Spike's past is revealed in this chapter. Trust me, I hated myself writing it.
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The group followed Spike into the battlecruiser, their hoof steps echoing from the metal floor and down the long hallway. Twilight Sparkle's mind raced with many unanswered questions. What did Spike go through? How did he grow? How did he survive whatever injuries gave him those terrible scars? But two questions caused her to worry the most.
Did he find his....family? Did he still need her?
As if sensing this, Pinkie Pie of all ponies asked "Hey Spike, did you find your parents? Cause if you did, I want to throw a super-amazing 'Family Reunion' party!"
Spike paused and his shoulders shook slightly. He answered with a trembling voice. "Y-yes, I did. I'll.....introduce you to them after the meeting with the Grand Councilor."
None of the other ponies really thought of his answer, but Rarity-who had an eye for the tiniest details-noticed something. Something that raised more questions than answers.
'If he found his family.....then why is he crying?' She thought.
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After walking nearly an hour down the blue, metal hallway, they reached a silver metal door with blue highlights. Spike approached the door and it split into three before sliding into the wall, revealing a massive room with a holographic globe in he middle of it. Dragons in various armors, some as tall as Princess Celestia and some as small as Spike had been stood around it, pointing out various locations.
A black Earth Dragon with a green underbelly the same color as Spike's underbelly stood in bright silver armor, a huge fin on an ornate helmet revealed that he had a high rank, not to mention the two white earth dragons in red armor with glowing yellow circular designs sticking out of their helmets and shoulder pads. The two guards also carried a large non-combat ceremonial spears with the same yellow color on its large point and a flame sword holster on their legs. There were dragons in white, black, blue, red, silver, and gold armor scattered across the room with various weapons on their armor.
"Ah, Spike 'Kusovai. I see you have returned, and judging by the six ponies with you, that you have successfully met with their leaders. What is the message?" The black dragon said, his emerald green eyes peering at the group from behind the glass that covered them.
"Grand Councilor" Spike began, "The Princess of the day-Princess Celestia, and the Princess of the night-Princess Luna, have both agreed to meet with us as soon as possible."
The dragon's head shot up suddenly and he let out a loud, cheerful laugh. "Finally! After nearly a thousand years we have a purpose again!" At this declaration all of the dragons around them let out a loud cheer. "You have actually succeeded at a mission generations before you failed at. Not only that, we have received from our scouts that you single handedly fought your way through an enemy-infested city to complete it. It seems your skills are wasted as a mere Major." After he said this, the dragon said something in Sangheili, to which two dragons in gold armor ran and returned with new pieces of armor as Spike peeled off the jet-pack, helmet, and shoulder pads .
"Thank you, Councilor." Spike said, bowing his head as his new helmet was lowered onto him. It was white-like his old one, with a blue visor over his eyes and "L" shaped cheek guards. A grey circular pattern was on the front, where it branched out to two wide fins, a long portion sticking out behind his head with his head spikes protruding from between them, and two square-shaped fins with maroon designs on it stuck out on each side. His new shoulder guards had a similar design, except smaller. His jet-pack, a large-square shaped portion attacked to his armor with a large hole in the back for short bursts of flight was taken off and replaced with one that had more rounded edges. When Spike went to activate it, the sides expanded and the flames came out of the sides.
"Spike 'Kusovai-sword specialist-has now been promoted to the Rank Ultra!" The Grand Councilor shouted. The dragons let out a loud cheer for their fellow dragon. Spike wrote a quick letter and sent it off with a breath of his green fire.
"Grand Councilor, the message will soon reach Princess Celestia. We must take the time to prepare and set up the Spirit Dropship to carry us to the castle within the day. As for me, I have a promise to keep to these six ponies, the bearers of the 'Elements of Harmony' themselves. I-I'll see you there....grandpa." Spike said, turning and heading out the doorway after bowing to the Grand Councilor.
Right as they walked through the doorway, the six mares turned to Spike and yelled "GRANDPA?!"
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"The Grand Councilor was R'tas 'Kusovai, who was the father of my father." Spike explained, as he led the ponies down the weaving hallways.
"Spike, you're telling us that your Grandfather of all dragons is the LEADER of the Earth Dragons?! That is so....Awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Spike and the others chuckled slightly at her excitement.
"That may be so, but he made sure my training during my stay here was Tartarus on Equestria to ensure my survival. Even making me spar with those Honor Guards you saw guarding him as a mere Minor-the lowest rank there is in our society." Spike explained, subconsciously rubbing the chest of his armor.
He stopped in front of another door and his head lowered as he stared at the floor- floor that kept reminding him of Rarity's eyes. He'd have to tell her the truth soon. He sat down and couldn't bring himself to look into Rarity's eyes.
"I have a confession to make to you Rarity. During my stay here I learned something on Earth Dragon behavior that I had not known about. When an Earth Dragon gives up a special personal item of theirs to a member of the opposite gender, it is...um....a....marriage...proposal." Spike stood up and lowered his head as he turned away after saying this.
"The Fire Ruby...." Rarity said, bringing a hoof up to her cheeks.
"I had no idea. I apologize if this shames you. I am not worthy." Spike said, refusing to face her. Seeing his reaction, she frowned. This reminded her of scenes from some of her romance novels. Still, two words echoed across her thoughts.
'Rarity 'Kusovai.'
For some reason, this didn't revolt of humiliate her in the slightest. "Don't worry about it dear. We'll just take this one step at a time. We don't know what the future holds." She said, causing him to turn around in shock. Shaking his head, he frowned and faced the door.
"I promised to introduce you to my parents. I've delayed it long enough." With that, Spike opened the door and the ponies gasped.
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Inside the room was thousand of metal coffins. Fluttershy cried openly as Applejack took off her stetson in respect. Twilight stood frozen on the spot. 'His parents are dead.' Spike walked over to two coffins near the center of the room and rubbed a hand on them.
"They died ambushed by a dragon trying to complete the mission I fulfilled.They died protecting my egg, which Celestia found after the battle. Scouts recovered the bodies afterwards and they were given a funeral befitting a warrior." Spike said, keeping an eye on the names on the coffins.
Thel 'Kusovai.
Sapphire 'Kusovai.
Twilight and the others went over and talked to the coffins, thanking Spike's parents for protecting him before he hatched and talking about their friendship with their son (or in Rarity's case, unknowing proposal) as Spike stood guard with a solemn look on is face.
"We should go. The Spirit Drop-ship should be ready for us." Spike said. The ponies followed him silently.
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"It hurt, knowing my parents died." Spike said, walking past a room with a giant reactor that shone with whitish-blue light, which powered the ship. "But...I wouldn't change a thing. i know they died in the ultimate act of love a parent could do-giving up their lives so their child may live. If it wasn't for them, I may not have met any of you. So...yes. I would not change a thing."
"Spike..." Rarity said, "that is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard! I...even I don't know if I could face the world the way you can."
When they entered the next room, they could obviously tell it was the hangar. There was a hole in each side and various machines in places. There were two ships shaped like tuning forks, four purple tank-like vehicles, ten bulbous aircraft hanging from the ceilings, six dark pink vehicles that had two seats and a turret in the back, and twelve one- person vehicles that were dark-purple. Spike walked up to one of the tuning–fork shaped vehicles and started narrating. "This is a Spirit Drop-ship. It can carry 15 passengers on each side and had one driver. It can also carry two light vehicles or one heavy vehicle."
Afterwards, he pointed at the ones hanging off the ceiling. "Those are our one-person combat aircraft that had been nicknamed Banshees. Its armament is two repeating plasma lasers and one heavy plasma cannon." Afterwards, he walked up to the purple tanks.
"These are Wraith tanks. They had one turret operator and one driver that also operated the main gun."
"Your ancestors sure had a thing for shades of purple" Rarity noted, flipping her mane and smiling when she saw Spike's eyes locked onto it. 'Something that you have also inherited-it seems' she thought.
"Actually, the color signified the allegiance with a group of aliens known as The Covenant. Although our ancestors couldn't send outgoing messages, they could listen in to how the war-and don't get me talking about it, as I don't know a lot about it-was progressing. All I know is that they didn't have any paint available to change the color scheme of the vehicles after the Covenant betrayed the Sangheili." He explained.
At this, Spike shook his head and moved onto the pink vehicle. "This is a Revenant. It had one passenger, and a driver that also operated its plasma mortar. When not in use, the mortar of the Revenant and Wraith recede into the structure of the vehicle to prevent any tampering with it." Twilight looked up from her note-taking when she heard that.
"That's actually a pretty smart move. Prevent any possible spies from sabotaging the machinery." She noted. At last Spike sat down in the one-person vehicle and pressed some buttons on it, causing it to roar to life and over of the ground with a blue glow underneath it.
"Finally, this is a Ghost. A one person ground vehicle. It has a boost function, as does the Wraith, but this only has repeating plasma lasers. However, this vehicle is a lot faster. But not as fast as you-Rainbow Dash." He quickly added the last statement seeing Rainbow Dash opening her mouth-presumably to try and challenge him to a race using a Ghost.
The ponies saw the Grand Councilor and twenty-four dragons, which meant that there would be just enough space for Spike and the six ponies if what he said about 15 passengers on each side and one driver was true for the Spirit Drop-ship. The Grand Councilor had his two honor guards, six dragons in white armor (excluding Spike), ten dragons in gold armor, four dragons in red armor, and finally two in red armor.
One of the dragons in the white armor climbed into the cockpit at the back of the ship were the two "forks of the tuning fork" met the main body. He was obviously going to be the pilot. The sides of the Spirit Drop-ship opened, revealing harnesses on the inside of the extending sections-fifteen on each side. Spike helped each pony onto the Spirit and-in embarrassment to everypony-had to help harness them in with them standing on their hind legs with their backs against the wall. Spike climbed in next to Rarity after harnessing her in and harnessed himself, closing his eyes in anticipation. The Grand Councilor was next to Twilight Sparkle at the end opposite of Spike-farther away from the cockpit.
Once every dragon was inside, the sides to the Spirit Drop-ship shut once again. "When we are close to the destination, the harnesses will detach themselves-an innovation made so that the passengers could jump into battle quicker." Spike explained.
With a jolt, the passengers felt a pit drop in their stomach as the ship rose into the air, and with a shout of excitement from Pinkie Pie, it flew out of the Battlecruiser and into the distance.