Keeper of the Forest

by ShowShine

Fixing the den

Spike landed in front of the weather factory. He walked inside to see pegasi working on various things like lightning bolts and making sure the raindrops were purified. Spike looked around until he found the boss. He saw a purple pegasus with yellow hair and a sun behind a cloud for a cutiemark, checking over a clipboard. He walked over and tugged on her tail, causing her to turn around. She had a name tag attached to her shirt labeled ‘Stormy Cloud.’

“What can I do for you sweetheart?” She asked in a sweet voice.

“Do you have any spare rain clouds that I can have?” Spike asked. Stormy Cloud tilted her head in confusion.

“Now what do you need rain clouds for?” Stormy Cloud asked. Spike tensed up.

“I need them for...my garden! It’s really big.” Spike said with a forced smile. Stormy Cloud nodded her head and gestured for Spike to follow her. They made there way to a large door.

“This is where we keep the defective clouds. They’re just not fluffy enough and have a tendency to leak. We usually just destroy them and start over.” Stormy Cloud said, revealing at least a hundred clouds. Spike smiled.

“How many do you need?” She asked.

“I’ll take all of them!” Spike exclaimed. Stormy Cloud gave a look of surprise.

“Do you want me to fill them up with water?” She asked.

“Yes please.” Spike said with a smile. Stormy Cloud smiled and tied the clouds together with rope, going off to fill them with water. Spike followed her to the place where they filled the clouds up. He watched the clouds get heavy as they got filled up. Once they were heavy and dark, Stormy Cloud handed him the rope.

“Here you go.” She said. Spike pulled the rope, making the clouds drag behind him like a balloon.

“Thank you, have a nice day!” Spike said as he left the weather factory. The clouds dripped water as he flew. Ponies looked up as the sun got blocked out by a string dark clouds. A camera flashed as a reporter took a picture.

When Spike saw the Everfree Forest, he sped up. He flew into the forest and hovered over the phoenix den. Peewees eyes lit up when he saw the clouds. Spike positioned the clouds over the ditch and kicked one of them. It crackled with lightning, causing all of the clouds to rain into the ditch. The ditch rapidly filled up and some water, some spilling out.

Once it stopped raining, all of the phoenixs rushed over and began drinking. Some even jumped in. Spike looked over to the dying berry bushes. He slipped his bag on his back.

“I’ll be back, make sure none of them get hurt.” Spike said to Buddy before flying off.

---

Spike walked into a hardware store. He walked all the way to the back to see bushes, from blueberries to gooseberries.

“Would you like to purchase a bush?” A stallions voice said from behind him.
Spike turned around to see a brown earth pony with grey hair and a goatee.

“Yes please.” Spike said.

“Which one would you like?” He asked. Spike looked at the various bushes. He would need a lot of bushes to feed all of those birds.

“I’ll take two of each.” Spike said. The stallion gave him a look of shock. There had to be at least fifty bushes. The stallion nodded his head and walked away. After a few minutes, he came back with 15 carts. The stallion started to put three bushes in each cart. The stallion brought them to the counter so he could pay. On his way to the counter, Spike spotted a shovel from the side of his eye. There was no way he could plant the bushes without a shovel. He picked up the shovel and placed it on the counter. A purple mare wearing glasses pressed a few buttons on the cash register.

“That’ll be 105 bits.” The mare said. Spike dug in his bag and pulled out his container of gems. He dumped the gems on the counter. The mare gaped at them. That many gems could keep the store in business for years.

“Keep the change.” Spike said before walking out with the shovel and the bushes.

---

Spike arrived at the phoenix den to see many of them were laying there, bellies filled with water but nothing else. Spike picked up the shovel and dig into the roots of a bush. He pushed the shovel, causing the bush to up root. He pulled it to the side and placed a bush in the hole. He buried it and went to the next bush.

Once he finished, the phoenixs rushed over to the bushes and started to gobble the berries up. Peewee rubbed Spikes hand in gratitude before flying over to the bush. He looked over to the dead bushes. He turned his head to Buddy.

“Wasn’t Beatrices nest build out of dead roots?”

---

“Beatrice we’re back!” Spike exclaimed. A few cockatrices got up and hissed at him, ready to attack. For some reason, Spike didn’t feel any fear.

Buddy let out a growl, ready to attack. Spike put his hand in front of Buddy’s chest, causing him to take a few steps back. The cockatrices took slow steps towards them, trying to turn them into stone. Buddy let out yelps and whimpers as his legs turned to stone. Spikes legs started to stiffen as they started to turn to stone.

Spike tossed one of the bushes in front of the cockatrices, causing them to jump back. They stared at the bush and went to pick at it. Spike pulled the bush back.

“You can have all of these bushes if you turn us back to normal.” Spike said sternly. The cockatrices nodded there head and Spike started to feel his legs again. He moved out of the way and let the cockatrices pick from the bushes. He looked at the carts and shrugged his shoulders.

“I can just leave them here, it won’t harm anybody.” Spike said. He looked up to the sky to see the sun was setting. He turned to Buddy and pet the side of his heads.

“Bye Buddy, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Spike said as he walked away. Buddy limped in a different directection, disappearing into the forest.

---

Spike looked through the library, pulling out a few books.

“I thought you were going to bed.” Twilght said. Spike looked at her, holding onto a few books.

“I’m just gonna do a little reading before bed.” Spike said as he flew out of the library. He flew into his room and closed the door behind him before tossing the books on his bed. Twilight would never approve of this book abuse. Spike grabbed a journal and a quill. He flopped down on his bed and flipped open one of the books.

“If I’m going to be taking care of these animals, I need to learn about them.” Spike said to himself. The first page of the book was about timberwolves.

”Timberwolves are highly dangerous animals that are apart of the dog family. They have sharp teeth that can rip through flesh and eyes that can help them see in the dark.

They can go months without eating, which is how they survive through the winter without any other creature. They can easily break any of their body parts and replace them with sticks, leaves, and mud. They will eat anything that they can get. Their diets contain of mostly meat.

Timberwolf cubs can be easily mistaken for hairless puppies, due to there sticks looking like skin. By the time they hit their first growth spurt, there sticks loosen, making them look like adult timberwolves.”
Next to the text, there was a diagram of a timberwolf.

Spike wrote down the important parts before he felt his eyes droop. He had done a lot of work that day and it really tired him out.

Spike closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Comments

[The Lurker]

More please. I'm very much enjoying this so far.

[evening]

I'm really enjoying this!! Can't wait to see more!

[Dopple_Gamma]

Cant wait for more

[The Pyropath]

I don't recall dragons having the ability to manipulate weather like the Pegasi, and I really don't think Spike would be able to pull five carts on his own, especially as an adolescent dragon that just got their wings, but I guess I could see it as the Stone of Amity giving him the power to do so. I also wonder if the Everfree Forest would reject the bushes since they're cultivated by ponies, and I wonder if the clouds produced by the Weather Factory would go haywire because of the ambient Chaos magic that makes the Everfree such a dangerous place.

I like the concept, but there are things here going against what we've been shown from the show, and Spike's acting as if his personality's been switched with Fluttershy. The latter could be explained by the Stone of Amity affecting him on a deep level, but said stone would be doing a lot of convenient things out of nowhere when Spike's been living at Ponyville for at least a couple years now. His kindness towards a timberwolf in particular is strange considering his personal experience with them during that one episode with Applejack.

Maybe I'll give it another chance later, but for now...I've been kind of turned off. I'm worried Spike's becoming a Gary Stu here, and his apparent change in personality doesn't help.