The Shoshoniensis Boutique

Spike kept his position at the side of the white unicorn the whole time they were there.

Pinkie had done a great job preparing for the party. As was normal, she'd carefully prepared her party cannon so that she could fire it inside the boutique and allow table cloths, party favors, decorations, and refreshments to land where they needed to when she fired the device. And, as a result, everything had fallen perfectly into place, pleasing the pink party pony, as well as the white unicorn.

Guests, both pony and zebra, had arrived from all over, and were enjoying the refreshments and environment.

Twilight, holding a piece of cake and a cup of apple juice in her magic, approached the pink party pony and said, “Congratulations, Pinkie Pie. You've really outdone yourself this time.”

The representative of laughter smiled and giggled before saying, "Well, Rarity did all the planning."

The representative of generosity, hearing this, approached her fellow element bearers and, smiling, said, “Why, thank you, darlings. However, I couldn't have gotten things ready so quickly without the assistance of you and everypony else.”

Twilight took a moment to look around at the main room, which had no clothes hanging anywhere, at least not yet. Noticing this, she turned to the white unicorn and said, “Oh, come to think of it, after the party, should we help get all your clothes and stuff set up?”

Still smiling, Rarity replied, “Oh, I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine with the help of my little Spikey-Wikey here.” And, she used her closest front hoof to rub the top of the purple dragon's head.

Spike took a few seconds to close his eyes and enjoy the attention from the white unicorn he'd fallen in love so many years ago. Then, when the feeling of the head massage ended, he opened his eyes again. To his surprise, he looked around and found himself alone, floating through an unusual forest, with a variety of trees he'd never seen before.

While many of the trees he saw had leaves at the end of their many branches, most of those leaves were huge. And, other trees had leaves only at their tops, radiating from a central point.

It wasn't long before the little purple dragon realized he was moving, but not under his own power. On top of that, he floated through trees, but felt no collision and no pain.

Before he could process all of what was going on around him, he found himself floating into a structure he knew couldn't've been built by equines or dragons. And, he was floating around creatures that stood on their hind legs and covered themselves with what seemed to him like the skins of animals of some kind, although he couldn't be sure. Somehow, these creatures had prepared those skins so that they didn't look like skins anymore, at least not like the animal skins he was familiar with.

Even more unusual, the skins weren't the only things covering these creatures. They also used the leaves from trees, as well as what seemed to be rocks of some kind, most of which looked really appetizing to him.

Had these been the creatures that built this odd structure?

As he passed individual creatures, he heard them speak. And, to his surprise, he understood what they were saying.

One mentioned someone named Noah, who he called their king, saying something about how he would always protect them, and they would always prosper under his rule, no matter what.

Another mentioned another name, Abinadi, saying that he was wrong to speak out against their king.

Yet another talked about how this Abinadi was going to face punishment for his crimes.

Hearing this, Spike knew, without knowing how or why, that this Abinadi was no criminal.

The purple dragon stopped floating when he came to what he could only assume was the center of this structure. And, there he saw one more of those creatures, tied to a tall log, surrounded by burning sticks and fire. The creature turned to look at Spike; and, to his surprise, his shape morphed into that of the pink party pony before disappearing into the flames.

Before he knew what he was doing, the purple dragon sat up and screamed, “Pinkie!”

Next to him, he heard a voice, one that sounded familiar to him, say, “Spike, are you alright?”

The dragon turned to the direction of the voice and saw the representative of generosity next to him. Looking around, he saw that the two of them were in a bed together. Realizing that he was hyperventilating, he made a successful attempt to calm himself before saying, “I just had the worst dream. I saw these really weird creatures. One of them was burning alive, and he turned into Pinkie Pie.”

The purple dragon could only watch in shock and horror as his favorite unicorn, by no magic he could detect, started drifting upward, twitching unnaturally as she laughed. Her covers fell away, revealing that she was now floating above the bed. Glaring down at the dragon, she smiled as she said, “Oh, don't be silly, Spike. Pinkie's perfectly, perfectly, perfectly alright. She's with Twilight and the others.”

Frozen in fear, the dragon could only watch as the white unicorn stopped drifting upward, and just hovered there, midway between the bed and the ceiling. And again she laughed.

Spike swallowed hard, then asked, “R-r-rar-r-rit-t-ty?”

Suddenly, the expression of mocking laughter on the white unicorn's face morphed into one of alarm, and she screamed as she shot flames from her mouth, flames that then turned and started to consume her.

Presently, Spike leapt out of his bed, out from under his covers. As soon as he felt the ground under him, he screamed, “Rarity!”

From somewhere behind and above him, he heard the white unicorn's voice mumble, “Uh, yes, Spike? Is there something wrong?”

Unable to see in the darkness, the purple dragon jumped and rotated a hundred eighty degrees in mid air, so he was facing the sound of the voice. On all fours, he called out, “Rarity, is that you? I can't see anything!”

Next thing he knew, there was a light coming from somewhere above what he now recognized as the white unicorn's bed, now that he could see. Then, like the rising of the sun over the horizon, the light moved over the foot of the bed, showing him that the representative of generosity had moved there and was peering at him.

She asked, “Is everything alright, Spikey-Wikey?”

The dragon, still on all fours, collapsed into a sitting position. Seeing the white unicorn above him, he started sobbing, “I-I d-don't know. Are y-you alright?”

Rarity answered, “I'm fine. Tell me, what's wrong? And, are you … are you urinating?”

Presently Spike stopped crying and tilted his head, confused at the white unicorn's question. At first he was just relieved that his favorite unicorn was still alive, still untouched by fire. Then, as he calmed down, he became aware of a familiar sensation, a familiar sound, and looked down and sniffed once to realize that he was indeed peeing. He looked up at the white unicorn and, in an effort to stop himself, covered his crotch with both his clawed hands.

Sympathetically, the white unicorn levitated a nearby cloth to him, allowing him to grab it and cover his crotch with it, so that he could pee into the cloth until his bladder was empty. Then, when she saw that the purple dragon had stopped urinating, she levitated another cloth and used it to soak up as much of Spike's urine as the cloth could hold. She then levitated the cloth to the nearby bathroom, over the toilet, and wrung it out; then back to soak up more of the urine. After perhaps the second or third cycle, the puddle was gone; and Rarity made sure that none of the little dragon's urine had reached the foot of her bed.

With the mess now cleaned up, the white unicorn levitated the purple dragon upward and separated him from the cloth he was still holding, sending it to the sink in the bathroom, then asked, “Now, tell me Spike, what's wrong?”

The purple dragon didn't speak, couldn't speak, until he was settled on the bed next to his favorite unicorn, really his favorite pony. Then he wrapped his forelimbs around her closest forelimb and, burying his face in it, answered, “I don't wanna talk about it right now. C-can I sleep in your bed tonight, with you?”

The representative of generosity draped her free forelimb over the back of the little dragon, who once again, but more quietly, started sobbing; and, nuzzling him, answered, “Sure, Spike. We can talk about it tomorrow, if you want.”