“You treat me like I am just the help!” Spike screamed. “That’s all I am to you, aren’t I?”
“Spike, you’re being silly,” Twilight replied, scowling. “It’s just a party… and you’re just a baby dragon. Pinkie’s party is… a little too adult.”
“Oh, so it’s too adult for me, but I am mature enough to stay home and do housework? Clean the dishes? Restack the returns while you’re out partying?”
“You don’t have to do them tonight, but you will have to do them sometime,” Twilight explained, as if talking to a foal. “It’s better if you do them tonight.”
“Why can’t you help me with them tomorrow? Then we could both go to the party—”
“You’re not coming to the party Spike,” Twilight replied, turning back to her work. “I’m sorry, but you are just too young.”
“It’s not fair!” Spike yelled, storming towards the door. “You’d be lost without me.”
Spike slammed the door behind him. Twilight was so infuriating at times.
“Real mature, Spike. Fine, just leave then!” Twilight yelled through the closed door. “Your chores will still be waiting when you get back.”
Spike sighed as he leaned against the closed door. He could hear the scratching of her quill again through the door. It wasn’t the first time he had threatened to leave, or run away. It felt like some ridiculous game they played.
They’d argue and he’d leave. He always came back though.
Well, not this time! Spike told himself. Never again! I’m done being her slave!
The cool evening breeze blew against his scales. He trudged through the streets of Ponyville, ignoring the ponies going about the end of their day. All of his—friends?—they were probably getting ready for their stupid grownup party.
Maybe he could go stay at Rarity’s for the night… no! She’d just encourage him to go back to Twilight.
His feet found him walking out of Ponyville, towards Sweet Apple Acres. Perhaps Applejack could… no, he’d suffer the same issue he would with Rarity. Though Applejack would be less subtle, and probably just drag him back to the library.
Fluttershy’s place was not far, and Spike knew she wouldn’t pressure him to go back to Twilight. But then that was likely only because she was too nice to say it.
No, he wouldn’t drag Fluttershy into his argument.
He couldn’t really drag any of them in, because he knew which side they would fall on. They were, after all, Twilight’s friends. He didn’t really ‘hang out’ with them, unless it was in some kind of serving capacity.
So Spike kept walking, straight past Sweet Apple Acres. Straight past Fluttershy’s cottage.
Straight into Whitetail Wood.
He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he trusted his instincts. He trusted his feet to guide him.
After an hour, he came across a large tree hollow, big enough for him to sleep in. The soft leaves in the base of the hollow would provide him with a suitable mattress replacement.
There was a lot of debris around, but with a little bit of cleaning up, this place could make a nice little home. And hey, he’d lived in a tree for the last year… and he’d certainly had to do a lot of cleaning there too. So he knew how to do this!
Spike climbed into the hollow and rested, finally glad to get some sleep.
Spike laid on his back, staring at the gentle sunlight drifting through the leaves of the canopy above him, the gentle sway of the breeze giving it a kaleidoscopic effect.
“Argh!”
He pulled himself back to his feet, looking at the few measly cluster of acorns on the ground around him.
“Third time’s a charm,” he muttered to himself, as he tossed the small cluster of acorns in his hollow.
Carefully climbing the tree again, he made his way to the flimsy outer branches, where the acorns grew the richest. Using his claws he carefully snipped away at the stems, letting the nuts fall to the ground below.
That was his mistake during his first attempt. Trying to hold on to his collected acorns whilst still harvesting more. A small part of him struggled with letting them drop to the ground. They were his… he was the one working hard for them… but he was able to collect more this way. They just tasted a little… loamier this way.
After a respectable collection had fallen on the ground, Spike carefully climbed his way back down. That had been the mistake on his second attempt. Haste and heights did not mix.
Once he was grounded again, he set about collecting his nuts, storing most of them in his hollow. A small fire pit he had dug himself held the dying embers of the previous nights fire… perfect for a quick snack of roasted acorns before he made his way to the river this morning.
He had, over the previous few days, crafted a few crude tools to help him. A simple sheet of flax-weave made a fantastic ‘basket’ for collected berries, or rolling firewood up to carry on his back. He’d gnawed a rock into a simple axe head, and whittled a small spear for fishing. He hadn’t caught any fish yet, and wasn’t even sure if he could eat one if he did (aside from gems, his diet had been pretty vegetarian while living amongst ponies) but he wanted to be prepared, just in case.
I mean, they had to taste better than berries and roasted acorns for every meal.
Collecting water had not been something he’d worked out yet. He had tried to hollow out some fallen wood into a bucket, but none of them had been watertight thus far. And already rotting from having been on the forest floor, Spike wasn’t sure the water would taste that great from it anyway. Thus he had needed to travel to the river several times a day, for drinking and washing (if he felt like it!)
He was sure if he could fell one of the larger tree’s, he might be able to fashion a better bucket… but as bad-flanked as he felt with his little axe, it would be years before he could cut one of the larger tree’s down.
And he’d probably get bored before then anyway.
Sitting on the bank of the river, Spike rolled his flax-weave out. He placed his axe on top, so it wouldn’t blow away. It had been like, two days of work, in collecting the flax then weaving it. There was no way he wanted to go through that kind of bother again any time soon. He kept his spear, determined this time to catch a fish.
Civilized ponies don’t eat meat! Twilight’s voice echoed in his mind.
Well, he wasn’t a pony, he was a dragon! And beside… Fluttershy caught fish for her otters, and her bear friend, and they had tea and picnics together all the time. So some civilized creatures ate meat.
Spike waded into the water. When he first came down, the river had come nearly up to his neck. But the waters had receded in the last few days, now only coming up to just above his belly. It made it easier to move through the water.
Jumping carefully from rock to rock, Spike kept an eye on the water for any signs of movement.
There!
A splash not far from him indicated something below the water. Perhaps a trout, or a… actually, Spike didn’t know much about fish.
Civilized ponies don’t eat fish!
Quietly waiting to see if the fish moved closer, Spike readied his spear. The water rippled, indicating the fish was making its way towards him.
Spike’s mouth watered. Fish. Fish! He’d finally get to taste fish. Nopony around to nag him about civilized behaviour.
Just… a… few… more… inches—
Spike thrust his spear downwards towards the unsuspecting fish. He felt it connect with something, and let out a triumphant whoop of glee. He pulled his spear up to get a glimpse of what had eluded him for so lo—
A boot.
He’d caught a boot. One quarter of a set of galoshes. And from the little apple sewed into the side, he could guess whose it was.
“Augh!” he groaned, throwing the boot over his shoulder. He might have been desperate for something different, but he wasn’t going to chew on an old leather boot—
Civilized ponies don’t use real leather—
Oh, right.
Spike lowered himself into the water, sitting on the rock he had balanced upon. He scooped up a few mouthfulls of water, before swimming his way back to shore.
He collected a few bushels of berries from the bushes near the shore. It had been easier to identify the edible berries… his draconic resilience made normally deadly poisonous berries leave him with a slight tummy ache.
He was sure there was some better way of identifying, but he’d never bothered to read the Daring Do and the Totally Tedious Survival Handbook. His way worked fine, just so long as he walked a little further from his camp to do his business on those days.
By now, he’d gotten it down to a fine art.
He rolled the bushels into the weave, and slung them across his back, ready to make the trek back to his camp…
Unaware of the eyes watching him from the other side of the river.
Spike stared lovingly into the crystal facets of the small ruby.
It had been so long since he’d eaten a gem. He’d been attempting to fish in the river again, when he’d caught a glint of red near the far shore. He could not believe his eyes when he had picked it up, caressing it in his claws.
He had forgotten completely about fishing after that. It even took him half way back to his camp before he realised he’d left his tools at the riverside shore.
Spike had saved gems in the past, but they tended to be exceptional gems, like the fire ruby he’d given Rarity.
But this tiny, insignificant ruby, unexceptional in all regards, had seemed more precious to him than any other gem he’d ever owned.
He really wanted to, but it seemed a crime to eat it.
So with as much determination as he could find, he willed himself to place the gem in his hollow. He’d found a smaller hollow within the trunk a week earlier, the perfect place to store precious things. It looked like it had been carved out by another creature, rather than a natural occurring hollow. Maybe some small woodpecker had made it to build a nest in.
He gently placed the ruby into the nook, then covered it with a small flax-weave. Anything to keep it safe. The braver of the forests rodents and birds might dare to steal his nuts and berries, but he’d protect that little gem with his life.
Besides, he hadn’t tasted squirrel either, so he dared them to try.
He exited the hollow, and made his way back to the river. There was still a chance he could catch something today.
“Haaaaah!” Spike roared with laughter. “Dragon beats stupid fish!”
Spike had worked out how to catch the dumb fish. And his efforts were well rewarded. It had taken a few days, but Spike had weaved a fairly loose-weave net, and strung it between two sturdy spears. He’d jammed both into the riverbed downstream, and had herded the fish towards the net. They’d swam into it, just as he’d planned, and were unable to escape.
Scooping the net out of the water, Spike found he had been rewarded with five trout. They flopped around in protest as he slung the net over his back. He wasn’t sure how long the net would last, but it was worth the effort for fish.
Oh, what will they taste like, he wondered to himself. A grin spread across his hardened reptilian features.
A rustling from the bushes the other side of the river alerted Spike to another’s presence. He trained his eyes on the bushes, watching their movement. What ever it was, it was something big.
Maybe it was that dumb bear again, trying to move in on Spike’s turf. He was certain he’d scared the dumb creature away last time, but then again, bears were just stupid, lumbering beasts.
While the bears still towered over him, he could hold his own. Firebreath beats bear.
And hey, maybe bears taste good too. Maybe he could try in a few years.
Spike let out a roar, belching a large gout of flame towards the far bank. Steam rose swiftly as his flame boiled the water. This was how he’d beaten the last bear that had tried to invade his territory. He’d managed to blind the bear with boiling steam, before finishing the job with his claws.
What ever was prowling in the bushes went silent. Spike watched as the steam fell back down around him. Spike was not certain how long the intruder stayed there, but he did not stop his vigil. This was his river, his fish, and his forest.
After several long, silent minutes, the intruder turned, and walked away.
Spike grinned, his sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight. The intruder wouldn’t be back today, he was certain he’d made his stand.
Now? He had bigger fish to fry.
Sweet Celestia’s sunny flanks… fish is amazing!
Spike sat by the campfire, his belly full of delicious fish.
Civilization is for the ponies!
A few squirrel kabobs still sat on their sticks, uneaten. It didn’t matter how often he ate fish, he could never grow sick of it. He thought back to his days of eating nothing but berries and acorns. Acorns! He actually ate acorns!
Nowadays, acorns were nothing more than bait for squirrel kabobs.
He still enjoyed berries; they were about as close to a dessert as he’d get out here. Sometimes he’d missed Applejack’s fritters, or Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes… but hey, fish!
He’d made himself a pretty decent little home in the few months he’d been here. He’d made a small lean-to against his hollow. It required a lot of maintenance, but it meant he could keep his hollow just for his horde. It wasn’t much, but it was a sizeable horde. Small gems he’d found in the creek. He’d found a few crows nests with small silver trinkets, and had taken them, along with the nesting birds and their eggs (crows weren’t exactly good eating, but the eggs made decent omelettes!)
This was the life.
Freedom.
Nopony nagging him, telling him what to do, what to eat, how to eat.
Nopony demanding he clean around the house. Sure, he kept his home tidy, but it was his home, and his choice. He was free to clean, or not clean, as he liked.
Tearing a strip of flesh from the flame grilled trout, he laughed.
Who’d be cooking for Twilight now? She couldn’t cook her way out of a paper bag.
Teach her to take him for granted.
Today was a perfect laze-about day. He’d caught enough fish yesterday, and didn’t really have much that needed doing. There was a large boulder in the little clearing he’d made, that soaked up the sunlight just right. He curled himself up on top of it, and enjoyed the last of the sunlight.
A rustle to his left awoke him. He slowly opened one eye to see what stupid creature had dared to enter his camp.
“Hello, Spike,” Celestia greeted.
“Celestia,” Spike muttered, closing his eye again. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Celestia looked around the campsite.
“You’ve done well for yourself.”
Celestia’s tone and mannerisms were unreadable, as they had always been. Spike rolled off of his boulder, and made his way back to the firepit.
“It’s a living,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “And a pretty good one, too.” He picked up one of the squirrel kabobs, and tore off a bite, grinning to himself at the look of disgust that quickly crossed her face. “So, how did you find me?”
“You always come back here, Spike.”
“Hmmm?”
“I can not allow you to stay out here any longer.”
“Going to run me off, like you do most dragons,” Spike asked, glaring at the princess. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep clear of your…little…ponies.”
“It’s not for their sake that I am out here,” Celestia replied. “It’s for Twilight’s. She needs you back.”
“Pfft!” Spike scoffed. “Well, I don’t need her!” He waved his claw around his campsite. “I’ve got everything I need, right here.”
“That is neither here nor there. She needs you, so you will return.”
“What‽” Spike rounded on her. He dug all four claws into the ground, standing against her… Celestia didn’t seem so tall anymore. “You dare to come into my camp… my territory, and make demands of me? I’m not a baby anymore.” Spike snarled. “You are the princess of ponies… not dragons.”
A blast of magic struck Spike directly in the chest, launching him through the air, smashing hard against his sleeping boulder.
“You b—” Spike snarled, as Celestia slammed down on his chest, knocking the wind out of him.
“Stand down, Spike!”
“Go to Tartarus,” he spat. He lashed out with a claw, catching her across the chest, leaving a deep gash.
Celestia’s horn flared, and Spike felt his entire body pinned.
“I’m sorry, Spike… but Twilight needs you.”
“Don’t I get a say in it?” he screamed, thrashing about.
“No…” Celestia said with a sigh. “You don’t.”
Twilight opened the door, seeing Spike laying across Celestia’s back. She gasped at the deep gash in Celestia’s chest.
“What happened?”
“I think I’ll let Spike answer that one,” Celestia replied.
Twilight gently levitated Spike off of the Princess’ back. The baby dragon looked like he had seen some fighting himself, covered with cuts and bruises.
“Princess Celestia saved me, Twilight,” Spike sniffled. “There was a bear, and he—”
“It’s okay,” Twilight cooed, pulling Spike into a hug, his tears soaking into her chest. “You’re home, and you’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
“I will take my leave, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said, smiling down at the pair. “Take good care of each other.” With that, she flew away.
The pair stared at each other, an awkwardness growing between them.
“I’m—I’m sorry, Twilight,” Spike said, breaking the silence. “I’m sorry I ran away.”
“It’s okay, Spike. I’m sorry too.”
“Can— Can I still be your number one assistant?”
“Always, Spike.” Twilight replied, smiling as she levitated him onto her back.
“Always.”