Guardian.
Ponies say that a Dragons heart is made of gems, and Dragons say that all gemstones are the hearts of dragons who have passed on, this is why we eat them, to gain our elders wisdom and power. I do not know if either of these is the truth, I know that MY heart is made of Fire Ruby, and I gave it away long ago.
I'm Spike, everyone knows me as the pudgy little assistant to Princess Twilight Sparkle, I haven't been that in many years. Tartarus even knows if she knows I'm still breathing, it has been a hundred years since I've seen her.
Dragons take naps, lots of them, but when we are about twenty we get a calling in our bones to go back to our homeland and sleep. I slept and dreamed of diamonds for a hundred years, three diamonds to be exact. Believe me I've heard every joke about my feelings for Rarity. “She's perfect for him, she literally has diamonds on her ass” is probably the most common among them. Truth is my feelings for her go much deeper than that and actually have roots in me being a dragon.
She never returned my feelings and I accepted that, didn't make it hurt any less. Sweetie Belle was always like my little sister so, eww no, I love her but not like that. By the time I accepted everything was as it was going to be, I felt the call to sleep.
When I woke everyone but a very select few had passed on, Twilight and the Princesses were still alive, and Sweetie... Unicorns live quite long lives, Pegasi and Earth ponies...less so. As I was to find out other less savory things lived too.
I spend my days hunting in the Everfree, and my nights watching over my adopted home of Ponyville from the edges of the dark forest. I stopped many threats to Ponyville before the town even knew they were going to be threats. Manticores? Extinct in the Everfree. Cragodiles? So much luggage donated to Carousel Boutique from an anonymous source. Hydras? What Hydras? I haven't seen a Hydra since I ate the one living in what was to become my cave. Timberwolves? Let's just say they like my fire even less now that they have become kindling. Bugbears, Poison Joke, the list goes on, all gone or tamed to the point of controllability. Fluttershy's foals and grandfoals took over her work as caretaker to the forest animals though they lacked her ability to talk to them as she did, so they never knew of my residency. Though I did laugh whenever I heard them comment on the lack of magical predators preying on the other animals.
Sweet Apple Acres is being run by Gala Apple, Macs Granddaughter, and her foals and grand foals. It is larger than ever and has taken up a good portion of what used to be the whitetail woods. Still being run the Apple way though. From what I've been able to over hear, Applebloom and Scootaloo ended up together and never had kids or even adopted.
Carousel Boutique, however, is now a museum to the chains creator and Element of Harmony, My love, Rarity. Sweetie Belle and her husband Button Mash curate it and Live next door in their own home with their families. I have looked inside and Prominently displayed is the Fire ruby pendant I gave My love so long ago. That stone is why I do what I do to protect Ponyville, until one day I was able to do so with no one being any the wiser.
The Day Tirek returned.
I first realized something had gone horribly wrong when i saw the fires on the Canterhorn, I would have helped then but I knew that whatever happened would eventually put my Heart in danger, so I waited. I knew things were bad when I saw Twilight meeting a haggard and guard less pair of Alicorn Princesses. Still I waited. If the Three could not vanquish this threat to my Heart, then I knew it was in true danger.
It wasn't long before I heard Fluttershy's family talking about Tirek. I knew that we had not seen the last of him. Things got out of Tartarus all the time apparently, and equally apparently, that idiot mutt Cerberus needed to go back to guard dog basic training. How hard was it to put three heads worth of teeth to various asses whenever they had a thought about escaping?
Before long the Princesses returned with Twilight in tow and they all three looked even more ragged than before. Twilight organized an evacuation into various shelters built around town to protect the citizenry from the seemingly weekly threats...Threats that were no longer happening. The Three of them were soon joined by Empress Cadance and her daughter, Princess Flurry Heart. Good grief had that little squirt grown! Last time I saw her she was still spitting bubbles for amusement. I resolved to wait one last time. Surely the five of them could make their final stand at the Castle of Friendship and beat that moronic centaur again. I had never been more wrong.
Two days later Tirek stormed into town bellowing for the princesses, only to be met with five massive blasts of magic, all of which did barely anything to his frame. I knew they had more in them than that so I watched, ready to bound into town should I be needed. The battle went on with Tirek crushing buildings in his rage and the Princesses blasting him from various angles and intensities. Twilight, Luna, and Celestia were throwing spells that I had only ever read about, some of which would have annihilated whole cities if it wasn't for their mastery of the arcane.
You may call me callous, watching my Sisters and the Princesses fight while I did nothing, do so. I was being callous. They could fight this battle and win I thought, my Heart was not in danger.
That changed when Tirek stepped directly on Carousel Boutique.
MY HEART!!
I like to think about my self as a forgiving dragon, Garbles assertion that dragons don't do forgiveness notwithstanding. But this ape faced fuck just stepped on my heart!
I reared to my full height, finally clearing the tree tops of the Everfree for the first time in the five years since I woke up. Everypony and that wannabe edgy, jerk-faced, magic stealing, ass clown all looked at me in every facial expression from smugness on Twilight's face, to pure WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT! On Poor little Flurry Heart's face. In my Hundred year sleep I had grown significantly and had I stood next to Canterlot castle would have been able to stick my head in the Princesses study to have tea. Tirek, as large as he was, was dwarfed by me. I still had no wings, and was more serpentine than the bulkier dragons I had met. My head, on the other claw, was packed with muscles all culminating into my neck and broad shoulders allowing me to burrow in the earth and stone as if I were a scaled, clawed, fire breathing worm... Which I guessed I was, a Wyrm that is.
"Sweetie Belle, Platinum Pipes, Fashion Forward, Whip Stitch, Songbird, and Serenade. Do you know who they are Tirek?" I bellowed from my clearing. Not waiting for him to answer I continued, "They are my HEART! The Blood of my love, my chosen Mate! Last time you were here, you hurt MY Blood, now you have hurt my MATES!" I threw myself into my element and burrowed into the earth letting my innate tremor sense tell me exactly where his giant stupid hooves touched the earth, only to erupt from the ground like some hell beast.
I tore into his softer underbelly with my claws, breathing fire the whole time, scorching flesh and fur and muscle in equal measure, drawing a pained bellow from the centaur as I ripped his innards out leaving his perforated midsection leaking the magic he had stolen. I wrapped around him like a malevolent serpent tripping him and holding his arms to his sides, not exactly being careful about how tight I was squeezing, feeling his bones shatter like glass under my scales.
Looking into his eyes and seeing the fear and pain, I spoke directly into his face. "You will not survive this, Tartarus is too good for you. Twilight? Everypony please do not watch this. We will speak soon."
"Sure, Spike, Talk to you in a bit." Twilight replied with that smug look still on her muzzle. I heard her say to Celestia as they all turned their backs "I told you he was awake, I'll take that bag of bits please."
"Very well Twilight, Luna I'll be taking both bags from you please." Celestia said with a smirk in her voice.
As I worked my inner bellows to stoke my flames hotter and hotter I head Twilight say indignantly "You both bet on this too?!"
Finally I got my flames as hot as I could get them, the radiant heat off my scales was enough to scorch flesh on the centaur and I saw his pupils shrink to pinpricks as he thought about what I was about to do, he was wrong, what I had planned was much worse. I gripped his lower jaw and, tearing muscle and skin as I ripped it as wide as I could, let loose my flames in a torrent. The flames charred his insides as it traveled down his gullet cooking him from the inside out. Once my flames had done their work I loosened my coils and with a flick of my tail I tossed his mangled corpse back into my clearing in the Everfree.
Turning to my friends I said simply, "I'll deal with the rest later."
Twilight turned and ran to me as I lowered my head to her level and latched onto my muzzle in a hug. "I knew it! I knew you had woken up! You should have been awake five years ago! Where have you been!" She said slapping my scales in between her hugs.
I just looked at her very pointedly gesturing to my fifty foot length and much more fearsome appearance "And how exactly would the town have reacted to me walking up to your castle bellowing 'Hey Twi! I'm Home!' seriously Twilight I love you but you are at once the smartest and the dumbest pony I know."
Twilight put a hoof behind her head rubbing her neck sheepishly "hehe, yeeah, didn't really think about that. Almost no one knows who you are anymore other than as my pudgy little assistant in the old stories."
Flurry Heart comes up to me and kneels, "The Crystal Empire has never and will never forget Spike, The Brave and Glorious. Though we may need to update your statue in the town square."
"Please Flurry, I've helped change your diapers, you never need to kneel to me. Cadance is my sister as much as Twilight is, I'm just Uncle Spike to you. Always have been, Always will be." I said with a small smile. Turning to Cadance I smirked "Still with the brave and glorious bit huh? Seriously I'm not the one that got chucked like a spear by their mate to catch that heart. All I did was run up and down a bunch of stairs"
"Hey what can I say, better they revere you as the restorer of the Crystal Heart than revile my dear Shiny for tossing their Empress." Cadance said with a giggle.
By this time the shelters had sounded the all clear and were starting to empty out. I saw My Heart walk out, and I lowered myself to the ground in front of the crowd so as not to spook them.
"Spike?" I heard Sweetie say and even with the quaver of age in her voice I could still hear her as if it were still our youth.
"Yes, My Heart. I'm home, and I will stay this time. To guard my Heart, I will stay by your side as long as you will have me."
"Heart? You mean that pendant you gave Rarity? We could dig it out of the rubble if you want it back. I mean it might take a while..." Sweetie trailed off at my laughter.
"Sweetie, you walking dictionary, my Heart stands beside you. Platinum Pipes, Fashion Forward, Whip Stitch, Songbird and Serenade. You, and they, are my Heart. The beings that My Love, My Mate, Rarity, loved more than her own life. Rarity did not share my love for her, but my Draconic heart had chosen for me, I will for eternity be tied to her spirit and Generosity. I gave her that stone because besides my love for her, it was my most precious possession." I said chuckling "While she was not a dragon, I loved her as if she were. When a Dragon's Mate dies, the other uses the remainder of their life to look after what is left of their Heart. I will always be near, always watching, stopping threats before you can be hurt. As long as Rarity's has living family, I will be their Guardian. Any they choose to have around them will never fear from me, or any other threat." I continued with some measure of sadness in my voice
"Ponyville never need fear anything again. I am a hundred and twenty five years old, and I will live for millennia, I will always be here for you, My Heart." I wrapped myself around the Castle of Friendship and was content to watch as Sweetie doddered over to me with the little twins Songbird and Serenade.
"This is your Uncle Spike, he will always protect us, and he tells the greatest stories."
After all I did just tell this one didn't I?
