It's All about Expressing Yourself
~ A Fear of Friendly Dragons ~
A story of expersion, written by B.
The town was at work fixing itself.
Unicorns darted across the streets, some with hammers and nails within their magical grasps, others with buckets and brushes, and, of course, the odd few with an array of cold drinks. The items then dispersed, floating to whatever pony needed them most—whether it be earth pony rebuilding his torn rooftop, the pegasi repainting city hall, or the thirsty, filly and colts, playing in pits where there was once chunks of land.
From inside the heap of chaos, two friends managed to stroll out, lost to the enjoyment of their conversation. The residents paid them no mind, however, knowing the effort they had put the day before.
“You would not believe the experience, darling,” Rarity regaled the tale once again, feeling the grass at her hooves transition into cobblestone, as the two mares began to climb the small bridge at the street's end. “I very well believed, as I was plummeting towards the earth, that my life would be coming to a close. My life flashed through my eyes, oh, how I would never see Sweetie again—how I would never see you girls again!”
Rainbow Dash looked back over to her friend, a smile present on her lips, as the two reached the top of the bridge. She paused in their walk to glance over the railing, her smile persisting upon seeing water still flowing in the small trench below, though it faltered when wood, glass, and other derby were carried down stream.
“But most importantly of all!” Rarity continued, causing her friend to turn back around towards her. “I could never grace the lands with my fabulous designs!”
“I see some pony has their priories straight,” Rainbow Dash said, accompanied by a few stray chuckles, before continuing. “But I gotta say, Rarity, for a pony built out of the glass, you're one heck of a mare.”
Rarity hummed, head turning away in offense. “I'm not sure if that was meant as a compliment or not.”
“Rest easy, it was.”
“My my then!” Rarity's sapphire's eyes became alight with the glint of curiosity, fixating on the face of her cyan friend, who suddenly could not maintain the eye contact. “A compliment on resilience, especially made by a mare like yourself certainly means a lot to me, darling. But I'm curious as to why you're coming out and saying this now.”
Saws cutting through wood began to fill the air surrounding the bridge, further accentuated by the nails being hammered down. There was little time left for either mare to be heard, and that challenged frighten one heart more than the other.
“What's the best way to put this,” Rainbow began in a quiet voice as she delved into her thoughts, causing her friend to draw a little closer, as she gave up trying to think a moment later. ““It’s just too crazy to believe, y’know? That you, out of all ponies would be able to withstand a dragon reaching in for ya, and still have the will not to wet your dress.”
“How crude!” Rarity reeled onto her rump and crossed her forehooves, turning her head away in indignation. “And here I thought I had a friend praising me for surviving such a traumatizing ordeal, only for her to poke fun at it instead.”
“Oh c'mon, Rares! I didn't mean it like that—I'm just real lousy at paying compliments like these is all.” Dash did her best to keep eye contact with her friend even as she spoke, sighing internally when Rarity glanced an eye back at her. “I'm going to try and be straight with you here, okay? When I look at you, all I see is this frilly-nilly-girly-girl, but when mud starts really hitting the fan, you become something so much more.”
Rarity faced her friend again, a brow raised in suspicion.
“While the Wonderbolts were cowering underneath some metal bucket, you were being dangled over the town, held by the tail of a dragon! But instead of screaming the whole way like how any other pony would, you were too busy giving that dragon a piece of your mind.” The distant image consumed her vision, causing Dash to falter in her speech, before quickly continuing with the shake of the head. “It's almost like you've got this thing inside of you, something that can only take so much stress and ruined dresses, before it just...snaps. After that happens, you just stop taking crud from anyone, and that includes rampaging dragons.”
Rarity rose from the ground, keeping a squinted eye still on her friend.
“Just think about it—you've got this great, big, scary dragon, wagging you through the clouds with its tail, and at any moment, it could just drop you, and that would be the end of it.” Rainbow's voice cracked at the end, rendering her mute and making her turn away, before a dose of endorphins coursed through her system. “But you didn’t care about any of that at all! Once you saw how your friends were being treated—as well as your dress getting ruined—that thing inside of you just snapped!”
Rainbow Dash spun around to face her friend, finding her sitting by the railing as she stared downward at the water's surface. Dash smiled, gaping the small distance between them as she took a seat and did the same.
“You just got so mad, so, frustrated.” Dash sighed, shaking her head. “Whatever the word may be, it doesn't matter. You had every reason to be afraid, and yet, you were giving the dragon a lecture on how much of a brute he was being. A dragon!”
Rarity tittered at the memory, remembering how she threw her hooves about and wouldn't shut her mouth, much to the dragon's annoyance. However, thinking of the dragon simply as a brute made her stomach churn, more so when it was Dash giving her that impression.
“You were just so cool,” Dash caught her friend's attention in a quiet voice, reaching a conclusion to her point. “I wish I had the same thing you did, Rarity, where I could just snap. It would make life a heck of a lot easier, especially when it comes to things that are hard to do—because you're in control and yet you're not, and either way, you don't really care at the time.”
Rarity finally made a noise since the one-sided conversation began, although it was a sigh, it still brought her friend some relief. After a moment, she spoke. “I find it hard to believe that somepony could find a lady breaking cool, but if that pony is you, then I guess I'll believe it.” She turned her head and smiled at Dash. “You weird pegasus.”
“That I am, Rarity.” Rainbow met the gaze with the same smile, before the two looked back over the bridge, and at the construction begin done in the distance. “Just a weird pegasus tired of being afraid.”
Rainbow's eyes widen the moment she blurted the words out, and before she could hope to retract the statement, she felt a hoof caressed the fur on the back of her neck as her head was turned. She met Rarity's eyes, finding a commanding stare that refused to cross the border into being considered oppressive.
“Darling...just what is it that has possessed the great Rainbow Dash? It's just not like her to be fantasizing about how cool her girly girl can be.” She retracted her hoof but did not let down the gaze. “You talk of the Wonderbolts cowering and of my snapping, yet you failed to mention how you faced that dragon without hesitation, and came to dear Spike's and I's rescue almost immediately!”
Rainbow winced upon hearing the name, wanting nothing more than to turn her head away again, yet was locked in place with just one gaze.
“Why did you just make that face, darling?” Rarity's eyes caught a hold of the expression that lasted for a second, trained to pick up all the little signs her friend was giving off. “Saving lives shouldn't upset you, unless maybe you're wishing you did a better job of it. But you and Fluttershy did save our lives, and I'm sure Spikey feels just as grateful to you both as I do now.”
That gratitude was lost on Rainbow, who, upon feeling the gaze upon her weaken, managed to look away.
“Now’s not the time to be silent, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity returned the intensity of her gaze, her tone polite yet still demanding. “A lady knows making assumptions is the quickest way to tarnish her name, but your silence is leaving me to draw several unfavorable conclusions.”
Rainbow knew she would have to talk again soon, that was said still hung in the air, and to leave it like that would hurt more than just herself. Her throat felt tight, the backdrop of the distant, recovering town, suddenly melancholic in the rays of faint sunlight. Finally, after a shaky breath, she spoke, almost towards the town itself. “I didn't mean to say anything hurtful...it's just like what I've been saying. Except, the thing you did after the fall was the coolest thing of all.”
“And just what was that, darling?”
The trembles in the cyan mare ceased, her stiff hooves turned numb, as her eyes began to glimmer with the strange excitement she felt.
“You forgave that dragon in a moment notice.” A bittersweet smile swept across her lips. “He kidnapped you, destroyed most of the town with you clutched in his tail, and then finally, finally! He managed to revert back to normal, only high above the clouds, and almost gets the both of ya killed!”
Rarity grimaced at the sequence of the events as they flashed through her mind's eye. She kept her gaze on her friend, just a simple one, ignoring the rising sounds of construction so that she could listen to what her friend had to say next.
“I was by this bridge when it happened.” Rainbow raised her forehooves onto the stone railing, looking over it, where a semi-transparent version of Fluttershy and herself hovered above the water's surface. In a flash and a blast of air, the two phantoms rocketed upward, their course set on the falling couple high above the afternoon sky.
“I was pushing my wings as hard as I could, and I don't doubt that 'Shy was doing the same. But even then, watching you fall from so far away, I wasn't sure I'd be able to cut the distance between us.” She sighed, dipping her head. “There's nothing worse than that feeling, of watching somepony in your need, and, despite giving it you all, you're still forced hopelessly to watch your failure.”
Dash rose her head. “The memory is still clear as crystal to me. You were scared, crying and screaming, as he fell just across from you. He...he said something to you, I’m not sure what, but whatever it was, it took hold of you.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “And then you were no longer screaming. Maybe it was because you had already snapped, or maybe whatever he told you was bigger of your fear of death, but whatever the case may be, what you did next was truly amazing.”
Rainbow's gaze rose to the sun kissed sky, watching the pegasi phantoms speed into the falling couple, and catching them in a giant cloth. Their plummet to the ground suddenly transitioned into a pleasant descent, one in where the dragon and the mare had their bodies pressed together, and the latter not minding in the slightest.
“I thought you would have been mad at him after that,” Rainbow said as the phantoms began to fade away. She finally looked back to her friend, a bittersweet smile still present. “I was waiting, y'know, for you to jump as soon as you could to get away from him. To then spin around and yell in his face. To lecture him about all that he had done, how he oughta be ashamed of himself, and how he was going to have to make it up to the town.”
Dash sighed again. “And he would’ve deserved it, too. Knowing him, he would've taken every word you said and beat himself up with them. The rest of his life would be traumatized, not only by the fact that he nearly destroyed the town, but because he had almost killed the mare he praises like the sun.”
Rainbow stared deep into her friend's almost lost gaze. “He would never have been the same. You realized that in a split-moment, and, wanting better for him, ignored whatever anger you had so you could do what you thought was right.”
Dash smiled an honest smile. “And that was awesome. You’re just a mare that can snap, Rarity, and when you do, your fears and stress just melt away, and you can do what you really gotta do.”
A gentle breeze blew over the water, sending gentle ripples through its surface. The descending sun was reflected in the stream, making way for its nocturnal sister, as the chatter and scattered noises of the town began to slightly dim.
“I wish I had that part of you, Rarity.” Rainbow felt her head sway slightly to the left. “Cause then...ah, y'know what? Just forget about it. I think I’ve filled the air with enough sappiness for one afternoon—the girls are probably starting to get worried about us right now.”
She attempted to walk forward, to leave the pointless matters behind her, and carry on to the town that needed her hoof and wing in rebuilding. But before she could even move a hoof, she felt something tugging on her tail, and turned back just in time to see Rarity right before her.
“You made sure to mention my ‘snapping’ a good number of times,” Rarity said as she ceased the blue magic enveloping her alabaster horn, the same magic disappearing from the end of the Rainbow tail. “But never did you once say our Spikey’s name. I’m beginning to wonder if there is a connection between the two, Rainbow Dash?’
It wasn’t a simple curiosity; it was a question voiced in such a way that it demanded an answer from Dash. The cyan mare clutched her hoof, looking to her friend with pleading eyes. “Do I have to?”
“Any assumption I draw now is sure to be worse than the actual truth.” Rarity did give a sigh, feeling her friend’s stress permeate the surrounding air. “But I would never, ever force you to speak about something you absolutely dread to talk about. All I can promise to be is two listening ears and one silent mouth.”
“...p-promise me that mouth won’t laugh?”
Taking a page out from Pinkie’s book, Rarity took her hoof and ran it across her lips, keeping them sealed as if they were a zipper. This made Rainbow laugh, not expecting the wacky sight from her normally polished friend, though it seemed bizarreness itself was upon everypony as of late.
“I guess this means I’ve already agreed to talk, haven’t I?”
The zipped up Rarity nodded her head.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, before trying her best to settle them on her friend. “Well, here I go, I guess.” She cleared her throat and fidgeted with her wings, taking a moment to find her voice yet again. “Well, for the past few days, I’ve been kinda...sorta...y’know...having nightmares...about Spike…”
She shut her eyes and awaited the sound of laughter. When her eyes opened again, she heard not laughter, but saw the confusion painted across the other mare’s face. She decided to elaborate. “There’s just something...something that terrifies me about Spike. One moment, he’s this tag-along baby dragon that follows Twilight everywhere. The next, he’s grown to the size of a mountain and destroying everything.”
Rarity tilted her head. It had been quite scary and sudden to see Spike undergo such a transformation, but it wasn’t something that he had done consciously. And by the way he had been acting as of late, it was of little doubt that such thing could ever happen again.
“I wasn’t that scared.” Rainbow ran a hoof for her mane as if it would help her think better, scratching her fur as her head suddenly ached. “Okay, maybe I was a little. You were being dangled by the tail of the dragon, one who would swat me if I ever got too close. And if he ever...dropped you, then there was no guarantee that I would be able to save you.”
Rarity felt an influx of sadness wash over her still body, not for a moment considering how terrifying the sight was to her friends. To see a friend possibly die before your eyes, being so close, and yet, so far away.
“Finally, the Wonderbolts came.” Rainbow felt her wings prod out slightly at just the small mention of her hero's, endorphins making her body feel all tingly but for a moment. ‘“We were saved, or so I thought. It didn’t matter if I couldn’t get to you – all that responsibility was passed onto them. But when they failed to save you…”
Rarity’s supposedly zipped mouth open, feeling her breath escape from her throat, though she ultimately decided to keep it closed. She opted instead to motion for her friend to sit down on the bridge, which she complied, and proceeded to sit down next to her.
Their black silhouettes looked up to the falling sun, enjoying its last moments of warmth.
Rainbow swallowed hardly, continuing her tale. “My heroes were beaten in a second. Your life was placed back in my hooves, and although I put on the brave face and rallied Fluttershy to my side, I still felt the fear of watching you fall. It was moments like those, where I could be just like you, and just…snap.”
The two silhouettes continued to sit together atop of the bridge, staring off into the distance as silence continued to hang over them. Neither mare seemed to mind, just enjoying the current moment, and allowing the story and the feelings to come out naturally.
“‘Cause then I wouldn’t be storming off after you with a thousand different voices playing in my head. ‘Cause then I wouldn’t see all those images about the different way you would fall and meet the ground. I just wouldn’t care, teach the dragon’s who’s boss in a very cool fashion, and save you before you even had a chance to fall.”
Finally, Rainbow tore her gaze from the side and settled it on her friend’s side.
The other did the same.
“Though you beat me to it.” Rainbow said, keeping her body turned toward her friend. “You just lost it and let the dragon have it. Whatever you said clearly had an effect on him, cuz he reverted back a few moments later to that ‘’little’ dragon we all know. Then, you two proceeded to fall…”
Rainbow looked back to the sky, not letting the features of her face be seen. Her friend complied with her request, and returned looking to the heavens as well.
“You know the rest,” Rainbow finished with a sigh. “Since you were cool enough to keep quiet as I spoke, it’s only fair that you unzip those lips and ask whatever ya want.”You were kind enough to listen to me talk, so unzip those lips and ask whatever ya got playing on your mind.’
Rarity kept quiet at first, not quite knowing what to say or do next. Any personal questions that dug too deep could possibly cut her friend’s being, so she worked in a question that would take the whole matter step by step. “I guess that this is the reason why you haven’t been to see our dear Spiked since his birthday?”
Dash gave a slow nod of the head. “Are ponies starting to notice?”
“No, not yet, darling.” Rarity gave a dramatic sigh at the change of atmosphere, feeling the warmth of the sun leave her body as the final rays of light dipped behind the mountainous horizon. She shivered at the now chilling breeze. “But ponies are sure to notice if you keep avoiding whatever this problem is. I can assure you at the moment that Spikey feels absolutely horrid about his actions, and the poor boy hasn’t stopped beating himself up since.”
Rainbow chuckled, though her body remained still. “Would you believe me if I said that makes me feel worse?”
“Well, of course, hearing our friend beating himself up—”
Rainbow shook her head just enough for Rarity to see, the latter prematurely ending her sentence at the sight. “I’m not quite sure why, but hearing Spike beating himself up makes me think that ‘it’ will happen again.”
Rarity reeled back her head in surprise, raising an eyebrow while she was at it. “However do you mean, darling?”
A surge of uncomfortable sensations began to course through Rainbow’s body, making her wings flare slightly and her body fidget in place. The words and feelings she was trying to convey all sounded wrong in her head, but she knew that if she did not get them out, that they would just wrongly fester deeper inside her being.
“Okay, listen.” Rainbow looked into her friend’s blue eyes to see that they were still fixated on her, that her friend was still looking to her with no hint of prejudice clinging to her face. “What I say next may sound a bit harsh or wrong, but I want you to listen to the end, okay?’
Rarity pushed her lips left in thought, but nodded an okay anyway.
“I don’t know why, but Spike’s kinda, sorta, always struck me as the ‘repressed’ typed.” That garner the raised brow reaction that Rainbow was expecting, though she was thankful her friend was keeping silent about it. “How he's always tagging along with Twilight and comes off as kinda weird. I don’t know why, but I feel like he bottles a lot of stuff in, and if that bottle were to explode with all the frustrations he must have…then, ah! I just don’t know.”
A moment of silence reigned over the bridge. It was quite apparent with Rainbow’s struggling lips that she could not say what she wanted to say, so Rarity broke her promise and spoke instead.
“You’re afraid that if we treat him the wrong way, that if we say something that we did not truly mean, then our Spiky will grow into a beast once more, and destroy our town.” Rarity’s eyes commanded the other’s attention, the latter being too weak to resist the pull, as the pools of the two pairs of eyes met. “That’s what you’re afraid of, isn’t it.”
Rainbow just continued to stare at her, eyes wide and jaw slack, taking a few moments to compose herself altogether. Finally, she found her voice once again, though it was weak. “Yeah…” Her eyes were finally released from the other’s stare, able to trail away a little. “I know I should just stop being a wimp, to not treat Spike differently because something outta his control happened, but those voices in my head won’t shut up. It doesn't matter if I know better; I still feel awkward around Spike.”
Rainbow stood on her legs and gave a little stretch, popping some of the kinks that had formed in her back from all the sitting. She looked over her shoulder to her still sitting friend. “And that’s pretty much it, Rarity. We’ve spent way too much time talking about this, so we better make it back to the others before they send out a searched party.”
Unlike before, Rainbow Dash waited. She watched as her friend rose to her hooves and stretched out her hooves as well, but she did it in such a slow fashion that it had to be deliberate.
Rarity rose onto her hind legs, stretching out her back as she rose up. She then extended her right forehoof outward, pushing down on the elbow with her other to extend it, all the while looking Rainbow in the face.
“Um, Rares? What’s up with the sudden routine?”
“A lady must always be fit, Rainbow Dash.” She then proceeded to switch arms, twisting her torso sideways to a pleasure of hearing something crack. “But you know better than anypony that exercise can be very time consuming, so us ladies like to do the smashing of two birds as it were. You’d be surprised at how much thinking you can get done during a good stretch.”
Rainbow’s face only slumped in confusion, causing her counterpart to giggle.
“Oh what would you know!” Rarity threw her forehoof over her shoulder, relishing in her tense muscles beginning to loosen. A wave of endorphins began to filter in her system, and she did not mind the sudden feeling whatsoever. “A thought just struck me, though I would like for you to help me process it. Would you be willing to help me do so?”
“I still got no clue what’s happening now.” Rainbow shrugged her shoulders and approached her friend, copying her stretches with a nod of the head. “But I’m game. What’s on your mind?”
“Oh, just this thought on who the more impressive mare would be.” Rarity laid a hoof on the edge of the bridge, the other slowly bringing up her hind leg as she balanced herself out. “Would it be the first, who mindlessly does something because she is crossed? Or would it be the second, who sees and experiences the full extent of their fear, but still fights and trumpets over it, inspiring others in similar positions to do the same?”
Rainbow had been reaching for her leg as well when Rarity’s logic wafted into her ears, stopping all her movement and looking to Rarity right away. She held a knowing smile on her lips, like she already knew what Rainbow’s reaction would be.
"Uh…”
“I personally think it’s the latter.” Rarity returned to her fours hooves with a sigh of relief, giving one last roll of the head to crack out any lingering kinks. “I would much rather hear the story of the pony who braved her fears and prevailed against the odds anyway, then some pony who acted without truly knowing what it was they were doing.”
Rainbow blinked, her throat feeling tight and her chest hollow.
"And if I know my friend Rainbow well enough,” Rarity began as she walked passed her friend, stopping right afterward to glance over her shoulder, “then I know that is that she’ll always take the harder path if she knows it’s the right one. There’s still time to visit him, Rainbow Dash, for both of you to be brave and get over your fears.”
Rarity resumed her trot, climbing down the slope of the bridge and walking on the trimmed grass on the other side. She waved back a hoof without looking back. “I know you’ll do the right thing, dear. And don’t worry about the others – I’ll just say you truly had more pressing matters to attend to. Cherry-oh!”
The coming breeze lifted the strands of rainbow mane off the cyan brow, its owner watching the silhouette of her friend disappear into the distance. She clenched her eyes and looked down, breathing slowly to calm her erratic thought.
When her eyes unsealed, she saw the water’s surface below, and in her reflection, she saw Rainbow Dash staring back. The mare smiled at the sight of herself, at the mare that everyone else saw, and most importantly, the mare she wanted to be.
Rainbow Dash tensed her muscles as she leaped up onto the edge of the bridge, unfurling her wings until they were erected at her sides, and proceeded to jump into the open winds. The flapping of her wings took her up, up into the cloudless sky, where she could see her destination in the distance.
A rather large, oaken tree.
Spike sat on the edge of the railing to his balcony, hunched over and staring at the ground below. Debris was littered across the trails he had disrupted, piles of rubble that were once precious belongings, and, worse of them all, a giant claw mark left in the grass.
The drake couldn’t help but sigh.
‘For the last time, Spike, we forgive you!’ The drake heard their voices again, all the ponies he’d gone and profusely apologized to, and did everything he could to make matters right. Some ponies still held some looks of indignation, but after a few days of his hard work, almost all their reactions became akin.
‘You’ve already put in more hours and work than anypony else here. We understand that you feel guilty over what you did, but it’s unhealthy to keep working the way you are.’
The sad look that had claimed the drake’s face began to break away a little, letting for a small smile to grow on his scaly lips. Their acceptance had lifted a heavy burden off his heart, one far heavier than the knowledge of the beast he held within, but something else was gnawing away at him.
He rose a claw in the air, positioning it over the giant mark left behind. That smile quickly disappeared, as from his perspective, the claw matched perfectly the mark, for which, the beast left behind.
‘Why don’t you just go home and process whatever it is you have going on?’ One of the builders had suggested to him, smacking him on the back and set him on a course set for home. Spike did his best to put on a big smile, giving a nod of his head and proclaiming he would come back stronger the next day.
“What was the point of sending me home anyway?" the drake asked himself as he pulled back the claw, seeing the resemblance between him and the beast just stung his heart to be continued for any longer. "All I'm going to do is sit around and feel bad anyway."
But the deed had already done, and he was forced to deal with the rest of the night on his lonesome. His mind was too active bringing shame to his past actions ever to be quelled by the words from a good book. His stomach was growling, pleading for food, but the drake knew he didn't deserve to eat for a long while.
"Oh well." Spike let his claw drop to his side, giving a small chuckle and looking up to see the stars of the night sky, before looking upward to see the stars of the evening sky. "What can ya—"
Rainbow Dash's face hovered a few inches above his. "Rough night?"
"Whoa!" Spike's felt his body leap into the air out of fear, a shiver coursing through his body like electricity itself, before he fell backward and landed with a thud onto the deck of the balcony. Rainbow landed where he had been sitting, a worried look crossing her face.
"Oh crud, I didn't mean to scare you like that." She quickly hopped down from the railing and came to his side, trailing her eyes along his scales to see if any had snapped or cracked. "You alright?"
Spike, to his credit, managed to keep his cool about the sudden appearance that had caused him pain. Be it bringing destruction over town or the depression that had mellowed his state; he could just not bring himself to grow angry at the moment. All he did was rub a claw against his sore nose. "I'm okay. Just a little surprised to see you is all."
"Who isn't?" Rainbow offered out her hoof to the fallen drake, who took a moment before he began to reach for it, as she helped pull him back onto his feet. For the first time since the incident occurred, she got to see his face up close and personal. "I mean, I am Rainbow Dash...after...all..."
Her body froze. Spike's face was not the same. In a split-second it had grown, the roundness of his chubby face pulling forward to create a long and pointed snout. The ends of his spines grew longer and sharper, as his elements eyes lost the glint that reminded those who looked into them that they were still speaking to a child.
Meanwhile, Spike just titled his head left in confusion at Rainbow's silence. "Why'd you go quiet for?"
Rainbow did not reply, instead stepping back as she imagined him growing into a giant then and there. Would he even be aware of the change? Would he even recognize her and stop his rampage like before? He was beginning to look worryingly at her now, would he come to understand that she was fearing him at the moment, and would the anger stemming from that be another thing to make him grow.
Rainbow Dash did not know what to do next, finding it harder and harder to look into the face of the potential beast before her. She almost debated flying away, feeling her wings lightly fluttered. But a particular sight caused her to shake her head, clearing away the hysteria that had claimed her mind so that she could look at the dragon's nose.
"Spike..." Dash stopped moving backward, comparing that she had just hurt the dragon, even if it wasn't her intention. "...you're bleeding. I mean, your nose, ya got a major nosebleed going on there."
"I do?" He brought a finger to underneath his nose and let it rest there for a moment, feeling something wet and sticky cling to his purple scales, bringing the liquid to his eyes. It was blood, his blood, no doubt brought about by his recent fall. "Oh! Is this why you went silent and started to look at me weird?"
Rainbow Dash did not reply to the question as he returned the claw to underneath his nose, a loose attempt to keep back the bloody floodgates. He caught sight of the conflicting upon her face, giving her a nonchalant wave with his other claw. "Don't worry about it; it was just a harmless mistake. You should see the number of times Twilight's made me fall on my face on purpose."
That line alone was enough to make Dash sigh. She began to approach him, lowering her muzzle to the satchel that adorned her side and undid the clips that kept it closed, retrieving a blue fabric that she was rather fond of from its depths. The article itself was a rip-off Wonderbolts uniform, handcrafted by Rarity herself in sworn secrecy.
Finally, Dash sighed and began to approach him. As she did so, she brought her muzzle close to her satchel bag and undid the clips keeping it closed. Reaching inside, she pulled out a blue fabric that she was very fond of, for it was a rip-off Wonderbolt uniform that she had Rarity make for her.
She would never tell anyone about this in her life, but sometimes, when she's home alone and it's late at night, she'll don the uniform and fly around the house like's she's actually a wonder bolt. It was a guilty pleasure, but it was her guilty pleasure, one that she brought before the dragon that had bested the real deal.
"Here, move your claw for me." Spike wasn't sure what the mare had in mind, but complied nonetheless, and watched as Rainbow placed the article of clothing underneath his nose. Some of his blood sprayed onto the fur of her hoof, but she didn't seem to mind. "I'm gonna apply some pressure, so I want you to title her head back a bit, alright?"
Spike did as he was told, feeling some the liquid gush back from his nose and into his throat, in which he gave a small swallow. He looked into the face of Rainbow Dash, which seemed overly sad for no apparent reason, as she kept holding the fabric despite him being easily able to do so. She had sent him flying a great many times before, so why was she suddenly sad about it now?
"Looks like we're going to be at this for a bit." She fell onto her rump while still applying pressure to the fabric, motioning for him to do the same. "There's no way your head’s not spinning right now with all this blood loss. Take a seat and chillax."
Spike, once again, did as he told, though there was no stopping the confusion from spreading across his face. "Hey, Rainbow Dash?"
"Hmm?" She seemed too busy with checking how much his nose was still bleeding to give him eye contact. "What's up?"
Spike gave a sigh, pulling away from her and tilting his head more upward. "Why are you being so nice to me all of the sudden?
"Spike!" She quickly tried to cut the distance between them, but stopped as soon as Spike rose his bloody claw. "Your nose needs constant pressure or else it's going just going to get worse. I'm the one that caused your nose to bleed, so it only makes sense that I should be the one to make things better."
Try as she might to get closer to him, Spike only crawled further away. “You’ve sent me flying in different directions before and never came to check up on me. So what’s changed? Why are you suddenly caring about me now?”
Rainbow Dash felt her act being torn to shreds in only a few courses of dialogue, unable to keep the guilt she felt off from her face. She tossed a glance over the railing of the balcony, where the print of the giant was still present below.
Spike followed her gaze and deflated upon the realization. “Oh, you’re here about that.”
Dash nodded her head.
“Look, the girls already came by to check on me today, and then yesterday, and then the day before that.” He gave a rather large sigh of having to explain himself once again, unsure if the mare was either worried or afraid of him now. “I may be hating myself, but I don’t plan on doing anything crazy. So please, just leave me alone, and go help the girls out like you’re supposed to.”
Spike picked himself off the ground and began to lightly dust himself off, doing his best to keep his head tilted so that blood wouldn’t drip all over the floor. He made the intention of going to the balcony door, but of course, Rainbow Dash just had to stand in his way.
“Dash.” Spike gave a sway of the head. “Please just get out of the way and let me go inside.”
She didn’t move. “No way. Not until I get this massive weight off of both of our chests.”
“Please Dash, I just want to...wait, what?”
“You may not believe me when I say this, it may even cause you to laugh.” She began to walk toward him, and this time around, he was too paralyzed by confusion itself even to move. “But the past few days have been nothing but nightmares about you being that dragon and me being a wimp.”
Spike felt a wave of sadness fall over his body as his eyes shimmered. The past few days were filled with the strenuous labor to make up for his ill deed; his profuse apologizes to show the world he understood his faults. He did everything his body and mind could summon in order to make things right with the world again.
And yet, the colts and fillies would pass him by, point a hoof and yelling monster. Some had been laughing, others with fear clearing shaking their pointing hooves. But its effect was the same – there was something terrible inside of the dragon, something that would always be there, and would haunt him to the end of his days.
“Not you too, Rainbow Dash.” Spike fell to his knees as the weight of the realization fully dawned upon him. “I could handle Fluttershy’s fear of me, deal with Twilight’s lectures. I could brave the comments and sneers of the town, because I always knew, that even when I was like...that, you weren’t afraid to take me on then.”
“I’m sorry, Spike.” Rainbow finally stood before him, the bloody outfit still in her hooves. She did not make another move out of fear of breaking the fragile dragon. “For a while, I would just play these scenarios up in my head. That one day, you got so fed with the way you were being treated that you’d destroy the town again.”
Spike could no longer hold his head back, letting it fall forward in shame. “I see. I mean, it makes sense, don’t it?”
The cyan mare kept her silence.
“A dragon keeps repressing all the things that bother him.” Spike drew a shaky breath, feeling the corners of his eyes beginning to burn. “Eventually, after holding back for so long, the dragon can’t do it no longer. He just...explodes, and that’s it.”
Something wet fell onto the wood of the deck, though it was not red with the pain dealt from other ponies careless action. No, it was the clear liquid brewed by the sadness and fear that the dragon felt.
“Rainbow…” He choked out her name through a sullen sob, feeling blood beginning to trek from his nostrils. “I don’t want to become that monster again...I never want to hurt your girls again! Please, Rainbow! Please tell me that I’m going to stop hurting ponies just because I wanted something!”
Rainbow Dash was true to her name as she dashed into the drake, quickly putting her uniform against the blood before it even had the chance to drop, and pulling the dragon close to her chest. She smiled as she felt her soft fur caressed his smooth scales, giving a quick glance around them to make sure that they were alone.
“I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been.”
Spike pulled away slightly from her chest so that he could see her face. Once they made eye-contact, Rainbow continued. “To think that I could ever be afraid of a wimp like you.”
The drake gave chuckle that sounded more like a sob, before throwing himself against the embrace of the fur once again. He’s never been so close to Rainbow, always feeling her distant and uncaring of his existence, though this hug changed all of that.
“Spike, I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen very carefully.” She didn’t hear a response, but his face rubbing against her quickly moistening chest was enough to affirm his attention. “I’m not going to lie to you and say that there’s nothing that lurks deep inside of you. But I do promise you that you don’t have to fear it.”
“I just wish it was never there.” Spike pressed his face fully into the wall of blue feathers, using it as his shield against his unprocessed emotions. “I wish that I never knew that part of me existed.”
“But then you would never have know the full extent of yourself.” Deciding that this would more than likely be a one-time deal, Rainbow Dash threw her other hoof around the dragon in order to fully embrace him. She made sure to keep the pressure on her uniform though.
“Then I wish I could just ignore that side of me,” Spike said, at last, relishing in the additional contact that her other hoof had brought. Never before in his life had he felt so truly cared for, having somepony else tend to his injury while showing him comfort at the same time. “That I could be just like you and not care about my fears and wants.”
Rainbow shook her head with a laugh, letting her chin rest atop his head, just next to his spines. “Unfortunately, what you see on the cover isn’t what it’s truly like inside. But a friend of mine told me something today, and I think it would be beneficial to you now.”
Spike kept quiet, but she knew he was listening.
“You should be happy that something like this happened, because some new about yourself has been revealed.” She could feel his shiver of fear, tempting to bear some it for him. “I know that part of you may seem like a monster, but I think you should take the cooler route and treat it like a challenge.”
Spike pulled out a bit from the embrace at the words, staring into her face to see that she was indeed not joking. “How could having a monster inside you been seen anything close to as a challenge?”
“Because it’s an opportunity to learn more about yourself as a dragon.” Rainbow rubbed the top of his head as she spoke. “You’ll find out more about that monster, rejecting its wants and purposely not doing what it wants you to do. It’ll be hard, and you’ll wish that you didn’t have to endure this challenge. But it’s a more interesting story to listen to the dragon that was able to fight back against his greed actively – it gives you an opportunity to create a character that others would never be able to obtain.”
Spike didn’t know why, but he burst out into laughter at the thought. For the past few days, the monster within had just been a stark reminder of what he was soon to become – that there was no use fighting it. One day, he would grow big, hurt those around and him and take things that he doesn’t need.
But the way Rainbow phased it; it’s like she brought out a new option entirely. Like she had created a long road for him to endure, and by the time he reached its end, that he would have a greatness around him as the six do.
Most importantly of all, however, was that Spike knew he didn’t have to become a monster.
Rainbow joined in the laughter soon after. “I mean, just think about it. What if you were to tame that beast within, and use it to do good?”
The two laughed even harder, far into the night sky. The two souls who had been strangers connected on that day, met by their jointed fears, and bonded through their processing of them.
Dash knew now that Spike would never actively sought to destroy them, which had always been her private fear.
Spike knew that he need not come a monster, to become the master of his desires, which was to raise the greatness of the six and keep those he cared about safe.
Those two souls never left that embrace for the rest of the night, speaking of their own private fantasies and any lingering fears, as the two trusted one another with the deepest being. The two souls had truly become friends.
Several years later…
Each of the Element Bear’s panted heavily as their back were thrown against the wall of rock. Gravel and headstones surrounded them everywhere, as too, did the three approaching dragon’s that caught them sneaking in on their territory.
Rainbow Dash tossed a glance to Twilight, the two of them just beginning to catch their breaths. “I take it this means we're boned?
Twilight looked back at her; mouth closed, eyes full of fear. Everypony knew what it meant when she kept quiet during a dire situation, and were unsure of what to do next. The rock wall behind their backs was far too big to scale, and ground before them was all but blocked off from the dragon.
They all debated about closing their eyes and awaiting the end, though they became grateful when they decided against it, as the shadow of a smaller dragon landed before them. He landed perfectly on his feet and sending some of the gravel into the air, standing in-between the dragons and the ponies.
“I’m sorry I’m late, girls.” Spike turned back to see the girls pushing off from the rock, some of their faces alight with hope, others with irritation at the late arrival. “Celestia had me trail you upon realizing the string of missing ponies.”
He looked forward and up to the three giants that stood before him, not shivering or twitching at their significant presence. “You three dragons are under arrested for disturbing the peace in these free lands, and abducting ponies who want nothing more than to explore.”
The dragons looked down at him, then at each other, before bursting into huge laughter. This gave the purple drake the time and answer he needed to perform his next plan. He quickly dashed to the girls, his back still toward them, as he brought his claw to his mouth.
“I’m gonna have to perform the big one,” he said without turning back, extending out his other claw. “As soon as you notice me start to change, hop onto my back.”
The girls looked like they wanted to protest, but the drake had already brought his claw into his mouth and bit down as hard as he could. Blood splattered out from his mouth as his teeth pierced his scales, igniting the wrath of the monster deep within his being.
Spike began to growl, feeling power course through his veins as his body began to grow. Strength become him, fury burning in his eyes, yet he kept his other claw extended to keep the other dragons from going after his friends.
Even after Spike began to grow into a monster, he still kept those who meant harm away from his friends, feeling their tiny body jump onto his shoulders. Once he made sure that they were all safe on him, he let out a roar of battle and grew to a size equivalent to theirs.
The dragons stopped laughing upon noticing that another one was truly upon them. They quickly gathered together and showed their fangs to their foe, but their sharpness did not interest the emerald eyes one iota.
They were too busy focuses on the cyan mare clinging to the spines on his shoulder. She gave him a nod, striking her hoof into the air like a pose, before the dragon nodded himself.
Spike cocked his arm back, dodging the two dragons who threw themselves at him, and unleashed his punch under the other dragon’s chin. He sent him flying upward, high into the air, before using his other fist to slam him into the ground.
The purple dragon then looked to the other beasts, cracking his neck and then his claws. The mares upon his shoulders cheered him on, as he began to rush toward the other two.
For the first time in Equestrian history, a friendly dragon had been not born, but made.
