Shining Armor opened his eyes, feeling a sharp pain in his head from the place where his horn didn’t use to be broken. He quickly noticed he was inside a prison cell. He stood up and tried to run towards the cell bars, but he quickly stumbled and fell to the floor. When he turned his head to see what had stopped him, he realized he was chained to the wall. Shining inspected his prison more. He was in the last cell of a long corridor of some prison, probably underground because of the appearance of the walls. It didn’t look like there was anyone else in that prison except him, though it could hardly be considered the VIP area.

“Hello? Is there anyone here? What’s happening, where am I? I demand to know! Someone answer me!”

After a while of yelling, the door at the other ending of the corridor opened and entered no one less than Princess Celestia.

“Good evening, Capt… Sorry, EX-Captain” She said calmly, but with emphasis on the last part.

“What do you mean by ex-Captain, Princess?” He said fearfully, for he had a very clear idea about the possible and sure answer.

“Probably due to what you’re thinking”

“Majesty… I can explain”

“It is not necessary, Mr. Armor. Luna and I have checked your memories and your subordinates from the crime scene. Well, the ones who survived”

“What do you mean by ‘the ones who survived’?” Shining asked alarmed.

“I’m afraid Mr. Morning died in the operating room. One of his broken ribs pierced his left lung and when the doctors intervened, it was too late. He drowned in his own blood”

Shining Armor observed a minute's silence in memory of his dead soldier before talking.

“Princess, I assure you we did it for the sake of Equestria. It was never our intention to hurt anyone”

“Sure! That’s why you didn’t plan to murder Spike or sent a thug to your sister’s home, dressed like her dragonfriend” She replied sarcastically.

“Not to mention that we now know who guided the ruffians who ambushed the transport of the ambassadors of Ikaruga some months ago”

“I assure you everything has been…”

“Allow me to read your crime list, Shining Armor” Celestia said, making a document appear and clearing her throat to start reading.

“Let’s see… Overextend the use of the army staff and props. Not informing about your activities. Labor corruption. Assault with a deadly weapon. Attempted murder in the first degree to the ambassadors of Ikaruga. Attempted murder in the first degree to the dragon known as Spike. Insubordination. Conspiracy against the Royal Crown…” Celestia took a deep breath.

“Do you want me to continue?”

“Princess… I know I’ve committed questionable acts… But you have to understand, please, that everything has been to protect Equestria. You can’t really believe allying ourselves with dragons will be good for our kingdom”

“And why would I not think that? King Ragnarok has clearly shown interest like I me to form the alliance” She said.

“Sure, because we represent a great banquet for him and them!” Shining shouted.

“Shining Armor, for the Ancient’s sake, the dawn of creation ended. You’re talking about dragons like they are all living in caverns”

“Well they do!”

“Only the ones who live in Equestria. Have you ever bothered to investigate about those creatures, beyond the stories of troubadours? The dragons who live in Equestria live in solitude and anonymity because that’s what they choose. Because they are marginalized, criminals who escape their fate or simply hermits who prefer to live alone. But dragons have a kingdom after all, right? That means… I do not know. Probably they can live in society” Celestia said calmly.

“Their society was born from war”

“Were ponies different? Maybe ponies never started an armed conflict between themselves, but a relation of ‘a hoof washes the other one’ that only served to drag the three peoples’ to hatred and the verge of their destruction, it seems to me it’s nothing to brag about”

“But dragons did declare war when ponies settled in Equestria” He countered.

“And have you wondered why?”

“Equestria was founded on a land that, though distant, was still part of Ikaruga; and of course King Kiryu, who ruled the nation back then, wouldn’t give it to us for free. Especially considering he gave ponies the option to go and find another place to live in. And if you think about it, it was a war that dragons had EVERYTHING to win. After all, the army of Equestria was small and disorganized. They were very kind to give ceasefire when Luna and I finally appeared. King Kiryu was also very kind to allow Equestria to keep the territory dragons transit through to go to their ancestral mating place. By the way, very few dragons still do that nowadays. The majority of the dragons who make that trip do it do it just to keep alive the tradition of the trip itself”

Shining Armor was looking at Celestia surprised and confused.

“Dragons may not be the species with the best beginning. But are and remain one of the most evolved creatures in the world, who found the way to carry on by relying on society they together formed, when the right leader came to them: one of them. However, my parents warned me ponies couldn’t live in harmony by themselves. That is why they sent Luna and I to guide you”

Shining Armor looked at his monarch and understood he had no way out.

“What will become of me now?” He dared to ask.

“Yours is a very especial case. On the one hoof this should be sent to the courts. But let’s be realistic, with all the crimes you’ve committed and the amount of accomplices you had in the army, who are now being prosecuted, you would be lucky if you received a sentence of spending the rest of your life exiled on the Moon. But making a judgment through the courts would blacken the honor and reputation of your family, not to mention my poor and devastated niece”

“Cadence… What will happen to Cadence? Where is she?” He asked alarmed.

Celestia could clearly see the love the unicorn felt for her niece.

“She is fine. It’s a relief I decided not to involve her in this or I personally would execute you…” She said with all the seriousness of the world.

“My niece doesn’t want to see it. Anyway, as I said, prosecuting you by making a judgment and all that that implies would mark many other ponies unnecessarily. But leaving here in prison without a judgment would be very unfair. Fortunately, there’s another choice… Not so fortunately, because you aren’t going to like it” She said smiling evilly in the last part.

“What do you mean, Princess” He asked feeling very nervous.

“See, our dear dragon friends are a very proud species. When someone offends them, especially if the offended one is a dragon of the nobility, the perpetrator of the offense must be found to make them pay somehow. In your case, you tried to murder the two ambassadors who came to the castle some months ago, but they weren’t here willingly. They came on behalf of their majesty, King Ragnarok, who named them spokespersons and executors of his desires and interests here in Equestria. So as you can see, technically your offense wasn’t against the ambassadors, but the king himself” She explained calmly.

Shining Armor began to fear where the conversation was going.

“So, the king has requested authorization to dispose of you and make you pay by your offense, which according to their tradition, it’ll be an event involving the office of the perpetrator, in this case a military”

“But… Buh… But that means… I’m going to have to fight him?” He asked, fearing for his life.

“That is correct”

“You can’t allow it! He’ll kill me!”

“See the positive side; at least you will stand a chance to defend yourself”

“How am I going to defend myself if that stupid Spike broke my horn?”

“I said you would have a chance, not a very good one. But at this point I think that no longer matters”

“Princess, I beg you…”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Armor. But if I refuse the demands of King Ragnarok, I will accomplice of your offense and any hope that Equestria and Ikaruga form an alliance would be out of reach. It hurts me, but ‘it’s for protecting the future of Equestria, though it may seem cruel’”

Shining Armor felt an indescribable cold when he recognized his own sentence, which he had used with his accomplices.

“You may now enter, knights” Celestia shouted, looking at the entrance, which 3 large figures opened.

“Everything ready, your Majesty?” Said a dragon with a battle armor of the same color and a strange silver bracelet with a red gem on his left wrist. After him, entered other two dragons, one white and the other one orange. Both of them with the same armor and the same bracelet. They seemed adult dragons, but their height barely exceeded Celestia’s.

“Yes, Lieutenant, you may now…”

“What’s he doing here?” Shining Armor asked terrified.

“Lieutenant Dojin and his soldiers are here to take you to Ikaruga so you will pay for your crimes, Mr. Armor. Goodbye and thank you for your services provided to Equestria” She said, walking to the exit while Dojin and his soldiers let her pass, bowing to her when she passed.

“Oh, how fool I am! I almost forgot it” She said, returning where Shining was and making some documents and a quill appear.

“Read this and sign here, please” She said, giving him the quill so he could take it with his mouth.

“These… These are…”

“The divorce papers” She ended the sentence.

Shining Armor tore up when he saw Cadence’s signature at the end of the papers.

“It can’t be… It can’t be! This isn’t happening! No, no, no!” He screamed, falling to the floor completely hysterical and physically and mentally devastated.

Celestia looked at the devastated ex-captain wallowing on the floor and in his misery, without her showing any pity at all. He had betrayed her and many of her loved ones in too many different levels to have that that privilege. The unicorn was completely unhinged and doubting the terrible abyss into which his whole life had fallen in only one night. Celestia sighed without pitying the ex-captain at all.

“Forgive me, Princess. But we have a busy schedule to fulfill” Lieutenant Dojin said.

“I know, but I need him to sign this first”

“With all due respect, Princess, but what Mr. Armor signs or not won’t matter when my king sends him to Tartarus” He said calmly.

“… You’re right. Thinking about it, it’ll be easier to make the divorce if the spouse doesn’t live so he cannot claim anything. It is okay Lieutenant. You may take the prisoner with you. And give my regards to your King on my part when you see him” She said, leaving.

You forged this fate, Shining Armor. A tragedy. Not only because you wasted a really outstanding career, but you turned your back on your wife and a wonderful family. And however you thought you were doing the right and fair thing. But your noble dream became a twisted ambition. You thought I was betraying Equestria and wanted to endanger it for wanting to unite it to Ikaruga, but actually you were the one who became a betrayer when you didn’t mind hurting your friends and family in order to achieve your goals. Goodbye, Shining Armor. I pray that Ragnarok has mercy on you and finishes you quickly.

She teleported herself away from there, not wanting to hear Shining Armor’s cry of affliction.

Spike woke up sitting suddenly on the bed, which almost made Twilight fly out of it, for she was lying on him as usual.

“Spike, what’s happening?” She asked between worried and upset.

Spike only looked at her and hugged her without saying anything.

“Spike, what’s wrong?” She asked, now more anguished.

She noticed the dragon was sweating, his heart was beating fast and he was sobbing.

“Spike, please tell me what happened to you. Did you have a bad dream?”

“Something like that” He asked briefly.

Twilight remained silent, seeing the dragon refused to look at her.

“I was there, right?... Did something bad happen about us?”

“Yes…”

“Do you want to talk about it?” She said, rubbing her hooves against his chest to calm him down.

“It was just a dream. It’ll change nothing… Sorry for waking you up” He said, kissing her on her forehead before trying to sleep again.

“Spike, as your mate, it’s my duty to be there for you when you need help or comfort of any kind. I won’t obligate you to tell me what you saw, but if I can help you, please make me know” She said, kissing him on his cheek and leaning on one side of him.

Spike remained silent and stared at the ceiling of the bedroom, remembering what he had seen in his dream… After a while, he raised his clawbefore his face and extended his sharp claw. He inspected it as if it was a mysterious object he had never seen. Suddenly, Twilight’s hooves appeared wrapping and stroking his claw. Spike turned surprised to see his beloved staring at him warmly.

“No matter how much you grow up. No matter how strong you become. No matter how intimidating your appearance may get. I’ll still love you. Because I love you, not for what you are, but for who you are. And as long as that doesn’t change, I promise my feelings for you won’t change either. If you grow a lot for this house, we’ll move to another one. If the other ponies don’t want a dragon as a neighbor, we’ll move to a house away from the town. I chose to live by your side and I’m going to do it, no matter what it costs me”

Spike, who was touched, sobbed again a little before affectionately embracing his beautiful sorceress.

“Thank you so much, Twilight. I love you. I love you so much” He said, rubbing his face against her mane.

“And I love you too, Spike. With all my heart” She said, letting herself be loved.

Soon after they fell asleep.

Spike woke up first as usual. His beautiful sorceress was in his arms smiling. She looked so beautiful, so adorable… So fragile and helpless. Spike put his claws to his face, still suffering by the dreams of the last night. He got out of the bed and went to make the breakfast, knowing Twilight wouldn’t wake up in a while. He thought cooking would help him distract his mind, but the sound of the oil in the pan only made the images of his dreams more tangible. He knew he had to speak about that with someone, so after finishing with the breakfast, he took a blank sheet, wrote a petition for a meeting and burnt it to send it to the wisest creature he knew. Then he wrote another message to explain his absence to his beloved one and finally left home.

Spike walked through the village, which except for some business was still sleeping. He left the town until he arrived at the lake, not stopping there, but keeping walking upstream. Soon he could hear the sound of water falling from a huge waterfall flowing between the cliffs on a beautiful lagoon, which was hardly busy for any of the ponies of the town because of its distant location. But Spike from time to time, when he needed a remote place and beautiful to think. Especially to talk with his mentor and about his marefriend.

“Good morning, Spike” Princess Celestia cordially greeted, standing under the shade of a tree near the edge of the lagoon where the dragon had been waiting.

“Good morning, Princess Celestia! I’m sorry. I didn’t make you wait for too long, did I?” The dragon asked sorry, running towards the owner of the sun.

“Not at all. I lost track of time with this beautiful view”

“I see. Sorry, I thought you maybe would be too busy and would be a little late”

“To be with you, I’m never too busy, my boy” She said, getting close to him and rubbing her face affectionately against his.

“Thank you… Mom” Spike replied.

Actually, at this stage of his life, it was becoming for Spike more and more difficult to call Celestia as her mother, let alone see her as such. But he know how much it meant to the princess he called her like that, and actually it was something that didn’t bother to him. It was actually all the opposite, after all Celestia had taken care of Spike for his first years of life. A time when she neglected her royal duties to work on something she had never experienced before: motherhood. And though they both had grown up far away from each other, Celestia would always ask Spike to call her mom or mother when being alone with him, and he would always enjoy seeing the princess’ happy smile when he did it.

“What did you want to talk with me about, Spike? Are things between you and Twilight well?” She asked.

“Yes, everything is fine. What I’m worried about, is for how much time…”

“What do you mean, sugar cube?” She asked worried.

“Mother… I’m a dragon” He said, very seriously.

“Something I wouldn’t change for anything in the world, Spike. And surely nor would Twilight or any of your friends or anypony who knows you” She replied with total sincerity.

“But what will happen when I grow up? So far things have gone well, but just because I’m small. What will happen when I don’t even fit through a door? What if my instincts take over me again? What if I hurt anyone? I could never forgive myself if I ever hurt one of the girls. If I hurt Twilight… I don’t even want… I don’t even want to think about it” She said, sitting next to the shore and looking at his reflection.

Celestia got closer to Spike and sat next to him. The dragon looked at his adoptive mother, who was looking at him with a couple of eyes that were overflowing affection and support. She hugged the dragon with her forelegs and pressed him against her chest, also wrapping him with her wings.

“I’m afraid, mother” He whispered while hugging her.

“Who put those ideas in your mind, Spike” The princess asked.

Spike simply remained silent, hiding his face on her chest.

“It was Shining Armor, right?”

Spike nodded.

“Spike, the last thing you should do is to pay attention to insults and calumnies from a prejudiced and irrational pony like him” She said, somewhat annoyed when she remembered what the ex-captain was about to do to her adoptive son.

“But… He’s right about how dragons love war. About me being a danger for Twilight and the others. Actually… I enjoyed a lot fighting them. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t care what could happen to them and I even ended up killing that stallion”

“You were just trying to defend your life and Twilight’s. You had to act and there was no time to doubt. I can’t say I’m proud for what you did, but I’m very happy you managed to escape there alive” She said, rubbing his back to calm him.

“I’ve always wondered… Why didn’t you send me away from the kingdom when I turned into a monster that birthday? I destroyed half of Ponyville. Why didn’t you send me to Ikaruga as soon as I was born? Why did you take care of me?” He asked confused, looking at Celestia.

This time, it was Celestia who got sad and embarrassed, looking away from the dragon.

“Because it was my duty, Spike. My parents sent me to this world to protect Equestria and all the ones who live in it. When you were born in this land, you became a citizen and subject of mine. And it was my duty to ensure your safety and wellbeing. Finding a couple of dragons who took care of you would be difficult, for we hadn’t made contact with Ikaruga in centuries and finding a couple of ponies who wanted to adopt a baby dragon was an even crazier idea. So I took the most logical choice: take care of that dragon by myself”

Celestia got her face closer to Spike’s and maternally kissed him on the tip of his nose, making the dragon blush.

“And to date is something I’m sure I will never regret”

“Nor will I, but… Why risk that I continued living here after what happened to me?”

“Because it was all my fault, Spike. I should have supposed something like that would happen. I should have known it and been with you to help you face it. As I should have been there when the dragon migration, your kidnapping… The fault is mine and only mine… I’ve been absent so many times when you needed me that I do not deserve to call myself your mother” She said, very sad with eyes that were starting to water.

“Don’t say that” He said.

“You’re the best mother any dragon or pony could ask for” He said, guiding her eyes to meet his with his claw and giving her a sign of affection that Celestia hadn’t received by the dragon or any other being for many time: a kiss on her cheek.

A single tear of joy went down her cheek and she hugged the dragon tightly, surrounding him with her forelegs and her neck.

“Do you remember the lesson you learnt when you sent your letter to me after you went to the migration?” She whispered to his ear.

“I told you… I had discovered that what I am doesn’t define who I am”

“Exactly. You’re a dragon, Spike. But you aren’t and you’ll never be a monster. You’re my beloved son, Twilight’s soul mate, worker in the hall town of Ponyville, Best friend of the Guardians of harmony and many more things” She said, separating a little to see his eyes.

Spike smiled at her and snuggled against her body, enjoying the touch of her soft indescribably magical coat.

“But I still have so much to learn”

“That is why you and Twilight will meet the most appropriate being to guide you and clarify all your doubts about dragons”

“Why do you make it sound like that pony isn’t you?” He asked confused.

“Because it is not me, Spike. So that you and Twilight can answer all your questions, you will receive advice from King Ragnarok himself” She said enthusiastically.

“What?!” He asked surprised.

“You see, after Armor’s matter, I saw the need to explain the situation to him and tell him about you and Twilight. He was very interested about you and offered to help you both and soothe all your worries and doubts personally, inviting you to see him at his palace. You should be excited! You and Twilight are going to meet the king himself and will do what no citizen of Equestria except me and Luna has made since the war with that nation: step on Rennes le Chateau”

Author's Notes:

I enjoyed translating this chapter a lot. Please post your comments saying if you liked the chapter and tell me if I made a mistake.