Six months. It had been six months since Reginald took Spike in, and started training him. Spike had changed over these past six months. He had become a foot taller, and now had a stockier build from all the training he had been given. He had also mastered a few spells. He was now able to give himself wings, and could teleport objects, and himself.

Reginald had also helped him adapt his magic for combat. Right now Reginald was standing at the entrance of the cave, gazing towards the sky. "Come, look." he told Spike, "Today is a special day." Spike got up, and walked over to his side.  He looked up into the air to see many dragons flying in one direction.

"What's so special about it?" he asked.

"Because there is a fight to see who will be the dragon heir." Reginald told him.

"Dragon heir?" Spike asked.

"Every five years a contest is held between young dragons to see who will be the successor to the dragon king." Reginald told him.

"D-Dragon king?!" Spike asked.

"Yes. If you are able to keep that title until the present dragon king dies you shall inherit the throne." Reginald explained.

"What? But why?" Spike asked.

"It's hard to explain." Reginald said.

"Oh. Okay." Spike said, falling silent. After a few moments he asked, "Are we going too?" Reginald shook his head.

"No. We must train you." he said, "But in another five years you should be able to enter the contest yourself."

"Okay." Spike said, dejectedly.

"Don't worry Spike, a contest is held every year to choose participants for the other one. This one divides you up into groups by what type of dragon you are, and then whichever ones come out on top are trained by the best teachers in the kingdom." Reginald said, making Spike perk up again.

"Really?!" he asked.

"Yes." Reginald said, "I'll train you for another one and a half years, and then you shall enter. If you win you shall be taught even stronger magic. But I guess I can take you to watch."

"Awesome!" he said.

"You ready to go?" Reginald asked.

"You bet!" he said.

--

It had been six months since Spike disappeared. Six long months. At first everypony had formed a search party to look for Spike, but as the days went on, and turned to weeks ponies lost hope, and stopped searching. Even her friends had given up hope. She had finally been forced to stop searching.

Not a day didn't go by she didn't think of her dragon assistant. Some nights she would even cry herself to sleep. She may be unable to search any more, but that didn't mean she'd given up hope yet. She still retained that small spark of hope that she'd been nourishing for so long. Today was the dragon migration, and Twilight, and her friends were going to watch it.

She heard a knock at her door, and she opened it to find an excited Rainbow Dash. "Hey Twi, you got everything ready?" she asked. Twilight nodded. She refrained from calling out Spike's name, a habit she'd broken, and levitated a bag over to herself.

"I'm ready." she said. She then followed Dash out of her library, and to a dug out trench where her friends, except for Fluttershy, were waiting wearing camouflage.

"Hey Twilight!" Pinkie called out.

"Hey Pinkie." Twilight said.

"To be honest I'm surprised you came. Especially after you know." Rarity said, making Applejack hit her.

"Don't talk 'bout that." Applejack told her.

"No. It's fine." Twilight said.

"You sure?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah." she said.

"Alright sugarcube if you're sure." Applejack said.

"So where are all the dragons anyways?" Dash asked.

"We probably got here early." Twilight told her. A good thing too. She didn't want to miss a second. If there was even a remote chance of finding Spike then she'd take it. Just then they heard a roar, and looked to their left. In the sky were dozens, even hundreds of dragons of all colors.

"Wow." everyone but Twilight said. She was too busy the whole time, looking for Spike, to admire the migration. Finally after an hour, and hundred of dragons the migration ended.

"That was awesome." Rainbow Dash said. Twilight didn't say anything. She couldn't. Her last hope at finding Spike had been crushed. Just as she was on the verge of tears though she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up to see two dragons flying a little ways away from the others. One green the other purple.

Was that? Could it really be? Was that Spike? Twilight was almost 100 percent positive. Though he'd changed she could tell that was Spike. Without any warning Twilight suddenly galloped off after them, ignoring the cries of her friends. She had to see him again. She just had to.