At the Castle of Friendship one afternoon, Spike was heading into the library to see his long time friend Twilight was busy levitating books and scrolls into a bag.
“Hey, Twilight, ready to have some fun?” Spike asked hopefully.
Twilight looked back at her assistant, “Oh, sorry, Spike. But I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that.”
“Why?” Spike asked in confusion.
“I just received a letter from Queen Novo telling me she will be meeting in Canterlot today for a diplomatic meeting with Princess Celestia, and wants me and the girls to be there for it.” Twilight explained.
“You and the girls?” Spike asked wondering if he heard her right.
“Yes. Starlight already went ahead to join the others at the train station. Could you watch the castle while I'm away?”
“What? You mean I can't come with?” Spike asked in disbelief.
“Sorry, Spike, but this is a big diplomatic meeting and you are a baby dragon after all.” she replied, making Spike frown.
“Is that your excuse for everything to avoid including me?”
“Spike, I'm sorry, but I don't have time to argue. I really have to go. See you soon. Bye!” she flew out before Spike could continue.
Spike just stared out the library doors knowing Twilight was already out of the castle feeling down, before scowling, “Guess she doesn't need an assistant for something that usually requires one.” he crossed his arms, before leaving the library.
The young dragon retreated to his bedroom and plopped onto his bed thinking, 'Once again, nopony has time for little Spike.' truth is this wasn't the only time his friends were too busy to spend time with him.
In the last week he tried to spend time with the other girls he knew personally in Ponyville, but his plans didn't go so well. When he offered to help Applejack with apple harvesting she politely rejected him feeling it was too much work for him. When he tried visiting Rarity hoping they could take a trip to the gem cave she was actually busy designing some new outfits she was planning to have set up in her shop in Manehattan. Knowing she wouldn't have the time to pay him any mind just took off knowing if he even tried helping her via modeling to fetching her materials she needed it wasn't going to be what he had in mind for spending time.
When he tried to visit Fluttershy, she was busy tending to some animals. When he offered to help, he was shooed away by bratty Angel Bunny who wanted to be the only one assisting his owner. When Spike noticed Fluttershy didn't even reprimand Angel's rudeness to him decided it was for the best he just go. And finally, as he walked through Ponyville the ground he was standing on starting popping and sparking which spooked Spike so hard he ended up jumping and landed in a mud puddle. He saw Rainbow and Pinkie planted fire crackers under a fake ground covering, and as soon as Spike walked on them they went off. As Spike sat in the mud puddle covered in mud, several ponies passing by just laughed at his predicament along side Pinkie and Rainbow. Feeling humiliated enough, Spike just went home to take a bath. He couldn't even hang out with Starlight because she was too busy with her lessons with Twilight.
Spike continued to mope on his bed, “Whether every pony's too busy to spend time with me, or they just don't include me in something good, either way I'm still the odd dragon out. I can't even ask Ember or Thorax if they wanted to do anything because they're busy managing their own lands. Big Mac is spending time with Sugar Belle, and asking to hang out with Discord by myself just makes me look desperate. And I'm in no mood for anything chaotic today. Sometimes, I feel as if I don't have as much friends as I thought I did. Or even ones that don't have too big a busy schedule. And it's not like I can make a new friend here in Ponyville because I know every pony here, and they pretty much all know me.”
Suddenly an idea popped into Spike's head, “Wait a minute. Maybe I can't make a friend in Ponyville. But what if I can 'make' a new friend.” he grabbed one of his Power Ponies comics and flipped through the pages, before stopping on a page where the Power Ponies and Humdrum are conversing with a robotic pony named Ponyborg, “And not just any friend. A robot friend.” he smiled, as he got off his bed and left the room.
“All the instructions on how to create a robot is in my comic, and I do know a pony who can further help me.” he smirked.
Later on, Spike was in the workshop of Ponyville's resident scientist Dr. Whooves or Doc as some call him.
“So, you wish to create a robotic being to serve as a companion, Spike?” Doc asked.
“Precisely. That's the reason I came to you, Doc,” Spike answered, “Among ponies in town you're the one best qualified.”
“I appreciate that.”
“So, any chance you can help me?” Spike asked hopefully.
The Doc pondered on it before smiling, “A chance of creating sentient life would be quite an accomplishment. So I'm in.”
“Really?” Spike's eyes lit up.
Doc nodded, “I'll help in any way that I can. To start you off, take these books to help you understand the mechanics of how to build a working body.” he brought some books over.
“Thanks, Doc. I really appreciate this.”
“No trouble at all my fire breathing friend.”
“And I'd advise you keep this between us. I don't want any pony to get wind of this. Especially not Twilight or the girls.” Spike warned him,
“My lips shall be sealed.” the Doc promised.
“Thanks again. Now then, I better get to work.” Spike headed off with his books.
When Spike returned to the castle, he went into one of the vacant rooms in the castle seeing it was big enough to conduct his experiment, “There are so many rooms in this castle, Twilight, Starlight, or any of the girls won't know to come in here. Now then, I got work to do.” Spike began reading through the books supplied to him by the Doc.