Spike finally found a seat at the very back of the bus. He looked at the gorgeous skyline of Manehattan, as the bus arrived in front of a building called 'Columbia University'. The entire class Spike was on were visiting the university.
The students, including Spike, left the bus. They all gathered around the main steps that lead into the university. Spike was standing alone with a camera hanging around his neck, since he was supposed to take pictures for the school newspaper. He looked at Rarity, who was gathered around her friends. She seemed to be having fun. Then he heard a rather stressed looking teacher walk towards the students, who seemed to be announcing something.
"Okay, ponies, no wandering! Proceed directly to the steps and into the building."
They all moved slowly to the steps. They turned around to see a fancy looking car pull up at the entrance.
Inside the car on the backseat, there was sitting a unicorn stallion who seemed to be no older than Spike. He had a light gray coat, an orange mane, yellow eyes and a cutie mark that seemed to be a mechanical arm. His name was Steel Tracker.
"Dad, could you drive around the corner?" He asked the older stallion who was driving the car.
"Why? The door's right here", the older stallion asked his son in response.
He had a dark gray coat, a white mane, yellow eyes and a cutie mark of the Moon and the Sun. His name was Starswirl. He was the CEO of Oscorp, one of the most successful companies in the entire Equestria.
"These are public school kids. I'm not showing up to school in a car like this", Steel Tracker answered.
"What? You want me to trade in my car for a cheaper one just because you flunked out of every private school I sent you to?" Starswirl asked his son.
"They were not for me. I told you that. It wasn't me", his son answered.
"Of course it was!", Starswirl said, as he opened his son's car door.
"Don't ever be ashamed for who you are", he added.
"Dad, I'm not ashamed, I'm just not what you...", his son explained, before he stopped mid-sentence.
"What, Steel Tracker?" He asked.
"Forget it, dad", he told his father.
As he got out of the car, Spike immediately knew who he was.
"Hi ya, Steel", Spike greeted him with a grin.
"Hey, Spike", Steel Tracker answered.
The two of them have been the best of friends at elementary school, until his father sent him into a private middle school.
Behind them, a car door opened.
"Won't you be needing this?" Starswirl asked, as he rised from the car, handing his son a saddlebag.
"Spike, this is my father, Starswirl", Steel Tracker explained, as he pointed at the older stallion.
"Great honor to meet you", Spike said to Starswirl, as he was giving him a hoof- erm, clawshake.
Steel Tracker looked at Rarity, who seemed to have a conversation about the arrival of the car with her friends.
"I've heard a lot about you. Steel Tracker tells me you're quite the science whiz", Starswirl said.
"Well, I don't know about that", Spike answered.
"He's being modest. I told you, he's won all the prizes", Steel Tracker explained to his father.
"Anyone who can get Steel Tracker to pass chemistry shouldn't be modest", Starswirl told to Spike.
"Steel Tracker's really smart. He didn't really need my help", Spike said.
"We have to go, dad", Steel Tracker told his father.
"I'm something of a scientist myself, you know?", Starswirl told to Spike.
"I know. I know all about Oscorp. You guys are designing the guidance and re-entry systems for the first shuttle mission to Mars. Really brilliant", Spike explained to Starswirl.
"Impressive. Your parents must be proud", he complimented Spike.
"I live with my aunt and uncle, they're proud", he told him.
"What about your folks?" Starswirl asked.
"My egg was found in Everfree Forest by those two ponies I call my aunt and uncle, they never got to know who laid the egg", Spike explained.
"I never really got to know my parents either", Starswirl explained.
"Which no doubdt sthrenghtened your iron will to succeed, huh, dad?" Steel Tracker asked.
"HEY, YOU TWO, I'M CLOSING THE DOOR!" The teacher yelled at them.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Starswirl", Spike told him one more time.
"See you again", Starswirl told him.
They were both walking into the building, Steel Tracker going a bit faster, passing Rarity and saying "Hi" to her. Spike rushed to him, as he was a quite bit ahead of himself.
"He doesn't seem so bad", He told to Steel Tracker about his father.
"Not if you're a genius. I think he wants to adopt you", He told to Spike.
Steel Tracker was looking at Rarity, who seemed to be alone at the moment.
"Hey", Steel Tracker said to Spike, calling his attention towards Rarity.
"Say something", he told Spike.
Spike started approaching Rarity, who noticed, and stopped.
"Hi. How ya doing?" Spike asked her, trying to hide how blushed he was.
"Hey", she answered while smiling.
Spike did nothing, as they continued on.
"Why didn't you say something?" Steel Tracker asked him.
"I was about to. It wasn't the right moment", he explained.
Spike looked over his shoulder, where he noticed that Steel Tracker's father was still standing beside his car.
"There are more than 32 000 known species of spider in the world", a tour guide explained to the students who were walking trough a laboratory fullof spider exhibits.
"They are divided in the order Aranae, which is divided in three sub-orders -- Mesothelea, Orthognatha, and Labidognatha. All spiders are carnivorous, ravinous eaters whobfeed on massive quantities of protein, in liquid form, usually the juices of their prey. Arachnids from each of three groups, have rather interesting magical powers that help them in their constant search of food", the tour guide explained.
"For example, the jumping spider, family Salticidae, genus Salticus can leap up to forty times its body length", The guide added, while pointing at one spider.
Spike lifts up his camera, about to take a few pictures.
"For the school paper?" He asked.
He could've heard a few ponies mutter "Geek", as the tour guide nodded. Then suddently, some young pegasus stallion bumped into him on purpose, messing up the picture he was about to take.
"The funnel web spider, family Hexathelidae, genus Atrax, one of the deadliest spiders in the world, spins an intricate, funnel-shaped web whose strands have a tensile strength proportionately equal to the type of high-tension wire used in bridge building", the tour guide continued.
Spike was about to take an another picture, until he was bumped into again.
"Leave him alone", Steel Tracker told to the stallion who bumped into him.
"Or what?" He asked.
"Or his father will fire your father", somepony else answered.
"The next person to talk is going to fail this course", the teacher said.
"The crab spider, family Thomisidae, genus Misumena, spins no web to catch its prey, but hunts instead, using a set of reflexes with nerve conduction velocities so fast some researchers believe it almost borders on precognition, an early awareness of danger, a "spider sense."", the tour guide explained, while pointing at a yet another spider.
"Over five painstaking years Columbia's genetic research facility has fully mapped the genetic codes of each of these spiders", the guide explained, as he pointed at a monitor that was displaying three different DNAs.
Little did they know, that one spider had gotten away. It was hanging from the roof with what seemed to be funnel-shaped web.
"Armed with these DNA blueprints, we have now begun what was once thought impossible, inter-species genetic transmutation"
"In this Recombination Lab, we use synthesized transfer-RNA to encode an entirely new geonome, combining genetic information from all three spiders into these fifteen genetically designed super-spiders, the first mankind has ever produced", the guide said, while pointing at a glass tank with spiders in it, as the class gets closer to it.
Rarity looked at them up close wide eyed.
"Disgusting", she said.
"Hateful little thing", Steel Tracker said, also looking at them very close.
"I love it", she said, still inspecting the spiders.
"Really? Me too", Steel Tracker said.
"Just imagine, if one day we can isolate the strengths, powers, and immunities in ponies and transfer that DNA code among ourselves. All known disease would be wiped out. Of course, we're nowhere near ready to start experimenting with ponies, so for the moment we're concentrating on these fifteen spiders", the guide explained.
"Fourteen", Spike whispered.
"Fourteen?" Steel Tracker asked.
"I beg your pardon?" The tour guide asked.
"There's only fourteen spiders", Spike said.
"No, there's fifteen. Aren't there?" The tour guide asked.
Everypony started counting. Meanwhile, Rarity was checking out the other glass tanks, looking at her reflection. She looked very beautiful at that moment. Spike knew that now was his chance.
"Can I take your picture? I need one with a student in it", Spike asked.
"Don't make me ugly!" She said as she posed in front of the spider tank.
"Impossible", Spike said as he took a picture.
"Thanks", he said to Rarity, who was already heading back towards her friends.
Then, he felt something.
"Ow!" He said, as he noticed at a red bitemark in his right front leg. Then, he saw the creature that bit him laying on the floor, dead.
The missing fifteenth spider.
Who am I? You sure you wanna know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale, if somebody told you I was just your average, ordinary dragon, not a care in the world...
...somebody lied.
Mine is a tale of pain and sorrow, longing and heartache, anger and betrayal. And that just covers the high school years.
But let me assure you-- this, like any story worth telling, is all about a mare.
A bus filled with high school students was driving trough the streets of Manehattan. On one of the seats, sat a young unicorn mare with a white coat, a fancily curled purple mane, a matching tail, blue eyes and three diamonds as her cutie mark. She seemed to have a sad expression on her face.
That mare. Rarity. Rares, for her friends. The mare I've loved since before I even liked them.
Next to her was sitting a young unicorn stallion with a white coat, a blonde mane and a cutie mark of what seemed to be a compass. It looked like he was trying to comfort her, but it seemed not to be helping.
I'd like to tell you that's me next to her.
In the seat in front of them, was a young pegasus stallion with a dark gray coat and a short, white mane. Nobody sat next to him, but he seemed to be alright.
Or even that.
In the seat in front of him, a rather fat looking pegasus stallion was eating messily a jelly doughnut.
Heck, I'd even take him.
On the walkway next to the road, a young male dragon with purple scales, green spines and green eyes was chasing the bus, while some ponies inside the bus where laughing at him.
Rarity couldn't take it anymore. She hurried to the front of the bus, and shouted to the driver over the laughter.
"Stop the bus?! He's been chasing us since Woodhooven Boulevard!"
The bus slows down, as the dragon climbs onto it.
"Thanks... sorry... sorry... thanks...", the dragon says, nearly breathless.
The dragon spotted an empty seat next to some young pegasus mare, but she lifted her books to the seat, occupying the seat.
"Don't even think about it"
He moved on. As he made his way down the aisle, Rarity returned next to the unicorn stallion, this time on the seat next to the window. While she was not looking, he slided his hoof out in the front of the dragon's. He tripped and fell to the isle with his face down. Ponies kept laughing.
Rarity gave the unicorn stallion a rather angry look, as if she was asking "Why did you do that?" with her eyes.
On the floor, the dragon raised his face, looking at Rarity and the unicorn stallion. The stallion was grinning, as Rarity was looking at the dragon with pity.
That's me. My name is Spike.