Spike had been waiting at Deca Tower with Twilight. As her friends started to arrive, he smiled. Rarity was beautiful as a human, but as an inkling, something about that made her even more beautiful. Spike looked at the other girls and said, "Hope whoever's on my team backs me up. This is my first battle, so I'll be relying on you for the most part."
Rainbow Dash ruffled his hair and said, "Don't worry squirt. If you've got me on your team, there's nothing to worry about."
Spike smirked and said, "Let me guess, I should worry if you're on the other team?"
Rainbow Dash chuckled and said, "Hey, you said it, not me."
Sunset Shimmer said, "Well, come on you guys. I'm getting antsy for a battle. I saved up all my cash for a week to get my new Dualie Squelchers, and I want to break them in!"
As they entered the tower, Spike showed his Ink Battle ID to the secretary, who asked, "I assume you'll be playing all together? Is there any specific team match ups you'd like?"
Applejack tipped her hat and said, "I think Spike should choose his team, since it's his first battle."
Spike smiled lightly and said, "I think I'll go with Dash, Rarity, and Sunset."
Dash gave a thumbs up and said, "Good choice squirt!"
Rarity smiled giggling and saying, "I'm excited to be battling with you Spikey-wikey."
Sunset grinned towards Twilight and said, "I was looking to get you back for that little stunt you pulled the last time we battled."
Twilight crossed her arms and chuckled, "I'd be delighted to see you try."
The battle was taking place in Musselforge Fitness. The two teams got ready and soon the battle was on. Spike could see that there was a path that the others didn't even seem to notice. He quickly started sending ink up one of the steel girder frames from the building. When he had enough ink there, he climbed up in squid form. He was practically invisible up there.
Fluttershy was looking through the scope of her charger, but couldn't find a target in range. When she saw orange ink dripping over top of the blue ink she'd laid down so she could refill her ink tank when she needed to, she assumed an Ink Storm was passing over her and ignored it. Suddenly, she heard somebody land behind her and froze up going, "Eep!"
The person behind her was Spike. When he played in Musselforge Fitness on his Switch, he had noticed there was a secret route that didn't show up on the map because there was no turf that could be covered, and the ink trails that led up to the secret route were on walls, so they didn't show up on the map. Spike fired his Splattershot Jr. and soon enough, he had sent Fluttershy back to her spawn point. Spike snickered to himself and said, "Man, this is more fun than I thought'd it be!"
Spike didn't notice that Applejack had locked onto him with her N-ZAP '89's Tenta Missiles. Applejack pondered how he snuck up on Fluttershy like that, but said to herself, "It ain't time for thinking, it's time for blasting!"
Spike noticed the circles that showed up before the missiles hit. He quietly said to himself, "Fuck." before getting back up after he got sent back to the spawn point. He quickly got up to the secret route again, and this time, he was going for Twilight. He could see Sunset backed up against a wall, and Twilight was aggressively trying to splat her. If this kept up, Twilight would be able to activate her special weapon, which would be a Sting Ray considering her main weapon was a Sloshing Machine. If she activated it, that wall wouldn't do much to help Sunset.
Sunset was catching her breath behind the wall and said to herself, "Shit! I can't stay back here forever, but she's not leaving me with any openings... I have a bad feeling about this, but maybe a double dodge roll will work."
Spike quickly jumped down, and as he was falling, he started firing at Twilight, who looked up behind her and in shock yelled, "Holy-!"
Sunset heard Twilight yell out and saw her opening. She rolled out into firing range of Twilight and open fired, and with her and Spike's combined effort, they splatted Twilight. Sunset sighed in relief and said, "Thanks Spike, I was pretty sure I was going to get splatted. But how'd you get behind her like that? There weren't any Squid Beacons nearby."
Spike chuckled and said, "Let's just say I did my homework on the stage maps. Maybe I'll show you how I did that... one day."
Spike's surprise jump tactic using the secret route was putting Twilight's team on edge. They were freaking out so much that his team would often splat them while they were trying to look out for him. It was hilarious to see his sister being so on edge, and the icing on the cake was that he was the one who was keeping her on edge. Soon enough, the battle ended. Because of Spike's tactic, it was a landslide victory.
Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly and ruffled Spike's hair saying, "Nice job squirt! I don't know how you did it, but those surprise attacks of your's were wicked!"
Twilight grumbled, obviously upset that she lost to her little brother, who just got his license. She glared at him accusingly and said, "I'm calling BS. You cheated somehow!"
Spike rolled his eyes and said, "That's a new one for you. Claiming I cheated just because you lost, talk about a sore loser. At least if Rainbow Dash had lost to me like you did, she would have been a good sport about it."
Applejack put a firm hand on Twilight's shoulder with a grip and said, "Twilight, back off. You know Spike better than any of us. You know he wouldn't even think of cheating in an Ink Battle."
Twilight sighed and said, "You're right, I'm sorry Spike. I just can't grasp how you were able to sneak up on us like that."
Spike chuckled and said, "I spent years researching the stages before I got my license. I know a lot of ins and outs on the stages. Maybe I'll teach you guys them some day."
After his first battle, Spike felt great. The group got some food and went on their way. As Twilight walked home with Spike, she asked him, "So how do you feel about winning your first battle?"
Spike smiled and said, "Victory is sweet, but it's even sweeter when my victory's against you."
Twilight rolled her eyes and said, "Just remember, revenge is a dish best served cold. I'm going to get you back for today's battle. I've lost before, and I knew I'd lose to you sometimes, but I didn't think I'd lose to my little rookie brother during our first battle."
Spike snickered and said, "Well, you can talk the talk, we'll see if you can walk the walk tomorrow."
After an oyster dinner, Spike went to bed. He thought to himself, "If this really is a dream, I don't ever want to wake up from it." before turning off his light and going to sleep.