"Like I Would Let You Anywhere near the Girls."
The drake descended from the black sky, looking down upon the ponies who were still lost in the throes of their trances. This fact alone made him grin as his feet touched down on the same platform as they – he did not want his reveal being made to the girls just yet. He simply gave a bow and never broke eye contact with the one that could see him.
"I see greatness has yet to desert you girls."
Some of the girls' eyes began to glisten, hearing the familiar voice from beyond the vision of their trance. The voice they heard was exactly like Spike's...the dragon who had abruptly left their lives and was never seen again. No town reported anything strange, not a trail held the prints of a dragon – even the sun and moon themselves were unaware of a wandering dragon among the lands.
Most of the girls began to smile a sad smile at the fact that their dragon was still alive.
All of them except one.
“And just who are you trying to fool with that lazy getup?” Rainbow Dash trotted out from the gathering of her friends, coming to the space between them and the dragon, and proceeded to stand tall. “You must be pretty desperate, Despair, if you’re resorting to him to try and throw any gut punches our way.”
“You’re giving me too little credit, Rainbow Dash.” The bowing drake rose again, beginning to walk in her direction. “If I was trying to defeat you then I would’ve already done it. You girls all hold lingering guilt over me deep in your hearts, and I plan on exploring those feelings quite thoroughly.”
Dash shook her head, her eyes never leaving his for a moment. “Now ya done goofed. The girls have no clue what they feel for Spike, besides some vague guilt over something that was totally not their fault.”
“The girls don’t see it like that,” Spike said as he paused before her, standing only at her chin, but he still grinned as he looked up at her. “Not even you see it like that.”
“That’s because the girls haven’t got around yet to getting over whatever it is they got going on,” Rainbow Dash said. “Trust me. Once they’ve processed their feelings and all that other crap, they’ll be bound to see that they did nothing wrong and move on with their lives.”
She expected to see a frown break the grin the smaller drake wore, but found herself disappointed when it persisted even wider. Spike proceeded to brush past her slowly, taking his time to whisper his next words into her ear. “Then let’s help them process their feelings, shall we?”
A cyan wing unfurled itself and blocked his path.
Spike looked over his shoulder at Rainbow, who already had her head turned to him.
“Like I would let you anywhere near the girls,” she said, pushing him back with her wing. “I know you’re just a fake pretending to be Spike and not the real deal. And even then, even with my friends watching, I still don’t have a problem beating you senseless.”
“It seems you don’t have a problem beating those same friends either.” Spike gestured to behind his back, where Twilight Sparkle sat hunched over against the railings. Rainbow Dash fumed immediately at the sight, sprinting toward the dragon with her one hoof already cocked back.
“You scaly little—”
Before Rainbow could finish her sentence and connected her hoof the drake’s face, she was forced to skid to a halt. A ball of blackness had morphed into existence in-front of the drake, construing something, and then disappearing as soon as it left.
Rainbow Dash’s would’ve punched her way through whatever was just spawned and still beat the drake senseless, but stopped her hoof the moment it was but an inch away from her best friend’s face.
“Flu...Fluttershy?’
Fluttershy only smiled. “Isn’t it just wonderful?”
Rainbow choked, not quite sure knowing what to do with her raised hoof as she returned it to the ground. “Fluttershy, what are you doing here? Weren’t you just with the others sitting back—”
Rainbow Dash tried to turn her head away to the sitting mass of ponies, but had her face held in place by yellow hooves. They proceeded then to direct her attention back to their owner.
Fluttershy continued to smile.
“Shy...there’s something off about you.” Rainbow Dash began to back away from her friend, never breaking eye contact. “Don’t tell me he’s got you under his control, please.”
“Oh Rainbow.” Fluttershy lightly shook her head before moving out of the way, allowing for a slightly taller Spike to be seen by all. “I’ve been under his control ever since I seen him sleeping underneath that tree. Those days we spent chatting over tea and tending to wildlife are among my favorite of days, and I wish you girls had never instilled in him the feeling that he needed to improve to be happy.”
“We did no such thing!” Rainbow gave a breath of disbelief as she stopped in place. “It was always the little dude looking up to us and cramping his own style that filled him with the need to go improve himself. It was unnecessary for him to go off into the world – I’m sure one of the girls would’ve shown him the way.”
“But they never took me seriously!” Spike gave a faux cry as he began to hug one of Fluttershy’s leg, holding it close as he struck at finger at the cyan mare. “I tried doing everything I could to become as great as you girls, but every step of the way, you were always making fun of me. How am I supposed to ask for help from someone who wants me to fail?”
“Uhhh.” Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head. She had always found the little dude kinda annoying and had more fun teasing him than having his actual company. “Okay, so I may have been a little harsh when it came to judging you. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have gone to the other girls for help.”
“But I did go to them.” Spike rose up from Fluttershy’s side, who continued to look at him with sadness in her eyes. “None of you girls had a problem telling me my flaws that day, on how if I quietly worked to resolve them and grew just a bit taller, that I could join you girls on your quests.”
“And did you do that?” Rainbow Dash said with a sneer. “Because I recall you just mopping about it and not doing anything about it!”
Spike snapped his fingers, summoning four black blobs to appear next to Fluttershy, leaving the rest of the elements as they once again disappeared. They all held looks of confusion as they looked around, before settling on the drake with open mouths.
Spike came to stand in the space between the girls and Dash. He looked to the confused and almost crying faces of the girls, and the irritated one of Rainbow Dash.
Then Spike began to speak.
“You girls have this notion that everything will be resolved if we all just discussed what happened between us. Wouldn't you agree that now is the greatest of all times to do so?"