Chapter 4. One-Sided Confrontation
Spike snaps back to reality when his tongue felt the backs of his teeth. His tongue moved without him knowing so, until it had found an open space. There used to be a tooth in that open space, but it was long gone. And there had never grown a tooth back to fill the void.
His lost tooth was the trophy tooth taken by that blue unicorn. Realizing just now that Spike, unfortunately, never caught the name of that blue unicorn.
After his senses became aware of where his tongue was feeling, Spike’s brain started to function again. As he continued his way, Spike started to think, as usual.
“I really hope he enters the Everfree forest alone someday” Spike said to himself, while he extended his claws and took a stance like he was ready to attack someone. The sight of a attacking dragon, even a small one, is a frightening idea of almost any creature. Even too most creatures in the Everfree forest
“He doesn’t even need to be alone” Spike thought. “one, two, three, four stallions, it doesn’t really matter now” , revering to the whole group of stallions that had beaten him up.
This statement was coming from a different Spike, and not the one they had fought on that day more than three years ago. Current Spike was no longer a pushover. Besides the fact that he had grown even more and that he had stronger claws, he also had a thicker layer of scales and fare more battle experience.
The Everfree forest is beautiful in his opinion, but also brutal. And He has the scars from his many encounters with the Timberwolves to prove it. A big scratch on his back, cuts on his arms and legs, and a large but faint scars on his face. A scar that begins at his left eyebrow, just missing his eye, and stops at his chin. Not deep and ugly looking, but menacing enough to get the point across.
“I could go back” said Spike to himself again, as he walked in and out of the shade of the trees. “I could make them pay for what they have done, and finally give them that fair fight they always wanted” “I could even get my tooth back, and give them a few tooth marks”
Even though Spike hasn’t set foot in that village for years ,his old home is still close, and if he really wanted to, he could go back and probably rip those colts to shreds while he was at it.
“No” Spike thought, snapping back from his fantasies. “I made them a promise”
He banished all his thoughts about revenge back to the far corners of his mind, and just keeps on walking the familiar dirt road. That is until something very odd came to his attention.
Spike had just passed a few trees, when he heard desperate screams coming from what was probably a clearing in the woods nearby.
“PLEASE HELP!!!” Two or three female voices screamed in union. Spike, on instinct, hurried to the source of the screaming, while his claws extended.
“I will show that I am not a push-over like before” Spike said out loud while he thought about the day of his beating.
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* flashback*
Spike found himself looking in a mirror of the library’s bathroom after arriving at his home, examining his face and body for the taken damage. He looked at himself from head to toe, but the ponies that that beaten him up were right, his scales did take a lot of the beating.
Thanks to his scales there was no evidence of physical pain, only a few darkened spots, and a bit of blood running from his mouth. Like he had only fallen flat on his face, after falling of a few stairs. Nothing serious for a dragon. At least nothing serious based on outward appearances.
Even though is outside appearance didn’t look bruised or beaten up, Spike could still feel a lot of pain. The place where his now missing teeth once was throbbing, and his head felt swollen. His arms and legs also hurt a lot when Spike tried to use them, only for them to feel stiff and heavy when he didn’t use them. The things that hurt the most were the places where the stallions gave him a beating. Namely his chest
“I should have burned them, that would have given them the fair fight they wanted to ‘teach’ me” was the first thought that came to his mind. Burning them would have probably resulted in a very angry mob of ponies, consisting of ponies who were present there.
Spike gave his reflection one last glance and sighted. With nothing more to do in the bathroom, he just returned to the now clean library, except for a few books still lying on the stairs, to find the basket he left standing by the broken door. The basket itself didn’t have any implication that it once could be used as a basked. The entire thing was flattened under the weight of than one stallion’s hooves , and the fragile things like plates were broken in big and small pieces. Alone with the quill order from Twilight.
There was nothing he could about that at the moment, only wait until the Twilight arrived back at home. Spike dragged himself too his bedroom, and laid down on the blanket that acted as his bed. He had outgrown his basket some time ago.
“Just wait for Twilight” was the first thought that came to his now tired mind.
He seemed to do that a lot lately, just waiting for Twilight. Just wait until she needed him for something, or wanted to speak with him. Or let him prepare something where he wasn’t a part of to begin with. Like making a picnic, for which he parently wasn’t invited. Being left out.
And things didn’t get better now that twilight was a princess, and busier than ever. Everyone was getting further in life it seemed. Rainbow was invited back to the wonderbolts, Rarity began making a name for herself in the fashion world. Fluttershy was becoming an respected animal ranger. Applejack was busy running the apple-farm, and whatever Pinkie Pie was doing, Spike was sure she was busy too.
And how was spike’s life going at this moment. Not so good, as all ponies in Ponyville seemed to hate him. Begging him not to eat them, glaring at him, and silently approving the beating he was put through this very day.
“Is this going to be my life?” Spike asked himself while trying to feel comfortable on his new sleeping place. “Am I being left behind while everponies’ Lives are going on to better things?” he asked himself one more, while drifting off to and unwilling sleep.
‘CRASH’
Spike jolted awake from his loud sound coming from beneath him, and he was fully awake when he heard the word “SPIKE” yelled very loudly, as an answer to the loud crash.
Spike knew that this could only mean one thing, because The voice that shouted came from downstairs and belonged to a very disgruntled sounding Princess Twilight Sparkle. Spike guessed that she had discovered the broken door.
“I shouldn’t have gone to sleep” Spike thought, as he ran from the bedroom, closing the door with a bang, and hurried to the main part of the library to see Twilight. “I should have eased her into this”. Deep in thought spike didn’t noticed one left over book from his cleaning session this morning, and tripped. He fell down from the stairs in such a way that it would have great as an example of slapstick humour.
Unfortunately the character in question, in case of good slapstick, has always done something to deserve his comical beating. And spike did not deserve it, at least in his own honest opinion .
After tumbling forward a couple of time, Spike finally reached the bottom of the stairs, with a muffled grunt of pain. That’s is what you get for greeting the floor with your entire front body. Not real pain, but more of a mixture of a sight, a grunt, and an expression of annoyance made in sound. Again, Spike was grateful for his thick scales.
It was silent for a couple of seconds, as Spike finally looked up to meet the eyes of a very annoyed Princess Twilight Sparkle. Her eyes almost beamed disapproval, as she picked spike up with a flick of her magic.
“Spike, what happened here? “ What the first thing she said. But before spike had found his balance, or was able the answer her
question, Twilight started to fire question after question at him. Not only questions but a few of her remarks as well
“ Spike, what happened to the door?” followed by “I told you to keep your strength in check, didn’t I?”
“And what happened to the basket?, please don’t tell me my quills are crushed too”
“And do you mind explaining the stories I have heard in town about you going around harassing little fillies, offending their mother, and starting a fight with a group of stallions?”
It went on like this for a couple of minutes, with no breaks in between for spike to answer the questions. Twilight voice grew lower and sounded more irritated than before. It was like she was scolding a child for stealing candy out of the closet. But she eventually stopped, and the look on her face told spike that he should start explaining.
First the door was explained with only a few words, and following was an irritated sigh from Twilight
Then came the more difficult stuff.
“Twilight, I didn’t harass those little fillies, I was only trying to get back their kite” spike began. “one of the fillies mother came barging in and hit me on the head with her purse, which caused me to rip the kite” “she thought I did it on purpose, and started to hit me again, and I did not offend her in any way” “She was just afraid of me, like everyone else”
“After I ran into you and took the basket with me , I went to the quills and sofas store and got your quills for you” Spike continued. “I also returned rarity’s book to her boutique”
Spike took a deep breath between sentences. He still wondered how twilight could continue speaking for so long with limited oxygen.
“After I returned that book, I was stopped by that group of stallions” “they wanted to fight with me because they had heard that I had harass those little fillies, and the mother” “I never started the fight, they did!” “And it was never a fight to begin with, they just beat me up while everypony was just watching!”
That last sentence turned out to be a shout, because the princess of magic was not looking convinced by his story.
“Spike” she began “here you go saying again that everyone is afraid of you, but what have you done to deserve that fear from everyone?”
“I already told you, it is because I am growing again”
“That cannot be the only reason, Spike” She said with a ‘you are wrong and I am right’ kind of tone in her voice. “they were not afraid of you right after you partly destroyed our town” “And besides, you don’t look beaten up to me”
Spike went silent, trying to think of another answer to counter twilight’s statement. “You know I have thick scales”
“And that is really convened for you, isn’t it?”
“they even knocked one of my teeth out, here see for yourself!”
Just as spike came closer to twilight to show the gap between his teeth, Twilight began to speak again.
“Spike, this is not a matter of trust, or the fact that I believe you or not” Twilight said,"And I am sorry for being so irritated, but this is about you not doing your job as my assistant” “I trust you to handle your responsibilities given to you, while I take a day off, and I trust you not to slack off”. Twilight stopped for a moment to get her point across “But I return to a mess, which causes me even more work”
“But everything that happened today wasn’t my fault” Spike began to explain.
“That may be, if what you are saying is actually the truth” Twilight answered, but just on the moment spike wanted to protest against her statement, she interrupted him. “And if you were faster with you errands instead of coming to me at the picnic, nothing would have ever happened”
“But I just wanted to have some company!” Spike exclaimed “Even you can’t deny that nopony in town likes to be around me, or even see me” “And today it was like even you didn’t want to be arou…”
“What was that spike?” twilight asked in an undentifyable tone.
Spike quickly stopped speaking, and fortunately didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t need an even angrier or irritated Twilight at this moment, and quickly stared at the clean library floor. waiting for a reply from his ‘boss’, he looked up again after losing a staring contest with the floor. That floor always seemed to beat him. It was an unfair fight to begin with, just as his struggle with Twilight.
Twilight expression had softened a bit. It was like she finally understood him, and that she had worked out a plan for this problem.
“Spike, I know these times are not easy on you” twilight began. “But they are not easy for me as well, and that is why I need your help”
“I have just turned into an alicorn, and I am busier that ever before” “I haven’t seen my friends for almost a week now, and I took this day off just to be around them for a while” Twilight paused for a few seconds, apparently thinking about the things she should say next. “Do you understand my situation spike?” “I have to get used to this new situation as well, and I need your help as an assistant to be able to function normally” “Without you helping, I wouldn’t see my friends anymore” “And now I have even more work to do because you didn’t do your assignments right”
“I understand that, but I didn’t get to see my friend…..” Spike begun.
“Spike I already said that I don’t have time for a discussion right now” Twilight said interrupting him making it clear that continuing this argument was not going to happen “I need your help by fixing the door, and scribing a few reports for me right now” She began walking to worth her workplace. She was almost visibly proud of her judgement
“But Twilight, when will things start to work out for me?”
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to face Spike again, with an almost forced smile on her face. “ Spike, I already told you, Things will get better once we get used to our new situation, I promise you.” After that promise she continued her way to her reading, and expected Spike to follow her.
Spike sighed, as he finally followed twilight too even more work for him to do today. “I believe you twilight, and I hope you are right.”
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“How could I have been so stupid back than” Spike said to himself as he ran to the source of the screaming. Even an idiot could see that the promise was empty for him, even from the beginning. The only thing that promise cleared up was that Twilight was placing herself and others before him. His inability to see that still bugged Spike to this every day, and even to this very minute as he heard another scream coming from nearby.