//------------------------------//
// Betrayal 
// Story: Spike the... WHO? 
// by AngelShy24 
//------------------------------//

	Spike the Dragon recently had an accident that involved him falling down a cliff and hitting his head. Because of this, he ended up gaining amnesia. Unfortunately, a gang of dragons that Spike met in the past ended up finding him unconscious before anyone else did and took advantage of the situation. They convinced him that they were his frie… um, bros and ponies were responsible for stealing him as a baby and making him a slave. Spike believed them and was now on their side.
Spike was riding on the back of Garble as he and the other two dragons were flying him back to the main dragon lands. Spike had his arms spread out feeling exuberated from the wind that was blowing across his face.
“Whoo-hoo! So, this is what flying feels like,” Spike shouted, “Awesome! I am so jealous of you guys!”
“Yep. It’s not every day that dragons like you get to fly up in the air like this,” said Garble going along with Spike’s excitement, “Am I right or am I right?”
“If I had wings, I would do this all the time! I’d be a flying a maniac!”
“I just bet you would,” Garble then smirked as he said under his breath, “Geez, what a spaz.”
But while he was feeling the wind in his face, Spike had another weird feeling like he was trying to remember something as he thought, ‘Huh… that’s weird. I don’t know why, but… I feel like I’ve done this before… but with someone else. Why do I keep feeling these things?’
“Yo, Spike, you okay?” said Clump who noticed him, “You’re not suddenly wiggin’ out on us, are you?”
“O-o-oh, sorry about that. I was just… thinking of something that I… thought I knew; but… its nothing. Probably just nothing.”
“Well enough of that,” said Garble, “We’re here.”
When Spike looked on ahead, he suddenly saw a huge volcanic mountain area that was inhabited by many other dragons. Once again, his mind was blown away, “Whoa. So… many… DRAGONS!”
Many of the other dragons noticed them as they were coming in to land in the area; but a lot of them were suddenly turning some glares towards Spike. He felt a little uneasy with all the eyes focusing on him and questioned to Garble, “Why are they all looking at me like that?”
“Oh, um… they’re just… kinda shocked that you’re back is all,” Garble explained, “It’s pretty normal.”
“Yo, Garble!”
More friends of Garble, Fume and Clump suddenly showed up in front of them and greeted them with a fist bump.
“S’up, guys!” said Garble, “Glad to see you’re doing well.”
“On one of your little raid expeditions again? We would’ve been happy to accompany you.”
Suddenly, Spike walked up to one of them and said, “Hey, there! My name is Spike… apparently; and any frie… I mean… bro of Garble is a bro of mine!”
As Spike held up his fist to give a fist bump of his own, the other dragons were arching their eyes at him; and one of them stated, “Wait a minute… isn’t he that dragon that lives with those ponies?”
“Yes! Y-yes he is… that dragon;” Garble quickly answered, “and he sure is glad to get away from them! Right, Spike?”
“You better believe it!” Spike responded.
The other dragons were suddenly feeling that they were missing out on something that they didn’t know and became quite curious. Garble then went over to Clump and whispered in his ear, “Hey, um… do me a favor and take Spike on a quick tour of the place… mostly over there.”
Clump immediately responded and said, “Oh! Um… sure!” He then grabbed Spike and started leading him away from the others, “Come, Spike, uh… let me give you a little tour.”
Spike shrugged his shoulder and said, “Fine by me.”
After they were away, Garble had all the dragons that were there gathered around and told all of them what was going on. He told them about Spike having amnesia and how they were taking advantage of his accident. They all believed him and were on board with his plan.
After a while, Clump brought Spike back from showing him around their place. Spike thanked him, “Thanks for that tour, Clump. This place is awesome! Totally fit for a tough dragon like me!”
Just then, Spike saw many of the other dragons looking at him again; but this time they all had more pleasant expressions their faces. “Wow. What’s this? Everyone’s attitude towards me suddenly changed. Not that it’s a bad thing though.”
“That’s because I’ve told them everything!” Garble exclaimed, “They know who you really are and are now willing to welcome you with open claws!” He then gave Spike a noogie on his head, “Welcome back to the pack, little runt.”
“Cool! I feel so honored! Even though I don’t remember everything, it feels great to be back! Thank you so much, everyone…” Spike then looked over and winked at a couple of female dragons nearby, “That includes you lovely ladies as well.”
The female dragons shared a little giggle together finding Spike’s sudden attitude to be adorable.
“Well this worked out pretty well, Garble,” said Fume, “It’s definitely better now that everyone here knows what’s going on; and Spike still doesn’t have a clue that we’re lying to him.”
“And soon,” said Garble with a smirk, “he won’t be the only one who will have a little revenge on those ponies.”
“So… what happens next?” said Spike suddenly as he came back over to Garble and the others, “Anything special you have planned to do?”
“I’m glad you asked. As a celebration, how about we have a…”
They all then shouted together, “Bro-hangout!”
From there, Garble and the others had Spike join them as they had a little party gathering doing things that dragons like them love to do; like cannonballing in the lava pools, playing punchies, doing truth or dare or anything that would help Spike get in touch with his inner dragon.
Spike was having a blast and was thankful to be around those who he felt really cared about him. Time had passed and it was getting dark; but Spike was still full of life and was ready for anything else that was to come.
“Man, you guys are the greatest! I’ve never been so pumped up in my life!”
“Well, Spike,” said Garble as he chuckled under his breath, “it just goes to show you that when it comes to us dragons… we do what we want however we want whenever we want; and no creature can tell us any different!”
“And speaking of which…” said Spike as a certain thought came to his mind, “how about we come up with a plan to get back at those ponies that enslaved me! That oughta teach them, right?!” 
Garble and the others soon realized that their plan was working a little too well seeing that Spike was already planning revenge in his head.
“Whoa-ho-ho-ho there, Spike; calm down,” said Clump.
“Yeah; let’s not do anything stupid… at least not yet,” said Fume.
Spike felt a bit impatient as he cried out, “Come on! I want to get revenge now!”
But Garble didn’t mind. Spike wanting to gain revenge was exactly what he was aiming for. “Eager, aren’t we? Well we don’t blame you. But tomorrow, there’s something that we know about that might, um… tip the scales in our favor.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that!” said Spike as he rubbed his claws together, “Also, props for that scales joke! That was hilarious!”
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The following day, Twilight Sparkle did not waste any time as she got herself prepared and had immediately headed out towards the forest where her friend Spike was last seen. However, she wasn’t alone. She had brought one of her pony friends along with her. One who had a special gift that could help even up her chances to find Spike.
“Thanks so much for helping me with this task, Fluttershy. It really means a lot.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all, Twilight,” said Fluttershy assuredly, “Spike is my friend too. When you came to my cottage and told me what had happened, I was so upset and was crying so much about it that… that… I-I-I didn’t know what to do!”
“Y-yeah, I know. I was there,” said Twilight awkwardly, “In any case, I'm glad that you could come. Your gift to talk to animals is helpful for this situation. I won't rest until we find Spike and have him back and safe in our hooves.”
“And so will I!
Twilight guided Fluttershy to the very spot where she believed Spike was last seen; and Fluttershy was hoping she would be of more help, “So, this is where you think Spike was last?” 
“As far as my magic showed me… yes,” Twilight responded, “But I can't confirm that for sure. Like I told you; when I casted that spell to help show Spike’s tracks to help me track him down, the signs of him moving ended right here.” 
“And you think that someone… or s-something… took him?”
“That would be my best guess; but that's where you come in! There’s probably many animals roaming around this forest. So, one of them has bound to see what took place here.”
Suddenly, Twilight heard some sounds nearby and noticed some animals that were in that direction, “Ah, over there… a group of gophers. That hole behind them is probably their home. They must've seen something.”
“I guess we’ll see,” said Fluttershy.
Fluttershy calmly walked over to the group of gophers. Although, they didn’t notice her yet, so she quietly spoke out, “Um, excuse me?”
The gophers heard and suddenly turned to her as they curiously listened to what she had to say. 
“I-I really hate to intrude on your little gathering here, but do you gophers think you can help me? A friend of mines went missing yesterday and was possibly last seen in this area. He’s about this tall, he's purple and green with… um, green eyes; and he has spines down his back and his cute little tail.”
The gophers all thought hard, but none of them could recall seeing anyone that had the description that Fluttershy said. Soon, Fluttershy realized a certain piece of detail that she left out.
“Oh yeah, he's a dragon. I should've said that first. So, have any of you seen him?”
Suddenly, all the gophers freaked out and began running away from Fluttershy and towards their burrows. 
“Wait, come back! Was it something I said?!”
All gophers soon disappeared into their burrows and left the Twilight and Fluttershy with nothing so far. Flutterhsy scratched her head as she said, “That’s weird. Once I mentioned that Spike was a dragon, they all panicked and ran away. I think they don’t like dragons very much.”
“Well that’s perfect;” said Twilight, “but that’s okay. There’s plenty of other animals in this forest. I’m sure someone is going to cooperate.”
Twilight and Fluttershy kept on looking around the forest and mentioned about Spike to any animal they came across. To some, they couldn’t help; but to others for the most part, they always went away wanting nothing to do with Dragons. After a while, Twilight and Fluttershy decided to take a break. However, Fluttershy felt upset seeing that nothing they were doing was working.
“This is terrible, Twilight! Every animal that we came across so far have no idea who Spike is or where he is!” 
“Either that or they were all chicken the moment they heard the word dragon,” Twilight suggested.
“I’m sorry. It seems I wasn’t much help after all.”
Twilight placed her hoof on Flutteshy as she said, “Don’t be silly, Fluttershy. I was glad that you came and your talent helped a lot. It just that none of these animals seems to have the answers that we need.”
“But… we’re not going to give up yet, right?” said Fluttershy.
“Of course not. Spike is around here somewhere… he has to be.”
Just then, Fluttershy heard a small rummage sound behind her and looked to see a small brownish bunny looking at her. Twilight heard it chattering at Fluttershy like it was talking to her.
“Oh… hello, little bunny,” said Fluttershy, “Are you trying to tell me something?”
The rabbit continued to chatter towards her. But what it was saying gave her a shock.
“Wait… what was that? R-r-really?! You have?! That’s great! That’s really great!”
Twilight was itching to know what Fluttershy was saying as she strongly questioned, “What’s going on, Fluttershy?! What’s he saying?!”
The bunny suddenly looked at Twilight and scowled at her as it crossed its arms.
“Um, actually…” said Fluttershy, “it’s a she, Twilight.”
“S-sorry,” said Twilight hesitantly, “What did she say?”
“You won’t believe it! It’s the answer we were looking for! She can help us find Spike!”
This was music to Twilight’s ears as she got very excited, “Really?! She knows where Spike is?!”
“Well… not exactly,” Fluttershy responded, “but she says that she could take us to the last place where he might’ve been.”
“Oh well, it’s better than what we had to go with already. Okay then; lead the way… miss bunny.”
The bunny smiled and nodded as she began to hop off and raised her paw signaling them to follow.
“Alright, Fluttershy, follow that bunny!”
Both ponies went off as they were following the bunny who was hopping along and making sure that they were following her. Not long after, the bunny led them to an enclosed clearing that had a small pond with a waterfall. 
“Here we are!” said Fluttershy, “Wait… a waterfall? Why would Spike be here? To stay hydrated maybe?”
At that moment, something came to Twilight’s mind that remembered from yesterday, “Wait a minute…”
She remembered a couple of Cadence’s crystal guards that helped look for Spike mentioning about this very thing.
‘We’ve looked everywhere in this forest, but we still could find anything.’
‘We did see a nice waterfall though, but… there was nothing behind it.’
“Or was there?” said Twilight softly to herself.
“Huh?” Fluttershy questioned, “Did you say something?”
“Yesterday at the Crystal Kingdom, one of the crystal guards mentioned about seeing a waterfall during their search. But he said that he didn’t see anything. However, I have a feeling that he didn’t look enough.”
Twilight led Fluttershy and the bunny behind the waterfall where there was just a stone wall. But Twilight used her magic to scan the wall and found a hidden handle on the far-left side and pushed the wall to the side to find a secret cave entrance.
“Just as I thought,” said Twilight with a smirk, “That’s what happens when you don’t do a thorough check on your surroundings.”
Twilight suddenly activated the same spell that she used yesterday to track Spike’s tracks; and sure enough, she saw a trail of footprints in the cave entrance.
“Yes!”
“Is that what I think it is?” said Fluttershy.
“Yes, it is! They’re faint but those are Spikes tracks! He has been here!”
Fluttershy bent down to the bunny and smiled as she said, “Thank you so much, little bunny.” She then pulls out a carrot and gave it to her, “Here’s something for all of your help.”
The bunny smiled and wiggled her tail in happiness. She then picked up the carrot and went off back into the forest.
“When did you get that carrot,” Twilight questioned.
“What do you mean? I had it the whole time.”
Twilight was curious Flutters pulling out that carrot seeing that she had no bag to carry it in; but she chose to forget it as she proceeded to venture into the cave. Inside, her spell showed them more of Spikes tracks in different places. However, Twilight noticed a cluster of them gathered in the middle of the area.
“By the look of this, it seems like Spike was in some kind of…struggle.”
“A struggle?!” said Fluttershy with a shuttering tone, “You mean like he was attacked or captured by something… ‘Gulp’ or worse?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it’s definitely a struggle of some kind. Let me look around for a bit.”
While Fluttershy stayed put, Twilight wandered around the cave to see if she could find any clues. “Come on, there has to be something else we can find around… AHH!”
But suddenly, Twilight had passed by a certain area in the that caused the magic in her horn to fluxuate and fade. She pulled back a bit and rubbed her horn from the slight pain and was wondering what had happened.
“What the… what was that?”
Fluttershy suddenly called out, “What happened, Twilight?”
Not wanting to worry Fluttershy even more, Twilight responded, “Oh, um… d-don’t worry. It was nothing.”
Twilight walked away from the area back towards Fluttershy; but she couldn’t help but feel troubled about what had just happened to her.
“So, what now?” Fluttershy questioned, “All we have are Spike’s footprints in this cave, and… yeah, that’s all we have.”
Twilight sighed not having much of a clue herself, “Well, it might be all we have, but at least we’ve gotten farther than we were before. We just need to put our heads together and figure out what to do next.”
But before they knew what to do next, someone else had stepped into the cave and said, “Well well well. What do we have here?”
Twilight and Fluttershy quickly turned around to suddenly see three dragons standing nearby at the cave entrance.
The one name Garble said, “You ponies got yourselves lost or something?”
Fluttershy froze with terror in her eyes as she hesitantly stated, “Dra… d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dr-dr-dr-dragons!” She then quickly hid behind Twilight the best way she could… not that it would help much.
“That one is such a scaredy pony,” laughed the dragon named Clump.
At that moment, Garble and Twilight was looking at each other feeling like the one they were looking at looked familiar.
“Hold on…” said Twilight
“Wait a minute…” said Garble.
Then they both gasped as they both shouted out, “Its’s you!”
“You’re those dragons that Spike hung out with when he was trying to find himself!” said Twilight.
“W-w-wait… y-you mean they’re the ones you m-mentioned about from before?” said Fluttershy.
Garble suddenly smirked seeing the opportunity that he had as he thought to himself, ‘Heh, so it’s the princess of Ponyville. This is so perfect. She couldn’t have come at a better time.’ He then said to the two ponies, “So, what brings you pansy ponies to this secret hangout cave of ours?”
While standing tall and displaying her wings, Twilight responded, “Well seeing you dragons here, I’m pretty sure you know why we are here. Where is he?! You better not have done anything to harm him!”
“Oh… you mean your little dragon runt of a friend, Spike?” said Garble in a sarcastic tone, “Well, to be honest… harming him for some payback was the plan at first when we found him. But something interesting happened to him that gave us a… change of plan.”
“What are you talking about?”
Right at that moment, Twilight and Fluttershy heard a voice from behind the other dragons as it said, “Hey, sorry that took a little while, guys.” It turned out to be Spike; the very dragon they were looking for. “But hey… when you gotta go you gotta go, am I right?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as she suddenly shouted with much delight, “SPIKE!!!”
Spike jumped and looked ahead as he saw the creature that called him, “What the…”
Twilight suddenly lifted him up in the air with her magic and brought him over to her as he hugged him very close, “Oh, Spike! You’re okay! Thank Celesta you’re okay!”
“It really is him!” said Flutterhsy feeling excited, “I guess that saves us the trouble of continuing to search for him. What a relief!”
Spike was gasping for air from Twilight’s tight hold, “Holding… too… tight…”
Although, Garble and the others were standing back and chuckling from amusement of they were seeing.
“You have no idea how worried I was!” said Twilight as held she held Spike back out, “I almost thought that I lost you! What were you doing all of this time?!” She then placed him down on the ground to give him some personal space, “N-never mind that. You can fill us in on everything while we go back home.”
Spike arched his eye and scratched his head feeling confused of what was going on. “Um, Garble… quick question. Who the heck are these two creatures; and why do they think I know them?”
“Wait… what?” said Twilight.
“Come on, Spike,” said Garble with mischievous grin, “You mean to tell me that you don’t recognize them; especially the purple one?”
Spike did look at Twilight and Fluttershy again, but he still couldn’t think of anything. However, Twilight felt confused herself as she said, “Spike, it’s me; you’re best friend… Twilight Sparkle?”
Suddenly, Spike’s eyes went wide again with a light scowl in his expression as he said, “Wait a minute… did you just say… Twilight Sparkle?”
“Uh, yes… yes I did.”
Spike’s claws suddenly balled up into a fist as he spoke in a distraught tone, “So... you’re the one these guys told me about. I should’ve known that you would come looking for me; along with one of your… flunkies!”
“F-f-flunkies?” Flutershy questioned.
“Um, Spike… are you alright?” said Twilight feeling a bit concerned.
Just then, a small mischievous smile came onto Spike’s face as he flexed his claws while saying, “Well… you couldn’t have come at a better time! Now I can finally have my revenge for what you did to me; for what all of you ponies did to me!”
Almost without warning, Spike leapt forward and swiped at Twilight; but she and Fluttershy jumped out of the way. Although, that didn’t stop Spike as he kept on going at her.
“Whoa! Spike, get a hold of yourself!” Twilight shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“What have those dragons done to you?!” said Fluttershy.
“All they did was open my eyes to the truth! I lost my memories, but these guys helped me restore them! So, stop acting like you’re my friend… ‘cause you’re not!”
“Did he just say that he… lost his memory?” said Fluttershy.
It was then that Twilight was finally putting the pieces together; that these dragons were using Spike’s memory loss to get him on their side. “Spike, come on! Stop acting like that! Those dragons behind you aren't your real friends! They're just taking advantage of you… somehow!”
Spike attacked Twilight again; but luckily for her she could dodge him easily. “Do you really think that I'd be stupid enough to believe you and not my own kind?!”
“Of course not, Spike,” said Twilight, “You're not stupid at all.”
Garble lightly chuckled to the others as he said, “I'd beg to differ.”
“But whatever they told you is a lie! We're your real friends!” 
Spike just stood there staring at Twilight with his arms folded and angered tears in his eyes. But even so, Twilight smiled and carefully held out her hoof to him.
“Come on;  let’s just… go home.”
Spike looked back at Garble and the others and then looked at Twilight and Fluttershy; and for a second, something familiar clicked in his mind. But whatever it was suddenly went away as he smacked Twilight’s hoof away and scoffed at her.
“Yeah right! Fat chance! It'd be just like you to say all of that just so I would come back and become your slave again! And dragons don't do friendship; ‘cause these guys are my bros. We don't do any sissy trends that you might do. Nice try though; but there’s nothing you can do get me to come back!”
As Spike was walking back to the other dragons, Twilight sadly laid her hoof down. She couldn’t believe that she couldn’t get through to Spike. She knew that him losing his memory combined with being with his own kind proved to be effective against them.
“Now what, Twilight?” said Fluttershy, “I don’t think he’s going to come quietly.”
“Hey, guys,” said Spike while smirking back at the two ponies, “here’s an idea. How about we capture these two and make an example out of them for the rest of their kind?”
Garble smirked as he began cracking his knuckles and responded, “Sounds good to me.”
“Uh-oh,” said Twilight.
Following Spike’s lead, Garble and the others ran at Twilight and Fluttershy to grab a hold of them. Twilight was easily dodging them left and right. She was trying to not start a fight. But at some point, the dragon named Fume ended up grabbing Fluttershy from behind.
“Gotcha!”
“Eek! Let me go!” Fluttershy shouted.
“I got you Fluttershy!” said Twilight as she flew towards her.
However, while she had her back turned, Garble got a hold of her tightly, “Nope, I got you!”
“I don’t think so.”
Twilight suddenly teleported from Garble’s arms causing him to tumble and fall. She then appeared behind Fume and knocked him down with her magic freeing Fluttershy from his grasp. Twilight then transported them both back in front of Spike as she attempted to grab him.
“This is ridiculous, Spike. I’m taking you back to Ponyville whether you like it or…”
But Spike took a deep breath as he was gathering fire in his mouth. Twilight noticed and grabbed Fluttershy and flew out of the way right before Spike blew out a huge fireball.
“Whoa, Spike has really gotten good with that fire breath of his,” said Fluttershy.
Clump tried to grab them again while they were distracted by Spike, but once again Twilight noticed and teleported away from him and then appeared against a wall. They both soon found themselves being surrounded by Spike and the other three dragons as they were creeping closer to them.
“Face it, Twilight,” said Spike, “You’re not taking me back; but now you’re goin to be my slave! But hey, you’re an Alicorn, right? Go ahead and take me by force if you dare!”
“This is getting out of hand,” said Fluttershy as she was grasping onto Twilight, “We’re not going to hurt him, are we?”
“No, we’re not,” Twilight responded, “but we can’t take him back like this. I hate to say this, but… we have to back out for now.”
Once they were close enough, Spike shouted to the others, “GET THEM!!!”
All four dragons leapt at Twilight and Fluttershy only to ram into the stone wall after Twilight transported out of the way again. After appearing on the other side again, Twilight looked back at Spike and stated, “I’m not giving up on you, Spike! I will come back for you; I promise you that.”
With that, she ra off back out into the forest along with Fluttershy. Spike struggled out of the dragon pile and shouted, “No, they’re escaping! Come on, we have to go after them!”
“Oh, calm down, Spike,” said Garble calmly, “Just let them go. You heard Twilight, right? She will come back for you.”
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right. She will come back for me. And when she does, I’m sure we’ll be ready.” 
Spike was brewing all kinds of ideas in his head to get back at Twilight. But a certain problem came to his mind.
“Hold up… we are going up against a… a… whatever magical pony she is”
“An Alicorn,” said Clump, “Remember… you said that like a minute ago.”
“Yeah, whatever. Someone like her has magic; and she’s probably going to bring reinforcements. I hate to admit it; but… won’t we be at a disadvantage or something.”
Garble placed his claw on Spike’s shoulder as he stated, “You leave that to me, Spike. That’s the reason we brought you back here. You know… the surprise.”
“So where is it already?” Spike pleaded.
Garble and the others led Spike to a certain area in the cave unknown that Twilight was there as well. Garble then removed a hidden slab on the ground; and what was underneath brought a huge glimmer to Spike’s eyes.
“Whoa. What are these?”
“These my scaly, reptilian comrade are the keys to my… I-I-I mean our revenge.”
Spike could feel a certain kind of power emanating from what was in front of him. He had a good feeling about this.
“Sweet. So, what do we have to do?”
Garble answered with a mischievous chuckle, “I’m so glad you asked.”