Back in Twilight's Castle, everyone was a sobbing wreck as they sat in Twilight's meeting room. Every seat was filled. All except one.
Twilight had barely made it to the hospital and back without fainting with every step she took. The usually cheery princess had been crying so much on the way there that there was a puddle formed within ten seconds whenever she stopped at all. At the hospital, Twilight's eyes were a light shade of red from crying so much. When she delivered the news, no one believed it. They refused to believe it. When she presented the scroll and barely finished reading it out loud, the world crashed around them as well. Pinkie's mane instantly deflated, Fluttershy just cried harder than before, Rarity fell and began to wail in agony, and Applejack tried to hold her tears back, but to no avail. The hallway at the hospital soon became filled with a symphony of tears for everyone there.
She explained that the princesses requested their presence at the castle to prepare a proper homegoing ceremony. Fluttershy couldn't go; she was watching over Scootaloo in Rainbow Dash's absence. Everypony else joined Twilight on the way back. Now, barely anyone could keep themselves together. Each of them had at least two boxes of tissues in front of them.
"Twilight...I know how painful this is...but you must be strong for Spike," Luna said in shaky voice as she tried to hold back tears as well. After blowing her nose, she gave a merciless glare to Rarity.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT," she screamed, "WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST ACKNOWLEDGE HIS FEELINGS FOR YOU? WHY COULDN'T YOU LET HIM LOVE YOU?"
Through tears, Rarity returned the glare. "YOU THOUGHT HIS FEELINGS WEREN'T EVEN GENUINE! YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A CHILDHOOD CRUSH!"
"LADIES, STOP!" Celestia yelled. "This is no one's fault. Twilight..."
She looked at her sniffling pupil. "...don't blame anyone for something you don't have control over, much less something you don't understand. And Rarity..."
Rarity looked at her with worry in her eyes. "...admit when you were wrong and move on. This won't be the last lesson you ever learn."
"But....HOW CAN WE MOVE ONE WITHOUT OUR DEAR SPIKE?!!!"
"Quite simply."
The room grew still. The voice that said that didn't come from any of the ponies in the room. Even the princesses were dumbfounded. No one said a word until Twilight spoke up.
"Sp...Spike?"
"Yeah?"
She got up and galloped around the room. "SPIKE?! SPIKE, WHERE ARE YOU?! PLEASE, SHOW YOURSELF!"
Running up the stairs into Spike's room, she held onto her newfound glimmer of hope for her assistant--no--her younger brother being alive. The room was empty. Spike's bed was neatly made. The door closed behind her; the second it did, she seemed to be in a different world. The windows disappeared and the ceiling was replaced with what seemed like the galaxy. She was standing on millions of stars; she felt weightless.
"Twilight? Twilight, are you okay?" Celestia called up the stairs.
"I'm...fine...did you do something to Spike's room?"
"No, what's wrong with it?"
She heard her mentor coming up the stairs. "WAIT, WAIT! DON'T COME IN YET! I think..."
She walked around the astral plane disguised as Spike's bedroom in awe. There were colors everywhere, even ones she's never even seen before! The shades just looked incredible in her eyes. However, there was no sign of Spike anywhere.
"How did he find the time to do all of this? How COULD he have done all of this?"
"Twilight?"
She spun around and saw her closest friend standing there, with tears in his eyes. He said nothing more; Twilight began to sob as she held her forearms outstretched to him. Running to her and filling her arms with his presence, she was able to sense the anguish that he's felt. It all became clear to her; there was more to her number-one assistant than meets the eye.
"Twilight, I..."
"I know, Spike...I know..."
He looked up at her with emerald eyes shining with emotion. "No, Twilight! You don't know!"
With a wave of his fingers, he created a group of stars under their feet and sat down; Twilight followed suit, looking into his eyes with curiosity evident. He sighed.
"You're arguably the smartest alicorn in Ponyville, Twilight. But there are some things that can't be found in a book or studied or can be retrieved through magic."
"What do you mean?"
He exhaled once more. "It's time I told you the truth, Twi..."
Listening intently, she put her arm around her brother as he began his tale.
"About a 5 years ago, Luna was here dragon-sitting me. It was the night of the Canterlot Ball; you and the Elements of Harmony were invited as special guests with you to deliver an inspiring speech on the impact of friendship."
Twilight nodded. "I remember that night!"
"You remember what YOU were doing that night. We were in two separate places, Twilight. While you were having fun with your friends in Canterlot, I was here hanging out with Luna. We had lots of fun all the way until it was time for bed; we were cooking, told stories, watched movies, played games, and more. We loved it. When I went to sleep and she began her nightly duties, I had...a dream..."
"What was your dream about?"
He looked up at her tearfully. "My...parents..."
"What? You know what they look like?"
"No. I don't know what they look like at all. My dream just had silhouettes as dragons. But all I know was that there was fire and ice everywhere...dragons were freezing everywhere. Whenever a dragon freezes, it's instant death."
Twilight gasped.
"When Luna saw my dream, she woke me up. I was confused as to what it meant and wanted to know more. It just added to the questions I had about who I was. She told me to stay put and flew back to the castle."
Spike took a deep breath.
"When she returned, she had a scroll with her. I asked what it was, and she said...she said..."
"What'd she say?"
"...it was a scroll from my parents...and that I had finally reached the age where I can learn what really happened. I could finally learn how Celestia had ended up with my egg."
She stayed silent.
"Luna said that although dragons and ponies were originally enemies, there was a couple of dragons that respected Celestia and she respected them back. Their names were Burn and Boil. They lived far away from any dragon; they were afraid the Dragon Kingdom's townspeople would have a bad influence on me. While Boil was pregnant with me, she took pictures of the two of them for when I moved out of their house...they wanted me to remember where I came from."
"That's so sweet," Twilight said, "What happened to them?"
"Tirek attacked. He was one of the dragons' mortal enemies dating way, way back. When his troops came in, he had one simple order: kill any and every dragon you could find."
Spike hid his face.
"As our army fought, townsdragons hid their eggs far away from the town, all hoping that the minions of Tirek wouldn't find them. Needless to say, it was a slaughter for the Dragon Kingdom; we had taken out many of Tirek's troops as well, but they were still coming in fast. By now, they had detected my parents on the outskirts of the town and were heading for them. Knowing they were coming, my father wrote a letter to Celestia explaining the dilemma. That was the letter she brought with her that night. It said:
Dearest Celestia,
We're in danger. We need you to take care of our son; if not you, then someone who will. Even though he's just an egg, he has potential to do great things when he hatches. I know he does. Those troops of Tirek's are too fast for us to fly away ourselves. Attached to this note is his egg. And for my dear Spike...Mommy and Daddy love you. We wish we could see you grow up into a big, strong, lovable dragon.
Sincerely,
Burn"
Twilight gasped again. "Spike, I'm--"
"Celestia had gotten there just after the troops had gotten my parents. She easily found the egg and the note attached with it before flying back with sorrow. Shortly thereafter, she and her troops had returned, taken down Tirek, and put all of the hidden eggs in a safe environment for when they hatch. She left careponies in charge of them as they grew. Eventually, every pony that worked there refused to go back; they had reached the stage in their lives when they get rid of every ounce of decency and replaced it with hate, cruelty, and anger. Meanwhile, Celestia was trying to figure out what to do with my egg. She didn't have time to raise it, run a school, AND the kingdom. So, what'd she do?"
Twilight smiled as her eyes shimmered. "She gave me your egg."
Spike nodded. "So, that's why I'm not exactly the spitting image of a dragon. Not fierce, not mean, and only recently learned to fly."
"But how does this tie into...you know..."
"Rarity's love was all I had left. I realized I wasn't a dragon at heart and it...saddened me. I didn't know if I was a pony in dragon skin or vice-versa. All I knew was that I was acting the opposite of who I was. I didn't tell you guys how sad I was because I didn't want you to worry..."
Twilight was dumbfounded. "That's ridiculous! We love you, Spike! We want nothing but the best for you!"
"I know. But when Rarity rejected my love a couple weeks ago, I felt like that was it. I had nothing to live for. I'll never be a real dragon or fit in enough here to be a part of the family," Spike sobbed, "So when I left today, I purposefully ate that berry to die. I wrote that it was an accident to make you guys think it was no one's fault. When in reality...it was mine..."
"SPIKE! THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Twilight yelled at him with tears pouring, "We're your family! We'd never do anything to hurt you! And even if you think no one loves you, you know that I love you! With all my heart! We were all brokenhearted at the news that you died!"
Spike stopped and looked at her." E--Even Rarity?"
"Even Rarity. You have so much to live for, Spike. You may not know your purpose in life right now, but you have your whole life to figure it out. And even if you don't act like a dragon, let me ask you this. Would you be willing to be mean, angry, and hateful your whole life in exchange for tarnishing friendships that you've made over the years? If that's what being a dragon means, would you be willing to be one?"
Spike shook his head.
"Exactly," Twilight continued, "Spike, you've created an entirely new definition of being a dragon that everypony in town loves. We love knowing that we know a dragon that's the sweetest one in Equestria and that we feel good about meeting. If you want to know how to defend yourself, and that's why you want to act more like a dragon, that's a different story. But if you would rather die than being able to worsen yourself to fit into a stereotype, then...that's not a dragon I want to know."
"Twilight...the point is...I need help...a lot of it..." he said, sobbing into her neck.
"I know, Spike...and we'd be willing to help. I'd be willing to help."
"Thanks, Twi...I'll see you tomorrow..."
"Wait, what?"
"Good night, Twilight..."
"Spike? WAIT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING? SPIKE!"
"Twilight! Twilight! Wake up!" Pinkie yelled in her ear. With a jolt, Twilight sat upright, eyes red from crying. Pinkie's mane was still deflated. The table was full of papers with funeral ideas.
"Twilight, I think it's best you go to bed," Celestia advised.
With a frown, Twilight went upstairs as her friends planned Spike's funeral. It wasn't real. Spike was still gone, and her mind was playing tricks on her. Before she went to bed, however, she stopped in Spike's room. Her heart almost stopped when she saw him in his bed, sleeping soundly. Closing the door softly, she slowly approached him to make sure it wasn't an illusion. As she saw him inhale and exhale in a deep sleep, she began to cry tears of joy. Even his shade of purple was beginning to come back.
Picking up the Rarity doll on the floor and placing it next to him, Spike's eyes fluttered open.
"Spike..." Twilight muttered.
"I love you, Twilight...I'll stay...forever..." he mumbled, half-asleep.
"How'd you talk to me? How--"
Just then, a blue aura surrounded her and lifted her before placing her in bed with a now-asleep Spike. Looking in front of her, she saw Luna with tears of happiness.
"That's a secret...now let sleep claim you, Twilight Sparkle. Tomorrow's adventures await," Luna said. A smile grew on Twilight's face as she closed her eyes and hugged Spike to achieve some much-needed rest.