The Rise of Demon King Spike

When Spike arrived home there was a delivery of new arrivals for the library. He was tempted to ignore them and go straight to his basket where he could hide under the covers and weep.

But there were books and they needed to be put away. And if he didn't do it now, Twilight would just interrupt him and then he would have to explain what had happened. How he had been so stupid as to forget that he was just a...

With a claw he ripped open the tape holding the box closed.

At the top was a brand new copy of Daring Do and the Mystery of the Cup and Ball.

He pondered if this heralded the spiraling decline of the venerable Daring Do series as the author ran out of ideas. He delivered the ill-omened book the young adult section and put it at the end of the row of Daring Do books.

The next few books where replacements for reference books that had grown to aged and decrepit to be read without falling apart. After replacing them he delivered the elderly books to the burn pile down in the basement.

The last book was Dragon Morphology by Moondancer.

The second book on the topic of dragons to find it's way into the Ponyville public library. The only previous such book was Beware the Dragon! a slim volume that described how to avoid confrontations with dragons while traveling in the badlands.

Spike also recognized the name the author. Surely it couldn't be the same pony that he and Twilight had met in school? It would be weird if that Moondancer had managed to publish a book before Twilight.

Instead of putting the book away, Spike carried it to a nearby table and opened it up to a random page. He didn't feel like indulging his misery just yet. He just felt empty and wanted to fill it with something.

...indicates that dragons do not grow or age with the passage of time but rather with various actions. The exact connection between the types actions and the form that they eventually grow into is not yet clear...

Spike remembered standing above the tiny houses of Ponyville. So consumed by his own greed that he could barely think. He remembered how the world had shook with his roar. When he was an adult.

He flipped through the pages and stopped at a familiar picture of a massive quadrupedal wingless dragon with a long snaking tail.

...best guess I can translate the given name of this type of dragon as the Low Dragon, it is associated with hoards of rocks, supposedly large hoards of relatively low value items. The name it's self suggesting that this kind of dragon is not held in high esteem among other dragons...

Spike gave a tired sigh as he was once more rejected today. This time by his own species. Again.

Pages flipped as he skimmed quickly through the book.

...high dragon, largest and most highly regarded of dragons hoards only the most valuable of items in contrast to the low dragon...

Spike pondered briefly if his allowance would ever amount to that much. But then he didn't want to be too large to live in Ponyville.

...the duplicitous dragon, a two headed dragon that hoards secrets...

Spike gave a frown, who would want a second head?

...the beautiful dragon, a dragon of a modest size, only twice as tall as a pony and with impressive plumage, set aside from dragon society this before unknown type of dragon is...

Spike studied the accompanied rough image. It was a dragon to be sure, it's lines were sleek and smooth. It had wings, moved about comfortably on it's hind legs and could grasp things in it's foreclaws.

The beautiful dragon... Spike felt a curious longing as he looked at the creature depicted there. A firm understanding that if he could attain that glorious and adult body then Rarity would certainly not be able to deny him.

Indeed she would swoon at the sight of him and he would carry her off up into the clouds and they share sweet whispers together and she would admire his strength and immense maturity.

...this before unknown type of dragon is defined as a personification of a specific subtype of greed, the greed for mates. Copulation with an excessively wide variety of mates is required for this transformation to be achieved.

Spike crinkled his brow in confusion. The sentence made sense but the meaning of some of the words were lost on him.

He fetched a copy of The Horse Dictionary and laid it out next to Dragon Morphology.

“Under C for copulation,” Spike searched through the small print for the entry. “The act of sex.”

His frustration slowly grew. He recognized the word but it didn't mean anything to him.

“Under S for sex... 'Sexual education courses are available at all publicly funded schools in Equestria.'”

Spike took a deep calming breath. He put the books away each in their own proper place. He had found out what he needed to do in order to win Rarity's heart. It was okay. Breath in, breath out. He had a plan and that meant everything was going to work out just fine.

Yes, everything was fine and certainly wouldn't spiral further out of control.

The book said that all he had to do was to 'copulate' with a lot of 'mates.'

He certainly knew what 'mates' were, mate was a word for a close friend, a friendly kind of friend as best as he could recall.

The one tiny hitch in the plan was that he still had no idea as to what 'copulation' or 'sex' was. But he knew just where to ask. If you found out about sex from sexual education courses at school, then all he had to do was ask a school teacher.

Spike wrote a quick note for Twilight and left the house.

It was a Saturday afternoon and he had Cheerilee's home address.