Spike awoke when he felt the tickle of snowflakes landing on his nose. The dragon cracked open an eye and looked about. Celestia’s sun was rising to the east and the fire he had made to keep him and Tricky warm was starting to dwindle. The young dinosaur was still asleep so Spike went over and gently shook him.
“Tricky,” Spike said to the prince as he roused him.
“Hhmmm… What?” Tricky mumbled as he looked about, still half asleep. “What’s going on?”
“Where heading out, that’s what,” the dragon answered.
“Already?” Tricky asked as he stretched. He yawned and blinkingly looked up to the sun. “But it’s so early. Can’t we sleep in a little longer?”
Spike smirked a bit. On any other day, Spike would agree with him. When he was Tricky’s age, he would sleep in all the time, that is, as much as Twilight would allow him to. Though the thought of snoozing for a little bit longer was tempting, he had a job to do. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get you home.”
“Yeah yeah, alright.” Tricky rose to his four feet and Spike picked up his backpack and threw it across his shoulder. “But can’t we at least get some breakfast? I’m starving!”
Spike’s stomached growled at the mention of food. He did have some gems in his bag and there were the gems that grew on those stalks that he saw in ThornTail Hollow, but he doubted that the EarthWalker would be interested in eating those. Since his little companion was a ceratopid, he figured he would be an herbivore.
“Well, what do EarthWalker’s eat?” Spike asked as looked around for some vegetation. “Kind of slim pickings with anything green around here. Everything is covered in snow.”
“Maybe we can find some Grubtubs,” Tricky suggested. “They’re my favorite!”
“What are Grubtubs?”
“They’re big blue mushrooms. They grow just about everywhere on Krazoa Island.”
“Well, let’s see if we can find some on the way.” Spike started to follow the path along side of the river that led away from the frozen pond and Tricky followed after him. As they went over the hill, they saw a snow covered valley with evergreen trees that had icicles hanging from their branches. A few long blades of brown grass stuck through the snow and the river flowed from a waterfall and ran through the valley. There also a large wall that enclosed a portion of the valley. Judging from its crude design and the fact that he and Tricky just spent a night in a Diamond Dog campsite, Spike guessed that this was one of their outposts. Spike could near low trumpeting sound that sounded like an elephant coming from inside the Diamond Dog fort. “What was that?”
“That was a SnowHorn,” Tricky identified the sound. “They’re the tribe that lives up here in the Wastes.”
Spike remembered that the Warp Stone had told him that Ice Mountain was located in the SnowHorn Wastes. Seeing that the area was covered in snow, there was an elephant sound, and this was an island inhabited by prehistoric animals, Spike figured that the SnowHorn Tribe must be Wooly Mammoths.
“It looks like they’ve run afoul of your canine captors.”
“What are we going to do Spike?” the young EarthWalker asked, looking up to the dragon.
“The first thing we’re going to do is get you home to your mother,” Spike told him. “Then maybe she’ll be able to come up with a plan. Now, you said that there was a path that leads back to the Hollow.”
“Oh yeah, it’s down there to the south.” Tricky led Spike down the hill and towards the mountain that separated ThornTail Hollow from SnowHorn Wastes. They saw a cave that led underground, but there was an overweight bulldog Diamond Dog in front of it. The bulldog was sitting in the middle of the opening, leaning on the spear it was carrying for support as it slept on duty. Its floppy jowls flapped as it snored like an engine and drool dripped from its mouth. “Uh-oh, there’s a guard. What are we going to do?”
The sound of Tricky’s comment woke the dog and it snorted as it snapped back to consciousness. It mumbled drowsily and looked about in a daze. In its sleep filled eyes, it saw a blurry purple figure standing next to a shorter orange figure. It blinked a couple times to clear its eyes and sat there a moment as its brain processed what it was seeing. When it realized that there were two intruders right in front of it, the bulldog barked in surprised and fumbled about with it spear as it tried to stand up. However, its arms wavered and its legs strained as it tried to lift its large round body off the ground. It fell back down on its rump and it tried fruitlessly again to raise itself help. The overweight guard panted from overexertion and soon abandoned that tactic and thought about sounding the alarm, but its panting prevented it from howling. The chubby bulldog then gave up interest and waved an uncaring paw at them as though to say, “Whatever.” Spike and Tricky looked at each, back to the guard, and to each other again in amused disbelief. They scoffed a bit and then walked up to the portly dog.
“Are you okay there?” Spike asked the heavily panting Diamond Dog. “You look like you’re out of breath.”
“None of your business,” it muttered between pants.
“So, you’re not going to try and stop us?”
“Meh, you not worth it,” it dismissed. Spike suppressed a laugh, but couldn’t help but to smile.
“So… Will you let us by?” Tricky asked hopefully.
“You pay me gems to pass,” the dog demanded. Off to the side, Spike could see one of those stalks that grew gems he saw in ThornTail Hollow.
“Um… sure, no problem,” Spike said as he walked over, plucked the red gem off the stalk, and handed it over to the dog.
The bulldog inspected the gem and said, “You pass, but don’t tell boss.”
“Oh sure, it’ll be our little secret,” Spike told the dog patronizingly. With some effort, dog slowly scooted on his rump to move out of the way and allowed Spike and Tricky to enter the underground tunnel.
“Well, that was easy,” Spike whispered to Tricky as they passed by the dog, who was admiring the gem that it could have gotten for itself. Spike wasn’t complaining though. It wasn’t his gem that he had to give up.
Once inside the cave, the duo could hear the sound of dripping water and the high pitched squeaks of bats. There was an opening that led to a corridor that went further into the mountain. As they followed the corridor, Spike noticed that it wasn’t a natural tunnel. The corridor’s walls and ceiling were carved and squared off. Spike’s suspicions were confirmed when he and Tricky rounded a corner and saw a canal of water. The water was flowing into the tunnel from vents in the walls and was flowing in the direction of ThornTail Hollow. Spike then realized that this was an aqueduct that supplied the Hollow with water from Ice Mountain. If that was the case, they were about to take a rather cold dip.
“Can you swim Tricky?” Spike asked.
“Yeah, of course I can,” he confirmed.
“Good, because we’re going to have to swim our way to the Hollow.” Spike went first and dove in. The dragon’s body instantly reacted to the freezing water and was paralyzed by the sensation. He paddled about, trying to get accustomed to the temperature, all the while his teeth were chattering. Tricky laughed at wide eyed expression of shock on Spike’s face. “Oh, y-you t-think t-t-this is f-f-funny?! Come on in, y-your n-next!”
It was Tricky’s turn to look nervous. He looked at the ice cold water and gulped. He mentally braced himself and jumped in. Unfortunately, all that mental preparation wasn’t enough to prepare him for the shock of the cold. Spike would be laughing if he wasn’t preoccupied shivering. The EarthWalker’s preferred swimming style was the dog paddle, sticking his head out of the water as he flailed his front feet about. It wasn’t the most graceful of styles, but it managed to keep Tricky afloat long enough for him to follow Spike down the aqueduct.
They followed the water until it started to flow through a grated vent at the end of the aqueduct. They hopped out onto a platform on the side that lead up another corridor, from which they could see daylight shining in. As they got out the water, Spike wiped off as much water as he could while Tricky shook like a dog. As they were drying off, Tricky spotted a circle of large blue and white mushrooms growing off to the side of the corridor.
“Grubtubs!” the young dinosaur excitedly yelled as he sprinted towards the fungi. To Spike’s surprise, the mushrooms took notice of the incoming dinosaur and started hopping away!
“Well, there goes something you don’t see every day,” Spike said to himself. As Spike was about to take another step, an intense wave of pain ran through his back. It was so strong that it forced Spike to take a knee. His vision blurred from the pain and Spike held his breath reflexively as he waited for it to pass. Tricky was bounding about happily as he chased after his breakfast. He caught one of the leaping mushrooms in his mouth and playfully shook it about like a dog with a chew toy. He gobbled it up and went after another one. As caught his second mushroom, he took notice of Spike’s predicament.
He swallowed the wiggling blue mushroom that he had in his mouth and asked, “Your back again?”
“Yeah…” Tricky went over to the remaining Grubtubs, caught a white one, and brought it over to the afflicted dragon.
“Here, try a white one. They taste nasty, but they’re supposed to make you feel better. My mom gives them to me when I’m not feeling well.” Spike took one look at the wiggling fungus and grimaced.
“No thanks,” Spike declined as he stood back up. The pain hadn’t completely faded, but they couldn’t stop now. “But I think your mother might need one. Let’s bring this one with us along with the others.”
Tricky herded up the remaining white Grubtubs and placed them in Spike’s bag before heading towards the exit. When they reached the top of the tunnel, they could see the Hollow from below them and the building where Spike had met the Queen EarthWalker. They wasted no time and ran down to it. As they reached the building Tricky rushed urgently inside with Spike limping behind him. The purple dragon held onto the wall with one claw to steady himself as he walked down into the bunker. Once inside, he was greeted by his teammates.
“Good job Spike. You’ve successfully rescued the Prince,” congratulated Captain Pepper. When he noticed Spike’s condition, he asked, “Are you alright there Spike? Are you injured?”
Spike shook his head and was about to explain when another wave hit him. He growled in discomfort and braced himself against the wall, his claws digging into the rock.
“Whoa! Spike, what’s wrong?!” Slippy asked. As the other three members of Star Fox huddled around the dragon with concern, Spike noticed that Tricky was kneeling beside his mother, who wasn’t looking too good herself.
“Here… give these to her,” Spike strained as he tossed his bag with the healing mushrooms inside it to Tricky and then headed back outside.
“Wait Spike, what’s going on? What’s in the bag?” Peppy asked.
“I’m growing wings,” Spike said without turning around.
“Wings? How did this come about?” the navigator asked.
“No time… Tricky will explain… I’ll be back…”
“Do you need some help?” the Captain asked.
“Do you want one of us to come with you?” Slippy offered.
“No… Need to be alone… for this…” Spike made his way across the valley towards the old golden dragon’s lair. The time between each wave was getter shorter and Spike could feel something stretching inside his back just below the surface of his scaly skin. As he entered the cave, another wave of agony hit him and he arched his back. He could feel something tearing and he roared in pain. The exertions from the stretching caused his legs to give out from underneath him and he feel to the cave’s floor. He crawled with trembling arms towards the fissure. His arms gave out and he rolled down the hole into his master’s domain. He landed on the pile of treasure, alerting the massive gold dragon of his presence. The ancient dragon took one look at Spike and knew what was happening.
“I will not lie to you,” Spike’s master said as picked up the smaller dragon and carried him further into the lair. “This will be the most painful thing you have ever experienced.”
Spike thrashed about uncontrollably in the giant claw, moaning and screaming. He barely noticed that his master had spoken to him or that he was being placed in a small grotto adjacent to the chamber filled with treasure. The ripping pain over his shoulder blades was so consuming that it blocked out the rest of the world. Spike’s thinking process had stopped and was now running solely on instinct. He was an animal, an animal that was in pain and didn’t know why. He reached out and stabbed the ground with his claws. His back started to bulge on the sides as something was trying to push its way out.
Spike raked the grotto’s floor with his claws, leaving deep gouges in the stone, and roared angrily. Some invisible enemy was hurting him and he wanted to fight back. His tormentor attacked again, causing him to howl. In retaliation, he sent a torrent of emerald flames into the air. Again it attack and Spike answered by slamming his fists into the grotto’s wall, causing the cavern to vibrate from the impact. He then started to rip away at the wall in a blind fury, sending chucks of rock everywhere.
Then it hit him. A huge spasm of pain locked his body into place as he arched his back. He stood there, still gripping the grotto’s wall, and threw his back but couldn’t scream because of his body was so clenched up. Like a coiled up spring, something in his back was struggling under the strain and was demanding to be released. Its demands were met and two wings shot out fully extended through the flesh of Spike’s back, sending a spray of blood and a clear fluid onto the grotto’s floor and walls.
It was a mixture of pain and relief. Though the wings bursting out of his back did hurt, the pressure had been relieved and it felt oh so good. Spike’s body trembled as it tried to recover from such an ordeal and he slowly turned his shaking head to look over his shoulder. Behind him, he could see two purple wings with a green membrane connecting them to his body. Tears of pain and relief fell from his eyes and he let out a small laugh as he gave his new wings a little flap. Suddenly, his muscles went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head as he fell unconscious to the floor.
During the entire spectacle, the old dragon had been watching over his apprentice. Once he saw that it was over and Spike had stop trashing about, he picked up the exhausted purple dragon and placed him a pool of water that was in the grotto. He scooped up a clawful of the cool water and poured it on Spike’s new wings and back. The water washed always the blood and other fluids that stained his scales.
Once Spike’s back was cleansed of the bodily fluids, the gold dragon could see the torn skin outlining the wings. The gold dragon took in a breath and started to make a deep rumbling sound in his throat. He extended his neck towards Spike and opened his mouth. Instead of fire, a soft but warm orange light was exhaled. Spike’s weary body was bathed in the light and he started to glow orange. As the orange light enveloped Spike, the torn skin on his back started mend and fresh scales covered the raw flesh until his wings seamlessly connected to his back. There were a few pieces of dead skin still hanging on here and there, but they will eventually flake off with time.
Once the healing magic had done its purpose, the master dragon ceased the spell and the orange glow that covered Spike faded. The dark gold dragon sat back and watched the younger dragon while he rested and recovered. The ancient wyrm smirked as he felt a sense of nostalgia as memories of the time he grew his own wings filled his head.
*****
“Can’t this thing going any faster?” Rainbow Dash griped as she sat with her forelegs grumpily crossed. She was traveling in a hot air balloon over the eastern sea along with her friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle. “It’ll gonna take us forever to get there! I still don’t see why I can’t go ahead and fly there myself.”
“Now Rainbow,” Applejack said to sky blue Pegasus. “You may be the fastest flier in Equestria, but it’s a long way to this here ‘Krazoa Island’ place.”
“Is that so AJ?” the mare with multicolored mare asked as she rose to her hooves. “You think I can’t to do it? Ha! I bet I could fly there and back without breaking a sweat!”
“Ah’m not sayin’ anythin’,” the farmer tried to calm her competitive friend. “All Ah meant was that we should stick together. Is that right Twilight?”
She turned to the lavender Alicorn, but she wasn’t listening. She was too busy staring off towards the horizon with a look of concern, distracted by her own thoughts.
“Twilight?” Applejack asked again and then placed a hoof on her shoulder.
“Hm?” Twilight looked over to Applejack when she realized that she was being spoken to.
“You okay there sugar cube?”
“Oh, yes I’m fine,” she answered as she looked back over the side of the balloon. “I’m just worried about Spike.”
“We all are,” Fluttershy reassured her.
“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie added, who had previously had been excitedly bouncing up and down as she enjoyed view of the sea from their balloon. “But just imagine how great it will be when we see him again! When we meet up with Rarity and find Spike, we’ll have a great big group hug and we can throw an amazing welcome home party for him once we get back! Ooh, we can even invite the dinosaurs that live on the island! That is, the ones that don’t eat meat. I mean, it’ll be kinda hard to have a party when half of the guests are trying to eat the other half.”
Twilight couldn’t help but to smile and slightly chuckle at Pinkie’s boundless optimism. It was infectious and she was glad to have a good friend who could brighten even the gloomiest of days. However, Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss. Call it a mother’s instinct, but she felt like something big happened to Spike and she wasn’t there for him. Whatever it was, she hoped that he was alright.