It is not only what we accomplish that defines our success in life. It is also the people we love. So, like your success, guard the ones you love jealously. Keep them close, and remove all threats to them, whether by force or cunning.
~Bunsen

It was six in the morning when Spike woke up; it had been another sleepless night. He was far too afraid to close his eyes and let sleep take him. It would be another day or two before the exhaustion finally caught up to him and he would be forced to fall asleep, and to embrace his nightmares.

His eyes stung as he stared at the ceiling of the Carousel Boutique. He had been living with Rarity for almost seven years now. They had been the best years of his life, even if he didn’t sleep well for most of them.

The only remedy was to roll over to his side and stare at his lovely sleeping wife. Rarity had managed to cuddle up snug to him, her hooves wrapped around his chest. The soft vibration of her purrs would help lure the dragon into a snooze, where he could rest his eyes peacefully without fear of seeing him in his dreams.

But today was not a day he could afford to sleep. For him, it was that time of the month.

He would have to be careful to not wake Rarity. She deserved her beauty sleep, not that she needed it. She would always be beautiful to him, but he still didn’t want to wake her. Slowly, Spike lifted up one of her soft hooves from around his chest, freed himself from his lover’s clutches. Then he carefully slid off of Rarity’s princess size bed, easier than you think, as the mattress was so soft, it hardly caused any vibration when one of the two rolled in their sleep. It would mostly be Spike, considering his sleeplessness.

When the dragon was finally out of his bed, he gently gave his love a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll be back soon,” he whispered, knowing full well that Rarity was still fast asleep.

Spike carefully crept to the front of the bedroom door, opening it before slipping silently by it. He made sure to close the door gently behind him as he made his way down the hall.

Spike froze in his tracks as he slowly turned around. There stood one of his angels. Citrine, his second oldest stood outside her room.

Citrine, like all of Spike and Rarity’s children, was considered what Forge had aptly named a ‘Kirin’ or a sort of pony-dragon hybrid. She had dragon-like purple eyes and a pair of fangs, but besides that, this daughter took after her mother, having brilliant diamond like fur. Citrine’s coat was so brilliantly bleached; one could swear that she was see-through at times. She was of pony build rather than a dragon’s, four hooves and all, but at the tip of each of her hooves were three nubby little claws that she rather enjoyed painting a variety of colours. Her hair was also like Rarity’s, a deep purple mane and tail that fell down in long curls.

“Hey there princess,” smiled Spike, as he went to hug his daughter. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Are you going to see your friend again?” she asked, shooting her large purple eyes at her father.

“I don’t want you to go, daddy…” the white Kirin whimpered, as she hugged her father harder.

“Hey, I’m not going forever, just an hour,” said the dragon, reassuring his daughter. “Now go back to bed and I’ll be back for breakfast. You have to help mommy cook daddy’s eggs just the way he likes them.”

“Okay!” she said before quietly turning invisible, the door of her room slowly closing by itself.

“Try not to wake your brothers and sisters,” warned Spike as the little filly closed the door, the dragon relieved that only one of his kids had woken up at this ungodly hour. When Rarity gave birth to their six kids, each one was oddly gifted. The doctors only assumed that it had something to do with the mother being a unicorn. How else could Citrine, a hornless pony hybrid be able to turn completely invisible? Spike slowly walked down the stairs of the shop, being sure not to wake anyone else up.

“There’s never anything to eat in this house…” grumbled a voice downstairs.

Spike rolled his eyes, “Oh great…”he said as he walked down the stairs, quietly jumping the last few steps before peeking through the kitchen door. There he saw a scaly dark body raiding the fridge.

The black scaled whelp pulled his head out of the fridge. “If we only take a little, no one will notice, Onyx.”

“How stupid are you, Obsidian?” mumbled Onyx, as he too pulled his head out, his neck attached to the same body.

Onyx and Obsidian were the twins of the family. They were the middle...child? Children? Spike and Rarity could never figure it out. Out of all of their kids, Onyx and Obsidian were the most dragonish, almost fully Fire like their father, with the exception of their round pony eyes, Onyx’s a dark red, and Obsidian’s a bright blue. Their structure was bigger than a normal whelp’s, as they had two stomachs to feed, and were twice the size the size of their brothers and sisters. They had black scales, claws and feet like a normal dragon, and two necks that split at the shoulders. Forge had said that since dragons usually birth in litters of eggs, that two headed dragons were the equivalent of twins, and that they could tend to be quite a handful, always fighting the other head or control of the body, which they had to share in moving.

“One bite won’t hurt anyone,” grinned Obsidian, staring at his brother head.

“You know…” said Spike, as he opened up the door, “if your mother and sister knew about this, I think that they would be pretty upset.”

“Don’t ‘hey dad’ me. What are you too doing up so early? And in the fridge too.”

“IT WAS HIS IDEA!” they both shouted, pointing at the other’s head. “WHAT?”

“It was your idea, butt head!” growled Onyx, butting his head into his brother’s.

“No, it was yours, barf breath!” scowled Obsidian, butting back again his other head.

“Will you both be quiet!” shushed Spike, shutting the twins up. “Now, you to are going to march up to your room and go to sleep for the next hour, and when I get back, we’ll get you some breakfast with everyone else. But until then,” he leaned in close to the boys. “Don’t. Touch. The. Cake.”

Both heads of the twin drake nodded as they quickly scurried past their father and rumbled upstairs.

It was the middle of spring, but the air was still nippy outside, not that it bothered him too much. Ponyville was still asleep, shops and things would not open up for another couple of hours. He knew that the florist’s would be closed today, so he had to quickly steal a rose from one of the rose bushes outside of Rarity’s shop. He prayed that she wouldn’t find out.

Into town the dragon went, deserted as he expected, the sun was barely even up. How Celestia got up at this ungodly hour each day was beyond his understanding.

The walk to the edge of the Everfree was uneventful, but it usually was at such an early time. And on a weekend no less, when most sane ponies were sleeping in, but you can only sleep in if you can fall asleep on a regular basis.

Spike took his first step into the forest. It was not his first time he made this trip, and it would not be the last either as he walked the weathered path to his destination.

Again, an uneventful walk, but it was better this way. Only a few knew what he did in the woods of the Everfree, and even fewer understood why.

“Hey there…” he finally said as he reached his destination. It was an old tree, probably a couple thousand years old. Its trunk pierced through the skies, like most of the older trees did, and the bark was old and bitter.

But the tree was only a landmark that the dragon used to find this place every months, as at the base of the tree lied the true purpose of his little trips here, and what he had told his children as ‘visiting an old friend.’

“Got you a rose this time…” sighed Spike as he stared at the rock that he had scratched his unholy name into. “I never knew your favourite flower, so I guess a rose this time. To be honest I sort of was rushed this morning…”

The gave stood still, as it had been since the day he had placed it there years ago.

“How long has it been?” asked the dragon. “Six years? Six years since I haven’t heard your infernal laughter? Six years since I have had to see that damn smile? Six years since you’ve been dead?” He grinned a little. “Almost don’t believe it myself, but there has been no sign of you, no egotistical warning or gloating, no strange deaths. It’s like you really are gone.”

“Then why do you still torture me?” said the drake. “How come I built you a grave, even though you don’t deserve it, or visit you, even though you’re not my friend?”

“Am I still afraid of you?” he asked. “Do I do this every month to show that there is someone who cared for you because that was the only way to stop you? Have you corrupted my mind, so that I am paranoid of your return?” Spike took a deep breath. “It’s funny, you’re probably laughing your ass off right about now. You find this hilarious that I put a flower on your grave…”

“All the bad that you did in this world… I don’t blame you anymore. I’ve learned to rise above what others think, and this is what I think…”

“I don’t think I do this out of pity, or hate,” Spike said. “I do this because I am a protector. I have a wife and kids now, and if I have to spend the rest of my life coming back here then so be it.” He got up. “I am sorry for what happened to you Conquest, and may your next life have peace in it. Now, I have to cut are talk a little short this month, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me. I did it for you after all.”

He looked at the tree again, such a wonderful thing that survived all this time. Through disasters and flames, it still stood there. He looked at the grave again, the large rock that had Conquest’s name on it was next to a much smaller one, one that had been weathered with time.

“Just remember that I buried you next to your friend, and that I hope you found him up there, or down there… I don’t know,” he started to turn around. “I’ll see you next month.”

Spike left the graves, the newly planted rose laid on top of last month’s flower, which had started to decay by then.

He easily navigated through the forest, and headed back into town. It was still fairly quiet, and there was no pony in sight.

“Happy thoughts Spike,” yawned Spike as he approached the Boutique. “Happy thoughts…”

“Yay! Daddy’s home!” said the bouncing, happy, red Kirin on top of Spike’s chest.

“Morning Ruby,” groaned the dragon. Ruby was his youngest daughter, and by far the most energetic. Like her name suggested, this child had a bright red coat, but she also had some dragon scales aligned with her facial features, mostly along the nose and around her eyes. Her tail was a dragon tail, long and lizard-like, covered with her red coat, and her mane was a messy untamed mess of dark crimson hair, sticking out at all ends and frayed, almost resembling a wildfire.

Ruby couldn’t breathe fire like Onyx or Obsidian could. Instead, she could become fire, running and bouncing along as she torched everything that she touched, which earned her the nickname of “The Trotting Apocalypse’.

“Maybe later, my little walking fire hazard,” smiled Spike as he picked his flaming child up. “So cool it down until after breakfast, then we’ll play.”

“Yeppers!” giggled Ruby as she wiggled out of Spike’s claws and ran into the house. “Mommy, dad’s home!” she yelled, disappearing into the store.

Spike walked into the house, and heading into the kitchen, “Hey everyone, I’m back.”

“Hi Dad!” waved his son Topaz, sitting at the table. Out of all of Spike and Rarity’s kids, Topaz was almost completely unicorn, with the exception of his orange dragon eyes that were covered by his thick glasses and his fangs, which all of their kids possessed. Aside from that, Topaz looked like your run of the mill unicorn: yellow coat and short blonde mane and tail.

“Oh this?” asked the yellow unicorn, gesturing to the book in his hooves. “A new book I got yesterday from auntie Twilight! An advance copy of the Princesses spell handbook, with all the best spells ever used by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!”

“Sounds like we have a mage in the family,” laughed Spike, ruffling up his son’s mane as he took a seat down next to him. “Just remember to take your nose out of the book every now and again, okay?”

“Good talk…” said Spike, getting up from the table. “Is everyone up yet?”

“I think that Jade is still asleep,” mumbled the yellow unicorn, not really paying attention. “She’s always asleep.”

“Only one in this family apparently,” muttered the drake as he headed back up stairs. As he walked up, he saw the aged Opal sliding walking down the steps, meowing at Spike.

“KITTY!!” screamed Ruby from the top of the stairs. The energetic Kirin started galloping towards the terrified cat, who ran away as fast as its little legs would take it. The red filly was too fast, she captured the moody feline before it could make the cat door. “I love you, mister kitty!”

Opal looked desperately at the dragon, meowing as the air was being squeezed out of her by the iron grip of the red filly.

“You two have fun,” snickered Spike as he ascended the stairs. Jade’s room was the first door to the right, easy to find considering the poison coloured skull poster that she had stuck to it. “Jade, you awake in there?” he asked, knocking the door.

“I’m coming in,” he said, slowly opening up the door to his daughter’s room.

He almost vomited from the stench that dwindled of Jade’s room. There were dirty clothes everywhere, along with stacks of dirty dishes and moldy apple cores. In the far side of the room was a small little bed, a mess of dirty blankets and pillows were piled up against the wall as a sleeping green filly laid on top.

Jade, the middle child was an odd one. She had a dark green coat and a jet black mane and tail. She was mostly pony, she even had a unicorn’s horn, but she also had a pair of scaly green dragon wings that had developed at an early age. Dotted among her coat were small stray scales, they were mostly hidden under her fur, but when the sun hit her just right, she would sparkle like a prized gem, and looked absolutely beautiful.

“Come on Jade, it’s time to get up,” said Spike as he walked to the window of the bedroom, stepping over one of his daughters ‘Pontallica’ shirts.

“Five more minutes…” the sleepy filly droned, curling up deeper into the large ball of blankets and pillows, almost like how dragons curled up on piles of treasure, but more smelly.

“No Jade, now,” said her father, picking up the green Kirin off the bed. “I swear, you sleep almost as much as I use to.”

“And did Aunt Twilight wake you up as well?” she grumbled as she rolled up in Spike’s arm, trying to fall asleep.

“All the time,” chuckled the purple drake, placing Jade on the floor. “She’d wake me up earlier than this and send me to work.”

“Yeah, suddenly daddy’s not so bad,” smirked Spike, “C’mon, let’s go down and eat.”

“Just a second…” the green filly said as she started looking around the floor of dirty clothes. “I need to find a shirt.”

“On the floor?” asked Spike, “Honey, that’s why we have dressers and closets.”

Spike rolled his eyes as he walked to the closet. “Well there has to be something in here that you can wear.”

“DON’T OPEN THAT!” shouted the Kirin, as she quickly dashed in front of the closet, holding it closed behind her. “It’s um… messy in there!”

The little filly sighed in defeat. “Please don’t tell mom, she’d have a cow if she saw him.”

“Him?” asked Spike, as he gently brushed his daughter aside, and opened the closet.

“What the hell?!” gasped Spike as a dark brown bat flew out of the closet, swooping over his head, as it started to circle around the room.

“So…” pondered Jade, shooting her best innocent smile, “Can I keep him?”

“Well, like you said, your mother would have a heart attack if she saw this.”

“Mom hates everything cool,” grumbled the annoyed child. “But what if I promise to take REALLY good care of him?”

“First of all, that’s your mother’s stupid cat,” droned Spike, “and as much as you and I hate it, you mother and sisters love it. So we keep it until Ruby inevitably strangles it.”

“Second,” smiled the drake, as he looked to the window. “If… what have you called it, again?”

“Okay… Well if… ‘Killer’ were to live in that tree next to your room, it would officially not be a pet of this household,” he walked to the window and opened it. “But unofficially, it’d be like having a pet.”

“Really?!” gaped the happy pony, running up to hug her dad. “You’re the best!”

“Just don’t let your mother find out, or he’s gone,” sighed Spike. He was such a pushover.

“I won’t, promise!” smiled Jade, as she quickly picked up her ‘Pontallica’ shirt from off the ground and quickly threw it over her head.

“Yeah! I’m starving!” said the green Kirin. “Race you daddy!” she said, opening up both wings and fluttering out of the room.

Spike slowly followed her walking down the stairs. Topaz was now reading a different book on the couch, from the looks of it. The title was ‘Magic 101, A Beginner’s Guide for Simple Unicorn Spells’. “Kid really likes his books. Wonder who he reminds me of?” he asked himself jokingly, heading into the kitchen. When he walked in, he saw two white mares standing by the stove, cooking what looked like eggs.

“There you are,” smiled Rarity as she quickly gave her husband a kiss on his cheeks. “I missed you this morning.”

“Daddy went to see his friend again!” said Citrine, who was standing on a stool next to her mother. His little daughter was focusing on the frying pan, her tongue sticking out as she scrambled the eggs with her hooves, the claws sticking out from thing allowed her to get a good grip on the wooden spoon she was using to do the scrambling.

“I know dear,” sighed the unicorn, as she levitated a plate next to the pan, and dumped the eggs on it. “I just never know why.”

“Can we meet your friend someday?” asked Citrine as she hopped off her stool and trotted to the fridge.

“Maybe when you’re older,” said Spike, knowing full well that he would never expose his kids to the evil that was Conquest, even if it was just his tomb. He would hopefully be able to take that story to his grave.

“That’s grown up talk for never…” sighed the white filly disappointingly as she grabbed the bottle of ketchup from the fridge. “Ketchup?”

“You know it princess,” smiled Spike, his daughter happily drowning his breakfast with half the bottle of ketchup. “That’s good enough, thank you Citrine.”

“You’re welcome daddy!” pepped the Kirin happily. “I’m going to go play!” she said, rushing out of the kitchen.

Rarity waved as the white filly left the room, before sitting down next to Spike. “Ugh, finally,” she sighed. “They’ve been up all morning. I just got all of the little monsters fed.”

“She grabbed some toast and went flying out the window,” muttered Rarity. “I love her, but she’s an odd one.”

“Just because Jade is a little different doesn’t make her any less special.”

“I just wish she wouldn’t insist on always wearing those horrid shirts,” said the unicorn, taking a sip of some tea that she levitated towards her. “Hmm…” she thought, before taking a deep breath, and whistling out a small blue trail of fire at the bottom of the cup. “There we go,” she smiled as she took another sip from the now steaming tea. “It covers up her scales. She’s so pretty when she’s not hiding under those rags.”

“I think that’s the point,” said Spike. “She doesn’t like being sparkly.”

“But there is nothing wrong with having your own fashion, honey,” smiled Spike, taking his first bite from the eggs. “These are good,” he said as he chewed. “I think somepony has a gift in cooking.”

“Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned up one day with an egg or something as a cutie mark,” said the dragon, scraping up the last of the eggs into his mouth. “Seriously, these eggs are fantastic.”

“Maybe one day,” said Rarity. “I just feel bad for Onyx and Obsidian. Their siblings will all get cutie marks, but not them.”

“I think that they’ll be too busy fighting one another to notice,” laughed the dragon, getting up from the table and placing it in the sink. “And I was never upset that I never got my butt tattoo.”

“Cutie marks are to reflect you special talent,” smiled the white mare, also getting up and placed her cup in the sink. “But just because you don’t have one, doesn’t make you any less special.”

“I know, and I know that Onyx and Obsidian will find their own thing that makes them special,” she said. “And find somepony special.”

Rarity blushed… “Well...don’t tell anypony that I know this, but I think our little dragons have a crush.”

“You’re not going to believe this,” she whispered, leaning into the dragon’s ear. “But with Applejack!”

“I found a picture of her stuffed under their pillow, along with a bunch of others with all of us but there are hearts drawn around her, isn’t it adorable?”

“Like father like son,” grinned the dragon. “Always going for the sexy mares, just like his dad.”

“I’LL GET IT!!!!” screamed Ruby from the other room, the sounds of running hoof steps could be heard as she approached the door.

“No…” wondered Spike as he got up and headed to the living room, his wife following closely behind. When they got there, they saw two Inferna dragons standing outside. One was quite large, definitely larger than Spike by at least two feet, but was still short enough to be considered ‘Greedless’ as Spike learned that was the used term for a dragon that passed The Greed. He had wide broad shoulders and large bulging muscles everywhere. His scales were a darker red, with bright yellow spines and blue eyes. He looked gruff and serious, and very intimidating.

Other one was a defiantly female, and she was about half the size of the other dragon, probably half a nose shorter than Spike. She had a slim slender build, narrow shoulder with only a slight curve outward at her chest. The dragoness was dark green, with bright red spines that were styled to look like a pixie haircut. She smiled at Spike and Rarity, looking at them with her own blue eyes.

“Hello there…” said Spike, looking at the strange dragons. “Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, Ponyville’s number for all things fabulous. Can we help you with anything today?”

The large red drake leaned into the ear of the smaller green one. “Are you sure this is the right place?” his voice was low and gravely.

“I’m positive,” whispered the dragoness. “Trust me, I’m just as confused as to why he’s living in a giant cake.”

“Umm,” wondered Spike, scratching his head. “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

“No,” shook the green dragon. “Let’s get that out of the way. I’m Mythril, and this is my brother Argo.”

“Hey,” said the purple drake. “So is there anything me or Rarity can help you with?”

Spike turned his head to Rarity, who nodded. “Ruby dear, let’s go upstairs. Your father needs to be alone for a minute.”

“Okay!” smiled the bouncing red filly, hopping up the stairs. “We’ll play fireball later, okay?”

“Sure thing sweetie,” smiled Spike as he watched his daughter and wife disappear up the stair before turning around to face the dragons. “Okay, we’re alone… What do you two want?”

“Just to chat for a bit Spike,” smiled Mythril. “Nice kid, how many do you have?”

“Five, six if you do a head count rather than a body count,” answered the purple drake.

“Twins eh?” said Mythril. “Watch out for them, they could be trouble. Anyways, we didn’t come here to talk about your family, Spike.”

“Easy Argo,” said the green dragon in a calming voice. “We’re here peacefully, let’s all just take a second to be calm.”

“Look, unless you are going to actually tell me what you came here to tell me, I’m going to ask you to leave,” said Spike.

“Look, Spike we aren’t even going to leave town. We just moved in and we have someone who wants to see you,” Mythril tried to explain.

“He’s…” mumbled the dragoness. “Sort of stuck… Kind of why we need your help.”

Spike tool a deep sigh, “Fine, I’ll come, but if this turns out to be a trick, you’re both going to regret it.”

“So this is it?” asked Spike as they approached a rather large cottage in the middle of town. By now, Ponyville had sprung to life, and everypony was out enjoying the day, there was even a handful of new dragon citizens, flying around, shopping, selling. It had been a very smooth transition into the Equestrian lifestyle, even if a few ponies were a little freaked out.

“This is our home,” said Argo as he opened the door and the three of them walked inside.

It was rather dark and gloomy on the inside, not very well kept with plenty of broken and gnawed furniture, and there was a thick layer of dust everywhere.

“What? We just moved in…” smiled Mythril, “We still need to decorate. Now follow me, he’s in the kitchen.”

They walked into the kitchen area. It, like the rest of the house, was in terrible condition, not that anyone seemed to care. But sitting in the middle of the kitchen was a huge blue dragon with purple spines.

“Hello Spike,” the massive dragon as Spike and the others walked in. He was big, most definitely a couple hundred years old. His large head almost touched the ceiling, even though he was scrunched up in a crouching position. How he got in here, Spike hadn’t a clue. “I’m so glad that we can finally meet.”

“Nice to meet you Backlash,” said Spike. “Mythril and Argo weren’t kidding when they said that you were stuck.”

“Is that what my kids said to get you here?” chuckled Backlash. “I would have hoped that their mothers had raised them better than to lie.”

“Not at all!” laughed the blue dragon, his body suddenly starting to shrink, until he was no taller than Argo.

“How did you--?” gasped the baffled Spike, not believing what he had just witnessed.

“A trick you’ll learn when your body grows again,” said Backlash, dusting himself off. “I keep forgetting that your knowledge on our culture is limited, what with being raised by ponies and all.”

“You look so much like her, Spike,” said the blue drake. “You have her scales and her eyes…”

“I know that she was caring, protective, a bit rash at times and perhaps even hostile towards others, but those are good traits to have in a mother,” he sighed. “I was shocked to find out that she was killed, but surprised to find out one of her eggs had survived, and been moved to Equestria.”

“Of course I did, and you must know that I spent years looking for you, trying to find you Spike, and now I finally have.”

“Why?” smiled Backlash, as he placed a claw on Spike’s shoulder. “I just did what any loving father would do to find his son.”

THE END

For the Ones we Love

by FlimFlamBros.

The Epilogue