The Kiss of Immortal Love

~ VIII ~

Princess of a Mare

The queen lunged back her arms, and the dragon did the same with his elbow, her confidence in multiple arms in a single strike, his assurance in a deflection netting all severed limbs. Gazing into the other, each hissed, and their attack was sprung.

"W-Wait! Wait, wait, wait!"

Spike dared the step forward in his return to focusing, and the queen did the same, both promising the strike... ceasing in meeting in the middle. The mare weakly rose, chest laid on the hump of a spider.

The dragon hovered the blade over the princess's neck, consumed in a rage burning through him, the only reason his husk still stood. Coldness swept through him, due to the slash on the palm, caused by a different purpose than the surface.

The phantom claw returned in red flames, taking hold of the blade and unto its steel his rage. The strike downward expressed all the tension within him, tearing through mare and spider, the glorious eruption of blood blowing like a volcano.

Spike retreated a few steps back, breathing, fighting to get himself in check. Billowing flames surged beneath his scales and warmed his body from the inside, that heat offering him life, burning the toxins killing him. To burn alive with life was the life of a simple dragon. No thoughts or feelings, only intensity.

The true secret to why dragons lived so long.

"Of all the creatures that dare to speak to me now, you are the one to attempt it, mare?"

Twilight Sparkle could barely hold herself up from the sudden flushing of fear. It infected her system. Limbs shaking and body quivering and muzzle twitching. She fought against them all to lift herself high enough—to give a bow.

"I-I'm... sorry to have intruded upon your home." Twilight held the bow despite collapsing of her muscles. "My name is Twilight Sparkle from Canterlot. It was rude of me to not have asked for your name from the start."

The queen glared at her from above, her white forelegs rubbing over chin... followed by a rolling of her eyes. "I suppose bad manners can always be corrected and thus remedied. My name is Lady Rarity. Do not chuckle. I do not use lady in my name because I am insecure about that fact."

Twilight weakly shook her head. "Not at all. You fit the image of one well. From your mane to vernacular and aura... there are few I could think of that fit the word so well."

Rarity gazed down hard at her perch. Her eyes narrowed and peering, striving to detect an iota of sarcasm or plea in the voice. Spiders were the most accurate in their hearing. No tone of begging or flattering or joking was detected.

Only sincerity.

"Quite a surprise to meet a pony capable of proper manners... usually your lifespan ends before you can grasp it. Such a short-lived species you are. Barely coming to learn usefulness before you expire." Rarity shook her head as rage returned to her again. "Creating strife and conflict in the vain hopes of accomplishing much in little—for little is all you have. So much would be avoided if your kind didn't have so much to prove."

Twilight grinned up at the confused beast. "Perhaps we are flawed... and maybe it's taken us longer to learn... disadvantages and such. But would you say you bear a superiority over all of us? Even the dragon with me now?"

"Indeed I do! Harmony and peace existed in this shaft before you showed up." Rarity crossed her forelegs over the fuzz of her chest. "Zebras and spiders were even joined together. Poor ponies never understood the wisdom of those phenomenal striped creatures. In the slight years over you, the wisdom they attain... they are the proof of the defect found only in ponies."

"Is that something you truly believe in?'"

"Indeed I do! Trying to confuse me with words and mindful tactics, are you?" Rarity huffed and turned her head, raised her chin, closing her eyes. Her hoof smacked through the air to accentuate her words. "Unlike you ponies, these spiders are not forgetful, knowing the many you've slain and dismembered on your way here. Threatening to kill children wanting to protect their mother—how dare you!"

Twilight huffed as weakness stole more of her but, for whatever reason, the spider beneath bore more of her weight. Despite the flame and the foe and standing opposed to its queen, it aided the stranger.

There was a faint line around its neck.

"Ponies haven't been kind to zebras for no good or great reason... and dragons have terrorized for primal rage and pleasures... to see both together in your home... no wonder they attacked."

"As they should have."

"Do you think we came in here, the two of us, looking tot slaughter a nest of your kind?"

Rarity's eyes blinked open, thinking, caught in the scary tidal waves before cognitive dissonance. Creatures like saying no, at least once or twice, to defend themselves from traps or to prove—either to others or themselves—they can. "N-No. Maybe not at first. But that dragon of yours seemed intent on the kill."

Twilight entirely laid on the spider now, barely turning her head, keeping it focused on the looming queen. "Regardless of the creatures, seeing loved ones in danger summons a rage in us, one that... causes us to act on surface information. Your children became aggressive in their love for you. My dragon, fearing the same for me, did what he did."

Rarity opened her mouth and closed it, squeaking sounds, never words, wholly at a loss.

"That sill doesn't save those hurt or killed! Misunderstanding or not, regardless of jointed mistakes... those cannot change!"

"Have you not noticed the spider with me now? His head was cut off in trying to protect you... but I bear a g-gift." Twilight fought in her final surge of willpower, coming to stand on her hooves, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Toxic blood easily and quickly circulated. "In finding something to love about another, the emotion that surged bestow a power, one used to bring life back to that creature because of that aspect."

Rarity was tittering and shaking her head and striking her hoof. In the closing seconds, she sighed, allowing her body to relax. Her head dipped and eyes closed. The look of shame on a lady. "Y-You... an ignorant and arrogant pony... found genuine love for a spider?"

"I could only speaking with that level of understanding in connecting with this one here... but I won't lie to you." Twilight did her best to stand straight, but it was something she could never do, the world-shaking around her. "I still so scared of all of this. But that dragon taught me something. Look."

The queen leaned forward from her perch, coming to gaze at the foreleg presented, unable to stop shaking.

"I'd always thought that if you were scared, then you were unlike the brave, because your hooves were always shaking." Twilight closed her eyes and offered a hopeful smile. "But true brave is walking on shaking legs and fighting with quivering hooves. Despite this showing my fear of all of you, just like the dragon, I'll get over this too—finding a reason to love all of you!"

Rarity's widened in utter horror as the full extent of realization blossomed over her face. "D-Daring... that is not fear..."

Twilight lost balance and stumbled backward, falling, peace and hope, still in the air, calming the tension of the lair. From behind her shot the dragon, catching her in his arm, her body limp upon it. Curling his tail around his sword, he tapped digits into the plushness of the mare's cheek, it sinking delicately, the furs softly brushing over his tips.

"Neck! Check her neck!" The dragon gazed left and across the patch of webbing in-between, watching the queen crawl onto the flooring. She came close enough for a greater look—while keeping feet away. "Dots or incisions! This in not a trick! Trust me, you brute!"

Spike knew better than to trust, but nodded anyway, sweeping the mane. Brushing over his claw, his digits caressed over the smooth neck. Two bumps. Red with a tinge of neon. Answers became clear at once.

He lifted his mask and pressed his lips into the spots, not bearing her gift but an act close to it, sucking on the blood. Purple furs were soft across the firmness of his lips, a sensation he hardly recognized. His vision blurred into inky darkness as the flame within burned out.

"No, no, no! Do not persist! It's already infected her system." Rarity lowered herself beside the dragon, the flames around finally burned out—save for the light of the sword. "One of my children must have caught her; the one that took her over! No wonder his bravery for a coward!"

She shook her head and then offered her long legs. "You must give her to me for there still may be time to reverse this. Do you believe you can save her alone? Forget trust! The mare is dead, no matter what, in your arm!"

Spike pulled away from the tender neck, turning and spitting, a useless act. He gazed at her sleeping face, the shallow breaths faint on his scales, the peaceful face of the hope she tried to inflict on those around. Biting his lips together, he stood in a round stumble—thrusting the body into the legs.

Rarity took the body and returned to her cocoon at once, travelling upside-down on connecting webs. Tucking the body of the mare beneath the mass of her body, she rolled it around, covering it webbing that formed a cocoon. It dropped, hanging the princess from above, dangling in place.

Before feelings of being tricked could rush in, the dragon bore his sword again, stumbling in place, his time thin. The body of the spider travelled over the mare, curling herself close to it—hissing at the light.

"This is an act that must be done in darkness, dragon, which your kind loves and hers detest." Rarity didn't look down at him from above, focused on the deed, doing what must be done. "I was mistaken about her. You I am still unsure. But she had faith in you—blind as it might be."

Spike steadied himself a final time.

"The antidote for her illness is within the hump of my back," Rarity continued as she, too, gave herself to peace. "You must kill me to acquire it. Inject it into her blood for her life to be returned. But, if like her, you believe in blind trust... put out your fire. My kind and I will not harm you. That is if you can believe better in our nature."

Spike lowered his arm, peering at the flaming sword, watching it dim from lack of blood. Killing the queen now, bring Twilight back to life, using her kiss to revive the queen... it'd work. But the point would be forever lost no matter what.

The dragon knew full well he'd kill those guards from before if they got in the way.

And he would do the same to these spiders.

But the trust of the mare of him being different than that, it enabled the belief maybe he could be changed and, though it was wrong, the dragon twirled the blade—until the flame extinguished. In the complete darkness, a screaming echoed, and the marching of legs was nigh.