Within the graveyard, pale bones lay in haphazard rings, placed with desperate haste. Dozens of gems shone in the darkness with the light of eldritch stars. Blood bound the components together, traced into words wiser minds never write. Circles of sourceless green fire slowly rotated, defining an enormous dome. Within the arcane prison, an endless being screamed.
Its form writhed in smoke and fire. Images of skeletons and terror flashed within, as a law of the world was bound by unwavering will wielding stolen power. The prisoner fought back with fire and ice. It released against the invisible walls every frequency of radiation, even twisting the fabric of space within as it tried to escape. All in vain.
Finally, it surrendered to its fate, simmering as it waited for its captor's hold to wane. Smoke cleared, leaving a skeleton of a winged dragon crouched within the circle of bones. It stared down at the one who had summoned, and for now, bound it with pinpoints of blue light within the void of sockets which had never truly contained eyes. It waited. It had all the time in the worlds.
"Ha! I did it! That last bit with the space folding might have fooled others, but I grew up with the pony who wrote the book on teleportation!" A small purple figure declared triumphantly, before suddenly sitting down in shock. "I did it."
YES. YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST TO DO SO. IT IS NOT THAT GREAT OF AN ACHIEVEMENT.
The voice roared into the captor's head without bothering to consult his ears. He dug a claw into one ear, scratching it around in surprise, diamond-clad will nearly cracking from the message. "Whoa, neat trick. Have you met a unicorn named Trixie? She'd love that for her act."
I MEET EVERYBODY. ONCE. The skeletal figure thought for a moment. WITH THE OCCASIONAL ENCORE.
"Nice evasion big guy, but that's not why you're here." He gave a small cough, a feather of green flame escaping to join the circle like a circling insect.
OF COURSE NOT. YOU DESIRE POWER OVER ME. YOU DESIRE ME TO TAKE YOUR ENEMIES BEFORE THEIR TIME, AND TO LEAVE YOU BE BEYOND YOURS. Death gave a dramatic spread of its massive arms, hands pressing against opposite sides of the cage he briefly sat in.
The dragon sneered, swiping the air in rebuke. "That's stupid! I've made no enemies, and those who made me their enemy I destroyed, usually by making them my friend!"
The skeletal head tilted to the side, actually taking in the figure before him, seeing the dragon-hide tome which held his captor's story, and read the spine of the tome aloud. SPIKE.
"Don't wear it out." He growled, lips curling to show his teeth in contempt, sharp fangs which had only once drawn life's blood.
NOT EVEN A HUNDRED SEASONS OLD. MOST OF YOUR KIND TAKE AT LEAST A THOUSAND SEASONS BEFORE THEY HAVE POWER AND DESIRE ENOUGH TO SUMMON ME.
"My kind? Do you mean dragons? I wasn't shaped by dragons, I was just born as one. When I went to the draconlands, I saw just how shallow and horrid they could be. The strong gluttonously hoarding gems, the weak killing other beings or each other just because they felt like it!"
THAT IS THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"The circle of life is wrong! Things shouldn't be like that!"
IT IS NOT WRONG. IT IS NOT RIGHT. IT JUST IS.
"You would say that."
I DID SAY THAT. Death smiled down at the purple dragon, frozen rows of teeth which had devoured worlds, shone in the green light. I AM A LAW ON EVERY WORLD. EVEN THE CHANGELESS EVENTUALLY MEET ME. IN THE END, I DEVOUR EVEN MYSELF.
Spike ground his teeth in frustration, the being was toying with him. Taunts to distract from his original goal. They were working. "In that case, you're hardly special then, you haven't done anything interesting! I've flown around the world! I studied for most of my life by the hooves of Celestia and the best student she's ever had! I've been into space and to the ocean's depths. I learned the secrets of dozens of lost or buried tomes. I've starved myself of meat so I can bare to look at myself in the mirror, and given up every treasure I found but the knowledge, so I can recognise the face in it. I dared the sideways fey realms alone, and returned." He paused in his rant of achievements, anger filling him as a tiny voice told him after each that it still wasn't enough. "I've seen enough to know what's right and wrong. And I've learned enough to fix this wrong. Now show me what I called you here to see."
The skeletal dragon gave a small sigh, despite lacking the required organs to do so, and smoke curled out of it's maw. The smoke spun around the being, as if not sure where to go, before gathering into taloned hands, and coalescing into a pair of hourglasses.
The larger sat top-heavy, ornate scaled frame holding a pair of kissing glass bulbs, each large enough for the young dragon to fit within. The top bulb was so full it left him aghast, and even through the shields of the prison he could smell the finest diamond dust, trickling through the gap of now into the comparably minuscule pile of yesterday. The golden plaque upon the base, large enough to fit a proper dragon name twice over, held five crudely carved letters, the style of a young filly who had awoken and named him only a few short decades ago.
The second was so much smaller, pinched between two talons. An ivory white frame displayed an elegantly inscripted name upon the base, flowing cursive like a ribbon in the wind. A glance filled him with joy and sorrow in equal measure. Like confirmation they were kindred spirits, the second life timer contained the same fine pure diamond dust. Yet at the same time, her hour was almost upon them, only a few carats of the precious time remained nestled up against the now, while glittering powder fell lifelessly to the half full bulb below.
"How long until...?" Spike asked, unable to articulate the question completely.
SEVENTEEN DAYS PRECISELY... NOW.
"Now, fill hers with mine! I know you can. She needs it more than me!" He demanded, staring up with self-loathing at the unfair amount of time ahead, her small life could fit within his dozens of times, he couldn't think of a better way to spend his own life, and she deserved so much more.
But the dragon who towered over him simply shook his head in refusal. I WILL NOT INTERFERE DIRECTLY IN A LIFE. I WILL NEITHER LENGTHEN NOR SHORTEN ONE.
"Fine, leave them and go, I'll figure out how to do it myself."
I WILL NOT DIRECTLY ASSIST IN INTERFERENCE.
"It's not fair! Seventeen days isn't enough!" He roared like a mouse at a lion.
HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? Creaking bones shifted as Death repositioned itself within its cage, as if smugly suggesting he had won the debate with the question.
After seriously considering the question, spike pointed a small talon up at his life timer. "Half of that, plus eight and a half days." He declared.
A quiet laugh filled the young dragon's mind, PERHAPS THAT IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. NEVERTHELESS, I WILL NOT INTERFERE DIRECTLY. MY SOLE PURPOSE IS TO COLLECT WHEN THE TIME HAS COME, NOT TO CHANGE THAT TIME. BARGAINS, THREATS, BRIBES, THEY ARE ALL MEANINGLESS TO ME. I WILL NOT INTERFERE DIRECTLY.
Spike looked at the small life timer, a strange literalization of an abstract idea. Tiny dark purple gems embedded within the frame hinted about one possibility. "I could turn her into a dragon, maybe, it's not that hard since I'm already one. Would that give her a longer life?"
SEVENTEEN DAYS AS A MAYFLY. SEVENTEEN DAYS AS A UNICORN. SEVENTEEN DAYS AS A DRAGON.
Spike roared at the beast who towered over him, holding two of the lives that mattered to him like they were mere toys. "Why?! You have so much power to make the world a better place, and you sit there like it's all a game!" He wiped tears from his face, despair leaking through his anger. "If you won't save her, who can?"
TELLING YOU WOULD BE INTERFERING DIRECTLY. The bony head looked up at the night sky, almost like it was contemplating. EVEN IF YOU PREVENT HER UNTIMELY DEATH, HER FINAL HOUR WILL STILL COME.
Spike felt a spark of hope, and looked up at the tiny precious hourglass, realizing just how much space remained in the unicorn's potential past. The heap of diamond dust barely half filled it, there was room for so much more time. It just wasn't there to be spent. "Why is she like this?" He asked in a whimper, feeling like a confused child again.
Yelling from the forest distracted him, and he turned to somepony calling his name. A gasping unicorn broke through undergrowth, apparently seeing him easier than she could be seen. "Spike! I've been looking everywhere for you!" she panted as she loped into the clearing of the small graveyard, and froze mid-step. Twilight looked at her faithful assistant in absolute horror.
Spike gulped. He was already a match for her size, but between them, the unicorn probably still outclassed him in power ready at a moment's notice. He looked from her, to the now empty prison, her intrusion had been enough distraction to let the endless being to slip away. A tiny voice in his head, normally forced into silence, demanded that the unicorn be destroyed for disrupting the ritual. A flash of the young mare as a much younger pony embracing him crushed the dark voice. "I can explain!" He said quickly, looking down at the dozen desecrated skeletons briefly, feeling more sick at the sight of them now than when he had dug them up. "The blood's mine! I didn't hurt anypony!"
Twilight Sparkle stood agape, trembling in instinctive fear at the sight of her kind's bones, surrounded by blood and gems. She looked at the Dragon, still a child despite his age and power, and where he had clawed at his own scales, dried blood trailing down his arm. "Spike..." She took a step back. "I know how much you care for her, but this... This is wrong! Rarity wouldn't want you to do this for her, I wouldn't want you to do this for me!"
Spike rubbed at his face to avoid meeting her horror-filled eyes. "I know. I'll still do anything within my power to save her, or you, or any of my friends." He stood, his short bipedal stature matching the height of his adoptive family. "Even if saving you makes you hate me for it." He fled into the night, feeling space try to twist around him. Spike fought back, his draconian will preventing him from popping to where Twilight desired him to be. Once he escaped from her range, he rose into the night air.
***
Draconian magic has roots in blood, fire, and death. Timeless beyond reckoning, it comes from an era where they ruled complete worlds with terror and flame. Spike knew this all too well, from the horrifying knowledge he had brought back from his brief journeys to the realms he had once naively considered his homelands. If Spike had given into the dark hunger within, tempting him to hunt the beings Twilight had taught him to love, he could access so many untapped currents of power few of his species would be his superior. His desire for acceptance and love from his adoptive family had made him shun nearly all of the power, knowing he'd never enact such rituals. But one simple spell from his race, which many of his kind had been born with it already bound within, had almost broken through his pacifist will.
When he confessed to Twilight just how much it meant to him, and how he was afraid he might actually do it, Twilight hadn't laughed as he feared. Instead, she saw it as a challenge to be overcome, and helped create an option that compromised between his desire to be a complete dragon, but still have his self respect. She had helped him twist the blood ritual of wingbirth, dismantling the spell as easily as a poem. With the help of all six of his greatest friends, he brought down one of the oldest trees within the Everfree Forest. Its ancient life force fueled the spell, along with the friendship that bound him to a philosophy of life which most dragons laughed at.
And now he used their emerald gift to escape a scene of horror of his own making. As he flew towards Canterlot, part of his mind was afraid that he was heading towards a future with an even worse diorama with him as the author.
***
As he approached Canterlot Castle, the night watch spotted his unique outline, and as he approached the high air yard, well drilled troops quickly marched into position, light armor of the royal air guard glinting in the torchlight.
When he landed, a loud resonating intoning came from within the entrance to the inner hall. "Explain thyself, foul beast of fire! Thou darest approach our heart of power under cover of night? Speak fast or face annihilation!"
Spike didn't mean to laugh, it just slipped out. "Ha h-hi Luna!" He managed to say before another brief bout of hysteria overcame him.
"That would be Princess Luna to the likes of--" The dark figure stepped into the torchlight, her words breaking off as she recognised the figure as not an impertinent scout, but a declared friend of Equestria. Her speech quickly shifted to a much more feminine tone, filled with concern. "Spike? Is that you? What happened?! You're hurt! What did you do?" Her star-filled mane billowed around her as she ran out to assist the small dragon. Before she reached him, she pulled up short, nose wrinkling up. "You smell like their magic! Like something burned and died, but worse!" A royal shoe rose to wave at her face, Luna looked quite rattled as she tried to push away what to her was a bad smell.
Spike sighed, realizing that explaining might not get him the help he wanted, but evading the question could be just as bad, so he barrelled on through. "Rarity is dying, just fading away and nopony knows why. I used dragon magic to try and help. I dug up old bones, and used my own blood, rather than hurt another to do it. I summoned a sort of embodiment of death. It said she was going to die really soon, days." He took a few deep breaths, opting to not share just how long the figure had told him. "But it's untimely, half of her life is just missing, she's not supposed to die!"
Luna looked resigned, knowing how pointless it was to rebuke him for his actions in his current state of desperation. "I'm sure Twilight will fix it. She always does." She smiled down at Spike, the small dragon stood only up to her shoulders. Luna was one of the only two ponies who could still tower over him. "I'm sure if anypony can find what's wrong, it's her. You should go back to her before she starts to wory."
Spike waved his arms about, refusing to accept such platitudes. "She's been doing all she can, and even stopped asking me for assistance. I can think of only two that surpass her skill, and one of them is treating me like an ignorant foal, I'm going to do everything I can to help her, even if Twilight or somepony else fixes Rarity in the end. If you can't help her, take me to your sister. Tonight. Time is of the essence and I won't waste more than I have to."
The Princess gave a small frown, nearly refusing, because of course, her sister was already asleep. Finally, she nodded, walking around him as she headed inside. Her tail of stars tickled at the purple scales as she swept him along. "Power to move the moon, and you play escort duty," she muttered under her breath with self-deprecating amusement. The royal bedchambers unsealed at the touch of Luna's horn, and while the guards who loyally stood to each side eyed Spike suspiciously, they didn't impede his entry when Luna ushered him in. "Tia, you've got a guest, sorry about waking you so late."
The majesty of Princess Celestia was perhaps dampened by the dim room, but by no means reduced. She had plenty of experience of keeping up her carefully managed image in worse times than a rude awakening. With a touch at her face to help wake her up, she turned about on the large bed. "Good evening Luna, I understand, I trust you wouldn't wake me if it wasn't important." As her eyes found the strange guest, her expression turned somber, her face showing that she already knew why the dragon had led a one dragon campaign all the way to the highest power in the land. "Spike. You've grown again."
Spike gulped. "A bit." He looked at his feet, only able to hold the gaze of the princess a few seconds. "Rarity's done so much for both of you, she's one of the last ponies who deserves to fade away like this." He nervously fidgeted, feeling the intent princess silently appraise him as he rubbed at dried blood on his scaled arm.
"Rarity has served Equestria well, both as wielder of one of the elements, and as a firm hooved pony. I am quite aware of that," she started diplomatically. Obviously calculated to futilely soften the blow. Spike's claws tensed in anger, already knowing where she was headed. "However, she is mortal, and her life is nearly spent. Each being has the life they are allotted, and no more."
Spike held up his hand covered with the specks of dried blood rubbed off his scales. "And I have more life than I can bare to think about. The one useful thing I learned from summoning Death was that Rarity has plenty of room for decades more worth of life force, she just doesn't have it in her. I do, I just can't figure out how to reach or move it around with the time I have left."
Luna let out an undignified whinny of laughter, before composing herself. "Spike, that would burn her up faster than if you tried to give her a lung or your blood. Everyone is unique, she would reject even her sister's life force. Violently."
Celestia stared at her younger sister's outburst in such a serious discussion, but she never voiced an opinion, preferring to focus rather than digress. "We will all hurt when she passes, especially if need of her element arises before a new bearer is located. I suspect they will need to all be attuned to new bearers together."
Spike shook in place, the talons upon his feet gouged into the soft wood of the floor. "You only care for her as a bearer? She's part of your secret weapon, so you look out for her, but now that she actually needs your help, you just give up and look for a replacement before she's even gone?!" He felt sick at the idea. At least other dragons just saw the rest of life as food or ignorable, not as a disposable weapon. "I know you can heal her, I see how you've cheated the system, surely you can get Rarity around it as well!"
Celestia shook her head, the softly billowing pastel aurora spreading out as it shook free. "The cost is too great, I must put the needs of Equestria, and the world, above any one pony, even one of the element bearers. Even above my sister, as you well know. Perhaps someday, I will have to place the needs of the world above my continued existence. I am sorry, but that is not today."
The small dragon turned away from his last hope, claws slamming into the door, but his weakening self control managed to prevent them from gouging the wood more than the small dents the impact made. "I could find a way to take it from you. I can already see the shape of the power, and the bindings, and there's still time to build what I'd need. It would take a lot of blood to make the unbinding without Twilight's help. I'm begging you, please don't abandon her. I don't want to kill again." Through clenched eyelids tears leaked, and he pressed his face against the hard wooden door, trying to wipe them away with the hard wood as memories of his friends simply being beside him at time he had felt truly alone shone as bright as if he was reliving them.
"Spike, Citizen of Equestria. Hear me well, for I shall not repeat myself." The words hit him like hammer blows, and he turned about to see a Princess Celestia that was far grander than he expected. Dimmed was the majestic pony with ivory white body and peaceful pastel mane, the shape she wore so her subjects could look upon her and fear not. For the briefest instant, the Princess shone like she was fire. No, like she was plasma. Spike covered his eyes, locking away his other senses as he felt them overwhelmed. As his head spun, part of him recalled all the protective measures he needed to take on his quickly aborted flight to the moon. The vacuum had been the easy part, compared to all the things the sun threw out that the planet could no longer protect him from. His senses struggled to recalibrate for several minutes from a mere instant of her naked power.
When she spoke again, it was her normal, calm tone, yet each word was carefully enunciated "I can forgive your discourtesy given the current events, but understand, I have not survived this long by ignoring threats to my life or position." When she saw the small dragon blinking away tears and a vision-obscuring afterimage, she saw what she was really dealing with. A scared adolescent, who had learned just enough to be properly afraid for somepony he loved. "Spike..." she sighed. "Think it through. Suppose you went down there, and offered it all to her. A life as long as the sun's, and enough power to move it. All she has to do is accept it, and know how you freed the power for her. What happens next? Do you think she'll thank you for usurping me?"
Spike shook his head, but he still stood firm. "No. She'd probably be so scared of what I did, she'd hate me forever. But she'd be alive. I'll save my friends, even if it means I have to leave them."
Luna stepped forward, trying to place a hoof on his shoulder, but he backed away from the touch. "Look at yourself Spike. You're the only dragon in the world who believes harmony between all things is desirable, and live its ideals better than many ponies do. You've struggled to be kind to every living creature despite your nature. Even when the truth hurts, you stay honest and true. Generosity has become part of your very nature, the only thing in your hoard is information, and even that you share with those who need it. Yet even the separate aspects must be kept in harmony with each other, honesty must be tempered with kindness, laughter without friendship is empty. Your loyalty to Rarity is blinding you to so much if you would shatter her to save her." Luna opted to sit rather than reach to touch the volatile Spike again, leaning to rest the side of her head against an upraised sandal. "You're willing to save her at the cost of your friendship, even your citizenship. But are you willing to save her at the cost of Rarity hating herself for what you did in her name?"
In his imagination, Spike saw Princess Rarity, her natural grace and beauty magnified by her ascension. Then he saw how all the traces of the one she had taken over for were everywhere. Statues and stained glass showing the Princess who had been and was no more. Everypony who saw her would know she was the one who held the stolen power. The very sun would sing with grief for loss, and she would never be able to escape. Except to give the power away, or let it consume her, letting the wild power free. Either way, the world would be far worse off, and his self-destructive solution would have been in vain.
He couldn't do it now. He couldn't save her that way. With his last hope broken, he collapsed to the floor, hands and knees holding him up as the sight of the floor blurred up. Tears streamed as he let the hopeless grief overwhelm him with wails and sobs. When he finally composed himself, and no longer felt like vomiting or breathing fire until the world burned, the room was empty. The ageless pair had slipped out a wooden or arcane door to leave him to his grief.
***
Twilight was waiting when he opened an upper window of the Ponyville library.
"Spike! Explain yourself! I have enough problems without you going crazy and desecrating the bones of half a dozen ponies in the middle of the night and then flying off to Celestia knows until nearly dawn!" Twilight ranted about him as he tried and failed to sneak in without incident. "Have you gone completely insane? Do I have to lock you down and stop trusting you?"
Spike knew a good setup when he heard it. "If you trusted me, why didn't you tell me Rarity was dying?"
The rant continued mutely for several seconds as Twilight failed to come up with a response, but her mouth kept on moving. After her mind and mouth re-established a working relationship, she said, "Because I was afraid you'd do something crazy rather than follow my instructions."
Spike stared daggers at his mentor and friend, and coughed a few feathers of flame up. This time words failed him. Of course he had gone and done something crazy after he had pierced the veil of secrecy, but that had mostly been because Twilight had kept him in the dark and refused to let him help with her work. It often seemed that she was completely blind to the laws of social interaction, even after all these years. In less serious times he might have tried to shake the crazy out her ears like he had wanted to do ever since he realized he would be big enough to do so one day.
Eventually, he broke the staring match and went to his bed. After pulling off the sheets, and wrapping them in a bundle with his pillow, he headed down the balcony steps to the front door. Twilight watched him go, and at least could put things together well enough that she didn't need to ask where he was going.
The streets were quiet and dark, and it was so late Spike only saw a few windows which still contained a light on his long walk. Between the serious magic, the start of the emotional crash beginning, and his round trip by air to the city, he knew walking was far preferable than flying the short distance.
When the small hospital's front deskpony tried to protest, he ignored her, walking deeper into the complex despite objections raised. He knew where he was going, and was only mildly surprised to see a pair of unicorn stallions guarding the door he wanted, both intimidating even if they wore scrubs. One of them said in a gruff voice, "Sorry sir, but nopony is allowed in after hours--"
Quickly darting between the two, and able to swat away the two attempts to encase him in a magic field as easily as gnats, he turned to give a small wave. "Good to hear! Keep up the excellent work!" He exclaimed with far more elation than he felt, and he quickly left the befuddled charge nurses to make the final approach into Rarity's dark room. With a tiny light, he located a roll-out cot under the bed, settled himself down upon it, and slept as best he could.
***
When Rarity awoke, it was a slow chore, struggling to consciousness briefly before rolling over to abandon the attempt and drift off again. Each sequential nap was shorter, and like an infinite series with a finite solution, her ability to sleep summed, and she sat up in the bed, only then catching the unique smoky scent of a familiar dragon. "Spike?"
Decades of being an assistant to a pony who had no concept of a normal sleep cycle allowed him to wake from a dead slumber if his name was called in that familiar questioning tone. Eyes snapped open, and he was already reflexively rising to his feet. "Yes Twilight?" He blinked as the surroundings knocked him painfully into the present. "Um, I mean Rarity."
She hid a small smile of amusement by looking around the rest of the hospital room. "You're here by yourself? Where's Twilight Sparkle?" she asked, confused at finding the young dragon here alone. "Did you sleep here all night?" she asked when she looked at his sleep deprived face, slightly drooping with a tired smile.
He held up his taloned hand, ticking off the questions as he answered them. "Yes, Probably still at the library looking for a way to cure you, and no, I only slept there a few hours."
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised they let you in."
Spike grinned knowingly. "Well, they said nopony could come in." After a confused stare, he elaborated. "Draaaaagon." He said with deliberate slowness, pointing at himself. Finally, she smirked, and gave a quiet laugh. Even if it was more at his sarcastic explanation than the actual joke, it was good to hear her laughter.
Hooves rubbed at her sleep encrusted eyes, Rarity had been sleeping far too often, and when she had dared leave the bed, she was quickly victim to bouts of dizziness or simply passing out. "I suppose a bit of conversation would be better than flipping through more boring magazines."
He climbed onto the bed, curling up like a scaled feline at the foot of the rediculously long bed. She barely used half of the bed's length if she tried. "So, what have you been up to?" he asked after the silence grew to uncomfortable levels.
Raising a foreleg above her head to dramatically gesture about, she intoned with a tone so haughty she had to be mocking somepony. "Oh, so much my dear, so much! I reviewed the fashion of this wonderful establishment, but simply failed to find anything inspired. All derivative and tacky. I've even tried to branch out, writing food reviews, but the paper catches fire whenever I write enough about the abysmal quality to properly capture the feeling!" She dropped her upraised hoof with a small sigh. "But enough about my change of venue, tell me about what you've been up to since you got back."
Spike frowned, thinking through how normally Twilight was overjoyed to see him return from one of his "little adventures" as she called them, and barely let him leave her side for days. But this time she had kept him at a distance when he tried to settle back into old routines. Finding out Rarity wasn't well had led him to do his own parallel research, and he quickly ruled out all of the natural causes, while additionally figuring she was steadily declining with no signs of improvement. Which had led him on a futile chase that ended up back at the start, on a death watch he had resolved to see to the end with a smile. All he could offer now was to make her remaining days happy and comfortable for her, in the vain hope that would be enough solace in the ages to come. "Just boring magic stuff, nothing that you'd want to hear about. Did I ever tell you about the time I set Philomena on fire? Apparently phoenix and dragon fire aren't quite the same thing." Another musical laugh prompted him to go on, telling about one of the more interesting days when he still lived within the great castle, the chaos and damage repaired and forgiven long before he had met Rarity.
***
When doctors or nurses tried to usher him out, he refused to leave, simply disrupting any unicorn who tried to magically lift him or otherwise remove him from the room. A small bluff of him suggesting such a trick could be made a permanent affliction was more than enough to flag the courage of the more stubborn ponies. Since he never interfered with any of the futile tests or treatments, they eventually just ignored him, the only acknowledgement of his existence the wide berth they took when walking around the room.
Other visitors came. Most of the time it was her sister, who talked quietly about another day at her internship, a haunted look in her eyes as she tried to look brave for her big sister. Others visited for short times when they could. Applejack and her brother came to her side, looking somber, and neither of them had much to say. When Fluttershy finally braved the hospital to visit her, she took one look at the frail unicorn, old and weak before her time, and just started crying with incoherent apologies as she hugged at the sheets, wrapping up her dear friend.
Each time somepony close to her visited, she looked just a little stronger. Her friends gave her the will to stay awake for their entire visit, but when they left, she was asleep moments later.
When she was awake, Spike told her stories from before he had moved to the small town he now called home. When those ran out, he talked about the daring acts he had done on his lone adventures across the world and beyond, filling in details he had not shared when they had seemed not so important.
In turn, when she could form the words she needed, Rarity told her own stories. Growing up, being sister to a foal so much younger, how she had moved to Ponyville and made new friends. When she started talking about events they had both been at, Spike could see in her reminiscent eyes just how aware that she was dying. And every dark night, a quiet echo of the bony dragon whispered in his mind a countdown to the end.
***
Her deadline inexorably approached. When he could count the days left with his talons, Spike's tales began to be told with unguarded abandon. Quietly, when he was sure nopony else would overhear, he talked about events that out of fear or kindness he had omitted from any report. He told of the monsters he had run away from screaming. He described a desert oasis so full of peace that he nearly never left its cursed waters. He talked about the stories he had witnessed only the edges of, his mind returning to wonder what had happened to those who had been given a useful item by a passing dragon for a few shiny rocks. After much deliberation, swallowing in nervousness, he even told of his deepest, unredeemable shame.
He had been lost for days in an immense forest, wing shredded when a gust had sent him earthward when he had been skimming over its canopy. He needed a clearing to repair the damage with his fire without causing a wild blaze, and none had revealed themselves even after he had found a small brook, and followed it downstream through thick undergrowth for days.
The stag had been an old and wounded, yet still magnificent being. Antlers as wide as a full grown oak. After she insisted, he offered a more accurate measurement, the wingspan of a Princess. When he saw the dragon, he had tried to flee from the banks of the small stream. Spike hadn't thought about what to do, he had been just following the water, letting the trickling whispers lull him into a walking waking sleep. His mind reverted to old, deep instincts, and he caught the creature before it could limp away. Teeth and talon quickly dispatched the life, and the ever hungry beast tried to fill its meat starved stomach. A flash of memories hit the small dragon, showing himself who he really was, a connessur of gems and sugar, not blood and flesh.
Spike sat on the far edge of the long hospital bed, putting as much space between him and a pony who would surely hate him for the rest of her sort life. Arms wrapped tightly around his stomach, feeling nauseous at the memory. "I threw up a lot. I couldn't do anything else, I couldn't apologize or make it right. All I could do was bury him." He whimpered, looking up to see not horror on Rarity's face, but pure pity.
She tried to reach for him, but he stayed where he was, unable to approach anypony in his current state of self-hatred and fear. "I'm sorry Spike, I really am. Please, don't tear yourself up over that, it was just an accident. Everypony makes mistakes." Rarity spoke quietly, understanding how many ponies already judged him as a half-wild monster.
Spike shook his head slowly, rebuffing the comfort weakly. "I'm the accident, not the... murder. I didn't throw up because it was horrible, I was sick from just how good it tasted. For weeks I was terrified that I'd wake up one morning to find my real nature took over again, and killed somepony in the night."
Rarity smiled weakly, trying to help him find the silver lining. "But you didn't do that, and that's what matters. We're all born into lives and bodies we didn't choose. We all look like accidents of fate to ourselves." She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry it didn't work in time, I must have made a mistake somewhere, I'll look at it soon," she mumbled, but fell asleep before she explained further.
Alone with his thoughts, he watched her sleep, thinking over her reaction to his confession. She had barely been afraid at all when she had been told Spike might turn carnivore again without warning, like she knew something he hadn't yet figured out. She had tried to comfort him for doing the unspeakable, acting like it was her fault he had loosened his grip on his draconian nature.
When Twilight Sparkle quietly entered, his first hint that somepony had entered wasn't any sound of his mentor's, but the fact Rarity was suddenly awake. Almost like she knew somepony important had arrived while she was asleep, and was merely waking up the same way others opened the door to meet a planned arrival.
Spike looked over to the door where the small librarian stood, her sadness a thick shadow that dulled her coat. "Hi Spike." Her fatigue from days of trying to find a solution even after her dragon assistant had surrendered to the inevitable left her emotionally drained for the time she spent actually by her friend. "How is she?"
He turned to Rarity, thinking he had figured out a small piece of the puzzle. "She's doing better than I expected. She was also about to explain why something opens up my memories whenever I start to lose myself."
Rarity blinked in surprise, and tried to deny it, but being put on the spot was more than enough to fracture any chance of an effective deception. "It was just a little thing, I put the spell together after that... incident. It was to help you stay gentle even when you were stressed, the only way I knew how."
Twilight squinted at spike, as if trying to see this enchantment. "I don't see any spells like that on him," she finally said, looking over to Rarity in confusion.
"Well dear, of course you can't see it, it's not active." Rarity said, brushing away the confusion.
"Rarity, spells don't just turn off and on, once they fulfill their purpose, they dissolve." Twilight explained very slowly, like she was teaching the very basics of unicorn magic.
Rarity gave a sly grin. "I figured out a way around that little problem."
Twilight took another close look at Spike, but still couldn't figure it out. "Okay, you win, you stumped me. I admit it, now share this wondrous secret of yours."
The dying designer shook her head back and forth limply, even in her weakened state, she was just as determined as anyone else in the room to have her way. "Sorry, but that's my little secret, I have to keep it all to myself, or my last gifts will go to waste. I'm keeping you all safe, even after..."
All the pieces were there but one. With the puzzle nearly put together, Spike could see the shape of the last part. Her already unfairly short life cut in half, leaving her to fade away in her prime. Unnaturally vivid memories flooding his mind when his resolve to be good faltered. Dozens of events where one of his friends could have been crippled or killed, yet escaped with nothing more than scratches. How a pony entering her room always woke her up, even when they were absolutely silent. "Twilight. This might seem like a silly idea, but just go with it. Cast a life sign finding, and filter it so just Rarity's is visible."
She looked at her assistant, and nearly pointed out the obvious, she was right there, no need to go looking. She was too exhausted to argue about silly things, so she humored him. Her horn glowed as arcane power flowed, focusing inward rather than out, and after a look at Rarity, Spike, and around her in a full circle, she muttered to herself, and repeated the spell, frowning when she got the same result. "That's odd, I guess I need sleep, I must not be applying the conditional properly. It still lights up you, Spike, as well lots of ponies outside."
Spike climbed off the bed and patted Twilight's back in reassurance. "You didn't make a mistake. I'm sure of it. Now go collect as many of those ponies you can convince to get in here, while I deal with her." He looked at the other unicorn, righteous anger in his eyes. Talons tore at the sheets at the edge of the bed as he roared at her, his voice a scale model of his race's full might. "Rarity, how could you be so stupid? Do you have any idea what I've been through to try and save you?" Her eyes opened, but that only encouraged his tirade. "I argued with the Princesses! I practically got myself obliterated summoning up a sapient embodiment of Death, just to beg for your life! And you're throwing away your very life on what, protection charms and friendly reminders?!"
Rarity shook her head in denial. "I spent a lot of time on sewing them, they'll keep anypony, and you, safe from almost any harm. They even stopped hurting to make after the first few. I want some part of me to go on... I don't have any foals of my own, my sister and friends are all that matter. Giving them an, I don't know what to call it, was such an easy thing to do without them knowing. The only pony who even noticed was easy to swear to secrecy."
"You've got to take them back! You've got nothing left!" Spike yelled, His small talons encircling her foreleg in desperation.
Her smile was grim. "Dear, I know how much you care about me. Let me spend my life how I see best. One short life is meaningless in the long run, but dozens of spells which will guarantee long, healthy lives to my friends, and pass on down the generations forever? That's something I'm willing to give my life to make happen."
Spike rested his head against her leg, trembling from the conflict of emotions that couldn't bare to stand back as she gave her very life away, expecting nothing in return. When a Princess spoke about putting the needs of many above one, it was cold and cruel. But when that one not only spoke about it, but enacted the sacrifice in her own calm time over a decade of secretly crafting protection for others at the cost of her future, it was something else altogether. He could easily see the parallels between them, even if their goals were drastically different, the sheer willpower that pushed her generosity to her own self-destruction matched his fiery crusade that had only been abandoned when the only solution to save her, would have contained seeds of far greater destruction.
Spike's voice dropped to a whisper, knowing that what he said could save or ruin her. "You have to live, If you don't, everypony who will know about what you did for them, and they'll all think, 'If she had one less friend, she'd still be with us,' and they'll hate themselves for killing you by being that one. That's not a happy, healthy life." The small dragon gulped, going on to confess one of the prices he had been willing to pay for her life to be restored. "I was willing to give as much of my time to you as I could, but it's just not allowed. I'll still do it, if you stay. Show me how to make them, please. I'll pay the price, I'll pay double, triple. Just don't leave us like this..."
Her resolve tried to stay firm against the quiet words, but fractures slowly appeared, until the dam broke. Like a literal dams, its bursting swept the the imbalance it had created on her mental landscape away. By placing generosity above friendship and her own life, and held up by pure will, Rarity had made the quiet town the safest place to live in Equestria, at a dire price to herself and those who loved her. Rarity's face was stained with tears when Twilight ushered in half a dozen confused ponies.
The confused long-time Ponyville inhabitants stood around, uncomfortably shifting in the now-crowded room. Twilight watched with arcane eyes as her friend's magic reached out to the first pony, and begun to remove the complex matrix of spells. Woven together with threads spun from the deepest layer of the unicorn's being, it was a beautiful, yet grim work of art for Twilight to behold. Within the construct, dozens of threats to life and limb were carefully spelled out, each containing conditionals so simple that a unicorn simply precalculated the variable, rather than further complicate the spell. It constantly measured the pony's velocity, altitude, oxygen level, and dozens of internal statistics, always ready to repair a failing lung or injured spleen. The construct was woven about the pony like another coat of fur, and yet the whole thing worked in complete magical silence, hiding right below the surface to blend in with the natural order of a pony, invisible to anypony who didn't know exactly what to look for.
Each pony got a quiet apology from the bedridden unicorn, along with a quiet plead to be careful. Eventually, she had unwoven all six constructs, and the ponies were quietly ushered out with talk of aforementioned promises of food or other treats.
The recovery of life left the white unicorn almost buzzing and slightly feverish as her body and mind reacquainted themselves with what it meant to be relatively full of life again. Despite the danger being passed for now, doctors desired to keep her for observation. A few hours after the fever had faded away, and with her strength and health had returned, her patience with being a patient broke. Finally, she left the hospital with many promises to take things easy, and to return at the first sign of a relapse.
Spike followed along as Rarity slowly walked back to her boutique in the early evening light. "I'm sorry, Spike. It made perfect sense when I figured out I could use my skills for making something that could protect my friends. Half a month of my old age, and I knew Fluttershy would be protected from all the beasts of the forest which she couldn't stare down. Another few, and Twilight would never lose her horn or other parts of her to one of her crazy plans. Once I started looking for the possible dangers that could take my friends or sister, I saw so many, and kept improving their protections. I was making and adding another piece on almost a weekly basis, letting my designing go by the wayside to work on a way to protect my friend when they had a close call. It was easy to make sure Rainbow Dash didn't get crippled from her recklessness, but she still had two separate close calls with rockfalls where mere luck kept her from being crushed like a bug before I could perfect that part of the protection without needing to spend years of my lifespan to build."
She sighed as she reached the darkened boutique, and leaned her side against the door as she looked up at the high ceiling of the covered porch. "Once you give part of yourself away, it becomes easier and easier... With five of my most beautiful creations on my sister, and most of my friends, they became easy to weave, and easier to give to ponies who needed them. The total cost just snuck up on me."
Her horn shimmered with sound and color as she unlatched the door to the main boutique room, dark in evening's gloom. "Thank you Spike," she said as quiet noises came from the deserted showroom, erupting into a cheer as the door swung open. Lights came up to reveal the long neglected room had been cleaned and filled to a comfortable capacity of inhabitants of the village. For a town which had inhabitants with views on fashion that considered a hat on a sunny day a bit much, they had all gone to the effort of getting dressed up for the welcome home party. The erratic collections of clothing showed nopony who wore an outfit from a single era of fashion, which was perfect for amusing and inspiring the designer, easily taking her mind off the strong probability that the costumes had been assembled from her vast private collection. She looked out at the small dragon who still stood on the porch, and with a flourish of her only marginally disheveled mane, invited him inside.
As the party peaked with a poofy pink pony expertly orchestrating the milling chaos like an admiral of fun, only a few costume malfunctions took place, resulting in only minor embarrassment, amusement, and damage. Rarity delighted in critiquing the absurd outfits, occasionally finding one which actually appealed to her designer's eye. Even Spike managed to find a few pieces of clothing that fit him, even if they were all in her collection of giant hats.
Even if every pony there went back to the community norm, and saw her work as items for special occasions rather than something to be worn every day, the party was more than enough to show how everypony cared about her as a unique member of their community that they would have hated to lose.
As the party began to wind down, ponies began to leave the party, carefully folding up their garments as best as they could before departing. When the last few were giving Rarity hugs, Spike considered the possibility of staying behind, wanting just one more night by her bed side. He knew that even if he managed to hunt down and make her unravel every single spark of life Rarity had torn from herself, it wasn't going to be enough time. Someday, she would be gone, and he would protect the rest. But for now, this one pony was more important than the world. The many could take care of themselves. He would protect her.
