A Dragon's Duty

by CalebH

Chapter 7

Spike stood tall and proud before the gleaming castle. He resisted the urge to adjust his bow tie. Luckily his neck had grown in length much more than girth so the red bejeweled cloth still seemed proportional. Spike smiled to himself, Rarity had only needed a passing glance at an adult dragon to make him something that lasted him longer than a lifetime. He had spent the morning polishing his scales until they shone nearly as brightly as the crystal behind him.

To his right Greg stood at stiff attention. His black suit was immaculately pressed and starched to high heavens, his black feathers were preened to perfection and his golden crest was slicked down into a neat part. Beyond him Gilda stood in her smock. The elderly gryphon only seemed to be able to stand still for ten seconds before reaching up with a claw and pulling part of her outfit back into place. When she at last seemed satisfied with her attire she faced forward with a look that could only be described as ‘frumpy’.

Spike smiled to himself. Gilda had settled into a lifestyle of service a long time ago in Gryphonstone but she looked like she had never gotten comfortable in a maids outfit. Spike briefly considered changing the dress code for the servants of his household just to pick on her.

Spike couldn’t help the proud smile that sprang to his lips. His household. It may have just been two gryphons and a dragon but it was his, and Spike found that in a few short days he had become fiercely proud of it. So much so that when Princess Shimmering Heart had sent him a letter saying that she would be dropping by the next afternoon Spike had worked himself and his staff tirelessly to ensure the castle would be in perfect condition for her visit.

Now his entire household stood outside, watching the princess’s chariot slowly descend. Spike couldn’t help but admire the seamless transition between flying and rolling as the expertly trained guards brought the chariot to a gentle halt in front of him. Princess Shimmering Heart hopped excitedly out of the chariot. She wore a pale blue formal gown that was a scant few shades off of white. her matching mane was pulled up and bedazzled in an elaborate arrangement Spike had only seen Cadence put up with a few times.

“Princess,” Spike said as he bowed.

“None of that!” the princess said back. “If I have to call you “just Spike” then you have to call me just Shimmer.”

Spike rose with a chuckle. “If you insist...Just Shimmer.”

Shimmer blew a raspberry in Spike’s direction. “Well Just Spike, aren’t you going to introduce me?”

Spike gave a chuckle as he walked behind the two gryphons. “This is Gregory Ebonfeather,” Spike said as Greg bowed. “He’s new so if you have any weird, awkward, or confusing requests he’s your bird.”

“And this,” Spike said as he turned to Gilda, “Is the castle’s other living archive and my very, very old friend Gilda.”

“Gilda…” Shimer said thoughtfully, “Gilda Gryphon?”

“Yes, your highness,” Gilda said with a curtsey.

“No,” Shimmer said taking a step back. “You shouldn’t be bowing to me.”

“Please, highness it is our way.”

“Wait what’s happening?” Spike asked.

“Spike do you know who these are?” Shimmer asked.

“Gilda and her grandson? I was busy with some other stuff for the ‘cute little tyke’ stage but he seems to have done just fine.”

Shimmer gawked at the trio standing in front of her. “Spike this is the Queen Mother and Crown Prince of Gyphonstone!”

Spike braugh a claw up to tap his chin thoughtfully. “I thought I remembered something about you getting a promotion,” he said to Gilda. “So what’s with all this servant stuff then?”

“For a Gryphon to be worthy to rule they must learn to set aside their pride and so-”

“Gilda, this is Ponyville. Friendship shenanigans is always a valid explanation.”

Gilda gave a frustrated sigh. “Alright friendship shenanigans.”

“Spike, how can you be so flippant about this? Your house servants are royalty!” Shimmer demanded.

Spike shrugged. “I’m here to keep you royal types grounded. Sometimes it means laying down the law and saying no more books until you get at least six hours of sleep and sometimes it means telling you to get my guest’s bags. Speaking of which, Greg.”

“Of course.”

“Good guy. Anyways flippancy isn’t just in the job description it pretty much is the job description.”

“So you’re a jerk to royalty?”

“Well,” Spike ventured, “If I’m a jerk then I’m a jerk. It’s just that I don’t care about them being royalty. And I at least hope I’m not a jerk. Am I a jerk Gilda?”

“It would be improper to say in front of her highness,” Gilda answered.

“...Ouch.” Spike turned back to Shimmer. “So I’m going to be working on the whole ‘jerk’ thing but in the meantime why don’t you come inside.”

“Thank you,” Shimmer said as she made her way inside. Gregory and Gilda fell in behind her. “There is something very important you and I will be discussing.”

“Surprise!!!”

Somehow the entire population of Ponyville had made its way inside the castle and was now jumping out at the surprised trio with happy smiles on their faces.

“Oh and guys,” they heard Spike chuckle warmly behind them, “Welcome to Ponyville.”

---

Shimmer looked around the party nervously. It wasn’t that the party made her uncomfortable, if anything this was the most relaxing social gathering she had ever been part of despite the fact that three royals were the guests of honor. It was simply that Ponyville was impossible. She had seen ponies milling about in the market square throughout her descent, the same ponies that had jumped out at her and the two gryphons not moments later.

By far more impossible was the disappearing dragon. She had just seen Spike not ten minutes ago. He had been in the room everypony called the throne room (despite its lack of chairs) curled around a wide flat stage that dominated the entire room and talking merrily with a group of ponies with a lampshade on his head. She had waited near the entrance and so she knew for fact that he hadn’t left but neither did he seem to be in any of the areas large enough to fit him.

She came to another intersection and this time heard his voice drifting from one of the corridors. Spike’s voice was certainly deep but having seen some of the greats in the Canterlot Opera she couldn’t say it was the deepest she had heard. Still Spike’s voice held a presence that nopony could match. It was most likely due to the sheer size of him. His chest easily doubled anypony’s in any given dimension and so even his softest whisper seemed to force the room into resonating with him.

Shimmer giggled to herself, perhaps it was simple physics that made her heart flutter at the sound of his voice. She shook off the silly thought, there was nothing simple about it.

His voice took her further down the corridor until it came to a large and well stocked library. She made her way through the bookshelves, each showing a genre and range of author names, until she came to a large sitting area that seemed small and cramped for the dragon in it.

Spike laid on his belly staring up at a crystal statue of an earth pony mare. The statue reared back on her hooves but unlike other statues of heroes in this great pose there was no far off look of determination or even a challenging smirk. It was only a plain and happy smile that adorned the mare’s freckled face.

“I can’t even remember what she sounded like,” an unfamiliar voice said.

Shimmer blinked. She searched the area one more time to find a wizened old mare sitting beside Spike.

“I reckon I’ll be finding out soon enough, I don’t think I have another week in me.”

“You said that last week.” Spike said dully.

“I mean it this time. My joints have stopped aching in the rain, I quit having a cough if I drink water too cold. There’s a whole bushel of things my body did to complain that it just ain’t doing anymore. It ain’t getting better it’s giving up, and it’s about time too.”

“So you’re saying your goodbyes while you still can.”

“I never did care for goodbyes. I came to make sure you were happy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Spike I have nieces, nephews, and foals, great and grand. Seeing my family spread out and grow has brought me more joy than anything in the whole world. All I can say is how much I want that for you too.”

Spike shook his head and chuckled. “You Apples are all about family. I can’t say I’d ever get as much out of it as you have. But having Gilda and Greg with me, under my roof and part of my house, it made me so proud and so happy. I’ll think about it Applebloom.”

“Call me granny, everypony else does.”

“I’ll think about it Granny,” Spike said with a laugh.

“You do that,” Applebloom said as she rose to leave. “I imagine Rarity’d be mighty jealous of that princess of your’s.”

“She wouldn’t,” Spike said sadly, “but she would be happy for me. Do you want me to walk you back?”

“Naw, I can always find somepony. Shimmer’s wanting a word with you anyways,” Applebloom said as she passed by Shimmer.

“Shimmer?” Spike said in surprise as he finally saw the princess.

“I- I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I just didn’t want to interrupt,” Shimmer said.

“It’s alright. Come take a seat,” Spike said gesturing where Applebloom had sat.

Once Shimmer had settled into the spot she looked up at the dragon beside her. He stared up at the statue in front of him but rather than just a neutral or contemplative expression he seemed to be engaging in a phantom conversation with the shaped crystal until he finally hung his head with a barely audible “fine”.

“You aren’t here just for a social call are you?” Spike asked.

“Not exactly, no.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate the company but why are you here?”

Shimmer scuffed a hoof across the ground nervously. “Ever since I became an alicorn there have been rules to everything I do. Which fork to eat which course with, what posture, what tone to use when sitting on the throne. There’s some rules that are just intrusive. Did you know the senate decides when I can mary? They took a vote last week, turns out I’m old enough,” Shimmer said with an annoyed eye roll.

“So you want me to host your suitors,” Spike concluded. “Sniff out which ones might be Evil King Sombra’s in the making and scare them off.”

“No. I want for you to be one.”

Shimmer would have thought time had stopped if it weren’t for the sound of Spike’s breathing.

“I need to show you something.” Spike finally said.

Wordlessly he rose and began making his way through the shelves. Shimmer followed behind him curiously. they had almost passed completely through another sitting area before Shimmer realized there was a statue there too. She couldn’t help but stop to look at it.

It was of a pegasus mare, all but hidden behind her long, flowing mane. Standing sternly in front of her was a small crystal bunny, as if to protect the shy mare from unwanted eyes.

“C’mon,” Spike said behind her. “It’s further in.”

The next sitting area held a statue that was a night and day difference to the previous. Where the pegasus mare had shied away from the sculptor’s attention this mare shined in it. Shimmer could almost see the curled mane bouncing after a practiced flick as the statue beamed down at her with a radiant smile and sapphire blue eyes.

“This is Rarity,” Spike said simply.

“She’s beautiful,” Shimmer said without thinking.

From an empirical standpoint the statue was flawless, but there was a great deal of difference between an exact replica of a posed pony and this statue. The way her foreleg was lifted, the painstaking detail in every curve of her face and even the soft laugh lines around the eyes. Every detail was a soft plea from the sculptor to see the mare in the same loving light he did.

“She always was,” Spike said reverently as he touched a claw to the statue.

“Were you close?”

Spike gave a laugh. “I was close with all of them and I loved all of them but she, she was the one I loved.”

“I understand,” Shimmer said sadly. “After all not even a princess can compete with a memory.”

“It’s not like that,” Spike said. “There was one date that was just...pathetic. There was so much expectation we couldn’t hardly talk to each other we were so nervous. But after that she moved on and I let her go. When she brought some stallion home I gave him a few choice warnings and when she decided to marry one she even had me walk her down the aisle. When she had foals I bounced them on my knee and let them call me uncle Spike. And when she died...when she died it felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I thought giving her away at the altar was the hardest thing I had ever done until I buried her.”

Shimmer felt something hot and moist near her hoof. She looked down to find a teardrop boiling away on the floor, leaving only a small crust of salt once it was gone.

“She would want me to at least take you to a dinner, to give ‘us’ a chance. They all would. Twilight might have given you the third degree but in the end she would too. But I just can’t risk that I would fall for you,” Spike said, sniffling. “I can watch the filly that was so excited to get her cutie mark be lowered into the ground with a smile on my face because I know that she had a long and happy life but I can never, never bury the mare I love again.”

“I’m so sorry Spike,” Shimmer said gently.

“Don’t be,” Spike said, sniffling once again. “It’s not every day you get asked out by a princess. I’m just sorry I was too afraid to say yes,” Spike finished the statement with a loud sniff.

“Oh, here,” Shimmer said with a light chuckle as she summoned a kerchief.

Spike filled the delicate cloth to capacity and then some.

He turned to Shimmer with a rueful chuckle. “I don’t suppose you want this back?”

“Eaugh. Find a wastebasket or something,” Shimmer said looking around for someplace to put the trash. When she turned back to Spike she found the problem disappearing out the window in a trail of green smoke.

“What did you do with it?” she asked.

“Same thing I do with all the trash I’m too lazy to find a can for,” Spike shrugged, “I sent it to Princess Luna.”

“What?” Shimmer asked, laughing.

Whatever vestiges of tears Spike had left were chased away by a smile. “She complained once that the servants pick through her mail before it gets to her so she doesn’t even get to throw out junk mail. I figured I would start helping her out with that.”

“By sending her every piece of junk you happen to pick up?”

“More or less, yeah.”

“And you say you’re not a jerk to royalty,” Shimmer said sticking her tongue out at Spike.

“Hey you should see what she sends me back.”

“Oh, and what is that?”

“She practices her long range teleporting by sending boulders to a spot about three feet above my head.”

Shimmer leaned against Spike for support as she laughed.

“You wouldn’t think it’s funny if you’ve ever woken up under a pile of rocks.”

“I’m sure the headaches are, well a headache.”

Spike waved a claw. “Nah the real headache is keeping the cave clean when you’re perpetually getting more rocks. My skull is actually about as close to indestructible as you can get.”

“Really?” Shimmer asked. “I knew dragons were durable but I didn’t think they were that strong.”

“Well that and we sorta figured out a while ago that having the dragon eat the forbidden artefacts is a pretty safe way to get rid of them, so I’m kind of a superhero now.”

“Wow, so do the artefacts taste better or worse than gemstones.”

“Considering they were mostly books, worse. Plus I had to listen to Twilight go on and on about the historical and scientific significance of my dinner. But Princess Luna can throw rocks at my head without worrying about hurting me now so it was all totally worth it,” Spike finished with a toothy grin.

Shimmer shook her head. “You enjoy it as much as her and you know it.”

“I enjoy having friends,” Spike chuckled. “Whatever we end up doing together is just Icing on the cake.” After a moment Spike gave a sigh. “Speaking of cake we should get back to the party.”

Shimmer’s face fell. “I guess you’re right,” She said glumly.

“Hey, cheer up,” Spike said as he put a wing around her. “Maybe you’ll find a colt that catches your eye. If you like the strong silent type I know Big Mac’s great grandson is here and Applebloom can always whip you up a batch of love poison.”

“Why would I want to poison him?”

“The poor guy’s so shy that he’d never get a word out without some help.”

“Doesn’t ponyville believe in alcohol?”

“Nah, too boring. It’s not really our style. Now come on Fruity said she was trying something with gravel for me and if she managed to make it taste good this could change my life.”

---

Princess Luna frowned at the kerchief. Luckily it had landed away from the plush carpet in her bedroom and so what she hoped was dragon snot could be cleaned up fairly easily. She tossed the kerchief, embroidered with her niece's initials and the stick she had used to pick it up in a nearby wastebin. She moved to her balcony and gave some of the large boulders along the mountainside an appraising look. Some were as large as Spike himself which, considering what he had sent her, Princess Luna judged to be an appropriate escalation.

As the spell was forming on her horn she let it go with a sad sigh. She didn’t want to ruin Spike’s date or risk hurting her niece.

---

Spike wandered the empty, moonlit castle. Gilda, being old, had gone to sleep almost immediately after sunset, Shimmer had retreated to her chambers, claiming exhaustion from her long flight and the celebration, and Greg was occupied reorganizing the spice rack or any one of the myriad of things a butler did while his master didn’t need him.

Spike found himself at the entrance to the library again. From above the library looked like a six pointed star with the center being occupied by the check-out desk Spike had once called his own.

Spike turned to his right, making his way through a gap in the wall of bookshelves and into the sitting area that tipped this point of the star. He found that he couldn’t meet Applejack’s stony gaze as he passed through. While everything he had told Shimmer was true, it was not the whole truth and so he had not been honest.

“That’s not fair, I’m not even honest with myself about this stuff,” He complained to the statue as he disappeared behind another row of shelves.

In the next sitting area he found that it was the statue that didn’t meet his gaze. “Don’t you give me that too Flutters, you know that was letting her down easy.” The statue’s crystal eyes still refused to meet his even as the little rabbit glared defiantly at him. Spike gave a frustrated snort as he walked off to the next section.

Rarity’s eyes caught Spike’s for the briefest of moments before he turned away. He wasn’t in the mood for pity so onward he went.

Pinkie seemed to float impossibly above her pedestal in the middle of a giddy bounce. Her laughing eyes told of cakes and streamers and balloons and for a moment Spike smiled with her.

“It really was a great party wasn’t it?” Spike chuckled to himself. “Goodnight Pinkie,” Spike said as he slipped off to the next section.

Rainbow Dash lay sprawled out on her pedestal, caught in the rapturous moment of weightlessness at the top of a loop. her head craned back to regard the sitting area with lazy eyes and a cocky grin on her face.

Spike rested his head against a nearby shelf, letting the coolness of the crystal seep into him. “Do you know how many times I wished it had worked against Discord?” he asked. “Not just so I could have your place but so I could be more like you. How did you ever decide who to be loyal to? If i’m loyal to myself then I’m a self-centered jerk but if I pick one pony then I hurt another.” Spike sighed. “Everything was always so clear to you, every choice was black or white, I envy you that more than anything else. But who am I kidding?” Spike asked with a sardonic bark of laughter. “For country and duty, am I right.” He said as he began making his way to the final section.

Here the books became thicker and dustier. They would contain absolutely no pictures but diagrams aplenty. Spike inhaled the familiar musty scent of a nonfiction section as he made his way to a final sitting area. This one was stocked with desks, spare scrolls and quills, and anything else a young scholar might need. Spike approached the lump of crystal at Its center. He still had a great deal of work to do. There was so much of that cold piece of crystal that wasn’t Twilight and still needed to be knocked away but she was in there, Spike could feel it.

“I didn’t think I would miss you so much,” Spike said as he put his arms around the Crystal block.

“Oh Spike.” Spike blinked back tears as the memory of a tuxedo clad and much younger version of himself played in his head. He had made his appearance at the reception and retreated to this very same spot to be alone.

“I gave her away Twilight. How can I ever live with myself when I gave one of my best friends away?”

Spike could almost feel the hoof rubbing softly along his back.

“She’ll always be your friend Spike. Sometimes things change and our friends can’t be with us anymore but they’re never really gone. That friendship will always be there, always keeping us together. That’s one of the most incredible things about it, even if ponies do Friendship never dies.”

Author's Note:

I posted this right around Halloween but this is probably more of an All Saint's Day chapter.

Comments

[Kai-Zr]

Immortality can really suck sometimes.
Soldier on Spike soldier on...