Spike walked down a long, broken road, surrounded by nothing but vast desert. His feet hurt, he was hungry, tired, and thirsty. The heat was unbearable, which was surprising for a dragon that could easily withstand temperatures of up to five hundred degrees.

All Spike knew was that he needs to keep moving, walking down this boulevard of broken dreams. Each step felt like the dragon had just ran a marathon, but it didn't stop him.

He literally couldn't stop. His body cried for rest, and he tried to comply, but his legs just kept on moving.

After an eternity of aimless walking, the dragon found himself at a crossroads. He looked to the right, and saw Ponyville in the distance, it's residents milling about. Fillies played, ponies were shopping, just a typical day in Ponyville.

He glanced to the left, and saw the Everfree Forest and the mountains beyond where he'd regularly help Rarity dig up gems for her works. Life in the Everfree didn't seem like a good option but... something deep down in him told him it wouldn't be bad either, that it was a more natural environment for him.

Spike scratched his chin in thought, and suddenly realized that he was once again in control of his body. He wanted to go to Ponyville, but something in him also wanted to go to the Everfree.

The young dragon sat down on the ground, which was rapidly cooling.

"Why was I brought here...?" he asked himself.

"To make a decision." somepony answered for him.

Spike looked behind him and spotted the princess of the night approaching him.

"Princess Luna?" he asked, perplexed. "What are you doing here?"

"I am the princess of my night. It is my job to watch over my little ponies and serve as a guardian in your dreams." she responded, "it has come to my attention that you have come into conflict with my sister's protege and your guardian. And now, you find yourself at a crossroads."

"Yeah... I noticed..." Spike commented.

He rounded on the princess. "What do you think I should do?"

"It is not my place to say. It's your journey, not mine. I can only guide you." she said.

"That's the problem, princess. Part of me wants to go back to Twilight and give her another chance... but another part is saying I shouldn't risk it, and I should live like a dragon should."

"You must follow your heart, Spike." Luna said.

"That doesn't help much..." the young dragon stated.

"My job is to act as a guardian, young Spike. As I said, I can only guide you. It's not my duty to choose what you do with your life." the princess said.

The princess took a seat beside the dragon, wrapping a wing around him for comfort. The two sat there in complete silence for what seemed like forever.

Finally, the dragon rose off the ground. He had made his decision, and started walking in the direction he chose.

"Good luck, Spike. I hope you made the right choice." Luna said.

"Yeah... so do I..." he said to himself.

There was a blinding white light... and then there was nothing.

Spike's eyelids slowly fluttered open, being blinded momentarily by the sunlight flooding in through a nearby window. He glanced to the clock hanging on the wall opposite from him.

It was seven past eight.

The young dragon lifted the covers off himself and slowly made his way out of bed, doing his best not to wake up the sleeping filly beside him.

Upon exiting Sweetie Belle's bedroom, his nose was assaulted by the smell of eggs and hash browns. He quickly made his way downstairs and found Twilight and Rarity sitting at a table, slowly working away at a plate of hash browns, eggs, and various vegetables.

"Good morning, Spike." Rarity greeted as she noticed the young dragon.

"Good morning." he responded.

The dragon walked up to the table and sat at the spot obviously made for him, as he sincerely doubted Sweetie Belle partook in the eating in gems. The trio sat in silence, slowly eating away at their breakfasts.

Finally, they finished their breakfasts, and Spike rose from the table, collecting their dishes and stacking them in the sink as the mares made their way into the living room. After scrubbing off the remaining food particles off the dishes, the young dragon joined the two mares in the living room.

"Spike... have you made your decision...?" Twilight asked cautiously.

"Yes." he responded.

"Then what is it?" Rarity inquired.

Spike sighed. "I'm feeling a lot of emotions at the moment. I'm kind of torn on what I should do."

"However..."

Twilight's ear's flattened against the sides of her head, fearing what was to come.

A small smile crossed Spike's face. "I'm not sure if this is my best decision, but I think I'm going to trust you and give you another chance. Besides... I doubt you would be able to survive two days without your number one assistant." he said, his smile turning into a smirk.

Twilight grinned, jumping off the couch and embracing the young dragon tightly, tears of joy streaming down her face.

"Oh Spike! You won't regret doing this. I promise, I'll make you do less work. I'm going to sign you up for school tomorrow. I-"

"Twilight, are you sure about that?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. Whatever it is you want, I'll do it. I just want you to be happy, Spike."

Spikes smirk turned into a serious look as he looked up at the purple unicorn. "Twilight... all I want is just be cared for. Not treated like a servant or slave. School and less work would be nice, but that's all I really want."

"You got it, Spike."

Years later...

"SPIKE! WAKE UP! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" Twilight Sparkle shouted from downstairs.

The teenage dragon sat up in his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He climbed out of bed and stood up, only to fall off balance and fall flat on his face due to his growing upper body mass.

"Ouch..." Spike groaned.

He heard hoofsteps racing up the stairs and looked up in time to see Twilight open the door. She looked around for him before glancing down, a bewildered look on her face.

"Spike? What are you doing?!" she demanded, "we have no time for you to be messing around."

"I fell..." he responded, rubbing his chin before rising onto all fours.

"Oh... are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine." he said with a smile.

"Are you-"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll see you after school, Twi." he said, racing past the unicorn mare.

After a short trip to the schoolhouse, Spike quickly made his way to his homeroom, making it with only a few minutes to spare. He passed by Applebloom and Scootaloo, exchanging hellos with the two mares, before taking a seat beside Sweetie Belle.

"Good morning, Spike." she greeted, flashing a smile to the purple and green dragon.

"Hey Sweetie Belle." Spike responded, returning her smile.

Before the two could break out into conversation, their teacher entered the room. Mr. Iron Hoof, as his name suggested, was very strict and would quickly crush any resistance with an iron hoof. Though he could be pretty cool at times, Spike had to admit, he missed Ms. Cheerilee, their primary school teacher.

He walked to the center to front of the classroom and stood before the class, before clearing his throat. "Class, pull out your Equestrian History and turn to page three hundred and sixty two. Today, we'll be studying the Changeling Equestria War. I'm sure you guys are aware I was an officer in the Equestrian Army during this time, so I assure you that you're getting the best education on this that you can. Lucky you."

Spike reached into his desk and pulled out a large textbook labelled 'Equestrian History'. He placed it on top of his desk and quickly flipped to the page the teacher had told them to flip to.

"We're going to start off with the battle for Stalliongrad, the first battle of the war and the first of many losses for our military. Why had we lost? Due to a lack of military training and experience, our soldiers were..."

Spike lay his chin down on his book, not listening to the teachers lectures. When Iron Hoof discussed the military, he didn't really pay attention to anything else, so he doubted he would get in any trouble. It's not like he couldn't catch up on whatever Iron Hoof said by reading the textbook, or asking Twilight for help.

The teenage dragon glanced about the room. Snails and Snips were asleep, as usual. Spike was shocked that they managed to actually not get held back. Beside them sat Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who were whispering gossip to each other. In front of them were Pip and Twist. The colt was drawing in his notebook, his art being hidden by his history book. Twist was eagerly writing down notes, as were the other ponies in front of her.

Spike turned his attention to the cutie mark crusaders. Applebloom, like Twist, was writing down notes on Iron Hoof's lecture. The orange pegasus who sat beside her opted to simply listen to the lecture.

The dragon turned his attention to Sweetie Belle, only to get pegged in the face with a balled up piece of paper. He blinked in surprise, before unraveling the paper.

"Why aren't you paying attention?" it read in a certain white unicorns cursive writing. Spike glanced over to Sweetie Belle, who was leering at him menacingly, before scribbling down a note.

"Long night. I can catch up." he wrote down, before passing it over to her. She read over it quick, she wrote down a response and passed it back.

"Why's that?" it read.

"You remember that one time I ran away?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I-"

Before Spike could finish jotting down his note, a dark grey hoof slammed down on his desk, causing the teenage dragon to jump in his seat. Shakily, he looked up and came to eye level with an enraged Iron Hoof.

"Passing notes when I'm doing a lecture? You can say good bye to your afternoon, then." he said.

"Awww..." both of them moaned.

"Don't let me catch you doing it again," Iron Hoof warned the two of them, before returning to the front and continuing his lecture. Spike shrugged it off, deciding that he could just catch up on the sleep he missed out the previous night during detention.

As the teacher droned on, the dragon's thoughts turned back to that night all those years ago. Since then, life had been pretty good to him. Twilight did everything in her power to make sure she didn't fall into old habits, trying a little too hard sometimes. It was nice being in school, even if Iron Hoof wasn't exactly the nicest pony, plus actually having ponies that weren't Twilight or her friends to be social with was something the dragon really enjoyed.

...still, every time Spike thought about that night all those years ago, he wondered what life would've been like if he had decided to run away to the Everfree. As much as the teenage dragon enjoyed the company of his friends, he constantly found himself fantasizing about acquiring a large horde and living out in the Everfree in solitude. Twilight said that it was only natural for dragons to feel this way, and not to worry about it. She also made it very, very clear that he could leave anytime he wished anytime it was brought up, much to Spike's annoyance.

The dragon placed his head down on his desk as he allowed his eyes to wander once more. He looked over to the mare he had been previously exchanging notes with, who was now attempting to pay attention to Iron Hoof's history lesson. She caught Spike staring at her from the corner of her eyes, sparing him a quick, pleasant smile, before looking back up front, trying to avoid angering the teacher further.

Spike looked forward as well, letting out a small, content sigh. Living life as a feral dragon in the Everfree might've been cool, but... he was really, really happy he chose to stick around.

Author's Notes:

I found this lying around collecting dust while lurking. I figured I might as well publish it since people seem to like this story for some reason.

It's pretty obvious that I had more planned for this, but, since I haven't touched this story in over a year, I have no idea what I was going to write.

I still have the plans for a sequel lying around. I'm not going to say whether or not I'm going to write one. Just know that if I do, it'll be surprise.