the essential caves by their marked smell, and knowing you shouldn’t bother another dragon while they sleep… and knowing that no matter what the Elder Dragons were doing, as long as there were two of them in the same cavern, they were mostly likely arguing… like right now.

Spike was fast asleep along with Garble the other young dragons for winter was coming, meaning it was time for the dragons to start hibernating in their caves. Spike had never done this before and was certainly not going to turn down an extremely long nap. That was until the voices of two older and much bigger dragons boomed through the cave immediately causing Spike and the many other dragons to jump straight up, fully awake.

“You deal with it!” Said one that had just entered the cavern where the young dragons slept. He was tall with dark green scales. Spike recognised him as Sirath.

“No, you deal with it! I’m busy!” said the other who followed in pursuit. This one was slightly smaller with black and grey scales, and was called Kindralth.

“And I’m not?!” Sirath said, turning around to face Kindralth with an angry look. “I make sure everything is in order! I keep this place running”.

“You keep this place running?” Kindralth said, rising to look Sirath in the eyes. “I can’t remember the last time you did something for this place that didn’t benefit you. If it weren’t for me this place would be in chaos! And you do nothing! So deal with it, you old fool.”

“Scaleless idiot!”

“Useless reptilian!”

Meanwhile Garble lay next to Spike and whispered “You’d think for their age they would know that their getting nowhere by bickering like an old married couple.” Spike couldn’t help the small grin forming on his lips and him Garble both snickered.

“But why are they arguing?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know” Garble replied shrugging, “But as always, neither of them can be bothered to do it. I wonder what excuse they’ll make this time.”

After several insults were passed between the two gigantic dragons the young dragons entirely gave up on the idea of sleep with all the noise.

Out the corner of Kindralth’s eye he saw the young dragons, all of them were watching the argument with great interest since sleeping was no longer an option. Then he got a truly wicked idea.

“Why don’t we let them take care of it?” Kindralth asked, gesturing towards the small cluster of dragons.

“Why we don’t let them deal with it” Sirath spat, “is because they’d all die on the spot. They’re our next generation making them too valuable”.

“But if they are our next generation… wouldn’t we want only the fittest survive?” Kindralth said. “Only the toughest dragons would be able to come back unscathed from a hunt for a Hydra…”
Fear came into Spikes mind as he overheard the word ‘Hydra’. Spike had encountered a Hydra before and he certainly never wanted to see another again to say the least. Luckily he managed to stow away his fear before the other dragons noticed.

Sirath pondered this for a while. He could think of several reasons why Kindralth’s idea was idiocy.

“Unless you’d deal with it yourself…”

“Fine…” Sirath growled “But if none of them come back… I will deal with you personally.”

Sirath then turned to the younger dragons and eyed them down, daring any of them to speak before he did.

“Younger dragons!” Sirath bellowed. “As you may have overheard from me and Kindrath’s… dispute, a Hydra has wondered dangerously close to our the Caves. We are tasking you with the job of finding this Hydra and killing it.”

Sirath’s words sunk into Spike mind like a nail constantly hit with a hammer.

“We don’t expect many of you to survive, but that’s the point.” Sirath continued “Besides, if you don’t it will be a lot worse for you…” a snarl came to his snout.

“How do you expect us to kill a Hydra?” One of the younger dragons said.

Sirath growled at the dragon’s disobedience but decided to leave it. “I don’t care how you get rid of this Hydra as long as it dies. Oh, and don’t think this is an excuse to run off. As you all know, we don’t take kindly to those who try to run.”

Spike certainly knew what happened to the deserters of the Dragon Caves and shivered at the thought of it. When Spike came here he certainly didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

Sirath took one final glance at the dragons one last time before turning and walking away. He muttered something under his breath that Spike couldn’t make out and then he took off, Kindralth following in pursuit.

The young dragons stood there, a mix of emotions portrayed on their faces. Some dragons were arrogantly determined, too prideful to believe they’re probably all going to die. Some dragons were fearful, most of the young drakes had never tried fighting something bigger than they were. Even one of the biggest among them was showing signs of pure terror, but fearful was something a dragon couldn’t be…

No matter what they thought about their new task they all had one thing in common… They didn’t have a choice.

Garble, who had snapped out of his trance quickly, didn’t want to think too much about the extreme dangers ahead of him, if he did he’d only lower his confidence and that was certainly not what he needed right now. He looked back at Spike to find the small dragon had disappeared. He didn’t have time to look for the small purple dragon, all he could do was hope Spike new what he was doing.

“So, Sirath and Kindralth want you and the other young dragons to fight a Hydra, you say?”

“Pretty much…”

Spike had gone to the best (and only) one he knew who might be able to help him, the same dragon that offered to train him. Spike had constantly asked for his name over the weeks and the old, big dragon neglected to give him a straight answer. So Spike simply referred to him as ‘Grey’ because of his colour, pure grey, like a shield embossed in silver.

Spike had found Grey where he always found him when he went for his ‘dragon training’, on the surface around the eastern side of the mountains near the cave entrances. The sun was just rising over the new fallen snow setting a beautiful view over the mountains. It was a shame only one old and grey dragon ever cared to see it.

“I’ve never seen the other dragons look this scared” Spike said apprehensively “We have no choice but to find and kill it and none of us barely know how to hunt yet! No one knows what to do; I don’t know what to do!” He then began to hyperventilate, his vision clouding.

I’m going to die… This is it. I’m going to die an-

“Calm down, young drake. You’re only helping yourself pass out and waste the precious time you have” said Grey, his face as expressionless as it always was.

Spike breathing slowly, calmed to a steady pace and his mind cleared. Grey was not the most comforting of dragons, but his consideration and his years of knowledge did more than make up for that.

“So, lets talk about that hydra in a more detailed fashion,” Grey said sounding more serious as he spoke “what do you know about Hydra’s so far?”

Spike shook his head “Nothing really.”

“How many dragons do you have on your side?”

That Spike did know “Twenty-three but… they’re not ones to work together, they don’t exactly like each other” he said drawing in a breath, remembering back to his ‘fight’ with Talon Spire. The pure hatred in his eyes and he just kept hitting him without any care…

“Of course they don’t. Most young dragons are growing to be nothing but savages…” Grey despised how the new generations of dragons were being raised and trained to be nothing but blood thirsty predators without a hint of sentiment, shrewdness, or even smarts. Dragons were looking less like the wise, majestic creatures he remembered and more like animals every day. That was why one dragon stood out to him… Spike.

Spike didn’t like how Grey spoke of the other dragons. Though he hated almost all of them… Garble had helped him more than once here. But Grey was right, Garble was still one of the most aggressive dragons he’d ever seen. But he was still a friend and better company than none.

Spike looked back at Grey to see him deep in thought. “A dragon is a vicious, brutal and majestic creature” Grey said, his dragon “All ponies with common sense know it is insanity to try and converse with us. Even creatures like Timberwolves and Manticores feared the scaled beasts of the sky… Hydras however are different... They are territorial creatures and will kill any large predator that steps on it. The question is why has this one left has its territory and come here?”

Spike waited as Grey thought, his long and decrepit tail moving and rearranging itself round the boulder it had curled round. Spike noted that Grey often went quiet while thought, it better to stay quiet and let the smarter think… Kind of reminds me of someone else… Spike thought solemnly.

“What bothers you, young drake?” Grey said, noticing the sadness Spike emanated.

Spike quickly rubbed his eyes and looked up “I’m fine, really I am. What were you saying about the Hydra?”

“If you insist. As for the Hydra, Maybe a larger creature forced it out… I’ll have to make a note of that” Grey said “But I guess that does not matter to the situation at hand. We need to know about the Hydra itself. What are you going to do?”

Spike heeded Grey’s words and thought of what he was going to do.

“M-Maybe I could sneak up on it while it sleeps?” Spike suggested.

“That most likely wouldn’t work. A hydra instinctively sleeps with one head awake while other two sleep. But a hydra’s size makes him arrogant, try using that against him. A creature’s best attribute is movement, stand still and you will not last long. Those rules still apply for the Hydra. If you can trap him you might stand a chance.”

Spike thought back to when Rainbow Dash had lured Twilight into a corner only to be trapped in there as Pinkie and Dash Hurled Cream Pies at her. Twilight was not amused to say the least.

I doubt pies will do much to a Hydra.

“Oh, and this is most important” Grey said looking at Spike “If a Hydra has any weak points they will be on the body, if you have any will of seeing this battle to the end, do NOT attempt to sever one of its heads.”

“W-why is that?” a small hint of fear in his voice.

“Hopefully by the end of this you won’t have to know…” Grey didn’t just hold back this information for no reason. He knew that if he told Spike that such an already dangerous creature could actually sprout extra heads after taking a fatal wound would dramatically increase his fear of it. And those who are scared fall behind and die off…

Spike thought about his advantages in his head. He then turned to look at the old dragon.

“I appreciate the help Grey, I really do! But what chance does this give me? I’m not even sure I’ll be able to do all this myself and there’s no way I’ll be able to take all three of its heads on in a fight… I don’t see how I could take it on… There’s nothing I can do to hurt it, not with these…” Spike said, showing his stubby talons and baby teeth. He’d barely be able to draw blood with them, they just had not grown enough yet. He looked down, his sorrow showing more by the second.

Grey sighed realising that he did not think of this. He inhaled through his nose… and slowly exhaled through his fangs “Firstly, well done, young drake.”

Spike rubbed his eyes once more “F-for What?”

“I did not consider how you were to hurt the beast, but you did. Broke thought ahead and broke important parts to play down in your head without even knowing you were doing it. That will gives you an advantage and a cut above the other dragons. Well done indeed.”

Spike couldn’t help but let a small smile pierce his lips.

“And secondly, yes, a Hydra does have three heads. But that should not bother you. Didn’t you say you had twenty three?”

Spike walked into the damp cave that he, Garble and Garble’s friends all slept in. Since the entire cave system was massive in size, there was more than enough room for every dragon to claim a space in the seemingly endless caves and caverns.

In the centre of the cave there was a fire that they managed to construct out of coal. Spike saw Garble was sitting at the fire. Spike walked over as Spike drowsily walked over and sat next to him.

“You know, I don’t know why you listen to that old guy” Said Garble, gazing into the fire “He looks so old I’d be surprised if he can still fly!”

“Yeah well, it’s still better than being torn apart by the others” said Spike lazily, “he knows a lot about pretty much everything.”

“But he can’t show you a first-hand experience of what it’s like to fight, or hunt, or kill. The only way a dragon can learn that is doing it himself, that what I always say.”

Well he has given me various tips and moves I could use. Not to mention tactics Spike thought, but decided not to pursue the argument. Dragons could be very stubborn when it came to arguing.

“Can the old guy teach you how to fight a Hydra?” Garble asked pressing the argument.

Spike was about to answer but then he realised something that might help him.

“Actually…” Spike said, finally turning his gaze from the fire to the dragon next to him “Garble, mind helping me with something?”

“Well I ain’t got nothing better to do. What do you need help with?”

Spike stood up and explained his plan.

“This is the most pathetic idea I’ve ever heard!” Talon Spire hissed “I could take this thi-”

“-Would you shut up!” Garble whispered.

Getting all the young dragons to work together was far from an easy task. If Spike had tried to convince them alone he probably would have ended up with his head on a pike. But Garble was one of the toughest dragons around for their age and every other dragon knew it. Being friends with Garble was an advantage Spike needed to survive in this dangerous place. Luckily Garble was happy to help his small friend.

It took a few negotiations with some dragons, and threats and fights with others. But eventually they all agreed.

The journey to the last known location of the Hydra was a long and tedious one, the journey mostly consisted of flight with Spike riding on the other dragons backs. Throughout the journey the Dragons argued over every single imaginable thing there was to argue about.

Since winter was coming the weather was nothing but snow and thunder storms, and when there was neither everything was covered in dense fog. Weather could be extremely brutal at times and for most animals was unflyable, but for dragons the harsh wind was only an annoyance.

Now Spike and the other young dragons silently crawled and climbed through the rocky landscape, closing in on their target.

They had set down a mile away where they had spotted Hydra tracks, they weren’t exactly hard to see from the sky.

As the brigade of dragons surreptitiously moved forward, another dragon by the name of Fanghorn (Named after the unnatural size of his Fangs) sneaked his way beside Garble.

“Hey, Garble. Why are you taking orders from that little shrimp?” He asked, motioning his head towards Spike who was remaining a small distance away from the other dragons.

“I do NOT take orders from him.” Garble said as he quietly peeked over a bolder they were using as cover “Spike is a pipsqueak, yes, but he’s a good dragon to have on your side, that little dragon is cunning and smarter than any of us and personally, I want to live through this. He said he had a plan, do you?”

Fanghorn thought for a while as the dragons constantly moved from cover to cover.

“‘Run in and kill it is my plan” Fanghorn said looking proud of himself.

heh, mine too Thought Garble.

“Look, Spike is the best chance we have” Garble said sternly “And if anyone tries to hurt him I’ll spare the hydra the honour of ripping out the teeth and shoving them in their eyes.”

“Okay, okay! Jeeze.” Fanghorn said taking a step back.

Meanwhile Spike slowly moved by himself, being careful with his footing, just like Grey had taught him.

It was close. He could smell it… hear it… even feel it. It was like he could see beyond his own eyes and pinpoint exactly where the prey was. He looked to the other dragons and saw they had it as well. Most of them looked like they were relishing every moment of it. For Spike, it also felt wonderful like he was a predator itching to strike. It was amazing.

Ohhh just wait until I get my talons on that Hydra. All it will be is me… and the kill… and the-wait that-am-I-thinking?!

“Do not let predatory instincts overcome you like it has the other dragons.” Greys’s words suddenly rang through Spike’s head. “Yes, you are a hunter, an animal at the top of the food chain, but you do not have to be mindless. Letting these instincts overcome you can bring out the worst in you, turning dragons into a creature no wiser than any other witless animal, living off instinct. But do not deny your instinct for that is part of being a dragon.”

“How do I do that?”

“Do not rely on your instinct, instead chose when to use it yourself and come to trust it.”

Spike snapped back to reality from the past memory. But still he regarded Grey’s words. He then tried to sniff out for the Hydra again, this time of his own accord, and like magic he immediately locked onto the scent again.

“100 metres directly” Spike whispered to himself peering into the mass of trees, rocks and foliage.

Suddenly Garble made a motion to hide and all the dragons that weren’t doing so already dropped to the ground laying on their stomachs.

Garble motioned Spike over to his cover. He silently crawled up to Garble who brushed the bush he was hiding behind to the side so Spike could see.

There it was… right on the other side of a small lake… a huge lumbering hulk of a creature around seventy feet tall. Its light brown mass dominating everything around, its legs and body sat firmly in the ground as its snakelike heads busily tore apart what looked like the remains of a Manticore, no doubt its former prey.

Spike almost threw-up when he saw the sight of the Manticore but forced his sick down and turned back to the other dragons.

Talon Spire was brandishing his claws, preparing to fly out and attack.

“No, we need to work as a team” Spike Whispered.

“I said I would work together” Talon spire spat back in a hushed tone “not take orders from some puny flightless lizard!” The other dragons seemed to nod in agreement with this, over ruling Spike completely.
“Will you will listen to him if you want to live through this? Plus I’ll also kill you myself if you try anything else” Garble hissed at Talon Spire who growled at the threat “Spike is the smartest guy here because he’s the only one with a real plan on killing this thing. Give him one chance, it’s not like you guys have one.”

A long moment of silence passed between Garble and the other dragons. Each glaring at Garble and Spike until one of Garble’s Friends stepped up.

“Alright, I’ll give the little shrimp a chance to prove himself.”

“I haven’t a got much better choice have I?” Said another dragon. “Don’t mean I like him but I’ll follow his plan…”

“Fine.” Talon Spire snapped, “what is his plan anyway?”

All of dragons then turned to Spike.

“What exactly is the plan?”

“Well…” Spike said “I’ll need help from all of you. But I think it might work.”

The old Hydra’s head had no idea about the small dragons slowly surrounding it. It was too busy devouring the unlucky Manticore that had stopped to drink from the lake and turn its back to the forest. Its three great heads bit into its carcass, each intent on tearing off its own edible piece. To tell the truth it had not eaten in days. It was too busy moving as far away from its own territory as it could. Not saying the Hydra did not like its former living place, it loved the old murky marshes and foggy bogs; it never wanted to leave… But it had to, to tell the truth, it was running from something. And Hydras are not easily spooked.

“Step one: Distraction”
Then suddenly there was a small yell from the foliage and then without warning, twenty-three dragons took to the sky like a swarm of angry fire-breathing bees. They flew around the Hydra constantly breathing fire and getting occasional bites and scratches at it, driving the Hydra three heads into disarray and anger.

The Hydra’s heads snapped at the attacking dragons, one of which managing to grab a hold of one dragon’s tail with its teeth, but another dragon made a horizontal slash across the back of its head. With a roar of pain and anger it let go of the dragon it caught.

“Step two: Cripple”

While the three heads were distracted, Garble and Talon Spire flew down to the Hydra’s left leg. It seemed it was trying to get up from where it sat but with all of its minds busy it appeared to be struggling.

The two dragons carried two rocks. Talon Spire carried one that was sharp and pointy while Garble’s rock was heavy, hard and rounded.

Talon Spire placed his rock pointy side towards the Hydra’s knee and Garble smashed his rock against it as hard as he could. Like a hammer and nail the sharper rock went deep into the Hydra’s knee with a sickening crack.

If the Hydra didn’t roar in agony the first time, it did now. As its entire weight balanced on its legs they gave way and the Hydra fell to the ground.

As the great beast hit the ground, taking out a large area of forestry in the process, all the dragons moved straight for the body. Biting, tearing, scratching, burning, hurting the beast in any way they knew how. A strange oddity was that all the dragons specifically were not attacking the heads and necks.

As the Hydra writhed in pain helplessly, none of the dragons attacks were enough to kill it. Unable to fight back the Hydra heads desperately refused to accept their fate. But… a head noticed something. Ahead of it was a small green and purple dragon. Seeing its last chance at a kill slowly backing away, just six metres away, it took it. Forcing its head towards the small dragon, it would enjoy its last moments knowing it killed something.

As Spike saw the giant head rearing forwards towards him with murderous intent, seeing there was nowhere to run, he readied himself for what he had to do next.

“Step three” He gulped “kill…”

Author's Note

And here it is! Another chapter done and out there… finally! In this chapter we got to see a small idea of what Spike is going through living with the other dragons. I tried to make the Hydra Battle as realistic as possible (as much as you can make mythical creature battle each other). Note that every now and again you will see these ‘Flashback Chapters’ in future. But for now, I don’t know about you guys but I really want to see more chapters about future Spike. So I do want to do a couple of those before I even think about writing the next Flashback Chapter.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment and tell what you think. Constructive Criticism is welcome and appreciated!

A Different Dragon

Spike reminisced back to his first hunt. He knew hunting creatures was a big part of a dragon’s life, making sure all animals that might be of annoyance stay well away from their lairs, if they didn’t they had to be taken care of, Spike knew this, but he never expected his first hunt to be a Hydra.

Spike decided that it would be best if he left the Golden Oaks Library in the early morning as not to attract attention. The townsponies knew Spike was here thanks to Pinkie’s party invitations, but judging by none of them showing up to said party, Spike assumed that they were aware of his new found size and the certainly were unsure of it.

That is why he quietly sneaked out of Ponyville just as dawn began to seep over the hills and was now gently creeping through the dense trees of the Everfree forest.

A dragon is not the stealthiest of creatures. They could be extremely quiet when they needed to be, especially when they are younger and need to rely on stealth to even have a chance against larger beasts. But as they gradually get older and bigger they lose their small and light bodies and have to drop stealth in exchange for power. Spike had definitely passed his need for stealth which made his current predicament all the more annoying.

He furled his wings as close to his back as possible, so that they would not get in the way and continued creeping through the woods.

After about two minutes of moving through the dense forest he stopped and sniffed. He had it, the faintest smell of Fluttershy’s shampoo about one-hundred yards away. He had caught the scent back at the library the other day.

“It seems Twilight was right” Spike mumbled.

Twilight had told him that Fluttershy liked to take walks in the early mornings. Spike thought this to be an opportune moment to talk to Fluttershy. When he spoke to his old friends in the library the other day Fluttershy said nothing and the others spoke for her. Spike however wanted to hear what Fluttershy had to say, plus from what he remembered of Fluttershy he thought it would be best to start with her.

Spike redirected his course and headed towards Fluttershy’s scent, all the time homing in on it.

After a while he came to a small well-trodden path in the forest. The forest cover above the road parted, letting sunlight enter and touch the ground. Sticking to the foliage beside the path for cover he sniffed again trying to regain the scent of the pony, but could not find it.

“Darn…” he muttered to himself “Something greater is blocking the scent.”

Whatever this new smell was, it was heavy and thick, like all the feces, rotten wood and mud had all been put in one place. Spike knew this wasn’t something that just occurred in the forest, meaning someone or something was behind it. Spike sharpened his senses; if this smell was from a creature that lived within the forest then danger was sure to follow.

Spike peaked his head out from the twisted trees and tall grass. There she was. About five yards away Fluttershy walked down the road unaware of Spike’s presence.

Why would Fluttershy take walks through the Everfree?

Spike tensed. Whatever the stench was, it was getting closer.

Fluttershy stopped. Even she was beginning to pick up on it now. She turned her head looking around, trying to locate a source. But as she recognised the smell, her inquisitive transformed into one of pure horror.

Very slowly she backed away and turned to head back the way she came.

But the source of the foul stench had already decided to show itself.

The wooden creature leaped out from the forest and landed on the road. Sap dripped from its teeth like drool, its four great legs firmly in the ground ready to attack at any moment, its eyes aglow with a shade of green you could forget yourself in. A Timber Wolf.

Fluttershy began to run at the sight of the creature but two more came out from behind her, blocking her exits. She tried to let out a scream but nothing came out, too scared to scream she covered her eyes and pretended it was all a horrible dream that she could just wake up from.

Meanwhile the very real Timber Wolves prepared to pounce on their prey.

They did not get the chance however for a much bigger and more dangerous creature decided to finally make itself known.

Suddenly a loud and threatening growl came from the forest. The Timber Wolves ceased their advance on the pony and all turned to face the intruder on their meal.

Spike stepped out of the underbrush baring his teeth as threateningly as he could. When the Timber Wolves saw his full size they took a slight step back, but they weren’t going to give up their food so easily. Spike then unfurled his wings making him look even bigger while at the same time he shot a small ball of fire at the largest Timber Wolf. It was more than enough to set the entire creature alight.

That did it.

The still burning wolf yelped and ran back into the forest as fast as he could. Seeing the biggest of them so easily scared, the two others quickly followed suit. Leaving the dragon and the petrified pony with her eyes still covered all alone.

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” Spike asked in a concerned stature.

Fluttershy whimpered, hiding her face with her mane.

“Um… Fluttershy?” Spike asked again.

Again Fluttershy did not answer, too petrified to say anything.

He didn’t want to try and comfort, he didn’t want to scare her more than she already was. In fact he wasn’t sure how much she saw of him trying to scare the Timberwolves away. He imagined for a pony such as Fluttershy it would have looked completely terrifying.

Neither did he want to leave her here. He may have temporarily scared off the Timberwolves but the Everfree Forest still held one-thousand other things here that hunt, kill and devour ponies. Simply leaving her here was not an option.

So Spike sat there, not really sure what to do and waited.

Ten minutes had passed and Spike began to get nervous that another creature would stumble onto their scent.

“S-Spike?” Came a soft voice.

Spike looked down to see that Fluttershy had finally stopping whimpering in terror and was now looking up at him.

“Yeah?” He said nervously.

“Where are the Timberwolves?” She asked looking around like they were hiding in the bushes nearby.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy, they’re gone.” Spike said, trying to cease her worry.

“What did you do?” She asked this like she feared the answer, which secretly concerned Spike.

“Well, I scared them off” He answered, not wanting to go into too much detail of the event. “Which is why we should probably get moving… Timber Wolves can be scared off but they always return more of their pack.”

“Oh, right…” Fluttershy said, trying not to make eye contact “Thanks, Spike… for saving me.”

Fluttershy then turned to walk back down the road to Ponyville, leaving Spike alone.

Why is she avoiding me? What is she hiding? Spike thought.

He pondered if he should go back to Twilights and try again another day, He quickly cast the thought aside. He had come here to talk with Fluttershy and it was now or never.

“Fluttershy, wait!” He called.

Fluttershy slowly stopped and turned to look back at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“C-could I come back to your house and talk?” He asked.

Fluttershy wanted to decline him. The less time she spent with Spike the better. She pondered what the politest way to say it was.

“Since I did save your life and all…” He added.

That was true, however much she wished it could have been anypony else, he was the one that saved her life. She lowered her head. Sometimes Fluttershy was too kind.

“Okay” she said but it barely came out as a whisper.

That was enough for Spike and he moved to catch up with her

The two of them spent most of the journey back to Fluttershy’s cottage in silence. Only when they were out of the Everfree did Spike gain enough courage to speak.

“So… how have you bin’?” He asked

“Fine.” She replied.

“What’s been happening while I was… away?” He tried again.

“You know, Stuff.” She replied.

Spike sighed.

“Fluttershy, were not going to get anywhere if you don’t even talk to me.”

When they got to the door of Fluttershy’s cottage he realised that he had not thought about how he was going to fit inside the small cottage.

Fluttershy stopped and the door and finally turned to face Spike.

“What do you want Spike?” She asked with a sigh.

“To talk to you. Back at the Library you didn’t say anything and most of the others seemed to speak for you. So I came to get your side of the story.”

Fluttershy was silent. Still not wanting to speak, she turned away and reached for the latch on her door.

“Fluttershy please!” Spike pleaded as Fluttershy opened the door and began to walk inside “Weren’t we friends?”

At that last part, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks.

“Yes but you left us” She said abruptly.

Spike was silent.

“Back then everything was normal, we were happy, weren’t we?”

Spike could only nod as no words he could say occurred to him.

“So why did you abandon us?” Fluttershy said that more sternly than she meant.

“I… needed to learn who I was… and… how to be a dragon…”

“Then tell me… was it everything you thought it would be?”

Spike sighed mournfully “No… and I threw away my friends for it… I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I know I made a mistake and I’ve changed but it’s our friendship that matters.” He looked at her with almost pleading eyes.

Fluttershy’s emotionless face never faltered.

“You know that won’t cut it Spike. You can’t just apologize for running off for six years without even saying goodbye, and you never will, e-especially on the day Angel died.”

That last part hit Spike like a bombshell. Angel had died the day he left? Of course Spike did hate the little rabbit and usually found him trying to make Spike’s life a living hell, but anyone could see that Fluttershy loved Angel more than anything, even if nopony really knew how.

“Fluttershy, I-”

“Please just go, Spike” Fluttershy said, finally entering her cottage and closing the door. Before she did though, Spike could have sworn he saw a tear roll down her cheek.

After realising there was nothing more Spike could say to Fluttershy, He turned and flew off. He needed a new plan if he was ever going to regain Fluttershy’s friendship.

Spike had some thinking to do.

In a land not too far from Equestria. A land where scaly beasts ruled the Sky and everything below. A land where the blood of overly confident knights, treasure hunters and explorers stained the ground and their bones infused with the earth. And within the mountains of this barbarous land lay the entrances to a labyrinth of caves that made up what you could call a city. A city ruled by fear and strength, and as you can imagine such a type of governance that is only dependant on might alone is unstable and corrupt. A lot has changed for the dragon race in the last thousand years, especially in the dragon caves, and from the mouth of the cave in the mountains of this ruthless land… eyes of a red and gold dragon began to look at towards another civilisation….

Author's Note

Well, what did you expect? Another epic fight between a dragon and some other monster?

I wanted use this chapter for some story progression and some breathing room. Don’t have much to say about this one. I do hope you liked this chapter and found comfort in in it by seeing that this story STILL is not dead… just having sluggish progression.