"Spike!" Twilight groaned as she heaved a large stack of books onto an adjacent shelf.

Spike had dozed off from the long hours of re-organizing books the night before, or so to speak, a few hours before. Twilight left him to organize the rest, as she had to make an appearance with Celestia the day before at some ball and was far too tired to sort the rest with him. With a long exasperated grunt, Spike heaved himself off his bed and trudged downstairs in a tiresome manner, putting on his jeans and red sweater.

"What?!" Spike moaned as he reached into the fridge to grab himself a glass of milk.

"Some of these books aren't in the right order..." Twilight tried to voice her complaint as lightly as she could, but from the look on the tired purple dragon's face, he was not satisfied by the statement. She fastened her red jacket in an impatient manner to encourage him.

"Yeah, sorry... listen, I kinda was seeing double by the time the clock struck three, and it's six now. I barely slept..." Spike lifted the glass to his mouth and took one long gulp until the contents were gone.

"I had a rough day yesterday too, you know!" Twilight's outburst became softer as she bit her lip, realizing what a preposterous thing that was to say.

After weeks of him, stacking books whilst she communed with royalty, after all, his hard work and dedication, Twilight still didn't recognize his diligence. He felt more like a slave now that she had become royalty. It was beginning to negatively affect her outlook on the efforts of others, and he didn't respect that one bit. A long fuse that had been lit long ago finally reached its end and Spike could no longer contain his anger. He was sick of being just a simple librarian, of being everypony's shoulder to cry on and everypony's whipping boy. Rarity had scoffed at him before, but hearing Twilight just pout at him like that was the last straw. Slayer of Tirek or not, Spike wanted to tear a hole in Twilight so badly.

"Of what?! Dancing and eating with royalty?!" Spike crossed his arms in disapproval, fire billowing from his maw. "Listen Twilight... I've had quite enough princess-sass, thank you very much!" The doorbell rang loudly, abruptly interrupting the dragon's furious rant.

"What now...?" Spike unlocked the door to find a familiar cream-colored mare standing before him. "Oh, hello Fluttershy."

"Um... hi... was I interrupting something important?" Fluttershy stepped back, hearing the sheer exhaust in Spike's voice as clear as day. "I heard you guys arguing... so, I hesitated to ring the bell."

"No, you weren't interrupting anything Fluttershy," Twilight replied as she glanced at Spike, anger still swelling in his chest. "Come in."

"Actually... I just wanted to ask something of Spike really... I don't have to come inside." Fluttershy insisted in her usual whispered-words. "Spike... I need some help to fix my house... um, a storm had rolled in a few nights ago, and it broke a few windows and wrecked some of my fences. I also broke my wing a while back too, and... it still hasn't really healed...um."

Spike took a deep breath and turned his head to face Twilight, letting out a long and exaggerated sigh. "This is what I'm talking about! It always has to be me that fixes everyone else's problems! Twilight, sorry I've... got to get some air." Spike marched past Fluttershy and walked off into Ponyville.

"Hang on, Fluttershy I'll get him." Twilight was an inch from the door when Fluttershy grabbed her arm.

"No, I think you're the reason he's acting this way. Seeing you going after him will only make it worse... I'll go." Fluttershy's expression surprised Twilight, all of a sudden her entire demeanor shifted from timid to determined.

"Alright, alright... I'll be waiting." Twilight raised her arms in surrender as she sat down on her dining room chair.

****

Fluttershy trailed Spike for a while as he walked along the roads in a disgruntled manner, eventually stopping at the Ponyville river port. He sat down on the pier above the river, dangling his legs over the edge, just barely touching the water, and he looked down for a moment at his reflection. Why did he let his anger consume him so? Did he mean what he said? Spike wasn't so sure about anything anymore, and it was much harder to control his collected anger nowadays. A moment of silence passed as his frustration began to simmer, and he raised his head in response to a soft peep coming from the tree behind him; an unmistakable, shy squeak.

"Fluttershy...? How long have you been following me?" Spike inquired, perplexed by Fluttershy's tenacity, as he had roamed a very long distance from his house. He wandered all the way from the treehouse to the port at the edge of Ponyville.

"The whole time... I wanted to call out to you, but... I just wanted to find out where you were going is all..." Fluttershy gently sat down beside Spike and looked across to see the large ships sailing into the port. The gentle glare off the water shimmered as if there were thousands of tiny candles beneath the waves, and a cool breeze off the blue water filled the air with the sweet smell of the sycamore trees on the banks. "It's beautiful..." Fluttershy let out a breath as she looked back to Spike. "Do you always come here when you're upset?"

"Yeah... and I'm not upset. Well, at least not anymore." Spike gazed at the river with her. "I'm just confused is all."

"Confused?" Fluttershy looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I've just been thinking. Fluttershy, do you think I'll be stacking books the rest of my life?" Spike inquired.

"That depends... do you want to stack books for the rest of your life?" Fluttershy replied with another question.

"I- I dunno, I was just thinking I needed a little more... adventure in my life, you know?" Spike trailed off as he looked down. "I just-... I wanted more than just this. I want to be more than what I am now, and I don't think I'll ever get there if I spend the rest of my days here."

"You've been on many adventures with us Spike, and I think I've had more adventure in my life than just about any other pegasus," Fluttershy replied as she glanced back to Spike. "Now that may be enough for me, but you..."

"I'm not sure... maybe I'm just being selfish..." Spike said with a sigh.

"Nonsense, Spike. It is never selfish to think you can do more with your life. You're a dragon after all! You should be able to do whatever you want with it!" Fluttershy put her arm around Spike's shoulder to reassure him, and a smile spread across the young dragon's face.

"Thank you, Fluttershy." Spike got to his feet and assisted Fluttershy up as she put her hand out.

"Stop! Thief!" A voice from far down the port pier yelled.

Spike squinted to see a figure in the distance running towards him, and when he finally could make heads of the silhouette he couldn't believe his eyes.

"What the-!" Spike gasped with wide eyes.

The figure approaching was cloaked, though his face was still visible to Spike. The runaway had a face that looked much like his, yet it seemed different-- some sort of doppelganger. The thief had a gold necklace and jewels in his hand. Spike and the copycat made brief eye contact for a moment, but the impostor gave Spike a snicker and sarcastic parting gesture as he disappeared into a crowd of ponies exiting from a vessel nearby. Before Spike could even speak, he noticed the large group of stampeding soldiers with their sabers drawn.

"He stole that mare's jewels!" The armed guards shouted.

"Uh oh!" Spike grabbed Fluttershy's hand and darted away from the soldiers, with Fluttershy barely keeping up. "C'mon, we'll disappear into that crowd ahead!"

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked with a nervous tone.

"Do you want to get trampled by some metal-encased stallions with swords?!" Spike yelled back at Fluttershy as they frantically raced to the crowd ahead.

Without thinking Spike and Fluttershy followed a line of rough-looking stallions onto a large ship beginning to head out of the port. The two ducked down inside the hulking wooden ship, Spike watching as the two guards passed by. Spike sprawled out on the wooden ship-floor as he let out a sigh of relief, only to be gently interrupted by a nudge from Fluttershy's elbow on his shoulder.

"Um... Spike." Fluttershy pointed upwards to the looming shadow above the two.

"Eeek!" A shrill cry escaped Spike's lips as he sat beneath the feet of a lumbering giant.

The zebra-stallion before them was massive, even larger than Big Mac. His eyes almost glowed, and his voice boomed like thunder as he spoke. "Well well, what do we have here?" The hulking stallion uttered in his booming voice as he eyed Spike and Fluttershy intensely. Spike couldn't form a coherent sentence in the monster's presence, so he nudged to Fluttershy to speak for him.

"My name... is... uh... Fl-Fluttershy, a-and this is Spike." Fluttershy timidly squeaked.

The giant stallion let out a jolly laugh and pulled the two up. "I'm only jokin' you two! Hahaha! Welcome to the crew, bruddas! I'm Coba! I'll be your Quartermaster!" The large stallion gestured to the line of stallions on the deck awaiting the captain.

"Spike... I don't like this." Fluttershy weakly muttered.

"Just go with it, the guards didn't notice us..." Spike replied quickly under his breath.

"The Captain's coming! Look alive, gentlecolts!" One of the crew members yelled.

A figure with a large, purple feathered hat and coat appeared from behind a door and approached the balcony above the main deck. He raised his head and took off his hat to bow for the crew, and as he did so Spike's eyes widened to see the face of a black-scaled dragon with burning yellow irises, and zig-zagged, orange tail fins greet the crew.

"No way, a dragon?!" Spike was speechless, and when he turned to Fluttershy, he could see the shock in her eyes as well.

"Ahoy, mates! You must be my new crew! The name's Draven Jagged-tooth. This is my ship, Hydra." The dragon grinned as he patted a wooden railing with his clawed hand. "I'll be your captain..."

Author's Notes:

Well... here we go folks! Put a lot of thought into this series, and I've finally mustered up the courage to write it! Hope you enjoy!