//------------------------------//
// 6 - Comparing Notes 
// Story: Taking Flight 
// by David Silver 
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"Spike, my boy." Discord paced restlessly in his chaotic abode. "It's been too long."

"Yeah..." Years? "How are things? How's Big Mac? The girls?"

Discord hiked a brow. "That's a lot of questions. Gonna ignore that last one. The girls visit you often enough for you to have that answer." He curled around Spike, floating in the air. "My, haven't you grown! All tall and strapping. You must be in the stage your tormentors were in."

"Tormentors?" A moment of consideration passed. "Garble? Wow, haven't seem him in a second. Wonder how he's doing..."

"You keep asking about other creatures." His twisted form brought him up to thump his nose against Spike's. "Make a fella think he's not cared about."

"No no no! Of course not." Spike nudged Discord away, who unfurled like a greasy noodle, which he was if looked at in the right angle. "There's a lot I'm out of date on. How about you go first."

"Now there is a reasonable suggestion." Discord puffed with contentment. "Spike, have you kept up your end of the bargain?"

"Hm?"

"How many players are in your O&O game? No fibbing!" A bright light began to shine harshly down on Spike. "I can tell."

"Oh, right!" Spike clapped his hands together. "That went great! Got three players, besides me. One of them, Moon Dancer, is the one running it and it's... really different."

"Now we're getting somewhere." Discord nodded along, looking happier for the turn of the conversation. "Pinkie and Rainbow Dash entered ours, putting us at the same number. Coincidence? I doubt it." He snorted softly with a little smirk. "I'm the one running things, as you had requested it. Funny thing."

"Hm?"

"Well, I've been around the block a few times." Emphasized with him taking a casual jog along the walls of his home. "So I get to take them on accurate historical journeys, but they don't know that. Don't tell them, shhh..."

Spike snickered at the idea. "But, knowing you, you probably add a few little touches."

"Just a few," he assured, springing back to an upright position. "But they're doing great! Alright, your turn."

Spike considered for a single question to ask. "Does... Ponyville feel different? You know, with us gone?"

"That's not a fair question." Discord shoved him with enough force to easily topple his older, younger, self, but the grown Spike swayed mildly at best. "Of course it has. It helps that the girls visit Twilight and get updates on things. But other things are just different. As a chaos spirit, I know these things. It's not a bad different all around, but is it different? Of course."

"Yeah, guess that was kinda obvious, thinking on it..." He shrugged softly. "But that was mine, your turn."

Discord giggled boyishly. "Good of you to be a fair sport about it. Spike, you certainly have matured." He ruffled the top of Spike's head, mussing his fins. "Now... You're in a new place. Make any new friends? Make any new friends?" His brows waggled with dangerous implications.

Spike returned the earlier shove, sending Discord floating away in laughter. "I've made some new friends. Got to know most of the ponies, and some other creatures that work in the castle. I get to meet new folks all the time these days." He gave a little huh. "I basically took Twilight's place, come to think of it. I'm the one solving all the friendship problems."

"Sly girl." Discord pushed up on Spike's chin from below. "She wears the crown and sends you off in her place so she can keep the royal plot on the throne."

"Well, yeah?" Spike shrugged softly. "Somecreature has to do both of those things, and doing both would be hard, uh, if not impossible. So we split it up. I like solving these things, keeping creatures on track."

"Look at you." Discord swatted Spike on the back with a loud slap. "All grown up and mature." He sniffed softly. "So proud... But those are all 'loose' friends. Tell me about your favorites. You know that's what I was asking about."

"O-oh... Well, the O&O group were all creatures I knew from before. Moon Dancer, Lemon Drops." He chuckled softly. "She's great. And Gabby."

"Hold up." Discord pulled out a remote from nowhere, rewinding the scene back to when Spike was saying 'Gabby'. "Right there. Your eyes are shining. Zoom and enhance!" The camera, which most did not know of outside of Discord and Pinkie, pulled in tight to Spike's frozen frame, revealing the glint, the sparkle. "Knew it!" With a final button press, reality was allowed to continue.

"Could you, like, never do that ever again?" Spike rubbed at the side of his head, throwing off the effects of the reality distorting he was part of.

"Forget that noise. Tell me more about this 'Gabby'." Discord leaned in with a mischievous look. "This the same one you used to hang out with? The griffon?" With a pop, a Gabby appeared, smiling and waving with her usual vigor, though she was a bit younger than the real model. "Nice girl, if I remember."

"She's great." Spike waved at the fake Gabby, expecting her to be an illusion, but he thumped against a material thing. The Gabby pouting at being struck. "Uh, sorry?" Gabby silently turned up her beak. "That's a little creepy... So... Gabby... We..."

"You didn't?!"

"I didn't say anything yet." flatly noted Spike.

Not that this put much a stop to Discord, giggling with joy. "You did!" Confetti exploded from all directions. "My boy's all grown up and he has a girl! A griffon? I did not see that coming, which is my favorite, if we're being honest." He swirled around Spike to push him towards the couch. "You simply must tell me every little thing. We're going into overtime!"





So, this one time, Gabby wanted to get matching outfits. I usually dress for the occasion. You know, show off who I am and what I'm there to do. Gabby insisted that part of that was getting in sync with your +1.

What I didn't realize what she meant was that she would be there, to be that plus one, a lot more often. At first, that was actually really neat, but there was a limit to, uh, that.

She was, and is, super cheerful, and I love that energy, but it's not always what we need.

Don't even get me started on the... Alright... fine, so...

I got a call to the dragon lands, you know, to meet up with Ember. Dragons are not super cheerful, myself maybe excluded. So there's Gabby, pointing at dragons, being her usual chipper self. Now, don't get me wrong... I love it. I love... her. Her attitude is great. But... the dragons were not ready for that.

I had to keep her fur from getting burnt off. And she got mad at me for 'coming down' on her. I was just trying to protect her!

So... I had to put my foot down. She did not like it, but she wasn't the one being sent on those jobs, I was...

"We're a team!" She shook me by the shoulders. "You can't leave me behind."

"You..." I was so frustrated. "Twilight did not send a team. There is no team."

And... that hurt her. I could tell I messed up right then and there, but she was gone while I was being surprised by it. I had messed up, bad. Just to make it super clear, she didn't show up for the next game.

Lemon Drops was eating her chips, her traditional gaming food. "So what'd you do, Spike?"

"What?!" I hadn't told them anything yet.

"You two are a thing now." Lemon snorted with a half smile. "If she isn't here and she isn't, you know, dying of some strange disease, it's because you two got in a fight."

Moon Dancer adjusted her glasses with her magic, looking at me. "Lemon Drops is likely correct." As if she knew much about those kinds of relationships. "We cannot continue without Gabby." She thrust a hoof at me. "It is your quest to retrieve your party mate, or the world will suffer."

So the session was a short one, with me given a quest to handle outside of it.

She wasn't hard to find. She still had a job. A job she had been blowing off to go with me on my job. It was a window day, there she was, posing, but not smiling as brightly as she usually did. Though maybe that had to do with the fact that she could see me walking past.

I slipped in, but didn't go straight for her, instead heading up to Sassy Saddles. "Sassy, how goes?"

"Spike." She smiled gently. "Perhaps you can help notch this seam." She pointed past me, towards the curtain that blocked sight of the front window. "She is not herself."

"Yeah... " I rubbed an arm, feeling bad about it. "About that. You want her as a model, right? She can't do that if she's off with me, can she?"

"Not very well," she confirmed. "But she is…" She glanced left and right and leaned in close, whispering, "in love." Sassy cleared her throat. "So I was trying to be patient. I won't put a pin in the search for love!"

"Right..." What a spot to be in. "Twilight sends me on all kinds of important missions, for Equestria. Not all of them are safe. I can handle it." I thumped my chest. "I'm a dragon, and I've got, you know, tons of experience." Not gonna lie, I was proud of that. "Gabby is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but she's... I don't want her to get hurt."





Discord shook his head slowly. "So... which was it? Did you take her along or stick to your guns?" He was suddenly holding two six shooters, a long straw poking free of his mouth. "I don't see a lot of other options there."

"There's always a third option." Spike waggled his brows with a chuckle. "We... made a deal. She got to come along for at least one in three missions. I got to pick which ones those would be, but at least one in three. She also got named as my official assistant."

Discord burst into a new round of chortles. "Oh, I can only imagine she was happy about that."

"You kidding? Yeah... she wears that medal around any time we go on a mission. I just make sure she's not going on the ones that could get her hurt, uh, at least obviously. No dragons, no yaks, and she can do without trying to mediate anything involving Kludgetown."

"Huh." He patted Spike's shoulder lightly. "Not a bad ending. I really should visit that place." He tapped at his chin. "I hear they have a real respect for the bipedal thing."

"Maybe you'll like it," offered Spike without full confidence. "So tell me about what kinda trouble your group's getting into."

"Since you asked!" Discord was all too happy to regale Spike in the tales of his brave, if sometimes foolish, adventuring party and the troubles he'd put in their path.

It was a lovely meeting, ended with promises to meet up more often from then on. "It's simply too much." Discord shook Spike lightly. "To be apart for so long. Time and space is just a suggestion for me. We have no good excuse." He leaned in a little. "In fact... if you warn your Moon Dancer ahead of time, I could stop by for a cameo or two, hm? Now that could be all sorts of fun."

Spike smirked, an expression Discord had not expected. "I should warn. Moon Dancer knows the rules, all of them. Try to wiggle around them and she will catch you and call you on it. She's a great storyteller, but breaking the rules is not allowed. If you can handle that..."