//-------------------------------------------------------// Finding Myself -by RedCharge- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1 Finding Myself Author's note Take into careful consideration when you read this, this chapter will make 20% less sense to you if you didn't read either the first, short, story or the newer extended edition, I pray that you do before reading this one. So here it is, as promised, my sequel to "You Found Me" chapter 1- A year later         "Rarity I'm home!" Spike said, walking into their "apartment" Rarity was working on a new gala dress for Princess Luna. "I'm upstairs honey! Be down in a minute."  she called down. As she hurried down the stairs Spike took off his hat and jacket, she had a big smile on his face.    "I brought you something babe." Spike said, his hands behind his back, "A bouquet of roses from the garden. Happy one year honey." Rarity took the roses with her magic and gave her husband a long kiss. "And I made you a little something too dear, I know it isn't much but I hope its  good." she pulled a new top hat from behind her back, it was purple with an emerald it the center of it. "It's beautiful Rar, thank you." he said kissing her back. "How about we go out to dinner? À la haute cuisine pour ma chere? For my love." Spike had been taking lessons in French for quite a while now, and the royal court always had the best teachers. "Or we could order in?" Rarity suggested, "To, save some time?" she flirted, Spike's face went red under his scales, though it still showed. Rarity giggled. "What were you thinking hon?" Spike asked. "Some tulips and a green salad for me, and a fire ruby for you, she nudged at her neck where a glistening red ruby in the shape of a heart dangled, "Preferably one as high a quality as this." "And you kept that after all these years. Even after I wrecked the town." he smiled, "I've told you how much I love you right?" "Tell me again." "I love you more than Twilight loves books." Rarity giggled a little more. "Well that beats about any comparison that I  could have thought of." Spike laughed, everything he had ever wanted was now his. The mare he had always desired, his job (advisor to the Princesses), and now he was living in Canterlot castle, where his wife could be treated like royalty, although now she technically was royalty. Spike and Rarity could both be unemployed, an still never have any worries with their money, Spike could actually LIVE off of his hobby, which was writing music, a hobby he had become quite good at. And although they had both barely become adults they could raise a family right as they were, without any worries. "Rarity, before we go to dinner, I needed to ask you something, something rather important." "What is it honey?" "I know that it's only been a year, but I needed to ask, are you interested in having, children?" "Children? As in-" Rarity hadn't thought of which race their children would be, dragon or unicorn. "I hadn't thought of it, but I do like the thought. Raising a daughter, or son. It would be fun I think." "It's only in my nature I suppose, but I'd like to have a little... male running around the house, but there in lies the problem, who would it take after more?" So far neither of them had any problems with being of two different species, but that might be a problem, especially if they wanted their offspring to be their own. "Let's just worry about dinner for now." Rarity said. "Yeah, that's something I can get a little more knowledge on tomorrow." The two walked down the many winding stairs of the tower to the dinner hall. "So how was your day?" Spike opened the dinner with. "I got the dress for Fleur D' Lis finished, she loved it. How about yours?" "Luna needed some assistance with the new tax platform , between raising sales tax on Applejack's goods or their land tax. In the end we decided that a 4% addition to sales was better for her than two on her land taxes, and we still made the budget with that amount." "Great! By the by, how is our dear Applejack?" "Last time I heard the whole business had expanded quite well since Applebloom had taken over their accounting." "I guess having a sister with a cutie mark in mathematics helped out after all." "Speaking of little sisters, how's Sweetie Belle doing lately?" "Her singing career has really taken off lately " "that's great, is she doing any shows in Canterlot soon?" "In fact she is, Thursday with the Royal Canterlot Orchestra." "I heard Scootaloo was going to be in town with Dash and the rest of the Wonderbolts the next day." "I'm sure Sweetie would do an encore for a couple of days. But I wonder if they'll be as destructive together now as they were back when they were fillies." Rarity said with a giggle , Spike laughed as well. When they stopped laughing Spike looked into Rarity's eyes. "You know how much I love you right?" His tone was a little more flirt than it ha been the rest of the night. "Of course I do honey." "Then I hope you can understand when I tell you that your present won't be here for a few days." Rarity looked at him, puzzled,"You mean that living I'm a castle like a princess,married to a royal who loves me more than anything else wasn't enough of a present?" "Not for you." Rarity's eyes watered as she wrapped her arms around him. "You can't imagine how much I love you Spike!" "More than Twilight loves books?" he said with a grin, Rarity kissed him. "I love you more than I love life, if anything ever happened to you I would just lose it." "I love you too Rarity, and Luna knows what would happen if I ever lost you." "Let's not talk about that."Rarity said She knew Spike was eternal, but what she feared from the situation was that she was not, one day, hopefully in the distant future, Rarity would expire, and Spike would still be young and youthful. The thought scared her, but for now she didn't care, she was still with him, and she hoped to be for a long time to come. END CHAPTER I //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2 Chapter 2 The next morning           It was about 7:30 when Rarity and Spike's alarm clock went off, it was a smooth awakening to the new, and especially beautiful day, The radio was playing a smooth jazz tune as she looked over into Spike's emerald eyes.       "Good morning Sunshine." he said "It certainly is with you honey." she leaned in for a kiss. Spike gracefully leaned in as well, granting her request. Rarity was exited, for more than one reason. Last night Spike said that he ha imagined having foa- children one day. This of course would be difficult, considering the fact that he was a dragon, now fully grown, and she was a pony. But due to the lack of interspecies couples, the practice wasn't exactly of common knowledge. Though Celestia was sure to know more about the subject. Breakfast today was an arrangement of fruits for Rarity. (after all she DID enjoy her figure) and a variety of baked goods for Spike (including muffins, bagels, and toast) topped with gemstones. After their breakfast, Rarity quickly made preparations for dinner, 'Being a pampered housewife does have it's perks.' she thought chuckling to herself. She wanted to be able to get to Celestia before she needed the peace talks with the Griffin Kingdom began. She walked down from their tower and through the castle corridors. She passed though the garden, where several colts and fillies in Celestia's academy were diligently working with their professors on their transfiguration magic. Turning oranges into lotus flowers. Professor Thunderhooves gave Rarity one of the lotus flowers, placing it gently in her mane. "Why thank you professor." she said, smiling. "For you, it is no problem miss Rarity." Princess Luna was just coming out of the library when Rarity passed by. She had just finished reading another one of the Daring Do stories to which she had become quite a fan of since she had returned from her exile,(which had left her with no knowledge of modern pony society, the books she read were a good thing to talk about when all else failed) Now that Spike was working with Luna, they were all very familiar. The time was now about 8:00, an the meeting started at 8:30 unfortunately Celestia's  chambers were on the far side of the palace, meaning that Rarity would need to hurry if she wanted to catch her before nightfall. The guards outside of her chamber were familiar with Rarity ,now that they had been living in the castle for a year, so she could enter the room without a security check. Celestia was brushing her mane in the mirror. "Princess?" she asked. "Rarity! How good to see you dear. What can I do for you?" "I had a rather important question to ask you. Something only you might know." Celestia set down her brush, her mane now flowing with it's usual grace and radiance. "By all means, come, sit down my child." she said moving over to her parlor area. "What seems to be on your mind?" "Foa- children." she stated, her tone becoming more serious. "I thought this subject might come up." she said glumly. "Will Spike and I be able to," she gulped, fearing in the Sun Princess's tone of voice,"have any children?" "That is a bit of a problem Rarity, you see, the birthing process for dragons and ponies are quite different, as I'm sure you know, the process would be, to say the least, extremely painful, for both of you." "I understand why it would be painful for me, but-" "I don't think you do Rarity, you would be giving birth to a dragon egg, no doubt twice the size of a foal. And the process might very well," Celestia looked down,"end in a most tragic death. " "It would kill me?" Rarity said, astonished, saddened ,and heartbroken. "Without proper medical analysis and procedures, the birth might not be safe enough, and since this hasn't happened in decades, there are no doctors who can perform the operations needed to deliver a dragon egg from a pony. Doing it naturally might split you in two." Rarity stared to cry, "Is there any way to train somepony to do the procedure?" she said, now in tears, thinking they might never be able to have children. "Yes, but it may take awhile before anypony could do it." "Who would be the best candidate?" "There is only one that I can think of. One that you wouldn't be too happy with." "Who?" "My nephew, Prince Blueblood." //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3 Chapter 3 "Blueblood, as in Prince Snob?"Rarity said, anger in her voice "Yes, the very same." Princess Celestia sighed. "Well, I must say I am surprised." "After you, and I quote, 'So brutally humiliated him' he ran off to make something of his life." "Well I didn't expect him to be a doctor. Frankly I can only imagine him running and screaming from the very sight of a few drops of blood." Rarity said now pacing across the room "And you really think he has the potential?" she asked "I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." Celestia answered Rarity sighed, "And there are no other possibilities?" "None that come to mind." "Even just by using magic?" "No." ANY other way?" "No" "And there is no other-" "It's Blueblood or nopony." Celestia said, obviously becoming impatient. "Give me some time to think about it." "Well I couldn't call him here now anyway, he is on vacation . So talk it over with Spike, after all, he may not even want to have kids yet." "I will, have a nice day Princess." "And you my child." "So, if we were to strengthen ties in Saddle Arabia, we could have all the oil Equestria would ever need." Princess Luna said. "Why not stay with the Zebras as our main oil source?" Council leader Sapphire inquired. "We should stay with them, but we shouldn't have them as our only source . Besides that, the Arabians have much more than oil, between their tourism, their fine jewelry, and their exquisite arts we would gain much more from them." "Hmm, perhaps we have been overlooking the Arabians. Very well, for a trial basis, we will send troops to build an embassy in the capitol. Good day to you Princess. Parliament is dismissed." "Thank you so much for all the advice Spike." Luna said "Well that's just me doing my job Princess." he replied "You do so much more than I could ask for, and I will look into  that interspecies birth process for you." "Thank you Princess, Rarity will be so happy to know that, when the time comes that is." "Of course Spike, now if you would like, we have the rest of the day, why not go to Ponyville and visit Twilight, I'm sure she of all ponies would have some knowledge of the subject." "I'm not sure I feel entirely comfortable with telling Twilight just yet." "Why not? Isn't she like a sister to yo- oh, of course, worried that it might feel awkward having her brother and her best friend having children. I will find out more about the subject for you though." "I can't thank you enough Princess." "Well you could always buy me a tart from Sugar-cube Corner." "Of course, anything for my favorite princess." The two opened their wings and began the flight to Ponyville. Spike's wings spread through the two holes in his vest, revealing marvelous violet appendages. Being that Spike stood upright at four feet tall (just taller than Princess Luna) he rose through the cloud layer with an unmatched amount of grace. "How 'bout a race Princess?" "Last one to Ponyville buys the first cupcake?" "It's on!" Spike tore through the air at lightning speed, Luna close behind. Luna rolled over and flew just above Spike. "Watch the birdie!" she said flashing a spark in Spike's eyes. He opened his wings as Luna flew right by, and into a flock of geese (none of which were harmed). Again Spike flashed by her while doing a barrel roll. The Ponyville library was now in sight, only about a mile to go. Spike's eyes were locked on the balcony, he shot up a green flare to announce his and the princess's arrival. Twilight noticed the flare and ran outside to greet Spike and Luna. Spike landed right in front of her. "Nice to see my friends still come to visit me every once in a while." Spike laughed, "Well next time you see Dash, tell her I just beat an alicorn across Equestria." "Only by a few seconds!" Luna said, acting playfully offended, "Twilight Sparkle, how good to see you again. Please join Spike and I over at Sugar-cube Corner." "I would be delighted Princess." Twilight said, bowing to her majesty. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4 It was a short flight to Ponyville, Luna and Spike were still nearly full of energy.Spike was happy to be seeing Twilight again, even if it was only a few months between now and his last visit. Ever since Twilight was changed into an alicorn, she was able to travel faster and further than she had before, and now it was all for free. Even the Crystal Empire was within her range of leave. “Great timing guys, I need to go pick up Shining Armor and Cadence at the train station now. Wanna come with me?” “Well it just wouldn’t be a PARTY if Shining and Cadence weren’t here.” “What was th-” Luna started “SPIIIIIIIKE!” a certain pink,party pony yelled from the nearby bushes, leaping on Spike’s back. “Oh, now I see.” She finished while chuckling, she had heard about Pinkie Pie’s strange powers of unearthly knowledge and ability to appear from nowhere, but never believed them as true. “Where’s the party?” Pinkie said? “Sugarcube Corner of course!” Pinkie made a long gasp, “And you didn’t even give me time to mail invitations! I’ll go get the party set up and you go get everypony else.” Spike, Luna, and Twilight all started laughing raucously, Spike ended up falling over on himself. ‘Oh, what do I do? If Spike wants to have kids, and I know that I do,we have to go to Blueblood for help? UGGH!’ Rarity was extremely upset that she and Spike couldn’t have kids in a normal fashion, not to say that anything about their relationship was “normal”. If anything, their relationship was the strangest in all of Equestria. On their wedding night, they didn’t, well, you know, do it, and even after all this time, the only reason that she wanted to so badly was because she wanted children, unfortunately she didn’t even know what to call them, weather they would be foals or baby dragons. The whole ordeal was extremely stressful for her, she was barely out of her teen years, and she knew that she was rushing into the whole situation, but she also knew that Spike was exactly what she wanted, for the rest of her life, she knew that she would be thrilled to be with Spike. She also knew that if they went through with this, she would be forever scarred, but only in the literal sense, assuming that she did in fact make it out of the operating room alive and in one piece. She knew that Spike would never force her to go through with this if she didn’t want to. What she didn’t know was if in fact, he wanted kids. She had been worrying this whole time about what would happen, and then it hit her. “What if he doesn’t want kids? What if all this worrying has only been affecting the beauty of my skin, all for nothing.” She started laughing, more of a fake, nervous laugh than anything. “Oh boy.” “So, have you two had any thoughts about having kids?” Spike asked. “Umm, ahhh.........umm...ahh.” Shining Armor stuttered, “Former captain of the royal guard and he’s scared of talking about his thoughts on having kids.” Twilight laughed, “Oh please tell me that you find this as funny as I do Cadence.” Cadence had a somber and sad look on her muzzle. “What’s wrong Cadence?” “We’ve had three foals for about a year.” she admitted, knowing how much bother that Twilight would give them. Twilight’s eyes widened. “A YEAR!!! FIRST THE WEDDING INVITATION AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE AND NOW THIS?! NOT ONLY ARE YOU LAST MINUTE, YOU’RE WAY PAST THAT MISTER!” on the side, Shining Armor was talking to Spike “Thanks. I’m going to hear about this the whole way home now, you realize that right?” “Not if we start a fight.” Spike looked around the room.