//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: The Banach-Tarski Dragon 
// by CCC 
//------------------------------//

Spike woke up. He was lying in his basket, at the foot of Twilight's bed. He stretched, and yawned. “That,” he said, “must have been the weirdest dream I ev-”

There was a sudden *pop* of displaced air as Twilight appeared, accompanied by a cupcake. A clatter of hooves from downstairs suggested that more ponies would be joining them very shortly.

“Spike! Are you alright? How are you feeling? Any nausea? Vomiting? Tiredness? Lack of either motivation or restraint? I bought you a sapphire cupcake, in case you need the electrolytes...”

Spike stared at Twilight, and blinked. “You mean, that whole thing about being split into two... that wasn't a dream?”

“No,” said Twilight, “it wasn't.”

“Huh.” said Spike. He explored his memories for a moment, then added “I can remember both mes.” He reached out absent-mindedly to take the cupcake. Electrolytes or no electrolytes, a sapphire was a sapphire – even if these particular ones were a little out-of-season. “How come did Rarity turn up at Sugarcube Corner just then?” he asked.

“I suspect,” said Rarity from the doorway, “that they probably heard you in Canterlot, darling. Big you, that is.”

“Rarity!” squeaked Spike, turning bright red. “I'm, um, I'm really sorry about, it was really very inappropriate...”

“Quite.” said Rarity, reaching up with one hoof to adjust her hat. “Twilight has already explained the side-effects of her spell. So, we shall speak no more of that little incident.”

“Right.” said Spike, nervously.

Twilight gave Rarity a suspicious look.

“In that case,” continued Rarity, stepping into the room. “I shall be expecting you no later than one tomorrow afternoon.”

“Um, er...” Spike glanced around the room, as if hoping to find a handy cue card. What he found instead was Twilight turning her suspicious gaze on him instead. We will discuss this later, you and I promised her frown.

“You did invite me out for lunch, did you not?” asked Rarity. “I believe daisy sandwiches were mentioned.”

“Oh! Oh. Yes. Right. Lunch. Tomorrow. Yes. Right.”

“Hey there, sugarcube.” Applejack poked her head into the room. “Don't you ever make the mistake o' thinkin' you ain't accepted around here, okay? You're accepted, and you're loved, and you can stop by the Acres any time you start to doubt that, right?”

“Um, yes. I, I, I do know that.” said Spike. “It's just, well, sometimes... just sometimes... I don't feel that, you know what I mean?”

“Ah reckon,” said Applejack, stepping into the room, “that if there's one pony in town who knows what you mean, it'd be Zecora. And if you need to talk with somepony about it, Ah reckon Zecora's not a bad choice. But if she's by some chance busy, Ah'll always be willing to lend an ear.”

The next pony to enter the doorway was Rainbow Dash. “Hey.” she said, then pointed a hoof at Applejack. “Everything she just said. But less sappy and more awesome, okay?”

Spike smiled. “Okay.” he said.

“And one other thing.” added Rainbow. “You find anypony who's not all accepting, and you tell me, and I'll sort them out, you got that?”

“Y-yeah.” said Spike. He blinked rapidly. There seemed to be something in his eye.

And then Rainbow Dash stepped aside, making room for Fluttershy.

“Um, you rock. Whoo-hoo.” she squeaked, nervously. She shuffled into the room, and hid behind Rainbow Dash.

There was nopony else waiting outside. Spike blinked – given the five ponies already crowded into Twilight's rather small bedroom, he had been rather expecting a sixth.

Twilight snorted, and raised her voice. “PINKIE!”

There was a shuffling of hooves, and a pink pony stood in the doorway. Her mane was half-deflated, and her bounce seemed to have left her. “Spike?” she said.

Spike blinked, and stared. Was this the same mare who had served one of him icecream just a short while ago? “Pinkie?” he asked.

“Oh, Spike!” Pinkie leapt across the room, and hugged the little dragon. “I never meant to almost get you killed and ruin Sugarcube Corner by interrupting Twilight's research! Can you ever forgive me!”

“Uh... sure.” said Spike. He tried patting Pinkie comfortingly on the head.

Pinkie's mane sproinged back to its usual fuzzy state.. “Okie dokie lokie.” she said, all her cheerfulness returned in an instant. “And if you ever need a feeling-accepted party, you can come and talk to me and I'll have you party-sorted in a party-minute, okay?”

Spike hugged back, with a grin. “Okay.” he said.

“GROUP HUG!” yelled Pinkie. She and Spike were immediately ponypiled by five other ponies.

And, at just that instant, Spike knew that he was exactly where – and who – he wanted to be.