> I'll Stay > by sejox > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Forgotten by my own kind, I stayed > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everything has a beginning. A start from which each creature can move on. But unlike this little piece of paper, I didn’t have one. Like many others of my kind, I had a challenge to surpass in order to start my life as a dragon… a simple one: Break free from the egg’s concealment. The very first step of my journey, of my career, in this ever long circuit called immortality. But I couldn’t do it, no matter how hard I tried to break the shell, I didn’t have the strength required… And so I stayed… Lost, forgotten, at the mercy of the elements and destiny… I waited, I cried, I prayed, and yelled. But no one came to save me… for more time that I could remember. Sounds were my sole company at the time. A really dreadful one, for I heard things that could breakdown the mind of any foal if he or she had lived through the same. I heard the winds roaring like ghosts who suffered for their sins. I heard the storms cursing the same way a mad god would do before shrieking the fabric of reality with his power. I heard the insects screeching and mumbling through my surroundings--To this very day I still fear for the moment in which one of those condemned creatures would get inside my brain and eat everything from within it. And finally, I heard the beasts’ growling… and I prayed each day, so none of them could find my hideout. It was terrifying. And the fact that I can only remember few scraps from those days only means that it was also traumatic… traumatic enough to fool my extraordinary memory. Yet, I stayed, hoping for the day to come, the day when someone would save me. The day when I could say to myself that I was right. For I believed that that hell was not everything life had to offer, that there should be something greater waiting for me. And so, I remained strong, and waited. Countless days passed after that, horrible days of strife, endless nights fighting the unknown with nothing but hope alone. But those days, all those endless nights of terror, all those fights, all of it was nothing in comparison to the thing I felt when someone touched my prison. That someone held a warm aura, an aura that irradiated something unknown for me at the time, yet so powerful that to this day is even capable of breaking the strongest of temples. Love At the time, it felt like the divines were sent directly to my aid, it was the only thing my brain could assimilate the feel I was being provided. But then it came something much more powerful… A soft embrace, accompanied by caressing wings, warm hooves… and most importantly, a heartbeat, the proof that something so majestic could really exist within a physical body… That day, I finally slept again. That day, I understood the real meaning of resting for a child. To be snuggled by the one who loves you without any trail of doubt. To feel protected from any harm or problem that could trouble you. To feel happiness by the mere fact of existing. That day I met someone really special to me. Her name was Celestia… but for me she only had one name that could suit her true self. Mom. > As the number one assistant, I stayed > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Months coursed swiftly as I rested calmly alongside my new mother. Yet, there was still a lingering thought, an unfulfilled wish that made me doubt of my current life. The fact that… actually. I wasn’t alive. I could think and fell everything around me, I had the warm love of my mother; Nothing could harm me inside that shell for eons to come. But that wouldn’t be living… Knowing this by instinct—as the skill of a mother dictates—Celestia tried to use her magic to spark the flame within me… … She told me to not say the number of attempts and tears shred that night… she also told me to not tell anyone about her howling cries and shaking hooves. But truth is that it only made me feel better… even if I was crying too, for I knew that her intentions were honest and I felt how much she really wanted to be the one who hatched me. Unfortunately, her wish wasn’t granted. And so I stayed, imprisoned until the right pony could break me free. A pony whose magic could surpass everything known. A pony that could use the very same power this world shares to every living creature. A pony of purple eyes and lavender coat. A pony with a smile that can pierce through the coldest of hearts. A pony worthy of my greatest gratitude, and my eternal love. A pony named: Twilight Sparkle, the embodiment of magic. She gave me the chance to exist and gave my mother the chance to have a son to call her own. And as a reward, I strived to be the best one for her. The one who could see for her good will. The one to be by her side through the hardship that could set upon her. And with each hardship, I witnessed first claw how she grew to be the one destined to be entitled. As Celestia’s protégé. As the element of magic. As the princess of friendship. As an embodiment of harmony. As a god among ponies… … The very act of writing this makes my heart throb with happiness… Such is the joy of the assistant who sees his beloved master become better and better through the ages, just like the finest of wines. But such jubilance is an unknown matter for most. A lot of creatures said once to me that living such life as the one I lived was worthless, “how I can be happy if I solely live to help to accomplish the merits of someone else?” they said. Well, let me tell you, I had plenty of tittles and achievements bounded to my name too. Yet the only tittle I cared about was the one of her number one assistant. And the only achievement that really mattered for me was being her’s. > Through hardships and love, I stayed > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you know what is more powerful, more delightful and more beautiful than love? Corresponded love. It was something I craved to find in the wrong vessel. Countless nights of my youth were spent trying to make that precious creature, that adamant pony of azure eyes, that god like example of beauty by the name of Rarity feel the same love towards me that I did for her. But by the time I was considered old enough to be recognized as an adult, we couldn’t see in each other anything but the fondness that family bonds create. Our Friendship was the strongest link between us; a knotted link meant to not change or be enlarged to new extents… My fixation on the beauty of her features remained. My fondness to her lovely words remained. Our closeness stayed intact. Yet the spark was gone. The answer for my craving was in the hoofs and fangs of another creature. Someone that—like me—was misunderstood for the obscure nature of their kin. Someone that wanted a change of heart for herself and her people. Someone that not only shared the same likes that me, but also shared the same love that I offered to her. Our time together made me realize how much I had lost of my youth,, how much I didn’t knew about love, and most importantly, how much I didn’t even knew at the time about my own self. And Even when our time as one lasted less than a handful of years. Even with all the eons that had cursed through my mind. Even when my heart still pumps every time I think about my true significant other. “They say that you can forget your first love… I’ll make sure of it… my precious bat pony… ” She remains as one of the pillars in my memories. Her name is so important in fact that I won’t write it in this paper; her name is something only I can have horde now. As the dragon I am, I’ll keep it safe with the rest of my treasures; I’ll keep it under my greedy claws until the rest of my days. That is, if there is ever one… Or maybe these are the rest of my days; isolated in this infinite universe… Had you ever thought about why people fear to get older? Is not because the muscle pain, the sickness, or even the fear of death. Their true fear is to not be able to do what they use to. To be left alone in a world that doesn’t understand you anymore. A world in which the only way someone can live is through past memories. A past crowded with adventures, dangers and risks. One that meant the beginning of a new era for our world. And yet, it was at the same time, a past flooded by jokes, parties, friends… loss… A past filled with enough memories and emotions to hold a thousand lives and more… a past I would be happy to sacrifice for the sake of seeing life flourish once again. As I look to the distant rocks floating around this little planet, I can’t help but laugh at the cruelty of destiny… Time itself is friend of no one; even if it can’t hurt you physically, it’ll find another way to do so. Be it by giving your foes a moment to advance or time enough for them to rest till they move to their next plan. Or by consuming the last strength held by the one already tired... Even reminding when the awesome days had to end to give pass to the next ones was hurtful enough. Time was the most powerful of our enemies and yet we never even batted an eye at it. We kept our sight so focused in fighting the others, plotting against their bad doings, and following tracks of the next villain searching for world domination… Hearing the cheers from the crowds after a job well done. “Here goes the princess and his drake, Twilight and Spike had saved us once again!” they cheered. “I’m sure that as long as they’re together there is nothing we should be afraid of,” others said between the crowds. They always counted on us, not as mere heroes, saviors, or gods. But just as friends. And as the friends they were, they remained by our side in the hardest of battles, and yet, even when we loss at the end they kept with us and celebrated their last day, they cheered, danced, singed, laughed and loved like no other day. They- “We… come on S-spike you were doing just fine.” We celebrated, because at least we had a life, a good life to be taken away. “Well, that is all for this one… hmm, ahg, no I went to emotional with this one, am sure I can do it better.” Spike, the purple mountain of a dragon who remained in the vast and gray landscape of a dead planet said before moving his head to the center of the circle he had made with the length of his own body. A trail of green sparkling fire linked his mouth with an object inside the cave, a torch. Beside it laid a statue of a winged unicorn, a crown in her head, and a lance by it side. Piles of papers and books stood neatly around it. “Guess I’ll have to try again. What do you say, Twilight?” Spike asked before moving the book near the front of the statue and laying his head near it, eyes shimmering at the sight of the pristine statue. There he stood, dazzled at the memories held by the imposing statue. The arid ground in which it stood and in which Spike rested was the only deplorable thing around them. He couldn’t mind it, not in his current state. “I wish I could horde your name too, but it’s too late for me to do that… just as it was late for you at the time to be my first love,” He said before patting the head of the statue as slowly and as tenderly as he could. As he lovely played with the statue, a swift movement of the torch grabbed his attention. The fire dimmed slightly for a couple of seconds before returning to his initial state. “Guess my magic isn’t as infinite as I thought… well, if I am to die here then I chose to do it alongside you” He said before closing his eyes, “rest well, Twi… love ya,” he smiled and then let time do what it pleased with them again. > Until the end of times, we'll stay > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the corner of the universe’s east section. Near the center of their own galaxy and just at two planets from its closest dead star, rested a now arid planet; named many times yet still insignificant to the rest of the universe. In this planet only one creature remains alive, his lungs are magically provided with air and his inner fire keeps himself and his treasure alive. Yet if you take a moment to see him with care you can notice that life is something that he can’t show. He was alive once, but now only the hope for a new beginning keeps him there. Unlike the others he prevailed through isolation and despair, he lost everything and everyone he loved. Even my image is not more than a shadow of the past for him. Don’t get me wrong, he may have lost everything but he is in fact not lost. What he seeks is an opportunity in a million; for life is not a thing that just happens nearby the ones who sought for it. You have to look for it, even play god if you really are so desperate to find it. Yet, he stayed, knowing from the beginning by my own advice that destiny will outsmart him before he could even see a fair glimpse of life again in this planet. He stayed through the coldness and roughness of space. He stayed there, without his beloved one… just like I have done many, many times in the past. As the distance between us narrowed, I took my fair amount of glimpses to the lair hiding beneath his enormous body, the statue of Twilight shined just like the first day I created it for her… or better say the second day, when I molded the figure into something more serious. Really, what was wrong with showing a near god like hero with a dumb face? It adds character, creatures would have been more intrigued about her that way. Such a wasted potential, dear Twilight, such a waste. Oh, sweet creatures from long past time. Here stays the last ones of your kin. A lonely, once mighty, old school knight. A wholesome drake of warm heart. I stuttered for a second. It had been eons ever since the last time a singed out of the blue. My eyes prompted to the drake in front of me. “Maybe there is still life inside you, my old friend,” I said after realizing where those feelings came from. The magic of harmony, something I had experienced many times but not once I was able to use or gather. It is in our nature after all, for chaos and harmony are not meant to be entangled. It’s the curse of gods, right my dear? We had everything in the list for our love to succeed. Passion, friendship, joy and tears. Yet destiny was the one to fear. “Oh boy!” I shouted, my lungs convulsing by a forced amount of coughs. “Spike you are killing me right here, I wasn’t expecting to give a show today,” I commented before flickering my magic fingers. The clicking sound of my paws were accompanied by an magic aura that took the drake by the jaw gently before a second spawn of magic in the form of a giant hand slapped him right across the face. The drake’s eyes snapped open once, twice, three times and more, yet he won’t wake. “At least be polite enough to be a decent crowd, would you?” The drake growled slowly, finally, a signal was given to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist the urge to keep the song when I left it. My sweet Celestia. If you could only see your child. Loyal to his believes. Honest to his feelings, And prisoner of his past. ~ My sweet Celestia. If you could only see his love. His devotion to your pupil. His craving to see another world. Flourish like you made it with your own… ~ Oh~ Celesti- “Discord will you please stop?” Spike offered, to my discomfort. “Aw, Come one, first you makes me sing with all that fuzzy harmony aura of yours and now you want me to stop? That is why I never liked the theater,” I pouted. “You were singing.” “Singing, improvising, acting, is all the same. It’s just a bunch of words told in a fancy way.” The drake laughed at my words and asked me how much creatures I thought my judgment on theater had could make them mad. I couldn’t care the less, even if they were alive to begin with. He laughed once more, this time in a more consenting way. In other times he would have lectured me for my lack of care in others and for my disrespectful manners. Those were the times in which he lived while sleeping. “So… what are you doing here? You got lost while coursing through space?” Spike asked. I glanced to him, then the neatly statue of Twilight and the mountain of papers inside his body made cave. How long has it been since this has started? How many times have I travel all the way here hoping to find him resting from his duty? “Spike,” I said after a long silence, “I’m sorry, but you need to wake up from that bubble…” The dragon glared at me with crossed eyes, his expression denoted anger. However I wasn’t the target for that feeling. Maybe some part of him was ready to give up. To let his magic rest and finally succumb to the vacuum of space as his whole kind once did. Yet, I was there to offer a solution less lethal; the desire I had in the past to see his soul at peace, had surrender after seeing him prevail over the eons. Now, how he will took my new offer was the important part. “Discord, you had lived more than me, I’m pretty sure that more than once you have seen life grow back out of a dead planet!” He expressed with a craving to refill some of his hope. “Well yes I had, actually there was a place with life on my way here, but I’m pretty sure they are dead by now, or maybe they transcended into divinity, who knows? That is the problem with infinite space you see, it’s so big that it makes it able for life to happen, but at the same time, that hugeness makes it impossible for life to know others.” “Then that means that I can go and find it right?” he concluded, to my dismay. “Yes… and no, Spike listen, even if you manage to avoid all the dangers along the way. I’m pretty sure you will be dead before getting any result.” Spike puffed some of his fire out of his nostril, a reckless decision given the fact that it was the magic inside that fire that kept him from dying. “Fine, I’ll just keep waiting for something to happen,” he said. “Spike…” fine I still wanted to test him one more time, “I think it’s time for you to let this all go. Twilight wouldn’t want this for you, to wait until the end of your days for something to happen and bring back everything to you.” “Then I’m sorry for her, but I won’t give up. Her knowledge and history will remain with me until the day arrives for me to use and shared it,” he stated, not with confidence or bravado. The only thing in his eyes was a fire much more powerful than the one inside his lungs. Maybe what I really wanted was to see that determination of him, it was something to admire after all. Others so called immortals would have fell to dismay and break afterwards. I, for once, or maybe three hundred and five times, was one of them—who counts it anyway? “Let me offer you this in that case,” I flickered my fingers, a portal growing out by my side. Light and sound pierced through the gap that broke time and space. Oh how I love to mess up with reality from time to time; it gives me the chills remembering how everything is so futile yet so beautiful to exist even though I could destroy it all with a flick of my fingers. “What is that light? And that, is that?!” Spike gasped. His jaw falling down by the second. “Is another dimension that I found a couple of millions of years back, I didn’t give it importance until, I found… this,” I swiped my hand near the gap, making the image shown to move towards a certain purple creature that produced some of the sound from that world. I could describe more about the world near the creature, like how vivid it looked, or how colorful and peaceful the green grassy dunes seemed while they were graced with the soft breeze of spring. But the face of Spike took me out of place for a while. He was even happier than our sweet Pinkie Pie in her own birth day parties. “Twilight…?” He asked, but his words came out more like a breath, “Is that her?!” he added, this time with more energy. His breathing pace doubled and I could hear from afar his heart bumping out of joy, “Where is her horn?” “Another dimension, remember? No horn neither unicorns here. At least that is what I know, it could change in the future,” I explained before invoking a luxurious couch. Even an all mighty god needs to rest every once or two times after a half galaxy long trip. Spike hurried down to his multiple scrolls yet took only half of the pile and presented them to me, asking me to retrieve the information to that dimension. I had to stop him right there, multidimensional travel decompose everything into its core materials. Only living things can pass through it, with the only condition that they will be reincarnated in the other side. “Well, except for me,” I added cockily, “I’m too special for that rule…” “Then what happens to me if I go instead? Will my memories remain intact? What if there is another Spike there and we have to share Twilight?” Spike rambled. I launched a finger to his mouth to stop his gibberish sounds. “Boy, relax, don’t you see that I tried to get comfortable? I’ll explain everything to you, after all, this matter will affect me two,” I proposed, unmuting him afterwards. “I know how much you crave to share what life had teach you. At first I saw certain pride in looking your will remain strong through the ages, but now I’m the one fearing to death.” I took a huge breath and glared at Spike, forcing an assertive look on him, “I won’t let destiny take away something precious from me again. That is why I am showing you this,” I stirred up myself. “A safe trip to salvation. Your inner self is the only thing that will remain; so you can say goodbye to your memories and everything you had accomplished up to this point.” I let the words sink in for a moment. Spike hummed after no long, in a happy tone I must add, and following with a smile he commented: “Living all that again? From the bad times to the good ones,” at that point, I knew he was speaking with himself, I didn’t mind it, living for so long takes that effects on oneself. He continued, “years to celebrate, sing, laugh and love. Which will be followed by another cycle of seemingly eternal wait…” He finally looked down at me, the smile still plastered on his face, “Do you by any chance know if this decision of mine has been done before?” “Will that make you change your mind?” “Not in the slightest,” he laughed off, “ha, haha…” He turned to the mare at the other side of the gap, “I need to take care of her, and she will need an assistant to keep her from destroying everything up with her magic.” “I couldn’t agree more to that,” I said, smiling up at him, “Then good old friend of mine, I’ll ensure you have a second chance to fulfil both yours and your wife wish. Just a little head up though, if you happen to see another version of me there, then it means that I screwed up big time by sending you there; I’ll probably be evil once again if that happens.” The drake arched a brow at me, his expression sly and cocky, “huh? It sounds like you had done this before.” I looked at him with the same expression, “Will that make you change your mind?” He didn’t answer me at first, instead he decided to give the statue of his lover a peck and a nudge. “Not in the slightest,” he finally spoke, “We will take care of you Discord. That’s what friends do after all.” I swayed a paw to him, offering him to not start with the cheesy acts. I was not, nor am a man fond to emotive departures and things alike. Unfortunately, Spike was a dragon obsessed with that kind of things; something I always forget because of his tremendous stature and shape. It was of no surprise that I wouldn’t see his goodbye hug coming. A simple “thank you” was the last thing he said before jumping off to that distant land. Silence followed after, a deep isolating silence. I looked at my claws for a while. It was over, the last piece of what made me who I am has gone… and probably I will go too, after some time. “it sounds like you had done this before, he said… maybe that’s true, but I can’t really tell for sure. It wouldn’t be chaotic if I knew how my magic works, right?” I turned to my back, where once stood the gap between dimensions. My sweet Celestia I will do everything for you, Even remain in solitude! I rocketed out to the infinite space, swirling through the stars swiftly, to a place far away from the magic I once witnessed. I’ll give them all the time they’ll need. Let them be prepared to face the truth, That chaos is a constant Just like you… ~ My sweet Celestia~ I can’t wait for us to meet again. My sweet Celestia~ > And I would do it again > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is weird to not be afraid of death? I’ve more than once planted that question upon myself and others as the centuries went by. Some of them told me that they were as afraid of death as they were about immortality. I Understand part of their fear since it was my condition that let me kept finding new friends, and each time I loosed them felt like years of joy were compressed into tiny lapses of insupportable sorrow, it was something horrible to bear, yet never once I felt miserable for being immortal. I cried, I fell into depression, I looked at the abyss, and even after all that, there was always more reasons to rise up again and smile at life. Losing it all and embracing deaths blossom. Falling into the nothingness that comes with it… that’s what most creatures feared when death was mentioned. And even I was afraid. But now that I’m here, inside this myriad of colors and energy; traveling at blinding speed towards reincarnation. I’ll be born a new in that new world, but everything that I ever was and could be will be over. Spike, the one too weak to break out his egg. Spike, the first son of Princess Celestia. Spike, the hero of the crystal empire. Spike, the number one assistant of the princess of friendship. Spike, the dragon ambassador and former ex-lord. Spike, the first one to love a bat pony. Spike of the warm heart, whom defeated the armies of darkness. Twilight’s husband. Spike, the dragon. I’ll lost all those tittles. The memories that made me who I am will be gone. All that will remain is my soul, a chance to start all over again. And a chance to be with her. It is okay to be happy, even though I’m about to die? Being honest, I don’t know the answer for that question. All that I know is that I would do this again if is its needed. If It’s the only requisite to see you again in that next life. Then I’ll stay.