Crimes and Courtship

At least they would have relaxed had the following week not been the busiest week they had ever had, Twilight had half-expected this to happen because she had confessed to Celestia that she didn't feel like she was very important or needed in royal affairs, to which Celestia had promised that even the smallest of royal duties were vital and crucial parts of being a princess but agreed to put her to the test by unloading more duties on to her as a way to challenge her and see whether she was truly ready to, one day, take her place and rule Equestria on her own. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, the only issue was that she had become too reliant on Spike organizing all of her tasks according to an overly complicated set of specifications she had put in place to make her duties easy to manage and go as smoothly as possible, not to mention check lists, preparation for certain events, running around here, there and everywhere for things she needed, Spike didn't get a moments rest. The week started off fairly positive, Spike did all the things he usually did for Twilight on a daily basis, it was only on his second day that things took a turn.

Twilight was walking along rattling off several different things that had Spike having to rapidly write on a piece of parchment whilst fetching various objects, sweat was dripping from his body and he was panting like a thirsty dog, his face glowing red with the heat as Celestia's sun shone down. Twilight was about halfway through dictating all the things she had lined up for the week when she realized that along with her own voice, she couldn't hear the scratchy noise of a quill scribbling away, nor could she hear the pitter patter of Spike's dragon feet and even the heavy breathing of exertion had stopped. She looked around only to realize that the new noise she hadn't heard was a thud as she saw Spike had collapsed on the floor, clearly having been overworked. Frantically, Twilight picked him up and rushed to the hospital, she felt like her duties could wait if it was in the interest of making sure her number one assistant remained healthy and, more importantly, alive. Twilight practically crashed through the hospital doors, drawing the attention of every nurse and doctor who immediately took Spike into the A&E wing to see what was wrong with him.

Twilight waited patiently outside his room, panicked because she would undoubtedly fall behind schedule without Spike and also because Spike's life was clearly in danger, or so she assumed anyway, it wasn't often that a dragon just randomly collapsed for no reason, or if it was a regular occurrence then it had certainly never been documented. After minutes of waiting, Nurse Redheart stepped out of the room and Twilight practically pounced at the news and quickly said "Oh my goodness! Is he alright?! What in Celestia's name happened to him?!"

Nurse Redheart calmly went "No need to worry your highness, Spike is perfectly fine, he was simply dehydrated and was working too hard, that's all. He should take it easier, he clearly had less food and water than he was used to whilst he was working and from the way his body um... evacuated itself once his muscles relaxed, it seems he has not been giving himself any breaks"

Twilight smiled awkwardly and said "Sure! I'll be certain to let him know that" whilst desperately trying to ignore the fact that this was probably all her fault, she forgot just how hot the summer months could get in Equestria. Once Spike was feeling better and they were on their way back to the castle, Twilight said "I'm sorry that I made you work harder than you were able, I understand the workload is larger but I should never put work before your safety, do you want to take the rest of the day off?"

Spike shook his head and said "No no, I'd prefer to keep going for the rest of the day, I couldn't call myself your number one assistant if I let a little thing like this stop me, I promise I'll be fine"

Twilight sighed in relief and said "Oohh thank goodness! Not to say that your falling unconscious mishap was inconvenient or anything but we are really behind schedule! We still have a lot of categorizing to do! So it looks like we'll have to work well into the late evening so that we can get back on track and start the next load we have planned tomorrow morning! That's not an issue is it?"

Spike scoffed and went "Please! I'm like any employee anywhere Twilight and you are the boss! You say jump and I'll ask how high! No problem!"

It was a problem. Spike had meant it when he said that he fully intended to work the rest of the day plus a little overtime, it was only when he realized just how much work he had to catch up on that he realized he had probably made a mistake, then again he was determined to prove he could handle it or Twilight might reconsider who she would want as a royal adviser, not to mention that if he had taken the day off he probably would end up having to do a lot more catching up the following day. Spike persevered despite having to work, not just through the rest of the day, but also the evening and even some of the night until it was one o'clock on the morning, which wasn't ideal considering that Twilight insisted they got an early start every day at six o'clock in the morning, five hours of sleep wasn't exactly enough. Spike somehow managed to drag himself out of bed ready for work, involuntarily having to skip breakfast as Twilight all but forced him into getting to work straight away in order to play catch-up and get back into the regular flow of her schedule and, ideally, even do so much work that they would be ahead of schedule!

Twilight knew something was wrong when she noticed Spike moving around in a very lethargic and hazardous way like a pony who had drank too much cider or party punch, not paying attention to what she was saying half of the time, forgetting things he had to write down or do and often stopping and resting in the middle of a task to keep himself from falling over while his eyes rolled in their sockets. After two hours of this behavior seemingly not fixing itself, Twilight took Spike aside and said "Spike, is something wrong? You look to be on the verge of fainting again, are you too hot or something? Are you staying hydrated?"

Spike shook his head frantically to wake himself up for all of ten seconds as he said "I'm fine I promise! I've had plenty of water and I'm keeping cool! I'm fine!" Spike yawned and got back to work, trying desperately to look like he was motivated and determined to stay busy despite the fact that his body and mind were crying out for some relaxation, peace and quiet. The day came to a close and at around midnight, Twilight was satisfied that enough work had been done for the day and retired to her room, allowing Spike to collapse in his own bed and shed a tear as he fell into the deepest sleep he had ever had in his life, nothing came closer to the feeling of going into a coma than when Spike closed his eyes and allowed his mind to slip away and finally switch off for what precious few hours it had to take care of itself subconsciously. Only six hours later and Spike was once again forced to get out of bed feeling like he had only just got in it before having to start work yet again, he didn't know how much more of this he could take, he felt like he might snap if it went on for too much longer as he was constantly having to push himself harder to meet with Twilight's expectations of him as an assistant, there was only so much one dragon could take and he was hoping beyond hope that Twilight might go easy on him, which is why it surprised him that in the middle of the day, he actually got his wish...... sort of.

Halfway through the day Twilight went "Alright Spike! I think this has been a very productive day so far if I do say so myself! We've been doing so well that we're actually slightly ahead of schedule! Why don't you take a small ten minute break?" Spike felt a surge of elation, a ten minute break? It wasn't much but it was something! He didn't want to go back to sleep because he knew he would oversleep and that wouldn't reflect well on him, so he decided to just enjoy some fresh air as he flew out the doors and sat at the highest point of the castle. As Spike took in a deep breath of fresh air, allowing the cool breeze to glide across his scales, he looked down at the ground below before realizing that he had never been this high up before... then felt a slight sense of discomfort as he imagined what would happen if he jumped without opening his wings...... the second he hit the ground he would most likely die instantly, everything would just stop.........

Spike had hardly realized he'd just been staring at the ground below thinking about jumping to his doom until Twilight found him and said "Ah, there you are Spike! Break time is over, so can you... can... um...... Spike? What are you doing?"

Spike was silent for a moment before he went "Twilight... I've never really thought about it but... can I ask you a question?"

Twilight, somewhat perplexed, went "Um... sure Spike, anything"

Spike asked "When taking off from the ground or from the edge of something tall or whatever... is opening your wings a voluntary action or does it happen naturally?"

Twilight said "It's a voluntary action, you choose to open your wings. Though of course you would have to open your wings if you were jumping off of something tall like the castle! If you didn't you would just... just......", Twilight gasped as she caught a sense of exactly why Spike had decided to ask this question, it was an awful revelation and an idea that Twilight thought she'd never have to realize as she went "Spike... were you up here just contemplating the prospect of what it would be like to... to... well...... go to sleep permanently?" Ashamed, Spike simply nodded as tears welled in his eyes, Twilight just panicked and went "Spike spike spike, please tell me how to help! You should never ever feel so low as to want to do that! If I can do anything to make you never feel those kind of thoughts again just tell me and if I can do it then I will make it happen!"

Spike thought for a moment, he hated to admit it but the strain of the work was getting to him more than he thought, he'd gotten through the physical health scare but now his mental health was at risk, he needed more than a simple ten minute break. With that idea in mind, Spike simply turned to Twilight and said "I need... a vacation..."

• later -

"I'm serious girls! He was just sat at the top of the castle and seriously considering jumping off without opening his wings!" Twilight was sat in the throne room of the castle with all of her friends, Twilight had put everything on hold to seek advice from the rest of the elements to see what they had to say about Spike's idea of a vacation instead of sticking to his vocation.

Applejack said "Twilight, don't you think y'all are frettin' too much 'bout this? Spike deserves a little TLC if he's so plum-tuckered out that he's willin' to consider kickin' the bucket too early just so he can relax! Give him a break!"

Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement and said "Yeah, I always know that after a few hours of arranging weather or cloud busting, I need somewhere to nap and get super chillaxed!"

Twilight shook her head and said "No no, you don't understand, he doesn't just want to stop working for a while, he also wants to go travelling. Specifically, he said that his ideal vacation would be to use the summer holiday to visit all the places we never got to explore properly when we were trying to stop the storm king, starting with Kluge Town"

Pinkie Pie said "Well, what's wrong with that? Visiting all sorts of cool places would be super duper fun! Spike can handle himself, he's a dragon!"

Twilight, with some hesitance, went "OK but... what about all my royal duties that need organizing? I can't very well do it alone and just imagine how behind schedule I'll become if I let my number one assistant take a break for the whole summer! I'm already behind schedule for holding this meeting! HOW COULD I POSSIBLY COPE?!?!"

Twilight's outburst was followed by a short silence before Rarity said "Darling, forgive me for being somewhat direct but... it does seem a tad lazy on your part to expect Spike to do everything for you"

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she looked in Rarity's direction and went "Excuse me?"

Fluttershy finally entered the conversation and said "Well, you're a princess now, I know Spike is training to be your royal adviser but he won't be the ruler of the country, you will. Don't you think it would be more challenging and a better test of your skill as a monarch to make do without Spike by your side for the summer? Plus, even if you do need help, you can always call on one of us, or if you're working through the night then Owlowiscious can do some things for you, right?"

Twilight thought through everything the girls had said, before letting out a breath she had been holding and said "You're right, I suppose if Spike really feels like he needs a holiday then so be it... to be honest I can't believe I had to think about this when the alternative was for him to splatter himself all over the footpath between the castle and Ponyville!" After the meeting had ended, Twilight went to find Spike, luckily catching him just after he had decided to get all the sleep he had missed out on so that he would feel more rested because whether Twilight agreed to let him have a break or not, he would end up either working hard to organize all of her royal duties or making the long and arduous journey to stop number one, Kluge Town. Twilight took in a deep breath and said "Spike, if you promise to never ever, not even once, EVER even consider suicide no matter how tough things get, EVER... then you can go on vacation for the rest of the summer"

Spike's eyes widened, he knew that Twilight was going to think about letting him have a holiday but he wasn't expecting to get the whole summer off! He went "Really? You mean, no work at all? I can just go wherever I want and do whatever I want?"

Twilight nodded and said "Precisely, all you have to do is pack what you need and go, I won't follow you, I won't contact you for help, I won't ask you to do anything for me before you leave, just so long as you NEVER think about hurting yourself then I'm gonna let you go. You're very special to me Spike and I've been unfair to you, so long as I can guarantee your health and safety then you take as much time off as you need. You've always been here for me, so the least I can do is let you enjoy your summer without lifting a claw to help me for once, I promise I am totally fine so don't worry about me, ok? For this summer, you have total freedom, no prying eyes, I swear"

Spike just threw his arms around Twilight and said "Oh thank you Twilight! Thank you thank you! I can't thank you enough, seriously, thank you so much!"

Twilight chuckled and said "You're welcome, now go pack a few snacks and something to drink to keep your energy up for the long journey to Kluge Town and then... well, have fun!" Spike was so excited to get going that all he packed was four sandwiches and two bottles of water for the trip, he figured that as long as he stayed at a decently high altitude when flying, then the heat of the desert wouldn't affect him too much because the wind blowing through his spines as he flew would keep him cool. Twilight smiled as she bid Spike farewell, to see him soaring through the sky with his wings wide open on his way to far off lands was a much more pleasant vision than him plummeting willingly to his death, she reassured herself that she had made the right choice and as soon as Spike was too far away to see, she went back into the castle to do her own work and take her mind off things. Spike took in a deep breath of fresh air before letting it back out, he had never felt so good, not even his bag of food and drink weighed him down, he couldn't wait to get to Kluge Town and see what wonders awaited him there. He knew that Kluge Town was slightly dangerous but he was a dragon and confident he could hold his own, not to mention that, as soon as he made it to Capper's place, Capper would probably make for a good tour guide when navigating Kluge Town, making sure to avoid danger but also act as a body guard if things went south.

After a long flight, Spike finally touched the ground again, stopping right outside the entrance to Kluge Town, it seemed things had changed quite a bit since the defeat of the storm king, in that it was a little bit friendlier than he remembered. As he walked through the town, rather than coiling back in fear at his oddly vivid color palette or trying to rob him of his exotic and tasty food, they welcomed him, said hello and just engaged in some idle chit-chat, it was all just very pleasant! After looking around the various stalls to see what kind of things Kluge Town had to offer, he figured he might as well find a place to stay, he couldn't take in the whole town in just one day of course! He didn't want to try and find Capper's place just yet, besides he figured that he'd be a nuisance if he asked to stay at Capper's place and instead decided to see if he could find some kind of hotel. Rather than wander around aimlessly through the labyrinth of streets he asked a local if there was anywhere to stay, to which the local simply smiled and pointed him in the direction the nearest building where he was certain to get a bed for the night.

Unfortunately, Spike wasn't very good at navigating, he made his way through some winding streets and ended up getting completely lost and didn't feel like flying to find out where in town he was after flying for so long just to get to the town. Luckily, as he was walking past an alleyway, he noticed that at the end of the alleyway was the very hotel he was looking for, he could tell because the wooden door to the place had the word "hotel" scratched into it along with three stars, sweet! He decided not to go the long way and just cut through the alleyway, Spike smiled as he felt like this was going to be an awesome summer holiday, though that thought disappeared when he was halfway down the alley, as did all of his thoughts upon falling unconscious after receiving an extreme blow to the back of his head from an unknown assailant.

• hours later -

When Spike opened his eyes, his vision was blurry, he had no idea where he was, there was a searing pain on his back, a warm liquid rolling down the side of his body and some sort of odd scar on his throat. As things came into focus, Spike noticed that he was slightly curled up, having been locked up in a cage so small that the bars pressed against his body and, through his slightly fuzzy vision, he noticed the silhouette of some unknown creature walking away carrying...... a pair of wings? Spike came upon a horrific realization, when trying to flap his own wings he confirmed what he thought had happened, whoever had attacked him had crammed him into a cage and had just surgically removed his wings. Spike screamed, his vision cleared as he noticed one of the filthiest most unkempt rooms he had ever seen, as the creature came back into the room he grabbed a nearby object and threw it at the cage, making the rusty bars rattle as it screamed "Shut up dragon! I see that you're awake enough to notice that I've ripped your fucking wings off, relax and shut your trap, they'll grow back"

Spike looked up to see his captor, a gigantic, disgustingly ugly mole rat wearing goggles and a scruffy suit, with a voice that made it sound like his throat was coated with a layer of slime. As he sat down he simply said "The name is Verko, crime lord of Kluge Town and your new owner dragon! You'll be staying here in Verko Tower as my slave! Well, temporarily anyway..."

When Verko mentioned the word "temporarily" a glimmer of hope lit up in Spike's eyes as he went "You mean... you mean you're not going to keep me here? You'll set me free eventually?"

Verko cackled and said "Set you free!? Why would I do that?! You see dragon, I consider myself a collector of sorts, I harvest the rarest and most valuable items far and wide, some for my own private use and other things, like you, I sell off to the highest bidder! Believe me, there are a lot of creatures out there that would consider a captive dragon like yourself a very valuable commodity!"

The hope in Spike's eyes died, conceding defeat for the moment he just said "Well, considering you are going to keep me in this cage, can you at least call me by my name? It's Spike"

Verko snorted and said "Your name is of no consequence to me dragon, you're staying right where you are until a decent buyer comes along. Oh and by the way, that little cut along your neck? That was to remove the glands that make you capable of breathing fire, which sadly does decrease the value a little, though the glands do make for excellent fuel! In fact I'm using them right now!"

Spike was horrified, his body had been mutilated and altered all for the sake of profit?! No wings, no ability to breath fire, he was doomed. How could he escape such a situation? As he was going through that question, a body guard came through with a plate and a bottle of wine, Verko grinned and went "Ah! Excellent timing, You see dragon, I've used your fire glands as a means to cook a rare delicacy that no creature has had the pleasure of tasting for thousands of years, fried dragon wings! With a nice glass of red speyer wine, excellent year and the only one of its kind, a meal fit for a king!"

Spike looked on in horror and sorrow when Verko's body guard left and he was forced to watch Verko eat his wings, which only hours ago had been attached to his body. Verko scraped his yellow teeth along the bones, licking his lips and sucking his paws to get every last morsel of delicious flesh and skin that he could until just the skeletal parts of the wings were left, clean and washed down with a wine that probably no other creature had ever tasted. Verko hummed and went "Ah... exceptional! I also think these bones would make for a nice little trophy in my study as a memento of my conquest!"

Spike, with tears streaming down his cheeks went "You monster... just you wait until Twilight comes looking for me!"

Verko's ears perked "Twilight... did you say Twilight? As in the pony princess? You're in her employ?!"

Spike nodded, Verko looked scared beyond belief as he went "Oh no! No no no no no no no no NO! Of all the dragons in the world I capture the only dragon I absolutely couldn't afford to capture lest I face the wrath of that purple horse goddess?! This is terrible! You're far too dangerous to use as a bartering item if you're in with equestrian royalty!"

Spike smirked and said "Exactly! Now let me go!"

Verko, shaking nervously said "No no no, it's not that simple dragon! I've taken every measure to ensure that you stay here! Sure your wings and glands will grow back but that process takes a long time! So the only way you could escape is to jump out of the window, though considering we are up in a tower you wouldn't survive the fall and I doubt you want to end up splattered all over the ground!" Verko was right, Spike had still made a promise to Twilight not to kill himself under any circumstances. Verko was sweating profusely, chewing at his nails as he mumbled to himself "Who knows? She could be on her way right now! What can I do? I can't very well...", then Verko seemed to have an epiphany, he turned to Spike and said "If you're a friend of Twilight Sparkle... what are you doing here in Kluge Town?"

Spike, not seeing any reason not to answer, said "Summer vacation"

Verko's eyes lit up as he asked "So the princess isn't expecting your return until the end of the summer?! Oh thank goodness! OK, this can work, I'll simply keep you here, nurse you back to health and send you back when the summer is over, nobody will have to know... though if you're discovered by accident... no, I can't take that chance!" Verko, in a panic, went over to a cupboard and opened it up, rifling through various different bottles on the shelves until he pulled something out, hastily opening it and practically shoving it in front of Spike's face before pleading with him "Drink this"

Spike eyed the foul-smelling liquid curiously and said "What is it?"

Verko groaned as he sighed out "It's a color potion, it's not gonna kill you, just disguise you, now drink it!"

Spike didn't see that he had much choice and so downed the potion, he felt his scales tingle and his spines shiver as all the purple skin on his body turned crimson and all the green on his body adopted the shade of purple that had previously been on his skin, though his eyes retained their emerald green hue. Then, out of nowhere, Verko took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the cage. Spike got out of the cage and went "You're letting me out of the cage?"

Verko said "Of course, though I'll only allow free range of movement in this room and this room alone dragon, I can't very well get you looking back to your old self if you're stuck in the cage. Ugh, when will I learn to always check the merchandise before I try it out?! Well, so long as you're living here you should at least make yourself useful, if you can serve your pony royalty then you should be able to work for me decently well enough, so make yourself useful"

Spike saw that as a fairly small price to pay for his freedom and so he asked "Well, what do you want me to do?"

Verko sat down, clearly exhausted emotionally as he waved his hand nonchalantly and said "Clean, take your time and if you want anything to eat or drink just let me know and I'll let you take a break for as long as you need. I need you to be at your best as soon as possible so I can get you sent back to where you came from unscathed in order to forget that all of this ever happened...", Spike was surprised, Verko was turning out to be a more fair employer than Twilight at this point! Sure it's because he didn't want to get in trouble, though if Spike had to pick one job over the other for the summer, this is probably the one he'd pick!