It was three days since Spike first entered the Everfree Forest.No pony had came to rescue the purple dragon. No pony called his name, and no pony flew across the sky and called for him. Spike was lonely, and Spike was angry.
Spike mulled over what a ‘friend’ told him when he first entered the dark forest. Spike was convinced that the ‘friendship’ of his equine companions gave was only there to keep him from running away.
As another day and night passes, He just sat there and waited for his never coming rescue.
Spike stayed put at the campsite he made on his own. The fire he made let off small smoke trails that could be seen for miles. But all the smoke did was scare the woodland creatures away from him. Perhaps the reassurances his friends gave him were really false all along.
“Maybe ‘friend’ was right. Three days already passed and no pony’s come to find me! Why do these things always have to happen to me?!” Spike yelled out, cursing everything that grew around him on his makeshift bed. But all he could hear were the echoes of his anger and the rustling of the forest’s leaves.
Spike’s anger grew more and more the more he thought about everything that happened to him the past few days. His blood boiled deep inside as he grit his teeth. Never in his entire life had Spike had been so angry! Unable to contain his anger, Spike jumped up from his makeshift bed and stomped out of his camp in fury.
---
Spike continued to scream into the depths of the Everfree Forest. No matter how hard he tried to calm himself, Spike grew more and more vexed. He continued to curse out towards the celestial being and his friends, expecting that his friends would hear the neglected dragon.
He remembered how Twilight forbid Spike from swearing the way he did now, but that didn’t matter anymore. Nopony came to stop him now, and he wanted things to stay that way!
But then… a twig snapped again behind him, Sounds of crunchy paws grew louder and louder, immediately placing Spike back into a state of fear. Despite all the anger he had in the world, his life was still very much at stake.
His blood instantly turned from red hot anger into ice cold chills as the purple dragon now heard growls of hunger and malice. Standing all around the little dragon were Timberwolves of all sizes. Spike immediately noticed the silver scars that shone from the Timberwolves’ wooden bodies. They were the same Timberwolves Spike ran away the last time!
Just as Spike was about to accept his inevitable death in the dank forest, a red stallion jumped out of nowhere and beside Spike. Once he landed, he spoke with a loud, booming voice,
"Baby dragon! The key to defeating the Timberwolves is to feast on your anger! Think of everything that makes you mad! That white pony rejecting you coldly, that nerd who refused to help you in your time of need, and even all of Ponyville who never wanted to stop for a single moment to help you with your problems! You too are lost in the Everfree, which makes you mad, mad and mad!" The red stallion yelled at the top of his lungs.
Spike had trouble breathing, let alone feeling his heartbeat. Everything that happened when he encountered ‘friend’ was repeating itself once again! Except for the angry red stallion!
“Do you even listen to me, little dragon?! I told you to go and unleash your fury upon those beasts that hunt you! Remember what your ‘friends’ told you?! They said you were useless, vulnerable to everything!!” the stallion yelled, staring directly into Spike's eyes.
Upon hearing those words, Spike could only see red. His blood heated up once again as he gritted his teeth, remembering the situation he was forced to confront. The red stallion began to fade, pleased that the purple dragon was finally learning.
”Ya gotta stand up for yourself kid. Good luck my friend.” Those were the last words the red stallion spoke before he vanished into thin air.
As soon as the stallion vanished, the Everfree Forest became unfrozen that spike had no idea when it was frozen in the first place. The Timberwolves crept towards the reddened dragon. Spike’ vision became a tinted red as he stepped towards the wolves, gritting his teeth along the way and took a fighting stance.
The alpha timberwolf and Spike lunged towards each other, beginning a fierce battle! Claw clashed with claw, and dragon scales met wood! The alpha’s claws were completely destroyed when it landed face first into the dirt, while Spike was barely scratched.
The rest of the Timberwolves followed, but they all met the same fate. In his anger, Spike taunted the Timberwolves for their impotent attacks. But suddenly, another Timberwolf caught him off guard and pounced the purple dragon!
Spike pushed the Timberwolf away from him. He took in a deep breath and let out a torrent of green magical dragon fire. The angry flame enveloped and consumed the wolf. The flame was so powerful that there was no trace of the wolf in sight, not even ashes.
Spike picked himself off the ground slowly face down and and raised his head towards the injured timberwolves. His eyes were now a ruby red as opposed to his shining emerald green. The purple dragon yelled with a tone of fury,
"WHO'S NEXT!?!"
When the words left his mouth, all the Timberwolves ran up to him at once, but they didn’t even travel ten feet before they were all consumed by the overwhelming flame Spike exhaled. When it was all over, Spike didn’t see a single threat in sight. The wild forest became tamely silent. Nothing moved, and no living being was in sight.
Spike heard a faint clap, but he didn’t know where it was coming from! The fact he had trouble turning his head, or moving in general didn’t help either.
”Nicely done, Mister Spike!” ‘friend' applauded as he made himself visible in front of Spike.
“I take that you had a conversation with a rather mad red stallion I presume?” 'friend' asked as he slowly tapped his hoof towards the ground.
“What are you doing here? Where were you the last few days?” Spike asked as he pointed his right claw at the grey stallion and walked towards ‘friend’.
friend and spike started circling each other as ‘friend’ exhaled mist started to form around his mouth, it gave the impression that Spike was in a cold place,and suddenly it felt cold,really cold, like the forest was suddenly turned from summer to winter. that makes spike calmed down a bit from his anger, his eyes were starting to turn green again.
“I am not someone you just “summon”when you feel like it. I only appear when you need my assistance, and just then,” He explained, the grey mist continuing to spew from his nostrils and mouth as they stopped going around in circles. ‘friend’s cyan, hollow eyes staring at him.
“What help do I need?!” Spike mockingly asked. “I'm fine! In fact, I just dealt with an entire pack of Timberwolves by myself!” the purple dragon boasted. “Where were you when that happened?”, Spike grumpily asked, his anger against Twilight and his friends still fresh on his mind. The stallion let out a dry chuckle.
“And here I thought you were having a moment back there,” ‘friend’ replied to Spike in a very, very amused tone.
“Anyway, to your left is inside a bush. Inside the bush is a chest. You do want to return the favor back to Mr. Angry, don’t you? After all, he did save your life…” continued ‘friend’. The temperature and the forest returned to normal and ‘friend’ went back into his necklace Spike had brought with him.
Spike rolled his eyes and looked to his left. A scratch mark on the floor greeted his vision and friend’s chest underneath the bush. Just as ‘friend’ had foreseen. Spike walked towards the chest and opened it. Inside the chest was a torch with a fading flame and an even smaller metal box.
Inside the metal box was a scroll with a seal. On it was a cutie mark Spike presumed was the red stallion’s. He lift up the torch and blew out the flame.
Spike reflected on all the action that transpired with the Timberwolves. He scratched his head as he pondered how he could have survived the ordeal. His fear grew on him once again like thistles and thorns. Spike picked up the scroll and cracked the seal, once again, the wind picked up and he began to read its contents aloud.
“Test 346: Test failed. I am disappointed with this piece of the artifact. Its use is to summon a warrior, but when the torch was lit it just summoned the soul inside the artifact. Not unlike the necklace of reason. Perhaps it's the fact that it uses the same summoning spell... bla bla bla…makes user fearless when lit...bla bla bla.”
Spike rolled up the scroll and tossed it away with a ‘meh’. It was useless information about the artifact just like friend’s scroll. Spike began to walk back from whence he came, only to realize that was lost again in the deep dark forest soon afterwards.
The young dragon was starting to get nervous because it was starting to get dark outside. And he just knew it would be a bad idea walking around the everfree alone in the dark. Spike looked around for any eyes watching him and when he found none, he wandered into a different direction.
---
Two hours later all he found a whole lot of trees and and nothing else. No rivers, no animals, not even any insects. Just a bunch of trees blowing with the wind over him. It’s getting dark outside, so he decides to take out his torch and blow some of his dragon flame onto it, activating the artifact in the process.
Just then, the forest - as always - stopped moving, he couldn’t breath and just like every time he meets the soul inside the artifacts a stallion appears in front of him, this time instead of ‘friend’,
however, a red stallion without any clothes on by the way, stares at him, right into his eyes.
“Ya need somethin`?” he said with a weird accent as he looked around and tapped his hoof towards the ground. spike as always when the tap sound was heard was able to move and breath again.
“cuz I don’t see anythin that might kill ya” he casually stated lifting a hoof up to rub his chin like he is thinking, when spike opened his mouth to reply, Then the stallion burst out laughing and rolled around like he just got tickled.
“Mighty proud of ya kid, ain’t got anyponeh got fired up that quickly since since dat grey guy whoever he is, you had some pent up stress I tell ya that! So wadda ya need?” he finally finished as he looked at spike expectedly.
“Well I need some of whatever you do because I am getting rather scared inside the largest and most dangerous place in this damn planet!” spike said as he opened his arms to pointed at his surroundings.
“No can do cuz your a coward.” He said as he pointed at the dragon as he looked unimpressed like he is a drill sargent looking at his cadet, without respect and spike don't like it one bit.
Spike the dragon was being called a coward right in his face and he instantly got very mad at the red stallion, so he gritted his teeth and pointed a claw at him and said in a low voice and stepping towards him.
“Listen here buddy,I’ve just got rejected by the ones I know and love a few days ago and lost inside this dangerous SH!7 HOLE, and I am not in a good mood to chat, I can always destroy you, after all, you are just a soul in a torch after all. So...What...Will...IT...BE? HELP ME OR WHAT?!”
He however just rolled his eyes and said in a even tone” you are talkin to a pony that died a thousand two hundred years ago kid,the fact it don’t bother you a single bit tells me enough that you don't need mah help, so quit bein such a pussy and build a fire.”
And with that, he faded away… Spike grumbled at he muttered a55h0le under his breath as he start working on his fire and his ‘camp’ with him beginning to gather sticks and leaves, the thing about being a dragon is he don't have a cent so he can't be tracked or ‘sniffed out’ by animals,”that’s a plus” he muttered
---
And after a few hours of building and crafting in a opening next to a stream with his makeshift tools made by sticks and rocks tied together, he made his second camp, the moon is high up in the sky and and he is finally done.
He lay on his bed and blew out the torch when he wanted to sleep, he instantly regretted it again as he was suddenly aware of the woodland creatures that surrounds him and his camp, he started shivering as he lay on his bed and he took the torch and blew it on again.
“What do ya need this time, stop callin me!” spike was going to call him ‘mad’ at this point said behind him as he stomped his hoof towards the ground well, madly. Spike for his part
turned around and glared at him as he said.
“just lighting up a torch to light up the place, got a problem?” spike the dragon spat back, as ‘mad’ groaned and rolled his eyes right before disappearing into thin air yet again for the third time of the day.
Spike less afraid now that the torch is lit, he began to doze off, his energy had been drained after a full day of walking and fighting that one pack of timberwolves, that left him drained as a dry well.
His eyes was starting to close shut, just when his vision was a narrow line, a voice said beside him quietly... “Time? was it really that time again?” and like that, he slipped out of consciousness...