> The Voyage Home
>  by Warmaisach
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: I Hate Wood!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Everfree Forest, one of the most mysterious places in all of Equestria. A place where many ponies traveled to, but only few returned from. What was it with this strange forest? Did it enjoy taking lives? Were the ponies simply not able to handle the purest form of nature? Was there something more in there?

There were a lot of theories regarding the forest, yet none of them sounded plausible. It could be practically anything. Ponies knew near to nothing about the forest. The old saying “go into the Everfree for a walk, and you will never return to talk,” was still known by ponykind for a reason. Only a few returned to tell the tale of their sightings.

Yet, there, somewhere in the forest, is a being that once lived with ponykind, but now lives in the Everfree Forest. It actually was a rather rare being. It was a male teenage dragon, and his size was a little bigger than a pony’s. The legs and arms of the creature were slender and long, giving it the ability to run remarkably fast.

While the dragon normally walked on two legs, to keep his arms free, he could speed up with going into a quadrupedal position. Every fully grown dragon was quadrupedal since their massive body weight would put too much pressure on only two legs. Of course, they could still stand for quite a while on two legs, but they preferred to stay on four. Why would they need to stand on two legs? They got their fire. They got their sharp teeth. They got their wings. They got their tail.

Yet, this dragon had no wings. His scales were a deep purple with green fins adorning his appearance. His emerald green eyes were hidden behind purple eyelids. He did something that he had been doing often throughout his entire life. An action that he was well acquainted with. He sighed.

He currently walked through a forest clearing, a long brown walking stick being held in his right arm. The sigh escaped him and with a bored expression, he drifted his gaze upwards.

“Why the Tartarus am I doing this?” he asked himself with an annoyed voice. Suddenly, he straightened himself and tried to look imposing. With a mighty stomp, he hit the ground with his stick and spoke in a serious voice. “Spike, you need to get me those plants! I do not care if you are having the best dream of your life! I want my plants, and you will get them!”

Spike relaxed and put his claw to his face while letting out another sigh. “Sometimes I still believe that zebra is some kind of demon. I mean, come on, who wakes a dragon up while he sleeps peacefully?” He made a short pause and looked around the forest. “Well, better get this over with.” With another sigh, he continued walking.

This dragon was Spike. A zebra named Abdarul found him unconscious in the forest beside a river. Spike was running from three timberwolves but fell down a ravine. On the bottom of said ravine was an aggressively flowing stream. Apparently, Spike had a lot of luck. Not only did he survive the fall plus the rapid flow of water, but he was also found by a zebra shaman that took him in.

Due to the clashing personalities of the two, they quickly were able to anger one another. Spike, in his anger, burned the broom of Abdarul down, who then forced Spike to make another one. In the process of getting the materials for the new broom, Spike found himself in a mighty lot of danger and nearly died at the teeth of another pack of timberwolves. Somehow, he always ran into them.

Abdarul rescued him again, but saw that Spike was practically helpless in the forest. He then decided to teach Spike some of his skills, in exchange for manual labor. Spike planned to stay with him for about three months. He thought he would learn everything needed in that interval. This was now three years ago.

There was just so much to learn; so many things to know; that many skills to acquire. He underestimated the forest. There were plenty of dangerous things that he didn’t know. So many plants he could use. So many plants he should avoid. After some time under Abdarul, he began to realize how lucky he was to have survived for that long in the forest. Maybe he should have never left his home?

Spike sighed another time. Why do I think about Twilight again? I thought I made my peace with that matter. If I wouldn’t have left, nothing would have changed. She treated me like a slave, and now I’m gone. It’s her own fault.

Yet, he still caught himself thinking back to his peaceful life under the ponies. How Twilight treated him when he was just a baby; how he had, at least, some fun in those three days he lived in Ponyville; his two best friends, Moon Dancer and Fluttershy. Spike quickly shook his head. Yes, I miss them, but I would never choose friends over freedom. I’d rather be alone and free than in company and imprisoned.

Even if he always tried not to think about his past, he often observed himself doing it anyway. He often thought back to the day he had an argument with Twilight. It was the same day he had left her and Ponyville. It all started with her telling him how annoying his sarcastic attitude was getting. She had a point. Spike actually acted extremely sarcastic and unfriendly towards her and her five new friends. Spike then explained how she was practically enslaving him under her. In the heat of the moment, Twilight misunderstood his argument and got even angrier. At some point, she said something out of impulse that pushed Spike over the limit.

Spike left Twilight after this and wandered through the Everfree Forest. He was being chased by nearly every carnivore that lived in there and caught poisonings from about everything. After some time, he met Abdarul, and well, here he was now, running through the forest, searching for a flower that Abdarul wanted.

Suddenly, Spike stopped again. Wait, what am I looking for again? He put a claw up to his chin and hummed. After a while, he snapped with his fingers, a smirk on his mouth. Right! I need a Greg’s Herb. As far as I know, they grow on the trunks of dead trees. After a short while, his expression changed to discomfort. Oh… right. I totally forgot that dead trees can attract timberwolves.

Spike had a point. Timberwolves were known for eating wood of dead trees. Since timberwolves were part tree themselves, they could eat dead trees or other timberwolves in desperate situations. Of course, neither of those things had nearly as many nutrients as meat, but it was better than nothing. So Spike had to be terribly careful around dead trees. In comparison to living creatures, dead trees were oozing of decaying magical energy. While Timberwolves couldn’t sense the magical energy in unharmed animals, they could sense dead trees.

After a while of thinking, Spike let out a sigh and began to walk again. “I should just get this over with. The chances of actually meeting timberwolves are pretty slim. I still wonder how I managed to walk upon so many of them three years ago. Well, there is still the chance that somepony up there in the administration zone of this realm hates my guts. That would probably be the most plausible explanation.” Spike chuckled a little at his own joke.

Spike knew a lot of stuff. Back in his old home with Twilight, he hadn’t had many things to do, so he simply read nearly every book in the library. Well, what else can a dragon do when he was 24/7 in a library? He literally was 24/7 in there. In the morning, he had to make breakfast. In the day, he had to reshelve the whole library. In the evening, he needed to assist Twilight with studying. At night, he needed to sleep.

Spike continued walking down the path. Well, it wasn’t actually a path. It was more of a line without trees that wriggled itself through the forest. Pushing away some branches and bushes, he contemplated about the general outlook of his life. What am I even doing here? Living in a forest, learning shaman things? I’ve been living in here for the past three years, and I haven’t even begun to prepare myself for the search for my home.

Suddenly, the teenage dragon stopped walking, and his expression changed into a longing one. Home. Such an easy word. It is used by nearly everypo—bra. Do I even have something I could call home? No, I don’t think I have. Even if I’ve lived three years with Abdarul, I would never be able to call his shed home. It belongs to him, and I do not officially belong there.

He gives me work for every piece of food and for every night of sleep. Whenever I plan to sleep inside, he would give me a ton of work to do. Well, I have slept more than once outside in the forest in the last three years. With a sigh, he continued walking again. But even if he gives me a lot of things to do, he is still better than Twilight.

Spike’s face changed into a frown. At least, he does not force me to do those things. I could always choose to decline his requests. It would mean that I would sleep outside for that day, but he at least accepts it. On top of that, he is OK with haggling. Spike’s expression changed even more and now even looked a little aggressive.

Twilight always made me do everything she said. I never had the opportunity or right to refuse something. I was a slave. I could even go as far as to call this abuse. His breathing pattern changed to a deeper one and his jaw muscles clenched together. She doesn’t deserve to keep me with her. She doesn’t deserve my help. She doesn’t deserve my affection!

His steps changed from calm ones to loud and stomping ones. If I could meet her, I would tell her everything. I would go up to her, and I would tell her in her face that I do not love her. I would tell her how much I hate her. I would… Suddenly, Spike hammered his clenched fist into a tree, which vibrated for a short time. Then he just turned around and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree.

With a sigh, he put his head into his two claws. Who am I kidding? I went over this often enough. I still love her, and I know that. The only reason I am acting and feeling this way is because of her stupidity. Why couldn’t she see my pain? Why did it take my leave in order for her to realize this? Did she even realize it? Spike shook his head.

The fact that I have never received any letter from Princess Celestia or Twilight means that they probably don’t care. If they seriously wanted to find me, they would have sent me a letter. There wasn’t even one. This could only mean that they abandoned me. Spike the Dragon was not important anymore. He was never important. Even for Princess Celestia, I simply was a device to contact her student. When I left, they probably searched for something different that could be used to transport messages between the princess and Twilight.

Spike continued sitting there for a while. He thought about different things. How he lived; how the ponies have forsaken him; how his life was in general. After some time, he suddenly punched the trunk he was sitting on. “So what if they have abandoned me? So what if I lost my old life? I got a new life right here! I am getting bigger. I am getting stronger. The only thing I need to do is to find a new home.”

Spike stood up and took his staff in his claws. “There must be someplace I could fit in. Not here, but somewhere. A place with dragons like me. And if there isn’t such a place, then I will search for the next best thing. And by the raging fires of Tartarus, if that doesn’t even exist then I will make one!” Taking up his staff, he smashed it with full force against the trunk he was sitting on earlier.

The trunk made a loud cracking noise and split in two parts. It was an old and dead tree. More than one kind of mushroom was already growing on it, and it was no great feat in breaking the trunk. Yet, Spike was still surprised to see the now broken form. A smirk crossed over his face. “Yes, I can do it.”

Suddenly, his expression changed to discomfort, and he put a hand over his mouth. “By Celestia’s flying nipples, what is that smell?” Looking at the broken trunk, he spotted some kind of weed growing out of the bark on the inside. It had a red stem and purple leaves. With his hand still engulfing his nose, Spike gingerly went to his knees in order to get a better look at it.

He moved his other hand to the herb and picked it up. Looking closer at it, he spun it around in his claws and watched closely. Purple and red flower? Check. Grows around dead trees? He looked at the trunk of the dead tree. Check. Lovely and healthy smell? No, I don’t even want to check that. As if I wanted to smell the air right now. I’d probably lose quite a bit of body weight through my mouth.

Think I should just take it and get away from here. It smells like wet timberwolf here. Getting back on his legs, he turned around so he could walk back to Abdarul’s shed. Sadly, he never took even one step. In front of him was something he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Just before him were two wet timberwolves, looking at him through their yellow eyes.

Spike’s brain wasn’t acting like he had thought. He would have thought he would be shocked or scared, but no. Something entirely different went through his head. Something far more abstract. Wow, so that smell actually came from wet Timberwolves?

Seeing one of their twigs jerk, Spike instantly put the herb in the bag he was carrying and readied his staff in something that couldn’t even remotely be called a combat stance. Seriously, it looked more like he tried way too hard to look intimidating. His posture was wide open and he only held the staff in one of his hands.

His feelings quickly changed. Now he actually felt like he anticipated; shocked and scared. He rarely met timberwolves, and when he met them, then only together with Abdarul or from a safe distance. Or in strange conversations with doctors.

Spike quickly shook his head. This was no time for such thoughts. He needed to think of a solution for this problem. He knew exactly that he had poor cards if he would fight them. Yes, his breath could hurt them, but when he would shoot a breath at the first of them, the other one would attack him, and it would be over.

He could try to block the second attack, but then the first one would hit him. Timberwolves weren’t able to feel any pain, and fire would take quite a while in order for it to damage a timberwolf. It essentially has to burn until the wood was weak enough to collapse on itself. Running was also not an option since the wolves both stood between him and his way to Abdarul’s shed. Running in the wrong direction, especially while being chased by vicious plant-beast-monster-things, could make him get lost.

Intimidating them was also out of question, since Timberwolves were known for attacking nearly everything, even if it meant sure defeat. They were just that brave, or stupid. Screaming for help would be bad, since he was too far away from the shed and the trees would muffle the scream. On top of that, more predators could hear him. Great. What now?


It felt like something inside his spine slowly crept up and made every spike on his back stand up. His knees weren’t wobbly like imagined, but rather seemed like they anticipated being used; like they were ready to jump in any direction if needed. There seemed to be movement in the corner of his vision, and he quickly moved his eyes towards the area, only to realize that nothing moved at all. Of course, that didn’t even take half a second.

His main focus still lingered on the beasts in front of him. The beasts that stood between him and his survival. One of the legs of the timberwolves made a step forward and Spike violently jerked his staff upwards. He took it in both his hands and held it like he wanted to block a vertical sword slash from the front. The timberwolves also seemed to shudder for half a second. They had anticipated an attack. Slowly, they took another step and Spike didn’t move this time. The two wolves parted ways and both started to slowly circle the dragon.

Spike had a million things running through his head. The things all fused together to several different plans, every plan ending with failure on Spike’s side. What could he do? No matter what, he would lose either way. Oh, why didn’t Abdarul teach me how to fight? I wouldn’t have such a problem now. Spike’s gaze drifted to his right and left in quick succession.

Both timberwolves were still slowly circling him, and if this continued, one of them would get out of his field of vision, and that is the last thing Spike needed right now. An attack out of a blind spot would spell doom over him. He had to act quickly. There was no time for hesitation. With a quick jump, he bolted forward one meter and turned around to the wolves, only to see that the left one started charging at him.

Spike’s breath stopped in his throat, and for a seemingly eternal amount of time, he could only watch in shock at the charging timberwolf. Out of reflex, he held out his staff again, and the timberwolf tried to jump at him, but was blocked by the staff. Hanging over it, it tried to bite Spike, who now felt the true terror of panic. Pushing forward, he threw the timberwolf a slight bit away.

There was a silent rustle to his right, and he turned his head, just to jump back out of reflex. The second wolf landed on Spike’s old position. If he hadn’t jumped, he would be dead right now. The color seemed to drain out of Spike’s scales. His life could have been over right there. One misstep and he would never find his home. He would never get back to Abdarul. He could never tell Twilight how he felt.

Quickly he shook his head to regain his bearings, and he readied his staff again. It could have been over, but it wasn’t. He was still alive. Both wolves began to growl, and it didn’t take long until they both charged at him again. Feeling the cold grip of fear and potential death lingering upon him, Spike turned around, put his staff in his mouth, and sprinted away on all fours.

He was faster on four legs than on two. His staff was also important to carry along since this was the only thing that he could use in order to defend himself. He ran like never before in his life, never daring to look back. He heard them. They were hot on his tail, their steps being loud and audible in his ears. They were full on chasing him. Spike never looked back, never slowed down. He needed to get away.

Suddenly, there was a snap behind him that sounded like a violent bite from one of them, which was accompanied by a blast of wind besides his tail. One of them tried to bite it. Spike, feeling his sure death coming closer and closer to him, pulled his tail forward and sped up even more. The steps of the chasing timberwolves still seemed to be directly beside his ears. They just seemed so loud and close.

Suddenly, another timberwolf jumped out of the bushes from his right, bearing its fangs. Spike saw him and time seemed to stop. He was directly jumping at him. He was probably lurking inside the bush and waited for his turn to attack. There was no way for Spike to evade anymore. It was over. His whole journey. Just when he found new motivation to continue his search, he had to end it. It was impossible for him to evade the timberwolf. Goodbye.

THUNK

The head of the jumping wolf got thrown to the side, and Spike felt a massive tug on the staff in his mouth. Now he realized what happened. Since his staff was still in his mouth and he turned his head towards the new wolf, he turned the staff too. The wolf jumped at him but instead got hit by the staff. It was a lucky shot, but it still saved Spike’s life.

The amount of relief and shock Spike felt in this short amount of time was indescribable. He could continue. He could still search. He still had a chance to find his home. Suddenly, all the dread returned when he heard the frantic and aggressive steps from behind him. The other two wolves were still chasing him, and Spike instantly bolted forward again.

He had to survive! There was no way he was being stopped now! I will survive! he screamed in his mind and put even more strength in his legs. The fatigue built up further and further, and his legs were burning like the fires of Tartarus. His lungs were screaming at him and it felt like he was breathing razors. His whole body was on the border of self-destruction, but there was no time to stop; no time to rest; no time to die.

His legs throbbed with a strong pulse and began to slowly cramp together. Spike’s will to live was the strongest it had ever been, but his legs just wouldn’t listen to him. The borders of his physical body showed themselves. With every last bit of determination, he pushed himself closer and closer. There was no way he would give up now! He nearly outran them. He was on the way to Abdarul! He even survived the ambush of the third wolf.

His body slowed down further and further, and the chasing wolves came closer. No, it’s not over! It can’t be over! I still have so many things to do; so many things to live for. He felt the border. It was there. The restriction of his physical body. It stopped him from going faster. The wolves came closer, and everything seemed to be over. He slowly closed his eyes and turned his head downwards.

“No,” he said silently to himself. “I will not die.” His voice got louder. “I will not die!” he said again in a near shouting voice. He grinded his teeth and looked forward again. His slow and exhausted step changed to a strong and more powerful one. “I will not die!” he screamed with all his power and slammed his foot down on the ground.

When his foot impacted with the ground it felt like something broke in him and Spike let loose a cry like a beast. With unreal ferocity, he instantly bursted forwards, his speed being faster than ever before. He screamed like a mad monster while running like he put all of his soul and life into this sprint. His whole body burned and felt like it wanted to break at any moment, but that was not significant right now.

Just run. Just run. Just run. Just run, he continuously chanted to himself while running away from the timberwolves. Suddenly, a fourth wolf jumped out of the bush in front of him, and Spike narrowed his eyes. “Get outta” - with a jerk of his head, he rammed the head of his staff into the side of the head of the wolf - “my way!” Time seemed to stand still as the staff utterly broke apart just like the timberwolf’s head.

Spike felt the impact of this in his mouth and suddenly had a feeling like his teeth were pushed back into his gum. He instantly spat out the remains of the staff, which was accompanied by some blood, and continued running. The steps of the chasing timberwolves got quieter and quieter until he couldn’t hear them anymore, but Spike didn’t care. He didn’t even realize that he wasn’t chased anymore. He simply ran and ran.

He didn’t see anything around him. The only thought in his mind was screaming at him to run. Suddenly, Spike’s head perked up, and he looked back, while still running. Wait, what? They aren’t chasing me anymore? His expression slowly changed to a relieved grin, and he turned forward again.

Just to see a door not even one meter in front of him.

Fuck my life, was the last thing he thought before everything went black.

> Chapter 2: A Small Argument
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not many ponies walked through the forest, and not one of them would get the idea to start a life inside. Yet, there was a being, that lived there, that resembled a pony quite a bit. It was not a pony but a zebra. A zebra looks similar to an earth pony but has two crucial differences. Firstly, the coats of zebras were not single colored, but consisted of two different colors, creating a stripe pattern. The most common color scheme for a zebra was black and white. Secondly, they were a whole new species due to them having different ancestors than earth ponies. They looked similar, but they were different.

This peculiar male zebra had lived in that forest for quite a time now. He had, like many other zebras, white and black stripes. His striped coat was adorned by many accessories, like golden earrings, hoof rings, clamps, and a strange crest in his mane. His mane was also black and white and was pretty long. It went down the left and right side of his face, extending a little bit over his head.

He currently sat inside his shed, which was in the middle of the Everfree Forest. The shed consisted of wood from the trees of the forest and looked like a typical shed. While he sat in there, he looked intensely at a flower in front of him. The flower grew out of a pretty sizeable pot and looked exotic. Its stem was purple, and its leaves were red with green dots. This coloring would let the plant seem strange at most, but the part that made this plant truly exotic were the yellow sharp teeth it had on its petals. 

The sharpness and durability of those teeth could only be rivaled by teeth of the strongest carnivores of the forest, yet this small plant had them too. There was only one reason why a plant would grow such teeth. This plant obviously ate meat, and judging by the strength of those teeth, it could eat bigger things than just insects. 

The zebra called Abdarul looked intently at the plant. “It seems like it’s ready,” he told himself silently. Looking to his right, he saw the stick and the sack he had readied before going to the plant. The stick was pretty thin and long while the sack had some sticky substance in it. Abdarul took hold of the stick with one of his hooves and dipped it into the substance of the sack. After he had encased the front of the stick with enough sticky fluid, he took it out again.

With intense eyes, he looked at the plant in front of him again. “Alright, let’s get this over with,” he muttered to himself and moved the stick closer to the plant, but suddenly stopped. Quickly raising his second front hoof, he did something fascinating with it. He face hoofed. Shaking his head for a short amount of time, he sighed. “I already talk like him.” He moved his head towards one of the windows. “Maybe it’s time for me to throw him out.” Then he began so smirk. “That little guy is growing on me. We can’t have that.”

With a little shake, he looked at the plant again. “Well, time to get those seeds out of there.” Carefully, he moved the stick towards the core of the plant. He knew exactly how dangerous that flower was, and he also knew how it worked. Just like nearly every other flower, this one had no peripheral sense organ but reacted to its world by a sense of touch. Whenever an animal, insect, or whatever touched one of its leaves, it instantly slammed them together with a never seen ferocity and kept them closed until it finished digesting its prey. Depending on the prey, a full digestion could take up to anything between five hours and two weeks. 

It was a given that Abdarul acted unusually carefully around this plant. Even though, it was not large enough to eat him, it would still be able to bite off a sizeable chunk of his hoof if he was not careful. Also, if it snaps down and nothing is in it, it still would take at least half an hour for it to open again. Of course, he could always kill it and get the core of the plant from the corpse, but then he could only get one. The core itself has no sensors, and with a stick and some sticky fluid, he could touch it and get some of the vital seeds he needed. If he successfully got them, it would only take some days for the plant to grow additional ones. 

This was not the first time he did this, so he was quite used to the procedure. Yet, he still did not let go of his carefulness. One mistake and he would be in a hell of pain. Nonetheless, he moved his stick towards the core and nearly had it. Only a little more.

DUNK

Something heavy hit his door and shook the entire hut. Abdarul jumped a little and felt his muscles tense. As if this shock was not enough already, he also touched one of the petals of the plant. A Bad mistake. The plant instantly bit down and broke the stick into nothing more than chips and also gave the hoof of Abdarul a good shaving. Abdarul, who on top of the slam on his door heard the snap of the plant, instantly felt his hairs standing and tensed up. 

Not daring to look at the plant, he firstly gulped and shut his eyes. After a short while, he turned one of his eyes at the plant and saw that a small spot on the front part of his hoof was devoid of hair. He luckily did not see any blood. With a mighty sigh, he calmed himself and swished with one of his hooves over his forehead. “For a short time I thought that I needed to stitch my own hoof back on,” he muttered to himself in relief.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked at the door. With a lifted eyebrow, he slowly walked to it. “Wonder what hit my door that hard that it rattled my whole shed.” Both of his eyebrows lowered again, and he now had a frown plastered over his face. “I bet it’s the fault of that good-for-nothing dragon kid again,” he grumbled while walking to the door. Not long after, he touched the door and wanted to open it. Sadly, the door had other plans.

In a humongous display of irony, the door fell outwards and down on something that lay before it. A painful “oomph” sounded from outside the hut, and Abdarul lifted an eyebrow again. Walking closer to the now on top of an unknown thing lying door, he lowered his head and looked on the thing the door was lying on. There he saw a familiar dragon. With a roll of his eyes, he lifted himself up again, shook his head and turned away from the unconscious dragon beneath the door. “Bucking flankhole nearly got my hoof severed,” he grumbled to himself and walked into his shed again, ignoring the dragon on the ground.

With a sigh, he looked around his now dirty hut. “Well would you look at that. Just cleaned this mess up, and that idiot managed to make all this stuff dirty again. Think that’s a new record.” Annoyance and anger filled the tone in which he murmured this. Muttering several insults to himself, he began to clean his hut, again. 

It took him some hours, but he managed to make his hut clean again. Spike still lay under the fallen door, and Abdarul sighed again when he saw his clean home again. Rubbing some dirt out of his coat, he turned to the fallen door again and sighed. “Well, only one more thing to do.” With an annoyed expression, he walked over to the fallen door with the unconscious dragon beneath it. Stopping in front of the body of the dragon and the door, he took hold of the door and lifted it up.

With a mighty act of strength, he repaired it and put it back on its place in the doorframe. There were some complications in hinging the door again by himself, but he could manage. After he had finished, he stepped back, admired his work, and wiped over his forehead. “Well, seems like we’re finally done,” he told himself in a proud voice. After this, he opened the door, walked through it, and made himself some tea in his hut. The unconscious body of Spike still lay outside in front of the now working door…


Spike was not quite sure how he felt. Of course, nopony immediately knew how they felt after they woke up after an undefined amount of time of sleeping on the ground. As Spike slowly regained consciousness, he felt immense pain coursing through his body. The front of his body felt as if it smashed into something hard… twice.  

Spike wanted to say something, but instead started coughing uncontrollably. Damn, why does this hurt that much? Slowly, Spike tried to sit up, only to let himself fall back down on his back. With a groan, he flopped over and now lay on his belly. Just like three years ago when I fell down that tree after I stupidly stepped on my own tail. I still can’t believe the stupidity I have shown on that peculiar day.

He let out a sigh and just continued laying on his belly. Occasionally he lifted his head and looked around the forest in order to get a feeling for where he currently was. “Looks like forest,” he told himself in a voice that sounded more like a groan than something that can speak in actual sentences. After some more moments of examining his surroundings, he slowly began to realize that they looked kind of familiar to him. With a mighty act of strength, he looked over his shoulder and saw the shed behind him.

“Well, that explains the familiar looking surroundings,” Spike silently whispered to himself, not daring to speak any louder due to the danger of another coughing fit taking hold of his lungs. He tried to stand up again, but failed due to his arms also hurting quite a bit. He tried it another time but failed again. With an exasperated groan, he made his two hands into fists and punched the ground with them, thus giving himself a boost of motivation. “As if a little pain would stop me.”

With another groan, he slowly lifted himself up with his arms and pushed himself a little bit backwards, so he now kneeled on the floor. Letting his hands hang from his side, he took some deep breaths and calmed himself down again. “Well, we made it this far, so the rest shouldn’t be a problem either.” Taking one last deep breath, he lifted his right leg up and stomped down on the floor before him. Instantly, he felt a strange sensation in that leg. 

It felt like there was a large sack of salt in it and felt an unbearable tickling sensation. Gritting his teeth together, he deeply inhaled without parting them and punched his leg a little bit. After some moments, his leg woke up again, and the sensations disappeared. “I hate it when my limbs fall asleep.” Pushing himself upwards with said leg, he put pressure on the second one and felt that it also fell asleep. After some uncomfortable moments, he also managed to wake up that one and finally stood fully upright in front of the shed.

Feeling a short sting of pain in his abdomen, he put his right hand over it and rubbed over it. “Stupid pain. Why do I even feel that shit?” With a groan, he walked to the shed and stopped before it. With two claws from his right hand, he pinched his nose and sighed. “Why did I run into that door?” He asked himself, but just as expected, he did not receive an answer. Raising his hand, he knocked three short times at the door and then opened it. 

Inside the hut, he saw Abdarul standing in front of a table, mixing potions. When Spike saw him, he frowned. With a little more power than normally in his step, he walked up to the zebra and stopped behind him.

“Glad that you woke up,” Abdarul said, not turning his head to the dragon that now stood behind him. “An unconscious body in front of my hut could have lured some predators in here.” Putting one of his flasks down he continued, “it would have been a bother to scare them away again.” Abdarul now fully turned around and looked at Spike, a gigantic smirk plastered over his face.

Spike’s jaw clenched shut, and he narrowed his eyes at the zebra. For some time, he seriously considered hitting the zebra in front of him, but there were two aspects that spoke against this. Firstly, he was not a guy that hit ponies or zebras just because of some witty comment. Secondly, he would get his ass kicked by that zebra. It was just not worth it. So instead, he simply continued looking at the zebra with a hateful gaze that could drill holes into stone.

The zebra did not care in the slightest, or just managed to suppress his reaction perfectly. He just continued to smirk at the dragon with his cocky grin. Spike could practically feel the heat of his anger and heat boiling inside of him. Why that cocky, condescending, arrogant, smug, dirty, prime example of a prick!

“What happened? Why don’t you answer? Timberwolf got your tongue?” Abdarul asked with his quite typical smug tone. 

One day! One day I will make you eat your own words! Spike still did not answer the smug zebra and continued trying to drill holes into Abdarul’s eyes with his gaze. After some more seconds, he finally opened his mouth. “Why did you let me lay unconsciously outside your hut?” He asked with a serious and angry voice. 

Abdarul’s expression quickly changed to an overly done bewildered one. “Oh, you were in front of my hut? I didn’t see you there,” he told him with a voice that apparently bathed in sarcasm.

Spike’s left eye twitched due to the anger inside his soul reaching new heights. He clenched his hands into fists and subconsciously made all his muscles tense. He hadn’t been this angry in months, but he still knew that there was no sense in trying to hit this zebra. With a snort, he turned around and walked towards the other side of the hut to a makeshift bed. 

“And good work in finding that flower. Haven’t actually thought you were able to find one,” Abdarul shouted at him from behind. Instantly, Spike stopped. That flankhole looted my unconscious body! That was too much. His anger exploded, and he turned around. With a scream, he charged at the zebra, hate and anger filling his eyes. Spike quickly was at his side and took a swing at his head.

Abdarul simply jumped upwards over the arm of Spike and pushed himself away from the arm, which was now beneath him. In no time at all, he was now behind Spike. Spike realizing that he could not see Abdarul anymore, quickly turned around to the zebra, just to see that the zebra comfortably walked away from him, back facing him. Spike felt the anger inside him as it reached new heights and charged again at him. How dare he turn his back at him like this?

The Zebra simply rolled his eyes when he heard Spike charging at him with another shout. Abdarul could easily predict what the dragon would do, even without looking at him. This was not the first time he managed to anger Spike like this, and he always attacked the same way. A charge with a wide swing from his right hand. 

Abdarul had no means of seeing or feeling Spike while he was behind him. This was none of those ninja pony comics that the young ones read these days. Yet, without hesitation he simply turned to his left and took some quick steps. Behind him, he heard the swing that missed him, and he had to roll his eyes again. How can he fall for the same thing every time?

Spike was mad. He just tried to punch that zebra, but it simply sidestepped his swing without even looking at it. How did he do that? Does he have eyes on the back of his head? Narrowing his eyes at the zebra, he jumped forwards again and tried to take another swing, and this time, the zebra did not evade to the side. 

Instead, Abdarul simply ducked under the swing that was obvious to come. While he was under Spike’s missing swing, he simply moved his left back leg a little to Spike’s left leg and made him stumble like this. 

Spike was running too fast, and when he tripped over that hoof of Abdarul, he could not save himself anymore. He lost his footing and practically flew over Abdarul. Looking to where he flew towards, he saw the wall and put his hands in front of him. With a mighty "THUMP", he hit the wall, and a similar sound followed after he hit the floor.

Abdarul did not even look at him and let out a sigh. When he heard Spike getting on his feet again, he told him something. “You know, young dragon. I told you this multiple times already, and you still don’t seem to get it. Feelings of anger only cloud your judgment and dull your movements.” 

Abdarul turned around to Spike and looked at the dragon who now rubbed his arms because of the pain that was coursing through them. “You always attack with a wide swing from your right. I didn’t even need to look at you to know how you would attack,” Abdarul told Spike, and for the first time of that day, Abdarul sounded sincerely annoyed. Slowly, he walked closer to Spike who now looked at Abdarul with unsure eyes.

“Do you honestly think that you will survive out there if you do not know how to defend yourself?” He asked but did not give Spike any time to answer. “You told me of your plans, and by the sound of it you do not plan to stay inside Equestria.” Spike now had time to answer, but he didn’t. He just did not know what to say. Abdarul was inching closer and closer.

“Do you even know ANYTHING about the world outside of Equestria?” Abdarul nearly shouted, and Spike flinched a little at the sudden loudness of his voice. He did not know what to do. He never saw Abdarul this angry before. Why was he this angry?

“I have trained you three years! Three full years! I gave you knowledge about a flank full of herbs, trees, plants, and animals. I even gave you some hints for combat, and look what you have actually learned!” Abdarul pointed with one of his hooves to the old position of Spike. “You learned nothing! I tried to teach you enough things so you could survive on your own, without anybra keeping your small hand!”

“I thought you might be able to learn enough about herbs in two weeks and enough about fighting in six months, but look at how long you have been living here already!” Abdarul was now pointing at Spike and his voice got even louder and angrier than before. “Three warden-damned years! You already learned under me for three years, and regarding your capability in self-defense, you would need an additional nine years to get to the point where I can let you go without constantly thinking that you will get killed by the next chicken that crosses your path!”

Abdarul was now breathing heavily, and for the first time in three years, there was real anger in his voice. “I can’t comb with my conscience if I send a young dragon at the world that can’t even defend himself against some lousy timberwolves! The world outside Equestria is more dangerous than the Everfree Forest. There exist monsters that would make an Ursa Major cry out in fear.”

Abdarul shook his head. “While you would have no problem going through Equestria, I can’t let you leave just yet. I doubt that you would find a pony capable to train you on your journey before you leave Equestria. And when that happens, you will be in a huge amount of trouble! While the griffon lands are still passable for ponies, the minotaur lands are already way too dangerous, and that is not even the end. There are even worse lands beyond that you don’t hear off in Equestria because there is no sense in going to a land that will surely end your life!” Abdarul took a massive breath and let out a long sigh. 

Spike only looked at him in shock. He never received such a talking in his life. The pure amount of unfiltered information overwhelmed him. He knew that his journey would not be easy, but he didn’t anticipate it to be that hard. Also, was he actually that inept in learning how to fight? He thought back to the moment where Abdarul exactly told him how he would attack and realized that he was right. Spike sucked in combat. Is this true? Is this journey honestly this dangerous? Should I even consider going now?

Abdarul put his hoof to his face and sighed again. Then he slowly moved his hoof on Spike’s shoulder and looked at him. “Sorry for that. I don’t know what came over me.”

Spike simply looked at the zebra with a mixture of hurt, guilt, and sadness. His anger had entirely evaporated minutes ago, and he started to realize one after another that Abdarul was right in everything he said. Spike put his claw over the hoof of Abdarul and also sighed. “It’s okay. I understand that.” Slowly, his expression changed to a sad smile. “I really do suck at fighting, don’t I?”

Abdarul also smiled slightly now. “Well, I can’t say that you are fit for it, but I think if we put a little bit more work into it, we might be able to get you ready in some time.” He looked into Spike eyes with a smile and Spike answered with his own. He never met anypony like Abdarul. He was the first being he ever met that he liked. 

Suddenly, there was an extremely loud sound, like something heavy hit the shed. Both jumped back in fright, and the hut shook for a little time. Both of them looked around the hut and searched for any kind of damage. They didn’t find any. “What was that?” Spike asked with a nervous voice. 

Abdarul giggled a little bit nervously. “That sounded nearly the same as you running against my door,” Abdarul stated, and Spike frowned at this. 

Spike looked at Abdarul with a deadpan look. “Haha,” he flatly stated, and Abdarul reacted with an honest eyebrow raise.

“No, I really mean it. It honestly sounded the same.” 

Now it was Spike’s time to raise an eyebrow. He turned his head towards the door. “Well, then I think we should look for what crashed against your home, shouldn’t we?” Spike asked and started walking towards the door. 

Abdarul looked at Spike strangely and followed him. What would be so stupid as to run against a big hut inside a forest? By the sound of the impact, it likely was quite sizeable, with the size of something as weighty as a manticore, or it impacted with incredible speed. Both instances were not exactly likely. A big creature would be heard way before it hit the hut, and something fast would likely hit some trees before it would come to the hut. The whole situation just seemed senseless.

Spike opened the door and peeked out. He did not see anything out of the ordinary. He then fully stepped outside and started to circle the hut. After some steps, he saw something lying on the ground beside the hut. Spike narrowed his eyes at the thing and tried to guess what it was.

It was a body. It had a purple coat, and it seemed to be lying on the floor without moving. A slight bit of broken wood was three meters over it on the shed. That was probably the spot it hit. Judging by the size of the thing, it did not weigh more than Spike. In order for that small thing to create such a loud noise, it must have been pretty damn fast. Spike walked closer, and he saw something that showed him what this thing was and how it was able to generate such velocity.

Wings. This purple coated animal had wings. Judging by the size and form of the wings, this was a pegasus. When he walked even closer, he could see the face of the pony. The pony was male, and he had a spiky black and blue mane. The color of his mane looked similar to Shining Armor’s and the color of his coat similar to Twilight’s. He essentially looked like a combination of those two, just with wings instead of a horn.

Spike looked closer at him and saw that he was badly injured. Not badly as in “he just ran head first into a wall”, but badly as in “he had a serious crash and could very possibly die in the near future”. Spike instantly turned to his side and saw Abdarul walking around the corner. “This pegasus here is badly injured. He needs help immediately!” Spike shouted and at this, Abdaruls eyes changed from surprised to serious. Not wasting a second, he galloped over to the pegasus and Spike.

Spike learned a lot about medicine and herbs from Abdarul. That was one of the positives about him living with him for such a long time. Spike pointed with one of his claws at the bloody muzzle of the pegasus. “He has a broken muzzle and can only breathe with difficulty.” He then moved his claw to the chest. “I can also see several broken ribs.” Claw to the wings. “Both his wings are broken pretty badly.” Then Spike made a short pause. “But the thing surprising me the most, is the fact that he has multiple heavy burns all across his body.”

Abdarul nodded. “We need to help him. Run into the house and get me some Greg’s Herb, Waternilli, Savariah, Branzel Flower, Timber Blood Essence, water, and towels. I will carry him inside,” Abdarul ordered, and Spike nodded. Quickly turning around, Spike dashed into the hut. Grabbing the corner of the door, he pushed himself through it and looked at the bed of the hut.

“Hurry up and get the plants!” Abdarul shouted from beside the bed where the pegasus lay. Spike turned to the door and then back to Abdarul and the pegasus.

Dafuck?

> Chapter 3: Operating the Injured Pegasus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dafuck? How did he? Spike looked to the door he just went through and then back to the zebra and the pegasus lying in the bed. What… how… why… Spike’s brain decided to take a timeout at this point. Instead of trying to comprehend what he just witnessed, it simply leaned itself back and thought fuck it. 

Abdarul was looking at Spike with urgency shining from his eyes. “What are you waiting for? He is dying!” Shouted Abdarul and that got Spike out of his entranced state. Quickly shaking his head, he put a determined expression on his face and nodded once. Still remembering all of the things he had to get, he sprinted over to a big shelf that adorned one of the walls. Spike quickly grabbed all the things he needed without hesitation and ran over to Abdarul. 

“Sorry this took so long,” Spike apologized. 

Abdarul didn’t pay him any attention and just nodded his head while taking one of the herbs Spike brought. To be more specific, he took the Greg’s Herb that Spike brought in earlier when he “knocked” at the door. 

“Listen here Spike,” Abdarul shouted and Spike looked at him, nervousness in his eyes. While he had some knowledge about medicine, which he got from books and Abdarul, Spike never had to work on a patient in critical condition. Tartarus, he didn’t even had to work on a patient in normal condition. 

“Spike!” Abdarul shouted again, and Spike had the same reaction. “You need to listen to me!” Spike’s eyes still looked unfocused. Abdarul’s expression changed to annoyed, and an unseen power began to move Spike’s head downwards, so he now looked directly into Abdarul’s eyes. “You will listen to me! NOW!”

There was something in his voice. Something that gave Spike the need to comply with what he said. With all of his concentration, he listened to the zebra. 

Abdarul who saw that he finally had the full attention of the dragon continued to talk. “You can’t panic now. If we want to save this pony, you need to do exactly what I tell you. I am showing you here a tremendous amount of trust by allowing you to help me, and I hope you will not fail me. Just do whatever I tell you and we will get through this, understood?” Abdarul asked with a serious and urgent voice.

Spike looked deep into his eyes and felt slightly at ease. Abdarul seemed to know what he was doing, and Spike calmed down due to Abdarul’s confident attitude. Changing his expression into a determined one, he nodded to him. “Alright, I’ll do it. What’s first?”

Abdarul smirked a little at Spike’s motivation but quickly looked back to the injured pegasus. “Alright, give me something of the Waternilli.” Abdarul gestured to the blue herb.

Spike complied and handed him some of the Waternillis. Abdarul took them and put them over the burns on the shoulders of the pegasus. When the leaves of the herb touched the burns, the unconscious pegasus lightly groaned, but the two already knew why. Waternilli was a herb that defended itself against herbivores by emitting a considerate stream of a horribly tasting liquid. This liquid was mostly water but had some few other things in it. One of those was an element that acted as a bridge or boost in absorbing. 

When the leaves touched the pegasus shoulder, they gave off their water, and it instantly got sucked into the skin. Due to the speed of which it was absorbed, the sweat pore’s that absorbed it got stretched a little and that made him feel pain. Yet, this treatment could be called a miracle treatment for burns, since it goes into the burned area and with its healing abilities washed over the flesh and cleans it off dirt or other things that may have gotten into there.

“Alright, the Waternilli seemed to have done a marvelous job. Now give me some of that Savariah.” Spike quickly gave him said plant, which looked like a dehydrated white flower. Abdarul took the flower and held it over a small glass with water in it. He then grinded his hooves together with the flower in-between, and the flower fell into the water, where he then stirred a little. 

After he had finished stirring, he lifted the glass up and held it over the burn marks. His expression changed to a mixture of discomfort and pity. Sadly, he couldn’t put that on a rug and wash over the burns. The textile of the rug would damage the mixture, so he had to let it drop on the burn marks. This mixture severed the connection of the healthy tissue with the burnt and dead tissue. 

Abdarul knew this and also knew that this would hurt his patient, A LOT! But it was needed. When the dead tissue washes away, he can see how badly the patient actually is injured. If the burns only reached over the first two skin layers, then the patient could grow his skin back without a problem, but if it also reached the lowest skin layer, then there was no way for skin to grow there naturally.

“You might want to prepare yourself for a lot of screaming, young dragon,” Abdarul noted slowly. Spike already knew what the herb was doing and also knew that it would probably hurt him. Normally, anyone going through this would make him feel pity, but Spike had an unpleasant past with ponies. All the actions from Twilight and her friends created some small grudge against anything pony related. He knew that holding a grudge against a whole race because of some sole individuals was senseless, but one can’t easily control their emotions.

Abdarul knew that he shouldn’t put small amounts of the potion on the burns, but rather all of it. The pain shouldn’t last that long. It was generally considered that a strong amount of pain for a short amount of time was better than smaller pain over a long interval. With a deep breath, he tilted the glass and all of the potion poured over the burns. It didn’t take long for the pegasus to start groaning. For some minutes long, he groaned but never screamed. Abdarul was quite surprised because he never met any patient that didn’t scream at that treatment. “Judging by the way how he handles the pain and by his physique, he probably is a warrior,” Abdarul noted, and Spike quirked an eyebrow at that.

A warrior? He looked down at the groaning pegasus, but saw something that made his gut twist. The burns, they were far more severe than he had imagined. Not only were immense patches of all of his skin completely washing away, but also some flesh under this. It didn’t take long for some blood to flow and Spike had to hold back an urge to puke. He thought he were able to keep his composure when he ever had to work on a bloody patient, but this was different from what he imagined. His gut slowly twisted, and a massive expression of discomfort was adorning his face.

“Try not to imagine yourself in the shoes of your patient. It helps fight the unpleasant feeling in your gut,” Abdarul told Spike. “To feel like this when you see a bloody patient is absolutely normal, on the first time. Just remember to not run away and always keep in mind that you are standing between life and death of the patient. If you hesitate in your treatment because of those feelings, the patient can die. Ending a life because you feel disgusted is nothing short of monstrous. Keep that in mind.”

Spike absorbed every word that Abdarul spoke like a sponge. Of course, everything that he said was correct, but he still couldn’t control the feeling. But he could compose himself to continue.

“Spike, go to his wings and set the broken bones straight again. I think after three years, you are more than capable of doing this. Just remember, do it fast and don’t hesitate. He will feel pain from that, but the pain would be worse if you would use too less strength and would only ground the bones together.”

Spike quickly moved himself to the other side of the pegasus and looked at the wings. Gulping once, he felt along his left wing and tried pressing at some spots. Suddenly, he felt the bone shifting under his claw and the pegasus groaned. Spike instantly felt a tinge of guilt when the pegasus groaned. With a heavy heart, he lightly touched the spot again and felt that the bone was a little bit misplaced. It felt like his heart shivered for a short time when he realized that he had to re-set the bone.

Taking the healthy part of the wing in his right hand, and the broken one in his left, he inhaled deeply a few times and then quickly snapped them together. The pegasus let a loud groan escape but calmed down quickly. Wow, he really knows how to deal with pain, Spike thought while feeling impressed by the pegasus’ control.

Spike quickly shook his head. He was getting sidetracked again. Taking a stick from a shelf in the shed, he put it on the wing and fixed it with some bandages. He touched the wing some times and saw that it didn’t budge. With a sigh, he realized that he had finished this wing. He couldn’t suppress a feeling of accomplishment. He just made his first “operation” on a patient without any problems. Suddenly, he shook his head again. No time for celebration. There is still a second wing to go.

He gently lifted the bandaged wing up and draped it over the body of the pegasus and looked at the second wing. Quickly, a gasp escaped him. This wing was broken too, but this time, it was quite obvious where the break was. Somewhere near the base of the wing, the broken bone punctured the skin and could be seen with bare eyes. Spike’s gut instantly twisted, and he averted his gaze. After a while, he looked back at the bone and felt his heart pump faster while he continuously started to feel dizzier. His gaze was fully locked on the piece of bone, and his breathing began to go flat. Suddenly, he averted his gaze again and looked back at Abdarul.

“The second wing has a punctured bone. I am not sure if I can re-set that.”

Abdarul looked up from what he was doing at the belly of the pegasus. “I am currently removing some broken pieces of wood that got into his body when he crashed through some trees. I don’t have time to re-set the bone back there. Treating a punctured bone is not different from treating a regular break. The only difference, is that you should clean the wound, re-set the bone, clean it again, and then treat the wound.”

Spike let out a nervous sigh and looked at the bone again. Alright… here goes. He moved his claw to the bone and lightly touched it. Taking a little bit of Branzel Flower, he rubbed it on a wet towel and lightly washed over the bone and the surrounding area. The Pegasus groaned silently, but Spike touched it very gently to lessen the pain. 

When he was finished, he put the towel back to its appropriate place. He looked back at the bone and gulped. Now the hard part came. Looking closer at how he should do it, he saw that not the broken bone punctured the skin, but the part that was still attached to the main body. Apparently, the weight of the broken bone caused the skin to lay on the broken piece of bone that was still attached to the main body. 

As it seems, I first need to put the muscles and skin over both bones and then re-set the bone like the first one. He grabbed the broken wing in his left hand and pulled it a little away from the main body. The pegasus again groaned in pain and Spike felt the guilt wash over him, but he didn’t stop. He needed to end this. Stretching the wing further, he heard the pegasus getting louder. When he had the wing fully stretched, he moved it a little upwards, so the bones aligned correctly. 

With his other hand, he touched the damaged tissue and moved it over the broken pieces of bone and simultaneously re-set the bone. While every other pony would have screamed out of pain, the pegasus was still only groaning, and Spike was thankful for that. He quickly grabbed the towel again and washed the wound thoroughly. An infection would be the worst thing right now. Holding the re-aligned wing in his left hand, he reached for another stick and some bandages with his other one and bandaged the second wing like the first one. When he was finished, he let the treated wing lay on the floor and also put the first wing there.

Sighing once out of relief, he washed with his right arm over his fore-head as if he were cleaning it of sweat. Dragons don’t sweat and Spike knew that, but it was a gesture that Twilight used pretty often. Since she was his only role-model, he subconsciously copied it, and did it whenever he felt some stress relief. “I am finished back here. What should I do now?” Spike asked.

Abdarul was still operating at the front, but Spike couldn’t exactly see what he was doing. He was thankful for that. Without looking away from what Abdarul was doing, he answered. “Good work. I already aligned the other broken bones, and I am still getting all those splinters out of his abdomen. I think there is nothing more you can do.” Abdarul then turned his head to the burned shoulder and noticed that it was severely damaged. “Seems like I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

“Could you get me some plants, please?” Abdarul requested and Spike nodded while walking over to the shelf. “I need a Tackle Shroom,” Spike went over the shelf and took some yellow mushroom. “Some Martyr’s Crown,” Spike took the brown herb with a rough surface. “A little bit of Penpar,” Spike took something that looked like red wheat. “And one petal from the Nightly Chaos Plant.”

Spike’s eyes widened, and he looked at Abdarul who was still operating. Nightly Chaos Plant. This was a plant that Abdarul told him to never use under any circumstance. He even refused to tell Spike what it does and told him multiple times to never touch it, and now he wanted him to take a petal from it? Spike hesitated naturally but complied with his order. He reached with his right arm all the way to the top right section of the shelf and carefully retrieved a black flower that was so dark that a starless night sky seemed like snow in comparison to this flower. 

“Don’t expose yourself to that flower for too long. Just rip out a petal and bring it over,” Abdarul shouted from the side of the unconscious pegasus. Spike quickly complied and pulled a petal out. Taking the petal and all the other plants, he walked over to Abdarul and laid them beside him. “Thank you, and now please leave the house. I don’t want you to witness what will happen in here. This might be too much for you to handle right now,” he ordered.

Spike hesitated at first. He wanted to help, but he also knew that Abdarul would not relent. When he said something in that tone, then there was no point in arguing with him. With a sigh, he turned around and headed to the door. “Alright. I’ll wait outside.” 

Just when he reached the door, he heard Abdarul say something. “One last thing. Don’t come in here no matter what you hear. Don’t open the door until I explicitly tell you to, understood?” 

Spike nodded and walked outside. Closing the door behind him, he looked to his left at a cheap bench. He had to suppress a smile when he saw it. He built that bench because all the times Abdarul let him wait outside for something, he was bored and simply started to occupy himself, and began to create a bench out of a tree-trunk.

He walked over to the bench, but just when he wanted to sit down, he remembered his walking staff he always carried with him. Since he had nothing better to do, he walked over to the place where he hit the timberwolf with it. 

It took him some time, but he arrived at the spot, just to realize that his staff was broken. Kneeling down, he took the broken pieces. Sighing once, he walked back to his bench where he sat down. He put the broken pieces beside him and simply looked at the forest before him. What am I doing here? I’ve been living inside this forest for three years now. I have been learning medicine and a little bit of combat. Tartarus, I even helped to cure some pegasus I don’t know.

He turned his gaze downwards and inspected his claws. “This isn’t me. I am no doctor. I am no forest shaman. I want to be something different, so what am I doing here?” Spike sighed and took a long broken piece of wood and put it in his mouth, like Big Macintosh always did with his wheat stalk. Abdarul said my journey would be dangerous, but isn’t that what I wanted? Isn’t that what I have always dreamed off? Traveling the world, fighting bad guys.

Suddenly, he remembered his panic and what he felt during the chase he had earlier with the timberwolves. But fantasy is so much different than reality. I was scared for my life while running away from the timberwolves. I felt the fear. I felt that this was wrong. Reality is nothing like fantasy. Heroes only exist in stories and books. Yes, there are some adventurers that travel the world, but they don’t go further than the gryphon kingdoms and simply live every day of their lifes on the road.

He shook his head slowly while he leaned himself back. This is not what I want. I don’t want to simply see everything in Equestria and the Griffon Lands. I want to see the unexplored. I want to see things nobra or pony has ever seen before. Abdarul said he would only let me go on my journey when he thinks I can defend myself. Maybe this is better like this. Maybe I should learn how to properly fight first.

Spike groaned once. But if this continues this will take forever. With another sigh, he turned his gaze towards one of the broken pieces of his staff. It was around 70 centimeters long and had a considerable width. Spike didn’t know how long he had to wait, but from his experience he knew that it would be long. With a smirk, he began to scratch…


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


Spike held the result of his scratching in front of him. A wooden sword. It was kind of pointless to create a wooden sword for him since he had dragon claws. Yet, he didn’t make it for using it, but only to kill some time. Looking it over, he felt proud of his achievement. He didn’t know how long it took him, but he assumed about two or three hours passed. Laying the sword to the side, he turned his head towards the door.

He still isn’t finished? What is he doing in there? Suddenly, Spike’s ears perked up. There was a faint sound. If the forest weren’t so deathly quiet, he probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Looking around, he tried to find the source of said sound. Slowly, he realized that the sound came from the shed. 

Spike jumped up from his bench and walked over to the door. When he arrived, he put his head on the door. Yes, the sound was unmistakably coming from inside the shed. It sounded like the pegasus was groaning again. Suddenly, there was a sound like a storm went on in the room. It sounded as if a strong wind went through the leaves of some trees. 

“AAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

Spike instantly jumped back from the door. He had never heard a pony scream that loudly before. Judging by the fact that the pegasus was only groaning lightly when Spike re-set the bone in his wing, he had to feel a tremendous amount of pain right now.

Suddenly, also the sound of the “storm” got tremendously louder. It sounded like all the things in the shed were violently flying around. Spike didn’t know what was happening. What is Abdarul doing in there? Spike just wanted to grab the handle of the door, but stopped himself. Wait! He told me that I should not under any circumstance go in there unless he specifically told me to. With a nervous look he turned from the door and began to walk around a little bit. He didn’t wander off to anywhere, but only aimlessly walked around in front of the door. The constant screaming made him feel too nervous, and he couldn’t possibly calmly sit around while this happened.

It took some time, but after approximately three minutes, the screaming and the sounds of the storm inside the house slowly got weaker until they finally vanished. Spike stopped walking and motionlessly looked at the door. He waited for any sound to come from the door, but there was none. Slowly, he walked towards the door, but before he could grab the handle, it turned and the door opened.

“I’m finished in here. You can come inside again,” Abdarul muttered with a voice that made him sound like he hadn’t slept for days. Spike looked closer at Abdarul and saw that there were some bags under his eyes. Suddenly, Spike noticed something on Abdarul that made him raise an eyebrow.

“Did you lose weight?” He asked, and Abdarul slowly turned around to him and looked at him with tired eyes. 

“No, I just seem thinner because of the stress,” he tiredly explained. Spike didn’t believe one thing Abdarul said. He could see the hip-bone of the zebra when he walked. Also, he didn’t have a healthy tummy anymore, but it seemed smaller than his chest now. What happened in here?

Spike decided to just ignore Abdarul’s lie for now and looked around the room. Yep, the shed was an absolute mess. 

“Clean up this mess and I think you have earned yourself another night in my house.”

Spike looked at Abdarul with shock. That was too less. Normally he had to work much more in order to be allowed to sleep inside the shed. What happened in here? Abdarul isn’t this generous normally.

“I’ll go and sleep in my bed in the next room, so please don’t make too much noise while cleaning,” he added with a yawn while he walked over to a door. Before he opened it, he let out an “oh” and turned his head to Spike who looked at Abdarul with a worried gaze. “One more thing. That pegasus should be healthy again tomorrow.”

With that said, Abdarul walked through the door and closed it behind him. Spike looked shocked at the sleeping pegasus in the bed. He will be fully healed by tomorrow? Slowly, he walked over to the pegasus and examined his body. Spike gasped when he saw the body. But how? There, on the spare bed, the pegasus laid with absolutely no sign of injury. He looked perfectly healthy. 

That’s not possible! Ponies need at least three days to heal a broken bone. This pegasus had enough injuries to secure himself bed-rest for over a month. How can he be healed already? He turned his head around towards the door. What did Abdarul do? There are no traces of any injury. At least the heavy burns on his shoulder should have made a sizeable scar. Also, the gash on his wing, where the bone punctured the skin, vanished. Abdarul said he was operating on his abdomen, but there also doesn’t seem to be any marks. How the Tartarus did he do that?

With a sigh, Spike turned around again and looked at the things in the shed that were all lying randomly at the floor. How did this even happen? Shaking his head a little, he began to clean up.


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


“Phew took me long enough, but I’m finally finished.” 

Spike looked at the now half-clen shed and gave himself an imaginary pat on the back. Putting all the cleaning utensils back to the spot where they belong, he sighed once and looked outside the window.

Outside, he could see that the sun slowly crept over the horizon, and the trees already began to change into “night-mode”. Spike always said that the trees in Everfree Forest changed to “night mode” when night hit because they acted and looked vastly different at night. While they looked idyllic and calm on the day, they somewhat seemed remarkably brutal and aggressive at night. Of course, he knew that his own brain could dramatize those images due to the general apprehension of darkness that nearly every being felt, but it was just too extreme. The way some branches moved at night just seemed illogical and unnatural.

He asked Abdarul once why this seemed that way and Abdarul meant that the forest had a single consciousness, and while it slept on the day, it goes active on nighttime. The consciousness of the forest could be easily described as a playing foal. While the forest sometimes liked to bring some of its favorite toys into exciting situations, it also mercilessly devoured others. The fact that Spike survived so long alone without help meant that he was one of the forest’s favorite toys. The forest enjoyed playing with Spike.

Spike’s gut twisted when he thought about the next thing Abdarul said. Spike hasn’t gone to “play” with the forest in a long time because he often slept inside or on a secure area. The forest may feel left out and cheated. It had the right to do whatever it wanted to everything inside it. There was a possibility that the forest was mad at Spike for dodging this. 

He gulped when he remembered what happened earlier. The atmosphere around the timberwolves was undeniably different from the last time he ran from them some years ago. It seemed more like a childish game of tag at that time. He was afraid, but he never felt the terror of panic. It always felt like there was no real danger. 

But this time, it felt different. The timberwolves have maliciously chased him, and this time, Spike tasted the bitter fear for his life. It was obvious now. The forest was angry with him. It wanted him to either leave the forest or to disappear. Spike let out a nervous sigh, and he felt cold. Without thinking about it, his eyes often looked to the sides for no apparent reason. His heart pounded a little, and he wished that there was a source of light in here. 

I am afraid. I feel it. Can I deal with this fear? I want to be an adventurer so I’m going to feel this fear regularly in the future. Is that really what I want? Do I want to fear for my life? Looking outside the window again at the moon, he thought about his future. He was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the slight shuffling behind him. Suddenly, he felt something cold and sharp on the scales on his neck, but before he could gasp out of surprise, a hoof came over his snout and strongly pressed down.

“No screaming or this knife goes right into your neck,” a deep voice bellowed behind him, and Spike tensed up. He didn’t dare move an inch, yet his heart felt like it was moving miles. It was pumping extremely quickly, and his scales began to shiver slightly. He didn’t dare to turn around. 

“Good, now if you answer my questions, I will let you go, understood?” The voice told him again, laying especial emphasis on the understood. Spike slowly nodded. “First off, where am I?” 

Spike was afraid of opening up his mouth, but forced himself after a deep gulp. “Y-You are in-inside the Everfree Forest, in the h-hut of a shaman,” he quivered. Spike’s thoughts were a messy whirlwind of chaos. So many different feelings and thoughts whirled through it. I don’t want to die. I am afraid. Why am I afraid? I am a dragon. How pathetic am I, being afraid of a pegasus that was injured to the point of near death just some hours ago? Spike! Get yourself together. Just wait for a chance and you may be able to attack him.

Spike continued to reassure himself with motivational thoughts and the terror of the situation slowly vanished. The fear and the nervousness stayed, but he could think clearly again. 

“Interesting, and what is a dragon doing in here?” He further inquired, and this time Spike could think clearly and formulate a proper answer.

“I am learning under the local shaman, Abdarul, who, by the way, saved your half-dea-“ Spike couldn’t finish his statement because the knife pressed stronger at his neck.

“A likely story, dragon, but don’t take me for a fool. Dragons don’t learn shamanism. Tell me the truth.”

Spike groaned once. “I am telling the truth.”

“I said, don’t lie-“ Suddenly the purple pegasus groaned and winced a little because he felt a sting of pain in his right chest. 

Spike’s eyes widened, and out of instinct, he used all of his strength and punched the pegasus in the chest with his elbow. The pegasus made a short abrupt sound like he ran against a wall and was sent flying backwards into the opposite wall. Some things on the wall of the shed fell down and on top of the pegasus.

Spike looked with shock at the scene before him and was frozen in position. What did I just do? How did I do that? I didn’t want to throw him that far. I only wanted him to back off. That surely was a misunderstanding.

Suddenly, the pile of things shifted, and the pegasus slowly emerged. Raising his head, he looked in Spike’s eyes with a gaze filled with hatred. 

Shit! Was the only thing Spike could think before the pegasus jumped up from the pile and flapped his wings.

Just to flop over and fall on his face.

Spike wasn’t sure what happened. Didn’t he just try to fly at him? Why is he on the floor again? 

Slowly the pegasus rose on his feet again, and his glare showed even more hatred. “What did you do to my wings, beast?!” He shouted at Spike, who only looked shocked.

“Me? I didn’t do anything except re-set the broken bones!”

“Oh yeah? Then why can’t I fly?”

“I don’t know!”

“Shut up! What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“LIES! You just said you re-set the broken bone!”

“Yes, I have, but I didn’t do anything to your flying ability.”

“Oh yeah? Then why can’t I fly?” 

“I don’t know!”

“Shut up! What di-… wait… haven’t we been here before?” The pegasus had a perplexed expression on his face, but quickly shook his head to clear his mind. Looking angrily at the dragon, he simply ran at him.

“Shit!” Spike shouted while dodging a punch from the pegasus right hoof, with moving his upper body to the side. Suddenly, the pegasus tripped over the foot of Spike that didn’t change its position. He lost his footing and tumbled into the next wall. 

Spike felt a shudder crawl up his spine. Oh shit! I didn’t want to injure him further. This is all just a huge misunderstanding!

The pegasus stood up again and charged at Spike. He hit him square on the side of the head and this time, Spike was sent flying into the wall. His vision was hazy, and everything seemed to circle around him. With a shake off his head, his vision calmed down, and he sat up. Looking at the pegasus in battle stance, Spike got angry himself. Want a fight flankhole? You’ll get one! 

Taking some of the rubble beside him, he threw it at the pegasus who narrowly avoided it. Spike didn’t relent and simply threw everything he could reach at the pegasus. The pegasus tried to come closer, but failed due to the amount of rubble flying at him. In the end, the pegasus also began to throw stuff at Spike until they both were throwing things at each other.

Spike threw a flowerpot, and it hit the pegasus perfectly. “HA! What do you say now, flankhole?”

“Shut up!” The pegasus screamed back while throwing a small drawer at Spike that also hit.

Spike rubbed his chin and looked at the pegasus with a hateful gaze. “Oh it is on now.” Spike took hold of the wardrobe to his right. 

“AAAAAHHH!” He screamed while using all his strength to lift the wardrobe. The pegasus gulped and had a look on his face that practically screamed “oh shit oh shit oh shit”. Using all his strength Spike readied the wardrobe and then.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!”

Both of them looked to the door and they saw an absolutely livid zebra standing there.

Spike only gulped once. 

“Fuck.”
> Chapter 4: The Journey Begins!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!“

Spike and the pegasus both turned their heads to the door that led to Abdarul’s bedroom. There, between the doorframes, stood the absolutely livid zebra that mustered them with a glare that would be able to melt a block of metal. Spike gulped once when he saw the anger in Abdarul’s eyes.

“Fuck,” he muttered silently to himself while still holding the wardrobe above himself. Looking up at the wardrobe, then at  the pegasus who seemed to look at  the zebra with a raised eyebrow, then at the devastated room, then back to the wardrobe, and lastly at the zebra. He realized how that looked like, and his gut twisted. That’s not good. That’s not good at all!

“And who are you?”  The pegasus asked with a raised eyebrow and with a voice that sounded like he would have been talking to somepony that was way inferior to him.

Spike looked at the pegasus in shock. He had hoped that he could avoid seeing a pony die before him. 

Abdarul looked with his anger filled gaze at the pegasus, who suddenly felt the sensation of a cold hoof caressing his hide. It felt like he had been touched by death. Abdarul raised his hoof and pointed it at the pegasus. 

“You! Bed!” 

The moment the words left Abdarul, the pegasus suddenly got thrown to his right like he had been hit by a speeding chariot. The pegasus sped through the air and crashed loudly at the wall. After some time, he slowly peeled off the wall like some piece of paper and slumped on the bed that was under him, unconscious.

Spike felt himself shudder at the display of power and gulped, not daring to move otherwise. Suddenly, Abdarul’s gaze went on Spike, and his scales began to shiver. “Put it down!” Abdarul ordered, and in Spike’s panic filled mind he firstly didn’t know what he meant,  but realized that he meant the wardrobe that Spike still was holding above him. He quickly put the wardrobe down but avoided sudden movements, like there was a dangerous animal in front of him. When he had finished, he continued standing there and only looked nervously at Abdarul.

“Now, explain to me why you think it’s a good idea to attack a patient that was practically dying some hours ago!” Abdarul demanded to know.

“I was only defending myself!” Spike quickly justified himself, but Abdarul’s gaze didn’t lose anything of its heat.

“I used the Nightly Chaos Flower on him! It should be impossible for him to even stand now. I can’t imagine him being a threat to you in this state!” He explained while pointing a hoof at Spike.

“But he was! I was finished cleaning up, a-“

“Yeah, good job cleaning up. It really looks splendid in here,” Abdarul remarked with thick sarcasm.

Spike’s left eye twitched a little of annoyance. “Yes, I know. Well, I was finished cleaning up, and then I looked out the window and thought about some stuff, whe-“

“What stuff, on how to destroy my shed as effectively as possible?” Abdarul asked again, tipping his hoof in impatience.

Spike’s teeth grinded on each other. He hated it when he was interrupted while speaking, but he controlled himself. “No, I was thinking about my upcoming journey and about what I wanted to do until then. Well nonetheless, I was thinking when I suddenly felt some kind of blade on my throat.”

“Blade? What blade?” Abdarul asked again with a bewildered expression. He was sure that there were no weapons on this pegasus that he hadn’t already taken off of him. Spike gestured over to the table where some kind of knife was lodged in, and Abdarul walked over to it. Taking the knife in his hoof, he moved it around a little and examined it. “Spike, could you come over here, please?”

Spike gingerly tip toed over to his teacher and stood beside him. Suddenly, Abdarul turned around, and something happened that Spike never would have thought would happen. Abdarul stabbed Spike with the knife.

He couldn’t comprehend what happened. He simply saw Abdarul make a fast movement and then felt a dull pain in his abdomen, like someone hit him with a hammer. Wait, like a hammer? I thought getting stabbed would feel more… stabby. Spike looked down at his abdomen, and he saw that  the knife didn’t penetrate his scale coat.

“This is a plant knife!” Abdarul stabbed Spike again, and it felt exactly the same. “He couldn’t have stabbed you if his life depended on it!” He did it again, and Spike felt the dull pain again. It wasn’t exactly painful, but rather uncomfortable. The fact that he was afraid of a knife that wouldn’t even have been able to injure him was more painful.

“You’ve got thick scales! You are dragon for fucks sake! A common tool for farming can’t hurt you! Get that into your equally thick head, idiot!” 

Spike simply averted his gaze to the right with an annoyed expression. He hated it when Abdarul was correct.

“You were attacked by a pegasus with a weapon that can’t hurt you while he shouldn’t even have been able to walk. He probably felt dizzier than you after our weekly sparring matches! And what do you do? You try to squash him with a full wardrobe? Are you insane!?” Abdarul scolded, and Spike still averted his eyes.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry? SORRY? You could have killed him, and all you say is sorry?”

Spike threw his arms up in exasperation and made an overly done bow. “May I ask for your forgiveness for this monstrous act, oh lord of stripes?” Spike asked, his voice oozing sarcasm.

“Spike!” Spike flinched a little at the sudden loudness of his shout. “This isn’t something small! You attacked a patient of yours! This isn’t… this just…!” Abdarul inhaled deeply and let out a humongous sigh. “Alright.” He put a hoof on his head. “I understand that you were in panic. You don’t know your own strength and durability, but please think about what you are doing the next time you are getting attacked by a half-dead pegasus with a worthless weapon.”

Spike also sighed. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”

“Good!” Abdarul turned around and walked back to his bedroom door. “And now you will clean this mess up.” He turned around and looked at Spike with an intense gaze. “And I hope for your sake that I won’t get woken up again.” With that said, he went through the door and closed it behind him.

Spike looked around the destroyed room and cursed silently. With a shake of his head, he began to clean again…


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


Finally finished. Took me long enough. Spike looked around the half-cleaned room and pushed his chest out in a proud position. The room didn’t exactly look clean, but in his eyes the room seemed to be sparkling. 

“So you really aren’t a wild beast.”

Spike quickly turned around and saw the purple pegasus from earlier sitting on his bed with a tilted head and a curious expression. Spike calmed down when he realized that the pegasus wasn’t attacking him. “No, I’m not. You may have realized this if you hadn’t attacked me as soon as you saw me,” Spike remarked.

The pegasus cringed a little at the small jab. “I know, I know. I’m sorry,” he silently uttered while looking sadly down at his hooves. 

Spike wanted to shoot something back, but then realized that the pegasus apologized. Wait what? That guy that mercilessly threatened and attacked me simply said sorry? Spike lifted an eyebrow and looked at the pegasus. “Er, apology accepted?” He more asked than stated.

The pegasus’ tail wagged out of happiness, and he showed a wide grin. Spike looked with confusion at the tail of the pegasus. What is he? A dog? “Well, it doesn’t matter now. Nobra got hurt, and the mess is cleaned.”

The pegasus’ head tilted a little in confusion. “Nobra?”

Spike looked at the pegasus with a look of confusion, but quickly understood what he meant. “Sorry, my bad. I lived so long with that zebra that I am talking like him now. Nobra is the zebra version of nopony. Nozebra simply doesn’t roll off the tongue like nobra,” Spike explained while putting the last broom away.

“Oh, okay,” the purple pegasus stated, and then silence took reign of the shed again and both looked at each other awkwardly. After some seconds, the pegasus talked again. “My name’s Purple Bell, but everypony calls me Purple Edge, or Edge for short.”

Spike had to stifle a giggle, but couldn’t entirely suppress it. “Purple Bell? That doesn’t fit you at all.” 

The pegasus sighed. “Yeah, I know. My parents thought they would get a filly, so when a little colt appeared, they simply didn’t have a spare name. In my job, they started calling me Purple Edge because I was the best one with the blade. After a while, they simply called me Edge. I stuck with that name since then. I think it kinda fits me more.”

Spike hummed a short time. “It really fits you more. Oh my name’s Spike, by the way.”

Silence reentered the room again, but this time it didn’t stay that long. “Spike listen, I wanted to say thank you for treating my injuries.”

Spike waved a dismissive hand. “No problem. Also, Abdarul was the one that did the most stuff. You should thank him later.” Suddenly, Spike’s stomach growled, and both of them looked at it. Spike sighed once. “Well, I think it’s better for you to get back to bed. I’m gonna get me some food and hit the hay too.”

Edge crooked an eyebrow and looked to his right at a table with plenty of vegetables and fruit. “Er, can’t you just eat something from those fruits over there? Dragons can eat those, right?” He asked with curiosity, and Spike turned around to him.

“Oh those? Yes, dragons can eat these things, but they aren’t enough. Abdarul told me that when a dragon reaches puberty, he requires nutrition and magical energy from at least two different food sources. Dragons can effectively eat three different kinds of food. Plants, gems, and… well meat.”

What spike was surprised about was the fact that the pegasus didn’t even look nervous or scared, even after this revelation. One would think that a pony would feel a slight bit nervous around a partial carnivore. Either he didn’t care, he didn’t show it, or he already knew.

“So, are you hunting for gems or for meat now?” He asked with a strange calm.

Spike let out a silent nervous laugh. “Well, gems are rather hard to come by, so I don’t really have another choice than to hunt for meat.” Spike rubbed the back of his neck in nervousness.

Purple Edge turned around and put the blanked over himself. “Cool. Wish you luck. I’ll catch some sleep now. Good night!” He stated and began to relax. 

Spike was still dumbfounded by the calmness of the pegasus. With a shake of his head, he turned to the front-door of the shed and left it. Outside, he took a deep breath and looked around the dark forest. The smell of the night air assaulted his nostrils, and he couldn’t get enough of this. Spike always said that the night smelled differently than the day. Looking further around the forest, he frowned a little when he noticed that it probably was already past 12 AM. This meant the trees were the most dangerous of the day.

Taking another deep breath of the night air, he walked away from the shed to his usual hunting spot. He was hunting and eating meat for two years now and was already quite skilled in it. Sadly, he never learned it from a professional, but, for teaching it himself, it was outstanding.

After a short while, he came to his usual hunting spot. A clearing in the forest, with an unusually small hill in the middle. Abdarul told him that legend has it that there was once an epic battle on this hill that decided the fate of the entire world. Absolute nonsense of course. Walking over to his usual hunting tree, he prepared his muscles for climbing. He sped up and jumped on the tree, ramming his claws into it. He climbed it easily and sat himself on top of a thick branch.

And now we play the waiting game. Just when Spike thought this, he remembered his wooden sword that he still had tugged at his belt. Just then, he also realized that he used his belt way too rarely. He got it from Abdarul after an exceptionally well done job. It had some pockets and fit him perfectly. 

Grabbing the wooden sword, he looked at it while it failed to reflect the moonlight. Spike smiled a little. Maybe one day, I will own a true weapon. A weapon of legends. A weapon that can defeat anything in my path. A true weapon of heroes. Leaning himself backwards and laying on his back, he felt an inner calm. It often came to him whenever he laid himself on his back on a branch. This wooden sword is my first weapon. It isn’t much, but it is something.

Suddenly, he heard a silent rustle, and he quickly looked down from the tree. Under him was the head of a white bunny that peeked out from a bush. Spike stood quietly up and went into a jumping ready stance. When the bunny saw that everything was clear, it silently crept out of the bush and stopped under Spike’s branch. With a smirk, Spike readied his wooden sword. He wanted to try his “weapon”. 

When the bunny didn’t move for a while, he let go of the branch, and he fell down towards the bunny. He didn’t make a sound and the branch also didn’t make any loud noises. The only thing that could be heard was the silent “thump” of two feet landing on the floor and a cutting noise. The forest lost one critter, and a young dragon smiled in anticipation of his food.

About an hour later, Spike was finished with his food. He thought about walking back to the shed, but decided to simply sleep on the branch of the tree tonight. He was too tired to walk back now. Tiredly, climbing the tree, he flopped on his stomach and closed his eyes on top of the tree-branch.


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


Spike woke up when he heard some deep scratching under him. Groggily, he opened his eyes and looked down at the tree he slept on. A big fat manticore was scratching its back and mane on the rough bark, and Spike felt his heart stop. Manticores were rare in the forest and even rarer in these sizes. This thing could seriously injure a hydra.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for the manticore to be finished and it continued walking through the forest, away from Spike. It took him some minutes, but he finally was able to get back his bearings. Shaking his head slightly, he jumped down from the tree. Fuck this shit man. I’m outta here.

Quickly looking up the sky, he calculated where which direction was, and walked towards east, where the shed of Abdarul was located.

When he arrived, he walked over to the door, but before he could open it, he heard talking from inside. Are they awake? Opening the door, he walked inside and saw the PERFECTLY clean shed. He only cleaned it to the point where he considered it clean, but right now the shed looked brand spanking new. Spike saw Abdarul and Purple Edge happily chatting away with each other.

When they noticed him, they looked over to him, but continued talking. “Well, then I hope you’ll have an adventurous and merry journey in front of you,” Abdarul told him with a happy smile on his face. 

Spike recoiled and looked absolutely shocked. Abdarul can smile? What sorcery is this? He looked over to Purple Edge who laughed a little.

“Thanks, I also hope this journey won’t be boring.”

Spike walked over to them. “You’re already leaving Edge?” He asked, and Purple Edge looked at him, an excited smile still on his face.

“Yeah, and you’ll come with me!”

Spike simply looked bored to his left and walked into that direction. “Cool cool. Wish you a hap-“ 

He instantly stopped.

Wait… what? Spike turned around and walked back over to the two equines. He lifted an eyebrow and shook his head slowly in an expression that said something like ‘Are you completely bonkers?’

“No?”

Purple Edge grinned at him and again his tail wagged. “Yes!”

Spike recoiled a little and looked at Abdarul. “No?” 

Abdarul let out a little chuckle. “Yes.”

Spike recoiled a little again and looked at Purple Edge and then repetitively changed his gaze to Abdarul and to Edge. After a while, he stopped. “What?” Suddenly, he shook his head. “I mean, why? I mean, I thought you wanted me to stay with you until I learned how to fight. You said I would fail miserably if I left now.”

Abdarul chuckled a little. “And that still stands. But if you remember, I also said that it was unlikely to find a teacher for you that would be able to teach you fighting. Well, seems like the unlikable came true.” He gestured to his left at the pegasus. “Purple Edge here is a magnificent fighter. I talked a long time with him and also sparred with him. I think he is more than capable of teaching you fighting.”

Abdarul walked forward and put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “Listen, I think you are more of the practical than the theoretical type. You need to go out and actually fight to learn how to do it. I think if you stay here, you would most likely never be ready for your journey. It’s better if you accompany him.”

Spike looked with an unsure gaze towards Purple Edge. “But it’s only a matter of time until we walk separate paths again. I mean, I doubt that he would accompany me to the end.” 

Edge simply shook his head lightly and laughed a little. “Spike, I don’t have a home. I am an adventurer. I travel the known world, work at different spots, speak with many ponies, occasionally help the helpless, the usual stuff you know. I have no set goal for my journey. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but in my case, the old saying It’s about the journey, not the destination, is strangely fitting.”

Spike’s look changed to hopeful. “So, you will accompany me?”

Edge smirked. “As long as it doesn’t get boring, sure.”

Spike smiled and closed his eyes. “Thank you, really.” He opened them and looked at the two. “Both of you.” Then he closed them again and took a deep breath. Seems like my dream is coming true sooner than I thought. “When do we go?”

“Now!” Both of the ponies answered. 

“Pack your things, we are leaving as soon as we are ready,” Purple Edge told him, and Spike complied. He waited way too long. He wanted to go as soon as possible.

Edge went to his things, and Spike walked over to a bag he made himself. Before he felt a force push him silently over to the side towards Abdarul.

“Listen Spike,” Abdarul whispered, keeping an eye on the pegasus. “I want to tell you one last thing, but you need to promise me that you will tell nobra of this, except the pony that should hear it, understood?”

Spike wasn’t quite sure why Abdarul made such a big deal out of this, but he nodded nonetheless. Abdarul sighed once. “No price too great, no distance too far, if we could wish upon a blackstar. Remember this phrase. You will know what pony you have to tell it to. Now go and get ready for your journey,” he quickly stated and turned around to his bedroom door to stop any answer from Spike.

Spike simply raised an eyebrow and looked confused at the door Abdarul just went through. The Tartarus? What was that? Well doesn’t mind. I’ll simply remember it. With a sigh, he turned to his bag again and took it up. Looking through it, he saw that everything he possessed, which was not much by the way, was in there, and he effectively was ready to go. He walked over to the pegasus.

“Ready to go?” Edge asked, and Spike looked at him.

“Where’s your stuff?”

“I don’t have much stuff. Only my weapons.” 

Spike looked around and over the pegasus. “What weapons? I don’t see any.”

The pegasus giggled a little. “No worry. You will see it in due time. Now, let’s go.” Edge turned around and walked out of the door.

Spike turned to Abdarul’s door, but the zebra didn’t come out. He waited a little, but in the end he simply left. Maybe it’s better that way. I never had any touching goodbyes. Might as well keep it that way. Spike walked over to the pegasus and passed him.

“Won’t you say goodbye?” He asked.

Spike didn’t turn around. “No. I think it’s better that way. Let’s just go.”

Purple Edge shrugged and walked together with Spike to the west.

Inside the shed, Abdarul looked smiling out of the window. “Go young dragon. It was fun with you as long as it lasted. I’ll look forward to the time when you are strong and mature. When we see each other again, we’ll spar again. And hopefully, you will best me.” Abdarul wiped a single tear from his right eye away and walked to the middle of his room. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at the shelf with the plants. 

His expression changed to rage. 

“Bitch took my herbs!”



> Chapter 5: The First Lesson
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

„So then I stumbled through those bushes, and you know what I saw? I saw three timberwolves in white coats operating on another timberwolf right in a clearing,” Spike explained with a laugh.

Purple Edge joined in with laughing. “No, really?”

“Yeah, it’s true. I just stood there, watching them operate and thought …what the fuck?” Spike and Edge both laughed at this point.

“And then? What happened then?” 

After a short giggle, Spike continued. “Well, after they were finished, they saw me, and one of the wolves walked over to me and put his paw over my shoulder. He grumbled something that sounded like he was reassuring me of something. Funny enough, after that another wolf came to us and told the other wolf something. Then he roared at me, and I ran away,” Spike finished, and they both roared in laughter again.

“How did you survive?” Edge wanted to know while swishing a tear away from his right eye. They were walking for several hours now towards the west at a decently paced speed. Edge was walking at a comfortable pace, and Spike moved a little faster than him in relation. But his short legs practically made him walk in the same speed as Edge.

“Well-” Spike began, “I ran away from them for quite a while until I came out of the forest.” At this point, he made a short pause to stifle a laugh. “Or to be more specific, I ran right into a ravine with a river at the bottom. I fell down, got washed away, and awoke inside Abdarul’s shed.”

“Oh, so that’s how you two met? Kinda similar to how we met,” Edge remarked.

“Yeah, except for the fact that he didn’t attack me,” Spike remarked with a cocky smirk and the pegasus cringed a little.

“Oh come on. I told you why I did this. I had a bad run in with a dragon. If you were fighting with a monster that punched you unconscious, you would react the same way. I mean, imagine how you would feel if you were waking up in a room you didn’t know while a youngling of said monster were in front of you. I think you wouldn’t react any better.”

Spike grinned at that. “I know, I know. I’m just fucking with you.”

Purple Edge then raised an eyebrow. “You know, I asked myself this question for the past hours. Why are you swearing that much?”

“I dunno. That’s how I always talked. I don’t give a damn about trivial matters, and I also kinda like talking like that,” he explained while putting his two arms comfortably behind his head.

The curious expression of Edge didn’t vanish. “Well okay, but you should seriously cut down the swearing when we are around other ponies. Many of them take offense to that,” Edge berated.

Spike huffed once. “Ponies take offense to everything. What’s the point in trying not to offend them?” He asked with a smirk, thinking that he had pinned him down.

“The point is that if you offend them, very well knowing that they will be offended, you are acting like an aggressive flankhole, and they will also talk offensive back to you. You offend them, they offend you. If you don’t offend them, they let you be in peace and may even be friendly to you. A life in harmony is better than a life in war,” Purple Edge recited. 

Spike’s expression changed to a sour one. “Harmony, pah,” he spat. “Where is the harmony in keeping a dragon his whole life inside a library? Where is the harmony in letting him live a slave life? Ponies are all the same hypocrites. They are only acting like they care, but in reality they don’t give a shit.”

Purple Edge frowned at this. “Listen Spike, only because you met some rather bad individuals of my species doesn’t mean that everypony is bad. You don’t see me constantly offending you even though a dragon nearly killed me, do you?”

Spike thought about this for a while. “… You’re right.” He sighed. “You know, feelings and logic are strange because they can’t work together. I know that not everybra is the same, but my feelings tell me they are. I simply can’t forgive Twilight for what she did.”

Edge’s expression changed to compassion. “Maybe she hasn’t done this on purpose. You told me that she was pretty young when she got you. Maybe she simply made a mistake. Do you honestly think it was a good idea to run away from her instead of giving her a chance? You know, there is a famous quote for this. You only know how much you need something, when you lost it.” 

Spike was a little taken aback by the wise tone of Purple Edge. Earlier, when he wagged with his tail, he seemed more like an immature foal. Why is he suddenly acting all knowing? But it was kind of logical. Purple Edge was at least 30 years old and practically traveled his whole life. He probably talked with more ponies and beings than Spike ever saw.

Spike shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. I made my decision, and I will go through with it. I can’t change what happened, so might as well forget it.” 

“You know, it’s not good to bottle that stuff up. You should find a release for those emotions.”

Spike looked away with an uncomfortable expression. “It’s not important. Let’s just change the topic alright?”

Edge looked at Spike a little longer but then only sighed. “Alright, but this will probably not be the last time we talk about this.” Instead of answering, Spike continued to avert his gaze from the pegasus. 

Some minutes later, they arrived at a small clearing. It wasn’t large enough for the thick tree-tops to part, but there were some single spots where they were able to look at the now dark blue sky. “It’s later than I thought. I think we walked enough for today,” Edge told Spike and looked closer at the clearing. “I think we should sleep here for tonight.”

Spike looked around the clearing. “In what? Do you have any tents?”

Purple Edge chuckled a little bit. “I never sleep in tents. Normally, I simply sleep on top of a cloud. They don’t disappear that easily, and if they disappear anyway, I can simply catch myself and fly away before I hit the ground.” He let out a sigh. “Sadly, I can’t do that anymore.” 

Spike raised an eyebrow at this. “Why? It’s not like I am going to die down here when you aren’t constantly around.”

Edge mustered Spike with a skeptical expression, but that quickly changed to realization. “Oh no no no, I mean I am not able to do it.”

“Please elaborate.”

“Abdarul said that my inner magic was badly damaged. We pegasi use our inner magic to keep us in the air, in case you didn’t know. Nonetheless, he said that my inner magic was badly damaged and that it is not sure if I’ll ever be able to fly again.” He sighed. “Seems like I have to learn how to life as a weak earth pony with two additional appendages.”

Damaged inner magic? I never heard of that before. As far as I know, there isn’t really a common way to damage it. Spike looked at Edge’s wings and also remembered the time where he tried to fly, but failed. Yet, he can’t use it. This is strange. Putting a hand on his jaw, Spike thought further. Maybe we will find some kind of medicine to cure this on the journey? I mean, we are going to places nobra has gone before.

Purple Edge looked at him. “What are you thinking about?”

Spike perked up and looked over to the pegasus. “Oh eh, nothing. Simply thinking about the journey.” Then Spike looked around the clearing and saw a thick branch on one of the trees. “I think we can sleep up there. This one should be thick enough.” 

Spike began to walk over to the tree, but Purple Edge stepped in his way. “Wait a minute, who said we are going to sleep right now?” He asked with a cocky grin.

“We’re not?” 

Purple Edge shook his head. “No, we’re not. I am first teaching you some fighting. I am your teacher now, remember?”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Eh, I nearly beat you yesterday, remember?”

The pegasus chuckled at that. “Oh yes, you’re right. Congratulations, you nearly beat a pegasus, whose legs were shaking off exhaustion. Additionally, he was fighting without a weapon; he was dizzy; he was nauseous; he had a nasty headache; his wings did not work; he couldn’t think clearly due to shock, and he had a lot of troublesome emotions flowing through him.”

Spike had the purest look of disbelief ever. “Are you honestly saying that you fought me in that state? It shouldn’t even be possible to stand like this.”

Purple Edge smirked in the cockiest way. “How about you find out yourself?”

Spike simply shrugged, thinking that this won’t be hard. “Well alright, but don’t complain if I hurt you.” Spike took out his useless wooden sword. He didn’t want to make it too easy for himself. 

Purple Edge simply continued staying there in a relaxed position. They both looked at each other for a while. “You know, you can attack me,” Purple Edge remarked. “You don’t need to be afraid. I won’t hurt you… too badly.”

Spike huffed. “I’ll show you who will be hurt after this!” Spike shouted and ran at the pegasus. He gripped the sword with both hands and prepared himself to make a humongous swing from the right. When Purple Edge saw this, he had to roll his eyes.

Spike made his gigantic swing but never touched anything but air. The pegasus was gone. “Do you always attack in such an obvious way?” Spike heard from his left and quickly jerked his head to said direction. Purple Edge stood beside him and looked disappointed at Spike. “We have to work a lot on that.” He gestured towards Spike’s sword.

Spike felt anger well up inside him. I hate condescending pricks! He swung his sword with all his power at the new position of the pegasus, but Edge simply took one step back and evaded the sword strike easily. 

“And we also need to work on your speed and power.” Spike made another swing, this time an overhead swing, which his opponent easily side stepped. “Your swings need more speed, precision, strength, and technique.” 

Spike grit his teeth and swung horizontally at the pegasus, who ducked easily beneath it. Instead of doing nothing, Purple Edge kicked with one of his hooves at the left arm of Spike. Crying out in slight shock, Spike retracted his left arm from the sword.

“This sword is not big enough to use with two hands. You should use only one,” he explained, but Spike quickly grabbed the sword again with his second hand. 

Purple Edge saw this and frowned, and Spike swung at him again. Purple Edge didn’t evade this time, but kicked the left hand that griped the down-swinging sword. Spike’s hand felt like the bones in it got broken and quickly retracted it. Through the kick, the swing of the sword got pushed to the side, and it missed the pegasus.

“Want me to kick your left hand again? Then put it on the sword,” Purple Edge threatened and Spike growled at him. He wanted to show that he won’t get belittled by that pegasus and wanted to put his hand back on the sword, but was too afraid to do it. Instead, he swung with all his power horizontally at the pegasus.

Purple Edge stepped back and evaded the swing. Spike swung too strongly and lost his balance. His right foot left the ground, but he could still save himself from falling. His anger towards the pegasus rose higher, and he stepped forward and made another strong swing. The same situation repeated itself, but this time Purple Edge lightly hit the foot of Spike.

With Spike's wobbly stance, it was no surprise that he fell flat on his belly. “You know, you shouldn’t swing with such power and without control at a small and nimble target like me.” 

Spike grumbled and jumped up, missing another swing at the pegasus. “Think logically, I am small, and I don’t have as many muscles as an earth pony.” Purple Edge easily sidestepped another swing. “Your power far exceeds my own.” Another missed swing. “Even with a small amount of power-“ another sidestep “- you could damage me pretty seriously.” 

Spike roared in anger and frustration, but at the next swing, he got tripped again. “Do you even listen to me?” Purple Edge asked, and now Spike had enough.

He threw his weapon away and quickly jumped at the pegasus. Purple Edge frowned, turned around, and bucked Spike directly in the face. Spike felt the two hoofs collide with his snout. While the kick wasn’t strong enough to break it, his attack still got stopped effectively, and he felt his vision blur for a moment.

“Never throw away your weapon.” Spike opened his eyes and looked at the angry pegasus. “While your claws and teeth are stronger than your weapon right now, it is understandable that you would rather fight with them. Nonetheless, you need to get the feel that your weapon is your primary means to overwhelm your opponent. A common iron sword is more useful than your claws and your teeth, and you won’t always use a wooden sword.”

Spike simply glared at the pegasus, while rubbing his snout. “Dragons use their inner magic to crack jewels. Your teeth aren’t exceptionally strong, and the power in your jaw can only bring you so far. Of course, this would be different if you were some decades older, but you aren’t.” Purple Edge pointed at the wooden sword that lay a little bit away. “Now get your weapon! We are not done yet!”

Spike continued glaring at him, but complied. He didn’t like this one bit, but he knew that if he wouldn’t take it, he would get another buck from his opponent. Grabbing the sword from the floor, he walked over to his old position and put both his hands back at the sword, but quickly retracted his left one when he saw Edge raising one of his eyebrows.

Don’t blindly charge at him. Spike slowly walked towards the pegasus. Just be very careful. When he got closer, he suddenly jumped forward and swung at the pegasus. Purple Edge tripped him again.

From the floor, Spike looked up. “That’s better, but you still lost your balance,” Purple Edge explained. 

Spike quickly jumped up and slashed downwards. He took an enormous step forward while doing this and put all of his weight on the front foot, so the pegasus wouldn’t be able to trip him again. Sadly, Purple Edge saw what Spike did and quickly sidestepped the swing and kicked the leg at the back this time, effectively tripping Spike again.

“This time, you put all your weight on your left leg. That’s not better than the other way around. For the beginning, you should stay in a well balanced position, and not change your weight distribution much.”

Spike slowly stood up and glared at the pegasus. “And how am I able to injure you then?” He asked with an annoyed voice. 

Purple Edge felt relieved that Spike finally talked again. This meant that he was calming down. “You shouldn’t go for the big goal. Try going for a smaller one. Just try to hit me once. All of your strength is worthless if you don’t hit me,” Purple Edge explained.

Spike didn’t want to accept it, but he was right. What use was his strength if he weren’t able to hit him? Deciding to try it out, he carefully stepped forward and made a quick flick with his sword at the pegasus. 

Purple Edge anticipated such an action and simply swatted the sword away with a strong swish of his hoof. The sword flew out of the easy grip of the dragon and landed somewhere beside him. “Never lose the grip of your weapon. You have hands! Those are better at gripping swords than mouths. Use them!” Purple Edge berated.

Spike grumbled something Purple Edge couldn’t understand and walked over to his weapon and picked it up again. Slowly, he started to feel the stress and burden of the sparring match. His right hand ached a little and his feet felt sore from all the walking he did earlier. His breathing was pretty fast and hectic to top it off. 

Why the fuck do I have to do this shit now? The fucking day was shitty enough as it is, and now he needs to teach me how to use a fucking wooden sword? What’s his damn problem? Spike felt pretty annoyed right now and that also showed in his way of thinking and speaking. With a grunt, he walked over to the pegasus and readied himself again.

He gripped the sword strongly with his right hand and tried to hit Edge with a quick jab. This time, the pegasus evaded and hit the sword from the side. The sword got shot to the side, but Spike didn’t lose his grip. 

Purple Edge let out a long whistle. “Wow, not bad. You didn’t lose your sword. Seems like we are making progress.”

Spike told himself that he didn’t care about the praise, but deep down he felt somewhat relieved and happy. He quickly slashed another time at the pegasus, and he evaded easily again. Thus, the sparring match continued.


30 minutes later


Spike’s hand ached horribly, and it didn’t want to grip the sword anymore. Purple Edge stopped giving hints to Spike some while ago and simply evaded every slash from Spike. On top of that, he also occasionally tried to trip him or kick the sword. Sometimes, when Spike wasn’t careful enough, he succeeded in it. 

Spike’s whole body was in pain. His body from all the times he fell down; his throat from all the breathing through his mouth; his arm from holding the sword up all the time; his knees from getting up all the time; his feet from all the wandering and the sparring; his snout from that one strong buck he received earlier.

Yet, he didn’t particularly feel angry. He didn’t have the power anymore to feel angry. He only wanted it to end. His body screamed at him to stop with the torture and lay down, but the cruel pegasus wouldn’t let him. 

With a wide swing, he swung at the pegasus again, but lost his footing completely and fell forward, but never hit the floor. Purple Edge moved in front of him and caught him with one of his hooves. “I think this is enough for tonight. Can you stand?” He asked with a caring voice.

Spike, who was breathing heavily, slowly stood up and swished with his right arm over his head in relief. “Yeah, I think so,” he stated. 

Purple Edge smiled at this. “You aren’t angry at me, are you?” He asked with laid down ears and sad eyes. 

Spike saw this and suddenly burst out laughing, and Purple Edge continued looking at him, unsure what exactly that meant. He couldn’t hold himself anymore. This was simply too hilarious.

After around 30 seconds, he calmed down. “Oh Celestia, I don’t get you. First you act like some kind of rough assassin, then like an empathic puppy, then like a wise stallion, then like some drill officer and then like a sad puppy again.” 

Purple Edge sighed in relief because Spike didn’t sound particularly mad at him and let out a small chuckle. “Yes, I know. I heard that multiple times already. Ponies say I act rather strangely.” Purple Edge rubbed his neck in embarrassment. “I can’t help it. I don’t want to anger anypony, but when I spar or fight it would feel wrong if I wouldn’t take my opponent seriously. In this case, I simply wanted to teach you the art of the sword as effectively as possible, but I wasn’t sure if you still liked me. I mean, you did seem rather mad at the beginning of the session.”

Spike also chuckled a little. “To be honest, yeah I was kinda mad at the beginning. I thought you only got lucky and that you only wanted to embarrass me. After a couple of fails, I realized that you actually were as good as you stated and that you only wanted to teach me fighting.”

Purple Edge nodded. “Glad to hear that.” He looked up at the sky and saw that it was in the middle of the night now. “I think this is a good time to get some sleep now, don’t you think?” The answer he received was a yawn from the dragon.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Spike stated tiredly while walking over to the tree with the thick branch he spotted earlier, but stopped in front of it. “Where do you plan to sleep?” He asked curiously.

Purple Edge pointed towards a tree with a low hanging thick branch on the other side of the clearing. “Up there.” 

Spike raised an eyebrow, and the pegasus walked over to the tree. “And how do you plan on-“

With a sudden jump, Edge hit the side of the tree-trunk and pushed himself off again, jumping up at the branch. “Like this,” Purple Edge stated with a cocky grin.

Spike’s mouth hang open, but he quickly closed it and shook his head with a smile. “You are full of surprises, you know that?” The pegasus didn’t answer him, but rather laid himself down on the branch. Spike followed his example and climbed his own tree, feeling the pain in his whole body with every step and grip.

When he was on top of the branch, he slumped on his tummy and closed his eyes.

“Good night!” Purple Edge shouted from the other side of the clearing. A loud snore was the only answer he got, and he smiled at this. With a satisfied grin, he laid his own head down on his hooves.