Love's Hydration

~ XIV ~

Bared Fangs

Spike kissed the mare before inching away, watching the mare chase after his lips, indulging her desperation in a second kiss. His claw squeezed the creamy coating of her flank before stroking a talon across the side of her barrel. Her wings flared ever so slightly. She shuddered.

"Do you want more?"

The fluffed mare had been asked that question. She stood around staring into his face. Silent and still, unable to make a move, it took seconds until her breath returned. Her head shook as she felt intertwined with a sexy monster. Her eyes never left his. He swallowed her every breath.

"B-Bathroom!"

The mare slunk to the side on wobbly hooves, nearly needing to hop away, coming to a stop, a glance over the shoulder—seeing the monster's gaze on her. With a flush of a blush, she bounded toward the doors at the back of the club.

She curved in her trek and never went straight.

Spike grinned as he rose to his full height, a claw flexing in absence, his eyes searching for new prey. His head turned around to see the watching face of Rainbow Dash. His expression was dampened. The two glared at each other. He went to turn.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rainbow asked while everything inside buzzed. She stomped a hoof forward, ignoring it all, face aflame in looking up to the drake. "And what the hell was that?"

Spike rose from the crystal beam with a crack in his neck. Passing ponies glanced. Dubstep fluctuated the colours and lights of the scene. The dragon took his time before speaking. "Following Rarity's letter and living a little. See if I can find a nice mare to bring back to the boutique."

"How dare you!" Rainbow's heart blazed hotter. "Is this what you think she wanted? Are you going to the club to sample different kinds of mares? Decide which one is the best kind of treat to take home?" Her head violently shook. "Rarity wanted you to find love! Someone that filled you as much as you did them. What you're trying to do is get laid!"

"All this talk of love," Spike returned with a tilt of a head and stomp of a foot. "How about you, Rainbow Dash? Seeing different stallions and a dragon. Do any of us even know about each other? What about the newest addition you had the gull to express to everyone? Did he know you were shagging it up with a beast a few days before?"

Rainbow's next words died in her throat.

Confusion crept into realization.

"What did you expect me to do after your little confession, huh?" Spike fired word after word. Stomping closer and closer. Rainbow shrieked as his size. Needing to crane her neck more as the enraged dragon neared. "Telling me that I'll never stand a chance. That you have a bunch of other stallions on the side. I nearly didn't believe you at first. But nope! Then you went on that stage, and you…"

Rainbow backed away, but the dragon stole the steps quickly. Steam exhausted from the sides of his mouth and snout. She was scared and shrinking into herself. His claw had started to raise. Its sharpness glinted in the club's lights.

"You don't tell me what I can and can't do," the beast barked downward. "You don't dare criticize what I decide to indulge in."

Rainbow had backed into a corner when he came over her, slunk and scared, the ponies watching. Spike was about to descend on her—but stopped. He took a second to think and breathe and look around. Ponies watched him. Frozen and silent, watching. Something not belonging to them now in their midst.

Spike stepped back with his claw flexed before his chest. He wiggled his talons, watching them, eyes narrowing at the view. His shoulders lowered as he turned away. Rainbow was still set against the wall, panting with a hoof on her chest.

It took moments before thought returned.

H-He… he doesn't know… Rainbow blinked and swallowed, looking at the monster's back. He doesn't know I was talking about him. He really thinks there are other stallions. That I've been sleeping around. That I don't care for him the same. That I don't…

Rainbow realized it. The thrown words to protect herself from becoming invested in him. The love she had for and needed from him was used against her. She kept him at a distance, needing to feel safe. Never once assuring him of the deeper feelings beneath their sex. After that letter and the confession on stage, she'd cracked his head, confused his mind, and set him on a different path altogether.

I wasn't strong enough to admit I was weak… and I hurt him instead. I wasn't able to accept myself in every possible way. I wasn't able to accept him either. Oh, Celestia. What have I done? Spike… what have I done?

Her hoof reached out for him, a mouth opened to speak his name, but the two did nothing, falling away, forced to remain in shame. The dragon began away. The usual rumble and thunder in his sulking steps. He walked as ponies watched him. An outsider, failing to prove himself, cast out from the kind he wasn't meant to mingle with.

Thunder broke from the door. Footsteps rumbled inward. Double doors blasted aside and smacked into the club's wall. Crystal sprinkled into dust as a blue dragon emerged through the cloud. Tall. Proud. Stalking forward, a hunting predator.

Another dragon appeared. Rainbow's eyes widened as her back peeled from the wall. She came in front of everyone at once, bringing them back with a wing and a hoof, coming in front of the lot—but remaining behind Spike's back. He'd stopped walking after the last pony. The front of the club was clear except for the beasts.

"Hmhm." The dragon stalked forward, his step clashing the bottles on the counter, shifting the glasses on the crystal. His head tilted back. It inhaled. Out through its mouth came a slowly tasted exhale. "Yeees. You arrre it. My mate. Taken. You tooook her."

Spike only stared. "I have quite the list." His head lowered, but his eyes remained up. "You'll have to be exact."

"Pink, and violet."

"Tulsa?" Spike blinked with a recoil of his face. "She isn't yours."

The blue dragon's lips peeled over his fangs as it hunched forward. "Mine. I claimed her. You had no right. No beesting."

"I showed the lady a better time." Spike nodded. "That's all the besting she needed."

Rainbow remained frozen behind the purple dragon. His tail hovered into the air and winded behind his back. Something washed from his body. A heat and smell that was nearly nauseating. The two became primal dragons. Their scents competing. A snarl and growl over invaded land.

"My laaand," the blue dragon beat a claw on his chest. "Al'sual's land. Al'sual mate. You invade. You take. She leaves! You infect pony on dragons!"

"Your mate didn't seem to think so. She left for a reason. Ponder it." Spike looked over his shoulder as if to ensure the ponies were behind him. He saw Rainbow directly behind. He quickly stepped in front of her, holding a palm behind his waist, one shooing her away. "And leave here before you tackle some you won't walk away from."

"You're a pooony."

"How I wish that was true." Spike checked over his shoulder again. Rainbow was still looking up at him from over his shoulder. Frozen. Scared. Her face depicted the complexion. His face lit into something different as he thundered forward. "Now is your time to lea—"

The dragon charged with a horrifying growl. Spike raised his forearms before his face, taking the hit, sliding back and avoiding Rainbow Dash. Once his feet had stopped, he looked around, the ponies further backing away, a scream from the crowd. His fists curled and uncurled, the urge to fight and not to fight. He looked forward as another attack hadn't come.

Though the dragon claimed another.

"This one is special…" Al'sual clacked with his tail wrapped like a rope around Rainbow's barrel, its end tied around her muzzle. It floated her in the air like she was weightless. The tail squeezed her when she wiggled. "Your scent. All over it. Your mate. Now mine. Will sate urges until can no longer."

Spike charged. No words. Zero indication. Immense feet clacked onto the glass as a low growl vibrated through his body. Al'sual cackled in turning around, thrusting the mare forward, using her to block the dragon's path, a frightened Rainbow Dash between them. She was scared to see the colossal mass charge her.

Rainbow saw into his eyes. That calm green still in control. She saw the Spike that was still there beneath the surface of the beast. Her eyes watched his mouth as they whispered the words "wings." Quickly, she flared her pair as much as she could, waiting.

Spike charged her. He pushed her aside with full force, yanking the dragon's tail, forcing him to stumble. While Al'sual struggled to rebalance, Spike had gripped the back of his tail and, in raising a foot, stomped it into its base. He pulled higher and harder as the dragon screeched and growled. Even when the dragon turned his shoulders and elbows into the threat behind, Spike took it all, pulling on muscle and bone, waiting for that satisfying crunch.

And it came with a pop.

Rainbow felt the tail slink from her form as her wings pushed out for good, allowing her to fly away from the scene. Tapping down on the side, she recovered her breath and heart rate, seeing out to the two to ensure she was safe.

Spike had released the tail and backed away, seeing over to Rainbow and, in so doing, leaving the right of his neck exposed. Al'sual charged into Spike, sealing into his body, diving his maw into Spike's tender throat. He bit into the scales, the skin and the flesh beneath, squirts of blood firing, trails trekking down his shoulder.

Spike growled as the monster munched away at the side of his neck. Something twisted inside of him. Darkness claimed his existence as he gripped the back of the dragon's head, slowly pulling it to the tearing of his own flesh. Muscles stretched and snapped as the dragon was pulled back. With the back of its head in claw, Spike stepped out of the way and, with immense strength, threw the dragon's face into the floor.

It smacked into the crystal, a resounding thud sweeping from underneath him. Spike raised his foot over the dragon's head—but didn't stomp. His foot lingered as anger hadn't yet claimed him. Spike pulled his foot back and loomed over the fallen foe.

Who, in lurching forward, clamped to his heel, turning his head to bite into the flesh. Fire flared in Spike's eyes as he raised his other foot and crashed it into the dragon's neck. A terrible sound echoed off the crystal walls. The dragon squawked and cried, releasing the leg and rolling in pain.

Spike lowered silently, lifting the dragon by its injured neck, something saved only by the thickness of scales. He turned, throwing the dragon forward like a bowling ball, the wounded predator flying into a glass beam. It exploded into shooting glass as the dragon slid across the ground on the other side.

Spike stepped through the rain and gripped the neck again, turning direction and throwing the defeated into another beam, more destruction following as ponies fled, needing to escape the mindless slaughter of a beast. The destruction that was capable if a monster released its inhibitions for a second.

Something entered the air as the ponies surrounding the dance floor watched. Musk. The releasing scent of a victor. Spike trudged to the fallen dragon lying there, who had given up the right. The victor towered for a moment. Bathing in the rush of the fight. In not having to hold back his strength, his viciousness. In being able to hurt his prey in every delightful way. To see how far he could exert his power, the prey broke.

Hunger boiled in him like molten. His need to find a mate and fuck her senseless until she was nothing but a pumped mess of milk. His eyes shone around to the mares of the room. They caught the smell, drowned in its strength. Fear walked their hooves back. Terror in what this beast could do.

Spike dropped to snap the dragon's neck in his jaw, raising like a cat does with a dead rat, the defeated slunk in the jaw's grip. He turned, showing the room his victory—or those who would dare to challenge him. But this was not the place of the strongest. This was not where the spilling of blood was a common element.

His eyes fell on Rainbow.

He saw the mare as his jaws worked deeper into the dragon's neck, testing the flesh, seeing how much force made the breaking point. He could chew nearly to the bone. Blood squirted onto his face. Another thrill of the conquest. Now. The gaze of the girl drained all other sensations.

Her face was a mixture of things.

And they all made the winner feel shame.

Spike's mouth is open. The dragon plopped out. He laid on the ground motionless again—the odd breath to prove there was life. Narrowing his eyes, the winner lowered to the loser, claiming the top of his head inside a claw. He turned the head to face Rainbow Dash.

"Mine," Spike growled. "This land: mine." He rose and turned away, dragging the dragon across the glass, blood, and other remains. "Never come here. Tell every dragon to stay in their place. It doesn't matter the size. Not even how many there are."

Spike dragged himself and the other dragon out the door.

"I'll kill them," he said without emotion. "I'll kill them all."

He stopped at the door and turned around. The ponies shrieked back at the view. Spike didn't dwindle. "You're safe. All of you. Damages will be covered. Aid will be given. There will never be another dragon in this town again."

Rainbow watched the dragons leave through the doors, the dragging and footsteps disappearing in sound. Nothing of the dragons remained except the mess they made. Blood splattered on the crystal. Destruction caused in seconds. The frightful aftermath of barely a play fight to the beasts.

Captain Rainbow Dash snapped into existence.

"Everyone, please keep close to the counter and away from the shattered glass!" Rainbow drilled as she flew forward over the damage zone, drawing the attention of everyone there. "If you are injured, please safely make your way to the right. Everyone else, please exit through the back doors. Bartenders and servers bring medical aid to the right of the room, and someone with cones and tape to ward off the flooring."

She looked to a trustworthy stallion behind her. "You. Can I trust you to contact Twilight Sparkle? Just explain Rainbow Dash needs her here now."

The stallion nodded and left.

And Rainbow went to work on cleaning the dragon's mess.