Chapter 2 - The Broken Heart of a Dragon
A little purple dragon walked out of Ponyville, looking down and sighing.
"Someone tell Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon again... because the world's is over." Spike thought out loud. "Or at least... my world is over."
Spike couldn't remember feeling this sad before; then again, this was the first time he gotten heartbroken. The little reptile had seen his beloved unicorn, the generous, stylish and sophisticated Rarity dating with another guy; and not just any guy, but Prince Blueblood. The previous day, Spike and his pony friends had gone to Canterlot for some official business with Princess Celestia, and when they finished, and Spike went to Rarity's room to invite her to some of his favorite places in Canterlot (Spike was pretty much raised there and knew almost the whole place), he had seen Rarity and Blueblood through her room's window.
Spike thought Rarity no longer cared about Blueblood, especially after their very disappointing date at the Great Galloping Gala, but it seemed she still had a crush on him, and Blueblood was probably a bit less annoying now since they were together now; Rarity even confirmed it the next morning while the gang returned to Ponyville.
"At least it seems she knows how much it hurt." Spike sighed again. When she told everyone about her new relationship, Rarity tried to be as kind as possible with Spike, the unicorn knowing about his feelings, and, despite not feeling the same way, she loved Spike a lot; the problem was that she wasn't IN love with him.
Spike stopped in front of a little pond, looking at his reflection, and got even sadder.
"Of course she'd choose a stallion; even if Blueblood wasn't a prince, he's still... tall, strong, handsome and sophisticated." Spike almost cringed when remembering the exact words Rarity used to describe the unicorn. "And what do I have for her? Nothing. Zero. Less than zero. Zero negative. I'm... nothing but the little, pudgy, unattractive lizard that no girl would date."
It was at this point where Spike's unique situation hit him harder than usual. He was a dragon raised by ponies, and therefore he couldn't feel attracted to female dragons, considering them too violent, feral and greedy for him to like, and at the same time, he would always be a reptile, without any of the features a mare would find attractive on a male, like a good mane, muscular figure, a bright coat and so. Plus, Spike doubted any mare would like kissing a guy with teeth sharp enough to crush diamonds as if they were cookies.
"Yeah, I'm nothing but a talking lizard." Spike groaned at his own reflection. "And what's your main skill? Sending and receiving messages; congratulations, you're a living mailbox!"
In frustration, Spike hit the water with his tail, and then, when the water calmed after the impact, Spike noticed a new reflection in it. Spike noticed it looked like a bright portal, and then looked up to see the real thing; the portal was appearing on thin air, and at a very considerable height.
"Hey, what's going on?"Spike then noticed several figures falling from the portal, and gasped. "Oh, sweet Celestia... hope those guys can fly, or they're gonna need a hospital bed too soon!"
Spike ran to position himself under the portal, that disappeared while he was moving at his top speed... that wasn't that fast, and made him to, again, insult himself for not being a pony. Luckily, it seemed at least some of the ones falling could fly, as he noticed a few of these figures grew wings and grabbed those who didn't.
The little dragon continued running until noticing the visitors were about to land not that far from there. Spike then moved in a stealthier way, not knowing if the ones arriving were friends or foes. He hide behind a bush and tried to get a good look on them; Spike didn't recognize some of the species, but he definitely recognized the wolves and foxes, and decided to keep quiet, as these seemed to be much stronger and probably more dangerous than the wolves and foxes he had seen previously.
"You guys took your sweet time to help me." A red furred creature with spiky fists groaned.
"Sorry, Knuckles; we thought you had stayed at the laboratory." A young looking fox with two tails apologized to the red one.
"Well, the only one who stayed is Rotor. He'll find a way to get us back home." A blue creature, with a confident smirk, tried to encourage his companions.
"Rotor? Knuckles?" Spike arched an eyebrow. "Well, my name is 'Spike', so I guess I can't criticize."
"Yes, but still, we'll need to explore this place and find a place to stay."
Spike heard quite a beautiful female voice saying this; he couldn't see who was talking since the largest wolf, a winged one ('Maybe he's half eagle, like a gryphon' Spike thought) was standing on the way. When this wolf moved a bit, however, the dragon finally could see the female talking; and he almost fainted at the vision.
"Who. Is. She?" Spike forgot about caution and talked, even if still in a low voice, while his eyes grew much larger than usual. This female looked like some sort of rodent, but the way she moved, her figure, her voice, eyes and everything about her... Spike couldn't remember seeing such a beautiful creature in his life; she was, at least, in the same league as Rarity, even moving with the dignity and leadership from a true queen or princess.
Of course, when Spike talked, even in a low voice, it was still enough for the very sensitive ears of the wolves and foxes to hear him. The large, winged male then aimed his mace at the direction Spike was hidden, and summoned a strong gust of wind that moved the bushes aside, forcing Spike out of his hideout. Then, a split second later, the blue creature moved at a speed comparable to Rainbow Dash's fastest flight, and stood next to Spike.
"Hey, look, it's a lizard guy." The blue one then kneeled to be at Spike's level, the little dragon being flat on his belly after the wind hit him out of the bushes. "Hi, little fella. Don't be afraid, we're not dangerous... well, Knuckles is dangerous, but not all the time."
"O-okay..." Spike gulped a bit but tried to keep his cool; he stood up and cleared his throat. "And I'm not a 'lizard', I'm a dragon; I hate when others call me a lizard... even if most of the time it's a very fitting way to call me." Spike couldn't help but sigh a bit when admitting this.
"Please, forgive us; we didn't mean to scare you."
Spike gulped and sweated a bit when the beautiful female approached him.
"Uh... eh... well... I... I wasn't scared... I'm... eh... well... uh... my name is Dragon and you know, I'm a spike... I mean, my name is Spike and yes, I'm a dragon!" Spike groaned and mentally kicked himself.
"Nice to meet you, Spike. My name is Sally."
"Sally..." Spike gave her a dreamy look, loving the sound of her name.
"Heh, you impressed him, Princess." The blue one half-joked. Spike, however, got an immediate reaction at this.
"A princess? Oh, my, I'm sorry." The dragon immediately bowed and held Sally's hand in a very respectful way. "Please, forgive me for not receiving you the right way, Your Majesty... in my defense, I didn't know you were royalty, even if you have the full presence and dignity of a royalty born."
"Wow. He's too well educated for a guy that lives in a forest." The two-tailed fox rubbed the back of his head.
"Please, Spike, don't be so formal." Sally said, very impressed and pleased at Spike's manners and education. "Most of my friends don't treat me like royalty, and I'm more comfortable that way. Please, allow me to do the introductions."
Sally then told Spike everyone's name, the little dragon paying close attention to all of them; he was particularly impressed by both Daemon (Spike had never seen an angel before, even if, in his eyes, Sally and, previously, Rarity, would fit the part perfectly), and the hedgehogs and echidna; there were no echidnas in Equestria, and none of the hedgehogs here were pink or blue. After introducing themselves, the newcomers explained Spike about how they arrived to Equestria.
"A laboratory? Mmm... we have a few of those here, but, in Equestria, we're more into magic than into science. The most advanced machines we have here are the locomotives." Spike, now more used to his new friends' aspect, explained them about his land. "Also, our... dominant species here are the ponies, and none of them has hands like us, so... guess that limits them a bit for working with lab equipment, unless they're unicorns and can move the stuff with magic."
"Unicorns? You have unicorns here too?" Amy asked him.
"Yeah, There are 3 main types of pony; Earth Ponies, the ones that are, well, land creatures without magic but they're often the physically strongest and have a special connection to nature, animals, and plants, and they're more abundant type of pony; Pegasus Ponies, those with wings and the ones in charge of Equestria's weather; and Unicorn Ponies, that have a horn in the middle of their foreheads and can use magic for several effects, even if only a few very gifted ones, like my friend Twilight, can use the most powerful effects. And, finally, we have the 'Alicorns', that are a mix of all the other types; big like Earth Ponies, with horns like the Unicorns, and wings like the Pegasi; and they're like, the top of our royalty. Our land is ruled by Princesses Celestia and Luna, who are also the most powerful magic users here." Spike explained. "We have a few other... sentient species here, like zebras, minotaurs, gryphons and donkeys, but they're not that many compared with the ponies, so they're still the ones in charge."
"And what about you dragons?" Nicole asked him.
"We`re a special case." Spike groaned. "I'm still a youngster, so I can... hang around with you guys without problems, but adult dragons are gigantic, and some of them are super dangerous. Not to mention that we dragons mature faster when we get greedy..."
"Greedy?" Sonic arched an eyebrow.
"Yes; it's a magical growth. If we get greedy, we dragons grow much faster; and it's not nice. A full grown dragon is a one-creature-army, but growing that fast turns you into a mindless beast that destroys everything at sight." Spike sighed. "That's one reason why I try not to be a greedy, selfish guy, so I stay small and in control of myself... even if that also means being the weakest thing around."
"Oh, I'm sure you're not that weak." Sally comforted Spike while placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I... thank you, Sally..." Spike blushed but then gasped when realizing that Sally was at least 10 feet away from him, and yet she was touching his shoulder with ease. The dragon then gave her arm a good look, noticing she had stretched it.
"How did you do that?" Spike gasped.
"Elasticity Powers." Sally explained while stretching her torso and moving right beside Spike. "It's a power some of us have."
Spike then noticed that, to support Sally's point, several of the females were stretching their arms or torsos. The only female that wasn't doing it was Fiona.
"I can do that too, but only if summoning the right powers." Fiona pointed at her chest. "I use this device to activate my own abilities."
"So... you all have powers?" Spike, still surprised, turned at the group's males. "Or only the ladies?"
"Well, I have no super powers." Lobo admitted. "You already saw Daemon has elemental powers, and he can fly... obviously. Tails can fly too, by using his tails..." While Lobo explained this, Tails used his ability to fly a few feet over the group to illustrate the point, "And you also saw Sonic's speed. Knuckles also has his own special ability; super strength."
"Nice. I wish I could say the same, you know, having a special skill... but I have nothing." Spike sighed again; obviously, he didn't consider the magical message-sending-fire or having teeth that could crush jewels to be cool enough to be considered powers, so he wasn't mentioning. "Anyway, I think you all need a place to stay while you're here in Equestria. Mmm... we're not far from my town, Ponyville; we can go there, discuss this with Twilight and my other friends, and see where you guys can stay. Since you are all used to live in a city, and Sally here is a princess, maybe we should take you to Canterlot later; besides, Princess Celestia would be glad to help you all."
The group thanked Spike for the hospitality, and then he started guiding them to Ponyville, the little dragon taking glances at Sally every few moments.
"The ponies will not get scared with us?" Leeta asked Spike.
"Don't worry. It's getting late, so most of the ponies are already at their homes having dinner, so we'll not find many on the street. Besides, when they see you guys coming with me, they'll see you're no dangerous." Spike explained. "We used to get nervous with Zecora, a zebra that lives at the Everfree Forest, because we thought she was an evil witch, but since we realized she's a good mare, the ponies here are a lot more accepting of those who are different."
"That's good to know." Lupe said. "Also, a while ago you said Princess Celestia would be glad to help us, but you also said you have another powerful princess here..."
"Yeah, Princess Luna. She'd be glad to help you as well, but she does most of her work at night, when everyone is sleeping, so... she has less practice working with others. I'm sure she'll be glad to meet you all too, but Princess Celestia would be the best option to find a spell to get you back home in case this Rotor guy can't. From what you guys told me, he didn't make the portal on his own, but with Nicole and Tails' help, and since he's working alone now..."
The Mobians nodded at this. Rotor was a genius, but creating a portal wasn't easy at all, and recreating one that was unstable in first place would probably take him a long time without Tails and Nicole to work with.
After a few minutes of walking, the group entered Ponyville, and, as Spike said, the streets had almost nobody around, except a few ponies that gave the Mobians a puzzled look but relaxed immediately when noticing they were coming with Spike, and some of them even greeted the newcomers in a nice, friendly way.
"At least we arrived at a friendly place." Maria commented Daemon.
"Yes. It's not nice to arrive in a new dimension and fight for your life the moment you do it." Daemon cringed a bit, remembering when he first arrived to Mobius and he was so confused and short-tempered at that moment he attacked everything in sight.
Spike finally took them to the town's library, and when he was about to open the door, a purple unicorn did it from the inside.
"Spike, where have you been? I've been worried..." Twilight stopped talking when noticing the ones behind Spike. "Uh... hi."
"Hello, Miss... Sparkle, right?" Sally approached the unicorn. "Sorry about the intromission, but we're newcomers in your land, and we could use some help."
"Okay..." Twilight then looked at Daemon, noticing his size. "And I could use a larger door..."
A while later, Twilight, and the rest of her friends, had finished hearing about the Mobian's situation; as usual, when there was a very serious situation, Twilight called the rest of the Elements of the Harmony. As Spike explained to the Mobians, the Elements were pretty much Equestria's special forces unit, called to assist in very special cases, and an interdimensional journey definitely qualified.
"Wow. Another dimension... that's like, 20% cooler than a normal travel." Rainbow Dash commented, while looking at Daemon's wings. "And how fast can you fly? I mean, with wings this big, I'd probably do a Sonic Rainboom without breaking a sweat!"
"We can... talk about that later." Daemon said politely, obviously ignoring what a Sonic Rainboom was. The blue pegasus nodded in agreement while Twilight paced back and forth, thinking about the newcomers' problem.
"Okay... first, it's obvious you can't stay here in my library. This place wasn't thought to be used as a boarding house. The Mayor allowed Spike and I to stay here by Princess Celestia's recommendation, and we even had to adapt it just for the two of us. A group this large..." Twilight was interrupted by Rarity.
"I think some of them can stay at my place. My sister is with my parents right now so it's just Opalescence and I... Opal is my pet cat..." Rarity cleared to the Mobians, "so I have plenty of space."
"Hold on. You have CATS as pets?" Amy arched an eyebrow.
"Well... it's obvious that, in your dimension, almost all the animals are sentient, civilized beings. But here, in Equestria, we only have a handful of sentient, civilized species." Rarity explained, understanding that, in Mobius, having a 'pet cat' would mean having a sentient, civilized feline in a very humiliating situation.
"Yes. Luckily, even our 'non civilized' species can be very smart and we live with them in harmony... most of the time." Twilight smiled while pointing at Owlicious, her pet owl, who was resting next to Knuckles and keeping an eye on Pee Wee, Spike's pet phoenix, who was using the echidna's head as a bed.
"I just hope this one is civilized enough to realize I'm not a bathroom." Knuckles groaned. Spike, grinning, grabbed Pee Wee without waking him up and placed him in his own bed, Sally smiling at the kindness the little dragon showed when taking care of the baby bird.
"I take care of many animals in my house." Fluttershy said in her quiet, almost completely silent tone. "I can... have one or two of you at my place... if you agree."
"Oh, and I can have another one at home. We can have a sleepover party!" Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile. Amy and the elastic wolf twins got immediately interested in the idea.
"And we have plenty of place at mah farm." Applejack finished. "Ah think that would be the best place for Daemon since we already have a lot of space there for mah big brother; and of course, Maria can stay too. Not good to separate the happy couple."
"And I... am glad you guys already offered to play host." Rainbow grinned while looking at the Mobians. "No offense, but I sleep in a cloud, and I doubt you guys have the magic to stand on a cloud without falling."
"Good. Let's decide who will stay with who. Still, I think Nicole and Tails should stay here with Spike and I, since they're the scientists of their group, and we can work together in finding a way to return them home." Twilight said. "After all, 'energy' equals 'energy', either magical or scientific, and we can try referencing your research with my books."
"What about Sally?" Spike asked.
"I would be honored to accept a royal member in my place." Rarity offered.
Spike didn't like this idea that much; his 'old crush' having his 'new one' at her place sounded a bit awkward, not to mention Spike would have a hard time sleeping that night knowing Sally and Rarity would sleep under the same roof. Still, he couldn't deny that a perfect lady like Rarity, educated, sophisticated and generous, was the more adequate to host a princess like Sally, who was, in Spike's eyes, just as wonderful.
"Thank you, Rarity, but I am also a bit of a scientist, so I'd like to stay here with Nicole and Tails too." Sally's words made Spike to beam. "Lobo and Lupe would probably be okay staying with you... if you have the space for them, of course."
Sally didn't mean to be offending, but it was obvious that a large, muscular wolf like Lobo would need more space than the regular pony.
"Oh, it's fine. And yes, my home would be a good place for a mature, nice couple like them." Rarity, even if a bit disappointed for not having a princess staying at her place, was still her generous self, and Lobo and Lupe seemed to be very nice as well.
Pinkie Pie agreed, with great happiness, to have Amy, Leeta and Lyco at her place; she knew the Cakes never minded when she invited friends for a sleepover, and the three girls could also help Pinkie babysit the Cakes' foals; Daemon and Maria accepted Applejack's invitation, and when hearing the farm was an apples' one, Sonic decided to stay there too, since, as he explained to Spike and the ponies, Sonic's usual sleeping place was on a tree branch; Fiona and Knuckles, finally, agreed on staying with Fluttershy.
Once everyone but Nicole, Tails and Sally left to spend the night at the other ponies' homes, with Rainbow Dash going to the Apples farm as well to talk with both Daemon and Sonic on their way there, Twilight and Spike started working with the remaining Mobians. Spike prepared a quick dinner for them while Twilight and the others started checking on the library for every single available book about interdimensional travel, magical portals, and strange energy signals; Tails and Nicole felt a bit out of place at first since, for once, they had to work without any technological help, something very frustrating for them, but they soon got used to the books, and even started enjoying the sensation of holding them while searching for the information.
Spike, despite being very tired and way past his usual bedtime, was more than happy to assist the working geniuses. The little dragon knew his way around the library, and could help them with reference material and providing them with various snacks and drinks to keep them alert while working; not to mention it was extremely cool to see Sally using her elasticity to accelerate the search, stretching her arms to grab the books from the higher shelves, or becoming muscular to hold several heavy books at once.
"You stretch very nicely." Spike said to Sally. Owlicious, who was next to him, nodded and said...
"Who."
"Sally, don't you see her?"
"Who."
"The princess."
"Who."
"Princess Sally. She's right in front of your nose... I mean, your beak!"
"Who."
"You; in front of you!"
"Who."
"You need glasses or... oh, wait a minute; I'm doing it again, right, arguing with you?" Spike groaned while Owlicious just nodded at him. The others at the library giggled at this, and Spike, more than a bit embarrased, turned at the Mobians. "Owlicious is so smart that sometimes I forget the only noise he can make is 'who', and I think he's making a question."
"Who."
"You, you making a question.. wait a minute..." The little dragon slapped his forehead. "Spike, remember you're talking to an owl, you know where this leads to."
"Who."
"No, no 'who'; 'where'... argh! Owlicious, you're gonna drive me crazy!"
"Who."
"Me!" Spike then stopped and sighed. "I'm going to shut up now."
"Spike, you really need to go to sleep." Twilight said to the little dragon.
"No, no, I'm fine, Twi. Making a fool out of myself woke me up completely." Spike groaned again. "Maybe not completely because I continue doing it."
Owlicious then patted Spike's shoulder in sympathy, the dragon sighing at this.
"You're so funny, Spike." Sally giggled a bit more. Even if Spike loved the sound of this, he was still a bit sad about looking like a moron in front of the princess.
"Thanks, Sally... and... I guess Twi is right. I need a break now... but please, wake me up if you need anything; a cup of coffee, a sandwich, a book, a hooves massage..." Spike covered his mouth. "Going to sleep now."
"Who."
Spike raised a finger and was about to talk again but stopped, mimicked zipping on his mouth, and started walking upstairs.
"Aw, I wanted to see more of that routine." Tails chuckled.
"Who."
"Me; I wanted to see you two doing that again."
"Who."
"You and Spike."
"Who."
"Spike, the dragon that just went upstairs..." Tails stopped talking and groaned while the females started laughing. "Does EVERYONE fall for that?"
"Don't feel bad, Tails; even 'I' made that mistake a few times." Twilight chuckled before petting Owlicious, the bird smiling at her before flying up and getting her a book she needed.
"I'm just glad Sonic wasn't here to see that or he'd be laughing like crazy now." Tails groaned.
"Who."
"The... oh, no. Not any more. Zip it. Not saying more. End of discussion." Tails got a very serious expression and folded his arms. Owlicious just shrugged and went back to assisting Twilight.
"Spike does a lot around here, doesn't he?" Sally asked Twilight as they went back to working.
"Yes. In fact, he does so much that I actually got Owlicious in the first place so Spike would have less work, and I could have someone to help me while Spike is sleeping; he's still growing up and can't stay up all night, as I sometimes do when studying." Twilight explained before sighing a bit. "And he does so much for everypony around here... Spike has more education than most ponies, plus he has hands, so he is a Mister 'I do everything' in this place. And that makes me even sadder when something bad happens to him... it's just so unfair."
"Something bad?" Sally forgot about the research, truly interested about this.
"Spike was raised like a pony, so he has pony-like feelings; he's not a creature of greed and instincts, like most dragons in Equestria. And that makes him a great friend... he's like a little brother to me... but sadly, that means he can also get hurt by unrequited love, as it just happened to him with Rarity."
"Rarity? The white unicorn?"
"Yes. Spike had been in love with Rarity since he first saw her, when he and I moved here from Canterlot. And besides yours truly, Rarity is the pony that gets more attention and help from Spike; whenever Spike isn't assisting me, he's at Rarity's place offering help on anything she might need... many times, while Rarity had been busy working, Spike is the one who does all her home chores. And Rarity appreciates it, a lot; she loves Spike a lot... sadly, she only loves him in the same way I do, as a sibling or a best friend." Twilight sighed sadly. "Spike was hoping she would fall for him someday... but yesterday, when we were at Canterlot, Rarity started a relationship with a certain guy none of us likes... but it seems he is a bit less annoying these days, at least enough for Rarity to forgive his past insults... and this broke Spike's heart. The guy Rarity is dating is a prince, and a very good looking one, I admit, so Spike feels completely crushed and hopeless."
"Poor little guy." Sally felt herself holding back tears. "And Rarity knows this?"
"Yes, she does, and she tried to ease the blow for Spike; I can tell Rarity felt awful for breaking his heart... but Spike told her, in his own words, that 'I am happy if you're happy', and even if it's obvious it's not truth, he'd hate to make her feel bad, and therefore he's assuring Rarity that he'll be fine and that she can date her prince without feeling guilty." Twilight looked a bit down at this. "I wanted to be angry with Rarity for breaking my 'little brother's' heart, but I can't blame her for falling in love with somepony else, and Spike can't force anypony to fall in love with him. Besides, I'm also happy for her finally fulfilling her dream of dating a prince."
"I see your point; you are happy for one friend but you also feel bad because this happiness is making another friend sad." Sally sighed, understanding the situation and that it wouldn't be fair to blame Rarity, who seemed to be a really generous and nice unicorn.
"I just wish Spike can find another female to love, and for her to love him back." Twilight said while getting back to work. "If not another pony, maybe a gryphon, or a zebra... or another reptile like him, but I doubt that's gonna happen anytime soon since most of the sentient reptiles here are other dragons, and Spike isn't in good terms with them."
"Or maybe a chipmunk/squirrel..." Sally thought, shaking her head after this. "Whoa, hold your horses, Sally... okay, maybe not a good thing to think or say in this place. Still, I just met the guy today; I can't get a schoolgirl crush immediately after meeting anyone, even if is someone nice, educated, cute..."
"I might need a break too." Sally groaned while rubbing her forehead.
"Who."
Sally turned at Owlicious and sighed.
"Sorry, Owlicious, not playing that with you."
"Who."
"You. I'm not in the mood for..." Sally stopped talking. "Talking about a running gag."