MLP: Air Magic

"Wh-who are...you?" He asked.

"I am..." He started, trainling off as he noticed Vinyl. He glared at her.

'I don't know what's going on, but it sure doesn't look good.' Spike thought as he stared at the two of them. Something...was wrong with this picture.

The man in the dog helmet cleared his throat, and spoke again. "We are... The Diamond Dogs, and you have something that belongs to us."

The man held out his hand and waited patiently. "Give it here."

Spike looked at the slightly metallic object on his jacket. 'You mean this...is an emblem? So that means that Vinyl...' He looked over to where she was standing, only to see that she was not there. He looked around for her only to see that she was preparing to jump off the mountain. He watched as she looked back and told him,

"Sorry, dragon boy! If you win this, i'll give you your real reward. Don't hate me for this, okay?" she winked at him. While he was sure he could never hate her, he would probably never forget that she did this to him.

"Did you hear me, kid? I said give it back!" The leader commanded before trying to claw him him again. He was able to dodge this time, though, and managed to move out of the way before he got hurt.

Suddenly, Spike got an idea. "I'll give you your emblem back." Spike grinned wickedly and spoke again. "If you can beat me in an A.M.s race."

The leader crossed his arms and let out a bark of a laugh. "Ha! You've got guts, kid! I'll give you that. Fine, have it your way! Just don't cry when we win!"

Spike smirked. "Don't be so sure!" In all honesty he was scared out of his mind. He never expected to have to fight now. Especially not so soon after he just started making his team. But he needed the practice, and it was his fault now, so...

"The course is from here all the way to the top of Canterlot Mountain. If you can take our emblem all the way up to the top and stick it onto the castle doors, It'll be your victory. But, if we catch you before then, well...you know the rest. I'll give you a five second head start." the leader said, holding up three fingers.

"I don't need five seconds to beat you. Three is just fine." Spike whispered that last part.

"You're gonna want those two seconds back, punk!"

Immediately, Spike takes the head start and speeds off, going as fast as he could right from the start to put as much distance between himself and the Diamond Dogs as possible.

He could hear the leader counting from where he was. He looked back to see that he had called the rest of his team as well. "3...2...1...go!"

With that, the leader took off, speeding off in spike's direction and following the path up the mountain as well.

Meanwhile, Spike was still making his way up the mountain. His practice spot was right around the middle of the mountain, but there was still quite a bit of ground to cover before he could get anywhere near the castle. Good thing he still had his lead on them.

'Geez, if I had known it would be this easy, I would've given him the three second head start.'

Suddenly, he got a bad feeling in his gut. 'No...it couldn't be...they couldn't have caught up that quickly, could they?!'

Turns out, they could, for as he was jumping off of another railing and making use of the mountain itself as a foothold, he spotted two of the leader's teammates, one of whom was ducking past him while the other was grabbing his legs to make him drop onto the path. He fell pretty hard and rolled back a few feet before finding his footing once more and speeding off in the direction of the two that got him, jerking his body forward to avoid the leader's claws mere inches from his back.

'Come on, you dogs! Get out of my way!' Spike thought as he sped up, twisting and turning around them in tight form as he quickly over took them.

Soon enough he could just make out the goal over the edge of the mountain. 'There it is! The castle! All I need to do now is stick this thing onto the door and i've got- ugh! Wait! Not again!'

Yes, again. Spike had gotten cut once again, and he had immediately stopped in his tracks, trembling fron the pain as he was forced to watch the diamond dogs get ahead of him once again.

'Come on, there has to be something I can do! I want to win this! Think, Spike, think!' And then he looked up.

'That's it! But, this is a mountain. If I fall again, no one's gonna be there to save me.' He remained in place for all of three seconds before slowly getting to his feet and staring up at the mountain side with new determination.

'Well, guess I just have to be prepared to suffer the consequences. That's what growing up means, doesn't it, Spike?'

With that done, he places his A.M.s on the surface of the mountain and begins to ride up them, as fast as he can in order to avoid falling off thanks to loss of motion. He could see the Diamond Dogs closing in on the goal, and then, all of sudden, he saw it again.

'The flame road. It's back.' He stared into the vast distance of the road as it carried him along his way. When he was out, he found himself on top of the mountain, a little ways ahead of the other team. He quickly made his way over to the castle door and placed the emblem there. The rest of the dogs, came up after him, including the leader.

"You did good kid. You better not waste that talent o' yours. You'll need it the future." He said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Thanks!" Spike had no idea what had suddenly changed in the dogs, but he welcomed any chance to get out of there while he still could. He turned around and managed to sneak his way past them, but he was n't watching where he was going, and tripped and fell from the top of the mountain.

The Dogs' leader followed after him, riding the mountain downwards rather than taking the path. Using his claw attack, he propelled himself downward and caught Spike, taking him all the way down to the bottom of the mountain, where he placed him down to rest.

"Whoa! That...was...awesome!" Spike said, too engrossed in what he had just seem happen to even care that he almost split his head open on the ground despite his breathless condition.

"Aww, that was nothin'!" The leader said, smiling down at him. "Be more careful from now on, ya hear!"

Spike nodded with a smile. He had had so much fun in this battle. But his expression changed to one of confusion when he heard the leader say,

"Well dogs, looks like we're disbanded."

'Wait what?'

"Hey, wait, stop. What do you mean disbanded?" Spie asked, worried that he may have caused something really bad.

"When a magic rider team bets their emblem and loses, they are officially disbanded. Don't worry too much. It's just the fate of the weak."

Spike couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Oh come on! That's bull! If I had known that, I wouldn't have challenged you guys! I if's that big a deal you can have it back, I don't want it."

Suddenly, the leader seemed to get really angry at Spike, because he said, "Have it back, you said? Have it back? Don't insult me, you little punk! When a magic rider bets his pride and loses, it's over! No take backs, you understand?!"

Spike just looked shocked. "No, that's not what I meant. I just meant that...well, i'm a newbie. I don't know much about A.M.s yet, so I was thinking that maybe, when I get stronger, and have my own team, we could do this again properly, and I could send you packing with your tails between your legs all over again."

Spike decided to joke about his skills a bit, just to lighten the mood.

"You've got guts kid, but don't get too cocky. No, I don't think we'll be able to take you up on that. We lost fair and square, so what's done is done." The leader turned his head, taking off his helmet to reveal a head of gray hair that reached down only to the nape of his neck. When he turned back around to face Spike, he could see deep golden eyes staring back at him.

"The name's Silver Claw. I guess we'll be seeing you around then." With that, Silver Claw left, only to stop when he saw Vinyl touching down in front of Spike, snatching away the emblem and taking off again.

"Well, if neither of you want it, I guess I could take it off your hands." She winked and left, and Silver Claw yelled,

"Get back here, you mongrel! Diamond Dogs, form up!" With that, he raced off after her, leaving Spike to laugh at her antics.

'That girl...' He thought, but he was brought out of his thoughts when he saw her coming back to stand in front of him.

"Oh, that's right. I almost forgot to give you your present." She came up to him and kissed his cheek again, making him blush.

"Uh...um..." was all Spike could stutter out.

"Bye now! See ya later, dragon boy!" With that, she left proper, taking off into the sky once again.

Spike watched her for a moment before making his way home, a single thought overtaking all others for a single moment. 'I wonder who else would want to join us?'