"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Twilight asked. "You don't have to, you know. I'm sure Ember wouldn't think any less of you."

"I need to do this, Twi," Spike said bitterly. "She'd have wanted that." He wanted to cry, he needed to, yet he couldn't. He had made a promise and was going to keep it. "Can you..." He looked at the cave. A crimson light glowed from within. "Let me have a few minutes alone with her. Please."

"Of course," Twilight smiled. "Have all the time you need." 

[i]You don't have to pretend, Twi. Ember's death hit you pretty hard too. I know you blame yourself for giving her the idea. I know I still blame you for it. After this is over I'll be moving to live with Celestia. Maybe in time I'll return to you. Who knows?[/i]

The dragon made his way into the cave. The floor was warm to touch. As per Dragon Lore, ten fully grown dragons had breathed fire on the face of the mountain until they formed what would be Ember's final resting place. After the ceremony was over they would do it again, enclosing her in molten stone. Spike had never considered he'd be the one to see her off. The more they'd talked these last few years, the more he'd seen her as invincible. If anyone was going to perish it was going to be him, he'd thought. He was the weakling, the ponyfied, the wingless. Instead, he had lived.

As he went further in, another dragon appeared facing him. 

"Spike," the dragon greeted curtly.

"Garble," Spike responded in turn.

They had never liked each other. Once they had been enemies, then they had been rivals. Both had tried to win Ember over, both had gone through a lot in order to do so, both had been scarred by her loss. [i]What will you do, Garble? You tried to change her mind till the very end. Even after you knew she'd chosen me, even after she'd said so, you never gave up. Will you give up now?[/i]

Ember's body rested comfortably on a crystal slab. Princess Cadence had personally sent the best block of crystal from the Empire to be used for the occasion. Originally, it was supposed to be her wedding present to them. Spike and Ember were supposed to have their betrothing battle upon it. [i]You would have liked it, Ember. It's your colour. Rarity spent a full week matching one of your scales to crystal samples until she found the perfect shade.[/i]

Standing above her, the dragon gently slid his hand over her cheek. For a moment he dared hope that a miracle would happen, that she would wake up and slap him through the face for being such a sap. It didn't. The Dragon Princess remained motionless, clad in golden armour, holding the Dragon Lord scepter.

"Hello, Ember," Spike said quietly. "I still can't believe you’re gone. Yesterday you were telling me you'd found a way to get the dragons to accept me. If I had known, I..." The words stuck to his throat. If he had known he would have stopped her. He never cared about being accepted, he only wanted to be with her. "You were right, you know. It worked." Spike spread his wings, his beautiful majestic wings. "You won the arena of fate and got your wish. I have wings now. Large, magnificent, wings..." [i]Large, stupid, useless wings! How could you think I'd choose wings over you?![/i] 

[i]Stupid Dragon Lore![/i] Spike clenched his fists. The rules stated that a wingless dragon could never become a prince. Spike could be with Ember only as a concubinus. If it were up to him, he'd laugh and go for it, but Ember had been determined to have her dream wedding. She had gone places that shouldn't have been disturbed, challenged forces that shouldn't have been challenged, all for the sake of that one wish. And this was the result. Spike would tear them off and throw them into a volcano… if he hadn't made a promise.

"I promised I wouldn't be mad at you no matter what," the dragon knelt beside her body. "I promised that I wouldn't cry, and I didn't. I promised I'd never harm myself, and I won't. I'll take the title of Dragon Prince and the wings you gave me. And no matter where I fly, I'll always miss you, Ember..."