Prime

"The aurora what?" Spike questioned.

"Aurora borealis," she repeated.

Spike was resting on Twilight's back.  Both of them were completely mesmerized as the gleaming array of colors above them showered the land in spectral saturation.  While most ponies simply sat and watched the night sky becoming alive with prismatic color, Twilight preferred to explain the occurrence to everypony within ear-range.  Tonight, it just so happened that Spike was the only one that fit that description.  That was how she'd always been.  So on her back he sat, listening to her as she recalled various facts and figures relating to the event.

As long as she was happy, so was he.

Spike yawned, a wave of warmth washing over him as he snuggled into the scarf around Twilight's neck.  The night air was chilly, but as long as he had her there, there was nothing that could make him feel more safe.  She giggled as he cuddled into her neck.  Both of them sighing, she decided that the not-so-young-anymore dragon on her back needed some rest.  And although he had only changed slightly since her prime years, she knew that he had indeed matured, even if his body did not yet show it.

She made a sideways glance to him, hearing the soft purr of his baby draco slumber.  She smiled.  "I guess that I'll have to wait to tell you the rest."  His low rumble altered for a second, and then regulated.

Twilight kissed him on the forehead. "Good-night, my little assistant," she cooed, "I love you."

She then turned back, smiling as the miraculous array of light above them shone and glittered intensely.  She admired the display for several more minutes as he lay asleep, breathing quietly so as not to wake him.  Her breath was thick against the chilled night air.  With a glow of her horn, she conjured a scroll and quill, and began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia,

It's been a little while since I have written you.  I'm finding that time is harder to keep track of as I grow ever older.  However, I wish to contact you on a very specific subject that has troubled me recently as I think about it more.

I seem to have discovered that, as I go on through my years and continue throughout my adventures, I more often than not catch myself falling into the old memories of the times I had with my friends.  I still catch flashes of their faces in my waking hours.  But that's not what has been interesting me.  I am writing this to tell you something else.

Princess.  I know about the Prime Element.

Please don't be alarmed.  Long, tedious, and tiring study have all been the source of its revelation to me, and as your faithful student, I will keep it a secret.  Besides, my time is coming all too soon.  But I know what its potential is.

For a moment, she paused, looking at Spike with a saddened expression.

I also know just who it was meant for.

A small tear wavered in place on her eyelid for a second as she continued writing.

I don't feel that it is our only option, however, and I would like t

She stopped, scratching out the sentence.

It's okay.  I know that it's the right thing to do, and I won't tell him just yet.  In fact, that may be what I dread the most.  I just don't want him to be unprepared.

As you know, I'm sure, by the time that it happens, he will be an adult, living his life, and I will be long gone.  I'm happy for him, that he's been chosen to do something so important, and I'm just... I'm proud.  I will always be proud of him, because no matter how he lives the rest of his days without me, I will continue to love him and care for him like I have for the past 80 years of our lives.  He's my son, how else could I feel?

Princess.  I know that we haven't been keeping in touch like we used to when I was young.  And as much as it pains me to say it, I need a favor:  Please, when he's had his adventures, and he has grown to look at life with the knowledge that his days are numbered... give him the letters.

My friends and I learned many things throughout the courses of our lives, frequently writing the documented findings of our friendship, and I know that Spike will understand... I know that he will remember.  I don't want him to suffer by my memory, so I hope that by the time he sees this, he will have long since forgotten me.  But when the time is right, I need for him to be reminded.

Reminded of our time together... of our time as a family, and of the magic of Friendship.

I'm sure that he will know what to do, and I find comfort in that.

Princess, with this final message of Friendship, I wish you a happy life.  This is your faithful student's last letter, and she would just like to say that it was an honor being the pupil of such an extraordinary teacher.  I am truly grateful for our time together, and I know that you will continue to teach and be remembered as you spend your life giving the gift of the magic of friendship and sunlight to this amazing world.  I know that you will help Spike remember, too, and that you and your sister and Cadence will see this land prosper far past his years as well.  So thank you.  My mentor.  My teacher.  My friend.

Good-bye.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

The quill and parchment disappeared in a whoosh of fiery purple magic.  As Twilight looked into the gleaming sky, she blinked a few times, bits and pieces of memories returning to her from years before.

*

*****

Spike awoke on the ground.  It was light outside, and a hazy mist had now settled over the landscape.  He heard a loud swooshing sound nearby, and looked up to find a river, flowing quickly in the form of rapids.  He felt sore... more so than usual.  Getting up, he spotted a few scales on the ground.  They seemed to be leading him in a trail behind him.  When he turned his large, reptilian head, he noticed that the entire terrain leading up to him was destroyed.  There was a crater roughly 30 yards behind him, accompanied by several smashed and broken trees.  The hole in the ground ran all the way to his feet, where he had grinded to a halt.

"I must've fallen asleep..." he said aloud.  He had acquired a slight headache between the time that he had woken up and spotted the cavity in the turf behind him, and started to feel a bit dizzy.  "I don't remember sleeping though."

Just then, he heard a whisper from behind him.  He whipped around, confused.  Tuning his senses to their highest acuity, he made an attempt to locate the source of the indistinct voice.  Actually, it seemed to be voices.  There were multiple sources of the strange murmurs, coming from all different directions.  He turned around furiously, trying to stand his ground against the simultaneous articulations.  They were becoming louder, his heart slowly becoming audible through his ears as the adrenaline hit his brain.

"Who are you!?  Come out!"  The voices continued, the cacophonous uproar increasing in volume as a response to his speech.  "Do you hear me?!  Show yourself!"  The whispers only got louder.  "I demand that you reveal yourself at once!"  Just then, he felt a tug on his arm, hard.  It actually moved him.  58,000 pounds of muscle, bone, organ and scale was just pulled out of its position!

What?!

Suddenly there was another tug, this time over his entire back, forcing him to fall off balance.  He whipped his tail in an attempt to stun his perpetrator, but looking back, he once again saw nothing.  He awaited the next advance, not expecting the sudden push against his left leg.  Using his momentum, he brought the leg back, swinging his right arm, only to hit the air.

"Hey!  Cut it out!" he yelled.  The voices only grew in magnitude.  A swipe was made at his right shoulder, knocking him backwards.  They were getting stronger.  "Stop it!"  Another hit him horizontally across the midsection of his back.  "Stop it!!"  To no avail, the assaults became more rapid and also harder.  "Stop!" push "Stop!!" tug "STOP!!!" slap.

"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!  RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"

This was the final straw.  With a ground-breaking crunch, he planted both legs into the dirt beneath, and let loose a cascading wave of bright green flame that engulfed all in its path.  He turned his head, sending the spontaneous beam of fire in all directions.

The flora around him was ravaged in a wildly consuming pyre, trees either cut in half or burned to a crisp.  The barrage of thermal fury continued for what seemed like several minutes as Spike ruthlessly sprayed his surroundings with the torrential blaze.  He directed the beam in a full circle, showering the environment one last time in the licking, green flames of his rage-filled inferno, before finally cutting it short and closing his mouth.

The voices had stopped when he had cast his Fury Beam, but it was only now that he had noticed the eerie silence in its wake.  For a moment, the only sound was that of the bright green embers drifting in the air around him, a soft, almost inaudible crackling sound being emitted from each as they burned whatever they came in contact with.  The flames continued to lick the scorched earth beneath and around him, sending small bits of embers into the air, accompanied by the singed flecks of once-organic matter, now all just turned to ash.

Spike stood in the midst of the destruction, filled with the rage of his entire life... the loneliness biting at his heels, the loss of all those he cared for, his isolation for the majority of his existence.  The fury inside tore him apart, and now he was prepared to unleash it all upon who -- or what -- had now dared to cross him.

"What?!  I don't hear anything from you now!" he shouted, "Too scared to fight me head-on?!  Come out right now, you COWARD!!  Come out!"  There was no response.  He knew that it was still there, he knew.  He would not be treated like this, he would not tolerate anyone thinking they would.  "I said..." he took an even bigger breath then the last time, "COME... OOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!!!!!"

Summoning his great power once again, he shot forth another Fury Beam, this time scattering it to cover a larger area.  When he did this, something happened:  Something shot back.  His brilliant green blast was met with another, one with just as much, if not greater, power than his own.  The beam was red, with jets of black flowing through it as Spike's dragonflame was pushed back by its new-found opposition.  He concentrated his shot, tightening the muscles in his throat.  When the beam became thin and compressed, the duel turned into a battle of raw power for domination.  The two collided once more, and a magnificent eruption of sparks and plasma filled the space between Spike and whoever else was casting such powerful magic.

Spike had never witnessed such a demonstration of pure power since his prime years.  But that rival had long-since parted, leaving this world in one of the Great Wars some thousands of years ago.  This foe was something new.  It was obvious that whoever it was had been given a true gift of supreme magical aptitude, and possessed the potential of legendary skill.  There were no other dragons he knew of that could control it like this, and certainly no unicorns were capable of the feat.

Well, whoever it is, Spike struggled as he tried to maintain leverage, they've certainly had a lot of practice.  I've never seen this kind of power before!  He looked up, trying to get a better view of his opponent, but no luck.  The unstable energy being released from the two clashing, wire-thin columns of magic was too bright, and blocked whatever hope he had of laying eyes on this new competitor.

Suddenly, the red beam got brighter.  He couldn't see it directly, however what he could see was that the light being emitted from his own spell was suddenly overwhelmed and mixed with the glowing crimson of his enemy's.  The connecting point of the two rays was moving towards him, faster and faster it seemed, until he had no choice but to close his side off and dodge the incoming epee of magic, which put a hole directly through one of the mountains behind him.

What kind of creature is this?

"You mean to say that you do not recognize us?" came a new sound of multiple voices speaking at once.  It sounded as if there were several people speaking at once in one, unified presence.

"Who are you?" Spike asked.  "And I want an answer!"

"Oh, Spike,"  One of the tones suddenly sounded familiar... just vaguely.  The lifeless depth of the voice brought a trail of chills up his thickly-scaled spine.  It spoke again, questioning sinisterly.  "You don't even remember your own brother?"

Spike watched in horror as the face of his one and only sibling stepped out from the bushes.  The dragon was huge, almost his size.  His deep, black scales shone with numerous angles of light, his venomous yellow eyes glowing against his thick brow.  He was being followed by a trail of smoke.  This couldn't have been...

"Thorn?  Is that really you?"  Spike asked.  He began to walk forward.

"I don't know... am I?"  Suddenly the voice and visage of the image changed, morphing with a wave of smoke.  For a moment, the six shapes that came out from the shadowy fog weren't recognizable to him, but as they clarified their identities by stepping forth, Spike felt a sudden great sadness.

"No... no..." he lamented as a grey, faded Twilight stepped out from the balmy smoke.

She let out a sigh.  "Spike.  I'm disappointed in you."  She stared at him for a moment longer, her eyes cold and resentful.  "You're nothing now, and even though your power is great, you're just an old, used-up dragon.  You've failed us... you've failed me.  You're not the son I knew.  You're a shadow of something that was once important to me; of something I used to love."  The voice was Twilight's own, but the tone held an utter disregard for him.  Spike felt the rage and sadness burning a hole in his plated chest as he saw her sweet, soft face appear from the fog.

"Twilight?  No!  That's not you!  You're not Twilight!!" he shouted, balling his claws..

"Of course it is.  What are you now, Spike?  You really are nothing.  A big, dumb, nothing.  I'm the Element of Honesty, I should know!" a grey Applejack pitched in.

"Wow, Spike, I didn't think you could get any uglier!  Not to mention gross!"  Fluttershy cackled.  "I mean, look at you!  Have you even SEEN a mirror in the past millennium?"

"Fluttershy... I... you --"  He felt a small tear building in his eye.

"Spike..." Rainbow said with a soft voice, "Who's Spike?  Oh yeah, you mean the little sidekick puppy-dog that would always follow Twilight around?"  She lay on her back in one patch of fog.  "Bah, who needs him."  She didn't even take an effort to so much as look at him.

Pinkie said nothing.  With her head to the side, she looked sassily upwards away from him.  Rarity was nearby, paying no attention to the large dragon and trying desperately to find a gemstone amongst the charred ground.  "Must be something in this filthy patch of ash," she muttered.

Twilight spoke up again.  "I thought I raised you right, Spike.  I left everything to you, and look where it got you."  She gave him one last look of disgust.  "Pathetic."

"But --" he started, a small tear beginning to make its way from his eye.

He felt another emotion suddenly: Anger.  He felt a boiling hatred for whomever was doing this to him, and he would not tolerate this treatment any longer.

"What do you... WANT WITH ME!!!  ANSWER ME!!!  Answer me or so help me I'll cook you like a --"

"So the prophecies are true... " A sudden wave of fear overcame him as he heard another vocal set.  It was the voice of someone new... a tone he hadn't heard before.  Terrifyingly deep, it shook the ground every time a sound came out.  "Finally, the Prime One.  After forty millennia of banishment to the coldest recesses of this world... I have returned... as the prophets foretold."  It spoke with the utmost malice, as if its very voice aimed to cause Spike long and agonizing suffering.  "I must say that I was expecting a much greater warrior, although I have learned once never to underestimate your enemies by their size or ability."  The disharmonized mane six suddenly evaporated, the smoky fog being whisked back into the scorched vegetation and misty haze.  Finally, Spike's nerves kicked in once again, and he spoke up.

"Who are you, and what do you want?  Show yourself!!  Show yourself, so I can roast you where you stand!!" he screamed, clenching his fists.  The inferno sparked in his stomach once again.  It felt as if the blood in his veins would explode into flame.  He was ready to fight against anything.

Or so he thought.

The trees before him suddenly collapsed, the burnt wood snapping loudly as it was crushed.  The brilliant green flames licking the turf were extinguished as it stepped forth.  The very ground beneath it quaked and split.  Spike lost his balance, and fell over.  He looked up, his eyes widening in terror, the flame in his willpower to fight now nearly extinguished.

The sight before him... was indescribable.

"Hello, Spike," it said.  "I have waited a very, very long time to meet you..."