January 11th, 1001 Domina Solaria, First Year of the Two Sisters
Doug looks up from his signed copy of Daring Do and the Razor of Dreams as Twilight Sparkle slumps into the hospital room. Next to him, Rainbow Dash’s ears flick in irritation, shifting her head just enough to see what stopped Doug from what she can safely assume is a spot-on impersonation of Dr. Caballeron. She lightly groans, shifting her bandaged wing to sit up and get a better look at her herdmate. In the adjacent bed Miss Cheerilee puts down her cup with drinking straw, half of one foreleg practically the only spot on her missing a bandage.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight Sparkle says quietly, trying to keep the distress from her voice. Red-rimmed eyes travel from their bed at Miss Cheerilee’s, her dejected nod getting a harsh stare in return, then an eventual nod. “How is everything?”
“Oh, this?” Rainbow laughs, forcing a smile to her muzzle. “Doc says that I should be out of here in another few days. But then I need to lay off the heavy flying for a few weeks.” She can’t keep the smile going any longer. “I just hope it doesn’t hurt my chances to join the Wonderbolts. They’re really strict about injuries, and making sure that you’re okay afterwards. I mean, I guess I should be thankful, because I sorta kinda get hurt a lot, but still.” She shrugs, wincing from the pain in her wing.
“It’s okay, Rainbow,” Doug says, scratching her mane. She smiles back at him, offering the bandaged wing. Doug half-smiles, half grimaces as he slips his hand around the cast, trying to get to that itch Rainbow has been complaining about since they started reading. “You’re going to do great.”
“You keep saying that,” Rainbow Dash grins, nuzzling Doug even as he can’t quite reach the spot. She looks down her belly at Twilight. “How’s Spike?” She peers behind the unicorn to the closed door. “I’m kind of surprised he didn’t come here to see me,” then glances over at Miss Cheerilee, apologetically amending, “Us.”
“It’s, um,” Twilight stammers, her head falling forward as she wipes a quickly forming tear from her eye. Something she really needs to start bringing a tissue for, she’s jabbed herself too many times today alone. “It’s…”
Twilight doesn’t hear the footsteps, and barely reacts as she finds herself lifted up, body squeezed as Doug embraces her. She sobs into his light jacket, pawing at his sides as he carries her to the hospital bed. Rainbow stretches out a comforting hoof, stroking the unicorn as she is deposited next to her.
Silence stretches for a few long moments, the only sound Twilight’s occasional sharp intake of breath.
Twilight finally manages to raise her tear-filled eyes to meet Doug. “There’s… there’s talk of taking Spike away. Of deporting him to the Dragon Lands. That he’s… that he’s a menace to society. Or some sort of dragon plot to take over Equestria. Or an Equestrian plot to take over the Dragon Lands! It’s ridiculous and stupid and contradictory and you can’t fight one without helping the other and I don’t know what to do!”
Twilight breaks down again, clenching her eyes shut as she pulls the sheets against her, a vain attempt to hide her sorrow. The hand snaking under the sheets to find her neck provides little comfort, though she grasps at it like a falling unicorn.
“Wait, I don’t get it.” Rainbow looks quizzically at Twilight. “How can Spike be part of a dragon plot? That makes less sense than any of Ahuizotl’s schemes!”
“That’s just it!” Twilight exclaims, pulling her head free of the sheets. “None of it makes sense! I’ve known Spike his entire life, he can’t just be some sort of dragon sleeper agent that somehow got activated early and went on a rampage through town! Or - if you want to believe the griffons - us ponies have developed a method to make innocuous, innocent creatures into murder machines!”
Doug snorts. At Rainbow and Twilight’s glance he motions to the two injured ponies. “Sorry, it’s just, Spike was a pretty awful murder machine if all he managed to do was hurt two ponies.”
Twilight nods. “True. And nopony is saying that their, or any of the other, accusations make a lick of sense. Like the one that we would somehow use creatures like Spike as a false-flag operation, and then blame the dragons, or whatever creature suits our fancy, to justify an invasion!” Twilight slaps a hoof against the bed. “I had to look up what a false-flag operation was! And then the last recorded instance of one being used! Of course it was the griffons, back when they raided the minotaur’s shipping lanes and tried to blame it on the goats. But the Mareva Convention specifically bans their use against signatory parties! Which, of course, Equestria and the Dragon Lands both are!”
“Huh,” Doug says, making a mental note to look up that Convention.
“But what about Spike?” Rainbow Dash implores, a worried, almost terrified look on her face. “Nothing bad’s going to happen to him… right? He shouldn’t be banished or anything!” She glances to Miss Cheerilee. "Nopony is pressing charges; Trixie is covering for Miss Cheerilee, and Applejack already pledged to rebuild the schoolhouse!"
Twilight Sparkle sighs. “It’s out of my hooves. It’s out of Celestia’s hooves, if you can believe that. The only reason he’s just under house arrest in the library is because Princess Celestia herself pleaded his case! Torch, that is Dragon Lord Torch, nearly collapsed the landing pad at the castle because he was afraid a dragon would be executed on Equestrian soil!”
“WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash and Miss Cheerilee exclaim, the latter muffled by her cast.
“There hasn’t been anything like that in…” Rainbow trails off, a hoof to her chin as she stares at the ceiling.
“A thousand years. I didn’t have to look that one up, I remembered it from my earlier reading.” Twilight gulps, shaking her head. “I mean, it was Nightmare Moon’s followers carrying out what was later termed an illegitimate order, yet it technically wasn’t. But I didn’t come here to argue case law, or the stupid rumors the griffons keep cooking up.”
Twilight glances away to stare in the corner. “Torch personally remembers it, too. If you listen to the right sources, you might believe that Torch wants to bring Spike home so that he can execute him himself. Though whether it’s because he’s a disgrace, and he wants to keep Equestria’s relationship with the dragon lands the way they are? Or maybe it’s that he thinks Spike’s got too much ambition, and doesn’t want him becoming the next Dragon Lord?” She shrugs, a wry smirk briefly on her muzzle. “Or, or, it’s to set Spike up with his youngest daughter! Who knows?” She throws her hooves up at the possibilities, nearly all of them incompatible with the others.
“It sounds to me like you need to let this all settle down,” Doug says calmly, setting down Daring Do so he can stroke Twilight as well. “Besides, I don’t think Sweetie Belle would like that last one.”
Twilight snorts. “Actually, she might be happiest with that one, given the other options.” She glances back at Doug. “Have you been able to talk to her?”
Doug shakes his head, motioning to Rainbow. “Been sequestered here myself, the adamant request of a certain somepony. Plus, it gets me away from all that speculation.” Doug sighs, thinking of how many members of the herd would benefit from him being there for them. And here he thought Spike and Sweetie Belle were doing okay, though Fluttershy had definitely appreciated his praise and thanks for saving them.
Twilight recites, “Ignorance of the trials our friends go through makes them no safer, and us no better suited to help them.”
“...I guess.” Doug strokes his chin. “But I don’t know if wild speculation counts as knowledge.”
That draws a wry smirk from Twilight. “I suppose. But, I'm not sure about Sweetie Belle. I just know that she's not allowed to see Spike, especially if she was part of the trigger for his Greed. He did hunt her down. But if this happens again, then Spike is as good as gone! Especially because this is the second time it’s happened with him!”
"What was the first?” Doug asks, berating himself even more for not being there for his filly.
“When I got my cutie mark. I blasted him with a bit of wild magic; turns out, it activated that Greed circuit in him, or something. Princess Celestia had to step in to fix it. She never told me how it happened, I think because she knew that filly me would want to experiment with it.” Twilight smirks a little. “And she wasn’t wrong.” Her face falls almost immediately. “But, while fifteen years might sound like a lot to us, it’s a drop in the pond for a dragon. He doesn’t get a third pass. Not without serious repercussions.”
Doug’s arms wrap tighter around Twilight as she wildly gesticulates, staying silent only because he has no idea what to do or say. He glances over at Rainbow, his eyes briefly narrowing. Rainbow grins, pulling her good wing back from trying to filch Daring Do from him.
Twilight’s frown returns. “I don’t know how much of that is true.” She slams a hoof on the bed again. “I don’t know if anything is true! The only thing I know for sure is that we’re one international incident away from sanctions being levied on us! Even being a minute off of sunrise and sunset could be enough! And the only reason I know that is because Celestia’s been keeping me in the loop of all this!”
“And how’s Spike taking it?” Doug asks; Twilight takes a few seconds to gather her thoughts. In the interim, Doug turns to Rainbow Dash. He picks the book up, flicking it back and forth a few times. “I’m trusting you, Rainbow. This is a valuable book.” His thumb traces across Daring Do’s signature just under the picture of the pegasus. “I don’t want you falling asleep on this one, thinking you spent all night reading and instead drooling all over it.”
Rainbow’s eyes narrow. “I already apologized for that.” She starts pulling the sheets off of her, stopping inches before revealing herself. “You gonna make me apologize again?”
Doug leans over, kissing Rainbow just where red starts in her mane. His hand leaves Daring Do in her lap before pulling the sheets aside to rub her newly exposed belly. “I’ll accept your apology as many times as you want me to.”
Rainbow grins lasciviously, her hoof meeting his hand and pressing down.
Their kiss is interrupted by Twilight’s, “Hey! You know the signature on this book is a forgery, right?”
“What are you talking about?” asks Doug, pulling himself away despite Rainbow’s betrayed glare. Though that might be directed at the unicorn behind him.
Twilight points at the bottom of the book encased in her aura. “These are written by A. K. Yearling, not Daring Do!”
Doug slowly nods. “That is a true statement.”
Twilight draws a hoof under the signature. “This is signed by Daring Do.”
“Also true.”
Twilight and Doug stare at each other for a few seconds before Doug finds himself pulled away, going back to making out with Rainbow.
“Hey!”
Doug opens one eye to glance at Twilight. “Did you have a point? She signed the books as the persona I met first.”
“Waitwaitwait,” Rainbow exclaims, half-pushing Doug away. “Daring Do is real?”
“Yes,” Doug confirms.
Twilight scoffs but says nothing.
“So, back in the Everfree two years ago, when Zecora dragged you out there, you adventured with Daring Do?”
Doug nods. “I mostly just fell off a waterfall with her, but yes.”
“Saving her life beforehoof.” Rainbow bores into Doug with her eyes, her eyes widening at his eventual nod. “And did you, you know…” She wags her eyebrows suggestively. "Get thanked by her?"
“No,” Doug says, brushing Rainbow’s mane into her eyes. “Sorry to disappoint.”
“No no no, you see? That just makes it even better!” Rainbow’s eyes gleam with excitement as she flips her mane back into place. “This way, when you bang Spitfire and Daring Do at the same time-”
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Doug says, his hand clamping around Rainbow’s muzzle, ”and echo Spoiled Rich. I think they would both tell me that ‘they aren’t playthings for my vapid fantasies’ and kick me in either the teeth or the crotch. Actually, since they’d both be there, I’d probably get kicked in both spots.”
“But you saved both of their lives!” Rainbow points out as Doug releases her, ‘harrumphing’ as she folds her forelegs across her chest. “Surely that counts for something.”
“I don’t think it quite works like that,” Doug retorts. He sighs as Rainbow shifts, the sheet covering her belly again. “Anyway.” He takes the book from Twilight, returning it to Rainbow. “Twi, you want to go see how Sweetie Belle and Spike are doing? I think Rainbow needs some time to cool off.”
“I’d like that, and I think they would, too.” Twilight glances over as Rainbow searches around, finally spotting a bit of Doug’s work material. Rainbow grabs a few used envelopes, hastily scribbling on the margins and prompting Twilight to ask, “What is that?”
Rainbow looks up from where she has written The Incredible Daring Do and the Incredibly Short Search for the Incredibly Flameswallow’s Incredibly Hot Crucible. “Um, nothing!” She hastily hides the papers under the sheets. “Don’t judge me!”
Twilight rolls her eyes as Doug gets up. She pauses at the door, glaring daggers at the unrepentant pegasus. "Just don't expect me to proofread it for you!"
"Yeah, whatever," Rainbow Dash says as she pulls the papers back out. She glances over at Miss Cheerilee. "Hey, you can help, right? It's not like you have anything else to do!"
Rainbow's head drops down, intently focusing on writing as a muffled scream comes from the schoolteacher.