We exited the palace and started scanning threw the landing pads.

"Well it has to be somewhere." Rarity said.

"The Queen said that it is right outside." Twilight added.

"There." I pointed to a gate with a C above it, behind it a flight of stairs that led up to pad C."

"Halt, who goes there?" A guard asked.

I showed him the scroll and he let us pass. Like the queen said, a purple dragon was stationed at on the landing pad. The dragon was of coarse large. It was purple with a beige underside and had green spikes sticking out of its head and neck. Fluttershy stayed behind.

"Are you comming?" I said.

"Umm... uh.... I think I'll just use my wings if that's okay." She said very shakily.

I sighed. "Okay."

There was something vaguely familiar about this dragon. I couldn't quite put my finger on it so I simply chose to ignore it.

There were of coarse two pegasi ponies to accompany us to Dashie's welcoming. They trotted over. "We will be retrieving your friend, relative, or loved one and escort him or her through the portal. Once that is complete we will exit the gate and allow you to greet him or her in privacy. Your job is to-" Yadda yadda yadda. I've done this so many times before. I don't know why he was explaining it. It is probably just protocol to make sure that the process of greeting new ponies is done properly. I just let him continue, but I wasn't really listening.

We began to walk towards the dragon when it looked at us, seemingly in awe. It huffed and took a few steps backward to take good a look at us.

It spoke in a very deep and bellowing, yet very familiar voice. "Pinkie?" Pinkie smiled and hopped once when she heard her name.

"Fluttershy?" Fluttershy flinched and hid under her wing.

"Brian?" I simply raised my brow.

"Applejack?" She looked in confusion.

"Twilight?" Twilight opened her mouth. Logically piecing together who she thought this was.

The dragon paused for a few moments and looked over to Rarity.

"Rarity? Rarity, is it really you?"

Everybody was still a bit confused, but I think we were piecing it together slowly.

Rarity smiled and began to tear up. "Spike?" She said in a shaky voice. The girls quietly gasped.

"Yeah. Yeah it's me. After all these years.... After I joined the dragon migration. I never thought I would see you again."

Spike slowly walked over to Rarity on all fours and they simply looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds before sharing a hug. I don't think they knew it, but everypony could hear them. "I missed you so much." Spike said quietly in his bellowing voice.

"I did too."

Everypony started to stir in quiet conversation as Spike and Rarity broke from their hug. They moved towards them and Twilight spoke out. "Spike, is it really you?" She said with a smile.

"Yeah Twi, it's me."

I greeted Spike but the others continued to talk and catch up with him. I was happy to see him, but we still had to hurry.

"Erm..... I don't mean to interrupt, it's great that your with us again, Spike, but Dashie is about to pass, and we don't have much time."

"Rainbow Dash is coming?" Spike said in surprise. Everybody looked at him. "Sorry, it's just that I knew that ponies come here as well as dragons do when they die, and I knew you were probably either already here or about to be here, but I never thought I would actually be summoned to fly anypony to the mountain gateways. I never thought I'de be able to find you. But anyway, we should go."

We all loaded on accept for Fluttershy who was still a little nervous around spike. She decided to stay behind and use her wings to fly.

If spike were any younger he probably wouldn't be able to do this. It must've been his age. He probably grew wings out of maturity. Spike took off with me, my parents, Twi, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie as the escorts did as well. Fluttershy waited a bit longer but eventually took off and followed us.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Working at the weather factory is really hard work. I walked through the door of my dad's old home and lightly kicked the door to shut it. I was really tired and wanted to take a nice nap. I stretched my wings and made my way to my bedroom. I've been leading a pretty sad and lonely life now. All my friends have passed on. I don't know where they are but something tells me that they are fine. I still get occasional visits from the long disbanded Cutie Mark Crusaders, who are leading good lives with good jobs.

As I make my way to the stairs, I pass the bookshelf that housed my father's letter. The one he wrote for me shortly before he died. I placed it down on my couch. It was written in pencil.

“Dashie, I know your memory isn’t what is used to be and your hearing is going, that is why I am writing this in a note. I raised you from a filly into the mare that you are today, in a world that wasn’t meant for you. For half a year you were without me, taken from me and put where you belong, but not with who you belong: Me. For those six months not a single day went by that I didn’t think about you, not a single second went by that I didn‘t think about you. After four and a half months when I arrived in Equestria for the first time, my only thoughts were to find my daughter, my little Dashie. Only to be sent back to Earth for another month and a half.

            When I woke up in the clearing near the lake, I began to look for you. I found you, crying, I knew that we’d be together forever. I still remember all of our adventures together, my wings, learning how to fly, your races and performances, our mutual dreams, flying together. I still remember your fillyhood on Earth, your first bath, first words, doodles and drawings, our baking mishaps, your first preened feathers, getting your cutie mark. I remember it all, I will never forget. Dashie, I’ve lived a good life, but my time has come, I’m an old man now, everybody has to die eventually. Do not be sad, because I will be waiting for you up there until your time comes, but do not make me wait too long. As the old wise saying goes, ‘don't cry because the good times are over. Smile because they happened.’

            I will be watching you, whispering advice in your ear, if you ever need me, just know that I am a part of you; we can still share dreams, remember that, and never forget your old man. I hope you had a good life, because I know I did.

Love, Dad.”

The letter brought tears to my eyes. For 20 years he has been with me from afar. But it isn't the same as actually being with him. I miss my dad.

When I fell asleep, I flew with him. We circled around and did aerobatic tricks that I developed myself. Suddenly in our flight session, he started to speed up. I sped up too so I could keep up with him. I noticed that we were going up. Once we started flying threw the clouds he disappeared. Everything was white at this point. I tried to fly around and find him but I found myself coming to an uncontrollable halt. All of a sudden, anything with a trace of colour other than white disappeared. I dropped a few feet and landed. I was in an endless space of nothingness.

Then I heard a sound. It sounded a little bit like an explosion. I looked up to see a giant hole open above me. A hole seemingly made out of energy. Kind of like a portal. I found it very attractive and started to fly towards it. Right then I could see two objects emerge from it. They were pegasi. They met me about half way to the portal.

"Follow us." One of them said. I was a little suspicious of them but for some reason I felt very compelled to go threw that portal. I went inside with the pegasi on either side of me. The feeling was incredible. I couldn't even begin to understand what I was feeling. I could see the end of the portal nearing.

We exited and I was so interested in that feeling that when we emerged I turned straight around and looked straight back down the portal. Suddenly it imploded and closed in my face and I was left with this amazing feeling of energy. I closed my eyes to let the energy penetrate me. When I opened me eyes I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I saw my best friends. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, AJ, Fluttershy. They all smiled and gleamed at me with joy. Suddenly I heard a voice from behind me. Every word was like a symphony of beauty to my ears.

“Hello Dashie, it’s been a while.”

I turned around. It was daddy. He was here waiting for me. They whole time I was alone, for all those years they really were watching me from afar. They were there, always. Suddenly I felt peaceful and relieved. I was given closure. Resolution.

“Heya Pops. Yeah, it has been a while. How’s it been?”

“Oh, you know. Same shit, different day.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Me and Dashie looked at each other for a few moments and than broke out sulking in between laughs.

We lunged at each other with full force and squeezed tightly in the most heart felt moment I had ever experienced in my entire existence. I could feel her warm tears on the side of my face as we cried into each other. I never wanted to let go. It was beautiful.

After what seemed like an eternity of love and affection. We finally broke our hug and sighed. We looked over to see the girls smiling at us, tears in there eyes too. Rarity was actually crying though.

We made our way out the gate and Dashie gasped at the sight of Equilibria's beautiful night.

"This place. It's called Equilibria. It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said.

"Oh my gosh."

Spike came and slammed down from above onto the rock platform. Dashie yelled and backed away.

"Oh hey Rainbow Dash!" Spike said in his deep voice.

"SPIKE!?" She said loudly.

"Yeah. Nice to see you too."

Dashie broke out in laughter. probably because of his deep voice.

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes. "You guys gonna pile on, or what?

"W-wait a second. Am I young?" Dashie exclaimed. She looked at her hooves and began to flap her wings.

"I'm young! I can fly again! Yes!"

End of chapter 10.