Scaled Foal : Action Comics #1 , Part 1 .


Twilight and Spike's relationship had always been a bit complex. After all, a dragon being raised by a unicorn was bound to turn some heads. Especially since that pony was just a foal herself. Some ponies even asked her, "if Spike was her pet." Which always got her really mad.

Twilight had raised him, with the aid of her parents and Celestia, since the day he hatched. However the pair acted more like siblings, then a parent would with their child. Though Twilight took a great deal more responsibility over him, then a sister normally would.

Spike never knew how to describe it, until Apple Jack compared it to her own relationship with Apple Bloom. AJ said, Twilight acted like an older sibling, who had been forced to raise her foal brother, after their parents died. Only in their case, no pony had really died. That actually made a lot of sense to him.

What AJ said had just felt right. It was the perfect way to describe Spike's feelings for Twilight. She wasn't his mom and he definitely wasn't her pet. She was his big sister, who had been left to take care of him.

He still respected her and loved to be her little helper, but he didn't imagine any foal could get away with being as blunt or snarky to their parent as he was with Twilight.

They were friends, closer then friends. He told things to Twilight that he'd be far too embarrassed to tell anyone else, especially a parent... but at the same time Twilight was still responsible for him.

She gave him his daily chores (which she actually did help with contrary to popular belief) and would... punish him if he misbehaved, or did something dangerous, or just without thinking.

A lot of the time the punishments where just a dressing down. Where she would mercilessly scold the young dragon. Sometimes he was made to stand in time out, or go to bed early. Then their was the worst, most horrible, evil punishments he absolutely hated.

If Spike was really bad Twilight would pick him up, with her magic, along with a hair brush. Then he'd get his little bottom smacked with the backend of the brush over and over again. Those were horrible, although he only got about 10 swats (the most he ever got being 20).

He would cry and beg and make a million promises to never do it again, but Twilight never let him off until she was sure he was properly punished.

Spankings might not be the most commonly used punishment for him, but he knew by the look on Twilight's face when he earned one... like the look she was wearing right now.


"It was an accident!" Spike swore. Twilight had never spanked him for an accident.

"I'm sure it was buddy," Shining Armor grinned holding the ashes of the comic, inside the plastic sheath, where Spike had stealthily tried to hide them... the boy never was very good, at hiding the things he accidentally broke.

They were in the room Twilight designed especially for when her brother visited. Shining Armor was a major nerd, despite being the tough Captain of the royal guard. He collected comic books, and action figures, and was very sentimental when it came to the treasures of his childhood.

Shining Armor was actually the reason Spike loved comic books. Whenever Shining came to visit Twilight at school he always brought with him a comic book for Spike. Not just any Comic books either but trades, a single book that was a large collection of issues, usually holding an entire saga. Spike loved them and continued to cherish those comics to this day.

Each trade cost about 30 or 40 bits, but Shining wanted Spike to get the entirety of the best stories. Shining worked hard to convert Spike to the ways of nerddom. It was really nice since Shining's allowance at the time had been 20 bits a week (he had rich nobles for parents) and he visited Twilight once a month. That meant he spent half of his allowance on Spike, and he usually brought Twilight a book to. He was always doing selfless things like that.

He would set up these amazing scavenger hunts with riddles hidden all over the school and when the pair finally solved them all, they would find a book for Twilight and a comic for Spike. It was glorious. Shining was as much a big brother to Spike, as he was to Twilight.

So of course Spike had helped Twilight set up this amazing guest room. For whenever Shining Armor came to visit. Spike had made sure it was geek heaven. Since Twilight had been all Princess-fied they could easily afford it.

Being the Princess of friendship came with a lot of perks, wealth just being one of them. The vault the Castle came with was filled with, so many bits that she couldn't ever hope to spend it all.

She even upped Spike's allowance to what Shining's had been, when he was a foal. And was ordering lots of gems to be delivered to the castle, for Spike to munch on.

Dragons could actually taste the pure magic trapped in gems, and even got nourishment from it. This made Gems not only a tasty treat for Dragons, but a healthy one.

It used to be that gems were too expensive to get just for Spike to eat. Although they were good for dragons they weren't necessary for a healthy diet.

Twilight might have came from a family of rich nobles, but her trust fund was far from limitless, so Gems were a rare treat for Spike.

Now that Twilight was Princess rich, she could stock up on lots of gems for the boy. She would put them in fruit bowls around the Castle, for Spike to munch on between meals, as a healthy snack.

Unlike normal food it wasn't actually possible for dragons to get fat on gems. In fact, the excess magic they consume,d safely added to their magical reserves.

Twilight even got Spike his own bedroom, which he'd never had before, as he usually shared a room with her.

She also bought a bunch of Arcade games, and filled one of the larger rooms with them. Although she made it clear, that this game room was for everyone, and not just Spike, but he could use it whenever he wanted.

She had been spreading her wealth around Ponyville as well. Everything in the Castle she had ordered from the local store owners, who in turn often ordered it from somewhere out of town.

The book store owner had always liked Twilight, since she bought tons of books, but now he was practically in love with her. Since this castle had such a huge library, she had ordered over 20000 first editions to fill it.

All the furniture throughout the Castle was custom made by local shop owners, to fit with the themes her friends had when they were decorating the rooms. The Castle felt much more like a home now.


"It's only a comic. It's okay," Shining insisted.

"No it's not," Twilight glared. "All these comics are first editions! The cheapest of them are still worth over a thousand bits!"

"Twi, it's cool," Shining waved off. "Let's just look through them and see which one got burnt up." He used his magic to pull a few of the comics out from their nice box and began gushing, "A mint condition first edition Spidermare #1! Twi this thing is worth over a million bits! How did you-"

"Maybe now you'll get why I'm upset," Twilight sniped.

Shining's eyes grew large with worry, at the implication. He quickly began searching through the comics. "All these comics are some of the greatest landmarks of the industry." Strangely he was getting more and more worried as he saw how amazing the comics were.

"Oh no," Twilight groaned, "I can't find Action Comics #1,"

Shining paled, "Action Comics #1," he muttered putting the other comics back into their box for safe keeping. Then levitating the bag of ashes to his face. "One of the rarest and most priceless artifacts in comic book history... The first superhero comic ever made."

He was staring at it with a stunned expression, before he suddenly started screaming in terror at the ashes. After the screaming came the sobbing, as he reached out and hugged the bag of ashes.

Spike tried to sneakily sneak out of the room but gasped as he was suddenly picked up by Twilight's magic. With Shining still crying in the background Spike yelled, "It was an accident! I swear Twilight! I didn't mean to!"

"I TOLD you to stay away from the comics Spike," Twilight glared. "I told you for exactly this reason! We both know you haven't mastered your fire breath!"

"I'm sorry Twilight!" Spike tried to run but his limbs wouldn't make contact with the floor.

"You destroyed something worth nearly 5 MILLION BITS!"

"I'll pay you back!" Spike swore.

"With what? A lemonade stand?"

"Please Twilight, I'll find a way!"

"Oh don't worry, I've already thought of a way," Twilight glared. "I'm taking it out of your hide!"

"Noooooooo Twilight, PLEEEEESE! I'm sorry!"

"Sorry isn't good enough this time Spike, come on," Twilight walked out the door and Spike floated behind her. He desperately tried to grab the door frame, as he was forced to follow, but Twilight was used to this trick and easily made him avoid them. Shining was still hugging the bag and weeping, not noticing they left.


Twilight brought the young dragon to his room. She had put Shining Armor right next door to Spike. So they could hang out more during his visit, but Spike was feeling horrifically unlucky at this display of kindness. There was practically no delay in getting Spike into his room, and Twilight grabbing the small paddle off the wall.

She had hung it there as a reminder to behave, although Spike didn't think she'd actually use it. Twilight had only ever taken the hairbrush to him, and it didn't seem real that he had graduated to a paddle. The moment it started to glow with Twilight's magic Spike burst into tears. He cried and cried, realizing he'd soon know what his new paddle felt like, regardless what he did or said.

Twilight levitated Spike in front of her. She magically lifting the boy's tail out of the way of his bottom. Before tapping the small rump, with the still floating paddle.

"Do I have your attention?"

"Y-yes hic," Spike began to hiccup from crying. As he felt the paddle pat him.

"Can you tell me why you're in trouble?"

"C-cuz hic c-cuz I burnt da hic da c-comic," he stuttered.

"And why, or better yet 'how', did that happen?"

"B-because I-I hic I didn't l-listen hic."

Twilight nodded, "Good, now do you have something to say to me?"

"I-I'm s-sorry T-Twilight hic, I..." He took a gulp of air, knowing what he was supposed to say.

He took a moment to force the hiccups to end, all the while Twilight waiting patiently for him to ready himself. When he finally spoke, although the hiccups were gone, he was stuttering a lot more.

"I-I'm s-sorry I-I was n-naughty... p-please S-s-spank me s-so I'll r-remember t-to be g-good," Twilight always made him say that, when she was about to spank him.

She said it was important that he acknowledge the fact he did something wrong, and accept the responsibility, and thereby the consequences. Twilight was always trying to teach stuff, even during something as horrible as a spanking.

The paddle left Spike's rump and the little dragon quickly braced himself. Sure enough it came back with a vengeance, slamming itself against the poor little boy's rear. Spike gave out a loud yelp, and the moment the paddle left again he instantly covered his bottom with his claws.

Unfortunately this resulted in Twilight magically forcing his arms to his back, pinning them there so he couldn't move. Her magic continued to wield the paddle with terrifying skill. Hitting his poor backside over and over.

WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK!

Spike howled bloody murder as his poor rump was viciously tortured. He kicked and cried and begged as only a little boy could,. He didn't even noticed when the spanking ended, until Twilight floated him over to her and brought him into a hug, holding him tightly with her hooved arms. The pony Princess lightly kissed his forehead as she assured him it was okay and that it was over now.


Once he calmed down Twilight informed, "Sorry Spike but a spanking just won't cut it this time. I'm afraid I'm also going to have to ground you. No videogames, or TV, and especially no comic books for one month. Instead of going out to play, you'll be spending extra lessons with me over this time to focus more on training your fire breath. You understand me?"

"Y-yes" Spike sniffed, rubbing his sore bottom. "I'm sorry Twilight,"

"Apology accepted, now let's go back to Shining, so you can apologize to him to,"

"Noooooooo!" Spike wailed.

"Spike" Twilight gave him a stern look. "you need to apologize to Shining Armor!"

"But he hates me!" Spike sobbed.

"He doesn't hate you. You're his little buddy. Now come on," She let the boy go and gently patted his back with the top of her snout to get him going. However Spike dug his feet into the ground so he wouldn't have to face Shining Armor. Twilight rolled her eyes and pushed a bit harder, forcing Spike to scrape across the floor, all the way back to Shining Armor's room.

She magically repaired the claw marks before getting her brother's attention.


"Shining Armor, Spike has something too say to you," she nudged Spike with her hoof, but the little Dragon started to tear up again. This time from the thought of Shining not accepting his apology. He couldn't even force himself to give it, for fear of rejection.

"Aw Spike," Shining spoke with unexpected sympathy. "Did the meanie Twilly give you a spanking," Shining went over to him and gave the young dragon a hug "It's okay, your big brother Shining Armor will protect your rump from further torment."

Spike cried hard and hugged Shining as tight as he could. Shining blinked, that's not how the reptile usually reacted, when Shining coddled him after a spanking. He usually got embarrassed and bashful.

Shining looked over at Twilight for an explanation, worried she might have been too hard on him this time. It be understandable since it was a lot of money Spike just destroyed, but even then unacceptable to brutalize a child.

Twilight rolled her eyes dramatically, "He's worried you'll hate him for destroying one of your presents."

"Oh Spike, I could never hate you," Shining insisted. "Yes the comic was very valuable, but you matter more, you understand me buddy?"

Spike hesitantly nodded, as he continued to cry into Shining's fur.

"I guess I should take this as a wake up call though. If someone like Twilight can have trouble foal proofing a house... Well at least I got a good story out of this," he levitated the bag with the ashes. "I think I'll keep these, and show them off every chance I get. I'll undoubtedly be telling this story for the next thousand years,"

Spike groaned as he imagined Shining showing off the bag of ashes, and telling everyone he met about how his little brother destroyed a 5 million bit comic.