Fire. Spike looked around. Heat. He lifted a hoof and looked down at the writhing light and energy dancing around it. He was bathed in an inferno, searing tendrils flicked across his body and twisted all around him. They consumed his bags and their contents, but he remained unharmed. He idly remembered a time when something like a blazing inferno would have mattered to him, a time when he would have run from the flames, screaming like a hatchling. He stood where he was, calm in the center of the blaze. Through gaps in the devouring wall around him, he could see the sharp-fanged smile of the dragon that was to be his opponent. “That’s enough of this.” Spike lit his horn and tossed his head to the side, unleashing a powerful wave of kinetic energy. The flames briefly expanded before being blown out from within.
Fire Flash’s eyes went wide for a moment when he realized who was standing before him. Just as quickly, they narrowed in anger. “YOU!”
An ember drifted down and landed on Spike’s shoulder. Without looking away from his opponent, he brushed it away with a hoof. “My name is Spike, Centurion under the command of General Ice Heart, on a direct mission from princess Celestia. You are hereby ordered to stand down.”
“That’s a worse bluff than your friend’s.” Fire Flash puffed himself up and let out a short snort, issuing smoke from his nostrils. “You’ll find I am no longer so easily fooled!” He spat out another fireball.
Spike made no effort to dodge the blast, it wasn’t aimed at him. The incendiary ball hit the ground just in front of him bursting into a towering flame between the two. Spike calmly walked forward, through the inferno. “And you’ll find that I am no longer so weak.” He emerged from the other side of the flames holding a small rock aloft in front of him, green energy swirling around it as it hovered.
“Hmmph! I don’t need flames to take on a runt like you.” He reared up, spreading his wings wide. “I’m going to enjoy these five minutes!”
Spike focused his attention on the rock before him. “There will be no five minutes.” He struck the rock against another one that was sitting on the ground nearby. “Your disrespect of a superior officer is not the issue here.” He struck stone against stone over and over. “Your aggressive behavior towards innocent civilians is.” Spike examined the rock he held in his magic. The repeated strikes had chipped it down to a sharpened disc. “You have five seconds before I classify you a bandit and deal with you as such.” He looked back at his opponent. “Leave before that.”
“Big talk for a small creature.” Fire Flash took to the air, flapping his wings to gain height. “PREPARE TO-“
Spike launched his stone disc, aiming it at the base of Fire Flash’s left wing. It tore through air, scale and bone with ease. The hole it left was almost too small to see, but the damage it caused left the dragon unable to stay airborne. He crashed to the ground. Spike walked towards him. “Time’s up.”
Fire Flash lurched to his feet. His teeth were bared in a vicious snarl as he glared at Spike. He lunged forward, raising a claw to slash at the pony before him. “WHY, YOU LITTLE-“
The stone disc returned to Spike’s side, cutting through his opponent’s outstretched arm. Before the dragon could react, Spike launched the disc through one of the limbs supporting the dragon’s weight. Fire Flash collapsed against the ground, momentum dragging him forward. He opened his mouth to launch another fireball, but Spike leapt onto his snout, slamming it shut around the explosive attack. Fire Flash lifted his head and thrashed about violently, both in pain and in the hopes of dislodging his opponent. Spike managed to stay on top of the dragon’s snout, but wouldn’t be able to for long. He lit his horn, readying the necessary magic power for his final attack. There was a flash of fear in the dragon’s eyes as the unicorn lunged forward and lightly tapped his horn against the dragon’s forehead. The look of fear slowly faded as the dragon’s eyes unfocused and drifted closed
Spike jumped off the dragon’s snout just before it fell to the ground, stumbling a little as he hit the ground. He shook his head to clear the dizziness caused by his spell and turned away from the now snoring dragon. He was too busy with his fight to notice the two dragins earlier, but he saw them now. On was the purple hatchling from before, and the other- The other was a dragoness, her scales shone a bright white as pure as the snows of Northspire and her crest was a vibrant amaranthine hue. She was a quadruped, and quite small for a dragon, being about the same size as Spike. Judging by the development of her scales, she was mature and at her final adult size. Her antler like horns marked her as a magic-type, rather than a flying or earth-type. Even more striking than her physical features was her voice. When she spoke, she spoke with an elegant voice that bespoke culture and sophistication. Spike heard the bell like tones, admiring them silently even though he hadn’t been listening.
The white dragoness tapped a claw against the ground as she awaited a response. Patience wearing thin, she sighed and directed her attention to the large dragon who had introduced himself as Grumble. “Is he always like this?” She received a nod in response. With another sigh, she turned back to the odd creature named Spike. “Excuse me? I said, ‘thank you for protecting us.’ Now, would you kindly stop staring at me?”
Spike blinked and responded with a thought out, well-worded response, the sort of response a well-educated tactician could be expected to come up with on a moment’s notice. “Huh?”
Something smacked Spike in the chin. He looked down to see the little hatchling shoving a notebook at him. Her face held an expression that was too serious to be taken seriously. Her childish features turned it into more of a pout. “I need the formula to that protection spell you cast on yourself.” When he didn’t immediately respond, she prodded him with the notebook again. “And the sleeping spell.”
The white dragoness stepped in at that point, curling her tail around the hatchling and dragging her away as she continued to thrust the book in Spike’s direction. “Sorry about that,” she offered a nervous chuckle, “the poor dear gets so excitable when it comes to matters of ma-“ The dragoness stopped, eyes going a little wide. There was a scratching noise behind her. She looked back to see her young charge furiously scribbling on her hindquarters with a pencil, marring the white scales with swirls and doodles. A sharp glare put a quick end to the hatchling’s questionable artistic endeavors, leading the purple dragon to duck behind the nearby Grumble.
The much larger dragon looked down at the little lavender bundle hiding behind his leg. He would have to be careful not to step on her if he moves. He looked up to see Spike admiring the hatchling’s artwork. “Um, Boss?” Spike snapped his head up, a light reddish tint visible on his purple face. The dragoness was too busy trying to scrape the markings off to pay attention to anything else. Grumble shook his head slowly, smirking as he did so. “What should I do about the prisoners?”
“Oh, uh,“ Spike cleared his throat, “contact the local military liaison and let them deal with it.” His gaze started drifting back to the white-scaled dragin, but he caught himself and looked back at Grumble. He shook his head and cleared his throat again. “I have a mission to complete, so I’ll leave them in your capable claws.”
Grumble saluted, smirk still plastered across his face. “You got it, boss!” Making sure the hatchling was nowhere underfoot, Grumble turned and started walking away. “Oh! Before I forget,” he looked back at the dragoness, “my commanding officer lost his map in that battle. He doesn’t know the area, so he’ll need a guide. Would you be kind enough to assist him in my place?” Before pony or dragon had the chance to object, he took to the air and flew off, smiling as the wind whipped past his face. “He’ll thank me later.”
Two pairs of eyes watched Grumble as he faded into the distance. The third, purple set, was watching Spike. The hatchling offered her notebook to the unicorn one more time. “She’ll do it if you give me the formula.”
Spike looked down at her and sighed. “The Ironscale spell is a classified military secret. I can’t give you the formula.”
She jabbed him in the chest with the notebook. Her eyebrows were pulled down and together in annoyance. “That wasn’t the Ironscale spell.” She stuck her tongue out at the purple pony. “You’re just being a big, mean grumpy-scales.” With a sniffle, she stormed off towards the library door.
Spike was thoroughly confused at this point. He didn’t do anything wrong, he saved her life, and he still felt like a total heel. He lowered his head and gave it a slow shake.
“It seems that I must, once again, apologize for Twilight’s behavior.” Spike looked over at the dragoness. She stared after the hatchling, rubbing a claw against her lips for a moment before speaking again. “She gets a little, shall we say, temperamental when somedragon refuses to share knowledge.” A sad sigh escaped the dragoness’s lips. “All she knows is the library, where knowledge is freely given and received. I fear the rest of the world is not nearly as generous.”
Spike swallowed loudly. “Did you just say, Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?” He looked back at the hatchling. She was walking at a much slower pace now, probably waiting for Spike to change his mind before she reached the library door.
The dragoness stared at Spike, eyes narrowed in suspicion as she studied the odd creature. “How did you know that?”
“My mission,” Spike told her without looking away from Twilight, “Celestia sent me here to find Twilight Sparkle.” Spike couldn’t believe his eyes. This pouty hatchling has the potential to become the most powerful of a generation? How is it possible to tell? “She’s just a hatchling,” thought Spike, then it dawned on him, “she’s a hatchling that recognized a passive spell, a hatchling that was able to differentiate that spell from another that she had only seen, and a hatchling that asked for a formula in order to learn a spell, rather than being shown or taught.” It takes years of study to learn how to use spell formulas, for a hatchling to be able to use them is unheard of. Spike chewed on his lip a little. “I’m going to regret this.” With a sigh, he grasped Twilight’s notebook in his magic. It lifted out of her claws and opened in mid-air. The pencil that was attached to the cover freed itself and began jotting down a series of shapes and symbols. When the complicated formula was completed, the book closed and lowered itself until it was within Twilight’s reach. “It’s not the protection spell. I want to see if you can learn this one first, ok?”
Twilight grabbed the notebook out of the air and clutched it tight to her chest. She gave Spike a wide smile and a nod of understanding. Her eyes were shining at the prospect of learning a new spell, and it was all she could do not to run off for her reading desk.
Spike returned the smile. It wasn’t often that he met a dragon with such an interest in books. It was a refreshing change of pace. “Now, go inside and read that, ok? I need to talk to your mo-“
“SLAM!!” Twilight had darted into the library, not caring what else was said. She only heard the words, ”go read.”
“-ther.” Spike’s ears drooped. He hadn’t been doing that to Celestia all these years, had he?
The Dragoness cleared her throat, grabbing Spike’s attention. “I’m afraid you have me mistaken for somedragon else. I may be her legal guardian at the moment, but I am not her clutch-mother. Nor am I anydragon else’s. I happen to be quite happily independent.”
“Really?” Spike noticed the odd look she was giving him before realizing what he just said. “I assumed you were related because of your types and colors.”
“Oh, of course, that’s what you meant.” She turned her head to the side and coughed into a claw. “Merely a coincidence, I assure you. Her parents are both in the middle of their hundred-year nap. They left her with her grandfather, but a few years ago, he entered the great sleep.”
Spike rolled a hoof around on the ground. “I don’t want to be rude here, but why would her parents leave her with her grandfather if he was about to take his hundred-year nap?”
The dragoness glanced at the ground. “It seems I may have misspoken. When I said great sleep, I was referring to the one from which one does not awaken.” She looked back towards the library with a soft sigh. “He didn’t find anydragon to take care of her, so, being the only other magic dragon in Dragonspire at the time, I took it upon myself to do so. My friends help out as much as they can, but it’s mostly just me and her.” She looked back at Spike, concern painted on her face as clearly as the flowers penciled on her haunch. “She’s just a hatchling, what could the princess possibly want with her?”
Spike could hear the concern in the dragoness’ voice. “Well,” Spike scratched at his mane, “I don’t really think the princess wants anything from Twilight, she just wanted me to meet her.”
The dragoness tilted her head to the side. “I must admit, that is rather confusing, but far be it from me to be the one to question the princess’ wisdom.”
Spike let out a sigh. “I’ll try to explain a little more later. First, I need to know why you were being attacked.”
She pointed at the sky. Spike looked up to see a grey dragon flying overhead and toting a large sack. “That is our local mail-carrier, Derpy Scales. Every week, for the last two years, she has brought us a box of books, books of all kinds; old, new, some of them written in foreign languages, some of them composed of nothing but pictures, some were beautiful works of art, and others were hideous masses of paper that could barely be called books. I don’t know where they came from, but Twilight didn’t care. To her, a book is a book. Recently, she took to calling the collection of books her hoard. Today, she ran all around town bragging about it.”
With a groan, Spike brought a hoof to his face. “Yeah, she mentioned it when she crossed us in the street earlier.
The dragoness nodded and extended a claw towards Spike in a friendly gesture. “I believe my manners have gotten away from me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Rarity, the local armourer and clothier. And Twilight’s guardian, of course.”
“Of course.” Spike took hold of the offered claw and looked down, breaking eye contact for a moment. It was a greeting ritual that dated back to ancient times, taking your eyes of another dragon, a signal of trust and peaceful intentions.
Rarity nodded in approval at the gesture. It was such an old tradition, she hardly expected him to know it. He certainly was full of surprises. “My, my, aren’t you the gentledra-, uh,” Rarity’s aquamarine eyes darted left and right as she struggled to find a fitting word, “ok, I give up. What are you?”
Spike shrugged and looked at his hoof. “I think I’m a pony.” He tapped a hoof against his horn. “Specifically a unicorn. I can’t be sure though, all I have to go on are partial accounts recorded in the journals of ancient adventurers.” He proceeded to recount a few of those journal entries, pointing out that well over half of them were either flat-out wrong aside from the physical description or, at best, grossly exaggerated. At least, he assumed they were. He had never been able to change forms, turn creatures into stone, or eat a dragon whole. Of course, he didn’t really eat meat, so he would never try that last one.
“I see.” Rarity put a claw to her chin and nodded solemnly. She didn’t get it. Not. At. All. She never heard of ponies before, let alone unicorns, but how would one not know he was one? All dragons knew they were dragons; it was something they were born with. These ponies must be very odd creatures. “Though, not in a completely bad way. The green crest is a little odd, but he pulls it off as well as anydragon can be expected to.” Rarity started examined Spike in detail. He was about the same size as her, if not quite as long, due to his short tail. It couldn’t even be called a tail really; it was more like a second crest. He didn’t appear to have any scales under his fur, but he was still able to hold up in a fight. Not only that, but judging by his decisive victory in that fight, he’s quite strong and confident of that fact. But, he wasn’t arrogant about it. Most dragons who would be boasting to anydragon who would listen. “And he has that wonderful scar. I wonder what the story behind it is?” Rarity let out a sigh. “Oh, if only he was a dragon. But, even if he isn’t a dragon, he may need armor or ceremonial garments, and that scar would provide a good balance for an asymmetrical design. Maybe a layered armor in the eastern style? Yes, a stack of plates hanging off his sides should complement his standard posture quite well. But what to do about that marking? Definitely an odd tattoo, especially for a military drake.” Rarity leaned far to one side so she could see his other side. “He has the same one on the other side? He must really love books if he had a stack of them tattooed on is haunches, let alone twice. And the tattoos are identical. How odd.”
Spike shifted a little under Rarity’s gaze. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of the sudden attention. Given where it was directed, can you blame him? Every so often, her gaze would drift to the scar. According to what he’d read about dragins, or female dragons, showing interest in a drake’s scar was generally a positive social cue. Of course, he wasn’t exactly a drake, and he didn’t even know what a male pony was called. “Oh, if only I was a dragon, social interaction wouldn’t be so awkward.” His eyes moved back and forth like he was reading from a book as he searched his memory for a response that would fit the situation. According to most of the books he’d read, he should be boasting right now, but he didn’t really feel comfortable with that. Maybe he could just tell her about the scar? No, that would be the same as bragging, wouldn’t it?
The awkward silence was broken by the sound of the library door slamming shut. Spike and Rarity looked over to see Twilight stomping out towards them. Her eyebrows were pulled down and her lips were pulled to the side in an expression that told Spike that she was not happy with him right now. She wasn’t carrying her notebook. She stopped walking only when she was standing snout-to-snout with Spike. “I already know that one. Everydragon already knows that one.” She crossed her arms and planted her tail on the ground, pushing up with it to make herself seem taller. “I don’t like being made fun of.”
Spike pulled his head back. “Thanks, Twilight,” he muttered under his breath, “make me feel worse, why don’t you?” His mission orders were vague, specifying only that he was to visit, but somewhere in the back of his mind, Spike felt that it was implied that he should try to make a good impression. He took a step back and straightened up. He performed a light-bringing spell, the formula for which he had given to the hatchling moments ago. It was a basic spell, barely above telekinesis in terms of difficulty. It was also pretty useless during the day. “I wasn’t making fun of you, I just thought you may not have seen the formula for that spell. It’s so simple that nodragon ever seems to care enough to write it down. But, if you take the time to study it, make a slight change, and-“ Spike closed his eyes, lost in concentration. The pale glow spread across his body. With a grunt, he channeled a little more power into the spell. The grunt wasn’t necessary, as the actual effort involved was minimal, but he did it so Twilight would be able to get a sense for the spells timing. With another grunt, he shifted the magic around him. There was a flash of light bright enough to cause the two dragons to look away. When they looked back, his colors had changed from green and purple to purple and green. Another grunt and he was red and white. One more and he was pitch black, like a living shadow. He grunted one last time and his colors were back to normal. “Don’t underestimate even the simplest of spells, they all have their uses. General Ice Heart told me that.”
Poor Twilight had to pick her jaw off the ground. She never thought that about modifying the spell like that! Could it be modified in other ways? How did he choose the colors? Can this spell be used to change the color of other objects? These questions and many more were racing through her mind. She had to learn how to do that! Somehow, she had to get him to teach her. Negotiations, she had a book on that, now, all she had to do was put that to good use. She walked up to Spike and clasped her claws in front of her. “Please teach me how to do that!” Her eyes went wide. “Please, please, pleeeeeeeease? I’ll give you anything you want if you teach me how to do that!” She gave him her best hopeful smile. “Please?” She probably should have read that book on negotiations, instead of using it as a step to help her reach the shelf of Dragin Doo books.
A white tail wrapped around the hatchling’s midsection and hoisted her into the air. “There will be plenty of time for that later. For now, Twilight, we have something rather important to discuss.” Rarity looked over at spike with a question in her eyes. “At least, I think we do.”
Spike nodded. Twilight needed to know what was going on, even if he wasn’t quite sure what was going on himself.
Rarity nodded back at Spike and turned back to the purple dragon held in her tail. “Besides, somedragon hasn’t had dinner yet.”
“Sugarcube corner?” Twilight shouted happily.
“Sugarcube corner,” said Rarity with a smile, “you can tell aunt Pinkie all about how you helped protect the library.” She turned back to Spike. “Would you care to join us? These two don’t appear to be going anywhere.”
Spike looked at the two defeated dragons, one sleeping peacefully, the other struggling silently against the glue that held him. They weren’t going anywhere for a while. Grumble’s stick-spit lasts for a week unless you dissolved it with turpentine, and that sleeping spell will keep a dragon Fire Flash’s size down for at least two days. “Sure, Rarity,” he gave her a smile, “it’ll be my pleasure.”
“Wonderful!” Rarity started off at a trot. “Just follow me, darling.” Before she got very far, her young passenger started tapping on the shiny white scales on the back of her neck. Rarity craned her head to look back. “What is it, Twilight?”
Twilight avoided Rarity’s gaze, opting to look of to the side instead. She held out an item in her claw. “Sorry,” she mumbled. Rarity held out her own claw and Twilight dropped what she held into it. It was a small, pink bar eraser. “You still have pencil on you.”
“Oh, right.” Rarity gave a nervous chuckle. She levitated the eraser to the remaining marks and started removing them as discretely as possible.
Spike politely looked away, examining a small stone on the ground nearby. It was a surprisingly shiny stone. Now genuinely curious, Spike walked over to it and gave it a light kick. It didn’t move. It must have been part of a larger stone. Spike glanced back at the two dragins; they were still working at removing the stubborn graphite. He returned his attention to the stone in front of him. It might be a quartz crystal, those were always useful for channeling experimental spells. Spike took hold of it in a telekinetic field and yanked it from its resting place. Much to his surprise, it wasn’t a quartz crystal at all, but a diamond. A large one at that. Its shape wasn’t natural either. It was long and slender, coming to a sharpened point at both ends. It was smooth as well, almost like it had been polished. Diamond wasn’t particularly valuable, since it was one of the blandest-tasting gems available, but this diamond needle was unusual enough to count as a treasure. Maybe Spike could trade it to Grumble for that sand timer.
If Spike had used his magic to check just below the ground, he would have found that the diamond spindle he held was not unique at all. It was one of nearly a thousand that had been working their way towards the surface, converging on the location where dragons had been fighting. They lay still now, no longer needed. Their mistress was safe.