Chapter Thirty-Nine

Homefront Again

It did not take long for Spike’s letter detailing his departure of Saddle Arabia’s capital city to reach Canterlot. It took even less time for all parties involved to arrive in the royal throne room to wait for Celestia to finish conjuring up the spell. Soon enough, the magic mirror-esque projection was completed, and they were staring at the interior of a large carriage, which coincidentally happened to be Spike’s.

“Hello,” Trixie said, appearing as the image cleared up. Spike had stopped the carriages by a relatively quiet oasis, and had been outvoted by his wives that the meeting would take place in his own carriage. He had wanted it to be outside, so they could all speak together, but once again he had been outvoted: each wife wanted their private time in the carriage, so Spike begrudgingly set up a tent for the others to wait beside him.

“Hello,” came a multitude of replies. However, unlike last time, Zecora, Luna and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had not been able to join in the meeting. The CMC were helping Zecora gather ingredients for some anti-poison joke, as some ponies had accidentally walked through the stuff, and Luna was off on a diplomatic mission with the buffalo chieftains. This left “only” Celestia, and the Mane Six: seven friendly faces that most definitely wanted to hear all about what Spike and his family had been going through.

“How have you guys been doing?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering in mid-air as she was wont to do. “By the way, that armor Spike sent back: so cool.” She made a mock-fawning gesture, though in her heart she knew she meant it more than she had let on. His armor was amazing, even if it was primarily ceremonial: the sheer intricacy of it had some blacksmiths in Equestria begging Celestia to let them go to Saddle Arabia and learn their blacksmithing secrets. She had delayed them for a bit, saying “eventually”. They still had jobs to do and couldn’t just run off to learn how to bend metal differently.

“I’ll be sure to tell him that. We’ve all been doing rather well, or have been ever since a... incident off the coast of East Africa,” Trixie said, knowing full well the “incident” had happened before their arrival in Maredagascar and the situation had only deteriorated after Meia was no longer Meia. That was behind them, but she had been sworn to secrecy by Spike to not say Meia was not Meia: they all had been.

“What kind of incident?” Twilight asked.

“Well, it all began back after we exited the Samarea Desert,” the blue unicorn replied. “We were visiting some pyramids in northern Sudan, and a sandstorm blew in. Luckily for us, there was a nice pony with a dirigible who helped us escape it, with a bit of help from Spike. After that, we sailed on the breezes over Ethiopia, where we... ran into some difficulties.”

“What happened?” Rarity asked, on the edge of her seat. This wasn’t exactly a thrilling story yet, but it had the makings of one, anyway.

“A bunch of murderous thugs showed up, and then tried boarding us,” Trixie said. “Spike and the pilot pony, Mr. Wells, fended them off very bravely, but a few got on board and threatened us wuth bodily harm.”

“W-what happened n-next?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes wide with fear and intrigue.

“Wells grabbed for an heirloom from his parents one of the thugs had. That thug accidentally killed another one and fell overboard with Wells, and then Spike let loose.” Trixie recalled it with a clear and exact mind, a trait she had always had but never really used, as her showmanship skills had been more of an asset to her.

“Let loose what?” Twilight asked, her hands itching to write this all down.

“He breathed fire right onto the lead thug, setting him ablaze,” the blue unicorn said, taking pleasure in the gasps and the amazed looks of the others through the magic mirror. “The villain, even as he held onto the sides, on fire, threatened not only us, but all of you and indeed Equestria. Then Spike kicked him off.”

“He... he did?” Rainbow Dash asked, her jaw hanging low. “I... I didn’t think Spike would have it in him to do something like that.” She didn’t know the half of it: just wait until she heard about the bandits out in the Samarea Desert.

“Well, we were in danger, and you know those draconic instincts...” Trixie trailed off, letting the others figure it out for themselves.

“Wait, but what happened to Wells?” Pinkie Pie asked, sounding confused. “You said he went overboard with that other nasty thug.”

“Yes, but Spike pulled him up: he had grabbed onto the side, you see, and was dangling for dear life,” the unicorn mare said in reply. “He was hurt, but thankfully it was nothing too serious.”

After that, they talked of less “exciting” things, such as news from back in Equestria and how Trixie’s pregnancy was going along. She of course said everything was fine, patting her stomach gently as she did. She even told them she felt a feeble little kick from within, making Celestia smile even more than what everypony thought was possible, and it made Twilight very happy that she would be an aunt again. Her brother and Cadence already had two foals, but Spike had been with her almost as long and they had been just as close: for him to be gone for so long already, with herd of his own, and three of those four herd wives pregnant, made her wonder just how different everything would be when he got back.

“Have y’all been thinkin’ ‘bout names?” Applejack had asked, the thoughts of little ones bringing almost as much joy to her heart as it did Celestia’s. “I know ya still got a lot of time to be thinkin’ ‘bout it, but the due date’ll be here before y’all know it.”

“Well we haven’t really discussed it much,” Trixie said, glancing down at her tummy. To think, what had been flat before was now bulging out, containing in it the union of love Spike and she had shared on that train all those months ago: it was... beautiful. “We... we’ve kinda been busy, and Spike was really, really busy these last few weeks. I’m hoping it’ll be a little filly: I was thinking of the name... Callula.”

“Ah, a beautiful name,” Celestia said, noticing how special of a name Trixie had involuntarily thought of. Callula was one of the first unicorns in the past to move the moon, long before the events of Hearth’s Warming Eve came to pass.

“What if it’s a bouncing little baby colt?” Pinkie Pie asked, her face taking up the screen for a half second.

“Well, in that case, I was thinking... Magus,” Trixie replied, rubbing her stomach softly again as another feeble little kick was felt against her hands. “It was the name of my great-grandfather, and... I was hoping Spike would like it. It’s a strong, masculine name.”

“I am sure he’ll love it,” Celestia said softly, her smile a welcome reassurance to her words.

After a few more small bits of conversation, Trixie left and in her stead arrived Maria, who took off her turban-like veil to free up her mane a bit. “Hello,” she said, closing the carriage door behind her.

“Hello,” everypony responded through the mirror.

“We heard about what happened over Ethiopia,” Fluttershy said. “Was it... was it really that bad?”

“Yes, Fluttershy: whatever Trixie may have told you, it was indeed rather terrifying,” Maria said. “That being said, I’m surprised Spike only set their leader on fire. He usually does something much more severe to somepony when we are threatened.”

“Wait, something more severe?” Twilight asked with an almost scared expression. “When did he have a chance to do something worse?”

“You didn’t know? We were ambushed by a large group of bandits in the Samarea Desert three days before that spell of yours wore off, Twilight,” the Spreignish noblemare said. “The anti-erection one, I believe?”

“Oh, yeah, that: I uh, I didn’t...” Twilight trailed off, a blush spreading over her face even as the news of a bandit attack filtered through her head. She decided to shut up: the memory of her punishment came back in a rather unwelcome clarity. She had acted brash the day she did that.

“What did Spike do?” Fluttershy and Rarity asked, both of their voices sounding rather subdued.

“He... he was like a beast,” Maria said, remembering the event with the slightest bit of fear trickling down her spine. “I... I’ve never heard of anypony acting like that. It was like somepony had replaced him with a monster. He tore them apart like they were nothing more than bits of paper.”

Fluttershy let out a little eep and Rarity made a motion as though she would faint. “But why?” Applejack asked. “Little Spike would nevah kill somepony just like that.” She snapped her fingers to emphasize her point. “I mean, it just ain’t in his nature, or at least, so I thought.”

“The Spike you knew is no longer so little,” Maria said, her expression calm but entirely serious. “Dragons are fiercely territorial of all things, remember. We were in danger, and with the strife between us all, his repressed anger needed an outlet.”

“The strife? What strife? What was going on?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“We... well, mostly I, were upset with his marriage to Asalah. Upset as in he should have run things by us first, but he made a mistake and did his best to take it in stride, though things were a bit... frosty for a while.”

“But why?” Twilight asked. “You said before she’s a good friend now.”

“Yes, but at first we weren’t exactly rolling out the welcome wagon for her,” Maria said softly. “She was new, exotic, and distant: her culture was so radically different from ours, we just... I don’t know, shut her out for some time. Then the bandits attacked the caravan, and Spike went all frenzied-beast mode, and we were scared, and we bonded over that experience. And, of course, over the next few weeks and such, we became good friends.” She didn’t want to mention the orgy in Maredagascar, lest it give them an even worse impression of Spike: a blood-hungry, sexual beast perhaps?

“It seems to me you learned a valuable lesson of accepting others into a fold,” Celestia said, some thoughts about the others around her preventing her from saying something about friendship. “Tell me, how often has Spike done this? Transform into some... beast, as you said?”

“Mmm, only twice, I believe,” Maria responded, thoughtfully tapping her chin. “That time in Prance and in the desert. The few other times he did something, he didn’t... change, per se. Sure, his mood and actions became radically different from his usual, mostly-cheery self, but I’m sure Asalah will have lots to tell you about that.” She had already said something about those bandits, and now she wanted to talk about something less exciting: things more close to home. “How have things been going along in Equestria? Pertaining to much of what Spike has sent back, of course.”

Everypony looked slightly puzzled as why she steered the conversation away from Prance, something they had not heard much about besides a few obscure medals the king had personally mailed to Equestria. But, the call time was limited, and so they decided they would ask somepony else about it.

“The museums have been absolutely fawning over much of those older trinkets and relics,” Twilight said, glancing at Rainbow Dash. “Some ponies with itchy fingers have even tried to try on some of the armor, though luckily most of the pieces are far too heavy for them to successfully wear.”

Rainbow Dash blushed slightly at this. That armor of ancient Roam had just looked so cool...

“Indeed: such armor was made for those bound and trained for war, though the decorative pieces are simply marvelous to behold,” the Spreignish noblemare said. “Tell me, how goes these “renovations” Spike has informed us of? I had thought he already had a castle of his own.”

“No, to separate rulers is to invite less savory advisors into the mix: those with their own agendas, you see,” Celestia said. “Direct and complete communication between those in power and those being ruled is essential to long-lasting peace and prosperity. It is one of the reasons why so few ponies have been dissatisfied with the ruling of myself and my sister: we listen to our subjects, often face-to-face.”

She cleared her throat, having remembered it was not polite to go off on a tangent about how Equestria’s history was relatively unblemished when compared to other countries. “Ah, yes: the renovations are on schedule, and I might add, under budget as of this time. If I may ask, how many foals do you think Spike might have with the four of you? We assume the children will want to sleep in separate rooms once they grow older.”

“I’m not exactly sure, but around three apiece would be a good estimate, I think,” Maria said slowly. “It’s not like he’s going to pick up many more wives, right?”

“Unlikely, if your previous assertions have left any impact on his mind,” Twilight said with a small laugh.

So, after a few more discussions on room size and an additional astronomy tower, Maria bid everypony goodbye and exited the carriage. Soon enough, Asalah entered, her veil gone and her mane falling down to her shoulders.

“Good day to you all,” she said, rather formally but in a very pleasant tone.

“Hello,” everypony responded. Before the zebra could say anything, Pinkie Pie had her face pressed up against the mirror and was looking through one eye at the zebra.

“Maria and Trixie said you guys ran into some trouble? We heard about the Samarea Desert and the balloon ride, but what was this about Prance?”

“Pinkie Pie, Asalah was not yet married to Spike when he passed through Prance,” Rarity said in exasperation as a small spell from Twilight pulled the excitable pink earth pony away from the floating mirror spell. “She had not even met him yet, for heaven’s sake: how in the world would she know any specifics?”

“Oh, I guess I didn’t think of it like that: thanks for the heads-up, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie replied.

“Prance? I have never been to Prance,” Asalah said with a slight tone of confusion tainting her words. “I do know of the pirates.”

“Pirates? There were pirates? Where?” Rainbow Dash and, surprisingly, Celestia asked at the same time.

“Off the coastline of Somalia, after we left Maredagascar for Saddle Arabia,” the zebra replied, her hands twisting a few loose ends of her mane. Oh, how she wished she had Chrysalis braid it like she had a week ago: it had been so beautiful.

“You were a-attacked by p-p-pirates? Why?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes seeming to take up the other half of her face. Her mouth and nostrils had shrunken down to what appeared to be just tiny pinpricks, and her ears were standing on end.

“The leader was a warlord name Undi, somepony we should have been looking out for after Ethiopia,” Asalah said. “He was something like a king of the region, only he ruled through intimidation, violence, and kidnapping. No government stood up to him, or at least, no government that wanted its families to stay alive.”

“But why did this Undi have a “bone to pick with you”, so to speak?” Rarity asked. “I mean, surely you couldn’t have done something too drastic to draw his attention to yourselves?”

“Bara was his son,” Asalah said simply.

There was silence on the other end as everypony processed the four words the zebra had just said. Bara, the thug whom Spike set on fire and sent plummeting to his death, had been the son of a vicious warlord that ruled whatever he could with an iron fist.

“Oh,” Rarity said, her voice suddenly very soft and almost... afraid. “W-well, then I guess he would go after you, after something like... that.”

“Yes, well, things were scary for a long time,” Asalah said as she glanced out the window of the carriage at Spike. “It was all so loud, with those cannons going off, and we could feel every the ship was struck: whether it was one or many cannonballs, we could never tell. Spike left us to help the captain and the crew topside, and then... it happened.”

“What happened?” Twilight asked, sounding as if she were afraid to even ask.

“A cannonball tore through the sip and flew right through our cabin, sending splinters and dust everywhere amidst a deafening thunder of noise. It went right through where Meia had been sitting just a minute before.”

“Oh my,” Celestia and Rarity said softly, their eyes going wide. “Was... was anypony hurt?”

“No, no, we were fine, or at least, Trixie, myself and Maria were,” the zebra continued. “Meia... after the initial shock, she got... mad.”

“Mad? Like, scared mad?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No: it was like she was... furious, in a crazy sort of way,” Asalah said, remembering the look on the now-disguised changeling’s face clearly, even all these weeks later. “She... I don’t know how, tore through the debris that had blocked our cabin door and walked calmly up and out of there, the debris falling back in place. Then Spike came in, smelling of smoke and stuff, and we told him where she had gone.”

“Where had he been?” Applejack asked. That in and of itself was a good question, though if Applejack had been paying more attention, she would have remembered Spike was topside helping the captain.

“I don’t know, but he had come through where the cannonball had torn through the ship, so I’m guessing he had been flying around and burning the pirate ships,” the zebra mare said, trying to remember things exactly. “We told him what Meia had done and where she had gone, and he left us. Less than a minute later, we heard another boom sound from outside.”

“Was it more cannons blasting away?” Fluttershy asked, her face barely poking out from behind Twilight’s shoulder, even though Twilight herself was a little shorter than the pegasus.

“No: it was thunder,” Asalah said, recalling how the sky had darkened through the hole in the wall left by the cannonball. “Spike came back down with an unconscious Meia in his arms and told us she had summoned a storm with her rage-induced magic. The flashes through the window and hole in the wall were blinding at times, and we even saw one of the pirate ships explode from a strike.”

“Meia summoned a storm?” Twilight asked, arching an eyebrow in both disbelief and a bit of awe. “I had no idea she was that magically inclined: it requires a lot of concentration to move things around like that out of the blue.” Indeed, that was a strange bit of news, one she would have to investigate further, if only to sate her own curiosity.

“Neither did we, and it must have taken a lot out of her,” the zebra said. “It dissipated around the time Spike came back down to us: he said the pirates were all gone, so we just lay there and hoped for the best.” She paused for a minute. “Meia only just recovered a few days ago, so if you do have any questions for her, I’d suggest they were short and somewhat simple.”

“We are not inconsiderate of another’s needs, so we will do as you suggest,” Celestia said softly. Stressing out a pony during her pregnancy was never a good thing. “Is she ready to see us? I am not sure how much longer this spell will hold: it is a difficult one, after all.”

“She should be ready now, and Spike will be with her,” Asalah said softly. “Give me a minute.” With that she left, leaving behind only an empty carriage for everypony to look at.

“Don’t you think it’s a tad strange Meia was able to summon a storm just like that?” Twilight asked the others, snapping her fingers on “that” to emphasize her point.

“Twilight, you of all ponies should know how magic can be used when somepony gets angry enough,” Rarity said simply.

“Yeah: didn’t ya kinda burst into flames when Pinkie said that doozy with the hydra wasn’t the doozy she’d been talkin’ about?” Applejack asked.

“Yes, well, that was... somewhat similar, but I-,” the purple unicorn began.

“Hush, Twilight: we will discuss your possible misgivings later,” Celestia said, just as two more figures appeared in the mirror. Spike and Meia, though the latter looked a little worse for wear than they had thought she would.

“Hello,” the married couple said, though Meia sounded a bit out of it, as if she hadn’t had enough sleep the night before.
“Hello,” everypony else replied, all of the greetings started to blend together into a monotony of words.

“Well, while I was out, I heard from Asalah you wanted to know something about Prance?” Spike said, idly scratching the bottom of his chin.

“Yes, as we heard plenty about what you did to ruffians who got in your way in the Samarea Desert, the Ethiopian skies, and the Somalian seas,” Celestia said, tilting her head slightly as if wondering just what Spike was becoming.

“Well, most of it is somewhat of a haze for me,” Spike said, rubbing the back of his neck in a slightly embarrassed manner. “Meia, are you well enough to tell them?”

The unicorn slowly nodded her head, brushing her mane out of her eyes. She really did look tired, though up close it seemed she was more tired from exertion than from a simple lack of sleep. “I... I remember there had been a thunderstorm the night before, when we were all down in the dungeons together. Maria and little Pierre, the king’s nephew and successor, had been taken to an adjoining cell.”

“Why were you held captive in Prance?” Twilight interjected, earning a look of exasperation on Celestia’s part. If only Twilight learned manners as well as she did spells...

Meia was silent for a moment. “When we stopped near the border, we were ambushed: Spike was hurt, and we were taken to a robber baron’s castle. That was where I... confessed my love for Spike, and he replied in kind.” Yeah: brain-melting sex that night and the quick rut the morning after were not the best things to confess to doing.

“There? That was where you confessed? If I may ask, when do you believe you started loving him?” Rarity asked, arching an eyebrow in not suspicion, but in interest.

“After he saved my life not once, but twice aboard the ship we crossed the Barnlantic on: the Crowhop, right?” she asked, looking at Spike for confirmation.

“That’s right,” he said softly, rubbing the small of her back in a comforting gesture.

“In the morning after my shall we say, intimate confession, Maria and myself were taken away forcibly, with little Pierre being forced into the same cell as Spike. I don’t know what the guards taunted him about when we were brought before the baron, but it must have been something... awful.”

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, on the edge of her seat.

“Spike... he broke free from the dungeon and rescued us,” Meia said. “He... he was a giant: at least, I don’t know, eight feet tall, and he swatted those guards around like they were flies. Then he grabbed the baron and made as though he was going to kill him, but little Pierre stopped him.”

“But why would he do that?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Because he said killing the baron would not make much of a difference: better he pay for his crimes than get the easy way out,” Meia said, running her hand through the bangs of her mane.

“He was a smart little colt, I’ll give him that,” Spike said. “If I had killed that baron, then I’d likely not have been knighted: more likely just thanked for the justice I had brought to the area.”

“Wait, you were knighted? By the king of Prance?” Rainbow Dash asked, jutting her face between everypony else and the mirror. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

“I seem to remember doing just that: you must not have been paying attention, Dash,” Spike said, just as the edges of the mirror began to fray slightly.

“But... w-why did you kill those other bandits, and t-the thugs, and the pirates?” Fluttershy asked, peeking out more from behind Twilight. “I mean.... w-why the sudden change?”

“I’m not sure, myself,” Spike said. “Perhaps there wasn’t an equivalent little Pierre to stop me from following my baser instincts. He was very persuasive, I remember.”

“No, that’s not it,” Meia said softly, her fingers intertwining with Spike’s own. “That wasn’t it at all.”

“It wasn’t?” Pinkie Pie asked, Applejack restraining her from jumping close to the mirror again as Rainbow retreated to Celestia’s side.

“No: I’m not entirely certain, but I have a theory,” the disguised changeling said. “Before then, Maria and I were just his wives: nothing more, to be honest. But after he was found and married by Trixie, he was no longer just a husband: he was going to be a father.”

“That’s right,” Spike said, his eyes widening slightly as the revelation met his own thoughts. “You and Maria didn’t become pregnant until sometime in the Samarea Desert, which means-,”

“-that your feelings for us, strong as they had been, increased exponentially,” Meia finished for him. “You loved us as your wives before, as your mates, but after we too became pregnant, you were defending not only our lives and honor, but the unborn foals we carried within us. That love, that bond, has only strengthened as time has gone on, or else-,”

“-the trouble we were in would not have needed me to change so drastically, or alter my behavior so much,” Spike finished for her.

“Wow,” Rarity and Applejack said softly, a small tear forming in the corners of their eyes. “That’s... that’s a beautiful thought," the white unicorn added.

The edges of the mirror blurred more, and Celestia swayed slightly behind everypony. “Our time is finished here, Spike and Meia,” the alicorn said, though her smile was mirrored on everypony else’s at the little speech they had just witnessed. “Goodbye, Spike: we shall speak again sometime in the future, but as to when, we do not know.” With that, the mirror faded completely, the image of everypony waving goodbye disappearing in a small puff of vapor.

With a shimmer, the Meia facade disappeared, and Chrysalis’s true form reappeared. “This theory of mine: do you think it is perhaps part of the reason you didn’t banish me from your sight when I revealed myself to you?” she asked, looking at Spike with something akin to puppy-dog eyes.

“Maybe, but the truth is I loved you as Meia, and I love you as much, if not more, as Chrysalis,” the dragon said softly, pulling her into a hug.

“Truly?” she muttered into his shoulder, her body begging for more rest and eventually, food.

“Yes,” he replied, gently holding her for a few minutes. Then, after a few more minutes of that silent hug, did they part, exiting the carriage to help the others into their own. The sun was still far above the horizon, and the roads were still free from sand, but there was only so much food the carriages could carry, and there was not a small town or village for miles in any direction. Spike, back in his own carriage, spurred the magic contraptions onward, hoping to cover some distance before night fell over them all.

In her own carriage, Chrysalis gently rubbed her stomach, hoping to feel a small hoof-kick against it. She did not, but she was not troubled. She was filled with hope that soon, perhaps right on time in the last few days of her pregnancy, she would bring into the world an example of pure love that only a wife could provide.

A foal.

Author's Notes:

I cannot apologize enough for the delay. I just got swamped with so many things, but enough about my life. Here's another chapter for you all, and to those who celebrate today like me, happy Independence Day!