//------------------------------//
// Reprieve (Interlude) 
// Story: Shadow's End 
// by MellowSoul 
//------------------------------//

Twilight opened the mini fridge. Dinner was still a few hours away. She thought it wise to tide their hunger while they waited.

"You want anything," she asked her brother, "I won't tell if you won't."

"Kit-Kat and a Pepsi."

"Comin' up."

Twilight levitated their snacks, joining her brother on the rug.

"Whatcha playin'?"

"Final Fantasy."

"Always a classic."

"I'm almost at the northern crater."

"You gonna grind to 99?"

"Yeah."

"Nice."

"Any luck with the database?"

"I cracked it yesterday, but I couldn't find anything."

"Guess that puts us back at square one."

"The way these things operate makes them impossible to study. If there was any info, it's long gone by now."

"We should start with what we know. They feed off the suffering of the innocent, right? Obviously the hosts want to die on some level already. That begs the question, how can separate them from their food source?"

"They behave like a more parasitic variation of changeling. Instead off getting their food from an external source, it's internal. The only way is to change what's inside. The problem is, there's a lot in life that can lead to suicidal despair. We can protect people from immediate danger, but when it comes to long-term solutions, I'm stumped..."

"Maybe...We can start by changing ourselves."

"How?"

"Pushing ourselves beyond our limits. External and internal strength often feed into one another."

"It's not a hard and fast rule, but it's a start. We should increase the length of our meditation sessions: keep our own dark thoughts under control."

"Burnout, here I come."

Twilight wrapped her foreleg around the young dragon.

"I know it's been hard. Just remember what we're fighting for. The whole world's counting on us, but on the flipside, we have a whole army ready to join us in arms, because of what we've done. As long as we keeping going, we'll emerge victorious. If not, we'll die trying."

Spike closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them once more.

"Yeah...You're right."