Chapter 0
It was another bright and sunny morning in the quaint town of ponyville, the trees were flowing in the gentle summer breeze, the birds chirped happily as they flew on their merry way, and the young boys and girls were returning to their classes from the wonderful release of summer vacation. It would be obvious to say that most of the students weren’t happy to be going back to class, like the young skinny lad in a black tee and camouflage shorts, walking with a girl about a year older than him in light purple dress who was excited to go back to class.
“Seriously! Why can’t we go to a private school!” The boy asked
“Because, Spike, Celestia told us that we need to have proper social interactions with the common people, not just the rich snobs we would go to in her private schools. I keep telling you this every semester.”
“At least in her private schools I wouldn't get bullied so much.”
“There are bullies no matter where you go, even at the gifted schools.”
“We don't know that, we never go there! I don't even know why she took you in as a pupil after you aced the school's entrance exam, just to have you go to a public school.”
“Simple, because she wants us to learn proper social interaction and the only way to do that is with normal people our ages. Now come on, we're going to be late!”
“I'll catch up with you,” he reluctantly said as he noticed his usual bullies eyeing him, just as they do every school day.
“Hey there pipsqueek. Your mommy left you all alone again?”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Darrek.”
“What’s that, you little dupshit?” One of his cronies replied.
“No, no. He’s right. We shouldn’t beat around the bush.” And just as every other day they meet, a punch lands straight into Spike’s gut, sending him crouching on the ground if it weren’t for the other two holding his arms back as Derrek continued his assault. He continues his beating until he gets bored, signaling the other two to search his stuff for anything of value, always finding a few bits of change. They once again throw him violently to the other side of the sidewalk and went on their merry way.
Spike wasn’t pissed about this anymore, how could he be? It’s been the same thing for over five years, nearly each and every day. He just picked himself up, brushed himself off, checking to see if there were any bruises, which there never was anymore, and finally, make sure they didn’t find his real money, stashed secretly away from any prying eyes from ever finding. He made his way to the main school building and rechecked what homeroom he needed to go to.
It wasn’t often that anyone got a class change over the summer, but it’s still common practice to make sure they go to their home room and get their ‘new’ schedules, Spike, of course, had the same classes as last semester and the day was the same as always that year, first was Mathematics, Algebra 2 to be specific, then it was English, then Chemistry, all without a single student that was willing to talk with him, let alone make friends with him. But, at least he had friends with his “sister” ’s friends when they all sat together at lunch.
“...And then I said, ‘Oatmeal? Are you crazy?’”
“Pinkie, I think I’m talkin for all of us when I say that we have no idea what you’re talkin ‘bout.” A well tanned, muscular, agriculturally dressed girl with golden hair said as she bit into an apple, gazing into the eyes of a bubbly, pleasantly plump, and overall pink girl just finishing her story.
“Oh, I most certainly agree, Applejack.” A rather uptight woman remarked, flipping her perfectly styled hair out of her eyes to properly show off her well made-up face. “I honestly lost track of the story when you said the lizard king outlawed turnips...”
“No! It was rutabagas! He outlawed rutabagas after his wife...”
“Pinkie. We don’t care. I mean, if you were talking about the Wonderbolts, then I’d care, but you’re not.” The really tomboyish girl with the rainbow dyed hair said, “do you care, Fluttershy?”
“Um...” The last of his “sister” ’s friends replied, she was the most timid of the bunch, always hiding behind her long hair, wearing her bright yellow dress that screamed innocence. “Please don’t bring me into this, Dash.”
“Just tell us if you’re interested in Pinkie’s story or not.”
“I’m... um... I’m sorry, I was trying to... but I lost track... I’m so sorry, Pinkie.”
“Oh, it’s ok, Shy. I know you didn’t mean to dose off of one of my stories. But what about you Twilight?”
“Hu? What about me?”
“Psh. She doesn’t even know, she had her head buried in that book since she sat down. I don’t even think she noticed when her own brother sat next to her.” Rainbow said, quite rudely if I might add.
“I doubt she’d notice a house fire until it touched one of her books.” The boy said half jokingly.
“Spike! Of course I’d notice something like that!”
“He didn’t mean it literally. He was just joking.”
“Yeah, and just for that, I think he’s going to be doing a lot more chores around the house.”
“What! But Twi...”
“Pff...” She couldn’t help but laugh at the boy’s reaction, it was priceless. “I’m just kidding, Spike. I know how hard you’ve been working lately, and I was actually thinking of giving you some free time today.”
“Really?”
“Of course, you deserve a little time off for yourself.”
“Wow! Thanks Twi!” The boy happily said as he finished his lunch.
The bell rang and off he went to the rest of his day; Modern World Studies, French, Soccer, though the only thing they did was have free play in the gym, and finally Psychology before returning home, doing his chores, falling asleep, and doing it all over again in the morning. At least that’s what normally happens.
The bullies never beat him on his way home anymore, mostly because they were just the ‘give me your lunch money’ kind of bullies, but also because he and Twilight have their last classes right next to each other and left to walk home together.
At their ‘house’, it was just the same as always, a big library. It wasn’t a description either, when they moved to the town, they were placed as the caretakers of the library, even though the only ‘work’ Twilight seems to do is read all the books and sort them once every few months. It was Spike’s job to clean the shelves, check the books in and out, sort them into the right spots, scrub the floors, cook the food, do the laundry, make the beds, and basically run the entire library in every way but on paper. But today was different, he was given some time off for a change, something he doesn’t get to have every day, and he was going to take advantage of it.
He went out to take a good, long walk in the woods, burning off the anger that dwelled inside of him and threatened to burst nearly every day. Though he didn’t just run out into the forest screaming, he took it out by talking as he walked, he talked about his family, how Twilight isn’t his real sister, how Celestia, the Queen of the largest country in the world, is his mother, how she dumped him on Twilight, her best student, just so he can learn to be a regular person, like he believed that bull crap. He talked about the people around him, the bullies that constantly mocked him, robbed from him, and beat him up, as well as the classmates that seem to purposefully ignore him and the only friends he has are the friends his so called sister hangs out with at lunch. He was sick of it.
After a good, long walk in the forest, far enough that nobody will hear, he started thrashing, punching, gnawing, and kicking at everything he could imagine to be in his way. That was until a very loud crunching and scraping sound pierced his ears, almost like the sound a bear would make if it furiously attacked a tree with its mightiest blow. He slowly opened his eyes to see the very thing he imagined, a large gash in one of the trees, but unlike in his imagination, the tree was the one right in front of him, and the slashes looked like they came from him.
He couldn’t believe it, there’s no way he could’ve... and that’s when he saw him arm. His arm wasn’t that of his normal self, no. It was like that of a lizard, but much thicker and stronger, with claws sharpened like blades, but he didn’t get a chance to look at them for very long before it shrank back to his normal arm.
He had no idea what to think, he had just done something that he couldn’t believe. He was in awe. He wanted to do it again.