It’s funny how much growing up changes you. I’m not talking about what puberty does to you, but rather, how much of your perspective on things could be turned upside down. For me, this is true, especially when it comes to figuring out what I want out of an intimate relationship. In truth, I never saw it coming.
As a dragon, I used to uphold the idea that I would dedicate my heart to a mare that was the closest thing to a fairytale princess. Back when I was a kid, I had a crush on a mare named Rarity. I won’t lie that at the time, when I first laid eyes on her, that I thought I knew what love was. How blind I was into thinking that this beautiful mare was perfect in every way, that I hoped that one day I could spend the rest of my life with her. In other words, I thought that I was attracted to only her.
However… one night at the Grand Galloping Gala transformed all of that literally overnight. I won’t go into too much detail, but what had happened was that two royal guards wanted to get back at Prince Blueblood, so they slipped some love poison in his drink in which I was caught in the crossfire. From it, I learned something about myself that had changed how I viewed myself… I was attracted to stallions too. The prank had given me the revelation that I’m bisexual.
While the Prince did come out of the closet and ended up marrying a stallion, I on the other hoof went on with my life as best as I could. Once puberty kicked in, Twilight had encouraged me to start dating (under her supervision, of course). The first pony that I asked out on a date with was Rarity, but, to make a long story short, we figured that it just wouldn’t work out between us. After that, I’d dated a few mares, as well as a handful of stallions too, but for a while, I couldn’t find the one that I could see myself being with.
That, however, changed when I got a letter from my friend, the Changeling King Thorax, in which he wanted me to, “Come to the hive as soon as you can, it’s urgent.”
It is here, that my story really begins.
At the time, I was a sober age of twenty when I was summoned by Thorax. Back then, I was a little concerned as to what exactly he needed me for. The Changelings had already been reformed and Thorax had asked everypony that he considers being his friends (myself included) for advice on rebuilding his kingdom’s society. Of course, I was worried as I thought that the new hive may have been under attack. So after quickly packing everything, I asked Starlight’s help for a ride towards the hive. On that late afternoon that mid-October did we teleport over to the Changeling Kingdom.
“Okay,” I said as I started rushing towards the towering structure, “Nothing looks destroyed.” Indeed, the rocky skyscraper of a hive looked to me in one piece. Even the plant growth, despite that the colors had changed into autumn gold, red, brown, green and yellow.
“Spike,” Starlight told me catching up from behind. “Don’t you think that you might be taking this the wrong way? He just wrote for you to come over, he didn’t say anything about an attack.”
“But what if the Changelings are trying to overthrow him? Or Chrysalis has used mind control again? Or Ember has declared war on him? Or-”
“Maybe he just wants to talk,” she interrupted. “Take a listen, does it sound like there’s any conflict whatsoever?”
Admittingly, it was strangely quiet. There wasn’t any revolution, war, take over, or Thorax giving birth to be heard. As we rushed towards the hive, we were greeted by a sharp, “Who goes there!” and a green, fiery flash. We halted when a sea-green blue, purple and blushing red changeling stood in our way, but we knew who it was.
“Pharynx, thank Celestia.” I said, “Thorax wanted me to immediately come over here, is something wrong?”
He tilted his head in confusion. “Not really? I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary in days. Although, my brother has definitely wanted to see you, don’t know why though.” Turning around, he told us to follow him, so we did.
“Are you sure that nothing has happened?” I questioned him. “No emergency? No sudden invasion? Nothing?”
“Trust me, if that were the case, I wouldn’t be doing this,” he craned his neck over to me. “Look, I don’t know why my little brother summoned you. If anything, he hasn’t told anyone, not even me. So your guess as to why you’re here is as good as mine.”
It was puzzling. What exactly did Thorax want from me? As long as I’d known him, Thorax wasn’t the kind that would just ask anypony to come to see him without giving a reason why. Sure, he would sometimes pop up to for the sake of surprise, but not usually the other way around. We followed him into the stone like hive, walking over the leafy ground and moss. Here and there, Changelings came to see who had arrived; many of them gave their friendly greetings to us.
We climbed upwards, towards the very top of the tower and onto the open plateau that looked out of the Changeling Kingdom. There, on a stone throne was Thorax that, no sooner had he spotted me, suddenly flung himself out of it. “Spike! I’m glad you came! And Starlight, good to see you too.”
After that, we greeted each other with the usual hug. But I noticed that something was a little off. Thorax seemed hesitant as if he was being careful with me like I was made out of glass instead of scales. As if he was trying as hard as he could to make sure that I wasn’t offended for whatever reason. “How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you for quite a while now.”
“Apart from making sure that you haven’t been overthrown, I’m relieved.”
This made him laugh before turning to Starlight, “And you?”
“Oh you know, same old, same old. The only thing interesting that’s happened is that I got to help Princess Twilight in a friendship problem.”
“That’s good,” he nodded, taking a few quick nervous glances at me. “Hey, can I talk with Spike alone? This is kinda important.” She told him that it wasn’t a problem and left, then he turned to the remaining Changelings, “Same goes with the rest of you. We need some privacy.” They too obeyed.
“Thorax? What’s going on?” I asked him. “Did something bad happen?”
“What? Oh no. It’s nothing like what you think, I swear. It’s that I have something that we needed to speak about. Friend to friend.”
“Um, okay?” I raised an eyebrow and found a seat by a wall. “So what’s up?”
“Well…” he hesitated. For several minutes he stood there, trying to think up of what exactly to say. “I guess that, first of all, I would like you to be the first one outside of the hive to know that I have found a Queen.”
“Oh?” This caught me by surprise. In all the letters that I had gotten from him, I didn’t know that he was courting someone. If anything, up to that point, I thought that he might have been gay. “You mean that you’re married? When did this happen?”
“Yesterday. And I know what you’re thinking; I can sense the confusion coming off from ya. The answer is no, I didn’t exactly choose her – the hive did that for me.”
“You had the hive arrange the marriage for you?”
“Technically yes. But don’t worry; we’re not doing this out of love per-say. If anything, my Queen has the role of my personal adviser, something like a business partner in a way. Besides, she’s nice, in fact, do you want to meet her?”
“Considering that nopony has heard of this, I might as well.”
He called out for the Queen, and a few minutes later, in walked in a salmon red Changeling that had a crown of flowers on her head. “You wanted to see me.”
“Yeah, I want to get you two properly introduced.” He said as he waved a hoof, “Sir Spike, this is Queen Lavender, Lavender, this is Spike.”
“Ah,” she went up to shake my claw. “So you’re the drake that my husband has told me about.”
“I wish I could say the same about you ma’am.”
“Oh I know, the news hasn’t gotten out to the outside world as of yet. So it would be unlikely that you have heard of me. Still, I’m grateful that after all that Thorax had told me about you that I finally get to meet you.” She crooked her head over to her newly wedded husband. “So, shall I start now?” He nodded. Then she began to slowly walk around me, looking and examining all over my body. “Sir Spike, may I ask you some personal questions?”
“I guess?”
“Are you currently in a serious relationship?”
This caught me off guard, “Uh… Not really.”
“Have you contracted some kind of illness within the past five years?”
“No?”
“Do you have a sense of humor and of fun?”
I looked over to Thorax, “What is this?”
“Just go with it,” he replied. “I promise that I’ll explain later.”
“So?” Queen Lavender inquired as she took hold of my arm to examine it.
“Well yeah, I guess.”
“Are you older than eighteen years of age.”
“I’m twenty.”
“Good, good,” she went over to look at the other arm. “Have you committed a serious crime in the past five years?”
“I haven’t broken any laws as far as I’m aware of.”
She went on to look to feel my back, “Do you hold any sort of grudges against King Thorax?”
“Wha- no. He’s my friend, he hasn’t done anything to make me not like him.”
“Do you have any plans of moving away from the Equestrian continent in the next ten years?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought of it that far.”
Then without warning, she ducked her head underneath my tail and asked, “Are you a virgin?”
My face turned bright red and I hopped out of the way, “Hey! Hey! That’s private!”
“At least he doesn’t have any unusual lumps,” she muttered. “Look, I know it’s really personal, but I must know. Have you ever had a sexual experience with another partner?”
“Why do you want to know? It’s none of your business.”
“Technically it is,” she responded. “However, given by your reaction, I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Alright, one last question and I promise to leave you alone: Do you currently have a crush on someone?”
I took a few calming breaths to get the blush off my face, “Not really,” I replied. “I haven’t so much as dated anypony in the past two years.”
She smiled and turned around as she began to walk out, but not before stopping in front of Thorax and saying, “I approve.”
Thorax instantly looked so happy that he hugged her, “Oh thank you so much!”
“Uh hey,” I called out. “Do either of you want to tell me what that was about?”
Queen Lavender looked over at him, “I think you might want to explain it to him.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “It’s about time he knows. I’ll see you later for dinner tonight.” Both changelings bid farewell, before leaving me and the King in the outdoor throne room. “I… I know you have a lot of questions at this point.”
“Yeah, like, pardon my Equestrian, what the living buck was that about? Did you honestly have me come all the way here for your new wife to ask me such personal questions?”
Once again, Thorax hesitated before sighing. “Spike, I think that now is as good a time to finally let you know.” He flew over to his enormous throne in which he sat on one of the armrests and patted the other. “I think you might wanna sit down for this one.”
Complying, I sat on the other end of the armrest. Looking back, it’s rather amazing how much I had grown in my teen years. I was now just roughly as tall as him and twice as skinny, so we practically saw eye to eye. Now I admit, as I was sitting down, I was preparing myself for whatever news he had to tell me. While I did have my assumptions about him and plenty of theories to fill Twilight’s library several times over - at that moment, as I sat there with my arms crossed, I waited to hear which scenario was coming true, “Okay, I’m listening.”
Thorax took in a deep breath, “Spike… I think it’s about time that I told you the truth. The whole truth. And nothing except the truth. And as much as I trust you as my best and closest friend, I honestly don’t know how you’ll react to what I’m about to tell you.” He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “The truth is… Several years ago, I started to realize, although slowly at first, that I was becoming more attracted to someone. It was one that I have placed so much trust in ever since we met, and ever since I’ve learned how to share love instead of taking it, it only increased my… enlightenment.”
“In other words, you’re in love?”
I saw his cheeks redden, “I-Is it that obvious?”
“Well, you’re not quite like yourself today so I assume that either something is horribly wrong, or you’ve found a special somepo- eh, changeling.”
“…. Yeah… You’ve got that part right. I think I am in love.” He rubbed his foreleg, “So I suppose you’ve guessed by now who I’m in love with?”
The next three words that came out of my mouth weren’t by any means a guess. Rather, an assumption that I’d had for a long time at this point. I wasn’t by any means blind to his behavior towards me; the letters that had a double meaning. The gifts he would bring whenever we got the chance to visit. Not to mention how much he wanted to be by my side like a bodyguard – along with him getting instantly suspicious of anypony new that I happened to talk to. I guess I always have known but I wasn’t sure if it was a Changeling thing or not for him to display this much of affection toward me. I never brought it up so that I didn’t give him the wrong impression. After all, I was advised to have an open mind until something solid were to show itself. And now, it strongly looks like it. “Is it me?” I asked him.
He didn’t say a word but looked me right in the eye and gave a nod.
“How long exactly?”
“Four, maybe five years give-or-take. Look, I’m sorry that it’s taken me this long to finally say something, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react if it was at the wrong time.”
“Dude, you do know that I swing both ways, right?” I deadpanned.
“Yeah, I know… but isn’t it weird to have someone confess their love for you when they just happen to be your best friend?”
I couldn’t say that I didn’t know. After all, Rarity, while I had a crush on her, was and still is a really good friend of mine. I do remember how much guts it took for me to outright say something to her. “Ah… Okay, yeah.”
He pawed at one end of the armrest he was sitting on. “Are you weirded out by me?”
“I can’t say that I’m surprised, to be honest. After all, I did have my suspicions before, only I didn’t want to cross a line, ya know? I didn’t want to overstep my bounds or take how you behaved around me the wrong way. Up until now, I wasn’t exactly sure or knew why you did what you did until now.” After clearing my throat, I added, “Still, why did you have your queen borderline molest me?”
“About that,” he gulped. “Spike, there’s one more thing that you need to know, and for me to ask of you. You see, while I was reconstructing the culture of the hive, I had help from not just the Princesses and other world leaders, but from history books too. I have been, for years, carefully looking through what worked in courts and what didn’t. Anyway, some time ago, I was reading up on how the old Prench court functioned, you know, before the Prench Revolution? In it, I found a custom that I and my Changelings decided to adopt.”
I raised an eyebrow, “And that being?”
“In Prance, it was common for the king to technically have two spouses or more without being called such. Louis XIV, for example, had an official wife, the Queen, in which he saw her as more along the lines of a business partner. She was there to assist running the country and to bear official heirs to the throne. At the same time, however, he had a second mare for fun. She was a mistress he could have a real, emotional connection with – so in a way, she was like the king’s wife and marefriend at the same time.”
It didn’t take long to see where this was going, “Hold on, your Changelings know that you’ve…”
He nodded, “To an extent, yes. They got to choose the Queen in which I would have official heirs to start a dynasty with. Hence, Lavender was chosen by a vote of the hive. At the same time, they wouldn’t mind if I took a Mistress, or, in this case, a Master, only if they get approval from the Queen and the one that I wanted to be my companion.”
Now everything made sense.
“Spike, I don’t ever want to force you into something that you’re not comfortable with. All I can do is tell you that I have developed feelings for you, and I want to date you. However, where you want to take this is completely up to you.” I stared at him for a moment, “And your new wife is okay with this?”
“Like I said, she wouldn’t allow this without her consent. And she already has. It’s up to you now Spike, you have a say in this. Now, it’s up to you to see if you accept this proposal or not.”
Never in my life, with all the ponies I’ve dated had I expected to be the in the eye of a king. Not just that, but being offered to be his… mistress isn’t an accurate word, but a sort of master to him? I thought for a moment if this was considered as one of those arranged affairs in which the other spouse knows full out. How would Twilight react? What would Cadence say? How would-
“I can tell that you’re feeling overwhelmed,” Thorax interrupted my train of thought. “Spike, if you need time to think this over, take it. If anything, I encourage it because this is one heck of a decision to make. Just rest on it until your mind is made up.”
My jaw was ajar for a moment before I found the words I was looking for, “What would happen if I say yes to this?”
He shrugged, “If that were the case, you’ll be free to see me whenever you want. My Changelings would see you as one of them and respect you like royalty. You’ll be able to sit next to me during meals. Go anywhere I go. Oh, and if you find yourself in some serious trouble, you’ll have an army of Changelings to assist you at your beckon and call.”
I blinked. “Yeah… I think I’m gonna need to sleep on this.”
Thorax nodded, “I know. Take as long as you need to think it over. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”
After telling him thanks and bidding each other goodbye, I began to leave the hive. Starlight Glimmer was chatting with a group of changelings when I found her. I told her that I was ready to go back home and soon, we were outside the hive.
“What did you guys talk about?” she asked me. “You were in there for a long time.”
I blushed at this, “It’s… It’s something that I just need to think about.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “It’s just that what I heard was a lot to process, so I need some time to myself.”
Two weeks. That was how long I have been pondering over it. Two weeks went by since Thorax offered me the position of personal consort. No surprise really that apart of the favors that Twilight and Starlight had asked me to do and Nightmare Night was coming up, I had a lot on my mind. It’s one thing to know that your best Changeling friend is in love with you. But it’s another when he wants you to be in some organized open relationship with too. This alone raised so many ethical questions for me. Before, I made a rule to myself that I wouldn’t date anyone who was already married. I wasn’t interested in having a spouse cheat on whoever they were with because of the potential mess that would make.
But… what about when the wife, a queen no less, not only knows about it and gave her full approval, but she’s perfectly okay with having her husband be with me too? On the one claw, Thorax did clearly say that he’s not in love with her and he didn’t get to pick her to be his wife. He’s had a crush on me for a couple of years now, and he is my friend after all. The guy wants to date me in which I should have no problem with because of my attraction and I know how to talk to him.
On the other… There has to be some consequence to this, isn’t there? Sure, the Changelings most likely wouldn’t mind me, and neither would Ember. (Besides, she has a certain fetish of watching two male dragons go at it… (Don’t ask how I know that.)) Not only that, but I’m pretty sure that nopony in the Royal Family would mind all that much as Blueblood had gotten himself married to a guy. It’s not so much of how others would react, but rather, if I decided to go along with it, would it work at all?
So two weeks later, I hopped on a train towards Canterlot for the sake of advice. Towards the only male gay couple that I know – after all, if there’s anypony that would have more experience in this sort of field, it would be Blueblood and Fancy. At this point in my life, they have been married for four years, successfully too. Of course, I had to write to Celestia to let me know where they were, and she replied that I could find them at Mt. Avalon’s National Park. So one train and taxi ride later, I arrived at the gate of the world’s highest park.
“Thanks for the ride,” I paid the driver what was due before turning my attention towards the series of boardwalks that crisscross the mountain like a spider’s web. “Okay, let’s see if I can find you guys.” I began my search for the couple. Climbing up the steps and across the wooden path through the forest of spruce and ferns, I was listening for any sign of them. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to hear their voices.
“You know… it’s a miracle that… at my age that… I haven’t fainted from… lack of oxygen… from our walks.” This I recognized came from Fancy Pants as I was climbing a set of stairs, their voices becoming clearer.
“But you do know that it’s good for you,” his husband replied. “It’s best to keep up your shape with some form of exercise.”
I heard the other stallion wheeze as I got closer. “Celestia Blue… Can we at least rest for a bit?”
By the time I got up to their level, I found the couple I was looking for with the two of them sitting down on a bench and a few nearby solar guards flanking them at both sides of the seat. “There you guys are,” I called out to them. “I’ve been looking all over for ya.”
“Sir Spike?” Blueblood said. “Well, this certainly is a surprise.”
“Long time no see,” Fancy was hunched over and still out of breath as he said this. “What’s the occasion… old sport?”
“Well, besides my helping Twilight with the upcoming Nightmare Night,” I walked over until I was across from them, leaning up against the railing. “I have been keeping myself busy.”
“So what brings you to Canterlot?” Blueblood inquired. “Are you here to cart some pumpkins over to Ponyville or did Auntie Celestia need you for something?”
I admit I was blushing at the thought of what I was going to say, “Well… None of those actually. If anything, I was hoping if you guys could help me out here. With something that’s rather… personal.”
Both of them glanced at one another for a moment, “Whatever is the matter?” Fancy asked.
“First of all, have either of you heard that King Thorax had just got married?”
They nodded, “Quite unexpected if you ask me.” Fancy commented. “It’s rather strange that he would get married so soon and without warning.”
“Nor had the etiquette of inviting us to the wedding,” the Prince pointed it out. “I don’t know how prized weddings are to Changelings, but you would think that he would have said something beforehoof.”
“Uh yeah… about that…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “You see, I went over to the hive just the day after that happened. Turns out, his pack had chosen his bride for him in which they did it out of stability of the kingdom.”
“Oh dear…” Fancy said with a concerned look.
“But it’s good though. They’ve chosen a nice enough queen for him. However, as I’ve learned, he doesn’t see her as a lover as more of a sort of a political partner or something like that.”
“Excuse me,” Blueblood raised a hoof. “Why are you bringing this up in the first place?”
I took in a deep breath. “As I was saying… I was over there a couple of weeks ago because he wanted to see me. It was there that I’d learned that he just got married. However, he didn’t just want to tell me that. You see… his queen had given him her consent to have a… personal consort by his side for him to be in love with.”
“Really?” this took the Prince by surprise. “Like what they used to do in Prance?”
I laughed uneasily at that, “Exactly…”
“Did he say who he wanted his consort to be?” Fancy asked and I nodded. “Who is it?”
In response, I lifted a claw and pointed at me, “You’re looking at him.”
“Oh wow,” they said in unison.
“Yeah… I know I brought it up when you guys got married that I’d had suspected that Thorax might have liked me in such a way. Now that I know beyond a doubt, I’m not exactly sure where I stand in all of this.”
I shook my head, “I’m planning on telling her as soon as I get back to Ponyville after I get some advice from you guys. You see, in the past when it comes to dating, I had a rule that I would never go out with somepony that’s already married. Since I don’t want to get others into trouble for cheating and all that, only… this isn’t quite the case. Like I said, Thorax’s wife has approved of me being a sort of… of Master or court consort or whatever-you-call-it. Don’t get me wrong, Thorax and I have been good friends from the start. But the real thing is: I don’t exactly feel the same way back. Sure, he told me that he loves me, but I don’t exactly feel that way towards him.”
“Are you saying that you won’t give him a chance,” Fancy pointed out, “Just so that the two of you would remain as friends?”
At this point, I just slid down until I sat on the boardwalk. “I… I don’t really know at this point. This is Thorax we’re talking about here. He has saved my life and I did the same with his. He has taught me so much as I have with him. We changed how the world saw us Dragons and Changelings, that we’re more complex than just being monsters. It would be eternally unfair for the guy that has had a crush on me for all these years to get nothing in return. While it’s entirely possible for me to feel the way he does, I don’t at the moment and I’m still weirded out by the whole married thing.”
Fancy hummed in thought, “And have you considered how your friends and family might react to this?”
I nodded, “To a degree, I had thought about what if I did take up the offer. I know the Princesses would be thrilled about it. Twilight would no doubt not only accept us but probably would do an intense case study on us too given what kind of Changeling Thorax is. Plus, her friends already know that I’m Bi so this shouldn’t come as any surprise. Admittedly though, I am concerned about what if it doesn’t go well and Ember finds out. After all, I’m part of the Dragon Clan, so if something really goes wrong, it might give her a reason to go into a full out war with the Changelings.”
Blueblood raised an eyebrow, “That sounds a little farfetched if you ask me. I thought that Ember and Thorax were on good terms with one another?”
“You never know.”
The prince rolled his eyes, “Sir Spike, speaking as one friend to another, I honestly think you are making this a much bigger problem for yourself then it needs to be.”
I blinked, “How so?”
“For one thing, his new Changeling queen is perfectly fine with this arrangement, which tells me that she and especially Thorax do place a lot of trust in you. You said so yourself that the queen isn’t there to be his lover, but as a partner to run their kingdom. Plus, maybe you should give him a chance to date you to see if he might be what you're looking for in a coltfriend. I say that with someone like him is a fantastic way to figure things out. Plus, even if it doesn’t work out, the worst you could expect is that things would get awkward between you two for a while.”
“So you’re saying that I should go ahead with it?”
Fancy mussed for a moment, “How about you give him a sort of test date to see if you really do want to have this sort of relationship? That way, you two could learn if you do want to be his handsome, young Master.” He said with a wink.
As much as I blocked out that last sentence, he did bring up a solution that I’d overlooked. A test date. Such a thing would give me an idea of what I’m getting myself into. Plus, it wouldn’t be official if I was just experimenting with the role. If it gets too awkward, we could call it off and nopony would be hurt as a result of it. Looking back at it now, I should have been kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner.
“You know what?” I said getting up, “That actually makes the most sense. Perhaps I should just suck it up and take a chance with it.”
“That’s the spirit!” Blueblood smiled. “Oh, and before you go, are you still planning to come to our Ogres & Oubliettes for Guys Night in November?”
“Is Shining and Sunburst coming over for guy's night?”
He nodded, “Unless another impending crisis comes, they’re committed to coming over. But what about Thorax? Are you going to convince him into joining us?”
“We’ll see,” I winked. “But for now, I think I have an idea what to do so I need to head back to Ponyville. It was nice seeing you both, it’s been a while.”
“Of course,” Blueblood poked his husband, “that wouldn’t be the case if he would at least come to guys night.”
His spouse rolled his eyes, “Please, I’m too busy with being a patron as it is. I wouldn’t have enough time even if I wanted to.”
“It could be fun.” While the prince was teasing his husband, I saw this as my point to leave. After saying goodbye to them, I began to head down the mountain with the answer I was looking for.
If there was a single holiday out of the whole year that the Changelings look forward towards, it was Nightmare Night. It was no secret that ever since Chrysalis was overthrown, Thorax had introduced to his hive the ideas of the holiday to them. If anything, as the years went by, they’d put in some unique twists of their very own.
Fortunately, the Changelings are masters of disguises. So on that night, the more fantastic or creative the getup, the better. Thorax had told me through letters that they had gone from historical characters to those in world fiction, myths, gods, spirits, monsters that don’t exist, or something new nopony has ever seen before. And so, on Nightmare Night, I decided to uphold that tradition myself as I arrived at the hive.
When I arrived as the sun was setting and the air was becoming chilly, the hive was dressed in lights. Stones of eerie greens, to sinister oranges and malicious violet lights, cast shadows both in and outside of the place. Every so often, weird shadows glided about the hive while laughter and shrieks perfumed the air.
Before I could cross the threshold of the kingdom, I took one last look at the costume I was wearing. That year, I decided to go for something of a Coltgyptian theme: masquerading as the god Sobek, the River God and the divine bodyguard for the Pharaoh. Since he was depicted as a crocodile, all I needed was the bejeweled arm and ankle bands, bracelets, a surprisingly heavy neckpiece, traditional kilt and the crocodile mask (all thanks to the hard work from Rarity’s skill). So after putting the mask on, I silently went towards the hive. At the same time, I’d noticed that Pharynx hadn’t jumped out at me.
For a while in search of Thorax, I didn’t find the need to hide in the shadows as the Changelings were already in their fantastic disguises, so I just blended in with the crowd. While I was looking around, I couldn’t help but take notice of the creatively nightmarish creations that these guys put on that year. From shadowy giants that had the legs of spiders to the realistic looking rotting zomponies, these guys could walk into any costume contest in Equestrian and win.
After some looking around, I was able to finally find not only the king but his brother too. They were in the, what one would call the “cafeteria” part of the hive where the brothers were by the punchbowl, talking. Silently, I made my way over to the point that I could hear them.
“Are you going to join in the festivities?” I heard Thorax asked as he poured a ladle full of… something green and glowing, into his cup. “You know you don’t have to chaperone me all night.”
Pharynx frowned, “I still don’t understand why you throw this every year, making yourself more vulnerable than any other day of the year.”
His younger brother let out a frustrating sigh, “Really? Are we seriously going to go through this again? I’m not in any danger and you know it. There are no monsters here except for our shape-shifting subjects that are doing this willingly. Besides, even if there is something that just waltzed in here, you think that I…” He trailed off and I froze in place as he was staring right at me. His brother followed his line of sight.
“Uh…” I spoke up with the voice of an idiot, “Trick or treat?”
“Spike?” Thorax asked. “Is that you?”
Seeing that my surprise was ruined, I forced myself to take off the mask. “Hey guys, Happy Nightmare Night.” No sooner had I completed this sentence was I tackled to the ground by the king who was obviously happy to see me.
“Spike! What a surprise! I didn’t know that you were coming.” You know, the guy sure has a real tight grip whenever he wants to show it unintentionally. I was waving my arms around for air. Mercifully he let go, “Oh,” he nervously chuckled, “Sorry about that.”
“Holy crap Thorax!” I exclaimed, “Did you always have super-strength and I just didn’t know about it?”
Pharynx laughed, “Never underestimate the strength of a Changeling King kid. Especially when he has a brother that’s on his flank to whip into shape. And besides, what are you doing here anyway? And dressed like one of those… Coltgyptian Gods?”
“It’s my costume,” I said dusting myself off and picking up the crocodile mask. “This year, I’m going as Sobek, the god of the Nile and divine bodyguard of the pharaohs. Like Thorax here,” I remembered winking at him. Here, Thorax’s green cheeks had darkened by several shades, as if realizing my true intent for coming here. “Besides,” I added, “Twilight doesn’t need me this year in Ponyville, so I thought that I might shake things up a bit by coming here. I’ve heard you’ve taken Nightmare Night in a unique way and I wanted to experience it up close.”
I’d noticed that Pharynx was looking at his younger brother the whole time as I was saying this, had an eyebrow raised up high. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked him.
“Huh?” this snapped his younger sibling’s attention. “Uh yeah, of course, I am. Hey, why don’t you go down towards the haunted dungeons, I’m sure that you could provide a scare or two down there.”
“But what about-”
“I’ll be fine Pharynx,” he said as he wrapped his foreleg around my shoulders. “Spike here is a dragon, even if something were to go wrong, he should be able to take care of it.”
But his suspicious expression didn’t subside, even when he started to head his way out, then it was just the two of us and some changelings that went in and out. “So how’ve you been?” I asked him as I put the mask back on.
“You mean besides planning Nightmare Night? Well, nothing significant has happened…” He returned his focus towards the bowl of mystery punch. “I have been waiting to hear from you.”
“About that,” I began, taking ahold of the heavy neckpiece to rub an itch out. “That’s the main reason why I’m here.” This managed to snap his attention. “I know that it has taken me two weeks to think this over and even ask a few ponies about it. But I have been thinking about what you told me the last time we met.”
“Oh?” he replied before downing a glass of glowing liquid. “And what is your answer?”
For a moment, I hesitated, and I could tell that Thorax was on edge as he was desperately trying to read off of me. No doubt from the emotions I was showing. “Firstly, I want to say that I’m flattered. It isn’t really every day that not just a king, but a Changeling King has taken an interest in me. Second, I’m sorry to tell you this, but as of right now, I don’t have those same feelings that you have towards me.”
There was a brief second in which he was devastated at this piece of news. So I quickly added, “But before you say anything, what I just said isn’t by any means that I’m rejecting you.” Now he looked confused. “You see, I’m not exactly sure if this would work at all. However, I know you. You are a great friend that anyone could ask for. So it would be rude of me after all those years we’ve known one another not to repay you for your kindness. I have come out here to say that I won’t fully accept it, unless, we do a sort of test run.”
The king blinked, “Test run?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, “I’m not asking you to take me out on a date right this very second. But sometime in the near future, we should give it a try or two. If it all goes well in which I feel comfortable dating you, then yeah, I’ll take up the offer. If not, at least we cut it off before it could get any worst. Does that make any sense?”
“Perfectly!” Thorax smiled widely, hugging me again but taking care not to crush me. “I promise that you won’t regret it.”
“I hope so,” I muttered.
“Hey, what do you want to do?” He asked me as he downed whatever the glowing punch was. “There’s a lot of activities around the hive from the disguise contest, the haunted dungeon below, there’s bobbing for gorbs, pop and scare, ghost storytelling competition, trick or treat, what are you in the mood for?”
“What’s that you’re drinking?” I pointed to the punch bowl.
“We call it Nightmare Nectar; it’s our own special brew. It may sound intimidating but it’s the sweetest thing you could ever taste. Want some?”
“Maybe later,” I said adjusting the mask. “One last thing before we go do something, can I ask you a personal question, Thorax?” He told me to go ahead. “Does your brother know about, well, that you want me to be your…”
“Uh…” his ears folded back against his head. “Not exactly. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he already knows about my orientation from a long time ago. Heck, I used to dabble in things that a male Changeling wasn’t supposed to at the time. He knows that I prefer guys, but he doesn’t know exactly who. Only Lavender knows about us.”
“Speaking of which, how is she with this arrangement or whatever you call this? I know she gave her consent, but won’t this cause any problems between you?”
He shrugged, “Not really. She’s not jealous or anything because otherwise, she wouldn’t have approved of you. But for now, let’s not worry about that, we have all night to have fun.”
“Fair enough, but what do you want to do? Just drink this stuff all night?”
“Nope,” he smirked as he got an idea. Then in a burst of green fire, there stood before me was the Coltgyptian God Anubis. “If anything, let me teach you how to play pop and scare.”
I don’t remember much of that night, for I have foggy memories of giving those Changelings a heart attack from popping out of nowhere. What I do remember, however, was after all of that where I was making my way back to Ponyville, that I would set a time a place in which we could have our trial date. I had it scheduled for a week after Guys Night, but I haven’t settled on the place. Nevertheless, it was Twilight that stepped in with the suggestion of having the whole trial date thing to be at the Friendship Castle in Ponyville.
Needless to say, that I’ve made sure that Twilight wouldn’t be interrupting us nor would she be spying as she did in the past. If anything, I’ve made sure that Celestia would be enough to get both her and Starlight out while I orchestrated the whole thing. After all, it isn’t every day that you’d get to date someone who is a king so I had to be sure that everything was perfect.
Now, before I go on to describe the date itself, I want to point out something here: when it comes to dating, I try to go for something a little bit original. Regardless of who they were, I didn’t just want to see a movie or have dinner in a fancy restaurant. I date someone in which regardless of how it ends, I do want to leave some kind of impression. So on that night in early November, that’s exactly what I did.
Thorax showed up on time at six on the dot. He had with him a few Changeling guards by his side as they flew in on the chilly air. I rushed over to the front door as quickly as I could before he could knock, in which I was able to reach over there just in time.
“Hey Thorax,” I greeted him even though I was somewhat out of breath, “Right on time.”
“How’ve you been?” He smiled at me. “I was kinda worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it.”
“Nah, your timing was perfect.” I held the door wider. “Come on in, I’ve got a little surprise for you.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” the Changeling King turned to one of the guards in which they handed him a silk bag. “This is for you. I hope you don’t find it of me too forward to give this to ya.”
I was curious as to what he’d given me this time. Taking the silk bag into my claw, I untied the silver threads apart and peeked inside. “Are these candied diamonds?” He nodded, “This is perfect for dessert. You can come in now.”
He turned to his guards and told him that they can stand there to watch while he went inside. They saluted and took their place at the entrance. “So where’s Princess Twilight?”
“I had Celestia keep her and Starlight Glimmer occupied in Canterlot, we pretty much have the castle all to ourselves.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Oh? And how come?”
“Two reasons: First and foremost is that I don’t want to be spied on again,” I told him as I begun to show him the way to the dining room.
“Again? You mean that she did this before?”
I smirked, “Yeah, I’ve quickly learned that when it comes to me dating anypony, Twi tends to try to keep a close eye or ear on me. I know that she has been protective of me, but personally, I’d rather be on a date one on one, you know what I mean?”
He nodded. “I guess so. Now you promise that there are no hidden cameras or microphones anywhere?”
“I’ve already checked – that’s why I told her that I would be dating you three days from now so she wouldn’t know about what’s going on now.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you had a sly side.”
“Which leads to my second reason: Considering what you are offering me, I thought that if there is a possibility that we might become more than just friends, then I needed to eliminate as many outside influences as possible.”
“You know, I am rather curious, what are we going to do anyway?”
I showed him to the door of the dining room. Behind it, as I flung the doors open to show him that among the lit candles, the china, silverware, plates of raw vegetables, pasta, spices, fresh fruit, eggs, milk, and chocolate, were knives, mixing bowls, whisks, measuring cups, spoons, a specially constructed stovetop, and oven. “Uh… Spike?” Thorax asked me in bewilderment. “What’s all this for?”
“I have a question for you: do you know how to cook?”
This surprised him, “Wha- N-No, I don’t have a clue how.”
I smiled, “Good. For this trial date, I’m going to teach you how to cook.”
“But isn’t it hard?”
“Not really,” I drew him in by the shoulder. “Of course, there are a few rules that you’d need to follow. But trust me when I say that I have been doing this for quite a while now and I know what I’m doing. Of course, you’d gotta let me lead you in how to make our dinner.”
“You do know that what we eat is different than what you guys eat, right?”
I was ready for this, leading him over to the table; I picked up one of the jars from where the spices were kept. “That’s why I’ve asked your brother to send samples of your favorite flavors over here. As weird as some of this stuff is, I do think that with a little creativity, we might come up with something tasty for the both of us.”
He gave a low whistle, “You thought up of everything, haven’t you? So…” He looked around at the spread. “What exactly do we do?”
“I figured that I wanted to keep this as simple as possible. We’ll be having a two-course meal: a pasta and dessert. Don’t worry, it's drop-dead easy for both of them, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on you while we’re making this. I’ll show you how step by step. So you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he shrugged. I could tell that he was feeling uneasy about this.
So I got out two cast iron deep frying pans. “First thing’s first, we’re going to make ourselves a one-pan pasta. It doesn’t need as much cleanup as the dessert, but I think that it’s pretty much foolproof.” After taking one of the pans he asked what he does with it. “We put them on the stove, but we don’t want to lit the fire just yet. Here, come with me.” I lead him towards the table where the vegetables and knives were. “So apart of the noodles themselves, we’d need to chop some vegetables to make the sauce itself.”
With that, I taught the king how to chop an onion and some cloves of garlic as thinly as possible. I noticed he was tearing up halfway of chopping one of the onions. “Wow, this stuff is strong.” He commented as he took a moment to clear his eyes of his tears. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yeah, it’s to help the flavor. But that’s because you’re not chopping as fast as I am. But I wouldn’t recommend for someone who hasn’t had enough experience. So take your time.”
I watched him as he methodically sliced the onion before moving onto the garlic. While we were chopping, I asked him, “So is this really your first time cooking?”
He shook his head, “I’ve already told you that I never did. Since we mostly feed on love, we haven’t bothered learning about cooking techniques from ponies. Heck, I never had a taste of pony food until the Crystal Empire. You know after you found me.”
“Oh yeah!” I snapped my claws. “I keep forgetting to ask you about that. What was the first thing you’ve eaten anyway besides love?”
“Do you know those… (What do you call them?) Purée’s, I think it was. At first, since no one had any idea what else I could eat, I was given several bowls of purified fruit, just to see what I could take. In the end, I managed to consume all of it. Then they moved on to vegetables, then soups, bread, roasted stuff, smoked, even desserts. They even encouraged me to experiment with food from across the globe from deep fried crickets to tea’s – all on the same day too.”
I grimaced, “Sheesh, I bet your stomach was really aching from eating all of that.”
“Are you kidding?” he chuckled. “I had my mind and taste buds blown by all the different flavors, textures and techniques outside of just feeding on pure love alone. What’s even more remarkable, is that the cooks who made all of it had put their love and passion into it – literally. Even with the blandest of foods, there are tiny traces in there.”
“Well, that’s cool,” I said as we moved on to chopping the cherry tomatoes. “So I guess there’s love being put into this meal, huh?” I paused at the realization of what came out of my mouth. “That was a stupid question, wasn’t it?”
Thorax laughed, “Not at all! Yes, there is indeed love that is going into this meal.” The room became quiet, except for the chopping of vegetables and him trying to copy what I was doing. “Hey, Spike?”
“Hm?”
“Why are you teaching me how to cook?”
I shrugged and told him the truth. “To be honest, if we are going to be on this date, why not make it memorable. You know… just in case…”
He raised an eyebrow, “Of what?”
“That… that maybe this time that I have found what I was looking for,” there was a very uncomfortable silence between us.
“Can I ask you a very personal question?” I told him that he could go ahead. “I know that you have been on dates before, so do you want to let me know what is your ideal special some… body.”
“If you think of changing into the partner of my dreams then the date is over,” I smirked.
He blushed as deeply as the cherry tomatoes. “Oh no! I’m not planning on that I swear!”
I chuckled, “Relax, I’m just pulling your tail is all. But to answer your question,” I moved on to a clawful of chili peppers. “Being the kind of guy that swings both ways, I guess that I’m a little leaning towards personality than anything else. Like, the guy that I would live with, I can imagine being someone that I can lose myself in conversation with for hours and not realize how long it’s been. I want to be with someone who has a good deal of knowledge and wisdom but doesn’t talk down to me about it, but talks on the same level. I wanted to be with someone that I don’t fall in love overnight, but rather have it grow with time. I hope to be with someone who is mature, yet young at heart. One that can not only share the same interests but show me a new perspective on the things they’re interested in.” I looked up from the cutting board. “I’m not boring you, am I?”
He shook his head, “Not at all. It’s kinda funny in a way.”
“What do ya mean?”
“Those are the same traits that I fell in love with.” He told me as he finished chopping the tomatoes.
I snorted, “Really? I’m all of those things?”
“Yeah! You’re always fun to talk to and you’re a really good listener. I’ve learned more about pony and dragon culture in a way that I can understand clearly. It took me years to realize that I was developing feelings for you. You’re mature for your age, but when you want to have some fun or show me something new, I’m able to walk away knowing something that I didn’t before.” He looked at the peppers near him. “Uh, do you mind if I skip these?”
“No problem, remember these jars?” I pulled out a few in front of him. “I think you might want to flavor your pasta up with one or two of these.” He did choose one of the jars to which we proceeded to arrange our ingredients into the pans. But before I could ignite the heat, I went out to get the phonograph and a few records to fill the silence of the room. “I hope you don’t mind having some old lounge music in the background,” I asked him.
“I don’t mind,” he replied. “What do you got?”
“Only a couple of albums, one is Sinatra, Maretin-”
“Huh?” I said as I went over to the stove. After igniting the fire and dumping the water into the pans, I commented. “Ya know, I didn’t take you to be a Maretin fan.”
“What can I say? I like his singing. It’s smooth but full of life. Although, I didn’t know that you have his records.”
“We practically live in a library,” I pointed out as we started to stir our pans. “We don’t just have books and scrolls in here. We’ve got recordings of music too from ancient chants to recent pop songs and everything in between. I’ve tended to take a listen whenever Twilight isn’t around while I do chores.”
“Like cooking for her?” he smirked.
“Hey, I don’t do it all the time; she and Starlight do help out.”
The conversation kinda died as we brought the water to a boil but we still kept stirring. Finally, Thorax spoke up, “So… do you always treat your dates out by cooking alongside them?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I tend to do different things depending on what’s going on. Like in the summer I once took a date rock-climbing, and in the winter, we sat in front of a fire drinking hot chocolate. But like I said, it just depends. Plus, Rarity told me that you can learn quite a bit from your date when you’re doing an activity together.”
“…. And… How am I so far?”
I told him that I wasn’t sure yet since our date just got started. So I decided to change the subject. “How’s your kingdom?”
“Great,” he replied. “Nightmare Night was a success, but in the meantime, we’re getting ready for Hearth's Warming.”
“And your queen?”
“She’s helpful, all things considering. Currently, we’re trying to have some official heirs to the throne. In which, we don’t know about the results as of yet.” At that moment, that feeling of unease returned, and the Changeling King sensed it. “Spike, you’re not driving us apart by any means.”
“Not even the kids you’re trying to have?”
He shook his head. “It’s not that I’m accidentally going to get you pregnant.” He then gave sly smile, “Unless you really want me to.”
This caught me off guard, “Wait what!”
“Kidding,” he laughed. “I’m amazed that you fell for it.”
“Sorry, it’s just you put me off for a sec.”
A few chuckles later, he became serious. “Anyway, Spike, when or if my queen has children, it won’t make any bit awkward if you were around. If anything, I would welcome you to be with them since I know you’re great with foals.”
“I don’t know about that,” I scratched the back of my neck. “I mean, I don’t think that I’m ready for kids myself.”
He scoffed in disbelief. “Oh, nonsense! You’re great with young ones. From those Crusaders to foalsitting Flurry Heart, you’re amazing from what I’ve heard. And I would be more than honored for you to be with my children as well.”
I paused from stirring, “You’re not just dating me just to become a glorified foalsitter, are you?”
We carried this on until the pasta was just right. Before we could sit down, I sparked up the oven for it to warm up for dessert. After moving the pans off the stove and onto the crystal table, we proceeded to pig out directly from the pan. It may sound weird, but seeing Thorax throw out the rules of dining edict to just stuff his face with noodles, veggies, and the paste into his mouth was rather… strangely relaxing in a way. Even though he has ruled the hive for a couple of years at this point, he never fully embraced all the strict rules of the aristocracy.
“You know,” Thorax came up for some air, tomato sauce doused his muzzle. “If I knew that cooking was this easy, I think I would have done this a long time ago.”
“It’s easy once you know how,” I pointed out. “You just got to have the right stuff and enough time to make whatever you want.”
“Maybe I should be doing this alongside my Changelings when they do this. Give me some lessons so I can show off at our potlucks.”
“Why Thorax, I’m shocked,” I waved a claw over my head overdramatically. “A King that wants to show off? What would the country say?”
“Hurray, more food!” he teased and we had a good laugh. After a while, he asked another question: “Just a random thought, have you ever considered of moving out?”
I raised an eyebrow, “Why are you bringing this up?” He said that he was curious since I was twenty and had ever thought of going out on my own. “Eh… I guess I could if I had a place to move to. To me, I don’t just want to move somewhere where I don’t feel like I’m not home, you know? I mean sure, I am an adult, but so far, I don’t have a plan to move anywhere, nor knew what exactly I must do to maintain what I like to do.”
“You know,” the Changeling King pawed at the table. “Once you do become my consort, I’ll be more than willing to give you space at the hive, just for you.”
“But that’s my decision to make.”
Thorax fell silent for a moment, “I’m sorry, that was out of line for me to do so.”
“Hey I don’t blame ya, I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while but I haven’t settled on anything.”
“Understandable,” he nodded. “Just so you know… I meant what I said.”
“Well… thanks, I guess…”
Once again, the conversation fell silent as we finished up our meals. From there, I taught him how to make a dessert soufflé in a way that he managed to understand it. He paid close attention to making the base and how to fold the egg whites. Once it was placed in the oven, we waited while it cooked.
“So… Thorax,” I decided to break the tension. “Can I ask you personal questions?”
He chuckled, “Well, I guess that’s what we’ve been doing on this dating thing so, go ahead.”
I looked at him in the eye and asked, “Why exactly did you fall in love with me? I mean, I know what you said of how long it’s been around, and the fact that you’d admire me. But why?”
The Changeling King went quiet for several minutes, no doubt trying to figure out what to say next. “I don’t know if I can explain this just right. But I guess that out of everyone that I’ve known, you stood out in my mind. After all, you were the first to show me real kindness because you cared. More than that, but from my upbringing to survive in such a cruel world, it was as if… a light had lit up in the darkness. To show me that I wasn’t alone. I don’t know what exactly to tell you, but you’ve been patient and I was… admittedly, too eager in learning this new world outside of the hive. From you, I felt a connection because you’re more than the dragon I wanted, but needed. Yes… Even as a King, I need you. It’s why I wanted you to be a master to me in court. That you matter to me above titles of power – you are the reason of how I became to be. And I just want to return that same love you had given me.” He then frowned when I didn’t react. “It’s way too corny, isn’t it?”
“N-no, not at all dude. It’s rather touching of ya.”
“And I meant it too.” He said as he grabbed my claw. “Spike, if you do decide to become my court consort, anything you could ever want, I’ll give that and my heart too. If you wanted to move somewhere, I can arrange it. If you wanted to snack on rubies before lunch, it shall be done. Or…” here, his cheeks had turned pink. “If you wanted… relief, just ask and I’ll be willing to do so.”
My eyes went wide and I’m sure my cheeks were on fire. “Wow. That’s a little too soon for anything like that, don’t ya think?”
“I don’t mind waiting,” he replied. “The point being is that out of everything you’ve done for not just for Equestria, but for me and my Changelings, you deserve happiness. I’m willing to be your slave to have you obtain joy.”
Wow. Even now, that’s all I could say. None of my dates had talked to me like this and meant it. So with those words still fresh in my head, we got the molten hot soufflés out, dusted with powdered sugar. By the time we started to dig our forks in, I said. “Okay.”
Thorax looked up at me, blinking, “Pardon?”
“I have thought it over, and I accept it.” I smiled at him. “I’ll be willing to be your consort.” This followed by being tackled in a hug.
“Oh, thank you so much Spike!” he said to me before kissing me on both sides of my muzzle. “Thank you.”
I on the other claw was gasping for air, in which he took the hint.
“…. So by the time dessert came around I told him that I would be his official, royal coltfriend.” I told Twilight and Starlight. This meeting took place the day after the trial date in which we were gathered in the throne room. Of course, Twi was rather annoyed that I had gone behind her back in dating Thorax – but once I was able to tell her what had happened, her mood changed to that of amusement.
By the time I was able to finish the story, Starlight raised a hoof. “As great as that sounds Spike, what exactly does all of that entail? I mean, I don’t know any royal consorts personally, does that mean that you get to have certain privileges or something?”
“You know,” I folded my arms, leaned back against my little throne. “Thorax did tell me further of what exactly I get to do now that I’ve given my consent. From what he said, I’m basically his husband and coltfriend at the same time, which means that I pretty much stand on the same level of his queen as a sort of adviser. That I’m free to give him advice and able to tell him no outright if I see fit. Also that I’ll be given some level of protection in which if I get hurt or sick in any way, his Changelings would immediately come to my aid. Oh! That reminds me,” I snapped my claws. “I think I should warn you guys about something important.”
“And what’s that?” Twilight asks, taking a quill and notebook in her aura.
“That according to Thorax, that if there was an incident that someone hurts me on purpose, the hive would declare war on the one that harmed me in the first place.”
The room went dead quiet. “Care to clarify?” Twilight inquired with caution.
“Like say that if somepony were to gang me up in an alley to mug me, the hive would be obligated in hunting down that pony down until they either die or surrender. And this doesn’t just include physical. If someone hurts me physically, psychologically, emotionally or financially, it would give the hive enough reason to give said pony a very bad day.”
“Note to self,” Starlight muttered, “Do not make Spike angry.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?” Twilight questioned.
“That’s exactly what I asked Thorax. And he told me that I do have the power to pardon those who have hurt me if I so choose. Then again, this was the same guy that had turned into a bear when he thought Ember was attacking me.”
“I see,” Twilight’s student nodded. “Does anypony in the royal family know about this?”
“Besides Prince Blueblood and his husband, everypony doesn’t know yet. I thought that I wouldn’t tell until I and Thorax are, in fact, a couple and I wanted you to be the first to know that it’s really happening.” Twilight thanked me and asked me if there were any other privileges that I was given. “Uh yeah! Since I’m technically his coltfriend, I can ask him to go on a date on a whim. Not only that, but I’d get to sit beside him during meals, dance with him whenever we feel like it, and uh…” My cheeks turned red when I trailed off.
“Yes?” Starlight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well… he also said that… since I’m his Royal Consort, that I have the… right to…” I was rubbing the back of my neck, my head on fire at what I was going to say out loud. I sighed, “Oh how do I put this elegantly…? That I can… sleep, with him. If I choose,” I quickly added the last sentence.
The two mares looked at me with wide eyes. “You mean have sex with him?” Starlight said.
“That’s putting it bluntly but… yeah. Pretty much.”
With my embarrassment evident, I decided to tell them the truth, “Which brings me to the… another thing I wanted to talk to you gals about. It’s another worry I have to be honest.”
“We’re all adults here Spike,” Twilight reassured me. “And I know how awkward it is talking on the subject. However, I think that we know and read plenty about it. So it’s okay to go ahead and ask whatever it is on your mind.”
I took in a deep breath. Here goes nothing… “Twilight, you know that December is coming up, right?” She nodded, “And do you know what happens to be around early December?”
“Oh!” her cheeks blushed. “That’s right, I’ve completely forgotten!”
Starlight raised an eyebrow, “Is there something I’m missing?”
“You know how mares have heat cycles that they go through every now and then?” Twi asked her student and she nodded. “As it turns out, as soon as they hit puberty, for male dragons, they too go into a similar cycle in which they would call rut. Yeah, it’s exactly as it sounds.”
“I mean… I’m able to just take care of myself when that time comes around.” I confessed. “However, I haven’t exactly had a… sexual partner as of yet. But while that may or may not change considering Thorax, I’m genuinely worried. Sure, the guy had said out loud that we can if I just asked. But what if in the heat of the moment that I might hurt him? From what Ember has told me, dragon mating can get rather aggressive and I don’t know if Thorax could handle it without getting burned.”
Starlight leaned back in her chair, “To be honest, I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s like any romp in bed, that as long both sides know what they’re getting into and if they’re fine with it, go for it. But if the other isn’t enjoying it, then they say something to do something else. Pretty much goes the same with any other kink.”
Twilight deadpanned and responded with, “You’ve learned this from Trixie, haven’t you?”
She only shrugged.
Twi returned to me and asked me when I was planning on seeing him next. “Probably in a few days, after all, I’ve got Celestia, Luna, and Cadance with Shining Armor to tell them the news. But after that, I’m going down to visit the Hive. Although, I do hope that those princesses don’t start betting on me as they did with Blueblood.”
Needless to say that the reactions from the royal family were similar to when I told Twilight and Starlight in several of my degrees. For example, when I told Celestia and Luna that I had just become a coltfriend to the Changeling King, they were overly happy about it to the point where they were crushing me underneath their hugs. Quickly followed by asking if I made the first move (whatever that means). Princess Cadance was without a doubt glad about it, if not somewhat annoyed that she wasn’t there shipping me and Thorax, to begin with. Shining Armor simply congratulated me, but didn’t let me go until he took me aside to give me a lecture for me to “use protection.”
But once the royal family and my friends were made aware of my new coltfriend, (especially towards those that I happened to be in power) I made my way southward towards the Hive. Even after having more awkward conversations in those few days, there were two more that I needed to have a chat with Pharynx and Lavender.
Walking up to the Hive that afternoon, I remembered it being a cold day as the forest outside of it had nothing but sticks in the mid-November air. The vegetation that grows on the towering Hive looked like it was dying where frost was evident.
Being so chilly, I distinctly remember that I was wearing a black, wool overcoat that Rarity custom made for me that it reached down just past my knees. I was blowing puffs of fire to keep my claws warm when, as expected, Pharynx appeared in a burst of purple green flame. “I was kinda hoping that I would run into you,” I told him.
“My brother tells me that’d got himself a Master,” said he, his forelegs crossed. “And I was told that it was you.”
I frowned, “So I take it that you don’t exactly approve of me?”
He raised an eyebrow, “Who said that I didn’t? Look, I already knew my brother leans towards males. I mean, I didn’t much care as that means more gals for me, you know what I’m saying?”
I rolled my eyes, “Yeah I do. But do you have any problem that I am technically dating your brother?”
“Just one,” he said. “Did you know that this is the first time that he’d asked anyone to be his mate, right?”
This surprised me, “Not really…”
“Let me make this clear for ya,” he then began to circle around me. “I have gone out of my way to protect my baby brother. From bullies, Ponies, Gryphons, Zebras,” he narrowed his eyes at me, “Dragons even. While I’m grateful for how far he’s come to learn how to protect himself, the last thing I want is to have him get hurt. That includes you. You might have gotten Thorax to fall head over hooves over you, but just so you know, I’ll be watching.” He poked at my chest to make this point. “And if you do happen to break his heart, I’ll be sure to stomp on yours.”
Well, this has escalated quickly. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied to him. “Look, I need to have a word with Queen Lavender too so could you point out where she is?”
“Throne room.”
I nodded and thanked him as I walked around him and made my way inside. Once I was inside, I noticed how surprisingly warm it was compared to the outside. Upon investigating where the heat was coming from, I swiftly found that in every room there was a small, iron cage in which had a red-hot stone. It didn’t take too long to figure out what these were: Cinderstones. The only place in all of Equestria that has any was the Dragon Lands. So it was clear that the Changelings were trading with them.
So after climbing up to the top, I found that even the open air throne room was just as warm as it was encompassed by those stones that were providing heat for the Changelings and a few diplomats surrounding the throne in which both Thorax and Lavender sat. Each of the diplomats was taking turns petitioning to them about this or that. It wasn’t until that the new Changeling Queen spotted me that he nudged the king into noticing me. I waved over to them.
“Hey, Spike!” Thorax waved back, smiling. “Oh everyone, I have an announcement to make.” He stood up and took a few steps away from the throne. “I think it’s about time that I let you know some rather exciting news. Just to let you all know, I have officially taken up a royal consort in which I have been granted permission by both the Queen and the one I wanted to be with. And I’m happy to say, that Sir Spike, is my personal consort.”
There was a collective muttering and whispering all around. Changelings glanced over at me and Thorax, many of them looked as if they were taken aback by the news. However, despite feeling all eyes on me, I calmly walked over towards the throne. “Hey Thorax, you mind if I could visit you for a couple of days?”
“Not at all!” he grinned before nuzzling me. “It’s great to see you.”
“Thanks,” I turned my attention towards his wife, “Hey Thorax? Can I have a word with your Queen for a bit?”
“Why?”
“I just wanted to talk with her for a minute. After all, I’ve been spending a couple of days going around talking to my family about… well… us. I just talked to your brother you see, and the last one on my list here is Lavender so… would you mind?”
“Well I could use a break,” the new Changeling Queen said as she got up from her throne. “We’ll be in the meeting room downstairs, but I’ll be right back. Follow me, Sir Spike.” I obeyed as I walked behind her out of the Throne Room and towards a lower level where I was lead into a windowless room with a round stone table. The only light in the room was a glowing chandelier that had glowing blue crystals. “So what do you want to talk to me about, Sir Spike?” she inquired taking a seat near the table.
“You know, for this past couple of weeks, there has been something on my mind that while I’ve heard it from Thorax, I definitely need to hear it from you. And that is this,” I sat down on the edge of the table. “Are you sure that you’re okay with this? I mean, you are his wife after all.”
She tilted her head in confusion, “That’s obvious for sure. Although I don’t exactly see why this would be a problem.”
“But doesn’t the idea that a married Changeling like yourself would be even slightly jealous that your husband is with someone else? Yeah, I know that you’ve given your consent and all, but aren’t you afraid that you might be seen as second rate to him?”
She shook her head, “Thorax and I, we see each other as friends that just so happened to be married. Don’t misunderstand me, he’s nice, there’s no doubt about it. In truth, I see this duty of Queen like you would view a job. In that, I was chosen to help give Thorax a conscious on how to realistically run the hive.”
“But he is trying to have… you know… babies with you.”
“I know,” she nodded in acknowledgment, putting a hoof over her stomach. “But once again, it’s more of a duty. Yet, that doesn’t mean that I won’t love them when they do come. To tell you the truth, I do want to be a mother, and Thorax is helping me out with that. Still, I guess he already told you that you’re welcomed into helping to raise them?”
“He did,” I told her.
“Yet, I can sense that there’s something you’re not comfortable with.”
Here we go, “Would you feel jealous if I… chose to sleep with your husband? There are not that many wives out there that would like the idea of having their husband being with somepony that wasn’t them.”
This made her giggle. “You’d be right. For those who have a little bit of love for their spouse, it would make one angry if they were being dishonest with one another. With my situation, however, it’s the complete opposite. I’m not just letting you be my King’s Master, but I encourage it for the sake of his own happiness. Which I’m glad that you’ve decided to be his since, up until now, he hasn’t been given such a luxury. And from my examination, not only are you safe around him but, more importantly, you are healthy. So I wouldn’t have agreed to this if you weren’t otherwise.”
“Well, yeah. But what about you? Do you get to have a consort of your own?”
“When it comes to this sort of thing, it works both ways. Only that with me, if I decide to take up a male Changeling, then, of course, there would be necessary for him to have something to prevent an accidental pregnancy. But even then, I would be given just as much happiness as Thorax. So really, there’s no shame in this. If anything, it’s a huge honor among us to be his greatest source of happiness. For if he’s happy, so will the kingdom.” This reasoning did make sense to me. “Well… since you put it that way. What’s Thorax doing tonight?”
She smiled, “After court (which ends in an hour), the King will have free time until dinner. Of course, you are welcome to join us.”
“Hey, how can I turn down free food?” we both chuckled at this.
“I am glad that he chose you,” Lavender said. “After all, I think it was about time that he started dating.”
“Well I am rusty on my part, but I’ll do my best.” With that, we returned to the Throne Room, and I waited until Thorax was free.
Every leader throughout history has their own way of relaxing and having fun in between one civil duty from another. From my point of view, I get it, despite what most ponies romantic versions of what governing a country is like, in reality, it’s much more stressful than everyone thinks it is. You’re asked to judge problems and juggle many conflicts at once that sometimes not everyone would agree with your judgment. It would make anyone stressed out over the worries of what affects your decisions would have on the rest of your citizens. So I sympathized with them in taking a break by doing an activity that they enjoy.
So after Thorax had taken care of the petitions and heard his citizen’s concerns, I was able to go up to him to ask, “Hey buddy, what do you wanna do?”
“Since it’s been a rather long day,” he said stretching from his throne. “How about we do something fun?” He hopped out of his seat in which he started to walk out of the open-air throne room, to which I began to follow. “You wanna play a game with me?”
I tilted my head, “What kind of game?”
“A new sport that my Changelings are trying out and I want in. Come on, it’ll be easier for me to show you once we get there.” So I followed him through the hive until we came across a circular hall wherein the center, a ring of Changelings were gathered as one of them had set a rubber ball in the very middle. As soon as it touched the ground, all of them rushed to the outer walls of the place where I noticed that it was divided up with lines of white paint. Each section had a number which corresponded with the ones that were taped on their backs. The Changeling who set the ball in the center flew straight up, who had a whistle around her neck.
“Okay guys!” she called out like a PE teacher. “Just remember the basic rules: No kicking or punching is allowed; use only shapeshifting magic; do not change into anything that is bigger or longer than a gryphon or smaller than a hamster; don’t blind anyone, and try to bring the ball back to your section in the shortest amount of time possible. Understood?”
While they told her that they did, I turned to Thorax, “What are they doing?”
“Just watch.”
“Okay ready!” she called out as she scanned the room one last time before blowing her whistle. And just like that, the Changelings burst into green flames before turning into random objects and creatures as they all lunged for the ball in the center. I saw them change from roadrunners to paper airplanes as they all rushed to grab it. The first one to touch it had turned into an eagle but had lost the ball almost immediately to someone who was a rabbit. From there in a series of confusing transformations, I watched how the ball was being taken, dropped, rolled over to the other side, kicked, caught and stolen once more. All the while, Changelings quickly morphed from cats and dogs to fishing line and bouncy balls.
At this spectacle, I turned to Thorax, “What the hay is this?”
“It’s a game that my brother had invented,” he said. “He calls it Changeling Ball. It’s like capture the flag but way more exciting. Do you see how those Changelings have a number on their backs? Each one is trying to bring the ball to the section in which they’re assigned to. Of course, it won’t be easy as everyone else is trying to do the same thing and they’re allowed to shapeshift as long as they don’t harm the other players. Look! That one is gonna make it!”
I turned in time to see that there was a changeling that was making a run for it along the walls, trying to reach number twelve in which a wave of objects and creatures were after his tail. And as soon as he was close, he leaped into that space where, as soon as he touched his spot, the referee blew her whistle.
“One-minute fifty-eight!” she cried out. The changeling that made it let out a celebratory shout slamming the rubber ball in which it bounced away.
“So you wanna play?” Thorax asked with a welcoming smile.
“I don’t know…” I told him. “You do know that I can’t really shapeshift.”
He chuckled, “You don’t need magic to play silly. Don’t worry, if you want I can have them go easy on you. Trust me, this is way more fun than it looks.”
“Well, I don’t know…”
“I promise that you’ll have fun.”
Humming, I watched them as they reassemble the game. “One game,” I told him. To this, he happily grabbed my claw and dragged me out to the hall.
“Hey guys!” he called out, “Any room for us?”
They, in turn, bowed to us before looking around the room. “Spot twenty-four is open,” the referee pointed out. “But I think that might be all the players we can take at this point.”
“Yeah,” one of the Changelings said, “Besides, ain’t it a little unfair to have Spike play? He can’t shapeshift like us.”
In my head, however, the gears were turning as I examined the room and remembered how the game was played. Then just like that, an idea hit me. “What if I don’t have to?” I suggested. “Hey, would of you guys mind if I was the one that it’s me you’ll have to take the ball away from?” From there I picked up the rubber ball. “You guys can do whatever you can to try to take it away from me, but I must do what I can to take it back without using any magic, or firepower. Just keep the rules in place, but this time it’s not just everyone you have to fight off – but me.” Every Changeling looked at one another before they turned to the referee who shrugged. “I guess that can work. But remember, the same rules still apply. Everyone get in your spots so we can start.”
So standing in the middle with the rubber ball in my claws, I perked up my ears and sharpen my eyes on all of them. When my eyes fell on Thorax, I realized that this was the first time that I’ve seen him so focused. He looked, much like the other changelings, as if they were ready to pounce like a lion ready to strike its prey. But I wasn’t scared. This was a game after all, and I was playing ultimate keep away with twenty-four other changelings… And just like that I suddenly realized how stupid this was.
Suddenly, the referee above blew her whistle and I was hanging on to that ball for dear life. From every direction, I was slammed by them as if they tossed themselves at me. For a second, I was confused as to why many of them changed into birds and little furry animals until I suddenly busted out laughing as they were trying to tickle me into releasing the ball.
Now I know that doesn’t sound all that bad when you’re covered in furry, feathery creatures that try to tickle you in every direction – but it was torture. Yes, I admit that I was screaming my head off while laughing uncontrollably as they were trying to get at me from every pressure point. If anything, I was on the floor rolled up while I was desperately trying to hold onto the ball as long as possible. I probably was kicking, wagging my tail just to get them off of me, but it was in vain.
Needless to say that I lost my grip when the rubber ball rolled off and I was mercifully given time to breathe. The ball was instantly captured by two changelings that one turned into a dog size crab while the other a hawk. “H-Hey!” I cried out as I got back up and charged after it with several others following me. The game itself was a blur of green fire, of animals that used cunning to take hold of that rubber orb, of feathers that flew around the hall with it, and even of objects like toy train cars to lose my footing. If anything, I was surprised in how creatively ruthless they were at this game.
Not to say that I wasn’t able to get the ball back, several times I leaped and ducked, rolled over and sprint about like I was on a battlefield. It was an extreme sport to capture and recapture the thing that would bring the end of this game. Then I tripped over something in which before I could hit the ground, Thorax suddenly appeared right underneath to catch me. Of course, I did lose the ball and once one of the changelings captured it and ran to his spot, it was over.
At that moment, I was face to face with Thorax, our muzzles were mere inches and panting out breath after tiring breath. Truth be told, in a situation like this, I instantly knew what he was thinking as I saw that blush. “Sorry,” I immediately rolled over so that I could assist him back up. “I’ve got to admit it that was intense.”
“But it was fun wasn’t it?” he asked.
“Yeah! It was like every foalhood game rolled into one and somehow made it better. But can we have a breather?” He agreed with me so we stepped out of the hall and towards a hole in the wall that looked out to the oncoming winter landscape. We sat by this enormous window, breathing in the chilly, welcoming air. “So, your brother invented that game?”
He nodded, “Partly to get the hive to exercise and to get creative with their use of disguises while having fun doing it. Although, I have to say that you were great out there.”
“You guys were brutal in there,” I pointed over with a thumb. “I don’t think that hoofball has anything that would make it as extreme as that. Still, I’m amazed that you call that recreation.”
The king laughed, “What can I say; fun is what fun is for me. Besides, you were a good sport. If anything, I’m rather pleased that you managed to keep the ball away for so long.”
“Maybe I need to play it more often and really learn how to move.” While I took a moment to get my breath back, a wicked thought entered into my head as it was reflected by that smile. “You were about to kiss me back there, were you?”
His head turned bright red at this, “W-What? Come on Spike, I didn’t think that I would do that on our first da- u-uh… well not to say that I haven’t- I mean that…” he groaned as he stopped tripping over his own words.
I chuckled, “Dude, it’s okay. I mean back there we’d landed in the most cliché of romantic positions. Heck, it’s called a cliché for a reason, ya know. Plus, given what I know how you feel about me, I would be surprised if you thought otherwise.”
“Doesn’t make it any less awkward…” he muttered, his face still scarlet with embarrassment.
Now I admit, as much as I had empathy for him, the way he had his eyes cast aside, his head blushing, it was… adorable. “Here,” I said, “give me your hoof, Your Majesty.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Why?”
“You’ll see,” I offered up my claw over to him and he extended his foreleg. There, beside that chilly window, I knelt down to him. “Do remember that while I’m not exactly active, I am a knight. For in our code of chivalry, we do have a custom in which we express gratitude and… affection to whom we serve. To someone whom I can see great promise in for being their love, loyalty, and devotion to. A simple act that has a great significance for both of us.” From there I kissed his hoof, looking up with an eye of how flustered he looked.
“Awe… dammit, Spike, you’re so charming. Almost makes me wish you kissed me on the lips and carry me off to a castle.”
“I believe that was Cadance and Shining’s fantasy,” I chuckled. “But hey, when I’m the official consort of a King, I might as well have fun with it.”
He laughed, “Can’t argue with that. Perhaps I should make you an honorary knight of the Order of Amore.”
“Perhaps, but I still have to earn it first,” I cheekily smiled.
“Fair enough,” he got back up. “So do you want to continue on with the game or do something else?”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to relax my way.”
“Oh? And how do you do that?”
I went over to his side, “Wanna go out for a walk with me?”
As the air was becoming colder and the frost was claiming more of the land, the hive was buzzing with the fact that I was the King’s Master Consort. Dating Thorax had proved, day by day of how much he genuinely cared about me. During that visit, I would wake up to have a soothing bath in lava (yeah, to this day I still can’t figure out how they’ve pulled this off without burning the place down). After breakfast, I would sit with him and Lavender for court until the afternoon in which I would, from time to time, give him some advice about this or that. In the afternoons, it was the only time of day in which we’ve managed to get to know one another personally through a variety of activities. For example, once there was enough snow on the ground, we got ourselves some makeshift sleds in which we slid down a hill for hours. At other times we would take things slow by lying next to a burning hearth. From there at dinner, I would sit right next to him, and by bedtime, I would always find a basket of gems to snack on.
So where were my feelings on Thorax at this point? Well, I don’t think it would be fair to assume that I was already in love with him. Back then, I was examining not only how exactly I felt about him, but how do I see him. We would still do friendship stuff, for sure in some of our activities during that free time. Yet, at the same time, the way we would open up on this or that and the absolute fact that we were practically flirting with one another did make me wonder every night if I was starting to fall in love with him.
This lead to the night underneath the falling snow of December. I still remember clearly the banquet in which the Changelings set up in the open air Throne Room. Above us, a blizzard descended from the sky, yet its bitter winds and wet snow was stopped in our dome of warmth. The place was illuminated by white and light blue crystals as the Changelings from arts and crafts had put their winter themes all over the hall from paper snowflakes to painted snow ponies on the walls. The table was in the shape of a horseshoe where the King sat at the very middle with me next to him. The air was perfumed with the familiar smells of Hearths Warming of cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh baked cookies. My taste buds were swimming in the creamy, loaded baked potato soup that I was offered to eat, while my ears heard original music from a Changeling orchestra.
“You know Thorax,” I asked the King. “With a set up like this, it makes me curious to see what your guy’s Hearths Warming Eve is going to look like.”
“Well, why not stay and find out?” He said, “After all, you’re more than welcome to stay up until then.”
“But you guys know that I’m not planning on staying here for that long.” I pointed out with the spoon still in my claw. “Twilight is expecting me to spend the holidays with her and the family. It still means a lot to her that I’d be there.”
His ears drooped a little, “Oh… Well, are you sure that you want to go back home tomorrow? I mean, just look at the storm that’s going on out there and I don’t want you to get caught in this blizzard.”
“I’m sure it’ll calm down by tomorrow.” However, I wasn’t certain judging of all the heavy snow that was falling overhead.
“Spike,” the King said, “If you’re finished with that soup, would you mind if we’d dance for a bit?”
My eyebrow shot up, I leaned forward a bit to see how Lavender would react. She merely gave an encouraging smile and a nod. “I don’t know…” I replied timidly, “I’m a little rusty when it comes to dancing.”
“Don’t worry; I’m not planning on something complicated – just a slow dance between us. I mean, since this might be the last night until you have to head back to Ponyville so… humor me?”
I thought that he did have a point, and considering what was coming I figured that I should at least give him his dance before I had to go away.
“Very well, Your Majesty.” After reaching out for his hoof, we both got up and round around the tables, thus getting every Changeling’s attention.
“Orchestra,” the King commanded, “could you play us a waltz please?”
“Are you really going to leave tomorrow?” he asked me.
“Well, I guess that might all depend on the weather. If it falls too thick and cold, then I’m forced to wait out until I can leave.”
He sighed, “You know, it seemed like yesterday since you got here. I can’t believe that it’s been a couple of days already.”
“Awe, don’t feel bad, at least from this vacation that I was able to have fun here.”
“Really?”
I nodded, “Yeah. I mean once the snow started to come down, I hadn’t had this much fun since I was a kid. Heck, I can’t even remember the last time I went sledding for the sake of it.”
“Don’t forget the ice skating and the improvised snowball fights.”
“How can I? It’s almost like I feel like a hatchling again. And I get to do it all with someone just as fun.”
He snorted, “Oh come on, I’m boring.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Am too.”
“But why would you say so? If this is as boring as you can be, then I guess that makes me easily amused.”
“Well…” he trailed off, “I don’t know. I just guess that I didn’t want you to think that I’m not good enough to be around.”
“Dude, having you bore me is like having Pinkie trying to make an orgy be dull – it’s just not possible.”
This gave Thorax pause, “She does that?”
“How would I know?” I shrugged, “You can’t really know what she is doing at any time of day, even if you tried.”
After that, the Changeling King went quiet for a while as we count time with the music and the rhythm of our swaying bodies. “Spike, can I ask you something personal?”
“Hm?”
“Be honest with me when I ask this, but… do you regret me being your technical coltfriend?”
This too gave me a moment to pause. “Well… Like I said, I did have fun here at the hive. And to be honest, I really do hope that maybe, just maybe, that this wouldn’t be last this time.”
“You do?”
“Yeah… I mean these past few days were great. And you are great at how you’ve been treating me. Still, at night I have been asking myself a question that I’m not exactly sure of the answer as of yet.”
“And that being?”
I blushed when I meekly told him, “Am I falling in love with you?” His eyes widen a little but didn’t respond. “But the thing is, I’m not exactly sure about it.”
“How come?”
“Well… how long does it take? I’ve grown to become skeptical of the whole love at first sight thing.”
“Didn’t you do so with Rarity at one point?”
“Hey! That was a crush. My point being is what do I feel about you is what I’m trying to figure out.”
“How would think you’ll be when you go back to Ponyville?”
Again, his question made me stop to think, “Well… I would miss this. I think that a few days were too short.”
“And what would you miss about me? Is it that you’re being treated like royalty here?”
I chuckled, “That. And I’d be missing your childlike excitement. Along with your lovable personality… and your sense of humor… and that you’ve been genuine to me.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Well, of course, I’ve been genuine. Why else wouldn’t I be?”
“Because my past dates weren’t fully honest with me. That they’ve tried so hard to impress me to the point where I could tell that they were faking it, you, however… are different. You didn’t pretend to impress me. Neither did you do so during the time I’ve stayed here. I… I guess that-”
Before I could finish that sentence, two things happened at once. The first was a sudden realization in that I felt my heartbeat pump warm blood. And the second was that the Changeling King gasped, pushing backward in shock as he suddenly covered his mouth.
“W-What?” I asked him, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh Celestia,” he whispered. “It’s happened.”
I hesitated as I felt exposed, “Uh… what do you mean?”
By now, I saw tears of joy welling up in his eyes. “I felt it. The very thing that I have waited happened.” He was borderline squeeing at this point.
And I felt my cheeks caught fire, “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.” However, I already knew that he had seen through my lie. He could already sense its beating heart. But at the same time, I also felt something else that was creeping up. “You know what, Your Highness,” I said turning around. “I think I need to head off to bed. Thanks for the meal and the dance!”
“But Spike-”
“Good night Thorax!” I quickly made my exit as I was practically running back to my room just in time to rush in to lock the doors. In a way, I was cursing my luck as I felt that yearly lust was creeping into me. But this time, my rut was starting to kick in at the most inconvenient time.
For the sake of decency, I won’t go too graphic in the exact nature of when I go into rut. But needless to say, it’s pretty frustrating when it’s just by yourself. When all I could think about is mating with something for days or up to a week, it’s surprising how fast my personality can flip when I’m left alone to take care of my… problem. Now before this, Twilight would make extra sure that I was left by myself with a couple of...a certain type of literature, to get me through it.
However, the morning after that dance with Thorax, I just felt unsatisfied no matter how long I tried to… relieve myself. If anything, I didn’t take notice of what time it was until I heard that fateful knock on my door.
“Spike,” on the bed, I froze with icy dread. “Spike, it’s almost eleven in the afternoon and the blizzard is gone.”
“G-Go away!” I called out.
“Spike? What’s going on?”
“I uh… I don’t feel well. I don’t think I can go today.”
“Why? Are you sick?” I heard Thorax asked with great concern. “I’ll get you a doctor right away.”
“It’s okay,” I called out. “I just needed some sleep is all.”
There was a pause from the other side of the door. “But it’s been almost fifteen hours since you went to bed Spike,” he deadpanned. “You know what? I’m coming in.”
“Don’t!” I screamed. “Really dude, I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” I heard a key being put into the lock. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“No! Wait!” There was only enough time to cover myself up with a pillow when he opened the door.
“Okay, what’s going on Spike?” he questioned. “You suddenly just ran off on me when I specifically felt…” To my horror, he sniffed the air. “W-Wait-a-minute,” he then looked at my burning cheeks, the stains on the bed and the obvious pillow of which was covering one particular body part. To make things worse, I was drowning in embarrassment that he quickly picked up on.
“Dude… I’m so sorry,” I said as I tried to hide my face.
“Uh… were you just-”
I interrupted him with a frustrated sigh, “Just close the door. Since you’ve caught me I might as well tell you what’s really going on.” He did so and even lock it for good measure. “Okay, I know there are many things about dragons that I’ve told you about… but I’ve left out one thing that was just too… personal to talk about.”
“And that being?”
Sucking up the air, I just told him, “You know how mares go into heat cycles at certain times of the year?” he nodded. “Well… turns out that male dragons have the exact same thing in which is called rut. With me, it comes and goes, but at least once a year I have it when it’s the most intense. Today and probably the next several weeks I'll have to deal with it. I know it was bad for me to run off from you like that but…”
“I see now,” Thorax told me, as I heard his hoofsteps come closer to the bed. “Although, it does pain me to see you like this, is this really that bad?” My scarlet face answered his question. “Oh Spike, if you really need such help… you should have asked.”
At this, my eyes went wide open, “Woah there!” I cried, “I know that you love me, but… really? Right now?”
“You said so yourself, you need this, and I have told you in the past that I’m willing to help if nee-”
“Okay, stop right there!” I held out a claw. “Two things: first of all, I’ve never done this sort of thing before.”
This surprised the Changeling King, “Wait- really? You’ve never-”
“No! I never had a… sexual partner before so even if I did agree with what you’re saying right now, I don’t have a clue how to do it.”
“You do know that I’m not a virgin, right?” he deadpanned. “Besides, I have some experience with both sexes when it comes to this sort of thing. At least… if you want this to be your first, at least you actually wanted it.”
This stunned me, “Hold on, you mean that yours wasn’t?”
“Forced to,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “But point being, I know what I am doing.”
“Which brings to my second thing,” I said. “Even I did agree to this, there’s no way that I won’t be able to hurt you in some way. I mean, from what Ember told me, dragon sex, especially gay ones, can be really rough. I don’t know if I won’t unwillingly be able to crush you, burn you or break something.”
“And did I mention that I had experience outside of Changelings and Ponies?” he deadpanned. “Spike, I promise you that if you’d let me, you’ll be in good hooves. I mean, the way I see this, doing something so intimate is, to me, the ultimate sign of trust.” I remembered him lowering his eyes at me. “And I trust you Spike absolutely on this if you wanted me to. At present, I can see that you have one of two options: either we may do this on another day and just wait for your rut to pass over.” And before I could do anything, his muzzle was suddenly next to my ear. “Or,” he whispered, “I can uphold my royal duty in helping my Master Consort’s time of need.”
But just as quickly, he gave me some space. “Just so you know,” he added. “That either way, this won’t change what I already feel for you, and I hope I can say the same with you for me. This is, after all, your call. But all I need is an absolute yes or no from you.”
My heartbeat was pounding in my chest like a lustful war drum. Thorax, someone that, at this point, I had known for years, isn’t forcing me to have sex with him, but here he was saying that he was willing to help. Of course, I had so many thoughts going through my head and the mixture of feelings that were freezing me in place. And yet… Thorax’s eyes were trusting, understanding even as he waited for my answer. I have never seen anyone, not even from my past dates to partake in something so selfless.
“Um… Thorax,” I said meekly, “Would you… help me?”
He smiled warmly, and even blushed too, “Of course. I’ll let you take control where this goes from here.”
“In that case, a couple of things,” I told him as I had a claw on the pillow between my legs. “If it gets too weird, could we stop.” He nodded, “And the other…” I was blushing so much that it was amazing that my head hadn’t exploded in blood. “Could you… ya know… do me… down there.”
This made his eyes widen, “You want me to…? Spike, are you sure?”
“It’s not like I haven’t… well stuck something up there before so…”
He smirked, “Oh I see. Although we might need to do some sanitary preparations first, don’t you worry Spike.” Thorax then came up to me, muzzle to muzzle only an inch apart. “I promise you that I will not hurt you. If anything, I’ll make sure to turn this from a primal act, into a ballet between us.”
“And… how are you going to do that?”
“Every dance begins with a single step.”
Right there, he and I shared our first kiss between us. Not a peck on the cheek or on the lips, but a deep, soul touching one. One in which that same realized feeling I had from that Waltz made it clear of one thing. For the first time in years, I had fallen in love – and needless to say too that on that day, I also was able to kiss my virginity goodbye.
A couple of days later I managed to return to Ponyville, this time refreshed. Of course, I did help Twilight with the preparations for Hearth's Warming as to order for presents, plan out the annual part, taste test new recipes and so on. Twilight and Starlight did ask me how things went between me and Thorax after my visit and I told them that things were looking promising. Thankfully neither of them inquired if we did anything that was… intimate, so at least the awkwardness levels were at a minimum.
Even with Hearths Warming that had come and gone, I admit that I was truly missing the Changeling King. On that day when friends and family celebrated, the plays about the holiday were performed, presents and the feasts were shared, it all felt empty to me that year. I was longing to have Thorax come popping in to maybe lighten up my mood a little. Yet, from that festival of light, it all seemed dull to me.
This was why that the very next day, I’ve decided to write to him an invite for him to come on New Year’s Day for Guys Night. I thought it would be fun for the guys to have an extra player and a good enough excuse seeing him again. Within days, he responded through a letter that he’d be more than happy to come.
If anything, New Year’s Day was perfect timing since the rest of the guys were through with their parties the night before. So before sundown, they came by train, hoof and interdimensional hoping to come to the Castle of Friendship. Big Mac, Discord, Sunburst, Shining Armor, Fancy, and Blueblood had gathered, but I was still waiting on the balcony looking at the sunset.
“Where is he?” I muttered to myself, tapping my claws on the icy railing. Nervously I peered through the falling snow at the gray sky in hopes to get a glimpse of Thorax flying in. “You’d think he should be here by now.” I remember rubbing my claws, breathing fire into them as I stood there, waiting anxiously for any sign. Then unexpectedly, a pair of hooves covered my eyes.
“Guess who,” and I didn’t need to as I flung around to revealingly find Thorax there. He was the first to hug me, “I missed you.”
“There you are,” I replied hugging back. “I was getting worried that you won’t show up.”
“Shame on you for thinking such, I wouldn’t miss an invite from you for anything. So what’s this about a guy’s night?”
“Oh! Right,” I said as I directed him towards the inside. “To tell ya the truth, I’m rather glad that you have the time for this. Because Guys Night is pretty much when we get our male friends to come and play the best game ever made, plus with a huge improvement from Discord.”
“Discord?”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded. “Yeah, I know playing any games with him does sound off-putting at first, but trust me when he’s in the game, it becomes like a thousand times cooler.”
He tilted his head, “I don’t think I’ve caught on as to what exactly this game is.”
“You know what a role-playing game is, right?”
He stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Okay, before I jump to conclusions, define 'role-playing.’”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at what he was getting at. “It’s not what you think,” I told him. “And it’s not that kind of party. Trust me, if that were even remotely the case, Pinkie would have delivered some phallic shaped cakes at our door by now. No, by role-playing I mean using our imaginations to have fun, like playing pretend in a way. Only with Discord around, we won’t have to bother with envisioning it. Trust me, you’re gonna love it.”
We then went into the throne room where the others were waiting. Discord was in a massage chair floating in the middle of the room with a black book in his tail. Big Macintosh and Prince Shining Armor were sitting on their sister’s thrones who sat in between Sunburst that was in Rarity’s. Fancy and Blueblood were talking about something as the Prince was on Pinkie’s throne while his husband was sitting in Fluttershy’s.
“Is it sunset already?” Discord asked, peeking over the book he was reading.
“Just about,” I told them. “Guys, you all know King Thorax? He’s here for our game tonight.”
“Thorax huh?” Blueblood got up from his seat to proceed to shake his hoof and giving a nod. “Long time no see, Your Majesty. How is the Changeling Kingdom coming along?”
“It’s been busy, how are things with you and Fancy? I haven’t seen either of you since the wedding.”
“Going splendidly,” Fancy shot over. “Still it’s refreshing to see a new face around here.”
“So what are you two doing here anyway?” the Changeling King asked.
“We’re here for our monthly guy’s night,” Blueblood replied. “Still, it’s refreshing to see a new face in tonight’s activities.”
I put a claw to my chin, “Ya know Thorax, now that I think of it, apart from Shining, Discord, and Sunburst, there’s someone else that I don’t think I’ve introduced you to.” After walking him over to AJ’s throne I said, “King Thorax, this is Big Mac, the longest member of this game that I had the pleasure of playing with.”
The red stallion nodded, “Howdy there sir.”
After the two of them shook hooves, my coltfriend greeted him. “You know, I don’t think I’ve seen you before, how do you know Spike?”
“Ah been a friend of his here in Ponyville. If anythin’, Ah know him through a friend of mah sister’s.”
Discord got up from his massage chair in which he had it turned to flies to have it buzzed out, he said. “Well I think that’s enough introductions, don’t you think? I think it’s about time for our game.”
“That’s the thing I wanted to ask,” my Changeling said as he looked around the table. “What game is it anyway? I mean, what’s it even called?”
“Ogres & Oubliettes!” the whole room replied.
“The greatest, longest and most influential fantasy adventure game ever conceived,” Thorax explained. “That is until Discord made it better.”
Thorax blinked, “Um… okay? How do you play it?”
“First thing’s first,” Discord slithered through the air over him. “You need to come up with a character,” he then opened up the back book. “And depending on what you become, it may change in how tonight’s game will end. Oh, and a little hint, don’t go as yourself, it just won’t work.”
“You could be pretty much anything you want,” Shining said. “Like for example, my character is Al Makhlab Alsulb, the last desert gryphon and ex-assassin that is a level twenty-seven warrior that is gifted with stealth and observation.”
“Mine is Count Orlock of the Shadow Hills,” Sunburst informed. “A vampire that at night has great endurance and speed that is a level thirty-one warrior. My strengths are illusion and stamina. Big Mac’s is Sir McBiggen, a level twenty-nine black knight unicorn. Discord is a level eighteen immortal archery elf, known around as Captain Waz. Blueblood is Sir Snowrose, the white pegasus knight at level twenty-five. And Fancy is a level twenty-four Shaolin monk known as Master Tí Shǎndiàn.”
“What about Spike?” Thorax turned to me, “What is your character?”
“In this game, I’m Garbuckle the Magician, a level thirty-seven enchanter. You can be any character you want, but no gods allowed though, because that would be cheating.”
Thorax thought for a good minute. “How about this?” he suddenly burst into green flames. And there was saw him transformed into something of a ghost that hovered above the floor. His orange moose-like antlers were morphed into ivory white thin deer ones, and his fur had turned phantom white. Around his neck were vines and he had a crown of leaves on his head. When he opened his eyes, they were a wintery blue. “Call me Erlkönig, the spirit of the forest from the west.”
“A forest spirit, eh?” Discord inquired as he circled around him. “Not bad. If anything, it fits perfectly with the storyline from last week. Where us the heroes were fleeing into the forest after a devastating attempt to continue on our quest. So, King Thorax,” Discord rose above us in the throne room. “Are you ready to enter into the world, of Ogres & Oubliettes?”
And just like that in a flash of light, the crystal throne room had been transformed into a nocturnal forest of origami cards and dice boulders. All of us have been transformed into our respected characters, except for Thorax who stayed the same in his disguise that was sitting in a tree. I looked around to see that we were in the same battered state as we were the last time. Discord’s voice was heard all around.
“Our chapter begins in the Forest of Phantoms, where our heroes have fled for safety from the unexpected ambush of the New Moon Cult. Battered and bruised, they dared to seek shelter in the forbidden forest of the Erlkönig.”
Thorax in spirit form looked up to the sky, “Um… what do I do exactly?”
“Since you’re new, you’ll go first. Just remember, you’re the king of the forest, just play along. You see these battered guys show up to your forbidden kingdom, so what do you do?”
“I guess investigate,” Thorax shrugged. “See what they want.”
“Don’t say it, do it! And stay in character!”
“Okay, fine,” he rolled his eyes as he flew down from the trees. “Uh… H-Halt! Who is it that walks on these sacred grounds?”
With a limp, I walked forward, “Please, we do not mean to trespass spirit of this forest. We are seeking food and shelter.” I winced and hissed in pain, “Not to mention a place to heal. We have been caught off guard by the New Moon Cult and were ambushed. If you give us sanctuary, we’ll be out of these woods by morning.”
The ghostly Changeling raised an eyebrow, at first I couldn’t read his face as he drew closer to me. “I do not know who this New Moon Cult is, but there is something… familiar with you. Have we met before?”
“Uh… I don’t think so…?”
Thorax narrowed his eyes before replying. “I am Erlkönig, the spirit of the forest and king of those who live within the borders of my realm. For tonight, I will allow you to rest underneath these branches – but at the same time, I warn all of you, if you lie about who you claim to be, there will be consequences.”
“Your kindness is much appreciated,” said Fancy, who by now had taken up the form of a balled Earth Pony in torn, silken robes. He bowed to the forest spirit and added, “For you have our word for us to honor by.”
From there, as Count Orlock (also known as Sunburst) perched on a tree to act as a lookout, the rest of us tended to our wounds. Many potions and bandages were used, and all the while we kept our eyes peeled and ears perked for any sign of our attackers. Since it was a moonlight night, and we didn’t want to attract the wrong attention, we decided not to light a fire much to the spirit’s relief.
Erlkönig asked us how we came into such a predicament. So we explained to him of the key events of what was going on in the game. Of how after the fall of the Squidzard, there was peace in the land until a new dark order had risen up, the New Moon Cult – a secret society set to restore and go further than what the last villain had done. And that is to bring the land not only into eternal night, but to encase it forever in darkness. We explained to the phantom Changeling that we were on a quest to reach the rumored Solar Stone in which may defeat this cult once and for all.
“Ah, and this leads to the ambush?” the Erlkönig questioned.
“It was a humiliating defeat,” Snowrose (also known as Blueblood) nodded. “We’re lucky to escape with our very lives; although, I’m not so certain of how long our luck will last.”
“To arms!” Captain Waz quickly picked up his bow and arrows while the rest of us readied our weapons. From the shadows of the pale moonlight, dark hooded figures galloped through the woods with war cries on their lips. At this point in the game, we were weak and many of us haven’t fully recovered as we drew our weapon of choice and I readied myself with a spell.
They rushed towards us with swords and spears. Although made out of paper, the swung and stabbed at anyone one of us nearby. At first, I was worried that Thorax wasn’t going to come to help us until one of the villains had accidentally missed me and swung his ax against a tree. “You dare!” an unholy shriek echoed in the forest as the Erlkönig galloped through the air, roots springing out from behind him like a sea monster from the ground. One of the roots swiftly reached out and choked the one responsible until the paper tore in two. “You demons dare to harm my friends and this forest!” Thorax’s character roared, his eyes turned from a spectral blue to a nightmarish red. “There is one penalty for harming my trees, and that is death!”
All around us, the guys stood back in both awe and terror as the origami trees swung its branches, uprooted its roots to grab hold of our attackers to crush and tore them into pieces. Once it was over, the Erlkönig hovered over to me, with that fire still in his eyes. “I will not let anyone hurt you.” He told me.
I put my staff away, “You are indeed a powerful being,” I said. “In all of our travels and adventures, never have we encountered one who can command the trees before.”
Thorax’s character was able to calm down as his eyes returned to that same blue color. “They are my responsibility. Since these fiends have attacked you, I believe in your story. What’s more, as innocents, I place you under protection as I cannot let those that are noble as you are to be harmed.”
“Ya know,” Sir Mcbiggen commented as he put away his sword. “With someone like ‘em, he’d be incredibly helpful with our quest.”
“I agree,” the dessert gryphon, Al Makhlab (or Prince Shining) approached him. “Tell us, good sir, do your powers only exceed to that of this forest?”
The Erlkönig snorted, “I am nature itself. Wherever there is flora, there is my subject waiting for my command.”
“Garbuckle,” Captain Waz turned to me. “I think I speak on behalf of everyone here that this is the warrior that we are looking for. Why, with magic like his, it may be just enough to turn the tide in our favor.”
Everypony there agreed, but I felt that I needed to further persuade him. “This world is in danger Erlkönig. If the cult is successful, everything, including this forest will wither away into an abyss. Your power is promising in achieving our goal. So will you join our quest?”
The spectral Changeling thought it over for a moment, “Very well. Rest now tonight, for, on the morning, I shall join you.”
“That was surprisingly fun!” Thorax told me. We had concluded our game that night, and the guys had begun to either return to their homes or stay overnight at the castle. Thorax and I were snacking in the kitchen at this point with him digging out a tub of ice cream and I a bagful of gems. “It makes me wonder,” he said between spoonfuls of the strawberry swirl. “How come you haven’t told me this before?”
I admit that I did feel sheepish at that moment, “Sorry dude, considering of what has happened to you, I thought that you might have been too busy with what happened at the Crystal Empire and the Hive.”
“But I could always set some time aside for this. I mean, all that pretending stuff was really fun when it’s not for hunting or resonance stuff.”
“Yeah, you were a natural,” I nodded in agreement with an emerald in my cheek. “Thanks for coming over, by-the-way.”
“I’d do anything for you, Spike.” After setting his spoon aside, he added. “And I meant what I said back there.”
“Huh?”
“That I won’t let anything harm you.”
Now I set the bag on one of the counters. “Awe, c’mon dude, it was just a game.”
“I know. But I also meant it in a real sense. You know how much you mean to me that the last thing I want is for something bad to happen to you.” I reached over to rub the top of his head, to which he smiled at me. “Thanks.”
“Thorax, I get all of that. Trust me, this isn’t the first time that I had fallen in love with someone.”
“Yeah, with Rarity.”
I shook my head. “It’s not just her.”
“Huh?” he raised an eyebrow.
“To be honest, once Prince Blueblood unintentionally helped me put two-and-two together, I had realized that I had crushes on other ponies too. For instance, have I told you that my first guy crush was on Big Mac?”
“I don’t think so?” his eyebrow hadn’t come down. “So what’s the story behind that?”
Rubbing my neck, I told him. “Well, after that fiasco at the Grand Galloping Gala, and realizing that I wasn’t just attracted to females, I slowly realized that I had felt with my first guy friends in Ponyville. Apart from… physical traits, I saw how similar we were at the time. He was a closeted nerd that is not only well read, but he’d had an interest in fantasy stuff too so it wasn’t hard for me to introduce him to the game as Shining did with me. Well, after some encouragement from Twilight, she helped me to go up to him and tell him how I felt. And before you start getting jealous, after I told him he said that although flattered, he already had his eye on somepony else. I mean, sure it was pretty awkward after a good month or so, but we still remained friends.”
“Oh, I see,” he nodded.
“Still, I can take care of myself. I am a dragon, after all, so unless by accident, nopony stupid enough is going to hurt me, even if they tried.” From there, I grabbed hold of the ice cream and put it back in the freezer. “You know,” I said, letting my eyes drop halfway. “Since you’re staying the night here, how about I return that favor I owe you.”
He tilted his head. “Favor? What fa-” I picked him up before he could finish. “Oh… That favor. Spike, you don’t have-”
I put a claw to his lips. “No. You helped me when I needed the most. And I cannot thank you enough for doing so. Besides, I want to… well, if you’d let me.”
The Changeling King kissed me, “Fair enough, my chevalier. I suppose I can stay for that kind of game.”
“It’s the least I can do,” I told him as I carried him off to my room.
I think that by now I should address the big, fat, ugly elephant in the room. Now I know that what I’m going to write about has been discussed, reported, debated, and studied to death. Of course, I’m referring to that fateful day in the spring in Canterlot, of events of the Garden Summit. Now, there is no doubt about it that what happened. If anything, it was rather a shock that it even happened at all. Of course, there were plenty of witnesses of what happened, but this here is to give you, the reader, my side of the story.
At this point in time, Thorax and I were roughly about half-a-year into our relationship, getting together when it was possible. Especially if it was for an excuse that certain events wanted us to be in the same place at the same time – in this case, the Summit. If anything, it was more of an unofficial get together of some of the world’s leaders to basically have the day off at the Royal Gardens. Aside from the stars of the show: the Equestrian Royal Family, I was there with Thorax, his Queen (who I think was beginning to show signs of her pregnancy) and his brother were there.
We arrived around the afternoon, just after lunch when we walked into the Royal Gardens where Celestia welcomed us from the gate. “Hello Spike, it’s so good to see you,” I remember her saying to me as she hugged me with her wing.
“Hey Princess, I’m sorry that we’re late, Pharynx had to make sure that the hive was secured before we left.”
Both Changeling Royals glanced at him, “What? How was I supposed to know that it took longer than I thought?”
“I think a rule to stick by,” Lavender told him. “Is that there is no such thing as ‘It’ll take twenty minutes tops.’”
Celestia giggled, “Nevertheless, I’m rather glad that you’ve come too Thorax and…” she trailed off when she spotted the bulge from the Queen. “Why Lavender, are you?”
She smiled and nodded, “Its happening. I’m expecting,” and nuzzled the King for a moment. “I mean it took a few tries but there’s no doubt about it.”
“That’s wonderful to hear. When are you expecting?”
“We think it’s sometime around September,” the Changeling King replied. “You should have seen the hive when they heard the news.”
Pharynx looked around, “Can we get in? I don’t think we should stay out in the open for long.”
“But of course,” Celestia waved her wing towards the gardens. In we went to see that among some of the kings, queens, emperors, princes, princesses, presidents and prime ministers, there were some familiar faces among the crowd.
And among them was the Dragon Lord, “Ember!” I waved over to her. “Hey, Ember!”
This managed to get her attention as she took flight and flew over to us. “Spike,” she took my claw and we bumped our chests. “Long time no see, where have you been since the last time I’ve seen ya?”
“Oh, keeping myself busy,” I scratched the back of my neck. “In fact, you might say that something rather important has happened to me recently.”
“Really?” she tilted her head, “And that being?”
“I think that I may or may not have found someone who, in dragon terms, that I would call a Mate.”
Her eyes widened, “Is this true?”
“Six months now, give-or-take, if anything, he’s here right now?”
“Ooh,” with a raised eyebrow she smirked and a light blush, “kinky.”
Lavender busted out laughing, at first Ember was confused until she pointed at the brothers, “You mean one of them?” Thorax raised a hoof. “Oh, now this is getting interesting. I never took you to liking males Thorax.”
“Well, what can I say? Spike has earned being my consort.”
Ember took a quick glance at me, looking me up and down before back to the King, “Can’t say that I blame you.”
Needless to say, after that it fell into the usual small talk with not just Ember, but even the other leaders as well. There was the flowery language with most of them, saying hello and how’s your country doing – that sort of thing. If anything, it was kinda dull for a while.
Then… There was Prince of Yakyakistan. Okay before I go any further, I want to say that despite how the now deceased Prince Rutherford has been portrayed recently, the guy I knew was headstrong. There’s no doubt about it. However, he was also the kind of guy that once you really get to know him; he can show that he is passionate about preserving his culture of the Yaks.
It makes me wish that I had done so before it happened.
“Hey there Prince Rutherford,” I waved over to him. “Sorry that we were late.”
He brushed his overgrown mane out of the way for him to peek out an eye. “Dragon Spike, you have grown since last time Yaks seen you.”
“Yes, I have been undergoing a growth spurt since I was thirteen. But like I said, we’re sorry that we came in late.”
“Spike hadn’t missed much. Pony foods okay, but nothing like Yak vanilla cake, otherwise, summit dull.” He peeked over to the Changelings, “Who are they?”
“You mean that you’ve never met the Changelings?” he shook his head. “Well then, this here is King Thorax, his Queen, Lavender, and his brother Pharynx.”
“Really? These are Changelings?” the Yak Prince brushed aside his mane. “Yaks thought that all of them were black, yet these three are more colorful than ponies.”
I and the other three Changelings cringed, “Didn’t anyone told you that we’re reformed?” Lavender inquired.
“Yaks are from Yakyakistan. It is the last place in the whole world to know what goes on.”
So we explained to him of the story of how a runaway Changeling became King after the overthrow of Chrysalis and showing that it was possible to give love rather than take it. After we told him all of this, Rutherford had a question: “That explains why Changelings are here, but why is Dragon Spike here? Yak thought that he was a knight.”
“Technically yes,” Thorax nodded. “However, I invited him here since I consider him one of the most important members in my court.”
“Is that so?” he asked, “What is Spike?”
“The Master Consort.”
“Who? To the Queen?”
“What?” Lavender raised an eyebrow. “No, Spike isn’t my consort, it’s my husband’s.”
There was an uncomfortable pause between us and Rutherford. “Yak doesn’t understand,” he replied. “Is Changeling King a male?” When told that he was, he then said, “Oh! Yak gets it! Spike is Thorax’s comrade in his court.”
Without skipping a beat, Pharynx replied, “What are you a moron? He’s my brother’s mate.”
It was as if something within the Yak Prince had snapped as soon as he heard the “M” word. I still remember the frown on his face as he was turning away from us. “Yaks don’t wish to speak anymore.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Lavender flew up to him. “What does that supposed to mean?”
“Yaks don’t want to know of coltcuddlers.”
“Excuse me!” all four of us objected. Pharynx practically pushed the Queen aside until he and the Yak were muzzle to muzzle. “Did you want to repeat that again?”
“Us Yaks don’t want to associate those that are pathetically weak.”
“My brother isn’t weak!”
“All coltcuddlers are weak, that is a fact.”
“Why you oversized-” he was stopped by his brother’s hoof that pulled him away.
“I got this,” he said as he stepped right in. “Prince Rutherford, I know that this is the first time that we’ve met. But it is rather unfair that you instantly judge me over this one little fact.”
The Yak prince snorted, “There is nothing more us Yaks need to know about you.”
I then saw something in him that I never saw him before. With eyes that held back an inferno of rage, he calmly stated, “I am a King of thirty-three years of age, and have been in office for nearly fifteen years. My Queen is currently pregnant with future heirs to the throne and currently has almost ten thousand citizens. During my time, I have passed seven-hundred-and-forty-eight laws among them. I have helped overthrow Queen Chrysalis with the assistance of friends of Princess Twilight. I am responsible for not only the Hive in the badlands (in which I was able to turn it from a wasteland into a garden), but for a hundred servants, three hundred ambassadors, a thousand civil employees, and an army of four thousand, all for the sake of keeping each and every Changeling safe. I am easily jealous, naïve, boring, excitable, sensitive, a little too careful about my health and have too big of a heart. I am many things, Prince Rutherford. But weak isn’t one of them.”
He grunted as he pushed the King aside, “Leave Yaks be you fago-”
Now he went too far as I pulled on his tail, “You take that back!”
“Get off!” he quickly turned around and bucked me over hard with his horns (nearly goring me, by-the-way) that made my fly a good distance. Then just like that, he charged at me was able to stomp on my chest, knocking the wind right out of me. “Don’t touch Yak again you stallion stuffer!” Before he could breathe another breath, three Changelings instantly transformed into larger, fiercer creatures; the Queen taking on the form of a Hydra, Pharynx a bugbear, and Thorax a dragon with their claws and teeth aimed at the Prince.
Of course, this didn’t go unnoticed as the other leaders (if they didn’t pay any attention before, they certainly were now). If anything, I was panicking as I quickly realized that there was going to be an all-out war. As I was trying to get air back into my lungs, I waved a claw. “Wait!” I cried out as soon as I can get a word out and get back on my feet. “Before any happens, let me have a say.” I went up to the Yak Prince, grabbed him by the back of the neck and told him: “You know, just for today, I’m going to pardon you for nearly causing a war. And before you say anything, there are three reasons why I’m doing this.”
I held up a claw, “First of all, Princess Twilight and Celestia, the ones that practically raised me are here. For while I may be a knight, I’m technically royalty too in which you have just insulted and harmed.” His angry expression morphed to realization. “I’m going to pardon you because not only is it rude to wage war in public, but if I let it happen, Twilight and Celestia will scold me.
Then I held up two claws, “Second, you do know that you’re at a peace summit, right? In which most of the world’s leaders are in one spot. Which means that not only are Twi and Celie are here, but so is Ember, the Dragon Lord in which I’m their friendship ambassador to since, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a dragon.” I said between my teeth. “As in one that can eat diamonds, slash steel with my claws and breathe fire.” I blew a little green flame to illustrate my point, giving him a good size fireball to get it across.
While any sign of arrogance had given way to fear, I held up the third claw: “And third, just because I and Thorax happen to be together in a relationship, does not mean that we are any less noble than you are. The very fact that I’m pardoning you on this should say something, not that I’m weak to start a war but strong and mature enough to prevent one. I wonder what that says about you? And by-the-way, while I may forgive on your prejudice, but if you so much harm me or Thorax, then I will not be so forgiving.”
“Sir Spike?” I turned my attention to find Prince Blueblood there, “Is there something the matter?”
As I let go of the prince, the other three Changelings turned back to their original form. “Hopefully not,” I told him. “Blueblood, a word with you?” I practically dragged him out of earshot.
“What is going on?” the blond unicorn asked.
“Did you know that Prince Rutherford is homophobic?” I interrogated him.
His face drooped, “Oh Celestia, what happened?”
“Aside from nearly causing a war, he pretty much insulted both me and Thorax. Now that I think of it, how did you managed to talk with them, to begin with? Does he know that you’re gay?”
“Oh Spike, I am so sorry for all of this,” he facehoofed in frustration. “This is my fault, I’ve completely spaced it to warn both of you that the Yak culture doesn’t recognize homosexuality. And as a side note, I managed to do so because I’ve managed to leave that detail about myself out. Heck, as far as I know, no one in Yakyakistan knows that I have a husband. Spike, I’m so sorry for all of this. Here, let me go talk to Rutherford and see what can be salvaged.”
I looked behind me, “Yes, now if you excuse me, I have a King to comfort.”
While I helped Thorax, his brother, and his queen to walk away, Pharynx commented, “You know bro, I think I see why you like Spike now.”
The Changeling King raised an eyebrow, “How so?”
“Here you have a guy that has been nearly gored by a pair of arrogant Yak horns before getting stomped over, and what does he do? He gets up, takes him by the neck and shows off how dangerous he is by showing off his claws, teeth, and fire to put in back in his place. If I were remotely gay, I’ll have him rut me on the spot.”
Thorax, in response, wrapped a hoof around me and said, “Mine.” Then he turned to me, “Are you okay Spike?”
“I’m a lot more durable than you give me credit for,” I then looked behind me to see the Yak Prince speaking with Blueblood. “Not to say that the last meeting left a bad taste in my mouth.”
As much as I think that King Thorax needs me, especially after what happened at the Summit incident, there was a time in which I needed him – especially during one of the most painful moments in my life. This occurred just before the first days of summer and I have invited him to Ponyville for a couple of days. If anything, it all began something so simple, as it was a hot day so I took him to the local pond for a swim. While there were a few Changeling guards nearby, we had our fun diving, splashing and floating over the water.
I remember that I was floating on my back, taking in the sun when I suddenly had this idea. “Hey, Thorax! Is it possible for you to shapeshift while swimming?”
He smirked, “Is a Changeling’s favorite holiday Nightmare Night?” Just like that, there was a green fire over the water and in his place was a seapony that dove right under. Flipping over while taking in a deep breath, I too went down to where, in the blurry pond water, I saw his form glide underneath me. While I might have been somewhat blind, I was able to swim and feel around until I touched a fin. From there I was dragged around like I was flying at such speed before going upwards for air.
“Whoa!” I said after we broke through the surface. “Dude, that was so cool!”
“I know, right?” Thorax, still in his seapony form smiled. “This was such a great idea to spend an afternoon. I just wish that we’ve-”I suddenly cut him off as I felt two, very sharp pinches on my back that caused me to hiss. “Spike?”
“Hey, can you see if there’s something on my back?” I asked as I swan to turn myself around, “Something is really stinging all of a sudden.”
There was no sound that came from him.
Curious, I craned my neck around, I saw his expression taken on a look of horror, “What?” I asked, “What’s wrong? Is something on me?”
“Spike,” the King said in alarm. “You’re bleeding!”
“What?” Glancing over my back, I saw two, small red lines on that were over my shoulder blades. At first, I was puzzled as I don’t remember hitting anything down there. What made it even more bewildering is that I know that I’m practically immune to leech bites. “What the-”
“You need to get out of the water,” Thorax swam over to me, grabbing my torso with a fin and practically pulled me to shore.
“Dude, don’t worry about it,” I told him as soon as I felt the sand at my feet. “I’m sure it’s just a cu- OW!” I yelped out as soon as those wounds were exposed to the air. Tartarus! It was like getting stabbed in the back. I was reaching my claws behind me at the source of the sudden pain.
“Guys!” Thorax instantly transformed back to his original self as soon as we were on the sand, waving at the guards. “Guys get over here! Spike’s hurt!”
Two of them galloped in our direction and one of them asked what had happened, “I don’t know!” I told them, “We were just swimming when these appeared on my back.” I hissed, “Celestia it really stings!” I removed my claw away to find, to my shock that there was blood on it. “Guys, something’s seriously wrong.”
“Which way is to the nearest hospital?” Thorax questioned.
How do I describe what I was going through on the way to Ponyville’s hospital? As Thorax carried me on his back, mine felt like someone took a couple of hits with an ax blade. It didn’t help with the fact that I was bleeding all the way there, leaving a dripping, crimson trail. I remembered in that I was in so much pain as I felt something was trying to force its way through the muscles, the nerves, fat, and scales like parasites that threaten to burst out at any moment. There were also tears that I too have shed as if my back was more than just on fire, but as, if someone poured trails of acid on it.
“We’re almost there Spike,” I kept hearing Thorax saying to me. “Just hang on.”
All I could do was whipper, hiss and (from time to time) scream as I felt that something was cutting me from the inside. The Changeling King galloped as fast as he could towards Ponyville’s hospital, no doubt scared to death about the condition I was in. He must have been as soon as he burst through the front doors I heard him scream: “GET ME A DOCTOR! NOW!!”
From there, it was a blur, one moment I was hoisted up to one of those beds with wheels. The next I was x-rayed, and before I knew it was I rushed to the emergency room where somepony put a mask on me, counting down backward before I blacked out. However, I do remember when I woke up; I did so with the thought that I had to remind myself to breathe. From there, I was able to open my eyes to see the floor with a pair of hooves on each side, and the voice of nurses.
“…. So how much anesthesia they had to give him?”
“About seven times the average dose as far as I’m told. I mean I think it kinda makes sense considering that he is a- hold on.” One of the pairs of legs had bend down to which a head peeked under, “Oh hey, he’s up.”
“Water,” I begged, as my throat felt like a desert. A moment later, she returned with a cup that had a straw in it to where I was able to suck up the liquid pretty quickly. “Where am I?”
“Apart of Ponyville hospital,” she replied. “You’re on the second floor in one of its waiting rooms. The doctors had to do surgery on you given what the x-rays showed.”
I blinked, “Surgery? What was wrong with me?”
“Remember that painful feeling you had on your back? Turns out, those were your wings that were trying to force their way out.”
For a good solid ten minutes, I let it sink in. “My what? I have- Ow!”
“Please, don’t move so much,” my nurse warned. “Here, let us get you a mirror so you can see.” After what must have been the longest minute of my life, one of them levitated a mirror up to me and tilted a little to the side. To my shock, they're sticking out from my back and suspended on a series of wires and pulleys was a pair of bat-like wings that still corresponded to the color of my scales. Each wingspan was about half as I was tall. “At the moment, they’re very fragile,” the nurse informed me. “So until both of these are completely dry, it’s best advised that you don’t move for at least a week.”
Yet, among my stunned reaction of having wings on my back, another thought came to me, “Where’s King Thorax?”
“I think we can wheel him into his room now, should we?” the other nurse asked, and just like that they began to move my bed. “The one that brought you to the hospital is waiting for you in your assigned room. Not only that, but you have some visitors too.”
“You mean Princess Twilight is here?”
“Uh-huh. Not only is she here, but so is Princess Celestia, and the Dragon Lord Ember is here too.”
I just let the conversation drop as I was being wheeled through the hospital, watching the tiles on the floor and hooves go by. My mind was racing with the thought that I had a pair of wings that were buried right beneath my scales this whole time! I was trying to figure out how was it that nopony had noticed this until now?
Soon I was rolled into my room in which, the first voice I heard was Thorax's, “Spike, are you okay?”
“Oh gee, I don’t know,” I deadpanned, my humor defense mechanism kicking in. “I just had a pair of wings that nearly ripped me in pieces, but other than that, I feel doing great.”
“Holy crap Spike,” Ember gave a low whistle. “Those are some really sweet wings you got.”
“Yeah, and getting them hurt,” I replied as I was rolled over to my place in the hospital room before the nurses proceeded to hoist me up through some mechanical pulley system. Now that I was able to see anything but the floor, I was now facing my visitors.
“I feel for you Spike,” Ember said as she had her arms folded. “Getting your wings is an agonizing trial, but I must say that you’ve finally undergone a rite of passage for our dragons.”
“Huh?”
“Well among us dragons, getting one’s wings separates from being hatching and someone that’s grown up. Although I’m rather surprised that it’s taken you this long for them to finally kick in. How’s your back anyway?”
“Numb, like everything else.”
I saw Twilight walk around to look behind me. “Still, I am surprised that the doctors were able to use any surgical tools on you at all. I thought scales were impossible to cut through.”
The Dragon Lord shook her head, “Not if there’s something that exposes what’s underneath the scales. Sure, they’re tough, but once you’re able to get under, the flesh is very soft so it’s no surprise that the doctors were able to do anything.”
“Does that mean that I have stitches?” I asked.
Twilight replied as she came round to face me. “Oh yeah, there are. I have to tell you, Spike, that if I had known that this was going to happen or had gotten you a check-up.”
“But we didn’t know,” I pointed it out. “If anything, you might be thanking Thorax for getting me over here at all.”
“She already did,” the Changeling King replied. “And from there she rounded up everyone that could come on such short notice when they heard that you’re in the hospital.”
“I would have invited Luna,” Celestia told me, “But since this is in the middle of the day, I didn’t want to wake her up after the long night she had. Now I admit that I and no doubt Twilight panicked when we got the word. If anything, I had to cancel Day Court to fly down here to see if you were alright.”
“Princess, you didn’t have to,” I began but she stopped me.
“Spike, me and Twilight practically raised you; having you hurt in any way is like hearing that our own child has been injured. It’s shocking to hear and naturally, we’re concerned for your well-being.”
I looked over to Thorax, “Hey, I’m sorry that I’d scared you back there.”
He shook his head, “No, it’s fine. Yes, you did give me several heart attacks along the way, but what’s important is that you’re going to be fine.”
“Uh yeah…” I gave an apologetic look. “I’ve been told that I won’t be able to leave until my wings are dried and my scars recover in a week, I’m sorry to tell you that I have to cut your visit short.”
“I can extend my stay until you recover. Lavender can hold down the Kingdom until I get back.”
“Trust me,” Ember spoke up. “Since he can’t really move for a while, he’s gonna need all the visits he could get, just to prevent him from going stir-crazy. I remembered that as soon as these wings popped out of me, I had to lay face down in a cave where I was pretty much board out of my mind. So if I were you Thorax,” she pointed a claw at me. “I’d try to keep him occupied as long as possible until he’s able to move without flinching.”
“Lord Ember,” Celestia asked, “Since Spike now has wings, would he need to undergo learning how to fly as well?”
“Well of course, but it doesn’t have to be a dragon, just someone who has wings. In a way, it like…” she put a claw to her chin, “What’s that thing you ponies call? That thing that has two wheels and you rotate one of them through a chain?”
I raise an eyebrow, “You mean a bicycle?”
“Yeah! That’s it!” she snapped a claw. “It’s like that. Once you show him, it’ll be easier for him to grasp it. Still, looking at him now, nothing about his wings are torn, which is good. So I congratulate you Spike for becoming a full-fledged adult. I promise you that once you’re able to walk out of here, come to the Dragon Lands where we’ll throw you a coming of age feast.”
After I thanked her, I asked if I could speak with Thorax alone. To which this was granted, leaving me and the King alone. “Again,” I began, “I’m so sorry for all of this.”
“You know Spike, you really ought to stop apologizing for things that are out of your control. Yes, you did scare me – but right now, I’m relieved that you’ll recover, and that’s all it matters.”
“Not to say that it throws my plans out the window. After all, I was planning on taking you out to see a movie since I haven’t seen one myself for a while.”
He waved a hoof, “Plans, who needs them? All I care about is spending time with my Master Consort, regardless of the situation. Plus, I have to agree with Ember, these are magnificent wings you got. If you want, I could teach you how to fly once they’re dry.”
“Really?” I blinked, “You’re willing to do that?”
“Mhmm,” he nodded. “After seeing you in so much pain, I figured that you need someone that’ll help you out with these new appendages. Learn how to take care of them and whatnot. Still, I think it’ll be fun to teach you and, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to fly from here to the Hive in no time. You don’t have to ask Twilight or Starlight to teleport you or spend your bits on train tickets.”
“I admit, I’m still in shock that I have wings. But when you put it like that, I guess I have a little more freedom of movement now.”
He trotted up to me to nuzzle my face. “You’re going to love flying, just you wait. But for now, you do need to rest, my Knight. After all, you had quite the day and your back needs to heal. Still, I promise that if as long as this hospital lets me, I’ll come to visit you as long and as often as I can.”
“Good. Because I don’t feel like going stir-crazy myself,” We both chuckled at this. After that, he kissed me before I said, “Could you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“The next time you do visit me, bring the phonograph and some records along. If I’m going to like this for a good week, I might as well do it while listening to something to keep me entertained.”
Now there are very few things that I could remember from dreams. To be honest with you, for the sake of this chapter, I had to ask Princess Luna about the details of what exactly happened on that night. However, I do remember enough to know what exactly had happened and what was said. It’s only now that King Thorax has permitted me in sharing with the world of something that was so personal between us.
That first night at the hospital, I remembered how that I couldn’t fall asleep at first so that the nurses gave me some sleeping pills to basically knock myself out. From there, I remember dreaming that I was in the desert by a pyramid as I was descending into a dark corridor with nothing but a torch in my claw. As I went further in, I noticed how the hieroglyphs on the walls and ceiling were becoming more elaborate with its imagines of past pharaohs, its Gods, life on the Nile, and the seemingly endless text in a phantom language.
However, I did have to pause as I noticed one engraving on the wall was completely out of place among the others. It was that of Princess Luna with a joystick in her forehooves, looking at a screen.
“Huh? What the-” To my shock, the image was moving, as if she was playing a video game.
“I suppose you’ve read one too many Daring Do novels,” Luna asked me as she continued on with her game. “It’s not too often that I go into one’s dream where it’s Coltgyptian theme.”
“Princess Luna?” I asked, “What the hay are you doing here?”
“Excuse me one moment,” On the wall, she put the joystick down and lit up her horn. In a flash of light, she was standing next to me. “Much better, being in a two-dimensional form was rather jarring. Anyway, I’m in need of your assistance tonight Sir Spike.”
I inquired what was going on, “Are we being attacked again? A new supervillain just popped up?”
She shook her head, “Not quite. It has more to do with the dream realm that you are required. In particular, King Thorax is having a distressful nightmare that I believe you would help.”
“He’s having a nightmare?” I blinked, “Over what? Is it monsters because if so, I thought that was your specialty?”
“I don’t think it’s that kind of nightmare,” she said as she lights up her horn to have a door appear in the walls. “If anything, I sense it might be similar to what both my nephew and his husband had experienced in the past.” After opening the door to a field of stars, she added: “I think he is in desperate need of comfort.”
Curious, I let the torch behind and followed the Dream Princess into a place that I have never seen before. All around it was like walking on an evening sky, only there was so much color around and the stars were solid to walk around. Not only that but on this starry path on both sides like an open hallway were doors of every size, shape, color, and style that with a stomp of her hoof, Luna moved the doors in both directions until she made everything stop as we now stood at a particular door.
I remembered that it was more of a doorframe with a dark green curtain that had holes towards the bottom of the floor. Above the door, I noticed how that it and all the others in this open hallway had a star right over it that show a different color. The one that we stood in front of was neon red.
“This is the gateway towards King Thorax’s nightmare,” Luna informed me. “Before we proceed, I must inform you that in you or Thorax are in sort of danger, rest assure that I shall be keeping an eye on potential dangers. But since you are about to walk into what is his worst nightmare, you need to be extremely careful as he is exposing not just his greatest fears, but his insecurities, worries, doubts and other truths. So do not be so swift to judge him, but do remember that you are here to comfort him in his time of need.”
“Understood Princess,” I nodded as I reached out and pulled away from the curtain in which I and Luna entered.
The first thing we’ve noticed was the rain. A steady stream that came pouring down from grim clouds overhead, and there was no wind at all in which this was not an angry storm. Luna used her magic to imagine and produce an umbrella for us to stand under as we examined our surroundings. We were in a forest of some kind where the trees had black bark and dark green leaves that drooped over the amount of rain that was being poured down on.
What struck me was how quiet it all was. Apart from the constant rain, there was nothing to suggest fear of any kind. There was no ominous lightning or howling of wolves, the growl of monsters, nor the screams for help. I turned to Luna, puzzled. “I think we ought to start looking for the king.”
As we did just that, I began to notice that with each passing tree that we walked past, I saw how many of them were carved deeply into them. These weren’t the kind that lovers that would carve their initials in, nor any graffiti that was left behind. Rather, as we took a closer look, they spell out a name, dates, places along with short messages on them. We quickly realized that what we had walked into wasn’t just a forest – this was a cemetery.
Eventually, we spotted a Changeling walking between the trees so we’ve decided to follow him. As we got closer, we saw that it was Thorax’s brother who stopped by a particular tree and seemed to be speaking to someone behind it.
“Thorax, you can’t keep doing this,” he said. “It’s already been three months now. You should let this go.”
No response.
“You do know that there was nothing that could be done. We did everything we could.”
Silence.
Pharynx sighed, “Look, I miss him too. We all do. Lavender, the kids, the Equestrian Princesses, the Dragon Lord, everyone misses him. But you shouldn’t be doing this alo-”
“Why are you still here?” a voice, undeniably Thorax questioned him bitterly. “I… I don’t want to deal with this right now…”
“You know I’m here to talk-”
“Leave!”
His brother shook his head, “As you wish, Your Majesty.” He turned to walk away.
It didn’t take Sherlock Hooves to put it together what was going on. I learned that Thorax was more than just scared of losing me, more than just having me harmed, but that I would die. After taking the umbrella into my own claws, I told Luna to let me take care of this. She in return said that she’ll be watching me before disappearing behind the trees.
Now I turned my attention to where Thorax was as I silently walked up to the tree. As I got closer, I heard him sobbing, whispering the word “No,” over and over. Going around the tree, I saw what state he was in. There with his head bowed low and tears flowing with the rain, the Changeling King had his usual colorful exoskeleton return to black as the day I met him. I don’t think that I had ever seen him behave like this as he was practically hiccupped his grief. As I went behind him I saw, to my expectation, what was carved on the tree: “Sir Spike,” it read, “Born, May 17, 990. Canterlot. Here lie the hero of Equestria, the Crystal Empire and the Changeling Kingdom. Beloved Master Consort of King Thorax. Martyr of the Hive.”
I didn’t bother reading about the time and place of death, as much as it was unnerving of seeing my tombstone. So I quietly walked up from behind, umbrella in my claw as I shield him from the rain. “You know,” I said, “they say that you might catch a cold if you stay out in the rain for too long.”
He twisted his neck upward, blinded by tears he asked, “W-Who’s there?”
“Here,” I knelt down and taking his face into my free claw, I help brush the tears away for him to see. “So what are you crying about?”
The king’s jaw dropped, “S-Spike! Are you-how did you- why are you…” when his own words failed him, he wrapped me in his forehooves and cried.
“Hey, hey,” I cautiously began. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I-I saw you d-die,” Thorax croaked. “I held you when… Oh, Spike, I’m so sorry!” I remembered that I hugged him back. “I really tried everything. W-We gave you so much love, a-a-and I tried to get you to a-a doctor so you could live but… I couldn’t save you…”
“Shh, it’s going to be okay.” I whispered to him.
“No, it’s not. I failed you, Spike. As a friend. As a lover. As a King… I watched your life slip away. There’s nothing I could do, but I really tried everything…”
“I’m certain you did,” I patted the back of his head. “This actually hurts me to see you beating yourself up.” After glancing at my carved name on the tree, I asked, “So is this what you’re most afraid of?”
“It already came true,” he whispered. “Please forgive me.”
“I already do, and you have nothing to feel sorry over.”
“But-”
I pulled him away so I could put a claw to his lips. “Ah! Hear me out. Look Thorax, you didn’t fail me at all. Never once were you ever at fault… if anything, if there’s anyone to blame for all the trouble we have gotten ourselves into, it’s me.”
Thorax’s eyes wide, “Spike-”
“Let me finish. I know it for a fact that at least ninety percent of all the crap we got ourselves into, I had caused it somehow. Like the time when we first met and I was trying to feed you or when I was afraid that you and Ember won’t get along – that was my fault. As much as you try to protect me, you must realize that I am taking on more responsivity, and that includes the choices I’ve made. Don’t think that you have to be responsible for me, that’s my job.”
Here the King sighed, “So do you regret becoming my consort?”
“Do you remember when we’ve first met in that icy cave near the Crystal Empire?” he nodded. “On that day, I chose to look past of what you are and try to see who you are. I decided for you to become my friend, and I have never regretted it. And I chose to be your consort, and do you know why? It’s because, for the first time in years, I felt that you were the kind that I may live the rest of my life with. Sure, we might not be officially married, but you know what? I don’t care either way just so long as you are there in my life. If anything, agreeing to be your Master was the best decision I had ever made.”
After a sniff, he asked, “But we may lose each other, would we? Here you are dead over there, so would it make it any different if you didn’t want to be with me anymore?”
“Thorax,” I said sternly, “Look at me.” He did and I kissed him. “I can’t see what lies ahead. I don’t know how long officially this relationship we have will last. But the fact that to do anything as we have is amazing by any standard. Even if it lasts for a couple of weeks or all of eternity, I want to spend every moment of it because I can be easily happy with you. And even if when death comes, I do wish that I leave such a legacy for you to be passed on. I don’t want you to be miserable forever since you showed me the meaning (and several definitions) of love. That’s what I’ll take away, and I hope you’ll do so too.”
“But what would I do without you?”
I smiled, “You’re more clever than you think, My King. Never underestimate yourself Thorax, you are a wonderful Changeling that anybody would be lucky to have the privilege to get to know. Now dry those tears, you have a life to live, with or without me.”
What happened next was the critical piece that only Luna remembered as, according to her, Thorax and I were starting to wake up. Luna told me that she recalled how the forest seemed to quiver as if there was an earthquake. Then suddenly I was being pulled away as if somepony put a lasso around my torso and pulled really hard, sending me flying through the woods, out of the door and back to my dream to which I woke up.
Awake at the hospital, not too long after I had woken up and had breakfast, the nurse wheeled in a bouquet of gems in which every flower had a different gem that was carefully crafted. I remember the card in which it was tied to the vase that simply read:
Thank you for giving me peace of mind, my Dragon. It was needed.
Every day for a week, Thorax would come to the hospital to stay with me as long as possible. Since I couldn’t move all that much on my own, he was pretty much my only source of entertainment, gossip, and news of what was going on outside of the hospital walls. Honestly, I just couldn’t wait to get out of that bed and be able to test out my wings, let alone move. Up until my liberation, I remember nothing more about that week besides his visits and painkillers being swallowed or injected into my back.
Once the wings were dry enough so that they were more durable and my back wasn’t sore, they released me from the hospital. I admit that my muscles were stiff just by walking around and that I quickly began to emphasize Twilight when she first got her wings. It was rather weird at first to have a new set of limbs be moving on their own at times. Especially when I fully understood what having a… wing boner was really like.
Anyway, true to his word, Thorax had begun to show me the ins and outs of flying. Though his (and admittingly Twilight’s) help, I was shown the basics of gliding, synchronizing my wings, and learning how to fly at long distances without getting too tired. Soon enough, I was able to get a grasp of what I was doing.
We sent a letter to Ember, telling her that I had fully recovered and had a pretty good idea how to fly so she should start preparations for that feast she promised. Thorax and I decided to fly down to the Dragon Lands with his guards in tow. To this day, it amazes me how fast these wings could carry me over vast distances in such a short amount of time. For in the space of a journey in which on my feet would have taken me several days, now I’m able to go from Ponyville to the Dragon Lands in the space of a single day.
“You know, I don’t mean to sound rude or anything,” Thorax told me as he was able to get a good look at the land. “But is it me or does this place seem rather… dead to you?”
He wasn’t referring to how deserted it all was, quite the opposite because there were indeed dragons that were going about. Rather, as the sun was setting, he was pointing out the lack of plant life. So I replied to him, “Yeah I know it’s not as colorful as the Hive, but you do have to remember that we breathe and bathe in fire so anything that isn’t made out of stone is bound to be turned into ash.”
“And where are we going to meet Ember again?”
“Oh! That reminds me, you guys better cover your ears for this part.” Once I’ve made sure that all of them stopped their ears with their hooves did I let out a roaring fireball into the sky. Thus getting the dragon’s below their attention that we have arrived.
In dragon culture, getting one’s wings is considered an important, yet painful milestone in one’s life. Because of the agonizing process in which said, a dragon gets his wing, it is no surprise that there are some who don’t live through it or have died of infection within a week of having two appendages spontaneously rip your back. It is for this reason that if one did survive the ordeal the week after the wings spirited out that a feast is held in which the other drakes recognize them as strong, enduring adults.
So it goes without saying that out of all the meals that I ever had, this particular coming of age feast has always stood out in my memory. For one, it takes place in a hollowed-out volcano, in a chamber that was huge enough to have a practical swimming pool of lava nearby. There were slabs that served as tables to uphold a series of goodies that some of which I have never seen before. Since there were no chairs, everyone ate standing up, picking at the food or downing the bowls of their drinks.
And the food itself? To the eyes of a pony, I can imagine that it would be the equivalent of eating a treasury. Because in that chamber was a cornucopia of crushed crystals, sugar-coated diamonds, heated turquoise, hills of sweet rubes with sour sapphires, opal surprise, lava fried citrine, smoky quartz omelets, and pearl soup.
But the crown jewel of this feast was the beverage that was being served. It may come to a surprise for most ponies, but the Dragons have invented their own kind of alcoholic drink in which they only make it for special occasions. The exact details of the recipe are a closely guarded secret to those that brew it – yet for those like myself, this coveted drink is simply known as Liquid Fire. I swear to Celestia that it was actually glowing in a golden color that they were drinking ladles from. Of course, I looked into these tubs to see that it really did look like melted gold and yet, it’s not hot in the slightest.
“How’s the food?” I turned towards Ember’s voice; she was up against a table that she was chewing on an apple size chunk of crystal.
“I never knew that there were so many ways to cook gems before.”
“Well that’s what you get for living off of pony food,” she commented. “It tends to limit one's possibilities of making gems even more delicious. Hey, have you tried that?” she pointed to one of the tubs of booze.
“What is that stuff made out of anyway? I’ve never seen drinks glow like that before.”
She shrugged, “Even I don’t fully know. What little I do know is that the stuff that they used to ferment with is from a type of fruit that is a secret to only those that make this. And it’s always different with every batch as I’m told.”
“Different how?”
“Well, mostly in the taste of it. Depending on what they put in it, the flavor of each batch is almost never the same twice.” She then looked around, “Hey, where’s Thorax?”
After a quick glance around, I spotted him being surrounded in a tight ring of his guards. His head was peeking out as he was exchanging jokes to a few dragons. “He’s over there, getting to know the rest of you guys.”
“I noticed that he or any of his guards had touched any of the food.”
“To be fair,” I shrugged as I picked up a clawful of quartz to nibble on. “Unless you’re Pinkie Pie’s family, eating rocks isn’t exactly the ideal meal. As long as there’s some trace of love around, Changelings don’t go hungry. If anything, they see eating as a… (what would you call it?) a pastime. I mean sure, they can eat pony food and drinks, but more of mere entertainment than a necessity. Does that make sense?”
She then eyed the tub of booze, “I think so. But what about this? I think it’s safe enough for even ponies to drink from without getting a stomach ache. Do you think they’ll be able to drink from it?”
“That’s…” I put a free claw to my chin. “You know, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink alcohol. Now that you’ve mentioned it… I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drink anything at all except only once back in October.” This was true, in all of the times that I’ve dined with him, almost never once have I ever saw him drink any liquid besides the broth of soups. Even during those times when I would cook for him and set up the table, I’ve hadn’t seen him touch his cup. Nor have I ever seen any of the Changelings drink anything whatsoever (if you didn’t count the nectar they drink on Nightmare Night). “You know what; I should probably ask him about that.”
“So how’s his Queen?” Ember asked, “Is she still pregnant?”
I nodded, “We’re expecting her delivery to be around September, although it’s still unclear as to how many exactly.”
“Can I ask you a personal question Spike?” She rubbed the back of her neck.
“If you’re going to ask if you wanted to watch me and Thorax going at it then the answer is no. Lavender is a different story, but that’s beside the point.”
Her cheeks turned pink, her jaw hung there for a moment before she shook her head to clear her thoughts. “I’m not gonna ask,” she muttered. “No, that’s not it. Rather, what future plans do you have anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like… Well, let me answer that question with another question: So now that you and King Thorax are in a relationship, what’s next?”
This was actually a good question. At the time I was so focused on the present that I didn’t even consider this. At the time, Thorax and I have tried to see each other as much as we could. In a couple of times since I went to the hive, I wanted to spend more time over there. Plus, considering that his children were on the way, it did make me wonder of how much time I’d be able to see them. So of course, the big question is do I want to move in with him?
I told Ember my thoughts about the possibility of moving out, “Well why don’t you?” she asked. “As in, what’s stopping you from doing it? Last I’ve checked, you’re officially an adult, both in ponies and our eyes. You’re cartable of taking care of yourself. You get an allowance from the Equestrian Princesses and to top it all off, you have a mate that’s willing to do pretty much anything you want if you just ask him. Besides, you want to be near him right?”
“Well yeah, I see where you’re going with this…”
“But?”
I sighed, “What about Twilight?”
She rolled her eyes, “Spike, if I were her, I wouldn’t have you be my assistant for all of your days. I have seen you grown up into a capable adult, and as such, you ought to make your own decisions. Do remember that Princess Twilight has her students and friends to help her out. I’d say that if you feel at home with your mate, go for it. There’s no one stopping you.”
“Hey guys,” I snapped my attention to find Thorax walking up to us. “What were you talking about?”
“Just grown-up stuff,” Ember shrugged. “Now since you’re here, mind answering something for us?” He responded that he would. “Do you ever drink anything, like at all?”
“Well, we technically can, but we don’t see it as a necessity like you guys.”
“Like anything alcoholic?”
He and his Changeling guards looked at one another, “Uh… can we?”
“I don’t really know,” one of his guards replied. “Far as I know, I don’t think anyling has ever a drop, have any of you guys?” they shook their heads.
Ember reached for one of the ladels from the tub. “I guess you guys should try it at least.”
“But isn’t it poisonous?” another of the guards inquired. “How would it affect us anyway?”
There was a grim pause as they glanced at one another until one walked forward. “I’ll do it.” He took the ladle in his aura before turning to the King, “I’m willing to sacrifice my life for your safety, Your Majesty.” And with that, he immediately brought the mysterious liquor to his lips before he suddenly coughed.
“Excelsis!” Thorax called out in alarm, “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” he said between coughs. “It just it has a real kick in the mouth is all. Wow, that’s spicy!” One coughing fit later, he recovered, and his fellow guards leaned their necks forward.
“How are you feeling?” one of them asked as the one called Excelsis examined himself.
“Besides of the unexpected flavor,” he replied. “I don’t feel any different.”
“So it’s safe then?” After he nodded and fell back into formation, Thorax took one of the ladles into his own magic and gave it a sip.
“Huh, cinnamon,” another sip, “curry, gold leaf, dragon fruit maybe…?” another sip, “It’s like drinking spicy but sweet ice cream. Still, you weren’t kidding,” he turned to the one who sampled it. “It really has a kick, probably would clear up anyone’s sinuses instantly.” It was then that I got an idea, “Hey Thorax, how about we do something interesting?” I took up one of the ladels. “Have you ever played a drinking game before?”
“Well not really.”
“How about this,” Ember asked before I tasting the Liquid Fire that, while surprising at first for how spicy it was, there was also a sweetness to it too. “Why not you two play an interesting version of ‘Never have I?’ The rules are simple, we’ll have our dragons ask you two a question of something that you have done in the past. If you have done whatever it is, you drink a full ladle.”
Needless to say, we both agreed to participate in it.
The following account you are about to read comes from Thorax who recalls what happened at that night. For the remainder of this chapter, the following is a transcript of what had happened from his point of view. Due to the amount of alcohol I had that night, he’s the only one to recall the exact details of what happened before I passed out.
That night when the Dragons threw Spike that coming of age party, we were challenged to a drinking game. Ember gathered about a dozen or so of them to ask us questions of things we have never done. The rules, as far as I understood it was straightforward if you have done whatever they’ve said, you had to down their drink they’ve mixed up.
Of course, at the time, no one knew about how alcohol would affect a Changeling and my guards that were with me were concerned at first. For the most part, they were keeping an eye on the one who had taken a taste of it first and on me. Yet, being a game with Spike in it, I wasn’t the one to refuse.
“Alright boys,” Ember said with the dragons behind her. “Whoever doesn’t pass out is the winner.” Just hearing her say that it suddenly made me regret playing this game. But we stood at the tub of Liquid Fire, taking hold of our ladels. “So who wants to go first?”
One of them, a red and yellow scaled dragon raised his arm. “How about this, just to start off the game,” he said with a wicked grin. “I have never… lost my virginity to a guy.”
Just as I quickly realized how sadistic this game was going to get did me and Spike drank our fill at the same time. There were chuckles from all around while Ember was glaring at the drake that spoke.
Another one said, “Oh yeah, never have I had a binding kink.”
Embarrassingly, I took a shot. Spike raised an eyebrow, “Wait, really?”
I nodded, “Well… yeah, I don’t do it all the time… only for special occasions…”
“Oh!” another dragon spoke up, “Never have I worn drag.”
After glancing at one another, we both gulped down another ladle full of the spicy liquid. “Wait a minute,” I said towards my consort. “You? Since when?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Changeling, remember?” I deadpanned. “I can change into more than one gender when I have to.”
“Oh… Well, I didn’t do it intestinally, Rarity need a model so…”
“Huh, that makes sense.”
“How about,” another voice called out. “Never have I paid someone to get laid.”
With a frustrated sigh, I took a drink, much to Spike’s surprise. “What, you-”
“You can blame Chrysalis for that, besides I had to get love somewhere at the time. But I swear that it was only once.”
“Oh! I got one!” raised a dragon claw, “Never have I gotten laid with more than one person.”
With an embarrassed, blushing glance at one another and the recent memory of what happened about a month prior, we quietly took a shot.
This went on for some time, sometimes I would take a drink, sometimes Spike would, or we both would while at other times not at all. Yet, I recall that with every passing drink, my consort was slowly acting funny. Something that I’ve only rarely seen: he couldn’t stand up straight by himself without leaning up against something; his words became muddied and slurred, and he made even less sense the more he drank.
At one point of the game, he asked me, “V-vhy you… tipsy noooh?”
I remember looking at my reflection in the tub that we’ve been drinking out of and shrugged. “I don’t know. Is something supposed to happen?” In truth, I didn’t feel or act any different than how I started the game. As if whatever was in it didn’t have any effect on me whatsoever, like I was completely immune to the drink.
“Never have I done it in a public place,” another dragon called out, and with a grunt, I took a shot.
“I gotta say,” I heard one of them comment, “For a King, he sure gets around doesn’t he?”
“Oh yeah?” a voice said. “Never have I wrote porn and published it.”
Spike took a swig in which as soon as he reached his lips tumbled backward but was still able to stand up.
“Uh… are you okay?” I asked him. “You don’t look too good.”
“Kousse Ah’mss-uh… G-Good,” he replied, nearly inaudible. “See… I cantstand…” And like a machine that had suddenly lost all its power, he fell over onto the floor.
“Spike!” I went over to him. “Spike? Can you hear me?” I felt for his vital signs to find that, thankfully, he was still alive but unconscious. Nothing I did seemed to have woken him.
“I believe that we have a winner,” Ember said as she went up to us. “I’m surprised that you drank all of that and you’re still fine. How high is your tolerance anyway?”
“Um…” Excelsis, one of the guards who were with us at the time finally spoke up. “Your Majesty, since it’s been over an hour since I took that drink, I can only conclude that while it’s not poisonous, I don’t think that alcohol has any control over us Changelings whatsoever.”
“Oh…” the Dragon Lord grimaced. “I wished I had known that before, otherwise, I wouldn’t have suggested the game in the first place since it just put Spike at a huge disadvantage.”
“Will he be okay?” I asked her.
“Give him overnight, considering all that he drank, he’s gonna wake up with a head-splitting hangover. So he’s gonna feel suicidal by the time he wakes up so you’d better be there for him when he does wake up.”
I nodded as we lifted Spike onto my back, and carried his unconscious body to the cave that we were given to sleep at. After I lay him down flat on the even rock, we tried to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible for him. That night while my guards took turns on the lookout over the entrance of the cave, I stood by him, waiting for him to wake up.
While I may not remember much of the drinking game, I, unfortunately, remember the morning after. As I was regaining consciousness, I did feel like as was dying at the same time. My head felt like somepony had swung an ax at it and just let my brain hang out, mangled. At the same time, my stomach felt as if I had accidentally swallowed acid and it was dissolving my insides. In my mouth, my tongue tasted something rancid while my nostrils smelled something that was trying to force me to puke.
“Spike?” a harsh ringing of my name bounced around my ears. “Spike, you okay buddy?”
My vomiting answered that question.
“Again?” another voice reverberates my sensitive head. “How can you stand the smell, Your Highness?”
I, however, ignored the voices and curled up in a ball, feeling my stomach as if someone punched it really hard. At the same time, I felt some cold and wet being placed over my head along with a hoof on my shoulder. “There, there,” a calm, soothing voice said. “It’s going to be okay. Relax, I’m here.”
From what few brain cells I had left made the connection that the one hanging over me like a desperately needed angle was Thorax. But as my eyes were throbbing in pain I dare not open them. And at the same time, all I could do was groan while he shushed me.
“Shouldn’t we,” the other whose voice was like sandpaper to my eardrums blasted out before Thorax shushed him. “Shouldn’t we get something for him?” he whispered.
“Just a wait for a while, let’s see what he wants.”
What I wanted? I preferred for him to snap my neck to end this sickly feeling that death is dragging me by the tail! Yet, Thorax didn’t move, patiently waited as he patted my neck. What I actually needed was that I didn’t suffer alone, and he was there by my side. Even to wipe away the bitter tears.
By the time I bothered to open my eyes, they stunned at the light of a cave that I couldn’t for the life of me recall how I got there. To which I quickly covered my eyes.
“Spike?” Thorax gently asked.
“Water,” I begged my throat completely dry despite all that I drank the night before. Mercifully Thorax urged one of his guards to fetch some and a few minutes later returned with a canteen of the stuff. I think I nearly choked on it as I was gobbling it down, but it was welcoming nonetheless.
“Do you need anything?” the Changeling King inquired.
I busted into tears, “I hurt everywhere,” I groaned. “Make it stop.”
“Do we have any migraine pills?” he asked his guards. There was a grim pause as the throbbing pain in my head threatened to burst out of my skull. “Ah… I got it, I noticed there were some willow trees just south from here. Go down there, scrape some of its bark and immediately bring it here.”
“Uh… willow bark? Your Majesty?”
“I know it’s a key ingredient to aspirin. Now quickly,” a buzzing of wings was heard in the cave before it faded away.
“How much did I drink?” I muttered.
“Afraid that I wasn’t counting,” Thorax replied. “However, you did gulp down quite a lot of ladles before passing out from that game.”
“How come you’re not like me?”
“Turns out that Changelings are immune to alcohol so it didn’t affect me as anyone else would.”
“Wished you could have warned me, ow…” I clenched my eyelids at the wave of agony hitting my brain.
“Same here Spike. Do you remember anything from last night?”
“No… What did I do?”
“Well apart of playing a drinking game that loosens your lips to the point you were pouring out things that I never knew about, you didn’t do anything harmful. Although… let’s just say that it does give me a few ideas what to do when we get intimate next time.” Another whine escaped my muzzle and the Changeling King sighed, “Spike if I knew what that game would have done to you I wouldn’t have you gone through it.”
“Do me a favor,” I said. “The next time if you see me about to take a drink with any amount of alcohol in it, don’t let me. Ever. I don’t think I wanna drink again.”
“If it’s putting you through this much agony then I won’t allow it.” At this time, I managed to crack open an eye, to see my blurry vision my coltfreind looking over towards the entrance of the cave.
“Oh I wish he’d be here sooner,” he whispered in an apprehensive tone.
“What stinks in here?” I asked him. “Something smells really bad.”
“That happens to be your vomit,” Thorax grimaced. “Yeah… you’ve been doing that off and on. But hey, as long as it is out of your system, right?”
For several minutes, I didn’t respond as I stewed in my misery with memories of the previous night drifted back into my pounding head. There was one that came to mind that made me say, “I wanna move.”
“Sure thing, I’ll have my guard’s make a stretcher and we’ll-”
“No,” I interrupted him. “I mean… I wanna move in… with you.”
Thorax was paralyzed at these words. “You… are you serious?” I nodded. “Are you sure it’s not the leftover alcohol talking?”
“No,” I growled. “I said I wanna move in with you. And yes, I’m serious; it’s not fair that we should travel from Ponyville to the Hive and back. We-We don’t get enough time with one another, your Queen is expecting and… I love you too much to stay far away.”
Thorax blinked, “When do you want this done?”
“I don’t know…” I muttered, wondering what’s taking the guard so long to get some tree bark. “Soon maybe… But not right now… Right now isn’t kind to me.”
“Hurry up,” Thorax said to himself, looking anxiously at the cave entrance. “Does Princess Twilight know that you want to do this?”
“Not really,” I hissed as a migraine was getting intense. “At least… Celestia this hurts… I wouldn’t think she would object to it. She knows that I have grown up, and I wouldn’t exactly move out of the blue without a reason… That, and I have a place to go to with a plan. I guess that moving in with you probably would make sense as I see the Hive as a second home.” Thorax put a hoof over his chest, but I added. “Besides… knowing her, she wouldn’t allow me to go someplace on my own without having someone of good standing being nearby. And I think you’ve pretty much fit the bill.”
“Your Highness,” a voice interrupted. “The willow bark as you’ve requested.”
I don’t think I remember him coming in, but the Changeling King grabbed the pieces of the bark and instructed me to just chew on it, don’t swallow. So after stuffing it between my teeth, I started nibbling on the stuff, and to be honest, it tasted terrible. But after a while, he was right, the pain I felt all over my body was ebbing away. As I chewed away, my migraine, stomach ache and nausea was fading away to the point where I was able to move without having the urge to vomit.
Once I was able to sit up I asked him, “How’d you know about the whole willow bark thing would work?” I asked as I spat the mulch from out of my mouth.
“You can thank Shining Armor and my curiosity for that,” he explained to me. “I remember during my time at the Crystal Empire, I walked in Shining swallowing a couple of pills and I asked him what it was. He told me it was aspirin and when I inquired what it’s made out of, he didn’t know. So I ended up looking it up to find that the chemical that makes up for those pills came from willow bark.”
I blinked, “So you just remembered that trivia?” he nodded, “You know, your memory really amazes me sometimes.”
“Thank you, are you feeling any better?”
“After chewing on tree bark, surprisingly yeah,” I stood up, trying to avoid the vomit on the floor and walked out into the sunlight to get some fresh air. “By-the-way, how long did you stay at my side anyway, while I was making such a mess back there?”
“All night,” he responded, “And yes, it really stinks back there. But I endured the stench because I know that by the time you wake up, you would need me.”
I hugged his neck, “Thanks for doing that. Now I suppose we should find Ember and tell her that we’re leaving.”
“You know,” Thorax told me as we were flying back to Ponyville. “I’m rather impressed that you’re willing to take this next big step in moving.”
I shrugged, “I think that it was inevitable, from what little I can remember last night, Ember had suggested that I should just go ahead and do it.”
“Really? This was Ember’s idea?”
“Eh… kinda, sorta – she pointed out that I’m pretty much independent enough as it is and there’s practically nothing stopping me from doing so. Besides, I have grown to like the Hive and Queen Lavender is probably going to need all the help she could get by the time those little guys come around.”
Thorax flew underneath me, flying belly up as he was facing me. “Are you sure that this is what you want? I mean, as much as I welcome the very idea of it all, do you think you’ll have regrets in moving from Ponyville? After all, I know for a fact that you have friends there like the Crusaders, Twilight’s friends, and even Big Mac.”
“That doesn’t mean that I can’t just pop by now and then to say ‘Hi.’” I pointed it out. “Look, I know what you’re getting at, and yeah, it might take some time for me to get into the mindset that when I move into the Hive, I’m not visiting there, but living there. But you know what? This won’t be the first time that I moved from someplace else. Heck, I was originally born in Canterlot and later on moved to Ponyville. While grant it, that move was out of my control, this time, I have a say in where and, more importantly, with who I’m moving in with.”
After flipping over until he was flying beside me once more, he pointed out: “You still haven’t answered my question from earlier.”
“Which was…?”
“When do you want to do it? I mean, I can help you do it right now if you wanted to.”
“Well yeah… but I still would need to talk with Twilight first and after that, try to get all my things together. Considering that my stuff is more or less spread throughout the castle, I would probably need a month or so to find and probably compromise with her on what to take with me.”
He nodded, “Fair enough. Still, my Changelings will be looking forward to having you move into the Hive, but me most of all. So by the time you get back to Twilight, I’ll be counting down the days in which we’ll give you an official room of your very own. And who knows,” he glanced over to me.
“Perhaps I’ll install a secret corridor in which you can visit my bed chambers as much as you wish.” Then he winked at me.
I chuckled at the thought, “Well slow down Signore Casanova, we’re in the open air with your guards nearby. I think it’s rather rude to give them a sex show if they didn’t want to see it in the first place. Not to mention of scaring whoever happens to look up and risk of something falling on them.”
He rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Oh you’re no fun.”
Since it took nearly a day to fly from the Dragon Lands to Ponyville, I’ve decided to withhold my tell Twilight as we got back late. If anything, I was so exhausted that I pretty much fell right into bed in which I slept instantly. By the next morning, I found that Thorax had already left and breakfast was being prepared. After checking the dining room to see it empty, I turned towards the kitchen where I expected Twilight to be, and she was along with her student.
“Good morning Spike,” Twilight went up to me, wearing an apron that had splotches of pancake batter as she hugged me. “So did you and Thorax have fun in the Dragon Lands?”
“It was interesting,” I said, looking at Starlight at the stove, waiting to flip one of the cakes in the iron frying pan. “Sorry that I didn’t wake you guys last night, I got here later then I wanted to.”
“We’ve figured, it’s the reason why we didn’t wake you. But now that you’re up, do you want to tackle the hash browns? Starlight has already gotten the plate of hay bacon served up and she’s focusing on the pancakes.”
Thankfully, her student caught hold of this and took out another frying pan, with a spatula, oil and the bowl of the potato mix. After turning on the heat, Starlight inquired, “So what did you guys do over there anyway? I know it’s a feast, but did you just eat all night?”
“Well, not really… we were treated to drink their special brew of something, and I ended up drinking more than I should have had.”
“You did?” Twilight asked, “I hope the hangover wasn’t bad, was it?”
“…. Let’s just say that I’m thankful that Thorax was there. If anything, it’s part of the reason why we got here so late.”
“Speaking of which, is Thorax still here?”
“No, he already has gone back home…” As I trailed off, I pour in the oil and gave it a sec to heat up. “Twilight, can I ask you something? Something that’s really big.”
Starlight looked at me surprised, “Oh Celestia, is it really happening?”
“Wait, hold on,” I turned to her. “What do you mean by that? What’s happening?”
She and Twilight glanced at one another, “Okay before I jump to conclusions, is King Thorax only allowed to have one spouse at a time?”
“Well, yeah? He’s still married to Queen Laven-” then it hit me, “You thought he popped the question to me, did you?”
“Can you blame us?” Starlight said in her defense. “You two pretty much act like a married couple without… you know, actually being married. But yeah, definitely jumped to conclusions, so anyway,” she coughed into her hoof. “What were you going to say again?”
Well… here goes… “As I was saying… Twilight, I want to do something that’s big. Really big.”
“What is it?”
“How do you feel if, say… if I told you that I was thinking of possibly moving?”
For a tense moment, neither mare said anything as the food sizzled on the stove. Twilight’s expression became unreadable while Starlight cocked an eyebrow. I honestly thought that she was about to mentally snap at the very suggestion. However, she calmly said in a sort of monotone,
“Moving?”
“Well… yeah, moving in with King Thorax. At his Hive.”
“You are?” Starlight asked. “When are ya planning to do this?”
“I don’t know… probably next month perhaps.”
“Uh… Where did this come from?” Twilight questioned. “Since when did you decide to move away?”
“Last night had gotten me thinking,” I told her as I dabbed out some of the potato batter into the pan. “I now have the mean to do so, but until recently, I realized that I’ve been feeling more at home at the Hive where Thorax is. Truth be told, (and Starlight did point this out) we kinda like a married couple to the point that I do want to spend more time with him. After all, his wife is expecting in a couple of months from now and I feel that I want to be included in their lives too. I just…” I flipped the hash brown over. “I don’t know… it’s like I found a place that I feel that I belong – as if I’m meant to go there.”
I looked over to Twilight, her expression still unmoved, “However, as much as I want to, I wanna hear from you of what you think. And maybe… support me in this decision.”
“Well I say it’s about time,” Starlight spoke up. “I mean, you’re old enough. And if you’re sure of doing this, it’s your life so you should do what you think is right.”
Twilight sighed at last, “Wow… I didn’t think it would happen so soon. But… are you absolutely sure about this?”
I nodded, “Yes. This is really going to happen. Of course, I’d need to make plans and do several things before I go to the Hive. But don’t think that I’m doing this out of spite Twi. I’m not. If anything, I’m not even doing this for myself even. I want to do this for Thorax, to be closer to him.” After flipping the hash brown to see that it’s crisped up on both sides, I put it on a plate before moving on to the next one.
“Wow you’re right, this is big,” Twilight commented. “I didn’t think that you want to be independent this soon.”
I snorted, “What? When did you think I was going to go out on my own? When I’m two-thousand?”
“Wha- no! I didn’t mean like that. Don’t get me wrong Spike. I’m happy for you. Really I am.”
“Says the Princess that sounds like she’s in denial,” Starlight gave that snide remark.
“I am not in denial,” she snapped back at her before taking in a deep breath. “It’s just… this is a lot to take in for one morning.
“Denial,” her student said/song.
“I heard that,” she echoed in the same manner. “But let’s not focus on that, for now, let’s finish making this and have a nice, peaceful breakfast.”
Later on that night, I knocked on Twilight’s bedroom door. “Hey Twi, you still up?” She answered it by turning the knob and swinging it open for me to enter. As expected, Twilight was on the bed, snout buried in a book. “Can we talk?”
She was able to close what she was reading and look up at me. “What’s up?”
I sat down on the edge of her bed, “You know, you haven’t really said much since this morning – regarding my plans.”
“That you’re moving?” I nodded, “Well what about it?”
“First of all, are you really okay with this? Starlight did have a point that you seemed a little upset.”
“Pfft,” she waved a hoof, “Me? Upset? Why would I be upset, I’m not upset.”
I raised an eyebrow, “You know, I’ve heard that cliché before.” She asked what I was talking about, “The part where you act somewhat off while telling everypony that there’s nothing wrong but there clearly is because you want to avoid confrontation as much as possible.”
“Ah, I see that you’ve gotten around to that encyclopedia of character traits,” she gave off a nervous smile. However, my skeptical gaze made it buckle underneath the weight of the situation. With a defeated sigh she told me, “Look, it’s not that I’m against this. Far from it. I am telling you the truth that I am happy and proud of you for taking on such a monumental stepping stone.”
“But...?”
“But at the same time…” She rubbed the back of her head. “I know this is going to sound weird, but it’s… I’m having the realization that you really aren’t going to be around much anymore. Considering all that you’ve done for not just me, but for Celestia, the girls, Starlight and- heck, even Discord, I simply can’t imagine how things would have functioned without you. And I’m not just talking about being my number one assistant either. Having you go away is like… having a family member go. I mean, after moving out from my parents and my brother has gone to the Crystal Empire, it’s like everypony that I considered to be family is drifting further away.”
“Oh I get it,” I put a claw on her shoulder. “You’re letting that empty nest syndrome sink in.”
She snorted, “It’s not that I’m a mother.”
“I would disagree,” I mused. “Considering that you and Celestia practically raised me. I’m not naïve about how you must feel about this. You’re like a quasi-mother to me that, although not a dragon, you had no doubt cared about me enough to the point where I’m practically your son.”
Twi nuzzled me, “Thank you, Spike. I guess I’m just a little worried about you, is all. And I shouldn’t be considering that you’re moving in with someone that I trust you with. Thorax is a good king and friend from the start. If anything else, I just want you to be with someone that you’d consider family.”
“But are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
“I admit, hearing your plans did stun me a bit. Although I still trying to figure out how exactly would I function without burying myself alive in research, books, and letters.”
“That’s why you have Starlight around,” I chuckled, “Especially when you have your kinda-maybe-sorta relationship.”
This made her blush, “I am not in a relationship with Starlight.”
“I don’t know, coulda fooled me,” I teased with a grin. “Even after she graduated, she still wants to stay here of all places in Equestria. I wonder why.”
“Not everypony that I run into is attracted to the same sex.” I raised an eyebrow, “I said ‘not everypony.’”
“Oh Twilight,” I patted her head. “It’s okay; you can come out of the closet any century now.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” she muttered. After clearing her throat she changed the topic. “Did you start making plans?”
I nodded, “Yeah since Thorax is going to get some of the hive to move my stuff, I just need to figure out what exactly to bring with me. I figured that I might send the light, smaller stuff first before moving the bed, desk and my comic book collection. However, I do need to talk to you about things that you might want to let go or not.”
“Such as?”
“Some of the cooking supplies, although I don’t know if we should get a second set or not. Or probably bring some of the books and maybe a few records… I don’t know, I guess we’ll figure out by the end of the month.”
“Promise me that you’ll write and visit as often as you can.”
I smiled, “Of course Twilight.”
About a month later, after all the plans, the negotiations of what I should take with me, and Twilight insisting that she should move my things with me all the way to the Hive, I at the end of the caravan of Changelings towards the hive with cardboard boxes on their backs. Thorax and Pharynx were over looking at the parade of cardboard that entered into the hive towards my new, permanent room. Into this space, boxes were lined up against the walls while the furniture was set in the middle of it to be settled later.
I was in the room, picking up the boxes off of their backs and setting them down around the room when I’ve heard Twilight’s voice just outside of the doorway.
“Don’t forget to remind Spike to brush his teeth every evening before he goes to bed,” she said. “And to have him clean up after his shredded scales every-”
“Princess Twilight,” Thorax interjected. “I have been with him for about a year now; I think I know of his hygiene habits by now. Don’t worry, we got this.”
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right; I keep forgetting how fast he’s grown up to be.”
“I know, but I can sense the worry coming off from you. I and the Hive welcome Spike like he’s one of us. If anything, we’re ecstatic that he’s chosen to live with us. So of course, we’ll look after and protect him as much as you’ve done with him.”
“Promise?”
“I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye Pinkie Promise that we’ll make it a priority to have Spike live in the Hive safe and happy.”
“Between you and me, out of all that Spike has had a relationship with, I’m relieved that he fell in love with you.”
This gave me pause to listen.
“Is that so?” Thorax inquired.
“I mean, you’ve managed to save his scales before in more ways than one – just as much as he has done for you in return. Spike is a good dragon, and he deserves to be with someone that not only does he love, but I feel that he needs to be with. Someone who would keep him in balance, to be with him whenever he has his insecurities about himself – now I don’t mean that he needs someone that agrees with him all the time, rather he needs to have someone that acts as his consciousness. I think that out of everyone, you fit the bill in every regard.”
“Wow… thank you, Princess.”
“But at the same time, I do want him to be safe overall. And I hope that this decision won’t be something that he’ll come to regret.”
I stuck out my head through the doorway. “I don’t think I will,” I said stepping through. “Still, thanks for helping me out with this.”
“It’s the least I can do,” she flew up to hug me. “Just remember Spike, if you need anything from me, anything at all, just write to me.”
“I know.” I smiled, looking over at Thorax, “And thanks for giving me the chance to let me be independent.”
(The following account you are about to read comes from King Thorax as he’s the only one that could tell this chapter in our lives.)
After Spike had moved in with us to the Hive, things had been great. Since he was officially living with us that meant that he got the chance to interact more with my Changelings. With me especially, as we found that between the day courts and the meals, Spike and I had found ourselves to have more time. I’ve managed to talk him into doing some theater while Lavender’s due date was drawing near.
However… there was something that I’ve noticed about him as my Queen was getting closer to the birth, I had sensed not just concern for her but worry. For the longest time, this confused me. Why would he be worried? Lavender was given the best care for an expectant mother could. Whatever odd cravings she wished was given, day or night. Physicians were on hoof to be sure that she and the eggs inside were healthy. Even the nursery was prepared. And yet, whenever any reminder of the soon-to-be hatchlings made Spike uneasy.
At first, I didn’t bring this up because I honestly thought that he was realizing that he was going to be a sort of parent too and have become attached. In hindsight, however, I wish that I would have said something from the start. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the nightmare.
I think it was only a couple of weeks until the expected day for Lavender that I was asleep in my chambers, dreaming. At the time, I believe that Spike and I were in bed together after some… evening activities... anyway, we were both asleep. I remembered dreaming of being out at sea on a pirate ship. In the dream I was looking through a spyglass, scanning over the horizon for any ships to loot. Then, there off the starboard was a sail that flew the colors of a Prench ship.
Grinning, I called upon the crew to raise the blood red sails and turn the ship to our new target. Cannons below deck were being loaded below deck while those out in the open air were gathering their tools for raiding. I meanwhile turned the ship’s wheel towards the ship in which I was more than prepared for a fight.
“You know,” said a feminine voice. “For a pacifist King, I’d never thought your dreams would be like this.” Twisting my neck over, I found that Princess Luna in a bandana, an eyepatch and a pair of gold hooped earrings. “Never taken you to be the type to be interested in, what looks like the golden age of piracy.”
“Princess Luna?” I asked in total confusion, “Where did you come from?”
“Through the dream realm,” she replied. “In case you haven’t noticed by now, you’re dreaming.”
I blinked, “Really? I am?” Looking around the ship, at first glance, everything seemed very real from the sails to the wooden planks at my hooves. However, as I looked at the crew, I noticed how the faces seemed rather blurred as they all went to and fro. Turning back to the Night Princess I inquired, “Hold on, what are you doing here? I’m not having a nightmare again.”
She shook her head, “I never said that you were. But your, how shall we say… your first mate is in need of you.”
My eyes widened as I felt my heart sank into my withers. “Where’s Spike?” I asked in alarm.
“Come,” she said as she lit her horn in which a trap door was created from the wooden planks. “I believe that it’s time to return the favor.”
The trapdoor opened in which I followed her into… well, the only way I could describe is like walking on a galaxy of stars and doors of every kind in either direction. With a stomp of a hoof, the doors flew past us in a zooming blur for a moment before they all slowed down to a particular door in which, right above it was a glowing orb that was the same color as the sails in my dream.
Luna warned me that before we entered that I was about to be exposed to what looks like Spike’s greatest fear. Being his nightmare, everything that my Master Consort’s anxieties, insecurities, worries, and uncomfortable truths would be on full display for him to have no place to hide. Essentially, I was about to walk into Spike’s mind. That I should be opened minded, nonjudgmental and careful when I do encounter him. Luna added that she’ll be there in the background to make sure that neither I nor Spike would be in any real danger.
Gulping, I changed out of my pirate outfit to something to my true form before opening the door. At first, I was confused as I stepped in for what looked like the interior of the hive. My ears picked up the sound of someone shouting. Curiosity made me follow the increasingly angry voice that, I came to realized was my own.
“Oh no! Don’t you dare say that it was an accident!” I heard… well, this other me screamed. “You knew exactly what you were doing!”
“B-But Thorax,” echoed Spike’s voice in a manner that I don’t recall ever hearing him in such a sorrowful tone before. If anything, it was as if he was practically hiccuping in guilt. Then to my shock, I heard the unquestionable sound of someone getting slapped hard across the face.
I was in a full gallop upwards towards the open Throne Room. There is in the very center, practically glued to the floor was my Spike in begging tears. Towering over him was a copy of me, wearing a mask of betrayal, sadness, and outrage beyond description. I couldn’t help but notice the bruise on the drake’s cheek.
“You nearly killed them!” the other me yelled at the top of his lungs, tears flowing from his eyes. “Do you have any idea how much pain you caused not just to them but me? I can’t believe that you’ve nearly crushed them! Practically tore them in two, t-they’re never going to walk because of you!”
“I-I’m sorry,” Spike whispered.
“No you’re not,” his nightmare growled. “I had put so much trust in you… I had welcomed you with open hooves, opened my heart, my home, and my family to you… and what did you do? You’ve mangled my own children.” He hissed through his teeth. “As King of the Changelings, I hereby banish you. Never will I ever allow a monster like you to set tooth, claw or scale on my land again. If you so much as do otherwise,” his speech was interrupted by a wailing cry of a foal in the distance. “If I see you dare enter my kingdom again,” he then showed his fangs, something that I would never do. “I will kill you.”
“You leave him alone!” I shouted, thus getting their attention. Walking forward with determination, I set out in confronting Spike’s personal nightmare, “Don’t ever talk to him like that again.”
“Who the hay are you?” my consort’s nightmare questioned. “Can’t you see I have to deal with something major here?”
“I can see that,” I walked between him and Spike. “But I certainly don’t approve of what you’re doing.”
“Mind your own business!” my reflection practically spat at me. “Who do you think you are, telling a grieving father how to handle that traitor,” he pointed an accusing hoof at Spike. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but that monster has ruined my children’s lives. He hurt them!” stomping a hoof, now he turned his rage-filled gaze at me. “So get out of my way.”
“No,” I replied in a stoic, low voice.
Bumping muzzle to muzzle, he hissed, “Who in Tartarus do you think you are?”
In a flash of green flame, I transformed into a bear, grabbed my copy by the throat and thrust him into the ground. “King Thorax of the Highfish Hive,” I told him. “I am an ex-coward; the key to understanding among Changeling and Pony kind; a revolutionary; a ruler who got his position by earning it. I have defended my hive from creatures, armies, an evil Queen while opening the door to let my subject have a brighter future. Brother of Pharynx, captain of the guard; friend to the Princesses of Equestria as well as Lord Ember of the Dragon Lands; husband to Queen Lavender. And loved only one dragon… that is who I am. And you,” I lifted the false me off the ground by his throat, “are not me. Nor will I ever be.”
“He nearly killed my children,” he croaked out.
“A reasonable response, except for one thing: I know for a fact that Spike would never do such a thing. The Spike that I know would never harm anyone unless they harmed him. My Master Consort would never in real life hurt do anything like this, and even if he did, I wouldn’t slap or yell at him for it. And do you know why?” I held him up close to my face. “Because I love him too much to do something this low – the real Thorax would hear him out, he would listen to him because that’s what couples do.”
After tossing him to the ground and coughing a few times, he retorted, “Do you really think it’s easy to listen, much less forgive him for what he’s done?”
I shook my head, “That’s why you will never exist. I will do so regardless not because it is easy, but because it is hard. I’ve learned that love is all about doing hard, selfless things that are for the good of the both of us.” After narrowing my eyes I added, “A lesson that only the real Thorax would know. Now,” I transformed into a goat. “Get out of my Kingdom,” I rammed the fake me, knocking him off the hive before transforming back.
Turning my attention towards Spike, I help him free from the sticky green substance he was glued to. “Spike, are you alright?”
He sniffed, “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” I managed to free his left front claw. “This is the real me Spike, you’re not in trouble.”
“What?” he looked at me in disbelief. “But… but the hatchlings-”
“You said so yourself that it was an accident was it?” he nodded. “I can’t condemn you if it was an accident, it wouldn’t be fair.”
As I was rounding to freeing his hind legs and his tail, I saw him wiping the tears from his eyes. “So… y-you’re not going to kick me out? Even after what I did, you’re just gonna forgive me, just like that?”
“Spike, I know that you wouldn’t do it on purpose, and I can tell that you do feel guilty, but that’s no reason that I couldn’t forgive.” Then turning to the other hind leg, I added: “It is an important trait in love, after all, to acknowledge that yes, mistakes were made, but what matters is that we learn about it. Saying I forgive you is me saying that I recognize that you know what you did and promised that you won’t do it again.” Then I focused on his other claw, “Of course, the children’s future would need special care, but we’ll adapt as it comes. We’ll just be careful from now on while giving them the best, happy life that they can look forward to- whoa!”
Before I could finish and after I was able to free Spike, without warning he drew me into a hug. One that perfumed the air in relief, “Thank you…” he whispered. “Thank you…”
I hugged back, “I promise Spike, whatever comes, we’re going to be good parents to them. Lavender will be a good mother, just as how we’ll be the best fathers. Just you wait.”
Now, I’m not sure if my memory is correct, but I could have sworn that I had spotted Luna’s silhouette, blowing her nose with a box of tissues next to her. Then again, I could be wrong on that detail.
Morning came, and we both woke up together. Spike, as I recalled, had a smirk on his face, “So I’m guessing that you’ve got a visit from Luna as well?”
There are a few memories of your whole life that you can’t ever forget. Of birthday parties, holidays, vacations, graduation, weddings, the first time you got laid, the first time someone says “I love you,” and the day you become a parent.
I’ll never forget that day in September, just as the leaves were changing color and the hive was very active. Most of the frantic Changelings were centered towards the Lavender’s chambers with the Hive’s best physicians and wet-nurses were in with her through her labors. Just outside of not only the door of her room but even at the secret passages where Pharynx’s guards that stood watch as it was happening.
I was with Thorax in his bedchamber. He circled around in the center of the room while I sat in a corner. We were both tense, only I didn’t show it but I knew that he could sense it. “How long has it been?” he asked no one in particular.
“Almost an hour by the looks of it,” I told him from looking at a clock on the wall.
“Do you think that one of us should go check on her – just to be sure everything’s okay.”
“You know what your brother said. He’ll come by to tell us once everything is done. So who’s to say that everything isn’t fine?”
“But how long does it take to lay her eggs?”
I shrugged, “I can’t say, I suppose it all depends on the mare and how many she’s eggs that are… well… coming out, so to speak.”
“Yeah…” he plopped down on the floor on his hindquarters. “I just really hope everything is going to be okay.”
This was my cue to stand up to hug him. “I know you’re scared, and frankly so am I. Since you guys are pretty much family to me, I too can’t help but worry about how things will turn out.”
“Well that, and the fact that we’re going to be parents. Something I thought would never happen is happening. I just hope that we can make full on our promise to raise them without…” he trailed off.
“Without what?” I raised an eyebrow.
He sighed, “That none of us would be like mother.”
I patted his head, “You and Lavender are no Chrysalis. You two don’t nearly have enough gree-” I instantly stopped with a realization. “Oh, crap.”
“What?”
I put both claws over my maw, “I’ve completely forgotten,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Thorax, do you remember the time when I became so obsessed with my greed that I practically turned into a monster?” At first, neither of us dared to speak what the other was thinking. “Oh, Celestia…”
“I guess that gives your nightmare a little more context,” the Changeling King laughed uneasily. “But if I recall, I do think Twilight has given me specific instructions to not only to keep that greed in proportion but how to reverse it in case you grow faster than you intended to.”
“And the hatchlings?”
“I already told this in your dream and I’ll say it again: I don’t believe that you’ll ever hurt them. We know that you’re more gentle than that. And as I have said,” he nuzzled me, “I do trust you enough to raise them with us.”
Just then there was a knock on the door, to which his brother entered. “Well?” Thorax asked, “Is it done? Is Lavender and the hatchlings safe?”
Pharynx took the time to show his very rare smile, “Are you ready to meet your children, brother?”
We rushed over to the Queen’s chambers were in that crowded room of doctors, nurses, and guards. Lavender was still on her bed with a sheet over her hind legs while a Changeling was apparently cleaning up from the afterbirth. But what caught our attention, was that on a cart were five, tennis ball sized, clear green orbs that were carefully placed on a pillow. A nurse was studying each of them with a magnifying glass.
As soon as we entered, the nurse bowed to us, “Three fillies and two colts, Your Majesty.”
Thorax was awestruck, “C-Can I see them?”
“You may look, but do not touch. The eggs are still very fragile at this stage, but once we get these to the nursery, it’ll be about a week until they hatch.”
I and the King approached them. As we got closer, we can make out each of their forms within it. Tiny, grub-like in which we could not only make out the gender of each because the Colts had three bumps on their heads. All five of them were suspended in there with their eyes closed as if they were sleeping in cocoons. I glanced over at Thorax who was tearing up. And I didn’t have to be a Changeling to sense the amount of pride and joy he had at that moment.
Gently he went around to his exhausted queen and kissed her forehead. “They’re beautiful.”
She opened her eyes, “Next time,” she said softly, “morphine.”
The King chuckled at that, “Are you okay?”
“I just had five children within an hour, how do you think I feel?”
He looked over to the doctors, “Has she been given painkillers yet?” When told that they just did and all it needs was to kick in, he said to Lavender. “You need to rest. We can see them in the nursery once you’re able to get back on your four hooves.”
“That might take a while,” she flopped her head on the pillow. “I feel like I’ve been torn in two by a train on railroad tracks. Are the hatchings healthy?”
“It would appear to be so ma’am,” one of the nurses informed her. She tilted her head to the side to see the see-through eggs, to which the Queen smiled. “I think you may take them to the nursery now, but be careful because they’re very precious to me.” They obeyed as guards and wet nurses drove the cart away and carefully as if the eggs were made out of glass.
I admit that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them as they were being wheeled out. They were so fragile, so impossibly small that I felt the enormous weight in realizing that I’m responsible for these guys too. Perhaps Thorax was feeling the exact thing in the idea that things will be different now.
I’m now a father.
Of course, I wrote letters to not just Twilight, but to the royal family and friends of the Changeling Kingdom to tell them that Lavender has given birth to five, healthy hatchings. And the response was almost immediate as within a few hours, I was burping out letters saying the exact same thing: “We want to come and see the babies.”
The biological parents certainly didn’t mind as they told them that their eggs should be hatching within a week.
About three days later, Queen Lavender, although still frazzled and even lipped a bit, was able to stand up. Once she was able, the three of us gathered in the nursery, around the five eggs. There was one question that all of us had on our minds: “So what are we going to call them?” I asked them.
Both King and Queen looked at one another, “That’s a rather good question.” Thorax confessed, “With so many names to choose from, what exactly are we going to name them?”
“I have an idea,” she said, “Something that I have been thinking about for a while. How about we name them after those who we admire?”
“Admire… how?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“Like heroes or someone from a myth that would deem worthy enough for these hatchlings to have.”
Humming in thought, Thorax commented, “So three fillies and two colts… Who was born first?”
“Her,” she pointed to the one on the left. “In fact, they were laid from left to right.”
“Okay,” he nodded, “So do you have any ideas for this one?”
She hummed before saying, “I was thinking… Atalanta.”
“Wasn’t she from Pegasi mythology?” I inquired. “Because I think I’ve heard that name before.”
“It is,” Lavender nodded. “I have been reading Pegasi myths a while back and that name stood out because of what she was. Atalanta was once raised by bears and once she was brought to civilization she became a huntress that was so good that she’d managed to outdo any task better then what the stallions could throw at her.”
“So basically she was the strong mare type that wasn’t afraid to take up any challenge that was presented to her?” I asked.
She nodded, “Exactly. I like to have the girls to have that name because it’s both elegant but independent. The name itself is almost a byword for one who is confident in herself in what she does.”
“Atalanta…” I mused over. “I think I rather like it.”
Thorax nodded, “I think I can call her that… Very well, her name is Atalanta.”
“Your turn,” she pointed to the colt next to the firstborn. “What do you think is a good name for him?”
In a glance at me, he answered, “How about Jr?”
I snorted, “What? Thorax jr?”
“No, I was thinking Spike Jr.”
That caught me off guard, “Woah, hold on, are you serious?”
“Wouldn’t that technically make him Spike the Second?” Lavender questioned. “If so, at least it would sound more regal.”
“Yes and yes. I am serious and that’s a better name now that I think of it.”
“Okay but, why though?” I questioned him.
“Because if we’re going to name our children after heroes that we admire, I might as well have one of my colts be named after the one that I look up to.”
‘Awe… Goddesses I love him.’ I thought at first before clearing my head, “As kind as that is, are you sure about naming one of your children after me?”
“More than that, I think that having a son deserves a name in which he has proven to be a hero time and time again.”
“But wouldn’t it get confusing to have two individuals named Spike?”
“He has a point,” Lavender interjected. “How about this: formally he shall be known as Spike the Second, but privately we’ll call him Junior?”
It seemed fair enough.
This conversation went on for a while, but to abridge it, in the end, we named two other sisters as Velvet, in honor of Twilight Velvet that was like a grandmother to me. While the youngest was named after Thorax’s favorite literary heroin: Scheherazade, named after the mare that told stories to a mad king for a thousand and one nights. Lavender named the second son after a figure in Changeling folklore: Sekto, who is said to be the first Changeling in all of creation.
Now with the names given, I inquired of the couple, “So how exactly are we going to raise these guys? I mean, with all the duties we have of day court and all that, that might make our hooves full, wouldn’t it?”
“Not to say that we won’t have help,” Thorax pointed out. “Of course we’ll interact with them as much as we can, but do remember that we also have others to assist us.”
“Yes,” his queen nodded. “Grant it that we do have duties to uphold, I do want to spend time with them as well. I want to play with them, teach them, calm them whenever they’re upset, read to them when they’re trying to go asleep. Essentially, just to be a mother to them. And I do expect the same out of you two as well, with something like this; I’ll need all the help I can get.”
“We promise,” we said at the same time.
“Good,” Lavender nodded, returning her gaze at the eggs. “Oh, I can’t wait for them to hatch.”
I put a claw on Thorax’s back, “You know what? I think I’m looking forward to this too.”
Children, regardless if you’re really their parent or not, that if you take up the responsibility to raise, watch over, care for, comfort, feed and love them – is an immense challenge. It will test you not just as a parent, but of who you are in regards to patience, sense of justice, selflessness, and the ability to listen. To even have one child that depends on you for everything is a tiring job.
And five…? Well, the Changeling royals and I did have one advantage – in it that the culture itself, the definition of family is a little different at the hive. For you see, the Changelings, once they’re hatched, they don’t just have one group of parents. While hatchlings do in fact recognized their biological parents and tend to turn to them when they need to the most. However, it is also the responsibility of the adult population to have the same responsibility as their parent. Like for example, if a hatchling falls and hurts themselves where they start crying, nearby adults do have the responsibility to check up on them to see if they’re alright. Or say if an adult sees a young one doing something wrong, then they would show them how to do it right.
In other words, the biggest responsibility for parents to raise their hatchlings is assisted by their neighbors. While this is good news for the King, Queen and Master Consort, that didn’t mean that we were completely free from the same responsibility. If anything, since they were officially hatched, we’d regularly go to the nursery to see how they were developing. Since they’ve started out as grubs, they tend to crawl nearly all over the place – and that’s no exudation. They literally climbed up everywhere. On the floor, your legs, the walls, ceiling, you name it.
And like babies, they do have a tendency to cry. This happens a lot every time we visited the nursery, that there was at least one who would give off a high, screeching wail like claws on a chalkboard. (If anything, Thorax gifted me with a pair of earmuffs so that the sound wouldn’t hurt my ears as much.) But regardless, they did need to be taken care of and to play the guessing game of what they’re crying about.
There is one memory that comes to mind. It was about several months after they were hatched that before I went to bed, I went down to the nursery to check up on them (not without putting my earmuffs on). Most of the hatchings when I got there was already asleep while a few nurses were holding the young ones. I went up to what became known as the royal crib where the five of them were. And as expected, none of them were asleep and Atalanta was on the edge of bawling. Gently I picked her up in my claws.
“Shh,” I cooed over. “It’s okay sweetheart. Don’t cry little angel,” I wiped the tears with a free claw as I said this. “I know it’s late and you want to sleep. That’s why I’m here, just to be sure that all of you are tucked up and ready to have good dreams. And look,” I lifted up my tail that held a music box I brought with me. “I have this with me to lull you all to sleep with.”
After settling all five in their crib and had the thin blanket to cover them all, I set up to wind up the music box. It was a gift that came from Twilight when she was here for the baby shower that has significant meaning to me personally. According to her, she bought the box sometime after I was hatched, and its melody that is embedded in my subconscious had always lulled me to sleep. How fitting then, that here I was, using the same tune to help them fall asleep in a place that’s difficult to do so?
I set the music box on the edge of the cradle, letting it play out it's a haunting song to as I stood over. Watching, protecting my living hoard to be sure that they were safe and comforted. Atalanta especially as she seemed to need it the most as she wrapped herself around my claw. It is a memory that will be immortalized in my mind at the sight of the amount of trust she has for me.
There was a tap on my shoulder that I flipped my head around to see Thorax there, holding a hoof to his lips. Once they were sound asleep and the music box’s spring had all wound down for me to take it, we carefully walked back out of the nursery. “I see you’ve got here before me,” he said quietly.
“Well, of course, it was my turn… wasn’t it?”
“Technically it was mine, but it’s appreciated nonetheless.” He nuzzled my neck, “Thank you for doing that.”
“It was nothing,” I replied, holding the box up in my claws.
“I think they would disagree,” he pointed at the nursery. “They need love at this stage in life, and you know that I and Lavender are impressed by how much you’ve gone above and beyond for them.”
“Well can you blame me? They’re my family now, and… I know that we’re not technically married, but we sure act like one.”
He smirked as he gestured for me to follow. “You do have a point there. If things were different, I wouldn’t have you as a consort but as my husband. Still, this kingdom is new and it needs stability for its own sake. My Changelings want a bloodline and as we know, there’s only one way to do it.”
“Oh I get it,” I nodded. “That unlike say… Blueblood where his Aunts rule the land and they have spares on the side, it only made sense that he would marry a stallion because there were others to continue on.”
“Exactly, but luckily as King, I got to make the rules about having Masters.”
“Careful Thorax,” I teased. “Such flattery would only get you into the bedroom.”
He smirked, “And you say that as if that’s such a bad thing. Still, I and the hive are blessed to have you here.”
“So you’ve said,” I patted him on the back. “However, I am feeling rather tired out myself. Between the day court, hanging out with you and the kids, I just don’t know how much energy I have until I just fall apart.”
“That’s why you have all of us. After all, it takes a hive to raise a hatchling, but you have all of us to help give you a break when you need to.”
Just then, down the hall, we heard piercing cries that came from the nursery. Immediately we turned around to rush back in to quickly locate that the source came from the royal crib. Scheherazade and Sekto were fighting over the blanket while the other three were bawling from being disturbed. With a collective sigh, we set to work in calming them all down and set the fusing Changelings to stop fighting.
“You take care of Atalanta, Junior, and Velvet while I cool these two down,” Thorax told me as he used his magic to lift the angry hatchings out of the crib and rocked them. “Hey you two, there’s no need to fight. There’s plenty of that blanket for all five of you. I know you’re cranky, but a good night’s sleep will help make you feel better when you wake up.”
I wound up the music box again in one claw and drying their tears with the other. This time around, I was humming the tune. Since it’s no secret that my singing voice is awful, my humming isn’t as to these little guys, it was like warm milk in sound. It took a while to let the plucking music and my humming to sooth them, even the ones that Thorax was rocking to quiet down. Admittingly, it took even longer just to be sure that they were genuinely asleep. He carefully set the youngest ones back into the cradle and tucked their blankets again.
Once we were absolutely sure that they were sleeping, we returned to our walk. “I never knew that hatchings could be so demanding.”
I nodded, “Yeah I know… especially little ones. But we do have to be patient with them. Hopefully, it’ll be a couple of years when they don’t need our help to fall asleep.”
Thorax yawned, “Hey Spike? How tired do you feel right now?”
I shrugged, “Maybe I have enough energy to read a comic book and to…” I coughed in my claw. “You know…”
The King gave a sly smile, “Oh? Would you require some assistance with that?”
“Well, I don’t wanna pressure you. You had a long enough day as it is.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t uphold the duty of giving my consort the love he needs. Really, it’s never a bother for me.”
“If you say so,” I kissed him. “I don’t want to make you feel that you’re a slave with all the work you have to do.”
“Do you know the old saying: ‘If you do the thing you love, you’ll never work a day in your life?’” I told him that I did. “Yes, I know how stressful it can be when you have to manage a kingdom and your own children. But really, not only do I want this, but I do enjoy taking care of the kids. I wanted to have this family, and to have you included in that.”
I chuckled, “I’m trying to imagine what they’re going to be like later down the road. Sometimes I look at them and I could see them asking how exactly our relationship works. Or even, what will they call me? Uncle Spike?”
He mused, “I kinda like the ring to it. Uncle Spike.”
My face deadpanned, “You’re never going to let that go, are no.”
“Nope,” Thorax replied with a wicked smile. “I’ll even decree that for now on you’ll only be referred to as Uncle Spike.”
“I was joking!”
He chuckled, “And I’m kidding… or am I?”
I raised an eyebrow as we went up the stairs. “You know, you can be evil when you want to be.”
“Who me?” he gave me his puppy dog eyes. “But I thought I was a good king.”
It’s rather hard to be slightly annoyed by him when he has his moments of being adorable. “Okay, you are,” I replied with a goofy smile. “Still, are you really going to have them call me Uncle Spike?”
“Well, I don’t see any alternatives. In a way it kinda makes sense considering that you’re not exactly a Changeling but you’re part of the family.”
There’s nothing to argue about that. He’s right in a strange way. That I guess it would make the most sense as to those little guys; I would be a kind of uncle. Maybe it just takes time for my half to get used to being called as such.
At the top of the stairs on the floor of where my room is, a question I asked earlier resurfaced. “So how exactly do we explain to them about our relationship?”
“Like how that they have a mom and two dads?” I nodded. “Well, when they do come of age to learn about the birds and the bees, I think we should sit them all down and just explain it to them.”
“How?”
Thorax paused to think about his response. “Well… When that day comes, we’ll explain to them that their mother wanted to have children and I had the means to make that happen. At the same time, I have my heart set on you. I’ll explain to them that love tends to mean different things to different creatures. For example, some would want it to be one on one, while others have what is called an open relationship. It’s where that all parties are aware of the other and they set terms to which they’re agreeable. I’ll even explain to them that just as long as you love them for who they are, and that you are responsible with those that you trust the most, that’s all it matters.”
I smirked, “Something tells me that you’ve probably eavesdropped on Twilight’s lectures. So then,” I scooped the King up into my arms. “I hope that you’re not feeling too tired, Your Majesty?”
He smiled as I walked towards my room. “Oh, I look forward to it, my Knight.”
We watched those five grow as the years went by. Once they were old enough to shed their larva chitin, not only were they considered old enough to leave the nursery, but they took on new, brighter colors, as well as able to develop their own personalities. Yet, to Thorax’s decree, the five of them were to spend their childhoods in the same room. Only when they’ve reached their teen years would they get their own rooms when they get a sense of privacy.
As months went on, the five hatchlings had collected things in which reflected the personalities that they put on display in their corner of the room.
Atalanta, for example, had slowly made clear that she was more of a tomboy than anything else. She loved the game of Changeling Ball, developed a taste for camping whenever we got the chance to, and (to Pharynx’s approval) she gathered a collection of toy soldiers in which she has them guarding her bed.
Junior took up drawing at an early age. At first, he used to scribble random lines on the page of a variety of colors from his crayon box. But as he grew up, those scribbles had started to take on shapes. Still crude, but from the stick figures, it became a little clearer what was on the page such as trees, the sun, the hive, Changelings, Thorax and Lavender, and even me breathing fire. Around his bed are discarded crayons and color pencils on the floor and dozens of drawings on the wall.
Velvet surrounded her bed with boxes of jigsaw puzzles. The only way I could describe her is that as soon as she was able to learn how to speak, she wanted to know how everything around her works. Almost curious at birth, she tends to ask a bunch of questions about anything and everything she found was new, and won’t let a question go once she asked it.
The youngest colt, Sekto is a little more interesting. For while he likes the outdoors as much as his older sister, interestingly he has picked up something from his father. In that, he plays whatever dolls or action figures that he could get his hooves on. Thorax paid close attention to him as he and his little sister are the most sensitive of the group.
And then there’s the youngest, Scheherazade. Who like the mare she was named after, fell in love with stories. Obviously, Twilight likes her so every time she visited, she had a little package of foals’ books to give her. So it’s no secret that her favorite time of day is bedtime as anticipates us reading a bedtime story to them. Out of all of them, she manages to play with all of them regardless of the activity.
Now that I’ve given you an idea of what our children are like, I have to confess that I’m not exactly sure what sort of stories about them and us I should tell. However, for the sake of the story, I suppose that I can tell you a few episodes in our lives to give an idea of what they were like as children. Now that I think of it, I think there’s one memory that illustrates the personalities of all five of these hatchlings.
I recall one summer when they were about six years old that the Changeling King decided to go on a camping trip into the forest nearby. On that day with a small entourage Atalanta, Sekto and Queen Lavender took to lead the caravan through the forest. On my back, I carried Junior while Velvet and Scheherazade walked next to Thorax.
“Uncle Spike?” Junior asked, still clutching to my scales. “How much longer?”
“You know we’re almost to our camping spot.”
“But how much longer?”
I judged the shadows from the trees. “Probably about half-an-hour, twenty-five minutes tops.”
“But I thought nothing is about twenty-five minutes?” Velvet inquired.
This got their father curious, “How so?”
“Well, have you ever noticed how anytime anybody uses the words, ‘It’ll be in twenty-five minutes,’ it tends to be much longer than that?”
“Sometimes,” the King nodded. “But that’s just a guess of how long something would take. And not all guesses are accurate.”
“What does ‘accurate’ mean?” Scheherazade inquired.
I answered this one. “It’s a word meaning that something is exact or it falls in how you’d expected to be.”
“Uncle Spike,” Junior whined. “I’m bored. Can you fly for a bit?” I grabbed him off my back to look at his green chitin and yellow antlers that started to grow from his head. He looked up at me with pleading eyes. “Maybe do like a loop-de-loop?”
“But have your wings developed yet?”
He stretched out one of his see-through, light green wings. “I’m not ready Uncle.”
I raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the King. “Hey Thorax, you wouldn’t mind if I take Junior up to teach him how to glide?”
After looking up with a judging hum, he replied, “Just don’t go higher than the tree line, and don’t go out of my sight.”
“Got it,” I spread my wings and flew up about a good thirty feet in which I hovered over the trail. In my claws, I can feel Junior shaking.
“W-What if I fall?” he timidly asked.
I pointed out that falling is part of gliding. “If anything, you’re using your wings to not only control how slowly you fall but were as well. Don’t worry, you’ll have me just right above ya. But first, you need to spread both of your wings out wide.” He did so. “Now the trick is to keep them straight and even so that way, you’ll fly around like…” I thought over for a moment when I figured out the right comparison. “Just like how you toss around those paper airplanes.”
He looked up at me with those light blue eyes. “A paper airplane?”
“Yeah, exactly! In fact, that’s all they do is glide around the room. Same idea here. So as long as you don’t move your wings, you should be able to do the same. Okay?”
Junior nodded timidly, his eyes looking down at the trail. Then on the count of three, I tossed him forward, letting him out a shriek as he flew. Of course, I had a claw reached just underneath in case that he decided to close his wings too soon or steered off in the wrong direction. However, within a moment, his terror melted as he glided, and the look on his face when he realizes that he was doing it on his own… it brought pride to my heart. To see his fear evaporated to that of wonder through the air is one of those things that will forever be part of my memory.
By the time we glided a few times and landed before Thorax, Junior went up to him excitedly, “Dad! Dad! Did you see that?”
He patted his head, “I sure did.”
“Can you teach me to fly too Uncle Spike?” a chorus of hatchling voices called out. By now, even Atalanta and Sekto came, asking for me to instruct them.
“How did you get Junior to fly?” Sekto asked.
“It’s not quite flying. Just… falling in slow motion.”
“Oh! Can I go next?” Atalanta asked, hopping in place. “That looked like so much fun.”
“Come on you guys,” Thorax told them. “We have to keep moving if we want to get to our campsite before dinner time.”
“Tell you all what,” said I. “Once we get to where we’re staying for the night, I’ll show you all how to do what Junior did. And I’ll throw in a game once you’ve all managed to glide.”
This caught Atalanta and Velvet’s attention. “What kind of game?”
“An old Pegasus flying game. But for now, let’s follow everyone to the campsite because it’ll be the perfect place to show you.”
There is a certain place in the forest near the hive in which would make one feel like they’ve stepped through an old oil painting. Not only are there trees everywhere, but in this clearing, there are boulders to climb on, a cool stream to swim in, and soft grass to lay on. It is a place where on a clear night you can see the stars in every direction with no hint of light pollution anywhere. To the children, this quiet place was a paradise as there are places to climb, trees to play hide and seek and once a good size fire is going, the perfect setting to tell stories in.
It did take a while to teach the kids after jumping off from boulders, but once they’ve learned how to glide, I’ve shown them how to play a game that was part tag, part parkour. Once they were able to glide, they’ve managed to hop from rock to branch trying to tag the other. I and the other Changelings kept an eye on them as the climbed and flown over from one tree to the next.
“You’re it!” Sekto yelled as he touched Atalanta’s white chitin.
The other children instantly scattered now that it was her turn to tag someone else. We watched as she glided from branch to branch, chasing after her brothers and sisters. Then suddenly, she disappeared in the foliage, much to our and her sibling’s confusion.
“Huh?” Scheherazade asked aloud, “Where did she go?”
Lavender’s eyes widened, “She transformed into the threes! Quick! To the boulders!”
The four of them flew over to the boulders in which they were back to back in a tight circle, looking in every direction.
As this was happening, Thorax’s brother sat himself down next to us. “So what’s going on?”
“They’re playing ultimate tag,” I explained to Pharynx. “Atalanta’s disappeared and they’re all on the lookout for her.”
“Oh this I got to see,” he said as we watched. For a tense moment, the four of them looked at every direction, but no sign of their sister. None of us were certain what this child was going to do. Then out like a fully wound jack-in-the-box, she suddenly appeared right above, landing on them.
“I don’t wanna play anymore,” Sekto crawled off the rock. “No one said that you can transform.”
“He’s sort of right,” I got up, walking over to the boulder. “That was a shifty move, Atalanta.”
“What? You didn’t say anything that we couldn’t.”
After picking her up, I held her up to eye level. “I believe that right there is the definition of shifty. You didn’t see any of your brothers or sisters transform, did you?”
“W-Well… no.”
“You need to learn that if you’re going to play, you have to do so where it’s fair for everyone to give them the opportunity to win. Sure, I didn’t say that you couldn’t transform, but it’s not good sportslingship to give yourself an unfair advantage. Understand?”
She sighed, “Yes Uncle Spike.”
I looked down at the rest of the siblings. “Do you guys still wanna play?”
“Nah,” Junior said hopping down. “I’d wanna draw.”
“There’s paper and crayons in your bag.” After he left, the other girls said that they weren’t feeling tired, so I let the three of them returned to their game. As I turned around, I remembered seeing Thorax putting a hoof around Sekto that looked like he was on the edge of crying. Going up to them, I heard him comforting him.
“Hey look,” said he. “There’s nothing damaged. Your chitin is still in one piece.”
“But it still hurts, dad.”
“Where does it hurt?” Sekto lifted up a hoof. “Go dip it into the stream. It’ll help numb the pain.” After kissing his forehead, the kid did as he was told and let his hoof hang over into the water.
Hours later, Thorax, Lavender and I sat by the fire pit, simply basking in its warmth (and beauty for the Changelings) when Junior came up to us with a small stack of papers in his aura. “Dad, Mom, Uncle Spike, can I show you my drawings?”
“Sweetie,” his mother kissed his forehead. “You know that we always look forward to what you’ve come up with.”
“How many did you make?” I asked.
After flipping through the pages, he told us, “I’ve made six.”
“Well let’s see them,” Thorax smiled warmly.
Junior flipped them over and upright to first us a drawing in crayon and color pencils of me and him with our wings spread open. “This is me and Uncle Spike flying earlier today.” Then to the next one where it showed a child’s caricature of Princess Twilight with dozens of colored lines around her. I asked her what those meant to be, “Those are Auntie Twilight’s books, in which she has a lot.”
“Technically you’re not wrong,” I muttered jokingly.
He then showed the next picture, “This one is of my imaginary friend.”
“Ooh, may we see it up close?” Thorax asked and he nodded, letting the picture be enveloped in his aura to draw it closer to us. It showed a smiling sphinx that had orange and purple poke-a-dots. “Does this have a name?”
“Bob,” he said gleefully. “I couldn’t think of any other good name for a… what is it called?”
“A sphinx Junior,” Lavender patted his head. “Are there any more?”
He nodded as he held up the next picture. “This one is of the mountains outside of our window.”
Admittingly, that drawing was pretty good. The way of the lines and colors blended that, while still crude, was pretty nice looking for a six-year-old. “I like that one,” I told him.
And then he showed us the final picture in which the three of us blushed at. It showed me and Thorax in bed… in a rather… compromising position. “This one’s called Dad and Uncle Spike wrestling.”
I think you could forgive me if I was too mortified to do anything. Luckily, Lavender snatched up the picture in her aura and, as nicely as she could say. “Uh, Junior, sweetheart? You didn’t go into Daddy’s or Uncle Spike’s room when you’re not supposed to, have you?”
He tilted his head, “What do you mean? That picture was supposed to be in your room with the door cracked a little.”
After giving her husband an angry glare, she excused herself and took Junior off to the side. Safe to say, Thorax could sense how I was dying of embarrassment as I covered my face with my claws.
“Why do I have the feeling that we’re gonna need to get him a really good therapist down the line?” I muttered.
“I guess that’s my fault,” he told me as he patted my back. “I could have sworn that I’ve closed and locked the door…”
“Yeah but… he saw us.”
“I know that now…” he exhaled. “I’m just as humiliated as you are. And I really hope he didn’t see too much of something that he shouldn’t know yet.” The king rubbed my back, between my wings. “Besides, I think that must be it. After all, he just said ‘wrestling’ so maybe we’re jumping to conclusions of what he thought he saw.”
I only groaned.
“Are you okay Uncle Spike?” we both looked up and twisted our heads around until we found Velvet there. “You don’t feel too good. Like you’re in trouble or something.”
I picked her yellow self up into my claws. “It’s nothing Velvet.”
“Then why do you feel bad?”
With a snort from my nose, I answered, “Let’s just say that I did something that we shouldn’t have, but accidentally did.”
“Oh,” she looked over to where her mother and brother were. “Is Junior in trouble?”
“I don’t know,” Thorax said. “Frankly I hope that he isn’t.”
“What did he do?”
“He might have seen something that he wasn’t supposed to.”
Before she could ask another question, Lavender and Junior returned, and after shooing them away, she told us. “That was a close one. He told me that he was walking by on the way to lunch back in December when he noticed the crack in the door and only got a quick glance at you two before he had to hurry off.” She folded her forelegs, “Still, that was rather careless on your parts. And in my room too without my permission.”
“I could have sworn that door was closed,” Thorax responded. “And besides, Spike was in rut at the time and he needed to be…” he cleared his throat. “Taken care of. Besides, we couldn’t make it to our rooms at the time because doing so would have embarrassed Spike even further.”
She faced hoof, but after breathing deeply, she said, “Okay, fair enough. But you guys need to be careful. You don’t want anyone uninvited to burst in or get caught in the act. You know what, let’s just drop it for tonight. It’s getting close to their bedtime anyway.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” he turned to the other Changelings. “Would you guys bring out the marshmallows with sticks? And go get the kids, it’s story time for them.”
After some calming down on our parts and the kids (along with the other changelings), we started to roast marshmallows, giving us enough time to let the embarrassment flow away. Then a couple of burned gelatinous treats later, I called Scheherazade over and I had her sit on my knee. “Are you guys ready for a story tonight?”
“Is it a new one?” the youngest asked and I nodded.
“It is indeed. Tonight, I’m going to start on a tale that has a bunch of goodies in them. However, if I’m going to get to those stories, there is one important one that all of you must know because nothing after it would make it any more incredible.” I looked up at the stars and began my story to them. “Once upon a time, in the desert lands of Saddle Arabia where there was a lush kingdom that was like an island in an ocean of sand. In this kingdom, there ruled a king or Sultan in which he had a wife whom he loved more than anything in the world. He spoiled her with riches, silks and constructed beautiful gardens.
“However, it wasn’t until after many years that he found that she was deceiving him. And that her behavior was so bad, that in a rage, he felt that he had to put her to death. From that day on, grief controlled him, his mind nearly gave way to the point where he was convinced that deep down, all mares were as wicked as his wife. That fewer the world contained them, the better. Since then, he would marry a new wife, only to have them executed the following morning. The Kingdom was stricken with terror. So much so, that laughter and joy had left its subjects, fearing that their daughters might be next.
“As it so happened, the Sultan’s adviser had a daughter of his own. Whose name,” I smiled as I looked down at the purple filly. “Was Scheherazade.”
Her eyes widened. “Hey, that’s my name!”
I nodded, “Yes. And you were named after the mare in this story because of what she had done.”
“What did she do?”
“Well, the mare was brought up in reading every book she could get her hooves on. From fairy tales of faraway lands to journals of sailors that journeyed out at sea. No book was too dull to catch her interest, from medicine to history, she became wise as she was beautiful. Now when the Sultan carried out this terrible deed, she knew that she had to do something to save the Kingdom.
“So, after some intense arguing with her father, she was able to convince him to allow her to marry the mad king. While the previous mares had tried to save themselves through their beauty and charm alone, Scheherazade had a different plan that she hoped would not only save her from execution but the kingdom as well.
“The night after she married the Sultan, she found that her new husband was sleepless, and didn’t trust her at first. To this, she instantly sprung her plan into action. ‘O great king of the sands,’ she began. ‘My father has said of me, that I have told him many wonderful and fantastic tales that are extraordinary. I pray that before the sun rises, would you grant me to have you as my final audience to tell such stories?’
“Hearing this, the sultan was intrigued, none of the mares have ever asked such an unusual request before. ‘And what story,’ said he, ‘That your father, my adviser would consider being wonderful and fantastic?’
“Thus, she began: ‘I have heard, O fortunate king, that there was once a stallion who lived in the city of Saddlebag, who had lost everything from his riches to his respectability. He was homeless to the point that he lived underneath an old rug in a courtyard. One night, this poor fellow was showed a dream in which that he will be able to regain his wealth in a garden in Clydrio. Given the hope that his luck may change, he traveled there for seven days to the city.
“‘However, as he got there at noon, he discovered that no one and nothing was around. He didn’t find any gold nor jewels, instead, he was arrested by the local guard because he someone thought he was a suspicious fellow and had him thrown in jail. Confused and saddened, the stallion wondered in his cell if the dream he had was all for nothing. The head guard came in, demanding what he was doing in the gardens. Feeling that he had nothing to lose, he told the story to him. When he finished, he found that the head guard was laughing and asked him why.
“‘‘Forgive me,’ said he. ‘But it’s just that I find this rather funny. Because about a week ago, I had a crazy dream that I would find riches in Saddlebag!’ To the stallion’s astonishment, he described in exact detail of the very courtyard in which he had lived in. Seeing that this was nothing but the adventure of a fool, the head guard released him, but the stallion now raced back to Saddlebag to see what was there.’”
I instantly stopped, all eyes from the children, and those who had listened to the story were waiting for me. “And?” Scheherazade in my arms asked. “What happened then?”
My grin was on display as I explained, “That is exactly what the Sultan asked when Scheherazade stopped her tale. She pointed out that the sun had risen, and she was too tired to continue with the story. The king, who was so interested in this new tale, faced a problem. He couldn’t execute her because if he did, he’ll never know how it ends. So, he bid his new wife go to sleep and allowed her to continue tomorrow night.”
I picked the youngest up, “And it’s about time that the rest of you should do the same as well.”
“Awe,” they whinnied. “Come on Uncle Spike,” Velvet said. “How does the story end?”
“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow night. But for now, get to your tents, it’s time to go to sleep.”
Although there was some resistance, they ended up doing so.
When it was just me, Thorax and Lavender (along with a few guards on watch,) the King began. “How do you do that?”
I tilted my head, “Do what?”
“Telling a story without a book like that?” he asked. “And that story too, not the Scheherazade one, but the whole stallion going to Clydrio thing. Was that something from the original nights?”
“Not really, I kinda made it up.”
“Could have fooled me,” Lavender said. “That actually sounded like a story that would come out for it. Do you write stories yourself?”
“Well, I dabble here and there,” I shrugged. “Mostly to write friendship letters or checklists for Twilight when I was growing up. But then there were the comics and the Ogres & Oubliettes, my imagination had opened up a bit. Still, I wouldn’t consider myself as an author.”
“Maybe you should,” Thorax pointed out. “One of these days, you should write a story in which we’ll help get it published.”
“I don’t think I’ll get recognition for it.”
“But you’d never know. There might be creatures from across the globe who would be interested in what stories you wanted to tale. I think you’re a natural storyteller Spike.”
I knocked a stone into the fire. “I doubt it,” I said, watching the flames dance in the pit.
At the same time, I can’t say that everything in their lives was a happy one. Sure, we all did our best to let them all grow up, but sometimes reality did rear its ugly head to show them some rather uncomfortable truths. Especially when we had to interact outside of the borders of the Changeling Kingdom.
One such memory that comes to mind was when the kids were around nine years old when we had to go to the Island of the Minotaurs. At the time, we went there for diplomatic reasons for the sake of peace and trade. In hindsight, we didn’t have to take any of the children with us, but Thorax insisted that it would be good for them to see how other species live. He reasoned that he wanted to show them that not every creature has the same culture and traditions that the Changelings have. So by taking them along would give them the best way to learn about them.
The kids did look forward with these sorts of trips that we take as a family. At an early age, they do want to see other places and interested in creatures that were completely different than what they were. If anything, their curiosity overloads as soon as they get there, asking questions like, “Why do they sound funny?” or “What’s that they’re cooking?” or “How come they wear those hats on their heads?”
And this trip was no different. I recall the morning when all five of them were hanging on the rails of the ship as they spotted the island in the warm morning salty air. They were looking at the short but long island that had two mountains on each end with civilization in the center. Almost like a pair of horns that were prodding out above the sea.
Once we’ve managed to get to the harbor, the children were in awe of the town. Where it’s buildings were every building was painted in plain white, its windows shutters and doors in bright sea blue, and it’s few domes a polished copper. As for its inhabitants, they were interested in the varieties of Minotaurs that were on the island. While some were indeed part bull, there were others that were part goat, and few were part horse. Yet, what they all had in common was their signature upper halves, as the kids pointed out, were similar to my body in which they have the chest, neck, arms, hands, and head that’s structured in the same way.
“So where is the palace?” Velvet inquired as she looked out its buildings.
“I think that there’s going to be an escort to show us the way,” Thorax said. “Or at least, that’s what the letter said.”
“Is that supposed to be them over there?” Queen Lavender pointed a hoof towards a certain spot in the harbor. Two large, red Minotaurs with their arms folded waited by a sort of palanquin that was covered in gold and red velvet. They were looking at our direction so it didn’t take a detective that they were here for us.
And it was confirmed when they moved towards us when they dock the ship. They told us that they were sent here by King Mino to be taken from the harbor to the palace. Or at least, carry those of the Changeling Royal family there. I wasn’t allowed because due to the technicality that I’m not officially part of the family, much to the kid’s confusion.
“What do you mean he can’t join us?” Sekto questioned. “He’s called Uncle Spike, so why can’t he be given a ride?”
“We’re only following orders,” one of the carriers said as they lifted them off the ground. “Only those that are the Changeling Royal family. As far as I can see, he’s a dragon, not a Changeling.”
Atalanta’s cheeks turned fury red, “Why you oversized-”
I put a claw over her mouth. “It’s okay. If I can’t ride, then I’ll fly. You guys go on right ahead, I’ll be following from above.”
“But he just said that you’re not family.”
“He’s talking about blood relation Atalanta. Remember that’s how Minotaurs recognize family on this island. So don’t get upset over someone’s different opinion. Now you guys start heading over, I’ll be joining you soon.” After spreading my wings and taking to the air, I followed them through the streets and up to the simple but towering palace. This time, unlike the buildings that surround it, the colors were introverted while staying true to its modest architecture.
Behind the main gate, the family was let out and I touched down beside them. We were lead into spacious and bright halls and rooms of the white-walled and opened air palace towards the top of the flat roof where underneath a white canopy was King Mino on his throne. A white Minotaur that has on a purple toga-like an old Pegasi emperor. This albino monarch stood up from his throne. “Ah, King Thorax, I am pleased to see that you’ve made it.” He greeted him in an earthy baritone voice. “I was starting to wonder if something had happened to your ship.”
“I did say that I would be arriving today,” the Changeling King nodded respectively. “As you can see, I brought along my family to learn about your Island. I can say that they’re very curious about this place.”
Then the albino ruler looked over at me. “And who’s this?”
“This is Sir Spike,” Thorax introduced to me. “He’s one of my most trusted courtiers and close adviser. Wherever I go, he goes.”
“Mm, I see,” Mino went over and bend down at to the kids. “So all these children are yours? I must say that these are such fine little creatures. Well behaved I hope?”
“We haven’t set anything on fire if that’s what you’re asking,” Scheherazade responded in a sassy tone.
This made the Minotaur king laugh, “And funny too. I like these little ones already. How old are the five of you?”
“They’re all nine years old,” Lavender answered.
“I have a son that’s ten. At this hour, he in the pool swimming just behind us,” he pointed a thumb behind him. “How about we let these young ones get to know my Bullvine while we do the same with us adults?”
Just like that, their wings were buzzing as soon as they heard the words “pool” and “swimming” they were already in the air. Asking where exactly the pool was, the Minotaur king simply told them and off they went.
“While the children are occupied, why not we play a King’s game?”
“Ooh, what kind of game?” the Queen asked but Mino’s faced flashed with uneasiness.
“Uh… Sorry Queen Lavender, the sport I have in mind is something that is fitted for the more uh… stronger sex.”
Lavender raised an eyebrow, “Oh? And what sport exactly that would exclude me?”
“Wrestling,” he grinned.
I raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean we’ve just come all this way-”
“But it’s an honor to wrestle with a king,” he interrupted. “After all, it’s a sport of displaying great feat of strength and endurance.”
“What about the whole trade negotiations?” Thorax questioned.
He waved it off, “There’s plenty of time for that. Now come, I know a better place to do this in.” He patted my arm, “And how about we let this big fella go first as a warm up?” Despite how peeved (a term that I use very lightly) Lavender was, we did move towards the ground floor to where a sort of arena was. In a courtyard surrounded by columns, was a sandy ring in the very center while there were guards at attention at each corner of the space.
“Question,” I raised a claw. “Why exactly do you want to fight us?”
“On this island,” said the Minotaur king as he disrobed his purple clothing. “To really know your friends and enemies, you wrestle with them to see if they are fair, and to see if who’s more dominant.”
“And you want to fight with me first? A dragon?”
“No Minotaur backs down from a challenge that he may overcome.” He stepped into the ring. “Now come in Sir Spike, let’s warm up before I wrestle the Changeling King.”
On a personal note, the guy did have the body in which was perfect for the sport. In a way, he was like Iron Will in that every conceivable muscle looked like it was sculpted on. Amusingly, I had a thought that given his white fur, I silently joked that it’s going to be like wrestling with a statue.
With Thorax’s permission, I too stepped into the ring – gripping both of his hands in my claws as we readied ourselves. “To tell you the truth King Mino,” I said. “I haven’t done this in a while, but at least I promise that I won’t blow fire on you.”
“Your actions will speak for you,” he replied. “Ready?”
I flexed my strength and gave a simple nod.
However, before anyone could say “Go!” a guard came rushing in.
“Sire! Sire!” he cried. “One of the Changelings is drowning your son in the pool!”
“What!” Everyone responded before there was a mad stampede towards a certain part of the palace where the pool was. And there splashing, trying to get a hold of the edge of the tiled pool was the Minotaur prince, a black, bullheaded kid that was fighting to get out. However, tentacles of an octopus kept pulling him back in the water, whose head we can see peeking out of the water. But when the prince did manage to surface, the other four kids were trying to separate them by every means they could think of. From turning into a lifeguard preserver to turning themselves into a rope to have the guy pull himself out.
“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!” screamed a voice that sounded just like Junior that came from the octopus.
“Neve-” the prince cried out before being dunked back into the water.
“Let him go!” Atalanta, that turned herself into a dragon, tried her hardest to pull Junior out of the pool by flight. However, being an octopus, she found that he was too slippery to which he would slither right out from under her.
So, to get all of their attention, I unleashed a loud roar, along with a burst of fire for good measure. “THAT’S ENOUGH!!” All at once, six children froze, and the Changeling children transformed back to their original selves, thus giving the nearly drowned prince a chance to escape the water.
As soon as that happened, six voices entered a shouting match to explain or blame the other for what happened. Thorax, in a very rare display of anger, stomped his forehoof on the ground and spread his wings. “Family meeting,” he said commandingly through his teeth.
“B-But dad-” Junior stuttered.
“Now!” It’s very rare that I would genuinely see him snap, even if it were for just a moment. And I won’t lie to anyone when he does get angry, it’s rather frightening. That split second, it was as if he used up his sheer willpower, raw emotion, and all the air in his lungs to let out that sharp, short but thunderous word that could have been heard throughout the island.
While King Minos had his talk with his son, Thorax, his queen and I moved the children to another part of the palace grounds where it had a grove of twisted olive trees. Underneath the shade, while the Head of the Changelings calmed down a bit, anyone who looked into his eyes can see that he was purely upset. “What happened?” he demanded.
“He started it,” Junior spoke.
“I don’t care who started it,” Thorax narrowed his eyes. “We’re going to end it. Now talk, what happened back there – and why were you trying to drown Prince Bullvine?”
The green, young changeling sniffed, looking up with a pitiful look. “Y-You won’t listen.”
“Why do you think-” I was about to say before Thorax lifted a hoof.
“Let me take care of this – both of you.” Kneeling down, the King put a hoof under his son’s chin. “Junior, I’m not mad at you. But you did scare me back there. We’re trying to make a good impression on the Minotaurs and then we find you fighting with their prince? I don’t understand what had happened.”
“But… But you’ll get angry anyway.”
Thorax breathed through his nose. “I won’t. And I’m listening for real this time.”
Junior whipped some of the tears that were forming in his eyes. “I know what you, mom and Uncle Spike told us about being on our best behavior and all that. But that bully wasn’t.”
“Why? What happened?”
From there, he told us the story of how after Minos told them about the swimming pool, they were all eager to take a dip and getting to meet with the prince. At first, everything was relatively fine as they exchanged names and what not. If anything, Bullvine was willing to have others come and swim with him, until he splashed water at Sekto without warning.
“When he got him wet,” Junior explained. “It made Sekto really upset that he did that without saying anything. But then, Bullvine starts being a jerk and teases him, making him cry. We tried to get him to stop, but he says to him, ‘Why are you crying? You’re not a…’” he trailed off, rubbing his foreleg. “He said a bad word. A word that you and Uncle Spike promised that we would never use.”
“What was the word?” Lavender asked.
“Mom, I can’t say that word,” he whined. “If I say it, I’ll get in trouble.”
Thorax hugged him, “Whatever it is, you can say it and you’ll be excused for saying it. So what did he call Sekto?”
“He…” while he whispered it into his ear, I did pick up the offensive word that no doubt had sparked the fight. “He called him a uh... a faggot.”
“Oh…”
Junior nodded, “I told him that he can’t say that word, but he just makes fun of me for standing up to him. And I got so angry that…”
“I see,” Thorax too nodded, understanding. “While I do get why you would get upset over this, was drowning him really necessary?”
“Well, what was I supposed to do? He wouldn’t stop.”
“You could always have walked away. Come and tell us that something is bothering you. While I am proud that you would defend your brother, I am, however, disappointed that you had to result to violence over it.” He then turned to Sekto, who was over by one of the olive trees by himself but still within hearing distance. Waving him over, the youngest son went up to him. “Are you alright?”
“A… A little.” He sniffled.
Returning to Junior, he told him, “I’m going to speak with King Mino about what had happened, then we’ll figure out what to do with you.”
He winced, “Are you really going to punish me?”
“That depends on what his son, along with your brother and sister says. Obviously, someone will get punished, but for now, I need to hear everything that had happened from each of you. Understood?”
So one by one, each of them told us the same story. By the time we went up to King Mino, we asked him if his son told him what had happened. Indeed, he has but had given him a completely different version in which Junior was the one that started the fight, where he was minding his own business when suddenly he jumped right to the pool without asking, they got into a fight until we showed up. However, it was made clear on both sides that given the fact that there were four other eyewitnesses, it was made clear that Prince Bullvine was lying.
Mino promised that he will punish his son for dishonesty while Thorax to do the same for Junior acting to violence.
Later on that night, when the children were put to bed (and forbidden to see Prince Bullvine for the day) I noticed that Thorax looked wistful as he was looking out to the stars of our guest balcony.
“I take it that you’re thinking about the fight?” I asked him, patting his back.
He nodded, “There’s something that has been on my mind, yes.”
“Such as?”
“It’s about Sekto,” I asked what he meant by that. “Well, it’s got me thinking about several things really. For one, that moment of bullying brought back some rather… bitter memories of my hatchlinghood in the hive.”
“That you were bullied too?”
“Yeah… And I’m proud that Junior has stood up to that sort of thing, just like how Pharynx had done for me. It’s rather painful to see history repeat itself in a way. Especially to our own children.”
“It’s not something that you can protect them from. Everyone would have to face cruelty at least once in their lives no matter how much we try to shield it from it. All we can do is to teach them how to deal with it when – or rather if it shows up.”
“I know. But there’s something else too.”
“Like what?”
He breathed through his nostrils, looked at me in the eye and asked, “Do you think that… I don’t know… if it’s possible that uh… oh how do I say this?” he took a deep breath and let out. “Is it possible that at least one of our kids might turn to be like us?”
“You mean, attracted to the same gender?”
“Uh-huh.”
I shrugged, “I can’t say. Until they hit puberty all that is up in the air. Why? What’s gotten you to thinking this?”
“I know it’s a little ridiculous to assume but, Bullvine used that insult on Sekto. And I could sense that he was shaken up by it. Not only that, but I also sense fear too. But why would he be afraid, and of what? I mean sure, it could be linked to just Bullvine but… I don’t know… something’s telling me that there might be something more to this that I thought that maybe.”
Giving him a hug, I asked him, “And if one of them does come out?”
“Look, it’s not that I have a problem with that, heck, we’re both guys and you’ve been my faithful consort for years. I just wonder if I’m sending the right message to them that if they wanted to feel authentic that it’s okay to do so. Otherwise, why would any of them be afraid?”
“Shh,” I patted the back of his head. “We don’t know what orientation they are, but that doesn’t matter as long as we let them know that we just want them to be happy. If they come to us saying that they’re attracted to someone of the same gender, then great! We can help guide them. Regardless, let them grow up. They have a good life ahead of them.”
Thorax nuzzled and kissed me, “You’re right. I guess I’m just jumping to conclusions.”
So, one thing to note before I start this chapter is to say that both Junior and Prince Bullvine were punished during our stay on the island. In which for several days, they were forced to clean up the palace with no one else to assist them. Sure, the task was immense, but to our eyes, it was fair because those two nearly started a war.
The rest of the trip there was uneventful and not all that important to this book.
Instead, I’m going to have to move onto another memory, this being about three years later when the five of them had reached the age of twelve. When they were deemed old enough, the King, Queen and I had to set all of them down one evening so that we could finally give them… the talk.
Of course, it wasn’t just telling them what to expect when they’ve just begun to hit puberty. We also have to explain to them the birds and bees as well. At first, we told them briefly where eggs come from through a male and female Changeling. We also told them of other forms of intimacy, such as cuddling for a long time or sharing kisses on the lips are meant to be shared with someone that they consider special.
To this, all five of them were confused, “But dad,” Scheherazade objected. “We’ve seen you kiss Uncle Spike sometimes too, and he’s not female.”
“Now that is true,” I nodded. “In a way, that’s what makes our family so unique. It’s because that your dad here, has an attraction to both male and female alike. Yes, he does love your mother, but he also loves me as well.”
Junior raised a hoof, “How does that work? I mean, can you fall in love with someone that’s also a colt or filly as you are?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Thorax said. “It is possible, but just remember, that it’s also normal too. Grant it, figuring out if you like fillies, colts or both does take time. But as you grow older, you’ll be able to figure that out on your own as you grow older.”
“But uh…” Sekto inquired, “How do we know exactly?”
“From what your father has told me,” Queen Lavender took over. “The simplest way is that you’ll notice certain things about this or that would draw you. For example, you may notice physical features that would make you feel… well… excited. At other times, it could be by their personality that wants you to become more than just friends.”
The youngest son looked uneasy, “Like say… if you prefer to be with a friend more than others?”
“Kinda,” his father pointed out. “That unlike friends, when you have an attraction to someone, you find that you tend to care more about their well-being. It’ll be when you’re concerned about their happiness, where you are quick to forgive and just seeing them fills you with a nearly indescribable joy. There’s much more to it, but I want the five of you to understand something.” He looked at all of them in the eye with a gentle smile on his face. “If any of you feel lost or confused with the changes that will happen or you keep getting a feeling that you’re unsure how to deal with it. Just remember, you have the three of us to come, and we’ll be willing to listen. Do you all understand?”
They nodded, after asking a few questions about how our three-way relationship worked. So, we explained to them that ours works on a system of honesty, communication, and trust. Just like how any other relationship would work.
Now, there is a reason why I’ve decided to tell you that little story because it serves as a background for what happened about a few weeks later. Around this time, it was about a month before their quadruple birthdays in which they were about to turn thirteen that I received a visitor in my chambers. It was Sekto who was switching from one pair of hooves to the other. “Hey Uncle Spike,” he said, trying to look as calm as possible. “Are you busy?”
I sat the comic book I had aside, “Not really, just relaxing. Is there something you need kiddo?”
“Um…” He looked over his shoulder, “Can I uh... talk to you?”
Stepping aside, I lifted my arm. “Sure, come on-”
“Not here,” he interrupted. “At least, not in the hive.”
This got my attention, “Is something wrong, Sek?”
“What?”
“You look a bit nervous.”
He didn’t answer at first, “Nothing’s wrong, I just needed to talk to you that isn’t here.”
“Why not?”
Pawing at the ground he asked, “You remember when we had that talk a few weeks ago and said that if there was something that we could ask, we could turn to you?” I nodded, piecing together what this might be about. “I don’t feel comfortable in talking to mom or dad about it.”
“Oh, okay then… Do you wanna go for a walk or a fly?”
“Fly, preferably out of anyone’s earshot.”
Ahh… so it’s that kind of talk.
Jumping out of a window and spreading our wings, we went towards the forest, and a little higher than what the other kids are used to flying at. Obviously, something is clearly bothering him as for several minutes into our flight, he didn’t say a word. At the same time, however, I consider myself proud that Sekto is placing so much trust in me to hear what was on his mind.
I waited for him to start first, “So…” he began, but hesitated for a long time as he looked over at everything but me. “That talk you gave us a few weeks ago.”
“Yes?”
“I mean… it’s true that you do love my dad, right? And noling has ever found it… weird?”
Chuckling, I replied, “To be honest, I don’t have the title of being Master Consort for nothing. But no, the hive doesn’t think that it’s weird that I uh… date him.” Then I tilted my head to the side, “Why are you bringing this up?”
His face was flushed as he tried to take some calming breaths in the cool air. “Well… so it’s… normal for someone to have feelings towards both male and female, or just female for me?” Almost immediately, I knew where this was going.
“Well there’s nothing wrong with that,” I told him.
“So…” he looked around, spinning in the air to make absolutely sure that it was just us. “So… it’s not weird at all for say… a male to have feelings for only a male?”
“No,” I said immediately and clearly. “There isn’t anything weird about it.” I flew up next to him, putting my arm around. “Is there a reason why you’re telling me this, Sekto?”
His eyes turned away from me. “Um,” he said as almost a hoof to the gut reaction. “I was just curious is all. You, mom and dad, haven’t mentioned it that much.”
“What? Males only attracted to other males?” he nodded. “Well, we’re just going off from our own personal experiences. I mean, Thorax and I are both bisexual,” he looked at me puzzled. “It’s a fancy word meaning that one has an attraction to both genders.”
“Oh…” he nodded. “Uncle Spike… How well can you keep a secret?”
Here we go. “I think that I’ve learned how to keep a few pretty well. Why?”
“Well… To be honest, I don’t exactly feel comfortable telling mom or dad… or my brother and sisters about. I know we talked about the birds and bees but… there’s something that has left me kinda confused about.”
I drew him into a hug, “Sekto, of course, you can tell me anything, no matter how weird. I promise that whatever you wanted to say, I’ll hear you out. And I won’t say anything until you’re finished. Okay?”
He nodded and after taking a few deeper breaths asked me at point-blank range: “Uncle Spike, am I gay?” I told him that I didn’t exactly know what he meant. “I mean… Before you set us all down to talk about sex and attraction, I’ve been starting to notice uh…” he blushed. “Well, a certain someone in the hive, who I’m not going to say!” He quickly added before continuing.
While I did chuckle, I kept my mouth shut.
“Anyway, while I haven’t exactly gone up and talked to him, every time I see him, I just feel funny. You know? Like being short on the breath or that I want to stare at him for some reason. Only I don’t know why. And after you called us to have that talk, explaining what it means to be attracted to someone that… what if…?”
I patted his head, “You do know that there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Is it?” he asked and I asked for clarification. “I mean, outside of you and dad, I’ve never seen any other changeling that does something like that. Particularly with couples that are both males. Sure, dad is the king, but you have to admit you don’t see couples like yourselves very often here. I mean, if it weren’t for him being so important to the hive, would other Changelings think otherwise?”
“I rather doubt it,” I told him. “After all, your Uncle Pharynx knew that his brother leaned towards males long before he became king.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. And yeah, I think I can see where you’re coming from with this. Yes, we don’t have too many couples that just happened to be the same gender. But like Equestria, there’s nothing shocking about it, as it’s just as a fact of life.”
He cocked an eyebrow, “And how many couples like you and dad raise kids in which one of them might be like them in some way?”
I puff smoke through my nose. “Well… Okay, there you have me. But you do see my point here, right?”
“I know, but it’s not just the hive I’m concerned about. What about other places in the world that don’t act too kindly? Like the Yaks or the Minotaurs, if they even suspect that I might not like fillies as they do-”
“Sekto,” I cut him off. “If you’re worried about your own safety, do remember that we are all here for you, regardless who you happen to like. After all, I have that same protection as well, that if such a thing were to happen, you have a whole army to rush in to help. With that being said, I do have a question for you. As much as I’m honored in being the first one for you to come out to, why me in particular?”
He looked at me as if I said something incredibly dumb. “Isn’t it obvious?” he deadpanned. “If I even got near Mom or Dad, they’ll immediately pick up what I’m feeling, but I think they’ll start interrogating me as if I’m in trouble. I mean, they could sense what I’m feeling but not my thoughts. You are easier to talk to because I can just tell you and have you understand at a reasonable pace. And besides, I don’t know for certain if I’m really gay or not. You guys said it that it’ll take time, and the last thing that I or mom and dad need it to dive right into conclusions. I mean, what I’m not?”
I hugged him again, “Personally, either way, I don’t care, just as long as you find what makes you happy with whoever you’re with.”
“But do I do now? I mean, I don’t want mom and dad to know,” his eyes widened before he looked up at me with a pleading look. “Please don’t tell them.”
Backing up in the air for I bit, I followed the motions. “Alright, for you, I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye promise, that this will only be between us. Although, I am rather curious,” I said with a smirk. “Who’s the lucky guy?” He sighed, his face (if not his whole chitin) turned an embarrassing shade of red.
“Do I really have to?” he moaned.
After thinking it over for a moment, I answered: “Actually, that’ll depend on how you answer this one question.” I lean in. “Do you like this guy enough that you want to get closer than you already are with him?” After he pondered over this, he replied that he would like that. “Then yes, you have to.”
He rubbed his foreleg. “I don’t think you’ve heard of him. He’s in the cooking group that just joined in. I tend to see him on Wednesdays and Thursdays when he’s there setting up the food. Truth is Uncle, I don’t know what his name is, but I think he’s around the same age as I am. And he’s uh…”
I couldn’t resist, “What? Cute?”
“No!” he said defensively. “I mean, his eyes are shiny and funny and witty- why am I saying this!”
Chuckling, I told him that it’s all part of growing up.
True to my word, I for several months, I didn’t tell Thorax about what Sekto had told me. If anything, he kept a bit of distance between himself and his parents as he didn’t want to wrestle with his feelings. But not to say that this went unnoticed. Even the Changeling King went up to me one night to voice his concern.
“He just wouldn’t talk to me or come anywhere near me or Lavender. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what is going on. He’s not mad at me, that I know, but it’s like he’s hiding something.”
I placed a claw on his back. “Actually, I’ve spoken to him a while back.”
“You did?”
“While I promised him that I won’t tell what we’ve been discussing, let’s just say that he’s trying to figure things out on his own.”
He leaned forward, “Figuring out what?”
But I wouldn’t say. The kid placed so much trust with his secret and I must respect it. After our private meeting, every other day he would get me out of the hive to speak one on one about trying to separate what he thinks he’s feeling and what he’s actually feeling. This went on for several months, but at the same time, I’ve learned a little bit more about his crush.
As I could piece together, the one that he had his eyes on was a guy named Ganymede. Since he does offer a helping hoof at the potluck lunches, so I was able to get a good look at who this is. He is about a year older then Sekto, and yet he’s as playful as a kid. The only way I could describe both his personality and look of sunshine personified. A yellow Changeling with eyes as white as the sun, he seems friendly and would gladly say hello if you just went up to him. Much like in Sek’s description, he also does make jokes whenever he could do so.
Of course, we both spot something that would easily give Sekto a reason to second-guessing himself. In it that in the few times that I did talk to him, he doesn’t appear to be interested in fillies, but at the same time it isn’t clear that he leans towards colts either. As you could imagine, it is the source of the kid’s anxiety. I try to comfort him in spite of his crush’s ambiguous orientation.
And it became clear to the both of us that there was no question that this little guy was starting to develop an attraction towards him. For a while, neither of us were sure about what exactly to do about it. However, as the winter season was drawing near, the answer had manifested itself. The Changeling Kingdom had adopted the traditions of Hearth’s Warming while adding a few of their own. One such new tradition is the creation of the Hearth’s Warming Eve ball. Of course, Sekto had asked for my assistance for his plan to get himself properly acquainted with Ganymede.
“I want to do something else too,” he told me. “A way to tell mom and dad of who I am.”
“Wait… really,” I held him up to eye level. “Are you sure Sek?”
He nodded, “I was confused, Uncle Spike. But I know now that I do have a crush of a guy, and at the ball, I think it’s about time that they know. Besides, they’re bound to find out, so I don’t feel right in hiding this from them forever.”
Ah Sekto, as fragile as you can be, you do have the courage of a dragon.
So on that December night, I, Thorax and Lavender had taken front row seats to a drama that was set before us. The ball itself took place in the outdoor throne room, with the same conditions as that how I fell in love with the king. Once again there was a blizzard that descended from the sky while the heat stones around us created a dome of warmth for us. But unlike then, this ball had evergreen wreaths and garlands that draped the perimeter of the room with shiny jingle bells and silk red ribbons. The orchestra provided the dancing, waltzing music for couples that wanted to have a moment.
Like before, the horseshoe-like table was set up to match the festive atmosphere. Red cloth was draped over while white candles stood tall as they burn. Food and drink were intertwined between the holly, candy and sugar sculptures. At the head of the table, we sat, Thorax had a hoof over his belly as he slumped in his chair to recover from the overeating. Behind him was his brother on guard, looking over at the party unfolding while scanning for potential threats. To the King’s right, the Queen was nibbling on a peppermint cup that once had hot chocolate. On the left sat I was setting aside the whiskey infused eggnog. At the time, I wasn’t quite tipsy, so I was able to remember what was going on in the center of the room.
“That’s odd,” Lavender commented as she spotted Sekto, standing to one side of the room as the dancers spun into confusing twists of color. “Don’t all the kids head off to bed around this time?”
Thorax looked over behind his seat, “What time is it?”
Pharynx glanced down at a watch, “Just past 10:30. I’ve seen all of them drift out of the throne room.” Looking up, he added. “It looks like Sek’s waiting for someone.”
“Who could he be waiting on?” the King wondered aloud. “Maybe I should go over-”
I held out a claw, “Wait.” I told them, “You all want to see this.”
“See what?” they all inquired.
With not a further word spoken, I pointed over to their son as he was moving across the room over to the other side. Even at this distance, we all saw the look of nervousness on his face as he approached the sunny changeling that was nibbling at the snack table. At first, Sekto seemed rather hesitant, as if he was trying to gear up the courage to finally speak what was on his mind. He moved a shaky hoof up to give a gentle tap on his crush’s shoulder.
“What’s he doing?” Thorax asked but I shushed him.
“Just watch,” I said with a knowing smirk.
And so we watched as the improvised play unfolded. As soon as Sekto managed to tap on Ganymede’s shoulder, he turned his head and, acknowledging who it was, bowed to him. After all, he is technically a prince to the eyes of the hive. Sek looked even more uneasy than before at this action but fought to hold a straight face as they started talking. Ganymede, judging off from his body language, indicated that he was practically star-struck to have someone of royalty wanting to talk to him.
“Who’s that?” Pharynx questioned.
“I’ve seen him before,” Lavender said in thought. “I think he comes helps out with the potluck lunches from time to time. Can’t remember the name, but the face looks familiar.”
“Ganymede,” I told them, and all three of them looked at me.
“And you know that name… how?” Thorax asked.
“Keep watching, and you’ll know why.”
Returning their gazes, they witnessed a bashful looking Sekto, rubbing one leg over the other, saying something that was far out of earshot from his parents. The yellow changeling froze for a moment, blinking before he moved his lips briefly. Sek nodded and lifted a foreleg towards the dancing floor.
“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” the Changeling Queen asked as the orchestra struck up a new tune.
Almost like a ballet, while the music certainly drowned out whatever they were saying, it was clear by the body language and facial expression of these two of what was really going on. Ganymede, with a puzzled look, sort of laughed as if he’s admitting that he didn’t exactly know how to dance. Sek on the other hoof wasn’t that bothered as took hold of his hoof to drag him towards the center stage as if he’ll teach him how to dance. Interestingly enough, the one being dragged doesn’t show signs of objections to this.
The two colts stood in the center of the throne room as Sekto, rather awkwardly, showed his crush through the steps and posture of dancing. The kind in which they both stand on their hind legs while Sekto guides the other’s hooves to where he puts one on his shoulder and hold the other. But as soon as Sekto placed his hoof on Ganymede’s side, did I hear something from Thorax.
“No way…” I glanced over to see his jaw had hit the floor. Whatever doubts any of them had when they saw his son was showing another colt how to dance (if not clumsily) were banished when all of them realized what was happening. “Spike,” Thorax said at last. “Is Sekto…”
I nodded, “Looks like he’s decided to reveal his secret.” I leaned back in my seat.
“Secret?” Pharynx question. “You mean, that you knew?”
“What can I say, he trusted me with it.”
Thorax turned his eyes towards the dancing colts. “We’re certainly going to need to have a talk later on.”
“Oh let him have his fun,” I craned my neck over to kiss him on the cheek. “Although, I have to admit, from what Sekto had told me of his plan, the real test might be coming up.” They asked me what exactly. “To see if he accepts his crush.”
Out on the dancefloor, the two of them clumsily waltzed as they nearly tripped over so they had to stop and do it over again. But the movements were not the main focus as to their conversation. As they turned around, we kept an eye for clues on both of their faces. Ganymede cracking jokes while Sekto laughed gawkily. Another turn and the yellow colt had look concern as he asked if he was alright. Sekto looked over towards my direction as if asking for some sort of guidance. Another turn and Ganymede was listening while Sek was finally explaining it out to him for another few twists.
Suddenly, the two of them stopped and Ganymede let go, looking uneasy. Sekto tried to explain himself but his crush took a few steps back. The yellow changeling seemed to stumble over his words before shaking his head and leaving the Throne Room, leaving him alone in the center. But Sek’s face had a look of devastation as tears were forming in his eyes.
“Oh no,” Thorax got out of his chair and flew over to his son as I did the same. “Sekto,” he said as he landed in front of him. “Are you-” But the damage was already done as he ran out with tears flowing over. “Son! Wait!” his father cried out, we chase after him.
Needless to say, we did manage to get caught up with him, but he was overcome with sadness that he couldn’t say anything that was incoherent. While it was late in the evening, Thorax had his son and me into his personal chambers to have a private talk with both of us.
I still recall how he sat on the edge of his bed, his forelegs folded over while Sekto sat on a pillow on the floor and me in a chair. He had his eyes closed as he breathed deeply. “Before I say anything,” he said. “Is that I want both of you to know: I’m not angry at either of you.”
“You’re not?” Sekto looked up with a guilty expression.
Shaking his head, he began. “No, I’m not. However, I do feel a little bit betrayed by both of you.” He turned to his son. “Sekto, you didn’t have to be afraid to tell me this. I still love you regardless of who you’re attracted to. So it rather hurts to find out that you didn’t trust me with this as I would have been more than willing to help.”
“In his defense,” I began but he shot a glare at me.
“The same goes with you, Spike. While I don’t mind that he was able to trust you, however, I don’t appreciate the fact that you kept this away from me.”
“That was because he was trying to figure out who he is without anyone jumping to conclusions until he was certain,” I said in our defense. “Look, it’s not that I don’t get where you’re coming from. But do keep in mind that the kids have or just reached puberty. And we both know well that this is a very confusing time those who are trying to figure out what they like. He turned to me because I can’t read his emotions to make assumptions about what he’s thinking. Sekto wanted someone that doesn’t hold a bias of any sort to help him put things together.”
Another deep breath and the king opened his eyes. “Okay, to be fair, I guess that I would have jumped to conclusions if I heard this earlier. Yet, what’s so disheartening about all of this is that I’m being left out. Yes, I know what it was like when I was his age, but I want to play a role so that he would have a guide that’s been through this.”
“I’m sorry,” Sekto said.
His father sighed as he called for his son to come to sit with him. He did so as Thorax hugged him. “Just so you know, that what I saw tonight amazed me. You are a whole lot braver than I was at your age.”
“Really?”
The king nodded. “When I realized that I had a leaning towards males, I was scared of telling anyling. Even your uncle for a time. Back then this fear I had was so strong that I forbid myself to have crushes. It was poisonous to my mental health, as at one time I was convinced that no one would really love me. No one should go through life like that. Least of all you or any of you little guys. Sekto, I know what happened tonight didn’t go as you planned. And not every guy you meet would have the same kind of attraction that you feel. I won’t lie to you in saying that it’s difficult. But that shouldn’t mean that it’s hopeless. There are other creatures out there, not just changelings, that can fall in love with those of the same gender. So it’s not impossible.”
He nuzzled him while adding, “Besides, I’ll give you credit that was a brave thing in telling someone that you had a crush on them. Heck, it took me years to do the same with Spike. Now if you want, I can have a talk with Ganymede or his parents for having him running off like that.”
“He’s not in trouble, is he?”
Thorax shook his head, “I wouldn’t say that. But that was rather rude of him to go without telling you that he doesn’t feel the same way. A gentelcolt should just tell you that they’re not interested instead of running away like that.”
“But even so, what do I do now? I can’t just talk to him again for after what just happened.”
“For now, you need to go to bed,” he kissed him on the forehead. “Hearth’s Warming is tomorrow after all so we’ve got ourselves quite the day ahead of us. We’ll deal with this after tomorrow, but right now, you need sleep.”
Once Sekto was out of the room, the king turned to me, with a malicious grin on his muzzle.
“As for you,” he said as he got up and walked over to the chair. “You need to stay right where you are.” His horns lit up as I suddenly found a pair of hoofcuffs locking me to the chair.
“Ooh, bondage tonight?” I smiled nervously, “I must be in real trouble, aren’t I?”
“For the time being,” he smirked. “But I’m sure that there’s a way for you to make up for it, mi amore.”
There was an unanswered question from what had happened from that Hearth’s Warming Eve ball: what was Ganymede’s side of the story? Since we only know from Sekto’s side of the story was that he was able to gain enough courage to say that he has a crush on him, there wasn’t much to go off of what Ganymede thought about all of this. Thorax especially wanted just as many answers for his actions as much as his son to know some explanation about his behavior. After giving some afterthought, the King realized something rather interesting: it wasn’t so much of what he said, but rather, what he didn’t.
He didn’t say “no” to him.
This observation alone made both of us rather curious, but how exactly to approach him without startling him? Thorax had thought about this throughout Hearth’s Warming between the celebrations. What he told me that night was a simple plan, but one that might work given his abilities. So for the remaining chapter, this story has to be told from Thorax’s point of view.
I had indeed given great thought into how to confront Ganymede without intimidating him. As it turns out, it’s very simple. I just have to disguise myself as one of the changelings who set up the potluck lunches on the days that he helps out. A subject named Amethyst that was about a decade younger than I was at the time. Being king has the unique quark of ordering those to take the day off. In this case, the one that I’m going undercover as one of the adults that set all of this up.
A few days later on that afternoon, I slipped into my new form of a light purple Changeling. I even had my voice changed to fit that of Amethyst. With her approval, I went into the grand public hall with a bowl of soup on my back. About an hour before lunch, I came, looking for any sign of the colt.
Sure enough, Ganymede did walk into space, but he looked uneasy as his eyes glanced around, as if he was looking for someone that he didn’t want to run into. Take this as a starting point, I went up to him. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked him. “You seemed rather nervous.”
“Is it that obvious?” He said as turned his head this way and that. “Sorry, it’s just I’m trying to avoid the royal family.”
This got my attention. “Oh? You didn’t do something wrong, did you?”
“What? N-No, of course not… At least I hope not.”
“Hey, calm down,” I patted his back. “What’s gotten you all worked up?”
“Weren’t you at the Hearth’s Warming ball?” I shook my head. “Well… You do know Prince Sekto, right? So to put it simply, he has a crush on me.”
“Really?” I cocked an eyebrow. “What happened?”
He sighed, “Well… at the ball I was just hanging out there, you know. Just talking to my friends, making jokes as we usually do. However, we were getting tired and some of us kind of left by then. However… that was when the Prince came up to me. I mean, at first, I was actually stunned that a guy like he would want to talk to me. Before we almost never talked but I did serve him that crunchy curried grasshoppers beside, ‘Hey there, Your Highness.’ Yet, here he was actually wanting to talk to me. I mean, how cool is that? It’s not every day that you’d get someline so high up to get to know someone like me.”
“Okay? Then what happened?”
“Well, looking back, he seemed rather nervous and asked me if I could dance. But the funny thing is, I don’t have a clue how to. I mean, noling’s ever taught me how. But he told me that if I was up for it, that he could show me through the steps. So I thought, ‘Why not?’ and followed him on the dance floor.
“And I gotta say Amethyst, I was terrible at it. Just horrible. But I wouldn’t let that get me down. I just made jokes about it of how it would be better if I were on stilts. You know, something like that to at least get the Prince a little more relaxed. I mean… he did seem rather tense.”
For a moment, he got quiet. “And…?” I asked.
I noticed a blush on his face as he laid his back against a wall. “That’s… Well, that’s when he told me the real reason why he wanted to see me.” He looked around to see that we were out of earshot. “Can you keep a secret Amethyst?”
“I can, why? What did he tell you?”
“This is going to sound a little weird but… he told me… that he has a crush on me. At first, I thought that it was a joke, but the thing is, he was serious. I could sense that he was honest about what he says and… I just didn’t know how to react.”
“Why? Did you push him?”
“Kinda, but not really. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s not the first time that someling came up to me to say that they have a crush on me. Heck, I have been told that some fillies do because they think I’m cute or something. And I don’t mind it so much because they’re just… you know… girls. But when it’s Prince Sekto? I mean…” he trailed up as he looked up at me. “How am I supposed to react to something like that? They never teach this sort of thing in school or anything. I mean, even if he wasn’t a colt, he is part of the royal family, which is what makes it so scary about it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why? Because Sekto is a prince?”
He shook his head, “It’s more than that! He’s the son of King Thorax, who has a dragon as a consort. And his brother, Pharynx?” He shivered, “You know as well as I that he would snap your neck in two if you so much as look at him wrong.”
After taking down a mental note to have Pharynx to show his gentler side a bit more often, I asked, “So back to the subject, what did you say to Prince Sekto?”
“Nothing really,” he said. “I guess that’s the best way to do it. You just can’t say you don’t like him.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you do, I’m pretty sure that you’d be on the family’s most wanted list. But now I heard that I’ve made him cry… I’m just trying to watch over my back. And besides, I’ve never had a colt say that they… you know… like like me, so I don’t know what to do. I can’t tell my parents about it because I don’t want to get into trouble for upsetting royalty.”
My face softens, “Then how come you didn’t give him a chance?”
He looked at me as if I asked what color was the sky. “Because I’m a little too young to go on dates. I’m fourteen.”
“That’s not what I mean.” I shook my head. “I mean… could you see yourself getting to know a colt like you would a filly?”
“I… I don’t know…” the yellow fellow told me, looking bashful. “This never happened to me before.”
“But just think about it. Would it bother you if you had a colt getting to know you romantically as a filly might?”
He sat there in thought for a minute. “I can’t say if I would or not. For me, I kinda see it like I would with any other of my friends who are colts. That, and might be easier to talk to.”
“Even if it’s Sekto?”
His ears folded back, “If I just get the chance to apologize, that I didn’t mean to make him cry. What do you think I should do, Amethyst?”
“Well,” I put a hoof on his back. “I can tell you that Sekto isn’t mad at you.”
Ganymede looked up at me with a quizzical look. “And how would you know?”
“Simply because,” at this point, I dropped my disguise as I busted into green flames, leaving my true form behind. “My son and I had discussed this not too long ago.”
“Y-Your Majesty!” the poor little guy was so stricken with surprise that he froze there, unable to do anything.
“Calm down,” I said, patting him on the back. “You’re not in any sort trouble. Believe me, if you were, we’d have a completely different conversation. Look, I’m sorry for the deception, but I figured that in your case that it was the best way to get a straight answer from you. Now, with that being said, I want you to know that Sekto is doing fine.”
He gulped, “You’re not going to have me go out with him, are you.” Then realizing what he said, he quickly added. “N-Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean, anyone here would be lucky to be a friend to your kids.”
“To answer your question: no. I’m not, and nor can I do that, even if I wanted to. I may be a king, but it’s not my place to tell everyone who they should or should not have feelings for. Or lack thereof.”
Ganymede gave a guilty look, “He just caught me off guard, okay? I mean, I’d be thrilled to have him as a friend. But the whole crush thing just threw me for a loop.”
“I understand,” I nodded. “Sekto does like you. After I sat him down, he told me that he’s an admirer of yours for some time. While he is figuring out what he likes as he is growing up, you have taught him an important, if not painful lesson that needs to be learned.”
“Which is?”
“That sometimes, while you might feel an attraction towards someone, you’d have to accept the fact that the other might not feel the same way. But that shouldn’t stop you from looking for those who have the same qualities that you’d admire, to begin with.”
“Your Highness, that’s what I don’t quite understand. Why does he like me of all Changelings? What’s so special about me that I’ve caught the attention of a Prince?”
I couldn’t help but smile as I explained, “Well, he admires your optimism, your sense of humor, positivity, and your social skills. He sees you as a good fella that would want to get to know better.”
“He does?” he blinks.
“Yep. In fact, if you want to, you are more than welcome to just be his friend. Sekto has been starting to think if he’s too good to deserve something like friendship from you.”
The yellow colt’s jaw dropped, “Prince Sekto holds me in that high in regard.”
“Well, he did have a crush on you,” I smirked.
Ganymede thought for a moment, “But wouldn’t it be awkward? I mean I did hurt the poor guy’s feelings after all.”
“He forgives you. So you two can still start over, even if it’s just on a friendship level.”
“Yeah… I’ll have to think about it.”
As he got back up, a thought came to my head, “Just out of curiosity,” I said. “Your name is unique to me. Do you know much about it?”
He shrugged, “All I know is that my parents named me after the true name of a constellation… uh… Aquarius, I think.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed before falling into a fit of chuckles. Ganymede, with a puzzled look, asked me why I was laughing. “Forgive me,” I said. “It’s just that considering the legend behind Aquarius, the water bearer, I couldn’t help but find the irony in all of this.”
“I don’t understand.”
So I began to explain to him of an ancient Pegasi myth. That before the Timbucktu Wars, there was once a shepherd who lived near the great city in which he was considered one of the most beautiful of all the mortals. So much so, that even the King of the Gods: Zeus was in love with him to the point where he would transform himself into a falcon, just so that he could fly down to get a closer look. One day, he was overcome with so much affection for the stallion that he flew down and took him to the home of the gods to be his lover and official water bearer at their banquets. Zeus’s wife was no doubt enraged at the arrangement with such heated jealousy. But to the other gods, just being in Ganymede’s presence filled them with joy.
When the gods ate, Ganymede was there with a jug to fill up their cups. But whenever he got around to Zeus, he kisses the lip of his cup before passing it back to the God of Lightning. While his wife was furious, he freely admitted that he liked his kisses. Consumed with rage that she couldn’t do anything against Ganymede himself, she decided that she would act her vengeance upon his kind in which that they would be destroyed. But as for Ganymede, Zeus granted him eternal youth, immortality, and have him live among the stars as Aquarius, the water bearer.
Once I was able to explain the legend to the colt, only did I notice the embarrassed blush on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah… I just didn’t know that about my own name.”
I patted his head, “I think it’s a wonderful name. Now let me help you guys set up lunch.”
He nodded as we returned setting the table up, “Um…” he spoken up at last. “Do you think I could… you know… hang out with Prince Sekto sometime?”
Of course, there were times with me in which I do leave the hive from time to time to visit some ponies to see how they were doing. Not only for the sake of Guy’s Night but to see family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a long while. Twilight tends to be at the top of my list along with her parents, her brother, and Cadence. Not to mention checking up on my friends to see how they’re doing from Fluttershy with her sanctuary, Rarity with her business, Pinkie taking up as a baking guru, and even Rainbow along with Applejack taking up teaching as a side job.
There are many others in which I could name, but there is a couple that I have been neglecting in this book for far too long. And that was the ones that gave me a sort of writing career. Of course, I am talking about Prince Blueblood and Fancy Pants.
It started after I flew over to Canterlot because I was given an invitation from them. The occasion was that of Fancy’s retirement party as he was over the age of sixty and had announced that he was stepping down from his life of being the city’s cultural critic. The party took place at his and his spouse’s residence at a newly constructed home that was built right into the side of a mountain.
I landed on the balcony to their front entrance which was a huge series of windows that all looked out over the city and to Equestria. Apparently, the architect took inspiration of the mystical place of Petra, the city built into the sides of a cliff in which it was carved in the traditional Pegasi style. The garnet rock was chiseled out to form a façade of columns, gables, balconies, and arches that had the addition of windows and golden trimmed plating in certain areas. Unsurprisingly, there were ponies about on the Titanic front porch, including some of the Canterlot elite, some guards, and Fancy himself.
“I’m so glad you can make it, old sport,” he greeted me. I know that it has been a while since I last saw him, but even so, it took me a while to realize that it was him. After all, his mane was growing streaks of gray from his usual blue mane and mustache. He had at this point traded in his monocle for bifocals that balanced on his snout. His face showed unmistakable signs of age as his once smoothed face had given way to wrinkles. Yet, his suit was still sharp as ever.
Reaching a claw over to him, I told him, “Well I needed an excuse to come see you guys. It’s been forever since I last saw either of you at our Guy’s Night. You still playing the piano?”
He nodded, “I’m thinking of spending my retirement to the piano. Sure, it was more of a side career, but now that my skills have improved, I figured that I want to dedicate to it more often.”
“And how’s Princy?”
“More or less like how you last saw him. He’s in his forties and I still can’t figure out how he does it. He’s still his handsome self as he was when we first married.”
“Really? How so?”
“That’s no secret,” he chuckled. “He doesn’t have a secret painting that ages for him, that’s for sure. No, he has his diet, creams and our walks that help him out. But other than that, I am planning on teaching him how to play as well.”
“Isn’t he a bit too old for the piano?”
Fancy chuckled, “There’s no such thing as being too old to learn a skill. Now come on in! We’re having lunch now.”
Inside this classical façade was something that even to this day has wowed me from the sheer architecture. Pass through the glass doors wasn’t like a cave that I had expected. Rather, the inside had layers of terraces, where it had flying arches that connected it with the stone façade that it was merely a wall surrounded by glass. Thereby letting in natural light into the interior. This palace was mostly carved from the mountain, and yet, it had some open rooms that faced out towards the light with staircases that too seem to fly up from one floor to the next. All of which, still kept true to the Pegasi architecture in its decoration. There were carved columns, fountains on the ground floor, and even the walls were painted in bright murals that gave the optical illusion of walking into a garden. Of course, even in this place, there were hints of the modern such as the grand piano that sat in the middle of this theater-like setting.
“Sir Spike? Is that you?” I looked up to the second floor toward the one that called me out. It was Prince Blueblood, still looking the same and not a wrinkle on him. “Long time no see, how are you?”
Flying up to him, I told him that I was doing fine and just wanted to see how they were. For the Prince, he was relieved that the construction of their new residence was finished on time for this occasion. “I had this place build for Fancy, more than anything.” He told me as he waved over for a waiter to bring a glass of champagne over. “Call it a literal labor of love, but this home is for him.”
“For his retirement?”
He shook his head, “More than that,” Blueblood said after handing me a glass. “This place has been a pet-project for just as we wanted to move out of that dusty mansion. However, given Fancy’s age, this became a place in which he could spend his golden years in peace. Doing the very things that he wanted to do, such as give me more music lessons.”
“I must say, this place is gorgeous,” after gulping down the glass in one go, the prince asked me how Thorax was doing. “He’s been keeping himself busy with all that’s been going on. In fact, he’s in Neighpon with negotiations, which is why he’s not able to come. But other than that, things have been interesting with the family considering what happened back in December.”
“Why? What happened?”
“You know Prince Sekto, right?”
He shrugged, “Only a little.”
“Well, he just came out as gay.”
“Really?” He looked up at me in surprise. “When did this happened?”
So I ended up telling him about him coming to me for advice about his crush and letting him figure out who he was. I also told him about what happened at the Hearth’s Warming Eve ball, and Thorax confronting Ganymede a few days later. Blueblood listened as I explained that Sekto’s crush has started to hang out with the children more often.
“He’s lucky,” he commented. “I mean, to have someone like King Thorax to help him out at such a young age. At least it wasn’t as awkward as… you know.”
“Yeah…” I blushed, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Not as awkward as what?” The two of us nearly jumped when Fancy poked into the conversation. “Sorry for popping in like this, but I only caught a bit of what you were saying.” He looked at our embarrassed blushes. “Is there something that I should know?”
“It’s a long story, My King,” Blueblood bashfully said.
“Ooh, I love stories,” Fancy grinned. “Come over to the living room, with such red on your cheeks it must be worth hearing. And Spike,” he patted my arm. “It’s so good to have you drop by. It’s been forever since we’ve seen each other.”
As confused as I was, I at first passed that off as thinking that there were a lot of ponies around, so he might have forgotten. However, when I looked over at the blond unicorn, I asked him regarding the coming out story: “You mean you haven’t told him?”
“I have,” he muttered. “Look, I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that it’s a reason why he’s retiring.”
So Fancy lead us to a room in which there were lounge chairs and a pond in the center in which there were floating trays of berries and glasses of champagne. The older unicorn bids us explain what we were talking about. “Do you remember when I came out with my orientation?” Blueblood asked his husband.
“I do remember reading it in the newspaper once.”
“And do you recall as to why I came out?”
Fancy put a hoof to his chin in thought. “Vaguely. All I know that Spike had something to do with it.”
“Didn’t I tell you at the wedding what happened?” I asked.
“Can’t remember, mind retelling what had happened? I can’t recall as much as I used to.”
From the corner of my eye, there was a flash of a cringe on Blueblood’s face.
So, both of us retold Fancy the story of what happened that night at the Gala. Of how his two newly appointed guards had enough of his unfair treatment in which they plotted to embarrassed him with Love Poison to have him fall in love with the first one he saw. We told him of how Blueblood tried to woo me despite how much it creeped me out. Even to the point when he dragged me into his secret nerd cave and tricked me into accepting a marriage proposal by him speaking in Prench.
Of course, he laughed as the story progressed. Especially at the very end in which I told him the punishment for the guards that they downed some love poison while they were in the same room together. “Bloody brilliant!” Fancy chortled, “Now that’s some poetic justice right there. Although, it does make me rather curious. Whatever did happen to those two anyway?”
“That’s a good question,” I turned over to Blueblood. “What became of Cloak and Dagger?”
The blond unicorn hummed in thought, “If I recall correctly, I do know that they were court-martialed for that stunt. Had got themselves demoted too. Yet, neither of them seemed to mind. In fact, I think they might have dated at one point, but I can’t say for sure. You have to ask Auntie Celestia about that.”
“Is it almost lunch time?” Fancy inquired as he pulled out his pocket watch. “Bluey, how about I treat our guest to a short song before we dine?”
“That would be grand, are you prepared to play that new piece?”
He chuckled as he got up, “It’s not that I’ve forgotten it.” Fancy commented as he trotted towards the ground floor where the piano was. As we too got up to watch him, I noticed that Blueblood’s expression had fallen a little.
“Is something wrong Blueblood?” I asked.
“Did you notice?” He inquired but I told him that I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “Truth be told, that story we told, that’s the third time this week I had to tell him that.”
He didn’t answer right away as Fancy had gone up to the instrument that was between the fountains, hopping before the row of keys before he begun to play a cascade of notes that echoed in the space with majestic chords. Yet, from Blueblood’s expression, he looked on with melancholy. So, I asked him again what was bothering him.
Sighing, he confessed, “The sad truth is that he’s retiring because he’s slowly losing his memory.”
I was stunned, “You mean… Alzheimer’s?”
The prince nodded, “Don’t get me wrong, he can still remember who I am and can play all kinds of pieces by heart. But I’ve noticed that he’s very slowly but surely forgetting names, places, and events. He’s still him, however, I’m afraid of the future for us. I mean…” He paused to hear the heartbreakingly beautiful melody that was coming from the piano. “What if one day we wake up and he has no idea who I am? Nor all those times we spent together? That no matter how many times I try to repeat or remind him, he’ll forget all about it in a matter of minutes.”
“Oh, Celestia… Blue I had no idea.”
“Neither does the public… at least not yet. I wish that he had left a journal behind so that it might help him remind him when the time comes.”
“Why? Don’t you guys have something like… a photo album?”
He shook his head, “They won’t help. After all, they hold pictures but they’re useless if they don’t have some context behind them.”
As I too listened to that ghostly melody, I pondered over on how I could help. Of course, there wasn’t much that I could do for either… Except… a thought came to me. One that was maddeningly unhelpful, but it was indeed something that was possible. And yet, extremely difficult to do.
“Suppose,” I began. “Theoretically of course, that I might write it all down?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean… what if, (and this is a big, fat what if) that I took the time to put your guy’s memories on paper? Like writing out about the time at the Gala with the Love Poison for example? That way, you guys can read it as often as you want.”
“Would you? I mean, can you actually do that?”
That was a question that gave me pause. I mean sure, I had helped Twilight write letters to Celestia when I was a kid as well as parts of the famous Friendship Journal. And not to mention that I used my imagination to its fullest for our role-playing games. But to write a story that recreates real events? The amount of research, interviews and even guesswork to fill in the gaps is immense alone. However, to weave together a coherent story that doesn’t mess up the dialogue, characterization, or even just the grammar – all of which I could easily mess up?
Do I even dare?
Looking over to Fancy who was enjoying himself at the keyboard and considering what I have learned, I told Blueblood. “I can’t promise that it’ll be good.”
“It doesn’t have to be good. Just true.” He told me, “Spike, I will pay you with anything you want, but for Fancy’s sake, I want you to write our story.”
Indeed, I had thought about this favor for days. Even when I returned home, I had to examine myself if I’m even qualified for such a thing. Even if I took up such a challenge, how could I tackle it? How would I know if I get any details wrong? Would I end up writing a good story for an audience that one of which is slowly losing his memory? Would there be any point in writing this out at all?
These were only a sample of questions that buzzed around my head. Doubts and counter doubts rang in my thoughts like a complicated choir piece as I went on with my daily life. After all, I know the seriousness of such a task was, but at the time, I was unsure of myself.
Such feelings didn’t go unnoticed from Thorax. After we returned to the hive and we’ve decided to go flying, he asked me, “Is something wrong Spike? I can feel the worry from over here.”
“In a way,” I said as I indicated for him to go downwards to a clearing from the forest below. We landed, and I asked him, “Has anyone come up to you to ask you to do something that you were unsure if you could pull it off?”
He tilted his head, “You mean aside from being chosen to become king?”
“Oh… oh yeah,” I blushed in embarrassment. “I’ve completely forgotten about that.”
“What’s this about?”
Sitting on a rock, I told him how that I went to visit Blueblood and Fancy a while back. How that I’ve learned the real reason why Fancy was retiring, and his husband had asked me to possibly write down the night that I realized that I was bisexual. “But do you think that I could do it?” I asked him. “I never have done anything like this before. And besides, what would be the point of doing it if Fancy is going to forget it all by the time they’ve reached the end?”
“Spike,” the Changeling King sat down next to me, putting a foreleg around me. “As wise as you can be, I think that even you need to be reminded of your own lessons that have benefited me.”
“Like what?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s that anyone can do the hard thing. What I mean is that when we first met, I was afraid that anyone that wasn’t a changeling would only see me nothing more as a monster.” In a green flash, he reverted back to the form that I had known him. Short, with black chitin, fangs, blue eyes, and a sad expression. “For a long time, I thought that I had to disguise myself so that I would be acceptable. But you helped others to see the real me underneath – and for me to do the same.” He transformed back into his form. “And once I became king, I was scared stiff that I wouldn’t do a good enough job. Like you, I had so many doubts about myself and my abilities as a ruler since I never was one to lead. However, I did learn how by putting it into practice to see what worked and what didn’t. I’ve learned how to make compromises when doing so was the most difficult. Even to this day, it’s still extremely difficult. But thanks to you, difficult doesn’t always mean impossible.”
“So do you think you that I can write that story?”
He shook his head, “Think? No. But do I know that you can? Absolutely. I’ve seen how your mind works when it comes to telling stories to the kids. You may not see it, but you are a natural storyteller.”
“But how do I tell something like that?”
Thorax thought it over for a moment. “That’s simple, begin at the beginning, go on until you get to the end, then stop.”
“No, I mean, how exactly do I write a story in which Blueblood’s guards gave him Love Poison?”
“Oh…” Thorax admitted, “I don’t really know. Maybe you should write it like how you want to read a story. Like… maybe give the guards who slipped the stuff in his drink the reason why they did it or something.”
I had to admit, this was an interesting idea. One in which that now I had to slap myself for not ever thought of it.
“Still, you haven’t answered my last question,” I pointed it out. “What would be the point of writing if Fancy is going to end up forgetting it?”
“Whoever said that it only has to be for him?” He took flight once more, but I was rather bewildered what he meant by that. Take off too, I got close enough to repeat my question. “I mean, why not publish the story for others to both enjoy and learn from?”
“Whoa! Hold on,” I interjected. “I’ve been saying that I have doubt about writing the thing, and you want me to publish it?”
“To be fair, it wouldn’t be the only book you’ve written in which it became quite successful.”
That shut me up. Thorax did have a point. Considering that I was practically the ghostwriter for a book that threw Princess Twilight and her friends into the spotlight. However, most of the time that was just me taking dictation from her.
On the other claw…
“And I think it would be especially good for Sekto,” the Changeling King added. “After all, we don’t have too many coming out stories in our library. It would give him and, perhaps, many others like him a different perspective.”
“What? With the whole Gala incident?”
“No, well that, and also about Blueblood’s and Fancy’s relationship. Just telling it, maybe not what it was like in its entirety, but just give moments to describe in order to share the spirit of how those two managed to stick together for so long.”
Now that was another idea that I hadn’t considered. Moments. Telling a story by a series of moments that would lay out that these ponies were like. To not only give the readers but even for Sekto to look at what made this relationship work might serve as a sort of guideline for him. Not only just for him but for those who had no idea how these relationships worked. Maybe it would be best not just to write about my and Blueblood’s experience at the Gala, but maybe further than that.
“It’s a thought,” I confessed. “Perhaps I could just give it a try. But I think I need to track down a few ponies if I’m going to pull this off.”
“Really? Who?”
“Tell me, have you ever heard of the former guard’s Cloak and Dagger?”
To be honest, the most difficult part of writing the short story was trying to track down Cloak and Dagger. I had to dust off my old detective skills to track down whatever happened to those two. After asking Celestia about them, she recalls that the last time she’d seen either of the stallions when after they’ve been honorably discharged from the guard. But at the same time, she vaguely recalls them saying something about Fillydelphia. So going over there, it was like trying to find a diamond in a mountain.
If anything, I wasn’t exactly sure if I would even find them, or if they were even alive at that point. Nopony in the Royal Family nor the Guard has heard of these two in years. Or even if they’ve gone to Fillydelphia at all. However, since I grew up with Twilight, the Princess of not only of Friendship but of knowledge, I have learned how to find nearly anything out. If it’s a piece of information that is about real, living ponies – go to the town’s city hall towards the room where it kept its recent census records.
I have spent hours combing through names and cross-references the ages to see if I got the right ponies. From that, I compiled a list of the most likely and thin it down to see if any of them had served in the Guard. Unsurprisingly, it was really difficult to work, but in the end, I had found it! From what I could find, there was indeed a Silver Cloak that’s currently alive. And he lived in a retirement home that was close to the sea.
So the last thing for me to do was to go over to the place and ask the staff if the stallion that I was looking for was there. Fortunately, he was, and I was given permission to interview him. I came in with a tape recorder and a notepad full of questions about that night. They lead me to a patio that that was next to a shady garden with rocking chairs underneath the trees. And there underneath one of them, was a stallion that I hadn’t seen in years, now old. The unicorn gently rocked back and forth as me and one of the staff approached him.
“Uh… Are you Silver Cloak?” I asked him. “Former Corporal Cloak?”
He looked up at me, blinking, “Do I know you?” he asked.
“Know me? Not exactly. But I think you might have seen me before. My name is Sir Spike. Do you remember Prince Blueblood?”
Nearly jolting out of his rocking chair, he exclaimed, “Oh! I remember you! You’re the dragon that got caught in our prank.”
Sighing in relief, I sat down on the grass. “I’m very glad to hear you say that because that’s what I’m here for, to be honest.”
“What? Am I in trouble again?”
“Not at all. I just was hoping if I could do an interview with you, concerning that night at the Gala. I’m trying to put a book together, but I can’t exactly do that without your help.” I looked around the garden before asking, “By-the-way, where’s Steel Dagger?”
He frowned, “He died a couple of years ago. But how did you find me?”
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that. Anyway, I was able to track you down because Celestia heard you guys saying that you wanted to move here and from there it was through a process of eliminating through the census records.”
“That explains it,” he nodded. “And I know what else you’re going to say about Dagger, but I’m not so grief-stricken about it. After all, we did see this coming.”
“Ah. You know, I heard Blueblood say that you two might have dated at some point.”
He waved a hoof, “That was only once. While we both knew that it wouldn’t work out anyway, we still remained friends up to the end.”
“Okay,” I nodded as I looked down at the buttons to get the tape to start recording. “So how much do you remember about the whole gala incident, with me and Blueblood?”
“When you pulled a stunt like that, it’s rather difficult to forget something like that. Even after all these years later.”
Setting the recorder between us, I picked up at my notes. “You know, the first thing I wanted to ask ever since that night, is why did this happen at all? On Blueblood of all ponies?”
He chuckled, “Tell me, son,” Cloak lean forward. “Do you know what the prince was like before he came out?”
I shrugged, “Kinda, but not really. Sure, I practically grew up at Twilight and Celestia’s side, but I didn’t really interact with him all that much as he seemed always so busy doing this or that.”
Cloak laughed, “Then consider yourself lucky that you haven’t. Grant it, Blueblood has changed for the better. But back then in the guard, it was practically considered as a punishment if you were assigned to be his bodyguard.”
“Why? Was he more standoffish back then?”
“Oh, more than that! He was awful. In the week before Dagger and I started plotting, he got upset at us over the slightest mistake. He treated us more like servants- no. No, no that’s not a good description…” He tapped his chin with a hoof. “I would say like used up whores, but that would be insulting to them as well. Get the idea?”
“Okay… like what did he do?”
“For example, on the day that we decided that enough was enough, the Prince had asked us to go into town to get some blue ink. Sounds simple right? However, he wanted us to get a particular shade of ink for some reason and to do so as quickly as possible. We were in such a hurry to get the ink that we didn’t notice the label on the bottom that says what kind it really was. So, by the time we got back to present it to him, he flew into a temper tantrum to the point that he threw the ink in our faces. Then immediately clean the mess up.”
“Wow… I mean, I knew he was bad, but I didn’t think he was-”
“Was a rat bastard?” Cloak interrupted with a chuckle. “Oh yeah, with a guy like him, you can’t expect him to act like that and not have karma come back to bite him on the flank.”
‘This is going to be a fun interview,’ I thought as I looked through my notes.
Ever since I began this story about me and Thorax, I often wondered not just how to tell it, but how to end it. How exactly could I end a story that I have rewrote, reflected, rethink and reexamined for months? I confess that for days, I have asked myself this question and even gone to Thorax for advice.
In the end, as it turns out. There was a way to give an ending to this memoir. And that is by telling one last story.
The time was after my first book was published, and the place was the throne room at Twilight’s castle in Ponyville. As to the occasion: a celebration for having to write and publish a story. Now the reason why it was held there was partly that it gave me a reason to visit Twi and partly because that it won’t take forever for anyone to come. So not only did Thorax, Queen Lavender and the five kids came, not only did Twilight’s friends to show up to congratulate me, not only did Ember drop by to say that she found the short story funny but even the Royal family, including Cadence, showed up.
And there was also one more, critical guest that came that is essential for this particular story: Ganymede. At this point when this occurred, the little guy has been hanging out with the quadruplets for about over a year. Especially with Sekto that after his dad told him that he was more than welcome to be his friend, they’ve been getting to get to know one another more. Despite its awkward start, they did manage to forge a friendship between themselves and the other children. If anything, it was Sekto’s idea to bring Ganymede to our family outings with the permission of his parents of course. This was one of them.
“Congratulations Spike,” this was the first thing I heard from Twilight as soon as she saw me to hug me. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Hey Twi,” I greeted her by hugging her back while looking around the room. “I’m surprised you got this many to come.”
“Well I know how big of a deal this is for such an accomplishment, so I figured that I’d invite some friends to celebrate with.”
“All this for a short story?”
“Well… That, and we just wanted to see how you and Thorax are getting along.”
From there, good ol’ Pinkie Pie, one of Princess Twilight’s friends, kick-started the party. Going around the roundtable, I went up to them to hear from them how they were doing and what was new with them. Much like I have done with my past visits. The Changeling King and Queen did the same as well, speaking with Celestia, Luna, and Cadence while the kids were occupied with their Auntie Twi.
“I can’t thank you enough for doing this for us,” I snapped my attention towards Blueblood’s voice. Looking down and behind me, I found Blueblood and Fancy there as they were reaching up to shake my claw. “That was entertaining to read.”
“Oh, thank you guys,” I said shaking each of their hooves. “Although, to be honest Blue, I’m relieved that you liked it.”
“I just have to ask,” he held up a copy of the story. “How exactly did you write the dialogue? Even I can’t exactly remember everything that I said all those years ago.”
“Truth be told, I didn’t. Since I want to make it flow like a story, I had to get what everypony’s character was like, so I could try to imagine what I would say in their horseshoes. That, and everyone’s interviews helped me construct what everyone did, so I may construct what we’ve might have said that night.”
“What happened on, what night?” Fancy asked in confusion.
“That night at the gala,” I explained. “That I wrote in that little book.”
“Oh! I didn’t know you wrote a book,” he exclaimed. “When did this happened?”
“I just recently published it.”
“Well, I ought to get my hooves on a copy then.”
“We can do that later,” Blueblood told his husband. “But for now, let’s just celebrate Spike’s party. To wish him well with his new writing career.”
“Uh, excuse me,” Thorax popped in. His face anxious as he looked towards my direction. “Spike, can you come with me right now?”
I blinked, “Why? Is something wrong?”
“Just come with me, and hurry,” he said with urgency. “I think you need to see this.”
After excusing myself, I followed the Changeling King out of the throne room. “What’s going on?”
“Something I think you need to see,” he said with a mixture of glee and pride.
“Okay, but where are we going?”
“Upstairs, that’s where they’ve gone to.”
Of course, I was perplexed as to his meaning as I followed him to the second floor to which we heard voices of Sekto and Ganymede. At first, I tried to ask him was this was about, but he shushed me and instructed me to remain quiet. We approached one of the bedrooms of the castle that the door was ajar. While we didn’t see them, their voices were clear.
“…. I still don’t see what this is about,” Sekto said. “Yeah, I remember the ball when I told you. Why do you ask?”
“That’s not what I’m asking. Rather do you remember my reasons for running out on you like that?”
“Mmm… Kinda. Dad said something about you weren’t sure how to deal with it since you never had a guy come up to you to say that they have a crush on ya. Well, I still stand by in saying that I’m not mad at you doing that. To be fair, I would have done the same if I were in your horseshoes.”
“But…” Ganymede sighed. “That’s just the thing Sek. At the time, it was rather confusing, if not outright intimidating to have a Prince say that they like me in that way. After all, before I didn’t know you all that much while us kids put the five of you on a pedestal because of who you’re related to. However, it’s the funniest thing that, once I was able to get to know you guys, you’re all just like us.”
“Okay, where are you going with this?” Sekto asked inquisitively. “Ganymede, I’ve been sense some mixed feelings from you to the point that I can’t exactly read from you.” There was a pause. “Unless…”
“I’m not saying that it is.” Ganymede quickly said. “But the more that I have been thinking of it, I start to wonder if it might be possible that I might be developing such feelings. Only… Look I don’t know how to go around asking about this sort of thing. To give it a try, but I just don’t know how to ask it.”
“Here,” Sekto said rather cheerfully. “Let me show you how.” Clearing his throat, he told him, “Ganymede, repeat after me.”
“Uh… okay?”
“Sekto, I think I might like you more than just a friend.” There was a hesitation in the room as I immediately realized what was happening. Ganymede did repeat word for word what his friend said. “Now while I might not have tried anything like this before, I was wondering if you would like to be my…” Sekto cleared his throat, as he if he too was hesitant in filling that word that he had thought was out of reach. Yet, he did say the word, “…. Coltfriend?”
Silence.
“Y-You serious?” Ganymede asked. “Even after what I did at the ball?”
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“Well… Just to give it a trial date thing to see if this would work out or not. If that’s okay with you.”
“Hey Ganymede,” we then heard the unmistakable sound of lips kissing chitin.
“Did… Did you just-”
“Yep. And to answer your question. I would like to sometime after this week, for obvious reasons.”
Both of them laughed, I looked down at Thorax. One that I have never seen so much pride in one place for his son. Then it clicked for me, “This is your doing, isn’t it?” I whispered.
“Maybe…” he smirked before speaking up, “Sekto? Are you around?” There was a flutter of hoofsteps as the door was swung open, his son looked up at him. “There you are, we were wondering where you guys were. Pinkie is going to be bringing out the cake soon.”
“We know, Your Majesty,” Ganymede replied. “He was just showing me around the castle since I haven’t been here before. But we’ll go downstairs right now.” With that, the yellow Changeling slipped passed us and headed towards the staircase.
“Hey, Sekto,” Thorax stopped his son as he craned down his neck to nuzzle him. “I’m proud of you.”
“How did you know that he would agree to it?”
With a smile, the King looked over to me, “We have been through this sort of thing before. I know that it can be scary at first when everything is uncertain. But taking that first step is the key. Now how about we go back to the party?”
On our way down, I drew Thorax close as I wrapped an arm around his neck, kissing his cheek. Yes, I could say that I was proud myself.
Epilogue
Laying on his bed, Thorax flipped placed the last page of the manuscript aside. “You know,” he said. “I kind of wish you wrote more of the other children than just Sekto.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I replied. “Yes, I know. But do keep in mind that this is a birthday gift for him. Considering that his relationship with Ganymede is still going on. Although to be honest, I do wish it was a little more interesting like the last book I wrote.”
“Oh don’t be too harsh on yourself,” he kissed me on the cheek. “I love it.”
“That’s because I wrote you in a favorable light.”
“More like flattering, but yes, that too,” he chuckled. “So are you glad that you’ve finally finished this?”
“I can’t help but feel that something is missing,” I confessed. “Like there should be one more thing before I draw it to a close.”
“Like what?”
“I mean… I ended the book when the kids were around 14, but things have happened since then now that Sek is turning 18.”
“Spike, my knight in scaly armor,” he pushed me over onto my back. “You are overthinking it. After all, you wrote for him about how our relationship functioned and to immortalized him as well.”
“But you wrote a few chapters of it.”
He shrugged. “Sure, but that’s not the point.”
“Then what is?”
“Just remember that you wrote a unique love story. One that isn’t the typical romance that you would buy a few bits a pop, but one that was honest, yet poetic in a way.”
“I just hope that he’ll like it by the time it gets published.”
The King of Love nuzzled at my chest. “And I’m sure he will. What you got here is good. So I approve.” Looking up at me with his lilac eyes, he asked, “One more question though, are you planning on writing anything else?”
“Who knows.” I patted his head. “Maybe I would if I’m compelled to do so. But as of right now, I just want to rest my claw from all the writing. Of course, now I just have to face Twilight’s editing to see how much of it gets torn to bits.”
“She will not,” he giggled.
“Have you seen the amount of red ink she used for the last one?”
Thorax silences me with a kiss. “I know that this is sudden,” he said, “But since Lavender is away, would you bid you stay with me for the night? It’s been too long since we last done this.”
I reached up to caress his face with a claw. “If it’s not too inconvenient for His Majesty.”
The King smiled sweetly. “It is convenient for me, my Knight.”
