//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - How To Hug Your Dragon // Story: I'm gonna cuddle you. And you're gonna enjoy it! // by Shin Guyviroth //------------------------------// Again I found myself wandering without much thought of direction. I wasn't near the river any more, but instead found myself within a flowering meadow some distance from it, with several outcrops of rock and stone of light brown and greys. With every moment I took to examine the scene around me, I kept lingering on the thought that the place looked like some sort of ancient burial ground or settlement from the Stone Age. You know, if Equestria ever had a Stone Age. But it was such a beautiful place to be. Beds of flowers grouped into different colours from reds, to purple, to blues, to whites, to oranges lay in square-like patches upon the grassy expanse, guarded by rocks both large and small that ranged from half a foot to several feet high, with some of them towering over me. This was what I needed right now. This was where I needed to be to relax and to calm my mind. Something as lustrous, quiet, and peaceful as this place. I sat in front of the flat surface of one of the smaller boulders, laying back against its hard yet cool surface before reclining my head against it. The cool touch of the surface did wonders for my pounding head, and I gave a sigh of relief. Why do I hate it, I thought to myself. No… Why do I fear them…? But before I could even get to begin contemplating the question, I began hearing loud clinking noises from behind me. Every one of those high-itched strikes stabbed into my eardrums like nails on a chalkboard. I swivelled my body around the rock, trying to get a view of whatever was making that noise. I couldn't see any movement though. All I heard was the slow clinks of metal on stone coming from somewhere nearby. Then I saw several small chunks crack and crumble away from one of the bigger boulders nearby. Several more flew from behind it, away and to the side. Seemed like someone was doing a bit of mining. Well I certainly wasn't gonna get much needed rest and relaxation with those piercing thuds rupturing my ears and brain. I grunted and stood to my feet, looking over the rock which I laid against, watching more chippings of stone fly from behind the larger boulder as I made my way over. Slowly, obviously; I didn't want to risk startling a pickaxe-wielding psychopath. As I drew closer towards the boulder, I could hear small panting breaths and little grunting noises. Kinda high pitched, too. Like a child. Did… Did these ponies employ child labour or something? I didn't really want to believe my own thoughts, let alone have them in the first place, but I wanted to be wrong. So, so wrong. But I wasn't, in a way. I kept some distance from the boulder as I strafed around it slowly, only letting the sounds of the rustling grass beneath my feet be my only known presence. But what I saw was, what I thought, more unbelievable than it should have been. A tiny, little purple dragon with green frills and crest was struggling as it swung a large pickaxe bigger than himself. His stumpy arms were shaking as it hoisted the tool over its head, jittering as the head of the axe collided with the rock's surface. It didn't seem to notice me though. But I couldn't help but feel terrible for the poor creature. Who would make such a tiny creature do such hard labour that it was clearly struggling to do? I kept suspecting that the ponies were making him do this -- How else would Rarity get all of those gems and jewels? But then I thought about other dragons being the cause of it, like some sort of social hierarchy. "You okay there?" I spoke up, watching as the dragon swept a tiny hand across his brow. "You need a hand with… whatever it is you're doing?" "I'm… I'm fine," he spoke up with a young, childlike innocence and stubbornness. "I'm kinda used to this stuff." He didn't even bother to turn towards me, and instead gave the boulder another sudden strike with the pickaxe. A tiny piece of rock bopped him on the forehead as the axe struck hard, piercing and cracking the face of it. But even his legs were starting to quiver now. "You need to take a break," I suggested. Well, it was more like I told him. "I'm sure that whatever it is you're doing isn't worth straining yourself for." "I said I'm fine!" he snapped back at me with a scowl. "And besides, someone's gotta do it. Unless you--" His little head and big eyes soon shifted and turned to me. And as he did, a veil of white washed over his body, it seemed. His eyes slowly gazed from my legs, to my body, then to mine. A sudden cry blasted from his lungs as he hobbled back and flung the pickaxe into the air. Almost at the same time, the axe and his rear both collided with the ground as he tripped over one of the money stone fragments. "W-who are you? W… What are you…?" "Hey there, take it easy!" I exclaimed with an assuring smile as I raised my hands in gesture of innocence. Or at least I tried to, but the little guy just wasn't accepting it; his hands were still jittering, though I couldn't tell if that was from fright or from his arms being overworked. Perhaps my height gave off an intimidating vibe? I decided to lower myself to my knees, kneeling down upon the grass to try and put myself at his level, but he still only came to my chest. "I'm Summers. What's your name?" I asked. "O-oh, me? I'm Spike…" "That's a pretty tough-sounding name, Spike," I flattered. If he's like any other little boy, then gentle praise like this would get me somewhere. "I bet you're a pretty popular guy with the lady dragons, huh?" "Ah… Hehe, well, if I knew any, then I probably would be…" he paused for a moment, and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "But I guess I'm pretty well known with a lot of ponies, so that makes up for it, right?" "Ponies? Spike, do you come from Ponyville?" "Yeah. I live with Twi---Uh, the Princess of Friendship." His lips curled to a sheepish grin. "Heh. Gotta get used to calling her that…" "You mean you stay with Twilight Sparkle, right?" "Oh, so you've met Twilight? Was she… Uh, was she being a bit… grumpy when you went to see her?" My body froze as soon as he asked. "Uh, no! No, uh… She didn't seem grumpy," I replied. A bold-faced lie if there ever was one. "Has she been grumpy all day?" "More grumpy than an ursa major having its sleep disturbed." I had no idea what one of those was, but it seemed pretty bad. "She kept going on about how she got denied her first ever new friend cuddle or something. I think she's taking Pinkie Pie's lessons a bit too seriously." "Yeah, about that…" I was in two minds about it. should I just keep it to myself, or should I tell Spike about what happened? If he's staying with Twilight, then surely he could try and soften the blow for me. "Actually, I was the one who got her all grumpy and stuff." "… Wait. What?" "I'm not from here, Spike. I found myself here randomly, and Twilight was the first one to take me in. I told her about myself and what had happened, and, out of nowhere, she tried to cuddle me. I panicked and ran." And how did Spike reply to that? By trying to stifle his hysteria with both of his tiny hands trying to cover that big mouth of his. It was all for naught, however, as he burst into a fit of laughter, toppling backwards on the grass and kicking his feet as he held his chest tight. "Y-you mean Twilight was trying to cuddle you?" he spoke through gasping breaths. "And---and you t-tried to run away from her?" "… That's right." All my confirmation did was make the snotty runt cry louder in laughter as he rolled onto his front. A teary bead dripped down his plush cheek as he shut his eyes tight. "I-I can't believe I missed all that! That would---would have been soooo hilarious to watch!" I furrowed my brow as I sighed, rubbing my forehead with a finger and thumb. "You done yet, Spike? You're giving me a headache…" His outburst was starting to lessen at least, but the little whelp was still giggling despite his attempt to hold them in. "I-I'm sorry, Summers… It's just that---Heh---I've never thought Twilight could be that… uh…" "Crazy." "Diligent, I was gonna say." His gave a cheeky grin. "But I guess crazy would be a fitting word, too. Not that I could blame ya, though; I think I would have ran away scared too if she was chasing me for a cuddle." "Hey! I wasn't scared of her!" "I bet you were." "Well I wasn't." "You said you panicked, right?" "… Right." "You only panic if you get scared. And you ran, too. So you were super scared." "… You know, for a baby dragon, you sure are a huge smart aleck." "I get that from Twilight." I shook my head and sighed heavily. But as I did, my eyes caught sight of the pickaxe laying just between the two of us. I hadn't really noticed it before, what with it being sunk in the long grass, but now I just couldn't take my attention from it. "Did Twilight ask you to do this, too?" I asked quietly. I didn't want to believe she would make Spike do something like this. "No." I gave an inward sigh of relief. "Rarity asked me to." And then I gave an inward grumble. "Whenever Rarity needs gems for her outfits and stuff, she asks me to find some." "You can do that?" Spike tapped the tip of his nose with a tiny finger. "I can sniff out all kinds of gems. And so far--" he turned to the scattering of stones "--this is the best place. But I totally wanna get into this big one right here." "You can smell lots of gems in this one?" "Sure can! Smells like one really big chromatic geode. And the more gems there are, the more I get to keep for myself!" "… Um… Explain?" Spike grunted and rolled his eyes. "A chromatic geode? You know, a geode that houses loads of different kinda of gems?" "Oh. Right. I know what you mean now." I didn't. "And I don't think I need to explain that dragons eat gems." "… They do?" "Man, you really are clueless, aren't ya?" Way to rub salt in the wound, you little… sugar lump. But I guess that kinda made sense as to why dragons hoard gems as well as precious metals to sleep on. "Anyways, my usual pickaxe couldn't get through it, so I had to grab something a little bit bigger. But, uh… It's kinda too big…" I looked back down at the pickaxe, and reached out and grasped the handle with one hand, standing it up by its head before getting back to my feet. "Let me take care of this," I said, swinging the tool over my shoulder. "I'll get them for ya." "Y-you will?" Spikes big eyes grew even bigger as he stared up at me. Such a cute little squirt he was. "Sure thing. Can't let kids like you go around wielding axes two sizes too big for them, right?" I stood in front of the huge rock, feet apart and knees bent as I hefted the pickaxe in front of me. "I can take care of myself, thanks," snapped Spike, though without much of an edge on his tongue. "But… that axe is pretty heavy…" "S'all good, Spike. Just stand back." I took a single step forward as my arms swung outward, then behind me, until finally arcing widely over my head as the sharp tip of the axe's head struck violently upon the surface of the geode. I sharp clank rang through the air, followed by several shards and shrapnel of stone. As I took the head from the rock, I saw a fairly large puncture in the surface. "This could take some time," I muttered under my breath as I readied the next swing. With every strike I imposed upon the geode, the bigger Spike's eyes grew as he gazed upon my efforts. I couldn't tell if it was because of seeing a large human wield such a tool without effort, kinda like watching a knight swing his sword, or if it was because with every inch the pick dug further into the geode, the closer he was to having his lustrous bounty. And yet it didn't matter one way or another. What mattered was that I could help out. That in of itself was a duty, an accomplishment, and my reward. Anything else was a bonus. "You're pretty good with that," said Spike, still watching as I swung the pickaxe. "You done this kinda thing before?" "A long time ago, admittedly," I replied with short breath as I hoisted the pickaxe, speaking between strikes. "A few years ago I worked… Worked as a labourer when we were rebuilding the city hospital… So I did some lifting, digging, carrying things places… General handyman around the place… Good money, too…" "So you go round helping people make houses and stuff?" "More like I help clean up after other people's work... But it's not exactly a hard job, and the pay is good... Keeps me occupied, too…" A sudden high, clinking noise caused the two of us to pause. I hadn't even paid much attention to the mining as much as I was talking to Spike, failing to notice that the small puncture I had made had become a fairly big hole. The tip of the axe slid from the edges of the opening with a *shink*, and the light cast through it refracted into a multitude of soft, clear colours. Blue, purple, green, yellow -- so many colours shone from the geode through the many crystal formation from within. "Y-you did it!" cried Spike as he jumped in the air before racing towards it. "Rarity will be so happy that we managed to get this many gems!" "We still need to get them out, though," I replied, looking at the hole and comparing it to the size of the whole rock. "Only a little bit bigger, though," Spike said. The little dragon hopped up slightly, grabbing the edge of the hole with both claws before pulling himself up. Quickly his hands began to claw and burrow at the edges, chipping pieces away and making the hole wider and wider. "If I can get it wide enough, then I can just crawl inside and get the gems out that way." And certainly he did just that. Despite his diminutive size, his strength was great enough to tear off chunks of the rock like he was taking apart a Lego set. Within moments he squirmed inside, taking his time with prying out the gems from the geode's inner crust. Every so often Spike would drop a handful of gems onto the grass below, and it was only then that I could truly marvel at the beauty of these gemstones. I picked one of them up, a small chunk of topaz, and twirled it around between a finger and thumb. Hard, cool, and slightly rough. "Hey! You better not take any of that yet!" shouted Spike, his voice carrying much more fierce and louder as it echoed in the gem-filled chamber. "I'm just taking a look," I replied calmly. But before I could get much of a closer look, a purple clawed hand snatched it from my fingers. "I'll take that," A smug-looking Spike said. But I found myself speechless as I stood next to a waist-high pile of multicoloured gems. Did Spike really dig all that out as quickly as he did? He must be pretty good at this. "So we have rubies… sapphires, emeralds… topaz'… amethysts… Oh, and a few diamonds." "Quite a load, huh?" I couldn't help but smile at the pile of treasure the both of us had worked to get. "So how are we gonna get all of this stuff out of here?" "I brought a sack. Duh. It's somewhere around here…" "Hm. Okay. Have fun with that, Spike." But before I could turn to leave, the little guy tugged on my trousers. "W-wait---You're leaving already? Ain't ya gonna some back with me to Rarity and show her how much we got for her?" I paused for a moment. And then I just smiled. "What do you mean "we"? It was you who did all of this -- digging and all, right?" His cute lil eyes couldn't be any more cuter. I swear I could see him tear up a little, too. "But… Summers… I can't take all the credit for this! And you deserve something for helping me." "Hmmm… Well, there is something you can do for me, Spike." "What's that?" "Just don't tell anyone I helped you. No doubt Twilight and Rarity are still after me. If I'm to remain free of their… grumpy cuddling techniques, then they must never know what was done here today." The little dragon stifled a chuckle, no doubt thinking about the both of them cuddling me to death. "Well… Okay, Summers. But if you come back to Ponyville, you'll come visit us, right?" "If Twilight has calmed down, then I'll do just that." I expected some sort of witty remark from the little guy… but he just ran up to me and wrapped his tiny little arms around my leg and held his body close. "I'll see you in a few years then." There it was. But I just knelt down and hugged him close, petting his head lightly. "I think she'll be okay by tomorrow, Spike." "Hah. You don't know Twilight at all, do you?"