A Dragon's Detour

by Nrdygrl

The Real Message

Chapter Ten

“The Real Message”

Spike walked back the way he had come as fast as he could. Tears were still flying off his face. He tried to take deep breaths to regain his composure. Soon, he reached the school parking lot. He was relieved he found it. He pulled out his schedule. First was math class. He entered the building and walked into the empty lobby. He knew he had missed Home Room by looking at the clock. If only he could remember where the classroom was! He searched through his memories, trying to find the classroom. Suddenly, he remembered it was on the second floor, so he ran up the stairs and entered the room at the top.
Immediately, lots of heads turned and stared straight at him. Spike gulped and felt as if he shrank to the size of an ant. He nervously looked up at the teacher. It was a burgundy middle aged dragon wearing glasses. He was very grumpy.
“Young man, you’re late,” he said crossing his arms.
“I’m sorry, Mr….” said Spike walking into the room more.
“Tangent,” replied the math teacher. “It’s Mr. Tangent.” Spike nodded and looked over at Sparky. He, along with everyone else was staring at him. Spike turned red and immediately rushed over to his new acquaintance, relieved there was an empty desk behind him. He flopped down into it. Mr. Tangent approached him and his eyes narrowed.
“It isn’t good to be tardy for my class…especially on the first day,” he said coldly.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Spike meekly and still embarrassed. The teacher nodded at him.
“Just please don’t be late again,” he said sighing and walking back to his desk. “All right, class. Here are your books.” He lugged a big pile of books and handed them all to Sparky, who was in the front. The red dragon took one and handed them to Spike.
“Hey, I put your luggage on your bunk in the dorm,” Sparky whispered.
“Thanks!” said Spike smiling. At least Sparky was looking out for him and trying to befriend him. He was thankful for this.

_____________________________

Twilight felt the bumps of the carriage as it turned onto a dirt road. She sighed with relief. They would reach Ponyville soon. Then, she could be home. She couldn’t help but gaze at the empty spot next to her with misery filling her by the second. She used her horn to levitate a book from her bag and saw it was Silas Mane, the book Spike had been reading before. He had left the bookmark in its place. It was the place in the story where the character Peppy had to possibly leave Silas, the stallion who raised her and took care her and loved her like her real father should’ve. She quickly shoved it back in the bag and shut it. Twilight felt the lump returning in her throat. She blinked back tears and swallowed hard. Her front teeth sank down hard into her lip. She bit it until it almost bled…anything to keep from crying again. She had to be strong…had to….had to never look back….

__________________________________

The whole day was like the orientation-a big blur! Spike could hardly remember his morning classes at all until he started running everything over in his mind when lunch came. (It felt like an eternity before lunch came.) By this time, he was starving and dazed from the day’s events. He got his tray and the gross-looking meal the cafeteria dragoness flopped onto his tray. He was mad with the fact he wasn’t allowed to go to the dorm and get some gems to eat. The little dragon turned and looked at the giant cafeteria. He felt smaller than ever now. There were so many dragons there. There were a lot of them that were older and bigger than him. He felt intimidated when he walked passed them. He could see, even though it was the first day, cliques were already starting to form, mostly cliques with dragons that already knew each other. He saw the beautiful dragoness Crystal sitting at a table with some other dragonesses. He could tell they were talking about ‘girl stuff.’ Even though, he was used to hanging around girls all the time, he didn’t think they would like it if he sat with them. They looked a bit stand-off-ish. He thought he’d look for Sparky instead.
At last, he saw the red dragon sitting at a table with….MISTY! Spike felt his whole world fall apart. He let out a groan, as his heart and stomach both dropped like rocks. He couldn’t stand her. She was just too creepy for comfort! Why was Sparky still such good friends with her?! He could not understand that. However, there was no other table he felt comfortable sitting at, and he figured that Misty, being the stalker she was, would just come sit with him (or watch him from afar) anyway. With heavy footsteps, he reluctantly walked over to their table and sat down.
“Hey, Spike,” said Misty, who was still wearing a lot of black eye makeup, black gloves, a black shirt, and a black skirt. She examined his outfit. “Nice outfit,” she said raising her eyebrows.
“Thanks. Do you want to take a picture of it?!” Spike snapped at her. Misty smirked at him.
“I’m good,” she said, poking her fork into her salad.
“So, you do you like the school so far, Spike?” said Sparky. Spike looked down and tried to recall everything that had happened that day.
In math class, he remembered Mr. Tangent and this one really nerdy kid that kept trying to show off in front of everyone, just because he was the teacher’s son. The next class was history. Spike had made the terrible mistake of sitting in the very front, entirely exposed to Mr. Slate’s spitting speech. Third period was a very boring science class. Mrs. Argon reminded Spike of Twilight, because she was extremely smart. This made Spike think about his unicorn companion and that made him feel sad and homesick already. Fourth period was English, which Spike actually liked, because the teacher was very nice. Her name was Miss Prose. She was patient and kind to everyone, which was a relief. Fifth period was music, taught by an uptight teacher named Mr. Crescendo. So far, the day had been long, boring, confusing, and overwhelming. So far, Spike wasn’t too impressed. At least his next class was just a study hall. And now, he could enjoy a meal, even if it looked disgusting.
“It’s…different,” said Spike shrugging and taking a bite out of his sandwich.
“Yeah,” said Sparky nodding. “It’ll take some getting used to, that’s for sure.”
“What’s to get used to?” Misty directed the question to Sparky. “This place will be shut down for sure if everything goes according to plan!”
“Shut…up…” said Sparky with clenched teeth. “Not…now!”
“Well, he has to know sometime,” said Misty rolling her eyes around.
“Know what?!” said Spike to both of them. He looked at Sparky. “Are you in on her weird accusation against Crystal and the school being ‘not right’?” Sparky didn’t answer. He looked at the table and was silent for a moment. Then, he looked around to make sure no other dragons were in hearing range and spoke in a low tone to Spike.
“I know you don’t trust Misty, but you trust me, right?” he said.
“Yes…” said Spike curiously.
“Well,” said the red dragon. “She is right. Spike, there is something going on here. This school is not right…we know it. Head Mistress Haldana is planning something horrible, and we believe Crystal could be helping her.”
“But Crystal and her family came in late yesterday, and she asked me who Head Mistress Haldana was!” said Spike confused. “How could she…?”
“It’s a cover-up, Spike,” said Misty. “She was really outside with her parents talking to those shady characters I told you about.” She picked up her camera off the table. I have proof, too! She pressed a button on the camera and handed it to Spike. Spike looked at the picture. Crystal and her parents were in an alleyway talking to characters hidden in the shadows. He couldn’t deny the fact that it was real. He didn’t exactly know what to say.
“Who…are they?” he said at last.
“We don’t know,” said Sparky. “But we do need to know something, Spike. You talked to Crystal, what exactly did you say to her?
“What’s it to you?!” said Spike a little annoyed.
“Hey!” said Crystal glaring at him. “You better start talking or I swear I’ll…!”
“Misty!” said Sparky angrily. “Stop it! You’re not helping!” Misty slid down in her chair and pouted.
“I’m sorry, man,” said Sparky. “We kind of have to know…”
“Well…it was mostly small talk,” said Spike shrugging. “I told her my name…and that I liked hers…and that I’m a gem dragon…”
“You WHAT?!” said Misty jumping up from her chair. Sparky glared at her and she sat back down.
“He didn’t know…” said the red dragon sighing. “However, this isn’t good at all.”
“What are you guys even talking about?” said Spike very confused at this point. All of a sudden the lights in the cafeteria suddenly went out. The room was dark except for the light coming in through a few windows. Everything was quiet. Just then, as mysteriously as they went out, the lights came back on….and then off again. They suddenly began to flicker on and off. The room would be really bright one moment and shadowed the next. Some teachers were talking amongst themselves and had the theory that perhaps the wiring in the building was faulty.
“No need to panic,” said Mr. Tangent loudly. “Everything is fine! We will have this glitch fixed soon.” Then he and the other adult dragons were scrambling around trying to fix it so they wouldn’t have to evacuate the students.
“It’s already happening,” said Misty looking at Sparky worriedly.
“Now, don’t jump to conclusions!” said Sparky. “Maybe it is faulty wiring!”
“Can you guys please tell me what all this hinting and riddling is about?!” said Spike, extremely annoyed by them now.
“I think we’ve told you all we can right now,” said Misty looking around suspiciously. “At this point I’m not sure who we can trust.”
“Look,” said Sparky calmly, “we all have the same class schedule and our next period is a study hall. We’ll talk to you about it more then.” Spike nodded slowly. He couldn’t really eat very much now. The food was pretty bland anyways. After the lunch period was over, the three decided to use the library for study hall. The three dragon kids picked a table near the back of the room and sat at it. Luckily the old librarian lady was sleeping and snoring. Now maybe they could talk without her hushing them.
“So you want to know the truth?” said Misty.
“Yes!” said Spike pounding the table. “’Cause, I don’t know what the heck is going on! I get a letter from Princess Celestia, inviting me to dragon school to learn and live here! I’m torn because I hated having to leave my best friend, Twilight…but she’s really encouraging me to succeed, right? So I come here, I’m starting to accept everything….and now, you two show up! It’s all really confusing!”
“It’s okay, man,” said Sparky. “I understand this is confusing. So, let me explain.” He swallowed and sighed. He looked down at the table and then back at Spike. “The princess didn’t tell you everything. Spike, she knew you could help us, so she sent us to deliver the rest of the message….or rather the real message.” Sparky reached into the pocket of the cargo pants he was wearing and pulled out an envelope with the royal seal on it. He then opened it and took a piece of paper out of it. The red dragon cleared his throat and began to read.

Dear Spike,
I understand in the previous letter I sent you, I invited you to come to the School for Young Dragons. Now, I must get to the real matter at hoof. The real reason why I asked you to come here is to assist these two young dragons Sparky and Misty in a quest.
Long ago, 1,000 years ago, in fact, when Princess Luna and I once ruled in peace, I kept a very powerful treasure. This treasure was created by the both of us, that should a threat arise to our great kingdom of Equestria, we would hold the power to defeat our enemies with its mighty power. We called this treasure the Comatose. The word means ‘lacking energy, or asleep.’ This meaning, the treasure was harmless unless awoken and used for whatever the user wished. However, when Luna became resentful and bitter towards me, she stole the Comatose from the treasure room and when she awoke it and used it, it transformed her into the Mare of Darkness. When I used the Elements of Harmony to trap her in the moon, I knew the Comatose could only be used in the most desperate of times. For this reason, I asked the brave dragon clans of Equestria to take on the responsibility of hiding the treasure and protecting it from those who would want to use it for evil.
For many thousands of years the dragons carried the Comatose down generation after generation and clan after clan. However, there arose a new breed of dragons known as the Treasure Seekers. Dragons such as these have only one love and that is the love of treasures. Some live in caves and will hide their treasures away, but others live together in clans that will steal the greatest treasures of Equestria. They are relentless, bloodthirsty thieves. They will kill for what they want. Soon, they wanted the Comatose. I feared if they got their hands on such power, Equestria could be in grave danger. Therefore, the good gem, water, and fire dragons banded together and hid the Comatose in the depths of the earth in one of the furthest regions of Equestria. This place is what you now know as Fillydelphia. Now, I fear the Treasure Seekers have returned and know where the Comatose is hidden. I believe for this reason, they built this school over the exact spot where it is buried. Now, Spike, you must join Sparky and Misty to stop these evil, greedy monsters and get to the Comatose first! You are a gem dragon, Spike. Your breed is scarce for reasons much darker than I dare say right now.
The Comatose is composed of a gem-like material. So, you’re mission, if you choose to accept it, is to dig beneath the school, find the treasure before the Treasure Seekers do and eat it! Once you do this, it will be destroyed forever…never to be awoken for evil again. I hope you can do this, Spike. If you don’t accept the challenge, I can understand your fear. However, I beg you…destroy the Comatose before it destroys us.
~Princess Celestia
P.S. I trust Twilight and her friends deeply, but this is a job for a gem dragon, Spike, not the Elements of Harmony. This is why I sent you alone, so my little ponies wouldn’t stop you. You have been chosen for something great, Spike. Greatness only starts when you chose to take the path…wherever it leads.

Sparky finished reading the letter and set it down on the table in front of the shocked purple gem dragon. Spike was at a loss for words. He stared at the letter, his green eyes moving over the words again and again. After a time of silence, Spike looked at the two other dragons sitting before him.
“Why is my life never normal? …”

_________________________________

The library door creaked open. Twilight walked inside the tree and magically shut the door behind her. Owlowiscious was on his perch. He hooted at her to welcome her home. Twilight smiled at him and sighed.
“At least I’m not all alone,” she said setting her bag in the corner of the room. She stretched her legs out. They felt very numb from the long trip home. She shook her mane and entered the kitchen to get some lunch. The house felt very empty, but she should’ve been used to that. Sometimes, Spike would be away in Canterlot for royal business, and she would be left alone. Twilight found a few gems still in the fridge. She sighed and levitated an apple out of the fridge. After she ate it, she re-entered the living room and approached her desk. A pale scroll stared at her, waiting to be written on. Now, why couldn’t she write?! It was so quiet…she thought she could easily write…but no. Most of the time, she grew annoyed when Spike made lots of ruckus when she was trying to concentrate. Now it was perfectly quiet and she couldn’t think!

I don’t understand, she thought. I’m used to him gone….It should be fine! It’s so quiet! I’m used to him gone….and…coming…back…. She hung her head and one tear splashed onto the parchment before her. She stared at it and shook her head. Am I just being a little foal? she thought. Or should I feel so confused and empty without him?

TO BE CONTINUED…

Comments

[Theodorehip]

"Your mission, If you choose to accept it", SERIOUSLY, Mission Impossible much? It just broke my train of thought. Try to be more inconspicuous with your references...