Dealt A Bad Hoof

I Don't Own My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. It is the property oh Hasbro, and Lauren Faust, All Right Are Reserved To Them.


Chapter: 1



It all started with a typical day in Ponyville, a small but quirky town in the great land of Equestria. Within this town was a large tree that acted as the town's library, and the home of the magically talented unicorn Twilight Sparkle.

From an early age Twilight had been considerably gifted with magic, she aced her magic exams when she managed to hatch a dragon's egg, she was even the personal apprentice to the revered alicorn Celestia herself. It had only been a few years since she had been assigned to live in Ponyville to act as the town's librarian, and made friends with her fellow wielders of the Elements of Harmony.

At the moment the lavender unicorn was comfortably curled up within the warm embrace of her bed, she had been up rather late the night before for some last minute studying. Today Twilight had a important meeting with Celestia scheduled, and she did not wish to disappoint her mentor.

But then again this is all rather irrelevant, due in part because this story isn't about Twilight Sparkle the unicorn, and her current dream of impressing Equestria's ruler so much that she would be showered with praise by her idol. No my friends this story is about Twilight's roommate, close friend, and number one assistant Spike the dragon.

From the day Spike had been hatched from his egg by Twilight's magic, he was bound to her, and all of the misadventures she would partake in the day she moved to Ponyville. Though when the duo had first arrived he was merely a baby dragon, these days it was rather hard for any pony to look at Spike, and think the term infantile.

A year ago Spike had underwent a great change within, a change that would push itself outward resulting in a great increase in size, and a significant altering to his appearance. He now walked primarily on all fours, his tail had lengthened enough that it was as long as the rest of his body. His body had also slimmed, and stretched a bit as well as his neck, and his face had began to look much more ' dragon like ' as his friend Rainbow Dash had put it.

Overall Spike was now in comparison in size to Big Mac though probably shorter by a few inches, and not having as much bulk. After the growth spurt Twilight was able to identify that Spike's exact strain of dragon was a Terra Agilis, dragons that lived without wings, and made up for it by being able to move at great speeds on all fours.

Spike at this instant was making his way up the stairs to Twilight's bedroom, it wasn't often that she would allow herself to sleep in, and he had decided that it was probably wise to rouse the sleeping mare. After poking his head up from the staircase a grin spread on Spike's face as he took in the sight of the sleeping form wrapped up comfortably in her blankets.

"Time to wake up Twi. Those pancakes I made downstairs aren't going to eat themselves." Spike kept his tone low, and peaceful, the last time he had scared his roommate awake she had accidentally let loose a bolt of magic from her horn, and nearly roasted Owloysius.

The blankets shifted in response, and a grumbled "Five more minutes." reached Spike's ears.

"Alright if you say so sleepy head, though sleeping until twelve PM might be an unhealthy habit unless your wanting to be like Dash." Spike was about to head downstairs, and help himself to that cookie jar filled with emeralds, when a ear-shattering shout replied.

"DID YOU SAY 12pm!!" Immediately Twilight's blanket was thrown in to the air, and a purple hysteric blur sped by the startled dragon, and raced down the stairs.

"MANURE! MANURE! MANURE!" Cried the distressed unicorn as she dashed into the bathroom, and began frantically brushing her mane, and tail using her magic to attempt a look of decency. Spike could scarcely believe the string of obscenities that echoed from downstairs, he had a bad feeling in his gut that this was going to be one of 'those' days.

"Spike we have to go NOW! We were supposed to meet up with princess Celestia two hours ago! She's going to think I'm some tardy pants slacker!" Twilight was now running about the house in a panic, her eyes searching for anything that she may have been forgetting in her rush. " Hurry up, and get over here I'll have to use a teleportation spell to get us to the castle. "

"You sure about that Twilight, last time we tried that we both got kinda singed." Out of a few things that Spike absolutely abhorred, one of them was teleporting. It was like riding on Rainbow Dash's back while she breaks the sound barrier with a sonic rainboom.

"Don't care! Can't be tardy pants again, grab my tail NOW!" Spike had just managed to take hold of a few hairs on the unicorn's tail before she fired up her horn, and in a flash of light they were gone.

Now the process, and overall experience, of teleporting had been debated since the creation of the spell. While some merely feel a slight electric tingle, and find themselves in another location. Others describe the sensation of being torn apart piece by piece then suddenly being reassembled elsewhere. Spike would describe it differently though, as he held on to Twilight's tail for dear life, his body was assaulted by a sudden burning sensation. His eye's watered from the speed at which they were traveling, and all his eyes could make out were blurs of highly illuminated colors  as they raced past him. These sensations he was familiar with, it wasn't his first time doing this of course, but he didn't remember it taking this long to reach a destination. He closed his green eyes and the was suddenly overcome with the sensation of what he was holding onto suddenly stopping, he sighed in relief it was finally over, until he felt the hair fibers of Twilight's tail that he held onto suddenly snap.

Princess Celestia sat upon her throne with a slightly bored expression on her royal face. Her apprentice was late, unusually late, now for some ponies this wouldn't be that big a deal, but with Twilight this may be a sign of dark times to come. The alicorn was very aware of her student's obsessive need to do things on time, and how she suffered from moments of manic instability when felt the threat of being tardy, or overlooking something of some level of importance. With a shake of her multi-colored mane Celestia was about to send a message to her apprentice via magical mailing system, when suddenly a bright light lit up the room taking her by surprise.

Once her eyes had adjusted Celestia gazed upon the sight of a familiar, and slightly out of breath lavender unicorn standing in the middle of the throne room. Glad to see her apprentice safe, though slightly smelling of ozone, and burnt hair, Celestia spoke to the dazed mare before her. "There you are Twilight, I was about to send a message to you."

Hearing her princess Twilight smiled happily having sensed no real distress from her mentor. "Sorry for being late, I guess I might have slept in a slight bit." She blushed after saying the last part feeling incredibly embarrassed, but overall just happy to exchange words with Celestia.

The princess laughed softly not at all upset wit her student. "I see you chose to come alone, do tell me how are things going for everypony back in Ponyville?" Though she asked only a simple question Celestia's gentle smile disappeared when she saw the look of confusion on the unicorn's face.

"What do you mean? Spike was right here when I teleported." questioned the slightly worried mare. Twilight then started looking around her frantically hoping to see the dragon behind her. "Spike! Where did Spike go?!"

Elsewhere:

A lone Equine galloped quickly through a dark forest, a cape that had been draped over her shoulders flapped furiously in the breeze, as she attempted to escape her pursuers. Not far behind three dark shapes sped after her, slowly but surely gaining on her, it was only a matter of time. After a few more minutes of running the mare found her path blocked by a downed tree, and just as she was beginning to move around it one of the dark figures caught up, and sprang toward her with hostile intent.

The figure was met with a strong pair of hooves striking it in the chest, and knocking it painfully into a tree. The mare turned to face the fast approaching shapes, she wouldn't be going quietly. The horn on her head started to glow as it began focusing magical power, the glow illuminating her face which was set in a determined frown, her greyish magenta eyes narrowed.

Then suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and from out of the sky a shape fell to the earth a few hundred feet away. The flash had disorientated the unicorn, and the price she paid was the two figures both tackling her to the ground, and quickly setting to work on binding the furiously struggling victim. The first figure who was now picking himself slowly off the ground, had noticed the light as well as the falling form. With a quick bark to his comrades, the leader ran towards where he thought the oddity had landed.

Not too far away the figure pushed through some bushes, and came upon a clearing. In the middle laid a crumbled shape that gave off a strange heat, and had smoldering smoke escaping from it's body as if it had been on fire. Walking into the light of the clearing to get a better look at the mass before him, the figure showed himself to be a diamond dog of average height for his kind, and having a brown vest over his black fur. Taking a cautionary sniff at the air, he walked closer to the mass which he could now make out to be reptilian in origin. Whatever it was, it was clearly unconscious; pushing it over with a nudge of his foot the mass was sprawled out showing purple and green scales, that had been slightly singed by some sort of heat.

Hearing a noise to behind him the diamond dog turned to see more of his brothers approaching. The closest being slightly taller, and being grey in color spoke "What is it Grug?"

Grug looked to his brother, then back to the creature before him before he finally spoke.

"A Dragon."


End of Chapter 1: