5 years ago...

It was a stormy cold night, rain was drizzling everywhere. At a street, a car was ablaze in flames, police cars were surrounding it, telling a crowd of people to back off from it, fire fighters were trying their best to calm the flames. News vans were also present, multiple video cameras were pointed to the burning vehicle. One female reporter was in front of one, detailing the events that have transpired.

"Earlier tonight, the police were informed of a car explosion occurring right at this location." she stated. "From what we could gather; the car in question was the only vehicle around, so no one is exactly sure what caused it, it was reported that a family of three was inside; a mother and father, along with their 8-year old child. Though both parents have been confirmed to have perish, fortunately their son was able to get out of harm's way."

"Back up! This is a dangerous area, move back now!" a male police officer yelled. He along with his fellow officers were keeping people away from the spectacle. Near one police car, a female officer was comforting a little boy of 8 years, who was crying his eyes out. He had green hair and eyes, a purple shirt, and green shorts. His eyes were red from the many tears that have escaped his eyes.

"Mommy...Daddy!" he sniffled. The officer hugged him tight and rubbed his head.

"Shh. Shh. It's okay sweetie." she said soothingly. "The paramedic's on its way, we'll get you help." Her partner approached them.

"How's the kid doing?" he asked with sympathy.

"Not well." she answered still hugging him. "He's lucky to be alive.

"Wish the same could be said for his parents." he said, looking at the flaming car."

"What'll happen to him?"

"We'll have to contact his next of kin, or family friend, at least someone who can take care of him. 'Cause as of now, he'll need it." he stated, as they both looked at the green-haired child

5 years later...

The sun shines over a nice quiet neighborhood, it was the beginning of a new day. We focus on one particular house, specifically inside one of the rooms. On the bed was the he same boy from 5 years ago; now at the age of 13, his green hair has grown somewhat and was sleeping comfortably, little did he know his door opened ever so lightly, a figure tip-toed her way to him. Casting her shadow over him, she jumped on the bed.

"Morning Spike!" she exclaimed, startling him.

"Ahh!" he yelled in surprise. He looked and saw that the culprit was a teenage girl with dark blue hair and red eyes, she was wearing a school uniform, a white blouse with a red skirt, blue kneesocks and brown shoes..

"Ember, what the heck?" he asked outrageous. "Couldn't you have just nudged me awake or something?

"As if that would work, you're such a heavy sleeper it would take the world's loudest alarm clock to wake you up." Ember chuckled. "Now get dressed you lazy bum, or we'll be late for school." she told him getting off the bed and exiting his room.

Grumbling in annoyance, Spike got up, got out of his pjs and changed into his school uniform. It was a male variation of Ember's; a white, short-sleeved un-buttoned blazer over a purple t-shirt, blue pants, and brown shoes. He made his way downstairs and into the kitchen, where Ember was sitting at the table.

"Hurry up with breakfast, we're running low on time."

"You know there is a word called "please"." Spike nonetheless complied and made her a sandwich and poured cereal for him. He set the plate and the bowl on the table, they both ate their breakfast as fast as they could since they were pressed for time. Once they finished they went to the living room so they could leave.

"Come on, if we're late again; then we'll Miss Cheerilee will give us both detention." she told him grabbing him by the arm and exiting through the door.

"Could you at least not pull my arm?" Spike complained. As they walked, they had time to make small talk.

"So, any plans today?" she asked him.

"Not really." he answered. "Hey, is your dad gonna run late again?"

"Yes he is...again." she sighed. "All he does is work work work, sure he's able to make time for us, but I'm worried that he's stressing himself too much."

"Torch is just doing all that he can to support for us." he reasoned.

"I know, it's just he's been that way since forever, especially after we took you in, after you're parents..." she cut herself off and saw Spike look down with a forlorn look, Ember immediately regretted her comment. "Oh man, Spike I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"It's okay, let's just go to school." he said

"Are you sure?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah." he plainly answered. The rest of the walk was silent, Spike didn't feel like conversing any further. 'Still hard to believe it's been 5 years now.' he thought to himself. Yes it's been a tough road for Spike Drake; shortly after his parents' deaths, Spike had nowhere else to turn to. There wasn't any other relative who could take him in and he refused to go to a foster home, luckily Torch; Ember's father who also happened to be a good friend to the Drake family offered to take Spike in. Since then he and his daughter did all the best they could to help him. Even though he somewhat moved on from their deaths, a part of him still greatly miss them. After a few minutes they arrived at their school: Canterlot Academy. On its campus, were multiple students having just arrived as well, Spike and Ember walked casually by, though other students noticed them; though specifically it was the female students who noticed Spike.

"Hey there Spike!" one girl senior called out.

"Looking good, cutie." winked one well-endowed girl.

"The girls and I are going to karaoke later, wanna come with?" a group asked him.

Spike was blushing a little from the attention, while Ember rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Jeez, when will they quit?" she grumbled. Yes, when it comes to women, Spike has a way with them, he has that childlike innocence and cute aura that make ladies-especially ones a bit older-completely fawn over him. Female students-his grade or upper- would try and get him to go out on a few dates with one or more of them, the female faculty act as a mother hen or mama bear to him, heck some may actually find him attractive.

"I'm sure they're just being nice." he reasoned.

"Right." she scoffed.

Before they could continue, a brown-haired boy with buck teeth approached him, hanging around his neck was a picture camera.

"Hey Spike, hey Ember." he greeted.

"Featherweight, good to see ya." Spike greeted back, exchanging a fist bump with him.

"You guys got here just in time; any sooner and you two would've been late." he told him.

"Would've gotten here sooner if someone wasn't such a heavy sleeper." Ember remarked.

"Alright I get it, it's a hassle to get me to wake up. In my defense I didn't set my alarm clock last night." he said.

"Whatever, lets just go to class." Ember said as the three of them walked. As he walked, Spike felt like he was being watched and looked back at the campus, there was a teenage girl about a few grades above him, she had violet hair with purple and pink streaks, because of the big crowd, Spike couldn't make out who it was, before he could get a clear view, she just disappeared. She looked at him for a moment before walking off, Spike couldn't help but feel something, but decided to dwell on it later.

The school day went by as ordinary as it can be. Spike went to his class, ate lunch, spent PE outside, and now it was the end of the day.

"Alright class, remember study for your quiz Friday; if you need any any help to review feel free to stay after school." The teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, a busty adult woman told her class. The students were packing up their belongings as they prepared to go home. Spike was sitting at his desk putting a few notebooks into his backpack, Ember and Featherweight were standing near him.

"So I hear Diamond Tiara is having a party tonight. You guys in?" Featherweight asked them.

"Oh please, if I know that pompous brat it'll be exclusively invite only." Ember said bitterly.

"Translation: only people who are as rich as her or at the very least okay by her standards can go." Spike explained.

"Maybe she might make an exception for you Spike." Featherweight said.

"What makes you say that?" asked Spike.

"Oh come on man. Practically everyone in school likes you; especially the ladies and you're a freshman.." Featherweight said.

"Again with that?" Spike groaned.

"Dude, don't even play the whole oblivious act, even you have to admit it. Ember back me up here." Featherweight said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's does have a point Spike." Ember admitted.

"Really? You too?" he asked exasperated. "Look I don't think I'm up for a party tonight; maybe next time."

"Whatever you say." They were cut off as they heard 2 yells of terror coming from the halls. The 3 of them looked out and saw 2 boys; one a short pudgy guy with orange hair, running alongside him was a taller skinny boy with turquoise hair. They were being chased by angry looking girls wearing sports clothes.

"Ugh, Snips and Snails." Ember said in disgust.

"Looks those two got caught peeping into the girls' locker room. Again." Featherweight chuckled. "This has gotta be like the fifth time it's happened."

"I counted tenth." Spike commented.

"Hopefully they'll get a more severe punishment this time, crossing my fingers for them being suspended for the entire school year." said Ember.

"That would make them expelled." Spike pointed out.

"If only."

"Come on Ember, they're just guys being guys." Featherweight reasoned.

"Guys being guys I can handle; guys being perverted pigs is another story." she grumbled

"That's kinda the same thing." Ember's intense glare shut Featherweight up.

"Let's just go home already." Ember said the three got up but were interrupted by their teacher.

"Spike, could you stay for a bit?" Cheerilee asked. "I want to talk to you."

"Yeah okay." he answered, he turned to his friends. "You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." After they left, Spike went over to Cheerilee's desk and took a seat. "Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing serious I assure you, I just wanna talk."

"About..."

"Well how've you been doing lately?"

"Nothing to complain so far." he shrugged.

"Good, it's just if you ever want to talk about anything at all, my door is always open. Not just me but every other faculty member here." she told as she placed her hand over his.

Spike realized why she wanted to see him. Like Torch, Cheerilee along with most of the school faculty were also friends with his parents, they've also tried their hand in offering support to him.

"Thanks, but I'm okay really." he assured her, retracting his hand back. "I should probably get going." He got up and left, leaving Cheerilee alone she sat there for a bit before taking her hand that was over Spike's and smelled it, causing her to sigh.

"No! No Cheerilee, don't lose it." she told herself, she was ashamed that she has such habits. 'Oh if only he wasn't so cute.'

Spike was walking down a sidewalk by himself, after today he needed to clear his head a bit; he texted Ember that he was going to the park. Luckily at this time the park was vacant so there weren't that much people there. Spike as alone, he laid on the grass looking up at the sky in thought.

'Five years. Hard to believe it's been that long; mom, dad, if you guys were here you'd probably tell me that I shouldn't think about it too much, that I shouldn't dwell on the depressing things in my life and yet I still do.' he thought sadly. Little did he know he wasn't as alone as he thought, deep in the woods, he was being watched by an unknown creature; it let out a deep growl that did not go unnoticed by Spike.

He was startled by the noise and immediately got up, he looked at the trees where he heard it.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he called out. Hearing another growl, Spike wondered what it was; it sure didn't sound like any animal he's heard of before, curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to check it out and find the source. Spike ventured into the woods alone, he looked around but saw that there was nothing to be seen. 'Maybe it was just my imagination.' he thought. He then heard some rustling, he looked at a cave where the noise was coming from. "Hello?" he asked. For what seemed like forever, nothing happened; until suddenly an orange blur knocked him to the ground hard.

"Augh!" he grunted. Rubbing his arm a bit he looked up at the source and his sites widened in shock.

The creature had the head and body of a lion but was like 3x bigger it had huge bat-like wings and a scorpion tail. It growled dangerously at Spike.

"What the!?" he said exclaimed in pure shock. He recognized this thing, it was a mythological creature he's seen in some fantasy movies or books. A manticore be recalled. The beast was moving to him, snarling ferociously showing its sharp teeth. "S-Stay back!" he said, the manticore didn't listen as he lunged at Spike, yelling in fright Spike ran as fast as he could, the manticore took flight and chased after him.

Spike put all his energy into his legs so that he could get to safety. Looking back he saw the manticore was flying after him; it shot spines from its tail at him luckily he was out of range so they didn't hit him, he was glad too because he saw the grass and trees that they hit whither away into nothing.

"This isn't happening! This isn't happening!" he repeated frantically. He hid behind a rock, the manticore landed and sniffed around. "Last night I ate nachos before bed, yeah that's right that must be it. I'm dreaming, just gotta wake up." he started pinching himself, but nothing changed. The manticore jumped over the rock and was now facing him. "Come on Come on! Wake up!" he told himself. The best lunged at him, Spike closed his eyes waiting for the end, but he didn't feel the monster ripping him apart. Opening one eye, he saw that he beast was completely still surrounded by a purple aura. "Huh?" he asked.

The beast was thrown by an invisible force to nearby trees, as it groggily stood up, it saw its attacker. She was wearing the female version of Spike's school uniform, had purple kneesocks on, was very well endowed sporting E-cup breasts, had purple eyes and, her violet hair with purple and pink streaks is what made Spike recognize her.

'The girl from before.' he thought. As he got a better view of her, he also knew her name 'Twilight Sparkle.'

She was one of his classmates from school, Twilight Sparkle was one of the top star students; he sometimes catch glimpses of her but never really interacts with her. Needless to say, he was surprised by her sudden appearance more so by not only did she just levitated a mythical monster, but she had a unicorn horn, pony ears and wings! She flew over to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked, helping Spike up.

"Wha-? you- that thing." he stuttered. The beast roared at the two of them, seeing this Twilight stood in front of him.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you won't get hurt." she assured him. Her eyes glowing, she sent a blast of violet energy at it. The impact sent the beast back. All Spike could do was stand in shock.

'What the heck is going on!?' he shouted in his mind.

Twilight flew to the beast and continued to hold him back, with her blasts; but the manticore was tougher than she thought. It backhanded her into the ground, she was about to get up, but the beast pinned her to the ground. Seeing this, Spike grew worried, the girl who just saved his life was about to meet a grim end and he was helpless.

'What do I do? I can't save her just like how...how I couldn't save my parents.' Then he felt something inside, he didn't want another person to die just to save him; he felt an urge a need to save Twilight, for a brief moment his eyes turned into slits.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" he yelled, letting out a torrent of green flames from his mouth. The fire hit the manticore directly. Twilight got up and looked at Spike in shock.

'So it's true, he really is the one.' she thought in amazement.

The manticore was badly burned and decided to switch to its main target. He flew towards Spike with a roar. Giving his own roar, Spike jumped and punched him with mighty force. The strike was enough to put the manticore down for the count. Panting heavily Spike got on his knees and passed out on the ground. Twilight walked over to the beast, used her magic to open a swirling portal and levitated the beast into it sending it back to where it came from. She then went to Spike's aid, and carried him up gently. She pulled out her phone and called one of her contacts.

"Rarity, it's me tell the princess that she was right, we've found him." she told her friend, while gazing at Spike.