//------------------------------// // Episode 1-2: New Resident Dragon Part II // Story: MLP: Spike's Story // by Aura Zero //------------------------------// Spike groaned as he awoke from his slightly painful nap. "Ow, my head. Must have taken a hard hit to affect me like this..." Spike tried to get up and noticed he was tucked nicely in his bed. Twi must have put me here after the whole incident... Wait, where is she? Spike looked around and noticed she wasn't around. He then heard noise downstairs. "She must be down there looking for some way to stop this from happening. I mean come on, eternal night? How would that even work?" Spike frowned at the whole situation. "Twi was right. It happened just like she said and I didn't even believe her.... Some assistant I am. I gotta make it up to her!" With new resolve, Spike quickly ran down the stairs, eager to help his long time friend out in any way possible. Once he could see the ground level of the library, he noticed Twilight with five mares: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. They were crowded around her as she read from a book in her magic. "It is said that the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is now located in what is now the Everfree forest!" Spike's eyes grew wide at this. The Everfree Forest? But its dangerous there! Spike then noticed that the mares started to leave. "Wait!" Spike called out to them but it was too late and they didn't hear them. He decided to follow and try to catch up, but stopped when he got outside. The town was in a panic. Ponies were running every which way, no real destination in mind. Spike looked at the retreating forms of the six mares and back at the town. "I have to calm these ponies down. I'm sure Twilight can figure this out without me. I have full faith in her. I'll make sure that the town is okay when they get back!" Spike said before running towards Town hall again. The town looked a mess for some reason. Carts were flipped over, spilling produce everywhere, plants and small gardens were trampled over, its like nopony had any common sense when trouble hits. Spike finally made it to the Town Hall, which was just as bad, if not worse than the town itself. Most ponies were still there panicking, screaming and yelling that the world is ending and such. The world isn't ending, she didn't even say that. Spike thought before getting on stage. He wanted to get everypony's attention for this to work out. "Listen up everypony!" Spike said loudly, but it was drowned out by the panicked yells of the ponies. "Quiet down!" Spike tried but it was still no use. He then noticed a megaphone nearby him. Well that's convenient. He then picked it up and took a deep breath before speaking. "Everypony listen up!!" Immediately after he finished speaking, the room got deathly silent and all heads turned to him. Their panicked stares made him slightly nervous, but he steeled himself to continue. He put the megaphone down and proceeded to talk. "This is no time to panic! Right now we need to stay calm. If we wait, things will be fine soon enough." Spike said calmly. "Wait for what? Our end?" One mare that he remembered was called Lyra said. "No. I'm sure things will work out. Twilight went out to go take care of things and soon, everything will be fine." Spike tried to reassure them. "Twilight? What can she do? She's just one pony. How can she stop that alicorn if the royal guard couldn't?" A mare named Sweetie Drops said nearby Lyra. "She didn't go alone. She was with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. With Twilight leading them, I'm sure she will find a way to fix things. She is the Princess' faithful student after all and knows just about everything. I'm sure she knows a way to stop Nightmare Moon." "But what if they fail?" The mayor said frightened. "They wont. I have complete faith that Twilight will fix everything. So, in the meantime, we need to stay calm and not go into town panic mode. Plus we need to get some help for the injured guards here." Spike said pointing to two guards still unconscious and two groaning from some sort of injury. The mayor seemed to calm down at his words. "You're right. All we can do right now is hope for the best. Nurse Redheart! Help get these guards to the hospital so we can treat them!" A mare with a white coat and faded cerise mane jumped up with a quick nod. "I'll get right on it!" She said before her, along with a few other ponies, helped the injured ones up to their hooves, while one unconscious guard was taken by a big red stallion Spike remembered was called Big Macintosh. The other was lifted by two guards that came in late. Spike then looked around at the ruined Town hall and put up a smile before speaking up. "Hey, we might as well make this place look nice when they come back with the princess. Also, we should clean up the town and calm the frantic ponies outside as well. Who's with me?" The ponies smiled slightly and nodded before setting out to clean everything up. Some ponies went out to calm the rest of the populace that bolted away, while others decided to clean up Town Hall. Spike and the mayor worked together to make sure everything was in place and back to how it originally was. Thankfully, nothing was damaged and was merely moved, so fixing up the Town Hall was easy. After a few hours, they were done and Spike looked at the neat and nice looking hall once more. "Great job everypony! I'm sure the princess will love it when she gets back!" Spike then noticed outside still looked slightly tattered. "Now we gotta get the outside cleaned up." The ponies merely nodded and went outside to clean everything up. They fixed stands and returned the produce back to them. They also fixed a few doors from ponies breaking them out of panic. Spike was fixing an apple stand when something gleamed out the corner of his eye. He turned to look and, far off in the distance, he saw some light climbing over a hill. Spike smiled wide at seeing it. He noticed others stopped and stared at it as well. "Its the sun! Its rising!" "That means that everything is okay again! We're saved!" Spike smiled, looking at all the ponies cheering, glad that everything went well. I knew you could do it Twi. I believed in you one hundred percent. The mayor walked over to Spike with a big smile on her face. "I guess what you said earlier was the truth. Everything did turn out great in the end. I can't thank you enough for calming the town and myself down. Who knows what would've happened if things stayed the way it were." Spike smiled and rubbed his spines. "Aw, I didn't do much. Twilight and the others are the ones who must have stopped Nightmare Moon." Spike then had an idea, along with an image of a pink pony in mind. "Ya know, we should throw a party for them, thanking them for saving Equestria from eternal night and stuff." The mayor smiled happily. "That's an excellent idea! Attention everypony! Lets throw a thank you party for our friends before they return!" The ponies cheered before setting up the party all around the town. They decided since the sun has already risen that they can combine the party with the celebration. After finishing the setup, They all waited for the six to return, but didn't have to wait long as the six, along with a carriage holding two alicorns, came into view. They were curious on who the new alicorn was, but Spike didn't care. As soon as he saw Twilight, he bolted straight for her. "Twilight!" Spike said happily as he threw himself into a hug with her. He knew she would take care of things, but that still didn't keep him from worrying about the mare. "Hey Spike. Didn't think you would be awake right now. That hit looked painful." Twilight said happily nuzzling her assistant. "Of course I'd be awake. There was a problem, but I'm glad I didn't have to worry about it. I knew you would fix things Twi." Twilight smiled warmly. "Thanks Spike. What's all this?" She said gesturing to all the decorations across town. "It's a party we set up as a thank you for saving everypony!" Spike said proudly, signaling everypony else to cheer as they ran over and congratulated the mares. Spike smiled at the scene before noticing Twilight seemed down slightly. "Twilight? Something wrong?" Spike said nudging her. "Yes Twilight, is something the matter?" The two turned and saw Celestia walk over. "Aren't you happy that you have saved Equestria and can now go back to your studies in Canterlot?" Twilight sighed. "That's just it princess. I don't want to go back. After meeting and becoming friends with them, I then have to leave them before we truly gotten to know each other and become close." Spike smiled at that. Guess she did make friends after all. Sucks that we have to leave soon afterwards... Spike snapped out of his thoughts when Celestia addressed him. "Spike, take a letter." "On it!" Spike said using his fire to summon up a quill and parchment. I'm glad I learned to be able to bring up these easy. Now I don't have to walk around with them. "I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission. She must learn the value of friendship and report to me her findings from her new home, Ponyville." Spike smiled as he wrote the message down. We get to stay? Awesome! Now we can hang with our new friends more! Although it will suck to pack everything and move it here... Spike turned and saw Twilight smiling wide, surrounded by her new friends. It was a genuine and pure smile, one Spike hasn't seen in a long time. I guess it would be worth it to see her smile like that every day. The party/celebration kicked off happily after that. Ponies started toasting and dancing, glad that the crisis was averted. Twilight spent some quality time with her new five best friends. Spike walked over to Celestia, who was chatting with the alicorn he remembered and grew curious about. "Hi princess!" Spike said with a smile. The two alicorns turned to him, Celestia smiling warmly at him, while the mysterious alicorn eyed him curiously. "Hello Spike. How are you?" "Great now that everything is back to normal... well, almost normal." Spike took a small glance at the six group of mares. He then turned back to them. "So, who's this if you don't mind me asking." Spike looked towards the other alicorn who shifted nervously. "Greetings. We are Princess Luna, Celestia's sister." Spike's eyes grew wide at hearing this. "Sister? Really? I never knew you had a sister! Why didn't you tell me?" Celestia frowned. "At the time, it wasn't something I was excited to speak of Spike..." Luna then nuzzled her sister making her smile again. Spike was still slightly confused. Where has she been all this time? I've never seen her around the castle. He decided to speak up on it. "So, where have you been this whole time? Were you on vacation or something?" This time, Luna frowned. Celestia returned the earlier gesture and nuzzled her gently. "Go ahead. I'm here if you need me." Luna solemnly nodded and looked at the dragon. "We are.... or we were, the mare that sought out eternal night." Spike's eyes grew wide at that but she continued before he could say anything. "We were so jealous of our sister and how she had the most attention, as well as all of the ponies admiring her day, however, slept or ignored our nights that we truly worked hard on to make beautiful. We just wanted others to enjoy our nights just as much but we became overcome with jealousy and turned into the Nightmare Moon that was defeated." Spike was completely surprised, however, after hearing the whole story, he felt a bit of pity for the alicorn. "Well, to be honest, I like the night a lot. I do admit that I sleep through it, mostly because of all the work I do for Twi during the day, but whenever I can, I do look out and admire the stars and moon. I don't know what it is, but the night time puts me at peace once I'm gazing at the stars." Luna was quite surprised at this information from the dragon. "Really? Thou does enjoy our nights?" Spike gave a warm smile. "I sure do. And I'm sure I'm not the only one." Luna smiled at this. "We thank thee, kind Spike." Spike smiled and waved a claw. "No thanks necessary princess. Welcome back to Equestria." Hearing that made the two alicorns giggle slightly. Spike waved at the two regal sisters before heading to the group of six mares, still smiling and conversing. Twilight noticed him and smiled. "Hey Spike. The mayor told me about what you did while we were gone." Twilight said with a grin. Spike blushed slightly and rubbed his scales. "Oh, yeah, heh, that was nothing really. I just wanted everypony to stop flippin' out ya know?" "It was something Spike." Fluttershy said smiling. "Yes dear. You helped calm down the ponies here so they wouldn't hurt themselves or anypony else." Rarity chimed in. "Yeah. Calming a whole frantic town is pretty sweet, considering you only been here a day." Rainbow Dash said. "You helped out alot Sugarcube. More than ya think." Applejack winked. "Plus, you threw us a 'welcome back after saving Equestria' party! I can tell you have some pretty good potential for party throwing!" Pinkie said happily. Twilight walked over and pulled him into a small hug. "You did a great job, my number one assistant." Spike smiled sweetly and hugged Twilight back. "Thanks Twi. It means a lot coming from you." After a while, the party ended and everypony went home except for the six mares and Spike. They were telling Spike the whole story of what happened on their journey through the Everfree. Spike was quite surprised of all that happened. It was like it was a test to prove that they each represented an element. I wonder... nah. It cant be that thought out... could it? "Spike?" Spike turned and saw Twilight next to him. "Yes?" "Ready to head home?" "Sure am Twi." Spike then hopped on Twilight's back and they both headed home, not to Canterlot, but to their new Library treehouse in Ponyville.