A Dragon's Age

by BlazzingInferno

Outland

I felt ready for anything the next morning. I jumped up with a smile on my face and started looking around for breakfast. Amazingly enough, a small patch of dirt just a few feet from my campsite glittered with nearly buried jewels. It must have been too dark at night to see them, even though my eyes are really good at spotting shiny things. Sometimes Twilight tries taking me stargazing, but I usually fall asleep before she’s finished calibrating the telescope. She thinks that means I can’t stay up that late; I think it just means I find astronomy boring.

I unearthed a ruby the size of my fist and polished it on my scales. “Now this is what I call breakfast!”

Ponies don’t really understand when I try to explain how a gem tastes. I think Rarity almost fainted the first time she saw me eat one. They don’t know what they’re missing, though. It’s way more complicated than ‘salty’ or ‘sweet.’ Diamonds have a stiffness to them that kind of tastes like fire. Sapphires have a sort of cool, metallic quality, almost like rust. I bit into the ruby, savoring the crunch, the grittiness, and nearly lip-puckering tang that only an aged, wild gem could give. Ponies wouldn’t understand, no matter how much I wanted them to.

A few gems later my belly was full, and my confidence was high. I threw the bag over my shoulder, savoring the lingering scent of Rarity’s perfume, and set Applejack’s hat on my head. If I kept up my pace, I’d get to the mountain by tomorrow afternoon.

The further I walked, the worse the scenery got. By midday, there wasn’t any more grass. The ground was just hard-packed dirt interrupted by deep crevices, some so big I had to jump over them. At least there were plenty of gems. Every couple of hours I’d find a new loosely buried deposit just like the one by my last campsite. Whatever I didn’t eat I threw in the bag. At first I wondered why migrating dragons would just leave them around like this, especially where any other dragon could spot them.

Then I looked up.

The sky wasn’t overcast anymore. It hadn’t been since this morning. Still, one lonely white cloud rested directly over me, just like it had the last time I’d bothered checking the weather. I set my pack down, pulled out a random gem, and threw it straight up as hard as I could. The blue sapphire spun through the air, disappeared in the fluffy white mist, and, just as I suspected, struck something else blue.

Rainbow Dash jumped up. “Aah! What the hay was tha… uh…” She looked down and saw me glaring at her. “Heh heh… Hi, Spike.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Just… catching some rays?”

I picked up another gem and threw it on the ground, only because I couldn’t bring myself to throw it at her. “You didn’t think I could do this on my own, did you? What about ‘you’ve got this, Spike,’ huh? Were you just lying to me?”

She landed on the ground just as I smashed another gem against the dirt. “Whoa, Spike. It’s not like that, I—”

“I thought you believed in me! Some friend you ar—”

Rainbow scooped up a gem with her wing and jammed it in my mouth. “Quit spazzing out and let me explain! I’m not spying on you or trying to rig your big adventure, okay?”

I crunched the gem between my teeth and spit out the shards. “Did Twilight put you up to this?”

“Pfft, are you kidding? She’d go ballistic if she knew I went against Celestia’s orders.”

My anger vanished. “Oh my gosh, you can’t be here! Celestia said it’s not safe for ponies!”

Rainbow grinned. “Relax, Spike, I’ve got it all figured out.” She pointed to the mountain. “Turns out the actual border of Equestria is at this river right in front of the mountain, so it’s totally fine that I’m here.”

I turned away and crossed my arms. “No, it’s not.”

“Hey! Is this the thanks I get after I fly out here to—”

“To what? To help me? To do everything that I can’t?”

“Ugh, Spike. I don’t think you’re some helpless baby, okay? Just get that through your head already.”

I shut my eyes tight. “Then… why?” I was still really mad at her, but I was getting even madder at myself for acting mean. I hadn’t seen another living soul since the train, and here I was pushing a friend away.

She let out a sigh. “Because… because I’ve been out on my own like this before, and it stinks. Having no friends to hang with is the worst thing ever, and I didn’t want you have to do that for a whole week, or however long Twilight figured you’d be gone. I was gonna fly down tonight and surprise you.”

“So why did you have to set up gems for me to find? I could’ve done that on my own; I’ve got super-good eyesight for that stuff.”

“You walk too slow. I got bored.”

I couldn’t hold back a tiny smile. “Yeah?”

“Totally! Besides, I knew finding ’em in advance would speed you up.”

I touched my claws together. I still felt like I should be angry, but I didn’t want to be. Rainbow was right; being completely alone felt awful. I looked up at her and nodded. “I guess you can stick around until we get to the border… but no more helping me, okay? I’m gonna do this on my own, just like I said I would.”

She grinned. “You got it, Spike. I’m just here to keep you company… and to give you a kick in the tail if you don’t walk fast enough.”

“Deal.”

---

It turned out to be a good day after all. Rainbow and I don’t hang out much. I can’t fly like her, or run fast enough to keep up. I don’t even read as much as her, which is saying something. Still, it was fun having her flying next to me the whole time, telling me all about the new moves she was working on, and how they were totally going to blow Spitfire’s mind.

That trend continued as we set up camp after dinner. Once Rainbow Dash ran out of Wonderbolts stories, she started on our friends.

“— and then Fluttershy went ‘yay’ in this super-quiet voice again!”

I laughed as I set up my sleeping bag. “Heh, Fluttershy… you’ve known her for longer than the rest of us, right? Does she ever get loud?”

Rainbow kicked her now-grounded cloud a few times and climbed on. “Eh, sometimes. You mess with her animals or something and she’ll shout your ear off. You don’t wanna do that though, she…”

I froze. “What?”

Rainbow grinned. “Bet you thought you were getting a goodbye kiss, didn’t you?”

“Huh? What’re you—” And then I realized what I was doing. The amazing bag Rarity made was right in front of me, and I was hugging it. “—It’s… uh… it’s just a really, really nice bag, okay?”

“It’s no big deal, Spike. So you like her, so what?”

I breathed out a lot of air, and a lot more tension. “Thanks.”

“Any time.”

“Do… uh… do you think she would’ve given me one if I asked?”

“Hah, I dunno. You totally should’ve asked though; she would’ve blushed so much…”

I did some blushing of my own. “So what about you?”

“Huh?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Do you… like anyone?”

Rainbow’s grin vanished. “I… uh… new subject.”

“Come on, you know I like Rarity already.”

“That’s only because the whole universe knows.”

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise!”

She crossed her forelegs. “Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Fine. I… sort of like Thunderlane. He’s kind of cute. Kind of a pushover too, though.”

I held back a laugh. “Thunderlane?”

“Hey, I’m not giving you flak about liking Little Miss Prissy Dress.”

“Fair enough.”

Rainbow reclined on her cloud. “Why’re you into ponies, anyway? Is it because Twilight raised you or something?”

“Huh? Twilight didn’t raise me.”

“What? I always figured she was like your adoptive mom.”

I stuck out my tongue. “No way; she’s more like my big sister. Celestia raised me.”

Rainbow sat up. “Celestia? As in Princess Celestia?”

“Ever since I hatched… Right up until I left with Twilight, anyway. We don’t really talk much anymore.”

“So, you’re like royalty!”

“Huh?”

She threw up her hooves. “Think about it. You were raised by Princess Celestia, and Princess Twilight is your big sister. You’re practically family, so you’re Prince Spike.”

I blushed again. I knew Celestia believed in me, but that wasn’t the same as calling me flesh and blood. My being a dragon didn’t help there, either. “Maybe, I guess. I’m fine just being Spike.”

“Aww, come on. Maybe it’d help you out with Rarity. You know how she swoons over upper-class stuff like that..”

“Yeah, but… nah. Even if I’ve got no other chance with Rarity ever, I don’t want it to be because of that.”

Rainbow grinned. “I knew you were a classy guy, Spike. I’m sure you’re making your big sis proud. Wish I had someone like that.”

“What about Scootaloo?”

Her grin faltered. “Squirt? What about her?”

“She’s practically your little sister, Rainbow.”

“That’s… different. She just follows me around because she sees how awesome I am. I can’t fault her for that, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t weird to have a little filly strapped to my leg.”

“Don’t you care about her?”

“Well yeah, of course I do. She’s awesome, too. I like helping her and—” Rainbow collapsed on the cloud. “—You’re right. She is like my little sister. Darn it, Spike, I followed you out here to speed you up, not so you could change up my whole life.”

I yawned and took a longing look at my bed. “Thanks for coming anyway. Sorry I got mad and stuff.”

“It’s cool. I get that you want to prove yourself, but you totally don’t need to. We all know you’re awesome, even if you’re just a baby dragon.”

I bit my tongue. I didn’t want to say anything, not now. Not even if Rainbow just erased a whole day of my feeling great.

Comments

[Hillbe]

pre14.deviantart.net/9983/th/pre/f/2015/050/9/3/spike_rarity_splash_by_hillbe-d8iq6be.jpg

everypony knows!
how?
Shhhhhhhh I tell them. . .

[EpicShadowz]

Wow, Rainbow. Way to ruin the moment.

[OmniFox]

SERIOUSLY?!!?!? They're not even giving Spike a chance to do stuff on his own!! No honor in this!!!!!

[Steadfast Hoof]

A very charming interaction. You write these two very well.

[Inferno demon Dash]

I hate Spike/Rarity very much but for just this once I'll deal with it. JUST THIS ONCE! Other then that, very great chapter.

[Truffles]

It's scenes like in this chapter why I wish the show would pair up Spike and Rainbow Dash for one episode to work out some problem for the two of them to fix. They have such good rapore with one another you'd think they had been best friends their entire lives.