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// That Time Spike set the school on Fire 
// Story: Spike Pie: Scrapbook of Memories 
// by Silver Butcher 
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Spike and Pinkie both looked equally board as they made their way down the dirt walkway that led from the rock farm to the nearby town. Pinkie had a Saddle bag on her back and Spike had a small bag.
"Limestone doesn't have to go to school," Spike muttered as they walked the path.
"She dropped out to work full time at the farm," Cloudy replied as she walked with her two children. "But Maud still goes to school, even though she loves working on the farm she plans to leave one day, and you two will need to have some book smarts and not just rock smarts if you want to leave the farm when you're older,"
"When can we drop out," Pinkie asked with puppy eyes.
"Not until your old enough to decide for sure if being a rock farmer is what you want to be," Cloudy replied sweetly, "Most jobs require you to be more than big and strong like your Dad and Me," Spike and Pinkie groaned and Cloudy sighed "Come now, this is your first day...ever, you might like it,"
"I'm not liking the walk," Spike complained, with Pinkie agreeing. The two continued complaining the entire way to the school. Cloudy however was never put off by their comments. She only had one worry on her mind, and that was how Spike would be treated. She and Ignatious had worked themselves half to death and in the end, it had been only been thanks to Limestone that Spike had even been admitted to attend. The Closer they got to the school the more worried she became about how her son would be treated.
"Now Spike..." She said, both Spike and Pinkie groaned and replied before she said anything.
"If either of us is in any way mistreated we'll tell you the second we get home," They said simply. They continued on their way and finally arrived at the school, where they found a fair number of colts and fillies waiting to enter the school, its playground consisted of a very large Sandbox and that was it. Spike and Pinkie waved goodbye to their mother and walked up to school. Spike being a Dragon, and Pinkie already having her Cutie mark got a lot of attention from the other children. In both a good and a bad way. 
"Is that your pet?" one of the colts asked.
"I am not a pet," Spike said defiantly, only to be poked in the side by one of the colts.
"Your squishy," He complained "Dragons are supposed to be hard, not squishy,"
"I'm young, Spike retired as more of the Colts started poking him, while Spike was being bombarded with pokes Pinkie was being questioned about her Cutie mark.
"It's for partying," She said happily.
"That's boring," one of the girls scoffed "I want mine to be a book so I can be a famous Author"
"I want mine to be in flying so I can be a Wonderbolt," Spike and Pinkie both attempted to back away from the rest of the children when the bell rang and they started rushing in to meet the teacher. She looked somewhat tired and seemed less than happy about her choice of jobs, without hesitation once the children filed in she spoke.
"Dragon, your seat is in the back right," Spike looked to where he was directed and found a single chair and desk in the back right, with twice the space between it and other desks than the rest had. Spike was not deterred by this in the slightest and made his way over to the seat, the teacher assigned other seats and Pinkie ended up in the front left corner, as far from her brother as possible. The seating arrangements were halted when one of the fillies complained when she realized she was next to Spike.
"Why do I have to sit next to the Lizard?" She complained "It's all gross and scaly,"
"Imagine how I feel having to sit next to you," Spike replied happily.
"None of that," The Teacher said, turning away from the Filly and to Spike "Listen here Dragon, we ponies live in harmony, so I'll not have you starting a fight even if it is only in words,"
"But she-" Spike attempted.
"I don't care," The Teacher said cutting him off before Pinkie Raised her hoof.
"I'll sit next to Spike,"
"Fine, trade," The Filly happily made her way to the left-most seat while Pinkie zipped to her desk, the force of her taking her seat sliding the desk so it was closer to Spikes.
"Don't move the desk, it's a fire hazard,"
"Harsh," Spike said.
"This is the first day and you're already on your second warning Dragon," The Teacher added before going back to assigning seats.
"What is happening?" Pinkie demanded.
"Third warning, one more and you'll be suspended Dragon,"
"Wha! That was me!" Pinkie complained angrily, the Teacher didn't reply to her and continued assigning seats. Spike just happily waggled his feet under his desk as the teacher wrote her name on the chalkboard and began their first lesson, the Alphabet, Spike spent most of his day trying to get the writing right, Pinkie, however, was busy trying to stop the other children from messing with Spike.
One of the Colts took the straw from his juice box and tried pegging Spike with a Spit wad, only for Pinkie to throw her binder, intercept the wad in mid-air, and have the Binder bounce off the wall and into her hoof. The Teacher trend to the noise and found nothing out of the ordinary, she sus[isiously looked towards Spike before going back to the board. Pinkie proceeded to stop 5 more spit wad attempts, a colt throwing bits of eraser, and even a paper airplane that was thrown at the teacher from the back right, knowing full well she'd just blame Spike and call it a day. When it came time for playtime the children were sent outside to play in the sandbox. Spike and Pinkie sat in the corner and could hear some of the ponies talking about them. One of the Colts finally made his move and walked up to them.
"Your not a very impressive dragon,"  he said sticking his tongue out "You have to have a girl protect you,"
"All the girls in my family can break rocks just by punching them," Spike replied simply "Except for Pinkie, she can fly with Balloons, I can too, just not a well, and since I don't have a Cutie mark I won't be strong enough to break rocks for a long time, so it makes sense to me to have my sisters and mom protect me, oh and my dad, he can punch rocks too," Spike smiled, having completely missed that the Colt was trying to insult him. The Colt tried again but Pinkie cut him off before he could really start.
"Let's go play by the schoolhouse," Pinkie decided as she shook the sand off her hooves "Sand isn't all that fun when it's dry," Spike followed his sister and sat next to the schoolhouse, leaning up against it and looking up at the clouds. As they looked at Clouds Pinkie kept an eye on their classmates and found a few of them pointing towards them and smiling, they had a look in their eyes she didn't like.
"Spike, stay here, I'm gonna go investigate," Pinkie slid away and Spike wished her luck, looking up at the clouds to look for fun shapes. Pinkie stopped sliding once she got to the sand and walked up to her classmates.
"Need something?" She asked.
"No, we're all just talking about how much school sucks," one of the Fillies said with a groan.
"Yeah, I should be at home playing with my toys, but instead I'm here, playing with sand," one of the Colts said.
"That's why we're going home," the first Filly said.
"You can't just go home," Pinkie replied with a chuckle "Your parents will just bring you back,"
"Not if there's no school to go back to," The Colt replied as he pointed over to Spike, Pinkie turned and found a Unicorn and a Pegasus talking to Spike, the Unicorn lit his horn and plucked a feather from the pegasus and, without warning, shoved it into Spike's nostril before running away. The Effect was immediate and Spike tried to pull it out and instantly sneezed, he did what his parents always told him to do and aimed it at the ground, where it coned out and began eating at the wall behind him along with the grass. Spike shook his head with a few tears in his eyes and sneezed again before wiping his nose.
"Spike!" Pinkie cried out "The School!" Spike blinked and looked behind him, letting out a yelp as he jumped away from the flaming schoolhouse, just as the Teacher screamed from inside.
"DRAGON!" She burst out the front door and looked back at her schoolhouse before turning to Spike with a look neither he nor Pinkie had ever seen before, absolute furry.



Maud rushed to the schoolhouse, having been the only Pie family member in town she had lept out of her class when she saw the First-grade school burst into green flames. she came to a halt outside the partially burnt Schoolhouse where the teacher was yelling at the Firemarshal and a single Police officer.
"...I'm sorry ma'am," The Police officer said "But we have several claiming the Dragon had a feather shoved up his nose, we can't just arrest it,"
"My schoolhouse is destroyed," She said angrily, "I want that Dragon in chains, the chains it should have been put in when it was found, it's a dragon, a wild animal, not a child,"
"Oh yeah," Maud said bluntly "I remember her, she was always on about Spike when she found out about him," She slightly moved her eyes a sign of serious danger to any who knew her. "I'm gonna go punch her," she made her way up to the Officer, Firepony, and Teacher.
"You!" The Teacher said angrily "That wild animal your family pretends to be a child burnt down half my school, you and your sisters should all be taken away from them for endangerment! If you Pies had just acted like normal ponies and gotten rid of that thing when you found it-" Maud slammed her hoof into the Teacher's face, knocking her out cold.
"Just try and arrest me," She dared with an angry tone. the Officer backed right up when he saw an actual expression on Maud's face.
"No thank you," He Officer replied instantly.
"I think she hit her head in her panic over the fire, I'll take her to the hospital to have her checked out," As the teacher was dragged away Maud walked behind the school and quickly located Spike and Pinkie sitting away from the rest of the children. Pinkie had very clearly thought of a solution to the sneezing and stuck to it as she was currently sitting on Spike's shoulders holding her binder like a weapon, waving it at any of the remaining children who came close to her or Spike.
"I have my eye on all of you," She said "No more feathers are getting past this pony,"
"Maud," Spike cheered with a wave before, his ears giving away he was upset "I learned half the alphabet,"
"I learned how to knock a paper airplane out of the air without alerting the teacher," Pinkie added with a wave.
"Hi Pinkie, Hi Spike," She said, back to her blank expression and Monotoned voice, "I think it's time we go home," 
"Great," Pinkie sang out "Come on Spike, let's blow this popsicle stand!" The Three made their way to the Road when the officer stopped them, shaking slightly.
"Um...Maud," He said, terror in his voice and face when she looked at him "I'm sorry to say...but even though he was forced to do it because he was the source of the fire your brother can't go to school here anymore," The Officer turned tail and ran away.
"Bold of you to assume I was gonna let him come back," Maud monotoned back to the retreating officer.
"Man, that guy must really like education," Pinkie said, "Did you see the look on his face? He looked like he was about to cry," Maud motioned with her hoof and they headed back to the Pie Family rock farm, wondering how to tell their parents about what had just happened.



"So it wasn't your fault?" Aloe asked, Spike just shrugged at the question.
"Not entirely,"
"How did you know about me punching out the teacher?" Maud demanded.
"That officer and I are friends now," Pinkie replied "Spike and I have planned his sons every birthday," Maud blinked as she remembered something.
"Hey, I have a story request,"
"Maud!" Spike and Pinkie cheered "Lay it on us," Spike leaned over Aloe, who shivered as he put his hand on her shoulder and listed to the request, giving a big smile at the question.
"Oh, I was hoping one of you would ask for that one," Spike quickly flipped the pages and showed it to Pinkie.
"Oh, our first recent story," She cheered.
"Alright, This is the story of..."