Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests

by B_25

82 – "No One Talks Crap about Me but Me."

~ 82 ~

"No One Talks Crap about Me but Me"

"Are you kidding me!"

Blackness shrouded everything, a setting akin to the bottom of an abyss where nothing of its own merit existed, except that which was tossed or brought down to its depths. On its plane of nothingness stood two cyan pegasi, each nearly identical to the other, though the one on the right stood at a greater height. Her chromatic mane wafted in the air like that of a goddess and her wings were like those who belonged to an alicorn.

Yet, her face revealed to be anything like a princess, as it contorted itself with a frustration that fumed behind it. Her head was leaned forward, peering into the face of her double, who only gazed back with a slightly parted mouth and eyes driven tried by all the past rambling. Though the reveal of the nature of her voice had created a new conflict in her mind.

"Trust me; I wish I were." Rainbow heard the squeak of her voice the moment she began to speak, not knowing for the life of her how she never noticed it before. Had her entire life been a lie? Was this really the voice other ponies heard all the time? "All that other stuff you were spouting is just a heap of pig manure, so it really didn't bother me, but hearing what my voice actually sounded like? I think I'd rather go through life not knowing, thank you very much."

The fake began to back awake, desperately raising to her full height and looking down on the smaller mare. "How could my perfection of you be anything like manure!? You are a mare of arrogance, though it must first me earned and kept, and you can only maintain that by being the best!"

She swirled her head downward, until it was before the face of her other. "You can't best perfection, stripping you of your arrogance and everything you've ever worked for, and leaving a husk of a mare that the world will soon come to shun. You are nothing; I am everything."

Dash burst out laughing, falling onto her back and pointing an errant hoof at the now confused face. "I can't believe you said that with a straight face! It's almost like you believe all the stuff you sprout!"

The head of the greater mare began to pull back from facing the smaller mare, not knowing why her methods were of no use against this mare, and why she was such a bizarre one at that. "I do not understand. I searched for being for fears you hold about yourself, for self-interest is the great motivator, and yet all I find is you laughing about such things."

"Of course I'm laughing!" Dash swept a few strays tears of happiness from the corners of her eyes, curling up slightly as she looked up to her other. "Those things are scary, no doubt about it, but they're only scary when I'm saying them to myself. But when other ponies start telling me about my fears, they either sound so silly that I just have to laugh, or I'm filled with this endless energy to prove 'em wrong."

Rainbow Dash began to rise once more, a few giggles still filling into the air until she was standing on her hooves. She then took her right forehoof and pointed it at herself. “No one talks crap about me but me. Only I’m allowed to fill myself with despair – no one else can or will do that to me.”

The fake retreated backward, its body shaking at rage at this mare’s arrogance; the same one she tried to steal away and use against her. She struggled with the fact that there was nothing she could say, nothing she could do to inflict the despair she needed to take control over her.

Rainbow took the same hoof that she had been pointing at her hoof, raising it into the air and pointing it up, before striking it forward and in the direction of her other. “This has been fun, despair, but your games and rambles are starting to bore me. It feels like months since I’ve last seen the sun shine on my friends, and if I have to feed you a hoof or two to see that happen again, then I prefer we can this dance rolling.”

The fake felt something disgusting begin to ooze through her body upon listening to the other mare’s words, watching as her cyan feathers that once matched the blue sky begin to dim into grayness, while her mane lost all her color.

“I am your perfection!” The fake slammed a hoof onto the nothingness with her eyes alight with the flames of hatred. “All you sprout now are just lies to protect your narcissism and your ways of life! Realize this and bow—”

The sentence was cut off quite literally by a cyan hoof, one that had been thrust forward with the might of tiny wings, and pummeled into the side of her cheek. The impact sent her flying back, destroying her form and reverting her being into just the lines and lies that they were.

“Give. It a. BREAK!” Rainbow Dash pulled back her hoof, landing on her hooves from the thrust, and staring onward to the mare she had just destroyed. “I don’t care what you think of me, or what you yourself try to become. I don’t care who or what you are, or how you suddenly made my whole world dark.”

The lines of colors began to swirl, forming into a tight ball that released a small current of air, as it came back closer to the mare. But she did not flinch nor move as she continued her rant.

“All I know is that you’re just somebody that just randomly showed up, locking all those around me in a trance.” Rainbow Dash began to trot toward the bundle of bright lines, feeling her mare float up from her forehead from its wind. “So all I gotta do is beat you senseless, destroy whatever kinda magic you’re using, and free my friends from your trap. This kind of thing is a weekly business, so I’d like this get this over and done with, and get on with the next client.”

The intensity of the wind flared.

Rainbow kept walking forward.

And just as the two were destined to meet.

Fate decided to intervene.

Rainbow Dash stood before the tight ball of swirling lines that concealed its center, not caring for the life of her what touching this thing in its natural state could do to her, as she cocked back her hoof and prepared to launch it inside of the thing.

She felt her hoof unload, flying forth with the speed of a bullet, into the face of Twilight Sparkle. Timed seemed to slow down, the darkness of the world was beginning to brighten from the glow that surrounded the now appearing platform, as all the ponies from before were now coming back into existence.

Then, the cyan hoof connected to the face of lavender, and time resumed. Aching pain spread throughout Twilight’s body from the force of the impact as it propelled her toward the railings of the platform. The collision was sickening to the ruby eyes, disgusting to the cyan ears that heard bones break and echo into the sky.

“Twilight!” Rainbow called to her friend, taking the same hoof that had just struck her to make her trot faster until she was just a few feet from her. She looked down, seeing her friend's slouched form and sealed eyes, though it was uncertain if that was from the trance or her punch.

“I see!” A ray of blue light began to open from the nothingness above them as yet another form descended, the lights too bright for Rainbow to see, though she was too busy with touching around Twilight’s body to estimate the damage. “You have no fears of yourself for they can be dealt with by yourself. But shall any harm come to your friends, then it is not only you who suffers.”

Rainbow held one of her hooves behind her friend’s neck and the other at her waist, slowly bringing her into her grasp, before attempting to look at the thing. “You’re the one that made me do this. Show yourself! I’m gonna belt that new face of yours as soon as I see it!”

“Ohh?” The new form couldn’t suppress the chuckle, extending its arms sideways like a descending saint, as a toothy grin spread across its muzzle. “It is true you’ll be able to hit my new face quite quickly, for more reasons than one. But I’ve looked into the minds and hearts of all your closest friends, and became the thing that would cause them the most strife should you harm them.”

Rainbow Dash began to lift her friend, ignoring the pain in her chest and the aching in her back from the wounds of the previous fight that had yet to have a chance to heal, bringing her friend to the safety of others before setting her down amongst the crowd. “How about you turn dim that light so I can be the judge of that?”

With her task done, the mare spun around and was once again frozen in place. The words of the thing had been proven true – the being before her was someone she wanted to smack, even if it hadn’t tricked her into punching her best friend.

It was the scaley face that made in uproar in her perfect circle of friends, making troubles for them which she could not bring herself to care about, and creating a distance that served to separate the six of them for the time being.

It was the drake who had embarked on an adventure to improve himself, to become the hero he always wanted to be, disappearing off the face of the world since then. Him being missing had shattered numerous hearts that he did not know cared, that fact alone making Rainbow want to pummel him even more.

Some of the eyes on the platform began to shift, freed from the shackles of their trances to that which Dash was staring at, and so too, did they feel strange emotions began to course through their still bodies.

Spike the Dragon floated down from the sky; his arms open wide and his eyes alight in a green glow, looking down on all those whom he used to look up to. His head turned slightly, as his open claws curled into fists.

“Did ya miss me?”

Comments

[B_25]

Have you ever had those moments where you think you may have just died, but in another world?

A few days ago, while at work, I leaned over the railing with my feet passed its threshold. Suffice to say that I almost slipped; the fall would've easily broken my neck.

I saw it happen. I back away immediately, but I saw it happened. I died then and there, like all the times like this before, only I was viewing my death from somewhere else, where it actually happened.

I hope chapter 82 doesn't make you see your end in another reality.

[He23t]

SPIKE HAS RETURNED!

Near Death experience can give you the what if's.

[AvexedAuthor]

8223061
That happens to me all the time. I chalk it up to the artistic imagination and dark humor of a writer/creator.

[AvexedAuthor]

8223183
Except it's not the real spike, it's low budget Despair Spike...

[He23t]

8223253
Ah dang.

[B_25]

8223378
ah shit home, my bad.

If I were you, I'd take a bit of a break from the story while I condense and edit it.

[Xavy T Drag]

8230133
Chapter 1:
Applejack's head began to wobble, her eyes focusing on everything but the heavy tome held by her trembling forehooves. This odd positioning continued for a few moments longer, before the weight of the tome could no longer be sustained by her hooves, and slipped past their grasp. The resulting thud from the tome colliding against the hardwood did not register in her ear, as she continued to idly sit there.

No sooner had he done so that he retracted his hand in fright. Applejack had thrown her hooves straight up into the air at hearing the delayed thud, as it was enough to shock her system into releasing a dose of adrenaline to course through her veins, fueling for her head to be able to snap in every possible direction in order to find the tome[/i ]she had been reading.

The drake's brows had reached their apex halfway through the mare's accusation, his mouth opening ajar as she came to finish. He allowed for a few (a few what?) to comprehend the mare's present logic, but upon seeing the drool marking her lips and the black bags /adorning (remove)/ beneath her eyes, the drake came to a conclusion by himself.

The tome had landed perfectly upright on the desk with its panels split apart, allowing /for (remove)/ the mare to see a trickle of liquid running down the page. She didn't know why, but her own hoof began to trace her lips, where they wiped away the drool lingering there. After a moment, she put two and two together in her head, and promptly chuckled at the answer given to her.

"Sorry 'bout that, sugarcube." Applejack looked at the drake with a less intense gaze, awkwardly adjusting the stetson atop her head. "I'm afraid I bit off more than what I can chew by trying to study agriculture and all that by myself. But, that aside, is there anything I can do 'ya for? Though, that aside, is there anything I could do ya fer?" (What's with this last pair of sentences? Is she really tired, or is this grammar error with redundancy?)

Instead of replying to his face, Applejack opted to knock over her tome onto its side, and lay her weary head on its cover. "Knock yerself out, sugarcube."

The drake proceeded to do just that. He dropped onto a knee and placed the scroll upon the desk, raising the claw holding the quill to the paper, and beginning to compose the letter that would take him to the freedom he'd always dreamt of. As the sound of quill scratching against paper wafted into his ear, so too, did the winds of adventure, whispering with the promise of adventure in many distant lands.

Spike couldn't help but see those aforementioned lands in the spaces between the lines of his now, finished letter.

Applejack rolled her head so that her other cheek rested on the tome. Her heavy eyelids wanted nothing more than to close, but the heavy scratching next to her prevented sleep from claiming her. So she decided to glance at just what the dragon was writing about so passionately, before allowing herself to fall into the sweet embrace of the Dreamscape.

The two pairs of emerald eyes (Applejack's or Spike's?) that had been so focused on the words of the paper finally began to look up, slowly coming in contact with one another's gazes, before they locked onto one another. (This sentence itself is too confusing; two 'one another's without any significant designation of whose eyes they are.) They stared, not quite sure what to think or say, until the dam that was both of their lips finally burst with laughter. The sweet, happy sound began to fill the once-oppressively silent room, and served to lighten the atmosphere while it was at it.

Applejack felt her heavy eyelids lose their heavy weight in that precise moment. (Two 'heavy's'; redundant)

“Whoo-wee!" Applejack struck her leg with joy as her laughter began to cease. "That’s a mighty funny letter, Spike. Ya really must have some guts to begin a prank just below where Twilight is.” (Structure doesn't seem right; not like something AJ would say.)

Their combined laughter (was Spike laughing too?) had echoed into Spike's mind, drifting down to his subconscious, and banishing the reluctance stopping him from handing in the letter that his fears told him to burn instead. He ignored nausea washing over him at the thought of handing Twilight the letter, not at all liking the expressions and words his cowardice tossed his way.

"I'm glad that you at least found this funny, Applejack." Spike dropped the quill on the desk, picked up the letter instead, and returned to his normal height. He looked down at the mare. "But you got this being part of a prank wrong. I'm actually going to quit my job."

"Actually, don't worry about telling me." She returned her gaze back to her book, but not quite delving back in just yet. "I'm reading this book right now that's getting really good. Pony Dantés' friends just framed him and had him thrown in prison, and he's beginning to lose his mind! Could you imagine our friends doing that to us? I feel so bad for Pony Dantés."

Spike continued to stare at her for another moment, trying his best to get the words he wanted to say out of his throat. But all he could do was close his eyes, extend both of his hands forward, and present the letter to Twilight. Her eyes were still directed to the book, so it took a moment for her to realize the moment of silence meant something, and for her to turn around.

“Well..." Spike's head began to wobble as he couldn't bear himself to focus his eyes on her. "That. Is commonly referred as a two-week resignation.”

"I already know that!" Twilight felt her head fill with anger and confusion, and she had no sense on how to expel either. "Spike, what exactly are you trying to tell me?"

I know this is long, but these are all the errors I could find. Most are the same, which is a simple fix, though I ask the writer please review my notes and take the corrections into consideration when writing other chapters.

Thank you.

[B_25]

8231620
fuck. that's me, isn't it?