Saturday, August 23rd, Sugarcube Corner, 5:45 p.m.
When Spike arrived at Sugarcube Corner, he was greeted by the sight of some last-minute preparations.
"Where should I put the muffins, Pinkie?" Mr. Cake asked, balancing a rather huge tray of the baked goods.
"The second side table. And try to put them behind the other things on that table." Pinkie Pie grinned. "Derpy shouldn't have it too easy. Now, where did I put that confetti cannon?"
"Confetti cannon?" Mr. Cake looked around the room, then stepped to the door opposite Spike and cast a look into the garden outside. "Don't you think there are enough decorations here already?" The baker certainly had a point - Pinkie had outdone herself, with glitter, streamers, banners depicting the Elements of Harmony and Unity, and a large wooden plank painted with the words Grand Victory Party.
"No, no, no. The words 'enough' and 'decorations' don't go in the same sentence, Mr. Cake!" Pinkie paused. "Though I just did use them in the same sentence, so that can't be right."
Spike cleared his throat. "Um, Pinkie?"
She whirled around in place like a figure skater, doing a full 360-degree rotation before coming to a stop facing Spike. "Oh, hi Spike! Sorry, didn't notice you. How long have you been standing there?"
"I only just got here." Spike's eyes fell on the tables holding the food, and his mouth started to water slightly. Pinkie had had two days to prepare for this feast, and it showed. Spike was amazed that the tables were holding up under all the dishes, plates, trays and bowls.
"Do you like it? The girls and I worked at this all day yesterday."
"It looks amazing," Spike said, smiling. "But do you think we can finish it all?"
"Have you seen the crusaders go at it?" Pinkie put on an exaggerated frown. "Trust me, at the rate Apple Bloom goes through cupcakes, we'll be lucky to have anything left by midnight!" Her face returned to the customary smile. "Speaking of which, where is she?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her all day." Spike scratched his neck. "Do you think I did something wrong?"
Pinkie bit her lip. "Sorry, Spike, I can't tell. I promised her not to spoil the surprise."
Spike was very much aware how seriously Pinkie took promises and secrets, so he decided to drop the issue for now. He went to work helping Pinkie and the Cakes with the last details of the party, though his mind was elsewhere.
***
Half an hour later
The mood at the party was rather subdued, at least among the guests of honour, but nopony would have wanted it any other way. While they were celebrating their victory over Doubt, the memories over what the thing had done to them were fresh enough to keep the joy they felt to a minimum.
Spike liked it that way. He was sitting in a corner of the garden, holding a glass of apple juice and just looking at the other guests. Twilight might have called it studying, but he was enjoying this too much for it to feel like work. Had he not been dressed to the nines, in his tuxedo, cane and even white gloves - he had gone without the top hat -, with the crystal necklace holding the Element of Resolve around his neck, this would have felt like a normal Pinkie party.
He scratched his head, still wondering why Pinkie had insisted on formal wear on the invitation, especially as, by the looks of it, that restriction only applied to the Elements and their company.
There was Derpy, going through muffins at a positively alarming rate. Just inside the door, Bon Bon was sampling the sweets, obviously enjoying them very much. The band Pinkie had hired were getting ready for showtime, tuning their instruments one last time and joking with each other. Over near the wall, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were playing pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, the sight of the two in their gala outfits going at a party game involving blindfolds making Spike grin.
And over near the hedge, there were Fancy Pants and Rarity, deep in conversation, looking so radiant with joy that the brief pang of jealousy Spike felt simply dissipated. He could bear Fancy no ill will, not after what had happened. He managed to get through to me and to Twilight when everything seemed lost. We could not have done this without him.
He saw Rarity turn her head and meet his gaze, and for one brief moment, she held his heart again - but that moment passed, and he was finally able to see her for who and what she was, rather than what he'd dreamt her to be. She was beautiful, generous and lovable, and she was his friend. She would always hold a place in his heart, but not the special place she'd once occupied. That place belonged to somepony else now.
Rarity seemed to understand what he was thinking, and she smiled.
The sound of hoofsteps close by made him turn his head. Applejack had just arrived at the garden gate, looking stunning in her gala dress, if a bit uncomfortable at having to wear 'high-falutin' fancy stuff', as she might have put it. Trailing behind her in brand-new dresses were Scootaloo, looking distinctly irritated at having to wear anything that was not a protective helmet, and Sweetie Belle, obviously overjoyed at the gorgeous white-and-purple affair her sister must have slaved over for quite a few hours by the looks of it.
The three entered, then Applejack turned around and beckoned to somepony Spike couldn't see. Another filly turned the corner and stepped through the gate, and when he recognized her, the dragon's jaw dropped.
He had seen her in clothes before, to be sure - that lovely dress she'd worn as a flower girl back at the wedding for one. Usually, though, he was used to her wearing the red bow and nothing else. That bow was still there, but she was robed in a simple yet elegant dress in the exact same shade of orange as her eyes, adorned with little green gemstones. Her mane was styled in a way very similar to Rarity's, and the element necklace was set off with a thin line of blue diamonds.
She stepped over to him and hugged him. "Hi, Spike."
The words pulled him back to reality. "Uh, hi Apple Bloom." He cast around for something, anything, to say. "You look nice."
By the look in her eyes, that hadn't been what she hoped to hear. "Nice?"
"Um..." Focus, dammit! Focus! He thought of the stories he'd read. "Nopony here tonight holds a candle to you, my lady."
That was obviously a lot better. "Heh. Thanks. I wanted to surprise you. Did it work?"
"Hoo boy, did it ever!" Did I just say that out loud?
She looked relieved. "Good. I spent five hours in front of that mirror, getting poked with needles." Her eyes wandered over to Rarity, and something like anger flickered up in them. "She's lucky it worked." Then she turned back to Spike, and all traces of bad feelings vanished. "Wanna get some cupcakes?"
Spike leapt to his feet. "Do I? Last one at the table is a rotten egg!"
***
Rarity watched Spike and Apple Bloom race inside to get something to eat and smiled. The two were just too cute for words. "A little young, perhaps."
She only realized she had said that out loud when Fancy turned to her. "What, those two?" He looked after the dragon and the filly. "From what you told me, they have been through hell and back relying on each other. I agree that they're not as advanced in years as I am, but that experience has forged a bond between them. Even if they don't work out as a couple, they will always remain friends."
Rarity snuggled up to him. "Does your talent tell you that?"
He smiled down at her. "It does, but it wouldn't be necessary. Yes, love at their age is often fleeting, but Spike doesn't strike me as flighty, and neither does Apple Bloom if she's anything like the rest of her family."
"True. He pursued me for two years, and he never let up." Rarity suddenly sounded sad. "I wish I'd had the heart to tell him sooner. This whole ordeal with Doubt might not have happened if it wasn't for me breaking his heart."
"Don't." She looked up at the stern undertone in Fancy's voice. "He was despairing he might not be worthy of love, and you are blaming yourself for what happened, and both of you are wrong. He's found he can be loved, and you need to get rid of the notion that you are somehow responsible for Doubt."
"But I am responsible, Fancy," she said very quietly. "I neglected my friends because I was afraid you'd come between them and me. I caused the very thing I tried so desperately to avoid. If I had told them straight away ..."
"Rarity, I said stop." He pulled her face around gently and looked her straight in the eyes. "We can never know what would have happened if something or other had gone some other way. We make our decisions, and we live with them. Everything turned out well, so stop worrying about what might have been."
She felt the small patch of darkness in her heart, the little doubt that had been there ever since that night by the lake, melt away. Fancy was right. It had happened, and it had turned out for the best.
She heard the band strike up a fast tune. Fancy looked at her and stood. "May I have this dance?"
"Of course, good sir. This and any others you wish to have." She stood up and followed him to the dancefloor.
***
"So what happened, exactly? I only remember everything going dark." Fluttershy sipped her cider, still looking shaken.
"The Elements of Unity repaired the disc," Twilight explained. "Whatever that dark place where Doubt held us was, it's now imprisoned even beyond that." She frowned. "I'm still not sure what that disc was, exactly. My guess would be it was some kind of seal keeping other dark things imprisoned."
Rainbow Dash, who had joined the conversation after her fourth defeat at pin-the-tail, shuddered. "Other dark things? Like, worse than Doubt?"
"Probably." Twilight didn't like the sound of that either. "Remember those other evils that Doubt told us about? Like Fear and Regret? Perhaps they're imprisoned there. Let's hope we never find out."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy in surprise. "The Elements of Harmony and Unity are waiting for anypony who tries to do anything like what Doubt did." The yellow pegasus set her jaw in an uncanny parody of Iron Will. "We're ready to deal with them." At the surprised stares of the other two mares, Fluttershy shrank back a little. "Um ... if they do really bad things, that is."
Rainbow Dash laughed. "We will show them if they ever dare try anything, right Twi?"
Twilight just nodded and smiled. It had been a close call, but they had come through yet again, and their friendship would be stronger for it.
***
Two hours later
"Fillies and gentlecolts, a round of applause for our special guests, please!" Pinkie shouted from the stage.
She leapt down and hurried to the bakery door, passing Spike and Apple Bloom, who were sitting on a bench holdings hands - or hooves, as it were. Pinkie grinned at the two. "This is going to be great!"
Before either of the two could say anything, Pinkie had vanished into the house. Apple Bloom looked at Spike quizzically. "What is she up to now?"
"No idea." Spike saw a commotion on the stage. "But I think we're about to find out."
The band drew back from the front part of the stage, and six mares stepped forward, dressed in strange flowing garments and headscarves. None of them looked younger than fifty, and some seemed to rival Granny Smith in years. One of them stepped forward and grabbed a microphone. "It's our great pleasure to be here tonight, in honour of the Elements of Unity!" Her Equestrian was good, but had a distinct accent to it, which Spike placed as Stalliongrad. "We ask you to dance now! This song is called "Party for Everypony."
The mares launched into a strange, atonal song, and Spike wondered for a moment how anypony was supposed to dance to this. Then the instruments started up, and he understood, grinning. "Shall we?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Apple Bloom leapt up and ran onto the dancefloor, Spike in tow.
***
Where space and time hold no meaning
It was dark.
Doubt knew it would never see light again. It didn't mind that. The grey light had been the only feature of its prison for five thousand years. Darkness was good.
Then it sensed something. Something very close.
"Hello, brother."
It was no voice, for sound had no meaning here. It was a feeling. Doubt recognized it, and it felt a sudden wave of dread. It had not expected to sense that feeling ever again.
The feeling - the voice - returned. "Have you no words of greeting for your once-favourite sister?"
"Regret," Doubt sent. "What a nice surprise."
"I don't think 'nice' enters into it, my dear brother." The voice held a sudden note of ancient anger and hatred. "You left me to rot here, while you enjoyed your relative freedom in the Spaces Between. But your cunning plan failed, as they always do in the end."
Something seemed to streak past Doubt, and the dread multiplied tenfold.
"And now you're here. Finally, after all this time, I have you where I wanted you. I have dreamt of what I would do to the traitor, the one who got off easy, but I never dared hope I'd see the day I could make those dreams a reality." Regret's voice dripped with anticipation. "Now I'll show you the true meaning of the words 'eternal regret'."
The ancient evil constructed to assault Harmony, the splinter off the Ancient Darkness known as Doubt, began to scream.