“1023, 1024, 1025…” Spike stared at the ceiling, his face contorted into a quizzical expression of annoyance. “Or was that last one 1022 actually?” He had gotten so bored since being locked up that he decided to take up counting the individual stains on the wooden ceiling. He did his best to retrace his counting but the moment he lost focus it was all over. “Oh, screw it.”
He flopped over on his side with enough attitude to send Trixie running for cover on her worst days. He took back everything he briefly thought about the bed being comfortable. If sleeping on molding hay was comfortable then a bowl of rusty screws and evaporated milk was a well-balanced breakfast.
Spike let out a deep, breathy sigh. His mission was not off to a particularly good start. No, strike that. This start sucked. He finally gets put in charge of saving the world, and he ruins it in a couple of hours. It just wasn’t fair…
He knew he should have started singing some kind of friendship song when he was getting attacked.
He flipped around onto his back once more, just accepting his merciless defeat at the claw of the moldy bed. If nothing else, he may as well try and get some rest. It didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Not unless the universe had some kind of miracle left in it, not that he ever benefited when those showed up.
“Look, I just wanna see him!”
Spike’s ears perked up at the sound of a mare’s voice just down the hall.
“Are you out of your mind?” Brick’s voice called out after her. “This ain’t no ordinary criminal. It’s a dragon! It’s dangerous! Your father would turn and lock the door on me and throw away the key if I let you get hurt.”
“Ugh, just get out of my way, Brick,” the mare’s voice said once again. “I’m seventeen and can take care of myself. You’d do well to remember that!”
“Fine…” Brick said, his tone laced with the sound of defeat. “Have it your way. But if your father comes around, I’m telling him you snuck in or something.”
“Whatever floats your boat!”
Spike was now sitting up in his bed, peering out the caged door. He kept still, waiting for any sign of life to come around the corner. Whoever this mare was, she definitely had some attitude to her. Luckily, with how long he’s been friends with Starlight and Trixie, he was used to this kind of thing.
He heard hoofsteps grow closer the seconds weighed on him, before finally, an average-sized mare appeared on the other side. She was a unicorn and had a soft blue mane that was tied up with a small ribbon, a pristine white coat, and deep pink eyes that peered at him from the other side of the door with… fear? Astonishment? Wonder? He honestly couldn’t tell despite putting all his focus into the matter.
Spike simply stared right back at her, longer than was socially appropriate of course. To his credit, this was the first time since his brief journey into the past that a pony hasn’t attacked him on sight. Not to mention she was rather, well, pretty… to say the least. Very pretty, actually.
Spike instantly shook the thoughts out of his head. No! He was here on one mission and one mission only. To save the world. Not to flirt with the first mare he came across.
“Wow…” was all the mare could say as she gawked at him.
Spike blinked a few times. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. That being said, he figured he’d at least try and make conversation the only way he knew how.
“Hey.” He waved his claw at her and did his best to give a friendly smile, but it was to no avail. She was still staring straight at him in some kind of trance. Spike had to mentally poke himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming because there was no way in Tartarus he ever had this kind of effect on a mare before. Even though she was admittedly quite pretty, now was not the time for such trifling matters of emotional nonsense.
“Umm…” Spike looked around before he shrugged his shoulders. “Can I help you?”
After she, once again, failed to notice him in any capacity, Spike decided it was high time to make a move or this wasn’t going to go anywhere. He stretched out his arms and stood up from the bed. As he did so, he unfurled his wings and stretched them out the best he could given the limited room he had to work with.
This finally got a reactio0n. She shook her head and took a few steps away from the door, as if she were giving him more room to move, not really out of fear. Once he had fully risen and walked toward the door, she stayed put and began to eye him up and down.
“Wow!” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“Yeah, you said that already,” Spike said with a playful eyeroll. “So, uh, are you just here to stare or can I help you with something?” He didn’t mean to come off as rude to somepony he just met, but he also wasn’t in the best mood, given the days’ events up to this point.
The mare peered up at him, locking eyes for the first time. “I’m sorry, it’s just that… you’re actually a dragon!”
Spike deadpanned and tapped his claws against the iron bars of the door a few times. “Yep, that’s correct. I’m a real dragon. What could’ve tipped you off?”
“Well, it’s just that…” She cleared her throat and took a couple of cautious steps closer. “I’ve never seen one before. A… dragon, I mean. At least, not outside of stories my dad would read to me when I was little.”
That’s when it hit Spike with a resounding duh! This was the past. Ponies and dragon hadn’t become friends yet. He was so used to creatures getting along that he completely forgot it was only recently that dragons were able to change their image across Equestria and other nations. As far as these townsponies were concerned, he was probably just another monster ready to chase them out of town and eat their young.
So, it looked like it was up to him to change that tune, one new friend at a time.
“Well, I guess introductions are in order,” the dragon replied, doing his best once again to smile. “I’m Spike. It’s nice to meet you!”
The mare simply raised an eyebrow in response.
“You know, where I come from, when someone introduces themselves, the nice thing to do is to introduce yourself.” Spike shook his head. “Ah, forget it. This is gonna be my whole day, isn’t it?” The dragon released a smoky huff and sulked. It was probably better that he didn’t start up a conversation with a random pony anyhow. Celestia knows what kind of trouble that could get himself int—
“Ellidee.”
“Huh?” He turned around to see her standing even closer to the door… with a smile on her face. He walked a bit closer, making sure to be as slow as possible so as not to freak her out. “Ellidee? Is that your name?” To his knowledge most pony names were suspiciously relevant to their special talent and cutie mark. Things must be different in the past, or more different than he thought at least.
“Mhm,” she replied with a curt nod. “That’s me.”
“Oh, so you do know how to have a conversation?” Spike emitted a small chuckle. “For a second there I thought I might’ve been going crazy. Or that you were just here to throw rotten fruit at me and make fun of my shameful imprisonment. Either seemed like a pretty realistic scenario, to be honest.”
“Heh,” she said, letting out a small chuckle. “Look, Spike was it?”
“Yep. Spike Amadeus Dragon’s the name and being the coolest dragon around is my game. Don’t wear it out.” He chuckled on the inside because he was sure he was now the first creature to ever use that joke.
“Well, look Spike… Aladdinus Draconicus or whatever you just said,” she continued. “No offense, but you’re nothing like I expected a dragon to be. I mean, for my first dragon encounter, there’s a surprising lack of burning houses and screaming villagers going on.”
Spike rose a claw to protest and make the point that not all dragons were bad, but in this time period, who knew what dragons were like? Odds are they were just as selfish and cruel as they were when he first met them, if not worse. “That’s a fair point,” he said, putting his claw back down. “But, suffice to say I’m not like most other dragons. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“No kidding,” she replied with a flick of her tail. “I mean, every dragon I’ve ever seen in books and plays… they’re all, you know, dark and evil looking with some kind of self-assuming origin that tries to excuse their destructive power but ultimately fails in doing so. You know what I mean, right?”
Spike blinked. “That actually sounds a lot like a character in a Power Ponies fanfiction I wrote when I was a kid.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Fanfiction? What’s that?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” He mentally facepalmed. “Trust me, your civilization is much happier without it. Anyway, is there a particular reason you came to see me, Ellidee, or did you just wanna say ‘wow’ a few times and go about your business?”
“Oh!” Ellidee’s ears perked up. “I’m sorry, I probably should’ve told you earlier. I’ve just never seen an actual dragon before. I was honestly kind of hoping that you’d be like dragons are in the plays and try and like… eat me or something. Ugh, but of course the only dragon seen in this town, like, ever, is just a big softy. Just my luck.”
Spike took another step closer to the gated doorway and gave her a puzzled look. “Look, I don’t judge what other creatures do in their personal space or anything, but I kinda have to ask… why in the name of all that is good and sacred would you want to almost be eaten?”
She let out a huff and thrust a hoof toward where the exit to the prison was. “You saw this town, didn’t you? It’s literally the most boring place in the world! Before you came into town, I was literally getting excitement watching tumbleweeds roll down the street.”
“Ooh,” Spike winced. “Yeah, that’s no good. I think I see your point.”
“Yeah,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Just some kind of, I dunno, something new would be nice for a change as opposed to the same old song and dance every day.”
Spike shrugged. “Not to question your way of life or anything, but how come you just, I dunno, leave town once in a while? You know, get some fresh air, see some new things. I mean, back in Ponyv—er, where I come from, I try to get out of town at least once a week. I’d go crazy being cooped up all the time.”
“Heh, you’re telling me,” she replied as she began to pace the floor. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’d leave if I could, but I can’t.”
Spike scratched his head and turned his vision toward the ground. “Are you sure? I mean you’ve got four legs that seem to work, right? What’s stopping you?”
“My…” she cocked her head to the side. “Wait a second? Why am I telling you all this? I mean, we only just met, right? Isn’t that a little weird? Am I being too weird?”
Spike shrugged. “Eh, long story short, I’m used to being around other creatures with no social tact. It’s no big deal.”
“Heh, well, whatever. Let’s just say me and adventure aren’t exactly on a first-name basis at this current time in my life, as much as I wish that were different.”
“You see, here’s the deal though,” Spike spoke up. “Too much adventure is also kind of a bad thing. Where I’m from, it seems there’s always something else to do. I would kill for at least a bit of peace once in a while.”
Ellidee playfully rubbed her chin while looking around. “Well, to be fair, it’s kind of peaceful in here, wouldn’t you say?”
“Ha, ha, ha…” The dragon shook his head and took a few steps back. “Maybe, but unfortunately this isn’t the best time for this to happen. In fact, this is like the absolute worst timing I’ve ever had with anything, and considering I once burped a fireball into a ma—er, a dragoness’s face on a first date, that’s saying something.”
Ellidee couldn’t help but gigglesnort at Spike’s revelation. “Okay, yeah, that is pretty bad timing. But wait, so you’re saying dragons actually go on dates like ponies do? From what I heard, you guys are kind of just like, you know, fire and brimstone meet violence and irritability.”
“I’m fairly sure we already established I’m not like most other dragons. But regardless, that’s not important.” Spike released a sigh. “Normally I don’t mind listening to creatures spout off about all their problems for a most likely endless amount of time but suffice to say it’s like… hyper important I get out of here.”
Ellidee frowned. “Fine, I’ll shut up once you answer one last question, okay?”
“Was that your last question?”
“Pfft, no. It’s this: why were you in our town in the first place? You don’t seem like the kind of guy to pillage and torment like other dragons, so there must’ve been some reason you got yourself into this mess.”
Without even thinking, Spike was about to break every cardinal rule and reveal exactly how he ended up there. Luckily, between the ideas of disappointing Celestia, unraveling space-time, and earning an endless amount of snark from Starlight in whatever afterlife existed out there, he was able to pull himself back from this unforgivable ledge.
It was time to be extremely vague and make some stuff up!
“Okay, so here’s the deal,” Spike said. He instantly began scanning his brain for any semblance of an excuse that made sense. It was exactly like when he tried to write: he had a beginning and an endpoint, but he was going to have to make stuff up in between and hope that it made sense. “I’m on a mission… of sorts.”
Ellidee raised an eyebrow. “A mission? What kind of mission?”
“Uh, well, you see…” Spike scratched his head. “The area I come from is in trouble! Big trouble. But normally, we are all way too prideful to actually do anything about it. But this time, yeah, it’s in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
That was the exact question he wished she didn’t ask. He hadn’t prepared for details. “Well, there’s a… sickness going on. One specific to dragons. And, uh, I’m on a mission to get some ingredients to cure it.” Yeah, that was good!
Ellidee merely nodded, while still keeping a somewhat confused look on her face.
“But yeah, so, the longer I stay stuck in here, the more the disease is gonna spread. The reason I left to go get the ingredients, is, well, look at me. I’m probably the least offensive dragon in existence and I haven’t caught the disease yet. So, if I don’t get out, we may never get better, you know?”
Spike was actually impressed with himself. He was usually god-tier awful at coming up with ideas, but somehow this one actually made some level of sense! Now he just needed to hope that she believed him. Not that it could necessarily change his predicament, but having at least one pony on his side couldn’t hurt, right?
“That…” Ellidee finally lowered her eyebrow and looked him straight in the eyes. “That’s awful! I mean, dragons may not be the friendliest creatures, like at all, but you all don’t deserve to be sick!”
Spike breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, right? So, you know, if you could help me get out of here, I’d really appreciate it. I promise I’ll leave you guys alone and just continue my mission after this.”
Ellidee raised a hoof and winced ever so slightly. “That’s going to be the tricky part…”
“Why’s th—”
“Alright, what dragon thinks he has any business messing around in my town!” A gruff voice suddenly entered the fray as the door down the hall burst open.
Ellidee sighed. “That’s why.”