Close The Case

by The Rainbow Blunderbolt


Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“Spike, are you even listening?”

The accusing tone of the elder dragons voice snapped Spike back to reality quicker than he could have imagined. He shook his head and turned to face the dragon that was briskly walking beside him.

“Yeah!” Spike replied eagerly. A bit too eagerly, perhaps. “I totally was listening. Yep, that’s me, Spike the listener…heh. Uhh…even though I was listening, because I was, could you just repeat that part from when, you know, we started talking?”

Garble looked less than amused, and Spike’s facial expression dropped a few seconds later. He wasn’t listening, if that much hadn’t been obvious to anyone who was looking before. But what did he expect? It wasn’t his fault that there was nothing for them to talk about and that they didn’t have anything in common. Whatever Garble did, Spike either had no idea what he was talking about, or if it was something he had at least some idea of, he didn’t like it. Still, he tried to appear that he was listening, but even that façade was wearing thin.

“I’m sorry,” Spike sighed. “It’s just…”

“Just what?” Garble replied bitterly. “My story too boring for you?”

“Uh…no, no,” Spike answered quickly, not wanting to get on his new ally’s bad side. It was way too early in their adventure to even be thinking of that option. “Of course not.”

Garble snorted. “Well, it’s not like that you have anything better to say, what, with you being raised by those stupid ponies and all. I bet they do nothing but sit around and have tea parties all day,” he scoffed.

“Hey!” Spike protested. “That’s not what we do!”

“Yeah, and I’m sure you don’t wear an apron either,” Garble retorted, not even looking at his companion anymore.

Spike felt the blood rush to his cheeks the instant he heard the words come out of the other dragon’s mouth. “How did you…err, I do not! What gave you that idea?”

“You seemed like the type,” Garble laughed indignantly.

As Spike’s cheeks burned, they walked for a few more minutes of silence. Spike was still wary of silence, especially around here, but it had grown into a minimum of what it once was. Now that he had a dragon with him, he no longer felt the need to run and hide behind a bush the moment he heard some twig snapping in the distance. In fact, that idea felt rather silly to him now that he thought about it with a clear mind, and it was silly to know that he had thought hiding like a coward was perfectly acceptable just a few short hours ago, not to mention that his companion made that perfectly clear to him as well.

“How much farther is this stupid mountain anyways?” Spike asked, changing the subject effectively. “We’ve been walking for hours.”

“It’s still a long ways away, squirt,” Garble replied wearily, “In about three days we’ll make it to the base, and don’t get me started on how long it will take to walk up that monster…”

Spike groaned. Three days! It would take three days to walk to some stupid mountain!? What a rip off. He had to remind himself what he was doing out here in the first place to keep himself from just turning around and going home at that moment.

“Three days?” he groaned. Maybe he had just heard that wrong.

“Three days.”

He didn’t.

“But it’s so far away…” Spike groaned sadly. “We’ll be out here forever…”

“Do you ever stop whining?” Garble grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked away from Spike and instead focused his attention up ahead. In doing so, he involuntarily created an awkward silence between them, and Spike cringed inwardly. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. It probably wasn’t, but what could he do now that it was done?

The two stayed like that for who knew how long. To Spike, it was indefinite, but he dared not do anything about it. He was a follower here, not a leader. It was starting to wear him down, though, so why not try to do something about it? He had nothing to lose, after all.

“So, why are you coming out here, anyway?” he asked curiously.

Garble stayed silent for a few moments. Spike saw his expression change many times, but it finally settled on one of determination, and Spike thought he saw a flicker of uncertainty pass by as well, he didn’t pay much heed to it, however.

“I already told you,” Garble said. “I’m here to take something back.”

“What do you need to take back, though?” Spike ventured on.

“Nothing you need to know about. For now, at least.” The little dragon saw his companion’s expression harden to an infinite degree. He gulped and wondered whether or not he should continue. But, it turned out that he didn’t need to. “Enough about me; what are you here for, squirt?” Garble asked him.

“I’m here to help my…”

“Yeah, you told me that already,” Garble said with a small wave of his claw, “But why are you helping her anyways? What did he do to her?”

Spike wasn’t exactly sure if he should continue. What would Rainbow Dash say if somebody else knew about her ‘weakness’, as the pegasus would most likely put it. But then he remembered that he wasn’t really one to keep any secrets. He simply shrugged and replied with, “He blinded her.”

“Blinded?” Garble echoed curiously.

“Yeah,” Spike replied, kicking a loose stone on the trail they were travelling. “But, before that…he…hurt her real bad.”

“But…how did that happen?” Garble wondered eagerly. The sadden curiousness made Spike more than suspicious.

“Well…I don’t really know,” Spike answered truthfully. “I think he torched her, or something like that. It ended up killing her, actually.” The more he thought about, the more he realized that it affected him more than he thought it would. He had come so close to losing her…

“Wait, he ROASTED her?” Garble gasped, stopping dead in his tracks. “How the heck is she still alive, then? No body, not to mention a pony, can survive something like that!”

Spike sighed in annoyance. “I don’t exactly know what happened. My friend told me that she used some kind of magic to bring her back to life, but it had some bad consequences,” Spike told him.

“And I’m guessing that those consequences were her being blinded?” Garble finished before Spike had a chance to. They continued walking, and Spike had to admit that this was much better than their earlier conversation.

“Eeyup,” Spike nodded.

“So, how are you helping her by being out here?” Garble asked, scratching his head with the tip of his claw. “Shouldn’t you be, I dunno, with her if you have to help her?”

“That’s what I thought too,” Spike answered. “But, my friend sent me out here. She said that it was for answers or whatever, but maybe she just wants to get rid of me…” The idea sent arrows through his heart. Even though it hurt to think about, it was still a very real possibility. It was very slim, but still very real, and he had no idea of knowing either way. “I’m sure that’s not it, though. Twilight needs me!” He wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince by that point.

“That’s rough, buddy,” Garble said, patting Spike just a little bit too hard on the back. Spike could understand that he was trying to be at least sympathetic, but maybe he could afford to be a little less rough with his antics?

“Yeah…” Spike coughed. He took a deep breath and spoke again. “Hey, where are your…friends?”

“Oh, those guys?” Garble asked, then nodded in realization. “They’re probably back at our cave.”

“You guys live together?” Spike wondered out loud.

“Is there a problem with that?” Garble growled. For a moment, Spike thought that he was going to whirl around and manhandle him in some way, but the tone of voice he used was unsettling enough, and it looked like Garble had realized that.

“Uh…no, not at all!” Spike said quickly, still painfully aware that anything he did or said could set the elder dragon off in a heartbeat. It would be in his best interests to stay on his good side. “What made you think I thought there was?”

From Spike’s point of view, Garble still looked a tad suspicious, but perhaps it was just a trick of the light.

“Nothing,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. The elder dragon looked up at the sky suddenly. Spike watched his head linger upwards for a few moments longer and wondered what his eyes saw up there, what he was looking for. The wings on Garble fluttered just the tiniest bit a few moments later. It reminded Spike of Rainbow Dash. She usually did that when she was nervous, or she was just getting ready for a race. His face crumpled as he thought about her. What were they doing? Was Rainbow Dash flying again? He hoped so, but it was still a pretty weird thought to be thinking about anyway. Spike shook his head and turned his attention back towards his companion.

“What are you looking at?” he asked Garble.

“None of your business.”

Well, it was worth a shot, he reminded himself as his chipper mood from earlier deflated into thin air. What could they talk about now?

“It’s getting dark,” Garble said suddenly.

Spike looked up at the sky. He had barely noticed the soft dark grey light beginning to inch its way across the sky, taking control of the traces of pinks and oranges that were being left behind by the sunset. Spike squinted his eyes at the sky and shrugged.

“Yeah…” he said softly. “Should we stop for the night?”

Garble took more than a few moments to voice his decision, and Spike had no idea what could possibly be on his mind. This dragon had an excellent poker face.

“Nah,” he said at last. “We can keep going.”

“B-but what about everything else around here?” Spike gulped, unconsciously moving closer to his companion in an effort to conceal himself. “Won’t they….eat us?”

“Ha!” Garble laughed, maybe a bit too loudly for Spike’s tastes. “You kidding? There’s no way a dragon will mess with us…or me, I should say, while we’re out here. And besides, all the other dragons will be asleep anyway.”

“Really?” Spike said, raising an eyebrow. “I thought dragons were…nocturnal, or whatever Twilight called it.”

“Some of us are,” Garble replied simply. “But they usually keep to their own caves now. You don’t want to be caught out so late with…them around here.”

“T-Them…?” Spike gasped, suddenly feeling a lot more conscious about where he was going. What exactly was Garble talking about? Who was he talking about? Maybe….it was just a thought, a weird one, but Spike couldn’t help it. That dragon back there who led him to this place, were they talking about the same thing? Spike wished it wasn’t true, and maybe it wasn’t, but it certainly could not have been a coincidence. “Do you mean…?”

“You know about them?” Garble asked. “Who told you? Wait…it couldn’t have been that guy you were talking about earlier, could it?”

“That’s him,” Spike answered smugly.

Garble looked uncertain for a few moments. He swung his head from the left to the right, then his head settled in a direction off to the left.

“Maybe we should stop,” Garble said to himself. Spike wasn’t sure if that was meant for him to hear. Before Spike knew it, he was stopped by a red claw and was being dragged in the strange direction. Garble was pushing him somewhere, he kept thinking to himself. Spike shrugged the claw off his shoulder and walked for himself when he saw the destination. It was a rather large cave, and not all that unlike the cave they first found each other in. Even better, it wasn’t that far from where they were now, and it was getting closer with each passing step. Just as the darkness began settling itself firmly against the horizon, they were just settling down on the blanket that Spike had generously laid out for them.

“Why’d you bring a blanket?” Garble asked.

“To sleep on,” Spike answered simply. He raised an eyebrow at Garble. “What else do you usually sleep on?”

“Rocks, usually,” Garble shrugged, leaning up against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Ha, no wonder you’re so wimpy.”

“Hey!” Spike growled, shooting up and pointing a claw in his companion’s direction. “Will you stop calling me wimpy? I’m tough!”

“Whatever, kid,” Garble scoffed. “As far as I can tell, you haven’t done anything to prove otherwise, or why I should believe you. I’ll believe you’re tough when I see it.”

Spike narrowed his eyes. How he wanted to smack this stupid dragon right in the face. What did he do that was so wrong? It took all of his will-power not to walk out of that cave right there and then. Spike sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. As soon as this whole thing was over and done with, he would go so far away (far away being Ponyville, to be exact) that this dragon would never speak to him and he would never think of him again. Still, maybe it could work out, if only for a little while.

It was a good thing he had nothing to lose.