//------------------------------// // 27 – "Pampered Inside a Treehouse?" // Story: Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests // by B_25 //------------------------------// ~27~ "Pampered Inside a Treehouse?" “That was me!” answered the distorted voice of symbiote known as Virus, who swirled forth in his green liquid form. “You ponies and dragon usually have something underneath you as you sleep –unless you’re Null, who levitates himself as he sleeps – so I figured I’d build him a rafty-raft, so he doesn’t get uncomfortable.” “That’s…” Falcon's sepias eyes drifted across the room to assess the reactions of his fellow agents, relishing at the sight of their confused and slightly scared faces. “... pretty thoughtful, Virus. Thank you?” “De nada.” The green goo slurped back into the seemingly portal that was Null’s green furred hooves. The count’s eye also flinched for, but a moment of realization of a detail he might have missed, knowing full well now that another aspect of the symbiote existed. “Now that the surprises of today have run their course, shall we now discuss the prospects of our future dragon agent?” “What’s there to discuss?” Falcon asked with a wave of the hoof, as he leaned back into the pillow of the bed. “The dragon’s insecure about himself due to the lack of love shown by those closest to us, and desperately seeks answers to who he is. If it weren’t for me liking the kid’s personality, I’d throw him in the same line as Regal over there.” Regal shot his gaze over to the bed which Falcon laid upon. “Do you mean to mock the struggle I’ve long endured to find the answers I’ve forever pondered?” “Yes.” was the reply. “Yes indeed.” A bang resounded throughout the paper thin wall of the hotel and momentary vibrated the carpeted floor that then coursed through everyone’s bones. “Please keep the banter to a minimal and outside of this room!” An air of silence began to thicken over the chamber, making it harder for all to draw in the breaths need to calm their nerves, further adding to their panic states. The count sighed, the moment allowing everyone else to do the same, as its hoof clenched around the scepter began to loosen. “My apology for raising my voice at you all, but my nerves, though non-existent as they may be, are still shot from taking away the dragon’s pain and memories of misery.” He inhaled deeply to erase the words that plagued at his form, which burnt away in a wisp of particles to outside the window. “His long needed slumber is almost at its end, for if any more years were to be added to his sleep, I fear he may enter his dragon hibernation early.” The chestnut griffon crawled out from the bed and stood on her numb paws, stretching forward akin to a lazy feline as she popped the kinks that were placed on the back from the tension deriving from current atmosphere. She began to walk over to the window to rest her forearms on the rim of it, staring out to the dragon laid adrift through the Orange Sea. “So that’s the Spike responsible for saving the Crystal Empire, while also being the pet to a Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Her amethyst eyes trailed from the sharp features his face had developed into over the years, to his slender torso begging to intake more muscles, and following the course of his tail that lay limp overboard the raft. Lola’s pink furred ball tail rose from the floor and began to wag behind her in a trance. “Thought he’d be taller.” Regal kicked the sheath of his katana that flipped over onto his back, locking into the strap that he wore over his shoulder. “A dragon capable of basic reasoning, huh.” He too approached Lola’s side, careful not to meet fur, as he stared out at the dragon. “But is he capable of putting forth the effort needed to improve whatever he is lacking, and a will that is indomitable?” “He’s got grit and dreams,” Falcon explained from the bed, not caring enough to remove himself from the comfiness, “but we’re gonna have to carry him the rest of the way.” “Precisely.” The Count soundlessly phased passed the wall of the hotel as its worded sprawling form hovered before the exuberant hues of brilliant yellows and warm oranges, becoming eclipsed by the array of lights. “It will fall upon each of you to show the drake how to access the aspects to himself that you’ve all mastered, as well as showing him the support he needs to destroy the enemy in his head.” Null, who’d been leaning against the wall with his ears open and his mouth shut, finally came to the realization that changed that order. “Wait a second.” Everyone’s eyes drifted toward his sudden burst. “So you’re telling me, that this kid gets to stay back from all these adventures and what, not having to deal with anyone’s shit but laze about back home?” “Well.” Null’s lazed perspective on the dragon’s matters certainly brought new concerns to the light of Falcon’s eyes, but there was still the impulse to defend his acquaintances/potential friend. “I mean there’s more misery attached to it, as well as being a dragon raised among ponies, but I guess you have one of the right approaches to it.” A green hoovered raised itself before Null’s emerald eyes. “Do you hear that Virus? How about I switch you out with this Spike guy, that way, you can have more carnage in his far more powerful body, and I can go get pampered inside a treehouse?” A current of waves vibrated around the course of the hoof in correlation to the symbiote words. “Eh, nope!” “Fha…” The Count’s form darkened as it floated backward into the brilliant lights of the sea, becoming bright by its approach. “It is time now for the dragon to awaken from his slumber, and to be brought to the place that is rightfully his by birth. I trust in you all to show him the ways of the Agency, and to transition seamlessly into The Drifters.” Null glanced over at Falcon with confusion twinkling in his eye. “Drifters?” “Our old code name for when our group was bigger.” Falcon glanced out the window to see the disappearance of the Count, sighing at just what the possibilities of the future held for them. “It was long before you join, so don’t sweat it.” Over in the boundless Orange Sea and wisps would trail into the oblivion to fade away from existence, the Count hovered over a wooden raft set to sail the seas of the Orange current, carrying a special passenger into the beyond. “Come now, my sweet and the dearest dragon: it’s time to rise now from your slumber.”