~22~
"Final Night."
Rain began to beat down upon the leaves of the trees and on the ends of the grass. Not even the glow from Luna’s heavenly moon was able to penetrate the black clouds that populated the sky, as a dark fog began to settle across the woods.
Footsteps continued to mesh against the wet grass as the creature made forth into the darkness of the forest, not a sway in his step nor his eyes forced to narrow. If a tree or some greater threat were to confront him on his path, he’d walk into them with his still pointing down.
“Dragon don’t have to worry about catching hypothermia,” boomed a voice from both everywhere and nowhere amidst the black fog, “but sniffles know not a difference between fur or scales, my friend.”
The drake’s step hovered over the ground, before softly coming down upon it, as it head gazed around. Once he had left the place that was not to be named, the dragon found himself in a mindless trance– like the one that took hold of him the night he left the library – that promised almost to teleport him away from his worries.
“I hope what I say next doesn’t become an issue,” the voice lessened into whisper akin to a breeze at night, “but I couldn’t help but overhear the event that transpired less than an hour ago.”
The silhouette of the tree ahead had vibrated in time to the voice, earning Spike’s attention as he approached the bark and looked behind it: nothing.
“Your words sound foolish to the bystander's ears. But for them to be said by you, it must mean that they ring some truth inside you.” Another tree vibrated in tune to the words of the voice, causing Spike to approach it as well, only to find more of the black fog that darkened his vision.
“So tell me, my dear dragon, what has the events of the night transpire to you?”
Breaths were stolen away from the dragon. His purple claw was furling upon itself, while his eyes never ceased its search for the owner of the voice. “I still haven’t made sense of the night, and I doubt I will without a good night’s sleep. But I can almost guarantee, that when I awake, I’ll regret most of my actions tonight.”
The fog began to thicken. A frost nipping at the interior of the dragon’s throat.
“Why to subject yourself to such guilt, my friend!” the voice boomed once more that inspired more fog to appear and for the trees to grow taller. “Blaming yourself for the natural sadness that has befallen you? Why I must ask, should one mistake or slip of the awkward tongue force you down upon your knees: only to gain a moment’s glance of indifference!”
Those words sent shivers coursing through the purple legs, causing their owner to fall back a step from the revelation of reason to an insecurity long bottled up since youth. “But isn’t that all I’m worth? Those girls are the real heroes to my heart, and I’ve long accepted being in their shadow, so long, as I could always remain there.” His claw clenched shut as his head erect upwards to the unseeable sky.
“Not matter how much I grow; regardless of how much I learn, I will always revert to being the dragon in someone's shadow. I can’t keep fooling myself with a false hope that I’ll become anything more than just that because it hurts too much when I realize just how far their shadows stretch.”
The black fog began to stream towards the dragon and curl around his lips, always remaining an inch away from his purple scales. His body tensed with a shiver consuming all of his nerves.
“For a creature belong to one of the greatest species, you sure are lacking in the narcissistic charm that dragons are known for!” The slit houses of trees and the faint outlines of the clouds were lost to the fog.
“Think not for those who rank supreme than you but care nothing for you, but instead, think of the ones of you who care for you. For it is through them that you receive essentials required to one day reach the moon and take your place among the stars.”
Nothing but fog enshrouded the area and the dragon. Not even the claw frozen before his eyes able to be seen by them. There existed at the moment nothing that could give an honest reflection of the dragon that Spike was.
“Whoever you are…” Spike choked out a breath from his frozen chest. “...whatever you are...please...please get rid of all this fog in my head…”
“When will you finally realize?” the voice whispered in a subdued tone, as the blackness refused to relent. “That the nothingness in your head is not an indication that everything has gone wrong, and the emptiness of the fog bears to paint towards you?”
“But—” A stream of coughs erupted out from the dragon as his chest began to grow warm, overwhelming his body with an abstract familiarity. “No...no...that can’t be the case. This forest and its fog are all wrong, and my feelings on them aren’t right.”
“By whose standard are you judging this forest and its fog? Is by the impression you believe you should have, or by the honest feelings you have in your heart that now have gone numb to reality?”
The black streams of the fog began to flow down along the dragon’s scales. He had flinched in anticipation of the frost that was inevitably attached to them but only found it caressing him like a warm breeze.
“There exist no answers that I could bestow upon your heart that it would fully accept, only the means to show you that path that will take you to your own conclusion. We both stand to profit so much from a mutual bond.”
The pelting rain against the leaves began to relent, as the occasional drop served only to soothe the dragon's ears. The caressing fog that felt like to bodies joined into one trailed away from the dragon’s soles, as the blue glow of the moon began to shine down upon him.
“Tonight is the final night I can spend on you,” the distancing voice spoke. “If you insist on enacting not a friendship, but a brotherhood with me, then seek me at the tree where you first came to rest. Burn my card against that bark, and prepare a temporary farewell to those who hold the tiniest piece of your heart.”
The black fog crept back into the nothingness it originated from as light was restored to the night. Spike continued forth no longer in a mindless trance his body used as a defense mechanism to save from his worries, as his consciousness mind sought forth the tree to bring about eternal troubles.
And the Fluttershy crept upon his mind.