The Cryssaling pt 2

by storm the castle

Dragons and friends and jobs, oh my!

Ch 1 Dragons and friends and jobs, oh my!

Spike sat in the library, entertaining guests (the CMC) for the first time since his chryssaling. The chryssaling had been a bit of a painful blur for him, but when he woke up, he had grown nearly half his old length longer, his scales had a dull glow to them, his spines had tapered and he now had wings. In short, it had been a hell of a week for him.

In fact, it had been a hell of a week for every pony in Ponyville, as while he had been in his chryssaling he had been too dangerous to keep in town, causing Princess Luna, his overseer for the event, to have to take him outside of town to a remote cave in the nearby rock quarry. When it was noticed he had been gone, the town began to go crazy with rumors about the cause, even getting to the point where a particular reporter began to ask about his funeral arrangements. Spike hadn’t had any idea he had been such a fixture in the town that after a mere few days of no-pony seeing him they all immediately assumed the worst.

It had been somewhat endearing when he had first heard about it, but now that every-pony and their frickin’ grandmother was coming by to ask him if he was alright, (or if he needed help, to blink twice) he was really getting annoyed. And on top of that, Princess Luna had confined him and Twilight to the library for another week on assignment, to learn all she could offer about dragons.

Now, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders over to play, he was walking them through some of his heritage that was depicted on the graphs and diagrams that littered the library walls. “So,” he told the group, “a dragons’ nest is called a ‘den’ until he finds a mate. After that, it becomes a ‘grotto’ then when they lay some eggs, it’s called a ‘clutch.’ Any more questions?”

“Yeah.” Said Scootalloo, who had obviously not paid any attention. (Who could blame her? There was a significant lack of Rainbow Dash in these graphs.), “What does that one mean?” she pointed to a graph depicting a cartoon-y dragon lifting a boulder.

“Oh,” said Spike, a little proud of this one, “that one means that I am super strong now, since I have a hoard to protect.”

“Really?” squeaked Sweetie Belle. (Squeakie Belle; it was gonna be a thing, Spike could feel it.) “But I thought Twilight doesn’t let you hoard gems, on account of you nearly destroying the town last time.”

“Yeah, and ah don’ see no glitterin’ piles neither.” added a suspicious sounding Apple Bloom.

Spike waved them down, a small smile on his face. “That’s because I don’t have any gem piles. Don’t get me wrong, I still need to eat them in order to make my scales harder, but they’re not what make up my hoard.”

“So, if you don’t need gems, what do you need?” Sweetie Belle was surprisingly interested in the topic. Apparently, not being able to see him for two weeks after being told he was dead had wreaked havoc on the poor fillies nerves, and now she wanted to know what it was all for.

“Well, that’s the interesting thing.” Said Spike. “I hoard my friends; the more friends I have, the more I want to protect them. Apparently, I’m the first dragon any-pony’s heard of that has something like that.”

“Wow!” exclaimed Scootalloo, the excited pegasus filly hovering a foot off the ground (a new personal best) “That is so cool!” The other crusaders voiced their enthusiasm over the situation as well. “But how do you add ponies to your hoard-of-friendship then?” the orange filly inquired.

“I dunno,” Spike responded, a bit perturbed that the question hadn’t come up before, “so far it’s just me and the girls, since I think I was too mad at Princess Luna when it was happening to include her.” Spike had to think a bit, but barring any concrete evidence to the contrary, he provided the only answer he had at the moment. “I suppose we just gotta wanna be friends with each other.” He finished with a shrug.

“Hey Spike?” Sweetie Belle scooted forward, her tail tucked so far between her legs in embarrassment that her rump had followed it under, a bright blush on her cheeks. “Can we be part of your ‘friend-hoard’ too?” she asked innocently. Immediately, the other crusaders crammed in on either side of her, puppy dog eyes activated automatically.

Not that he would have said no, but that was certainly the straw that broke the camels’ back. “Y-yeah, girls, of course.” He said sheepishly, rubbing his arm and looking away in embarrassment. (didn’t want to get diabetus.) “I’d be happy to be friends with-” all of a sudden, his words were cut off, as his eyes began to glow, much as they had in the cave not two weeks ago, as did his scales. For a moment, he stayed like this, but then suddenly, he breathed out a small jet of flame, made up of three colors; orange, red, and white. The crusaders hunkered down in wonder and fear, though the fear was solely that they had somehow broken Spike. (Twilight would kill them!) But, suddenly as it had started, it was over. Spike returned to his new version of normal, and blearily stumbled a bit before straitening and saying “-you.”

They all just stared at each other for a moment, unsure of whether there was some sort of unwritten law that said you couldn’t be the one to break an awkward silence. Finally, deciding to be a rule breaker, Spike asked “Did something happen that I should know about?”

All at once the Cutie Mark Crusaders tackled Spike in the most adorable dog pile that ever was, nuzzling him affectionately, while apologizing, or saying “That was the coolest thing ever!-well except for Rainbow Dash, but you know what I mean.” After trying and failing to get them to let him go, Spike asked them to explain what had happened.

After a brief, if somewhat exaggerated, retelling, Spike had only one thing to say. “Wow, would you look at that. I was finally right about something.” This set the girls to giggling again and after a brief bout of snuggling, they finally allowed him to rise. “So I guess you are part of my dragon hoard now.” He said, with a touch of embarrassment. “How do you feel?”

“Ah don’t feel no different.” Said Applebloom, looking herself over as if to find a ‘property of spike’ tag somewhere on her body.

“Yeah,” added a likewise checking Scootalloo, “me neither. Maybe Spike’s the only one who really gets anything outta this?”

“Hey!” said Sweetie, thoroughly offended on Spikes behalf. “You don’t need to get anything to be friends!” the other two looked down sheepishly, kicking at imaginary sand with their front hooves. “Besides, if this works like other dragons, I bet Spike’s gonna defend us from getting hurt or picked on!” she said with confidence. Spike felt himself go a bit pale, as he had no desire to follow the girls around on their regularly deadly adventures. Unfortunately, he could find no holes in her logic, as the first thing he had done after his cryssaling was complete was blast the dragon dame that had come to help him to kingdom come when she approached them afterwards. (Twilight still wouldn’t tell him who she was, though he felt Luna might be involved.)

“Seems like solid logic girls,” he said quickly, trying to head off any impending doom kind of situations, “but it might not be the best idea to go out of our way to test it, alright? We don’t know what will happen if my instincts to protect you kick in.” he pictured a gored Diamond Tiara. (And when that made him smile, he pictured himself trying to lift the girls away from some cliff, and that did the trick.)

After a chorus of ‘aww’s, they all grudgingly agreed. Soon enough, though, they began to perk up, and Spike brought them some sandwiches from the fridge. While chowing down,Scootalloo asked “Does this mean we gotta live here now? Cause I gotta get permission from my mom if we do.” Suddenly the idea of being part of a dragons hoard wasn’t so neat to the girls, but the fear was swiftly swept away by Spike chuckling.

“No, none of your sisters live here and their still part of the hoard. Im pretty sure we just gotta hang out every now and then, and it’ll be fine.” They all sighed a bit in relief.

After a bit more silent eating, Sweetie commented “So, Spike, does all this mean you’re a big boy dragon now?”

Spike chewed the thought over for a bit, (it tasted suspiciously of daffodil sandwich) he shrugged and said “Yeah, I guess so. Luna said I’d have one or two more growth spurts, but now that I’m through the chryssaling, I’m considered mature.” Suddenly another, incredibly pleasant thought struck him. “Maybe mature enough to ask Rarity out.” He said with a lounge and a grin, which lost some of its suave with the daffodils poking out from his teeth.

All three crusaders rolled their eyes, Sweetie’s punctuated with ‘eewww!’ She harrumphed a little bit before continuing her sandwich. Between bites she told him “I wouldn’t count on it. She told some guy who came by the other day to beat it till he could at least pay for dinner. She called him a dead-beat, and told me to never date some boy with no means to support me.” Without knowing it, she had cut Spike off at the knees, and even missed the little shattering sound of his dreams falling apart.

“Aw, don’t worry Spike,” said a sympathetic Applebloom “that just means you gotta find a way to make some bits, that way you can impress her with flowers or somethin’.”

“Hey, you’re right!” said Spike, the proverbial wind back in his sails. “All I gotta do is get a job! I’m old enough for that, now too, after my chryssaling!”

“That’s right!” congratulated Bloom, happy to have helped. All at once she seemed to be struck by the greatest idea in the history of ever, as she started wagging her hooves excitedly. “Ah know!” she exclaimed. “Why don’t you come work with me an’ mah sister on the farm? Big Mac’s sick, and ah bet yer super dragon strength’d help a lot!”

“Now, that sounds like a plan!” Spike told her, now thoroughly enthused over the idea. “Good idea, Applebloom.”

“Good?!” she affected indignation. “It’s, like, the greatest idea in the history of ever!” (told you so.)

Author's Note:

I welcome comments or suggestions, so long as their not sexual.

Comments

[Lord Olympius]

I see their plans going up in flames of emerald. Literally and Figuratively

[DX-1118 C]

*insert sexual suggestion involving an aged up cmc and spike*

[Hye]

4457779
*Dope slap from their sisters*