Twilight took trembling steps away from the oppressive trio of devilish youths closing in on her, the sensation of her flank backing up against a tree intensifying the bone-chilling grip of fear crushing her underneath its unbearable weight as her young body shook incessantly. The entire scene of impending dread was concealed from the rest of the world by the surrounding plant life, hiding them from anyone and everyone who could possibly hope to interrupt what the three spoiled children had planned for the studious lavender unicorn, everyone but a purple drake tearing through the foliage not too far away.

Spike clawed a path through the dense greenery separating him and his closest and only friend, his durable scales preventing any stray thorns from digging into his flesh and his panicked anger fueling his burning determination as he got closer to the clearing Twilight was within. That very determination was only steeled as his anger flared in response to the blue filly of the group levitating Twilight off of the ground, leaving her helplessly flailing in the air.

"Please no! Put me down!" Panic flooded Twilight's innocent mind as the frigid aurora of her oppressor held her aloft, her magic a commodity she couldn't manage to summon through the haze of fright. The blue filly took in all of the effects the panic she was experiencing caused; whether it was the salty tears intermingling with the nervous sweat dripping down her brow, or her desperately useless bucks and swipes, she was there to drink it all in through her golden golden eyes as a malevolent laugh escaped her tainted mouth.

"Oh, what was that? You want me to put you down? Okay!" The mocking sarcasm was painfully evident in the blue filly's words, a testament to her cruel nature that was only enhanced when she pulsed her kinetic grasp forward, smashing the Twilight's flailing form against a tree. Her sharp yelp of pain was naught but an appetizer to the dastardly trio before they moved on to the main course of her quiet sobs of hopeless despair.

Spike's conscious mimicked the emotions displayed by his memory-self, his veins burning as enraged rivers of adrenaline-infused blood pumped through them. He ripped out entire bushes from their roots as he slashed his way through the dense foliage obstructing his path, caring for nothing but the salvation of his lifelong companion as he burst through the final wall of plant life separating him and the ponies.

"HEY, LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The three offenders turned away from their distraught prey, their cold gazes instead coming to a rest at the huffing dragon a couple of feet away. They snickered amongst themselves upon remembering their last encounter, and a look of pride overcame the blue filly that had tortured Twilight and him in the past when she recalled her monumental role in the destruction of his far-fetched fantasy.

"Aw, check it out girls, the little freak thinks he can tell us what to do." The white colt basically spat out his taunt through his cackling lips, "Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

Spike's conscious brought forth the agony-laced memory he had experienced the previous night, the first memory he had managed to recover, and he cringed internally as the onslaught of unstable emotions it wracked his hyperactive mind. However, memory-Spike simply let a face of unknowing confusion dilute his previously rage-riddled expression.

"What are you talking about? I've never met any of you three in my life!" The aggravated response Spike's memory-self had used only gave birth to a plethora of new questions, forcing them all into the dragon's conscious mind.

'Never seen them before? How many memories did I manage to block out...and which one is this one?'

"Ha, leave it to the pathetic little lizard to forget anything that happens to him, ain't I right Glamour Shot?" Jab after merciless jab came from the white colt's hurtful words as he turned to the blue unicorn filly.

"So, what are you gonna do huh? You're still as useless as you were the last time we met, so how do you plan on saving your little marefriend?" That was the one and only taunting insult that truly managed to cut through Spike's amnesia-like haze of forgetfulness on that day, for it aimed not for his mind, but for his heart.

Spike's conscious could feel the lingering pain and disturbing confusion still attached to the memory, the emotions he had felt on that forgotten day, and Spike had enough reason to believe that his past-self was in a situation much like the one he was in the present.

'I must have already blocked off my memories by then, but the pain I felt when she said that...I might have been able to sever the memories of my past, but the emotions they carry are something I could never truly let go of.' Spike's conscious began to dissect the raw information he was extracting from his dreams, piecing together the fragments of his shattered mind to complete what they once were, slowly becoming whole again.

Glamour Shot's horn lit up in an aurora that matched her deep blue coat after she finished her insulting exclamation, channeling her magic to levitate Twilight's sobbing form and dangle her upside-down mercilessly as they broke out into their discordantly cacophonous snorts and cackles of corrupt humor.

Spike felt the sensations of the past repeat themselves as he looked on at the twisted spectacle the oppressive children were putting on, the boiling blood burning through his veins. The air he breathed in was thick and searingly hot, filling his lungs with a blazing burn that was dwarfed by the inferno of ire that had exploded within his mind. The purple drake's slitted emerald eyes locked-onto Glamour Shot's laughing form, boring into her skull with their spiteful gaze as the fury within him reached its apex, raging within his young body as it sought out an exit. Spike heaved in a gulp of smolderingly heated air, channeling every last ounce of the enraged suffering trapped inside of him and releasing its unbound power as an emerald jet of blazing fire.

"AHHHH!" Glamour Shot's magic died away as panic dominated her corrupt mind, drowning her cruel joy underneath the desperate drive to survive replacing every other thought she might have had. The green flames creeping up her legs cared not for her pleas or screams, simply consuming her thrashing body more and more by the second, not stopping until it burned its way to the base of her precious horn.

Spike's stared on with his widened emerald eyes, guilty panic intermingling with the fire swirling in their reflective surfaces for but a second before he allowed his instincts to kick into overdrive. He ran with a speed he hadn't known he possessed, catching the falling Twilight in his arms before she could suffer the blunt impact of hitting the ground.

The white colt and the green filly that had accompanied Glamour Shot to pick on Twilight backed away from their burning friend as she flailed helplessly out of her desperate panic, their eyes simply staring at the flame-consumed filly in dreadful anticipation of the bloody, charred corpse she would be left as.

It was a sight that never came.

Emerald smoke began to float away from the filly's body, slowly slithering its way into the sky in a single file before dispersing randomly among the winds, leaving behind an unharmed filly trembling out of the fear still coursing through her veins, but that was a trivial piece of information compared to what she had become. Instead of frying her flesh, the purple drake's flames had managed to transform each and every strand of hair on her body into the smoke already lost to the wind, leaving behind nothing but the exposed pink skin underneath.

"Hahahaha!" Both Spike's conscious and his memory-being couldn't help but burst out laughing at the awkward sight of the nude filly, cutting through all of the lingering tension in the air with his mirthful chortle, and Twilight joined him not long after that, the salted rivers running down her cheeks long forgotten.

The now hairless, itchy, blank flanked filly simply stared at the alien body she called her own, prodding at her smooth skin with a trembling forehoof. Her face had an unbelieving smile blessing it out of the surprise that she was still alive, but it was quickly replaced by the shock caused by her unappealing appearance, shock that quickly transitioned into untold misery at the loss of her recently-earned cutie mark. However, the newest emotion became the predominant one, strangling each and every other one in her mind as it consumed her even faster than the emerald dragon fire had; this was the curse of uncaring, spite-laced hatred.

Her burning golden eyes locked their gaze on the chuckling victims of her taunts.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH, I'M GOING TO KIL-" Her rage-induced threats died in her throat the moment a yellow aurora trapped her in its grip, stopping her just a couple of scant seconds away from letting her complete her infuriated pounce on the purple dragon.

Glamour Shot's screams had managed to attract the attention of the Royal Guard, whom closed in on her ear-splitting wails of fear as soon as they could to try and diffuse what was going on, and the death threat that she had blurted out was more than enough evidence that they needed to restrain her until a thorough investigation could be made.

The two other members of their devilish trio scampered off in hopes of avoiding getting caught up with the police, but they too were captured shortly afterwards by other guards heading towards the clearing they were in. Their smug expressions crumbled under the childish fear overcoming them as they were carried away, pleas for forgiveness ringing out in the still gardens.

Glamour Shot wasn't as compliant as her "friends", flailing in the telekinetic grasp of the guard that had managed to stop her from getting her vengeance as she spat forth insults and promises born of her undying hatred, never stopping on her way to a juvenile detention center. Those hateful words, however, fell on deaf ears.

"Hey, Spike."

"Huh?" Spike turned to the soft voice speaking in his ear just in time to receive a heartwarming smooch on his cheek, prompting a burning blush that felt even hotter than the flames he had summoned earlier. Twilight's youthful giggle at the goofy expression on his face was a symphony to his delicate ears, lasting no more than a few precious seconds before she continued speaking.

"Thanks for saving me back there, I don't know what they would have done to me if you hadn't come along." Twilight nuzzled herself just underneath his chin, her velvety mane stroking gently against his smooth scales in an act of affectionate companionship that they both found enjoyable.

"Uh, sure thing Twilight, you know I won't let anyone hurt you. They'll have to go through me first." Spike puffed out his chest to punctate his macho-dragon statement, the silly sight only serving to bring forth another bout of heavenly giggles from the lavender filly.

"I just have two things I wanna say, Spike." The purple drake let his chest shrink back to its normal size before he responded.

"What's on your mind?"

"When did you learn to breath fire?" Gleeful excitement laced Twilight's young voice when she asked her question, the kind only a surprised filly could hope to use.

'Wait a minute...I clearly remember my first time breathing fire was after accidentally drinking from a hot sauce bottle...wasn't it?' The newest development in his dream memories only complicated matters further for Spike, seeing as how he not only had memories missing from his past, but that he now had contradicting realities within his mind.

Spike's memory-being on the other hand simply gave off a surprised gasp as his mind finally got up to speed and processed that he had finally given off his first flame. The purple drake began to hop around as he rejoiced the monumental moment in his life, an unmatchable smile on his face threatening to split it in half.

"I haven't breathed fire before, Twilight! This was my first time!" The past Spike could barely contain himself long enough to make the revelation to his best friend, the childish excitement still coursing through his entire body.

"Well congratulations, Spikey-Wikey!" Twilight giggled through her cheer at the use of the pet name she had given Spike, finding it almost as adorable as the happy little dragon himself.

'Did she just call me that? No way.'

"Oh, and one more thing, Spike." stated Twilight after calming down from her gleeful state.

"What?"

"You're still carrying me." Twilight's blushing form broke out into her incessant laughter once again after a wave of embarrassment flushed Spike's already pink cheeks, and he followed suit not long after she began, laughing away the tension of the day's unpleasant encounter with the devious trio.

Happiness Spike had always known but never discovered overcame his conscious as the memory began to fade away, the laughter of the past echoing into the darkness as he slipped into a slumber that would go on to be much more restful than the last.

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Twilight's nose twitched sporadically as an enticing scent drifted into her nostrils, reeling her in from her dreamless sleep by causing her stomach to protest the delicious smell's unending teases. Her amethyst eyes slipped open to take in the first rays of the day's dawn, the sun barely peeking over the mountainous horizon, but they snapped to attention when a thought entered her hazy, sleep-addled mind; she hadn't started breakfast yet.

The lavender mare bolted upright in bed, her ears perked and her eyes peeled as she scanned the room she was in, overlooking the fact that Spike wasn't in his basket as she tried to see if there was an intruder in her bed chamber. As she daintily stepped down the stairs leading towards the library's main lobby, her imagination filled her adrenaline-fueled with various scenarios depicting thugs raiding her kitchen.

All of those paranoid thoughts, however, were put to rest when her glimmering eyes fell not upon thugs, but the purple dragon she had lived most of her life alongside with, whom was busy pouring some creamy batter over a pan on the stove while plucking a lilac's petals and spreading them into the mixture.

"Good morning, Spike." Twilight's greeting was accompanied by the warm smile she wore whenever she spoke to her lifelong companion, a smile that Spike couldn't return at the moment due to the immense shock coursing through his body. He spun around to face the source of the sound that had startled him out of his concentration, relaxing upon seeing the gentle expression of his caretaker.

"Good morning, Twilight. Are you hungry?" Spike busied himself once again with the cooking batter on the frying pan in front of him, a look of well deserved rest blessing his features.

Twilight's stomach decided to save her a breath and complained again in response to Spike's question, much to the dragon's chuckling amusement as an embarrassed blush spread on her cheeks.

"I'll take that as a yes then." A lilac pancake flew into the air after Spike spoke, flipping graciously as the undying smile on his snout continued to exist.

"So, Spike, what's the occasion?" Twilight's eyes followed the delectable morsels he was preparing as they defied gravity, nearly distracting her from the evolving conversation, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you aren't usually so cheerful about getting up early in the morning. But hey, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better."

A soft sigh born of Spike's content mood escaped him as he set down the fresh batch of pancakes on an alabaster plate that he then put on the dining table before answering Twilight's question, "Well...honestly, I don't know. I just feel like having ourselves a good home-cooked breakfast would be a great way to start off the week, and I felt like I owed you considering how you did all of my chores yesterday."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Spike. You truly are a gentledragon to the tip of the letter." Spike barely managed to restrain the blood rush trying to overcome his cheeks after Twilight gave him her heartfelt compliment; he did enjoy being praised every now and then, especially if it was praise coming from his lifelong friend.

Both library-dwellers took a seat on the floor cushions surrounding the circular dining table, sitting across of each other as they busied themselves with the stack of steaming pancakes laying before them. Twilight's violet aurora gripped the maple syrup bottle and began pouring the thick liquid on her breakfast, all the while observing the forlorn look on Spike's face as he absentmindedly studded his share of pancakes with some sapphires. To Twilight, he seemed lost within his thoughts, something very uncharacteristic of him considering his happy-go-lucky personality.

Spike, however, was utterly oblivious to the visual examinations as he delved deeper into the debate taking place within his mind. His curiosity and his sense of disregard were waging a war with each other as they attempted to figure out whether or not they should ask Twilight about the strange visions of the past he was receiving, ultimately settling on an indirect approach to the situation to make the upcoming topic of conversation seem less out of context. An inward grin of self-satisfaction grew in Spike's head as he formulated a manipulative plan that would suit his current needs.

"Is something on your mind, Spike?" Twilight's concerned tone drifted into Spike's ears from her place by the sink as she deposited her empty plate inside, snapping him out of his extensive mental scheming.

"Not really, I was just thinking about that report on teleportation runes that you were working on. By the way, do you need me to send it to Princess Celestia?" asked Spike, his plan playing out perfectly.

"By Luna's moon, I completely forgot to write it yesterday!" Twilight scrambled out of the kitchen without so much as a single backwards glance, but she didn't forget to express her gratitude before disappearing into her bedroom, "Thanks for reminding me, Spike!"

"Perfect, now all I have to do is wait until she finishes it and sends it and then I'll ask her, and I'm talking to myself again aren't I?" Dragon claw met dragon face before the purple drake both belonged to wandered off to find a book that could burn some of the time he had.

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Everything had gone according to Spike's predictions; Twilight spent the entire day upstairs as she perfected her neat horn-writing to make up for its slight tardiness.

Flashes of a disorderly mane falling to partly conceal two piercing amethyst pinpricks that could barely be considered to be pupils, situated above pearly whites grinding together, sped through Spike's head when the word "tardy" came to mind.

'At least she isn't going crazy over stuff like that anymore.' Spike nearly chuckled at how ironic it was that Twilight was one of the most intelligent and organized ponies he knew yet she was fragile enough that a simple late assignment would break her rationality in the past. Instead, he simply flipped to the next page of the book on mental disorders he had cradled in his dexterous claws as he snuggled himself deeper into one of the library's couches, hoping to find something relevant to the connection between his dreams and his memories.

'It is common for an individual who has suffered from a traumatic event, be it physically or emotionally jarring, to repress any and all memory of the said event in an attempt to shield himself/herself from the damage it may cause, possibly going so far as to "lock away" the emotions connected to it as long as the memory is maintained in its repressed dormant state. In rarer cases, some patients have experienced extensive memory loss concentrated not only on the traumatic event, but to anything that vaguely resembles the root problem, causing amnestic gaps that stem indefinitely through the patient's mind.'

Lightbulbs went off in Spike's head as he made the connections between the symptoms described in the book and the once he was experiencing, silently thanking the library's extensive collection on medical disorders. Still, there was one symptom he hadn't come across in the book yet, and he continued reading until he found it.

'However, complications arise when some of the rarer individuals experience not only memory loss, but memory substitution. These special cases involve the patient creating entirely false realities within their minds in an attempt to ward away any suspicion drawn towards the blanks in their memories, and these fabrications have a tendency to hinder their rehabilitation when the patient becomes too attached to the substitutions, refusing to accept that they had never taken place.'

'Let's see, I think that what I've been seeing in my dreams are memories that I've blocked off, so check. I've been feeling...weird around Twilight ever since these memories started coming back, check on the repressed emotions. Now all that's left is to figure out whether or not I'm making up fake memories when Twilight comes downstairs. By Celestia's beard, I'm starting to sound like a total nutcase.'

Spike shook his head to escape the dense pool of thoughts flooding his head as it tried to process everything that he had discovered recently before walking over to one of the various bookshelves in the library to return the book he had used to its rightful place.

With nothing left to do but wait for Twilight's return, Spike started to pace around the library aimlessly, a persistent habit he had picked up from the lavender unicorn herself during the many years they shared together. He continued to walk around the comfortably calm home, doing nothing other than ignoring the questions he couldn't answer in his mind as he breathed in the familiar scent of sandalwood for a couple of minutes before the door to the master bedroom swung open.

Twilight strode down the stairway with a prideful look of satisfaction plastered on her face as a wax-sealed scroll hovered beside her in a violet aurora. She trotted over to Spike before asking him for a favor that he had heard countless times from her ever since they moved to Ponyville.

"Hey Spike, can you please send this letter to Princess Celestia for me?"

"No." Spike's flat tone of voice betrayed the mischievous smile on his face.

"Okay, tha- WHAT!?" Twilight gaped at Spike's rejection, shocked by its sheer unfamiliarity.

"Hehehe, I'm just kidding Twilight, sheesh." Spike chortled as he picked the sealed scroll out of the air and blew an emerald ember on it, turning it into a green gas trail that went on to fly out through a nearby window.

"Spike, that wasn't funny." Twilight fumed at Spike's own brand of humor, yet she could still feel the relief in her mind upon seeing that he was still his old, sarcastic, self.

"Pfft, says you."

'C'mon Spike, now's your chance!'

"Anyway, Twilight, can I ask you a question?" Spike's emerald eyes followed the equally colored smoke fly through the sky on its way towards Canterlot as he began to smooth the conversation into the path he wanted it to take.

"Sure thing, Spike. What do you want to know?" Twilight's minuscel annoyance at his prodding humor disappeared the instant she acknowledged that her lifelong companion needed her assistance, not willing to let pointless trivialities affect her judgement.

"When was the first time I breathed fire?" Spike had two choices that could answer his question already in his head, but he wanted to get the surefire truth instead of taking a gamble with his fractured mind and forgotten memories.

Spike's innocent question prompted a nostalgic giggle from Twilight as she walked over to one of the nearby couches, petting the lofty cushion near her to offer the little drake a place at her side before she began speaking.

"That goes back to our days together in Canterlot, Spike, back when I was in my teenage years and you were barely ten years old." A shadow of long-abandoned hurt crossed her smiling face as she delved into the rough patch of the memory she was recalling.

"It was just like any other day, really; I was catching up on my studies underneath a tree in the royal gardens, far away from everyone else that could disturb me...everyone but a trio of spoiled bullies. They came up to me and started to call me names, prodding at me with their hurtful taunts up until one of the two fillies, the blue one I believe, actually levitated me off of the ground and threw me against the tree I was reading under. It was really painful, she nearly broke one of my legs with that little stunt of hers." The frown that had begun to mar her divine features as she retold her side of the story was utterly obliterated by the heartwarming smile that swooped in to replace it, prepping her for the next page of her tale.

Spike was mentally comparing everything Twilight said with what he already knew, getting a perfect match with his dreams so far, but his analysis was put to a halt when he was pulled into the mind-numbing embrace of his lifelong companion. It was just as inexplicably wondrous as the last one he had received, letting the heat of her snug body seep into him, warming him to his core before she continued her tale.

"But, a certain little dragon had other plans. I still don't know how you managed to find me on that day, but you burst through the dense plants and confronted the three bullies head-on, disregarding any and all fear so that you could stand up for me." Spike couldn't hide the embarrassed blush spreading on his cheeks upon hearing about his involvement in the story, nuzzling deeper into the lavender-scented fur of his caretaker in a futile attempt to hide himself.

"They tried everything they could taunt you with to make you back down, but you didn't shy away in the slightest of forms. After seeing that they couldn't hurt you with words, one of the fillies picked me back up again and dangled me upside-down to try and get you mad, which it did. The thing is, they underestimated you, so you really scared the living Tartarus out of them when you fired your first jet of dragon breath at the filly and caught me in your arms after she lost control of her magic. But don't worry, your fire didn't do anything other than "mail" away all of her hair."

Twilight couldn't restrain a chuckle from escaping her once she brought up the image of the shivering pink pony that had once been her tormentor, and Spike couldn't help but chime into the laughter himself even if he had already had his share of laughs at the entire scenario within his dream.

As the retelling of that chapter in their lives came to a conclusion, their conversation turned the page to begin the next. Minutes turned to hours as times long gone were revisited in the solace they shared with one another, misadventures ranging from the theft of Princess Celestia's personal chocolate cake stash to the week-long "gender-bent" incident at the castle caused by one of Twilight's minor surges. They were tales both of them knew by heart, but it was comforting to take the time and revisit the simpler times, to remember the roots of their undying friendship.

They regaled each other with their memories through the entirety of the day, lost to the throes of nostalgic bliss even as the sun began to settled behind the mountainous horizon.

Spike looked up to Twilight as she spoke, hearing everything she had to say but failing to listen completely as he lost himself in the amethyst pools she called her eyes. At that very moment, he simply failed to care about not being able to understand why he felt so blissfully unusual around the lavender mare that had been at his side since the day he was hatched, shutting down all of the assumptions and guesses he tried to make as he reveled in the new lucidly euphoric sensations rocking his body. He was just about to snuggle himself against her warm coat again, yearning for the affectionate contact, but a burp followed by a wisp of emerald smoke condensing into a scroll snapped both him and Twilight out of their respective actions.

The scroll was enshrouded in a violet aurora is it was levitated in front of the unicorn mare, whom went on to break the seal and unroll it to be able to read the message inscribed within. Her nostalgic smile transitioned into one of mild surprise at the contents of the scroll, prompting Spike and his unquenchable curiosity to ask her a question.

"What does the letter say, Twilight?"