Prologue
“So,” Spike asked nonchalantly as he stood in the doorway of the Library completely unharmed, save for a few minor scratches. “What’d I miss?”
The only answer he received was Twilight rushing forward and holding him close to her chest. He heard muffled gasps from above him and felt small droplets land squarely on the top of his head.
“Spike! I’m so happy you’re back!” Twilight gasped out in between her sniffles. “I was so worried about you!”
“Yeah…thanks, Twilight. I’m happy to be back too,” Spike mumbled from the mare’s chest fur. “Now could you please let go? You’re kind of making it hard to breathe.”
Twilight dropped him immediately.
“I’m sorry, Spike,” she said sheepishly, wiping her eyes with her front hooves, obstructing the tears that were running rapidly down her face. “I just got a little carried away.”
“Hey, that you, Spike?” Rainbow Dash’s voice suddenly called out from further in the Library.
A smile became very apparent on Spike’s face as he heard the voice. He quickly dropped his small pile of belongings where he stood and ran up to the blind pegasus, sweeping her up into a hug. It was surprisingly easy to lift her now.
“Hi, Dash. It’s me,” Spike said proudly.
Rainbow Dash laughed. “I can see – er, hear that.”
A laugh escaped. Spike covered his mouth with his claws urgently, hoping that she hadn’t taken offence from the absentminded comment. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to. Instead, she gave him a pat on the head.
“Glad you’re back, kid,” Rainbow Dash said happily.
Spike grinned as he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around to see Twilight walking up. In her magical aura, he saw that she was gripping his things and holding them just above his reach. Lifting his claws up in the air, he grabbed them and tossed them up over his shoulder.
“I’m just gonna go unpack these,” Spike said quickly, already beginning to make his way upstairs.
“Alright!” Twilight’s voice called back up to him. “Just be quick! We want to hear all about it!”
Spike nodded to himself. Doing as Twilight asked, he quickly made it to the bedroom and began unwrapping the small cloth that held the things he had brought to accompany him on this journey. Originally, he had quite a lot of necessary essentials. Currently, there weren’t very many. Some of the originals were lost on the trip, but that wasn’t to say that he hadn’t picked up a few things while he was away. He was reminded of this as he put each item in its proper place. However, as he got to one particular item that was placed on the far left side of the cloth, he stopped and held it in his claws for a few moments, looking at it closely, much like he had done the day before he had reached the library. Something about it drew him in for a closer look, and he wasn’t planning on stopping this habit anytime soon. After all, it was something of a gift from a…friend.
Carefully, he put it under his pillow and walked back downstairs, bracing himself for the many questions that would surely need answering. As soon as he reached the couch where Rainbow Dash was currently seated, his predictions proved themselves correct.
“So, did you find the dragon?” Twilight asked immediately, taking a seat on the floor in front of her assistant.
“Yeah, I found him all right,” Spike answered, nodding his head in conformation.
Rainbow Dash smirked menacingly.
“And how was the jerk anyways?” she asked rhetorically, tapping her front hoof on the cushion of the couch rapidly.
Spike shrugged carefully.
“He was…well, it’s a long story,” Spike sighed. The dragon wasn’t exactly sure how to put the answer in a short form, and he wasn’t sure if the answer he was able to give would be good enough, especially for the victim of the attack.
“We’ve got plenty of time, Spike,” Twilight said plainly. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
The dragon leaned back on the couch and folded his hands over his lap in thought. How to start…
“Well, it turns out that the whole thing was…kind of planned out,” Spike began cautiously, scratching the back of his head with a claw.
Rainbow Dash’s wings burst out from her sides, and Twilight gasped audibly.
“What!? So you’re saying this stupid dragon PLANNED to KILL ME!?” Rainbow Dash shrieked, flapping her wings violently and hovering a few feet in the air just above the couch.
Spike jumped back, surprised by Rainbow Dash’s outburst. Of course, it was perfectly acceptable to be hysterical when you found out that something was planning to kill you, and almost succeeded. The thing that shocked him the most was how quickly and how violently the pegasus reacted. She had never acted like this when the idea was first proposed.
“Calm down, Rainbow,” Twilight soothed, getting up and carefully guiding the pegasus back onto the couch. However, Rainbow Dash wasn’t so willing.
“Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down when he’s telling me that some stupid dragon was planning to KILL me, Twilight? And he almost did, Twilight! He almost did! I would be dead right now if it wasn’t for some freaky magic!” Rainbow Dash fumed, slapping Twilight’s hooves away from her and flying even higher up to the ceiling. “I swear to Celestia, I’ll find him and I’ll kill him myself!”
“You won’t need to do that,” Spike interrupted, putting his head down sadly.
“Wha - huh?” Rainbow Dash sputtered, whirling her head around in his direction.
“What do you mean by that, Spike?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow as she tried get Rainbow Dash back on the couch.
“I mean he’s…already dead,” Spike sighed, pulling his knees up to his face and putting his head against them. “I was barely able to talk to him before he…well, you know.”
This news made Rainbow Dash sink back to the couch. It came as a surprise to her, it seemed, but she still had a grim smile plastered on her face as she settled back down beside Spike.
“Good riddance,” she whispered under her breath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for Spike not to hear her.
“Hey! That’s not very nice!” he said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest in anger.
“You’re defending him?” Rainbow Dash growled in disbelief. “He BLINDED me, Spike! How could you be taking his side?”
Spike’s temper settled down, and he unclenched his fists and uncrossed his arms.
“Can you just let me tell you what happened?” Spike asked pleadingly, looking into Rainbow Dash’s dull eyes. It felt weird to do that, even though the gesture should have been so familiar. It just felt weird to know that she couldn’t see him. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered just how Rainbow Dash got on during the day. No wonder she was so angry. “I promise that it might help you understand.”
“Key word, might,” Rainbow muttered impatiently. After a few tense moments for both Spike and Twilight, Rainbow Dash spoke once again. “Okay fine, but make it quick before I change my mind.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Sorry about that, Spike,” she apologized, promptly ignoring the raspberry she got from Rainbow Dash. “Please, tell us about your journey. We would both love to hear it.”
“Great,” Spike smiled. He tapped his chin a few times in concentration, before his brain finally formed his starting point. “Well, once I walked out the door, I headed down to the train station so I could…”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Can you just get to the good part? You know, the part I actually WANT to hear?” Rainbow Dash inquired impatiently, twirling her hoof in the air just above her head, as if that would will him to get to the part she wanted to hear.
“If I skip everything, then it won’t make sense,” Spike told her. “You have to listen to all of it.”
Rainbow Dash snorted, but didn’t say anything in return.
Just as Spike was about to make another retort, Twilight suddenly climbed onto the couch next to Rainbow Dash and whispered something that Spike could not hear. But, the words seemed to work, and Rainbow Dash gradually relaxed into Twilight’s front hooves. Spike was just about to ask what that was all about, when Twilight signaled for him to continue, hopefully without any more distractions.
“Okay, so, as I was saying…” Nothing came out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth when he looked. “It really all started when I got on that train. I really wasn’t expecting much, but life proved me wrong.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Spike thanked the cashier at the front desk as he took his ticket. Without a glance between them after that, he made his way to the platform and stood just behind the yellow line at the edge that Twilight always told him to never cross. After looking to see that no trains were on their way at the moment, he walked back and took a seat on one of the many benches laid out across the board walk of the train station.
At this time of night, he didn’t expect any pony to be around at this time. And, wouldn’t you know it, his expectations were met. No pony was around him, other than the ponies working here. However, that wasn’t a problem, since he would much rather have solitude than company in this situation.
As he sat quietly, he thought about how Twilight expected him to pull this off. More importantly, he wondered why Twilight was sending him on this wild goose chase in the first place. So a dragon blinded Rainbow Dash. Big deal. It was done and there was nothing they could do about it. Why go through all this trouble if the outcome of what he was doing wasn’t clear? What did she expect would come from all this? Did she want answers? Closure? Vengeance? To get him out of the way? He couldn’t tell (although he did hope the last one wasn’t true). But, he would do as she asked, and hopefully they could put this whole thing behind them and get on with their lives. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do anyway.
He reached into his bag and pulled out a small map that Twilight gave him just before he left. With a finger, he traced the route that he would have to take, moving the finger up along the train tracks and pathways until the route was committed to memory. It was fairly simple. Take the train until he reached Dodge City and go on foot or on whatever he could find until he reached the dragon lands. If worse came to worst and he couldn’t take the train for some reason, then he would use the route he took when he first went on the dragon migration. Speaking of that, did he even remember that route? After thinking about it for a few minutes, the answer was no. He had been mostly following the long trail of flying dragons in the sky and really wasn’t paying any attention to any landmarks. Not to mention he never had to go back on his own, thanks to Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Still, that wasn’t a problem.
For now at least.
Spike nodded encouragingly to himself and wasted no time with putting the map away and leaning back against the wall, looking off into the distance to see if he could spot the approaching train. He expected to see no lights coming his way, but there they were, two shining headlights coming rapidly closer to where he sat.
After a few more moments, the screech from the train whistle finally sounded off. He grumbled under his breath, collected his things, and waited for the train to come to a halt. As it did, he saw a pony, most likely the conductor, come out onto the platform.
“All aboard!” he shouted.
Spike took a deep breath and walked up to the pony. He handed the ticket to the conductor and walked into the train once instructed. The baby dragon glanced around for an empty spot, and once he saw one that he was satisfied with, he strode over and sat down, putting his chin on his elbow and glancing out the window at the outline of Ponyville in the distance.
Well, this was it, he thought as he took in an audible gulp. This was the last look he would have of his home before going on this crazy quest. For the first time, he truly soaked in all that Ponyville had to offer. From its buildings to its fields, to the ponies who made it what it was, he preserved it in his mind, and reminded himself to thank them more often.
Then, the train began moving, and very quickly too. Much more quickly than he remembered. In almost no time at all, Ponyville became a memory, no longer in his sight. And, for the first time, he realized how lonely he was at that moment when the small town had completely disappeared.
In almost no time at all as the train rushed on throughout the land, Spike realized that there was almost nothing to look at. The rolling scenery in front of him became rather boring after a while. Pretty, but boring. The illuminated buildings and grassy fields with sparkling rivers dancing in the moonlight were cool and all, it just got a bit redundant seeing them over and over again for Celestia knows how long. His eyelids were beginning to droop, and he just didn’t seem to have the energy to gaze at the dark landscape any longer. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would come easily, and that the train ride to Dodge City wouldn’t take too long. The sooner he got this done, the better he would be.
Thankfully, a few minutes after he closed his eyes, his world drifted away and left him in a peaceful state of dreamless unconsciousness. Good thing too, he didn’t have his nap today.