Ch. 1 Spikes normal Morning
It was an exceptionally beautiful predawn in Ponyville, everything seemed to just emanate the feeling of beauty. It was very still most everywhere as the sun had not come up, except for a pair of creatures exiting the castle in town.
A peculiar pair these two were, but the sight of this purple dragon and his phoenix companion was a very common one here in Ponyville, and so no one had they been awake and paying attention to the streets, would have given them much thought other than wondering what they were doing up this early.
That is they would be wondering that unless they were familiar with this duos daily ritual of sorts. Every morning they would get up at the same time, a good hour before sunrise, they would sneak out and head to the Ponyville lake.
From there they had a unique and special thing to do. For they were the only ones that knew of this secret, nonetheless the only ones who could make it that deep.
xxxxxxx
3:54 A.M. Chrystal castle in Ponyville
It was a nice night, early in the morning, every creature was asleep, other than an owl that is, this owl was just sitting here because he liked watching a certain purple dragon and a certain grown male phoenix as they did a special thing every morning. This owl, going by the name of Owlicious, knew they were going to wake real soon he just had to wait for a minute to pass.
3:55
Spikes eyes shot open and he smiled as he always did, and he had a good reason to smile, he couldn't think of anypony who wouldn't take what he was about to go do and see as a reason to smile. He saw it every morning but it was still so wonderful, so beautiful, it filled him with the same indescribable feelings of joy, beauty, wonder, and something else, every single time that he saw it.
And he was even lucky he was able to see it, after all its so hard to get to its become a story around town. Out of habit he raised his arm that had his watch in front of his face so that he could look at the time, not that he really needed to check to see what time it is, He already knew as soon as he woke that it was exactly 3:55 in the morning, which was exactly one hour and five minutes from the first bit of sunrise in summer in Ponyville.
Spike slowly got up and out of his bed in his chambers, He took his pajamas off as he walked over to his clothes drawers. He opened up his drawers and took out a pair of boxers, a purple T shirt, one of his black pairs of Jeans, and his Favorite white hoodie. His smile grew as he took out his clothes, which were unique here in Ponyville due to the fact he was the only bipedal creature that wore clothes that lived around here for hundreds of miles other than the beasts that occasionally came through Ponyville.
No, that's not the reason that his smile was growing, not one bit, well maybe a little, but the real reason was not the fact that they were unique or super comfy, or just simply his favorite. No, the real reason that his smile was growing at just the sight of these clothes was that he was thinking of the certain somepony that made these clothes.
The somepony that mad these clothes was a certain mare, a mare that had a great special shape, perfect body..... that also had a gorgeous deep purple-violet mane that just matched her perfect white skin, and seemed to compliment perfectly those ever shining perfect blue eyes, everything about her was flawless, perfectly complimenting every other feature about her. This made he had had a crush on for quite a long time, though he has given up on chasing her fully she still had a very special place in his heart, and he couldn't help but whisper her name to himself as he gathered the clothes.
"Rarity..."
Spike closed the drawers and held the clothes for a second before he, instead of putting them on, started folding the clothes up in a well practiced, very neat, space saving way. to be easy to take with him so that he could put them on later.
Not that he really needed to wear clothes being a male dragon, he still wore clothes out of decency and respect for everypony, but being a dragon, he is able to pull his special parts in and cover the spot with special sliding scale plates. This was a advantage for swimming and flying as it allowed him to not wear any clothes, yet still not be nude at the same time.
When spike had been growing up he hadn't wanted to wear clothes because they rubbed his scales awkwardly, and because he didn't see why he had to wear clothes being able to hide his parts, truthfully he was kind of smug about it to all the colts and stallions who he had talked to about it, laughing to himself at the fact they had to wear clothes. As he grew up he learned full respect and so now wore clothes, though if he had had clothes like these, specially made to not affect his scales, he always would have worn clothes.
But he had still learned a trick that he could do as a dragon, one that helped him hide or carry stuff safely, as a dragon he thought about his ability to pull his parts in and out, and therefore wondered if he could make himself smaller or possibly bigger, through moving his inner and outer layers of scales, after all that was the secret to moving and hiding his parts.
Spike had then worked hard and found that it was easy to shrink himself, and if he removed some outer scales, fit that smaller image, or leave it there and make a compartment in which he could put things and refill the space with what part he shrunk to make room.
He also discovered that making himself bigger was a long and painful process, one that included carefully peeling off every one of his outer scales, then growing a bit, carefully placing every scale back, filling the excess, using the magic from his dragon fire, grow the scales before he could grow a couple more inches. This is not something he wants to do as it hurts like Tartarus throughout the whole time and it takes a whole day for one growth.
But the shrinking did have its perks. Spike focused and pulled his stomach in, shrinking it but leaving the outer scales there, he then proceeded to carefully move a couple of the scales out of place, put the clothes in and carefully put the scales back in place and refilled the gap inside him.
Doing this used to take a bit at first, but as he had done it a lot it only took a few seconds. Though he did feel guilty about doing this sometimes, the guilt only came because there were very few who knew he could do this, and out of habit he rattled them off and why in his head.
There was Princess Celestia, he told her in a letter a while back because he shared pretty much everything with her, she was like a mother to him after all, she had kept him warm and nurtured him for the first essential weeks after twilight had hatched him, so he had formed a very special bond with her, she had left an imprint on him.
There was Luna, this was because Celestia had shared the information with here, not that spike cared.
Then there was Fluttershy, he told her because he had a special spot for her too, and so sharing that with her had left her overjoyed to know that about dragons.
There was also the Cutie Mark Crusaders, err, the Mystery and Adventure Crusaders as they went by now, ever since they got there cutie marks a few years ago that is. They knew about spikes ability because he adventured with those fillies, no mares, they've been mares since a bit before their cutie marks, being mares and having discovered everything fillies could their adventures had gotten dangerous, and so spike would often join them. On their adventures they would often run out of space in there packs, this was why they knew about his ability, Spike would often end up carrying everything from supplies to loots to lunches in his "compartments".
Then there was Owlicious, Spike knew he watched him every morning.
Then there was his companion Peewee, who knew about it for the fact he was his best friend. The reason nopony else really knew was because Spike had a fear, a fear that ponies would see him differently if they knew, or that they would study him.
After the thoughts of that Spike got up, he had 2 minutes left to wake Peewee and write his note. Spike once again smiled as he walked into the open bird cage like balcony room that was attached to his chambers and saw his sleeping phoenix companion.
Spike loved Peewee, he was like a sort of brother to him. They had been together for a while, Peewee had hatched from a phoenix egg that spike had had from saving it from getting smashed by a delinquent dragon named Garble and his cronies, whom spike had run into during his adventure to find more about what it meant to be a dragon by journeying to the badlands up north during the dragon migration.
After saving the egg he had tried to return it but the parents were nowhere to be found, so he kept it with him. After a bit Peewee had hatched and Spike had named him. Not too far into the future Peewee's parents had shown up for him, but Peewee kept on following Spike, after a bit, his parents talked for a bit, and left, leaving Peewee behind with the little purple dragon.
Well as time went on Peewee grew up, after a bit Peewee had left, as much as this had hurt spike he had understood that Peewee would need too. Life had gone on, Twilight had become a princess, and the castle had been made. Then suddenly one day, much to Spike's delight, Peewee came back. Spike had been so delighted and the room in which Spike was now standing had been added for the majestic and magnificent creature now sleeping before spike.
"Hey Peewee, it's time to wake up" Spike said softly and smiled bigger as the phoenix raised his head and stretched his wings then hopped on the dragons shoulder. "Now to go write the note to twilight." Spike grabbed a quill and a small piece of paper and scrawled *Gone to watch the sunrise with Peewee, Be back by seven. - Spike.* The two companions headed out the door.
They quickly left the castle and headed swiftly on a familiar and well known path to the Lake that rested on the edge of Ponyville. When they got there they stopped for a second to take a breath.
"Hey Peewee are you ready?" Spike asked looking at the phoenix that nodded in reply. Spike opened his mouth and the phoenix hopped in fast and Spike closed his mouth still wondering how the phoenix fit in there but still glad and dove into the lake swimming down to the bottom so deep he couldn't hold his breathe that long, nopony could, that's where Peewee and the fireproof little dragon had a unique thing, spike remembered the first time he had discovered the phoenix's unique magic to help him breathe underwater.
It was the day after Peewee had returned and Spike was swimming in the lake and Peewee was flying overhead, landing on spikes belly or back when the dragon decided to take a break and just float.
One of the times while floating, Spike was looking down through the water with his keen dragon eyesight and noticed something that seemed off at the bottom of the lake. at the lowest point there was a slop and a point that gave the viewer a though of a cliff from most angles, but from spikes angle he could tell it was a cliff and there was some sort of overhang that threw the light off just right to seem to blend in with the bottom.
Spike had lifted his head out of the water, "Hey Peewee I'm going under" and dove once the phoenix had taken flight. He swam straight down to the middle of the lake and got close enough to tell that there was some sort of cave that gave off a very faint light, he swam back to the surface for breath.
Spike knew he could make it that deep, being a dragon could take a lot of pressure and so all he need ed was breath, He took a deep breath and dove down again, going as fast as he could so that he could save his breath, and was halfway when his lungs started to burn and kept pushing until his vision started to go black and shot back towards the surface and took many deep gulps then proceeded to float on his back and Peewee came and landed on Spikes stomach and gave Spike a look that said, Why did you try to drown yourself? Spike smiled.
"Don't worry I wasn't trying to drown myself, this lake is just deeper than it seems, I saw that there's a cave down there, I really want to check it out, but I can't hold my breath long enough." Peewee took flight a little above Spike and Spike watched the phoenix lazily, he yawned, and in that yawn Peewee had dove straight into the dragons mouth, Hitting the back of the throat so hard that Spike was forced to close his mouth and dragged under the water at the same time.
Spikes mind flooded with fear in the half second it happened, and then thought he was gonna drown as the force of the phoenix's dive slowed down. Then spike realized something, HE WASN'T HOLDING HIS BREATH! Spike sat still under the water for a second then took the opportunity to swim down to the cave and and went in. as he was just about to do in present time.
Spikes thoughts returned to the present as he saw he was nearing the entrance to the cave. He smiled in his mind as he got closer and closer to that cave. That cave that many ponies around the town had heard about, but most believed it was just a tale, told from generation to generation in this town.
The tale of a cave in the middle and deepest part of the lake, a cave that goes only a short distance before you are whisked away to a magical cave, a cave sown into the air and fabric of reality all around to town, a cave full of beauty beyond compare. Only a few believed that it truly existed, mostly foals, and even less knew it truly did. Spike smiled as he had stopped swimming for a bit at the entrance to the overhang then swam forward into the cave.
The Chrystal Cave of Ponyville Lake.
