Dark Magic

by newHelm

War is Ugly

Spike held the back of private Sunrise's head, their foreheads touching. "It's alright Sunrise, it's ok."

"I'm sorry sir. I couldn't help."

Spike smiled, tears running down his cheeks. "You did help private, you saved us. We won this battle thanks to your bravery. Say your peace."

Sunrise took in a wavering breath. "Captain, can you tell that blue mare, she was beautiful for me. I would have liked to married that one."

"She would like that. What about family?"

"Died in the drakos attack on Fillydelfia. Think they are proud of me?"

"I know it. If nothing else, we're proud to have served with you."

"Thank you sir. You and captain Apple are my heroes. Thank you for letting me serve with you."

"Thank you for the good memories. Ready?"

Sunrise clenched his eyes and teeth shut. "Thank you sir, I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Don't blame yourself sir." With everything he had left, he placed his hoof on Spike's claw. The claw covering horribly bleeding wound in his side. He nodded, pain coursing through his body. He was ready.

Spike smiled gently as he raised his other claw to his subordinate's, his friend's jaw. With a swift jerk, it was over and the life left the young colt's eyes.

The smile left Spike as rage consumed him. The squad's medic, an older stallion with a dark green coat and orange mane, took off his helmet and threw it across the dessert. His scream filled with hate and fury. "Damn it all!"

Spike rose from above the cooling corpse. The air around him darkened as he stormed over to his friend and partner. Macintosh had his hoof over the throat of a brown drakos. He gave Spike a hard look before nodding at the disabled drakos. "I know. Has he said anything?"

Macintosh huffed. "Nope."

Spike looked over their prisoner's wounds. Just to make sure the right muscles were cut to keep him from moving. "So, this is how it goes. I ask a question, you answer. Don't answer, pain. Understand?"

The drakos smiled up at his enemies. "So, you lot are going to kill me anyway. My pride can not be bought by the likes of you and your pathetic friends." The drakos sneered. "Ponies are good for only one thing, lunch." He let out a ravenous laugh, until the hoof on his throat pushed down harder. He sputtered and gasped helplessly, until the hoof lessened allowing him to breath and cough.

Spike sneered at their captive. "Listen idiot. I don't want you to die, I want you to feel every painful moment I have for you. Now I can be merciful and allow a quick death, if you answer. Now, understand?"

The drakos nodded. "Good, now, you have a supply depot around here, where is it?"

The drakos smiled. "Under your tail." He let out a ravenous laughter. "Oh, Shadowfang that was good."

Spike lowered his claw to the drakos's leg and clawed out a chunk of scales and flesh. The drakos yelled in pain. "The depot, now."

"When you come back to your own race 'your majesty'." It continued like that through the rest of the day and into the night before the drakos finally succumbed to his wounds and died in excruciating pain.

Spike walked to the small gathering of his fellow troops. He sat next to Macintosh who slid a small box purple box to him. Spike eyed the box till he saw the small card attached and read it. 'From Rarity. Keep up you strength. Miss you.' He gave his friend a quizzical, till he opened the box and saw the gemstones inside. He smiled like a small child, it had been a long time since he had a good gem. He nodded at his silent friend before eating a few. He looked up at the bright desert sky, a longing for home filled him. They all wanted home, unfortunately most end up like Sunrise, a casualty. He hated that word. As if there was anything casual about death.

Spike dropped his head into his hands, rubbing his cheeks before laying down to sleep.

Spike snapped up, sword drawn. He looked at the pony that had woken him at his feet. The pony was one of the older soldiers, with a dark brown coat and a white mane. Corporal Cliphoof, he threw his head behind himself, it was Spike's turn to guard.

Spike waved him off as he stood, putting away his blade. This would be a long night. He stood at the western side of the camp, his eyes peeled for any activity. His eyes stayed sharp, but his mind wandered. He thought of Sunrise, and good of a pony he was. Spike smiled thinking of the first time they met, fan colt extreme. He had rambled on and on about Spike's and Macintosh's feats of greatness. Spike had puffed his chest and strutted, while Macintosh had just rolled his eyes. He had exclaimed his joy for finally getting to work with his heroes until he realized that he was in the guard and needed to act as such. It had taken weeks to get him to become comfortable with the group again.

Was that movement towards his left, no, just the wind kicking up some sand.

It was a weird day when Spike had learned that Sunrise had developed a crush on his home town friend Rainbow Dash. Apparently, he had been working on a letter to her for a week, but nothing had came to him. Spike had found the letter and at first teased him about his marefriend, until he read the part about the rainbow mane and stood stunned. Macintosh handled that one, until Spike was asked to be his wing pony. Spike laughed at the thought of his athletic friend with the childish, desperate to please, goofy private. He agreed in the end, but just to help a friend, not to play hook up. As he thought about it all, while sitting in the sand, it may have worked between the two. From the fact that Rainbow Dash actually sat down to write out long letters back, and the fact that she wrote longer letters to Sunrise than to Spike. Now all of that was gone, now that he had killed the young colt.

Spike released a heavy breath. It was going to be another long, contemplative night.

Spike took a little too much joy in kicking Macintosh awake. "Come on sleepy head, time to move."

Macintosh opened his eyes lazily. "Awake the whole time huh, well than get up. Spoil sport, I was hoping to get you back for all those kicks I get. I'm losing my rugged good looks from lack of sleep."

The red pony got up and smiled at his drakos friend. His face turned grim as he nodded in Spike's direction. "Yeah, I'm fine. Well as fine as I can be. I know he was going to die in pain, and I helped ease that pain, but it still feels wrong, and very sad."

They sat together for a moment. "He had it in him. Could of been better than us."

His companion just uttered softly. "Eeyep."

"Rainbow Dash is gonna take it hard."

"Eeyep."

"I'll tell her."

"Nope"

"I know her better. She'll need someone to cry with, someone who knew them both. She wouldn't let herself cry in front of you, I can save my tears for then. Don't take that the wrong way."

Macintosh simply placed his hoof on Spike's shoulder. He nodded in understanding.

Spike stood and looked around the makeshift camp. The rest of their squad was packed and ready, two of the ponies had a stretcher between them with Sunrise's body on it. A yellow pony with a black mane approached him and Macintosh, saluting. "Sirs, corporals Cliphoof and Burns have volunteered to take private Sunrise back home. I suggest sending private Brass as support. That would leave us, medic Hawkeye, and sergeant Cloudcutter to assault the supply depot."

Spike shook his head. "No, Bumble, you lead all the men home, and than straight to the Crystal Kingdom, me and Mac will deal with the depot."

"But sir! The depot would be heavily defended. Should a larger force and a well placed plan be a better just the two of you looking?"

Macintosh shook his head. "Nope."

Spike grinned. "Don't worry lieutenant, I have a plan, but it will make the trip home harder. You need all the men you have to get there. We will give you a two hour head start, get going."

Bumble saluted as he turned to relay his orders, but stopped as Spike call out to him. "Lieutenant, you've grown to fit your rank. You're no longer the bumbling officer demanding respect, you've earned it now. Lead the men to safety."

Bumble saluted before turning back to the men and leaving.

Spike looked over at his co-captain and friend. "About two hours. You ready?" He pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He lit two and offered one to Macintosh as he stuck the other between his lips. The pony looked at the thing, brows furrowed and a look of disgust. "I know, I know. Your gonna quite, but we may die here. Plus we both know your gonna take it." Macintosh shrugged as he lifted an eyebrow, before taking the cigarette in his mouth. "Taste worst than hay, huh."

Spike stretched and drew his bone handled machete. "Alright, the locator spell will tell us just were the green drakos is. He commands the depot, so it should lead us there. We blow the thing sky high and get the hay outta there. Kill as many as we can so the main troops have less to deal with. We win, in a week Equestria will be that much closer to the drakos capital and killing the duke. All in a day right."

Macintosh chuckled as he tightened the sword around his hoof. He checked his spiked shoe and short shoulder mounted blade as well. He turned to Spike and nodded as he placed a plain metal mask over his face. Spike nodded back as he put his antler drakos skull mask on. "Once I do the spell, every drakos in the area will know where we are and come running. So we gotta be fast and hit hard. Well here goes." With all said, Spike let loose a mighty breath of green fire. It twirled in the air before shooting off to their left at incredible speed. It took a lot of strength just to keep up with the arrow shaped fire as it shot towards its target.

As they ran, an orange drakos with blue spines jumped from the sands to their right. Without missing a beat Macintosh sliced his blade across his throat, killing him. They kept running.

They knew they were closing in as more and more drakos showed up to challenge the two, not one of them stood a chance. With whirling blades, claws, or spiked hooves being their demise. Spike nor Macintosh stopped until the green arrow of fire shot into the ground.

Spike grinned as he pulled his blade from the body of a dead drakos. "Smart, nopony would think to look under the sand. Let's go." With a mighty breath, Spike blew mighty torrents of fire at the sand, making a large dark hole in the ground. "Sometimes I love this black magic."

They jumped into the hole and found what they were expecting. A large green drakos was pierced by the magical fire arrow and was withering on the ground in pain. Seven other drakos stood around them, ready and armed. Spike looked over at Macintosh who had finished his cigarette and grinned back. "Aw man, you still smoke faster than me. Well how about we show these wack jobs who we are?"

A nod in response and they began their attack. Spike blew a burst of fire at one and charged another. The drakos raised a spear at him, he rolled to the side and slashed the drakos. The burned one finally extinguished the flames turned to Spike, sword raised to strike. Spike raised his blade to deflect the blow, than swiped his claws across his opponent's throat. A third drakos slammed a war hammer into Spike's back, using his comrades death as an opening. Spike screamed in pain as he was knocked down. The pain was intense and if not for the chainmail suit, unbearable. He grunted as he forced his worn and weary body up. He heard the drakos over him, as he went to drop his hammer on Spike's head. Quick movement saved him as he rolled onto his back as the hammer landed right next to his head. Spike gave no time for the drakos to try again, his blade was gone so he grabbed at a spear next to him and jabbed it through the larger drakos. It went through his opponent's arm as they both screamed in pain and effort.

Spike recognized his opponent. They had meet in battle many times, names were never exchanged but he knew the black scales and red spines. The enemy drakos had a scar over his left eye cheek. It was this drakos that had used his claws to permanently scar Spike's cheek. They had gone blow for blow on may and neither could kill the other, the war always came first and always got in their way.

With a mighty roar, the black drakos raised his hammer with his good arm and slammed it down onto where Spike use to be. Spike had dropped the spear and rolled forward, grabbing his machete as he went. He stood and went to swing at his rival's back, but meet with the wood of a hammer's handle. The black drakos had turned around and blocked the blade and had swung his tail hard at Spike's head. Unable to free his weapon, Spike raised his arm to block the blow. He heard bones snap in his forearm from the mighty tail. Spike winced at the pain, he wanted to scream from the pain in his back and arm. He knew that as soon as he showed an opening, he was dead, and a scream would be his last. He did open his mouth though, but instead came out a gush of green flame. The black drakos threw away his hammer and the machete embedded in the handle, just as he ducked under the blast. His claw came up and clamped around Spike's jaws, shutting his mouth and stopping the fire. Spike raised his foot and brought it down on his opponent's chest, separating the two.

Spike went to charge his slightly winded opponent when he felt a hoof on his side. He looked down at Macintosh who flung his head over his shoulder. Spike glanced over at the magically embedded bomb set to go off a minute after being set.

Spike glanced over at the ready black drakos. He smirked and yelled out playfully. "Well gotta go, maybe we'll finish this next time." He snatched up his machete and followed quickly behind Macintosh

Spike and Macintosh sprinted down one of the tunnels. Both were using every last ounce of power they had left to make it out before the place went up. "Do we even know if this is the way out?"

"Nope."

"Business as usual than." He smiled as he realized that they had started to incline. "Then again, we get lucky." They threw open the sand covered wooden hatch at the end of the tunnel. They kept up the pace as they noticed drakos coming from behind them.

No one was prepared as the bomb went off and sand flew everywhere. Spike snuck a quick look behind him and quickened his pace, Macintosh beside him did the same. The ground was collapsing into the now unstable depot. The drakos behind them did not stand a chance, and didn't care. As they fell, buried and slammed into the rocky underground, they hurled spears, swords, rocks, whatever they could to harm their enemies.

Spike felt a spear harmlessly bounce off his covered arm, and knew they were in trouble. He glanced back and knew they would not make it. He grabbed his companion and jumped. His scales darkened and his spines greyed. With a mighty breath, fire burst from his mouth, sending them skyward. Just barely, but visible to Macintosh, translucent wings were sprouted from his back.

Spike landed softly in the sand and his color returned. Safely away from the enormous bowl in the ground. Grinning and fist raised, Spike laughed loudly. "Now that was crazy!"

Macintosh raised a hoof to the fist, grinning. He soon changed tone though. He glared at Spike with hard eyes.

"I know, I know. My magic is dangerous, but if we hadn't risked it we would be choking on sand and rock."

A nod was his reply. Sympathy entered his eyes and Spike lowered his head.

"Yeah, you're right. I chose to do this horribly reckless action because of what happened to Sunrise. He had my back and he died. Plus I'm the one who snapped his neck. I know what Hawkeye said, blood loss and internal bleeding if we closed the wound, no chance of survival. I know it was a good thing to end it fast and painless, but it still feels wrong. Plus this whole stinkin war is my fault."

Macintosh glared at his friend. He shook his head slowly.

Spike sighed. "I know. It just feels that way. Come on, we have to get to the Crystal Empire. Wonder what special assignment the princess has for us."

The two friends walked side by side, off into the distance, away from the land of the drakos, and closer to their destiny.

Author's Note:

This story deals more with the Drakos War, and Spike's unknown background and reasoning. There will be a reference to the comics but I'll try and make it self explanatory.

Comments

[oaxaca]

I have yet to read the chapter, but goddamit

AUTOMATIC fav.

[KARLOS1234IFY]

This is interesting.

[Knux]

I am so glad you continued this. Mac's "dialog" is the best~

[Truly Luminous]

A few things.

Firstly; where the hell is this taking place? You give no description or anything. I have no way of imagining the world when there isn't any description of the characters surroundings.

Secondly; When (in a technological sense) is this going on? from their equipment it seems like medieval but they way the combat is described it seems to be ww2 too now. Also, I highly doubt that a single squad can take on what I presume to be a heavily defended supply depot. Unless Spike and Macintosh are like the Adeptus Astartes fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/159/1/c/adeptus_astartes___demotivational_poster_by_paradigm_spirit-d52t9cw.jpg (these guys) I'm going to call bullshit that they could wipe out a platoon or more of drakos.

That's another thing. Who the hell are the drakos? Are they dragons? Dragon like? Humanoid lizards? What the fuck are they and why should be care?

While on the subject of 'why should we care' there's private Sunrise. You have him becoming fatally injured and then Spike kills him out of mercy. The big question is; Why? Why is he there? Is he there to show how Spike's personality is different then it is on the show? Is he there to show us how cruel war is? Well I don't know why but I can tell you is that it doesn't matter. Reason being is that we, or I at least, don't care what so ever. You need to have the reader emotionally invested in a character if their death is going to mean anything to us. Even when I found out that he was Rainbow Dash's boyfriend of sorts I didn't care. I just couldn't work up any sort of emotion when it came to private Sunrise because I didn't know anything about him. He died the moment we started reading and that doesn't leave any time to become emotionally invested, other wise it doesn't matter.

Also, you need to add more space between your paragraphs. It's not enough to only press Enter once.
Like this then indent. You need to press it twice.

Like this then indent. Otherwise it's still just a single body of text that no one wants to read.

You also really need to add more description. When Spike enters combat when attacking the compound I don't see that, all I see is black text on a white back ground. I have no idea of what he's doing, where he's doing it, what the depot looks like, and anything of that nature. You have failed to immerse me into the story. But do not despair, this is still salvageable. I would recommend, as an example, Equestria: Total War. It is an all around masterpiece that all other war fics should aspire to be.

With that, I leave you this comment.