The Kiss of Immortal Love

~ XIV ~

Party Reunited

Spike inhale and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled, doing so again, reaching a tempo, some cadence, that soothed his soul. The breeze was awash over his scales, brisk and refreshing, relieving the dense tension within.

The came the scraping of metal behind him.

Leaning to the side with a groan, he pushed a claw into the ground, lifting, slowly, on the burning of sore muscles. With a claw wrapped around his side, he turned, watching the girls near. Both of them struggled to drag the hilt of his blade.

His eyes glance at his feet as they approached.

“Spike dear... are you with us again?”

He lifted his head. The two stood before and beneath them. With a loose smirk, he nodded, all to Rarity's enjoyment. “Just as I knew you would return to us. We have something to return to you.” She leaned the handle toward him. “But I'm not certain this is something you wanted back. My apologies on the recovery.”

Spike went from holding his wound to taking the sword—heat lingering in the grip—and held it to the sky. Its thinness exposed no blood or any tear. Not even a glint of green. Holding it by his side, he nodded.

“A-And there was a-another thing.” Twilight spoke to the left. Her muzzle was turned away despite her eyes fighting to keep on him. His jacket was around her barrel and, biting at its collar, held it toward him. “Hwere.”

Spike endured the waterfall of freezing waters splashing over him as he took the jacket. He threw it over himself, no sleeves and charred all over, a familiar weight in its pocket. Ready, he turned away from them. He began to walk forward.

“So soon?” Rarity was quick to catch up to his side, forced to speed on her legs, a little faster than she would have liked. “That was a battle worthy of rest! Surely your wounds are aching? Maybe you need time to cool off?”

Her face froze when his head turned. Half of his mask was missing now. The whole of his eye was exposed. It burned a cool flame that chilled her core to see. With a swallow Rarity lagged behind. Spike kept forward across the range as the two kept behind. Hoofsteps cracking against stone were the only sounds of the world. That, and the whisper of a breeze.

There were no words in this period of silence. Spike walked forward to the demand of his body without knowing where to go. It wasn't progress he sought but motion. Moving and doing to keep his psyche afloat. His body was hollow and his mind was barren. The latter was always on the verge of thought, the damming sense of thinking about everything that came before—and what it meant.

But taking a lesson from his foe, he decided not to think, ceasing to care, keeping forward, as duty so demanded of him.

Twilight lagged behind the dragon and her heartbeat did the same. His towering frame had been lithe and attractive before, a comforting sense of bigness joined by a relaxed feel she could snuggle to. Without his jacket and his torso exposed, all those cuts and muscles... his size frightened her.

Adrenaline coursed her veins at the thought of the demon saving her. She'd understood anyone would have been scared but... it still felt wrong to be so. But strained nerves are strained nerves. What she couldn't get, however, was why she was scared now.

Being swallowed and sliced out was deadly terrifying... but she hadn't screamed. It'd only happened at seeing her dragon swallowed and stomped, then again, at seeing him transform. Those moments still tingled in her hooves. But now the whole of her body was tensed.

The answer revealed itself in the distance between them.

Twilight looked at the space of several feet keeping them apart. Something about their first meeting had established a connection between them. Without words of expressions, he endured her eccentric ways, helping re-stock the books. She never feared him or his thoughts. There was always that sense he was there for her.

On the bridge. When she was so scared and he proved to be the same. He held out his claw. Spike was always fighting way to connect with her, granting comfort, she never had to fear him judging her. It was always intent to save and protect her.

But had that changed now? He stalked feet ahead, keeping the lead, the twist of his broad back, despite scary to her now, brought a sense of comfort. It was still his duty to protect her. But the way he took that sword, not looking at her, no smile or a sense of comfort. Doing the bare minimum in terms of their contact.

Twilight's heart pricked at that.

Did that scare her more? Not seeing the demon of a dragon, but rather, that caring one no longer no more? She might have yelped if he inched close for a hug... yet it was exactly that she wanted. To be held and hugged and for these fears to be done away with.

Her mind was too cloudy to think more.

The expanse cleared to a edge of the mountain, opening to a clearing of the tops of trees spanning to the horizon, a dense forest, tinging with magic, reaching to distant mountains. Rarity was the first to be swept by the view. It removed her from the duo.

“That's... it.” All of her legs preformed in unison to take her forward, zooming past the dragon who turned to glance at her. She didn't care on nearing the ledge and losing her breath over it. “After all this time I never dared to think I'd see it again. Not even allowing the mind to remember how it looked.”

Footsteps came on either side of her, Spike to the right and Twilight to the left, him staring off, she gazing at her. Rarity's lips were wobbling in their attempt to form a smile. “It's been so long. So terribly long. Oh... how I've longed for this.”

Twilight's cleared her throat. “Is this... your home?”

“This was once my home,” Rarity corrected as if to still distance herself. “My first moments from the web are born in this forest. It's where my kind reside. Those lost in that cave all long to return here without knowing of its existence.”

Rarity glanced up at Spike, who was gazing around, stopping, of course, on seeing the pathway on the front of the mountain. He began toward it at once, a series of curved slopes leading downward. She rolled her eyes. “Not even allowing a lady to take a moment? How I already miss the dragon you once were.”

Then a glance over to Twilight—who'd been following him leave. “I'm terribly sorry to say this, dear, but this new spell of his.” Rarity shook her head to the clicking of her teeth. “It's not something he's going to break out of himself. That's the trouble with those sort. Can overcome any challenge beyond themselves. But when it comes to personal matters.” A shrug. “They're completely hopeless.”

Twilight glanced down at her hooves, which fiddled together, her expression saddening. “He's never been a sulk before. Before his fight with you—there was another with a guard of stallions. His issue isn't with the fight. It's with me.”

She shook her head. “And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about that.”

“You'll come to an answer soon enough,” Rarity chimed. “The boy is certainly deserving of something. He's pushed to pull you out from yourself. Now he needs the same in return. I have every faith you'll overcome yourself soon enough.” She cast a foreleg over that purple neck, drawing the princess close, beginning to walk together. “And in what you discover for yourself will, in turn, help him as well.”

Rarity then gave a throw of her mane. “But enough talk! Our short time together is drawing to an end. My former home looms ahead. You are a mare of history, yes? Perhaps learning of my kind will ease your mind.”