Wrath

I stare at the dying embers of last nights fire, listening closely as Contessa readies her guards to move. Spike sits beside me, also staring into the fire.

"So what are we actually doing again?" He asks.

"You mean with Sombra?" I respond, wondering how he didn't already know.

"Yes."

"Well, its simple. One of those unicorns is going to blast light magic at whatever is left of Sombra's remains. That should put down his rampaging spirit for good, or so Shining Armor says."

"Why would destroying his old body affect him now?" Spike asks, finally looking away from the fire.

....I don't actually know.

"We will just have to trust that the good Captain knows his dark magic, or is it prince now?" Contessa breaks in, having already packed.

I shrug by way of answer and stand, looking around at the busying guards. They move with a methodical efficiency, as soldiers should. My gaze falls on the tracks of the unknown creature we saw the night before. A trail of large three pronged claw prints lead up to nearly where I had been resting. I follow the short trail to its beginning, where I see a large disturbance in the snow, as if something landed there.

Spike follows me as I move, not trusting his surroundings after a guard regaled him of the story of last night.

"What do you think it was?" He asks me.

"I don't know"

"Will it be back?"

"Maybe, but I'm really not sure. If it was made of shadow like Contessa said then I think we will be seeing it again." But we shouldn't see it again unless its night, or at least, I hope we wont. Spike's face is fearful, and he steps even closer to me, holding his claws together.

"Are you two ready?" Contessa calls. Spike and I make our way back over and we get in formation. Contessa wastes no time and we are off.

As we walk the sun beats down on the wasteland, reflecting off the snow and making it difficult to see. Spike is seemingly unaffected by the harsh light. A quick look in the direction of the city and I see a mass of black fog surrounding it and obscuring the sky-blue dome of Cadence's doing. With the brightness of our location however, the maddening shadows are absent. Seemingly unable to survive where there are no natural shadows. The silence is eerie, with only the crunch of our steps to meet our ears.

The mountains stand tall nearby, peering down at us from behind the foothills. In a few hours the sun will be obscured behind them, and we will be blanketed in shadow. My companions are on edge, Spike simply oozing nervousness, while the guards have a certain jitter to their step. Contessa herself seems normal, solemnly leading us toward the distant railroad.

Then a piercing cry breaks the silence.

The guards jump in near unison and Contessa swivels to the side, facing our left. Spike yelps and trips, landing flat on his rear. I heft my makeshift weapon and peer over a nearby chunk of ice..-

A monster made of darkness greets my vision. It's charging us, what appears to be a long and hooked beak, as well as several talons piercing the darkness that fogs its body. The beak opens wide and a torrent of blackness comes forth.
I duck behind the chunk of Ice and watch as the guards scatter, Contessa shouting orders to rally that the guards ultimately ignore, blind in their terror. Spike however, was unable to get out of the way in time.

The stream of darkness consumes him and he disappears from view. I leap into action.

Spinning my weapon I leap toward the mass of shadow, that seems to pay me no mind as my weapon passes through it. Normal weapons can't hurt it? I think as the shadow-monster turns on me. I see a purple pair of reptilian eyes within the fog, they narrow in anger and the thing rears back. I dodge to the side as fast as I can muster, narrowly avoiding the mass of darkness that consumed where I had been standing just a moment before. I have almost no magic left in my blood, I'll have to rely on the unicorns to deal with this monster.

I turn and begin running to where I last saw Spike, I find him twitching in a pool of darkness, his claws held tightly to his head.

The strange shadow-monster losses another piercing cry and begins to charge again. But not before the soldiers finally recover. Contessa orders them to strike and together they unleash a barrage of magic at the shadow-monster. Contessa herself lobs another of her red potions over their heads, landing square on the shadow-monster's beak. The flash of fire and magic seems to wither it, and for a split second its form is revealed. A bi-pedal bird not unlike a terror bird, gray skin with gray feathers and a dulled yellow beak.

Then the darkness washes over it again and it recedes with a cry, sprinting faster than any human could toward the mountains, in less than five seconds we lose sight of it to the brightness of the area. I return my attention again to the dragon, who still lays twitching on the ground before me.

I kneel down next to him and place my hand on his head.

"Spike! Can you hear me?". He doesn't respond, instead clutching tighter at his head and curling into a small ball of dragon. I gently pick him up and feel his violent shivers.

"What happened to him?" Contessa asks. After a moment she adds "He was hit by that blast of shadow, wasn't he?" I nod my affirmation.

"He isn't responding, can their magic do anything?" I ask, gesturing to the guards.

One of the guards, who I remember to be named Brightheart, steps forward.

"I can try."

"Then do." I respond, holding the diminutive drake out before him. His brow furrows and his horn ignites, a gentle aura of magic enveloping the dragon's head. After a moment the magic recedes, and Spike's shivering stops.

"Will he be alright?" I ask the unicorn guard. He responds with a shrug.

"He should be, from what I could tell he was placed into some kind of waking Nightmare. I did a simple restoration spell and put him into a normal sleep. He should be okay when he wakes up but I can't be sure."

I thank Brightheart and give the dragon a gentle shake, rousing him from his slumber. He awakens with a scream.

"RARITY! OH DEAR CELESTIA WHY DID-..." Spike trails off, his eyes rapidly scanning around him and his vestigial eyelids blinking like mad. After a moment I gently place him on his feet. He stands for a few moments with his mouth open in complete confusion, before it snaps shut and he breathes a deep sigh.

"Are you alright?" Contessa asks, with some actual concern.

"...I think so," He responds after a moment. "That was horrible, it was like every nightmare I ever had put together."

"Do you feel at all strange?" I ask him.

"....Yeah, a little. I feel kinda, hungry." To punctuate his statement, his belly growls.

"We brought enough rations to last two weeks, give or take a few days. If all goes well, we will be back the day after tomorrow." Contessa says. "Here." She pulls a few apples out of her pack and passes them to the dragon.

Spike bites into the first apple and recoils, shock on his face.

"This doesn't taste like an apple at all." He says. I take it from him and sniff it. Seems normal to me. I take a small bite, and chew. The familiar taste of the fruit makes me turn a queer eye to Spike.

"It tastes normal to me." I say, handing it back to him. He looks at me and then the apple, his stomach growls and makes the decision for him. He begins to eat the apple, but with a pained look on his face. After he finishes the first one he devours the second, then looks down at his empty claws.

"An apple never tasted so bad before, and I once bit into a rotten apple by mistake."

"Ill give you some fruit bars from my rations once we make camp, but you will have to wait till then." I tell the small dragon. He looks at me and for a moment his eyes seem fierce, but then he nods and mutters thanks.

"Alright ponies, back to business! March!" Contessa shouts as she begins to do just that. We quickly fall in line behind her, each of us trying to put the horrid encounter with the strange monster behind us.

We crest a large hill as the sun reaches its pinnacle in the sky, which is not very high given where we are. The mountains cast a massive shadow around us, and a cleft in the mountain range becomes visible. A set of railroad tracks emerge from the split in the mountains, leading down to an old, decrepit building. More tracks emerge from the building leading further down the mountain range; and west, off into the frozen wastes.

A large hawk calls from above, and I eye it as I ponder. Spike has always loved apples, and those were some that Applejack brought with her, and she is always bragging about how great they are. That apple tasted fine to me but strange and awefull to Spike, I wonder...

"Listen up!" Contessa calls, bringing the march to a halt. "That ruined building down there is the old train station, we are going to quickly search it and start into the mountains, we will follow the track until we find a good place to make camp. Questions?" None of the guards say anything and neither does Spike, who has been acting strangely ever since the shadow-beast blasted him. His normal, fearful demeanor has been replaced with a kind of indifference. After we began marching he hadn't jumped in fear or shivered once.

"One thing." I respond to Contessa, I turn to one of the unicorns. "See that hawk up there?" The guard nods. "Do you think you could bring it down?"

His magic flares and the hawk begins to screech, as the unicorn slowly pulls him down. Soon enough the surprisingly large bird is just before us, squawking angrily.

"Why?" Contessa asks me, with a brow raised.

"Nothing you will like, would you ponies kindly turn the other way?" Contessa looks at me a bit longer as I grab the large bird, but she turns and starts down the hill, toward the crumbling station. The guards each give me a strange look as they follow her.

I wait a moment with Spike and watch them walk. After a minute or two I turn to Spike, the bird still squawking up a storm in my grasp.

"Spike, there is no nice way to say this. I am going to kill this bird, and when we make camp I'm going to cook it." Spike gets a horrified expression on his face for a few seconds, before it dissolves into a look of wonder.

"Eat...the hawk?" He asks, now eyeing the bird.

"Yes, I understand that you have never eaten meat, so I think this will taste more..normal to you." The young dragon watches the bird for a few moments, then looks back at me.

"Okay, I'll try it!" He says with some conviction. I nod and grab the birds neck, it lets out one last angry cry when it feels my grip, and then it is silent. I feel a gentle trickle of magic enter my blood as the bird dies. Better than nothing. I quickly bundle up the bird and place it on my back. Spike watches with a kind of hunger in his eyes.

I think I was right, I can't know for certain unless I check his spirit but, it is likely those strange golden bindings on his soul have weakened. It would explain why he is only just now acting like the carnivore he is.

"What does hawk taste like?" He asks me as we begin to follow the ponies down to the ruined station.

"Meat tastes entirely unlike plants Spike, but the one other time I ate a hawk it tasted just like chicken."

Author's Note

Yeah....surprise!
New chapter!
Yeah.......
I have no excuses