With the dresses safely delivered, Rarity and Spike were well on their way to Canterlot by the time the clocks struck nine. Spike had written a short letter to the princess asking for an audience and explaining the nature of their inquiry, and Celestia had responded that she would gladly see the two of them regarding Spike's origins.
The dragon could hardly sit still, and fidgeted excitedly, constantly glancing out the window at the approaching city. Rarity watched him with a small smile on her face, thinking that he looked especially adorable when he was excited.
"Thank you again for coming with me, Rarity." Spike's words brought her out of her train of thought, and she looked up to see him looking at her with the biggest grin she could remember seeing on his face.
She smiled warmly. "Don't mention it, darling. It's well worth it to see you so happy."
Spike blushed. "You're the best, Rares."
They were still smiling at each other when the train pulled into the station. As soon as the doors opened, Spike grabbed Rarity's hoof and practically dragged her out of the train.
Rarity squealed, then laughed. "Spike, dearest, do slow down just a touch!"
He chuckled and slowed his pace a little. "Don't suppose you want me to carry you the whole way, huh?"
The unicorn bit her tongue as she remembered the feeling of his powerful arms around her last night. "That would hardly be ladylike, Spike."
Laughing, Spike shook his head. "I know. I was teasing."
Rarity smiled up at him.
When they reached the castle, a guard showed them in to where Princess Celestia was waiting for them, and she rose from her throne to greet them. "Welcome, you two. It's always good to see you."
Spike and Rarity bowed to the princess.
"It seems you've hit a growth spurt, Spike."
"Yes, your Highness."
"You haven't been greedy lately, I hope?"
"Oh, not at all!" Rarity interjected. "He has been as generous as ever!"
Celestia chuckled warmly. "I'm glad to hear that. And now, I believe you have some questions for me?"
Spike nodded. "Twilight says she got me from you when I was an egg."
The princess nodded, encouraging him to continue.
"Well...I would like to know where you got me."
A guard trotted up, holding a large, leatherbound book with a golden figure of a unicorn on the front. Spike recognized it as the book of pony lore that contained the ancient history of Equestria and beyond. The princess took it and opened it, flipping to a page in the second half of the book. Rarity and Spike moved so they could see the page while Celestia narrated.
"As you know, the great dragon migration passes over Equestria once in every generation. This has been happening for thousands of years, even before the founding of Equestria. We ponies have always allowed them to pass through undisturbed, mostly for the simple reason that an angry dragon is not something even I could defend our citizens against."
Spike and Rarity both nodded in agreement; seeing the migration had given them a clear impression of how dangerous a group of dragons could be.
The princess continued. "However, during one migration, something strange happened. A single female dragon passed through Equestria on foot instead of in the air with the other dragons." She turned the page to reveal an illustration of a weary-looking dragon walking through pony towns while the rest of her kind flew overhead.
Spike gasped. The dragon in the illustration was wingless. "No wings..."
Celestia nodded. "Exactly. She was exhausted from keeping up with her tribe, and her burden was only compounded by the fact that she was with child."
Rarity made a small noise of sympathy. "Walking all that way, and pregnant! That poor dragon."
The next page showed Celestia approaching the grounded dragon, who was at this point coiled around a small purple polka-dotted egg.
"She could go no further, and laid her egg here, in Equestria. The other ponies summoned me to ask what they should do, but by the time I arrived, the dragon was already extremely weak."
Spike could see where this story was going. His eyes were already filling with tears. Rarity set a hoof on his shoulders.
"I tried to ask her if there was anything I could do to help, but I cannot communicate with dragons the same way your Fluttershy can. She did not understand me. But it seemed that she knew I wanted to help, because she placed her egg at my hooves. Then--"
Spike made a strangled sob. Celestia closed the book.
"M-my mother gave me...to you?" The tears were falling freely now.
The princess nodded. "But there is more to this tale. Your mother placed you in my possession over three hundred years ago. You remained dormant in your egg the entire time. I had tried to hatch you with my magic, but to no avail. I searched everywhere for an expert on dragons, but there was none to be found. All I could discover was an old legend that said a dragon egg could only be hatched by the loving magic of one who would be worthy to raise him."
"So you gave me to Twilight?"
"Not at first. You must remember, this was hundreds of years before she was born. For a while, I simply tried to keep you healthy and comfortable in your egg until I could find somepony worthy to hatch you. When I founded my school for gifted unicorns, I allowed each student a chance with the egg, to see if any of them were the pony to raise you."
"And Twilight did it," Rarity finished.
Celestia nodded, a maternal smile on her face.
Spike stood still, eyes wide but unseeing, trying to process everything he'd heard. "So is Twilight like my new mom?"
"I believe she can be anything you need her to be, Spike. She is the only pony who has the love and magic inside her to help you grow into the dragon you were meant to be."
The tears didn't stop, no matter how many times he tried to swallow them. Celestia wrapped a wing around him. Suddenly he turned and threw both arms around the princess's neck. "Thank you, your Highness. Thank you for telling me where I come from. I'm so lucky to have a family like Twilight and my friends!"
Rarity wiped a tear out of her own eye, smiling at the two of them. She was so glad she had come to Canterlot with him for this.
Discord didn't sleep after the dream, but he didn't move from his bed, instead sitting vigilantly watching over Fluttershy in her glowing shield. However, as the sun got higher in the sky and the pony didn't stir, Discord began to get nervous. Finally, he snapped the shield away and approached her.
"Fluttershy?" he whispered, gently touching her shoulder. The sleeping pegasus didn't move. "Fluttershy..." he repeated, shaking her a little. Nothing. "Fluttershy!" He picked her up carefully; she hung limp in his arms. He began to panic. He laid his head on her chest to make sure her heart was still beating; it was. He checked to see if she was still breathing. She was, but barely. Then he pulled back one of her closed eyelids, and instantly gasped in horror. Her pupils had dilated so much that they completely dominated her eye. Her entire eyeball was black.
"No, no no nononono! Fluttershy!" In desperation, he shook her again to try and wake her, but she remained unconscious. He gritted his teeth and looked around frantically. He didn't know what to do.
Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. He gathered Fluttershy in his arms and disappeared, teleporting both of them to the throne room of Twilight's castle.
Twilight cried out in surprise when they appeared in front of her, but when she saw Discord's face and the limp pony in his arms, she immediately sprang to her feet. "What happened?!"
"I don't know, I just woke up and she was like this! I can't get her to wake up, and her eyes have turned black, look!" He gently pulled back her eyelid so Twilight could see. The princess gasped.
"I've never seen anything like this!" she said frantically. "It's like her pupils just took over her eyes! And she's practically catatonic, she's barely breathing! I have no idea how to handle this, what are we going to--"
"What do you MEAN you don't know how to fix this?! Isn't that what princesses are for?" Discord clutched Fluttershy's limp body in terror.
Suddenly, Twilight's face lit up. "That's exactly what princesses are for! Come on, we've got to get to Canterlot!"
Discord grabbed her with his tail. "Done!" With one tremendous effort, he teleported them all to the Canterlot throne room. He wobbled a little when they arrived, but stayed on his feet. The trip to Canterlot was much easier than all the way to the Crystal Empire.
Princess Celestia looked up in surprise, along with Rarity and a still-teary Spike.
"Twilight!" Spike cried, and dashed to her to throw his arms around her.
Twilight embraced her dragon, but then hurried past him. "Princess Celestia, it's Fluttershy!"
All of them circled around the pony in Discord's arms. Celestia looked her up and down, listened to her breathing, then pulled back her eyelid and gasped. She whirled and commanded one of the guard to find Princess Luna immediately.
"Do you know what it is, Princess?" Twilight asked.
"I do. And I'm afraid Fluttershy's life may be in grave danger."
Discord's stomach turned to lead. His protection spell hadn't worked.
"I need you to gather the rest of your Ponyville friends as quickly as possible."
Twilight nodded and spread her wings, flying as fast as she could back to Ponyville. Spike noticed Rarity wobbling on her hooves and dashed to her side just in time to catch her as she swooned. Celestia looked worriedly at Discord, who was paralyzed with fear.
"Hold onto her, Discord. A warm embrace is the best thing we can do for her at the moment."
Discord looked up at the princess, then pulled Fluttershy to him as tightly as he dared, burying his face in her mane. How could he have allowed this to happen? This was all his fault. Now he might lose his Fluttershy, all because he hadn't been strong enough to protect her.
In a flurry of wings, Luna dashed into the throne room, and straight to Discord. He lifted his head and held Fluttershy so that Luna could look her over. When she looked at her eyes, a grim frown covered her face.
"The nightshade..." she whispered.
Celestia hung her head.
Discord pulled Fluttershy closer. "What? What's the nightshade? What is it? How can we save her?"
The Princess of the Night closed her eyes and sat down, and took a breath. "The nightshade is a deadly magic. It allows a pony to enter the realm of dreams, permanently. However, it can only access this dream realm by entering it through the dreams of another pony."
Everypony looked at Fluttershy. Discord felt a spark of anger. "Alberich. He's using her as a vessel to access the land of dreams!"
Luna nodded. "In order for the spell to take full effect, the dreamer cannot awaken, or the connection to the dream world will be lost, and the dream traveler will cease to exist in either the dream world or the real world."
"Does that mean Fluttershy is never gonna wake up?" Spike asked.
"She will sleep until she dies."
"No!" Discord cried. "There has to be a way to wake her!"
"There is a way, but it will require the understanding of all of her friends to execute."
"When they arrive, we can proceed," Celestia said gravely.
Discord whimpered, looking down at the mare in his arms. "Not my Fluttershy..."
It took mere minutes for Twilight to round up the rest of the gang, along with Cheese Sandwich, who insisted on coming too. Pinkie Pie hadn't had a chance to talk to him about leaving Ponyville yet, and he was so concerned with how frightened Pinkie looked at the thought that Fluttershy was in trouble, that he wanted to be with her.
They took a hot air balloon instead of the train; it was faster when Rainbow Dash pulled it through the sky than traveling by ground. They arrived at the castle in less than an hour, and all rushed into the throne room, where the princesses had placed Fluttershy on a plush chaise lounge. Discord alternated between pacing nervously and hovering over her in concern.
When Luna had explained the situation to the ponies, they were all frantic to find a way to save her.
"Isn't there anythin' we can do?" Applejack asked.
"There is one thing." Luna looked down at all of them seriously. "Somepony must enter the dream realm and bring her back."
The ponies all looked at each other. "And how are we supposed to do that?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Celestia brought forward a vial of a sinister-looking black liquid. "This potion will send the drinker to the dream realm."
"Then let's go! Time's a-waistin'!" Rainbow Dash flew forward and reached for the potion.
The princess pulled it out of her grasp. "There is one problem. Fluttershy must have a portal to return through. Whoever drinks this potion may be forced to remain in the dream realm forever."
"WHAT?" chorused seven voices at once.
"So one of us may end up sacrificing our lives to bring Fluttershy back?" Twilight asked.
Luna and Celestia nodded.
Everypony was silent for a moment. Then, Discord spoke.
"I'll go."