Persona

A young purple dragon twisted and turned on the hard limestone floor of a dark and abysmal cave. The top of the cave was covered in stalactites, each which had little streams of water flowing down to their tips causing water droplets to fall and hit the hard surface of the caves floor. The young dragon tried his best to sleep keeping his eyelids shut firmly, but the sound of the dripping irritated the young dragon much more than it should have.

Drip, the more the Young dragon tried to block out the sounds of the droplets the louder they became. Finally with a large sigh the young dragon gave up trying to sleep, and allowed his eyes to slowly peel open. The emerald colored slit that were the pupils of his eyes seemed to radiate in the darkness of the cave. After a minute of lying on his underbelly the young dragon pushed himself up onto his hind legs and began walking forward. Everything about the dragon’s presences stated he knew where he was going; he had walked this path before even if it was shrouded in darkness.

After minutes of walking the young dragon reached the mouth of the cave which leads out into a large canyon which at the very base was a shallow flowing river of blood. The young dragon only stared at the river of blood unaffected by the sight that lay before him as it was all seen by him before. The river slowly started to move abruptly as blood bubbles started forming in front of the young dragon.

“Spiiiiiike.” A grizzly voice came as the first bubble burst, and then many more shortly after. Again the young dragon was unaffected by this anomaly. Nothing seemed to affect the dragon and if anything the dragon seemed irritated by it all. The young turned his head in both towards as well as against direction the river was flowing and could see nothing but stone and blood for what seemed like miles. He then looked to the sky which was covered in large thick dark clouds, and the walls of the canyon seem to stretch all the way to the heavens.

“Spiiiiiiiiiike!” Another blood bubble burst directing spikes attention back down to the blood river that flowed in front of him. After what seemed like hours of watching the river the young dragon took a single step forward into it. The blood river barely came up to the young dragon’s knee before everything around him started to shatter as if it all was made of glass. The young dragon fell forward into a pit of darkness that seemed to consume everything. No longer was he in the canyon, no longer was there any sign of a blood river, and no longer was he even falling.

A purple and green speck on a completely black canvas that is what the young dragon had to been reduced to now. The young dragon’s breathing had increased as well as grown a bit heavier as once again he began to twist and turn. His hind legs kicked ferociously as there was nothing there to keep him in place, and yet there he stood stasis in what one could only assume was the air. Suddenly a chill started to run down the young dragon’s spines; a feeling he couldn’t fully describe in single a single term.

“SPIKE!” The sheer force of sound from his name being called the time not only pushed him forward, but nearly knocked all the air out of his body. His body was now trembling uncontrollably with an emotion he could finally put a name to, fear. Against what fear itself was telling him to do the young dragon slowly started to twist his body so he could see what it was that called out to him. Witch each inch his body moved, his heart be slowed down until it almost came to a standstill when spike found himself staring into an eye. A draconic eye with a bloodshot red pupil staring back at the young dragon and causing him to do all in his power to try and move further away from it.

The single eye in height alone was bigger than Spike standing fully erect on his hind legs, and it’s was the length of two spikes one in front of the other from head to fully erected tail on all four limbs. A gust of wind blew apparently out of the darkness causing Spike to flinch, and slam his eyes shut. When the gust finally seemed to end Spike peeled one of his eyes open in the direction of the giant eye. The first thing he noticed was the gust had pushed him even further back, but that was easily subsided when he realized that there wasn’t one, but two eyes staring down at him. Spike mouth slightly fell open, as he was started to comprehend he had only noticed one of the creature’s two eyes.

“……..” Spike tried to spike, but nothing could be hear, not because he couldn’t form, but there was nothing in the abyss to carry the sound coming out of his mouth.

“SPIKE!” Another gust of wind pushed the young dragon even further back, and yet all that was seen were two monstrous eyes staring at the young dragon.

“…….” Again Spike spoke and again nothing came out. How is it that I was unable to speak, but this creatures voice alone cannot only be heard, but breath was forcing me further back? Why is this happening to me; what have I done to deserve this? Laughter had broken Spike’s train of thought, as an orange-ish red light started to break through the darkness of the void and completely engulf Spike in a blazing inferno of intense heat in which he had never felt before. The very outer layer of his scales looked as if they were melting, while the under layer intensified to the point of burning. H…..how is this possible, it feels like I going to c….c…combus…

Fire ruptured through Spike’s body melting his scales, and burning through the tendons causing his muscles to fall off his bones. With little to no support keeping the young dragon standing on his hind legs; spike fell backwards hitting a hard surface wooden surface. “Ah, it is too hot!” Spike yelled at the top of his lounges patting down his scales trying to put out a fire that wasn’t there. The sound of spike yelling brought Twilight’s blissful sleep to an abrupt end as she nearly fell out the bed trying to grasp a hold of her sense’s and rush to the young dragon’s side.

“Spike, are you ok? I’m here tell me what is wrong.” Twilight yelled as she tried to get closer to the young dragon, but her efforts were futile. The young dragon was twisting and turning uncontrollably, his claws and tail were wailing left and right smashing and cutting anything that was close enough. Spike’s basket had be shredded by the flailing, and spike was inching closer to some research notes twilight had spent the last two weeks doing all-nighters to finish.

“Oh no you don’t Mr.” The Violet mare yelled as her horn started to glow lifting Spike of the ground and suspending him in midair. This only served to make things worse as the young dragon was now spinning uncontrollably until the Violet mare finally decided to constrain his arms and legs together gently with her magic. “Spike, have you finally calmed down?” Spike could do nothing but simply nod, his cheeks turned rosy red in embarrassment once he realized he was still in the library upstairs quarters. “Now Spike, care to tell me what is wrong? This is the third time you’ve awoken abruptly in the morning.” Twilight asked with great concern for her number one assistant, but only think Spike could do was shake his head and sigh.

“It is nothing Twilight, and I’m sorry for waking you. I just need some fresh air.” Spike didn’t want to worry Twilight with something as simple as his dreams and only hoped she wouldn’t try to pry any further than this. “It is nothing Twilight? Spike this is the third time you have awoken hours before the Princess Celestia’s sun is even started to rise. The first two times I awoke you not only had me breakfast ready, but had already down half of your chores! I may have taken that answer then, but this time was more… violent.”

Twilight gently placed Spike down onto his hind legs before climbing back into her bed. She patted a spot right next to her for Spike to sit next to her. The young dragon released a sigh under his breath before giving into her whim; taken his spot next to the Violent mare. Spike than proceeded to tell her about the dream, and explaining the differences between the three times.

“The first time I had it I was terrified because it felt no it feels so real every time. I awoke in a dark cave and that is all there was; I could see nothing and I called out but no one answered me. I tried to walk around but I kept walking into large circler stones. Than out of nowhere I hear a voice call my names several times, and when I respond to them I get no answer in return. Suddenly there is this earth shacking roar which cracks the ground around, and causes the cave to collapse on top of me.

That is when I awoke from the first dream. The second time I had the dream, again I was terrified, but not as much as the first time. This time my eyes seemed to somehow been adjusted to the darkness of the cave. I could now see the things I were walking into were simple stalactites, as well as the fact again I heard a voice call my name, but this time the voice was leading down a path that I didn’t know was there the first time. So I follow the path all the way to the end, and what awaited me there was a literally wall of blood…Within a matter of seconds, the wall of water fell onto me crushing me. I could literally feel the pressure of the water, and taste the blood in my mouth…..” Spike gave a long pause as his claws laid by his side started balling up with a clawful of blanket.

Twilight watched Spike’s expression and body language; she could tell he was more scared than she had ever seen him be in his life. The Violet mare put one hoof around the young dragon and pulled him close into her for comfort and protection. “It is ok Spike, it was just a dream. I am here for you, and you don’t have to finish tell me it all. Just lay here and forget it.” Twilight said softly, but Spike simply shook his head before telling her about the current dream. The Violent mare only held onto the young dragon tighter even after the story was over. “Spike they are only dreams and this could be something you ate which caused the effects of these dreams. We still don’t know how gems fully affect dragons; there could be gems out there that have the similar affect to dragons as alcohol do to ponies. You have been gem hunting with Rarity an awful lot, have you been eating any gems you normally haven’t?” Twilight looking down at the dragon who was holding up his claws.

“Well there is; Amber, Amazonite, Morganite, Apatite, Aquamarine, oh but I really found myself attracted to Obsidian.” Spike licked his snout and rubbed his belly at the mention of the last mineral gem.

“Spike, None of the gems you just mention, could be found anywhere near here. So how could you have possibly eaten any of them, especially Obsidian. That can only be found around volcanoes and you haven’t been gone long enough to say you and Rarity traveled to their known location!” Twilight said in obvious disbelief in the new gem her assistant noted.

“Oh, and I forgot to mention bloodstones and come to think of it I still have some left in my hoard…..I mean stash, yea stash is what I meant to say. “ Without answering Twilight’s question and without giving her a chance to respond to his most current statement, spike climbed out the bed and rushed out of the bedroom leaving Twilight looking stupefied.

“SPIKE! WHEN DID YOU START HOARDING AGAIN!” Twilight yelled as she jumped out the bed chasing after her number one assistant and remembering the events of his rampage through Ponyville. When Twilight found spike he was in the back of the library surrounded by four contains that came to his knees. The containers were fill with amazing assortment of gems some twilight had only seen pictures of, or read about in mineral books. “Spike how did you get all of these gems, there is no way in Canterlot you found all of these with Rarity!” Twilight was still stupefied as she used her magic to pick up what looked to be a Heliotrope and examined it closely.

“The same way you get your books, through favors and royal duties with the princess. As for your when I started stashing gems; I have always done it, but it wasn’t until the events of my just recently I started to understand the importance of self-control. After my greed fiasco, I did everything in my power to never become that monster again. At that time this meant stop being greedy, but the question was how?

Since both hoarding revolved around me taking things, the easiest solution was just that. I called ownership to nothing, I took nothing unless requested for someone else of course, and it even got to the point where I would refuse gifts. Do you know how hard it is to refuse a gift from Rarity? It felt like I was ripping my heart out and stopping on it. Anyways, at first it seemed to work, but then something started to happen. The emotions and feelings from back then returned and everything I saw I wanted to take again.” Twilight looked up at Spike from the gem before putting it back into the container. The morning sun started to cut through the window of the library introducing a new beautiful day.