Chapter 3 - Elastic Heroism in Ponyville
The next days were quite busy for everyone in Ponyville. After Twilight introduced the Mobians to the Mayor, she made a formal introduction for the whole town, so the other ponies wouldn't fear the newcomers, and the Mobians could move freely around town without worrying. Also, Princess Celestia had already visited and promised to start working on a way to send them back home by checking out Canterlot's library, and sending any new information to Twilight via Spike's magical flames, as usual.
The Mobians did a pretty good job adapting themselves to living with the ponies. Every morning, Knuckles left Fluttershy's home to go help at the Apples' farm, being the most constant Mobian working there, even if most of them helped once in a while; obviously, Knuckles enjoyed doing some physical work, and he was making fast friends with the Apples, especially with Big Macintosh, due to his working, silent nature, something Knuckles appreciated a lot after spending so much time around Sonic.
Said blue hedgehog, when not taking naps in a tree, got to hang around mostly with Rainbow Dash, and they enjoyed racing against each other; they were both quite impressed with each other's speed. Of course, Sonic had broken the sound barrier more than once, but he had never produced a Sonic Rainboom, something he really liked when Rainbow showed it to him. Daemon also spent time with the pegasus, the archangel being quite interested in the flying ponies' ability to control Equestria's weather.
Pinkie Pie was having the time of her life with Amy, Leeta and Lyco, not just with all the fun they had at Sugarcube Corner, but also because she was teaching them how to cook. Luckily, most of the recipes Pinkie was teaching them involved ingredients that weren't hard to get at Mobius, so the hedgehog and wolves wouldn't have a problem making them when returning home.
Fluttershy got some very welcomed help from Maria and Fiona, the trio working with the animals all day. Fiona even got to practice with her assorted powers, using one for the first time; the ability to talk and understand any language. On Mobius, almost every species talked the same language, so she had never used this power back at home, but here, it was a great help to work with the creatures under Fluttershy's care.
Rarity and Lupe were also becoming fast friends; even if Lupe was the co-leader of a warrior race, she was still a diplomat, and Rarity considered her some sort of royalty. Not to mention Lobo was a perfect gentleman (or gentlewolf) and Rarity loved to see the wolves' couple's dynamic, something that gave her great hopes for her own relationship with Blueblood. Plus, it was a nice surprise that Lobo, despite his huge frame and muscular body, was also good at delicate work, and both him and Lupe helped Rarity with her work, except when they joined Knuckles at helping Applejack's family. This help was particularly welcome for Rarity since, these days, Spike spent less time assisting her.
The main reason Spike wasn't helping Rarity as much as before wasn't due to her rejection (it still hurt, but Spike just couldn't be resentful with the unicorn), but because he spent most of his time assisting Twilight, Tails, Nicole, and, of course, Sally. Whenever he wasn't helping them with their research, Spike was doing his best to keep the place as clean and tidy as possible, so the geniuses could work comfortably; the fact that cleaning up the place was also a good excuse to be around Sally, under the excuse of doing his chores, and ordering back the books Twilight and company no longer were using, was an added bonus.
Sally, of course, was mostly focused on her work, but she couldn't help but catch glances of Spike every once in a while; it wasn't that hard since, obviously, Spike was always around, and the only times he wasn't at the library was when he went out for groceries or whatever Twilight told him to get. The princess was quite charmed by the dragon's niceness and abilities; it wasn't easy to find a male with such ability for home chores, plus being smart and kind enough to carry a conversation with her in about every topic; obviously, being raised by Twilight and Princess Celestia gave him both remarkable social skills and a broad education. And it was just too funny to see him trying to impress everyone (or more precisely, her) by doing his best in anything he could do to assist her and the others; at times, he would be overly dramatic, trying to attend Sally as if she was the Queen of The Universe, but after a while it became obvious, even for him, that he was doing his best when not trying to overdo himself.
A week after the Mobians' arrival, Spike had to leave Ponyville for a while, due to one of Twilight's errands; she needed a few jewels for the research, in case they needed it as energy crystals or lenses if they eventually could make a machine, combining magic and science, to recreate the same invention that stranded the Mobians in Equestria. Usually, Rarity would go with Spike too, since she had the special ability to find buried or hidden gems, but Spike wanted to show everyone he could do it by his own.
"Okay, Spike, don't screw this up. You can't fail Twi; and you don't wanna fail your new friends either... and disappointing Sally is like, completely forbidden..." Spike took a few deep breaths to calm down when finally arriving at the usual spot he and Rarity searched for jewels. Then, he got on four legs, and started sniffing around; since he lacked Rarity's magic powers, Spike relied on his animal senses, and being a dragon, a creature who could eat jewels like most people would eat cookies, Spike's nose was capable of detecting them, a quite notable ability.
After a while of searching, Spike found the first gem, and it was a very special one; a sapphire, as big his own face, and heart-shaped. This immediately reminded him of the Fire Ruby he once gave to Rarity, but this time he could only think about someone to give this gem to... once he stopped himself from munching it, of course.
"A Glacier Sapphire... this is as hard to find as a lemon tree in Applejack's farm!" Spike grinned. "Hope Sally will like it... I mean, hope she can use it for the research... I mean, hope they all can use it... And better stop arguing with myself; this is even dumber than my arguments with Owlicious."
Spike got back to searching, and he finally got a bag full of jewels, and resisted the temptation of eating them since he couldn't tell which gems could be useful for Twilight and the others, and would hate to know that the gem they needed had ended as his lunch.
"Besides, I'm sure they'll let me eat the jewels they don't use." Spike chuckled.
"And what are we getting?"
"Well, if you say 'Please'..." Spike stopped talking and gulped, especially when his hyper sensitive nose recognized the smell of the ones behind him.
"The Di-Di-Di-Di..."
"Diamond Dogs." The 3 large canines grinned at Spike. "Nice to see you, Dragon."
"And I see you found us a nice batch of jewels." Another dog smirked while approaching to the bag.
"Hold on, these jewels are important!" Spike growled.
"Yes, for us. And better move back before we beat you up, Dragon." The largest dog growled.
"Okay, first of all... Stop. Calling. Me. Dragon." Spike growled back. "Do you know who I am?"
"No. Who?" The dog was silenced by Spike placing a hand on his muzzle.
"Don't say 'who', please."
"Why?"
"Don't say that either!"
"What?"
"Aaaargh! First the owl, and now you three!" Spike started pacing back and forth while rubbing his sides, confusing the dogs. "You're giving me a headache!"
"Now, hold..."
"Don't you know it's not good to talk to someone having a headache? Shame on you." Spike frowned. "Your mommy didn't educate you?"
"Uh... well..."
"I think I'm gonna tell your mother." Spike smirked.
"No, no, please, no..."
"Mmmm... okay... I'll consider it. But you better behave, okay?" Spike looked at the three nodding dogs. "Good. Now, go to your room, and don't get out until I tell you, or no dinner tonight."
The dogs nodded and ran away. Spike lost no time and grabbed the jewels, dashing on the opposite direction.
"Heh, Rarity was right. These dogs have rocks for brains." Spike chuckled while running. "Wonder when they're gonna realize I tricked them."
"WAIT A MINUTE!"
Spike cringed when hearing the dogs yelling, and started running even faster.
"Come on, Spike, hurry up, just another mile and you'll be safe and sound in Ponyville..."
The dragon was already seeing some ponies' homes at a distance, and was almost sure he'd get there in time... when one of the Diamond Dogs emerged right in front of him, literally jumping out of the ground.
"Yipes! I forgot you guys could chase others by tunnel!" Spike gulped.
"And you also forgot we don't like when others mess with us." The dog approached Spike, looking quite mad.
"Well... uh... eh..." Spike realized he had no way out of this, and stood up. "Alright, you fool; in case you forgot it, I'm still a dragon. A short one, but a dragon, no less. And I can handle a dog like you. Or three."
Spike then heard multiple snarling behind him, and turned back, looking at several Diamond Dogs, in guard/soldier outfits, emerging from various tunnels. The dragon couldn't help but pale in fear.
"Or... four... or five... dozens." Spike gulped when finding himself overcrowded, but tried to keep a brave image. "Eh... well... you're all under arrest!"
The dogs snarled at him.
"Uh... detention?" Spike sweated cold.
The dogs snarled again.
"On probation?"
The dogs got closer.
"No dessert tonight?" Spike gave them a sheepish look before sighing. "Okay... guess there's only one thing to do."
"Begging for your life?" One of the largest dogs smirked at him.
"No. I just remembered I can do this." Spike took a deep breath and then surprised the canines by breathing his largest flame ever, forming a circle of fire around him. The dogs jumped back, but soon reacted and started throwing dirt at the fire to extinguish it, but, by the time they had done it, they realized they had all forgotten that Spike could tunnel as well; right there, in the middle of where the fire circle was just a moment ago, there was now a small tunnel, and Spike and the jewels were gone.
Some of the dogs jumped at the tunnel, enlarging it by their own digging. Then, the ones on the surface heard loud barking, growling, and even some yelping coming from the tunnel; when another dog got closer to the tunnel to enter as well, he jumped back when a little flame jumped out and burned his nose.
A few moments later, another dog emerged from a new tunnel, with Spike riding him, the dragon still holding the bag of jewels with one hand while using the other to get a hold on the dog, and bite him several times. The dog yelped in pain and started rolling on the ground, with Spike still holding on him like a tick; the other dogs then pounced on their companion to help him with the dragon, but Spike jumped down at the last moment, and the dogs started beating each other, not noticing Spike trying to run away again. Unfortunately, another dog spotted him and charged at Spike, who no longer could use a strong flame due to exhausting his inner fire for the time being, so the dragon had to rely on his fists, claws and teeth to defend himself, and, surprisingly, he actually managed to hurt this dog, but the others realized this and joined the fight.
Less than one minute later, Spike was crawling and trying to cover himself while protecting the bag, as the dogs continued punching, kicking and biting him. The little dragon had resisted as much as he could, but in the end he was very outmatched.
"Aw, the poor little baby is gonna cry?" A dog mocked Spike.
"Think we should make him our jewels-looking slave?" Another dog asked.
"No. I have another idea." The largest dog grinned and moved right next to Spike, his muzzle almost touching the dragon's head. "A chewing toy."
Spike closed his eyes, gulping, and feeling the dog's breath as he opened his jaws to start 'chewing' him, when he heard an explosion, and then all the dogs yelping. When Spike opened his eyes, he saw all the dogs were scattered around him, and when looking up in the sky, he realized that it wasn't a common explosion.
It was a Sonic Rainboom.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND, OR I'M GONNA KICK YOUR TAILS SO BADLY YOUR PUPS WILL BE BORN WITHOUT A BUTT!"
The dogs finally reacted, recovering partially from the deafening sound and the rainboom's shockwave, and growled at Rainbow, who was flying over them.
"Oh, yeah? You and what Air Force?"
The dog who said this got silent when a large, winged shadow feel over him. And when looking up, the dog yelped in fear, barely on time to see Daemon's mace before it impacted against his head, knocking him out.
"What's that freak?" Another dog yelled, confused.
"Hey, nobody insults my husband!" Maria arrived the next, having used a winged shape to follow after Daemon, and then she morphed into her ball shape. "Wanna play ball, Puppies?"
Maria, as a ball, started ricocheting at high speed, hitting the dogs several times. Before the canines could fight back, another blue speedster joined the battle.
"Hey, Rainbow, the others saw your lights show! They're coming!" Sonic said to Rainbow Dash while the hedgehog started punching and kicking the dogs at super speed.
"Others?" Another dog asked, and then gasped when looking at Ponyville, realizing several canine creatures, and one that looked like a rodent, were stretching their way across town, some by enlarging their whole bodies and others by getting quite large legs, and they all looked ready to beat up the dogs.
"GET THE DRAGON, WE CAN USE IT AS A HOSTAGE!" A dog yelled to his companions, but at that moment two unicorns appeared right next to Spike; Twilight had used her teleportation spell, and Rarity was next to her.
"Want jewels?" Rarity growled, using her magic on the bag and levitating several of the gems. "HERE THEY ARE, YOU BRUTES!"
Rarity then started using the jewels as projectiles (not the largest ones, since Rarity was focusing mostly on the small, easy to levitate ones), with her magic sending them against the Diamond Dogs with enough force to knock out several of them. Some of the dogs started digging their way out, but then Sally arrived and, making her hands as big as a full grown pony, grabbed them before they could escape, and then started slamming them full force.
"Let's get out of here!" Another dog said to his remaining companions, and they started tunneling, but Fiona arrived at that moment, riding on Applejack, and the female fox had her own trick.
"Oh, you like Earth? I'll give you Earth!" Fiona used her device to get her geomancing powers, and sent a powerful energy wave through the ground, literally expelling out those dogs that were already underground. The rest of the elastic females then formed a wall around the dogs so they couldn't run away, and Sonic and Rainbow Dash finished the job by moving at top speed around them; a split second later, the whole pack was trapped in a blue tornado, and when the speedsters stopped moving, all the dogs fell down; due to the wind's force, they landed the other side of the hills.
"AND IF YOU TRY THAT AGAIN, WE'LL HURT YOU SO MUCH YOU'LL NEED THE JEWELS TO PAY FOR A VETERINARIAN!" Rainbow yelled, in case any of the dogs was still conscious enough to get her words. The blue pegasus was tempted to hunt down the dogs and continue beating them up, but she was just too concerned about Spike, and decided to join the others and see how badly beaten he was.
"Spike, are you alright... okay, silly question." Twilight said while attending him. "Better question; are you conscious?"
"T-Twi..." Spike, very dizzy, started focusing his sight. The first thing he saw, besides Twilight, was Sally, right next to the purple unicorn, attending him as well.
"I... see... an angel..."
"No, the angel is here." Rainbow Dash said while pointing at Daemon. "Those are Sally and Twilight. Wow. You really got a beating; those dogs used you as a chewing toy."
"Rainbow, Ah like honesty, but yah are being too brutally honest!" Applejack frowned at Rainbow, who realized her mistake and got an ashamed expression.
"So that's the face I make when I speak faster than I think. No wonder the others frown at me." Sonic thought out loud.
"Fiona, you have healing powers, right?" Sally asked the fox, who nodded and started adjusting her dial.
"Spikey, why didn't you ask me to come with you?" Rarity lectured Spike even if it was obvious she was as concerned as everyone else. "You know it's very dangerous to do jewel-mining without any help, especially close to the Diamond Dogs' territory."
"No, Rarity; it's my fault." Twilight groaned and looked down. "I told Spike we needed some jewels for the research; I should have come here with him. With my teleportation spell, we'd be able to escape the dogs without problems."
Spike heard the 'blaming yourself festival' around him, and looked down, almost crying. When Fiona finally got the right powers, and started healing him, he looked up at his friends, sighing.
"No... it wasn't anyone's fault... but mine."
"Spike, you can't blame yourself." Lupe said, trying to comfort the little dragon.
"Yeah, it wasn't your fault those morons attacked you." Leeta added.
"No, but it was my fault I was such an easy target. Rarity and Twilight are right; I shouldn't have gone jewel-searching on my own. And when the dogs attacked me... I was just too weak and small to defend the jewels, or myself." Spike sighed sadly, and stood up. "I'm nothing but a... little, defenseless, useless lizard."
"Spike, don't be so harsh on yourself." Sally tried to calm him down but Spike started walking away from the group. He then noticed the sack, that was now almost completely empty except for something big still inside; all the other jewels were scattered around, due to Rarity using them as weapons; Spike grabbed the sack and walked away from the group, heading to nowhere in particular.
"Spike." Sally was about to stretch her arm to stop him but Rarity stopped her.
"No. He wants to be alone right now." The white unicorn sighed. "Let's... give him some time to calm down... and if he still feels bad, we'll help him."
The others nodded at this, hating to let Spike go, but knowing Rarity had a fair point.
"Alright, where's the danger?"
Everyone turned to see Spike, Lobo, Tails and a very reluctant Fluttershy (finally) arriving.
"Uh... sorry, guys, you're late." Sonic grinned. "You missed all the fight and the post-fight drama; the later is something nobody liked."
"Oh, great." Knuckles groaned and face-palmed. "I knew it! We lost a lot of time."
"Doing what?" Applejack asked.
"Helping Pinkie Pie gather her weapons." Lobo pointed at the pink pony arriving a moment later, dressed like a Rambo-like, and holding several cakes, rubber chickens, balls, and, of course, her party cannon.
"ALRIGHT, I'M READY! I HAVE WHIPPED CREAM HERE, AND I KNOW HOW TO USE IT!" Pinkie said, growling, before eating some of the whipped cream. "SEE? I KNOW HOW TO USE IT. AND I MIGHT FIND OTHER WAYS!"
All those with hands face-palmed, while the ponies just sighed and shook their heads.
"Just repeat yourselves 'Despite everything, we love her', and the headache will eventually leave." Rarity rolled her eyes.
Meanwhile, Spike, without realizing it, was now entering the Everfree Forest; usually, he would avoid this place as much as Fluttershy would avoid a rock n' roll concert, but this time he just didn't care if he was getting lost, eaten by a Manticore or intoxicated with poison ivy. At this point, he would gladly fight the Diamond Dogs again, alone, just to feel something besides self-hating.
"Well done, Spike. You wanted to impress Sally, and you only proved her what Rarity already knew; that you're the most useless, pathetic, excuse of an assistant that had ever lived." Spike groaned before taking out the Glacier Sapphire from the sack. "Sally deserves this jewel... but she must get it from someone who deserves her gratitude and love... someone worthy of a princess... someone smart like Twilight, strong like Big Macintosh, educated like Rarity, cool like Rainbow Dash, funny like Pinkie Pie, hard-working and responsible like Applejack, and charming like Fluttershy. Someone... that isn't me."
Spike stopped walking and looked down, holding the sapphire with both hands. At this moment, he was pondering about what to do with this jewel, and for once, it didn't involve eating it, or giving it as a gift.
"Should I drop it, hit my face with it, or trade it for a ticket out of Ponyville?" Spike frowned. The dragon, in anger, threw the sapphire against a nearby tree; it bounced back and hit his face.
"OW! COME ON, SPIKE, CAN'T YOU EVEN DUMP SOMETHING?" Spike roared in anger, frustration, sadness and desperation. Spike grabbed the sapphire and started looking for somewhere to dump it, while rubbing his face; even if Fiona had healed his wounds, he still felt some pain from the beating.
Spike finally found what seemed to be a good place to dump the jewel; behind some bushes. The dragon took some impulse and threw it over the plants.
"You know, this is the first time someone hits me with a jewel."
Spike cringed when hearing this voice.
"Perfect. Just perfect. Even 'here' I am making mistakes." Spike sighed and moved through the bushes. "Sorry about that, Sir; you can conserve the jewel if you... want..."
Spike stopped walking and wide-opened his eyes in surprise. In front of him, holding the sapphire with telekinetic magic in front of his face, was an alicorn, like Princess Celestia, Luna or Cadence, but this one was a male, and a very large one; probably as huge as Big Macintosh. His coat, tail and mane were a lot like Applejack's, but his mane was even brighter, and in fact the whole alicorn seemed to glow under the sunlight. Also, his wings were unusually large, even more than Princess Celestia's (who, until now, had the largest wings Spike had ever seen in a pony), and, unlike the rest of his coat, or his mane and tail, was a bright red. Also, his hooves seemed to be pure silver's, and he had a small, red jewel in his forehead right under the horn, that was also as big as Princess Celestia's.
Spike, knowing all alicorns were born in royalty, bowed respectfully in front of this stranger, realizing he could be a prince, and most surely, also related to Celestia, Luna and Cadence. He wouldn't be surprised if this guy was Cadence's older cousin... even if Spike, at this moment, didn't remember him attending Cadence and Shining Armor's Wedding.
"I'm sorry I disturbed you, Sir. Please, forgive me for my... stupidity."
"Not thinking high about yourself, uh?" The huge colt approached Spike, talking in a noble, royal yet nice way.
"Not easy to think high about someone who's the size of a baby goat." Spike sighed for the millionth time.
"I think you're larger than that." The alicorn then nodded at Spike, signaling him to look up. "And stop bowing, please. Can you tell me your name?"
"I'm Spike, Sir."
"Nice to meet you, Spike. My name is Adam Warcolt. And now... let's see if we can do something about your self-esteem."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about something that small." Spike said to the alicorn. Adam couldn't help but sigh a bit at this.
"This is gonna be a challenge."