The Black Fog

by mlprules537

Chapter 8 Twilight's Castle

Icicle watched as two of the four mares carefully lifted The Black Fog out of the hole and as they lifted the others out to. When Twilight and the pony Rarity tried to lift Icicle out she stopped them abruptly with a hoof.

"I can get out by myself," Icicle told them stiffly. Twilight shrugged and flew out of the hole and Rarity levitated herself out. Icicle focused her ice blue eyes on the hole two feet above her head, then she sprang and landed neatly next to the hole above-ground. Then Icicle grabbed a few hoof-fulls of leaves and quickly twined them together a placed the cover over the hole and followed Twilight as they began trotting toward her castle in Ponyville.

~Four Hours Later~

The Black Fog slowly opened his eyes, surprised to find that the fresh scratches that Dummau had created weren't stinging as badly. Black slowly propped himself up with a moan of pain on what felt like a bed and wondered if this was another one of Dummau's illusions. The door to the bedroom slowly creaked open and Icicle wearily walked in. Her eyes drooped as though she was to tired to put one hoof in front of the other and her hooves dragged on the sparkling floor. When Icicle saw Black was sitting as upright as he could she rushed over to him, her weariness forgotten.

"Black!!!! Your okay!!!!!" Icicle exclaimed joyously.

"What happened? How did we get here?" Black murmured groggily.

"You remember that pony, Twilight?" Icicle inquired. At this Black's head drooped with shame. Icicle's gaze softened as she continued. "She and her friends brought us to her castle so that we could recover." Black looked closer at his friends pelt and noticed that she had bandages covering her scratches and the stench of infection in both of their wounds had lowered.

"So they're going to help us stop Dummau?" Black asked, perking up a little a the thought of slicing knives through his enemy's flesh.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Icicle cautioned her friend, "First your body has to finished fighting off the infection in your wounds then you have to rest for a few days and eat well," she explained.

"But Dummau could be killing ponies while we're sitting on our tail's doing nothing!" Black exclaimed indignantly.

"We know that, but the only way we stand a chance at stopping him is if we're at our full strength," Icicle informed him with a note a her old weariness in her voice.

"But..... But......" Black started to protest but his voice was interrupted with a couple of yawns.

"Shh, it's okay" Icicle murmured to Black, stroking his flank as he slowly fell asleep, whimpering slightly. When Black was asleep Icicle stalked stiffly out of the room and trotted toward the throne room of the castle. Just as Icicle got to the door, she heard a raging yell come from Twilight inside the room.

"Why am i even letting them stay here?!?!" Twilight was shrieking angrily.

"Twilight," a soft voice spoke up, "I think you might want to um.... try to control your rage," Fluttershy whispered uncertainly.

"I AM CONTROLLING MY RAGE!!!!!" Twilight screeched back. Icicle heard Fluttershy let out a scared whimper and Icicle could just imagine Fluttershy pressing herself to the castle floors.

"Twilight!" an indignant voice piped up, "Why are you yelling at Fluttershy?" Rarity boldly spoke out. "You shouldn't be yelling at anyone," Rarity stated simply. Icicle peered through a crack in the door and saw Twilight's bloodshot eyes begin to relax. Twilight stretched out a hoof to Fluttershy as a gesture of asking for forgiveness and she accepted with a shaky look and Applejack pressed herself against Fluttershy to comfort her.

"I just..... I just...... I really just want Spike back....." with that Twilight's knee's buckled and she fell to the floor sobbing. The other five rushed up to her and started a comfort group hug. "I just want Spike back!!!!!!!" Twilight wailed in grieve from the midst of them. "I NEED SPIKE TO COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Icicle started to back away from the door as she realized that this wasn't about her and Black escaping the grasp of Dummau. It's about Twilight's best friend/son, being dead. The ripples of his death touching the lives of hundreds. Icicle could then confirm the one thought in all of their minds: Spike was dead and there's nothing they could do about it.