“Jupiter, king of the gods, offered to be your patron of his own free will?” Rhel sounded absolutely flabbergasted by the whole idea. “He never picks protégés. Something about you must’ve stuck out to him. Well, either way, I think you might have to get yourself acquainted with your new powers. And your new wings. And your new height, honestly just new everything at this point.” Rhel took a sip from the water cup he’d grabbed from the river in the middle of the giant, still really weird, giant valley that Rhel had underneath his house at any given moment. Of course, according to the satyr himself, it was basically its own dimension, completely separate from the outside world, but it was still weird to think about. “I’ve got that spare room for as long as you want to stay here. I’m guessing you won’t want to stay for long though.” Spike looked up from his own food at that.

“How did you…” Rhel shrugged.

“I can somewhat see the future. It’s a useful enough ability, but it has one major drawback.” Rhel downed the rest of his water, before chucking the cup backwards. Onto the table behind him. Just as a drop of water leaked from the ceiling above. “I really need to fix that pipe. Anyway, any time that I do look into the future, I get a little more scrambled. My brain has a hard time processing the time change until I reach the point in time that I reached ahead to. It’s the result of me not having Apollo as a patron, but still studying divination. I sometimes get mixed up with how to behave around people if I’m not careful since I’m both half-used to the way I act in the future, and half-used to the way I should be acting right now.” he scratched at his long ears before continuing on. “Back to the matter at hand, beyond staying here I can’t tell you too much. You have to figure most things out by yourself. All I can tell you, is that when you’re done here, leave for the Badlands. An old friend of mine will find you there. Tell her I sent you.” Rhel jumped up suddenly, and made his way towards the stairwell. “Until then, I’ll get a bed set up for you. The guest room has mostly decorative sheets. I’ll get some that are at least comfortable.”

And so, there Spike sat. Little did he know the predicament that Twilight Sparkle was in, however far away she was. Distance is difficult with pocket dimensions.

Stepping back a day or two.

Holy Celestia she’d messed up big time. She should have listened to her instincts when something told her to go after what she’d thought was a figment of her imagination. Now, upon waking up after sleeping for exactly 6 and a half hours than she normally would, she realized that, no, that wasn’t just her imagining her dragon assistant whose feelings she’d probably hurt horrifically during her rage-induced rant running away, never to be seen again. Now she not only had to ask for Celestia’s help in repairing the town, but also needed help looking for Spike.

No, she couldn’t let the princess know she’d failed this bad. She’d send for help in repairing the town’s destruction, she wouldn’t even let the princess know it was Spike who’d done it. But she had to go after him alone.

She said goodbye to her friends, and though they protested her going by herself with fervor, she kept them in place by saying that Ponyville would need them to help clean up the mess.

“I need you all to promise me you won’t tell Princess Celestia that it was Spike who caused all this damage. It wasn’t his fault, I should’ve kept an eye on him when this first started, and I shouldn’t have been so mean. Tell her it was a random dragon, tell her that it was a spell gone wrong, anything. Just don’t tell her it was Spike.” The others agreed, however reluctantly, and she was off.

She just hoped she would find him before something goes horribly wrong.

There was a thunderstorm brewing.

He could hear it, he could see it outside. That answered one question though, the treehouse stayed in the same place technically. It’s just where you left or came in that changed.

He wanted to go outside. Something was calling him, or maybe someone. Rhel had given him full access, so as long as he didn’t go too far from some trees, he’d be able to get back inside before it really started pouring.

Outside, the rain was pouring down in what felt like uniform sheets of water. He remembered Twilight talking about how that’s what would happen if there was no air resistance. His heart twinged at the thought of her. Hopefully she wasn’t in any trouble with the princess because of him.

Lightning arced across the sky constantly, casting dark silhouettes across everything.

Maybe it was his newfound connection to lightning talking, but Spike thought it looked incredible. Then he noticed something. The lightning was following a path. Leading to somewhere unknown. He followed the path along the way, barely taking note of when he entered a clearing rather than the thicket of forest he’d stayed near so far. A lone tree stood in the middle of the clearing, the arcs of lightning seemed to center around it, and struck the ground around it often. Blue energy trailed along the cracks in the bark, shining bright even through the darkness of the clouds. Spike made his way towards the tree, and the familiar power of Jupiter washed over him once more. Half-buried in the dirt in front of the tree, was a branch.

It was made of the same wood as the tree, but it was different somehow. A more concentrated source of energy. He picked it up, and the voice of his patron echoed through the clearing.

“Normally, I’d pick a sword, or a spear for one of my proteges, but you don’t seem like the violent type. The staff is yours. It will always find its way back to your hands eventually. You are the first of my tutelage in a long time. Many cosmic forces have their eyes on you. Be aware, Spike.”

Spike gripped the staff with both hands, and channeled the power he’d been feeling. Lightning struck the end of the staff and cracked through his body. He flapped his wings, and found himself in the air. He smiled, a goofy, childlike smile that didn’t fit his new features, but definitely fit the emotions of a first time flier. He took off in the direction he’d come from, heading towards the badlands, with the storm and lightning as his guide.

Author's Note

It's been a while. Hey, to SpikeSmolder fan, remember when I said a week? I hope so, because I said that yesterday. So, let this be a lesson. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.