• Published 14th Nov 2012
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The Darkness of Love - The Grimm Reaper



Spike has gone again for three years, but has been found. He refuses to go home, but won't say why.

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Chapter 6: Sins of the Heart

Spike awoke with a somewhat good feeling. Perhaps it was the fact that his wounds weren't hurting as much? Or perhaps it was simply one of those days where you feel good. The young dragon stretched his body, feeling the popping of the joints as he forced his way out of the bed at the same time. He looked over to the still sleeping mare and groaned.

“Well, there goes my mood.” he said, noticing the bandage around her hoof. He looked out to the window, watching the sun rise slowly into the sky. He hurried over and closed the curtains, wanting to avoid waking her just yet.

“I won’t let you kill yourself, Twilight. No matter what.” he silently paced across the room, opened the door and closed it behind him very gently. He looked at the unkempt Library and huffed.

“She really has slipped over the years. How could they not have noticed this before?” Spike frowned as he jumped off the ledge, landing next to the mug Twilight had abandoned the previous night. He picked it up and carried it into the kitchen. His eyes widened at the state of the place.

“What in the name of Celestia went on in here? It’s like Dresden.” he said. He stepped through the cluttered pile of rubbish that had collected and tried his best to avoid touching the mouldy dishes that were stacked to the roof. He heard something making pig-like noises behind the cupboards.

Without warning, something grabbed him by the wrist and tightened around him. A strange tentacle-like thing pulled him towards the rubbish, while another reached out and grabbed his neck, pulling him in the opposite direction. Spike began to scream as tentacles of all kinds wrapped themselves around him and began to drag him into the mess of filth that was the state of the kitchen.

Spike awoke once more, gasping for air. His sudden start roused Twilight from her own slumber.

“Mm, what’s going on?” she asked irritably. Spike ran to the door and hopped over the stairwell to examine the kitchen. Sure enough, it was as clean as ever. He walked back up the stairs and sighed at Twilight.

“Weird dream.” he replied. Twilight groaned and threw the covers over her head. Spike chuckled and closed the door again, descending the stairs. He made his way back into the kitchen and prepared breakfast. By the time he was done, Twilight emerged, groggily.

“Damn, I was gonna give you breakfast in bed, like you did for me. I never thanked you for that, did I?” Twilight gave him an unamused look.

“What?!” he demanded, placing the tray on the dining table which she sat down at. Twilight just looked at him, showing an angry look in her eyes.

“Why’d you really save me? Clearly you don’t really care about me or the others any more. And there’s no need for you to stay, now that you’ve told everypony that I’m a danger to myself.” Spike didn't respond right away.

“Wait, how did you–?”

“I got the note. It was obvious why you left the Library in the middle of the night. Not to mention I heard you and Applejack running from the angry mob.” A small whine escaped Spike’s mouth before he looked away.

“Sorry about that.” Twilight sighed and began her meal.

“Just go, Spike. I was doing fine before you came back.” She’s avoiding her feelings. Spike grinned as he looked down at the mare.

“I’m gonna go with ‘no’.” Twilight snapped her head up and looked at him.

“What?”

“Like it or not, you’re damaged. And it’s only gonna get worse after I leave… unless I help you return to your usual bookwormy self.” Twilight rose to her hooves and eyed him dangerously.

“Get out of here, Spike. Or I’ll–.”

“You’ll do what? Get that guy who can make me? What was his name? DJ Doesn’t Exist?” Spike laughed, sitting Twilight back down in her chair by force.

“Eat your breakfast. I react differently when a meal I make is wasted. As for what I’m gonna do, I got work. If you don’t wanna see me again, then fine. I’ll be out of sight, doesn’t mean I’ll be gone.” he left the Library with an evil chuckle and took to the sky for Cloudsdale.

“Okay, now you all have your assignments, get going. I expect you all to be done within ten minutes. Ready, go!” Rainbow Dash called to the new flyers. The ponies in training, along with Spike shot for a cloud each. Dash’s pet turtle, Tank hovered in the centre of the training area, marking the location the clouds were to be bunched up in. Spike wasn’t the quickest of the group, but he wasn’t the slowest. His size alone slowed him down and he wasn’t very aerodynamic. This caused him to be the fourth fastest flyer in the group. Rainbow Dash watched him with a mixture of uncertainty and nervousness. The conversation they’d had the previous day left her… rattled to say the least. She hadn’t felt both emotions like this since she’d performed in front of the Wonderbolts.

The final cloud was in place and Dash blew the whistle. She looked at the time and nodded with satisfaction.

“Not bad. Eight minutes and fifteen seconds. You’ve got time to spare. But I think with more training you can all do better. Cloud Shape, you lost your grip on the second cloud and had to fight with it before it would move. Aero, you spent most of your time making sure your mane wasn’t out of place and went for the smallest clouds possible. Airway, you were the exact opposite, which is also bad because you went for the bigger clouds, leaving the others to deal with the smaller ones. Spike, you might wanna work on your manoeuvrability. Those wings of yours ended up slicing some clouds in half, doubling the work for the others. That aside, you did well. Now we’re going to distribute these clouds again and bunch them up one at a time. See which one of you is the fastest. Aero, you go first because I feel like you need to suffer before you can actually be of use to us.”

Rainbow Dash flew over to Tank and helped him out of the large cumulonimbus that the group had made. The little turtle’s propeller spun around madly as he followed his mistress to the sidelines.

“Spike, could you do the honours?” she asked. Spike smiled and cracked his knuckles.

“With pleasure.” he said, going so far as to dive into the cloud. He sliced it up into dozens of smaller clouds and spun around, using the wind he’d created with the force of his wings to separate them and distribute them throughout the field. He re-joined the group of ponies as Aero made his way out onto the field. Alone, he’d gone over the ten minute mark, which upset Rainbow Dash to no end.

“That was pathetic! Stop stressing about your mane and do it properly. Nopony else is going until you get under ten minutes.” Aero sadly tried again, just managing to scrape a single second under the mark. Dash grumbled as she had the field set once again.

“Alright Pretty boy, get back in line. Up next is Cloud Shape. Make me proud, C.” Aero whimpered, trying to fix his now Pinkified mane as Cloud Shape eagerly flew into the field. Her time was within five minutes, beating the group’s best.

“Okay, does anypony know why she was faster on her own, than all of you were as a whole group?” Nopony knew, but Spike spoke up.

“Because we’re inexperienced as a team. We get in each other’s way and delay the process by doing so.” Rainbow Dash smiled.

“I thought you’d know, Spike. Well done. You’re absolutely right. The mistakes you all made dragged out the time it should have taken you all to complete the test. For trained teams, the time limit is a single minute. Spike, why don’t you give the individual task a shot next?” she seemed to warm up to Spike again. This time he saw it coming. He wasn’t about to screw up his plan like he did with Applejack. He’d managed to lose Dash’s trust in him and he didn’t want her to gain it again.

“Hey, Coach. What’s your personal best?” he asked. Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Need you ask? I can do this in Ten seconds flat.” she said proudly. Spike raised his hand and stretched out his clawed fingers.

“I’ll beat you in five seconds.” he declared. The whole team, including Tank, dropped their jaws. Rainbow Dash just looked at him eerily.

“The day you beat me will never come, Spike. My speed is my pride and you won’t be able to take that from me. Not in a million years.” Spike casually hovered over to the edge of the field.

“The others started in the centre. It’s easier that way.” Dash said. Spike grinned at her and shook his head.

“Not for what I have in store.” he called back. Rainbow Dash shrugged and gave him the signal to go. Spike immediately brought his wings as far back as he could and with one powerful thrust, blew every cloud to the other end of the field. Then he made a bolt for one end. Two seconds had passed when he reached the end of the line of clouds. Rainbow Dash dropped her jaw this time, the realisation that he may beat her in the allotted time dawning upon her. He bunched every cloud he could get together, not missing one. The third second had passed. With all his speed, he lunged for the centre of the field. The fourth second had passed. And the fifth arrived just as he placed the large cluster of clouds in the centre.

Rainbow Dash gasped, her personal best divided by half.

With Rainbow Dash defeated, in order for her to continue training the others, Spike had to make the point that she was still the fastest Pegasus in Equestria. With that in mind, her pride was less hurt and she continued the course. Spike made a mental note that her mind was the easiest to warp, since she rarely used it.

With the training over, everypony was sent home, except for Spike.

“Spike, a moment, please?” the rainbow maned Pegasus waved him over. The two of them sat down on a cloud and waited for the other to say something.

“So what’d you hold me back for? Still sore that you were beaten by a dragon twice your size?” he smiled at her. Rainbow Dash ignored the comment and looked at him.

“AJ told me about Twilight. Is it true or was she trying to get me to hate you because of it?” she asked. Spike hesitated for a minute.

“Wait, so if it’s true, you’ll hate me for letting her resort to suicide?” he asked. Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“Oh, uh… no. Just… I don’t know! Twilight’s one of my best friends, and I’d be mad at whoever caused her pain. But I can’t be mad at you because… well you were a friend once too, and I’m sure you had your reasons for leaving in the first place and all this thinking is giving me a headache!” she rubbed the sides of her head in circular motions.

“It’s true. I stopped her just in time.” he said. Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded.

“Come on then.” she rose to her hooves, stretching her wings in the process. Spike looked at her in confusion.

“Where we going?” he asked. Rainbow Dash smiled down at him and pointed in a seemingly random direction.

“If this is happening, I’m gonna need a drink.” Spike nodded and followed close behind her. It only took them a minute to make it to where Rainbow Dash had pointed. It was a pub of sorts. How Cloudsdale could even carry inanimate objects on its cloudy surface always befuddled the young dragon, but somehow they managed to get kegs of beer and vineyards up in that bitch.

The pair landed just outside the entrance and made their way in. The place was already filled with ponies who had finished their jobs for the day and were drinking away the stress that it had brought. Dash found a table for two near the end and nabbed it before anypony else could, while Spike ordered the first of a number of drinks the two would share.

“Okay… what’s your plan for helping her anyway, Spike?” Dash asked. The young dragon took a swig of his bottle and considered the question.

“I figure the best I can do is play the obedient tenant, do whatever crappy job she asks of me and keep a close eye on her at all times. I figure I could watch her at night, but that’d just play havoc with my mind. Which is why I wanna ask you guys to watch her one night each over the course of the week.” Dash took a drink from her bottle and nodded.

“Sounds legit to me. I’ll check with the others. Pinkie’ll probably do it with ease, but the rest of us might need to think of something that will keep us awake.” she said. The two shared more drinks as they tried to sort out the plan regarding watching over Twilight.

“But answer me this: Why do you care? You’ve tried so hard to make a point of hating us. Why are you so determined to see this through?” Spike knew he couldn’t beat around the bush with Rainbow Dash.

“I… I don’t really hate you guys. I just don’t want you to get attached to me again. It’ll make it more difficult when I leave again.”

“So don’t leave. Unless your reason for leaving is good, I don’t see why you should pack up and go through it all over again.” Spike sighed, finishing the fifth bottle.

“I just… I made a mistake the first time, and I can’t take it all back. I’d be living with constant reminders that I did something for the dumbest reason and I can’t handle that. Not to mention I’ll be riddled with constant nagging regarding the reason as to why I left in the first place.” Rainbow Dash started her seventh bottle, now two ahead of the dragon.

“To be honest, I don’t really care why you left. Because you came back, and I think that should be all that matters.” Spike nodded and began his sixth bottle.

“So what’s the deal with you and Rarity? You fall out of love or what?” Spike nearly choked on his drink.

“You really wanna talk about the one Pony you’d need a chisel to break your way in just to plough?” Dash spit her drink across the table, narrowly missing Spike. The ponies surrounding them paused and looked at the spectacle. Dash wasn’t able to control her laughter. She covered her mouth afterwards and reduced her laugh to a hysterical giggle.

“I’ve never heard her put quite that way before.” she began. Spike smiled.

“It’d be a new experience for her too.” Dash laughed again, bringing the bottle away before she could take any more.

“Could you let me swallow this?” she asked. As she began, Spike decided to be evil.

“Though she might have heard that one before.” Dash began a coughing fit as her drink went down the wrong way.

“You dick!” she choked. Spike began to pat her on the back, helping her to clear her throat. Her face was red from all the blood flow to her head, and Spike was enjoying himself.

“Shit!” he said.

“What?” Dash asked, drawing his attention away from his train of thought.

“Oh, nothing. Just bucked something up again. It’s not important.” Dash smiled at him and the two continued to socialaze throughout the night.

The distant rumble of Thunder awoke Spike from his blissful sleep. He felt good again, but better than he had at the beginning of his nightmare. But something was off. At first, he thought he was in another nightmare. Then he noticed the placement of the room he was in, and the light colours. Some posters of the Wonderbolts were placed up on the walls.

“The hell?” he whispered to himself. A light snore caught his attention and he looked down at the matted turquoise Pegasus with the messed up rainbow mane as she lay under her satin sheets. Spike’s eyes widened. He could then smell the stale perspiration in the air, among other things. The setting brought it all back to him in a flood of memories. He’d just screwed up big time.

“SHIIIIIIIII-.”