Spike's Greatest Endeavor

by Troyjan

Surprise Visit

Spike had a rather eventful start to his day, being woken up early by one of the castle’s guards, who instructed him to go to the castle’s main hall immediately. Spike hastily made his way out of his quarters and up the stairs to the ground level, where he saw Princess Twilight Sparkle sitting on the royal throne, with castle guards standing on either side of her along the walls. Kneeling before Twilight was a slim, long-winged dragon, with a scroll clutched in his claws. The dragon was a messenger from the Dragon Lands, sent by Dragon Lord Ember. With Spike now present, the messenger read the written message aloud. According to the messenger, there was apparently an alarming threat for a very sudden uprising within the Dragon Lands, and Dragon Lord Ember had requested “diplomatic aid” from Equestria. Upon hearing the news, Princes Twilight Sparkle decided that Spike alone was fit to resolve the conflict. After Spike had given a reluctant affirmation, Twilight teleported Spike and the messenger to the North-East boarder of Equestria. From there, Spike flew after the other dragon, who quickly guided him into Lord Ember’s fortress. After Spike had met and greeted with Ember, she immediately briefed Spike on the conflict.

Only a few years prior, Ember, daughter of the now former Dragon Lord Torch, had been declared as the new Dragon Lord, upon winning a competition to obtain the Bloodstone Scepter. However, stories had quickly spread which claimed that Ember had only won the competition with the assistance from ponies and another younger dragon. Some dragons had claimed they had witnessed Ember talking to ponies before and even during the conflict, with a few of them claiming that the other dragon had allegedly reached the Blood Scepter first and handed it to Ember in secret. While there was no evidence to verify any rumors that the Equestrians had rigged the competition, they did spread significant doubt about the legitimacy of Ember’s title as Dragon Lord. It also didn’t help ease Ember’s conscious that she knew that were in fact hints of truth in the otherwise outrageous accusations.

Despite doubts of the legitimacy of Ember’s title of Dragon Lord, were the undeniabilities of her physical stature. Ember was exceptionally young very for a Dragon Lord, and therefore, was still particularly small. While Ember had proven to be an intelligent, vigilant, merciful, and fair leader to many of her fellow dragons, others would still see her as weak and exploitable. The divides between Ember and her opposers slowly grew as she made decisions to further strengthen the Dragon Land’s relations with Equestria. When others had expressed concern and greats distain with just the idea of trading and allying themselves with ponies, Ember would refuse to negotiate with them, claiming that her decisions “were for the best.” Over time, some dragons had begun to seriously question Ember’s leadership.

Then, just yesterday, several older dragons had felt that they had had enough, and decided that they would get their way by force. Multiple clans and other groups had formed together into a sizable resistance force. Together, they openly defied Dragon Lord Ember’s authority with acts, and further threats of violence. While the resistance group was led by a few older dragons, the majority of them were extremely young, with many who had not even developed their wings yet. The unofficial leaders of this resistance claimed that they would forcefully remove Ember from power and put one of their own in charge. After which, they expressed their plans to conquer the entirety of Yakyakaistan, and then seize regions of Northern Equestria.

However, the resistance group lacked any kind of structure and was extremely disorganized. The only thing that was uniting the rebelling dragons at all was their distain from Dragon Lord Ember. In such a messy state, the group posed no direct threat to Ember and her loyal subordinates, let alone had any hope of lasting through an all-out war on their own. But the rebel group had still proven to be problematic. After an entire day, there was still great unrest among the Dragon Lands, as the rebelling dragons continued to assault and pillage whoever they pleased. Ember could have easily stamped the resistance out by force if she had to with her own faithful followers, but she didn’t want to inflict her wrath towards the fellow dragons she was supposed to be leading. Especially so, when considering that the resistance group mainly consisted of young and misguided dragons who were being ordered around by their elders. On the other end of the matter, Ember had to put a stop to the matter soon before any more innocent dragons were hurt.

While Dragon Lord Ember had hoped that Princess Twilight Sparkle would offer her aid, she was still more than glad that at least Spike was available to help. Once informed, Spike conversed back and forth with Ember, deciding what their next move should be. After further discussion with Spike, along with several other trusted dragons, Ember came up with her plan to end the ongoing rebellion.

In practice, things did not go according to the plan. Confronting, and communicating with the resistance proved to be rather difficult. They made it clear that they wanted no outsiders to so much as step into their illegitimately claimed territory. Many of the dragons proved to be hostile, and had absolutely no intention of negotiating.

Spike tried to step up and offer his voice, but that only seemed to make matters worse. Some of the older dragons had recognized Spike. They recalled that he had in fact been hatched and raised entirely by ponies in Equestria, and that the ponies had made him one of their ambassadors. Upon that information spreading, Spike was immediately singled out by several dragons, who called him, “a puppet of the Pony Princess,” and even “a pony pet” for his upbringing. Admis the chaos, Spike got himself surrounded, severely beaten, and then physically restrained. Once powerless to fight back, the resistance held Spike as a hostage, with some dragons threatening to badly hurt him.

It wasn’t until a dragon named Garble chose to stand up alongside Dragon Lord Ember, did things a turn for the better. Being rather popular amongst most dragons and well known for his physical strength, Garble’s presence alone spoke volumes. Whether out of respect, fear, or uncertainty, many of the rebelling dragons were willing to at least hear what he had to say. Garble made himself clear how he, despite personally loathing Ember personally, thought that she was a strong leader, and how Ember was worthy of her title of Dragon Lord. Immediately, Garble’s words had convinced some of the dragons to stand down, and to stop fighting. Feeling bolder, Garble stepped forward, and began to scrutinize the dragons who had hurt their own kind to get their way by force, and threatened to personally condemn their behavior. While all the older dragons were unphased, many of the others were either terrified or having second thoughts about their rebellion. Taking their chance, Ember and her remaining allies surrounded the rebel group, and held them under siege. Now with significantly fewer members, and dwindling moral among most remaining members, the resistance quickly fell apart, ending any chance of their uprising. Those who had chosen to defect from their cause and to cooperate with Lord Ember, were excused with minimal consequence. Those who had incited and drove the incident were severely punished. Ironically, it was Garble, the same dragon who Ember had once utterly despised, and the one who had repeatedly picked on Spike in the past, who proved to be the one most responsible for the swift resolution of the conflict. All without a single life lost.

After ascertaining the damages and taking care of the finer details, Ember thanked Spike for his efforts, and promised to one day return the favor. Spike, who was just happy to put the day behind him, gladly accepted the notion. It was safe to say that Spike was more than exhausted upon his departure from the dragon lands. While he had not intended on doing any of the fighting, he ended up with several bruises, scratches, and small bite marks along his entire body. Far too weary to fly all back home, Spike made his was way to the nearest train station, purchased a ticket with the few bits had had brought with him, and rode the train back into Canterlot.

It was late in the afternoon when Spike finally walked through the main gate of the castle. Before Spike had departed the Dragon Lands, he wrote a message using some parchment that Ember had given him, and magically transported his letter to Twilight. Spike’s letter detailed where he was and what had happened back in the Dragon Lands. But that wouldn’t be the end of it. There would be much more that Twilight would need to discuss with him about the whole ordeal once they had the chance.

After everything Spike had gone through that day, his official royal duties were one of the last things he wanted to deal with. But not wanting to do them was no excuse to not do them. Reluctantly, Spike made his way through the castle, towards Twilight’s office, where she Twilight usually was at this time of day. Several guards and other onlooking ponies made questioning glances towards Spike as they observed the injuries on his body. At last, Spike made it past the last set of guards between the castle halls, and Twilight’s royal office.

“Twilight, I’m back,” called out Spike, upon entering.

Twilight continued writing on a particular scroll on her desk for another moment, before stopping and looking up. “Welcome back Spike. I read your letter. It seems to me that you had quite the adventure today,” said Twilight, eyeing all the marks visible on Spike’s body.

“Tell me about,” said Spike tiredly. “Those brutes held me hostage and threatened to tear off my scales until Ember met all of their demands.”

“I know that you probably want to go rest right now Spike, but you currently have a visitor who was been waiting a while to see you.”

“Who is it?,” asked Spike.

“Oh, there you Spike. I was wondering when would arrive,” called out a familiar, and friendly voice, accompanied by dainty hove steps. Spike immediately turned and looked towards the mare who had just walked into the office from an adjacent room.

“RARITY!,” Spike exclaimed, standing up straight in attention. “I- I wasn’t expecting to see you. What brings you here on this fine day?” asked Spike, trying his best to sound calm.

“It’s certainly been a while since I last heard from you, and I wanted to know what you’ve been up to all this time. Although, by the looks of things, it seems that I picked a bad day to drop by,” said Rarity. She took another look at Spike, and then gasped. “By the heavens, are those teeth marks?!”

“Oh this, another dragon bit me while I was in the Dragon Lands earlier today.”

“For whatever reason would another dragon have to do such a thing?”

“Some dragons had formed a rebellion against Dragon Lord Ember, and I was sent to there to help her stop it. To make a long story short, I got into some trouble, and got these bite marks.”

“Those brutish savages! How dare they harm a single scale on your pure, innocent self! Something must be done about this!,” yelled Rarity.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Ember has already taken care of the dragons who did this to me.”

“Never mind them Spike, you’re hurt. And you traveled all the way from the Dragon Lands, as you are now? You need to be fixed up immediately!”

“Really Rarity, I’m going to be fine. My scales are a lot tougher than most ponies think. I’ve survived far worse than this before.”

“Spike, I’m sorry, but this simply won’t do. You’re coming with me. You need to be treated immediately,” said Rarity assertively.

“But Rarity, I’m still on duty. I have work to do.”

“Actually, about that,” interrupted Twilight. “Spike, I can tell that you worked hard and endured a lot today. The very least I can do is permit you to be treated.”

“But Twilight, what about all that budgeting work that you wanted me to complete? Didn’t you say that you needed that done today?”

“Already taken care of,” said Rarity.

“That’s right,” affirmed Twilight. “Rarity has been with me for hours. She already helped me settle on a plan of our national spending budget, and helped me complete many other tasks. Spike, you’re free to take the rest of the day off. I know you earned it.”

“Thanks Twilight,” said Spike, before turning back towards Rarity. “Did you really do all that while you were waiting for me, Rarity?”

“Yes, and I’ll explain later. For now…,” said Rarity, as her horn began glowing the blue light color of her magic. Spike noticed the same blue light surround him, before being swept up into the air. “…you need a thorough cleaning.” And with that, Rarity took off with the Spike levitating behind her, without another objection from him.