• Published 12th Jul 2012
  • 13,917 Views, 242 Comments

Spike's Home Alone - TheSecretBrony



Twilight has gone to visit Canterlot for the week, leaving Spike home alone. Rated T for Innuendo

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Day 3 (Part 1): Picking up the pieces.

Author's Note: I thought I would try something different with this chapter, you'll see what I mean when you get to it. Creative input and constructive criticism is welcome.




Spike arose once again from Twilight's bed, his head thumping, his limbs incredibly sore.

Ow...the hay did I do yesterday. I feel like I lost a fight with a manticore.

He lugged himself out of the bed, and looked out the window.

I can barely move, maybe I should just spend the day in bed.

He looked back towards Twilight's bed.

There's not much for me to do in bed though, I am kinda bored and I don't think I could go back to sleep even if I wanted to.

Spike walked, very slowly, down the stairs and into the library, confused when he saw that the couch had been flipped upside down.

"That's odd, Owlicious did you see who did this?"

"Hoo"

"Never mind."

Spike walked over to the couch, when he could feel something underfoot. He lifted his foot off the floor, seeing several hairs, he picked one up and looked at it

Purple hair? Well it could be Twilight's but I'm pretty sure I sweeped up the last time she started tearing her hair out.

Spike recalled Twilight freaking out when she lost the research notes, Spike thought it would be funny to replace them with extracts from a joke book he found, the look on Twilight's face when she looked for her notes on the cockatrice, only to find multiple reasons why the chicken crossed the road was priceless. Unfortunately in true Twilight style, she flipped out. It took Spike three weeks to sort the mess out, which Twilight had forced him to do as punishment.

Totally worth it.

Spike found more hairs, some were red, some were blue, he also found hairs that were orange, green and yellow.

Did we have a party here the other day? It would explain why I'm so sore and why the couch is flipped over... No that doesn't seem right, I don't know anyone with green hair, not unless Trixie turned up. Wait a minute.

Spike stopped as his mind flash backed, images rushed through, a swinging pair of scissors, Twilight's new glue formula, being cornered in an alleyway by a very annoyed blue pony, who had a rainbow...mustache.

Spike burst out laughing until his sides hurt, given his current physical condition that wasn't very long.

"Owww. I remember now, I gave Rainbow Dash an 'awesome' makeover!" He said beaming "That's why the couch is like that, she must have flipped out when she woke up! What happened afterwards? I remember being cornered by her and then...did she beat me up or something? That's hardly her style" Spike went to the front door, as the newspaper had been delivered he could see it sticking in through the mail slot Twilight had put in the door. On the front cover was a picture of a sonic rainboom captioned with "Sonic Scare: Rainbow Dash's latest publicity stunt. Spike began to feel dizzy as memories began flooding back to him, he remembered now why he was so sore, he'd been at the epicentre of the Sonic Rainboom.

"Rainbow Dash sure has a twisted sense of humour, all I did was give her a beard, if I weren't a dragon that would have probably killed me." Struggling in his injured state Spike managed to right the couch, throwing himself upon it he looked at the shelves.

Twilight sure has a lot of books, I wonder if she has any with dragons in them? At least reading them would help me pass the time.

Spike picked himself off the couch and looked closely at the covers of the books. "I'm glad that these have been reshelved, Twilight must have done it before she left. Let's see D, D where's the D ah here we go" Spike pulled a book from the shelf the cover was styled to look like dragon hide with large claw marks covering it, emblazoned on the top in gold letters was the title of the book: Dragons and Ponies: Volume 1. Putting the book under his arm, Spike began the trek back upstairs. He pushed open the window in Twilight's room lay in the bed, pulled the covers up to his chin and opened the book. Spike could barely read the foreward, it was handwritten, the cursive was quite elaborate. "Whoever wrote this book must have been quite a posh pony, this looks so fancy, it almost puts Rarity's handwriting to shame. Let's see... For those who are foolish enough to travel into the land of the dragons this book serves as both a warning and a guide..." Spike gulped, he knew dragons could be real jerks from first hand experience, he also knew how dangerous they could be and was now unsure how much he wanted to read this book. Spike shakely turned the page and began to read.


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!!!WARNING!!!

THIS NEXT SECTION IS NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER READERS

If you are offended by content including gore, as well as potentially shocking imagery please skip down the page to the next section. It is NOT essential to the story.

It's no Cupcakes that's for sure but it's still a little dark. I have not included a Dark tab onto the story simply because it's a one off.

If you find the next section particularly good/ interesting for whatever reason. I am in the process of drafting a new story based around it.

I will remove the following section if enough people complain however. Please don't hit the dislike button. I thought I'd try something a little different to provide some contrast to an otherwise light hearted story.

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Excerpts from Dragons and Ponies: Volume 1 By Coco Harrington

...Of all the glorious species, the weird and wonderful creatures that share Equestria with us, none strike more fear into the hearts of colts than dragons. This mostly elusive species, notable for the ability to breath fire and longevity that can rival the alicorns have existed in this land for far longer than any of the ponies, before the time of Celestia and Luna and even before Discord himself. As a scholar I took it upon myself to learn more about dragons, where they came from, how their society works. My fellow academics were skeptical of course, whenever dragons and ponies have met before, it has never been under the best of circumstances. Multiple tomes in the royal library are a testement to the wars between our two races...

...I recoiled at the sight that lay before me, a village or rather the charred remains of a village, the pungent aroma of burnt meat lingering in the air. That smell shall haunt me until the day I perish, there is no life left here, nopony to be seen, only bones and shattered homes, I prayed that the bones didn't belong to what I thought they did. It was obvious that the dragons had been here, this village had been decimated in a similar fashion to all the others I had seen whilst tracking them. The Great Dragon Migration, who dared to call this great? This was a tradgedy of epic proportions, seeing it over and over did nothing to lessen the emotional impact, every time I see smoke in the distance my heart sinks just that little bit lower. Disheartened and weary from the horrors I had witnessed I pressed on...

...I had heard of these contests, young dragons often resorted to violence as a means of proving their superiority. However I did not know that this is what it extended to. Tail wrestling and king of the hill, fire breathing contests and lava diving, they all seemed like childrens games in comparison and I guess they were just that. I couldn't prepare myself for what I was witnessing, I had observed their "game" of finding and smashing phoenix eggs but to think they were now hunting her, this poor mare, kidnapped from her village. I wished I could help, it would be easy work to teleport her away, but she was an Earth pony. The dragons were barbaric but not stupid, they knew only unicorns could use magic, if I helped her I would be the next one to be hunted. Before I had a chance to act, they grabbed her, picking her up and carrying her above the tree line, I couldn't see what they were doing, though from what I could hear, I decided it would be better if I didn't know. When they descended their claws were red, and the mare was nowhere to be seen...

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On the other side of town.

"Now Applebloom y'all sure this is a good idea?" said Applejack. Applebloom along with the other Cutie mark crusaders, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, had spent the previous evening brainstorming ideas to earn their cutie marks. Scootaloo was determined to be as cool as her idol Rainbow Dash and had suggested that the group try performing stunts, which apparently consisted of jumping off the roof of the barn.

"Don't worry Applejack!" Scootaloo called down "We got this all figured out!" she turned to face her friends, Applebloom had curled up into a tight, shivering ball, completely unable to move. Sweetie Belle was busy trying to unravel her friend with very little success.

"She won't budge" she said, Scootaloo just face hooved and walked over to her.

"Come on Applebloom, what's the problem here!" she said kicking her lightly with her hoof

Applebloom whimpered, looking up at her frighteningly eager friend, "I don't like heights Scootaloo, couldn't we do stuff closer to the ground please?"

"What kind of stunts can we do on the ground?!" putting a hoof on Applebloom's shoulder Scootaloo gestured to the course they had built. "It's very simple, jump off the roof, land on the trampoline, bounce over the wall, land on the skateboard, ride it round the half-pipe, before grabbing the rope swing and landing in the stream over there! You got all that." Applebloom didn't respond "Come on Applebloom, do you want your cutie mark or not?"

Applebloom stood up slowly "I still can't believe you made me build all this stuff."

Smiling Scootaloo replied "You're the best one of us at building, would you rather we got Sweetie Belle to build it instead?"

"Oh come on!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"You okay Applebloom?" AJ called up, seeing her sister on the roof she couldn't take her eyes off her, her muscles tensing and relaxing rapidly, ready to jump and catch her should she fall.

"She's fine!" Scootaloo shouted down.

Ah don't like this, and I certainly don't care for Scootaloo putting my sis through this, poor dear looks like she's seen a timberwolf.

"Um excuse me Applejack? What are you doing, you know, if you don't mind me asking?"

The unexpected sound caused Applejack to jump, when she turned around and saw who made it however, she couldn't help chuckling "Fluttershy! I never expected you to scare me, Rainbow Dash maybe, Pinkie Pie most definitely but you? I must be losing my touch."

"Oh sorry Applejack I didn't mean to scare you it's just that, well, I have a problem a BIG problem."

"What is it sugarcube?"

"Can we go and talk somewhere, in private?"

"Oh dear, well believe me darling I would love to, but I can't. Not right now, right now, I gotta keep my eye on the three foals WHO THINK JUMPING OFF A ROOF WILL GET THEM THEIR CUTIE MARKS!" she said shouting up to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Please it will only take a second I promise."

Applejack looked back and forth between the roof of the barn and Fluttershy, she had to keep an eye on her sister but how could she refuse Fluttershy?

Dang it, talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Alright y'all have my attention, but only for a minute y'hear! Can't have Applebloom getting hurt now, ole Granny Smith would never forgive me if something happened to her, Big Macintosh'd probably chase me round the orchard too come to think of it." Fluttershy nodded and followed Applejack. They walked away from the barn, Applejack frequently glancing backwards, Fluttershy staring down at the dirt trail that lay before them. They stopped under a large apple tree on the very edge of the orchard. Fluttershy would have prefered it if they could have gone deeper into the woods far from prying eyes and ears, but Applejack was adamant that they keep the barn in sight at all times. Fluttershy sat under the shade of the tree whilst Applejack remained standing, ready to run at a moments notice. She glanced a look back at Fluttershy "Okay, nopony out here 'cept you and me, what did you want to talk about I want to get back there as soon as possible." When she got no reply she turned around rather quickly, annoyed to be dragged away from the barn only to be faced with Fluttershy's usual silence, her expression began to soften however, when she saw the yellow pegasus crying. "Fluttershy?" she said softly, walking over to her she sat opposite Fluttershy, tears were streaming down her face and she was sobbing quietly.

"I did a bad thing Applejack..." she said, looking up at her friend "A very bad thing and I don't know what to do."

Applejack put her hoof around Fluttershy's shoulder "Shhhhh it's okay Fluttershy, tell me what happened."

"You promise not to tell anyone?" Fluttershy wiped the tears from her cheek.

Nervously Applejack shook her head in agreement

What in the hay has this little filly been upto? She looks scared to death, oh please don't let it be like that time with Pinkie Pie...

Applejack shuddered, ever since Pinkie had told her about that dream she had, she made it a personal priority to avoid going to Sugarcube Corner as much as possible.

"I have a crush..."

Oh thank heavens... thought Applejack wiping her brow.

"Hardly seems like a thing to get worried about sugarcube. Who are they?"

"I don't want to tell you..." said Fluttershy, still sobbing.

Applejack looked slightly hurt at the lack of trust "Well what did you want then, what's this bad thing that you've done?"

"Well, I told him, I had to, I couldn't stop myself."

Applejack scratched her head"And that's why your upset, he turn you down?"

Fluttershy shook her head "No, no he, he didn't say anything." Upon hearing this Applejack's brow furrowed.

She stood up quickly "What? Who is he? Why didn't he say something?" she began pacing back and forth "Seems cruel to me, not saying anything, especially if he left you like this. You tell me who it is and I'll go and give him a piece of my mind, and maybe a good knock round the head to boot!"

Fluttershy shook her head quickly "Nononono please don't, it wasn't his fault!" she grabbed Applejack and sat her down again.

"What do you mean sugarcube, how could it not be his fault! You come over here all teary eyed over some guy and expect me to believe your to blame."

"Remember that bad thing"

"Fluttershy, what did you do?"

"Well he knocked on my door, I didn't know what else to do so I let him in."

"And?"

"W-we got talking and he wanted to know who I was crushing on?"

Applejack looked at her, very surprised,"You told him!? You told him that you had a crush on someone but left out the part where it was him? Fluttershy..." she facehooved.

"I know, I know I was stupid but then I ruined it, I ruined everything."

"How did you do that?"

"I told him I had a crush on him and then I don't know what came over me but... I kissed him!"

"You did what?"

"I kissed him okay! Oh I'm so embarrassed, I beared my soul and then threw myself at him!" Fluttershy said, breaking out into a fresh wave of tears.

"And then what happened? I mean that's as far as it went right? It was just a kiss? Right? You didn't do anything else?"

"What do you..." Fluttershy turned red and looked at her startled "No, no absolutely not, nothing like that!"

Applejack also blushed slightly "Sorry, but when you said you threw yourself at him, I just assumed...never mind", she cleared her throat before continuing "So what happened next, I mean did he kiss you back?"

"No...no he, he fainted"

"He what?"

"He fainted, passed out on my floor..."

"I can see why that could've upset you."

Fluttershy started to panic "What if I did something wrong!? I mean I kissed him and he collapsed? What does that mean?! Does that mean he doesn't like me, or that he does? Is it because I'm not pretty enough, am I not nice enough? What's wrong with me!" she began hyperventilating.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold your horses sugarcube, you keep that up your gonna be at risk of passing out yourself. I think you just surprised him is all, I'd a probably done the same thing if some colt just kissed me all out of nowhere."

"Really?"

"Well, actually I'd probably sock him in the jaw but you get my point don't you? Now it isn't a good idea to dive into the creek without checking for gators, but now that your in all you can do now is swim. You can't undo what you did, you just got to make sure that what you do now, you don't end up regretting."

"What do I do? I want to see him again, but I don't know how he'll react, or how I'll react and I'm really scared."

"Aw sugarcube, I wish I knew what to tell you but I don't have any experience in romance, I don't know how much help I can be. Maybe you could ask Rarity"

Fluttershy sat up, a look of fear on her face "No absolutely not, I'm not telling Rarity and neither can you!"

"Uh why?"

"B-because, you know what she's like, I'd probably die from embarrasment." she lied. The situation was already tense, Fluttershy didn't want to involve Rarity unless she had no alternative.

"Oh yeah, that pony get's a whiff of romance, she'd fix you up, make you a dress the whole nine yards. Well why not go down to the library? I know Twilight's out of town but Spike could probably find a book on relationships that could help you."

Fluttershy didn't respond, instead she made a sound Applejack had never heard before. If she had to put words to it the closest she could come was "Meep". Before she could question the pegasus further she heard a piercing scream, followed by very loud crying, she turned to face the noise "Consarnit! I told them it was a bad idea! Look sugarcube we are going to have to carry this on later. Do me a favour? I was supposed to go babysit Spike but I'm probably going to have to run that lot over to the hospital" She began to run away "Can you cover me? I'd hate to let Twi down but I kinda gotta deal with this first?" before dashing away at full pelt worried for the safety of her sister and her friends. Her stetson blowing off her head as she ran.

Fluttershy watched until she was quite far away before kicking the tree behind her with her hooves, hard. The apples fell to the ground in a series of dull thuds. Saddened Fluttershy began to head home

"He's not a baby anymore..." she said as she looked up to see the sun setting.

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Spike lowered the book slowly, he couldn't believe what he had been reading, he knew dragons were capable of cruelty but this?! Resisting the urge to throw the book away, he closed the cover and set the book on the end table.

Dragons, I know people are afraid of them, of us, but I never knew why, I just thought we were intimidating not...evil. Everypony hates us, hates dragons at least. I'm grateful Twilight hatched me and not a dragon, to think I could have grown up like THAT.

Spike curled up into a ball, never before had he been more grateful of his pony upbringing.

I'm a monster or at least I could have been, what happened on my birthday, that must have been a glimpse of what I am capable of.

"It's not fair! There must have been something good, there must have been, don't let me be the only dragon who isn't a monster. There must be something, some record of ponies and dragons, that doesn't end in war!" He picked up his pillow and threw it against the wall. Huffing he lied back and stared at the ceiling. A butterfly flew in through the open window and settled on Spike's stomach, he looked at the beautiful insect, it's wings shimmering in the light, each a canvas carrying a work of art nopony could ever replicate. Spike held out a claw, the butterfly crawled on, and remained still even as Spike sat up, "Well at least your not afraid of me" he said with a smile on his face, the butterfly took off and flew out of the window again before settling on one of the roses Twilight had planted in a box that hung from the window sill. Suddenly more images began to rush through Spike's mind, he remembered coming downstairs, the library full of cleaning animals. Fluttershy in the kitchen making him breakfast.

Spike gasped "That's right! Fluttershy was the one who cleaned up in there, not Twilight! She made me breakfast and we were talking about something and then Rainbow came crashing through the window! That's why I gave her the mustache!" Spike tensed up, a vein appearing on his forehead as he concentrated.
"Come on Spike think what were we talking about... I asked her how things were at her place" an image flashed of the inside of Fluttershy's house.

What the ? I've never been in Fluttershy's house before have I? how do I know what it looks like?!

Almost on cue, Spike was treated to a replay of the aftermath of the Sonic Rainboom, him flying through the air before being caught by Rainbow Dash, who then preceded to drop him into the stream outside Fluttershy's house. "I must have gone inside afterwards...", he could hear a voice in the back of his mind as he remember conversation he'd had with Fluttershy the previous day,

"That's right, Fluttershy was going to tell me who she had a crush on! That's when Rainbow Dash interrupted us!". He crossed his arms "But then, how did I end up here? I don't remember walking back..." More images, much more vivid this time, he was back in Fluttershy's house, Fluttershy leaning over to him, her face bright red, she was about to tell Spike her crush, he could feel the warmth of her face on his and then she kissed him. Her soft lips pressing against his. That image stayed with Spike the longest, he didn't move he didn't breath. As words resounated through his mind, the last words Fluttershy said to him "I have a crush on you."

What was that, was that a dream? It must have been, that couldn't have happened. Yeah it was a dream. I-I fainted because of falling through the air, I must have passed out outside of her house and she brought me here. Yeah that's it! No no it can't be, that image, it felt, it felt so real. But it can't be, Twilight told me ponies have no interest in dragons, not like that. Do they? I mean I know I have a crush on Rarity but she's beautiful, me? I'm a dragon!

He screamed in frustration, frantically he grabbed the Dragons and Ponies book, flicking to the index page, he scanned for any relevant sections. "R...R... let's see ranges of fire breath, Redwing: the first winged dragon, Rotscale and it's treatments. Ah, here it is romance." He flicked to the relevant page. "Dragon anatomy, I'll come back to that later, courting rituals and mating, ew, Dragon relationships, here we go "Dragon and Pony Romantic relationships" eagerly Spike began to read.

There has only ever been one reported instance of a dragon and a pony forming a romantic relationship before, the subject however is considered something of a taboo by both factions, dragons and ponies alike have given me all sorts of looks whenever I raised the subject with them. This may be because of the social stigma, brought on by the rather sordid history that ponies and dragons have, it may be because dragons have such long lives that such a relationship is impossible to maintain. Having heard the tale though, I believe it's simply because the two species have such different upbringings, live very different lives, and the fact that because whenever they meet the pony is always running in fear. In fact were it not for those two meeting, we may still be at war with the dragons now. The tale is as follows:

A young pony, only a filly at the time by chance happened across a dragon egg one day whilst foraging for food in the forest that lay to the south of her home, the forest was located between two large mountain ranges, that curved around the village where the filly lived, seperating them from the great sea that lay beyond. It is said the egg appeared as if from nowhere falling from the sky, but no dragon's roar could be heard overhead and no dragons were seen flying overhead. It was later discovered that a group of unicorns had stolen the egg from a dragon's nest. However they were caught by the mother, they couldn't outrun the furious dragon so instead teleported the egg as far away as they could hoping to deliver it to their co-conspirators, however in the panic they got the spell wrong and so the egg was teleported and landed in a clearing in the forest where the young filly discovered it. She cared for the egg, mistaking it for a birds egg as nopony save the unicorns who sent it had never seen a dragon's egg before.

The young filly was concerned however when the egg didn't hatch after several months. The winter had been harsh, and food was scarce, in an act of desperation the young pony's father tried to boil the egg hoping it would provide food for his family, only for it to hatch. As the newly hatched dragon clambered it's way out of the pot, the family recoiled in fear. However the young filly who found it looked at the baby dragon with pity, it was motherless, alone and scared. Against the warnings of her family she walked towards the young dragon cautiously she approached the young dragon, which leapt up, aiming right for her throat, her family watched with baited breath believing that the dragon was going to attack, it's arms and claws outstreched, her father jumped up and charge forward preparing to bat the dragon away, only to stop when he saw that, instead of attacking her, the dragon was hugging her! The young filly who had been paralyzed with fear, looked down and saw the dragon hugging her. Her expression softened and she hugged the dragon back, it was then that the young girl earned her cutie mark, a strange shape, a rune of sorts, shaped like a dragon curling up into a ball.

The young girl and the dragon grew up together, in secret at first but slowly the dragon was intergrated into the community. When the Alicorn ruler, Celestia's predecessor heard of this, she sent guards to arrest the filly and bring the dragon to her. The Alicorn was prepared to eliminate the dragon, she saw him as a threat both to her kingdom and her throne. She was stopped however when the young filly intervened putting herself between the alicorn and the dragon. Seeing the overwhelming sense of loyalty towards the dragon, the alicorn was taken aback, never before had such a thing occured. She decided to test the dragon, to see if he would return that loyalty and threatened to destroy the young filly. Only to be further surprised to see that the dragon did exactly the same, whether through his own tuition or simply by imitation she didn't know. Eventually the pair became envoys for ponykind, their relationship inspired the alicorn to seek peace with the dragons. The pony and her dragon travelled back and forth between the two factions and whilst they couldn't convince them to co-exist, they did form a treaty. To mark the occasion the dragons gifted the alicorn queen with a dragon egg and the Queen returned in kind by giving the dragons a star, plucked from the heavens. Every 100 years this tradition is to be repeated. As for our young pony and her dragon, their journeys back and forth between the dragons and the ponies, the adventures they shared strengthened their friendship. Eventually they fell in love and settled down together, some say that as a reward for solidfying a peace between the dragons and the ponies, the Alicorn magically bound the pony to her dragon, so that the two would be able to live together without fear of one outliving the other.

Spike closed the book slowly a small smile on his face, "So it has happened before," he said. He yawned, not realising how late it had gotten, he pulled the window shut and fell asleep.