Bloodstone

by Drag Orion

Big Brother Spike

“And so, as I hit my fist against the Buffalo Chief’s hoof, I became and honorary member of the tribe,” yawned Torch as the weariness of being long winded was taking a toll on him. The sun had been setting when he started and now it was rising back up. Spike was fast asleep with his head on his pillow. Ember was as well, her head nestled against the purple dragon’s gut as a pillow of her own. Torch didn’t noticed, too engrossed in his own story mixed with his own weariness. “I came to them with the intention of showing them the might of the dragons and left with their respect.” Letting out another yawn, the large dragon was on the verge of dozing off, his head becoming too heavy to hold up while sitting. “Returning… to the Dragonlands, I shared this tale… of my glory, but it was only the… first of many of my accomplishments as… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

Finally asleep, the former Dragon Lord fell forward onto the table, the impact causing a massive BOOM! that shook the table any everything on it. “Wha!” cried Spike as he awoke along with Ember. “Earthquake!” In a panic, Spike hid himself as best he could beneath his pillow, shaking as he waited for the tremors to stop.

“Relax,” yawned Ember, seeing her father passed out and a pool of saliva was now oozing from the side of his tilted maw onto the table. “My dad just finally fell asleep.” Gazing at the entrance to the cave, she could see light was already leaking in from outside. “At least he got us up at a decent time so we can get to the festival early.”

“I can’t believe he really went on talking all night,” commented Spike as he got up to stretch. Seeing his plate of gems from dinner still unfinished, he plucked a few up to munch on. “I can’t remember much of what he said after the beginning. Uh, he won’t be mad, will he?”

“Don’t worry,” the Dragon Lord assured her trembling friend. “I don’t think I’ve heard his whole story before and he’s retold it tons of times before. Trust me when I say, you’ll probably hear it again before the festival is over.”

“I can hardly wait,” chuckled Spike sarcastically after he finished the rest of his gems. The young dragon then reached into his backpack to grab a purple toothbrush with green spikes along the back end of it and a tube of toothpaste. “But right now, I gotta get myself ready to pick up Spark to take him to it.”

“Do you even know where to find him?” questioned Ember as they flew down off the table and headed to a part of the cave with a spring of sparkling water flowing through it.

With toothbrush in hand and toothpaste on the brush, Spike began to clean his teeth. Once he finished and rinsed out his maw, he answered her. “Um, you wouldn’t happen to know, would you?”

“Just head south from here,” she directed him. “It’ll be a cave by the gulch. If you reach the lava falls then you’ve gone too far.”

“By the gorge and before the lava pits,” noted Spike as he splashed some water on his scaly face and then cupped his claws to bring some to his mouth to drink. “Got it. I’ll see you later then.”

“See ya,” Ember called back to Spike as he then went to grab his backpack and fly out of the cave. “And try to stay out of trouble.”

Spike soared through the skies of the Dragonlands, looking down at the rough, rocky terrain below as he flew south as Ember had told him. When the gorge came in sight, Spike descended to get a closer look at the surrounding land. Standing on top of a large rock, he spotted a tiny, yellow dot that started jumping up and down excitedly, the instant he drew near. “Hey! Spike!” the dot called out, confirming what Spike already figured was that it was Spark. “It’s me! I’m over here!”

Diving quickly downward, Spike swooped over to his new friend and then slowed himself down by catching air with his wings and righted himself up again a few mere feet from the ground before landing gently. “Hey, Spark,” smiled Spike. “Nice seeing you too. Are you all set to go?”

“I think so,” Spark nodded, but then averted his eyes. “But…”

“What’s the matter?” wondered Spike. “Is something wrong?”

“My brother came over last night and I was hoping he would come with us to the festival, but… he decided not to,” sighed Spark. “I love my big brother, but I wish he’d spend more time with me and not just show up on a whim, whatever that is.”

“I guess he’s a teen dragon,” figured Spike. “I’ve met a few and they were very rough around the edges. If I could help you with him, I would, but I don’t know if I could get through to him any more than you could.”

“Yeah,” agreed the sad dragon.

“Hey, there’s no sense in getting upset over things we can’t control,” Spike told him in an attempt to cheer him up. “Today is a day for fun, so hang on tight and we’ll get going.”

“Right!” cheered Spark, quickly perking from Spike’s encouragement. He climbed onto Spike’s back and wrapped his arms around his neck. The combined weight of the baby dragon and everything in his backpack made it almost too much weight for Spike to fly with, let alone remain on his feet. Not wanting to embarrass himself in front of his fan, Spike gritting his teeth and drew upon every ounce of strength he could muster. “Okay, Spike! I’m all set to go.”

“Ok,” wheezed Spike as he opened his wings. With a passenger, Spike had to get a running start in order to get airborne. Running forward, Spike attempted to take off, his feet leaving the ground for a second before lowering to the ground. Trying even harder, he managed a few seconds more, but it still wasn’t enough to gain altitude. Once more, even faster still, he ran and finally managed to get off the ground and keep rising till the two were successfully soaring forward, albeit at a still low altitude.

“Are you okay, Spike?” wondered Spark seeing Spike’s struggles in flying. “Is it too much weight for you to carry?”

“N-Nonsense,” Spike told him and managed to force a laugh and a look of confidence. “This is n-nothing for Great and Honorable, Spike the Brave and Glorious to handle. Just focus on hanging on till we get to the festival.”

“Can do,” smiled Spark as continued to cling tightly onto Spike and cheered, excited to be flying on the wings of his hero.

“Good, the lava’s nice and hot,” Ax announced as he dipped a foot into the magma. “Perfect for gorge surfing and we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

“Well, the festival is still going on so everyone else is probably over there,” commented Gorge as he rubbed his stomach. “Still, I can’t remember the last time any of us have gotten up before noon. I didn’t even get to eat brunch.”

“Blame Smoulder,” chuckled Ax. “She’s the one who woke us up and dragged us out here. I guess she really wants to prove she hasn’t gone soft.”

“She could have at least let us eat first,” complained the chubby dragon. “I’m wasting away to nothing over here.”

“I think you’ll survive,” he snickered. “Right, Karma?”

“I decided to change my name again. Instead of Karma, my name is Xena.”

“We’ll try and remember that,” said Gorge. “Now, we’re just waiting on Smoulder carving out a gorge board.”

“I wonder what’s taking her so long,” commented Xena as she turned toward the direction she last saw Smoulder. “Is she having trouble finding a slab of rock she likes or something?”

A short distance away, Smoulder sat, hidden from her friends. At her side was her already prepared gorge board. On her other side was her backpack and in her lap was her yearbook, turned to the page with photos of her and the rest of the Student Six on it. The page was titled, “Hearth’s Warming Club.”

The whole incident happened on Hearth’s Warming Eve when Gallus poured goo powder onto the fiery heart of friendship atop the tree in the school’s rec room. It caused a flood of sticky, purple goo to run down the tree and covered over half the room as a result. Smoulder, Gallus, and the rest of their friends were the suspected of pulling the prank, but in the end Gallus confessed and admitted he had only done so just to spend a little more time with his friends and delay returning to Griffonstone where nobody was going to be awaiting his arrival. When the truth was discovered, they all agreed to stay at the school rather than go home, so they could be with their griffin friend.

As Smoulder looked over the pictures on the page, she was able to reminisce about the incident and the party that occurred afterwards. The first picture was of them all after they finally got the last of the purple goo cleaned up. The room was spotless, but they had all become a sticky purple mess as a result and couldn’t help laugh at how ridiculous they looked. The next photo was of them all at Twilight’s Castle, sitting in the dining room alongside Twilight and her friends, with a big feast set before them.

After that, there was a photo of Rarity helping them all make Hearth’s Warming dolls to put over the fireplace along with Twilight and all of her friends. Next, there was one of Silverstream giving Gallus a kiss under the mistletoe. The look on his face was priceless and would have been a shame not be included, but, fortunately, Spike was able to keep the camera safe, in spite of the embarrassed griffon chasing after him. In the chaos, a few other pictures were taken as Spike fumbled with the camera, getting a shot of an enraged Gallus. In another shot, during their run, Ocellus was in mid transformation, turning into a mouse, as she panicked. After that was one of Pinkie Pie cheering them on thinking they were racing, followed by Sandbar almost spilling his hot chocolate as they ran around either side of him, and ended with a photo of the two of them completely exhausted and slumped over Yona who had fallen asleep after eating too much during dinner.

Along with a several other photos of the festivities, there was a little message that still rang true even now. “The best time ever,” read Smoulder and couldn’t help agree as her memories of that time brought a smile to her face. “I haven’t even been away a full day and I’m already missing them,” she sighed.

“Smoulder,” called Xena. “Where are you? Did you get your board ready or not?”

“Oh, um, yeah!” she shouted back. “I got it, Karma.”

“It’s Xena now,” she corrected her.

“Whatever,” she retorted nonchalantly as she returned the yearbook into her backpack atop the box containing her dress. “You change your name so much, who can even keep track?”

“Whatever,” she countered Smoulder with the same uncaring tone. “Just grab your board. We’re waiting for you.”

“Not like it was my fault I needed a new one in the first place,” she pointed out as she grabbed her board and walked with Xena back to Ax and Gorge. “If someone didn’t break my old one…”

“It was Ax who broke his board,” Xena corrected Smoulder. “He just didn’t feel like making a new one since yours was perfectly fine.”

“Same thing, basically,” Smoulder countered.

“So, what do you got in that backpack you left back over there?” the pink dragon asked her orange friend as she glanced back towards it. “You haven’t let it leave your side the entire time you were here.”

“It’s nothing,” she lied. “I was just looking for a safe place to put it while we’re lava surfing.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing if you are so concerned about it,” Xena pointed out. “What is in it?”

“Nothing!” she answered her once more as she grabbed Xena’s hand and led her forward. “Let’s just go gorge surfing.”

“If you say so,” chuckled Xena as she looked back at Smoulder’s backpack with a devious smirk on her face that she hid as they reunited with Ax and Gorge and then proceeded into the molten lava to surf it.

“Here we are,” panted Spike as they finally reached the festival grounds. Already, a number of dragons had already started showing up, including a number working at stands to sell food or put on demonstrations and performances. It was everything that Ember had told Spike about the day before and more. However, as soon as they landed, the thing that caught everyone’s attention was Spike himself, particularly among the younger dragons around Spark’s age.

“Is that Spike?”

“It is! It’s him!”

“I knew I saw him yesterday!”

“Hey, Spike!”

“I wasn’t expecting this,” blushed Spike as he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of young dragons and felt unusually tall standing in the center to them all. “Let me, guess. You’re all my biggest fans too, right?”

“Is it true you stared down a Timber Wolf till it fell to pieces in terror?”

“Did you really save Ponyville from a giant rampaging beast on your birthday?”

“Is it true you’re a princess?”

“One at a time! One at a time, please!” cried Spike, not sure who was asked what or what to answer first. Quickly, he retreated back to the air to get some more breathing room and looked down at the dragons anxiously looking up at him. “How do you all even know about all this stuff?”

“We read this,” answered one of the dragons, holding up a very beat up book that Spike immediately recognized as a copy of the Friendship Journal that was filled with all the adventures Twilight, Spike and all their friends had recorded in it. A while back, when Twilight used a duplication spell on the original, she sent all the copies to have them distributed all over Equestria.

“The Friendship Journal,” said Spike as he flew down to take a look at it. Upon closer inspection, there was even more wear and tear on the pages inside it. A lot of the pages were missing and there were plenty of burn marks and tears from claws. Some of the pages were had been torn out and ended up in a different section of the book too, but a fair amount of it was still in tact and legible. “I didn’t think the journal had reached distribution in the Dragonlands.”

“My big brother brought it home with him one day with a lot of other stuff he found,” the young dragon who had the book explained. “He didn’t want it so he let me have it, after setting it on fire. It had a bunch of pony stories in it too, but when I saw it had stories about you outside the Dragonlands, I had to show everyone else.”

“I think there might have been a bit lost in translation,” admitted Spike as he looked through the book and could see where filling in the gaps could lend one to over dramatize the in between or completely misinterpret things.”

“But you won the Gauntlet of Fire too, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, I did, with Ember,” he nodded.

“That means you’re the best dragon.”

“That’s why you’re so cool.”

“You’re our hero.”

“I wanna be just like you when I grow up.”

“Me too!”

“I’m gonna be more Spike that even Spike!”

“You won’t be half as Spike as me!”

“No way!”

“Quiet!” shouted Spike, seeing his fan club was looking ready to fight over him, a strange, yet, flattering experience for him. They all went silent and looked to Spike for what he’d say next. Scratching his cheek, as he tried to figure out what he should tell them, Spike thought to himself, “I guess this is what Twilight and the others were dealing with when they published the journal.”

Once he got himself composed, he started to talk to them once more. “As great as I might be,” he told them. “You, uh, shouldn’t try to be like me because you think I’m cool. You should just be yourselves and try to get along with one another, and not just here and with each other, but everywhere and with ponies and all the other creatures that live in Equestria.” Taking the journal, Spike tried reading what bits he could of his friends’ entries. “I guess you didn’t bother looking through much of the other stories in here. I bet if you did you’d find a lot of them even more enjoyable than my own, but how about I try and bring you all some copies of the book that are still in one piece, next chance I get?”

“Yeah!” the young, dragon children cheered, clinging to every word Spike said and their brief quarreling was quickly forgotten.

“Now, enough about me, the festival is just starting up so we should all be having fun with that,” stated Spike. “So, what are you all waiting for.” Cheering, all the dragons ran off, eager to check out the festivities, leaving Spike and Spark behind.

“I was surprised when I found out I had one fan,” commented Spike, unable to keep from smiling ear to ear after so much hero worship. “But I never imagined I’d have practically a fanclub here. I wonder if this is how Rainbow Dash feels when she’s around all her fans.”

“Of course you are,” chuckled Spark like what he said was funny. “Everyone started talking about you after the Dragon Migration and you became a legend after beating all the other dragons in the Gauntlet of Fire. That makes you the best dragon around. Who wouldn’t want to be like you?”

“I don’t know about best,” admitted Spike, finding it hard to be modest. “Really great, maybe. I was just fortunate that things just happened to work out for me. But, enough about that. We came here for the festival, right?”

“Uh huh,” his little fan nodded. “Where should we go first?”

“Well,” pondered Spike as he sniffed the air and drooled a bit. “The food vendors are always my first stop and it looks like they’re already set up. I’ve always wanted to see how good deep-fried gems taste here.”

“They let’s go get some,” Spark replied and they hurried over to the stands.

“There they go,” grumbled Garble as he watched from a distance with his two goons, Fume and Clump. “And it’s bad enough that he’s got my brother with him, but pretty much every other squirt too, it seems.”

“What do they see in that puny, shrimp?” asked Clump. “We’re the ones they should be looking up to.”

“One problem at a time,” instructed Garble. “Right now, we’re just trying to ruin their time at the festival. It looks like they’re going to the vendors, but you two are going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“But we didn’t bring any gems,” Fume commented only for Garble to hold out a bag stuffed with them.

“It’s every last gem I have to my name,” he told them. “I don’t care how much it costs, just do whatever you have to do.”

“But what about you?” asked Clump.

“I’m the boss and I told you two clods to do it,” he snapped. “Now get going already!”

“Garble sure has been in a bad mood, hasn’t he,” commented Fume as they flew off after Spike and Spark.

“Well, we got all these gems so I’d say it works out pretty good for us,” chuckled Clump.

“Looks like I have my first customers of the day,” the dragon vendor said as Spike and Spark approached his stand. Taking a breath, he inhaled fire at the oil, causing it to bubble. Beside it was the the fry batter. All that was missing were the gems.

“Yeah, we’d like some-” Spike started to say before Garble’s two friends cut in front of them.

“We want some fried gems,” Clump told the vendor with a clawful of gems ready as he didn’t give anyone a chance to protest him cutting.

“Uh, coming right up,” the vendor replied as the gems were already in his hands. He took the gems, putting some away in a bag as the commission fee for his services and dipped the rest into the frying batter before placing them in a basket.

“Hey!” snapped Spike. “We were here first!”

“Then why are we in front of you?” taunted Fume.

“Yeah, or do you want to make us get out of the way” taunted Clump as he knew there was no way Spike could do that. All he could do was grit his teeth and wait till they were served.

The dragon vendor lowered the basket of gems into the oil, and cooked them for a few minutes before pulling them out to drip dry and cool off. Almost instantly, the aroma of the deep fried gems had every dragon in the area drooling with hunger, quickly extending his line of customers. Finally, filling a cup with the deep fried gems, the vendor handed it to the chubby, brown dragon.

“Good. You got your fried gems. If you’d be so kind, could you leave us alone? We just want to enjoy our day,” Spike told them, hoping they could at least be little considerate.

“Don’t tell us what to do,” Fume argued for the sake of arguing. “We’ll take all the time we want eating here if we want.”

“Then we’ll get some gem corn instead,” decided Spike as he and Spark walked away to another vendor, but just as soon as they were about to get in line, Fume had rushed ahead and beat them too it. “Ugh, seriously?”

“I wanted some gem corn too,” he laughed. “Got a problem with that, runt?”

“Hmm,” pondered Spike suspiciously. “I get the feeling you two are going to stand in our way here no matter what, aren’t you?”

“Maybe you’re just stuck behind us,” Fume chuckled, though he was the only one who found his remark amusing.

“Right, well, we’ll probably be back here later when you two are gone to get our snacks,” he told them. “I just hope someone doesn’t eat them all before then.”

“Now wouldn’t that be a shame,” grinned Fume as he looked back to Clump and decided to do just that.

“Come on, Spark, let’s go,” Spike said and led the yellow dragon away from the vendors and the bullies.

“Are they really going to eat all the snacks so we can’t have any?” asked Spark as he looked back at the two dragons, unloading all the gems Garble had given at all the dragon vendors.

“I doubt they have enough gems to do that,” replied Spike. “But, they’ll probably be here for a while trying and, at the very least, if they’re over there then they can’t bother us elsewhere. I just hope that’s the only bump in our day today.”

“Idiots,” groaned Garble, seeing Spike and Spark getting away while his two friends were blowing through all his gems pointlessly know. “It looks like I’ll have to ruin their day myself.”

“What should we do now?” wondered Spike now that eating wasn’t an option.

“How about we see what’s going on over there?” suggested Spark, seeing dragons flocking towards a stage where a slender, orange dragon was speaking. Above him was a sign that read, “Dragon Crafts: Glass Blowing.”

“Glass blowing is one of dragonkind’s most ancient crafts,” explained the orange dragon on stage as he tried to draw in as big an audience as possible to gather around his stage. “I’ll be starting a demonstration soon so come gather round and I might even pick some of you to give you a lesson in the art as well.”

“It looks interesting,” agreed Spike. “Let’s go get a closer look.” The two dragons slipped through the crowd of dragons, doing their best to make their way towards the stage. Their small bodies proved helpful and squeezing through to the edge of the stage. Spike was tall enough to peek over it, but Spark was a bit too short.

“I can’t see,” the little dragon cried as he attempting to stand on his tip toes and grab onto the edge of the stage.

“Here,” offered Spike as he kneeled down and offered to let Spark sit on his back. Happily, he sat on Spike’s shoulder’s and carefully hung onto his head as Spike stood up again. Like before, it was a challenge to remain standing while supporting another dragon, but he was quickly growing used to it and even enjoying it.

As the dragon continued to speaking, Spike and Spark looked around the stage to see what else there was to see. Beside the orange dragon, he had a table covered in fragments of glass and a large bowl filled with sand, to be used for his demonstration. Behind him were a number of glass figures resting upon a desk, many were in the shape dragons with quite intricate detail. There was also one of a castle, another of a volcano. Surprisingly, he even had glass figurines done of the Alicorn princesses Luna and Celestia, the detail and proportions on them so exact, from the design of their Cutie Marks to even the unique way their hair flowed that it could only have been done by someone who had met them in person.

“To those of you who don’t know,” he continued to lecture as he dipped his claws into the sand and scooped up a mound of it. “Glass craft was discovered by dragons thousands of years ago while several dragons were in quarrel on a beach over some gems. As their flames melted the sands it turned into glass, a fact that was not even noticed till well after their fighting had ended.”

Holding the sand in his claws, he breathed fire upon it, making the tiny fragments of stone melt together into a transparent liquid. Carefully controlling his breathing, he managed to freely reshape the glass like he was working with clay. By the time he finished, he had a crafted a dragon curled up asleep. Compared to the other stuff he had on display it was a lot simpler, but for a project only a few minutes in the making it greatly showed off his skill and impressed the crowd.

“Would anyone care to try their hand at some sand sculpting of their own?” he asked. “Just five gems and I’ll gladly teach you the basics.”

“Can you do any glass blowing?” Spark asked Spike.

Spike shook his head. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen glass being made, dragon or otherwise, but it looks fun to try.”

“It looks like we have our first volunteer,” the dragon announced, overhearing Spike and Spark talking. “Come on up.”

“Guess I got no choice now,” blushed Spike as he helped Spark onto the stage and then climbed onto it himself. Taking off his backpack, he retrieved a handful of gems to give to the dragon. He munched on one before putting the rest away.

“And what’s your name?”

“It’s Spike.”

“Well, Spike, the key to glass blowing is flame control. Fill your claws with sand and then just melt it with your fire as you try to shape it. If you let your flame burn to hot it’ll burn the glass and too weak and it’ll harden too soon and break. Understand?”

“I think so,” nodded Spike as he scooped up as much sand as his claws could hold and then looked down at the crowd, all their eyes on him eager to see how he’d perform. Ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, Spike took a few breaths as he tried to stoke his fire and let out some green flames. Right off the start, he blew too hard and blew some of the sand from his claws. The crowd chuckled a bit at this slipup, but in only seemed to make them enjoy the demonstration more. When he managed to finally let out some fire from his maw, he lost more sand as he moved his claws too soon before he allowed the sand to fully melt.

“That’s fine,” encouraged the demonstrator as everyone watched Spike struggle to do his best at shaping the liquid glass, showing the huge gap in ability there was between a novice and an expert. “Just take your time and do your best. This is a skill that requires a lot practice to get the hang of, but for a first attempt you’re doing just fine.”

“Thanks,” smiled Spike as he kept at it, some of the melted glass dripping from his claws, hardening as it fell to the ground, and shattered into dust when it hit. After five minutes, Spike finally finished working, managing to create a small, shapeless mass of glass with what little material he still had left. Looking at it, he couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed at how poorly he felt he had done. “Uh, well, I tried my best. I was trying to make a six-pointed star, but I guess that was a bit too hard for me to do.”

“A fine attempt,” praised the dragon as he breathed a few flames into Spike’s palms and used his claws to reshape it till Spike now held a star like he had wanted to make. “There you go. It just needed a few adjustments.”

“Heh, I guess,” replied Spike as he held up the star to show to the audience and quickly a lot of the other dragons started to line up wanting to give it a try as well. Hopping off the stage with Spark, the two made their way back through the crowd before taking another look at his glass craft.

“Wow, you did great,” commented Spark.

“I think it was mostly the other guy than myself,” admitted Spike. “But at least now I have a souvenir I can give to Twilight when I go back home. I just hope I can keep it safe till then.” Opening his backpack, he slipped the glass star into a pocket, hoping it’d be safe in there.”

“Who is Twilight?” wondered Spark curiously.

“Oh, she’s the pony who raised me practically since I hatched,” he explained. “I wouldn’t be the dragon I am today without her.”

“Then, she’s your mommy?” the little dragon pointed out. “Even though she’s a pony?”

“M-Mommy?” stuttered Spike, not expecting to be asked that. “I don’t know if I’d say our relationship was simply that. She was more than just a pony who raised me. Twilight is as much my friend as she is my family. The same goes true for Fluttershy, Applejack, and all the other ponies who have helped take care of me. I might be a dragon and they might be ponies, but our bond is just as strong as one made from blood.”

“That sounds nice,” smiled Spark. “I wish I could have-”

“Huh?” asked Spike. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, I was just thinking we should go check out the amory and the arena next,” he answered with a smile. “I bet that’ll be cool to see.”

“Uh, sure,” nodded Spike. “Lead the way.”

“I’ve forgotten how much fun lava surfing is,” breathed Smoulder after a couple hours of riding down the rapids of lava. She wiped some sweat from her forehead and looked around for her friends. “Still, think I lost my edge while I was away?” There wasn’t an answer. Looking at the top of the gorge her friends weren’t there or anywhere on the way down or at the bottom where she was. “Guys? Where did they go?”

Flying back to the top, Smoulder looked around for them. “Did they sneak off to grab some lunch without me?” she wondered. “Well, Gorge definitely would, but the others, I doubt it.” As she flew, she soon heard some snickering and her heart sank when she saw them crowded around her backpack. “Oh, crud,” she groaned, expecting the worst had already happened and flew down to them.

“Heheh, oh, hey, Smoulder,” snickered Ax. “Why didn’t you tell us you had this with you?”

“Had what?” she asked and saw them flipping through the pages of her yearbook and laughed, though she couldn’t see just what was in there that they found so funny.”

“We figured the school was going to be lame, but now we can see how lame it was,” Xena told her. “How could you stand being around all those namby pamby ponies for so long?”

“It-It wasn’t really as bad as you think it was,” she told them.

“Well, you certainly look like you were enjoying yourself,” observed Ax. “Who are these five? Your school friends? Uh, let’s see, a pony, a griffon, uh, another griffin, I think, a buffalo, and some big bug thing?”

“First off, Silverstream isn’t a griffon, she’s a hippogriff. Yona is a yak and Ocellus is a changeling. Secondly, I never said you could look through my things.”

“You didn’t say we couldn’t,” Xena countered. “And weren’t you the one who said it was nothing? I don’t see why you would be so bent out of shape just because we found out the school forced you to make friends with a bunch of lame creatures.”

“L-Lame?!?” cried Smoulder, smoke seeping from her nostrils as she tried her best to restrain herself. “How can you say that? You don’t even know the first thing about them!”

“And apparently you know plenty,” Gorge retorted as he turned to the Hearth’s Warming Club page. “We thought you were coming back for the Feast of Fire, but you never showed. We figured you got triple detention or something, but you decided to stay with them instead.”

“I was being loyal to them,” snapped Smoulder. “That’s one of the fundamental things they taught us there.”

“Well, where was your loyalty to us?” asked Xena. “Leaving us and replacing us with your new friends?”

“Where was it when you three abandoned me and I got sent to the school in the first place!” roared Smoulder very angrily.

“Wow, Smoulder,” commented Ax. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before. What happened to you at that school?”

“I grew up,” she explained. “I learned things about friendship and things about myself that I might never have found out if I hadn’t gone. I’m grateful I went and I guess it’s my job to try and teach you guys what I learned too.”

“That’s incredible,” gasped Gorge. “You were living next to a castle made of crystal and didn’t tell us.” Just looking at the photo of Twilight’s castle, the overly plump dragon couldn’t help drooling on the page. “It looks so tasty.”

“Is that all you have to say?” snapped Smoulder snatching her yearbook back.

“No, we’ve got more and it looks like you did go soft on us while you were away,” accused Ax.

“It was pretty obvious with how funny you were acting since you first arrived,” added Xena as she peeked to see if Smoulder was hiding anything else in her backpack and found the the box with her dress in it. “Now, what do we have in here?”

“Don’t touch that!” hissed Smoulder blushing brightly. “That’s mine!”

“Must be something really good to make her face turn red like that,” snickered Ax. “Let’s take a look at it.”

“Don’t you dare!” shouted Smoulder as she lunged at them and attempted to steal the box back. Her friends were quick to take the air with the box and flew off with it. Not wasting a second, Smoulder put her yearbook back in her backpack and chased after them. “Get back here with that!”

“If you want it back then take it like a real dragon would,” Ax teased her and their chase began.

“So this is the dragon armory,” commented Spike as he and Spark walked in a cave that even a dragon as large as Torch would have had space between the ceiling and his head. The walls were lined with armor of all shapes and sizes for dragons both big and small. There were some full sets of armor already assembled that were for dragons between Spike’s and Ember’s size while, for the larger, adult dragons, the large chunks of metal that made up their protect gear was displayed piece by piece. There was a helmet they walked by that could have made a spacious one-room home from the sheer size of it and an axe with a blade wide enough that it could have cleaved through half a forest in a single swing. As they continued on, there was even more weapons that made Spike shudder at the thought of what might have happened if Ember hadn’t become the Dragon Lord and some battle hungry one had instead. “I’d hate to imagine what Equestria would have done if the dragons ever went to war with this stuff.”

“The whole place would probably look as bludgeoned and burnt as the Dragonlands do,” a rather gruff, bulky dragon stated. With how flat his muzzle was and his thick pair of horns curved back behind his ears, his head did appear to be in the shape of a hammer. He had some very beefy arms that seems rather odd to be wielding a feather duster in one hand and a rag in the other as he inspected the armor and removed any dust before cleaning away any smudges on them.

“Who are you?” wondered Spike as he watched the burly, dragon spit into his rag before using it to polish a breastplate till it shined.

“Hammerhead,” he answered. “Been a smith most of my life, but there’s been very little need for any new weapons and armor. So, instead, I’ve just been spending my time maintaining what we’ve already got for posterity. But, truth be told, it always filled my heart with pride to see a dragon wearing one of my custom-made suits for them. After all, if you’re going into battle, one has to look their best bringing ruin upon their foes.”

“That sounds like something Rarity would say,” commented Spike. “Uh, well almost.”

“So, care to try anything on?” Hammerhead asked Spike.

“Try on?” he replied. “You mean armor? Am I even allowed to?”

“Heheh, aren’t you a curious one,” he chuckled. “Most little dragons can’t wait till they are old enough to be fitted into their first set of armor. And I’d say it’s probably been some time since you’ve molted.”

“What does molting have to do with it?” wondered Spike.

“When you molt you aren’t considered a baby dragon anymore, of course,” Hammerhead answered. “That’s how we’ve always done it. So, how about that fitting? I’m sure I can find a suit of armor that isn’t being used by any other dragons at the moment.”

“That would be pretty cool,” admitted Spike, unable to help fantasizing himself clad in armor and ready to rescue the faire damsel, Rarity, from distress. “Let’s see what you got.”

“Shouldn’t take more than a moment,” he answered as he inspected the numerous armor hanging upon the wall, flying up and down as he look over the smaller suits, picking them up to get a closer look before putting them back down and checking another. The two small dragons watched him for a bit till he let out a big, “Aha!” and flew back to them with a dingy, greenish brown, suit of armor in his clutches. “This one needs some polishing and a fair bit of rust removed from the outside, but the inside still looks to be in fine shape. Just leave it to me and I should get it shining like new by tomorrow. Right now, let’s see how it fits. Here’s the helmet for starters.”

“It looks about the right size,” noted the purple dragon as he tried it on and found that while it looked dingy and smelled of a mix of rust and dragon perspiration, it actually fit him well.

“The helmet is good. Now for the front and back plating. You’ll need to take off your backpack while we do this,” he told Spike. Nodding, Spike removed he backpack and leaned it against the wall before waddling back over to Hammerhead. The big dragon then helped equip front and back plates of armor onto the young dragon, showing him how to adjust the straps on the sides to lock the pieces together against his front, sides, and back. “Hmm, a tad small, but I can loosen that up easy. Next the gauntlets and the leg guards.”

Being given them, Spike slipped them onto the corresponding appendage and tightened their straps. “I think these need to be adjusted a bit bigger too,” he told the smith. “But other than that it looks good. It’s also surprisingly lighter than I thought it’d be.”

“Naturally, it’s meant mostly as training armor,” he explained. “If it were too much heavier it’d be hard for you to move and fly in it. Still, it’ll protect you plenty. In fact, how about we put it to the test?” Looking around, he grabbed a staff with a weight on both ends of it. He handed it over to Spark who struggled a bit with the weight.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he groaned and struggled to hold onto the heavy-for-him weapon.

“Just give him a good swing,” chuckled the dragon. “Let’s test to see how sturdy the armor is.”

“But what if it isn’t,” worried Spark. “I don’t wanna hurt Spike.”

“He’ll be fine,” Hammerhead assured him. “Younger siblings would always help the older ones test their armor in this way.”

“Oh, but Spike, he’s not-”

“I’m not frightened of getting hurt one little bit,” Spike answered confidently.

“But, Spike, we’re not,” he tried to say again, but stopped seeing the warm smile Spike gave him. “Bonds can be stronger than blood,” Spark recalled.

“That’s right,” nodded the armored up dragon. “Now, come on, lil bro. Show me what you got!”

“Heheh,” laughed Spark suddenly looking eager to strike at Spike. “Ok, but only cause you asked for it.” With the little might he could muster, Spark hit at Spike’s armor in the front, the impact making the metal vibrate, but it didn’t harm Spike in the least.

“Didn’t hurt a bit,” smiled Spike as he turned his body a bit. “Wanna try again, lil bro?”

“Uh, huh, you bet, big bro!” nodded Spark.

“Those two must have rocks for brains,” grumbled Garble as he entered into the dragon armory. “They’re spending all my gems eating and they let those two get away from them. I guess if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself.” Despite his words, Garble remained cautious to remain out of sight and slowly ventured forward. Looking ahead, he could see Spike getting fitted for his army and then saw as Spark swung the weighted staff at him. Watching that did improve the teen dragon’s mood for a moment, but it quickly soured as he heard Spark call Spike ‘big bro’ and almost lost it then and there.

“That little twerp!” he raged internally as he watched them test out the durability of the armor. He watched as Spark strike the side of Spike’s helmet. It didn’t hurt Spike, but it did causing a ringing in his ears and the vibrations made his teeth chatter and his face wobble. Spark burst out laughing at the sight of it and as soon as Spike stopped shaking, he started to laugh too.

Every laugh that came out of their mouths only served to stoke Garble’s rage. He wanted to do something, anything to get in their way and then he saw it, Spike’s backpack nearby and unguarded. Quietly, he approached while Spike was busy helping Spark up after he had laughed so hard he was in tears and rolling on the ground.

“Heh, are you having fun at the festival or just enjoy beating me up?” chuckled Spike.

“This is the best day I’ve had in ages,” panted Spark as he tried wiping the tears off his face.

“Well, we’re not done having fun yet,” Spike reminded him. “We’re going to the arena next.”

“Heheh, your armor needs a bit of an adjustment, but it should be fine if you want to try it out in a sparring match,” said Hammerhead. “I’m sure we can find another dragon in your weight class to go up against.”

“A match?” asked Spike.

“Yeah, two dragons step into the arena and battle it out,” he explained. “The first to get the other out of bounds or to admit defeat is the winner.”

“Uh, thanks, but no thanks,” Spike declined. “Dragon charades is more of my speed when it comes to competing.”

“Heh, mine too,” the smith dragon agreed. “But if you change your mind I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Yeah, I doubt- hey, my backpack,” Spike cried when he turned to grab it and saw it wasn’t against the wall where he left it. Immediately, Spark and Hammerhead looked to see it was indeed gone.

“Where did it go?” cried Spark as looked around frantically.

“Someone must have taken it,” figured Spike as he rushed toward the entrance of the cave, certain that’s where the thief would run off to. Sure enough, he spotted it just as he saw a dragon take to the sky with it.

“Spike,” the small, yellow dragon called out to him as he chased after Spike. “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry!” Spike yelled back as he reached the mouth of the cave. “Just stay with Hammerhead and I’ll be right back!”

Taking to the sky, Spike flew after his backpack. Out in the open, it was easy for him to see it was Garble who had taken his backpack and that only upset him further. “Why am I not surprised?” he groaned as he kept on giving chase. He was so fixated on his pursuit of Gable that he didn’t even notice as Smoulder flew by in a chase of her own with her friends.

Eventually, Garble ended the chase himself and landed on the ground. Spike landed right after, panting, a bit winded from the chase. “I see you finally molted,” commented Garble as he spoke to Spike for the first time since he arrived in the Dragonlands. “Does that mean your pony pals finally kicked you out?”

“No,” Spike shook his head. “They wouldn’t let something like fire burps and a weird smell keep us apart.”

“You’re so frustrating,” grumbled Garble. “You can’t even molt right. The second I started breaking out my dad threw me out of the cave so I’d be able to toughen up and I did.”

“Toughen up enough to swipe my stuff when I’m not looking,” Spike pointed out, not impressed.

“I did what I had to do back then to survive and I did what needed to be done now, as well,” admitted Garble as he helped himself to the gems Spike had brought with him.

“Hey! Those are mine!” snapped Spike, but Garble just stuffed a clawful in his maw to munch and swallow with a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

“I just gave my friends every last gem I had to ruin your day,” he retorted like that somehow justified taking Spike’s. He tossed Spike’s backpack back over to him, not interested in the rest of the stuff Spike had in there. “So, I’m taking yours. Got a problem with that?”

Spike went to check on the glass star Spike had made for Twilight and much to his sadness, it was broken. “You broke it,” Spike said upset as he held up the shards.

“Big deal,” he scoffed uncaringly. “It’s just glass.”

“Ugh! What is your problem with me!?!” cried Spike. “I understand things haven’t gone well between us in the past, but can’t we at least call a truce for the festival? If you ruin my time then you’re going to ruin Spark’s time too. Don’t you care about anyone other than yourself?”

“No! You don’t understand!” snapped Garble as he dropped the bag of gems and stomped over to Spike. “My life was going great till you showed up. I was the biggest, baddest dragon around. I was tougher and stronger than anyone. All the little kids looked up to me and wanted to be just like me when they grew up.” Calming down a bit, Garble looked away as his voice started to sound glum. “Now… now they all want to be like you… even my kid brother… Spark.” Looking in Spike’s eyes, he didn’t seem as shocked as he expected him to be. “You knew?”

“Not entirely,” admitted Spike. “But I had a feeling after seeing what his father was like and learning he had an older brother. Then your friends showing up just to get in our way without you and then you sneaking off with my backpack pretty much convinced me.”

“Big deal,” he scoffed at Spike’s deductions. “Just go back to having fun with my- no, wait, he’s your brother now, isn’t he?”

“He’s still your brother, no matter how much of a jerk you are,” Spike told him. “And I’m sure he’d be even happier if you were there with him, as well. He said so when I went over to pick him up.” Managing a smile to his nemesis, Spike offered him a claw in friendship. “So, what do you say we get along, at least for today? For your brother?” Looking at Spike’s hand, he slowly reached for it, actually looking sincere for a moment, but merely swatted the offer of friendship away and flew off. “Garble!”

“Forget it!” snapped the stubborn dragon. “You are the last creature, dragon or otherwise, I want trying to help me!”

Refusing to give up, Spike flew after him once more.

Author's Note:

Next time: Razing Garble

Comments

[Scyphi]

“Younger siblings would always help the older ones test their armor in this way.”

“Oh, but Spike, he’s not-”

“I’m not frightened of getting hurt one little bit,” Spike answered confidently.

“But, Spike, we’re not,” he tried to say again, but stopped seeing the warm smile Spike gave him. “Bonds can be stronger than blood,” Spark recalled.

“That’s right,” nodded the armored up dragon. “Now, come on, lil bro. Show me what you got!”

Uh oh. I think I see where this is going...

[Drag Orion]

9390710
Spike is only trying to be nice and help give his new friend an enjoyable day. Surely nothing bad can come from such good intentions.

[Scyphi]

9390758
Oh, I know. It's not Spike that's the problem, obviously.