“I’ll ask again, HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?”

After a few moments of silence, the group of seven figures approached to reveal themselves to the dragon. As they came into view Spike could see the unmistakable shapes of the mares he had not seen in ten years, one at a time Spike saw the pink figure he knew as Pinky Pie, the orange mare who tied him up to be Applejack, then came Rainbow Dash, then the soft-spoken Fluttershy, then the mare he had a crush on for years, Rarity, and then the villain turned friend Starlight and the one person who he had missed the most, the one who he saw as a big sister Twilight Sparkle.

As each one came into view he saw that they all had tears flowing down their faces.

After a moment of complete silence, all seven of them suddenly tackled Spike sending him to the ground with a thud. As they sobbed Twilight ask “Spike where have you been? What happened to you? Why didn’t you come home?” in a barely coherent sob.

"I will tell you guys later but for now can we just stay like this for a little while longer I haven’t been this happy in years?"

"Ok."

A few moments later

"Ok, that’s enough I’m losing feeling in my legs and Pinkies choking me."

"Sorry" pinky replied sheepishly.

"It's ok, now before I answer your questions can we get back to town, so I can take a shower, take inventory of what I have left, and sleep in a bed for the first time in like ten years?"

"Of course, but Spike why do you keep saying ten years?" Spike stopped dead in his tracks when Twilight asked this. “You have been missing for two years.”

Spike then responded, “Girls for me it's been ten whole years since the incident.”

“What?!” they all responded.

“I said it had been ten years for me,” Spike responded while covering his ear frills after the second loudest sound he has ever heard.

“How is that even possible?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t know, but a friend of mine, if you can call him that, theorized that due to time dilation from the portal that teleported me to Mudos my time would be different from when I was living in Equestria, but he did tell me that when I was able to go home there would be some time differences, but I never thought it would be that long, gods I’ve missed so much.” As Spike spoke that last sentence something dawned on him “Mom dammit!! Twilight, are my mom and aunt Luna ok?”

“They're fine Spike, but when you first disappeared into the portal, everyone was so worried, so much so Celestia ordered the entirety of the royal forces to search for you, Luna spent days looking for you in the dream realm, Cadence and Shining Armor spent weeks searching the frozen north, dragon lord Ember, and king Thorax sent large numbers of their troops to search the rest of the world, where ponies could not go, but after two months of searching we started to lose hope of finding you but Celestia and Luna, and us seven continued to search for you. Sadly, after another month it was decided to end the search and you were legally considered dead. Us seven, Celestia and Luna, Thorax, Ember, and everyone in the crystal empire were devastated, but not as much as Celestia, when you first disappeared the sun seemed less bright, but as time went on it only seemed to get darker, until that day when you were declared dead, that day the sun did not rise at all, Celestia was so grief-stricken that she was unable to move the sun. Luna had to explain to everyone that this was because she was under the weather to keep up her façade of royalty, but we knew what was the real problem,

"The next day was your funeral, and everyone traveled to the Empire for the service, that day even if the sun was up, it could not be seen as it was ordered that there was to be a heavy downpour till the service was over, as we were about to say our last goodbyes to you we all decided to put something that reminded us of you in your coffin as we did not have your body."

"I place the last power ponies comic you ever bought, I knew you were so excited to read it so it seemed fitting to added." Stated Twilight.

"I put in the first dress you helped me design, from when you and twilight came to Ponyvile all those years ago," added Rarity with a mixture of both sadness at the memory of that day and happiness of seeing spike again.

"I placed that Dragons code card you made for me when you owed her a life debt, but after you were lost something did not feel right on the farm and even the trees knew something was missing, and what was missing was the little purple dragon who would spend time helping out on the farm," responded AJ who was crying on the inside at seeing her favorite dragon friend back.

"I added my favorite Daring Do book form when I used to come by the old library to see if the newest book in the series had been released and you were the one who would always get up and check the back room just to make me happy," RD responded while holding back her tears so she could still look tough.

"As for me I added the tea set that we always used when you would come over to help me care for my animals or we would go out into the Everfree to track injured animals so I could help them," noted Fluttershy in a meek tone.

"I made a baker's dozen of the sapphire cupcakes you loved after Twilight added a spell so they would not spoil, since you were the only dragon who would come by the shop and we only made them for you it only seemed fitting to make them so where ever you were you knew that there would always be something sweet for you to snack on," added Pinky with a sad tone in her voice as her mane deflated slightly.

"I added a photo of when we were just reading in the castle library and we were so content just reading that I knew that even after trying to change time and stopping you from being born and seeing that you didn't care about what happened and that you were trying to make me feel welcomed in the castle made me feel for the first time like I was reformed and you became my first true friend since Sunburst." chimed in Starlight with some sadness in her voice.

" As for Discord and Big Mac added their Ogres and Oubliettes character sheets along with yours, Cadence and Shining ordered a new statue in your honor, but Flurry Heart added in her wammy when no one was looking, Princess Luna added a gem version of your dream door crest, Ember placed a large ruby cut in the shape of the Bloodstone scepter to remember her first friend, Thorax had the young changelings make a small clay statue of you for him and his hive, and lastly Princess Celestia added two very important things, the first was the very first scroll you sent her and lastly was an album of your baby photos. Everyone was wondering where she had gotten the album but after everyone was ready to leave Celestia made a speech.” Twilight stated.

“what did she say?” Spike tried to ask while weeping.

“she said….”

Flashback Crystal Empire Spikes funeral:

“Thank you all for coming, Spike, the dragon was a unique dragon, hatched by ponies, number one assistant to the princess of friendship, friend to the elements of harmony, the dragon lord for a few minutes, first friend to Lord Ember and King Thorax, the savior of the Crystal Empire and creator of the pony, dragon and changelings alliance. These are what he is most known for, but what many did not know of was he was a perfect son, a great-nephew, and a very cute and loving cousin, with that, said it is time I finally reveal to you all that Spike the dragon was my adopted son and the future prince of Equestria Spike Solaris. He never used this title for his own personal gain and he always saw others as equal to him, as his mother this was what know him as he spent his time helping others and always had a smile on his face, and it saddens me to now see my son off before he could see what life had in store for him.” With that, she left the podium and made her way to the coffin, and upon arriving she quietly said “Goodbye my little ball of fire.”

At this point, everyone except for Twilight, Luna, and Cadence was shocked at the friend they lost was also the future prince.

End of Flashback

"Mom I’m so sorry...” Spike mumbled to himself. He then looked at twilight and asked “Twi we need to go to Canterlot right now I need to tell her I’m fine” he yelled as he was starting to hyperventilate.

“We will but first you need to calm….” that was the last thing spike heard when he blacked out from his anxiety and lack of energy.

“Great that makes one thing easier, girls help me take him to the castle, so he can rest and get himself cleaned up, when we get back I’m going to send a letter to both of the Princesses and Cadance to meet us tomorrow morning so we can all talk to spike and see what happened to him.”

As they started to carry spike back to Ponyville spike mumbled “It's good to be home….”

Author's Note

Please leave a comment if you have any idea on how to improve on the story.