Friendship Was Magic

by Error732

Chapter VIII

"Sorry to scare you, Applebloom. The only visitors I usually get are bears looking for a place to sleep, and I don't want them horning in on my cave. You understand." The immense creature craned its head toward the center of the chamber and exhaled, igniting a pile of logs previously cloaked in darkness.

"You've, uh, grown," said Applebloom, her heart still bucking in her chest.

Spike reared his head back, folded his claws across his green underbelly, and broke into a terrifying chuckle. "Yeah, and you shrank!" His tail slapped against the ground, causing nearby rocks to bounce up and down. "I'm a dragon; what did you expect?"

Applebloom's legs threatened to give out from fatigue, so she knelt beside the freshly lit fire. "I didn't expect anything at all," she said, in a comparative squeak. "I had no idea you were here!"

Spike, taking notice of his guest's frailty for the first time, spoke in his softest rumble. "Yeah, I was wondering about that. You mean you just found me by accident?"

"Yes," murmured Applebloom. "It's storming something terrible out there."

The wyrm hesitated to consider the once-familiar notion of being threatened by weather, then asked, "You don't have any gems, do you?"

Applebloom lifted her head just long enough to shake it.

"I thought not. Worth a try, though; I need to get started on a hoard. I never realized this when I was little, but it turns out it takes some serious chops to save up for a proper treasure pile. I'd been eating all the gems that came my way and banking on the princess to reward me for my service to Twilight Sparkle, but, well, she never got that chance. That's what I get for putting all my eggs in one basket."

The dragon waited for a reply, but Applebloom only nodded weakly from the fireside.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look so hot."

Applebloom turned over on her side and succumbed to exhaustion.

* * *

She awoke to the echo of birds chirping outside the mouth of the cave. By the sound of things, the rain had stopped. The smell of soot wafted through her nostrils, and radiant flames warmed her sore legs. She opened her eyes.

An apple tree dropped in front of her.

Applebloom bolted upright at the sudden crash, her legs shaking. "Sorry about that," boomed a now familiar voice. "I guess I'll be more gentle next time."

Applebloom would have watched in awe as the scaly hulk lumbered into the room. She would have marveled at the grace of such girth, would have stared wide-eyed at his extended claws as he stretched his behemoth limbs. But she didn't. She was busy eating apples.

They tasted as wonderful as she remembered, maybe better. They were a tart, wild-growing variety, unworthy of any successful orchard, but she held nothing against them. Biting them right off the branch, she savored the fruit that symbolized all that was ever right with her family, even as her ravenous appetite urged her to gorge herself on a tree's worth of fruit.

Spike settled into his alcove wearing a smile that narrowly avoided malevolence. "I'm glad you like it! I was pretty worried for you when you passed out last night, and you look kind of, uh, thin."

Applebloom tore herself away from her meal for a moment. "Thank you kindly, Spike. This might be the best breakfast I've ever had."

Spike lay in contened silence for the long while it took Applebloom to sate herself. When she finished, she carefully plucked each remaining apple and replaced the rain-soaked oats from her bag with her harvest. It took every modicum of will she had not to devour these leftovers on the spot.

"So, Applebloom," said Spike, when she had at last finished. "What have you been up to? What are you doing out here in the mountains, and why are you so hungry?"

The joy left Applebloom's eyes. "It's a long story, Spike."

"Okay," said Spike. "Can I hear it?"

Applebloom grimaced. She wasn't excited to relive her experiences, but she could hardly deny her saviour his curiousity. She told her whole story, omitting nothing of her family's desperation, her futile arguments with her sister, her journey to Canterlot, and the broken ponies she encountered at every turn. She lamented the futility of her quest, the shame of her return, and the despair it would inevitably bring to her sister when she retold it. She cried for Granny Apple's invalidity, Applejack's pride, Celestia's assassination, Twilight's servitude, Rainbow Dash's shiftlessness, Fluttershy's imprisonment, Rarity's decay, Sweetie Belle's self-destruction, and Pinkie Pie's utter damnation. The account exhausted her, and by its end she lay once more defeated by the fireside.

Spike made what must have been, for a dragon, a pensive sound. "I guess Princess Celestia really had us all pinned, huh?"

Applebloom tilted her head to the side. "Whaddaya mean?"

"I mean she understood us. She knew what makes us all tick. It makes sense; she must have learned a lot about us from all of those friendship reports I passed her way."

"Spike," said Applebloom, forgetting her relative size for a moment, "What're you talkin' about?"

Spike snorted, shooting minute bolts of fire out of his nostrils. "Think about it, Applebloom! What was the Apple family downfall? I mean, other than bad harvests and rotten luck, why couldn't you recover?"

"Pride," said Applebloom, bitterly.

"Exactly. And, before you guys wound up in the gutter—no offense—friends always gave you the help you wouldn't ask for. Like that time Applejack tried to harvest all of Sweet Apple Acres by herself.

"Twlight Sparkle would have locked herself in a library, if not for her friends; that's why the Princess sent her to Ponyville in the first place. It's no surprise that, without them, she wound up chained to a desk.

"And how about Rainbow Dash? She was the most competitive pony in Equestria. But outside the races, she got her sense of self-worth from her friends. Without that sense, she was free to take risks with herself, and now she has to perch herself on some hilltop, just to get closer skyward.

"Fluttershy has the opposite problem; she's never had enough pride to stick up for herself. But her friends gave her that self-esteem.

"Sweetie Belle was a born performer, but, ever since you guys were fillies, she's always bounded forward at a moment's notice. She needed her friends and family to help her look before she leaped.

"And let's be honest; Pinkie Pie was always a loose cannon. But her friends kept her aimed in the right direction.

"And Princess Celestia knew all this! That's the real reason she wanted all those reports on friendship. She didn't live thousands of years without picking up some pony skills; she probably knew every word of those reports before she laid eyes on them. But she knew if she had Twilight write them, she and her friends would stick together, and that was good for all of them. It was good for Ponyville, maybe even all of Equestria." Spike's closing thesis reverberated through the cavern, and a serpentine smugness crept across his face.

"You forgot Rarity," remarked Applebloom.

"No, I didn't," said Spike. "I just didn't want to badmouth her. Rarity's fault, if you could call it that, was that she gave too much of herself. If she hadn't, she might have been able to keep her downtown storefront."

Applebloom meditated a moment on Spike's words. "Hey, Spike. When did you get so smart?"

"I've always been smart," he said, in a burst of volume. "I'm a dragon."

Applebloom's depression reasserted itself. "Well, whether or not you're right, I'm not sure there's anything to do about it. Princess Celestia is dead, and our friends will probably never even stand in the same room again."

Spike heaved a sigh that swept the cavern with wind. "When I was a baby, I would have turned to Twilight Sparkle with this kind of problem. She always had some spell to cast for times like this."

Applebloom felt a surge of recollection. What was it Twilight Sparkle had said?

There's no easy spell . . .

"Spike!" shouted Applebloom, "I know what to do!"

Spike waited a beat before answering. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Well, it's kind of a long shot. But, yeah." Applebloom reviewed her thoughts aloud, and Spike listened intently.

"Huh," said Spike. "Maybe, I dunno. Probably worth asking."

Applebloom lit up with excitement and gathered her things. "I've gotta get back to Canterlot. Do you wanna come along?"

"No, no," grumbled Spike. "I don't think I'd really fit."

"Well, I'll miss you, then. You've grown into a handsome dragon, Spike"

Spike gave the softest draconian face possible. Applebloom was on her way out when he added, "Hey, Applebloom?"

"Yes, Spike?"

"Nice cutie mark."

"Really?" she said, in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, no. But I know you were always really excited to get one."

Comments

[Ponky]

D'awww... I love Spike.

This is very well thought out. Way to have Spike reveal your great insights to the characters and Celestia's understanding of them. It flowed well and gave us that "Ooohhh!" moment.

Now... to the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing!

[Deltazero]

Haha! Go Spike! I'm enjoying this story very much so far

[Spades_of_Ace]

I'm also wounder to what happened to Scootaloo as well.

[Mur Im A Pony]

What's her damn Cutie Mark!? It's killing me!

[Steel Wing]

Spike as the voice of reason and hope......YES!!!! THAT'S MY KIND OF CHARACTER!!!!!!!!!

[themanesix]

go spike.........also for the love of Derpy tell us what the cutie mark is

[Cyborcat]

Gotta say, I loved this chapter--Spike is pretty cool, yet still in character. I worry about the time-travel concept and reversing everything, it sounds too convenient, but still gonna keep reading and see how it goes.