Spike's odyssey

by therandomone95

Chapter 2: The festival

Riding the train all the way to the Crystal Empire was boring, but Spike slept very well, mainly because Twilight had awoken him three hours before the train arrived to the station, anyway, Spike's train arrived at the Crystal Empire, and, wouldn't you know it, Spike was inmediately surrounded by his fans from the Crystal Empire, they practically took him to the castle while asking him to sign their foreheads and forelegs.

When Spike arrived to the center of the Empire, he saw a HUGE festival, he remembered the day when Twilight and her friends threw a festival for the Crystal ponies, that festival paled in comparison to what Spike was seeing at that moment, there was noise and music everywhere, the crystal ponies were cheerful wherever they were, and the place was filled with little sceneries where talented ponies showed off their skills on what they were good at to entertain the crowd.

And then, there he was, he was really excited and nervous when he finally was at the front doors of the crystal castle/palace, and when Shining Armor and Cadance emerged from those doors, it became worse.

"Hi, Spike, we are so glad you could make it!" Exclamed Cadance.

"Yeah, we owe you one, thank you for coming!" Said Shining Armor giving Spike a hoofbump.

"Oh, it's nothing, I love to hang around here, besides, I think your subjects love a visit from their hero, am I right?" Said Spike, looking at the Royal guards in a funny way.

"Bro, did Spike, the brave and glorious just..." Began one guard.

"...Notice us?" Said the other guard. It looked like the royal guards were about to act like fangirls (or fanmares, heh, I know, I'm really bad at this.) And soon, they were squeaking between them.

"Yeah, I think they would." Said Shining Armor, about to crack up. Cadance just rolled her eyes at this.

"So, what do I have to do?" Asked Spike.

"We have planned an interview with you this afternoon, in the meantime, you can stay in the castle and eat as many gems as you like!" Said Cadance, excited.

"Oh, okay then." Replied Spike. The pair of ponies left the little dragon to explore the castle on his own, he remembered that the castle was smaller, he honestly felt like the castle was smaller when he was with Twilight or with somepony familiar to him, but now he was alone, and he had the castle to himself, but the place felt really empty without his friends.

But when he entered the royal kitchen, he saw a bowl of gems just for him! He couldn't believe what he was seeing, his eyes must be playing some sort of trick on him, but when he got closer and touched a gem, he knew that this was real. Spike tried to fit as many gems as he could into his mouth, and he ate the diamonds and emeralds like this was the only bowl of gems he would see in his entire life.

Spike seemed to be enjoying himself, maybe a bit too much, because when he finished his happy meal, he ordered another one, then another one, and another, and another...

Let's just say he ate a LOT of gems that day.

It was afternoon, time for Spike to be interviewed, and it would be much better if he wasn't sleeping on the couch with his mouth full of gems.

"Spike?" He heard a femenine voive from his right side, but he didn't wake up.

"Spike." The voice got louder.

"SPIKE." The voice was getting even more loud and closer to his ear.

"SPIKEEE!!!!" The voice yelled.

"WHA?! HUH?! WHEN?! WHO?!" Yelled Spike, waking up suddenly.

"Me, Cadance, that's who." Said the princess, who was at his right side, staring at him.

"Oh, did I oversleep?" Asked Spike with concern.

"Yes, it's time for your interview." Said Cadance, levitating him out of the couch and carrying him towards the balcony.

Once they were there, Spike saw that all the crystal ponies were there, the view from there was amazing, everypony left the places they were in, the little sceneries were empty, the ponies who were showing off their skills were there, the ponies that were in front were litterally sitting on a chair because they didn't want to miss the moment. And everypony stayed silent until Spike revealed himself on the balcony, in that moment, everypony cheered for their hero. Spike saw that Shining Armor was on the balcony too, and he was levitating a microphone, when Shining Armor saw the dragon, he began talking on the microphone:

"It looks like Spike, the brave and glorious is awake after all! Everypony, please give Spike a wonderful welcome!" When Shining Armor finished his sentence, everypony shouted, screamed and yelled Spike's name, the little dragon was practically on the maximum glory at the moment. "Spike, would you please say hi to your fans?" Said the stallion.

Spike trembled for a moment, but he remembered the time when he saved the Equestria Games, and that gave him courage, enough courage to step forward and grab the microphone Shining Armor was levitating.

"Hello." Okay, that came out lower than what I was expecting, but it's better than nothing, and it seemed to work because the ponies started cheering and stomping their hooves when the word came out of his mouth.

Shining Armor took the microphone once again: "Spike, a lot of fans have sent us letters for this interview, because they want to know more about you, in this little period of time, we will be answering them." Spike only nodded. "Spike, the first question is as follows: 'How does it feel to be a dragon among ponies?' "

Spike took a moment to take in the question, and he certainly didn't know what to say, he became nervous once more, but deep inside, there was a feeling that made him thought if he should answer the question with honesty. Maybe he should just answer these questions with his heart. Spike grabbed the mic, and with complete honesty, he said:

"Well, I don't know, I feel normal, I don't know how being a dragon should make me feel different, I lived with Twilight Sparkle my entire life, and I went through all of Equestria, and everypony always accepted me, but yes, there were always bullies that insulted me and called me horrid things like 'lizard' or 'freak', for example." This made the crystal ponies cringe and frown. "But, with Twilight's help, and with my friends by my side, I learned to ignore them, I learned to follow my own way and let them be, I like to think that I am equal to everypony, because what truly matters is what's on the inside, if you have a beautiful heart, believe me, nopony will even remember that you are a dragon."

That last sentence made the crystal ponies cheer again, some mares were practically crying from this, and some other ponies were cheering because they knew it was right, their hero was a dragon, and nopony had treated him like one, they were always happy to have him near, and it was awesome.

"Okay, Spike, the next question says: 'Have you fallen in love? If you have, is it with a dragon or a pony? Could you tell us their name? what made you fall in love with them? Love, your biggest fan." Said Shining Armor, unsure if Spike wanted to answer the question or not.

Spike blushed, remembering the mare of his dreams, was he really going to announce his crush on Rarity? He pondered the question for a moment, then, an idea came to his mind. Spike grabbed the mic once again:

"Yes, I have fallen in love with somepony, but I can't tell you who, because that is pretty much private." Spike heard several moans and complains. "But I can tell you why I fell in love with her, you see, when Twilight and I moved to Ponyville, I saw her, and I saw the most beautiful pony that ever lived, but I knew that it was just makeup, but when we started hanging out, I got to know her, and she is beautiful on the inside and on the outside, she is very graceful, she knows exactly what to wear, she has a very attractive personality and she is the most generous pony that ever lived." Spike was practically floating at this point. "I would do anything to earn just a kiss from her."

The crowd cheered, although they were unsure why, probably because Spike proved the devotion and determination he had. Spike snapped out of his dream, and he looked at Shining Armor, who was looking at Spike with curiosity, how could a dragon fly? Anyways, Shining Armor levitated the mic out of Spike's claw and continued:

"O-kay, Spike, we have a lot of questions left and not much time, we better get going with the next ones."

'Oh, boy, this is going to be a long time' Spike thought to himself.

And Spike spent the next three hours answering questions, and everypony wanted more, but Shining Armor convinced them to leave, after all, it was night time when they decided to finish, and Spike had to leave in the morning.

"Thank you for coming!" Said Cadence. "Shining was right, we owe you one."

"Oh, think nothing about it" Said Spike, with fake modesty.

"We prepared your departure for tomorrow, for now, you must go to sleep." Said Shining Armor.

"I will." Replied Spike. And so he did, the little dragon went to the bedroom they had prepared for him and wrapped himself in the blankets. Tomorrow is another day.

It was morning, Spike slept very good, nopony yelled at him, and he was happy about it. Spike yawned and scratched himself in his back. Then, he remembered he had to leave early to arrive early. Spike ran through the castle, searching for Cadence and/or Shining armor, but nopony was there, Spike just left the castle, after all, he needed to get back quickly if he wanted to canfess himself to Rarity.

Spike ran through the streets of the Crystal Empire, and he saw that nopony was there, probably because it was really early yet, Spike arrived at the train Station and he saw that Shining Armor and Cadance were waiting for him.

"Oh, Spike, sorry for not waking you up, you looked so peaceful." Said Cadance, with a bit of guilt on her face.

"It was fine, for once, I didn't wake up with somepony in my face!" Said Spike, that made them laugh for a bit.

"Well, it seems that your train is going to get here any minute now, so, goodbye champ! we'll see you later!" Said Shining Armor with a smile on his face.

"Goodbye, guys! I'll try to come back again soon!" Said Spike.

The moment arrived with the train, Spike boarded the train, waving from the window, Spike enjoyed the Crystal Empire, and leaving it made him feel a little bit sad, he wanted to be treated like this at Ponyville, but all good and bad things have an end, the train started to go, Spike just focused on the castle and the light that came out of it, it was really beautiful, but it was sad for Spike seeing it go away.

Spike just sat on one of the seats and prepared himself mentally for the big moment, he would confess to Rarity, nothing can go wrong, right? Maybe just a few things, like, losing her friendship, getting rejected harshly, or he could chicken out in the end, but, aside from that, nothing could go wrong, right?

In another place...

A weird creature was sleeping, but its friends came, and when they saw it sleeping, they slapped it.

"WOW! WHA?!" Said the creature, before he saw the others there. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"You idiot! Now it's time! the little boy is returning to Ponyville! And you were sleeping!" Said the leader.

"Yes, but we won't let that happen, right?" Said other creature.

"No, the little chum won't return to Ponyville so easily, we will make sure of that." Said the leader.

All of the creatures laughed maniatically, this isn't good.

Little knows Spike what he is getting into...