Moby-Spike

The Serpent’s Pass

For a long time, I didn’t know what happened to Spike after he left all of us back in Ponyville. I never really did get over him leaving; he was like a little brother or a son to me. I finally saw him again today.

The day started with me waking up and preparing the ship so we could set sail from the Lemon Grotto. The noise woke Rainbow Dash and Derpy, who had fallen asleep in each other’s hooves after drinking a bit too much cider at the feast. After some awkward blushing and frantic movements, the two finally separated. I just giggled at how cute they were and kept on raising the sail. Dash put a hoof on my shoulder, and told me to take a break.

“You work too hard, Twi. We don’t need to set sail for a few more hours; the Serpent’s Pass is pretty close by. Just take a freaking break already.”

Dash grinned cockily as she said this, and while I wanted to protest, I had to admit I was a little exhausted. I decided to go outside and climb to the top of the Lemon Grotto; there had to be a reason the top was yellow like that. When I got to the top, I found something really weird. Not yellow rock, but a ton of lemons super-glued together.

“I guess it isn’t called the Lemon Grotto for nothing,” I muttered.

There was something else at the tip of the mount: a plague. Engraved on the plague were these words:

Lemon Grotto Seapony Producing Plant brought to you courtesy of Discord Industries, Inc. Customer complaints can be mailed directly up your flank. Shoo be doo, shoo shoo be do.

Discord’s influence again. I should have suspected something once I found out seaponies were here; those things were supposed to be extinct. Only chaos magic could possibly bring them back. While I was excited about maybe studying them someday, it just wasn’t a natural way for it to happen.

“Hey Twi, come back down! We’re settin’ off!”

Rainbow Dash was hollering up at me, so I slid down the mountain as quickly as I could and got on the ship. I bumped hooves with hers, and we set sail with Derpy telling us to go northwest. She told us we’d hit the Serpent’s Pass in about an hour, and then things would get hairy. But I wanted to know what she meant.

“Well, it’s just that, ya know, the Serpent’s Pass is kind of…thin,” Derpy admitted. “Our ship might not fit through there, and rumor has it there’s a, uh, monster there.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“What kind of monster, Derpy?” I asked.

She gulped, replying, “The kind of monster that could totally destroy our ship and, and…eat us.”

She whispered the last part, shaking in her hooves. I patted her head to calm her down, but I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of monster would randomly roam the middle of the ocean. It’s not like Equestria has lots of big fish in the water for a monster to eat. Unless, of course, it only ate sailors. I shuddered at that thought, and went to take a short nap while I waited for us to arrive. Once we did, I’d be ready to face whatever kind of monster was waiting for us.

I fell off my bunk with a thud, groaning from the sharp pain in my head.

Why the hay is the ship rocking? Wait, rocking?

I got myself up clumsily and rushed onto the deck. It wasn’t good; we were barely screeching by the rocky pass, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t get us a few feet without a minor crash happening. The scrapes were taking a toll; the hull wouldn’t last too long before the sides cut open and water rushed in, drowning us. Sure, the crew was all pegasi, but nopony can fly forever, and nopony was going to hold me up forever either. There had to be something I could do, and in a few seconds I had an idea.

“Dash, you keep trying to straighten us out! I’ll try to move the rock face outwards so we can go through easier!” I shouted.

It was a big gamble, sure. I’ve done teleportation spells, but moving an entire rock face? It was a big one for me. I gulped, closed my eyes, and tried. The magic went right through me, and that rock face was heavy. I can’t even describe how heavy it was; heavier than the biggest cake Pinkie Pie ever baked. I felt like dying the instant I got a hold of it. How the heck does anypony go the gym and do stuff like this by choice, anyway? I cast the teleportation spell, hoping for the best. I let one eyelid open, cringing at my expectation. I was certain I had failed; how could I ever lift and teleport an entire rock face, anyway?

It wasn’t there. It didn’t go far away like I’d hoped; it just moved a few feet to the side. But it was just good enough, and we would be able to sail through without dying at the very least. The crew sat and stared at me for a few seconds, mouths agape. Dash lifted her eye patch to get a complete look, exposing her eye-hole.

It’s surprisingly clean, I thought.

And then they started cheering, and whooping, and Dash hug-tackled me. I couldn’t believe it either; Princess Celestia would be so proud of me if she knew!

After a bit more celebrating, we started making our way on out from the Serpent’s Pass. The monster didn’t seem to be around, so we were completely safe and home-free. We were making great time on our journey; pretty soon, we’d reach the treasure and climactic adventure I’ve been looking for.

Suddenly, things went wrong again. The water started to boil around our ship. We were knocked sideways, forcing me and most of the others to fall onto the deck. Big green spines poked out of the ocean for a few seconds, and then went back under. For just a few moments, everypony got so quiet. I’m sure Fluttershy would've sounded like a flugelhorn if she said something then.

And then, my world turned upside down, literally. A huge sea monster exploded out of the water, grabbing Derpy and I by our hooves in its claws. It roared at us, showing rows of fangs and a forked tongue.

Big enough to eat our entire ship in one bite.

I tried to teleport Derpy and I back onto the ship, but Dash had ordered the crew to attack. They flew around the monster, kicking any open spot and causing him to thrash around constantly, so I couldn’t focus my magic. Instead, I tried squirming in its claws, but that didn’t work either. As for Derpy, she was having trouble just stopping herself from losing her breakfast.

I figured that if I couldn’t escape from the monster, maybe I could use some spells on it. After all, what’s the worst that could happen, right?

I started by firing some basic confusion spells at him. The hardest part was aiming while he swung me around, but I did get a few hits in. The problem was that they did nothing! My magic just glanced off him like it was nothing. Bad news for me though, he noticed what I was doing, and started breathing fire out of nowhere to get the crew to stop flying around him. It was working, too, and pretty soon he stopped flailing to get a good look at me.

He brought me up to his giant face, glaring at me angrily. It was worse than the times Princess Celestia stared at me; at least then, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t eat me. This thing could burn me to death, drown me, eat me.

Or sniff me. It didn’t want to kill me, or make me suffer. It took one big inhale, nearly sucking me inside its nose. A few moments later it brought me closer to its eyes, taking a better look with wide eyes. Those big green eyes. I recognized them; it was Spike! Spike was attacking our ship!

“S-Spike? Is that…you?”

Spike narrowed his eyes at me. I could tell he could recognize me. There was no way he forgot me, Twilight Sparkle. I took care of him for years, he was my best friend!

He grumbled and shook his head back and forth, and stared back at me. His pupils dilated and he threw me roughly to the ship. Lucky for me Derpy broke my fall, but Spike didn’t turn back into his normal self. I wasn’t expecting him to become a baby again; he was bigger than that when he left. But I did think he might change back like he did for Rarity. The last I saw of him he shot back underwater, but I did catch a glimpse of the worst, possible, thing. On his side, right above his tail, there was an imprint. Just one letter.

D.

I know it sounds insane. Rainbow Dash kept telling me that there was no way it was true. The crew celebrated our survival into the night, and eventually we decided to get some rest before setting off tomorrow. But I can’t sleep, and as I lie here writing this, I can’t help but be sure that Spike wasn’t himself. I know that Discord did something to him; why else would a big D be tattooed on him? Somehow Discord got to him, otherwise he would have changed back after seeing me. He can’t forget me, he just can’t.

Right?