Chapter 18: A Hero's Welcome
Appleoosa was empty. It was a terrifying sight to Spike, as the three dragons flew overhead. The Wonderbolts must have done a swift job of getting the earth pony settlers out of town. This was a good thing, he knew deep down. It meant the villagers were safe... but at the same time it was as if the town itself was now just waiting to be demolished. Torn apart by the army even now sweeping across the land of Equestria straight for them.
"The buffalo tribe should be to the south of here." Spike called up to Kindfire's ears.
Kindfire's ear twitched in response, with a soft "I know" floating back to him on the roaring wind. The wind howled around the three of them as they shot off through the sky, straight toward the waiting tribe.
Kindfire turned toward the ground as the first signs of the buffalo camp hove into view ahead of them, touching down on the ground just beyond a desert hill out of sight.
"Kindfire? What's wrong? Don't you want to say hi? You know them, right?" Spike patted her neck worriedly.
"That was ages ago, Spike. The buffalo from back then are long dead." Kindfire settled down, resting on her stomach so the two smaller dragons could slide off to the sand. "And in all this time, I have done nothing to earn the right to return to them."
"Earn the right? But you're amazing, Kindfire..."
Kindfire turned away from him. "Go, Spike. You must hurry. With every second the dragon army grows closer. I will wait here to take you back to Canterlot Castle."
Spike's arms drooped to his side and he cast a glance at Pyralsprite, who looked just as helpless as he felt. "Okay... we'll be back soon." Spikes turned to head up the sandy dune in front of him. Pyralsprite fluttered through the air quickly to catch up to him, touching down on the ground beside him.
"Not exactly the hero from the story, is she?" Pyralsprite murmured.
"That's the problem with stories, I guess..." Spike shook his head as they reached the top of the hill. The buffalo tribe was laid out before them, clearly readying for battle. Face paint was being applied to grim faces, and horns inspected for maximum sharpness. It was brave, Spike guessed, but completely futile. Even if they managed to hit a dragon with those horns, the scales would deflect most, if not all of the blow.
They would be run over like weeds.
"Mister Spike!?" A feminine voice emerged from the crowd, and several warriors turned to look in surprise as Little Strongheart broke from the crowd to run toward him. "Spike! Thank the savior, you've come just in time!"
"Hey, Little Strongheart." Spike wrapped his arms around her neck as she gave his chest a soft nuzzle, then looked up at him in surprise.
"Have you gotten taller?"
"Yeah, a bit." Spike forced a chuckle, then glanced past her in time to see Braeburn approaching from the camp as well. "Braeburn? You stayed too?"
Braeburn nodded with his lips in a steady line. "I ain't gonna leave Little Strongheart here alone."
"What did Chief Thunderhooves say?"
"He's a little too preoccupied for exploding at the moment." Little Strongheart's smile faded quickly. "Mister Spike, tell me it's not true. Dragons? Evil dragons?"
"I'm afraid it is true." Spike nodded. "Big, fierce, powerful dragons. Making their way straight here."
"No..." The buffalo girl shook her head. "But why? Dragons are good, righteous..."
"Dragons are self-centered assholes." Pyralsprite interrupted her. Spike whirled in her in surprise, seeing her sightless eyes narrowed. "They don't care about anything but themselves. The one who saved you didn't even give a crap about you, she just wanted to claim the land for herself."
"Pyralsprite!" Spike growled.
"Well it's true!" Pyralsprite whirled on him again. "I've only known one good dragon, Spike, and that's you!"
"Enough!" A powerful, deep voice echoed across the rocks and sand as Chief Thunderhooves stormed up the side of the hill toward them, flanked by several warriors with paint on their faces. "You are our revered guests, but you're speaking blasphemy!"
"Chief!" Spike turned toward him in surprise, taking a few steps forward to meet him. "I'm sorry, Pyralsprite's going through a rough time right now, she didn't mean it!"
"Bullshit..." Pyralsprite coughed into one claw.
"Please, Chief. The dragons aren't a joke or a prank, they are coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop them. Your horns won't even penetrate their scales."
"True or not, there is no fleeing for us." Chief Thunderhooves stood straight, with his head in the air. The other buffalo, their war preparations complete, were beginning to gather near their chief. "Our ancestors stood against demon and dragon alike. We would be abandoning our pride, and our heritage, if we fled before them now."
"But Chief..." Spike gulped. "This means certain death."
Chief Thunderhooves' voice only rose, as if in defiance. "If this is to be our day, then we will face it with pride. But we will not lay down and quit, and we will not crumble like ants. We will stay on our hooves to the last breath!" The other buffalo behind him gave a howl of approval, their horns flashing through the air behind him.
A new voice joined the conversation. "You will fight to your end, if you must." The buffalo gasped as a glittering, prismatic head appeared over the hill in front of them. Spike watched Kindfire move toward the group now, shaking her head. "You do your ancestors proud, Chief."
"By the savior..." Chief Thunderhooves took a step back. "Another dragon..."
"This must be a blessing..." Little Strongheart mumbled under her breath.
"This is no blessing, this is a warning." Kindfire came to a stop besides the two smaller dragons to peer out across the line of buffalo, who all stared in awe. "Pyralsprite was not wrong about us. The dragons are coming to kill you all, and they will not hesitate for even an instant."
"Then why do you come with this message?" Chief Thunderhooves asked. "Why would you warn of us your fellows?"
"Because I owe you, Chief." Kindfire nodded. "I owe your people all that I am..."
"Chief Thunderhooves." Spike stepped forward, gesturing back toward his mother. "This dragon... her name is Kindfire."
Immediately murmurs, some of awe and some of suspicion, erupted from the tribe of buffalo. Little Strongheart moved a bit closer to Braeburn, but Chief Thunderhooves looked completely unmoved, his eyes peering up at the larger dragon with an almost questioning gaze.
"Declaring that name... you must know what it would mean. You speak it with confidence, but it can't be the truth."
"Chief Proudheart." Kindfire approached the tribe with a gentle step, her claws almost floating across the sandy ground. "That was the name of the chieftain who challenged me... who saved me. He was married to Big Heart... they had a son, Farsight." The buffalo fell completely silent as she stopped in front of them, her wings opening in front of them. "I remember everyone who cared for me... the ones who proved to me what respect truly was. The ones who saved me from my own hubris."
Chief Thunderhooves looked down for a moment, then up at the dragon again with a softer gaze. "You have returned to save us again..."
"Not I." Kindfire turned around to look down at Spike. "Spike came to warn you of the coming threat... heed his words as you would my own."
Chief Thunderhooves shook his head. "I'm sorry, Spike... I do not mean to be disrespectful, or ungrateful, but we cannot abandon our lands. Not for the settlers of Appleoosa, and not for the dragons. This land is all we have, and all we have ever needed."
Spike stepped forward again. "You only have to leave for a while, until the fighting is done."
"If we did that... then we would not deserve this land, or the protectors who would aid us."
Pyralsprite huffed out a plume of flames. "You're all fools, then."
"If we are fools, then we will foolishly earn our way to join our ancestors in the next life." With that, Chief Thunderhooves turned to make his way back toward the encampment, the rest of the larger buffalo following close on his tail.
"No, don't..." Spike stepped forward as if to give chase, but slowed to a stop after a couple of steps. Chief Thunderhooves was as stubborn as they came. He wouldn't listen now that his mind was made up, and the other buffalo would never go against his word. They were going to stay here... they were going to be slaughtered.
"Mister Spike." Little Strongheart approached the dragon with a solemn expression, her eyes downcast. "I know Chief Thunderhooves can be stubborn, and I know my people can be too... and I have no right to ask something like this, but please..." Little Stronghert bowed deep, resting her chin on the dirt in front of him with her hooves almost touching his feet. "Don't let them die..."
Pyralsprite huffed. "What exactly are we supposed to do? Relocate the entire defense effort to this place just for them?"
Spike lifted his claw to Little Strongheart's shoulder, lifting her gaze to his. "Yeah. that's exactly what we're going to do."
"You are?" Little Strongheart gasped.
Kindfire shook her head. "Spike, that will give us even less time to prepare..."
"Then we'll prepare faster." Spike turned back toward the two females , letting his claw fall from Little Strongheart's shoulder. "It won't be easy... but if we're not trying to save everyone, then we're not trying hard enough."
Kindfire cocked her head. "And if we fail?"
"Then we fail together... all of us." Spike turned to look back at Kindfire, staring into her intense, glittering eyes. "I feel like that's the right thing."
Kindfire nodded, with a ghost of a smile tugging at her lip. "Then I will deliver word to Canterlot personally."
Spike held up one claw. "Don't, I can get a letter there faster, I just need a pen and a piece of paper."
"I have some in my house in town. Follow me!" With a brief, comforting squeeze of Little Strongheart's shoulder, Braeburn turned to lead the three dragons and buffalo towards Appleoosa.
Pyralsprite moved up to Spike's side as they walked, her nostrils flaring. "I'm with you, Spike... I wanna see this through to the end. But are you really sure about this? If we all die because of these buffalo..."
"Sure?" Spike let out a soft, nervous laugh. "I haven't been sure about anything since we left Fire Mountain. I finally thought I had it all figured out, and I turned out to be dead wrong."
"So what makes this different?" Pyralsprite raised one eyebrow.
"Different?" Spike thought about it for several minutes, until Appleloosa loomed close over the horizon. "I don't know..." Spike shrugged and glanced over at Little Strongheart and Braeburn, who were walking side-by-side along the dusty trail, picking up speed toward the first row of houses. "I just don't think I could've lived with myself if I said anything else."
___
Canterlot was abuzz with commotion, the castle most of all. If the stream of little dragons coming through town hadn't set the populace on edge, the open call for unicorns they had put out was ringing serious alarm bells across the entire nation. Many ponies were abandoning Canterlot for the smaller towns, though many unicorns did respond to the call to arms, even those who hadn't graduated Celestia's school or have a dragon companion of their own. Within hours they had dozens of dragons and hundreds of unicorns filling the castle walls.
"I think we're looking to be in fine shape, don't you?" Rarity smiled at her alicorn and zebra companions on the front balcony of Canterlot castle, looking out across the heads gathered in the courtyard. Her smile faded when it wasn't returned.
"You didn't see the dragons at the mountain." Twilight returned her glance with a grim expression. "You could barely see the rock there were so many, and they were so huge."
Rarity shook her head. "But we cannot give up, Twilight. Spike would never give up on us."
"Of course, you're right. We can't afford to give up before the end." Twilight took a deep, steadying breath, which came out in a huff when Spitfire zipped through the air to the balcony in front of them. "Oh for Celestia's sakes, what now!?"
"You've received a letter from Spike." After a hasty salute, Spitfire held a crumpled and slightly scorched letter out to her. "Princess Celestia asked me to get it to you immediately."
"From Spike!?" Twilight yanked the letter out of her hoof with a burst of magic, unfurling it to read it quickly aloud. "Dear Twilight, we can't convince the buffalo to leave Appleoosa, but I think they may be an asset to us if we move the defense force here. Please bring the dragons and unicorns to Appleoosa..."
"Move all of these ponies and dragons?" Spitfire gawked. "Our enemies are already on the move, and they're faster than us! The Friendship Express could only make one trip at most! It could carry less than half of these ponies, and the rest would never get there on time by walking!"
Twilight cut her off with a wave of one hoof. "I'm sure if we can get Discord's help for once we can get this taken care of without any trouble."
"Discord?" Spitfire scoffed. "Nopony has seen a scale or feather of his all day."
"I, um... I can confirm he might not be around." Rarity gave a disarming smile. "He came by Ponyville yesterday and attempted to take Fluttershy with him... as he fled Equestria..."
"Fled?" Twilight could almost feel her brain stop for several long moments. "He fled Equestria!? Are you bucking kidding me!? He spends almost an entire week refusing to lift a claw to help, making me trek all the way to the dragon country to retrieve Spike too late when he could have gotten me to him in a second and resolved all of this, and then when things go bad he <i>runs away</i>!?"
Zecora placed a concerned hoof on Twilights shoulder softly. "Twilight Sparkle, please calm down. We need a cool head under that crown."
Twilight took a few deep, steadying breaths. "Okay... I think I'll be okay. I'm sorry. I just... without Discord there's no way we can get this entire army to Appleoosa in time. The dragons are already on the move."
Zecora nodded. "It's a good thing that you are unicorn ponies, and not some kind of magical phonies."
"Teleporting is one thing, Zecora, but we're talking about moving an entire army almost halfway across Equestria... there aren't nearly enough unicorns here to move such a great number that kind of distance, and not all of them are well-trained in magic. It almost drained me just moving Pyralsprite fifteen feet..."
"Twilight Sparkle..." Zecora turned toward her almost admonishingly. "If there is one thing I have learned from you, it's that when ponies come together and work as one, there is absolutely nothing in this world that cannot be done."
Rarity stepped up to Twilight's side with a bright smile. "I've never done anything like this before... but I'm willing to try, Twilight. My magic is at your command. I suspect they feel the same way."
Twilight blinked in surprised and looked down from the balcony. The unicorns and dragons in the courtyard below had turned to watch the commotion. Some looked frightened, but others looked determined, setting their lips in grim lines and letting their magic float through their horn. The magical auras began to erupt from each horn one at a time, until Twilight was looking down at a sea of unicorn magic. Individually, a normal unicorn didn't amount to that much. But here, all as one, the power was blinding.
Twilight gritted her teeth. "I'm not sure it'll be enough."
"Then believe it will be," Zecora reassured her in a soft voice. Twilight waited for the accompanying rhyme to come, and when it didn't she turned to meet her friend and mentor's gentle gaze. "Sometimes that's all you can do."
Twilight stared into her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Thank you, Zecora. I don't know if I would have had the strength for all of this without you."
"It has been my pleasure." Zecora bowed her head respectfully, a move echoed by Rarity, and the unicorns gathered in the courtyard below.
Twilight wasn't sure whether to be overcome by pride or humiliation, but before either could take hold, she stepped up to the edge of the balcony, looking out across the courtyard. "Okay, if we're going to do this, we need to get to work right away..."
___
The afternoon light was pouring in on them through Braeburn's bedroom window, casting a bright and cheery atmosphere on the otherwise empty room, and the completely empty town. Spike's claws dipped gently into the bowl of water, moistening his palms before bringing them to the bed to run them over the thin sinew of Pyralsprite's wing. The girl grunted at the cold and twitched slightly, but didn't complain any further as he did his best to smooth over the parts crushed by the Patriarch's grip. The doctor ponies had done their best back in Canterlot, but there was only so much that could be done.
"Do you think you'll be able to fly, Pyralsprite?" Spike asked worriedly. "If you can't, I want you to stay with Twilight and the unicorns."
"I'll be fine when the time comes. You're not going to war without me, Spike, I don't care how messed up my wings are."
"Pyralsprite, I..." Spike trailed off and tried to focus his attention on her wings again. They had healed a lot over the last day or so, most of the actual tears had mended over. Spike had always been a quick healer though, so he really shouldn't have been surprised a fellow dragon would heal as quickly. "I just don't want anything to happen to you."
"And I don't want anything to happen to you. So we're even." Pyralsprite smirked back at him over her shoulder, the crimson glow of her eyes shining against her scales. "You're not going out there without me, Spike. And that's the end of it."
Spike couldn't help a soft sigh, or the slight smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Alright. We'll stick together then, no matter what."
"Yes, sir." Pyralsprite cackled under her breath.
Suddenly Spike felt an electric shudder run down his spine. At first he thought he was just getting horny again, but after a moment he realized it was something else. Something that made his stomach churn and his fingers twitch. A power the likes of which he had rarely felt before.
"What the heck is that?" Pyralsprite lifted her head from the pillow.
"I don't know... come on, we should go find out." Spike leapt off the bed, letting Pyralsprite leap after him as they made their way outside.
Little Strongheart and Braeburn were already waiting out on the sidewalk, looking toward the center of the street. Spike didn't see anything but a brisk breeze blowing the sand from the ground down the road, but the tingling in his spine only grew more intense as he approached the pony and buffalo.
"What is going on here?" Spike asked.
Little Strongheart shivered. "I have no idea... do you think it's the dragon army?"
"No way, we would see them coming..." Spike raised his claw to guard against the powerful light that suddenly started swirling through the air in front of them. It grew brighter and brighter, until everyone but Pyralsprite was shielding their eyes. Spike gritted his teeth and tried to peer through his fingers, watching as the light coalesced in front of them into a sea of shapes.
One by one the lights exploded into being, chaining backwards, revealing ponies and dragons standing in formation, hundreds of unicorn horns pulsing with magic that was flowing into Twilight Sparkle, who had her head raised at the front of the army. Spike gasped and lowered his arm as the light faded and Twilight opened her eyes.
"Twilight! What the... how did you..."
Twilight smiled despite the sweat running down her face. "How else? With the power of friendship." Twilight glanced behind her, where Spike saw Rarity, Zecora, and a great many unicorns grinning victoriously. Twilight turned back toward him with a determined look in her eyes. "We've come Spike, now tell us how to repel the dragon forces."
Spike gulped. Hearing it said like that made him realize that all of this was riding on him. Why? He was no leader, he was just a tiny dragon brute who barely know what he wanted or who he is was...
No, that wasn't true, he realized as he looked toward the setting sun, where he could see Kindfire resting with her wings spread to full extension. Some of the small dragons had already broken from the crowd to rush toward her, a fact that startled her out of her relaxing trance. He wasn't just a brutish dragon, he was the child of one of the greatest dragons since the peacekeepers of ancient times. They all were. If any dragons were going to win this thing, it was going to be them... with help from their friends of course.
Spike turned back to Twilight, setting his jaw in a grim line. "Here's my plan..."