Spike was sleeping in the large underground cavern that the Elements had made for him. He was the official Castle Guardian, of course that had been in his youth, but nowadays he usually stayed inside. He had arthritis, and on some occasions his legs would give out and he'd crush parts of the huge city that had once been Ponyville. To avoid large lawsuits he had been confined to the cave.
Of course his friends still visited him every day, and they all made sure he went for picnics and walks with them. They just had to be there with him so Twilight and Rarity could catch him and make sure no harm came to the town or most importantly him. It was one such day that Fluttershy came to visit him.
Time had definetly not been kind on the old dragon, "Oh, is that you, Rainbow?" Spike asked with a weak smile.
"No, it's me, Spike." Fluttershy sweetly corrected him
"Pinkie? I don't remember you having wings."
"No, Spike. It's me, Fluttershy." She said as she tapped his scales, checking for loose ones.
"Fluttershy?" Spike's slow mind struggled to recall the name. After a small period of time the name clicked in his head, "OH! I'm sorry Fluttershy, how long's it been? A year? Two?"
"I was here last week Spike, " Fluttershy said sweetly, having gotten used to working with Spike's dwindling memory. "How are you today?"
"Oh.....I'm fine, how are you Rainbow?" Spike asked genuinely.
Fluttershy sighed, "That was even faster than last week." She flew up, and using a magic washcloth, went from scale to scale, polishing them one at a time. By the time she was done and had gotten back into Spike's line of sight he said something that caught her completely off guard.
"So how's Starlight doing?" he said in a merry tone.
Fluttershy froze, a tear formed in her eye, but she quickly wiped it out and turned back around to Spike with a smile. "Oh, she's doing fine." She lied, "I'm sure she'll be coming back from the hospital any day now." she turned to finish Spikes cleaning when he continued.
"How's Fluttershy?" he asked causing her to freeze, "It's been awhile since I've seen her, though she does have a lot of animals to care for, but I'm sure she'll come see me sometime." he happily babbled unaware of the tears slowly pouring on his hand. After a few minutes of organizing herself, she flew out of his view and did the back of his neck. A few minutes later she finished and was about to visit the chefs to grab one of Spikes' specially made meals when he saw her and jollily eclaimed.
"Oh! Fluttershy you've come to visit me!"
She froze and turned to him, "You.....you......you recognized me."
"How could I not recognize you?" he said happily "How ha...." he cut off when he saw her crying, "oh are you alright?"
"You recognized me?" she said through tears, "You haven't recognized me in years." she sobbed as she hugged his claw. Spike stared blankly at her for a while, trying to figure out why a pony was crying on him.
Spike was sleeping, as that was how he spent most of his time, when he was awoken by the sound of a cannon. He opened his eyes and saw before him a small party with Pinkie Pie next to it.
"Happy Birthday Spike!" Pinkie yelled, even though she knew it was not his birthday, Spike didn't.
A grin showed across his face, "Is it my birthday? Wow, I forgot. Guess I've lost track of time." Pinkie put a record on and gave Spike a cup of punch in a magically enlarged cup, with an added anti-spill spell so Spike could drink from it with his shaky hands. While Pinkie got Spike a piece of cake, Spike looked around expectantly
"Are you looking for presents?" Pinkie asked, she didn't have one, only because Spike would forget what he was doing by the time he had unwrapped it.
"Oh no, I'm just waiting to see who's coming, or is this one of those parties where you take me to it?" He asked excitedly, after he ate his cake he continued looking around (after being reminded by Pinkie several time's what was going on) he finally asked her "Did you invite Shining? I think I missed his last birthday and I'm afraid he might be miffed at me." Spike said to a Pinkie who's mane had gone flat. Spike had indeed missed Shining Armor's last birthday party before he had died. It had been something he had regretted, as it would have been the last time he could have seen him, instead he got to see him again in a casket.
"Oh! I know, I'll give him his present!" Spike said suddenly, snapping Pinkie out of her thoughts, he attempted to get up, but failed. He instead pointed to the giant dresser he never used. "Could you grab it for me Pinkie? I think it's still in there. I asked Twilight to put a spell on it so it would stay safe...I....why did I ask her to do that?" he pondered as Pinkie went to the dresser and opened the pony sized door, or at least she tried to, the door crumbled to dust at her touch.
"Wow, has it really been that long?" She asked as she walked in and looked around. Almost everything in the dresser was gone, worn away from thousands of years without physical interaction. Yet, among the dust was a small, nicely wrapped box. Pinkie picked it up and read the attached little tag.
To: Shining
From: Your little Bro, Spike. Happy 83 birthday!
Pinkie, unable to resist the temptation, opened the box and found a little framed picture of a young Shining Armor and Spike. Next to the picture was a handmade card that read, Look what I found! We used to be so young. Lots of love, Spike.
Pinkie wiped her eyes and left the dresser to find Spike had fallen asleep again. Pinkie walked over and patted his snout. "Happy 6,756th birthday Spike" she whispered before she took the box to Twilight.
Spike reminisced over the pictures in the small book in front of him. He and Applejack were looking through it. Applejack was laying on his hand as she tried to show him the pictures in the book that to him looked more like smudges than pictures, and after looking at the pictures on the page
"Is that Big Mac? He asked, squinting to see the small smudges before him.
"No, that's a picture of Granny Smith."
"Oh....is that one Big Mac?"
"No that's one of baby me."
"How about....that one."
"That's a picture of Bloomberg," Applejack said with a chuckle, followed by a sigh "They’re all gone now."
"Oh? Where did they go?" Spike asked.
"A.....a better place," Applejack said.
"Can we go visit them some time?"
"Well.... the other girls and ah can't go there, we....we’re not allowed." She said.
After a while, Spike looked at Applejack, "Can I go there someday? I'd like to visit them, I feel like I haven't seen them in a while."
Applejack sighed, "One day....one day ya’ll get to go there, but when ya do go, you.....you won't be able to come back either."
"Oh," Spike replied and after a short silence he looked at Applejack with eyes that seemed to be glowing. His eyes seemed brighter than they had earlier, eyes she hadn't seen like that for years. "You're telling me they all died aren't you?" Spike asked as he looked at her.
Applejack wasn’t one to lie so she laid it out for him, "You were there, you attended the funerals of so many, but your so old Spike, your memory is failing you, half the time you don't even recognize us, and when you do, you never remember talking to us afterward." Applejack sighed and gazed sadly at Spike who tilted his head a bit.
"How long have I been in the cave?"
"It's.....it’s been a very long time. Most ponies nowadays don't even believe you exist, most just think yer a myth." Applejack sighed once more waiting for his response but it was too late, the light in his eyes was dead and after looking at her for a moment he smiled.
"Oh, hello Applejack. How have you been?"
Applejack sighed but smiled, "Oh I'm fine Spike I've just brought this here book with me so we can look back on old times." And so Applejack flipped back to the beginning of the book and began again, "This is a picture of Trixie and Starlight flying kites, and here's a picture of me and Bigmac...." This went on for hours, but Applejack never got far, as Spike would always forget what they were doing.
Rainbow was doing the one thing with Spike that he was still able to do, taking a load off and laying on his warm back while he slept. Throughout all the years she had distanced herself from most others, not wanting to have to go through what she had to go through when her family and Scottaloo had left her. Even through all that, Rainbow still held a soft spot for the old Dragon. For a while when he was much younger, there had been a small base on his back. Where once he carried many into battle, now he could barely carry his own head. The years, and the battles they had been through had left him much too old and fragile to do much of anything but keep things warm. Nowadays, even that was starting to become too much for the old lizard.
Rainbow looked around the cave, "How long have you been stuck in here?" She asked the sleeping dragon in a whisper "Two? Three thousand years? And how much longer are you gonna stay? What will happen when you.....NO!" She blurted with a sudden tone shift, "I refuse to think of that, even when.....it finally happens to you. I'll make sure nopony in all of Equestria will ever forget what you have done for this world. Even the littlest thing will be remembered." Rainbow looked at him and sighed "When the dreaded time comes for you to live on in eternal peace, I...no WE will make sure you live on here! Even after all these centuries, we've kept all our friends in our memories, we refuse to forget them! because....because they don't truly leave us until we forget about them!" Rainbow looked down and flinched, during her speech to the sleeping dragon he had awoken and was looking at her. She expected him to say something senile or maybe dopey, what he actually said was nothing even close.
"It’s good to know when I finally pass from this world, I'll still be here, even if it’s only in your heart. It's a nice thing to think when my soon to pass time ends. *yawn* Thanks Rainbow." With his bit said, Spike closed his eyes and fell back to sleep. Rainbow was confused as all hell, but once what he said had fully processed, a look of fear flashed in her eye.
"Wait, soon to pass!?" she leapt off his back and did the only thing she knew about testing a dragons’ health, she flew down, and started a small fire.
Twilight had learned and passed some very specific knowledge on to Rainbow and the others. Twilight found that you could figure out a dragons’ health by simply lighting a fire, and placing it on its back. A dragons’ internal fire, if strong and full of heat, would only absorb a little of it at a time and the flame would slowly die. However if the fire was weak, then it would leech all the heat at once.
Rainbow lit a torch and touched it to Spike’s back. Just as it made contact, it went out. There was a moment of silence. "TWILIGHT!!!" She screamed as she flew out of Spike’s cavern.
"I'm sure you just have a little cold, Spikey." Rarity assured a shivering Spike. She used her magic to slowly dress the large and frail dragon in a scarf, a big hat, and a huge blanket. She had made them all for him, new ones every year during the winter months, not that he ever remembered. That mattered little, her big old Spikey-Wikey deserved the best, as he had always helped her in her time of need. She would never forgive herself if Spike got sick simply because of something she could easily prevent, she even feared her own friends would fault her for it.
"Are you warm now, Darling?" Rarity asked sweetly. Spike opened his eyes and looked at her, he was still shivering, and it seemed to be getting worse. Rarity turned back around and looked around the room, then she saw them in a large pile, the blankets of the past. She used as many as she could to cover Spike, but once three of them were on him Spike moved in a flash and had torn off all the blankets.
"N..no. I d..d..don't wa..want them." he struggled to say, as he tore off both the hat and scarf and lie back down "I...It....it’s.....it’s time." he struggled to say. "I.....it’s so....so c.c.c.c.co..old, I Ju...ju...just want to go ba...ba...back ou....out...outside." He looked at Rarity, his body was failing him, but for the first time in thousands of years his mind was clear and concise. He knew where he was and what was happening, albeit that it would be the last time to happen again. "I..I...I wa..want to....to spe....spend my last.....last moments.... U...u...und....under… the....the....the sun...with my.....fr..fr...friends" he finished, struggling to breathe. Rarity approached her friend and tried to touch him, but jumped back, his scales were freezing. Quite a few of them actually had frost developing on them.
His time was up, his fire had finally burned out. He had only a few minutes left, before he too left.
Rarity, mustering all her might, surrounded herself and Spike in a magical aura. With a blinding flash they were teleported out of the cave and into the castle Courtyard. His entire body took up the crystal castles’ lawn, wrapping around the entire exterior, and the nearby town panicked. Spike just looked in awe at the setting sun, and tears came out of his eye's freezing before they left his head.
"It’s...it’s...it’s Beau...beautiful," He said as his voice began failing him, "Thank you Rar..." his voice trailed off and Rarity turned and looked at him, and as she looked at him she broke down into tears. Spike was looking at sunset with such joy in his eyes. As the light of the sun left his body so to did the light in his eyes, his life force had left him. Spike the Dragon’s time had finally come.
"Your welcome...my little Spikey...Wikey." Rarity choked out as she magically shut his eyes.
Spike’s funeral was a private affair and only the Elements of Harmony and Discord had attended. He was taken to a very special place Discord had created on the Elements request. He was taken where all their other friends had been taken. A place where flowers never died, where the graves and their inscriptions never grew old and dull. It was a place where they could all be at peace, and a proper place to say goodbye. The entire graveyard was a floating island in a space that didn't exist, and Discord had created a new Island next to it for very Special burials. Here was where Spike was going, with the only other two that were there. He would be laid to rest next to his wife, Starlight. Their time together had been short, but now they could be together forever. They both lie now next to his unnamed child who had passed with his wife during birth. Spike would finally be with the family that was taken from him long ago. The funeral was long, everypony wanted to say so much, but it was Twilight who said it all.
"Here lies Spike Sparkle." She began "He was a great brother, a great husband....and would have been the best father. He lived a long life, and he has done too many heroic things for me to name. We’re all here to remember and thank him for everything that he has done for both his friends and for Equestria. We’re here to send him on his way, to tell him we loved him and still do, and will continue to forever. He may be gone and we will never get to see him again..but we will never forget him. He was my first friend..." Twilight was on the verge of breaking down when her friends joined her.
"He was the kindest dragon there ever was." Fluttershy said with a quiver as she tried to hold back the tears before she placed a yellow gem in the shape of a butterfly on his grave.
"He was always happy and full of joy." Pinkie said, as she placed a pink gem in the shape of a balloon on the grave.
"He was always honest and happy to help." Applejack said as she placed an orange gem on his grave.
"He was loyal to the end, and never left anypony behind." Rainbow said as she placed a blue gem on his grave in the shape of a lighting bolt.
"He was generous, and will always be my little Spikey Wikey." Rarity said as she placed both a white crystal and the Fire Ruby he had given her so long ago on his grave.
"He was my first friend, and was the best assistant you could ever hope to have." Twilight said, placing a purple gem, like a twinkling star, on his grave.
"We will always love him, we will never forget him, and we hope he and Starlight are up there right now, playing with their little filly." They all said as one and as soon as they stood back, Discord snapped his fingers and Spike’s grave glew bright for a second and once the glow died they could now see the 7 gems embedded in it with a small inscription beneath them.
*^*^*
Here lies Spike, The Brave and Glorious, best friend of the Elements of Harmony, envoy of the changelings. May he rest in eternal peace.
