//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Tactical Retreat 
// Story: Dreams of a Dragon 
// by jh 8 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 8, tactical retreat

"Well that did the job" Spike thought while he looked at the aftermath of his battle with the Timberwolf. It had an almost alien feel to it. The ground covered with pieces of wood buried in stones and rocks. Some the wood pieces were still moving, some with a very disturbing twitch, but the movement slowly died down. The green smog which had covered the area was mostly gone, leaving  the faint, but noticeable smell of the Timberwolf's  breath in the air. It was also quiet in this part of the forest. Spike had seen the birds fly away in fear when the Timberwolf collided with the cliff, and animals that normally inhibited the ground were nowhere to be seen.

Spike, with lack of a better a word, was enjoying this moment. The quiet, and the well-deserved sight of victory, gave him even a slight sense of pride which he didn't feel very often. Strangely enough even the smell added something to it. He could however still feel the blood that was dripping from his left arm, which had formed a small puddle on the ground.

Spike, all the while, also calmed himself down. He was breathing slowly in and out, getting less tense with every breath he took. He felt like he could stand there forever, he even stopped wondering about the ponies he had just saved. He had lost most sense of time, and didn't even know how long he was standing still.

But some time had to have passed because slowly but steadily the forest began to break the silence that surrounded Spike. The birds flew back to their nest, and other animals came from their hiding place In the forest. Among them were little bunnies, most of them were brown, but among them was one particularly white coloured bunny.

But that was not the weird part, there are white bunnies living in the forest. No the weird part was that his particular bunny kept looking at Spike. It was like he had met him before. But bunnies mostly avoided him when he happened to stumble upon one in the forest.

Spike had noticed this to, snapping him out of his peaceful little trance, and engaged the bunny in a useless staring contest. "What does he want from me?" Spike thought, when suddenly the bunny turned around flailing his arm in the air. It was like he was trying to get someone's attention, and it wasn't him. Spike was still staring, and noticed something when the bunny turned around. There was a pink curler in his tail.

"No it can't be him" Spike thought "Why would Angel be in the Everfree Forest?"

His answer came in the form of a voice coming out of the forest.

"Angel where are you?" The voice sounded a bit distressed but was still very soft spoken. Spike hadn't heard this voice in years now.

Spike's mind resumed its daily work once he realised who this bunny was and who was also present in the forest at this very moment. "got to hide" was first (the only) thought that came to mind, and he made a run for a very large boulder right next to the cliff, almost diving behind it. He could still see the ruined area in his dive, and caught a blue blur coming from between the surrounding trees standing from the other side. Spike then landed flat on his face, suppressing a yelp caused by a sudden sting of pain from his back.

"Fluttershy, he is here" A raspy, somewhat boyish female voice said. The great Rainbow 'Danger' Dash had entered the area.

Spike at this point could only hear what was going on from behind his hiding place. He heart the distinct sound of crinkling leaves, and a small 'thump' on the ground, signalling that something had landed.

"What is going on?" Spike asked himself as he fought back the urge to take a look "Why are they here?" A huge number of options raced through head:
"Maybe it’s just a coincidence, they could have gotten lost in the forest. No that is not it, that stupid bunny threw a hissy fit and ran into the forest. And now Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are trying to bring it back home" Were the first that came to mind. but they were not very likely. especially Fluttershy would avoid the deeper parts of the forest as the plague. Spike's mind suddenly turned a bit darker:
"Stop being so naive. They are here for me" A voice sounded from the back of his mind "The ponies that I just saved from the Timberwolves ratted me out. And Twilight now knows that I am here, once she heard that there was a small purple dragon living in the forest. This is just part of a search party she organized to find me"

Should he even be hiding? Maybe he should confront them, but would that do any good? And what was he supposed to do, scare them away? He didn't know how they would react if he did. Should he run away then? No he was to close for that, and Rainbow Dash would catch up to him in no time. No it was better to stay still and take note of the situation. He could always try to run away or confront them if he wanted to.

Spike, at this point, could no longer fight his urge to take a peek at this point. He lifted his head up, crawled to one side of the boulder, and watched the scene that was playing before his eyes:

"Thank goodness you are okay" Fluttershy said while hugging Angel tightly in her front hooves, causing the bunny's eyes to bulge out a little. Angel then wrestled himself loose and shot a glare at the yellow Pegasus, while pointing at his tail over and over again.

Rainbow dash, who was still hovering in the air didn't look every amused either. "Fluttershy, we don't have time for this, why is Angel here again?" The cyan mare asked in an annoyed manner. "And are you even sure it is in this part of the forest?.

"Well, um, Yes. my bird-friends told me that a Timberwolf was chasing another animal, and that they were running toward a cliff. That other animal is apparently hurt. And Angel probably followed us because I promised that I would take the curler out of his tail" Fluttershy replied

Angel was still repeatedly pointing at his tail while tapping his paw impatiently.

Rainbow glared at the white bunny for a moment. "Well from what I can see and.." She paused for a bit and sniffed the air "EUGH, smell there was a Timberwolf here" She said while covering her nose with a hoof giving her a bit of a nasally voice. "But it looks like the Timberwolf went splat against the cliff."  There was no response."Hallo fluttershy, anypony home?" Rainbow asked, trying to get her friends attention who was currently busying herself with removing the curler from her demanding bunny's tail.

"Oh um sorry, But where is the other animal then?" Fluttershy asked in a worried voice while looking around the area.

"Couldn't the birds be a little more specific that just  'a Timberwolf and another animal'?"

"They said that they had never seen anything like it in this part of the forest"

Angel, seemingly relieved that his tail was back to its former glory followed Fluttershy's lead and looked around for a while. Maybe he was looking for Spike. After a while the bunny started to jump and pointing towards Spike's direction, trying to get the attention of his owner.

"Alright what do you want now? " Rainbow snapped "You already made us lose a lot of time we don't have, so try to help or butt out"

The bunny's response was an annoyed look with a tongue sticking out of his mouth, followed by grabbing the pink mane of his owner, effectively dragging her to the spot he was just pointing at.

"Alright angel, easy" The yellow Pegasus said.

Finally reaching his destination, Angel pointed on more time to his discovery, prompting Fluttershy to respond with a "Oh my goodness"

"What is it?" Rainbow Dash asked while she zipped over to the spot.

"It looks like a little puddle of blood" Fluttershy said in a small voice, looking a bit concerned.

This caused Spike to look at his arm, which was still bleeding. In the time that he spent behind the boulder a very similar puddle of blood had formed beneath his arm. Spike then carefully looked between the boulder and the ponies, searching for other traces of blood that could lead them to him. there wasn't any, at least from his point of view.

"Look Fluttershy" Rainbow Dash began, this time in a more patient fashion "I know what you are going to say, but we don't have time to look for this animal right now"
Spike saw that the yellow Pegasus lifted her head to look up to her friend, but could not make out her expression

"But this animal is wounded, it needs our help"

"Please Fluttershy, you know we don't have time for this" Rainbow Dash continued in a more stern tone of voice. "We have a meeting with the princess today. We can't be too late for that, especially after what happened yesterday. I mean, we probably have to go back to the Everfree after the meeting and we can look for this animal too besides him. But we have to get back to Ponyville first and we have to meet the princess. Besides we still have to convince Twilight to attend that meeting somehow. Maybe we could search for this animal later"

Rainbow looked at her friend and saw that Fluttershy wasn't fully convinced, and brought up another argument. "Fluttershy, an animal who lives in the Everfree Forest can take care of himself, or herself or whatever it is. It took down a Giant Timberwolf in a fight, that must count for something. It could even be cool enough to be my pet"

Fluttershy, with visual hesitation, pulled herself away from the blood. "You are right, I guess"

The two friends began to slowly walk away, much to Spike's relief. that was until Fluttershy, once again stopped dead in her tracks. followed by a very distressed sounding sentence: "Wait where is Angel. ANGEL WHERE ARE YOU!?. this place is not a playground safe for bunnies"

Rainbow, probably to get things moving didn't say anything, and also started to look around in search of the little pest.

" Of course" Spike thought. " Can things ever go the way I want?"

Spike, while busy spying, also didn't know where angel was. He simply stopped paying attention to him. He quickly looked around the clearing, wanting to know where the white bunny was. He didn't have to look that far however.  He saw Angel in the corner of his eye standing right beside him, and what made matters worse was that the bunny was already staring at him. Spike slowly turned his head to look Angel straight in the eyes, continuing the staring contest they had earlier. Angel's face was expressionless at first but slowly turned into a grin. A very evil looking grin you would never expect from a small little bunny, but spike knew better than that. He knew Angel's true nature: a spoiled Fluttershy-abusing demanding brat.

Spike knew what Angel was planning from that expression alone. He in turn darkened his own expression and said to the bunny intruder: "Don't you dare" This was loud enough for Angel to hear but not so loud that the ponies could hear him. He had to get out of this situation before the ponies came to this hiding place. Spike didn't know why he didn't bother with his threat, because Angel started to jump and squeaked the moment he finished his sentence. He jumped up and down and pointed with his paw in Spike's direction, hoping he could get the attention of Fluttershy.

"Angel is that you? " He could hear Fluttershy from behind his protective boulder, still sounding very distressed.

Spike had to think fast, and quickly grabbed the bunny with one of his claws and pulled him behind the boulder. Angel just looked at Spike, giving him a very smug expression, and squeaked even harder. Spike, in turn quickly covered the bunny's mouth with his other claw, and pulled him closer to him. Angel tried to squirm free, but attempts were in fain. Spike meanwhile lifted the bunny up, very close to his mouth, and tried to look as menacing as possible. He was never good at looking fearsome, or anything remotely related to that, but his added size should help a bit.

"Look you little Jerk. I do not want to be found, and you are not very helpful" Spike said, imitating a low sounding growl "If you continue, and I get caught because of you. Then I can assure you that the first thing I will do is barbeque you and eat you as a low-fat snack" He tried to make his point, and he made sure to show his teeth during his last threat.

Spike looked Angel in the eyes again, and saw that he had been very clear. It was almost like one of his dreams after he had to take care of him while Fluttershy went off to convince a red dragon to sleep somewhere else. A dream where he could finally get a little revenge. But this was not a dream, this was reality. The bunny was shaking in his claws, so much that spike's fingers started to move with him. The look on his face was very amusing to Spike, he had finally put Angel in his place. But Spike at the same time couldn't help but wonder if his sense of humour was right. He seemed to like the idea of revenge or his habit of bad humour a bit too much sometimes, thinking back at his idea to lead the Timberwolf to Ponyville.

"Now, get out" Spike continued in the same tone that he used before. "And make sure you take those two with you" he said while he gestured to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. He put Angel down, and the bunny wasted no time whatsoever. He dashed as fast as he could away from spike, while Spike slowly looked around the boulder.
Spike saw that Angel wasn't planning on slowing down anytime soon, as he zipped right past his owner and her cyan friend.

This was enough for Fluttershy to follow him immediately .

"ANGEL! Where are you going!? if you are angry at me then you can say so, please wait!" Spike saw Fluttershy dash into the forest faster than he had ever seen her fly before.  Rainbow, first looking rather surprised at the speed of Fluttershy's flying, looking one more time at the surrounding area (causing Spike to duck quickly) and followed her friend with one last annoyed grunt.

Spike didn't look up from his hiding place until he was sure that he couldn't hear Fluttershy's apologies anymore. A shame really, some of them were actually pretty hilarious. How could somepony give a bunny a bath using shampoo with green hair dye? Spike's legs felt like they were asleep because of the position he was in, and he tried to stretch them to get some feeling back into them.

All the while Spike wondered back into the Forest, looking back at this unplanned, but very eventful morning now that he finally had time to think. It took him some time to gather his thoughts. Sure, he stared death in the face today, but that was not the weirdest thing that had happened today. That was because he had seen more ponies in a single morning that during this past year. Maybe it was because he was in a part of the Everfree that was closer to Ponyville, but ponies avoided the Everfree as much as they could as far as he knew except for Twilight and her friends of course (excluding Fluttershy if she had the chance). And he usually made sure to put some distance between him and Ponyville and anything pony related such as the Castle of the Two Sisters.

But that wasn't the only thing that plagued Spike's mind with questions. Questions caused by the things he had overheard from Rainbow Dash. What were they going to do in the Everfree?  Were they looking for someone? Could they be looking for him? No, that was impossible; they were not even supposed to know that he was currently here. But then again, maybe they heard of him being here from Zecora, or was it so obvious that he was in the Everfree that they just assumed that he was here. But even if they knew his position, what would they want from him after three years? Were they going to make sure that he had truly left pony lands? Or did they want something else? A lot can change in three years. Maybe they were looking for someone or something else.

Should he have talked to them after all?

Spike just wandered further back into the forest, not exactly knowing where he was, but he was probably close to the spot where he fought the Timberwolves. This brought Spike to the next topic: What happened to the ponies he had saved? Are they still in the forest? Why were they in the forest in the first place? Were they also looking for this mysterious person, or maybe even him?

Unfortunately, Spike's mind never got the chance to answer these questions. The sudden sound of crinkling leaves interrupted his thoughts, causing Spike to turn around, ready for another battle. But this time his 'attacker' got the better of him. Something jumped at him before he was fully turned around. This caused him to lose balance and fall backwards. He landed partly on his back, but also on his head on something very hard. It could be described as an anti-climax. Everything went black before his eyes. The last thing he saw were three silhouettes, and the last thing Spike heard before he passed out were two small words:

"Oops sorry"

To be continued...