The New Generation of Spike the Dragon
Chapter 4: The Tables Have Turned
Silence, that’s all you’re good for nowadays, huh?
…
Really, you could just go back to your old ways. Does it matter anymore? That Sparkle mare is dead, her friends are dead inside, and her pet is a rampaging monster. Surely, at this point, nothing can go right.
…
All you’re going to do is cause pain with this plan. Is that what you want? The downside to that spell isn’t trivial, after all. Maybe in a different circumstance, but this time, it’s just completely inhumane.
What else could I do? What else would fix this?
What, you think this will? Please, you’re doing more harm.
Discord grunted and ignored the voice for a while. “Son of a…“ he mumbled, going back to his deep thinking. No other spell he knew could do anything. No other spell… except one. But there was just no way. There was no way he could do it.
He shook that thought away and began thinking again.
---
“Heeey cutie pie!”
“Why hello, pain in the ass.” Love sighed at Zeal who had come to her post right outside the castle to bother her.
“Aw, I’m sure you meant that with… love.” He said, invading her personal space by leaning against her as he bounced his eyebrows.
“Haha, how 'funny'. What do you want?” She asked the annoying stallion.
“Maybe you? In bed with me?”
She looked him over for a second, then looked him in the eyes. “And what is there to look forward to by doing that?”
“A wonderful night of passion, of course.” He said, waggling his brows.
“I think I’d rather eat a bunch of acorns.” Love deadpanned.
“You’d rather kill yourself for me? How morbidly sweet!” he said, putting a hoof up to his heart.
“Holy crap, you just don’t stop, do you?” She mumbled.
“There’s no stopping this guy. I work to get what I want, and what I want is me inside of-”
Suddenly, there was a dull rumble. Off in the distance, there were armored ponies making their way to the castle at full speed. Love’s eyes narrowed.
“Oh would you look at that, we’re being attacked again. So quit screwing around and GO LET SECTION 5, 8 AND 11 KNOW!” Love yelled.
“I love it when you get bossy-”
“NOW.”
Zeal nodded and rushed away to do as she said.
Soon enough, the group of ponies were 10 feet in front of the castle’s entrance. The ponies of sections 5, 8 and 11 were positioned in front and behind the castle. The other sections were inside and alert.
On top of the castle, Darkness was perched, ready to watch things unfold and intervene if it was necessary.
“You know the drill… Surrender now, or we shall attack!” Yelled the leader of the group. He was a brown unicorn that had purple hair and a blue streak running through it. His blue eyes stared toward Love and her comrades intensely. The hatred could be seen in them. His very downfall. They could all see what would happen next.
“We shall stay loyal to our master!” She yelled, unsheathing the sword at her side. The same sword she had practiced with for many years, and always had on her side when at her post. The ‘Light’s Defender’, a scimitar sword handed down to her by her delusional trainer who thought it was nice to name swords. Seriously, that guy just couldn’t help but name his multiple swords he had. Anyway, the sword was great for Love, and she found it great to fight with. She liked closely and personally ending her enemies.
“CHARGE ONWARDS!” The captain yelled, raising his own sword, which was a kalis. Immediately, he and the group went forward.
Love readied herself, expecting this attack. Charging head on, like a fool. He didn’t set up specific formations or strategies. Rather, the pony was free to run their own course, and make up their own strategy based upon their own talents and style of fighting. Darkness’ guards, however, were a force that fought in a controlled and unified process.
As per usual, Love would handle the Captain, and the rest would pair up with whomever they were assigned with and fight together against whomever they encountered. Order easily overpowered chaos in this situation.
Their swords clashed against each other as they both fought to dominate one another. They had both been in this situation plenty of times. Never has the Captain ever succeeded in outmatching her.
“Come on…” He grunted, swiftly avoiding a jab “Why must you always be so resilient?” Love’s sword lightly grazed the side of his champron. He never did have as much balance and grace as her when it came to battling with swords. Somehow, she was quite nimble on her back hooves, much to his chagrin. He was never quite as quick or precise as her, which always resulted in his downfall. It frustrated him to no end.
“Oh please, you know I’d never back down. Especially not to the likes of you,” Love responded. This was a mental fight as much as it was a swordfight. And like always, her mind prepared for his onslaught of attacks as much as her body was.
“What do you have here? What are you fighting for? All that you have to look forward to here is captivity!” He yelled, quickly swiping at her. His glare hardened as she slipped away from the attack as if it were nothing.
Her ear twitched. “I have people who I love here. That’s why I fight, and I will continue fighting until you back down!”
“You can free them too! However, it all starts…. with you,” He said, almost getting hit in the chest.
“I cannot free them all. You don’t understand and you never will…” She huffed swinging faster at him. He was grazed a couple of times, but didn’t even flinch.
“You underestimate our power… All of your friends don’t have to be held captive by that beast.” The captain then started to move slower. Love’s frown deepened and her ear twitched again. Was he truly tired already?
Love simply huffed and continued fighting. She hated Darkness being called a beast or a monster. He-
“Or is he anything but a beast? Instead, perhaps he’s just some dragon pulled into a life he never asked for,” He said going at a pace that was easy to hit him at.
Love hesitated for a fraction of a second. In this very short amount of time, she realized that he had read the diary but it was much too late. She had slipped up. He went in for an attack, slicing the hoof that she held her sword in. She let out a scream before he disarmed her and held her down to the dirt. He held his sword in front of her face, looking down at her with a somber expression.
“I don’t want to have to kill you,” he told her solemnly. “You have to come with us.”
“You fucking-” Love could definitely break free in a normal situation, but she was incapable of doing anything but small movements. Her eyes widened and she gasped as she saw his horn glowing a bright blue.
“Oh yes…. for YEARS I’ve been waiting for this moment. Every battle we’ve had, this horn has been absolutely useless. But now…” He chuckled and sent a pulse of pain through Love’s body. “Now I am no longer a disgrace to my kind.” His chuckles turned into laughter. “Now, I can be the hero that everyone needs. I will be the one who brings FREEDOM!” He yelled. Love noticed something. There were less hoofsteps than usual. That could mean two things. One, they had won the battle, or…
They lost.
That’s when the ground gently rumbled as Darkness made his way over.
“You either step away from her, or I will crush you.” Darkness said, readying his magic in case they tried to make a quick escape.
“What, you want this little runt back? What use is she to you? No, I think I’ll take her and make her my plaything. It’s not like she’s worth anything.” He said, insulting Love with the intention of angering the dragon.
Darkness swiped his claw at the Captain, to which he simply held love in front of him with his magic when his claws got close. Love screamed as the claws dug across her chest. Darkness’ eyes widened and he looked at his right hand. Blood. Once again he had the blood of someone he cared about very deeply on his claws.Why did he lash out so blindly? Why…
“Let’s go.” the Captain said to his followers, to which Darkness quickly conjured up magic in his claws and attacked. However, they were prepared and the unicorns, which there were more of than usual, summoned their magic in unison and warded off the attack. Then, they were all encased in a bright blue glow before it exploded outward with a force so powerful that Darkness had taken a couple steps backward. Then, with a blindingly bright flash that lasted for only a second, they were gone.
Darkness blinked and looked around. “No…” He continued searching, not wanting to believe it was true. “NO!” How could he let this happen? They were ponies! Weak, useless, idiotic PONIES for crying out loud!
In the distance, he could see a flash. He immediately spread his wings and flew full speed ahead. He would have to move quick if he wanted to get Love back. They were several miles away, and his heart sank knowing that he had a very low chance of getting her. But he had determination and he flew faster than before. He WOULD get her back. He promised himself.
“Move, quickly!” The Captain ordered. He held an injured Love on his back as he hurried through the edge of town. He quickly scanned the town. Just as he thought, Darkness had seen them due to the large flash, but he was only a mere dot in the sky from where they were.
The large group of ponies made it to a rocky area. It was a few miles from where the train to enter and exit Canterlot used to run. It was an abandoned train tunnel with old, rusting tracks and several weeds, plants and vines growing around it. The group ran inside and began their long trek through the tunnel until they were about ten yards from the other end. From there, the Captain traced a unique pattern onto the wall and it opened up to reveal an arrow pathway that was slanted downwards. They rushed inside and it closed behind them a few seconds later. After another long walk there was a faint glow that resembled a portal. They walked through and came to opening that was loosely covered with vines. The Captain pushed them aside and revealed a forested area.
This area had several bunkers and structures made of what was provided to them, which was mainly wood, vines, and dirt. It housed many ponies who either had nowhere to go or wanted to fight against Lord Darkness. The place was very secure, seeing as the path to it was not only long, but hidden pretty well and the trees and vines provided wonderful cover. The small structures scattered about housing the residents blended well and they had the entire forest covered in traps or spells that lead ponies astray. It was no wonder the Adversary had no luck in the place.They searched the tunnel before, of course. The resistance almost slipped up one day, and were spotted running in there once. But a secret hidden door that required a pattern to open and blended in the rest of the wall of the dark abandoned tunnel? They weren’t even close to figuring that out at all. With how crafty the bastards were, they probably had multiple secret entrances.
Love couldn’t help but wonder where they were. Certainly this wasn’t Canterlot, seeing as there wasn’t a forest near it. If anything, they weren’t even on the mountain. She figured they must be at the base of it or something of the sort. It was a shame her eyes had been closed for most of the trip, seeing as she was trying to focus on dealing with the pain of being torn open by Darkness’ claws. It was hell for her at the moment.
The Captain was taking her into one of the largest structures present. All she could wonder was what he planned to do to her. After all of their defeats, she was pretty stumped on what to do if they actually went somewhere with their plans, and she had admittedly grown careless. His inability to use magic made fighting with him similar to fighting an earth pony, and she always had the advantage of actually being one. Their fights were mostly unfair on his end due to his issue. But now, suddenly, he had magic and he used it when she never could have foreseen it. So… he got this far. Just what will his next step be.
Soon, they had made it to the wooden shack. It was decent enough, and looked a bit better than the houses in Canterlot. It didn’t look great but it wasn’t broken down or threatening to collapse. He dropped her onto a couch that was near a wooden desk. He then sat in a chair not far from the couch Nothing was said for some minutes, but the Captain had broken the silence.
“So…. what to do with you? We finally have you here with us. And I’m sure you’re not quite eager to join us on achieving freedom…”
“You’re right, I’d never fight on your side.”
“That there is what’s important.” He walked over to her and looked her deep in the eyes. “Why do you insist on fighting for him?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” She said and foolishly tried to stand up and walk away. His horn glowed and she was suddenly paralyzed.
“I’ve read a lot of things... studies hundreds and hundreds of spells. I could never perform them, but it didn’t stop me from learning ever since I was a small colt. There are so many ways I could kill you, force you to do whatever I desire and make your life a living hell.” He lifted her head to make her eyes meet his. “So you’ll comply and I won’t have to do things the painful way, yes.”
Love frowned. “No.”
Suddenly, her whole body felt like it was on fire and being stabbed with hundreds of needles repeatedly all at once. She let out a scream of pain as the sensation lasted for a full minute. Suddenly, it ended, and Love managed to open her eyes some.
“I guess I’ll just have my fun then.”