//------------------------------//
// 15 
// Story: Tales 
// by geopol 
//------------------------------//


Tales

by

George Pollock, Jr.

XV. The Finish Line: The Distinguished Ladies of Ponyville


The flowers were for Rainbow Dash. I'll tell you about that in a little bit.

After we got them, Spike and I – and the wardracs – went to the Ponyville flying field for a private audience. With Rarity and Fluttershy.

Rarity was gorgeous. You know, she occasionally designed fashions that were over the top. But when she went to meet Spike – excuse me; the First Fire of Pyra – she was elegance itself. Just a simple black outfit, no frills, and her Elements of Harmony necklace. She was class.

She and Fluttershy curtseyed on Spike's arrival, but when he started speaking to Rarity, he held out a hand to her. We were sort of confused about what he was doing, but after a moment, Rarity finally put a hoof in his hand. Spike kissed it gently and said, "Lady Rarity. It's good to see you again." Then he grinned. Rarity's coat is white, and her blushes practically glowed under it.

And let me tell you: If you've never seen a fully grown dragon trying to kiss even the very tippy-toe of a unicorn's hoof in his hand, you haven't lived. But you better not laugh. I know. I almost did.

Then he turned to Fluttershy, but he seemed unsure what to do next. I think the hooded cloak she was wearing had something to do with it. Zecora's cloak, of course. When Spike and I were approaching the flying field, we saw her wearing it and Spike asked me what it was. I told him it was a long story and that I'd tell him later – please just accept it for now.

And then I told him that if he thought Fluttershy was speaking in rhymes, he was right. He asked why. And again, I said it was a long story. I'd tell him later.

Fluttershy shook off the hood, and Spike held out his hand, like he did with Rarity. Fluttershy looked at it meekly. Then she slowly put her hoof in his hand, and he kissed it. She blushed, too, but, hey – seeing Fluttershy blush wasn't unusual.

So Spike said she was looking well – he called her "Lady Fluttershy" – but you could tell he was trying to come up with the right word before he said, "Well." I noticed he had been looking at the cloak up and down before he did.

And Fluttershy said in a near-whisper, "I'm very honored, sir, and I'm glad to see that you're looking well, too, Your Majesty." Like I said before, I started remembering almost everything Fluttershy said after that one visit to her.

Now, I swear you could see Spike's mind working after she said that. And his eyes widened when he finally realized there was a rhyme in what she said. Because there was.

Then he turned to me and gave me a look like he was asking if what he was thinking was right. I just nodded and mouthed, "Later."

So we all caught up on things. To be honest, Rarity dominated the conversation, but I guess it was all right. I think it let her finally acknowledge to Spike she knew what he once felt for her – and that she had been flattered. And he seemed happy for that.

He also was gracious to Fluttershy, asking her about the Everfree Forest, living in Zecora's old house and how she learned animal speak. He seemed fascinated by that. Finally, he lowered his head to her and started … well, growling. The pitch went up and down, and the pacing changed. He was using dragon speak, which sounds a lot like growling. To a pony, anyway. Then he stopped.

If dragons had eyebrows, it seemed like each wardrac had raised one. Slightly. But they didn't react in any other way. Just before I married Rex, he told me that when you're in a royal guard, you ended up seeing so much, you barely got surprised after a while. And you didn't talk about it, anyway – on or off duty.

So I often wondered what he had seen in his career that he didn't share with me. If he wanted to share, he could trust me, I thought. But he was also a disciplined soldier, so he didn't share with me. I respected that.

And I kid you not: After Spike spoke to her, Fluttershy lowered her face, smiled just a tiny, tiny bit – and blushed so brightly, you could have read by it at night. Then she faced Spike again.

And she started growling.

Of course.

And like when Spike spoke, the pitch and pacing changed, and when she stopped, she lowered her head. Then she glanced up at Spike. Like she was deeply, deeply flattered. Or deeply, deeply embarrassed. Or both. I wasn't quite sure. And she kept blushing.

Then Spike grinned and nodded kindly at her, which seemed to be the end of the exchange.

I finally asked Spike what they had said. He just glanced at me, grinned even deeper and said – and he sounded so gentlepony-like – there were some things between a king and a lady that should always stay only between them.

Everypony – and everydragon – didn't say anything for a moment. Fluttershy's blushing finally seemed to be fading, but she blinked once at Spike. And still smiled.

It took me a moment to finally notice that Rarity might have looked a little jealous. Without even knowing what they said. But I could have been wrong.

Later, I realized that Spike never mentioned Zecora's cloak, at least while they were using pony speak. I guessed he learned tact, too. But as a king, he would have had to, I suppose. In fact, he probably learned it faster than I did. Because he would have needed to.

For the record, later that day – while Spike, the wardracs and I were returning to Canterlot – I told Spike what I thought was going on with the cloak. He thought and then said it sounded creepy. And I said, "Yeah. It does."

Just after the audience, all four of us went over to Rainbow Dash's memorial at the other end of the flying field. I guess there really were six, but I stopped counting the hungry-looking shadows that followed Spike.

Ever seen Dash's monument? It's a simple upright granite slab with her name, birth and death dates, an engraved portrait of her – and the insignia of the Wonderbolts. And an inscription says what Celestia had declared: Rainbow Dash of Ponyville died on her first flight as a Wonderbolt. I've always felt strange about that. It wasn't the honest-to-Steed truth, but the technicality still makes me feel better about her death. Even after all these generations.

We placed the flowers we brought at the base of the monument and bowed our heads in silence for a moment. Spike finally looked up at Dash's portrait and said quietly, "She was crazy, you know that?"

I just nodded and said, "She sure was." And Rarity and Fluttershy nodded, too.

Then Spike said, "And she was a great pony."

And Fluttershy said, "Yes. She was." That was it. No rhyme. No mystical message. And I think it was because even though she was wearing Zecora's cloak, it was Fluttershy's heart speaking. Not that I ever thought it had disappeared. It hadn't. I just knew it hadn't. And this time, it spoke for itself.

Spike was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Sure were a lot of interesting times for us back then."

Rarity said, "Indeed, there were."

Me? I froze. "Interesting times." There it was again. But I didn't say anything.

A little bit after that, Spike and I had to return to Canterlot. Spike had an official schedule to keep there that evening. So we exchanged goodbyes, and Rarity and Fluttershy and I hugged before they did final curtseys to Spike. I rode on Spike's back for the flight back. Hey, I'm no pegasus, right? And Spike had flown me out to Ponyville, anyway. He said it wasn't a problem. He was glad to do it.

By the way, when he said that before we left Canterlot, I noticed that the wardracs looked a little, I don't know, offended. Like they thought it was inappropriate for the king of Pyra to be just a "ride" for a little pony like me. And from any grown dragon's perspective, all ponies were kind of small, helpless things. Even warponies.

But you'll remember that War watched two wardracs with me once. And looked like he didn't give a damn what they thought. You can lose someone's mind games only if you play. He wouldn't.

Anyway, I think Spike saw the wardracs' expressions. He looked at them for a moment and then spoke in what I can only call a regal tone. A tone that reminded them who was in charge. Like it was a bad idea to disagree with him. A really bad idea.

But before he spoke, he narrowed his eyes. Just like Celestia would.

And I thought: They're going to regret this. A lot.

So he said, "This is our friend. We choose to do this favor for her. We give favors." Then he leaned closer to them, and he said, "And we sometimes take them away."

The wardracs glanced at each other like they didn't know what to do next. And that doing nothing was probably the best thing they could do. Finally, they just bowed their heads.

And at that, Spike said, "We leave. Now." Then he took off.

A moment later, the wardarcs took off and began to escort us. I noticed they looked kind of, well, ashamed for the entire trip.

At one point, I asked Spike why he used pony speak in the exchange. I said I would have understood if he used dragon speak to keep the matter between dragons alone.

He said, "I wanted to make sure you knew I expect my friends to be treated with courtesy and respect. Helping them isn't beneath me." He paused and then said, "Helping you isn't beneath me ..."

It took me a moment, but I finally said, "Thank you …Your Majesty …"

And did you notice? In the exchange, he was using what's called the "royal 'we' " – "we," "our." I learned it's an ancient way that some monarchs use to indicate they're the symbol of the country and its residents. So it's plural.

And it was the first time I heard Spike use it. During the recent public events then – the receptions, the dinners, the audience with Rarity and Fluttershy – he just used "I," "me," "my," "mine." Like that. The first person.

But with the wardracs – especially given that Spike thought they were out of line – he spoke like he did to remind them they were his subjects. Now, I never heard Celestia use the "royal 'we.' " But I wouldn't be surprised that if you were the monarch of dragons, you probably had to occasionally remind some who was in charge.

While we were flying to Ponyille after that, I kept looking at Spike's head. It didn't have the simple roundness it had when he was a child. Now it had the long, narrow, forward-pointing, mature look of an adult dragon. It had changed. He had changed. Like how his eyes had changed right before he left the Forever Plain.

For the rest of the flight, I tried to remember him as the "baby" Spike I lived with in Ponyville. I couldn't. Try as hard as I could, I couldn't.

And I've never been able to since.