This is for fans of Spike The Dragon. If you have any idea's for an alternate ending to "Owl's Well That Ends Well", then go right ahead & speak your minds. Knowing how large Equestria is, this will surely generate plenty of ideas for everyone. Here's even the map to assist:

How did shining armor react to the events of mlp fim the movie

Maybe if Spike escaped the dragon's cave without help from Twilight and the owl (forgot how to spell his name) and continued to run away from Ponyville.

7251416
Sure but question is where would he end up?

7251456
Looks like from the direction he was heading he would end up either at dodge city or appleloosa. he did have a good relationship with the Buffalo when he got there. that could be interesting. honestly wish there were more stories featuring the buffalo.

7251472
Seems logical.

7251476
so you writing this yourself? also did this episode happen before or after the introduction of Appleloosa? cuz that could drastically change things.
Edit: its after by 3 episodes. so that means he knows he has friends out there.

7251477
Appleloosa, home of A.J.'s Cousin?

7251479
the very same. the episode where the ponies and the buffalo fought with pies. I know Little Strongheart became friends with him and they fed him gem stones. over all whether he lives with the buffalo or in town he will have a place to stay.

7251481
Thanks & yes this takes after that episode.

7251483
alright look forward to reading this.

7251484
Actually, I'm mainly giving others ideas on their thought's about the episode & see if they be up to the task of writing them out themselves. After seeing their wasn't much alternate ending's about this episode written & seeing this is one of few episodes that could've alter the fate of the main six, I'd say it would be quite a challenge.

7251485
It really does change things, I mean he isn't there for discord which... man how does Celestia get those letters to her then... I guess teleportation could work. He also isn't there for the Gala, which is less impactful but could allow us to see how Twilight is doing without him. honestly this sounds like a good story to switch back and forth on. showing us how both of them are doing without the other, after all I think showing us Spike getting their and settling in would be a fun read, but I think seeing how the main 6 are doing and how they react to his running away would help get us to empathize with both sides.

Of course if he goes to the pony town of Appleloosa then Brayburn could get a message from Applejack about Spikes being missing and might tell them where he is, either cus spike didn't inform him on WHY he left, or simply because the guy things that Spike needs to reconcile with his family.
where as if he instead just hangs out with Strongheart then you can put off the reconciliation for longer.

7251490
Both ideas sound SUPERB. I also didn't say the princesses could be in the idea. Especially Luna for even she knows what's it like being taken for granted, being left behind, & doing what's been told without receiving any appreciation for it whatsoever.

7251501
Sounds like she should get involved latter, perhaps she learns at the Gala or after why Twilight is so glum and tries to help find him by looking for his dreams. that way she can interact with spike when the writer wants her to, and allows her to learn about why spike ran away from him, and allow her to be her wise self when it comes to helping kids.

That said it would be best for her to help set up the meeting for the eventual reconciliation. the two really need to realize just how much they care and depended on each other. For Spike he needs to realize that Twilight wasn't trying to replace him and that he IS cherished by his family, for Twilight its realizing just how much Spike does for her and how she had come to take his support for granted.

Heck you could even pull shining armor in sooner, it is his little brother that went missing and it would help the message of family that this could have. one could have a scene of him and twilight reminiscing over having spike as a sibling and how they want to be better for him (realizing that despite thinking of him as their little brother they never communicated that to him... wonder if twilights parents saw him as a son?

So for spike you have the buffalo, brayburn, and eventually Luna to help him come to terms with his feelings and realize that even if they never said it, he was appreciated by his family and seen as one of them, and that running away isn't the answer (all while he can gain some self confidence being able to accomplish things on his own.) meanwhile twilight is forced to learn how to do things without spike and realize just how much spike meant to her (and force her to get better at communicating with people she cares about.. Might help with that moondancer thing years early.)

7251529
This plot sounds Perfect. Way to add in Twilight's brother & parents as well. Any idea's for Celestia's role in this? Also his name is Braeburn.

7251530
sorry, to be fair its been a while since I have even seen his name written.

As for Celestia… idk, maybe a chance to play up her role as a psuedoparent to Twilight? it would be interesting to see that explored a bit as to whats her position is in Twilights life and where she feels she fits in, you know once she stops distancing herself. Maybe seeing what happened here and how Spike left because of reasons similar to what happened with Luna has Celestia worried over how many of her own mistakes she has set up Twilight to repeat (even if in far less disasterios forms).

honestly I feel her role would be a small one, since she isn't the focus and doesn't really have a big role to play, maybe she talks to Twilight about what happened between her and Luna and how much it hurt her to be separated from her sister for so long (really let her be emotionally vulnerable around twilight), reinforcing the need in Twilight to reconcile with Spike and be a better sister to him.

I mean its not like twilight doesn't love spike. Its just, like Celstia, she didn't make it apparent and took for granted that her younger sibling would always be at her side.

this also might cause Celestia to become more openly affectionate (at least in private) to those she cares about, instead of from a distance as she is want to do.

7251667
Excellent, not to mention I always had a feeling that Spike learned all about music, cooking, & everything else from Celestia before he went with Twilight so I always saw her as the mother figure. Not to mention it helped fill the void left in her while Luna was gone.

Maybe somewhere not mentioned on the cutie map (in season 8)

7251760
That can also work as well.

7251472
that's oddly specific, how'd you reach that conclusion?

7276628
Probably utilizing the map provided.

7276628
oh because he headed thru the Everfree forest, the nearest two settlements in that direction are Appleloosa and Dodge junction. if he followed the river just outside of everfree proper he would have been taken to los pegasas, but he didn't.

What's more its a pretty barren terrain so he would have to stop for food. and finally Spike doesn't come off as a wanderer, so after enough hardship he is likely to settle down at the first place that he feels he can start a new life. honestly Appleloosa makes the most sense since he both knows its location and has friends he can settle down with. heck the buffalos are unlikely to be in contact with the rest of equestia so if his desire to not be found was strong enough they fulfil that one nicely, while still leaving eventual reconciliation open

Now arguably Ghastly gorge is also a possibility... but that would also be a pretty boring story unless its about how bad a time Spike is having on his own, which while good on the twilight end and adds further drama... wouldn't really do much to give him a better sense of self worth.

Of course this is all assuming that a person doesn't do more of an split and spike just headed in a none everfree direction... but unless he is taking a train every other location except Canterlot is way further away, and it opens way more possibilities that he gets found early (something that would need to be addressed). Now he could always shack up with Twilights parents (and his psuedoparents) back in canterlot and thus give us a chance to better flesh out that sections of his and twilights lives, it would be a far coisier story and allow for a quicker resolution, which isn't bad honestly. I certainly am not going to argue against a fluffier story, but it's not as conducive to making the characters grow as much. still it would be a cute, heartwarming story that gives us a lot more interactions between spike, Twilight Velvet, and Night Light. (edit: tho this path would mean that Twilight learns about where he is pretty quickly, which cuts out a lot of possibilities, tho does open up more direct interactions with the people there, like Shining, Celestia, and Luna)

As for the other locations... I mean your dropping spike into a big city, realistically he is going to have an even harder time since he has no money and little life skills, unless he gets taken in by somebody he is going to have a bad time. that said its also conducive to allowing for lots of OC's and pulling in characters that don't appear until much later in cannon (like Coco for Manehatten), it sounds like a lot of work, but now that I think about it I could see the appeal. (edit: still its a lot of work, and a few of those locations we don't really get good descriptions for, at least as far as I know. also a writer would still have to explain how he doesn't get caught on the train ride out.)

All this said a lot of what you get out of these could be done with having Spike hang with the buffalo, he can learn life skills while being with people who care, he has a friend in strongheart, and it gives you the chance to make a lot of OC's or basically OC's since we get very little on the Buffalo (heck most of the fanfics I can find of them are just Braburn Strong heart ship fics). Giving us a lot more of a criminally underused people (why where no buffalo at the friendship school, even in background. pretty sure Hippogriffs also know about friendship so its not like its just for races new to the concept... and ponies). plus you can if you want still make use of the known characters of Appleloosa so you have a lot more known characters to work with then you would most of the big cities (do they ever even head to Phillydelphia or Baltamare?)

Plus the heading to Appleloosa or dodge junction sticks better with the initial theme of this challenge, which is a different ending (basically if spike managed to make it thru the cave without assistance). I mean I guess you could have him turn around and go a different location, but that feels a bit out of spirit of the whole thing.

any way sorry for taking so long to reply. hope this helps explain my reasoning while giving some more story ideas incase you didn't like the idea of him going there. :)

edit: just remembered that they might not have included the Buffalo in the Friendship school do to connections with some pretty awful stuff that happened in real life, so they likely wanted to avoid comparisons to a painfull event in American history. Still stand by my statement that I wish we had seen more of them, even If I understand why they didn't include them there.

7280072
thoughts?

7284875
Up to this point, your idea on where Spike would end up is the closes so far. This idea sounds like a story, all I can do now is wait for someone to take it up & write it out.

7282633
I agree, it's best he goes to the Buffalo so that way he can develop both life & survival skills in the case he ends up in a tight pinch with no assistance around. Not to mention this will avoid having to go to Appleloosa & get spotted by familiar faces. Undoubtedly if he did A.J.'s cousin Braeburn would eventually have to blab to her, she blabs to Twilight & blow everything out of proportion for Spike. Thus Spike staying with the Buffalo will allow readers to watch how the mane six is getting by without him around seeing it was always him being left behind to attend to all the cooking & cleaning. Then eventually when the G.G.G. comes around, she'll eventually have to come clean to Celestia about Spike's whereabouts & wondering why she hasn't received any mail from him since he's been gone. Later on when Discord comes around, Celestia will have to use other method's to send Sparkle's previous friendship reports to her from Canterlot. Finally when N.M.N. comes around to Ponyville, Luna will make her appearance & after that's over she'll eventually find out why Twilight is still sadden thus finding out Spike's departure from Ponyville months ago. it's here that when she gain's her dream walking abilities will look for him in the dream world & work on seeing if she can convince him to return back & reconcile with the main six that is if he's willing to be up to it.

7285327

it's here that when she gain's her dream walking abilities will look for him in the dream world & work on seeing if she can convince him to return back & reconcile with the main six that is if he's willing to be up to it.

What if Luna's dreamwalking abilities don't work though? What if she can only able to enter the dreams of ponies and not other creatures?

7285331
Unlikely, given the way its shown, and her power over the moon, its more likely that its proximity based. so long as they are within equstria's borders she can enter their dreams... plus spike is with the rest of the town in the big dream when they fight the tantubus, so at the very least he is susceptible.

7285331
Only if outside the borders of Equestria. Then it would take longer for her in finding Spike in the dream world.

7285355
So if spike were to end up in the Dragon lands, then she'd probably have trouble looking for him when he sleeps yes?

7285428
I could see that yeah. I mean even at a pretty basic level, the further out you are from her the wider the net she has to cast. that means their is a lot of dreams she has to go thru to try to find you. she only has so long before her shift is over, and its not like she can ignore the dreams of every one else to only search for spike (given that we see she does help people, and that if her job is done incorrectly it apparently has disaterios consequences for the person, as she alludes in the episode with Starlight.) this means that the further away from canterlot he is, the less time she can dedicate to looking for him as her focus gets more and more divided amongst equestria's population. given how far away the dragon lands are from canterlot (literally as far as the map) that greatly increases the time its going to take to find him.

btw can I just say how much the undiscovered west bothers me, like this is a world with trains and air ships, but they have looked further north and south then they have west, it its a land bridge. normally things go undiscovered because its so far away on foot that people cant go there (if you don't have reliable transportation) or its across the ocean and you lack ships large enough to get you there before you starve to death. like they literally named the 2 seas on either side of it after luna, but have no idea about the land they border or what exists in that direction. we literally know more about the size and location of the dragon lands, a people actively hostile to ponies, and the lands of another continent that equestrian literally built a rail way to connect to despite it belonging to another peoples, but they have no idea about the western half of their own continent. like the unknown lands to the north I get, the crystal kingdom is only inhabitable thanks to the crystal heart, so already that far north is inhospitable to ponies, I can understand why they haven't explored further north then yakyakistan (especially as it looks to be ocean and filled with dangerous icebergs.)

you ever wonder if the other species have names for the oceans and are upset that equestia keeps granting them names after their immortal rulers... one of which was basically forgotten for 1,000 years. you think people ever questioned why they were named that when they had no idea princess luna existed?

edit: so spike in the dragon lands, going to guess that it would be him encountering Ember since that way he has a chance at making a friend and having a reason to stick around and not just leave to some where else (or decide to just go back, learning nothing). it actually would be an interesting story where he gets some positive experience interacting with his dragon heritage, and could create a more complex relationship between him and Twilight. I mean I think his interaction with Garble is in season 2, which might not even happened in this proposed story, so he never has that negative experience where he basically gives up on his dragon heritage and decides to fully adopt pony culture as his whole identity, seeing dragons as jerks and their people and customs as unworthy of consideration because his first interaction with it involved a jerk who belittled everything about the customs and people he had grown up with (basically being a bad stand in for people who shit on the show for being girly i.e. straw man boys).

We could get a Spike who better represents a synthesis of the two cultures, as he adopts some aspects of dragon culture while holding onto others from the people who grew up around. and by learning what to adopt and what to hold onto he has to become sure of his own decisions, which gives him some needed self confidence. it also has a chance to create a bit of a rift between him and twilight when they finally meet again, since his sense of ethics and what not have changed, and it would allow for a continuation of the story as it then explores how they overcome that divide, with her having to accept and understand the aspects of dragon culture he has adopted. basically mirroring how ember and him had to overcome his pony upbringing to come to an understanding.

Then again she is an academic and might take to it surprisingly well and instead be fascinated to learn what Spike discovered while there

7285575
I must agree, I didn't like how dragons were portrayed in the show, despite what happened with Garble & his friends, dragons deserve a bit more look into about who they are & their heritage. Unfortunately the writers of the show have no taste, imagination, or creativity for expanding on the subject. In addition, parts in Equestria's western half was expanded on more as well. We don't know what lies beyond what we know & it could've opened up more opportunities for new stories, adventures, & faces to meet. Thanks to your finding's, Spike now has two places to run away two & with the dragon lands idea now in, maybe now we'll get some more background info on his family heritage & more chances to see how the mane six are handling things when he's not there to pick up after them anymore.

7285697
yeah, im honestly surprised by how much I still remember and could extrapolate. now to wait for some one to pick up all this data and ideas and make stories out of them, because while im great at making narrative ideas, im not great with dialogue. also my grammar is garbage.

7285837
No worries.

7285837
Here's a picture of what Spike's interaction with Luna might look like:

7350761
oh dope pic, you make it?

7351021
Actually I found it here: https://www.derpibooru.org/920879

7251322
How's that related to this?

7251316
I feel like it would be better if spike had an actual reason to be jealous.

7952243
Does doing things & working hard for your friends just to both have not be given an ounce of appreciation & to have an owl being brought in to help without consideration of one's feelings if they actually needed it & actually being appreciated instead is not enough reasons to be jealous? Not to mention the main 6 showered that bird with praise & gratitude on the first day when Spike didn't got squat diddly when he arrived is even more reasons he'd be upset. Even the site of his said crush giving the same bowtie right in front of him should've been the final nail in the coffin. Basically he should've realized that if that's how his friends, nonetheless his own sister would always treat him that way, he probably should've left them sooner rather than later.

7952247
Just my opinion

7952311
& I appreciate it. I'm glad I was able to give you my opinion in this as well.

7952531
I’m glad as well.

7952540
Excellent.