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.