By the time I was back to Ponyville, my sudden gloomy mood was lifting a bit, and I hadn’t even taken Pinkie’s advice yet. Certainly I was pleased with the results of my visit to the Hectares. It might be a few years before the first batch was aged and ready, but I was looking forward to apple brandy, as well the percentage of the proceeds we had negotiated. Until Equestrian Revenue Services got wise about taxing alcohol based on the strength instead of volume only, the margins should be high.

Strolling back through town I saw Spike sitting on a bench with Spike Jr. cradled in his arms.

I walked over to talk to him.

“Her ladyship is having a creative fit,” he explained quietly as he shifted the sleeping infant to his shoulder, “so the malefolk of the house are wisely staying out from under hoof. How are you liking Ponyville? Need help with anything?”

“Loving it here, loving it. Everypony is so welcoming! Of course, how can they help it, living so close to the global headquarters of the Princess of Friendship?”

“Speaking of whom, where’s she off to now? Now that I’m no longer mom’s personal assistant I lose track of her adventures.”

“Oh just some grumpy troll out in the wastes. I wanted to go with her.”

“She’s trying to keep you safe, am I right?”

“Yeah…”

“Get used to it, bro. She’s got a messiah complex that just can’t stop.”

“I know, Spike buddy, I know. Hey, I been wondering something. Didn’t you used to be a lot younger than Rarity? How’d you catch up?”

“Better grab some popcorn, cos this is an even better story than when I saved the Crystal Empire,”

“Which time?”

Spike grinned, gratified that his fame was sufficiently wide spread that I knew his habit of saving the Crystal Empire was not a one time thing.

The bench where we sat was across the street from the old-style establishment called Hoofenail’s Hardware, presumably the very spot Applejack got her gewgaws from. I moseyed over and returned with a paper bucket of popcorn and two cold ciders.

Spike and I clinked the bottles and he began his tale.

“Depending how you look at things, it might have been just a bit over a year ago…”

—

It was the middle of the night and there was a pounding on Starlight Glimmer’s door. When she finally groaned an inchoate acknowledgment the door burst open and a small figure rushed to her bedside.

“Starlight, wake up, I need you to send me back in time. Seven years, to Celestial Yearten twenty five.”

“Buh, huh?” Starlight had been deeply asleep and waking was slow.

Spike repeated his request, speaking more slowly. A few seconds more or less right now wasn’t going to change what he had to do tonight, years from now.

“Why are we going then?” she asked, still dazed.

“You’re staying here.”

“How will you get back to the present without magic?”

Spike whipped out his shades, put them on, and gave Starlight a double thumbs-up. “I’ll walk.”

Now she was fully awake.

“Being a ‘cool dude’ is not going to keep you safe. If anything happens to you I’ll be responsible. You’re hardly more than a colt, if dragons even have a ‘colt’ stage. And Twilight will kill me, Celestia will resurrect me, and then Rarity will kill me some more. Get Twilight to cast the spell for you, she can time travel almost as well as me. I don’t want to do something behind her back and get you killed.”

“I can’t ask Twilight, not this time. I can’t do this alone, but I need to do it without leaning on her. And I believe my associate here can make a very persuasive argument regarding the safety of our plan…”

Into the room loomed a larger dragon. Still able to fit through the door, but large enough that Spike could have easily fit into the pack on his back.

“Hey, hey, Mister Spike,” said the newcomer, “check it out, I remembered where to meet you. Not too shabby after seven whole years.”

The older dragon had some scars and a more mature bearing but he was still, unmistakably, Spike. The shades he wore, too small for his face, broken and taped, were even the same.

“Welcome back to Ponyville, Mister Spike,” said younger Spike, “How well do you remember today?”

“Mainly,” the older dragon’s voice was just like young Spike’s but deeper, “I remember that Miss Glimmer here took some convincing to do the time travel spell for me. She wanted to be sure I would be safe, which I certainly appreciate, she’s a good friend.”

“That’s right, and I think your presence here answers the safety question. However even now as we dilly-dally here our beloved Rarity is throwing a drama and trashing the boutique because I am too young for her to decently -ahem- sate her divine needs upon.”

Starlight blushed at the thought of what needs, divine or otherwise, might lurk in the soul of a mare as outwardly prim and proper as Rarity. These ponies were not beautiful in their sins.

“So you need to get over there and make things right for her,” young Spike finished.

Young Spike raised his hand and older Spike slapped it.

“Tag!” they both said, and older Spike ran to the door.

Pausing for a moment he turned to point at Starlight, double fingerguns. “I remember!” he said with a smile, and then he was gone.

“Now, my dear friend Starlight Glimmer,” said young Spike, “the time spell if you would be so kind…”

“You’re really going to do this for Rarity?”

Spike raised his eyebrows, nodded towards the door. “It looks like I just did.”

She had to admit that he was right.

“What if older-you is not what Rarity wants?”

“Do you think I would force myself on her?”

“Of course not, Spike, I wasn’t suggesting that!”

“Then trust me. If she rejects me I will bow out and respect her wishes. But if you’d care to place a little wager on the matter, I think I know my beloved Rarity pretty well.”

“What odds are you offering?”

“If I’m not married to Rarity inside of one year on this timeline I owe you a k-bit. If I am, you tell all the guests at our wedding that you doubted me but I was right.”

“No bet. You sound way too confident.” She smiled. “And I want you to be right.”

Starlight offered no further argument: the time portal opened.

“Since older-you has already left the room, there’s something I need you to remember seven years from now when you go to your love.”

“What’s that?”

“Remember that your friend Starlight Glimmer says good luck!” she raised a foreleg for a friendly hoof bump.

Spike lowered his shades so he could peer over the lenses. He bumped Starlight’s hoof with his free hand. With a wink he stepped through the portal.

—

“The rest, as they say, is history.” Spike concluded his tale.

“You took the long way home from seven years back?”

“Seven years, a couple thousand kilometers of trekking around, battles, a war, skirmishes beyond counting, a royal rescue in dragon country and all kinds of complications from that.”

“That is badass, bro.”

“Ain’t it?” Spike laughed, “I mean, who would even do something like that for a chick, right? It was totally worth it.”

“I’d like to hear Rarity’s side of the story.”

“Milady was in a rough place. I’ll let her decide if she wants that part told.”

“Fair ‘nuff. I’ll ask her sometime when she seems magnanimous and expansive.”

Spike Jr. woke and burped up all over his father’s shoulder.

“Totally worth it,” Spike repeated with a tender smile. “Pass me that cloth?”

Author's Note

Double Drop (two chapters) in honor of the Solstice tomorrow. Of course, I won't believe it until I see daylight on the twenty second. If the sun doesn't rise this Thor's day, I'll be up on the roof, snow blowing in my mane, shouting, "Ragnarök, ragnarök!" at the top of my lungs. If you hear me doing so, that's probably not a good thing.