//------------------------------// // Ch.21 Darkness Arisen // Story: The Origin Chronicles Vol. 2 // by SmokeShadow95 //------------------------------// Spike waved his hand in front of the girls. A flash of light and they were gone. A flash of light and the last remnants of Spike went with them. His last act while the ooze was struggling to wrest control of his very being from him was to save them. He stared blankly at the space where they stood. His vision blurred and darkened. His whole body went limp, like he was so physically exhausted that he couldn't even move. All the while there was a pounding in his head that would not stop. And Spike slowly, and painfully slipped away from the world he knew. “Hahaha! Yes!” King Bloodthorn shouted with a disturbingly happy tone. He practically leaped off his throne to come and inspect the new Spike. He lay still at the edge of the ooze pit. Still only half of his body had emerged, but what they could see was quite large. “Yes, Father,” Ebony hissed, “It would seem that we finally got what we wanted. A true host body for the ooze. Now all our plans can move forward.” “Our plans? Ebony, my dear daughter, you are the most trusted of my inner circle. That is not because you are my daughter, but because you get the job done,” Bloodthorn said as he moved around the pit and Spike to his daughter. “But remember that this all started with me, and all the plans are mine. You are just a moving part in a much larger operation.” Ebony stared at her father with wide eyes. She couldn't believe he just said that. She couldn't believe that he would speak to his own daughter that way. Her widened with sheer shock at his words. She looked away and closed her eyes. Bloodthorn could see his daughter shaking even though her back was turned. “Do not cry, my dear,” He said, “My words are not meant to hurt, but to build.” “Ahhahahahaha!” Ebony busted out laughing as her father spoke to her. She laughed not maniacally, or wickedly. Not even in an evil manner. She just laughed, like someone had just told her some really hilarious joke. “Why do you mock me so!?” Bloodthorn yelled with a rising anger. Ebony Thorn finished her bout of laughter and cleared her face. Her head snapped back to her father. She looked at him with eyes full of wickedness and and vile lust for evil that he had never before seen in her. It frightened him, seeing this in his daughter. She came up to him with that same smile she always wore, but only now did he see the truth that lay behind it. “I mock you, Father because you are a fool. You found the ooze after everypony thought it was destroyed, and therefore you think yourself its master. Ha! Its truly laughable. Your plans fell through the same moment you spat them out, Father. You have never controlled anything. I have!” Ebony came up to her father, the Mad King Bloodthorn. He was showing his fear all over his face. HE was nearly cowering from his own daughter. He was doing his best to try and stay standing tall in front of her, but between the rage he was feeling and how scared he was of her self control was running low in him. Rivers of sweat rolled off his brow as she spoke to him and she wasn't done yet. “Father. Dear, sweet, Father. Do you remember when I named you the Mad King? It was right after you tested on me, and made me what I am today. Do you remember?” “Yes, Ebony, I remember that day.” “Well, I have a secret to tell you, Father. You failed. You see I used to sneak into your gardens when you were away, and that time was no different. It was the night before. I found a small container full of the most beautiful black substance, and it just spoke to me. No, it sang to me. Do you see now, Father? You were not the first chosen. I was!” “Impossible!” Bloodthorn's fear left him as his anger overpowered it. His fear was smothered by the fury of his rage. He felt it building up as his daughter spoke more and more and more. She mocked and laughed at him like he was fool, a jester only there to amuse her at her whims. He glared at her as she flaunted her apparent superiority. NO! He was not going to let her get away with this. Even if he was the second chosen, after his daughter, he still had power in his own right. He charged up his own power, but never got a chance to use it. Something behind him stirred. He could just sense it as it shifted. The raw, unbridled power of it as it rose up. The pressure it put out. It was unbelievably dark and a new fear rose up from deep within him that overshadowed his anger by so much more than he thought possible. “Haha. She speaks the truth, Bloodthorn.” The voice came from behind him. It was deep, masculine, and full of energy. Yet, it was also dark and wicked with a hissed tone to it. The only thing that was behind him was. . . was. . . Spike. Bloodthorn slowly creaked his head around to see the eyes of pure evil staring into his very soul. Spike's looked down at him from his new height. “You believed yourself a king among the Mad, but it was only because I let it be so. You are a shell full of cowardice and fear, apathy and sloth. You cared more for the power behind the title than the actual job you were meant to do with it.” Spike rose up out of the ooze pit. His new, larger form lifted up from the pit like a rising wave of darkness. His shadow alone encompassed half the room, and left the area feeling cold and lifeless. Ebony was more at home than ever before as she basked in the darkness, but Bloodthorn had never felt more unease in his entire life. “Your daughter, Ebony Thorn. A truly dark soul before I even got my oozed claws into her. She is more of Mad Pony than you could ever hope to be. And now that the job is complete there is no need for you anymore. The reign of the Mad King is at an end.” “So what then?” Bloodthorn shouted out, “What was I then? The jester made king so that you could all get a laugh? Or was I simply the face of the enemy meant to distract while you really worked from behind my back? What was the point?!” “You really don't get it, Father?” Ebony mockingly asked as she skipped down to him with a smile. “You were given power, but you were never meant to keep it. I worked from the shadows while you strutted about in the light for all the ponies to see. You were never a king, Father, you were just the running joke! Ahahaha!” Bloodthorn had had enough. He was tired of getting laughed at like some second rate street pony trying to make a few bits. He was tired of being made fun of by his own daughter. He screamed out his anger and charged up his horn. He screamed again as he thrust it out at Ebony in his rage, but his magic blast never made it anywhere. A large, darkened hand came from above and slammed straight into him. His shouts of anger went to shouts of pain as it coursed through his chest. He could feel the claws of the dragon digging into him. It was a pain the likes of which he had never before felt. This went far beyond the physically tormenting change all the Mad Ponies went through when they first experienced the ooze. No, this was the kind of pain one felt when their very soul was being torn into. “Ooh, you almost got me there, Father,” Ebony teased, “But I've got Spike on my side and he is new and improved and better than ever before.” “And I will be taking back my power now.” Ebony skipped back up to the former kings throne and sat down. “It would seem that the king has just been dethroned. Haha!” Bloodthorn looked up at Ebony, and then to Spike. The dragon truly was gone. He was completely taken over by this dark power. Usually there was always some last piece, some shred of the being they used to be that remained. Not with him. Not with Spike. There was nothing left. Only now did Bloodthorn fully comprehend the full scope of the ooze and what it was capable of. But it didn't matter. HE looked into the eyes of the dragon, and he saw nothing. Not even a soul remained. The former king went limp and Spike pulled his hand out. In it was a small ball of pure red energy. Spike crushed it in his hand and absorbed the power of the former king before tossing his body aside. “Come now, my queen,” Spike said, “We have a land full of ponies to conquer.” “That we do,” Ebony said as she bounced to Spike's side, “And there isn't a single person I would rather do it with.” “What about Rarity?” “Okay, maybe her. But she is gone, and I am not complaining.” Spike smiled and walked with Ebony to the front doors of the fortress. The same doors he assaulted with Flake and the girls to get in. They had closed behind them after they entered and remained that way. This time opening them was so much easier. All Spike had to was reach out and pull them open. The doors creaked and groaned but opened nonetheless. It was like a different world on the other side of those doors. They opened up to reveal the signs of a battle raging on still. Spike and Ebony stood and watched the scene unfold before them. The Mad Ponies were still fighting with the forces of Spike's army. It was even match as they fought. The glint of the sunlight still shone of the armor that Celestia's Royal Guard Forces wore, and Luna's guards were still wrapped in a cloak of darkness. Fluttershy's army of animals was working with the Appleloosans that Applejack brought. Together all the forces were holding their own against the forces of the Mad Ponies, but that didn't matter now. As the doors opened up, a gust of wind escaped the fortress with a low moan. It carried with it a strange sense of dread and foreboding. The moaning wind swept over the field of battle and a stillness followed as everypony reacted to the chills running through them. They all had the sense of where it came from, but it was the ponies closest to the fortress who saw it first. They stopped combat all together to stare at the pair to exit the place. And that same stillness ran through every pony there until not a single one moved. Shining Armor watched over little Flake Frost after she conjured up a snowstorm on a day of clear skies. She had exhausted herself and both Spike and Twilight wanted her safe and sound. They didn't even need to ask. He offered to protect her, and he had Strikefire and his brother with him. Together the three of them held the line that separated a small army of Mad Ponies and Flake. They fought for what seemed like hours but was most likely just moments. Shining would occasionally glance over at the fortress and see a flash of light. If only he knew what it was! His instinct to go and be with his sister told him to leave but he had a duty to stay with the ponies he was sworn to protect, and before he knew it everything had stopped. The sounds of metal against metal and the shouting of ponies died down to nothing. He pushed his way through the crowd and he soon saw why everything was still. He couldn't believe it. “Spike!” Shining Armor couldn't move fast enough to stop Flake as she raced out from the front lines to Spike. He got to her too late, as she came to realize that this was not the same dragon she once knew. “Spike?” She questioned with unease. She looked up at him, but it was like looking at a completely different being. The old Spike was gone. No more was the purple and green dragon. Now there stood a dragon with darkened violet scales that had a strange luster to them and spikes of the purest, deepest black running down from his head to his tail. Spike was tall before standing just above the height of a full grown adult male stallion like Big Mac, but now he stood at nearly triple that height. Flake squeaked out his name and he looked down at her with his glowing red eyes. “Ah, young Flake Frost. I thought you had been taken away from this place long before now,” Spike said with that deep, and deeply wicked tone, “Shining Armor, what would Twilight think of you if you caused little Flake to get hurt?” “And what would she think of you, Spike? For giving into the Madness?” “Giving in? Oh, no, Shining Armor, Spike didn't give in,” Ebony said, “That body was taken from him, and he was powerless to stop it. I helped a little.” “No, Spike. You can't be. . .” Flake struggled with words as her young heart sank. Her eyes watered and Shining Armor stood in between her and Spike. He was going to defend her to his last breath if it came to that. “Such nobility,” Spike said, “Well, Shining Armor, I will give you another chance. Take young Flake Frost from this place. Take her, and run away from here.” “And if I don't?” “Run pony, or be taken in once again by the Madness. I can see the mark it left on your soul even now. It would not be a hard transition. Not like the rest of them.” Spike held out a large right hand. His claws were pointed down and his fingers hung lazily from his hands. Quickly, his hand snapped palm up and he flexed his fingers out. Behind Shining Armor a group of ponies from both Spike's forces and the Mad Ponies shrieked and shouted. Even a few Darkmares were caught as tendrils of black ooze rose up from the ground beneath their hooves. They reached out and tugged at the ponies, tying them and holding them as they were dragged down into the ooze filled land beneath them. All the ponies watched in horror as this happened. Fear filled them up as those very same ponies rose back up from the ooze only moment later, but they had been changed. No longer guard ponies, but not Mad Ponies either. It was some darker, crossbreed of the two. “Go now, Shining Armor. Take Flake with you as you flee from this place, and carry with you a warning. The Madness has ended, and a new Darkness is coming to Equestria.” Shining Armor stared up at Spike for a moment, but he could feel it. That feeling of a thousand pairs of eyes on him. They were all staring at him, all of them. He looked down at Flake. She was still in shock and unresponsive. He looked around only to confirm that the eyes of a thousand ponies were indeed all on him. He circled around looking everywhere. He was searching for an answer, for a question he didn't even want to know. His instincts told him to stay and fight, but he knew that that was futile. What worried him was not the thought of running with Flake, but with the thought that he actually wanted to. He didn't want to admit that he was actually afraid, and he surely didn't want to leave all these ponies here. Not the same ponies that he lead here. He was driving himself mad until he felt a hoof his shoulder. He snapped around to see none other than Strikefire standing before him. The large pony stood between him and Spike. He lifted Flake up and placed her on Shining's back. “Go, Shining Armor,” He said. “Save at least one of us.” He listened as many of the ponies around echoed the words. They told him to go, to leave, to run. They told him to leave, and save the young Flake Frost. The ponies came together around Strikefire, forming a wall between him and Spike. With each and every pony that was added to the wall Shining Armor was forced back a little bit. He held back tears as he turned and fled the fortress with little Flake on his back. He would never forget the sounds echoing through the air as he fled. Screaming, shrieking, crying out. Ponies were being corrupted and he was running away. And yet, above all that was Spike. His deep, evil laugh would echo throughout all of Equestria. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” He angrily cried out as tears flowed from his eyes. ~~~ “Luna, you can't go after Spike all on your own,” Celestia stated firmly. “I will not endanger any other pony that would accompany me, sister,” Luna replied. “Luna, we do not even know what Spike, is capable of,” Twilight said. Luna snapped her head over to Cadence. She narrowed her eyes as she spoke her mind to her fellow Princess. “I know exactly what Spike is capable of, Twilight Sparkle. He is kind and generous, loving and compassionate. He cared for every pony and hates no one. He had great power but he helps instead of hurting. He has a big heart, and would give his life if it meant protecting his friends. That is what Spike is capable of, and you should know that.” “Luna,” Cadence said, “I want Spike back just as much as any other pony, but going alone is-” “Princess Celestia!” The voice came from one of the few guard ponies that remained in Canterlot. He raced through the halls of the Royal Canterlot Castle until he came to the Princess's chambers. He barely even waited to knock as he bust the doors down. He looked fatigued from running and also deeply concerned about something. But what? “Princess Celestia,” He said with a heavy breath. “Calm down, take a breath.” “No time, Your Highness. A pony approaches the gates of the city.” “So? What makes one pony so special?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Your Highness, it is Shining Armor,” He said. “What?!” Cadence shot up and toward the guard. “How is he? Is he alone?” “Unknown,” The guard said, “It would appear that he has been traveling for some time.” “Do you think he came from the fortress?” Fluttershy asked. “That's at least a week on hoof,” Applejack said. “Oh my. Do you really think he's been out there for a week?” Nopony responded to their questions, but both Cadence and Twilight followed the guard out to where he saw Shining Armor. They were moving as fast they possibly could through the halls and went even fast as they exited the castle. Celestia and Luna moved a bit slower with the rest of the girls behind them. It was a short distance to the post where Shining Armor was seen. It was a side gate away from the main parts of the city. That was good. They all arrived just in time to see the gates opening up. Two earth ponies on each side pulled the large gated doors open. The bleak and gloomy day was only made more so as a pony walked through the doors. The pony's head was down, their mane was covering their face. Their body was dangerously thin and yet they walked on. Upon this pony's back was a small filly curled up in some sort of cloth. The filly looked to be in much better condition than the pony carrying it. Twilight and Cadence stepped in the path of the pony, but he didn't stop. He didn't even register them as he walked right past them. The pony moved a slow and labored pace, almost like he was sleeping. “Shining Armor,” Cadence said, “Shining Armor, is that you?” “Brother, it's me, Twilight. Your sister, and Cadence, you wife.” The pony stopped moving with one last step. His head lowered and he shook it a few times. He raised it back up again and looked back up at them. It was indeed Shining Armor before them, but he didn't say anything. He said nothing as he stared at them. His eyes slowly closed and his legs shook. He legs collapsed beneath him and he fell to the side. Cadence caught him in her hooves and Twilight caught the filly. “It's Flake Frost.” She stated as she looked down at the sleeping filly. “What in Equestria happened to them?” Rarity asked. Cadence asked, as she caressed her husband's body. She used her magic to nourish him enough to get him back to the castle. Meanwhile, Celestia herself went to get help for both him and Flake. A few days passed after they arrived. Shining Armor was sleeping for most of it. The doctors said he was in all sorts of bad shape. Exhaustion, malnutrition, hunger, thirst. Overall they were greatly surprised that he was even moving at all when he was found. Cadence never moved from his side, and Twilight was there as much as she could be. She spent a lot of her time with Flake, too. She was in better shape the Shining Armor. He must have given her whatever food and protection he had. But she wasn't doing any better than he was. Flake Frost was in a waking coma state of being. She moved, but barely enough to justify moving at all. She ate, but it was barely enough for a filly. She didn't speak, however. She just sat in the room and stared out the window. When she was sure nopony else was around Flake was sometimes cry. Twilight heard this a couple times, but never intruded. Although, on this particular day Flake did something a little different. Twilight walked into her room at the castle. She had just come from seeing her brother. She closed the door behind her and went straight for her bed. She needed some rest, as much as she wanted to stay awake. Her friends insisted heavily to the point that Applejack was a hoofshakes time away from knocking Twilight out so she could get some rest. And so Twilight slid the covers down for her to slip in between them. As she was about to climb into bed, however, she heard her door open. Light spilled through the open doorway and a small shadow came through. “Huh?” Twilight said, “Who's there?” “Twilight, I need some help.” “Flake, is that you?” “Who else would it be?” Flake snapped back at her, “There ain't that many ponies here and not many of 'em would be talking to you, now would they?” “Calm down, Flake. What is it you needed help with?” “I- it's j- just that, well, you see,” Flake stammered on for a second, “Ugh. I ain't no good at this.” Twilight came over an consoled the poor young filly. She lead Flake over to nearby couch. It was under a window so they could see out over the entire city of Canterlot. The lights from the day of work were fading away as the nighttime was slowly coming up. Twilight sat down and Flake jumped up next to her. “Tell me, Flake, what is bothering you so?” Flake sighed, “Shining Armor, he's your brother, ain't he?” “Yes, he is.” “I'm sorry, Twilight. I know what it's like to have a brother that got hurt,” Flake stared out the window and looked over the city. “I think it may be my fault, though. Shining Armor wouldn't be like this if it weren't for me.” Before Twilight could even ask Flake started talking. She recounted the events of the fortress after they had been sent away by Spike. Moments passed, but it was like time stopped for her. She was frozen in that moment. Every time she closed her eyes she was taken back there, to that place. Every time she closed her eyes she could see that face, and those eyes staring at her. They were staring into her. Flake shuddered at the very thought of it. She told Twilight of Shining Armor and the words Spike said to him. She told her of everything that Spike did. Flake explained as much as she could about what Shining Armor went through as he was forced to flee the fortress with her on his back. By the time she had finished speaking she had been crying for a while. Twilight was too stunned to say anything back for a while. After a few moments Twilight regained her composure. She looked at the little filly. She had already been through so much in her short life that she really shouldn't have to. “Flake, there is nothing for you to be sorry for,” Twilight said compassionately, “There was nothing you could have done, about my brother or Spike.” “I don't understand, Twilight,” Flake said, her voice shaking as if she was pleading Twilight for answers that she so desperately wanted, but wasn't sure if anyone had. “Why, Twilight? Why did Spike do it? What happened to him? He ain't like the dragon I know at all!” “I know, Flake. I know,” Twilight held the young filly as she buried her head into her chest. Twilight held her as she cried and cried. It would not go one forever. Twilight would let her have this night, and then she would go to Luna. They were getting Spike back, one way or another.