Chapter 20: The Future
The party that took place in Appleoosa that evening was probably the most epic in the history of Equestria. Three princesses, representatives of three different nations, and enough food to make them all throw up until the early hours the next day. Spike couldn't contain the smile on his face as he watched his fellow dragons... his family... interact with the ponies who were most important to him, and he even got to meet a few during the party. One even had similar stories to himself, as the personal assistant to a unicorn stallion named Wander.
Despite his pride and his joy at seeing the party unfold, he couldn't help but linger off to the side instead of running into the thick of it. Many of the little dragons who had fought in the battle had come out looking different, but his scales were now reflecting with bright prismatic color, just like his mother's. It made him stand out, and that made him uncomfortable. Pyralsprite did her best to reassure him, but he decided for tonight at least, he would just try to stay out of the way and adjust.
"You doing okay, Spike?" He glanced toward the voice as Twilight Sparkle approached with a warm smile.
"I'm alright..." Spike shrugged his stiff shoulders. "It just feels weird. I put Equestria in danger, I nearly got the entire continent destroyed by rampaging dragons, and just... out of nowhere everything's going back to normal. I'm just standing here, watching Pyralsprite mingle with my brothers and sisters, watching Discord mingle with the princesses. It's like nothing happened. It's like everyone's just forgetting."
"Nopony here today will ever forget what happened, Spike. That's exactly why they're trying to bring everything back to normal." Twilight Sparkle sat down on the small picnic blanket beside him. "I know it must be hard for you... you've been through a lot over the last two weeks... but it's over, Spike. You can let go."
Spike looked down slightly, then looked over into his old friend's eyes. He realized now that he really had been waiting for something else. Waiting for something to go wrong, for Equestria to be destroyed, for him to have his whole life thrown into turmoil, for his emotions to rip themselves out of his chest. He felt tears stinging at his eyes as he met her gaze, staring into those large, comforting eyes that had been there since his life began. He was here, without the conflict, without the hatred or betrayal... just calmly sitting with the mare who had hatched him.
Twilight scooted closer and pulled him into a tight hug. Her hooves felt a lot smaller than they had two weeks ago, but they felt just as strong. "It's over, Spike." He wrapped his claws around her a bit tighter than he intended as he sniffed back his tears. "I promise it's over."
___
"Oh please stop..." Discord's voice quivered as he brushed aside the princess' unabashed praise. When she did indeed fall silent, he waved his eagle claw at her. "I didn't really mean it, please do go on."
Princess Celestia rolled her eyes slightly, but continued. "I know you had your reasons for leaving, and your reasons for coming back, but Equestria owes you a tremendous debt regardless. If you would like anything just say so, and I'll do my best to make it happen."
Discord practically giggled in delight. "Oh to hear such words from you, Celestia, is almost payment enough. Almost. Speaking of debts, however." He snapped his fingers in front of him, and Twilight Sparkle appeared in front of him in a flash of white light. "I believe Twilight Sparkle has something for you."
"Wait, what?" Twilight looked around curiously, then peered up at Discord in annoyance. "Seriously?"
"Go on, a deal is a deal." Discord winked with both eyes, and a third eye in the middle of his forehead for good measure.
With a groan Twilight approached her old mentor, speaking in a wooden monotone. "Princess Celestia, to honor your kindness, leadership, and intelligence, I would like to award you with this." A banana cream pie suddenly appears over her head and flung itself into the larger alicorn's face. Celestia's face remained expressionless as she peered down at her former student through the thick layer of cream. "Sorry, he made me..."
"Ahaaaaahahahahaha!" Discord almost doubled over in laughter. "I've been trying to get her for weeks! She's a wily one, that Celestia!" Discord suddenly appeared on the tip of Celestia's horn, dancing happily on the end of it.
"Great, now we're even..." Twilight grumped as she turned to march away from the gloating draconequus, shaking her head.
Once she recovered from her shock, Celestia's horn glowed with a soft light and a washrag wiped the cream from her face. The washrag knocked Discord from his perch, but he couldn't tell if that was an accident or not. "Well played, Discord."
"Thank you, Celestia." Discord bowed gracefully after he appeared in front of her again in a flash of light. "Now if you'll excuse me, this party is grand and all, but I think there's another party where my presence would be more appreciated."
Celestia smiled again in understanding. "Tell Fluttershy I send my regards."
Discord coughed into one claw with a rare blush and a quick mumble, "yes, well, maybe I'll think about it..."
"Don't be nervous, Discord. You've earned her friendship today... you've earned all of our friendship today."
Discord couldn't help a ghost of a smile lingering on his lips as me met Celestia's gaze again. "I shall return to the palace soon, Celestia." With that, the draconequus vanished from the party.
___
Twilight Sparkle fumed silently as she retreated through the crowd. She'd been pulled away from Spike completely without warning... oh well, surely the dragon would recognize that she hadn't chosen to leave. He knew Discord as well as any of them did. Possibly better, given what he'd said happened during his trip.
She swept Discord out of her mind when she noticed Zecora standing near the refreshment table set up along the side of the road. She was speaking with Little Strongheart and Rarity in what sounded like a light conversation. Curiously Twilight approached behind Zecora.
"I think I'd like to learn more about your magic, if you wouldn't mind teaching me Zecora," Little Strongheart's enthusiasm was plain in her voice.
Zecora smiled back. "I would love to teach you what I know, I love nothing better than to help a student grow."
"See? I told you she would agree." Rarity nudged the buffalo girl with a grin.
Twilight moved up beside Zecora with a bright smile of her own. "I'm so glad you've decided to seek knowledge, Little Strongheart. I think learning from Zecora is a magnificent idea. I've learned so much from her, after all."
"You have?" Little Strongheart's eyes widened.
"Oh yes." Twilight nodded and turned to face Zecora, who was watching her curiously. "I've learned not to judge ponies by how they look... that being alone in a strange place can make you hesitant to approach those who live there, and that sometimes simply being there for a friend is the absolute best thing you can do, even if there's nothing you can do to solve their problem."
Zecora raised her eyebrow. "I don't recall setting out to teach you that."
"You didn't have to... you were just that much of an inspiration." Twilight paused and blushed. "Oh, wait, I was supposed to rhyme that, wasn't I?" Zecora chuckled.
"Hey, Little Strongheart, how about you and I go get us all some punch?" Rarity sidled over to the buffalo girl. Twilight blushed when she noticed Rarity's quick wink. "I think we could all use some refreshments."
"Oh, of course Rarity." Little Strongheart turned away to follow Rarity to the punchbowl, leaving Twilight and Zecora alone by the table.
Twilight stared after them for a few moments of companionable silence, then turned back to Zecora. "Listen... I don't mean to make anything awkward but... over the last two weeks..."
Zecora lifted one hoof to press it lightly against her lips. "I understand what is on your mind, Twilight. I feel it too, our partnership has felt most right."
"Yeah?" Twilight lit up. "Y-you mean you... would like to spend more time with me?"
"That sounds like a marvelous situation. As long as there's no big expectation."
"None at all. I've just really enjoyed spending this time with you." Twilight smiled wider.
Zecora matched her smile. "I will welcome what may happen when you and I come together and be true..."
Twilight stepped slightly closer and gave her cheek a soft nuzzle, which Zecora returned. "I agree, anything is possible when one and one make two..."
Geeze, she was still pretty bad at rhyming... but it didn't seem to matter now.
___
Later in the evening Spike's arm draped over his girlfriend's back as they moved away from the fires lit in the streets of Appleoosa, away from the other partiers into the bright, pale moonlight as it shone down across the desert. The light reflected off of his prismatic scales, lighting the way forward in a rainbow of color that mingled with the sharp red glow that emanated from Pyralsprite's empty eyes. No words were exchanged between them for a little while as they just walked across the cooling sand.
At last it was Pyralsprite who broke the silence. "It feels like the whole world has changed, doesn't it? Dragons, ponies... us."
"Yeah." Spike held her a bit tighter at that. "Things are going to be totally different from now on."
"I guess the big question for us is... what now? Kindfire is taking The Patriarch back to Fire Mountain, and they're going to be figuring out how to govern themselves now. We could go back, help our people improve, and make a new life for ourselves there."
"Or we could stay here, with my friends, with Twilight... help dragons and ponies come together formally. Help all the ponies of Equestria see that we're not so mean." Spike stopped and turned toward her. Despite being sightless, Pyralsprite kept her face turned away from him. "Maybe things could have gone better before... but they're still my family, Pyralsprite. My friends. I don't know if I can just abandon them."
"Yeah, I know..." Pyralsprite was silent for a long time.
Spike turned away from her and plopped down on the sand beside her, leaning back on his arms. "I'm sure nopony would mind if you came back with me."
"I'm sure they wouldn't." Pyralsprite lay down on the sand beside him, her body coiling in on itself. "It's funny, I ran away from Fire Mountain because I couldn't take it anymore, but now I would really like to just go home..."
"We've had a long couple of weeks." Spike kicked his feet idly in front of him. "It's natural to want to go home after all of that. After all of this even the basket at the foot of Twilight's bed sounds nice. Not sure I'd fit in it anymore though."
"Spike... is this goodbye?"
"I don't know."
The silence washed over them again, drowning the world in the sound of the gentle desert wind brushing past the two dragons. Peering into the distance, Spike could see Kindifre and the rest of the dragons from Fire Mountain resting for their morning journey. They were going home, and they were taking their massive prisoner with them, though he already seemed to have shrunk a bit since his defeat. He knew it wouldn't be the last time he saw her, even if he decided to go back to Ponyville. He could always go visit her.
But he knew in his heart if Pyralsprite left and he stayed, they couldn't share what they had found along the way.
He glanced over at her. Her snow-white scales almost seemed to be haloed in the soft moonlight, her long serpent-like body coiled around itself a couple of times. She too had gotten a little bigger, he realized, especially since earlier that day. The battle had left its mark on all the dragons. But now he was just trying to distract himself.
Spike scooted closer to Pyralsprite and wrapped his claws around her, pulling her into a powerful hug. The dragoness leaned against him, her smaller claws resting on his shoulders. Spike opened his mouth and made a few sounds, but he suddenly didn't want to speak. He didn't want to say it.
So he let his arms slide off of her body, setting her gently on the sand before climbing to his feet. He yanked his eyes away from her and started back toward Appleoosa. He couldn't think of anything else to do. He wanted to beg and plead with her to stay with him, but if Fire Mountain was still her home, who was he to ask her to leave it? He would feel like a complete jerk asking her to leave her life just to be with him, and he couldn't imagine leaving his friends again, despite what had happened before. Perhaps this was for the best...
He hadn't quite reached the town border when he felt Pyralsprite's familiar weight land on him, her hindclaws gripping his shoulders while her foreclaws leaned against the top of his head.
"Pyralsprite?" Spike looked up curiously at the underside of her chin.
"A lot of Kindfire's kids are going back to Fire Mountain." Pyralsprite reasoned. "There aren't going to be many dragons left here in Equestria to convince the ponies to stop being scared of us."
"Yeah, I guess that's true." Spike smiled slightly.
"It's my civic duty to all dragonkind to stay here."
"That sounds like a noble thing to do." Spike raised his arms to pluck the dragoness from his shoulders and cradle her against his chest. Her glowing red eyes almost seemed to bore into his own, even though he knew she couldn't really see him. "As long as you're completely sure it's what you want to do."
"It's not that big a deal." Pyralsprite leaned closer, letting a small lick of flame pass from her lips to his own. "We have so much time we can live everywhere in the world, eventually."
"That does sound pretty amazing." Spike kissed her softly on the lips, letting their flames mingle between their tongues for a moment before turning to carry her back toward town. "Come on, let's get some sleep. We have a lot of decisions to make tomorrow about where we're going to stay in Ponyville..."
The End