Bang, Bang , Bang, Bang....
“Hey! Stop that racket!” yelled a large bipedal canine. "If you keep that up we’ll throw you into the pit.” He growled angrily at the source of his frustration. A frustration that been banging on it's cell for the past 3 hours.
'Come and try it.' The prisoner thought from the dark corners of the cell. Lying there on the dirt floor was known other than Spike The dragon, muzzled and traped. After slamming into the bars one more time, Spike fell down breathing heavily through his muzzle. ‘Well this is a fine mess you got yourself into, ain’t it Spike?’ The dragon told himself as he thought back to when he got captured.
flashback
“Don’t worry Twi, I’ll be fine. If I can survive living with you, I can survive going gem hunting.”
“Yeah, but in diamond dog territory?” retorted Twilight. Currently outside the School of friendship, Twilight and Spike were currently in the midst of argument.
”Come on Twi, those mutts wouldn’t dare mess with me. And hey, if they do, i’ll just breathe fire.” Spike said, puffing out his chest in a proud manner. Looking down at her however, he could tell she didn’t she share his confidence. Crouching down, he pulled Twilight into a hug. ”Hey, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Worst comes to worst, I’ll just call you girls, and you’ll save the day like old times.” Spike told Twilight as he released her.
Looking up at her old assistant she closed her eyes and sighed “Alright, you can go, but only-”
“Yahoo!” Interrupted Spike. Unfolding his wings he begins to take off, only to be encased in a violet aura.
“Hold on there, Mr. The Dragon, aren’t you forgetting something?” She levitated a familiar bag from the castle into Spike's claws. “You still haven’t taken my care bag.”
“Come on Twi, please don’t make me take this.” It wasn’t as if the bag was very embarrassing. It was a simple white backpack she had made. However, to Spike, it was a symbol of her overly mothering him. He knew she meant no harm, but still it was a bit much. He was only going to scavenge for gems for a few hours. After that, he was heading back his home.
“Hoh no, don’t you ‘Come on Twi’ me, you’ve been avoiding this bag since you moved out, and I won’t let you go until you take it.” She further pushed the bag into Spike's arms. " I’ve been waiting for you to come and visit, to mail me, to at the very least tell me you're fine. I know you don’t live at the castle anymore, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore me.” She said, before beginning to give the dragon a look that could rival Fluttershy’s infamous stare.
”Okay, okay, I’ll take it...but only if you let me go.”
Putting Spike down, she walks up to him and said “Spike, promise me when you get back that you’ll stay at the castle for at least a month.”
“A week.” said Spike.
“Two weeks”. Retorted Twilight.
“Deal.” Spike finally agreed, shaking her hoof. Unfolding his wings, Spike took off, but not before looking back at Twilight. She looks at him with a look of promise as she walk back into the castle.
In the diamond dog territory, Spike was gathering gems as always when he was approached by two armored diamond dogs.
“Hey lizard, what do you think you're doing with our gems!?” One of them snarled, pointing his spear towards the pile of gems.
“I’m gathering them” Spike stated bluntly, putting his backpack to the side. ”So unless you want to get roasted, I suggest you go back where you came.” He bluffed, trying to appear a bit more menacing. ’Damn it, I didn’t think they would be out this early...’
Unwavering, the dogs stood their ground. ”We aren’t afraid of you, dragon. We dealt with your kind before. Always taking what isn’t yours, using others for your own gain.”
That hit a nerve. Spike began to walk forward, only to stop after a spear was shoved in his face.
“Don’t take another step or you’ll be missing an eye. Now get out of here, or we’ll make you pay dearly.” Growled one of the dogs.
Needing to make a choice, Spike picked the best solution he could think of. He ran out of the cave, leaving the gems he had worked so hard to find.
After a few minutes, Spike stopped to catch his breath. ”Damn it!”
‘Why did Twilight raised me to be so freaking soft?’
It’s not that he wasn’t strong, or that he couldn’t fight. He was raised to only fight if necessary. Strong morals were a blessing and a curse. He hoped Twilight packed him a water bottle or something. Reaching around his hip, however, he found nothing…
After re-retracing his route, even as far as to return to the cave where the diamond dogs from earlier found him, he still could not located his pack. So with only one possible explanation, he snuck into the diamond dogs’ lair, finding it was easy since they hardly bothered closing their entrances. Navigating the tunnels, however, was the hard part. After chasing his own tail for who knows how long Spike found what he assumed to be their treasure room.
later
“Sweet Celestia, I did it!” Covered in blood, sweat, and tears, Spike finally found Twilight’s care bag. Ignoring the various gems, treasure, gold, rare artifacts, he grabbed the bag and held it overhead, shouting, “Yes! Take that you fucking shit hole! I hope you, and whatever made you, rot in the deepest darkest pits in Tartarus!”
Practically ripping open the bag, he rummaged through it until he found a water bottle. Not caring about the plastic, he ripped open the bottle with his teeth. Gulping the water down, savoring the refreshing taste, he began to pour the rest on himself. Letting the bottle drop to the floor, Spike allowed himself to fall over.
Tired and lost, he decided the best course of action was to rest until he could gather himself and remember the tunnels he took to get here. Looking up at the ceiling, Spike's eyes begin to close, trying to fight off sleep but ultimately giving in, even as he heard voices.
Too tired to care, he allowed the darkness to take him.
present
Okay , so maybe letting his guard down and falling asleep in enemy territory was bad idea.
Scratch that, it was a stupid idea.
Urgh, Twilight was gonna kill him. If word got out that he was captured and imprisoned, she'd give him the biggest ‘I told you so!’ speeches. He couldn’t deny the diamond dogs were smart enough to muzzle him, denying access to one of the most useful tools in his arsenal. His arms and legs were locked and chained together, and his wings were strapped to his back. There were guards posted on both sides of what he assumed to be their prison.
All and all, this could be much worse.
“Alright, get in there you mutt…” Spike heard as he turned his head towards the door to see a vaguely familiar diamond dog getting forced into his jail cell by one of the guards.
“Hey, hey, I’m going, alright! No need for poking...”
“I’ll stop poking ya with this here spear when you learn your lesson, Rover.” Stated the guard.
After watching the guard leave, the now named Rover sat down on the floor with an annoyed expression, not noticing the giant purple and green dragon that was currently behind him.
“I can’t believe them, leaving me behind to get caught! Those no good, lazy mongrels.” Getting up, he begins to pace around the room. “I swear when I get my hands around their necks, I’ll...I’ll. " He sighed. " I’ll do nothing...”
Looking defeated, he stopped his pacing and began to dig a hole in the ground, unknowingly beginning to throw bits of dirt towards Spike, who started to move out the way, which caused his chains to jingle and alert Rover.
Looking behind him he finally noticed Spike, who was currently trying to shake off the dirt that was thrown his way. For what felt like hours, the two stared at each other, afraid to make a move. Seeing that the dog was as scared as him, Spike sat back down and went back to fiddling with his cuffs. Rover, however, scurried to the opposite end of their cell, cowering in fear that the dragon would break out of its imprisonment and wreak havoc upon the closest thing in its vicinity, which was currently him.
After what had felt like hours of nothing but constant jingling and jangling of metal, Rover couldn't take it anymore, and spoke up. "Hey, dragon! Can you please stop that maddening noise?"
Looking up, Spike remembered that rover was still there. 'Hey, maybe he might be able to help me with this. It's worth a shot.'
Getting up, Spike began to walk over to Rover, who immediately started to cower again. Once in front of him, he crouched down, waving his shackles in front of the other prisoner.
Unfortunately, all that did was cause him to cower even more. 'This isn't going anywhere, and i can't get out of these by myself.' Sitting down facing Rover, Spike decided to do the one thing he could do: sleep it off.
After some time, Rover looked up to see Spike asleep with his muzzled head nodding off. Getting up, Rover crawled his way towards the bars. "Psst, over here!" He whispered to one of the guards.
"What?" said the guard.
"Shhh, it will hear you! Hey, let me out of here, I don't want to be dragon chow." Rover whispered.
"I'm not losing my position for a mangy mutt like you, and show some backbone. Can't you tell we got him chained up?" He growled, pointing to the still sleeping Spike.
"But what if-"
"If nothing. There’s no way that dragon is getting out of here, and if you had any brain in that head of yours, you'll know why. Now if you’re down asking dumb shit questions, I'm going on break." Interrupted the guard, as he walked out of the prison mumbling something about chains and dumb questions.
Letting go of the bars, Rover began going over what the guard said. Looking at Spike, he saw how he still haven't busted out yet. He moved closer to spike, and inspected that, aside from a few scratches and dents, the cuffs held firm. Careful not to wake him up, Rover expected the strap is what kept the muzzle attached to Spike. For a moment he contemplated if what he was going to do was a good idea. He looked around, then sighed and unfastened the strap. Pulling the muzzle off Spike, arms trembling, he sat it down.
"Hey. Hey dragon, are you awake?" Questioned Rover. He then reached over and tapped Spike's snout, questioning his sanity. Soon enough, Spike begins to wake, taking a deep breath and yawning, showing rover all his pearly whites. The still drowsy dragon looked down at the diamond dog, then noticed the muzzle that was previously on his face was lying on the ground next to the quivering dog.
"Hey, did you take that off me?" Asked Spike. The diamond dog nodded.
'Ok, so not everyone here is an asshole, but he's in prison with me, so does that make him a bad guy or my accomplice? Man, jail is weird…’
"So um, I'm gonna break out of here. Are you coming with or....?" asked Spike politely.
"Yes! Um, I mean...yeah, I could use the help." replied Rover.
Lifting his nonexistent eyebrow, Spike held his cuffs close to his face, preparing to burn them to cinders before Rover told him to stop. "Hey what gives? I'm trying to bust us out of here, unless you care to try." Spike said.
"Yeah, well if you do that we'll uh... suffocate due to the smoke from you fire. And, umm, you can't expect to get very far without knowing these tunnels." replied Rover.
"Well, okay. Then you're coming with me."
"Huh?" Rover responded, flabbergasted. "What do you mean I’m with you? I never agreed to helping you! I just want out of any trouble you cause..."
"Well that backfired pretty badly on you, because now you're my accomplice. I'm pretty sure taking off my muzzle counts as assisting me, and if you think about putting it back on, you're toast. So until we get out of here, you’re stuck with me." Spike stated.