~ 96 ~
"I Thought You Were Going to Protect Them?"
“No can do on that offer to run away.” Spike stood in front of the black dragon who dwarfed in size, its nostrils flaring steam in the face of rejection. “I may have no clue what’s going on, but I’m not letting you hurt anypony here.”
“Hmm.” The black figure morphing from atop the black dragon’s head merged with the rest of the liquid, before four tendrils shot forward in the direction of the drake. He quickly rose his wrist in an ‘x’ shape to protect himself, only hear them whistle over his head and past his sides.
A scream pierced the platform, drawing the attention of the drake’s eye from over his shoulder, where it then proceeded to widen. His mother’s frailing form was lifted into the air, limb by limb by each of the tendrils. The black liquid fluctuated as if it were sucking the very life out from the Princess.
“Stop this!” Spike shouted to the dragon as he turned his head back to him, throwing his arms back to his side. “Put her down now!”
“I thought you were going to protect them?”
Spike glared at the shimmering black liquid, before charging forward in the direction of his mother’s screams. He heard the sound of tendril emerging out from the black goo, listening to the whistling of their speeding forms as he saw them shoot past him.
Once they were several feet ahead, they turned around, and shot themselves at his spriting form. Spike pumped his fist into his palm, cocking it backward as the first tendril was upon him, and splattering it out of existence with the impact of his strike.
The second one was before his face just after he had raised his fist, and in a split-second, used the momentum gained from the strike to sever the tendril with a straight claw.
Celestia was suspended just a few more feet away from him. A third tendril had been keeping speed alongside him, which the drake had kept a constant eye on, but this one was looking up and down his body instead of outright attacking.
It settled on his right arm for just a moment, before pulling back to its base. Spike glance an eye back at it, worried, but kept progressing forward nonetheless. Once he stood in the shadow of his hovering mother, he quickly brought both this claws upon the tendrils around her legs…
...and clenched his fists. The black liquid splattered out from between his fingers.
Once done, he placed his arm on his mother hip and slowly brought her town, using the other claw to sever the other two tendrils. The alicorn's limp body fell into his, making him hold her all the more closer, as he began to lower her toward the ground.
“M-Mom?” The determination that made the drake’s face stern evaporated in an instant, being replaced by wide eyes as the drake began to shake his mother lightly. “I need for you to wake up. Please, even just for a moment.”
A second passed by. Then another. The sound of liquid slithering filled the drake’s ears, but he could not for the life of him care. Just as he was about to lay Celestia on the ground, her one eye slowly began to open.
Celestia blinked, the world a blur and sounded inducible, until she saw her son hovering just above her. She smiled.
As did he. “You’re okay.”
“Mmhmm.” She strained her taxed body to rise, but her muscles would make no such movement. Still, she continued to try and move. “But...I can’t keep lying here...have to make sure...that the one friendly dragon...and my ponies...are protected…”
Spike closed his eyes and moved his head away. “Mom...Princess, you’re too weak to do anything at the moment.”
“...even still...aha...ah…”
“I don’t know what happened before I got here,” Spike said as he opened his eyes, and set them upon the mare in his arms once again, “but I can piece together that that guy is more likely the cause. I’ll make sure he gets his fill, and that your ponies can get out of here safely.”
A gurgled voice spoke not from afar, but from the sleeve of the jack that the drake wore. “Are you sporting promises that you can’t keep again!?”
Spike looked down at his wrist to see the black liquid spreading across it, slowly consuming the article, and soon, the scales underneath it as it spread across the drake’s body. He tried to shake it off, only for the blob of black to spread faster over his shoulder, and down the arm holding his mother.
“Hold her close and transfer me to her,” the voice gurgled, almost from within him. “You may be willing to fight for ponies, but would you honestly give up your life for one? Hold her close, Spikey!”
Spike quickly let his mother fall to his leg, still supporting her weight as he used the claw to gesture to the guards with the claw. “Quick, she needs you!”
They hesitated at the drake’s command.
“Don’t just stand there,” he growled as his voice became strained, the liquid traveling down his torso in the attempt to reach the mare resting close to there, “do your duty and protect the Princess!”
Finally, they came galloping over. Spike propped up the Princess, so that when the guards came, they took the Princess by the sides and away from the black mass consuming the purple drake. They looked back at him, faces mixed with uncertainty.
“Get yourself and her as far away from me as possible!”
They started at them for a moment longer, before nodding their heads and carrying the Princess away. Even in her blurry vision, she could see the black matter overtake the rest of his body, slowly filling over his face.
She reached out a hoof, only for it go limp as she fell unconscious for the final time.
“This makes no sense!” The figure of the drake emerged from the black dragon’s head, its stark whiteness painting it's befuddled expression. “Why would a creature such as the dragon, endowed with so much power and a far longer life, ever give it up for such a minuscule creature like a pony?!”
Spike only laughed as the liquid filled over his face. The ponies looked on in horror as the drake was molded into place, even his expression being painted through the black liquid.
The blackness of the goo consumed the drake’s being.