The Stars That Bind Us

There was some comfort in Spike, seeing the girls again. Though the pain of one was not there was still great, it was good to be with the others.

"Ooh there's so much that happened since you were gone, Equestria has been going nuts!" Pinkie Pie said as she and the others walked Spike down the halls of the castle. "So much happened to you. With you being captured and all."

"Well now you're free and home, " Fluttershy said.

"Twilight mentioned where you were held. It's a shame that we weren't the ones that got you." Applejack said.

Spike chuckled softly. "Either way, I'm here now," he then frowned. "I'm sorry that I caused a lot of mess… I… am sorry about Rarity…" he trailed off.

Even though Rarity was the cause of her own demise and him turning, she was their friend, the once Element of Generosity.

There was a moment of silence before Starlight spoke. "Rarity shouldn't have even received the potion from Twilight and I in the first place," she said, her and Twilight sharing a look.

"I hate to say it, but Rarity's case was that she fucked around and found the consequences. What happened to her was her fault. You're not to blame, dude." Rainbow Dash said.

"We should've seen this coming. The way Rarity acted," Twilight said softly. "It was just our fault as it's hers."

"I've seen it coming." Starlight admitted. "You were just too blind, but yeah, we should've stopped her sooner."

"With the Elements now in shambles, Equestria is now weak because of me." Spike said.

The girls shared a look. "Well…"

"We are looking for a new Element, we're still strong when we are one short." Fluttershy spoke softly.

"Generosity is not the only element in the spirit of Friendship." Twilight said. "It's one of many elements. We're still looking." She patted Spike's back.

Spike sighed.

He then turned to Rainbow Dash. "What happened to your ear and face?" He asked the cyan mare.

"Fighting in this war. I joined the military forces not long after it broke out." Rainbow explained. "Damn hellspawn nearly ripped my face off on the first tour." She motioned her scars. "Right after Twilight lost her wing."

"I got a new one. It's weird to figure out how to flap with two different wings. Discord had to teach me." Twilight blushed.

"Discord helped? Where's he been?"

"Gathering Intel on Sombra. His unique powers allow him to slip into his fortress and disrupt his operations." Starlight explained. "He's probably going to be at the meeting."

At least the Lord of Chaos was lending a hand to this War.

Spike then looked at Fluttershy. "Where's your wedding ring?" he asked her. Remembering that she had married Soarin.

Fluttershy grunted, making a face he rarely sees. "I sold it. Divorced him after he was caught sleeping with a fellow wonderbolt."

Spike's eyes widened and a moment flashed in anger. The thought of anyone hurting Fluttershy, cheating on her, was something unholy!

"I took the liberty of sending his tiny dick ass to the hospital when I heard the news. No one fucks with Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash grinned.

"I also talked to my bug friends and they invaded his clothes. Ticks, lice, bedbugs, mosquitoes, all of them.. oh and had birds poop on him." Fluttershy said. "Not my finest moment."

"Damn, you go girl!" Spike laughs.

He noticed all of them were leading him somewhere and began to become suspicious.

"Uh, where are you guys taking me?" He asked.

"You'll see! Ooh can I say it, please?!? It's eating me up!" Pinkie Pie asked loudly.

"Relax, we're almost there." Applejack said as they came to a set of large double doors.

Spike was smelling sweets, a mixture of pony and other creatures behind the doors.

Twilight and Starlight used their magic and opened the door.

"SURPRISE! WELCOME HOME SPIKE!!" A gathering of creatures shouted upon greeting.

A welcome home gathering for Spike, many friends, his adopted parents, those who love him were all gathered for him.

With a tap of The Blue Celestial, Rachel's blue and black armor materialized in place as she approached The War Room.

Composing herself, she threw open the doors.

Inside the dim lighted room, surrounded by many stained glass windows casting a multicolor light, the string single light pointed down at the round table. Sitting in the chairs were the following:

Prince Pharynx, standing in for King Thorax for the Changelings and a couple of his guards.

Ember - with Rachel - for the dragons and some guards, one of them Malik.

Lady Trinity for the Griffons and her entourage.

Lord Iodine Dust for the Kirins.

Chief Druid Leaf for the Zebras.

Queen Nova for the Hippogriffs with General Seaspray.

The Princess, Celestia, Luna, and Prince Consort and General Shining Armor for the Ponies.

There were humans, one sitting in a chair that Rachel didn't recognize. Brown skin, middle aged man, no hair, brown eyes. Dressed in marine blues.

All turned to see Rachel entering.

"Ah Rachel, thank you for coming." Celestia said as Rachel took her spot next to Ember and Shining.

"Hey, how's Spike?" Shining asked her.

"He's fine for now." She assured him.

"He won't be after I get my claws on him, fucking dirt bag." Ember grunted. Both Rachel and Shining gave her looks.

Both the Blood Staff and The Blue Celestial shimmered. The Blood Staff now fully saturated and filled with magic once again now Spike's able to use his magic again. The Celestial's black pupil looked at the room, scanning its occupants.

"First thing before we begin, we would like to thank Queen Rachel for her efforts of bringing Spike back. For those who didn't know, Spike is one of our most valuable members-"

"He's The Dragonlord." Ember quickly reminded Celestia.

"-Of our society. King Sombra had kidnapped him and took him hostage." Celestia embellished.

"With valiant effort on the count she had just given birth to his son, Rachel has brought him home." Luna said before she bowed her head to the Queen. "On behalf of Equestria, thank you, Queen Rachel."

There was a small round of applause. One rang louder, causing Rachel to look up to see Discord hanging out on the high rafters above them.

"Bravo, Queenie, hazzah!" He waved a mini flag with her face on it, a foam finger and a soda drinking hat with her initials on it. "Pip pip, God save the Queen and all that." He then poofed the items away.

"Now that's over with, let's get this meeting started." Shining Armor said.

"Where's General Mayweather?" Rachel asked then, looking at the human marine.

"Mayweather was killed in action when Sombra's forces attacked the Settlement a week ago. I'm Staff Sergeant Amir Khan." He spoke. Though he had a noticeable accent, he spoke perfect English. "I was appointed to be the Head for the Humans with the Portal closed."

"That is one of the things we will be discussing today in this meeting." Princess Celestia said.

Luna's horn glowed and the table before them lit up, bringing up a hologram of sorts, showing where Sombra's forces had stuck, marking it red and the forces from the Alliance's counter defense and attack in blue and green.

"In the recent days, there had been spurts, Sombra manipulating the portal to Tartarus and using demons to attack. Taking a number of hostages and slaughtering the rest." Shining Armor reported. "Normally we would be fighting his mind controlled subjects but these things are giving us a fight."

"It is plain as one can see, commanding hellish ghouls on the battlefront outnumber us by one against three." Chief Druid Leaf spoke.

"Like their master, we learned that they are sensitive to light." Lady Trinity spoke. "The productivity of the light bombs is high but we have noticed a lot of materials we use for them are dwindling."

"Then, we'll look elsewhere to get material. Those things are our chance to fight against these fuckers." Ember said.

"The Changelings now accompanied with the new Sexling forces - thanks again for that Rachel - have been helping with the material but it's not enough." Pharynx said, crossing his arms.

"With the increasing number of attempts at the Sentiment, they know the Portal will be open soon." The Staff Sergeant said. "We can acquire more material once it opens, but I fear the portal opening will endanger Earth once more."

"With the Dragonlord now returned, he and I can stabilize the Portal to ensure that it won't destroy Earth." Rachel said. "The Portal was made by dragon magic centuries ago, only we can adjust to it. However, the Portal and those guarding it are still under our control, under my Mordi."

"Can't risk you guys storming in like you did. Still can't believe you were tricked by some pompous ass dead beat." Ember pointed out.

"Nonetheless, we'll be getting more resources and fighters for this War." Amir grunted. "But can you guarantee that we will be protected constantly by the dragons and ponies?"

"No one is fully protected until Sombrero is long dead and buried." Discord said as he floated down to them.

The humans looked bewildered when seeing the Spirit floating down to them.

"I have collected some interesting secrets, set off a lot of traps his royal hypocrite had set up to block me." Discord said as chuckled. "He's been harboring materials you critters use to make the light bombs and is making his own."

With a snap of his bird claws, the table shifted to a more ominous image. The look on both the humans, Malik, and Rachel's face spoke loud volumes.

It was a rather large device, seeing mind controlled humans and ponies working together on constructing it. On the side of the object was a noticeable emblem of an American flag that looked like someone tried to scratch it off.

Rachel slowly raised her head to match the look on Amir's face.

"I beg your pardon everyone, but… Why does that look suspicious like a nuclear bomb?!" Malik croaked out.

The humans looked baffled but some squirmed, including The Staff Sergeant.

All the leaders looked at them.

"Staff Sergeant, please tell me for the love of God that the US did not ship nuclear materials to Equestria." Rachel asked, her voice hinted with anger.

"What is it?" Queen Nova asked as they looked at the highly dangerous weapon being constructed.

“A tactical nuke” One of the human soldiers responded.

“One of THE most dangerous weapons mankind has ever created!” Rachel snapped. “Why the fuck did America brought in nukes into what was suppose to be one of the peaceful lands in Equis??”

“I was not a part of that squadron, but I had heard rumors during the early days.” Staff Sergeant Amir explained. “When they were bringing in supplies, they brought in three tactical warheads to store just in case when we had believed Equestria was harming the human race. There was an assault and one was stolen. Sources say it was taken by a Prince Blueblood and his White Mantle.”

Rachel slammed her hands on the table, body steaming. “You fucking kidding me?!”

“Why are we now just being told this?” Celestia asked with a glare.

“We had believed we could get it back without causing notice.” the other human said.

“Well we all take notice.” Discord saud before mockingly hums Hail The Chief, floating around the humans.

“If Sombra finishes construction and sets it off somewhere in our territory, Equestria will be wiped out, and depending on how much damage he has been modifying it, most if not the whole world will be impacted.” Rachel growled. “Good ol’ America, bringing in fucking nukes.”

“It was a mistake on our part.” Staff Sergeant said. “When the portal opens~”

“We WILL be talking to your Chief of Staff and the rest of the UN about their dastardly mistake.” Celestia said.

“This is why Dragons don’t really mingle with humans anymore.” Ember snarled.

“Discord, since you saw this yourself, why haven’t you used your magic to get rid of it once and for all?” Shining Armor asked.

“Don’t you think I tried, Sextoy?” Discord said, poofing over to the Consort before materializing multiple poorly drawn figures of himself and Sombra's fortress and the bomb itself. “I tried to get it myself but Sombra had been keeping this up tight. Since he’s using his son’s body as a meat puppet, he knows that one day we will know of this and uses spells to keep the likes of me out of it.” Discord demonstrated by trying to have his drawn self enter the chateau and try to get near the nuke but the drawn Sombra kept him out with a magic bubble. “It seems he knows a bit of Chaos magic so we canceled out each other and I was chased out.”

“How long until he completes this nuke?” Rachel asked.

“I’ve been trying to disrupt operations so I say it’ll take a bit before it’s fully operational. But once the portal opens, there will be a full scale assault because Earth has all the materials needed to complete this weapon.” Discord said.

“The Portal will be open in a month.” Rachel said.

“Squabble and squibble as time passes by, The portal opens and we all will die, So cease your tempers and still your lies, For one thing none of us have is time.” The Chief said.

"I can post several of my guys at the Settlement." Pharynx volunteered.

"So will the rest of us. The Settlement must be protected and guarded at all cost. If one world falls, so will the other." Celestia said.

"Rachel, can you get Spike ready within a month?" Luna asked. "Since the Portal is dragon magic, we need both of you there when it opens."

Rachel nodded. "We'll be there."

Celestia nodded then. "This meeting is adjourned until then. Keep all of us informed. We need our alliance to be strong, now more so than ever. Good luck to you all."

After getting reacquainted by friends and family, Spike was left sitting down alone with a cup of cider in his hands.

Though he had fun and he felt a little lighter that none of the creatures here saw him as the monster that destroyed their homes and lives, he still felt out of place.

Like he doesn't belong to this group anymore.

As he took a drink, he caught familiar scents and felt them coming closer to him.

He looked up and saw Shining Armor, his lovely mate Rachel, and Ember approaching him.

And Ember was pissed.

"Ember, no no we talked about this!" Rachel called out, trying to stop her as the tall dragoness approached Spike in a threatening manner.

Spike stood though his earfins droop and his tail tucked between his legs.

"You mother fucker, you crazy leaving Equestria like that!" Ember snarled. Harshly poking him in the chest with her claws. "You got balls, little shit!"

"I-I-I sorry, Ember." Spike yelped, before letting out a pained grunt as the Blood Staff was shoved into his hands and stomach.

He looked at her bewildered as he now held the scepter. The crowd goes quiet to hear the commotion.

"You got a month to get your damn head on straight, go see your kid and settle in, because you got work to do when the month is up. Don't make me come and drag you out because I am not your mate, I will kick your royal fucking ass. I'm NOT nice like the Queen. You got it, you dumbfuck?!" Ember snapped at him.

Spike made a sound and just nodded, feeling fear towards the more aggressive dragon.

"Good! Now welcome back and don't ever leave again." She snorted before turning on her claws and walked off.

Shining Armor and Rachel watched the blue dragon leave with the guards.

Bitch. Rachel thought as she glared at her. Rachel heard the Blue Celestial humming at her. Very tempting, she responded.

Shining Armor sighed, shaking his head before turning towards Spike. "Guess you being The Dragonlord is true, little brother." Shining said, smiling in greeting as Spike stood.

"Uh yeah .. long story." Spike said as he stared at the Blood Staff.

It has been years since he physically held it. The large crystal shimmered as if greeting its true master. Feeling the energy radiating off of it and into him.

Shining watched him before giving him a hug. "Missed you, bud."

It broke Spike's train of thought and reciprocated the hug, a smile came to his face. "I missed you too. I missed all of you."

"My beautiful boys," Twilight Velvet awed, watching her son's now reunited once more. Nightlight held her close as it finished off this round of reunions.

There was just one union left.

Twilight came back around and joined the sibling hugs.

Rachel quickly snapped a few pictures with her phone of the three.

"Sorry for the hug and dash, but I have to get back home." Shining said as he lets go.

"I understand." Twilight said.

"If .. if it's the same, I'm ready to go too." Spike said as he turned to look at Rachel.

"Aw, you're leaving?" Pinkie Pie asked as the rest of the girls came up to them.

Spike nodded. "As much as I love seeing you all again… there's someone I've been looking forward to meeting." He smiled.

Rachel smiles.

"Yeah, that is understandable." Twilight giggled.

So after a round of hugs was given, Twilight had given the two a lift with her magic and teleported them to The Evergrove National Forest.

They landed right in front of the barriers. Spike could see the remodeled cabin in the distance behind the barriers.

"I see they got it finished," he muttered.

"It was a surprise when I saw it." Rachel said.

He fidgets a little. Sheepishly grinned. "Uhhhhh yeah okay I'll admit, this was meant to be my wedding present to you." He confesses.

Rachel chuckled, rubbing his back. "You ready to meet your son?"

"More than ready." He spoke.

She grabbed his hand and led him through the barriers and down the pathway.

They passed by a couple of the dragon guards who were on patrol. They bowed respectfully to the two royals before resuming their jobs.

The anticipation of meeting Igneous was thriving. Spike was excited to meet his boy face to face. He'll always have that guilt of missing his birth, but Spike has the rest of his life to get to know his child.

They came to the steps when the doors opened and the twins stood at the yellow lit doorway with their bags packed.

Both had a scowl when seeing Spike.

"Spike." They said in unison.

Their stares were making him a bit uncomfortable before they turned to Rachel.

"Iggy has been going haywire for you, think he smelt your scent," Ruby said to her. "You might catch him climbing out of his crib right now."

"Oh oh okay," Rachel said as she lets go of Spike's hand. "Thank you girls for looking after him, I owe ya."

"That's what sisters do." Gemcity giggled.

They parted and Rachel raced in to grab Iggy.

When Spike tried to enter, the two blocked him from entering.

"Uh look I know I messed up from leaving Rachel. I'm trying to-HYGAH! "

He was interrupted by Gemcity harshly kicking him in the groin, causing him to keel over, clutching his injured twigs and berries. Knocking the very air out of his lungs.

Ruby grabs Gemcity by her shoulders and begins pushing her away. "Welcome back, Spike." Ruby said with a grunt.

Spike tried to speak but he felt like his balls had moved to his throat.

He groans and whimpers, writhing in pain, he hears Rachel approaching and gasping.

"Spike, are you alright?!?" She asked, alarmed.

"I'm fine… Just… ow… " he groaned as he pushed himself to his knees. "I deserve that… ooh my balls." He whimpered.

He then detected another sweet smelling scent, followed by a baby giggling.

Spike shot his head up, the breath he had just gotten back was gone again.

Holding in Rachel's arms was Iggy. The infant cooed, gumming at his fingers and giggled.

Rachel bounced Iggy. "Iggy, there is someone who very much wants to meet you." Her voice was light. "It's your daddy."

Igneous babbled, looking at his mother before looking down at Spike.

Daddy…. The word echoed in Spike's head as he stared at his son.

Rachel kissed Iggy's head before walking up to Spike and offered the child to him.

Spike trembled as he reached out and held Igneous.

Iggy didn't know what was happening but felt that nothing was going to happen. Cooing up at him cutely.

"Hey there… " Spike whispered, holding the baby gently. "He's… he's so small." He noted.

"Not for long, so take this in," Rachel giggled, playing with Iggy's tail, seeing it flickering.

Spike felt his eyes watered, his heart exploded as he then embraced his child. He felt Iggy curling up to his shoulder, head leaning against him.

Spike began sobbing. Holding his child close as he looked up at Rachel. "Thank you… thank you…"

To think, he almost lost his chance with this. Almost losing this moment.

Rachel knelt next to him, wrapping her arms around her mate and child.

Their family was now whole.