Here! Have a Spike curveball! oof Hopefully the picture isn’t too cluttered for y’all to understand. I know there’s so much stuff jumbled up into one drawing😓 :(  
 
Yeah, I think I mentioned the fact that Spike came back from a long stay from the Dragon Lands in this post: https://www.deviantart.com/theartfox2468/art/Star-AU-Oh-Crap-Spike-xRarity-Y-all-876597447. (To clarify, the chain of events in this picture happens before any of the drawings with Rarity x Spike). And I know y’all are wondering the reason “why” he went to the Dragon Lands, and know I’ma tell you the reason. But before that, let me sort out some other things. I know in season 2 episodes 10 and 21 already established some things about Spike aging and witnessing what the Dragon Lands may be. And I also know that those situations were resolved like Spike learning his lesson not to steal and be greedy anymore and Spike not wanting to live in the Dragon Lands because his real home is in Ponyville. Yada yada. Okay first of all, regarding episode 10, I personally don’t feel like that’s how dragon’s necessarily operate. It was a cool concept to convey the message, yes, but still. I feel like dragon greed naturally comes around puberty, and they won’t grow when their stockpile or whatever grows; they’ll just grow bigger with age. And with episode 21, I feel like Spike just wasn’t ready to just up and leave his found family like that, still even in the other dragon related episodes, he was too young.  
Anyways I can imagine these scenarios in this drawing of mine taking place maybe a year or so after the show ends, but not of course during that time skip though, just in between the two.  
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1.) After Grandpa Gruff finally allowed Gabby to attend The School of Friendship (because the CMC started to go too. I feel like this school is a High school), Spike too was also convinced to attend as well. And so he did (keep in mind, Spike during this time is around 15-16). Unfortunately for Spike (and everyone else), this is definitely when he was in the midst of his dragon puberty. Though at home he wouldn’t show his rowdy and mischievous behavior around Twi, he would at school, 100%. At first, Spike wasn’t necessarily mean, but acted like a prankster and a class clown. But eventually he got caught up with his shenanigans and started stealing things, like lunch money, books and whatnot and hoarding it in his locker.  
Eventually, Counselor (soon to be Principal) Starlight Glimmer caught onto his craziness. I mean, of course Star was noted of a rowdy student at school, but didn’t believe it to be the kind-hearted and passive Spike. During this time, Twilight was in and out of Ponyville and didn’t really have time to see what Spike had been up to all of the time. And once she got the news from Starlight, Twilight was upset yet utterly confused. She never would have thought that Spike, her sweet little dragon, would become so imprudent at school. And so Twi was lenient on him until she witnessed Spike herself. Twilight had thought it could be another dragon trying to blackmail him or Spike had tagged along with the wrong group and got the blame for their shenanigans. But no. Twilight was very in denial, until…  
 
2.) -She saw him with her two eyes. Of course his locker was no match for the amount of items Spike had hoarded, and so he migrated it to his room. He was reluctant at first, because he knew that he would definitely get caught from Twilight when she finally stumbled across it unexpectedly. However, Spike was so greedy and eager to keep his hoard growing, that he proceeded to bring it home, claiming anything and everything as his territory. This hoarding had just become an obsession, corrupting his mind to get more and more…  
There were instances when Spike would suspiciously redirect Twilight from entering his bedroom, whether from digression or dumb excuses. At first, Twi wasn’t too bothered by it, but she eventually caught on. This had worried Twi as she didn’t want to believe that Spike was acting this way, especially for a while now. She hoped that whatever Spike was hiding from her wasn’t the issue. She didn’t want Spike to be the issue, she never would’ve thought that Spike would be an issue. But one day, Twi conjured up a plan to “catch him in the act”. And thus she did. She planned to pretend that she’ll be out late one day so Spike wouldn’t lock his door (because she observed that he’ll leave it unlocked when she’s not there). Twilight simply didn’t want to do this while he was gone, because who’s to say that some dragon broke in and threw random junk in his room to fool her. She wanted to see Spike doing it himself.  
And that day she caught him. Spike immediately exclaimed that everything in his room was “his” territory out of sudden intrusion. For a second Twilight was angry, then became sad as she had walked away from his room with crocodile tears in her eyes, slamming his door shut. She was always sensitive when Spike was ever aggressive towards her, because he rarely ever was. She just never knew what to do in a situation like this. Though she sees Spike as a baby brother, she also sees him as a son. Spike fortunately saw her sadness and heartbreak and finally realized the error of his ways and too became crestfallen.  
 
3.) It seemed that Spike was unaware of what he had become. “A monster”, he had thought, something that he never thought he would become. He had to vent this to somebody who would understand him, somebody who was just like him around his age, and that somebody was Smolder. During that time, Smolder was already on her way back home. She was honestly just the first person he had in mind to relate to and wrote her a letter, asking if she was willing to help. She already had helped him with his molting, so why not help him gain knowledge and advice on dragon puberty through her experience. Luckily, she opted to pay him a visit to support him. This stage in a dragon’s life is one of the most important, and she wants him to feel as comfortable and calm as possible.  
She sat down and explained to him that every dragon goes through this phase, like hoarding and major growth spurts and whatnot. She’s still going through it and when she was younger she witnessed her brother hoarding as well. She also explained that dragon’s, especially males, would become more rough and aggressive and challenge or roughhouse with other dragons to gain dominance for a mate; so that can explain his rowdy behavior. Then she mentioned, due to a surge of new hormones, he may or may not start attracting mates anyways, regardless of strength or personality (yeah some dragons are that desperate). So poor little Spikey Wikey has to go through this big change in his developing life.  
Thus, Spike had to prepare to go to the Dragon Lands to experience the real dragon life instead of trying to bottle it up or express it to innocent citizens back in Ponyville. In the Dragon Lands, he can let it all out as much as his heart desires, because dragons are “rough” and “tough”. This will allow Spike to witness the real world of the dragon life…the right way. Smolder decided to take him in, along with her brother Garble until then. Twilight and the others were hesitant to let him go for good all alone. They all had to understand that he was growing up and needed to venture the world “by himself” and become a real dragon. And of course Twilight read up on it and saw that it may take a dragon up to 3 to 7 years to go through this process, depending on the dragon and when they started puberty. Spike started his puberty fairly late, but it won’t take him thaaat long to grow up… right?…. (maybe 5 years or so….cough).  
 
4.) Garble was stoked to finally have Spike join them for several years. He immediately adopted him as his little brother, so did Smolder (but not literally though…). And thus, Spike had extended his proud and loud found family more. Garble will be his (unhelpful) guide on becoming a “manly” dragon and getting all of the ladies (and we all can imagine how that went down…).  
 
5.) (3 years later; Spike is around 18 or so). Ember needs to STOP ;). I can imagine her giving Spike extensive monthly military training because Spike won’t lay off the gems. It’s funny how it has been 3 years and Ember is just now noticing how tall Spike is getting, smh. And the reasoning behind her saying that she “may just have to reconsider”, is because she is mingling with Garble as of right now, and might wanna hang with Spike instead (but of course she’s joking!). But truthfully, she really sees Garble as a side dish and perhaps Thorax as a main course meal (in the near future. Ember is just being too much of a tsundere to say anything). Regardless, Garble will always be her little salad on the side, as much as Garble doesn’t want to accept it. I guess Garble had recited too many sappy poems…  
 
6.) Spike received constant letters from Twi and Co. during his temporary move to the Dragon Lands. Admittedly, Spike REALLY missed them but also felt free and pretty content in the Dragon Lands. However, in this little drawing of him reading the letter, Spike is just days away from finally going back to Ponyville. Oh, the look on their faces when they saw Spike again (and Spike’s reaction when he saw that almost everyone else had a child, lol).  
 
OTHER: To clarify much more, Spike’s sweet, soft and compassionate personality did not disappear. I’m pretty sure we’ve all been through some type of mood or slight personality change during puberty and then after the storm we turn back to normal, but more developed. Spike is forever going to be the cute and cuddly fat dragon that we all know and love! ÙwÚ  
Man, don’t I like to talk about Spike a lot without him being my top favorite character XP. Whatever, I love him lol. (BTW, can we acknowledge how much of a CHAD Spike is, JK JK XD). And if you guys are wondering, I’ll touch on Gabby and Spike’s relationship sooner or later.  
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Y’ALL omg, y’all are INCREDIBLE PEOPLE. I LOVE YOU ALL💖💖💖!! I hope you guys are having a fantastic whatever! (And please don’t skip out on THANKSGIVING! NOVEMBER IS NOT DECEMBER EVE Y’ALL 🤣🤣🤣). Anyways “HAPPY LATE HALLOWEEN”! Sorry I didn’t post anything that day. I was out and about in Savannah, Georgia doing ABSOLUTELY nothing. What did you guys do for Halloween?  
 
Anyways, if you have anything to say, like questions or whatnot, PLZ ASK! XP And if you don’t that’s fine >w<. Buh-bye, and see ya in the next post!^w  
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OTHER RELATED STUFF (I guess):  
 
☆https://www.deviantart.com/theartfox2468/art/Star-AU-Yes-it-Will-876710936