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!