Chapter 4: Descent Into Darkness
“Prepare to fire!” called the Gryphon Commander. He led an entire battalion of his kind to Baltimare where they were in the process of taking Horse Shoe Bay. Things were going well. Those ponies were weak. Unicorns proved ineffective against the soldiers he commanded that were of Lieutenancy or above. This Commander brandished steel armour polished to near perfection. It wasn’t stylish like pony armour with jewels encrusted within, those were considered structural weaknesses. Over his back rested a long light blade, which he had yet to draw.
His forces advanced over the city like a tidal wave and were killing ponies from left to right, the orders commanded as such. He stood on the jibboom of the sail ship as it made way toward the bay. Despite the easy take-over that his forces were supplying, swarms of gryphons flew overhead to join in the fight with those on land.
“Commander Reave, Pony reinforcements are on their way. ETA is thirty minutes.” said one of the ship’s crew.
“Send teams three and four to flank the ponies from the sides. Then send six to dive them. We should have control of Baltimare in five minutes. I’ll let you do the math and tell me how much time that will give us to prepare for the reinforcements.” Reave replied, turning his head to the crewman. The right side of his beak was scarred, like he’d been in a skirmish with a Timberwolf. His right eye was foggy, indicating he was blind on that side.
“Yes, Commander.” The gryphon flew back onto the ship to relay the command given to them. Meanwhile, Reave looked back at the country and squinted as he hoped to make out a very specific face.
“Gilda…” he sighed.
Gilda awoke with a start. She’d had a nightmare, quite common these days. She turned to the happily dreaming Rainbow Dash and sighed.
“Lucky.” she muttered, sliding off of the bed they shared. She looked for Scootaloo but remembered she’d spent the night with her ‘crusader’ friends. The term ‘dweeb’ entered her mind as she thought of the name of their group, but she was hardly one to judge. She rubbed the side of her face, gently scratching an itch at the base of her beak. She made her way out of the room and set for the kitchen. Nightmares always made her thirsty. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. With precision, she unscrewed the lid and chugged the contents down. She was very thirsty.
“Dad…” she sighed.
“You don’t talk much about your family, do you?” a voice spoke in the darkness, causing Gilda to jump and trip up. She searched around for the owner of the voice. Spike emerged with his arms crossed and a brow raised.
“Yeah, well neither does Dash. I don’t see you dweebs asking her about her old folks.” Spike offered his hand which Gilda took aggressively.
“We pretty much got the idea of Dash immediately after meeting her. Runaway, right?” he asked. Gilda nodded.
“Yeah, that’s Dash. I guess that’s me too. But I’m not as tough as she is. I always went back to my old man. Not this time though. Now I’m stuck with renegades.”
Spike listened to Gilda’s words with a sympathetic ear.
“Where did I leave my violin?” he asked as he knelt down to her level and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“You say you’re stuck here with us, but do you think you’d have had the chance to pursue your relationship with Rainbow Dash after the war?” he asked. Gilda drew back a bit.
“And why couldn’t I?” Spike raised two fingers.
“One, after the war, the tension between your two species would… complicate things. Two, this is war. People die every day and who’s to say either one of you would survive? I don’t doubt your abilities, but remember that while you’re both fast, you’re not invincible.” He rose back to his full height and walked away, leaving Gilda to her drink.
“Perhaps instead of considering it a prison, you can think of it as a one way ticket to Runnersville. You said you always went back, well like you also said; not this time.”
Gilda watched as Spike seemed to disappear in the shadows. Even the sound of his feet clacking against the stone ground ceased and she wondered if he was waiting for another sleepless being to emerge so he could scare the hell out of them too. She looked down to the drink in her talon and sighed. Spike wasn’t wrong. She was with the one she desired. Though war brought their two species further apart, it brought her and Dash closer together. The silver lining in the dark cloud.
Shining Armour led the reinforcements to Baltimare, but as he arrived, he’d discovered the city completely devoid of any pony life. Gryphons had taken the city. Knowing a confrontation to be pointless, he made to order the retreat, but the battalion had been spotted easily.
“Alright, defend yourselves! I want spears and Shields over our heads, Unicorns covering the outer ring. We’re going to do it old style!” he said. Every pony in his command complied and began to make a dome around the group like a giant turtle shell. The unicorns erected barriers around the shell to reinforce it. As the skirmish began, the guards were hit with a wave of beaks and talons. Shining was pushed against his fellow soldiers, their bodies being crushed by the sheer force of their attackers. He thought he might have made a difference, might have somehow managed to save some civilians, somepony. But he was losing more soldiers to the enemy, something he scarcely did.
“Twiley…” he groaned as his body was beginning to break under the pressure of his comrades who had grown scared under the pressure, both emotional and physical.
Twilight awoke with a piercing scream. She knew it wasn’t a dream, but magical observation. Spike was in the room like a bolt of lightning. He held her hoof in his hand and squeezed it tightly, trying to distract her from the dream. She’d awoken with darkness pouring out of her eyes along with tears.
“Twilight, what is it?” Spike asked, hearing the others entering the room out of concern.
“Shining Armour… he’s losing the battle in…Baltimare. Spike!” she leaned over to her dragon and squeezed him tightly.
“Baltimare, that’s not far from the forest.” Cadence said, beginning to worry for her husband.
“Are you kidding? You’ve got mountains in your way and Rambling Rock Ridge to deal with. We wouldn’t get there in time to help them.” Dash began. Twilight ignored their comments and began to force magic into her horn. Spike said nothing as he released her and pulled Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Gilda and Big Mac towards him and Twilight.
“The rest of you stay here.” he ordered. Before the other ponies could protest, Twilight had forced herself and the others to teleport to Baltimare, leaving Rarity, Fluttershy and the others behind to await the news. Cadence broke down at that instant, worried for her husband and sister in-law.
“Don’t worry none, Princess. Twilight’s got Spike, and Mr. Armour’s got mah sister, brother and Twilight and Spike to protect him.” Applebloom said, patting Cadence’s leg tenderly.
“Thank you, Applebloom. You’re right; nothing will stop them. I just have to wait for Shining to return. Fluttershy can heal him so he can return to duty better than ever.”
The group had broken up and Shining was running on three legs. One of his hooves had been broken and he was brandishing a spear in his teeth. He felt Death’s door knocking and he could have sworn he’d seen a tall Stallion like himself just standing on the horizon, waiting for him to reach the end of his life. He knew it was death himself waiting for he could see the same Stallion everywhere he looked, moving like the Slendermane legend. Shining tripped on the body of one of his fallen comrades and skidded along the ground. His broken hoof bobbed up and down as he slid along, giving him great stings of pain with every movement the thing made. He stopped on his back and looked up. Gryphons stood over him, as did death himself, looking over with impartial eyes at him. He expected Death to be black, but this Stallion was grey, almost white with a blonde mane and golden eyes like a dragon’s. He watched Death as a spear came down on him. Time slowed down for the guard captain and he watched as Death broke eye contact and looked ahead of himself. He cracked a smile before vanishing like a wisp of smoke. Time resumed and Shining felt the spear enter his chest. He cried out as he saw the gryphon that had impaled him get thrown back by some strange magical force. But magic didn’t work on these gryphons. He thought. The others abandoned their prey and looked in the same direction Death had before they too were felled.
Moments passed before somepony entered his field of vision. He was relieved to see his younger sister standing by him, but something was wrong. She didn’t look like his Twiley. She was dark and corrupted, like King Sombra. He hadn’t seen Twilight in a year, but the changes were so drastic. She looked like a monster. Her friends seemed somewhat corrupted themselves, as though continued exposure to her had darkened their hearts and perceptions on the realities of Equestria.
“Shining!” Twilight exclaimed. With her magic, she forced the spear out of her brother’s chest and pressed against the open wound. Tears began to strew down her face as she felt her brother’s life fading away.
Spike made his way to her and looked at the scene. Thoughts began to enter his mind. They weren’t like the average thoughts he was used to. They were simple, primal at best. Twilight was crying. Shining Armour was dying. One caused the other. So what caused the one? Gryphons. Gryphons were to blame. “They made her cry.”
Spike’s body worked of its own accord. He could feel the anger welling up inside him as though he were about to be sick. He shook his head, growling. This caused a headache and be gripped his head as cessation of movement failed to relieve his pain. He couldn’t help but move in order to try and lessen the pain, but whatever he moved began to burn like a fire in his body. He looked around, his eyes resting on the gryphons. The instant he made eye contact, his mind snapped and he fell into a state of undiluted rage. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his scales opened up like flaps. A dense black smoke escaped from his body and surrounded him. It spread to engulf Twilight and Shining Armour, creating a visual barrier to protect them from the oncoming gryphons.
Spike’s eyes glowed from within the darkness and from the looks of things he was staring daggers at the enemies that had caused Twilight’s tears. He left the smoky barrier and revealed himself to all. His body was slicked with a black tar-like surface that seemed to act as a physical manifestation of his self. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. And with a flex of his great muscles, he cried in agony and rage.
Author's Note: Just to clarify, I tried to describe Spike's dark tar-like surface as best I could. My goal was to compare it to Venom from Spider Man 3.
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1755537 think lol. BUT BETTER!
I love Venom one of my favorite villians though the one from Spider Man three sucked and was really disappointing
As for the story, shit....so a unicorn and a dragon enter into the battle but they leave a Goddess alone at the house? The buck? And wow....I feel for Gilda, very glad you allowed her and Rainbow to be mates, I really want to see that romance go onward even though it will be hard even strained.....and I love the way you created your form of Death all I ask is you give him a scythe as Death should have.....for reaping souls of course.
Apple Bloom
One of the very best 
Damn, got a crazy feeling Spike is about to go demonic dragon style 
Can't wait to see this shit, though I was expecting Gilda to get something....to buzz her senses from nightmares, even though drinking alchol may make it worse, to each their own
Buck, the griffions are noty pulling any punches, and I'm not fan of Shining Armor but even he does not deserve to die like that...even though it's in battle.....huh.
whayt does ETA mean? And will more of Gilda's past be brought up along with Rainbow and her family and Gilda's mother? ONWARD MY LOYAL FRIEND, ONWARD TO DARKNESS!!!!!!
I now dub the dark version of Spike, Dark Spike.....your welcome!
Oh no!!! How could you kill him!
1755537 Depends. do you want me as co-author or consultant? Also, if we are working in the same continuity as this fic, we need this author's permission and would have to write it as a side series to compliment this one. if you mean taking said ideas and making something original..Im down with that. If you can get an editor and proofreader, count me in. Im busy writing my first fic, but i hav enuf spare time to act as a co-author or consultant.
1755648
ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival.
Awe, f*ck, this sh*t's about to get good!
Griffons, I hope you're ready, cause -
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m326x2L2US1r1b6b6o1_500.jpg
hell yeah its time to for spike to drive the death train
Insta reaction:
"OOOOOOOOOHHHHH SHHHIIIIIIT gryphon! U ded bitch!"
Wanna more, this is so epic.
1756574
Let the anger flow let it over power you then will it give you strength let it flow in your veins as if it was VENOM!
images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Venom-spider-man-654973_1600_1054.jpg
Ignoring OOC Gilda...(And why is she OOC? She's becoming more understading and feminine during a time of war. DAFUK?
And so is Rainbow, but that's beside the point.)...This story is getting is getting intense, and I would encourage you to not be afraid to kill a FEW characters off, if it is to your liking.
For the horde! Spike in dark form huh? Those griffons are fucked, enough said
Oooooooo, things are about to go down DOWN
Spike is now voldemort
1756687 Gryphon king: "Soldier! What the hell happened to you!"
Other soldier: "I think it's hard to answer when his head is stuck up in his ass... DEEP in there..."
This is getting intense!
Nice.
The shit just got real!
So, your going with a Venom look for Spike, hmm....interesting. Thought you were going to go with a form that looks like Naruto when he had four tails just black (3:00).
Awesome story all the way. Great Job!
Ohohoho now I'm far too excited for the next chapter.
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw8759_small.jpg
images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120426001107/powerlisting/images/c/c4/Wrath_Asura.JPG
SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!
1762024 Picture fits that perfectly!
ok, shit just hit the fan, AND PLEASE don't kill Shinning
DON
DON
DONNN
1768779 its DUN DUN DUNN! not don
1777958 DONT
CARE
1783067 Alternatively, they could have been waiting in the sky for the hearing to fail.
1784832 It was only ever going to happen once.
Yep. Shit just got real
MORE GIVE ME MORE
MAKE MOAR
1819788 Soon my precious fan, soon.
Griffins welcome to Hell's gates you tour gide is none other then Spike the dragon enjoy
Meh I like carnage better than venom but what eves still awesome story
Finished riffing chapters 4-6. I hope you like it. I had a lot of fun doing it.
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Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6
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Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6