Falling Inside The Black

by ladyanaconda

Faling into Despair

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

-Mark Twain

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I can't stand it!
The voice is growing more and more frequent! Now I hear him almost all the time, and sometimes he even influences my actions. I snap at others without even realizing it, or yell at the hatchlings when they want me to tell them a story, or simply if they cross in my path. I can tell most of the clan has started to grow uncomfortable in my presence, and everydragon seems to be avoiding me. Who could blame them? After my recent change in attitude, anydragon would freak out.

To enworse things, my body has started to change color. First it was my left paw, then the blackness spread to my other paw, and my back legs. No matter how much I try, no matter how much raspberry and strawberry dye I make to camouflage the back parts of my body, the black keeps spreading.

I got rid of the book, I burned it to ashes a while ago in one of the fires when there was no one in the cave, hoping that destroying the thing that started all of this mess would make the voice vanish, and my body return to normal. But no. It just got worse. The next morning, as I descended down to the lake to take a drink, I realized that there was a tuft of something purpe growing on my head; when I took my claw up to my skull to touch it, I was horrified to realize that I was starting to grow hair, something I though only grew on the softy heads of ponies. Great, now I would have to hide the growing mane of hair as wel as hiding my black scales.

Everything's just so... stressing. I try to hide all of my feelings of confusion, anger and fear from Jielith as much as I can behind a mask. The mask of the loving husband I was once, and I still try to be, but the voices inside my head keep getting worse. I try to stop using the darkness, but I can't, my body and my mind ask, no, demand that I use it. It has become somewhat of a drug for me, I cannot understand how Unicorns can use it every day, every minute without it affecting them like this.

Sometimes, when I'm alone, the voice speaks to me in a tender voice mixed with the crispness of a snowflake. I tried to ignore it and fall asleep, but it wouldn't leave me alone.

"Why so gloom, dear friend?" it asked with all the calm in the world. It annoyed me.

"Why do you think, you pest?" I replied with a snap of my teeth. "Since when are we even friends?"

"You don't want to accept it, but I've been doing you more good than harm."

"How can driving me away from those I love and cherish be more good than harm? Jielith is starting to think I don't love her anymore, everyone thinks I'm going mad and Dreadstalker is attempting to uncover me! All because of you!"

"Sometimes it's much better to have never loved at all. Love is pain."

"You say that because you've never been loved."

"Because I know the true nature of love. The more you love someone, the more it hurts when that someone betrays you. The more you love someone, the more difficult it is for you to free yourself form the poisonous grip of love. Just like roses. Beautiful but painful at touch. The drady you call your wife is the clearest example."

"DON'T YOU DARE TALKING ABOUT HER THAT WAY, YOU SERPENT! YOUR POISON WON'T DECEIVE ME!" I roared. I didn't care if anyone heard me. "She would never do anything to hurt me, just as I would never do anything to hurt her!"

The voice chuckled. "There are none so blind as those who will not see. You defend her to faithfully, you don't realize she is with another as we speak."

If I could shred this damn entity to pieces, I would. "You lie! You can't know that if you're stuck inside my body!"

"Sometimes you don't need to see something to realize something is going on. If you won't believe me, you will find her with that other drake at The Chasm."

"I'm not listening to you any longer!" If only covering my ears was enough to cease his voice, but unfortunately, it wasn't.

The voice did not speak for a while; I loosened my grip on my ears, thinking maybe he final shut his mouth, but suddenly and without explanation, my legs lifted me off the ground and started taking me out of the cave. I panicked over the loss of control over my own body as I was forcefully taken to Celestia-knows-where. I attempted to stop, but the forcé driving my body for me was stronger.

A thought struck me,

"Hey!" I mentally called for the voice.

"Now you're the one who's talking to me?" It snickered. "What made you change your mind?"

I trembled as I passed by other dragons, ignoring the glances they gave me. "Are you the one driving me like a puppet?!}"

"Oh, that. Yes, that would be me."

"WHY?!"

"You said you wouldn't listen to me, so I decided to show it to you."

"Don't you ever get tired of crushing me emotional and phsycologically?!"

"Not really. It's fun."

With a growl of frustration, I did all I could to break free from the shadow's grasp over my body, but no matter what I did the shadow's hold was much stronger than my will. I could not even gain control over my paw to take a hold of one of the large rocks. I was like a puppet being manipulated by strings. I would have roared in anger, but the darkness kept my mouth shut. The shadow made me advance through the caverns that made out the Clan's lair, until I walked out of the caverns and emerged into the outside, on the north side of the mountain range. I must have stayed inside the cavern for a long while, because when I came out the moon was already making its way through its nightly and eternal path. Down below, there was an apparent infinite Cliff, so deep you could not see the bottom even at noon. Only the infinite darkness.

I was at the edge of the Chasm.

While we dragons needn't worry about ever falling into the eternal darkness of the Chasm, this did not mean we did not fear it. Hatchlings and fledlings were strictly forbidden from coming here; if they were to fall down, they would go straight to their deaths. I still could not understand why the voice had brought me-or rather forced me to come-to the Chasm.

"I told you. I brought you to show you the truth."

"Stop lying and let me go at once!" I snapped, now that there was no one around, but immediately as I closed my maw it shhut again.

"Quiet! Do you want them to hear us?"

"Who?"

"Look ahead and you will see."

In confusion, I turned my head-actually, he forced me to turn my head-towards one of the cliffs while making my body go hide behind one of the largest rocks. I identified two shapes. A drady with pink scales, a drake with blue scales sitting at the edge of the cliff. I could hear sobs coming from the drady.

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3rd Person POV

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"I don't know what to do anymore, Skyfall!" Jielith's voice was so broken it was nearly unrecognizable. "He's not the same drake I fell in love with."

"Maybe he's just stressed out and he'll be back to normal with time." Skyfall replied to her tenderly.

"It's not stress! It's not that!" Jielith wailed in despair, taking her claws to her face. "He's not just stressed out! Something's changed about him, and I don't even know what happened!"

"Ever since we went to that raid he started acting like this. He peeked his head into one of the tents, but I don't know what happened."

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Jielith wrapped her wings around Skyfall's body, and buried her head into his chest. Hot tears streamed down her face. "I can't stand it! I've tried everything to make him open up, but it's like he doesn't want me around him any longer. I've even thought he may be seeing another-"

"What?" Softly, Skyfall pushed Jielith away a bit, so that he was looking straight into her eyes. "Jielith, don't even think that. I know Burning, he would never betray you with another. He's not like that, and no change in his attitude will change that. I'm sure he is thinking of you right now. He loves you more than anything else in his life, he would die for you, he would do anything for you just to make you happy." With the slightest smile, Skyfall wiped a tear rolling down the drady's cheek. "And nothing will change that. You can be sure of that."

Jielith gave her friend one more smile, before snuggling deeper into his consoling embrace and felt the warmth of his wings around her body.

What they did not know, was that there was a shadow in the darkness watching at them. He did not look angry. His expression was more upset than anything. The grief in his eyes made Jielith's anguished eyes look like hopeful eyes.

"So..." he softly said. "It's true..."

---

Burning Moonlight's POV

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I couldn't stant seeing them any longer.

I flew back to our cave, trying my best to contain tears, but they were winning. I didn't want to believe it, I hoped deep down that I was having a nightmare and I would wake up to find her resting next to me. But yet part of me told me that I was awake, and what I had just witnessed was real.

"Do you need any more proof tof what I've been telling you all along?" The voice inside my head spoke symphatethically, something I never expected from him.

"Jielith..." My own voice was broken in sobs. "My Jielith... How could she do this to me?" Cold tears ran down my maw.

"I told you, she doesn't care about you. Maybe she never loved you a all. If she did, she wouldn't have betrayed you with your best friend... or rather who you thought was our best friend."

"Please stop!" I took my hands to my ears as usual. "Please, I don't want to hear anything else! What I've seen is enough! Just leave alone..." My volumed lowered as I spoke. "Just leave me alone..."

"It hurts, right?"

My body answered for me with a nod; it was truth, after witnessing what probably was the most horrible treachery in my entire life everything inside me hurt. My chest hurt, overall, maybe due to my broken heart. My head hurt, from listening to the voice's words that felt like sharp blades piercing my already-mangled heart even more. "Yes."

"I told you. Love is a weakness, it makes you weak and holds you back from your true potential. Only the strong survive, the weak perish. And compassion... that is just a synonym for weakness. It is best that you found the truth now before it was too late and you were beyond repair."

I was frozen in sorrow and pain. What did he want me to do, then? I couldn't think clearly, with both my heart and brain aching and hurting like never before.

"It hurts so much..." I clutched my chest and pressed tightly, like trying to stop my very heartbeat. "I can't stand it! What do I need to do to stop this feeling of betrayal?!"

The voice laughed humorlessly. "There is a way to fix that, my friend."

"What? I'll do anything to stop this pain!"

"Anything?"

"Yes! I just want to forget everything! I don't care what it takes!"

The voice remained silent for a long while, for me it seemed like an eternity, but then he let out a sinistes giggle. It made me tremble internally.

"Then let me into your heart. Allow me to become a permanent ressident in your body, to be your friend, your mentor, your father, your everything. You won't need anything else, and I'll never betray you like she has done. I'll make you powerful, I'll help make all your desires come true, even the so-mighty Alicorns will know your name and tremble. But for that, I need your approval, otherwise I'm nothing more than a parasite in your body. Give me your heart... and I will give you all it desires. "

Now it was my turn to remain silent now, considering what the voice had just told me. Maybe he was right, and I needed to quit acting like a 'good little drake', it was getting me nowhere. The pain I was experiencing emotionally may be cluding my reason, but I didn't care right now. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to lash ou at somedragon, but that would not fix anything. I never wanted to admit it, but I've always hoped to be much more than a simple dragon that had to raid pony camps in order to survive, forever being considered as a wild beast unable to reason.

".... I accept." I spoke darkly. "I accept you. I will let you be whatever you want, my mate, teacher, friend, anything you want. But rid me of this pain!"

As soon as he heard my reply, suddenly I felt like all the cave started to tremble, but in reality everything was still. Before I could react, black tendrils or smoky black energy shot out of my chest and tightened around my body, my legs, my wings, and my maw. I could not speak nor move, and this startled me.

"I'm afraid this will hurt, dear Burning." the voice told me apologetically. "But I assure you, it'll be worth. Still, we cannot alert anyone to our little secret, can we?

I let out a muffled roar of pain when suddenly my whole body was overcome with a physical pain I'd never experienced in my life. It felt like some giant creature was stepping his giant foot unto me, and like my whole body would tear part. The pain was that of a zebra crucifixion. I didn't notice it right then, but my body was changing.

My once red scales were turning a sable black, my the black on my paws and snout extended through my whole body, like miasma pouring down a wall, like acid rolling down a pony's coat. I felt as if my skull teared open, and a mohawk of purple hair grew in my head, just in the middle of my thick skull. I felt something growing out in my mouth, two long vampire-like fangs stuck out like roots extending from a tree's bottom. My eyes were hurting as feel, I thought they would gorge out, not knowing all the color in it was receding towards my pupil, forming a perfectly-round iris around it, just like pony eyes, leaving the rest of my eyes a sickly green, before it changed to white.

This torture lasted for at least one minute, but for me it felt like a thousand years had passed. The tendrils of black smoke receded and went back into my chest, allowing my to fall to my stomach and take in deep breaths of air, feeling completely drained of energy. Black smoke was still lingering around, but it dissipated after a few seconds.

When I recovered my breath, I felt different. The pain in my heart was gone, instead replaced by ecstasy by my newfound powers; all doubts I had of the voice dissipated completely, and I found myself eager to hear his advice. Whatever feelings of anger, betrayal and sorrow within me vanished into thin air, instead feeling something of a void inside me.

"Rise now, Burning Moonlight, my firstborn." I felt my heart leap with hoy when I heard the voice. "But I would thank you if you stopped calling me simply the voice."

I chuckled internally. "How would you like me to call you then, friend?"

"If I told you all the names I've been called over the beginning of time I would never end, so I think it'll be best that you simply call me Obscurity."

"Why Obscurity?"

"Why not?"

Suddenly, my whole body started trembling. I felt shivers coming down my spine. "What is happening?"

"She is returning,"

My blood started to boil at the mention of her. I wanted to kill her with my own claws, but Obscurity sensed what I was thinking.

"No. Don't. I know you're angry, but it'll draw the attention of the other dragons."

"I do not mean to sound rude, Obscurity, but stay out of this." I hissed venomously. "She has to pay."

"Don't do anything you could regret later. Anger clouds your mind and reason, maybe if you just calm down..."

I let him speak no further, for I retreated into the darkness when I saw Jielith's figure entering our cave.

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3rd Person POV

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Jielith had a bad feeling when she stepped into the cave she and Burning shared together. There was not a light, and she could barely see her own paws, but she could sense she was not alone.

"Burning?" she called out softly.

Something moved in the darkness. He was here, but he did not reply.

"Sweetie?" her voice grew slightly fearful, feeling her mate's eyes centered on her completely.

"Hello there, Jielith." Burning finally replied, his voice devoid of the love he had always shown her. "May I ask where you were, my dear?"

"I…" Jielith did not want him knowing she had spoken to Skyfall about him, so she told him a different story. "I was with Moonfire, she needed help with her hatchlings tonight."

"Really?" Burning inquired with a raised eyebrow. "How curious, because I passed by Moonfire's cave and she said she hadn't seen you in all day."

Jielith's heart stopped.

"Burning, I…"

"Now…" The former red dragon approached his mate dangerously, but she could not distinguish him from the darkness surrounding them. But what was scaring her was the fact that she could see his ire-filled eyes. "Tell me were you really were, or I'll choke you with my own claws!"

"What's wrong with you, Burning? You're not acting like yourself."

"Aren't I? Why do you think is that? Maybe I grew tired of others stabbing me in the back like you've done!"

Jielith's eyes widened in confusion and shock. "What? What are you talking about?!"

"Do you want to know where you were?"

Jielith was terrified when her mate's horns glowed with an aura of purple, green and blue, and an invisible barrier appeared in the entrance of the cave, preventing any dragon from coming in, or her from escaping. It was sound-proof, Burning did not want any interruptions.

"I'll tell you were you were." Burning startled circling the drady silently, like a timberwolf stalking its prey. "You were in the Chasm, hiding from me so you could go and find a little love nest with Skyfall!"

"Burning, that's not true!" Jielith stepped back frightfully. "I was with Skyfall, but-!"

"And you have the guts to admit it! Wow, now I'm impressed!" Burning clapped his paws. "I half-expected you to try and convince me that you were innocent with your silver tongue."

"Would you just let me speak?!"

"For what?!" Burning was dangerously close to her now, snarling. "To blind me with your lies?! To give me false hopes?! To make me believe you love me when you've been cuckolding me with Skyfall all along!"

"Who told you that, Burning?!" Jielith had hot tears of indignation rolling down her cheeks. "That is a lie-!"

SMACK!

Jielith fell to the ground with a loud thud, fresh claw marks on her cheek dripping with blood. She took her paw to her scratched cheek and her pupils shrunk when she spotted the blood. He had hit her. He had never hit her before, now she was sure something was very wrong with her dear mate.

"DON'T LIE TO ME ANYMORE!!" Burning roared at her. "IF THERE'S A LITTLE DIGNITY LEFT IN YOU, SPEAK THE TRUTH FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!"

Obscurity was growing alarmed. "Burning, stop it!" He never meant for this to go that far.

Jielith looked up at Burning's hateful glare with all the pain and sorrow in the world, crystal tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't know you anymore!" Her voice was broken in sobs. "Burning… You break my heart! You're following a path I can't follow! What happened to my sweet fireheart?"

"Do you want to know so badly?!" the drake snarled. "Very well, then! Feast you eyes!"

With the last sentence, Burning's eyes turned sickly green and purple smoke flowed from the corners of his eyes, illuminating his head and frontal part of his body. Jielith's eyes widened once more upon seeing what had become of her mate; his scarlet scales turned into the darkest black, two extra long fangs were in the front of his mouth, and a mohawk of purple hair had grown on top of his skull. He was barely the same dragon he had been before.

"Satisfied?" Burning's eyes narrowed.

"What… What have you done…?" Jielith was overcome with horror.

She could speak no further, for her mate quickly pressed his massive paw against her delicate neck, licking his teeth. "It's a long story, you should get comfortable, my dear." As bespoke, giant black crystals grew around Jielith's body, trapping her further. "A month ago, when I was taken by Dreadstalker on the raid and in got a little too curious on the Unicorns's tents, I found a book. Guess what! Turns out one of our kind managed to write in one of those pages!" Jielith's pupils were shrinking in absolute fear. "He discovered a new power that could make us even more powerful than any dragon could dream of! I wanted to share it with you and the rest of the clan, but first I decided to test it out myself to see how it worked." Burning Moonlight was growing ecstatic and giggling with glee as he motioned at his mate to take a good look at him. "And now look at this!"

Jielith started to cry again, but not out of sadness for her husband's fate, but for being certain now that he no longer was the ame drake she had once loved more than she loved anything else. "Burning... What have you done to yourself...?" Her sobs were so abundant he nearly didn't catch what she meant to say. "Why...?"

"Why?! WHY?!" Burning's paw pressed harder against her neck, nearly choking her. "I grow tired of your games, slug! I'm not allowing you to hold me back anymore!"

Burning, cease this!

"cough Burning..." Jielith's eyes widened when she saw Burning readying his teeth. "Please...!"

Stop!!

"Please, my fire heart.." The broken down drady pleaded for mercy. "We can get over this... cough... I love you... We can start over, find a way to save you..."

The drake stared down at her coldly, with pure malice in his eyes. "...I don't need to be saved."

BURNING, NO!

"BURNING!!"

The last thing Jielith felt was Burning Moonlight's, the only drake she ever loved, teeth slashing and digging into her throat, and her gaze shutting off forever.

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Burning Moonlight's POV

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I shook my aching head in confusion, taking a paw to my forehead and closing my eyes shut. Everything around me was darkness, not even my glowing green eyes could light my cave. Something was dripping from my teeth and down my maw, but it couldn't tell what. Maybe Obscurity knew.

"Obscurity, what happened?"

Silence.

"Obscurity?

No reply.

"Obscurity, this is not funny. I'm talking to you.!"

I trembled when he replied, speaking in a bitter cold voice filed with anguish. "I see you recovered your senses at last."

"Come back to my senses...?" I inquired. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Obscurity sighed. "I'm afraid my dark energy overwhelmed you, and you lost control of yourself."

"Lost control? I do not understand."

"I settled in your body after you had a severe emotional blow, which was caused by myself, I admit. My influence made your anger, hurt and pain take temporal control of your being and forced you to unconsciously commit a heinous act. I should have waited a little longer."

My heart was beating like a drum inside my chest. "What sort of act?"

"Murder."

I nearly had a heart attack. I killed some dragon, I never really thought myself of committing such an atrocious act. Who would like to actually do it? I could not, I did not want to believe it! I took my paws to my mouth and wiped the liquid from my maw, then made my horns glow to take a look at it; I was hoping it was saliva, but I gasped in horror when I realized it was blood. I had committed the murder with my own fangs! If anyone found out about this, I would be exiled, no, executed! Resigned, I closed my eyes shut, shivering. "Who was the victim?"

It took a while before Obscurity replied with a grim voice. "It'll be best that you see for yourself. The body is still in this very cave, but I have not the heart to tell you myself."

I had a feeling about all this. With my horns still glowing, I looked around the cave and noticed someone was lying on a corner, immobile. I took a gulp and approached it slowly. As I got closer with glowing horns,I could make out the shape of a dragoness with pink scales…

No.

It couldn't be! I ran to the body, but I nearly slipped with a liquid. I looked down, and to my further horror I realized it was the corpse's blood!

No!

There were entrails all spilled around the body, I nearly fainted when I saw a still heart lying just out of the body's bloody chest. With my heart in my throat, I bent my neck down to the body's head to confirm my suspicions, hoping that perhaps my sight was playing tricks on me, but I choked when my eyes met Jielith's lifeless gaze.

NOO!

My Jielith… My love… No… What had I done?! I fell to my knees, running a claw on Jielith's beautiful face. My eyes teared up and I felt a wound in my chest re-opening, only this time it was much worse. Never minding the blood on her body, I took her in my arms and wept. Time stopped still for me, everything around me disappeared, it was only Jielith's remains and me. I buried my face into her neck with cold tears, wrapping my wings around us in a protective manner. I had never meant to do this, even after what she did to me, I still loved her. But Obscurity said he had settled within me too soon after witnessing Jielith cheating on me, that he should have waited a little longer.

But great part of me didn't blame him for this. It blamed Jielith, for if she had never been unfaithful to me, this would have never happened. It blamed Skyfall, for stabbing me in the back when all this time I thought him my friend. The little part of me that did not blame her for this was slowly disappearing, but I still held her close to me, praying to Celestia this was all a nightmare. Yet something told me that this was not only real, but that it was my fault.

I think the dark magic made my surroundings change according to my mood. I didn't notice it at first, but all around me obsidian crystals started growing from the ground, even the ceiling was being overrun by the dark crystal. Sharp, big, long, short crystal growing like an infection all around me, giving the atmosphere and even more sinister tone. Everytime a sob escaped from me, another crystal grew, as if the crystals obeyed to my every reaction.

I was alone.

Author's Note:

Comments

[darkstone57]

Wow.... That was.... Wow. I look forward to the next chapter.