Let Sleeping Dragons Lie

“...and then I used my fire breath to try and melt the ice!”

Spike brought his tale to life with an exhale of flame, illuminating the group of wide-eyed dragons around him in green as the fire licked at the stone ceiling overhead. He smiled as they ooo-ed and ah-ed at the theatrics, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head as one gave him a short round of applause. While he loved to talk about how he had heroically saved everypony at the Equestria Games, he was used telling it to ponies, not a group of dragons who, last time he met them, had chased he and his friends through a forest fully intent on some grade-A dragon violence.

A lanky purple dragon to his right, face all but obscured by his much-too-long head of hair, leaned forward and smiled. “Woah... Dude, that’s crazy…”

Word had spread throughout Equestria like wildfire that The Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious had saved the ponies of the Crystal Empire from certain doom. Again. News outlets across the nation were quick to pick the story up, happy to have something to write about that didn’t involve either an evil super-villain looking to destroy the world or the usual six ponies who wound up beating the latter up with magical rainbows and the power friendship.

Twilight, the closest thing to a motherly figure he had in his life, was more than happy to share snippets from such newspapers with him, so often enough that he almost got sick of all the extra attention from the press. Well, not so much the attention, but all the paper clippings that sometimes got in the way of a stray fire breath or two were certainly annoying. Sometimes he wondered what Celestia thought about all the random strips of paper praising his heroics she got, but most of the time he chose to just not worry about it too much.

What Twilight hadn’t been giddy about was the crude writings of a teenage dragon coming in through the mail one day. And what she REALLY wasn’t giddy about was the invite that came along with it, asking Spike if he wanted to come over sometime and hang out. Surprisingly even the normally reclusive dragons had heard of Spike’s exploits and, apparently, saving a bunch of ponies from a giant ice blob of death came with its perks. Or, at least, as much of a perk as having your “badassness multiplied by, like, eleven, dude”, as the dragon who wrote the letter had put it, was.

Yet as Twilight thought on it more and more as the days passed by, she began to warm up to the idea of giving the group of dragons another chance. She figured that, if Discord got one, some immature teenagers they had only met once before should, too. Plus, it was another chance for Spike to get closer with his own kind, which would both give him other dragons to talk to and also give her more to study. It was a win-win! So, it was with a big, happy grin that Twilight gave Spike permission to go and meet with the dragons a second time, even helping him make the trek with free airfare provided by Twilight Airlines.

Even if, up until that point, she hadn’t even told Spike about the letter.

Oh well, at least she had taken the time to fill him in during the flight. Spike figured it would be kinda nice to try and reconnect with his own species. Again. Plus, he would get to tell his cool story to somedragon who had never heard his slightly over-exaggerated side of it before! It was a win-win! So, it was with a big, happy grin that Spike agreed with Twilight and, with simple instructions to contact her with his magical fire burps should anything go wrong or if he wanted to come home, he stepped down into dragon territory for only the second time in his life. With one last, quick hug goodbye, Spike was left alone as Twilight flew off back towards home.

Which eventually led to now, him surrounded by teenage dragons listening to his mostly truthful story with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

“So, like, did it work? Or was, like, the ice too big and it fell down and squished you?” The larger-than-normal brown dragon smashed his fists together, making some rather childish sound effects for what Spike assumed to be him being 'squished' by the ice.

Garble suddenly punched him in the arm, hard enough to make Spike wince even from afar. “Idiot. If it squished him, how would he be here to tell us about it?”

The dragon frowned, rubbing the spot of impact with a big, clawed hand. “Oh… oh yeah…”

The white, thinly-built dragon just in front of him, whose name Spike remembered was along the lines of Fuzzle or something, leaned in, fully enraptured by Spike’s story if his shimmering eyes were any indication. “W-what happened next?”

Spike grinned. “Well, with a perfect mix of incredible strength" - he flexed his muscles, or at least what little he had - "and a masterful technique I've honed through years of practice" - he put his hands on his hips and struck a heroic pose - "I was able to melt the giant block of ice into water and saved everypony from certain doom!”

“Wow… that's so cool!”

Spike's cheeks lit up in a blush. Not from the compliment, but from who had given it to him. He wasn’t even sure what her name was, but the white dragoness with purple spines to his right had already left quite the impact on his thoughts. Until then, the only thing that caused his heart to flutter in his chest was Rarity, the gorgeous white mare with the beautifully flowing purple mane back in Ponyville. Yet now, with a simple glance at the dragoness out of the corner of his eye, blood rushed into his cheeks as he saw how the glowing lights in the cave reflected off her pristine white scales and how the purple spines running down her back perfectly complimented her violet eyes.

Spike rubbed the back of his head, staring at anything but her in the hopes of quieting the hammering of his heart. “Y-yeah… it was p-pretty cool, wasn’t it…”

He looked around at the vast expanse of Garble’s cave, one that he assumed was quite an impressive household in dragon terms judging by the size of it. No Castle of Friendship, or course, but for a big hole in the side of a mountain it was rather... nice. They currently sat in the middle of what Spike figured was a living room of sorts, with Garble and the dragoness sitting on a long, stone couch to his left as the rest of the dragons sat on stools to form a semi-circle around their guest of honor.

Fidgeting on the cold, hard surface of his own seat that was far from the luxury he was used to back at home, Spike wracked his brain for anything to break the sudden awkward silence with, the group of dragons all expectantly waiting for their new hero to say something 'cool' or 'rad'. A loud rumble coming from the left would prove to be his saving grace, tearing everydragons’ attention away from him and moving it towards the now blushing brown dragon sitting next to the couch.

Garble rolled his eyes, sighing as he stood up and made his way to a hole in the wall Spike assumed led to a bedroom of some kind if the 'KEEP OUT: GARBLE'S PLACE' etched into the wall above it was any indication . “Well, seeing as SOMEDRAGON is hungry" - the dragon in question sheepishly rubbed the back of his head - "I guess I’ll share some of my awesome hoard with the rest of ya.” Garble glanced back into the room towards Spike, a small grin on his face. “Any preferences, dude?”

“Uh…” It took him a moment to register what Garble had said. It certainly was a far cry from the drake he had first met way back during the Great Dragon Migration, what with the dragon not wanting to beat him up and all, but it was certainly a change he was most thankful for.

He gave Garble a weak smile in return. “Some sapphires would be, uh… rad?”

The red dragon gave him a toothy grin and a quick thumbs up before disappearing behind the stone wall to the other room. The rest of the dragons stood and began mingling amongst themselves, some even giving Spike a pat on the back in passing as they mentioned how cool it was to have The Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious visiting.

Spike smiled. Maybe he really could befriend these dragons…

Spike tapped his chin a couple times, sighing as nothing came to mind. “I don’t know. What?”

Fizzle chuckled. “A cheetah!”

"Hah! Good one!" Spike chuckled at the terrible joke, sighing happily as he sat and watched the rest of the dragons mingle inside Garble’s cave. The day had gone quite well; good food, good drink, some rather fun dragon games he had never played before, and, surprisingly, pretty good company. Especially Fizzle. He had gotten to know the white dragon rather well over the course of the afternoon, maybe even enough that he could truly call him his first dragon-friend.

He nudged Fizzle in the side with an elbow. “I gotta tell Twilight that one!” Their giggles gradually faded away into a comfortable silence, the two dragons watching Garble and the dragoness Spike now knew as Diamond talking over by the drinks. While he harbored certain... feelings towards the dragoness, he hadn't yet mustered up the courage to actually go speak with her himself. It didn't help that Garble always happened to be around her, a fact which made talking to her all the more difficult.

He sighed, watching her graceful moves from afar with half-lidded eyes and a fluttering heart. “Celestia above… she’s amazing!”

“Who?”

Spike nearly choked on his own spit when Fizzle suddenly replied, believing he had kept his long-range adoration to himself. After clearing his throat and taking a moment for the embarrassed blush on his face to fade away, he took a sip of the ‘special drink’, or so their host had called it, that Garble had prepared for the party and glanced over towards Fizzle. The dragon seemed almost… disappointed, in what Spike did not know, but the cheery look on Fizzle’s face had certainly been dampened by something he had said.

As quickly as Spike had seen it, the frown on Fizzle’s face had disappeared and had been replaced with a rather fake-looking smile. “Oh, Diamond? Yeah, she’s okay.”

Spike once again had to take a moment not to do a spit-take. “Okay?! She’s gorgeous!”

Fizzle winced, covering up his discomfort with a shrug. “Eh, I guess.” He noticed the incredulous look on Spike’s face, a rather vibrant blush growing across his white scales as he stumbled with his words. “U-uh, I m-mean... w-well, she’s Garble’s girl s-so… you know.”

Spike visibly deflated, even more so when, as he turned to look at the pair across the room, Garble wrapped an arm around the dragoness’s shoulder and got a kiss on the cheek in return. “Oh…” His frown deepened when Garble reached down and tapped the female on the ass, causing Diamond to jump up in surprise before she weakly hit her drakefriend in the shoulder, both dragons chuckling as they embraced once again.

Frowning at seeing his friend so down in the dumps, Fizzle comfortingly draped an arm around Spike’s shoulders and gave him a friendly shake. “Eh, don’t worry about it dude. Plenty of dragons in the sky.” Luckily for him, Spike was far too focused on feeling sorry for himself else he might have noticed the bright blush turning his white scales pink from the close quarters contact with another dragon. Especially one as good looking as Spike...

Fizzle shuddered as he gently rubbed his claw against the dragon’s smooth purple scales, masking his more selfish desires as an act of friendly reassurance. ‘Wow, they're so soft… must be that pony ‘conditioner’ he was talking about…’

Spike tilted his head back as he ruefully knocked down the rest of his drink, covering his mouth as a belch came back up his throat in reply. “Ugh… what’s in this stuff? I’m starting to feel a little… woozy…”

Fizzle regretfully let his arm fall back to his side to glance at the table behind them, gasping as he saw the absurd number of glasses sitting empty as a testament to how much his friend had already consumed. “Crap, dude! How much have you had!?”

Spike’s arm shot out to keep himself upright, a sudden surge of dizziness nearly knocking himself off his feet as the sapphires he had so happily consumed earlier in the day started to do backflips inside his stomach. “Uhhh… w-why? W-what…?” Nausea began to build in his throat, and as the room began to spin uncontrollably around him only one thought came to mind.

‘I should probably send a letter to Twilight.’

He got up from his seat, standing on wobbly feet for a moment in order to center himself before, with the utmost confidence as the room finally stopped spiraling around him, he made a step towards the mouth of the cave. That’s as far as he could make it as, quite suddenly, the ground decided to greet his face like a long lost friend and embraced his body in its cold, hard grasp.

He gave the stone floor a couple friendly pats with a claw, loving how the cooler dirt and rock felt against his suddenly much-too-hot body. ‘Oh… hi ground… how’re you doin? Oh, I’m not doin sho good, thanksh for askin...’

His new-found friend was suddenly ripped away from him as Fizzle hoisted him back up onto his feet, wrapping an arm around his midsection to help him keep his balance. Even if he did want to talk some more with the nice ground.

Garble turned at the sudden commotion and laughed, walking up to Spike and giving him a playful slap on the back that nearly knocked him over. “Hot damn, dude! You’re totally wasted!”

Spike glanced up at the three Garble’s before him, shaking his head to clear his vision and immediately regretting it as the urge to vomit got even worse. “W… wayshted? Huh…?”

Fizzle rolled his eyes as Garble let out a hearty chuckle. “Told you not to put alcohol in the drinks…”

Garble returned the eye-roll, wrapping an arm around Diamond's waist as she walked up to his side. “Pff, you’re always such a buzzkill, Fizz.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, grinning as he pulled away and let his hand fall to her ass. "You gotta learn to live a little!"

Fizzle blushed and averted his gaze as Diamond gasped, sighing to himself as Spike frowned and nearly collapsed beside him. “Yeah, whatever…” He glanced at his friend, the dragon just about ready to topple over even with the extra support he was providing. “Hmm… I don’t think he can make it home like this…”

Wracking his brain for ideas, the image of Spike staying the night with him made his cheeks warm up enough that his entire face had surely turned pink. Turning away from the frisky duo of Garble and Diamond in the hopes they wouldn’t notice his embarrassment, he walked towards the mouth of the cave with Spike in tow and called out, “I’m gonna take him back to my place to crash for the night. C’ya guys later…”

He didn’t stay long enough to hear Garble’s reply, walking out into the crisp night air with his near-comatose buddy resting against his side. “Alright, Spike, come on. Let's get you to bed.”

Spike started to giggle to himself, patting Fizzle on the back even as he stumbled across the rocky terrain surrounding Garble’s lair. “Heh… I like shleepy times… ha… shleepy shleepy shleepy... heh heh...”

Fizzle chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure you do Spike.” He caught the dragon as Spike tripped over a stone, the purple drake still laughing his ass off beside him as they walked down the row of caves towards his home.

He looked up at the moon hanging high above in the night sky, smirking to himself at the situation he suddenly found himself in. ‘Well, not EXACTLY how I thought the party would go -’ He turned towards Spike and smiled as the dragon tried to kick a small rock, nearly falling over himself when he missed. ‘- but it certainly was fun, at least…’

After a final near-faceplant by the drunken dragon, the pair reached the mouth of Fizzle’s cave-home and made their way inside. Fizzle brought Spike over towards the stone couch sitting in his living room, laying the giggling dragon down with his head resting against the arm of the couch and smiled as his friend immediately began to stretch himself out.

“Alright, Spike, you need some blankets or a pillow or something?”

Spike continued to chuckle for a moment, right up until a sudden pressure built in his chest and came out as a rather loud belch. A magical shot of flame came from his lips, coalescing into a rolled up piece of parchment that fell to the dirt floor of the cave.

Spike moaned, clutching his belly as he brought a fist up to cover his mouth. “Ugh… Spikey-wikey don’t feel too good…”

Fizzle leaned down and grabbed the letter, unrolling the parchment and silently reading it to himself. He glanced over at Spike as he finished, worriedly watching the dragon writhe in sickness on his couch. “Uh… it’s from a ‘Twilight Sparkle’. She’s wondering where you are. What should I tell her?”

Spike closed his eyes, mumbling underneath his breath as he slowly succumbed to a drunken slumber. “Jusht… just tell her I’m stayin over at Fizzle-wizzle’s... “ That was all he could get out, his statement ending with a loud snore as he finally lost consciousness and his body went slack.

Fizzle blushed at the nickname, watching the dragon sleep for a moment before making his way over to a small stone desk by the entrance to the cavern. Grabbing a shoddy piece of paper and a half-broken quill he had found in the middle of the road several months ago, he dipped his crude writing utensil in a special blend of mud and water he had made himself and began to scratch out a rather simple message to send back to the worried mare. It wasn’t long before his well thought-out letter was written, and with a short blast of flame to dry it he rolled it up and bound it with some frayed rope one of his dragon neighbors had thrown out.

He walked back over to the dragon now snoring on his couch, wincing at the surprisingly loud noises the rather small drake could make. “Spike? You awake? I need you to send this letter back to Twilight. She’s probably worried sick about you!” He leaned over his body, checking for any signs that the dragon was still cognizant of his surroundings. He sighed, waving the parchment in front of his face in the hopes of getting a reaction from his slumbering friend. “Spike? Hello-OH!”

Suddenly, Spike’s mouth opened and let loose another booming belch that echoed off the stone walls of his home. He had to quickly back away as a blast of green fire raced towards his face, luckily able to avoid any serious damage to his body, but only just. At least until a sudden bite of pain against his claw made him drop the parchment, which burnt away into a magical dust that flew out the mouth of the cave before the letter could even touch the floor.

He shook his claw for a moment, lifting it up to his face and blowing on where Spike’s magical flame had seared his scales. He sighed in relief as he noticed the magical mishap hadn’t done any real damage, and as he turned to his sleeping friend he frowned at the smirk on Spike’s face. “Well, THAT didn’t go as planned… Whatever, hopefully this Twilight pony gets it…”

Twilight paced back and forth in her bedroom, worriedly waiting for a reply from her missing number one assistant. While it had only been a minute or so since she sent her letter, she could already feel an ice cold terror start to build in her chest. Just as she turned towards the window and charged her horn, ready to teleport away and find her missing friend, a loud, magical pop sounded above her head. She glanced up, just in time for a roll of paper to fall and gently boop her in the nose before gently drifting to the floor.

Blinking in surprise, she grabbed the letter with her magic and, cutting the rope binding it together with a quick flick of the horn, she unrolled it and began reading it to herself.

Dear Twilite,

Spike is fine.

He’s drank drunk.

Stayin nite with me.

Fizzle-wizzle.

Twilight’s face scrunched up, trying her best to read the rather messy handwriting that was most certainly not the flowing cursive of Spike’s immaculate penmanship. Reaching the end of the rather crude letter, she stood there thinking to herself for a moment. “Well, at least Spike’s okay…”

And then, her eyes widened.

“Wait… Spike’s DRUNK?!”

Fizzle glanced at the dragon on his couch, frowning at the pained expression on Spike’s face as his friend tried to rest off the abundant amounts of alcohol in his system. With a sigh he made his way to his bedroom, moving a rather large boulder pressed up against the wall to reveal a small, closet-like inlet full of gems, knick-knacks, and various items for day-to-day life. Rummaging around a bit, blushing as he passed some of the more provocative items he used to take care of himself whenever he was hot and bothered, he eventually found a decent-looking blanket and a pillow that would surely offer more comfort than the cold, hard surface of the couch for his recovering friend.

Making his way back into the living room, he unfurled the blanket and fluffed the pillow up as much as he could as he turned around the corner. “Alright Spike, this is the best I can find. I guess it’ll have to… do…”

As he made his way to the other side of the couch and saw his friend, he found himself immediately frozen in place. Spike was still sleeping on the couch, the pained expression on his face now replaced with a rather warm smile as the dragon, apparently, dreamed away his drunken problems. It was what was between his legs, however, that had Fizzle’s full attention.

Spike’s fully engorged draconic cock, pointing straight up towards the stone ceiling in all of it’s throbbing glory as it oozed a thick line of pre down to the meaty orbs of his balls.

Fizzle licked his lips. “Whoa…”