31: Cross My Heart
Pith wasn't sure how long he stood there watching the other three. Tailspin and Compass were both standing beside Spike, one hoof pressed against his scales.
He didn't feel comfortable with that, which left him standing off to one side and just... looking. It was something that he had become very good at over his years as a scout. Any scout that failed to become good at it didn't survive very long. You had to be good at it, or something that was better would show you the consequences of your inadequacy.
A lot of things that he had seen over the past few hours were worrying him. Only a few of them had anything to do with Spike.
The dragon was the most immediate of his concerns, but far from the only one, and possibly not even the biggest. The black tar that Spike's wounds were oozing had flowed all the more freely during those moments when he had screamed at them, which was ominous, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger.
Even if he was, they were already doing everything that they could. The sludge had first appeared after the attack by the windigos. It was obviously tied to the dragon's emotions. Tailspin and Compass were both doing their best to offer silent comfort, and there wasn't much else that he could think of.
He'd heard the voices, of course. He'd known what they were and what they were trying to get from him. It was only now, though, that he considered that Discord had been exposed to the same thing - and they had left him in the mountains, alone.
Eventually, he was pulled out of his silent musings by the sound of the door opening again. All four of them looked up, and, almost immediately, both Pith and Tailspin gave automatic salutes.
"Colonel Reveille, sir," Pith barked. "We were not aware your company had arrived."
It was indeed the olive-coated pegasus from Fort McHoofry. He was looking disheveled, tired, and weatherbeaten, but he was whole. He was flanked by a pair of spear-wielding guards nearly twice his height.
"At ease," he said, waving a hoof at them. "We got in just a short while ago - right after you turned up, I'm told. I heard it all at the meeting, so don't bother tossing your reports at me. I'm here with new orders."
The colonel was quieter than usual, and his face seemed gaunter, more heavily lined. The stare he fixed on them was as powerful as ever, though, and he still seemed to command attention simply by standing there.
Pith lowered his leg and said, "Yes, sir."
"Sir, did the general take our report into account when speaking with the other commanding officers regarding strategy?"
Pith's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't turn his head. Even for Compass Rose, a pony who was not a soldier in any way, shape, or form, it had to be obvious that this was Reveille's time to speak.
But the colonel didn't so much as bat an eye. He just shook his head, frowning. "Partially."
Compass tilted her head to one side. "'Partially', sir?"
"He thinks you're all completely insane," Reveille went on. "And that's about the best case scenario, so far as he's concerned. Worst case is you're all changelings, and the real yous were all killed to set up a deliberate campaign of misinformation." He snorted. "Second-worst case. Releasing an omnipotent spirit of chaos and dooming us all is the worst."
"Discord can be t-" Compass began, but the colonel raised a hoof to cut her off.
"No, he can't," he said bluntly. "Even if he could, we can't plan around 'he'll be here eventually and he'll fix everything when he shows up'. We have no guarantee he's as strong as you say he is, that he'll be on our side, or that he won't just make things worse."
Spike nodded grimly. "Yeah. He tends to do that. Especially when he says he wants to help."
"You see my point, then." Reveille shook his head. "So no. We're not planning around Discord. What we are doing is hedging our bets." He pointed at Compass, Tailspin, and Pith in turn. "You three are coming with me."
Pith blinked. "Sir?"
Reveille gave him a blank look. "You say you're all the ones who can use this superweapon? Fine. You're mission-critical personnel now. That means we get you off the front lines and keep you somewhere safe until we have it. Meanwhile, the dragon-" he didn't even look at Spike as he said it "-stays here and fights. If we hold, great. If not, we at least haven't lost these Element things."
Pith felt his gaze slip sideways, away from his commanding officer and towards Spike. The dragon was still lying on the operating table, but he had lifted his head now, and was staring at Reveille as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
The stallion caught sight of Tailspin's expression, saw her look move towards him. They only made eye contact for an instant, but that was enough. He knew that she was thinking the same thing he was.
Don't leave him alone.
"With all due respect, sir," said Pith slowly, "I think we're needed here."
Reveille snorted, and Pith couldn't help but flinch inwardly at the derisive look that crossed his commanding officer's face. "Why?" he said. "To play nursemaid to a dragon? Yeah, the doctors heard his little tantrum. And you know what? I say good for him."
Pith kept his expression blank and his eyes forward. You did not argue with officers. You especially did not tell officers to take their attitude and shove it because the dragon they were talking about was right there, listening to every word. Even with his gaze locked straight ahead, Pith knew that Spike was tensing up. He could hear the labored sounds of the dragon's breathing. It was a ragged, angry hissing noise, accompanied by something like the crackle of dying embers.
"He's getting mad? Good. Get mad. You want to help? Great. I let you go off into those mountains because I thought you'd come back with a solution. You didn't, so now we need a different one."
Reveille stepped forward, his wings spreading as he did so. Pith could see that the left one had been maimed at some point; there was a long crease down the center of it, as if that part had been ripped out and never healed correctly. This time, when he spoke, he was addressing Spike directly. "So get mad," he snapped. He had to tilt his head back quite far just to maintain eye contact with Spike, but he still seemed somehow titanic compared even to the dragon's bulk. "Get angry. Get furious and go out there and rip those insects in half. We need a trump card here, and a dragon who won't fight is no damn good at all."
"Sir." Pith almost shouted the word, but his body leapt to attention as he said it. Without really thinking about it, he was back to standing up ramrod-straight, his gaze directed straight ahead, staring at a point on the opposite wall. "With all due respect, sir, I was trained not to leave my partners behind."
"I do not believe I was giving you an option, scout," snapped Reveille. Pith could just see him out of the corner of one eye. The pegasus hadn't even looked away from Spike. "This is a direct order issued by General Tempo. You do not get to choose."
The words rose up from within his chest without him really thinking about them. "Sir, if necessary, I will-"
"Go."
Pith blinked, shocked out of his immobility by the sound of Spike's voice. He turned his head. "What?"
"I said go," Spike repeated. He still had his head bowed, as it had been when he was watching Reveille, but his jade-green eyes were fixed on Pith. "You can't help here."
"Spike." It was Compass' voice now. Pith could barely see her, hidden as she was by the dragon's bulk. "You need-"
"You've already given me everything I need." Spike lifted his head and gave them a crooked smile. His voice was surprisingly calm and gentle. "Or everything you can, anyway. And the colonel is right. The three of you are too valuable to risk. And I'll be..." He stopped, then shrugged and finished, "I'll survive."
Reveille gave a satisfied nod, then turned away from Spike and towards Pith. "I'm going to assume that you were going to end that last sentence with 'obey the orders from my superiors to the letter', scout," he said sharply. "Do not attempt to disillusion me of this notion. I'll expect all three of you outside in five. Your escort will be waiting. As for you-" he glanced back over his shoulder at Spike "-there will be an escort sent in for you shortly. Wait here until then."
He gave Pith and Tailspin a brief, curt nod apiece, then turned to leave. The last thing he said before the doors shut behind his guards was "Carry on, scouts."
As soon as he was gone, both Tailspin and Compass were talking over one another.
"Spike, we can't-"
"You need-"
The dragon raised a claw to silence them. "Like I said, you've already given me everything you can," he began. "And what I need, right now, isn't that important. What you all need is, and you need a dragon. The colonel is right."
"But it's hurting you," said Pith flatly. He raised a hoof to point to the ooze blackening Spike's scales. When the dragon gave him a surprised look, he continued, "I saw it get thicker when you started to shout earlier. You said the windigos did something to you. They feed on negative emotions, right? Now you're bleeding black whenever you get mad."
Spike watched him for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yes." He lowered his eyes. "And that's not all. When I was fighting them, back in the blizzard, I couldn't flame. This-" he drew a claw across his stained scales, covering the tip in the dark oil "-or something like this, anyway, came up instead. Black fire, but it burned like acid."
Pith heard the sharply indrawn breath from Compass, saw Tailspin frown. He ignored them both. "Then we've got no idea what doing this will do to you," he pressed on. "This could end bad, Spike. Real bad."
"I know." The dragon lifted his eyes again, and Pith saw the glint of determination there. "It probably will. But I have to try anyway, and there isn't anything you can do. You'd just be putting yourselves in harm's way for no reason when you three are our best shot at fixing all of this."
He rolled slightly and pushed himself off of the table to stand beside Compass. "I can help," he went on, frowning, "but I'm... ha. I'm just a dragon, if that makes any sense." An awkward grin crept onto his face. "I can't wield the Elements of Harmony, and that's what all of this rides on in the end. If we're going to fix any of this, if we're going to get rid of the changelings and the Tangle and fix the sky and get rid of the nightmare mist and make it so anypony can live a normal life again, instead of just living in fear of the next time things are going to go wrong, that's on the three of you."
He lifted his head and ran his gaze over each of them in turn. "You're too important to lose," he said firmly. "Any of you. And not just because you're my friends. Everypony needs you safe and ready to use the Elements when we find them. So go. Keep yourselves safe and out of Chrysalis' way. That way, even if this does go bad for me, you'll still be around to give people a chance. I don't like doing this. I don't think it's going to end well. But there aren't any other options, and it needs to be done, and I'm the only one who might be able to do it."
There was silence for a moment. Then Pith said, very simply, "We'll find you when it's over."
"And you'll try to find us," Tailspin added sharply. "Promise us that."
For some reason, that got an actual laugh out of Spike. He reared up onto his back legs, then drew one claw over his chest twice, making the shape of an X over his scales. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," he said. His grin only got wider as he finished the motion by covering one eye with his hand.
They all just stared. After a few seconds, he lowered his hand, sighed, and said, "That was called a Pinkie promise back home. Nopony ever breaks a Pinkie promise. I'll find you. I swear."
Pith nodded. "Good. Make sure you're still in one piece, too."
Another laugh, this one a bit more forced. "I'll do my best," he said. "You should probably get going, though. They're waiting outside."
The stallion nodded solemnly. Before he turned to leave, though, he drew himself up to attention and saluted once again.
"We'll be waiting," he said. "I don't abandon my partners."
Spike nodded in return, and Pith saw something like gratitude in the dragon's eyes. He didn't wait for a response, though. He lowered his leg and turned towards the door, Tailspin and Compass falling in behind him.
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Where is Discord anyways? Is he just waiting to pull off a literal deus ex machina near the end?
You know how this is all going to end? Tragically. It says so in the tags.
It would be so funny if the changelings are upon them, about to eat them or whatever, then Discord shows up and turns all their teeth to rubber. Then he makes some witty remark about brushing teeth.
It would make no sense to the overall mood of the fic, but hey, its Discord. Its what he does.
You need to pick up the pace here. This story is dragon.
(Sleep deprivation isn't exclusively yours.) I like what I'm reading. Keep it up.
From what I can guess is that spike will survive, they group heads to cadence and gets her side of the story, cadence stops the spell keeping twilight away, spike and co confront twilight were they save her but she and spike die together.
Either way still reading this
i hope spike is gonna be okay
This strikes me as foreshadowing something extremely unpleasant...
I hope you continue this story. It is very well done and should be regonized more.
i started reading this from chapter one at 4pm yesterday... it is now currently 6:02 am my time, i called in to work so that i could continue reading...I locked myself in my room so i would not be disturbed.... i skipped dinner and my usual midnight snack.... This is unhealthy, and at the same time unacceptable... PLEASE... WRITE.... MOAR!!!
3995572 I don't call that unhealthy, I call it hardcore and extremely loyal
4019680 It'll certainly leave an impression, if you know what I'm saying.
I'm saying it crushed all his bones.
4020769
oh.... ya that smarts
Damn man it's been awhile since your last update. What happened? I used to look forward to these coming out almost daily.
Well, I've just read all 31 chapters in two days and all I can say is that I need more soon!
Great fic, loving it so far.
4050388 Like I said in my latest blog post, this story has not been abandoned! But I've become more active with other things, both on-site and off, which are preventing me from updating this daily. I'm now a prereader for The Royal Guard, for one thing, and I've recently taken on more responsibilities with my job as well. Beyond that, I'm actually writing several things which I intend to have published, so those have to take priority. But I still fully intend to finish this, one way or another.
I'm actually about three-quarters done with the next chapter, which is shaping up to be a real monster in terms of length, so hopefully that will make up for a bit of the starvation I've put you guys through.
Psst... I need more..
4051177 2 days? I started at 11 in the morning and finished by 4.30 in the afternoon what took ya so long lol jk
This story is what I've been looking for. It has everything: comedy, tragedy, a dark dystopian future, some hilarious fourth thing that obviously doesn't belong in the list. But mostly it's the dark Twilight and Cadance future I've been looking for. We have our merry little band of heroes and our two dark mysterious alicorns working the world and everything will end up interesting.
4126827 I'm very glad you're enjoying it. Hopefully it won't be too long before I manage to get the next chapter finished (see my latest blog post for details).
Sorry, but I've got a beef with this... So Pith, a soldier and the possible bearer of the Element of Loyalty was going to disobey a direct order from his superior officer, whom he has known for years, whom he respects above all others, for a dragon whom he had met maybe a week ago? Even if they are now partners and friends, and they have saved each other and bonded and stuff, this is a bit of a stretch...
4565064 Take that, then consider if Rainbow Dash would do the exact same thing if she was in the same situation. ESPECIALLY if the Spike-equivalent (or Spike himself, possibly) had earned her loyalty.
You have one guess, and I rest my case either way.