A Chance Encounterby Hendy853ChaptersChapter One Chapter Two Chapter ThreeChapter One Chapter One At the moment, there was only one thing going through Spike’s mind – Breakfast. Or maybe it was lunch; he wasn’t exactly sure what part of the day it was. He didn’t know how long he had just slept since he didn’t have a way to keep time, and he was in a forest where the trees were too thick to see more than a few patches of the sky. For all he knew, it could actually be closer to dinner, though he was pretty sure it wasn’t that late yet. But it didn’t make that much of a difference to him; all he knew was that the most delicious looking emerald he had ever laid eyes on sat in his hands. He had found it in the cave he slept in the night before, just lying there, half covered in dirt but still shining dimly in the darkness. There was nothing in the world Spike loved to eat more than gems. They were so much better than anything else available to him. Unlike rocks, they actually had taste to them, and they were so much more filling than the plants and fruits Zecora used to give him. To be honest, the abundance of gems had been one of the only good things about living in Celestia’s – no – Corona’s palace. But now that he was back to living in the wilderness, gems were rare. The few he had managed to take with him when he ran away had been eaten up within the first two days. Back before Corona had returned, any gem Spike found usually didn’t last longer than a few minutes, and that was how long he expected any future gems to last. In this case, he didn’t eat the emerald immediately because he had eaten half a bush of berries only a little while before and he knew that it was smarter to wait until he was hungrier to eat. So instead of munching on the gem, Spike had simply to sleep in the cave after pulling some leaves inside to make it more comfortable. But now it was morning (or afternoon) and Spike was wide awake, ready to enjoy some tasty emerald. He brought it outside and held it up against a thin ray of sunlight that had managed to slip past the thick foliage. The emerald gleamed brilliantly in the light, practically blinding Spike. The baby dragon closed his eyes and prepared to take a giant bite out of the gem, already savoring its undoubtedly delicious taste. Just as he was about to take the first bite, a mind numbing screech came out of nowhere and he felt the emerald wrench itself out of his hands. Spike’s eyes opened and he turned his head just in time to see a large red bird fly away with the still gleaming emerald in its talons and sparks spreading out behind it. He spent a moment staring after it, not quite believing what had just happened. “Oh come on!” My little pony, My little pony Ahh ahh ahh ahhh... My little pony Friendship never meant that much to me My little pony But you're all here and now I can see Stormy weather;Lots to share A musical bond; With love and care Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat, And magic makes it all complete! You have my little ponies How'd I ever make so many true friends? “Stupid bird,” Spike muttered under his breath. A fair amount of time had passed since the bird (he was pretty sure it was a phoenix) had stolen the emerald, and the young dragon had spent all that time searching for it. He tried chasing it at first, but the phoenix had quickly flown out of sight. Not all that surprising considering that it had wings and all Spike had was a pair of stubby little legs. “This wouldn’t have happened if Z was still around. She would have helped me chase it down,” he said even though he knew it wasn’t true. Spike’s former companion, Zecora the zebra, would probably have laughed if she had been around to see a phoenix swipe the emerald. Then she would have taken the time to explain to Spike – in rhyme – why he should have been keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, and that his failure to do so was the reason he lost his meal. Then Spike would have said that was stupid, and that it was the bird’s fault, while silently admitting to himself that she was right. But Spike was happier thinking that she would have let him ride her as she chased it down at top speed until he could grab it out of the bird’s talons. The young dragon let out a sigh as he thought of his friend. His time with Zecora had been the best of his life, and not just because he had difficulty remembering anything before meeting her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t remember anything form that time, it was just that there was nothing worth remembering about it. Back then he only ate, slept, and stayed in the caves he was pretty sure he hatched in. It was a boring life. With Z, every day had been an adventure. From the first time they’d met and she cured him of that stupid poison joke to the time those diamond dogs had captured her and he tricked them into letting her go. Or even just the times when they sat around a campfire, and she would tell him countless stories. It was a fun and exciting life. Until Zecora finally achieved what she came to Equestria to do in the first place and successfully freed - her. The annoyed look on Spike’s face morphed into a furious one as he thought of Corona. That insane alicorn had ruined everything! To be honest, Spike had never quite believed that there was an alicorn trapped in the sun, or that her younger sister Luna raised the sun and the moon every day and night. The ides still seemed kind of ridiculous to him. But the way Zecora used to talk about the “great sun spirit,” so full of wonder and excitement, eventually convinced Spike to look forward to her return, if only to have another connection to his first and only friend. Then Corona, or as she preferred to be called, Celestia, had actually shown up and proceeded to almost incinerate Z before forcing Spike to grow into a mindless animal and nearly kill the ponies who were only trying to save their friends and loved ones. It didn’t take Spike long after that to decide that he hated Corona almost as much as he feared her. That… that… horrible… ungrateful… monster that had reduced him to nothing more than a mindless tool. There had been no warning, nothing to indicate what she was going to do to him beyond that terrifying smile she had before changing him. He shivered at the memory. For a brief moment, the little purple dragon wondered why he’d stayed at that creepy palace for so long, why he hadn’t run away months ago. But he already knew the answer. He just hadn’t wanted to lose his only friend; and he wasn’t sure if he had made the right choice, if being completely alone was really better than being stuck with an insane alicorn. Before he could torture himself with more unpleasant thoughts, Spike heard another screech from behind a group of bushes. He quickly broke off into a run and barreled right through the bushes to catch sight of the phoenix just as it flew off into the trees, leaving another wave of sparks in its wake. Spike let out another angry sigh. He didn’t like phoenixes, not since Corona had sent him and Z out to find one and bring it back so she could have a pet. In over a week of searching, they only found one, and it led them on a chase that lasted days. Those darn firebirds just seemed to revel in messing with anything that crossed their path. This phoenix however, seemed to have gotten bored a lot more easily than the last one, because as Spike examined the clearing behind it, he quickly saw that it had left the emerald it had stolen behind nestled cozily into a tree branch. “Yes!” he whispered excitedly to himself as he rushed over to the tree. He quickly dug into the wood with his claws and began climbing up. Climbing trees wasn’t difficult when you had claws, but it was still a tall tree, and Spike’s limbs were very short. It took him awhile to make his way to the branch. When the young dragon was about three quarters of the way to the branch, he suddenly heard a sharp gasp accompanied by the sound of bushes rustling. Spike froze and turned his head away from the tree, trying to see what had made the sound. He eyed every plant he could find. “Is someone there?” he called out. When no one answered, he called out again. “Is that you Z?” Spike wasn’t sure how he would feel if it actually was Zecora. As much as he would like to see his friend again, he knew that she would probably want to take him back to Corona, which he definitely didn’t want. Once again, no one answered him, and Spike decided that it must have been his imagination. He returned to climbing the tree, and before long he found himself balancing on the branch that held his emerald. It wasn’t a particularly wide branch, so Spike had to be careful as he slowly made his way across. As he came to the edge of the branch, he reached out to grab the emerald. At this point it was definitely closer to lunch than it was to breakfast, and Spike was starving. His mouth was watering as he took hold of the emerald and lifted it above his head. The young dragon decided not to waste any time and immediately moved to eat the gem. But before he could take his first bite, he heard the phoenix cry out again. It was surprisingly loud, and the sudden noise surprised Spike and made him lose his balance on the tree branch. He cried out as he fell toward the ground, too caught up in the moment to remember that he was a dragon, and would probably be fine when he hit the ground. A few feet away from crashing into the dirt, Spike abruptly stopped in midair. He continued screaming for a few seconds before he noticed that he wasn’t moving. The young dragon blinked as he realized that he had been enveloped in a glowing purple aura, similar to the one that surrounded him when Corona would grab hold of him. A cold pit formed in his stomach as he struggled against whatever was holding him. But it didn’t do him any good, no matter how hard he kicked and squirmed in the air, he didn’t move an inch. “Okay, seriously, who’s there? This isn’t funny! Let me go!” The purple dragon struggled for a little while longer before he finally gave up. He let out an annoyed huff and crossed his arms, hoping that whoever or whatever had him would eventually decide itself… or herself or himself. Seriously, who had him? His question was answered moments later, just as Spike realized that he had dropped the emerald. A female unicorn walked out of the bushes he’d seen earlier, eyeing him carefully, as if she was trying to figure out where she’d seen him before. Or maybe she was worried that he would break out of her grip and attack her. He probably could breathe fire at her, but instead decided to wait. After all, this pony had saved his life, maybe she would be friendly. But as the purple coated mare circled him, still looking at him with that appraising eye, he realized that he kind of doubted it. Spike kept catching sight of her cutie mark as she passed him, it looked like an exploding purple star, and he wondered what that said about her. Was she about to explode at him? Eventually, she stopped right in front of his face, and looked right into his eyes. Then, slowly, the questioning look on her face morphed into a smug one, and Spike was suddenly reminded of a certain alicorn he had come to know far too well. He did his best to hide his growing unease, but was pretty sure that he failed as the creepy smile spread across her face. “Hello Spike.” Chapter Two Chapter Two Spike had no earthly idea how the purple unicorn knew his name, and for a brief moment, he considered denying who he was and trying to pass himself off as some other purple and green baby dragon. But looking at the giant smile spread across her face convinced Spike that the best course of action was to just play along with whoever she was. ‘I’m crazy!’ was practically written all over her face, and over the past few months, Spike had developed a number of rules for dealing with Coro – crazy ponies. Rule number one: Do not disagree with crazy ponies. “Hi,” he said nervously, a sheepish look spreading over his face. The unicorn’s smile somehow managed to grow even more. Spike found himself wondering how it could still fit on her face. It was already close to reaching her ears. “Thanks for catching me. That would have been really painful if you hadn’t been around.” Spike paused to give the unicorn a chance to respond. She didn’t. Instead she walked back towards the bushes she had originally come from, telekinetically pulling Spike along with her. “I uh… I don’t mean to be rude but… who are you?” The unicorn briefly paused and turned back around. “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said proudly before turning back towards the bushes. The young dragon grew more and more worried with every passing second. “Well Twilight, thanks again. Could you set me down now? I’m getting kind of nauseous.” Twilight chuckled lightly in response as she flipped him right side up, thoroughly creeping Spike out. “No.” She reached the bush and began to rummage through the leaves, apparently looking for something. “Why not?” A hint of annoyance was starting to creep into his nervous voice. Who the heck did this pony think she was? Twilight pulled what looked like a potato sack out of the bushes. She took a moment to inspect the sack, apparently searching for any damage, before wrapping herself in it. Spike realized that it was a cloak while Twilight turned back to face him once again “Because you’re Spike, companion to Zecora the Zebra and subordinate to Corona, the Tyrant Sun.” “That’s not true!” Spike shouted. He hadn’t run away from Corona just to end up captured by some other pony who didn’t know how much he hated her! At the same time, he wondered how she knew all of that. Was this unicorn a friend of the ponies he and Zecora had met? The ones that used those element thingies to take Corona down a few dozen notches? Probably not, those ponies were nice. They would’ve let go of him by now instead of hanging him in the air. Well, okay, they would probably be angry with him for helping Z try to trap them (he was pretty sure Raindrops would hit him), but they would at least let him stay on the ground! Twilight’s smug grin vanished as she recoiled from the intensity of his response. But she quickly regained her composure, stood up straight and looked indignantly into Spike’s eyes. “O-of course it is! I know what I’m talking about! I’ve read reports sent to high ranking members of the Night Court on what happened during Corona’s return! They may have come from unreliable sources, but they all mentioned a purple and green baby dragon who travels with a Zebra named Zecora. In all of recorded history, nopony has ever seen a baby dragon within the borders of Equestria until that night. The odds of another baby dragon, let alone one of the same coloration as you being in Equestria at the same time are astronomically low, and furthermore – “ “Okay, fine!” Spike interrupted before she could go into a full on rant. Rule number four for dealing with crazy ponies: Do not let them rant! Once they got that ball rolling, nothing could stop them. “All of that is true,” he admitted. “But I’m not with Corona anymore! Right now I’m getting as far away from that nut job as I can.” As he finished talking Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Do you honestly expect me to believe that?” “Yes!” “Well I don’t. You clearly just made that up so I would let you go. You’re going to have to come up with something better than that if you want to fool me.” “I don’t have to come up with anything better than that It’s true.” Spike said as calmly as he could force himself to sound, though he couldn’t keep the undercurrent of rage out of his voice. He would have liked to yell, but before he could he remembered rule number three: do not let a crazy pony see how angry you are. Twilight only let out an imperious huff. “Well I’m sorry, but that lie is just too convenient. The truth is that I caught you, and now you’re making up whatever you can to get me to let you go. It’s as simple as that. You’ve been with Corona for months, and according to the reports I’ve read you were traveling with Zecora far longer than that, as far back as you can remember in fact. You actually expect me to believe that you’d just leave when the facts indicate that you have nowhere else to go?” Spike was silent for a long moment as he turned his eyes away from hers and tried very, very hard to ignore that last part. “Yes,” he finally answered. But at this point, he knew that it was pointless. The unicorn wasn’t going to believe anything he said, and he was doomed to be her prisoner. It looked like he really had made a mistake in running away. Twilight, oblivious to the effect her words had on the baby dragon, only smirked in response. When Spike didn’t say anything else, she turned towards the emerald that had gotten Spike into this whole mess in the first place and used her magic to pick it up and shove it into Spike’s arms. “Now, before we get moving, you’re going to have to tell me, where is Corona?” Spike blinked. “What?” he gripped the emerald hard enough for his claws to start scratching the surface. In the back of his mind, Spike cursed himself. He was starting to show fear. Rule number two for dealing with crazy ponies was similar to rule number there: Do not let a crazy pony know when you’re afraid. It had always been by far the most difficult rule to follow, because Spike was absolutely terrified of Corona. And this pony actually wanted to find her?!. Why the heck would a pony, who had probably been taught to fear the Tyrant Sun since foalhood, want to find her? Did… did Twilight Sparkle want to find Corona for the same reason Z had? Did she actually want to serve her? “I said – “ “I heard what you said!” A sudden screech interrupted Spike panicked thoughts while preventing Twilight from responding. They turned to see that the Phoenix had returned, perched on the branch it had planted the emerald in. It almost looked like it was watching them. Spike turned back to Twilight, who was staring up at the firebird with a suspicious look on her face. “Why would you want to know where to find her?” He asked nervously. Twilight took a moment to tear her gaze away from the phoenix. “So I can inform the proper authorities once I hand you over to them.” She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The… proper authorities?” Spike didn’t like the sound of that. “Yes Spike, the proper authorities,” she said with an annoyed voice. “The Royal guard would be the most preferable, but anypony who answers to Princess Luna would suffice. I suppose you don’t have to tell me, because telling them where I found you would most likely be enough of a clue to finding her on their own, and they will most likely be able to convince you to tell them anyway. But I’d prefer to –” Spike stopped listening; he just couldn’t bring himself to care about what she was saying. Nor could he stop the look of terror from spreading across her face. Princess Luna was Corona’s sister, the other alicorn. The one that manipulated her subjects from the shadows of the night for her own amusement. The second to last person in the world he wanted to meet. “No.” Spike said suddenly, interrupting Twilight’s rant. Twilight looked at him in confusion. “Excuse me?” Rule number two suddenly became very easy to follow even as number three became impossible. The anger and frustration in Spike’s voice was palpable as he responded to the purple unicorn. “I didn't run away from one insane alicorn just so I could end up in front of the other one!” “Princess Luna isn’t insane!” “I don’t care! I’ve been through enough! I’ve been turned into a mindless monster, I’ve been stuck with an insane alicorn that kept threatening to annihilate me, and I had to leave behind my only friend to get away! I’m not going to let you drag me all the way to the second to last place I want to go!” Spike wasn’t exactly sure where Canterlot – the Equestrian Capitol he knew Luna ruled from – was, but he knew that it was far away. They were somewhere up north, near the Griffin Kingdoms, and Canterlot was at least halfway across the country. Spike did not want to end up there. Especially if this pony would be the one bringing him. The Phoenix screeched again, but Spike barely heard it, too focused on glaring at the purple unicorn. Twilight, for her part, merely stood there, staring blankly at him. She seemed to be thinking about how exactly she should respond. But that indecision eventually vanished when Twilight frowned and glared back at Spike. “Well too bad!” she yelled with ferocity equal to Spike’s. “You’re not the only one who’s been through enough! I’ve been spent the last two months running from the law, which includes my brother, for trying to expose a fraud! Delivering you to Princess Luna will lead to my exoneration, and nothing is going to stop me!” Spike didn’t know what “exoneration” meant, and he didn’t care. At this point, he was only seeing red, too angry to care about anything she had to say. He could feel the purple aura that keeping him in the air begging to tighten around him. “I’m not going!” he screamed. “Yes you are!” she screamed back. “No, I’m not!” “Well then, how are you going to get away?” Twilight smirked; it didn’t take a genius to figure out that there was no way she was going to let go of him. “Like this!” Spike threw the emerald at her face. It was a large gem, almost half the size of his head, and Spike was only a few feet from her. It hit her right underneath the horn, and right above the space between the eyes. Twilight cried out in pain as the emerald bounced off her and landed next to her. But she didn’t lose control of the magic, and Spike remained in the air. “Ha!” she yelled as she realized this, “I’m not letting you get aw-“ The phoenix once again let out an ear splitting screech as it dove towards her. Twilight managed to turn her head to see it just as it fell over her, grabbing at the emerald. The embers that fell out of its wing flared out everywhere. Since he was a dragon, the embers didn’t bother Spike at all. He could easily take on extreme heat and be perfectly fine. Heck, Corona had even thrown him into the lava her palace hung over once or twice. Twilight’s cloak seemed to be fine as well, Spike guessed that it was enchanted to take more punishment than most cloth was. Twilight herself, however, had no such protective enchantment, and the few embers that landed right on her face made her scream out in pain. That did it. The purple aura surrounding Spike vanished as Twilight took a few steps backwards, rubbing at the burning embers buried in her snout. The phoenix took off, the emerald once again in its talons. Spike took the opportunity to dive into the bushes and make a break for it. He didn’t really have a concrete idea on where he was going beyond ‘get as far away from Twilight as possible,’ but that was easy enough. He could still hear her cursing as she recovered from the light burns. Then again, he wasn’t exactly being quiet himself as he tore through bushes and ran over broken twigs and leaves. Once Twilight took hold of her senses, she’d probably be able to track him down pretty easily, and Spike was too small to outrun a full grown pony. Nevertheless, the young dragon did his best to make his way through the forest as quickly as possible, avoiding anything that looked like a path, and taking random turns all over the place. It didn’t take long for the sounds of Twilight’s yelling to be replaced by the sounds of a very determined pony rushing through the thick foliage. Spike gulped when he realized that the sounds were following him pretty accurately, and that they were getting closer. Before she could catch up to him, Spike caught sight of a tree that had some very strange roots. Some of them had grown above ground, in such a way that they intertwined with each other, forming a kind of wooden web. The space between each branch looked like it was just wide enough for a creature of Spike’s size to fit in and hid. He promptly went off in the opposite direction and hid behind an ordinary tree. Hiding in that weird mass of roots was just too obvious, she was sure to look for him there. Plus, there was probably already something living inside. As he sat in between some of the roots that were partially showing above the ground, he struggled to catch his breath and quiet himself before she caught up to him. He didn’t have to wait long, as he heard Twilight burst into the clearing only a few minutes later, just as he managed to get his breathing under control. Spike couldn’t look around the tree in case she was looking in that direction, but he could hear her well enough. She had stopped in the clearing, apparently because the universe hated Spike, and told her that he was hiding nearby. He listened intently to what Twilight was doing. From what he could tell, the first thing she did was walk over to the strange formation of roots. Suddenly, the shadow of the trees and plants everywhere lengthened in the direction opposite from the root formation. It was fairly obvious that the unicorn was creating light to see inside. Suddenly, an angry roar tore through the air, accompanied by a surprised yelp from Twilight. Scared, Spike briefly stood and looked around the tree. He saw Twilight sitting on her rump, backing away while staring at the root formation, too shocked to turn around and see Spike. Looking into the roots, the baby dragon saw two green eyes glowing out through the darkness. A low growl emanated from the roots that lasted until the eyes vanished. It looked like Spike had been right about something being alive in there. “Okay, he’s not in there,” Twilight muttered from her sitting position, making Spike realize how close he was to her. “But there are no signs of disruption among the foliage, which means he’s somewhere around here.” The young dragon quickly moved back into hiding behind the tree, hoping that she hadn’t heard him move. He struggled to remain as quiet and still as possible with his back up against the tree and his claws digging into the bark. “So all I need to do is…” … What? What did she need to do?!? There was an unbelievably long moment of silence as Spike held his breath, wondering what his pursuer was about to do. His question was answered after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, when he noticed that everything a certain distance away seemed to take on a purplish hue. The leaves, the wood, the dirt, half the world suddenly seemed to turn purple. The other half, the half closer to Spike, remained the same. Then, slowly, Spike’s half of the world began turning purple as well. The foreign color was enveloping everything at an infuriatingly slow pace, until Spike realized that it was some kind of wall, or a… a… a force field. Twilight had created some kind of purple force field all within a certain distance, and it was shrinking! Soon it would be close enough to trap Spike against the tree trunk. She was trying to trap him! No, that wasn’t right. She already had trapped him; she just hadn’t seen that yet. There was no way for Spike to escape from the shrinking force field Unless… As the purple field made its way to Spike, the young dragon tried the only thing he could. He took in a deep breath, for as long as he could. Once he had pulled in as much air as possible, he held it in his lungs for a few seconds. When the force field was close enough, he exhaled in a vicious burst of green flame. Z had always told him that dragon fire had strange properties, that it was somewhat magical in nature. In the past, she had even used it to send messages to Corona, who could send her own back through. Z had also told him that dragons were usually somewhat resistant to external magic, and that dragon fire should be able to burn through magical things. They never had the chance to test whether or not that was true, but Spike didn’t really have much of a choice at the moment. He kept his green flames going as long as he could, which wasn’t much longer than a few seconds. Exhausted, Spike looked to see that his flames had in fact managed to burn a hole in the force field. An extremely small hole. An extremely small hole that he had absolutely no chance to fit through. “Oh come on!” he shouted. “Aha!” Twilight’s head poked out from around the tree. Before he had the chance to react, Twilight’s horn glowed, and Spike once again found himself floating in the air, surrounded by a purple aura. “Got you.” Twilight’s face was once again adorned by that impossibly smug smile. Spike only let out an annoyed grunt. Could this day get any worse? Chapter ThreeHours later, Twilight was still walking, dragging Spike along with her. She had created another force field around Spike, a very small one that was just large enough for a baby dragon like him to stand up in. Not that Spike felt the need to stand; he was perfectly fine lying on his back while Twilight struggled to make her way through the forest. It was obvious that Twilight hadn’t spent any serious amount of time in the forest… or any forest really. She kept jerking her head towards every little sound, and grunting in discomfort whenever she made contact with a loose branch. She was soft, the kind of pony who had spent her entire life in comfort. Spike thought back to the other ponies he had met, the Elements. Most of them were soft too, but only Trixie had been as bad as Twilight. Maybe it was because the two of them had spent most of their lives in cities, while the rest of them had spent most of theirs living near the Everfree forest. Not for the first time, Spike wondered exactly what Twilight had done to end up out here. She had mentioned that she was running from the law, or was it her brother she was running from? He couldn’t remember, and he didn’t want to ask. That was rule number five: don’t ask questions. Asking questions usually led to getting yelled at. Or ending up in pain, it really depended on whatever mood they were in at the time, or what the subject was. With Corona, questions or statements that ended in pain were usually ones that involved her sister. There was this one time, when Spike had been feeling particularly brave (or particularly stupid) and he asked her how her weak and pathetic little sister had ended up in charge of the kingdom and all she had was a giant rock in a volcano. And that was the day the two of them learned that dragons could withstand lava. Z hadn’t been there. Spike sighed. Twilight abruptly stopped walking and whipped her head around to face him. “What did you just say?” Spike blinked a few times before shrugging. “I didn’t say anything.” “Yes you did, I just heard you say something under your breath. What was it?” There was suspicious gleam in her eyes. She had been completely paranoid ever since she caught him the second time; or maybe ever since she had come into the forest. Either way made sense. “I didn’t say anything, I just sighed.” Spike glared at her. The purple unicorn continued to look at him suspiciously until a phoenix call cut through the air relatively close to the two of them. Twilight let out a sigh of her own before turning back around and continuing on her way. She didn’t need to look back to see that it was the same Phoenix that took Spike’s emerald. That Phoenix had been following them all day, and Spike couldn’t figure out why. He had however, realized that it was the same one that he and Z had been trying to capture all that time ago. It was the same size; it had the same call, and even had the same fiery pattern across its feathers. Granted, Spike had only ever met one phoenix before that, but he was pretty sure that there was enough variation among individual firebirds that if they looked the same, they probably were. Plus, there was the way it was just screwing with him. Just like the other one had done as he and Z had tracked it down for so long. As if messing around with people was the most enjoyable thing in the world. It once again passed overhead, and Spike saw that it still had the emerald. The young dragon growled as it briefly gleamed in a ray of sunlight. It was as if the phoenix was going out of its way to taunt him. Why had it even taken the emerald in the first place? And why was it following them? “Why is that phoenix still following us?” he heard Twilight mutter. That was one of his least favorite things about Twilight, she kept talking to herself. It was kind of creeping him out. “It’s probably just messing with us for the fun of it.” Twilight flinched as soon as she heard Spike’s voice. Apparently, she hadn’t noticed that she had been speaking out loud. When she turned back around and actually looked embarrassed. “But… that doesn’t make sense, it isn’t sentient.” She began walking again. “I don’t know what that means,” Spike said while crossing his arms. Twilight really liked using big words. It was annoying. “A sentient creature is a being that is capable of thinking for itself, like the two of us,” She answered without missing a beat. “But phoenixes aren’t sentient, they shouldn’t be able to act out of a sense of what is or isn’t ‘fun’. And why did it take the emerald in the first place?” “Because I didn’t eat it fast enough,” Spike answered without thinking. As it in agreement with him, his stomach chose that moment to let out a low rumble. Spike looked down and patted it. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone more than a few hours without food, after all, it was easy to find food when you could eat anything. It wasn’t until he looked up that he noticed that Twilight had once again stopped walking. She was staring at him. “You were going to eat that?” Spike wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. “Uh… Yeah. It was supposed to be my breakfast. Or lunch. I wasn’t really sure what time it was,” He said with a shrug. “Why?” Twilight looked utterly shocked. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the Phoenix let out another screech and made its way overhead for another pass. The unicorn looked up at it quizzically. Suddenly, her horn glowed just a bit more brightly than it had been a moment earlier, and Spike looked up at the phoenix to see that the emerald was now covered in the same glowing purple aura he had been in earlier. The Phoenix cried out again as the emerald was yanked out of its talons and made its way down below, heading directly for Spike. For a second, he thought it was going to bounce off the spherical force field he was trapped in, but instead it passed through the wall of the shield harmlessly and came to rest in front of his face. Spike looked over suspiciously at Twilight and saw that she looked… apologetic? “Sorry,” she began. Spike was pretty sure he misheard her. “If I’d known you wanted to eat this, I would have taken it back earlier.” Spike continued to glare at her. Had she actually just apologized to him? He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had apologized to him. “So… you’re sorry for keeping me from my lunch, or uh, breakfast… but not for kidnapping me?” Twilight shrunk back at his words and turned her eyes away from him in what looked like shame. He tried to keep glaring at her as he grabbed the emerald and took a bite out of it. But that quickly became impossible as he was overcome with how delicious it was. Within seconds, he had completely forgotten about Twilight. Somehow, the emerald tasted even better than he thought it would. It didn’t even last twenty seconds as he tore into it, munching it down until it was all in his stomach. Spike let out a contented sigh as he lay back down on his back. He’d been chasing after that gem all day. It had caused him nothing but grief and frustration ever since that stupid phoenix had come out of nowhere to grab it. It was the reason he’d been caught by Twilight and was now being dragged to one of the places he absolutely did not want to go to. And now that he had finally eaten it, the only thought going through his head was that it was totally worth it. That emerald was seriously one of the greatest things he had ever eaten. “Fascinating,” came a whisper from down below. Spike looked back towards Twilight and saw that the apologetic look she had been giving him had disappeared. And it hadn’t been replaced by the same smugness from earlier. No, at the moment, the only look Twilight was giving him was one of completely unrestrained fascination. She was staring at him as if he were an entirely new creature, something that had never been seen before in the history of the world. It was, hands down, the creepiest thing Spike had seen the purple unicorn do. And that was saying something. “Do you eat emeralds often?” She asked suddenly. Spike wasn’t quite sure how to respond. It was like he was looking at a completely different pony from before, that the previous events of the day had never taken place. Eventually, he worked up the courage to answer. “Umm… I guess,” he said the words slowly, checking to see how they would affect her. “So you would say that they make up a large part of your diet?” That was a new word, ‘diet,’ Spike guessed that it meant the different kinds of things you could eat. “…yes.” “Interesting, virtually all scholars assume that dragons limit themselves to meat but… if they’re capable of eating something like emeralds…” her voice became too quiet for a moment before it picked up in volume. “And is that diet limited to emeralds? Or can you eat other kinds of gems? Rubies? Sapphires? Diamonds?” At this point, Spike didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply nodded. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of what was happening. “Does it have to be gems? Or can you eat other things that most creatures are unable to? How about rocks, can you eat rocks?” Twilight appeared to have fallen even deeper into her fascination. As if every new thing she learned was pushing her deeper into an endless pool of water and she didn’t want to get out, but instead wanted to keep going deeper. When Spike once again nodded, she kept going. “How about wood?” The baby dragon didn’t know the answer to that. Earlier, he probably would have just fallen silent and ignored her until she stopped, but Twilight’s sheer desire to know was apparently contagious. He hadn’t ever eaten, or wanted to eat, wood but… he found himself wanting to find out. After all, if he could eat rocks and gems… Wait… what was he thinking? This pony had come out of nowhere and basically kidnapped him, was he actually considering eating wood for her? That stuff looked nasty. Spike leveled an even glare at Twilight and spoke without thinking. “You’re crazy.” The unicorn made almost no indication that she had heard him. Instead, she continued to inspect him, bringing his sphere closer to her to do so. All of the sudden, Spike felt his jaw wrench itself open. He tried to close it, but found that it was frozen in place. “Hey! What’s the big idea?” he tried to say, but it came out as a bunch of strangled “aaaaah” noises. Twilight stared into his open mouth, still muttering things under her breath. If he cared enough to listen, Spike probably would have heard what she was saying. But he was a little too preoccupied with his inability to control his own mouth. Once she was finished with her impromptu inspection, Twilight released his jaw, her horn glowing a little less brightly as she did so. As Spike recovered, she asked him more questions. “What do gems taste like? Is it difficult to chew them? Is it more difficult to chew a diamond than a ruby? Is this what your diet primarily consists of?” Spike began to wonder if she actually wanted him to answer the questions or if she was just voicing them aloud while trying to figure them out herself. She prattled on like that for awhile, not even noticing as the phoenix that was still following them perched itself calmly on one of the tree branches almost directly above her. An ember or two even landed in her mane, but she didn’t react to it in any way. The young dragon remained silent for the duration of her breathless line of questioning, still annoyed at the way she had just forced his mouth open without warning. For a little while, Spike was preparing to yell at her to shut up. But before he could, he had an idea. His annoyance and frustration disappeared almost instantly as he realized that he could use Twilight’s obsession with asking him questions to his advantage. A small smile grew on his lips as he waited, patiently, for Twilight to stop talking. It took a little bit, but when she noticed, a worried look crossed over her own face. “Why are you smiling like that?” Spike’s smile grew. “Oh, no reason really,” he began in a very satisfied tone. “It’s just that, well, you really want to know these things about me don’t you?” Twilight aimed a quizzical eye at him before answering nervously. “Well, yes. Very little information on dragons is available in Equestria. Most of what we know about your species comes from tomes that are over a thousand years old. The most recent book about dragons I’ve ever read that could be considered reliable was over four centuries old. Having you here to answer these questions is a zoologist’s dream come true.” While he somehow managed to keep it from reaching his face, mentally, Spike grew fearful at the mention of the word “zoologist.” Zecora had mentioned Equestrian Zoos before. They were horrible places that kept strange creatures like him on display for ponies to come and watch whenever they wanted to. “A Zoologist huh? Is that what you are?” Spike asked, half to keep himself from giving in to fear. Was that what was going to happen to him when Luna was done with him? Would she throw him in a Zoo for her subjects to come and see? At that thought, Spike almost lost control of himself to fear. But the thought of his calm, collected friend Zecora managed to give him a certain level of self control. Z would be proud if she could see what he was about to do. He was sure of it. “Oh no,” Twilight answered. “My specific area of expertise lies in magic. But I’m well versed in virtually all areas of academia. To be honest, I had always considered the environmental and biological fields to be unimportant subjects, but an opportunity like this is- ” “Well,” Spike interrupted as he stood up in the force field, “I can answer as many of your questions as best as I can.” He paused to savor the look of excitement Twilight was wearing. “But, you have to do something for me in return.” Twilight’s excitement vanished instantly as she remembered why she had him in that sphere in the first place. “What?” she asked hesitantly. “I want you to let me out of this force field.” She gave him a look of complete disbelief. “How stupid do you think I am?” “A better question would be how stupid do you think I am?” “…What?” “Come on Twilight, do you really think I’d try to run off again if you let me out of here? It didn’t work the first time, so it’s probably not going to work a second time. But I don’t want to just sit cramped up in here all the way to Canterlot. I just want to be able to stretch out my legs. Is that really so much to ask for?” Twilight stared at him for a long moment, internally debating with herself on whether or not to let the young dragon she had captured out of her constructed shield. Spike, remembering the apologetic, almost shamed look she wore when she gave him the emerald, knew just what to say. There were three things Spike had learned about Twilight so far. First, she was desperate, she didn’t want to be out here, and she would do anything to be able to go back to however things were. Second, she seemed to feel bad about doing this to him, not enough to let him go, but enough to at least apologize. “If you’re going to force me to go all the way to Canterlot – which by the way is still one of the last places in the world I want to go to– you could at least let me pretend that I’m going there without being dragged in a cage the whole way.” That seemed to have the intended effect. Twilight suddenly became unable to look at him, instead choosing to stare at her front hooves guiltily. One more push, and Spike would be able to walk again. The third thing he had learned about Twilight was that she really liked to know things. She’d practically forgotten everything just because she had learned something new about what dragons ate. “Plus, if you let me out of here, I’ll answer any questions you have about dragons.” He paused for a moment, and then shrugged. “Well, maybe not any question, but I'll do my best.” Spike didn’t even try to keep the desperate hope out of his eyes as he watched Twilight consider his request, hoping that her guilt and thirst for knowledge would outweigh her desperation. “Please?” This was his best bet to get away. If she was willing to let him out of the bubble, then he would, eventually, be able to find an opportunity to run. It might take a few days to lure her into a false sense of security, but it would pay off in the end. After what seemed like an eternity, Twilight looked back up at him, with what looked like genuine sadness in her eyes. Finally, she spoke. “Okay,” it was barely more than a whisper. For a brief moment, the bright aura around her horn intensified in brightness, and the bubble slowly vanished from sight. For a few seconds, Spike was still suspended in the air before he felt himself descend back to the ground. Once his feet were planted firmly on the dirt, the purple aura surrounding him vanished. Twilight’s horn had (finally) stopped glowing as he struggled to gain balance on the ground. A few hours of being cramped inside that bubble took a few moments to shake off. But he regained control of himself quickly enough, even if his first few steps were a little wobbly. After stretching his limbs, Spike looked at Twilight. “Thank you.” “Yes well… you better not try to run away again!” She fixed him with a glare. “Because if you do, I won’t just put you back in the bubble, I’ll put you to sleep until we reach Canterlot.” Spike raised his arms in a placating gesture. “Don’t worry; I know when I’m beaten. I’ll be right behind you.” For now, he added mentally. That seemed to be enough to satisfy Twilight, because she abruptly turned her back to him and started off in the direction she had been heading towards earlier. “Well, come on then, I have a lot more questions.” “No problem,” Spike said as he hurried after her. Somewhere behind them, the phoenix let out another piercing screech.
Chapter One Chapter One At the moment, there was only one thing going through Spike’s mind – Breakfast. Or maybe it was lunch; he wasn’t exactly sure what part of the day it was. He didn’t know how long he had just slept since he didn’t have a way to keep time, and he was in a forest where the trees were too thick to see more than a few patches of the sky. For all he knew, it could actually be closer to dinner, though he was pretty sure it wasn’t that late yet. But it didn’t make that much of a difference to him; all he knew was that the most delicious looking emerald he had ever laid eyes on sat in his hands. He had found it in the cave he slept in the night before, just lying there, half covered in dirt but still shining dimly in the darkness. There was nothing in the world Spike loved to eat more than gems. They were so much better than anything else available to him. Unlike rocks, they actually had taste to them, and they were so much more filling than the plants and fruits Zecora used to give him. To be honest, the abundance of gems had been one of the only good things about living in Celestia’s – no – Corona’s palace. But now that he was back to living in the wilderness, gems were rare. The few he had managed to take with him when he ran away had been eaten up within the first two days. Back before Corona had returned, any gem Spike found usually didn’t last longer than a few minutes, and that was how long he expected any future gems to last. In this case, he didn’t eat the emerald immediately because he had eaten half a bush of berries only a little while before and he knew that it was smarter to wait until he was hungrier to eat. So instead of munching on the gem, Spike had simply to sleep in the cave after pulling some leaves inside to make it more comfortable. But now it was morning (or afternoon) and Spike was wide awake, ready to enjoy some tasty emerald. He brought it outside and held it up against a thin ray of sunlight that had managed to slip past the thick foliage. The emerald gleamed brilliantly in the light, practically blinding Spike. The baby dragon closed his eyes and prepared to take a giant bite out of the gem, already savoring its undoubtedly delicious taste. Just as he was about to take the first bite, a mind numbing screech came out of nowhere and he felt the emerald wrench itself out of his hands. Spike’s eyes opened and he turned his head just in time to see a large red bird fly away with the still gleaming emerald in its talons and sparks spreading out behind it. He spent a moment staring after it, not quite believing what had just happened. “Oh come on!” My little pony, My little pony Ahh ahh ahh ahhh... My little pony Friendship never meant that much to me My little pony But you're all here and now I can see Stormy weather;Lots to share A musical bond; With love and care Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat, And magic makes it all complete! You have my little ponies How'd I ever make so many true friends? “Stupid bird,” Spike muttered under his breath. A fair amount of time had passed since the bird (he was pretty sure it was a phoenix) had stolen the emerald, and the young dragon had spent all that time searching for it. He tried chasing it at first, but the phoenix had quickly flown out of sight. Not all that surprising considering that it had wings and all Spike had was a pair of stubby little legs. “This wouldn’t have happened if Z was still around. She would have helped me chase it down,” he said even though he knew it wasn’t true. Spike’s former companion, Zecora the zebra, would probably have laughed if she had been around to see a phoenix swipe the emerald. Then she would have taken the time to explain to Spike – in rhyme – why he should have been keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, and that his failure to do so was the reason he lost his meal. Then Spike would have said that was stupid, and that it was the bird’s fault, while silently admitting to himself that she was right. But Spike was happier thinking that she would have let him ride her as she chased it down at top speed until he could grab it out of the bird’s talons. The young dragon let out a sigh as he thought of his friend. His time with Zecora had been the best of his life, and not just because he had difficulty remembering anything before meeting her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t remember anything form that time, it was just that there was nothing worth remembering about it. Back then he only ate, slept, and stayed in the caves he was pretty sure he hatched in. It was a boring life. With Z, every day had been an adventure. From the first time they’d met and she cured him of that stupid poison joke to the time those diamond dogs had captured her and he tricked them into letting her go. Or even just the times when they sat around a campfire, and she would tell him countless stories. It was a fun and exciting life. Until Zecora finally achieved what she came to Equestria to do in the first place and successfully freed - her. The annoyed look on Spike’s face morphed into a furious one as he thought of Corona. That insane alicorn had ruined everything! To be honest, Spike had never quite believed that there was an alicorn trapped in the sun, or that her younger sister Luna raised the sun and the moon every day and night. The ides still seemed kind of ridiculous to him. But the way Zecora used to talk about the “great sun spirit,” so full of wonder and excitement, eventually convinced Spike to look forward to her return, if only to have another connection to his first and only friend. Then Corona, or as she preferred to be called, Celestia, had actually shown up and proceeded to almost incinerate Z before forcing Spike to grow into a mindless animal and nearly kill the ponies who were only trying to save their friends and loved ones. It didn’t take Spike long after that to decide that he hated Corona almost as much as he feared her. That… that… horrible… ungrateful… monster that had reduced him to nothing more than a mindless tool. There had been no warning, nothing to indicate what she was going to do to him beyond that terrifying smile she had before changing him. He shivered at the memory. For a brief moment, the little purple dragon wondered why he’d stayed at that creepy palace for so long, why he hadn’t run away months ago. But he already knew the answer. He just hadn’t wanted to lose his only friend; and he wasn’t sure if he had made the right choice, if being completely alone was really better than being stuck with an insane alicorn. Before he could torture himself with more unpleasant thoughts, Spike heard another screech from behind a group of bushes. He quickly broke off into a run and barreled right through the bushes to catch sight of the phoenix just as it flew off into the trees, leaving another wave of sparks in its wake. Spike let out another angry sigh. He didn’t like phoenixes, not since Corona had sent him and Z out to find one and bring it back so she could have a pet. In over a week of searching, they only found one, and it led them on a chase that lasted days. Those darn firebirds just seemed to revel in messing with anything that crossed their path. This phoenix however, seemed to have gotten bored a lot more easily than the last one, because as Spike examined the clearing behind it, he quickly saw that it had left the emerald it had stolen behind nestled cozily into a tree branch. “Yes!” he whispered excitedly to himself as he rushed over to the tree. He quickly dug into the wood with his claws and began climbing up. Climbing trees wasn’t difficult when you had claws, but it was still a tall tree, and Spike’s limbs were very short. It took him awhile to make his way to the branch. When the young dragon was about three quarters of the way to the branch, he suddenly heard a sharp gasp accompanied by the sound of bushes rustling. Spike froze and turned his head away from the tree, trying to see what had made the sound. He eyed every plant he could find. “Is someone there?” he called out. When no one answered, he called out again. “Is that you Z?” Spike wasn’t sure how he would feel if it actually was Zecora. As much as he would like to see his friend again, he knew that she would probably want to take him back to Corona, which he definitely didn’t want. Once again, no one answered him, and Spike decided that it must have been his imagination. He returned to climbing the tree, and before long he found himself balancing on the branch that held his emerald. It wasn’t a particularly wide branch, so Spike had to be careful as he slowly made his way across. As he came to the edge of the branch, he reached out to grab the emerald. At this point it was definitely closer to lunch than it was to breakfast, and Spike was starving. His mouth was watering as he took hold of the emerald and lifted it above his head. The young dragon decided not to waste any time and immediately moved to eat the gem. But before he could take his first bite, he heard the phoenix cry out again. It was surprisingly loud, and the sudden noise surprised Spike and made him lose his balance on the tree branch. He cried out as he fell toward the ground, too caught up in the moment to remember that he was a dragon, and would probably be fine when he hit the ground. A few feet away from crashing into the dirt, Spike abruptly stopped in midair. He continued screaming for a few seconds before he noticed that he wasn’t moving. The young dragon blinked as he realized that he had been enveloped in a glowing purple aura, similar to the one that surrounded him when Corona would grab hold of him. A cold pit formed in his stomach as he struggled against whatever was holding him. But it didn’t do him any good, no matter how hard he kicked and squirmed in the air, he didn’t move an inch. “Okay, seriously, who’s there? This isn’t funny! Let me go!” The purple dragon struggled for a little while longer before he finally gave up. He let out an annoyed huff and crossed his arms, hoping that whoever or whatever had him would eventually decide itself… or herself or himself. Seriously, who had him? His question was answered moments later, just as Spike realized that he had dropped the emerald. A female unicorn walked out of the bushes he’d seen earlier, eyeing him carefully, as if she was trying to figure out where she’d seen him before. Or maybe she was worried that he would break out of her grip and attack her. He probably could breathe fire at her, but instead decided to wait. After all, this pony had saved his life, maybe she would be friendly. But as the purple coated mare circled him, still looking at him with that appraising eye, he realized that he kind of doubted it. Spike kept catching sight of her cutie mark as she passed him, it looked like an exploding purple star, and he wondered what that said about her. Was she about to explode at him? Eventually, she stopped right in front of his face, and looked right into his eyes. Then, slowly, the questioning look on her face morphed into a smug one, and Spike was suddenly reminded of a certain alicorn he had come to know far too well. He did his best to hide his growing unease, but was pretty sure that he failed as the creepy smile spread across her face. “Hello Spike.”
Chapter Two Chapter Two Spike had no earthly idea how the purple unicorn knew his name, and for a brief moment, he considered denying who he was and trying to pass himself off as some other purple and green baby dragon. But looking at the giant smile spread across her face convinced Spike that the best course of action was to just play along with whoever she was. ‘I’m crazy!’ was practically written all over her face, and over the past few months, Spike had developed a number of rules for dealing with Coro – crazy ponies. Rule number one: Do not disagree with crazy ponies. “Hi,” he said nervously, a sheepish look spreading over his face. The unicorn’s smile somehow managed to grow even more. Spike found himself wondering how it could still fit on her face. It was already close to reaching her ears. “Thanks for catching me. That would have been really painful if you hadn’t been around.” Spike paused to give the unicorn a chance to respond. She didn’t. Instead she walked back towards the bushes she had originally come from, telekinetically pulling Spike along with her. “I uh… I don’t mean to be rude but… who are you?” The unicorn briefly paused and turned back around. “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said proudly before turning back towards the bushes. The young dragon grew more and more worried with every passing second. “Well Twilight, thanks again. Could you set me down now? I’m getting kind of nauseous.” Twilight chuckled lightly in response as she flipped him right side up, thoroughly creeping Spike out. “No.” She reached the bush and began to rummage through the leaves, apparently looking for something. “Why not?” A hint of annoyance was starting to creep into his nervous voice. Who the heck did this pony think she was? Twilight pulled what looked like a potato sack out of the bushes. She took a moment to inspect the sack, apparently searching for any damage, before wrapping herself in it. Spike realized that it was a cloak while Twilight turned back to face him once again “Because you’re Spike, companion to Zecora the Zebra and subordinate to Corona, the Tyrant Sun.” “That’s not true!” Spike shouted. He hadn’t run away from Corona just to end up captured by some other pony who didn’t know how much he hated her! At the same time, he wondered how she knew all of that. Was this unicorn a friend of the ponies he and Zecora had met? The ones that used those element thingies to take Corona down a few dozen notches? Probably not, those ponies were nice. They would’ve let go of him by now instead of hanging him in the air. Well, okay, they would probably be angry with him for helping Z try to trap them (he was pretty sure Raindrops would hit him), but they would at least let him stay on the ground! Twilight’s smug grin vanished as she recoiled from the intensity of his response. But she quickly regained her composure, stood up straight and looked indignantly into Spike’s eyes. “O-of course it is! I know what I’m talking about! I’ve read reports sent to high ranking members of the Night Court on what happened during Corona’s return! They may have come from unreliable sources, but they all mentioned a purple and green baby dragon who travels with a Zebra named Zecora. In all of recorded history, nopony has ever seen a baby dragon within the borders of Equestria until that night. The odds of another baby dragon, let alone one of the same coloration as you being in Equestria at the same time are astronomically low, and furthermore – “ “Okay, fine!” Spike interrupted before she could go into a full on rant. Rule number four for dealing with crazy ponies: Do not let them rant! Once they got that ball rolling, nothing could stop them. “All of that is true,” he admitted. “But I’m not with Corona anymore! Right now I’m getting as far away from that nut job as I can.” As he finished talking Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Do you honestly expect me to believe that?” “Yes!” “Well I don’t. You clearly just made that up so I would let you go. You’re going to have to come up with something better than that if you want to fool me.” “I don’t have to come up with anything better than that It’s true.” Spike said as calmly as he could force himself to sound, though he couldn’t keep the undercurrent of rage out of his voice. He would have liked to yell, but before he could he remembered rule number three: do not let a crazy pony see how angry you are. Twilight only let out an imperious huff. “Well I’m sorry, but that lie is just too convenient. The truth is that I caught you, and now you’re making up whatever you can to get me to let you go. It’s as simple as that. You’ve been with Corona for months, and according to the reports I’ve read you were traveling with Zecora far longer than that, as far back as you can remember in fact. You actually expect me to believe that you’d just leave when the facts indicate that you have nowhere else to go?” Spike was silent for a long moment as he turned his eyes away from hers and tried very, very hard to ignore that last part. “Yes,” he finally answered. But at this point, he knew that it was pointless. The unicorn wasn’t going to believe anything he said, and he was doomed to be her prisoner. It looked like he really had made a mistake in running away. Twilight, oblivious to the effect her words had on the baby dragon, only smirked in response. When Spike didn’t say anything else, she turned towards the emerald that had gotten Spike into this whole mess in the first place and used her magic to pick it up and shove it into Spike’s arms. “Now, before we get moving, you’re going to have to tell me, where is Corona?” Spike blinked. “What?” he gripped the emerald hard enough for his claws to start scratching the surface. In the back of his mind, Spike cursed himself. He was starting to show fear. Rule number two for dealing with crazy ponies was similar to rule number there: Do not let a crazy pony know when you’re afraid. It had always been by far the most difficult rule to follow, because Spike was absolutely terrified of Corona. And this pony actually wanted to find her?!. Why the heck would a pony, who had probably been taught to fear the Tyrant Sun since foalhood, want to find her? Did… did Twilight Sparkle want to find Corona for the same reason Z had? Did she actually want to serve her? “I said – “ “I heard what you said!” A sudden screech interrupted Spike panicked thoughts while preventing Twilight from responding. They turned to see that the Phoenix had returned, perched on the branch it had planted the emerald in. It almost looked like it was watching them. Spike turned back to Twilight, who was staring up at the firebird with a suspicious look on her face. “Why would you want to know where to find her?” He asked nervously. Twilight took a moment to tear her gaze away from the phoenix. “So I can inform the proper authorities once I hand you over to them.” She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The… proper authorities?” Spike didn’t like the sound of that. “Yes Spike, the proper authorities,” she said with an annoyed voice. “The Royal guard would be the most preferable, but anypony who answers to Princess Luna would suffice. I suppose you don’t have to tell me, because telling them where I found you would most likely be enough of a clue to finding her on their own, and they will most likely be able to convince you to tell them anyway. But I’d prefer to –” Spike stopped listening; he just couldn’t bring himself to care about what she was saying. Nor could he stop the look of terror from spreading across her face. Princess Luna was Corona’s sister, the other alicorn. The one that manipulated her subjects from the shadows of the night for her own amusement. The second to last person in the world he wanted to meet. “No.” Spike said suddenly, interrupting Twilight’s rant. Twilight looked at him in confusion. “Excuse me?” Rule number two suddenly became very easy to follow even as number three became impossible. The anger and frustration in Spike’s voice was palpable as he responded to the purple unicorn. “I didn't run away from one insane alicorn just so I could end up in front of the other one!” “Princess Luna isn’t insane!” “I don’t care! I’ve been through enough! I’ve been turned into a mindless monster, I’ve been stuck with an insane alicorn that kept threatening to annihilate me, and I had to leave behind my only friend to get away! I’m not going to let you drag me all the way to the second to last place I want to go!” Spike wasn’t exactly sure where Canterlot – the Equestrian Capitol he knew Luna ruled from – was, but he knew that it was far away. They were somewhere up north, near the Griffin Kingdoms, and Canterlot was at least halfway across the country. Spike did not want to end up there. Especially if this pony would be the one bringing him. The Phoenix screeched again, but Spike barely heard it, too focused on glaring at the purple unicorn. Twilight, for her part, merely stood there, staring blankly at him. She seemed to be thinking about how exactly she should respond. But that indecision eventually vanished when Twilight frowned and glared back at Spike. “Well too bad!” she yelled with ferocity equal to Spike’s. “You’re not the only one who’s been through enough! I’ve been spent the last two months running from the law, which includes my brother, for trying to expose a fraud! Delivering you to Princess Luna will lead to my exoneration, and nothing is going to stop me!” Spike didn’t know what “exoneration” meant, and he didn’t care. At this point, he was only seeing red, too angry to care about anything she had to say. He could feel the purple aura that keeping him in the air begging to tighten around him. “I’m not going!” he screamed. “Yes you are!” she screamed back. “No, I’m not!” “Well then, how are you going to get away?” Twilight smirked; it didn’t take a genius to figure out that there was no way she was going to let go of him. “Like this!” Spike threw the emerald at her face. It was a large gem, almost half the size of his head, and Spike was only a few feet from her. It hit her right underneath the horn, and right above the space between the eyes. Twilight cried out in pain as the emerald bounced off her and landed next to her. But she didn’t lose control of the magic, and Spike remained in the air. “Ha!” she yelled as she realized this, “I’m not letting you get aw-“ The phoenix once again let out an ear splitting screech as it dove towards her. Twilight managed to turn her head to see it just as it fell over her, grabbing at the emerald. The embers that fell out of its wing flared out everywhere. Since he was a dragon, the embers didn’t bother Spike at all. He could easily take on extreme heat and be perfectly fine. Heck, Corona had even thrown him into the lava her palace hung over once or twice. Twilight’s cloak seemed to be fine as well, Spike guessed that it was enchanted to take more punishment than most cloth was. Twilight herself, however, had no such protective enchantment, and the few embers that landed right on her face made her scream out in pain. That did it. The purple aura surrounding Spike vanished as Twilight took a few steps backwards, rubbing at the burning embers buried in her snout. The phoenix took off, the emerald once again in its talons. Spike took the opportunity to dive into the bushes and make a break for it. He didn’t really have a concrete idea on where he was going beyond ‘get as far away from Twilight as possible,’ but that was easy enough. He could still hear her cursing as she recovered from the light burns. Then again, he wasn’t exactly being quiet himself as he tore through bushes and ran over broken twigs and leaves. Once Twilight took hold of her senses, she’d probably be able to track him down pretty easily, and Spike was too small to outrun a full grown pony. Nevertheless, the young dragon did his best to make his way through the forest as quickly as possible, avoiding anything that looked like a path, and taking random turns all over the place. It didn’t take long for the sounds of Twilight’s yelling to be replaced by the sounds of a very determined pony rushing through the thick foliage. Spike gulped when he realized that the sounds were following him pretty accurately, and that they were getting closer. Before she could catch up to him, Spike caught sight of a tree that had some very strange roots. Some of them had grown above ground, in such a way that they intertwined with each other, forming a kind of wooden web. The space between each branch looked like it was just wide enough for a creature of Spike’s size to fit in and hid. He promptly went off in the opposite direction and hid behind an ordinary tree. Hiding in that weird mass of roots was just too obvious, she was sure to look for him there. Plus, there was probably already something living inside. As he sat in between some of the roots that were partially showing above the ground, he struggled to catch his breath and quiet himself before she caught up to him. He didn’t have to wait long, as he heard Twilight burst into the clearing only a few minutes later, just as he managed to get his breathing under control. Spike couldn’t look around the tree in case she was looking in that direction, but he could hear her well enough. She had stopped in the clearing, apparently because the universe hated Spike, and told her that he was hiding nearby. He listened intently to what Twilight was doing. From what he could tell, the first thing she did was walk over to the strange formation of roots. Suddenly, the shadow of the trees and plants everywhere lengthened in the direction opposite from the root formation. It was fairly obvious that the unicorn was creating light to see inside. Suddenly, an angry roar tore through the air, accompanied by a surprised yelp from Twilight. Scared, Spike briefly stood and looked around the tree. He saw Twilight sitting on her rump, backing away while staring at the root formation, too shocked to turn around and see Spike. Looking into the roots, the baby dragon saw two green eyes glowing out through the darkness. A low growl emanated from the roots that lasted until the eyes vanished. It looked like Spike had been right about something being alive in there. “Okay, he’s not in there,” Twilight muttered from her sitting position, making Spike realize how close he was to her. “But there are no signs of disruption among the foliage, which means he’s somewhere around here.” The young dragon quickly moved back into hiding behind the tree, hoping that she hadn’t heard him move. He struggled to remain as quiet and still as possible with his back up against the tree and his claws digging into the bark. “So all I need to do is…” … What? What did she need to do?!? There was an unbelievably long moment of silence as Spike held his breath, wondering what his pursuer was about to do. His question was answered after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, when he noticed that everything a certain distance away seemed to take on a purplish hue. The leaves, the wood, the dirt, half the world suddenly seemed to turn purple. The other half, the half closer to Spike, remained the same. Then, slowly, Spike’s half of the world began turning purple as well. The foreign color was enveloping everything at an infuriatingly slow pace, until Spike realized that it was some kind of wall, or a… a… a force field. Twilight had created some kind of purple force field all within a certain distance, and it was shrinking! Soon it would be close enough to trap Spike against the tree trunk. She was trying to trap him! No, that wasn’t right. She already had trapped him; she just hadn’t seen that yet. There was no way for Spike to escape from the shrinking force field Unless… As the purple field made its way to Spike, the young dragon tried the only thing he could. He took in a deep breath, for as long as he could. Once he had pulled in as much air as possible, he held it in his lungs for a few seconds. When the force field was close enough, he exhaled in a vicious burst of green flame. Z had always told him that dragon fire had strange properties, that it was somewhat magical in nature. In the past, she had even used it to send messages to Corona, who could send her own back through. Z had also told him that dragons were usually somewhat resistant to external magic, and that dragon fire should be able to burn through magical things. They never had the chance to test whether or not that was true, but Spike didn’t really have much of a choice at the moment. He kept his green flames going as long as he could, which wasn’t much longer than a few seconds. Exhausted, Spike looked to see that his flames had in fact managed to burn a hole in the force field. An extremely small hole. An extremely small hole that he had absolutely no chance to fit through. “Oh come on!” he shouted. “Aha!” Twilight’s head poked out from around the tree. Before he had the chance to react, Twilight’s horn glowed, and Spike once again found himself floating in the air, surrounded by a purple aura. “Got you.” Twilight’s face was once again adorned by that impossibly smug smile. Spike only let out an annoyed grunt. Could this day get any worse?
Chapter ThreeHours later, Twilight was still walking, dragging Spike along with her. She had created another force field around Spike, a very small one that was just large enough for a baby dragon like him to stand up in. Not that Spike felt the need to stand; he was perfectly fine lying on his back while Twilight struggled to make her way through the forest. It was obvious that Twilight hadn’t spent any serious amount of time in the forest… or any forest really. She kept jerking her head towards every little sound, and grunting in discomfort whenever she made contact with a loose branch. She was soft, the kind of pony who had spent her entire life in comfort. Spike thought back to the other ponies he had met, the Elements. Most of them were soft too, but only Trixie had been as bad as Twilight. Maybe it was because the two of them had spent most of their lives in cities, while the rest of them had spent most of theirs living near the Everfree forest. Not for the first time, Spike wondered exactly what Twilight had done to end up out here. She had mentioned that she was running from the law, or was it her brother she was running from? He couldn’t remember, and he didn’t want to ask. That was rule number five: don’t ask questions. Asking questions usually led to getting yelled at. Or ending up in pain, it really depended on whatever mood they were in at the time, or what the subject was. With Corona, questions or statements that ended in pain were usually ones that involved her sister. There was this one time, when Spike had been feeling particularly brave (or particularly stupid) and he asked her how her weak and pathetic little sister had ended up in charge of the kingdom and all she had was a giant rock in a volcano. And that was the day the two of them learned that dragons could withstand lava. Z hadn’t been there. Spike sighed. Twilight abruptly stopped walking and whipped her head around to face him. “What did you just say?” Spike blinked a few times before shrugging. “I didn’t say anything.” “Yes you did, I just heard you say something under your breath. What was it?” There was suspicious gleam in her eyes. She had been completely paranoid ever since she caught him the second time; or maybe ever since she had come into the forest. Either way made sense. “I didn’t say anything, I just sighed.” Spike glared at her. The purple unicorn continued to look at him suspiciously until a phoenix call cut through the air relatively close to the two of them. Twilight let out a sigh of her own before turning back around and continuing on her way. She didn’t need to look back to see that it was the same Phoenix that took Spike’s emerald. That Phoenix had been following them all day, and Spike couldn’t figure out why. He had however, realized that it was the same one that he and Z had been trying to capture all that time ago. It was the same size; it had the same call, and even had the same fiery pattern across its feathers. Granted, Spike had only ever met one phoenix before that, but he was pretty sure that there was enough variation among individual firebirds that if they looked the same, they probably were. Plus, there was the way it was just screwing with him. Just like the other one had done as he and Z had tracked it down for so long. As if messing around with people was the most enjoyable thing in the world. It once again passed overhead, and Spike saw that it still had the emerald. The young dragon growled as it briefly gleamed in a ray of sunlight. It was as if the phoenix was going out of its way to taunt him. Why had it even taken the emerald in the first place? And why was it following them? “Why is that phoenix still following us?” he heard Twilight mutter. That was one of his least favorite things about Twilight, she kept talking to herself. It was kind of creeping him out. “It’s probably just messing with us for the fun of it.” Twilight flinched as soon as she heard Spike’s voice. Apparently, she hadn’t noticed that she had been speaking out loud. When she turned back around and actually looked embarrassed. “But… that doesn’t make sense, it isn’t sentient.” She began walking again. “I don’t know what that means,” Spike said while crossing his arms. Twilight really liked using big words. It was annoying. “A sentient creature is a being that is capable of thinking for itself, like the two of us,” She answered without missing a beat. “But phoenixes aren’t sentient, they shouldn’t be able to act out of a sense of what is or isn’t ‘fun’. And why did it take the emerald in the first place?” “Because I didn’t eat it fast enough,” Spike answered without thinking. As it in agreement with him, his stomach chose that moment to let out a low rumble. Spike looked down and patted it. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone more than a few hours without food, after all, it was easy to find food when you could eat anything. It wasn’t until he looked up that he noticed that Twilight had once again stopped walking. She was staring at him. “You were going to eat that?” Spike wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. “Uh… Yeah. It was supposed to be my breakfast. Or lunch. I wasn’t really sure what time it was,” He said with a shrug. “Why?” Twilight looked utterly shocked. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the Phoenix let out another screech and made its way overhead for another pass. The unicorn looked up at it quizzically. Suddenly, her horn glowed just a bit more brightly than it had been a moment earlier, and Spike looked up at the phoenix to see that the emerald was now covered in the same glowing purple aura he had been in earlier. The Phoenix cried out again as the emerald was yanked out of its talons and made its way down below, heading directly for Spike. For a second, he thought it was going to bounce off the spherical force field he was trapped in, but instead it passed through the wall of the shield harmlessly and came to rest in front of his face. Spike looked over suspiciously at Twilight and saw that she looked… apologetic? “Sorry,” she began. Spike was pretty sure he misheard her. “If I’d known you wanted to eat this, I would have taken it back earlier.” Spike continued to glare at her. Had she actually just apologized to him? He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had apologized to him. “So… you’re sorry for keeping me from my lunch, or uh, breakfast… but not for kidnapping me?” Twilight shrunk back at his words and turned her eyes away from him in what looked like shame. He tried to keep glaring at her as he grabbed the emerald and took a bite out of it. But that quickly became impossible as he was overcome with how delicious it was. Within seconds, he had completely forgotten about Twilight. Somehow, the emerald tasted even better than he thought it would. It didn’t even last twenty seconds as he tore into it, munching it down until it was all in his stomach. Spike let out a contented sigh as he lay back down on his back. He’d been chasing after that gem all day. It had caused him nothing but grief and frustration ever since that stupid phoenix had come out of nowhere to grab it. It was the reason he’d been caught by Twilight and was now being dragged to one of the places he absolutely did not want to go to. And now that he had finally eaten it, the only thought going through his head was that it was totally worth it. That emerald was seriously one of the greatest things he had ever eaten. “Fascinating,” came a whisper from down below. Spike looked back towards Twilight and saw that the apologetic look she had been giving him had disappeared. And it hadn’t been replaced by the same smugness from earlier. No, at the moment, the only look Twilight was giving him was one of completely unrestrained fascination. She was staring at him as if he were an entirely new creature, something that had never been seen before in the history of the world. It was, hands down, the creepiest thing Spike had seen the purple unicorn do. And that was saying something. “Do you eat emeralds often?” She asked suddenly. Spike wasn’t quite sure how to respond. It was like he was looking at a completely different pony from before, that the previous events of the day had never taken place. Eventually, he worked up the courage to answer. “Umm… I guess,” he said the words slowly, checking to see how they would affect her. “So you would say that they make up a large part of your diet?” That was a new word, ‘diet,’ Spike guessed that it meant the different kinds of things you could eat. “…yes.” “Interesting, virtually all scholars assume that dragons limit themselves to meat but… if they’re capable of eating something like emeralds…” her voice became too quiet for a moment before it picked up in volume. “And is that diet limited to emeralds? Or can you eat other kinds of gems? Rubies? Sapphires? Diamonds?” At this point, Spike didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply nodded. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of what was happening. “Does it have to be gems? Or can you eat other things that most creatures are unable to? How about rocks, can you eat rocks?” Twilight appeared to have fallen even deeper into her fascination. As if every new thing she learned was pushing her deeper into an endless pool of water and she didn’t want to get out, but instead wanted to keep going deeper. When Spike once again nodded, she kept going. “How about wood?” The baby dragon didn’t know the answer to that. Earlier, he probably would have just fallen silent and ignored her until she stopped, but Twilight’s sheer desire to know was apparently contagious. He hadn’t ever eaten, or wanted to eat, wood but… he found himself wanting to find out. After all, if he could eat rocks and gems… Wait… what was he thinking? This pony had come out of nowhere and basically kidnapped him, was he actually considering eating wood for her? That stuff looked nasty. Spike leveled an even glare at Twilight and spoke without thinking. “You’re crazy.” The unicorn made almost no indication that she had heard him. Instead, she continued to inspect him, bringing his sphere closer to her to do so. All of the sudden, Spike felt his jaw wrench itself open. He tried to close it, but found that it was frozen in place. “Hey! What’s the big idea?” he tried to say, but it came out as a bunch of strangled “aaaaah” noises. Twilight stared into his open mouth, still muttering things under her breath. If he cared enough to listen, Spike probably would have heard what she was saying. But he was a little too preoccupied with his inability to control his own mouth. Once she was finished with her impromptu inspection, Twilight released his jaw, her horn glowing a little less brightly as she did so. As Spike recovered, she asked him more questions. “What do gems taste like? Is it difficult to chew them? Is it more difficult to chew a diamond than a ruby? Is this what your diet primarily consists of?” Spike began to wonder if she actually wanted him to answer the questions or if she was just voicing them aloud while trying to figure them out herself. She prattled on like that for awhile, not even noticing as the phoenix that was still following them perched itself calmly on one of the tree branches almost directly above her. An ember or two even landed in her mane, but she didn’t react to it in any way. The young dragon remained silent for the duration of her breathless line of questioning, still annoyed at the way she had just forced his mouth open without warning. For a little while, Spike was preparing to yell at her to shut up. But before he could, he had an idea. His annoyance and frustration disappeared almost instantly as he realized that he could use Twilight’s obsession with asking him questions to his advantage. A small smile grew on his lips as he waited, patiently, for Twilight to stop talking. It took a little bit, but when she noticed, a worried look crossed over her own face. “Why are you smiling like that?” Spike’s smile grew. “Oh, no reason really,” he began in a very satisfied tone. “It’s just that, well, you really want to know these things about me don’t you?” Twilight aimed a quizzical eye at him before answering nervously. “Well, yes. Very little information on dragons is available in Equestria. Most of what we know about your species comes from tomes that are over a thousand years old. The most recent book about dragons I’ve ever read that could be considered reliable was over four centuries old. Having you here to answer these questions is a zoologist’s dream come true.” While he somehow managed to keep it from reaching his face, mentally, Spike grew fearful at the mention of the word “zoologist.” Zecora had mentioned Equestrian Zoos before. They were horrible places that kept strange creatures like him on display for ponies to come and watch whenever they wanted to. “A Zoologist huh? Is that what you are?” Spike asked, half to keep himself from giving in to fear. Was that what was going to happen to him when Luna was done with him? Would she throw him in a Zoo for her subjects to come and see? At that thought, Spike almost lost control of himself to fear. But the thought of his calm, collected friend Zecora managed to give him a certain level of self control. Z would be proud if she could see what he was about to do. He was sure of it. “Oh no,” Twilight answered. “My specific area of expertise lies in magic. But I’m well versed in virtually all areas of academia. To be honest, I had always considered the environmental and biological fields to be unimportant subjects, but an opportunity like this is- ” “Well,” Spike interrupted as he stood up in the force field, “I can answer as many of your questions as best as I can.” He paused to savor the look of excitement Twilight was wearing. “But, you have to do something for me in return.” Twilight’s excitement vanished instantly as she remembered why she had him in that sphere in the first place. “What?” she asked hesitantly. “I want you to let me out of this force field.” She gave him a look of complete disbelief. “How stupid do you think I am?” “A better question would be how stupid do you think I am?” “…What?” “Come on Twilight, do you really think I’d try to run off again if you let me out of here? It didn’t work the first time, so it’s probably not going to work a second time. But I don’t want to just sit cramped up in here all the way to Canterlot. I just want to be able to stretch out my legs. Is that really so much to ask for?” Twilight stared at him for a long moment, internally debating with herself on whether or not to let the young dragon she had captured out of her constructed shield. Spike, remembering the apologetic, almost shamed look she wore when she gave him the emerald, knew just what to say. There were three things Spike had learned about Twilight so far. First, she was desperate, she didn’t want to be out here, and she would do anything to be able to go back to however things were. Second, she seemed to feel bad about doing this to him, not enough to let him go, but enough to at least apologize. “If you’re going to force me to go all the way to Canterlot – which by the way is still one of the last places in the world I want to go to– you could at least let me pretend that I’m going there without being dragged in a cage the whole way.” That seemed to have the intended effect. Twilight suddenly became unable to look at him, instead choosing to stare at her front hooves guiltily. One more push, and Spike would be able to walk again. The third thing he had learned about Twilight was that she really liked to know things. She’d practically forgotten everything just because she had learned something new about what dragons ate. “Plus, if you let me out of here, I’ll answer any questions you have about dragons.” He paused for a moment, and then shrugged. “Well, maybe not any question, but I'll do my best.” Spike didn’t even try to keep the desperate hope out of his eyes as he watched Twilight consider his request, hoping that her guilt and thirst for knowledge would outweigh her desperation. “Please?” This was his best bet to get away. If she was willing to let him out of the bubble, then he would, eventually, be able to find an opportunity to run. It might take a few days to lure her into a false sense of security, but it would pay off in the end. After what seemed like an eternity, Twilight looked back up at him, with what looked like genuine sadness in her eyes. Finally, she spoke. “Okay,” it was barely more than a whisper. For a brief moment, the bright aura around her horn intensified in brightness, and the bubble slowly vanished from sight. For a few seconds, Spike was still suspended in the air before he felt himself descend back to the ground. Once his feet were planted firmly on the dirt, the purple aura surrounding him vanished. Twilight’s horn had (finally) stopped glowing as he struggled to gain balance on the ground. A few hours of being cramped inside that bubble took a few moments to shake off. But he regained control of himself quickly enough, even if his first few steps were a little wobbly. After stretching his limbs, Spike looked at Twilight. “Thank you.” “Yes well… you better not try to run away again!” She fixed him with a glare. “Because if you do, I won’t just put you back in the bubble, I’ll put you to sleep until we reach Canterlot.” Spike raised his arms in a placating gesture. “Don’t worry; I know when I’m beaten. I’ll be right behind you.” For now, he added mentally. That seemed to be enough to satisfy Twilight, because she abruptly turned her back to him and started off in the direction she had been heading towards earlier. “Well, come on then, I have a lot more questions.” “No problem,” Spike said as he hurried after her. Somewhere behind them, the phoenix let out another piercing screech.
