When the former king returns, a shadow of his former self, he knows and desires one thing only. The death and suffering of he who inflicted this upon him. Spike.
When King Sombra returns, a shadow of his former self, he must work to recover his memories and discover what horrible creature did this to him before exacting his vengeance. Now, Twilight Sparkle has to find a way to save her assistant from his own nightmares.
Inspired (loosely) by: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and, Bram Stoker's Dracula
---------- This is sort of an experimental fic for me. I started writing this a few months ago when I was reading some darker stories from the period of Romanticism for my English class. It's experimental because, I'm trying to recreate the same style of literary writing from the period of Romanticism. Lots of emotion and spontaneity essentially. Whether or not this works, I don't know. This story is probably going to get a lot of hate because of this writing style but, if you would be kind enough to tell me what you didn't like instead of me just assuming you're a random troll, that'd be great. ---------- NOTE: Some of the scenes in this story are not going to be so much filled with gore, but more just disturbing, so read at your own discretion. Or don't. I'm not the boss of you.
The shadow awoke. Everything around it was cold, and freezing, yet it felt none of this. The black cloud rose from the ground. The being slowly moved its ghostly form across the small area it was in, searching for a reason as to why it was there.
Surrounding it was pure destruction. The clearing was made up of charred earth, surrounded on all sides by an endless expanse of ice. Inside this small ring, the shadow found a red curved object. It was cold, and glowed faintly at its end like a piece of hot metal just taken from the fire of a forge. The being coiled itself around the object. Something about the curved artifact was familiar… but what?
When the shadow touched the object a memory of pain came to it. Pure, burning pain. All encompassing as though one were being torn apart from their very inner core outwards. The dark smoke removed itself from the cursed object.
What earthly object could possibly cause so much pain? It clearly held the memories of some poor creature, but certainly, no creature could have lived through such a horrible pain and survived. A thought crept up upon the dark smoke, ‘what if it was I who suffered this pain? But no, surely then I would be dead, and I am most certainly not dead… am I?’
The dark cloud turned itself around, coiling as though it were a snake to examine its figure. Was it dead? It had no body, no physical being. The cold around it did nothing to hinder its movements. But then if it was dead, then what had caused this suffering to be inflicted upon it? Dead things could not feel pain and this was pain of the highest caliber, and therefore the shadow was living. ‘But how could have it lived after such a horrible pain?’ the dark smoke thought to itself.
The shadow searched its memories for something of a clue. It saw a beautiful palace, seemingly carved out of ice and standing among a mass of crystal buildings. Inside sat a beautiful pink alicorn atop a glorious white throne. But, something was wrong. The princess didn’t belong there, no! Wasn’t that the shadow's throne? Yes, yes. That was not her throne but the shadow's!
How dare she take its throne! How dare she kill the shadow!? But no… no it wasn’t her who had done this to the shadow, it was some other creature. A figure formed in the shadow's mind. It was small and purple and had tiny green scales adorning its head. This was the cause of the shadow's pain! This… creature was the reason for the shadow's death!
The shadow lashed out angrily at the surrounding ice, sending it flying in a small white cloud. That wretched little dragon was the cause of this horrible pain! It would pay for what it had done to the King! Yes… yes the King! He was the king and he would do whatever it took to make sure that pathetic piece of garbage paid for what it had done!
The creature rose up from the crater and looked around him, but the only thing that met his shadowy gaze was the everlasting expanse of ice. However, in the distance shone a faint light. He squinted and looked closer. A beautiful blue crystal gleamed in the expanse of white. His palace!
The shadow felt itself tremble with rage. That would be where it started its journey for the vile dragon.
The being flew over the frozen arctic ice. The howling winds that cascaded down the mountain sides would pierce even the thickest coat, but the shadow felt none of this. No, all the shadow could feel was the intense, burning desire for revenge upon the creature that had done this to him, purged him of his memories, and destroyed his being, tearing him asunder. That wretched little pile of filth would pay.
As the shadow approached the crystal, more of the valley came into view. The snow continued for miles before coming to a complete stop and being replaced by luscious green grass. Houses made of crystal dotted the landscape and reflected an almost blinding light onto the creature. The whole place felt familiar to the shadow, as though he belonged there, but… there was something off about the whole place. Something about it felt… wrong. There was a strange energy that emanated from the city.
As the creature drew closer this… energy grew into a feeling that buzzed in the air, that emanated throughout the very atmosphere. The creature felt almost sickened by it and the buzzing entered its thoughts and brought with it a horrible pain. The dark mist was stopped in its path and it writhed back and forth attempting to dislodge the horrible feeling from its mind, but it refused to be purged. The creature let out a howl and sank to the snow and thrashed about, yet the buzzing refused to stop, instead it only continued to grow louder and louder.
The shadow tried to crawl away, but it had lost track of where it really was. The buzzing was screaming, surrounding the creature on all sides. The world began to blacken and close in on the creature. It huddled against the snow drift, hoping beyond hope that it could simply die so that it would be free from this unworldly suffering! The shadow let out one long final howl that echoed throughout the entire valley and into the city.
And in the city, where a celebration had been under way, everypony stopped. Their smiles melted from their faces and the band stopped their music, and the color drained from the face of the princess. Not a pony spoke, and not a single pony moved.
And on the ice, where the shadow had been writhing in pain but a few moments ago, the shadow arose. The pain had disappeared and had been replaced with a different sort of feeling. Yet this one was not like the other, no, this one felt right. This was the feeling that had been missing when the creature had first seen the city.
It arose and looked over to the city, the glow that had once encompassed the city was gone, replaced now with a far gloomier aspect. The creature felt its strength return almost at once, and it lifted itself up from the small drift it had sheltered in. Whatever that pain was, it was now gone, and therefore, it was irrelevant to the goals of the dark smoke.
And yet, when the shadow came to the edge of the city, a barrier stood in its path. This barrier was not visible to the naked eye, but when the shadow attempted to move past it, an unseen force prevented its transgression. Frustrated, the being moved itself all along the edge of the city, but not a single gap in the wall existed. The shadow then attempted to strike and smash the shield protecting the city, but it was of no use, each blow delivered by the being merely bounced off the wall without so much as a sign the creature had done anything at all.
After several hours of attempting to break through the wall at various points, the shadow resigned itself to defeat. It would have to search elsewhere for its prize. Gliding across the snow filled air, the shadow made its way across the icy expanse searching for a clue as to what it might be able to do.
The day shifted to night, and the night into day, but the creature felt none of this, the only thing it felt was the rage at being unable to exact its revenge. It traversed the great ice without seeing another sign of life, and eventually the shadow came upon a large expanse of mountains.
In these mountains, the creature came across a small trading village. Although, the term village would be generous for such a humble place, as it only consisted of a small handful of wooden houses, and a small pub, all surrounding an old trading lodge. It was one of those communities that was so small that it didn’t even have a name let alone a place on a map, it only served as a stopping point for the trade caravans that traversed between the northern and southern fishing villages and farms.
Here, the shadow descended, hoping to find answers to its questions. It went first to where one can always find the news from around the kingdoms, the pub. The shadow shrank itself until it was little bigger than a field mouse. Inside, the hearty drunken laughter of the customers and the smell of hard pine cider permeated the air. The buzz had also returned and surrounded the shadow once again, but it was far less painful than the previous time.
The shadow made its way towards where the bartender stood, slowly polishing his mugs as he spoke with a few patrons,
“So the way they been sayin’ it, apparently the whole lot of the Elements were there in the kingdom when the king returned.”
The king? Were they perhaps referring to him, the shadow? Leaning closer, the shadow listened to the slurred words of one of the patrons,
“Yesh, buts as I heards it… it was like a… likes a… dragon or shomthin’ that wooshed in at the last moment and broughts the crystal heart backs in time to uh… to uh… ya know… make the king blasts into oblivions.”
The dragon… yes… it was that dragon who had destroyed the shadow. So would this dragon then be with these… Elements? Surely they were connected in some manner or another, why else would a fierce dragon consort with these… ponies? The bartender continued, despite his customers drunkenness,
“Anyways, so they all return back to Canterlot and get a big celebration from what I here. But what I don’t get is why some random mares from a small town like Ponyville get to be the elements. Why not a big city like Manehattan or Phillydelphia?”
There were a few mumbles of agreement, but the shadow was no longer paying attention. At the mention of the town ‘Ponyville’, it had flown up through the chimney and into the sky, it now rested far above the tiny hamlet, looking out at the surrounding terrain. To its left sat the great expanse of ice that lead to the place of the creatures destruction. But to the right… to the right lay a golden land. The fields green and gold, filled with crops, the lakes a pristine blue. The being circled around itself once before shooting off towards this bountiful land.
The creature passed many quaint villages and cottages. Ponds filled with fish, and fields rich in their bounty. Forests that were teeming with wild game, and valleys that radiated the light of the setting sun. As the sun set, the creature slowed down, in front of it lay a rather large village. Large groups of houses, a marketplace, town hall, and not too far away a great orchard, all made up the village.
The shadow descended, once again shrinking itself so as not to alarm the local populace. That would come later. It weaved its way through the narrow streets, searching for its prize. The shadow scanned every nook and cranny, like an owl searching for a mouse in the night. Throughout the village, the colorful ponies were blissfully unaware of its presence, as it searched their quaint homes for a sign of the vile dragon.
For hours the creature searched, but to no avail. The sun had gone down hours ago, and the creature had already searched all of the homes, but they were devoid of any sign of the dragon. The businesses were all closed… Had the shadow been lied to? This was the right village… Perhaps the bartender had been mistaken? Wait… that light...why was that light on?
Throughout the entire dark expanse, not a single light shone except for one within a tree a kilometer or so away. The shadow weaved through the night and made its way towards the light. The building was the town library, which the creature had skipped assuming that a dragon that breathed fire would never be allowed in such a place, let alone possibly live in it.
Slipping under a crack in the door, the shadow made its way up the staircase and into a small study. There, a purple unicorn sat with a book read, illuminated only by the small candle next to her. The creature looked around the room, but no sign of a dragon was present. Perhaps it would just be best to wait until morn-
“Twilight, I brought that cup of tea that you asked for,” a young boyish voice spoke.
The shadow froze in its tracks, not that it had any to begin with. Circling around, it spotted the creature that it had so desperately been searching for. The young purple dragon stood there, a tired look on its eyes. He was handing a cup of tea to the unicorn mare that then gestured for him to go off to bed. Excellent.
The shadow followed the drake as he ascended the stairs and came to a bedroom loft. On one end, sat a bed with dark blue covers, on the other sat a much smaller bed strewn with magazines and plates with crumbs.
The dragon slowly made its way into the bed, brushing aside a few crumbs of an unknown food to the side. Within a few minutes, the drake was sound asleep and lightly snoring. Now it was time for the shadow to act. It made its way up the bedpost and towards the young drakes ear. Carefully weaving its way inside being sure not to wake the owner of the ear, the creature made its way into the dreams of the drake.
Spike, was blissfully unaware of the presence of the former king within his mind. He was too busy dreaming of that oh so beautiful mare in his eyes, Rarity. In that glorious dream, the two of them were sitting on a hilltop filled with flowers next to a small babbling brook filled with small silver fish that reflected the sunlight with a flash whenever they leapt into the air.
There the two sat, simply taking everything in, without any cares about them. Spike sat with his claw holding one of Rarity’s hooves, staring deeply into her eyes while she, stared into the small creek. The sun warmed Spike’s scales making him feel both upbeat and sluggish at the same time, which to him was a most wondrous feeling. He was just about to lean in and provide her with a soft kiss to the cheek when something broke the dream like state.
A soft breeze blew past the pair. However, this was not a warm summer breeze, no. This was an ice cold breeze one might feel in the dead of winter. It hit the small dragon lightly, but the chill of its icy teeth shook him to his very core. The drake looked around for the source of the wind, wondering if perhaps even his dreams were now sabotaging his chances with the beautiful mare. But, the source of the wind was invisible to him, and so he decided to try again with the kiss, hoping the chill had just been some sort of fluke.
Turning to look upon the fair maiden though, he was instead shocked to see a horrible and grotesque mess. The fair Rarity was Rarity no longer, for now her beautiful hair was replaced with fierce snarling and hissing snakes that lashed out trying to bite him. Her normally sapphire eyes were yellow and slitted and her forked tongue struck out at the air trying to claim the dragon as its prey.
Spike recoiled in pure shock, aghast at the horrible transformation that his fair lady had undergone. All around him, his dream world crumbled, the peaceful brook began to bubble and redden with blood. The grass around him withered away and died, leaving behind only a dry and infertile gray soot. The clouds boomed with thunder and the skies rained lightning, hitting the trees and lighting them on fire.
Spike let out a tearful scream, and curled up into a ball, praying to Luna that this horrible nightmare would end. But Luna would not come, for she was blocked by a powerful malignant force. This force laughed and cackled in a bone chilling voice throughout the young drakes dreamscape. It lashed out with a powerful dark cloud of energy striking the young drake across his back, sending him flying.
Spike scrambled to his feet and began to run from the scene of his disastrous picnic but, all around him he was surrounded by the laughing of the horrible creature that had come to plague and haunt his dreamscape. In his haste, the young drake failed to observe the path around him and thus, upon tripping on a fallen branch; was too late to try and catch himself from falling into the churning bloody river.
He was plunged deep into the water and when he tried to surface he was merely forced back down once again. Thrown side to side within the river, his body was repeatedly crushed by rocks and logs, each blowing making the young drake scream for air. It soon became all too much for the young drake. He clawed at his chest begging for a breath of fresh air from above. He tried kicking, to maybe reach his way to the surface, but the bloody water was too thick and his kicks were for naught.
Finally, Spike could take no more and gasped for air, but alas he was still underwater. Blood flooded his lungs, and he waited for the darkness to cloud his vision, but no such blessing would take him. He instead, was forced to endure a drowning without end. No matter how many times he gasped for breath, he was only met with more blood. But the pain didn’t even out or null. It only continued to increase and grow within the young drakes chest. He pounded the sides of the river bed, hoping beyond hope that his blows might hurt the monster that was doing this to him, but his efforts were futile.
For what felt like hours he was tossed and turned around within the river. Choking on the thick blood that forced its way into his lungs, and begging for sweet, sweet death. His body was crumpled and broken, every limb feeling as though it had been obliterated by the repeated blows from the large jagged rocks within the river. And finally… he was met with a dull thud.
Spike, was too terrified to look, but he knew that if he didn’t then he might never escape this horrible nightmare. Slowly, he cracked open an eyelid, but all around him he saw nothing but red, but he also… felt something. The back of his head was above the surface! Spike scrambled to his feet, and exploded out of the water pulling himself a few meters inland and gasping for breath.
Each sweet breath of air expelled blood from within the lungs of the poor drake, and he could feel the warm wet tears falling from his eyes, but no sobs escaped him, no. That would be a waste of the sweet precious air that surrounded him. Finally, when the blood had stopped expelling itself from his lungs, the drake stood up.
Standing in front of him was a dark figure, that the drake couldn’t quite fully make out. The blood from the river still clouded his vision making everything little more than a red watery haze, but he could make out two details. One, was a large red curved horn that glowed at its tip like a piece of iron just pulled from the forge.
The other… It was the pair of green smoking eyes that Spike knew all too well. With a weak cough Spike groaned,
“Sombra..”
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Spike awoke with a start, coughing blood. The clock read 3:56 AM, and he could hear the soft breathing of Twilight as she lay asleep in her bed just a few feet away. Spike weakly carried himself out of bed and trudged his way towards her, each step feeling like the stab of a knife into his legs. Finally, he crawled into her bed, curling up close beside her. With a sigh, he thought to himself,
‘At least that horrible nightmare is finally over...’
But then, a different voice in his head answered him, ‘Oh Spike, this is far from over.’
A/N Chapters will be alternating between night and day.
The shadow moved itself around inside the mind of the young drake, relishing in the pain that the drake experienced with each and every new fantasy that the dragon was forced to undergo. The creature kept probing deeper and deeper into the mind of the wretched purple beast, searching for new pieces of knowledge that could be used to further torture the vile little dragon. The shadow could only laugh as the little dragon, in his sleep, writhed in pain and agony. But this served to only further the lust for inflicting pain that the shadow felt, and it searched deeper and deeper, for the little piece of information that would finally break the wretched thing that had wronged him.
The shadow could feel itself drawing closer and closer to the core of the dragons secrets, when all at once, light seemed to pour in from all directions. Then the screaming began. But this was not the screaming of the young drake, no. This was the screams of the shadow that came as it was once again assaulted with that horrible buzzing it had felt when it was in the tundra. The darkness screamed and tore itself from the mind of the purple creature, hoping to get away from that awful buzzing, but alas it was of no use!
The burning agony caused by the buzz did not end when the creature left the mind of the young drake, instead it only served to multiply. The shadow tried to get away, somewhere far away from the buzzing, but it wouldn’t end. It tore its way through the town and felt itself only get weaker and weaker as each second garnered another scream of agony from the shadow. The creature felt itself get weaker and weaker and knew that this would surely be the end when it saw in the distance, a small patch of salvation. Amidst all of this horrible burning light, sat one wondrous piece of darkness.
With all of its strength, the creature threw itself upon the patch of black and felt its coolness wash away the wretched burning sensation of the light. The shadow slowly lifted itself up, careful to stay away from the horrible buzz that was still a lite hum in the distance. The creature cursed itself for allowing itself to be drawn away from torturing the piece of filth, but the little drakes troubles were far from over. It would return and it would have its revenge.
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At the library, Spike slowly opened its eyes, fearful of what he might see next what had come to torture him. When nothing met the dragons gaze however, he gave a small sigh of relief. It was finally over. Turning himself over, the drake saw that Twilight wasn’t there. Upon sitting up further, the drake saw that the lavender mare was nowhere to be seen in the room at all. Fearful of some sort of trick being played by his mind again, the young drake stood up slowly and dropped himself to the floor. In the corner, his regular bed sat with dried blood in the sheets from when he had awoken late last night.
Spike felt a burning every time he blinked, and his legs felt ready to give out from underneath him as he walked down the stairs into the main library where a note sat waiting for him on the table, letting him know that Twilight had left to help Fluttershy and didn’t want to wake him. There were no chores for the dragon to do, and even if there were, he wasn’t sure if he would have had the strength to do them. However, that in it of itself was a problem as well, because without something to busy, and distract his mind, his thoughts turned to contemplating his horrible nightmare. Although to call such a horrible thing a nightmare would be to put it lightly. What he had experienced was as vivid as any waking moment, and more horrible than anything that he could have ever imagined.
Then there was that laughter. The young dragon felt his blood go cold as a shiver passed through him at just the thought of that voice. Had that really been Sombra? No, surely it was impossible. Spike had seen that horrible creature die just like all the other ponies in the Crystal Empire. But such a vivid dream surely couldn’t have simply been all in his imagination, could it? As the drake turned these thoughts over and over in his mind, constantly weighing argument against argument in his head, he felt the beginnings of a headache grow in the back of his mind.
With a shout of frustration the drake kicked the wall of the library and felt the pain center itself on his foot. He needed to get out. The drake quickly pushed his way out of the library and into the street, making his way towards someplace he could think clearly.
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The dragon eventually made its way to the calm shade of an apple tree, away from the overcrowded town. A light breeze carried itself across the orchard, bringing with it the soothing aroma of apple blossoms, and touching the leaves in just the right way to make the harmonious sound of a light rain. With all of this to ground his thoughts, Spike returned to pondering the nightmare, but soon found himself in the same endless loop that he had been in before at the library.
Was he just putting too much thought into this nightmare? After all, it was just a nightmare, he’d had plenty in the past after staying up late eating ice cream despite Twilights insistence that he do otherwise. But he’d never had a dream to this degree. This was more than just a simple outlier in a set of data, this had been worse than anything the dragon could have ever imagined! Ah! There, was that conundrum again. Was the occurrence a product of his own imagination or was it the work of some menevolent being? Everything led back to that one question, no matter how he tried to approach it.
But, before the dragon could lose himself in another round of ceaseless debates, he was interrupted by a light cough from the owner of the orchard in which he sat.. Startled, the dragon turned to find himself staring directly into the eyes of the orange mare. Several moments passed, the only sound being that of the rustling leaves in the breeze. It occurred to the drake that she was waiting for him to speak first but he wasn’t sure whether or not he should tell her about the dream. Would she think him crazy? What if she were to talk to Twilight about it, how would she react? Once again, he was quickly caught up in another unending circle of debate with himself, but with the mare staring straight at him, he couldn’t hesitate this time.
The drake finally decided upon a simple greeting and a smile; although it was a forced one. The mare responded in kind, and once again the two were surrounded by the silence. Spike knew that the mare was aware that something was off with him, but was going to wait for him to speak on the matter first. Finally, he gave her a small nod, which she reluctantly took as her cue to leave, albeit with a small amount of hesitation. She would most likely tell Twilight about the incident out of her concern for him, but at the very least Twilight wouldn’t be as concerned as she would be if she knew the full extent of why he sat there.
As the drake watched her walk away, he felt a sudden chill pass over him, and he was overcome with the feeling that he was being… watched somehow. Looking around, there was nopony in sight other than the quickly disappearing figure of the farm mare. To his left however, sat the Everfree Forest. The young dragon knew that he shouldn’t look, but alas, his curiosity got the best of him and he peered into the murky gloom of the woods. Nothing stood out at first glance, but as he peered deeper into the sombre woods he could have sworn he saw something staring back at him, but a moment later it was seemingly gone.
All at once, the once warm air of the orchard seemed to of have gone cold, and the drake realized how exposed and alone he was sitting in the middle of the orchard with nopony nearby. As fast as the little dragon could manage, he picked himself up off of the ground and charged back towards town, unable to stand the dreadful feeling of being watched any longer. The moment his back was turned though, that horrible feeling returned, serving only to have him run faster back towards the town.
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After the incident at the farm, the young drake spent the remainder of the day locked away in the library, attempting to do anything but think of what he had seen. Or thought he had seen. Was this too a figment of his imagination? Was his mind just playing some horribly sick and twisted joke on him? Or… or had that actually been… him? No. No, it surely was not… it could not have been him. Yet the more the drake tried to shake the notion from his mind, the more it nagged at his brain. It came to the point that he was nearly ready to break down into tears by the time Twilight returned later that evening.
Luckily for the drake however, he was able to quickly regain his composure so as not to worry the lavender unicorn. Granted, she had asked a few questions about what had transpired the previous night, but thankfully she was exhausted enough to simply accept his assurances that everything was alright. But that was far from the truth. She knew it and he knew it, she just didn’t have the strength to say otherwise.
Once settled into bed however, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he fell asleep. Then, only a matter of time before… he came. Yes, he could argue to himself that it was just that one night and the same thing wouldn’t happen again this night… but he knew that was a lie. No matter how much he tried to deny it, he knew what he had heard that morning, and he knew what he had seen that afternoon. Sombra would return.
Far away however, within the Everfree Forest, the shadow waited. The wretched buzzing was gone now, and all that remained was for the little dragon to fall asleep...
The shadow did not have to wait long, as the young dragon soon succame to the siren calls of sleep. Feeling the dragons consciousness fade, the shadow rose up from the sombre woods it had taken shelter in, making its way towards the great oak. The entire village was once again quiet and almost entirely lacked the wretched buzzing that seemed to plague the dark mist wherever it journeyed. Only a few sparse pockets of the buzz existed, scattered throughout the settlement, but, it was hardly a concern to the shadow who glided its way through the town towards its prize.
Rolling in through a window that had been left open, the sleeping form of the dragon lay sprawled across its bed in plain view of the dark mist. Seeing the wretched creature lying there in bliss served to only further enrage the creature as it darted into the ear of the slumbering dragon. That day, the shadow had seen the fatal error it had committed in its overzealous desire for revenge. The drake had spoken to one of its cursed friends that had noticed the dragons exhausted and tired eyes. Had the dragon spoken of what he had experienced the night before, then the dark kings plans would be crushed once and for all.
The simple solution to the problem however, was going to be all too easy to carry out.
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Spike found himself charged with the monotonous task of reshelving the numerous books that had been returned to the library. It was a dull duty, but one that had to be done. The dragon could take pleasure, however, in the musty smell of the faded yellow pages of some books that drafted up when ever he opened one of the older tomes. The drake however, preoccupied with its task brushed against one of the larger towers of books, sending it falling to the floor in a cloud of dust. Sighing, the young dragon bent down, and slowly began the long process of restacking the pile.
'Spike...'
The aforementioned dragon stood up, searching for the source of the voice. It didn't sound as though it had been spoken aloud though. Rather, the icy voice seemed to have permeated from everywhere, seemingly, almost into his very thoughts. But how could such a thing even be possible?
‘Oh, you poor, ignorant, disgusting, little dragon.’
The dragon could almost feel the sneer that had accompanied those words. Despite the drake not being able to see the owner of the voice, he knew at once who it was.
“Sombra?” Spike said aloud, doing his best to cover up the many traces of fear in his voice.
‘Ah, so glad you can remember the name of the monarch that you killed.’ The icy voice responded, it’s tone dripping with sarcasm and barely concealed rage.
The drakes cold blood turned to ice as the room visibly darkened, the sky outside the windows turning a deep violet filled with black stormclouds. The very pressure of the room seemed to raise as the warmth of the room evaporated, replaced with a feeling akin to that of being in a dungeon of a castle. The young drake could only stand there, watching the room transform, his breath turning to vapor the second it hit the air, his words, caught in his throat.
‘You thought that you could just kill me and then walk away?’ The creature yelled from everywhere at once.
A great gust of wind broke the windows of the library, sending papers and shards of broken glass flying a great vortex in the center of the room, spinning around seemingly without end.
The dragon backed away from the center and found himself pressed up against one of the bookcases, searching desperately for a route through which to escape. But he was trapped far from both the entrance to the library and the stairs that led up to the next floor. He tried to make himself as small as possible, just wanting to get out of there.
‘You thought that you could just hide from me!? That I wouldn’t come looking for you!?’
The drake heard a great creaking sound and looked up to see the bookcase he was pressed against beginning to tip over. Spike dodged to the side of the bookcase, just narrowly avoiding being crushed entirely beneath its great weight. With a sharp burning pain however, he realized that one of his back legs and his tail had not been so fortunate. He pulled at his leg, managing to free it, but the bookshelf refused to release his tail. The dragon yelled in pain, as the weight of the bookshelf crushed the spines and bones of his tail.
‘You thought that I wouldn’t seek vengeance!?’
Lightning lit up the room as thunder drowned out the sound of the whirling vortex for but a moment. Then the laughter came, harsh and grating, each bit feeling as though it were tearing straight through the young dragons ears and into his head. Spike grabbed the sides of his head with his claws, trying to block out the horrible sounds, but it was of no use. Nothing could stop the incessant laughter of his tormentor. The dragon cried for help, but his voice was drowned out in a great crash of thunder. The dragon clawed at his ears and head, desperate to escape the noise. Even feeling his claws scrape far enough down to draw blood, to which the dragon let out a cry of pain.
Amidst all this noise however, Spike made out the sound of his name being called. Looking up, in between the pieces of swirling paper and broken glass, the dragon could just make out the form of a lavender unicorn standing near the entrance of the library.
“Twilight, help!” The dragon called, feeling a small glimmer of hope at seeing her.
‘Oh Spike, your friends can’t help you now.’ The dark voice said.
The entire deafening sound of the wind and thunder stopped for a moment and everything seemed to freeze. In that brief moment, Spike could see relief in the eyes of his friend who began to make her way to him with a relieved smile; that all too soon was replaced with one of agony. The broken glass and paper in the room that had just been hovering, now turned on the lavender unicorn and charged at her. The dragon cried out, but it was too late. The young librarian let out a bone chilling scream as the paper and glass cut through her skin like knives.
It only took a second before the blood came. It poured from each one of the thousands of cuts along the mares body. The dragon could see tears in the eyes of his friend as she refused to abandon him, continuing to walk towards him. Spike tried to move by her side and help her, but was held back by his tail which still remained firmly trapped beneath the bookshelf. The dragon tried to push his claws below the great weight, hoping to free his tail, but the shelf was simply too heavy to lift.
The laughter from before came once more, causing the dragon to look up. Across the room, the pile of glass and paper that had fallen into a heap after cutting through the unicorn raised and aimed itself at her once more. The young dragon yelled and thrashed against the shelf unsuccessfully. Then he could only cry out in despair as the swarm of glass and paper tore its way through her a second time, leaving the mares coat in shambles, and her left ear barely attached to her head. But still, she wouldn’t stop.
“No! Stop! Please, stop!” The dragon cried out, watching, as his friend stumbled over one of her legs that seemed to have stopped working altogether.
‘Stop,’ the sinister voice replied with practically a laugh, ‘why would I stop?’
The young assistant let out a scream of horror as the glass tore through the mare again, this time carving a deep gash through a vein in the unicorns neck. The mare stumbled and fell, collapsing into a pile on the floor, bleeding from hundreds of tiny cuts all along her body. Her chest rising and falling rapidly as she took long hoarse breaths in between, coughing up blood.
“Please, stop,” the dragon pleaded, watching the mare he had known since hatching, bleed to death right in front of him, “stop… Leave her alone. Kill me instead, just please… don’t kill my friend…”
‘Oh I have no intention of killing you any time soon, Spike...’
The dragon watched as the eyes of the unicorn drifted towards his face, tears streaming out and mixing with the blood that had pooled around her body.
‘...however,’ the dark king continued, ‘I suppose that I can spare your friend...’
The unicorns eyelids begin to droop, fighting to remain up, but slowly failing.
‘...so long as you keep my being here between you and I. After all, it’d be such a shame to see such a beautiful young mare killed for no reason...’
“Fine, okay! I won’t tell anypony! Please, just don’t let her die!”
Spike let out a final scream as the unicorns eyes closed and his vision faded into an all consuming blackness.
----------
The young dragons eyes shot open as he woke from the horrible nightmare. ‘That’s all it had been, right?’ the dragon thought to himself. He looked over to see the sleeping form of the lavender unicorn in her bed, her chest slowly rising and falling.
‘She’s alive and well’ Spike thought with a sigh of relief.
‘So long as you remember our little agreement, she will be.’
The Princess of the Night stared out across the peaceful dreamscape, admiring its beauty. The vast expanse of dreams to the eyes of any casual observer would look like a great ocean at night. Pure black and tranquil with hundreds upon thousands of glowing orbs of light resting on its nearly unmoving surface, rippling only on occasion when a small wave would pass by and send their light scattering across the great expanse. Each orb glowed the purest white and seemed to rest just barely above the water, close but never touching. These orbs contained the dreams of all living creatures in their land, from strong hardworking earth pony stallions, to elderly unicorn mares asleep in their cozy cottages. However, each dream was unique, and no two could ever truly look the same.
This was the true realm of the Princess of the Night. While she had the moon and the heavens to watch over; in her mind none of it could compare to the beauty that shone before her here. Night after night, she would watch over the dreams of all in the kingdom, safeguarding them from nightmares and working to give each a peaceful nights rest. She never grew tired of her work, for the sheer beauty of all that surrounded her never ceased to leave her anything short of awestruck.
On this particular night however, as the guardian of the night made her way across the vast sea of light, she saw something that she had truly never seen before. Far below her wings lay not a beautiful shining orb of white, but one of pure black. The princess slowed herself and descended, curious to investigate such an odd site. She hovered herself just above the black orb, and gazed down upon it. The orb was not black in that it simply had no color, but black in that it almost seemed to be drawing light in towards itself, drawing the light of the orbs near it away, and not towards the serene heavens and dark waters around them.
Tentatively, the ruler of the night reached out one of her dark hooves to touch the curious dark orb as she would any other. The orbs always were warm and soft and seemed to mold to fit around her hoof when she touched them. This was the way she would look into and adjust any dreams of one of her subjects, and the action never caused her or the individual any form of discomfort or pain. This orb however did nothing when the princess laid her hoof upon its surface. It did not conform to fit her hoof, or even move in any shape or form. The orb may as well have been a cold piece of solid granite against her hoof.
Curious, but not quite alarmed, the Princess of the Night then attempted to envelop the dark sphere in her magic and see if she could pick up any sort of trace of energy or warmth, but it was as though the very thing simply repulsed her attempt to touch it. Intrigued she tried once more, but again the dark sphere simply didn’t react to her touch with magic. Nothing. Again and again she tried to get the sphere to obey her magic, but each attempt was met with the same level of success as the first.
After a dozen more attempts of equal failure were made the princess finally stopped. There wasn’t much more she could really do now without consulting with her sister on the matter. She could have tried to be a bit more aggressive, but not knowing what possible repercussions breaking the orb might have, she decided it best just to keep a close eye on it for now lest she do any sort of irreversible damage to the orb.
---One Week Later---
Spike gave himself a pinch as he felt his eyes begin to droop once more. The young dragon had barely been able to get any sleep at all since the first night of horrible nightmares, and what little sleep he did manage to get was plagued by the dark king. Every night a new twisted fantasy of the creature awaited him, each worse than the last. The young drake had taken to doing whatever he could to stay awake at night, but it seemed that no matter what he tried the ever beckoning calls of sleep always managed to get to him. The dreams had even begun to take their toll on his work ethic.
These days it took the young dragon more than twice as long as it used to in order to complete the simplest of tasks. Then, even when the drake did manage to complete the task it was barely better than what could have been done by a drunken stallion. His friends had started to notice as well. The drake had heeded the dark kings words and had done his best to hide his lack of sleep from his friends, but try as the dragon might; he couldn’t hide his insomnia from his friends. Every time one would question him about his strange behavior he would just shrug it off, blaming it on staying up late to read comics.
But deep down, he was terrified of these questions. When asked, he felt his blood run cold, and he couldn’t help but wonder if this might be the last time he would speak to them. The last time that they would smile before the dark king would descend upon them, and silence them once and for all. The only solace that the young drake could take from this whole ordeal was that the king had not yet truly harmed one of his friends.
The young drake shook his head as he felt his eyes close once more. He gave a sigh as he resumed his task of organizing the various books around the library. Even closing his eyes at this point produced a small burning sensation as the his wet eyelids met his dry eyes. How long would he be forced to be subject to these horrible nightmares? He desperately wanted the dreams to stop, but he knew not how to do so without seeking assistance from his friends, but he knew not how to do so without risking their lives to the dark wills of the sombre king.
“Spike?” called the lavender unicorn.
The drake blinked himself from his trance and saw that he’d been standing still in the middle of the room holding a small stack of books not moving for an entire minute.
“Yes, Twilight?” he responded, turning to meet her.
“Put the books down we’re going to get you to a doctor, I know you’re trying to pretend to be strong, but it’s clear that you haven’t been sleeping well.”
The young drake felt his mind begin to race. A doctor? Would he find evidence of the dark king interfering with this dreams? What would the king do then? Would he hurt the doctor, Twilight, both? He couldn’t be responsible for some poor pony being killed just for doing their job, and if he then hurt Twilight… he couldn’t allow that to happen.
“N-no, I’m fine Twilight, really.” Spike said doing his to mask the fear in his voice, but to little effect.
“Spike this isn’t a discussion, you’re going to the doctor and that’s final.”
For the next half hour, try as the young drake might; he was unable to dissuade the lavender mare from her decision. No matter how much he begged and pleaded, the mare refused to take no for an answer. In a final act of desperation, the young drake attempted to make a mad dash for the door, but found himself picked up within the mare magical field and levitated onto her back.
As they made their way through town towards the hospital, the drake felt his heart give out.
“Twilight… please… don’t do this… you don’t understand, I can’t go to the doctor…” he could feel his eyes grow watery as tears began to trickle down his face, “it’s not safe… please, just don’t take me there…”
But the unicorn, blissfully unaware of his fears just gave a small chuckle, “Oh Spike, I really don’t know what it is you’re so worried about. You’ve been to the doctor plenty of times before, you know it’s not that big of a deal. The doctor will just take a look at you, and afterwards we can go out to get some ice cream, my treat. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
The drake wanted to scream, let her know what really would happen if the dark king was discovered, but it was a double edged sword. There was nothing he could say to convince her that wouldn’t end with the same result that wasn’t already guaranteed when they went to the doctor. The drake gave a small sob and hugged the mare tight, ingraining the feeling in his mind, knowing that this might be the last time he ever saw her alive.
They arrived at the hospital all too soon and were ushered into an observation room to wait for a doctor to come and take a look at him. The drake had given up on trying to convince his friend, and now just waited for the inevitable. Once Twilight set her mind on doing something, she would follow through with it, and this was no exception. They waited in silence, not saying a word until the doctor finally entered several minutes later.
The cream colored stallion wore a labcoat and had a stethoscope draped across his neck. His light brown mane was pushed back away from his face, and a pair of spectacles rested on his muzzle near his kind blue eyes. He looked friendly enough and seemed hardly tired at all despite the work day almost being over. The stallion smiled at them and began asking Twilight a series of questions, all of which she answered in great detail.
The doctor then proceeded to examine Spike shining a light in his eyes, taking his blood pressure and heartbeat, everything that one would expect on a routine checkup. The doctor would mumble to himself, or give a small frown every now and then. Throughout it all, the young drake sat there in silence, knowing nothing he said at this point would be able to make any real difference. Part of him just felt empty, and dead. He couldn’t pretend to act alright with any of this, how could anypony? Knowing that one or both of the two ponies standing in front of him could be dead within a few short hours, and it would be his fault just seemed to drain the dragon emotionally.
Finally, at long last the doctor gave a sigh and stepped away from the dragon. Frowning, he turned to the lavender mare and informed her that Spike would have to stay overnight for observation since he couldn’t make a definite diagnosis yet without more data. The dragon knew she would not say so, but part of him wished that she would say that such tests were not necessary, and that his reading of comics were to blame for his sleep ailments, but alas she simply nodded and the pair began going over the paperwork. The dragon just watched them feeling as though he was watching a play, not truly a part of what was happening anymore.
He had no real control over what would happen next, so the dragon just sat there keeping to his own thoughts. Eventually, the pair ceased their banter and the doctor lead the pair from the room and down the hall towards the examination room where Spike would be spending the night. As the group made their way through the linoleum halls, the young drake caught a glance out one of the windows at the setting sun whose last golden rays of light were just disappearing behind the tranquil green hills surrounding the land. The drake sighed, it would not be long now.
The doctor opened a door and they entered a rather bland looking bedroom. A simple bed with white sheets sat in the middle of the room surrounded by a wide variety of medical devices and a small nightstand which held a lamp. Aside from this however, the room was bare of any other pieces of furniture. The white linoleum floor complimented the equally gray walls bereft of any decoration except for a small observation window for the doctors.
At the doctors direction, Spike leaned himself back against the table and proceeded to have numerous devices attached across his body. The entire process took over an hour as the doctor took multiple base line readings and checked that all of the machines were functioning properly. Throughout it all though, the dragons friend stayed there, right by his side, never leaving or dropping her smile even for a moment. The drake looked back at her, but everytime he looked into her eyes, all he could see were the dying eyes of his friend as they were killed by the dark king.
Finally, at long last though the doctor said that it was time as he began casting a spell that would put the drake to sleep in a manner that would not affect any of the results.
The lavender mare leaned close to the drake, and placed a hoof delicately on his shoulder, “I’ll be right here when you wake up, and on our way home we can get anything you want, my treat.”
The spell began to take a hold of the drake as his eyelids seemed to force themselves closed almost against his will. He tried to reach out and lay a clawed hand on his friend who he would never see again, but his muscles refused to even budge. The drake sucked in a breath and whispered out,
“I’m sor…”
Before he could finish though, the touch of sleep had taken him, and he drifted off into a slumber.
-----
The shadow entered through the window into the dark library and made its way towards where the sleeping form of the drake would lay. However, the drake was absent, not even the mare was in her bed. The shadow tore across the hollow oak, but no sign of the disgusting little reptile could be found, not even a light was on throughout the entire structure. With an unnatural scream the dark king ejected himself from the building.
The pathetic little thing had betrayed him! His glorious plans… no. They would not fail this time. They would not! Once more the shadow screamed as it flew from building to building like a rabid dog searching for its prey. He would not lose this time. No matter what it took, he would succeed.
The young drake awoke to the sound of a door closing followed by several hoofsteps making their way towards his bed. Wearily opening his eyes, the drake gazed across his bed to see the face of the doctor that had attended to him the previous evening. The unicorn held within his magical grasp what seemed to be a well weathered, all black trunk which he took special care to place delicately beside the bed before returning his gaze to the patient.
The doctor’s smile was crooked at one edge, but he didn’t say anything, instead just peering down upon the dragon. The drake tried to form words, but found they came out as barely more than a hoarse whisper. The unicorn blinked his eyes in rapid succession before holding up a hoof to silence the dragon. The unicorn held the pose for a moment before, with an abrupt jerk, the stallion turned his head at a ninety degree angle and used his magic to undo the brass locks securing the trunk, his smile never falling entirely. Curious, the young assistant tried to turn his head to see what the trunks contents were, but found that he was unable to move his head more than millimeter back or forth in either direction.
Attempting once more to try and turn it’s head, the dragon was once more met with the sensation of a strap digging itself into his head. As the dragon continued to struggle against the bindings, the doctor moved out of the dragon’s field of vision and gave a giddy laugh of excitement. Panicking now, the dragon tried to move his claws up to undo whatever held him, but found that his arms were also firmly strapped down to the bed. Giving a shout, the young drake tried to lift himself up and away from his prison, but to his dismay felt that even his legs and tail had been tied down to the bed preventing all but the most miniscule of movements.
Once more, the drake heard the bone chilling cackle of the doctor from behind him. It’s each and every note, was like separate claw being gouged across a blackboard. Silence and more hoofsteps followed. Every now and then, the dragon could feel the icy breath of the doctor on his shoulder or forehead. They were long and drawn out at first, but they gradually became faster, turning into short little gasps of air not unlike those of a dying animal. Right when the breaths began to come so quickly that they seemed to blend together into a single sound, they would stop; only to be repeated a few moments later in a different spot.
The drake wanted to scream, but was too terrified of what the stallion’s reaction might be if it were interrupted during the middle of it’s sadistic ritual. So, the drake remained there, frozen in stony silence as he braced himself for whatever happened next. Without warning, the spasming breaths halted in mid crescendo and the room was silent once more. Then he saw it, he had to strain his eyes upwards at first, but slowly descending upon the young drake was a long cylindrical piece of metal. Before he could even release a yelp of surprise, the syringe threw itself into his chest, and injected it’s clear contents into his body.
For a moment, the drake felt nothing. The only thing he could hear were his own deep gasps for air as he watched the needle slowly withdraw from his chest cavity. But then, came the agony. Beginning at the point where the syringe had entered, and rapidly spreading outward, the young drake felt fire course through his veins. The dragon was aware of each and every last blood vessel within his body as each individual one slowly constricted itself into an unholy shape, racketing the young reptiles body with an unending wave of pain.
The young drake’s claws curled up and desperately attacked the chair, the bindings, even the drake’s own body, anything to try and rid the body of it’s pain. The drake felt his breathing become sporadic, and uneven, turning into a combination of deep and short gasps that caused his lungs to cry out in protest. Every breath the drake took was another knife that was plunged and twisted into his side. Every exhale served only to plunge the blade in further, as it pierced through the dragon’s arteries and organs.
As the mixture slowly made its way up the dragon’s spine, and towards his head, a loud ringing slowly consumed the drake’s ears; in a matter of moments, the great cacophony had drowned out the screams of the thrashing creature. Then, when it reached the uppermost part of the creature’s head, an unrelenting torrent of pain lit up his brain. Every nerve there seemed to be encased in it’s own personal inferno that wrapped and weaved it’s way throughout his head. The flames of the poison licked at his head hotter than any fire of Tartarus as the creature’s vision went red, then white.
The creature screamed, and tried desperately to claw at it’s head, but to it’s fury, it could do little more than pull against the bindings that held it tight. It lashed out with it’s fang trying to attack all around it, but nothing could dull the pain as it continued to grow in it’s intensity. It couldn’t even tell if it was still screaming anymore as it’s body was numb to all feelings but one, the unrelenting torment of the serum.
The drake felt no control over it’s body as it lay there, spasming and thrashing against it’s bindings, wishing for nothing more than to rip it’s own heart out, if only to end the pain. The drake felt it’s stomach empty itself out across it’s chest a dozen separate times, not even ceasing when it could do little more than produce a dry retching sound. In and out, like waves, the pain wrapped itself around the dragon. Coming and going with an intensity that no individual should be forced to feel.
The drake felt the agony continue to relentlessly exert itself upon his body for hours. Eventually, the drake just did it’s best to bury it’s head into the side of the bed as the pain drained it’s eyes dry. Waiting for the beautiful moment when it’s heart would finally give out and he would be allowed to die in peace, away from the relentless torture.
After hours of endless torment, the pain finally began to fade away at an agonizingly slow pace. It was hard to feel at first, as the torture had left behind a phantom pain, but gradually, the drake felt his torture begin to conclude. As the young drake’s sight returned, he saw that his body was covered in a mixture of blood, vomit, and other bodily fluids whose origin he dared not guess. Gradually, feeling returned to his limbs; they still carried with them a burning sensation, but nowhere near that of the one that had been there but a minute ago. The drake’s wrists were raw and bloodied from where he had strained against his bindings, looking more like raw, ground meat, than actual flesh; and he could spot dried blood on his cheek when he looked down.
The room was entirely silent once more. The drake felt something flutter within himself, hope. Was the torment over? Had someone actually heard his cries for help? From behind him, the drake heard the sound of hoofsteps making their way towards his bed. The young drake tried to utter a thanks to his savior, but it came out as little more than a ragged cough. Another moment passed, and yet still his rescuer did not present themselves. The dragon searched all around the darkened room for a sign of his savior, but try as he might they alluded him.
Then, came the laugh. That horrible, giddy, excited, little laugh he’d heard before. The still burning fire in the drake’s limbs freezed at the very sound as it echoed throughout his being. From the corner of his eye, the violet dragon saw his laughing tormentor make his way into his field of vision. The mad doctor gave another laugh as his pinpricked eyes waltzed around the room, unable to focus on a single thing.
The dragon screamed and tried to tear it’s eyes away from the sight before him, but it was of no use, every last particle of his body was petrified. The unicorn half lunged half stepped towards the body, nearly running into it as it’s eyes slowly settled on those of his patient. There, the stallion stood breathing heavily, but not breaking eye contact with the terrified drake. Unmoving, seconds stretched into minutes as the dragon helplessly tried to break away from the stallion’s gaze.
Right at the moment that the dragon was going to try and cry out once more, the stallion broke the gaze with a swift flick of it’s head. Not even a second later, a second syringe flew straight into the young dragon’s chest. The drake screamed in a mixture of terror and agony as the vial slowly pushed it’s way into his heart before emptying its contents.
A hand of ice took a hold of the drake’s heart as his heart seemed to stop beating. The feeling of ice encasing his heart came to the drake as he felt every part of it begin to slow in it’s rhythmic beating until the ritardando brought it to a complete and total stop. For a few brief moments, the young drake rejoiced in the idea that his suffering had come to an end; that he could finally be free from the mad kings reign of terror. But, no such relief was to be his.
As the chill began to grow in intensity at his claw tips, the drake stared down upon them and saw that they had become slightly discolored. His normally charmfully lavender scales had turned to a sickly gray hue; a hue that almost seemed to be steadily creeping it’s way up his hand. The drake reassured itself that it was just a product of his terror induced state, however, as he continued to stare at the cursed appendage, the color merely continued it’s trek up from his hand, and to his bloodied arm.
It was as if the icy grip of Death himself was trying to pour him down to Tartarus. Colder than ice, the feeling traveled up the drake’s arms and legs; the absolute chill bringing with it the feeling of one thousand knives and daggers being applied to each and every inch of his terrified body. As the feeling reached his waist and torso, the pain redoubled as the icy fire of hell attacked his petrified organs.
All throughout this, the mad doctor continued to dance around the drake’s bed. The stallion laughed at each cry of the terrified animal in his chair. He reveled in the desperate pleas for mercy, or the terrified whimpers that accompanied his lunges at the thing. The unicorn’s eyes dilated and undilated themselves separately as his body waltzed to the beat of dragons struggles and hoarse calls for help.
The dragon felt his diaphragm plunge into ice, slowing his breathing to brief raspy gasps of air. He felt himself hyperventilate as he struggled to draw in enough air to support his terrified body. In between breaths, with the little air he could spare, he cried out, and begged for the doctor to kill him. To end his suffering once and for all! But his pleas were ignored by the doctor who continued to dance and hum to some hellish tune that he shared with the Devil.
The movements of the dragon’s limbs had slowed to a crawl as his limbs became the color of char. Eventually, they had become so stiff that he lost mobility in them altogether. Now, all the drake could do was watch as his own body died without him. He tried to turn his head away to look at anything but his own dying body, or even not at the sadistic doctor, but upon doing so, instantly felt the sharp hoof of his tormentor strike him across the brow.
The dragon had hoped that the fact that his heart had ceased in beating might mean that no horrible pain might be felt there, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. When the elixir reached his heart, it attacked it with a great fury unknown to the world until that time. The arctic claw ripped opened his heart and raked it’s claws along the inside, splitting it apart. The animalistic screams of the dragon were unable to do any sort of justice to the agony inflicted by the frozen hand of death that burned hotter than fire. The army of ice ripped open his heart, laid waste to and pillaged all that was there, and left behind blackened ruins as it continued it’s march towards the top of the dragon’s head.
Like a city wall his heart crumbled, allowing thousands of icy swords to swiftly encompass the rest of his upper torso, leaving behind pale scales that mirrored death. The dragon felt his last breath freeze in his throat as the poison traveled up his neck and towards his brain. At it’s stem, he could feel it pause, as if it were taunting him, laughing at his helpless and petrified position. Taking cold licks at it’s base in order to drive the dragon into a frenzy. The coiled snake waited, and then it struck.
The child felt his head split with pain as the frozen axe of death swung down upon it. Screams and tears stopped in their path, and his ears rang with the force of a thousand church bells. His neurons screamed as they were impaled upon the icy spear of death. And he both ran from and welcomed his death as his vision faltered and the world turned black. All while the mad doctor laughed.
The Princess of the Night turned to her sister to read her for any signs of emotion. True to her nature however, the elder sister masked any form of emotion and maintained her neutral expression as she contemplated what she had just witnessed. The diarchs sat alone within the dreamscape, surrounded by the great sea filled of brilliant white orbs which dotted the seascape. The air was silent and even the dark sea below had calmed itself to having little more than occasional ripples across its dark surface.
The sisters sat quietly on either side of an empty space in which a small world had stood. The dark sphere which had plagued the younger’s mind for more than a week now had destroyed itself without warning. Shattered itself, into thousands of miniscule slivers of black glass which had descended down into the shadowy depths of the water below. Neither princess knew what such an event truly entailed, but both knew all too well that to downplay such an act would be a foolish mistake.
The pair remained there throughout the night, neither making a comment. From time to time, the Princess of the Day would light her horn, and use her magic in an attempt to discern some sort of reason behind the destruction of the orb, but never to any avail. The pair spent the night there in silence staring into the space left by the sickly orb. As dawn approached, the elder sister released a sigh as she lit her horn to bring about the beginning of the new day.
As the sun began to shine its fiery rays from the east, Celestia unfolded her wings and carried herself up and away from the void left by the broken orb. Her sister stared for just a moment longer before she followed suit and trailed behind her elder as she contemplated the implications that such an event could possibly entail. The fact that her sister was so silent on the matter was distressing, and her own inability to solve the problem herself was frustrating, but she had confidence that she would find a solution to whatever poor creature’s dream they had just witnessed. The Lunar Princess only prayed that it was not too late.
---
The drake made a great rasping cough as he was thrown from his dream. Blinding lights from every direction shown down upon him, forcing him to squint his eyes, and muffled sounds echoed their way throughout the room. The drake instantly recognized it as the one from the nightmare, and attempted to scream, but felt his very core flare up as he attempted to make any form of noise. Leaning back into the table, the drake felt his muscles continue to give off a dull burn which sapped away at his strength. Dark shadows moved across his field of vision as he laid chained within the room of his torturer.
Desperate to remain awake, the drake endured the pain despite how much energy it required of him. Even simply closing his eyes tortured him a little as his head became filled with images of the doctor’s fierce gaze staring down upon him, or of needles flying into his sides. This desperate struggle for consciousness eventually caused the drake’s mind to become muddled and he began to have trouble discerning the shapes of the objects moving around him.
Ever so slowly, from the corner of the entrapped creature’s eye, it watched as a dark shape approached where it lay and began to take shape, revealing itself to be the sadistic doctor . A primal terror gripped its heart at the sight of its tormentor, and with a renewed energy founded in its terror, it began to lash out against its bindings in an attempt to free itself. Although the leather straps cut into its arms, they eventually loosened themselves as the animal tore itself free from its prison. It saw the shape of the maniacal doctor approach, and lashed out with its claws, sending the tormentor back from where it stood.
Seizing its opportunity for freedom, the creature dashed from the room and into a long corridor filled with hazy shadows that turned to stare and eye the thing before them. Some attempted to approach the drake, but it simply lashed out with its claws sending the shapes reeling backwards. The animal began to run as it fought its way through the halls, searching desperately for a way to escape. The screams and shouts of the horrid dark shadows echoed all around the creature as it lashed out against anything which stood in its way. Smells of harsh chemicals permeated the air, and the countless dead ends at every turn led the terrified creature endlessly throughout the dark holdings of its prison. Throughout its attempts to flee, the dark shapes shifted all around it, with some attempting to block its path, while others fled from the wild creature’s attacks as it attempted to escape.
Just as the creature was ready to resign itself to being trapped in this unending hell, a brilliant shimmer of light pierced its vision. There, before the animal stood a bright and golden threshold which would lead it from its prison and into the glorious light of freedom. Oh, sweet, beautiful freedom! Focusing all of its will, the animal sprinted for the exit and burst through the gates of its prison and into the golden glow of the outside. Not willing to risk recapture at the hands of the shadowy minions of the doctor though, the creature continued in its flight from the dark prison. It could hear the fading yells of the shadows behind it as it ran down a great incline and into a nearby forest.
As it traversed it way through the dark woods, thorns and branches sliced through the animal's skin, and the rough, and rocky terrain of the ground split and cracked the animal’s feet, but the wounds only served to further the animal's great frenzy. Even as blood seeped from the wounds across its body, the sweet taste of freedom helped to mask the pain of any such minor nuisances. Stumbling through the darkness below the canopy, the animal had to constantly pick itself back up as it stumbled over hidden roots and dead logs. Small biting insects, attracted by the smell of creature’s freely flowing blood, hounded it as it fought its way through the thick underbrush and to the end of the unforgiving forest.
All around the animal, the sounds of its pursuers were intertwined with those of the forest’s inhabitants. Numerous times, the creature attempted to lose the shadows which followed it, but regardless of how many turns or loops it made, the dark shapes remained only half a dozen meters away. It would have screamed and yelled for help and out of terror were it not for fear of attracting some of the natural predators of the woods, but even without this added noise, the animal’s heavy breathing was more than enough to turn a few glowing eyes that it passed. Thankfully, the thick undergrowth eventually began to thin out as the creature approached a light which made its way past the thick trunks of the trees. Rushing forward then, it pushed its way through thick brambles and out into the light.
Having at last escaped the woods, the creature continued through the large open field and down the steep hillside of a small valley. Small stones cut and dug their way into the pads of its feet, and the thick dust thrown up from its tumbles down the hillside began to burn its eyes, and cause them to water. Even as the air rushing in and out from the creature’s lungs began to truly take its toll, the drake spotted a settlement in the distance and forced itself to continue pushing forward. Fighting back raspy coughs and wheezes, the animal made its way through a small brook and into the shining light of the town which lay ahead of it.
Its vision beginning to cloud, the creature stumbled its way into the village and made its way through the abandoned streets in search of some form of hiding place. While the rough dirt paths were far more forgiving than the groundcover of the forest, they still caused the animal to stumble as it made its through the village, eventually slowing itself down to a dead-man’s march. In the distance, it could just make out the sounds of the yelling shadows as they followed in pursuit, but it did little to spurn the sense of urgency in the already exhausted animal as it weaved its way through the streets of the hamlet.
It approached what appeared to be a deserted marketplace in the center of town, and no longer hearing the sound of the shadows that had followed it, the creature decided to take the opportunity to rest for a moment and allow its breath to return to it. As its vision slowly came back into focus however, it quickly realized that it was far from alone. All around it, the ink black shapes moved throughout the square, and to the creature’s horror, it realized that a few had already noticed its presence and were now approaching it. With a screech, the creature ran from the approaching shadows and towards the nearest street leading from the plaza to the rest of the town.
Halfway to reaching its goal however, the creature stopped as more ink black shapes began to enter from his to-be exit and into the marketplace, thoroughly blocking its path. It turned to search for a new exit, but quickly saw that from every side, the dark shadows were moving towards the dragon in order to attack it. Charging at the nearest conglomeration of shadows, the dragon made its way into the center of the square and found itself even more exposed than it had been before. With no other option left to it, the creature began to lash out at the approaching shadows, in order to repel them, but to little avail.
Regardless, the animal was determined to die rather than return to being tortured within the prison by their leader, it lashed out at every side in order to fend off the shadows. With each swipe of its claws however, it grew to be more and more sluggish as the fatigue from its earlier flight quickly caught up with the small creature. It felt itself stumble, and a growing sickness rose within its stomach as it clung to consciousness. The sickness grew and the dragon felt the few contents of its stomach empty themselves onto the ground accompanied by a fair amount of its own blood.
Falling to its knees, the dragon gave a few final swipes with its claws before collapsing to the ground as its muscles sang out their cries from the roaring fire of agony which engulfed them. The creature looked out through its rapidly darkening vision as the dark shadows stopped a half meter away from it and simply watched as lay upon the hard ground dying. The sound of its pursuers indicated that they had finally caught up with their prey and would now return it to its cell. With one final raspy cough, the animal closed its eyes and let the blackness enfold its consciousness amidst the cackling of the dark king.
---
As the lavender unicorn and the doctors finally caught of to her young assistant in the marketplace, she braced herself for the worst. Making her way through the large crowd of ponies, a growing sense of dread filled her heart as she briefly glanced at some of the wounds adorning the crowd. Thankfully, most were not deep, but it was more than clear that the sharp claws of the dragon had done a fair amount of damage to the numerous individuals which had tried to help the dragon. More than a few of the individuals gave her sorrowful glances as she made her way to the center of the group of assembled ponies.
Finally, she caught sight of the crumpled form of her assistant lying in the center of the marketplace. His entire body was lined with deep cuts and dark bruises, and in several locations his scales had been entirely torn off, exposing the red, irritated skin and muscle that lay below. Around the young assistant’s body, there lay a rapidly expanding pool of blood which stained the earth.
The unicorn’s body froze up at the sight of her friend’s barely moving, and she could feel warm tears slowly trailing their way down her face. She was lightly pushed aside as several doctors rushed to the drake and began to desperately treat his wounds and attempt to stem the flow of blood.
“Oh, Spike, no… please… I…I-” she stopped as her crying turned into sobbing and she was pulled away from the scene by her friends.
The drake sat on a small oak chair within the Town Hall. All around him sat rows upon rows of empty chairs set up to face a podium upon a small stage which had been set up in the center of the structure. From there, a pony stood speaking, her hollow voice echoing throughout the building like a mournful song as she spoke to the empty crowd of chairs before her. The dragon strained to make out the words she was saying, but could only decipher their sorrowful nature.
Standing up, the drake began to move towards the front of the mass of assembled chairs. The only light within the building came from the windows that lined the building which allowed for the dead gray light of the overcast sky outside to slowly drift into the very center of the structure. The normally bright cream walls were faded into a sickly granite color from the light and the normally cheerful sound of ponies talking and laughing had been replaced with a deafening silence which rang louder than any sound he had ever heard.
The young dragon slid into the second row and looked up at the lavender mare, whose tear stained face was partially hidden by a small, simple black veil which hung from her horn. The unicorn seemed not to notice the drake as she neither looked at him to acknowledge his presence nor skipped a beat in her dialogue. The mare’s words were faint, coming out as barely more than a whisper, forcing the drake to strain to hear what was being said.
“I’m so, so sorry, Spike. If only I had been there for you, if I had just known how fragile you were… It’s all my fault, Spike. And I won’t ever forgive myself for allowing this to happen. I should have seen the signs, and not been so hard on you. If only I had known how lonely you truly were, how alone you felt, I would have tried to find a way to help you…”
The lavender mare took a break in speaking to wipe a few tears from her eyes, and as she was paused, it was then that the drake saw the only other thing occupying the front of the stage: a small mahogany casket, with the front part of its lid fully open. A sense of dread began growing in the young dragon’s heart at the site of it. He tried to avoid thinking of what lay inside the casket, but he already knew quite well what lay within it.
The drake told himself that he would move no closer to the stage, for he dared not approach the horrors which lay inside. Yet, he felt his legs rise up from the chair, and begin to carry him towards the edge of the coffin. The drake tried to stop himself, begging its body to not look upon the contents. The word’s of the lavender mare were drowned out by the screams within his mind as he was forced to look down at the coffin’s contents.
Lying there, with a blissful, and relaxed expression upon his face, lay the drake. His chest lay unmoving and his arms were laid out upon either side of his body. Rather than horror at the sight of his own corpse however, the drake felt a small sense of relief. The drake that lay before him was finally free from his torment and torture… here he lay forever undisturbed by the cruel oppression of the king. No longer would that dragon be forced to undergo night after night of brutal torture. No longer would that drake be forced to lie to his friends… and that drake… he could be that drake.
He didn’t have to remain tormented… he could be free. He could be like the drake before him. One that didn’t have to lie to his friends… He could be the drake that didn’t have to experience night after night of brutal torture… It would be so easy too, one little move and it would all be over… he could be free from all of this pain. He would be that dragon…
The lavender mare’s words interrupted the drake’s thoughts however, as she pleaded with him: “I just don’t want you to give up Spike. I can be there for you, but you just have to hold on… you can’t give into the darkness…”
Hold on? How could he hold on when he was subjected nightly to an endless cycle of pain and misery? How was he supposed to hold on when he dreaded the beginning of each and every day?! He wanted to believe in the words of the mournful mare, but the truth lay before him in the coffin! The only true way for him to become free was to become the same as the drake that lay before him. His choice was made.
Every source of light in the gray room then went out and the young dragon found himself lying upon his back against a cold, hard substance. Was this it? Had he too been set free? The violet drake didn’t feel any sensation from his limbs. He was there, yes, but he certainly did not feel the way he had moments before… The air was stale, and mixed with a rich earthy scent which weighed heavily upon space in which the dragon lay. From far away, outside of his chamber, the drake could barely make out the mournful muffled tones of the mare from before. Why did she insist that he remain imprisoned in his life of torment? Could the young mare not see that he was going to be free? He tried to block out the sounds of the lavender pony, but it was not enough. Her cries would not be silenced.
Some small part of the young drake refused to accept his newly found freedom. This piece of him shouted above the rushing waters of freedom, refusing to be drowned out in the beautiful silence. It clawed its way to the surface no matter how many times the dragon forced it back into the peaceful depths, but it couldn’t continue these actions forever. Each time was slower than the last, each leap for the shoreline came ever closer to falling short as the heavy chains of silence weighed down upon it…
The freedom would belong to the drake. Yes, he would be free…
---
The lavender mare lay next to the bed in which the young drake slept. The mare had long ago run out of tears to cry, and her hoarse voice had been reduced to little more than a raspy whisper. Yet, she refused to leave the poor baby dragon’s side. The mare’s friends had long ago given up on the possibility of pulling her away from his side. Their urging had only garnered a sharp response from the young unicorn. Thus, they let her be alone in the room with the sleeping dragon. Alone with silence.
The dragon had not moved for more than two days, not even in his sleep. The rise and fall of the young drake’s chest was barely discernible, even up close, and yet the mare waited. The mare whispered now softly to him. Her voice raw from endless hours of speaking to him and hoping in vain for some type of response. The unicorn gave out apologies for her lack of noticing the clear signs of what was wrong, recalled tales from the past of the joyful days of when they were young and had no worries, or she simply talked to him as though nothing was wrong, as if he wasn’t…
No. The lavender mare refused to entertain such a thought, but that still didn’t prevent it from entering her thoughts entirely. What would happen if the drake never woke again? Would she lay here, by his side forever? The unicorn blinked away the idea before it could root itself within her mind and returned her mind and eyes to the sleeping form of her friend.
Then, movement. A slight twitch came from the dragon’s claws. Then another, and another! He was awaking! Everything would be fine! She had worried herself over nothing. The pony opened her mouth wide to joyfully cry out for the doctors and for her friends. But then the movements didn’t stop.The small assistant, her friend, kept shaking and shaking… The creature’s entire body tensed up and then threw itself back against the bed. Again and again.
The mare cried out in horror. The friend screamed. Tears found their way to her eyes as she was pushed aside by ponies in white coats. The name of her dying friend caught itself in her throat as she was dragged away by her friends. Her friends, all of whom sobbed with her as they forced her out of the room shielding her eyes, and their own, from the image of the young dragon.
All she could think of was how this had been all her fault. If only she had paid closer attention to him, talked with him more, done… something, anything. She was to blame for the death of her friend. She had killed the young child.
---
The Princess of the Night rose up in horror from where she been studying the shattered orb. All around her, the sea turned rough and violent as sphere after sphere darkened itself. A harsh wind tore itself across the seascape, throwing up towering waves which crashed themselves down upon her body. Lightning shot down from the heavens and a great gale threw to her body to and fro.
In the distance, a white shape made its way towards the alicorn. The fear on the elder sister’s face was clear as she informed her sibling of the events unfolding in the nearby town. As one, the sisters rose, leaving behind the tumultuous waves as they overtook the orbs. As the pair departed, a dark cloud of smoke descended upon the area, laughing as it reveled in the beautiful silence it had created for itself.
More than one thousand years ago, when the Princess of the Night and her sister had faced the dark lord of the Crystal Empire, they had not been prepared for the truly sadistic evil which lay within his mind. The diarchs had nearly lost one another to the lord’s sorcery and skills in manipulation. By turning them against one another, and tormenting them in their own dreams, he had nearly crushed their spirits, but together, they had prevailed. By supporting one another, they had overcome the sway of the dark lord, and had banished him beneath the ice. The Princess of the Night then studied the magic of the dark lord. Learning how he manipulated dreams. Although it had taken many years to master, the alicorn eventually mastered the art of dream making. However, knowing full-well the potentially dangerous nature of the manuscripts left behind by Sombra, she had destroyed them, praying that the knowledge within them never be shared with anypony other than the two royal sisters.
As the Princess of the Night flew towards the small village, she reflected upon these events, playing them through in her mind again and again. Somehow, the dark lord must have hidden away a cache of the manuscripts, and it had now been stumbled upon by somepony. The maker of dreams chastised herself for having been so ignorant as to have not recognized the magic of the king sooner. She only hoped that she would be able to prevent this dark magic from spreading anymore than it already had.
As the alicorn alighted herself outside of the hospital, she could make out the shape of the lavender mare surrounded by her friends. With a small nod from the princess, the friends left the pair alone outside. The young mare’s disheveled mane hung limply at her sides, and her red eyes barely acknowledged the diarch as she approached. Only the occasional sniff came from the young student.
The Princess of the Night kneeled down beside the distraught mare, running a hoof slowly along her back. The pair sat there as the golden sun was beginning to set, casting it’s light down upon the two as they sat in an ever growing field of silence. When the alicorn spoke, she did so softly, keeping her eyes level with the horizon. She informed the unicorn of her plan which might offer a solution, and saw the young hopeful eyes of the pony stare up at she dared not meet her gaze. She knew that the chances of such a task actually working were terribly low, but perhaps, with the young ponies’ resolve, it could be accomplished.
The royal mare did her best to remain positive as they made their way to the drake’s room. But the thoughts continued to plague the back of her mind as she walked with the young mare. For even if the alicorn was able to give the two access to the young drake’s dreams, there were still no chances that the two would be able to establish any form of dialogue with him. It had been centuries since the diarchs had last faced the dark magic of the king; there was no telling what monstrous mutated form the magic may have taken on in all of those years in isolation… But of course, she dared not crush the mare’s hopes, and so her fears went unvoiced.
The Princess of the Night was led into the room where once more the young drake lay unmoving upon the bed, however this time, thick leather restraints bound the limbs of the dragon there. The diarch observed that the lavender unicorn averted her gaze from her friend, a deep look of regret engraved upon her face. She also noted that the aura surrounding the dying drake was weak, barely giving off any light, meaning he did not have much time before he left this world forever.
Focusing her power, the alicorn began searching the mind of the dragon, attempting to find a way to access his unconscious mind. The lavender mare dared not breathe as she looked on hopefully at the older mare. After a minute of searching, the glow of the diarch’s horn slowly faded and she turned her gaze to meet the waiting eyes of the other mare. Her eyes showed clearly enough that the outlook was grim; even though it was clear that the diarch was attempting to not show this upon her face.
Knowing that now was the time for action, the alicorn motioned for the lavender mare to stand next to her as she began casting her spell. As it began to take hold, the lavender unicorn took one final tearful look at her her friend before she felt herself collapse Their minds freed themselves from their bodies as they descended into the mind of the young drake. The waking world’s lights slowly fading to nothing as a new world was revealed to the pair. It was a desolate landscape, full of grays and blacks. The soil beneath their homes was empty and showed no signs of having ever supported life. All around them, a faint breeze blew, sending small clouds of gray just silently blowing across the rolling hills. Even the sun didn’t shine, if there even was one. A rust colored sky was all that was present in the sky which was heavily blanketed with thick dark clouds that only allowed a faint suggestion of light to carry its way through to the empty world below.
As they marched through the valley of the shadow of death, the lavender mare cried out for her friend, but the words were swallowed up by the land of the deepest night of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light was like darkness. The Princess of the Night noted that this light only continued to fade as they marched on through the deserted hills of gray sand. Of more concern, however, was the fact that the gusts of wind seemed to be picking up in speed. For hours they marched through the expansive desert with the weather only continuing to worsen as they moved on.
It came to the the point at which the two ponies couldn’t be more than a few feet from one another as they continued their trek. Even by the light of their glowing horns combined, the Princess of the Night had trouble seeing through the sandstorm which sent grains of sand stinging into her sides and eyes. Although she delayed it for as long as she could the princess finally spoke up and was in the middle of suggesting that it might be a lost cause when they saw something in the distance. An emptiness of clear daylight which shone itself upon a small mound of recently disturbed sand. The pair took off running towards the point of salvation, ignoring the ever more tumultuous gusts of sand and air.
With a final effort, they pushed through and found themselves within the small area of inactivity. Here the air hung and didn’t move at all, and even more curious, was that the sounds of the sandstorm from outside their small haven had gone silent as though nothing was happening at all. The lavender mare had thrown herself upon the pile of earth as soon as they had entered the sanctuary, and had begun digging at the earth. Throwing up piles upon piles of the heavy gray dust. The diarch joined in and in under a minute, they were scraping at the top of a simple wooden box.
The diarch could hear beside her as between thick gasps of air the lavender mare choked out the words: “No, no… Please no, Spike. You can’t be… You can’t…”
---
The drake had finally drowned out the noise of that horrible mare that was trying to keep him from his freedom. With a contented sigh, the dragon relaxed within his wooden sanctuary and let the deafening silence surround him. Let every note of no sound permeate and shake his very soul… At last! Sweet, freedom. No more fear… No more pain.
But then the young drake heard something. Something horrible. It was the monster. The monster! It was trying to steal him from his sanctuary! That horrible monster! No! No! The drake would not be returned to the endless nights of torture! He would fight! The enraged dragon readied himself so he could leap upon the sadistic invader. The scraping! The scraping! It had reached him! The lid of the creature’s home was thrown open and the drake saw the horrible eyes of his oppressor. With all the force he could muster the drake threw himself upon the sadistic monster, sinking its claws into the horrible creatures neck...
The lavender mare could only watch in shock as her friend, the one whom she would die for, leapt forward and sank his claws into her neck. The pain only lasted a moment. A second later a brilliant cerulean light sent the creature flying back, where it landed in the sand with a heavy thud. The wounds stung, but thankfully they weren’t too deep, but the mare could already feel the blood pooling itself around the wounds and making its way down her long neck, staining her lavender coat a deep shade of purple. She watched in horror as her friend struggled once more to his feet and charged at her again before being caught in a blue aura by the alicorn.
The unicorn called out the drake’s name, but the wild creature was oblivious to her calls. Did he not recognize her? Did he know it was all her fault? The animal struggled against his bonds, but could not loosen them.
“What!? Afraid I might hurt you? You tyrant! Go on! Torture me again and strip me once more of my freedom!”
The lavender mare averted her gaze and looked over to the alicorn who looked terrified of what she saw, as though she were reliving a nightmare for a second time. Her normally regal posture and proud stance had been overshadowed with the cowering stance like that of a young filly. Turning back to the enraged creature, the mare opened her mouth and was about to try to plead with it, but was interrupted by its shouts.
“What? You brought a friend this time? Am I not enough for you?! Why can't I be all that you need? Do you really think so little of me? You simply can’t allow me to have me freedom? Is that it? Is it really too much to ask for? To accompany you? Clearly you want me dead, so why won’t you just let me die already?”
The drake regarded the two monstrous figures before him as they looked at one another once more in confusion -- no, not in confusion! They laughed at him! Mocked him! Thought him a child!? The first figure, the once which now bled from his attack took a step towards him and he attempted to lash out and bite the creature. The drake had missed, but the monster kept its distance from him now. Why were they just staring? Get it over with already! Why did it look at him with such pitiful eyes? It’s red, no -- lavender eyes continued to stare down at him. They were familiar to him, but they weren’t the eyes of his oppressor… No, these were from long ago… Foreign, yet familiar…
The being said something. A word. Again. And then there it was again! He tried to listen to the words it spoke, but they were drowned out by the deafening silence that surrounded their haven. The dragon looked closer, and saw tears falling from the lavender eyes of the mare. She spoke that word over and over again. He felt anger within him, and knew that she was to blame, and yet… There was something else. A reason not for hate. But for change? For forgiveness? Love?
“Spike.”
He heard the word this time, truly heard it. Not just from his ears, but from his soul. His friend. Friend! The dragon felt the magical bonds loosen from around him as he rushed forward to embrace the lavender mare. Tears were in their eyes as the storm around them subsided, and the air became clear. The clouds faded away revealing a brilliant blue sky, and a golden sun which radiated down upon them. Joy flooded his heart as grass grew from around their feet, birds began to sing their joyous songs and-
Silence. The silent roar echoed throughout the valley, bringing the two friends out of one another’s embrace. The entire air was thick and the smell of ozone permeated the air as a great cloud came charging from far away. A terrifying, dark, ominous cloud that tore across the sky, opening a deep gaping wound across the land as it bared down upon them and screeched out the dragon’s name. The trio all froze as the towering smoke rose higher and taller, filling every last spot of the open sky.
Then, came the eyes. Two serpentine green eyes with red irises opened, blanketing the sky and bathing the land in their sickly green glow as they leered down upon them. A purple mist rose up from the eyes as it came together in order to reveal a towering blood-red horn that curved up though the sky like a sword ready to come down and slice the three all in one blow. Finally, a wicked gray face emerged from the clouds as the dark lord’s pointed grin opened up and let out a hollow and mocking laugh that sounded more like wind running through the limp branches of a dead tree than a sound of joy.
“You. Miserable. Insect!”
The drake cowered at the voice, taking cover behind his two friends. As the booming voice continued:
“You consider these pathetic fools your friends? A mare, who raised you since your hatching only to have you act as her slave? To do her chores and and cooking while she has adventures with her friends? Leaving you behind, while she goes off to become a hero? While you do what? Shine dishes and organize books?”
The drake tried to cover his ears against the voice, but could do nothing, already feeling the icy grip of his words sting at his heart.
“And this naïve alicorn, that thinks she can master the true power of an emperor? A god? That is so afraid of her subjects that she hides knowledge from them? Steals their privacy and meddles in other ponies affairs? That decides who may live and who may die?”
The dragon clawed at his scaly ears, trying to pry them off, anything to stop the horrible to block out the sound of that horrible monsters words… But he had a point. Were these two ponies really the drake’s friends? Ponies that stood by and mocked him while he was left to rot in a small library, spending every waking day performing menial house chores?
“Ask yourself. Do these ponies honestly care for you? You saw them, they barely even batted an eye at the idea of you dying. Their only reason for coming here was to save themselves, not you. Surely you must realize this…”
The dragon hated the words, was revolted by the words, and yet they rang true in his heart. These ponies cared nothing for him… Would replace him in an instant if they could. The dead laugh of the king rang out across the landscape as a bolt of lightning shot out from his horn throwing the alicorn back into a nearby dune. Unmoving. Then came a second one which send the lavender mare back into the hole from which he had come. From where he had been free. Before she ruined everything!
The king descended from the sky and trotted up to the young dragon. His devilish grin smiling as victory was his. The drake moved towards the shallow pit where the pony he thought was his friend lay dying. Splinters ran through her legs, and blood was slowly pooling out from her mouth as it was expelled from within her pierced lungs. She looked up weakly, pleadingly at the drake, begging him not to do it. How pathetic.
This pony and her friends had used the drake. Made him think that he was one of them. That he had… a family. Had shown him that somebody did care about him. All of them… They had shown him friendship no matter what happened no matter what he did… and now… this? Betrayal? After all of that he was throwing it away? Based on the words of the sadistic monster that had tortured him for months? No… no this was not how it should be. It was an injustice that needed to be avenged.
The dragon leapt forward, plunging his teeth into the ponies neck. Felt the fur and muscle in his mouth as he bit with all of his strength. The dragon used its claws to slash at the face of the pony. He felt hooves weakly push against him, attempting to pry him from his victim’s neck, but he just bit harder, and harder. Never letting go…
The old tyrant collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood. The old king’s chest slowly rose and fell one final time as he died for the last time. The air around the drake was quiet, but not silent. A familiar hum had returned to the air. The hum of creatures singing, rejoicing, laughing, crying, yelling, cheering, and dying… But more importantly, living.
The peaceful meadows faded into blackness around the trio and they found themselves awaking in the hospital. The young drake lifted his head and awoke to the sounds of activity resonating through the air. The lavender mare rushed to his side, embracing him, there eyes wet and warm as they cried in relief. They were soon joined by their friends who echoed their emotions, and together the seven friends rejoiced and reveled in the beautiful sounds of life which crescendoed throughout the land.
The doctor closed his notebook as his session with Spike came to a close.When the young dragon had first come to him several months ago, he worried that the child might never come close to recovery. Aside from the night terrors, the poor dragon had suffered from depression, anxiety, and a host of other major issues. However, with the assistance of a very close group of supporting friends, a truly miraculous recovery had taken place. Progress had been slow at first as Spike was always very silent, and he had to take extra care in order to coax him into speaking. Now, as the psychologist stared back at his image, he could hardly see any of the outside traces of the terrible ordeal which had left the dragon resembling more of a shell of a living creature than anything else.
A knock came from the door as the drake’s friend entered the room. She, of course, had been the true force behind the dragon’s incredible recovery. The bond which they shared was closer than almost anything the doctor had seen before. The timid lavender mare smiled and inquired upon the status of her friend, a glimmer in her eyes.
“Well, Miss Sparkle. I am pleased to inform you that I believe we will be able to finally release your friend here from the hospital here,” the doctor paused for a moment as an excited squeal escaped from the young mare, followed by a blush and a nod for him to continue, “I of course want to still see him at least four times a week, as there is still a lot of work which needs to be done, and I would hate for there to be any relapse. Now then, in regards to his treatment…”
He listed off a long list of medications which he was to take, accommodations to be made, and precautions to be taken. The stallion was about to move on to his next section when he saw the curious and impatient look of the young mare looking at him.
“Yes, Miss Sparkle? Did you have a question?”
“Well, yes. While I’m sure that you still can’t tell yet, because science is a fickle thing sometimes, and while I’m sure you’re you don’t want to make any presumptions, I,” the unicorn paused as she realized she was rambling, “what I mean to ask is, do you think Spike may ever fully recover?”
The psychologist watched the two hopeful faces stare back at him with wide, expectant eyes. While normally, he wouldn't make such a presumption without further details, he couldn’t deny that there was something more here. A beautiful, joyous song of life present within both their souls.
“Yes, I believe that, with time, the wounds from this traumatic ordeal may finally fade away.”
The lavender mare embraced her friend and squeezed him tightly. As she felt the final weight of guilt lift itself from her shoulders so to did she feel the shame rise from his. With the burdens off of both of their chests, the rest of the meeting quickly passed by. As the pair exited the hospital into the glorious light of the morning, they saw their small band of friends wave to them. Each, in turn, embraced him and shared news and praise to the teary eyed dragon before, together, the seven members of the group made their way back to the sounds of the joyful town below and embraced the newborn light of the day.
The lavender mare could only watch in shock as her friend, the one whom she would die for, leapt forward and sank his claws into her neck. The pain only lasted for a few brief seconds. Moments later a brilliant cerulean light sent the creature flying back, where it landed with a hollow thud. The wounds burned like hot coals, and the mare could already feel the blood pooling itself around the wounds and making its way down her long neck. The bright red color of her blood rapidly stained her lavender coat a deep shade of purple, before it began to pool at her hooves. More concerned for her friend though, she began to make her way over to the fallen dragon. But before she could take two steps forward, she saw the small form twitch and then struggle to its feet. The mare then watched in horror once more as her friend struggled to his feet and charged at her forcing her to roll out of his way as he barreled past her.
From the corner of her eye, the lavender mare could see that the Princess of the Night was preparing yet another spell, but she called for her to stop. She would not allow her friend to be hurt anymore than he already had been. Before the drake could attempt to assail her once more, she used her own magic to take hold of his limbs and prevent him from moving forward. She stumbled forward feeling the blood loss begin to take its toll and forcing her to hold up one hoof in an attempt to stop the flow of flood. As the lavender mare approached him, the drake looked back at the unicorn with a look of pure loathing, and though she searched, she saw no trace of her friend within the eyes of the crazed animal.
“What!? Afraid I might hurt you more? You tyrant! Go on! Torture me again and strip me once more of my freedom!”
The lavender mare averted her gaze. She had done this to him. She was responsible for turning him into this creature, she knew it. The distraught mare looked over to the alicorn who looked terrified of what she saw, as though she were reliving a nightmare for a second time. Her normally regal posture and proud stance had been overshadowed with the cowering stance like that of a young filly. The mare returned her gaze to her friend who had seen her look at the princess and now shouted once more:
“Just kill me already! I beg of you! I can’t continue like this! Please! Why can’t you just give me my freedom?”
The unicorn felt the tears form in her eyes once more as they had so many times these past few days. She tried speaking words but they died before they even reached her lips. How could she have done this to him? From far away she could hear the faint voice of the Princess of the Night as she urged the mare to be careful. Asking her if she was alright. How could she be alright? The pony spoke these words to her friend. Begging him to come back to her. Saying his name again and again…
The world around her began to become foggy as the young mare’s vision began to blur. Once more she could hear the voice of the elder one call out to her, more forcefully this time. Begging her to be careful. But the mare was oblivious to her words as she continued to cry, for her friend was lost to her forever. She embraced her former friend one final time as she felt the world around her begin to close in and her strength slowly withered away.
The princess had run to the mare and tried to help her the moment she fell into the arms of the creature, but it was too late. As the lavender mare spoke her quiet final words, the magic restraining the horrible creature evaporated. Before the lunar princess could act, the drake had taken his sharp claws, and with all his force, thrust his claws into the young mare’s heart, freezing the last words on her lips. In stunned silence, the younger sister watched as the pony sank to the ground.
The drake removed his claws from the body of the horrible monster and felt a great weight lift itself up from upon his chest. At last! He was free! Free from that sadistic creature! The drake cried out in joy and looked down upon his former oppressor. But what greeted him was not the sight of the corpse of his oppressor, but rather the empty eyes of his only true friend in the world. No. The dragon looked from the lifeless body of the crimson stained pony before him, to his blood soaked fingertips, and the blood running down all over his body. No! The deafening silence pervaded throughout the poor drake as the cold reality of his actions began to dawn on him. NO!
The silence that hung in the air weighed heavily upon the two figures. The lunar princess watched without moving as the poor creature realized the result of its actions and then collapsed upon the ground, hugging the lifeless body of his dead friend. Nothing moved anywhere in that world for those few minutes. Until a hollow laughter that froze the blood of the mare rang out across the landscape. High above her, the mare saw a terrifying, dark ominous cloud that was all too her familiar to her. The great cloud tore across the sky, opening a deep gaping wound across the land as it bared down upon her. She dared not move as the leviathan smoke rose higher and taller, filling every last spot of the gray sky.
Then, came the eyes. The orbs which had haunted her for months after she and her sister had banished them beneath the ice. They bathed the land in their sickly green glow as they leered down upon her. The purple mist which rose up from the eyes recalled the mare’s memories of finding her beloved sister trapped beneath the spell of a similar gaze. The mare recalled the endless nights without sleep out of pure terror of the horrors which awaited her and her sister. Far above her head, the towering red horn carved its way across the sky as it’s sharp pointed tip glared menacingly at her. Finally, the wicked gray face of her nightmares emerged from the clouds as the dark lord’s pointed grin opened up and let out another hollow laugh.
“Oh, Princess Luna. It has been a long time. Hasn’t it? Have you enjoyed stealing my magic? Taking my home from me? Or are you still that same frightened filly that cowered behind her sister all those centuries ago?”
The mare’s resolve melted beneath his menacing gaze. How was it possible? How could he of returned after all this time? The more it sank in though, the more she was filled with an ever growing fury. He was responsible for the torturing of the young dragon. He was the one responsible for the death of the mare. He would pay for what he had done. With a mighty yell, the royal princess lifted herself into the air and used her magic to send a powerful blast of energy at the despicable monstrosity. Yet, the brilliant azure beam simply passed through the king’s shadowy figure.
The dark lord laughed at her pathetic attempt, and with a flick of his horn, shot a dark bolt of lightning down upon the alicorn. The Princess of the Night barely managed to dodge the attack as she dove out of the ray of the heated energy. The princess made several final attempts to attack the dark unicorn, but they were all to no avail. Every time she did so, the monster would remain unphased, and then send forth another beam of energy which she would barely manage to dodge. Suppressing her rage, the alicorn knew that she stood know hope of victory without the help of her sister. Thus, she begrudgingly flew away from the horrible beast and escaped from the valley of death and back into the world of the living.
---
The drake sat there next to his dead friend, oblivious to the struggle above his head. The thick cloud of silence which surrounded him felt like lead brick strapped to the young child’s shoulders. Those sweet, sweet, eyes of his friend stared up at them, their lavender irises a dull violet of what they had once been. The face the child had known since childhood… Now stared back at him… all of its emotions forever taken from it… its memories forever lost… forever enveloped by the silence. Free. Part of the drake envied what the mare had obtained, but the other half was revolted by what he saw. For a life to end like this… how could any fate be so cruel? The drake slowly ran his claws through her lifeless hair, straightening her bangs. The blood which had dried on his scales slowly chipped away with each movement of his body. Clearing away the outer wounds, but leaving the inner scars forever engraved upon his soul.
And he sat with her, exchanging woes as the Princess of the Night traded blows. They both retreated; one to his soul, the other from the nightmarish hole. The king looked down upon them and saw his work had come to an end. He saw the pair stretched out, stretched out underground. A drake, and a mare. Saying nothing. Never knowing. Giving silence for silence.
The Princess of the Day paced back and forth within her chambers. It had been almost two full days since her sister had departed to check upon the status of her protégé, and she still had yet to receive any word from her regarding her status. The younger sister had even failed to fulfill her obligations in the raising and lowering of the moon, which had only ever happened once before. Staring out upon the setting sun she searched the skies, hoping at any moment to see the familiar outline of the mare appear against the crimson sky, but she never appeared.
Of greater concern was how the pearl alicorn had been unable to enter the dreamscape since her last encounter with her sister there. No matter what she may try, it was as though there were some force which had created a barrier which she simply could not break through. The diarch shuddered at the thought of the untold horrors which could be befalling her citizens if some form of malevolent force meant them harm. She had sent word to her most faithful student in order to determine her opinion on the matter. Granted, it would be understood if she were too preoccupied with the current tragedy befalling her friend in order to respond, but it had never stopped her before…
The mare sighed as she realized that she was most likely reading far too much into the matter. The diarch took a small sip of tea and allowed for the soothing liquid to warm her from the inside. Using a hoof to rub her sore shoulders, she returned her gaze to the window. The last hint of the sun was disappearing behind the distant hills, giving one final golden ray of light which reflected off of the bright walls of the brilliant capital city. Then, as she finished setting the sun she waited for a moment hoping her sister might take over. When no such moment arrived, she gave a small sigh and allowed for the moon to begin its slow journey through the night sky. Looking at the path it would take, she noted the lack of stars in the sky as a cold breeze crept in from the doors to the balcony. A silence had befallen the kingdom, returning an old fear to her mind: what if this time she didn’t have the strength to defend her kingdom? What if-
The feeling of a presence in the room made the diarch stop and turn to see if perhaps her assistant or a guardpony had entered her room, perhaps delivering news of her sister or assistant? Yet the door to the royal chambers remained closed and the room was entirely silent. Returning her attention back to her tea, the princess finished off the last of it and decided that the worry and stress of her present situation was surely playing tricks on her mind. Slowly sliding into her bed, the Princess of the Day closed her eyes and allowed for the world of dreams to wash away her worries.
---
The elder sister stood alone in the center of an empty field, surrounded by rolling hills of yellowed grass. No other object blocked her vision for miles around her in every direction as the pale gray sky offered its light to the land. The mare trotted through the tall grass as she made her way to an unknown destination. The air was silent, without the sound of birds, insects, or small animals running through the tall blades. The entire world around the one alicorn was frozen in time. Yet, she felt something. A familiar presence that she had not known for hundreds of years.
‘Sombra…’ the ruler hissed.
Whipping herself around she barely dodged the hideous black mist as it flew past her alighting itself in on a nearby mound. From the dark smoke, a figure emerged. The scarred body of a gray stallion with the remains of a shattered crown upon his head. Slowly, the monster turned towards the princess, and its cold red eyes met with her own. The lips of the thing slowly curled up into a sinister smile at the sight of the fear in the ruler’s face.
‘Oh, Celestia,’ the king laughed, ‘it really has been far too long…’
