Spike the dragon was resting in the center of Canterlot Gardens’ hedge maze. His mother had asked for his assistance and it was one of the few out of the way places he could lay without drawing the gazes of passersby.
Now, Spike had seen many things in his three hundred years of life: Griffins uniting their kingdoms under one banner, Changelings being accepted into Pony society, an evil Emperor getting disintegrated by a piece of chiseled crystal, a parasitic centaur hell bent on ruling the world, even a pony’s mane and tail spontaneously combust in a fit of anger and be none the worse for wear.
Oddly enough, it was that last one that most found unbelievable.
Today he knew he would witness the rare – though, for him it was actually quite common – event of seeing the Mistress of the night, at one point the most feared Alicorn, fleeing her castle tower. Even from this distance the fear in her eyes was quite evident.
Wonder what she did this time…
He had seen this many times; Luna would do something to anger his mother – who, if he was being honest, wasn’t the most stable pony at times – and attempt to apologize. It would ultimately fail and Luna, even with her quite significant power, would flee. It wasn’t a daily occurrence, but for a being as long lived as they, what are months to a few days?
What he had never seen was her teleporting in short hops around Canterlot, expending much more energy than what was required, presumably to saturate the area with magical discharge to throw off his mother’s tracking spell, and she was now flying directly towards him.
He let out the chuckle that had been building in his throat lest he explode. Spike raised his head to face her, but made no move to greet her. After the response to him flying over Canterlot to surprise his mother after his hundred year nap, he decided that a dragon flying to intercept an Alicorn wouldn’t turn out any better. Besides, his mother asked him to stay in the gardens until she woke up.
What kind of dragon would he be if he ignored an order to be lazy?
Luna wasted no time after landing. She teleported to the side of Spike hidden from the castle, forced his wing open, and ducked under it. “Spike, you must hide me!” Her voice was firm and composed, but her composure was betrayed constantly searching eyes and the slight quivering of her legs.
“And what, exactly, did you do this time, mother?” Spike asked, not even bothering to hide the humor in his deep, rumbling voice.
He resisted the urge to scratch his head at his final word. I really need to find new titles for all of them. The tickling sensation of a familiar magic washing over him knocked him out of his pondering. After nearly two hundred years of being around the same magical signature, it wasn’t hard to figure out who it was, not that they were even trying to hide it.
Twilight was performing a magical search throughout all of Canterlot.
Luna, to her credit, began to shake only a little more than she already had been. “I don’t know! We were in bed, reading an old book of Starswill the Bearded’s I acquired from a group of archeologists – an early gift for our anniversary. I called some of his writing and findings inane after realizing it was one of his older works.
“I told Twilight that he was actually a bumbling buffoon when he was younger. She was laughing and I hit the book, off the bed-” Few could ever say they were one to see a dragon visibly pale. Were anypony in the hedge maze that day, they would have seen this suspected impossibility occur.
Luna paused after noticing the grimace on Spike’s face. “What? I was moving it so it would not get damaged, since I intended to-“
“Don’t want to know, mother! What happened to the book?”
“It hit the wall and landed on the floor. That’s when the yelling started, this time. I don’t understand what I did.”
Spike’s grin slowly returned along with the buildup of Twilight’s magic, had Luna not been busy cowering, she likely would have felt it as well. He lowered his head back to the ground, only looking at Luna through one, half-lidded, disinterested eye. He knew how this was going to end.
“Well, your first mistake was not apologizing.” Spike held up a single talon to halt Luna’s interruption
“I’m sure you apologized to her. Now, your second mistake was not finding somewhere to hole up on the other side of the planet until she calms down a bit. Or even Griffonstone. Err, the Griffon Kingdoms. Griffica? Gryphonia? Roam? Whatever they’re calling it these days.
“Your third, –” In one fluid motion, Spike rose up and stepped sideways away from Luna before laying back down and folding his wing back against his body. “– and possibly most damming mistake, was coming to me.
“I’ve spent almost my entire life with Twilight, mother. She knows my magical signature like the back of her hoof. Seriously, I once hid in a room she used to store magic imbued gems. The amount of magical saturation even made my scales itch. But you have no idea how good enchanted gems taste. Especially the ones she used to teleport long distances…
“Anyway, she grabbed me in a teleport, and didn’t bring a single gem with me. She told me she was able to separate my signature from every other gem.” Spike’s grin only became wider along with Luna’s eyes. “Essentially, you chose to hide under the largest, brightest beacon in Canterlot.”
Spike only had a moment to close his eyes before the telltale pop and flash of Twilight’s teleport came with enough force to assault even his senses. At the feeling of warmth and the smell of burning grass, his maw split into a grin. Reopening his eyes, he was met with the sight of his mother holding a large tome, her tail and mane had become what could only be described as a towering inferno.
If a claw pump was feasible at the moment, he’d have a hard time not drawing attention to himself. He settled for allowing his grin to grow, the tips of his fangs poking out.
Gonna eat well tonight…
“Apologize.” Twilight’s voice was cold enough to freeze even the sun.
Luna’s eyes were everywhere but Twilight’s as she did her best to avoid staring into what felt like the fires of Tarterus itself. “I already said-“
“Not to me, the book.” Luna gaped at the tome now floating directly in front of her.
“You expect me to apologize to Starswill? Even if I could go back that far in time, I’d never apologize to that bumbling, arrogant – “
The clearing of Spike’s throat interrupted Luna and seemed to finally cause Twilight to take notice him. He looked at Twilight and sighed. “Mother, you need to forgive mom – no, that’s not gonna work any better – Somehow, she seems to keep forgetting that you’re slightly insane.” He turned his eye to Luna.
“She literally means the book.” Spike raised his large front paw, extended a single claw, and gently tapped an indent in the spine. “You damaged it.”
Luna’s eyes darted back and forth between the book and Twilight, deciding whether she should degrade herself by apologizing to the tome or attempt to face the wrath of the enraged librarian. “Today was going so well, too…”
In an – possibly childish – attempt to save some face, Luna sighed and locked her eyes to Twilight’s. “I’m sorry for damaging the book.”
With that, the flames dissipated, Tarterus’ gates closed, and the sun was able to thaw.
“I forgive you, Luna. I know you didn’t mean to damage it. Now let’s – “
Twilight was interrupted by Spike clearing his throat once again, a frown taking the place of his grin.
“R-right.” Twilight looked at the ground and scraped at it with a hoof. “I’m sorry, too. I overacted. Again…”
“At least the castle doesn’t have any holes in it this time,” Spike noted with a chuckle. Both Luna and Twilight grinned sheepishly.
Twilight turned to Luna, a different kind of fire in eyes. “I can think of another way to apologize to each other…” Her eyes lingered on Luna until what she meant registered. Luna bowed her head quickly before teleporting away.
“Goodbye to you, too, mother,” Spike muttered to himself.
Twilight turned to face their tower, her horn charged with magic. She paused and looked over her shoulder. “Say, Spike…”
“Hmm?”
“Why is Celes- actually, never mind. Enjoy your nap.” With that, Twilight released her spell, vanishing with a muted pop
“I don’t understand how they’ve stayed together even though this keeps happening,” Spike grumbled to himself.
“Oh, let them have their little spats. It’s rare enough that they get any time alone, let alone together,” replied the dragon’s right wing. “Plus, if the gossip of the castle staff is anything to go by, the make-up sex is amazing.”
Spike slowly unfurled the wing Luna hadn’t been under and grimaced at the Alabaster Alicorn that had been curled up, using the curled wing as a hammock to nap in. His mother had asked for his assistance today.
“Mother-” Spike groaned. “You three really need new titles.”
“You could call us by our names.”
“I tried, remember? You and Twilight raised me. After growing up, it just doesn’t seem right to call you anything else when any of you are around.”
“And Luna?” Celestia asked with a smirk.
“Well, she’s married to mother and besides it feeling right, it seemed to make her happy that someone had no problems with her and Twilight-” Spike jostled the wing enough to shake Celestia. “You’re trying to distract me. I know you felt it: That’s twenty five rage shifts in six months. You owe me the crown jewels.”
Celestia chuckled and curled back up in his wing. “Yes, yes, you’ll get your snack, Spike. Now please draw the curtains, would you? We wouldn’t want anypony to think you were kidnapping me… Again.”
Spike sighed and carefully curled his wing against his side.
Note to self: When mother – any mother – asks for assistance, just go back to sleep.