Chapter 3: Dragon Boy: Origins
"I just did what!?"
Really good muffins aside, let me step aside in the recollection of the past year and do something I should have done sooner in this. That is explain where I live, it'll give context to a lot of these things and make things easier down the road. Heck, I doubt I've said much of anything about who I am and where I live. All you might know is that I'm in my late 20's, have a house and a job. Not much to go on, so lets change that. Hello, my name is Drew Hall, let me tell you about my city (if you can call it that).
Firstly, I'm in the Great Lakes region of the mid-western United States, which means cold bitter winters and hot, humid summers. We get it coming and going here. With these two extremes, the roads get demolished so when its not winter, its orange barrel season. Hope you like road construction and delays. Thankfully, the city I live in is a small town surrounded by farms, so not much backup can occur. Lots of Mom & Pop stores in the down town area, but still has the Big-Box stores in the vicinity. Just like the rest of Mid-America
It would be just one of thousands of small towns if it weren't for the college here. See, the city was founded in the 19th century and shortly there after the college was founded. If it weren't for that, this place would be a veritable ghost town, or not even exist. Its a private liberal arts college, which people tell me is rather prestigious, not that I'd know, I went to a state school. Place has a world class conservatory (or so I'm told) as well, brings in people from all around the world to teach. Me? I work for the college's technology services department. I run the Help Desk, so I get to deal with ALL of the self entitled brats that go to this college and the egotastic staff. Not everyone's like that, but enough to keep me annoyed. Thankfully, they give me an assortment of student staff to do most of the grunt work. I just get stuck with the paperwork (be it digital or dead-tree) most of the time.
Now theres not much of a night life here, theres three bars. One for the local boozers to gather; one for the local students (both high school and college age I'm afraid) to get drunk; and one ran by the college itself. The latter one being the most "happening" one. Mostly because of the various live shows and events they get. Still, other than billiards or bowling, not much happens. This is of course why most locals just ditch the town in general and head to one of the actual cities near by. I never did, preferred digital entertainment, but thankfully this town does have a LAN center, which maintains some level of sociability when growing up. Yeah, I'm from this town. Born and raised, parents worked for the local schools until they retired and moved south. I bought their house, when they moved, better than the apartment I was in. Besides, its my childhood home can't blame a guy right?
Well, I think that enough background for the moment, where was I? Right the muffin and realizing what had just happened. They are good muffins though.
-----------------------------
"I just did what!?"
I exclaimed to my car as if expecting an answer. Of course, as this wasn't Knight Rider and the car wasn't K.I.T.T., none was forthcoming. Picking up the dropped muffin (which had fallen into a cup holder) I went ahead and finished it, no sense in wasting it. Shrugging my shoulders I decided to just head into work and get Monday over with. Heres hoping it'll be a quite day so I can mentally sort through what happened and get a handle on it. Not like I can take it back. I was raised to adhere to my promises as best I could and I really, really didn't want to deal with the guilt trip I'd get from that woman if I tried to rescind my agreement. A few moments later and I'm at the main library, which doubles as the college's tech center and head in to begin my day.
Swiping my ID card to get in, I head to the lounge and drop my hastily thrown together lunch into the fridge. Some hot pockets and granola bars. Seeing one of the network guys I wave at him.
"Mornin' Phil, glorious Monday ain't it? So, what'd the students break over the weekend that we have to fix?"
I ask jokingly, but his face and reaction are worrying to say the least. Its like someone shot his server.
"Oh hells, what broke...."
"No one told you?" he asks incredidiously.
"Told me what?"
"One of the CS majors was raising a 'Virus Farm' on an external Hard Drive for an honors project. Had hundreds of the bastards in it. Studying anti-virus and system security or some nonsense."
Blanching, "Don't tell me......"
"Yup, one of his room mates 'borrowed' it, plugged it into his UNPROTECTED machine, connected to the campus share site, and loosed the bastards onto the entire network. The servers damn near melted themselves from the sudden outbound traffic from all those damned bots, trojans, and mal-ware. I had to kill all outbound traffic. Right now its just an intranet, no internet"
"Shoot me now. We're gonna have to scan every machine on campus now."
Patting me on the back, he turns to leave and with, what I assume is a smirk on his face does a wave. "Happy Monday!" I just glare at him. Remember when I hoped for a quite day? Yeah, I'm Murphy's bitch. I think his law effects me more than gravity. The day screamed past at break neck speeds. Fielding phone calls; organizing the scanning sites for people to bring in there machines to be scanned, cleaned, and protected; and then working with the professional staff to draft an angry, threatening, yet pleseant email to the CS department's chair to keep such a thing from happening again. Soon the day was over and I had to go get Spike from the, basically day care, I left him in. Today had been hell. I hate Mondays.
I pick him up in short order, he's quite but seems in good spirits. His day was probably better than mine was. According to the staff he was a perfect, if not grumpy and introverted, angel. Phew, that calmed one of my fears of him having had either a breakdown or told someone his 'story'.
"So my day was horrible, how was your day Spike?"
Shrugging his shoulders, "Eh, kind of normal yah know? I sat around. Read the books I brought. Reshelved and organized their books. I mean come one, they were everywhere! No rhyme, no reason. And I thought Twilight was bad when she went on one of her research or study binges. It was like Pinky organized them while on a sugar high. Oh and they made me take a 'School Placement Test' to determine what grade I should be in. I've never attended school before, not that I told them that, I mean school is mandatory for your foals"
"kids"
"whatever. School in mandatory and It'd cause trouble for me if I said so. Thankfully Twilight made sure I knew enough to be her assistant and all of those books she had me reference, read, shelf, etc stuck with me so I know enough."
"So, how'd the test go?"
"Well everpony"
"everyone" I correct him. He just glares back.
"EveryONE said that my math, science, and language arts was superb. But......" he trailed off, slightly despondently.
"Let me guess, social studies and/or history was horrid?"
"Yup. Not my world, not my history"
"You seem to be taking this whole 'other world" thing better than the other morning."
"Well yeah. I finally remembered what happened right before I got here."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. It was Nightmare Night and instead of just Princess Luna visiting like the previous year, we also had Princess Celestia. Well, Princess Celestia, it seems, really likes alcohol and, while relaxing at a private Pinky party had a few."
"So this all-powerful pony goddess transported you here while drunk?"
"No, thats just the start of it. You see she, being an Alicorn has a much higher tolerance than most ponies, that didn't stop her from convincing Twilight that a shot contest against her would be a good lesson in friendship however."
"I think I can see where this is going...." I said as I put the car in park, having reached my house.
"Yeah, lets just say that trying to out drink somepony twice your size and with a tolerance over 4 times yours is not a good idea. Needless to say Twilight got wasted and, surprisingly enough, so did the Princess, just not to the same extent. Well, Twilight was fall-down drunk and couldn't walk so I was going to cart her home with the help of the royal guard. Now Princess Celestia decided to 'help' and teleport Twilight and myself back to the library. While I'd have normally accepted this, she was drunk and drunk magic is bad."
"Even with out magic, I can defiantly agree with you on that point", having made a few stupid drunk dials and emails before myself.
He continued. "Well, Twilight, always wanting to impress the Princess decided she was sober enough to teleport us. Which she tried to do and, wanting to 'help', the Princess added some of her own power, more than I'd suspect she meant to and......well"
"Poof, you ended up here with me finding you?"
"Yup, that sums it up rather nicely."
"I wonder what happened to Twilight if you ended up here."
"Well, Twilight's aim was off and only I was enveloped in the teleportation matrix. Or maybe it was the Princess's 'help'. Not sure. She's probably working herself into a frenzy trying to get me back, worrying everypony. So I've just kind of accepted my whole situation as Magic being Magic."
"That’s one way of looking at it. My mother has a saying 'It is what it is', which I think applies here. No come on, lets head into the house so I can get dinner started and tell you about my day."
The both of us got out of the car and headed inside, I grab the mail as I pass the mailbox. Stopping just inside the door, I hand Spike a key.
"Look, you'll be staying here for the time being so I thought you'd need a key so that you can lockup or get in when I'm not here. Now I'm trusting you to be responsible with it, so please behave yourself."
"Oh you can count on my Twilight gave me a key to the tree as well. I Pinkie Pie swear I'll behave and be the most responsible drago.....human you know."
Smiling I nod and head to the kitchen. Spike heads into the tv room and plops down to, I assume continue reading. I start to make dinner. For him, a grilled cheese sandwich. I add bacon to mine. I'd found out a few nights ago that he had been raised vegetarian, which made sense based on his story, so I've had to adjust what I cook. Not that it would stop me from having my dead animal flesh. Reheating some leftover vegetables I hear the TV in the background, sounds like a commerical. He must have decided to watch it instead of read. Unless he'd finished yet another series.
He'd actually taken to the TV better than I expected. More so when I referred to how it works as magic, which to someone like me who has no clue how everything in it works is good enough. Magic was, well, the magic word and he accepted it. They do say that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, I guess this would apply. Listening I here what sounds like Michael Dorn and Patrick Stewart, must be an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I wonder which one. Grabbing the two plates I head in to check on it and give Spike his dinner.
"Oh John-Luc, you do amuse me so."
Setting down the plates I think oh, its a Q episode. I like those episodes, I'll have to see when it replays and record it on the DVR. Spike on the other hand looks mortified and screams.
"AHHHHHHHH its Discord! He's in the magic box! Wait, Discord! I bet he transported me here to keep me away from my friends. Yes, it wasn't Twilight or the Princess who messed it up, it was Discord!"
Sighing.....again, I look quizzically at Spike.
"Discord? That’s the character Q, played by John De-lancie, not some 'Discord' person. Besides its a TV show, its not real"
"But he sounds and acts just like Discord!"
Seeing the pleading, scared look in his eyes I place my hand on his shoulder.
"Look, its not whoever you say it is. Its a character in a show, just like the characters in all of the books you've read. Besides, this episode is older than you are."
"But..." The sound of a rumbling stomach stops him in mid sentence.
"Sounds like you're hungry", I point to the plate "dig in. Also, you never told me what they said. We kind of went on a tangent with your memory."
In mid chew he begins to respond, but I cut him off before he can even start. "Finish chewing first. Its rude to talk with your mouth full." He swallows and then begins anew.
"Oh, they said I'll be placed into 8th grade based on the other subjects. They think I was goofing off on the social studies part so I have to take that section again. Do you have any books I could read?"
The first thing that comes to mind is wikipedia, but I quickly bury that. If his story is to be believed, which I find myself doing, he is not ready or prepared for the internet. Thinking some more, I remember my parents leaving some of their stuff here in storage, since, well the house was still in the family.
"My mother was a teacher and I think she left some of her textbooks here when they moved. We'll take a look after dinner. Oh, when did they want you to start attending school? I'll need to get you registered. Hmmm, come to think of it I'll need a last name for you, all of the paperwork thus far only has 'Spike'. Do you have one?"
"Uh, they said next Monday would be best, but I need to retake that part Friday. Hopefully you have a book, I don't want to fail it twice. As for a last name, well I was raised by Twilight Sparkle, so Sparkle?"
"Spike Sparkle? Vetoed, you're green hair will stick out enough, I don't want your name to as well. Lets see....."
I start to think of names. Hmm, dragon.....Dreugan! I think thats Scotish for dragon. Make it McDreugan and we have a winner. I'll have to check to make sure thats not a real last name first, but lets see if Spikes okay with it.
"How does McDreugan sound? Its a basic Scotish name prefix with the Scotish word for dragon, best I can come up with."
"Spike McDreugan. Spike McDreugan". He repeats this a few times as if to familiarize himself with it. "I think that will work."
Satisfied I finish my dinner, grab the plates, toss them into the ever growing stack, and go look for those books. It doesn't take me long to find them, I kind of just left my Mother's office closet alone. Looks like we have a 6th and 7th grade social studies books. Those should work. Taking them back to the TV room, I hand them to Spike.
"These should do you. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll 'try' to answer them."
"Thanks"
He takes them and begins reading them. Thinking of my mother, I realize she should know the best way to register him. I also have to get the inevitable out of the way and tell them about Spike. Biting the bullet, I grab my cellphone and dial. It rings and then theres an answer.
"Oh Drew, its nice to hear from you. Whats up?"
"Not a lot Mom. Got a few things to tell you as well as a question for you."
"Oh?"
"Well, first, what does one have to do to register a kid with the school district so they can attend classes?"
"Oh did someone new move into the neighborhood and you're lending them a hand to register their children? Thats sweet of you."
"Ummm, yeah something like that, which kind of leads to the second item. I adopted a"
She interrupts me, "Oh did you finally get yourself a pet? Did you go for a cat or get a Dog? I mean the house has the nice fenced in yard and the doggy door. That is still there right?"
I sigh, moment of truth.
"Yes it is, but actually, I adopted, at least temporarily, a kid. He's around 12."
"Oh thats nice dear, whats his na......"
Here it comes..
"You did what!?"
"So, about registering a kid with the school district....."