Runway
The road stretched on for miles. The clouds above rolled by in waves, leaving the group of four behind as they continued on their way. The rocky terrain was mixed in with forested clusters. On more than one occasion the cart tipped over, leaving Strife to gather up the gems and put them back in. Cilia had to remind him on multiple occasions that if he ate the gems, Faren would not be happy.
Spike found it odd that Strife was so attached to the gems. He understood that dragons enjoyed gems, but Spike never felt such an attachment as Strife had with these gems. Did that make him less of a dragon?
Spike slowed down his pace as he pondered this question. Lis slowed down with him, and Cilia noticed the hesitation. Strife continued pushing, as if nothing else mattered. Spike, while thinking, took a glance into the trees on his right. His eyes passed over a light brown opening in the trees. It would have gone unnoticed, but Lis spoke up.
“Is that sand?” Lis asked.
Cilia looked over to the sand before she squinted her eyes. “That can’t be, we’ve been traveling north,”
“But don’t dragons live in the badlands? Lis asked.
“Only a few, there’s a lot more to the north just before the frozen mountains,” Cilia responded.
“Near the Diamond Dog territory,” Spike mentioned. There was a second of silence as Cilia shook her head.
“I thought we just had to travel north…” Cilia said. She looked up to the sky as if to make sure they were in fact traveling north.
“So then, this is the sourthern desert?” Lis asked.
Cilia didn’t respond, instead she walked down the trail in thought. Strife was already far down the trail, and the three of them hurried to catch up.
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The fire blazed in the middle of the new campfire. It glowed in Cilia’s face as she finished her crude drawing of a map. Spike was seated next to Lis, and Strife was sleeping with his head resting on the gem cart. Cilia looked to Spike when she spoke, but her words were directed to herself.
The diamond dogs took you into a cave here,” Cilia said, pointing to the upper left of the map. “From there, we were moved underground to a new location. If we are at the southern desert, then they took us south,” Cilia reasoned.
“They have tunnels that go that far?” Lis asked.
“Diamond Dogs have tunnels running all over, but they lead back to their territory over here in the north. They don’t want to mess with the dragons or griffins on either side, so they travel underground,” Cilia explained.
“They’re scared of dragons and griffins?” Spike asked.
“More like worried. A handful of us could take out a pack. They need to sneak up on us to take us down. I think we came out somewhere down here,” Cilia said, pointing to an area just below the southern desert, between a jungle and a mountain.
“Where were we headed again? You mentioned something about griffins?” Spike asked.
“I thought we could take her-” Cilia gestured to Lis. “-to her country before heading to the frozen mountains. Unless, there was somewhere else you wanted to go?” Cilia asked, her claw hovered over the middle of the map, but her eyes on Spike.
“No, like I said, I just wanted to see the world a little more,” Spike said, but there was a nagging suspicion he had of Cilia. Why north?
“But, I don’t want to go home. At least, not yet,” Lis said.
Cilia looked to her like she had turned away a meal.
“Why not?” Spike asked.
“There’s nothing there for me,” Lis explained. “My parents died a long time ago. I was living outside when the Diamond Dogs caught me. If I go back, I’ll only end up back in the caves. Please, let me go with you?” She asked Spike.
“Can she?” Spike asked Cilia who was looking at Lis for the first time in a while.
“Like I said, She’s your responsibility, not mine,” Cilia responded.
“Thank you,” Lis responded, although she didn’t know if Cilia actually cared.
After this, the fire burned on and Cilia jumped to the shadows of the camp. her drawing was still carved in the dirt floor, and Spike couldn’t help but stare at Ponyville, marked beneath Canterlot and glowing in the fire’s light.
“So what about you? There isn’t anywhere you wanted to go?” Lis asked.
Spike remembered that she was next to him. She had been following his gaze into the heart of Equestria, and was confused. Spike on the other hand, decided that at this point, he’d want them to know more about him, and that meant telling the truth.
“I’m not like the other dragons,” Spike started. With each word memories flooded back from his past. “I was raised in Equestria by ponies,” Spike said. He waited to see how anyone would react.
Strife was sound asleep, and even Cilia was silent in her dark corner of the camp. Lis gave a gasp at his statement. “Ponies?” She asked.
“Yes, ponies. One in particular was like an older sister to me. She cared for me, she taught me, and I felt safe,”Spike continued. “I made a lot of friends and for a long time, I was content with letting them go on their own adventures. Now, I want to go on my own,” Spike said.
“Ponies…” Lis said under her breath. “I was taught that ponies were bad,” Lis sighed.
“Only a few are bad, but they’re really nice if you get to know them…” Spike tried to explain. His voice lowered when he saw Lis’ eyes close. A tear rolled down the side of her cheek.
“My parents died because of the ponies,” Lis managed to say.
“What?” Spike asked softly.
“My parents they… they-” Lis couldn’t keep talking, and she kept her eyes closed while she lowered her head into her wings, sobbing quietly.
“No, that can’t be true,” Spike said under his breath.
“Know who you can trust, Spike, because you can’t trust everyone,” Cilia said from the darkness. Her eyes stared into his, and he could feel like there was a softness to them. Then, her eyes closed and her voice was cold.
“Especially those closest to you.”
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The next day was quiet. Spike decided not to bring up the topic from last night to Lis. She wasn’t walking next to him anymore, like she saw him differently after knowing his past. Cilia told Strife to walk faster because it might rain soon, but there wasn’t a cloud in sight. Still, the four of them walked the whole day and near dusk they set up camp again.
Cilia quickly drew her map again, but this time put an ‘x’ where she thought they were. She put a ‘o’ where they were headed, and an estimate of about five days walking time before they passed the Southern Desert and into the lush forests. Right now it was obvious they were in a desert, with less rivers and much more sand.
“Tomorrow we’ll need to get to the watering hole near this city,” Cilia said.. She pointed to one of the Pony cities nearby.
Spike remembered such a southern city from a few years past. Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy traveled there to find one of the water lilies that was said to cure a strange illness. After saving the residents from a snake invasion, they showed Twilight where the watering hole was, as well as where the water lilies could be found.
Spike took a second to remember what it was like back then. He used to be so fun loving and ignorant. In a way, he still was. There are some things about you that never change. But when Spike looked to Lis, he wondered how much her past did change her. On the outside she was still a child, but in her eyes he could see that she had seen perhaps more of the world than he had.
“What?” Lis asked, making notice of his stare.
Spike stepped out of his thoughts and a question came to his mind. “Have you ever been down this far south, Lis?” Spike asked.
Lis hesitated, like she was processing the actual question behind the one asked. “No. I’ve only been in the north, where I was raised. Everywhere else is new and weird,” Lis explained.
“When we go to the watering hole, is it alright if I show Lis around the town?” Spike asked Cilia.
“No, I don’t want to,” Lis replied before Cilia could respond.
“You heard her,” Cilia answered.
Spike wanted to encourage her more, perhaps change her view on ponies, but she had already turned from the fire and sat near the edge of the light, facing the darkness around them. Spike turned to Cilia, but she too had left the light. Alone near the embers, Spike sat and watched them burn. Some days it felt lonely out here. On others he could count on Lis to keep him company.
He didn’t want to lose her. Out here, she was his only friend.
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The fire danced in his vision. It circled the sky and struck the ground. A fluent but wild motion that seemed to draw him in. The darkness would try to sneak up, but the fire kept it at bay. Words were formed from the fire. They spoke stories, legends, of his journey as a dragon in pony lands. His past was represented by this flame. It was his being.
But it felt cold. Not a chilling, or frostbite that would have awoken him, but a cool sensation. When the fire drew near, it numbed his body. When the fire left him for seconds at a time, he grew warm. Deep inside, he thought something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what.
Spike tried to draw the fire near, to find what problems there were. Instead, the fire backed away, shaping itself into a pony. The mane was fire, the tail was fire, but the body was white. It watched him as he tried to get near, backing away just as he approached. Spike was shocked to find the fire pony grow wings and fly off into the distance.
The darkness took the opportunity to surround him. The dark tentacles wrapped around him as the fire flew away. The darkness did not feel cold. Instead, it felt warm. The farther the fire left, the warmer it became.
Until he was burning.
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Spike felt a sizzling pain on his body. There was no darkness anymore, it was a bright painful light.
Spike jumped away from the flames, feeling his scales charred from the heat. He rolled around on the ground to take the heat off himself. After what felt like minutes, but was actually seconds, he had removed the flames from himself. He sat in the cool night air, chilling his burnt scales. Up above he could see the moon looking down at him, as if feeling sympathy.
Around him, Spike noticed that Lis was watching from her position. On seeing that he had looked to her, she turned away without a word. Strife was still asleep, even after Spike’s cries of agony. Cilia was nowhere to be seen.
Spike inched farther away from the fire and closed his eyes, hoping that when he woke up, this would all have been a dream.
We follow our dreams like they’re a runway, but when we know how to lift off, the dreams aren’t needed.
Yet, sometimes, the runway isn’t long enough, and our dreams stay just that, a dream.