Spike kicked open the door to his room and collapsed onto his bed, letting out a huff of exhaustion.
This was not a good day for him.
Ever since he had gotten these wings they had quickly turned from a blessing into a curse, courtesy of his closest friends.
Rainbow Dash of course had been the first one to jump on the bandwagon, insisting on being Spike’s personal trainer in learning how to use his wings.
In hindsight accepting her offer was a pretty stupid idea.
She had pretty much run him through the ringer; 100 wing ups, 100 wing curls, and 100 wing squats. And that was just the warm up, then there was the obstacle courses, the knocking him off clouds, the chases. Fighting Nightmare Moon would have been less exhausting.
Then came Twilight, who wouldn’t dare pass up such a research opportunity. She had manhoofed his wings for hours, feeling them up, getting their vitals, measuring them. Making them go through another bout of Rainbow Dash’s ‘training’ for the purpose of seeing how they’d perform. The fact that they hadn’t fully recovered from their workout made it all the more painful and Twilight failed to even notice.
After which Pinkie Pie, in the energetic fashion that was expected of her, demanded to throw him a ‘congratulations on sprouting wings’ party for him. Which could have been fun if everypony there hadn’t been constantly feeling them up and asking him numerous questions over and over and over again
‘Can you fly yet?’
‘How did it feel to get them?’
‘Do they hurt?’
‘Do you like them?’
‘Are they better than pegasus wings?’
‘Can I have them?’
With ponies constantly crowding him he couldn’t even enjoy the party that was being thrown specifically FOR HIM!
Of course Fluttershy, seeing her dragon friend in such pain, caused her caring instincts to kick in which prompted her to snatch him up and rush him to her cottage for some good old TLC. But much like the pink party pony, her good intentions simply led to more mishaps. Somehow Fluttershy had been unnaturally clumsy that day, accidentally bending his wing the wrong way during a massage, tripping and spilling hot soup onto him, having the ice pack she placed on his wings tear open. Not to mention angel bunny thought that now would be the best time to pull a few painful pranks on him.
Spike took the opportunity to slip out while she was busy scolding him and head back to the friendship castle.
Thankfully at least Starlight still had some sense in her, seeing the amount of pain Spike was in starlight took the liberty of escorting him home and making sure nopony else bothered him.
He gave a grateful nod to her, they really didn’t need to say anything as they had a mutual understanding of each other given the current situation.
Which brings us all back to the here and now where our favorite dragon is now collapsed from exhaustion on his bed.
“Ugh, they do this all the time to me. Either they’re overestimating how tough I am, or just plain babying me!” Spike shouted in frustration
“I mean I’m happy I’ve got wings.” Spike said, spreading them out for emphasis but immediately yelping in pain at the soreness “but that doesn’t mean I have to be put through exercise made for the Wonderbolts or gawked at like I’m part of a freak show, or even treated like I’m somepony who is recovering from an injury. All I did was sprout wings, BIG DEAL!”
Spike led out a sigh of exasperation
“I’m not a child, by tartarus I’m only a few years younger than Twilight! Why can’t anybody see that!”
It’s true, despite his involvement in saving the crystal empire, winning the gauntlet of fire, and being vital in bringing peace between ponies and changelings. All of his friends still treated him like a baby, no better than a younger brother. It wasn’t that he hated the attention, far from it, he just wished that they would treat him more as an equal that as some tag-along side kick.
“Maybe if I was bigger then they’d respect- no! Don’t think like that, remember what happened last time we gave into greed!” Spike sighed “but maybe, maybe if there was only a way that I could get bigger without greed, heh, in a perfect world I guess”
Spike then let out a long yawn, his eyelids beginning to droop.
“In a perfect word…..” and with that dear readers our dragon was out like a light
******************
Animalistic growls were what Spike awakened to. Snapping his eyes open and looking at his surroundings, Spike quickly realized he was in the middle of the Everfree forest and had no idea how he had even gotten there.
“Oh man, did I sleep fly out here. Is that a thing? I mean I’ve heard stories from Cloudsdale but..”
Another chorus of snarls broke Spike’s train of thought, he could see the bright green glowing eyes of the Timberwolves staring at him from the foliage.
He had to get out of there, now. Thank Celestia he had wings.
Still remembering the basics that Rainbow Dash had taught him the day before, Spike attempted to flex his wings to take off the ground.
Nothing, he tried again
Still nothing.
Feeling his back he realized that he couldn’t move his wings at all, they were stuck to his body and refused to respond.
“Come on! Now of all times you guys choose to fail me!” Spike yelled, quickly darting off in a random direction with the sound of Timberwolf paws beating behind him, progressively getting louder and louder.
“TWILIGHT, APPLEJACK, RARITY, ANYPONY, HELP!” spike screamed to the heavens between pants
But nopony came……
The Timberwolves were closing in as quickly as Spike’s breath was running short.
“Celestia darn it, why did I have to be cursed to be stuck in the body of a baby dragon. Why couldn’t I have grown up like everypony else does?!”
Right then a Timberwolf maw bit the air directly next to him, narrowly failing to turn him into a snack.
Acting on pure instinct spike attempted to spew a fireball only to find that much like his useless wings, his fire breath also refused to respond.
“What is this?! A part of the molt where my body just starts to fail me!!!” he shouted, double timing his pace to get ahead, doing so allowed him to pull ahead of the ravenous pack pursuing him.
But it didn’t really matter in the long run as spike had to abruptly stop when he came to a large cliff, overlooking most of the forest. The view was beautiful and tranquil, ironic considering spike’s current situation.
The unfriendly growls made him slowly turn around to meet his fate; the entire pack had him completely cornered with what looked like the alpha wolf padding over to him, a look of murder in its eyes. Spike was completely helpless, nopony around to save him, no way of defending himself, all he could do was either choose between falling to a clumsy, painful death, or be mauled to death by Timberwolves. But he never even had a chance to weigh his options as the Timberwolf pounced, maw open, ready to take a big bite out of our poor dragon. Spike screamed and braced for the end…..
Only it never came.
Gingerly opening one eye Spike was surprised to see that the Timberwolf was now frozen, midair, as if somepony had suddenly stopped time. The rest of the pack was similarly frozen as well.
“Okay what in the name of Celestia is going on here?!” Spike said
“Perhaps I may be able to answer your query.” another voice said.
Spike spun on his heel to see a small dragon hovering over the edge of the cliff,
He was about the same size as the average teenage dragon, black scales covering his body apart from the ones on his underbelly which were a deep purple, his tale long and sharp like a whip, the large black wings keeping him afloat worn and torn like leather, several spikes that looked like horns protruding from the sides of his head, stretching to his back, dressed in pure black robes akin to those found on sorcerers; his mismatched irises, one blue, one red, staring at Spike with an eerily calm expression.
“See, you’re actually still safe in the crystal castle you call home. All of this is nothing more than a mere dream, an illusion if you will.” the dragon stated as a matter of factly.
Spike nearly face-clawed, of course, how could he have not realized it before. Winding up in the middle of Everfree, surrounded by Timberwolves, with no way of escaping; classic nightmare.
“Well thanks for helping me out but um, who are you?”
“My name isn’t exactly important Artair. What is important is the message I carry with me.” spoke the dragon, “but first, a change of scenery is in order.”
Snapping his fingers, the forest melted away and reformed into a large sitting room with several love seats and chairs circling the room, a coffee table in the center, a roaring fireplace on one wall and bookshelves lining the rest.
“There isn’t that better?”
“Sure, but why did you call me Artair, my name is-” but Spike never got to finish as the dragon cut him off
“Yes I am aware of the name those ponies bestowed upon you Artair, however degrading it is, but that is not the name your parents gave you so I will not address you as such. Please sit, we have much to discuss”
‘Parents’ that was a word that stood out in the sentence, all his life spike had lived as somewhat of an adopted child. Princess Celestia taking up the mantle of his mother as he grew up, taking the time out of her busy schedule to raise him and play with him, ensuring that he was happy and healthy. But she had never been his biological mother and he was well aware of that, and here was a dragon that might know something about his real mother.
“My-my parents?” Spike stuttered out, taking a seat on a chair directly across from the strange dragon
“Yes, your parents. They’re still alive Artair and they miss you ever so dearly.”
“Wait, wait, wait. This is just part of my dream isn’t it? All of this is fake isn’t it?” Spike said with a slight smirk
The dragon then reached over and pinched Spike, HARD. the purple dragon immediately flinched back at the pain.
“OW, what was that for?” Spike said, rubbing his now red scales.
“Just to prove to you that I’m real. True the room we’re in is a mere illusion” to illustrate his point he picked one of the books off the shelf and flipped through it, revealing all the pages to be blank “but I am not, I’m real and I’m intercepting your dream much like the princess of the night can. The only difference is that I can do everything she can without being detected, as far as she knows you’re having a lovely dream about mountains of gem cakes”.
“Alright so let’s say you are real, why do my parents miss me? I thought I was just an abandoned egg.” Spike question
The dragon snapped his fingers again and the surrounding area morphed into a recently vacated battle field, several corpses strewn about the ground.
“Not abandoned Artair. Lost. you see several hundred moons ago, after the banishment of nightmare moon. Civil discord has spread throughout the dragon clans; there was the horde who believed that gold and gems lined the pathway to enlightenment and the nobles who sought out knowledge and brotherhood as a way to achieve happiness. This climaxed in a massive battle between the two factions which resulted in a narrow victory from the horde and banishment of the noble dragons to the sea. Your parents belonged to the noble clan and were planning on taking you to safety, but under all the confusion your egg was lost. They searched endlessly for you but yielded nothing” the dragon narrated forlornly
Another snap of the fingers brought them to a cave, a small shrine sat against one of the walls, a pair of silhouettes crouched over it. Crying.
“They mourned endlessly for you, thinking that their youngest son was lost to them forever.”
SNAP.
Then Spike and the black dragon stood upon the frozen north, a pale blue female dragon trudging through the snow in front of them.
“But then, one of our cryomancer warriors discovered something strange during a secret trip to the far frozen north.”
Right then a massive beam of magic spewed out from above the mountains, Spike ran over to the cliff and immediately he knew what he was looking at.
The Crystal Empire in all its glory was sitting in the distance, dark energy quickly consuming everything in its path. Suddenly out of one of the high windows of the crystal castle came a streak of pink and purple, snatching the crystal heart out of the air.
This was the time that he had helped save the crystal empire from King Sombra, even though all he did was catch the crystal heart.
SNAP.
Then they were in what looked like a modest throne room, carved out of stone. The blue dragon from before was excitedly babbling about her recent discovery to a pair of dragons.
The male was a bright green and incredibly muscular (he could give Iron Will a run for his money) with triangle shaped scales running from his head to his back, a pair of leather straps on his shoulders with ropes that ran around his midsection keeping them in place, a romane skirt surrounding his legs and a pair of red swords strapped to his back.
The female was purple, thin and shapely, a pink set of scales shaped like barbs coming off of her head and a pair of purple wings coming out of her back. She was dressed in robes similar to that of what the black dragon that had brought him here was wearing, only the decorum on them were slightly more regal and what looked like a magical staff was clutched at her side.
As the blue dragon’s speech went on their faces morphed into confusion, then shock, before setting on crying tears of pure joy at the information that their son was still alive.
“See? All they ever wanted was to have you back Artair, to have their hatching reunited with them.”
Spike’s brow then furrowed “if that’s true then why haven’t they shown up yet? The Crystal Empire fiasco was years ago.”
“Well they had attempted to leave as soon as possible but unfortunately several, incidents. Complicated their travel plans. For some reason those pony friends of yours seem to be magnets to crises, wherever they were danger seemed to follow, the invasion of Tierk was the first. While he was not aware of the existence of the noble dragon magic, we couldn’t risk him getting his hands on it. So we remained in hiding. Then there was the Tantabus incident, I pleaded for your parents to let me intervene, Artair, as my power over the dream realm would have been more than enough to exterminate such a creature; but they refused saying that exposing ourselves like that would lead to disastrous consequences. The shattering of the crystal heart further slowed us as a full world wide freeze would have surely wiped out the clan so we were forced to make what proved to be unnecessary preparations. The changeling invasion was yet another obstacle, when learning of your capture by those disgusting insects they were both prepared to go ‘fire and fury’ upon the changeling kingdom. But just as they were ready to set sail with their armies, news of Chrysalis’ defeat spread and another effort was wasted. Then was the shadow pony incident, in all honesty we knew exactly how to bring him down and your parents had grown weary of waiting and would have given us the approval to attack but the real threat were the original bearers of harmony; see they we’ve had a few unfortunate run ins with them in the past and they weren’t exactly fond of us, to the point where they would have blasted us on sight but luckily the problem solved itself once again.”
He then took Spike’s claws in his own. “But now, now I have finally reached you and there is nothing left to interrupt our reunion.”
“Okay I get it, they were busy. But why didn’t they just come here with you?”
“Because of the offer I am going to make you Artair, see since you belong to the noble dragon clan you have a special form of magic that lies dormant within your being. As does every other dragon; in order to gain such power they must relinquish all of their temptations to greed, meaning all of their gold and gems. Since you successfully turned from a greed dragon back to your normal self you’ve already accomplished this step, and seeing how you’ve now gone through the molt. I believe you’re ready for the next part of your life.” the dragon then snapped his fingers again and they were back inside of the study.
“Your parents want to take you back home to the Vlemm Enclave where the remnants of the noble dragon clan still exist, to be among your own kind and to train your abilities. You could unlock unimaginable power within yourself and become godlike, your parents think that the best place to do that is by their side, they agree with me that you belong in the Vlemm Enclave.”
“Me? I’ve got powers?” Spike said in disbelief
“Of course you do, now I am not certain on what as the noble dragon aura’s manifest themselves in ways unique to the dragon themselves. Some gain elemental abilities, some achieve illusionary magic, some greatly increase their physical abilities. But they never know what it is until they fulfill their truest potential.” the dragon explained
“So like a cutie mark?”
“If you wish to make such a comparison, yes; a noble dragon’s aura is similar to a cutie mark. But enough chit chat, let’s get down to business.” stated the dragon
He then materialized a scroll and quill, the latter already wet with ink.
“Your parents wish to escort you out of Equestria and raise you on the Vlemm Enclave, where they will teach you their ways as well as restoring their family. Oh they have such amazing sights to show you and mind-blowing knowledge to share with you. All you must do is sign on the dotted line and I will take that as a yes to my offer, a group of our top warriors will be dispatched to bring you home and your training will begin when you arrive.”
Spike opened his mouth but was quickly silenced by the dragon
“I know what you’re about to say and no, they can’t come with you. In fact when you leave you must cut all communications with the pony kingdom, at least until your training had been completed.” the dragon said in a deadpan tone
That made Spike think, sure he would love to be bigger and stronger so that everypony else would start seeing him as an adult. But was he really willing to abandon his friends for that? Sure they got on his nerves from time to time but what friend didn’t? And he would have no idea how long he’d be gone for. Then there was the matter of his parents, sure they didn’t raise him but that wasn’t their choice; would he just leave twilight in order to have a real family?
“Would I ever return?” Spike asked
“Once your training is completed that is entirely up to you Artair, you may return to your friends and show them how much you have progressed over the years. Or you could choose to remain on Vlemm Enclave for the rest of your days, most dragons do experience somewhat of a personality change on the road to realizing their aura. You’re your own dragon.” said the dragon.
“And what if I refuse your offer?”
“Artair I cannot force you to do anything, it goes against the very individualistic beliefs that the noble dragons hold. If you do not wish to travel to the Vlemm Enclave to be reunited with your parents, I will respect your wish and you’ll never see me again. Your parents will be heartbroken but they too will honor your decision and not force you to come back. But the offer will still remain on the table should you ever change your mind.”
Spike looked down at the contract in deep thought, weighing out his options before looking up at the dragon and saying: “I gotta say, I’m definitely interested in your offer and I would love to know more about who I am. But, I’ve got friends, a de facto family, and I just don’t think I’m ready to leave them behind just yet. I’ll think it over” Spike said as he laid down the quill on the table “but don’t hold your breath”
The dragon sighed “well I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was at least a bit disappointed Artair. But if that’s your choice then so be it, however I will be waiting for you should you change your tune” he then stood up and clapped his hands twice and suddenly everything went white.
*************************
Spike woke up with a start, looking out the window he saw that he had pretty much slept the rest of the day away and it was now the next morning.
“Wow I was really tired.” Spike said, stretching himself awake “and what a weird dream, I’m still not sure if-” Spike’s train of thought was derailed by the sound of crinkling paper from his bed. Pulling out the scroll and unrolling it, Spike’s jaw dropped.
It was the same contract from his dream, the only difference was the new post-note added to the bottom:
‘Think about what I said Artair, remember just sign on the line at anytime when you wish to achieve your full potential’.
So it was real, all of it. The dragon, his parents, Vlemm Enclave, all of it was true.
A series of knock caused Spike to quickly roll the scroll back up and hide it in a drawer for later. “Who’s there?” Spike shouted.
“It’s us Spike” said Twilight. “Can we come in?”
Spike open the door and the mane 6 walked in with sheepish looks on their faces. Twilight shoved Rainbow Dash forward and said “Dash has something to say to you Spike, go on say it.”
Rainbow Dash let out a huff “I’m sorry for pushing you so hard yesterday, I was just so excited to have a new flying buddy that I wanted you off the ground as soon as possible. Never thought about how much I was hurting you.”
“We’re sorry too.” said Pinkie Pie, her mane drooping down “I mean we just got so super excited about you finally getting these spectacular wings that we never even thought about how much you hated being gawked at. Forgive us?” and to emphasize her point, the party pony pulled out a pink frosted gem cupcake out of seemingly nowhere. Which Spike quickly accepted.
“It’s alright. I got pretty excited too when they first came out, I feel fine now anyways so no harm done.” Spike said, waving off their concerns.
“Great! Hey I think you can walk on clouds now. What’s say we head up to cloudsdale for some cotton candy, nothing like it anywhere else.” said Rainbow Dash
“Okay sure!” Spike said, before Rainbow Dash put the dragon on her back and instructed him to hold on tight.
Just before they took off, Spike took one last look at the desk and remembered what they strange dragon had told him.
‘Your parents miss you’
‘Your parents miss you’
‘Your parents miss you’
Spike would have a lot to think about over the course of the next few weeks, A LOT.
Author's Note
this story will exist purely as a one shot but if I receive enough positive reception I will make a sequel that will branch out this one event into a full fledged adventure. So if you want to see more don't forget to drop a like and a favorite!
