Rejection

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

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The concept of nudity wasn't a particularly hard concept to grasp for Spike, though the importance behind it had been.

Clothing was an accessory in Equestria. On Earth, it was a legal mandate.

He had quickly adapted a utilitarian mindset on it, which slowly grew to a 'Need' similar to what the rest of the humans felt.

Perhaps that was why he felt naked in this... Whatever it was.

Fog and lights. He was standing, though on what he couldn't say.

The only thing with form here was himself, no floor, no walls.

He brought his hands up and looked down.

Claws and scales. They felt smaller than he remembered.

Hesitantly, he stepped forward. One foot slowly touching down on where he assumed the surface was.

This was weird. He'd definitely remember coming to some place like this, wouldn't he?

"How long have I languished in the Abyss? My name lost, my people forgotten?" Spike's head jerked back and forth, trying to find the source of the voice.

It was subdued, like a great voice trying to be quiet, or a soft roar.

Great winds buffeted the small dragon, the fog dispersing as though it had never been there to begin with.

Spike looked up and his mouth dropped open in awe.

Hovering well overhead was a dragon. Gleaming golden scales shone brighter than the sun as six wings, the color of the sky flapped slowly.

"Welcome young dragon, to the lands between memory and dream. The crossing between life, and death." The dragon was slowly descending, growing in size until it was truly massive.

"Am... Am I dead?" That was what this place was, wasn't it? The dragon had said so.

"Is that your desire?" Lights gathered at the beckoning claws of the titan, forming into a window of color and sound. "If it is so, it can be made so. Though I would think your desires lay elsewhere."

Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, still in their avatar form were hovering over him. His human form. Rainbow Dash was doing something to him, both of her hands were pressing against his chest repeatedly before she tilted his head back and...

She was performing CPR.

Why was Rainbow Dash using CPR on him!?

"What's happening to me? What's going on?!" He remembered fighting that shadow pony, the elements of harmony blasting through both of them and then... He was here.

"The empty shell is dying without a soul residing within. And you are here, for you are a soul beyond a body. Were you simply reckless, child? Or are you perhaps wise, to have challenged something so twisted and pulled it from the girl without harming her?" Spike was gently lifted into golden claws and raised before the Dragons face.

"I didn't want to make her cry..." And that's what she was doing. Her stoicism was broken as Rainbow Dash kept the body breathing.

"Not all tears are bad, my child. Joy and happiness are wont to bring tears to even these old eyes." Spike couldn't see the dragons eyes to guess at how big its tears could be. He wasn't even sure if the dragon's face was covered in golden scales or a tri-horned helmet. "Upon your arrival here, I wept with joy! For a dragon to find their way to this place, most often they have earned an audience with The Great Mother, or should their ambition outweigh their bloodlust, they would meet the mad remnant of the Corrupted One, who suckled at the roots of the world."

"You aren't the guardian of this place?" It would have made sense. Some fabled, mythical place between important realms would be protected, right?

Like Cerberus did at the gates of Tartarus.

"No, child, guarding this place was never my purpose. Until I was Lost it was my duty to protect and guide those who strode forth in Hope. Those who dreamed of making their world better, who stood against great challenges not for glory, but to bring light in the darkness and give succor to the hungry. Had you challenged the parasite with greater courage in your heart, had it outweighed your determination to save your friend, you would meet with another." Slowly the nameless dragon set Spike back down on the ground.

It almost felt as though it were afraid he would break at a sudden movement, treating him as some kind of fragile treasure.

"So what am I supposed to do? Why am I here in this... Place between places?"

"It is rare, these days, for any to find this place. The hall of remembrance has seen few enough that were not barred for the monstrous acts performed to attain the power to walk here. And yet here you are." One massive claw gently rubbed the frill atop Spike's head. "You've no desire for the kind of power this place offers. No magical might, nor authority over something as trivial as the elements. You sought strength enough to save what you loved most and looked within. Burned away the magics born to you as a dragon to drag free your very soul. Even as the world sapped away at everything you are, everything you were, you grew beyond the poor fit of your mortal shell."

"I... Won't fit in my body any more?" Rainbow Dash had stopped the chest compression. She was staring at his body with such an empty, dejected expression he could only assume one thing.

"Not as it was. Not as it is. If you desire to return, you must choose now. And regardless of what you choose, know that nothing shall be the same. And whatever your choice may be-" Windows of light shimmered into existence. Moments of time, memories of laughter and play, sorrow and joy were arrayed before him. "I, at least, am proud of you."

"I can't leave them, not like this. If I do, Twilight's just going to-" A great claw pressed against his lips, silencing him.

"I need not your justification, child. Simply your answer. Do you wish to return?"

"...Yes." The fog was rolling back in, the lights glaring and blinding him.

"Farewell, Spike. If again we meet, I hope to call you 'Friend'."

The fog faded away, neither dragon to be seen.

Only stars, far as the eye could see.