//------------------------------// // Up from the fog. // Story: Ponyville Generations: Spike's story // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Up from the fog Ponyville, three hundred years later... "Be careful, you two! Please don't drop it!" It was mid-morning in Ponyville, and many of the town's mares were already at play. At the Cotton Candy Cafe, several ponies were gathered, awaiting the establishment's belated opening for the day. "Easy Minty! Don't go up the ladder too fast!" Cotton Candy called up to her. "Don't worry Cotton! I won't drop it, I promise!" The mint green earth pony called back. "A little higher, Razzaroo!" Cotton Candy called up to them again. "Make sure Minty doesn't drop her end!" "Don't worry, Cotton! I'll make sure she holds on to it!" The purple pony called back, lifting her end of the load. "Yes yes yes!" The two of them carefully lowered the Cafe's new sign into place, then stepped down the two ladders they were standing on. "It looks amazing, girls! Good job!" Cotton Candy exclaimed, turning the new electric sign on. "Okay everybody, were open now!" The ponies all trotted in, relieved to finally be able to come in and sit down. Cotton Candy poured Razaroo and Minty each a cool glass of lemonade. "Thanks so much for your help, you two! That new electric sign Sparkleworks made for me looks great!" "Always happy to help, Cotton, Yes yes yes!" Razzaroo replied, taking a sip. The town's party and celebration coordinator, the upbeat mare with the blue and white mane and gift box cutie mark was always ready to help anypony out. "And thank you sooo much for making this amazing lemonade!" Minty agreed, sipping the yellow liquid down. "But I really think it would look better if it were green!" "Your new sign does indeed look fabulous, darling!" Rainbow Dash agreed, as Cotton Candy poured her a glass of lemonade. "But I personally think it would look better, with a rainbow on it!" "Dash, you think everything looks better with rainbows!" Minty told the blue mare. The town's fashion designer, Rainbow Dash was named for some long-forgotten heroine she was descended from. Having an aptly colored rainbow hair and cutie mark, Dash was the go-to pony for any type of outfit or ensemble. It was then, that a white mare with a yellow and orange mane came galloping in. "Hey ladies, what's up?" She pulled her sunglasses up above her eyes. "You won't believe the awesome waves we're getting out there on the lake!" "Hey, Sunny Daze." Razzaroo greeted Ponyville's resident surf pony. "Catching some rays in the sun, yes yes yes?" "You bet! I caught some pretty rad waves out there!" She said with a grin. "I was so cool, I had four really cute stallions offer to wax my coat!" Minty blushed at that, while Razzaroo burst out laughing. Ponyville's Stallions and colts were really shy, preferring to stay behind the scenes. (The Pegasus Stallions of Butterfly island were the same way.) If a pony didn't know where to look for them, one could even believe they didn't exist! "So, you dudettes wanna come hang with me at the beach?" Sunny Daze asked them. "Sorry Sunny, but I promised Wysteria I'd help her prepare for the spring promenade." Razaroo sighed. "It's kinda my job as party planner, ya know." "And I want to go talk to Kimono, about wither I should paint my house dark green or light green." Minty said with a laugh. "Can't make such an important decision without consulting the wisest pony in the land." "Then I'll see ya later, Ladies!" Sunny Daze sat down, as the other three got up to leave. "Cause there's always time to party in Ponyville!" ... "Zipzee, look at that flower. You're the expert. What do you think it is?" It was the first voice that he heard, stirring him for the darkness. He felt the cold of the waking world, drawing him back from his endless slumber. Where was he? How did he get here? These questions entered his mind, as his thoughts came into focus. The voices -three girls, from the sound of it- continued to talk nearby. "Great Celestia! How long have I been asleep?" He asked himself. Feeling his body, he found that the ages had left him encased in a thin layer of rock. The heart's desire was sticking out of the top, and it was to his surprise that something... some pony.... actually touched it. Through the flower's magic, he caught a brief glimpse of a building... a castle... had been built over his head . Reacting to the touch of the flower, he stretched out, and smashed the shell covering him. He gave out a loud yawn, and the girls reacted to him. "EEEEEEEEK!" "AHHHHHH!" He yelled back in surprise. "EEEEEEEEEK!" They screamed back at him. "Excuse me!" He yelled back, covering his ears. "But do you mind, terribly?" As they stopped screaming, he let out a sigh of relief. As his vision cleared, he saw it was two ponies that had awakened him; a purple mare with white and purple streaked hair, and a Pink one with pink hair and balloons cutie mark. The pink one looked very, very familiar for some reason... though he couldn't put his talon on the reason why. With them was an odd little flying yellow pony with wings, far too small to be a Pegasus. "My name is Wysteria." The purple one told him. "And this is my friend, Pinkie Pie! What's your name?" His memory was still too foggy to answer, though the name Pinkie Pie stirred something in his memory. It only took a mention of the spikes on his tail, though, to bring a few fragments back to his fog-addled brain. "Master Kengrowth Gilspottum Heathspike." He told them, remembering his name. "But you may call me simply Spike the Dragon!" Wysteria asked him about the flower wrapped around his tail, and Spike remembered his was supposed to give it to his princess. Since she had asked about it, he realized it must belong to her! He gave the flower to Wisteria, and began leading them out of the cave, and back to the surface. "Have you ever had a bath?" The little flying pony, named Zipzee, asked him. "Can't say I have... but it sounds lovely... what is it?" Part of him did know what a bath was, but his mind was still too corroded over to think clearly. The four of them found their way up through the castle, and to the drawbridge. The two ponies then decided to sneak him out and clean him up, before he was to be presented to all of their friends. The sunlight burned his retinas at first, hitting his eyes for the first time in a thousand years. (At least that was what he had told them... he truthfully didn't know how long he had been asleep) After his vision had adjusted, Spike followed them through the streets of a town, which they called Ponyville. It was another name that stirred something deep in his memories- but the dragon couldn't place what. They took Spike to the petal parlor,-the local beauty salon- to get rid of the foul stench that had attached itself to him during his long repose. The pony beautician, Daffydazey, was a white earth pony with a yellow, orange, and Pink mane. "I love a challenge!" She had exclaimed, when tasked with cleaning him up. "I'll do it!" She cleaned him up fairly easily, he was even able to relax as she bathed him, and cut his spikes. It was much to his chagrin, that she had done the whole thing while having her glasses off... she had even mistook him for a pony while she was cleaning him up! It was at this point, that Spike was introduced to the ponies of Ponyville. Most of the names and appearances went right over his head, but the blue one with the rainbow hair... Rainbow Dash... stirred up things in the dragon's mind again. The name was familiar... but the attitude and the 'Darling' were as well. But one didn't exactly fit with the other... why oh why couldn't he remember? When he told the ponies that he had given the flower to his Princess, the silly fillies actually made Wisteria the town Princess! What was wrong with these ponies? As they built their floats and readied themselves for their spring parade, Spike noticed they were very childlike in their actions, and never seemed to get truly get angry at anything, It was almost scary how friendly and sugary- nice the little ponies were... even Pinkie Pie would have been disturbed by- - Pinkie Pie? But wasn't Pinkie Pie one of these Ponyville ponies? He had just met her a short time ago! So why did he feel like that name belonged to an old and dear friend? Confusion reigned in his mind, and he tried to dispel it by training Wisteria to be a proper Princess. But the little dragon's plan backfired, when his princess declared; "I don't wanna be a Princess! I wanna be me!" The shock of her defiance almost sent Spike back into his endless slumber... he had already lost one princess, why did he have to lose another? But Wysteria made every pony in town a princess, giving him lots and lots of princesses to serve! As the evening after the Promenade drew to a close, Wysteria was back in the castle with Spike. "We all decided that we wanted you to live here!" Wisteria told him. "Since nobody else lives in the castle, you'll have the whole place to yourself!" "This is so wonderful!" Spike said, looking over the place. "You ponies are so thoughtful!" "Good night, Spike. Pleasant dreams." As Wysteria left him to himself for the night, Spike readied himself for bed, looking forward to adventures with his new pony friends tomorrow..." ... Spike's eyes slowly opened, his eyes adjusted to the light of the rising sun coming slowly through the window. Yawning, he stretched his arms out, as his eyes slowly adjusted to the light. "Man , that was a weird dream." The purple dragon though to himself, the fog of the past few days lifting from his mind. "What was with all those weird ponies and that strange Ponyville? I gotta lay off the late night gemstone snacks." As he looked around the room, he was amazed by the rich gaudiness of his surroundings. "Huh, Princess Celestia must have found me after the funeral, and brought me back to Canterlot." But as he walked over and looked out the window, Spike noticed he was in a different castle altogether. Before the young Dragon's amazed eyes, Ponyville stretched out below... but not the Ponyville he knew. Houses and shops of pink, purple, and lavender dotted the landscape. Ponies of every color and size played and romped though the streets below- paying hopscotch, paddling though the river that ran through town, and driving around on small machines (4-wheelers, he'd learn later). Glancing up over the horizon, The small purple dragon saw that there was no sign of Canterlot, or the mountain that it was built on. "I-it's just like in my dream! W-what's happened to Equestria?" Spike yelled aloud in shock. "What's happened to PONYVILLE?" But the biggest shock was yet to come. Looking over into the mirror, Spike almost fainted when he saw what was staring back- a slightly taller, purplish blue dragon with webbed ears. His scales had become much softer, looking something like hairs. His whole appearance had changed... and not for the better! "What's happened to ME?" He wailed. "Huh? What do you mean?" Zipzee, the little flying Pony from his dream flew in through the window, looking around. "I came in as soon as I heard you yell! Are you ok, Spike? What's wrong?" Calming himself down, Spike looked back in the mirror, still shocked by his reflection. "That's what I'm trying to figure out, myself." "I guess it wasn't a dream, after all." Spike thought to himself. "I gotta to find out what's going on here!" ...