Frankenstallion Legacy

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." (Leo Buscaglia)

"Hey Vinyl, you got any good music for tonight?" Pinky shouted over the crowd of ponies in costumes. Vinyl looked over to Pinky. She pulled down her shades slightly revealing her crimson red eyes.

"You know it Pinky! I got a whole new set of albums from Wooden Toaster, Living Tombstone, and Blackgryph0n." The DJ pony pulled her shades back up to her face and turned on her set of speakers and subwoofers. She smiled as she cranked up the levels on her sound board. Vinyl pulled her microphone out , "Yo let's start out with the all time classic 'Nightmare Night'" The crowd began to roar and shout as Vinyl pulled out the record and placed it on the turntable.

The music began with a dark but high note piano tune which began to get louder and louder until it changed to electric piano, dubstep, and bass. As the tempo on the music picked up, Vinyl began to nod her head to the beat. The whole crowd of ponies in the Carousel Boutique began to go wild as the heavy music spread piercing every corner of the room.

Rarity turned her head towards the door just when she felt the wave of sounds coming from the bass. She was just finishing tying up the fake wings to her sides. Her costume was completed with that, and the chest plate which was gold with a purple gem mounted in the center. "All right then. It's time to party."

Rarity opened her door and began to walk down the stairway. She took a long look at the whole scene. Everypony was rocking out and having a great time dancing all over the place. To the side Rarity could see Pinky Pie do a stage dive, landing in the hooves of ponies that carried her across the room. Big Macintosh, one of the Apple farmer family, most ponies knew him as simply Bic Mac, stood at the makeshift bar: serving apple cider to various mares and their colt friends.  Rarity sighed at the thought. She watched as Fluttershy came walking up to Big Mac to ask for some cider. He seemed to blush as Fluttershy took the drink from his hoof. Big Mac sighed a breath as she walked away from the bar. He appeared to be eyeballing her flank as she walked away. He snapped out of it though as another colt came up to get a drink. It was the Doctor. He walked up with a blond haired pegasus mare trailing behind him. Her derp eyes all too familiar. It was Ditsy Doo, who just kept staring at the Doctor, nuzzling his neck. The two had been married for at least two months now. Rarity made Ditsy's dress herself.

Why the hay, she thought, were there all these couples? She groaned as she eventually made her way to the bottom of the stairs. It was really disconcerting, seeing all these mares with their coltfriends, who did she have? Rarity sat down at one of the tables.

The front door opened just then, two ponies walked in. The first one was a cyan blue pegasus, with a rainbow mane, dressed as Daring Doo. "Hey Rarity!" Rarity waved to her friend Rainbow Dash. "I'm sorry I'm late, I was just making sure Zecora didn't forget about tonight." Following the mare pegasus was a zebra pony dressed as a witch doctor. Her name was Zecora.

Zecora lived in the Everfree forest outside of Ponyville. She was no stranger to anypony, but it wasn't always that way. Many of the ponies in Ponyville used to fear her, they once believed that she was a witch. That all changed when Twilight set things straight, showing everypony that she was just an apothecary from a distant land. She lived in the Everfree forest because there was a rich supply of herbs for her medicines there. Most of all, she enjoyed the natural peace of the forest. It was a place where she could think, and meditate, but it was lonely.

"Good evening my miss Rarity, I'm sure this party shall be a nice break from the Everfree." She spoke to Rarity in her usual singsong voice. She was really looking forward to be around friends again.

"Really darling? I thought you loved the forest."

"Alas that comfort has its ends, but tonight is a night to be enjoyed with friends." Rarity didn't question the zebra. She wanted spend the night with friends, and that, was that.

"Why howdy Rarity. It sure is good to see ya back in town!" Rarity recognized that country accent. It was her friend Applejack, another Apple farmer family member, the sister of Bic Mac as a matter of fact. The blond haired orange pony was dressed in the same scarecrow costume she always wore on nightmare night for years. "So how was Canterlot? Ya meet any good lookin stallions?"

Rarity sighed at this question. "No, I didn't, but that's alright I guess. By the way...anything interesting happen while I was gone?" Rarity finally asked. She hated being out of the loop of information. She had only been out of town a week, not much could have changed, but she still wanted to know everything.

"Well..." Rainbow Dash paused in thought, trying to figure out what to say. "... wait, didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?" Rarity was a little worried, but curious nonetheless.

Applejack responded,"Spike is back." Rarity's heart stopped.

"What?" She practically squeaked with her eyes wide.

"Yeah! Spike is running the library now! He lives there..." Rainbow Dash added. "...uh, Rarity?" Rarity sat for a moment, taking in what she just heard, and then without warning, she took off into the crowd knocking two other ponies over in the process.

Applejack was confused,"What the hay, is she freakin out bout for?"

*****

"Well, it looks like we're here." Twilight said to Spike as they approached the doors of the Carousel Boutique. Flash was just ahead of Twilight leading the way. They would have gotten there earlier if Flash wouldn't have gone soldier on everypony that passed them. If he thought they were even looking at Twilight wrong, he snapped at them with a piercing stare, commanding them to 'go about their business'. He meant well, but he was a tad too serious.

"It's about time." Spike groaned while Twilight scolded him with a look on her face. It was that look Spike had seen before when she was mad, but this time Twilight was practically growling at him.

"Here we are, your majesty." Flash held open the door to the boutique as both Spike and Twilight walked in. They were a bit overwhelmed by the loud music at first. As they stepped further into the crowd, their ears began to adjust to the sound levels. Twilight searched the crowd for her friends. Spike took one look at the cider bar a knew exactly where he was going.

"I'm getting a drink." The dragon said with a dead pan expression .

"Fine," she rolled her eyes. "Just stay out of trouble."

As Spike walked off, Twilight had spotted her friends. She ordered flash to follow her over to the table where her friends were . As they slowly approached, Applejack was giving Twilight a grin silently gesturing towards Flash. Applejack was the first one to notice Twilight's crush on Flash, those years ago, and she continued to do so tonight.

"Howdy Twilight! Who's yer friend?"  Applejack teased. Twilight composed herself for a response, while at the same time trying not to blush.

"He's just my guard while I'm here in Ponyville. Anyway, where's Rarity, Pinky, and Fluttershy?" The apple farmer raised her brow as she let out a sigh.

"Well, Pinky is busy having fun," as usual, "Fluttershy went to go get some cider,  and y'all just missed Rarity. She just done took off a minute ago, not sure why. We had just told her how Spike was back in Ponyville ." Twilight giggled inside fully grasping the situation.

"Oh."

*****

"Fluttershy!" Rarity was screaming for her friend.

"Oh hi Rarity. What is it?" The yellow pegasus spoke barely above a whisper. Her costume was simple: a butterfly. She wasn't known for being very enthusiastic about Nightmare Night. Rainbow Dash was barely able to convince Fluttershy into coming tonight.

"I need your help with Spike!"

"Spike? Oh I just saw him arrive a minute ago."

Rarity's heart began to beat faster. "What?!" Truth to be told, Rarity was afraid to see Spike. She was afraid to face him again. She was afraid of what he might say, or what he might not say. The feeling and reason behind her actions seemed to be unexplainable. It was so strange to her. Why was she doing this?

"He's changed so much since he left." Fluttershy told her.

*****

Spike had just taken the first few sips of his cider at the bar with Bic Mac watching him. He had missed the taste of it. There was no drink in Canterlot that could ever compare to the taste of good old Sweet Apple Acres apple cider. "It's good to back in Ponyville."

"Eeyup. Ya know lots of folks round here have missed ya and Twilight since ya left." Big Mac gave a weak smile. "I figure though, now that I think bout it, I recon it was Rarity that missed ya the most. Ya should a seen her when the train took off, all teary eyed and what not."

"Really..." This is not what Spike had expected to hear at all. The only other time he saw Rarity even cry was the time of the whole dragon monster incident. They were falling, and there was no guarantee that they were going to survive. Spike confessed his feelings to her then and there as they were falling. Rarity had cried, smiling as she understood. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were able to save them, but nothing really progresses between Spike and Rarity after that. Things went back to the way they were.

"Yeah, if ya want to talk to her, she's over there talkin to Flutters."

"Who?"

"Fluttershy."

"Oh. Wait, since when did you start calling her Flutters?"

"Uhh...I got more customers. Good with luck Rarity." After throwing that awkward line out, he was off to serve customers that already had their drinks. He was obviously trying to hide something.

"Okay. I'll just...go."

Spike turned to where Bic Mac pointed to earlier. There she was, Rarity. The white unicorn was still beautiful even though her radiance was hindered by the princess Celestia costume. Spike was trembling, not sure what to do. Should he talk to her? Would she even remember him? He began to shiver as he tried to walk towards her.

*****

"Fluttershy, what do you mean changed?"

"Well Rarity, why don't you see for yourself." The yellow pegasus grinned as she looked past Rarity.

"What's that supposed..." Her voice was cut off by another one.

"Hiya Rarity." Rarity froze as she recognized the voice. The voice was slightly deeper, but it was still his voice. A chill went down her spine, but at the same time, an undecided joy. She had to face him, she wanted to, but she found it difficult. As she turned to face the source of that familiar voice, a gasp managed to escape her mouth as she stared at Spike's emerald green eyes.

"Spike?" Her voice finally squeaked out. Rarity 's eyes wandered from Spike's, and then she took in the full view of Spike's changes. He was taller, he had wings, and his physique was, a bit enticing. But his face, was what Rarity thought most, interesting. For a dragon, he was actually, kind of handsome.

Spike sighed with relief,"Glad to see you still remember me. I Didn't think you'd even recognize me."

"How could I forget one of my closest friends." Spike sighed slightly under his breath at this phrase. He couldn't help but to stare at her eyes, those sky blue gems that shined brighter than all the stars at night.

Rarity turned to Fluttershy as if to say something, but she didn't say anything. There was an awkward silence until Fluttershy understood, "Oh, I um, I'll just leave you two to catch up." Fluttershy got the hint Rarity was giving her and walked back over to Big Mac.

"It...it's great to see you again Spike." Rarity managed to say, it was the only thing she could think of.

"And...it is always a pleasure to see you, Lady Rarity." Rarity blushed bright and red. She looked down trying to hide it. Such a gentlecolt he was, but Spike isn't a colt. He is in fact a dragon. Well, he can't be called a gentledragon, it far too long. What was that old Equestrian word for dragon? Ah yes, draco or 'drake' depending on the translation. Gentledrake. That has a nice ring to it. Very well...

"Spike you always were such...a gentledrake." She almost didn't say it, not being sure of the term she had just made up. But to her delight, it had made Spike blush.

The heavier beat music slowed down to a stop when Vinyl took to her microphone again. "All right everypony, we're gonna slow things down here. So, all you couples out there get ready to dance. And all the bachelors out there, well, be good gentlcolts and ask some of the wallflowers to dance with you." Vinyl placed the microphone back where it was. She pulled out a record simply labeled "ThePianoColts". Vinyl gently laid the record onto the turntable and carefully set down the needle.

A delightful combination of piano and cello began to flow through the room. The peaceful tune set the mood as mares around the room giggled lightly while the stallions asked them to dance with them. It was quite a sight, almost too perfect, and yet, here it was, the perfect opportunity for Spike to make his 'move'.

"May I have this dance Milady?" Spike held out his hand to Rarity. She looked at his hand, and placed her hoof in it, looking back to his face she smiled.

"I'd be delighted." Spike stood up on his hind legs, lifting Rarity up onto hers. She wrapped her fore legs around his neck trying to stay up with him. He held on to her so she wouldn't lose balance. Rarity looked up at Spike, who was smiling as he carefully began the simple four step waltz that Twilight had taught him.

'This wasn't so bad' Rarity thought to herself. He was being such a 'gentledrake' to her now, even though she had used him for manual labor those years ago. 'Why did he come back to Ponyville. Did he just want to be on his own for once, or was it something else? Did he come for me? Does he still have that 'crush' on me he once spoke about?' Her mind was filled with questions she was afraid to ask. She tried to ignore them. She just focused on Spike.

"I heard a lot of ponies missed Twilight and I while we were gone." He broke the silence that hovered around them.

"Yes, we all did." She began to think,'Or at least, I missed you.' She smiled to the thought, laying the side of her head against Spike's chest and closing her eyes. Everything seemed to slow down. It was peaceful, and a comfort filled an empty hole in her heart. Peace at last.

No force in the universe could take this from her.