The streets of Ponyville were rather quiet in the middle of the day. There were barely any ponies about and any that were, are either relaxing or working. A figure with purple scales looked around from behind a building, his emerald eyes scanning the area.
“Why can’t we let them see us again?” The mare sitting in a wheelchair said rather coldly.
Chrysalis and Spike had entered the town the night before and stayed at the inn, after convincing the owner to keep the fact he was in town a secret. The night at the inn had been a good change of pace from laying on the ground, a soft bed was needed for both parties. They didn’t even mind the single bed. And now they were skulking around Ponyville trying to keep out of sight.
“I want to surprise Twilight and the girls, so I can’t be seen, by the way is the cover story we came up with still fresh in your head?” Spike looked at Chrysalis and smiled at her.
“Yes I do, my name is Amethyst Silk. I’ve been traveling for some time after living overseas. I bumped into you while traveling and after an incident with thieves I was hurt with a spell that made me unable to walk. I’m gathering my strength to walk again and thus the wheelchair. See? I told you I’ve been doing this for years.” Chrysalis, or rather Silk, played with her teal mane and smiled playfully at Spike.
“Well you know me worried to the point of stupidity, now all we have to do is get to the castle before-“
The sound of something wooden falling on the ground caused Spike to quickly shut up. He began praying it wasn’t who he thought it was.
Please mother, don’t let it be-
“S-Spike? Sugarcube…is that you?” The heavy country accent coming from behind him shot a bunch of memories through his head.
You have forsaken your only son mother! Spike’s mind cried out.
He slowly began to turn and looked at the source of the voice. He didn’t want to see her so soon, but he was undeniably happy she hadn’t changed a bit since he left. The same wide open plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a white shirt underneath with a bit of dirt on it. The same tightly fitting jeans with rips here and there with her blonde tail protruding out the back. Her Stetson still sat on top of her head, spilling out from under her tough but still beautiful blonde mane. Her orange coat bringing out her shining green eyes that now had a trace of tears around them. This brought Spike back to the world.
“Applejack? What’s-,” Before he could finish Applejack had already run into him and tackled him to the ground, her hat floating down beside them as she crying into his shirt. He could only look at her as she cried and repeated his name over and over. He reached up and rubbed her head lightly, she looked up at him and smiled. “I’m home AJ.”
“Welcome home ya silly dragon.”
“It’s mighty nice to meetcha Silk, I’m Applejack, I run Sweet Apple Arce farm with mah family. Thank you for watching over Spike for us and all, ya have no idea how worried we all were gettin.” Applejack, Spike and Silk were all sitting in the Ponyville Park after Applejack had calmed down a bit.
“From what happened earlier that much is clear…but Sir Spike has done nothing but help me. Without asking for so much as a thank you, he helped me through so much, after losing some very important people, I didn’t have the will to go on.” She looked at Spike who was now blushing a bit. “I owe him my life, I honestly do.”
Applejack placed her hands on Silk’s, getting a confused look from the mare. “I am so sorry for your loss, I know how it feels tah lose the ones ya love. You’re welcome to stay in Ponyville as long as you like, and if you need anythin’ don’t be afraid to ask.” She smiled warmly at Silk and blinked when she began to cry.
She had been terrified…unnaturally so. She want Spike to leave her in the inn so she wouldn’t have to face anyone. She was scared what might happen, if Spike couldn’t convince them she had changed, she could be killed. But now…she was so genuinely happy. She had someone, somepony to put an ounce of trust in. “I-I’m s-sorry…I just…thank you…”
A warm feeling rose in her and around her, Silk looked up and noticed Spike and Applejack were hugging her softly. From Spike’s inner furnace, to Applejack’s natural warmth, she felt so safe.
“No need for thanks Sugarcube, that’s what friends are for.” She let go of Silk and looked at Spike with a strong stare.
I saw this coming.
“Why didn’t you let us know you were coming back home!?” Applejack said sternly which caused Spike to recoil a bit. “We’ve been more worried than a momma goose that’s lost her eggs!”
“I was planning to give everyone a big happy surprise, you remember what today is right? I had to rush here to make it in time.” Spike had raised his hands in front of, acting as if AJ were going to hit him.
“Today? Why of course ah do, today is…oh mah gosh…you sneaky critter you.” Applejack smiled playfully at Spike and pulled him into a headlock and rubbed her knuckle into his head. Silk couldn’t help but notice Spike’s face squished up against Applejack’s ‘endowments’ and felt a ting of irritation, she decided to file it away for late though. “Ah outa give RD a stern talkin to, only she coulda put this kinda idea into your head.”
“You can give her a ‘stern talkin to’ later.” Applejack let him go and he rubbed his head a bit, “But since you know I’m here, we might as well gather up the girls now. Go fetch Rainbow and Pinkie, I’ll go see Fluttershy then we can meet up at Rarity’s. Sound good?”
“Dern tootin! I’ll see ya later Spike, nice meetin ya Silk.” With that Applejack ran off towards Rainbow Dash’s regular nap spot.
Spike beamed with happiness and grabbed Silk’s wheelchair, “Well this is going to be an interesting homecoming.”
Silk couldn’t help but smile, “Indeed.”
Spike and Silk came up to a cottage just on the outskirts of Ponyville, Silk looked around and saw lots of what looked like animal homes, “So your friend Fluttershy lives with animals?”
“Yeah its her passion, she loves animals, and while she’s scared of her own shadow, she has the biggest heart I’ve ever seen.” Spike smiled and chuckled a bit to an inside joke. A sudden sound of a door slamming open made him look up, just in time to get a face full of Fluttershy’s impressive breasts.
“SPIKE!” Fluttershy cried aloud and hugged his head and fell to the ground with him. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged Spike desperately, he managed to dig his face out of her chest and looked up at her with a red face and happy smile.
“That’s my name. Its good to see you again Shy. Can I stand up now?” Spike asked as Fluttershy looked down at and blushed furiously. She quickly stood up and folded her wings behind her. Her pink mane was hiding a part of her face, but her tail was moving side to side, her teal blue eyes glistening as she looked at Spike. She wore one of her green turtlenecks and long tan skirt, it was simple, but simple work best for Fluttershy. He smiled brightly and stood up, he dusted himself off and immediately hugged Fluttershy happily, “I missed you too Shy.”
Fluttershy’s wings flapped happily as she hugged him back when she heard a cough, she let go of Spike and turned to face Silk who had a brow raised and a rather unpleased look on her face. Fluttershy meeped bashfully and hid behind Spike in a single movement, she peeked from behind him at Silk and whimpered. Spike chuckled to himself, “See? Scared of everything.”
“I can see that, I can also see what you meant by ‘biggest heart’…” Fluttershy had walked out from behind Spike and Silk looked her up and down, most of her attention was on how beautiful she was, and how close she was with Spike, again filing that down for later.
“Fluttershy this is Amethyst Silk, she became my traveling friend a while ago and I’m taking care of her until her legs are better, she’ll be staying here in Ponyville.” Spike led Fluttershy over to Silk.
Fluttershy smiled at her and Silk’s previous angry envy vanished, the pure kindness coming off Fluttershy was incredible. She decided being mad was unfair and smiled back at her, “Its nice to meet you Fluttershy.” She held out her hand and Fluttershy nervously shook it.
But now it was time for that part of their meeting. The yellow-coated pegasus turned to Spike and pouted lightly, Spike couldn’t help but wonder how she kept getting cuter. “Spike how could you not tell us you were coming home? We’ve all been so worried!” She said as loudly as she could get.
“I was planning on surprising everypony, but I ran into AJ, so now she’s gathering RD, Pinkie and Rarity together, but I want to keep this from Twilight, you do know what today is huh?” Spike smiled and Silk began wondering what was so special about today.
“Today? Oh…oh my…that’s so sweet!” Fluttershy squeaked and began to float a little as her wings flapped happily. “I don’t think there could be anything better!”
“I know, now come on, we’re all meeting up at Rarity’s.” Spike walked over to Silk and pushed the wheelchair back into town. Fluttershy quickly flew back inside her cottage and after a moment flew after them happily, she landed next to Spike and wrapped her arms around one of his. This warranted a tired look from Silk but she understood he had been gone for a very long time. That didn’t mean she had to like it.
“Sky can you find the report on the fruit bat infestation for me? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.” Twilight called out to Blue Sky. He had let her begin working again, he could only get so much done without her signature on some of the more important papers. She was handed a pile of papers and flowed them to the table with her magic, “Thank you, I need to finish this up quick, I have a lot of backlog.”
“You said that yesterday Princess.” Sky sighed and walked out of her study. He made his way down the hallway and to his workroom. But he was stopped by the sound of flapping, he looked up and saw Owlowiscious fly down and landed on a table, Sky quickly walked over to the tired looking owl, “You found him?”
The owl gave a proud but tired hoot and handed him a small letter. Sky opened it up and chuckled to himself.
I’m back in town. Don’t let Twi find out, I’ll give her the biggest shock of her life. I bet she forgot again.
Spike Solaris
“Things are looking up. Get some rest Owlowiscious, you deserve it.” Sky patted the owl on his head and Owlowiscious gave an understanding nod and flew off to Spike’s room. “Maybe this will get her to stop looking so tired.” He stretched his wings and smiled, “And maybe I can head home soon, I wonder if Lulu and Celi miss me.” He chuckled and resumed his walk.
“Whats so important that we have to sit here and wait?” An impatient Rainbow Dash said to Applejack, she was still trying to understand why the farm pony had a big goofy grin on her face. She looked like she had just gotten laid.
“You’ll see shugah, ah promise, what we’re waitin fer will be well worth it!” Applejack was walking back and forth across Rarity’s living room. A noticeable bounce in her step and her tail was wagging like crazy.
“Come on AJ nothing in the world could be worth more than my special cupcake surprise cupcakes!” Pinkie said bouncing in place, she leaned over to Rarity and whispered, “The surprise is that its just a normal cupcake.” Pinkie returned to seated position and continued bouncing.
Rarity toyed with her mane and sighed, “Applejack darling, could you please just tell us what this is-“
“This place is pretty…pretty.” A voice said from outside Rarity’s front door.
“Yeah well Rarity is the ‘pretty’ type, this is sort of her thing.”
“Oh I hope we didn’t keep them waiting.”
The door opened with a click, Rarity’s eyes enlarged as she quickly stood up realizing something, there were two people that had keys to her front doors beside herself, Sweetie Belle…and….
The door opened and a unicorn in a wheelchair and yellow pegasus entered her door, and were followed by a purple and green dragon, who closed and locked the door behind them, he turned and smiled at the awestruck girls and Applejack.
“Hey girls, guess who’s home?” Unbelievably a blue blur came before the expected pink one. Spike fell over for the third time that day with a crying Rainbow Dash in his arms.
“Spike! You numbnuts! You manure-for-brains! You…you…,” She looked up and the smiling Spike and wailed some more, “You’re home!” Rainbow balled into his shirt and Spike sat up, only to see two more mares jumping at him with tears in their eyes.
“Oh boy…”
“It’s ever so wonderful to meet you Silk, its so nice to have you in our lovely town.” Rarity said with a bright smile, she was holding onto Spike’s left arm and sitting next to him on her couch. His right arm taken by Fluttershy, Pinkie was bouncing up and down all over the place. RD was sitting on the smaller couch with Applejack. Silk was pulled up to the larger couch so they could talk.
“Thank you very much, you have a very quaint little place. I hope to make the most of it.” Silk smiled and looked at Spike who was talking to Fluttershy, “Though…from what I heard…Spike told me he was still single…but…”
Rarity gasped loudly, “No, no, no. None of us are in that kind of relationship with Spikey-Wikey.” Spike groaned a bit getting a laugh out of Rainbow Dash.
“But you’re all so…close…” Silk said waving a hand at them.
“You would be too if ya had been with us on some of our adventures.” Applejack spoke up, “Spike’s been a big help in many ways, he’s a sorta support pillar that helps hold us together, matter o fact, if he hadn’t been there when we faced off with those Diamond Dogs, I’d be in a hospital right now.”
Spike blushed and looked at the floor, “I’m not all that great…”
Rainbow Dash laughed, “Not that great? If it weren’t for you, we’d be dead a few times over, but that’s not really the point.” RD looked at Silk, “We’re all kinda like this with each other, its sorta like…an unspoken rule thingy, we all act like ourselves around each other, no showboating and all that jazz.”
“Ya do that all the time.” Applejack cut in.
“Shut it farm girl.” She hissed at Applejack. “But no none of us are with Spike, though I can’t say none of us haven’t been ‘with’ him.” Rainbow flashed a look at Spike that sent him into a blushing fury, along with Fluttershy and Applejack.
“Am I missing…oh that makes a lot of sense actually, but not you three?” Silk eyed Rarity, Pinkie and Rainbow.
“Nah, I’m spoken for, never really been into stallions.” She said flatly and stretched a bit. “Not that I haven’t thought about it. Spike’s a pretty great guy, too bad he doesn’t have a pair of knockers instead of-,”
Rarity had let go of Spike and coughed to bring attention to her, “I have no interest in romance at the moment, and no, I haven’t done anything with Spike, save a kiss or two out of kindness.”
“I’d love to, but I’m kinda engaged, can’t do that kind of stuff and be engaged right?” Pinkie had stopped hopping and was now standing next to Silk.
Silk was rather taken aback by their forwardness. “Honestly I expected you all to outright skip the subject.” Silk said quietly and found herself pulling at her mane.
“What’s the point in hiding it, beside Flutter is dating some pony and Applejack got married three years ago.” Rainbow said matter-of-factly.
“I see…I can sort of understand though, Sir Spike is a very kind, and rather handsome drake.” Silk mulled over her words for a moment.
“Sir Spike?” Rainbow said aloud and blinked.
“Yes what of it? I’ve been calling him that since we met.” Silk stated flatly.
“Oh ‘Sir Spike’ I had no idea you were a knight now. Well you do have the training.” Rainbow snickered as Spike eyed her angrily.
“Zip it lock-wings.” Spike spat out.
“Hey that only happened once when Spitfire asked me out!” Rainbow spat back blushing furiously.
“And when you saw her at you first date, and when she kissed your cheek, and when she winked at you before you parted on the first date, and when-,”
“ARGH! I GET IT!!!” Rainbow shot her arms up in the air and let them fall to her sides, everyone shared a good laugh before Fluttershy looked at Spike.
“So what will we do for today? Something just for us?” Spike smiled and nodded.
“What better way to spend my time at home, then with my six best friends in the world.” Spike looked at Silk, “Plus one if she wants.”
Silk blinked and blushed, “I still don’t know what you’re talk about though.”
Spike blinked and face palmed hard, “I knew I forgot something, you see, today is something more special than just me coming home.”
Spike looked at his five friends and they all said in unison, “It’s Twilight Sparkle’s birthday!”
To be continued…