The beauty in death

by Vidhwansak

Sparkling Tears

Sparkling Tears

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Hasbro or Lauren Faust, and certainly have nothing to do with My Little Pony™. I am simply an author writing a story for my own entertainment and for readers like you.)

(Authors note: I think I suck at writing Spike as well, although that might just be because he talks way too much here.)

In a town where the library was a hollowed out tree, a pegasus inside said library was staring, dumbstruck, at a baby dragon, who had just blamed her for the deaths of one of her friends and the rest of the ponies who died in a storm. Needless to say, the accused pegasus did not take very well to this accusation, as was seen by the fluffed up wings in a 'fight or flight' instinct, and boy, was Rainbow Dash ready to fight back against his words. She would have shouted obscenities at the dragon had not a quiet murmur in the back of her mind spoke up, releasing a fear in her she didn't know existed.

'What if it was your fault they all died, and you, of all ponies, could have stopped that? After all, you were the best weather patrol pony, and you left to chase a meaningless dream. You're a failure, Rainbow Dash, and you failed your friends, Element of so-called Loyalty.' She took a look at the dragon, who was now crying freely. Was it really her fault they all died? Was that why no ponies aside from the ones she visited spoke to her? No, that can't be why; you couldn't blame a pony that was miles away and couldn't have had anything to do with the storm. She shoved those thoughts aside, and returned fire with her own ammunition, and damn the consequences of arguing with a dragon, which, she thought, were pitifully few.

"Spike, how...How is it my fault?! I had nothing to do at all with this storm! You can't just place the blame on a pony who wasn't here, especially if you're saying I more or less murdered my friends! I'm the Element of Loyalty for Celestia's sake, remember?! What makes you think I was the one that did this, anyway?!" The dragon wiped his eyes, and shouted at the pegasus, undaunted from the returned fire.

"You left everypony here, chasing after your so-called dreams! You barely gave the pegasi here any weather training, and they could have used your help in fighting the storm, but no, you were off having fun and not caring about whatever happened to Ponyville! Huh, some Element of Loyalty you are, only coming back after hearing the news that your friends are dead! You probably sent this storm as a way to benefit yourself! Loyalty, ha, loyal to yourself!"

The pegasus was seething in anger. Left her friends to pursue her dreams? Not caring about whatever happened to Ponyville? Killing her friends for her own personal gain? If only he knew about the hell she went through in pursuing her 'dream', and just how bad it was! She was about to let him have it, and let him have it hard without any holding back, when a firm sounding voice echoed out from the library's shattered door.

"Stop it, both of you, this isn't helping either of you!" Both dragon and pegasus looked up towards the direction of the sudden voice; the result was a look at a fierce looking Fluttershy, who walked up towards the two of them, intent on making them feel bad for even thinking about arguing in the...'home' of one that passed away. "Shame, shame on you both, arguing with each other over nothing, and especially in Twilight's home! What would Twilight say, to the both of you?"

Spike growled, and looked down at the floor, trying to control a new flow of tears. Rainbow Dash had a pained look in her face, and fluffed her wings back into a more relaxed position. Fluttershy winced as she realized how painful her words must have sounded to them; the baby dragon that had always considered Twilight as a mother, and the celebrity pegasus who now had to consume the knowledge that she wouldn't ever be seeing four of her best friends again. She scuffed her hooves on the floor, and hesitantly, true to name, shied away from them slightly, worried about the possible consequences that might come with her outburst.

"Oh, um...I'm sorry if that...Hurt your feelings..." In response, Rainbow Dash sighed, and started to rub the top of her head, a sure sign that she was getting a headache. There was just too much bad information she was getting from all of this, and worst of all, Fluttershy even had to make her feel bad. Spike, on the other hoof...Or claw, was still trying to unsuccessfully stop himself from crying, and Fluttershy coming up and telling him that Twilight would have been disappointed in him didn't help. Fluttershy, smiling sadly, walked up to him, and gently pulled him into a hug. "There, there, let it all out...You shouldn't keep your feelings bottled up."

Taking Fluttershy's advice, Spike let loose a torrent of tears, while Rainbow Dash continued to massage her head to get rid of the ever increasing headache she had gotten from them both. Both ponies and baby dragon were quiet, and only the sounds of sobbing and the soft cooing of Fluttershy's voice were heard.

---

It took a fair while, but eventually, both Rainbow Dash and Spike had calmed down and relaxed to the point where they could talk to each other without feeling the need to rip at each other with hurtful words. For their sake as well as her own, however, Fluttershy decided to remain and listen to the story; she didn't know the full details of any of the stories, anyway, and...Well, Spike seemed to be emotionally unstable, so she would need to keep an eye on that as he told the story.

Spike waved one of his hands over towards the broken door, and Rainbow Dash immediately let out an explosive sigh. Not this again. "Look, I already said..." She was cut off by Spike immediately, who frowned at her for having jumped to a conclusion so fast. It was in her nature, but you'd think that the pegasus would at least listen once in awhile.

"I get it, Rainbow! Just...Ugh, whatever. Fluttershy, you saw that blackened spot on the ground, outside the library, right?" The pegasus in question nodded slowly, while the Wonderbolt huffed in annoyance at being easily dismissed and secretly embarrassed that she thought Spike was referring to the broken door and not that weird black spot outside.

"Yes, I did see a black spot on the ground, but I didn't know what to make of it; Twilight is always studying something, so I just thought it was an experiment of hers that she was doing. Does it have something to do with Twilight's...Death?" The dragon nodded, and finally, the Wonderbolt was getting somewhere with knowing the original reason of why she even came here in the first place.

"Me n' Twilight were having an ordinary day, shelving the newest addition of books to the library when the storm hit...We were already inside, so it didn't really bother us...Much. Admittedly, the storm outside was scaring me, so Twilight...Uh..." He paused for a moment, then stared hard at both of the pegasai in the library. "You promise not to tell anypony about what I'm going to say next?" Rainbow Dash, although extremely eager to make fun of Spike for whatever it was that happened, she knew that she wouldn't betray his trust. After all, she was the Element of Loyalty, and that title didn't mean anything if she decided to immediately back-stab him after he told her. Fluttershy, of course, agreed not to tell anypony. Thankful, Spike continued on with the story.

"Well, she was...Uh, getting worried about me, so she went and put aside her studies to tuck me into bed, and read me a few children books to calm me down..." He was rudely interrupted by the Wonderbolt, who started laughing. Hey, he didn't say she couldn't laugh at him, did he?

"What, you mean she tucked you in and read you pictures books like a baby? Oh, that's rich! That's..." She slowly began to quiet down when she saw the unamused expressions on Spike and Fluttershy's faces, and accepted defeat. "Alright, alright, I get it, I can't laugh at you, fine." Ignoring her once again, Spike continued his story, albeit with an irritated tone in his voice.

"Well, as she was tucking me in bed, the storm got really, really bad; we started to hear screams outside, and even saw ponies, either alone or in a small group, starting to run outside. The reason why was shown when lightning began flashing, and I saw a house that caught on fire, probably from that same lightning strike. I jumped out of my bed, worried; after all, lightning attracts to trees and other high places, right?

"Twilight said she had personally enchanted the tree so that in the event of a large storm like this, the tree wouldn't be targeted by the lightning, but would be absorbed by the spell as a form of energy that would help the tree grow instead. Now that I think about it, the tree seems a bit bigger now, thanks to..." His voice choked, and he didn't get any better until Fluttershy got him a small glass of water, which he gratefully accepted. He took a small drink from it, and looked outside a nearby window.

"We thought we were going to be safe; but it seemed as if Twilight's enchantments would only hold for so long. The tree was swaying side to side like a boat...I got sick from the rocking motions, so I got out of my bed, went upstairs to the bathroom, and...Uh, got sick. Really, really sick, and it doesn't help when you recently eat an entire bowl of gems...Anyway, when I came back down the stairs, there was large snap, and for a moment, I thought Twilight's spell failed, and that the tree was struck in half by lightning! Fortunately, it was just one of the weaker limbs of the tree snapping off due to the high wind speed outside, but it felt like me n' Twilight were staying alive on borrowed time...Not even Twilight could protect us from a storm this large if it got any bigger!"

He paused for a moment, drinking a little bit more from the glass of water.

"I think Twilight had that same idea, as well, but she didn't say anything, she just looked outside through the window. I know I should have pulled her away, since windows are dangerous in a storm, and she was beginning to form a plan, but...I couldn't help but look outside the window as well, right next to her. It was horrible...You saw rain being flung everywhere, ponies running to wherever they were going to, getting blown over by the strong winds, and debris being blown from those same strong winds, sometimes smacking into those ponies with extreme force...It was just horrible...

"Well, when another branch snapped off the library, I think that's when Twilight snapped herself. I think she just couldn't bear to see the ponies outside suffering to get somewhere safe, and the damage that her library was sustaining couldn't have helped her either...She looked at me, with a strange gleam in her eyes, and nuzzled me softly, saying 'Whatever happens, Spike, stay inside, and remember, I love you.' Then, she was gone, bursting out the door and lighting up her horn.

"I...She just left me there, alone, while I watched her go out into the storm. Could I have stopped her, somehow...? I don't think I could have. She was running outside, her coat immediately plastered to her body, her horn illuminating through the darkness as she prepared to cast a spell...

"Well, I just wish I never continued to look...As she lit up her horn, ready to cast the spell...Lightning struck her horn, attracted to it like a metal rod, and...Oh, I wish I never kept on looking at her! She collapsed into a heap on the ground, convulsing as the lightning coursed through her body; I...I didn't know what to do..."

Fluttershy stifled a gasp, and leaned forward to grab the dragon in a hug, which he returned willingly. The Wonderbolt across from them looked sick; not at the sweet scene in front of her, but because of the wild imagery she was receiving in her mind. She had seen what lightning could do a few times too many to a pony, having worked on the weather patrol here. It was not a pretty sight. It especially wasn't a good thing for a unicorn; there was a reason why they couldn't use magic during a storm, their horns attract lightning quicker than Applejack could buck a tree full of apples. Spike slowly struggled out of the hug, and continued.

"Despite all that, she didn't die. She was still alive, and, just for a moment, I saw a determined look on her face; I knew that she was going to try and cast magic again. I screamed at her, telling her to stop, and crawl back into to tree, teleport herself back, just...Away from the storm and inside the library! But...She didn't do either of those things. She lit her horn again...And shot out a beam of light, directed at the storm. I don't know what the beam of light was for; I probably never will, either. The moment that beam of light hit one of the dark clouds, an explosion of light blinded me for awhile; I thought I was dead, and the only comforting thought of that was that it was quiet. Too quiet. I think I blacked out at that time; I can't remember anything that happened after that and before I woke up on the floor.

"When I did wake up, I didn't want to get up. I remembered too much about the storm; I wanted to believe that it wasn't real, and that it was just some dumb nightmare that Luna gave to me. Eventually, I finally found myself unable to bear laying down on the floor. Hopefully, I thought I just happened to sleepwalk to the kitchen. I pushed myself off the floor, and took a look around the library, and...It wasn't pretty. The library was a mess; although you can't see it now since I cleaned it up earlier. There were books scattered throughout the floor, ink puddles making the floor slippery, water leaking in through some holes, and there was even a bookcase that toppled over sometime during the storm.

"I looked outside, and realized that the storm was long past over, but the debris outside still left the tell-tale sign that it had existed in the first place. I walked around in circles, cleaning up the library for Twilight so that she didn't return to a mess. I was halfway through sorting a few books on magic theory onto their shelves when I remembered that she was struck by lightning. Twice. I ran outside, where a few ponies with red crosses as cutie marks lift something covered in a white blanket onto a stretcher, and were hauling it away from the library. I ran towards them when I was stopped by one of the ponies; nurse Redheart, I think her name was, and she looked at me with a sad look in her eyes. She told me that...I would be better off if I didn't look at what remained of Twilight Sparkle. I knew, then, I was...Alone."

All was quiet in the library, and the silence was more than the Wonderbolt could bear. Rainbow Dash looked over at Fluttershy, a sense of despair creeping up on the pegasus. What a way to go, being fried by lightning trying to save the town. Twice. She couldn't have imagined the pain that Twilight went through the first time, never mind the pain the second time, and even managing to cast a spell before that...The loyalty that Twilight demonstrated in trying to stop the storm touched Dash's heart, and for a second, she swore that she heard Twilight's voice echo throughout the library, whispering sweet nothings of how everything was going to be alright...

Fluttershy looked down at Spike, who was actively crying again. Poor thing. The most she could do was comfort him; there wasn't anything else she could offer to him in this point of time. Perhaps he'd like to live with her in her home; Celestia forbid if he was going to live all by himself in the library! A flicker of movement caught her eye; she looked up to see Rainbow Dash about to quietly take her leave. She nodded slowly at the Wonderbolt, signaling for her to leave; there was nothing more she could do here. She then returned her attention to the dragon, and tried to calm him down.

Rainbow Dash had one story left to listen to, and how fitting it was that it was her earth-bound rival; an unfortunate end to the friendly rivalry the two had relished each day, and even if they weren't actively going against each other, they still thought of ways to get back at each other. No more, however, would those days ever come back. She got up from the table, and started walking out the door. She noticed that she caught Fluttershy's attention; thankfully, the pegasus simply nodded at her, and started tending to Spike, as if she knew exactly where she was going next. Well, it was painfully obvious, really...Both of them knew there was only one reason why she was here.

Carefully opening the broken door, she slipped out, and walked towards Sweet Apple Acres.

---

Something was bothering Fluttershy as she comforted the dragon. She couldn't quite place her hoof on it, though, at least, not until her eyes wandered up onto the ceiling, where she located a perch that a bird would use. She suddenly realized that Spike had not mentioned Twilight's secondary assistant at all during the story. She frowned, and looked down at Spike, who she was cuddling in her hooves.

"Spike?" The dragon looked up at her, a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"Yes, Fluttershy?"

"What happened to Owlowiscious?" The reply she got back was extremely blunt.

"I think he got turned into some fried owl."

Fluttershy fainted in distress, and Spike looked down, forgetting that Fluttershy was...Well, soft, and didn't take to dark humor that well. He sighed, and climbed out of her hooves. He wondered about whatever did happen to the owl. shrugging, he managed a few steps towards the dining room when he heard a familiar 'hoot', and he moaned in frustration as he waved his claws in the air at a rather strange owl.

"Oh, come on, HOW are you still alive?!"

---

(Yes, that is a rather...Poor attempt at dark humor.)

Comments

[fabianguzman18]

haha that last line was funny

[Toolkit]

I understand were Spike's anger was coming from. He's still young, and all that raw emotion was bottled inside, and it finally just erupted. Applejack... how did the world come to this?

[soulwinds]

... Truthfully, i find owlowiscious a tad unnerving. Poor twi i guess the fact that she did indeed cast a spell was relevant? Did it result in aj's death or did it end the storm?

[DerpinYou]

Pretty good. One major spelling mistake I found was that you spelled "signaling" wrong in one of the paragraphs near the end of the chapter. Can't wait for the next chapter!

[Vidhwansak]

669523

Since it won't be addressed properly in the story, I'll just say that, yes, it did have a part in ending the storm, although, not in a very big way.

671326

Oh, thanks to you for finding that!