The Legacy of Spike

    Twilight and her friends had just entered the hospital. They were here to visit their beloved friend, Spike. Possible for the very last time. That was something none of them wanted to think about. Especially Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They were walking up to the receptionist when a doctor stopped them.

“You’re Twilight, correct?” He asked.

Twilight looked at him, unsure. “Um... Yes, I am. Is there something wrong?” She asked, she was desperately hoping that he didn’t have any bad news to bring.

“No, in-fact. It’s quite the opposite. Spike has just woken up, he’s still a bit groggy, but he’s doing well. We were all surprised when we heard noises coming from his room. We were sure that someone had broken in and stolen something. Much like last time.” He finished, glaring at Rainbow Dash. In reply, she smiled sheepishly.

“He-he, sorry about that, again.”

“Just don’t let it happen again.” He scolded. “Anyways, I am sure that you all want to visit Spike. So if you would just follow me, he’s right this way.” He motioned to a long hallway. “When he woke up, we had to move him into a different room. There were other patients that needed to be put into ICU and we were running out of beds. Luckily he woke up when he did. If he didn’t, I couldn’t imagine what we would do.”

The group of ponies arrived at room 105. “So, I think that i’ll leave you all to it. I have other patients to take care of. If he needs anything, just call and a nurse will be on her way.” With that, the doctor left the girls outside of the room. None of them had the nerves to open the door. They hadn’t spoken to him in almost an entire month. They knew that they had to tell him how long he had been out for, but they were afraid to.

Finally, Fluttershy, of all ponies, managed to gather the courage and opened the door. She squee’d in excitement when she saw Spike awake and breathing. The next thing she did was run up to him and give him a hug.

“Oh, Spike. I’m sooo~ glad that you’re okay. We were all so worried about you.” She said, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Um, Fluttershy? Can you please get off of me? You just landed in my food.” He said, slightly annoyed.

“Oh dear. I’m so sorry, Spike. Um, we can leave if you want privacy to eat.” She said, reverting back to her normal self.

“Nah, it’s fine. Besides, this stuff tastes like cardboard.” He said, shoving his plastic tray away from his body. “So, what’ve you guys been up to while i’ve been in a coma for a month  or so?” He said, like it was no big deal.

“H-How’d you find out?” Twilight asked.

“It’s not that hard to figure out, Twi. I just looked at the calendar.” He stated, pointing over at the calendar fixed to the wall.

“Oh, well that makes sense.”

For the next few moments, Spike and the girls remained in awkward silence. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Oh, right!” Twilight said, snapping back to reality. “Um, well nothing’s changed in the library, or Ponyville for that matter.”

“Yeah, I suspected that. I really wanted to know what’s happened in you're lives. Like if any of you are dating. Things of that matter.” Spike asked, his cheeks growing red with a blush. Twilight noticed the he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Dash, who now had a blush on her face. From spending so much time around Rarity, she knew that the two loved each other.

"Actually, Spike. Most of us have some important errands to run. Isn't that right, Girls?" Twilight said, shoving the other girls out of the room, except for Rainbow Dash. She then looked at Spike and Rainbow Dash and said, "Don't have too much fun while we're gone. Okay?"

They both nodded. With that, they left Spike and Rainbow Dash alone. Not that Spike could do anything about it. He was the one who was stuck in the hospital. Spike glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was still avoiding his eyes.

"So, Dash. You going out with anypony?" He asked her.

She looked over at him, clearly surprised at his question. She was silent for a few moments before coming up with an answer. "Um, no. Nopony has' asked me out and, to be honest, I doubt anypony will." She said dejectedly.

"Dash, what are you talking about?" Spike asked, looking at Dash is disbelief. "You are a beautiful mare, Rainbow Dash. Any stallion should consider themselves lucky to be with you. There isn't a single thing that I hate about you. It's super fun to be around you, you always are there when somepony needs help, I don't know about other guys. But that's a mare that I'd want to date." Spike finished, putting a claw on her shoulder of Rainbow Dash. Who was now crying softly.

"You really think that?" She asked, smiling warmly at him.

Spike blushed, "Yes, I do. In fact, I-I've thought that about you for a long time now. Ever since we started spending more time together. I don’t know if you feel the same way about me, and to be honest, I don’t care. I love you, Dash. And nothing anypony says or does, will change that.” Spike looked up at Dash, she had a shocked expression on her face.

“D-Dash, are you-” Spike began, but he was interrupted by a pair of lips meeting his. Wow, her lips are really soft. If I died right now, I wouldn’t care. I just want to cherish  this moment. He thought to himself. He didn’t even notice when she pulled back.  Once he got back to reality, he asked the question that had just entered his mind. Or at least he tried to. “Why’d you kiss me?”

“I-I kinda l-l-love you to, Spike.” She said, sheepishly.

“When?” Was the only thing that Spike could reply with.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think it was around the time we started hanging out in-between sessions. That’s the main reason that I turned down all the stallions who asked me out. And let me tell you, there were a lot.” Dash said, shaking her head.

“So let me get this straight, you turned down any stallion that asked you out? Just because you fell in love with me?”

Rainbow Dash nodded and hovered over the bed. She was about to reply, but Spike’s tail wrapped around her abdomen and pulled her towards him. Dash’s mind was starting to get cloudy, H-He’s not gonna do what I think he’s going to do, is he? She asked herself, mentally. Turns out, he didn’t do what she thought he was going to do, much to her disappointment. He simply returned the kiss she gave him earlier. When he pulled back, he asked her a question.

“I guess that this means we’re dating, huh?” Spike said, with Rainbow Dash  nuzzling up against him.

Rainbow Dash looked up at him and smiled. “I hope it does, otherwise this would be really awkward.”

“Does this answer you're question?” He said, leaning in for another kiss, this one seemed to last longer than the first two. Which made Dash very happy. But is also seemed to be gentler, it seemed as if Spike was trying to prolong the touching moment. Around that time is when Dash knew something was wrong. That’s when she felt his scales getting hotter and hotter. Eventually, she had to get off of him and the bed to cool her body down. When her hooves had stopped burning, she looked over at Spike and nearly screamed.

Spike’s entire body was on fire, from his spiky toes to the fins on his head. Rainbow Dash could clearly see through the flames, Spike’s expression was oddly calm, like he knew this was going to happen. But yet, he was crying, the tears barely exiting his eyes before evaporating in the flames. Rainbow Dash heard him say something to her, but she barely registered it in her mind. The one pony that she had feelings for, was dying right in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t do a single thing about it.

By that time, the doctors and nurses had been notified of the fire via fire alarm. The girls had left the hospital after Twilight and Rarity explained that the two were in love with each other. But now they were running towards the room that Spike was in. Praying to Celestia that he and Dash were alright.

They breathed a sigh of relief when the saw Dash in the waiting room, being treated for burns by the doctor and nurses. But they all stopped when they saw the expression of pure sadness on her face. Sadness like you would have at a funeral. Dash saw her friends and walked up to them, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Thank Celestia, you're okay." Twilight said as she embraced her friend. "We all heard the sirens and rushed over here as fast as we could. What were those sirens for? Is Spike alright?" She asked.

"He's gone" She replied, her voice empty of all emotion.

"What do you mean 'He's gone'?" Rarity asked.

"What does it sound like I meant?!" Dash snapped. "He's gone! Dead! And it's all my fault." She sighed, "I'm sorry, it's just that-that I could have saved him. When he was on fire, I could have saved him, but all I did was stand there. And watch, I watched while he died." Dash said somberly.

“Dash, I don't expect any of us to know what you're going through right now. But I know that we will be there for you." Twilight's voice cracked. "You can probably see that I'm trying to hold back my tears."

"It's not working very well." Dash said as she saw all of her friends crying, trying to comfort each other.

"Dash, I know that all of us will miss him. But he wouldn't want you to dwell on this. I'm not telling you to forget him entirely, I'm just saying that even though it will take a long time to heal, he would want you to get on with your life. He didn't tell us about him dying because he didn't want you, or us, to worry. I think that we all know we wouldn't have left his room if that were the case." Twilight finished.

"I have to agree with Twilight on this one, Dear. I doubt he would've wanted you to stay like this. All of us will have to get used to him not being here." Rarity said. "Throughout all the years he's helped me, I have never seen him put his needs over those of his friends. He would do anything for you, Dash. Don't you forget that."

Rainbow Dash looked over all of her friends, each of them were smiling warmly at her. She could see that they were trying to be strong, for her.

“And right before he died,” Twilight said, trying not to cry. “What did he do?”

“He-He kissed me. And said that he loved me.” She said, finally said.

"See, Dash? He said that he loved you, that's why he wanted to speak to you in private. You made his last moments of his life, the best moments of his life." Twilight said, embracing her cyan friend once again.

Rainbow Dash smiled weakly. "I guess you're right, Twi. Thank you, I really appreciate that you tried to cheer me up. But I don't think that anything can help me through this. I'm just going to go home, if that's okay with you." She finished.

"Of course, Dash. It's fine with me." Twilight said, trying to hold back her tears.

Rainbow Dash got up and walked towards the doorway. Once outside, she immediately took flight towards her cloud home.  Tears streaking down her face, thinking of the young drake that she loved. The young drake that was now gone forever.

Twilight looked over her friends, all of them were looking at Rainbow Dash as she took off. Tears were streaming down their faces, much like her own. She sighed, it was time to write a letter to Princess Celestia.

"I-I think that we should all follow Rainbow Dash’s advice and head our separate ways. I believe that we all need a break from today.” Rarity said, wiping away her tears with a cloth.

The others nodded in agreement. They then headed off their own ways. Hoping that the past few hours were nothing but a nightmare.

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Dear, Princess Celestia

This isn’t going to be a normal report. Not today anyways. Today, we have lost somepony close to us, to all of us. I am sad to say that Spike has left us. He has been in the hospital recently, as you know, and today, he passed away. The only one who was there was Rainbow Dash, she and Spike had just confessed their feelings for each other when it happened. The doctor’s and nurses have no idea what made him burst into flames. I’m not sure we want to know. For the next few days, maybe even weeks, we will mourn the loss of him, and plan his ceremony. Please inform my parents, Shining Armor, and Cadence of this. I’m sure that they would like to know what happened.

You're Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle

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Meanwhile, in the center of the Gryphon Kingdom, a young drake was just waking up in the infirmary.

"W-Where am I?" He asked.

The griffon nurse looked at him, smiling. "You're in the Gryphon Kingdom. And might I add, Lord Ironclaw would wish to speak with you. But first, we need to know your name."

"My name is-" The young drake started, but was interrupted by another female gryphon.

"Spike?!" The gryphon asked, clearly surprised.

Spike looked over and nearly gasped in surprise. "Gilda?" He asked, wondering why she was wearing a crown.

To Be Continued...