Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or anything affiliated with the show.
I'm just not that cool.
Rarity slowly walked through Whitetail Woods, her saddlebags on her hips and her hair meticulously styled, approaching a dimly lit cave. She walked in, just as she had twice a week for the past two months since Spike's sixteenth birthday. This time, however, her saddlebag only had one side filled with gems for Spike. The other was filled with something far more important that she had to give him.
"Spike, where are you? I've brought you some more gems and I've got a package for you to send." She called as she came to a stop near the end of the light coming in from outside.
"I'm over here." Spike's voice resonated from one of the caves tunnels.
Spike's head and neck slid out of a tunnel and were immediately followed by the rest of his body. When he was fully out, his tail curled up in front of him, bringing up a couple of torches. He grabbed the torches from his tail, lit them with a small gout of flame, and set them into their brackets on the walls.
"There, I'm sorry I didn't set those up before you got here Sweetie." he said when the last torch was put in its place, casting light over his horde just the way Rarity had designed it.
"That's fine, but what did I tell you about calling me that Spikey-Wikey, it sounds like you're talking to my little sister."
"Sorry Rarity." Spike replied, laying down on his pile of gems.
"Oh, stop being so dramatic." she walked over and gave him a peck on the lips. He gave her a grin in return and she giggled at his antics.
"Would you to send something to Celestia for me please." Rarity said as she levitated a small, draw-string velvet bag with a scroll tied neatly to the top.
"Is that a friendship letter? I haven't sent one of those in a couple weeks." Spike reached over and caught the bag as Rarity lowered it into his palm with her magic.
Rarity walked over to his side, expecting him to breathe out a jet of flame over the bag and scroll. She didn't want any of the stray ashes to get on her pristinely white coat. As Rarity levitated a few loose gems back into their piles while she waited, she turned back to Spike and noticed that he was looking at the bag she had given him.
"So what's in the bag? Do you want me to send that too?" Spike asked. Rarity looked away from him and towards the gems next to her.
"I don't want to talk about it right now, could you just send it to Princess Celestia please?" Rarity answered, still not looking at Spike. This only made him more interested though. He quietly opened the letter and started reading it, but what he found was not the embarrassing tale he was expecting. The letter was from Rarity to Princess Celestia, but Rarity was describing how she was undeserving of the Element of Generosity because of the thoughts of Greed and Jealousy she had. Rarity had heard him mesing with the scroll, but was to late. She was about to yell at him for invading her privacy when Spike spoke up in a melancholy tone.
"Rarity, is that true? It's in this bag?" He didn't wait for her to answer. He tucked the scroll between his fingers and held the bag up on his palm. Using his other claw, he stuck two talons into the top and opened the bag. He pulled out a golden necklace with a purple diamond on the front of it. The Element of Generosity.
"Spike, you read the letter. I don't deserve to wear that anymore. I've become a selfish bi-"
"NO," he turned his neck around to look her in the eyes, "nopony calls my little Rarity that, especially not you." He could see tears forming in her eyes, so he set the bag, scroll and Element off to the side and sat back on his haunches. Then he reached over to Rarity and scooped her up next to him.
"I-it's true though, I didn't even want to bring you those Sapphires. I wanted to make them into a DRESS!" She cried out while pressing a foreleg to her face and sobbing against his scales. He wrapped her tighter in his arms and tried to comfort her, but she continued. "I was thinking of different designs the whole way here! I-I kept thinking about how you already had so many gems, you wouldn't even need any more until after your Sleep anyway."
"Shhh, Rarity. Let me tell you a story." He slowly stroked her mane and back while wiping the tears off her face with a talon, then Spike began his story.
"I once knew an earth pony who was terribly afraid of the dark. He knew it was irrational, but it had become a phobia that he couldn't get over. He had tried spells, therapy and even some of Zecora's brews, but none of them could help him. So he went on living his life, horrified of the dark. He had to keep a lamp on in every room of his house, it was expensive, but he couldn't sleep without them.
"One sunny day he decided to take a stroll through the park to enjoy Celestia's sweet sunlight, and read an adventure book. He was just to the part where the hero was going to assault the tyrant's castle, even though he knew he stood no chance, when he heard a cry and a splash from nearby. He looked up from his book, but he didn't see anything different, just the few trees providing shade and the well next to the path. He was about to continue reading when he heard splashing and a little foal wailing from the well."
"Is this even a true story?" Rarity asked, skepticism written across her face.
"Hey, who's telling the story here? Okay, so he gets up and gallops over to the well. He hears the little foal yelling and gurgling while also noticing that the bucket wench has been snapped in half. He realizes that the foal must have been trying to get a drink, but fell in when he went to reach for the bucket with both hooves instead of one. He knows he has to help the foal, but even looking into the well makes him tremble and turn away."
"He wanted to gallop off and find a unicorn or pegasus to help get the foal out, but he knew the little guy probably got hurt from the fall and wouldn't be able to last that long. He took a deep breath and yelled down into the well 'I'm coming down to get you, hold on!' Then put his front hooves on the edge of the well. He slowly crawled over the black abyss and pressed his back hooves to opposite side of the well. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes."
"He let the weird colors swirl in front of his vision, anything other than the darkness below him, and tried to concentrate on a picture of the green grass, blue skies and bright Sun he had been enjoying just a minute ago. He slowly moved one hoof down at a time, making sure to keep three hoves against the bricks at all times. After only a couple of feet down he started hyperventilating. He tried to focus on his picture of the park, but it was fading to a pitch black emptiness that seemed to stretch on forever and wrap around him tightly at the same time. He felt like he was about to go into a panic attack when he heard the foal cry out once more."
'Hurry mister' the foal sobbed, 'my leg really hurts!'
"He regained his focus and started making his way down just a little faster than before, ignoring the rising panic in his chest. He finally made it to just above the water, so he reached his head down and luckily grabbed the foal by his mane on the first try. The extra weight made it a little harder to hold himself up near the slippery bottom of the well, but then he noticed a flash of light above him."
"He made his way half way up to the top and nearly fell before a silver glow surrounded him and the foal, and gave him enough time to prop himself up again before the glow quickly faded. Since the unicorn trying to help him was either very young or very old, he began climbing up the well again. As the edge of the well came into view, he quickly whipped his head around and grabbed the foal, tossing him out of the well and towards a grey unicorn, who tried to wrap him in magic again, but the effort made the old pony pass out."
"Then his phobia finally caught up to him. He saw the void beneath him and couldn't stop himself as he brought his hooves to his body. He plummeted down into the well with a resounding splash. He barely heard the foal cry out to him as he sank beneath the water, paralyzed with fear."
Spike paused a moment and asked "Was he a coward Rarity?"
"What?" her voice cracked as she spoke.
"Was that pony a coward because of his fears?" He asked a little more forcefully.
"Of course not! How could he have been! He overcame his fears for that foal, even though it cost him his LIFE!" She nearly shrieked in outrage that her beloved Spike would even suggest such a horrid idea. "He's easily one of the most courageous ponies I have ever heard of, he deserves his own holiday even!"
"He has one." Spike replied calmly. "It's the true reason behind the Summer Sun Celebration. Not many ponies remember anymore, but when Twilight and I were taught under Celestia she showed us a statue in her garden of a pony standing over a well. Twilight asked about the statue of course, but Celestia told us we would have to wait until we were older before she would tell us the story behind it, at the time she only told us it stood for Courage and Selflessness.
"Later on in our studies Twilight became more focused on Starswirl the Bearded and forgot about the statue, but I remembered and asked Celestia about it. She told me that story. Then she told me of how she would come once a year to the town and holding that foal on her back, she would raise the Sun directly in line with the statue of the stallion and the well."
"Of course, time passed and the next generations of townsponies were simply glad that Princess Celestia would visit their small town once a year. They would tell the surrounding towns and hold a celebration. Princess Celestia realized that the meaning behind her actions had been lost, so she moved the statue to her gardens. The celebration had become tradition though, so she still continued it, moving to a different town every year."
"What was the name of the foal Spike?" Rarity inquired.
"You never miss the small things do you?" he chuckled to himself, "The little foals name was Starswirl. Twilight probably would've know this story if he had ever published a biography instead of a research article. Speaking of Twilight, now we're off on tangent. I've picked up more of Twilight's habits than I thought."
"That was a nice story and history lesson my dear, but I'm still not worthy of being the Element of Generosity." Rarity huffed.
"Do you know why Celestia chose that stallion as a symbol of Courage Rarity?"
"Because he overcame his fears of course." she replied.
"Actually, it's because he had the greatest of fears to overcome, just like you have the greatest of greeds."
"Exactly Spike! That's why I shouldn't be the Generosity. I can't overcome my selfishness at all, my thoughts are always about how I could make something better looking for my own dresses, my fame..." she trailed off in shame, remembering her jealousy over Fluttershy's short modeling career.
"That's perfect," Rarity quickly looked up at him in confusion and anger, but he continued on "if you didn't care about the things you give away, you're just being apathetic, not generous. In the same way that the stallion was courageous for overcoming his fears, you are generous for overcoming your greed." he said with a poke to her side. "When you were jealous of Fluttershy's modeling career," she was shocked at his insight, but glad that her love knew her so well, "you may have really wanted to steal her fame for yourself, but you didn't. You chose to help her to the best of your abilities, and that is why you were chosen to be the Element of Generosity."
Rarity closed her eyes as she thought about what he had said, and her own greed buried inside of her. She knew that she had overcome her greed and vanity at different points, her memory wouldn't let her deny that, but she had focused on the greed that was there and not the generosity that overcame it.
As Rarity was thinking Spike picked the golden necklace off the velvet bag he had rested it upon and put it on her neck. Rarity opened her eyes and looked down at the purple diamond. It glowed slightly and hummed with the power of Generosity for a moment. The humming stopped after a few seconds, but the glow remained. Spike then grabbed the letter Rarity had written to Celestia and shredded it with his claws. He then tilted her head towards him and kissed her thoroughly.
"I love you Rarity, every part of you." Spike said after he broke the kiss.
"I love you too Spike, you've always been there for me, and I know you always will." Rarity said as she pressed closer against his warm scales.
