//------------------------------// // 99 – "Yo, Mr. Blackness Incarnate!" // Story: Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests // by B_25 //------------------------------// ~ 99 ~ "Yo, Mr. Blackness Incarnate!" Spike felt his body fly forward, phasing through the first black entity in a flash of brilliant green light. He felt movement behind him, quickly bringing his elbow into the second, before the third and the fourth charged into either side of him. Twisting his body, his left claw entered the liquid of the third, while the spade of his tail impaled the neck of the fourth. A brilliant green flash emitted from inside them, and a few moments later, there were small scattered puddles across the platform. Spike stood hunched over, blood dripping from the cuts lining his face as black liquid covered his lower body. He glanced back at the mass of ponies by the railings; some were trembling to stand again, while others were still being loaded onto others backs. “Crap,” he muttered to himself, returning his attention to the black that remaining eerily still. But that focus was mostly placed on the silhouette of himself standing on its head. “Yo, Mr. Blackness incarnate! What’s the point to all this? Why go through all this trouble to cause mayhem to ponies?” Pure whiteness injected itself into the black entity's face, filling in two orbs that came to its eyes, and one curved line that became its mouth. When it opened, there was only a gaping whiteness to behold. “Still standing after three waves...I admit that you have quite the tenacity if you were a pony.” He gestured with admiration with a blackened claw, resting it on his left shoulder. “But any proper dragon would detest such a comparison, much less end their life if their increased strength only amounted to that of a pony.” “Is that why your dragon looks like he pulled himself out from a grave?” The aforementioned dragon’s nostrils flared with steam. His owner kept him still. “Tell something, blackness incarnate.” “The name is Despair.” “Despair, ensnare, who cares?” Spike chuckled at his weak joke, before his expression became serious against his pants. “But I’m guessing your pet there wasn’t always brimming with your essence.” “That you are correct, my dear dragon.” He brought his black claw over the forehead of the dragon, the waters begging to ripple away almost in repulsion. “But once I’ve made my introduction into your life, even just once, you’ll find yourself filled with just a little part of me. Something that’ll spread through your veins and throughout your entire body if I so will it, or if you fools finally give in to the temptation to think for once.” “Thinking has never been my strong suit anyway.” Spike's eyes narrowed on the black forehead as he could see the coming of scales. He inched up his head. “You going to reveal what’s underneath your black cesspool or what?” The twisted white smile grew into a grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” “I would.” “Then there is something I would like to ascertain as well,” the words slithered out of his mouth as his black tongue flicked out. He tilted his head and set his gaze upon the drake’s wrist. “That power you possess, how did you obtain it? Why is it capable of destroying my essence despite lacking purity?” A moment of silence passed. Then, the drake grinned as well. “Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” The black claw over the forehead finally pressed down into the liquid, parting it in a circle like fashion as if it were the sea, as the true color of the scales were exposed to all to see. Spike quickly dipped a claw into his coat pocket and withdrew the sketch of the dragon, finding close to none similarities between the black dragon and the Lost Prince. Except for one key detail: Both of the dragons had blue scales.