• Published 15th Apr 2012
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For the Ones we Love - FlimFlamBros.



Spike must save Equestria from a newborn evil. But will he be able to stop it?

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The Recovery

A broken bone heals in a day,
A broken heart, is there to stay

Spike eyes slowly peeked open. His sight was fuzzy and shaky but he could still make out the tiny splashes the rain made in the puddles. He glanced around him, the trees seemed to move around him. No, he was moving, but how? He couldn’t feel his legs as they dragged slowly through the mud.

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening,” an upset voice said beside him.

Spike mustered up what little energy he had left. “Rare?…” he whispered.

Rarity had one of Spike’s massive arms wrapped around her shoulders. Her horn was glowing a powerful blue, trying to support the heavy dragon. She gasped. “Spiky! It’s okay, I’m getting you to the hospital. Everything will be just ACK-“

Rarity dropped Spike as they both fell into the mud. The dragon was just too heavy for her to carry by herself. Spike rolled to his side to get a look at Rarity. Almost every inch of her cloud white coat was soaked in either mud or blood. Her one eye was completely swollen shut and a deep purple, and her beautiful violet mane was glued to her face and neck with rainwater and mud. The mare kneeled by the fallen dragon, tears rolling down her mud-stained cheeks. She dug her face in Spike’s chest, ignoring the blood gushing out of it. “I’m so sorry Spike,” she said between teary breaths. “I just can’t do it…” she cried. “I’m just not strong enough.”

Spike rose his shaky claw and slowly stroked Rarity’s mane. Even in the rain and the mud, her hair was as soft as silk. If he was going to die, he was at least going to die next to the one he loved.

“I’m sorry.”

“…Spike…” she whimpered.

“I see Rainbow,” he groaned.

“You see a rainbow?” she asked, still staring at the dying dragon.

Spike’s head started to feel light. “Not a rainbow,” he said weakly, staring to fade again. “Rainbow,” he said, before blacking out again.

“Rainbow?” asked Rarity, trying to get an answer out of the unconscious Spike when she finally realized. “Rainbow.” She looked up to the sky. Sure enough, there was the cyan pegasus laying lazily on a cloud. “RAAAAAAAAINBOW!!!” she screamed.

The rainbow maned pegasus rolled in her slumber, cursing under her breath. “Trying to sleep here!” she called, unaware of her friend’s predicament.

“RAINBOW, SPIKE IS HURT!” the frustrated unicorn yelled.

Rainbow shot up from the cloud. “What?” She looked down on the bleeding dragon and the filthy mare. “Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god.” She panicked, quickly flying to the ground. “We got to get him to the hospital!” She grabbed Spike’s left arm and wrapped it around her neck, Rarity doing the same with the right. The two ponies ran towards the hospital, praying that they weren’t too late.

*****


The doors of the hospital burst open as the two ponies dragged the dragon inside. From there on, everything moved in a blur. The nurses and doctors quickly got Spike on a stretcher and ran him to the critical injuries ward. Rarity followed, never leaving his side. Twilight was alerted almost immediately afterwards and she teleported there instantaneously, tears rolling down her cheek.

Word spread quickly across the town, alerting all of Spike’s friends and anyone else he cared about. Soon, everypony in Ponyville knew what Spike had done, and that he saved Rarity's life.

*****


It had been five days since the incident. Spike had slipped into a coma and had yet to awake from it. Every day, the situation looked more and more dire.

“He’s been like this for five days now!” screamed Twilight at the nurse. “You’re a doctor! Fix him!”

“Please Miss Sparkle,” said Nurse Redheart in a calm, controlled voice. “I need you to calm down. We are doing everything that we can but he has sustained multiple injuries.”

They turned their attention to Spike. He was hooked up to many different types of medical machines with flashing lights and I.V. tubes. The dragon had a large bandage wrapped around his stomach area where he was cut by the Diamond Dog. His right claw was wrapped up where the leader had bit him. His face had healed up quite nicely, except for a deep red scar that ran down his right eye.

Redheart look back at Twilight. “You see Miss Sparkle, he’s lucky to even be alive. It was easy to treat the broken ribs, the internal bleeding, and the torn ligaments. But the dog that attacked him struck his underbelly, the Achilles’ heel of dragons.” She looked over her notes again. “Based on the amount of blood on the white mare and his low pulse, he must have lost over half his blood. If he was a pony, these injuries would have killed him.

Twilight was crying again, she was still angry and only getting madder at the lack of answers. “So? I don’t care! Just help him!”

“Miss Sparkle, please calm down.” The nurses calmness was strangely eerie. “We have done all we could, we even called in dragon experts from the university. But by Spike’s age, most dragons have begun to hoard and few are willing to volunteer for medical experiments.” She looked at the teary purple unicorn and sighed. “I’m sorry Miss Sparkle, but we just can’t treat him anymore. His body could have a negative reaction to the treatment. We just have to hope his own body can recover.”

Twilight started to calm down. She knew she wasn’t mad at the doctor, but rather the fact that Spike was like this. “Thank you,” she said as the nurse left the room. Twilight looked over to the hospital bed, and the mare leaning over it.

Rarity was beside Spike, her eyes full of sadness and regret. She had not once left the dragons side, not for food, not for sleep, not even to bathe as she was still covered in dried mud and blood. She could hear every word as she lay next to Spike waiting for him to wake up.

“It’s all my fault,” she moaned as she cried once again shedding tears for the dragon she loved.

She looked at the scar over his right eye. It reminded her of all the pain she had caused him even though it was unintentional. But like his scar, this could never be undone.

She brushed her hoof over the good side of his face. “I should have told you I love you and now it’s too late.” Rarity wiped away her tears as Twilight walked up beside her.

Twilight tried to keep clam as she spoke to Rarity. “How is he, Rarity?” she asked.

The white mare looked terrible. Her white coat was covered in a mess of dark red and brown, her purple mane and tail had dried to her body and had dirt and branches still stuck in it. Her face was the worst. Though her eye had healed up, her mascara had run down her face from all of her crying, and her eyes were strained and bloodshot from five days without sleep.

“I don’t know, he’s just been asleep for so long,” she said.

Twilight put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m worried too.” A tear started to form in her eye. “We just have to hope that he can pull through.” She took a look around. “Hey, where’s Rainbow? I thought she was visiting again today.”

“The doctors had to remove her again. She destroyed another hospital room.” She gave a little sniffle. “Truly un-lady like.”

Twilight smiled. At least Rarity wasn’t morning as bad. “So they locked her up?”

The door burst open, a cyan blue pony dashing in the room. “Was locked up,” she said, walking in up to Twilight and Rarity.

“They let you out?” asked Twilight, puzzled because the pegasus still looked quite angry.

“Yeah, they gave me a copy of the newest Daring Do to help calm me down,” she said, letting a large brown book fall from her wing. She looked at Spike. “Those damn dogs were lucky I wasn’t there. I would have shown them a thing or two!” She looked over at Rarity who was still cuddling the sleeping dragon. “She’s still here?” she whispered to Twilight.

Twilight nodded in response. “She hasn’t left since we brought him here.” She put a friendly hoof on her shoulder. “I’m still thankful that you were close by to help, Rarity.”

Rarity just stood there, head on the edge of Spike’s bed, crying as quietly as she could. “It’s all my fault…” she whimpered.

“What? No it’s not,” said Rainbow Dash.

Rarity lifted and turned her head towards the ponies. Her eyes were bloodshot, the redness of her retina merging with the blueness of her iris. “How is it not my fault?! I’m the one who dragged him diamond hunting! I’m the one who he tried to protect! I’m the one who could never show him the love he deserved!”

“Rarity, calm down.”

“DON’T TELL ME TO BE CALM, TWILIGHT!!” she yelled, slamming her hoof down on Spike’s stomach wound.

Spike’s eyes slowly peeked open. His head was pounding and his body felt week. How long was he out? Where was he? Was that Rarity?

“I don’t know why he does it? He’s just has to be such a...such a beast around me!” cried Rarity. What was that? She thought he was a beast? “If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happen!” Was it his fault all this danger followed him? “Sometimes I think we should have just let him grow up and be a dragon!” she screamed, running out the door of the room, Twilight and Rainbow quickly following her.

He was alone.

His heart began to sink. He just heard what he prayed he’d never hear. Rarity thought he was a monster. He groaned a little, barely audible at all as the depression washed over him, falling back into his sleep. Outside the room, Twilight and Rainbow were trying to comfort the upset Rarity.

“Rarity? Are you okay?” asked Twilight.

“I haven’t eaten or slept in five days, and I’m realizing that the only one I will ever love might die, and I just wished I never had met him. NO, I’M NOT ALL RIGHT!” she screamed, her angry bloodshot eyes filling with salty tears. “I just want my Spike back…” she collapsed on the ground.

The two ponies looked at the mare. “Is she all right?” asked Rainbow.

They heard the soft purr of breathing being emitted from the bloody pony. “She's okay, just sleeping,” smiled Twilight. She magically lifted the sleeping pony, and reopened the room’s door, placing the sleeping mare next to the sleeping dragon. Almost instinctively, Rarity rolled over to her side, sliding a hoof across Spike’s muscular chest as she snuggled close to her dragon.

The doors opened up again, as a familiar orange pony entered the room. “Howdy y’all,” she said sincerely. “How’s tha big guy doin?”

“Don’t know. But at least Rarity’s sleeping” sighed Twilight.

“Well, that’s good I reckon,” she said reaching in her saddle bag. “Ah know that there doctor food is rather nasty, so I brought you one of Granny Smith’s world famous apple pies!” she said pulling out a large, warm pie out of her bag.

“Thank you AJ, I’m sure they’ll love it when they wake up,” said Twilight. “Hey, where’s Fluttershy and Pinkie?”

“Oh, they went to Zecora’s. Said something about getting some sort of natural painkiller or something.” Applejack looked at the two in the bed. “Poor things,” she sighed. She heard Twilight give a little sniffle. “Hey there sugar cube, he’ll be all right. That dragon got a lot of fight in him.” She leaned in closer to Twilight. “Hey Twi, does Rarity know that she’s still covered in blood?”

“Applejack, I don’t think she cares right now. She hasn’t even been home since we got here. She’s been having me check up on Sweetie Belle, and she’s even staying at the library with me.”

Slowly, Spike’s eyes started to open again. He wanted to keep them close, never to awaken again. He heard more voices. Most of them were faded but he was able to make out who was I the room. He took a big breath and he felt a new weight on his chest, a hoof. He glanced over to see, of all ponies, Rarity. She was cuddled up next to him, fast asleep. Even though he now knew that she didn’t love him the way he did, it was still nice to be this close to her. As Spike tried to sit up, he heard the waves of gasps of ponies as everypony rushed over to his side.

Twilight was hysterical with her happiness, lunging right on top of the dragon and giving him a loving hug. “SPIKE! OH THANK CELESTIA YOU’RE OKAY!” she cried into the dragon’s neck.

“Nice to see you too, Twilight,” the dragon said weakly. “Umm, could you maybe get off me, you’re kinda leaning on my stomach.”

“Oops, sorry!” she said, quickly getting off of Spike.

Spike looked around him, seeing all his close friends around him. It gave him a good warm feeling inside to know that so many ponies cared about him, even if the one he truly cared for didn’t. Twilight decided to get him caught up with what happened during the five days he was out. How he almost died, how Rarity and Rainbow carried him all the way to the hospital, how he was in a coma for five days and how Rarity never left his side. That last one made him think. Why would Rarity stay by his side the whole time? He quickly abandoned this thought. She probably just felt bad or something. “So RD saved my life, guess I owe you one.”

“Don’t sweat it Spike, just doing what anypony would do!” Rainbow said proudly.

The door opened as the white nurse pony entered the room. “I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over, and we need to run some more tests.” The ponies obeyed the nurse, walking out of the room. She noticed the white mare and the now awake dragon. “Oh Spike, nice to see you’re awake but your friend will have to leave.”

“She’s asleep nurse.” He stroked her mane again. “Can’t you just let her stay?”

The doctor sighed. “I guess, the tests aren’t that extreme. I just need to take a blood sample.”

Spike gave a little chuckle. “That’s it? Just a blood test?”

“Yes.”

“And here I was hoping for a sponge bath,” the dragon said, giving the nurse a wicked grin.

“Who do you think cleaned you up?” she responded, returning the same wicked smile.

Nurse Redheart proceeded with the blood test, taking a large needle and carefully injecting it in one of his loose scales on his arms. “That should do it. I’ll be back in a bit. If the blood is clean, you can leave today,” she said as she headed out the door.

Almost an instant later, a pink flash of pinkness zoomed in the room. “Hey Spike! Wow you’re awake! That’s so cool,! Hey sorry we didn’t visit earlier, we just had to go and grab a potion from Zecora and then we had a rhyming contest which she won cause she rhymes all the time and then we came back but Fluttershy got scared and I had to sing a song but I wasn’t sure what it was about. Anyhooves are ya feeling better? Are ya? Are ya? Are ya?” the energetic pink pony shot at him with the barrage of words.

“Nice to see you too Pinkie,” sighed Spike.

“Sugar cube take a breath, yer gonna turn white again,” said Applejack as she, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy entered the room.

“Ooooooo but I’m just so happy that Spike’s awake now!” she beamed.

Fluttershy in her soft and timid voice finally spoke. “Oh, I’m so happy for him.”

“Me too!” bounced the party pony. “Anyhoof, I gotta go!”

“What?” asked the now annoyed Rainbow. “You just got here and now your leaving?”

“Well duh, I need to plan Spike’s getting better party!” she sang, hopping out the door. “See ya!”

“I guess we should all head back home,” said Applejack. “Got a lot of work to do today.”

Soon, everypony was saying their goodbyes and leaving the room. Nurse Redheart walked by Fluttershy as she left the room. “Spike, I have good news. The blood samples we took show no sign of contamination, and since you’re awake again, you can leave whenever you like.”

“Thanks,” he said, slowly getting up from the bed, being extra careful to not disturb Rarity.

“Just try not to overwork yourself,” the nurse said.

The dragon smiled. “Hey, if I get hurt again, I just get an excuse for another sponge bath,” he laughed. Nurse Redheart couldn’t help but blush as she left the room again.

Spike got up and out of the bed. There was still a large pain in his stomach, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He looked at the sleeping beauty laying on the bed. He felt a rush in his gut, overpowered by the sick emotions of sadness and depression. “Rarity, I love you. And I wish you could feel the same for me.”

He picked up the mare in his arms, cradling her like a newborn foal. She was light as a feather and just as beautiful and it sickened him that he could never have her. He quietly walked out of the hospital. It was very late. The sun had gone down and Luna had already risen the moon. Rarity opened her eyes slightly as she felt her body move, as if she was floating. She looked up to see Spike’s masculine face looking forward. Her heart warmed up as she was held by her one, true love. She smiled as she let her exhausted body fall back to sleep, comforted by Spike’s warm body and his steady heartbeat, a heartbeat that belonged to her.

*****


As Spike entered the Boutique, he noticed how little had changed since he last saw it. The fragrance of the mare still clung to the room, a smell Spike had deeply come to admire as he visited Rarity. Spike could not help but notice another smell. It was a stronger, fresher one.

“What’s that smell?” he though as he sniffed the air, the smell was coming from upstairs. He slowly made his way up the stairs with his precious cargo. He suddenly felt his foot slip as he almost lost his balance. He quickly extended his tail to push up on the floor and regained his balance. He looked down to see a perfume bottle lying on the stairs.

“Opal,” he muttered. That cat was always playing with things that didn’t belong to her. He ignored it as he continued up the stairs.

As Spike entered Rarity’s room he gave a quick look around. He noticed all the cloth rolls and strings of fabric and jewels hanging all over the place. “Organized chaos is still chaos,” he chuckled as he went over to Rarity’s bed. He slowly placed the mare down and was carefully not to wake her.

Spike took a seat beside the sleeping pony as his heart began to torment him with feelings of regret. Regret at what he told himself about Rarity, regret about what he heard her say. He felt his eyes grow watery, something that hadn’t occurred since he was young. He turned to face her. She looked so beautiful sleeping on the bed.

“Rarity, I would do so much for you…” He tried his best to push back his tears, he never wanted to cry. “… I would do so much for you if only I could tell you how I feel. Why does it even matter if I love you, you don’t feel the same way?” He looked over to one of Rarity’s mirror to see his reflection. For once, he didn’t see the handsome and attractive Spike he always saw in the mirror. He saw what he really was….

A dragon. A monster.

“You think that I’m just a beast, and you’re right. I’m not a pony and I can never be the stallion you deserve. You have your dream colt that I can never be.” It was getting harder to fight off the tears. “I should just leave you alone, go grow up and just be a dragon. But I can’t. I guess I’m just too selfish, too greedy... You’re so beautiful, the thought of ever leaving you...a life without you just seems unbearable.”

He couldn’t help himself. Shiny tears rolled down his face as he clenched his eyes shut. The few tears that squeezed through his eyes fell down his face and he caught them in his hands. Slowly, the tears began to harden, the liquid freezing in his hands.

“Dragon Tears, the rarest of all gems,” he muttered to himself, he looked at his crystalized tears. Rarity had always wanted some of these, but dragons weren’t known to cry often. “I’d give you these and my heart as well. But all you want is friendship, just friendship.” He stopped crying. “I guess I can do that. If it means you’ll be happy, then I’ll gladly suffer.”

He wiped up the last of his crystal tears as he finished his little speech. He rose from the bed and took one last look at Rarity. She was still covered in blood and her hair was a mess, yet she still looked like an angel to him. He leaned in on the mare and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Her coat was soft like clouds and he never wanted to pull away, but he did. With a heavy heart, Spike slowly closed the door to Rarity’s room. He started his slow descent down the stairs, his soul damaged and his mind weary. Suddenly, he heard a rattle in the kitchen. He quickly extended his claws in case of trouble. He slowly approached the door. There was definitely somepony in the room. He took a deep breath and charged into the room.

“Hey Spike,” Sweetie Belle said, looking at the shock look on Spike’s face. “Nice to see you’re feeling better.”

“Sweetie Belle?” the bedazzled dragon asked, looking at his love’s little sister. She had grown a lot in the last ten years, much like Spike had. Her body had come in nicely and her mane had grown out, resembling Rarity’s but shorter and curlier.

“Hello to you too,” she said sarcastically, taking another bite out of her levitating apple.

“What are you doing here? Twilight said you were staying with her,” he said.

“I was, but I come back home to feed the cat and escape Twilight. You know she had me do all your chores when you were out?” she told him.

Spike couldn’t help but smile, thinking of the young unicorn performing his long lists of chores while tolerating Twilight’s controlling personality. “Yeah, she can be quite a handful,” said Spike. Sweetie Belle walked behind him and hopped on a chair to be on eye level with the massive dragon. As she walked pass him, he couldn’t help up sniff a strong scent of perfume on her.

Sweetie Belle noticed the dragon sniffing the air. “It was Opal, she spilled the perfume.”

“I see,” Spike said. “So how’s school treating you?”

She shrugged. “Can’t complain, it’s hard work but I’m really making a lot of progress in my music class.” She started to get excited. “And, I heard that Sapphire Shores is looking for back-up singers, so I really hope I get the part!”

“Don’t worry about it. I was there when you got your cutie mark. You’ll be fine,” he said, pointing at her flank, a large music note surrounded by a big silver star imprinted on it. “Well, I should probably get going. If Twilight finds out I left the hospital without telling her, she’ll kill me.”

Spike started to head out the door. He was just about out when he felt a hoof on his shoulder. He turned around to see Sweetie looking right at him, her face dead serious.

“She loves you back you know,” she said.

“What?” he asked in shock.

“Rarity, she loves you Spike,” she repeated.

His heart stopped, contemplating what sort of sick game Sweetie was playing on him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lied.

“No Spike, it’s true. She never left your side, not even for a second when you were in the hospital. And, you should have seen her whenever she got ready for you to come over. She said it was to be ladylike, but I knew she was lying. She never freaked out like that for anyone but you, even when she had a date to get ready for!”

Spike looked in Sweetie Belle’s eyes. “Sweetie, look at me and tell me what you see.”

“I see the dragon my sister lo-“

“EXACTLY,” Spike interrupted. “I’m a dragon! A big, evil, ruthless killer that has no right to be with someone like Rarity.”

“You have every right to be with her!” screamed Sweetie back at him. “She loves you Spike. She was just too scared to ask you and you were always out with other ponies or dragons! Get that through your thick skull!”

“I’M A DRAGON!!” he yelled. “AND I HEARD HER CALL ME A BEAST! SHE WISHED I LEFT A LONG TIME AGO!! AND IF THAT’S NOT ENOUGH PROOF FOR YOU THEN JUST GO TO HELL!” The dragon pushed away from Sweetie Belle, left the house, and took off, disappearing in the night sky.

Sweetie turned around and headed upstairs. “Fine Spike, believe what you want,” she grunted. She headed to her room next to Rarity’s, but stopped when she heard a quiet sobbing. She slowly peeked into the room. “Rarity?”

Rarity was sitting up on her bed, she was crying in her hooves. “Sweetie…” she cried, a guilty look on her face.

“How much did you hear?” Sweetie asked.

“When the yelling started.”

“I see. Did you really say those things about Spike?” she asked.

Rarity tried to speak, but her voice started to break up. She jumped and hugged her sister. “I screwed up, Sweetie Belle! I said some things I shouldn’t have and he must have heard them!”

“Hey, hey…” Sweetie hummed, trying to comfort her.

“I should have told him how I felt!” she cried.

“Yeah, even Big Mac didn’t take this long to tell Cheerilee,” Sweetie said.

“I just feel so horrible! Poor Spike, his heart must be tormenting him!” Rarity cried.

Sweetie pulled her sister away from her. “It’s not too late. Pinkie is throwing Spike a party for his recovery, and it should be ready when he gets there.”

A new light lit in Rarity, her eyes filled with life instead of dread. “Of course! Come on Sweetie Belle, let’s go!”

Rarity was about to leave the room when Sweetie tugged her arm. “Umm, maybe you might want to clean up first.”

Rarity looked down at herself. She had completely forgotten that she was still filthy. “Oh, yes of course. First a bath, THEN we go get Spike and I tell him how I truly feel!!”