Chapter 6: Friendship Evolves

It was the next morning as Rarity leaves her cave...minus the weird scaly claw from last night. The mare saw Fuzzy and the Mane Five still sleeping. Perhaps best not to disturb them just yet. Rarity heads off into the woods and found Golden Heart, Pinkamena and Lorcan near a bird sitting in a nest on a branch.

"Morning, Rarity!" Pinkamena exclaims happily to Rarity, "Ready for breakfast?"

"I will, darling, but first..." Rarity said, twirling around a bit as she prepares to do some singing.

"Great, a song," Lorcan groans in annoyance. He pulls out ear plugs and places them in his ears. "Proceed."

Rarity begins singing some 'Las', causing the bird to leave its next and sang along. The mare begins singing higher with the bird doing the same thing. As the others watch on, both are singing higher and higher notes with the bird trying its best to catch up. Eventually though, the pressure is getting too much for the bird and then...

BOOM! The group are startled as the bird soon blows up, leaving its feet on the branch. Golden Heart yelps a bit, "Ouch."

"That was fun; do it again!" Pinkamena exclaims happily, bouncing up and down, much to the concern of the others. "What?"

Rarity chuckled, looking a bit awkward that her singing too high causes the bird to blow up. She then spots the eggs in the abandoned nest, all alone and did some pondering.

"Oooh, I think I know what you're thinking." Lorcan remarks with a devilish look on his face.

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A while later, Rarity and Golden Heart were making breaking while Lorcan and Pinkamena sat there, waiting anxiously to eat. The smell of food woke up Spike and some of the Mane Five who looks surprised to see what Rarity's doing.

"Oh, yeah, you know I like it like that." Pinkie said in her sleep, while hugging Spike, much to his annoyance. "Come on! I like it."

"Pinkie," Spike snaps to Pinkie in irritation.

"Wake up, wake up!" Lorcan exclaims, shaking Pinkie awake.

"What, huh," Pinkie ask, waking up and looking confused.

"Wake up, sugar cube." Applejack said, shaking Pinkie awake as well.

"What? Huh?"

As Pinkie stretch and yawn, Rarity hums happily as she came up to her friends with some eggs. Fluttershy looks surprised as she ask, "Oh...what's this?"

"Breakfast; Good morning, everyone," Rarity greets the others happily. "So how do you like your eggs, darling? Frieds or scrambled?"

"Oh, morning, princess," Pinkie said happily as she bounces off. Rarity put the eggs right in front of the food, "Oooh, breakfast!"

"Wait, what is this all about?" Spike asks Rarity in concern. Yesterday, she didn't want a thing to do with him and the others. Now the princess is making breakfast?

"Well, I must confess: we got off on a bad hoof yesterday, darling. And I wish to make it up to you." Rarity said, batting her eyelashes at the surprised Spike. "After all, you and your wonderful friends did rescue me and I was being so ungrateful."

"Well, thanks."

"Yeah, thanks." Twilight said with a smile as she has some eggs. "You know, I'm relieved knowing that you're willing to apologize for your behavior yesterday."

"Oh yeah," Rainbow sniffs a bit as she happily licks her lips and have some of the eggs.

"Well, eat up. We've got a big day ahead of us, darling." Rainbow said happily as she walks off to leave her friends to eat.

"Wow! She was nice to make some breakfast." Pinkamena said happily while eating some of the food.

"Yeah, too bad about the bird and her eggs though," Golden Heart comments, feeling concerned for what happened to the bird that just blew up as well as the eggs that got eaten.

"Wait, what bird and eggs?" Fluttershy ask Golden Heart, getting a bit shocked and uneasy by what he's saying.

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Once the gang is done eating, they are on their way to Blueblood's castle. While doing so, Spike made one huge belch that echoes throughout the forest.

"Spike," Twilight exclaims, narrowing her eyes at this. Lorcan belches as well, "Lorcan!"

"What? It's a compliment!" Spike explains to Twilight with an eager smile. "Like dad used to say, better out than in; ha ha ha!"

"Still, that ain't no way to behave in front of a princess!" Pinkie scolds Spike and Lorcan for belching in front of Rarity. They just rescue her and the two Dragons are offending her.

Suddenly Rarity belches, much to the surprise and/or shock of the others. The mare giggles happily, "Thanks."

Spike's group looks shocked at this. Rarity doesn't mind the belching? Applejack spoke up, "Dang. She is nasty as yew two brothers are."

"Oh, don't get me started. I'm still shocked about what Golden Heart just told me." Fluttershy said, shuddering a bit. The mare hasn't gotten over the fact that Rarity blew up a bird with such singing then cooks the eggs for breakfast.

Spike with a nervous chuckle spoke to Rarity, "Wow, Rarity; you aren't what I expected."

"Well, darling, you shouldn't judge people before you get to know them." Rarity said slyly. Spike and some of the others looks shocked upon hearing that. The leader said words kinda like that last night! Was she listening in?

Rarity smiles and trots off away from the others, singing softly. Pinkamena smiles, saying, "Well, say what you want about her. She sure sings good."

Suddenly, without warning, a wolf named Boss Wolf swing in and grabs Rarity, taking her into a tree. She yelps while he yells, "La liberte! Hey!"

"Princess," Spike gasps in alarm at this.

"What's going on," Golden Heart demands as the group rush up to see Boss Wolf on a branch with Rarity.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Rarity demands angrily to the wolf.

"Be still, maiden! I am your rescuer, saving you from this purple..." Boss Wolf remarks, kissing up her upper foreleg much to Rarity's disgust who pulls it back. "...beast."

"A wolf saving a girl; that's a new one," Twilight comments in disbelief at this sight.

"So is a Dragon saving a princess too," Rainbow reminds her friends in amusement.

"Hey, that's my princess! Get your own, Big Bad Wolf!" Spike scowls angrily to Boss Wolf. Who is this jerk think he is, trying to take what the Dragon has saved first?!

"Is that Boss Wolf, the leader of wolf bandits that worked for Lord Shen?" Pinkamena ask her brother puzzled.

"Yes, but apparently he survived the confrontation and is now doing hero work." Golden Heart explains to his sister in concern.

"Wow; that is new."

"More like annoying." Lorcan remarks with a roll of his eyes.

"Tell me about it." Applejack remarked, agreeing with Lorcan on his POV.

"Please, please, Dragon. Can't you see I'm busy here?" Boss Wolf asks Spike, ignoring the others while trying to be friendly with Rarity.

Rarity push Boss Wolf bad, snapping angrily, "You filthy mutt, I don't know who you think you are but I don't like it!"

"Oh yes. Of course, how rude of me; allow me to introduce myself; Oh, Merry Wolves!"

Suddenly the gang heard accordion beginning to play from out of nowhere. Soon a bunch of wolves came out of the bushes, one of them is playing the accordion begin to sing.

Wolves: Ta, dah, dah, dah, whoo.

Boss Wolf: I steal from the richl and give to the needy.

Wolves: He takes a wee percentage

Boss Wolf: But I'm not greedy.
I rescue pretty damsels, man, I'm good.

Boss Wolf grins eagerly to Rarity, much to her disgust further.

What a guy, Boss Wolf.

"Break it down." Boss Wolf said as he and his fellow wolves whistle a bit while doing a bit of river dance for everyone, much to their annoyance.

"River dancing wolves; what's next, a peacock joining them?!" Lorcan asks the others in irritation. Once the dancing stops, Boss Wolf resumes the song.

Boss Wolf: I like an honest fight and a saucy little maid

Wolves: What he's basically saying is he likes to get

"Paid." Boss Wolf said quickly, making his wolves whoop. He gave a glare to Spike while the wolves dance, snapping their fingers while advancing on him.

Boss Wolf: So...When a Dragon in the bush
Grabs a lady by the tush
That's bad.

"That's bad!" The wolves said, echoing all over.

Boss Wolf: When a beauty's with a beast it makes me awfully mad.

Wolves: He's mad, he's really, really mad.

Boss Wolf took his sword, making the good guys gasps. He is intending on lunging Spike through...and that blade is sharp enough to go through him apparently!

Boss Wolf: I'll take my blade and ram it through your heart
Keep your eyes on me, boys, 'cause I'm about to start...

But before Boss Wolf could go through on his threat, Rarity swings in from out of nowhere from the tree limb and kicks the wolf, knocking him out. The other wolves gasp in shock as she lands on her hooves.

"Geez, that's annoying!" Rarity exclaims in annoyance.

"Thank you!" Lorcan exclaims in agreement. Rarity's friends look at her in amazement while Spike just does so in admiration. She kicked that wolf's boss!

"Why you," One of the wolves exclaims furiously as he took out a bow and arrow out, firing an arrow at Rarity. Forget the maiden rescue! This ungrateful unicorn is going down!

Rarity manages to duck out of the way in time, causing the arrow to head towards Pinkie who jumps into Spike's arms to move. As the arrow bounces off a tree, Lorcan, Golden Heart and Pinkamena decides to jump in to help Rarity fight off these wolves.

"Got the blade, Pinkamena?" Golden Heart asks his sister who held her sword in her mouth.

"Betcha; their number just came up," Pinkamena remarks as she quickly begins fighting off the wolves.

Rarity gave out a karate yell while Lorcan roars out, "Okay, wolves! Have at thee!"

The four quickly begins fighting off the wolves, blasting, kicking and using their abilities to knock most of them out. Rarity jumps into the air, pausing in mid-air between two of the wolves as if in a movie to fix her. She then proceeds in knocking them down.

Golden Heart gallops off as the wolf with the accordion chasing them. He jumps off a tree to corner his attacker there. The wolf turns and saw him, trying to futilely block his face with his instrument, only for Golden Heart to punch right through it, hitting the wolf in the face and knocking him out.

Lorcan proceeds in kicking and hitting the last wolf until he fell down. Soon all the wolves are down and knocked out onto the ground. Pinkamena grins to Spike's brother, commentating, "Nice job, Lorcan."

"Hey, I didn't become a fighter for nothing!" Lorcan exclaims, dusting his claws off in satisfaction.

"Yes, you are indeed a fighter." Golden Heart said impressed.

Spike and the Mane Five look surprised and stunned. Rarity, Golden Heart, Pinkamena and Lorcan took down those wolves without a sweat. The unicorn smiles as she trots up to Spike, asking, "well, darling, shall we be off?'

As Rarity trots off, Fluttershy exclaims, "Oh my!"

"Remind me never to call Lorcan short again!" Rainbow exclaims with a smile.

"Wait, hold the phone." Spike said in amazement. He drops Pinkie before following Rarity, "Hey, hold on now. Wait up! Where did that come from?"

"What?" Rarity asks Spike confused, not sure what he's on about at first.

"Back there, that was amazing! I mean, I know how my brother practices and know that Golden Heart and Pinkamena did some training...but you? That was awesome! Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Well, darling, when one lives alone, a lady must learn to take care of herself. In case there's a...there's an arrow in your butt!"

"Huh?" Spike asks in surprise as he turns around. Sure enough, there's an arrow sticking right out of his butt. Must've where the arrow that was shot out by one of the wolves earlier must've landed, "Well, check that out."

Spike does his best to pull the arrow out of himself, but flinches due to his tenderness. Rarity groans in regret, "Oh darling, this is all my fault. I am so sorry!"

The others manage to catch up to Spike and Rarity. Pinkie ask puzzled, "Say, what's going on here?"

"He's hurt!"

"Oh really? That's bad!" Lorcan said, spotting the arrow stuck in Spike's butt.

"Whoa, sugar cube. 'Dat's in there tight!" Applejack said, observing the arrow as well.

"Spike's hurt? Oh no, Spike's hurt!" Pinkie gasps in worry, getting freaked out. "No, no, Spike's going to die!"

"Pinkie, I'm okay." Spike said to Pinkie with a sigh.

"It's just stuck in his butt, no need to make a deal." Rainbow explains to Pinkie, trying to calm her down.

"No, no! You can't do this to me, Spike! I'm too young for you to die! Keep your legs elevated, turn your head and cough!" Pinkie exclaims, overreacting much to her friends' irritation. "Does anypony here know the Heimlich?!"

"Pinkie! Calm down, darling!" Rarity exclaims, stopping Pinkie from her freak out.

"Right, stop worrying, will ya?" Lorcan asks Pinkie with a sigh.

"Look, you want to help Spike? I want you and your friends to run into the woods and find me a blue flower with red thorns in it."

"Right; Blue flower, red thorns," Pinkamena said, nodding in understanding.

"Right, we're on it." Golden Heart said quickly. "I'll go with them to make sure that they don't get lost."

"Blue flower, red thorns; Blue flower, red thorns," Fluttershy said, doing her best to remember what Rarity told her and the others to get.

"Spike, please don't die! Please!" Pinkie exclaims to Spike frantically. "If you see the tunnel, don't go into the light at the end!"

"Pinkie," Spike, Rarity, Lorcan and Twilight yell out to Pinkie in annoyance.

"Oh, sorry; Right, let's go."

"Right, got to find that dumb blue flower with red thorns; what's the big deal?" Rainbow asks herself as she and the others rush off into the woods, leaving Spike and Rarity alone. They got a mission to do.

"So what are the flowers for?" Spike asks Rarity curiously.

"For getting rid of Pinkie of course." Rarity said to Spike with a nod. Apparently, her request was to get rid of Pinkie as well as the others so that she can get the arrow out without any further interruptions or freak outs.

"Oh, yeah, I see."

"Now, to hold still, Spike; I will try to yank this thing out."

Rarity grabs the arrow with her teeth trying to pull it out. Spike feels the pain and jumps away, yelping, "Whoa, whoa, easy with the yanking!"

Spike does his best to keep Rarity away from her as she tries to get at the arrow. She snaps, "Come on! It has to come out!"

"No, no, it's tender!"

"Hold still."

"What you are doing is the opposite of helping!" Spike insists, pushing Rarity away frantically. The last thing he wants is to feel any further pain.

"Don't move!" Rarity exclaims with a frustrated sigh. Why must Spike be a big baby?

"Whoa, hey; Time out!"

"Would you..." Rarity snaps, but groans as Spike put a claw over her face to keep her from the arrow. She finally gave up, sighing, "Okay, fine; any idea what we should do?"

The Mane Five and their groups, unaware that their quest is a fool's errand, looks around for the flower that Rarity mentioned; they found an area with flowers and thorns...though Pinkie and Pinkamena doesn't seem to notice the colors.

"Blue flower, red thorns; Blue flower, red thorns," Pinkamena mumbles a bit. "Wow, this is hard."

"Would've been easier if we weren't so colorblind," Pinkie whines a bit to her friends as if the pink ponies are colorblind.

"You aren't colorblind, Pinkie." Twilight remarked, rolling her eyes at the claim.

"Oh yeah; which one of us is colorblind again, Twilight?"

Suddenly Spike is heard screaming from where he's at. Lorcan remarks, "Looks like my little brother is hurting thanks to our dear princess."

"Hang on, Spike!" Fluttershy exclaims as she grabs a flower with her mouth. "We're coming."

The gang rush back to Spike and Rarity in hopes to help their Dragon friend in time. During this time, Spike groans while struggling a bit, "Owie. Man, not good."

"Okay, hang on. I can see the head nearly." Rarity said with a nod. She is pulling harder on the arrow while Spike held onto a log, grunting to help with the progress. "It's almost..."

Spike kept on groaning then he jerks, causing him to fall onto Rarity, resulting in a fall that got her on top of him. Both of them blush a bit wildly. It looks...a bit comfortable with them, lying down like this.

"Ahem." A familiar voice spoke up. The gang turns and saw the others returning, looking amused. Rainbow, the one who coughs, spoke in amusement, "Getting comfy, lovers?"

Spike in alarm threw Rarity off of him, insisting, "Hey, nothing happened, really. We were just, well..."

"Awww, if you two wanted to be alone, just ask us, okay?" Pinkie asks Spike and Rarity in amusement. To her, the two wanted some alone to have some 'fun'.

"Right, sugar cube; we can y'all leave again if y'all want." Applejack remarks to Spike with a slight chuckle while Twilight smiles, shaking her head in amusement.

"Come on! That's the last thing on my mind right now! The princess here was just..." Spike was interrupted as a smirking Rarity uses her magic to pull the arrow out, making him wince a bit. He turns and looks at the mare who held the arrow with a smile. "Ow."

"Oh dear, what's that? Is that blood...is that..." Fluttershy said with a nervous chuckle.

Fluttershy made a goat sound as she fell to the ground, fainting. Twilight sighs, "Fluttershy."

Spike chuckles as he came over and picks up Fluttershy. The gang continues on their way back to the castle with Pinkamena comment happily, "This turns out to be one weird day."

Author's note
Well, Spike and Rarity are becoming closer, don't you think? In the next chapter, the two get more closer until the gang stops for the night, eating and such. The Mane Five, Lorcan, Golden Heart, Pinkamena and Gold Wing finds out why Rarity doesn't want to be out after sun set which led to be a misunderstanding involving Spike. Read, review and suggest.