A Dragon's Pride and a Mare's Kindness

by DARKPHANTOM13


The Senior Student

3rd-Person P.O.V.

The tension in the air was thick to everyone, except for the two that are about to fight. The dragon and pegasus stare at each other with excited smiles and fire in their eyes. Twilight stood off to the side in the middle of the two fighters. The purple unicorn was wondering how the two knew each other and how did things come to this.

“Hey, Twilight,” Twilight looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering over her head. “What's going on here?”

“I really don't know. That mare came out of nowhere and attacked Spike.” Twilight replied. “Do you know who she is?”

“That's Derpy, the town's mailmare.”

“Is she strong?”

“I've never seen her fight, but no way is she strong.” Rainbow said rolling her eyes. The mere thought of the gray mare being able to do something she couldn't was crazy, or at least in her mind it was. “She was a disaster just waiting to happen. She had gotten a lot less clumsy though. I think it's because she got her eyes fixed, or something.”

(I don't own the music or the video.)

The one to make the first move was Spike. He charged at the mare opened with a left claw backhand. Ditzy simply took a step back to avoid the attack and knocked away the right straight that came after it. Ditzy responded with a one-two palm thrust. The first was dodged while the other was blocked with a forearm. Spike tried to go in with a right hook, but it was knocked away. The mailmare countered with a strong palm strike to the chest. Spike felt the wind getting knocked out of him, but saw an opening. The drake sent a hard kick the mare's side, causing her to flinch. She wasn't fast enough to dodge the punch coming at her, so she tried to block by crossing her arms. The blow sent her skidding back a couple of feet. Thankfully, she was still standing.

“I see that you have finally gotten use to pouring your magicka into your body,” Spike commented.

“Yeah, it took me a while, but I finally got the hang of it,” Ditzy replied as she tried to shake the pain from her arms. “Though, even if I am strengthening, my body deflects your hits.”

“Too bad, it's about to get worse,” Spike grinned as he charged at the mare. She ducked under a punch and tried to deliver a palm uppercut. The dragon leaned his head backwards to avoid it and took the chance to send his knee into the pegasus's stomach. Spike went for a straight left punch; Ditzy managed to spin away and went to deliver an elbow to Spike's temple. The wanderer blocked with his wing just in time and pushed the mare back with it. He jumped into the air to give the mare an ax drop kick to her head. Ditzy jumped back to avoid the kick, once the blow hits the ground it caused it to give a quick shake and send up a cloud of dust.

Ditzy saw this as her chance to land a powerful hit on the drake with the dust cloud blocking his eyesight. She charged at him and unleashed a powerful palm thrust aimed at the dragon's face. By the time Spike saw her hand speeding towards him he couldn't dodge, or block fast enough. So, he pulled his head back head and thrust it forward so that her palm slammed into his forehead inside of his nose. The impact blew away the dust cloud and caused everyone, except Spike to wince at it. It was times like this that Spike was glad that he had a hard head. While the mare was trying to shake the pain away from her hand, her feet was knocked out from under her due to a swing of Spike's tail. Ditzy rolled away from a Spike's stomp and flipped herself back onto her hooves. The two stared at each other for a second before charging into battle once more.

Meanwhile on the Sidelines

Everyone stared in awe as the new dragon in town and the local mailmare fought each other with a level of skill most of them had never seen before. A lot of the blows were moving so fast they were having a tough time keeping track of them. Though, none were more stunned than Twilight and Rainbow Dash, seeing how they learned firsthand just how tough Spike is. To see that someone was able to stand their ground against him was a real eye opener.

“W-what the heck?!” Rainbow asked in complete disbelief. “How can klutzy Derpy be this awesome?! All six of us together couldn't even touch Spike and yet here she is landing one blow after the other!” As if to prove the stunt mare's point, Ditzy lands an elbow thrust into Spike's chest.

“I think it's because that mare is one of Spike's students,” Twilight answered. She winced when Spike head-butted the mare and sent a jump kick to her chest. ‘Is this the kind of training he has in store for us?’ She thought to herself. “I heard her call him master.”

“Oh, man, if he can turn Derpy into a badass just imagine what he can do for us!” Rainbow said. Her eyes practically sparkled as she fell into her daydreams. The unicorn shook her head at her friend's antics and turned back to the fight. It looks like that the two ended up in a grapple match with their hands gripping the others. One trying to overpower the other and from the looks of it Spike was easily winning.

Back to the Fight

“Come on, Ditzy,” Spike said to the mare, trying to give the mare a chance. “Remember, if you're stuck in a bad situation like this, think outside the box.”

“You mean like this?” Ditzy asked. She sent her first kick of the fight to the side of the dragon's knee. When Spike's knee buckled she puts all of her strength and magic into her arms. To the amazement of everyone she lifts the large dragon into the air. Ditzy bends her body into a supplex position to slam Spike into the ground behind her. Too bad Spike managed to solidly land on his feet. In their awkward position, with their hands grasping each other, Dizty's face was one of shock while Spike had a cocky smirk on his face.

“Yeah, something like that,” Spike said as his smirk grew larger. “Against anyone else that might have worked.” In an amazing show of strength Spike stood up from his position, lifted the mare off of her hooves, and threw her over his head. When the mare stopped tumbling Spike said, “Too bad for you I'm pretty good at staying on my feet.”

Ditzy was covered in scratches from her road rash when she got back on her hooves. However, the fire in her eyes hadn't lessened. With a battle cry, she charged the drake with her arm pulled back for a massive palm strike. Spike answered her charge with one of his own and pulled back his own arm for a punch. When the two were in arm's reach of each other the two different blows collided against each other. It produced a shockwave that created the dust cloud around the two. Everyone covered their eyes to protect themselves from the cloud. When the dust settled, they saw that the two still in the same pose. Spike had the same cocky smirk while Ditzy's face was twisted in pain. In a cry that was something akin to a groan and a yell she fell to her knees while clutching her hand.

(End Music)

“Okay,” Ditzy muttered through her clenched teeth. “Not one of my best ideas.”

“With me involved, it wasn't,” Spike said. He raised his hand that was covered in gold light. There was a humming sound before he pointed his hand at the mare. The light surrounded the mare and all of her cuts and bruises healed in a matter of seconds. “It doesn't mean you didn't put up a good fight. It looks like we're going to have to work on your pain tolerance though,” the dragon said as he helped the mare back up. Seeing the show was over everypony went back to what they were doing, except Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The two mares walked up to the fighters hoping to get some information.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow said getting the mailmare and dragon's attention. “How did you learn to fight like that?” She asked Ditzy.

“It was all because of Spike,” Ditzy said with a smile. “A few years back he took my daughter Dinky and I under his wing and taught us how to fight.”

“I didn't do that much,” Spike said modestly. “I was only with them for a year so I just taught them about their gifts, how to use them and how to defend themselves. I spent most of my time beating most of the clumsy out of Ditzy here and I couldn't teach Dinky a lot because she was either too young at the time, or Ditzy wouldn't let me.”

“That's because you keep trying to teach her dangerous things,” Ditzy replied as she gave the dragon an annoyed glare. “Besides, who gives a nine year old a sword?!”

“Oh, come on, I still don't see what the big deal is. You didn't seem to mind too much when I taught her how to use firebolts and summon her first familiar. Besides, I got my first sword when I was seven,” Spike commented. “By the way, Dinky is thirteen now, right?”

“She's going to be thirteen, why?” Ditzy asked. She really didn't like that grin on her master's face.

“You do remember your promise to both Dinky and I right?” It took a minute, but she remembered the promise she made, one that she was instantly regretting. Spike took the look of growing horror on her face as a sign that she remembers. “That's right. As soon as Dinky turns thirteen I can start on her physical and weapon training.”

Ditzy wanted to find some way out of this, but she knew that once Spike got like this it was almost impossible to talk him out of it. “Fine, but make sure you go easy on her.”

“I can't make that promise, but I will promise that I'll take as many safety precisions as I can while doing so.”

The mare stared at the dragon before letting out a sigh. “Well, that's probably the best I'm going to get from you, so okay.”

The drake nodded before looking towards two of his new students. “Anyway, I'm glad that you came Rainbow. Are you free around noon? I need to talk to all six of you about what I'm going to teach you guys and the kind of training I got planned. I already got Rarity and Pinkie on board.”

“Yeah, I'm free today. I can go to Fluttershy's and ask her in ten seconds flat if you want,” Rainbow said.

“Sure, we'll head over to Applejack's place in the meantime,” Spike replied. The rainbow mane mare nodded her head and flew far into the sky. Once she was out of sight, the dragon turned his attention to the purple unicorn. “Lead the way Twilight.”

The mare nodded her head and led the dragon to Sweet Apple Acres with Ditzy tagging along. As the two got caught on with the current events, the unicorn strained to hear the conversation. She had hoped to get a bit more insight and information on the dragon she was going to learn from and live with. Sadly, she could only make out a few things since they talked with hidden meaning and never really explaining anything. Only that Spike getting close to being able to use a ‘Shout,’ or something and that Dinky was doing extremely well with her ‘Conjuration Training’. They soon found themselves walking past one apple tree after another.

“We're almost there,” Twilight said to Spike the dragon was busy taking in all the apple trees around him. “AJ's house is up ahead.”

“That’s good,” Spike replied. “Man, this is a pretty big farm. Does Applejack take care of this by herself?”

“No. She gets help from her big brother, Big Mac, little sister, Applebloom, and grandmother, Granny Smith. Plus, she gets a few hired help from some of the other ponies in town.”

“Okay, but how do they get anything done? That shouldn't be enough people to harvest all of these apples by hand without at least some kind of help from a machine, or something.”

“That because they don't do it by hand. They all hit the tree, which causes the apples to fall. Well, everyone, except Applejack, she prefers to kick them.”

“She kicks the apples down from the trees?” Twilight just nodded her head. “Well that explains why her kick was so strong even though she didn't have any real training pumping magicka into her body.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I'll tell you later,” As the party of three got closer to the house, they saw the Apple siblings at work.

Applejack saw the trio coming and gave them a friendly greeting. “Howdy ya'll. What brings ya here?” The other two siblings noticed the group and took an interest in the new face.

“Hi, Applejack,” Twilight greeted back. “We're just seeing if you’re free today? Spike is going to do go over what he is going to teach us.”

“I'll do it in a little bit. I just need to apple buck a few trees before I leave,” she said.

“I might be able to help with that,” Spike said.

“And who are you?” The yellow filly asked. The red mane filly was wearing a yellow shirt under a pair of blue overalls along with her signature bow in her hair.

“Name's Spike,” Spike answered. “I'm staying in town while I'm teaching Applejack, Twilight, and their friends some new things. Who are you?”

“I'm Applejack's sis, Applebloom,” she introduced herself. She than pointed towards the large red stallion in the red shirt and jeans. “And he's Big Macintosh, our brother.”

“Yo,” Spike greeted the stallion with a two finger salute. The quiet stallions nodded his head in reply. Spike than walked to a group of trees with ripe red apples and baskets under them. “Are these it?”

“Them the ones,” Applejack answered. The dragon looked at the trees before closing his eyes. He took a deep breath while calming raising his leg. He stomped the ground cause a strong and sharp earthquake. The trees shook violently; it caused the apple to fall from their branches to either the baskets or the ground below. Applebloom and Big Mac's jaws practically fell to the floor at what they just saw. Applejack and Twilight were not nearly shocked seeing how they've already had an idea of what he was capable of. Though, they were still impressed by Spike’s abilities. When Twilight glanced at Ditzy, she saw the bored look on the gray mare's face. That made Twilight even more curious about just her new teacher and senior can really do.

“Well, what are you guys waiting for?” Spike asked. Twilight got out of her thoughts and saw that the dragon was picking up the apples that didn't fall into the baskets. “These things aren't going to pick themselves up.” Everyone went to work picking up the apple and putting them away in the baskets. After that was done, the dragon looked at the sun's position and saw it was around noon. “I think it's time to round up everyone up for that talk I promised. Let's get Pinkie first then-” Before he could finish he was interrupted by none other than Pinkie, once again laughing in the face of physics by appearing out of nowhere.

“Here I am!” *ZAP*

Only to be paralyzed by a spell from the purple dragon. Spike face-clawed himself when he realized his mistake. While he was doing that, Pinkie fell on her side stiff as a statue, her arms above her head and a wide smile on her face. The only thing she could do was move her eyes.

“Aw, shit,” Spike cursed. “Okay, either you have to stop doing that, or I have to get used to you. Otherwise I'm going to accidentally blast you into the hospital one of these days.”

“Umm, is she going to be okay?” Twilight asked. The ponies gathered around their stiff friend, looking down at her with worried looks on their faces.

“She'll be fine,” Spike waved away their concern. “It's just a paralyzing spell. It will wear off in a minute or two.” The dragon picked the mare up and threw her on his shoulder as if the party mare was a plank of wood. “Come on, let's get the others.”

With Pinkie and Applejack in tow, Spike, Twilight, and Ditzy went off to gather the rest of the Elements. Spike carved something into the front gate at the farm. Applejack was about to throttle him for damaging it, but her temper cooled when Spike made the craving disappear. Though, she wasn't happy that Spike wouldn't tell them what he was doing and he made sure that Ditzy didn't spill the beans. On the way to Rarity's store, they ran into Rainbow Dash and a reluctant Fluttershy. After getting the fashionista mare, the group went into a nearby field. With a raise of Spike's claw, eight stumps made from solid rock, popped out of the ground to form a circle.

Once everyone was seated, Spike asked the Element Bearers, “Before we begin I want to ask you all a question. Which race can use magic?”

“In a sense every race can do magic,” Twilight answered as her academic side took over. “Every living being has magic within their bodies. A pegasus instinctually use it to help them fly, allow them to walk on clouds, and control the weather. Earthponies do the same to increase their strength, speed, stamina, and often use to help grow crops and fertilize the soil. Only unicorns and alicorns can use their magic to its fullest due to their horns on our heads acting as a conduit of sorts,” she signs after her explanation and gives Spike a strong-willed look. “Or at least I thought so until we met you.”

“Hmm?” Spike silently questioned Twilight. He had crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. He would have looked innocent if it wasn't for the smirk on his face.

“All the things I've seen you do, from teleporting to creating these stone seats, there is no possible way for you to be able to do those things without using magic of your own,” Twilight stated. It caused the drake to chuckle.

“Got it in one,” Spike applauded the mare. “You're right in just about everything except for one thing.”

“Which is?” Twilight asked. Every mare except Ditzy was curious about what he had to say. Spike raised his hand and a green fireball appeared out of nowhere and floated half an inch above his palm. He sent a nod towards Ditzy who returned the gesture. From her hand, a ball of water, the size of a baseball, formed above her hand. The Elements of Harmony stared at the two in awe at what they accomplished, more so Ditzy than Spike.

With a grin on his face Spike answered, “That only unicorns and alicorns can use their magic to their fullest. They aren't, it's just much easier for them than others,” He did away with the fireball and Ditzy followed his example. “Everyone has the potential to use magic, or magicka. They just have to unlock to use it to their fullest. Once their magic is unlocked, an earthpony can take on a unicorn in a magic fight. Though, usually no one has wide range of different kinds of magic that a unicorn, or an alicorn has. Every being can get different power, or powers, either way, there is no real limit to what kind of powers a person can end up having. Ditzy here can control water, I've seen a griffon with the power to make after-images of herself, a unicorn that can open portals to anywhere he wants and I know an earthpony with the power to negate any and all magic with a single touch. Heck, I've even fought another earthpony that had enough raw magical power that I wouldn't be surprised if he could beat Celestia in a fight,” that last statement caused Mane Six to pale at the mere thought since they could tell by the look on the dragon's face that he wasn't kidding around. They looked at Ditzy to see her shiver as if she was remembering a bad memory.

“What kind of powers do you have?” Rainbow asked. If what he said was true than he must be really strong to go up against someone like that and still be in one piece.

“Sorry, but I like to keep that to myself for now. Think of it like a puzzle where you'll have to figure out for yourself,” Spike said, much to Dash's annoyance. “Anyway there is much limit to what kind of powers somebody could get. While race, or heritage can have a hand in what kind of powers you can get, that is not always the case. You can get anything from controlling the weather with the flick of a wrist to healing and everything in between and then some.

“But what about unicorns darling?” Rarity asked.

“It's the same thing, but it's usually to a lesser extent,” Spike explained. ”Unicorns are usually a jack of all trades when it comes to magic, though, each one usually can still have certain types of magic, or spells that they are better at than most. Don't you all have one or two spells that you are really good at that most unicorns aren't?”

“Actually, yes, I do,” Rarity answered as her gem finding spell came to mind.

“That is basically one of things I'm going to teach you while I'm here. To discover what kind of powers you all have and help you hone them as much as I can,” Spike stated. “It's not the only thing I'm going to be training you in, far from it, but it will be one of the main highlights of it,” Twilight and her friends were starting to get excited. A whole new world of possibilities had just been opened to them and they couldn't wait to see it. Excitement, curiousity, and determined looks appeared on the six mares' face as they looked at the dragon and their senior student.

“When do we start?” Rainbow asked speaking for her friends.

A grin spread across the dragon's face as he saw their resolve in their eyes. “Right now.”