It was storytime, the best time in Canterlot Kindergarden. The six years old colts and fillies hurried to their chairs and benches in the book room. They were chatting to each other, until a tan mare with a brown mane, yellow eyes and a book as a cutie mark entered the room.
"Alright, children, what story would you like me to read today?" The mare, called Bookmark asked the kids.
"Read The Lord of the Elements again!" A colt yelled at her.
"No way, she read that to us just two weeks ago!" A filly said to him.
"I'd still rather hear it again than some girly lovey dovey story!"
"Now calm down, children. I'm sure we can find something new to read", Bookmark told them. "Infact, I already have an idea on what should I read. It is a really sad tale, but a really good one too. It's a story about war."
The colts cheered.
"But mostly, it's a story about love"
The fillies cheered, while the colts hmphed.
"Now, this is exactly the right book", she said as she pulled out a book from the shelf, and showed it to the children.
The book looked like it was very old, atleast sixty years. The cover was leather, and it had no title or author's name, just a picture of silhouettes of a unicorn mare and a male dragon looking away from each other, yet it still looked like they actually wanted to look at each other.
"This story is set during the Crystal War, which actually happened, but this is not a story about fighting the war, this is The Tale of Spike and Rarity", she said as she opened the first page.
Once upon a time, there was a magical land called Equestria, controlled by peace, friendship and harmony. Or atleast used to.
The evil King Sombra of the Crystal Empire wanted to control Equestria, so he declared a war against it. Every volunteered stallion and mare were sent to the northern front to keep the Crystal Army consisting of brainwashed crystal ponies, minotaurs and dragons away from hurting the innocent ponies of Equestria.
Well, not just ponies.
In the quiet town of Ponyville at evening, an earth dragon was walking up the stairs of a restaurant. He had purple scales, green spines and eyes, and he was a little taller than a pony. He was heading to the rooftop terrace to take some fresh air, as he just ate an the largest dish in the restaurant. As he opened the door to the terrace for himself, he saw something that made his heart nearly stop.
At the edge of the terrace, there was standing a beautiful unicorn mare with a white coat that seemed to glimmer in the moonlight, a beautifully curled up purple mane and a cutie mark of three diamonds that only highlighted her beautiful blue eyes that he could've written over thousand poems of.
However, she seemed sad.
"Do you need any help?" He asked, as she noticed the dragon.
However, she only shook her head, and carefully trotted towards the dragon.
"May I ask, what is your name?" She asked in an angelic voice that melted the dragon's heart like butter.
"Spike is my name", the dragon answered her question, while walking a bit towards her.
"My name is Rarity", the unicorn told him. "And may I also ask where are you from, as I have never seen or heard of you before"
"I live nowhere, the road is my home. I am a travelling writer, I pick up a ride, travel to a location, stay there for a while and write down what I see, and pick up a ride again", the dragon answered. "Ponyville is where I'll stay for now, and after some time I leave to somewhere, but I never know where. The only thing giving me direction is my heart"
"What does it feel like?" She asked, seemingly interested.
"It feels great. Every time I leave from a place to a place, it feels like I'm running away to explore places I have never even heard of before", he answered. "Now, what is your thing, what do you do?"
"I design and create dresses. Ever since I was a little filly, I always dreamed of bringing out the beauty within every mare by giving them something special. However, the wartime law has forced everypony with tailoring skills to make uniforms for our soldiers fighting at the northern front", she answered to the dragon.
"I am sorry that that has happened. The war has been affecting all of us, mares and stallions, the young and the old, ponies and other species", he said to her.
Then, she heard a voice coming from downstairs, a familiar voice, a way too familiar voice.
"I'm afraid I have to leave now", she told the dragon, as she started to head downstairs.
"Perhaps we'll meet again in the future", he said to her one last time.
"Perhaps", she said, as she closed the door to the rooftop terrace.
A week later.
The war was at one of it toughest points, causing Canterlot to create a law forcing every stallion old enough without physical injuries to fight at the northern front. It was certainly visible in Ponyville, where over two thirds of the current residents were female. However, the war was not visible at all in any other ways.
It was a sunny saturday morning, and Rarity was waiting at a café. She was wearing a large sunhat with a pink bow going around it, as she was eating outside.
Then, the waiter arrived.
"What would you like, miss?" The waiter asked.
"A cup of tea and a daisy sandwich, please", she answered.
The waiter headed inside the café with her order to tell the chef. It was then, when she finally got a good view of Ponyville. No matter where she looked, there seemed not to be one single stallion nearby. There were only mares, colts, fillies, dragons...
Wait, dragons?
She turned her head around, and noticed the purple dragon from two weeks ago. He has not been sent to the war, and he was doing something next to a wall. He had a bunch of posters with him he placed to the walls of the buildings nearby.
She rised from her seat and walked closer to the dragon, who still hasn't noticed her.
She looked at the posters he has placed. In the poster, there was a picture of a crystal pony mare who was dumping a bottle of water to the ground while looking mischievously down at a bleeding Equestrian soldier. The text in the poster said:
WOUNDED AND A PRISONER, OUR SOLDIER ASKS FOR WATER
THE CRYSTALIAN "SISTER" POURS IT DOWN RIGHT BEFORE HIS EYES
THERE IS NO MARE IN EQUESTRIA WHO WOULD DO THAT
THERE IS NO MARE IN EQUESTRIA WHO WOULD FORGET THAT
"Propaganda, eh?" Rarity asked the dragon, who seemed to notice her presence only by then.
"Yes, the ponies wouldn't trust me as a soldier, so they made me get more soldiers, mare soldiers to be exact", he answered.
"But darling, why wouldn't they trust you?", she asked him again.
"The enemy side has dragons on it, so even if I fought on Equestria's side, they would think of me as their enemy. And besides, ponies wouldn't like me either, even if there were no dragons with the Crystal Empire", he answered the question she had asked.
"But why wouldn't they like you? If there would be no dragons with the enemies, then they should like you, I assume that dragons are extremely good at fighting"
"We are, and that is our issue here. I would be seen as nothing but a murderous beast that would harm everypony if I had enough time on my claws. Everypony sees me like that already"
"I don't see you like that", she told him.
"Well, you are a special kind of a pony", he answered.
"Pardon me?"
"I don't think I have ever had converstions this long with anypony else other than you, and also there is..."
He couldn't finish his sentence, as he himself had no idea on how he was about to finish his sentence. What was there? What made her so different from everypony else? Sure, she might have been pretty, but there was still something powerful that he had for this mare. He just couldn't figure out what.
"Also there is what?" She asked the dragon.
"Just forget it", the dragon said.
The dragon's reply might have been a bit rude, but for some reason, she wasn't mad about it. Maybe it was because he was so much kinder than what she has been told about what dragons are like. No, it was more. She wasn't sure why, but she was sure that it was.
"Well, I need to keep plastering these posters. It was nice talking to you, see you later", the dragon said as he grabbed the posters.
"Wait!" She yelled at the dragon before he could leave. "Since all of my friends are out there fighting the great war, would you like to join me for dinner tomorrow?"
Author's Note
Well, here's chapter 1 rewritten! I am sorry for everybody who liked and followed this story for it's original direction, but I wanted to do something more original and less cheesy.
