//------------------------------// // 42 Beauty Through Death // Story: Errant Finale // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// Spike has never thought of himself as a particularly brave dragon. That isn’t to say that he sees himself as a particularly cowardly dragon, either; though, if pressed, he might admit to a certain tendency to view discretion as the better part of valor. Being raised by a pony, especially one in a flammable environment where any outburst was liable to be dealt with a disproportionate response (parchment did not like flame, after all), meant that his temper has been, well, tempered into a sarcastic streak instead of a pyroclastic one. A part of Spike desperately wishes he had tried that instead of facing his current predicament. Suspended over a hundred feet in the air on the top of the Crystal Castle, like an earth pony on top of a rickety diving platform, stands Spike. He clutches the Crystal Heart to his chest, hearing as well as feeling the power thrumming inside. His muscles ache from the arduous climb up the tower, enough to make him never want to take the stairs ever again. And then the brief sprint through the dust to grab the crystal that practically calls his name, and then squeezing through the dark crystals barely large enough to admit him and the heart. Sooner or later, he knows, they’ll realize what he did. And one or two or all three of them will come looking for him. He gulps, trying to figure out a way down. He slowly, carefully, peeks his head out past the edge. The sheer drop on every side threatens to send him over just from losing his balance, vertigo leaving him reeling. He slams himself back against the wall, breath coming out in fits and spurts.  Just don’t look down. Spike groans at the less than useless advice. He can see the tiny dots of ponies congregating below. And, at various points along the wall, dark crystals have pierced through the blue. Almost like little stepping stones that he can leap from one to the other. Like one of those arcade games he’s seen in town. “Yeah, Spike!” he says to himself, trying to bolster his confidence and failing. “Just think of it like a game! All you have to do, is get a perfect score. On your first play through.” He looks at his stubby arms and legs. “Without any powerups.” He looks at the Crystal Heart. “And a handicap.”  He takes a deep breath. “You can do this.” Somehow, he does not feel better about this at all. The enraged roars from inside the room, however, spur him to extend one scaled leg to the first outcropping. Surprisingly, it holds his weight without budging. If he can somehow make it down to the throne room, he’ll be free! It isn’t that far beneath him, and then he can take the stairs.  If he makes it, he will never complain about having to take a staircase ever again. All he has to do is jump from one outcropping of solid black crystal to the next. It has to be secure, right? They look secure. His limbs shake from the adrenaline coursing through him. That or the entire castle is shaking from the blasts coming from the room above.  Spike teeters, the gap ahead appearing nearly insurmountable. He chances another glance down, getting dizzy again. He can barely lean with both claws gripping the crystal without threatening to topple over, but there’s no way he can bridge the gap without going all in. He steels himself, taking a deep breath in, and steps off. Spike clears the six inch gap without any issue. “Whew!” Spike says, wiping the sweat off of his brow with a shoulder. He scrambles across the outcropping, the several feet wide crystals offering plenty of claw holds. Fortunately, their jagged edges don’t cut his scales, and he quickly comes to the other side. The next gap looks twice as large, and he takes it at a run, starting to enjoy himself. Things between Twilight, Chrysalis, and Sombra are not going nearly as well. Without the power of the Crystal Heart to leech off of the smaller crystals have stopped growing, and Twilight can no longer feel the magic of the cage trapping her inside. That doesn’t change that there are still spiky growths littering the floor, ceiling and walls, caltrops threatening anypony who tries to move around. Both Sombra and Chrysalis are frantically searching for the heart. There’s no way it could have gotten that far, unless… Spike! Twilight bites her tongue to keep from shouting for her Best Assistant. He must have climbed up the tower after her, and taken the Crystal Heart… outside? Back through the portal? But, regardless, she is supposed to be the one to help Princess Cadance and Shining Armor defend the Crystal Empire, right? She isn’t supposed to have her Friends help, or they might get hurt or worse! She might fail! She realizes: no, they wouldn’t fail. Celestia’s instructions - no, more like advice - was that she should be the only one to fight Sombra. She wouldn’t have sent all of them if she was supposed to save the Crystal Empire singlehoofedly! And if she is the one to take down the mad king, or at the very least delay him? Well, she better get started on that! Twilight slams a hoof into the cage, a shockwave of power radiating away from her. The smaller crystals are ground into dust as she floats back to the ceiling, enjoying her new vantage point with which to smirk at her opponent. Except he isn’t there, apparently having come to the conclusion that the Crystal Heart isn’t in the room and might have fallen to the ground outside. Twilight grits her teeth, blasting through one of the crystal walls and zooming outside. Oh, and she cancels her levitation spell on herself (and, inadvertently, Chrysalis) in order to fly like a normal pony. Spike is no longer enjoying himself. He thinks he is onto something when he comes down hard from one of his jumps. Rather than break off the crystal like he fears, it instead molds itself into a nice, sloping ramp leading to the next outcropping, which will be a long but doable jump. What follows should be a nice, easy course of running along a ramp at breakneck speeds, Crystal Heart held high like a carrot he’s trying to keep from Angel Bunny, and then leaping into the next crystal to activate the next ramp. But no, Spike can’t have nice things. First, it’s the shockwave from the room above that nearly blasts him off the crystal. Fortunately he snags one of the protrusions, his tail plus one claw enough to keep his hold on the Crystal Heart. Then it’s the cloud of black smoke that turns into yet another crystal platform for King Sombra to ride. The unicorn shouts something about crystals, and slaves, and mine, but Spike doesn’t really pay too close attention. Seriously, what is with that guy and his crystals? Spike is more focused on making the last jump he needs to make. The window is so close, and he leaps out, grinning as he remembers every action movie he’s ever watched. He’ll enter the throne room with a smash and- Only to bounce off the glass, sending himself and the Heart tumbling the long, long way to the ground. He has a surprising long time to think, given that he’s got a maniacal unicorn cackling as he rides a pillar of black crystal straight at him. And the ground coming just as fast from the other direction. He isn’t sure which is more likely to kill him. Or, rather, which one would hurt more, since they'd both probably kill him. He'll go with the first, actually; somehow, it takes King Sombra to make falling to one’s death seem not so bad. His life flashes before his eyes. First, a view of Twilight from below. Then a view of Twilight from above. Then another view of Twilight from below. Ah, the first day they met, and he was hatched. Classic. Then a few scenes of his foalhood (babyhood?) like learning his first words, and name, and helping Twilight in the library. Then he’s a large dragon, able to peek over a house. Then a big dragon, as big as a house. Then he’s a huge dragon, towering over all of Ponyville. All because he got greedy. Good times. Wait. Spike looks at the Crystal Heart in his claws. He can practically feel Sombra breathing down his neck, charging his horn for some sort of decapitating crystal attack. This thing is really, really valuable. And it’s his. In his claws. Far below, many pony’s eyes lock onto the scene above. While they might have been distracted by the many crystals destroying their homes, the explosions from the castle have drawn everypony back together. Huddling in fear under the Crystal Castle, few chance glances up at the small purple form blending into the blue walls and black crystal. Until somepony spots a different blue item. “Is that the Crystal Heart?” somepony asks. Others quickly join her, heads craning from every angle to try to spot it. “It is!” three more ponies exclaims, hooves pointing nearly straight up. Coats turn crystal as more and more ponies watch Spike run around the top of the castle, leaping from one dark crystal to another. “Oh, no!” somepony narrates completely unnecessarily. “King Sombra is going to catch him! We’re doomed!” “No we’re not!” shouts Pinkie Pie as she leaps from the balcony. She tucks and rolls, grabbing onto the neighsayer. “We just need to believe! Believe!” BELIEVE!” “BELIEVE!!   BELIEVE!!  BELIEVE!!” The chant comes to a pause as Spike slams into the window, then starts falling. “Oh, no!” calls out one pony. Pinkie Pie shushes her with a glare. “Believe! Come on, everypony! Believe!!” Rainbow Dash has a markedly different reaction. She blasts off from the ground in a wide, looping arc that ends up with her staring down Sombra’s rear. Grinning, she flashes the unicorn as she zooms past, dodging the crystals in front of her, and stretches out her hooves to snag Spike and the Crystal Heart from midair. Spike strokes the Crystal Heart. His Crystal Heart. His Own. His pr- He feels the Greed circuits in his brain activate, empowered by the power of the Crystal Ponies. Far above, Twilight Sparkle would get the answer to whether velocity or momentum or kinetic energy is conserved in a moving transformation. Spike’s body explodes outwards; in the blink of an eye he goes from barely able to wrap his arms around the Crystal Heart to comfortably holding it in a single claw. Rainbow Dash barely pulls back as Spike’s tail whips around, smashing into King Sombra’s crystal and hurtling the unicorn into and through the Crystal Castle.  A split second later his colossal bulk slams into the ground, the answer to Twilight’s question being velocity. The pavement underneath is pulverized, and fractures spread through his scales. He whimpers, barely able to pick himself up; his buckled scales have pierced into him, leaving just as deep an impression internally as they did to the road.  “Okay, sooo,” Pinkie Pie says sternly, “Which one of y'all didn’t believe hard enough!?” Spike groans, looking to the Crystal Heart in his blood drenched claws. Still intact. Unbelievable. Oh, and there’s a changeling trying to wrest it from his grasp. “There, there,” Queen Chrysalis crows, stroking Spike’s badly injured arm. “You know I deserve this, right? Be a good little dragon and give it here.” Spike gapes at her audacity, only for his ears to perk as a deep, rumbling laugh echoes from inside the castle. King Sombra, in all his dark glory, blasts a second hole next to the one he entered, showering everypony with shards of crystal and rock.  “No!” shouts Twilight from above, a shield forming between Sombra and the crowd. “Spike! You need to return the Crystal Heart!” She points a hoof at the center of the bottom of the castle, a bright circle glowing. “No!” shouts Chrysalis from next to him, grabbing onto the Crystal Heart for all she’s worth. “It’s mine!” “No, it’s Mine!!” bellows King Sombra, though his eyes show far too much worry. His horn charges another blast of some sort, aimed at Spike. Spike flexes his powerful arm, his fleeting magic giving him one last burst of energy. With a lazy flick he sends the Crystal Heart, and Queen Chrysalis, soaring to the bottom of the Crystal Castle. And, as his coveted possession leaves his grasp, he transforms back into a small, not-quite-mortally wounded dragon.