Alone in his old room, Spike wanted to pace around his bed, but decided the floor couldn't handle his talons repeatedly pressing into the same spots. That, and he was clenching his fists every now and then, so he'd likely rake through the wooden floor with ease. He had already kicked Twilight out of the library, much to her displeasure, but what was she going to do against a potentially livid dragon? Put him in a timeout? Applejack had followed left on her own, muttering something about "looking fer the twins", and for only the second time that day, Spike was alone.
"What the buck," he moaned, rubbing his temples as he lay against his old covers. "Why... why did Twilight have to do this? Why me?" The fact he had been the unwitting father of a huge portion of Equestria's next generation bothered him greatly, but the biggest problem in his eyes was not that he had so many offspring, but that... he didn't know practically any of these mares! To think, all of the other stallions in this program were volunteers and likely had dozen of foals as well, but... none of them even came close to what he had been through!
Spike didn't think like normal dragons, who would have been bragging from Tartarus and back at how many offspring they had and how many females they had bedded. No, he was much closer to a pony in the way he thought, and even for him, the prospects of this were... terrifying, to say the least. He had over five thousand offspring; five thousand! It would have taken centuries of relationships to make maybe even one tenth that amount in the "regular" way. Not to mention there were several with royal parents; the minotaur queen, the griffin princess, Luna and Celestia, Chrysalis...
"This... this is too much," Spike muttered, rolling over and burying his face in his pillow. He wanted nothing more than to just go back to sleep, but then there was the danger he would breed even more mares in that state, as he was still technically bound by a contract he had signed during his "sleep". He didn't want any more of this, but... he really didn't want to leave. Ponyville was his home, and no matter how horrendous a crime had been done to him, he didn't want to leave. Nor did he feel like going on a rampage; that would absolutely solve nothing and lead only to more problems. Suicide was by far the farthest thing from his mind, too; what kind of a coward would kill himself with that many children out there possibly in need of his guidance and love? No, he had to think long and hard on this; there had to be something he could do, something so outrageous that it could sort of make up for all this injustice...
"Wait a minute," he muttered, glancing over at the book he had written. In it was everything the dragon from Luna's time had told him; everything he needed to know about being a dragon. Their role as a species, their powers, their habits, history, diet, weaknesses, strengths, biology, evolution... it was all there. Perhaps in the book he could find the answers he sought.
Trudging over and gingerly lifting up the massive book, which must have weighed as much as a small carriage, he walked back over to his bed and set it down. Opening the first page, he began to read.
Several hours later, Twilight tentatively opened the door to the library, peering inside as she did so. She had left after Spike kicked her out, mostly to avoid him, but also to give herself time to think.
"Spike is never going to forgive me for this," she muttered, slowly closing the door behind her. "I know what we... what I did was wrong, and there's certainly a place in Tartarus reserved for me because of it, but... when Luna told me of what could be on the horizon, I just...-"
"Just what, Twilight?" a voice said, and the purple alicorn did three flips before landing on her hooves once more.
"Spike! You're... you're still here?" she asked.
"Of course; why would I be gone?" he replied. No emotion was in his voice; no warmth, no chill, no hatred or love or even confusion. It... it sounded rather scary, for him to sound so calm, especially after what he had been told.
"I... I thought you'd have left, never to return, after... after what we did to you," she said quietly, wishing she could just walk back outside. His gaze seemed to pierce past her eyes and look right into her brain, as if he were reading her thoughts.
"Why would I leave the only home I've ever known?" the dragon asked simply.
"Well... what we did... we thought... we thought it was necessary, but so unforgivable, that-,"
"Twilight, whether or not I forgive you is my decision alone; nopony else has a say in how I live my life and how I react to such... information," Spike said. "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. I am strong, Twilight; I can forgive you and everypony else for what you all have done. The only question is, can you forgive yourself?"
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Spike cut her off.
"In your own time, Twilight. Right now, I have a lot of things to say, and I'm not going to repeat myself. Take notes if you wish."
Twilight slowly summoned a quill, a large bottle of ink, and several large, blank scrolls. Gulping, she nodded and dipped the quill into the ink.
"First things first, I hereby declare that I will continue with this "program" of yours, if only for the common good of all of Equestria," Spike began.
"But... why would you do that?" Twilight asked. "What we did was criminal!"
"Yes, it was," the dragon replied. "Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim; letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor. I have survived this experience, Twilight; only you can pay penitence for these crimes. I have no reason to hate you other than you made a poor decision; a very poor decision, perhaps, but it was yours to make in letting me, without full or completely coherent knowledge, sign that contract, and even though I am obligated to fulfill said contract, rest assured I will not forget what has happened to me."
"Oh... okay," the alicorn said softly, resuming her note-taking.
"Secondly, as stated in the Book of Dragons, all offspring of my descent shall know their heritage," Spike said. "I will not have any of my offspring running around, scared and angry at the world because they do not know how to control their dragon half, nor will I have them using it with a devious purpose in mind. They are my offspring, and until they are old enough to make decision for themselves, I will have a say in their lives, regardless of what the mother may think. Every month a portion of my children will gather with me and I shall teach them the ways of my kind; think of it as a summer camp for dragon hybrids."
"Why can't the mother have a say?" Twilight asked softly.
"Because I didn't have a full say when you used me as a personal buck-toy for many hundreds of mares," Spike said, a hint of icy anger hissing briefly from his lips. "They could have said no, but they instead chose to use me as some mass-impregnation machine. Which brings up a point: why didn't you ask me first?"
"W-well, you w-were asleep and we couldn't wake you unless we warped y-your biological clock, and... there were other problems," Twilight said slowly.
"Such as?"
"Well... we can't clone dragon sperm, for one, or else we wouldn't have even needed you for the program," the alicorn said. "Dragon sperm is so highly developed, magically-speaking, that to try and clone it with other magic is simply impossible. Not even science can clone dragon sperm, and trust me, I tried many times. It's like trying to un-bake a MMM cake, only far more volatile and potentially far more disastrous with every try. Plus, there was the whole method of... gathering samples..."
"What do you mean?" Spike asked.
"Dragons just don't go spilling their seed all willy-nilly Spike; it is far too potent and precious to just be wasted on something like masturbation," Twilight said. "P-Plus, it doesn't keep well on its own for very long; maybe a few days, and with every passing day, it degrades so rapidly that it becomes nothing more than useless goo. No refrigeration can keep it contained; dragon semen is laced with the same genetics that allow for dragons to withstand all sorts of different temperatures, so trying to freeze it was pointless. I even tried freezing it at near absolute zero, which actually worked, except upon thawing it was useless again, what with being degraded by those cold of temperatures."
"Which was why you needed mares to rape me non-stop for several years," the dragon said softly.
"Yes, and I know I'm going to sound even worse for saying this, Spike, but... there really was no other solution to this problem. I met with Luna and Celestia after the decree, and they told me of such decrees in the past. It happened not long after Discord's fall, and then several hundred years later, after the great Hydra Invasion. They both knew it was a terrible thing, a crime against the rights of all, and I tried telling them there must have been another way, but then... they showed me the future."
"They what?" Spike asked.
"Combining their magic, they showed me what could happen if such a program was not put in place," Twilight said. "The deal with Chrysalis getting you for a week as part of a peace settlement process? That wouldn't have happened, and sooner than later, she would have attacked us again, only this time, it would have been far more devastating. The only reason the nagas to the far south haven't been raiding this far north is because of the minotaur queen's prestige, and that would be useless to us if she hadn't signed the alliance treaty. I saw countless other horrors; the Gates of Tartarus opening, demons laying waste to our kingdom, the moon and sun hovering in the sky as Celestia and Luna lay dying under the might of some fallen god... I was scared, Spike. I was scared what the future could bring, and so I made a decision."
"To use me," he said simply. "To use me for a plan for a future that may or may have happened."
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, Spike," Twilight said softly, a tear rolling down her cheek. "What we did was wrong, but we had to do it, for if we did nothing, what then? Would we hold onto our pride and pat ourselves on the back, saying the cost would have been too great, even if the world was reduced to ash because of our inaction? Would we have still stood by our morals and decisions when the whole world would just come crumbling down around us? Or would we have taken that chance, taken the chance that maybe, just maybe, by destroying a bit of ourselves, we could save everypony else? That we could sacrifice a few, so that all could be saved?"
Spike was silent. "Twilight... stop. Just stop; you don't need to preach to me about what could have been or what might not have been."
"But... but why? You hate me, I hate me, everypony should hate me for what I let our kingdom do to you!" Twilight cried out, tears gushing from her eyes. "You have every right a pony does, and we violated those rights! We are monsters, we in power; we decide what is best, even if it goes against everything we've ever stood for! We-,"
Smack
Twilight reeled back, stunned as she held up a hoof to her cheek. "You... you slapped me," she said, shock driving away her tears.
"Bitch, you needed a slap," Spike said, walking up to her. "Twilight, I don't need this right now; no matter what you did to me, no matter how terrible it was, you did what you thought was right. Was it? I don't know or really care; who am I to judge anypony but myself? It is so easy to judge others when you've never been in their place or faced the choices they have. I don't need some self-loathing, morally-ruined crypony right now; I need my best friend Twilight Sparkle, the nerdy little librarian unicorn that became an alicorn princess. Get it together, Twi." Then, in a flash, he pulled her into a hug. At first, the pony struggled against his grip, but soon enough, she went slack, simply sobbing into his scaly chest.
"Spike, I... the others, and I... we knew... we knew it was wrong... we knew, but... we couldn't bring ourselves to admit it. We are terrible, terrible ponies, the lot of us; we... we've been hiding our pain, tucking it away, trying to deny it's not there. Only... it's there, it'll always be there, the pain... the knowledge of what I... what we've done. I'm... I'm sorry."
"I know, but telling me that won't change the past," Spike said, gently setting her down. "All we can do is hope for a better future. Now... where was I?"
"About... about your foals?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, of course," Spike said. "Now, about child support..."
"So... we're cool?" Rainbow Dash asked, partially hiding behind a small cloud. All of the Elements of Harmony had gathered in the Canterlot palace, along with both Princess Luna and Celestia.
"Yes, we're cool," Spike said to the cowering pegasus.
"We owe you an apology greater than any of us can afford, Spike," Luna said softly. "We-,"
"No, you don't," Spike said simply. "What you need to do is help me make this right, or at least as right as it can be in this bucked-up world I've woken up in. Personally I'm still hoping it's just a dream, but we all know that's not the case, is it?"
"Then... what wouldja have us do, Spike?" Applejack asked softly, hiding behind her hat. Rarity was hiding behind her, and Pinkie Pie was hiding behind her as well. A conga line of fear, you could say.
"I am going to need the names of every female I've been with in that cave," the dragon said simply. "Also, we may need to clean that cave, I have no idea if you've ever cleaned it while I was asleep."
"Yes, it was cleaned after every... session," Rarity whispered, not daring to look Spike in the eye.
"Okay then, now that that issue is out of the way, back to the main point; I want names, addresses, races, everything; I want to know every female I've been with, down to where they were born and their favorite color," Spike said, his voice calm but very commanding. "I also want to know the names and faces of each of my offspring; names, locations, how much like me they are, etc. I don't want a single foal with my blood in their veins not knowing their father."
Celestia nodded slowly; she had expected as much, though Spike was handling the situation far better than she had feared. "Any resource you will require will be given to you, Spike," she said.
"Damn straight," he replied. "Now, about child support; seeing as I am a dragon, I am not only technically not married to these mares by pony standards, but they are my mates, as per the dragon code. This means none of them can carry on with others without my permission, understand?"
"Some of us wouldn't dream of it," Rarity whispered to Applejack, who slowly nodded in agreement.
"By default as well, all property of my mates is mine as well, as pertaining to Dragon Law. This means I now technically have an invested interest in Equestria, the Changeling Nation, the Minotaur Kingdom and the Griffin Empire. As such, I will receive a small payment from each nation amounting to no more than ten percent of their GDP, in order to care for my thousands of offspring. I will also need a very large home in which to stay, preferably somewhere large enough to take care of any of my offspring, should something befall their mother," Spike said simply. "Harsh, yes, but only fair, and accidents do happen; none of my children will be put in an orphanage of any kind, understand?"
"Yes, Spike," Twilight said softly, looking at the floor to avoid his gaze. He was rapidly becoming the most powerful figure in all the world, and all because they needed him to get a whole bunch of mares knocked up. They really should have thought this through.
"Any questions?" the dragon asked. Funny, how he went from mass-rape victim to ordering around the leaders of a kingdom in a mere few hours, with more power well on the way. Strange, how even the most bucked-up events in his life could somehow lead to something halfway-decent.
"What about the buffalo?" Twilight asked.
"What about them?"
"Well, you didn't breed with any of them, but they are technically citizens of Equestria, and the chief's daughter has expressed some interest in... meeting you, and-,"
"I will handle that on my own time," Spike said. "Anything else?"
"Well, for your mating census... we kind of already did that," Rainbow Dash said.
"You did? When?" Spike asked, surprised.
"Well, since it is an official program, every volunteer had to be sized up and matched with a suitable partner, as well as given complete medical exams and other tests," Celestia said simply. "Every participant has been officially recorded, down to the last time they were mated and how early they showed signs of pregnancy. It's all in the new Canterlot Census Archives."
"That's... not what I meant, Princess Celestia," Rainbow Dash said, sliding a bit further behind her cloud to mask her blush. "I meant the... other records."
"Oh," Celestia said. "Yes, well, I'm sure Spike will be very interested in those."
"Hello, I'm right here," the dragon said. "What are these "other records", by chance?"
"Well... to document your success, many of your early... mating sessions were videotaped," Twilight said softly. "It... it was kind of a hard selling point at first to get mares to breed with a dragon, but after a while... they just kind of started coming back in droves. Word got out how good you were, Spike."
"Good? How good? Wasn't I asleep?" the dragon asked, now more curious than furious that he had been taped rutting mares. If ruling didn't work out, he could always become a porn star, it seemed.
"Good enough that you were given several awards by several academies for helping them better learn dragon physiology," Luna said. "That, and many, many mares gave glowing testimonials in several prestigious magazines."
Spike blinked; here he had all this work for them planned to at least try and start making up for all the shit they had just put him through these past five years, and... there was this?
"The buck?" he whispered. "Okay, Twilight, you are going to help me personally go through each and every bit of records to help compile my list; understand?"
"Yes, o-of course," the alicorn princess muttered.
Spike turned to Fluttershy, who had been quiet this whole time. "Fluttershy, I'd like to see my... our foals now, if you would be so kind."
Surprisingly, Fluttershy didn't tremble in fear, but gave an almost happy squeaking noise as she flew off to gather her foals.
"I thought we were going to go through all the records?" Twilight asked.
"We are; in time," Spike said simply. "Right now, I want to meet my foals; Dash, Rarity, Applejack, please bring our foals in with Fluttershy's. Oh, and princesses? I'd like to meet ours as well."
As the aforementioned ponies walked off to find their foals, Pinkie Pie sat, staring at Spike with a curious expression. "Does this mean the "Spike woke back up party" is canceled?" she asked.
"No, just... postponed," the dragon said. "Besides, it wouldn't be a party without my family being there, now would it?"
Spike knew from then on his life was never going to be the same.