We stand together

The next day was spent flying over everfree far faster than they had one on the way, on the back of Rok’thalon, the giant golden dragon king.

This gave Bowdler some time to think, ‘Why would they have taken Twilight yet nopony else? Why was he here? Where was he from?’ his thoughts suddenly turned to Dasher, ‘What’s with that Dasher guy? Why is he so aggressive? Has he got any friends? Was he actually going to try to kill me?’

Dasher was sat on Rok’thalon’s head, sharpening his knife on his horns. Suddenly, Bowdler thought of his shattered horn again, was it even ever a horn in the first place? It must have, he can still do some magic with it, if not any good. Being on Rok’thalon’s back was extremely distracting. He’d never seen anything go so fast, the smaller dragons around him were constantly going in and out of sonic rainbooms, and people called them old pony tails until somepony, whose name escaped him at the time, actually did one.

If only those ponies had seen these dragons. The sound of slipstream in his ears was deafening, he could barely hear himself think. Soon enough, the trees of everfree were thinning out slightly and he could see the edge of the forest on the horizon. Never again was a sight like that seen from ponyville, thousands of dragons flew straight over and onward to Canterlot and when Rok’thalon flew over, his shadow covered the whole of ponyville. He landed just outside of Canterlot, where minimal destruction would be wreaked when he landed. Even to this day, the park built on the land he flattened is called the scar of the dragonking.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came down from the castle and actually used their own wings to hover in front of Rok’thalon’s head.

‘sia darastrix daar! si tepoha missed wux!’ said Celestia and she nuzzled the top of Rok’thalon’s right nostril.

‘si tepoha missed wux kiri Celestia, shar jaka ui ti wer tairais ihk svihelen reunion, coi ui wer tairais ihk aryte’ he replied.

Celestia nodded solemnly and flew onto his back to talk to the ponies and Spike.

‘You boys have done so well, I’m almost obliged to ask you what you’ve learnt about friendship.’ she said to them, laughing at her own joke, ‘but your journey doesn’t end here, there are still many tasks to overcome and many hardships that you will go through, but I’m sure you’ll come out of the other side, as friends.’

Bowdler and Dasher looked at each other for a second.

‘Go on’ urged Celestia.

‘You are a good tactitican Bowdler, and quite a good fighter at that’ Dasher said.

‘Thanks for the compliment Dasher, you’re a brilliant fighter too, and thanks for not killing me’ Bowdler replied. He chuckled at this last remark.

‘Well I’m glad you two can put your differences behind you, for friendship. And yes, I have been watching you in the scrying orb this whole time.’ The Princess said, ‘Dasher, I’m ashamed.’ He looked at the floor.

‘It was only a joke ma’am, to scare the Civilian back into his place’ he tried to explain.

‘There are no excuses for death threats, I shall be removing one of your Lieutenant stars, back down to grade 15 for you’ she stated plainly, ‘the three of you are to get some rest and then see me in the morning. If the beasts attack during the night you are to gather your weaponry and close friends and report to me.’ she turned to have a conversation with Rok’thalon and the two ponies headed back to ponyville with spike.

~

Bowdler and Dasher parted ways on the road to ponyville, Dasher taking off to go to cloudsdale, where he lived, leaving Bowdler alone with Spike, who exited on the road to Rarity’s house shortly after. He was on his own again. He wondered what everypony else was doing, Big mac, The Doctor, Dallas, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, Pinkie pie... Twilight... He wondered what Twilight was thinking about right now. He looked up, the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, he remembered one of Twilight’s letters to Celestia,

‘Is Twilight looking at this sunset right now?’ he thought aloud.

‘Probably not...’ came a depressed sounding voice from behind him. He turned around, it was Pinkie Pie. But it wasn’t Pinkie pie. Her colour was off and her mane was flopping down around her head like Twilight’s.

‘What’s wrong Pinkie?’ he asked her.

‘I’m missing Twilight, and I was missing you too Bowdler.’ she looked up at him, ‘where have you been? I’ve been to your house every night to see if you wanted to hang out, but you weren’t there. I thought you’d abandoned me.’ Her eyes were filling with tears now.

‘Pinkie pie, why would I abandon you?’ he asked her, confused.

‘Because you like Twilight better, that’s why. You went off to try and save her didn’t you? But you failed! She’s not here!’ she was crying openly now. ‘You left to fail and you left me to cry alone! Why would you do that to me?’ she ran forwards and threw her arms around him. ‘Don’t leave me... Please...’ she whispered.

‘I’ll try Pinkie, but I can guarantee it. I’ve got work to do, and I didn’t leave to try to save Twilight, heck I wanted to but the princess wouldn’t let me’

‘So you do prefer her?’ she squeaked, he could feel her tears running down his neck as she hugged him.

‘Of course not, I don’t prefer anypony, you’re all equal in my mind!’ Pinkie pie hugged him a little tighter,

‘Thank you Bowdler. Thank you’ She let go of him and stood there, a smile forming on her lips. ‘Do you want a welcome home party tomorrow?’ she asked excitedly, Bowdler noticed that her hair was slowly inflating again.

‘I can’t I’m afraid, the princess wants me to come and see her’

‘Oki doki loki’ she said, smiling quite widely now. She looked him straight in the eyes, it was as if she was staring into his soul. She leaned forwards and kissed him quickly, then giggled and bounced away.

Bowdler stood there for a second, watching her bounce away. Had she really just done what he thought she’d done? Had Pinkie Pie really just taken his first kiss? He felt a moment of confusion. Why was he ok with this? Why have two chapters ended with shipping now? Why the hell did he just think that?

Writer's note: OH GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?