Revenge of the Shadow Pony

With ferocity and strength on his side, Spike lunged towards the two unicorns, ready to destroy them. The duo moved out of his crosshairs, but the dragon formed the wing-shaped talons out of his back and attempted to stab them. Tempest moved and threw some oil at the dragon before activating her horn to electrify the oil, causing the creature to catch on fire. The monster screeched in agony as Spike absorbed the Creature back into his body to quench the fire.

“DAMN YOU!!!” Spike snarled as he bared his fangs.

“Uh oh…” Tempest said as she backed away.

Spike goes into a berserk rage and proceeds to charge everywhere across town square to throw off Starlight and Tempest. As they were trying to follow his pattern, Starlight asked,

“Where’d you get the oil and the jars?!”

“I found them in a river next to Canterlot! It was all black and dirty!” Tempest answered while trying to follow Spike’s movement.

“That explains the oil on your suit!” Starlight said as she tried to keep her eyes on Spike.

Without any warning, Spike charged into the area, breathing fireballs and stretching his arms out in order to grab Starlight. Tempest tried to get on Spike’s back, but he tailwhips her away and focuses solely on Starlight. Keeping ahold of the jar in her hooves, she waits for the right opportunity to blind Spike. In his blind rage as he swings his arms, he raises them and prepares to deliver a heavy attack to Starlight. But then she hurls the oil into his eyes, effectively blinding him in the process.

“Tempest!!! Hold him down!!!” Starlight shouted as she attempted to pull the malachite heart off his chest.

After recovering, Tempest rushes over and electrocutes Spike as a means of stunning him while Starlight is busy trying to pull the malachite crystal off his chest. The crystal was hard and sturdy, showing little signs that it was getting pulled off his chest. But as she continued to pull, she saw small signs of the crystal beginning to come off. But before she could pull it off any further, Spike recovered and breathed fire at Tempest to throw her off before swiping his claws at Starlight. After getting back on all fours, Spike shouted as the ooze enveloped him,

“WHY IN EQUESTRIA DID YOU LEAVE ME WHEN THIS THING CAME ONTO ME!!! YOU ABANDONED ME!!!”

The ooze went back to covering his body and let out a powerful roar. It screamed,

“YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!!!”

“Back ‘atcha!” Starlight shouted as she fired electricity out of her horn.

The Creature moved out of the way and lunged at Starlight in an attempt to bite her head off, but Tempest interfered and electrocuted the Creature as well. Seizing the opportunity while it was stunned, Tempest hurled some more oil at the creature before igniting it on fire with her horn. The Creature screeched once more before going back into Spike’s body to recover. Then Starlight hurled the oil into Spike’s face to blind him before getting back on him to pry the malachite crystal off his chest while Tempest further electrocuted the dragon in order to stun him.

“It’s almost off, Spike! Just bear it a little longer!” Starlight shouted as she was halfway from pulling it off.

As she was pulling the crystal, the Creature attempted to kill Starlight But instead of trying to kill Starlight, Spike held himself back from laying the final blow on her. Tempest continued to electrocute Spike in order to nullify him from killing Starlight. She was nearly close from taking the malachite crystal off his chest, but the Creature took over and grabbed Starlight’s. He proceeded to slam her face into the pavement before throwing her at Tempest. The latter was barely able to catch the former, but now the Creature enveloped Spike for the third time and it was incredibly steamed.

“It’s almost off! I just need to get closer to him!” Starlight said, looking at the barely-clinging malachite crystal hanging on Spike’s chest.

“And how do you plan to do that? That monster won’t let us anywhere near him now it’s wised up to our attack pattern!” Tempest shouted as Spike went into another frenzy.

“Follow my lead…!” Starlight shouted as she faced Spike.

“What?!” Tempest shouted as the unicorn charged at the enraged dragon.

Charging towards each other, Spike grabbed Starlight and prepared himself to consume Starlight with the ooze. Not wanting to lose Starlight, Tempest electrocuted Spike to keep him from attempting to do her friend in. Starlight tried pulling the crystal off, but it wouldn’t budge and Spike proceeded to claw on her face. She screamed as she tried pulling it off, but it pulled fruitless. To avoid being killed, Starlight used her horn to electrocute Spike to stop him. But instead of pulling off the heart, she touched his face and caressed it. Spike was confused by the gesture, but he was still furious and ready to kill her, even as he felt himself lose the will to fight any further.

“You would sell your life for Equestria?” Spike growled as he kept a tight grasp on Starlight.

“No… not for Equestria. For you… for you.” Starlight said in a soft tone as she reached for a random stick on her right.

Touched by Starlight’s words and her efforts, Spike tearfully begged,

“Save me…”

“I love you…” Starlight tearfully said before jamming the stick into Spike’s chest.

Using the rest of her strength, Starlight pried the crystal off Spike’s chest and he felt the shock reach his body as he fell to the ground before being grabbed by Starlight. The crystal fell to the ground with his still-beating heart and it carried a loud thumping sound as it laid. Within seconds, Spike started to shrink back down to his original size. Tempest ran over to Spike’s side to see if he was still alive.

“Spike, wake up! Please! It’s over! Please! Wake up!” Starlight tearfully begged as she lightly tapped the dragon’s face.

At first, there was no sign of life within Spike. It was as if he was dead. Starlight felt nothing but grief as she cradled Spike’s body while Tempest comforted her mourning friend. Just then, a sudden cough came out of nowhere and Spike was now conscious. He was coughing up a storm as Starlight looked at her okay friend, filled with relief that he survived.

“Spike…” Starlight tearfully said as she hugged him.

“Starlight…? Is that you…? What happened…?” a coughing Spike cluelessly asked.

“Don’t talk. As soon as we get to Zecora’s hut, we’ll-” Starlight said in a relieved tone before hearing an evil chuckle.

“What…?” Starlight said in a now fearful tone.

Just then, the malachite crystal starts levitating off the ground and a vortex starts surrounding it. It was violently swirling around and they could hardly see, but they knew that evil chuckle anywhere and Canterlot was starting to get torn apart..

“Oh no…” Tempest whispered as she and Starlight backed away with Spike’s body.