"Is," Trixie swallowed and made a face, "Is that what your dragon became?"
"He was never 'my' dragon, he was, is, my little brother," Twilight answered. She blinked away tears. To see him like this... Beside her she heard Rarity swallow a sob.
Before them all, in the deepest cavern in all of Equestria, lay a vast scaled figure. Spykorunvellatar, Nightdrake Banneret, Beautiful Fury of the Generous Green Flames, the greatest dragon of his line and the greatest dragon in all of Equestria barring only Tiamat and Bahamut, just laying in a pile of shed scales inside a dark hole, reeking of decay. His ribs showed against his sides. His muscles looked withered on those mighty limbs, and great gaps showed between the fangs that filled his heavy muzzle, as he turned his dulled eyes towards them.
"Hello, Twilight, Princess Celestia," his voice changed, turned almost mechanical. "A new kitten for Ruby Pinch, check, a new complete printing of her entire works for Twilight Velvet, check, a ruby and emerald studded golden palace for Prince Blueblood, check..." He shook himself, and a few more scales dropped away to clatter against the floor. Raw sores showed where they'd fallen. He ignored it to say in an almost worshipful tone, "Hello, Rarity. Are you finally willing to accept everything I want to make for you?"
He breathed emerald flames and a scale-model castle of diamonds and sapphires appeared before them. Rarity's eyes glittered on it. Twilight coughed and with only a little reluctance Rarity stepped past it.
"No, Spike darling. We came to tell you that," she swallowed. "T-that things have to change. For you. For Equestria." Tears filled the lovely alicorn's eyes again. "Spike, why did you do this? How can all of this be worth something this dreadful?"
"A full pizza dinner with cinnamon sticks on the side for every single one of Pinkie Pie's foals in Partitopia, check..." Spike shuddered. His gaze focused on them again. "Rarity, after your Element abandoned you, or you abandoned it, right after I used that spellbook on you..."
"I was ashamed, Spike!" Rarity walked up to the immense dragon, ignoring the pools of rot all about him. Reflected full-length in one dull draconic eye, she said, "I did terrible things, even if I didn't hurt anypony. They were furious afterwards! I, I betrayed my Element by setting my selfish desires above those of others. But I never thought you would try to take my place, use the spell from that book you ate to become," she made an illusion of her own, showing Spike his wasted form, "This."
"Somedragon had to take care of everypony--new game for Button Mash, check," his gaze hardened infinitesimally, "Somedragon had to do what you never could or would do."
Trixie fell back by Twilight as Rarity and Spike argued. She whispered, "Trixie does not think that the wall behind us will hold those other ponies forever. Maybe we should give him the, you know," a small rainbow burst from her horn against what looked like a foal's crayon picture of a dragon before vanishing, "Now, while we can?"
"De showmare iss right," Seabreeze said. He patted his own Element where it lay against his chest. "Dis has gone on for long enough. If ve do not end it now, den they catch us and maybe dis never ends."
Twilight looked at her friends and nodded. "I think you're right." She stepped forward and lightly touched Rarity who still pleaded with Spike. Both dragon and alicorn looked at her.
"Spike," she said, "I'm sorry. But what you've done, to yourself, to Equestria... We can't let this go on. You've got to be healed." Rarity looked at her as though ready to argue, but Twilight stopped her. "Rarity. This is why we came here." Rarity nodded sadly, and she went to join the others standing equidistant in a circle around Spike.
Their Elements began to glow. From the corner of her eye Twilight caught Celestia, looking both ashamed and afraid at once.
Spike looked on dully, and said only one thing:
"Rainbow Dash saves the world. Check."
Twilight froze. "What?" She tore the tiara with her Element on it from her head as she stepped forward. Her hooves clicked so clearly on the rocks in the sudden silence.
"Hey!” Fluttercruel hissed. "We ain't got all day, Purple!" The roars and shrieks and angry whinnies coming down the wall behind them only stressed her words.
Twilight ignored them to approach Nightdrake Banneret as he eyed her dully. "Spike. What did you say?"
"Rainbow Dash saves the world..."
"What?!?" Rarity stepped up beside her, her eyes wide with shock. "Spike, dear, do you mean to say that this was all Rainbow Dash's idea from the start? That we..." She gulped. "We were just being used to grant her wish?" She and Twilight looked at each other, and then at the allies they'd gathered. Every face they saw looked as stunned as their own.
"Dash wished for an enemy to threaten the whole world so she could beat them, so Spike inspired us to finally fight back after a thousand years, and now..."
Twilight somehow knew they all shared the same thought.
If we were just made to gather the Elements to make a threat that Rainbow Dash could defeat, then where is she?
The stone wall behind them exploded. Behind it were a horde of angry ponies, and in front of it?
"Okay you jerks," Rainbow Dash flew into the chamber, her Banneret-supplied personal floating sound system blasting out Richard Sleipner's 'Ride of the Pegasi' at full volume as she did.
"Now it's finally my turn to be a hero again!"
===
"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight Sparkle lost control. "HOW IN THE TARTARUS COULD --YOU-- HAVE BECOME THIS BUCKING SELFISH?! Most of us were almost strangers when you rejected Nightmare Moon's temptation for our sake! Discord was only able to break your loyalty by striking it against itself! You fought against and HATED what Lightning Dust and her friends were doing to Princess Luna's ponies! Even when you became so pathetically starved for attention after that slew of accidents in Ponyville dried up, you never MADE accidents happen!"
Trixie shouted. "Everypony! The whole reason this is happening is because Rainbow Dash WISHED IT to happen just so she could play hero!"
"So you're not going to zap Gift-Giver Spike?" Lyra asked.
"We are," Fluttercruel said.
"Then we're still going to beat you up!" Bon-Bon swore. "The life of my foal depends on it!"
"Sis'," Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity scornfully.
Twilight ignored them. Tears came to Twilight's eyes. "RAINBOW DASH! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?! WHERE IS OUR RAINBOW DASH?! GIVE HER BACK!!!" She wailed. She broke down sobbing. "I want the Celestia I love and respect back! I want Fluttershy back! I want the Discord who learned his lesson back! I want my BBBFF and Sister-In-Law back! I want the Spike who was my number one assistant back! I want the Applejack that could give Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy a run for their money for loyalty and kindness! I want the Pinkie Pie who knows when to take things seriously! I WANT PONYVILLE BACK! I want my friends back! I don't want to fight my friends anymore! I don't want to see this ugly place the world's become! I want everything back the way it was!!!"
"Majority ... overruled," Nightdrake Banneret breathed.
Celestia put a wing over Twilight Sparkle.
"If you want to fight Her Highness, Rainbow Dash... you'll have to go through me first." Celestia whispered in Twilight's ear. "I apologize My Princess, I failed you, I never taught you to accept that time marches forward, and we can never have 'things back the way they were', no immortal has the right to demand that of the world. Luna herself had to learn that lesson after being freed from Nightmare Moon... I'm sorry I failed to teach you..."
"Rainbow Dash, please..." Twilight said, "Come back to us. You couldn't... you couldn't have really wished for us to try and heal Spike, just so you could stop us... please Rainbow. No more fighting. Just let us end this insanity."
===
Rainbow Dash looked at Spike in confusion and slowly dawning shock.
"Spike?" Nightdrake Banneret slowly rolled one eye in her direction. Dash winced at the sight of her distorted reflection in it.
"Yes?" he said dully. His voice seemed weak, but it still rumbled through the chamber. "What else do you wish for now, Rainbow Dash?"
"I," she gulped, looked around at her friends, at her former friends Twilight and the new Elements -- it's a trick, it's gotta be, I KNOW I'm not a bad pony! -- and then back at Spike. "I want to know, is this happening because I wished that one time for, for a chance to be a hero again? Because I wanted to save everypony?"
Spike looked at her, and though she'd never seen anything but machine-like obedience in his eyes for centuries, she thought she caught sight of a mixture of petty spite and a deeper sadness. He said one word.
"Yes."
"Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus flinched as Rarity flew up to her. "You wanted all this to happen? The evils inflicted on the Breezies and the Bat Ponies and our families?" Her face turned dark as a thundercloud as she said, "All that we've suffered for the past few days, that's happened to everypony we met -- was so YOU could be a HERO?"
"Yes! I, I mean no! I mean..." Dash shook her head. She dropped to the floor of the cave, huddled as though the tons of stone above were caving in on her. She looked at Spike. "You! You did this! I didn't want anypony to get hurt, I wanted it to be like that time with the phony aliens!"
"Correction," Spike said. "The aliens were not 'phony'." Dash stared in rising horror as he said, "I brought them here from another universe. As with everything I make. Buildings, toys, cakes, machines, everything. They were real."
Dash barely heard the gasps all around her, or noticed the looks of fury aimed her way. She remembered knocking ships out of the sky, making a game of it with Jackie as they destroyed one of the alien invaders after another and piling them up to see who got more... They'd cursed her and tried fighting and running and hiding and begged like cowards -- no, like ponies afraid to DIE -- and she'd just laughed and killed them all.
"Hey, AJ! Watch me sling this one with the bombs right into the others!"
"No! Please don't, you evil horse-monster -- AAAHH!" BOOM!
They were, I thought they were just magical constructs made to look and sound real. But they were like ponies, they were real... And they were pulled into another world because of me, and they all died -- because I wanted to be the big hero!
"Why?" Dash's voice was just like her, a little hoarse. She felt faintly glad she was on the floor. If she tried flying then she wouldn't have been able to. "Why did you... Why didn't you tell me?"
"You wanted to save the world from an alien invasion," Spike said. Something very vaguely like grief sounded in his voice as he said, "I provided the invasion, as you asked. You and your friends saved everypony. The aliens would have killed everypony. You were a hero again." He paused, and sounded almost confused when he said, "Did this not make you happy?"
"I killed people." Dash just stared at him as she said in a small voice, "I, you made me do it, no, I killed people." She shrank down weeping, racking sobs. Rarity, the new Element of Kindness, lay down beside her and enfolded her with one wing like a mare with her foal.
Twilight and the rest looked at Spike in shock. Twilight shook herself as a new realization struck her. By the look on their faces it hit Lyra and Bon Bon at the same time.
"Spike, you say everything you created was actually brought here from other worlds." He looked at her, uncaring. Twilight swallowed. Behind her, Lyra and Bon Bon rubbed their withers against each other as their legs went weak. Twilight asked, "Does that mean that the, the foals and other ponies you created were..."
"Taken from other worlds." Spike said it the way another pony would describe a shopping list. "From beings about to die, or who suffered, or others who accepted when I asked them if they desired a chance at life in Equestria with all their needs met and families that would love them. Even if only briefly. If nopony desires a foal or lover or friend at the time I take them, I set their souls and consciousnesses in storage until needed." Spike looked like he thought about something. "Do you desire to see them?"
"I," Twilight knew what she had to say, but still needed to force it out. "Yes, I do." Dash looked up beside her, and Applejack hesitantly stepped forward to stand on her other side.
"Very well." Spike breathed out green fire and what looked like a hole opened before them. And within that hole, an endless array of shining lights, all the colors of the rainbow and more besides, floated in what looked like a mass of stars. The lights seemed to throb slowly, peacefully.
"Coco Pommel desires a daughter to be her apprentice," Spike said. One of the lights whipped off and through another gate, seeming to change in form as it did to a small Earth pony. "Done."
"Ah, ah never knew," Applejack said. She looked at her friend. "Twi, ah swear ah never even guessed."
"None of us did," Twilight said in quiet horror. She looked around at her friends, new, old, and those that used to be. "I'm sorry, everypony, I really am, but this HAS to stop. I don't want to ruin everything we already have, but we've become the worst thieves and slavers in all the universes by doing this." She didn't notice a newfound anger rising in Spike's gaze as she said, "This has to end now."
"You're right," Dash said. She rose onto her talons. A sickly fire flared up in Spike's eyes as she looked at him. She ignored it. Tears showed against her cheeks but her voice was strong when she said, "Spike, cancel my wish immediately. We, we can't do this to you and those other ponies anymore."
"It's never enough, is it?"
Everypony started at that voice. Twi and Rarity and Dashie and Jackie, 'Cruel and Seabreeze and Trixie and Big Mac, Celestia and Cadence and Shining Armor, all of them stared at Spike raising his head up from the spot where it'd laid for centuries. Heavy smoke came from his nostrils, causing several of the ponies to cough.
"I'm still not good enough, am I?" Spike hissed with bitter fury in his voice. "For a thousand years all I ever did was to give everypony whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. Never a word of thanks, never anything, but I still did it for everypony. Because then I thought you'd finally see me as something more than a pet or lackey."
"Spike," Twilight began, stepping forward. Only to jump back with a whinny as his tail lashed at the spot where she'd stood.
"I gave you ungrateful vermin everything," Spike said, his voice becoming a roar. His claws dug at the stone floor even as the withered muscles surged along his arms. "And what did you say in the end? 'Oh, no, Spike, you worthless lizard, just take it all back, we don't want it any more'." He surged up, green flames enveloping him and blasting upwards. Twilight and Rarity, Celestia and every unicorn there that was able, all raised shields against the tons of molten rocks and soil that rained down.
"What will it take to satisfy you?!?"
A large hole was on the ceiling. For the first time in centuries, sunlight shined down into Spike's cave, the deepest in Equestria. The green fire around him faded to reveal a full grown dragon in flawless health, his scales and fangs and claws all gleaming like ebon and purple steel. He roared down at the ponies who gaped at him.
"If it wasn't enough for me to give you everything, I'll try TAKING it all from you first! Let me see how you like it when Equestria is a blasted hellhole, when even the air you need to survive comes from me!" He glared at them in fury, tears running down his scaly cheeks.
"Because maybe then you'll FINALLY appreciate me!"
===
"Everypony, run!" For miles around ponies froze upon hearing the centuries-unused Royal Canterlot Voice boom across the countryside. "Get out of here, now!"
Ponies scattered in all directions as stones melting into lava cascaded down from the shattered ceiling. A mighty voice thundered: "You ungrateful, greedy, grasping, slothful vermin!"
For miles around, ponies froze. Some so fat they could barely move, some with bodies of inequine perfection, some no longer even pony in form but rather griffons and dragons and minotaurs. Ponies that were eating and running and making art and playing and just lying down to enjoy the sun, all being served by their very own personal avatar of Gift-Giver Spike, all turned to stare at the source of the sound.
Nightdrake Banneret rose higher and higher, a vision in ebony against the clear sky. Green flame limned his form, replenishing his strength after so long a time unused. He looked over Equestria, and hissed in fury. It sounded like someone had plunged a city's worth of molten metal into a frozen sea all at once. Both the ponies that came to rescue him and the ones that came to defeat him fled, dodging the dragon's fury.
All save one.
"Spikey-wikey!"
Spike froze and looked down at a purple-maned white alicorn flying up towards his face.
"Spike," she begged as she flew up close enough to see herself reflected in one massive eye. "Please, dear, don't do this! What Dash asked for, what we did, we were all wrong! Please don't hurt other ponies because of us!"
"Still the same selfish Rarity," he rumbled. She flinched as he said, "Come to beg for me to stop? Come back later, after I've finally shown everypony just what it'll be like to try living without my help! Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," Spike said with a sneer. "But first -- RETURN!"
Rarity dropped back down beside Twilight. Beside them stood Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Nearby were Trixie and Seabreeze, Celestia and Cadance and Shining Armor, the latter two in small draconic forms of their own, as were many of the other ponies recruited by Dash.
"What is he doing?" Rarity said. All around she saw dozens if not hundreds of the avatars appearing inside the cave, all looking intently at the true Spike.
"Easy," Twilight said. She swallowed. "He's recalling his power. All of it at once."
"Avatars!" Spike roared. "I said RETURN!"
###
All across Equestria, ponies found themselves suddenly bereft of aid, many of them couldn't even remember the last time they'd ever had to accomplish even the simplest tasks on their own, as the black-scaled dragon standing within hoof's reach just vanished.
Earth ponies and unicorns being born aloft by Spike's granted wings plunged down to the ground. Most were caught by nearby pegasi or other fliers, but not all. The rest landed in snow piles or mounds of grass, or water deep enough to break the fall but not harm them. Spike was careful like that. He had to be if he wanted to make his point.
The rides and games and galleries of Partitopia shuddered to a stop as the Spike-supplied power cut off. Pinkie Pie, no longer having her clones to help her, hurried to help the foals, calling loudly for help to a dragon who ignored her.
Ponies in other forms maintained by draconic magic. Ponies swimming blissfully beneath the sea. Ponies eating more food than a normal being could contain, the excess teleported away by Spike before it reached their bellies. Ponies at the edge of the upper atmosphere where they could see the stars in perfect chill clarity. And ponies who asked to be lava and heat-proof, tobogganing down an active lava flow for the novelty. All saw 'their' Spike look away, eyes hard, and then vanish in green flame. Oddly enough, all were abandoned in a way that left them safe, if dismayed.
And they all yelled the same thing:
"Spike! Please come back! HELP!"
###
"Oh, now they appreciate me," Spike snarled. "Now when they need my help and won't be getting it!" He ran his tongue over his fangs in amusement, only to roar as a flash of magic flew into his eyes. He roared and blinked as it turned into a giant cream pie. Spike snarled and shook his head, trying to clear it away.
"Okay!" Trixie turned to her new friends. "Now this is the point when Twilight comes up with the brilliant plan? Like by stopping that, so we don't have to fight an even MORE powerful night-dragon?" Trixie pointed at the sky, where at first hundreds, and then thousands, of streaks of green fire were flying towards Spike.
Twilight didn't hesitate. "Big brother, remember the royal wedding? That big shield? Same thing but over us and Spike, now!"
"What?!?" He stared at her in shock, still draconic in form. "Little sis, I don't have a horn right now! And I..." he fell silent as Twi's magic enveloped him and Cadence, leaving an alicorn and unicorn behind. Cadence laid her head against his neck and let her own magic flow into him. He aimed his horn high and blue magic shot into the air, erecting a shield between the onrushing flames and the dragon. They flared against it, unable to pass. Nightdrake Banneret roared.
"Nice trick, Twilight!" He spewed flames, passing through Shining Armor’s barrier, down at the ground. Where it struck more Spike-avatars stood, the size of him as a teenaged dragon, but equipped with vicious claws and fangs. "But I can create more avatars -- as many as I need!" The snarling scaly horde descended down the hole on the ponies.
Only to cover their faces from the scintillating light coming from there. Lead by Princess Celestia, her horn glowing brighter than it had in centuries, a herd of ponies countercharged. Ponies and dragons collided, whinnying and roaring.
"Twilight!" Celestia called to her student as a pair of dragons yanked on her mane and tail, trying to pull her off balance.
Twilight noticed how none of Spike's avatars were actually hurting anypony as Celestia called. "Stop Spike now, before he regains his full power, or --
“OW!"
Celestia spun and gave a forehoof kick to one dragon holding a mouthful of her mane. She vanished into the battle taking place between the ponies and the dragons.
"Right," Twilight said. She hoped she hadn't seen her teacher for the last time as she turned to Dash and Applejack. "Can you both..."
"Keep Big Spike occupied until y'all can use the Elements on him?" AJ nodded. Bitterness soured her voice. "Can do, sugarcube. Ah won't say Ah want ta, but Ah can. Just one thing," she called back as she ran off after Dash, who was already flying around Spike's head. "Spike offered ponies a choice about acceptin' his help, can you say the same sugar cube? Can ya say y'all are SURE about bein' right?"
I hope so, Twilight thought. She thought of all the ponies and other creatures who ate and stayed warm and clean, or at least had the illusion of being loved, because of Spike. And if not, may I never know.
Applejack stopped as Fluttercruel rushed out before her. "Dangit, ya crazy filly! This ain't the time ta fight ya --"
"No, but it's time for me to fight, and I need my magic for that!" Fluttercruel pointed at Applejack's hooves. Applejack snorted and thrust with one hoof so swiftly Fluttercruel felt the wind of its passage. She concentrated, eyes furrowed, and laughed when chocolate milk rained down on her.
"There, ya happy now?" When Fluttercruel nodded and flew back to the Element Bearers, Applejack raced after her and Dash into the fight.
Behind her, Twilight said to her friends, "Seabreeze, Trixie, Rarity, Fluttercruel, Big Mac, come on!" She flew towards Nightdrake Banneret, her oldest friend and little brother, towards Spike. Her Element began to glow as she set it on.
"It's do or die time!" Fluttercruel said as she charged forward with her claws and hooves drawn. "This is it! For Luna and Moonshine Valley, and the Equestria that was!"
"Trixie hopes the joke does not end up being on us," the blue unicorn called as she raced forward, hurling more of her magical fireworks at Nightdrake Banneret's head. "This all stopped being funny a long time ago, but it's time to bring the joy and laughter back!"
"Dis is for my Breezies, yoo overgrown lizard!" Seabreeze flew as fast as any Breezie ever flew, his Element starting to glow as they got closer to the furious dragon. "Now yoo vill lose, and dat is de honest truth!"
"Spike, darling," Rarity said as she flew alongside Twilight, her own Element shining like a small sun on her throat, "Forgive me for not being kind enough to help you centuries ago by being truthful! Spike ... I lied to you. I remembered EVERYTHING I did with the Inspiration Manifestation Spell, I was driven MAD with power until you told me what I needed to hear instead of what I wanted to hear to bring me back to my senses." She thought she saw a shiver go over Spike's face, his face twist for just one instant in grief. "It was cruel, but that thorn had to be drawn so I could be restored -- just like here and now, Spike!"
Big Mac could barely see through the light from his own Element as they took up their positions facing Nightdrake Banneret. He thought of the many foals he'd helped reach Partitopia over the years, as well as the ones who'd stayed with him and Cheery; their children and grandchildren and down to great-great grandchildren, maybe enough ponies to start their own country by now. And more, the food given to griffons and Diamond Dogs, the ponies who came to their farm before allowing Spike to end their lives painlessly because they knew he'd set them in their final bed with kind words.
"Don't let me be wrong 'bout this," he whispered, and wondered who or what he said it to. "Don't let none o' us be wrong 'bout this, an' if the ponies Spike's kept alive go when he does -- please, don't let me stay if Cheery don't." He felt his Element start to reach out as the others did, judging and weighing Nightdrake Banneret as he fought to get past Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
###
Loyalty looked into Banneret, scorned his turning everypony to utter selfishness, at his turning brother against sister and teacher against student, at turning even friends against friends; Laughter giggled at his humorless arrogance and self-loathing, his twisted need to be the Noble Martyr...
Dash flew at Banneret's eyes, forcing him to recoil instinctively. As he did, Applejack wheeled and drove both of her hind legs into one of Nightdrake Banneret's, with all the strength her alicorn form gave her. The dragon howled as scales flew from the kick, hopping on one leg inside the barrier.
"You rotten mares!" Nightdrake Banneret roared as he clutched at the injury.
Meanwhile Dash dove at his face again.
"I'll fix you -- OOF!" He flinched back and collapsed on his back with a yelp. All four of his legs flailed uselessly, as he fell into the ground, the barrier still surrounding him.
"I hate you!" He screamed, lashing the ground with his tail. Applejack barely dodged aside. "Everything you ever had came from ME! I was so good to everypony! Why don't you appreciate me!"
###
Honesty shook its head in disgust at a thousand years of self-deluding lies; Kindness wept at all the pain he needlessly endured, and the pain he encouraged ponies to hide from rather than heal...
"Spike," Applejack said, racing back in towards him. She barely dodged aside from his claws as he fought to rise, to get past her and at that painfully familiar light rising behind her. She had to keep him from it, had to keep him busy. She flew up from his near leg past his shoulder to his back. Combining her flight capabilities with centuries of learned skill, she drove her hooves into the scale-covered muscles at the base of his neck. He roared and dropped, temporarily paralyzed. She fell hard and hit the dirt, rolled and got up to find one leg unable to take her weight. She saw his avatars running to close in, and hurled herself at them on three legs. Kicking and bucking like mad, she drove them back for the moment. She repeated, "Spike! Yer my friend, Ah'm sorry Ah let ya hurt yourself, but ain't no way Ah'm lettin' ya hurt Twi and Big Mac and the others. Not now!"
"You hurt me," Spike snarled as sensation came back into his body. One of his avatars lashed at Applejack with a tail like a battering ram. She whinnied as she smacked into the side of a stone and slid down, to lie unmoving. Spike hissed, "I kept everyone content! Nopony needed anything, and most of them never knew they should want anything else! Why does everypony hate me?" He snatched Applejack up in one claw and got ready to hurl her at Twilight and the rest. "I suffered for you! I made you happy! Well, maybe after I take everything away you'll see how good I really was!"
###
Friendship grieved at his casting away every friend he once knew in exchange for self-hating isolation, happiness and trust turning into bitter self-righteousness; and Generosity shuddered at his perversion of everything it truly was and leaving everypony he touched nothing but self-serving and grasping.
Spike turned to Twilight, emerald flame drooling from his jaws, only to stop as Rainbow Dash flew before his face. He spat it at her and Dash was no longer a griffon, she was restored to her pegasus form. Her sound system fell from the sky to shatter below, adding to the massive pile of junk.
"Woah!" She looked at herself and then down at her stereo. "Aww! Didja have to do that, Spike? I really liked it -- URRK!"
"Now you?!?" He snapped at her, caught in his massive claw. "I've been too good to everypony. I made you a hero twice now, and you repay me by attacking me? Some Element of Loyalty, 'Rainbow Crash'! Guess what? After all of this, no more wishes for you!" She just glared at him, even when his grip tightened. He drew her closer. "I'm beating them, and then you can spend eternity eating grass and seeing everyone else get whatever they want while you're the object lesson to never mess with..." He broke off with a yell as she hoofed him in the eye.
"Get over it, Spike! You can stop acting now." She laughed at his furious look and pointed. "Remember the Elements, scaly?" He looked and stared in horror as he saw them shining brighter than a star. Dash choked out, "I got my wish -- I saved the world." She added with a laugh, "Thanks, Spike! Best adventure ever!"
Spike raised his claws in a useless defense.
The Elements lashed out.
And his world became nothing but light.
###
Twilight slowly reawakened. She looked around. Her new friends, Fluttercruel and Seabreeze and Big Mac and all the rest, lay nearby, alive but out of it. Trixie was rubbing her head, and Rarity stood over by three still forms.
Suddenly afraid, Twilight hurried to their side. She sighed in relief to see that all three -- palomino Alicorn, sky-blue pegasus, and a good-sized but no longer gigantic -- about the size of a small airship -- purple and green dragon lay there, stunned.
"So," Celestia said as she strode to stand alongside Twilight. "Nightdrake Banneret is gone. And the world he made possible is, too."
Twilight couldn't say anything. She just nodded.
Celestia looked at her and said just two words.
"Now what?"
===
Years later.
"Oh, come ON, Apple Bloom!" Diamond Tiara called back at her, as she and Silver Spoon ran past the small herd of Alicorns and towards the school Cheerilee made outside the rebuilt Ponyville. Diamond’s parents were nowhere to be seen. "Stop trying to make your robo-ponies do everything for you. Maybe if you moved once in awhile your legs could reach the ground!" No longer immortal, just like the rest of her friends, but very long-lived thanks to the aftereffects of Spike's magic, and with enough time to reconcile with her parents and maybe Perfect Diamond, she hoped.
"Ah ain't that fat! Anymore." Displaying an impressive belly, Apple Bloom huffed and puffed as she hurried after them. "Wish sometimes Ah coulda kept mah hover-chair. Or figure out how ta rebuild it, leastways!" A young green-coated Earth pony mare trotted past her. Apple Bloom groaned. "Ah, come on now, Granny Smith! Walk with me here."
"Come on yerself!" Granny called to her, still running as she did. "Miss Cheerilee asked us ta come in an' tell the students what it was like for us as young'uns in Old Equestria, an' we woulda been there ten minutes ago if ya hurried!"
---
On her way to Cheerilee's new school, Perfect Diamond was seriously considering to skip it today. She didn’t like it, she didn’t get immediately rewarded during or after it, and she didn’t see why would she have to go there. The chance of displeasing mommy and daddy was the only thing that was holding her back, but considering how little they seemed to care about what’s happening in her life, she was beginning to question if there was any point in doing as they told her. What did it matter to her how it made them look? Why keep up the charade when they can’t be bothered to put effort into their homelife?
But then she remembered...
"Mom, Dad... who was that filly that looked like me? And why does she have my tiara?"
"We don't talk about her!" Golden Tiara angrily yelled, hiding how much it hurt to remember her daughter, who she had almost killed and then couldn't bear to look at.
"Perfect, that mistake is something I don't think you could understand." In that moment Filthy Rich sported a look of shame. "Just move on and stop dwelling on the past," Filthy said accusingly.
The day Nightdrake Banneret was defeated, she had been left in Partitopia, along with many other foals, until the crisis was solved; and the filly she saw, who looked just like her (even wearing an exact copy of the same tiara) had been bothering her for sometime now. Perfect Diamond was distressed by their reaction, leaving her shocked and slightly watery eyed. She truly didn't know if there was something wrong with what she was asking about, and she wasn't sure what to say next.
Golden pulled Perfect and hugged her tightly, "Perfect, you're not replaceable, we wouldn't hurt you, and we love you. Please, don't forget that."
Filthy joined too, "You and Golden mean a lot to me, and I don't want to let fighting destroy our family. Can we start over?"
Now Perfect was just confused. They had been yelling at her a moment ago, and now they were reassuring her? Whatever was going, she wanted to know, even more than before. So she asked again about the filly identical to her, and they told her and this time it was harder for her parents to hide their shame, frustration, guilt and fear.
Then when Perfect asked about whether they loved Diamond at all, the only response they had was silence.
Now Perfect Diamond remembered why she was going along with this. Of course, she didn't think she had horrible ponies for parents and she wanted them to feel better, but she couldn't do more than just hug them that day. And that’s why she’s coming to school today. Today she's going to try to befriend Diamond Tiara.
Thankfully, she didn't have to speak the first word.
"So you're my replacement, huh. Hi, I'm Diamond Tiara. How are Mom and Dad doing?"
"Hi. Um, my name is Perfect Diamond, and... they're..." Perfect hesitated. It was a little too direct, "not okay actually."
"What?" Diamond Tiara said, surprised.
"A few days ago they told me about you. Well, I ASKED them about you, and they... feel terrible. About, you know, abandoning you."
In equal parts hopeful and confused, Diamond Tiara said, "So they want me back?"
"... I don't know, honestly. They didn't even tell me why they did it..."
"Huh..." Diamond Tiara was prepared to be told that she was worthless, that her parents didn't need her or how inferior she was compared to Perfect Diamond, but she wasn't prepared to be told that her parents were unhappy with what they had done.
The conversation had gone into a rather awkward pause, so Diamond Tiara swiftly started looking for something to change the conversation with. Then it hit her.
"So, uh, did any of your friends come with you?" Diamond said, knowing that if any came with her, she wouldn't be alone, but obviously she was. Diamond Tiara wanted to fix that.
"I didn't have many friends, well, friends that weren't Gift-Giver Spike-constructs..." Perfect Diamond felt as if Diamond Tiara's astounded look demanded an explanation from her. "Mom and Dad didn't let me out of the house much."
"So, um, my friends have gotten a head start to school." Diamond Tiara pointed towards Apple Bloom and Granny Smith up ahead, the latter of which was about to dash past Rarity and Applejack "So, uh, you want to come?"
"... Yeah, sure." Perfect Diamond began walking by Diamond Tiara's side. "So, I've been meaning to ask; did you ever forgive them?"
"... Honestly, I don't know," Diamond Tiara responded worriedly. "I just hope it's not too late..."
"...Me neither."
Diamond Tiara let out a relieved smile. "You and I are going to get along just fine."
Perfect Diamond smiled back.
---
Today at school, they were going to look at one of Twilight Velvet’s books, and the longer-lived foals could barely contain their excitement. Ever better, Twilight Velvet herself was going to be there! It took years, but thanks to the help Velvet got from her husband and her son, she was now ready to meet her audience once more. And ponies, no longer able to demand entertainment customized to their tastes on a whim, were reading her stories again, diving into her written worlds with only the magic of their imagination with the sense of adventures all readers should have.
Granny Smith fetched up against both of the Alicorns with a whoof of expelled air. She hurried past, calling, "Sorry, grand-daughter, Miss Rarity!"
"She could call me 'Princess', you know," Rarity grumped as the fillies, centuries older than most of the adult ponies watching them, raced to the school. Some of the newer actual foals galloped along as well, like Lyra and Bon Bon's daughter, and some of Big Mac and Cheerilee's own foals. It looked like the old school she remembered from her mortal life, though thanks to Apple Bloom's inventions the chalkboards were holographic now. When Applejack snickered, Rarity sniffed, "Oh, I know it's not like the old days. Outside of Moonshine Valley and the Crystal Empire we Alicorns don't really rule anymore, but still, I do so like the title!"
"Ah know," Applejack said, rolling her eyes. "Ya only talk about it every time we see each other." She looked around New Ponyville as they trotted into town, happy to see that electric lights were finally reaching outside the few remaining cities. In the distance the train headed out, puffing steam -- purely for effect, as it ran off something Apple Bloom devised after studying stars alongside Celestia. What was it, 'fusion' or the like?
"By the way, dear, how is dear Princ --" Rarity caught herself, and said, "I mean, how is Celestia doing?" Both Alicorn mares looked over at Sugarcube Corner. "Is she still Pinkie's apprentice baker?"
“Yeah, she is. She has been ever since she helped her bake that apology cake for the breezies.”
“The one saying ‘I’m sorry for destroying your town’ that she personally delivered?”
“That’s the one. They accepted it, Ah heard.”
Rarity smiled. "I do wonder what it must be like for visitors to realize they're being attended by the mare who once ruled Equestria."
"Heh," Applejack said. "She's doing fine, an' so's Pinkie. Now that she’s getting help with Partitopia, she can take the time from her foals and th' amusement park to come and teach her how to be a baker." She chuckled, "Though Ah hear she gives Celly grief sometimes 'bout eatin' the cakes!"
###
"Apprentice Baker Celestia!" Pinkie Pie frowned, or tried to, at the once Sun Princess. A grin twitched at the corners of her mouth. "What did I tell you about snacking on the cakes we're supposed to be selling to the customers?"
"But they smell so good!" Celestia said, chunkier than in her princess years if nowhere near as globular as when she'd 'ruled' Caketopia. She wore a stained pink apron with the words 'Nuzzle the Chef' on it. "And even if I'm not the Princess anymore, I still have to raise the sun every morning. I need to keep my strength up."
"You don't need that much strength," Pinkie said. Celestia tried and failed to look downcast. Pinkie trotted over and nuzzled her former ruler and now friend. "Just try and make sure some of them reach the shelves. I have to trust you to do it, Trixie and I are working on the new shows for the park." Pinkie gave a shudder. "I just wish she could get over that love of fireworks! I think they heard the last show in Neighpon. And remember, the workponies making the new hydroelectric dam outside of town love your angel's food! Then again, I guess they would, what with you..."
Celestia, once primary and then sole ruler of Equestria, defender against horror after horror, and then for a thousand years lost in her own gluttonous despair before aiding her student to save the world and her friends once more, sat back and sighed in contentment to listen to Pinkie Pie tell her how to arrange the day's orders of cakes.
This makes me so much happier than running the country ever did. It truly does.
###
“By the way, did any of those poor orphans ever got their families back?” Rarity said.
“Yep. Ponies are startin’ to realize that just abandoning their foals was a bad idea. Fact is, many have gotten adopted or taken back in by their families!”
"I'm glad everypony’s happy." Rarity looked around the town square. It all looked so familiar, and yet so different. Electric lights rather than the old glowgem lamps, those speedier airships in the distance, -- though she privately preferred the old ones of centuries gone by. The ones supported by pegasus magic and helium -- very slow, but so stately and elegant -- and the once more cultivated fields in the distance around the town. She shivered. "I remember what it was like, the first few years right after..." Her voice trailed off. "I imagine you and Big Mac and your assistants had some difficulties teaching the new ponies how to plant and harvest."
"We did," Applejack nodded. She looked across the square, and Rarity saw a cart pulled by several ponies with smaller figures flying around it and calling out advice in high-pitched, peeved voices. "Kinda glad Ah asked Spike ta bring in some seed stock and put some preserved food by in the years leadin' up ta what ya and the others did." Rarity glanced at her friend. Only the faintest trace of nostalgia touched Applejack’s voice now as she said, "Ah figgered somepony'd up an try ta stop Spike, an' maybe even succeed, an Ah wanted something for th' first few years as we tried ta learn how ta farm again." She shook herself, and Rarity looked away at the memory of what their victory had cost, as Applejack said, "That way it wasn't near as bad as I feared it was gonna be. But we lost more'n a few ponies, those first eight-ten years."
Both fell silent as the cart went by. The mare and stallion pulling it somehow looked tired, satisfied, and annoyed all at once as a trio of Breezies called advice on how to treat the harvest: "And do not just t'row apples in baskets, dey vill bruise and go bad! Yoo must be careful if yoo want enough to last the winter through!" The ponies just rolled their eyes -- they looked like ones born before Spike's fall -- but they would still have learned the hard way by now how to take care of food.
Past them, against the side of Town Hall, Rarity shook her head to see an old election poster. Even from here the legend could be read: Might as well vote for me, politics are already insane!
"I'm still stunned that ponies voted Discord into office after we let him go," she said. "Even if Fluttercruel spoke up for him... Still, he did behave himself, and Discord did aid quite a few ponies with his Chaos magic when we needed it." She looked thoughtful. "'Cruel's still helping Luna's bat ponies, isn't she? Along with Rainbow Dash? Did they make Lightning Dust and her crew see reason?”
"They sure did and she sure is," Applejack said. "When Dash ain't helping out in 'New Cloudsdale' or plannin' her own campaign against Discord-- What?" She grinned at the jaws agape Rarity. Her horn glowed and an apple from her own orchards teleported to her, floating before AJ so she could take a bite of its tart sweetness before saying, "Ya didn't know? Dash said a thousand years o' losin' races ta me was enough, now she wants ta try her own hooves at doin' right by Equestria."
"To hear her tell it, Applejack dear, she got tired of beating you for a thousand years." Rarity smiled gently as Applejack coughed and sputtered on a chunk of apple. The white Alicorn looked downcast and said, "It's a shame that neither Spike nor Twilight could be here to see this."
"Ah know," Applejack said. The two Alicorns twined necks in honor of missing friends.
"I'll have to tell her and Spikey-Wikey about it when I see them tomorrow."
"You do that, sugarcube."
###
"Spike?" Twilight called up to the massive dragon as he lifted a heavy concrete slab into place on the future dam with his bare claws. When he showed no signs of noticing, she yelled again, "Spike!"
"I heard you, Twilight," he rumbled back at her. The purple and green dragon carefully set the slab down. "I'll be with you in a second." He waited as the pegasus forepony examined the work. When he nodded, Spike turned to Twilight. "Looks like I can take a break now. What's up?"
"First of all, I still feel surprised to see you taking a break," Twilight said as she hovered before Spike's eyes. "I remember you as the dragon who spent a thousand years working yourself to death so nopony else would have to do anything more strenuous than breathe," She chuckled. "And before that, as the little dragon that used to complain whenever I asked him to help reshelve the books." She waved one hoof at the dam. "And now this?"
"Hey, I have to pay off my debt to Equestria somehow."
Twilight winced. Right after Spike's defeat and curing, Equestria experienced hard years. Ponies that had never so much as cleaned their own floors in their lives, and others that did nothing for a thousand years, were woefully unprepared for the realities of life in a now Banneret-free Equestria. Even with the food stocks set aside by Applejack, and the tools created by Apple Bloom's factories, the aid given by the Breezies and Bat Ponies, and magical help from her and her sister Alicorns, and even Fluttercruel and her father... it was hard. But the ponies proved themselves worthy of their ancestors in both body and spirit. Only a few ever asked Spike to once again accept the power he'd been freed from; indeed, after it became common knowledge what happened to him as Banneret, many ponies wrote or visited the dragon in person to apologize.
Of course, Twilight thought, it helped mightily that none of the foals or adult ponies he'd created went 'poof' with Banneret. That reminded Twilight of why she'd come here.
"So, Spike." She pulled with her magic a low-lying cloud down to the same level as his face and laid on it. He in turn sat on his haunches, looking relieved. She said, "There's something I've been wondering about for a few years now. You say you remember everything you did as Banneret."
"The big things, yeah." He stretched and scratched along his back. "The little stuff, all the day to day demands, it all just kind of blurs together after the first two or three centuries."
"I'm not talking about that," Twilight said, shaking her head. "I meant that last wish you got from Rainbow Dash." She didn't fail to notice how he started, so slightly that she doubted anypony other than her would even notice. "She asked for you to give her a chance to be a hero, like years before with the aliens, to save the world..."
"Uhh, yeah..." Spike replied. The clouds overhead must have become fascinating to him. He looked up at them and not at her.
Twilight snorted and flew around to look him in the face. "Please pay attention." When he did so, she said, "For a long time the Element bearers and I thought that was what got us going after so many centuries, that you gave us a push to try to defeat you so Dash could defeat us, but it all snowballed." Spike said nothing, and she added, "But then I wondered. Rarity and I were visiting you for centuries, asking you to stop, pleading with you to end what you were doing. You never seemed to pay attention, but what if you did?" Spike looked at her in utter silence as she said, "What if you really DID play us all -- not to entertain Dash, but to stop you? Was that why you permitted Lightning Dust and her loutish friends to actually hurt the Bat Ponies, or Pinkie Pie's clones to attack the Breezie village? To make us and everypony else WANT to stop its maker? Why you suddenly revealed, if it WAS a reveal," Spike seemed to gulp at her words, "after so many centuries that the things we thought you created were being stolen from other worlds -- worlds that I and the other Alicorns have never been able to find with all our searching the nearby dimensions?"
"The story about the new souls for the foals was true," Spike said hurriedly, but also sincerely. "I, I saw them in other dimensions. They were hurting so much, and I remembered what it was like for me as a hatchling, with you and Celestia and the rest... I wanted them to be loved and happy."
“What happened to them anyway?”
“I've been thinking about reincarnating them, or just creating them new bodies and introducing them to families around Equus. It's not right to treat them as inventory. I mean, I was the one who brought them here in the first place, so I feel that this is something that I have to do.”
“I could help you do it subtly. You know, so there’s no problems down the line.”
“Thanks Twilight,” Spike rose and turned back towards the dam. "I kinda have to get back to work. Hey!"
A glow of magic surrounded him, picking the massive dragon up and turning him to face Twilight.
"Forget it, Spike." Twilight said with a smile. "You, or Banneret, decided to kill two parasprites with one stone, didn't you? You did all that, to make us want to stop Banneret -- and at the same time you made sure Dash and the others learned about it so you could fulfill her wish as well, and let her save Equestria." She flew closer and nuzzled him. "And you."
"Oh, Twi," Spike said, blushing right through his scales. "Not in front of the other guys!" Twi looked and saw the other ponies on the site studiously ignoring it all. He said in forced humor "Besides, do you really think I could be that smart?"
"Yes." Twilight said simply. "Yes, I could. Because even when you were a nightmare and an elder dragon, with the sheer power to destroy us all or make us want to be part of your world regardless of our desires, you let us go. You never killed, Spike, or even seriously hurt anypony. Every pony who lost one of your avatars at the end remembers how they all came through safely." Spike smiled at her as she said, "Even when you were a monster lost in your own fury, Spike, on some level you cared. Like Luna as Nightmare Moon.
"And that's what really saved everything."
She flew back away from him as the giant dragon dug at the dirt with one claw. "Now be sure to visit next week, Minty and some of her cousins are all graduating, along with some of the first ponies to study my magic in a thousand years who aren't related to me. Like Sweetie Belle," she added slyly. "Rarity will be there."
"She will?" Spike grinned broadly. The sight of that gleaming wall of ivory fangs would have scared anypony else. He said, "I'll be there. Should I bring any gifts for them?"
"Just bring yourself, Spike," Twilight called back as she flew away from him before teleporting away.
"Your company is the only gift I ever want to see from you again."