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// 3: Carousel Boutique 
// Story: What Bound Them 
// by Headless 
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Pith Helmet and Tailspin followed the dragon upstairs, leaving Compass Rose to her work at the dining room table.

Not exactly what I expected from a dragon the size of a mountain, Pith thought to himself.

Of course, the dragon wasn't that big any more. He was still bigger than Pith, and looked plenty dangerous, but at least he couldn't crush them under one finger if he wanted to any more. And he seemed friendly enough, if a little odd. 

...Okay, more than a little. A dragon who had apparently slept through the growth of the Tangle and talked about ponies and places they had never heard of, and who lived in a decidedly... girly house, surrounded by what looked like pictures of dresses and making tea in floral-patterned china cups. And the whole place still had running water and electricity, for no apparent reason. Magic, presumably.

"So," he said, still watching Spike carefully as he followed the dragon up the staircase, "what is it we're looking for now?"

"Well, you wanted maps." Spike pushed open the door at the top of the stairs and snaked his way through. It was a tight fit - the door had been built for ponies, not dragons - but he managed it. "There are probably a few more in here. You know, showing more than just Ponyville. And the castle might be locked, anyway. Twilight gave me a key for it."

Pith stepped through the door in the dragon's wake, then stopped abruptly, staring. He felt Tailspin push her way up to his side and hiss, "What? What is - oh." Then she lapsed into a fit of giggles that she was quite obviously trying and failing to keep quiet.

It was a bedroom. Frills and lace featured prominently, with a few gems added here and there for accents. Turquoise, violet, and pink were the dominant colors. The lamps had pink shades on them, with lace trimming. And the huge four-poster bed, which was quite obviously made for someone Spike's size with room left over, had a prominent pattern of hearts cut into the wood. 

Spike was standing in front of a large walk-in closet, shuffling through its contents with a look of intense concentration. He was obviously looking for something. He just happened to be looking for something in a closet full of extravagant dresses.

Pith elbowed Tailspin in the side to get her to stop sniggering, then walked into the room, eyeing it critically. Now that the initial shock was over, he was studying the actual state of things. The room looked absolutely pristine, as if it had just been cleaned a few moments ago. 

"This place has a preservation spell on it," he said, slowly. 

Spike didn't look up. "I guess so," he answered. His words were slightly muffled by fabric. "Twilight said she would make sure nothing happened to it while I slept."

Pith felt Tailspin poke him in the side with one hoof. When he turned to look, the pegasus was pointing towards the bedside table. Aside from the pink, frilly lamp, there were two photographs sitting on it in silver frames. He moved in for a closer look.

One of them was much larger than the other. It was a photograph of six mares, all next to each other and smiling for the camera. There was no sign of a purple dragon in it, but Pith had a feeling he knew who was holding the camera.

The other photograph was much smaller, but the frame was more ornate, and it was placed on the edge of the table closest to the bed. There were only two people in this one, and only one was a pony. 

It was a picture of the white-coated unicorn mare. She was wearing an extravagant, jewel-coated white dress, but the most eye-catching part of her outfit was the heart-shaped ruby she wore as a necklace. Even in the still image, it shone brilliantly. And, standing next to her, in a tuxedo that had to have been personally made for him, was Spike. Spike was holding one of the mare's hooves in one hand, and both of them beamed at the camera.

"That's the mare from the statue," Tailspin hissed. "That's the same necklace. Pith, I think she was-"

"My wife," said Spike's voice, from just over their shoulders. 

Tailspin let out a squeak and leapt into the air again. Pith wanted to spin around and face the dragon again, but he made himself turn slowly instead. Some basic instinct in the back of his brain was shouting that sudden moves in the presence of a dragon, even a dragon who slept in a house full of lace, were a bad idea.

Spike was standing behind Pith, looking somber. He was standing on his back legs, now, which brought him up to almost double the stallion's height. He had a small but ornately-carved chest held between his front claws.

"Your wife." It wasn't really a question. Pith just stared.

Spike shrugged. "Yes," he said. He didn't look embarrassed, or in the least bit reluctant to talk about it. Just sad. "It wasn't a... normal thing, but we made it work. And we were happy."

"But she died," said Tailspin. The pegasus had fluttered back down to the floor now, though she was standing in such a way that Pith's bulk was between her and Spike. "The statue said 'In Loving Memory'."

Spike's look of sadness deepened, and he turned away to take a seat on the edge of the bed. "Everypony dies eventually," he said. He kept his gaze fixed on the box in his talons. 

Pith watched as Spike lifted the chest up in front of his scaled snout, pursed his lips, and huffed. A tiny line of green flame wooshed from between his teeth and into a small keyhole. There was a click.

Everypony dies eventually, the earth pony thought. But not you.

He shot Tailspin a wordless look, warning her not to press the issue. She nodded, and the two of them walked forward together to watch as Spike opened the lid of the chest.

It was full of parchment, all of it obviously old, but all of it just as obviously well cared for. There were letters and scrolls, drawings and photographs, all of them carefully arranged so that they wouldn't be inadvertently creased or ripped by movement from the others. The writing on the envelopes said things like Pinkie Pie, Apple Family Reunion and From Scootaloo. 

They watched in silence as Spike pulled them out, one by one, and very carefully stacked them on the bed. Down at the very bottom of the chest, there was another, smaller box. This one was barely as wide as one hoof, and only an inch or two thick. Spike grasped it very carefully between two talons and opened it with a soft creak. 

Inside, there was a small golden key on a chain, resting in velvet. The dragon plucked it up and held it out towards Pith. "If you want to get into the castle, you'll need this," he said. "Keep it safe. The castle's enchanted so only Twilight or someone with one of these keys can open the doors. She used to keep them open all the time," he added, "but something tells me they probably aren't open now."

Pith nodded and lifted one hoof to accept the key. A moment later, it was safe inside one of his saddlebags, and he was turning back to Spike. The dragon was digging through the scrolls from inside the chest now, unrolling each one carefully and inspecting its contents. 

"You still haven't told us who this Twilight is, exactly," he said.

Spike looked up. "Oh." He blinked, then extended a claw towards the photographs on the bedside table again. "She's the unicorn in the group picture. The purple one, not Rarity. Twilight was..." He frowned, apparently unsure how to phrase it. "...She hatched me from an egg. I was her number one assistant." Something about that phrase caused him to break into a wide grin, which exposed a picket fence of razor-sharp teeth. "She was like my big sister, I guess is the best way to put it. And she was a princess."

Tailspin had been inspecting the group photograph again, but she looked up at that. "Princess?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah," he said. "It's kind of hard to explain, now, since you haven't heard of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. But there were alicorns back then. They were the rulers of Equestria."

He stopped, eyeing the two ponies in confusion. Both Pith Helmet and Tailspin had suddenly drawn closer together, and the stallion's formerly blank stare was suddenly sharp and suspicious.

"What?" 

Pith looked him slowly up and down. Something in his expression made it obvious that he was weighing up his chances in a fight. 

"We know what alicorns are," he said slowly.

Spike blinked at him. "I'm guessing," he answered, just as slowly, "that they aren't really nice ponies who use their magic to help everyone."

Pith shook his head, but he was, at least, relaxing a bit. "No," he said flatly. "They aren't." The look he turned towards Spike was more curious than alarmed, now. He was waiting for an explanation.

"Well, they were when I was awake before," Spike said, frowning now. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took care of the... business side of running Equestria, I guess. They made sure everyone was doing okay and that all the pegasi were getting the rain where it needed to be and everything like that."

He saw the slightly confused look that Tailspin shot towards Pith then, but plunged on regardless. "And Twilight took care of making sure we were safe from stuff like the changelings. She had a big library, full of all the old books she could find on every sort of monster or disaster or bad prophecy or whatever might threaten Equestria, and she made sure we were all safe. They weren't bad."

Pith nodded, slowly, then said, "Well, that's not what they are any more."

Spike stared at the two of them, looking bewildered. It was Tailspin who finally answered the unspoken question.

"There's only one of them now," she said quietly, as she stepped out from behind Pith. "And she's scarier than anything else we know about."

Spike frowned at her. "Who?"

Tailspin swallowed. "The Mare in the Moon."





Pith was the first one downstairs again. When he arrived, he found Compass Rose putting her tools back into her saddlebags, looking satisfied. Her map was still open on the table in front of her, covered in new markings and symbols denoting the locations of old landmarks from Spike's. She gave him a tired, but satisfied, smile.

"Well?" she asked. "I'm finished. Everyone else ready to go?"

Tailspin fluttered down the stairs behind Pith, nodding. "He's coming," she said. "He wanted to be alone before we left, though. He went up to the terrace. I think he's saying goodbye."

Pith nodded and strode over to inspect the map. "He's convinced that, if he can find this Twilight pony, she can fix everything."

Compass raised one eyebrow. "'Fix everything'? What's that supposed to mean?"

Pith shrugged. "Get rid of the changelings, for one. Probably the Tangle, too."

Compass snorted. "Yeah. I'm not getting my hopes up on that score just yet. But I do still want to see this castle."

"If nothing else," came Spike's voice from the stairwell, "you'll be able to take some of the books from the old library. They should be helpful." He snaked his way into view and straightened up. Pith blinked.

Around his neck was an ornate golden necklace, set with a ruby cut into the shape of a heart. 

He heard Compass gasp. "That's it," she whispered. 

Spike blinked at her. "That's what?"

"That's the magic I was feeling all the way here!" Compass stood up from the table so quickly that she almost knocked it over. "It's the strongest I've ever felt. What is it?"

Spike looked down at the necklace, looking confused. "This? It's... just a necklace. A present I gave Rarity when I was just a kid. I just wanted to take it with me to remember her. It's not magical."

"Yes, it is!" Compass darted up so close to Spike that the dragon actually reared back, looking slightly intimidated. She stared at her reflection in one of the ruby's facets, looking awed. "It's amazing. I don't know what it is. It's too strong to be pony magic, but it feels so... familiar." She looked up at Spike. "You're sure you don't know what it is?"

Spike looked down at her, and realization dawned. "Twilight," he said.

She blinked. "Who?"

"Twilight," Spike repeated. "She must have put a spell on it to keep it safe, after I went to sleep. That must be why this place is still standing." He lifted one talon to tap against the surface of the ruby, gently. "She was an alicorn," he explained. "So it'd be like unicorn magic, but, uh, not quite, I guess."

This time it was Compass' turn to rear up and back away. "Alicorn?"

Spike sighed and gave the other two a sheepish grin. "Yeah," he said. "Alicorn. I already explained this to the other two. Where I come from, they aren't bad. They were good, actually. The biggest good. They raised the sun and the moon, even."

He was aware of a telling silence. Then Pith said, "What do you mean, raise the sun?"





And now Spike was clawing his way upward through the plunder vines, panting heavily. He could hear Tailspin shouting for him to come back, down below, but he didn't answer her. He needed to see this for himself.

He felt the thorns scrape against his scales, felt one of the vines twist slightly and try to seize one of his legs. He shook himself free and forced his way upward again and again, fighting for just one clear view of the sky.

Finally, he broke through the Tangle's top layer and hung there, claws sunk into the vines next to him for grip, tail thrashing from side to side as the panic that filled him threatened to boil over.

The sky was full of dark clouds. He recognized them. They were black and oily, with bluish thorns poking through at odd angles. They pulsed at odd intervals, expanding and contracting, almost like a beating heart. But he wasn't looking at them, really. He was staring past them, up at the wrongness beyond.

Above, the world was suffused with an eerie half-light. The sky was a deep pink, so deep that it edged into purple, like a brilliant sunset. A few stars were visible here and there, twinkling weakly. 

And, hanging in the center like two watching eyes, both the sun and the moon hung over Equestria.