"I'm Vinyl Scratch, your DJ for the night!" said the voice broadcasting to the whole room through the speakers. Let's start off with something for everyone's favourite little dragon, Spike! Come, on everypony! If you've got hooves, I wanna see 'em shakin'!"
Spike reluctantly headed over to the dance floor, which was right underneath the disco ball, away from the tables and furniture. He instinctively began bobbing his head to the music as everypony started dancing. He slowly got more into it, shaking his claws and moving his feet to the beet.
"That's the spirit Spike!" exclaimed Pinkie, bouncing towards him.
"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." Spike tucked in his head, dropped to the floor and started spinning. He slowly rose into the air until he was balancing on nothing but his tail, still spinning. In one swift move, he then swung his tail over his head, flipped in midair and landed on his hands. He got onto his feet to see Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie clapping their hooves.
"Marvelous!" exclaimed Rarity.
"I didn't know you could dance like that, Spike!" said Twilight.
"Well, I had to do something in my free time in the Canterlot Library before we came to Ponyville, didn't I?" The next half hour passed with dancing, laughter and lots of Rainbow wingspins. Ponies took turns showing off their skills on the little stage near the entrance. By the end, nearly everypony (and dragon) was exhausted.
"All right all you Party Ponies!" said Vinyl over the speakers. "Let's tone the music down just a bit and rest those tired hooves. But it's not over yet! We'll get back to shaking our flanks in about an hour."
"Thanks for throwing me this really great party Pinkie," said Spike.
"Don't mention it, Spike!" she replied. "I love throwing parties! Now, who wants some more punch?" The six ponies and Spike all walked to the refreshments table.
"A toast," Rarity held up her cup. "To the cutest baby dragon in all of Ponyville!" They all raised their cups and drank as much punch as they could in one gulp. Rarity's description did not go unnoticed by Spike, and the thoughts that he had been having earlier returned to him.
"You know Rarity, I'm not exactly a baby on pony terms." he reminded her.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Her question irritated Spike even further. Was she really not aware about any of this? Didn't she know how old he was?
"Well," said Spike, his discontent now apparent in his voice. "You do know how old I am, right?"
"I don't believe you ever told us. Perhaps nine, maybe ten. Why? Is something wro-" She stopped mid-sentence to see the expression on the little dragon's face. Spike was stunned.
Nine? Ten?! Her words echoed inside his head. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His mind could only think of what the unicorn had said, and, as the colour drained from his face, his body was overcome by pure instinct, with one objective.
Run. Far away.
In one swift move, he turned around and dashed out of the cottage, stopping only to fling the door open. He sprinted out of the clearing in front of Fluttershy's cottage and into the Everfree trees. He might have heard someone calling his name; he wasn't sure. He didn't care. Perhaps nine, maybe ten... The words kept repeating in his head. He ran through bushes, leaped over branches. He couldn't feel the pain from the bleeding cuts and scratches that began to appear on his limbs. He ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, and then ran faster. She thinks I'm a child?! He didn't stop nor slow down as the seconds which passed turned into minutes. He felt his exhaustion only as it hit its peak and stars began to form in front of his eyes. He stopped in front of a lake, collapsing into a heap of scales and tears on the forest floor.
******
"Spike!" Rarity called after him as he ran off. The party had now jerked to a halt, with everypony having seen what just happened. Twilight was also shocked at what Rarity had just said. She had no idea that the other ponies misunderstood him to such a degree. "What's wrong? Why did he run off?"
"Oh, this is bad," said Twilight her face in her hooves. "Pinkie could you just stop the party for now? I really need to tell you guys something."
"Oh, okay," said the pink pony, confused but in the understanding that something was wrong. "Everypony?" she began, addressing the crowd. "I'm afraid that we're gonna have to cut the party short. Please understand." After the initial commotion, ponies began to file out the door, many with confused or worried looks on their faces. Derpy was the last to leave.
"What happened? Is Spike going to be okay?" she asked before leaving. Twilight faked a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry Derpy. Everything's going to be fine." That seemed to be enough for the gray pegasus, and she fluttered out the door, narrowly avoiding the top of the door frame. The five ponies now stood in front of Twilight, confused and anxious to hear what she had to say.
"What happened to Spike there, Twilight?" asked Applejack uneasily. "He looked as if he'd seen a ghost." Twilight took a deep breath.
"Remember Rarity said that Spike never told you ponies his age? She was right. But he-I should have."
"Why? How old is he?" asked Rainbow Dash with her eyebrow raised.
"He's nineteen." All five ponies gasped in disbelief at Twilight's words.
"WHAT!?!?" shouted Rainbow, completely dumbfounded. Pinkie Pie and Applejack, on the other hoof, stood silently, their jaws hanging open.
"It's true. I hatched Spike when I was only four years old."
"B-but he...I..." stuttered Rarity. The thought that someone who she had thought to have been child was not much younger than her made her feel slightly queasy. Especially since that someone had been trying to win her heart ever since they had met.
"But Twilight!" exclaimed Fluttershy. "You told us that Spike was a baby dragon!"
"He is a baby dragon. For a dragon, nineteen years is very young. I can't believe I didn't think to point that out sooner. He may act slightly childish sometimes simply because he is technically a baby, but generally he has the maturity, knowledge and experience of a pony of the same age."
"I-I didn't mean to...I mean-"
"It's alright, Rarity. It wasn't your fault."
"Hey, shouldn't we go look for him? What if he got himself into trouble? The Everfree forest isn't a safe place for anypon-er, baby...dragon," Rainbow reminded them.
"She's right Twilight!" said Pinkie. "We'll split up!"
"Good idea Pinkie!" said Twilght. "I'll go straight, up north."
"Woah, woah, hang on there!" said Applejack. "The Everfree forest ain't a safe place for anypony! You said so yourself Rainbow." She paused for a moment. "Let's go in pairs! I'll go with you, Twilight."
"I'll check around the hills!" said Rainbow.
"Ooo! I'll go with you!" said Pinkie excitedly.
"Fluttershy and I can look near the lake," said Rarity.
"Great! We'll meet back here in an hour. Come on, ponies let's go find Spike!" finished Twilight. All three groups galloped out the door and went their separate ways. But as they charged along, they were oblivious to yet another fact. A fact that took its form in three pairs of eyes following them through the bushes.
"I wanna get them now!" said one of the creatures.
"No!" whispered another. "Patience. We'll have our revenge, just you wait.
Im interested to see where it goes from here
Possibly the Diamond Dogs or the 3 teenage dragons from ' Dragonquest. '
Rarity, you know what I'm not gonna say anything. Just look at the picture.
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxkk4xACbR1qhmfkuo1_400.gif
3052626 Likewise.
Wow, nineteen? That's basically not even a age gap at all, they're in the same group. And Rarity just explicitly in not so sweet terms that she's too old for him---when in reality Spike's not only a comparable age to Rarity and the rest of the ponies, he's also basically legal (if you want to imply that way for a certain reason )
No wonder Spike ran away. Twilight's explanation was spot on, though she needs to be smacked in the head for not disclaiming that important fact sooner. Way to hold the idiot ball, Twilight.
Now Rarity has to apologize for her unassuming insulting comment. Not to mention all the other ponies that have belittled Spike because they still thought he was a kid.
Ironically though, it is a bit immature for Spike to just run off in tears (apparently) just because they called him a kid. But that is probably dragon hormones that is doing that.
So apparently, not only are the Mane 6 going to have to find Spike, they now have to deal with the opportunity that Spike's rivals/enemies from "DragonQuest" are gunning for the nineteen-year-old as well. Just perfect
Rairty and co WTF Spike better have some kind of badass trick up his selve
Happy to see where this goes
Spike it gonna show them how much of a baby he is.
Oh, no, it seems like the Diamond Dogs are up to no good. Also, I think every one of the Mane Six, except for Twilight needs to apologize to Spike, but the main one is Rarity. She broke his little heart to call him a child like that, even if she didn't know. They don't know thought he hurt himself pretty badly and is very exhausted.
well; when you think about, did twilight ever tell the mane six that she hatched spike at a young age in the first place? even in twilights cutie mark flashback, she never even mentioned hatching him to the CMC. Spike should have been told them how old he was. Ponies don't know nuthin bout dragons.
3052765 Rarity. Broke. His. Heart. That makes people cry.
3053091 Eeyup.
Uh oh...
You have my interest.
Running away was not what I was expecting. That seems like a childish thing to do.
Now getting mad and telling Rarity off, that's the adult thing to do.
Chapter Five is done, I'll just wait until I wake up to publish it. That is of course, if I get a few more comments...
3053938 Spike is heartbroken. You don't think or do anything reasonable if you're heartbroken. He didn't 'run away so to speak. He needed to get away. He left on instinct. His conscious mind had almost nothing to do with it.
3054150Oh fine! Throw all that anger his been feeling since the party begin right out the window. See if I care.
All I know is she needs to get told off when they find him by the lake. That should give him enough time to think. And Rarity will probably put her hoof in her mouth again.
If Spike doesn't show some anger I know I will. It's not healthy to hold to much in, believe me I know.
And so it begins...
While I do hope Rarity gets told of in someway, I do also hope that it won't also ruin their friendship over something she was not given full information about. No one told her his age, not even himself. Heck, he didn't even tell anypony what his age was despite the fact that Secret of My Excess happened and that his birthday (hatchday?) is connected to the Mane 6's cutie marks (i.e. they happened within days of each other).
But that would make for a much shorter fic so... go on.
I'm guessing the creatures are either the diamond dogs or the dragons from "Dragon Quest". Would be cool if it is the dragons, there's only been very few fics with them. This story just got more interesting, and I like it. I enjoy a great spike fic whenever one pops up. I really do like the concept of Spike now facing the reality how everyone in Ponyville, minus Twilight, had been treating him like a little helpless child. I sense a storm coming. BTW would be a good idea to take his anger out on the unwanted guests to reveal more spellbreathing. Just saying.
Yeah, have to say, Spike running off makes him seem more like the age Rarity thought he was and not a nineteen year old dragon. And frankly, in canon he oscillates wildly between mature and very, very childish, so I can see why they would get the impression that he was somewhat younger. Though, granted, the ponies are quite childish at sometimes too. Still, with behaviour as fluctuating as Spike's, I still don't think it is fair to really hold it against them when they a) don't know all the facts and b) Spike's never been bothered by how they treated him before.
With how he overreacts to change sometimes, Twilight getting Owlicious springs to mind, even if they had hypothetically realized before that they should treat him differently, they just might have feared that he'd panic about being treated differently than usual. Miscommunications are all around and the ponies still can't be called anything except slightly obtuse. They should pay him more respect and it makes sense that he finds the constant little comments of him being "cute" and "small" annoying, but a complete breakdown after half an hour of not much talking seems very immature, particularly when it is all in thoughlessness instead of malice.
Yeah, well, that was quite a rant, sorry 'bout that. It just seems to me like the ponies are being set up as being much worse than the behaviour they show actually justifies.
"The party had now come to a standstill, with everypony having seen what just happened." As the events in this part directly follows up to Spike running out the door, I suggest the more abrupt "had jerked to a halt when Spike ran out the door."
"He looked as if he's seen a ghost." Twilight took a deep breath." It should be "he'd", as the rest of the sentence is in past tense.
Well, can't say this was the best chapter so far, but I have faith the overall story will still be good. Happy writing.
3054943
Yes his running away seems childish. But keep in mind what Twilight has said here. And a prime example is the Owliscious incident you mentioned. Wait, are you justifying his running away or criticising it? Oh and thanks for the help with the typos and such. It's all fixed up now.
I really do think you're gonna like the next chapter though... Spike's emotions take a roller coaster ride.
3055516
Well, I'm technically criticising it, not the event itself, that's fine from a story perspective, but he is also not reacting as an adult should. As in, him running away like that is one of the signs that he is not really as mature as he wants to be perceived as and those reactions are one of the reasons that the others don't treat him as a full adult. Not saying that that means that they should treat him as a kid, but such outbursts do undermine ones air of maturity.
woooooooow nineteen 0: awesome
nineteen huh?
I definitely had him pegged in the teens, but I would put the main six at around nineteen....
Nonetheless, I enjoyed this chapter. I have no doubt that the next two chapters will satisfy as well.
You. You are smart man heavy like smart man