~ III ~

Refusal of Departure

The pony and the dragon strode through the empty lanes of marble, lost to darkness and rentering light, prodigally, from the castings of the streetlamps. He strode forward and kept a step ahead, always behind him. The clit and the clat of her hooves was the rhythm he focused his mind. Something to occupy the space as his eyes kept its sweeping of the streets.

Twilight was garbed in a robe and hood belonging to a wander or a peasant, her muzzle covered underneath a veil of shadow. Only her snout poked through, those lips beneath it, firm, tender and sweet. Covered in fuzz and fluff. Looking incredibly soft.

Yet they held the greatest gift craved by life itself.

What worried him more, however, was her lowered head. Twilight didn't keep that way to avoid detection. She was walking through the streets where she was once paraded. Ponies and the like glad for her to be in their shops. Now she was leaving, without a word, never to see her loved ones ever again.

Spike glanced over his shoulder and up to the castle behind, seeing that spire once more, the gold of the telescope glinting... despite the lack of light. This would be his final time seeing it too. Yet it did not hurt him as much as it did her.

It wasn't until outside the gates of Canterlot something was wrong. The breeze ceased and the coming dawn loomed on the horizon. Spike had been the first to walk through the long and winding path downward... spotting the ruffling in the bushes around.

He stopped and held his claw out to the side, catching the mare's chest as she walked into it. The fabric accentuated the fluff and the shape of softness beneath it and, though his mind registered the stimuli—it was focused on the figures appearing out from the range.

They walked without sound and move swiftly in unison. Great trees were scattered across the grounds left of the gate, shadows on branches, tall and still. Everything was fixated on him. None paid a glance to the mare.

They were not armour but colt. Robes and other wears. Faces covered and forehooves dressed the same. Sacks around their barrels jutted as they walked. Daggers and swords and spears on some. They seemed too uniform to be bandits.

Yet that's what they presented themselves as.

"You are nothing more than a wasted sell-sword." Three ponies strode onto the path as their hooves sank inches into the dirt. The tallest of them all, covered in puffy, black robes was the one to speak. Coat white and mane a sleek blue. "Gives us the mare. Return to your dragon lands alone. We'll keep her somewhere safe."

Spike dipped his head and his eyes narrowed through the slots of the mask. Despite their dimness, there was a glimmer of emerald splashing through. Inches of his expression was visibly—and the fullness of his hostility could be felt.

Sometimes you don't need to see a face of anger.

Sometimes you can just feel the heat.

"W-Wait! D-Don't do this! Please... hear me out!" Something was pushing into his palm and, though he held the force back—the plushness of the chest was an unexpected comfort mitigating his rage. "I know as a princess that I am worth something... but these lands are at risk if I'm not delivered."

Keeping behind his claw, the mare dug a hoof into the interior of her robe, searching around. Knowing she wouldn't move, the dragon pulled his arm away. There was more than one reason for this. "Perhaps some royal gems will be enough for an early ransom? What you would get—"

"We're not in it for the bits, you're majesty." The bandit gave a bow only a few could. "It's you we seek to protect. Keeping at the castle endangers you in being sent off. And if you were to reach those bastard lands..."

The leader shook his head. "I'd never allow you to travel on the path there."

Twilight was stunned into silence as she retreated inside her hood. Eyes glossy and a muzzle scrunched unable to understand the danger playing before her... she stepped back. Swallowing, she tried to speak. Nothing came out. The poor mare was scared.

But Spike had stepped in front of her, holding his claw behind his back, waist-height, allowing to see into his palm. Her head tilted back as her eyes ascended his height—hood falling—until seeing the back of his head. Without words, her foreleg lifted, reaching forward in jerks. It fell into limp onto his palm.

The digits were firm and sharp and precise. Hugging around her shape like nothing else, the squeeze comforted her. Enough to stifle the racing of her heart. She backed with an exhale, giving to a bow before stepping back.

"Move aside, dragon," the leader said as he stepped forward, slipping a foreleg over the side of his barrel. There was a sword clung to his hip, a round clasp around its handle, easily fixed onto the stallion's wrist. "Seeing the princess safe is your duty, is it not? There's a hideout, far away, composed of countless stallions and mares, talented in different fields, chancing their everything to save the princess."

Spike's claw went to the handle of his sword—the side of his claw bumping onto its top, correcting itself quickly by grasping it—and slowly withdrew. Clunky and obtuse and barely any smoothness to the movements. Yet he still drew his blade.

"You draw your sword still... regardless of my words? I know you are mute, dragon—but you are not deaf!" The black stallion tightened the latch around his wrist and yanked it forward, pointing the tip of the blade straight. "This is not her fight nor her war! She should avoid the coming tides of fire... not be sacrificed to them. Allow her to flee lands before they are charred. Are you not a true subject and protector of the princesses?"

The ground crunched underneath the weight of the dragon's foot, the earth smushing around his digits. Dirt splatted onto the legs of his trousers. Above his arm swayed over his head, the blade coming down before his face. Its metal reflected the glow of his eyes.

"Hmm... you're not at all what I expected you to be, dragon." The stallion chuckled as he glanced sideways. The rest clicked their wrists into the latches on their hips, fastening blades to their forearms—which they all drew forward. "Truth of the matter is you'll follow every order to the letter, won't you? Don't want to be caught acting out like a dragon? What is your oath to duty? To appear as the loyal dragon or to be a dragon loyal to his duty?"

Spike didn't move.

"At least you're consistent."

Twilight watched as the dragon lunged forward.

The slits in the dragon's eyes narrowed as he moved forward. Wood creaked from pressure on branches to the shaking of a few leaves. In the shadows of the trees came glints of silver. Arrows taking few seconds to be loaded and another to be fired and another to reach its target.

The brown stallion on the right was the first to lunge, prematurely, most likely scared of facing against a dragon. Dense fabric clung around his barrel to the clattering of metals. He'd stumbled and fallen forward into the thrust of his sword—easily smacked upward by a flick of the dragon's fist.

Spike twirled around the stallion and wrapped his claw around his throat, lifting and choking him, hearing the shooting of winds and the impaling of arrows. Three struck across the ponies belly and lined up to his chest. They sunk in by inches. Hardly any blood drew as the unconscious foe was dropped to the grass.

"Is that how you win your fights? Any matter that you can?" The leader strode forward upon holding his arms to the side, those behind keeping exactly like that. The glint from the trees ceased. Only dragon and leader circling each other. "I had wondered why the princess would allow a dragon, as strong as they are, one with only a lone arm to escort the princess."

Spike returned to holding the blade over his head again, defending himself with the streak of metal. The leader bolted forward at once and leapt into the air, flying downward at the dragon, bringing his blade downward. Both struck, and the dragon's arm tensed on the impact. He blunted the blow backward without losing a step.

Dirt kicked in thin waves around the hooves sliding backward. The stallion slashed the air before him, laughing in mock, tightening his shoulders. "Now I see your purpose! Nothing but the obsolete model, aren't you?"

Twilight Sparkle stood behind and watched it all occur without words. Worryingly she looked over to the stallion left on the ground. Across the patch of grass, those on the branches of the trees were still. All of them could take the dragon yet didn't.

And they didn't seem focused on her either.

Chancing the risk to the body of the stallion, the mare laid down next to him, rolling him from side to back—pained groans from them both—to the bloodied robes around his barrel. Not daring her magic, her hooves dug through the wraps... mindful of the arrows sticking out.

Meanwhile. The stallion charged at the dragon again, swipes from left and right, parried to the sparks of metal. "Tell me, dragon, are you playing nice? You outmatch my strength and speed but not quite my skill. What were you entrusted to kill to protect your princess."

But Spike didn't feel anything. Nothing of his body was alive during the fight—only reactions to actions from a lifetime of training. Those behind the stallions stood with their spears and their javelins, robed silhouettes content to watch.

Rather as the pony continued his barrage of attacks on him, the dragon backed a step and then two and, on feeling the stallion cover a step—lunged his foot forward in a sweep. Knocking the stallion's legs, Spike flipped to the handle of the blade. He smashed it into the pony's muzzle while swiping his legs out from under him.

Just as quickly he was on top of the stallion. Spike thrust his weapon into the grass, it standing erect from the dirt. The leader's head bashed around—nearly slicing his scalp on the weapon—as the dragon's weight held him down. The one claw reached the fuzzy wrist, feeling the smoothness of metal to the clamp... crushing it with the clenching of his claw.

The blade clattered against the ground.

Spike drew the blade of the pony and pressed it against the soft flesh of the stallion's throat, pinning it there, allowing the stallion to feel its heat in every sway of his head. He stopped thrashing after a few seconds... his eyes settled upward.

It was the expression not of the scared but that of the sad. Face contorting in despair not for one's own fate. It was the look one had only when it was another. Spike couldn't see his reflection in those eyes. Rather he glanced up to the rest.

Still they stood... but not at him.

The dragon curled his tail forward as its end wrapped around the handle of the blade, keeping it against the stallion's throat as he rose. Standing a foot from the fallen foe, who maintained that way as the sword still pressed against him... he saw the mare feet away.

Twilight Sparkle had pushed back her hood and allowed her hooves to reveal the wounds of the stallion. Her eyes were closed, and she was lightly shushing the whimpers of the stallion. She was slow and angelic in the sounds of her voice.

Dipping her head, it was her horn that first became alight in the glows of lavender. Three similar spheres appeared around the arrows of the stallion. He laid on his back, arched and gazing at his wound. Crying and shutting his eyes and utterly terrified of the end.

But did not scream as the arrows were pulled out. No blood surged, nor did the slit across the skin widen. Rather a glowing of colours blinding to the eyes washed over the spots. Seconds later, her lips pressed into the area. Nothing changed until the glow surged.

The lips of the princess earned a glow of violet that wasn't violent to the eyes. Magical and ethereal, its power sprawled across the body of the stallion and poured into his wounds. Bright light consumed the scene. Spike shielded his eyes with a claw.

Until the light faded.

The stabbed stallion was the first to open his eyes. He was still breathing and seemed shocked by it. In blinking twice, his right eye opened, scared to the sight of the world. Slowly, however, in sensing no harm... gazed downward.

No wounds or cuts covered his body. No blows from before appeared across his coat. Bruises from earlier days became non-existent. His hooves touched around his body, groaning from soreness and nothing more.

"I'm alright... bloody thanks, I'm alright!"

Twilight stepped back from the scene to the amazed gazes of everyone presented. She did her best to smile at them, muzzle turned and cheeks pink, unable to keep her eyes away from the ground down next to her. How could such a miracle worker be so bashful?

"D-Dragon? Could you heed me a favour?" The voice floated from over Spike's shoulder, which he then looked over. Their fallen leader lifted his forehooves to his tail, resting. "Think I got all the information I needed out of all this." He whistled. The on the range lowered their arms. "Promise you my boys won't give you trouble. Think we all need a talking to after that."

Spike narrowed his eyes... until a voice relaxed them. "S-Sir Spike?"

Glancing forward revealed the mare striding toward him. Twilight was doing her best to smile despite the shiver at the edge of her lips. The very things healing fatal wounds. He did his best to focus on her eyes. "I know your duty is not to me... but to escort me. But do you think we could hear this stallion out? I d-don't think he means to truly harm us."

It went against everything in his code. Even in gazing over the ponies gathered off in the range, they were putting away their blades—weapons being set down. Shaking his head... the dragon went over to his sword in the ground. He drew it up and kept it out, releasing the one in his tail.

He stepped out of the way for Twilight Sparkle to walk toward the fallen leader. Lowering onto her knees, she nudged him upward. He chuckled a smile and slowly rose, resting forelegs against the grass. "So your gift hasn't changed, has it, princess?"

Twilight shook her head. "I had a feeling it was you..."

The two entered a hug composed of clinging forelegs pressing deeply into the backs of the other. Spike's heart faltered at the deepness of affection. He shook the shame from his head—settling it on the approaching forces.

The band of stallions came around him, equipped only with their hooves while he clutched his sword tightly.

Twilight pulled her muzzle out from the hug. "B-But why are you here? And dressed like that? Princess Celestia sent you months ago, and you... you..."

"We didn't return for a good reason... one barely good enough from keeping it from you for so long." The stallion rested his muzzle around her neck and held her tightly. "We were the first expedition sent to scout the lands for your safe transportation. So many... too many were lost on the way there... and we never made it across the Great Bridge."

Twilight's eyes widened and, despite her confusion, still found her hoof stroking the stallion's back. Bumps and scars tickled the edges of her furs. Her lips tucked inward.

"Princess Celestia... we may have had our disagreements... but she was right to keep you locked inside that castle for so long." The stallion rubbed his cheek into her mane, smelling the scent of strawberries. "The world is starting decay beyond these lands. So many charred fields and burnt corpses littered on the way beyond. Even the strong... aren't very strong there."

Finally his muzzle rose to glance around his at his approaching guard. The figures defined by blackness and covered in robes became exposed underneath the sunlight. They did not walk but limp. The arms they bore weighed them down. Those laying down their weapons before, did so, because they couldn't move beyond it.

"B-But Shining..." Twilight hiccuped. "There were so many more of you upon departure."

"This is all that remains." Shining finally out from the hug. Stroking his sister's hair a final time, he pulled himself onto his feet. He stumbled a step, a splash of blood striking beneath him. Nothing major as he kept on his hooves. "Half of us died and the other half came back half-alive. We can't win this war."

Shining then glared up at the dragon. "And his kind is coming soon."

Twilight shook her head upon rushing to the side of her brother, nudging her head underneath one of his forelegs. Holding his weight, she stumbled forward, legs shaking—and persisting in spite of them. "No, they won't! Princess Celestia was able to arrange my marriage to the king to ensure peace between our lands."

"You won't make it there... dragons aren't always submissive to their kings... nor traitors loyal tot their duty." Shining limped forward, hurt from even before the fight began. Leaning more of his weight and pain onto his sister evoked pain greens. Her mane slicked from smears of his blood like a sacrilege defiling of nature. "We couldn't even make it past the quarter point of the world. That was the best platoon of the Royal Guard. Y-Your friend here... h-he can't... can't..."

Spike watched the scene in confusion of what to do and, in even looking to his missing arm... no phantoms emerged. These stallions around him, the ones collapsed on the ground, laid on their sides and backs, panting and groaning... they were his foes.

Their intent was to take the princess from him. Whisking her to somewhere safe. His duty was to bring her to the place where she would be handed off to the king. The two of them could move quickly and silently throughout the land. Those who move alone go the fastest.

If these stallions were to get in the way, would he kill them? Walk over their already dead bodies and kill them? Spike's heart increased in beating in the feeling of his claws tapping around their throats—before slicing across them.

The warmth and thickness of blood gushing over his claws, purple-stained to red, a feeling of something to the beast within. Killing for the sake of duty was an act meant for the sword. Why had he jumped to using his claws so savage like? The dragon shook his head.

And sheathed his sword.

Shining Armor had felt his legs collapse beneath him, striving to fall away from his sister to keep her from anymore of his misery. Yet her faint scream ceased early as a force held up his weight. It raised his foreleg around the width of a waist, hugging it, allowing his body to lean against it.

"Don't think of this as me owing you anything, dragon." Shining turned his head and spat, a metallic taste mixing with the blood on his tongue. He limped forward in hate, holding the dragon firmly. "I don't hold you accountable for your kind... but I know your kind resides within you."

The dragon's head turned from above, gazing down at him, his eyes vacant. "You may not have shown it now... but if our plan had worked... if most of us returned better than just alive... some of us would have still endured your victory."

The dragon helped him over to a polished rock jutting from the ground, turning him and guiding him down. Shining wrapped his arm around the dragon's neck, not enough to choke—but to suggest it. "What we came back as is proof of the world your kind is making it out to be out there. If we came back... if we took you on... how far would you have gone for duty... and how much for enjoyment?"

"And what gives you the right to say that!?" The stallion looked right to his sister approaching, already shaking her head. "I understand you attacked because you don't think I have a right to be involved in this. Maybe you're right about me—but I'm hardly the only in this position!"

Both dragon and stallion gazed at the mare in anger.

"You—"Her hoof swirled to point at the guards amassed "—all of you planned this for my sake. Dressed yourself like bandits to prove a point and take me away. You all did this for your love of me." She shook her head as winds lifted back her mane. "But what happens if you take me away? Perhaps we'll all get to live together in some cave. Maybe even travel around, always on the run, never sure... which night will be the night."

Her muzzle dipped. "And while I'm safe, the world will be burning, all because I didn't decide to move or kiss a king." She cleared her throat. "I know it's far much more than that. But can't you see everything beyond me? The ponies and cities and homes that'll be burned because I decided to run."

One of the stallions stepped foward. "But if we fight! We'll—"

"You'll be hurt or killed and so much will be lost in-between victory and defeat." Shining lost his breath to the emotions of his sister's words, knowing she thought and felt that far, all by herself. No longer a filly... but a mare sold off to savage dragons. "It won't be great for me... but it's already terrible for others."

Shining lost his breath and his heart at his next words. "So if you have to choose between the world in pain or yourself—"

"That's not even a question." Twilight closed her eyes and smile but, from the bottom of those lids came the glints upon purple furs. "My worst is being in a place I hate with dragons that'll treat me awful. B-But that might not even be the case! The kind said so long as I perform my duty, I can have a place to myself, filled with books and telescopes... it's not like I left that castle so much... so why... why would it make a difference now?"

Shining choked. "B-Because it wasn't always meant to be that way."

"And sometimes we can't always get what we want... that was the lyrics to that song you liked so much, wasn't it?" Twilight's eyes opened and were clear of everything. The image of her grew fuzzy and her figure blurred into purple. "Life won't be so terrible for me there. Just more of what happens here. Better than what will happen to everyone else."

Shining couldn't see through the blurriness of his eyes, not knowing he was crying, nor his arms still around the dragon. He'd been holding him up this whole time, without words or sounds, lowering him only when the stallion started to fall back. He laid against the rock as blood flowed from his wounds.

He couldn't suppress them long enough to prove the point. How could he show all these dragons were alike, their rage if given a chance? Twilight couldn't be allowed to go to such hostile lands. Not when she would be killed on the way there, or drained of life upon arrival.

"I'll miss all of this so dearly, you and your guard, this castle and its lands, Princess Celestia and the rest of my family." Even though the blurs of purple swam before him, her sincerity could be felt. His limp hoof rose to bat her away, only to fall, collapsed against the grass. "They'll still be letters. Maybe visits if I'm lucky. None of that is anything to seeing you hurt like this."

"D-Don't... I... I deserve this..."

Shining tried to lift his hoof again to swat her face away. His foreleg rose but then kept that way. A claw clenched around his wrist, holding him there. He glanced up at the dragon holding him down. "N-No! Stop this! This isn't your duty. You're not bound to this."

The dragon continued to hold him back. Bringing his leg onto the forelegs to pin it, he used a claw to tear away the robes around his barrel. Bleeding cuts tainted alabaster fur. Such a fuzzy coat ruined by that which was meant to keep inside. "These are your marks! Wounds left by claws like yours. Do you think you can defeat it? It's nothing that I hold against you, dragon."

Shining didn't know what he was saying anymore, exerting all his strength into that fight. If only things had been a little different. "You'll change the moment you lose that sword. It's what holds you back, binding you to something better. But how do I know you won't harm my sister? Maybe you have the strength to make it to the half-point of the world... but can you do it without retreating within."

He didn't know what his sister was doing at the side. Defending that dragon seemed to be her goal, and yet, she kept silent. That dammed claw! It remained over his wounds. Tracing over swollen slits and inflaming places already burning across his barrel.

"Don't think of me as being too harsh on you." Shining laid back fully to gaze up at the dragon. Only thing to focus was the mask. It shape set upon him. What it hid, locked away. The beast waiting on the other side. "No dragon bears what you have without regression. Your treatment from the world has been unfair. It's not that I hold against you."

That mask was what was in the way. There couldn't be a read on it. No expression to see or words to hear or feelings to feel. He was truly neutral beyond his actions. They implicated nothing. But nothing was an unknown—the greatest fear of them all. "That sword is a tool. Those claws are for pleasure. You won't get off from the kill using a blade. But slicing and digging those claws into your foes... that'll wake you up inside."

The claw was searching over him now, playing with his body, passing over gnashes with the sharpness of his contours. Dying here would be okay if it would change the mind of the one he loved. "Try it. We stallions are nothing. Unable to beat away your kind or protect the ones we love. You'll take my Twilight away. We're deserters. No home waits for us in Canterlot."

Those talons slid before stopping over his head, the place where the blood pumped and surged throughout. It was the juiciest spot for a kill. Claw dropping inward to the splattering of dense reds. To pull the organ upward as he both gazed to it. It'd explode as the claw crushed in ease.

"Dip your claws in some blood. Give your talons reasons to feel alive. Cut me, tear me apart." Shining shook his head and bit his lips to repress the pain. "Do something! I'll kill you after this is done! Take your Twilight away from your duty. You'll be forced to deal with me then, no?"

The blow came.

In the feeling of lips upon the wound over his heart.

Once more, the glow covered the scene, blinding those nearby for seconds, vision returning after that. Shining blinked his eyes, the world swimming into focus again. In glancing down his body, no wounds remained. In glancing up, two muzzles hovered before his own.

"...why didn't you do it?" Shining tried sitting up to the aching of his back, forced to lay back. He gazed into the cold slots on the mask to the more arctic eyes behind it. "I'll be a threat to you. That blade of yours can't hold back the dragon within you for long. Your claws were searching over my body, drawing pain..."

"Pain because you refused to stay still!" Twilight was the other muzzle floating before him, face scrunched up. She smacked his shoulder to a crack above the winds. Crying, he rubbed the spot. "How bad have the last few months been for you to be like this? Letting yourself die before your sister to prove a point? Hoping my dragon would do something so, what, I wouldn't know to trust him."

Shining choked. "There was nothing else I could do! No other way I could convince you not to go." His eyes flicked to Spike. "I doubt he's chained to his duty and his sword. But out in that world... where only beasts roam. How long do you think he'll keep like this before he becomes like them? Maybe that'll clear you a path... but how do you know he'll come back from it."

Twilight's muzzle turned and she looked at the dragon as well. Much like he, she couldn't get a read. This had been the design of those who imposed Spike into this fate. Never able to express or enter emotion. Dragons were emotional creatures. His entering of anger meant more than it ever could to any stallion.

"That sword won't be enough to defeat all that we've seen... even if he is strong enough to defeat all that lurks out there in the lands... he'll need to use those claws and the beast within him." Shining groaned as burns of aching coursed through his system. "That sword won't hold him back for long. He'll become something more to get you through." He sighed. "The question is if he'll come back to you. In all that rage repressed through the years... not many could come back from it."

Would that be enough to do the trick? Shining couldn't care to think much about it anymore. Terrible waves of drowsiness washed over him, his overworked mind and sore muscles finally gaining their rest.

Spike rose from the body of the stallion and stepped away from the scene, turning away only to raise his claw. Blood coated it in a glossy sheen. Without knowing why, his digits rolled around in it. The texture was pleasant to play in. It was the essence of the defeat of another, the raising of his high of victory.

Even though it was the blood from helping stabilize the wounds so aid could be injected, it coated and evoked those elements within him the same. Lowering his claw, he wasn't sure what to do. Once more the phantom was invisible.

But the hoof on his claw wasn't.

"There isn't a lot I know about my knight...." Twilight's voice floated from below him and, on his looking, the mare was sitting on the ground. She couldn't use her innate gift to heal this wound, for, there was nothing there. "Maybe nothing more than a beast lurks underneath those scales. Or maybe he is the first kind dragon to have ever lived. You attacked us to either save me or see him how his reactions in being pushed to the limit. There's... nothing greater to go on about him."

Twilight allowed his claw to hold her hoof, coating her natural furs in blood—that from her brother. Yet she did not break the embrace even upon looking back. "But he is bound to his duty as much as I am to mine. Both of us must do what must be done. I don't doubt there is a beast within him. But I know it's one bound by that sacred adage."

And she exhaled a shaky breath. "And his blood is my own. He was the one to hold you still because of my desire to heal your wounds. None can blame him for playing his part all so I may do mine."

Shining coughed behind them. "So... you'll go?"

"It's something I have to do, big brother." Twilight looked forward and, once again, choose not to look back. "You have my word Princess Celestia and others still think you on your quest. Those in the mountains should be sent home as well. Go home, Shiny, please, for me."

It was Spike who decided to look back a final time, seeing the stallion laid back on the rock and lost to himself. Sadness flashed over him in understanding the defeated state of the foe. Shining wasn't even a foe. Just a stallion out of luck and failing to do the right thing.

Without reason, he nodded to him, equally without cause, the stallion nodded back.

Before the mare pulled his claw forward, and the two were off again, leaving the castle and family behind.

Author's Note

Stumbled around on this one, but from here on out, it feels like smooth sailing.