> The Cryssaling pt 2
>  by storm the castle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Dragons and friends and jobs, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 1 Dragons and friends and jobs, oh my!
Spike sat in the library, entertaining guests (the CMC) for the first time since his chryssaling. The chryssaling had been a bit of a painful blur for him, but when he woke up, he had grown nearly half his old length longer, his scales had a dull glow to them, his spines had tapered and he now had wings. In short, it had been a hell of a week for him.
In fact, it had been a hell of a week for every pony in Ponyville, as while he had been in his chryssaling he had been too dangerous to keep in town, causing Princess Luna, his overseer for the event, to have to take him outside of town to a remote cave in the nearby rock quarry. When it was noticed he had been gone, the town began to go crazy with rumors about the cause, even getting to the point where a particular reporter began to ask about his funeral arrangements. Spike hadn’t had any idea he had been such a fixture in the town that after a mere few days of no-pony seeing him they all immediately assumed the worst.
It had been somewhat endearing when he had first heard about it, but now that every-pony and their frickin’ grandmother was coming by to ask him if he was alright, (or if he needed help, to blink twice) he was really getting annoyed. And on top of that, Princess Luna had confined him and Twilight to the library for another week on assignment, to learn all she could offer about dragons.
Now, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders over to play, he was walking them through some of his heritage that was depicted on the graphs and diagrams that littered the library walls. “So,” he told the group, “a dragons’ nest is called a ‘den’ until he finds a mate. After that, it becomes a ‘grotto’ then when they lay some eggs, it’s called a ‘clutch.’ Any more questions?”
“Yeah.” Said Scootalloo, who had obviously not paid any attention. (Who could blame her? There was a significant lack of Rainbow Dash in these graphs.), “What does that one mean?” she pointed to a graph depicting a cartoon-y dragon lifting a boulder.
“Oh,” said Spike, a little proud of this one, “that one means that I am super strong now, since I have a hoard to protect.”
“Really?” squeaked Sweetie Belle. (Squeakie Belle; it was gonna be a thing, Spike could feel it.) “But I thought Twilight doesn’t let you hoard gems, on account of you nearly destroying the town last time.”
“Yeah, and ah don’ see no glitterin’ piles neither.” added a suspicious sounding Apple Bloom.
Spike waved them down, a small smile on his face. “That’s because I don’t have any gem piles. Don’t get me wrong, I still need to eat them in order to make my scales harder, but they’re not what make up my hoard.”
“So, if you don’t need gems, what do you need?” Sweetie Belle was surprisingly interested in the topic. Apparently, not being able to see him for two weeks after being told he was dead had wreaked havoc on the poor fillies nerves, and now she wanted to know what it was all for.
“Well, that’s the interesting thing.” Said Spike. “I hoard my friends; the more friends I have, the more I want to protect them. Apparently, I’m the first dragon any-pony’s heard of that has something like that.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Scootalloo, the excited pegasus filly hovering a foot off the ground (a new personal best) “That is so cool!” The other crusaders voiced their enthusiasm over the situation as well. “But how do you add ponies to your hoard-of-friendship then?” the orange filly inquired.
“I dunno,” Spike responded, a bit perturbed that the question hadn’t come up before, “so far it’s just me and the girls, since I think I was too mad at Princess Luna when it was happening to include her.” Spike had to think a bit, but barring any concrete evidence to the contrary, he provided the only answer he had at the moment. “I suppose we just gotta wanna be friends with each other.” He finished with a shrug.
“Hey Spike?” Sweetie Belle scooted forward, her tail tucked so far between her legs in embarrassment that her rump had followed it under, a bright blush on her cheeks. “Can we be part of your ‘friend-hoard’ too?” she asked innocently. Immediately, the other crusaders crammed in on either side of her, puppy dog eyes activated automatically.
Not that he would have said no, but that was certainly the straw that broke the camels’ back. “Y-yeah, girls, of course.” He said sheepishly, rubbing his arm and looking away in embarrassment. (didn’t want to get diabetus.) “I’d be happy to be friends with-” all of a sudden, his words were cut off, as his eyes began to glow, much as they had in the cave not two weeks ago, as did his scales. For a moment, he stayed like this, but then suddenly, he breathed out a small jet of flame, made up of three colors; orange, red, and white. The crusaders hunkered down in wonder and fear, though the fear was solely that they had somehow broken Spike. (Twilight would kill them!) But, suddenly as it had started, it was over. Spike returned to his new version of normal, and blearily stumbled a bit before straitening and saying “-you.”
They all just stared at each other for a moment, unsure of whether there was some sort of unwritten law that said you couldn’t be the one to break an awkward silence. Finally, deciding to be a rule breaker, Spike asked “Did something happen that I should know about?”
All at once the Cutie Mark Crusaders tackled Spike in the most adorable dog pile that ever was, nuzzling him affectionately, while apologizing, or saying “That was the coolest thing ever!-well except for Rainbow Dash, but you know what I mean.” After trying and failing to get them to let him go, Spike asked them to explain what had happened.
After a brief, if somewhat exaggerated, retelling, Spike had only one thing to say. “Wow, would you look at that. I was finally right about something.” This set the girls to giggling again and after a brief bout of snuggling, they finally allowed him to rise. “So I guess you are part of my dragon hoard now.” He said, with a touch of embarrassment. “How do you feel?”
“Ah don’t feel no different.” Said Applebloom, looking herself over as if to find a ‘property of spike’ tag somewhere on her body.
“Yeah,” added a likewise checking Scootalloo, “me neither. Maybe Spike’s the only one who really gets anything outta this?”
“Hey!” said Sweetie, thoroughly offended on Spikes behalf. “You don’t need to get anything to be friends!” the other two looked down sheepishly, kicking at imaginary sand with their front hooves. “Besides, if this works like other dragons, I bet Spike’s gonna defend us from getting hurt or picked on!” she said with confidence. Spike felt himself go a bit pale, as he had no desire to follow the girls around on their regularly deadly adventures. Unfortunately, he could find no holes in her logic, as the first thing he had done after his cryssaling was complete was blast the dragon dame that had come to help him to kingdom come when she approached them afterwards. (Twilight still wouldn’t tell him who she was, though he felt Luna might be involved.)
“Seems like solid logic girls,” he said quickly, trying to head off any impending doom kind of situations, “but it might not be the best idea to go out of our way to test it, alright? We don’t know what will happen if my instincts to protect you kick in.” he pictured a gored Diamond Tiara. (And when that made him smile, he pictured himself trying to lift the girls away from some cliff, and that did the trick.)
After a chorus of ‘aww’s, they all grudgingly agreed. Soon enough, though, they began to perk up, and Spike brought them some sandwiches from the fridge. While chowing down,Scootalloo asked “Does this mean we gotta live here now? Cause I gotta get permission from my mom if we do.” Suddenly the idea of being part of a dragons hoard wasn’t so neat to the girls, but the fear was swiftly swept away by Spike chuckling.
“No, none of your sisters live here and their still part of the hoard. Im pretty sure we just gotta hang out every now and then, and it’ll be fine.” They all sighed a bit in relief.
After a bit more silent eating,  Sweetie commented “So, Spike, does all this mean you’re a big boy dragon now?”
Spike chewed the thought over for a bit, (it tasted suspiciously of daffodil sandwich) he shrugged and said “Yeah, I guess so. Luna said I’d have one or two more growth spurts, but now that I’m through the chryssaling, I’m considered mature.” Suddenly another, incredibly pleasant thought struck him. “Maybe mature enough to ask Rarity out.” He said with a lounge and a grin, which lost some of its suave with the daffodils poking out from his teeth.
All three crusaders rolled their eyes, Sweetie’s punctuated with ‘eewww!’ She harrumphed a little bit before continuing her sandwich. Between bites she told him “I wouldn’t count on it. She told some guy who came by the other day to beat it till he could at least pay for dinner. She called him a dead-beat, and told me to never date some boy with no means to support me.” Without knowing it, she had cut Spike off at the knees, and even missed the little shattering sound of his dreams falling apart.
“Aw, don’t worry Spike,” said a sympathetic Applebloom “that just means you gotta find a way to make some bits, that way you can impress her with flowers or somethin’.”
“Hey, you’re right!” said Spike, the proverbial wind back in his sails. “All I gotta do is get a job! I’m old enough for that, now too, after my chryssaling!”
“That’s right!” congratulated Bloom, happy to have helped. All at once she seemed to be struck by the greatest idea in the history of ever, as she started wagging her hooves excitedly. “Ah know!” she exclaimed. “Why don’t you come work with me an’ mah sister on the farm? Big Mac’s sick, and ah bet yer super dragon strength’d help a lot!”
“Now, that sounds like a plan!” Spike told her, now thoroughly enthused over the idea. “Good idea, Applebloom.”
“Good?!” she affected indignation. “It’s, like, the greatest idea in the history of ever!” (told you so.)
> Apples and trees and chairs, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 2 Apple’s and trees and chairs, oh my!
Spike stood at the gates to Sweet Apple Acres, the local farm that was owned by one of his best friends, Applejack, and was prepared to meet his destiny. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out; unfortunately, he had not yet gotten used to how sensitive his fire breath was now, so he ended up setting the fence on fire.
So it was that when Applejack herself came to the gate to greet the dragon, she found him swatting at a smoldering post of her fence. “Sugar-cube, everythin’ all right?” she asked in her usual drawl.
Spike grinned cheesily at her, having finally managed to put the fire out. “Yep! Everything’s fine.” She gave him a hard, flat stare until he finally broke down and said. “I’ll pay for it, I promise.”
She nodded at the promise and her smile returned. “Well, ah’m sure y’all didn’t come all the way here to burn down mah property,” (she wouldn’t actually hold it against him, it was just funny how fidgety he was right now) “so what can I do for yah?”
Spike stared at her incredulity, asking at length “Apple Bloom didn’t tell you I was comin’ by?”
“Can’t say she did.” Aj told him. “Why, what’s up?”
“Uh,” he began, unsure of himself. He hadn’t known there would be an interview! “W-well, I decided that since I’m old enough now, that I could use a job. She said Mac was sick and that you might have some work for me?” it ended as sort of a question. However, Applejack didn’t respond immediately, and instead her eyes had gone wide and she began muttering about ‘the dragon code’ and ‘never again.’ “Aj?” he asked, waving his claw in front of her face, snapping to try and get her attention. “You in there?”
She shook her head to relieve herself of the memories, and said “Ah don’t know, sugar-cube.” She lowered her head, as if to apologize and said in a slightly quieter tone. “You an’ the farm don’t exactly have the best track record, if’n ya catch mah drift.”
Spike could understand her trepidation, remembering himself the minor havoc he had caused last time, and set out to ease her worries. “It’ll be fine this time!” he said. “I won’t be worried about pleasing you so much, and I’ll only do what you ask me to. Please Aj, just give me a chance.”
Still, Applejack couldn’t get the worries from her mind. “Ah don’t know, maybe ya’ll might start with somethin’ a bit more yer speed?”
“Ee-Nope” Said a deep voice behind Aj, a hoarse tone to it now. When they looked to its owner, the pale ghost of what might’ve been Big Mac greeted them. Spike jumped a bit, and skittered away. Mac had his chin practically in the dirt, and he wasn’t wearing his trademark yoke.
“Big Macintosh, what do you think your doin’ outta bed?” demanded his sister with a stomp of her hoof. Big Mac gestured to Spike. Aj sighed and began one of the apple siblings’ famous one-sided conversations. “Applebloom?”
“Eeyup.”
“Told you he was comin’?”
“Eeyup.”
“Needin’ the help?”
“Eeyup.”
“Can’t turn away trustworthy labor?”
“Ee-nope.”
“Willin’ ta give him a shot?”
“Eeyup.”
Applejack sighed, somehow conceding to Mac despite having apparently dominated the conversation. (Teach me your ways, oh mighty Big Mac!) “All right Spike, we’re friends, and ah trust ya. Let’s just give it a try fer now.”
***************************
“All right, Spike, this here’s ‘bout the easiest job on the farm.” Applejack and Apple Bloom stood before Spike in front of the pig pen. Resisting the urge to ask what the pigs were even for in a town of herbivores, he listened intently as they explained his first chore. “All ya gotta do is get them buckets of slop from over there,” she pointed to what could have easily been a pile of garbage, “and pour it into the trough. Simple as pie.” Seeing no way he could screw this up, Spike made his way over to the pile, picked up one of the pales nearby, and filled it with the slop. He could see ‘slop’ consisted of over-ripe fruits and vegetables, as well as a few unidentifiable fluids which nearly made him retch to look at. A few trips back and forth to the pig trough, and he was done.
He watched the pigs chow down on the gross stuff and asked “ugh, how can you eat that stuff?”
One of the older sows looked up from her meal and rolled her eyes. “This coming from the boy who ate muffins filled with worms?” The whole group of pigs began to laugh heartily at his expense, while Spike grumbled about there being nothing wrong with a couple of worms in your diet.
Applejack chuckled a bit, some at the exchange and some in relief that nothing had gone wrong. “Yeah, Spike, ah wouldn’t suggest gettin’ into it with them.” She told him. “Those girls can be right mean when they wanna be.”
“Hey!” said the same sow from before indignantly. “He started it!”
Laughing, the two apples and a dragon left the pig pen behind for his next chore.
***************************
The next thing for them to do was to milk the cows in the barn. (with their permission of course. It was just plain rude to lean under a big girl like that without askin’ first.) This was normally a highlight chore for the Apple family, as the Dairy Fair- as they liked to be called- was usually great for a bit of conversation on a rough day. However, none had counted on the idea that a fanged, flying, fire breathing lizard might not be well received.
“Oh, Celestia! It’s the end of days!”
“I’m too young to die!”
“Ah beg ya, take mah sister first! She’s the fat one on the end!”
“Ya like milk?”
Some were taking it better than others, but the overall consensus was that Spike would not be going inside for the foreseeable future. This general tizzy had poor Spike sitting on his tail, wallowing in his own sadness. Applebloom had scooted up next to him to offer reassurance and friendship, but it did little to improve his mood.
“Oh, shut up, ya durned fillies!” Applejack called into the barn, fed up with trying to calm the Dairy Fair down. She turned apologetically to Spike, even pressing her Stetson to her chest, to say “Ahm right sorry Spike. Looks like some might take a bit more ta’ warm to yer new ‘pearence than others.”
“’S’okay” Said Spike, though it was clearly not. Being treated that way had always been a sore spot for the little whelp, and nothing had changed now that he was a drago.
Applejack sighed, deciding there was nothing for it but to move on. “All right, Spike, if ya say so, Ah won’t press the Issue. Let’s just go to the next job for ya, shall we?” she led him out to the orchard itself, and stopped in front of a tree filled with apples. “Now, this is the part that we really need ya for Spike. With Big Mac outta commission n’ such, we’re short a pair o’ buckin’ legs. Lemme show ya, then you can give it a try with yer new dragon strength n’ all.” With that she promptly turned and lifted her rear legs, and with a short kick to the trunk knocked down all the apples. “Apple Bloom’ll be collectin’ the apple behind us, so you just worry ‘bout hittin’ the tree as hard as ya can.” Spike nodded, and himself turned his hind end to the tree. “Uh, Spike?” Applejack called his attention. “That one’s done. Next one down, if ya don’t mind.”
‘Great,’ thought Spike irritably, ‘that is the perfect way to start.’ He shimmied his way down to the next tree, and when in position, he raised one leg in preparation. He then gave it all the strength he could muster, and kicked out. Unfortunately he had misjudged his position, and ended up hitting nothing but air, ending up flat on his face. Hearing the giggling next to him, he looked up to the siblings, and blushed crimson when he saw both trying to stifle their giggles. “H-hey! Just gimme a bit, alright?” he demanded of them through his embarrassment. “This is my first day, you know!”
“Ah know, Spike, Ah know.” Applejack stifled her laughter. “But seein’ as you’re not a pony, maybe usin’ yer legs aint the way to go?” she suggested.
Spike thought about it for a little bit, and with a nod repositioned himself. He raised his tail this time, getting down on all fours to use all of his strength in the hit. However, he was stopped by Apple Bloom exclaiming “Spike, Yer tail!” unsure of what she was talking about, he looked back, and to his surprise saw something different. His tail appeared to have grown by at least six inches, and the spade like end was now longer and thinner.
“Huh,” he said after it, “musta happened last night, after you girls joined my friend-hoard.” He moved it a bit, and found it more dexterous than it had ever been. “Guess I was too excited about today to notice.” They all shrugged, Applejack not sure what ‘added to the friend-hoard’ meant, but ready to ask about it later.
So, for the fourth time, Spike took position near the tree, closer this time, and again arched his tail for the task at hand. With all of his strength, he swung his tail at the tree, connecting solidly. With a sound not unlike lightning, his tail passing right through the tree in a shower of splinters, its relatively thin trunk no match for the draconic power now leveled at it. Unfortunately, his dragon strength went a tad farther than any-pony had considered, and instead of simply knocking down the apples in the tree, he had knocked down the tree entirely.
Spike skittered away from the remains of the tree in fear, while Applejack and her sister went to examine the damage. “I’m sorry, Aj!” he exclaimed, fearing her retribution. She had challenged an entire herd of buffalo for the tree Bloomberg after all. “It was an accident! I didn’t mean to, I promise!”
She looked to him in shock. “Spike, ah think maybe apple buckin’ might not be yer strong suit.” A nod from Apple Bloom confirmed the statement. “How about you just help her with haulin’ them, kay?”
Spike nodded, somewhat defeated. “Can I at least help you get rid of this?” he gestured to the fallen tree.
Applejack gave a small smile, the shock of watching one of her trees get snapped in half by what had been a baby not too long ago wearing off. “That’d be fine, sugarcube. Ah’ll get the axe, an’ we can cut it up n’ use it fer firewood.”
Spike, however, waved his claws at them. “No, no, I bet I can do it.” He grinned sheepishly. “I did knock it down in the first place right?” the two backed away from the tree, and Spike promptly hopped atop it. Deciding his best course of action was to remove the limbs first, Spike readied his sharpened claws and began to hack away at the downed timber. The wood chips flew as he worked, and soon enough, his new strength and sharpened claws had the tree left bare of its branches. Spike turned to grin at Applejack and Apple Bloom, expecting some sort of awe or praise at his ability.
What greeted him though was a wide-eyed farmer holding her shivering baby sister behind her. Realizing just what had them so scared, Spike sullenly jumped down from the bare tree. “You know what? Maybe you oughta handle it.” He padded a short distance away to wait for instruction.
***************************
After the shock of seeing Spike wail on a tree till it was wood chips had worn off, Applejack once again resumed work mode. She started bucking the apples out of the trees, while Bloom and Spike hauled them away to the barn for storage. But, Spike had not grown accustomed to his new proportions enough to start heavy lifting again, and so while he could easily carry the baskets, he didn’t have the coordination or balance to stay upright, resulting in his tripping often. After a bit, though, he figured out that he could raise his tail or flare his wings in order to gain equilibrium, and so the issue was passed.
After a good two hours of bucking and hauling though, a new problem presented itself. Applejack and Apple Bloom were headed back to the house for a cup or two of iced tea, when a wrinkled green hoof wrapped around their necks and yanked them inside.
Taking a moment to locate the culprit, Applejack noticed Big Mac too had been hauled from bed, but he had been taped to a bench to ensure he wouldn’t escape. “Granny Smith!” Applejack chided. “What in the hayseed has gotten into-” she was cut off, though, by Granny shoving her hoof in Aj’s mouth and using the other to harshly whisper ‘shhhh!’
“Ya’ll need ta keep it down!” she said in fear. “There’s a dragon hangin’ bout the farm!”
Applejack rolled her eyes and removed her grandmother’s hoof from her mouth. “Granny! That’s Spike!” she got a confused look. “Spike! Twilight’s little helper? He’s been here dozens o’ times!”
“What,” asked Granny, “You mean that cute little feller? No way, no how!” she declared. “This one here may be small, ah’ll give ya that, but he’s got wings and he’s been stealin’ apples for hours now!”
Apple Bloom wriggled out from her grandmother’s grasp. “But it is Spike! That’s what he looks like now that he’s done with his cootie attack!”
It took Applejack a moment to remember they had decided to call his chryssaling a bad case of cooties instead of trying to explain puberty to the children. Once she did, though, Applejack nodded her affirmation. “That’s right, and he ain’t stole nuthin’, he’s just helpin round the farm to get a few bits! Spike just grew up, is all, Granny!”
Still, though, the ever stubborn Granny Smith stuck to her guns. “Not into that, he didn’t! I tell ya, this’n looks downright evil!” she gestured to the window, and through it one could see spike hauling in the last basket of apples, his wings out wide. Contrary to Granny Smith’s declaration, however, Spike’s mood hadn’t changed a lick from his previous self, and he was simply waddling along with his tongue out in concentration, a goofy grin forming around it.
“Yep Granny, ah can’t fault ya there.” Applejack told her sarcastically. “That dragon looks downright viscous!” Aj rolled her eyes at the resulting sour look she got from her Grandmother, and then simply walked outside to the porch. “Hey Spike!” she called. “Y’all wanna come here for a tick?”
“Filly have you lost your mind?!” whispered Granny harshly. “Y’all wanna get burned ta death?!”
Woe was Granny, though, as Spike had heard and was cheerily making his way to the house. Once inside he immediately noticed the harsh atmosphere and found it to be radiating from a very ticked looking Granny Smith. He waved at her and smiled, saying “Hello, Granny. Haven’t seen you in a while, huh?”
Granny was having none of it though, since her immediate response was to grab a chair and aim it at Spike like one would while taming a lion, yelling “Back, ya infernal devil lizard! Back!” This was more than Spike could take, apparently, for he immediately slumped over and let his wings and tail fall limp, the very picture of defeat.
Applejack scowled at her grandmother, but to no avail. Seeing a lost cause for what it was, she addressed Spike. “Ahm sorry, sugar-cube; ya gave it yer best, but it doesn’t look like things’re gonna work out for ya here. Not right now at least.”
Spike gave a half-hearted shrug in response, barely looking at the farmer when he told her “’S’okay. It was my first job, so I couldn’t have expected it to work out right off the bat.”
Aj frowned, knowing full well that while he had caused some issues himself, others had been entirely the fault of others. “Ah can give ya a few bits fer the trouble, I s’pose.”
“Ye won’t be gettin’ none o’ mah bits, ya thievin’ devil!” hollered Granny from behind her wooden shield.
Instead of getting offended, Spike only took it in stride and ignored her completely. “Nah, I owe you for the fence and the tree, so we’ll call it even.” He trudged out the door, waving back as he went. “See ya round, Aj.” She could only sigh in disappointment at her predicament.
>  Dreams and crowns and advice, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 3  Dreams and crowns and advice, oh my!
Spike felt out-right rotten at the moment, as he walked sullenly back to the library. It was fairly gloomy in this area, since the cloud patrol had to give the nearby park a bit of extra rain on account of the summer weather.
“Geez, the only thing I think I got right was the slop, and that’s not exactly something to go tellin’ people about.” He said to himself. “Maybe I oughta just stick to what I know.”
Unfortunately, the more Spike thought about that statement, the more he couldn’t figure out what exactly that was. Living with Twilight Sparkle, however, had given him the tools to handle the situation. Make a list. “Let’s see, what am I good at?” he asked of no-one in particular. “I’m an excellent napper, though I don’t think that’s much better than the slop. I can organize the library with my eyes closed, but I’ve been doing that for Twi for years, so I don’t think she’ll suddenly start paying me now.” He thought harder, tapping his chin. “I’m a pretty fair cook, maybe I could go to a restaurant?” while he did most of the cooking at the library, his skills were a bit limited, so he doubted he could get any work for that.
Something he had been told about his chryssaling struck out at him then; Twilight said that he had finished by breathing lightning instead of fire when he took down that dragon dame. “Aw, yeah! Maybe I could get a job on the weather team, making lightning for cheap!” he felt like he had struck gold here, but still Twilights habits stuck with him. He had to test it.
Looking above him, he spotted exactly what he needed; a stray cloud, wrung out of its liquidy contents. “Okay, how do I do it now?” he pondered. So, he began to blow fire at the high up target, scaring a few passerby’s onto the other side of the street. When adding more fire didn’t seem to work, and he had worn himself out, he began to think back to the moment it had first happened, though it was still quite fuzzy in his mind. He remembered the rage, the other dragon, and the need to protect his friends, but there was something else, something key to that particular moment that he was missing.
Suddenly, it came to him. Magic! It was different because instead of the regular thirty percent magic his fire had, he had poured every ounce of magic he had into the bolt to create it. So that meant, instead of simply breathing, he had to concentrate on his inner magic.
This was very difficult for the poor drake, as he had never done it before the chryssaling, which in itself had been more instinct than any conscious effort. When he couldn’t find it as a physical area of his body, he began to mope. “Dangit, this is stupid!” he told himself. “I know I can do it, so why won’t it work?!”
Fed up, Spike decided to try and rest here in the park. Maybe a nap could help him get his thoughts straight. One final comment escaped him, more of an admiring statement than a self-depreciating one; “I bet that dame could do it.” Curled up under the cloud, the sound of rain in the distance and thoroughly exhausted, Spike found himself drifting off to sleep.
***************************
Spike was in a large cave, surrounded by so many glittering jewels and piles of gold that it bathed the area in a warm light of its own. He sat contentedly in the center, not entirely sure if the hoard was even his, but fully ready to accept it as his own.
But then, from a corner of the cave he couldn’t see, a voice called out to him. “Spike!” it said, silky and soft, and undeniably feminine. “Spike, are you there?” It called again.
Spike lifted his head to the voice, and looked to it, but took no defensive posture or aggressive attitude, which he knew was strange for any dragon. But somehow, he knew this voice meant him no harm, that it was the most important thing in the world to him in fact. Around the side of one of the piles of gems, a dragoness flew into view.
The dame in question was dark blue of hide and had a speckled black undercarriage, likewise beneath her elegant wings. Her dorsal ridges shone a magnificent silver, and she had a crescent blade of the same material at the end of her long, graceful tail. “Spike, why didn’t you answer me?” she asked him.
Spike smiled lovingly, and said “Because I wanted to hear you say my name some more.” Swiftly, while she was caught in her giggling, Spike came up to her and lifted her in his arms. She squealed in delight as he cradled her as one might a newborn. “Say my name, lover.” He told her.
She giggled again and leaned her snout to his ear. “Spike.” She said sensually. Spike shivered in response, and again she said “Spike!” sending him into rapture.
“SPIKE!!” called an entirely new (yet distinctly not, he would later note) voice from above. And again, as this dream always seemed to end, Princess Luna descended from above, shining a light on the unknown dragoness that caused her to shatter like glass. “Thou shalt cease this course!” she demanded of him, for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“Oh, come ON, Luna!” Spike exclaimed hotly, now aware of his status as a dreamer. “Can’t you just let me have it this once? I’m having a crud enough day as it is! Why won’t you even let me dream about her?!” he demanded.
“W-We don’t- Thou art-” she stammered over her words, the barest of blush interrupting the night-blue color of her coat. “T-Thou must pay focus to thine studies!” she managed to stutter out. “Tis unfitting of one so young to dwell on such things.” She nodded her head to finalize the explanation, and in the state he was in, Spike had no mind to question it.
He groaned and sat down on his tail, irritated that no-pony was willing to tell him anything about the dragoness that had helped him so much during his chryssaling. “Fine, whatever, just end the dream so I can get back to sucking at life, then.” He wave at her dismissively.
Registering now that something was troubling the young drake, Luna allowed her embarrassment to ebb away, and calmly asked Spike “Tell us, young drago, what troubles thee so?”
Spike huffed, but relented. Stubbornness was pretty much shot in the realm of dreams since they completely bypassed the speech filter in the brain, so he easily gave in to her and said “Well, you see, I was trying to get a job a Sweet Apple Acres today.”
“For what cause?” Luna asked, having now taken a seat next to him on a conjured cushion. (Ones rump could fall asleep even in the realm of sleep, it seemed, a state which translated irritatingly well to her corporeal body.) “Tis it not Twilight Sparkle’s duty as thy guardian to provide for thee?”
“No, no, it’s nothing to do with Twi.” He waved dismissively. He offhandedly noted that he was now eyelevel with her, as a result of his perfect self-image from the dream. “I just decided that I was old enough to start getting my own bits, and Apple Bloom said they might need me at the farm.”
Luna knew that he was only telling half the truth, however, and nudged him playfully. “Oh really? Is that all?”
Spike blushed a bit. “Well, I might’ve heard Rarity only likes guys who can support themselves.” He told her sheepishly.
Luna nodded sagely. “Tis true, a stallion of means is quite a bit more desirable as a suitor.” She looked at him then. “What else hast thou given effort to?”
Spike shrugged. “Nothing, actually. I’ve considered making lightning for the thunder clouds, but I can’t figure out how I did it.”
Luna gave a small harrumph. “The issue of thine thunderous talent aside, didst thou truly expect to find success upon only thy first venture?” When Spike shrunk down a bit in shame, it became clear he had. “Folly, I say!” she stood suddenly and placed herself directly in Spikes view. (His entire view; mare got a whole lotta body) “Thou art blessed with the gift of friends and freedom! Do not cast these aside in so swift a manner!”
When Spike showed he didn’t quite understand (“uhhhhhhhhhhh”) Luna elaborated, albeit in a calmer tone. “Thou hath many an interest and art gifted with numerous talents, yes?” he nodded. “Then pursue these as a course of employment!”
“I already thought about it, Princess, but I don’t think there’s much of a call for ‘champion napper!’” he said, his trademark sarcasm shining through.
“But we have heard of thine skill as a baker!” she said. “Go unto Pinkie Pie and request an apprenticeship of her!” she declared “Or perhaps at yon gaming saloon, where we ourselves have been bested by thy skill many times!” (It was true; on one of her visits Spike had made a point to introduce her to Mega-Mare and Mario, and had promptly beaten her at both.) She softened now, and returned to a sitting position. “Dost thou yet see? Opportunity abounds in this modern age, and thou art quite capable of finding a destiny of thine own choosing therein.”
Spike sat up straight and smiled at her, glad to have regained some direction in his quest. “Now, onto thy other issue.” She said, confident that his main troubles were gone. “Thou spoke of an issue with thy thunder ability?”
“Yeah,I can’t do it.” Spike responded coolly.
“Couldst thou tell us the extent of thy attempts?” she asked him.
Spike nodded and spoke. “I realized it was a manifestation of magic fairly fast, but that’s as far as I got.”
She cocked her head and furrowed her brow. “We are not sure of thy meaning.”
He gestured with his hands aimlessly for a moment. “It’s like, I know what it was, and what I was looking for, but that’s it.” Again, a questioning look greeted him, and again, he took a moment to find his meaning. “I know its magic, but I’ve never used magic before, and I don’t know how I did it then, so I can’t for life of me do it again.”
Luna nodded, not entirely sure what he was getting at but willing to work with what he had already offered. “Well, instead of working solely from thine muddled memories of the situation, perhaps a full accounting of the incident would help. Can thou walk us through the extent of thy knowledge of the occurrence?”
Spike crossed his legs beneath him and thought on it. Fortunately, in the realm of dreams the blockages presented by ones environment and prior input do not exist, and so the information came quickly to him, even going so far as to morph the area around him to match a still shot of the moment, a singular capturing of the situation.
For the first time in two weeks, the two stood in the cave in the rock quarry, with the Elements of Harmony on one side of the cave and a pile of glittering gems and jewels on the other. In the middle, Spike, who had taken the place of the memory of himself, faced off against the unnamed dark dragoness, standing between her crouching visage and his frightened friends. Spike had taken on a form more similar to his current physical stature, though lacked any of the presence or fury he had possessed at the time. Luna stood off to the side of the conjured image, looking around in a minor state of nostalgia. “Now, Spike, canst thou walk us through the situation verbally?” however, she received no response. When she looked to where the dragon had been, she found him absent. “Spike?”
Some more swiveling head action later, and Luna found her face suddenly enveloped by her own hoof, in what the youth of the era referred to as a ‘face-hoof.’ Spike had near instantly forgotten the purpose he had initially set out with, and was now on his belly before the conjured Dame of his dreams. (Yay! Situational Puns!) He had taken to making goo-goo eyes at her and making kissy faces.
“Spike!” Luna hollered. “Forget thy hormones, and focus on one issue at a time!!”
Spike jumped at her screaming, then grumbling got to his feet. “Joy-kill.” He muttered. Luna rolled her eyes, and gestured for him to return to the center of the room. Once in position, she asked him again to recite the facts of the moment out loud. “Well,” he began, “I was standing right here, that much I remember.” He pointed to the girls behind him. “I think I was concerned about them getting hurt, because Twilight says I was actually protecting them from-” his finger swung wide, back to the dragoness. He immediately went to goofy teen mode and the ogling started again, a wide grin plastered on his face. “-her.”
“Spiiiiiike.” Luna growled threateningly. She and the others had decided it was best not to tell him it had been her transformed into a dragon that he had fought, since there was a chance his draconic instincts might start the chryssaling again if there was a chance they had been faked. However, the young drake had been trying her patience on the subject with his newly cropped up (near)wet dreams of the Luna-gon, sometimes involving Rarity as well, making it even more creepy. She and Luna sounded so similar,(what’s up with that?) it might trigger a realization in the drago, which could not be tolerated.
Spike shook his head and had enough shame to smile apologetically at her before continuing. “You and Twilight said the bolt itself was almost raw magic, but since you had spent a week getting rid of mine, it must have come from them when they were made into my dragon hoard.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “So, maybe there’s a magic reserve for storing what I take from them? But that still doesn’t tell me how to use it.” He was beginning to get frustrated, and crossed his arms with a huff.
However, Luna came to his side and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Me’thinks that perhaps there is no separate reserve, and their magic became thine own.” She thought for a second before coming up with a possible answer. “You say that thy purpose was the defense of thy hoard yes?” he nodded. “Perhaps, then, the key is to focus on them, on all they mean to thee and thy will to protect them.”
After considering her words for a moment, and looking about the scene to confirm for himself, he suddenly cracked a huge grin and nodded happily. “Yeah, I bet you’re right!” he exclaimed animatedly, excited with his breakthroughs. “Thanks a lot, Princess! You’re really great to help me like this!” he started to bow, but the sound of Luna laughing caused him to hesitate and look upon her in confusion instead.
She smiled affectionately and leaned down to place her muzzle to the top of his head. “Tis’ only fitting, as our duties include the patrolling of dreams.” She straightened out then. “However, thou need not address so formally. Merely Luna will suffice. We art thy friend after all, are we not?”
Spike grinned wide at the Princess. “Of course Luna, that’d be-”
***************************
Spike sat bolt upright beneath the cloud under which he had fallen asleep, and immediately began spewing forth a midnight blue flame, his eyes glowing and his hide taking on a slight magical luster. It passed in a moment, after which Spike fell back to his side. “Ugh,” he groaned. “This better not be a thing every time I make a friend.”

> Bullies and Rainbows and fights, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 4 Bullies and Rainbows and fights, oh my!
Sweetie Belle, Scootalloo and Apple Bloom were moseying about in the school house playground, discussing random things about recent experiences. Sweetie had helped Rarity design a ‘mini fashionista’ line for the school the previous night, Sootalloo had gushed to Rainbow about being a part of a dragon hoard just like her (same dragon even!), and Apple Bloom had helped with apple bucking and cooking today.
Oh yeah, and there was something about Spike being driven from the farm by racial slurs and feelings of inadequacy and all that somewhere in there too, so there was that. “Ah can’t rightly believe Granny’d go ‘n do somethin’ ta Spike like that!” Applebloom reiterated to her friends. As soon as Spike had left the house, Granny had received the verbal assault of a lifetime. Apple Bloom had been told to leave for school early, but had waited outside the door, curious as to what was going on. Amidst shouts of ‘that ain’t how ya treat a friend,’ ‘Apple’s oughta have better manners ‘n that’ and ‘eeyu-herk!’ (Mac was still sick as a dog, and being tied up didn’t help), Apple Bloom had decided that the only way to make Spike feel better was to get the girls together and help him find another job.
Miss Cheerilee was found to be more than willing to take the boy on as a teaching assistant (“PLEASE!!”) in his free-time, and now they simply needed to wait for school to end to tell him. Unfortunately, the day had only just started, and they hadn’t even had the first class of the day yet. It was still the arrival period, and the other kids were taking their sweet time.
And so, with nothing to do but wait, the conversation had turned back to Spike’s treatment, and some other things they should do. Scootalloo asked the other two “Is a dragon’s hoard supposed to protect him, too? Cuz I’m confused.” The conversation had turned to whether they should do anything at all, and the debate was still hot.
Sweetie responded “I dunno. I think the dragon is supposed to protect the gems and stuff, but I can’t really picture my sister just sitting back for that, so I don’t think I can either.” She shrugged, unsure of their role in the situation.
Apple Bloom, though, had a clear and defined plan. “We aint no gems, an’ Spike’s our friend too, so we gotta help him if he’s in trouble, hoard or no hoard!” She nodded in conclusion, sure of her decision, which was quickly mirrored by the others.
However, their moods took a swift downturn with the arrival of two more. “I don’t know who blank-flanks like you want to help,” sneered Diamond Tiara from behind, “but I think they might be better off alone.” Silver Spoon laughed behind her, an eternal source of encouragement for Diamond.
“Hey!” yelled Scootalloo, immediately irritable at the arrival of Tiara and her crony. “We can help Spike tons!”
Silver Spoon laughed at her. “Yeah, right!” she scoffed, “Anything you three touch always breaks or blows up! Unless he was trying to kill himself, I don’t think there’s much you could do.” She leered at them tauntingly.
“Ya’ll shut-up, Spoon!” Bloom yelled at her. “Only fillies with personalities get opinions, ‘n they don’t sell those at the jewelry store!” Silver Spoon blushed bright red in anger, and Tiara bristled as well. It wasn’t like them to respond like this, and if it continued, drastic measures would have to be taken.
“Yeah!” echoed Sweetie. “Spike’s our friend, and we’re part of his magic dragon hoard, so there’s nothing we won’t do for each other!” Soon, the three were standing off against the sneering bullies, a number of other students looking on and not a teacher in sight.
***************************
Looking about himself a moment before remembering he had fallen asleep outside, Spike stood and looked again for his cloud. Luna had given him the tools to make his lightning work, and he’d be dipped if he wouldn’t prove it right then. Finding the cloud in the same spot he had left it, he once again took to meditating in search of his inner magic.
This time, however, he chose not to look directly for a pool of energy, but instead focused on his friends and his protective feelings for them. As he did, a familiar loving feeling welled within, something he always felt on such points of introspection. However, after a period of dwelling on these thoughts and the feeling they brought, forgetting entirely his purpose for summoning them in the first place and instead simply basking in his own love and desire to defend them with all he had, a new feeling surfaced. This one was different, and created a physically identifiable sensation within his body, a sort of tingling sensation that permeated his entire being. “Whoa,” he whispered, “is this how Twilight feels all the time?” He felt sure it was true, that this indeed was his own magic.
Instead of immediately attempting to harness it, he found himself examining the feel of the magic itself. While its presence brought with it physical sensation, closer inspection brought deeper, more emotional feelings and impressions, ones he realized must represent the magic he received from his friends.
Brash confidence for Rainbow Dash; sturdiness and strength for Applejack; freedom and cheer bubbling over which could only be Pinkie Pie; gentleness and overflowing empathy from Fluttershy; an incredible sense of self-worth and that of others from his beloved Rarity; an unfathomable intelligence and a desire for more knowledge from the indomitable Twilight; three of the energies seemed to intermingle and reflect each other, which Spike realized had to be the CMC, invoking the sensations of desire, acceptance as well as an unfinished aspect, one that knew it was ready for the biggest things the world could offer. Finally, there was a newer feeling energy, one that was deep and endless as space, cool and comforting as the night, but held the very deepest of scars, of regret, and even a touch of fear for what the future might hold. “Luna.” Spike spoke aloud when he felt the foreign energy. Each of these not only belonged to, but defined his friends, and now they in turn fed and defined him; His friends were a part of who he was now, and for the first time he felt truly blessed for that kind of connection.
Spike raised his eyes to the cloud above him, and now filled with the magic from those he held dearest he felt ready to try and make the lightning. The newly ordained drago stood and took a mighty and deep breath, willing the magic to his open maw and felt it tingle in the roots of his teeth and his lips. Releasing it all in one mighty push, Spike was nearly blinded when a searing white light escaped him, tingling and arching wildly in the direction of the cloud.
Thinking back, it would occur to Spike that he probably should have called up and checked to see if the outlying, stationary cloud might have held a resident. “YYYEEEE-OOOUUCH!!!!!” came a gravely, familiar voice. “Oh, you wanna play THAT game, huh?!” it asked, but Spike, stunned as he was by the light of his own magic did not register these damning words. “Well, let’s PLAY!!” and suddenly, Spike found himself tingling in a very different way, just before a shock of blinding light and white hot pain struck him. The cloud-born lightning sent him flying into the nearby bench, where he comically landed in a perfect sitting position, but was smoking profusely and was covered in black soot.
“Spike?!” asked Rainbow Dash, for it was indeed the cyan speedster, incredulously. “That was you? What’s the big idea, huh?!” she demanded with a hoof stomp. Just below her cutie mark was a singed patch of fur, smoking and steaming, beneath which a patch of pink hide could be seen.
Spike, though, continued to goggle about in a perfect imitation of the towns’ wall-eyed mailmare. It took him a while to answer her. “Wha-?” he asked, unsure of what had happened.
“You hit me with lightning, you jerk!” she answered hotly. “I wanna know why!”
Spike shook off the soot briefly, then spoke to her as fast as he could, trying as hard as he could to apologize. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow!” he told her. “I promise I didn’t know you were up there! I was just trying to practice making lightning like before, honest! I would never hurt you on purpose, I swear!” he began to panic. “Are you gonna be ok?! Ohmygosh, I didn’t hurt you bad did I? We gotta get you to a hospital, fast!” swiftly, Spike ran over in a panic and lifted Rainbow by placing two claws on her barrel and pushing, carrying her over his head like a sack of potatoes.
Rainbow however, was having none of that and flew out of his grasp and landed a short ways away. When he moved to try again, she waved him off and said “Whoa, whoa, it’s not that bad, kid! See?” she showed him her flank (not like that, you pervs) and displayed the fairly minor burn. “Just needs some ointment and a Band-Aid.” Spike still looked unsure, and also appeared to be on the verge of tears. Feeling bad, Rainbow told him “Ah, I’m sorry, squirt. I should’ve known it was an accident, and besides, I’ve given people worse for pranks, so I guess I might’ve over-reacted.”
Spike seemed to accept this and visibly relaxed. “O-ok, if you’re sure.” He gestured down the street where a large oak could be seen in the middle of town. “The library isn’t far, so I can get you a Band-Aid there if you want.” She nodded and flew after him slowly, and they reached the library in short order.
Once inside, she asked him “So, if you weren’t trying to hit me, what were you doing?”
Spike scuttled off into the library kitchen as he spoke. “Like I said, I was just practicing the lightning itself. Princess Luna gave me some tips in my dream that I wanted to give a shot.” He came back quickly with the first aid kit in claw, opening it at her side.
“Well, I guess we can say it worked.” Dash looked forlornly at her singed behind. “Oh booty, you will be missed.” (You will be AVENGED!!) “Can I ask what you wanted to make lightning for in the first place?”
Spike squatted beside her and started applying some burn salve to the injury. “Oh, yeah!” he said enthusiastically. “I decided to get a job yesterday, for a few reasons, and I thought that maybe I could make cheap lightning for the weather brigade.” He lost some of his eagerness, however. “Took a lot out of me, though. I don’t think I should, or even could do that more than once a day.”
Rainbow shrugged, and then briefly sucked in sharply on her teeth in pain as he pressed the bandage to her side. “Probably wouldn’t have worked out anyhow, seein’ as our lightning is free.”
Spike looked up in shock, and then swiftly hung his head in defeat. “Good to know it was all for nothing.” He said forlornly.
She grinned apologetically, before being struck with a thought. “Hey, I know,” she declared, “I bet I could get you a job at the gym! I’m a part time trainer for pegasi there. Since you’re really strong now, I bet they gotta have something for you to do!”
Spike perked up at her words. ‘That might be fun,’ he thought, ‘and it could help my physique.’ That could do nothing but impress Rarity more!
Suddenly, something inside Spike flared, sending him immediately into a state of vigilance. His eyes began to glow with a soft draconic light, and he felt his magic well within him, able to recognize it now. He recognized the energies of the CMC, and had the intense desire to defend them bring itself to bear, and realized that they must be in some kind of danger.
Rainbow misread the reaction as some sort of violent refusal, and got a bit miffed. “It was just an idea,” she said, “you don’t gotta be like that about it, jeez. See if I ever offer you a job again “she huffed.
Spike shook his head to clear it and responded “No, it’s the crusaders; I think they’re in danger!”
Immediately, Rainbow took on the same sense of alarm. She wasn’t sure how he knew, but Spike wasn’t one to joke about that kind of thing. “They should be at school!” she exclaimed. “Something could be wrong! Let’s go!” she lowered a wing to allow Spike to get on her back, then bolted out the door in a multi colored blur.
***************************
The duo zipped swiftly between buildings, headed for the schoolhouse at breakneck speeds. In no time, it seemed, the school came into view, and they quickly registered the yelling and screaming of children, and began to search for its source before they had even arrived. In short order, they found a group of five fillies at the middle of the chaos, mucking about wildly; Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom and Scootalloo, as well as the local bullies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
Oh, there was about five or six timber wolves, too, but HEY! One group of troublemakers at a time.
“Rainbow!” Spike pointed to the wolves, stalking in on the fillies as they clumped together in fear. “You gotta get them outta there!”
“I can’t carry you all!” she told him, fearful for the girls fate.
“Let me worry about that, just get over there!” he yelled at her. She nodded, assuming he would add his wing power to her own to help them get away. Armed with this, she sped into their midst, bucking wildly at the wolves to scatter them for a bit while she could get away. But, when they got to the girls and she started to pick them up, the wolves immediately regrouped and ran for them, intent on not allowing their meal to get away.
Before they could get anywhere near, however, Spike hopped off her back and took a familiar position between them and those he held dear. (Tiara and Spoon probably didn’t deserve to get eaten, either.) He squatted low and began to growl, his wings flared to make him appear larger and his tail flicking menacingly. This time, though, he had smoke lingering from his nostrils and from between his razor teeth, showing he had more than enough energy to take them on.
The wolves paused to consider the challenger, and in the lull Rainbow exclaimed “Spike! What’re you doing?! We gotta get outta here!”
“Go, Rainbow!” he told her. “Get them out of here, I can handle this!” Rainbow looked hastily from the shivering fillies in her arms to the baby dragon, her loyalty telling her to stand and fight with him, but her rational mind knowing the best thing she could do now was to get the girls to safety. She gritted her teeth, then yelled at him “I’ll be as fast as I can, so don’t take any risks, ok?!” without waiting for an answer, she turned and took to the air, unable to get particularly high or gain any significant speed with her load, but still out of immediate reach of the wolves.
Enraged, the timber wolves bolted for the fillies and speedster, only to be stopped dead by a burst of emerald fire. Turning again to the challenger, they found Spike had not moved, save for to open his mouth in his attempt to torch them. When Dash had told him not to take any risks, she had failed to take a few things into account. First, he was now a dragon protecting his hoard, and nothing could restrain that kind of power. Second, he was a spear-and-dagger proof, fire-breathing, flying death machine against a pile of the world’s dumbest kindling. And unlike his prior experience with the monsters, Spike now had a sense of self awareness that told him he could, in fact, handle this.
“Mine.” He growled low, taking his stance once again. Unsure, five of the wolves looked to the largest of them, what must have been the leader of the pack, for guidance. It recognized the challenge, and took its own battle stance, one that mirrored Spikes own. Things had gone from a hunt to a duel, and it would not shy away with its pack behind it.
The two stalked around each other for a short period, daring each other to make the first move. Spike was first, and again spewed fire in the wolf’s direction, but was forced to close his eyes to the heat, which gave the wolf an opening. While every timber wolf had an inherent and deep-seated fear of fire, this one was either too confident or too stupid to run away, and so took the opportunity and ran around the burning torrent and lunged directly for Spike. The two collided and tumbled about, in a very literal dog-pile, as they both tried to find the others throat on sheer instinct. The wolf, though, was at a severe disadvantage against Spike’s smooth polished scales and his razor appendages. In no time Spike found himself on top of the alpha wolf, and sunk his teeth into the back of its neck, trying to break its neck on his draconic intuition.
Unfortunately it would not be that easy; since Timber Wolves were comprised solely of sticks and fallen branches, they had no bones to speak of, and this also afforded them an amorphous quality, in that they could disassemble themselves at will to avoid injury. This wolf did just that, and spike found himself biting nothing but air, before the tumble began again. This time, the wolf aimed to maim Spike, clawing at his eyes and the soft tissue of his joints. When its bark covered paw came for his left eye, though, Spike opened his mouth and hastily bit the creature.
Then, as it tried to shake him off and bite his neck, some hidden part of Spike awoke, and on impulse the drago sucked in sharply. For a second, nothing happened and the wolf continued its assault, but swiftly its foot began to glow a sickly green, and before it and all its pack, Spike began to drink in the wild magic that acted as it’s life blood. The wolf redoubled its efforts to remove the small dragon, trying to separate them in panic, but it was all for naught. In no time, Spike had taken in all of the magic it held in its body, leaving the alpha to fall into a pile of dead twigs and leaves. At the sight of their leader so fully and dreadfully dead, the other wolves literally tucked their wooden tails and ran for the Everfree forest at full speed.
It was not an uncommon ability among highly magical creatures to be able to take raw magic from various sources by biting them, and was in fact a trait several dark magic users, such as Nightmare Moon or King Sombra, had developed in order to maintain the massive amount of magic they needed to fuel their powers. (Hence, the fangs.) However, it wasn’t something many dragons were able to use freely, limited merely to their diet of gems which held small amounts of earth magic. Spike, in contrast, now needed a different way to gather magic in large quantities, and when the opportunity to take it straight from a source of wild-magic presented itself, spontaneous development had occurred on the atrophied ability in his time of need.
As he watched the remaining wolves retreat, the need to protect his hoard passed and Spike gradually relaxed, his duty done. All of a sudden, he was tackled by something purple and soft- and in his current non-violent state, Spike was unable to summon the same fierceness he had only just wielded, reducing him to squirming and yelling. However, The Purple did not pursue its assault, instead clutching him close to its wildly beating heart in fright. Spike looked up and found his attacker to be a certain mulberry schoolteacher, who was looking about fearfully, eyes wide, but none the less desperately trying to protect him.
“Spike!” yelled a voice from above, and soon Rainbow Dash descended into his view, taking a battle stance and looking about her for any sign of the wolves. “Spike, are you alright?! Where’re the Timber Wolves?!” she questioned frantically.
“Over- OOMPH- over there.” He gestured to the pile of dead twigs that were the only evidence that the monsters had been there in the first place.
There was a pause, in which the greatest Awkward Turtle in all of existence had to have been born, before the statement of “Whoa” made itself known.
> Ch 5 Thanks and sweets and marriage, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Cheerilee, after some coaxing, eventually released her death grip on Spike, allowing him to (gasp for) breath. “Spike, you beat those things?!” she asked, eyes darting wildly in search of more of the devil hounds, in case his answer was no.
He nodded sheepishly. “Y-yeah, though only the one.” He gestured to the pile of sticks. “The rest ran away.”
Rainbow trotted to him, making a point to avoid the pile in case it spontaneously came to life, face still filled with awe though. “That’s still, like, majorly awesome!” she told him, patting him on the back. Spike accepted the praise, still a bit embarrassed, but also very unsure of what had actually happened. ‘Did I just suck the magic out of that thing?’ he wondered to himself. Then a horrid thought possessed him, making him slightly sick. ‘Oh, Celestia, I’m a vampire!!’
Rainbow, though, interrupted his thoughts when she suddenly got angry and smacked him on the top of his head, causing him to rub the spot, though mostly out of surprise rather than pain. (Having a suit of armor built in had its benefits.) “But don’t you ever scare us like that again!” she yelled at him, the emotions she had felt catching up with her now “We thought you were gonna get eaten or something, little dude! What would we have done if you’d gotten hurt?” she demanded.
Spike kicked at the dirt nervously. “Avoid Twilight like the plague?” he asked with a dumb grin, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
Unfortunately, the older mares were having none of it. “That’s not funny!” Cheerilee scolded. “We were all really worried! Me and the-” suddenly, she gasped loudly, drawing the attention of Spike and Rainbow. “The children!” she exclaimed, immediately turning on her hind hoofs and bolting for the direction of the school house, Rainbow and Spike hot on her heels.
Once they arrived, it was obvious that the chaos that had engulfed the school was still in full swing, with children crying loudly and huddled together. At a far corner, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could be seen huddled against Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon; Scootalloo and Apple Bloom, as the stronger of them all, were trying to help the others calm down, though it was obvious they themselves were visibly shaken by the event.
“Children!” Cheerilee tried to regain order. “Children, it’s over now, you’re all going to be fine!” she ushered Spike before her, presenting him to the group of frightened foals. “Our own little Spike chased them off, so there’s nothing to worry about now!” though many continued to sniffle and cry, they all turned to their teacher and savior. Spike waved at them awkwardly, unsure of himself and not used to all the attention.
From the back, where the Crusaders and the school bullies lay together, Sweetie yelled “Spike!” she hopped up and ran to him, wobbling on her scared and already uncoordinated little legs. She tackled him, her two friends not far behind, and they all ended up in a pile of nuzzles and affectionate hugs. Soon, some of the other students, even Tiara and Spoon, ran over and joined the dragon pile. From the bottom, Spike gasped for breath, wheezing out “Too. Much. Love!” the children began to giggle atop of him, and some began to extricate themselves from the pile. Soon enough, Spike sat surrounded only by those he had most directly saved from danger.
“Spike, you were so brave!” Sweetie told him, her voice cracking with emotion. “We were all so worried!”
Nodding her assent, Apple Bloom added “Yeah! You was like a hero from one o’ them stories granny tells me!”
“No way!” declared Scootalloo. “He was way cooler than some knight! He was even cooler than Rainbow Dash!”
Immediately, sensing her rep was in danger, Rainbow herself inserted herself into the group. “Heh, heh, let’s all calm down now!” she told them. “Maybe we should start getting you kids home, right Cheerilee?” she turned to the Mulberry teacher, who had gone over to some of the more frightened children. (Poor Weepy would never be the same.)
Cheerilee faced the prismatic pegasus. “Oh, yes, of course!”  She stood and approached Dash. Once before her, she leaned in to whisper into her ear. “Do you think you can go tell their parents to come get them?” She asked her. “They probably shouldn’t be walking home alone in the state their in.”
Rainbow nodded and saluted before she took to the air and zipped off, taking a head count from the air of the children whose parents she needed to find.
Taking their opportunity in the lapse of excitement, Tiara and Spoon approached Spike, Silver Spoon sniffling from behind Diamond Tiara, who herself didn’t look much better off. Knowing enough to recognize that even though the two were notorious bullies and snobs, they were still little fillies and even their egos could take a back seat to fear, Spike bit his tongue on the snarky remark with which he always greeted them. “H-hey, Spike.” Tiara said, unusually quiet. “T-thanks for saving us, and all that.” She gestured Silver Spoon to her side.
With a little prodding from her stronger half, Spoon looked up to Spike, and he now saw she had been one of those crying by the red color of her eyes. “Y-yeah, Spike. T-thanks a ton.” She shivered a little, but smiled at him.  “The dorks were right, you were like some story book hero.” Swiftly, before her courage failed entirely, she scooted up and gave him a quick nuzzle on the cheek.  She ran off then, leaving both Spike and Diamond Tiara to gape after her.
They looked at each other for a moment, as if to confirm it had happened. All at once, as if deciding not to be outdone, Tiara herself ran up to Spike and gave him a peck on the cheek, running off with her pink coat a little brighter around the cheeks.
Rainbow, finishing her account of the children as well as her giggles at Spike’s predicament, prepared to fly off to gather the parents of all the children. However, all parties stopped as two new ponies trotted to the front gate of the school building. A large, tired looking stallion and his young daughter walked to the front gate, and the father opened the door for his daughter. Realizing something was a bit off, they started when they saw the whole school gathered before them, with even a dragon in attendance, and they looked about in surprise. The filly let her mouth drop open, saying “Wow, you guys really know how to welcome new students.”
***************************
As the final parent led his crying filly from the school grounds, Spike sat beside a mulberry school teacher and multi-colored pegasus, all three tired from the trying past few hours. “Well, that’s the last of them.” Spike said. “Need anything else right now, Cheerilee?”
Cheerilee shook her head. “No thank you, Spike. For now, I need to compile an incident report for town hall and the authorities. Though,” she raised a hoof in remembrance, “now that you mention it, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootalloo said you might be looking for some work?” Spike nodded at her, having completely forgotten his original quest in all the excitement. “Well, with the number of children in Ponyville increasing lately, my workload has become a bit unbearable. Since you’re the personal assistant of a princess, you’re perfectly qualified to be a teacher’s assistant.” She nudged him a bit. “I can only pay you about three bits an hour, but it’s a start. What do you say?”
Spike nodded excitedly, happy with something he could be a bit familiar with. “Yeah,” he told her animatedly, “sounds great! When do you need me?”
She thought on it for a bit. “Well, I’ve pretty much got the system figured out for the week, but the kids get pretty rowdy on Friday, so I could definitely use an extra set of eyes then. If you could come by on test days, that’d help a lot too, and a few hours on Saturday for grading would be what I really need help with.” (Poor girl didn’t have a weekend to speak of these days.)
Spike only took a moment to think. “Alright, I can do that, as long as Twilight isn’t on a study binge.” He held out his claw to her and she took it with a giggle, and they shook on it.
“Oh, I had the children turn in an assignment as they arrived today, and most of them got here before the Timber wolves attacked, so if you could come by tomorrow and stay after school to help grade, that’d be great.” She paused for a bit. “You do know proper MLA format, right?”
Spike shivered a bit, before saying “More than you, probably. Twilight drills me on it weekly.”
Cheerilee gave a sympathetic smile before continuing. “Well, good then. We’ll be grading their essays on format instead of content, though particularly good papers should get a gold star.”
Spike nodded, to which Cheerilee nodded back. She walked away, entering the school house, stopping at the door-jam to give a friendly wave goodbye to the other two. They waved back to her, and then began to trot away themselves. Shortly into their walk together, Spike felt the first pangs of hunger, and so turned to Rainbow Dash and asked her “Hey? Wanna go to Sugar Cube Corner? I could use a snack after all that.”
Rainbow heartily agreed and they picked up the pace. As they walked, Rainbow gave Spike tips on just starting to fly, giving him minor demonstrations to help him along. Partway through, they hit the problem of Spike having no differentiated feathers with which to alter his flight pattern or catch drafts, but soon enough, they managed to break it down to the absolute basics that any winged creature could use. By the time the sweets shop came into view, Spike had managed to hover in place for a few seconds, receiving praise from Rainbow on his swift progress. (“Though personally, I was doing loopdy-loops on the first day, but hey; I’m awesome.” she told him.)
Once inside, they found themselves tackled by a fluffy pink blur. At first thinking some patron had thrown a wad of cotton candy at them, they recognized Pinkie Pie when she began to babble excitedly about something neither of them could decipher, as well as by the rapid heartbeat that accompanied her. 
“Pinkie.”  Spike tried to get her attention, muffled by the fur of her chest. “Pinkie.” He tried again, pushing at her barrel to gain some speaking room. However, even with his superior dragon strength, he could not remove her, and finally resorted to yelling “PINKIE!!”
“-and that’s why the fourth balloon in my cutie mark is invisible now.” She finished her thought, continuing to be oblivious. However, the struggling duo beneath her finally garnered her attention, and she removed herself from them without a hint of humility for nearly smothering them. “Hey you two!” she exclaimed, the pair rubbing their heads after the assault. “I was hoping you might come by! We heard about what happened at the school, and the cakes said I could hold a ‘Spike and Dashie are hero’s’ Party!”
“But Pinkie,” Spike interjected, “how in Equestria did you know about that? It only just happened!”
She grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled him snout to snout with her, her eyes wide and seeming to see into his soul. “It’s my job to know.” She said in all seriousness. She held him there for a few more seconds, Spike too afraid to break eye contact, when she suddenly gave a feline smile and licked the tip of his nose.
“Aww, Pikie, what’d you do that for?” he asked, blushing and wiping his nose vigorously. “that’s totally gross!”
“No time!” she declared, and Spike looked up to find her trademark Party Cannon pointed directly at him. He had time only to straighten out in alarm before she yelled “It’s PARTY TIME!” and suddenly, Spike found his vision filled with color and confetti.
***************************
Mrs. Cake was wiping the last of the cake splatter from Spike’s scales, with Pinkie in the back still saying “-Sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-sorry-”  as fast as she could.
For the tenth time, Spike reassured her that it was ok and that he wasn’t hurt in the slightest, just sticky. “Still, though, that was kinda fun getting blasted across the room like that.” He said thoughtfully, a grin on his face. “And now I taste like cake too!” he gave a little giggle while Mrs. Cake rolled her eyes.
“Still, deary, that was very dangerous.” She admonished Pinkie. “We’ve always been okay with that contraption of yours since it made the decorating process easy around here, but we can’t have you pointing it at ponies like that!”
Pinkie’s ears drooped along with her head, and Rainbow patted her on the back. “Hey,” she told the downtrodden party enthusiast, “It’s alright. Spike’s fine, the mess is all cleaned up, and the two of us got some snacks like we wanted anyhow. Everypony wins.” Pinkie smiled appreciatively at her friend.
“Yeah, I guess.” She said finally. “I didn’t really have time to invite other ponies anyway, so it wouldn’t have been the super-diliotious party like you two deserve.” She trotted over to Spike and nuzzled him a bit apologetically. “Still, I’m really sorry Spike. It wasn’t nice to blast you across the room like that, even if it was with cake.” Spike reached up and patted her under the jaw. However, she continued to nuzzle him longer than was necessary.
“Uhh, Pinkie?” all of a sudden, she licked him again, this time on the cheek, and he once again was left rubbing the spot furiously in embarrassment. “Oh, come on!” he exclaimed. “What was that for this time?”
She grinned happily and licked her lips. “Your right,” she told him, “you do taste like cake now.” The three mares in the room giggled at his embarrassment and misfortune, the blush on his face only deepening.
However, as they laughed, a thought came to Spike. ‘Didn’t Luna mention Pinkie for a job?’ he thought about it a bit more. ‘Honestly, helping Cheerilee would really only be part time; Working here would really rake in the dough.’ (heh,heh, dough) He grinned a bit and decided to ask Mrs. Cake for a job. ‘Alright,’ he thought, ‘gotta be careful. If I don’t deliver it right, she might turn me down, so I gotta use tact, timing, solid reasoning, and-’
“Hey, Mrs. Cake, would it be cool for me to work here?” he blurted out. ‘-and someone else entirely.’ He finished thinking lamely.
The store owner gave a small start in surprise, before the question registered a moment later. “Excuse me deary?” she asked in confusion. “Why would you need to work here?”
Spike shrugged. “Meh, figured it was time to stop mooching off of Twilight.”
Rainbow leaned in. “Yeah, that, and Rarity won’t date a deadbeat.” She smiled at him mischievously as he grumbled at being called out on the truth again.
As Pinkie giggled uncontrollably at his position, Mrs. Cake smiled gently at him. “Oh, deary, I’m sorry, I’m afraid we don’t really need any help right now.”
“Nonsense!” chimed in a cracking male voice from behind the stores French doors. “You heard Rainbow, dear!” Mr. Cake told his wife as he walked to stand before Spike. “If that’s true, then who are we to stop a young colt-” he did a little start, and gave Spike a funny look, “dragon, from perusing his lady-love!” Mr. Cake struck his hoof against the hardwood floor in finality, and addressed Spike. “Don’t worry, Spike.” He told him. “If you need a job to get the girl, then I’ll be happy to lend a hoof.”
Spike’s eyes sparkled as he looked upon the gangly stallion in awe. ‘Oh, Cake Sama, you’re my hero!’ he thought.
In short order, Spike was outfitted with a fresh apron and assigned to help Pinkie in any way she asked. At first, as expected, they had some trouble figuring out what in Equestria he could do, so Pinkie had him just mix up some extraneous batter for a batch of display cupcakes. Undaunted by his third wheel status, Spike took to his task with gusto, even adding some ingredients to turn the uninteresting batch of batter into the basis of his (relatively) famous cider cakes, cupcakes that had a tendency to tingle on the tongue like cider might. Pinkie subsequently praised his ingenuity and changed the display label to match.
However, they ran into a problem when the time came to bake the treats, as the large oven was currently being occupied by a rush order birthday cake, which still had several levels to be cooked. “Awww,” sulked Pinkie, “bummer. Now we gotta wait to cook ‘em.”
Briefly just as saddened as his pastel counterpart, Spike suddenly realized how best he could be used in the under furnished	 kitchen. “Pinkie, do you have a spare cooking rack? And maybe a fireproof spot in the kitchen?” he asked her slyly. Taking a moment to realize what he had in mind, she gasped in excitement, then ran off to get the tray, pointing him in the direction of the brick oven they used for bread. Once the tray of batter had been situated, Spike breathed in deeply, then let loose a torrent of his flame on the treats, flash cooking them, and when he was done a batch of perfectly browned cupcakes was steaming and waiting for them. “Wow, Spikey!” exclaimed Pinkie, “That was great, and you saved us so much time, too!” Mr. Cake, supervising his new cake as it baked, nodded approvingly, glad that his good deed had paid off for them all.
“That’s not the end of it, Pinkie!” he told her confidently. “That cake is supposed to be on rush order, right?” he gestured to the four tins next to Mr. Cake. Pinkie nodded excitedly, and quick as she could she got an oven mitt and removed the fresh baked cupcakes so they could cool and be frosted. 
Mr. Cake brought over the tins, balancing them carefully on his nose. Seeing another way he could expedite the cooking process, he raised his arms and offered to take the full tin from the elder pastry chef, his strong and dexterous fingers promising more control of the depositing process than Mr. Cakes Schnoz.  Gladly passing the tin, the two of them got that and another tin in the oven and ready to be cooked in Spikes flames. He once again cooked them both perfectly, as with the cupcakes, prompting Mr. Cake to ferry over the next two. The tins were replaced successfully and without incident, and Spike once again dowsed the brick oven with his maw fed blaze.
However, before the results could be verified, Pinkie called out “Wait!” in alarm. Startled, Spike and Mr. Cake both looked to her in bewilderment.
“What is it Pinkie?” the employer asked.
“The displays are supposed to be a baker’s dozen, right?” she asked her boss nervously. He nodded, unsure of why such an experienced assistant would need to ask such a simple question. She answered by presenting the tin of cupcakes. Within was  the cupcakes, perfectly cooked as they had been before, but now that they examined the tin closely, they noticed what was amiss. 	“There’s only ten.” Pinkie spoke all their thoughts.
Suddenly alarmed, Mr. Cake ran to the oven. While there was no chance they had missed something on the first two since they had carried them out themselves, the two in the oven were still not a sure bet. He pulled out the hot rack carefully, but quickly, and they all crowded around to see. On the right, there was a perfectly cooked and browned piece of vanilla cake, just as there should be, and on the left, in contrast, was a perfectly empty cake tin.
Spike immediately fell to his rump in shame. Quick to head off further disaster, Mr. Cake placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Spike, we always make an extra to test how the icing interacts with the cake body, it’s just good business practice. 	Besides,” he winked, “You should have seen how many cakes Pinkie ruined on her first day. Baking isn’t her Special Talent, after all.”
Pinkie, apparently oblivious to the attack on her reputation, instead waved at them to get them back to the empty tin. “Hey, there aren’t any ashes.” She told them, and indeed the tin was spotlessly clean in addition to being empty. They all looked at each other in confusion, Pinkie finishing her thought by asking “So, where’d it go?”
***************************
“Sister!” called a very regal, but very distressed voice in the halls of Canterlot castle. “Sister, we’ve needs to speak with thee! Tis a matter most urgent!”
Celestia just tutted at her sister, mitigating her distress. “Come, now Luna, how many speech tutors have you gone to?” she admonished. “We both know you can speak modern equestrian, now start using it. “
Luna rolled her eyes in frustration, but complied. “Fine, Sister. I have something important to talk to you about.” She repeated in a modern fashion.
Celestia nodded approvingly. “And what might that be, dear sister?” she asked her sibling.
Luna produced with her magic two fresh, but otherwise uninteresting, cupcakes, though they could have been muffins given the lack of frosting. “I Just received these via Spike’s flame teleportation, sister.”
“Oh how nice!” Her sister giggled obliviously.
“No, not nice!” Luna slammed her fore hoof on the ground. “I fear he has realized my identity as the dragon from his chryssaling, and he now seeks to gain my affections with bribery!” Again, she presented the cupcake/muffins.
Celestia took one in her magic with a sigh, and began to inspect it from all angles. She seemed to make a decision and her horn gave a sudden flare. In an instant, a tub of vanilla icing and a spreading knife materialized next to the pastry, and Celestia popped the lid off the tub, spread a healthy slathering of the icing on the treat, and took a bite, all in short order. She smiled and licked her lips. “Mmm,” she hummed happily, “definitely a cupcake. “ she confirmed.
“Sister!” Luna whined. “This is serious! What if he sends more gifts like this?” she demanded.
Celestia shrugged, having fun with her sisters flustered attitude. “I don’t know, eat them.”
Luna, however, was in no mood for games. “Sister. I can’t allow myself to be bought with pastries!” she told her older sibling.
“I don’t know. “ Celestia said, more to herself than to her sister. “It’d work on me.” Then suddenly, a burst of glittering magic dust darted into view, settled between them, and instantly materialized into a large, if slightly thin, cake, devoid of icing. Catching it in her grasp, Celestia brought the large surprise before her, Luna blushing and affecting an angry face. “Huh.” Celestia started. “Are we entirely sure he’s not trying to seduce me, and not you?”
Luna glared at her sister, looking more adorable than actually angry. “Tis not funny.” She grumbled. Celestia only chuckled in response, as it was obvious that it most certainly was. Once again, she slathered icing on part of the cake, broke it off and ate it. She started in surprise, then suddenly took on a very serious mannerism, levitating the partially eaten cake and cupcake far to her side.
“Luna.” She commanded her sisters attention. “As high princess and your older sister, I hereby order you to marry this boy. Immediately.”
“SISTER!!!”
> Ch 6 Weights and games and cookies, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the incident of the lost pastries at Sugarcube Corner, Spike was placed solely on cleaning and mixing, and by the end of the day it became clear that he had no place at the shop. The Cakes’ assured him that if they ever found themselves in a pinch, they would be sure to call on him for aid, but it wasn’t what he was really looking for. Finding nearly the whole day had passed by, despite it feeling like nothing at all had happened, Spike decided it was time to hit the hay. As he passed the schedule beside the door to the treehouse, he made sure to check the calendar to make sure nothing was sneaking up on him. After making certain that the only pertinent information was that Twilight still had two more days in Canterlot with the Princesses, he made his way to his cot. Now that he was bigger, Twilight had gotten him a small bed all of his own, graduating from the basket he had occupied since his time in the Sparkle home in Canterlot.
Spike was feeling a little lonely at the moment. Twilight had left for the shining mountain-side city the previous day in order to update not only her own formal papers inherent to her position as a princess, but to get his official classification changed. She claimed that she also intended to get a proper apology out of the princess, but Spike had a pretty good idea of how that would go. 
***************************
“I want a proper apology, Celestia, and I want it now!” said Twilight as forcefully as she dared. Celestia raised an eyebrow at her student, questioning her, as if to say ‘or what?’ Twilight crumpled almost immediately, and went full on Fluttershy, hiding behing her large bangs and quietly adding “I-if that’s all right with you, that is.”
***************************
Still though, Spike was sure it wouldn’t have been as bad if Owliscous had stuck around. The owl wasn’t much for conversation, but he was excellent to bounce ideas off of at least. Unfortunately, that was also out of the question, as it was spring time, and as Rainbow put it, he was “Gettin’ his swerve on.”
For a moment, Spike considered calling over the crusaders for company, but dismissed it just as quickly. It was too late at night for such a request, not to mention the incident with the timber wolves likely still had the three shivering with nightmares. “Luna’s gonna have a full night.” Spike said to no-one in particular. Still, he couldn’t shake his loneliness.
With some effort, Spike managed to force himself into a fragile sleep, waking up repeatedly through the night and finding it difficult to get comfortable again, as though the cot kept getting smaller.
The next morning wasn’t such a good go of it either, regrettably enough. Smelling what could only be identified as sweaty flowers, Spike woke groggily, barely registering what he saw. Once it came into view, though, he found himself face to face with a pair of red eyes and the most jarringly colorful mane in all of Ponyville. “Wh-GYAH!!” he yelled, flailing wildly, managing only to knock himself from the cot and onto the floor. Irritably, his heart going nuts from the sudden mass of color assaulting him, Spike sat up and began rubbing his noggin in frustration.
“Hehe, nice moves, squirt!” guffawed a gravelly voice, one he knew belonged to the most obnoxious speedster in town. (Who coincidentally had zero sense of personal space by the way.) 
“Rainbow Dash!” complained Spike, “What the hay! Why are you here?” he looked out the window to confirm his suspicions, not even seeing the first rays of sunshine poking above the distant tree line. “The suns not even up, yet, what could you possibly want at this hour?”
She huffed, as though it should have been obvious. “Duh, the most avid fitness buffs exercise first thing in the morning, so we gotta be there when they arrive!”
Spike found himself drawing a blank in his sleep deprived state. “Huh?” was all he had for her.
She rolled her eyes at him, picking him up and making him stand. “You said you wanted a job at the fitness place right?” she asked him, to which he nodded, the conversation from the day before somewhat coming back to him. “Well this is when tryouts start; during the morning rush.”
Spike could already tell this particular job wouldn’t be for him, but neither Twi nor Rainbow would forgive him if he didn’t at least give it the ol’ college try. “Fine.” he grumbled, his body taking its sweet time to shake off sleep. “When do we need to be there?” he asked her.
“Two hours.” She said simply.
Spike stared at her incredulously, before yelling “What?! The place is only a half hour away! Why would you get me up this early if we still have two hours to go?!”
“Hey, no need to yell!” she said defensively. “I figured you’d want some time to get cleaned up and stuff.” She grinned ruefully and rubbed his head. “Besides, gotta give you time to make me breakfast, right?”
Spike yelled unintelligibly and began to chase her around the sleeping space he and Twilight shared. She only laughed, evading him easily and letting him play out his frustration. Once he calmed down sufficiently, he slouched in defeat and motioned her to go downstairs to the dining table.
Spike entered the kitchen as she took a seat, lounging in a carefree manner as he began to cook. “So,” she asked nonchalantly, “What’s for breakfast?”
Spike grunted from the kitchen. “Pancakes.” He answered.
“That’s cool.” She said, as though she were at a diner asking for the morning special.
Again he just huffed, but continued to cook. Soon enough, he had a stack of ten pancakes for the both of them, enough for both of their extreme appetites. Once the plates were settled, Spike asked Rainbow “So, tell me again, why am I feeding you?”
Rainbow affected an offended attitude. “What do you mean ‘Why?’” she asked. “I take it upon myself to look after you this fine morning, all alone and helpless as you are without a single family member to look after you, and this is how you thank me?” she stroked her hoof and tutted like a school teacher. “For shame, buddy, for shame. Imma have to tell Twilight if you keep this up.” Spike just rolled his eyes at the display. As they ate, Rainbow asked “Hey little dude, did you grow?” Spike looked up in surprise at the question, and then looked over himself to find that he had indeed grown a bit over night again. This time, he was a bit taller over all, and he could swear his wing-span had increased by a few inches.
Spike shrugged at her. “Guess so.” He answered. “Seems that every time somepony new says they’d like to my friend, I get a little bigger. It happened with the Crusaders the other day too.”
“Aww, that’s so cool!” she told him through her mouthful. “So like, if you get a thousand friends, you’ll be huge?”
Spike shrugged. “Maybe. The changes are different every time. With the girls, my tail just got a bit longer, but now that I made friends with Princess Luna, it’s a bit more dramatic.” He thought for a bit. “I guess that the change depends on who the kind of pony I’m making friends with is.”
Rainbow seemed to accept this answer and they both continued to eat. All of a sudden, though, she began spazzing out, waving her fore hooves and wing excitedly like a filly who had just met their first crush. “What would happen if we convinced Discord to say he was your friend?” Spike sat in silence, shocked at the implications of the idea.
“We gotta find out next time he’s in town.” Spike told her, a small hint of awe in his voice at the epic-ness of her idea. She smiled smugly, and finished her meal. Once Spike was also finished, he ran upstairs for a shower. It took a bit, (“C’mon, dude!” Rainbow shouted through the door. “I don’t even take this long, and I’m a girl!” it took all of Spike’s patience not to yell ‘barely’ back at her, deciding he didn’t want a black eye for the day) but they eventually left the treehouse behind and left for the Ponyvilles’ only worthwhile health facility, the ‘Strong Pony Fitness Center’.
“Rainbow Dash!” yelled a distinctly over-masculine voice from within the double glass doors of the building. “Choo are late! Vat is de meaning of dis?!” From within the building emerged possibly the most intimidating stallion in Ponyville, a veritable mountain of grey muscle that would send Big Macintosh cross-eyed, (and straighten out Derpy’s )named Sven. He was an earth pony with a bending barbell that said ‘100 lbs’ on each of its round ends for a cutie mark.  “Sven hires puny pegasus because she say she is strong pony, but she is LAZY!!”
Spike smirked. “Hi,” he held out his claw to the mountainous earth pony, “you must be new here. I’m Spike.”
Sven, however, seemed oblivious to Spikes’ sarcasm and gave him a distasteful look. “Who is puny lizard, and vhy does he talk to Sven?” Spike immediately lowered his arm and growled. He officially did not like Sven any more.
“I don’t know Sven?” he sneered. “’Vhy does Sven talk like Sven has never attended school?’”
Sven caught it this time, and instead of getting into a battle of wits, (which he would lose)  Sven bristled and moved in as though to crush Spike. For a few long moments, they stared each other down, Spike even flaring his wings and letting smoke escape his nostrils. Then, miraculously, Sven cracked a smile, and began to laugh. “Dis is good, Rainbow Dash!” he patted Spike on the back. “Little lizard is not vussy! Sven would not let him vork in veight room eef he vas!”
Sven gestured them inside. Spike had never been inside the facility, and had always assumed it would be strewn with random weights and smell of body odor. However, once inside, he found his presumptions had been distinctly wrong, as the facility was clean and organized, all of the equipment was separated by use, and the air conditioning kept the space cool. It even smelled like “Roses?” asked Spike.
Sven shrugged. “Pony town eez mostly female.” He explained. “Sven must cater to client.”
Spike nodded. It made sense. “So can you tell me what I’ll be doing around here?”
Sven nodded. “There are many things little lizard can help with. But first,” he raised a hoof, “Vee must be sure puny lizard can at least lift equipment.” Sven gestured to a rack of dumbbells sitting next to a forty-five pound bench press bar. “Little lizard vill have to show Sven his maximum lifting ability. Vee vill start with the bar and a pair of tventy pound dumbbells.” That sounded pretty basic to Spike, though the ‘little lizard’ thing was getting on his nerves real fast. He hoped it didn’t stick. Regardless, Spike went to the weights, Rainbow accompanying him as a spotter, and took the designated dumbells in his claws.
Spike took a deep breath, then put as much pressure as he could behind the free-weights. Much to the surprise of everyone present, Spike most of all, they lifted swiftly and easily, with nearly no resistance. Unsure of what to do next, he looked to Sven, who shrugged and pointed to the rack of dumbbells, indicating he should just keep going until he couldn’t lift them anymore. Spike accepted this, and turned to the racked equipment, deciding to forego the next few weight levels and instead going right to the forty-five pound weights.
Rainbow showed a bit of concern for his jump. “Hey kid, I know you put on some muscle recently, but do you even weigh forty-five pounds?”
“Sure I do!” he told her defensively. He had checked the scale in the bathroom this morning, and he was a full forty six pounds! Undaunted by the concern of the more experienced mare, Spike set his feet for balance, and proceeded to curl the weight to his chest. This time was much different, the lumps of steel coming up slowly, though steadily, and only meeting Spike’s shoulders with quite a lot of effort. Once they had, Spike dropped the weights to the ground, exhausted but exhilarated to find out how much he had changed.
“Impressive!” congratulated Sven. “Sven must admit, he did not expect such strength from such puny body, but is glad to be wrong in this instance.”  Spike smiled at the lifter, proud of his accomplishment. "Still, test is not over. Go and lift bar.” He gestured to the bench press to Spikes right. Spike nodded and waddled over to the machine. Deciding to skip the bar itself, he instead went to the rack of disk weights beside it, and contemplated which to use. After a bit of thought, his timidity got the best of him and he decided to start small at a pair of ten and a pair of five pound weights, rounding the total out to a good seventy five pounds. Once he and Rainbow had the machine all set up, Spike positioned himself beneath it, took a few breaths to steady himself, and removed the bar from its rack. As with the first time with the dumbbells, the weight was shockingly light, though this time he could certainly feel it. Swiftly, he brought it to his chest and up, re-racking in only two seconds.
“Wow,” he said aloud, “that new dragon strength is some potent stuff!”
“Dragon strength?” Sven questioned. “Vhat is dragon strength mean?”
“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know.” Spike realized that Sven probably wasn’t one of those who had been so worried when he disappeared. “I recently had what you might call a growth spurt, and it came with some kick-butt magical enhancements that I’m supposed to use to-”
“Magical strength?!!” demanded Sven, now genuinely hostile. “Little lizard did not work for muscles?!”
“Hey, it’s not like I had a choice in it!” defended Spike, unsure of what the problem was.
“This does not matter to Sven!” Sven told him hotly. “Excuses mean nothing to Sven! Only natural muscle may work with Sven!”
“What’s it matter?” reiterated Spike. “As long as I can lift the weight, why does it make a difference how I do it?”
“Little lizard is liar, that is what it matters!” declared Sven. “How can lizard teach others to lift, when he does not lift?” Sven began to usher Spike and Dash out of the door, as if they were unwelcome house-guests.
“Hey!” yelled Rainbow, “Why do I have to leave? I actually lift!”
Sven harrumphed. “Rainbow Pony can stay, but must make up for this with flyer duty!” he pointed to a pile of decorated flyers near the entrance. “But little lizard may not work vith Sven if he is not natural!” with that, they were out the door and on the side walk.
Spike, though himself upset at the dead-end and offended at the gym owners attitude, still had the presence of mind to worry about how Rainbow might take the development. “Dash?” he asked her, seeing she was glaring at the closed door. “Dash, are you gonna be ok?”
She grumbled a bit, but responded “Yeah, I’m fine. Flyer duty sucks, but it won’t take long, and I’m still employed.” She lowered her gaze and her head to Spike. “Really, though, I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I really thought I could help you out with this.”
Spike shrugged. “Meh. You’re not the first one who took me down a dead end. Really, though, I’m a little surprised you offered at all, or that you’re getting this upset over it.”
She blushed a bit. “Ahh, it’s just that I know how it is to feel like you gotta have somethin’ to show before you make a move. “
That took Spike by surprise. “Rainbow, did you try and get a job to impress a boy?!”
She gave a screwed up face, as though she had smelled something foul. “What?! No! I got my job to show my dad he didn’t have to worry about me, so it’s just a little similar is all!” Spike held up his claws in surrender, letting his question drop. “I’m just saying,” she continued, “I really just wanted to help you out. I know I give you a lot of crap about the Rarity thing, but this is a big step, and I just wanted to show that I respect that is all.” She elbowed him in the ribs. “Besides, loyalty is kind of my thing. Helping a friend comes with the territory.” She stood and stretched her wings, taking to the air at a low hover and picking up the flyers for her assigned task. “I better get started on this, though. Any idea what you’re gonna try next?”
Spike thought back to his dream with Luna. “The Princess suggested the Game Shack on the other side of town, I figure it’s a good bet.”
“Well, good luck. And don’t worry about this.” She raised the papers in her hooves. “I just need to pass ‘em out in Cloudsdale; the place is made of water vapor, so there’s a pretty high demand for exercise places. I’ll meet standard in a second!”
Spike chuckled at her. “I’d expect nothing less of THE Rainbow Dash.” He waved as she flew off for the cloud fortress, and once she was far off he began the trek to his next potential job.

A good hour later, Spike stood in front of the Game Shack, a popular gaming hub among teens and young ponies. Spike also happened to frequent the place often, and was well aquainted with the owner, Mr Widget. Off to his right, Spike took notice of a pair of other regulars, Snips and Snails, and Snail’s younger brother, Puppy Tales, a reddish orange colt with a blue mane and a story book cutie mark. He waved at them, and the two trotted over to meet him. “Hey guys,’ he greeted, “what’s up?”
“Nuthin’ much, buddy.” Responded Snips in his raspy voice. “Prolly just the same thing as you; waitin’ to play some games.”
For the first time that day, Spike threw his head back as his eyes took on a mystical glow. He breathed a light blue flame, then the magic was gone. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and then noticed two of the three colts shying back a bit. Snails, it seemed, hadn’t noticed a thing. “Uhh, yeah, that’s a thing now.” Spike explained, rubbing the back of his head.
Snips, not sure of what happened, but nonetheless trusting Spike, decided to roll with it. “So, are you waiting for old Widget to open up too? It’s been a while since you been here after all.”
Spike chuckled and shook his head, as an older pony might at the silly opinion of a child. “Oh, young pony, I am far too mature for such things now.” He struck a, he thought, whimsical pose, though he really just looked lost. “No young ones, I have come to seek employment at this fine establishment, that I might forge my own path in this world.” He told them, patting Snips on the head.
“Yeah, whatever.” Snips responded, pushing the offending limb from his skull. “You’re just tryin’ to impress Miss Rarity, and everypony knows it.” Spike sulked a bit. Did everypony in town know?
“I’m glad you’re here.” Came the lower voice of Snails, still not making a lick of sense.
“Uhh, thanks?” responded Spike, unsure of what that was supposed to mean. They all waited a few moments, but with no reason forthcoming, Spike asked “You, maybe, wanna elaborate on that?”
“Nah,” answered Snails, “I already had breakfast. Thanks though.” As the other two rolled their eyes, he ushered his little brother foreward, presenting him to Spike. “But my brother really wanted to meet you.” Attention immediately went to the timid colt, who seemed like he might bolt at any second.
“Uhh, hey, Tales.” Spike greeted him. “Was there something you needed with me?”
The colt nodded his head nervously. “Y-yes sir.” He finally managed to squeak out. “First of all, I just wanted to say thank you for saving my big bro from those timber wolves yesterday. He’s a little slow on the uptake,” the colt huddled close to his big brother and leaned into him, “but he’s really important to me, and always helps with my homework.” As Spike and Snips contemplated the implications of Snails helping anypony with homework, the colt continued. “And second, I’m trying to get assigned to the school paper in my next semester. I’m really good with stories with happy endings, and I was hoping you’d let me write a story about what happened?” he smiled at Spike hopefully.
“Umm, sure, I guess.” Spike shrugged at him. He had been doing that a lot lately, now that he thought about it. “When do you wanna do it?”
The colt could barely contain his excitement. “How about in a couple days, so I can talk to the current editor about getting it in the paper this week?”
Spike nodded. “Sounds good. Just come by the library when you wanna do it.” He thought for a second, before grinning. “Or come back here, if I manage to get this job.”
“Whats this about a job?” asked a gravelly voice from behind the door. Startled, they all turned around to find an old stallion behind them, Mr. Widget. While it was obvious he used to be some shade of brown, he had more grey than anything else, and his thin mane was completely silver. The only thing that stood out was his cutie mark, which was a pile of knick knacks and old electronic toys. He looked over the group of youngsters in front of him, and smiled when he recognized Spike, adjusting his glasses. “Spike m’boy, good to see you!” he ushered the boys inside, the other three going off to play while Spike and Mr. Widget talked. 
“Can’t thank you enough for taking care of that little scuffle with them rotten wolves at the school yard.” He told Spike. He gestured to a chair in the back room, which seemed to double as a dining room for the apartment upstairs. “My grandson Button was right upset about that whole t’do, but that filly Cheerilee told us you kept ‘im and all them other kids right safe and tidy.” He patted Spike on the back. “Good lad, pr’tectin’ all them other kids like that. Why, m’ daughter was right about ready to send a letter to the princess and ‘ave you knighted!” he laughed to himself over the memory.  He gave a little jump, seeming to be struck by an idea. “Oh! Speaking of!” he hobbled over to the staircase behind Spike. “Elaina! Elly, get down here! Bring Button with you!”
“What is it dad?” called a voice from the top of the stairs. Soon enough, down came a light brown mare with a darker brown mane fashioned in a ponytail, and a heart cutie mark with a baby bottle over it. “Is everything o- Oh! Spike!” she started when she saw the young drago. “Wait just a moment, let me get Button!” she hurried back upstairs, as Mr. Widget rolled his eyes.
“Elly, ya durned filly, why didn’t ya bring him down in the first place like I told ya to?” he asked irritably. Still, in a moment she returned with Button in tow. Button Mash was a dark brown earth pony who had two tone brown hair and a video game controller for a cutie mark. What made him stick out, though, was his helicopter beanie which he always seemed to be wearing. Once Button clapped eyes on Spike, he got really excited and ran over to greet him.
“Hey, Spike!” he greeted in his nasally voice. “How’s it feel to be a hero?” he asked.
“Fine, I guess.” Spike shrugged. Button and his mother seemed genuinely shocked at this.
“Fine?!” asked Buttons mom. “You saved all those colts and fillies! Surely you feel some kind of accomplishment?”
“Yeah!” added Button. “I mean, you were like Castlevania in real life!”
Spike gave an exasperated sigh. “You forget guys; I’m friends with the Elements of Harmony, so it’s kind of hard to feel like a hero from behind that reputation. Plus, I’ve already saved the entire Crystal Empire, and the Equestrian Games.” He gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. “Really, anything after that is small potatoes.”
“Small potatoes nuthin!” interjected Button vehemently. “You saved us all! And you’re my friend, so that makes you doubly important!”
Hearing the magic words, Spike froze, making sure to aim his snout away from any of the gathered ponies. Unsure of what he was doing, the ponies in the room just looked at him strangely, like he had farted or something. After nothing happened for a moment, Spike shrugged and spoke. “Sorry, there’s a bit of baggage with saying we’re friends these days.” He explained. “Though, I don’t know why it didn’t-” right on cue for the jinx, Spike’s eyes glowed white and he snorted an earthy gold flame straight up in the air. After he calmed down, he found Button and his family were staring at him in wonder, and not a bit of fear. Spike sighed. “That’s what I was talking about.” He explained. “It’s kind of hard to explain, but essentially it’s a really, really good thing. I promise.”
They all relaxed a bit, but still looked a bit wierded out. “Look,” Spike told them, “I’ll explain it all later, but for now, can we get back to the subject at hoof?” they all nodded. “Good. Now, while I appreciate the thought, pal,” he turned to Button specifically “it’s still on a little different rating system.”
“You shouldn’t compare deeds, young’un!” Mr. Widget wagged a forehoof at Spike. “Each one is important all on its own; As far as the people you’ve helped are concerned, you’re just as good as any Elements of Harmony, and they all feel the same way no matter when or how you helped. Remember that.” Spike gulped and nodded at the elder pony, never having put his deeds in perspective like that before. Mr. Widget’s face softened as he continued to speak. “Now, I believe you were talking about getting a job. What are you looking for?”
Spike nodded confirmation and answered “I don’t really have a specific idea. I was just hoping you would have something around the place I could do.”
Mr. Widget leaned back and looked at Spike quizzically. “Son, you’re not off to a good start. You need to have some kind of rounded out idea of what you want to do if you’re going to go lookin’ for a job.”
“Daddy, come now.” Ms. Elaina scolded. “With all he did for Button and all those other ponies, don’t you think you can give him a little lee-way?”
Spike looked on hopefully, and Mr. Widget mulled it over for a moment. Finally, he said “All right, I suppose a hero could deserve a little helpin’ hand.”  He considered Spike for a bit and asked “We could use a new pony to fix the machines when they break down. Any mechanical experience?” Spike shook his head, a familiar scene playing out. “How about somethin’ with customer management?” again Spike shook his head, looking more sullen. Mr. Widget sighed before standing up on his old hooves. “I’m sorry son, but I really only need those two things, and not especially bad anyhow.” He placed an apologetic hoof about Spikes shoulders.  “I’m afraid I don’t have anything for ya. Though, I gotta ask, why’d you think to come here in the first place?”
Spike sighed. “I’m really good at video games. I figured I could be good at working with them.”
“Well, that’s silly. That’s like sayin’ you can make a pizza ‘cause you like how they taste.” Spike shrunk lower, and Mr. Widget took pity on him. “I tell ya what. As a word of advice, I’ll tell ya the first step of gettin’ a job.” He poked Spike in his armored chest. “Don’t just pick things ya like, instead start with what ya know.”
“Sound’s right to me.” Button’s mom said from behind, trotting up to meet them as the two walked to the exit. “Thanks for trying dad.” She gave her father a little nuzzle. “And you, little guy,” she turned her attention to Spike, and when he looked at her he saw a plate of cookies in her hooves. “I won’t let you leave without a good thank you of my own, and I think I can help you too.” She handed the plate to Spike, who recognized at least three different flavors in the foil wrapped pile of greatness. She giggled when he began to drool slightly. “I’m glad you appreciate them. Now as far as the job search,” he reluctantly turned his attention away from the treats to listen “you might want to try town hall. Most ponies post job openings or small work there, just for ponies-or dragons,” she added, “like yourself. You might try there next.”
She could cook, she had great advice, and Spike had to face it, she was super-hot. He guessed Snips was right; Button’s mom had it goin’ on. Still, though, Rarity was the only mare for his eyes, so, closing his heart to the temptress, he left with a simple “Thanks,” popping a cookie in his mouth.
> Ch 7 Gems and scares and directions, oh my!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 7 Gems and scares and directions, oh my!
With a new point from which to continue his quest for employment, Spike set out for town hall with confidence. Perhaps Mr. Widget had been right, that the reason Spike had been failing was because he was choosing things he liked instead of things he actually knew something about. And so, with that in mind, Spike decided that he wouldn’t take the first job he saw, that he would consider his options, weigh them against his skills, and see what came out on top. He nodded in silent confirmation to himself.
It only took him a few minutes to get to town hall, situated in the center of town as it was, and once in the door, Spike looked for his quarry. However, he immediately ran into an obstacle he did not expect; he had no idea where to go. Fortunately, government employees were the friendliest ponies in Equestria. They had to be, since they dealt with other ponies all day. He located the first employee he could, a yellow and green mare at the front desk. “Hello?” Spike hailed her. “Can you help me?”
The mare, who had been doing a fairly good job of polishing her hoof before he came along, turned on him with disdain. “What do you want?!” she demanded. “Can’t you see were busy here?”
Spike took a moment to register the emptiness of the building, then pressed on. “Umm, I was looking for local job postings?”
The receptionist rolled her brown eyes before responding snidely. “Oh, does baby want his first job?” Spike immediately bristled at being called a baby (though, in her defense, he was carrying a plate of cookies around). “Look kid, we got better things to do than play with some princess’ pet lizard. Why don’t you just buzz off?”
Spike decided that it was time for a more tactful approach.  Before the rude receptionist had time to pick her hoof-file back up, a jet of intense green flame shot past her, singeing the ends of her green mane. She returned her attention to him fully, silent from shock and surprise. Spike was glaring at her. “Where are the job postings?” he asked again.
She all at once remembered she worked there, and swiftly directed the young drago. “Up the stairs to the left, it’ll be the large empty room. Regular job postings are on the left and odd-jobs are on the right. Here’s your visitors pass.” She passed a laminated pink card over the counter to him. “All payment is to be determined by the employer, failure to pay is an issue to be taken up with the authorities. Thank you for coming.” She shimmied away from him in fear, and Spike immediately regretted losing his temper like that.
‘Maybe if don’t want the ponies in town to treat me like a monster, I’ve gotta get a hold of my temper.’ He thought quietly as he walked away. It occurred to him that anger had been coming more easily recently; was that part of the chryssaling too, or was he just finding himself in those situations more often now? He shook the thoughts from his head. One issue at a time. For now, he had to impress Rarity… get a job. He meant get a job. You can’t prove he didn’t.
Once on the second level, Spike found the room he was looking for immediately to his left. Just as the receptionist had told him, the odd job section was to his right, but he wanted something that would last; it wasn’t so much about the bits as it was the prestige. The job postings were “Help Wanted” posters arranged in a grid formation. As he got closer, one in particular caught his eye. It was an image of a finely sculpted jewel, with the words “Gem Inspector needed. Prior experience required for all applicants.” For a moment, Spike considered passing it by, but decided to give it a bit more thought. While he had promised himself he wouldn’t pick the first job he saw, this one did seem to fit him, and in a way he liked. While it was true that gems were personal fascination, his dragon heritage gave him powerful predisposition for quality control. He could smell a fake a mile away, and could always tell a pure gemstone from one that hadn’t had enough time to completely crystalize.
Spike wrote down the information from the flyer, deciding it was more polite to leave it be in case things didn’t work out. Ready to go, Spike left the room and went back downstairs. Returning the visitor pass to the rude receptionist, he left town hall for the jewelry shop, “The Glittering Pony.”
In a few minutes, Spike was in front of the jeweler’s store. Having dropped the cookies off in the library on his way, Spike was sure he was ready to give this a try. He patted himself on the cheeks a couple times to ensure he was as awake as possible, then entered the facility. For the second time that day, however, he found himself surprised by what he found inside. Unlike before, though, it was not the decor or level of cleanliness that surprised him, as it had with Sven’s fitness shop, but the unicorn who greeted him.
“Spikey Wikey!” came the most lyrical voice in Ponyville, sending shivers of surprise up Spike’s spikes. Coming straight for him was Rarity, the very mare he had had a crush on since he met her, and the very mare he was trying to get a job for. There was no way this could go wrong. “Darling, it’s so good to see you!” she declared, giving him an affectionate nuzzle. “You haven’t been by the shop since your chryssaling! I’ve been so worried about you.” She rubbed his cheek for emphasis.
Deciding that speaking was more important than contact right now, Spike brushed her hoof away with a blush. “Yeah, sorry.” He said. “Princess Luna wouldn’t let me or Twi out for the past two weeks. Yesterday was the first day I’ve been allowed out since.”
It seemed his explanation only exasperated her more, however. “Egads, darling!” she exclaimed. “Two whole days you’ve been out and about, and you never came to see me?”  Her ears drooped and tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. “I’m hurt.” She said with a pout.
In alarm, Spike quickly set out to explain himself before he caused the love of his life any more pain. “N-no, it’s not that I didn’t want to see you!” he waved his claws at her to make her stop crying. “I’ve just been really busy, is all!”
“Hmm?” she continued to pout as she considered the words. “Oh, yes, your little job hunt.” She said at length. “Sweetie told me about it, but I didn’t think she was serious. So you’re really doing that?” she asked him. Spike nodded vigorously, glad they were both on the same page. She perked up in an instant. “Oh, well, I can certainly respect that.” She said with a regal pat of her perfectly quaffed mane. “I suppose you’re here to ask me for a job? If you just give me a moment, I was helping the jewelers here with some quality control issues, then we can be off.”
A little squeamishly, Spike told her his true intentions. “Actually, Rarity, I didn’t know you were here.” He confessed. She looked at him with surprise. “I came answering the ad for an inspector.”
“B-but,” unlike before, she seemed genuinely confused now. “Why wouldn’t you come to me? Wouldn’t you like a job at my boutique? After all, you’ve been helping me for years, it just seems like it would be natural.” She looked like she had been betrayed.
Again in hot water, Spike explained himself. “N-no! It’s just that Carousel Boutique isn’t the kind of job I was looking for.” This, however, just made it worse, and now she looked genuinely hurt. He tried again, hopefully this time without the’ awkward little boy’s inability to speak properly’ thing. “No!” he tried to get her attention before she got too upset. “I just mean that, working with you is its own reward! I was looking for a way to makes some bits, but I would never ask to be paid for helping you in a million years!”
Understanding his position now, her mood immediately improved. “Ohh, Spikey Wikey, that’s so sweet of you to say!” she caught him in an embrace, one which he had no intention of breaking himself. “Of course I can understand it when you put it like that!” She released him, to his disappointment, and assumed her usual dignified posture. “Now, darling you said you’ve come for the job opening here?” he nodded, just giddy to be speaking with her. “Well, I’m afraid there’s an issue there.” She said sadly, causing poor Spike to crumble. “You see, one of the stipulations is that you must be experienced, which I’m afraid you’re not, dear.”
Spike, though, was undaunted, and even perked back up. “Oh, is that it?” he asked, surprising her. “It’s cool, I’ve got something better.”
“Oh, do tell.” Drolled a male voice to their right. Spike looked to see a crème white unicorn stallion with a pince-nez and monocle, a slicked back black mane, and a jeweler’s inspection loupe for his cutie mark. “Please tell us how youth will trump experience. I’m dying to know.” He said dramatically, making sure to look down his nose at Spike the whole time.
Fortunately, Spike had enough experience with these types in Canterlot that his attitude didn’t faze him. “I’m not talking about youth, I’m talking about heritage.” He thrust a thumb into his own chest. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m a dragon, and we’ve got better eyes and noses for quality gems than anypony. I don’t need experience; I’ve got genetics on my side.”
The haute pony looked quite taken aback, and even Rarity seemed impressed. “That… might actually work out. Tell me, do you have a frame of reference so I can know how skilled you are?”
“Well, I don’t hoard, if that’s what you’re asking,” Spike told him, “but I can probably give you some kind of demonstration.” The pony motioned him forward, to the middle of the shop. Spike stepped into place and took a few deep sniffs, and let his draconic eyes do their magic. After a few moments of quiet, he turned back the store clerk and his lady love. “Three of the ponies in the line on your left are trying to trade for new rings with cubic zirconium ones, so you should probably catch them. There’s a filly with an honest to Celestia star sapphire in her pocket, but the clerk she’s talking to refuses to even listen to her, so I think it’s time somepony intervened. Beyond that, it’s what you might expect, except that the large diamond on the top right corner of that display case” he pointed to a glass display case to their immediate right “has a significant defect in its core. You won’t see it until it’s been set, since it seems to be a lump of quarts, and not a real spot in the gem.” The silence was deafening, and Spike couldn’t help but let some Canterlotian Smugness taint his features. (He was born and raised there, after all.)
“Spikey, th-that’s incredible!” Praised Rarity. “I never knew your sense for these things was so sharp!”
“Indeed.” Added the clerk, himself looking very shocked, though a bit more composed than Rarity. He stepped forward to hustle Spike to a room in the rear, Rarity following behind. “It seems my manners have eluded me.” He said. “I am Sharp Eye, the proprietor of ‘The Glittering Pony,’ and I daresay we will be happy to welcome you to the staff.” Once in the room in the back, Spike saw that it was some sort of sorting area, which could be accessed from the main store by a compact window off to the side. Sharp Eye directed Spike over to a pony sitting behind a desk, cluttered with almost a dozen fine tools. “This is our primary inspector, Clear Heart. He will instruct you as to what you will be needed to do. If he approves of your work, we will discuss a more permanent position.” Sharp Eye nodded to Spike and Rarity, and then left the three alone.
Clear Heart was, for lack of a better word, rickety. The poor old stallion, grey of coat and mane, with pupils that looked like they hadn’t dilated in years, was shivering incessantly despite the room being a very comfortable temperature. He looked up and looked at them with pinprick pupils… and immediately proceeded to freak the buck out. “DRAGON!”  he hollered. “DRAGON IN THE STORE! QUICK, IT’S GOING TO STEAL ALL THE GEMS!!” he swiftly gathered all the gem stones on the table to him and ran into a corner. Spike sighed, realizing this might be the new norm as he met new ponies through the day. Not sure if he should be the one to handle this, he instead turned to Rarity behind him and gestured to the frightened earth pony.
She quickly caught the hint and put on her best pony-pleaser smile and trotted to the poor stallion. “Heart, dear, do try to calm down.” She requested smoothly with a toss of her mane.
Clear heart, however, completely ignored her, and swiftly positioned himself so that Rarity was between he and Spike. “Take the unicorn!” he pleaded. “She’s fluffy and important, you can get a ransom for her!” Rarity was immediately offended. “Just leave my precious gems alone!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN FLUFFY, YOU ROTTEN LITTLE-ehem,” Rarity caught her temper quickly and coughed into her hoof. Such an unladylike outburst, how uncouth! “Clear, ignoring that statement, I would like to introduce Spike, personal assistant and adoptive family of Princess Twilight Sparkle, who has come in response to the job posting you placed. Be a dear and say hello.”
She moved to the side so that the two could look at each other, and Spike smiled and waved his claw. It was not well received. “Oh, Celestia, don’t let him eat me!” the pony whined, clearly ready to run for his life. Spike just slumped in exasperation.
Again, Rarity intervened. “Clear Heart, darling, I want you to calm down and think about what I just said.” She said slowly. “He’s the personal assistant of a princess, and he’s come here to work with you. And as an Element of Harmony, I can vouch for him.” she reassured. Clear Heart registered her words this time, calming slightly, but still looking fearfully between the unicorn and the dragon.
Spike decided a little Canterlot charm would go a long way here, and attempted to try and employ a special bow he had seen a visiting pegasus dignitary do. He arched his back and made the tips of his wings meet in front of him, then swept them out wide with his arms as he bowed low. “Hello. I’m Spike, and it is nice to make your acquaintance.” Spike Straightened out, Smiled at the pony. However the fangs still put the pony on shivering edge, and the act did little to help. Spike slumped and released the smile. He tried to pick something that might make the pony feel a little better, taking notice of the gems he was protecting with his life. ‘meh, worth a shot.’ “If it makes you feel any better sir,” Spike ventured, “I don’t hoard gems, so I’m not going to steal from you.”
This had an immediate and dramatic effect, and at once Clear Heart popped up to his hooves and returned to his desk. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so?” he asked. “Honestly, you could have just opened with that; would’ve made things much easier.” He told Spike with a smile. Spike didn’t move, too stunned that his feeble ditch effort had actually paid off, whereas Rarity looked ready to throttle him.
However, she merely “humphed” loudly and walked indignantly out the door. “We shall discuss that little episode at length later darling, especially the ‘fluffy’ bit.” She said dangerously calm as she passed him by.
Clear Heart chuckled nervously, sweating bullets, and decided to get to work before he had another panic attack. “Heh, heh, Spike was it?” he asked. “Well, it’s pretty simple, just inspect the gems your given, separate them based on quality and type, then give the ones that the jewelers or customers who come to that window there-” he gestured to the small access window Spike had noticed before, “-ask for when they need them. You’ll be inspecting our own stock, as well as that which customers bring us.” He directed Spike to an open desk on the other side of the room with a pile of gems and some tools already on it. “It doesn’t look like Miss Rarity will be joining us for a while,” said the jittery pony “so you can just finish up her work load for a start. This is a surprisingly high stress job, considering the value of the objects we work for, so if you need some help keeping your wits about you, just let me know.” He rubbed a proud hoof on his shivering carriage, as though he hadn’t just pussed out on an epic scale a few moments ago.
With that, they both settled into work, Clear Heart with his tools and practiced eyes, Spike with his sense of smell and draconic eye for quality. Spike had to resist eating a few of them, and he eventually had his gems organized into piles he defined as ‘low quality,’ ‘mid quality,’ ‘high quality,’ ‘display quality,’ ‘dragon quality,’ and ‘hoard it like its stolen quality.’ The last one called to him constantly, but thankfully his greed was not magical in nature now, and he was able to resist.
It seemed he had become kind of popular in a short period of time. Given his unusual method of sniffing the gems, as well as the earlier outburst from Clear heart, many waiting ponies or bored employees came to the window simply to get a look at him. Given his current popularity, as well as the relative ease and speed with which he worked, Spike felt like he might have lucked out and finally found a job he could do well. The older pink and green mare that next came to the window might have something to say on the matter however.
“What is that dragon doing here?!”  She screeched angrily, pointing an accusing hoof at Spike through the window. “I want it out this instant!”
Rarity was there momentarily, trying to keep the situation in hoof. “Miss Glitter, darling, I must insist you calm down. I assure you, Spike is no dragon of ill repute and is quite the little gentle drake, so you have nothing to worry about.”
The older mare, however, was having none of it. “I know just what kind of dragon he is, young filly.” She hissed. “He’s the viscous little lizard that tore up the school yesterday! My daughter is having nightmares about it even still!”
Rarity was taken aback, and Spike himself was surprised and hurt on her take of the situation. “Tore up the school? Miss Glitter, my sister Sweetie Belle was right in the thick of it, and I assure you dear Spike was just protecting the children from those timber wolves!”
Glitter was in no mood, however, and instead turned her nose up at Rarity is disdain. “Don’t try and tell me what that violent monster did or didn’t do, I know full well!”
Rarity bristled, whereas Spike shrunk into himself. “Now you listen here, miss, Spike is-” however Glitter cut her off as she shoved past her to Sharp Eye.
“Sharp.” She said curtly. “I’ll have you know that I and my compatriots have no intention of bringing our business to this establishment so long as that creature is here. You need to do something about this- now.” She stamped her hoof to finalize it. As fearful proof of her claim, she caught the attention of two other mares in the room and all three of them left the building with their noses turned up, while behind them Rarity and Spike sat stunned.
Sharp Eye, ever the crisp business pony, immediately trotted to the back room to speak with Spike and Clear heart. “Mr. Dragon.” He began. “I was unaware of this kind of history. Would you care to explain?” he was undeniably cold, and being so unused to the kind of attitudes he was now facing, Spike crumpled like paper, and found himself unable to speak.
Thankfully, Rarity came to his rescue. “He doesn’t need to, Mr. Sharp. I can tell you all you need to know.” She swiftly entered the room and stood beside Spike to lend him strength. “Yesterday at the school, a group of timber wolves attacked the children while they gathered to begin the day. Young Spike here intervened without hesitation and positioned himself valiantly between the wolves and the children, selflessly rescuing five fillies who had been cornered by the beasts, my sister included.” She pulled Spike comfortingly close to her, lending him strength. Smiling down at him, she finished saying “I assure you, on my honor as a fashionista, that little Spikey Wikey is a thoroughbred hero, and nothing less.”
Sharp Eye did not let his visage change as he turned to Clear Heart. Immediately catching the hint, Clear stood and spoke “His work is impeccable, sir, and incredibly swift. Aside from a little mouth-watering at the best in the bunch, which is better than many we’ve hired, his manners and ethic are excellent as well. From a professional standpoint, sir, he would be a great benefit.”
Releasing his breath, Sharp Eye finally relaxed, but his demeanor was not positive. “I was afraid of that.” At Spike and Rarity’s inquiring looks, he elaborated. “As Mr. Clear said, Spikes presence could be a benefit, but lack thereof will not harm us.” They both deflated, and Sharp turned to Spike specifically. “I’m sorry, but if you’re continued presence could in any way harm my business, then as an obligation to my other employees I can’t keep you on staff.” He came forward, taking a gem from the ‘hoard it like its stolen’ pile as he passed Spike’s work area, hoofing it to Spike. “I’m sorry, but until this incident passed on, there is no place for you here. This should more than adequately compensate your time, and any injury this incident might have done to your pride.” He smiled, sadly but sincerely. “I have a nephew at that school; let this be thanks for that as well, and don’t hesitate to return when it passes.”
Spike took the gem in his claw, a small but perfect ruby, and held it close, too upset to maintain eye contact.

> Papers and... oh, forget it
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 8 Papers and … oh, forget it.
On his way out of “the Glittering Pony,” Sharp Eye, ever the prudent business owner, gave Spike a bit of advice on his job search. “You got lucky here.” He told him. “Your dragon heritage, while it may have lost you the job, is also the only reason you were considered. You need to some reputable job history; start with some random busy work to build up references.”

Spike, despite the small ruby in his claw, was significantly downtrodden. He had never been treated that way before, hated not just for his heritage but for his own actions. Why was Miss Glitter mad? He had saved those kids, hadn’t he? Didn’t that make him the good-guy? Spike was so unsure of what was going on at the moment, and he was only more confused when he remembered that she had said ‘compatriots.’ Did she mean the other two mares in the store, or was something bigger going on?

What scared Spike most was that there was a chance that much of the town now hated him for doing what he had thought was the right thing. If his moral values were so far off from that of normal ponies, what did that say about dragons in general? All this thinking was making Spikes head hurt, and the sick feeling he was getting grew into a full blown tummy ache. In fact, he was so distracted by his sad thoughts that he didn’t notice the red blur coming right for him.

“Spike!” called a thick accent “Look out!”  before he could register what he was supposed to be looking out for, he was plowed into by what felt like a metal bathtub on wheels. With a grunt, and the slightest squeak, Spike bounced off of the offending device and right into a tree, where his sharp dorsal ridges sunk in and got him stuck to the side comically.

His previous sour thoughts now lost to the distraction gods, Spike was simply mad at his current predicament. “What the hay?!” he demanded from his awkward position. “Who the heck was that?! Come here and get me down!”

Hearing some stifled giggles to his left, but unable to turn his head, Spike was forced to wait until, inevitabley, three particular little fillies filled his vision. “Howdy, Spike.” said Apple Bloom, trying and failing to keep from outright laughing at the drago. “Are ya stuck?” she asked in an exaggerated manner, eyes wide and a big dumb grin on her face. All at once the three started to laugh hysterically at him, while he simply sat with a very unamused expression, refusing to speak. Once they were done, Apple Bloom pointed out “Ah did tell ya to look out, ya know.”

Spike just grunted. “Whatever. Just get me down will you?” he asked them. Still giggleing, the three moved in and each grabbed one of his limbs, and together yanked him down. “Hmph.” He grunted sourly. “Great way to thank the guy who saved your hides.”

He instantly regretted the comment, as all three became downtrodden in moments. “Sorry, Spike.” Apologized Sweetie Belle, her tail tuck between her legs. “We weren’t trying to be mean.”

Spike scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. “Nah, it’s alright. It isn’t cool of me to hold it over you like that; that’s not why I did it, and it isn’t right to abuse it like that.”  He apologized as well. The Cutie Mark Crusaders perked up and smiled, showing it was alright. Once he was sure they weren’t upset any more, he asked “But what are you three doing out here? Shouldn’t you be at home, since I doubt school will be open today?”

“Well, kinda.” Scootalloo responded. “We were worried about Miss Cheerilee, and my mom said it was ok to come see her, their sisters too.” The other two nodded their affirmation of the statement.

It was endearing to Spike to see that the three could still be so worried about sompony else, even after what they had been through. “Well, that’s nice of you. How is she?” he asked them.

Sweetie took the lead. “She says she’s ok, but now that the police and news ponies are gone, she’s having a lot of trouble trying to catch up on grading our papers.” She gasped excitedly all of a sudden, doing a very amicable impression of Pinkie Pie. “Is that what you’re doing, Spike?” she asked. “Are you going to go help her?”

Spike actually had no idea that he had been heading in the direction of the school house, but he wasn’t about to let that ruin their opinion of him. “Sure is.” He lied. “She said you three asked her for a job on my behalf.”

While Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had the decency to blush shyly, Scootalloo was all for the attention, and thrust her chest out proudly. ‘jeeze’ thought Spike, ‘she really is a miniature Rainbow Dash.’ In spite of Scoot’s pride, however, it was Apple Bloom who spoke up. “Yeah, well ah felt right bad for what happened on the farm yesterday, an mah sister says ‘if ya’ll got time ta feel sorry, ya’ll got time ta fix it,’ so that’s what we did.”

“She’s usually talking about us, though.” Interjected Scootalloo, some humility finally tempering her features. Spike couldn’t help but smile sympathetically.

“All right, you three,” he said, wagging his finger like a babysitter, “You should probably get going home. I’ll get going to help Cheerilee.” They giggled as they all returned to their red wagon, Scootalloo donning her lightning striped helmet at the helm on her scooter, and finally the three took off. Spike waved after them, smiling widely. “Those three are a walking disaster.” He said through his teeth to no-one in particular.

**************************************

‘Knock knock knock’ Spike rapped on the door to the school house. Taking a brief moment to examine  his surroundings, Spike noticed there was hardly any sort of indication of the near catastrophe that had occurred yesterday. While the wolves hadn’t really done any real damage, to the kids or the property, Spike still expected some sort of litter from the kids, maybe the area to be taped off by the police, but no. it looked as it did any other day, really.

“One moment.” Called a mares voice, one Spike immediately recognized as Cheerilee, pulling the youngling from his thoughts. The door opened to reveal the mulberry purple mare, and though slightly disheveled, she appeared as bright and alert as always. Seeing the smiling dragon, the two locked eyes, just staring for a moment. It quickly became awkward, but before Spike could break the silence with some sort of witty comment (hey, what’s up counted) her eyes went wide and she leaned into him. “Are you here for what I think you’re here for?” she asked in a harsh whisper, as if speaking too loudly might scare him away.

“Uhhh,” he began, unsure as to why he was getting this sort of reaction from her, “yes?”

Cheerilee immediately leapt into the air, yelling “Yes!” she grabbing bodily and dragged him through the door. “Come inside,” she said, not quite grasping the full purpose of an invitation, “we’ve got a lot to do!” she giggled to herself, seeming giddy for some reason.

“Uhh, Miss Cheerilee?” Spike asked. “What’s going on?”

All at once, she seemed to come to her senses. “Oh, oh my, I’m sorry.” She apologized. “It’s just that I haven’t had much sleep, on account of what happened yesterday.” She fell onto her rump and began to rub her temples. “First the police showed up, and I had to explain everything to them. Then the Mayor wanted a written report immediately, and the courier wouldn’t leave until I had finished it, and finally all the parents came back to yell at me. Do you know what it’s like to have a little over fifteen sets of parents glaring and yelling at you, demanding answers for something you had no control over?! No you do not.” She said, not giving him the chance to interject. “I actually ended up sleeping here, only to get woken up by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, so that was an ordeal.” She sighed deeply. “I know they mean well, and Sweetie actually brought me some really good iced tea, but those three are so high maintenance it hurts.” At this point she suddenly perked up. “But you’re here now, so I don’t have to handle all the kids papers alone!” she giggled manically.

Spike was suddenly noticing the similarities to another purple bookworm in his life, and decided to head the crazy off at the pass. “Uhh, you know,” he told her, “I really can handle this on my own.” He placed a gentle claw on her shoulder, gaining her full attention. “If you just walk me through a few of them, so I can get a handle on your grading criteria, I’m sure I can take care of the whole deal while you get a well-deserved nap. What is it, like twenty or so anyway?” he asked confidently.

“Oh, no, you don’t understand Spike.” She told him. “I have about five different classes in a day, on account of the different age groups.” She showed him the papers, which were in a massive pile behind her desk, the size of which made Spike whimper internally, both for himself and the realization that Cheerilee had taken care of this kind of stuff on her own for years. “I had all five write from the same prompt, so I could have a big reading hubaloo in a couple weeks.” She positioned herself behind the pile, it coming up to her collar, and twice as wide as her body. “In all, there’s got to be nearly one hundred and fifty essays here, some hitting the four page mark for the more dedicated students.”

Spike gulped, immediately realizing this wouldn’t be the quick job he thought it would be. But one look at the bags under her eyes, and Spike knew he was needed, and being the chivalrous drago he was, he fully intended to do his damage to the workload. Rasping it out as he said it, almost as though the nap he could have been taking was choking him to stop the words, he replied “T-the offer still stands, Cheerilee.” He eeked out. “Just walk me through the process and criteria of each age group, and I’ll have it done.”

Cheerilee looke like she might cry from joy, but she chose to just give him a quick hug instead, and pulled out a stack of papers from a drawer in her desk. “Thank you so much, Spike, you don’t know how much that means to me.” She pressed the papers into his claws. “These are the criteria check cards; these ones are for the kindergarten class, and theres more in that drawer there for the higher grades.” She trotted over to a couch in the back, pulled out a worn out blanket and plopped down for a nap. “Just follow the checklist, and I won’t even need to help you. Just wake me up if you need something.” She waved a hoof at him tiredly.

Damning himself for his chivalrous attitude, Spike smacked the cards against his head a few times. With an exasperated gasp, he looked at the pile of essays, just thrown in a corner. ‘guess the first thing I’ll be doing is separating out the age groups.’ He thought glumly, Twilights training taking over for better or worse. As an after-thought, he yelled out “Hey, Cheerilee? One thing.”

“Yes?” she said tiredly, obviously not long for consciousness.

“What’s the prompt for the essays? You said they all have the same one.”

She thought a moment, then said hazily “It was… hmmm… tell me who your favorite princess is… ‘yawn’… and why.” With that she fell into her dreams.

Looking to the pile with newfound fear, Spike muttered out “Hoo-boy.”

**************************************	

He was done. After all this time, all the work, all the crying over how bad the upperclassmen had written, and the seething frustration at the underclassmen’s hoofwriting, he was finally done. Many of the paperes were the same, despite being about different Princesses; the boys said ‘cuz she’s super hot,’ and the girls said ‘cuz she’s really pretty.’ (Odd how the two coincided, now that he thought of it.) Still, some weren’t too bad, Princess Celestia holding the biggest sway, Luna right behind, as well as some for Cadence. What surpised him was that Sweetie Belle’s had been about Twilight, focused on how nice and friendly she was, and how she had done so much for everypony. He had resolved to invite her to lunch with him and Twilight next time he got the chance.

Weakly, but not without pride, he looked at five stacks of papers, graded according to just below Twilight’s standards. “Cheerilee.” He called feebly to the mulberry lump on the couch. “Cheerilee, I’m done.” Slowly, the schoolteacher in question began to stir.

“Hmm? Whozat?” she looked around blearily, having forgotten where she was.

“Cherilee, it’s Spike. I graded the papers for you, Remember?” it hurt to think about.

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she slowly, but with gathering speed, regained her senses. “Really?” she asked. “Oh, yes that’s right, I remember. How’d you do, hon?”

He perked up at the chance to impress her. “I’m finished!” he declared, and waved at the five stacks. Cheerilee looked at the piles dreamily, as though expecting him to say ‘psych! You’re still asleep, and no-ones gonna help you!’ However, when that didn’t happen, her eyes widened and a smile erupted on her lips.

“Spike!” she exclaimed as she leapt up, “This is wonderful! Thank you so much!” she trotted over to the piles, enthused at the prospect of not having to read them all. To check his work, she read the pages that were on top, and nodded after a bit. “This is wonderful! You’re a bit stricter than me, but I’ve been getting soft anyhow!” she did a little happy dance where she stood, more and more reminiscent of Spikes own caretaker.

“If you like that, than you’ll love this.” He held out five pieces of paper, each with the names and grades of the ponies in the respective classes. And he was right. She took the papers in her hooves and looked them over, looking like she might be about to cry. ‘wow, this poor mare really needed a break. I should probably change the subject before she asks to marry me.’ He pulled three papers from behind the piles on the desk, and offered them to Cheerilee. “These three were exemplary in my opinion, and they even run the gambit on the age groups.” He let her take them, and came up beside her to look at them. “Not only are they well thought out and organized, but they are actually very well written, the one by Puppy Tales especially. Though, you know, it’s kinda funny how their all about-”

But then, midscentence, that rotten old jerk Murphy and his stupid law decided to pay a visit. Being as close as he was to Cheerilee, her bedhead being as bad as it was, her hair invariably went up and tickled his nose. And of course there’s only one reaction when that happens.

“AAA-CHOOO!!” Spike sneezed emerald flames directly on the papers, incinerating them instantly.

“Spike!” cried Cheerilee, partly out of fear, and partly out of anger. “Be careful! You toasted those papers, and you could have hurt me!”

Spike waved his claw at her to try and calm her down, his other engaged in covering his face to prevent another sneeze. “Don’t worry!” he told her “that fire wouldn’t have been able to even singe your fur, and the papers are fine!” he pointed at the ground. “See? No ashes, so that means all I did was send them… to…” he slapped his forehead hard enough to produce an audible ‘SMACK.’

“What?” asked Cheerilee. “Where’d they go?”


**************************************


Princess Celestia was having a marvelous day. Not only had court been remarkably empty today, but she had been able to spend time with Twilight, once she stopped being so mad about the Spike thing. They had even eaten the rest of the cake he had sent over (the second cupcake never left the throne.) So, all in all, things were going well.

Until three messages arrived by Spike fire delivery. Alone in the throne room, enjoying some of her down time while catching up on some paper work, she was quite surprised to see them. At first delighted to see the correspondence, her mood swiftly darkened when she read their headlines.

“Why I Think Princess Luna is the prettiest.” By Fleetfeather, 2nd grade Cheerilee’s Class.

“Why Princess Luna is Amazing.” By Tender Hoof, 4th grade Cheerilee’s Class.
However, the last one took the proverbial cake, leaving no bones about the authors stance on the subject. It even had a cover page, the title and heading printed boldly as the only subjects of the page.

“Luna Is Best Pony”
By Puppy Tales
Kindergarten, Cheerilee’s class.


**************************************


Princess Luna was having an absolutely horrid day. Not only had she received what she believed to be a bribe of love from Spike, but her sister had insisted on telling Twilight, as well as anypony who was passing by, forever extending the poor lunar Princesses woes. And on top of it all, with the day court being so quiet, that meant something was likely revving up to practically attack the night court. Could this get any worse?

Yes.

In a sudden burst of light and sound, there stood in her shattered doorway her very own sister, crackling with the energy needed to bypass the teleportation block on her royal chambers and her eyes glowing a sterile white. “Luna, dear sister, we need to talk.” Yes, it certainly can.

> Ch9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch9 
“Look, Miss Cheerilee,” a rather embarrassed drago began, “I promise it’s not an issue. All I have to do is send another letter and ask for them back (and an apology for their contents), and we’ll be fine.”
To her credit, the mulberry earth pony managed not to hyperventilate at finding out she had just sent the ruler of the nation three essays on why she was arguably less popular than her sister. “Spike, you did great, and I appreciate all the help. But I’m not going to lie, this might be a deal breaker.” She told him as tactfully as she could.
Spike sighed, recognizing a pattern at this point. “Yeah,” he said despondently “I guess I get that. I’ll send the letter to the princess when I get home in a bit. Using Twilight’s nice paper and the messenger seal might make her feel a little better about the whole thing. I’ll get them back to you when I get them, kay?”
Cheerilee put a hoof on his shoulder, trying to ease the news. “Spike, I know you didn’t do it on purpose, and obviously your work ethic” she gestured to the large sorted piles he had graded “is impeccable.” Spike gave a half-hearted smile to show he appreciated the gesture, but his heart obviously wasn’t in it. “Don’t worry Spike, I’m just a bit scared at sending the mare who controls the sun essays on why she’s second fiddle. Rationally, I know it was a mistake, and I trust the princess enough to think she won’t take it personally.” She dropped her hoof, but lowered her head to look him in the eyes. “Spike, would you be so kind as to come back on Monday, and help me keep an eye on the younger classes?”
Spike showed a bit of life now, this time making an effort at an honest smile. “That’d be fine, Miss Cheerilee.” She smiled and patted him on the back.
“Now then!” she pepped. “Back home with you! I want those essays back, toot sweet.” She scolded good-naturedly. Spike snorted and saluted goofily.
Their mirth was short lived however, when they both heard a ruckus outside. “What in the world?” Cheerilee questioned. “There isn’t supposed to be anypony here. Did you bring a friend?”
Spike went to the window to see what was going on, and immediately Cheerilee got the message that something was wrong when the baby dragons scales paled and his wings drooped. “I don’t think any of them are my friends, Miss Cheerilee.” She walked up beside him to check for herself, and gasped at what she saw. Outside her school house was a gathering of almost thirty ponies, not counting some of the children accompanying them. Though most were empty hoofed, the several ponies in front made it clear what the purpose of the angry mob was. It was Glitter, the mare from the jewelry shop, and her several friends. “I don’t suppose there’s a back door I could use?” he asked fearfully.
Able to see the seriousness of the situation, Cheerilee led him to the back of the classroom, and into the stationary closet. As they moved aside some of the items on the ground, so they could get to the emergency exit in the back (stars above, she feared the day when she would need it,) a knock at the front door called their attention. “Cheerilee!” called an unfamiliar stallion, “Cheerilee, open the door! We’d like to have a word with you about making that lizard your teachers’ assistant!”
‘What? How did they even know?’ Spike wondered fearfully.  Before he could think about the answer, though, Cheerilee pulled him close and whispered harshly “Spike, I’m going to let them in, and try and keep them here. You go out the door here and get back to town; stay with one of your friends.” She then ushered him out the door, and closed it behind him. He heard the lock latch into place behind him, so, knowing there was no going back, Spike began to move. Before he got very far, he heard the ponies get inside, and start yelling at Cheerilee for making him her assistant, ignoring her objections that he hadn’t been hired.
Moving as quickly as he dared, Spike stayed close to the building and made sure to duck under the windows. When he ran out of wall, regretfully, he stopped to think about how next to proceed. He couldn’t well just make a mad dash across the school-yard, he’d be spotted from inside instantly. Then he saw that a fence surrounded the property of the school, and even though it had gaps in between each post, they were close enough together to make it difficult to see what might be on the other side. Spike figured if he could get over the fence without being seen, it’d be his best shot at getting back into town. Taking a moment to gather his nerves, he overheard some of the shouting from inside the house. It was obvious the ponies inside were only getting more rowdy, and Cheerilee was becoming less and less capable of dealing with it. ‘Thank Celestia she’s not part of the friend hoard. I don’t wanna think about what’d happen if I had to go in there.’ He shuddered silently at the thought of facing all those angry ponies. ‘I don’t think I’d wish that on any of my frien-’ he stopped.
It occurred to Spike that even though she wasn’t a part of his friend hoard, she was still his friend, wasn’t she? Spike realized that even though he collected friends instead of jewelry, he still had to put effort into how he acted, or he’d be just like the greedy dragons his friends had tried so hard to keep him from imitating. That meant that he had to go the extra mile, and for more than just those who he was getting magic from. Making his decision, he quickly formulated a plan and began to act on it before it was too late. As swift as he could, Spike jumped over the fence and made his way to the front of the schoolhouse, but ran into an issue once there. He had assumed, due to all the noise from inside the building, that all the gathered ponies had made their way inside to yell at Cheerilee. But unfortunately, it now appeared that several had remained outside, and even though they were all facing the door and looking in the windows, it still meant he had less time to escape after saving Cheerilee.
And save her he would; in the most spectacularly stupid way he could think of. “HEY! JERKS!” he hollered as loud as he could. Immediately, all the ponies whipped around, and even some of the ponies inside came to see. “Hah,” he mock-laughed at them “you all responded to ‘jerks.’” And immediately ran for his little scaly life.
“There he is!” he heard behind him. “Get it! Go get it!” and the chase was on. Spike had never been very quick on his short stubby legs, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun the ponies with his usual two legged gait, so he resorted to running on all-fours, which he absolutely hated because it made him look like an actual lizard. It did however make him considerably faster, and with the gap of time it took all the angry mob ponies to get out of the school yard, he actually felt like he might get away with his little stunt. He even went so far as to flap his wing for little jumps and bursts of speed.
But, inevitabley, he heard, and felt, the thundering of hooves catching up, and he realized his mistake. A little dragon, no matter how healthy or fast, could never outrun a pony in a foot-race, and certainly couldn’t outrun a whole group of them.
A large brown earth-pony stallion he didn’t recognize ran up alongside him and hopped into his path, yelling “Stop, you little creature!” Spike promptly ignored him and ran around the angry pony, but wasn’t able to get very far before he found another pony blocking his path, then another, and in no time he was surrounded by a ring of angry ponies; ones angry at him.
“This is the end of the line, you little monster!” screeched Glitter. “You’re going to answer for attacking my little girl like that!” she shoved her way to the front, so she could be seen as well as heard. “Somepony bring the cage! I want this creature locked up as soon as possible!”
For his part, Spike was scared out of his wits, with his belly to the ground and trying to be as small as possible, he looked more like a whipped dog than a dragon. ‘Cage?!’ he thought. ‘They’re gonna put me in a cage? But I haven’t done anything!’ However, surrounded as he was by ponies who could at any moment decide he didn’t deserve a fair trial, he was too fearful to summon his usual snark, or to speak at all.
“Spike!” called a small voice over the noise of ponies trying to find the alleged cage. “Spike! Over here!” without lifting his head, Spike tried to turn towards the voice. And like an angel in a dark forest, Sweetie Bell’s face emereged from between the legs of the adults. She crept up to him as stealthily as she could. “Applebloom and Scoots went for help, but this isn’t looking good.” She whispered. “Can’t you fly out of here?”
Fighting his fear for every word. “N-no. Even if I wasn’t too scared, the pegasi would catch me in an instant. Besides, I haven’t learned to do more than hover for a few seconds with Rainbow.” He glanced around at the gathering. “But Sweetie, how did you even know about-”
“Sweetie Belle!” screetched a female voice from the direction Sweetie had come. “Get away from that thing this instant!” forcing their way to the center of the crowd came two ponies Spike hadn’t expected to see, one a white earth pony stallion wearing a shirt and straw hat, sporting a thick mustache, and the other a pink unicorn mare with a large elaborate mane style and full clothing. Magnum and Pearl, Rarity and Sweetie’s parents. Once close, they grabbed Sweetie Belle and looked her over worriedly. “Oh, dear, it didn’t burn you did it dear? Oh, let me look at you.”
Magnum, an admittedly large middle-aged stallion, put himself between Spike and his daughter, glaring at him. “Mom!” yelled Sweetie. “He didn’t burn me! I told you, it’s just Spike! He’d never hurt anypony, let alone his friends!”
Pearl bopped her daughter on the nose. “Hush! I’ll admit he was cute and harmless before, but after how violent he was here yesterday, it’s obvious his little growth spurt made him just like every other dragon; a complete brute!”
“Darned Tootin’!” agreed a familiar, rickety old mare. “Why just yesterday ah saw this little critter abscondin’ with apples from mah farm!” Granny Smith shook an angry hoof at Spike, who somehow managed to sink lower in the dirt.
“Now, mares, I don’t think we need to discuss this further.” Glitter interjected hautily, a rusty metal cage that was obviously too small levitating behind her. “It’s obvious this menace must be dealt with, and swiftly!” she dropped the cage down in front of Spike, and wrenched open the gate with a forceful jerk of her horn. “So monster, what’s it going to be? Will you go willingly, or do we have to beat you into the cage?”
“NEITHER, YOU SELF-RITEOUS BITCH!” and, with a clap of thunder and flash of lightning, Twilight Sparkle descended into their midst. The newly anointed Princess of Friendship lowered her horn, and all the alicorn-y goodness it channeled, right in Glitters face. “Now get. Away.” Immediately the circle broke and all the hostile ponies gathered to one side, staring fearfully at the enraged royal.
“An don’t ya’ll be thinkin’ that’s the end of your problems!” Spike’s head whipped around to see a second mob of ponies, this one just as angry as the first, but considerably more fond of Spike by the looks of it. At the front was Applejack, her sister and brother immediately to her side, and the other elements of harmony on the opposite side. Behind them were a number of similarly minded ponies, including Mr. Widget, his daughter and grandson, Sharp eye and Clear Heart, the Cakes (all of them) and even Sven. Spike even Spotted Snips and Snails in his group of supporters.
He was ecstatic to see them all, almost as many gathered in his defense as there was against him, but he lost his mirth when he saw that Glitter’s group hadn’t dispersed. When his friends settled themselves across from the offending mob, it became clear that the witch-hunt had just turned into a battle.
And Spike marked the battle line.

> ch 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 10

None of the ponies in either mob moved for what felt like forever, all fearing to break the tension that had built up. Finally, one did speak up, and she was pissed by the sounds of it. “All right, are you going to leave, or am I going to have to make you leave?!” demanded Twilight Sparkle, her horn still leveled evenly at Glitter and her cohorts, small wisps of magic rising from her horn. “I may not be fully filled in, but whatever you think Spike is guilty of, I promise you this is the incorrect response.” She pleaded, “Just think about how long he’s lived here, how long you’ve all seen him as nothing more than just my little assistant!”

“That was before he bared his vicious little fangs at our children, your Highness.” Responded Glitter with venom, not giving an inch of ground. “You say you aren’t filled in? Then let us tell you what the monster did, shall we?”

“He attacked our children!” came the cries. “He endangered the lives of our little ones with his fire-breathing and claws, then came up with some excuse about timber wolves to cover it up!” the nameless mare’s proclamation was met with calls of affirmation from the crowd. “He’s a danger to every one around him, and now we find out he’s trying to weasel his way into Cheerilee’s good graces so he can try again!”

This time a more familiar face spoke up, being Filthy Rich and his wife Affluent. “You may have a lot of trust in this community, Princess, and we all appreciate all you’ve done up till now.” He told her, trying to be the voice of reason, despite his skewed perspective. “But you cannot expect us to simply stand back and let your pet have his way with our young!”

This got under Twilight’s skin in the worst possible way. “HE IS NOT A PET, YOU IGNORAMUS, AND YOU KNOW IT!” her horn began to give off dangerous sparks, causeing Rich and his wife to quickly back up.

“But he is a monster!” came another voice. It was RoseLuck, of all ponies, who defended Riches’ claim. “Just think about how many times you and your friends have dealt with dragons causing problems!”

“Indeed, so!” Glitter said. “And if I recall correctly, that particular lizard happens to have been one such problem!” she stamped her hoof for emphasis, the others nodding and mumbling their assent, many remembering the incident.

“Yer Darned right!” came Magnum, “In fact it was my own daughter he took hostage!” he began to look about in the crowd behind him, searching for the pony in question. “Rarity, Darlin’, where are you? You go ahead and tell them what he did to you, you tell all about it!”

“I am right here!” came the shout. At first, Spike thought his world was going to end right there, thought that his beloved Rarity had betrayed him, but after a moment, he remembered he had seen her already, but not with her parents and Glitter. 

Rarity positioned herself right next to Twilight, glaring at her father. “And I am absolutely appalled with you two!” she scolded. “You can’t honestly believe Spike is some kind of monster? Or that I would possibly defend such an outrageous claim!” She pointed a hoof at Sweetie Belle. “He was defending Sweetie and her friends from the timber wolves! They and Filthy Rich’s daughter, as well as her friend and even Rainbow Dash saw it all first hoof! That you would possibly claim otherwise is both ridiculous, and outright blasphemous!”

More from the crowd defending Spike began to speak up to his defense, calling for his innocence. Another came forward for Spike’s protection, a pony who he hadn’t expected to ever stand up on his behalf. Clear Heart, the rickety appraiser stood strong next to Rarity. “I pride myself on being able to spot a bad stone from a mile away,” he told them, “and after spending a few good hours with the lad, I can honestly say he is the most honest hearted and trustworthy persons I have ever come across. Even after I raised a deplorable ruckus about his race upon his initial arrival at our store, he still forgave me and set about his work with some of the most admirable work ethic I have ever witnessed, from pony or otherwise.”

“And on that note,” said his boss, Sharp Eye, who was himself a well respected member of the community. “I believe the incident to which you are referring was a matter of draconic greed? An insatiable hunger and case of relentless theft that caused his exponential growth.” He recalled factually. “If I remember correctly, he has not only been officially pardoned for that incident, as it was deemed to be an accident of his caretakers fault more than his own, but he stopped his rampage and returned the stolen goods of his own accord.” Sharp Eye removed his monocle, and began to polish it. “In fact, in spite of his youth and racial tendencies that should have suggested otherwise, I daresay he has not had an incident of any kind since.” He deliberately replaced his monocle and glared at Glitter. “Which is more than can be said of some young, misguided window-shoppers I know. How is young Twinkle, by the way?”

Glitter paled and grimaced at the mention of her own daughter, a well-known sticky-hoof. She rallied quickly, however, and re-established her confrontational posture. “Th-that is neither here nor there! We are here in response to his most recent crimes, his prior behavior being merely a point of reference, a bit of character history.” Sharp snorted. He’d won and she knew it. As a matter of fact, so did a few of her supporters, some of whom began to look a bit unsure of their feelings as they now stood. “We’re angry, and for good reason!” she continued, undaunted. “We demand justice!”

“Oh, angry are you?” came a sweet voice that all in Ponyville knew by heart. Mrs cake strode foreward, her two children napping in her hooves. She stepped up to Spike and knelt. “Spike, dear, hold my children.” Much of the opposing crowd became immediately alarmed, shouting at him to get away from the foals, even as Mrs. Cake transferred them to his care. “Well, dearie,” Mrs. Cake continued, striding up to Glitter, stopping only a few inches from the other mare, a candy sweet smile on her face. “You know what goes well with anger, don’t you?” she asked.

“VIOLENCE!” the pastry mare yelled, and promptly head-butted Glitter in the snout. Much of the crowd became alarmed (and not the least bit bewildered. I mean really? Of all ponies?) Mrs. Cake offered no chance for her opponent to recover, however, and immediately jumped atop the smaller mare, swiftly grappling her into a masterful submission hold. “You think you got the stones to throw a friend of the Cake family into a cage?!” she called. “I’ll show you how I put a pony on lock!”

Before the situation could devolve, though, Mr. Cake was there in a flash, pulling his wife off of the other mare. “Honey! Let her go!” he pleaded. “This isn’t the octagon, you’re not that pony any-more!” he called her. The crowd, both of them in fact, just stared at the scene like a dog looks at a funny noise. ‘seriously?’ was the question that hung in the air. But it wasn’t over.

“No time like comeback time!” Mrs. Cake yelled, somehow still being restrained by her spindly husband. “Doom-Cake is back, baby! Time to serve the pastry of death!”

Pinkie leaned in and whispered to her friends. “I had to put her in a headlock to get my job.” She told them. “Even I’m not sure how I managed to pull it off.” All of them had pretty much the same reaction. “Error.exe, file not found.” Suddenly, the earsplitting wails of foals broke the tension, as well as Mrs. Cakes’ rampage.

All eyes instantly turned to Spike and the cake twins, who, it now seemed, had inherited their mothers tackling skills and were in the process of ‘baby see baby do.’ “Mrs. Cake!” came Spike’s distressed voice. “Help!” Pumpkin was using her magic to pin herself to his back, and was proceding to perform a rather respectable arm triangle choke, the same as her mother had performed, while Pound Cake cheered her on. Instantly Mr. and Mrs. Cake were there to disentangle the trio. 

While a visibly irritated Mrs. Cake carried the children back home for their naps, Mr. Cake cake apologized to Spike for his children trying to make the dragon ‘their proverbial mare,’ which he waved off and claimed he was used to it. “I was not ready for today.” Said Twilight Sparkle. A look at her friends said they were in about the same boat. And as the two of them left with their children, a thought occurred to Twilight; that there had never been a fight that had occurred in or around Sugar Cube Corner. Ever.


**************************************

Luna had not been ready for today. Not in the least.

Currently her sister sat in her lap, bawling her eyes out, yelling about how the mean foals said she wasn’t as pretty as Luna was, and that Spike was picking on her. “Th-They said that my m-mane was boring!” she wailed and gasped. “That the m-multicolored thing w-was so totally played out! That my c-c-coat was boring, c-cause so many other regular ponies had the same color, so I wasn’t as special as you!” she cried some more while Luna dutifully stroked her sisters hair, in a futile attempt to calm her down.

Celestia had burst into her sisters room after receiving some sort of missive from Spike, one that apparently took the collective opinion of those around him that Luna was far prettier and superior to her, and dropped it right in the poor unsuspecting mares lap. It was just then that a trio of royal guards, their standard white coats and gleaming armor and all, ran in to investigate all the clamor. The moment Celestia caught sight of them, unfortunately, her wails instantly increased in fervor. “THEIR RIGHT! Oh stars, their right about everything!” she threw her hooves around Luna’s neck and pulled her into a tight, soggy embrace, much to the younger sisters chagrin. “Luna! Beloved sister, I’m so sorry for being so mean to you! But I promise, I’ll do better, I promise I’ll let you be best princess as much as you want from now on!” she rubbed their faces together for ‘emphasis,’ making a mess of Luna’s make-up.

“Damn.” Said a royal guard who had been guarding Luna’s door when it exploded. “Props to Spike. When that kid plays the game, he plays to win.”


**************************************


“I~I think that’s enough excitement for one day.” Twilight finally said to all gathered. “Can we all just agree this is stupid, and go home?”

After seeing Spike get dominated by two (technically one, since Pound hadn’t really participated) foals not even old enough to be out of diapers, most of the offending crowd was in agreement. Unfortunately, there’s always that one mare who won’t let it go. “Now, ya’all whiper-snappers just hold yer bit’s fer a gosh-turned minute!” called an all too familiar old mare. “This here theivin’ critter gone’ done absconded wit’ a whole oats-and-a-bag full of mah families pride-and-joy!” she hollered. “Ah aint about tah just let it pass, ya’ hear?!”

Applejack snorted at Granny Smith’s attitude, having had more than enough of it for one day. “Granny, ya’ll need ta quit takin’ yer anger out on Spike, ya hear? And just so we’re clear, he wasn’t ‘abscondin’ with anything. He came to the farm lookin’ fer work, and ah had him movin’ apple for us. That’s it.”

Granny Smith was silent for a bit, thinking about what had been said. “Why ya’ll bringin’ up lil’ Spike fer?” she asked, causing AJ to double take. “Mah problems with this’n here.” She pointed at Spike.

“Granny,” aj said slowly. “That IS Spike.”

Granny just looked confused. “Huh? But that can’t be right, aint Spike a cute lil’ feller? He aint got no wigs or nuthin’ like this’n here.” Again she gestured at Spike, who was merely dumbfounded.

“Granny,” AJ sighed, hoof to her face, “Ah know what he used ta look like, but ahm tellin’ ya, that there is Spike. It’s the same lil’ fella ya already met, ah promise.”

Granny Smith leaned in and scrutinized Spike, who leaned back and began to sweat under her attention. “Hmm. Then why’s he look so different?”

“He’s a baby, Granny.” Said Twilight. “He’s doing what all baby’s do; growing.”

“Oh,” She pepped up instantly, smiling like usual, “Why didn’t ya’ll jus’ say tha’ from the start? Good fer him.”

The face-hoof that resulted nearly knocked out all of ponyville.

> CH 11-finaly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ch 11

Spike, once again, was wandering the streets of ponyville. It had been a couple of days since the incident with the angry mob, and most of the offenders had come by to personally apologize to he and Twilight, with the exception of Glitter and her closest supporters. Spike had taken it all in stride as best he could, and didn’t let it affect him (he cried when he got home that day.)

His own supporters had come by to see if he was doing all right, as well, the cmc being first in line. Eventually, he and Twilight got so sick of ponies coming in and out of the library that she actually closed it down for half of the previous day, time Spike took to fill Twilight in on how things had been going in her absence, mostly concerning his attempts to find work. She hadn’t been thrilled at first, thinking he intended to strike out on his own, and had even threatened to ground him. Fortunately, she calmed down a bit and became a bit more amenable to the idea once he explained his reasons for wanting a job, that while yes, he had initially wanted to impress Rarity and that that was still one of his primary goals, he now felt that it may be a key aspect to his own growth.

Spike had come to realize, after a bit  of introspection, that throughout the past two days, every time he tried to get a job, and was subsequently rejected, it wasn’t the thought of not being able to impress is beu that upset him, but the idea that he wouldn’t have a chance to prove his worth in a field of his choosing. That thought had initially surprised him, but as he thought on it, he felt it was more and more of a true statement, and Twilight said that it certainly said something about his character that that was how he felt about the situation.

She eventually caved, and decided to help him out. The two of them put their heads together figuratively, and tried to come up with an idea of what he might be able to get a job doing, and maybe come up with a solution as to why some of those he had already tried might not have worked out. While neither could come up with a solid idea of what he might be particularly good for, Twilight said that it wasn’t because he didn’t have any kind of marketable skills.

“Spike, you have to understand.” She told him. “You’re not like other ponies your age. I’ve spent most of our time together studying almost everything under the sun to some degree, and you received experience in all those same subjects, sort of as a runoff effect.”

Twilight made her way to the side of the table that Spike was sitting at in the library, books and professional references littered about in their search. She gingerly stepped over a precariously stacked pile of tomes to sit next to him. “While most ponies are only ever exposed to the prominent professions in a region, or those of their own family, you have basic applicable skills in almost everything you might want to try, even electronics for Mr Widget, you just might not realize it right off the bat.” She seemed almost excited now, like she had made some sort of discovery after days of research. “Your qualified to do any entry level position in anything you might want! You have too many options, and the problem is that you don’t seem to know which actually suits you as an individual. I think that the only reason you haven’t been getting the jobs you try out for is because you are your own worst enemy, sabotaging yourself at the outset by not throttling your ability to the task at hand and you end up over performing, or taking some kind of extra, unnecessary step.”

Contrary to Twilight excitement, Spike began to sulk. “So what does that mean?” he asked. “That I can’t get a job because I’m always trying to do something else, rather than what they specifically want?”

“kind of.” She admitted. “It’s more like the only reason you manage to get your foot in the door is because you already know how to do the job itself, but because it’s so against your personality or individual wants, you end up driving yourself into the ground subconsciously to get out of having to do it.”

“Wait, hold up for a second.” He told her, interrupting her very unprincess-like nerding. “You can’t honestly expect me to believe everything that happened was my own fault?” he made an agitated gesture, as if to draw attention to something that wasn’t even there. “Glitter and her friends were the only reason I got kicked out of the Glittering Pony, and Mr Widget said he didn’t even need me! How could I have done that to myself?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Spike.” She said, trying to calm him. “From your story, there are obviously things that were beyond your control, like everything that happened with Sven, or the Dairy Fair’s reaction to you at sweet apple acres. But if you think critically, you can spot the discrepancies in some of what happened.” She pulled a white board to her, magically cleaned it, and began to draw as she wrote. “For instance, at the Glittering Pony. Yes, the outward reason you were asked to leave was because Glitter made a ruckus and threatened the livelihoods of the employees to a degree, but you know how ponies react to you.” She drew a shiney gem next to a pony. “Especially ones with lots of jewelry or gem stones on their person, things they would want to protect from creatures well known for theft and hoarding such items. And in spite of that history, you allowed yourself to be placed next to a window where every pony could see you, and potentially get spooked and cause a ruckus.”

Spike sighed. “It’s a neat theory, Twilight, but your ignoring the fact that I was practically made for that job. Why would I want to sabotage myself out of such a sweet gig?”

She smiled knowingly, as if she had known all along that he would ask this. “Ah, but did you think about the particulars? About spending eight hours a day, every day, in a cramped room looking at and sniffing and inspecting gems that you can’t keep? That you have to give away at a moment’s notice, and not eat a single one of them? Does that really sound like a dream job?”

Spike looked like she had just shown him his own skull or something of the like. ‘I didn’t even think about that!’ He thought ‘It wouldn’t be a dream, it’d be some kind of medieval torture plan for dragons!’

“And that’s not the only one that I saw.” She continued on. “You’ve helped at sweet apple acres dozens of times, almost completely without incident. And yet, now, you can’t even comprehend the basics? I don’t think so.” Now she drew an apple next to what looked like a clock. “Spike you’ve got great work ethic, and I’ll be the first one to admit it. When you’re given a job, you give it your all and stick with it till it’s done most of the time. But the thing is, even you have to admit that your lazy; really lazy.” Spike grumbled a bit about how it only seemed that way cause she always had some kind of job to do, but kept it mostly to himself, and Twilight continued uninterrupted. “When you finish your work, you always try to take a nap, or get a snack, or do something fun. So on, so forth. But farmers have a hard work day, harder than almost any other profession. They wake up with the sun and work all day long. The only reason we see members of the Apple family out and about in town is because they like to stay ahead of their work, and there’s always a member or two at the farm at all times. You would work with them for maybe a week, at most, then quit.” He huffed, but didn’t argue. She giggled, and continued. “And that’s understandable. Not only are you young, but you have never had a particularly ‘long-term’ kind of outlook. You prefer to look at what’s happening at the moment, and let things come as they may.”

Twilight stowed the white board and rejoined Spike at the table. “I could go through a few more examples, but I think you get the idea, right Spike?”

Spike nodded, admitting she had a pretty solid point. “But what does that mean now?” he asked. “I can’t exactly go to every business in town, ask for a job, and wait to see if I set the place on fire just to get away.”

Twilight shrugged and sighed. “I’m not sure when we hit that point, Spike. It’s one of the few things you have in common with ponies your age; theres no way to predict what your going to be since there’s just too many possibilities, too many variables. You may not have a cutie mark to search for, but this really isn’t that different I’m afraid.” She gave a little snort, as if to laugh a mildly funny joke. “That may actually be an apt description, you know, searching for a cutie mark.” She shrugged and made her way to the kitchen, the long hours taking their toll on both of their stomachs. “Maybe since you can’t get one, this job search is the same thing? I don’t know, but if that’s true, then the only way you have to find it would be a lot of self understanding or random chance.”

Spike followed her into the kitchen, opening the fridge and assembling the ingredients for a simple sandwich and some juice. “But even with ponies, they have an idea of what they enjoy, or what they might wanna do when they grow up. But that means the original problem, that I can do almost anything I try, is gonna keep me from finding it out in any kind of fast way.” He and Twilight sat at the kitchen table, one of the few that didn’t have a pile of books or papers from one search or another on it.

“I’m sorry Spike, I really do wish I could help more, there, but I raised you to be my assistant so you could help me with anything I might want to try out. The only thing I can honestly say you’ve always been good at that I didn’t deliberately instill in you is setting things on fire and finding the most expensive thing you can and hiding it.” Spike sighed, and they let the conversation drop as they ate their sandwiches together.

And so it was that Spike found himself wandering about ponyville an hour later, without any real purpose. “Hmph.” He chuckled. “Cutie mark huh? Wonder if the Crusaders are taking any applications?” he wondered aloud. He really only half considered asking them, more or less to occupy his mind, as rationally he knew those three would get into more than enough horrifying situations without a living furnace helping the chaos along.

Tired now from his wanderings, Spike made his way to a nearby curb and sat down. He took in his surroundings and noticed he had stopped in front of ‘Iron Caste,’ a store whose function he didn’t even know for himself, since he and Twilight had never been inside. The store front had a hammer and a crown as it’s logo, and AJ had mentioned that “they do good work,” so whatever they did it obviously wasn’t some money pit for suckers. What had always stuck out at Spike was all the junk that seemed to litter the property, as he had always assumed that the nearby businesses would have made some kind of ruckus about it, but they never did.

Though now that he took notice, all the supposed ‘junk’ was rather specific in content, and was gathered up to one side of the store, the three different piles not passing onto or even near the sidewalk. He was pretty near the rightmost pile, so he leaned in without getting up to inspect its contents. Upon closer inspection, the pile was made up entirely of mangled and rusted bits of metal, specifically aluminum in this one. The one next to the silvery metal was brownish looking, which Spike’s nose told him was varying grades of bronze and on the farthest left was what looked like iron, according to the more orange-red color of the oxidization and darker material.

“So, what?” he asked of nopony in particular. “Is it like the town junk collector? Weird it would be here in the middle of town like this.” He absent mindedly picked up the smallest piece of aluminum he could find in his claw, what looked like a section of cable from a picket fence. It was too small to do anything with, and Spike figured no pony would miss such a small piece of junk, so he decided to flick it around in his claws. It kept him entertained for a good minute, until he dropped it between his feet, and left it to lie there. He stared at it boredly, not really caring one way or another.

Spike decided to try and think about what Twilight had said about the two things he had always been good at. While he could’t say the idea of trying to get work finding and hiding all the most expensive items appealed to him, he had to admit that setting things on fire when no-pony was looking was a secret pleasure of his. Some ponies snuck cookie or cake, he burned things. “But how can I get a job doing that?” he asked. Maybe he could burn garbage? Nah, that’d get old real fast. What about the power plant? Didn’t it need fire and coal to produce electricity? He actually considered it for a second, but decided against it. Not only was the burning of the coal itself what produced the energy, not the fire, but ponyville didn’t have a power plant of any kind, so he would have to go all the way to Canterlot to do it.

Spike blew a puff of frustrated smoke, unable to think of anything else. His attention turned once again to the piece of aluminum wire that had been his plaything. Without anything else to do, he blew a steady stream of fire at it, small and controlled, and in moments the metal had been reduced to a literal puddle at his feet. Spike grinned. “Look’s like cherry filling.” He joked to himself.

“Is that what we do now, lad?” asked a deep voice to Spike’s rear. “Melt crap on other ponies front porches?”

Spike jumped to his feet and spun to meet the owner of the voice, surprise plain on his face. Behind him had come a burly old stallion by the name of Head ‘n Haft, a surly former royal guard who Spike remembered had been present after his chryssaling, guarding Twilight when all the business with the reporters was going on. He was a large earth pony with a grey coat and black mane, a large hammer serving as his cutie mark, and he wore what looked like an ultra-thick leather apron covered in soot and burn marks. He had an Irish accent, though it wasn’t as thick enough to alter his speech. “Sorry, sir, I wasn’t trying to make a mess, promise.”

Head ‘n Haft snorted derisively. “Yeah, sure lad, I’m just going to go ahead and believe you, and while I’m at it I’ll get ready for the space aliens. You really expect me to believe you melted metal on accident?” he asked. “And on top of the scorch mark it’ll leave, I have to square it off so nopony hurts themselves walkin by while it cools.”

Spike kicked at the dirt sullenly, doing his best to not meet the large stallions eye. “Like I said, I wasn’t looking to make a mess, I just wasn’t thinking. I can stay out here and keep ponies away till it cools, if you can forgive me.”

“Ha!” he shouted loudly. “You bet your gonna stick around. I don’t know how long you were out here trying to turn that thing into goo, but you’re going to stick around twice as long till it cools.”

Spike just looked confused now, looking at the older pony quizzically. “I wasn’t out her more than a minute, and it only took me a couple of seconds to melt that aluminum.”

Head ‘n Haft advanced angrily on Spike. “Don’t you lie to me, boy, I wasn’t born yesterday. It takes more than 600 degrees to melt aluminum, and though it might have been less for a bity piece like that, it won’t have been by much. Ain’t much in this world that’s gonna do that in a ‘a couple seconds,’ I guarantee you that!”

Spike waved his claws defensively, trying to fend off the larger ponies aggression towards him. “But it’s true! I swear!” he told the pony. “I can control how hot my fire is, and I do stuff like that all the time! You can ask Twilight!”

Head ‘n Haft stopped in his advance, but continued to look at Spike angrily. His head swiveled between the dragon and the puddle, which had begun to harden due to it’s small size, and back again. His expression changed to one of suspicion, but he didn’t say anything. Finally, after a few moments of thinking it over, he beckoned Spike to follow him, putting some of the scrap over top of the still searing hot piece of aluminum to keep ponies from stepping on it, and grabbing some more and taking with him.

The two entered the Iron Caste storefront, and inside Spike finally had a chance to guess at what it was for. In racks and crates, on pegs and shelves was all manner of metal craft. Some of it looked so be simple tools and horseshoes of various sizes, while some of the more exotic items were almost like an art project. He saw a wrought iron fence, each bar of which looked like they had been twisted like toffee, and a design that looked like the mare in the moon from nightmare night decorations on the front. There was any number of finery in the store as well, such as gold and silver rings and chains, or an intricate looking tiara, which, though they all lacked gemstones or extra decorations, Spike could tell they were exceptionally valuable. (the price-tags helped.) he didn’t have time to appreciate much else, however, as the gruff pony in front of him cleared his throat loudly, indicating Spike should follow him through the door he stood in front of.

Past the door a very different sight greeted Spike. On the other side was a workshop which, in spite of all the soot on the ceiling and the smell of burning coal, was exceptionally well organized with several rows of tools, like hammers that all had different shaped or sized heads, or various kinds of thongs and chisels. “Huh, so it’s a smithy?” Spike asked outloud.

The stallion rolled his eyes. “Well done, boy, you figured out my terrible secret. Good for you.” Before Spike could grumble out a snarky response, he was led over to a row of stone plaques, which when Spike got close looked to be molds for different things. He led Spike to one that was just a long thin line with a bulbous head on one end, and pointed at the ground in front of it, indicating he wanted Spike to stand there and wait, which he did.

Head ‘n Haft returned a short while later with a large metal cup, in which Spike could see the piece of scrap aluminum he had grabbed before coming inside, and held it out to Spike in a pair of thick thongs. “Show me.” He dared Spike simply, holding the thongs with his hooves.

Not one to back down from such a simple challenge, Spike took in a short breath, and bathed the cup in his flames, and just as before it only took a few seconds to do the deed. Inside the smoking cup, he saw a pool of liquid metal, cherry red and ready for pouring, which is just what the old smith did, pouring it from the cup into the mold carefully.

He placed the cup and thongs on an adjacent work bench to cool, while he inspected Spike’s work. Surprised, he gave a slightly drawn-out whistle, as if not expecting the results he got. “Not bad, lad, not bad at all.” He congratulated Spike, smiling for the first time since their meeting. “You got it all in one go, and in just a few second. Even I need a minute with the torch to pull that off, and it’s never that clean the first time.” Walking up and down the mold to check that the metal was distributing properly, he went on to say “Looks like I’ve got no choice to acknowledge that you were telling the- ACK!” he suddenly exclaimed.

Spike became alarmed, thinking he had hurt himself, but when the pony showed no signs of trying to nurse and injury, Spike came over and looked in front of the spot in the mold he had been inspecting. “What is it?” he asked. “Did I mess something up?”

The metal worker waved the thought off as one might a fly. “Nah, you did perfectly. It’s just that there’s a chunk of slag in the mold, which I should have sifted out with a strainer.” He pointed to a black chunk in the mold, which was disrupting the metals ability to flow freely. “Give me a tick, I’ll grab some tweezers to get it out of there.”

“Oh, no. it’s fine;” said Spike in response. “I can get it.”

“What do you mean, you can-” he stopped mid-sentence and went bugeyed as he watched Spike reach out to the mold and stick his fingers in the molten metal. “THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING, BOY!?” he hollard, making Spike jump. He ran over to the drago and took his claw in his hoof, expecting the boy to be burned. “THAT’S MOLTEN METAL, IT’LL GO THROUGH YOUR SOFT HIDE LIKE…like. Ummm, what’s the deal?” he asked confused, seeing no injury.

Spike chuckled. “I’m a dragon, what did you expect? It’s not like I have fur.” He opened his claw to show he had retrieved the slag as promised, a few droplets of aluminum still in his palm. “I’ve taken a magma bath before, even swallowed and spat it out like a fountain. This is nothing.”

Head ‘n Haft was looking at him like he had just given birth to a timber wolf. “The hell?” he asked. Spike shifted uncomfortably under the gaze, thinking he may have once again sabatoged himelf out of the ponies good graces. Head ‘n Haft, however, just shook his head and grinned broadly at Spike, seeming impressed. “Lad, I don’t know what it is you like to do with you’re day, but you might have a future in metal work.” He put a hoof around Spike’s shoulders, and led him away from the cooling mold. “What I wouldn’t give to have you on the pay-roll.” He chuckled.

It was like the second coming ( of Luna) for Spike. “You can! I’ve been looking for a job for days now!” he told him excitedly. Spike was like a giddy child now, which he pretty much was. 

The older pony looked at him with surprise. “What? But I thought you worked with the princess? Isn’t that your job?” he leaned in “Did ya get fired?”

Spike shook his head. “Nah, Twilights like family, and I don’t get paid to help her. I just wanted something to prove I had my own means now that im getting older.” He explained.

Head ‘n Haft seemed to accept this answer, and nodded. “Well, I guess that’s fine then. If your serious, then I already have some work for you. I can pay you fifteen bits an hour, and I expect you to come in every day at eight, ‘cept weekends less I say otherwise.”

“That sounds great!” Spike exclaimed, his search seemingly at its end. He lost a bit of mirth though, as a thought came to him. “Umm, actually, do you know Cheerilee? The school teacher?” he asked. His new boss nodded, waiting for him to continue. “She’s been getting over worked these days, and since I know how do all that kind of stuff from working with Twi, I said I’d help her on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Is that ok? It wont take all day, and you’d be doing both of us a huge favor.”

The smith mulled it over for a bit, then said “Yeah, I guess that’s ok. This place doesn’t get the same kind of business as, say, the Cakes store, and I’ve run it alone for years.” He gave a firm nod. “I should be fine while you give her a hoof.”

Spike gave a small whoop, and jumped up in a little victory dance. “Alright!” he exclaimed. “So what do you need, boss?” he asked with a smile.

“Just call me Haft, kid.” He told him. “And I need you to do what you just did, but to as much of all of those piles outside as you can manage. You’ve got plenty of daylight left, so you should get plenty done. Just grab some scrap, put it in the bricking molds, and do your thing. Get out any big chunks of slag you see, but don’t worry too much about the little bits, they’ll be knocked out with the hammer or press.”

Spike saluted goofily to the former guard. “Yes sir!” he said. “Just you watch, Mr Haft, I’ll have at least one pile down to half by the end of the day!” Haft just laughed as they exited the shop to get the scrap, Haft grabbing a wheel barrow that had been situated next to the door.

Spike kept his word that day, and more. By the end of the week, the scrap was barely noticeable, and he had begun getting instruction on how to actually make new items from the bricks and bars he had been making. Spike took to it like a fish to water, and as an added benefit his draconic eye for quality and Twilights obsessive nature drove him to produce only to highest quality items.

With his help, Cheerilee managed to get ahead of her work load, and his likable nature made him a popular addition among the classes, and his draconic nature kept the bigger kids in line as well. As he got into the swing of his work over the coming months, he decided to try various odd-jobs to keep his interest, and while some failed epically, he did surprisingly well in others. Vinyl Scratch made his fire breathing and dull luminescence the center piece of some of her shows, and his impeccable eye for quality was just as desired at The Glittering Pony as Sharp Eye had promised. 

And he of course made more and more friends, each addition causing more and more varied, sometimes dramatic, physical changes. Within the year, he had tripled in size, and managed a wingspan as large as Princess Lunas own.

Looking back on it all, Spike could honestly say all the pain was worth it, worth finding out more about who he was and how his heritage and progressing age would affect his fitting in, though he may not choose to go through it all again.

No, he was certainly glad.

His chryssaling was finally, and fully complete.