Chapter Twenty

Information and the River

After getting an early-morning wake-up call by some passing camels, Spike set out for the day with the rest of the caravan, feeling refreshed and more alive than he ever had before. His wives seemed to be in much higher spirits than they had been before, and Asalah kept looking his way every now and then in an entirely seductive manner. To be truthful, Spike was entirely glad the caravan only stopped for the night or when they reached an oasis, which usually happened at the same time. Otherwise he might get chafed from constant sex. As it was, the had stopped at a small oasis in the middle of the day, with birds flittering from tree to tree. Spike was among the first to arrive and as such had ample time to set up his things before going off.

Feeling so good with his life at the moment, Spike couldn’t help but decide to write a letter. He had forgiven Twilight right before he wrote it, but as it was he couldn’t bring himself to write to her: who knows how she’d react. Instead, he addressed it to the one pony who he had not written to this whole time.

“Dear Luna,” he began, making sure he was alone when eveypony else had reached the rest stop. It was the middle of the day and frankly Spike had a feeling his wives would be too hot to want to have sex. It was so much easier when the cooler nights made it much less stressful.

“I assume by now that you have heard of my engagements and have also heard of my now two-month old journey into fatherhood. Trixie should be expecting the foal within nine months, give or take a week or two. I was hoping this journey would be over by then, as I sincerely would not want our first child to be born halfway from our true home.”

He paused for a moment, as if thinking on something he had said previously. “Twilight may have thought she arrested my situation when she placed that curse on me, but now that it has lifted, I must thank her. It allowed me to get closer to my wives, even though we were struggling for a bit. Plus, after it was done, they nearly jumped me when we made our stop. I cannot help but thank Applejack as well, for her helping me develop endurance by working for her on the farm: I truly needed it that night. Four wives is a tall order to please in one go, but it was no trouble at all.”

He grinned at this: that should give them all to think about. Oh, what sort of devil was he turning into, giving his friends the image of him rutting four beautiful mares into states of unconsciousness? “As I am a forgiving dragon, here is the deal: as soon as we exit the Samarea Desert, I will start sending some things back, souvenirs and whatnot. Just to show I’m not still angry over the “erection-suppressing spell”, like some would be if they had been in my position.”

He paused for a moment, a slight chill running down his spine as he remembered the incident with the bandits. “I know I wasn’t taught much about it princess, but I need to know more about my kind. If you could send back any scrolls you happen to come across, any at all concerning dragons, I would greatly appreciate it.”

As he wrote, there were a few calls from the birds above, but he ignored them. “As for the Elements of Harmony, kindly inform them that I have forgiven Twilight and they should too. Soon enough the journey through the Samarea Desert will be almost a third done, and I will send you another letter once we finally exit it along the banks of the Nile River.”

He continued to write some more, wondering how everypony was doing, if anything new had happened in the Crystal Empire, how Ponyville was doing: you know, basic, everyday letter kind of things. He had even asked how Discord was doing: last he had heard, that rascal was out helping the Appaloosans find wells of water for irrigation, though more than once they found wells of... chocolate. Still, it would be nice to see how everypony was and what they were up to.

“Sincerely, Spike Dragul.” With that, he rolled up the scroll and let loose a flicker of flame, the green fire transporting the scroll all the way back to Equestria. As he grinned about how the others back home would react to this new letter, he lay his head back against the tree and let his thoughts drift along, on to the future and the things to come.

Meanwhile, in the royal court of Canterlot...

Seven figures sat around the table, unsure as to why they had been summoned. Celestia sat at the head of the table, sharing in the perplexity of her sister’s summon. Surely this had something to do with Spike, or else none of the Elements of Harmony would have been needed to be present, right? The bearers of the Elements of Harmony were whispering amongst each other, with Twilight just looking ahead. The princess believed she had learned her lesson at the hands of her friends, what with their punishment.

Forcing Twilight to look into Pinkie’s crystal ball and see a terrifying alternate reality, in which there were no books. There was only a small, flat contraption made of metal and plastic called a “Kindle”. The sheer terror it induced in the unicorn was overshadowed by her acceptance that what she had done to Spike was overzealous and uncalled for.

Luna walked in, appearing a bit sleepy but still alert enough to let everyone see she meant business. The hushed conversations ceased as she closed the door behind her with Taking her place alongside her royal sister and co-ruler, she cleared her throat before producing a scroll.

“I recently received this,” she said, looking over everypony gathered before her. “And yes, it is from Spike.”

“It is?” Twilight asked, appearing rather surprised. “I... I thought he wasn’t going to send any letter our way for a while.”

“Indeed, sister,” Celestia said, quirking an eyebrow at her, well, sister. “What does it say?”

The wings behind the lunar princess rustled slightly as she jostled into a more comfortable position in her chair. “Well, the majority of it was simply a “how are you, what have you been up to” kind of letter,” she began. “I take it Spike does miss home and would like to know what has been going on.”

“Well, it has been rather uneventful around here, to be perfectly honest,” Rarity said, poking her chin in thought. “Other than the Grand Galloping Gala a few weeks after he left and that fashion show two weeks ago, not much has really happened. The Changelings haven’t been seen, Discord has been on his best behavior, and King Sombra has not been seen since Spike was younger.”

“What about that merpony sighting off of Manehattan last week?” Fluttershy asked.

“Fluttershy, merponies don’t exist,” Rainbow Dash said, though her tone was anything but serious. “Come on, those are just old pony’s tales.”

“I’m j-just saying, do you think he should know?” the yellow pegasus asked.

“Sugar, since he won’t be travellin’ by sea anytime soon, I’d reckon we just leave that part out,” Applejack said, removing her thought to scratch her mane a bit.

“Well, I still want to know about what he’s seen,” Pinkie said in another rare moment of sincerity and seriousness. That was gone in an instant. “Like, has he met any fun zebras who like parties? Does he need cupcakes? Oh no, I didn’t send any cupcakes with him! He’ll starve!” Her hands reached up to pull her mane out.

“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said, her soothing voice instantly calming the pink earth pony. “I am sure he’ll be fine without your delicious cupcakes. When you see him next, you can bake him all the cupcakes you want.”

“There is more,” Luna said, apparently annoyed they were getting rather off-topic. “He also has figured out when Trixie’s foal will be due: in about nine months. He expressed concern for how long the rest of the journey would take.”

“Well, given his current rate of travel and how far he still has to go, he should be back in Equestria in approximately eight months, two weeks, five days and thirteen hours,” Twilight said, rattling off the numbers while she raised her fingers to illustrate her point. She stopped and looked up at everypony, who were all wearing masks of confusion and surprise on their faces. “Or so I think,” Twilight mumbled, her face darkening a bit with embarrassment.

“Uh, okay then, moving on,” Luna said, breaking the awkward silence. “He mentioned you specifically, Twilight.”

“He... he did?” the purple unicorn asked, clearly surprised by this piece of information. “What... what did he say?”

“He said, and I quote, “Twilight may have thought she arrested my situation when she placed that curse on me, but now that it has lifted, I must thank her. It allowed me to get closer to my wives, even though we were struggling for a bit. Plus, after it was done, they nearly jumped me when we made our stop.”

Twilight blushed at that last part. Truth be told, she hadn’t been thinking that much when she sent that spell: she had been tired and the night before an experiment had literally blown up in her face, so when she found that out... well, things hadn’t gone so well in her head.

Rarity cocked her head to the side slightly and turned to Twilight as if in confusion. “Twilight, I may not be on the cutting edge of social terms, but pray tell, what does “nearly jumped me” mean?”

“Uh,” the other unicorn began, suddenly feeling as though the room was getting hot. Was she really going to have to explain to Rarity what she thought she did?

“Spike also mentioned you, Applejack,” Luna said, clearly trying to avoid more embarrassment.

“He did?” the earth pony asked, putting her hat back on her golden mane. “Well, whadid he say?”

“I cannot help but thank Applejack as well, for her helping me develop endurance by working for her on the farm: I truly needed it that night. Four wives is a tall order to please in one go, but it was no trouble at all,” Luna said, a blush forming on her cheeks as her wings started to straighten out. Celestia’s eyes went wide at these words, and she too blushed and experienced an expansion of the wings.

“Oh... my,” Rarity said, placing her hand to her forehead as a blush spread across her like wildfire. “I feel... funny.” Without any more pretext she fainted away, a strange look plastered on her face as she slumped in her chair. Everypony else was either blushing, or in Fluttershy’s case, had wide eyes brought on by the shock of such details. Well, Rainbow Dash also had her wings fully extended like the princesses’, and her mouth was hanging open slightly.

“Whe... when did Spike become so... crass?” Twilight asked, feeling so embarrassed by the letter that she wanted to crawl under a rock and hide from the world. “What has gotten into him?”

“I believe it is the more dominant male part of his mind finally emerging from its shell,” Celestia said, slightly soothing her wings with a bit of magic: ha, shell, a good bit of draconic imagery there. “He had been with us for so long that he was subtly influenced by our social norms and ideas of proper etiquette to the point where he was what you might think of as a “beta-male”, or a rather meek and mild character. Though, judging from this letter, he is rapidly losing that state of mind and is more definitively becoming much more of an “alpha male”, if you see what I mean.”

“I think so, your highness,” Twilight said, still rather flustered by why everything seemed to be going by so fast. “But... I’m not sure if I understand just why Spike of all ponies-, er, I mean dragons, still had to go through with this, your highness.” It had been an issue she had avoided as long as she could, but now she just had to say something.

The monarch did not look upset at the questioning tone in Twilight’s voice. In fact, she sighed, the kind where there was going to be a lesson involved. “I had hoped to keep much of this a secret for a while, but it seems I no longer can. I am just glad all of you are gathered here, you included, Luna,” she said, turning to her sister.

“Tia, what is this about?” the alicorn of the night asked, using her informal nickname like they used to all the time.

Celestia smoothed out her wings and settled more firmly into her chair, her composure entirely regal and very inviting, if in a friendly sort of way. “As you all know, Spike is somewhat of an oddity for dragons: being hatched and raised by ponies such as ourselves.”

“Yes, I have heard of that: not many dragons are in such constant contact with out kind,” Twilight said.

“Quite,” Celestia said before continuing. “What many of you, or possibly all of you have not yet realized, is that the very fundamental state of our society, as it is right now, revolves around Spike and his actions.”

“Wha?” Pinkie and Applejack asked just as Rarity came to from her little “episode”.

“Spike has played an integral role in how so many actions throughout Equestria have played out, from the simplest of chores that would have otherwise distracted the Elements of Harmony from accomplishing something to helping save the Crystal Empire from King Sombra’s darkness. He has been there for everypony and has freely given what he could, when he could: a most noble quality, I might add.”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with now?” Twlight asked, confused as to why her mentor was remaining as cryptic as ever.

“Because Twilight Sparkle, Spike is such a rare individual, and to not have more like him would be a detriment to the land, if not the world. Tell me, my faithful student, what have you learned of draconic heritage?”

“Um, uh,” Twilight said, rubbing her head as she tried to remember: she hadn’t known there’d be a test on this! “That... dragons more often than not pass on what the core of their being is to their offspring?”

“Exactly,” Celestia said. “Examples like this have been played throughout much of history. Evil dragons would more often than not leave evil offspring, and kind dragons would leave behind kind offspring.” She cleared her throat. “But Spike is different, much more so than any of you might expect. As a creature naturally made of magic, he is also hatched from magic, something incredibly rare. As such, he has a powerful connection to the magic that resides within all things, living and nonliving. To pass on these traits, his strength in magic, his nobility, and his caring heart, is something that would strengthen and help to expand the love and friendship of Equestria.”

“I... I see now,” Twilight said, a light bulb ringing in her mind. “That was why you had me punished with that... dream (she involuntarily shuddered at the thought of that “kindle” device) for giving Spike that spell. It would have meant-,”

“That he could not pass on those characteristics to his offspring, or have any, really,” Celestia finished for her. “I was worried you might have messed up the spell’s longevity and had permanently gelded him, my faithful student.” Twilight blushed at this: she had been a bit overzealous in her method of dispensing what she had seen as a punishment, now hadn’t she?

The princess turned to the others, recognition dawning on their faces as the realization of Spike’s destiny began to come to light. “A dragon’s core being can be carried down through countless generations, usually through the mother’s line. As Spike is no ordinary dragon and has such a strong connection to magic, his own characteristics would be the ones passed down: think of it as a massive spell transferred from one generation to the next.”

With that, the conversation turned to all of the things they would write back to Spike about. Rarity seemed rather anxious to write back her own letter along with the one Celestia had advised each of them to write. As they left the room, Luna turned to her sister, her voice hushed as the door closed behind the bearers Elements of Harmony.
“When are you going to tell them?” she asked.

“Of what, dear sister?” Celestia replied. “You will go before them, remember? Only after your personal evaluation will they too be sent.”

“Yes, I know of that,” the blue alicorn said. “I was merely wondering when.”

“If all things proceed on schedule, then within six or seven months,” the elder alicorn stated. They were silent again before Luna spoke once more.

“And of their soon-to-be new duties?”

“Leave that to me, sister,” Celestia said with a sly smile. “Judging from the way things are progressing, they shall have no problem doing what is best for Equestria, and for themselves.”

“I can only hope you are right,” the smaller alicorn said as they both rose to their hooves. “Though, I must admit: their own choices have fallen perfectly in line with your plan. Did you by chance have something to do with that?”

“Of course not, dear sister: do you think me a tyrant?” Celestia replied with a smile. “I let the chips fall where they may and act upon those events. That is why I have ruled for so long without opposition: I never stick a plan bound to fail. I always plan ahead but remain flexible to change, to sudden intrusions in the grand scheme of things. And as you are probably aware, Spike is no doubt progressing better than we had hoped.”

“I know, sister,” Luna said, picking up the scroll. “Also, do you mind if I... keep this for a while? For personal time?”
“Of course, but only if you lend it to me when you are done,” Celestia replied with a great smile. Both sisters knew exactly what this “personal time” for either one would entail.

Meanwhile, sometime later back in the Samarea Desert...

Spike looked up at the sun through his turban-filtered vision. It was lower in the sky than it had been, but he still felt like it had not been long since they had left that last oasis. Also, he was beginning to wonder why he had not yet gotten a response back from Luna and the others. He had sent that letter well over a week ago, almost two weeks now, and frankly he knew he shouldn’t get worked up about it, and yet he was.

Still, after that magical night, his wives couldn’t stop wanting to go almost every night. Truth be told, he had no problem with that, but something was always on his mind when he was doing the nasty with his beautiful wives.

Asalah had exited her heat shortly before Spike had arrived in her home city. Trixie was pregnant and almost at the three-month mark to hoof. Meia and Maria had exited their heats a long while back, but since they had been getting their nightly rutting, they had been acting a bit differently. How so, Spike could not entirely tell, but to be perfectly honest, he was likely worrying about nothing.

So it was that this continued on, the repetitive traveling in the hot sun and stopping at night by an oasis. The days seemed to blur together, and Spike’s scales took on a smooth sheen wherever he left them exposed to the blowing sands, like they had been polished. Except for the exciting prospect of sex almost every night, Spike didn’t have really anything to do. No bandits troubled them, there were no signs of any large predators: heck, even the dangerous desert animals like scorpions were nowhere to be found. It seemed the only danger was the heat, and with the caravan runners always bringing water from ahead oasis before the caravan arrived, nopony went thirsty.

Still, Spike was glad when the climate and the terrain began to change bit by bit. The first thing he noticed was the eventual shift from sand and rock to hard clay and rock. Here and there desert shrubs populated the landscape, which meant they were not far from underground water sources. Soon enough more and more of these types of plants bounded, until there were larger plots of forest surrounding the oasis. Some even looked like jungles, growing thick with vines and an overstory that made the interior rather dark when compared to the surrounding bright dryness.

Almost two full months since he had left Roam behind, Spike found himself coming up over a hill, like he had been doing for what felt like forever. Did this desert just go on forever and ever? Was there ever an end to this monotony? Couldn’t they just...

“Oh,” he said, coming up over the side of the hill and seeing a sight unlike any he had before. Across the plains, which were filled with grasses, stretched a river. It was no ordinary river: it was large, imposing, and truly stunning to behold. Trees lined the banks here and there, with dense shrubbery and tall grasses eventually giving way to the dryer grasses between him and the water. There was a city along the banks, with bridges and aqueducts and irrigation canals and all sorts of other impressive architectural wonders. It was beautiful, really: to see such a work of art alongside something else deserving its own painting.

“Well, we are here,” Al Abbas said as he rode up alongside Spike. “Welcome to the city of Riyadh.”

“Riyadh,” Spike repeated, remembering an earlier conversation. “Wasn’t there a city named Riyadh in Saddle Arabia or something that sunk into the sands?”

“Yes, though this one is built on much firmer foundations,” the earth pony said. “Building over a natural cave system and draining the water supply was not a very good idea. Here, though, it is solid rock and all the water needs are met by the river.” He adjusted himself in his seat. “I take it you’ll be traveling by boat upstream? The current is rather weak at this time of the year.”

“Yes,” Spike replied, looking out. “Is this the Nile?”

“Yes it is,” Al Abbas replied. “Some used to call it the Neighle, but it fell out of use long ago.”

“The Neighle?” Spike asked with a derisive snort. “That’s a dumb name for anything, let alone a river.”

“I have to agree with you on that, my friend: a horrible name it was,” the earth pony said with a laugh. “Come on, I’ll take you and your wives to the house of my nephew. He runs one of the markets here and has connections that I believe you would find most useful. Boats are indeed a rare thing in this part of the world, after all.”

With that, the caravan went down the gently sloping hill, passing fields of wheat as they approached Riyadh. As they entered the designated area set aside for caravans, Spike found his wives looking over a few things at the market place soon after unpacking.

“Well, with what gold we have, we can afford to buy almost anything we desire,” Spike said to his wives, his smile returning at the thought of sending so much stuff back to Equestria after a month of absence. The pervasive smell of the river was a very calming and welcome odor, so much so that the city itself seemed relaxed when compared to Agrabah.

Maria and Meia looked at each other, knowing it was time. “Spike, we have something to tell you.”

“Yes?” Spike said, feeling a sense of dejavu sweeping over him once again. Could it be?

“We’re pregnant: both of us,” Maria said with a great big smile. Meia had one as well as she gently patted her stomach. “Meia performed a spell to check, as we had entered our second heat on that night your spell wore off.”

Spike was silent for a moment before he grinned so large his face might split. “That is wonderful!” he said, pulling them into a hug as Trixie and Asalah bought a few trinkets from a teller.

“It was simple, really,” the unicorn replied, knowing full well that this was the greatest thing she had discovered since, well, forever. Inside, and out, Chrysalis was happier than she had thought she could be, though there was twinge of sadness to it all. Spike would eventually find out her true self, and when he did, she had no idea how he would react.

But that was in the future: right now, she settled into her husband’s warm hug, content to feel the heartbeat of him, herself, and their unborn foal. Changelings could do that, you know.

Author's Notes:

Just a filler chapter with a bit more time (okay, a lot more time) focused on the folks back home. I don't know why, but every thoughtful or analytical review I see makes me feel... happy. Like I've been doing a good job with this story so far.

Share with me your thoughts on it all, if you wish.