Dreams of a Dragon

by jh 8


Chapter 2: Growing Pains

Chapter 2 Growing Pains.

A lesson from life itself. Spike thought about this for a while. Truth be told, it had been a long time since he last thought about this. But of course it had been quite some time since his life had changed. A lot had changed since that time, but that couldn’t stop him from thinking about the for him so nostalgic words ‘Spike, take a letter. The princess must know about this lesson’

Spike climbed down the tree after resting for a while. He did this by rope, a handy tool which he always carried around. You never know when it could be useful, right?

When his feet hit the ground, he looked around the area for some breakfast. There could be some tasty berries or something. He had to rely on berries, fruit, and vegetables when he was out in the woods because the ground in the Everfree forest was not rich in gemstones.

He still didn’t know much about dragons, and wasn’t even sure if fruits and berries are a good diet for a growing dragon. He often wondered over a another question: do dragons eat meat? Not that he would ever do such a thing.

“Damn, no luck today” Spike said to himself when he didn’t saw a eatable thing in his immediate area. He then realised that he was talking to himself again. A sign of being crazy. Spike didn’t like his habit, but it is the only conversation he has nowadays. There isn’t anyone to talk to in the forest, only Zecora, whom Spike visits sometimes.

Spike then. decided to walk back to his ‘home’. Home maybe a strong word to use for a cave where he sleeps most of his nights (and days if he feels like it). It was more a hide-out really. But that hide-out had a stash of gemstones waiting for him to ease his feelings of hunger. He had discovered the precious stones while he was searching the cave for signs of life. He wouldn’t want to come across a ursa-minor of major. He had learned his lesson during his adventure with the adult green dragon. When spike found the gemstones, but no dragon who was protecting them.

Spike in the meantime walked past a fallen tree, and looked at the path ahead of him. The path wasn’t dark or scary, it was even sunny because it was now late in the morning. The path was surrounded by trees and other plants and even some animals who life in those trees. It was like a walk in a park, or even his own backyard. Then again his wasn’t the most densely grown part of the forest, heck there was even sunlight. Spike had lived in those parts of the forest too, with it’s scary thick spikey fines and ravines. But he managed. His new life was lonely sometimes, but he could make due

The Everfree forest isn’t all that bad, that is maybe because the dark magic of nightmare moon disappeared. But no pony dares to enter or stay in this place, and are generally afraid of the things that come from this forest, even if it is a zebra. It is a place where monsters an dark creatures live. Thinking about that made spike frown, it was probably enough proof for a pony to stay away from this plays because he lives here. A monster in little fillies dreams, a dragon.

There are still Timberwolves in the forest, but they don’t pose a threat to spike anymore. He was still a baby dragon, but was not a little baby dragon anymore. Spike in now the size of a full-grown stallion. He is also a lot sleeker, having lost all his baby fat. But his new thin appearance should not fool you, he has the strength of two stallions, and if he really wanted to, two stallions and a mare. He also had larger and stronger claws to make the picture complete.

Yes, his growth had been his blessing, because none of the smaller predators, including timberwolves could catch him. “But it is also your curse” Spike thought sadly to himself. With his growth many problems started for him, and he was suddenly taken back to a dream he had, about a day in his past life.

A day years ago.

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He was busy in the kitchen putting together a nice, and tasty picnic for his friend, rainbow dash’s special day. She had received a letter which spoke of another training session at wonderbolt academy, meaning her dream came closer to be true. Rainbow had asked twilight to make a nice picnic for today, twilight of course has an assistant who can do it for her, while she catches up on studying.

Spike filled the basket with cupcakes, sandwiches and other tasty treats he made. While turning to get the last pair of cupcakes, he knocked over some pots. He was still not used to his increased size. He had grown the last couple of weeks and he was quite happy about is. Twilight sparkle, who was disturbed while she was studying, wasn’t and she entered the library’s kitchen.
Silly him. It wasn’t just twilight sparkle anymore, it was Princess twilight sparkle now .

“Spike, I told you to watch out” She said while lifting the fallen pots up with her purple magic and put them back on the table. Her irritated look changed when she saw the full basket of threats and delicacies meant for the picnic. “wow, that looks delicious spike” she said with kind of a praising tone. “and just in time to, it is almost time for the picnic”.

“great” he said “when are we going?”

He saw twilight looking up when he asked her the question. She than faced him with a familiar expression on her face, an expression he knew all too well, and he didn’t like were this was going.

“well Spike, you see” twilight began “I actually need you to do some chores and errands for me, and it is not like you are actually invit-“ She probably stopped talking when she realised what she was about to say.

“I mean the library is a mess because of the last study session, what would the costumers think” twilight tried to reason “and I need you to pick up some quills and paper by the quills and sofa store, and you know a princess can’t just take a day off without having someone helping her do the work”

“alone, but twilight you know how they look at me when I am alone”

twilight stopped talking when she saw he was looking down at the ground with a sad expression on his face. She quickly assessed the situation, and came with a solution that would serve both parties. Spike would do his chores, end would join the picnic much later, given the size of her study mess. and with this she could also ignore his last statement.

“Oh cheer up spike, rainbow probably just forgot to invite you”

This didn’t really make him feel better, and twilight probably saw that too .

“Tell you what spike, if you are done with your chores and work you can join us for the picnic”

“A picnic I made” He said silently and disappointed and a little bit too much spite, hoping twilight didn’t hear him.

“What was that, Spike?” twilight asked sternly. She apparently didn’t like the tone coming from her number 1 assistant.

“nothing” He quickly answered. He knew that he wasn’t going to win this, and that an argument wouldn’t be favourable for him in his situation. He couldn’t join the picnic if twilight was mad at him. But he still thought it was unfair.

He looked up at his ‘boss’ and sighed and finally said: “fine” with as much fake happiness and enthusiasm as he could muster up. How long could cleaning up, and running an errand take?

“Great” twilight said while she took the basket with food with het in a glow made of purple colored magic and quickly took her leave.

“Yeah see you later” he said too no one really, because mid-sentence he heard the front door of the library open and close with a loud SLAM. Princess twilight had left the building.

He sighed again, trying to feel less disappointed, and picked himself up to walk to the main part of the library. If he was quick he could be done with his work in a matter of minutes.

With high hopes he opened the door, but what he saw there made him almost have a heart attack. Books were scattered everywhere, open and closed, up and under the shelves, on the staircase and lastly in huge piles on the table. It looked like an hurricane ravaged the whole library. A silent, quick reading, purple/lavender colored hurricane.

Whole bookshelves were emptied, and one was even knocked down. and no book was in a systematic order.

Spike’s assumptions that this was just going to take a few minutes were wiped from the figurative map, because this was going to take hours. He felt frustrated. “What this the reason Twilight left in such a hurry? “ He asked himself.

Taking a deep breath, spike started his work. Starting with the fallen book shelve and pulling it back up. Than he picked the books up from the ground, staircase, and table and put them in an alphabetical order. when the library was finally sparkling with cleanness, a huge chunk of time had passed. It may not have been hours upon hours, but it was at least two hours to get his work done.
His back had started to ache from all the bending, and he stretched himself to get the feeling back in his body. Also the feeling of hunger kicked in.

The young dragon didn’t lose hope. Even if he came close to losing hope during his long cleaning session. “If I go now and do the errand , I may still be able to join the last part of the picnic” Spike said to himself with a hope filled voice.

He took one last glance at the now clean library and pulled the front door open. The door, apparently didn’t approve of his action, and gave a squeaking and breaking sound.

Spike was startled by this sound, and checked the door for any damage he might have caused. The lower hinge of the door was broken and probably beyond repair. He grumbled in frustration

Spike could slap himself in the face. His new bigger body meant also more strength. Twilight would get his scaly behind for this (in a non-sexual fashion of course). Now he had to get a new hinge for the door too.

Taking a quick mental note of this spike left the library. It was a beautiful day after al. the sun was shining, the grass was green, and everything was ever so peaceful in Ponyville. he started walking down the road from the library to the shops in the center of town . While walking at a decent pace, probably because of his slightly longer legs, He noted that ponyville itself was looking good. It was almost a miracle, especially for a town that seems to get destroyed on a monthly, if not weekly basis. Of course he himself had been the cause of that some time ago, but he did everything to keep his greed in check. Something that wasn’t always easy for a growing dragon

Spike was not proud of what he had done, but was happy that he was forgiven by most of the citizens of ponyville. By most of he meant the ponies he was close to. Because other ponies, even on this beautiful day seemed to ignore him, turning around when he approached them, and glared at him from a distance.

This was why he hated to walk alone.

He tried to make them feel different about him. He would ask strangers if he could do anything for them, or if somepony was alone if he or she needed company. Never with much success, and spike had a feeling that today was not going to be different.
His slightly increased size and bigger and sharper claws didn’t help his case, as ponies walked with a large circle around him. Spike could hear them whisper and see them glare at him with distrustful eyes and sometimes eyes filled with fear.

“Why is that creature wandering alone in public?”

“Where is his leash?”

“Why aren’t the elements with him to keep him in check?”

“ The princess should have removed him from ponyville a long time ago”

“Why is he still here?, he gives my little fillies nightmares”

“Don’t look at him, he might follow us home, and eat us all”

“Aren’t slave supposed to stay at their master’s home”

“He keeps getting bigger”

“He is going to destroy us all”

“Put that thing in a cage”

“Bring it back to the forest where it belongs, alongside all the other monsters”

His hopeful attitude disappeared upon hearing all this, and he didn’t even bother getting them to change their minds about him today . He did the thing he always did when he was walking alone. Staring at the ground, pretending he didn’t hear anything, and just walk on.

The worst thing about this was that sometimes, Spike started to believe them. That he really was that monster that destroyed the town. But he couldn’t give into that. Even though all those whispers did hurt him a lot. Even if it was not fair. A dragon cannot show tears, and he certainly cannot start doubting himself.

He finally came to a clearing, and he was close to where twilight and the others were picnicking. Twilight conveniently didn’t tell him where they were picnicking. Even though he could not see them yet. It was close to the park, with a lot of trees.

Spike decided to keep on walking when he suddenly heard laughter from the right of him. He saw two young fillies, younger than the CMC, playing with a yellow and pink colored Kite. The fillies themselves were a light colour of purple and the other one was blue. They were playing happy until they saw Him and stared at him, not with fear but with a kind of fascination , and forgot the pay attention to the kite in the air. The kite, of course, got stuck in one of the surrounding trees.

He saw the little fillies looking at him. Their looks were pleading, and tears started to form in the corners of their eyes. He decided to help the little unicorn and Pegasus with the current problem. He just couldn’t resist their begging eyes. He could also proof himself that he wasn’t the monster everypony thought he was.

He swiftly climbed the tree, while using his new longer arms to grab the branches. He quickly got the top of the tree. There he tried to grab the kite, stretching out his whole body, finally grabbing a string that was connected to the kite. But he stretched too far, and lost his grip while finally holding on the kite, and fell the grass covered ground with an almost audible crash.

Lucky for him that he Has thick scales, he didn’t feel much of the crash-landing.

He looked up from his little made hole in the ground, and saw the little fillies longingly staring at the kite. The kite itself was still in Spike’s sharp claws, and miraculously survived the fall. It was a good time to give it back. Luck never stays this long

While spike was getting up, he heard something coming from behind him. It sounded like fast stamping hooves, like somepony was running towards him, and fast. He finally got up and hold the kite out to the fillies to grab it from his claws, when the sound of stamping hooves was right behind him.

SLAM

He that felt pain at the back of his head. Like he was hit with something. And even worse ,thanks to the hit to his head, he lost his composure and tightened his claws, which tore holes in the kite. The little fillies, right on cue , started to cry loudly.

“How dare you harass my daughter and her friend” A female voice said to him. “And look what you did to her kite.

Spike turned around to face his attacker, but was hit in the head again, with a purse. A purse that left like it was filled with rocks.
“what do you think you are doing, you scaly monster” The mare said. He couldn’t see her clearly ,but he could see that she had a light yellow colour with orange hear, and was a unicorn. Spike knew that because the purse was floating in mid-air. It was either that, or he was hid in the head to hard.

“bullying ponies that are younger than you, or are you looking for your next mail” she said with a ravaging voice.

“Well, you see” Spike began, “I was only trying to help, their kite got stuck in the tree and..”
SMACK, a another blow to his head landed, and he almost fell to the ground.

“Yeah right, a monster like you trying to do something nice, just like the time you destroyed our town” the mare said while smirking “You already caused enough problems for us here in ponyville, do you need to ruin the younger generation to?” She said while almost looking like she was going to explode .“You should be on a leash”

Spike looked at the young fillies for help. Surely the would be able to talk, they were old enough for that. They could explain the situation, right?

The young fillies just stared at him, like it was some kind of movie, just waiting to see what would happen next.

“But..” Spike began, but it was too late. The mare had already picked up her daughter and her friend with her magic, and shot him a glare. “Just wait until the rest of ponyville hears about this.”

“it is all a misunderstanding” Spike tried, but not to avail. The mare just kept on walking. Dragging the two little fillies behind her, who just seem to want the kite, the kite that was left behind.

He could try to follow her, to explain the real situation, but what difference would it make. Nopony was going to believe him. He was just a dumb scaly predator in her eyes. And nopony in town was going to be on his side if it was his word against hers.

His feeling of helplessness turned into anger and frustration. He almost wanted to scream. Why wasn’t he ever believed? Why was everyone always against him for no reason? He never give them a reason to be mad or wary of him, when he was his normal self. They only knew that he was that big dragon that destroyed the town because somepony had told them. He still didn’t know who it was.

If they hadn’t know that piece of information, would they still make him an outcast? Probably, because even the ponies that still didn’t know that he was the big dragon that destroyed their town, ignored and gossiped about him. About that growing threat, a threat with new claws and size, that nopony should trust, or treat like a normal citizen.

Spike stood there for a few moments, completely lost in thoughts. That was him trying to make the best of things. He needed to stay positive. That is what he always told himself to do

“At least my friends don’t treat me like I’m an abomination” He said to himself, feeling that he needed some friendly company. “they are probably around here somewhere”

Knowing that this day couldn’t get any worse, he set out to find his friends, hoping that there was still some food left to eat for him.
“twilight wouldn’t mind if I did my errands a bit later”

He sprung up from his standing position with a sparkle of hope. Only to take a few staps, and smack himself back to the ground with a large BANG. He had fallen in the hole that he made in the ground when he fell from the tree.

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Meanwhile, current Spike also fell to the ground with a large BANG. Being so actively busy with his dreamy flashback, that he didn’t see tree roots sticking out of the dirt.

“why does life always smack me down” He asked himself with a grumpy low sounding voice, while a couple of birds seem to laugh at him from their nest hight in a tree.