//------------------------------// // 86 – "That's Not Spike; It Can't Be!" // Story: Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests // by B_25 //------------------------------// ~ 86 ~ "That's Not Spike; It Can't Be!" Fluttershy watched as her chromatic friend fell into despair, eyes widening at the realization that there was nothing she could do to help her. That there was nothing, she could do to alleviate the darkness that had enraptured the platform they all stood upon, nor being able to save the others hidden behind the wall of sentient blackness. For a brief moment, she wondered as she failed to notice that her world had grown so dark, that was, until she found the light once again – her light to be exact. Spike stood down the platform before the lines made by her sitting friends. He finally came back to her, small as a baby dragon should, though that fact caused her to tilt her head slightly. ‘But...but that doesn't make any sense at all,’ Fluttershy thought to herself as her eyes followed the baby dragon, not catching whatever words he was saying to Rarity. All she saw was the aforementioned mare's eyes begin to glisten. ‘Spike came to me when he was a teenage dragon, so why is he suddenly so young now?" “It’s your indecisiveness that’s causing you all this inner-turmoil, isn’t it, Rarity?” Spike continued with his tangent, taking a delighting in seeing her tears finally race down her cheek. He was nearly stolen away by the temptation to lick them.“Was I fair to Spike in his service to me or did I take advantage of him? When he said those things about how we unintentionally treat him, were those claims justified or false? Was he speaking the truth when said the girls and him are not friend's but acquaintances? Do I even wish for Spike to return home or do I think the girls and the town are better off without him?” Rarity’s mouth opened and shut, opened and shut, not even a sob escaping the confines of her throat. Those questions rang incessantly in her mind not just today, but every day since the drake's departure, though they were now reaching their apex. The questions desperately needed to be solved for the sake of her well-being, but Rarity had no answers to give. The world around her began to dim as her eyes lost their bright blue color – a snap of the fingers resounding throughout the platform. A semi-transparent television created itself from the nothingness of the black sky, floating downward until it hovered a few feet in front of those same blank eyes, before flickering to life with her despair. ‘Spike would never dare talk to Rarity so harshly.' Fluttershy continued to observe from a distance, glancing down to find that her legs were wobbling incessantly. She tried to take a step toward her friend, but her legs could bearly stand as is. “Your despair is certainly owed to the sophistication of your ways, Rarity." Spike's head popped from the side of the T.V, glancing at its screen to find not fluid images like the others, but a series of questions that were replaced by a new one with every passing moment. Each one posed a new problem to the unicorn, adding to the weight of distress that the previous ones had already set upon her. “More of a philosopher than a designer, eh? Don't worry now! I'm sure this will be a great career change." Rarity did not reply because she could not reply. Her eyes were glued to the screen in a lazy gaze as the muscles of her body were beginning to fail to support her. She held the vague notion that she wanted to escape the screen before her, but none who have been brought to the depths of their despair escape ever so easily. ‘That’s not Spike; it can't be!’ Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut and softly shook her head, whimpering down at the ground. ‘He was in pain because of Twilight and emotionally confused because of the girls, but even then, the Spike I know would never do something like this. But...but..." “Oh, Fluttershy!” Her eyes snapped open to the sight of him. “What were you doing with your eyes closed, Fluttershy?” Spike asked with a note of concern in his tone, smiling a sad smile that both relieved and pricked her heart. She had not seen him smile in many months, not since he left her and ran away. “I came back from my adventures just to see you, and you don't even want to see me? I thought we were going chat over tea and tend to your animals like we used to?" Fluttershy did not know how to reply. “You do wanna go back to those days, don’t you?” He asked with a tinge of nervousness. “To the time where it was just you and I. You'd slowly mend my broken will, and in turn, I would fill that emptiness inside your heart – the one that even your best friend is unaware of.” Fluttershy choked back a breath as her doubts were silenced by his voice. She knew it not to be the one she heard those summer days long ago, but it was the closest thing she had to be close to him again. “My departure must have been terrible to you, hasn’t it?” Spike took a step towards her, making her cower at his innocent form. “Those black bags under your eyes are from the restless nights, aren't they? Please don't say that I've been causing you nightmares – that I've been haunting you all this time." Fluttershy said nothing while her face conveyed everything. His face grinned in absolute delight. “Looks like you won’t be needing a screen after all.” Spike turned away from her, beginning his approach for the second-last mare on his list for his conquest. “You’ve done my job for me! You've willingly set despair upon yourself and have been suffering ever since...how fantastic!" Fluttershy kept silent in both her mouth and her mind as a hollow sensation crept along her body and tickled her bones. She couldn't stop looking at his distant back even if she tried – he looked so weak and innocent despites his sinister voice, though despite knowing this, she knew that they were all helpless to stop him. A grunted breath wheezed to the left of her. Fluttershy turned her to see her rainbow friend with beads of sweat racing downward along her face, as it seemed the mare was summoning all that was left of her willpower even to speak. “...S...shy...you can’t...let him win…” Fluttershy felt the words prick at her heart as a wetness stung at her eyes. “,,,twi...light...help...her...and...save...yourself…” Fluttershy shook her head. “But I can’t, Dash!” “...you...h-hav…” All that was left of Rainbow was lost to the throes of her screen. Fluttershy gasped in horror upon losing her friend, hyperventilating at her inability to do anything to save her friends, as her eyes returned to Spike. He was beginning to snap Twilight out from her trance. ‘What...what should I do? What can I do?’ Try as she might, Fluttershy could not stop her tears as she fell to the ground in despair. ‘There’s nothing I can say...nothing I can do to stop him. I...know it’s not Spike, but there’s nothing I can do!’ She looked to her friends. Applejack was lost to the life of ineptitude that she could never fix, no matter how much she tried to improve herself. Rainbow Dash was gone to the never ending conflict of to who her loyalty was due, feeling never ending guilt on leaving her other friends hanging. Rarity was only filled with more doubts as more question flickered onto her screen, leaving her forever in a state of indecisiveness as time and life would go on to pass her by. And by the time the baby dragon had arrived before Pinkie, she too was already gone. Seeing despair come upon her friends set the same fate upon herself, where she was but a kid again wanting her friends to become whole again, yet forced to watch all those precious bonds split away. She knew such a day where all her friends would no longer be close together would come, but she never expected for such a day to arrive so soon. “Huh.” Spike snapped his claw, summoning a television for the pink mare. “I didn’t expect for a mare of her capabilities to give up so easily. In fact, I thought she would be harder to dismay than Twilight.” He shrugged his shoulders as he began to walk toward the aforementioned mare. “How odd.” Fluttershy continued to watch from her lowered state, seeing yet another friend give up without a fight, and feeling herself do the same. ‘I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash…’ She threw her cloven hooves over her eyes as she tried to retreat into herself. Unimaginable nightmares had plagued her sleep ever since the drake’s departure, and yet, she couldn’t help but want to return to those than the real nightmare occurring before her. ‘There’s nothing I can do to stop him – there’s nothing that any of us can do to get him to forgive us.’ Her eyes began to slide close. She heard the all too familiar snap ring again. But, then, she heard a voice that kept her from giving up. “Thou wilt cease this attack at once!” The Royal Canterlot voice boomed through the platform as the Princess of Night emerged from darkness itself, dispelling the magic that concealed the other. “Princess Luna!” Spike turned to face her with fear upon his face. “Am I glad to see you! Something’s wrong with the girls – they’re not saying or doing anything.” Luna began to walk towards him. “Please, ya gotta do something!” Luna only sighed as she came before him. “You can’t possibly think that I would fall for your foolish tricks once again.” Spike’s face hung in here for a few moments longer. Then, a grin began to stretch his lips as his shoulders began to relax. “It would appear you learned how it speak normally since we last met. I do hope you don’t mind my sudden appearance during your sister’s period of incompetence.” “It would appear that the influx of nightmares replacing my subjects peaceful dreams is of your doing.” Luna towered over the baby dragon, staring down her long muzzle at him. “It would do you well to answer me this next question. Are you the cause of the change that is coming soon upon the land?” “Oh, no no no!” Spike wagged his head with faux disappointment. “You give me too much credit to think that the tidal wave upon us if of my own doing. No, I am merely using the fear of it’s arrival to my advantage – and I would say I have done a fantastic job, seeing how your sister sent all your competent guards to the Crystal Empire.” Luna hissed at him. “We...she thought that the areas unguarded would be the most liable for the first attack. Never did she dare think an entity would be brazen enough to strike here.” “Indeed!” Spike exclaimed as he came to but a foot away from her, looking up at her with no cause of fear. “It would seem that your sister has some difficulty in seeing in-between the lines as it were. Always relying on foreign powers and friendship, instead of strategy and the way ponies actually are.” A midnight blue aurora came into existence around the Princess’s horn. “I will not listen to your empty words a second time.” “Words are only empty in the absence of meaning, and you know better than anypony that mine are never devoid of that.” Spike continued to stand there even in the face of the powering horn, though he could not stop the smirk from seeing her magic flicker. He knew that her body was still weak from the previous fight. “I’m to understand that this isn’t the first time an enemy has launched a sneak attack, no? That your sister likes to speak of the wonders of friendship of the ponies who bask in her sun, but you truly get to see what they like in the darkness of their sleep.” Princess Luna closed her eyes, straining to summon the remaining magic needed to complete the spell. “That must create quite the dichotomy indeed.” Spike began to walk back and forth behind her, processing his thoughts out loud. “To try and continuously fall for the superficiality that your sister's sprouts, only to realize how the world and its subjects actually work. It’s the classic tale of the idealist vs. the realist, wouldn't you agree?” Brilliant light began to accompany the magic, causing the drake to pause in place. “Personally, I’m more in favor of the realist than the idealist,” he said, feeling the small current created by the magic. “Decisions made on facts pan out better than those made by faith alone. Surely, had you been in charge, then this attack may never had happened – maybe your petty nation would have had a chance against the oncoming tidal wave.” “There will be more more of your manipulation!” The blue magic emitted a high pitch as the spell reached its completion, causing Luna to spin around and cast it on the mass of ponies locked to their screens. Her magic blew forth like a wave, exploding every television upon its touch and clearing some of the thickness of the blackness. Wisps of midnight blue flew into the sitting ponies, cleansing their eyes of their chains and setting their beings free – the same becoming true of the other Princess. A smile spread across a pair of yellow lips. Fluttershy couldn’t help but have her heart leap in joy at being saved as she rose to her hooves once more. Meanwhile, the baby dragon watched the scene unfold with slight curiosity, before turning his attention back to the Princess. “Tell me. How did you escape my spell in the first place?” Luna basked in the glow of her victory, watching her subjects slowly come to and intake their surrounding. The baby dragon stood next to her as they watch the ponies come alive once more, deciding finally to answer his question. “Your power is despair, capable of destroying all that pony holds dear and is; sending them on a never ending spiral downward to the depths of nothingness.” She exhaled heavily to steady her nerves.“In the end, however, you are but an element. Matters like these are for the ponies themselves to decide: they get to choose whether they stagnate with your despair, or to continue forward with hope nestled in their hearts.” Luna couldn’t help but glance at Fluttershy, who was spellbound by her gaze. “The only aspect that brings me grief is that most ponies are unaware that they have the power to make this choice.” Her gaze passed over to the others, still locked away in the screens of their despair, making her sigh as it would take a few moments longer until her magic repleted itself. “How the best of us have yet to realize that true hope comes only after grappling with despair, forgiving yourself and having faith in yourself, ready to take on the challenges of the next day.” The sound of someone chuckling broke Luna from her thoughts, causing her to look back to the baby dragon. For a moment, she thought she actually saw Spike – in how his laughter reminded her of the days they would joke together in their sleep. In that single moment, Princess Luna allowed her to feel an iota of sadness to where the real Spike was. She knew not to ponder the feeling any further, knowing where it would lead and the presence of that road’s end. “I don’t get it,” Luna said to him upon snapping back to reality. “Why are you laughing for? Should you not be afraid that our ponies full strength is returning, and in a few moments, you shall be imprisoned by our combined magic?” “Oh please.” Spike rolled his eyes and waved a claw. “Like I would ever be afraid of creatures like you ponies. All that you have just said is a pile of crap inspired by the platitudes of your dear sister – and the joy of proving that to you is just filling me with laughter!” Celestia’s head began to wobble slightly as her body no longer felt compressed as it once did. It only took a few moments for her eyes to settle on the surrounding recovering ponies, the sky too black to be considered night, and then finally settling upon her sister and her son. Her face gave away her emotions. Spike only smiled. “Despair isn’t a choice of perspective, my dear Princess Luna.” Spike extended his left arm westward, exposing his wrist to the sight of his mother. He then rose his other claw, growing the pointed ends to make them sharper, before digging them into his exposed wrist and severing his veins. “It’s the never ending cruelty of every situation a being will find themselves in. It is the bleakness of life itself, all that is horrible given form.” Celestia had not moved. Her eyes widen at the sight of blood gushing out from her son’s wrist, tears welling in the corner of her eyes at seeing him inflict such pain upon himself. Luna didn’t hesitate to ignite her horn despite her exhaustion and her dread, but stopped when she saw him wag a finger at her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He pointed the same finger towards Celestia, who caught her sister's attention by how petrified she looked – the midnight blue magic immediately ceasing. “Your sister has killed, and she has torture, yet the sight of a mere cut is driving her to despair...do you know why?” Luna did not reply. “Your sister, though emotionally impenetrable as is the duty of royalty, has committed a cardinal sin.” Despair felt his lips reach into a grin, though he did not worry about Celestia seeing this – she wasn’t even really seeing at the moment. “Celestia herself has cracked her mask and pierced her armor so that her faint rays of love can still fall upon the drake I inhabit. She has exposed herself in order to love me, and that will be her undoing.” Spike looked back to his mother, delighting in the sight of her legs being too wobbly to support her body as she fell to the ground. Her eyes saw not the manipulative mirage but of her dying son, reaching out to her with his bloody claw, and pleading with her to save his life. Yet she could do nothing about it, especially when Despair tore off his own claw, and Spike cried even louder. The severed arm fell to the floor, its fingers still twitching, before drifting slightly away by the pool of blood flooding from the hole which the arm was supposed to be. “It’s quite fitting, don’t you think?” Despair said in a tired voice as he snapped his fingers yet again, another television descending from the black sky. “That I would never have claimed some so great as Celestia had that dragon not changed her? That the unstoppable Princess was finally defeated because she finally opened herself up to truly care for another being – I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that.” The T.V flew before the alabaster Princesses, deriving its content from the despair of her soul, before playing those miseries before her waking eyes. “Would you?” Luna clenched her hoof before shooting it across his face. The fake saw it coming from the corner of his eyes, ducked slightly to the right, and raised his claws in surrender as he stood in front of Luna. “Okay! So maybe you do know what it’s like to care for another creature – but I guess it’s more of a one-sided game, isn’t it?” Luna readied her hoof again; Spike wagged his finger in a disapproving manner. “Can’t you be more like your sister and settled things with peace instead of conflict?” He asked as he stepped to the side of her, presenting the view with her tearful sister to the left, and the sea of guards and citizens sitting to the right. “Besides, that was meant as a compliment! You care enough just like your sister to fall to into despair – just like your sister!” Luna hissed as her horn ignited in a brilliant sphere of midnight-blue. “Enough of your tom-foolery!” “...I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The next thing Luna heard was not the completion of her spell, but of the blood-curdling screams and hysterical cries spewing from across from her. She tore her gaze from the little dragon to where the others were, gasping at the sight. It was as if the darkness of the sky had grown sentient consciousness, coalescing into vines akin to one would find in the jungle, wrapping themselves around the barrels and limbs of everypony present before raising them into the air. Then, the black vines began to vibrate as they discharge lethal current of something akin to electricity into their bodies, filling the ponies veins with a liquid that was cool to the touch yet burnt them from the inside out. Their screams grew progressively louder as the pain discharged intensified by the moment. But their agony was nothing to Luna’s ears when compared to the sobs of her sister. Celestia flailed her hooves around as it felt like a knife was being shoved in and out at random parts of her body. She cried not at the pain, though it was something that caused her great distress, rather who she imagined inflicting it upon her. “Haha! I haven’t had this much fun since I turned that dragon’s ideals flat on his head!” Despair couldn’t help but pause at the sight of the fraying ponies tangled in his power, feeling every inch of their movement as it tickled him ever so slightly where it mattered most. “I was worried my methods would become stale afters years of inactivity, but having a mother being stabbed by the son she failed to save, as he murmurs such terrible words – oh how I’ll never lose it!” Luna had to will herself to look away from the gruesome sight, throwing her head just before his and shouting. “End this attack on my subjects and my sister at once!:” “But of course!” He bopped her on the muzzle. Her angry expression looked adorable in his eyes. “Though you’ll have to choose which one goes free from my pain, of course.” “What do you…” “It’s a simple decision, Princess Luna!” Spike threw up his claws into the air in a grand gesture as he stepped backward from her. His left claw, from Luna’s perspective, held her beloved sister in its palm, while the right claw held all the subjects that both loved and were loyal to her. “Do you save the one sister tormented beyond that which is cruel, or your plentiful subjects, who have already ‘slain’ a dragon and forgiven you both for your incompetence.” Luan’s mask of composure shattered completely as the weight of both factors marred her face. Her eyes flitted between the two choices, staying long enough just to grasp the other’s full agony, before her eyes could no longer take it and stagnated between the two conflicts – forced to bear the pain of both in a state of indecision. Spike laugh grew sinister as he raised his claws higher into the air, submerging the group and the one further into the chilling blackness. “Don’t lose yourself to despair just yet, Luna! I wanna know which you love more: your sister or your subjects?!” Princess Luna body began to lower as her eyes began to dim, though a T.V was not summoned yet. From far behind her, a pegasus cowered, behind the body of her chromatic friend and shivering with fear. ‘That’s not Spike! That’s not Spike!” Fluttershy screamed in her head despite it doing nothing to quell her fear nor her guilt. She watched as her Princess slowly fell to her knees, unable to bear the sight for any longer as she turned to her last semi-conscious friend. Fluttershy gulped as she took shaky steps toward the still sitting Twilight Sparkle. A trickle of blood still streamed from her lavender nose from the previous punch, and her eyes were lost in a daze to the black sky. “Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered softly to avoid detection of the fake, receiving only a blank stare from the other mare. She placed her hooves on her friend’s shoulders and lightly began to shake her. “Please…please...I need you to wake up!” “Looks like someone isn't sitting by like a good coward should.” Fluttershy spun around to see the fake standing next to the cowering Luna, running a claw through her fur as she struggled even to stand. He gave a chuckle before returning his gaze to her. “And here I thought I was going to get to enjoy your despair in reality.” The drake snapped his fingers as yet another television was brought into existence, though not from the black sky like the others. “Oh well. Enjoy your waking nightmares, Fluttershy!” The fake returned to the Princess’s side, bringing his mouth to her ear, and whispering his secret delights. It was only a matter of time until the last pony was brought under his control. Though Luna wasn’t the last one yet. Fluttershy struggled with all her might to even move her head just an inch away from the oncoming purple screen and green television, but her muscles were far too tense to move at all. She tried to will her eyes shut, but some unseen force kept them split apart. And with great horror, the television flickered to life.