Please Stay

The day was cold and despite the sun shining down on her Twilight couldn't get warm, it was suppose to rain today. The Dragon Lands were so different from her home in Equestria. She flew quickly to the mountain which housed her friend. Her oldest friend. She landed at the mouth of the cave. It was dark and dry. The clouds were already starting to move in over head. She winced. Being here so close to him made her remember what she was like all those years ago. She would have wanted to study the clouds to find out how they moved like that.

That brought her memories of a rainbow maned Pegasus. She averted her eyes to the rocks and boulders. She recalled gem hunting an eon ago. She vigorously shook her head, trying to calm down she needed to calm down. Her eyes fell on a small green bush with red berries, they reminded her of the Apple Family farm, still going strong even after a hundred generations. Her heart sank in her chest. She cast her gaze to the cave's mouth. Memories of Fluttershy taming a giant red dragon came to the forefront of her mind. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. She swore she felt the frail pink party pony, whose mane had become candy caned with white, despite her eternally young spirit, wiping the tears away, as she said goodbye to the last of her friends.

No. She thought as she tried to swallow the tears down. I just never thought I'd say goodbye to this one. I thought that was my last goodbye. She finally broke. After Pinkie Pie passed she still had this one. Couldn't she keep this one. Just one. Please. The wind wiped at her mane bring the first of the dark clouds in from the sea, and if she tried hard enough she could almost pretend the wetness on her cheeks were from the first eager rain drops. "Please just one. One wish. One Prayer. Let me keep Spike. Please."

"Twilight." A weak and tired voice asked from the mouth of the cave. She looked up at him. She had grown since she obtained her wings. She was easily the size of Celestia. Spike however had grown to his full size he was now double the size he was when he had accidently turned into an adult dragon and attacked Ponyville. "Twilight, are you okay?" He asked. He turned his head to face her with his one good eye.

"Spike you shouldn't be out here."

"I heard you call my name Twilight." The elderly dragon held out his claw. Twilight stepped into the palm of his claw, There was still room in his claw. He carefully picked her up and walked back into his cave. It was a single cavernous space, with a large vaulted ceiling. Spike sighed as he lowered Twilight down. "Are you okay Twilight?"

"You're asking me, I think I should be asking you." She swallowed.

"I'm tired Twilight so very tired and cold."

"I could warm you up, like when you were little and sick." Twilight's horn glowed as she poured magic into the dragon.

"Twilight I greatly appreciate the gesture, but I don't think I'll ever be warm again. Spike laid down on the cave floor. "I called you here for a reason Twi, I needed to talk to you before I left."

"You've still got time though Spike you're only ninety five hundred years four months and three days old. You should still have half a millennium left maybe more." She hugged her baby dragon assistant's snout. She remembered the day he hatched. It was the day she got her cutie mark. He was always there. He always would be. Wouldn't he.

"If it were five hundred years ago I'd think you'd be right, but now." Spike patted Twilight on the head with one of his claws. "I know this is it Twilight. I've known for a while that I'd go soon. I think this might be my last day. I wanted to spend it with you, here with me. Just the seven of us like the old days."

"The seven of us?" Twilight rubbed her eyes. Spike nodded and pointed to a crevasse in the vaulted ceiling.

"Would you please bring them down for me." Twilight probed the hole with her magic and quickly found the things that Spike wanted her to bring down for him. She couldn't tell what they were at first. Only that they were all different colors and all about the same size, but as they got closer to the ground she quickly made out what they were. Who they were.

"They're action figures not dolls," he said evenly as though he were still the little baby dragon that lived with her in a tree, in a small village, next to a wild and untamed forest. She lowered them down around them. "They keep me company Rarity made them before she passed put a magic seal on them so that they'd never rot or decay, rip or tare, and the colors would never fade. Some times when I need company I take them down and talk to them, and image that we're all here together like the old days."

"I should have been here for you more often, I'm sorry that I left you alone for so long."

"Twilight." Spike reached out and pulled her close to him. "You've come by at least once every two months for the past nine thousand four hundred years. That's just a blink of an eye when you live as long as we have. I've never lacked your company." He hugged her like she was his favorite most treasured thing in all the world. "There's something I've always wanted to tell you, but I've never been able to, I was afraid, but now I want you to know." Twilight gulped tears streaming down her face. "I always thought of you as my mommy Twi."

"Spike," Twilight tried to wrap her hooves around him. Something she hadn't been able to do since he turned fifty. "You've always been my baby dragon. My little baby brother."

"I'm glad to hear." Spike's breath was starting to get shallow. "I'm not cold anymore Twi, I don't know how but you made me warm again." Boulder sized tears started to fall down the gigantic dragon's cheeks. "I know Rarity made you a set to, and before she passed I asked her to make one more. You'll find it in the crevasse opposite these five." He gently put her down and lay his head against the floor. "I love you Mommy Twilight."

"I love you Spike!" She held him until he finally breathed his last breath, and held him longer still. She reached out to the crevasse Spike had mentioned and pulled out a little baby purple dragon.

She buried him with their friends and his action figures, they'd never change.

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