Dragon's Descent

by Compendium of Steve

Act 3 Verse 4

All-too familiar sensation of my head being cotton. Only it’s loosening up considerably quicker than usual.

...ook, he’s waking up…

Sounds a bit warbled, but also clearing up fast. Feel my limbs, now getting my physical orientation.

Spike? Can you hear me?

I’m lying flat. Alright, let’s get these eyes open and see what’s up… huh, apparently Twilight is what’s up. Looking both concerned and relieved, under some kind of cloth ceiling. Like a tent?

“Hey, Twilight. What’s happenin’?”

“Oh thank goodness,” she sighs in further relief. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You... are okay, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. A bit groggy, but that will pass.” I give my arms a stretch, and I’m surprised to find them bare. But they’re supposed to be, last I checked. “Are we in some kind of tent?”

“Yes: a medical one, set up outside the castle. We brought you here once you got back.”

“Got back?” Rub my head, drawing a blank. “Could you fill me in on what’s happened? Memory’s a little fuzzy.”

“Hmph, that’s no surprise after what you been through. Anyway, you had, uhm… ‘defeated’ Tirek, and were about to transfer to me the stolen magic you absorbed, but then—”

“SPIIIIIIIKE!!!”

And here comes the cushy glomp express, courtesy of a tearful and flustered Sweetie Belle.

“Hey there, Sweetie,” I say through the flossy mane being shoved in my face with how she’s shoving hers into my chest.

“Why would you go making me worry like that! You didn’t bother letting me know you had come back to Canterlot. I was fine with you ignoring me years ago but not anymore, you lughead. You’re still a reckless, dashing hunk of a fool after all this time!”

“There there now, sshh sshh, I’m all fine.” I pet her mane to affirm that. “I’m sorry if I slipped into old habits there. I would’ve checked in on you sooner, but I was a bit preoccupied. Running around while armageddon is happening tends to skew one’s priorities, babe.”

“Yeah. It can be distracting, even for you,” she says calmly, before pulling back her head and giving me a smile. “I’ll forgive you for that, and also for what an amazing job you did with taking care of yet another major crisis.” She kisses me on the forehead. Still doesn’t fix the memory block.

“About that, Twilight was about to tell me what happened. It’s a blur right now.”

“Hmhm, why don’t you step outside and get a refresher? Err, or are you okay to walk?”

I check that option… “Yeah I can.”

“Great! Then come on out!” She bounds off for the tent opening, practically skipping. Only Sweetie would be so chipper at the end of the world… no wait, that’d be someone else.

“She sure is glad to have you back in one piece, Spike, as am I,” Twilight says after having a giggle, then looking to me her horn lights up as one of my suit jackets hovers over. “I grabbed this on the way here. I thought you would want something to cover you up.”

I hold up my claw and grab the coat when it gets to me, and once the aura around it goes away I realize something. “Oh hey, your magic’s back. Guess the transfer worked.”

“Uh-hum, and then some.” She begins heading out. “Come and see for yourself.”

I slip on the coat, get up off the cot (an awfully cozy one) and head for the flap leading outside. A harsh flare of sunlight stuns me momentarily, but the moment it clears I’m still transfixed. It seems to be the area outside the front guard station of the castle, with a few other brown medical tents and ponies milling about. But what has got me gawking is the crystal clear blue sky, chirping birds and soft breezes that seem to be everywhere. Some of the surrounding buildings have chunks missing out of them, but none are smoking or on fire. And far beyond where I can see the plains down below it’s all serene picturesqueness. No scorched earth, corrupted vegetation, no indication that the apocalypse had stopped by.

I shake off the surprise and go up to Sweetie Belle and Twilight, the latter of whom is beaming proudly at me.

“This is wholly different from what I expected to see…”

“It’s truly remarkable,” Twilight remarks. “Tartarus had reappeared right next to the castle as you were returning my magic, and before I knew it you got up and leapt onto him. He backed away at a rapid pace, and there was a great flash of light. Before I knew it the sky had returned to normal and my energy and magic had come back instantaneously, with no trace of Tartarus whatsoever.”

“And that’s not all!” Sweetie chirps in. “All the monsters that had been running around also disappeared—like wiped away—and even the fires too. You fending off that one monster fixed everything!”

“A most miraculous feat, I acknowledge freely.”

I look around and see the group of a half dozen griffons that had just arrived. Armored griffons, carrying weapons, and one of them being twice as big as the others and wearing a familiar crown.

“King Gladius? This is a surprise.” Gross understatement.

“A suitable reaction, given how we last parted,” he cordially booms. “But the moment my kingdom witnessed the sky turn crimson over this land, I took it upon myself to personally rally my finest warriors and vessels, leading them in flight to lend aid. Yet as we crested the peak of yon mountain the sky cleared and the crisis was over. Fairly disappointing to have flown so far so urgently in vain, but I take some comfort in the knowledge that Gordon had had done some good in rescuing you.”

“Rescued me?”

“You were falling through the air high over the plains,” speaks the griffon guard I recognize from back in Griffonstone. “I had managed to spot and catch you before you could hit the ground. You were completely bare, but you kept holding onto your sword all the way back. Gripped tightly in your claw like it was an extension of your very arm.”

“And which I happen to have right here.”

Look to the side and here comes a unicorn stallion with a mussy black mane and wearing the chestplate of the Royal Guard, carrying along my sword in a magical grip.

“Will! You’re okay!”

“That I am.” He hands me my sword. “Only a little tumble down the stairs, but once the sky turned blue again I had my magic back and feeling right as rain. And I’m not the only one doing alright.”

He looks over to the group of ponies approaching our sizable group. Gee willikers, it’s the War Council!

“Stonewall, Debbie, you’re all okay?”

“Told ya I just needed to do some stretches,” the bandaged general says. “A damn pity you took care of that horned freak before I could take another crack at him.”

“I may be approaching my autumn years, but this diplomat knows how to handle a foreign dispute directly when it comes to her doorstep,” a mildly-frazzled Fair Deliberation declares.

“My fencing practice worked marvelously alongside my special forces training. Quite the exhilaration since my early days of quelling insurgents,” Gilded Quill recalls wistfully, looking immaculate without a spot of blood or soot on him (damn that’s classy).

“I was much too flighty for any of those screechin’ hellspawn to catch,” Parcel Wind says with unironic pride.

“Only because I kept kicking them off your flank, Percy,” chides Rainbow Dash, still in uniform but having ditched the grooming standards. Bet she got a kick out of this day. “But guys, you won’t believe this: me and the Wonderbolts just got done surveying the city, and so far there have been no reported casualties!”

“Are you serious??”

“Totally serious, Twi! Just injured civilians coming in to be treated. Everyone in the city is A-okay, even the entire Guard. Really, it’s just the buildings and the streets that were majorly affected from the looks of it.”

That is unbelievably lucky. I coulda swore I passed some bodies during my run earlier. Guess it was a trick of the eyes, or they were knocked out or something. Either way, wow. Gladius takes a step forward toward Twilight.

“And to express our renewed relations, Princess Twilight, I would like to offer the services of the Griffon Kingdom’s architects and workers to aid in the rebuilding of those areas most heavily affected. If you will accept.”

“By all means, Your Highness. You are truly gracious in offering the help of your people for Equestria.”

Twilight bows humbly before the griffon king, and after she gets up he offers a hefty talon, which she takes to complete a (admittedly one-sided) handshake. Fair Deliberation comes up to the two dignitaries, adjusting her glasses smartly.

“I hereby declare another grand victory in the name of diplomacy.”

Cheers go up ‘round our motley group of ponies and griffons, resounding with the joy and promise of a new era of peace between two nations, once at war, now the most bosom of bedfellows. Forever, until the end of time. (What kind of thought was that??)

“I say we celebrate by going out for a game of bowling!”

A wave of “Yay”s ring out in response to Stalwart Will’s suggestion, which also adds to the promise of this day ending in good times. Seemingly overflowing with all this goodwill, Sweetie snuggles up to me.

“All of this was because of you, you know? You saved the day once again.”

“Yep. I certainly did,” I say, taking a deep breath in self-accomplishment, the cloud of doubt and uncertainty that had formed in me deep in the bowels of the earth eradicated by the warm rays of success and optimism. Things are looking up again, even better than before.

“Say, with everyone of us in a good mood, this might be a good time for me to tell you some really important news.” Sweetie leaves my side and moves to the front of me.

“Oh really? What about?”

She faces me, blushing with nervous anticipation, making that scrunched-up face when she’s anxious. Taking a breath, she looks me in the eye.

“Spike… I’m pregnant.”

Everything stops. No one is cheering, not even the griffons. They’re all locked in place, all their faces turned toward the two of us, mouths agape in silent gasps. There’s a trace of burning curiosity in Twilight’s look, downright shock in Debbie’s and Stonewalls, and a corner of Dash’s mouth twitching its way to a lewd grin. Whatever their expression, they’re all expecting some kind of response from me.

Well, really only one thing to say to something like that.

“Oh…”