It’s a beautiful day in Equestria. The birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days likes this, ponies like you all… should be having fun.
No seriously, it's a beautiful day in Equestria and all creatures are having fun. All except one…
Spike, the only dragon born in an area full of ponies which most dragons dislike, is currently running away from a manticore in the Everfree. How did this happen? Well, let's go back a few hours…
. .
“... Let me get this straight Twilight. You want me, the little dragon that is not quote unquote ‘responsible’ enough to own a pet, is responsible enough to go to one of Equestria’s most dangerous places alone with nothing to defend himself?” Asked a small, purple scaled dragon that also has green eyes, crest and belly who, when compared with an average human when it comes to size, is barely taller than the human's knee. This small, purple and green dragon is Spike, the faithful assistant.
“Yes that is exactly what I just said.” Said a purple furred pony who also had a purple with a pink highlight mane and tail. She also had a cutie mark of seven stars, one big and six small. This purple pony is named Twilight Sparkle. She was currently standing in the middle of her library home giving the small dragon a backpack with emergency items inside it and a map, made by a mysterious book writer and explorer named Flaming Quill.
“But it doesn't make any sense and why do you need a stamina increasing potion of all things? ...Are you planning on going exercising with both Applejack and Rainbow Dash at the SAME TIME?” Asked Spike with both curiosity and mild annoyance from Twilights answer.
“The potion is not for me, it's for you.” Stated Twilight causing the small dragon to get confused. “You see Spike, I have noticed that you are not completing all of your chores on time as well as constantly taking breaks in between so I thought ‘why not give my number one assistant some help by giving him an endurance boost. So I reached the conclusion that the best way to help you is by making sure you are in shape and so, here we are.” She stated brightly. "Besides, the exercise plan with Rainbow Dash and Applejack are on hold since they are both not here in Ponyvile. That and last time I went to exercise with both at the same time, I couldn't move or two days remember?"
Spike was not excited at all though. The reason why was that ever since Twilight became a princess and got her new castle, Spike had to do all chores now. A list of chores that Spike commonly does includes cooking, cleaning, organizing the new library, running said library, make sure the new princess doesn't drives herself up a wall, send and receive her mail through his dragon fire (which hurt a lot for him but never complained since he got used to it, sadly) and this on a good day. On bad days, which were becoming more and more common, he had to file her paper work since she spent to much time hanging out with her friends or helping them or helping save the world. The last one wasn't so bad but all the others could be organized in such a way that could make it possible to do both but she has yet to notice the lack of work. If it wasn't for Mayor Mare and the CMC (Cutie Mark Crusaders), he would have destroyed both himself and the town. Himself because of stress and the town because of lack of knowledge on how to work with important paperwork and partial leading.
The only reason why he evens bothers with it all is because his mother or better said adoptive mother, Princess Celestia, asked him to do it. She also told him that if he was ever disrespected to tell her immediately but he was to stubborn to actually tell to tell her since at some point he had convinced himself that one day he would be recognized properly.
Spike was about to say something to Twilight but she picked him with her magic and put him outside while saying, “Now go before it gets any darker and be careful and come back as quickly as possible okay.”
She than proceeds to closing the door shut leaving the baby dragon to do his new and obviously dangerous chore.
End of flashback.
. .
“Doing it for my good she says, it will help me she says. Well LOOK AT THIS SITUATION NOW TWILIGHT AND TELL ME THIS IS EASIER THAN TAKING CARE OF FREAKING BABY PHOENIX!!!” Screams Spike as he runs for his life while being chased by an angry manticore.
What happens was that as Spike was on his way to Zacora's hut through the fastest route in the Everfree, he ran into a manticore that was hunting in the general area. Luckily, Spike had dealt with situations like this before since he explored the Everfree forest when ever he got free time once the castle popped up. As such, by being the smart adventurer he is, he tried to sneak past the manticore and almost succeeded. Almost.
After a crunching sound that came from below him was made, the manticore let out a loud roar which happened to be the last ingredient for the perfect recipe for a comical forest chase.
Using his knowledge of the Everfree Forest he avoid and even made space between himself and the manticore. He was doing so well that he decided to use this chase to explore and map down more of the Everfree forest he had yet to visit. Through really cool tricks and maneuvers, most of this extreme tricks and maneuvers were learned while fighting creatures in the Everfree Forest for rescue reasons that did no include his very important friends. Thanks to the manticore chasing him, he managed to get another part of the Everfree Forest memorized and ready to map down later. The reason why he did this was mainly to help come up with ideas for his next series of books which he sells through the name Flaming Quill. The Everfree forest being mapped down just happened to be a nice side effect. He was specially lucky that his loving, adoptive mother, Princess Celestia, agreed to sell the books for him but in exchange he was now forced to sleep with her in a pair of cute pajamas whenever he went to visit.
After a while Spike took a small break since he couldn't see or hear the manticore anymore. After his small break, Spike decided to continue walking before the manticore could catch up him, that is if it found him again. Before Spike noticed though, he walked over a hole in the ground he had not noticed. He looked down to see why he stopped moving and to find out why he couldn't feel the ground. When he saw the hole, he looked up with a sad face that said this is going to hurt, he than fell into the mysterious abyss in a comedic fashion. Luckily the manticore didn't notice this and, after not finding his meal once it reached where Spike was a few moments ago, left deciding that this specific dinner was not worth the extra effort.
Below Ground…
Spike, who is unharmed thanks to his scales that thankfully absorbed most of the blow, stands up and cleans of the dust that stuck to him with only a bit of muscle pain and few possible scratches after getting out of the hole that has his body shape.
He then looked around the surprisingly well lit cave to make sure he was not in danger. He noticed that the only, currently known, exit was at the roof of the cave. Don't get me wrong, the cave did go deeper but Spike thought that maybe it was a dead end.
“I wonder…” Spike said to himself before he tried to climb up the cave wall. He made the grand discovery that the integrity of the wall was to weak for him to hold unless he felt like falling on his back while trying to climb. He also thought about digging up a new exit but discarded the idea since he wasn't sure if the manticore was still around or not. That and there was the chance that wherever the new exit leads him could end up being in front of something much more dangerous. That's not taking into account what could be in the cave itself though but since nothing had come out yet, he decided that it was save.
After a while of thinking, Spike decided to go deeper into the cave.
“You know, for an underground cave it's surprisingly well lit.” Spike told himself after walking for five minutes. He suddenly notices that he had reached a fork on the road. One side went deeper underground while the other side led to a nearby exit.
“What luck!” Spike celebrated after raising his fist into the air. “I can finally get out of here. I seriously don't want Twilight to start nagging at me again for being ten seconds late. Seriously, what was she expecting giving me a five minute time limit to go pick up HER princess documents from Mayor Mare, who happens to live on the other side of town. Seriously, I have shorter legs than the average young foal which makes it logical to believe that I would be a little late if given that distance.” Spike ranted.
Spike then decided to walk towards the exit but stops suddenly as he feels something behind him. It felt magical in nature as well as both alive and not alive at the same time but one things for sure, Spike felt that whatever it was, it was dangerous, and yet it felt like it was calling him.
"This could be a trap but my gut tells me it's not as dangerous as I think it is... mmm... decisions, decisions... nnn... you know what, let's do this! SPIIIIIIIIIKE DRAAAAAAKE!" His curiosity and intuition getting the better of him, Spike went towards whatever was calling him with a battle cry, not noticing the multi colored eyes that showered him with both kindness and respect. The hidden creature left quickly after a while.
Spike reached whatever was calling after a minute of running with his battle cry. What he saw was not an enemy but a pedestal that had a single blue glove with white circles on both the top and bottom of the palm alongside a futuristic looking gun. The gun was a grayish blue with blue energy pulsing through lines that were on the gun. Sticking to the ceiling and around the pedestal were many white gem which were reflecting light onto the pedestal, making it shine.
Not seeing any visible traps, Spike went and picked up the gun and glove to have a closer look at it. After a while of looking at the glove, he decided to put the glove on out of curiosity when suddenly the glove shrunk to fit his claw perfectly… too perfectly. Spike was scared out of his mind by the sudden change in size. He tried to take off the glove but realized that the glove was stuck to his scales.
Spike was about to enter a panic attack when he noticed a scroll behind where the glove used to be. Spike eyed the scroll as he thought to himself that maybe the scroll would mention something about his situation.
Opening it he read ‘You who finds this glove and gun, first and foremost do not put on the glove until after riding this scroll.’
After reading the first line, Spike lifted his head up with his right eye twitching and screamed as loud as he could. “F…”
On that perfect day, all creatures in Equestria could here someone drop an atomic level F bomb. Some unicorns even say that that very day, the magic in the air even spiked up, as if amplifying the scream.