Just outside where Spike, Crystal, Jade, Sir Gared, and a nearly unfrozen Zero an adult dragon had come into town. His sapphire scales glistened in the afternoon sun and his dull blond back scales. His silver chest plate was displayed with pride along with his claw armor. Crystal ran outside to greet her father. "Hi daddy!" She yelled. "Ah. Crystal I see you have made an exciting day." The dragon said with a low and gruff voice. Crystal started to play with her hair a little bit. "So daddy.........did you get you claw armor polished? They look very shiny." Crystal said with a cheap smile. "What do you want this time?" Her father asked.
"I wasn't going to ask for anything. Okay I was. Ummm......is it okay if I go with Spike and his friends on an adventure?" Crystal asked. Crystal's father looked over the young dragons. If Spike could shiver out of his skin he would have already down it. Zero was still freezing, but managed to ask "Hows it going?". The elder shook his head "These two are not fit to accompany you on any type of journey. You may not adventure with these two low lives." Searimece said as he turned and walked away. "Low Lives? I am the assistant of the student of Princess Celestia. I think calling me a low life is a cheap insult!" Spike yelled. Instantly he covered his mouth. "Wow Spike. Where did that come from?" Jade asked.
"So the baby finally speaks and you got courage too. Lets see how long that courage of yours can last." King Searimece said. "If you are really serious of taking my daughter with you and prove me wrong. Than you will have to take The Test. Sir Gared!" Immediately Sir Gared stood at attention and was ready to receive orders. "Spike the dragon. During this test your endurance, will power, and courage shall be tested. Starting tomorrow at dawn you must survive the whole day without getting caught by Sir Gared. Sir Gared tomorrow at dawn you are not to let Spike rest for even a moment. Do you understand?" Searimece asked.
"Yes, sir!" Sir Gared said. King Searimece walked off without anyone getting a chance to talk. "What was that all about Spike?!?" Crystal yelled. "I don't know what came over me. The words just came out of my mouth." Spike said "Your dad didn't let anyone get a chance to speak or protest. Whats up with that?" Jade asked. "My dad doesn't like to be stood up by anyone. When Spike yelled at my dad he thought Spike was challenging him or something. Its this alpha male thing he is obsessed with. It doesn't matter now though." Crystal said. "What is this 'test' that I have to take?" "Its a challenge that starts at dawn. Like my dad said you have to survive an entire day from Sir Gared, but I warn you Sir Gared is highly train and doesn't give up easy. If you ask me the best strategy to do is run and hide."
"Also get a good night's rest and eat a heavy dinner." Crystal said as she began to walk home. Jade had finished her job thawing out Zero and the trio went to find the six mares they came with. Later on in the day they found them out side a small hotel. Rarity went up and hugged Spike and congratulated him on getting a marefriend. Spike protested on saying that she wasn't his marefriend and started to explain what was about to happen. "Why do you have to do this test?" Twilight asked. "I might or might not have yelled back on Crystal's dad who happens to be the king of this area of the ocean and now if we want Crystal to come with us I have to take The Test. Also how did you find out I was with a girl dragon?" Spike said. "We saw you two dancing in the town square and Rarity heard some gossip about you two." Rainbow Dash said. "Also I didn't know you had it in you Spike! Talking smack to a big dragon like that." Dash added. Fluttershy whimpered a bit. "Are you okay......he didn't hurt you did he?" she asked. Spike shook his head.
"Why can't we just skip this test or whatever." Applejack asked. "Crystal said that Poison, Garble, and Rubixen were here earlier. They might try to come back again." Zero said while drinking some hot chocolate. "Those two? Why is Rubixen with them?" Twilight asked. Spike shrugged his shoulders. "Well seeing as how we can't avoid this. Spike is going to have to get ready for this 'test'." Twilight said closing the book she was reading. "He doesn't have to take the test if he doesn't want to. Twilight dear he is just a baby dragon." Rarity said. "I know, but if we don't Poison and his crew might try to take Crystal for their own uses and they will have four members and Spike and Zero will have to fight them all on their own. I have played this through my head almost a thousand times already. We can try begging, but that will not work. I'm sure Fluttershy doesn't want to use her Stare on a dragon who is just looking out for his daughter and if we wait too long Poison, Garble, and Rubixen might come back. I know we all think that we can hold them off, but what if we can't and we all end up hurt or worse. With are elements of harmony currently can't be used we have no other choice." Twilight said. "She does have a point." Pinkie Pie said while balancing a cupcake on her nose.
"Okay, but if things get too ugly out there in the morning we are taking Spike out of this whole mess." Rarity said. With that the gang with inside the hotel and ate. Spike made sure he ate all he could before he went to bed. After a while everyone get ready for bed and all the lights were turned off. That was when it happened again.
"Spiiiike. Awake up."said a familiar voice. Spike woke up with a jolt to find that Canterlot was set ablaze, but something was not right. The flames were black. A cold claw tapped Spike on the shoulder. Spike turned around to find a monster with black scales and white insides. A massive roar nearly caused Spike to run like there was no tomorrow, but soon the monster's evil appearance changed into a a presence that Spike had gotten used to. The black scales where slowly losing it's color, being replaced by purple. The white light that emitted from the monster's eyes and mouth began to fade. The transformation was almost complete, but it stopped. Future Spike stood in to place of the monster. "Sup Spike. You look like you've seen a ghost." He said. "What do you want now?" Spike asked with an annoyed tone. "No need to get annoyed Spike. I know what you have to do in the morning. Just wanted to slip in a little lesson before you go." F. Spike said.
"What kind of lesson?" Spike asked. "Nothing much. Do you remember what happened to make you take The Test." asked Future Spike. "Yeah I yelled at Crystal's dad, but I don't know where that stuff came from." Spike said. "Its your anger." Future Spike said. "What?" "Your anger. You have constantly bottled up your anger and now that bottle is cracking. Right now your anger is not so intense, but soon you will have to let that anger go. Or else." Future Spike said. "Or else what?" Spike asked. "You will be consumed by your anger and hatred and have your first taste of what we will become in the future, but that is not the lesson. This is." Future Spike said. He pulled out of bubble of black ooze that looked like ink.
"What is that stuff?" Spike said. "Black matter. It's a mystery what this stuff really is, but I can tell you this it is really powerful. You will be able to produce this stuff in about...........four hours. Give or take." Future Spike said. "What do I have to use this for?" Spike asked. "I would tell ya, but you have to do one thing for me." "What would that be?" Spike replied. "Wake up."
Spike woke up with cold sweat running down his body as he saw that he was alone in the hotel room. Outside the room was nobody. "Hello?" Spike asked. Spike rushed out the door to see if anyone was outside and he did. They were all on the edge of town. Spike was about to rush over to them, but a figure blocked his path. Sir Gared stood ready for battle with his teeth bared. "Spike. I shall give you a head start. Five minutes is all I will allow." Sir Gared said. Spike took his opportunity to run and headed for the nearest hiding stop. 'This is going to be a long day.' Spike thought to himself.
Spike ran to the closet building in range and found a pipe that led to the top of the building. "If I get a better view I can find a place to hide." Spike thought as he climbed the pipe. When he reached the top he found a certain tiger waiting for him. "How did you get up here?" Spike asked with a shocked expression. "You ran out of time and did you forget that I am the Chain of Water?" Sir Gared said. He prepared to pounce. Spike flinched and waited to be attacked, but the attack never came.
Spike looked up to see that Sir Gared leap onto a platform of water in mid-air. "I can manipulate the water in the air and make platforms. Now get ready." Sir Gared said. He pounce once again, but this time he was heading for Spike. With only seconds to react Spike dodged the attack by leaping forward and rolling. Seeing an opportunity to counter-attack Spike tried to summon Jade's chain, but was met with a very shocking surprise. Jade was no longer on his claw. "Dang it." Spike said.
Spike looked to find that Sir Gared was running full speed at him. Using his tail as a spring Spike propelled himself through the air and landed on Sir Gared's back. Sir Gared thrashed around trying to knock the baby dragon off of his back. "This is a lot like the Iron Pony competition." Spike thought. Finally Spike decided to jump off, but was met with a powerful kick from Sir Gared's hind legs. Sending Spike off the edge of the building to fall to the ground. Spike grab a ledge of a window that held some flowers.
Spike swung himself to a pipe that was next to him. He climbed down the pole and landed on the ground. Spike checked his surroundings and saw that Sir Gared was making his decent from the building. Spike looked around and found a barrel that he could hide in. Thankfully the barrel was empty and Spike climbed in. Once Spike was in he placed the barrel's top back on.
Sir Gared finally made it back down to ground and began to search for the baby dragon. "Hmmm.....I got his scent." Sir Gared said to himself. He slowly walked up to a barrel and sniffed. "He is in this one.'' Sir Gared thought. Sir Gared dug a small hole in the dirt pathway. Reaching under his shoulder armor he grabbed a decently sized ruby and placed it into the hole. Then he jumped onto a water platform that would be out of Spike's line of site.
The waiting game had began. Time slowly crawled at a snail's speed. Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes felt like hours. Hours felt like days. Spike's stomach was beginning to growl. He mentally punched himself for not grabbing at least some pieces of toast before he went out. Soon two things happened to him. The first thing was that he felt a strong surge of pain in his left arm. He looked at it and even in the darkness that he was in he could barely see the blood flowing out of four small gashes in his arm. 'Gared's claws must have got me.' Spike thought. Then he smelt something. The sweet smell of a ruby and a good one at that.
Spike opened the barrel and looked around. Seeing nothing he went to get the jewel. "Funny. I didn't see this when I passed by. How did it get......" Spike finally realized what was about to happen. He jumped forward just as Sir Gared landed in the place where Spike was. Spike used his dragon breath to create a wall of flames that blocked off the distance between him and the tiger.
"Chilled Water." Sir Gared said as he released a torrent of freezing water. The water immediately froze the flames where they stood. With one well placed kick wall of frozen flames broke. When Sir Gared's vision was clear there was nothing left of the baby dragon. "He is a slippery one. I haven't had this much of a workout in forever." Sir Gared said.
Spike ran as fast as he could. Finally he allowed his feet to rest as he ate the ruby in his claws. Still feeling the pain in his left arm Spike looked around for something to subdue the pain. Spike looked around and found a rag hanging on a clothing line. He grabbed it and went to find some water. Thankfully there was a small flowing stream running through the town. Spike bathed the rag in the water making sure the rag was wet enough. He then tied the rag tight around his injured arm.
The pain hit a high point when Spike tied the cloth around his arm, but slowly went away afterwords. Spike slowly walked around town watching his surroundings, making sure he wouldn't have an ambush again. Suddenly all too soon Spike received a head splitting headache. It brought Spike to his knees as tears flooded his eyes. "Spppiiiiiiikkkke." Said a low and sickly voice. "How are you? Poison is that you?" Spike asked. "I've watched you ever since you took your first breath of your puny life." The voice said completely ignoring Spike's questions. "Your weak." "No I'm not. If you have seen what I have done so far I am not weak." Spike protested. "You may think that, but you can't defeat one Dragon Chain in it's animal form. You can only run. What makes you think you can win?" The voice said. "What do you know about the Dragon Chains?" Spike asked. "That is not important. Watch your left side." Spike looked left. Sir Gared pounced straight at him. Spike rolled out of reach from the tiger, making him land without a single hit made. "I must give you some praise Spike the dragon. Not many dragons or ponies I've met have survived this long in The Test." Sir Gared started.
"You've lasted till noon. Sadly your time has come. I'm done playing around." Sir Gared said. His eyes lit up with a light blue light. "Tiiiiimmmee for you to taste my power." Said the voice. "Chilled Water!". Time slowed down to a crawl. Spike's eyes flashed a dark purple as he used his magic to cause the freezing water to fall to the ground and freeze into ice. Spike then broke the ice into little crystal shards. Finally time began to return to normal. Sir Gared was left feeling weird. "What the..." Sir Gared was cut off by him seeing Spike. The once playful and enjoyable Spike was now replaced with a sinister and evil looking Spike. His eyes was now a dark purple to the point where they almost looked black. His claws were a glowing in a dark aura. "Shards of Frozen Tears." Spike said as the shards of ice flew towards Sir Gared.
Coming out of his trance Sir Gared ran as fast as he could dodging shards of ice left and right. Spike then sent every single shard of ice he had left at Sir Gared. Sir Gared did the best he could, but could not dodge all of the ice shards and his body was impaled with the little shards of ice. " Arrrrrrgh!" Sir Gared screamed in pain. He fell to the ground unable to get up. Spike had exhausted all of energy and fell down to the ground as well. "See how powerful my power is Sir Gared?" The voice said. This time both Spike and Sir Gared where able to hear the voice. "Who are you?" Sir Gared said. The poor tiger tried to get up, but was unable to stand. "Who I am is not of importance. Listen to my warning. You are only my puppets. Tools I'm using to help my cause. Do not interfere with my plans. You have been warned." The voice said as Spike started slip from consciousness.