Friendship is Magic: The Adventures of Spike

by Awesome McCoolname

Chapters

• Spike the Animal Lover Part 1
• Spike the Animal Lover Part 2
• Spike the Animal Lover Part 3
• Spike, 20% Cooler Part 1
• Spike, 20% Cooler Part 2
• Spike, 20% Cooler Part 3
• Party Spike Anthem Part 1
• Party Spike Anthem Part 2
• The Canterlot Wedding Part 1
• The Canterlot Wedding Part 2
• The Canterlot Wedding Part 3
• The Canterlot Wedding Part 4
• The Canterlot Wedding Part 5
• Sneak A Peak
• When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 1)
• When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 2)
• When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 3)
• Spike of (Saddle) Arabia (Part 1)
• Spike of (Saddle) Arabia (Part 2)

Spike the Animal Lover Part 1

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.

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.

Spike the Animal Lover Part 2

-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-

Later, Bronies!

Spike the Animal Lover Part 3

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 dream-dragon.The 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!

Spike, 20% Cooler Part 1

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 face.With 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 gemstones.Sapphire 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.

Spike, 20% Cooler Part 2

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 it.She 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 before.And 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, right?"

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.

- - - - - -

First off, I'd liked to apologize that this chapter is both short and kinda late-ish.

Secondly: Fanboy rant incoming.

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.

Spike, 20% Cooler Part 3

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!

Party Spike Anthem Part 1

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 and I apologize immensely, 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's my 21st birthday. Help me celebrate by commenting/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.

Party Spike Anthem Part 2

I’m actually dancing with joy. I managed to get this old clunker of a desktop working again.  It’s not glorious, but with some TLC, I’ll have it singing like a choir of angels. I actually didn’t expect to have it up and working so soon, but I’m not complaining. I thankfully haven’t even had the time to go to Walmart and grab a notebook to write with, thought that’s partly because I work 12 hours a day. Heh heh.

I can’t say this enough. Thank you all so much for the support and care you all have. I didn’t even care that I finally got a dislike. I’m literally so moved by my fans. I’ve never quite felt a connection to readers before in my previous attempts to write fanfiction. You guys are great.

Now, I can either drone on and on with sentimental nonsense and gush about my feelings, or I can write the chapter. Given that you’re all here for fanfiction, I believe I’m going to go with that second option. Nothing brings me greater joy than to welcome you to the newest chapter of the Adventures of Spike.

- - - - - - - - - - -

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. He had his own theories about the different kinds of pony magic.

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, and especially since this chapter is crap. But the good news is that 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. But I've gotten a job and life is getting a bit better and that's good news for you guys! 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, complaints or comments leave a comment!

See ya!

The Canterlot Wedding Part 1

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.  

The Canterlot Wedding Part 2

Mwhahaha. You guys liked it. You really liked it. Now I have to live up to expectations. Crap. Why did I put effort into that? Oh well, can’t back down now! Thanks for the feedback!

- - - - - -

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 young dragon said.

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.  Applejack sighed and spoke up.

“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.

- - - - - -

Admittedly, this chapter was a bit shippier than I had planned, but even if it looks like a pairing is going to happen, nothing is set in stone. I’m a big fan of shiptease. Um. As far as next chapter or two, things to expect without really spoiling it too much: Spike talking to Celestia, Spike meeting with Shiny, the scene with Spike, AJ, and Twilight in the kitchens, the Flutterspike date, and a cameo of a fan-favorite due to a deal I made with a friend of mine.  

Also: I’m currently looking for an ideal voice actor for Adventures Spike. I’m thinking Yuri Lowenthal would be very fitting for him, but I wanna know what you guys think!

The Canterlot Wedding Part 3

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 taekwando 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 comment below. 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... see ya in the comments!  

The Canterlot Wedding Part 4

Sheesh. Sorry this is so late. Trying to get the time to write this was about as easy as outrunning Pinkie Pie, and trust me on this one, that is NOT easy.  So yeah. Flutterspike date time that’s hopefully not horribly written as I think it is.

Anyways, the countdown to the end of the wedding arc has begun.

- - - - -

Spike couldn’t help feeling nervous as he left the room Fluttershy currently inhabited with the yellow pony. He wasn’t used to being alone with his friends, if he was; it was usually him working with them. He didn’t hang out with them outside of being their assistant. It didn’t help that Fluttershy was fairly attractive and incredibly nice.

He walked closely beside her, mostly in silence. Several times, he would open up his mouth to speak but couldn’t quite work up the courage. When she asked him out- “Not like that, Dreamy,” the dragon muttered under his breath- he had really no idea where to take the shy pegasus that wouldn’t make her uncomfortable. Donut Joe’s was one place, the Royal Gardens were another, but what would a shy animal lover like Fluttershy like in the hustle and bustle of Canterlot?

A familiar voice rang through his head.

“Just do your thing, Spikey-Wikey! She’ll enjoy anything you do with her, I’m sure!”

Caught off guard by the surprisingly straightforward and perfectly sound advice, Spike felt a bit better. If his subconscious/feminine side/ whatever Dreamy was believed in him, then maybe he shouldn’t be so worried!

“But still… there’s something about the shy and cute ones that makes ya just want to do horrible, consensual things to them, huh?”

Spike groaned mentally, and resisted the urge to smack his head into the nearest wall until the brain damage made the world smell like purple.

- - - - -

Memories struck him as he walked into Joe’s Donut shop. One of his earliest memories was Celestia and Twilight coming to indulge in a snack, usually as a reward for Twilight’s progress. He had been much younger at the time, having been out of his egg for only 4 years at the time.  But he was still smart, smart enough to know that donuts were amazing. Sometimes, Celestia would take just him to the donut shop when he did something good, like when he finally learned to breath fire. And someties, just for the joy of spending time together, the princess would bring her two charges here. This simple little donut shop was where he had many good memories, and as he grew older, he would come here to try and feel better, using the taste of donuts and hot cocoa to drown his sorrows. The Gala had been a good example of this. And even that night turned out special, with all of his new friends eventually making their way to the donut shop with Celestia and Twilight. As crummy as the night had been earlier that had made up for it by a lot.

- - - - -

“Hey Joe!”

The donut maker looked up from his work to Spike, and he gave a bright smile after looking confused, which Spike suspected had to do with his growth spurt since he last saw Joe.

“Well look who’s all grown up? Hot cocoa and a chocolate frosting donut with sprinkles?”

It was Spike’s favorite and what he would usually get. Spike nodded and pointed to Fluttershy.

“Whatever the lady here wants as well.”

With Joe’s attention turned on Fluttershy, she shrunk back behind the dragon. Joe had a look of recognition on his face and laughed lightly.

“You’re that pegasus mare from the train that ate the Cake’s entry to the National Dessert Competition. What’ll ya have?”

Fluttershy spoke and mumbled something about having the same thing as Spike, and somehow, Joe understood. He got to work preparing the hot chocolate and warming the donuts up.  Donut Joe’s was fairly empty, most of his customers usually coming in during the morning before work or in the evening. Joe would often use the lull to take care of paper work and prepare donuts for the evening hours, but sometimes he would be able to converse with his customers. It’s how Spike had gotten to know the earth pony that had once been a cook for the Equestrian Army. But that was a story for another time.

Spike and Fluttershy made their way to a table with chairs, sitting down and waiting for their donuts to be finished.

The dragon smiled at Fluttershy, who was a little more ease than she had been on the walk down, probably because of the lack of other ponies in the room. She smiled at him shyly, as Fluttershy was apt to do, and looked around.

“You must really like this place.”

Spike nodded and explained,“The princess used to take me and Twilight here all the time when we were little. Usually it would be if Twilight learned a new spell, or if I did something good, like when I finally learned how to teleport letters by fire!”

Fluttershy looked interested. Spike’s life before Ponyville wasn’t a usual topic he discussed with anypony except Twilight. He’d glossed over his whole life story when Fluttershy asked him that first day, but there weren’t many details in it. Granted, his life in Canterlot had not been nearly as exciting as it was in Ponyville. It was mostly learning next to Twilight Sparkle, and anypony that even knew Twilight in the slightest could guess how fun that was.

Well… it wasn’t too bad. He did learn a lot of information, even if he didn’t care about most of it. He often wondered if there were many dragons out there that knew as much as he did. While the ones he had met hadn’t exactly been the scholarly type, he was sure that there were older, wiser dragons out there. He had hoped. So far, all the dragons he had met were dumb and mean, or obsessed with treasure and mean.  

“Woah. Spike. Rein it in, buddy, you’ve got a hot date!” Dreamy piped up, and Spike instantly focused.

“Right. Hot date. Got it.” Spike mumbled out loud, and instantly blushed. Fluttershy, who hadn’t heard him, looked interested in what he said.

Dang it, Dreamy…

“Um... did you say something, Spike?”

He gulped and started thinking of something to say, but thankfully Joe came in with a save, delivering a tray with two hot cocoa drinks and donuts, two extra.

“The extras are on da house, kid,” the donut maker said with a wink and a smile at his young friend, “since I’ve never seen ya’s come in with just one mare. Have fun on yer date.”

Fluttershy blushed heavily and eeped, trying to make herself smaller, while Spike’s jaw dropped. Joe took this well and began laughing heartily as he made his way back to his counter.

“Haha… Joe… he’s always a kidder. Ha…” the dragon trailed off, feeling awkward. Thankfully, this seemed to comfort the pegasus enough to where she timidly reached for a donut. They ate in silence, with Spike debating whether or not his teleportation-fire could be used to send Joe to the moon or something.

As they finished, Spike cleaned up their mess and the two headed out the door, but not without Spike turning around and shooting a death glare at Joe, who just laughed again.

- - - - -

The next place they went to was a museum. Unlike Twilight, Spike wasn’t exactly what one would call an “egghead”, but he did enjoy learning about history, especially that of dragons. What ponies knew about dragons was unfortunately a small knowledge base, but he still liked learning what he could. When he came to the museum, he’d usually head right to the dragon exhibits, but instead he stayed away and decided the creature exhibits  would be great for an outing with Fluttershy. The Canterlot Museum had great animal exhibits, and an aquarium. The aquarium delighted Fluttershy, who rarely got to see, let alone work with, the creatures of the deep. The pegasus almost squealed in delight when a dolphin passed by her behind the glass, and Spike was glad to say that the awkwardness caused by Joe was in the past. Soon, they left, and they talked excitedly about what they had seen.

They spent the rest of the day walking through some of the places Spike frequented as he grew up. Seeing places like the Canterlot Opera House and the Wonderbolts Stadium weren’t quite up Fluttershy’s alley, but she did ask to see the places he wanted to show off. Spike was sort of making up the day as he went along, and it met with varying success. Confident she would love the last thing he had in mind, Spike began leading them to another location.  

As they walked, Spike paid close attention to his… companion, as they walked in silence that was far more comfortable than this morning’s. He had gotten to know her enough to know that she had something she wanted to say but her shyness was keeping her from letting it out.

Concerned, he looked around the area. They were in the outskirts of the Canterlot market, which had a bunch of street stall vendors.  It wasn’t too far from the castle grounds; they were on the right track. The Gardens were close.

Sure enough, as they grew closer, the buildings became sparser and trees and beautifully manicured grass fields were more common. Soon, they arrived at a gated part of the greenery, which had a guard posted at it. Recognizing the dragon, the unicorn guard opened the gates and allowed Fluttershy and Spike into the gardens.

Recognition grew on the pegasus’s face and she smiled slightly. With it being the summer, the garden’s trees were in full color, the flowers all in bloom and dozens of warm weather birds flying about. As she took in all the colors and all the animals, the smile grew bigger on her face and she took to the sky with some butterflies that happened to float by. Spike enjoyed watching her frolic with the animals, sitting at a tree while she flew around playing. Spike took to chasing the yellow pegasus and her animal friends around until the pair nearly collapsed in a pile together laughing. Night had crept up on them, and the two looked up at Luna’s starscape in wonderment.

“That was fun!” the dragon exclaimed, struggling to rein in his laughter while catching his breath. The shy pegasus, who had much more control, smiled and nodded.

“I really had fun today, Spike. Thanks for taking me out,” Fluttershy said, looking into Spike’s eyes. The close proximity allowed Spike to really see the pegasus’s eyes, bright and innocent blue. They were looking straight at them. The dragon’s pulse quickened as Fluttershy’s face seemed to be moving closer to his…

“Ah, Spike, there you are! I’ve been looking all ove- am I interrupting something here?” A new voice rung out and the dragon and pegasus jumped up. Spike was blushing and Fluttershy eeped before flying away.  The newcomer winked at the dragon who was at least twelve kinds of flustered.

“She’s cute, little bro, but come on, bringing your date out to the gardens? That’s such an overused cliché for a date night. I was kind of worried to have you planning my bachelor party, but seeing the taste you have in mares puts all my fears to rest.”

Standing before him was the groom to be, Twilight’s brother, and one of the most magically powerful unicorns in all of Equestria, Shining Armor.

“Hi Shiny. How are you?” Spike said, giving a right near hateful look in his eye as he shot a death glare at his surrogate older brother.

“I’m doing fine, but the wedding and the increased security are majorly stressing me out,” the unicorn said with a bright smile. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he ruined some moment for him, and Spike would say that it was very likely. Objectively, Shining Armor considered himself his big brother, and they would often prank each other when they had the chance. It was much different from Shining and Twilight’s relationship, or even his own with Twilight.

“You do realize, good sir, that this means war?” Spike growled out, a small smirk hiding on his lips. The unicorn just shrugged and waved a hoof, dismissing the dragon.

“Maybe later, Spike. I really didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I really do need to talk to you about something. It’s Twilight. She seems… off. This whole wedding thing seems to work for everypony but her. It kinda bothers me that she doesn’t seem happy for me, ya know? I thought she loved Cadence- erm, Miamore. You have to talk to her and get her to calm down… or I’m going to have to ban her from my wedding.”

- - - -

New chapter on a new server. Hope you enjoyed the fluff, because the story’s about to earn it’s adventure tag.

The Canterlot Wedding Part 5

Sorry this is so late. I lost my computer, all my rough drafts, the outline for the plot... everything. So, this is all fresh, again. I have a little bit of a memory of how I was going to write it, so some of what I had planned will still happen. The premiere made me pretty happy, given how Spike-centric it was as compared to most episodes. Naturally, I'm gonna use it.

Anyways, about last chapter. The whole thing felt rushed to me after I went and reread it, and I feel as if I could have done better, and that applies really to the whole fic in general. Do you want me to try and rewrite the story and try to make it a bit better, or is it fine the way it is? Your opinions are important!

Finally: Story time!

- - - - -

“I'm sorry, did you just say you wanted to ban your sister from the wedding that was suddenly just sprung on her?” Spike asked, disbelief and anger adding a little edge to his voice.

The white unicorn sighed, guiltily.

“Look, Spike... I don't want to, you know I adore Twiley, but she's making Cadence upset and in turn, that's stressing me out, and... hang on,” he paused and closed his eyes, focusing energy to his horn before a blast of energy shot out and up into the shield bubble around the city. It shimmered for a moment and then the glow faded. Spike looked up in awe, the shield bubble Twilight was capable of producing didn't hold a candle to this. He could almost smell the magic coming off of it...

Wait. He could smell the magic off of it. Spike filed this away for later. New abilities could be explored after he got to the bottom of whatever was going on here. Spike looked back at his surrogate brother and whatever apprehension he had felt was placed on a back burner when he saw how sickly and uncomfortable- painfully so- Shining Armor had become.

“Dude... you okay?”

The unicorn rapidly shook his head as if to ward off whatever was troubling him.

“Magical exhaustion, I suppose. Princess Celestia has had me pumping out a full power shield for a while now. It's starting to wear on me, and even though Cadence- erm, Miamore, is doing most of the wedding plans, I have my own nerves and worries, too. Twilight's behavior in this is just making it worse for me. I know lots of weddings have badly behaved family members, but there's a difference between a little wedding, and a Royal wedding where the groom happens to be singlehandedly burdened with protecting an entire city from an unknown threat.”

Spike, to his horror, felt himself agreeing with that. He quashed it mercilessly. Twilight was Twilight, and she didn't act up unless there was really something up, and Spike knew that there was something up. The dragon looked up at the shield curiously. Whatever was threatening Canterlot wasn't apparently able to get through that shield, very little could. What if things were being manipulated in such a way as to weaken Shining Armor? While he wasn't as powerful as the Princesses or even Twilight Sparkle, Shining was still vital to the safety of the ponies here. That shield would hold off anything. Bad weather, magic attacks, probably even a full... scale...

Invasion.

It was brilliant, he decided, but suicidal. Even if the shield was down, the Canterlot Guard were all powerful, the population was made of up of higher class unicorns, many of which studied magic at Celestia's school, and that wasn't even adding the fact that the Princesses were all three incredibly powerful. Even then, there was still the Elements of Harmony and himself, a now teenage dragon. He brushed the idea aside. Nothing short of a deity like being would risk it.

Still... it made sense. Ponies would be too distracted by the wedding to notice anything short of a rampaging dragon, so a slow and methodical weakening of the city's greatest defense would go largely unnoticed. Perhaps Cadence's personality was being forcibly altered to further damage whatever it could? Cadence lacked her either aunt's sheer power, instead having the ability to manipulate emotion. The alicorn could potentially lower morale of an opposing army and just as easily boost another. Not to mention that she could be being forced to do something to the other princesses if she was somehow being controlled or manipulated.

Spike filed it away, too, to discuss with Celestia at first opportunity. Future Spike problem, and he was Present Spike, and Twilight's happiness was currently at stake.

“Still, bro. Celestia put her in charge of the reception and you know how far Twilight will go to please. She wants everything to be perfect for the three ponies that she idolizes, and whether or not Ca- Miamore is being... negative about anything, it's probably stressing her out because there's something not perfect. Give her some time, and let me see if I can talk to her. She'd be utterly devastated if she missed her big brother's wedding, you know?”

Shining Armor smiled and nodded.

“Thanks, Spike. When did you get so smart?”

With a chuckle, Spike nudged his head at the castle in the general direction of where his and Twilight's old room was.

“I grew up and currently live in a library with the world's most faithful student. She was gonna rub off on me eventually.”

The two males laughed at that. After a short pause, Spike remembered a reason to be upset with his big brother figure at a more personal level.

“So did you have to...um, interrupt?” Spike asked, shyly trailing off at the end. The closeness of the pegasus's face to his own brought back a small blush. Shining Armor actually snickered.

“She was pretty cute, where did you find her?”

Spike began to talk about Fluttershy, an excited grin on his face as he explained just how much a part she had played in his sudden growth, both mentally and physically. He relayed how it all started with him going to apologize for how jerkish he had been to her when the pegasi of Ponyville were trying to train to collect the rainwater for Cloudsdale, and how later he had begun to help her alongside Rarity and Twilight when Rarity had been under that stressful work order, and now how they were all here and how she asked to been shown about Canterlot.

The dragon finished his tale and noticed Shining Armor smiling at him, looking a little proud.

“She sounds great Spike. You... uh, might want to go catch her, if she's as easily spooked as you say. Or at least get to bed. I've heard through the grapevine that you're planning my bachelor party, and I expect a great one, kiddo, said the white unicorn with a wink. Spike and Armor shared another laugh as the two seperated.

- - - -

Now that he was alone, he could think about what had gone on. He was sure she had been about to kiss him.The first question he had asked himself was “when in Tartarus did she start liking me?” and his brain had come up with a surprisingly simple answer. Spike had started suddenly spending way more time with her. He remembered reading once that exposure would often cement the odds that an attraction would occur. After reading that, the then-baby dragon had almost exclusively hung around Rarity to the point that Twilight had to lock him in the library to remind him that he was her assistant first and foremost.

Not only that, he had saved her life. That would often cause feelings of attraction to rise in a pony.  He also showed interest in what she did...

Oy vey. Fluttershy had a crush on him.

The implications of this were not lost, as he again heard feminine chuckling coming from the back of his mind. He had a very pretty mare that liked him, and like any male, he thought that was awesome. He could actually swear he could hear his ego inflating over it.

But Rarity.

But Rarity.

But Rarity.

Rarity was his dream girl. A pony who's thirst for gems rivaled that of a dragon, she was fiery and fierce and protective of the things she viewed as hers. And she almost regularly called him “her Spikey-wikey” and was definitely protective of him and not in the way Twilight was, he knew that much. And whether or not she returned the feelings he had expressed to her... she definitely valued them, and he felt like they had been closer than ever since he had told her how he had felt.

And Rarity was also Fluttershy's best friend.

Oy vey.

Spike spent the rest of the evening and night unable to sleep.

- - - -

The wedding wasn't too far away now. Two more days, in fact. The group of friends had all shared stories about how Cadence tended to act, and it unsettled Twilight and Spike way more than it did the other four. They were now at a cafe, all talking about their various parts in the wedding while Twilight stewed over over how her future sister in law was acting. Spike had the sneaking suspicion that most of the friends (given their occupations) did happen to tend to a lot of weddings. Applejack and Pinkie were outstanding chefs and given the expanse as well as the closeness of the Apple family, Applejack would have seen a few weddings. Rarity designed dresses, that went hand in hand with weddings. Dashie wasn't too concerned, all she had to do was something that she loved to do. And Fluttershy...

Spike looked hesitantly at the yellow pegasus, and green eyes found cyan and held them for a second before the two of them looked away quickly, blushing slightly. They hadn't talked about what had almost happened between them and had pretty much avoided being along with each other since. Twilight was oblivious, and if the rest of their friends were curious as to what may have transpired, they didn't show it because they didn't ask. He look around and saw the shield above them shimmer and fade a little before it slowly became more solid. He had remembered Shining Armor's condition after performing the spell a few nights ago and the dragon felt worried.  It would have to be worse now; he'd had the shield up for three more days nonstop. Armor would have definitely be struggling more now. Even if Cadence was restoring his magic stores, it wouldn't replace good ol' sleep for long. He learned from experience that magical exhaustion would wear down any unicorn, having seen Twilight do it numerous times.

There was just too much going on. Canterlot's safety was in jeopardy, he could feel it in his bones, and now was not the time to worry about his love life. He was then snapped out of his thoughts by Twilight getting angry and storming off.  

The group sat in silence as they watched her leave.

“Spike, don't you think you can talk some sense into her?”

The question came from Applejack, and for a moment, he felt the pressing need to chase after his oldest friend. She was hurt and confused and scared for her brother who was marrying what she thought of as a stranger and not a good one.  He stood up from the table slowly and nodded.

“But see, girls... the thing is is that she kinda has a point. There is something really fishy going on and I think it's centered around the Princess and Shining Armor. Shining Armor's shield, you know, the giant bubble around Canterlot, repels anything that registers as hostile intent. It can repel whole armies, supposedly. Twilight isn't the only powerful unicorn in the family. She gets it honestly from her mother and her brother got it a well. If that shield ever fell, something could attack Canterlot easily. And come on, girls... Twilight may be the one to overreact to small things, but how often is she wrong?”

With that, he chased after his sister.

- - - -

Shining Armor's home?

That's where Spike eventually found himself, and he saw Twilight go in with her brother. Not wanting to intrude, he only had to wait a few minutes before the lavender pony ran out the door like a bat out of Tartarus. Now worried, Spike finally caught up to her as she ducked into an alleyway, panting horribly and a fearful look in her eyes.

“I was right. She's not just mean and rude... she's out right evil! She's doing something to my brother!”

Unable to resist the joke, and hoping it would calm her down, Spike grinned.

“Well, see, Twilight, when a mare and a stallion love each other very much...”

Twilight groaned loudly and rolled her eyes.

“Really, Spike?”

The dragon nodded, “And now that you've calmed down some, maybe you can tell me what you saw without hyperventilating?”

And so she did.

And Spike filed it all away for later.

“Well, Twilight... let's go tell Princess Celestia in the morning what we saw. I'm sure there's a plausible explanation. I do agree that there really is something big going on here, and even if it's nothing, we need to make sure that Celestia knows that something is going on with her niece. So why don't we head back to the tower, put our heads together and figure out what's going on so we have a full story for her? I've noticed some things, too... and lets just say that things might be going pretty south here before too long.”

Twilight nodded, and the two headed home.

- - - - -

Well, here ya go. New chapter. Only a few left and the Wedding is over! I've kinda decided to just leave the old chapters alone. I like seeing that I'm growing as a writer and all and it's good to go back and see what I started from. At least, I think I'm getting better. Once again, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of the new chapter and I hope that it doesn't happen again for a while.

Oh, and good news! I may possibly be moving to Hawaii in January!

Sneak A Peak

Right. This isn't so much a chapter but more as a preview of things to come. I want you kids to be all excited like it's friggen Christmas and also I'm just kind of drained on writing the wedding. I mean, seriously. 12814 words so far spent on it! So yeah, this takes place in the future for Adventures Spike. Whether or not this exact scene will take place is yet to be decided, but the major details will all eventually happen. Maybe. This might just be an early April Fool's Day (Late?) to get you all excited over nothing I wrote up as an exercise to get the creative juices flowing. Either way, enjoy! And ignore this whole chapter if you don't want any possible spoilers!

- - - - -

He'd been on the road for a few days now, and quite frankly, he was anxious to get into a warm bed for once at least before he made it back to Ponyville. Looking at his phoenix companion, he nodded and decided that he'd definitely stay at an inn if he could find one, and if memory served there was one close by.

The dragon was tall now, standing on four legs a little higher than even the Princesses, and he all but dwarfed them when he stood on two. His scales were rich and deep purple, the green spikes all long and growing down his back and his tail, hoo boy at his tail. The spade like triangle that had been there in his days as a baby dragon had grown into a diamond shape and it was razor sharp. Very useful for cutting down tree limbs to make a fire- all the more important now that it was getting close to winter time. Still, it wasn't as bad as his recent trip north, he supposed.

Having a bird that radiated eternal fire was pretty handy to have in a foreign wasteland, though, he'd give Peewee that. As if reading his thoughts the phoenix flying above him looked at his friend smugly and then flew on ahead. Spike followed on

- - - -

He usually avoided places like this, though they were good places to get information, odd jobs, and lots of them had good food for all kinds of species, not just pony folk. This particular tavern was owned by a griffon who ran it and the local inn with his brother. Looking in, he saw a few Earth Ponies, a dozen or so diamond dogs and the rest were all griffons. Made sense, given that this town was bordering the griffon homeland. He was mildly disappointed that no primates were around. Other than ponies, that was a species he got along best with.

Opening his senses, like he was taught, he first sniffed to see if he could smell any magic going on. None that he could tell, anyway, but small magics were harder to sense and this place did reek of many scents. Closing his eyes, he opened them suddenly with his emerald eyes shining brightly. No hostiles in sight, though there were denizens of this bar that could likely be provoked into hostile intentions. He'd have to probe them with his inner sight again. Closing his eyes and raising a claw to his head to try and banish a head ache, he stumbled toward the barkeep.

“Looks like someone has had a bit too much to drink already!” the griffon said. Spike laughed a bit, as it would seem that way with him carrying on like he had.

“Oh, I'm not much of a drinker. I'm really more looking to hear the latest news. Anything big going on in Equestria, have you heard?”

The griffon paused and 'hmm'd' in thought before nodding.

“Ah yes, Princess Sparkle is apparently sending lots of aid and is helping Princess Luna acclimatize the Crystal Ponies to a world far in their future. I wonder if it's true, that they're really kind of crystal looking?”

Spike shrugged. He'd  never seen one. He reckoned it would be soon before he would, though, as he was going to be heading that way now. Maybe he'd be able to actually run into his sister on the job, and Princess Luna was always a treat. He hadn't really heard much about the Crystal Empire other than it's recent resurgence  and had figured it'd be fun to check out. Sure, he'd much rather be at home in his library, but then again, home was where the heart is and Spike's heart was definitely where his family was and that was apparently in the Crystal Empire.

- - -

So he had set some of diamond dogs off. It wasn't totally purposeful, but he didn't like getting ordered to look for gems by a creature that probably didn't have the ability to speak clearly. Or spell gem, really.

He ducked under a punch and returned the favor, jabbing one of the dogs in the snout with his left claw and cracking the second diamond dog with a hook right after and spun around to face the third. With a bright grin, he used the spin's momentum to slam the flat of his tail blade against the third's head and knocked him over. With the opening, the young cartwheeled though the hole and started running. He hit a treeline at the edge of a large forest and quickly planned an escape route.

“Nanner nanner boo boo! You can't get me!”

Jumping as high as he could, he latched onto a large oak tree and began to climb it using his claws.  Finding a high branch, he looked down upon the dogs, who were futiley jumping at the base of the tree, with a roguish smile.

“Not quite, gents!”  He closed his eyes and focused, feeling the currents of magic flowing in him and around him, and then exhaled slowly.

“Fly me to the moon...”

At the words, green flames began to pour out of his back in a small jet before taking shape, eventually becoming a large pair of leathery wings, a brilliant royal purple color with green tips on the end of his wings. With a mighty flap, he jumped off and flew into the sky.

When he landed, he was back at the tavern. He'd left something vitally important there and he had to grab it before the dogs came back with reinforcements.  Granted, they'd have to realize that he would have come back and most diamond dogs weren't that intelligent. Spike had met some in his travels that would give Twilight a run for her money, and that was saying something. Walking back in, he spotted his target. Walking behind her, he patted the sentient's head.

“Ready to go, Sunbeam?”

Said Sunbeam was a very small white coated pony, still a fairly young filly not much older than Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo had been when he first came to Ponyville all that time ago. She looked up and behind at the dragon with a bright smile, bubblegum pink mane waving and unicorn  horn pointed at him. Her smiling sun cutie mark was freshly appeared, but was covered up with a black cape much like Spike would wear in colder climates.

“Yeah, where are we going next, Dad?”

- - - - - -

Heh. Anyways, this is mostly here to tease you guys with what may happen and also... well, I'm kinda tired of losing my work and what I have planned, so I figure I could write up a chapter that has enough vague references to crap my brain has worked on, I can put two and two together and  I won't be so messed up next time my computer fries. This allows me to run some ideas by you guys to know what I might want to keep and what I should change up and stuff.

Always keep in mind that I write this fic for you guys, and I value your creative input every bit as much as compliments. I can't get any better without your help, dear readers.  So yeah, read through this, feel free to speculate and just... well, enjoy! I'm going to do my best to have a real chapter up before this weekend is over along with a Thanksgiving themed One Shot.  Feel free to ask questions, and should I not get up a new chapter, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope it's a good one for you all, because I am so thankful for all of you.

When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 1)

And so it begins. Cue theme song!

- - - -

Spike cradled the neck of his mother figure close to him.

"Princess! Are you... okay?"

Her long horn was charred as a result of her magical beam struggle with the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. Her magic had been bolstered by the intense love Shining Armor had for Cadence, the real Cadence.

Celestia hadn't listened to them. She had said that they had just witnessed a healing spell. No pony could impersonate an alicorn, that she would know if something was controlling her neice. She told them not to worry, and that nothing would break Shining's spell.

Celestia turned out to be wrong, though.

He watched her open her eyes, slowly. She saw the chosen wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Six mares, chosen to wield weaponized friendship at seeming random. The princess's voice was weakened and she was obviously in pain, but she spoke clearly and urgently.

"Go. Get the Elements of Harmony. Hurry!"

And so, Twilight ended up crashing the wedding rehearsal. The mares that she called her best friends didn't listen to her, her brother didn't listen to her, and her teacher, her second mother figure, didn't listen to her but she knew, just KNEW that Cadence was an imposter. And she called her out on it at the rehearsal and before she knew it, everypony save Spike was infuriated at her, Shining and Celestia going so far as telling her to just go on home. They all left, and when Spike tried to comfort her, the purple unicorn tearfully told him that she just needed to be alone. Spike reluctantly listened to her.

He wished he hadn't.

The ponies nodded and Spike was left alone in a room full of ponies that he didn't care about at the moment. Call it selfish, call it whatever you want. They didn't matter. He looked at the Queen with hate filled eyes and clutched Celestia.

She was gloating, Chrysalis was, almost singing about it. Spike tuned her out. He glanced down at the Princess.

"Can you stand?"

She did, though she wobbled before she collapsed back down. Spike caught her and lowered her back down.

"Just rest."

She nodded.

So, the wedding carried on like normal. Massive fanfare sounded throughout the city, all day. Spike had slept fitfully, a nagging feeling that he was missing something keeping him awake. And when it arrived, Spike, now the best stallion (dragon) could only stand in the spot where his sister should be standing. Shining Armor was nervously excited, and soon the doors opened to Cadence. Despite her crummy attitude, she looked nothing short of beautiful in her wedding dress, though the slightly evil smile on her face threw it off.

He ignored it, though, thinking that it was just an illusion.

Then Twilight had shown up with the real Cadence, and all Tartarus broke loose as a war began.

The Queen slowly approached him and the princess, while explosions and flashes of magic rocked the castle and illuminated the windows.

"You, dragon. Step away from Princess Celestia. Ooh, no, better idea! Bring her over so she can watch her kingdom fall!"

Spike growled and Celestia glared at her. The Changeling Queen laughed and turned back to the window.

"As we speak, my army is taking on your city guard and winning. I've planned this for years, Celestia, and finally, Canterlot is mine! Dragon! Does it not stir your blood, the sounds of battle? Your race isn't one known for peace like the ponies are, and yet here you are at a wedding. A purple dragon, no less. Your owner must be a powerful mage indeed, to tame one such as you!"

The statement struck him as odd. Was there something special about his scale color, or something? The other dragons hadn't mentioned anything about it, but then, they had not been the best role models.

So the dragon ignored it, shoved it aside. It could be researched later, when Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack turned Chrysalis and her army to stone, or sent them to the moon. He voted for both.

"You're not going to get away with this. Twilight won't let you."

She laughed at him, and it irritated him how smug she was about this. Objectively, he supposed she had reason to be, as it did seem as if she was winning.

"She escaped into a war zone, dragon, one that is filled with my soldiers. She and her friends are as good as captured. They'll make good changelings. It's not hard to convert a pony into a changeling, especially given how powerful I am right now. Ooh! I can turn Celestia into one! I've always wanted a sister. Step away, dragon!"

The jagged horn on the Queen's head began to glow a sickly green color before a beam shot at Spike and Celestia. Without thinking, he held the princess close to him and pushed his hind legs as hard as he could, and the two barely dodged the beam. After a mildly rough landing, he fixed the black mare with a glare.

"That does it, bug. You're going down."

The dragon stood, and reared up on his hind legs in his full bipedal stance. His tail swished slowly, back and forth. And Spike felt calm despite his fear and despite his rage. Because as much as he loathed to admit it, she was right, there was something in him that was stirring, and it wanted to take down the invaders.

- - - -

Luna flew hard to the left, before conjuring a blast of midnight blue energy at a cluster of changelings. The Night Mare laughed as the expected explosion and dust cloud cleared to reveal several now unmoving changelings. It had been nearly 1500 years since her last full scale battle, and she was thrilled at the challenge of battle. Storm clouds began gathering above her. The Elements of Harmony might not be connected to her and her sister any longer, but that didn't mean that the elements of nature weren't still in her grasp. She looked down upon her kingdom and saw another group of changelings flying at her. Thunder cracked and the princess's horn glowed blue before magic wrapped around her and forming silver armor around her body. Lightning flashed and the changelings flew closer.

With a grin, the Mare of the Moon looked down upon her opponents as they were hit with lightning bolts.

"Huzzah! The body count has been doubled!"

- - - -

"Gotta keep running. Gotta find Derpy. Gotta find Dinky. Gotta get to the Tardis and get them out of here."

Those were the thoughts of brown Earth Stallion with an hour glass cutie mark as he ran through the alleyways with a strange object in his mouth. His... companion, her child, were in danger and it was all his fault because he had left them. He wasn't supposed to interfere with these events, but it was his Ditzy Doo, his darling Ditzy Doo and that ever adorable child, Dinky, a filly that could worm her way into the coldest of hearts.

And he should know, he had two of them.

Two changelings stood in his way, snarling menacingly, and the Doctor did what he did best.

Run.

- - - -

Cadence could only sit. Her legs had given out on her as the horrors of war sounded out outside of the room where she was supposed to be experencing the most important day of her life. The Alicorn of Love was surrounded by hate and fear and sorrow and she felt it, felt it all. She looked at Shining Armor, her husband to be, and he just stood there, brainwashed and vacant. She loved him so much, and the fact that she might still have lost him despite escaping was what hurt the most. Her attention  was drawn to the evil mastermind of all this, her captor, as she attacked her sister and the dragon who had grown up so much since she had last seen him.To her surprise, Spike had managed to dodge the blast and even protected her Aunt.

And the dragon reared up, standing at his full height. He wasn't fully grown, even lacking wings, but there was something in Spike's usually innocent green eyes. Something deep, dark, and powerful. Something that scared her... but gave her hope.

She had watched him grow up, seen his first steps, heard his first words, read him bedtime stories and had kissed his boo-boos away, dealt with his childish infatuation... and it had never occured to her.

Spike was a dragon. The most dangerous predator on the planet.

And he was on their side.

- - - -

Spike growled as he lunged, his powerful legs pushing him towards the mare that had attacked his family and his home. He had a claw pulled back ready to punch the changeling queen in the face. He'd been taught to never hit a mare by Celestia, who'd really just flat out encouraged him to be peaceful as possible, but he had a feeling that the Sun Princess wouldn't mind this one if he did a little bit of damage to an enemy.

The other ponies in the room had long sensed escaped, though he had no idea why. There was a battle outside. Fear made ponies so irrational, though. He just hoped no one would get hurt.

Well, except the Queen. She could get hurt.

She flew back, flapping her insectoid wings as hard as she could and tilting her head back as the dragon's fist missed her.

"Ah, you're quick, dragon! But I'm more powerful than even Celestia! Even a purple dragon can't hope to defeat me right now!"

Spike growled and spun, hoping to hit her with the spikes on his tail. They weren't exactly sharp but they'd still hurt. It missed though, and he was blown back by a green magic blast. His body rolled ungracefully, and the two present princesses called his name. He got down on all fours and pushed himself back up, taking a deep breath and exhaling a powerful stream of green flames at the changeling.

- - - -

Luna finally spotted Twilight Sparkle and friends as they made their way to the Vault that contained the Elements of Harmony. Well, she didn't know that for a fact but it was a pretty good guess. The two sisters had never used the Elements to fight an army before, but if they could seal away the likes of Discord and even herself, they could do away with regular, mortal enemies. Putting on speed, the Night's Princess went to catch up to  her friends.

- - - -

A grey pegasus cowered in fear, her only positive thought being that she had left her darling daughter in Ponyville with her half sister. She didn't see a way out of this one. Her travels had made her into a resourceful mare despite her natural clumsiness, but facing down an invasion was terrifying whether it was alien robots or Equestrian natives. She didn't even have her sonic probe with her, thinking that if she was going to bne safe anywhere, it would be in the presence of all three Alicorns.

A few changelings had chased her into an alleyway and she decided to face whatever would come as bravely as she could, because that's what he would do.

Only he would get them both out of it, save them and the world and be back in his time machine "in time for tea" as he would say.

And as if wishes could come true, she heard his voice.

"Oi! Changelings! You lot are messing with somepony that I happen to like, and that is NOT a safe place to stand!"

At the other end, a brown stallion with a wild mane-cut stood holding a sonic screwdriver in his mouth. He winked at her.

"Darling, you should probably close your ears."

No sooner than the words came out, a whirring noise sounded as a blue light flashed from the sonic device and the changelings began to writhe before passing out.

"Nothing like a good ol' sonic-ing- OOF!"

Ditzy "Derpy" Whooves (née-Doo) tackled the stallion in a hug, and began sobbing.

"Doctor..."

- - - -

Spike fell down to one knee, clutching his side. He couldn't even get close to her. The few times he did, he just couldn't reach her. She'd just fly up in the air. Not for the first time he wished he had wings.

And in the back of his head, he heard a female voice singing.

The words rang in his very soul. He wanted to fuss at the voice, but Dreamy's words struck something in him. As if the words had power to them.

"Fly me to the moon..." the purple dragon echoed with a whisper.

Green flames began burning behind his back below his shoulder blades, and he felt a strange but kind of pleasant itch as they grew larger and took form. Leathery purple and green wings formed around him and they embraced him. He gave them an experimental flap.

"You're welcome, Spikey-wikey. I'll handle the flying for now, you worry about taking her down."

Spike grinned widely and then looked at the Changeling Queen, and despite what fatigue he might have, the dragon could only feel a renewed sense of determination.

"Sorry, bug lady, but you're gonna be in for a world of hurt."

- - - - - - - -

All right, ladies and gents. Feel free to love me. And if anyone happens to feel the mind screw of Eva coming back to them because of the song... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Do leave a comment! I love talking to my readers! You all are why I write this and I love to hear your input!

When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 2)

Hey guys! New chapter! Tell me whatcha think about it. I'm really having fun with this, jumping all around. Battles aren't won by one soldier, and it would be wrong to focus entirely on Spike for this. I think having focus on all the elements going on during the battle makes it all the more epic, agreed? Anyways, story time!

- - - -

Twilight Sparkle ducked under a flying tackle. The changeling flew over her and she spun to face it before it could get turned back around to charge her again. The purple unicorn concentrated a blast of purple magic that knocked the insectoid equine out. It was the closest thing to an attack she knew, never having studied the offensive magics much. A curious glance to the other unicorn in the party answered a few questions and opened a few more about the fashionista known as Rarity.

A pony who's cutie mark was three diamonds made dresses for a living. It wasn't the best corelation with her cutie mark. She knew that Rarity was capable of finding gems with incredible ease and manipulating them to be fashionable. When she had been kidnapped by the diamond dogs, she hadn't defended herself with action, but with words and manipulations. Rarity was actually fairly intelligent, a far cry from some the upper class twits Twilight had grown up around in Canterlot. She didn't know that Rarity knew any offensive magic.

She definitely wasn't expecting geokinesis.

Rarity's magic aura had wrapped around the cobblestones in the street, forcing them out of the ground. With noticable effort, she slung them hard at a group of changelings advancing on them. Another glance.

Rainbow Dash was flying around at break neck speeds, as usual, having a low but aerial dogfight above them. She was much more agile than the changelings, and she was making the lot of them crash into themselves or throwing them into buildings with her skill with martial arts. Pinkie Pie was... where did she pull her party cannon out from?!

Oh, Pinkie Pie...

Fluttershy was hiding behind Applejack, looking terrified while the Earth Pony was putting her applebucking to good use, knocking back changelings with just sheer strength. If Twilight had time to think about it, she would have found it hilarious that a pegasus that had no problems facing down a dragon and a manticore, and wrestling a bear (the shy mare insisted that it was just a massage, but still...) to the ground was terrified.

But she didn't, as more changelings flew down at her.

"Come on girls! We have to keep moving!"

- - - -

The Doctor and Derpy ran through the streets.

"Where's the TARDIS, Doctor?"

The brown stallion looked back at his companion and grinned.

"Oh, it's around here somewhere, I suppose. Why, do you want to go somewhere else? It's just now getting exciting!"

The grey mare groaned, but hid a small smile. She had missed this. Well, not the running for her life part, but the other parts. The Doctor's sense of humor and calmness in the face of dangers that would leave most ponies screaming in terror,  which always made her feel better. She could rely on him. Always could.

"So do you have a plan to end this mess?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Figures..."

- - - -

Spike breathed out a jet of flame to meet the magic blast of the Changeling Queen. The two met and the magic and flame fizzled out. They had made the exchange a few times now. Spike was mildly disappointed that there wasn't some kind of explosion, but he couldn't dwell on that. It was still kind of nice to know that his fire breath was a good counter for her magic blasts, because he couldn't take too many more of them directly.

She was incredibly powerful, but he knew that already. She had taken down Celestia in a straight magic duel. But it seemed like she was getting tired. She had seemed surprised that her power had been that great. She was inexperienced with having that much, so maybe she was pouring too much of it into her attacks? Spike dodged another beam of energy by flying up in the air. It put a hole in the wall behind him. The room in which the wedding was supposed to be in was in shambles, ruins, really. She obviously hadn't been expecting as much of a fight as she was getting. Spike was trying to see something he could exploit. There had to be a weakness somewhere. He had to find it, and soon. The dragon was already feeling like collapsing.

One look at his unconcious mother figure, his worn out former babysitter, and his brainwashed older brother figure made him remember just what was at stake here, though. Even if he wasn't able to beat her, he'd sure as Tarturus make her regret messing with his family.

- - - -

Sheathed Sword, second in command to the Royal Guard, finally nodded to his underlings. The guard had been doing what they could to move civilians to the underground caverns, as was protocol in an event like this. The caverns were strong and there was a large part of them stocked to hold the population for a while, and also having a passage to outside Canterlot in an event that they couldn't return. It hadn't been used in ages, but a large part of the duties of the Guard was maintaining this escape route and bunker to the highest degree.

And now that it seemed like most of Canterlot was in here... it was time to begin the counter attack.

- - - -

Soarin and Spitfire were dressed in full uniform, along with the other Wonderbolts. There were about twenty in full dress. They were waiting on word to commence the plan. Blaze was to bring word from the Royal Guard. As they waited, there was a tense silence amongst all of them. It was part of what they trained for. The Wonderbolts were actually part of the Equestrian Military, though most ponies seemed to think that they were just fancy show fliers. Not only were they military, they were the best damn fliers in it.

Soarin looked at his partner and captain, and grinned.

"Fight like we train, right?"

She shot him a look that made him gulp, but then she smiled.

"If we get through this, I'll treat you to the biggest and best apple pie ever. So... don't get hurt, okay?"

Soarin nodded.

"Love you too, boss."

"Shut up, Soarin."

"Yes, boss."

- - - -

Spike had to get her out in to the open. Dreamy was fairly confident that he/they could out-fly the Changeling Queen, but they were in a building. Not only that, but there was too much risk she could hurt the ones in there, and he wasn't going to let that happen. With a powerful flap of his wings, he pushed his way towards her.  She started firing her magic beams at him, but he barrel rolled out of the way and put on a burst of speed he didn't know he had and tackled her out of a window.

They fell.

- - - -

Luna was having fun.

Sure, her beloved Canterlot was being attacked, her friends and family possibly in danger, but Luna had always loved a good fight. She had always been more tomboyish than her older sister, and this was just one way she showed it. The Princess of the Night made her way slowly, taking out every changeling she could along the way, towards the vault that housed the Elements of Harmony, knowing that it was need her magic or her sister's to open. She looked up to see the Wonderbolts gathering up their own storm clouds, to the Royal Guard starting to pop up through out the city as they began to fought back.

The princess smiled.

Canterlot would not fall today, she'd make sure of it.

- - - -

They were almost there. All six of them were exhausted, but the trail of unconscious changelings behind them spoke for their exhaustion well. Even Fluttershy had been cornered enough to fight back, saying something about the changelings being big bullies and not letting them hurt her friends. Said changelings were probably never going to be able to walk correctly again.

Fluttershy was mildly terrifying when pushed, Twilight decided.

With a final push, the Bearers of the Elements made it up the stairs that led to the vault, only to see a small army of changelings waiting for them.

"Oh, this is getting ridiculous."

And then the changelings morphed into her friends, beginning a new battle.

- - - -

They didn't fall far. The Queen had recovered and pushed him off in midair, and now they were both flying.

Spike had a plan, now, though. She was obviously now engrossed with fighting him, so she wouldn't head back to the wedding room. She wouldn't be around his family. And if she was away, Celestia could recover, maybe she could heal Cadence and fix Shining Armor, and they could team up with Twilight and there could be some super powered magic blast that fixed everything while he slept this off. And he was leading her to the vault to make it that much easier. So he flew, and she chased.

- - --

Celestia groaned as she regained consciousness. It had been hundreds of years since she had been involved with any kind of battle, so she had been much rustier than she would have thought. She'd even let herself be overpowered! So sloppy.

"Aunt Tia! You're awake!"

She raised her head slowly and picked herself up, before looking at her niece and nodding.

"Where's Chrysalis? The changeling queen?"

The Princess of Love looked at the Princess of the Sun and for the first time in her life, realized that she wasn't just dealing with her Aunt Tia, but the eldest and most powerful member of the Princesses. And that princess happened to foster very maternal feelings towards all of Canterlot, and especially the young dragon fighting on Canterlot's behalf.

The walls of Tarturus wouldn't contain the fury of a scorned mother trying to protect her foals.

Cadence was fairly bitter and resentful for being held captive as she was, so she felt no remorse for what was about to happen to the Changeling Queen.

"She flew out the window. Spike is fighting her... I don't know anything else, but Spike... you should have seen him, Aunt Tia. He's all grown up."

At the mention of Spike battling Canterlot's newest and quite dangerous foe, Celestia's eyes hardened.

"Cadence. Stay here. Look after Shining Armor and rest. I'm going to go get my son."

She said it with all the calm, the nonchalance, of a mother informing someone they were getting their child out of daycare. And that was what terrified Cadence the most.

- - - -

The Doctor looked up at the dragon and changeling queen flying through the air.

"Oh, so this is when Spike grows his wings?" The Doctor looked at Derpy and pointed up with his hoof.

"See that, Derpy? This is the beginning of a new chapter for all of Equestria. The world, really."

"That's great, Doctor. Now maybe we should get moving and fix this all, before, you know, we get attacked by Changelings. Again."

The Doctor shook his head and smiled.

"No, Derpy, not this time. If I know that dragon and his friends, and I do, very well... well, not yet, but eventually for them, I suppose, everything is going to be just fine. So, how bout we go to Barcelona? We can go get Dinky and have a nice vacation, what do you think? No? Let's go this way then! Allons-y!"

Derpy groaned.

- - - -

Finally, after taking out all of the changelings guarding the door to the vault, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She could feel magical exhaustion creeping up on her, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time now. Everyone else looked equally as tired. She pushed against the door, about to open it, when-

"Wait, Twilight Sparkle!"

She looked behind her and saw Princess Luna flying down, flapping her wings regally. She was clad in armor Twilight had never seen before, and she gave a quizzical look.

"Oh, this armor? It is from my younger days, where I would often wear it into battle! But, I digress. You need my magic to help you open the vault!"

With that, the alicorn opened the vault, and was pleasantly surprised to find more cannon fodder.

"Huzzah! To battle, my little ponies!"

Twilight and friends made the wise choice to hang back and let Luna have the fun. Which, she did.

- - - -

Soarin looked to his right and happened to see Blaze flying at them as fast as she could.

"Sheathed Sword says they're ready!"

With a nod, Spitfire grinned and grabbed a storm cloud, that was now charged full. The plan was to use the lightning to attack the changelings. Soarin caught up with his captain and even pushed ahead, before turning his head back.

"Hey, boss. I got a better idea. What do you say we get married if we survive this one?"

Spitfire shot him a dirty look, but she was quite glad that her mask would hide her blush.

"I'll think about it. Shut up, Soarin."

"Yes, boss."

- - - -

It had been a long time since Celestia had been this angry.

Disappointed, afraid, worried... those came with the package of being a ruler and a mentor. She hadn't even been that angry when Discord had escaped, more overcome with worry for her subjects and friends than any emotion relating to the draconequus.

She began to start charging magic, and picked up in speed as she managed to sense the young dragon and their foe.

Chrysalis had kidnapped her niece, the young mare that she had promised to take care of, turned her student's own brother against her, and was now fighting her son.

She didn't call Spike that very often. It made things complicated. Some of her more closed-minded associates didn't see what she saw in the dragon, they just saw a dangerous dragon. She saw a bright, noble young male with a lot of potential to make Equestria a better place. He desired to help, not hurt, and that was what separated him from most young dragons. But just because she didn't allow herself to call him son, just because she explained to a scared and confused baby dragon why he couldn't call her mommy... didn't mean the feeling wasn't there.

"I'm coming, Spike, be careful. Please, stay safe."

She was going to make that up to him. Maybe take him on a vacation. It had been so long since she'd been with the young dragon.

- - - -

Luna looked almost jubuliant as the last of the changelings in the room fell. There had been another group coming towards them, but the counter attack led by the city guards and the Wonderbolts  was slowing them down.

Finally, it looked like they were winning. She cantered over to the lock and stuck her horn in, channeling her magic. The vault slowly opened, and the Bearers could only smile as they reached the unassuming box that contained the Elements of Harmony. With a burst of magic, Twilight telekinetically lifted the Elements and gave them to their respective Bearers.

"All right, girls. Let's do this!"

Twilight could feel energy pouring back into her as the crown on her head began pulsing with magic. Her eyes began to glow white and she began to levitate. White streams of magic burst from the crown's jewel and hit the other five mares, but unexpectedly, the process ended.

"Well. That was boring. But I do feel loads better!" Rainbow Dash said, yawning.

Twilight and Luna shared a look.

What was wrong with the Elements?

- - - -

Spike flew as fast as he could, and soon, the dragon saw the vault.

He was past exhausted now, and running on fumes. Chrysalis seemed to about as fresh as she had been when they started this chase, throwing out the theory that he would tire her out. His only hope was to get her to where Twilight could seal her away with the Elements.

If that didn't work... well... he didn't want to think about it.

- - - -

The Canterlot military fought hard, and Sheathed Sword was proud of every single stallion and mare under his command. Changeling resistance was faltering, and reports were coming in that the Bearers had made it to the Elements of Harmony. Princess Luna had taken on a large amount of changelings on her own as well, and with the dragon that Princess Celestia had adopted holding off the Changeling Queen, he felt sure everything was going well. He walked outside from his command center, the guard barracks, and grinned as he saw pegasus guards flying to him.

"More good news?"

The pegasi both looked at each other, and grinned evilly. Green light wrapped around them and two changelings were in place.

"Yes. For us. You think we are all the Queen brought? Our real army is still on the way."

Sheathed Sword looked around him at the ponies around him. None of them made a move against the unicorn. Instead, they all turned to look at him, with a smug look. Green light wrapped around all of them, and soon, the unicorn found himself surrounded.

His last thoughts were of his wife.

- - - -

BOOM! Chapter done, leave a comment and tell me how ya liked it? I love comments. I really do. I do my best to respond to all of them and I enjoy conversing with you all, even if it's silly and random.

Also, this is dedicated to my youngest little brother, who turns 14 today. Happy birthday, kiddo.

When A Good Dragon Goes To War (Part 3)

What? Another chapter? So soon? It can't be! But it is! A good song for this chapter would be Hero by Chad Kroger. Just sayin. This is it. The exciting, probably tear jerking and utterly epic end of the wedding!

- - - -

"Mam, more changelings have been spotted coming in from the south!"

A random earth pony guard gave his report, saluted, and left to rejoin the battle.

Spitfire hadn't expected to be field promoted to Commander of the entire guard, but when her scouts found poor Sheathed Sword...

The mare shook her head. She had a battle to win.  She would mourn her compatriot later.

Spitfire had made a base out of a donut shop. Joe was a great pony, he probably wouldn't mind that they were using the shop now that that HQ was captured. Even if he did... well, with the princesses busy battling the threat, she was more or less in charge of Canterlot.

Dammit, she was an acrobat, a fighter... not a general. She should be out there, leading the charge and-

"Spitfire. Calm down. It's going to be okay. We'll make it out of this."

It was an empty promise that had no guarantee, but it was the best they had. She felt better though, with her partner there with her. The other pegasus was her rock when she needed him to be, the goofball that he was. With a slight smile, she rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, Soren."

"Yes, boss."

- - - -

Cadence finally felt like she wasn't dying, so that was a plus. The building that was supposed to hold her wedding might have been in shambles, but it was being largely ignored by the two armies. Ashamedly, Cadence had went and made herself a small snack out of what she could salvage from the buffet that had been laid out in the kitchens. She was always a bit of a stress eater, and she had been kept at the brink of starvation for who knew how long. Weeks, maybe months. It had been forever to her in her captivity.

It restored her energy a little bit, so that was a plus. Now, to get to work fixing her soon to be husband.

- - - -

Spike felt relief as he saw his friends at the door, all clad in the Elements and with Luna.

If there was a Princess here with them, then they could handle the queen.

"GANGWAY! SHE'S TRAILING ME!"

The mares all looked up to see the rather unexpected sight of a dragon flying towards them.

"Spike!" was a shout used by all six mares. Luna didn't really know him all that well, so, he figured she wouldn't be as excited.

Not dwelling on that, he turned and exhaled as much fire as he could while landing. Chrysalis was still far behind him, but the inferno would catch her attention.

"I've held her off as long as I could... your... turn..." he said, out of breath. He collapsed on one knee, and felt a tingling in his new wings. He could only watch in pure sadness as they faded away into green sparks.

"Aww... I just got those, too..."

Before they could talk anymore, the Changeling Queen had finally caught up to them.

"That was an impressive chase, young dragon. You are a fine example of your species given how little you must know about them. Ah, Twilight Sparkle. How did it feel, having all of your loved ones lose faith in you?"

Twilight growled, her horn sparkling dangerously with purple light.

"Not as bad as you're going to feel, you dirty, rotten bi-"

She was cut off by a green magical blast, and the seven ponies and dragon scattered.

- - - -

Celestia saw the green jet of flame and felt no small amount of pride for her dragon. He had grown so much. With a few quick calculations, she realized that it came from the Vault. Her surrogate children, were fighting to protect their home, and she couldn't be more proud of them.

Or worried.

The Mare of the Sun flew a little bit faster.

- - -

The Mare of the Moon stared down the Queen with a determined smirk.

"I knew I should have brought my flyswatter."

Chrysalis glared and shot another bolt of energy at Luna, who met it with one of her own. Unlike her bout with Celestia, this time, both Twilight and Rarity joined in with their own magic, and the beams met with an explosion.

With a grimace, Luna brushed herself off.

"Well, looks like you're a bug with a bit of sting."

The changeling queen looked towards the south and could only smile.

"I'm a bug with a whole lot more backup than you, as well."

And like that, an entire army was upon them.

The Elements of Harmony, Luna, and Spike all backed into a circle, changelings on all sides.

Luna gulped. Powerful as she was, this was longer odds than she cared for. It took two unicorns to back her up with a beam struggle to equal Chrysalis, and she couldn't fight her and her army at the same time.

"Twilight Sparkle. Can you handle the army with your friends?"

The lavender unicorn laughed dryly.

"Sure, would you like me to move a castle or two while I'm at it?"

Luna shrugged.

"Well, if you would like to, go ahead. I'll handle h-"

"No. She's MINE."

Everyone looked up to see the Princess of the Sun. The sun seemed to intensify behind her, and the winds were picking up.

"You. You come into my kingdom, kidnap and nearly kill my family, destroy my city and threaten my subjects. Who knows how many ponies have died because of this? My subjects. My responsibility. What's more, you even try and turn me against my student. Your list of crimes is great, changeling. You. Are. Mine. Luna, you and the girls handle the rest."

Luna could only grin. Her older sister was revealing a side of her that she hadn't seen since they were young. The Fury of the Sun was great indeed.

Though, personally, Luna preferred her own old monkier of "Night Mare" even if it was associated with her evil side these days.  

"Only if I get to handle the next major threat to our home, 'Tia," Luna joked, and she turned to the changelings.

"Elements of Harmony. You take one side, I shall take the other, yes?" The girls nodded, and magic blasts began flying.

- - - -

Spike dove away from the circle. Luna and Twilight could handle the changelings. Celestia needed back up. How he was going to help escaped him, now that his wings had disappeared and most of his fire used up. Dreamy was strangely silent. The changelings were busy fighting the ponies, and Celestia and Chrysalis were now flying back and forth, releasing powerful bursts of magic that seemed to rock the planet when they hit the ground. He could only watch in awe.

- - --

Celestia, now knowing the extent of her enemy's power, was much better prepared. She was not one usually caught off guard. It wouldn't happen again. She felt the power of the sun behind her, and unleashed it with every blast. She expertly dodged her foe's green magic with a practiced ease, letting them whiz by her, and fired back. And finally, a blast hit the changeling mare. She went crashing to the ground with a startled and pained yelp, hitting the cobblestone streets hard. Chrysalis let out a roaring battle cry as she flew back up, firing multiple blasts of her green energy at the Sun Princess. Celestia erected a yellow shield that redirected the energy away, frustrating the changeling even more. Then, she saw it. An opening that Chrysalis was seeking on her... and when she saw a victorious grin on the changeling's face, Celestia knew that she had found it. The changeling aimed her horn at Spike and fired, and Celestia dove.

- - - -

Luna and the Elements battled the changeling army. While the actual Elements didn't seem to be working like they usually did, wearing them seemed to boost their energy and abilities greatly. Twilight and Rarity never felt as powerful as they did, and Applejack had actually knocked a changeling into a wall earlier. Rainbow Dash was a streak of color, Fluttershy was staring down about forty changelings who didn't even move, and Pinkie... was somehow shooting her party cannon at every single point of space and time, hitting the changelings with weaponized confetti.  

There was a lull in the fighting, as heads turned to see the two respective leaders battle it out. They saw Celestia dive toward Spike, and a green magic blast coming at him from Chrysalis.

A horrible feeling settled in Twilight's stomach, as she was helpless to stop what happened next.

- - - -

Spike could only watch in shock as the green light traveled to him. Well. That was counterproductive to what he had planned for today. It was amazing, how slow time seemed to go when something inevitable happens. He could see it coming, see Celestia diving towards him, and every fiber of his brain was telling him to get out of the way, but it was too fast. There was no way. Spike closed his eyes and accepted his fate with a sigh, his only regret being that he hadn't been able to kiss Rarity. Or Fluttershy. He wouldn't have minded either.

He waited for the pain to come, but there was none. Just a sudden weight. Spike opened his eyes to see Celestia in front of him, taking the blast in her side as she fell into him.

"I am still far more powerful than Celest-"

Three very powerful blasts of magic hit Chrysalis in mid gloat. She flew backwards a great distance as the seven other mares ran towards the dragon and the white alicorn, the changeling army behind them, held back by a very stern looking Fluttershy using her Stare.

"'Tia!"

"Princess Celestia!"

Twilight and Luna knelt down at Celestia's side, Spike holding her gently, with the shocked look still fixed on his face.

Celestia fluttered her eyes open, looking up at her student and her sister.

"Well... I won't say that didn't hurt," she said as she broke into a coughing fit. Twilight's horn glowed purple as she began to do a basic healing spell, holding her horn to Celestia's stomach. She stopped though, and took a step back, paling considerably.

"No..."

Celestia managed a weak smile.

"Twilight Sparkle. You have grown up so much. To think that just a few years ago, you were a little filly that was more interested in books than friends... and now you're a smart, beautiful young mare with the greatest friends you could ever have... I am so proud of you, Twilight..."

"No, Princess... Don't talk like this..."

The white alicorn ignored this.

"Luna?"

The blue alicorn looked at her sister sadly.

"I'll... take care of them, 'Tia... I promise, I'll do my best."

Celestia nodded.

"I know. You're going to do great..."

Twilight had tears coming out of her eyes, her entire body shaking.

"Spike..."

The dragon was finally broken out of his stupor. He looked at his mother in his arms, and clutched her tightly. He turned her so she could look at him.

"You... you're so big now. So grown up. So handsome... I'm.... so.. pro-, " a cough, "I love you so much... my son..."

Her eyes closed, and the billowing aurora that was Celestia's mane faded to a light pink color. A final spark shot from her horn, and it slowly went into Twilight's crown.

"Princess..." Spike said, shaking her.

"Princess Celestia... get up..."more shaking, no response.

"Mom... please... wake up..."a single tear fell from his eye and hit Celestia's face.

Nothing.

Spike numbly stood up, gently laying the alicorn down. Chrysalis had flown back and saw Celestia's body laying on the ground, and she could only laugh. She had as good as won. With Celestia gone, there was nothing in her way.

"You..." Spike's voice was shaking, tears openly spilling.

"You're going to pay!"

A loud, primal roar loosed itself as Spike began to grow in size. The dragon was in his full adult form.

- - - -

He let loose another powerful roar, and glared down at Chrysalis. A powerful swipe of his claw knocked the changeling away flying. He turned to see what was left of the changeling army near him and exhaled a powerful green jet of flame at the large mass of black, which faded into ashes. The rampaging dragon had no idea where they had been sent. He wasn't in control. He didn't want to be.

He was hurting, and they would hurt too.

The dragon slowly reared up on his hind legs and let out another fierce roar as Chrysalis shot magic beams at him. They glanced off his skin, naturally resistant to magic. The puny mare couldn't hope to scratch him. What little bit of Spike that was left called for her blood, and he was going to get it.

- - - -

Finally, Shining Armor snapped out of it.

"Shiny!"

Cadence threw her forelegs around her fiance, who weakly returned the hug. Their horns touched, a spark of energy going between them.

"We need to use your shield spell! I'll give you as much help as I can!"

- - - -

A wave of lavender energy erupted from the wedding hall, and the fighting stopped as it began to swat changelings away, pushing them out of the war torn Canterlot. Cheers began to erupt from the ponies.

Spitfire could only smile in relief as the battle seemed to be over.

"Boss, Captain Armor's spell is back on! It's pushing them out! We've wo-" he was cut off by a pair of lips meeting his own.

"Shut up, Soarin."

"Yes, bo-"

He could get used to getting cut off like this.

- - - -

"See, Derpy? I told you it would be okay. How about Barcelona? Oh, or how bout Space Mareami? Dinky would love it there! There's theme parks and roller coasters! Space roller coasters!"

Derpy shook her head. He never changed. They had made it to the TARDIS, the police box's doors open. The two ponies stood outside it.

With a big smile, Derpy couldn't resist it.

"Well, then, Doctor... Allons-y!"

- - - -

The rampaging dragon roared in fury as his prey was knocked away from him into the horizon. He wanted blood! She needed to pay!

A small hoof on his shoulder made him turn his massive head to see what had dared touch him. A small, yellow pegasus, who looked utterly terrified but determined.

"Spike... calm down... it's going to be okay. We're all here for you. Calm down..."

He looked down at the ponies, at the mares all surrounding the dark blue and the purple one. They were at a body, all crying and holding one another. Why was he so sad to see this?

Spike looked back at the yellow pegasus as realization struck and his mind coming out of its white hot feral rage.

An anguished howl echoed throughout all of Canterlot as the dragon shrunk down. Fluttershy led him gently to Celestia's body, and the dragon broke down crying, grabbing onto Twilight and holding her tightly.

- - - - -

A  few days later

- - - - -

The mood in Canterlot was a somber one. Casualties were being found everywhere, but most were soldiers. Thanks to the evacuation shelters, civilians were largely unhurt. Everypony was equal now as they rebuilt, the lower class and the higher class meeting and uniting in this time of tragedy.

Celestia's funeral had been crushingly sad, especially to the ones who had had the pleasure of being more personally aquainted with her. Luna, with a great burst of magic, had sent her corpse to the sun, feeling as if that was the right place.

Twilight had agreed to stay for the time being in Canterlot, and her friends had agreed to stay there with her. They were needed there more, for right now. Luna and Cadence would need all the help they could get running the country and repairing the city at the same time.  

Spike found himself alone, sitting on the rails of Celestia's balcony, where she would look out upon Canterlot. He had spent a few days here, actually, just sitting quietly and watching as the Canterlotians rebuilt their homes.

He had been thinking a lot.

And blaming himself for it.

If he had been faster, he could have gotten out of the way and Celestia wouldn't have gotten hurt. If he had been stronger, he could have protected himself. Had he been a better fighter, he wouldn't have even needed to leave the wedding hall to defeat her.

It wouldn't happen again, he decided.

- - - -

The seven of them ate in silence.

Spike looked at each of the mares with him. They were actually being called Princesses now, and it was quite fitting given just how much they had taken charge. It was decided, however, that they would all go home to Ponyville for a week in order to get their affairs in order before coming back.

Applejack would need to recruit from different parts of the Apple family so they could take her place while she handled managing all of the rebuilding. Pinkie Pie expressed interest in working with Donut Joe once things settled down enough for her to...well, to be Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy just had to move her animal friends that wanted to come with her, while Rarity was quite enchanted by the idea of opening a new Boutique in Canterlot.  Rainbow Dash was even offered a chance to train with the Wonderbolts once they recovered from their injuries. It wasn't a membership, but it was more than enough for the mare that could do a Sonic Rainboom.

Twilight had taken to her new royal duties with near zealotry. She bounced all over the place, teleporting to different parts of Canterlot as she supervised construction, tended to the sick, and just helped ponies in any way she could. The girls had taken to wearing the Elements at all times during the day, letting the powerful artifacts increase their power and energy.

Soon, they found themselves at the train station and then back into Ponyville. They all collected their things, and Twilight found himself alone with her brother in the Ponyville Library.

- - - -

"Well... I guess we won't see this place again for a while," Twilight said, a sad smile gracing her lips as she packed a suitcase full of her personal belongings, "but why...aren't you packing?"

Spike shrugged

"I... decided something, Twilight."

Packing stopped as she focused on him.

"I know you've told me a dozen times, that it wasn't my fault what happened in Canterlot. But I can't help shake the feeling. She's still out there, and there are other horrible things out in the world... and I'm not strong enough. I can't protect you... and I never want you to get hurt."

Twilight was silent for a few minutes, packing her things and finishing the first suitcase by zipping it up.

"Well, what's your decision, then, Spike?"

He sighed. This was the complicated part.

"I'm going to find a teacher. From the way she spoke, changelings know a lot more about dragons we do. I'm getting all these powers and I have no idea how to use them. Maybe if I had known more... the point is, I need to get stronger. I can't be your assistant if I'm not capable of protecting you, Twilight."

Twilight shook her head.

"I don't need you to protect me, Spike. I need you to be my friend. I'm sure that once Canterlot is rebuilt, I can help figure out how to train you. All six of us could figure it out!"

Spike suddenly walked to the mare and hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Twilight. But I can't risk that monster coming out again, either. I destroyed Ponyville and I could have leveled Canterlot. I need to find someone that knows about dragons to help me control that."

His logic was sound, Twilight had to admit. She knew that it bothered him that that thing existed inside him. He had told her after his first transformation that he almost hadn't been able to come back, from what he could remember of it.

"...Okay. When are you leaving?"

Spike let go of the hug.

"No time like the present."

"You aren't even going to say goodbye to your friends?"

Spike shook his head, "No, I'm having a hard enough time saying goodbye to you. Just tell them what I told you and they should understand."

A southern drawl answered him back.

"Ah reckon we would understand, Sugarcube, but we'd much rather see you off."

"Yeah, leaving without saying goodbye is really uncool, Spike."

"I say, darling, if you are leaving then you must receive some affection before you go-"

"LIKE A PARTY!"

"That...sounds nice..."

Spike looked downstairs to see his friends all looking up at him.

"How long have you all been standing there?"

Rainbow Dash had to smile.

"Oh, for the last few minutes. Enough to know that you want to go on some epic quest of self discovery. Again. I really hate it, though. I was kind of looking forward to flying against a dragon!"

They all managed to laugh, and soon Spike's impromptu going away party began and lasted throughout the night.

- - - -

The families of his friends were all there with him at the train station to see them all off. Applebloom and Sweetie Bell were attached to their respective sisters, and Scootaloo had even shown up to see off Rainbow Dash. The Cakes had made a cake for them all to share and were watching Pinkie play with the baby Cakes. Twilight was talking with the Mayor excitedly about something while Fluttershy hung with Rarity and her family.

Spike sat on the bench and sighed, happily.  They'd be okay. And so would he. Soon, the final boarding call rung out, and the mares made their way on board. He watched them board. Applejack tilted her hat to him. Pinkie waved excitedly. Rarity blew a kiss at him.

Fluttershy actually walked over to him and hugged him.

"Be careful, Spike..."

"You know it, Flutters-"

A quick peck on the lips and Fluttershy was gone in a blink of an eye, leaving Spike to wonder just who the fastest pony in Equestria really was. Twilight came over to him with a surprised, questioning look.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, I guess I left my swag on. Mares can't resist me," the dragon said with a goofy grin on his face.

"Easy there, loverboy," the unicorn said, rolling her eyes before wrapping the dragon in a hug, "I'm going to miss you. Make sure not to eat too many sweets, get to bed at a decent time, and write often! Not every day, if you don't want to, but I'd really prefer everyday so I can be sure a hundred percent that you're safe and if you decided that you want to come to Canterlot, you're more than welcome and-"

The last warning call rung out.

"I love you too, sis."

Twilight sniffed as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Take care, Spike. I love you. Good bye!" With a flare of magic, the mare teleported onto the train right as the door closed.

Within minutes, they were gone. Spike looked up to the sky. Peewee was circling around him. Spike whistled to get his attention, and the young firebird flew down and landed on his shoulder.

"Well, Peewee, looks like it's just you and me."

The bird chirped happily. The dragon turned to face a road that led out of Ponyville. He wasn't sure where it went, but that was kind of the point, he supposed. With a single step, his new journey began.

- - - -

END PART ONE

- - - -

My feels. They're sad. How are yours?

Spike of (Saddle) Arabia (Part 1)

Full Chapter this time! Huzzah!

- - - - -

The Story Thus Far

- - - - -

Two beings. A dragon and a unicorn. Two beings forever intertwined in fate. Siblings, of the most unusual sort.

Their story began years ago, when the stars aligned and a series of perfect coincidences matched up. A shy yellow pegasus filly just happened to be picked on in the presence of a very hot headed and loyal cyan filly with a rainbow for a mane. A race occurred, and the cyan filly's desire to be the best drove her to surpass limits considered impossible by most ponies.

A sonic rainboom, and thus, destiny would forever be changed.

The specific instance of a dragon and a unicorn only happened because a startled unicorn filly, nervous and defeated, was shocked into digging into an impossibly power magic reserve causing a dragon that was never meant to be come into existence. It hatched from a dud egg. This dragon would grow up with this unicorn, learning alongside the filly he had come to consider family. Had things stayed on the right course, he'd have stayed a baby for a much longer

For want of a nail, they say.

Instead of ignoring it as he usually would have, the young drake felt horrible about some negative comments about a friend he had made, the aforementioned yellow pegasus. When going to apologize, he ran across a timberwolf attack where he had to tap into an impossible power in order to protect his friend.  The baby dragon began to grown into a teenager, and began to develop strange new power.

All was not well, though. A heinous plot to capture Canterlot was launched and Spike, the dragon, and his friends pulled together to defeat the enemy but at a terrible cost. The Princess of the Sun, Princess Celestia, died protecting Spike, who she had come to view as a son. The wielders of the Elements of Harmony took over along with the Princess of the Moon, Luna, and of Love, Cadence, to try and fill the massive gap that Celestia had left, while Spike had decided to venture forth and become stronger.

This is where our story truly begins. These... are the Adventures of Spike.

- - - -

Spike of (Saddle) Arabia

- - - -

He didn’t know what he was doing. That much was certain, as he shielded his phoenix companion under his robe. A rumor of a rumor had led him to this vast desert, looking for the ancient oasis kingdom of Saddle Arabia, rumor of an ancient and wise creature who knew everything. Spike had known ancient and wise beings, and a mare that seemed to know everything on top of it and to be honest, he wasn’t hopeful that they could help.

One thing was certain. Pony knowledge of dragons was utterly nonexistent, and to be honest, he was mildly suspicious. The changeling queen, as much as he loathed her, had known something about him. Even Zecora had told him a few things, mentioning something about a dragon's code of honor that each of them lived by, but either the mysterious zebra didn’t know much more than that, or didn’t want to tell him.

The reason he was now heading to Saddle Arabia was that it was the birthplace of modern mathematics and science, according to Twilight, and a place filled with such intelligence was bound to know more about dragons. Because as useful as his other… what would he call it? It was too aware of outside events, things he couldn't know, to be his subconscious, but too centered on him and his own thoughts for him to figure out what else it could be. It was still decidedly female, but in the beginning it had been male. It seemed to know things that were going to happen and that it was playing a huge game with him as the playing board. It was helpful, but at the same time, it was utterly terrifying like anything else that wasn’t understood.

To be honest, he felt as if he were the unknowing agent of a much higher power than even Celestia. He hadn’t been the most religious of dragons. Religion wasn’t that big of a deal in Equestria. The alicorn sisters were deities, and there was an afterlife. Wicked ponies went to Tartarus. Twilight had studied a little about the religions of other cultures and species, but he personally never really thought about it. Religion, to him, was just more magic, and that was Twilight’s thing. Granted, he himself could now do some forms of magic in the sense of his teleportation fire breath and his magically summoned wings, so maybe magic wasn't just Twilight's forte any longer.

But as useful as it had been, there was something scary about it and its power, and Spike was determined to get some answers.

It had been two months since he left Ponyville, and he had happened on the formerly small town of Appleoosa. No longer was it a few buildings on dead land. The buffalo-pony alliance had built it to a very large and bustling township that reminded him of a sandier Ponyville. The local watering hole was as good as a destination as any, and really, it was likely the best place to get the gossip he desired.

Spike had listened in a little bit to the conversations around him as he had sipped on a water, and sure enough, he overheard a few stallions talking about a trip one of them had taken to the capital of Saddle Arabia.

The dragon had been out the door no sooner than the words “wise sage stallion guy” had left out of the recent traveler’s mouth.

Thankfully, Appleoosa was on the very edge of the borders between the two countries. The plains eventually turned into desert and soon desert became more desert.

Saddle Arabia was a unique country in the fact that it was largely nomadic. The Arabians would move to an oasis and actually settle it. Instead of staying and making a town, or camping out until it was dry, each herd would move in a cycle every year, moving to each little Oasis city and building upon it. Different ponies (horses?) would do different tasks. From what he gathered, horse magic was more similar to Earth Pony magic while having hints of weather manipulation like Pegasus magic. They maintained each oasis and grew them, as impossible as it sounded, with each settlement. To make it stranger, not every one of these horses moved, either. Some stayed and maintained a more permanent residence (though any stay longer than 10 years was rare) and others still broke off and went to find other oases for further settlement. The only city that maintained actual permanence was the ancient city of Rideyadh, the capital of Saddle Arabia.

Spike continued on, the harsh sun beating down on him.

“Just gotta keep going, right, Peewee?”

The phoenix chick chirped what Spike hoped was words of encouragement. He took it like they were. They needed all the optimism they could get.

- - - -

“I miss Spike.”

Twilight was surrounded by her five closest friends as they ate their lunch. Her words were met with silence and nodding.

“Yeah, the little guy was sorta like our little brother, wasn't he?” Rainbow Dash spoke up. Rainbow had been training with the Wonderbolts, but not in the way she had wanted. Currently, she was getting crash courses in military tactics. Eventually, she was going to be the Royal Defense Advisor, in charge of most military matters, her authority only being topped by Princess Luna. Still, Dashie thought it was great, because in her time off, Spitfire herself would fly with her, trading acrobatic techniques with each other. While Rainbow was above and beyond capable of out-speeding the orange pegasus, Spitfire was much more technical than her and they both improved with each other's help.

The group shrugged. They were much more somber since the invasion. Fluttershy looked almost horrified at the thought of Spike being a little brother, given her feelings. She cared about the dragon a lot, and not like a little brother. However, he WAS a dragon and a very scary one when he became large. She was very confused about the whole matter, and she wasn't going to talk to anyone about it. It was simply too embarrassing.

Fluttershy hadn't really found her place in the court yet. Her talent was dealing with animals, not politics. But her friends needed her and so she stayed on, offering an ear to listen.

Pinkie Pie was in charge of recreation. She had decided in the wake of such a horrible event, fun was needed more than ever and the festive party pony was doing her best to help uplift the spirits of all of Equestria. She had had actually been the busiest of the unofficial new princesses, going back and forth to different cities and towns and trying to throw festivals and parties. Even the constantly vibrant mare seemed to be wearing down, though.

Applejack had taken over as a head of agriculture, dealing with all of Equestria's farming and everything from how it was taxed to revising trading routes. It wasn't actually too far away from managing the Sweet Apple farms, and since her family held quite a monopoly on a large part of the market, things were easy to work with a lot of times.

Rarity's ability to maneuver through the complexities of Canterlot's elite social hierarchy proved invaluable in rebuilding the city, as did her keen attention to details and her sense of beauty. She was also the voice of the new Royal court towards the Canterlot elite and had most of the dealings with the other most powerful ponies of Equestria.

Though she did delight in lording her new found power over Blueblood.

“I just hope the little darling is okay... all alone in this great big world.”

The girls sighed and finished their salads in silence.

- - - -

Spike couldn't go much further. And thankfully, he didn't have to.

In front of him was the massive stone doors that would open to the great city of Rideyadh. Two horse stallions stood outside it, decked in armor. It was made of iron, a dull grey color, but vicious in appearance. Upon each foreleg, the armor had blades attached to the end that were actually retractable, though how they worked Spike didn't know. The helmets even had an iron unicorn-like horn on them used for headbutting and ramming opponents. The back legs were armored, and the horseshoes they wore were thick and heavy.

There was nothing that these horses didn't seem prepared for, in terms of battle. Thankfully, he wasn't there to fight, he was there for learning. He began to get closer, and the guards noticed him.

“Halt, dragon! State your business immediately!”

It was at this point Spike realized that dragons might not have the best reputation, given how hostile the two horses seemed to be getting.

“Oh, boy...” he muttered under his breath. He held his arms out, claws out in what he hoped would be perceived as a peaceful gesture.

“Hi! I'm Spike. I'm on a journey to discover myself and heard there was this sage guy living here and was kinda hoping he could direct me along my proper path and all.”

The two stallion warriors looked at the dragon with a deadpan expression. The young drake gulped, starting to get nervous.

“Oddly specific, but with the week we've had... However, the sage's great wisdom isn't just available to outsiders, and especially not to your kind,” the left horse said in a gruff voice.

Spike glared at the insult that was almost spat in his direction.

“Hey, I'm not like other dragons. I'm born and raised in Equestria, Canterlot even. The princess herself raised me,” Spike replied, pointing his thumb to his chest, “and I'm best friends with the princess's personal student! I'm a good dragon.”

The left stallion shook his head.

“Sure, kid, and I'm a rainbow colored flying pony that can break the sound barrier. Begone, dragon. The city's in a crisis and we don't need the trouble your kind brings,” he said.

Spike didn't expect a hitch like this in his plan. Now he was a little nervous, but he wasn't just giving up. He'd come too far for this and it was his only lead to what he was and what was happening to him.

“What happened?”

The left one ignored him, but the right one spoke up.

“Look, Spike, was it? This is a bad time to be an outsider over here. Our princess got kidnapped by a group of bandits that came to our kingdom, under the guise of looking to learn from our sage. We've closed our borders and everything. I'm actually surprised you got in, let alone all the way to the heart of our kingdom. But then, most of our military is out trying to hunt her down...”

“Wedge! He could be working with the enemy! You didn't need to tell him that!”

“Look, Biggs. He's a kid. And it's kind of goes without saying that most of our military would be trying to find our one and only heir to the throne!”

“You're not supposed to say that either! Now they know she's vital to our government!”

“Of course she's vital, she's the princess!”

Spike watched the exchange and put his hand against his head hoping to ward off the oncoming headache.

“Look, guys. I'll come back later, and I'll keep my eyes and ears open for any sign of the princess, okay?”

The horses paid him no mind as they continued to bicker between themselves, and the dragon turned around and headed back into the desert.

----

“Brilliant idea, Spike. Promise to find the princess of a country and you don't even know what she looks like or where to start. Genius,” the young dragon said out loud. The phoenix on his shoulder cooed at him, and he reached up to pat Peewee gently.

“You still think I'm awesome though, right, Peewee?”

He went unanswered.

Spike didn't even have a path in mind. He just began walking. He was now kind of regretting not getting more details about this whole thing. The young dragon almost felt defeated just thinking about it.

If he did, if he actually thought about it, he didn't exactly do a good job saving the last princess that needed help, either. So he did his best to avoid thinking, period. It had been an hour since he wandered away from the city walls, so close yet so far to the knowledge he had sought. Though Dreamy hadn't spoken with him for so long, he figured it was worth the effort.

“Don't suppose you've got any magical princess finding super sight power in store for me?”

He could almost hear the snicker as he found himself transported back to a white void.

“Nothing so specific. You haven't even worked on the stuff you've already got. Besides, where would the fun be in getting given ever cool power you've got in store? You don't just start out a master, purple, you gotta level up first!”

“None of that... makes any sense whatsoever. Come on. It's not just about me and my journey anymore. There's a life at stake!”

The void seemed to get chilly all of a sudden.

“And you honestly don't even care, do you, Spike? You really are more concerned with what you're going to gain rather than the good or bad it could cause. No different than any other dragon."

“Hey! Take that back! I do care! A life is a life and-”

“No, you don't. Sure, on the surface, as a sentient normal living creature that has emotion, yes, you're sad about the potential of lost life. But it's not close to you, and your own life really wouldn't be affected by it either why. It's a big world and you know that if you look and keep searching, you'll find your answers. This is just the first lead you've come across and you're scared to let it go, so don't you dare pretend to be so selfless, Spike.”

He blinked and found himself farther in the desert. The great city was little more than a blur in the horizon, and Spike could only wonder how long he'd been walking.

“I could have sworn time passed by slower talking to her, but...”

The voice in his head was driving him crazy. He growled in exasperation and looked around. Towards the northeast, he noticed, there looked to be a rock formation,perhaps some caves or something. It was hard to tell this far away. Maybe he could look there? Bandits always hid in desert canyons and caves in Twilight's stories.

It was worth a shot.

And so, the dragon began to walk.

- - - -

“He's getting closer.”

“He's barely started on his path. He's no idea what he's searching for, just that he's searching for something. The dragon has no idea what his destiny is.”

Two figures stood, cloaked in shadow. A magical orb of light was floating in front of them, but it revealed not the viewers, but a young purple dragon struggling to deal with a harsh and unfamiliar climate.

“The fact that he was even heading towards Rideyadh at all means that he's bound to find it.”

The other figure cackled, but no humor was in it.

“That's what I'm counting on. The Ritual Stones will be mine, and soon, the whole world will belong to me once more.”

- - - - - - -

END

Spike of (Saddle) Arabia (Part 2)

The rock formations were much bigger than they had seemed from the distance, naturally, but he was very thankful for that once he got into their shadows. The beating sun had dried his scales out something horribly so the cool shade was a blessing in and of itself. He would have loved for it to be closer to an oasis though.

A superstitious part of him felt as though the sun was punishing him for the loss of its ruler. The rest of him knew that was silly angst, his mind just trying to place more blame on himself. But he couldn't shake the feeling. He should have protected her. Or at the very least, not been so weak as to have been a liability. She didn't need to sacrifice herself for him, he would have probably survived. Dragonskin was pretty hearty.

"It killed Celestia, it would have destroyed you. You know better, Spike." the dreamdragon hadn't even had to chastise him for that one, he was doing it himself

His inner voice had been silent since the argument and he was not sure how he felt about it. The being, whatever she was, had been nothing but helpful before, if not mysterious. For her to be as outright hostile as she was earlier had been new, just like it's change to a teen dragon and its girlish frame.

Was it getting stronger? What was it?

Sitting against the cool rock, he sighed and took a moment to relax. The dragon closed his eyes.

He looked at the white alicorn with a terrified look, like any child would have if they had been caught in the act of doing something wrong. His hand was caught in the “gem jar” like a unicorn foal using their magic to get into a cookie jar. She looked as thought she was holding back amusement but putting forth a stern facade. Spike, naturally, saw none of this, and the baby dragon started crying.

The gentle warmth of Celestia's magic enveloped him and his crying sniffled away.

The dragon awoke with a start, looking around frantically. He had fallen asleep unintentionally, and he had been out for a while if the starry night sky was any indication. The initial shock of his waking wore off quickly, only for him to realize that he was freezing. The desert air chilled him quickly, and Peewee was cuddling against him trying to provide, and share, what warmth he could. Spike hugged the baby towards him and smiled, pulling his cloak around them. He tried to adjust himself to get a little more comfortable, when a gentle breeze swept across him. He felt a powerful presence and his eyes were drawn up to see the moon.

Also, Princess Luna.

“Hello, young Spike.”

The dragon waved back at her, a small grin growing on his face. Finally, someone friendly that wasn't a bird! Not that he didn't love talking to Peewee but he didn't talk back. He hadn't realized how lonely he had felt.

The lunar princess flew down next to him, landing with a soft sound. She looked more tired than Spike had ever seen her, and sad.

“What brings you to the neighborhood, Princess Luna?” Spike asked, his curiosity piqued.

Luna managed a small but tired smile.

“We- I was flying to Rideyah and I felt your dream. I had not realized you were here. You see, the Princess of the country has disappeared and I was going to see if I could lend a hoof of assistance in finding her. I hoped to sense her dreams.”

Spike looked saddened for a moment, realizing he had just bombarded her with images of her dead sister but he pushed it away, focusing instead on the Princess's reason for being in the desert nation.

“Have you had any luck? I was trying to look for her myself, I figured this would be a place to start, see if I could smell any magic or anything, but I haven't found anything. I haven't really even started, to be honest. I sat down to rest a minute and then I woke up to see you.”

Luna looked a bit shocked at the dragon's words. It seemed odd that the two of them would find each other with the same purpose in mind.

“So have you found her, Princess Luna?”

“Just Luna, is fine, thank you. And no, I have not yet located her, however, I do sense horse magic lingering here, but it's disguised, faded, as if something was covering its tracks.”

The Moon Princess closed her eyes, and her horn began to radiate with magic. Spike closed his eyes, and took in the feel of it, the scent and was in awe.

Where Celestia's magic was warm and embracing, Luna's was colder, striking and almost wild, and as powerful as Celestia's magic was, Luna's magic felt nearly as infinite as the stars.

Her eyes shot open and she frowned.

“I think I found her... but... she didn't feel panicked at all. I could only probe her dreams for a moment but she felt almost jubilant. Something isn't right...”

Twilight grabbed another book with her telekinesis, bringing it closer to her face.

Coming to live at the palace again might have had horrible reasons behind it, but Twilight was determined to make the most of it. She had thrown herself into training, spending entire nights pouring over tomes. She had learned a spell to help her sleep more efficiently and the magic of her Element was overcharging everything, increasing her reserves. She was useless to protect her teacher during the war, but it would not happen again.

Twilight would train until she could lift the sun by herself, if only to ease Luna's and Cadence's burden.

However, tonight wasn't for training. In her studies, she had stumbled upon some older scrolls and texts, finding things she had never even heard of. Being a princess, even if by name only, had its perks and that included getting to read into Celestia's private study. She had come across scrolls that were very interesting and very ancient. They went even beyond the time of Star Swirl the Bearded, and very few ponies even knew what went on then.

Alicorns. Luna, Cadence, and Celestia had been the only ones she had known of. Goddesses in terms of power, really, and on their worst day still easily more powerful than any regular pony. A changeling, even a Queen, should not have been able to overpower Celestia, let alone kill her. It was still so hard to believe, and that was why she had began to dig. Surely, Celestia was still alive, biding her time and healing.

But from her research, it was the truth. Not only could an alicorn die... most of them already were dead. The more she dug, the more questions she had. All of the alicorns had simply disappeared, leaving only a handful. Celestia made no mention of it in her journals and Celestia had documented everything.

This was one of the oldest ones, the one she was reading now. The journal's pages were ancient. As she flipped through the pages, she gasped and the book fell down, open on a page.

There, drawn in immaculate detail and colored to a perfect hue was...

Alicorns were incredible. With a levitation spell, Luna picked Spike up and began to make a hasty flight outside of the rock formations with out a single word. Peewee perched himself on Spike's back, content to let the telekinetic bubble carry him instead of flying himself.

"Where are we going, prince- I mean, Luna?"

The dark mare looked back at him with a serious face.

"Where I last felt her. She's not alone. Be prepared. We may have a battle ahead."

Spike gulped and he felt Peewee give an unconscious shiver. He didn't feel like having Peewee around combat was a good idea. He was still a baby. Granted, he wasn't exactly old enough for combat either, a year shy chronologically from being able to enlist into the Equestrian military.

"And what do you want to be when you grow up?" the white mare asked him, looking down on the now 4 year old dragon.

"I wanna be an army pony like Shiny! So I can be big and strong and I can beat up bad guys and then I can be your bodyguard and we can hang out and play all day!" Yellow magic enveloped him as it began to tickle him, and the little dragon laughed.

Spike shook his head. He needed to focus. He wasn't exactly a fighter, but he was a dragon and that was enough most times. Especially if he could pull off what he did during the invasion.

He wouldn't let this princess get hurt. Determination etched itself into his visage and the purple drake felt a surge of magic inside of him as his wings formed in a green flame. The bubble eased off of him and he clumsily caught up to Luna, Peewee still floating in what was left of her telekinetic spell.

Luna looked at her companion, and began to increase her speed. Spike did his best to keep up, wondering if she had sensed something to warrant the change in pace but realized that every time he caught up, she'd push even faster? Was she testing his capabilities? Racing him? It wasn't quite the right situation to challenge one to a race but he could see a reason behind a test. If they were going into combat, she'd need to know what he could do.

Too bad he wasn't quite sure what he was capable of. Dreamy had done something, unlocked something primal and powerful and angry, that was deep inside of him that he hadn't been able to call back out since. His emotions had something to do with it, he had surmised during his journey so far, but that was it. It didn't help that the only emotions he felt were depression, angst, and the feeling of being lost and overwhelmed.

"Hush now, quiet now... it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

The baby dragon laid in his little bed as she sung him to sleep, a feeling of calm washing over him as the angelic voice drifted through his ears.

He barely whispered it, but he looked up at her with the innocent eyes of a tired child.

"Good night, mommy."

He had fallen asleep before he noticed the mixed emotions on Celestia's face.

Getting the hang of his flight was hard enough, getting the hang of it when he had all of these thoughts running through his mind was much more difficult. But maybe his emotions were just running that high.

Luna's sky was shining brightly with starlight, and the trio of flyers could see a very small oasis in the distance.

"There! I'm going to teleport us closer. We'll walk the rest of the way, I can cloak us with a spell of invisibility."

The drake nodded, and felt a tugging sensation before he landed on ground. Much closer to the oasis. He looked to Luna, out of habit. Usually the teleport spell left Twilight drained if she used it at a great distance or carried multiple ponies. Luna barely appeared winded. Was she really that much more powerful than Twilight? Where had she been during the invasion, then? She could have helped. She could have saved Celestia.

Spike mercilessly squashed those thoughts and fought to reign in his anger. His wings faded away with it, but he was much more calm. He needed to focus on what was ahead.

Twilight walked aimlessly. What she had seen had been too much for her to handle. It shouldn't have been possible. But there were several dozen theories running through her mind and it was just too much.

Alicorns. There had been hundreds, thousands of them. An entire people, gone.  And the picture she had seen...

A younger Celestia, with a pink flowing mane, standing with a family of dragons. There was a baby dragon, a green female, next to an orange adult dragon and a pink one. The important  thing was the egg they had been holding.

Spike's egg.