//------------------------------// // Prologue: The "First" Entry // Story: The Chronicle of Spike: Rise of a Hero // by QuillVolt //------------------------------// In an island that exists outside of space and time, there is a sizable and imposing temple that is simply known as the "Archives" amid a desolate, craggy field littered with precipitous rocks. Many strange beasts have made their home on this island, lurking amidst the scattered, large and protruding stones. But even among the most ancient and powerful monsters residing there, none dare to cross the sole inhabitant of the Archives itself: the archivist known only as the "Librarian". The Librarian, who serves as the guardian and keeper of the island, is currently an aged, dragon with pristine grayish-light blue scales wearing a simple navy blue cloak that did not cover his worn and weathered wings. A basket-like pouch was strapped to each of his rear legs, both filled to the brim with rolls of parchment and quills. Currently, he was carefully making his way around mountains of literature on and about everything imaginable and unimaginable (a single glimpse would have even the most accomplished literary scholar salivating) towards a simple desk with a single book resting upon it. It was a modest purple color with a similarly basic green spine and lettering. By no means awe-inspiring or breathtaking, yet it still managed to stand out with a quiet aura of grandeur. Gently, the dragon sat itself on the cushion in front of the desk and blew a minuscule flame at a nearby candle. As if by magic - and undoubtedly it was - other candles placed in various locations lit up and slowly rose into the air until their light illuminated the entire room. Seemingly unaware of the precarious lighting, the Librarian opened the book to a bookmarked page and began to read... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Entry Number... something? Sigh, I guess restarting at "Entry One" would be sufficient for now. It's not like I'm particularly forgetful or negligent or anything. To be fair, it's been a while since I've written anything in my journal. In fact, I've all but forgotten I even had a journal until Twilight started pestering me about writing down everything that's happened in the past four (or has it already been five? I kinda lost track) years since my last entry, even though at most I'll only have a year's worth. Figures, the first break we have in a long - and I mean long - time and the first thing she wants to do is homework. I don't even know why I need to bother with this since Twilight's obviously going to write about everything herself. ... Fine, I'll do it. It isn't like I can do much else for now, since my "nurse" has pretty much confined me to bedrest. Geez, she's so strict- OW! Did I mention she has a pretty mean left hook too? Anyway, I guess a brief introduction and recap are in order. "Book etiquette", or something like that. The name's Spike. I'm the purple dragon (not just in color), which apparently means that I'm supposed to have some monumentally grandoise destiny to combat evil forces and save the world. Or something like that. Though if you ask me, it's all just really troublesome. I was hatched during an entrance exam by my best friend Twilight Sparkle, who was a unicorn with some unbelievable magic, even as a young filly. I'm not kidding; her raw magic power is within astronomical levels. She just had a problem with harnessing and regulating it in the past; though I guess I really shouldn't complain about it too much since that's the reason why I'm still able to live with ponies without much trouble. After I hatched, Twilight's mentor and the formerly sole ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia adopted me. It caused quite a commotion with the snobs over in Canterlot, but what can I say; mother can be really persuasive. Besides, she wouldn't be herself if she just left a then-helpless baby to fend for himself, even if said baby was a dragon. My hatchling years were pretty interesting. There were a number of times where it was fortunate I was a dragon. Then again, if I weren't a dragon, it probably wouldn't have happened. Mother was absolutely livid every time an incident happened. And trust me, an angy Celestia is not a good thing. I refuse say anything more than that. Truth be told, I'm still a bit scared of her reaction. Those ponies may not have been banished to the moon (sorry 'bout that Aunt Luna), but they definitely wished they were. Or at least punted into the sun. The scariest part is that everything was within legality. Ahem... Once I thought I was old enough, I decided I wanted to become Twilight's assistant. She was one of the only ponies who was sincerely nice to me - if you don't count how she occasionally looked at me like some sort of experiment - and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than a little fond of her. Besides, even to a me who was barely a few years old, she looked like she needed all the help she could get. With a lot of convincing from the both of us, I started as Twilight's assistant before the latter half of her schooling. While she was in the academy, I would stay behind to take care of the chores. When she was home, I would help her in any way while she studied. During breaks, she would tutor me so I wouldn't fall behind, and I ended up way ahead of anypony my age. Mother would often check up on us. When she couldn't, Twi's babysitter Princess Cadence, Celestia's niece and my favorite cousin, would stop by, usually with Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, in tow. It was a pretty good life, peaceful if not boring at times. The rest of the time was filled by all sorts of trouble the two of us would get into. Believe me when I say that that mare is a magnet for stuff like that. Then everything changed when that Summer Sun Celebration arrived... Twi had been doing some research about the legend of the "Mare in the Moon". When she tried to warn mother about something she had found, she was instead sent to check on the preparations for the celebration which was being held in Ponyville that year. Being the great assistant that I am, of course I accompanied her. There, we met the mares that would soon become, along with Twilight, the wielders Elements of Harmony, often known as the Mane Six. You probably already know this next part: the return of Nightmare Moon; Twilight and her new friends venturing into the Everfree Forest, finding and losing the Elements of Harmony; realizing that they were the ponyfications of the Elements; using that power to defeat Nightmare Moon and restoring her back to Princess Luna. Everypony knows about that, courtesy of a certain cyan pegasus. Anyways, after that Twi decided to stay in Ponyville to continue her studies on the magic of friendship. And I, her faithful number one assistant, naturally stayed with her. Ponyville is a pretty great place after all. Though some of the buildings tend to make me a bit hungry. We, or rather Twilight and her friends, had many (mis)adventures after that. Most of the time I was somewhere else, sometimes ignored outright, but it's alright as long as Twi's happy. She probably is the most important pony in my life after all... Wait, scratch that. She is the most important pony in my entire life. And that's what made this next part all the more painful. A couple of years after we first arrived in Ponyville, Twi was given the spellbook of the famous Starswirl the Bearded and discovered an unfinished spell she was sure she could complete. I had complete faith that she would. And she did. Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way she expected - her friends, via the Elements of Harmony, switched cutie marks and it ended up causing chaos all around town. Not Discord-class chaos either; that would've at least been a little funny. No, this was more of the "nopony-knows-who-they-are-anymore-and-everything's-going-wrong" variant. Twi found a way to fix everything by convincing her friends to go back to doing what they were meant to do, thus returning their cutie marks to their rightful pony and completing the unfinished spell through the magic of friendship. After that, she was whisked away to a mystical, ethereal plane where Celestia was waiting. They walked through a hall of memories - Twi's memories - before Celestia congratulated her and magically transformed Twilight Sparkle into Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle. Now for those who don't understand the magnitude of that, keep in mind that the only way to become royalty prior to this was to be born into it - not counting my situation since it doesn't really apply - or marry into the family; and there's also the matter of nothing even remotely close to this having happened in the past. Princess Twilight's coronation was something that was celebrated all across Equestria for weeks, with Pinkie Pie throwing a party every day, though she would've done so anyway. Everypony everywhere was happy. Everypony. For me, that was sort of a bittersweet time. Maybe it was due to me being around Twi my entire life or it was because I lived in a library and I had a lot of free time or both, but I hadn't stopped thinking from the moment Twilight returned to Ponyville as an alicorn. I realized a lot of things the others hadn't while they were still flying high from all of the excitement. Now that she was a princess, things wouldn't be the same. For one, she would have royal duties to attend to. She also needed to learn more about how to be a princess. Then there's the mountain of other obligations mother and Aunt Luna have and haven't told me about. So she would have to move back to Canterlot for a while. Possibly permanently. Mother was benignant enough to give Twi time before delivering the inevitable news. The day we were scheduled to leave, I elected to tell Twi my decision: I... wasn't coming with her. Twi, all of our friends, the entire town who had gathered to see her off, even mother who was there to personally pick us up; everypony was stunned into absolute silence. It's not that I couldn't understand their surprise, it's just... The reason why Twi was changed into an alicorn was because she had come a long way from who she was when we were still in Canterlot. Mother even went so far as to tell her that her journey was done! In other words, Twilight has developed and matured enough to earn the right to become a princess, something that was completely unheard of before (but, since it's Twilight Sparkle we're talking about, I can't say that I found it that surprising). Me? I was certainly different compared to when we first arrived in Ponyville, but I felt that it wasn't enough progress. And I don't think I would be satisfied if I continued to cling to Twi the entire time. As much I wanted to - I almost accidentally triggered a greed growth - stay by her side, I knew I couldn't. To me, it was the same as when I decided that I wanted to be her assistant. Only, this time, it was time for me to go off on my own. Twi... she cried. I could've and should've chosen a better time to tell her, but it took too long to resolve myself to do it. We shouted and argued at each other before she realized, or rather accepted, that I wasn't going to change my mind. After that she tried denying it, but it didn't take long for her to break down. I will admit that I nearly lost my determination right then and there. My best friend in the entire world, sobbing on the ground... I swore that I would never forgive anypony who dared make my best friend in the entire world cry. You see, no matter how smart Twilight gets, she's still an emotionally fragile mare. Going back to our days in Canterlot... Back when she was still in the academy, she was often teased and bullied because she was younger than the others or because she was supposedly mother's "favorite" or even because she was smarter than most of them. My prescence certainly didn't help, often making it worse. She knew better than to show it to those jerks, but she was hurt. After we got home, she would lock herself in her room to "study", but she couldn't completely stop all of her tears. When the bullies had shown up the next day with their tails all-but burnt off and newly-dyed coats, she had gotten angry at me, but I didn't regret it. There was this one time when one of her classmates, a colt she (along with pretty much every filly in Canterlot) fancied, asked her out. She was ecstatic, and though it did pain me a bit, I pretended to be happy for her. Then I found out that the colt was planning to stand her up and embarass her. Let's just say that I had learned a thing or two from mother and the sap fled town the next day. There was no way I'd ever let Twilight know about it, so I ended up taking her on the date instead, and it turned into two best friends hanging out. I admit that I felt terrible for lying to her then, but I never hated myself more than I did at that moment when I was watching her cry because of me. Mother stepped in just as I was about to fold. She managed to convince Twilight to let me go through with this, even though she so obviously wanted to have her son back in Canterlot with her. Twi was still crying, but at least she was finally getting it under control. Instead of saying something, she just embraced me as tightly as she possibly could. I hugged her back. I really didn't want to do this, and I was hurting too much inside to speak. I couldn't even begin to imagine how Twilight was feeling. But we've been together long enough that we didn't need words to express what we wanted to say. You'd better grow up fast and then come back to me, you understand? I promise Twi. I'll send letters as often as I can. Thanks Spike. Sniff, I just wish that we didn't have to say farewell so soon... Dummy... this isn't "farewell", it's just a "see you later". Yeah.... you're right. Heh, see you later Twilight Sparkle, princess of the library..... See you later Spike, the best assistant in the world, and my best friend..... We were hugging for a while, but when mother gently interrupted us and said that it was time to go, it didn't feel long enough. Even long after the carriage and everypony had left, I continued to stare off into the direction it had gone. I probably would've been there all night had the others not taken me back home. It's funny, I never realized how big the library really was until I was its only inhabitant. Sigh...... Excuse me for a moment... ... ... ... Continuing, in the year that followed our separation, I started to grow again. Not nearly as fast as when I went through my whole "hoarding" phase. Much, much slower than that. And I didn't even grow as much. That didn't mean that I wasn't worried until mother and Twi assured me that it was just natural. At first, it wasn't too bad. Twilight visited at least twice a week. I regularly sent letters even if she was in Ponyville. She and the others, with me along for the ride a little more often, still continued to get into all sorts of trouble. Then her visits had become less and less frequent. Aunt Luna had informed me one evening that Twilight was starting to become a bit overwhelmed. In addition to her princess duties, she was continuing with her studies and conducting research and experiments, often going overboard and neglecting to rest. She stubbornly refused to listen to anypony regarding this. When I saw her during one of my visits to Canterlot, I cringed at how exhausted she looked. However, I knew that even mother would not be able to stop her when she got like this. The only pony - or dragon, in this case - who knew how to deal with her like this was me. I was ready to drop everything to run to Canterlot until Luna reminded me that I couldn't do that every time Twi went out of control. So we worked out a bit of a compromise: I would handle Twi when my mother couldn't and there was no other choice, but she could not know about it. Plus, I would also need to report to the castle weekly for tutoring from Aunt Luna. I agreed. It was a little hard when I didn't get enough sleep on some days, but I could handle it. Besides, the next time we were in Canterlot, Twi seemed to be doing much better. Like I said, as long as she's happy, I can deal with anything. Still... I couldn't help but feel increasingly restless... I did not discover the reason behind this anxiety until a couple of years later. To be more exact, it had already been almost four years after Princess Twilight's coronation. I had been researching the history of my kind when I discovered something that could possibly help me find out who I was supposed to be. Had I known that that would set the gears of destiny in motion and cause the subsequent events to occur... Ah well. Too late for that "what if" and "if only" junk. I did what I did, so I need to see this through until the very end. So listen up. This is my story. This is The Legend of Spike.