A Dragon's memorial(rewritten)
The bright morning sun shone cheerily down on the small town of Ponyville. Dizzy Doo, a brown pegasus mare beamed up at the golden orb as if to outshine it with her carefree smile.
“Good morning, Dizzy.”
“Good morning Fruit,” She said brightly in return.
Fruit Cake, the latest in a line of matronly proprietors of Sugarcube Corner Bakery was standing outside of her shop holding a small cake box.
“Are you going to see them today?” Fruit asked.
“Yeah I thought I would.”
“Take this with you,” Fruit said as she offered the box. Dizzy peeked in the lid to find four cupcakes painstakingly spaced apart in a perfect square. “He said that she likes things to be consistent and in nice perfect squares. It helps make her…comfortable,” Fruit explained.
Dizzy gave a small thanks before Fruit turned and began berating some misbehaving foals in her shop. Dizzy walked away shaking her head and wondering how Fruit seemed to be able to switch between kind and stern so easily.
The rest of Dizzy’s walk through Ponyville passed uneventfully. Ponies had long since stopped questioning her as she made her way to the Everfree Forest. For many it was a dark place full of danger and mystery but for her the wide sunlit path was just another peaceful stroll on her way to visit a friend.
The trail of black smoke billowing from the cave told her that he was home, and still asleep. Walking into the cave Dizzy placed the cake box on a stone outcropping that served as a counter. She turned to observe the cave’s owner where he slept splayed out on the floor.
His massive, scale covered, chest rise and fell steadily as billows of smoke poured out of his jaw. Hanging from his upturned mouth was a string of drool. Every so often one of his limbs would spasm as he slept.
“Lazy dragon,” Dizzy muttered as she climbed up onto the dragon and started to bounce. She had long since given up on trying to wake him with noise and using him as a trampoline was more fun anyways.
A low groan signaled the dragon’s ascent into the waking world. “Get up sleepyhead,” Dizzy sang as she began bouncing higher. Another groan answered her. “Get up sleepyhead,” Dizzy sang again.
“Fivmrmnts,” the dragon under her groaned.
“Get up sleepyhead,” Dizzy sang higher.
“Fivmrmnts!”
“Get up sleepyhead!” Dizzy sang even higher.
“Hmmr fine.”
“Get up sleepyhead,” Dizzy sang as high as possible as she bounced up to the cave’s ceiling. Her sing-song tone turned to a strangled yelp as she went to bounce and found her that her trampoline was not there.
“Good morning, Junior,” The dragon rumbled cheekily as Dizzy dusted herself off.
“Good morning, Spike.” She replied brightly as she dusted herself off.
Spike gave a rumbling chuckle at the mare’s antics before he shoved a clawful of sand into his mouth and began scrubbing. Most ponies would consider sand and dragon claw to be a pretty sorry taste to wake up to but most ponies didn’t breath smoke in their sleep.
Spike spit the blackened sand into a barrel and rinsed his mouth out with water from a giant stone cup. As he rid himself of his near-crippling morning breath he spied a bright cake box on his kitchen counter.
“Oo did Fruity make me something?” He asked as he delicately opened the cake box.
“You know she doesn’t like being called that,” Dizzy said reproachfully.
“I changed her diapers, I can call her whatever I want,” Spike said as he stuck out his tongue. Four cupcakes each exactly alike with exactly the right amount of frosting and arranged in an exact square, might as well have come with a flashing sign to mark who the box was for. “Besides,” he said absently as he closed the box, “she used to love being called that when she was little.”
Spike chuckled again as Dizzy rolled her eyes at him. He knew full well that Fruity hadn’t been little for nearly forty years but he also knew full well that there was nothing more fun than picking on the grumpy mare.
“I’ll go give these to her,” Spike said as he picked up the cake box.
Spike placed the cake box delicately in his mouth and reached his head into a small chamber off the main cave. There in an overstuffed armchair with a large tome in her lap sat Twilight Sparkle. The aging princess was almost completely grey with only portions of her coat retaining a hint of purple. Her mane and tail were equally grey with only the pink highlight giving the tight bun at the back of her head any sort of color.
Spike placed the package right on the book she was reading. “Dizzy brought this for you from Fruit Cake,” he said with as gentle a smile as he could manage.
“Well wasn’t that nice of her,” Twilight said, “Tell Ditzy thanks for me would you?”
Spike gave a wooden smile and an empty assurance as he started backing his head out of the chamber.
“Oh Spike,” Twilight called, “If you wouldn’t mind go to Sugarcube Corner and thank Mrs. Cake for me. And while your there could you ask if Pinkie Pie would come visit, it feels like it’s been years since I’ve seen her,”
“Sure thing Twilight,” Spike said as he fought to keep the smile on his face.
“And Spike,” Twilight said with a tone of reproach. “Am I going to have to write to the princess about your greed growth again?”
"No,” Spike said meekly, “R-rarity already said she’d help me take care of it.” Spike kept his face pointed away from Twilight as he pulled his head back. He didn’t like lying to her but as her aging mind faded in and out of lucidity making her comfortable when her mind wasn’t ‘there’ had become the most important thing.
“How is she?” Dizzy asked.
“Worse,” Spike answered hollowly. “I bet she wouldn’t even believe me if I told her she has wings. She didn’t even remember that they’ve died.” Spike gestured to a bejeweled case in the corner of his cave. Inside were the Elements of Harmony. As the ponies that bore them died the bright gleaming jewels had turned back to stone. Spike opened the chest and hung his head near the elements.
“What am I going to do?” he asked. “Twilight gets worse and worse every day. Will I even be able to talk to her again before she passes?” The Elements gave soft comforting chimes as the dragon’s tears fell on them and dizzy rested her hoof on spike’s forelimb.
“Tell me about them, how- how they died.” Dizzy said.
“Rarity went first,” Spike said after a moment. “Her mane may have gone completely grey and she may have been on her deathbed but Rarity never let herself look anything less than her best. We were all there: The Princesses, Discord, me, and a dozen other ponies. She was so graceful she made it seem like just another social call even though she knew we were all there to-“ Spike paused for a moment as fresh tears streaked down his face. “-To watch her die.
“She settled onto her bed, thanked us for visiting and told us that we’d have to come back sometime. Then she closed her eyes and just stopped.
“Hers was generosity. She would do everything, give anything for a friend or for somepony she just met. But more than that she always found room in her heart to care for everypony she met.
“Applejack was next. She lived and died on that farm. One night she went to bed and didn’t wake up. She may have been old but she worked hard right up until the day she died. It was simple with her, Applebloom made her a coffin and her niece buried her in the family cemetery.
“She was brave and strong. She was the one of the proudest and most stubborn ponies I ever knew. She would let her mouth get her into trouble more time than I can count. But we always found a way to help her out.
“Rainbow Dash was the same way; she flew stunts every day even when her mane had more grey than rainbow. Those two were always trying to be better than each other at something. One day, after AJ went, she couldn’t get out of bed. They had me carry her to the hospital. She was so light, so frail. She stayed alive just long enough for her biggest fan to come and say goodbye.” Spike smiled remembering the orange and purple Pegasus that had long since gone grey and passed. “Thinking back it’s surprising she didn’t die breaking her neck with some stunt. She was more than a little full of herself. Once you got past her bragging she was the best friend you could ever ask for.
“Fluttershy was next. She just drifted off in her sleep but what I’ll never forget about her was her funeral. Her creatures did all the work for it. Nearly every bird in Equestria came to sing over her grave. Badgers and moles dug her grave and most of the forest turned out for the service. There were butterflies otters, squirrels, beavers, bears, ursas, a cockatrice, dragons, and even Princess Celestia’s phoenix. Everypony always thought she was too shy to have many friends but we had to move her funeral outside to make room for everything that came to see her off.
“Discord gave her eulogy. I thought he would just get up and make a big show out of it but when he started he could barely speak through his tears. He spoke for a while about how she had saved him with her ‘song of kindness’ but what I remember most is when he said, “Life is chaos, beautiful, self-perpetuating chaos. And when it ends we should mourn but we shouldn’t do that too long. We should learn from Fluttershy’s life; she taught me to be somepony worth knowing just by being kind. Let’s learn from that and all try to be better to one another.”
"She was the bravest and shyest pony I ever knew. She was nervous and jumped at her own shadow, but she was never anything less than kind and gentle and sweet no matter what. She tamed a raging manticore, guilted a full-grown dragon into crying and apologizing, stopped Cerberus from destroying Ponyville, stared down a cockatrice, and made a friend out of the spirit of disharmony.”
Despite the tears running down his face Spike gave a small laugh. “Of course her funeral was downright normal compared to Pinkie’s. It was the biggest party Equestria had ever seen and Pinkie was right there at the head of all of it. She invited nearly everypony she ever met. Canterlot castle was packed for a whole day.
“Of course we didn’t know it was a funeral until after. We just thought it was some new kind of surprise party Pinkie was trying. We went up to her room to wake her up the next day. She was laying in her bed with the same big happy smile she had worn all that day. There was a note explaining it on her nightstand. That was her funeral. The best surprise party Equestria ever saw and the surprise was that it was also Pinkie’s funeral.”
“How did she know she was going to die?” Dizzy asked.
“She was Pinkie Pie, she knew,” Spike answered with a distant smile.
“But how?”
“As far as we could tell Pinkie could sense the future,” Said a new voice from behind.
Spike and dizzy whipped their heads around to see Princesses Luna and Celestia, and Discord watching them.
“Twilight tried to understand it once. It didn’t end well,” Celestia said. Her voice had a much brighter tone that Luna’s, who had spoken before.
“I really don’t see what’s so hard to understand about it. It must be those pony minds that insist on everything making sense,” Discord said.
Dizzy bowed to the trio as Spike carefully turned himself around to do the same.
“Spike, Luna, Celestia, get in here,” Twilight’s voice called out from the chamber, “You too Discord.”
With a curious murmur the trio mad their way into Twilight’s chamber. Spike waited for them to enter, knowing that his bulk would take up the doorway. Twilight’s voice had been different from what he was used to. It was clear and strong, it didn’t have that overawed tone when saying Celestia’s name. Maybe Twilight, the real Twilight was back for a bit. Maybe hearing the other princesses and Discord speaking had helped pull her out of the fog.
Wait… why were they here? They all visited regularly but they had explained before that with their schedules visiting at the same time would be impossible. The last time they had broken this pattern was for Shining and Cadence’s funeral.
Shining and Cadence had died asleep wrapped in each other’s embrace. It seemed that two hearts that beat so closely together stopped at the same time. They were laid to rest preserved in a crystal coffin and even at their funeral they looked as if they were about to wake up and start again their life together.
Spike remembered what he had felt that day. It was the same thing he felt when twilight got her first grey hair. When she got her wings Spike had hoped that she would be like Celestia and Luna and live forever. He hoped that she would grow eternally more powerful as he grew into the raging beast he was born to be; that her presence would always be there to calm the beast and remind him of the pony he was raised to be.
It was a selfish hope that would have left the princess of friendship to bury not only a surrogate brother but countless generations of friends. It had been wounded when Spike saw the strand of grey in her mane. It died when he saw another Alicorn like her lying still in her grave.
Was that why they were here then, one final farewell before she died?
After Discord ducked into the chamber Spike followed. Twilight was sitting upright in her chair; a few crumbs dotted the cover of the closed book in her lap. Her eyes held a bright gleam that had not been there before.
When they had all found a place Twilight spoke, “Discord, it took me a while to trust you, but you’ve proved time and time again that you are more than just your nature. You were supposed to be disharmony, everything the elements weren’t, but I’ve seen you be as funny as Pinkie, as loyal as Rainbow Dash, as honest as Applejack, a better friend than I was, and-“ at this point Twilight chocked a sob. Discord leaned in and she whispered something in his ear. He nodded and held her close for a moment.
When he returned to where he had been standing silent tears were streaming down his face.
“Luna,” Twilight said after a moment, “when we first met you were trying to take over Equestria. You were alone and lonely, trying to be a part of a world you hadn’t seen for a thousand years. And the next time you rode down from your chariot and terrified the town trying to be a princess like you were. That night we learned together how much fun ponies could have scaring each other.
"You told me later that other than putting on a Nightmare Night show you still didn’t think you had any place in Equestria. You told me you were from a time where you had to fight for Equestria’s place in the world and your violence had no place in our age of peace. That may have been true for the princess you were but not for the princess you became.
"You still put on the scariest Nightmare Night shows but the foals would never have nightmares because you were there to protect them from a monster. You said you didn’t have a place but I can’t imagine going to sleep without knowing that you’ll be there guarding my dreams. You have a place, it’s not one Celestia gave you it’s one you earned for yourself, my Princess of the Night."
“Celestia, My teacher and my friend, you taught me everything. You were always there to pick me up if I fell, and there was never anypony more proud of me than you. I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done for me. You took me and rose me up to become your friend, but there’s one more thing I have to ask of you.”
“Anything Twilight,” Celestia said as she moved to embrace her. Spike didn’t hear what Twilight whispered into Celestia’s ear but it was enough to bring a wave of fresh tears to Celestia’s cheeks.
Twilight released Celestia’ cleared her throat and wiped the tears from her cheeks before she continued. “Spike, I want to say thank you for taking care of me these last years. Most dragons wouldn’t want to and I’m sure you didn’t either. But strength isn’t in doing what you want it’s in doing what’s right and you’re the strongest dragon there is. But you’re more than that to me; you’re my number one assistant, my best student, my most faithful friend, and nopony will ever find a little brother with a bigger heart than you. I’m about to die and I want you to bury me and forget where the grave is; I’m alive in your heart and that’s all I need.
“Princesses, Discord, I want you to take care of him when I can’t anymore. Make sure he washes behind his ears and make sure he always has some friends. And make sure he never forgets who he is.
"Goodbye to you all.”
Twilight lay back in her chair and closed her eyes as the others in the room nodded dumbly through tears. Spike stretched his neck and gave her one last nuzzle. Her body was limp under his touch; what had made this body the pony he loved so much was gone.
Twilight was dead.
Author's Note
This was originally written for Equestria Daily's Memorial day contest. It was written in honor of the brave men and women who have gone and died to protect our freedoms. May we live on a way that honors their sacrifice.
After 1 year and a full rewrite I think I'm finally happy with the pacing of this. Thanks for reading and have a happy memorial day.
