“The Elements of Turmoil”

By RadaVonVon

Chapter 3: Spite

“Auntie Sweetie?”

Wow, it was actually pretty cold. Maybe he should have brought a jacket. This kind of sucked.

“Yes?” The white unicorn swung her head around to turn around and scan the room for the one who had called her, her curly purple mane bouncing cheerily as she scanned the room, looking for him.

Hah. Where would he get a jacket from, anyway? He didn’t have anywhere to go. Silly. But, maybe… Nah, it was kind of crazy anyway.

“Am I… Am I ugly?” The timid voice asked as slowly, a purple pony’s head poked out from under the desk she was working at, with a shaggy green and purple mane and a small set of white horns.

But… Damn! It was COLD! He shivered and took a deep breath. He was cold-blooded. Couldn’t this kill him or something? Cold, and dark…

“Gem!” The unicorn gasped in shock. “You most certainly are NOT!” She reached forward with her white hooves, picking up the creature, with odd reptilian wings stretching from its back, and large, green eyes.

He took a deep breath, exhaling sharply, and small sparks flew on his breath, searching for some kind of home to lay to rest and prosper in. The dank area was briefly lit. The image of a slender purple and green reptilian creature flashed for a moment, and then faded immediately.

“The kids at school say so. Miss Heartcheer says otherwise, and so do Mom and Dad, but… But I think I’m ugly! I’m not a pony. What am I?” The colt’s voice dropped from entirely miserable to interrogating. Sweetie Belle was at a loss for words.

Wood… Wood. He breathed again, lighting up the icy cave and the large stash of gold and jewels glimmering again as he sighted a stockpile in the corner. He sighed in relief. So he had saved up for the remainder of winter. Good.

Gem snorted. “I thought so. You don’t know or care, do you? I am ugly!” He suddenly stared at the pony with disdain. “You were lying to me.”

He shuffled awkwardly to the corner. He could feel the burning fire in his chest slowly going out. Hurry… Hurry…

“And so was Miss Heartcheer, and Mom, and Dad!” Suddenly, his eyes filled with tears. Sweetie Belle stopped him just as he was about to run upstairs. “Gem.” She said flatly, staring at him plainly and cocking one of her eyebrows.

As soon as he was in a close enough range, he breathed a huge plume of green fire to the stack of wood, immediately illuminating the huge hoard in the massive cave, along with the beast inside of it, whom had been evidently living in the cavern.

“Your parents and I-“ Sweetie Belle choked for a minute. “C-can I tell you a story?” She murmured suddenly, slowly walking over to the hybrid.

“A story about what?” Gem asked, the suspicion in his voice hanging deadly in the air.

“A dragon and a pony that loved each other very much.”

In the green light, the large wings protruding from the creature’s back was plain. A wingspan of three or four meters, easily. The dragon himself was snakelike, lithe and oddly lanky, though he walked on his forelegs he was more like a snake with legs and wings than anything else. A pair of pearly white fangs protruded from the front of his mouth. He was predominantly purple, with a light green underbelly and darker green spines, the same colour as the undersides of his wings.

“Was he any trouble, Sweetie Belle?” A white unicorn with elegantly an elegantly curled, dark purple mane trotted into the boutique, with a slightly larger, serpentine dragon in tow.

He shivered, sighing next to the fire and curling his long body around it. So much better. He could get back to his sleep… He’d only been asleep a year or two. Maybe a hundred more would do it. Spike snorted, a plume of smoke escaping his nostrils.

“Of course not.” Sweetie Belle smiled. “He’s very sweet, actually, Rarity. You did a good job.” The two sisters briefly embraced while Spike walked upstairs, his claws clacking on the hardwood of the boutique’s flooring.

Stupid Rarity. Stupid, stupid, stupid Rarity. Did she know he hated her? Hah. He bet she did. He briefly wondered if Twilight was still running around with that other crazy stallion. Ever since Blueblood came to Ponyville looking for her she decided he was SO great.

Spike slowly opened the door to the colt’s room, peeking in to see the pony-dragon hybrid sound asleep. He smiled to himself. Okay. Good. He shut the door again and came back down to see Rarity sighing, sitting at the table with a mug of tea in her hooves, idly sipping as she stared blankly at the table. His brow furrowed.

He was flitting in and out of consciousness, thoughts floating by of their own accord. Gold, gems, Ponyville, Twilight, Rarity… Rarity… RARITY. Rarity… Murmuring his name quietly. Ahh. Spike, yes. Yeah, that was his name. Spike. Don’t wear it out.

“Something wrong, Rarity?”

“Hm?”

“You seem… distant.”

“Oh. No, it’s just… I’m a bit worried about Gem. I suppose, in retrospect, being a hybrid does look a little odd. He’s being, err, teased, at school.”

“… Shouldn’t the teacher be doing something about that, then?”

“She’s trying. It’s no better than it was with Sweetie Belle and her friends, though. As a matter of fact, it’s worse. A lot worse, from what I’ve heard…”

“Spike... Spiiike… Spike! SPIKE! SPIIIIIIIKE!”

The voice he had thought was in the back of his head suddenly jolted him awake. He slowly opened his eyes, smacking his lips. How long had it been? He looked around for the source of the noise, before his eyes fell on a purple and white pony.

“HAH!” His now deep voice echoed through the cavern as he exhaled steam on the pony. “And what do you want?” His rumbling chuckle reverberated the entire area.

“I just… I… I wanted to apologize. I may have been wrong in my actions, and I wanted to ask you to come back.”

“What? Did that Blueblood guy treat you like crap?”

Rarity visibly bit her lip, pausing and shifting on her hooves. “Well, not exactly. I… I turned him down.” She stared awkwardly down at the rocky floor.

Spike’s brow suddenly rose. “How much worse?”

Rarity stared blankly down at her tea. “Bad. She thinks he may be pretty depressed. He eats lunch and plays by himself.” She sighed. “It makes me think about when I was a filly. There was a weird boy in my class, and we were always so mean to him. Horrible, in fact. To think that he was someone’s… son. That he was someone’s child.”

Spike watched her in silence; she spoke almost as though her chest was constricted. In tight, short breaths and bursts of words, as opposed to Rarity’s general speech pattern of long, lissome babbling.

“You know, I didn’t even know ponies and dragons could have children.” Rarity murmured mournfully.

Spike blinked. “Yeah… I didn’t either.” Spike sighed. “Twilight said she’d never heard of it. It was new, I guess. Never in recorded history has it happened. We should make the most of it, I suppose.” He sighed sadly, glancing to the side to avoid eye contact with the fashionista pony.

“What?!” Spike’s voice reverberated loudly. He inhaled sharply, releasing a sizable amount of smoke upon exhalation.

“… I never loved him. Never, really. Sure, I wanted to be treated like a princess. I just didn’t get that with him, and in retrospect, I realised that you were the… you were the one who would treat me like a princess.

Spike could only stare in shock, his large maw gaping open to reveal a huge set of perfectly positioned, sharpened fangs. “You turned down… a… P-prince… for me? You ch-chose me?” He felt his own smoke clogging his throat, then he inhaled sharply. “You’re lying.” He scowled.

“But… What should we do?” Rarity’s frown deepened as she only glanced up at Spike, raising an eyebrow before taking a sip of her tea. Her makeup from their night out was now smeared, but Spike found her beautiful nonetheless.

Spike hesitated. He had heard of things like psychiatrists back in Canterlot, as a child with Twilight Sparkle, but of none such thing here, in Manehattan. Was there anything he even could do?

Rarity interrupted his train of thought with a half mournful, half thoughtful suggestion. “Well.” She sighed, looking around her at the boutique. “We could always… Go back.”

Spike stared at her. “Go back?” He raised an eyebrow. “Go back where?”

“Ponyville. I heard Pinkie Pie and Apple Jack are still there,  Fluttershy is living in the Everfree forest.  Cheerilee still works at the school; she knows how to handle these thi-“

“Rarity.” Spike stopped her, his tone void of any kind of emotion. “… Do you not… like it? Living here? Manehattan?”

Rarity bit her lip. “I… It’s certainly bigger. I just… I fear I haven’t been doing as well as I could be. There’s so much competition, and most ponies here won’t associate with me. I’m, uh, ‘country folk’, I suppose.”

Spike stared. “But… Your book club and all that?”

Rarity sighed somberly in response, brushing purple curls behind her ear. “To tell you the truth, I miss Ponyville. I thought I’d be happy here, Spike. I really did. But… Maybe it’s not too late to patch things between us. Between the Elements of Harmony.  I know that Twilight is still in Canterlot, and Dash is in Cloudsdale, and I know they’re happy and I’ve accepted that. And Fluttershy lives quite a bit outside of Ponyville now, with Big Mac, but I…” Rarity suddenly choked. “I miss them, Spike.”

Spike felt his heart clench as he walked over to Rarity, resting his scaly head on top of hers. “Rarity, anything for you. I… I love you.” He sighed. “I hate it here, too.” He started laughing. “The food portions are so small.”

Rarity smirked slightly. “Heh, I suppose you’re right.” She glanced up at Spike with her watery eyes, now drying, and chuckled, “Heh, it’s like they’re trying to feed Opal instead of ponies… or dragons.”

Spike smiled sadly. “Hah, people are used to me in Ponyville. I just get weird looks here.”

A long silence passed.

“It’s not us, you know.” Rarity said passively as she began to regain her composure. “We did fine. We’re just new at this. No one wrote a manual on how to raise a foal, let alone a hybrid.”

“I wonder if Pinkie Pie and Discord decided to… you know.” Spike mused.

“I doubt it,” Rarity sighed. “Unless Pinkie’s matured a great bit.”

“Yeah. Doubtful.”

“I swear to you, Spike, I most certainly am not!” The unicorn looked stressed, staring at him. “I know that… Well, I know that I made some mistakes and such but it can be fixed, can it not!?”

Spike chuckled hoarsely. “It really can’t be. Twilight’s gone. You’re gone. You think you’re so available that you can just waltz into MY territory, asking forgiveness!?” His voice began to rumble violently.

Rarity stood stock-still, unsure of how to react. Slowly, her jaw began to work and she quietly murmured, “I’m sorry.”

“You should be.” Spike’s booming chuckle echoed once again. “You really should be. Now, do me a favour, and go back to stupid little Ponyville and your dumb boutique. Leave me alone!” Suddenly, without realizing, his voice had become a loud roar. He paused for a moment, suddenly realizing that he was shaking.

“Spike, can’t we reason this out? I never meant to hurt you.” Rarity paused, facing towards the exit but taking one last glance back at Spike.

“I know.” Spike muttered. “I never understood why you liked him so much anyway. He treated you like crap.”

“… Yeah.” Rarity mumbled,  the melancholy hanging thick in the air. She flopped down on her haunches, staring at Spike. His massive size was simply proportional to his hoard, also gargantuan.

“I’d treat you like a princess, you know,” Spike sighed, curling himself around the fire once again. “And not like a piece of trash.”

“Yes.” Rarity mumbled. “I do know, Spike.” She slowly glanced up at him, shifting nervously and examining his large, protruding fangs, razor-like spines, and glimmering purple scales.

A long, awkward silence passed as Spike settled around the fire, glad to be warm, finally.

“Spike?” Rarity uttered, near-silently.

“Yeah, Rarity?”

“Come back to Ponyville.”

“Why? What reason could I possibly have for going back there?” Spike snorted once again, staring angrily down at the ground and pawing at a small rock with his talons.

“We miss you. People wonder where you are. Blueblood is gone, Spike. Yeah, he was pathetic and stupid and I have NO CLUE why he’d show up and suddenly ask for me to come with him, to Canterlot, but… Spike, I’m lonely. Pinkie and Discord are happy, which, admittedly, makes me relatively uncomfortable, and maybe it’s really weird, but if a draconequus and a pony can be happy, I know a dragon and a pony can be happy, okay?”

“… Did you honestly just compare me to the god of chaos?”

“… Somewhat, I suppose. Yes.”

Another long period of silence passed with Spike just staring at Rarity, frowning. Finally, he spoke: “I don’t want to go back to Ponyville.”

Rarity stared at him. “I’m sorry I bothered you.” She susurrated, standing up slowly, but walking stiffly and lifelessly, like a puppet.

“Wait.” Spike paused. “I never said I didn’t want to be with you. Rarity, I love you. I have ever since I first saw you, but I don’t think I can go back there. Not anymore. All it will do is remind me of how much I miss Twilight. She’s like my sister. That’s all I’ll be able to think about. Of course, I want to be with you. You have no freaking clue how much I used to wait up here, every day, hoping that one day I’d see you again,” The great dragon rumbled. “But…”

Rarity leaned in. “But?”

“But I can’t go back to Ponyville.”

Rarity paused, thoughtful for a moment. She sighed, finally, looking up at Spike. “Manehattan. Let’s go to Manehattan. No one we know is there, save for a few of Apple Jack’s relatives. We never met them. We’ll be alone."

“… So. We’re really doing this, then?” Spike asked quietly, his voice hushed though the conversation wasn’t secret, and there wasn’t anyone to listen anyway. “Moving back to Ponyville?”

Rarity sighed. “I think it’d be best for Gem. I think Cheerilee would do a good job, and a lot of the foal’s parents grew up with you around anyway. It’s small. Here, it’s just… I’d imagine it’s ruthless. This has been persistent enough.”

Spike nodded slowly. “Alright.” He smiled weakly. Though the idea disturbed him slightly,  he closed his eyes. This was for Rarity. Rarity, and Gem. A small smile graced his lips. He opened his eyes to see Rarity staring back at him with her watery blue eyes.

“Spike? Rarity gazed at him for a moment.

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too, Rarity.” Spike sighed, smiling.

Yeah.

He could do this.

Image credit to mariatamayothewierdo from DeviantART. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Fear Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 17 Minutes