LUNAR HONOR GUARD SPIKE
“Spike, why are you…?” I bring my horn closer to him, illuminating the familiarly styled armor. Its’ deep blacks and blues are a stark contrast to his bright green and purple scales, and I can’t help but hate how it looks on him. Is this some kind of point the Princess is trying to make, or one he’s trying to make?
“I’m sure there’s much better things to wear if you wanted to protect yourself, Spike. And I doubt the Lunar Guard appreciate somecreature wearing their uniform without even going through training.”
I let out a little nervous chuckle and reach a hoof out to lay on his shoulder, but he takes a short step back and shakes his head.
“Twilight, I’m not a baby anymore! I want to protect you- protect both of us! I know you won’t want me to and you’ll be upset, but I talked to Princess Luna and Captain Night Fury and they both said they’d make an exception and train me even though it might take a really long time and-“
“Spike! Calm down!” I yell as the little drake starts gasping for breath. Run-on sentences will do that. “I just- Why? When, and… Why?”
To my credit I’m taking this a lot better than I think I would under most circumstances. I’m not the one hyperventilating, which is a plus, and even though I’m furious that Princess Luna would do this to me after everything else she’s served to us recently, I’m doing a good job not directing that anger at Spike like last time.
“I just want to be able to help! Training with the Night Guard could help me keep you safe, and it’d make me stronger, too. I know I’m helpful as your assistant, but when those two stalkers dashed off and came back to attack you, I wasn’t even on the same block! What if they go for me next time, because they know I’m a wimpy dragon and I’m important to you? It’s what I’d do!” He’s clenching his armored hands, and there’s a fiery resolve behind his eyes that makes my heart sink even lower, before he adds “…If I were, you know, an evil ruthless villain.”
My face is a mixed-up wreck of emotions. Just like Spike. He makes me want to laugh, but he also makes me want to cry. I understand his desire to be useful, I’ve always loved him for it, even if it landed him in trouble. But…
“Spike,”
I get up and take a step towards him. He’s nearly above my chest height in the armored footwear. Thankfully he doesn’t move away again, allowing me to put a hoof on his shoulder. The chilly metallic plates are a farcry from the normal warm and friendly scales that I usually find.
“I love you more than anypony in the whole world.” I pause to let that sink in, though I do cringe a bit as I remember the Princess just a few feet to my right. Oof. Truth hurts. “I know you’ve probably already thought about what to say when I say this, but I could never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Even if we have crazy powerful relic soulgems that can bring us back if the worst happens, I don’t ever want you to experience something like that. I want to keep you safe, too!”
I punctuate my last sentence by lifting my other forehoof and poking it against his chest, smiling weakly as it covers the lunar insignia.
“Yeah… I have. And it kinda sounds like you know I’m right.” He look forward at me, stating it matter-of-factly with a neutral expression. I blink at him.
“Wha- I don’t think this is right at all! I think this is-“ He closes his eyes and physically braces himself for the riot act he knows I’m about to unleash on him. Feeling him tense up beneath all the metal and fabric between us, I stop and let the words linger in the air, slowly closing my mouth and bowing my head in front of him. A second later I let my hooves slip away too, and I take a deep breath. I see him shift a bit through the gaps in my mane, which is blocking my view of him. I let the breath out and raise my head again, shaking my drooping bangs back into place with a forced and desperate smile.
“Spike, there’s so many wonderful things you could do! Nopony would ever say you aren’t as brave as any soldier, but you’re as smart and clever as any academic! You can do anything you want to when you’re ready for it-“
“You’re not listening!” His voice rings and rebounds off the bare stone walls, bouncing back and forth in an echo chamber of pent-up frustration. He’s clenching his hands so hard I’m afraid he’ll draw blood through the armored gloves, and there’s a dim green glow of raging dragonfire protruding from his nostrils, his chest heaving between staggered and shaky breaths.
“You’re not listening…” He repeats quietly, staring hard into my wide-open eyes. I’m stunned that he’d raise his voice like that at me, and that he’s so… Angry! I just don’t want him to waste his potential being a bodyguard, to put himself needlessly in danger. Is that wrong of me, to think of his best interests for him? Isn’t that my job as his-
…As his what, exactly?
I love the little ball of brilliant and excitable scales, he knows that. I also know that he loves me just as much, but just because I love him doesn’t mean I get to decide his life. He’ll always be my baby dragon, but he’s never been my baby dragon.
I feel the turmoil in my chest and find myself looking over to the Princess on instinct, a clear cry for help chiseled into my eyes. She’s watching the scene from a respectful distance, but I can see that look on her face that says she’s been here before. With me, maybe, or even with Princess Luna. She doesn’t say anything, but she purses her lips in a mournful forced half-smile.
In that moment, I think I finally get it. Really get it. My eyes start to unfocus as I remember Luna’s return, the same week I was sent to Ponyville by no coincidence. All the chance meetings I made, all the lucky breaks…
I hear a low ringing in my ears steadily begin to climb in frequency as I try to keep the train of thought rolling, thinking harder while keeping my magic pouring into the spell.
In laypony's terms, the art of magically creating artificial luck
The only description of her chronomancy spell I found in any of the tomes in here. The ringing gets much louder, and I think harder, keeping the magic flowing.
None of this was happenstance, it was pre-ordained. All of it, maybe even Spike being here now is somehow leading to a lesson I’d needed to learn before moving on. I’m dissociating, I can tell by the ringing. It’s drowning out everything else, but I need to know.
What happens to Spike? What is it I’m supposed to know? When will he be-
- - - -
“Uh, mister dragon guard? Hey, I think you dropped this!”
“Huh? Oh, thanks!”
Spike stops and turns around in the middle of a dirt road. He’s wearing some strange half-plate variant of Lunar Guard armor, and he’s… Muscular. I see myself next to him, but the details are hazy and distorted. I try to get a bearing on where it is, but the scene fades to an inky fuzzy white in all direction a few feet from either of the two.
He walks up to the griffin, who’s brandishing a Power Pony figurine with a long, red flowing cape. She holds it up for a second and smiles before dropping it into his hand.
“It must’ve fallen out of my bag, I don’t even remember packing it.” Spike mumbles as he reaches behind him and slips it into his backpack.
“So is Humdrum your favorite? You kinda look like him! If you were a pony, anyways.” The griffin beams at him and giggles. She grabs a mail bag in her taloned hands and turns it to show a pin of another Power Pony on the side, just poking out from the front flap.
“Well duh he’s my favorite, he’s the sidekick to all six Power Ponies, which means he’s basically half a hero times six! Zapp’s a pretty cool choice, but Humdrum’s number one for sure.” There’s a cheshire grin of antagonism playing at his face, but the griffin is either oblivious or more than willing to take the bait.
“No way! Zapp’s like, the best! Did you see what she did to the Volcanic Cuber in the last issue? Humdrum couldn’t even move half as many wyverns if he…”
I struggle to focus harder, but the sound starts to fizzle and crack, and my eyes are slowly turning out of focus. I see the two smiling and laughing together, then the scene recedes away as quickly as it came.
- - - -
And then I’m back, my head buzzing and a dull ache spreading across the inside of my forehead. I’m still standing in the middle of the spell, in the Princess’ casting chamber with her and Spike. The latter is raising an eyebrow at me, and he’s raising a hand in front of my face impatiently.
“Twilight, are you really zoning out right now? That’s really messed up-“
“Do you know any gr-“ I blurt out as I come back, but I catch myself in time. That wasn’t a daydream or me zoning out, that was definitely and without doubt some variant of chronomancy, or at the very least divination. Somehow I managed to unwillingly trigger the spell without any incantation. I shake my head free of the residual strands of false memory, feeling a light haze fading from the edges of my vision. Is it paradoxical to ask if he knows a griffin? I mean, he knows Gilda, but that was without a doubt not Gilda.
Spike just stares blankly at me for a few seconds and then scoffs, shaking his head and turning to face the far end of the room. “Twilight, I thought for hours about how to make you get this, but I don’t know what else I can say that’ll get through to you! This is what I want, and- Come on, Twilight, that’s not fair.”
With a gasp I realize I was crying again. I raise a hoof to my face and wipe at a cheek, and sure enough it comes away wet.
“H-huh… Look at that…” I half-stutter, half-chuckle with a small smile. Spike’s looking at me with a mixture of concern and annoyance, but I shove past those feelings and rush forward to give him a big hug, wrapping both forehooves around his shoulders and squeezing on the overfitted armor.
“Twilight, please, this is hard enough without the guilt tripping…” Spike doesn’t struggle, but he doesn’t return the motion either. He just stands there and lets me hug him while I’m crying happy tears for him, even if I don’t completely understand why. I don’t know what I saw means exactly, but a feeling is telling me that it was something I absolutely want to make real for him.
“Twilight, are you alright?” The princess suddenly asks. She takes a half step towards us, hoof paused midair as if she was unsure what was appropriate given the circumstance. I raise my head slowly from Spike’s shoulder to give her a lost look.
“Was it real? Is that... How it has to happen?” I ask. Spike fidgets a bit and gently lifts my hooves off his shoulders. He doesn’t move away from me which I’m grateful for, but his forehead creases a bit at the unprompted question.
The Princess looks past me for a little while. She gives a cursory glance around the room while she thinks, but eventually gives a simple “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
She swallows hard when she glances at Spike, but she approaches anyways and lays a hoof on my shoulder, taking a seat beside me. Spike is absolutely clueless now, aware there’s something he’s missing.
“Twilight, I’m so sorry, I had hoped to keep you from it as long as I could, but-“
“Wait, what do you-“
“Can SOMEPONY clue me in here?!” Spike huffs and taps his gauntlets against his armor at the hip, drumming his claws against the metal.
“I… I saw you meet somecreature. You were with me, but…” I look back at him and try my best to keep my voice level, suppressing the edge of disapproval. “You were still wearing armor.”
“Oh.” He thinks on the new information for a second, glancing around at the runes on the floor then to me, and the rhythmic drumming stops as a little light bulb sparks to life in his head. “So... Then that means I must pass training, right? That’s great news, it means I don’t have anything to worry about! And that also means that you eventually get over it!” He declares, triumphant.
He’s grinning at me as if I’m going to just roll over and tell him I’m happy he’s throwing himself into the deep end. I open my mouth for some kind of response, but I don’t have it in me. I want to praise him for working it out so quickly, but the Princess’ words are still fresh in my ears and instead I shoot her a look. She’s got her mask back on, and I can tell she’s hiding something all of a sudden. She thought I saw something awful, something about Spike.
She knows something I don’t.
“Spike, I promise- super pinkie promise- that we’ll talk this through, tonight. As soon as the Princess and I hash some things out, I’ll come find you. But for now do you think you could give us-“
“There's nothing to talk about, Twilight. I'm doing this. I leave tomorrow." He deadpans at me.
"Leave? To where?" I ask incredulously. "Don't the Royal Guard train in Canterlot?"
He gives me another unamused deadpan stare, and I take the hint. Topic for tonight, when we can talk everything over properly. I feel something tugging at my gut hearing him declaring all this as if there's nopony else's say to consider, but then again if Princess Luna's already signed off on it, maybe there isn't.
I bite the inside of my lip and take another deep breath in, then out.
"Okay."
We stare at each other for a little while, then I move in to give him a light hug before nodding him towards the door with a forced calmness. He glances between the Princess and me, but seems to understand there's something he can't be here for and mercifully leaves without any more questions. He has to reach for the massive door handles on his own, but once he steps through and into the hallway the Day Guard closes it for him.
Now it's just the Princess and me in the empty chamber, accompanied by the low humming of the still-empowered ritual spell.
"What happens to him?" I ask plainly, massaging the dull ache in my forelock. I take care not to delve too deep into the possibilities in my own mind as they eagerly rise up to suggest any number of unfortunate events that could happen; Speculation isn't where I want to go with this. And now that I know something's wrong, I'm not leaving without an answer.
I say that to myself, but staring up at the stoic Alicorn who's staring back at me with a grim frown, maybe I wouldn't mind if she refused to elaborate... No, I need to know. If not for his sake, for mine.
"Princess, please, you promised you'd explain-"
"It cannot be changed, Twilight." She responds quickly, lowering herself and laying on the ground to be level with me. "You know as well as I, knowing an immutable future has the capacity to bring even the greatest minds to madness. I will keep my word and tell you of Star Swirl, and whatever else you wish to know."
I shake my head violently and march right up to her with a frown, trying my best to seem every bit as stable and stoic as her. "I need to know, Princess. He means everything to me."
There's silence again. She takes a few quick, shallow breaths and closes her eyes tightly, reliving some terrible memory in her mind, then shakes her head. I begin to protest, but she raises a hoof to my mouth to physically silence me. Just like that, being hushed like a child in the midst of at least twenty Vis' worth of magic circles by my mentor, the fight leaves me.
"I know, my dear student. I know."
I take in a sharp breath and tense my shoulders in preparation to yell, to argue, to do something, but she's faster. Before I can blink she rushes forward and pulls me against her, enveloping me completely in her wings. I have to fall backwards onto my flank to avoid toppling over in the rushed embrace.
"Twilight, my most cherished pupil. I need to ask that you place your faith in me once more, as you always have. I swear on my name that I'm not hiding anything from you that you truly should know. To know is my burden to bear, not yours. To assuage your fear, Spike will be fine. Of that, at least, I can promise you." She lays a gold-clad hoof across the back of my neck and leans down to rest her head on top of mine, seeming to not mind my horn pressing into her neck.
Even in the middle of an argument, I'm hard-pressed to keep my cheeks from burning from the intimate attention. I fidget a bit and turn my head to the side so I don't accidentally impale her, but she seems resigned to holding me there until either I break away or agree. I sigh and let my head lay flush with her chest, staring forward at her secondaries in the dim light available to me, thinking about my next few words very carefully. Eventually, I settle on the best policy.
"Princess, I... You're scaring me a little bit. This isn't like you-" I want to continue to argue my point, but a rhythmic thumping tears my attention away from the talking points of why I should be included in this. I furrow my brow and blink a few times, leaning the side of my head further into the coat of her chest, and I hear her heart beneath it all betraying the calm tones with a rapid-fire flurry of beats, nearly twice a second.
My eyes shoot open and I look up at her, instinctually pulling away and searching for signs of anemia or a panic attack. She doesn't restrain me as I do, but she does look down at me with a look I can't spare the processing power to parse as I stare at her eyes. They're dilated, but not abnormally so.
"Hold still," I mumble, reaching a hoof up and laying my pastern across her forehead. Warm, but again not abnormally so. I've never cast it personally, but I know a good diagnostic spell that should theoretically be flexible enough to give me the readings on an Alicorn, even if-
"Twilight, what are you doing?"
I pause mid-spell, still staring right at her with my hoof on her head and a half-cocked spinoff of 'Meadowbrook's Deep-Dive' dancing on the tip of my horn.
"You were showing signs of Tachycardia, though not unheard of while at rest still can be cause for concern. The first step in proper diagnosis is to observe the pony's iris'. If excessive dilation isn't present, several warning signs to keep in mind are elevated temperature, shaking hooves or wings, loss of balance, or-" Her hoof is on my mouth again, and the ringing in my ears I hadn't even realized was there makes itself apparent. She's holding my head in both of her hooves and in an ironic turn of events is examining me now.
"I'm sorry, that's been happening since the... You know." I try to pull my head away from her gaze, but she holds me firmly in place and continues staring into my eyes with a very focused and intense look.
"Since what, precisely? What's happened?" She presses, leaning in closer with growing concern. She takes her eyes off of mine, but in similar fashion begins to drum up a spell for me in turn.
"Princess, I'm- It's okay, Princess Luna said she was going to fix it. I just need to-"
A lightning bolt of pain cracks through my head, and my vision's suddenly a blast of jet white and fuzz. I yank my head away and cradle it in my own hooves as my concentration is shattered. I hear the Princess call out my name, I hear myself gasping for air, I hear the ringing getting louder. It hurts so much, I just need to think.
In the turmoil unfolding in my head I try to find the runic sequence for 'Aville's Cure-All,' but it's lost in the soup of incomprehensible information and jargon that springs forth with even a remote connection to it, adding just one more layer of mind-splitting pain to deal with. I try to ask her to do it, but words are so incomprehensibly beyond me that I stop bothering to try.
There's a forceful jab against my side, and suddenly the world goes mercifully black.