The address within the letter had brought Fluttershy to the gates of a tower on the outskirts of the central Equestrian castle itself.
She was unsure if the age of its stone was due to the same effect that had devastated the rest of the city, or if the structure itself was simply old. Rusted bars covered the windows and outside, statues of prancing ponies flaked with rust. Some had been ripped from their bases and lay strewn in pools of murky water.
Her steps as she approached the entrance to the castle were fearful and uncertain. As she walked, she would lose her footing, only to quickly find it again. After a brief moment of this awkward stumbling, she was finally at the entrance.
An oppressively large wooden door was before her. She fruitlessly searched its face for a knocker and finding none, she gave it several sharp taps with her hoof. Silently, the door swung open.
Before her was a wall of utter darkness. The floor was covered in dust and she couldn’t tell if her hooves fell upon wood or stone as she walked in. The entire area was filled with the scent of smoke, as if entire boxes of matches had been kindled and then extinguished. After a weak call of greeting went unanswered, she stepped into the room. With a menacing thud, the door slammed shut behind her.
Her hoof became stuck for a moment and she yanked it out. She looked it over and paused for a moment in confusion. Strands of Equestrian dollars were wrapped around her leg. Quickly looking over the room, she saw that the dust was not dust at all, but the tattered remains of paper money.
She breathed out in amazement as she surveyed the rest of the atrium. Everywhere around her were towering treasures of gold; statues, golden coins, crowns that sparkled with rare and ancient jewels. Then her heart skipped a beat as she finally grasped the danger she was in.
Even as she approached the door to make her exit, it was blocked by a gnarled claw.
“I, um, well, I need to lea-” Suddenly, her awkward plea for mercy was silenced as the claw rapidly moved to cover her lips.
Her bones themselves shook as a rumbling voice filled her entire body. “I...am most displeased.” Some of her tension vanished, to be replaced by perplexion. Though she didn’t reply, the dragon still spoke. “Your kind is vanishing.”
“Well, yes and um-” She tried to look into the dragon’s face, only to have her head forced to the ground by the gigantic claws.
“It was not long ago that your industries would provide me with goods of all kinds. Golden trinkets, the products of mining and of conquest. Swords, crowns to satisfy my lust.” Fluttershy trembled as the dragon leaned in closer. “But your race had to go and die off to this, this skeletal plague.”
The dragon deeply inhaled. “What...good...are...bones, I ask you.” It spat the words with such fury that flames flickered from its mouth and kindled tapestries upon the wall.
Fluttershy’s eyes hurt for a moment as they adjusted to the new light. The first thing she noticed was that the claw holding her belonged to a hand shimmering with green scales.
Her eyes finally turned upwards to face the dragon. The beast was larger than she could have even imagined, its mass filling most of the room. Its age was one of the first things she noticed; its scales were chipped and worn, a sizeable hole showing within the flank of the dragon, underneath which hung wrinkled folds of flesh. Its green eyes burned with a mix of fury and intrigue.
“W-what do you want from me?” She sighed in relief that she was able to finish a complete sentence.
The dragon’s raspy laughing filled the chamber. “We want the same thing, truly. But I am too old and greedy to accomplish my goal.”
Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion as best as she could in the grasp of the dragon. “Um, may I ask your name, mister dragon sir?”
The eyes transfixed her and she fought to keep her face free of fear. “Isn’t it obvious, Fluttershy?”
“Oh...Spike, I..I…” Tears welled in Fluttershy’s eyes. “I…”
The claw covered her lips once more. “Now, give me what you have. Stop reminding me of back then.”
Before she was permitted to speak again, a gnarled claw sliced open her bags and the contents within poured across the ground.
The contents of her quiver fell as well, bolts rolling across the floor. The tattered remains of the journal fluttered about in the dull silence, ancient words vanishing forever in that moment. However, she was ignorant to these things; all that concerned both her and the dragon was the crystal which rolled across the floor.
In the throws of Spike’s greed, Fluttershy was tossed across the room like a ragdoll. Her limp form impacted a wall, sending a bolt of pain through her leg. After a moment of lying on the ground and whimpering, she clambered to her hooves, her leg quaking as it tried to support the weight of her body. She wondered if the bone was broken or if it was a mere fracture.
And then she saw it. It was rolling towards her; Twilight’s savior and Spike’s object of desire. She made a crazed, half-insane leap atop the crystal and wrapped her body around it.
Its energies soothed her for a moment and she was calmed for a second by the gentle pulsations of the gem before the beast caught up with her.
Once again her body was molested by Spike’s worn and crooked claw. She was lifted in the air and brought before the angered face of the dragon, still clutching the gemstone to her side.
His eyes burned with the spark of a question, but Fluttershy made herself heard first. “I want to bring her back.”
Spike shut his eyes and opened them again, only for his eyes to shut again. His face twisted and steam blew from his nostrils, his lips curling into a tight grimace.
“The greed…burns.” He massaged his massive head with his hand, rolling his shoulders and shuddering. “Wha-what do you mean, bring her back? Can you save...save…”
“Spike, you have to fight it.” soothed Fluttershy. “Yes, I can bring her back. Just try to push it out.”
She breathed deeply before speaking. “Her life depends on it.” Spike opened his eyes and Fluttershy saw nothing in them of either greed or sympathy to her cause. In her ignorance, hope blossomed for a brief moment.
A moment all too brief and fleeting.
His claw reached upwards and began to pry her legs apart to reach the gem that they held. Try as she might, her strength couldn’t possibly counter that of the dragon’s.
She lay on her back in the palm of his outstretched hand, her hind legs askew. Her forelegs still clutched the gem. She stared silently into Spike’s eyes as one foreleg was lifted upwards and with a twitch of his wrist, the other one sprang free and finally Spike grasped the gem.
Fluttershy tumbled to the ground and another burst of pain sprang from her leg. Her eyes followed the sparkles of the gem and the weight of her failure hit her like an iron chariot. A sob escaped her lips as she looked desperately towards the crystal.
She shakily climbed to her legs and her wings spread out behind her, her head hanging low. She closed her eyes and took a moment to compose herself, then lifted her head to the triumphant dragon, her face a blank mask that occasionally cracked with grief; the roll of a tear down her cheek, the curling of her lips in agony and sorrow. Uncertain of what to do next, she looked back towards the exit.
And there he stood, the mysterious skeletal gunslinger.
His revolver already drawn, the light and sound of his opening shot filled the chamber and Fluttershy’s ears rang in the cacophony.
Sparks flared from Spike’s scales and he roared, turning in confusion towards Fluttershy. His voice filled the chamber as he cried out. “Fluttershy, what-”
His words were silenced as another shot pounded against his scales. Finally turning to his true adversary, he lunged forwards with his arm to crush the gunslinger, who nimbly dodged and an entire wall of the chamber was ripped to pieces of hewn stone and mangled lumber.
The gunslinger fired another shot towards Spike’s neck. Once again the shot sparked off of his scales and the dragon roared, this time fire emerging from his mouth. Fluttershy shut her eyes as the heat washed over her, drying the tears on her face.
After the searing flame had passed over her, she sat up and observed the damage. The chamber was now awash in fire, contrasting with the rays of moonlight and flakes of snow that drifted in from the world outside. The tranquility of the scene moved her for a brief second before she crashed back into reality.
She searched for the gunslinger and found him quickly, his bones charred black from the flames. His revolver was still in working order and the tip of the barrel exploded with light again.
The roar that followed was so great that Fluttershy clutched her ears from the pain and let out a small, dismal howl of her own. She shut her eyes and sobbed from the overwhelming, sudden pain in a moment of panic. She was distracted from her pain as a strange liquid drenched her forelegs. Fearing that she had been wounded, she forced her eyes open and pawed the substance.
Blood, she realized. She was soaked in the dragon’s blood. Her vomit joined the pool of liquid at her hooves and she began to sob.
Her eyes tentatively opened to behold Spike’s slumped form, blood gushing from the hole in his flank. His claws twitched feebly and she saw the gem lying forgotten on the floor. The gunslinger walked towards it and swiped it from the ground in an instant, holding it in his fleshless mouth.
“Please…” The words barely made their way from her mouth. She pathetically raised a trembling leg towards the Gunslinger. She gathered inner strength to project her voice across the room. “I just want to…”
To her surprise, the gunslinger trotted over towards her, precious gemstone in tow. His raspy voice penetrated her ears once again. “You seem so sad. So...what’s the word I’m looking for?”
Once he had gotten suitably close to her, she sprang into action. Rolling to the foreleg that still remained intact, she lunged off of it towards the gunslinger. Grasping his skull in her legs, she unleashed a furious series of blows against his bones, cracking several of them. Once he had been subdued, she snatched up the gem. Looking into the depths of the stone, she smiled and thought of Twilight for a second.
Then her attention was focused downwards. They looked at each other for a brief moment, fleshy eyes to silent eyesockets. Then, Fluttershy spoke. “I’m sorry I had to hurt you.” She thought for a second and spoke once more. “Who were you, anyways?”
“You know me.” The skeleton began to glow and Fluttershy threw herself from it.
An aura of energy surrounded the pile of bones on the floor. Fluttershy’s eyes darted to Spike’s corpse as a stream of bright energy began to flow from it to the skeleton.
The gunslinger’s raspy voice filled her ears. “When I defeated the skeleton king, I took his form. As I do with all suitably large things that I banish from this earth.”
Fluttershy furrowed her brow. “What are you?”
By now, muscles had grown over the form of the skeleton, and skin sprouted from its bones, to soon become studded with scales. “There is killing and there is banishing. To kill is to slay a lesser beast with no soul, but to banish is to take the life of a being with a soul.”
It paused as a tongue began to form in its mouth and then continued. “Even if that soul has grown old and greedy. And when I banish a soul, its form is given to me.”
“Glory?” Fluttershy said the name as a question, to see if she had put the pieces together well enough.
“Yes,” said the dragon before her. He was fully formed now, as small in stature as Spike was in Fluttershy’s more distant memories. His scales and eyes were as grey as the snow that poured in from above.
She thought of a response, but before it could pass her lips, she shuddered and grew lightheaded. Fluttershy tried to process the scene before her and failed. It was as if she was reading a book of her actions from a place far away and her ears rung with a hollow sound that quickly grew in pitch and intensity. The blood on the floor shone so brightly now it was seemingly blinding her.
Spike was dead.
That fact ripped into her heart far harder than any other pain had ever hurt her before. When Twilight had passed, that pain left a long and deep scar inside of her that she could not heal.
The rending of another scar like it threatened to destroy her.
She felt her mind quake and wail under the unrelenting brutality of that fact, her pulse quickening. Her world was a tornado now, of vibrant light, sound, energy and many things besides.
A voice floated towards her through the haze of panic enveloping her. “I’m sorry for this, but I need you to focus.”
Suddenly, her mind cleared. Her breathing slowed and the facts of her surroundings returned to her slowly. No longer was the smell of blood or the light coming from it overwhelming; it lay before her now as a still pool that neither traumatized nor enticed her senses. Spike’s hulking corpse had lost its terror and was as inert to her now as the shattered cinderblocks that lay upon the floor.
She calmly looked up to face Glory. He gave her a soft smile that raised no emotion from her. “A simple spell to erase your emotions for the moment being.”
Clasping a draconic hand on her shoulder, he pointed his claw to the side. Following it, Fluttershy laid her eyes upon a stone fountain, unnoticed by her in the tumult of the earlier battle. It was as ornate as anything in Camelot was; a piece of stone artwork adorned with colorless images of flowers and trees, as well as ponies leaping for joy.
In its stone lay an indentation and for a moment Fluttershy was curious, then she looked to the gemstone at her side.
“Is that the fountain of reincarnation? I...” Her sentence lay halfway formed in her mouth. Even through the mind-numbing effects of the spell, a snake of hope wriggled through and she stood speechless.
“Yes.” replied Glory. “But the path forwards is not as easy as you would think. To raise one from the dead, one must be put down.”
“Oh.” said Fluttershy. She felt as if she should be shocked, but the spell lingered and her response was accordingly blunted. “Didn’t Spike do that already?”
“That was my plan,” said Glory. He took a long breath before he spoke again. “But contrary to my expectations, he was far too greedy and powerful for you alone to kill, so I was forced to absorb his essence.”
“Does that mean...I…” Fluttershy gave her response with a blank stare of realization.
“No,” said Glory with a kind voice. “I will.”