//------------------------------// // Interlude Two: Camping Out // Story: Ponyville Days // by Cirrus Sky //------------------------------// Spike was deposited on the porch as Rainbow and Twilight made their way to the barn for poker. From the sound of it Applebloom and the others were looking for something, if the loud thumps and bangs were anything to go by. Big Mackintosh stepped from the house. “Hi Mac.” Spike grinned at the farmer. “What’s the plan for tonight?” “The girls are going to have a camp out.” He replied. “What, in tents?” “Eeeyup. Ah pitched ‘em over in the clearin’” he gestured over to a copse of trees, visible just through them was the orange canvass of the Apple family tents. “That way Ah can keep an eye an’ ear open for ‘em all.” “Good plan.” Spike nodded and adopted a similar pose to Mac. “Ah pitched up the big un for the girls an’ you got the smaller one opposite. That ok?” “Eeeyup.” Spike replied with a chuckle. Mac laughed too. The sound brought forth a bounding furry shape who jumped up at the new comer. “Hey Winona girl! Who’s a good dog.” Spike ruffled the collie’s fur and scratched her ears. The Sparkles never had time for pets and Twilight didn’t seem to consider having a pet herself. The farm dog was a welcome substitute pet for the boy. Winona’s barks attracted the attention of her young mistress who came running from the house, Scootaloo and Sweetie in tow. “Spike! Yah made it!” “Of course I did, Twilight and Rainbow were coming up too, so they brought me.” “Well whatever dude. We have a whole load of camping stuff to do! Come on!” Scootaloo dragged the boy to the tents, he gave an apologetic smile to Mac who returned it with a smirk. * The sun was setting and Spike was getting the camp fire lit. “S’mores time!” Scootaloo and Applebloom shouted, pulling out the box of ingredients. Sweetie began putting marshmallows on the skeweting sticks humming some tune to herself. The pile of tinder and wood flared into life and Spike tended it carefully as Shining had taught him on their camp-outs. “All ready girls.” He stood back and regarded his work with pride. Applebloom sniggered. “Mighty man make fire. Ug!” she teased as the others fell about giggling. “Me am much mighty man!” Spike proclaimed, playing along. They pantomimed cavemen for a while, before sitting in around the fire to toast marshmallows. “Yah know, we should be telling stories around that campfire. That’s what Ah do with AJ and Mac.” Applebloom tugged a blanket over to sit lie on. “So, anyone got a story?” They looked around the circle at each other. “I dunno AB, I mean we do all sorts of things together. We don’t really have a cool story about anything.” Scootaloo scratched her head. “How about Spike?” Sweetie chimed in, looking to their friend. “I bet he did all kinds of cool things with Twilight and he doesn’t spend all his time with us.” She smiled at Spike who returned it with a slightly unsure grin. “Oh! I know, how about when you went to the Tribe gathering? Rarity didn’t tell me much about it...” She smiled a smile reminiscent of her elder sister causing the boy to blush. “Uh... ok I guess?” Spike sat up and urged the others to shift around to face him. Cleared his throat in a manner similar to Twilight when she was about to lecture and began to tell his story. “Well, it all started when we went out to Deep Drop Point to watch the gathering of the tribe. See, the local native group live spread all over the planes, Canter State is the only place that made it law to share the land with the native tribe that lives here, so no reservations.” Spike started on a tangent, a product of living in such an academic family. Applebloom gave a polite cough. “We know all that Spike, we wanna know about your adventure.” She deadpanned. Spike blushed, “Ok yeah... We were watching them all meeting out in the desert between here and Appleoosa and it made me feel kinda sad. I mean, technically they are my people and all. The Sparkles are a great family and my family, but I guess right then I wanted to know more about my heritage.” The others all nodded. No one really broached the subject that he was clearly Native American, Applejack had lectured them about not prying. “Anyway, Twilight had permission from Chief Thunderfoot to go visit for research on her thesis. So she said she’d take me along. We had arranged to have horses.” “Eeyup, ours!” Applebloom grinned. “Strike only plays nice for you Spike! Durned horse tried to throw me off jus’ this morning!” She made some wild motions to indicate how the horse moved until two glares silenced her, “Sorry...” “As I was saying, we came to collect our horses and Twilight was surprised to see Rainbow and Rarity. They were coming too, they had decided.” Spike shuffled a little. “Then we got going, it was a nice ride, but got a little hot on the way. When we got to the meeting place everyone split up. Twilight was meeting the elders to try and record some of the history and stuff, Rainbow wanted to find Little Strong Heart and Rarity disappeared in the direction of the craft circle. So I just sort of wandered around looking for anyone else with green hair.” He briefly looked wistful and a little sad. “Rarity said she wanted to see the traditional patterns and jewellery.” Sweetie filled in the growing silence. “She came back with some lovely polished stones and kept on and on about natural products.” She imitated her sisters voice for the last part, ending with a giggle. Spike smiled, grateful for the distraction. “I ended up being pushed around by some mean guys though. Twilight and Rarity noticed me with them but couldn’t do anything about it. Little Strong Heart and Rainbow got rid of them though and Twilight made a real fuss over me after.” He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a headband. “Rarity made this for me, she learned how off the weavers.” He handed it around, the band used earth tones and traditional patterns from the Atoll tribe who lived in Canter State. Worked into the tribal icons was the Sparkle purple star, a prominent part of the family crest. “That’s really neat.” Applebloom pointed to the star. “Twilight has those on some of her stuff.” “Yeah, it’s the old family crest, from the home country.” Spike smiled proudly. “It’s a band to show both parts of my heritage. What I was born from and what I have adopted. The Sparkle’s are my family, the Atoll are my tribe. Chief Thunderfoot said I am officially a part of his tribe now. They’re going to give me a name next year, when I’m a man!” He puffed out his skinny chest and struck a “manly” pose. The girls all tried their best not to laugh but a loud snort from Scootaloo broke their hold. “Yeah. Real Manly Spike!” “Ah can see the sim’larity to Mac!” “I do believe I shall swoon!” “Alright, knock it off guys.” Spike pulled a face and packed the headband back into his bag. “So, we going to tell scary stories now or not?” He pulled a torch from his bag and flicked it on to shadow his face. “Or are you afraid of the dark?” * “The call was coming from inside the house!” Scootaloo drew up in a mock dramatic pose. At the same moment Sweetie’s phone rang out and she jumped in the air with a scream. “Totally got you!” Scootaloo laughed and Applebloom giggled, holding up her phone. There was a polite cough from Spike. “Uh, Sweetie, do you want to sit back on your sleeping bag now?” The frightened girl had jumped up and grabbed Spike, clambering onto him in the process. She blushed red as an apple and jumped off as fast as she had grabbed him. “S-sorry Spike...” she muttered. “I think I need to sleep now. Good night girls.” Sweetie picked up her sleeping bag and headed for the tent. Her friends followed her progress with guilty looks. “I think everyone should go to sleep now.” Spike stood, he kept any recrimination from his tone but the girls still felt bad about teasing Sweetie. “Alright, Ah guess it is late.” Applebloom grabbed her blanket and walked to her tent. “Yeah, ‘night Spike.” Scootaloo and Spike shared their secret handshake and parted ways. Bedding down in the smaller tent, Spike arranged his things into a comfortable nest. Straining his ears he could just about hear the giggles of three friends saying sorry and accepting apologies. He smiled and, checking no one was around to see, snuggled his blanky.