The Scaled Courier

The train ride home was awkward to say the least, with Twilight and Applejack giving me a bad look while Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity kept asking me questions. ‘Who I was’, ‘What was I doing in 'Our Town' ‘, ‘Why did I help them’ and most importantly ‘Where did I get my armor’. I tried to ignore all of it and look out the window trying to see the countryside, it brought me back to the time I spent In Arroyo.

Arroyo 23 years ago

It had been a few years since I just appeared here and I had gotten used to the town. Took a while, but everyone got used to me too. "Spike come on." Tyler, the old man that took me in, said.
"Coming Sir." I shouted as I ran over to the Temple of Trials. This town started off as just a small tribe some many years ago and now… it’s a thriving city. That was long before I got here though. When I got there, I saw him placing bottles along the walls.

"Okay Spike, you are going to take this," He said, handing me a BB gun. "And shoot those bottles." He finished.

I looked at him and then back to the large, compared to me, toy gun he had handed me and simply asked the greatest of all philosophy questions to exist on any world. "Why?"

He looked at me for a minute before speaking. "I'm teaching you how to shoot a gun because you’re not going to spend your whole life here, and I want to teach you how to defend yourself."

"Do I need to hurt people in order to protect myself?" He looked at me for a time.

"Well... That's a hard question to answer Spike and I for one I can't answer." I thought about it for a minute before I tried my hands at shooting the bottles. I missed the first few times, but after an hour of practice I finally hit one. "That's good Spike. Now look down the sights for better accuracy." I did as he asked. This time it only took half an hour for me to hit a bottle. "Good Spike. Just takes time. Let’s head back, it should be diner time soon."

"Now arriving at Canterlot Station!" The announcer called. Snapping me out of my memories
.
"Okay, I'll lead you to the castle." Twilight said as we got up from our seats and walked out of the train and were greeted by some royal guards.

"We were instructed to escort you and your friends to the castle as an order from Princess Celestia." The head guard said as they began to lead Twilight and her friends away, leaving me behind.

"Hey what about me?" I said as I ran after them.

"Halt!" One of them shouted. "Get any closer to the prin-" He started as Twilight Interrupted him. Meh, had worse welcomes. Much worse welcomes.

"He's with us." Twilight said as the guard looked at her like, ‘Are you sure?' but didn't question it.

As we got to the castle and entered the throne room, we were greeted by Princess Celestia. Well… not to surprised she hasn’t changed at all. "Hello Twilight, I was told that Spike was going to be with you." She said as Twilight gave a confused look.

"How? We never sent a letter... We can’t even send letters, we don't have Spike." I smirked under my helmet.

"Well the note did say you wouldn't recognize me, and to look for the one in black." I said as I took my helmet off giving her a smile.

Everypony looked at me, clearly not believing that I am Spike, before Celestia jumped on me hugging me "Oh sweetie! You're back!" She said as she stroked my back.

"Okay mom, you can stop your hurting me." That was a half truth. In reality she was squeezing my fresher scars too tight, but as she stopped I could feel the glares of the others. Well this will be as fun as killing raiders with a BB gun.

"How do we know that this is really Spike? It could be a changeling trying to feed or another dragon trying to steal treasure from Canterlot." Twilight said as the rest of the girls nodded and everypony turned to Applejack.

"What are ya'll lookin at me fer”

"Well you’re the Element of Honesty, so you can tell if he's lying, right?" Rainbow asked.

"If ah couldn't tell that Chrysalis was lying to mah face I wouldn't be able to tell if this dragon is Spike or not. It's like saying Rarity would hand out free dresses because she's the element of Generosity." Applejack earned a glare from Rarity with that statement.

"Twilight's first kiss was when you were thirteen with her own brother" Twilight's face went red and the other girls looked at her strange.

"There was a loose floorboard I tripped and accidentally kissed him!" She defended before looking at the ground in shame.

Everypony looked at me wondering what that was about. "Hey, you said prove I was Spike and I did." They all looked at each other. "Now about that bounty?" Everypony looked back at me. "What? I still want the caps."

"Caps Darling? As in bottle caps?" Rarity asked.

"That's a story for another day." I said, not wanting to tell them about the wasteland. A place like that would give them all nightmares. Did me most of my first year with all the stories I was told.

"So Spike, where were you? And how did you get so big!?" Celestia asked.

"That is also a story for another day..." Before I could ask a question myself, my stomach growled and Celestia took a quick notice.

"Perhaps we should get something to eat first?" We all headed inside the castle and Starlight headed to the dungeons.

"Wait, Canterlot Castle has a dungeon?" Twilight asked as we walked to the dining room. It was filled with food and my mouth was watering just looking at it all.

Half an hour of eating later we started talking again. "Wow Spike! You sure can pack it down." Pinkie said. I was trying to speak with some food in my mouth, but Rarity took offence.

"Please finish eating before you speak please Darling." Rarity said, disgusted at my lack of manners.

"*gulp* Sorry I was trying to say, this was the best food I've had In twentyfive years." Everypony looked surprised, which was justified.

They all looked at each other before Twilight spoke. "Twentyfive years? Spike you’re not that old."

"Yes I am, I was gone for twentyfive years." They still looked shocked. "Which reminds me, how do you all still look the same?"

"I knew he was an Impostor! The real Spike has only been gone for three months!" Rainbow said before jumping off the table to tackle me. I dodged and put her into an armlock. She had the greatest WTF face I’ve ever seen.

"Try that again, I dare you" I threaten as everypony gasps. I started applying some extra pressure, hurting Rainbow Dash a little.

"Spike, Rainbow, stop that! There is a reasonable explanation for all this!" Twilight said, turning to Celestia. "Right Celestia?"

Everypony looked at Celestia as I let Rainbow go skimpier back to her side of the table. That’s gonna bruise her ego for… five minutes tops. "Well Spike may have fallen into a temporal anomaly that took him to from the Everfree forest to where ever he ended up, then to the mountains near... Our-Town. That's what the town was called right?" Everypony nodded.

"Okay, so if this tepi-whose-it is real, then why is he that big? I'm pretty sure that a dragon would still be a baby size or at least a little taller than we last saw him." Rainbow Dash added.

"Oh there is an easy explanation for that, Greed Growth." I said as everypony looked at me like I was crazy. "What I learned how to control my greed so I can stay in my teenage form without any of the side effects."

"Sister what is all the commotion in here?" Luna said as she entered the dining room, laying eyes on me immediately.

"Hello Auntie Luna." I say as she looks at me for a bit before realizing who I was.

"SPIKE! YOU'VE RETURNED!" She shouts as she tackle-hugs me.

"Ow ow ow, aunt Luna you're hugging to hard." I say as she lets go.

"We are so sorry Spike." She apologized. "Did you get bigger?"

"Yes we were discussing that. Apparently he was gone from his perspective 25 year." Celestia says nonchalantly as Luna looks surprised.

"Ah, the old Temporal anomaly thing." Luna said before anyone could ask questions. "I read it in a book, hold on." She teleported away and teleporting back in seconds. "Here it is." She declared, putting the book on the table.

" 'The legend of Maxx.' Why haven't I heard about this book before?" Twilight asked as it became clear to her it was a graphic novel, stuff she avoids. And another ego bruised.

"Well in ether case Spike's back you know what this calls for A PARTY!" Pinkie exclaimed as Celestia agreed wholeheartedly.

"Yes, we shall have a Party in Canterlot for the return of my son." Celestia said, bumming Pinkie out that she couldn't plan the party herself. While they were talking about the party I headed to my old room in the castle to sleep.

Arroyo 15 years ago

"Hey old man, you here?" I asked as Tyler looked on from his tent.

"Over here Spike!" He said as I walked in on the old man talking with an NCR representative. They’ve been at it a while now. "We were just about finished making a deal for Arroyo to become part of the NCR. It will just be a few minutes. Could you wait?" He asked as he was finishing up with the NCR representative. Ten or twelve minutes passed and the representative left the tent. I entered and saw Tyler sitting on a chair. "So Spike, what's going on?'"

"I'm leaving the village to join the NCR military." I said, expecting him to be surprised, but he just drank his tea peacefully. Was he expecting this?

"That’s good for you. Kids gotta grow up somehow and see the world, or what’s left of it. When are you leaving?"

"In a few hours I just wanted to say good bye and thanks for taking me in." I say, hugging him before I left, all the things I decided to take with me in a rucksack and headed off.