Darkness.
Everything was gone. Formless, ever-shifting darkness. Nothingness. The void had consumed its consciousness. It had become one with the eternal sleep that had engulfed it form. No Pain. No Misery. No Happiness. No Joy. Everything that had been him had been consumed in darkness. Breathing had became irrelevant. Life had become nothing. It had been all returned to whence it was born. It was finally at peace.
But its peace was false. Where was the laughter that once filled its life? The love? The emotions that made it what it once was? It distinguished him from every other pony and organism that walked, crawled, slithered, and trotted along the earth. That...and other physical abnormalities. Well, abnormal when it came to pony standards. It was quite normal considering what it was. It floated through the nothingness as nothingness, unfeeling. Though...he was still capable of thought. It is what made this plane of existence unbearable. He was still thinking. Wondering. These hundreds of scenarios which ran through its head in this timeless world. What could have been. If it could have cried, he would have. If it had a heart, it would be aching. If it had a mouth and working vocal chords, a sigh would have erupted from it. The eternal darkness that gripped him...was insufferable.
He felt...nothing still. It wanted and yearned to feel something. The embrace of the one it knew as family. The sweet lips upon it cheek from the one that he loved. The scent of sugar from an overly bouncy pony for whom he cared for very much. The blessings of the witty quips and sort-of wise sayings from a certain farm pony. The gentle touch and soothing words of the kindest pony in Ponyville. It missed it all. It wanted it back. It wanted to be greedy and hoard them all, so they could be with him for as long as they lived. To be safe. To feel that love, no matter whom they found as a suitor. He wanted that perfect life of it, that ideal, more than anything else. It was more precious than the air that it once breathed and the life it once owned.
Then...there was a ripple in the darkness. The once calm darkness became agitated and wild. It whipped around one place, still silent, but form starting to take shape within it. Soon...a claw pierced the 'ground' of the darkness. The black liquid fell off of the claw to reveal a radiant purple set of scales. The claw moved as if it had been just born, getting used to the world. It curled into a fist and unclenched back into an open claw, seeming grip something. It repeated its motion several times before it stopped. Then, the darkness of the ground began to recede. The darkness began to reveal the body of the arm from which it had sprung. The forearm connected to an elbow, which connected to the bicep and other back-arm muscles, as well as a shoulder. The shoulder soon was connected to a torso, followed by a similar arm jutting out of the darkness. The torso was connected to a neck (as all normal torsos should be), which was connected to a head. But this head was different from any normal 'head' that was seen in Equestria...not that the top form of the body was in Equestria anymore.
Then, a familiar-ish face was shown. Decorated in elegant purple scales, shining even in the complete darkness. Radiance in their form. The slim, sharp muzzle pierced the darkness as sharply as the claws did. Slits of noses inhaled and exhaled slightly. The last bit of darkness melted away from its face, showing more definitive male features. But, where the eyes were supposed to be, only purple was there. Thin membranes of skin covered the creature's eyes. His chest rose and fell softly. The rest of the darkness melted away to give out a long body. Dragonic in its craft, the body was wrack with both muscle and tenderness. The tail stay prone against the ground, lifting the body up a tiny bit and angling it. Silence still dominated the air of the darkness. The voided world soon became less and less agitated, returning to its shapeless splendor.
The breathing became more and more prevalent as it echoed throughout the darkness, the body starting to gain life. Subtle twitches became full spasms as the muscles awoke, the body stretched out and heard subtle (and not so subtle) cracks and pops as joints began to set and get comfortable in their places. He slowly got up as the muscles creaked and groaned from under-usage. The eyes of the beast slowly opened. The whites of his eyes first shown...followed by a radiant emerald as the eyes righted themselves. Some kind of exhaustion was set in his eyes as he fluttered his eyes and tried to get the sleep from out of his eyes and body. A long overdue yawn escaped from his body as it shuddered from the strain of just awakening.
Finally...after a long arduous process, the body stood. Shakily, but he stood. It took him a second to become more acquainted with gravity. And also with the new app-Wait a second...He looked back. He had WINGS! A huge grin appeared on his face at the realization. He couldn't wait to show...whomever he wanted to show. Who did he want to show? There were many ponies he wanted to show, though they blurred in his head. He groaned trying to remember who he wanted to show these new wings to.
He shuffled around aimlessly in the infinite darkness. He could see through it...but all he saw was more darkness. It was soon apparent that this young dragon was not going to see light anymore in his long, dismal life. Or was this death? He did not know nor did he care anymore. All he knew was that his patience was reaching its peak and he had no way to vent except yelling at the top of his lungs. Though, no sound came out. The breathing made sound, but when he tried to strain his vocal chords, no sound came out. Was this some kind of trick played by a cruel goddess? Or was this fate cursing him to an everlasting torment with no life and no sound? He cursed his lucky stars for throwing him into such an unfortunate circumstance.
Sadness.
There was an unending pit of sadness, of despair, in his being. He wanted to cry, though no tears came out of his eyes. He wanted to yell, though when he did, the air absorbed it and turned it into nothingness. He could feel it. The unending yield of joylessness. He fell to his knees as he stared at the ever-shifting ground. Was this how he was going to meet the end of his existence? In this loveless void with no one to mourn for him? This was what he feared. All this time, he though he would never have to experience it. Sweet words had coaxed him out of his fears, but now they had been realized. He was all alone. He was isolated. He had truly nothing to live for nor anything to live for him. He just shuddered, his muscles spasming as if they knew his pain...though his body was unable to act upon it. He gripped at the ground, on his hands and knees as despair took a tighter hold on his being.
He crawled, the will to walk having left him long ago. While he felt no exhaustion, something was taking its toll on this ethereal body of his. He felt this immense drain on his body as he crawled along the ground. He felt lower than he had ever been. He could not tell where he was anymore, nor could he tell how far he had trekked. Everything had looked the same to him. Darkness, darkness, and even more of the same darkness. Surprise, Surprise.
Then he felt a pressure against him as he knocked on it. He looked in more shock and awe than he did surprise. An actual solid object in this ever-shifting void of despair? He knocked on it and looked on it. He saw himself in its reflection, though he could only see the outline of muscle and his glowing green eyes. He blinked at it curiously as he poked it. It seemed to have qualities of a mirror, though he had a hard time guessing what such a device would be doing in the world he was in. It was out of place. Just like him.
He examined it thoroughly. He had reached the end of his journey, since he could not go any further. There were (what he could guess) endless miles of this mirror substance, much too far for him to trek to check out in its entirety. A wide smile came across his smile as a twinkle formed in his eye. An actual solid surface was here! In this inky blackness, he could actually feel this surface, no matter how cold it was. It didn't have any give to it though. It was completely sturdy, like a wall. A wall of black glass.
After seemingly hours of trekking up and down the wall and testing it, he slumped against the wall. Something was still draining him. He could feel himself fading again. His eyes lulled as he started to fall into another deep sleep. He groaned, expecting to hear nothing. But this time, a faint sound uttered from him. His eyes snapped wide open as he tried to talk.
"...-m I alive?"
He heard the sound of (what he thought was) his own voice. It was a deep, rich pitch between bass and baritone. It held this silky smooth, yet energetic quality. The childish, girlish tone of his past was gone to be replaced by the voice he now had. The smooth, ruggedness of age had come upon him. He had grown into his own as a young dragonling. Like the ones who had scorned him before. Though his voice obviously lacked the abrasive quality that the other young dragons had. He remembered the troubles that he experienced...and the ponies who saved him. The ones he called family.
He slowly stood, his body becoming less and less shaky as more and more memories came to him. Once indistinguishable mashes of color soon took defined shape before his very eyes. Ponies in shape, though having more love in their eyes than anything he had ever seen. It had brought a fluttering warmth to his heart. He saw them. Those six whom he loved dearly. He wanted to embrace them. He wanted to hug them to no end. Emotions mixed in him as the darkness became agitated again, the wall behind him seeming to move as it engulfed the six shapes, much to the young dragon's rage.
He slammed his claws and screamed un-repeatable curses at the wall, wanting what was his back. He clawed, punched, kicked...but to no avail. He wailed in rage as a great roar shook the very foundation of the darkness, feeling a tremor utter back to the source of the disturbance. Then he noticed something in the wall. There were cracks. Nigh indistinguishable, but cracks all the same. He was making progress. He kept fighting until he felt those ghostly fists of his break. He fought until he bled, falling to his knees, his ethereal joints broken as he started to sink back into the darkness, weakness overcoming him.
Was this it? Was this his fate? To be stuck in this lifeless void for the rest of his afterlife? To be given the tease of his loved ones to only be taken away by this goddess-forsaken land. No. He would not take this. He would not go down without a proper fight. Slowly, shakily, he rose to his feet, panting hard as he forced himself, against the will of his body to stand erect. He inhaled deeply, his diaphram expanding and his lungs filling with air as the flame organ in his body started to flicker. This hadn't worked before...but he hoped it worked now. He breathed out as hard as he can, the breath igniting as it passed the flame organ, tunneling out of his mouth in a wondrous display of emerald green flame. The darkness started to crackle under the heat and light of the flames, but it didn't break, even after the flames had subsided. Then he growled deeply.
"LET ME OUT!""
He yelled, his voice finally cutting through the air like a blade as he head-butted the mirror, the surface giving way and breaking as he fell to his knees. Then, a warm embrace came over him as everything started to melt away. The pain in his head caused him to close his eyes and keep them closed, but he smiled. He could feel the power seeping into his form. The comfort of this force wrapped around him, causing him to get to his feet. It coaxed him to relax. He wanted to open his eyes. He had to see what or who had him, even through the pain. Then...they opened, those emerald green eyes fluttering open as he looked around.
Light.
There was an immense light all around that was breaking the darkness. Illuminating the dark sector and replacing it with that all-encompassing warmth that was the light. It brought a smile to his face as it removed the exhaustion from his body and the darkness from his form. That was when he sensed it. This overflowing motion of flying or being flown through the air. And he heard a voice. The softest, soothing voice of one he loved so very deeply. And the shape of a pony, clad in armor with a white coat, with the most beautiful mane he had seen call to him.
"Wake up, My Young Dragon."
Then...everything went black again.
Slowly, his eyes open once again, his senses slowly awakening to where he was. His nostrils filled with the scent of sick and sterilization as it wrinkled as he groaned a bit. He was greeted by light as he tried to move his arms. They were still asleep. He felt a weight on his chest as he tried to look down. He was jus laying there for 30 minutes while his body rebooted, silently, as if he was still in darkness. Then, he felt a slight shudder as his body creaked and groaned, the unused muscles slowly awakening as he sat up, soon laid back down by the weight that was on his chest. He looked down at the sight, a soft smile on his face.
On either side of his chest, lay two ponies. The both shared a similar trait: They had purple manes. But what distinguished them were their coats and their bodies. One was lithe, awkward, yet holding some unknown beauty as it slightly shuffled in response to the movement of the body it was on. The lavished, luxurious white body of the other mare let out a soft whisper as she smiled in her sleep. The oddly seductive, yet loving-looking body brought a loving look to his eyes to match the smile on his face.
"Doctor! He's awake!"
He heard a voice yell, a white-coated mare with a pink mane and a red-cross like cutie mark pointing at him as ponies of all kinds funneled into the room. But what really stood out to him were 4 certain ponies...and the two dragons that were in the room. He looked at them strangely before his vision was cut off by two ponies tackling his face and neck and snuggling into him lovingly. He looked at their faces, tears in their eyes as they both just snuggled into him. Finally, the one with the purple coat spoke, her voice shaky.
"It's good to see you again, Spike..."
He smiled a bit, snuggling her and the one with the white coat again as he finally spoke. Not in anger, nor in despair, but in pure happiness.
"It's good to be back, Twilight."