Fear.
Of all the possible emotions Celia could have felt right now, fear was by far the most prominent.
Something terribly wrong had happened to Small Scale, the shaman's potion had to have done it, and now to make things worse, the angry ponies that she'd taken him from were here to confront her. There was no reason for her to be this scared of six creatures that she could easily take on, but something about their poise, combined with her other worries, somehow served to make her forget that she was being intimidated by creatures that could fit in one of her claws.
"Just let me at her!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "I'll teach her to kidnap our friend!" She tried to take off, but Applejack was quick as usual to bite down on her tail.
"Just hold your horses, RD," Applejack said through clenched teeth. "You remember what happened last time you charged a full-grown dragon head-on? None of us are happy about this, but for pony's sake, let Twilight handle it."
"Thank you, Applejack," Twilight said. Then she turned her attention back to Celia. "Spike has asked us not to harm you, so if you return him to us peacefully, nopony will get hurt." The strain that being calm placed on her was palpable as she stared a hole through the dragoness.
"Ouh!" Pinkie exclaimed from the back lines. "That was super intimidating, Twilight! Good job!"
"Not now, Pinkie..." Fluttershy said softly. It was taking all of her strength to stay calm too, although her restraint was holding back more fear than violence.
"Well, Twilight, your diplomatic methods had better work soon," Rarity said. "Because if she does not release my Spikey-Wikey, then so help me..."
"Rarity, please," Twilight said, frowning. "We were asked not to hurt her, and that's the way I'd prefer to handle this."
"Asked by who?" Celia said, her voice shaky. "How did you find this place?"
"Spike sent Princess Celestia a letter," Twilight responded, although she didn't look at all happy to be speaking to Celia without her request fulfilled. "Now, I hope this is the last time I have to repeat myself. Return Spike to us, now." Twilight's authoritative tone surprised even herself. She wasn't used to hostile negotiations with another race, but so far things were going rather well, other than the fact that they hadn't gotten Spike back yet.
Celia took a step back from the ponies, keeping Spike close to her chest. In any other situation, a threat from a creature so small would have been laughed off, but Celia was in no laughing mood right now.
"I..." Celia started, biting her lip. "I can't. I have to get him fixed."
"What do you mean, get him fixed?" Rainbow shouted. "She's gonna do something terrible to Spike!" Within moments, the ponies, save for Twilight, were shouting over one another, some with threats towards Celia, others trying to calm the situation down but failing miserably, and Pinkie simply shouting whatever came to mind. It only took about five seconds of this before Twilight's patience was drained.
"Enough!" Twilight shouted, using her magic to amplify her voice again. The other five fell silent, looking sheepish. Celia opened her mouth to speak, when she felt Small Scale shift and grumble in her grasp.
"Mommy, why's everyone yelling?" Small Scale asked.
Twilight froze as she heard Spike's voice. Her frown deepened as she shot Celia a glare so intense that she could nearly feel it.
"...Why did he just call you that?" Twilight said. Her tone was eerily calm, a chilling monotone that sent a shiver down Celia's spine.
"I...I can explain..." Celia said softly. Before she could continue, Small Scale managed to shift enough to get a look at the others in the room.
"Oh no!" Small Scale exclaimed. "Mommy, the bad ponies are here! Beat them up!"
Twilight took a deep breath, doing her best to center herself. Then she picked up into the air, flying closer to Celia. The pure negativity emanating from her was overwhelming.
"What did you do to him?" Twilight demanded. Her voice was cold and even, and Celia noted her startling ability to intimidate even without raising her voice. If she didn't know better, she would have identified it as a motherly tone, or more specifically the tone of a mother who would throw herself headlong into danger for her child.
"I didn't do this to him!" Celia insisted. "I'm trying to fix it!" Then her head dropped as reality came crushing down. "It's my fault it was done...but I didn't do it."
"I don't care about semantics," Twilight told her. Had Celia known anything about Twilight, just how abnormal that last sentence was for her would have been better appreciated. "What was done to him?"
"I was just trying to protect him!" Celia cried. "I found him deep in the borders of a town of ponies, and I took him home to save him from his captors! I just wanted to give him a good life and care for him with all my heart!"
"Captors?" Twilight asked, her volume beginning to rise. "Spike is my family! A friend to all of us! We didn't capture him! If anyone is his captor here, it's you!"
"That's what you want him to think!" Celia shouted, blinking to try and hold the tears back. "You kept him brainwashed all these years and fed him your lies! I just wanted to fix that, but then..."
"Brainwashed?!" Twilight shouted right back. "I would never do that to my Spike! How dare you accuse us of such a terrible thing? The only one who's done any brainwashing is you!"
The words struck Celia directly in the heart. She had never asked the shaman to perform any manner of brainwashing on Small Scale, but now that this pony had brought it up, it sounded quite a bit like he had done just that. Perhaps he had overcompensated for the removal of his preexisting hexes by making one of his own to acclimate him to his new life that much quicker?
"Don't yell at Mommy!"
Celia was left with no time to consider this further as Small Scale burst from her grip. She must have unintentionally loosened it in her distraction, and she stared in terror as he launched himself from her claws and towards the pony in front of her. Celia let out a shriek as Twilight, caught off-guard, was tackled in midair by the angry baby dragon.
"Spike!" Twilight cried out, as the other ponies gasped and looked on. Both young claws reached around Twilight, pinning her wings to her sides. No longer able to keep herself afloat, the startled Twilight yelped as she and the baby dragon began to plummet towards the ground below. The ponies quickly scrambled to try and catch the two, but they were not given a chance as they fell right into Celia's open claw. Her other claw dug between the two, breaking Spike's grip on Twilight's wings and pulling him away from her.
"Small Scale!" Celia said. "What in the world were you thinking, doing something so dangerous?"
"The mean pony was yelling at you!" Small Scale responded, breathing heavily. Celia looked sternly to the pony in her other claw, expecting a look of rage in return. Her glare softened almost instantly as she saw the reality of the situation. The formerly confident and intimidating Twilight had lost all of her bravado, and was simply staring in disbelief at Small Scale. Tears were forming in her eyes as she trembled in Celia's grasp.
"Spike..." Twilight said through sniffles.
If someone had asked Celia what she knew of pony culture, she wouldn't have had much good to say about it, but she also wouldn't have had much to say about it in general. She knew ponies as brainwashing egg thieves, but knew nothing of their ability to act. Regardless, she could tell that these were no crocodile tears from Twilight. Hers was not the face of a captor desperate enough to get her captive back that she would fake tears for it. Hers was the face of a mother whose child had just attacked her in cold blood, all in defense of another whom he had referred to with the title meant for her. A look towards the other ponies lent further credence to this belief, each face holding a worried look.
In her quest to keep Small Scale safe, she had utterly failed at that exact goal. The only one he needed to be safe from was her.
Celia had already been determined to speak to the shaman before, but now she was even more driven towards that goal.
"I...I've made a terrible mistake," Celia said to Twilight. "But...I'm going to make it right, okay?"
Twilight took a deep breath, trying to fight the tears back.
"Please..." Twilight said softly. "Anything to get my Spike back."
Celia nodded resolutely. She looked down to the other ponies, who were all frozen in place.
"I know you have no reason to trust me," Celia told them, head hung low both out of shame and out of necessity, given how far down they were. "But I know where to find the dragon who will fix this mess...at least this part of it...so we can figure things out." She set Twilight down next to her friends, then turned towards the cave exit. She found herself disappointed but unsurprised to see that the ponies weren't following her.
"Why should we believe you, huh?" Rainbow shouted up to her.
"I could say the same about you," Celia shot back. "If I can put that aside to trust you, then I'm sure you could do the same for me."
"What reason do you even have for not trusting us?" Rarity said, narrowing her eyes. "You're the one who kidnapped a child!"
"It was a misunderstanding!" Celia cried. "And ponies did the same to me, so don't go acting all high and mighty!"
"Wait..." Twilight said. "Did you say ponies kidnapped your child? What ponies did this?"
"The ponies from the town at the bottom of the mountain range," Celia said, fighting to keep her composure. "My one and only egg, and they stole it from me!"
"What town at the bottom of the mountain range?" Twilight asked. "We circled these mountains twice over trying to find Spike. The closest thing we saw was an abandoned old town, but from the looks of it, nopony has lived there for decades."
Celia did not provide a response. Or rather, she did not provide an intelligible response. All that she could manage was a stifled choking noise. It felt as if her entire world was coming down upon her. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't.
"Um...I'm sorry to interrupt, miss big terrifying dragon," Fluttershy spoke up. "But aren't we supposed to be going somewhere to fix Spike?"
"R-right..." Celia said. She would worry about that once Small Scale was better. She gave a look down to the whelp, doing her best to put a smile on her face. "Everything will be okay, honey. I promise." Then she took off towards the exit, the six ponies hot on her trail.
Celia stepped out of the cave exit, mentally cursing at the fact that the shaman's cave was so far away. With how small the ponies were, traveling all that distance by foot would take far too long. Three of them could fly, but the others had no wings to speak of. Her mind came up with a solution, one which she never would have expected to come up with in the past.
"Those of you without wings, climb onto my back," Celia said, lowering herself down. "It's the quickest way to get to the shaman's cave!"
"There will be no need for that," came a booming voice.
Celia's ears perked. That deep, masculine voice certainly didn't belong to any of the female ponies following her. She turned her attention forward once more to see what was probably the most shocking sight she'd seen in ages. The first thing she noticed was the shaman, standing there and looking oddly ashamed. That voice certainly didn't belong to him, nor could it have belonged to the small, feminine-looking pony standing in front of him. This meant that the voice had to belong to the tremendous platinum dragon standing behind them, easily restraining both of the shaman's claws with one of his own.
"K-King Bahamut!" Celia exclaimed. Never in her life had she personally bore witness to the Dragon King himself. She knew she was supposed to bow, but every single muscle in her body seemed to betray her at that very moment. That didn't stop her from trying, though, as she shakily attempted to fall to her knees.
"There is no need for bowing, my subject," Bahamut said. "Please rise. We have matters to discuss." Celia quickly did as told, pulling herself back to a full standing position, still clutching Small Scale close to her. The small pony with the flowing mane trotted up next to the king, giving him a gentle nudge.
"You've changed so much in the past few decades, Bahamut," Celestia said with a smile. "Remember when you made an entire city bow nine times before you finally gave them a break?"
"Indeed," Bahamut responded, a smile crossing his face. "Your ponies believed the reverberations to be the earthquakes that signaled the end of the world."
"Well perhaps if you didn't eat so many gems, the shaking wouldn't have been quite as severe," Celestia responded.
"I could say the same for you and cake," Bahamut responded. Then the two shared a good, hearty laugh.
Celia's mind was utterly blown as she watched the king of her people and what she surmised to be the princess of the ponies behaving so amiably towards each other. A large part of her wished that it was the only thing that had blown her mind and shattered her world view today.
"Enough jocularity," Bahamut finally said, still keeping his tight grip on the shaman. For all the shaman's size, he looked positively dwarfed by that of the dragon king. "Right now, there is a situation most dire that needs addressing." He nodded to Celia. "Please, my subject, let me see the child." He reached one massive claw out towards Celia, giving her a gentle smile to try and calm her nerves. Unfortunately, Celia's nerves were far too shot to be calmed that easily. Still, she wasn't about to disobey a request from the dragon king. She slowly moved Small Scale towards Bahamut as the ponies and the shaman all watched.
"Noooooo..." Small Scale moaned. "I don't wanna go with the big dragon..."
"He's the king of all dragons, honey," Celia said softly. "I promise that he won't do anything bad to you, okay? Isn't that cool that the king of all dragons wants to see you?"
"I guess..." Small Scale said through sniffles. Celia nodded and passed him into Bahamut's claw.
"Thank you," Bahamut said. Then he looked to the shaman. "Now, why don't you explain to everyone here exactly what you did, hm?" The shaman looked away, frowning.
"I still believe I was doing the right thing," the shaman said. "Ponies are not fit to raise dragons. They need to be raised by their own."
"That is not what I asked of you," Bahamut said, giving him a stern look. The shaman shifted uncomfortably before continuing.
"I lied about the brainwashing," the shaman finally admitted. "I found no traces of brainwashing on Small Scale, but you wanted your child so badly that I couldn't disappoint you. So I concocted a potion that would make him your child. It took away his memories of his upbringing with the ponies and imprinted you as his mother. You wanted a child and you wanted to free him from the ponies, so everyone wins. Admit it, you would have been crushed to hear that you couldn't keep him, correct?"
Celia couldn't believe it. The shaman, the head of the town who was supposed to be the most trustworthy in the land, had lied to her. And all under the guise of acting like it was for her own good.
"No!" Celia insisted. "Absolutely not! Yes, I wanted to keep him, but I made a promise to him that if he was not brainwashed and the love between he and the ponies was true, then he could go home and be with them! I didn't ask you to do that!"
"Think about it logically, Celia," the shaman hissed. "The ponies have hurt others in the past. Surely you couldn't give him back knowing that they might hurt him."
"If I keep him, then I'm stealing him from a family that wants to share their love with him," Celia said through clenched teeth. "I'd be no better than the ponies who stole my egg!"
Then she stopped. Her eyes widened as she thought about what Twilight had said earlier, and a curl of smoke blew from her nose. "Or was that a lie too? This pony here tells me that there is no town of ponies at the bottom of this mountain range."
The shaman fell silent, his face turning pale. Each moment of silence only increased the anger that was beginning to burn inside of Celia.
"Your shaman was apparently working to deceive your entire town into fear under his rule," Celestia said to Celia. "There were no thieving ponies."
"But...my egg..." Celia said, putting a claw to her heart. "What happened to my egg?" The shaman looked away, a sense of fear in his eyes.
"It was sold away," the shaman said. "As were the other 'stolen' eggs in town. I needed a way to keep control of the village and keep the anti-pony sentiment alive, since it seemed the rest of the town was going soft. But I tried to make it up to you by giving you this child, didn't I?"
Celia unleashed a mighty roar as she shot a jet of flame into the sky. It took the combined magical efforts of both Bahamut and Celestia to hold her back from the shaman, and even then it took quite a bit of strain from both. The shaman, for his part, merely cowered, terrified of the rage he had caused. The ponies ran for cover from the thrashing dragoness, terrified that an errant claw or tail would smash into them and send them sailing out of town. It took a solid minute of raging and being held back for Celia to finally wear herself out. When she did, all she had left in her was a torrent of mournful tears. The ponies attempted to move in to comfort her, but the issue of size prevented them from doing very much.
"All to try and propagate hatred between our races," Bahamut said, shaking his head. "This is not the kind of behavior I condone in any of my people, let alone one who is meant to be a figurehead for their townspeople."
"I'm sorry, King Bahamut," the shaman said pitifully, unable to even look up at him.
"Sorry cannot erase the wrongs you have done here," the king said. "You will administer the antidote to your previous potion to the young whelp here, and that will be the last action you take as both a figurehead and a free dragon." The shaman nodded sadly, too upset to even try to argue. He reached into his bag, pulling out a red potion and handing it to Bahamut. The dragon king turned to Small Scale, who had been watching the entire scene in fright.
"Shh," the king said to the scared whelp. "Drink this, and I promise everything will be alright."
The baby dragon shook as he stared at the potion, but something about the tone and poise of the dragon king imbued a sense of trust in him. Shaky claws reached out for the vial, grasping it and bringing it up to his lips. The potion was drained slowly at first, but the baby dragon's haste in drinking it increased as the taste of delicious rubies flooded his taste buds. Soon the entire concoction was gone.
"That was good, mister king," the whelp said, earning a smile from Bahamut. It was only a moment later that his belly began to feel warm. The warmth spread slowly to his arms, legs, and tail, before finally reaching his head. Bit by bit, memories and faces began flooding back, as if the dam that had been holding them back had burst. The force of the memories' return was so intense that it caused the baby dragon to clutch his temples and let out a wail before finally passing out amidst the worried cries of the ponies and the dragoness on hand.
~~~~~~~~~~
Spike felt warm. Wonderfully, wonderfully warm.
He wasn't quite sure when he'd been moved onto a cushion and given a blanket, but regardless, that was the situation he found himself in when he cracked one eye open. The first thing he noticed as he blinked the sunlight out of his eyes were the faces of both Twilight and Celia hanging above him–one obviously higher than the other. The two seemed to be engaged in a conversation that he'd missed the majority of due to his unfortunate unconsciousness. At least he could listen in on the rest of it.
"I can't tell you how terribly, terribly sorry I am for all of this, Princess Twilight," Celia said mournfully. "I know now that it was a horrible thing to do, but I honestly thought..."
"I know, Celia," Twilight said softly. "And I understand. You had the best of intentions. That might not change the fact that what you did was wrong, but it does count for something."
"Thank you, Princess Twilight," Celia said with a sniffle. "I just...I saw this baby dragon, and I was sure he was in danger and I just wanted to care for him and give him a good life...if I had any idea that I was wrong about my impressions of you ponies, then I never would have..."
"Shh," Twilight responded. "It's obvious to me that you have a lot of good in your heart. I don't believe for a moment that you meant any harm with all of this. And please, it's just Twilight. No title necessary."
"Right..." Celia responded. "Your kind words mean lot to a poor, foolish dragoness like me...thank you, Twilight."
"Thank you for taking good care of him in that time," Twilight said with a grin. "However little he may have wanted it. Thank goodness it was a kind dragon like you who found him, rather than someone like that terrible shaman." She gave Celia a little wink. "Besides, I heard him mutter your name a few times in his sleep. You must have left a good impression on him."
"Heehee..." Celia said, blushing lightly. "He was a very sweet, lovable child when he wasn't trying to combat my every obsessive little bit of treatment."
"He's a willful little dragon," Twilight said with a warm smile. "But that's just our Spike. He grows on you quick. But you seem to have grown on him, too. That's why I think this arrangement might work out quite well."
Something about seeing the two get along warmed Spike's heart. He found himself very curious about the "arrangement" mentioned and opened his mouth to finally speak up, when a purple mane poked into view.
"He's awake!" Rarity shouted. "Spikey-Wikey is awake!!" Within moments, Spike found himself ensconced in ponies, all six of his closest friends relentlessly pouring affection upon him. Then he was suddenly lifted from the cushion as he and all six ponies were brought in for a hug from Celia.
"Whoa!" Spike exclaimed. He chuckled a little, blushing intensely at all the affection he was receiving. "Heh...wow...h-hey, I'm glad to see all of you too! That whole last stretch of time was...kinda scary."
"I'm so sorry for that, Sma-" Celia began. Then she shook her head. "...Spike. I can't even express how sorry I am for that whole mess. Had I known that the shaman was lying, I never would have let you take that potion. I would have flown you back to your hometown myself first."
"Don't worry, I know," Spike said, giving her a smile from the middle of the pony pile. "You're way too nice to do something like that on purpose. Just...ask next time you see a baby dragon hanging out on a rock before you take them, okay? Not that I think it's gonna happen a lot more."
"Heehee...will do," Celia said. Her smile was genuine, but a bit sad at the same time. Spike took note of this and waved for her to move her face a bit closer. Once she was close enough, he gave her cheek a nuzzle.
"You're gonna be a good mom someday," Spike said with a smile. "I mean, you took great care of me, and I was a pain in the butt." Celia giggled lightly, then gave Twilight a quick look, as if asking for permission. Once Twilight gave the okay, she leaned in and kissed Spike in the forehead, eliciting a blush from him.
"That means so much to me," Celia said. She gently set the group back down on the cushion, smiling warmly down at them.
"So what happened to that shaman?" Spike asked as he leaned into a hug from Twilight.
"Bahamut took him off to prison," Twilight explained. "He went without a fight. Princess Celestia went with them too. Something about unfinished business? They were very vague about it."
"Good," Spike said. "Hopefully he's put away for a long time."
"It's not nice to wish bad things upon others, Spike," Twilight said sternly. Then her face softened. "But all things considered, I hope you're right." She giggled and gave his cheek a little nuzzle. "I'm so glad to have you back, Spike..."
"And I'm glad to be back," Spike responded. Then he looked between her and Celia. "So what was this arrangement you two were talking about?"