Is It Fear That Spurs Me?
It was summer once again. Colts and fillies outside revelled in the joy of the daylight, their laughter permeating the air like a damp humidity. It neither comforted nor soothed Twilight Sparkle’s soul, instead reminding her of a past failure.
One she was still suffering and paying the price for.
Twilight nervously paced around the entrance of her castle, checking, re-checking and triple-checking the entire contents of her saddle bags. Blankets - check. Fire rubies and emeralds - check. Emergency flares - check. Twenty-three page apology note addressed to a certain purple dragon... Check.
“Twilight, dear,” a calm voice reassured her, “It will be fine.”
Twilight turned to Rarity, who was standing along with the rest of her friends. She tried to smile at her friend but could only manage a melancholy look. “I - I know Rarity. It’s been so long...and - and I’m so worried…”
Of all six friends, Rarity was the one who took the news as hard as Twilight. She never really showed it, but the white unicorn had definitely cared deeply for the baby dragon.
“We’re all worried about him,” Rarity replied. She pulled Twilight into a hug. “But all we can do is hope for his speedy and safe return.”
Twilight nodded, suppressing the lump forming in her throat.She bit softly on her lower lip, trying to suppress the tremble.
It had been one whole year since Spike’s furnace had gone out. The single source of a dragon’s flame and key component to keeping him alive had been overused and extinguished - and it was all Twilight’s fault because she used his dragonfire as a simple messenger service.
“But what if he isn’t even there?” she asked, a touch of desperation in her voice. “I - I tried visiting them…”
She had been forced to leave Spike with an elder dragon - a being so ancient he remembered Luna before she was Nightmare Moon. He had given an ultimatum: leave Spike with him for one full year, and he would attempt to save the young dragon’s life.
Applejack placed a foreleg around her shoulders, also pulling her into a hug. “Sugarcube, please stop doing this tah yerself.”
Twilight had tried teleporting to the cave two months into the year but had found it empty and abandoned. The only signs there had ever been life there was the giant crater the elder dragon had left during their last encounter. Renewed despair had gripped at her heart, only subsiding when she finally got back home.
A letter was waiting on her study desk, written in sharp and angular characters.
‘Do not test my patience, youngling. You will see the hatchling at the end of the year and no amount of magic, begging, scrying or prying will allow you access until I approve.’
She shook her head. There...was still hope.
“C’mon Twilight, stop being so sad,” Pinkie chimed in. Even though she held a broad grin, her cotton-candy mane had been a little flatter than usual for the past year. “I’ve got Spike’s ‘Welcome Back to Ponyville’ party all planned out!”
“Yeah, I’m sure the little tyke is fine!” Rainbow Dash said, pumping a hoof against her chest a few times. “That guy is tougher than most ponies credit him for.”
Fluttershy could only offer a meek smile of support. She took a few steps gingerly towards Twilight, nuzzling her softly. “We’re here for you, Twilight. No matter what happens.”
Even as supportive as her expression and voice was, a sudden lance of cold fear briefly spiked in Twilight’s heart. The very real possibility of not finding her little brother alive and well was not a fear the alicorn was prepared to deal with at all. Fluttershy was used to burying her animal friends and the almost-sad expression on her face made Twilight fear the worst.
“Girls…” Twilight began, breathing out a shuddering sigh. “Th - thank you. Thank you for helping me through this.”
Very slowly and carefully, she began to draw magic towards her horn. Long-distance teleportation was difficult, but at least she had a strong arcane anchor to the location - a very strong and emotional anchor.
“I’ll…” she began, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “I’ll bring him back - I swear.”
The magic finished coalescing. In a bright flash of light, the alicorn vanished.
**** ****
Twilight shivered involuntarily as a nippy wind bit at her coat. The teleport had gone flawlessly, depositing her at the precipice of the large mountain. Squinting her eyes, she gazed up towards the mountain, the peak disappearing into the clouds and atmosphere above.
Celestia’s sun hung high in the horizon, providing enough warmth to stop her from freezing solid. Hazarding a glance over the edge, a sudden wave of vertigo washed over her - just like last time.
‘I doubt much has changed since the last time,’ she thought to herself. There was still no civilisation for as far as her eyes could see in the desolate wasteland.
“It’s time to do this, Twilight…” she whispered to herself, turning to face the entrance of the cave. The crater was still there - where she had barely escaped death exactly one year ago. Right now, it felt just like it was the other day that Luna, Spike and herself were here.
Her legs didn’t respond properly as she walked stiffly towards the cave entrance, her legs feeling like wooden boards.
Finding herself staring up at the gaping maw to Al’Mal’Gorath’s lair, she gulped nervously. Hesitantly bending down in a submissive bow, she called out.
“O - O great dragon…” she began. “It is...It is I, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I have returned one year later as you instructed.” She closed her eyes, her voice suddenly wavering as she continued. “I have come for my brother, Spike the Dragon.”
Several minutes passed painfully, before a shower of gems and jewelry could be heard from inside. Her heart did several summersaults as deep thundering footsteps echoed from out the cave entrance and through the ground she stood up, but she did not dare get up from her bow.
Almost immediately, Twilight could feel when the elder dragon’s gaze was upon her. She shivered again, not from the cold this time.
“Ah, for a while I had thought you had almost forgotten, youngling,” the dragon’s rumbling voice said. “Get up - a Princess has not bowed to me for centuries.”
Twilight got back up to her hooves, her whole body trembling slightly. The red-scaled beast towered over her, his fire-bronze eyes boring down deeply into her core.
“I - I have come for Spike, Al’Mal’Gorath,” Twilight stated, her voice still wavering with fear and uncertainty.
His eyes narrowed, a jet of steam blowing out of his nostrils at Twilight in a snort of contempt. “So you have not abandoned the hatchling like I thought you would.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide, “Why would I do that?” she cried out. “He’s - he’s my b - brother,” she added, her voice choking slightly.
The dragon’s head retreated back into the cave. “Follow me, youngling.”
Gulping, she nervously obeyed the dragon. She took each step hesitantly, quickly matching her pace to keep up next to the beast. He moved slowly, especially for this size.
An acrid smell filled Twilight’s nostrils, causing her to wrinkle her nose. A smell of brimstone and sulphur burned her nasal passages in discomfort. An intense heat also began to build up the deeper they went into the cave, a healthy sweat very quickly breaking out all over her body.
Before she had a chance to regret not bringing water, or even bringing saddlebags in the first place, Twilight was greeted by the single most excessive and magnificent sight she had ever seen.
The beginnings of understanding began to gnaw at the edges of her mind as she tried to take in the sight of Mal’Gorath’s hoard. Gems, jewelry and gold lay piled up throughout the chamber. Some gemstones were bigger than Twilight’s body twice over. There had to be more wealth here than the rest of Equestria combined.
The ground shook as the dragon climbed onto the pile, before digging his wings into the hoard and shaking his body. Gems and gold scattered everywhere as he slowly buried himself deeper into the mountain of sheer wealth.
Once fully buried, with just his head exposed, Mal’Gorath closed his eyes and lay completely still. Twilight glared awkwardly up the dragon. “Um...I’m sorry, good sir but...Spike? Where is he?”
A claw emerged from the pile of gems, a talon pointing towards a far corner of the cave. “The hatchling remains over there, waiting for your return.”
Her heart thumped in her throat as Twilight followed the direction Mal’Gorath’s talon pointed at. Her legs no longer felt like wooden planks, instead now feeling heavier than lead weights as each step dragged her towards her baby brother.
This was it. This was it! Finally, she got to see her baby brother! Tears began streaming down her cheeks as she slowly managed to pick up speed, before running at a full gallop towards Spike.
She called out, finding a small hollow in the cave wall. It was obviously where Spike had been staying this whole time. “Spike! I’m back!”
She poked her head into hollow, a broad grin on her face.
“No…” she whimpered, the grin dropping off completely. “No...no no no no nononononono.”
Her legs gave out from under her, the alicorn collapsing onto the ground. Trembling hooves reached out as an expression of horror and despair overcame her face. “No...No!” she cried out.
A tiny, bleached-white skeleton lay curled up in the dirt in front of her, clearly that of a baby dragon.
“Spike!” she sobbed, her whimper turning into a wail of despair. “I’m sorry!”
The despair rapidly raced through her chest and heart as a powerful surge of magic lanced from her horn towards the skeleton, enveloping it in her aura. Pure holy-magic pumped from deep inside Twilight’s magic-source into the remains as she attempted every single healing spell she knew, even inventing new ones on the fly.
The skeletal remains remained motionless as the white-hot aura of Twilight’s healing spells faded. “No Spike! Why?!” she sobbed again, the despair and desperation growing deeper. She dug further into her memories, trying to remember any spell that could help.
A brief flutter of hope surged in her chest, as a chaotic green aura filled her eyes. Sickly black bubbles of magic enveloped Spike before simmering away, leaving no change on the baby dragon.
The hope started fading away fast, Twilight clawing at more ideas. Her eyes darted to the sides as one final solution finally came to mind. Even the magic Sombra had used, while forbidden, was still documented. But this magic...she remembered reading about it and finding one solitary spell book as a filly. The contents scared her so much she had thrown up, causing her to swear to never repeat or utter a single word since.
A eerie blue glow surrounded her horn, a similar cloudy blue smoke escaping her eyes as an even darker magic channeled through her magic-source. Like a frosted breeze, the spell floated towards the skeleton, hovering around and through the bones. Rime gathered, despite the heat of the cave, wisps of blue magic weaving themselves between the joints and cavities.
Two near-solid orbs of the magic formed in Spike’s hollow eye sockets. For a brief moment, Twilight allowed herself to smile in hope, before the orbs fluttered and petered out, the rest of the magic fizzling with it.
“Necromancy?” Mal’Gorath’s amused voice sounded behind Twilight. She turned to face him, a sense of utter defeat filling her completely. “Not even necromancy can save something so long dead, youngling.”
“I...I just wanted my little brother back…” Twilight whimpered. Her voice grew into a desperate wail. “Y - you said you could save him! How could you have failed!”
The dragon’s snout rocketed forward, stopping inches away from the alicorn as a deep rumble sounded from inside his throat. “Fail? It was not I who failed the hatchling, Twilight Sparkle. I kept my word - I would attempt to save his life.” He drew back, still glaring down at her. “It was you who had failed him, long before he was ever brought before me.”
Twilight no longer had the strength to even keep her head up. She collapsed completely, dragging herself to curl around the remains of her little brother.
It was her fault.
It was her fault.
It was all her fault.
Her despondent sobs echoed in the caverns. All she wanted to do was just die - let the earth open up and swallow her. She didn’t deserve any better. She didn’t deserve her friends or the love they gave her.
Spike was gone.
And it was her fault.
In the distance, Twilight was vaguely aware of Princess Luna’s voice calling out.
“Twilight Sparkle!”
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My heart has been successfully wrenched, good sir. You maintained all the emotional depth from the first one, and I spotted no errors. However, with Luna's appearance, and the incomplete status, I am... hesitantly hopeful that Spike may be returned to her.
Can't wait to see where you take this!
Also—and this has little to do with the story—but I wonder how Shining Armor handled the news. If Spike is Twilight's little brother, that must mean they have some kind of relationship, too, right?
Again, nothing to do with this story directly, but it's something I wish I could see more of: SPike and Shining as brothers.
I'll have to see more. I'm half suspicious that that wasn't Spike.
W...what...?
N-no...fuck no...he can't be dead. He just can't be. I refuse to believe that skeleton was Spike!
Glad to see this tale continue in a new story. I'm looking forward to see where this goes.
Wakey wakey, Twilight.
--Spade
Apologies for double posting, Kaptein, but...you receive my sincere condolences. Losing someone so dear and close to you is...very hard.
Luna shows up unexpectedly? I'm thinking dream. This reads Luna dream walking 101...
It was a dream all along!
Im sorry to hear of your loss.
The new story is off to a great start. Twilight is either dreaming or the dragon has a very powerful illusion cast over a very much alive spike
It's a nightmare. A damn good one too!
Please continue.
P.S. My heart goes out to you and your's for the loss of a loved one.
You have my condolences.
Wow... ouch... on both fronts. I am truly sorry for your loss. Great chapter.
That just happened.
I think my sadness-compressor has malfunctioned.
My heart goes to you, Kaptein.
I don't know what to say.
It will mean nothing for me to say "I'm sorry."
All I can offer are condolenses.
...
I'm sorry; I know those words aren't good enough, but I can't think of anything else to say.
Wow.. moving stuff, this is a great read
You have my condolences on your loss, so sad
Now to see if Spike is either the same guy everyone knows, or some cynical angry shell of himself. It was made clear early on that elder dragons seem to have a differing opinion on other races, and not necessarily a favorable one either.
I'm afraid the best I can do is send my condolences. I'm sorry for your loss.
Thank you for releasing this story though, I believe we all appreciate it very much so.
S-s-spike's alright. Is HE??
there was Luna... Maybe it's a dream! I hope
And so sorry for youre friend. I know it isn't much but yeah.
I am sorry for your loss. Please accept my sympathy.
The fic still incomplete, so I don't think that skeleton is Spike...
He's-He's my b-brother, no spaces (spaces? english isn't my best language
)
There's a lot of typos like that
Oh heck, I said that self-recrimination brings me out in a rash in the last story, please, think of my skin when you write.
Oh, man, thank God. That last line.
IT'S A DREAM YAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!
The comment by 6244191 is the only thing that makes me the least bit interested in reading more. Mostly because I just can't handle tragedy.
Don't get me wrong though, this is pretty well-written. One thing though, which is endemic to MLP about dragons. By all that is holy, could people at least check one of the most important words concerning dragons right? A dragon has a hoard. Hoarding is what you do when you collect things and the total of your things is a hoard. A horde is what Genghis Khan had. So you should fix that.
Again, don't mind my tone, your writing is pretty good.
Happy writing.
6244565
Thank you for picking that up. I'm pretty sure I had spelled it correctly the first time round, but I guess I missed it.
6244578 Finally, someone appreciates my Grammar Nazism.
Well, about half of the people who notice it actually does, but you get the point
This is a dream, isn't it. (Luna tipped me off)
6242544 6242615 6242802 6243952 6244191
Did you all forget that Luna was also there when she gave Spike to the dragon in the first place? So the fact that she's there, does NOT necessarily mean that it's a dream, because surely she might remember to come as well.
But still, I'm hoping for something like that as well... since I was expecting a story where both Spike and twilight grow as characters, not just Twilight
6244812 Yeah, but before Twilight hears Luna's voice, it makes no mention of Luna anywhere, and had she actually been there, I would have thought that she would have said something or at least been revealed through some description of the scene.
I have a sneaking suspicion
That he's fucking with her.
6244970
He is. not even a baby dragon's body would decay away that fast.
6244850 so... it's not possible that she arrived AFTER Twilight did?
First of all, condolences (I am not going to attempt to say anything deep or meaningful, the fact that said person meant so much to you means that it's definitely not my place to attempt to do so, just - condolences)
Second, your writing is some of the most beautifully descriptive i have ever read, keep doing what you're doing.
Keep at it brother, you're doing great.
This dragon harbored a grudge against Princess Luna already. Twilight was presented as her friend- I sincerely doubt the elder dragon ever held any intentions of helping her.
Oh thank god for the last line....
6244565
And this is why you need clarification when someone says they saw a dragon horde/hoard nearby. Mistaking one word for the other can lead a bad day.
Found what I believe to be an error
Please let it be a nightmare...
You have intrigued me, sir. I'm just hoping this is a dream. It leaves me to wonder though. If it was a dream, then what has twilight done in the waking world? She just cast some very dark magic in her sleep. Does this mean she also cast it in the waking world? I hope not. And Spike had better not be dead, or so help me, I'm gonna be like a very angry Fluttershy.
*reads the last line*
You brilliant bastard.
Please please please let this be a nightmare or some kind of cruel prank. Please.
You have my condolences, Kap.
And on another note: could be a dream or Luna checking to see if Spike is alive like Twilight did. Could be either one really.
6245991
It likely is, given the last line in the story.
At least I hope so...my heart can't take this much toying with, Kaptein.
Nightmare, calling it
How? You removed the only reason it existed, namely Worst Dragon, and displayed that he can't come back. You're done here, and if you say anything else on the subject, that's a new story entirely.
But I have a sneaking suspicion you're going to pull a Super Mario 2 here, and you should know that such bullshittery will not gain you any favors with your readers in general and myself in particular. We are not mice for your superior catlike mind to play with. Mind your step, boyo.
6245316 Ha.
To be honest, my advice in either case is "run". Only difference is whether you need to mess with it to get killed or not.
God damn, you scared the living crap out of me, Please tell me Twilight's having one of the dreams
I've been waiting a while for this sequel, and it's bittersweet it comes with such bad news. My condolences.
Found a few small things:
Twilight nodded, suppressing the lump forming in her throat.She
*space after the full stop
He had given an ultimatum: leave Spike with him for one full year, and he would attempt to save the young dragon’s life.
*Ultimatums have an implied threat of something happening if something else doesn't happen. Spike's potential death isn't linked to what would happen if twilight didn't leave spike with the dragon.
Unless Mal'Gorath has the Rainbow of Darkness hidden somewhere , I doubt a single year (from which a good part should be spent on recovery ) will be enough to raise Darth Spike.
6247038
I dunno... for a young and impressionable person like Spike, for whom self-confidence did not come easily, it would not be very hard to be convincing, especially given that it's the truth that they nearly killed Spike over giving him menial chores. He could tell Spike the truth, just colored through his perspective, and could paint a very hard picture to ignore.
My guess? Spike is going to be wary and cautious of Twilight's behavior, but willing to give it a chance.