//------------------------------//
// Maybe 
// Story: Of Purple Dragons, Great and Small 
// by Mannulus 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7

Maybe



The alicorn and the pegasus stood beside a great cairn of stones in the center of the coliseum.  Celestia had gathered them from the damaged section of the old structure with her magic, and had raised them over Lockinkey's body in a conical pile.  Eventually, the desert sand would pour back into this place, of course, and Lockinkey's grave would be hidden, just as the sleeping dragon had been.  Derpy Hooves did not know how to feel about that.  It did not seem appropriate to her to bury him in the place from which he had sought Celestia's release, but he had said himself that he was unsure how to return to the world outside when it had changed so much since first he had taken this post.
In truth, there was no place else for him.
"You do understand that you can never tell Spike or Twilight Sparkle about this, don't you?" asked Celestia.
Derpy sniffled and wiped at her nose.  The sun was gone from the sky, now, though Derpy did not recall when, exactly, Celestia had lowered it.  The desert night was colder than Derpy had expected, but it was tolerable.
"You do understand?" Celestia said, repeating herself, which caused Derpy to realize that she had not answered.
She still said nothing, but she nodded, and that seemed to satisfy the big, white mare.
"Are you ever gonna tell them?" Derpy asked suddenly.  The question had been on her mind for some time, and she could no longer restrain it.
"Absolutely not," said Celestia. "If they do not know of this, it is a burden they do not have to carry."
"What about me?" asked Derpy. "I still have to carry it."
"You seem accustomed to carrying burdens," said Celestia. "I'm sure you will bear up under it well enough."
"And what about you?" the pegasus asked, looking up at Celestia.
"It may sound strange," said the alicorn, "but to me, this marks the laying down of one of my burdens, but only with the knowledge that I will find a new one to carry in its place soon enough."
"I guess you're pretty used to it, too, huh?  Carrying burdens?"
"More or less," said Celestia.
"What would you do if I did tell Spike or Twi... Princess Twilight?" she asked.
Celestia said nothing for a moment, then sighed.
"Nothing," she finally said. "There's really nothing I could do in good conscious against somepony who had merely told a truth that they genuinely believed needed to be told."  She sighed. "But does it, Derpy Hooves?" she asked, turning her eyes away from the pile of stones, and into those of the pegasus.  "Does this truth really need to be told?"
"Well, what if Spike..."
"Turns out like his... Like Xindy?" asked Celestia, and then she corrected herself: "Xindathrana?"
"Yeah," said Derpy. "I mean, she made him to be something as bad as what she was, didn't she?"
"Worse," said Celestia; "She intended for him to be much, much worse, and believe me, Derpy, I have considered the possibility."
"Well, doesn't Twilight deserve to know?"
"Twilight would love him anyway," said Celestia, "even if his becoming an engine of destruction were an inevitable certainty.  She would fight it.  She would research nothing else and think about nothing else.  She would lose years' worth of sleep looking for a way to stop it, and she might not even succeed."
"And Spike?" asked Derpy. "Wouldn't it be better if he knew?"
"How?" asked Celestia.  "He would only be afraid.  All the time, for the rest of the happy days he could have known, he would be afraid -- all the time... all of it."
"I guess you don't really ever know if a kid's gonna turn out good or bad, do you?" asked Derpy.
"You can give them the full sum of yourself as you are," said Celestia, looking towards the place where the huge dragon had fallen, "but no."
"Well, what about mine?" asked Derpy.
"She seems alright for the time being," said Celestia, and for the first time since Derpy had first seen her that day, she smiled.
"Could you keep an eye on her for me?" asked Derpy. "I mean her especially?  I know you look out for all your students, but she's..."
"A little bit crazy?" asked Celestia.
"Oh, so you have been watching her?" asked Derpy.
"When I've been able," said Celestia.
"Thanks," said Derpy.
The two sat in silence for a few moments, both their eyes turned to Lockinkey's grave.  Finally, Celestia broke the silence.
"Well," she said, "You have to fly home, my little pony.  Everypony thinks I'm in bed with a fever.  If I just teleport you back to Canterlot, you may be seen coming out of my chamber.  It will raise eyebrows that I will then have to lie, finagle, and bribe back down."
She drew a deep breath, and cleared her throat.
"I do not want to risk Equestria ever knowing about this.  They will make it a story of how I saved them from Xindathrana, the Hope Murderer.  They will write ballads and books and call me again their heroine and beloved savior.  I do not want those things to come of this.  For once, insomuch as I can, I want to be... permitted... to forget."
"I understand," said Derpy, and then she quietly added an, "I guess."
"Go home, Derpy Hooves, and hug your daughter," said the alicorn. "I would fly with you as far as I could, but I am not leaving this place quite yet."
"Huh?" Derpy grunted. "Why not?"
"I have more stones to gather," said Celestia; "large ones, and many of them."
Having said this, she turned and leapt into the air, headed in the direction where the dragon had fallen.

Derpy arrived back in Ponyville mid-morning.  As such strange days tended to do, her weird adventure had left her exhausted in body, mind, and heart.  She bumbled towards her apartment and her bed, resolved that she would be taking Tuesday off, with or without Boxxy's permission.  She didn't even care if he fired her.
"Better than working a hundred years at a job I don't even like," she mumbled to herself. "What did I even wanna do when I was little?"
She thought for a moment.
I guess I wanted to be a dancer, she thought.  Too late for that, I guess, but whatever.  Right now, I just wanna go home, and see my...
"Family," she said aloud, surprised that it had been the word she had chosen.  She could have said "daughter." She could have said "boyfriend," but "family" had been the word her mind had chosen.
"Weird," she said, hanging her head as she trudged forward, "but I'll take it."
Her ears caught the sound of somepony calling her name.
"Miss Hooves!"
She stopped, and lifted her head.  To her surprise, a tiny, orange pegasus on a blue scooter ground to a stop dead in front of her.
"Hi, Scootaloo," said the gray mare, doing her best to smile, in spite of her all-encompassing weariness. "What's up?"
"Oh, I just wanted to know if they ever got that weird, old music box to wherever it was supposed to go."
Derpy pressed her eyelids together as tightly as she could, and gave her head a quick, sharp shake.
"You wanna know what?" she asked.
"Well, I found it in this old trunk of my dad's, and there was this note with it that said it needed to be fixed and gotten back to the address on the box.  It looked really important, and it had lots of little jewels on it.  So I took it to Rarity.  She said she'd take care of it.  Did she ever bring it by the EPS or anything?"
"Uh..." was all that Derpy got out for a moment.
She turned her eyes down to the little pegasus, and stared for a moment.  The resemblance to Lockinkey was undeniable, but Scootaloo seemed uncomfortable at being so closely scrutinized, which spurred Derpy to speak.
"Yeah!" she said suddenly. "I'm sorry, Scootaloo.  I'm a little tired.  But yeah, she brought it by."
"Did it get delivered?" asked Scootaloo, an edge of urgency in her voice. "I just got this feeling like it was really, really, really important, for some reason."
"It got where it needed to go, Scootaloo," said Derpy. "I promise.  They were... really glad to get it back."
"Okay, thanks," said the filly. "I feel way better about that, now."
The orange filly put a hoof to the ground, meaning to give herself a push forward, but Derpy spoke before she could get moving.
"Hey, Scootaloo."
She looked up at Derpy.
"Yeah?"
"What do you wanna be when you grow up?"
"I dunno," shrugged the filly. "I don't even have my cutie mark yet."
Derpy realized suddenly that Lockinkey's cutie mark had been covered by his armor.  She had never even seen it, and now she never would.
"Well," said Derpy, "when you figure it out, you go do exactly what you wanna do for at least a hundred years, okay?"
"That's a long time," said Scootaloo.
"Yeah, it is," said Derpy.
"Well," said Scootaloo, "I gotta go find Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.  We were gonna try a dance class, and it starts today."
"Really, now?" said Derpy. "I think you'll do well at that."
"Thanks!" said Scootaloo, and off she went, buzzing all the way.
Derpy turned and continued walking towards home.
"So, that's it, huh?" she asked nopony in particular, as she crossed the bridge that led into the park. "I'm glad all this is over.  I don't think I could stand..."
A peculiar sight cut her off in mid-thought.  Princess Twilight and Spike the dragon lay together under the shade of an oak tree on a low, grassy hill, the former lying on her belly, legs folded and reading a book, the latter lying across her back, asleep.
Derpy stopped near the pair, and just as she had with Scootaloo, she stared at them without even realizing what she was doing.
"Oh, hi," said Twilight, noticing her standing there.
The sudden acknowledgment of her presence caused Derpy to shake off the haze of sleepiness that had settled over her.
"Hi, Princess," said the pegasus.
"'Twilight' is still good enough, Derpy," said the alicorn.
Derpy just gave a faint, sideways nod, and then turned her eyes towards the dragon.
So tiny, she thought.
"Spike looks... uh..."
"Adorable?" asked Twilight, and she jostled the dragon slightly with her wings, causing him to scratch at his belly, and change his position slightly.
"I was gonna say tired," said the pegasus, "but yeah; pretty adorable.  You studying today?"
"No," said Twilight. "Just rereading an old novel I found under my bed this morning.  Should be done with it by lunch, and maybe this guy'll finally decide he wants to wake up and do something by then."
"So, you've got plans for the day, then?" asked Derpy.
"Not really," said Twilight. "I just got so sick of being busy all the time that I decided the two of us should just take a day off.  Spike got really excited about it, but look at him, now."
"Did he get enough... sleep, last night?" asked Derpy, the thought of a sleeping dragon giving her a moment's pause.
"Plenty," said Twilight, "but Scootaloo was here earlier, and Spike played with her for awhile."
"Oh really?" asked Derpy, "Just like a normal kid, huh?"
"Yeah, I didn't believe it, either," said Twilight, and she laughed faintly to herself. "I think she wore him out."
Derpy wondered for a moment at all the implications of that; of what it could mean that those two individuals, given their ancestry, could play together as normal children in a park.  She wondered for a moment how that would change if they had any inkling of what she knew to be true.  Then, she wondered if it would change, at all.
She hoped not.
"Well, I hope they had fun," was all that Derpy Hooves could find it in her to say.
"I think they did," said Twilight. "Scootaloo's a pretty energetic little filly.  As soon as she left, he came over here and did this."
The alicorn gestured at the dragon sprawled across her own body, and Derpy felt somehow comforted by the image -- as if it was really possible that Twilight Sparkle had unknowingly found a way to render all of the darkness that had been poured into him null and void.
"Maybe that's all he really wants to do," said Derpy.
"Sure looks like it," said Twilight.
"That's kinda what I wanna do right now, myself," said the pegasus.
"Well, it's Saturday," said Twilight. "Go get at it."
"I think I will," said Derpy. "You two have a great day."
Maybe all he really needed was a good mom, she thought, and she shifted her weight to turn towards home once more.
But what if that's not enough? came another thought, and she stopped.
"Twilight," she said, hesitantly.
"Yes?" responded the alicorn, raising her eyes once more from her book.
Derpy stared for a few moments more at the dragon sprawled across the Princess' back in peaceful slumber, and then waved a hoof dismissively.
"It's nothing, really," she said, shaking her head gently. "I'll tell you later, maybe."
Derpy said no more as Twilight Sparkle turned her eyes once again to the pages of her book.  She only turned and strode toward Tack Street, her apartment, her shower, her bed, and most importantly, her family.
"Maybe," she mumbled to herself.


finem