> I'm Getting Underpaid For This
>  by Warmaisach
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> Introduction Arc: 1 - Mare in the Moon
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Hello, my name is Spike and I have an exciting life. I am currently an eleven year old dragon. Yes, I am a dragon, but I am neither big nor scary. I am only two feet tall, and I have purple scales with green spines going over my back.

I live together with a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. She hatched me from an egg when she was only eight years old and I have been living with her ever since. I cannot leave the house, which is also a library by the way, without her permission and I always need to be available when she decides to study. And being the social-butterfly she is, she only studies 24/7.

No, I actually mean it. I bet you think I am overreacting, but that’s not the case. She certainly is studying 24/7. Her day begins with waking up and turning off the spell which recites magical formulas while she sleeps. In the bathroom are notes with formulas and concepts pinned to the mirrors and walls. While we have breakfast, which means she eats, and I cook it, she goes over the stuff she learned the day before in her lessons.

Then she leaves the house while reading a book and is off to her lessons. About eight hours later, she comes home and guess what she does. She studies. I, of course, need to be there to assist her if she is too lazy to simply lift her head from her books and levitate a new one over. Of course, I am always happy to help since I can easily understand the action to keep a baby dragon around you while you indulge yourself in the fun-fun world of mathematics, just for the reason to have him get a book or two every hour.

After she finished her early research period, which goes past 9 PM, I am “allowed” to have some free time. This means I need to go to bed. When I wake up, it’s the same all over again. Oh by the way, when she is at her lessons, I need to clean the library and re-shelve everything she touched yesterday.

Just a short fascinating fact, the library is immense. It’s in a tower in Canterlot, and it has an unreasonable amount of books on almost every genre. Yet most books are only technical, and not fictive. Seriously, speaking out some of the names of the books is harder than to understand the whole data stored inside of them.

The library is divided into two parts. The bottom, where the front door is, is the living part of it. There are our beds, my cushion, the kitchen, the door to the garden and all the other things a pony, or in my case a dragon, needs to live. I actually don’t know why this part is at the bottom since this means that if some pony tried to get a book, they had to walk through the living area to get to the library, which is upstairs. Sometimes, I think that the architects for this library tried to speak the titles of their books, instead of reading them.

A round staircase in the living part, leads up to the library, which can only be described as monumental. The blue stone floor and the gigantic windows seem to be way over the top and the bookshelves are sometimes way too high to climb on them and not immediately break a dozen bones when some pony falls down. Of course, this is not relevant since I am the only one who climbs those. Why do they need to make the shelves smaller, if only little old me climbs them? Because, who doesn’t love to laugh at a dragon that falls to his death from a bookcase. I bet it’s hilarious.

So, reshelving the library is a job I do with passion and joy every day. Of course, it would be too much work for her to write down every book she took on a list and give it to me so I can reshelve faster and easier. Since I don’t have said list, I always need to look through EVERY SINGLE BOOK in the whole library and put it at its proper place. When I finish my assignment in reshelving the entire library, I ‘only’ need to clean it, which does not mean that I only should clean the places she touched since the rest obviously is still clean. No, this means that I also need to clean the rest of the library.

When I only clean the spots, which are dirty, Twilight instantly gets some kind of mental fit and tells me that the cleanness of those spots is stronger than the rest of the library and that I should clean the rest. Well, it’s not like I have anything planned for my life anyway. Well, I think this rant was long enough, and I should start telling something more amusing. To be precise, the day this organized and everyday-life changed.

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I had just finished cleaning the library, when I heard the door open. My internal clock said that it obviously was too early for Twilight to be at home. She always comes home exactly at 16:30, since this is organized and that a regulated routine for everyday-life is good. Well, that’s what she said. So, since it was only 16:13, this meant that it was obviously a customer.

Standing up from my cushion, I walked downstairs to the front-door and I saw a white unicorn standing in the doorway, looking as if she didn’t know what to do. Her cutie-mark was a bunch of stars around a moon, and her mane was pink with a shade of violet going through it. I knew that unicorn. Her name was Moon Dancer, and she once was one of the study buddies of Twilight. But when Twilight jumped grades in school, she saw that it didn’t have any advantages anymore to study together with her since the materials Moon Dancer studied were too light for Twilight.

Moon Dancer was actually one of the few ponies, which talked to me on a regular basis. Ever since those days when she came over and Twilight and she studied together, we grew closer and closer. We were no couple, and we both had no interest in a romantic relationship with the other one, but we were good friends. I was always happy to see and talk to her.

When she saw me walking over to her, she grinned and gingerly skipped over to me. “Hey there Spike, How are you?” She asked with a giddy voice. I crooked an eyebrow. She wasn’t this giddy normally and there had to be a reason that she came at such a dangerous time. With dangerous time, I mean shortly before Twilight comes home. Because if some pony disturbs her “number one assistant” while she needs him, she doesn’t take too kindly to that pony. Sometimes, when she studies and she needs me and some pony comes in here and talks to me, she can get a seriously bad temper.

I think the ponies would rather kick a sleeping Ursa Major in the guts before disturbing Twilight in her researches. “I’m good. Just working the whole day, like every day. You know how it goes.” She rolled her eyes and looked to the side.

“Yeah, I know how Twilight can get.” Suddenly she had an “Oh” expression and started grinning. Her head came closer to me, and she asked something. “Hey, wanna have a surprise?” I lifted both eyebrows and looked at her like she just asked me if it were possible to create a magical cluster out of candy-apples. So for short, my ability to describe my facial expression at that point is as nonexistent as my ability to visualize the expression I would have had if she would have asked me that. Don’t ask.

“Yeah, sure.” I stated slowly and carefully. Moon Dancer sometimes liked to play a prank on some pony, and I certainly didn’t want to get pranked in an entirely newly cleaned and distillated library. Twilight could come in here and smell the fun that was in the air. Oh, I certainly wouldn’t like that scenario.

After I said that, Moon Dancer used her horn to float something from her back to me. It was a present. I reluctantly took it out of her magical grasp and poked and probed it, like it could explode into a flurry of paint and dirt. I looked back at her after I finished my investigation of the potential threat to the library, which could be also be my life if Twilight would see the effect of a possible prank attack from the package.

“Thank you Moon Dancer, but why do you give me a gift? It’s not hearths warming eve, is it? If it is, the weather Pegasi obviously weren’t successful in performing their duties.” Moon Dancer had to chuckle at that, and I had to smirk a little. She always liked the way I spoke and said that it was entertaining. Well, after years of something that could be called slave-work, I learned how to entertain myself with my current unsatisfactory situation. Apparently, she thought it was funny.

Funny thing is that it is impossible for me to be called slave. Since I was hatched by a pony, and that I live in a pony society, the laws of dragon society do not apply to me since I am considered a pony in their laws. But in the pony law it says that it was needed to be a pony to be considered… well a pony. So, since pony law says that I am not a pony and that dragon law says that I am not a dragon, this meant that I was practically an animal, but since I don’t live in the wilderness, the only thing I could be called was a “pet”. Yes, I was a pet, and Twilight was officially my “owner”.

Of course, she treats me like a fellow pony, and she always tells me often enough that she loves me. She also said some times that I am “like a son” to her. So even if I officially count as a pet, she always looks at me as an equal, and not as a pet. So she believes that I can’t be called that, and I agree on that. I can’t be called a pet, because of one uncomplicated reason. Pets don’t have to work like slaves.

Yes, Twilight is treating me well…at least that's what she thinks. *sigh* well I can’t judge her for trying. I still looked at Moon Dancer for the answer about the reason for her to give me this present. She only chuckled. “Spike, I don’t need a reason to give a good friend a little happiness.” I only looked at her like she told me the most ridiculous statement I ever heard, but after a short while, I wasn’t able to hold back the satisfied warm smile that spread across my face.

“Thank you, Moon Dancer, honestly.” I told her with a warm tone, and she only continued smiling and shook her head.

“No problem Spike.” Suddenly she looked nervously around and had an unsure expression on her face. Slowly, she lowered her head down to me. “I better go now before Twilight comes home. See ya later Spike.” She told me while she ran out of the door. It always was kind of sad when Moon Dancer had to leave, since she was the only pony I could call a friend, but there was no helping it.

“Bye, Moon Dancer! And thank you for the present.” I had shouted before the doors closed behind her. I sighed once and took the present in my claws, slowly walking over to a dresser. Suddenly, I remembered that I should put this present, not on a dresser, but under my favorite tree outside. Yes, I knew what trees were since I was able to do my duty once before she came home. I was able to spend one full hour under a tree. It was one of the happiest moments in my life.

I walked over to the door, but before I could open it, the door slammed into me and threw me and my present through the room. “Spike! Spiiikee~” Twilight shouted while I had to fight against the evil forces in my mind that tried to make my eyes twirl in an uncomfortable and uncontrollable way. The war was incredibly intense, but I was successful in the end and lifted myself up while holding my right claw to my head.

I looked up and saw Twilight looking around the room. I bet she had her justified reasons to attack me with a door and not apologize afterwards. Suddenly, she looked at me. “Spike? There you are!” Her look wasn’t exactly long fixated on me. She probably thought about what she did to me, but decided that she didn’t care. Then, all of a sudden, she just turned around and ran to the library on the top floor. I only sighed once, and thought that I am honestly getting underpaid for this.

I followed her to the library while still rubbing my aching head with my left claw. “Find me that old copy of predictions and prophecies!” She demanded without a hint of concern about the health of her pet/slave. Seriously, one day I will run through the library and will burn every book to the ground just to make her mad. It would probably be the last thing I will do in my life, but it would be worth it. Sooo worth it.

Suddenly, her head picked up, and she looked at me in a bewildered expression. “What’s that for?” She asked me while pointing at my tail. I moved my tail to my front and picked up the present Moon Dancer gave me earlier. Yep, my tail totally destroyed it. A teddy instantly fell out of the present when I moved it a little. Looking closer at the teddy, I saw that it probably was one Moon Dancer made herself. I turned to Twilight with a deadpan look.

“Oh, I don’t know what this is for. Judging by the ribbon, the flashy color and the content, I would say it is some kind of desert plant that I stuck to my tail in order to look appealing to you. Well, at least it was before you assaulted me with that door.” I told her that, with the most insincere smile I could manage. Oh, you books will burn someday.

She turned around and moved books with her muzzle away. “Spike, you know we don’t have time for that.” She said while moving them. I seriously had to hold back a chuckle, since she really looked stupid while doing this, even though she had a horn and could use magic. I wished I had placed something, like sneezing powder, between the books she was moving through with her nose. I only continued showing my exaggerated smile.

“Oh we don’t have time? Are you totally sure about this? Because you looked perfectly calm and collected when you threw that door in my face.” I told her with the most shocked voice I could muster. She didn’t seem to hear me and instead seemed to realize that she had a horn she could use to search for the books. She activated it, and several books from the top stacks of the shelves flew over.

WHAT? I didn’t need to climb on the dangerous mountains of books, and instead my “owner” used her magic for once to move her books. I honestly thought the chances were higher that princess Celestia would come into my room and would throw bananas at the windows than this would actually happen. What was wrong with her?

“No, no, no, no, no- argh. SPIKE!” She screamed with anger while searching through the titles of the books. Of course, it was entirely my fault that she didn’t know where the books were located in her own home, in exactly perfectly organized bookshelves. Of course, she needed my help to find a book, which title began with the letter P and would surely not be under the letter P in the library. Sometimes I ask myself, why I even bother organizing the library if Twilight isn’t able to find the books while they are organized. Then I remember that I have no rights and that I can’t do anything about it.

I already was on the top step of the ladder, since I already knew that she would call for me sooner or later. I grabbed the book and turned to her. “Oh wow, I never thought I would find ‘Prediction and Prophecies’ under P. Seems like I got lucky.” Before I could even finish my statement, Twilight already pulled on the book with her magic, like I wouldn’t be on a dangerously high altitude that could shatter every bone in my body.

I couldn’t let go at the right time, and got pulled across the library while holding onto the book. Yes, I continued holding the book because if I would have let go, I would have fallen down to my demise. Wait, as I thought about that, I realized that this actually was not that terrible of a thing, but before I could let go, I already face-planted right into the floor, with the grace of a drunken stallion in the gutter. Yes, I led a happy life.

I lay in front of Twilight, face down. I could be unconscious through the head-trauma I received or I could have a concussion, and Twilight was perfectly capable of showing her concern about me, through turning around and walking away with the book. I slowly stood up and looked at the floor, surprised that I wasn’t dead yet. Seeing all the books, I decided that I should start on cleaning up this mess before I get another lecture from Twilight about showing initiative.

While I was gathering all the future victims of my fire, Twilight was muttering something. Hearing closer, I heard the words “See Mare in the Moon.” I instantly crooked an eyebrow. Twilight was interested in stories for young fillies? I actually haven’t anticipated that. It seemed like her social adventures were that numerous that she started getting back into the psychological profile of a little filly, fleeing into her fillyhood where she actually had friends. Well that was at least what she told me. Bet she didn’t have even a single one.

I only dismissed this and continued placing the books back into the shelves, while Twilight ran around and went to the next book, which was a book about the Mare in the Moon. Wait, this should be a joke about her falling back into her fillyhood. Was she actually doing it? I looked closer to her to judge if this was the case, or if this just was another episode of her.

When she found the needed information, she started reading out loud, probably thinking that I gave a bit about what she says. While she was reciting facts from an old ponytale, I slammed an especially stubborn book into the shelf. But what I haven’t considered was that the forces which I applied to my book when I punched it had equal opposing forces that pushed the ladder, and me, away from the bookshelf. What? If you live your whole life in a library and you don’t have anything to do, you start reading all kind of stuff. I learned this out of a book about a physicist called Tri-sac ponyton. Seriously, who calls their foal Tri-sac?

So, right now I was in a pretty compromising position, in which there was virtually no possible way of coming out unscathed. If I would lean forward, the ladder would go backwards and vice versa. I had to think. After a while, I managed to calm the ladder down, and I now stood on a perfectly straight ladder. I was safe for now, at least as long as I didn’t move.

Then I thought about the things Twilight could do if I don’t clean up this mess in the near future. Deciding that I’d rather take the chances to fall, I decided to pursue placing the books back into the shelves. “Spike, do you know what this means?” I heard from Twilight. She obviously didn’t care that I could die from a fall of this height and that the chances were pretty high for this to happen right now. I only continued placing books into the shelves and answered her.

“Of course I unquestionably heard everything you said and I had plenty of opportunity to think about that old ponytale while calmly placing the books back into the shelves, and not nearly falling to my death.” I told her briefly while putting another book into the shelf. Suddenly, the ladder fell backwards. I obviously had placed my weight too far to the front, which made my legs move the ladder backwards.

Yes, it was over. There was no way that I would survive a fall from this height without any injuries. The only things I regret are that I didn’t burn the books. DAMN YOU LITERATURE! Suddenly, I felt something soft under me, and I realized that I was still alive. I instantly realized that I still could burn the books. Suddenly, I wanted to know what I landed upon, and looked back. I apparently landed on Twilight's back.

How was she under me? Was she actually caring about my health? Did she actually just save my life? I just wanted to say thank you, but I was cut off.

“Take a note, please!” My nearly happy smile instantly turned into a deadpan are-you-serious-look. I sighed. Here, I thought that Twilight actually cared about me, but apparently she only needed someone to write her a letter. I bet she thought about the option to write it herself, but decided that it would be less expenditure to just stand under me when I fell. With a frown, I slid down her tail, and readied my claws to write her letter.

She dictated the letter, and I suddenly got an idea. Oh this will be so much fun. I waited for my opportunity, and when she said “precipice” I saw that this was my chance. “Prece… preci…” I said like the biggest idiot alive, just in order to irritate her. She had a look like she hadn’t expected me to not know how to write a word, but she didn’t care.

“Threshold.” She uttered, and I decided that this was too much fun to stop.

“Threee” I muttered like I didn’t know how to write a “sh”. She clearly didn’t know what to think of this, but used another word.

“Brink?” She said with a hint of a question in there, and I only gave her a look like I didn’t know how to write a five letter word. She only groaned. “That something really bad is about to happen.” I wrote this down together with all the words before, and had to hold back a laugh. Oh this letter would be extremely funny when it was finished.

She continued dictating the letter, and I continued writing it. “… Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” She finished, and I followed suit.

“Twiiliiight… Sppaarkllee.” I said while writing down Twignight Snarkle.

“Alright, send it.” She ordered me to do, but I faked stupidity again.

“Now?” I asked her like it wasn’t obvious that I should send it now. She turned around and closed her eyes in confidence.

“Of course.” She stated with a tone that indicated that this should have been obvious. This couldn’t stop now. It was too much fun to annoy her.

“I don’t know, Twilight. Princess Celestia surely is busy, getting ready for the summer sun celebration, and it’s like the day after tomorrow.” She promptly got into my face, and said something along the lines that the world will get destroyed in two days; I didn’t quite listen to her. Deciding that I needed to annoy her more, I simply made myself look like I didn’t know what imperative means. She rolled her eyes and had a terrible annoyed look on her face.

After I uttered something sounding like “impera impera!” She shouted the word “important!” into my face, throwing me back with her speech. While I crashed into the bookshelf, I had to laugh at my success in making her mad, stood up and looked at her with both eyebrows raised.

“Are you absolutely certain that I should send that now? You weren’t straightforward enough in telling me this.” I told her, and she only stared in my eyes like she wanted to make me into a bag. Fearing for my scales, I quickly sent the letter to the princess, but not before reading it over again and laughing inwards.

“My dearerest teacher,

Me searching through pony magic, made me find out that we are on the precipice threshold brink that something really, really bad is about to happen – of disaster.

Because I found out that the Mare in the Moon, will come back to us, and will do something evil to the world. We need to confront her, to stop her.

Please answer because I don’t know what to read anymore.

Your prideful student

Twignight Snarkle.

P.S. This is Spike writing the following. Twilight truly read a lot in the past two days, and I am very concerned about her health. You probably already saw how confused she dictated the letter. I wanted to tell her that she should take a break from studying and her books, but she won’t listen to me. It would be really nice of you to tell her to take a break, but please don’t make it sound like you got that information from me. I don’t want her getting mad at me.

Your trusted dragon,

Spike.

Smirking, I sent the letter to the princess. It would be the best day of my life if the princess actually takes away Twilight's oh so loved books. That would teach her for treating me like a slave. I turned to Twilight and couldn’t hold back a smirk, but I needed to look innocent, so I made myself look like I would smirk because of something different.

“There, I sent it, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.” I told her while going exceptionally high in pitch at the end of my exclamation. She only told me about how great she is and how the most powerful being on the planet never doubts her. Modesty at its finest. Suddenly, I belched up a letter from the princess. I am always impressed how fast she could write a reply.

The letter materialized itself in the air directly in front of Twilight, but as always she was too lazy to use her magic to just grab it and to read it. No, I had to bow down and pick it up from the floor. I opened it and quickly read through it, and I never had to hold back this much laughter. My letter was a total success. I coughed once into my claw because I wanted to sound as official as possible, when I dropped the grim news.

My dearest most faithful student Twilight,

You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely, but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books. My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying. So I am sending you to supervise the preparations of the summer sun celebration in this year’s location, Ponyville. And I have an even more essential task for you to complete. Make some friends!

Empress of the Sun

Princess Celestia

Sadly, I don’t know how Twilight reacted to this letter since I was busy fighting asphyxiation through laughing. I even read her the whole letter again when we were flying towards Ponyville, just to annoy her. Sadly, it didn’t work, and she only sighed in exasperation. Suddenly, Twilight perked up and told me that she was right and that there was no doubt that our thousands of years old immortal goddess, who raises the sun every day, could be correct in this matter.

She then told me about her plan, which I didn’t give two bits about. “But when will you make friends, like the princess said?” I asked her, placing special emphasis on the four last words.

“She said to check on preparations, but I am her student, and I will do my royal duty, but the fate of Equestria does not hang on me making friends.” Of course, she would find a damn loophole. Why are laws and this stuff never written to make the creating of a loophole utterly impossible? Damn you literature!

The chariot went down, and we landed in the middle of Ponyville. While Twilight thanked the stallions that pulled the chariot, I saw a pink mare walking down the road and decided that this will be fun. I couldn’t wait to see Twilight fail in social activity. The pink one walked up to us and looked at Twilight with a smile.

“Come on Twilight, just try.” Twilight gulped once and had a nervous smile on her face. Man, she hasn’t even said something, and she already is failing miserably.

“Erm, hello?” Smooth Twilight, real smooth. Suddenly, the pink pony jumped up and gasped like she remembered that her house was on fire, and immediately bolted away. Wow, I knew that Twilight would be bad at this, but not this bad. This will be so much more fun than I expected.

“Well, that was interesting.” Twilight uttered, and I instantly looked at her with a sly smile.

“Yes, and it obviously was not your fault. I bet she just forgot to do something important, and just randomly ran away after talking to you.” Twilight sighed, like she didn’t hear me and only walked away. I also sighed, because it annoyed me when she didn’t show any reactions at my remarks, and followed her.

After a while, we came to some kind of apple orchard, and Twilight was perfectly capable to immerse herself into the speaking pattern of a typical farmer. Her impression of a rough farmer was this perfect that it nearly scared me.

“Good afternoon, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” She said in the most sophisticated character she could muster. Suddenly, the farmer pony grabbed Twilight's hoof and shook it like she would get one million bits if she would be able to dislocate her leg.

“Howdydoo miss Twilight. A pleasure makin yer acquaintance. Ah’m Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres, sure do like makin new friends.” She said with a southern accent. I genuinely had to say that she seemed quite likeable with the way she spoke. The exact opposite of Twilight.

“Fri-i-iends. E-e-e I-i-i.” Twilight smoothly replied, and continued shaking her hoof like Applejack would still have it in her grasp. She stopped after a while, and I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. This truly was better than I ever imagined. She threw at me an annoyed look, and continued talking with Applejack. The conversation was pretty boring until she showed us all her relatives. I was honestly not sure if the Apple-family was as large as the whole of Ponyville, or even larger. 

Looking over to Twilight, I saw that she was feeling quite uncomfortable surrounded by all these ponies. Excellent. Just now, I noticed that there was an enormous mountain of apple food in front of us. Twilight tried to avoid staying here, but an adorable little filly was able to convince her to stay. Reminder for later, burn one book in honor of the little filly.

After an hour, we left the orchard and Twilight undoubtedly ate too much. I don’t know why she didn’t stop. Maybe it was me who constantly reminded her that she should honor the hard work of the farmers by trying every treat that they made with their sweat and blood. They worked all day, just to get something to eat for Twilight, and on top of that, for free. No, it couldn’t be that.

As we were walking down the street, we realized that a pegasus name Rainbow Dash should clear the sky of all the clouds. Well, either she didn’t do her job, or this mysterious Rainbow Dash didn’t exist. When Twilight made a remark about Rainbow Dash not doing her job, she got slammed into the mud by said pegasus. The irony of this situation could only be described with the word delicious. Best. Day. Of. My. Life.

It didn’t stop there. Rainbow Dash tried to help Twilight. First washing her, and then drying her. Both were ridiculously performed and at the end, Twilight had the worst mane I saw in my entire life. I couldn’t hold myself anymore, and fell on the ground laying on top of Rainbow Dash, laughing out my soul. This day was just too perfect.

Twilight certainly was not amused, and that made it even funnier. After Twilight asked a question I didn’t hear, Rainbow Dash threw me away from her, and I smashed into a cart full of cabbage. After a short while, I was able to get my things together and, stood up from the now destroyed cart full of cabbage. Looking around, I was happy to see that the pony, to whom the cart belonged to, wasn’t around. Cabbage ponies always seem to be so fanatic about their cabbage.

Well, even if Rainbow Dash hurt me, I still couldn’t think badly of her since she made Twilight mad. Any pony that is able to do that can only be called a friend of mine. Twilight tried to convince Rainbow Dash to clear the clouds, and also to fail to defend her reputation, with a trick. Rainbow Dash accepted, but Twilight hadn’t thought that Rainbow Dash would be able to back up her comments.

She actually cleared the sky in ten seconds. The dumbfounded look on Twilight's face made me nearly tumble over again, but this time I was able to compose myself. The pegasus boasted some more, and then left. I made myself look like I would be awed by her speed, and talked like a fancolt about her, just to annoy Twilight. On top of that, I also played with her mane. Oh this day couldn’t get any better.

Twilight groaned and we walked into a big hall. I read something out about decorations, and then I saw it. Were my eyes deceiving me? Was it possible for a being of a higher plane of existence to occur in this lowly realm? This world couldn’t have produced this. She had to come from the paradise itself. The paradise which was said to harbor everything that gets too beautiful for this world to handle.

This white unicorn. How could she exist here, and what luck of the goddesses must I have to walk across her path in life? How little were the chances for me to experience something so beautiful that the sole gaze upon its appearance could cause blindness and eternal happiness? Her grace, which she showed while selecting the ribbons for the decorations, couldn’t know anything comparable. Her ocean-blue eyes could hold the souls of beings, which dared to take a look into them.

Her voice was perfectly capable of rivaling the beauty of the play of ponyzart during his best times. Her manner of speaking captivated my pure essence and didn’t allow me to think about anything different than the pure beauty of life. The beauty of her mane could only be created by waves of ethereal spring-wind that blew through this purple hair. Everything of her forced me to gaze upon her as long as I could.

In my mental extended state, which was created by the drowsiness of the sweet bite of love, I asked Twilight how my spines looked. Sadly, I wasn’t able to understand anything Twilight said or did because all my senses were being taken by this divine being right in front of me. I could only watch as this being, which was being called Rarity, talked with Twilight and then walked away. Not being able to break out of my love-induced hypnosis, I blindly followed the light of my essence to the building, which Rarity said was called “Carousel Boutique”.

I couldn’t comprehend what happened. On one moment, I was looking in the ponyfication of timeless beauty, and in the next moment I was on Twilight's back. Yet, my mental stability wasn’t restored. I still was drunk of the poison of love, and couldn’t control what I said to Twilight. I also don’t remember what I said to her until she said the word “list”.

Deciding that this could get seriously dangerous for my mental health to dwell upon this, I looked at the list and read the next point. Suddenly, we heard a bird choir, and we jumped into a bush to observe the surroundings. In a clearing, there flew a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. On a tree in front of her were birds which were tweeting in a beautiful melody. The pegasus obviously was directing the chore, and I had to say that she did an excellent job.

One of the birds was chirping in an off-tune, and the yellow pegasus flew up to it. “Excuse me sir, no offense, but your rhythm is just a teeny tiny bit off.” Wow, talk about being polite. When the pegasus tried to continue, Twilight calmly showed that she wanted to talk to the quiet pegasus.

“Hello!” She shouted like there were no shy birds sitting on that tree. The birds flew away, and I had to frown at Twilight. Of course, she would destroy everything that entertained me. “Oh my, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten your birds. I’m just here to check up on the music and it’s sounding beautiful.” Wait, she didn’t want to frighten the birds? I don’t know if I should feel happy or sad about Twilight's obviously severe mental condition.

First she doesn’t search under the letter “p” for a book that began with “p”, and then she didn’t care about her assistant nearly dying. I mean, she would need to reshelve her books all by herself if that were to happen. That should be reason enough for her to care. Then, she talks to an obvious farm-mare with the most sophisticated tone she could muster, and lastly, she blurts out a loud ‘hello!’ and says that she didn’t want to scare the shy birds.

Regardless, the pegasus landed down and looked to the ground, playing with her hooves. Yes, she was oozing out confidence. I had to try to not get too close to her since it seemed like her aura of confidence and assertiveness would make me grow a moustache right on the spot. The pegasus didn’t answer, and the only thing I thought was “awkward”.

Well, the whole thing was bearable because Twilight obviously also felt awkward, and that was worth it. After some futile attempts to start a conversation, the meek pegasus uttered something which couldn’t even be heard if there was a microphone, in front of a megaphone, in front of an amplifier pointed directly at her vocal chords. Like I said, oozing out confidence.

Twilight tried again to get the pegasus to talk, but there was another quiet sound that was apparently her voice. How was she even able to speak this silently? I thought it was impossible for sonar waves to be created if they were this weak. After another futile attempt to get her to talk, the pegasus only whimpered something, and I honestly wasn’t sure why she did that. Was that a natural defense reaction against predators? To whimper?

Twilight slowly made her farewell, and walked back to our/my/her bush, and I decided to walk up to her, wanting to ask how the conversation went. When I came to her, I heard the meek pegasus talk. “OH, a baby dragon!” She exclaimed and smashed Twilight away from me. Oh, I know already that I will like this pegasus. She said something about me being cute, and I used this to annoy Twilight a little more while sounding like an arrogant snob.

The pegasus continued to speak, but before I could say anything, I got picked up by Twilight's magic, and was placed at her back. Well, it annoyed me that she interfered again in a potential conversation I could have, but I should try annoying her more, if that meant free rides on her back. Look who’s the slave now. It seems like Twilight didn’t count on the pegasus following us. “Oh what’s his name?” She asked like I wasn’t there.

“I’m Spike.” I told her, and she seemed to be happy. She also said that her name was Fluttershy.

“Oh a talking dragon. What do you dragons talk about?” She asked with interest. Here we go again with the speciesism. Of course, when a dragon talks, he clearly talks about things, which are totally different from what ponies talk about. Yes, what do dragons talk about? Oh, we obviously only talk about how we eat gems and how we defend our territory. No, we weren’t able to think like ponies, and they all were right to assume that dragons, just because they were dragons, were talking about totally different things than ponies. I forced a smile and looked at her.

“Well, I don’t know. What does a talking pony talk about?” I asked her with feigned interest, but her response wasn’t like I expected.

“Absolutely everything.” She exclaimed with a happy tune in her voice. I can’t counter an honest-to-Celestia innocent statement. Behind me, I heard Twilight groaning, and I decided to not irritate her and only talk about a quick and minor topic. My whole entire life and everything I know.

We talked like this until we got to the house/tree, which we apparently stayed in while we were in Ponyville. A library, of course. How could I even think about the possibility that Twilight would step into a different building, which was not a library? Suddenly, Twilight turned around. “Oh, how did we get here so fast? This is where I’m staying while in Ponyville, and my poor baby dragon needs his sleep.” Oh no, you won’t! Not until you are so livid that you explode into a fiery explosion of rage!

“No I don’t-“I got cut off, when Twilight gently kicked me two meters into the air with her back hoof. The impact with the ground was not pleasant. Gravity, one day, when I get my wings, I will show you who the boss is.

“Oh, wook at that. He’s so sweepy, he can’t even keep his wittle bawance.” She stated with a tone, like she was talking to a foal. Her trying-to-look-innocent smirk could only be described as cocky. Suddenly, Fluttershy picked me up and brought me into the library. Well, more free rides? I can’t complain.

After Twilight gently showed Fluttershy the door, through shoving her violently through it, she came back to me.

“Good job making friends. I am still wondering why not the whole town is piled on you, asking you if you want to be their friend.” I told her with my usual sarcastic voice. Oh, she hated it when I talked sarcastic, which was, by the way, 24/7. Well, I got to show her that I disapprove of her treating me like this someway.

“Sorry Spike, but I have to convince the Princess that Nightmare Moon is coming and that we are running out of time. I need to be alone to just study, without a bunch of crazy little ponies trying to make friends all the time.” She looked around the dark room. “Now, where’s the light?”

Suddenly, the lights went on, and the room exploded into a cheer of “SURPRISE!" OH, a huge crowd of ponies who invaded Twilight's make-shift home and throw her a party. Exactly what she does not want right now, or any other time, and exactly what I do want. Twilight groaned in exasperation, and I let out a sigh in relief.

“Surprise!” The pink pony from earlier said to Twilight. Her name apparently was Pinkie Pie, and she explained how she is friends with every pony… man she sure is talking a lot. I have the theory that she absorbs oxygen through her pink curly mane, and can distribute it effectively enough, to provide a constant flow of words if the need arises. Seriously, she was talking a lot. Normally, this would annoy me, but I appreciated it since it annoyed Twilight.

I saw Twilight, and I instantly knew in what mode she switched into. She was in the, I-absolutely-shut-out-any-information-input-and-only-do-easy-things-to-hold-back-my-aggression-mode. Long name, but it explains her current mental status perfectly. This was perfect timing to make her even madder. I saw her walking over to the drinks, and ran through the crowd to the table before she arrived. I quickly switched the bottle of juice, with the bottle of hot sauce. Oh, this will be just perfect.

She started pouring her drink, and she started to drink it. And more, and more, and more. Man she was drinking a lot. It seemed like she was exceptionally deep in that mode right now. I really had to snicker at this point, because this meant that this only would be even funnier. Pinkie was still talking, but when Twilight turned around, I almost lost it. She was red in her face, and she had tears in her eyes from the spiciness. Not long after, she ran away and went into her room. I smirked, and was happy that I finally had some free time. Oh this party would be formidable.

While Twilight was gone, I partied as hard as never before, which was never. Yes, it was my first party. Everypony drank some kind of weird juice and I followed suit. After some hours, the party seemed to get crazier and crazier. Suddenly, mares began to dance on tables and began to dress themselves slowly in clothes while doing this. I didn’t know why, but I somehow thought it was fascinating and watched it intently.

The music also went way crazier and everypony was only stumbling and screaming around. On another table, some guy drank juice that was being poured down a mare’s tail and practically no pony could speak normally anymore, not even me. I don’t know what they put in that drink, but the ponies all began to act crazy. Suddenly, I got THE idea.

I went to a shelf and picked a book. “Well, I think it’s finally time. In honor for the filly of the Apple family!” I shouted with a smirk while spitting a flame on the book, watching it burn to a crisp. When the book burned out, I laughed out in joy. I couldn’t control myself anymore. I actually laughed like a maniac. This day was just perfect. Twilight was annoyed like never before and I am at my first party ever.

We partied on until after 4:00 AM, but I don’t exactly remember anything at this point. I think I went to Twilight sometime in the party, but I don’t remember anymore what I said, or how I looked for the matter. I stopped drinking around three hours earlier, but I still felt strange. The following events, I can only tell because I asked ponies about what happened that night. I honestly can’t remember anything myself.

After the party, we all went to the Summer-Sun-Celebration. The ponies used an interesting adjective to describe me. They told me I was “hammered”, but I don’t know what that meant. Apparently, I shouted some random physical facts at some stallions, trying to insult them. I heard it didn’t work.

When we were in the hall, the princess got announced, but when she should have stepped out there was no pony. Instead, some kind of black alicorn queen stepped out. As it seems, she tried to make the night last forever. Like I said, I don’t remember anything.

As the black alicorn said that the night would last forever, some bolts of lightning were apparently shooting out of the clouds above her. After hearing this, I only had one statement in my mind.

“The pony telling me this obviously had more to drink than me.”
 

> Introduction Arc: 2 - The Elements Of Harmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh would you look at that. An immortal evil goddess from the moon comes back and has the ingenious plan to make the night last forever. If I remember the lessons with Celestia correctly, immortals, such as herself, are only called immortal due to their immunity to age and disease. Apparently, they can still die through any other means. 

So obviously this so called “Nightmare Moon” would also fall under the same category. Now comes the interesting question. Why does she want to make the night last eternal? Let’s recap the consequences of this, shall we? 

To make one thing clear right on the beginning. They do not raise the sun and the moon but rather move the planet with their magical power. Celestia taught Twilight how she is able to do this. Apparently, she hooks herself to the celestial bodies and uses her magical ability to push herself, together with the planet, away, which forces the earth to rotate. Now, let’s go to the consequences that eternal night comes with.

First, not the entire planet is dampened in eternal night, just Equestria. The other half of the planet is lighted with endless sun. This means that our side of the planet would, due to the lack of temperature input, freeze over with temperatures of mythical depth while the other half would be burned to the ground. So the planet would be an ice-cube on one side and on the other one a heated desert.

Through the rise of temperature on the other side of the planet, the water would condensate and would only cool down, when the winds, that circulate around the world, would carry the overfilled clouds to our side. Meaning that our side of the planet would receive hail-storms and blizzards of unreal strength. Bet it looks funny if hail of the size of a chariot destroys a house.

Aside from that, the plants on the planet would dry up in the desert, and the plants here would freeze over and also die eventually. The animals would be overcome by the lack of food and would starve to death. Every plant and animal would die effectively, and only mountains, oceans, and barren land would remain.

The fish would also die, together with the plants in the ocean when the metabolism of the fish stops. So after some time, the entire planet would be transformed into a cube without any kind of organism. But hey, at least we appreciated her night. If she somehow manages to survive some billions of years, she may be able to boast with her lovely night while talking to some protozoa. I bet those will be extremely interested in a conversation with her.

So, I of course doubted the stallion that told me of the happenings on that faithful night. How could somepony be this stupid? Well back to the topic. I was still feeling funny, and with my mental enhanced state I could only grasp one thing. Nightmare Moon tried to screw over Twilight on an epic proportion. She would surely be my best friend. 

As the ponies looked shocked at the disaster that was before them, I raised a cup, with that interesting drink in it, to the air. “To my best friend, Nightmare Moon!” I blurted out with an amount of spit that could rival my own body weight. I drank the whole drink down, and Twilight gasped beside me. Suddenly, my drink got thrown away by an unseen force, and Twilight looked shocked around the room.

“Who gave Spike ponythanol?” She practically screamed through the room, even though there were bigger problems currently present. You know, imminent death of the whole planet? Well as I said, Twilight had to hate my guts. The whole planet was going to die, and she ignores it in order to spoil my fun. Way to try to ruin my best night ever.

“No pony did, he must have drunk the drinks by himself.” Some black Pegasus with a stylish mane exclaimed. I heard later that his name was Thunderlane and that he was the stallion every mare dreamt about in Ponyville. I bet Twilight would dream about him too, if he were a book. Mayor Mare wasn’t paying attention to our important, potentially world saving discussion about my drinking habits and sent some guards at the immortal goddess that had the power to transform the planet into a piece of rock. There was no way that Nightmare Moon could win against the combined forces of three standard pegasus guards. 

I had to help my best friend. Stumbling forward like a newborn foal, I took hold of a bottle of juice and threw it at one of the charging guards. Sadly, in my compelling state of mind, I missed them, and the bottle flew directly at Nightmare Moon. Apparently, my bottle distracted Nightmare Moon, and while she shot a lightning strike at the pegasi, one of them could evade and smashed into her side.

After seeing this, I fell to the ground and tried to scream a loud “NOOOOOO”, but the only thing that was heard was some sound that remembered one of a gigantic hornet. As it seemed, I have forgotten to open my mouth to scream. Nonetheless, I somehow managed it to scream myself into unconsciousness. I bet Pinkie couldn’t do that, due to her mane absorbing oxygen out of the atmosphere. 

While I was unconscious, Nightmare Moon electrocuted the last guard, flew away, and left us to do whatever we wanted to do with our last days (I don’t think I can call it days since the night never vanishes and a new day never begins) of our lives. This all happened around ten hours ago, and the stallion that told me this also left around one hour earlier. Currently, we were in the tree-library, and we were waiting for Twilight to return.

With we, I mean Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, myself, and an ethereal angel which calls itself Rarity. Twilight read something about some Elements of Harmony and searched for a book about them. She wasn’t successful in finding it. It seemed to have vanished. It would certainly be funny if that book I burned would have been the book about the Elements of Harmony. If it was, I screwed Twilight double over. First with destroying her book, and second with forcing her to travel to the Canterlot-library in order to read in a copy of it.

It took her eight full hours to march from Ponyville to Canterlot and back. Eight hours, in which I enjoyed every single moment. Whenever I did something, even if it was sleeping, eating, or even reading, I always thought that Twilight had to walk in pure night to Canterlot. Finally, the justice of life was on my side.

Sadly, the eight hours passed pretty quickly. I had no idea how, seeing how I slept 7 ½ hours of those. Nonetheless, after eight hours she returned and looked at us while we were calmly talking inside her library. Panting, Twilight shouted into the room. “The last known location of the Elements of Harmony is the castle of the old pony sisters, in the Everfree Forest.”

The ponies in the room all looked at her with shock. Even I heard of the Everfree Forest. It was a forest with an unreal amount of dangerous and terrifying creatures and locations. No sane pony would go in there, and even less during the night. “Oh wow, the Everfree Forest. I always wanted to scratch a manticore behind its ears while falling to my happy demise in some crevice, all the while I am poisoned with potentially life-threatening amounts of funny looking mushrooms!” I blurted out with a happy voice.

Twilight immediately gave me a stern glance. “I have no time for that now. The fate of Equestria hangs on my hooves, and I don’t want you coming with me since you will only stand in my way.” She said, and suddenly she had an expression like she remembered something. “And I don’t want to bring you in unnecessary danger.” She added like she forgot to mention that her pencil had to be sharpened. Of course, bringing me in danger would mean that if something would happen to me, she had to write and send her letters to the currently hindered princess herself. 

I would have felt anger, pain, and sadness of such a display of carefreeness about my health, but I learned the hard way to deal with these, over the last couple of years. I only had one goal now, even if the whole of Equestria had to pay for it. I needed to screw Twilight over even more. She thought that the one thing in her life that looked up on her, that liked and loved her when it was younger, wasn’t significant enough to deal with. 

When I realized this in the earlier years, I was crushed. How could somepony do this to me? The only thing I wanted was to be loved by somepony. I wanted to have fun and lead a happy life with my “mother” Twilight. Now, whenever I think about her I just felt the urge to spit on a dirty road. Such a cruel being only deserves the worst things coming to her. I would not let this chance of screwing her over slip from my grasp!

“But Twilight, what if you need me to contact the Princess?” Twilight shook her head in annoyance.

“The Princess is missing, Spike.” She explained with an annoyed tone. I cursed silently under my breath that this didn’t work and had to make a new plan quickly. 

“But Twilight, what if you need to send the Elements to the imprisoned princess? What if she needs them to overthrow Nightmare Moon?” I asked her with a sad tone. I genuinely was proud of myself. My tone sounded genuinely sad. Twilight seemed to ponder about this statement, but after multiple seconds, she still couldn’t come up with an answer, so I continued to lie my way into a spot on the journey.

“Twilight, I couldn’t forgive myself if you were to get hurt during this journey.” To make this more authentic, I looked down at the floor and clenched my claws. “I just couldn’t.” I sadly wasn’t able to squeeze out any tears, due to me not caring even a single bit about Twilight. The other ponies in the library exclaimed some “D’aaaws”. Slowly looking up, I saw that Twilight didn’t know what to say. Her facial expression changed to uncomfortableness, and finally she let out a sigh.

“Fine, you can accompany me.” She told me with a hint of defeat in her voice. Yes, my plan was finally bearing fruits. Even if this meant telling Twilight that I loved her. I still felt a sting to my pride even though it was a lie. 

“I will come with you!” Rainbow Dash shouted while flying to us. 

“Me too!” Applejack followed, and not many seconds later the rest of the ponies also told us that they wanted to accompany us. I looked at them with a happy smile.

“Wow, five tough mares with insane amounts of magical powers and year-long battle experiences. What do we owe your presence on our timid little unimportant journey to?” I asked them, and they gave me funny looks. Oh, they weren’t used to my way of speaking. This journey would be fun.

“We don’t have any battle experience. What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash told me with a raised eyebrow. I instantly lifted both my eyebrows and smiled overdramatically.

“You don’t say? Are you unquestionably certain?” I asked her, but she only raised her one eyebrow higher.

“Yes, I am certain. I mean yeah, I punched some stallions in the guts already, but I couldn’t count that as year-long battle experience.” She said somewhat sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head with her left hoof. I didn’t relent with my attitude and walked closer to her. I extended my claw and shook her hoof.

“Wow, what an honor to meet somepony with the amount of strength to beat up some stallions. I bet the immortal goddess, that occasionally destroys planets we are trying to stop, would have no chance against somepony that beat up some stallions.” I exclaimed with my typical sarcastic demeanor. Rainbow flew a little higher up and waved a dismissive hoof.

“Oh, no problem.” Then she punched the air around her. “I will show her my stuff!” Not long after this, she got pulled down by Applejack.

“Hey there sugarcube, don’t you start destroying the library.” She said. After she calmed Rainbow Dash down, she looked over to me, and her look was, honestly speaking, unsettling. She walked closer to me and looked me in the eyes.

“Ah know what game yer playin and ah won’t stand idly by when you have fun on the expense of one of mah friends. So hold yer tongue, got that?” She told me quietly but maniacally. No pony in the room, except me heard that. Oh, she was good. I held both my claws up, to show that I had nothing planned and that I was totally innocent. She only continued giving me the glare, but walked back over to her friends.

“Twilight dear, we will accompany you on this quest, and I won’t accept no for an answer.” The white angel-like being told Twilight with a heavenly voice. Twilight seemed to be uncomfortable, but then only groaned in exasperation.

“Oargh, fine.” She told them and levitated me on her back. When I was securely placed on the most comfortable place possible, since this places gives me an old and instinctual feeling of standing over her, she left the library and walked in some direction where I could see a forest at the end of the road. The other ponies followed us, and it didn’t take long until we arrived at the Everfree Forest.

“Who wasn’t? Who didn’t? Who hasn’t been in the sure death-trap called the Everfree Forest? Step up, and feel the poisonous plants caressing your hides, and the howls of evil phantom creatures in the night.” Fluttershy seemed to get scared by this, and quickly hid behind Rainbow Dash who only rolled her eyes at Fluttershy’s fears. Rarity didn’t react at all, just like Twilight. Pinkie seemed to laugh without end, but I bet that would have also happened if I only would have said phantoms. Applejack threw me a stern gaze.

“Well this is it. The Everfree Forest. Are you sure you want to come with me?” Twilight turned around and asked her companions who only nodded, except Fluttershy who was still covering behind Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie who apparently had trouble absorbing the unreal amounts of oxygen  that were needed to create the steady amount of air that was needed to perform her laughing fit, through her mane. Wow, what a sentence. 

“We are in this together Twilight, and nothing will stop us from coming with you!” Answered Rainbow Dash to Twilight, and for a short amount of time, it seemed like Twilight smiled. Wait, Twilight can smile while no book is in a radius of two meters around her? No, that’s not possible. The chances are higher that one of the ponies is a book in disguise than her smiling and laughing without a book. 

Was Applejack the book? Was she able to discern my fine weaving of sarcasm through her experience as being literature? Another reason to be careful around her. If I would turn my back on her, she could bite me and turn me into one of the infamous Books of Gnark. The legend has it that peculiar kinds of books flatter through the moonlight at a new moon and bite all living beings in order to feed on their essence of literature. The legend was perfectly plausible, and no pony would doubt it.

The only possibility to discern a living being from a Book of Gnark was to perform the process called “Get At You” for short G.A.Y. To perform the GAY, it was needed to throw golden sparkle powder at the suspected book, and if the sparkle powder transforms into a clear sparkling shine, then the GAY was positive. Like I said, perfectly plausible and believable legend.

Nonetheless, we walked into the forest, and after several minutes of walking, the surroundings still looked as interesting as green grass on a green plane. Raising my claw, and showing it to the left, I talked to the ponies. “If all of you look to the left, you see the wonderful dark trees of the forest.” The ponies turned to their left, even though they knew that I was only joking.

“And if you would look to your right,” I continued, and they looked to their right. “You don’t see anything on the left side anymore.” The atmosphere was going out of its natural passive state of existence and decided to let me feel the collective eye roll that was taking place, even though I didn’t look at them. Fluttershy timidly walked up to the side of Twilight and looked at me.

“Excuse me, Spike? I-I have a question… if you don’t mind that is.” She told me, and I turned to her with a frown on my face.

“I hate questions. The last time somepony talked to me with something as normal and entirely natural like a question, I threw a book at the wall and started barking at him like a dog.” Pinkie couldn’t hold herself anymore and was laughing again, but Fluttershy’s reaction was different from what I thought. She seemed to shrink down and had tears in her eyes.

I wanted to have my fun, but Fluttershy never did anything to me. I thought she would understand it and laugh it up, but apparently she took it serious. Feeling a slight wave of guilt inside of me, I corrected myself. “Sorry Fluttershy, that was only a joke. No, I don’t mind you asking me a question.” She still didn’t look convinced but asked nonetheless.

“I only wanted to ask, why you speak so strangely. Ma-Many things you say are obviously wrong, and I don’t think that you don’t know these things.” She asked me silently, and with a tone that showed that she undeniably didn’t want to offend me. I rolled my eyes and answered.

“It’s whom I am.” She wasn’t sure what I meant, at least that is what I could get from looking at her right tilted head. Her confusion was apparent.

“Th-Then why are you like you are?” She asked as if this would be an easy question that everypony knew the answer to. I explained it to her in easy understandable terms.

“I am acting like I am, because if I wouldn’t be acting like I am then I wouldn’t be me as I am right now and that’s something that is extremely important to me. ” I explained to her, but she seemed to still be confused. But this time, it seemed to come from my explanation. I formulated it in the most complex terms possible, but it still was logical and held truth. After a time of confused gazes that were directed at me, she seemed to decide that she wouldn’t want to ask me anymore.

Suddenly, the floor of the path broke away and in the next moment we were sliding to our certain dooms. Pinkie and Rarity could be rescued, but Twilight and Applejack didn’t have much luck. Twilight was hanging on for her dear life, directly over the chasm. Applejack seemed to have grabbed some kind of stone and was able to hold herself. I also held out pretty well. Apparently, ramming my claws into the floor stopped my descent into death more effectively than expected.

Twilight seemed to slip, and I suddenly felt ill. I wanted to screw Twilight over, but I didn’t want her to die. She was still the only pony I could consider a family. Luckily, Applejack slid down to her and grabbed her before she fell, and held her. I was happy and let out a sigh when I saw this. Applejack looked around the sky suddenly and said something.

“If you want to survive, let go.” Did I mishear something right now? That was grade A logic right there. Putting one of my claws to my mouth to amplify my voice, I shouted down.

“Yes, listen to the pony you just met yesterday and who totally isn’t in danger herself.” I shouted down. Applejack turned to me with a glare.

“That’s not helping, Spike!” She shouted at me, and I lifted both my claws up to demonstrate that I intended nothing evil. Of course, I kicked my claws in my feet into the floor, before doing this. We don’t want to have a Spike as flat as a disc that could cut atoms in two. Well the plate would be destroyed due to the explosion if the radioactive material would be over the critical mass border, but that’s not relevant right now.

Twilight suddenly let go, and my heart dropped. But not for long. Apparently, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were under her and caught her. Oh, so that was the reason why Applejack told her to let go. She definitely was able to look around the corner and saw them being placed there. She was obviously not trying to save herself with this.

Well, after Twilight was saved, I decided to climb down the cliff with ramming my claws into the stone. Sounds hard I know, but dragon-claws can be darned sharp and hard. Seeing that I took pretty long, Rainbow Dash grabbed me and flew me down to the floor. “Thanks.” I uttered to her. Yes, I can be polite, who would have guessed? 

Suddenly, we heard a roar from the opposite direction of the cliff. Looking over, we saw a furious manticore. Yeah, I led a happy life. Looking to the ponies, I saw that they got ready to fight against it. Ladies and gentlecolts, we just arrived at a whole new level of stupidity. Six mares, without any prior battle-experience, against a lion with five times the accumulated weight of all the ponies combined. On top of that, it had bat wings and a poisonous scorpion tail. Yes, we could win this easily.

Against all odds, the manticore still decided to fight us. It charged at the ponies while I was recounting every book I failed to burn, and attacked the ponies. Surprisingly, the ponies fought better than I thought and were holding their own against it. After a brief break, they charged at each other again, but they got interrupted by the manliest pony in existence, Fluttershy.

“She’s right! Let’s talk like civilized equines. I bet the brutal predator will listen to reason.” I shouted in, but before I could continue, a blonde tail wrapped around my mouth and I couldn’t say anymore. Apparently, Applejack didn’t like me talking and looked at me with a stern gaze. And again, I only shrugged. 

While I inhaled hair of a tail that probably had insane amounts of parasites, Fluttershy walked up to the manticore and nuzzled it. To be honest, I hadn’t thought that the manticore would show its injured claw. The whole angry attack-the-ponies-because-they-are-at-fault-for-the-splinter-in-my-paw attitude was due to that single splinter. Seems legit. 

When Fluttershy got it out, which was apparently impossible for the manticore to do itself due to the ridiculous small size of a whole fist, he roared at her but only licked her in affection. Totally legit. After the manticore was finished tasting its probably future dinner, Fluttershy left its side with the best manecut that existed, ever. 

We continued along our way after this… interesting… turn of events and got to a muddy area after a short time. The ponies complained about mud until Fluttershy screamed. Apparently, she was afraid of trees. And she was not the only one. All the other ponies also seemed to have a diagnosed fear of being photosynthesized. Yes, that is a word. I fell to my knees and clawed myself at Twilight’s side.

“NOOOOO, please I don’t want to get attacked by their unmoving barks. And their leaves, they will rustle us to death. And I don’t even want to talk about their roots!” I literally screamed in her ear. She looked at me with a face that indicated that she didn’t know if I was serious or not. Suddenly, we heard laughing from our side.

Pinkie Pie was laughing. What sorcery was this? Pinkie never laughed! Before I was able to call her out on the fact that she had to be a trickster that found her way into our group, she did the most logical thing you could do in such a situation. She broke into a song, about laughing at ectoplasm.

This made perfect sense, especially the instruments that were playing in the background. I watched the whole ridiculous thing unfold with a raised eyebrow. Even the ponies got into the mood to laugh at the apparently overly funny things, called trees. Yes, trees. Whenever I was in a forest, I couldn’t hold myself anymore due to the sole hilarity of the brown barks in contrast to the green leaves. 

When the ponies calmed down, we continued our way. We were barely able to survive the onslaught of the rustling leaves. Man, we sure were lucky, weren’t we? After a while, we came to a raging river. Yeah, it looked like a great idea to cross it. The meter high waves would never be able to ravage us away and slam us at some sharp stones. Suddenly, we heard whining from our left, and we saw a giant purple sea-serpent. 

I wouldn’t believe it if I wouldn’t have seen it with my own eyes. He had a styled mane. Yes, the sole ridicule of a large reptile that apparently lives underwater having hair wasn’t enough. No, it also had to be styled. What happened to my life? Oh right, I got one. I didn’t have one before. Rarity walked up to him and asked him what happened. It seemed like he lost a part of his moustache. Yes, I bet there were a ton of creatures in the forest that would laugh at him with that half moustache. 

He would get laughed on by timberwolves. The manticores would forbid their children to come close to him, and the hydras would only talk awkwardly with him while trying to end the conversation as fast as possible. Oh this poor sea serpent. I didn’t notice it until it was too late. Rarity had cut off her tail. Why? How could she cut off such a perfect tail?

With some magic, she levitated her tail into the hole in which the severed moustache came out, and fixed it. To be honest, I anticipated that the serpent would attack us just for the idea to make his appearance this asymmetric. I was mistaken. Apparently, he seemed to have some kind of disorder that made him blind to every bad aspect of asymmetry. 

Seemingly happy, he let us pass the river, and we continued our journey. Not many minutes later, we came to a chasm with lots of mist. Twilight nearly fell down, but she was rescued. Well, poor Twilight wasn’t able to take a dive into paradise, what a shame. Nonetheless, we saw a severed bridge. Rainbow Dash decided to fly over, and did so. It took suspiciously long for her to come back. I suspect she is in cahoots with the books of Gnark. They indubitably were after my life. Damn you literature!

Never mind, after Rainbow came back, we got over the bridge and there we saw it. The old castle of the pony sisters. It looked old. Yes, I know that the word ruins kind of implies the word old, but this thing was so old that the first mountain of the planet would sue the pony, who would even dare to describe it with the same word, that implies oldness, as it has described the ruins.

The ponies were happy that we were finally there, and I was not happy. I couldn’t screw over Twilight. Not even a little bit. When we arrived in the hall, we saw a round statue with more round spheres of stone. Twilight saw that these probably were the Elements of Harmony, and levitated them down to us. Wow, she didn’t send me to climb there and get them down. How did I deserve that?

When she accumulated all the Elements, our company left her alone. “Wow, I hope you are able to harness the magic of these rocks.” I told her, but before I could continue I got pulled away by a blond tail. Apparently, Applejack tried to dragonnap me. I bet she planned to transform me into a book, but she hasn’t counted on the other ponies being around. Just when we left the room, we heard a loud noise and went back in there again. 

Twilight vanished. 

“Twilight!” Everypony screamed, and they all started running around in a frantic search. I only looked out of the window and thought who would have a disco-party in the middle of the forest. Seriously, if Nightmare Moon tried to ponynap Twilight, she did a horrible job in it. Not only did she ponynap her with a lot of noise, no, she also only transported her with her godlike powers 50 meters away, and hid her presence through light explosions, which were all shining into the night sky.

The ponies instantly ran to the building with the light, and I sprinted after them. Of course, I had no problem following some quadruples with my athletic build that could rival a baby penguin. Law didn’t allow me to describe my walking speed any less disastrous than with the word “sticky”. Yes, I was that slow that my speed could be described with a word that indicated something that stuck to a fixed place.

To say that I broke the sound barrier with my run of epic proportions would be an understatement. So I only arrived when Twilight started explaining to Nightmare Moon in a monologue, how those five ponies that followed us represented the spirits of harmony. 

Applejack, who wanted to save her own life with a deception that brought Twilight into falling to her sure demise, represented the spirit of honesty.

Fluttershy, who was insane enough to try to have a conversation with a ravaging predator, represented the spirit of Kindness.

Pinkie Pie, who absorbed too much oxygen with her mane and started laughing uncontrollably at everything in existence, represented the spirit of laughter.

Rarity, who tried to anger a serpent with trying to disfigure its appearance, represented the spirit of generosity.

Rainbow Dash, who was too stupid to tie a good knot on a rope, represented the spirit of loyalty. 

And lastly, the spark that combined every positive treat. The element of magic. Some kind of sixth ball came down from the ceiling and floated towards Twilight. Some destroyed pieces of the old balls flew around the other ponies, and suddenly a giant rainbow smashed into Nightmare Moon. NOOOO, not colorful light! Her sole weakness.

So let me get this straight. My year-long slave-master just ascended to the status of a legendary hero as the wielder of an element of harmony and defeated a threat that would have destroyed the planet. Huh, it must be Tuesday because life positively hates me. And there was no clearer way for life to show me that it hated me through giving my “owner” a legendary status. Screw you too, life!

When the rainbow ended, the ponies fell to the ground and looked at their new stylish necklaces. While they did this, the sun rose up to the sky. Huh, seemed like Celestia could finally do something. Wonder what hindered her in showing up hours ago. 

“Indeed you do.” I heard and shortly after Princess Celestia showed up. How could her voice appear before she ported into the room? Did she first port herself behind a pillar and shouted it to get attention so when she teleported into the room, everypony would look at her and be awed? Modesty at its finest.

Well, everypony bowed deeply, including me. I didn’t have anything against the princess, and she was one of the ponies to which I could talk normally, so I didn’t have anything against bowing to her. Twilight, being the modest and finely mannered unicorn she is, shouted her name like we were on a farm and hugged her. 

“Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student. I knew you could do it!” She said with a praising tone, and Twilight looked confused.

“But… you told me, it was just an old pony tale.” She told the princess. The Princess only smiled at her and answered.

“I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon’s return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart.” Celestia explained and turned to walk at a foal who was at the old position of Nightmare Moon, but before she talked to her, Celestia gave me a wink with one of her eyes.

She didn’t know anything. She made up some lies and let it seem like she knew this all along. That was another reason why I loved the Princess. When she came to the foal, she continued speaking. “Now if only another will, as well. Princess Luna!” The little filly gasped and looked at Celestia. Incoming slaughter.

“It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.” The ponies gasped as if they didn’t know that Luna was Celestias’s sister. I mean, everypony knew the tale of the Mare in the Moon. It was even said that it was Celestia’s sister. I didn’t quite understand why they were shocked about this.

“Will you accept my friendship?” Celestia asked Luna, and after some seconds Luna apologized and everypony forgave her for trying to turn the planet into a lifeless stone. As long as she promises to not do it again, at least on purpose, everything should be forgiven. I bet the electrocuted pegasi in the town hall would agree with that. Everypony makes mistakes and a thousand years old goddess was certainly not old enough to bear the consequences of said mistakes. 

Everypony was happy, and we traveled back to Ponyville. When we arrived, Celestia ordered Twilight to continue studying “The Magic of Friendship” here in Ponyville. Before she flew away in the chariot, she threw at me another wink. She knew that I would have more free time, and when Twilight would finally stop studying that much, she maybe would find out that there are certain dragons who got treated wrongly. Oh, whom am I kidding? It’s more realistic that I would get transformed into a book of Gnark.

While we partied and were happy all together, there was one question still on my mind.

“How intoxicated had the maid, that cleaned the old ponycastle, to be, to somehow get the sixth element to the ceiling?”

> Arc 1: 1 - Decisions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

„Spike! Hurry, we need to help Applejack at the farm!” Twilight shouted to me, while I was reshelving the entire library. It honestly amazed me, how she was able to stop me from doing something this exotic. I mean, I never reshelve the library. That was an absolutely rare task, and while doing this delicate and rare job, she dared to stop me in order to get me to follow her to help the one pon-… sorry, disguised book I actually have something against, except Twilight? 

“Yes, I would gladly accompany you to help Rattlesack, err Applejack. It’s not like I have anything to do right now.” I told her with an annoyed tone, to which she rolled her eyes.

“You can reshelve the library when we are done helping her.” She exclaimed with an annoyed voice. I turned to her with a huge smile. I don’t think that I need to explain that the smile was fake.

“Oh, really? I am allowed to continue my work later, in order to work some more elsewhere? This could be the most generous thing I ever received.” I put a claw to my chin and made myself look like I actually thought about something. “No, never mind. It’s not even close.” The last part, I said with a sour voice. Twilight turned around and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and an annoyed expression.

“Do you want to tell me something, mister?” She asked, laying special emphasis on the mister, like I broke a teacup, and she would know that I did it. I bowed to her in a deep bow and started talking in an overly done servant character.

“Oh no, never would I speak against my master and owner.” She snorted once but got closer. Leaning over in my face, she looked me deep in my eyes.

“Your attitude has gotten worse since we came to Ponyville. I would appreciate it if you could keep it in check.” She told me while poking me with one of her hooves. Oh, I should control my attitude? I’ll show her, controlling my attitude. 

“What? Me? I am an absolutely loyal servant. I would never think about being disrespectful.” I told her with another bow. She didn’t react how I anticipated she would. Instead, she only sighed, and looked at me with a pained expression.

“Do you honestly think like this? Am I just your owner?” She asked me with a hint of worry in her voice. Oh, looky here. Twilight seems to think that she handles me differently than just a pet/slave. How interesting. Let’s see where this goes.

“Oh, excuse me. Am I not being clear enough? I thought I told you this two times already. Do you need it a third time?” I asked her while crossing my arms in front of me. She seemed annoyed at that remark, but I didn’t stop there. “You… are… my… owner.” I poked her with every word I told her. “At least that’s how you treat me.” I added after this.

She seemed to have a pained expression, but only for a very short time. Instead of showing to me that she cared or that she was concerned about anything different than her friends or her books, she just stomped on the floor with aggression. “You want it that way? Fine! I just hoped we could talk like two civilized ponies, but as it seems you want to talk like a slave to his master. If you want it this way, fine!” She almost shouted at me, but I didn’t falter. 

So what if she was angry? I didn’t care about her so she can be as angry as she wanted. I didn’t care. Instead of letting it slip by, I continued with my onslaught. “As if we were talking any differently before. ‘Spike do this. Spike do that. Spike, I don’t care that you nearly died while climbing those ladders. Spike-“ I got interrupted while recounting her sentences and thoughts with my incredibly reasonable impression of her voice.

“Oh, don’t be like that! As if the ladders would be high enough to hurt you!” She answered with an angry voice. My eyes instantly went wide open, and I had a shocked impression on my face.

“What? Then the broken bone I had after I fell down a ladder was a lie? How?! How could somepony put a broken bone in my body, immediately after a fall? Is it magic? Please, don’t tell me it’s magic. I don’t understand magic!” I did not overdramatize this. Especially not with my kneeling before her. Twilight only rolled her eyes.

“What is your problem? Why do you keep saying that I am treating you like a slave?” She asked with an annoyed raised eyebrow. She is not treating me like a slave? Well, let’s see. 

“Because you are doing exactly that!” I shouted in her face, and her anger exploded.

“Like a slave? LIKE A SLAVE?! I have not been treating you like a slave! I have been treating you like a pony!” She got into my face, but I still didn’t care.

“Oh you would treat ponies exactly like you treated me? Then let me show you exactly what you would do if you would treat ponies like you treat me!” I shouted in her face and went to a ladder. 

“Spike?” She asked me with an annoyed tone, but I ignored her. Looking through the shelf, I found the book I was searching for. I grabbed it and looked at it. “Ponyrights” stood on the front cover of the book. Tucking it under my right arm, I came down from the ladder. Not stopping, I walked to the door and opened it.

“What are you doing?”  Twilight asked again, but I still ignored her. When I came out of the library, I walked to the side on some patch of grass. Looking around, I found a shovel and took it. While I carried the shovel to the grass-patch, I saw Twilight coming out of the library. I began digging a hole in the grass.

“Spike?” She asked again, but hey look at this, I didn’t care. When I finished the hole, I picked up the book and threw it into the hole. “Stop!” Twilight shouted, but I didn’t relent. Throwing all the dirt back into the hole, I stamped on top of it until it was smooth and hard. With an enraged look on my face,  I turned to Twilight.

“That’s what you would do! You would bury the ponyrights if you would treat them like me!” I shouted at her while she also looked furious.

“Don’t overdramatize this! I told you that I was treating you like a normal pony!” She shouted back angrily. One of my claws shot up, and I held it out to indicate the number one.

“One, I don’t get paid.” I recited, and Twilight quickly countered.

“You can live with me. You get food and shel-“

“Two, I work for ten hours a day effectively, and have to be on standby for the remaining four!” I interrupted her, but she still seemed furious!

“You can’t call this working. Studying is-“ I didn’t let her continue. I was on a roll.

“Three, you decide what I eat, when I eat, if I eat, and what I drink.” 

“My house, my rules.” She recited with an air of authority around her.

“Four, whenever somepony talks to me, you barge in or send them away!” I continued, but this time, Twilight seemed to pause a minute to answer, but then only shook her head.

“That’s not true!” She shouted and stomped her right forehoof at the ground. “Give me one example where I did that!” 

“Moon Dancer!” I instantly answered, and she only groaned.

“Oh come on. She is boring, and her study material is too weak.” She exclaimed with an aura of annoyance.

“Fluttershy!” She rolled her eyes again.

“We were in a hurry, and needed to find something to stop Nightmare Moon.” She said with exasperation. I crossed my arms but didn’t continue. After a while, she grinned self sufficient, thinking that she evaded the rock that was shooting at her.

“See? I don’t do this every time. That you can’t find an example anymore proves this.” She stated with confidence. I only raised my eyebrows and smirked.

“Oh, I think you are mistaken.” Her self-satisfactory smirk vanished, and she looked annoyed again. “You see, I can’t get more examples because I just told you 100% of all encounters that I had, and with justifying your actions, you just confessed that you barked into every single conversation I had with somepony!” My logic hit her like a rock, but outwards she seemed to didn’t care at all.

“So? It’s not my fault that you are not talking with other ponies that much?” Oh, now it was on.

“It is! If you wouldn’t want to have me close to you 24/7, then I could get out of the house for once! You hold me like a prisoner in your library. Tell me, when was the last time you let me outside or gave me some free time before we came to Ponyville?” She immediately wanted to answer, but stopped mid-hoof. Instead, she only resumed thinking. She thought and thought. After a while without answer, I continued.

“Didn’t find anything?” I asked her with an annoyed tone. Her expression changed gradually from thinking to horror. After a while, she looked to me with a shocked expression. Seeing my victory, I smirked cockily like I never did before. “Oh, does my mistress not find a moment where she gave her slave some free time?” This seemed to tip her off, and her shocked expression changed back to anger. Deep and burning anger.

“Listen here, Spike! If you are not satisfied with how I am treating you, then why don’t you just leave?” She shouted at me with rage. That was it. That’s it. I had enough. I could comp with my stress, my work, my slave life, but now she went too far. Instead of backing up, I got into her face and screamed the next word that came out of my mouth.

“FINE!” I walked into the library and did not look back at Twilight. I went up the stairs, to our bedroom and took the bag with gems out. When I had it, I realized that this was everything I owned. I was eleven years old, and the only thing I possessed was a bag of food. This only helped in fueling my rage.

Just when Twilight came up the stairs, I just left the bedroom and didn’t look her in the eyes. I didn’t care anymore. It was over. Stomping to the door, I opened it and went outside. “Spike, wait!” I heard from behind me, but I was too furious to respond to her. I only smashed the door behind me loudly and trotted down the road towards Ponyville.

I was so angry that I muttered to myself with curse words and things I would do without her, and how nice a life without Twilight would be. I was so enraptured in my own plans that I didn’t notice that I already was in the middle of town and that almost everypony stared at me like I had grown a seventh leg. 

This was something I certainly didn’t need now. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” I shouted at everypony all around me, and they winced at this. In an instant, they all began to look at something different, and I harrumphed. All those ponies. I didn’t need them.  

I continued on my path without goal and came to a cottage at the Everfree Forest. I lifted my head and only now realized that I’ve never been here before. Looking closer at the cottage, I saw a yellow pegasus skimming around the house, feeding animals. It was Fluttershy. She was one of the few that truly talked to me like an equal. 

Looking closer to her, I saw that she didn’t notice me, and I made a gesture that meant farewell. Before she noticed me, I walked along my path and stopped before the Everfree Forest. Looking at it, I knew what would wait for me in there. A forest full of danger, but also a new life. A life without ponies that looked down upon a dragon. A lonely life. 

My mind went heavy as I now stood before my ultimate decision. The decision that would involve the rest of my life now. Would I really go in there, and live of plants and gems? Maybe even of meat? I turned around and saw the cottage with Fluttershy again. Maybe, It wasn’t too late? Maybe I could go back to them? Live somewhere else, and apologize to Twilight some days later?

Turning back to the forest, I didn’t know anymore what to do. What should I do? Should I go and create a new life somewhere else, or try to get back my old life?  

> Arc 1: 2 - First Day in Everfree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

„What should I do?“ Was the question that ran through my mind as I kept looking around between Fluttershy’s cottage and the entrance to the Everfree Forest. This was a decision that I just couldn’t decide like that. Like what I wanted to eat. Oh, that question would probably come up quite some time in the forest.

This seriously needed consideration. It was not too late. I could still live among ponies. They even showed that not everypony thought of me of something lesser. Fluttershy showed it with showing interest in me, and there was still Rarity. If I would leave, I wouldn’t see Rarity anymore. I wouldn’t have any opportunity anymore to see her. 

“Oh what should I do?” I asked myself. Then I got an idea. Whenever I didn’t know what to decide, I threw a bit into the air, assigning one side to one possibility. Now the amusing thing is that I don’t promise myself to follow the bit. It often helped me to realize what I truly wanted. When I would throw the bit into the air, and it would land on possibility A, I would either do one of two things.

Either I would say OK and proceed with this, or I would realize that I hoped that it would land on the other side, thus realizing that I wanted the other thing more. Throwing the bit into the air, it landed with the moon-side up, meaning I should stay in the village. Back to the village? Where I was handled like a slave? 

After a little consideration, I decided against it. Picking up my bag, which laid at the site while I was thinking, I walked to the forest. This seemed to be the right decision. Well that’s at least what I thought, not that I am omnipresent and omniscient. Or am I? Trying to teleport myself into Canterlot, I realized that I failed and that I probably was not all powerful. Well, it was worth a try.

When I made it to the border of the forest, I looked back one more time. This would be the last time I would see a pony for a long time. It felt kind of strange to leave something I had my whole life. Every day, I met new ponies in the library. Every day, I talked to somepony else. This would all end now, and I would have to continue my new life. 

Giving Ponyville one last sigh, I turned around and walked into the forest. Before I crossed the border, I hesitated for some time. This step would be the first step of my new life. But I had to go through with it! I made up my mind! With this motivation running through my head, I took the step, and I didn’t feel different at all. Huh, and here I thought that I would instantly change into some kind of wild dragon-animal. 

Speaking of which, I was really interested in seeing other dragons maybe. I never knew where I came from, and this journey might show me my roots. Not only this, but I also could do something against my chubby body. Looking down at myself, I poked at my tummy, which instantly got transformed into waves that went over it. Yep, this would help me. 

I didn’t notice how far I already went into the forest, even though I only walked for maybe ten minutes. It looked pretty dark, and I won’t lie, I felt a little uncertain about all this. NO! I made up my mind! I won’t be a slave any longer! I will be my own dragon, and nothing will stop me!

Suddenly, something loud smashed down on the path behind me. Determined turning around, I saw what made this noise. A manticore landed brutally behind me and looked at me with hunger in its eyes. We both stood there for a while, our gazes locked into each other. The manticore was not attacking and not pouncing, and I didn’t look away.

Our focuses did not yield, and we continued looking into each other’s eyes, judging how strong the other one was. I looked fearless. I looked confident, and my mind was also absolutely fearless and brave to that time.

“Oh buck oh buck oh buck oh buck oh buck OH BUCK! How will I get out of this? Manticores are fast and can fly. I can’t fly. It’s over. He will eat me and nopony will ever find me. Will Twilight miss me? Ah forget it. As if she would do that. Did I pee back there when he landed? *sniff sniff* No, I don’t think so. What should I do?” I bravely thought. Yes, I was absolutely calm. 

After a while, I realized that the manticore is not attacking me. Why not? It was not like I am some dangerous predator… yet. I took one step to the left. The manticore didn’t move but only continued looking into my eyes. This was a really strange situation. If I used this correctly, I might be able to outrun or outsmart him. 

I slowly took another step to the left, but the manticore again failed to show a reaction. What went through its head? Did it have some kind of bad experience with some kind of little dragon before or is it just not used to its prey staring him into the eyes? Whatever it is, I shouldn’t break the eye-contact.

With a gulp that only I could feel and hear, I took one step back. This time, the manticore took one step towards me. His step was three times greater than mine, and it lessened the distance between us considerably. Oh, how I hate my new life already. Instead of taking more steps backwards, I continued walking to the left. 

After several steps, he turned a little so I won’t get into his blind-spot. I didn’t stop until I felt a tree to my left side. Feeling it up, I got an idea. Oh, I will bite myself in the flank later for this. Grabbing the tree with both of my claws, I made myself ready. With one deep breath, I started my plan.

I pulled myself behind the tree, and like I anticipated, the manticore roared and instantly swatted at the tree. It punched and slashed around every bush near the tree, but it couldn’t find me. I was covering in the bushes and crawled away slowly. This way, he might not find me. As far as I knew, manticores had great eyes, but their ears and noses were not as strong.

The manticore continued to thrash around and demolished every bush he could find, but I already was too far away. If this continued, he wouldn’t find me. Suddenly, I smashed against a tree. Damn trees, not being where they are supposed to be. What pony planted them even in this ridiculous design? 

Rubbing my head, I looked to the front to see what I smashed against. Four thin kinds of trees that went up and met at some kind of tall tree? I raised an eyebrow. What is that? Some kind of walking mutant tree? The four thin trees could be considered legs, and the big thing over them the body. Chuckling a little inwards, I dismissed this thought.

Walking trees, what would walking trees even do? Walk to the sunny spots to photosynthesize better? Crawling around it, I heard some kind of growling. Looking upwards, I saw the head of the “tree”. It had a lot of similarities to a wolf. If I wouldn’t be as well-read as I am, I would probably think that this tree growled.

Or that it just blinked. Or that it looked deep into my eyes. Or that some kind of tree-sap just now came out of its mouth that looked similar to drool. Stop it, Spike! Are you afraid of trees now? I smirked at the tree figure and the figure smirked back. It had a beautiful smile, full with sharp canine teeth if I was allowed to say that. 

Remembering that it was possible for certain plants to get nutrients through dead animals, I think I now understood why this thing had these neat teeth and those slender legs. I let out a long “oh” when I realized what they were there for. The “wolf” lowered its head and looked me directly into the eyes. After some time,  it started growling.

The manticore suddenly lifted its head out of the bushes when it heard my manly figure screaming like a filly. It looked to me and saw how I ran through the clearing, three of those things following me. Since I need a name for those things, I’ll be calling them woody-wolves from now on. Apparently, these woody-wolves hunted in packs, and I currently had three of them following me. Oh, and a manticore.

I ran as fast as my athletic stature that rivaled the one of a penguin, could carry me, but I don’t know if I could call ten meters far. Heck, if I would write this I wouldn’t even need to write it as a number, that’s how low this was. After around ten meters, I got surrounded by the woodies. There wasn’t truly any way out until the manticore came to us and smashed one wolf to pieces.

The two others instantly turned their attention to the manticore and growled at him fiercely. The manticore answered with some kind of hiss. It looked exactly like the hiss of a housecat, and that is what made me this afraid. Ever saw a house cat hiss? They can look furious, and with the big stature of the manticore this simply looked scary. 

Deciding that this was my chance, I instantly ran into one direction. The wolves would have pounced on me, but they didn’t want to risk being the food of the manticore. Wait, do those woodies count as animal or plant? Shaking my head, I banished that thought. There was no time for this right now. I continued running uninterrupted for several seconds. 

With a sigh,  I stopped and turned around. I was in luck because only two woodies and the manticore were running after me. I simply gulped and started running again. Why were they not fighting each other? Have they formed some kind of alliance to hunt the small baby dragon? What’s with this random-flank forest?

I continued running until I came to some kind of muddy river. It was a swamp, and I instantly knew that this would be difficult to cross. Turning around, I saw the three carnivores running at me. Turning back to the swamp, I couldn’t see a way. Fully in panic, I looked around the surroundings. There had to be something I could do. 

Suddenly, my belly began to blow up, and I felt how some kind of whacking fire manifested itself in my body. I had this only three times before. This is known as “growth expulsion”. When the organs, which create the fire in the dragon’s body, grow, they sometimes need to expulse gigantic amounts of fire. I was in incredible luck that this happened now. It could be enough to scare the carnivores away.

Turning around, I took a huge gulp of air and the carnivores seemed to stop. They knew that I was a dragon, and they didn’t want to feel my fire. Taking every bit of air in my lung, I shot a humongous green flame at them. Well, that’s what I wished. Instead, I shot out a small green flame that quickly transformed into a scroll. The animals and I looked to the ground where the scroll unfurled.


Hear ye, hear ye. 

Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria is pleased to announce The Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of unicera. 

The princess hereby extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest. 

Yours truly,
Upper Crust


Honestly? Now? And again, a piece of writing tried to kill me. DAMN YOU LITERATURE! Looking into the hungry eyes of my future dinner companions, I could practically feel their hunger for me. Suddenly, their eyes went wide, and they had a fearful expression. They started looking over me, and I turned my head to look at what they were looking at.

Apparently, a four headed hydra decided to visit us. It would probably offer me tea and cookies if it wouldn’t have something else on the dinner-plan today. I could practically see my cooked reflection in its eyes. The woodies and the manticore instantly turned tail and ran away, but not without me. I followed them, not wanting to get eaten by the hydra. 

The hydra screamed, seeing its meal running away from it and followed us. I grabbed the tail of one of the woodies and swung myself on top of it. It either didn’t mind me being on it, or it didn’t notice, because it didn’t react at all. Looking behind me, I saw how the hydra gained ground on us, breaking every tree in its path with its bulky body.

After a short while, we came to a cave and we continued running into it. After some seconds, we came to a dead end. Fearing for my life, I turned around saw the hydra standing in our way to the outer world. It slowly licked its lips and advanced on us. The manticore and the woodies seemed to be equally afraid of it, which was a lot. 

Suddenly, something beside us moved. By the sound it made when it moved its body, it had to be huge. We all, including the hydra, turned our heads to the sound and there we saw it. Some kind of giant blue bear. I knew those bears. They were being called Ursa Minor, a child of an Ursa Major. It and the hydra looked into each others eyes, and nothing moved.

Well nothing, except for me screaming like a little filly while running for the exit. This apparently disturbed the silence and everything began to move. The woodies ran after me. The manticore followed the woodies. The hydra followed the manticore. The Ursa Minor growled and followed the hydra. 

This would be pretty funny if I wouldn’t run for my life right now. We ran for a long time, no one gaining ground on anyone until we heard gigantic wings beating. Looking up, I saw a monstrous green dragon flying above us. I would rejoice in happiness to finally see another dragon if I weren’t currently running for my life.

The dragon swooped down and landed in our paths. I stopped, and so did everyone else. Out of its nostrils came fire and its green scales were polished to a degree in which I could see myself in. Sadly, I could only see some kind of cooked meat dish where my reflection should be. Wonder what that was supposed to mean. Well I wouldn’t be staying here to find out.

Instead of running an obvious path again, I simply dove into a bush. The other animals began to run in the different direction, including the Ursa Minor. I watched this safely from my bush. Finally, I could sigh in relief. The chase was over for me. I also noticed how fatigued I was, because I was running way too much for my own good. 

My stomach growled in revolution and demanded food and something else. I couldn’t discern the signals for the second demand. As far as I understood, it wanted to read a book. Seems legit. Giving in to the first demand, I grabbed my bag that I took with me from hom- er Twilight’s home. My bag full of jewels. Oh, some delicious jewels after this much exercise would hit the spot right now.

My claw searched for it and searched, and searched. My smile slowly faded, and I looked at the spot where my bag should be. I didn’t see anything. Standing up and looking myself and the surroundings all over again, I still couldn’t find it. I only chuckled. Oh, silly brain. Do you need to scare me now with an illusion? Come on, playtime’s over.

I closed my eyes and opened them again. There still was no bag. Slowly, my breath began to speed up. All of my food that I took with me, gone. All my belongings that I owned, gone.  All my means to survive, gone. My fast breathing slowly crept to the border, after which this breathing could be called hyperventilating. 

Suddenly, I calmed myself down. Keep your cool, Spike. You knew that you would get to this point eventually. This comes a little soon, but you knew that you couldn’t survive for the rest of your life of some gems. You only need to find another source of food. Wait, what can I even eat? I know that I can eat gems, baked good, and fruits. I also heard that it was possible to eat meat. 

I gulped. Meat. One day, I might need to eat meat. The sole thought made a chill run down my spines. I couldn’t imagine eating a once living animal. Shaking my head, I banished the depressing thought since I could deal with it when it was time. Looking around, I saw a lot of different plants and trees. 

Sighing, I stood up and began to carefully test what I could eat. I needed to try everything.  Looking down, I pulled out some grass and threw it into my mouth. My tongue instantly sent me a taste signal that was this horrible that I could sue my tongue for bodily injury. I think I don’t need to explain that I instantly spat out everything currently in my mouth. Yep, grass would certainly not be one of my main dishes in the near future, or ever for that matter.

Sighing, I walked over to some bush. Some bright red berries where growing from it. Now, I know that brightly colored berries most likely are poisonous, but there are also ones that are not poisonous. I needed to be extremely careful here. If I would eat one wrong thing, I could die. Suddenly, I shook my head violently. 

No, that’s the old Spike. I’m the new Spike! The fearless ruler over the forest! With this new won motivation, I did something that I would regret dearly later on. I ate some of the red berries.

“Hmmm, juicy.”

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Twilight lay on her haunches in her library. She helped Applejack harvesting some apples today, and everything went well. No incidents. Looking at the clock, she smiled a little. 

“Three hours? Wonder how long Spike manages to pull through with his little rebellion. I bet in less than five hours, he will be back and will beg for me to take him in again.” Twilight chuckled to herself, and turned the page of the book she was reading right now. She continued to read in peace for the next half an hour, and when she was finished, she laid  the book to the side.

“Spike, could you put that book back into the shelf?” She shouted into the library, but nothing answered. Suddenly, Twilight facehooved. She totally forgot that Spike still rebelled against her. Groaning, she took the book and randomly put it in one of the shelves. “Spike, make me tea.” She shouted, but facehooved again. How could she forget this twice in a row?

With a bad temper, she walked into the kitchen and looked around. Where was the tea again?  Opening every drawer, she couldn’t find it. After a while, she had searched through the whole kitchen, but there was no tea. Sighing angrily, she sat down. 

“The tea has to be somewhere. Spike told me that we still had a gargantuan amount of tea left and that I should definitely not even think about buying new one.” Suddenly, it made click in her head. With all her power combined, Twilight was able to stop her hoof from potentially endangering the look of her face. The hoof wanted to go to her face that badly.

Of course, they don’t have any tea anymore. This was just Spikes way of telling it to her. She let out a frustrated grunt. Sometimes his manner of speaking just infuriated her. She knew how he spoke, but sometimes it was just too hard to discern if he meant something seriously or in a joke. Why did he even talk like this? It can’t be fun.

Deciding that getting tea now would be too much work, Twilight went back to her library and sat down. She nearly wanted to shout for Spike to get her a book about sarcasm, but this time she remembered that he wasn’t here anymore. With a sigh, she used her magic to levitate every book of the library in front of her, searching for a book about conversation.

Three hours later, it was already getting dark outside. Twilight just finished her book about different kinds of conversations, when she looked around the library. It was a total mess. Books were sprawled over every part of the floor, and it was hard to see the material of which the floor was made off. Not bothering to call for Spike, Twilight simply levitated every book back into the shelves, totally neglecting any kind of organization.

Deciding that Spike should clean this mess up when he returned sometime in the night, she yawned and went up to bed. He probably was sleeping at Fluttershy’s. Slumping into her bed, she thought about Spike for a long time. Was he right? Was she overworking Spike? Did he deserve some kind of payment outside of shelter and food? Twilight chuckled and simply shook her head.

“Nah.” But she wasn’t able to suppress the worry that slowly crept up on her. What if Spike decided to not come back? Frowning with worry, she put more of her sheets over herself. With one last thought, she wished Spike a good night. Some time later, she drifted off to sleep.

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Twilight let out a long yawn. She slept good and without interruptions. She slowly stretched her whole body and heard a few cracks. It always felt lovely when the lime around some joints breaks and the joint can move freely again. If one does not use a certain joint enough, lime builds around it. When the joint after a while gets moved again, the lime explodes outwards and the joint can be moved without problem again.

She loved that feeling. After stretching herself to her hearts content, she stood up and groggily walked to her bathroom. It was the same daily routine ever since she lived alone in Canterlot. Standing up, going to toilet, brushing the teeth, showering, combing her mane, looking if everything was alright, and going out of the bathroom. The same thing every morning and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

An organized routine was important for daily life. That’s at least what Twilight always told herself. Her life was organized, and she wouldn’t change it. As she slowly walked down the stairs, her sleepy expression slowly changed to a frown, when she saw the books being fully unorganized in the shelves. SOMEPONY had some work cut out for HIM. 

With a bad temper, she walked into the kitchen and levitated the pot of coffee to her. Levitating a cup and some milk to her as well, she put the coffee into the cup and put some milk into it. After stirring her coffee for a while, she put it to her mouth and drank it. Her eyes instantly widened, and she spat the coffee out.

“Spike! Why does the coffee taste like it’s from yesterday?!” She shouted while being furious. There was no answer. Twilight only groaned at this and walked up to her bedroom, fury showing on her face. She kicked the door open and walked to Spike’s basket. “Spike! Why are you still-“ She stopped talking when she saw that the basket was empty and untouched. Spike never came home last night.

Slowly Twilight realized that Spike truly was away. She really had to praise his stubbornness and his endurance. She would talk to him later, when she would meet her friends at the picnic. He surely stayed overnight at one of her friend’s home. Oh, she will give him a scolding he would never forget in his entire life.

Walking down, she saw the mess in the library again. Instead of getting even more furious, she just decided to resheve the library herself. Using her magic, she levitated every book to her and read their titles. Seeing the title of the first book, she put it to its appropriate place. Slowly a smirk came to her face.

“See? It isn’t that hard.” She told herself after remembering that this was one of the reasons why Spike ran away. 

Two hours later, Twilight was finally finished. She had to work for the past 20 minutes with her hooves. Even if, she was the most magically gifted unicorn in all of Equestria, she still couldn’t possibly hold up all these books for constant two hours. Using one fore-leg, she wiped the sweat from her forehead. 

“Phew, finally finished. This was more work than I imagined, but I’ve done it. Now, what time is it?” Looking at the clock, she nearly got a heart attack. Five minutes until the picnic with her friends begins. With a little amount of panic, she quickly put her whole fridge and a towel into a basket and ran out of the library.

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“What happened?” I asked myself as I rub my aching head with one of my claws. “Ow, man my head. It feels like Canterlot crashed down on it.” Readjusting my position, I moved my left claw a little further to the left, feeling something soft. Touching the soft fluffy thing, I experimented further with it. What was this? It felt like fur, but there shouldn’t be any fur here in the Everfree Forest.

Suddenly, I realized that I couldn’t remember a damn thing about last night. Let me think, the last thing I can remember are the red berries. Instantly, my face got attacked by my right palm. Of course, the berries. Why did I even eat them? Well, at least I’m alive, but what is this fluffy thing beside me?

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I apparently was in a little clearing, in the Everfree Forest. It would look perfectly normal if there were not at least 30 bunnies laying all around me. Watching them closer, I saw that they all were alive, but sleeping. The interesting thing is that most of them slept in a strange position, showing their bellies to the sky. 

Continuing to look around, I nearly had a heart attack, when I saw one of those woody-wolves sprawled on the floor, also belly up. Beside it was a manticore, its wings wrapped protectively around another woody, which has many bunnies on top of it. While one of my eyelids twitched, I only had one question.

“What happened?” 
> Arc 1: 3 - Some Fruits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, let’s recap. I had an argument with my former owner, Twilight. I took everything I possessed and went into the Everfree forest. After that, I got attacked by a manticore, found a new species of creature, which I will now call Woody wolves, found a hydra, found an ursa minor, found a dragon, and then I ate some apparently poisonous berries, which wiped out all memories of last night.

Now I was laying on the ground, being surrounded by approximately 30 bunnies, two woodies, and one manticore. Sounds like a typical Wednesday morning. I slowly stood up, not wanting to wake the animals all around me. Wait, I don’t think that I could call a woody-wolf an animal. I think it’s more of a plant. Seriously, how can they even move? Are their joints made out of hinges? Do they need to be oiled? Also, if they are plants, do they feel hate towards herbivores because they eat their fellow plant-folk?

Shaking my head, I cleared it off those depressing thoughts. As I stood up, I heard some rumbling from my right. Yep, one of the woodies woke up. It opened its eyes and looked at me with a dreamy look. After a while, it yawned and stood slowly up. I didn’t move, afraid that one sudden move could motivate the wolf to attack. 

It slowly came to me, and when it only was one meter away, it looked me in the eyes. I honestly didn’t know what I should do, or what it planned to do. A short moment later, it suddenly smiled and lunged for me. I couldn’t evade in time, and I took the force of its friendly hug full on. Wait… friendly hug? 

Yes, the wolf had put one of its forelegs around my shoulders and patted me on the back. If there ever was any situation in my life where I didn’t know how to react, it was definitely this one. Should I hug it back? Should I just let it continue? This honestly creeped me out. The wolf let out a low grumble, like he tried to calm me. Seriously, what’s up with that?

Not sure how to react, I slowly wrapped my arms around him in an awkward hug. It felt strangely comforting. If I remember correctly, nopony hugged me for over five years. Twilight did it at the beginning, but she stopped after some time. Slowly, I began to feel warm inside. 

This wild creature/plant gave me something that I didn’t realize I was missing for the past years. I didn’t even notice that small tears were forming in my eyes, but when I noticed it was already too late. I was full out wailing. Why didn’t Twilight love me? Why did she have to treat me like a slave? Couldn’t she at least show me something that indicated appreciation towards my existence?

She was practically my mother. She looked after me since I was a freshly hatched dragon baby. This was so unfair. Why couldn’t I have lived a normal life? Suddenly, my sorrow and my tears changed into rage and determination. I will show her! I will be my own dragon, and I will learn to live on my own two legs. Then, when I built myself a good life, I will go back to Ponyville, and I will show her that I don’t need her.

The wolf slowly parted our hug, and I felt somewhat relieved. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and when I opened them, I spoke with the wolf. “Thank you. I needed that.” The wolf answered me by growling at me. Wait, what? Suddenly, it bit after my claw, and I managed to pull it away. 

Looking in its face, I saw that it was serious. It just found its next snack. HOW? WHY? How can it change its mood that fast? Hm, maybe it isn’t able to digest depressive prey? Shaking my head, I banished the ridiculous thought. I instantly turned around and bolted for a random direction in the forest. I heard its footsteps behind me as it chased me. Seems like a typical Wednesday. 

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Twilight ran as fast as she could towards the green grass hill on the outskirt of Ponyville. She was late. She never was late! There was no possible way she could be late now! She was always so organized, so punctual, so how could it be that she was late now? Suddenly, she stopped in her dash.

“Spike!” That’s what she told herself with an angry voice. He was at fault. If he hadn't have run away, she would be on time now. Oh, he will be in much trouble. Shaking her head, she started off again towards the grassy plane.

After some minutes, she could see it and also her friends atop of it. They were all sitting on their picnic blankets, chatting happily with each other as if Twilight hasn’t just committed one of the most treasonous crimes in ponykind history. Coming too late. 

She charged at the picnic and her friends noticed her. All their expressions slowly changed to horror, except for Pinkie Pie, as they saw the rapidly charging unicorn. Before Twilight could impact with the ponies on their picnic and create a black hole through the force, she stopped and looked with a disheveled mane at them.

“Hey there, Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed with a happy tune. “You’re late!” She chirped with another happy voice as if this was nothing big at all. It was something extremely big. She just came late for the first time in her LIFE. This was a huge deal, and she needed to punish Spike for that. Running into Pinkie’s face, she asked her hastily.

“Where’sSpike?” It sounded more like “were-shike”, but Pinkie’s expression didn’t change.

“Dunno,” she happily answered, and one of Twilight’s eyelids twitched. She instantly charged to the next of her friends, who was Applejack.

“Spike? Where?” There was absolutely no time to lose, and she couldn’t bother with grammatically correct and full sentences. The meaning had to be said as fast as possible to receive an answer as fast as possible. 

Applejack only looked at Twilight with some kind of nervous grin and an expression that told something like “Get her off of me.” Twilight’s face came closer to Applejacks in hope to persuade her to answer her question. AJ closed her eyes and sighed once. Putting both of her front hooves on Twilight’s shoulders, she pushed her down.

“Calm down, sugarcube. Now tell me, what do you want to know?” Twilight also took a deep breath and looked down at her hooves. She came too late, so why did her friends look like they didn’t care? Sighing once more, she finally talked normally.

“Sorry that I acted like I was in panic,” she exclaimed while looking at the floor. The friends looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Slowly, Rarity advanced on Twilight.

“Twilight, darling, there is nothing to apologize for. Just tell us what you were so upset about,” Rarity told Twilight with a soft and compassionate voice. All her friends looked at her, wanting to know what happened that she was this panic-stricken. They may be friends, but they were still new to Twilight. It was only three days ago that they used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare-Moon. Maybe Twilight had some panic problems they didn’t know about?

The lavender unicorn sighed once and looked up to them. “Yesterday, Spike and I had an argument. It got pretty loud and in the end, he took his things and ran away. I haven’t seen him since,” Twilight recited with a calm voice. She didn’t actually seem worried about him, even though he was still underage and ran away for one whole day. Maybe it was because of his mature personality that she wasn’t worried?

The friends looked to each other, not sure what they should think of that. Not one of them was actually really fond of him, except for Pinkie and Fluttershy maybe. Applejack would even go as far as to say that she despised him, because of his sarcastic and deceiving nature. It was a trait she undoubtedly hated since ponies that used sarcasm were mostly businessponies that lived a lying life. 

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my, w-what did you argue about?” 

Twilight rolled her eyes, when she thought back to their argument. Those pointless things he told her. With an annoyed voice, she told them about the argument. “Spike made some snarky comment about his spare-time. I was already kind of annoyed by his increasing sarcasm, and told him that he should keep his attitude in check.”

Twilight sighed. “Then he said that I would treat him like a slave.” The ponies gasped.

“He said that to you?” Rainbow Dash grinded her teeth. “Why, that little!”

“I know. It’s ridiculous! I mean yeah, he works around ten hours in my library every day.” Slowly the heads of her friends turned to Twilight. “And yes, he needs to be on standby for the remaining evening.” All her friends raised an eyebrow. “But he gets to live in my house and gets to eat of my food! Also, studying is fun, and he doesn’t need any additional money. His life is ensured just fine here.” She stomped with one of her hooves on the ground to strengthen her exclamation.

She looked at her friends, but their expressions weren’t as she thought they would be. They nervously glanced to each other, thinking about how they could tell Twilight that Spike may have a little right in that matter. “Why are you so quiet?” Twilight asked while glancing through the pile of ponies before her. Slowly, AJ walked forward.

“Twilight, is that true?” She slowly asked with a strange voice that Twilight wasn’t able to discern, and she only lifted both eyebrows. What’s with them?

“Yeah. I mean, where is the problem? Studying is fun,” she exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Of course, it is. Who doesn’t like to study? Rarity slowly walked up to Twilight.

“Twilight, maybe you really enjoy studying, but that doesn’t mean that others enjoy it, too.” Twilight only crooked her eyebrow as if Rarity just suggested that they should all bow down to the mighty spinach lord. Shaking her head, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, how could she? She was only truly voluntarily conversing with other ponies of her age for three days now. Before this, she hadn’t actually paid attention to other ponies since they were not as enthralling and relevant as her books.

“What are you talking about, who doesn’t enjoy reading a good book about magical theory while sitting beside the fire place?” She asked, and Rainbow Dash facehooved.

“You’re such an egghead, Twilight.” Twilight drew back in a bewildered expression. “Books are booooring Twi. Why would you want to waste your time inside, while you could go outside and perform awesome tricks?” Rainbow flew up and punched the air while Twilight couldn’t believe what she just heard. Somepony not enjoying books? What sorcery is this? She turned her heads to her other friends, who suddenly seemed to show a remarkable interest in the most natural things around them, except Pinkie who simply grinned at her.

Twilight shook her head. That couldn’t be. How could somepony not take joy in reading an enjoyable book once in a while? Looking over to Rarity, whom she thought was the most well-read one in their group, she asked. “Rarity? Is this true? Do you honestly not enjoy reading a book?”

Rarity quickly looked over to Twilight. “Of course I enjoy reading books Twilight.” Twilight sighed in relief. “But I don’t think that I would be able to enjoy reading them all the time,” Rarity added, and Twilight shook her head again. Ponies longed for intelligence. Of course, they would want to increase their knowledge further. Not enjoying books made no sense!

Applejack put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, and she turned around. “Twilight, not everypony enjoys books as much as you do. Everypony likes to read once in a while, but not the entire time.” AJ explained to her with a compassionate voice. Twilight looked at her hooves, not sure what she should think. Okay, maybe not everyone enjoys books, but it couldn’t be that bad what she did to Spike.

Fluttershy slowly walked over to Twilight. “Twilight… did Spike really have to work so much for you?” She asked in a silent voice. Twilight looked back down at the floor. Did he? After a while, she looked up again.

“Well yeah, but it couldn’t be that bad. Like Rarity said, everypony enjoys a book once in a while,” she exclaimed with a worried voice. She wasn’t sure anymore if she was still in the right. Rarity now too, walked over to the gathered ponies.

“Yes, but ten hours each day is just too much.” 

Rainbow Dash also flew over to them. “Yeah, I think the little guy may have earned himself some free time. Everypony needs free time.” 

Pinkie suddenly gasped. “Do you know what this calls for?” She suddenly threw confetti everywhere. “A Congratulations-On-Finally-Getting-Better-Working-Conditions-Spike-Party!” Four of the ponies only rolled their eyes at Pinkie’s antics, but Twilight had something entirely different on her mind. 

“SPIKE!” She shouted, and the ponies around her were a little startled, except for Pinkie… no one startles Pinkie. “I totally forgot that he is missing. Has anypony seen him?” She looked to AJ who just shook her head. She then looked to Rarity who slowly shook her head, just like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie simply smiled.

“Nopey dopey.” Twilight shook her head. This couldn’t be. None of her friends saw him?

“If none of you saw him, then where is he?” She asked them with a worried voice. She was convinced that he would have slept overnight at one of her friend’s house, but if he wasn’t there, then where did he sleep this night? He had enough jewels in his bag to pay for a dozen nights in an inn, maybe he was in one? Shaking her head, she looked determined at her friends.

“We need to find him!” Twilight said with a determined tone, but inwards, she was worried about him. Maybe she really mistreated him. Maybe he deserved some compensation for his loyal work. She felt a lump in her stomach. If he honestly didn’t enjoy everything, then his life might not have been as perfect as she thought. She herself couldn’t imagine living 24/7 in a library anymore. With the newfound friendship, this would just be a nightmare. 

Her guilt grew bigger and bigger the longer time went on, and she only hoped for one thing.

“I hope Spike is alright.”

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“Hmm… it seems like that annoying Woody finally stopped chasing me. I mean, what was up with that? First it hugs and comforts me, and then it suddenly decides that I should be the future meal for it.” I rolled my eyes at the thought. These Woodies seemed just as random as Pinkie. I slowly came down from the tree I climbed upon and looked around. Everything seemed to be alright. No Woody. No manticore. No hydra. No ursa. No dragon. I seemed to be in the clear.

It was perfectly silent in the forest, and depending on the state of the sun, it seemed to be around midday. Looking down, I saw a little stone laying on the floor. I slowly kicked it and watched how it bounced around. It effectively wasted three seconds of my valuable time. Hmm… what to do?

I was running around and indulging myself in some kind of poisonous berries and I didn’t have a moment of peace. What could I do now? Let’s see… I need to survive somehow, so it would be a good idea to find someplace where I could find food and water easily. Speaking of water, I was pretty thirsty. 

I decided to walk into a random direction, since here were nothing but trees and dirt. I needed bushes with berries or trees with apples or something like this. Maybe even a deserted jewel mine? Yes, I bet there was a mine in the most dangerous environment in the whole of Equestria. Realizing that this was probably as realistic as Twilight realizing that she slaved me to revolution, I sighed and started walking.

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I thought that the award of most hurting legs in all of Equestria surely belonged to me by now. I just needed to find the pony who gave out the prices. Maybe I could trade it for some jewels? Oh damn… why did I think of jewels? The word jewels seemed to have woken up my stomach from its slumber in the darkness of my body. Either, it wanted to talk to me about something important, or it just seemed to be grumpy that I haven’t fed it in quite a while.

Feeling my stomach trying to crawl over to my heart to beat it to a pulp, I realized that it probably was the second one. Luckily, my stomach was repressed by the esophagus and the intestine, else it would have succeeded in reaching my heart. Looking up to the sky, I saw that I was already walking for approximately two hours now. Wow, two hours. I never thought I would be this sporty.

I realized that I haven’t been looking on my surroundings for quite a while, and lifted my head up. Trees, dirt and bushes, but there was one difference. Many of them actually had something to eat growing on them. Oh sweet Celestia, this could be my kind of heaven right now. Looking for something that I already knew, I found some wild apples. They weren’t as perfect and round as the apple family apples, but in this current situation, they were the best food I could possibly hope to get.

I climbed on one of the trees with ease and picked one of the apples. I looked it over, but nothing seemed to be wrong. Biting into it, I felt the sour taste running around in my mouth. A pony in Ponyville would probably not even look at this apple with two watermelons on their eyes, especially not bite from it, but for me, this apple was the best apple I ever ate. One day without food, while the last meal were some poisonous berries. No wonder my stomach wanted to literally kill me. 

With every bite I took, it seemed like my stomach got calmer and calmer until it put away its hatred for my being. After the apple was eradicated out of this world, I saw another tree on the other side of the…. What could I even call the floor in a forest? There’s no path. There’s no clearing. There’s just dirty forest floor. Well nonetheless, there was a tree with some other stuff to eat.

I climbed down from the apple-tree and walked over to the other one. It seemed to have some kind of strange fruit I never saw before. It looked like it had some little thorns on it, but they didn’t look dangerous. It also looked like it had some green shell around it. Hmm… let’s see if I can open one.

I climbed on the tree, being thankful for my claws, and took one. When I had it, I climbed down again and looked it over. It really seemed kind of hard, but I should be able to open it with my claws. Wait… something smells funny here. Looking around the forest, I didn’t see anything amiss, and I also didn’t feel watched. Shrugging, I laid the fruit down on the floor.

I rubbed my two claws in agitation of the possibly delicious fruit. Fruits that defend themselves are said to taste pretty awesome. I rammed my two claws into the fruit, and they penetrated it without any problem. Smirking, I tore the shell apart and took a deep breath of my next meal. One second later, there was no way to eat the fruit anymore, due to my former stomach contents adorning its appearance. 

By Celestia’s beard. I think I never smelled anything more disgusting than this abomination of something that could even be remotely called a fruit. I covered my nose, coughed, and ran as far away as possible. My eyes were tearing from this scent. Something like this could only be created by a rotting piece of digested onion. 

Suddenly, I got thrown back. It seemed like my surperior intelligence made me run straight into a tree. Apparently, I ran with such a force against it that I rolled around the floor for a while. The athletic penguin-like form of me made this possible. After some seconds, I stopped. Groaning because I still couldn’t see, I clutched my head and ran it through the ground. I needed to banish that smell off of the sacred and holy land that is called my face.

Several minutes of groaning and rubbing later, I could finally open my eyes again and look around. It seemed like I was in a totally different part of the forest since I couldn’t see any kind of eatable fruit anymore. Huh… I ran farther than I thought. There still didn’t seem to be any kind of wild animal nearby. Seemed like someDRAGON got exceedingly lucky today.

A wild yawn crept on my face, and I felt that my eyes wanted to close themselves. Yeah, I think that’s enough for today. I think I will just sleep here. I was genuinely glad that nothing went wrong today, except for that smelly fruit.

With that last thought, I laid myself down in the comfortable bed of dark blue flowers that helped me in cleaning my face off of the annoying smell earlier. One last yawn and I drifted off to sleep.

> Arc 1: 4 - Changes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

„Have you seen a little purple baby dragon?“ Shouted Twilight into the face of a red stallion with a blue mane. His head was leaning back because Twilight’s own head was uncomfortably close. He always hated it when ponies came too close to his perfectly styled mane. What did that unicorn say again? Oh right, she wanted to know something about a purple lizard.

He smoothly answered the mare with a nervous shake of his head. Oh yes, he knew how to get the ladies. Twilight saw this and only groaned. Deciding that he probably won’t be able to help her, she ran at the next pony. “Have you seen a little purple baby dragon?” This time, she spoke to a blue pegasus with stylish glasses. Damn, those glasses looked stylish. The blue pegasus mare only groaned and answered.

“You asked this two times already, and I’ll say this again! No, I have not seen that purple lizard… thing!” That mare certainly had one bad temper, which could be heard in her voice. Twilight instantly turned around and ran to the next pony. She had better things to do than to receive a spit attack by a disgruntled pegasus.

“Have you seen a little purple baby dragon?” She asked the red stallion with a blue mane, who replied with a raised eyebrow and a nervous glance to his right. After this, he hectically shifted his gaze to the other side. Twilight simply continued looking into his face as if she tried to count every atom on it. 

“Strange, I could swear you just asked me that. Is this what somepony calls a Déjà vu?” Suddenly, he grabbed his head with his two front hooves. His flank, with a cutie mark of two masks, one smiling and one frowning, began shaking violently. Since his fore hooves were not touching the ground anymore, the gravitation of Equus did its thing and pulled him down, making a loud thunk-like noise.

“I’m going crazy! They told me I won’t go crazy! They told me that I am healthy. They told me I am special!” His hind legs buckled down, and he now laid sprawled out on the floor. Suddenly, he screamed and turned his body, so he now laid on his side. Shuffling his hind legs in a crazed manner, he pushed his lower body forward while the upper one was stationary on the floor. He looked like some sort of slow gyroscope.

While cleaning the floor with his body, the red stallion began laughing uncontrollably like a madpony. Sometimes, he interrupted his laughing fit with an anguished scream of pain. The other ponies watched him with horror and discomfort while Twilight didn’t seem to react at all. Deciding that this pony would not help her in finding Spike, she turned around and bolted into another direction.

The group of six friends searched for Spike the whole last day, unsuccessful. After some hours into the search, Twilight began to feel the pain of regret. What did she do to drive him away? This was the question she asked herself the whole day until she went to sleep. Slowly during the end of the day, she began wishing him back as if some divine deity would come down and grant her this wish. Sadly, the deity never answered.

In the evening, she also wrote a letter to the princess and sent it via pegasus express to her. This meant that the letter should arrive tomorrow at Princess Celestia’s desk. When she woke up today, and saw the mess in the library again, she tried to distract herself of the longing after her son/brother/friend/slave/pet Spike by reshelving the whole library… again. 

After two hours of reshelving, she slowly began to realize what Spike has been put through. The library in Canterlot was around three times as big as this tiny one here in Ponyville. He also didn’t have any magic, meaning that he would have to work even harder. Every single day of the week, he was put through this, and when he was finished, he had to assist her in studying. 

How could she have been so stupid? She loved Spike, and she will always love him! Yet, she also realized that she never showed it to him. She thought that Spike always knew that he was the most important… being… to her, apart from the princess maybe. And her parents. And her brother. And her old foalsitter. And Bob from accounting, but everypony loved Bob from accounting. Ok, maybe he wasn’t the most important one, but she still loved him very much… probably. 

Twilight was running through the streets of Ponyville for three hours now, asking every single pony she saw about a little purple baby dragon. She was lucky that only three ponies sent the royal guards after her, but she still hadn’t found Spike. Suddenly, she stopped in her run. 

“Maybe Spike isn’t in Ponyville anymore?” She asked herself and looked down at the floor. “But where could he be then?” Slowly, she looked up at the horizon and turned her head until she saw Canterlot. “Maybe he went to Canterlot?” Twilight asked herself while having a contemplating look in her eyes. If he truly went to Canterlot, she could wait for a reply from Princess Celestia. There was no doubt that once the princess read the letter, she would send out a search team. It would probably sweep the entirety of Canterlot in order to find the escaped purple dragon. 

Turning her head further, she saw a large mountain at the horizon. She knew that mountain through a legend. Legend has it that, at some point in history, there once was a humongous black dragon living up there. The dragon helped the ponies build a civilization around his mountain, and even gave them some tea.

One fateful day, a brown earth pony walked up to the dragon. The brown earth pony started screaming and shouting at the dragon with words of a different language. At the beginning, the dragon thought that the pony would eventually stop, but this was never the case. After several days of the pony shouting senseless crap at him, the dragon couldn’t take it anymore. He inhaled deeply and packed up his things. He took this whole hoard and flew away from the land, not wanting to get annoyed by the pony anymore.

The madpony then got arrested and judged for unlawful entry and had to pay a fee of 50 bits. The stallion then lived for the rest of his live in the old cave of the dragon, awaiting its return so he can annoy it more. The dragon never came back, and the pony died after several years. It is said that the annoying shouting of the pony can still be heard to this day. The mountain was then dubbed after a particular annoying shout of the pony.

“Mount Hoofroda,” Twilight slowly and silently spoke to herself. She knew how much Spike “liked” to read, and she was most certain that he also knew of this legend. Maybe, he tried to go after the legend and try to get more knowledge about other dragons? It would certainly be worth a try. 

Twilight practically asked every single pony on the street, and she also was not the only one searching. All her friends were also searching like crazy with their own kinds of searching methods. Rainbow Dash flew all over the village, trying to talk to every pegasus in the sky if they had seen Spike. Well, that’s at least what she said. In reality, she just slept on some clouds. 

Fluttershy asked her dear deer friends, and all the other animals. Rarity asked her snobbish contacts if they knew something about a dragon disturbance in some of their cities. She always met them in their weekly get togethers. Or, that’s at least what would happen if she ever got invited to one of them before. A young mare with ambitions can dream, can’t she?

Applejack asked her whole family and all the other farmers she knew. She really hoped that they lost some of their harvest to the potentially hungry dragon since this would give her a hint to his whereabouts. For the other farmers, who were not part of her family, she hoped that they lose their harvest either way since that would give Sweet Apple Acres more chances in expanding outwards. The day will come when the apples will have the monopole over the food resources of the whole world. Just all of you wait…

Pinkie Pie asked everything she could talk to, including the campylobacter germ, her cupcake baking form, a tree, and the voice in her head. Sadly, none of them were able to give an answer that did not involve food poisoning, baking cupcakes, photosynthesis, and suggestions for something that will get punished with a sentence of not less than five years of jail. Pinke apologized for the vague information she received from her, so called, informants. 

Twilight was deeply thankful for all the effort that her friends put into searching for Spike. What would she do without them? After a short while where she felt deeply touched by the warm feeling of having good friends, she decided to call it a day. With a slow trot, she walked to her home, hoping that they could find Spike tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I truly slept great. The ground was as comfortable as a stone with spikes. I had to scratch myself the whole night. There also were some downright strange nightmares. Somewhere in the forest, some Woodies howled through the whole night. Yep, my sleep was extremely refreshing. Oh, and on top of that, I didn’t drink anything before going to sleep, and I felt thirsty the whole night. Yet, my laziness was even bigger. I mean, I could always search for a stream when I wake up. Laziness is something genuinely evil.

Slowly, I decided to open my eyes, but I closed them instantly again since the assault of blue, from those flowers, was just too bright this early in the morning. Those damn flowers seem quite strange. What do they even do? They’re just… plants. Why don’t they move like those Woodies? What is their purpose in staying stationary on the ground, photosynthesizing as much water into sugar as possible?

Shaking my head, I banished my strange thinking pattern. Whenever I am tired, I start thinking random crap. Like, why do chickens have feathers if they can’t fly, or why do gems look so beautiful even though nopony sees them in the ground? Of course, I know the answer to both questions, but in my sleep-drunken state, I somehow forget them and begin to contemplate about the most senseless stuff I can imagine.

Slowly, I stood up and groggily looked around the forest. No animals. I’m lucky. Just then, my stomach showed me that it still wanted something by growling at me. It either insulted my whole race, or just wanted some water and food. I personally think it did both. With a shrug, I just started walking in a random direction. What was I supposed to do? Transform myself into a biologically functional body without need for a stomach?

I started thinking about Twilight and the other ponies in Ponyville while walking along my way. Was it the right decision to leave? After contemplating this thought for a long time, I decided that it probably was the right choice. In Ponyville, I would have just been treated like an outcast. There was nopony like me. A change had to happen, and I know that I will find a village somewhere to where I will belong.  Maybe there is a village out there with dragons just like me. Maybe I can live there. Maybe I will find friends. Somewhere out there, I will find a place, to belong. Even if it takes me my whole life.

My thoughts got interrupted, when I suddenly lost my footing and fell into a stream. Abrupt wasn’t it? However, I was just laying down at the shallow stream with my face being underwater, when I decided that it probably was a good idea to get out of the river and maybe get some air. We don’t want to drown in a 30 centimeter deep river now, do we? Wait, can rivers that aren’t even half a meter deep, even be called rivers?

Just when I took my head out of the water, I realized that I stood in water. I mean realized as in, I just found out that my problems with my thirst have just been solved. Water. Finally! Smashing my head instantly back into the water surface, I began to drink like a dehydrated bunny in an oasis. What would bunnies even do in deserts? Presumably nothing, considering that there are no bunnies in deserts… probably.

After several seconds, I lifted my head out of the water again, inhaling deep breathes of air. With a happy look on my face, I looked up at the beautiful sky and was just happy to be alive. Sadly, the happy moment didn’t last long. It seemed like I drank too much water. My stomach tried to complain, but all it could do was slosh around. 

Groaning lightly, I turned my head downwards again. Oh this certainly was way too much. With closed eyes, I just started putting my arms around my tummy, making a futile attempt to block out the uncomfortable sensation. After a painful while, I opened my eyes again and looked at the water surface. I bet I looked pretty beat. What I saw was something I haven’t anticipated.

I didn’t look beat. In fact, I didn’t see me at all. In the water, I saw a pink female dragon. Where did she come from? I turned around to search for the pink dragon, but I didn’t see anyone. Turning my head around like I was in panic, I decided to look back into the water. There she was again. A pink female dragon. How I was able to discern a male and a female dragon so quickly even though I never saw one in my age, you ask? Because the dragon looked slim and pink, that’s why. This was like the most female look that was even physically possible. 

Pink and slim, with huge eyelashes. Oh Celestia, those eyelashes were humongous. She could create a tornado if she blinked quickly enough. In the place where I had those green fins, she had yellow ones. Wow, she actually looked beautiful, even though a little girly. Yet, the interesting question was, why couldn’t I find her? Wait, maybe she was underwater? I slowly reached one of my claws out to the water, and she did the same… something definitely was not right here.

When I touched the water, my claw passed through it without any hindrance. I didn’t feel anything except the floor 30 centimeter later. This was bad. This was really bad. If she was nowhere on land, and nowhere in the water, this could only mean one thing. Instantly, I put my hands up to my eyes and felt around my eyelids. I could feel humongous eyelashes. Fear grabbed my heart, and I touched the spot between my legs. My eyes immediately widened and then the forest heard the most girly scream in existence.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight panted heavily after a full day of searching for Spike. “Did you find him?” She asked the orange cowpony that stood before her, with a panicked expression. Applejack simply looked down at the floor and slowly shook her head. Twilight felt like somepony punched her in the gut. She only hoped that another of her friends found a trace of him.

Just when she thought about this, a certain white unicorn came striding down the street, wearing a new blue hat. Seeing one of her other friends coming into her direction, Twilight ran over to Rarity. With lowered ears and a worried face, she asked her the same question.

“Did you find him?” 

Rarity first had to get back her composure, that she lost when Twilight nearly jumped into her face. When she got it back, she had to think for a little. Find who? Oh right, Twilight’s assistant. Instantly changing her expression into a disappointing frown, she answered Twilight. “My sincerest apologies Twilight, but I couldn’t find a trace of our beloved dragon.” Beloved dragon, my flank. She didn’t even know him for three days and hasn’t even put a slight effort in finding him. 

Twilight felt another sting of pain in her gut. She lowered her head and walked back to Applejack, Rarity following behind. With a sigh, she slumped down. “What have I done?” She uttered silently with tears forming in her eyes. She loved Spike like a brother. He was always there for her and always gave her company when she was lonely. 

When Twilight was studying the whole day in Canterlot, she thought she was happy, but deep inside of her, she always felt a nagging feeling. She never knew why this feeling was there, but it seemed to have been her only hindrance to true happiness. Of course, she felt incredible when she learned something completely new, but somehow, this feeling always reminded her that there was more to life, than just some books.

But whenever she came home and saw Spike, those feelings seemed to disappear, and she felt better again. Twilight didn’t know until now what these feelings meant. She always thought that they were just the happiness she felt when she could finally study, whatever she wanted, in her own private rooms. The feeling of freedom to do whatever she wanted. Yesterday, when she came home, she wasn’t greeted by this feeling of freedom, but the nagging feeling inside her that lurked in the shadows.

It was then that she understood what this feeling meant. Loneliness. She had friends now, but friends do not give one the feeling of belonging. The feeling to have somepony always by your side. The feeling of a family. And she lost her family when she shouted at Spike to go away. Yes, she still had her brother and parents, but she rarely saw them.

Suddenly, Twilight broke down and began to sob uncontrollably. “What have I done?” She always repeated as if this would bring her family back. Applejack and Rarity looked at each other and shared an uncertain expression. After a while, they came to Twilight and laid some comforting hooves on her. 

Rarity and Applejack suddenly both felt terrible. They should have searched for Spike, and they also should have been there for their friend. Their friend, Twilight, came to them and asked them to search for her dragon, yet they both only bucked apples or sowed dresses. Another mare landed near them, but before she could say anything, she saw the crying mess that was Twilight.

Rainbow Dash also walked over to her, and with dropped ears she sat beside their friend. Rainbow talked and teased a lot, but she also knew when it would be better to stay silent. Twilight, realizing that a certain cyan mare was now present, looked up into the eyes of Rainbow Dash. The only thing she saw was an apologetic look. Rainbow Dash didn’t find him either. How could she? She was sleeping the whole day. After a short while, Dash only crossed her fore hooves and looked uncomfortable to the side, which brought Twilight back to sobbing.

There was little hope left in finding Spike. The only two ponies that still haven’t come back were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Just when Twilight thought about Fluttershy, she heard frantic hoof steps from her left, and her ears perked up. Raising her head, she turned to the direction the noise was coming from. There, she saw a yellow pegasus running to her with a dear by her side. 

Fluttershy arrived, and before she could say anything she began to inhale deeply due to her fatigue. Twilight wasn’t sure about the reason, why Fluttershy didn’t simply fly to her if she was this exhausted, but this was irrelevant right now. After a short while of inhaling and exhaling, Fluttershy raised her head and looked into Twilight’s eyes.

“My dear deer Doctor Daniel Deer saw Spike!” Fluttershy said in one breath. Twilight couldn’t believe what she just heard. Well, it took a while to register what Fluttershy said, due to all those “D”s in there, but she understood what Fluttershy meant. He saw Spike? Maybe there was still some hope left.

Twilight instantly stood up and ran over to Fluttershy. “Where is he?” She asked in a frantic voice, accompanied by a worried expression and raised ears. Fluttershy turned to the deer.

“Where did you see him?” Fluttershy asked the deer with a warm voice. The deer seemed to utter some strange noises in some complex patterns, and after he finished Fluttershy gasped and put her two front hooves to her mouth. Her friends, obviously, noticed this and felt that this gasp couldn’t mean any good. Fluttershy averted her gaze from her friends and looked sideways to the floor. 

After some short seconds, Twilight walked forward and put a comforting hoof on one of Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Is there something wrong with him?” Fluttershy shook her head and inhaled and exhaled deeply. After a short while, she turned to Twilight but didn’t look her in the eyes.

“As far as Doctor Daniel Deer said, he seemed to be alright,” she slowly answered with a quiet voice. The ponies seemed to let loose a sigh of relief, but Fluttershy wasn’t finished. “Girls,” she said with a somewhat louder voice. Her friends looked back at her expectantly. After another sigh, she finally said what the deer told her. “He said, he has seen Spike while h-he walked into the E-E-Everfree F-Forest.”

Fluttershy could have screamed at them, and it wouldn’t have been less shocking than saying this in a quiet and timid voice. The guts of all the gathered ponies twisted, and they felt like they would never want to eat anything again, for the rest of their lives. The Everfree Forest? The most dangerous place imaginable? Well, except for a volcano, the sun, the moon, a dragon-cave, a high mountain, Pinkie’s head, Fluttershy’s shed, and everything outside of Equestria.

Speaking of Pinkie, where was she?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Answer me!” Pinkie practically shouted at her victim. “Where is he? Where have you put him?” Still no answer. “I know that you are behind this, and I will not stop questioning you until you finally confess!” Turning the lamp more into the face of the one she interrogated.

The interrogated one didn’t flinch. He didn’t even move, except that he looked at Pinkie with a cold stare. He was frozen under the aggression of the pink party pony. An answer was never heard from him. After some seconds, Pinkie sighed and turned around. She walked for some meters with a thinking expression, turned around, and continued walking back to the table. 

Suddenly, she slammed her fore hooves on the table and screamed atop of her lungs. “WHERE IS SPIKE?!” Some windows of the basement broke due to the strength of her voice and a small tremor could be felt. Ponies outside of Sugar Cube Corner immediately stopped going after their everyday business, and wondered where this loud scream came from.

Inside of the basement, the furniture began to calm down from the onslaught of sonic waves and went back into their unmoving state. The interrogated one didn’t even flinch. After several seconds of not getting an answer, Pinkie sighed and began to go down on her knees.

“Please, I need to know where he is. Twilight is counting on me. I need to find him,” she begged him, but she never received an answer from the fridge. The fridge was giving her the cold shoulder.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some time, the friends finally calmed down and came up with a plan. They would all go into the forest and search for Spike. As you heard, this plan was extremely complex. They all went home and returned with multiple packages of food and everything a pony needs for camping. They would find Spike, even if it meant they would die in the process. Well, maybe wouldn’t go this far. There were more important things than Spike, but they would still give it their all to find him.

“Are ya’ll sure ya want to do that, sugarcube?” Applejack asked Twilight with an unsure gaze. Twilight sighed and looked into Applejack’s eyes.

“I need to do this. I was the one who drove Spike away, and I need to be the pony to make this right again,” she explained with determination showing in her voice. Twilight turned to the rest of her friends. “You do not need to follow me. It was my fault alone that he ran away.”

Her friends looked into each other’s eyes and after a short while, began smiling at Twilight. Rarity walked forward. “Darling, we wouldn’t want it any other way.” Twilight wanted to say something. “Not another word. It is our pleasure to help you.” 

“Yeah, we’ll find Spike in a jiffy and kick some flank while we’re at it!” Rainbow Dash shouted while flying some relaxed circles in the air as if she was swimming in a lake, belly up. 

“There’s no darn way, we let ya’ll go alone into something like the Everfree Forest,” Applejack said while looking at Twilight with a reassuring gaze.

“Wheee! Imagine all the stuff we will see. All the animals we will meet. Do animals like parties? Of course, they like parties. Why wouldn’t they like them? Only plant-life and protozoa wouldn’t be able to like parties since they are not able to think in a psychological relatable pattern. Oh, I bet they like cupcakes. And also…” While Pinkie continued to exclaim her random stuff, her friends were looking at her as if she just had grown a fifth hoof. Did she just say the words “protozoa” and “psychological relatable pattern”?

Shaking their heads at Pinkie’s antics, everypony waited for Fluttershy to say something. The mare in question, only looked around her friends, realizing that they wanted something from her. Slowly, she put a hoof to her chest as if she asked “me?”.Her friends nodded, and Fluttershy began to lower her head a little as if she didn’t want to get hit by a low branch. She looked down and began to draw small circles in the dirt.

“Well… uhm… actually…” She looked at the hopeful faces of her friends, and sighed in defeat. “I think I can accompany you.” Rainbow shot up and pulled her hoof back in a position of joy.

“Oh yeah. We’re going on an adventure. Can somepony say ‘Awesome’?” While her friends were talking among each other, Twilight just sat at the ground. How could she have lived her life without her them? They only knew each other for three or four days, but it already seemed like they knew each other for their whole life. 

With newfound determination and bags full of supplies, they started their journey to find Spike. Every pony was motivated except for Pinkie. She still felt a slight chill. The icy stare of the fridge was still fresh in her mind, and the cold rejection on top of it, did not help either. Yet, this would not stand in their way. Together, they trotted into the Everfree Forest.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Breathe. You need to breathe Spike. Yes, you are a pink and female dragon, but that does not mean that you should jump off a cliff now. Calm down. Well, that was what I told myself for about several hours. Several hours you ask? Yes, I was this shocked. I mean, you don’t wake up every day with the looks to win a beauty contest. Even less, if you are male.

With the impossible amounts of “booky” knowledge in my brain, I came up with an ingenious plan. Going down the river, I decided to wash myself until I was male again. Yes, there was absolutely nothing that could go wrong here. 

After a long time of scrubbing, I began to doubt my plan. Somehow, I wasn’t able to clean the fillyshness off of my scales. Why wasn’t it working? There had to be something on my scales that made me look female, so why isn’t it washing off? Dragons don’t just turn female while they sleep, do they? I mean, this goes against every kind of logical thought. 

Yet, I didn’t know anything about dragons. It could be possible that they would turn into buckets of peanut butter overnight, and I wouldn’t know. There were just no books on dragons in the library, and talking to a real life exemplar is well… hard. I stopped scrubbing after some minutes and just let my arms hang down my now slender and elegant form. Instead of the athletic form of a penguin, of which I was quite proud off, I now had the form of some kind of lizard. 

Instead of the somewhat round tummy, I didn’t seem to have a tummy at all. Yes, of course I still had one, but it just didn’t seem that way. I think I also was slightly bigger, but not much. Maybe not even a hoofstride (10 centimeter). My front body and my fins were yellow instead of green, and my scales were pink. Yes, pink. The manliest color on Equus. 

Something happened that night. One does not simply wake up as a female. Let’s see… what did I do that could lead to this? The berries I ate would have turned me into a female the night before this one. The animals never really touched me, except for that hugging Woody. I still had to shudder at that thought. The apples seemed normal. The plants, in which I slept, also didn’t look special. I mean, plants. What do they even do?

Suddenly, my eyes widened. That stinky stinky-fruit! It had to be that stinky fruit. Maybe it turned me into a female? Yes, it had to be that one. I haven’t done anything else that seemed notable. 

“I need to do something against this,” I said in the highest pitched voice I ever heard. Oh Celestia, as if the body wasn’t enough. “But what can I do about that?” After several seconds of pondering, I finally came up with a reasonable idea. I need to find help. Somepony had to know what those fruits do. That pony should also know something about a potential remedy to this. Maybe I will also get some info about a place where I might find some dragons? Yet, there still was one small problem.

“Where the buck am I?” 



> Arc 1: 5 - Dr. Wolf
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

„Are you sure we are on the right track darling?“ Rarity asked Twilight from behind. Twilight didn’t seem to react at all, and simply continued to walk forward. The white unicorn wasn’t sure if Twilight even knew where they were going, considering that she walked with a lowered head. “Twilight, did you hear what I said?” Rarity asked again, and Twilight’s head suddenly perked up.

“Huh, what?” With a confused expression, she looked around the forest. Where were they? She didn’t recognize this part of the forest, at all. Something touched her shoulder and Twilight turned around. Rarity was looking at her with a worried expression. After a short while, Twilight finally understood what happened. With a sheepish smile, she put one of her hooves to her neck and nervously scrubbed at it. “Hehe, sorry Rarity. What did you say?”

“Twilight, you seem to be out of it. Normally you aren’t this distracted. Are you worried about something?” Rarity asked Twilight with a worried expression. The only thing Twilight did was sigh. Did she really appear worried? Yes, she was thinking about Spike, but she couldn’t call this worrying. Somehow, she was not able to imagine her sarcastic assistant in danger. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would wander into dangerous situations carelessly.

“Sorry Rarity. I was just thinking about Spike. Well, not directly about Spike, but rather about myself.” Twilight looked down at the floor again and sighed. “I just want to tell him that I am sorry. I honestly treated him badly.” Twilight stopped walking and turned to Rarity. “I just feel guilty and want to tell him that I am sorry. He deserved at least that.” The last sentence was accompanied by a deep sigh.

Both unicorns heard a groan from over them and looked up at Dash. “Stop ruining the mood,” she mostly groaned at them and plopped down to the ground. “We’ll find that little guy, so stop acting all depressed.” With an eyeroll, she began walking forward. The two unicorns looked at each other with unsure expressions. Twilight sighed another time. 

“Maybe Rainbow is right. I think I should stop worrying this much. It won’t help anyway.” She then began to smile, and Rarity followed with her own after some hesitation. Worrying certainly didn’t help right now. 

“Wow! That is one big swampy-bampy lake!” Pinkie exclaimed rather loudly. Twilight and Rarity turned to Pinkie and saw what she meant. They were at some kind of swamp. The trees in this area looked mostly dead. The brown puddles of liquid smelled exactly how they looked like. Absolutely disgusting. There weren’t many animals around. The only ones they could see were some vultures and mostly flies.

Twilight looked around the swamp and seemed to search for something. After a short while, she stopped looking and turned to her friends. “I don’t think Spike would be here. He wouldn’t stay at such an unstable and awfully smelling area.” With a hoof, she tried to fan away the putrid air around her nostrils. Sadly, it didn’t help. The foul smell hung above the whole area.

Applejack trotted over to the two unicorns. “Ah reckon even if the chances are low that he’s ‘ere that we should still search for ‘im. We can’t overlook somethin’ like this,” Applejack advised the two unicorns. Twilight looked at the swamp for a short while and then nodded motivated. 

“You’re right!” Twilight trotted forward, and Applejack looked back at Rarity. If there was one thing in Equestria that Rarity did not like, then it was dirt; dirt, stench, and clashing colors. This swamp met both of the first two criteria without any effort. Thus, Rarity reacted accordingly. Twilight turned around to Rarity after realizing that she was not following her. 

Rarity simply stood there with sweat running down the sides of her head. Her eyes were a little closed, and her mouth had a nervous smile plastered on it. “Eh, I think it would be a splendid idea if one of us – ehm – stayed behind in Ponyville in case that – eh – Spike, yes Spike would return, don’t you think?” At the end of her statement, she began to play with her mane.

Twilight wasn’t fooled. It was quite obvious that Rarity just didn’t want to get her hooves dirty. “Rarity, we need you here with us,” Twilight told her with a friendly voice, and Rarity seemed to back away a little. The other friends also ceased what they were doing and looked over to the two unicorns. 

Rarity told Twilight that she would accompany them to find Spike, but she didn’t anticipate that they would go into a swamp. She looked around the faces of her friends in more nervousness. After a while, she finally sighed. “Alright, I will do it,” she told them with a defeated voice. The friends began to smile warmly, and Rarity walked forward.

She stopped when there seemed to be some kind of border to the swamp. The grass changed from a healthy green to a sickly dark green. The image of a diamond sitting next to a piece of coal came to Rarity’s mind. And now it was time for her to step of the diamond, and walk over to the dirty piece of coal. With a deep breath, Rarity raised her right front-hoof and moved it towards the sickly patch of green grass.

The patch of sick grass seemed to taunt her. It seemed so icky, sticky, ooey, gooey. She felt like she would lose something terribly valuable if she would touch that sick grass. As if she would lose her refinement. Looking back to her friends she watched their reactions. Twilight was a little confused watching her. Well they only knew each other for three days. 

Pinkie Pie had the most shocking reaction of all. She smiled. Pinkie never smiled! That was atrocious! How could she smile in the presence of this foul trench of dirty grass? Fluttershy looked nervously around the forest, not giving Rarity any attention. Applejack seemed rather skeptical. It seemed like she would think something on the lines of “Well, does that mare now step on that grass or not?”

Rainbow Dash seemed to be bored and a little annoyed. She constantly looked around the swamp and groaned occasionally. Rarity hoped to see some kind of reassurance of her friends, but as it seemed, she didn’t get any. She was a little stricken by the lack of reassurance. With a disappointed frown, she looked to the front again. She felt a little sad that none of her friends was paying any real attention to this monumental step she would take now.

With one last deep breath, she lowered her hoof on the patch of sickly green grass. The wet muddy sensation she felt on her hooves made her stomach feel as if it was willing to empty its content. Yet, a proper lady must be able to compose herself. With all of her determination combined, she was able to fight off the sickly sensation. 

Slowly, she turned around to her friends and looked at them with a nervous smile. It felt like the mud was practically climbing up on her body. With a gulp and a slight shudder, she took another step. This time, the sensation was not as strong as before, yet still existent. Taking some more, she finally was able to get used to the sensation, somehow. With a nervous smile, she looked at her friends.

“Well, it wasn’t that hard,” Rarity shakily exclaimed with a nervous smile. Rainbow and Applejack only rolled their eyes, while the others seemed to be happy about it. 

“Alright everypony. Let’s spread out and search for Spike. We’ll meet here in 30 minutes again,” Twilight ordered while taking the spot of the leader of the group. The others seemed a little apprehensive towards the idea to get commanded to do something, but what Twilight said sounded reasonable. So they accepted it without any complaint.

All of the ponies turned to a different direction. After a short while, they began to wal- “Found it!” Everypony suddenly heard from the pink party pony. All of them turned towards her with a curious and some of them with a shocked expression. Pinkie was pointing at something with her hoof. Their eyes wandered from Pinkie to what she was pointing at.

Not everyone was able to see what Pinkie was pointing at, but some of them were able to see a small somewhat white shape, laying in the muddy green grass. Twilight was squinting her eyes at the position Pinkie was indicating, but wasn’t actually able to discern anything. With a questioning gaze, she looked at the pink pony.

“Pinkie, what are you talking about? I don’t see Spike; also, he is not an it.” Twilight looked at the pink mare who simply shook her head. 

“No, not Spike. A letter.” Pinkie pointed again at the direction, and Twilight raised an eyebrow. She turned again towards the direction Pinkie was indicating and looked more at the ground. There was something, but she couldn’t recognize it. Suddenly, Twilight shook her head. 

“I can’t see anything concrete from here.” She turned her head to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, could you fly over there and get whatever Pinkie saw there?” Twilight asked. Rainbow raised an eyebrow, not liking how that sounded, but still flew over there. The ponies watched as Rainbow flew awhile and then touched down near some swampy lake. 

They watched as she picked something up and looked at it for some time. Later, she flew back to her friends. With a thud, she landed beside them. “He was definitely here,” she exclaimed and handed the letter to Twilight. Twilight picked it up with her magic and unfolded it. Two golden tickets flew out of the letter and fell to the ground. Twilight didn’t acknowledge them and simply read the letter that stated that she, and one more, was invited to the Grand Galloping Gala.

Rarity picked up the tickets while Twilight was reading and gasped. “Tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala? I always wanted to participate in the gala.” Her friends, except Rainbow who already read the letter, looked over to Rarity, who still held the ticket in her hooves, and made a collective gasp.

“The Grand Galloping Gala?” They all exclaimed at once. Everyone looked over to Twilight, all having the same thing in mind. ‘I need that ticket.’ But before they could say anything, they saw that Twilight felt sad. They could tell by the tears in her eyes. Why wasn’t Twilight happy? Not only did she finally get a clue to Spike’s whereabouts, but got invited to the biggest event in all of Equestria. 

Slowly, tears began to roll down from Twilight’s eyes. Her friends were not sure why she was this sad. Fluttershy was the first to speak up. “Twilight, wh-what’s the matter? Aren’t you happy that we finally found a clue to Spike’s whereabouts?” She asked with her typical soft voice. Twilight didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence, and only continued looking down at the letter. Finally, she spoke up.

“Th-The fact that we found th-this letter here, meant that Spike l-lived the last two days in the Ev-Everfree Forest,” she explained while sobbing. Her friends now slowly realized what she was upset about. A baby dragon living two days in the Everfree Forest. None of them wanted to say it, but they all knew that chances for survival were pretty low for him. Uncomfortable, they all look to the side, avoiding every eye-contact with Twilight.

After a short while, Twilight quickly brushed her tears away, and her expression changed to determination. “We got to find him!” She shouted, and her friends looked at her with an unsure and uncomfortable expression. They all knew that the chances were pretty low to find Spike now, knowing that he was the last days in the forest. They were motivated to search for him before since there was no real indication that he stayed in the forest.

The only thing that they knew was that Spike walked into it. But when they found the letter that deep inside the forest, they weren’t sure anymore if he still was okay. The deeper a pony goes into the forest, the more dangerous it gets. Judging by the dirt and sogginess of the letter, it stayed there for at least one full day, and the swamp was not located at the border of the Everfree forest.

They all knew it, but no pony wanted to say it. With their uncomfortable expressions still attached to their faces, they looked at each other, hoping that somepony would tell the ugly truth to Twilight. Tell her that she would probably never see Spike again. Tell her that she lost somepony of her family. Tell her that the dragon, she was living with for the past years, will never appear again.

Two full days in the Everfree Forest. It seemed unlikely, but it was not downright impossible that he was still alive. There still was hope. Everypony knew it. They all knew that he still could be alive, but there are three things that made their guts twist. Firstly, they found the letter uncommonly deep in the forest. Secondly, he was two full days in the Everfree Forest. Thirdly, he could be anywhere by now. He could have walked into any direction, and they wouldn’t know. 

Searching for him now seemed to be an impossible task. What should they do?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What a lovely day. The walk through the whole forest was uneventful. Not that I wasn’t thankful for that, but it still got boring after approximately three minutes. Yes, even with my new female body. One would think that being in a new body would give some room for exploration. Nope, same stuff. The only differences are the parts of the body that I use to expel my bodily fluids, and my pink slender form. Oh, and my voice. Oh Celestia, that voice.

What would Twilight think if she heard that voice? I coughed and put my claws together in a lovely gesture. I then proceeded to form my eyes into a gaze that told something like “Wow, I really like your mane.” 

“Hello there Twilight hihi. Let’s play dress-up.” By Celestia’s beard, did I really just do that? I groaned and not a second later, the flat side of a pink claw impacted with my face. What am I doing with my life? No, stop that thought. There is no time for this now. Wait, yes there is. I have nothing else to do, so why not think those thoughts? 

Suddenly, I stopped walking and only looked forward. One of my eyelids twitched. Was I just arguing with myself? There came no answer, how surprising. Another face-claw later, I began walking again. “What am I doing with my life?” I asked myself in a voice that was squeakier than a rusty unoiled door-hinge. “Listen to that voice. I think with this new voice, I would get my cutie mark in professional window breaker, if I was a pony.”

I stopped walking when I was beside a tree. Without hesitation, I turned to it and proceeded to smack my head against it. “Why… does… this… stuff… always…happen… TO ME!?” The last part of my speech was accompanied by an especially loud hit. With a groan, I turned around and let myself slide to a sitting position, back on the tree.

“Great, now I bet the tree hates me too.” Heh, trees having feelings. How silly of me. As if the tree doesn’t have enou- did I just think about the word “silly”? Wow, I even begin to think like a female. Wait, no I don’t. I often said silly, but in my male state it seemed more degrading or mucking. Silly sounds so… silly now. 

“Wow Spike, you have a great way with words,” I told myself in a bored voice, and even that sounded cute and female. With another groan, I stood up again. No point in staying here. I need to find out what made me wake up as a female, fast. There was no way I will stay in that body. Without wasting another second, I continued along my way.

I started walking in the same direction I walked before. Sooner or later I would find a way out of this forest. 

After several minutes of uneventful walking, I thought about some stuff. Why were there no woody wolves or manticores? I mean, they are practically everywhere, so how is it possible that I haven’t met any for quite some time. Either I am the luckiest dragon(ness) in the world or something was amiss. Maybe they planned to attack a village? Maybe they planned to build a TEE. Oh, yeah I don’t think you know what a TEE is. 

Here in Equestria we know of something called electricity. Nopony actually knows how it works. As far as we know, there are just some exceedingly small things that run around, and we use them, and with them we can make stuff move. Yes, this is a truly scientific explanation. TEE is a Theoretical Electrical Engine, meaning an apparatus that gets its power of electricity.

Yes, the idea of wooden wolves creating metal machines seemed unlikely, yet not impossible. I will be prepared when their machines try to take over the world. Slowly, I stopped and not a second later, face-clawed. What the Tartarus am I thinking? Wolves that build machines? Have I lost my mind? With a groan I continued walking.

After some more minutes, I suddenly came to a stop. There was a strange sound coming from some direction. It sounded familiar. It sounded a little like somepony sawed something off. Why would someone saw here? Oh, maybe I was close to a town and the timbers are getting some more wood? Seems like I finally lucked out. With a smirk, I walked towards the sound.

I passed some bushes and cursed silently whenever one scratched me. "You are a dragon," you say? Well, it apparently seems like female dragons don’t own the scale density that males have. Another reason to get out of this embarrassing pink body as fast as possible. I bet I woke up as a female as revenge for my lack of prayer to the Spinachlord. Damn lord of vegetables is getting cockier by the minute.

I pushed another branch to the side, and the sawing noise got louder. I tried to take another step, but fell down on the dirt. With my face burrowed into the dirty ground, I grumbled to myself, and EVEN THIS SOUNDED CUTE! I can’t take it anymore with this Celestia forsaken forest. Angrily, I turned around and looked at what made me trip. It was a small root that grew a little bit out of the earth.

With an angry shout, I grabbed the root and pulled with all my strength on it. “DAMN…ROOOOOOOOT!” I practically screamed through my teeth while the root did not budge. It seemed to be strongly anchored into the ground. My face began to get even pinker than it already was, due to the effort. It didn’t take long then my face was red. 

Suddenly, I slipped with my claws off of the root and what happened next, was not one of my proudest moments. With my new salamander like body, I somehow managed to roll back quite a distance. I felt myself crashing through multiple bushes until I didn’t feel any bushes anymore. Yet, I didn’t entirely stop. I was still able to roll a little time after hitting nothing, but I stopped after this.

Great, what luck of the gods was bestowed upon me on this fine day? Shall I thank Rolldiho, the Rolllord? Shall I thank Ironio, the Ironielord? Or the most annoying of all, Trollana empress of pranks? This whole damn day. Couldn’t at least one thing go my way? I mean, I saw so much useless junk  today,  that I would bet my liver that I wouldn’t be surprised by the next thing that would happen to me.

Slowly, I came out of my cynical rage-induced fit and began to roll on my tummy… it still didn’t feel like a tummy at all, but that doesn’t matter now. I opened my eyes with great effort since I still felt kind of dizzy from my action-roll. Yep, this was a clearing alright. Much sun on the grass. Surrounded by trees and bushes. Definitely a clearing. Well, at least no strange things were hap-

Excuse me if I interrupt myself right there, but due to current sightings I could not end this sentence with a positive conscience. It seemed like there still was one way to surprise me. My jaw fell to the  ground as I saw this. I knew that woody wolves were intelligent, but not THAT intelligent.

Let me explain in considerable detail what I saw. There were four woodies. Nothing special yes? Well, now comes the next part. Three of them were standing on their two hind-legs. One of them was laying on some kind of iron desk, belly up. They didn’t seem to have noticed me yet, so I could look at what they were doing. 

Beside them was some kind of second table with different kinds of things on top of it. One looked like some kind of knife. Another one looked like a pair of tweezers. Another one like a wrench. Suddenly, one of the wolves made a low, but silent growl. Another wolf quickly looked over to the table and took the small knife in between two of her claws and gave it to the other one.

The one who growled before took the knife between two of his claws and did something to the laying one. After a while, he made a different growl and the wolf from before gave him the tweezers this time. He continued working on the one on the table, but made another growl before he was finished. One of the wolves took some kind of sponge and wished over the forehead of the one with the tweezers.

After a while, murmurs began to erupt from them, and the one with the tweezers lifted his fore-leg. At the end, between the tweezers was some kind of stinger. It looked somewhat familiar. Where have I seen it before? Oh right, that’s the stinger from a manticore’s tail.

Alright, let’s recap. I tumbled into a clearing in which woody wolves were operating on another woody with the professionalism that could rival the best doctors in all of Equestria. I think I shall give this credit to Trollana, the god of pranks. Nopony, but her would be able to create a situation of such combinations of impossible actions. Is she somehow having fun bringing me into these kinds of unexplainable situations?

As I was contemplating about a possible divinity that had the time of her neverending life, the woodies noticed me. Slowly, one of them walked towards me on his two hind-legs. When he arrived at my side, I noticed him too and felt a twinge of fear. He slowly bent down and put a paw on one of my shoulders.

“Grah grah,” he calmly growled at me. It sounded a little bit like he wanted to reassure me of something. I stiffened and looked nervously around. I have positively no idea how I should react. What does he want from me? After a while, the wolf looked confused. He turned to one of the other wolves and growled something.

The other one looked at some kind of paper and replied with a shake of her head. The wolf directly in front of me turned his gaze back to me. This time, he lifted an eyebrow. I nervously smiled and looked in his eyes. They were a calm and judging yellow sea. Suddenly, the sea changed. His eyes weren’t calm anymore. One spark of enlightenment sparked in them and suddenly, the eyes were a volcano of rage.

The wolf began to growl, and my fear intensified again. Like a lightning bolt, I turned around and ran away from him. While I was running I heard them growl from behind of me. They were all chasing me. Why? What? How? Where? I had so many questions that I couldn’t even ask them to myself. What’s with this whole situation? Why are they chasing me suddenly, even though they weren’t earlier.

This makes no Celestia-damn sense. A very close bark brought me out of my own thoughts, and I looked to the front again. There was no time to think about this stuff now. I need to survive. Even if, this ridiculousness confused me and probably amused some divinity in the skies, I would still have massive problems if one of those wolves caught me.

I began running even faster. The wolves seemed to be able to equal my speed. Of course, I can’t simply outrun quadruple predators that have a bigger size than me. I needed a plan, stat. I looked to my right and to my left. Forest. Forest everywhere. Unimportant boring trunks with unimportant boring leaves with unimportant boring twigs on top of unimportant boring grass, which grows on unimportant boring dirt. Yes, now there is nothing special around. Exactly when I could need something extraordinaire.

Looking ahead, I saw some kind of end to the forest. Well, I was not sure if it was an end, but the trees seemed to stop there. If I would be able to make it to there, I might be able to get away from them. It is said that the monsters of the Everfree Forest don’t leave it. I just hoped that this was true.

Suddenly, I had the immense urge to jump a little to the left, and I complied. A woody wolf paw came down on my old position, and I gulped when I saw that. If I hadn’t moved, I wouldn’t be standing or running, now. I looked back to the front. Not far, I only need to hold up some more seconds. Just then, a paw hit me on my left side and tossed me to the right.

I flew a little through the air but quickly landed on something hard. Just when I began to get back my bearings, I felt the ground beneath me shift violently. I instantly opened my eyes and realized that I was on the back of one of the woodies. Apparently, they didn’t like me sitting on their backs. The one I was on jumped around like crazy and I grabbed on one of its twigs.

The woodie stopped for a second, and just then, a muzzle of one of the other woodies wanted to bite off my leg. “Wow, careful!” I told myself in my feminine voice, which I ignored at that point. There was no use complaining over this now. I simply continued holding myself at its back. My eyes scanned the surroundings, and I saw the exit again. 

I inhaled deeply once and stood up. The other two woodies instantly went for my legs, but I simply jumped over the woodie I was standing on. I landed in front of him and began to run again. They didn’t wait a second and immediately gave chase. I came closer and closer to the exit. One turn to the woodies and I saw that they still were hot on my tail. Nearly there.

I took one deep breath and jumped with both of my legs off. With a mighty jump, I flew through the exit of the forest. Light assaulted me immediately after I left the cold embrace of the dark forest. With a smile, I felt the wind going over my scales while I was in the air. Oh this feeling. Wait, I needed to open my eyes. One wouldn’t like to jump right into some kind of hole or trench.

I opened my eyes and looked down at the gigantic ravine over which I was currently jumping. All of my scales began standing on edge, and my eyes shrunk down to pinpricks. The ravine looked dark and dangerous. Very steep stony edges were seen on both sides, and a violently streaming river was at the bottom. The river seemed pretty deep.

I quickly looked all around me if there was any way to get out of this. None. Quickly, I began to descend. I let out the most girly scream anypony can even imagine. Yep, somepony up there hated my guts. My last thoughts were an undistinguishable pile of memories. Those memories seemed to represent my whole life until now, and it kind of depressed me that nearly all the pictures of memories are made inside of the library. I said one last thing before I impacted with the furious river.

“DAMN YOU SPINACHLORD!” 

> Arc 1: 6 - Bad News
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun rose over the mountains on the horizon to the east, its soft golden rays warming everything it touched. On a certain oak in a certain village, it came upon a thin veil. The veil had a purple hue, and it moved only so slightly due to the soft morning breeze that went over it. The purple veil was a curtain, and that curtain’s purpose was to give the bedroom of Twilight Sparkle, even with the intrusion of the sun, a dark atmosphere. 

She wasn’t exactly sleeping comfortable. The constant worry about her assistant gave her some bad dreams, and she was squirming around in her sheets some times. They returned yesterday. Twilight quickly realized in the woods that there was no possibility in finding the dragon, and decided to end the search for that day. With a heavy heart, she walked home. There was only one hope left. Princess Celestia. 

With only the six of them, it seemed neigh impossible to find one little dragon in a round area with a radius that has a distance one would only cover in a three day journey. She needed the help of the princess and/or her guards. With enough pegasi, they might be able to cover the most of the area. With luck, Princess Celestia’s reply should arrive sometime today.

Twilight wrote the letter two days ago and Princess Celestia should have read through it by the end of yesterday. With her power, she should be able to send a reply directly to Twilight, without any sort of delay created by the bureaucracy of the post office. Twilight was still sleeping when-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

She squirmed in her sheets and let out an annoyed grunt. It was not yet time to stand up for her. Maybe they’ll leave if I just don’t open the door. With another grunt, she pulled her sheet closer to her body. She slowly opened up one eye to look at the clock. 7:34, there was still a little over an hour of sleep waiting for her. Closing her eyes again, she let out a sigh and began drifting back into sleep. The soothing calm of her bedroom slow-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

This time the grunt couldn’t be considered annoying anymore, but rather angry. She took ahold of her pillow and put it over her head, pressing down on the side of it. “Go away!” She quietly ‘shouted’ into her pillow. It was way too early for this. Nothing came after this. After a full minute without knocking, Twilight slowly lowered her pillow again. The pony who knocked seemed to have surrendered to the stubbornness of the purple librarian.

The room was back in its soothing calm. Twilight let out a sigh that had all her pent up frustration of that early morning visit in it, and began drifting back into sleep. There was still a full hour of sleep ahead of her. 

CHUUCKKSSHH

Twilight bolted upright as she heard the glass door in her bedroom break. It was the door that led outside to her balcony with her telescope on it. She was fully awake in an instant and looked to the door, or at least what was left of it. Was someone breaking in her house? It certainly seemed that way, since there was a gray lump of pegasus laying at the floor.

She couldn’t comprehend what happened. Her brain was still a little drowsy from sleep, and she just got startled to near death. 

“Oooww,” the pegasus, obviously female judging by the voice, slowly exclaimed. Twilight looked closer at the intruder. It was a grey pegasus mare with an oddly blonde mane. Her cutie mark were some bubbles. The mare slowly sat up and rubbed on the side of her head. After a short while, where Twilight only looked shocked at her, she turned her head and saw Twilight. Her two eyes were not focusing on Twilight when she spoke, “my bad.”

Twilight still wasn’t sure what happened. She anticipated some kind of rowdy or sneaky black pony in a spy uniform, not a normal pegasus mare. Suddenly, Twilight shook her head violently for a second. “What happened?” She quickly asked with a worried voice while standing up from her bed. When she was standing, she walked over to the sitting pegasus. “Are you alright?”

The grey pegasus looked somewhat in the direction of Twilight. “Oh… I’m alright,” she stated with an unworried voice. „That happens all the time.“ Then she looked back at the former glass door. “Sorry about the window,” she added with a voice that sounded like she did that on a daily basis.

Twilight’s right eye twitched a little. It was a door, not a window, but with a short sigh, she banished her annoyance. There were more important things than getting annoyed at this mare, like studying and looking if the pegasus mare was alright. Now being convinced that no vicious thief stood before her, she averted her gaze towards the shards of glass on the floor, being surprised that no shard seemed to have gotten into the hide of the pegasus. That was one lucky mare.

Using a spell, Twilight lifted all the shards of the glass door up and they all flew back into the frame of the destroyed door, reverting it to its perfect condition again. This spell took her months to perfect, but it was worth it. Many things in her library got destroyed by visitors, Spike, or herself and having a spell that reverts an accidental crash of some furniture equals a miracle sent by Celestia in those situations. After the door was repaired, Twilight walked closer to the pegasus and put her hooves around her, helping her up to stand.

“Are you sure you are alright? That seemed like a pretty serious crash back there.” 

The mare quickly got up on her legs, showing that she would have also been able to do this without Twilight’s help. “Yeah, like I said, I am alright,” she added and suddenly, her expression changed to surprise. Quickly, she looked around the room until one of her eyes fell on her saddle-bag that lay on the floor beside her. Turning her body towards her bag, she bent down and opened it. After a while, she raised her head again and turned to Twilight with a letter in her mouth.

“hwiligh farkl?” She muttered with the letter in her mouth. Knowing that she probably meant Twilight Sparkle, Twilight nodded, and the mare made a gesture that told Twilight to take the letter. “From frincess Ceesia,” she added and Twilight’s eyes instantly widened. From the princess? 

Not wasting a second, Twilight quickly levitated the letter out of the mare’s mouth and held it before her eyes, which were beaming with anticipation and hope, but her expression quickly changed to surprise, and she turned back to the pegasus. With a sheepish smile, she simply let out a small nervous chuckle. “Sorry for that,” she added at the end of her nervous laugh.

The mare didn’t quite seem to react at all and only waved a dismissive hoof. “No worries. We mail-mares are used to seeing those kinds of faces.” One of her eyes darted to the clock hanging on the wall, and her expression changed to worry. “Oh, that late already? Sorry, gotta fly. Goodbye Miss Sparkle!” She shouted while running to the glass window. Before she impacted on it, she stopped and opened it. After it was open, she started away. 

Twilight looked a little perplexed at the opened door and simply shook her head. Using her telekinesis she closed the door, but not until she heard some kind of crashing noise from outside, but she ignored it. She got a letter from the princess. Finally, she felt some hope in finding Spike again. Twilight quickly opened the letter and read it.


My dearest most faithful student Twilight Sparkle, 

I am most distressed after receiving and reading through your last letter. Just like you suggested, I wrote a letter to Spike and tried to send it to him. I have attempted to contact him through our magical link, as you have suggested I do, and I regret to inform you that it has been broken. 

This can only happen if the link got dispelled by a magician, like yourself, or that Spike does no longer walk upon this plane. Twilight, I know what it is like to lose somepony close to you, and while there is always a possibility that Spike maybe still alive, you should prepare yourself for the worst. Nevertheless, you mustn’t give up hope either. 

Stay strong, Twilight. For Spike.

Yours,
Princess Celestia



Twilight read through the letter multiple times. Spike? Dead? This couldn’t happen. Slowly, she put the letter on a nearby drawer. After this, she went back to her bed. With a silent sob, she put the blanket over her, and silent whimpers could be heard. Spike wasn’t alive anymore.

> Arc 1: 7 - Healthy Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You know what sucks? Waking up. You know what sucks even more? Waking up in a foreign bed. You know what sucks even more than that? Waking up in a foreign bed without knowing how you got there. You know what sucks the most? Waking up in a foreign bed without knowing how you got there and with your last memory being a fall to your imminent death. 

Guess what happened. The last one? No, the gods would never do that. They would have to hate me a great deal if that would ever happen to me. How could you even remotely think about this possibility? Sarcasm aside, I hate whoever is up there that obviously wants to get me into these awkward situations as many times as possible.

I was just having the sleep of my life, or maybe unlife since I did not know if I was still alive, when my body decided that I should probably wake up. My consciousness slowly returned to the world of the living. Slowly, my senses returned. The first sense that returned was my taste. Why my taste should be the first one to respond and why it should matter you ask? It matters because I had the strongest and most disgusting taste possible in it. Seriously, if you would take a pound of smelling salt, put it in a hollowed out onion, and bury it in the earth for a decade, it wouldn’t taste half as dreadful as this.

The next thing that I felt returning was my hearing, or that’s at least what I thought. I either was sleeping in a vacuum that was surrounded by a barrier of Styrofoam or this room was just very very quiet. Maybe it wasn’t even a room. With the lack of input by sound, I couldn’t actually determine in what environment I slept for the last Celestia-knows-how-long time.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. I needed to know where the heck I was. With my eyes being half opened, I could deduce two things. Judging by the colors I saw, I was in a room, and judging by the same thing again, I was not in a vacuum. Silly me, of course I wasn’t in a vacuum. How would I still be alive then? I frowned when I realized that those big pranksters in the sky would find a way to let me live through that just to see my reaction when I wake up.

Suddenly, the middle of my vision changed from a warm brown color to a cold black. I swear to whatever it is that I own and that I value, that I will burn every last piece of literature about any kinds of astral beings if there was now a vacuum being created in front of me, just for the heck of it. I blinked some time in order to get my eyes to focus. After some time, I managed it, and I could at least see some of the black wall In front of me. Wait, are those eyes?

“Good evening.” 

My heart decided to twist its upper half 360° while the lower half stayed stationary on the “ground”, or at least that is what it felt like. To simplify this, it felt like my heart stopped, and my vision instantly focused on the head that was before me.

I saw a pony with black and white stripes. Judging by the voice I could determine that he was male. His mane was also black and white and ran down on both sides of his head, reaching down to his knees. He also wore a silver necklace. After a while, my gaze drifted away from him and took in the rest of his body. On top of the silver necklace, he also wore some silver hoof rings on his right fore-leg. His cutie mark seemed a little like some kind of ancient tribal mask.

After a while where I did not really react, he changed his expression to a thinking one. “Took you long enough to wake up,” he stated with a bored voice and turned around. With a slow pace, he walked over to a fire where a kettle was being heated. Speaking of the room, I just noticed that I was in some kind of shack. The size of it was not especially grand, and the word sanitary wouldn’t even dare to take a foot inside. Some tribal masks and weird other decorations hung at the walls.

I looked back at him with a calmer demeanor than before. Judging by the black and white stripes, I thought that he was a zebra. I read something about them in one of the books in the Canterlot Library. If I recall correctly, they live to the south of the continent and only rarely visit or live in Equestria. I actually never thought I would see one.

“Did you bite your tongue when you saw me, or why don’t you talk?” He calmly asked me, and I realized that I actually haven’t talked much. Let’s change that.

“I’m sorry if I haven’t said enough, but the fact that I woke up in a foreign bed inside of a zebra’s shed, kinda robbed me of the ability to perform simple small-talk.” The zebra turned around and eyed me with a measuring gaze. He then hummed for a short while until he answered.

“At least you seem to be able to think clearly enough to form normal sentences. Not something I had expected after finding your unconscious body near some river a week ago,” he stated with a voice that was clearly hinting at something in this sentence, and it did not take me long to figure out what he was hinting at.

“One week?” I asked rather loudly. Did I sleep for a full week? The zebra let out a chuckle.

“Yes, you slept for a full week. Rather loudly if I might add.” 

I sighed once. “Yeah, you’re not the first one to tell me that.” I slowly sat up, but instantly felt dizzy upon doing that. After a while where I tried to steady my head with my right arm, I continued speaking. “So, what exactly happened?”

The zebra turned around and stirred in the cattle once more. After he was finished stirring, he placed the wooden spoon back on the side and took ahold of some strange contraption. He bit down on it, and two wooden planks bent around the hoofle (handle) of the kettle. With a mighty act of strength, he lifted the kettle with all the water in it up and placed it on a round stony platform with a hole in the middle. The bottom of the kettle went through the stony platform until it was too thick to fit through. The kettle now stood straight and secure in the middle of the room.

He spat the contraption out of his mouth and sighed once. Then he turned around, took one bowl, and filled it with some kind of stew or soup, I wasn’t sure which one of both since I sat too far away. Carrying the bowl to a table, he sat down before it. After another sigh, he lowered his head towards the soup and blew over it to cool it down. Putting his lips inside of it, he slurped some of it up. Then another time, and another time

“Eh, hello? I asked something,” I told him with an irritated voice. He still didn’t react at all. “Zebra, I am talking to you.” Now, he seemed to react. He turned his head to me and had a questioning gaze in his eyes.

“Are you talking to me?”

After hearing such a stupid question, I instantly began to smile overly. “No, I am talking to your soup, which I just named Zebra. I thought it was quite obvious.” He then eyed me with an expression that showed me that he thought I was crazy. After a while, he simply shrugged and continued slurping his soup. One of my eyes began to twitch. “Of course I am talking to you. Who else is in here that could give me an answer?”

“Well you should know who. I am not the one talking to soups,” he remarked with a small smirk. Oh it is on.

“And I am not the one thinking that the only other intelligent being in the room is talking to food.”

“How should I know that you know that soups don’t answer? If you had a healthy mind, I probably wouldn’t have found you beside a river in the Everfree Forest,” he stated with a hint of annoyance, which quickly gave way to another smirk. “I think you should calm down, my little pink princess.” That little (You don’t want to hear that)!

“I am no girl!” I shouted with a deep voice. Wait, what? For the first time today, I looked down at my body. I saw the slender and athletic form of a purple penguin again, my voice was, somewhat, deep, and my claws and fins had their old color again. “I am male again,” I stated in wonder and looked up at the smirking zebra. “How?”

He chuckled a little and slurped another time off his soup. “That story is actually quite funny. You see, when I was strolling around my forest I-“

“My forest?” I interrupted him. His right eye squeezed shut for a moment, and I couldn’t control a smirk. So there is a way to get him angry.

“Yes my forest! Nonetheless, I was walking through MY forest, when I remembered that I needed some water. You see, we shamans have-“

“Shamans?” I interrupted again with a smirk.

He took a deep breath. “Shamans are the zebras in our tribe that commune with the spirits and nature itself. We are exceptionally well educated in terms of natural medicine and rare disease. Well as I wa-“

“We are, as in there are more of you?”

“Yes. On every exit of the Everfree Forest resides one of our shamans. I am a normal shaman, like the rest. Our high shaman, Zecora, lives near the entrance to Ponyville for example,” he explained with an annoyed voice.

Ponyville huh? Didn’t know Ponyville had its own shaman. I think I should pay her a visit the next time ancient spirits of hate try to possess a house plant of mine. 

“Well as I was saying. We shaman keep our water in water tanks and I ran out of water some time ago. So I took the tank and went to the local river. Just when I wanted to dip the tank into the water, I saw a pink female dragon unconscious beside it. It was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen.” A smirk accompanied  the last part. He knew that I hated being called cute. He only did this to provoke me. I told myself the whole time to stay calm. 

After a while where I didn’t answer, he continued. “I thought about letting the cute little pink female baby dragon-“ keep calm Spike. “Stay in the forest, but she was just that adorable that I had to take her home.” He made a short pause, probably to look if I was annoyed or not. The fact that he smirked could only mean that he saw through my false expression. 

“Now about how I found out that you were actually a male and how I cured you.”

“Wait, you cured me? How?” His left eye twitched.

“I would tell you,” he stated slowly and dangerously, but his expression changed to anger quickly. “If you wouldn’t interrupt me constantly.” Wow did he say that through gritted teeth? I didn’t answer at all, and he seemed to accept this as an answer. Man that sounded strange.

“I made a check up on you and I found a strange thing.” He then lifted a hoof and pointed at my face. “Your fire wasn’t working.” 

I lifted an eyebrow. “My fire wasn’t working?” The zebra simply nodded.

“Yes. I examined that oddity further and found out that your organ that ignited the burnable fluid coming out of your mouth, was missing. Now, there are not many ways this could happen. This could have been a defect since you came out of your egg. This could have been of magical nature. But I suspected something different.” He made a pause there, and I didn’t want to interrupt him. I seriously wanted to know what made me wake up as a female.

“Little dragon, did you have any contact with a blue flower recently?” He asked me, and I thought back to the time where I slept the whole night in such a field. My claw instantly met my face.

“Yes…” I stated with a voice that told something like ‘I can’t believe I was that stupid’.

The shaman let out a slight chuckle. “Well, judging by the fact that I found you in the Everfree Forest, I suspected that the Poison Joke poisoned you. Before you ask, Poison Joke is that blue flower. It essentially plays a joke on you.” He chuckled slightly. “And seeing as you reacted pretty strongly to my claims that you were cute, I think that it got quite some entertainment out of that.” I crossed my arms and looked to the side.

After a while where I did not answer, he continued. “So I simply made a remedy for a poisoning, caused by the Poison Joke and, who would have thought, I suddenly had a male dragon. I thought the plant would have only made one joke on you, but it seemed like I was mistaken. Yet, it was not impossible. It was proven that prolonged exposure to Poison Joke could have additional effects. Am I correct in the assumption that you slept in a field of them?” He asked with a stern gaze, and I couldn’t do anything but smile nervously and nod.

He just shook his head multiple times at my stupidity and turned back to his soup. “Try your fire. It should work again,” the shaman stated while taking another slurp. Like he suggested, I tried to produce a small flame and succeeded. Huh, I didn’t know that my fire wasn’t working while I was female. The more you know…

I looked back to the shaman when I saw him standing up with his bowl and getting another portion of soup. My stomach instantly told me that it also wanted something to eat. “Hey, could I have some of that soup, please?” I asked nicely.

“You wanna have a talk with it again?” He shot back with an annoyed voice, and I cringed a little. Somehow, he was able to annoy me like nopony ever before. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

“No, I actually wanted to eat it,” I told him, and he turned to me with an annoyed expression.

“Sorry, princess Free Load. You gotta find your own food,” he stated, and I grinded my teeth. My stomach growled again. It wanted to eat, and it practically told me to get something as quickly as possible, lest I wanted to have one spleen less in my body. Seriously, sometimes I think my stomach is some kind of transformed escaped criminal. There was one last way, to obtain something of that soup.

I sighed deeply. “Look, I am sorry that I acted that informal earlier. I was just a little perplexed by the new area I woke up and… well everything else,” I apologized with a regretful voice. The zebra averted his gaze from his soup and looked if my apology was sincere. After a while, he smiled.

“Apology accepted.” I smiled at this.

“By the way. My name is Spike. What’s yours?” I asked in a happy voice. I bet in some kind of parallel universe, there was a Spike that talked just like this every day. 

The shaman smirked. “My name’s Abdarul Kanbradir Husbaralki Anbudara Harma.” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he chuckled a little. “Abdarul is fine.”

I chuckled a little at this, and an uncomfortable silence quickly came between us. After a short while, I asked again. “Can I now have some of that soup?”

He let out a hearty laugh and turned to me with a smile. “No!” While saying this his expression changed to a frown, and the dark and absolute tone did not give any chance for further discussion. I simply sighed and looked back at my legs, while he slurped on his soup. 

And not a single soup was given that day.

> Arc 1: 8 - Freedom
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are multiple types of awkwardness. There is the classic kind of awkwardness when two ponies try to talk to each other, but neither of them finds a topic to talk about. There is the strange one, that shows up when you have made a bad joke and everypony that heard it just silently looks at you. Yet here, I experienced a whole new kind of awkwardness. The one that appears when somepony, or in this case somezebra, is eating and not giving you anything of it.

Seriously, what is this? Aren’t ponies supposed to be friendly in Equestria? I would even go as far as to say that there is even some kind of law against informality. Nah, that would seem way over the top. Well, I think I should talk with him a little more.

“So.”

“So,” he answered back while still slurping his soup. Oh that slurp sound is annoying me already.

“So, you won’t give me any soup?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“Nope,” he answered with a momentous display of his skills for the high art of speech.

With a sigh, I continued speaking. “Then is there a way for me to get something to eat?”

After another slurp, he answered. “Of course.” He slurped another time. After some more slurps, he was finished and brought the bowl over to a faucet, where he washed it. After some minutes of washing, he put everything back in its appropriate place. He then took up a broom and started cleaning around the small shed.

“Ehm, hello. I am still waiting for an answer,” I called out while he was cleaning the floor.

After I said this, he looked at me and then to his left and right. He seemed to look for something. After a short while, he looked back at me and pointed a questioning hoof at himself. I placed a false smile on my face.

“No, I am talking to the broom,” I told him, and he looked down at the broom. He then looked back up at me and back at the broom again. After some time, he took the broom and carried it over to me. Gently, he placed it beside me.

“You really have some strange hobbies,” Abdarul said with a nervous chuckle accompanying his voice.

I think at this moment, I was able to conjure the hardest and coldest “Are you serious?” face that Equestria has ever seen. He turned around, but not before I could see the smirk on his face.

 That *censored*! He knew exactly what I meant! That filthy… I would…! Calm down Spike. There is no point in getting angry now. That’s the exact thing he wants.

With a deep breath, I calmed down again. I opened my eyes and looked back at the evil abomination in the form of a zebra. “Yes, I was talking to you.”

His ear perked up and moved into my direction as I began to speak. After a short while, he turned to me and pointed a questioning hoof at himself again. I squeezed my left eye shut in anger. How is he able to provoke me this much? Yet, I did my best to hide the fact that I was irritated beyond belief.

“Yes Abdarul. I am talking to you.” Suddenly, he had another smirk on his face. The kind that practically shouts ‘victory’. I sighed another time. He tricked me into talking normally. I should have stayed asleep.  “So, do you know of a way for me to get something to eat?” I asked him again, and he chuckles lightly.

“Of course.” The same answer as before. 

I swear to Celestia, if he ignores me again after this, I will take this broom and shove it up his-

“There should be plenty food in the Everfree Forest.”

Never mind that. I originally planned to shove it up his chimney, so he had to get into the ashy dirt and get all filthy in order to get it back.

I narrowed my eyes at him. He basically told me that I should get out into the dangerous forest again in order to get something to eat. 

Oh, he will regret this. For the place where I will put that broom now, dirt will be the smallest of his problems.

I took the broom in my right claw and stood up from my bed. Ignoring the slight nausea and dizziness, I started walking towards the zebra. He seemed absolutely calm, even after seeing me getting closer and closer to him. When I was in front of him with the broom in my hand, I looked deep into his eyes. “I think I have enough of your attitude,” I told him coldly and he only lifted an eyebrow with a waiting expression. “Oh, you think I won’t do it?”

His expression did not change and I began to grind my teeth. His calmness enraged me to no ends. Time to let his most prized possession burn. I inhaled deeply, and set fire to the broom. I burned the whole thing to the ground until nothing more than ash was left.

I knew from the beginning that this broom was valuable to him. The way he glanced at it. The way he looked at it when he gave it to me. The way it lovingly sat in the corner of the room until he took it. This broom was probably his family treasure or something similar to that, and I burned it. Take that, abomination!

Sadly, he didn’t react like I anticipated. Instead of quivering in fear in front of my demonstration of power, he began to laugh. Why the Tartarus was he laughing? I anticipated that he would be scared, or at least sad, that I destroyed his most prized possession. Instead, he only laughed.

After a while of laughing my rage began to climb to new heights. His laugh is even more annoying than his attitude. 

“What’s so funny?” I asked in a frustrated and annoyed voice.

A little bit later, he calmed down and swished a tear from his right eye away with one of his hooves. “Ah…” Abdarul groaned like he just had the laugh of his life. “Because you will build me a new broom now,” he added with still a smile plastered on his face.

I lifted an eyebrow at this. Does he really think I would build him a new broom? What’s wrong with him? Is he delusional?

“And why should I do that?” I asked and he let out a small chuckle again.

“Because you won’t leave this shed alive otherwise,” he exclaimed happily with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow in a skeptical expression. Did he really mean this or was he just acting strange again? Well, time to test it. 

“And if I still say no?”

He laughed a little more again, and I was grinding my teeth at his happy demeanor. Suddenly, he leapt to me. It was so sudden that I had no time to react. He hit me with a hoof in my chest and I fell onto my back with an oomph. Instantly, his head came closer to mine and I will never forget what I saw then. It was one of the most horrific moments of my life.

I looked deep in his eyes. His deep, dark and burning eyes. I felt like a mere patch of grass in the middle of a desert in front of a herd of starving cows. I felt deep power radiating from his eyes. Like an endless void, they seemed to suck in every last piece of warmth.

I didn’t dare to move. I didn’t dare to breath. Not in front of those eyes.

“YOU. WILL. MAKE. ME. ANOTHER. BROOM!” He bellowed with the deepest and darkest voice I ever heard.

I immediately began to nod my head rapidly to show that I would do it. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to move anything else. Should I just take a step towards the exit? Should I wait until he allows me to move? I didn’t know!

He indicated with his head towards the door, and I instantly complied. Like being bit by a Woody Wolf, I stood up and ran towards the exit of the shed. Quickly opening it, I dashed through it and closed the door behind me. Then, I finally breathed again. The pressure was gone. Yet, I still felt the fear deep inside of me. That zebra looked like a demon.

Wait… maybe this is why he is living alone here in the woods. Maybe his village exiled him for sacrificing innocent sheep? Maybe he is a demon lord himself and plans to take over the world from this place. Suddenly, I shook my head to clear my mind. What crap am I thinking about?

I was finally able to calm down a little. My heart wasn’t punching my rips anymore and my blood was flowing with subsonic speed again. With a deep breath, I finally calmed down completely. With a clear mind, I analyzed my situation again. So, I should get some materials for a new broom and then build it?

Slowly, I turned my head towards some trees. Wait a minute, where am I? I stood in front of the shed looking at it. It was build out of multiple trunks from trees in a typical rustic manner. Aside from the shed, I can’t describe much more. The only thing I could say was that the rest was forest. Absolutely typical Everfree Forest. Big, sometimes scary, trees, not much light and some patches of grass.

So apparently, I was at some part of the forest. I had no idea where the next sentient being was, except for that demon lord in the shed, and certainly no clue where to go. Hmm, maybe I should just walk in a random direction? Screw that zebra.

Suddenly, I felt the biggest chill running down my spine. I never felt anything quite like it. Like out of reflex, I turned around and saw him looking at me through a window, indicating that he was watching me. I took a deep gulp and turned away again. Better get some wood for that broom.

I looked around again and saw a hill to my right. Maybe I could see more from the top of the hill? I began walking towards it, but suddenly I heard a hammering from behind me. Turning around, I saw that Abdarul was hammering against the window to get my attention. I looked at him and he just shook his head in a serious frown.

Deciding that I would live longer if I wouldn’t anger him, I turned around and walked into another direction. This time, there was no hammering. Seriously what’s his problem? At first, he was acting like he wanted me to get as mad as possible, then he gets angry, then he gets serious. I don’t understand that guy.

After contemplating a little more about that shaman, I realized that I had already walked pretty far. Wait, why was I out here again? Suddenly, my palm met my face. Of course, I need wood for the broom. Looking around the forest, I tried to find a suitable stick for the handle. Trees, trees everywhere, and not a branch to use. What to take?

I saw an about one meter long branch growing out of a normal leaf tree. Yes, a leaf tree. I am well read, but regarding plants, I didn’t know anything. Why should I even know the name of those trees? It’s not like the names would help me to survive. It’s not like I can scream at some Woodies “This is a blabla-leaf-tree. Your hunt is invalid!” I think they would just hit and eat me after that. Wait, no they probably wouldn’t. I learned that it was impossible to predict them, and I won’t forget that lesson.

I shook my head. I was getting distracted again. We can’t have that now, can we? With a sigh, I walked towards the tree with the perfect branch. Ramming my claws into the trunk, I pulled myself up. Repeating this process, I soon was on top of the tree. I then moved towards the branch and grabbed it. Using all my strength, I pulled, but it didn’t budge. Holy excrement, why was this so sturdy?

Trying some more times, I realized that I wouldn’t get anywhere with this. Taking a deep breath, I looked at the branch and thought about a possible solution. I don’t know why, but I somehow got the idea to just punch the branch. Following the strange feeling, I punched the branch. The tree seemed to vibrate slightly, but that was it. The branch did not budge.

Hitting it with another punch, the same thing happened. I hit it with another one, another one, another, another, another, and another one until I was blindly punching it in a frenzy. I don’t know how long I did that, but when I was finished, I was breathing deeply through my clenched teeth. Why do I have to be so unlucky? Can’t anything go my way for once?

While asking myself such questions, I took another punch at the branch. After this one, I took a couple more. A minute or two later, I calmed down and leaned back against the tree. Somehow, I felt relaxed again. Like calmness I haven’t felt for an eternity finally returned. My eyes felt heavy, and I lowered my eyelids until they were only half open. My breath slowly calmed down and I now breathed deeply through my nose.

A slight breeze, which was accompanied by fresh air, came over me, and it felt so… real. It’s strange to say this since everything I did was real, but this was somehow different. It felt like I was alive for the first time, like I stepped out of a cage.

The light slightly shifted. The clouds in front of the sun slowly moved away, and the sun shone through the canopies of the trees and illuminated some spots on the ground. Some butterflies were flying through the air and landed on a beautiful red flower in one of the sunny spots. The silence and calmness of the forest relaxed me and slowly, I closed my eyes in the forest breeze, atop the tree.

While I laid there with closed eyes, I realized something. I was free. Everything I did, I did out of my own free will. Nopony was telling me what to do. Well apart from Abdarul, but that was my own fault. I also realized that I acted pretty ugly towards him. He patched me up over a full week and I act like a flank hole. Maybe I should apologize later.

Freedom. The thing I always wanted back then in Canterlot. I could sleep here as long as I wanted. I could go in whatever direction I wanted. I could go eat whatever I wanted. I could speak to whom I wanted. I could sleep whenever I wanted. Freedom; this is true freedom. Slowly, I felt myself drift away from the world, and not long after that, I was fully asleep.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Pain. Immense pain. This was what I woke up to. My body, especially the front of it, was in unreal pain. I groaned and opened my eyes. Dirt. I was lying face down in the dirt. Yep, that would explain the pain. Apparently, I fell down the tree while I was sleeping. Ouch, this shouldn’t have happened. I am a calm sleeper. I don’t turn often in my sleep, so why was I on the ground like this?

“Taking a nap while you should be working, little dragon?” I heard from my front. Slowly, I raised my head towards the voice. Yep, there stood Abdarul with a raised eyebrow and some kind of big walking stick in his hoof. 

I bet he was the reason why I fell down. He probably kicked the tree and I fell out of it. There goes my apology for him.

I slowly tried to stand up, but my abdominals burned. Seriously, it felt like they decided to dance in a sea of boiling lava. Yes, boiling lava. Lava can also be cold, in which it turns into a slimy thing, so I need to add the boiling part. Imagine muscles burning like slimy lava, how silly.

Suddenly, I got “punched” with the stick of the demon lord, and I fell back on my back. I let out a pretty loud groan and Abdarul came closer to me. With a hoof, he touched multiple parts of my tummy, which all hurt like Tartarus by the way, and pushed at some others. After some moments, he stopped and let go of me. I instantly jumped up at my feet.

“Stop it; that hurts!” I screamed, and he just raised an eyebrow.

“It does? Where?” He asked in a bewildered voice, and I instantly answered him.

Well, I wanted to answer him, but I quickly realized that I didn’t feel any pain anymore. Wait, what? Where did all the pain go? I just fell at least three meters down and directly on my tummy. Why isn’t it hurting anymore? I touched my body at nearly every spot and never felt any pain. Slowly, I looked at Abdarul with a bewildered expression.

“Did you heal me?” I asked him, but he only made an overly done smile.

“No, I sold you a house,” he told me.

I simply looked at him with an appraising look. Did he just? No, he wouldn’t. But he did. Slowly, the corners of my mouth moved upwards and not long after, I smiled and started laughing. I couldn’t stop it. Somehow, this was just too funny, even though he just copied me. I just couldn’t hold myself anymore.

Suddenly, I heard a dunk that was accompanied with a sting of pain in my head. Apparently, Abdarul didn’t think this was funny and hit me on the head with his stick. “Ow!” I shouted while rubbing my head with my claws.

“Don’t you have something to do?” The demon lord asked me, and I instantly knew what he meant. He still wanted me to make another broom. After I stopped rubbing my head, I looked at him with annoyed eyes. Then, I pointed with one of my claws at the branch from the tree, I tried to rip off earlier, and no I don’t mean the rip off as in selling something for too much bits. I was talking about the physical rip-off.

“I tried to, but no matter what I do, this branch just won’t budge.”

With his gaze, he followed my claw and looked at the branch I was pointing at. He only shook his head, and turned back to me. “This is a joint tree.” He pointed at the tree and then continued. “A joint tree is a unique kind of tree that strengthens its sturdiness through creating multiple thick ‘joints’.”

He then proceeded to raise his stick and lightly punched against the branch with it, creating a light and hollow sound. After this, he moved the stick a little closer to the tree and hit it again. This time, the sound was little deeper. Another move closer to the tree and another hit later, a short deep thunk could be heard. The typical sound when somepony hits something terribly hard.

“As you heard, here is the joint.” He made small circles around the spot where he hit the branch. “There is also more to the joint than what meets the eye.” Abdarul lifted his forelegs and stood on two legs. I had never seen anything quite like it. I always thought that ponies, or zebras in his case, needed all four legs to stand steadily.

Nonetheless, he stood there without wavering or swaying and simply lifted his stick up and over the branch. “Those trees are not called joint trees for nothing,” he told me and began to push the stick downwards while it was over the branch.

I only stood there with a lifted eyebrow. What does he plan? Bending a branch of this thickness with the tip of a stick is impossible. The power one would have to use would be unreal. On top of that, the stick would probably break before the branch moves. I think it is understandable when I tell you that I was pretty baffled when the branch suddenly started to bend at an unreal angle. I quickly looked between Abdarul and the branch, not believing what I saw.

He simply stood there without any strain on his face, as if this was the easiest thing in the world. Looking back at the branch, I saw that it was now nearly on a 90° angle downwards. “How is this possible?” I asked aloud and Abdarul answered.

“Joint trees are called joint trees because those thick growths in their branches are able to bend in a downward direction. Nopony knows why they can do this. We still don’t know what positive usage the tree could gain from such branches,” he explained. Then he took his stick back and I looked at the branch in disbelief.

It was still bent at 90°, even though nothing was holding it down. “How?” I asked again, and again, Abdarul answered me.

“The joints lock at 90° and stay fixed until something breaks the strain. Let me show you.” Moving his stick towards the bent branch again, he lightly hit it, and the branch shot back to being straight in an instant. The speed on which the branch moved showed that there was an unreal amount of power behind that movement. If I were to get hit by this, I doubt that I would survive.

“As you see,” I heard beside me and turned to Abdarul again. “The branch has to be very sturdy in order to withstand such force. It’s no surprise that you weren’t able to break one. But there is a way to break such a branch,” he added, and I crooked an eyebrow. “You need to push or pull the part of the branch, which is located after the joint, against the direction the branch could bend towards.”

I looked up at the branch again. “So, since the branch could bend downwards, this means that I would need to pull it upwards in order to break it?” I asked him and he nodded. Looking down at my feet, I thought about this. If this joint really was like a pony joint or dragon joint, then this seemed logical.

Earlier, I was pushing downwards before the joint came. If I compare this branch to one of my arms, then the joint would be my elbow. The point where I pushed earlier would have been somewhere on my upper arm. Of course, this was very hard to break. I looked at my arm and held it out in front of me.

Now if somepony would grab my forearm and pull it against the direction of the joint, while using my upper arm as bending point, my joint would be overstrained and would quickly break. Slowly, I looked up at the branch again, while putting my arm back to my side.

So, if I would sit on the thicker part of the branch and pull the outer part upwards, I should be able to break it. With a sigh, I walked towards the tree and began to climb it. Because of my claws, it didn’t take me long until I was back on the branch again. Sitting on it, I looked downwards towards Abdarul, who gestured me to move on.

I looked at the branch again and sighed once more. Lowering my head towards the branch, I put my ear on it and knocked at it. I did this multiple times until I knew where the joint was. Moving forward a little, I now sat on top of the joint. One deep breath later, I grabbed the branch in front of me and pulled it upwards with all of my strength.

At first, it did not budge, but I did not relent. After a short while, it slowly moved upwards and I felt a deep feeling of success. I can do this! I can break this branch! I stopped pulling and held it, bent like this, for a short while in order to get some air in my lungs again. After some breaths, I continued pulling and the bending was now accompanied by a noise that sounded like strained bark.

I am nearly there. Just a little more! The straining noise got louder and I could feel my arms burn. I wanted nothing more than to just stop and let my arms rest. No, I will do this! With a mighty roar I gave myself a last boost of strength, and with it, came the sound of breaking bark. Suddenly, the branch was easy to bend and I completely pulled it back with me.

Looking down at it, I saw that only a small part of it was still attached to the tree. With newfound motivation I twisted the branch in my hand and pulled away again, completely ripping it off of the tree. I quickly stood up and held the branch in my right claw towards the sky. My right claw was burning, but that didn’t matter now. I won!

The cool breeze came over my body and with it, a deep feeling of satisfaction. I did it! I am the best! Nothing can stand in my way! I simply stood on top of the former branch and held my newly acquired stick in my arm. I don’t know how long I stood there, but at some point, I heard a cough from downwards.

Looking down I saw Abdarul. Oh, right. He was still here. Slowly, I realized how I probably looked like, and my feeling of success got replaced with a feeling of embarrassment.

“Little dragon, you broke a branch, not a timberwolf. Calm down,” he slowly said in an annoyed voice. For the first time in my life, I had a blush on my face. Oh Celestia, this is embarrassing. Quickly, I climbed down the tree again and walked towards the shaman. Not looking in his eyes, I offered the stick to him.

“Here, for your broom.” I told him while not looking at him. He took it and laid it across his back.

“Very well. Now go and gather the remaining parts,” he practically ordered me, but it didn’t really annoy me. It was my own fault for destroying the old broom.

I turned around and started walking away, but I suddenly remembered something. Oh Celestia, I don’t want to do this. With a gulp, I turned around and looked at him again. He had a waiting expression plastered on his face. I averted my eyes again and looked sideways at some trees. I put my claws together behind my back, and began to kick some stones on the ground.

“I just wanted to tell you,” I began but then hesitated. Oh, why does this have to be so hard? “Thank you for saving me from the forest, and…” here goes. “Sorry for acting like a flank hole!” I rushed the last part as quickly as possible, and closed my eyes while saying it.

After a while where nothing happened, I heard a sigh and slowly opened one of my eyes. “It’s alright,” He slowly said with a dismissive hoof. “I forgive you.” I somehow felt happy to hear this. Why did this feel so good? I never apologized seriously before. Even that apology earlier in his shed was fake. I just wanted some of that soup. But now, I did it for real for the first time, and it felt like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

“But you still need to make me another broom, understood?” He added with an urging voice.

I quickly tried to defend myself. “I didn’t say this because I do-“

“I don’t care why you said it! You owe me a broom. Now go and make it!” He ordered me in a loud voice, and I looked back at him in a shocked voice.

“But I-“

“No buts young mister! Go and make that broom!” The demon lord told me with a voice that indicated that there was no point in discussing this any further. I grinded my teeth again. I swear it! At one point, I will get back on him for this. Why did I even apologize to that condescending *censored*? With a gruff, I turned away from him and began to walk aggressively away, putting extra strength in every step I took.

And thus, my epic quest to create a broom began. The battle of the branch would get immortalized in future books, which would tell of my heroic deeds I did, in order to create the one legendary item every shaman lives in hope off.

A self-made broom.

> Arc 1: 9 - Why Did I Do That?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seriously, why am I even doing this? Yes, it was my fault for destroying his broom. Yes, it was wrong of me. Yes, I should not have slept during work. But why does that condescending zebra need to act so… well… condescending? Honestly, just for the way he talked to me, I should just stop searching for those things, and be on my way.

I walked through the Everfree Forest, surprise surprise. Where else would I be walking? Where else but the incredibly dull, but dangerous Everfree Forest? Using a stupid voice, I talked to myself. “Hey Spike, what are you doing?”

Changing my voice quickly into my normal one I playfully replied to myself. “Nothing much. Just walkin’ through the Everfree Forest.”

“The Everfree Forest? Isn’t that dangerous?” I smirked at this.

“Oh no, not at all. I do this all the time. No big deal.”

“Wooow Spike, you are so brave.” I suddenly stopped walking, and my left eye began to twitch slightly. What am I doing? I asked myself without waiting for an answer. After a short while, I let out a frustrated sigh. I think I just went fully crazy. Twilight always said to never go fully crazy. Suddenly, I felt a strange feeling in my gut.

“Twilight…” I uttered silently to myself while letting my gaze drift downwards. Why do I miss her? She treated me like a slave and a fool. She does not deserve me.  I paused for a short while and blinked multiple times. Wow, that sounded more arrogant than planned. Well, back to the topic. Twilight used me as her personal flank-for-everything and she thoroughly deserved what came to her.

I lifted an eyebrow. Wait a minute. Deserved what? The only unfortunate thing that happened to her was that her personal slave escaped. Did I just honestly think that there would be even a remotely possible way that she missed me? Then, I imagined a crying Twilight.

“Spike, do not leave me! I need you! How can I reach the highest shelves in the library without using magic now? You are my life!” The imaginative Twilight cried while watching as the imposing dragon walked away. She wore some kind of really old dress and a handkerchief was currently held under her tearing right eye. The location they were currently at, was hit by a hard storm, and the wind blew through her mane.

The imposing muscular purple dragon, which wore some kind of detective coat by the way, turned slowly his head to his left so he could see the crying unicorn through his shades. “I’m sorry Twilight, but a dragon needs to do what a dragon needs to do. Farewell,” the dragon stated with a slow, but deep voice. Slowly, he walked into the metallic carriage that got pulled by multiple Woody Wolves.

“Spike, come back! SSSPPPIIIKKEEE!” The lavender unicorn shouted while the carriage drove away.

…

What the buck, brain! What was that? Sadly, my brain was either too busy laughing, or it did not have the ability to speak to my consciousness. I suspected both. With another sigh, I continued walking. Well, disregarding the thing my brain just did, I think that Twilight had it coming. Also, I doubt she misses me. On top of that, there is no turning back now. Even if, I wanted to follow my delusions, and go back to Ponyville, it would take me forever. Heck, I don’t even know where I am. Suddenly, I stopped walking again.

Wait…where am I? Looking around the area, I saw the most unexpected thing I could possibly imagine. Trees? Here? How come? What is this nonsense? I thought there were boiling lava mountains with diamond shields and spears in forests, not trees. Slowly, I began to grind my teeth.

Ignoring every ounce of sarcasm, seriously. Where the heck am I?! Trees here, trees there. Everywhere I look there are stupid trees. I run two days away from Woody Wolves, manticores, ursas and dragons? Trees! I meet more strange Woodies? Trees! I run from the strange woodies? Trees! I wake up in a shed and look out of the window? Trees! I walk for an undefined amount of time in one direction? Trees! I do the same thing again? Where ever the buck I look, I see the same bucking trees!

With rage taking hold of me again, I began to clench my claws into fists and continue grinding my teeth. My breathing began to speed up again, but I quickly stopped it. Keep calm Spike. Getting angry now, would not help anypony. Wait, I’m no pony. I quickly shook my head. Not relevant now. But hey! Another example of ponies not liking anything but other ponies in their society. Heck, the buck, yes! On a side note, I need to stop swearing. Ponies will think I wasn’t properly educated. I blinked two times again.

And that is right. I lived with some kind of “mother” that only wanted me for my help and my inability to refuse any order she gave me. I wasn’t properly educated at all. Heck, I didn’t even go to school. No, Twilight needed me just that much. “Oh Spike, could you be a dear and stop eating for the rest of your life, just so you can be one second faster when bringing me a book? The instances when I need a book while you are eating are just that frequent that it is of utmost importance that you stop doing this.” I was exceptionally well versed in the high art of the hyperbole.

Instantly, I began to shake my head violently. Stop it! Focus on your task; you are getting side-tracked again! I let out another sigh. Now, what do you need? I lifted a claw to my jaw and put a thinking expression on my face. Your goal is to create a broom. In order to make this broom, you need to first gather the materials. Yet, you first need to know how to create it in order to gather the materials. Now, how do you create the broom?

After a short while of thinking up a way to create a functioning broom, I thought I finally had the idea. Of course! You get a long stick, which you already have by the way, get some long hay or grass, and bind it to the stick. I shrugged once. Sounds easy enough. Turning my eyes around the familiar -- unfamiliar area, I searched for anything I could use for the bottom part of the broom or as some kind of thread.

Nothing around here I could use. Hmm, well if there is nothing I could use, then maybe I should create something? I mean, how hard can it be to burn some grass just to that degree that it does not catch on fire, but stays dry? I think if I recall that one book about camping correctly, grass, or in the better case something thin growing, needs to dry for multiple days inside a dry and warm area. Ain’t nopony got time for that.

Looking around again, I searched for some long weed to burn. Of course, I also needed to be careful to not burn that kind of weed that poisons the mind via smoke. Burning the wrong one could bring me into a state where I would suffer delusions and concentration problems. Nopony should willingly poison themselves with this.

After a short while, I found some kind of long grass. It was around 50 centimeter high and looked a little… reedy. What do we have here? I walked over to the reed and grabbed it with one of my claws. Feeling the hard texture, I decided to break it off, so the now broken piece was around 30 centimeter long. I looked it over in my claw. Hmm, could I clean with this thing?

I bent it a little to see how flexible it was. The plant actually was a little reedy, but the stem itself wasn’t thick enough to act like a stick. It was small enough to bend multiple times in some strange angles. I think it would be possible to use these. I just need a heckload of the stuff. Looking back to the field of reed, I sighed once. Time to work.

…

Well that took long enough, but hey, I finally got all the reed I need. Suddenly, I snickered. Reed I need. Spike, you silly! Then another thought came to mind. I am so happy to finally being able to say, or in this case to think, the word silly without sounding like a little girl that tries to persuade the big grown stallion to buy her some ice cream.

I shook my head. Apparently, I got sidetracked, again. With another sigh, I recounted what I had. Alright, so I have the stick, which is currently in possession of Abdarul, and the lower part of the broom, whatever it is called. Good! The last thing I need, is something to bind the both parts together with. I looked around the forest. Now, where do I find something that I can bend this much that I could create a knot with it?

Seeing nothing that could be possible to use, I started walking into, you guessed correctly, a random direction again. The mystifying ways of Spike the Dragon are impossible to comprehend. Well nonetheless, I walked for quite a while. I might skip the things I thought at that time since you probably already know enough of my brain to imagine what happened there.

After an undefined amount of time, I stopped and looked around the area. There has to be something I can use. Come on, how hard can it be to find a plant that resembles a thread? I cursed under my breath when I didn’t find anything again. Just when I wanted to continue on my way, my eyes spotted some kind of hanging liana. Holy ratified collection of ponies dancing on a pole! I found it!

My expression instantly changed into a smile, and I ran towards the tree the liana was hanging down from. Seeing the tree, I stopped before climbing. What is this? I’ve never seen a tree quite like this. The tree had a darker color than all the other ones and the stump looked quite strange. Multiple roots were coming out of it, and they seemed to end in a sharp point. It didn’t even look like it was planted into the ground. Like the tree was just standing there.

Again, I shook my head. Forget about the strange tree. Just climb and get the liana. Following this thought, I climbed the tree. It seemed to shift slightly whenever I put my claws into the bark, but I didn’t mind. The only thing that was essential was to get that liana as fast as possible, and mostly unharmed.

When I was halfway up the branchless tree, I stopped and looked for a way to get to the liana. It seemed to have hung solely from the top of the tree. Now that I think about it, the tree truly has a strange form. It seemed to be bigger in width in the higher parts than the lower. Also, the main body of the tree, which is at a considerable height, touches the ground with four stumps.

If I wouldn’t have been hanging from a neck breaking height, I would have shrugged. I saw stranger stuff than just some crazy tree. Looking at the sole liana, I realized that it probably was impossible for me to jump this far. Even if, I would ignore the multiple other problems I would face in this scenario like “How do I get down?”, it would still not be worth to dare the jump.

Looking up again, I decided to climb higher. I just need to find the spot where the liana is connected to the tree. When I am there, I need to cut it and climb down again. Sounds easy enough. With that thought in mind, I began to climb higher. In no time at all, I was at the height where the normal trees meet and create one gigantic body of wood. Strangely enough, there were no real branches and no leaves.

My arms were arching a little, but I only had some more meters to go. With a last act of strength, I climbed on top of the tree and pulled myself up. After calming my breath and arms a little, I looked around. “Whoa…”

I could see the whole forest. This strange symbiosis of four trees was higher than I expected. From up there, the forest looked totally different. It looked somewhat peaceful. Everywhere I looked was trees. Trees without end; it was a gigantic sea of green. I was awestruck. I knew that the forest was vast, but I didn’t anticipate this size. Trees on every side. They go over the horizon.

I sat down and just felt awestruck by this sight. Did I actually travel this far?

While I sat there, the wind picked up, and it gently flowed over my scales. It had just the perfectly refreshing temperature that it was noticeable, but not uncomfortable. The tree I was atop of was rustling gently in the breeze. The light slightly shifted as the sun began its descend over the horizon to the west.

I watched the sunset unfold and couldn’t take my eyes away from it. I watched as the blue sky, slowly made place for the darker sky, on which the stars shone brightly. The sheer beauty of this display woke feelings in me that I didn’t know exist.

I never thought something like this existed. Watching the sunset from Canterlot was beautiful, but it did not have this awe inspiring touch. Will I ever see something like this again? What is out there in the world? There are so many things to find; so many things to see; so many things to live for.

What also hit me was a feeling of deep sadness, to which I sighed. If only Twilight could be here. Yes, she made lots of mistakes, but somehow… I can’t stop loving her. She hatched me and also looked over me while I grew up. Well, I am still growing, but that is not the point now. I looked down at my feet with a sad gaze.

She was my mother. When did she change? Where was the point where her happy playful altitude towards me changed to the strict and cold one? Should I have never left Ponyville? Should I have just stayed there? Was there a different way? All these questions, yet no answer in sight.

I sit here, on the seemingly top of the world, yet there is nothing I have found up here. The animals do not climb up here. The birds are more comfortable with their nests in the normal trees. The sky does not reach down here. This place is solitude. Loneliness in its purest form. I looked up at the sky towards the rising moon.

Was this how Princess Luna felt while she was on the moon? I can always return to the earth, yet she was bound to the sky. How hard it must have been. I let out another deep sigh and smiled somewhat sadly. What am I doing? I am sitting on a tree, Celestia knows where, and philosophizing about solitude and the moon. Seriously, what’s wrong with me? I think I seriously need to read fewer books.

I watched the moon again, and while the cool breeze went over my body, I somehow began to dream of distant pasts. The time where I lived with Twilight. The time when I was happily playing in the library. All these memories of distant happiness that I could not feel right now pained me deeply.

The dreams made way to thoughts, and the thoughts vanished in a flurry of chaos. I simply watched the moon, but could not discern what I was thinking, yet I knew that I thought. I knew that I was thinking something, even if I did not know what. Even if I did not know what I was thinking, I could still feel the effect. And the effect was longing and sadness. Longing for a past that I could not go back to. Sadness for the outlook of the future.

While I was looking at the moon, I questioned multiple things. Things I now know that were just brought out by the feel of the moment. Questions like “will I ever find someone again?” and “Is there a point in continuing my journey?”. To be honest, it took me quite a while to somewhat calm down again, but after several minutes, the flurry of thoughts calmed down and I let out one last sigh.

No point in thinking this stuff over. Heck, what reason is there to contemplate all this? I won’t get an answer for this, and I should just simply forget this ever happened. Really, what a wimp am I? With a deep inhale, I stood up and let some of my joints crack. Shouldn’t have been sitting here for so long. Seriously, it’s not terribly comfortable. Thank you brain, for showing me all those damn emotions I do not need. Now I can’t ignore them anymore.

Of course, my brain did not answer me. It reached its goal and was probably already swimming in its sea of sedating hormones my body was receiving from my liver. Yes, we dragons get our hormones from our livers, strange isn’t it? Even though it is even stranger that I know this, yet I am not that old. Well, a life in a library. What can I say?

After stretching my muscles and cracking my joints, I began to think about what I should do next. Alright so, why am I up here again? Hmm, oh right. I wanted to get that liana for the broom. Now, where was it? Searching around the tree, I finally found the liana. It was growing out of the side of the main body of the tree(s). Seriously, I am not sure if I could call this thing one tree or multiple trees.

Nonetheless, I walked over to the liana. Seeing that it began pretty deep down, I rammed my claws into the tree and began to climb downwards. It did not take me long until I was in grabbing range of the liana. Not sure how resilient it was, I put my claw around it and pulled on it. It did not get damaged, and it still grew out of the tree without any cracks or tears. Pulling another time, but this time stronger, it still did not show any signs of tearing.

This should be hard enough,  I thought with a smirk on my face. I gulped when I got another idea. No seriously do not do this! Let it be! Don’t touch it! Just say no! Too late. The absurdity of this idea forced me to do this. Oh my Celestia, what did I think at that time?

With an unsure gulp, I took ahold of the liana and climbed to the side, where some kind of sole branch grew out of the tree. The tree was not completely branchless. It did not take me long, but I reached it. Moving carefully, I began to stand on the sole branch, both claws clawed around the liana. Oh Celestia. I don’t believe I am actually doing this. Just don’t look down and everything should be fine. You tested the liana. It is hard enough. There is no way it would tear.

Ignoring my own advice, I looked down. That was one hell of a fall. Yes, I will say hell because there is no other way to describe this seemingly endless way to the ground. Seeing this, I began to get dizzy. Maybe I should just not do it. I still plan to live some couple of centuries.

I slowly turned back to the tree, liana still in one claw when it happened. I stepped on my own tail. It was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I mean, how can you step on your own tail? And not only this, but also on top of a branch in life threatening height? Well nonetheless, I screamed ouch, lost my footing, fell down to the ground, and died.

…

That was just a joke. Don’t look at me like that. Well, what actually happened was that I still had the liana in one claw, and quickly grabbed it with the second one too. Like I thought, the liana held up, and I actually was flying through the sky. Of course, my original plan was screaming out something like “OOOHOHOOOOHOHOHOOOOOO”, but the situation forced me to change this into a manly screech in an octave that was probably higher than Canterlot Mountain. If the forest were made out of glass, I would have been known as the individual that destroyed the most glass.

Putting exaggerations to the side, I have to say that this was not one of my proudest moments. But the positive aspect was that the liana held up and stopped swinging after some seconds. My screaming also stopped… an undefined time later.

After I calmed down and opened my eyes, I firstly looked down to the ground. Two meters. I only was two meters from the ground away. Apparently, I slid down the liana until I only was two meters from the ground away, and I screamed because of that. Stop looking at me; I said it was not one of my proudest moments.

But well, I was calm again and I remembered what I needed the liana for. So I simply put my right claw around the liana and cut it, effectively taking one meter of liana with me. I knew that I was still hanging onto it, and I also knew that I would fall, but come on. Two meters? How much could that hurt? I fell from higher heights in the Canterlot Library.

Well, what I did not think about was the fact that my center of gravity was slightly displaced, due to me only hanging on the liana with my left arm. Thus, it was quite a shock for me when my body suddenly shifted. Neither my feet, nor my bottom hit the floor first. It was my back. Cut the liana, they said. The fall will not hurt, they said. Well, the fall did hurt a lot!

I didn’t even have time to scream. Falling two meters does not really take a long time, but man did that hurt. After my whole life flashed before my eyes for the second time that day, I laid rigid with my back on the ground, only taking shallow breaths. I did not dare to move. I did not dare to think. I just laid there and looked with open eyes towards the sky.

To be a little more specific. This is exactly what I thought at that moment: “…………”

It took me quite a while to finally get a hold of my being again, and the first thing I did was checking my body for injuries. Alright so, putting everything that happened behind us, let’s make a check of limbs shall we? Head? I began to concentrate on my head and tried to move my neck a little. There was a little pain but not much. Check.

Arms? I moved my fingers a little and wiggled my arms. Check. Legs? I slowly let me legs tumble to the right and to the left. Check. Then I let out a deep sigh. Seems like I am not hurt. So I’ve got some luck after all. With a smirk, I sat up.

“AAAAHHHH!” I screamed on top of my lungs. Just when I began to bend my back a little, I felt the most tormenting pain in my life. I instantly let my body slump down on my back again, but the pain was still existent. Oh Celestia did that hurt. I was quite sure that I had no fracture or break in my back since I could still move all my appendages, but I think my back muscles were not as lucky.

Lying on my back, I took deep and slow breaths while moving as little as possible. I don’t know how long I lay there, but after some time, the pain began to recede, but sadly not completely. I continued to lay there for quite some time until I decided that I needed to do something about this. I couldn’t stay on the floor in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

Slowly, I tried to turn so I could lie on my belly. This may help. With a lot of pain, I turned over to my belly and felt the pain come back. It was not as strong as last time, but it was permanent. It was the kind of pain that you just wish to punch a hole through. I inhaled through my closed teeth and exhaled through an open mouth, letting out a moan every time I exhaled. It was the same kind of breathing you do when you hit your little toe on a table.

I clawed with both my claws on the earth to deal with the pain. While I was in the middle of doing this, I heard something from my left. Turning my head, I didn’t believe what I saw. Woodies. Three of them. Looking at me with hungry eyes. Drool coming from their mouths, and the worst part. They were not wearing doctor coats.

“NOW?!” I screamed. This was just too perfect. I am hurt beyond comparison, lay on the grass, and can’t even stand up. Yep, it was over. That’s it. No more living several centuries. No more adventuring. Nothing. There was no way for me to escape this time.

The wolves slowly walked closer to me, and I felt so afraid that I couldn’t feel the fear anymore. It is strange to describe it like this, but that’s what happened. I looked at them as they slowly encircled me. Yep. No way out of that one. Well I am quite surprised to still be alive at this point. Thinking back at what I did the last few days, I think I actually was quite lucky.

Then we suddenly all of us heard some kind of tribal shout. All of us turned our heads to the direction the shout was coming from, and after a while, a zebra could be seen walking to us. My eyes widened. “Abdarul?” I slowly uttered to myself. Yes, it was Abdarul. What was he doing here? There were wooden wolves all around me. He should be running away, not walking to us, shouting some kind of ancient chant.

Well whatever he did, he managed to get the attention of the wolves. I also watched him. After a short while, he stopped and looked at the group of four of us from about a ten meter distance. Nothing was moving. After several seconds in calmness, he slowly started moving towards a tree to his right. I raised an eyebrow. What was he planning?

The wolves followed his movement, just like me. All of us were confused by the actions of the zebra. When he reached the tree, he slowly and calmly walked behind it. His head and his upper body vanished behind it, and only his hind legs could be seen. He still continued walking, and also his hind legs vanished behind the tree.

Instantly after his hind legs vanished, something heavy dropped on top of the right wolf with a ferocity that I have never seen before. It rammed straight through it and exploded into the floor beneath it. The wooden wolf exploded into every direction in a flurry of twigs and leaves. I covered my eyes, due to the dirt and dust that was created by it.

I coughed a little, but I calmed down quickly. I needed to know what happened. Opening my eyes again, I looked towards the spot where the wolf was before and my eyes widened when I saw him. It was Abdarul. Standing at the old spot of the wolf with a fiercely burning staff in his hooves. There even was a small crater where he stood.

How is that possible? He just went behind that tree! There wasn’t even half a second between him vanishing and smashing the wolf to pieces! That’s impossible! Yet, there he stood. The other wolves quickly jumped back and growled at him. Abdarul only drew a circle on the ground with his staff. When he was finished drawing, he rammed the tip of the staff into the middle of it.

Suddenly, massive spikes came out of the earth, destroying the Woodies and throwing their twigs into every direction of the forest. I only lay there, and couldn’t believe what I had seen. What did Abdarul do? Before I could even begin to think about this, he already began talking.

“I can’t even send you to make a broom without you getting into mortal danger.” He put a hoof on his jaw in a thinking expression, but I just couldn’t answer. I was just too awestruck by what just happened. After a while where none of us said anything, he stomped on the ground.

“Alright! I have decided that you will live with me until you can stand on your own two legs!” He simply stated, and I looked at him in an unbelieving expression.

“Eh… what?” I asked.

“You will live with me for the next time. I can’t have some greenhorn like you running around the forest!” He told me, and I lifted my eyebrow even higher. “Now get up and get to work. I want my broom!” He ordered me and punched me on the back with his staff. Directly after this, he put the tip of the staff beneath me and lifted me up on my legs. Before I even realized it, I was standing on my legs again without pain.

Well, I decided that it was probably better to do what he says for now, but let me cut this short. I then proceeded in trying to create the broom, in which I failed for multiple days. After a week or two, I finally managed it. Abdarul showed me some stuff, and well, I am still living with him to this day. By the way, this day is around two months after I met him. That’s my story so far.


________________________________________


Spike lay on top of a wooden couch in the clearing of the woods. He was talking for several hours now to someone else. The other one made notes while Spike was talking and scratched on the note board with motivation.

“Well doc, what do you think?” Spike asked with an enquiring voice while sitting up from his couch.

The Timberwolf with a doctor coat simply shook his head at his story and growled something he couldn’t understand.  

> Sequel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yep, it's Sequel time. 

This is it! The Voyage Home.

Knock yourself out. ;P