High upon the wind-battered spire in the heart of Equestria, a monstrous dragon crawled ever-closer to the capital, the fiery glint of avarice gleaming in its eyes.
An avalanche of boulders crashed down from beneath the dragon’s claws, shattering into a storm that washed down the mountainside in a haze of dust. The deafening bursts of rocks crashed all around Rarity and exploded like a thousand firecrackers, leaving a high-pitched whine ringing in her ears. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut under the protective shelter of her magic-woven shield, Rarity climbed up the mountain towards Canterlot Castle, painstakingly placing one hoof and then another further up the jagged surface of the mountain, forcing herself up towards the gleaming pearly-white towers that sat so far out of her reach, mocking her with their faultless surfaces that so contrasted the dirty rock. Howling winds bit at her coat, winds that would have chilled her to the bone without the shimmering aura of magic that covered her body like a second skin.
Noticing that the endless cascade of rocks had ceased, Rarity paused and opened her eyes, peeking over the top of her glowing shield to see what the gargantuan beast was up to. It had turned away from her to climb higher up the mountain, having almost reached the sparkly walls and towers of Canterlot Castle. Its tail swished from side to side above her; she could see the line of green spikes that adorned its tail swinging back and forth, back and forth.
Cautiously, hesitantly, Rarity trotted further up the mountain, placing the weightless shield at her side. Still staring up at the angry dragon, Rarity barely noticed a large and pointy chunk of rock in her path until she stomped her hoof down on top of it, tripped, and fell on her face.
Springing back to her hooves and brushing the dust off of her coat, she glared at the dusty mountainside beneath her and frowned. A blast of thunder crackled in the distance as she stood motionless on the bare rock, still looking down with a puzzled expression across her unblemished face. How could I possibly catch up with him?
Suddenly, seized by a stroke of inspiration, Rarity concentrated and a ball of sea-blue magic emerged from the tip of her horn, which fell and stuck on the rocky ground beneath her. With a swish of her horn, Rarity split the ball into four, then squished and shaped them into four hoof-shaped containers. Releasing another stream of magic, she broke the stream into threads and wove them into the four containers, making them into glowing, magical boots, the perfect size for her hooves. Finally, she shattered the end of the stream into a thousand tiny pieces with sharp, nail-like ends. Flipping the boots over, she levitated the shards and stabbed them into the bottom of the boots, forming an array of sharp spines that could easily pierce and grab onto solid rock.
Jumping into her new glowing boots, Rarity sprinted up the side of the mountain to pursue the beast, which had already breached the walls of Canterlot Castle with one swift blow from its fist. A deafening wall of sound flooded down the mountain; Rarity ducked and lay flat against the rock as another avalanche of shiny white boulders tumbled past her.
A look of grim determination on her face, Rarity sprinted up the rest of the cliff face, her shield glowing sea-blue at her side.
The earth trembled with every step Spike took; he marched past the broken walls of Canterlot Castle and into a large courtyard, pausing for a moment to take in the splendor of the treasure trove around him. Every surface of every building shimmered and shone, sparkling in the moonlight; brilliant hues of gold and white and purple surrounded him on all sides. His eyes gleamed hungrily with emerald fire, and he was about to take another step towards the beautiful, delicious buildings when a very annoying voice piped up from behind him.
“Spike! Stop right there.”
He swiveled around, casually knocking over a large stone fountain with his tail. Glaring down to find the voice, he found himself staring at a tiny little pony with a beautiful glowing coat and a stubborn look on her face.
Pony awake, pony here? What pony doing? Getting in the way…
With an angry snort, Spike reached down to swat the pony off of the mountain. His claw jolted backwards off of the pony’s glimmering shield and he yanked back his arm; the shield burned with the all-too-familiar burning pain of magical fire.
He looked down again, glaring with palpable rays of hatred at the pony that was advancing slowly towards him…but then he frowned in thought and confusion.
Shield so sparkly and beautiful; pony so sparkly and beautiful…both dangerous. Shield painful, pony painful. How to capture both…?
Suddenly a malevolent grin crossed his face and his glare intensified. Pony can’t hurt if pony not awake. Now, how to knock out pony? Spike backed up towards the wall of the courtyard, reaching behind him for a chunk of it to throw.
Rarity cautiously approached the beast, holding the still-vibrating shield out in front of her face. The dragon’s fist had not even made a dent in the shield, and based off of the way that the dragon yanked back its arm, the blow had hurt quite a bit.
Her hoof bumped something again, something soft, and she looked down and shrieked for half of a second before she regained control of herself. A stallion from the Lunar Guard, fully dressed and unscathed in his armor, was lying motionless on the ground. The guard wasn’t dead though; his chest rose and fell with an unsteady rhythm but a rhythm nonetheless. Still, that was not what had made Rarity scream.
A wisp of black fog floated lazily about the stallion’s head, obscuring his face. It pulsed with the glow of magic as it swirled around his face, through his nostrils and into his mouth, tainting the air that entered his lungs. A chill raced down Rarity’s spine as her mind processed what she had seen. Somepony must have used a sleeping spell on him...
All of a sudden it struck her how…dead the city of Canterlot was; usually, even at night, the gentle hum of activity rose from every block, and a few faint rays of light flickered out of the buildings’ windows as the ponies stayed up through the waning hours of moonlight. But now…all was silence; all was darkness. A shroud of deathly quiet covered the entire city.
The shroud of quiet was broken by another earth-shaking roar and explosion of stone.
Rarity whirled around to see the scaly beast tearing into the side of one of the high buildings of Canterlot Castle and pulling out a huge chunk of stone. Pulling its claw back, the dragon sent its gleaming projectile soaring through the air towards her. With a yelp, Rarity dove to the side just as the chunk exploded in the spot she had occupied half of a second earlier.
Climbing to her hooves, she barely had time to raise her shield up in front of her face before another chunk blasted into her. It burst into a thousand shards of rock on contact with her shield; Rarity’s eyes widened as she saw the glow of the shield flicker ever-so-slightly under the intense attack. This thing won’t last forever…I need to find a way to stop him.
She jumped forward and sprinted towards a stone fountain peacefully laying on its side in between the two combatants, nearly flinching as another hunk of wall flew past her face. Sliding onto the ground, Rarity barely had time to catch her breath before the statue shattered over her head. She quickly rolled to the side, holding her shield above her head as she frantically gathered up the jagged stones around her in a net of violet-blue magic. Sealing the net into a ball, she hurled it towards her opponent right as he reached down to grab another chunk of wall, and heard a morbidly satisfying howl as the shot found its mark.
Seizing the opportunity, she jumped to her hooves and charged in towards her enemy, holding her shield at her side and a thousand pellets of razor-sharp stone in a deadly cloud in front of her. Rearing his head up right as Rarity closed in, the dragon had just enough time to widen its eyes in shock before her attack hit him full-on in the face.
Another fresh roar split the sky as the dragon backed up, frenziedly scraping the rocks off of its face as it backpedaled straight through the hole it had carved and into the side of the West Tower of Canterlot Castle. Spinning around onto his heels, the dragon threw its arms up onto the high tower and jumped, stabbing its back claws into the wall for support. Its tail hung down like a pendulum as the dragon smashed its limbs higher and higher into the tower, spreading a spiderweb of cracks across the smooth pearly face of the building.
Rarity’s jaw dropped as the beast climbed higher and higher out of her reach, up into the storm-blackened skies lit white by the harsh rays of the moon.
Higher, higher into the stormy sky. Closer up to the shiny rooftops. Further away from that pony and her stupid shiny shield…
A low growl reverberated in Spike’s throat as he climbed higher up the building. Wisps of smoke blew out of his snout as he turned around and saw the annoying pony still following him to the base of the building. His emerald eyes squinted together and his forehead compressed in incredulous anger. Pony still following?! Not worth it anymore. Go away, pony!
Grabbing a the spire off of a nearby rooftop, Spike snapped it off until he had a good-sized throwing spear clenched in his meaty fist. With a grunt of satisfaction he let it fly right above the pony’s head…where it immediately shattered against her shield. The pony had started climbing up the tower towards him using its glowing boots; as he watched it ascend his jeweled necklace started to heat up until it was burning against his neck.
Roaring with pain, Spike caved in to his instincts and vomited out a house-sized inferno of emerald fire, which poured down the face of the building like an angry flood, melting the stone wherever it touched. A sadistic grin crossed his face as he saw the pony’s look of utter horror staring up at him through its translucent shield. Stupid shield blocks rocks; does it block fire-breath?
Looking down, he saw the pony's shield melting before the flood splashed against the ground, hissing as the fire ate into the stone and earth beneath it.
A surge of blinding fire rushed down the mountain towards Rarity, hardly giving her time to jump before the wave consumed her only protection and whisked past the ends of her hooves. She frantically yanked at a part of the wall beneath her and shot a beam of magic into it, feeling a burning twinge in her gut as she soared through the open air towards the merciless stone below.
Her eyes squeezed tightly shut, Rarity barely noticed as she landed gently on the shimmering surface of an enchanted boulder, which her magic shaped and twisted around her with a life of its own. She peeked one eye open to see the startling sight of a capsule of glowing rock, with a section of translucent-blue at its front, as if the magic had created some kind of window to the makeshift vehicle.
Concentrating on her magic, Rarity felt the hum of the vessel around her respond to her will. She urged it forwards and upwards, sending the tiny rock careening through the air. A bolt of lightning broke the atmosphere, lighting up the silhouette of the angry dragon as it climbed onto the pointed roof of the West Tower. Clinging to the spire of the Tower, its back claws scrabbled over the edge of roof for a brief moment as it tried to adjust to its new position.
Seeing an opportunity, Rarity sent a rapid series of magical pulses into the sides of her stone craft. Immediately twin streams of fiery magical projectiles burst from the outside of the vehicle, crashing into the beast’s thick hide and eliciting a deafening roar from his spiky muzzle. Rarity urged her craft faster, circling around the spire of the Tower and climbing higher into the air so she was finally at the same level as the beast.
Spike’s thick claw sliced through the air right next to the makeshift aircraft as it zipped by, followed by his furious glare. He stared intently at his target, tracking its motion as it did a one-eighty in midair and barreled straight towards him. Sucking in a lungful of air through his muzzle, Spike breathed a gigantic cloud of flaming heat into the air right through the plane’s path of attack.
Its pilot blinded, the glowing rock sailed though the ball of fire and way up into the air, melting as it climbed higher and higher into the stormy sky. At the peak of its climb, the rock evaporated into a cloud of green steam and its owner was sent careening through the air.
Suddenly a memory shot out from nowhere into the forefront of his mind, temporarily blinding him as a chill of déjà vu shivered down his spine.
The two fell down through the sky together, side by side, pony and dragon, as they were sent careening through the air towards their rocky doom below. Despite his impending death, though…Spike could not stop staring into the beautiful eyes of the pony right across from him.“Rarity? I need to tell you something, just in case we don’t make it…!”
‘Rarity’?
...Rarity?!
Without a second thought, Spike reached out and snagged the falling pony with his empty claw, ignoring the sudden feeling of fiery pain welling up within his chest. He hastily yanked back his arm in front of his muzzle and stared down at what he had caught; his eyes widened as he saw the tiny, beautiful pony cowering in his palm…
But as he stared down at her with wide-open eyes, the fiery pain consumed him. His shock-filled expression suddenly scrunched into a livid glare.
Not ‘Rarity’. Annoying pony. Annoying pony that gets in our way.
Spike took another deep breath in…
Rarity opened her eyes, once again surprised to find herself still alive. Her eyes darting around, she suddenly noticed that she was in the middle of Spike’s gigantic claw. The dragon had saved her.
She stared up at his muzzle in fascination as she saw an expression of shock and of sorrow filling his gigantic face...but her eyes widened in alarm when his expression disappeared as if it had never even existed. The dragon took in a deep breath, ready to boil her alive in the fires of greed and rage and hatred.
“Spike…wait!” Rarity shielded her face with her hooves, braced for the fiery inferno of pain she knew was coming.
But…nothing came. As she slowly peeked out between her hooves, she saw his face contorted in intense thought, struggling against the vicious powers attacking his mind. She could feel vibrations beneath her as Spike barely held himself back. I’m getting to him. But it’s not enough…what could I say that would have the power to completely snap him out of it?
Suddenly, it dawned on Rarity exactly what she needed to do. She took a deep breath and resigned herself to what she would have to say next…something she had put off facing for a very, very long time.
KILL IT! YOU HAVE IT RIGHT HERE!
But she’s my friend!
NO!!! IT’S JUST A PONY. CRUSH IT IN YOUR FIST.
I won’t! I won’t do it!
Suddenly…a different voice interrupted Spike’s struggle. A voice that Spike knew very, very well. “Spike…please don’t kill me. I love you.”
Time stood still as the words processed in Spike’s brain.
Love…me…?
You…love me?
I…
The gallons of liquid rage that had poured through his veins were suddenly extinguished, and his chest felt suddenly cooler as the stinging heat was forced off. A heavy burden fell from his shoulders as the Element of Greed tumbled down into the empty streets below. It rattled and stopped in the middle of the street, laying useless in the shadow of the West Tower where it had sat so innocently only a few hours before.
Spike felt his body shrink and his muzzle contract; the tower slipped out from between his claws as his tiny body bounced down against the roof of the tower. He looked across from him and saw the same pony falling beside him through the open air, just as the pair had sometime in a distant memory. He knew though that this time…nopony would be there to save him.
But he didn’t care.
The last thought that Spike had before he slammed into the ground and blacked out was how nice it felt to hold Rarity in his arms.
Rarity awoke with a pounding headache. One of her hooves was throbbing as if she had punched a wall over and over, and her flank hurt from sitting on something uncomfortable.
Suddenly a thought jolted her to attention. Spike! She jumped to her hooves and looked around…only to find that she had been sitting on him the entire time. He was totally unconscious, and his back was twisted in a gut-wrenching position. Thankfully, his chest was still rising and falling…but in an unsteady rhythm; his body shuddered with every breath.
Rarity’s jaw dropped as she desperately to think of a solution. I need to heal him…but I don’t know how! If only Twilight or one of the nurses was here!
Suddenly an aura of warmth rose out of the Element of Generosity, expanding and glowing with a soft pink light. All of Rarity’s muscles instinctively relaxed as the spell welled up inside her, and she gave a contented sigh as it floated out towards the wounded dragon.
The magic took him up in a soft embrace, carefully flowing over his cuts and scratches and into his mouth, causing his scales to glow with a faded-purple light. As he was lifted into the air his spine automatically corrected itself; his arms rose up at his sides, healthy and clean.
The loud moan that escaped Spike’s mouth was interrupted by Rarity suddenly hugging him tightly.
“Uggghhhh-HEY! I mean…ohmygosh, Rarity?! Wha…?” Spike took a look around and was instantly confused. “Where’s Twilight? What happened to those buildings?!”
She slowly released him. Cautiously, she asked, “You don’t remember anything?”
“Well…the last thing I remember was giving Owlowiscious a bunch of letters to bring to all of you guys in Ponyville. Since you’re here, I guess you got the message…but where’s everypony else? How did we get outside?”
Rarity cocked her head, puzzled. He can only remember before he sent us that message...but why would the healing magic take away his memories after that? A thought struck her. Of course! That must have been right before the Element of Greed got him.
A pang of regret sank in her gut. I guess that means he won’t remember anything that just happened…
In a gentle voice, Rarity said, “Don’t worry, Spike...I’ll tell you everything later. Now, we should probably find Twilight and the others, no?”