"Spike, wake up," Twilight said.

"Gimme five more minutes," Spike grumbled out before rolling over away from Twilight.

"We need to finish these tests and send the results to Princess Celestia. Their results could save lives, Rainbow Dash's included.

At the mention of his marefriend, Spike shot up and said, "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Twilight just rolled her eyes and said, "Come on. Once we finish these tests, you can have the rest of the week off.

Thirty minutes later

"Ok, Spike, after this test, we can take a break. I need you to blow fire as hot as you can for as long as you can."

"Got it; let me know when you're ready." Once Twilight nodded, signaling that she had her thermometer spell and her stopwatch spell ready, Spike blew a jet of emerald green flame for as long as he could.

Once he stopped to catch his breath, Twilight said, "Good job, Spike! That was one thousand degrees Fahrenheit for one minute and fifteen seconds. That's a new record!

At that moment, Spike got a familiar feeling in his gut. He turned away from Twilight and burped up a letter from Princess Celestia. Because he was out of breath, Spike gagged for a little bit before recovering.

"*cough* Here you go, Twilight. *cough* I need to go get some water. I'll be right back." Spike made his way to the kitchen and got a cup of water. His throat was still sore, so while he drank the cup of water, he thought to himself, 'I usually don't get affected this much by the letters. There must be something that I am allergic to in that one, or maybe something ticklish.'

"Spike!" Twilight called from the other room, "It's for you!"

"Coming!" Spike shouted while returning to the main room.

Once he arrived, Twilight handed him the letter. He was still curious as to what it was. He was hoping that it was another letter from Rainbow Dash, so he quickly ripped open the letter and read it out loud as follows:

"To Spike the Dragon, I am sorry that I cannot be there in person to tell you this, but the war is taking up all of my time. I have to attend conferences, make appearances to raise morale, and occasionally I have to face the enemy head-on in battle. Enough of that; on to the hard part. I regret to inform you that Lieutenant Rainbow Dash was reported to have been killed in action. Inside this letter, you will find her pony tags along with one of her remaining feathers. Her funeral will be one week from now. I'm sorry, Spike; I know how much she meant to you."

By the time he finished reading, Spike was in tears. Twilight was in shock, but she tried her best to comfort him. "I know that you were close to her, but the only thing that you can do for her now is to finish researching dragons so that no more ponies lose their lives."

"No," Spike said. "I'm tired of sitting back here while ponies lose their lives. I'm a dragon. I was practically made for war. I'll give myself until her funeral to mourn, but then I will train and train until I am strong enough to stop this war.

Spike spent the rest of the week in his room, only coming out to use the bathroom. Twilight brought him breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, but he hardly ate anything.

A few days before the funeral, Spike wrote a letter to Shining Armor asking him if he could stay for a few days after the funeral to train him.

Spike knew that he would be expected to speak at Rainbow Dash's funeral, so he took the time to write out his speech. He even tried to practice it so that he would have a chance of making it through without crying.

It broke Twilight's heart to hear him go through the speech, trying to keep himself from falling apart.

She tried to get Spike to come out, but he kept his door locked all the time. She knew she could have easily broken the lock, or even the door, for that matter, but she didn't want to intrude on Spike while he was grieving.

On the day of the funeral, Spike woke up, dragged himself out of bed and into the shower, brushed his fangs, and got dressed. He wore a black suit with a black tie. Under the tie, he wore Rainbow Dash's pony tags.

Spike went downstairs and into the kitchen. He wasn't really hungry, but he was going to make some eggs for Twilight. To his surprise, she was sitting at the table with a big stack of pancakes.

"Eat." She said. When Spike just glared at her, she continued."You've hardly eaten anything in the past week. I'm worried about you. C'mon, Spike, I even put gems in some of them for you."

"I'm fine, Twilight. Just not hungry." Spike replied

"How do you think Rainbow would feel if she found out you were starving yourself?" Twilight questioned.

"She would probably kick my butt." He said. After a brief moment of thought, he continued, "Fiiiiine. Pass the syrup."

After that, Spike, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack all gathered at the cemetery. Once it began, each of the girls took turns saying stuff about Rainbow Dash.

When it was Spike's turn, he wiped the tears from his eyes, stood up, and walked to the podium. He took a moment to watch the crowd and was a little surprised at how many ponies attended. He saw some ponies from town, his friends and their families, a few wonderbolts who managed to make it, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, and even Discord.

He took a deep breath, then started his speech. "Rainbow Dash was the best friend that anypony, or any dragon, could ask for. She was loyal—I guess that's not really a surprise—kind, passionate, and most of all, she was always there for you. I guess that's part of being loyal, but that's not the point. If you ever needed a shoulder to lean on or even to cry into, she was always there for you." At this point, he was in tears, but he felt like he owed it to Rainbow to finish. "All in all, she was a good friend and an even better marefriend." When he finished, Spike went back to his seat and sat through the rest of the funeral.

As he sat there, doing his best not to fall apart, he thought to himself just how much he would make those dragons pay. 'They would pay with their lives. They would pay with their friends lives. They would pay with their families lives!' By the time he reached this thought, he was so mad that smoke was coming out of his nostrils. He looked around to make sure nobody noticed, and once he was sure, he went back to his thoughts.

'Don't think like that, Spike,' he thought to himself. 'Leave the innocent alone and make the guilty suffer! I really sound like an evil villain right now. I should probably get that checked.'

Five hours later

"Spike, you need to keep your eyes on your opponent at all times. If you keep turning around every time you hear a noise, you won't survive a real battle for more than ten minutes." Shining armor warned Spike.

"I know, I know. It's just hard for me to focus right now.

"I would ask if you want to take a break, but I already know that you would say no."

"Just give me one more shot. I know that I can beat you this time."

"Ok, but you asked for it."

They both got into their positions, and when Shining Armor said, "Go!" Spike rushed at him and made a massive swing. Unfortunately, Spike left himself wide open to a counterattack by Shining Armor.

He sidestepped Spike's swing and quickly disarmed him. It was at that point that Shining Armor got an idea to motivate Spike... Hopefully. It could just make him mad. Well, madder than he already was, that is.

"You're never going to get good at this. You should just give up now. I mean, I've seen toddlers that can fight better than you. As a matter of fact, my great-grandma can fight better than you, and she's dead." Shining's attempts to enrage Spike appeared to be working, but just to be sure, he said, "It's a wonder Rainbow Dash even liked you, let alone loved you." He knew that he might have taken it too far, but Shining was just trying to see how Spike would respond.

Spike was, understandably, very angry at this point, so he picked up the wooden sword that he had been practicing with and once again charged Shining Armor. However, this time, whenever he neared his target, he slowed down and cautiously approached. He would not lose this time. He had to defend his honor, his skill, and, most importantly, that he was worthy of Rainbow Dash's love.

At first, when Spike started his charge, Shining was disappointed, as he thought that this would just be a repeat of last time. But, when Spike slowed down and he saw Spike's fangs, out and ready for a fight, his stance, like that of an expert swordspony, and the look in his eyes, a look that promised only defeat, Shining knew that this time Spike would at least put up a fight.

Spike unleashed a flurry of blows, but Shining blocked each one. When he saw that Spike was tired out, he counterattacked, but surprisingly, Spike managed to not only block each swing but also deflect the blade on its last strike and send it out of Shining Armor's magical grasp.

At this point, Shining was glad that Spike was not only putting up a fight but, at the moment, was winning. Before Spike could take another swing, Shining Armor used his horn to shoot a blast of magic at Spike. Not enough to hurt him, but it would sting a little.

Spike barely managed to dodge out of the way before he noticed the next one coming towards him. He knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge this one, so he held up his sword as well as his free arm in front of him to block the blow. When it hit him, it hurt a little bit, but Spike managed to push through the pain. He knew that if he were to stay here, he would get pinned down and eventually lose, so when he saw the next blast coming, Spike opened his maw and spouted a heavy dose of flames in front of him while he pushed forward.

When he got close enough to Shining Armor that the flames would burn him if he continued, Spike quickly shut out his flames and rushed Shining Armor. He was expecting him to still be unarmed, but as it turns out, while he was shooting at Spike, he had also recovered his sword. Shining Armor had the element of surprise in this regard, so he was able to once again disarm Spike. When Spike felt his sword flying out of his hand, he simply extended his claws and slashed straight through Shining Armor's sword.

When Spike shredded his sword, Shining Armor, in a last-ditch effort, threw his sword hilt at Spike. He was half expecting it to just bounce off of Spike's scales, but Spike leaned his head forward a little and caught it in his jaws. From there, he just bit down, and what was left of the sword was turned into splinters.

Spike then looked at Shining Armor and, while still growling and emitting smoke from his nostrils, said, "Don't you ever say anything about Rainbow Dash again!"

Backing up a little bit just to be on the safe side, Shining Armor said, "Calm down, Spike. I needed to do that for a few reasons. Firstly, I just wanted to motivate you. Secondly, you have to learn how to take a taunt. Your enemies are going to try to distract you. You need to be prepared for that. Lastly, you need to learn to control your emotions. While it may have worked out for you this time, more often than not losing control of your emotions will get you killed."

After taking a few moments to clear his head, Spike simply replied, "I understand."

"Come on," Shining Armor said. "Let's take at least a fifteen-minute break." And with that, they both turned to go inside.

Author's Note

I don't know if anybody actually cares about this story anymore, but a new chapter is up!
Sorry it took so long. I really just lost the motivation to write for a while, then whenever I started writing again I had a hard time because to be honest, I'm just making this up as I go.