The Kiss of Immortal Love

~ XIII ~

Back to Him

Twilight Sparkle broke out from the embrace without words, the sounds composed of whispers from the breeze, the odd rolling of rock across the barren landscape. She'd given a nod to Rarity, who understood, doing the same in return.

They embarked on the stone to the clatter of hooves and tips of legs. While Rarity went ahead to the sword laid on its side, Twilight had ducked to the right, finding the coat with its sleeves torn. With a pout, she flipped it with a hoof, the article no longer wearable.

Why save it?

The edge of her hoof felt around the coarse lining of the jacket, the interior of the pockets brushing velvet across her furs. Nothing else but emptiness within. Opening the coat, her muzzle dived in... caught still by a smell.

His scent.

It horrified her into a freezing of stillness for a dragon exuded the same aroma. Staleness of asphalt compounded into something different. But there was a trace of something different. Strong and sweet making her feel complete. It was the powerful aroma of leaver after April showers in a grassy meadow.

Her hoof trembled at the airs inside the belly of the beast, the lack of oxygen and brewing of intense staleness. She nearly collapsed were it not for the tensing of her muscles. Learning to be strong during weak times. Lessons learned from him.

Her snout dug into the pocket within the inside of the coat, feeling around until the spine of a book touched. Pulling back, Twilight's horn glowed. Two objects flew from within. The blackness of a familiar journal.

And a cherry blossom.

“He did it all for you.”

The voice floated from over her shoulder, and Twilight turned and looked up to face it, the spider before her. Rarity lowered the tip of a leg to her purple cheek, stroking it. “I can't even begin to imagine your torment during it all. Darling it wouldn't be right to impose anything on such an experience. Only... he endured it too.”

Rarity gazed down the stretch of stone to the dragon sitting afar, alone, forced inside a mediation to drive away the beast within. Regaining control by any means. Doing what must be done to ensure the success of their trip.

“Dragons become attached only to themselves and that which reflect them.” Rarity flicked her mane. “Mates and hordes to expose their worth and express their strength. Such selfish creatures. Everything done for the sake of themselves.”

Twilight didn't know what part of her broke first. From the eyes that stung with tears to the shaking of her hooves. She flung herself around the other mare without warning, one who took her hold eagerly, soothing soft whispers, stroking her back.

“I-I was... was... I was so scared,” Twilight cried out the word in a whimper, a struggle to catch wind again. “I really thought that was it. S-Stuck in that c-c-cramped mouth of a monsters, r-riding the waves. Pushed back until I was... he was the last thing I saw.”

Rarity was hushing over her head.

“He was my everything... and I thought he was about to become nothing.” Twilight wiggled her muzzle deeper into the white and fuzzy landscape of chest. “I didn't know if he was going to save me! If I was going to be in that belly, t-trapped, if I...”

“Don't focus on it.” Smooth hooves running down the back of her head, again and again, attempting to quell the shudders breaking from there. “No good can come from dwelling on it. He did save you. H-Have you thought about him at all?”

“N-No... and I'm a terrible mare.”

“As am I, my darling, as am I.” Those legs wrapped tightly around her in a squeeze both of them needed. The pressure of softness relented given the seconds. “Or maybe I am only half terrible, all things considering. But hush now. That dragon could have easily slain me back in that cave. He held himself back for your sake. Until it was required of him to truly fulfill his duty.”

Twilight recalled the nightmare. The standing monster of scales composed of purple lava pooling down his body, the billowing flames of green erupting from his missing arm—the blank sheets cast like veils over his eyes.

“I-I didn't know something like that lurked within him.” Twilight shook her head into the chest again, escaping the world of concern into the fuzzy one of comfort. “Stories called him a d-demon. But ponies of history tend to be unkind to new revelations. Seeing him become that, I, I know I shouldn't be scared... and yet... my hooves are shaking.”

“And they were shaking when you met me, were they not?”

Twilight kept silent and ducked her head into her neck.

“That dragon became what he must to defeat the beast trying to devour us—only becoming that rageful thing on your being swallowed.” Rarity pressed her chin atop Twilight's head, stroking sideways. “Not even upon his closeness to death had such a thing been triggered. Only on your harm did the transformation occur.”

Twilight shuddered within the hold.

“Those roars of his, dreadful things, they were not a testament to strength... but the expression of agony unable to be contained. No mere fighting for the sake of winning—raw pain in seeing your demise. It gave him a strength against a monster who devoured the creators of this bridge.”

Twilight fought to inch her head upward.

“Spike is a dragon that doesn't express himself often, only in behaviours, actions and reactions do we see the character beneath. Everything held came pouring out of him then.” Rarity lifted her chin and raised a hoof to Twilight's—helping raise it. “Even in the utter state of agony and rage, upon told you still remained, he repressed a dam of emotions to save you. Consider that fiery claw saving your life.”

Twilight lifted her muzzle to the the looming one of her friend, flicking the tears from the corners of her eyes. Sniffles ran their course as the shivers remained in her limbs. “How do you mean, R-Rarity?”

“Whatever the case of the arm was, its temperature was enough to break through scales, lighting them aflame. It bore enough strength to puncture the depths of the dragon.” Rarity cocked her head to the side and, for the first time in a while, smiled. “Yet when you were pulled out, no heat was about you. Not a singe to your tail. Something monstrous not bringing you any harm.”

She flicked her snout to the distant figure. “I don't think even he realized that.”

Twilight chuckled horribly. “H-Hard too... when the mare you saved... screams at you...”

“Are you scared of him now?”

Twilight looked over to her protector. Sitting alone at the edge of the cliff. No movement and no sounds. Completely still and gone from them all. Her nerves were a paradox of stimulus upon staring at him. No concrete answer or feeling coming through to depend upon.

“I don't know.” Twilight's gaze remained on him as the wind pushed back the streaks in her mane. Gems of violet, glimmering, in capturing him. “I don't think he's a bad dragon. But I don't feel he's a good one either. Fighting to be one, maybe, but I... don't know. That's what killing me. I don't know who he is.”

Her head dipped and shook. “But I shouldn't have screamed at him like that.”

Rarity clicked with her teeth. “My-my! What's this? Tis' not often I find myself as the not the dramatic one.” White hoof lifted her muzzle again to stare across to the dragon. “You endured your first dangerous bout with the outside world. How greatly you've changed since this all began. Surviving being swallowed by a fiery claw pulling you out, the first view, on living, being a demon doing as Spike had.” She giggled. “And you're giving yourself trouble for losing it the tiniest bit?”

Twilight ended chuckling too, coming to dip her head, but this time, doing it cutely so. “I guess you're right. It always feels like I should be able to overcome everything. But I guess... to be strong, not only you must be emapthic to others... you must be the same to yourself.”

Rarity smiled. “Sounds like you have a letter to write to that princess of yours by the end of this trip, don't you?”

“That I do... omitting a part or two.”

The two shared a laugh until parting. Twilight examined the journal taken from her home, knowing it to be a gift to bring into her new one. The blossom, however, was a mystery. Yet in being drawn to it, her lips were done the same, delivery a soft kiss on its silky frame.

Infusing it with a love born of an unknown reason.

“I don't think I'll be able to get over my fear of what he is,” Twilight said to herself as the wind carried her word, taking the time to place the items back into the coat. “But I'm going to find out who he is underneath it all. And maybe that'll calm my heart. Or perhaps they'll be a way to change the parts I fear.”

“Or maybe you'll fall in love with those exact parts.”

Twilight's eyes exploded in glow and she hopped back on her own, wings unfurled and ears standing, puffy chest heaving on every breath. Her lavender body darkened in colour as heat steamed from her easily. “L-Love! I-I don't...”

“Hard to say the opposite now, is it?”

“B-Because he's my friend!”

“Despite not sharing a word together?”

“We kissed!”

“That you did.”

“T-To save his life!”

“Repeatedly?”

“I only slept with him—ON HIM—to keep with his heartbeat!”

“Was it whispering your name?”

“It was... r-reassuring to listen to.”

“This your first love?”

“It's not my first! Well, I mean it is—IT ISN'T!”

“Princess without suitors falling for the damaged hero... charming.”

“It's not like that... besides... he would never...”

“Never become a demon from the agony of losing you, repressing his primal nature to make you happy, becoming a beast only to save you?”

“It's his duty.”

“Why didn't he do that before you were in danger?”

“You... really think something might... oh hush!” Twilight struck her hoof against the ground. “You're getting me to forget about how I'm scared of him!”

“You'll never forget those kind of fears until they're resolved, my darling.” Rarity offered her a wink and then nudged forward. The sword still laid on the bridge. Waiting for them. “You've been through a trauma. I won't tease you any further. Only a hint of advice.”

Twilight listened.

“If there was ever a dragon to overcome your fears for,” Rarity offered while point a hoof to the distant one, “he would be the one most worthy of them all. But that's a matter that resides in yourself. And the end of your trip... results in the same conclusion.”

Rarity took the first step and word forward. “But because the ending cannot change does not mean we cannot enjoy ourselves on the way there. Some of the journey is still in your control. And this may be the last period of freedom of being afforded to you.”

Both girls bound forward after that, Twilight tying the coat around her body, it spacious form abusrudily covering her body. Its sides draped and spilled onto the ground, dragging along as they proceeded to the sword. Both of the bent to its handle, Twilight forced onto her hind legs, all grabbing it with thier forelegs.

They strained and lifted it upward, barely, it weighing into the ground.

From there, they beat on, step after step, the grinding of steel into stone. Grunts and groaned came from them both on carrying the weight of the dragon's duty. That was what he carried around all this time?

The two, a little more appreciative of this, began toward him.