Too many Spikes (no pun intended)
One-shot: A lot of Spikes
It was a sunny morning in the Crystal Empire, Spike, Twilight and princess Cadance, were walking down a path out of the Crystal Empire, towards a valley with less snow and more flowers than the Empire, Twilight and Spike were there because they promised to help Cadance find some rare flowers which only grow in the limits of the Empire, and they were doing it because the Empire was now opening a botanical museum, but they lacked of specimens.
"Are you excited, Spike?" Asked Twilight Sparkle with curiosity.
"Hmm? For what?" Replied Spike.
"We're about to see some of the most rare flowers around here, we are so lucky!" Said Twilight with enthusiasm in her voice.
"Heh, calm down, Twilight, I know these are some rare examples of the botanical wonders of our nation, but we probably shouldn't overdo it." Replied Cadance with a smile.
"Sorry, you know how I get for learning new things." Replied Twilight.
"Tell me about it" Said Spike in an unamused tone. Twilight glared at Spike while Cadence and him chuckled.
Soon, their walk led them into a beautiful valley with a small river crossing in the middle. It was a beautiful sight, large trees, butterflies flying, birds singing, and best of all, there was almost no snow around, something weird for the Crystal Empire, but none of them cared, the sight was too beautiful to care.
They explored the area, Twilight and Cadence found some of the flowers they were looking for, but Spike was focused on a cavern nearby, its entrance was at the bottom of a small mountain, Spike couldn't take his eyes off it, it seemed like the cavern was talking to him, leading him directly into its insides.
Twilight noticed this, and she approached Spike, who was still staring at the cavern.
"Spike? Why are you looking at that cavern like that?" Said Twilight, waving her hoof in front of Spike.
"Sorry, I just have a feeling that maybe there could be somepony in there we need to help." Said Spike, after this, the cavern made a sound that appareantly only Spike could hear, it sounded like a call for help. "That's it! I'll save you!" And with that, Spike dropped the empty basket of flowers in his claws and started running towards the entrance of the cavern, until Twilight stopped him in his tracks putting her hoof in the ground firmly.
"Spike, you don't know what could be in there! If you go in there, you could get hurt!" Said Twilight with a serious look on her face.
Spike walked past her hoof and started to ramble a little bit dramatically: "But what if somepony in there needs our help? I know what's like feeling helpless, Twilight, and I don't want anypony feeling like that! What if they are desperately in need of help? What if they disappear FOREEEVEEEEEEER?" Finished Spike, almost falling to the ground.
"Spike, I said no." Replied Twilight, when she looked at Spike, he was stepping closer to the cavern. "Spike? No." He took a step closer. "No." And another. "NO." And two more. "SPIKE!!!"
"Sorry, love ya, Twilight." And with that, Spike ran into the cavern giggling.
"Ugh, Cadance, you keep collecting these flowers, I'll go for him." Said Twilight annoyed, after that, Twilight slowly started walking towards the entrance of the cavern.
Meanwhile, inside the cavern...
Spike was running inside the dark place he was in, and as he passed, he saw lots of red crystals in the walls in which he could see his reflection, what he didn't notice was that they were still looking back at him after he passed them. He arrived at the center of the place, it seemed like a thin ray of white light was shining from the ceiling and it was pointing at a lower rock in the ground, its upper side was flat, so Spike stepped on it.
He looked at the walls, it was the place where all the crystals could be seen, Spike thought it would be funny making silly faces, so that's exactly what he did, his reflections naturally did the same, but Spike was stunned when the reflection in front of him didn't stop making funny faces.
"Huh? What?" Asked Spike, suddenly, his reflection disappeared from the crystal and appeared behind him. "Wow! That's amazing!" Said Spike.
"I know, right?" Said his other self, Spike looked back again, all of his reflections started glowing and disappearing, and the last thing Spike saw was a bright light, after that, he was lost in the darkness...
Twilight was almost at the entrance of the cavern Spike went through, she was already planning on leaving Spike without gems for a whole month, but her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Spike coming out of the cavern looking at the ground, Twilight went directly to him.
"Spike, what have I told you about running off without any care? You know how worried I get for you. Come on, Spike, don't be sad, it's alright, I won't..." Twilight didn't finish her sentence, when she pulled his face up, Spike was making an evil grin, Twilight gasped, but when she was about to ask him what was the matter with his expression, Spike ran away again giggling.
"Hey! What did I just say?!?!?!" Complained Twilight, but when she was about to chase him, a whole army of Spikes ran over her, they were a lot of Spikes, when Twilight lifted up her head, she was horrified at the sight before her: there were Spikes on the trees, Spikes on the little river, Spikes picking on Cadance, there was even a Spike with blonde hair!
"WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!" Twilight shouted with all the air on her lungs.
"Hey, keep it down out here, won't you? I'm trying to sleep... zzzzz" Said a Spike coming out of the cavern with red eyes, just to close them again and go inside the cavern snoring.
Cadance ran at Twilight's side, with a scared expression on her face. "What happened? Where did these Spikes come from? Which one is the real Spike?" Asked Cadance in complete confusion.
"I don't know, Spike just went inside this cavern and suddenly, all of those Spikes came out too!" Replied Twilight in shock.
"Wait, I've never seen this cavern before, how did I miss this?" Replied Cadance.
"Wait, are you telling me that this cavern hasn't been explored before?" Said Twilight.
"No, otherwise, I would know the cause of this." Said Cadance, looking at the bunch of Spikes on the valley.
"Well, maybe we should go inside the cavern now to find out what happened with Spike." Said Twilight, Cadance nodded and ran inside the cavern with Twilight.
Inside the cavern, they found Spike, or at least what was left of him standing on a rock with a white light illuminating him. "Spike? Spike? Can you hear me, Spike?" Twilight asked while running at him, Spike didn't move, and he didn't talk either, when Twilight got close, she saw that Spike was transparent, Twilight tripped with a crystal on the ground and fell on Spike, but she went right through him, like if Spike was a ghost.
"I don't think Spike can hear us... If that's Spike, of course." Said Cadance.
They heard a noise behind them, and they searched a place to hide in response, they didn't know what was in here, and they didn't want to risk it, they hid behind the red crystals and they prepared for anything, but they sighed in relief when they saw that it was just the Spike from before.
"Heh, this must be the perfect place to sleep, I just can't sleep with all of them outside." Said the sleepy Spike, he jumped and gracefully landed on Spike, but the copy of Spike disappeared and reappeared in one of the crystals. And it seemed to affect the real one, because they saw a spark on his body when the false Spike disappeared.
"I said it already and I will repeat it as long as is neccessary... What is going on?!" Shouted Twilight.
"Hello." The ponies heard a voice behind them and turned around, it was just one of the Spikes, but for some reason he was wearing glasses and a fancy suit. "I am intelligent Spike and I believe I have the answer to your question; this is a magical room underground and these are magical crystals that caused the very personality and the body of your draconic friend to split up into a lot of copies of himself, sending them free into the valley outside, time is really important here, let's just say the fragmentation occurred in the morning, so that means that you have until sunset to put all the fragments of Spike's mind back into him, otherwise, the original specimen disappears." Said the other Spike in a gentlecolty accent.
"FFFFFOOOOOOORRRRRRREEEEEVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR." Said another Spike, coughing, fainting and pulling a flower out of nowhere after 'passing out' dramatically.
"Until sunset... Oh no, there were A LOT of copies of him out there, I don't know if we can do this on time." Said Cadance.
"We must! It won't be the same without him." Said Twilight sadly.
"Then I recommend you two to start now." Said Intelligent Spike. Twilight just pounced on the Spike and tossed him into the transparent one, Intelligent Spike gave Twilight a glare from the crystal.
"Ha! Not so smart now, are ya?" Mocked Twilight. Intelligent Spike just clapped slowly with an unamused face. Twilight proceded to grab the Spike on the floor, who instantly began talking again.
"OH NO! WILL THIS BE THE END OF OVERLY DRAMATIC SPIKE?" Said overly dramatic Spike, Twilight just ignored the Spike and tossed him with the other Spike. "AAAAAAAAAAND, Fin"
"Okay, Twilight, now we know what we have to do." Said Cadance with a confident look.
"Yes, let's save Spike!" Replied Twilight, running out of the cavern with Cadance behind her.
Once outside the cavern, Twilight and Cadance looked at the sight before them, there were definitely more than A LOT of Spikes, and they were everywhere, Spikes making fun of other Spikes, Spikes on the trees, Spikes in the mud, and other stuff a little more weird. Twilight sighed.
"Wow, those are more than I thought." Said Twilight.
"There are 300 Spikes to be precise." Said a Spike behind them. "And they are quite different from each other, for example, we have angry Spike..." Suddenly, a Spike appeared to their right side and cursed the sun for being so bright, they pounced on him, but he ran away before they could get him.
"Easily impressed Spike..." Another Spike appeared to their left side and complimented their looks, but he also ran away before they could get him.
"Athletic Spike..." Athletic Spike ran past them and hit them by accident, Twilight chased him, but that Spike was too fast and Twilight ended up crashing in a tree.
"Treehugger Spike..." Tree hugger Spike was resting on the branch of that tree admiring the view of the valley and the nature; Twilight was about to get him but another Spike appeared.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Easily impressed Spike made Twilight lose her grip on the tree and fall.
"Illuminated Spike..." When Twilight recovered, she saw a Spike in the highest tree singing a happy tune in an ancient dialect that nopony even remembered anymore, except the books from Twilight's library of course.
"Blonde wig Spike, false beard Spike and false moustache Spike..." Twilight saw a copy of Spike with blonde hair hanging out with a Spike with beard and a Spike with moustache, but didn't want to witness it anyway.
"Screamer Spike and hero Spike." Twilight saw a Spike falling from a tree screaming for his life, but before she could react another Spike catched him, curiously, he was wearing a cape and a heroic belt with a fire symbol on it.
"ENOUGH! We can't do this, Cadance! There are just too many! And they are so quick too! I can't do this!" Said Twilight, after that, Twilight dropped to the ground and started to tear up, Cadance saw Twilight, but she couldn't find the words to cheer her up, so she just laid down and patted her friend on the back softly.
"I love you" They heard a voice behind them, they turned around and Twilight saw another Spike, but this one was hugging Twilight's back with force. "IloveyouIloveyouIloveyousomuch!" Said Spike, who didn't even move from Twilight's back.
"Awww, cheer up, Twilight!" They heard another Spike, this one didn't seem that frenetic, but he was trying to cheer up Twilight too. "Don't cry, when you're feeling down just remember that it's always sunny in some place, you just have to find it inside you to feel happy." Said Cheery Spike, while he kneeled down, looking at her with a sincere face and grabbing Twilight's hoof with both of his claws.
"Twilight, you handled Nightmare Moon, Discord and a horde of changelings easily, this is no challenge for you." Another Spike said from her right side giving her a wink.
Cadance thought about this, then, after a moment or so, she stood up and tried to cheer up Twilight herself.
"Twilight, look at these Spikes, even if they are not the real ones, they are still trying to cheer you up, you always find a solution to everything you face, Sombra, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and I know how beautiful is your relationship with Spike; that's why you must do this, you know Spike loves you like a colt loves his mother, now I'm asking you: what are you willing to do for him?" Said Cadance while looking at Twilight in her eyes.
"You're right, I love Spike, he was my first friend, and he is my closest one, I can't stand the thought of losing him, I must do this, for me, for us, but most importantly, for him." Said Twilight while the three Spikes clapped and cheered around her. "And I think that I know how to do it." After this, Twilight grabbed the three Spikes by the face and ran towards the cavern to toss them inside afterwards.
"Okay Cadence, here's the plan: We know that all of these Spikes are different, right? Well, let's use their features as a bait to catch them." Said a confident Twilight with pride.
"That's a great idea, but we must hurry, it's three hours until sunset starting now." Said Cadance while looking at the position of the sun from the corner of her eye.
"Then don't you stand there, go!" Said Twilight, pushing Cadance towards a group of Spikes.
Twilight spotted a Spike collecting rocks, flowers and other stuff across the river, and an idea crossed her mind; galloping towards that Spike, she teleported a gemstone in front of Spike.
"Would you look at this incredible and tasty gemstone! Don't you want it, greedy Spike?" Greedy Spike chased Twilight while she was shaking the gemstone left and right to keep it away from Spike, then, when she arrived at the cavern, she tossed the gemstone inside, greedy Spike jumped inside with no regrets, that is until he realized that he was in a crystal himself.
Cadance looked at a Spike who was looking everywhere except where he was going and a Spike who was getting impressed by LITERALLLY everything, then she thought of something to catch them both. She picked up some mud and covered Distracted Spike's head with it making a little hat. The other Spike noticed it and ran towards distracted Spike.
"WOW! THAT'S AMA-" Easily impressed Spike didn't finish his phrase because Cadance was now levitating him and the other Spike towards the cavern, she tossed them inside once she was there.
Twilight teleported a tea set, a table and a couple of chairs, then, after fixing her mane, she sat and talked in a clearly fake lady-like accent:
"Woo-hoo! Who is in for a tea party where we can talk about dresses, shoes and lady stuff like that?" Blonde wig Spike approached and sat on the chair. "Oh look, two defenseless females all alone! I hope no BAD GUYS show up." Then, out of nowhere, a Spike with a top hat, a moustache and a black cape showed up by jumping in the middle of the table, crushing the teapod.
"AAARRGHHHH!" growled the evil Spike, he kicked the teacups out of his way and grabbed blonde wig Spike, he carried him/her to a tree where evil Spike tied up Blonde wig Spike. "Well, looks like you will be TIED UP for the moment, why don't we CUT the ice between us?" Said evil Spike pulling out a chainsaw.
"AAAAAHHHH!!! Someone save me!" Cried out Blonde wig Spike while Evil Spike laughed maniatically.
"I'll save you!" Said in unison Humdrum Spike and hero Spike. They landed besides Blonde wig Spike and were about to untie her, and they would've made it, but Twilight appeared in the middle of them and levitated all four of them.
"Sorry buds, but I'm the heroine now!" Interrupted Twilight, then she proceded to toss the four Spikes into the cavern.
Cadance looked over to a Spike who was taking a bath in the mud. "Ugh, that must be the messy one." Another idea came to her.
Cadance approached messy Spike and said out loud: "Oh, no! You're a total mess! Someone needs to clean you up!" Then, two Spikes approached, the first one looked like he was about to explode in rage, and the other one carried a bucket of water with a sponge.
"WHAT?! NOW I MUST CLEAN UP THIS MESS, YOU PIECE OF JUNK!!!" Said the first Spike.
"Did somepony said mess? I must clean it now, clean it, Clean! Said the second Spike while dropping the water over messy Spike, then, Cadance grabbed the three of them and tossed inside the cavern.
"Cadance! We got fifteen already! if we keep this up, we'll even have some spare time after this!" Shouted Twilight to Cadance.
"Don't say how many Spikes we got! It only gets more tense that way! Just warn me when we got all of them!" Said Cadance, chasing another Spike.
It was almost sunset, and the two sisters-in-law had gathered all of the missing fragments of Spike's mind, there was only one Spike missing, and Twilight was levitating him towards the cavern.
"Whew! That was a roundup worthy of Applejack, don't you think so, Twilight?" Laughed Cadance, catching up with Twilight.
"I bet even she would have problems with this one, Cadance, I'm just glad that Fat Spike was the last one." Replied Twilight, who was really tired of this day.
"So, do you think there will be food there? Maybe cupcakes? Or gemstones?" Asked fat Spike with hope in his eyes.
"Yes, just stay still, okay?" Said Twiight, after that, Twilight tossed the last Spike with the others. "Cadance, stay back, because heeeeeeeeeeere's Spike!" Said Twilight, pointing her hoof towards the still transparent Spike. Nothing seemed to happen.
"What? We got them all in! Who did we miss?" Asked Cadance to Twilight, who didn't know the answer.
They heard someone giggling in the background, they turned and saw another Spike at the entrance of the cavern.
"Hey buddy, come here." Said Twilight, but this Spike took a step away from them and towards the exit of the cavern.
"No, what are you doing? No." Said Twilight. Spike took another step. "NO" And another. "NO!!!" And two more. "SPIKE!!!" And Spike ran away giggling to himself.
"What? I don't get it, who was that Spike?" Aked Cadance, in confussion.
"Oh, I get it, I know who he is, he is the one who does the stuff I tell him not to do, well, if he wants to leave, it's fine by me, Spike is better off without him." Replied Twilight, looking angrily at the outside of the cavern.
"If you don't accept all of us, then you accept none of us." Said Illuminated Spike calmly with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
"Woooooooow, that's deep, dude." Said treehugger Spike.
"But he is the one who always gets us into trouble! And I don't want him in our lives!" Said Twilight, almost throwing a tantrum. Then she looked at all the Spikes in the crystals, they were all different, there was the angry one, the cool one, the greedy one, the adventurer one, the independent one, the depressed one, and they were all in her life as well, and some of them gave her trouble like the other one, but she didn't left them out, after all, Illuminated Spike was right, they were a part of Spike too, and Spike wouldn't be himself without them. After a moment of reflection, Twilight let out a long sigh and wandered out of the cavern, she had to get Spike back to normal, even the parts that she didn't quite 'like'.
"Fine, I'll get him back, I still don't like him." Said Twilight while leaving the cavern, she heard all the Spikes cheer from the cavern.
"Okay, this one does everything we tell him not to...." Twilight thought about a way to get him, then an idea crossed her mind.
Cadence was looking for Spike across the valley, it was just twenty minutes for sunset and Spike was about to get lost, then, she spotted him behind a tree, chuckling to himself.
"Spike! I'm glad I found you! Look, there's this weird thing in the cavern over there and I want you to stay away from it as far as possible." Said Cadance, Spike did the exact opposite of this as he took a step to the entrance.
"Spike? Don't do it." Said Cadance, Spike took a step closer. "I said 'stay away' and that's what we are doing!" Affirmed Cadence, Spike took another step closer. "No." And another. "NO!" Spike just ran towards the cavern.
"Ha, at least this Spike doesn't think right." Said Cadance as she followed Spike.
Spike was inside, and he saw a bunch of signs saying things like 'do not touch!' 'stay away!' 'get lost!', and most of them were pointing at a glowy thing in the center of the crystals, Spike got near the strange thing, and when he least expected it, Twilight jumped out of a crystal and captured him with magic, Spike didn't like that, he was struggling to get out, but Twilight's magic was too strong for the dragon.
"Are you sure about this? Our lives are very crazy and messed up with this one in them." Then Twilight looked at the center and the Spike in there. "Oh, but it won't be the same without you."
"Twilight! Did you get him?" Asked Cadance, who entered the cavern.
"Yes, and I'm ready to get my old friend back." Twilight closed her eyes, clenched her jaw and tossed the last Spike with the others, then, Spike began to glow inmensely, Twilight and Cadance closed their eyes.
"WOOOOHOOOOO!" They heard Spike's voice through the white light, they opened their eyes to see a newly recovered Spike who jumped directly towards Twilight's back.
"Wow! Spike? Are you okay?" Asked Twilight, looking at Spike.
"Yes, now come with me, Twilight! We now will go home and rest up!" With that, Spike tried to take Twilight out of the cavern and leave Cadance hanging, but Twilight stopped him in his tracks.
"But we came here to help! Now you just want to go and leave work unfinished?" Asked Twilight in surprise.
"I see nothing wrong with that, now let's go! Maybe I'll even try to ask Rarity out on a date to stop going over to her place and do extra work!" Said Spike with pride.
"What? the Spike I know wouldn't mind working to hang around with Rarity!" Said Twilight in response.
"Spike, you're not acting like yourself, is there something wrong?" Asked Cadance, with worry and confusion.
Twilight looked to the walls, and she saw that the Spikes were still up there, some of them were watching the scene before them, but the others were just minding their own business.
"Cadance, look! The spikes we gathered are still up there! We are still missing some part of him!" Said Twilight in surprise.
"Oh, that's okay, I'm much better without it, now let's go!" Said Spike, who was still trying to leave.
"No, Spike, we learned our lesson, every part of you is important; Twilight, go find the last part, I'll watch him." Said Cadance, Twilight nodded and levitated Spike back to the flat stone in the center of the room.
Twilight explored the cave, there weren't any Spikes left outside, so the last one must be in the cavern, but what intrigued Twilight was the fact that she didn't know what part of Spike was missing. His personality was really different now, it's like an important part was missing, but she didn't know what exactly was still missing.
Then, Twilight heard a noise behind a crystal in the corner of the room, she came over to its origin and she was stunned to see the part that was missing of Spike: It was a younger version of Spike, Twilight remembered Spike looking like that at the first weeks of his life, but this Spike was shaking in the corner covering itself, like if Twilight was about to do something to him.
"The helpers normally seek to help because they know what it is like feeling helpless." Said Illuminated Spike.
"Hey there, Spikey, come on, I won't let anything hurt you." Twilight extended her hoof to reach him, when he turned around, she saw him entirely, he had some bruises in his face and some hoof marks in his chest, Twilight recalled Spike looking like that one day in Canterlot when some bullies picked up on him for being different, Twilight wasn't there to protect him, so Spike went home with a lot of damage done to him.
The little Spike was shaking, he didn't know if he should trust this pony, then he saw her sincere face, he smiled and accepted her hoof. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you again." Said Twilight with all the honesty in her heart, Spike let Twilight carry him with one of her forehooves.
Spike looked at her in the eye and only said one word, a word that all fillies and colts dream with, something that's the wish of every child out there with a dangerous origin. "Home" He said with his voice shaking.
Twilight brought the little Spike to the center of the room, to the place where the original Spike was, when Twilight got near him with his younger self, Spike seemed to recoil from him, Twilight wondered why, then she also recalled Spike saying that he didn't like feeling weak or helpless.
Twilight put the little Spike where he belonged, then all of a sudden, the Spikes on the crystals began to glow and fade, and when the glowing ceased, Twilight saw Spike in the center of the room sheding a single tear.
"Thanks, Twilight, that was the most important part." Said Spike with a sad smile, the trio hugged with happiness in their hearts.
"Just a liiiiiiiiittle to the left, oh, and now rotate it a bit." Said Spike, commanding the two ponies, they had chosen to close the entrance to the cavern with a boulder to prevent anypony else from going in there. The boulder did a little spin, and then the unicorns just dropped it on the ground.
"There we go! I wouldn't want anypony else going through what I went through!" Said Spike with pride.
"I love that part of you, Spike" Said Twilight, smiling to her number 1 assistant.
Author's Note
I HAVE NO REGRETS
