Rejection

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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'No!' Twilight Sparkle dropped to her knees aside the still form of her closest friend. Trembling hands grabbed limp shoulders and pulled him against her.

"Wake up Spike! Please! Please..." She knew she was crying. She knew she was crying in front of other people.

She didn't care.

She'd been oppressed, possessed and her best friend was gone.

At this point, what did she care if something as superficial as her reputation painted her as weak, emotional?

"I don't want to be alone again! Please Spike, I need you!" The singed, crusty remnants of his shirt did a poor job absorbing her tears.

"Twilight..." Sunset didn't know what to say. She'd lost things, she'd lost friends, but never to this.

She placed one hand on Twilights shoulder as the girl, worn out and exhausted from so much that had happened, let everything out in choking sobs.

Her grief was loud enough they almost didn't hear the slow, rattling breath as Spike's body, for lack of a better word, restarted.

Or at least tried to.

His eyes didn't fly open, his arms didn't wrap around the girl clutching him for dear life.

It was far less impressive, but instead his body was wracked with a violent coughing fit.

Twilight had simply frozen as he convulsed against her.

When it abated, she could hear his labored breathing.

But he still didn't wake up.

One part of her mind, detached and clinical, began to tally up details.

His breathing was labored. He had not regained consciousness. His fever was growing hotter and hotter by the second and he was breaking out in a cold sweat and trembling.

That same part of her shunted aside the piece of her that remained frozen in shock and determined her next action.

Spike needed to go home.

She'd known that for some time. Its priority had been accelerated earlier today. And now?

It was at the prime spot of her list.

Earth wasn't equipped to deal with magical maladies, especially not...

'As your soul burns you from the inside out?'

There was no medicine or machine that she knew of to repair something like that.

And she didn't trust religion.

"Sunset Shimmer." Her voice sounded harsh. Part because of the form her body refused to release, part because she didn't feel there was time to deal with social niceties. "Spike needs to go home. Where is the best hospital in Equestria for magical illnesses?"

"But... Spike can't go through the portal. I watched him try, it-" Sunset felt herself thrown off at the sudden change in demeanor.

"That's not an answer. According to Spike, the portal activates in a town called Ponyville. Where is the best magical hospital from there?" Even at a time like this, people continued to natter on without answering a direct question.

"North-east." Her geography was rusty, but that sounded right. "In Canterlot, there's a clinic staffed with unicorns from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Best of the... Best."

Twilight gently leaned Spike back to the ground and stood up, her wings folding behind her. She looked over the remains of the statue they had gathered around and circled it once.

"It won't do any good. The portal is go...ne." Twilight had pressed her hands over the space where the portal used to be.

That was expected.

What was not expected, what shocked Sunset Shimmer speechless, was watching her dig her fingers into the stonework and pull them apart, tearing open a hole.

And on the other side was a room, filled with books and an alicorn, though said alicorn was facing away from the hole and looked to be reading.

She pulled her hands away from the spread edges and growled as it sealed shut.

"Do that again." Applejack had watched closely, though silently.

When Big Mac would get like this, silent and direct, it weren't usually a good sign. Usually best to just let the fella work out what was bothering him in his own time.

Twilight wasn't Big Mac though, and this looked to be a lot more serious than just finding out your crush had a thing for a useless braggart.

Twilight silently complied, pushing open the portal again.

Applejack stepped up, grabbing on to the lip of it and pulling.

It felt like trying to pull two carts all on her lonesome.

"Rainbow Dash! Quit bellyachin' about kissin' a boy when he couldn't see how awesome you was and gimme a hand here!" The poly-chromatic girl grumbled something -very- unflattering about her but joined her none the less.

With her pulling on the same side as Applejack, the two almost had enough strength behind them to keep it open.

And when Fluttershy joined in without a word, but a kind smile?

Holding one side open was easy as pie.

"Oh, oh I got this side!" Pinkie Pie, fully reinflated now that Thorn-Spike was less... Gone than before, latched on to the other side of the gap. When Twilight let go, however, she was pulled away as the gap tried to shut. "Okay, maybe I only kind of got this side. Rare-bear! You want to give me a dandy-handy so Twilight can go to magic horsie land?"

"Err... I guess?" Rarity offered at first only a dainty grip on the meta-material of reality before realizing she actually would have to put her back into it.

And she didn't disappoint.

Sunset Shimmer smiled at her friends, all doing their very best to help. And she wasn't going to exclude herself.

She grabbed on to the edge of the tear in reality and pulled, holding it open and grinning.

"Hey Twilight!" Sunset was grinning as she strained with the rest of her friends. "Come back soon, alright?"

Twilight gently lifted Spike into her arms, marveling at how light he felt.

She prayed it was just how strong she felt in this body, rather than how light and empty his was.

"We'll be back before you know it!" Spike, her dog shouted as he ran for the portal.

"Yeah. We'll see you soon. Hey Sunset?" Emotion was bleeding back into her voice. The shock was wearing off, replaced with fear, excitement and exhilaration. "Can you tell my parents I'm sorry?"

"For what?" And was this really the time? The gap was getting harder to hold by the second.

"For not saying goodbye." Her wings spread open and flapped once, propelling her through the portal.

Something struggled, pulling at the edges of the portal, trying to pull it shut and keep her out.

Or keep Spike away from it.

But her wings beat once more, propelling her through the resistance.

And into Equestria.

Author's Notes:

I referenced two mythical dragons in the last chapter, and the third one was from another video game, because good dragons are kind of sparse in mythology.
Who can figure out who was who?