//------------------------------//
// Twilight? 
// Story: Twilight? 
// by JackLikesPancakes 
//------------------------------//

"Twilight?"

A call.

"Yes, Spike?"

A reply.

"Could you tell me the story of when I was a hatchling again?"

Twilight chuckles lightly and sighs.

"You always ask me to tell it. You probably know the story better than I do at this point."

"C'mon, Twilight. I swear this is the last time I'll ask. I swear it."

Twilight senses the dragon's plea is genuine. She soberly smiles and recalls the tale with her eyes closed.

"When I was a little filly and enrolled in Celestia's School for Gifted Fillies, I had a final exam assignment. I had to perform a special spell that would hatch a dragon egg right before Celestia's eyes."

Twilight's expression grows somber.

"I-I just couldn't, though. That spell was hard enough for a full-grown unicorn, let alone a little school filly. Nor could I do any other of the simpler spells. I felt like a complete failure. It was awful."

Twilight gazes wistfully into the night sky. Her grin slowly returns.

"But then, I heard something from outside. Something that was soaring through the sky like a shooting star. Something that made me feel empowered, like I could do anything if I believed hard enough. THAT special magic was what fueled me. I just let loose, and suddenly, everypony in the room saw the spells all at once. Just like that."

Spike loved hearing this story of the triumph of his best friend, and the tale seemed to get better every time it was told. He already knew what part was coming next.

Yet it did not stop him from asking the inevitable.

"Yeah, and then what happened?"

Twilight giggles, her anxious assistant attempting to wring out the highlight. "Suddenly, out came a little baby dragon. That's when I met you, Spike."

Spike's mouth curls into a smile, one that is so genuine that Twilight feels obligated to return the expression with greater gusto.

"Now, why do you suppose that story is so important to you that you have to hear it on every one of our walks?"

Spike stops walking, his jade-green pupils dilating.

"I don't know, Twilight. The past is just kind of amazing, I guess. So many memories, so many friends and good times."

They continue traveling, as Twilight's eyelids begin to droop, and then swiftly close altogether. Spike picks up on this immediately.

"Huh? Twilight, stay awake, would ya? This is supposed to be one of our relaxing night walks BEFORE bed. If you wanted to sleep, you should have just called this one off."

Twilight opens her eyes. Considering the environment that surrounded the two tonight, the ambience and therapeutic elements combined with the cloak of darkness, it was a wonder that either of them were not asleep. The calming night breeze seemed to scatter the fireflies, whose brilliant flashes illuminate the soft dirt path.

"I'm sorry, Spike. I've been up late..."

"Reading, I bet," Spike remarks, coyly.

"...thinking."

Spike's grin fades.

"About what?"

Twilight lowers her head, as if to examine the very ground beneath her.

"It's like you said, Spike. The past is amazing. And all I could think about was how amazing it was to get to experience everything I have experienced in the past."

The two approach a familiar fork in  the road. Spike smiles, and lifts a violet talon to the right side. "Ah, we go right."

"Left."

Spike whirls around in surprise.

"Twilight, the left path is just the loop around the Marble Gardens. The right path is the long one to Firefly C-."

"I realize that Spike. I'm just...too drained to go that far. You were right. I should have just slept."

Spike and Twilight were at an impasse. The silence between was instantly filled by the symphony of crickets chirping and other insects' twittering.

Spike's voice becomes low. "Should we just head back home, then?"

Twilight gently closes her eyes and tenderly says, "I'd like that very much. Sorry to spoil your adventure."

Spike turns one-hundred and eighty degrees, and looks up to the twinkling ceiling of stars.

"Twilight, anywhere I go with you is an adventure."

She was touched by his sentiment. She had been awake for far too long, and the day had dragged on for hours. Nopony stopped by the house, there were no new books in the mail, and all of the cleaning had been done, courtesy of Spike's helping claw. This moonlit stroll was all she had looked forward to.

But now, her fatigue had shortened it.

She felt nothing but guilt as Spike began walking in the opposite direction.

"So, Twilight? What was this about 'the past' you were talking a about?"

A breathless inhale.

"My life, Spike. It's been a ride. The school, the books, your presence as my assistant-"

"Your number ONE assistant," Spike interrupts smugly.

"...my number one assistant," Twilight sheepishly repeats, her eyelids half-shut. She gingerly hoof bumps Spike on his arm. Spike acknowledges the gesture with a playful, "Hey now!"

Twilight continues, "And all my friends! Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash..."

She halts. Her head sinks with melancholy.

"Pinkie Pie..."

Spike slows, looking back to Twilight.

"Twilight, we can't do anything about that. We can still share our memories and moments, and she's not really gone, is she?"

Twilight is silent, leading Spike to begin walking. He is the leader now.

"Hey...remember when Pinkie built that flying machine to race Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash crashed face first into the mountain?"

She, for an instant, exhales a nostalgic sigh. The memory is still fresh.

Twilight adds, "Remember when Pinkie played that wacky polka song to clear Ponyville of the parasprites?"

Spike snickers. The tempo of the conversation increases.

"Remember it? It's still stuck in my head, that song!"

Spike begins to hum, and Twilight giggles.

"How about that time that Pinkie Pie crashed Rarity's party with the Canterlot elite?"

Spike retorts, "You thought THAT was ridiculous, Twilight? How about those dance moves you were pullin' off? Ho, man, where'd you learn that? The Ponyville Two Left Hooves Dance Studio?"

Twilight laughs heartily.

"Aw, those moves totally rocked! I can still do them!"

Spike's jade eyes haughtily roll, his head shaking as he does it.

"Ha, no way! You're an old mare now!"

Twilight, half-jokingly, raised he voice to rebuttal.

"Oh yeah? Well, YOU'RE still a baby dragon!"

Spike laughed with gusto.

"Sure, you say that now, but I could dump you off my back at any minute," Spike replies jauntily.

They both laugh under the radiant moon.

After their jokes, they thought of more silly moments with their friends.

"Remember when Rarity and Applejack had their first sleepover? I'm so glad I had that book handy."

"Pfft. Playing by the book is so lame. It nearly ruined your party, Twilight."

"Well, it helped them out aside their differences, didn't it?"

"...I'll give you credit, it did."

Spike scratches his claw under his chin in thought.

"How about that time Rainbow Dash went off to Wonderbolt Academy? And Pinkie stood at that mailbox-"

"For two days straight!" They shout in unison. Their coincidental conversational crossroad made them howl gleefully.

"How about that time Applejack had to buck every apple tree in the orchard by herself?"

"And your brother's wedding," Spike reckons, "and how Equestria was almost taken over by the Changeling Queen! But you and your friends beat her!"

Twilight sighs, her smile still lingering but her voice less cheery.

"Those experiences, Spike. That's what I'm talking about. And they were all part of them."

She looks down to Spike.

"You were part of them, too."

The sky's illumination has become hypnotically bright, as the two looked straight up to intake the serenity of midnight.

"Midnight," Twilight whispers. "How close are we to the house?"

Spike gazes down the path, the entrance to Ponyville engulfed in darkness. He could make out the shape of the old reliable welcome sign, and knew he was treading familiar ground.

"Almost there, Twilight," Spike assures.

Twilight lays her head onto Spike's back, allowing her mane to cascade over his left shoulder. She feels the weight of her eyelids drooping like iron curtains, as Spike picks up the pace. He had become well adapted to crawling on all fours, as all dragons of his age do. He spies the Sugar Cube Corner bakery, silhouetted by the moonlight, out of the corner of his eye. He sighs.

"Our friends, huh? What a crazy bunch we were."

Twilight began to rub her hoof on Spike's back, forming a figure eight sort of motion. "What a crazy bunch we still are."

Spike nods in agreement.

"I heard Applejack got to play horseshoes with Apple Bloom last week."

Twilight shifts. "Isn't Apple Bloom enrolled in Santa Mare College?"

Spike dips his head in an unsure manner.

"Summer break, I bet. Anyway, Apple Bloom and Applejack were playing, and Apple Bloom is winning. Sure, she's got the advantage of being so much younger than Applejack. But right as Apple Bloom starts to celebrate, WHAM! Applejack bucks that rusty old horseshoe dead around the ringer."

Spike laughs to himself.

"Betcha Apple Bloom wagered some bets against her poor, old sister. Sure did fool her, didn't she?"

Twilight smiles, replying, "Applejack probably bet a month's worth of orchard duty for a win."

Spike huffs, "Wouldn't doubt it. That Applejack sure is funny."

"I waved to Fluttershy the other day," Twilight adds, pensively. "She was helping a family of ducks cross the road, bless her little soul."

Spike turns to Twilight, his eyes reflecting in the night.

"You'd think being in that cottage with that many animals around the clock would make you avoid animals. I can't believe she's still a zookeeper. She's at an age where she could easily retire."

A simple reverse of Twilight's figure eights changed the tone of the conversation.

"She loves what she does. She's so kind to all those animals, and to us ponies, too. Anypony with that much passion would work there until they couldn't stand."

Spike jerks a bit, causing Twilight to slide a bit. Spike rotates his massive body, keeping his precious cargo balanced.

"These paths need divot repairs," he murmurs to no one, kicking the saffron dirt with disgust.

Spike looks straight forward, focusing once more on his critical mission.

"Have you heard anything new about Rarity?"

"Ooh, loverboy," Twilight chides.

"I've got a family now, Twilight. Rarity and I...we're just good friends is all. And good friends like to stay connected."

Twilight continues her soothing motion, as a chorus of chirps arise from the bush. "I kid, I kid. But I seriously haven't heard from her since I got her invitation to the Summer Chic fashion line she hosted."

Spike turns his attention forward, focusing on the large treehouse drawing near.

"Did you go, Twilight?"

Spike could feel Twilight's head sink lower into his skin.

"Oh, Spike. You know since the fall I can hardly walk past my mailbox. How could I ever get to such an event on hoof?"

Spike could sense how pained she felt. It was apparent how much her limited mobility affected her life.

"Gee, Twilight, I'm...sorry," Spike humbly says.

Twilight let a hoof shake in the air, concluding, "No worries. It's not your fault. Don't be sorry."

She put her hoof down once more, and decided the time has come for a change in topic.

"Rainbow Dash."

"Still working shows at the Pegadome, I hear," Spike surmises. "Her shows are always so great. So coordinated, so fast, so...awesome."

Twilight grins at the thought of her friend being described by all of the fans in the arena as "awesome". She was awesome, even at her old age. She still had it.

"Isn't she?" Twilight's response came before Spike halted in front of the treehouse, lit merely by a single candle lamp.

"This is your stop, Twilight."

Spike lowers himself, waiting for Twilight to begin her slow descent. Over Spike's chorus of "easy, careful, watch it", Twilight eases her fragile hind legs onto the ground. With a sharp turn, she straddles her front legs off Spike's massive body and to the floor. A resounding clop echoes in the emptiness.

"Thanks, Spike. For everything."

Spike smiles, turning for his home in the mountains.

"Wait."

A call.

"Yes, Twilight?"

A reply.

Twilight was staring straight ahead at her door, appearing to look past the door as if searching for words.

"Spike, I don't think that I appreciate my friends enough. For the life they've given me. When Celestia assigned me to make friends, I never thought it would go this far. I never thought...all those ponies...we..."

Spike gently lends a reassuring claw to give Twilight strength. The ambiance gains volume. Spike did not dare disturb it.

"We fought evil together. We dressed up together. We learned together. We traveled together. We, we, we. There's no 'I' anymore. What would I ever be without them?"

A small tear appeared in the corner of her right eye.

"And what about me? This walking thing is only going to worsen over time. Soon enough, I'll be bedridden, completely immobile. Then what?"

Spike daintily grasps her as her voice breaks, urging her to come closer to his body. She did, accepting his warmth in the form of an embrace.

"Don't you start thinking like that, Twilight. You're fine. That's why you and I go on these walks. You want to get out, and we go out. You're fine. Even if those old legs give way, I'd gladly take you anywhere. After all, I am your assistant."

"My number one assistant," Twilight's voice tenderheartedly cracks, as she swiftly wipes the tear away.

He smiles, tilting his head gently, feeling a rush of feelings.

"Your number one assistant. I know your friends would walk the lengths of the Earth for you. They would visit every day, I promise you."

Twilight gasps, searching for air.

"You've gotten so big," she utters.

Spike cracks back, futilely pushing away a cry of his own. "And you've gotten so old."

They both hold on, smiling.

"Thank you, Spike," she soberly whispers.

The night felt so young before, but it seemed so dry by the lantern's side.

She begins to walk into the house. A voice from behind her declares,  "Same thing tomorrow night, so get some rest. I think we owe our friends a visit."

Twilight responds with a tearful nod, and with that, the purple mare disappears.

Spike sat in the front yard for a while. He waits for her, as he does every night after a walk, to safely navigate the dastardly steps and slide under the covers of her comfy bed.

He watches so closely as, with vigor, Twilight bounds up all the steps. She settled into her bed, no book by her side. She was far too exhausted to re-read anything in her library. What she needs is sleep.

Spike gently smiles, blowing out Twilight's lamp, which is just below his knees.

"Goodnight, Twilight," Spike whispers into the night.

Spike turns to the mountains, where his home resides. His wife and daughter are there. His family, his home.

He leaves Twilight's house, thinking about the irony of his situation.

It would seem as though, under each beautiful moon, he was leaving his family to reunite with his family.

And that made him feel really special.