Chapter 9
She was not welcome here.
Rarity liked to think fashion was a language without words, appreciated by many, but spoken by few. She was not unfamiliar with the idea of garments speaking to her, and art and architecture certainly had their fair share of stories to tell as well.
Yet when the chamber known as The Great Heart spoke to her, it was quite a different language. Although just as wordless, this was not the language of simple aesthetics. It was something far deeper and primal.
The slow thrumming of the Heart, the twinkling of each crystal heart around her, the agitated dance of blue lights across the walls and ceiling. They all told her the same thing.
She was not welcome here.
She could hear it with every beat of the Heart, driving the breath from her lungs. The immortalized hearts surrounding her, with their own strange brand of awareness, had all judged her feelings toward Spike and found her lacking. The swirling colors of her own magic were but a sample of the turmoil her presence wrought within the Heart.
Yet Rarity stayed where she was, seated near the entrance of the Heart, watching Spike standing within the center. It had been feeling the touch of his claws against her hoof that Rarity had first awoken. He had been standing over her, waiting for her to open her eyes. And now he simply stood there, staring at nothing in particular. He seemed as unaware of his surroundings as he had been for the past few days, but at least he was conscious.
She liked to think she stayed only for his sake, but the incessant throbbing of her left hind leg kept reminding her that wasn't the case. Her wound had opened up again after she had arrived at the mountain, leaving a dark, crusty splotch on her final bandage. She had been contemplating whether she should remove the bandage or not, but she simply had no experience in such matters. The pain had gotten better since entering the Heart at least, and Rarity had to admit that was her main reason for staying.
“Are you awake?” The dragon's booming voice shook Rarity out of her reverie. As if awaking from a trance, her pains all seemed to return to the forefront of her mind. She turned her head to look outside the Heart, but she could only see a long, lavender tail stretching past the entrance from where she sat. Somehow, she hadn't even been aware the dragoness was present until now.
“I've been up for a few hours, yes.”
“And Spike?” the dragoness pressed, before Rarity could elaborate any further.
Rarity looked back at Spike, a small measure of surprise evident on her features. Spike's was the first name she had heard the dragoness speak so far. According to Rainbow Dash, she had refused to properly address even Twilight.
“He's fine,” Rarity assured her. “Better than I've seen him in a while.”
The dragoness made a grunt of approval. She went quiet, and the long tail just outside the Heart curled up out of sight, accompanied by the soft clink of coins as the dragoness settled down once more.
Rarity's gaze rested on Spike for another several moments. The little dragon paid her no mind, as had become the norm the past few days. He turned slightly while she watched him, but that seemed to be the extent of his concerns at the moment.
Rarity's lips parted in an admission unspoken, her hesitation beckoning only silence. Her gaze fell, and her ears were filled once more with the rhythmic throb of The Great Heart.
“I shouldn't have come here,” Rarity muttered, but at the same time, the dragoness outside shifted about noisily. The unicorn waited for a reply, but it seemed the dragoness had not heard her.
Her courage left her and Rarity returned her gaze to Spike with a heavy sigh. Perhaps she was trying to apologize to the wrong dragon. Her bandage crinkled drily and she grunted with pain as she rose onto her hooves, taking a few steps toward Spike before giving up and sitting back down again.
“Oh, I'm sorry, Spike. Somehow I have the feeling this is all my fault.” Outside, she heard the dragoness give a snort. Rarity frowned and scooted a little closer to Spike. Although a few feet were insignificant in the face of the distance between the two, it was the best Rarity felt she could do. She continued in a slightly more private tone. “You showed me something last year, on your birthday... and I've been confused ever since. I've been leading you on all this time, and I'm not even sure why.”
“You know,” the dragoness outside told her as Rarity trailed off.
Rarity shook her head. “I've been asking myself why since I left Ponyville. I thought I loved him. And yet this Heart of yours doesn't want me here.”
“You do not love him.” The words were blunt, but the dragoness' voice was soft, almost compassionate.
Despite that, Rarity frowned again. “And how would you know that? We have barely met. I came all this way for him. I carried him through a valley while I was bleeding. I've faced dragons and stormy seas to be here!”
“I know you do not love him,” the dragoness replied, unfazed. “I knew it before I met you. Because I have met the one who does already.”
Rarity's frown melted away in surprise. She glanced briefly at Spike before she looked to the Heart's entrance.
“She carried him farther than you,” the dragoness continued. “She faced the storm and a dragon's fury to save him. Now, she challenges a kingdom to reclaim the heart she loves. What is your love to that fire?”
The lights dancing about Rarity seemed to slow as she stared vacantly out the chamber entrance. The lights pulsed, but for once, they did not carry the sound of the heavy heartthrob.
Strange. She hadn't ever considered Twilight in that way before. Of course, there was no question about it: Twilight had always cared far more for Spike than Rarity ever had. She had loved him far longer than Rarity had even known him, but she had always perceived it as some sort of familial love rather than romantic. Perhaps she had misunderstood the dragoness. Perhaps there was no need for the distinction. Regardless, the dragoness’ question still stood.
“An echo,” Rarity muttered. Her gaze returned to Spike. “I suppose I've only ever... responded to his love. His adoration. It made me feel like so much more. I've wanted to return it, even more so these past few days, but... well... Now that he doesn't even have his heart, it's just an echo.”
The chamber pulsed once more, but again, no sound came. Ahead of her, Spike turned to face Rarity, though his gaze was fixed on the wall above her.
“But even if my feelings are just an echo,” Rarity continued, her voice dropping to an uncertain murmur. “Even if Twilight cares for him more than I do... He's been pining for me ever since we met. I've never seen him look at Twilight the way he looks at me. If it's what Spike wants… I’d say he deserves it. Doesn’t he?”
Outside, the dragoness was silent for a few moments. Rarity heard massive claws scratching against stone and the sounds of several piles of treasure shifting about. “Your question shares the answer with the one I first asked of you,” the dragon told her. “Do you love him?”
When Rarity hesitated, the dragoness huffed. “Wants corrupt,” she rumbled. “This goes especially for dragons. He may want your love, but it is not what he deserves.”
Spoken so bluntly, the words left a sting, especially when Rarity found she had no rebuttal.
The dragoness lingered outside the Heart a moment longer, as if waiting for a reply, but eventually, with a low growl rumbling from her throat, she slithered up the treasure piles back toward the cavern entrance.
Rarity gave a pained sigh, wincing as she stood up again. Her bandage stuck to her wound, chafing and pulling at the sensitive flesh as she walked. Still she continued on toward Spike. She felt better now, somehow. Not physically, but it was as if she'd become lighter, more attuned with The Great Heart. She had no doubt it was the admission coaxed from her by the dragoness that had led to the change. Perhaps now she would be able to lend Spike her strength or whatever it was the dragoness had originally intended for her to do.
After several long minutes of hobbling across the stone floor, she finally reached Spike at the center of the Heart. She was about to sit down next to him when she noticed the small dragon turning his head once more. A strange look was in his eyes as he stared at the walls surrounding him and Rarity, but the unicorn found it impossible to read whatever fledgling emotion sparked within the young dragon.
Before she could contemplate it any further, the clink of coins from outside the Heart drew Rarity's attention. Something heavy was moving around out there, she realized, and Spike's head soon swiveled about, tracking the movement of whoever was outside as they circled the Heart. Rarity stepped back to stand with Spike as heavy footfalls sounded from just outside the Heart's entrance ‒ too heavy to be anything other than a dragon, but too clumsy to match the elegance of their host.
The lingering echoes of the footfalls almost masked the far quieter series of footsteps approaching the Heart, and soon a small, familiar purple claw grasped the edge of the chamber's entrance. Some... thing wearing the guise of Spike peered inside. His eyes lit up as they darted about the enormous chamber, and a toothy grin overtook his features.
The cornflower blue of The Great Heart receded in favor of a brilliant emerald light, spreading out along the walls from the entrance until it covered half the chamber. The green lights thrashed about chaotically, pushing up against the blue that, by contrast, seemed almost static. It was a dance of pain, Rarity knew, watching the turbulent movement of green, so very similar to the agitated dance of her own heart when she had first entered.
But more importantly, it was the dance of Spike's heart.
The small dragon at her side was trembling, and he grabbed firmly onto Rarity's foreleg as his doppelgänger entered, claws digging into her fur.
The heart thief's eyes settled on Rarity and Spike, and his smile widened even further.
“Well, well. You ponies keep showing up wherever I go.” The fake Spike's pupils narrowed into slits, and his eyes underwent an almost imperceptible change in color. “How are my two favorite lovers doing?”
Rainbow Dash rolled onto her back with a groan, blowing a raspberry in exasperation.
She looked down her nose at the twilit sky above her. From the garden atop the mountain, she was afforded an impressive view of the multicolored heavens: from the golden sunset west, to the violet dusk creeping in from the east. But at the same time, with the clouds so far below her, the sky was without movement. Even the air around her was stagnant, void of even the slightest breeze. For all the life The Great Heart allegedly exuded, not a lot of it stuck around the area.
The various plants and misshapen statues in the garden had provided a few hours of distraction, but after all the flying around she'd been doing lately, the solemn, ancient inertness surrounding her was getting on her nerves.
Her eyes searched the horizon again, but there was still no sign of Twilight. At this point, Rainbow Dash had no doubt she'd crossed into The Changeling Kingdom in pursuit of the thief, despite the many warnings she'd given Applejack and the others. And if that was the case, there was no telling when she'd be back. The pegasus had a good idea of where the borderlands lay, but the geography beyond that was a mystery to most ponies. She could only hope Twilight knew what she was doing. For Spike's and her own sake.
Meanwhile, Rarity and Spike were just out of her reach, each suffering from the wounds that ‒ some would say ‒ they had inflicted upon each other. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were out of reach as well, almost a day's journey away. Whether they had confronted the thief or not, Rainbow Dash had no way of knowing.
It seemed every single one of her friends were in mortal peril, yet she could do nothing but sit and wait for Twilight's return.
Thunder rumbled from somewhere far below the garden, and Rainbow Dash rolled back onto her hooves to get a better look, approaching the edge of the plaza with sluggish steps.
She had entertained a few ideas of what to do with her time, but none of them had seemed particularly helpful. She could have flown off south to check on Applejack's group, but unless they were still hanging around the ambush point, finding them in The Graylands would be impossible. She could have gone north to warn the other princesses, but that would have taken days. Definitely not helpful.
Rainbow Dash reached the precipice and found the world below her consumed by an enormous swathe of dark clouds. Flashes of lightning raced about the seamless cloud cover, evoking the thunderous roars and growls that reached all the way up to Rainbow Dash's vantage point.
The sun had sunk far enough below the horizon that everything below the pegasus was now steeped in the shadows of the surrounding mountains. Combined with the huge storm clouds, night had fallen early in these parts of The Dragon Territories.
Rainbow Dash flinched when a hulking figure broke through the dense cloud cover suddenly, hurtling up the mountainside at an alarming rate. The creature shook of the fluff of the clouds clinging to its body as it flew, revealing itself to be a dragon, a good deal smaller than Rainbow Dash's current host.
It was, however, still the size of the average dragon, large enough to dwarf the pegasus, so Rainbow Dash found it wisest to retreat.
She made it inside the relative safety of the cavern just as the newcomer clambered onto the plaza outside, panting with the effort of the quick climb. The dragon, clad in bright yellow scales and wicked-looking spines, lurched forward toward the great cavern, sporting a very noticeable limp in its gait. Looking closer, Rainbow Dash spotted a charred wound on one of its hind legs, surrounded by smoldering green embers.
A low growl drew Rainbow Dash's attention to the depths of the cavern, from which the lavender dragoness now emerged, looking none too pleased at the unannounced intrusion.
“What is the meaning of this?” she demanded, casting an accusatory glance in Rainbow Dash's direction before passing by the pegasus and striding out the cave to meet the other dragon outside.
“The insects have snuck past our borders,” the yellow dragon revealed, giving a low growl. “They are at your doorstep.” He craned his neck to look at his wound. “They are many.”
“Then the Equestrian princess has failed,” the dragoness gathered. Judging from the other dragon's look of confusion, it seemed her words were meant for Rainbow Dash rather than him. Her voice climbed in strength as she spoke, along with her temper. “If the thief has come to steal, then so be it. He will find I demand a steeper price for his crimes!”
She stepped past the yellow dragon, spreading her wings before stopping again. “Do not let them near The Great Heart.” The other dragon nodded dutifully. The dragoness threw one last gaze toward the shadows hiding Rainbow Dash from view. “And do not eat my guests.” The yellow dragon gave another, more hesitant nod, watching the dragoness set off from the mountain and dive into battle.
His gaze lingered on the precipice for another few moments before he turned back toward the cave, giving a soft snarl as he started limping forwards.
The dragon's eyes found Rainbow Dash as soon as he entered the cave. A look of surprise crossed his features, mixed with some other expression the pegasus couldn't quite read. The dragon's surprise didn't stop him, however, and he continued inside the cave, regarding the pegasus with that odd look all the while.
Rainbow Dash returned the gesture, keeping a careful eye on the massive beast. There was something unsettling about the dragon, she was sure of it. It was something about the way he looked at her. Beneath the fading surprise... there was a sense of triumph, sparkling in those familiar, green eyes.
“You..!” Rainbow Dash muttered, taking half a step toward the massive dragon before thinking better of it. She didn't get much farther than that, however, before her whole body seized up, surrounded by a glowing green aura.
“Perceptive,” the changeling chuckled, morphing back into his natural form while lifting Rainbow Dash into the air. He had grown since they last met. A lot. More dragon now than changeling, he was only a little smaller than the giant yellow dragon he had been masquerading as.
Rainbow Dash couldn't speak under the powerful influence of the changeling's magic. Even her face was rendered completely immobile, locked in a fierce scowl. The changeling wasted no more words on her, and threw her against the roof of the ceiling. The restrictive grip of the changeling's magic prevented her from crying out, but the blow was enough to send her vision swimming. She felt the world shift and lurch around her before she was suddenly tumbling across the cavern floor, blacking out.
It took her a long while before her vision returned to focus, and longer still before she could lift her head to look toward the depths of the cavern.
The changeling was gone. She had no idea how long she’d been out. He could already be at the Heart for all she knew. Probably was. And again, Rainbow Dash found, there was nothing she could do about it.
After a few tries, she managed to push herself back onto her hooves. She threw a last gaze in the direction of The Great Heart before turning toward the entrance. Her wings were smarting from the heart thief's blows, but they seemed fine beyond that. As she walked, then trotted toward the outside, she stretched her wings, working out their kinks before finally setting into the air.
It took her but seconds to fly past the garden, but by now, the sun had passed behind the surrounding peaks. The world below the mountaintop was black as night, revealing no sign of where the lavender dragoness had gone. She would have expected to hear sounds of battle, but either the heart thief had lied, or the thunderstorm was drowning out the changelings and dragons far below.
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. If the thief had been bluffing, the dragoness would almost certainly have been back by now. But that only raised more questions. Where would the thief even have gotten an army? Why was he attacking The Great Heart? But perhaps most importantly...
“Where the hay are you, Twilight?”
Rainbow Dash folded her wings and dropped down the mountainside, shielding her face with an outstretched forehoof as she dove through the thunderclouds. They were thicker than she had expected, and when she finally broke through, she found herself in a world transformed. As she had expected, the clouds blotted out any shred of light from the evening sky. Heavy, biting rain lashed at her from all sides, and the constant sound of thunder was deafening, far louder than it had sounded from above.
The landscape below was darker than night, lit only by incessant bursts of lightning and the even more frequent gouts of dragon fire and bolts of changeling magic. The changelings' green outnumbered the dragons' myriad of colors by far, but everywhere Rainbow Dash looked, the enormous bursts of fire swallowed dozens of the green lights.
The scene unfolding all around her was far too chaotic for her to determine any winning side. To her right, a dozen black shapes were engulfed in scarlet fire, and ahead of her, an enormous silhouette fell through the air, roaring as countless bolts of changeling magic rained down upon it.
It was too dark for the pegasus to properly tell the shapes and sizes of the few dragons she could spot, and far too dark to tell apart their colors. Rainbow Dash had never seen the dragoness' fire breath, the only recognizable feature in all the chaos, and so she quickly gave up hope of finding her in time.
Only too late did Rainbow Dash realize the implication her presence bore to the context of the situation. A smaller dragon, albeit still more than twenty times her own size, launched itself from the mountainside behind the pegasus, who only barely managed to dodge the ferocious snap of its jaws. The young dragon's momentum carried it past Rainbow Dash, close enough that the side of its head almost brushed against her.
The pegasus repositioned herself midair and used the dragon's jaw bone to kick off, zooming back up toward the clouds. A blast of fire soon followed after her, but she outsped it easily.
“I'm not a changeling, numskull!” Rainbow Dash shouted, but the only reply she received was the beat of the dragon's wings as it set after her.
A bolt of lightning arced around her while she flew through the cloud, setting her mane on end, but otherwise passing harmlessly by her. The burst of thunder that accompanied it was deafening, however, causing a fair bit of disorientation for the pegasus. She broke free of the clouds at an angle and was forced to spend a second or two taking in her surroundings, giving the pursuing dragon enough time to catch up to her.
A huge, vertical arc of fire erupted from the dark cloud immediately below her, and Rainbow Dash dodged left. The dragon's head burst into view a second later, jaws snapping shut around where the pegasus would have been had she gone right.
Rainbow Dash flew around behind the dragon and climbed into the sky rapidly, leaving her would-be attacker in the dust. Once she had reached the same altitude as the cavern she'd come from, she drew to a halt, watching the dragon below approaching steadily.
It would be an easy matter luring it to The Great Heart, she supposed. Hopefully it would recognize the heart thief as the greater threat by then. But even so, Rainbow Dash doubted this younger dragon would be of much help. The thief was bigger, and his magic certainly wasn't to be trifled with. Even if this dragon was trying to eat her, it seemed wrong to sacrifice it just for a chance at saving Spike and Rarity.
The dragon below her spread its wings suddenly, braking all movement. It was far from any kind of attacking range, but its attention seemed to have left Rainbow Dash for a moment. The pegasus followed the dragon's concerned gaze south and found a squad of at least fifty changelings flying above the clouds toward them. They were still miles off, however, too far away to attack.
The dragon's gaze was not on the changelings, Rainbow Dash realized, but the bright light immediately behind them. Seeing it from even several miles away, Rainbow Dash felt her heart drop at the sheer speed exhibited by what she could only describe as a low-flying comet.
Any doubts Rainbow Dash had about the newcomer's alignment was quickly put to rest when the squad turned as one toward the rapidly approaching surge of light. A tiny ball of energy flew ahead of the newcomer and into the midst of the changelings before exploding into a massive, six-pointed starburst, scattering the changelings everywhere and parting the black swathe of clouds below.
Before Rainbow Dash could even utter her name, Twilight had closed the miles-wide gap separating them and blown past the pegasus. Rainbow Dash found herself caught in an unnatural reverse slip wind, drawing her tumbling through the air and into Twilight's wake. The sound of the explosion that had scattered the changelings reached her half a second later, as did the residual shockwave, sending Rainbow Dash tumbling even further.
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in shock. Her gaze found Twilight just as she vanished in a bright flash, only a few feet short of crashing into the mountainside.
The pegasus managed to stabilize herself midair without giving it much thought, her eyes fixed on the spot where Twilight had vanished. She frowned, going over in her head again whether it had been the alicorn or the sound of the explosion that had reached her first.
“Did she just..?”
Rarity took a shaky step forwards, putting herself between Spike and the thing pretending to be Spike.
“What do you want?” Rarity snapped at the intruder, trying to sound more intimidating than scared.
In way of response, the faux Spike reached an outstretched hand toward the wall right next to him. The emerald lights there were whipped into a frenzy, forming a pulsing, spiraling pattern centered on one of the protruding crystal hearts.
The crystal vibrated under the influence of the changeling's spell for a short moment before ripping free of its socket and flying into his open palm. The crystal heart was in the shape of a teardrop, perhaps the size of Rarity's hoof, shimmering with a warm, golden glow. Alien feelings of devotion and anger, love and suffering, happiness and betrayal suddenly assaulted Rarity, all of them stemming from that single heart in the changeling's grasp, radiating waves of emotions that spread throughout The Great Heart.
A simple farm mare, not unlike Applejack, in a time where winter ruled the land, not Celestia. The concepts, bereft of picture, sound, scent, and touch, sprung to life within Rarity's thoughts, stretching her mind from The Great Heart today to that eons old pre-Equestrian society. A unicorn, shining like the sun, overshadowed by a father's disapproval. A secret note, a meeting in the dark, and a poison kiss.
The heart vanished between the fake Spike's lips, silencing that last call for help ringing in Rarity's mind. The changeling shuddered with ecstasy as he swallowed the heart, his whole body glowing green with energy.
“Thousands of years ago, we ruled these mountains,” the changeling finally explained, speaking first with Spike's voice. As his disguise became lost in fire, however, his voice slowly changed, dropping in pitch and sounding more monstrous by the second. “Our kings and queens were the gods before your princesses. Before the dragons came.”
The fire burning where the fake Spike had stood intensified, growing in height and spreading out along the edges of the chamber. “They cast us from our homes and took this, our tomb to our old gods, as their prize.” A black and dark cerulean wing sprouted from the fire to Rarity's left, blotting out most of the ceiling. A hind leg erupted from somewhere near the entrance, and a foreleg appeared behind Rarity, close enough for the dragon-changeling to easily reach out and grab her. “When we tried to retake our lands, we were met by fire and ash. So ended our golden age.”
A reptilian visage, not quite dragon, but bearing only small hints of the changeling it once was, broke free of the flames to Rarity's right. The fire surrounding her and Spike finally dissipated, leaving them standing on a small island of empty space in a chamber otherwise occupied completely by the enormous changeling, coiling around the walls of The Great Heart.
Either Rainbow Dash had severely understated the size of the thief when she had recounted her and Twilight's battle with him, or he had grown to several times his former size in the short time between then and now. Rarity doubted it was the former. If the claws scraping at the floor right next to her had grabbed hold of Twilight, there would not have been much left.
“What I want... is to reverse our sordid history.” The heart thief's voice was so deep now that it was barely comprehensible, a constant underlying growl masking his words. “The changelings of that time failed. Reverence of their gods kept them from using their most powerful weapon.”
The changeling's maw opened, and another crystal heart was pulled from the ceiling above. A young mare's scream and Discord's laughter was all Rarity registered before the changeling's jaws snapped shut. The chamber was heating up now as even more raw magic seemed to seep from of every pore of the thief's body.
“I'll show the world,” he growled. “The power of the changelings. My power!”
His eyes found Rarity again, as if just remembering she was still there. “And you. Will you try and stop me? To save the one you love?”
The unicorn glanced back at Spike, clutching her bandaged leg. Her gaze went over him to the dragon-changeling's torso behind her, and moved around the circumference of the chamber, taking in the thief's immense size. She couldn't fight him. A flick of his claws and it would be over. Several reasons prevented her from running, chief among them the thick tail blocking the exit.
“I... I can't stop you,” Rarity admitted, lifting her gaze to the changeling monster looking down at her. She stepped aside, leaving Spike standing prone before the heart thief. The little dragon didn't move, but his claws still held firmly onto Rarity's leg. “I suppose... it's lucky I don't need to save him.”
The changeling's head moved closer to the two as he chuckled. “You may be misreading the situation ‒” Greenish smoke rose from his nostrils as he gave a throaty growl “‒ if you think he doesn't need saving.”
Rarity offered no reply but a thinly veiled smile, waiting as the changeling's head moved closer and closer. The heat radiating off the changeling's scales struck Rarity in waves, succeeding in driving her a few steps back before the monster stopped his advance.
His eyes shifted from Rarity to Spike, narrowing. His nostrils flared, taking in the scent of the small dragon, who promptly ducked behind Rarity again. “I left him to die last I saw him...” he muttered, breathing smoke at Rarity. “How is he still alive without a heart?”
“Oh, come now,” Rarity berated the beast, allowing a nervous smile to play across her lips. “You were clever enough to steal his first heart, weren't you? The answer is all around you.”
Rarity snuck a step forwards as the changeling's eyes left her and Spike momentarily, darting around the chamber uncertainly. “The vault... would it sustain a ‒? Could it?” His eyes found Rarity again, noticing her smile. “His first heart?” Rarity had to shield her face from the hot gust of smoke blowing over her as the changeling snorted with anger. “You stole a heart!?”
“Your... 'gods' certainly didn't need them,” Rarity defended herself, hoping she wasn't pushing her luck too far. “The dragoness ‒ you must have passed by her just outside ‒ told us to help ourselves.”
Behind her, the changeling's massive claws scraped against the floor as his fist curled up. “Impossible!”
“At first, to be sure. We fed him half a dozen of the hearts.” Rarity looked back at Spike and shook her head. “But it just didn't work.” She motioned with her head toward the back of the chamber, where the wall was obscured by the changeling's torso. “Until we found another dragon heart.”
The lie had the desired effect. The changeling's eyes widened with surprise at the revelation, and his entire body shifted. He was, of course, much too big to be able to see the wall in question, along with its supposed missing gem.
With another growl, the enormous dragon-changeling became consumed by flames once more. His neck retracted back into the flames burning at the edges of the chamber, and the tail receded as well, revealing the thin crack in the wall that was the entrance.
Rarity fired up her horn immediately and grabbed Spike with her magic. Before the changeling could finish his transformation into something less ungainly, she whirled the little dragon around herself and threw him toward the entrance as far as she could.
Rarity took a deep breath and set after the dragon at a gallop, watching him fall short of the entrance and come to a rolling stop. A backwards glance revealed Twilight standing at the back of the cave, inspecting the wall for any missing gems. The changeling's head turned toward her and Rarity shut her eyes tightly as she ran, waiting for the inevitable punishment.
“You won't get far without wings, Rarity!” Twilight's voice called out after her, filling the unicorn with a small sense of relief. The changeling was being overconfident, toying with her. Justly so, perhaps. In any case, it supplied Rarity with at least a few more precious moments to think of a way to save herself and Spike.
She passed by the small dragon and picked him up with her magic, reaching the Heart's exit a moment later. If she could get Spike up to the main cavern entrance, he could get help.
Shortly after passing outside The Great Heart, Rarity's head jerked around suddenly, severing her hold on Spike. Looking back, she found the dragon lying on the floor just within the Heart, shaking his head in confusion.
“Twilight?”
The changeling wearing that guise shook his head at the dragon, smiling. “Nothing but a husk after all. I actually fell for it! You would have made an excellent changeling, Rarity! I couldn't have done any of this without your groundwork!”
Rarity grabbed hold of Spike with her magic again, but when she tried to pull him back toward her, it was as if an invisible wall spanned the entrance to The Great Heart. Green lights danced across the invisible surface preventing Spike's escape, hissing and popping against his scales in protest of Rarity's magic until she was forced to give up.
The changeling's horn wasn't glowing, but he was smiling, approaching the dragon slowly. “Little Spike here goes against the very nature of this place. A heartless husk like him can't just walk outta here. Not before we settle this question... ringing in my skull!” The false Twilight winced, and a long, green crystal slowly grew out of her head, a second horn behind her normal one. “Who does this heart belong to?”
Rarity looked up toward the entrance to the main cavern, high above her. “Rainbow Dash! Anyone!”
“The pegasus can't save you.” The changeling was getting dangerously close now. He would be able to grab either of them with his magic by now if he felt like it. “And your dragon friends are a little preoccupied with the changeling assault outside. They all think we're taking The Heart Vault by force. So it's just the three of us.”
Rarity didn't much doubt the changeling's words. She could hear noise from outside, like the rumble of thunder, though it could just as well be the sounds of battle for all she knew. Knowing Rainbow Dash, she would be out in the thick of it, far away from Rarity's pleas for help.
She looked back toward the Heart. The changeling, still wearing Twilight's guise, was well over halfway across the chamber, and picking up the pace. If only one of those two were leaving the Heart alive, there wasn't much hope for Spike. Nor herself for that matter.
“Oh, why was I born a romantic!?” she cursed herself, stepping back into the Heart to stand between Spike and the oncoming changeling. “You can't have him!”
The changeling rolled his eyes, continuing his approach. “You know, I wasn't expecting much delay down here. So if you are literally lining up to share his fate, then fine.”
The false Twilight lowered his stance, taking a deep breath. A few green flames spilled out of his mouth as he exhaled, and his lungs took on a fiery glow. Seeing the flames on that first breath of fire, Rarity quickly lost her nerve. She glanced at Spike briefly, wondering how fireproof those scales of his were.
The changeling took another breath, much deeper than the one before. His lungs puffed out impossibly far, growing incandescent with the fire within. Rarity panicked and grabbed Spike with her magic, swinging him in a wide arc at the changeling. A short, concentrated jet of fire escaped the changeling's mouth just before Spike connected perfectly with the side of his head, scattering the blast of fire intended for Rarity and sending them both tumbling across the floor.
Rarity threw herself to the side, but the first jet of fire still ended up grazing her, searing the side of her face and burning a hole through her mane. The smell of burning hair filled her nose as she hit the floor with a shriek of pain, and she was forced to squint with dried-out eyes when she looked toward the changeling and dragon lying further within the chamber.
The changeling was of course the first to recover, but as soon as he was on his hooves, Spike grabbed onto his leg with surprising speed. His jaws clamped down on his foreleg, teeth sinking deep into the faux pony's skin. The changeling's voice slipped back to its original, deep pitch as he screamed out in pain, shaking the dragon off with a surprisingly strong flick of his leg.
Spike went rolling off even further into the chamber, and the changeling quickly lowered his horn at his prone form. Rarity reached blindly outside the chamber with her magic, tossing the first object she could find at the changeling. A golden chalice sailed through the air a second later, missing the heart thief's head by an inch. Fortunately, its trajectory brought it straight into the path of the changeling's spell, not only saving Spike, but causing the spell to blow up in the changeling's face.
The explosion didn't seem to do much damage, but it did serve to turn the heart thief's attention back to Rarity. “What exactly do you think you're doing!?” His magic wrapped around Rarity, hoisting her into the air and slamming her against the wall next to the chamber entrance. “You say you love him one minute, but use him as a wrecking ball the next!”
As he charged another spell, Rarity sent another chalice flying at him. The heart thief grabbed it long before it hit him, crumpling the gold up like a wad of paper before tossing it to the side.
“I don't love him,” Rarity gasped, struggling to breathe under the changeling's choking grip. “Not enough. But I know who does. And if I can help it... that who is going to find him... alive and well... when she gets here.”
The thief's eyes narrowed, and his horns ‒ both Twilight's and Spike's crystallized heart ‒ glowed once more. Before he could fire any spell at her, however, his ears twitched in response to a popping sound just outside the Heart.
Something flashed just outside the entrance to Rarity's left, and the changeling's eyes widened in surprise. A blast of magic glanced off his face half a second later, stunning him briefly. A circle of light formed around the thief, flashing briefly before exploding into a roaring column of magenta fire, hurling him up against the ceiling. The flames dissipated quickly, but an explosive bolt of energy struck him as he dropped from the ceiling, slamming him against the far wall of the chamber.
The magical grip that had held Rarity suspended against the wall released her, dropping her to the floor. She looked left again, just in time to see a lavender hoof step through the entrance. The green lights of the surrounding walls receded, allowing a strong, magenta glow to spread throughout half the chamber, melding almost seamlessly with the green on the other half.
A frightening look of determination dominated Twilight's features when she finally stepped fully into The Great Heart. Her horn was ablaze with a magenta so vibrant it hurt Rarity's eyes, and the very air around her shimmered; whether it was a force field, sheer power, or both, Rarity didn't know. She was uncertain if Twilight even saw her, so intensely was her gaze fixed on the changeling across from her. When she spoke, it was through the gritted teeth of a contemptuous sneer.
“Let's try this again.”
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Oh Snap
I had wondered what Rarity was feeling...
And I am surprised it went here, but I also really like that it went here. Much better than her realizing her love for him.
http://pre05.deviantart.net/956a/th/pre/f/2015/245/2/6/first_born_by_hillbe-d986vyb.jpgpre05.deviantart.net/956a/th/pre/f/2015/245/2/6/first_born_by_hillbe-d986vyb.jpg
6391694
Crackle, and Pop!!!
6392962 xD
6392385 I was also surprised by this curveball, especially since it hadn't been even hinted at until this point. Maybe the dragoness is confusing romantic for the familial, just a thought. I've honestly absolutely no clue where this is going now but I'm invested nonetheless.
6395301
I don't think Twilight's love for Spike needs to be romantic for it to count... nor do I think it is romantic in this case. But that's my opinion on their relationship in canon, so the author might have a different plan.
Mostly I'm just covering my butt with that statement, though.
6395603 Nor I. I'm also not saying it couldn't be, as canon has never really showed us Twi/Spike's early years in more detail so everyone just draws their own conclusion.
That approach to the Great Heart, from Rarity's perspective, was actually pretty darn scary. It elicited the same creepy, menacing tone as those "If Frozen/Up/Whatever Was a Horror Movie" videos. The battle outside was pretty atmospheric too. And oddly enough, that evoked the same feelings that something else had already inspired, "something else" in this case being Rainbow Dash's final moments in an amazing fanfic called "The First Week of Winter".
It's at very dramatic scenes such as this one where it is much more important to avoid errors that could ruin the moment.
Badass line is badass.
6416855 That one was intentional. Kind of a wonky sentence that I would never use outside of someone's dialogue.
I suppose the second 'who' isn't a normal 'who', but simply a placeholder that refers to the identity of the first 'who'. I find it kind of hard to explain the construction of the sentence, but think of it as this:
I mean, it might not the correct use of it, but neither is half of what shows up in Applejack's dialogue.