This is my first attempt at MLP fanfiction. I'm fairly new to "the herd" and I do have a lot to still learn about the intimate details of Equestria. I'd appreciate any feedback that any of you bronies can give me on how to improve, be it my writing, my characterizations, or any mistake I make, really. This show has made a big difference in my life, and I've turned into a much happier person over the last few months since I began watching a show I would have never imagined I would ever even view, let alone get hooked into watching.

As far as the fic goes, this story will become totally AU, and you'll understand why when you read. I'm versed in shonen anime, and I read lots of shonen fanfiction. My writing is heavily influenced by the many fanfictions I've read and so there will probably be shonen themes throughout this fanfiction.

For anyone that hasn't seen "Dragon Quest", I recommend you watch it before you read this.

That is all.

-MLPFIM-

"Spiiiiiiiike. Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike. Oh, Spikey-Wikey! Wakey wakey, my little dragon!"

Green eyes slowly fluttered open, and the little dragon blinked rapidly to try and let his eyes adjust to the sudden light. As his awareness came to him, the purple lizard realized he was NOT in his bed in the library or in any of his friends' homes, no, he was surrounded by an endless white void. With a jolt, he jumped up. All of his usually repressed dragonic instincts were screaming at him, and he barely registered that his body was lighter than a feather.

"Woah, there, hatchling. You're not in any danger. Well, not really, anyway. I suppose anypony, or anydragon in your case, would be on edge when waking up in the Void to a disembodied voice. Let me ease you, young one."

Out of nowhere, a ghostly form of a dragon materialized, and soon became corpreal. It was the same size and shape as he was, but green with purple spikes. It was as if he was looking into a bizarre negative of himself.

"That better, hatchling?"

Despite his instincts, Spike felt himself relax a great deal. Seeing a form to the voice HAD helped, actually. At least he could see what was coming before it got him, he figured. Still not trusting his voice- or even believing this was nothing more than a bizarre nightmare- the young purple dragon nodded.

"Come on, Spike. You're never this quiet. Gosh. Anyways. You're a real oddity, you know that? You're a pony-raised, unicorn-magic-hatched, wingless dragon. I noticed you went on a crazy adventure of self discovery recently and didn't find much of an answer. I'm here to solve that, buddy."

The negative-Spike raised his claw to his mouth and cleared his throat for dramatic effect, then continued.

"You, my dear Spike, were never meant to exist. The egg in which you came from was, in fact, a dud egg. No unicorn foal, or many unicorns period, could hatch a dragon egg. They're very resistant to just about anything. And then? Little Twilight Sparkle decided to screw the rules with a blast of magic that would make Luna and Celestia blush. Twilight created you from nothing, really. Ever noticed how your scales match her shade of purple? Genetically, Twilight's your mother as much as the dragoness that laid you. You have unicorn blood in you, and that's why you're capable of your magical green flames that transport letters. Now, your greed-growth? That was crazy, but nowhere near what you're going to grow up to be, Spikey-Wikey. Any questions so far?"

The real Spike shook his head, totally dumb founded. Despite his immature nature, Spike wasn't dumb. He lived in a library, was taught alongside Twilight by Princess Celestia, and he wasn't much younger than his pony friends. Now that he was wide awake, he was listening. And it all made sense in a crazy way. He had noticed that even the odd looking dragon had wings. The little things he knew about dragons didn't add up to make him, not quite. Unicorn heritage would clear a lot of things up. Kind of. Maybe. This still might be a-

"A dream, Spike? Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But just because it's in your head doesn't mean it's not real." With that, the green dragon walked up to Spike and poked him in the middle of the forehead. His claw glowed purple and Spike felt amazing.

It was similar to how he felt when he had begun to grow into his greedgrown form, but more tamed.

"W-what did you do to me?" Spike asked, confused.

The green dragon shrugged

"Nothing really, just accelerated your growth a little bit. Imparted a little magical knowledge, gave you the ability to shape shift. Trust me, that's the least awesome thing you're going to be able to do when you get to be an adult."

Spike tilted his head in confusion, as everything seemed to disappear. He opened his eyes again and suddenly was back in his bed and in his home. The young dragon grumbled loudly and shook his head.

"Never eating fire rubies before I go to sleep again."

Spike began to curl back into a ball to go back to sleep with a small orange blur tackled him, chirping. The dragon brightened and gently hugged the blur.

"Good mornin, Peewee. How'd ya sleep?"

The phoenix chick flew out of the embrace and onto the nearby windowsill, chirping happily and saluting with his tiny wing. He pecked on the glass and waited for his "father" to open it so he could fly out.

"I'm glad. Hang on a second, little guy!" The dragon got up and stretched all his limbs. As he walked to the window to open it, he looked towards Twilight, the memories of his odd dream still fresh in his mind.

"Gosh, Peewee, I had the wierdest dream. In it, Twilight was actually my mom and I apparently had some kind of magical unicorn shapeshifting powers. It was crazy!"

Peewee tilted his head in confusion, and Spike sighed slightly embarrassed. In all his excitement, he had forgotten that despite his pet's clever nature, he was still just a newborn and wouldn't understand everything. The dragon opened the window and let the little bird fly out to get some exercize. He never ventured far away from the tree where the three of them lived. Spike watched him fly, feeling slightly jealous as he looked back to see his bare back. No wings to join him.

Oh well.

Twilight had been up all night doing research on Cloudsdale and it's weather making technology. She was more or less the organizer for any major event in Ponyville, especially after all her success in the last two winter wrapups. The first one had been on schedule, her first try at the position. The second Wrap-Up had been fairly ahead of schedule and everypony involved had gotten a wonderful chance to relax a little. Now she was in charge of helping organize the pegasi with Rainbow Dash in order to provide water to Cloudsdale for their water supply.

He looked back towards the unicorn that hatched him, and grinned. She was sleeping in an awkward position; she'd no doubt be stiff in the morning. She had also mostly slipped off her covers and he could see she was shivering lightly. Spike grabbed the blankets and pulled them back onto her softly so as to not disturb her. The little dragon chuckled and turned away, and headed down to clean up the mess she had probably made in her studies.

-MLPFIM-

It had been a few days since his odd dream, and nothing important had really happened to him specifically. Fluttershy had seemed to overcome some issue she had with her stage fright which had allowed the tornado to go off without a problem. The shy pony was an enigma to him. He had heard just how utterly amazing she could be when she got over her reservations. She could fly amazingly well when pushed. She wasn't Rainbow Dash, but then, nopony was quite able to match her speed. After all, it was the cyan pegasus' special talent. According to Twilight, she could wrestle a bear with ease, and Rarity had mentioned in passing during one of his afternoons helping her that she had a near encyclopedic knowledge of sewing. He supposed it made sense. She spent a lot of her time alone in her cottage, so she probably read a lot. And her strength was probably honed rescuing and taking care of the many animals she did.

He was very happy for her, really. The young dragon did feel horrible, though. He had been rather insensitive to her, and that wasn't very good friend behavior. So, Spike stood now, at the doorway to her cottage, holding a box of various sweets from Sugarcube Corner. It was a shallow apology, but he hoped she'd understand. He didn't really know Fluttershy well enough to know what she liked, but nopony didn't like Sugarcube Corner's desserts. The baby dragon reached up to knock on the door, and stopped suddenly.

His nose twitched. A scent that made his instincts rise up. Fear. Terror.

And then a scream rode the winds, and Spike ran to find it.

-MLPFIM-

Well, that's a good stopping place for now. I'm tired. Gonna be spending all my time on an airplane today, so I'll have chapter 2 wrote up in no time. Okie dokie lokey! Later, bronies!

Wow, reviews came in fast. I went through and read it and yeah, it was really a bit too fast paced. I haven't really written anything in a long time, so I'm fairly rusty. I'm hoping that I can get better at it. I actually like the fandom as much as I like the show, it's much more laid back and accepting than others. A person can actually spit off their theories and not be flamed mercilessly. T'is awesome. But yeah, sorry that the first chapter was bleh. I mostly wrote it to stay up all night and that probably affected it a great deal. I will do my best to make sure this chapter's better!

-MLPFIM-

Last time, on The Adventures of Spike

"Spiiiiiiiike. Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike. Oh, Spikey-Wikey! Wakey wakey, my little dragon!"

Out of nowhere, a ghostly form of a dragon materialized, and soon became corpreal. It was the same size and shape as he was, but green with purple spikes. It was as if he was looking into a bizarre negative of himself.

"Come on, Spike. You're never this quiet. Gosh. Anyways. You're a real oddity, you know that? You're a pony-raised, unicorn-magic-hatched, wingless dragon. I noticed you went on a crazy adventure of self discovery recently and didn't find much of an answer. I'm here to solve that, buddy."

"You were never meant to exist."

Spike tilted his head in confusion, as everything seemed to disappear. He opened his eyes again and suddenly was back in his bed and in his home. The young dragon grumbled loudly and shook his head.

"Never eating fire rubies before I go to sleep again."

His nose twitched. A scent that made his instincts rise up. Fear. Terror.

And then a scream rode the winds, and Spike ran to find it.

-MLPFIM-

Without thinking, he rushed to the rescue.

As he grew up, Twilight had always read books to him. She'd tell him tales of great heroes, rushing in to save the day at little to no reward for them. Risking life and limb to save some beautiful princess, or to slay a monster. He'd learned later in life that she had revised many of these stories. Many times, dragons played the antagonists, but in his case, he had grown up thinking other dragons were naturally heroic.

Meeting other dragons rapidly deflated that image, but he still aimed to be heroic if he had the chance. He prided himself on his ability to help ponies. Usually, it involved him only being a pincushion for Rarity, or being an assistant librarian. But sometimes, he had the chance to really shine.

The only real time he'd ever really been afraid is when Twilight had wanted him to take Rainbow Dash's place as the Element of Loyalty. Discord had ruined his friends, and he saw that. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Dash, Applejack, even Twilight in the end, they all succumbed to his mind games. The ponies he looked up to. It really hit home how bad a situation it was when Celestia had sent every single friendship report back to Twilight. Even the pony who lived for eons, the pony who raised the sun and the moon everyday for a thousand years, was afraid. The pony who had always seemed so omnipotent, so powerful... the pony who had raised him as a mother had.

He wanted nothing to do with Discord. That wasn't a monster. It wasn't a group of jerky teenage dragons. It was chaos incarnate, and he wasn't sure how he could fight that. He was just a baby dragon that could barely use his flame breath as anything more than instant messaging.

But.

But this wasn't Discord.

He could handle it. Probably.

Hoping that it was just Fluttershy's overactive fear blowing something out of proportion, he found his way to the edge of the woods near her cottage. The Everfree Forest's edge. Spike always wondered why a pony so terrified of everything lived near such a terrifying place. As he found the little yellow pony with a pink mane, he sadly realized that it wasn't her phobias getting the best of her. The pegasus was surrounded by angry looking timberwolves. Behind her were a group of baby rabbits, and Spike found himself realizing something about the perpetually scared pegasus.

While she was impossibly scared by the more monsterous of the Everfree Forest's inhabitants, she was much more protective of the weaker species that lived there. She protected them from the monsters. That's how she knew how to fight a bear, why she had crazy strength hidden behind layers of shyness and nervousness. She protected the weak and helpless because she was weak and helpless. She had been bullied and now she protected those that could be bullied.

Fluttershy made much more sense now.

Still didn't explain the freaky knowledge of sewing, though.

Spike felt his respect growing for the pony with the butterfly cutie mark. And he showed it with the loudest roar he could muster. It wasn't much, but it got the attention of the cursed wooden canines. Timberwolves had one major natural enemy, it turns out. See, they were beings made of cursed dry wood possessed by the spirits of angry wolves. Yeah. Dragons.

The little purple dragon took in a breath and exhaled a green flame at the closest one. It didn't quite reach the beast, but it was close enough for them to feel it and hot enough for it to matter. With a yelp, the monsters ran back into the forest.

Spike couldn't resist, and rasied his arm up to shake his fist.

"And don't come back!"

With a smug grin, he looked at the yellow pegasus and nodded. Fluttershy looked relieved immensly, and turned to comfort the baby rabbits she was protecting. After she made sure they were fine, she turned to Spike and tackled him into a hug.

"Oh, thank you so much! You saved me and the baby bunnies! You were so brave!"

-MLPFIM-

Fluttershy fluttered around the inside of her cottage. As far as Twilight's friends go, Spike never hung around any of them much. Well, besides Rarity. He usually kept to the library with Twilight, usually only going out with her, or running the library while she went out. His free time was often spent with the object of his love, Rarity, who usually kept him busy helping her. She and Twilight agreed on one thing for certain: Spike was the best assistant a pony could ask for. It was in his nature. The total opposite of usual dragon nature, Spike was very kind and helpful.

So the little dragon found himself helping the kindest pony he knew take care of her animal friends.

He realized that Fluttershy's career had never really come up in any conversation with or around him. The dragon usually kept track of the town gossip and such. Rarity loved to gossip, after all, and due to him being there to help her, they often did just that. He'd always assumed that Fluttershy worked with animals, but he had no idea just what she did.

Turned out that she was actually running an animal shelter that was funded by charity, donations, and a modest funding from the government. Altogether, Fluttershy could have run a lot more lucrative practice, using that money for her own benefit. However, the yellow pegasus was much too kind to do such and poured all of that money into her animal friends. She lived in near poverty so she could afford to give the animals to good homes at nearly no cost, most times free. She would go and rescue animals in the forest or other places if she saw them in danger and take care of them until they had a home. From the smallest butterfly to the biggest bear, Fluttershy was a friend to all animals. Spike found his respect grow even greater for her and felt even guiltier for his harsher criticisms when she had been trying so hard to help with the tornado.

His cupcakes were well recieved, as was his apology. Fluttershy told him to think nothing of it. They were friends, and she knew he hadn't meant it.

Didn't make him feel much better, though.

As he helped her tend to the chickens outside, Spike found himself enjoying the work. He didn't get outside much, so it was nice to feel the warm sun on his scales. Maybe he should help Fluttershy more often?

It couldn't hurt. Twilight was always wanting him to get out more and Rarity was currently in the slow season of the dress business, so maybe he could find the time. He could help but notice just how different Fluttershy was from her friends. Twilight almost constantly muttered to herself when researching, and would usually stop everything she was doing to explain something in depth should he even be the slightest bit confused. Rarity would gossip constantly, and ask for his opinion on dresses. He'd developed quite an eye for pony fashion because of it. But Fluttershy was quiet, only talking in soothing tones towards the animals and explaining things to him with as few words as possible. It was different. It was a change of pace.

"Hey...Fluttershy?"

The yellow pegasus looked up at the little dragon, looking surprised. Spike reckoned that she wasn't used to visitors while she worked. The surprised look left and she smiled.

"Yes, what is it?"

Spike then explained that he wanted to try and maybe help her out every so often, maybe once a week. He told her how much fun he was having and how much he enjoyed being outside working.

"I mean, Twilight says I need to always try and learn new things, and this is kinda fun and I've learned a whole lot about taking care of animals. I mean, I need to learn anyway, since I got little Peewee to look after, you know?"

Fluttershy looked excited. She'd always wanted to hire an assistant to help her with the animals, but there was never really any pony with a special talent like hers. The pegasus nodded her head.

"That's be great. The animals have loved having you around. But-um... don't you usually help Rarity on your days off?"

Spike shrugged.

"She doesn't really need my help. Said that business is slow right now. Besides, like I said, I can learn how to take care of Peewee better, because I'm learning from the best animal lover in Equestria."

Fluttershy looked away, blushing from the praise.

Even though his heart was totally and forever Rarity's, even Spike had to admit she was adorable.

-MLPFIM-

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, I learned that we should always be open to trying new things. I went to Fluttershy's house to apologize for being kind of mean to her not too long ago, and ended up helping her out with her animal friends. I learned a lot about taking care of animals and about Fluttershy as well. I've decided to go back at least once a week to learn more and to help her out so I can raise Peewee as well as you and Twilight raised me. Twilight thinks it's a great idea, too. She's made me start reading books about animal care, naturally. I'm sorry the letter is short, though. I promised I'd help Twilight rearrange the books in the library. Again.

Your Faithful Subject,

Spike

P.S. I had a wierd dream last night, but it kind of made a lot of crazy thoughts I've been having make sense. Since Twilight hatched me, do you think that I might possibly be in some way part pony?

The dragon read through with a satisfied grin, and exhaled a small magical flame to send the letter to his surrogate mother.

-MLPFIM-

"Ah, Spike! I'm so glad to see you again! It's been what... 12 hours? It's so hard to tell time when you're in the dreamscape."

Spike opened his eyes to see his inverted counterpart in front of him.

"Ugh. You again?"

The green dream-dragon actually pouted.

"Aww, that hurt my feelings. That is no way to talk to your dream friends. Especially since I was going to leave with more cryptic questions and life changing revelations and what not. I swear, it's like nopony wants their dreams haunted or something."

Spike gave the green dragon a dirty look and shook his head.

"What are you?"

The green dragon grinned mischievously.

"Well, I'm a lot of things. I'm the representation of things past and present and future. Or maybe I'm just a crazy reoccuring dream that more or less grants you total access to your subconcious during your sleep so you can work out the problems you're having in your waking life. Maybe I'm Nightmare Moon's crazy neighbor, or Discord's baby brother. Does it matter? I'm in your brain no matter what I am. Silly dragon."

The green dream-dragon poofed away, leaving Spike to his dreams.

-MLPFIM-

Umm. Hi guys! So I thank you for the reviews! 5 reviews was about 12 more than I was expecting. I really hope this chapter is better. I wrote it on a lot more sleep and relaxation than the last chapter, so I hope it flows better. I don't really like writing long chapters. While I like a long chapter here or there to read, sometimes, I would just rather that I could read a chapter and not finish to find 3 hours have passed and all. I could probably spread things out better if they were longer, but I'm not very used to writing anymore.

Anyways, the next few chapters are going to be strongly centered around developing Spike and Fluttershy's friendship. I personally think Fluttershy has the most hidden depths out of any of the mane 6 and think that Spike could stand to learn a lot from her. And considering she's the one to go to to learn about animal care, she seemed like the first character to go to. I'll include other ponies in, though, so no worries. Eventually, all the important characters will have some interaction with Spike. After all, this is a Spike fic, and his development is the plot.

Why am I still writing? None of you are reading this. Any questions? Feel free to ask in review or in PM and I will be glad to answer.

Later, Bronies!

Hahaha. Hey, dear readers! I'm riding a wonderful sugar high, got a full night's rest, I can breathe, and my mum's finally gone back home to the continent, so I have the chance to relax and write now. Any of you peeps ever been to Hawaii? God it's nice. I have horrible allergies and- Oh right, you're not here for my problems. You're here for the writing.

I've posted this fic on FIMfiction as well as Fanfiction, under different names, of course. Just throwing that out there, so nobody thinks I stole this. That would be bad. Glad to see everyone's enjoying it so far!

Writing time!

-MLPFIM-

Last time, on The Adventures of Spike

Without thinking, he rushed to the rescue.

The pegasus was surrounded by angry looking timberwolves. Behind her were a group of baby rabbits, and Spike found himself realizing something about the perpetually scared pegasus.

The little purple dragon took in a breath and exhaled a green flame at the closest one. It didn't quite reach the beast, but it was close enough for them to feel it and hot enough for it to matter. With a yelp, the monsters ran back into the forest.

"Oh, thank you so much! You saved me and the baby bunnies! You were so brave!"

Dear Princess Celestia...

"Maybe I'm Nightmare Moon's crazy neighbor, or Discord's baby brother. Does it matter? I'm in your brain no matter what I am. Silly dragon."

The green dream-dragon poofed away, leaving Spike to his dreams.

-MLPFIM-

Spike had been working for Fluttershy for almost two months now. Twilight had agreed to letting him work with her when Spike told her Fluttershy'd be teaching him more about animals and how to take care of Peewee. Twilight had thought it was a great idea, as the Princess had done the same for her, teaching the unicorn how to take care of another creature. And she couldn't deny anypony an attempt at learning a new skill.

Rarity had also supported the idea, sighing about how slow work was being lately. She still would need his help collecting gems, though. So, between the three ponies, Spike worked out a schedule for his work. As he was first and foremost Twilight's assistant, Spike worked the first two days with the librarian. Then, he'd venture off to Fluttershy's cottage, where he'd spend half the time watching Fluttershy work and helping where he could. She was actually a good teacher once she got comfortable with somepony else working with her, and had began to talk more to the little dragon. After two days of working with Fluttershy, it would be off to the mountains with Rarity, where the two of them would spend a day hunting for gems. The last day, he had off, because Twilight didn't see a need in making Spike overwork himself.

Today was a Fluttershy day, and Spike made his way towards the forest where Fluttershy lived. He soon came upon the cottage and knocked quietly. Fluttershy came to the door and with that, his day had started.

-MLPFIM-

They'd been working for about an hour before Spike realized Fluttershy was nervous for some reason. He'd quickly come to learn the quiet pegasus's mannerisms. Spike didn't really want to pry, so he didn't ask. If it was important, Fluttershy would eventually say it. So the dragon worked on, even though it made him wonder. She'd gotten used to him being around, and now she was acting like it was his first day on the job again.

What was up?

-MLPFIM-

It was almost time for him to go on home that day. Fluttershy had gotten a little better throughout the day, but she seemed so nervous still. He had caught he out the corner of his eyes trying to ask a question only for her to shake her head and continue with what she was doing. It was beginning to frustrate him, to be honest.

So, as soon as he was done with his final task, he went to his new "boss" and crossed his arms.

"What's up, Fluttershy? You look like you've been wanting to ask me something all day, and you've barely spoken a word to me at all. What's going on?"

Fluttershy "eeped" and looked down. She began to poke at the ground nervously.

"Oh. Um. I'm sorry... but do you think you can take care of the animals by yourself for a couple days? Pinkie Pie wants us to go to Canterlot with her while she delivers a cake to a contest, and I'll totally understand if you say no."

Spike's eyes bulged out of his head.

"You want me to take care of the animals by myself? Are you sure?"

Fluttershy nodded. The animals had grown to like Spike. Well, except Angel. Angel hated anypony that took Fluttershy's attention off of him. But that was irrelevant.

"Oh yes. You're quite good with them, and they like you. You won't have to do anything big, just pop in and check on them all every so often. Angel is smart enough to handle everything, you'll really just have to make sure they eat."

Spike paled, as much as a cold blooded creature could, really, and gulped. He'd handled the library before for a couple days at a time. It was no problem. Spike had been around books his entire life. He'd been organizing books under the very critical eye of Twilight Sparkle for years. Spike was no stranger to running the library by himself. But he was still new at the animal care thing, and even though Fluttershy made it sound easy, he was worried he'd mess up.

But Fluttershy seemed to really want to go on this trip with her friends. For two years now, Spike had been subjected to learning just how important friendship was. Digging deep, he found some courage and slowly nodded.

"Sure, Fluttershy, if you think I can handle it, I'd love to keep an eye on the animals!" Spike said with more enthusiasm than he felt. Fluttershy didn't notice, though, and smiled brightly.

"Oh, thank you so much Spike! I'll make sure to bring you a present when I come back!"

So, there he was. Spike, the dragon who was a pony, now going to take care of defenseless animals.

-MLPFIM-

Thankfully, it was only a couple days of work. Spike left the library every hour for a half hour. It wasn't like there were many ponies that used the library, and the ones that did understood Spike's predicament. There wasn't really any problem the first day. The animals did like him a lot, as Fluttershy said, so it really did go smoothly. Angel Bunny was very cooperative and was actually a very good assistant. He saw now why Fluttershy kept the vindictive little demon rabbit around. Granted, Spike also had to cater to all of the bunny's whims, which wasn't easy.

However, running back and forth between the cottage and the library was not very fun, and it was very exhausting. Given that even though he was now nearly 14 years of age, he was still a baby dragon. Like any baby, he was tired, and he needed sleep.

Sleep, however, he didn't get a lot of. Usually, he slept at least 12 hours a night, but he couldn't in this case. So as he woke up on the second day, the little dragon was grumpy. He did his best to hide it from the animals, but there was a certain characteristic about his movements that seemed rushed. Fluttershy and Twilight would be back soon, he told himself, so he pressed on. Spike moved back and forth between the library several times. Each time was slower and slower paced, until the little dragon was doing his best to staggar to his destination.

Why weren't they back yet? Was the train late? What was going on?

Spike shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts before they grew to be negative. Nothing was wrong with his friends. Especially since Twilight was there. With her being so powerful now, she could handle anything. He shouldn't be worried. Spike looked up, and found that he was in front of Fluttershy's cottage again. With a small sigh, he headed towards the backyard where she kept farm animals. He had to make sure the chickens were in their coop.

As he worked to get things ready for the night, as it was just before sunset, Spike lost himself into thought. Oddly, the first thing that came up was his strange manifestation of his subconcious hadn't bothered his dreams in three weeks, and the little dragon pondered if he had actually made it angry before dismissing the silly thought. It wasn't like he was being contacted psychicly, and Princess Celestia had told him that he was probably just stressed out and hadn't been properly resting lately.

Usually, his thoughts revovled around Rarity, so this was odd.

So lost in thought was Spike, that he didn't hear the crack of a stick behind him, and it took the loud feral growl of a Timberwolf behind him to shake him from his thoughts. Spike gulped and turned around. Five timberwolves stood their ground. Usually, he could run in a situation like this. Not that he was scared. No, he was never scared.

A timberwolf barked at him and he took back the thought.

He was only a baby, after all. His flame hadn't done what he wanted last time. He wasn't strong enough to protect Fluttershy's animal friends. He wasn't even sure he was going to get out of this. While he was terrified of his greed growth form, at least that was strong enough to handle this. He wasn't.

Spike blinked.

-MLPFIM-

"Oh, Spike, you're plenty powerful enough. Where do you think all that power you had as your greed grown adult form came from?"

Spike opened his eyes to see the white void of his dreams with the green dream-dragon in front of him.

"You gotta send me back! Fluttershy's animal friends are in-"

The dream dragon held up a claw.

"Trouble? I know. But dreams are really cool like that. Less time is passing out there than here. We're working here at the speed of thought. Which, coincidentally, is pretty fast, kid."

The dream dragon began to walk towards Spike.

"Spike, you're incredibly powerful. You have all the power of a dragon mixed with all the magical potential of a unicorn, and not just any unicorn. Twilight Sparkle. The most powerful unicorn ever. She'll be able to match the princesses in a few years. And you're genetically her son as much as you are the dragons that spawned you."

The dream dragon extended a claw and poked him in the forehead.

"You have lots of potential. Let's unlock a bit of it, yeah?"

-MLPFIM-

Spike opened his eyes and immediately felt a rush. He felt powerful. Everything seemed to be going slower. Spike looked at the timberwolves. They were threats, minor ones. A simple breath of flame would get rid of that. But Fluttershy wouldn't want him to kill them. Even if Timberwolves were more monsters than animals, she would still care about their well beings.

That was okay. His firebreath was also capable of teleporting things, and not just to Princess Celestia. After all, he was the one that sent a letter to Hoity Toity so the fashion pony could see Rarity's designs. If he could imagine the place, he could teleport them there.

The woods where he found Peewee's egg seemed as good a place as any to send the pack of creatures.

He inhaled, and exhaled. Emerald flames burst from his mouth and hit the timberwolves, who disappeared from sight. Spike looked up and saw green whisps of flame dance through the air towards the north.

Spike felt suddenly drained, and he fell back unconcious.

-MLPFIM-

Dragon eyes fluttered open as he slowly awoke from his sleep. A splitting headache sudddenly made him clench his eyes shut. He raised a claw to his head and groaned.

"Spike! Are you okay?"

A familiar voice boomed and he was vaguely aware of himself shushing whoever it was.

Twilight. It was Twilight, he was sure, because he could smell her. Her presence was familiar and comforting. A surge of magic washed over him and his headache faded away slowly. He felt himself wrapped in a hug, and smiled.

Everything was alright now.

-MLPFIM-

Um. Hi everyone! Third chapter! Woo! I'm glad you're all liking it so far! I hope you all like this one as well. So anyway, I notice that a lot of you think that this is a Flutterspike fic. I'm going to say this right now while it's early. This fic is more about Spike growing up and friendships and stuff more than it will be a shipping fic. Yes, eventually, there will be a pairing, but as it stands, Spike is still a child as far as his body goes. Look at it this way. Spike is Anakin, the mane 6 are Padme Amidala, and we're still in the Phantom Menace. Kinda.

Anyways, I hope that clears things up and I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone. I do hope you'll keep reading anyway!

Peace out!

Okie dokie lokie, readers. It's come to my attention that my scene breaks are distracting and that my "Last Time" scenes are unnecessary, and I definitely will admit that I had a feeling that I overdid it on the scene breaks. So, I'm going to try and lessen the scene breaks, changin them from the bold -MLPFIM- to just a series of dashes, and I'm going to try and write better transitional scenes. I'd really like your continued critique of my writing. I only want to improve for you guys and gals, and be the best writer I can be. I really appreciate feedback, it'll only make the story better! It's up to you guys whether I should keep the Last Time scenes. I'll write this chapter without one to see how it flows.

Now, this chapter marks the beginning of the next story arc, where we'll find out more about- oh, wait, I shouldn't tell you, that would totally make reading this fic a moot point. Bahaha. Silly me.

Anyways, that's about all I can come up with for now. I'll probably think of more things to rant about at the end!

Spike stood outside the library at a makeshift target range, exhaling fire at the scarecrows that had bullseyes painted on them.

After telling Twilight his story of what had happened, about the mysterious dreams and the power surge he had felt, she had decided that he was experiencing a growth spurt of sorts. Not wanting to relive what was now referred to as "The Spike-zilla Incident" where greed growth had turned him into a monster, she had devised something of a training program so he could learn to harness his strength better.

So far, they'd found that his main senses had gotten stronger. Sight, smell, and hearing were much stronger than they had been before. He'd also been sleeping much less. He was faster, more agile and a little bit stronger. Twilight had also measured him. While not much, Spike had gotten taller and a little thinner.

He looked the part of a growing predator. Terrified he was going to lose his higher functioning again, Twilight constantly quizzed him for knowledge and tested his reactions to a variety of situations. Usually, Spike would have gotten annoyed, but he remembered what the damage his last growth spurt had caused. He understood entirely.

Spike had been getting quite used to his newer body. The best part was the fact that he was never as tired as he usually was. With less sleep and more energy, he was getting things done in much less time than usual. He had actually freed up a good couple hours from his chores in which he could actually hang around and relax. Spike had devoted this extra couple of hours to training himself. His third job with Fluttershy had a lot of dangers to it, and he had found that out the hard way. The little pegasus needed muscle for some things. Too often she hadn't been able to help a larger animal as much because she couldn't carry it to her cottage. Spike wasn't super strong by any means, but a couple of weeks of hard training had allowed him to better carry animals. The fact that he wasn't confined to being on all fours was a boon to Fluttershy's shelter.

Between the two of them, correspondence to Celestia, and some research from Twilight, Spike was actually becoming rather skilled at raising little Peewee. He had taken to flying around his "father" when he was outside working at Fluttershy's or when he was training himself. He'd go for light jogs and the two would end up racing by the end of it all. Sometimes, he would just watch while Peewee played with Owloysius, who had taken it upon himself to train the little firebird on how to fly better and how to hunt. He was apparently even trying to teach the little bird how to hunt at night, but Peewee was still rather loud and terribly noticeable as a flaming orange avian and mostly a day animal.. This didn't deter the owl. Spike would even say that the owl enjoyed teaching the phoenix. The dragon likened it to his own life. Like Celestia, Spike would eventually be an ancient creature. Owloysius was a wise mentor figure, a big brother of sorts, while Peewee was in the infant stages of what would be an incredibly long life.

A smile came to his face as the fireball struck dead center of the bullseye. That was the first time he had made one yet. Twilight had come up with the idea of using fireballs instead of a firebreath. The fireballs were easier to contain and would do less indirect damage. He had yet to try and use it to teleport things, but it was on his to do list.

The dream dragon had yet to appear to him again, not since the incident at Fluttershy's cottage. This didn't really bother Spike much, as his life tended to get considerably more complicated when the dream dragon appeared. Granted, the last time it had appeared, Spike did get relatively more awesome. Being a better dragon without being a total jerk was amazing.

At this time, Peewee decided to make an appearance, cooing as it landed on Spike's shoulder. The phoenix nuzzled his head on Spike's cheek, and the dragon laughed. The little bird jumped off of the dragon and began to fly circles around his head.

"Oh, you wanna race, huh? How 'bout we run to Rarity's Boutique?"

The little phoenix nodded and pumped his wings hard, already flying off towards the dress shop.

"HEY! THAT'S CHEATING!" Spike broke into a full sprint to catch up to his phoenix friend, laughing the whole way. The purple dragon ran through the town, dodging pedastrians and keeping the firebird in sight. The phoenix was a much faster flier than he was a runner, but that didn't keep Spike from trying.

Peewee was having a blast, and that's all that mattered.

Eventually, the two ended up at Rarity's Boutique. Peewee ended up on having to perch on Spike's shoulder. But there was an obvious grin on Spike's face and you could see that Peewee would be smiling if he had lips instead of a beak. Right as soon as Spike raised his claw to knock, the door burst open and Rarity nearly trampled him running out the door. Thankfully, he had gotten out of the way and Rarity immediately stopped her rush.

"Oh, goodness, Spike, are you alright? I was just on my way to find you. I just recieved a letter from Evening Star, Sapphire Shore's manager. She wants a whole new set of stage costumes and I don't have NEARLY enough gems and I really need your help if I'm going to make this happen," Rarity said before pausing to inhale.

Spike just blinked.

"Um. Okay! But we have to tell Fluttershy and Twilight, I was supposed to help both of them today."

The white unicorn smiled. She'd get things done in no time, now.

Naturally, Fluttershy was very understanding. She didn't really need the help, thankfully, and even though Twilight took some convincing, Spike was now in the mountains with Rarity. They were both pulling carts, while Peewee flew above them.

The mere fact that Rarity was actually pulling a cart proved that this was actually a big deal. Either she was out of gems entirely (which never happened) or this deal hada big order to fill and that meant a lot of bits for Rarity's dress shop. He could see a couple of signs that she was even slightly nervous about it. Maybe she was overwhelmed?

He'd ask later. Spike saw the tell-tale glow of magic in Rarity's horn, and knew that she had found some gems. Granted, he had to dig for them by himself. He didn't mind though. He knew Rarity despised getting dirty and he WAS built for digging for gemstones after all. Spike stood on his tail and prepared to start jack hammering into the ground.

An hour passed followed by another and soon half the day passed. They didn't talk much, which was wierd. Rarity loved to gossip. Instead, she kept quiet, focusing on the task of finding the gems. Spike wasn't the smartest being in Equestria, but a semi sentient rock could tell Rarity wasn't acting herself. Spike grew tired of the silence, he had enough of that with Fluttershy and Twilight.

"What's bothering you, Rarity?"

The white unicorn looked somewhat shocked he'd said something. She shook her head and smiled at him. Usually, her smile, that beautiful smile, would keep him from talking. However, Spike was more worried about his friend than he was lovesick over his crush. A dragon had to have priorities! A whole host of potential problems ran through his mind.

"Seriously, you can tell me. Is it the boutique? Sweetie Bell and you get into another fight? Is this order really that big? Or-"

Rarity held up a hoof to stop him from talking. With a resigned sigh, she began to explain.

"I've ran into a bit of a money problem. The slow business has done a number to my finances, and I haven't even been able to afford to produce my new line of dresses just yet. Evening Star, the dear, was over at my home a few hours before you stopped by and discussed funding the new line when she saw the designs, but I have to make all of them by the end of the week and they have to be simply perfect or I'm...RUINED!"

That made sense. She had seemed to be increasingly worried about the lack of business but Spike hadn't been paying much attention. As bad as it sounded, he had had other things on his mind. Taking care of Peewee and helping Fluttershy and Twilight had been his focus, after all, and even his crush on the beautiful unicorn had taken a back seat to what he was doing. Spike frowned, saddened by this news. But then a determined look grew on his an air of confidence, Spike nodded his head.

"Well, then. You have nothing to worry about! I'll help you find all the diamonds and gems you need, and I'm sure that Fluttershy would love to help you with sewing them! Yeah! That's perfect! I can help get gems, and then take over watching the animals while Fluttershy helps you! And I'm sure Applejack would love to keep an eye on Sweetie Bell and the Crusaders! If you had a problem like that, all you had to do was ask for help. You know that, right?"

Rarity looked down and sighed.

"I didn't want to bother you with my problems. It is my own fault, and I will deal with it myself. All I have to do is finish ten dresses in a week. Not a problem."

She didn't sound very convincing, and Spike wasn't very reassured either. But she was stubborn when it came to her work, much like Twilight. It was probably one of the things that Spike was attracted to most. Despite their varying hobbies and interests, Twilight and Rarity were both very similar. Their work ethic was very strong and he admired that fierce determinattion they both had.

It was said that a stallion would be attracted most to the mare most like his mother. It apparently was the same way for dragons as well. Go figure.

They continued to work in relative silence. A good portion of the day had passed by, but the carts were almost overflowing with gemstones. Spike was exhausted and Rarity didn't look much more energetic. If reptiles could sweat, he'd have filled buckets.

The dragon and unicorn pair began to work their way back towards Ponyville. There was a sense of accomplishment in both of them. Rarity would occasionally stop when she sensed more gemstones, and Spike would dig a few up (though he was able to snack on gem here or there). All in all, it was a highly productive day for both of them.

Despite Rarity telling him multiple times not to worry about it, Spike had already began to hatch out a plan to get Rarity some help with her dress order. It was pretty much going and begging Fluttershy to convince Rarity to let her help and to

He blinked, and found himself in a familiar white void. The purple dragon took one look at his green counterpart, and hung his head.

"Aww, Spikey, don't look so excited to see me, I'll blush. Your idea will work, up until they make more dresses than they can decorate with Shores likes her gems, and she's going to order more dresses soon from Rarity with the same amount of pressure. And as much as Fluttershy trusts you to take care of the animals, she won't leave them for too long. On the bright side, I know a way for you to get all the gems you'll need and more, kiddo. You'll be able to start your own horde with it."

Spike was intrigued, until the words finally sunk in.

"Wait... how do you know what's going to happen in the future? You're not from the future are you? And how can I help Rarity? How do you know so much?"

The dream dragon fell to the floor, laughing. He held his stomach and started banging his fist into the floor? Did voids even have floors? Spike wasn't sure, and he wasn't very happy about the dream dragon laughing at him either. Spike shot the green dragon a glare, and the apparition eventually stopped.

"Oh, Spike. Twilight would be so proud of you for asking all the questions you're asking. They're all the right ones. Maybe I'm from the future. Maybe I'm just a spirit of dreams that doesn't exist in time or something. Complicated magic and stuff, you know? Maybe I'm just your powers manifesting into a subconcious being. Face it, Spikey-wikey, you're not getting an answer from me, not until the time is right.

"As for Rarity, it's a simple solution. I know you've been training yourself. My unleashing some of your potential has made you grow in power, and much to my delight, you haven't just been sitting around. You've been honing your skills. You're not the little hatchling anymore. Spike, you're becoming a REAL dragon, not like those idiots you met during your first migration. How you're going to help Rarity? You're going to raid the Diamond Dogs."

OKIE DOKIE LOKIE! Chapter 4 is done! I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it. I'm fairly psyched for the upcoming season finale, and if the rumors I've heard about Season 3 are true, we're in for some awesome stuff. Until then, I'll keep the chapters coming!

Remember, please leave a review if you are on fanfiction. I'd like to hear from you guys, too. As for my FIMfiction readers, keep the feedback coming! I really think that I'm getting better every chapter, and it's thanks to your feedback!

Anyways, I've got another 6 hours to fly, so I'm gonna take a nap now. Peace out.

I swear, I rewrote this chapter 7 times over, and I still don't like it. Oh well. Everyone has those at one point. I definitely didn't want to give up on y'all, either, so I forged on ahead. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Also, on a related note: how have I done so far with keeping the ponies and dragon in character?

---

Spike hesitated as he opened the door of the treehouse. It creaked quietly and the young dragon slipped through the crack. He had no idea why he was listening to the dream dragon. Raiding the diamond dogs was more or less suicide. But the dream dragon turned out to be right. Rarity was in desperate need of help. Sapphire Shores had decided to hire Rarity out to make even more dresses, for her, her back up singers, and the dancers that would be on stage with her.

Fluttershy volunteered her services to Rarity, naturally, but the shy pegasus was wearing herself out trying to take care of her animals and assisting Rarity. Applejack and Spike had volunteered to help take care of the animals, but
they simply weren't as good as Fluttershy. Likewise, Twilight had started spending what time she wasn't running the library helping Rarity and Fluttershy sew, having learned a little bit about was little help to the two seamstresses, but every hoof counted. Spike was running himself ragged trying to be Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight's assistant. What little time he had free was spent sleeping and running into the mountains with a increasingly frazzled Rarity and Twilight to find gems.

On the bright side, the running back and forth through Ponyville was great cardio and all the digging he was doing was making him even stronger. The little dragon was actually pleased with himself. The next time something big, scary, and evil came knocking, he might actually be able to help his friends fight it instead of just burping out letters. This wasn't something he could fight though. All he could do was help. And according to his weird dreams, he'd have to steal from-

"Oh my Celestia. You actually took me seriously."

Spike blinked as he realized he was in the white void. He staggered back and tripped as the dream dragon appeared straight in his face.

"What do you mean, I took you seriously? Were you just messing with me?" Spike said, looking very angry at the green dragon.

The dream dragon responded with a very loud laugh that ended with him doubling over clutching his stomach.

"Oh jeez. You should see your face, Spike. Priceless, dude."

Spike glared at his dream companion.

"But you told me what was going to happen! Almost exactly!"

The other dragon shook his head, sucking on his teeth and sighing.

"Spike. I was just trying to prove a point to you. Do you really realize what you were about to do? You were going to get yourself killed. All for Rarity's sake. You were going to steal. You would get caught, and they would likely have turned you into a nice set of boots, Spike. You don't really have any kind of training, kid. You've just now begun to tap into your power. Do you not realize how gifted you are? You're a dragon raised by ponies. Not just any ponies, but you consider your mother to be the mare that raises the sun and Twilight Sparkle, who is the most powerful unicorn in recorded history. They raised you to use your brain instead of your brawn. You've seen what the result of becoming like every other dragon will do to you. Dragons are typically rude, idiotic, and sometimes plain out sadistically evil. Dragons are creatures that grow based on emotions, feelings, and desires. Most grow on fear and anger, desiring endless wealth to the point where it corrupts them. Almost every dragon has grown even the tiniest bit because of greedgrowth. YOU, on the other hand, have the potential to do something that hasn't been done. You can master your own growth. Use love instead of fear. Happiness instead of anger. Your desire, family and friends. If you haven't grasped this yet, I'm going to lay it out for you. Twilight Sparkle is the element of Magic, right? The elements of Harmony are powered by friendship. Friendship is kindness, laughter, honesty, loyalty, generosity. Friendship is MAGIC. Your friends will help you become something Equestria has never seen before. It's already begun. You have noticed that you're now a head shorter than your "teenage" form from your experience with greed growth, right? It's why Twilight's been running so many tests on you. She's terrified she's going to lose you to the monster inside."

The dream dragon paused for a second to let it sink in.

"And had you gone tonight, you would have had to tap into that monster to survive, and you would have not been able to come back this time. Rarity wouldn't have wanted you to die, or to give yourself up to help out her business. And what about Twilight or Fluttershy? Twilight loves you dearly. Fluttershy is quickly becoming very fond of you. And Peewee! You're Peewee's "mother", Spike. You're supposed to be there to protect him. You have a responibility unlike any other you've ever had you need to act like it."

Spike looked down, dejected. He hadn't really thought through the consequences. Spike kind of always assumed that Twilight would always be there to talk sense into him, or Rarity or somepony else.

"I guess... I'm not as grown up as I've been pretending to be lately, huh?"

The dream dragon smiled warmly.

"Eeeenope."

Spike and the dream dragon both laughed at the very good inmitation of Big Macintosh. A peaceful silence settled on the two for a while before the dream dragon sighed.

"Spike, I'm only trying to help you grow into the dragon you're destined to be. You understand why I lied to you write?"

Spike scoffed, but nodded.

"Sure, I can understand the lesson that my own brain is trying to teach me. Or something. I'm still not sure what you are."

The dream smiled mysteriously.

"Spike, I've done told you that I don't matter. Just a figment of your thoughts, for all intents and purposes," the green dragon said, shaking his head.

Spike didn't let up though. He was determined to figure out these crazy-but-real hallucinations.

"You're real! You know things that I couldn't possibly know and-"

Spike suddenly found himself standing outside the tree house, and he growled in anger. He was about to go stomp off in a random direction when he heard a quiet rustling. With a sudden turn, he looked behind him see a still moving bush. A scent tickled his nose.

"Rainbow Dash?"

Hearing her name, Equestria's fastest flier poked her head out of the bush with an embarrassed grin.

"Uh. Hi Spike!"

"What are you doing here? It's kinda late and Twilight's asleep. And what are you wearing?"

Taking a closer look after his eyes adjusted to the night, he saw the blue pegasus's clothes. She was wearing a khaki colored leather jacket and a snapbrim fedora to match. He then noticed that her tail and mane were dyed a greyscale color, and he only could look at her expectantly.

The usually rainbow-maned pegasus was dressed as Daring Do.

"Oh. Haha. Um. Well, you see, I'm going to the midnight premiere for the new Daring Do book in Canterlot and I was going to see if Twilight wanted to come with me."

Spike shook his head.

"She's sleeping. She's been so busy lately that she's pretty much crashed. We're all tired. You've been in Cloudsdale all week, right? Well, Rarity got a really big dress order and she's been having financial problems so she's been having issues making sure she's got all the materials she needs. She hasn't had the business so she hasn't exactly got a lot of dress fabric stored up. Me and Twilight have been helping collect jewels, while I'll go and help Applejack with Fluttershy's animals and Fluttershy and I go and help Rarity with her dresses."

Dash's jaw dropped. She had been in Cloudsdale for a meeting, after all she was in charge of Ponyville's weather team. She had no idea everything had gone so crazy. The pegasus had been so busy getting ready for the meeting she had had no idea her friends had been in so much trouble. The last couple of weeks had been hectic for her, getting all of the paperwork checked, getting presentations ready... The trip to Canterlot with Pinkie had actually also been a trip for her to get some paperwork that had been accidently shipped to the Weather office in Canterlot.

She'd also not been around to notice Spike's changes.

Spike had gotten considerablly more awesome looking. Rainbow had never been the most eloquent of ponies, but Spike looked older for sure. It wasn't the same as the last time he had began to grow into the greed-dragon. There was something more natural about this transformation. He had gotten a good bit taller. He was about the same size as a pony height-wise. All the running around, his training, and his working had toned a lot of his babyfat down. It was dark, so she couldn't really see his exact features very well, but the pony was nonetheless impressed.

"Wow, you've gotten a lot bigger since I've seen you last. You... haven't been getting lots of gifts again, have you?"

Spike angled his head in confusion before it dawned on him what she was talking about.

"Oh, no, I just hit a growth spurt. I started helping Fluttershy so I could learn how to better take care of Peewee, and some timberwolves attacked me when I was by myself. I tapped into the same magic that made me grow up but without all the greedy stuff. It's helped a lot. I have a lot more energy than I usually do, so I can run around helping more. Don't worry, I won't be catching the Wonderbolts in a water tower again if I can avoid it."

The two laughed at that. Rainbow smiled at the dragon.

"So, what are you doing up Spike? You sneaking off to see a marefriend?" The blue pegasus winked and nudged the dragon who blushed.

"N-no. I... was apparently going to do something stupid. I had this crazy idea to steal gems from the diamond dogs in the mountains to give to Rarity so she could focus more on her work, but apparently that would be suicidal of me."

Rainbow grinned.

"Yeah, you'd have been turned into a nice pair of purple boots. I don't think you'd be fast enough to get in there an out without being seen or to escape. It's probably good you didn't," the Daring Do cosplayer said blowing a raspberry at the dragon.

Spike returned the raspberry but soon frowned, not feeling very good about this situation. Sure, he got to keep his hide and stealing would have been against his morals, but his friends needed his help. He couldn't exactly dig up gems by himself, he couldn't find any.

A breeze blew, and a scent tickled his nose. The scent of... rubies? Sapphires? He turned his head towards the smell. It was coming from Rarity's boutique.

He could smell gems.

Spike instantly began to salivate before he shook his head.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash? You should probably get going. It's getting pretty close to midnight. It was good talking to you!"

The pegasus smiled at the dragon and flew off, speeding into the night towards the capital of Equestria. Spike watched her fly off with a serious look in his eyes. He turned towards the mountain where the summit provided the most gems. Rarity usually dug there. The diamond dogs weren't a problem for her anymore, as most of them were terrified of the diva and her friends by association. They'd leave Spike alone, hopefully. Rarity only had a couple days left and she was still about 6 dresses away from being done.

He went behind the tree and hooked the gem cart to his body. Twilight had rigged a harness for him that he could wrap around his stomach, allowing him to pull it on all fours or while standing upright. They had taken advantage of his growing size and strength. He wasn't at Big Mac or even at Applejack levels of strength but he was definitely stronger than the dainty Rarity and the bookish Twilight Sparkle.

With a determined look, he began heading towards the dig site.

---

OMFG. DAT FINALE. OH. MY. GOD. I ALMOST lost inspiration for this story. BUT OHMYGOD. THE FINALE. I'M STILL EFFING FANGASMING. I got SOOOOO MANY ideas for where to take this fic now, and let me tell you, Adventures!Spike is going to be so much a bigger part of the wedding, as is Peewee. That's honestly my biggest peeve with the series. The CMC get so much character development and act like they're growing up, but Spike fluctuates and is left out of so much. It irks me. But anyways, I'll have scenes that explain all the pictures at the end, scenes that have Spike interacting with Cadence, and what we all wanted to see: Spike's Bachelor Party. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. SO MUCH WIN. Seriously. I don't even know if Advetures!Wedding will be half as awesome, but I will make a good try. I'll probably do a few more arcs first before I post it, so I have plenty of time to work on it and develop Spike and Peewee out to be awesome.

Shining Armor is best pony.

Stay awesome, my bronies.

Bwahaha. Chapter six is in the house tonight, everypony just have a good tim- Oh. Um. Hi guys, didn't see you come in. Here we go with part 3 of the 20% cooler arc! Hopefully, I can make the arc worth the name. See, what happens is that R- erm. Almost spoiled it again. Haha. Silly me.

---

Spike toiled relentlessly. If reptiles could sweat, he'd have poured buckets. The dragon was dirty from head to toe as Luna's moon hung high in the sky. He'd only paused to take quick naps and eat an occasional snack to keep up his energy, but despite his best efforts, he was quickly exhausting. While his larger and more mature form had given him more energy, he still was doing a lot of work. He hadn't even really slept in a good week. Even he would have to stop.

But it wasn't for naught. He looked at the full cart and smiled. This was a good bit more than most loads he would usually get with Rarity. His scent tracking and his own ability to dig farther gave him an advantage over the unicorn. While she could find them quicker, he could find gems even further under the ground as he dug others up. They would make an incredible team once all this was over and they could get back to their regular routine.

Even better, some of these gems were bigger than Rarity usually used, so she could possibly come up with new styles. Maybe she'd be so grateful, he'd get another kis-

"Focus, Spike."

The dragon began to dig.

He briefly wondered if the dreamdragon had messed with his body again, enhancing his senses again. He'd already gotten a boost when his body began to grow but now his sense of smell was powerful and his nightvision was ALMOST as good as his day vision. Also, he discovered he had a small degree of control over his sense of smell, picking out specific scents or even reducing it back to what he was more used to. He supposed that was quite a useful skill. It just took focus to use it. Oh well. It used to take a lot of focus to use his teleportation flames, so he figured it would come naturally with time.

The dragon was beginning to wonder how much he would continue to grow, not in size, but abilities. The ones he had were rather terrifying to him when he thought about it. His logical reasoning, his planning and his memory had all become sharper and clearer. His senses were honed, but for what purpose? Spike was really just now realizing how different from the ponies he was. His development was into that of an apex predator.

It was probably thankful he really rather ate gems. He remembered a time in which Celestia had actually provided him meat. It was fish, if he remembered correctly. It hadn't really pleased him much. While the meat had been flavorful, gems gave him a lot more energy and came in many varities and flavors. He was thankful for the extremes his diet could handle. Dragons were ultimate omnivores, capable of getting nutrients from anything.

He had been using his tail as a shovel, likely the easiest but the slowest way to dig up the gems. Using his tail as a jackhammer took up lots of energy, as did burrowing into the ground with his claws. Spike looked back at the wagon he had pulled with him. It was getting quite loaded down. Spike hoped he could pull it back. No. He would pull it back. Rarity was counting on him.

The dragon dug up the last few gems from the hole and threw them on the back of the cart. Sapphires, emeralds, rubies, turquoise... All types of gems were there. He'd even found a few uncut fire rubies. With as much Rarity had loved the last one, he would love to surprise her with some more. The red of the rubies was brought out by the stark whiteness of her coat. He climbed out the hole and got ready to pull the thing, stretching and popping joints.

This haul would be enough tonight. He had gotten much more than he had expected, and the purple dragon felt quite proud of himself.

A quiet sound of rocks hitting the ground caught his attention, and then some instinct roared at him to duck. A large rock came flying at him, which he ducked from just in time. Turning instantly, he focused his eyes to see what was attacking him.

There, behind mounds of dirt, were diamond dogs.

On the bright side? They weren't the smarter type. They were the guard type of diamond dogs, the ones that wore armor and apparently weren't smart enough to talk besides a few words. They mostly communicated in barks, grunts, and growls.

However, on the down side? There were six of them. How did six of them sneak up on him? A quick whiff answered his question. Their scent was almost non existant, matching the earth almost exactly. Very sneaky. With a bark, they ran at him.

"Oh horseapples."

The words barely left his mouth as he jumped to the side to dodge the first dog. He tucked into a roll and used the moment to jump back up. He had no idea what he was going to do here. He figured they wanted his gems and were just trying to scare him off from his horde. They were succeeding quite well, actually.

The dragon began darting back towards Ponyville. He remembered just how badly his fight had gone with only three dogs, and those had been the more intelligent, less strong variety. How was he going to fight off six of the ones bred to fight? He had gotten stronger and faster, but it still probably wasn't enough.

A brief flashback ran through his mind, a mere fantasy of charging into the dens to save Rarity when she had been kidnapped. Then Fluttershy getting threatened by the timberwolves. Twilight having to deal with all the monsters she's fought with only her pony friends and how he had sat on the sidelines anytime she could have used his help. And the one time she had begged him to help, to take Rainbow Dash's place as Loyalty, he'd been anything but loyal.

He'd been making promises to himself that he wasn't going to sit on the sidelines anymore. Spike was tired of being the "baby" that needed protecting. Rarity and his friends all needed him, and he wasn't going to let them down here. Spike was faster than the dogs, but only just, and his exhaustion was showing.

Spike stopped running and turned back to face them.

It was time to buck up, or shut up.

Spike knew he had an advantage in at least one area. He was smarter. If he kept cool and used his brain to help him fight, he'd have a chance. With a deep breath, he exhaled a jet of his green flames, forming a wall that made the dogs stop in their tracks. He used the moment to rush past the dogs. He got down on all fours, using his arms to propel him faster. He had his claws extended, digging into the ground and giving him traction. He couldn't afford to slip up here. Spike had the beginnings of a plan.

The fastest guard dog was almost right behind him. Perfect. Spike darted towards the left and spun, using his tail as a flail and slamming the flat edge against the dog's legs and tripping it. It rolled almost comically into one of the deep holes Spike had dug. The dog would have no choice but to dig down to a tunnel to get back up. It was a temporary solution but it would get the job done while he tried to figure out how to deal with the other five. Another had caught up to him and lunged at him. Spike ducked and the dog flew over his head. It landed gracefully and growled at Spike.

Spike felt a strange urge, one almost primal and ancient well up in him. Spike inhaled deeply, and let out a loud roar. Unlike the feeble attempt he had made to try an impress the dragons at the migration, this one was deep and animal-like. The dog paled and ran off, making "yipe" sounds as it cowered.

"Well, two down, four to go."

The gem horde was in sight, thankfully untouched. He was starting to figure out what had happened. The six dogs were probably just patrolling what they considered their territory when they had come across him. If he had left an hour ago, he would bet hard bits that they would have never seen him. If they had had more time to plan this, there'd have been more dogs and more of a plan.

He had seemingly lost the other four, though he was sure they were hiding somewhere, planning to ambush him or figuring out how to handle him. Now that he was at his horde, though, he got an idea.

He had never tried sending anything this large and heavy before. The timberwolves were big, but at the core just a collection of small sticks. These were heavy, large gemstones. Focusing on the shed next to Fluttershy's cottage where she kept most of her animal care equipment and various other things, he exhaled the largest inferno of magical flames he had ever conjured. For a second, it just seemed like the wooden cart was starting to burn, but he saw the gems beginning to evaporate as green flames began to whisp through the air speeding towards Ponyville.

The whole cart disappeared, and all the gems with it. Unfortunately, that had taken almost all of Spike's fire to do and it would be a while for him to make enough to defend himself. His whole body was aching and hurting, and he was panting hard.

"Well... this is it, everypony. Sorry, but it doesn't look like I'll make it back for breakfast, Twilight."

The diamond dogs had him backed against a wall, so to speak, as five of them circled him. The one he had scared off had returned, though it was still a paler color than it had been. He had no where he could escape. The dragon gulped, praying that the dream dragon would come to his rescue and provide him with some new power boost. It never came.

Spike figured it was because he had gone and disobeyed the dragon's wishes by going to dig alone.

Spike closed his eyes, awaiting the end.

"HEY! WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEPONY YOUR OWN SIZE?"

Rainbow Dash's voice rang through the area as suddenly, the blue pegasus swooped in from the sky.

"Yes, we would love for you to... how do they say, come at us?" Spike turned to see the owner of the voice he didn't recognize very well. His jaw dropped to the ground as he looked her over. Large, dark wings. Dark blue coat. Horn. A moon cutie mark. And a Daring Do teeshirt.

Princess Luna had come to save the day.

Faced with the avatar of the night, the dogs promptly did the smart thing. Ran.

Spike turned to the fastest pegasus in Equestria with a curious look on his face. The unspoken question was heard clearly, and the mare with the dyed mane grinned.

"Turns out, Princess Luna here is an egghead like me, and really likes Daring Do. She actually wanted to hang out with me and read the new book at my house, so we were flying back here from the party in Canterlot when we saw your fireworks display! Wow. You've gotten some pretty slick moves in the last little while, huh? It's too bad I already have Tank, because you're definitely cool enough to be my pet," the blue pegasus said, winking at the dragon.

All three began to laugh, and all was well.

---

Or at least, until he got home to see one Twilight Sparkle with very bloodshot eyes and a terrifying look on her face. Apparently, she had gotten up early in the night thirsty and had had no idea where he had gone.

"-and another thing! If you ever go out at night again without permission and a chaperone, SO HELP ME I will turn you into a bunny rabbit-"

Twilight, for all her traits and flaws, was at least creative when coming up with punishments.

"-could have been killed, and if it hadn't been for Dash and Princess Luna, you'd be a pair of leather-"

But at least he knew she cared. He remembered the promise he had made to himself over the night. He wouldn't run away, ever again. Spike would get stronger and better until he was capable of protecting his friends. His family. They were all he had. Dash, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, and Pinkie. Celestia, Luna, and Peewee, too.

Speaking of, Peewee looked adorable with the angry, slightly crazed look he was copying off of Twilight.

"-I'm just glad you're all right, but you better not ever do anything stupid like this again!" Twilight said, breathing hard.

Spike just grinned and hugged the pony around her neck.

"Thank you, Twilight. I love you too."

---

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, and the last couple of weeks, I've learned a bunch of lessons. But I think the biggest two are this.

First, you can always rely on your friends. When Rarity had the big order to fill, all of us stepped in and up to help each other out with what talents we have. Applejack and I would help tend to Fluttershy's animals while she would help Rarity sew. Twilight and I would go and help find Rarity more gemstones to help her fill her orders. Everypony pitched in and now it looks like Rarity's going to get done in time and save her shop.

Secondly, and this lesson was the hardest to learn, you can't let yourself get overwhelmed. Rarity let herself get overwhelmed with work, I let myself get overwhelmed with trying to help everypony with their jobs. I've also let fear overwhelm me my entire life. I've also learned that sometimes, you just have to take a stand, pushing back when life pushes you.

Three lessons, actually. No. Four. I also learned that my friends are the best thing in the world, and I'm going to do the best I can to protect them.

Your faithful dragon,

Spike

---

So, um. Yeah. Read and review. Next chapter's going to give a bit of a break. In fact, here's the arc name: Party Spike Anthem.

Now go. Let your imagination run wild as to what the arc title means. Stay awesome, my bronies!

Hey everypony! I'm back! With more! So now, Spike's had lots of crap on him. He's been raising a phoenix, training his dragon skills, and singlehandedly saving dress shops from bankruptcy. Our Spikey-wikey's getting to be pretty badass. However, even the best of us need a break. So, this chapter is going to be silly, or at least try to be. I've never tried writing humor before. This will be an experience.

Also, I don't really know where to find a good picture to use as cover art for the fic. Anypony got suggestions? Or want to draw something up? Maybe? Okay. Story time!

---

The not-so-little dragon awoke from his slumber. He had taken to sleeping on a makeshift bed of pillows and blankets Twilight had supplied him until he stopped growing so rapidly. After all, it was hard to make a bed for anything that grew in size every two weeks it seemed. He stood up and stretched, feeling joints pop and crack with a degree of statisfaction. Once he had gotten chewed out by Twilight, he'd promptly went to sleep.

And he pretty much stayed asleep for a few days. He was told that Rarity had done the same thing, as the two of them were exhausted. While Twilight had been angry with him, she was still proud of him for what he had done and let him sleep. After all, he'd been running three jobs with almost no rest. Spike eventually had stayed up long enough to write a friendship report, and then passed back out into dream land. Thankfully, his dreams were devoid of the dream dragon, who'd he'd now dubbed "Dreamy" on account of not having another name for him/it. He'd done his best to put Dreamy out of his mind.

He finally felt rested back up. Spike hadn't realized just how crazy tired he had been. After his stretching, the dragon slowly walked downstairs. A bit of guilt struck him. He hadn't intended on sleeping so much. What if somepony had needed him? What if Fluttershy had had to treat a bear with a broken leg that she couldn't get back to her cottage? Or if Twilight had discovered some great friendship lesson to send to Princess Celestia? Or if Rarity hadn't had enough gems and had to go dig up more?

Spike paled, a considerable talent given his fairly deep purple colored scales. What kind of assistant was he to just do that? A pretty terrible one, he thought. Granted, he'd worked as hard as any of them, trying to keep the three mares from falling behind in their work. And he'd risked his life as well, even though it had probably been dumb of him to do. Twilight had been very right to chastise him for it, and Spike knew it. That was usually how he learned from his... mother? Older sibling? Whatever she was. Granted, he usually would argue with her first, but she was almost always usually eventually right. But the point was, he'd deserved a break and he knew it from the bottom of his dragonic heart. He walked down to their kitchen and picked up a sapphire from the bowl of gems they kept on the counter for his snacks. They were like pieces of fruit would be to a pony. He didn't feel like cooking breakfast, or lunch. He really had no idea what time it was. Oh well. A late start was better than no start at all.

As he munched on the gemstone, the dragon walked into the library, trying to find Twilight. To his surprise, she wasn't there. He approached her work area where she kept notes of what pony checked out which book and her own personal research notes. Her clock read that it wasn't even close to noon, and her calender had "SPA DAY" written on the date.

So she was at Aloe and Vera's Spa? He grinned. That usually meant that at least Rarity would be there, possibly Fluttershy. Dash didn't much care for the place, but maybe Pinkie and Applejack were there as well. He'd bonded with the honest earth pony when they watched over Fluttershy's animals during the whole fiasco with the dresses. The dragon made up his mind. If they were having a spa day, he'd relax too. Maybe a nice stroll through town would help? He made his way to the front door, ready to go outside.

Or so he thought, when the door burst open and a very pink pony tackled him.

"SPIKE! OMIGOSH! COME WITH ME!"

Like a bolt of lightning, the party pony was out the door and Spike, having nothing else to do, decided to follow. He shut the door and broke into a run to keep up with the mare who had managed to somehow appeared a good ways away. At first, it seemed like they were heading towards Sugarcube corner, but they eventually passed it. By a certain miracle, the dragon finally caught up to Pinkie at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres.

Panting, he had to ask.

"What are we doing here? Is there something wrong with Applejack?"

Pinkie Pie just smiled and pointed to the barn.

"I'm so excited! I can't wait to show you! COME ON!" The entirely too energetic mare darted off towards the barn, bouncing with every step.

Spike shook his head and sighed.

"How does she have so much energy? Jeez louise," the dragon muttered. He debated just going about his day, but Pinkie Pie really seemed excited about something and had obviously wanted him to see it. While they weren't close, Spike thoroughly enjoyed just how sweet and happy she was. Anytime he was having a bad day, Pinkie Pie could cheer him up with no problem. Spike personally didn't think that her cutie mark represented parties so much as just making people happy in general. It was like she was a more outgoing, comedic Fluttershy.

After all, who didn't smile when they got a balloon? Balloons were awesome.

He poked his head into the door and saw a very awesome party set-up. A huge banner hung in the middle with the words, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY APPLEJACK" imprinted on them.

"What do you think?" The party pony had the biggest, most hopeful look Spike had ever seen on her face. The dragon walked in and took a full view of the room. She had definitely decked the barn out. A huge cake with decorated with apples stood on a table, a small pool stood to the side filled with water and apples for bobbing, and it all looked fantastic.

"You've outdone yourself, Pinkie! It looks fantastic. But, uh... why are you showing me this?"

Pinkie grinned and bounced over to him.

"Oh, well, you see, Applejack's with Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity at the Spa so she's distracted, Big Macintosh and Applebloom are getting the family together to plan out the surprise, Rainbow Dash is out flying around trying to make sure the weather is fine and also scouting to see if Applejack is coming, and everypony else was busy and my Pinkie Sense told me you'd be waking up so I decided to come get you and show you the party! Besides, you weren't awake long enough for us to tell you that the party was today, so I figured the best way to tell you was to show you!"

Spike nodded, his brain trying to adapt to working at Pinkie Speed with mixed results. He looked around a few times and nodded again, as his inner assistant woke up.

"Need anything? I can help do something, right?"

Pinkie shook her head.

"Eeeenope! Hee hee hee! I think it's so funny when Big Macintosh does that. But as exciting as it would be to have an awesome dragon be my assistant, I'm actually all done! I just gotta wait for Bic Mac to get here with the Apple family! OOOH! IDEA! You can maybe start helping me out with some parties sometimes! Only if you're not busy because I know that Twilight and Rarity and Fluttershy all use you as an assistant and you're busy being Peewee's parent!"

Spike frowned. He would really like to help Pinkie Pie, if only because what she did didn't seem like too much work and seemed like loads of fun. But she was right. He just simply did not have time to help the party pony unless he gave up helping one of the other ponies. He couldn't abandon Twilight, so that left Rarity his crush, or Fluttershy his newest teacher. He was still learning from Fluttershy about animals and Rarity did the closest thing to paying him when he helped her.

"Well, once I'm done learning from Fluttershy, I should be able to start helping you! I think it'd be loads of fun!"

Pinkie beamed.

"OH! I should throw a "Spike is going to be the best dragon assistant ever!" party! It would be so much fun!"

Spike laughed, the enthusiasm contaigous. Pinkie was definitely the happiest pony he knew. In fact... really, why was she so happy? Spike tried putting his more matured and wisened mind to the task of figuring the pink mare out, but if Twilight had all but given up on that, what chance did he have?

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask?

"Hey, Pinkie... This is kinda a wierd question, but why are you so happy all the time?"

Pinkie's eyes widened and her smile didn't quite reach it's usual width. She chuckled quietly and put a hoof on Spike's shoulder.

"That is a wierd question, silly! I'm happy all the time because I'm alive and this world is full of color and smiles!"

Spike nodded. Made sense, really. He'd been told that Pinkie grew up in a very dismal childhood. Twilight had been very quick to fill him in on the cutie mark stories of all her friends and telling him how they related to hers. Pinkie Pie was so happy because she was alive, and the simplest happy thing could make her day better. A new feeling of respect grew in his heart for the mare, and he was about to comment when Pinkie had a mischievious look in her eyes.

"TAG! You're it!"

Pinkie bounced/dashed out the barn door without a stop.

"Oh, Pinkie Pie. You're so random," Spike said, before running out the door to give chase.

---

Yeah, this chapter's short, but it and the next part of Party Spike Anthem are mostly just filler anyway. I've started working on how I want the rest of the story to go. One more arc and then wedding time. I've got a rough outline of how it's going to go. It'll be similar to the canon wedding plot wise.

Also, the wedding arc will be huge. I'm going to try and detail everything and even include focus on the Mane 6 for once instead of just Spike's perspective. They could have easily made the wedding into a full length movie and I'm going to try and capture that and also fill a couple of plot holes that make no sense to me.

Thirdly. It was recently my 21st birthday. Help me celebrate by reviewing. I really hope I got Pinkie Pie's character right. I've turned Spike into something of an author avatar and a lot of what he thinks about the cast is what I think. Obviously. You guys probably caught that. Anyways, tell me what you all think, and the next chapter should be up in a few days! Next chapter is where Spike gets his groove on with the Apple Family! And yes. This means Braeburn. Who is best pony.

Sorry this took so long. My laptop's hard drive quit on me and I lost everything.

---

Spike looked at the pony with an odd expression. He remembered her from somewhere, most likely the last Apple Reunion he had attended. Applejack had introduced so many ponies that day, and with the preparations for the ceremony and the Nightmare Moon incident, most of the names seemed to escape him. It made him feel rather bad. They had all been nice to him every time he'd seen an Apple, and the farming family had some kind of member in nearly every city in Equestria. Given what he now knew, the Apples were a very prominent family, something that their simple demeanors and kind actions seemed at odds with. Granny Smith had been involved with Ponyville's founding as a town, where it had originally just been a small village with farmland and a trading post. Without the Apples, it turned out, there were several cities that wouldn't simply exist, not as they were now. Appleoosa was just the most recent example of the Apple family's hand in shaping Equestria.

It made sense to Spike. While it wasn't as obvious as unicorn magic, or pegasus weather manipulation, earth ponies had the magic to make things grow. Spike had learned a lot about pony magic living with Twilight Sparkle, and if there was one thing he knew, it was that magic didn't always work the way one expected it to. While most people thought that earth ponies only could grow crops, Spike wasn't ready to limit it like that.

Maybe growing magic wasn't just limited to crops. Maybe it grew anything, from smiles and friendships that could withstand any hardship, to business empires and towering cities that changed the courses of history.

Spike broke from his musings. He could think later. This was a party. It had good music, good food, and the Apple Family and his friends. More importantly, it was a chance to relax. He hadn't realized just how tired the last few weeks had made him until his game with Pinkie Pie this morning.

He had literally been able to catch her, and his tired and stiff muscles had protested anytime he tried to increase his speed. Spike had become quite winded from the game of tag while Pinkie Pie seemed to be entirely unfazed. The party pony took pity on the dragon, though, and they relaxed at her home for a little bit while Pinkie got ready for the party. Spike mostly vegetated and read through a cookbook left on Pinkie's kitchen counter. He had never actually read through one before. While his digestive abilities left him an extreme omnivore of sorts, he'd never been too fond of all the vegetables ponies ate. Sweets, however, were amazing to him, and this book was full of them. In fact, Pinkie walked out from her bathroom as soon as his stomach made a loud hungry roar. The party pony had laughed at him and Spike had joined as it had been pretty funny.

Pinkie had offered to cook something for him, but Spike declined the offer. They justified that the Apple family would have enough food at the party to feed an army. As Pinkie Pie was ready for the party, the pair left and began heading to the barn. There had been still another hour or so before the other girls would be done with Applejack's distraction at the spa, so they took their time and helped the Apple family put the finishing touches on the party decorations.

Applejack had been quite surprised to see her entire family and actually very happy. She instantly started going around the crowd made of mostly earth ponies giving out hugs and mingling.

And now Spike was here, talking to a mare whose name he couldn't remember. She had a green mane and a yellow coat and three pie looking things as a cutie mark. Or maybe they were fritters? OH! Apple Fritter! Excitement welled up in the dragon as he remembered the mare. She had been talking about her bakery in Phillydelphia. Spike hadn't been listening very intently, just enough to be able to follow the conversation she was having. The mare seemed to be the type that liked to talk more than to listen, so that was fine. Spike had gotten used to ponies coming up to him to talk. After all, he was a dragon and not a usual sight for most ponies. As the townsfolk had gotten more used to him, the citizens of Ponyville had long since slowed the practice, but the first few months had been very busy, social speaking, for the dragon. Appleoosa had been the same except that the buffalo had been even more interested in him, almost to the point of holding him in reverence. It was weird.

The drake grinned, as a song began to play. It was one of his favorites. Spike enjoyed music. Celestia had always made sure the young dragon had a good appreciation for music, giving him piano lessons and more. Granted, his pianos had to be special made, since he had claws instead of hooves. But given that Celestia was, in fact, a ruler of Equestria, she could afford it. Something else he enjoyed was dancing. Moving to a beat, letting his limbs go freely into different directions… it was a freedom he loved, and given his bipedal nature, he was capable of dancing in ways most ponies could not.

It was awesome.

All his fatigue from the recent weeks slowly faded as his head began to bob to the beat, weight dropping from his shoulders. He almost sighed in relief but was too into the music as he began to dance. He began to spin and jump, bouncing around to the rhythm. He let the music guide him and danced away his cares.

Soon the song ended and he broke from his trance to see the large farming family staring at him. The purple dragon just smiled nervously and shrugged sheepishly. Everypony looked fairly amused, but in a good way. A few of them hollered their approval of his moves, and Spike felt a little more at ease. The stares had made him feel rather hot under his scales. He did his best to fade away from the spotlight into the crowd. Literally. Somepony had actually shined a spotlight on him while he was dancing. While backing up into the large group of ponies, he happened to bumped into a pink mass that was mostly known as Pinkie Pie. She put her left foreleg around Spike's shoulder and grinned as she pulled him close.

"This is a great party, huh?" the mare said happily.

Spike nodded. While he wasn't having the greatest of times, he was still having some fun. Even if he felt awkward about his little dance after the fact, it had been fun and getting to see some of his favorite non-Ponyville resident Apples was nice. The food was nothing short of amazing (as it was Apple family down home-cookin', and naturally delicious) and the party was above all enjoyable, it just felt lacking in something.

"It's pretty nice. You did a great job Pinkie!" the dragon said. It was a good party, as per Pinkie's usual work quality. The pink pony beamed and hugged Spike. She got back down on all fours and nudged her head toward the barn door.

"Come on Spike! The girls and I have a surprise for you!"

Spike raised an eyebrow. Now that… that was interesting. A small part of him, a part he knew to be his dragonic instincts rising up in anticipation for what was possibly a gift. He mercilessly squashed it, not wanting to even risk going into another greed-growth. The purple dragon was more than content to grow naturally, or at least he thought his recent growth was natural. He had no idea. Shaking his head, he followed Pinky outside. Waiting for him were his six friends, all smiling at him. On a table sat a cake with various gems decorating it.

Rarity went over to him and gave him a large hug, and his other friends were quick to follow. Spike flushed slightly from the attention and he shyly chuckled.

"Thanks girls, and not that I'm not grateful for the cake or anything, but… what's the occasion? It's not my birthday or something is it?"

Pinkie Pie spoke up.

"Of course not silly, your birthday isn't for another 177 days!" Spike and the mares looked at Pinkie Pie in silence for a moment, then went on like nothing happened. Rarity spoke up next.

"You see, darling, you've been working so hard to help Twilight, Fluttershy and I out the last few weeks and we've been horribly unappreciative of it…"

Fluttershy smiled at the dragon and continued.

"So we decided to do something nice for you."

Twilight's horn glowed with magic as a camera was levitated towards them.

"Since we don't have any pictures of you being more grown up like you are, I figure now's a good time as any to take a picture. So everyone strike a pose!"

The ponies and dragon huddled together for the picture, and Spike felt warm on the inside. His smile was small, but the look in his eyes would speak volumes of his feelings. His dragonic instincts wanted a gift… well… to him, the gift of his friends was a gift that was unequaled.

His friends meant everything to him, and he'd do anything for them. Anything they would ever need, and he'd be there for them through any kind of weather, though thick or thin, in sickness and in hea-

"So! Let's quit being sentimental and party!" The pink pony said, and she started to dance wildly. Spike smiled.

Oh Pinkie Pie.

---

Um, so here it is! Sorry it took so long! But I'm back now! I totally forgot what arc I had planned after this and the information was on my laptop's hard drive, which you guys probably know by now that I fried. So, I'm gonna start work on the wedding chapters now. And unlike this arc, I have a metric crap ton of ideas for the wedding. So expect the first couple of chapters here in the next few weeks. As per usual, if you have ideas, questions or comments leave a review!

I hated Party Spike Anthem. Just so we're all clear. That last chapter was sort of a warm-up, an attempt to clear out the cobwebs and grease the gears. I debated a dozen or more times to just skip it and come back later but I wouldn't let myself. I like trying to work through the bad and it usually helps. But now, it's time, ladies and gents. The moment I've waited months to start working on. Wedding Time. Brace yourselves. An attempt at awesome is incoming.

---

It had seemed a great day for a picnic, Twilight had thought. She and the girls had decided to meet up on the weekend, none of them having much in the way of plans. The date was something of Rainbow Dash's idea. The mares usually let the pegasus plot out the best times to meet together as a group with Twilight. With the unicorn's ability to plan out and Rainbow Dash's intimate knowledge of the forecast, the mares often planned great outdoor get-togethers. Pinkie Pie or Applejack would bring snacks and Fluttershy and Rarity would bring furniture. Each of the ponies had their own part to bring to making their picnics the best. Sometimes they would bring their pets, sometimes they'd just talk about their week.
Today was not going to be one of those days, however.

In the Ponyville Library, an incredibly large and magical tree that was hollowed out to have a home and library inside of it, a young purple dragon was hard at work. His size- now able to stand on his back legs and reach a slight height about Twilight Sparkle- had been a boon with helping out in the library. Now he was able to easily reach places where he required the assistance of a ladder just months ago. The places he couldn't reach were easily accessed by a combination of strength, agility and dexterity. Spike would climb and flip and jump around the library like a spring. This took less time and gave him a great workout. The idea had been Rainbow Dash's, actually.

She had been there with Twilight to discuss Daring Do's latest book which Dash had finally managed to finish. Twilight was finally glad to have someone other than him to discuss literature with, even if it was a book for a younger audience like the Daring Do series was. Spike listened to the mares talk while he worked, reaching for books to put back into place. It had actually been kind of fun. They were going on about Daring Do and it's deeper meaning and other things, but Twilight was also trying to hint at other books, trying to get the rainbow pegasus to broaden her literary horizons. Rainbow, to her credit, was playing a very good evasive game, sticking to guns and talking about her written idol. It was surprising to hear just how much she had to say about the series and was a good reminder for the dragon-and for Twilight for that matter- that while Rainbow Dash was not an avid scholar and was most definitely an athlete, she was not dumb.

While the two ponies verbally sparred while gushing over a book, Spike began to reach up for places he had trouble by climbing up bookshelves. As he climbed them, Rainbow Dash's attention shifted toward him as he worked. When he finished, the pegasus had come up with a plan to help him get better at his jobs and help him to get used to his new size.
So, he started to make a workout of his job, like she had for moving clouds, trying to get faster and faster at it while maintaining quality of work. Organizing books was MUCH harder when it became a workout but it was much more fun than it had been when it had only been a chore.

So for the last three weeks, Spike had been waking up a bit earlier in the mornings to workout with Rainbow Dash. He'd jog, sometimes on all fours and sometimes on his back legs. They did other stuff as well, but he wasn't sure exactly what a lot of the exercises were called. Dash usually just performed an exercise routine and helped Spike to make the workouts work for him as best as the two could figure out. Given that she had wings that he didn't while his tail functioned as a limb instead of being mostly just hair, they were doing pretty good. He didn't really enjoy the exercise or the soreness after but he did enjoy the results so far. He wasn't fast enough to keep up with Dash while they were on the ground yet but he was much faster than when he had been in his smaller body.

Finished with his job, Spike dropped to the floor and smiled. He had the rest of the day off and his new bed was screaming his name. With a relaxed grin, the dragon sighed.

"What's that bed? You want me to come lay in you? I'm coming… no worr-URP!"

A burst of green flame erupted from his mouth and a piece of parchment formed from the flames.

"A letter? Huh. Wonder what it says?"

He unrolled the parchment and began to read, and his jaw dropped.

"Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and-"

Spike's eyes widened as he read the name of the groom. Shining Armor was getting… married? This was the first he had heard of it, and that was NOT a good sign. Twilight couldn't possibly know what was going on, or else she'd have told him. While he wasn't as close as Twilight Sparkle was to the Captain of the guard, Spike still looked up to Shining Armor as a big brother figure. It was hard not to. The stallion was kind, caring, and fiercely protective, a textbook case of a perfect big brother. Twilight had even told him that his cutie mark formed when he was scaring off a bully from messing with her. It hurt his feelings that he hadn't known about this, so he knew it would crush Twilight. He looked regretfully towards his bed, his large comfy and inviting bed.

His nap would have to wait. Spike rolled the parchment up, found Twilight's saddlebag, and put the letter in it. Swinging it on his shoulders, the dragon ran out the door.

---

Pinkie Pie was pouring tea for the group while Twilight levitated the food out of the baskets in front of the other mares and herself. Rainbow Dash eyed the food, Fluttershy admired the butterflies floating around, and Rarity was simply enjoying the grand weather.

"Rainbow Dash, you have simply just outdone yourself with the weather today!"

The weather pony nodded and smiled as she picked up her sandwich.

"It is simply gorgeous out. Just gorgeous!" the white unicorn said with a warm smile. The rest of the ponies all agreed as they began to dig into their food and drink.

Spike, on the other hand, was sprinting as he headed for the location Twilight had picked out for the picnic. It was a pretty little field next to a little used road surrounded by beautiful trees and gently rolling hills. There was even a small stream flowing near the spot, which, it turned out, happened to be right in front of him. Spike grinned, feeling a bit brave and daring. He had more than enough room before he would get to the stream, so the dragon got down onto all fours. It was still a rush to him how much more speed he could get with four legs and he could understand at these moments why Rainbow Dash loved going fast. Letting his instincts take him, he jumped over the ditched and landed on his front legs, before using the momentum to make him roll. With his tail tucked, he pushed off the ground with it as hard as he could to throw him into another burst of speed as he regained a bipedal stance. The dragon laughed at the exhilarating feeling and at the feeling of accomplishment he felt from the successful stunt. He actually came to a halt to look back and admire the small span of stream and what he had done. With a shake of his head, the purple drake got back into a jog, the ponies that he sought just ahead.

With a large grin, the dragon slowed down to a walk as he greeted his friends with a lazy wave.

"Well, howdy there, Spike. Twilight said you weren't comin'!" Applejack said with a bright smile. Spike, who still had the exhilaration from his stunt pumping through his veins, had a fairly large smile on his face as well.

"Oh, well, I'm not actually here to stay. I actually need to talk to Twilight about something. It's very important and it involves her- URP!" Spike said, before belching out more flames. The second letter left him confused. Maybe it was from Shining Armor telling Twilight about the wedding personally? He wouldn't know until it was read. Before he could grab it, Twilight seized it with her magic, and began to read it. As she read it, the various ponies it addressed had their own positive reactions while Twilight became more and more confused. Spike took the opportunity to catch Rarity during her "fainting spell" but didn't have time for a witty pick up line before Twilight finished it.

"I don't get it, who's getting married?"

Spike sighed and reluctantly dug into his saddlebag, pulling out the parchment. Twilight frowned as she read it out loud for the girls to hear.

"My brother?"

Spike winced slightly; the confusion in her voice was obvious. The dragon could see the hurt starting to form in her eyes. It confirmed Twilight not knowing about the wedding in the worst way. The girls began congratulating her, but Spike could tell that the purple unicorn was quickly replacing her confusion with anger. He got the mental image of Shining Armor cowering in a tiny ball while facing down Twilight in her "flaming unicorn of doom" mode and suppressed the urge to laugh. This was a serious matter and his closest friend in the world was hurting like crazy. Twilight began to explain to the girls what exactly made her so angry about it and exactly what Shining Armor really meant to her. He could tell that she was doing her best not to cry remembering things. Her brother had been there for almost everything in her life. The only major event of her childhood that he'd missed was her entrance exam to the Canterlot School of Magic, and that was because he had been in basic training.

Granted, Spike thought objectively, that had been where their closeness began to dissipate. With the stallion in the military and Twilight enrolled as the Princess's personal student, their time together became less frequent. But no so much that Shining Armor wouldn't have told Twilight about it.

And just who was Mi Amore Cadenza?

Cadenza… Cadenza… Mi Amore Cadenza… The name sounded familiar. But the only other princess he knew with a name even close to that was Cadence. Spike didn't want to even think about that. Before Rarity had come along, Spike had had a crush on the pink princess. Who wouldn't? She was wonderful and very pretty as well. It probably wasn't, though, so there was nothing to worry about.

Besides, his heart belonged to Rarity.

---

So after a day of getting things ready for a long term trip, the girls, Spike, and Peewee found themselves on a train heading to Canterlot. Twilight was sitting and moping, staring out a window, Rarity was pouring over a design book, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were talking about food preparations, and Rainbow Dash was sleeping.

This left Fluttershy and Spike alone to talk.

"Do you know much about Shining Armor?" Fluttershy said quietly. Spike looked at her in surprise. He really wasn't used to his opinion on things being craved when he was around the group in a whole. Maybe it was because he was bigger? Or because he had pushed himself so hard to help everypony through their problems? He had no idea. The dragon nodded his head.

"Well, Shining Armor is probably the closest thing to the perfect big brother, ever. He's smart, funny, protective and loyal. He's not as powerful as Twilight, but he's still got pretty powerful magic and he's strong. He's the captain of the Canterlot guard, and the youngest pony to ever reach that rank. Twilight's right to be confused. It isn't like him to not include her in something, especially this big of an event. We didn't know anything."

The shy pegasus nodded. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, before Fluttershy piped back up.
"So, um… Spike… you said that you wanted to show us all your favorite places when we came here for the Gala, but we never got around to doing that," she said, looking at the ground. Spike tilted his head, not really understanding where she was going with that, and then he shrugged.

"Yeah, I know a lot of places around Canterlot. Princess Celestia raised me and all, and she would take me and Twilight out to different places, and sometimes it was just me and the Princess. Her niece would sit me for her, too, and she'd take me out to see things in Canterlot too. It's really great, but a lot different than Ponyville. I'd love to show you and the girls around, but Rarity has seen a lot of it and I don't think the rest of you would be that interested," the dragon stated, frowning. At the Gala, he'd been excited to show the girls around and to tell them more about him, but they were more focused on the Gala. Now that he was more mature, he knew a little better now.

Fluttershy seemed to shrink for some reason, before squeaking out some words near inaudibly.

Spike raised an eyebrow.

"Come again?"

She squeaked, a little louder but still unrecognizable.

Spike sighed, and Fluttershy seemed to try and calm down.

"I said, I'd like to see them. It sounds… nice."

The dragon's jaw dropped, but he quickly recovered. Spike grinned widely, filled with a lot of excitement. Sure, he was used to ponies expressing a vague interest in what he did, but Fluttershy was actually his friend. He had always wanted to show his friends more about himself.

Looks like he'd finally get the chance.

---

Well, as promised, part one of the Canterlot Wedding is a go. As usual, feel free to comment, speculate, and/or critique, as your feedback is what helps me make this story better.

Well, I can't say I'm not depressed. I was kinda hoping for at least one review. I hate to sound like a review whore, but come on. Seeing those things really does inspire me to write more, ya know? Just saying good job makes me feel better about it. Eh. Whatever. I guess I know people are reading, so I guess I'll keep writing.

---

The train pushed on, with the group making small talk. Well, everyone except Twilight Sparkle. The lavender unicorn mare was sitting away from them, angrily staring at the purple force field that encased Canterlot as it came closer and closer. Spike waited for the conversation to drift away from him and went over to his oldest friend.

Without a word, Spike placed his hand on Twilight's back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, Twi. We'll find out why he didn't tell us."

Twilight huffed angrily, and then slumped her shoulders with depression.

"I guess Shining Armor is every bit as much your big brother as he is mine, huh?" She asked, trying to force a smile. Spike went to sit in the seat in front of Twilight's, so he could look at her.

"Not as much. He's more important to you, but you're important to me, Twilight. And if you're upset,

then I'm upset. I'm your number one assistant and you're my oldest friend. I mean, yeah, him not telling us hurts my feelings, but I hate you being hurt more than anything. We'll figure this out together, okay?"

Twilight smiled sweetly and reached over to wrap her assistant into a hug.

"You're the best, Spike."

Spike returned the hug.

"I know!"

Twilight laughed quietly, feeling a little bit better thanks to her assistant. Twilight got up from her seat and went over to her friends, and they all began to chatter amongst themselves about the wedding plans. Spike chuckled at the level of excitement in the cart as even Twilight got into it.

"Well, if you ladies are going to help with the big fancy wedding, I suppose that since I'm the only other guy, I get to plan the bachelor party," the dragon said, a sly grin on his face, "but I've got just one question. What's a bachelor party?"

The girls all laughed at him while Twilight rolled her eyes. Spike laughed along with them, but inside, he was actually a bit nervous.

He knew exactly what a bachelor party was. It was generally portrayed as a night of drunken debauchery. Dragons might age due to magical reasons, but ponies aged by years and technically Spike wasn't old enough to arrange a proper party. He didn't want to have to dummy anything down for Shining Armor- provided he didn't set the Captain of the Guard on fire for hurting Twilight's feelings. That gave him a little time to figure out something. Being who he was, he had a lot of contacts in Canterlot. Being raised by Celestia had its perks, naturally, and he knew a lot of ponies. However, he didn't know how he would go about using those contacts in this situation. He would have to think of something, though. He doubted Twilight would approve of him using their funds for such an event, even for Shining Armor- probably ESPECIALLY not for Shining Armor.

It would have to wait for later. He also had to figure out where he was taking Fluttershy. He didn't think she'd enjoy a lot of places in the city being, well, shy. The upper-class ponies that lived there, especially most of the unicorns, could be very rude to a sweet little wallflower like the pegasus and Spike didn't want her to get upset. Mostly because an upset Fluttershy was either the most heartbreaking thing anyone could see, or else it would bring out the scary side of Fluttershy that could stare down a cockatrice and lay a smack down to a bear.

Deciding that neither situation would be optimal, Spike just decided to stick to the quieter places he knew of and maybe a tour of the Royal Garden. Spike was friends with the animals, and hopefully he could convince them to give the pegasus a second chance. He'd have to decide during the date.

Spike paled at his thoughts. Date? Where had that come fro-

The dragon noticed he was no longer in the train, but the white void in which he hadn't seen in quite some time. Looking around for the companion he knew to expect, he was surprised to see the green dragon in the air, flying around on the leathery wings he had seen on other dragons. The dreamdragon flew down and landed in front of Spike.

It had changed since the last time he had seen it. Where it had been keeping the form of a baby dragon, now it was a teen dragon much like himself and its tail was a bit longer. The biggest change though, was that Spike was one hundred percent sure that the dream dragon was decidedly female, the subtle curves reminiscent of those he had seen in some of the female dragons on the Migration.

Dreamy smiled, confident and strangely powerful.

"It's been a while, Spike. How are you?"

Spike looked into the purple eyes of the dragon and tilted his head.

"Confused? It kinda makes sense when you think about it. I'm the opposite of you in appearance, silly.

Why didn't you think it would extend to gender?" Dreamy said with a giggle.

Spike shrugged. It made about as much sense as anything else that had to do with the green dragon. It wasn't that big of a deal to him. According to Rarity, males were terrible about getting in touch with their feminine side. His feminine side actively introduced herself.

"So what strange power or random cryptic riddle-slash-fact of life have you come to deliver now?" Spike said, getting straight to the point. He had more important things to worry about than whatever weirdness that was his subconscious… or whatever she was.

The dreamdragon pouted.

"Can't a girl just call for a chat? Maybe I just missed my widdle Spikey-wikey! You never come visit me anymore," she said, crocodile tears welling up in her eyes. Spike raised an eyebrow at the other dragon's behavior.

Dreamy laughed, noting Spike's confusion.

"Oh, calm down Spike. I'm just trying to have a little fun with you. You're the one that's taking your boss on a date. Don't you know you shouldn't date coworkers? It can end badly!"

Spike sputtered out a denial, a blush on his cheeks.

"A- a date? I'm taking her out around Canterlot, that's all!"

"Taking her out, huh? How's that not a date? A date, by definition, is an engagement to go out socially with another individual, often out of romantic interest, yes?" The dreamdragon had a playful look in her eyes, enjoying teasing Spike.

The purple dragon glared at the green one, who burst out laughing.

"Lighten up. I'm just teasing. But still, keep in mind; you're going to be hanging out with a mare that was a supermodel at one time. You're moving on up in the world."

Spike groaned, starting to lose patience with his counterpart.

"Look, I've got things to do. Can you please get to the point?"

The dreamdragon shrugged.

"You're no fun, Spikey-wikey. Okie dokie, I feel as if I should let you know that according to your memory, which as the representative of your subconscious I have full access to, you should know that Shining Armor is getting married to Princess Cadence, the mare that babysat you and foal-sat Twilight Sparkle. You might not remember it clearly, but you've heard her full name before."

Spike pouted for a moment. Cadence was his first crush, naturally, so it was a bit hard on the poor dragon to find that out. However, he perked up. Twilight adored Cadence like an older sister as it was, so once she found that out, the unicorn would be much happier about this wedding. The thing was, though, that that made Shining Armor not telling Twilight about the wedding that much more confusing.

There was something fishy going on here.

Dreamy had a small, sagely grin on her face as realization dawned on Spike's face.

"Why do I get the vague feeling there's something really bad about to happen?"

Spike's subconscious shrugged.

"No clue. But you need to be on your guard, Spike. Be careful. And keep the Elements of Harmony out of trouble. You've taken it on yourself to protect them, so do it. Good luck!" The dreamdragon's tone went from serious to "Pinkie-Pie-On-A-Sugar-Rush" by the end of the sentence as she threw out a cutesy wave.

Spike blinked-

The girls were all where they had been when he'd left. It was if time hadn't passed at all.

He'd never get used to that.

---

The train had finally made it to the shield around Canterlot. It slowed as it passed through the purple force field. The Elements and Spike all shuddered as the wave of magic passed through them. Twilight and Spike shared a worried look. They had passed through Shining Armor's shield before, but it had almost never been that thick. This bothered Spike, who felt it only confirmed that not all was as it seemed in Canterlot. Maybe it had something to do with wedding security? The dragon had no way of knowing until they got there. The train finally stopped, and the group got off of it.

They expected guards. There were always guards posted at the train stations. The trains brought in the majority of Canterlot's tourism, as well as what brought in the most supplies. They were essential to Canterlot's commerce and were almost as well protected as the castle was itself. What the ponies and dragon didn't expect, however, was the sheer number of them present.

"Woah," Spike said, walking off the train with his jaw dropped. He looked around nervously at the guards who were literally everywhere. Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi all were there, and they armed to the teeth and covered in armor, completely battle ready. The dragon's suspicions were almost confirmed. This could just be wedding security. After all, the sheer number of ponies that would be there to watch would require a large amount of protection. Given how high profile the bride and groom were, it made sense to have even more protection for them, though he would have figured a fairly powerful unicorn and an alicorn princess wouldn't need much in the way of protection.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were right behind him, also struck by the number of soldiers. The pegasus spoke up first.

"What's with all the guards? "

"I'm sure they're just taking the necessary precautions. It is a royal wedding after all, and royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies, you know," Rarity answered. As if on cue, Pinkie sneezed out a burst of colorful confetti. The rest of the ponies exited the train with similar uneasy looks at the guards. The townsfolk were simply not used to seeing so many armed ponies at once. Rarity recovered first.

"All right, let's get going! We have work to do!"

The mares began walking towards town, but Applejack had stayed behind with Spike and Twilight. As the only other pony with a big brother, she definitely seemed to sympathize with Twilight over this issue.

"And you got a big brother to go congratulate!" Applejack said, her tone caring and somewhat encouraging. Spike could tell that she wanted Twilight to confront her brother, but also to do it without the anger she had in her heart. He thought back to Hearts and Hooves day where Big Mac and Cherilee had been under some love spell and wondered just how much Applejack understood how Twilight felt. Come to think of it, maybe he should spend some time on the Sweet Apple Acres farm and get to know the farm ponies better. Applejack was definitely the wisest and consistently the most mature of her friends and Big Mac he had heard was even more so.

The young dragon nodded, and Twilight sighed is sadness, before a small fire appeared in her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna congratulate him alright. And then give him a piece of my mind. Spike, go get our room at the palace ready."

Spike frowned. He wanted to go with Twilight to support her and to find out himself just what was up. Dreamy had planted a fairly large seed of doubt about this whole situation. That and he really would like to see Shining Armor again, but, he was still Twilight's assistant. Her wish was more or less his command, so he nodded again.

"Twilight? Don't teleport him to the moon or anything."

The lavender mare chuckled in spite of herself as she began heading towards the barracks to search for her brother, passing her friends.

The group of girls turned back to look at the dragon, who shrugged.

"Well, gals, we have a wedding ta plan. Twilight can handle 'er brother. She's a grown mare."

Spike walked behind the girls, his mind lost in thought and memories. It had been a while since he'd been to Canterlot. The last time had included him "sneaking" into the palace with Twilight for what turned out to be no reason and they hadn't really stayed long. While he loved Ponyville and the people that lived there dearly, Canterlot was where he was born and raised. As they went down the streets, many of the ponies there were casting looks at him, looking a bit fearful. It kind of hurt, but he understood. He did look a bit more fierce looking than he had those months ago at the Dragon Migration, and since he had been gone for so long, ponies would have a harder time recognizing him as the little dragon that once followed their Princess and her student around everywhere.

The group finally made its way to the palace. One of the guards came up to them and offered to show them all to their rooms, and naturally the girls all agreed. After all, only Rarity had really stayed here long enough to learn her way around the palace. Spike followed them, mostly just so he would know where they were staying. Rarity ended up in the room she had stayed in previously, and Spike noted that it came fully stocked for her dressmaking needs. Rainbow Dash's room was next to it, with a large open balcony that she could fly out of. Dash walked in and hopped onto her bed. Pinkie Pie's room was a bit further down the corridor they were in. It was as simple as Rainbow Dash's room, but Pinkie Pie was excited nonetheless. The party pony shrieked in joy and pulled out a suitcase from… well, Spike wasn't sure. As she opened it, various pieces of furniture spilled out of it in perfect locations while the rest of the group watched with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

After a few seconds, they all shrugged as they quietly left Pinkie to decorate.

Applejack ended up getting a room closer to the kitchens so she could be close to them to organize them. The earth pony barely looked at it before nodding and excusing herself. She was going to go round up the Apple family in Canterlot so she could prepare. Finally, Fluttershy's room was fairly close to Twilight and his own. It had its own balcony and was fairly large in size, likely to accommodate her bird choir. The shy pegasus walked into her room, Spike following to check things out.

"Well, the birds will like it. Plenty of room to stretch their wings and all!" Spike said with a small grin. Fluttershy smiled brightly and nodded as she scoped out her room. It would be a few more hours before her birds got there and her luggage was on its way up. She seemed satisfied with the room, and turned to Spike. The dragon figured now was as good of a time as any, and asked a question.

"So, Fluttershy… where did you want to go tomorrow? And when? I figure we could go grab lunch. I figure we'll all be busy after tomorrow when all of our things get here and get settled, but I could show you some places at lunch!"

Fluttershy looked down at the floor and pawed at it with her left hoof.

"Um. Anywhere's fine. You know Canterlot better…"she said quietly (even by Fluttershy standards), and she looked a bit nervous.

Spike smiled excitedly.

"I know the perfect places! OOOH! We're gonna have lots of fun! Anyway, I'd love to stay and talk, but I need to get Twilight's room ready and see the Princess!" With a skip in his step, Spike ran out the door and up to Twilight's room, excited to finally get to show at least one of his Ponyville friends around.

---

Review please?

Spike opened the door to his and Twilight's old room. It had been so long since he had been home. Everything looked so much smaller to him but the nostalgic musty scent of old books was still strong. It was clean and organized in only the way Twilight could organize things. With a grin, he looked at his little bed underneath the window and realized just how much bigger he had gotten. Walking around, he made his way to the old bookshelf where he took out the book that contained the legend of Nightmare Moon, flipping through it as he remembered the events that led him to Ponyville and all the things that had happened since. The dragon laughed quietly as he put the book back and looked outside. Already, Rainbow Dash was flying around in the sky, likely trying to figure out where the best places to start up for her Rainboom would be given the magic bubble shield's constricting walls.

Or, knowing Dashie like he did, trying to find a nice cloud to sleep on.

The dragon felt an odd tingling in his shoulders, one that he had been feeling for a long time. Every dragon he had ever seen had wings. He longed to soar in the clouds, racing in the winds next to Rainbow Dash, playing with the birds next to Fluttershy, and floating alongside Pinkie Pie whenever she was using one of her various contraptions to fly. Maybe he could fly Twilight to Canterlot once he was big enough; she didn't see the Princess or her family much at all anymore.

But he couldn't fly. He could, however, teleport objects with his fire breath, which was still pretty cool.

---

Spike found himself, about a half hour later, getting a hug from the Sun Princess herself, something she had never quite been able to do before with the large difference between his former height and hers.

"My goodness, Spike. You've certainly… grown."

Spike was wise enough to realize that she spoke with a very slight edge of caution in her voice. The dragon was sure she had heard about his rampage through Ponyville, and given her relationship with Twilight Sparkle, the details before it. Which, naturally, happened to be the rapid growth spurt born by greed. Spike understood the hesitation, but he wouldn't lie. It did kind of hurt. He smiled reassuringly, though.

"No worries, Princess! It's all natural this time! I promise that the only time you'll hear the words 'Spike want' is when I make it down to Joe's Doughnut Shop for doughnut happy hour!"

The pair laughed, Celestia noticeably relaxing a bit. The Sun Princess and the dragon were both out on the balcony where Celestia kept her magical telescope. She had been on it when Spike joined her, searching around frantically.

Now that he thought about it, he'd never seen her use the telescope that heavily, but the air felt charged with the physical deity's magical power as if she had been using it to boost the telescope's capabilities. With that in mind, he frowned.

"All right, I've eased your worries, maybe you can ease mine some. What's with all the security?" Spike asked. He was fairly grateful for his enhanced senses and the dreamdragon that haunted his psyche. He really had matured over the months. Last year, he wouldn't have really even noticed the extra security and wouldn't have thought much about it due to sheer naivety.

Celestia turned to look at her city, a grim look on her face.

"Not too long ago, we received a threat. A message appeared one night in my throne room, revealing inside information very few ponies could possibly know about the inner workings of the city guard and other details. As you know now, my niece Cadence and Twilight's brother are getting married very soon, and I have lived long enough to know that such things are no coincidence. I've had Shining Armor producing his barrier magic, almost nonstop for two weeks. I feel horrible for it, but Shining Armor is the only one that can produce the shield at the power it is now. Even I cannot mimic a pony's special talent magic. I fear that it's putting a strain on him, though."

Spike's brow furrowed, in worry. This was troubling. But that didn't explain why they hadn't received notice about the wedding beforehand. Shining Armor wouldn't have hidden it from his sister unless there was something else going on. Looking at his mother-figure, the dragon decided to voice his question.

"So why… didn't we know about the wedding earlier? If the threat only came a week ago, Cadence and Armor should have sent word to Twilight ages ago."

Celestia had an answer, though.

"To be honest, it surprised me. Shining Armor only proposed two weeks ago. They have been together since a few months before you and Twilight left for Ponyville, but for the wedding to be as rushed as it is… The enthusiasm of youth, I suppose. The two are deeply in love, after all. It's rather adorable."

Spike smiled and nodded. That made a little more sense now, he supposed.

The Sun Pony and the dragon made some more small talk until Celestia needed to return her focus to her duties. Spike excused himself, and headed back to his room to contemplate all that had happened today. And figure out what he was going to do with Fluttershy. And see if Twilight Sparkle had, in an act of sisterly rage, teleported her big brother into some strange alternate dimension where everyone was gender switched and he was some kind of female dragon named Barbara.

"I gotta stop reading before I go to sleep."

A quiet, feminine chuckle echoed through his mind as he waited for his oldest companion's return.

---

As it turns out, Twilight had had quite an interesting experience with both her brother and her sister-in-law-to-be. Shining Armor did indeed show signs of stress, manifesting in the form of what Twilight said to be headaches. Spike knew from personal experience with Twilight what magical exhaustion could do to a pony, as the young unicorn had often overestimated her stamina when it came to her magic in her early years learning from Celestia. Magical exhaustion was a pain in the rear, and thankfully he'd never had it due to his own magic being contained to magical fire breath. That wasn't the weird part, though. The odd thing was apparently Princess Cadence's behavior. From what Twilight said, her personality had shifted a full 180 degrees and in the worst possible way. She insisted on being called by her name, Miamore Cadenza, for one. She was fairly cold and outright almost mean to Twilight as well. That wasn't like her. Not at all.

The two talked about it and while Twilight seemed to just think she had grown into some evil mare trying to take her brother away from him, Spike uneasily reassured her that ponies sometimes did change like that. Maybe she had had something happen to her in the months they had been away from Canterlot and she was stressed out to the max. While it seemed to be the most logical reason for the personality change, and logic being something that Twilight held above all else most times, it didn't sit right with dragon nor unicorn.

"There's just… too much going on for it to be a coincidence. From what you heard and noticed about Princess Celestia and what I learned about Cadence- excuse me, 'Miamore Cadence', and my brother… it kind of seems too much to just be a coincidence," Twilight said, a frown marring her face. Spike nodded.

"I kind of feel you're right, but I don't even want to think about something attacking Canterlot, and even If Cadence has something to do with it, you can't go accusing her of it without rock solid proof. Princess Celestia loves us both dearly, but I don't think she'd appreciate us accusing her niece of planning a coup."

Twilight sighed. She seemed to accept how crazy her theory was sounding and gave it a rest.

The unicorn and dragon made some more small talk, relaxing the unicorn and letting her push aside her crazed suspicions of her former babysitter and now future sister in law. They began planning various details about the wedding, scrapping them, then coming up with different plans in true Twilight brainstorming fashion. Eventually, Twilight came up with a schedule for planning her wedding organization plans over the next couple of days, pressed into the decision by a tiring dragon. The pair eventually drifted off to sleep, leaving an exciting day behind them so they could be ready for the one ahead.

---

Spike opened his eyes and out of practice, looked to see if he was in the usual void that surrounded him when he felt like he did at the moment. There was no void; he was actually in a room and one that he recognized as Rarity's bedroom. Instantly, he got up, removing himself from the red covers as he began to search for his favorite not-oddly-somehow-related-to-him unicorn and found her in the kitchen making a large breakfast. She had her hair in a messy ponytail and had a simple pink apron around her as she hummed a tune, pancakes and fried eggs on the oven. At least it was familiar territory this time and not some cryptic-ish conversation with some odd female hallucination of himself that somehow made him more powerful at the weirdest times. He could deal with dreams of Rarity. Spike was fond of those. Sometimes they were together, like he wanted. Other times they were just hanging out, being friends. They'd work on dresses and suits and just have fun. On occasion, one would be a little more...steamy, but he was a growing male and such things were to be expected. This looked to be a mixture of all three. He deduced- and here he decided that he needed to stop hanging around Twilight so much as he was analyzing a perfectly good dream while still inside it- that he had obviously spent the night in her bed, and she was making breakfast, so that made this sort of romantic. Rarity noticed him and sauntered over to him, kissing him on the cheek.

"Good morning, Spikey-Wikey," the purple maned unicorn said with a wink and a flirty tone, "did you sleep well?"

Deciding to play along and have fun with his lucid dream, he simply nodded cheerfully.

"You're looking lovely this morning, oh most beautiful unicorn in all of Equestria."

The dream-Rarity rolled her eyes with a smile at Spike's cheesy line before returning her attentions to breakfast. He sat at her table and just watched her work. Spike loved to watch her work at anything. To him, Rarity looked amazing at all times, but he was most fond of the intense look she had when she devoted her attention to something and getting that something perfect. Growing up with Twilight had given him an appreciation of what a pony's work ethic could be. Even though it was a dream, or perhaps especially because it was a dream, Spike watched her work. His trance was broken, though, as the unicorn finished cooking. With her magic, plates, cutlery and cups flew out and landed on the table. He noticed, however, that it was set for three. Just as he was about to ask, sudden movement from the arch that connected Rarity's kitchen with the rest of her home caught his eye. A somewhat disheveled Fluttershy stood there, yawning cutely, before noticing Spike. She blushed heavily, squeaked, and dove out of the way.

The implications of this did not go lost on Spike, who's mouth dropped as a blush found its way on his cheeks. Mental images of what could have happened in the night before this dream assaulted him, and then the dragon woke up with a jolt.

---

Spike felt sudden nervousness as he approached Fluttershy's door. The dragon once again realized just how little he saw his friends outside of working with them or as a group and promised himself he would try and do better to remedy that. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was still thinking about that dream or the steamier dreams that came after. Heavens no. Fluttershy was NOT a fixture in his fantasies. She was too sweet and pure for that sort of thing, especially for ones involving the unicorn fashionista.

The dragon growled at his brain which conjured saucy images for him, betraying him.

He did figure he could cut himself some slack. He was for all intents and purposes a teenager, and if dragonic adolescence was anything like equestrian adolescence it was to be expected that his hormones were stronger than he was used to. Taking in a deep breath, he knocked on the door. Waiting for a minute, he heard faint sounds of movement and the door opened. The yellow pegasus stood there.

"Um. Hi Spike! Did you sleep well?"

Spike blushed slightly. Had she read his mind? Oh boy, was this day going to be fun...

---

Hey, guys. I'm sorry about the wait. Hopefully you won't have to wait so long for the next one. It's been a crazy hectic month for me. I had to help smuggle a friend to Texas, work weeks of 60+ hours, and train for a tae kwan do demo. What little time I had free I devoted trying to come up with my own direction to the story and I finally have one. This story will soon take a radical turn which I think you all will like a lot. Basically, I've got a major story arc planned out and it literally starts as soon as RCW is over. There will be new abilities for Spike and even the Mane 6, more background ponies, shipping, new OC's, timeskips, character death, and Braeburn Apple.

Anyways. As for this chapter, I tried to stay as faithful as I could, but I feel as if a more intelligent (and more important to canon) Spike would have been able to be the voice of reason he's supposed to be for Twilight. Seriously, if anyone should have figured out that Cadence wasn't really Cadence, it is Twilight. I mean, just look at her little Sherlock episode with Pinkie. She has detective skills, but she let her emotions get the better of her. Now that she's reigned in her temper a bit, perhaps things will be different? Anyways, read and review, please. Your support is what keeps me writing. This is definitely the longest fanfiction I've ever written, the longest I've stuck with, and the one that I want to be as good as possible. I'm fairly nervous as how the last half of the chapter's going to go over with you all. So yeah... feel free to ask any questions! Just try to make it to where I actually can. While I don't mind unsigned reviews, I can't exactly get back to you, can I?