MLP:FIM does not belong to me, ‘nuff said.
Half a Heart
From his cave in the mountain closest to Ponyville, Spike looked out over the sleepy little town and smiled. He was far too big, too old to simply go strolling down the street as he had in his youth, before his hundred year nap. This generation of ponies did not know him, nor did he know them, but he was content to simply watch over them. Protect them.
He was big enough now at nearly twenty five metres long to chase away nearly any Everfree creature that might threaten his home and hoard; nearly any creature because the Ursa Major could still give him trouble, had she a mind to. They’d reached an understanding some years ago to simply not interfere in the business of each other; as a result she and her cub had moved to a cave deeper in the Everfree, where ponies were even less likely than they were now to go. The Hydra at Froggy Bottom Bog was a bit more stubborn in that he had refused to move, but upon seeing the clutch of eggs he hadn’t the heart to move the many-headed monster. For now he had to content himself with keeping an eye on the Hydra while any other dragon would have simply smashed the eggs and chased it off anyway.
The hydra loomed over his prone form and four pairs of eyes looked at him hungrily. He knew he had bitten off more than he could chew and this time there would be no Twilight to save him; not after the way he had yelled at her earlier. She probably hated him.
“Leave him alone!” His auditory fins twitched. Twilight?
Spike shook his head and sent the memory back from whence it came. Even thinking about the Hydra was stirring up memories he didn’t want to think about. Such thoughts were best left in the past he mused as he snorted a cloud of purple-tinged smoke from his nostrils and watched it float on the breeze toward Ponyville. His gaze immediately, almost instinctually, oriented on the enormous tree that was the library and the soft smile from earlier curled the corners of his long purple snout. That tree held so many memories, both good and bad; but mostly good. When he had entered his first growth spurt, Twilight had been so understanding. On the days his muscles and joints had ached something awful, she would fix him Zecora’s painkilling tea and sit beside him as he moaned, groaned and grumped; just to be there in case he needed her.
From the library, his keen line of sight drifted to what he considered to be Ponyville’s landmarks and all the memories associated with them. Sweet Apple Acres, Sugarcube Corner, the Carousel Boutique. Ah, Rarity, so beautiful and generous; but so out of his league. His crush on her had faded in the latter stages of his growth spurt; however he would ever be her defender from stallions who had tried to take advantage of her ever-generous nature. All of them had turned and run very far away when he had turned his predatory glare on them, all but one. That stallion had stood his ground and glared right back at the teenage dragon that stood twice his height at the time. Even with bared teeth and flexed claws, the stallion had lit his horn and scraped the ground with his hoof. When Rarity had entered the room, the two posturing males turned all buddy-buddy. Without words, the two of them had held an entire conversation and Spike had informally passed the role of primary protector to the other male; but Spike had made it clear that if Rarity got hurt, physically or emotionally, there would be no place the stallion could hide.
Rainbow Dash had performed a similar role for Fluttershy when the suitors came calling. Big Macintosh had quite thoroughly, though silently, threatened Applejack’s coltfriend by ‘accidentally’ snapping an almost metre thick apple tree in half during applebuck season. He had gotten the message loud and clear. Spike chuckled at the memory. Rainbow Dash herself had never needed a protector, as she was perfectly capable of defending herself. The stallion who had managed to woo Pinkie Pie had found himself under the eerie scrutiny of ‘Pinkamena’ and managed to not run for the hills. As for Twilight …
He stumbled over to her battered and bleeding body. Twilight had managed to drive the hydra away all by herself and save him, but at what cost …?
His claws drifted unconsciously to the scales covering his chest. After the ‘incident’, Twilight had turned away all suitors, male and female. Her friends wouldn’t let her push them away however, they had stayed by her side even as they grew older and older … and she hadn’t. Spike closed his eyes and clenched his head in his hands. No no no … he didn’t want to remember …! But the floodgates had been opened and the memories of over a century ago washed over him. He’d been so greedy. He hadn’t thought about her.
He didn’t remember what had made him snap, but suddenly the library had become much too small and suffocating. Twilight had come down at exactly the wrong moment, before he could pull himself together and asked what was wrong. He’d verbally lashed out at her with the most hurtful words that entered his mind. It was the only thing stopping him from physically tearing into her. Her eyes were shimmering with tears by the time he finished his tirade, stormed out the door on all fours and ran for the Everfree.
“SPIIIKE!” He heard her call but didn’t acknowledge it in any way, shape or form as he entered the forest and powered through the underbrush. All the animals from the smallest bird to the meanest manticore stayed out of his way. He remembered passing Zecora’s hut and startling the zebra in his mad rampage. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he had to somehow get rid of the powerful fury burning in his mind and gut. Every minute or so he lashed out with his claws and gouged a tree until it fell over.
He followed this primal instinct as he curved to the right, slashing and roaring mindlessly as his intellect was buried under raw aggression. Suddenly all his senses were all sharper, he could smell and identify all the animals that had crossed this particular patch of forest for the last three days, his eyes could pick out the entrance to the rabbit warren between the roots of a tree nearly thirty metres away. The sudden assault on his mind by his heightened senses made him fall to the forest floor and roar his anger and agony to the world. As he stumbled about, he tripped over something and was sent tumbling down a hill.
He landed in Froggy Bottom Bog, and the resident hydra was less than happy at the intrusion. Swamp mud dripped from its massive form as one by one, each head surfaced from the muck and released a chorus of guttural hissing. Reason slammed back into his mind so hard and so quickly it was almost a tangible feeling; as he looked upon the four-headed behemoth he felt like the blood in his veins had been replaced with ice water, not a pleasant sensation. Four pairs of unforgiving, savage, ravenous eyes raked over his fear-frozen form. He was dead. He’d never see Twilight or his friends again. Four tongues licked the lips of four toothy maws a heartbeat before the far left head lunged toward him. The hydra’s sudden motion spurred him into action and he barely escaped being swallowed whole. Screeching in anger, another head lunged down as the first retracted, then another, then another. His whole world became a lethal game of tag as he avoided heads and claws. He had forgotten about that tail though, and he suddenly found himself doubled over its tapered tip, sailing through the air. His impromptu flight was halted by his spine and head cracking against a tree. Dazed and more than a little concussed, he slid down the rough bark to the thick roots.
The hydra loomed over his prone form and four pairs of eyes looked at him hungrily. He knew he had bitten off more than he could chew and this time there would be no Twilight to save him; not after the way he had yelled at her earlier. She probably hated him.
“Leave him alone!” His auditory fins twitched. Twilight? No, it couldn’t be. That was the concussion talking. Or so he had thought until, horn blazing with power, Twilight had jumped the bushes on his right and landed in front of him, facing the hydra. She had been running hard, a distant part of his mind noted. Her chest was heaving and dripping with sweat, her legs were shaking with either exhaustion or rage, he couldn’t tell and her flanks were pumping like a pair of bellows as she struggled to catch her breath. He wished he could see her face because, for a single moment, the hydra actually seemed to hesitate. “Leave. Him. Alone.” Twilight repeated slowly and clearly, horn still glowing with unleashed power.
Two of the heads lunged and she released a wide bolt of power that hit them in the jaws with enough force to send both heads whipping backward. “When I say run, Spike, you run.” The aura around her horn turned into a blue flame just before she violently swung her head and the flame turned into a long whip that lashed the chest of the monster. “RUN!” Twilight shouted and charged the beast, fiery whip cracking in front of the hydra’s heads and forcing it to step back. Despite the pounding headache and vertigo, he obeyed her and began to clumsily run … toward the hydra. He was a dragon after all, albeit a young one; and everydragon knew that hydras were just dragon wanna-bes. Their claws couldn’t cut a diamond, nor could their jaws crush one. Not to mention that there was no way he’d leave Twilight to face one alone.
He jumped.
Spike landed on the hydra’s left hip and dug all four sets of claws into the pebbly hide. He heard Twilight shriek his name but he was too busy trying to do as much damage as he could before that left-most head whipped around. Seeing the sinuous neck begin to twist and bend, he started to jump; but the claws on his right foot snagged on the thick flesh. He fell gracelessly backwards and landed right beside it, rather than jumping clear of it as he’d intended. Just as he was getting his feet under him, the world suddenly went dark. And warm. And smelly. And slimy. And moving. And OH CELESTIA he was in the things’ tartarus bound mouth! Panicking, he began to thrash, not realizing that only half of him was caught between the flesh-rending teeth. He screamed for Twilight with a word he had not used for almost fifteen years, but something he’d always felt no matter how much time passed or how vehemently he’d denied it to others.
“MOMMYYYYY!!” Before the cavernous gullet before him could even finish the first echo of his desperate cry, the head he was in spat him out onto the ground.
Sitting up, he was witness to the hydra turning tail and diving into the swamp with three heads blackened and burned by flame. He blinked and looked over at where he’d last seen Twilight; only to gasp. Her soft lavender coat was now cream coloured as the orange flames of her mane and tail spread to caress the contours of her body. The once gentle purple eyes were blank, white and shining with power. In a moment that seemed frozen in time, that unblinking gaze was fixed on him. Then, like a candle in the wind, the ethereal flames flickered into nonexistence and Twilight returned to normal; almost. She crumpled like a rag doll to the ground and didn’t move.
He stumbled over to her battered and bleeding body. Twilight had managed to drive the hydra away all by herself and save him, but at what cost …? She was covered with bruises and many little scratches, but most worrying were the three long and deep lacerations across her barrel as though the hydra had managed to catch her under its foot. He gently grabbed her hoof; it was warm, she was still alive! But not for long, not only had she magically exhausted herself, she was bleeding out.
“Twi?” He croaked as hot tears rolled down his cheeks. “Twi!” The call was louder this time and his heart jumped for joy as her eyelids fluttered open in response. She took a shuddering breath.
“Y-you’re safe.” Immediately his heart dropped into his stomach and turned into a lead ball. This … This was all his fault! His throat closed and he began to sob. He sobbed about how sorry he was for snapping at her, for saying all those nasty things, for running off, for worrying her into following him …
“Shhh. It’s alright. You’re a growing dragon, you were starting to feel confined, trapped.” Twilight soothed even as blood began bubbling out of her nose and mouth.
“NO!” He cried even harder. “Twi … Mom. Please, don’t leave me! You can’t! I don’t want you to go!”
“You can save her…” A small voice in his mind whispered as he wrapped his arms around her blood matted neck. He would do anything to save her, she couldn’t leave him; he wouldn’t let her! “Would you give half your life for her?” It whispered again. Of course he would! Even if it meant his life, so long as she lived a long, happy life he would die without regrets.
The tears that had been pooling in Twilight’s eyes were now wet tracks that ran along both sides of her jaw. “Oh Spike …my son, we always knew you’d outlive me, even if we never spoke it. To ensure your survival …” Violent coughing wracked her slowly graying form as more blood was expelled from her fluid-filling lungs out of her mouth. “I love you …” She trailed off as she fell unconscious for what was possibly the last time.
“NonononononoNoNONONONONOOOOOO!” He roared in anguish. Twilight’s gray ear didn’t even twitch.
“Half my heart, to make yours whole; its strength, to purify your weakness.” The strange voice murmured. He didn’t even think as he lifted one of the plates on his chest and sliced the skin it protected while repeating the words. Spike felt nothing as his other hand slipped through the lips of the wound, between his ribs, and grabbed something. Withdrawing his claws, that something, that little spark of life gently pulsed as he pressed it into the gash closest to her barely beating heart. There was a bright, nearly blinding flash as all her wounds closed, the bruises vanished, and her natural colour began returning.
He collapsed face up as though the energy had been sapped from his bones, but he could hear Twilight breathing deeply and clearly. She would live. “Who… who are you?” He asked almost breathlessly.
“Look to the stars, Spike. Look to the stars.” He did just that and just before he too fell unconscious, he noted the constellation Draco was glowing. Almost unnaturally so.