Rarity hung limp as she skipped across the rock and water of the shallows. She was too weak to fight back, and barely able to even move. She came to rest on her back amidst several large rocks. Why? With a grunt of pain, she rolled over and resumed her slow crawl towards the river. Last time she used magic on Twilight, she was out of commission for days afterward, so why could she still move? The monster ran after her and slashed at her again, sending her sprawling. Every nerve in her body screamed in agony as she tried, again and again, to crawl towards the relative safety of the deep.
Across the river, safe on the other shore, Twilight could only stare on in horror as her guardian and caretaker, the dragon who may as well be her mother, was mercilessly thrown about. Every time she tried to escape, the monster caught up with her. But Rarity didn’t stop; she refused to give up. As long as she could see the hatchling on the other side, she was going to fight through the pain and keep trying to escape. The creature slashed at her again, but instead of being tossed away, Rarity was pinned between the creature’s claw and a boulder.
Blood trickled from her mouth as the thing held her there. Probably reacting to the smell of blood, the creature let out a grating, terrible screech and dropped her. Rarity landed face down in the river. The water was deep enough to envelop her fully, but not deep enough to carry her away. Is this it? She held her breath, but she couldn’t move to bring her head out of the water. So close to escape, about to be eaten by some monster, and she was going to drown? Sharp pain shot through her tail, and she realized the creature had other plans for her.
She was violently pulled from the water by her tail. The creature had her in its mouth. It shook her back and forth before tossing her away from the river. As Rarity hit the ground, she knew this was it, the creature had gotten a taste of blood and she couldn’t fight back. Her vision blurred as it started moving towards her. She heard a loud crack and looked up, intent on facing her fate head on. The creature stood above her, staring and unmoving, yellow liquid dripping from its chin.
No. Rarity blinked, vision slowly clearing as the creature stood above her. The yellow liquid was dripping from the top of its head, now skewed the wrong way on its gangly neck. The creature swayed for a moment before collapsing to the side. Rarity could see the yellow liquid dripping from marks on the creature’s neck to its head, which was now twisted the wrong way. All the tension left the dragoness’ body and she slumped to the ground. It was dead. She survived. Rarity’s eyes drifted closed as her consciousness escaped her.
She was alive. She was still alive! Tears ran down Twilight’s face as she watched from across the river. Grumble stood near the creature’s body, breathing heavily as yellow blood dripped from his mouth and claws. He spit the blood out at the ground and wiped as much of it off his face as he could. Then he started looking around. Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. What was he doing? Why wasn’t he helping Rarity? Grumble grew more and more frantic in his search with every passing moment. Suddenly he stopped and ran back to the creature’s body. He rolled it over, exposing its belly and lifted his claw.
It was then that Twilight realized what he was doing. He was looking for her. “Grumble!” The hatchling waved her arms to get his attention as she shouted. “Over here!”
The drake’s head snapped up at the sound. He saw the hatchling almost immediately and started running towards the river. Just before he hit the water, he leapt over it, flapping his wings mid-jump to help himself make it to the other side. Twilight ran up to him the moment he landed.
Grumble lowered his head as she approached. “Are you ok?” Then he noticed something. “You’re bleeding.”
Twilight rubbed at the blood on her cheek, wincing at the pain. “It’s just a scrape. Is Rarity ok?”
“I don’t know. Get on, and I’ll bring you over.” Grumble pressed his head against the ground to make it easier for the hatchling to clamber up onto the end of his nose. “But listen to me, kid, she’s pretty beat up, so don’t touch her or try to move her.” Twilight nodded her understanding and he started running towards the river. “Hold on!” The hatchling grabbed the brown drake’s horn as he leapt across the river. Once across, Grumble lowered his head again, letting the hatchling jump off. “Remember, don’t-“ The sound of falling trees interrupted him. “Shoot!” He jumped between the two smaller dragons and whatever was approaching. Did Spike fail? Did the creature he was tracking defeat him? Grumble gulped loudly. If Spike was beaten, he didn’t stand a chance.
Twilight trembled as she stood next to Rarity. “It’s another one of those things, isn’t it?!” She crouched as close to her guardian as she could without touching her. “How many are there?!”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think this is the same thing.” Grumble glanced back at the hatchling and her injured keeper as the disturbance came closer. “We may have to risk moving her. Get ready.” The crashing of trees and broken limbs reached a peak and the brown drake prepared to grab the small dragons and retreat, but first he had to make sure whatever was coming towards him couldn’t take to the air after them. If it could, he would just have to fight it. Several trees came crashing into the clearing followed by a large creature, a large, orange creature wearing a hat. “Applejack?”
The large dragon looked at Grumble for a moment before looking back in the direction she came from. A wide path was torn through the forest, trees were uprooted and tossed aside, and smaller plants were smashed down from the dragon’s steps. “Found ‘em!”
“All of them?!” The voice was distant, but Grumble recognized it instantly as Pinkie’s. “Are you sure it’s all of them?” It was getting closer, she must have been following along.
“Ah, uh-“ Applejack looked back at the drake, then at the two behind him. “Spike ain’t here, and Rare’s hurt!” The orange dragon moved towards the injured dragoness, looking her over carefully. “Grumble, Ah need ya ta find Fluttershy, she and Rainbow are searching the huntin’ grounds from above.”
“You split up?!” The drake groaned. This wasn’t good, Spike was still after the other creature. “I’ll go get them. If it’s safe to move Rarity, return to camp and stay together, if not, stay here.” Grumble looked back at the ugly grey carcass nearby. “And if you can, bring that thing along with you.” Applejack nodded her understanding and Grumble took to the sky to search for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. As he flew over the forest, he saw the path the orange dragon had created. Trees were strewn about, left and right, and one solitary pink speck charged down the middle of it, towards the river, at top speed.
Grumble headed straight for the skies over the hunting grounds. He climbed as high as possible as he flew to make his search easier; The pink and multi-hued crests of the two dragins he was searching for would be easier to spot among the green of the forest than their light body and wing colors against the sky.
“Dude!” Grumble quickly looked up as he heard Rainbow’s voice above him. As high up as he was, she was still above him? Weren’t they searching for Spike?
“Hey!” He couldn’t see her against the blue of the sky, but he should have been able to at least make out Fluttershy. “Where are you?”
“Right here!” The sky-colored dragin turned a barrel roll, exposing the much brighter colors of her crest. She then flew down to Grumble’s level. “What are you doing here? Where’s Spike? Pinkie said something big’s going down.” She waved to a nearby cloud and a pair of aquamarine eyes blinked from within. Shortly afterwards, Fluttershy’s pink and yellow form emerged and flew over to the other two dragons. “I was about to set up a signal flare, you’re lucky I saw you. What’s going on?”
Grumble turned and started flying towards the fishing hole. “Rarity’s hurt. Applejack sent me to find Fluttershy.” Both dragins followed him without question. “She was attacked by some sort of monster.”
Fluttershy let out a sudden gasp. “What about Twilight?! They were together! Is she— “
“She’s ok,” Grumble said, “as far as I could tell, Rarity helped her escape across the river.”
Fluttershy gasped and brought her claws to her mouth. “Oh my.”
“That’s not good.” Rainbow pulled ahead and up into a wide loop.
“What is she— “ Grumble’s question was interrupted by something wrapping around his neck. He looked back to see what it was but saw only pink. “Fluttershy? What are you—“
“I’m sorry! I hope you’re not offended, but, um, well, you see, uh, we have to hurry, and, um,” she looked up with a blush planted firmly on her face, “just hold on.” She scrunched her eyes shut and gripped the drake even harder.
“What are you-“ Grumble grunted in pain as something slammed into his back. He also found himself rapidly accelerating. He suddenly understood what Fluttershy meant. The acceleration didn’t let up, they just kept going faster and faster. It quickly got to the point where he had to close his eyes against the onslaught of wind. “Rainbow?! What are you doing?!”
“We- we’ve gotta hurry!” The drake could barely hear her over the sound of rushing wind, but her voice sounded worried. “If she used magic to help Twilight, she’s gonna be in bad shape! Last time, something happened. I don’t know what it was, but I found the two of them laying out in an open field, and Rarity was nearly dead. She… She told me that the kid caused it somehow."
“Twilight?” Grumble would have blinked in surprise, but he couldn’t open his eyes. “How could-“
“We’re here!” Rainbow let go of the drake and dove towards the ground. Grumble was halfway there before he realized that he was no longer being pushed or held on to. “Fly, you idiot! If you get hurt, I’m not letting Fluttershy help you ‘til Rarity’s healed!”
He spread his wings and entered a glide, mumbling about how he didn’t need to be convinced not to hurt himself. “A little warning would have been nice!” When he landed, Fluttershy was already by Rarity’s side, with a worried Twilight beside her. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash stood off to the side as Fluttershy tended to their injured friend. Grumble joined them and watched as the yellow dragon leaned down, carefully laying one long, fur-covered ear over the smaller dragoness.
After a few moments, Fluttershy lifted her head with a soft sigh. “There aren’t any life-threatening injuries, but I can’t treat the, um...” She glanced down at Twilight. “She needs time to recover, but it’s safe to move her. We should take them both back to camp.” The yellow dragon waved Applejack over and scooped Rarity up in her claws. She spread her wings and flew up to the larger dragon’s back, taking great care to make the trip as smooth as possible for her injured passenger. Taking her lead, Grumble walked over to the hatchling, who wasted no time climbing onto his head. He then flew up and landed on Applejack’s back. Rainbow followed suit, depositing Pinkie atop the orange dragon before returning to the ground to drag the ugly grey carcass back to camp.
Applejack let out a long, weary sigh and glanced back at the dragons she carried. “Pinkie, ya sure were right when ya said somethin’ big was goin’ down.” She started walking back towards camp, keeping her pace deliberately slow and even.
The pink dragon laid down and rested her chin on her claws. “Yeah,” she whispered to herself, “but I can’t tell if it’s over.” She looked over at Grumble, then shot up straight. “Spike! Where’s Spike?!”
“Ah’d like ta know that too.” Applejack glanced back at Rainbow. The colorful dragin was barely able to keep up while dragging the larger creature. “Not that Ah’m complainin’ or nothin’, but Ah thought the two a’ ya went huntin’. How’d ya manage to end up back here?”
The brown drake looked up at her and shrugged. “Spike sent me here. Somehow, he was able to sense that monster."
“Then why,” Rainbow grunted as she pulled the monster over a fallen tree, “wasn’t,” she let out another grunt as one of the creature’s limbs caught on the tree’s roots, “he with you?”
Grumbled sighed heavily. “Because there’s another monster.”
“What?!” Applejack stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Ya mean there’s two a’ those things?”
“No.” Grumble glanced down at Rarity and Twilight as Fluttershy cradled them both in her soft, feathered wings. “If there were, Spike would have come after this one. Whatever he’s going after is stronger, and headed for us, that’s why we’re sticking together.”
“What?!” Rainbow let go of the monster and turned to look up at the drake. “And you didn’t think this was important enough to mention earlier?” She gestured towards the thing she was dragging. “This thing’s bigger than I am! It’s almost as big as Applejack!” Applejack didn’t stop and Rainbow had to drag the beast along quickly in order to catch up. “What’s he thinking going after something bigger on his own? He’s gonna end up monster chow.”
“He’s stronger than he looks.” Fluttershy gasped in surprise as the white dragoness she held spoke. Rarity immediately burst into a fit of coughing. “Where’s Twilight?” Fluttershy set her down gently, but kept her wings around the smaller dragon to keep her from sliding off Applejack’s back. Rarity tried to stand up, but her legs were too weak to support her weight, so she gave up and just laid down. “Is Twilight ok?”
“I’m ok.” The hatchling poked her head through the yellow curtain of feathers surrounding the dragoness. Her jaw was set and she had her claws clenched into fists. “You’re the one who got hurt.” She walked up to Rarity, but didn’t touch her. Tears welled in her violet eyes and she did her best to hold them back. “I- I-“ Twilight closed her eyes, unable to face her injured guardian. “You shouldn’t have tried to protect me, you should have run away, you should have-”
The dragoness put a claw to the hatchling’s lips, silencing her guilt-laden muttering. “I did exactly what I should have done.” Twilight slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see pain on the older dragon’s face. She would have understood that; she would have even been able to understand it if the dragoness was angry or upset, but she didn’t see any of that. All she saw on Rarity’s face was a smile. “And I would do it again.” Twilight’s tears started flowing freely as she threw herself against the larger dragon’s chest. Rarity held on to her and let the hatchling cry. It was only a few moments before Twilight was fast asleep. “Don’t ask me why, but I would.” Rarity sat there, with the sleeping hatchling, looking up as a shadow crossed over them. A wide, rectangular cloth stretched out above them, secured between several treetops, making a shelter large enough for several dragons.
“Um, Rarity,” Fluttershy tapped the dragoness on the shoulder, “we’re back at camp. I’ll carry you down, if you’re feeling up to it.”
“Thank you, dear,” Rarity wrapped her claws around Twilight, holding her close, “that would be most appreciated.”
She couldn’t fly with the cloth overhead, so the yellow dragon scooped the two smaller dragons up in her claws and shuffled down Applejack’s tail. She set them down near a small campfire. Rarity immediately tried to stand up, and Fluttershy had to hold out a claw to steady her. “You really should rest.”
“I will.” Rarity tried to take a step but stumbled. She straightened up and tried again. Again, she stumbled. She laid down heavily and looked up at her yellow friend. “I’m worried.”
“I know.” Fluttershy walked over to a pile of supplies and dug out a pair of blankets. “We all are. But, Grumble’s keeping watch, and nothing’s going to get the better of us if we’re all together and waiting for it.” The yellow dragon draped one of the blankets over Twilight before offering the other one to Rarity. “Besides, you said Spike’s stronger than he looks. I doubt those scars of his are just for show. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
The white dragoness took the folded blanket with her claw. “Fluttershy, dear, I know you’re trying to cheer me up, but don’t lie to me. You’re the only one of the girls who knows, so tell me the truth. What do you really think?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t know what to think. I thought I knew every type of creature that lived in this area, but I’ve never even heard of anything like that thing that attacked you.” She looked back towards the trail they had taken to camp, and the brightly colored dragon trying to drag a big, grey monster along it. “And it seems Rainbow Dash is having some trouble with it.”
Rarity sighed and started unfolding her blanket. “Why don’t you go help her? I’ll just stay here and do my best to relax, and not let my imagination get the better of me.”
Fluttershy started walking towards Rainbow dash, but quickly stopped and turned around. “If there is another monster out there, and it’s stronger than the thing that attacked and beat you, then it is something very powerful indeed. But think about it for a moment, Spike knew how strong it was and still went after it.” The yellow dragon turned around and hurried towards the struggling Rainbow Dash.
Rarity looked down at her blanket and dropped it to the ground. There was no way she was going to be able to relax until Spike came back. And not just out of worry for him. If he was searching for the other monster, there was a chance it could make it to the camp before he found it. “I just hope-“ Something caught her eye, off in the forest, a purple shape emerging from between the trees. She walked towards it with slow, stumbling steps. As it stepped out of the forest, she could see it clearly. “Spike!” He was facing away from them, but it was clearly him. She forced herself to go faster. “Spike! Over here!”
The other dragons in the camp looked over at the sound of the dragoness’ shouts. When they noticed the purple pony, they all sighed in relief and started to walk towards him. All but one. Applejack stared at the pony in horror. “Rares! Get back!”
“What?” The dragoness glanced back.
“Get back.” The orange dragon gulped loudly. “That ain’t Spike.”
Rarity stepped back as the pony started to turn around. As soon as its back was towards the forest, a purple blur shot forth and slammed into the pony. They went tumbling, and when they came to a stop, Spike was on his back, but he was also holding himself down. The Spike on top held the other Spike down with one hoof and slammed the other into his opponent’s face over and over. Green blood splattered the ground as the pinned Spike struggled to ward off the vicious blows from his counterpart. Rarity and the other dragons could only watch. They couldn’t tell which one was the real Spike, and the only one that could was too large to do anything without causing serious injury to both ponies.
The Spike that was pinned suddenly stopped trying to defend himself and tucked his head, pointing his horn towards the other Spike’s chest. A green blast of light erupted from his horn, sending the other Spike flying back. He hit the ground and rolled. He came to rest standing on his hooves and charged towards the other him. He dodged two more bursts of energy as he closed in on his opponent . When he was close enough to the other him, he slashed at him with his horn. The other Spike dodged, unleashing another burst of energy at the same time. A green glow enveloped the attacking Spike, and he staggered back, clutching at his head. His eyes shifted, going in and out of focus, their color, normally a vibrant emerald green changed to a paler shade. His expression faded, leaving his face with a blank, forward stare.
The other Spike started laughing as he walked forward, stopping right in front of the other, now still, Spike. He lifted a hoof and patted it against the side of the other Spike’s face, grinning the entire time. The unmoving Spike’s eyes drifted closed, then his head started to droop forward. Suddenly, he shook his head and snapped his eyes up to look at the other Spike. His eyes were back to their normal hue, and his blank expression was replaced by one of unbridled anger. Before the other Spike could react, he smacked the hoof away from his face and followed up with a hard right hook. The other Spike reeled from the hit, but immediately lit his horn for another attack. He spun to launch his spell, but the other Spike was faster. He lit his horn and flicked his head in one fluid movement, unleashing a shimmering ribbon of light that shot straight past the other Spike. For a moment, nothing happened. The two Spikes just sat there, staring at each other.
Then, the glow around the other Spike’s horn faded. A thin line of green appeared on his right side, stretching from his neck, down his shoulder, and all the way to the mark on his flank. He started coughing, green blood splattering the ground in front of him. He looked up, eyes focused on his double, and even as his vital fluids trickled from the corners of his mouth and from the wound on his side, he walked forward. With each staggered step, his breathing grew more and more labored.
The uninjured Spike just watched as his duplicate walked up to him. The injured Spike started coughing again, doubling over from the pain of his injuries. He straightened and spit in his double’s face before falling to the dirt at his hooves. A green glow spread over the injured Spike’s body and slowly faded.
The still standing Spike wiped the sanguine spittle from his face and turned around. He saw seven dragons, six staring at him in shock, and one wrapped in a blanket, fast asleep. He looked at the closest dragon, dirty, white scales standing out from the rest. “Rarity,” he took a step towards her, “are you ok?” The dragoness let out a loud gasp and stepped back. “Rarity?” He moved to take another step, but the look of fear on her face made him stop and pull his hoof back. “It... it’s me.”
“I- I-“ The dragoness slowly shook her head and took another step back.
“It’s me.” Spike brought his foreleg up to mouth and bit down. With a sharp grunt, he jerked his head, tearing away fur and skin, and leaving a bloody wound. He held up his leg. “See?” He gestured to the red liquid dripping from the injured limb. “It’s me. I- I-“ He sat down heavily as he realized something. “You don’t trust me. You can’t. You’ve never seen me bleed.” He held up his bleeding hoof, staring at it blankly before closing his eyes. “So this means nothing to you.”
He felt something on his shoulder and opened his eyes to see Rarity sitting in front of him. “It means a lot more than you think.” She smiled at him as Spike brought his uninjured hoof up to her cheek and brushed some of the dirt from her scales. “Besides, Applejack or Grumble would have stopped me if it wasn’t you.”
Spike tilted his head to the side. “Applejack?”
Rarity nodded. “She saw through the illusion and stopped me when your doppleganger came out of the forest earlier.”
Spike looked down at his injured leg, then at the large orange dragon. “Why didn’t you stop me?!”
“Well,” Applejack adjusted her hat nervously, “ya didn’t exactly gimme time ta, Sugarcube.”
“She’s right.” Rarity glanced at Spike’s leg. “You jumped to a rather drastic course of action rather quickly.”
“You were afraid of me, I didn’t want you to be. I-” He glanced around the clearing, at the dragons watching them, and the one sleeping. “Rarity, I need to talk to you,” he glanced around again, focusing on surroundings this time, “can we go over there?” He pointed to the pathway through the forest Applejack created earlier.
Rarity looked over, then looked back. “But what about your leg?”
Spike stood up. “It’ll be fine.” He turned and started for the fallen trees. After a few steps, he stopped, but didn’t look back. “Please? It’s important.” He didn’t wait for an answer, he just resumed his walk.
Rarity watched him walk all the way to the fallen trees and sit beside one. He was favoring his injured leg, but trying not to show it. She got up and followed him over, sitting next to him and looking out over the trail. The trail Applejack created led downhill, all the way to the river, the place that nearly tore her from this life and the friends she held dear. That river now reflected the golden light of the setting sun, a fitting metaphor, the dragoness supposed, but she would be here to see the sun rise in the morning. “What did you want to-“
“I’m sorry.” The sudden apology caught the dragoness off guard, and she looked over at the pony. He was staring at the ground by his hooves. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I shouldn’t have-“
Rarity put a claw under his chin and lifted his face to the rapidly reddening sky. “It’s a beautiful sky, isn’t it?”
“Rarity,” Spike pulled his head away from her claw and looked away from her, “I-“
The dragoness grabbed his chin and pulled him face to face with her. “For good or bad, your scars are part of you.” Rarity moved her claw away from the pony’s chin and let it come to rest against the slash mark on his shoulder. “Life brings scars,” she rested her other claw against the side of her neck, “I know this as well as anydragon, but not all of them can be seen. Regret can be a scar as real as any other.” Rarity turned her head to face the sunset. “But I am right here, watching the sunset with you, and Twilight is asleep, safe under the watch of Grumble and the girls.” She looked back at Spike. “We’re safe. Are you trying to tell me you regret that?”
Spike wrapped his hooves around the claw on his shoulder. “No, Rarity, of course not, but if I-“
“If you what?” Rarity wrapped her free claw around Spike’s hooves. “If you had come after us? If you had slowed Grumble down? Even by a few seconds? But what if you didn’t slow him down? What if you had gotten there sooner, and beaten that monster that attacked us? What about that thing that disguised itself as you? What if I had run into that because you let it go to save us? What if I ran into that, and it was disguised as you, or even Twilight?” She slowly lowered her claws, pulling them away from Spike’s hooves. “It’s over, it’s done, and I won’t listen to any apologies you have to give. So, I hope you pulled me over here to talk about something else, otherwise, we can just sit here and watch the sunset.”
“Actually I-“ Spike looked over at her, the sunset reflecting off her scales gave her a pink tint. “No, you know what, it’s not that important right now.” She was safe, so was everydragon else, and he would use all of his strength to keep it that way. For now, he could relax and watch the sunset. He turned to face the last moments of daylight. After a few moments, he felt a weight push against his shoulder. Rarity was leaning up against him as the sun slipped below the horizon. Spike watched her as she watched the sky go from pink to purple. He put a hoof around her shoulder as purple started to give way to the dark blur of a moonlit night. “I’ll be sure to tell you someday.”
The dragoness looked up at the pony beside her. His fur was warm against her side, warmer than scales could ever hope to be, and softer than all but the finest of fabrics. “Tell me what?”
“Uh, well, you see, I-“ Spike looked down at the dragoness beside him. Her eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, and after a few seconds staring into them, Spike looked away. “I wanted to say that I, um,“ he glanced back at her, noticing the way her scales caught the moonlight, giving her a faint, ethereal glow, “that you, uh-“ Spike swallowed hard and straightened up. “I, um-“ He could do this, he had to do this. He slammed his eyes shut. Why was this so hard to say? He faced down so many monsters and dragons in the last two years that he lost count, but he couldn’t just say a few simple little words.
He knew why; he was afraid, afraid of the consequences. Every time he had ever fought, the consequences were simple; win and live, or lose and die. But now? What he was about to say would change things, one way or another, good or bad. But there was a third option, do nothing, and keep things as they are. But is that enough? Barring recent events, things now weren’t bad, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the thought of keeping silent didn’t sit well with Spike. How would it feel to sit back and watch, knowing that things could be different? If things go wrong, he might regret it, but it would be worse to regret having the chance and not taking it.
Rarity waited for the pony to open his eyes, for him to say whatever it was he was about to say. She held out hope that his words would mirror the ones she wanted to say, that he would express the feelings she couldn’t bring herself to. “Spike?” What was he going to say? Did he feel the same? Or was she just getting her hopes up for nothing? She overheard him talking about her once or twice before, but everything he said could be attributed to a passing attraction. At least, it could if he was a dragon. But he wasn’t, and she didn’t know if that made a difference. She decided that it didn’t make a difference to her, but it brought up the question of how different a pony and dragon could be. She wanted to know, she wanted to find out, but she didn’t want to push him. She turned to walk away. “You don’t have to tell me now, but please-.”
“No, I have to say this.” The dragoness stopped and looked back, waiting for either heartbreak or elation. “Rarity,” Spike opened his eyes, “I-“ His breath caught as he saw the back of the dragoness for the first time since the attack. “Y-your tail,” the words came out as barely more than a whisper, “what happened?”
The dragoness looked back at the torn flesh of her tail. She knew her tail was damaged, but she wasn’t prepared for what she saw. The creature’s teeth pierced right through her scales, and the weight of being thrown shredded any chance for recovery. “I can’t even feel it anymore.” It hurt earlier, but when the pain went away, she thought it was a good sign. Now, she realized it was the opposite. She tried to move her tail, to twitch it, to do anything that would tell her she would be able to keep her tail, but there was nothing, no movement, and no feeling. It barely even looked like her tail anymore, and if it wasn’t attached, she wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as such. The dragoness started to hyperventilate at the thought of losing her tail. “H-how am I supposed to-“ Her words trailed off as she realized how important her tail was to her, it was her replacement for magic around Twilight, and without it she wouldn’t be able to pick the hatchling up and carry her. “I won’t even be able to-“ Her words were interrupted by a pair of hooves wrapping around her.
Spike held on to the dragoness for a moment, waiting for her breathing to return to normal. “I know, you said you won’t listen to an apology, so I’ll give you a promise.” Spike moved back so he could look her in the eyes, but kept hold of her. “Next time, I’m coming after you first.”
Rarity put a claw on the hooves holding her. “I’ll hold you to that.” She looked down at his hooves, the bite on his leg had stopped bleeding, but it still served as a reminder. He was willing to go that far, to inflict pain on himself for her sake. She looked back up, letting her eyes meet his. “Spike? Will you- Will you take care of my tail?” The pony’s eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth to protest, but she put a claw to his lips to stop him. “Don’t. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I trust you. Please don’t say no.”
Spike stared at her, unable to understand the expression in her eyes. There was no anger, no fear, no blame, nothing that would be understandable in this situation. He felt responsible for her getting hurt in the first place, and she still trusted him? The longer he stared into those eyes, the more he realized, he couldn’t refuse. He didn’t have the right to say no. Spike closed his eyes, forcing out a single tear, and nodded. He opened his eyes and slowly leaned forward. Rarity’s eyes went wide as Spike nudged her claw away from his lips. “Rarity,” he tapped his horn against her forehead, and caught her as she fell limp against him, “I’m sorry, I know you won’t listen, but I truly am sorry.”