//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Happiness // Story: Beauty and her Spike // by FlimFlamBros. //------------------------------// A few days down the road… It was late afternoon in Ponyville, and every pony in town was headed to the same place, the Carousel Boutique. A grand party was being held there in honor of Rarity and Spike’s newly found relationship, and the course safe return of the Elements of Harmony and their rightful bearers. Ponies were laughing, drinks and food were served, and several stories were exchanged as Rarity and took another sip of her drink. She and Twilight were sitting by the table when she asked. “Okay, so run it through me one more time, because I still don’t think I fully understand…” Rarity said as she waved over another order of drinks. “So you guys were stuck in that castle as kitchen wares for a whole year?” “And then some,” muttered her friend. “I never want to have to go through something like that again.” “I can imagine…” sighed Rarity. “Still, at least it’s all over now.” “Tell me about it. After all this mayhem; I think I’m going to take a nice long vacation. I hear Saddle Arabia is nice this time of year. Do you mind looking after your new drakefriend for me?” Rarity blushed a little at that last bit. She still wasn’t use to calling him that, though every time she heard it she got butterflies in her stomach. It was such a wonderful revelation. “Yes, I suppose that he could spend a few weeks here…or, you know…” “Or what?” “Well, I mean—you know what? Don’t worry about it,” the white mare said, quickly grabbing her drink from the walking waiter and taking a drink. “Let’s just forget that I said anything.” “Rarity, what are you thinking about?” Twilight smirked. “You’re not having any unladylike thoughts about the situation, are you?” “N-no!” Rarity stammered. “I’m just thinking that maybe while you’re on vacation that maybe Spike and I could go on a trip of our own. I’m sure he’s exhausted with all that’s happened as well. We all deserve a little rest now, don’t you think?” Twilight smiled as she cheered Rarity’s glass. “Agreed, just don’t wear him too out with your extracurricular activities.” “Please dear, you’re going to make me blush.” Twilight was about to continue when she was interrupted. “Ex-excuse me…” a trembling voice moaned from behind them. Twilight and Rarity turned around to see Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood approaching them. The posh, snobby prince head was staring down at the floor and he looked like he really didn’t want to be here. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight gasped, immediately bowing her head. “We didn’t expect you to be coming.” “I’m afraid I’m just here for a few minutes,” smiled the sun princess. “I just came by because my nephew has something very important to say to you.” She looked down towards Blueblood, giving him a few nudges. “Isn’t that right?” “Yes auntie…” he groaned, barely looking up from the floor. “Miss Rarity…I just wanted to say I’m—” He gagged a little, like he was about to throw up. “I’m…I’m…I’m sor…” His voice started to trail off, causing Celestia to frown and give him another nudge. “I’m sorry!” He finally blurted out. “For…” Celestia hummed, expecting Blueblood to continue with his apology. “For trying to throw put your father into a mental ward.” “And?” “And for locking you in your basement.” “And?” “And for not being a gentlecolt around you.” “And?” “Auntie, please! I said I was sorry!” The prince whined. “What more do you want from me?!” “You’re forgetting the most important thing,” she said. “Something along the lines of you rallying a horde of ponies to kill her drakefriend.” “Oh right…and whatever auntie said as well.” Celestia gave Blueblood a much harder nudge this time. “Ouch! I’m sorry I tried to kill your dragon friend! Now can we please go home now? I’m starting to get light headed from all this apologizing.” The princess smiled. “Yes we can. I hope you girls have a nice party, and Rarity I wish you and Spike all the happiness in the world.” “Thank you, Princess,” smiled Rarity. “But all I need is my Spikey wikey.” Celestia was about to say something but Blueblood kept tugging at her mane. “Auntie, let’s go!” “Then go wait in the carriage, your colouring books are in there,” Celestia grumbled. “There’s a few other things I need to deal with before leaving here,” she gave her goodbyes and started heading towards the kitchen. Blueblood started to wander out of the room. “Well that was rather strange…” Twilight wondered. “Anyways, where were you thinking of taking Spike for your little vacation? I hear the Hot Springs up north are nice.” “Maybe,” She said. “But I’m going to talk to Spike about this; we can probably find a place that we both can agree on.” “I don’t know Rare,” a deep, loving voice said, sneaking up on the mare and covering her eyes with his claws. “Those hot springs sound fantastic, and it’d be the perfect excuse to take another seven hour bubble bath.” “Hello there, darling,” Rarity smugly smiled, spinning around and giving the dragon she loved a quick kiss on his cheek. “I take it that you’ve heard what we were talking about? “A little,” Spike admitted. “But we can probably talk about it later. So Twilight, do you mind if I go on this vacation with Rarity?” Twilight nodded. “The way I see it, you’re not exactly a baby dragon anymore, so from now on, unless it’s really important, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Just please tell me what you’re doing before you do it.” “No problem Twilight.” “Good,” smiled the purple unicorn as she got up from her seat and started heading towards the door. “Now I have to head home and start packing for my trip. You two love birds try to keep it PG rated, alright?” The two rolled their eyes as they waved goodbye to Twilight. Spike and Rarity needed to plan their vacation anyways. “So I was thinking of booking a train for three days from now, that’ll give me enough time to pack for the week, and of course we need to start gathering some funds so we can go shopping.” “Oh and you’ll really want to check out this one restaurant there, it has the greatest spinach salad on the planet.” “That’s a wonderful idea—wait who said that?” Rarity wondered, looking around the table. She didn’t see anyone besides Spike, who looked equally confused as to what was going on, but when she looked back in front of her, she saw of all ponies Ding-a-ling sitting across from her. “Eek!” she squeaked. “What are you doing here?” “Oh, me?” Chuckled the strange stallion, taking a sip from a cup of strange liquid. “Well last we met you guys all ran out of the castle so fast, I never got a chance to have you thank me.” Spike and Rarity looked puzzled. “Excuse me!?” They both said at once. “You heard me? I went through all that trouble to make you two love each other and I didn’t get so much as a ‘Thank you Ding-a-ling’ from either of you. It was rather rude to be completely honest.” Spike snarled. “Rude? Do you know what was rude? Putting us through all of that for no good reason?!” “No good reason?!” Ding-a-ling gasped. “I had a good reason. What do you think I am? Some sort of crazy pony?” They nodded. “Oh you two suck,” he groaned. “Think about it, if I hadn’t done what I had done would you of ever finally fallen in love with each other? You dragon needed to learn that you shouldn’t have to change in order to please somepony else, if they can’t love you for you then it’s not worth it. And you, Miss Rarity, you needed to learn that true loves sees from the heart and that it shouldn’t matter if someone’s a little different or a dragon. If you love them then love them. Honestly, you two have been dancing around the stick for so long I’m surprised I didn’t intervene sooner.” “I…but…how?” “My methods may be a little unorthodox and maybe border on the sociopathic, but in the end you cannot argue with my results, now can you?” Spike and Rarity wanted to argue back, say something that hadn’t already been said. But what bell headed pony had said did make a little sense. As cruel as he may have been he had created a (rather bizarre) scenario in which they could finally say they loved each other. Perhaps that was the push they needed. They decided to just nod a little and thank Ding-a-ling for what he did, even though they still felt a little strange about doing it. “Thank you…I guess.” “You’re very welcome,” smiled Ding-a-ling. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have more mischief to create and more lives to better.” He got up from the table and headed to the door. “Fair thee well, and have a nice life!” He disappeared beyond the door and started walking down the road. Most ponies didn’t pay him much mind, with the exception of a pony here or there. But even that wasn’t anything more than a quick glance. “Now…to find more ponies to help.” “Ding-a-ling!” A rather angry voice boomed from behind him. He turned around, his smile dropping when he saw a disgruntled Celestia marching towards him. The strange pony gulped as he stopped in his tracks. “Princess Celestia…what an honour,” he said nervously. “Ding-a-ling…” The princess frowned. “You have some explaining to do!” “Heh…” “I just came back from talking to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and they said you turned them into a teacup and a tankard glass?! Is this true?” Ding-a-ling was sweating beads. With no other option in sight he turned tail and ran for it. Celestia went running after him as well. “Don’t think that you can outrun me! You and I are going to have a little talk, mister!” “I didn’t have a choice!” Ding-a-ling shouted. “It’s not my fault that they walked in on the transformation! I panicked and just did the first thing that popped into my head!” “We’ve been through this before, you can’t just change ponies into things without consulting me first! That was our agreement, you bell headed fool. If it weren’t for your invaluable magic I would have had you contained centuries ago!” The two ran off out of town and into the wide open plains of Equestria. Eventually Celestia would catch him, and punish him accordingly, and he wouldn’t actually learn anything and probably do it again. But as long as he didn’t do anything too evil, and continued to show positive outcomes with his magic he would be allowed to wander free into the world, finding ponies with problems, and helping them all with his special brand of magic. Even as he ran for his life from the princess he couldn’t help but smile as he wondered... “Now who shall I help next?” THE END