//------------------------------// // the start(Edited by Mocallis) // Story: Age different // by Spike harem master //------------------------------// It was the middle of the day, resting in the shade of tall oak tree with her back against the bark, we find an seven year old unicorn girl with her nose buried deep with a rather thick book. She had long, dark purple hair that reached to her waist with a stripe of hot-pink going down it and a tiny, purple horn protruding from her bangs, light skin, purple eyes, and had a simple lavender dress that stopped just above her ankles with a hole in the skirt for her tail. Sitting next to her was a lanky teen aged boy. He looked to be about sixteen years old with most of his green hair slicked back except his bangs, light skin, slitted emerald eyes, and fangs protruding from his upper lip. He wore unzipped purple hoodie,revealing a yellow shirt underneath that was tucked into a pair of purple cargo pants with a purple scaled dragon tail with green spines, and to complete the ensemble was a pair of purple combat boots. The unlikely duo of unicorn and dragon continued to sit under the shade of the tree with the unicorn either oblivious of or ignoring the dragons presence. Whichever of the two it was, she was torn away from her book when the dragon suddenly reached over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Twilight, it’s time to go home for dinner.” the dragon said, getting to his feet and offering her his hand. Twilight smiled up at him and took the offered hand. "Okay Spike. What are we eating today?" Spike smiled slyly as they walked away from the shade of the tree in the local park and walked into the busy streets of Canterlot. "It an surprise." His response earned him an adorable pout from Twilight, which made Spike giggle. He always enjoy his time with his 'little sister'. Spike wasn't related to Twilight by blood, he was adopted into the family. But, neither him nor Twilight cared, family was family. No matter what. "So….,” Spike began, looking at the thick leather tome her arms, “what were your reading?" "I'm reading a book about legends, and I just finished reading the legend about Nightmare Moon.” Spike gave a nod. He, like many others, knew the legend about Nightmare Moon, or “The Pony in the Moon”, but he still motioned for her to continue out of courtesy. “It said that she would awaken a thousand years after her banishment, and if my calculations are correct, that’s soon and she will come back from the moon to seek revenge on Princess Celestia. I'm scare she that the may is true and she actually does come back." Twilight said, brows frowned in  worry. Spike never liked it when she got worried, so stopped and got down on one knee and gave her a comforting hug, which she eagerly returned. Spike then pulled away from her stared right into her eyes. “Don't be, if she does come back, I will do everything in my power to protect you from her, promise." Spike said with a serious expression. Twilight knew he wasn't lying; he was always there to protect her from harm in the past, he would even fight Celestia herself if he had too. She visibly relaxed and they continued walking to their home. But,as fate would have it, the moment they reached the door some royal guards came walking down the street with a flying carriage in tow. Once the carriage was parked in front of their house one of the guards walked up to them. "Lord Spike, Princess Celestia like for you and Lady Twilight to go to Ponyville to check up on the preparations for the festival. Sorry for any inconvenience." The guard said. When he was finished, he turned to Twilight and gave a friendly smile and a wave. Twilight returned the gesture just before he returned to his post. Spike gave a small sigh before turning to Twilight. "Okay!” he exclaimed and rubbed his hands together, “Looks like there’s a change in plans, Twilight! We are going to go visit someplace new. This going to be fun, right?" Spike ask in a playful tone. Twilight smiled and gave a small nod. She was always a bit shy about meeting new people and/or going to an unfamiliar place. Despite this fact, they boarded the flying carriage and flew off to Ponyville. Only realizing shortly after leaving that they never did get dinner, forcing Spike to smack his forehead. (Five minutes later.) After the carriage landed, Spike and Twilight stepped off and Spike thanked the guards as the left. He then looked around at the town, a the smile on his face growing as he took more of Ponyville in. The place was beautiful, in a rustic sort of way. People were walking around, talking to friends, shopping, eating, or a combination. The word “peaceful” came to mind as he continued to examine his surroundings. He felt Twilight grip his hand a little harder, causing him turn to her and gave her a reassuring smile that calmed her down. He then let go of his sisters’ had in favor of placing it on his chin, brow frowning as he looked at his list of things to do. The first item was to check the food for the festival, with someplace called 'Sweet Apples Acres' being the providers. Since he didn't know the layout of Ponyville, he decided to ask around for directions. Spike looked around and saw a fifteen year old earth pony girl with puffy pink hair skipping along and decided to ask her. "Excuse me!” Spike called out, gaining the girls attention, “but do you know where-" Before Spike could finish, the girl sprang three feet into the air with a loud gasp and ran off as soon as her feet hit the ground leaving a confused Spike and Twilight in her wake. "Huh… i guess she doesn't know. Come on Twilight, lets ask someone else." Spike said after awhile. Twilight just nodded her head and walked after Spike. (A few minutes later.) After get the directions to Sweet Apple Acres, Spike and Twilight made it down the long winding dirt road to their location; an apple farm. As they entered the farm, they found a blond haired girl wearing a cowboy hat, a shirt with the bottom tied up, revealing her stomach, a pair of dark blue jeans with a pony's’ tail sticking out, and a pair cowboy boots walking over to them, her green eyes practically sparkling at the sight of new faces. She then took Spikes hand before speaking. "Well, howdy there! My name’s Applejack. What brings ya’ll here to my family’s farm?" Applejack said while shaking Spikes’ hand, hard. The action inadvertently shook up Spike, and when Applejack stopped, Spike was so dizzy he was teetering from side to side with his eyes rolling in his head. Twilight, deeming Spike unable to answer in his current state, gathered her courage, stepped forward, and introduced them. " My name is Twilight Sparkle and this here is my big brother, Spike." Twilight said, a hint of shyness still in her voice . "Well, its nice to meet you two.” Applejack said with a warm smile, shaking Twilight's hand gently. She then turned to Spike, who had just recovered from most of his dizziness, and repeated her earlier question. “What brings ya’ll to my farm?” "We are heard to check if the food for the festival is good." Spike replied, fighting off the last of the dizziness. "Alright then!" Applejack before she ran up to the nearby barn and rang the bell attached to it and then screamed at the top of the lungs, "SOUP’S ON EVERYONE!" This seemed to summon a large mass of people instantaneously, and the sudden appearance of said mass scared the two guests. Applejack then grabbed them and sat them down on some chairs before introducing them to different apple foods dishes and the people named after said dishes, and then introduced her family. "This here is the youngest, my brother Applesauce. The oldest, Big Macariena and Granny." Applejack said. (The author decided to genderbend the CMC and Big Mac. The male CMC will try to win Twilight's’ affection and Big Mac was a “just because” thing. Don’t blame me, I’m just the editor!)(Hey! Don't throw me to the wolfs!) "Cool. Glad to see everything in order.” Spike stated, he then asked “So can we take an apple pie to go? We still have make sure everything else is on schedule." "Sure. Here you go and hope to see ya’ll later." Applejack said as she gave them a pie. The duo then started walking back to town. Then went right back for a couple of plates and forks. (Later.) The duo were walking down one of the many dirt streets of Ponyville, eating the last of the delicious pie Applejack gave them and enjoying the scenery. Well, that was Twilight, Spike was looking up at the cloudy sky, looking for a girl named Rainbow Dash who was suppose to be clearing it. However, he saw no one. Just as he was starting to think that this Rainbow Dash girl was a slacker, something tackled him from behind he fell face first into a mud puddle. As Spike got up, wiping the mud off his face, he check himself to see the damage. Luckily, mud only got on his hoodie and hair. His pie, on the other hand... "My pie…” Spike sat there, staring at his mud covered pie, and when what this meant finally registered, he threw his arms up and screamed to the heavens in the most pained and despairing voice he could muster. “NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The sight of Spikes’ rather dramatic performance made Twilight giggle. This was short lived, however, when a groan of pain turned finally turned Twilight's’ attention to the person who tackled Spike and unintentionally ruined his last piece of pie. The girl wore a blue jacket that stopped just above her stomach with the same colored wings spurting out of her back, black, finger-less gloves on her hands, skin tight black shorts that stopped above her knees and a pair of boots covering almost the rest of the leg. An athletic look would be considered normal when one was talking about a pegasus, but what wasn't normal was her rainbow colored hair. If Twilight had to guess, this girl was either Rainbow Dash or someone that was on the wrong end of a shampoo prank. ‘Rainbow Dash’ picked herself off of the ground and noticed Twilight staring at her, a combination of the hilarity of Spikes’ antics and her own curiosity erasing her usual shyness. With a dismissive wave, ‘Rainbow’ turned towards her main concern: the guy she just accidentally tackled into the mud. Spike felt someone tap his shoulder and he turned to see the girl offering her hand, concern swimming in her purple eyes. Wordlessly, Spike took the offered hand and the girl gave a low “Ooh”. Spike looked down at himself and found that his was covered in more mud than he originally thought. Spike gave an irritated sigh shoot an equally irritated look at the rainbow haired pegasus. Before he could say anything, ‘Rainbow’ spoke up. “Look, I’m sorry about that. I was practicing my stunts and,well, lose control of myself.” Spike raised an eyebrow at this and then the girl quickly added “I know you’re mad, but let me make it up to you.” ‘Rainbow’ quickly looked around, and then she perked with an idea “Let me clean you up!” She suddenly shot off and came back with a chair-sized rain cloud and positioned it over Spike. Once it was in position, she proceeded to bounce on it with water pouring out and soaking her target. With Spike completely waterlogged, she hopped off the storm cloud and started to fly around him at a dizzying speed. The stunt she pulled did dry off Spike, but it turned his hair into a green puff ball. The sight of this made Twilight and ‘Rainbow’ fall onto their stomach and back respectively and roll around in laughter. Spike blew a stray strand out of his face, a unamused look plastered to his face as he looked at the two girls rolling on the floor. “I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash?” he asked. The question gave the rainbow haired pegasus the excuse to stop laughing herself to death and took a moment sit up and catch her breath before answering. “Yeah, and who are you Broccoli Top?” Rainbow Dash chuckled at the nickname, Twilight was sent into another laughing fit, and Spike just rolled his eyes. “My name’s Spike, and thats my sister, Twilight,” Spike motioned her just as she finally stopped laughing, “I’m here to make sure all of the preparations for the festival are complete, which reminds me, why aren’t you clearing the sky?” Rainbow found herself a cloud and flew up to it, lying down on it. "Like I said: I was practicing my stunts. I'm hoping to make it into the Wonderbolts one day. And besides,I can clear the sky in ten second flat. So no need to worry." she called down with a hint of pride in voice. "You mean the greatest group of flyers in all of Equestria?” Spike asked. “Yup!” “You do realized that the Wonderbolts won't take in slackers right? And a true speedster could clear the sky in under five seconds flat." Spike called with a playful smirk and wink to Twilight who returned it with a knowing smile. Rainbows’ head poked over the side of her cloud, the flames of a possible challenge burning in her eyes. "Is that an challenge?'' Rainbow asked with a cocky smirk. "Yup." Spike said. That was all Rainbow Dash needed to hear. She leaped off her cloud and turned into a rainbow colored blur with clouds disappearing from the sky. Five seconds, Rainbow Dash landed in front of the pair to the sound of Twilights’ applause and the sight of a clear blue sky. "How about that, fast enough for ya?" Rainbow gasped, practically drinking up the 7-year olds applause. "Yes, you’re fast, but..." Spike trailed off. "What? What is it?" Rainbow asked. "You miss one." Spike said pointing to the tiny lone cloud she missed. Rainbow slapped her forehead and gave an irritated groan, making Spike chuckle and Twilight laugh. Rainbow then flew slowly to get the last cloud as the Twilight and Spike went off to their next destination. (Later.) Spike and Twilight were now checking on the decorations. As the walked into  the building to be used for the festival, they saw a unicorn girl with a white horn poking out of long, delicately styled purple hair, pale, almost white, skin, bright blue eyes with a layer of eye shadow, a stylish white dress and high heels staring intensely at what could only have been the decorations, brows frowned in concentration. "Excuse me. But are you the one in charge in decorating for the festival?" Spike ask polity. The question snapped the girl out of her concentration, and upon finding she had company, turned to them with a polite smile on her face, not noticing Twilight zip behind Spikes’ leg to hide. "Why yes, I am. My name is Rarity and…” Rarity trailed off, and after taking a good look at Spikes’  impromptu afro, almost screamed, “...What happen to your hair?!" Spike could practically feel his sweat drop at her look of absolute terror on her face. "Yeah... A girl named Rainbow Dash did this to me. Do you have a comb or brush I could use?" Spike ask. However, instead of an answer, she grabbed his collar and dragged him to her shop with Twilight following close behind. What happened next was a blur, and all either Spike or Twilight remember after that was that Spike was forced to try on different clothes, and when Rarity left to get something the grey colored suit he was wearing at the time, he left the necessary bits for the suit and hair cut and a thank you note on the counter, quickly changed into his original clothes and took the purple suit that he liked (explaining the extra bits), grabbed Twilight, and booked it. (A few minutes later.) Neither knew how far they ran, and judging from the fact that they were on the outskirts of Ponyville, they could guess it was pretty far. "Okay!” Spike said as he gave a clap, “Now to check on the music and we're done." Spike said, holding Twilights hand again and walked in the direction of the forest and the last person they needed to meet. Shortly after the two walked into the forest, they stumbled upon a pink hair, pale skinned pegasus girl with yellow wings and a simple dress of the same color with a schoolgirls shoes and a pair high socks. Before her was a bush with a number of leafless branches, and on the branches was a wide variety of birds. Twilight's’ eyes sparkled at the sight of the birds, and after finding a log to sit on, started to sway to the music while Spike was trying to process the fact that the girl before them was using birds to make music. After processing this, Spike quietly walked up to the girl as she was giving advice to one of the birds. "Hello there." Spike said softly, trying to not scare the birds or the girl, and only succeeding in the former. With a “Eep!”, the girl jumped away from Spike, and upon getting a good look at him, hid behind her pink hair before giving a reply. "Y-yes" the girl stuttered, peeking around the wall of pink. Spike could feel his sisters’, and the birds’, gaze on him, silently scolding him for scaring the girl. He gave a small sigh before continuing. "Sorry for scaring you, but we were wondering if your friends is ready to perform for the festival." Spike softly explained, motioning at the birds at the word ‘friends’. "Yes. They are." The girl said shyly. Spike gave a smile, "Good to hear! Now, allow us to introduced ourselves. My name is Spike and she’s Twilight.” Spike motioned to her. She was still sitting on the log, having eased up on glaring at her brother some time ago. Upon seeing that the attention was shifted to her, Twilight averted her eyes to the ground. Spike rolled his eyes at his sisters shyness, and decided that it was time to get back on the ball. “What’s your name?" "F-Fluttershy." Fluttershy stammered, taken aback by the suddenness of the question. "Okay then, it nice to meet you. We should be on our way. Thank you for your time." "Your welcome." With that, the duo left Fluttershy to her own devices. (Later.) Spike and Twilight entered the library they were suppose to be staying at and as soon they got in, the place suddenly light up and a chorus of screams all screaming “SURPRISE” followed shortly after word. It scare the two big time, and then the same puffy pink haired girl from before came bouncing to them and started to example to them this party was meant to welcome to Ponyville and help them to make friends. She also introduced herself as Pinkie Pie. They thanked her for her kindness and proceeded to party. (An hour later.) The entire town of Ponyville was now crammed into one building and everyone was waited for Princess Celestia to reveal herself. Spike and Twilight had entered together, but somewhere in the chaos, Spike was separated from Twilight. However, since they both got the chance to meet the entire town before hand, the both knew that everyone was very nice, so he didn’t have to worry about Twilights’ safety as much as he had to in Canterlot. So, just as the festival started, a dark shadow engulfed the room as it was then filled with the sound of evil laughter. Then, out of the shadows at the top of the balcony where Princess Celestia was supposed to appear,  a woman wearing in midnight blue armor with  hair that seemed to be made of the night sky itself flowing out of the helmet and long, jet black horn sprouting from her forehead and jet black wings on her back stepped forward. "Hmm, a lot has change…” The woman stated, scanning the crowd before her with glowing turquoise eyes. She then flashed a fang-filled smile before asking, “Can anyone tell who I am?" Out of the entire assemble, only one person, a small 7 year old, answered the question. "You’re Nightmare Moon." Twilight spoke. This revelation made everyone to gasp, and Spike launched himself in the direction of Twilight's’ voice in a panic as he tried to look for her. "Hehe. Guess not everyone is so dumb.” Nightmare Moon chuckled, staring down at the exact spot where Twilight was, made all the easier with the people forming a circle around her, giving her a perfect view of the small child. Nightmare Moon then disappeared and reappeared in front of Twilight. “You know what? For answering the question right, you can have the privilege of a front row seat as I pledge the world into darkness forever! And not even Celestia can help you now as she is trap in my prison!" Nightmare Moon said. This made everyone panic, and in the midst of the chaos, she grabbed Twilight. "Help! Spike! HELP!!!" Twilight cried as Nightmare got her. Spike had just gotten there, and his brotherly instincts took over. "Let her go!" Spike yell as he ran straight at Nightmare. But she just chuckle and gave a wave of her hand, launching  a spell that sent Spike flying to the other side of the room hard enough to make his body numb with pain. "If you want her back, then come and get her." Nightmare taunted. Twilight was crying as Spike tried to get up and fight, but he was having trouble. She didn't like to see him like this. "I'll kill you if you hurt even one hair on her." Spike said in a dark tone. Nightmare just gave an  amused chuckle and started  to charge a teleportation spell. "No! Spike help me! She’s taking me! Help!" Twilight cried out louder. Spike was starting to feel his body again as he quickly ran at them. He reach his hand out as Twilight reach out with hers. They were only inches apart, but Nightmare Moons’ spell finished charging and they teleported away. All Spike can do is stand there in shock. His sister was gone. He fail to save her. He roar in anger and sadness. As if to rub salt on his wound, his mind reminded him that he just did the thing that he swore to Twilight he would never do. He broke his promise.