Spike woke up and looked around his room, then stretched and yawned a couple of times as he got up and began to make the bed. He liked having his own room, since there was a lot of space for his comics and photographs as long as he kept everything in it's place. After leaving everything in order, he decided to see what he could help Twilight with.
He lazily went down stairs and saw her having breakfast in the dining room. Or rather, what he had denominated the dining room on his own, since the place was exactly the same as most of the castle “Good morning, Twilight,”
“Good morning, Spike!” answered Twilight.
“Hey, you don't look worried or hurried as usual, did you forget to read some of your books or clear your checklists?”
“Very funny, Spike... but no, It's just that today Rainbow Dash will be given her uniform as an official wonderbolt! Isn't that exciting?”
“I-is that today?" he paused and recalled Rainbow Dash inviting him to the event “Oh, how could I forget?” Spike shook his head and looked down to the palace's floor. Even after some years of living there he missed the wooden floor of the library. “I guess I still forget things easily,” he whispered as he climbed up a chair and leaned his head on the table.
“Don't worry, Spike, we still have time to get to Cloudsdale before the ceremony,” Twilight tried to cheer up Spike by serving him breakfast and adding a small gem to it. “Besides, we'll need to save some energy to help Applejack pick all of those zap apples.”
Spike was just about to bite the tasty-looking gem when he heard Twilight's last words. He stopped and straightened his back, noticing he had forgotten about the harvest too.
The Apple family name was spreading far and wide even beyond Equestria; the fame of the delicious pies, the mysterious zap apple jam and many other of their saucers had attracted ponies from all over the world. And today, Applejack needed every hoof or claw she could get to supply the vast order of public demand.
“Ummm... yeah... right,” Spike dug in his food, Seriously? that too? he thought as he tried to remember anything else. Blank. The baby dragon could only remember today's chores at the palace and a little of a silly conversation with Twilight. Most of his memory was filled with books alphabetically placed in the new library.
After getting ready to depart, dressed properly to attend the ceremony, they left the palace.
Spike was sitting on Twilight's back during the gallop across Ponyville. The plan was to look for their friends and go together to Cloudsdale as a group.
First, they went to Sweet Apple Acres, where an unusual wind blew through the orchard; something that the pony and dragon identified as the heraldic song for the arrival of the zap apples. Applejack was working as usual when they arrived, getting everything set for the harvest.
“Hello Applejack! ready to go?” Twilight sounded very enthusiastic.
“Sure, Twi', I'll just go tell Granny Smith I'm leaving for a while,” she used a hoof to wipe the sweat off her forehead.
“See you at the boutique!” Twilight waved a hoof as Applejack disappeared between the trees. She looked excited and happy, but her undone mane, mistreated hooves and distracted eyes made clear that she was worried as well; the zap apple work was a hard one, and they only had one day to get it done, so Twilight didn't press for an extended dialogue.
The next stop for the duo was Sugarcube Corner, there, Pinkie was happily jumping around, waiting for them.
“You're finally here!” Pinkie grinned and ran towards Twilight as soon as she saw her.
“Hey Pink-” a sudden, strong hug silenced her. Pinkie was even more excited than her, but that was pretty much obvious for them since Pinkie was always euphoric and impatient with events like this one.
Pinkie let Twilight catch her breath and kept talking:
“So what are we waiting for? let's go already!” the pink pony didn't wait for Twilight to recover completely and began to bounce her way to the boutique.
“Are you Ok, Twilight?” Spike asked worried.
“Yes, don't worry about it,” she looked at Pinkie and trotted unhurriedly “I just hope she calms down after she finds out there's not going to be a party after this,” she laughed lightly and kept going.
When they arrived to Carousel Boutique, Applejack was already there.
Rarity was wearing a red dress along with the ruby necklace Spike had given her. It was such a unique contrast of white fur and red fabric, it made the dragon blush immediately at the unicorns' singular beauty and style; he could only hide the red on his cheeks by hugging Twilight's neck and covering with her mane.
Twilight knew what that meant and smiled at the fact, rolling her eyes and then approaching her friends.
“All right everypony, now that we are here, I will proceed to cast the cloud-walking spell.”
Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie stood expectantly in front of the alicorn and waited, but nothing happened for about ten seconds.
“Umm, what are we waiting for darling?” asked Rarity.
“Spike? Aren’t you going to take the spell?” Twilight tried to gain time so the little dragon could shake off his fear, but he wasn't able to. After another ten seconds without an answer, Spike gathered courage and dismounted slowly. Still with a vivid red color, he sat next to Applejack in order to stay as far as he could from the graceful unicorn.
The moment itself was awkward because all of the girls had seen the dragon's blush and they knew why he had it. But rather than feeling uncomfortable they considered it innocent and somewhat sweet.
A purple glow surrounded them and shined for a second before vanishing.
“It's done. Now you will be able to walk in Cloudsdale until tomorrow,” Twilight announced triumphant.
“YAY!” Pinkie shouted before pointing at the giant balloon next to the boutique. “Now let's go fillies! Cloudsdale awaits!”
The five of them got into the balloon and ascended. On their way to Cloudsdale, Pinkie talked and talked with no pony to stop her, being herself and saying random things whenever she ran out of interesting topics.
Applejack tried to keep her mind distracted from the zap apple harvest by trying to listen, but mostly overhearing Pinkie's words.
Twilight was assaying the congratulating speech she had written for Rainbow Dash.
Rarity stood silent, ignoring the party pony and carefully inspecting all the details of her outfit, mane and hooves to assure everything was perfect for the ceremony.
Spike was sitting in a corner, often turning to look at Rarity for half a second and divert his gaze.
When they finally got there, Fluttershy was expecting them at Cloudsdale's entrance. She told them where to leave the balloon and the place the ceremony was going to take place.
“It's good to see you all, I was afraid some of you wouldn't come,” Fluttershy spoke in her natural soft way outlining a small grin.
“We wouldn't miss this for anything, Fluttershy, I cleared my schedule for the whole day so I could come and then help Applejack with the harvest,” Twilight smiled and landed beside her. They walked and talked about what would be the great day ahead.
The others followed closely, sometimes pausing to look at Cloudsdale's charming structure and design.
Finally, they all got to the main stadium and sat in the front row seats reserved for them. By this time, it was already noon and the ceremony was just about to begin.
Pinkie cheered and yelled getting everypony's attention before the event started and only stood silent until her friends and some other ponies in the terraces told her to stay quiet.
After a couple of minutes, Spitfire appeared from below the stadium and flew to the center, received with cheers and shouts from everywhere. Soon, a staff pony got next to her and gave her a microphone before flying away.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, as you all know we are here to congratulate our newest member!” Spitfire made a quick gesture with her right hoof and, faster than the eye could catch, the other wonderbolts appeared from many directions and flew forward to the center with a spectacular new rutine; landing at the end on the same cloud as Spitfire. The stunned crowd watched amazed as the leader continued:
“Please welcome with your loudest acclaim... RAINBOW DASH!”
The crowd was taken by surprise when a sonic Rainboom split the air. Rainbow Dash, trailing her distinctive mane behind her, drew her cutie mark in the sky. The pegasus soared with both finesse and speed, finishing the image. Finally, with her masterpiece ended, she touched down onto the ground in front of the wonderbolts. The noise in the stadium was intense, it seemed that the whole place was shaking because of the congratulating shouts and even whistles.
The wonderbolts approached Rainbow Dash and gave her a group hug.
“Now you are part of the team! listen to them, Rainbow, they love you!” Spitfire almost had to shout so Rainbow Dash could hear her.
The athlete smiled and her eyes shined. She was living her dream. It had finally happened.
She was so submerged in her thoughts and in the moment that she didn't realize when the wonderbolts extended their hooves to give her the uniform.
“Dash?” Soarin stared at the newest group member and decided to let her enjoy the spotlight. The wonderbolts laughed and left the uniform and insignia on Rainbow's back. Nothing would take her out or her world right now.
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After the show, Rainbow managed to sneak out of the seemingly endless wave of fans taking pictures and asking for autographs. Now, she could spend the all too needed time with her friends. It was getting late and they had to return to ponyville to begin the zap apple harvest.
On their way to the balloon, Rainbow was congratulated constantly again by all of those who could see her leave.
“Way to go Rainbow! I always knew you could do it!” Twilight beamed, still with energy left to help Applejack.
“Do you know what this calls for?” Pinkie said as if her excitement hadn't lowered... and it hadn't.
“Umm, a party?” Fluttershy guessed.
“YES!! A PARTY!!!”
“It'll have to wait darling, you know today we can't afford distractions,” Rarity intervened. She was always terminal on what to do next, since all those years planning and organizing her schedule had generated an agendic memory.
“Aw, shucks...” Pinkie kicked the floor with a hoof.
“Congrats' sugarcube! I'm proud you finally made it; guess I'll have to find another pony to challenge while you're out with 'em.”
“Oh AJ, you know you're still my best friends! no one could ever replace you guys! and it looks like I'm not the only one progressing here, you are now a world-wide provider!”
“Thanks Dash, I know it'll be harder to get together often, but remember we'll always be here for you,” the orange pony tried to hold back a tear which eventually came out in the form of a grimace.
By that time, the balloon had already taken off, heading to Ponyville.
New conversations appeared and Spike couldn't say anything about any of the current topics, it was all pony stuff.
But he did hear many things, such as Rarity heading to Canterlot to present her new line of dresses; Fluttershy trying to restyle the Everfree forest with Discord and Zecora; Pinkie throwing the biggest party ever at Manehattan with Cheese Sandwich; and Twilight going to the Crystal Empire to visit Cadance and Shining Armor.
He felt empty, without a purpose. But above all, useless. He couldn't get over the fact of being a simple assistant with no aspirations.
The trip ended and the friends got off the balloon ready to start working.
“All right, y'all, get yer heads on the task and let's pick some apples!”
The trees couldn't be touched so Applejack got her rope; Rarity and Twilight used their magic; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash picked the apples directly; and Pinkie helped pulling the heavy carts filled with apples into the barn.
Spike only catched some of the fruits that Rainbow threw to him so he could put them into the carts. His presence was pointless and he knew it. He just limited himself to return to the palace after telling Twilight he felt tired; something that she allowed instantly.
Once there, he went to bed. He was tired indeed, but couldn't fall asleep.
He got up after many restless hours and walked through the palace's corridors. He stopped in front of a big mirror in one of the rooms and approached it. For the first time in his life, he felt completely lost. Staring at the reflection he saw a dragon who hadn't grown at all after some years, a dragon with no wings, a dragon with no vision.
For the first time in his life, Spike felt alone.