//------------------------------// // Denial // Story: Alone in the dark // by Mr Tech //------------------------------// What I'm about to tell you is one of my many stories, but all stories must have it's own begginings, and if I'm going to tell you why I did what I did I should probably start at the beggining as well, so strap on my dear, this is the story where I, spike changed from a nobody in ponyville to a saviour of millions... **Alone in the dark** It was a nice day in Ponyville, and Spike, Twilight Sparkle's assistant, was going to ask a very special mare to be his special somepony... And things were about to change… for better or worse... "Uh, Rarity?" Spike asked, earning the mare's attention. She was standing next to a few mannequins, each wearing different dresses and suits. "Will you go out with me… On a date?" The young dragon questioned, a shot of nervousness caused a chill down his spine and he jittered. He handed her some purple flowers he had bought earlier from Roseluck, one of the three flower mares in town. Rarity turned her head to look at the dragon. Her face shown no emotion as she replied, "Spike, darling, you’re really adorable you know that? But you’re simply too young." Rarity replied. Spike’s face wilted into bewilderment... "W-why? Why won't you go out on a date with me? Am I not good enough for you? I can change!" He pleaded as he dropped the flowers on the floor and fell to his knees to beg. Rarity turned her back on the drake and resumed her work, and responded obliviously. "First off, you’re a dragon. I’ve also said that you are too young earlier. To top it off, you… have a hard time doing anything on your own, other than doing chores for Twilight all day. That’s not even counting the flaws here and there." Rarity said without a clue that she was scaring the young dragon, and even hurting him. "I-I-I can do more than that!" The dragon defended as he slowly backed away from the fashionista, afraid that Rarity would throw more insults at him. When his left foot had suddenly gotten stuck in a bucket. The mare continued her work. When she heard him connect with the infernal metal object that she didn’t even remember owning, she faced the dragon looking very cross, "Look, if you’re not here to help me finish the dresses I’m working on, then go to someplace else and help somepony who you won’t annoy. I've got a massive order from Manehattan and I really don’t have time to talk right now.” Spike, with a heart shattered into a million pieces, ran out of the shop with tears in his eyes, back to his home where he believed his source of comfort would be: the Ponyville Library. --- One hour… It was an entire hour of constant tears and sorrow for the poor dragon. In that hour, Twilight briefly came up to talk to him about Rarity, but quickly trotted away having realized she still needed to do some more studying for the upcoming test. Once the cursed hour was finished, Twilight trotted back up to Spike’s coves. Noticing that he was still crying, Twilight let out a sigh. She didn’t have much time for Spike to be sad. She briskly trotted to Spike’s side and nonchalantly spoke, "You’ll get over it. Whenever you’re finished, I’ll need some help tidying up the library." Spike looked up, his eyes still teary from his rejection. Twilight wasn’t much help with his situation, having decided to trot back down to the library’s first floor and continue with her studying without so much of a concerned look! Finding out the hard way that Twilight would not come and comfort him, he felt useless, realizing that what Rarity said was true. There was no way Rarity wanted to love him. Spike walked out of the Golden Oaks Library with his head hung low. Spike walked around town, desperately searching for anypony who he could talk to about what happened. But everypony was too busy with their own dealings. Nopony had any time for a lowly dragon like him. By noon, Spike had an idea. He could visit Zecora inside the Everfree Forest! He snapped his fingers and raised his head slightly as he began to walk towards the forest many ponies avoided. 'She might have some advice for me, or a potion that makes me feel better,' he thought to himself. After walking for a few more minutes he found himself within the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. No pony in their right mind would wander this far out of town, but the denial from Rarity, the lack of comfort from Twilight, and the fact that applejack ,rainbow dash ,pinkie pie and even fluttershy were out of town at the moment, left Spike clinging for help from anywhere. He would accept somepony… anypony to comfort him at this point, Zecora can at least talk to him in some way he could understand but a drop of sweat dripped from his forehead as he gulped. The Everfree Forest was dangerous and filled with deadly creatures. But Spike needed help and comfort. After taking a deep breath,he put up a brave face and and puffed his chest. He set foot into the dark forest. --- After walking for half an hour, Spike began to think that perhaps he was lost. His legs started to feel sore from all the walking and wandering around the thick trees, vines, and bushes that covered the Everfree Forest. The fact that the forest grew darker and darker only made the situation worse, spike was starting to regret this choice... After spending more time deep in the forest, Spike’s fears escalated. He clung desperately to his fading hope that Twilight would come into the Everfree, find him, and bring him out. After all, he was Twilight's number one assistant. Spike was interrupted by the sound of snapping twigs, The purple dragon turned back and gulped. A pack of Timberwolves were standing behind him, having scars that covered their bodies. They were hungry. They were ready to pounce at any moment. Adrenaline shot through spike’s mind as one of them leaped at Spike's direction. The wolf missed Spike just by a hair as he lunged away. Spike immediately got up and ran off. He never ran this fast in his entire life. Whatever pain he felt was forgotten, his life at stake! After a few more minutes of running and dodging, he lost the Timberwolves. And boy did his leg hurt! Spike cursed his luck for bringing himself into a situation like this. First he was pushed away from the love of his life. To make matters worse, Twilight refused to help him in his time of need! And now he got himself lost in a big, scary forest… He kicked some dirt in a random direction and walked onward trying to find a way back home, recalling all the books he read about surviving in the wild... He knew fire wouldn’t be an issue but he had no means of calling for help... Suddenly, Spike stopped. He couldn’t breathe… He couldn’t even feel his heart beating! Even after all that, he still felt conscious. It was as if he and his surroundings was frozen in time… He could look around, but he couldn’t move a single muscle in the rest of his body. spike panicked and tried to move. "Time?... Was it really that time again?" Spike heard a deep voice that sounded like a middle-aged male. The voice echoed from all directions, as if the whole forest decide to suddenly talk to him. And spike was getting scared by the sheer calmness, emotionless and how tired the voice sound. After those words, a stallion wearing a tidy blue suit and a steel-gray coat emerged from the shadows, stepping in front of the dragon. The stallion had a two tone mane of grey and white. Spike took a good look at him… he looked deformed. He seemed the healthy stallion with his appearance, but his voice made him sound much older! The stallion looked closely at him as if he was staring into his soul. After a few moments, he spoke again in his calm and emotionless voice... "You are a sad one aren't you little dragon?" Spike frowned internally. He wanted to answer the stallion, but he couldn’t move a single muscle and The stallion quickly realized that... "Oh, you can't move." He slowly tapped his hoof to the ground. And with a snap, Spike was back to normal! Spike gasped for air, still feeling the pain on his legs. "Who? What? How? Why?" Spike blurted out, placing his hands on his knees to keep himself standing, as he looked up at the stallion in front of him a few steps away with a confused and scared look. "Who I am is not important. However what had happened to you are MR spike." The stallion closed his eyes and replied. Before Spike can say another word, he continued his explanation, "You have been through much today, but have you stopped to notice that this sort of pain keeps on hitting you like a boomerang?" The stallion asked, with his calm, fatigued voice as he tilted his head. Spike was confused and a little disturbed, ‘How was it possible for him to know his name?!’ He thought to himself, but was interrupted when the mysterious stallion actually responded, "I know because I am a part of you... Or the part that involves your memories." The stallion said with the tone as before. Spike's jaw hit the ground, but that didn’t matter to him. "What?"he asked jaw falling to the ground, flabbergasted by this stallion that stood in front of him with a neutral face staring at him with his cyan eyes. "I've got to ask, though. Is it worth wasting you life away with the ponies you care about?" He calmly asked the dragon. "After what you've been through, is it really worth your time to think of those "friends" who treats you like a… slave without will?" The stallion asked spike, disturbingly his face didn't even show emotion. 'What?!' Spike blurted out, his face spelled confusion as he tilted his head. “I have friends! I’m the number one assistant to one of the greatest magic users of all time! She cares about me as I do her!!' He passionately declared to the stallion is if trying to convince the stallion which did not show any signs of being convinced. "I figured you’d say that.” The stallion chuckled. “You know, I already knew you’d say that even before you said it. You see, I have the ability to read memories, even those that ponies said they’d forgot about a long time ago..." Spike scratched his head in disbelief. But he couldn’t ponder too long as he continued to talk. "After what you went through, may I ask why you believe such things? After all that the ponies made you go through, would you really call them friends?” The strange stallion asked. “All those adventures they had without you, and all those times they made you stay behind. They know full well you can take care of yourself..." After he said all those things, he began to fade. He stared at Spike without a single blink as he continued to fade away into nothingness... "On your left is a wooden chest. Open it, and you will know something about me. I’ll let you think about all I’ve said. Summon me when you are ready.” The stallion vanished into thin air, just like that. The forest turned back to the way it was, as if nothing had happened. To Spike's surprise, there was a small wooden chest… but it was burnt, Judging by the mark on the floor and the design of the box, Spike assumed that the box was at least a thousand years old. Spike opened the chest, surprised that its contents were still well preserved. Inside the burnt chest was a scroll with an odd symbol for a seal: a letter H with silver wings sticking out from its sides! There was also a chain necklace with a shield with the same symbol carved into it. Along its sides were four pulsating gems with strips of metal holding them in place. Spike cracked the seal of the scroll. Gusts of wind immediately blew in Spike’s direction as he began to read the scroll. " Project 846: test success! The artifact is finally done! My final artifact... This, along with six others are going to make anypony who wears it defeat anyone, rendering them invincible! This artifact is one the six, it’s called “Necklace of Reason”. It works very much like the Elements of Harmony in that it doesn’t kill or destroy, but it also sets anypony wearing them on the right path! Inside the shield was a copy of a soul, having no memories other than those of the soul. The soul is that of a friend of mine by the way. Anyway, to activate the artifact simply apply pressure around the soul's cutie mark, like the one you see with this symbol. When you press on it, time would stop, allowing the soul to ask questions that would set the pony on the right path. The artifact either keeps you going wherever you’re going or leave it for good. Each of these gems in the chest has their own uses. One preserves the chest, another detects souls and activate the artifact when needed, another keeps the soul from fading away and the last locks the chest if evil is near. My time is almost up so for the love of Celestia, keep this away from the wrong hooves... -Star S Spike rolled up the scroll and activated the 'artifact', his face wearing a frown. Time stopped again and the same voice as before said again "Time? Is it really that time again? It seems like we've just met before... What do you want this...time?"spike activated the artifact again. Spike loosened up, but not before his body froze up again in time again. "For one thing , you seem to not have short term memory loss,” Spike spoke. The stallion faded into view once more and replied, " Seems like you've read about me, and to answer your assertion, yes. I do not have short term memory loss." He gave a resigned laugh. That stallion who Spike named 'Friend' sensed the unease between them and replied, "You seem to forget that I am just a copy of a soul, not a real one. So I have memories like you and me, only short term...memories...worrying about others is good, but you must first worry about yourself.” The stallion explained before continuing and tilting his head yet again “But you still haven't answer my question. Is it worth your life to be with the ponies treating you like a nobody?" He asked, his face expressionless as he drifted the conversation to a different topic successfully. "I-I try not to think about it," Spike stuttered, looking away and fiddling with his fingers. as he looked around trying to avoid ‘friend’s cold stare. " Survive," Friend said as he started to fade away again with a tired smile but the smile was fake, spike can tell it’s just for show is if he was hiding something, something big.suddenly Spike completely forgot why he summoned Friend at all...strange As time resumed, Spike put on the necklace, bent down, and picked up the chest. Spike looked up to the concealed sky, barely seeing the setting sun turn the sky orange… He needed to set up a shelter, and fast if he want to survive... --- At this point, the sun had set completely, making way for the moon and the night. Spike set up a shelter for himself: a tent with a campfire and a bed of a rather simple build. It wasn’t much, but that would do for his first night at the Everfree… There was still a little hope for anypony to save him. His chance would be the small smoke trail that his campfire created. Hopefully the pegasi could spot it, swoop down, and save him… if they cared to. unbeknownst to Spike the smoke trail suddenly disappeared when looked from a distance and the glow slowly faded out of view as if it was not there in the first place... Something is preventing him from being reached...