The Binding of Spikeby FeignedSincerityChapters1. Your Only Son, Whom You Love2. Where Is The Lamb?3. As Numerous As The Stars In The Sky1. Your Only Son, Whom You Love"Are you sure this is wise, sister?" "I can't say for certain, but I fear that it is necessary." Celestia paced the floor of her bedroom while Luna looked out the window. The air was moist, chilled from the passing winter. Neither of the princesses wore a smile, nor did they believe they could in the moment. "Explain to me again why this is so?" "You know my student. My most beloved protege, Twilight Sparkle. She is brilliant beyond her years, skilled in spells only thought possible by an alicorn, and yet she lacks one of the most important things to a young pony." Celestia stopped her pacing at a pile of old letters from her student, each one filled with love, wisdom, and most importantly the magic of friendship. "She has no sense of free will, and if she never learns that then I fear she will ultimately become a pawn to the ages." "I suppose your reasoning is just. Still, you have not told me of the reason why this holds you in such low spirits. Shall this not just be another simple task for her to carry out?" "I fear it is, but the task is what worries me." Luna turned from the window to stand by her sister's side. "Canst thou give a simple request which she is to disobey? Surely there is something simple that she can refuse to do and prove-" "No. It can't be that easy. If I tell her to do something silly and insignificant, either she'll do it and think nothing of it, or she'll refuse and learn nothing due to the lack of severity. If I know my student, it will take something big to get this across to her." "Then what is it that you have commanded of her?" "Twilight, you got a letter from the princess!" "Oh good! I was wondering when my next lesson would arrive." "Well I have to go finish cleaning the bedroom, so I'll be upstairs if you need me." Spike placed the scroll on Twilight's study table, and turned to scurry up the stairs. Twilight broke the seal on the letter and unrolled it, starting from the top. "My Dearest student, Twilight Sparkle. Today, I will not be giving you a lesson, but rather a simple task that you must carry out. You see, I have come to think perhaps you do not... You do not respect me as your teacher?!" Twilight read over that part a few times, each time trying to make it sound right, but it never did. "Of course I respect her! What did I do? Oh no, Celestia must be disappointed in me! I must have missed an assignment, or maybe it was something I said. This is bad, this is terribly, awfully bad!" She frantically doubled over the table to read the message as closely as she could. "I am also afraid to say that Spike's growth has come to my attention. As a dragon, he will grow out of his innocence in time, giving in to his natural greed. It pains me to do this, but I have no other choice. To show your devotion to me, and to spare Spike from a life of draconic misdeeds, your task is to..." "You WHAT?" Luna threw her hooves forward to pull her sister's face towards her, forcing them to stare into each other's eyes. "Tell me you are joking! Please, tell me you didn't!" "I had to, Luna! It had to be something drastic, or Twilight would have learned nothing!" "And if she goes through with it?!" "She won't, her love for Spike is too strong. She will realize that my message is too much for her, and she will refuse. I trust in her, I believe that she will do the right thing." Luna turned away in disgust. "I'm sorry Tia, but I simply can't condone this! Could you not tell her to burn a book, or burn bridges with one of her friends?" "I suppose, but the chances of her actually following those orders would have been too high. This is one order that I know she would never follow." "I do not care if you believe in her, you need to contact her before something goes wrong!" "Yes... Yes I should. I wasn't thinking, thank you for being honest, Luna." Celestia lifted a quill from its ink well and began to scrawl out a new letter. "To my Dearest student, Twilight Sparkle..." Spike stood atop a ladder, reaching up to the highest shelf of Twilight's room. He hummed a happy tune as the dust puffed off of a rather voluminous tome. From beyond the door, he could hear hoof steps coming up the stairs. Surely, Twilight needed his help with something. On the other side, Twilight placed a hoof on the first step, her breath heavy with fear and doubt. 'I have to prove my worth to Celestia. I need to do this.' Her mind ran circles around itself, trying to rationalize what she was about to do. Her eyes watered uncontrollably as she fought the urge to break into sobs. It seemed as though her entire life was falling apart. 'If I don't do this, Celestia will never love me again, but if I do...' The knife floating before her, encased in a dark purple aura, shone brilliantly from the flickering light of the candle on her desk. Another step up, she felt the tears soaking down her cheeks. The magic that she held her weapon with flickered, wanting to drop the accursed thing and abandon her schooling. 'I could become a school teacher. I don't need to study magic forever...' But then, the other part of Celestia's letter came to mind. 'Maybe Spike will be better off this way... I'd hate to see him grow into something evil...' Step after step, Twilight worked up her resolve, knowing what she must do. She raised a hoof to knock on the door, and the reply was gut wrenching. "I'll be right out Twilight, I just finished dusting off your personal book shelf." "Can I come in?" Twilight asked, her voice wavering as she choked up with each syllable. "Of course! You sound upset." The door swung open and there he stood, holding a feather duster and wearing his little cleaning apron. Twilight's face was soaked, her eyes were puffy and red, and her lips quivered as if about to devolve into a crying mess. "Everything's ok, Spike. Everything will be alright." "Woah, Twilight, what's going on?" Spike threw the duster to the side and ran to his caretaker, wiping a gentle claw under her eye lid to clear away a single tear. "Was it the letter?" "Yes, Spike... It was the letter..." Being so close to the caring little dragon made it all so much harder, seeing the genuine concern in his eyes as she levitated the knife around to his back as discretely as she could. "But we're all going to be ok. I'm going to be fine, you're going to be fine. We're all going to be fine." Spike furrowed his brow, looking his mother figure in the eye with something beyond worry. "Twilight, what's going on? You're kinda scaring me." She faltered. Her magic flickered once again as she checked to see that the knife was in the best place to make it quick and painless. "I'm sorry, Spike." She pulled towards herself, intending to lodge the blade deep into the tiny lizard's back and through his heart. Noticing the glance that she gave to the knife, Spike turned just in time to see it rushing towards him. "Woah!" He yelled as he jumped out of the way, just barely dodging his own demise. One of the ridges on his back was clipped, but he was otherwise unharmed. "Twilight! What the hay!" "The princess demands it." Spike's eyes widened in fear as the knife is hurled in his direction once again. He clambered up a shelf, knocking a few books down on his way up. "The princess asked you to stab me? That can't be right, you must have read it wrong!" "I have it right here." Her voice was emotionless, almost dead as a tear stained scroll is levitated up to the scared dragon. Sure enough, as Spike read through the letter, it detailed the task of sacrifice. Spike was to be made a burned offering for the princess of the sun. Another pass of the knife before him tore the note in half, and missed his nose by a mere centimeter. "This has to be a mistake! Celestia would never have you kill anybody! Think about this for a second! Please!" The tears were flowing faster and harder from Twilight's eyes, but her attempts at her assistant's life only grew in fierceness. She stabbed towards the dragon as quick as she could while her vision was blurred. Each one was dodged, but only barely, until the knife finally embedded itself into Spike's tail. He let out a sharp cry as he lost his balance, and fell from the shelf. Twilight attempted to dislodge the knife, but it was stuck fast between scales. Spike returned to his feet, fighting against the force of Twilight's magic, when the knife came unstuck. The opposing forces of movement sent Spike tumbling to the floor again, slipping in the small pool of blood that had bled from is wounded backside. "I'm so sorry Spike," Twilight whispered to herself, raising the knife for a killing blow. Thinking as fast as he could, Spike rolled to the side and the knife plunged itself into the wooden floor where he had just been laying.The door was still hanging open, and so Spike made a mad dash for the stairs. He slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it. "Something's wrong Twilight, I know it. You stay in there, I'll send a letter to the princess and we'll get this all sorted out!" He could feel the tears welling up behind his eyes, as the knife blade shoots out through the door, almost impaling his shoulder. "Please Celestia tell me this isn't happening." Skipping every other step, the baby dragon was desperate to clear this mess up. Taking up a quill and a piece of parchment, he begins writing his letter. "Celestia. Twilight is trying to kill me. I don't know what to do. She says you ordered her to and showed me the letter. I don't know what I did but please help me before she ---" He didn't have time to write any more, jumping at the sound of the door behind him shattering into a splintered mess. Spike hurled his green flame at the note and sent it off. 'I hope she gets it in time,' he thought, each beat of his heart becoming more solid. Twilight stalked across the room towards her prey, the look in her eyes telling Spike that she was barely conscious. It was as if she had let her body take over, not wanting to remember any part of what was to come. "It's for your own good, Spike!" He dove out of the way of the knife, wishing there was some way to get the thing away from her. It whittled a large chunk from the wooden table and redirected its course towards Spike. He had to get away somehow, but what made it all particularly difficult was his unwillingness to harm his guardian. 'Think Spike think.' He searched everywhere he could in his head, but nothing seemed like it would work. 'She's blocking the exit, so I can't leave... Where else can I go? Aha!' Below the stairs, there was another door. The door down to the basement. 'Twilight told me not to go down there by myself, but I think it's worth a shot.' He made a fake lunge to the right, sending Twilight's focus off as he quickly turned to dash for the basement. "There, Spike should be getting my message soon. I only hope it's not too late." "I pray for his sake that your student has acted rationally." "I have to believe that she would never go through with it. Please Twilight, do the right thing... Oh, what's this?" A scroll materialized in a lick of green flame before Celestia. Without skipping a beat, she had the thing open and laid out in front of her. "What is it, sister? Has she passed your test?" Celestia's expression could only be described as one of absolute, unfiltered horror. "Tia, don't tell me she-" "I need to go. Now!" The princess of the sun leaped from her sitting position and out the window, disappearing in a burst of white light. Luna turned her attention to the note on the floor. "This can not end well..." 2. Where Is The Lamb?The old steps creaked under Spike's feet as he rushed down into the inky black depths of the library's basement. On any other day, he might have been more cautious of what he might find, but today was no ordinary day. Rather, he threw caution to the wind and escaped to what was sadly now the safest place for him to go. The sound of halfhearted hooves behind him also descended the stairs, but slower. He was, at the very, least getting ahead. 'I need to find the lights. I can't see a thing down here...' Once Spike felt his claws on solid ground, surprisingly cold solid ground, he began his search along the walls to find a switch. After a few seconds of fruitless investigation, he remembered the reason why he was told not to come down by himself. 'Right, the only lights down here run on magic... I need something...' He scratched one of the frills on his cheek while he tried to get his mind in order. Needless to say, thinking straight was a little difficult. 'Wait, do I still have...' He pounded a fist against his belly and belched out a puff of fire. Out of the fire came a rolled up piece of parchment. 'If Twilight knew I was using her notes as a torch, she'd kill...' He let that thought die off, gulping audibly at the sobering reality of his predicament. Another swirl of heat swam from his mouth to engulf the end of the scroll. It didn't provide a lot of light, but it was enough to see at least. The sound of hoof steps caught up to him, reminding him that he still wasn't alone. Spike's feet lifted him into the air in a startled hop, and then carried him down an aisle through the dark. On both sides of him were tables, though he couldn't see what was on them. He assumed that they were probably lined with chemicals and notes. His attention was taken away from his path for a little too long however, and he found himself pressed up against an odd machine. It appeared to be a monitor of some sort, connected to a dome covered in bulbs and wires. 'It's just the brainwave monitor... Nothing I haven't seen before.' "Are those my notes?" "EEP!" Spike threw the flaming scroll behind him towards the source of the voice and jumped in no direction in particular. It was far too dark to make an educated decision, and he was far too scared to care. Twilight swiped a hoof at the burning parchment which had landed on her mane, brushing it to the ground. She looked around her, illuminating the area before her with a night vision spell. "I appreciate you trying to make this easier for me, it means a lot." She felt her heart sink at reminding herself of her grisly task. She hadn't forgotten, and she probably never will, but saying it out loud still hurt. "But burning my notes isn't necessary." Spike curled up as small as he could under a low table, hidden by a safety apron hanging off of the side. He rocked back and forth, hoping that she wouldn't find him, but it took all that he had not to make a sound. Between his throat knotting up and his nose running, he was a mess. Every nerve in his body lit up with anxiety as he watched the purple hooves of his tormentor step closer and closer. 'Stay quiet Spike, she won't find you. Stay here and you'll be just fine.' "Come out Spike, there's nowhere for you to go." Twilight began looking under tables, one at a time, expecting Spike to be underneath any one of them. He watched as she got closer, two tables down, and making fast progress. His heart felt like it would jump out of his throat as a hoof began lifting the apron which hid him from sight. "There you are. I promise you this won't hurt." "But this will!" In desperation, Spike summoned up as much pressure as he could in his stomach, and unleashed a wave of scorching emerald fire. "Ah!" Twilight screeched, rearing back at the intense heat in her face. It wasn't enough to burn, but she was certain that Celestia might be receiving a decent chunk of her mane very soon. Spike dove forward, tackling the unicorn to the ground. Once he was sure she was down, he hopped back up and ran, not knowing what else he could do. "Spike, I know you're upset with me, but you know I still love you!" Twilight followed the sound of claws clacking against the floor tiles the best that she could. "I'm just as upset about this as you are! Please stop running." "If you're upset, then stop! We can talk to Celestia and explain!" Spike was sure she could hear him already, and wasn't too worried about yelling. In his blind escape, he felt his claw catch on a wooden rise in the floor, sending him to his face. "I have to do this, Spike! I'm sorry, I really am. Please believe me!" It was particularly hard for Spike to stay upset, hearing the pony who had raised him and loved him for his entire life so pained. Still, he had to get away. He felt around on the wooden platform that he was now laying on. It was un-sanded, splintery, and oddly sticky on certain spots. Most notably, there was what felt like a brass handle on one side of it. 'Is this... It is!' The hinges protested as Spike forced open what he found to be a hatch. The grinding and squeaking resonated throughout the room, which seemed incredibly large for a basement. "Wait. Is that..." Twilight knew immediately what that sound was, and pointed her nose towards one part of her lab that she could find with her eyes closed. "Spike, don't go down there!" "Why, so you can kill me?!" "No! That's the-" Her explanation was cut short by the heavy slam of wood against tile. "That's the disposal chute..." The market was bustling, ponies bartering and exchanging greetings just like any other day. Nopony was expecting what came next. In a blinding flash, the princess of the sun stood among them. Everypony shielded their eyes from the flare, but as soon as their vision returned they all bowed down to their goddess. "Rise, my little ponies," she demanded briefly, before taking off at a full gallop towards the library. A few confused locals shared looks of concern, and a few began making their way home. The princess seemed to be troubled, and that couldn't be a good thing. Celestia had to blink a few times, seeing what she thought was a shadowy aura rising from the large tree house. It was her imagination of course, dissipating after clearing her eyes a little, but it was still conceptually distressing. The door was already slightly ajar, and a voice could be heard from inside. "Twilight stop!" "I'm not Twilight, silly! Oh pickle frosting, I mean your majesty!" Pinkie Pie, who had been sitting in one of Twilight's chairs, dropped to her knees. "I didn't know you were coming!" "It is ok Pinkie Pie, you may stand. Where is Twilight?" "I think she's upstairs, I 've been waiting to ask her for a book for practically ten minutes!" Without a reaction, Celestia flew up the stairs and to the door to Twilight's bedroom. In her head, she imagined a scene of terror. In her imagination, Spike was lashed to an alter, surrounded by burning timbre and salt. Above him loomed Twilight, readying the knife to plunge into his soft, exposed belly. "Stop!" She used her royal voice, which was uncommon for her, as she kicked down what was remaining of the door. Nothing. Celestia grunted in frustration as she kicked a chip of door towards the window. "Pinkie Pie, did you, actually see Twilight Sparkle upstairs?" "Well no, but I figured that's where she would be. Where else would she be?" "You have an extra strong sense of your surroundings. Tell me, do you sense anything right now my child?" Pinkie tilted her head in confusion, regardless of knowing exactly what she was being asked. "Nothing in particular. I got a bad shiver earlier but I think I was just cold..." Celestia looked around at the walls, the shelves, everywhere to find something. There was one spot underneath the stairs that seemed out of place, but it could just as easily be an irregularity in the wood. "Tell me Pinkie Pie, do you remember Twilight having a basement?" Her eyes didn't want to leave that odd spot, feeling like there was something amiss. "Yeah, I've been down there before! It's really big, and filled with glass tubes and liquids and stuff! It's really cool!" "Where is it?" "It's right... Huh." Pinkie pointed a hoof towards where she remembered the door being, but it was nowhere to be seen. "I could have sworn it was right there, under the stairs." "Thought so." Celestia walked over and placed the tip of her horn on the irregular spot, illuminating the shape of a door. "She removed the door. They must be down there." "Oh, I'm getting something!" Pinkie jumped a little, feeling a tingle in her backside. Suddenly, her tail began twitching wildly. "Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!" "What is twitchy tail? What does that mean Pinkie Pie?" "It means something's about to-" "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" Spike screamed as he plummeted deeper into a subterranean chamber somehow darker than the room above it. The fall seemed to go on forever, and he was sure that he'd be dead upon hitting the ground. A fall like that, there was no way he could survive. But he did. His impact was rough, knocking the wind out of his lungs, but that's about all it did. The ground below him was malleable, wet, and smelled of waste. "I thought for sure I was toast... I must be pretty deep." Spike looked around himself, trying to make out any outlines of anything in the darkness. Before he could summon his own means of lighting the place, he felt a letter emerge from the furnace in his stomach. Out popped a scroll, bound by the royal seal of Celestia. "From Celestia? Surely, she knows what I need to do." His claw cut through the seal with ease and he unfurled the parchment. A bright sun insignia on the top of the page illuminated the space around him. "My Dearest Student, Twilight Sparkle. It was wrong of me to send you that last message. It was all fake, I was only trying to test your judgement, but Luna has reminded me of the severity of what I have asked of you. Please..." Spike clenched his jaws out of rage and crushed the paper in his hand. "Disregard that order?!" He crumpled it into a ball and threw it across his new prison. "She couldn't have sent that sooner?! AUGH!" He slammed his fists against the ground as hard as he could, frustrated by the events of the day. It seemed as if he went from dusting books to running for his life in only an hour. He continued to pound away at the soft, squishy bed that he felt uncomfortably suctioned to. Then it dawned on him that the insignia on that letter could light the room for him. "Where did that thing go..." He pulled himself out of the pile of whatever it was, probably mud, that he was in and walked in the direction of his toss. The paper was still there, though a little damp, and a soft glow emanated from it. "I guess this isn't a total waste." Spike began opening the paper back up, only to ball it up once again with the insignia on the outside. It now provided enough light to act as a flash light of sorts, which would do just fine. The smell of the room began attacking Spike's nostrils with an almost acidic pungency. He returned to the awkward, yet somehow soothing pile of softness that he had landed in and turned the light towards it. 'Probably just mud,' he told himself, trying to get a look at it in the low light that he had. It looked like mud for sure, but the color was a little off. 'Mud isn't red...' He turned the light to the side, but then felt something that sent a chill up his spine. Something was moving under his feet. "Who's there?!" Spike directed the light to the ground to reveal a couple of worms crawling around where he stood. "Oh good, just worms." He wiped a relieved claw across his brow as he continued to search. His aim was sent higher, illuminating more of the mess. "Hey... Did this mud just move?" Aiming a little higher, Spike dropped the wadded up paper and skin lost all of its color. His jaw hung limp as the image before him confirmed that he still wasn't safe, not even down here. It was a face, badly disfigured and partially melted. One of its eyes hung out of its socket, and the other had burst into a bloody, pulpy mess. The depression in its shape indicated that that was what Spike had landed on. It opened its mouth slowly, looking to be in pain, as Spike backed away slowly. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but he knew that would be too kind. No, this was real. He could hear just barely as the blob of organs forced words from its mouth. "Kill... Me..." 3. As Numerous As The Stars In The SkyThat instant felt as if an eternity. Spike felt as his life force tried, screamed, to free itself from that locked state, but terror froze him still. He wasn't sure what was more distressing; that he was staring at a living pile of bile and organs, or that Twilight had dumped it down here. "What..." "Kill..." the thing continued to say again. It was eager for death, and Spike couldn't blame it. It appeared to be in pain, but still it was hard to find pity for this abomination. "W-w-what are y-you..?" Spike shuffled his claws backwards, slowly so as to not startle his unfortunate host. "Please... Kill me..." It convulsed, giving rise to what must have been its stomach. The empty sockets where its eye should have been twitched as a putrid torrent of brownish-red erupted from the chasm of its mouth. Whatever it was, it smelled of rot and disease. Spike stood and watched as his veins grew cold, unable to comprehend the poor blob vomiting its innards onto the floor. It was quite a task to not empty his own stomach at the sight, but he was far too busy re-evaluating his life to feel sick. The appalled lizard took a careful step back, feeling with his feet to make sure he didn't step on anything that would eat him. 'Just run Spike, run like there's no tomorrow and it won't get you.' His eyes shifted back and forth, but still the all consuming darkness hid any escape routes from his vision. Subconsciously, his backwards movement was already speeding up. "Don't go..." the blob pled, but that only proved to nail the panic into Spike's mind. It wanted him to stay, it needed him, and that was a level of unsettling that the baby dragon had only recently learned existed. His optic nerves ran circles around themselves, trying to piece together an image just for something else to focus on. It was at about this point where Spike's body left his mind behind. Before he could come up with an answer, he turned and ran. Much to his misfortune, he was unable to continue for long, running directly into a wall. The wall was moist, sticky like the floor, and smelled just as acidic as the blob's bile. The aroma was enough to finally trigger the gag reflex, emptying his lunch onto the wall. He belched flame between mouthfuls of his own regurgitation. The vomiting stopped, but the heaving didn't. Spike remained doubled over as his throat felt as if it were peeling itself apart. "What is this place?!" "Hell." Spike turned to see that the blob had made its way over to his feet like a lost puppy. His gut reaction was to defend himself, though the fleshy sack of misery had yet to prove itself dangerous. A jet of flame burst from Spike's throat, and to his surprise caused more damage than he had expected. Whatever this thing was made of, it was flammable. It screamed under the intense heat while a sea of green engulfed the trail left behind the monster. The room illuminated with chartreuse light and the agony of an already agonizing wreck. Spike watched as the thin flesh covering his new friend boiled and stripped away. It didn't take long for the entire room to be ablaze. 'I have no idea what Twilight's been dumping down here, but I think I've seen enough to know...' The fire began to die down, leaving one area of the wall still burning. 'To know that there's a door! There has to be an exit, or some way out.' The blob at his feet was gone by that point, boiled and charred to the floor. Spike carefully stepped around on the almost painfully hot ground towards the door. "Twilight I demand to speak with you!" Celestia's booming voice echoed down the winding stairs, having dispelled the door illusion and beginning her descent. "Twilight Sparkle, cease at once!" Nothing. Again, her voice echoed throughout the large room at the bottom of the stair well, but there was no indication that anypony was there. "Answer me Twilight Sparkle, are you down there?" Still nothing, save for a few glasses rumbling from the reverberation of her voice. At the bottom of the steps, her vision was obscured by blinding darkness. "A dark room spell... Why ever would she need one of those down here?" With barely a thought, Celestia's horn lit up to dispel the unnatural darkness around her. What she saw wasn't particularly unsettling, just a lab. There were a few liquids that she couldn't identify by the looks, but otherwise it was a typical workplace for a scientist. "Nopony is here..." Sure enough, the room was empty. Celestia stood alone, searching every inch that she could with her eyes. "Did you find her? I really need, like I mean really need that book!" "Stay up there Pinkie Pie, she is not down here!" A quick walk around the large laboratory didn't reveal anything unusual, just the normal things. A bunch of tables, lots of notes, a couple of machines, and a wooden hatch in the floor. "Wait a minute... That hatch..." Upon closer inspection, she could see that a few flakes of rust had been chipped from the hinge, something that Twilight would never allow in her work space. No, that had to be recent. The other odd thing about it was, well, that there was a shoddy wooden hatch in the middle of an otherwise surgical white tiled lab. She placed a hoof at the edge and began to lift it, revealing the dark interior. "A disposal chute, clever. I shudder to think what the conditions down there would be like." The thought froze in her mind. Given the nature of Twilight's studies, there was sure to be corrosive acid down there, as well as highly alcoholic cleaners and poisonous fumes. Anypony desperate enough to seek refuge down there would surely meet their demise shortly. As terrifying as the thought was, it was only made worse knowing that this was most likely the escape route used by Spike. "For your own sake Spike, I pray this was not your course of action..." "I mean, I guess I could just wing it, but pufferfish is pretty nasty if done wrong!" "Pinkie Pie there are more important matters at hand!" "Fine, I'll just wing it! Tell Twilight that I was here. Oh! And tell her that I'm making pufferfish and she should totally come try some!" There was that nuisance gone, but that didn't help her find her student. In her frustration, she stomped the ground and shattered the tile under her hoof. The force of the stomp shook her entire body, causing the crown to dislodge itself from her royal head. She watched as it tumbled through the air, and directly down the disposal chute. "Oh that's just perfect! Where could she have gone?!" Gritting her teeth, she looked anywhere but at the all consuming hole in the ground. Eventually, she found herself looking at another door that hadn't been there before. There was also a white tarp at the base of it. "Are you kidding me? A tarp? Twilight couldn't use a spell to remove this one?" The force of Celestia's stomp had also apparently dislodged the tarp from its place, hanging in front of another door to hide it. "Well at least I have another lead. Dearest Spike, I shall not be long. Hold on!... Wait did Pinkie say she's cooking pufferfish?" Bonk "What the hay?" On the floor before Spike laid a most welcoming sight. Princess Celestia's own crown had just cracked into his head from above, and it held a soft yellow glow that sent warmth into his body. "Celestia! She must be up there! Celestia!" Nothing. Either she couldn't hear him, or she had already gone. "Horse feathers... At least I have you." His eyes stung with an uncomfortable dryness from the air around him, and he could see the puffy red rings around them in his reflection. He could have sworn that some of his scales were going grey. Either way, this was a small beacon of light and he had to be thankful for what he could. Placing the crown on his head, he felt a familiar fire swirling through his skin. It was like a mother's embrace, keeping him warm and safe from the world around him. The feeling, however, was only a comfort and not an actual deterrent. Spike forced himself to continue walking despite his fatigue. He could almost feel the scales on his feet being eaten away by the acidic mush beneath them. The next room he found himself in was rather empty, as was the next. The doors had become much easier to see with the new light of his crown, which he was happy for. He was also happy that no more blob monsters had clung to his feet, but being away from the chute surely had an impact on how much waste was scattered around. The air was still pungent and the ground was still moist and sticky, but Spike decided to take the bad with the good at this point. "Just how big is this place?" He stopped in the center of another empty room, identical to the other five or six behind him. He also had to decide which door to take this time. There were two different paths. "Who even built this place? Was this really all for disposal?" Left it is. Spike walked through the door on the left, revealing a room a bit different than the others. It was empty, and box shaped like the others, but there was a massive hole in the wall. A hole that seemed big enough for a growing dragon. Spike was left uneasy at the sight. Placing a tentative claw on the edge of the hole, Spike lifted his body just enough to look inside. It looked hollow, and the air coming from it was stale rather than acidic. In a sad twist of fate, it almost seemed like a better place than his current prison. "Hello?" He called out, hoping that if there was anything or anyone in there, he could get it out of the way before he got too far. "Is anypony in here?" No answer, it was safe. He climbed up into the cave to face a new darkness. His foot sunk down into the muddy surface of the hole, creating the faintest plopping sound. As soon as his second foot made its way up, an odd wave of stench wafted out towards Spike. It smelled like somepony's breath, had they been living on a diet of filth. Spike blinked, hoping he was wrong about that analogy, but his fears, like so many other times today, were confirmed. The darkness blinked at him. "Did this cave j-just... B-b-blink?" An ear shattering roar reverberated out from the depths as the "darkness" forged its way toward the petrified dragon. Spike couldn't run fast enough to feel safe, but he did his best. The sound of rocks and mud being displaced behind him was enough motivation. His biggest mistake was looking back to see what it was. "WAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, reigniting the fire in his voice that he thought had been stretched to its limit. Chasing uncomfortably close behind him was a large worm like thing, but it was obviously bigger than a mere worm. Rather, one of its eyes was the size of Spike, and it had rather beady eyes. Its mouth was stretched wide in what looked like a stupid grin, giving it a strangely un-menacing expression. That is, except for the needle like teeth lining its jaw. Another roar coaxed Spike into double time, peddling his legs at double the rate he had thought possible, until one of his claws struck something solid and cold. He dove face first into the squishy ground below him, getting a mouthful of putrid mud. Flipping over to see that monster lording over him like a lion taunting its pray before killing it, Spike also noticed what he had tripped on. It was a crystal, which shone a mystic purple, almost black. Had he been in a calm state of mind, he might have thought 'Hey, that looks like one of those crystals that surrounded King Sombra. I wonder what that's doing here,' or he might have remembered 'I think I remember Twilight bringing one of those home for inspection. Maybe she threw this one down here by accident.' Rather, he grabbed the jagged rock and clung to it like it could rescue him. 'I'm going to die here, I'm going to die here, I'm going to-wait a minute, maybe if I eat I can get enough energy to run!' Spike opened his mouth wide enough to engulf the tip of the crystal and crunched down as hard as he could. It was delicious. "Enjoying your snack, knave?" "W-what?" Spike whipped his head around to see that his surroundings had become dark, an ominous shadow swirling his vision. He was surrounded by those very crystals which he had just eaten. The worm monster was no longer in view, but he was not alone. Before him sat an armored unicorn, one whom he remembered quite well. "S-S-Sombra?!" "That is King Sombra to you!"
1. Your Only Son, Whom You Love"Are you sure this is wise, sister?" "I can't say for certain, but I fear that it is necessary." Celestia paced the floor of her bedroom while Luna looked out the window. The air was moist, chilled from the passing winter. Neither of the princesses wore a smile, nor did they believe they could in the moment. "Explain to me again why this is so?" "You know my student. My most beloved protege, Twilight Sparkle. She is brilliant beyond her years, skilled in spells only thought possible by an alicorn, and yet she lacks one of the most important things to a young pony." Celestia stopped her pacing at a pile of old letters from her student, each one filled with love, wisdom, and most importantly the magic of friendship. "She has no sense of free will, and if she never learns that then I fear she will ultimately become a pawn to the ages." "I suppose your reasoning is just. Still, you have not told me of the reason why this holds you in such low spirits. Shall this not just be another simple task for her to carry out?" "I fear it is, but the task is what worries me." Luna turned from the window to stand by her sister's side. "Canst thou give a simple request which she is to disobey? Surely there is something simple that she can refuse to do and prove-" "No. It can't be that easy. If I tell her to do something silly and insignificant, either she'll do it and think nothing of it, or she'll refuse and learn nothing due to the lack of severity. If I know my student, it will take something big to get this across to her." "Then what is it that you have commanded of her?" "Twilight, you got a letter from the princess!" "Oh good! I was wondering when my next lesson would arrive." "Well I have to go finish cleaning the bedroom, so I'll be upstairs if you need me." Spike placed the scroll on Twilight's study table, and turned to scurry up the stairs. Twilight broke the seal on the letter and unrolled it, starting from the top. "My Dearest student, Twilight Sparkle. Today, I will not be giving you a lesson, but rather a simple task that you must carry out. You see, I have come to think perhaps you do not... You do not respect me as your teacher?!" Twilight read over that part a few times, each time trying to make it sound right, but it never did. "Of course I respect her! What did I do? Oh no, Celestia must be disappointed in me! I must have missed an assignment, or maybe it was something I said. This is bad, this is terribly, awfully bad!" She frantically doubled over the table to read the message as closely as she could. "I am also afraid to say that Spike's growth has come to my attention. As a dragon, he will grow out of his innocence in time, giving in to his natural greed. It pains me to do this, but I have no other choice. To show your devotion to me, and to spare Spike from a life of draconic misdeeds, your task is to..." "You WHAT?" Luna threw her hooves forward to pull her sister's face towards her, forcing them to stare into each other's eyes. "Tell me you are joking! Please, tell me you didn't!" "I had to, Luna! It had to be something drastic, or Twilight would have learned nothing!" "And if she goes through with it?!" "She won't, her love for Spike is too strong. She will realize that my message is too much for her, and she will refuse. I trust in her, I believe that she will do the right thing." Luna turned away in disgust. "I'm sorry Tia, but I simply can't condone this! Could you not tell her to burn a book, or burn bridges with one of her friends?" "I suppose, but the chances of her actually following those orders would have been too high. This is one order that I know she would never follow." "I do not care if you believe in her, you need to contact her before something goes wrong!" "Yes... Yes I should. I wasn't thinking, thank you for being honest, Luna." Celestia lifted a quill from its ink well and began to scrawl out a new letter. "To my Dearest student, Twilight Sparkle..." Spike stood atop a ladder, reaching up to the highest shelf of Twilight's room. He hummed a happy tune as the dust puffed off of a rather voluminous tome. From beyond the door, he could hear hoof steps coming up the stairs. Surely, Twilight needed his help with something. On the other side, Twilight placed a hoof on the first step, her breath heavy with fear and doubt. 'I have to prove my worth to Celestia. I need to do this.' Her mind ran circles around itself, trying to rationalize what she was about to do. Her eyes watered uncontrollably as she fought the urge to break into sobs. It seemed as though her entire life was falling apart. 'If I don't do this, Celestia will never love me again, but if I do...' The knife floating before her, encased in a dark purple aura, shone brilliantly from the flickering light of the candle on her desk. Another step up, she felt the tears soaking down her cheeks. The magic that she held her weapon with flickered, wanting to drop the accursed thing and abandon her schooling. 'I could become a school teacher. I don't need to study magic forever...' But then, the other part of Celestia's letter came to mind. 'Maybe Spike will be better off this way... I'd hate to see him grow into something evil...' Step after step, Twilight worked up her resolve, knowing what she must do. She raised a hoof to knock on the door, and the reply was gut wrenching. "I'll be right out Twilight, I just finished dusting off your personal book shelf." "Can I come in?" Twilight asked, her voice wavering as she choked up with each syllable. "Of course! You sound upset." The door swung open and there he stood, holding a feather duster and wearing his little cleaning apron. Twilight's face was soaked, her eyes were puffy and red, and her lips quivered as if about to devolve into a crying mess. "Everything's ok, Spike. Everything will be alright." "Woah, Twilight, what's going on?" Spike threw the duster to the side and ran to his caretaker, wiping a gentle claw under her eye lid to clear away a single tear. "Was it the letter?" "Yes, Spike... It was the letter..." Being so close to the caring little dragon made it all so much harder, seeing the genuine concern in his eyes as she levitated the knife around to his back as discretely as she could. "But we're all going to be ok. I'm going to be fine, you're going to be fine. We're all going to be fine." Spike furrowed his brow, looking his mother figure in the eye with something beyond worry. "Twilight, what's going on? You're kinda scaring me." She faltered. Her magic flickered once again as she checked to see that the knife was in the best place to make it quick and painless. "I'm sorry, Spike." She pulled towards herself, intending to lodge the blade deep into the tiny lizard's back and through his heart. Noticing the glance that she gave to the knife, Spike turned just in time to see it rushing towards him. "Woah!" He yelled as he jumped out of the way, just barely dodging his own demise. One of the ridges on his back was clipped, but he was otherwise unharmed. "Twilight! What the hay!" "The princess demands it." Spike's eyes widened in fear as the knife is hurled in his direction once again. He clambered up a shelf, knocking a few books down on his way up. "The princess asked you to stab me? That can't be right, you must have read it wrong!" "I have it right here." Her voice was emotionless, almost dead as a tear stained scroll is levitated up to the scared dragon. Sure enough, as Spike read through the letter, it detailed the task of sacrifice. Spike was to be made a burned offering for the princess of the sun. Another pass of the knife before him tore the note in half, and missed his nose by a mere centimeter. "This has to be a mistake! Celestia would never have you kill anybody! Think about this for a second! Please!" The tears were flowing faster and harder from Twilight's eyes, but her attempts at her assistant's life only grew in fierceness. She stabbed towards the dragon as quick as she could while her vision was blurred. Each one was dodged, but only barely, until the knife finally embedded itself into Spike's tail. He let out a sharp cry as he lost his balance, and fell from the shelf. Twilight attempted to dislodge the knife, but it was stuck fast between scales. Spike returned to his feet, fighting against the force of Twilight's magic, when the knife came unstuck. The opposing forces of movement sent Spike tumbling to the floor again, slipping in the small pool of blood that had bled from is wounded backside. "I'm so sorry Spike," Twilight whispered to herself, raising the knife for a killing blow. Thinking as fast as he could, Spike rolled to the side and the knife plunged itself into the wooden floor where he had just been laying.The door was still hanging open, and so Spike made a mad dash for the stairs. He slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it. "Something's wrong Twilight, I know it. You stay in there, I'll send a letter to the princess and we'll get this all sorted out!" He could feel the tears welling up behind his eyes, as the knife blade shoots out through the door, almost impaling his shoulder. "Please Celestia tell me this isn't happening." Skipping every other step, the baby dragon was desperate to clear this mess up. Taking up a quill and a piece of parchment, he begins writing his letter. "Celestia. Twilight is trying to kill me. I don't know what to do. She says you ordered her to and showed me the letter. I don't know what I did but please help me before she ---" He didn't have time to write any more, jumping at the sound of the door behind him shattering into a splintered mess. Spike hurled his green flame at the note and sent it off. 'I hope she gets it in time,' he thought, each beat of his heart becoming more solid. Twilight stalked across the room towards her prey, the look in her eyes telling Spike that she was barely conscious. It was as if she had let her body take over, not wanting to remember any part of what was to come. "It's for your own good, Spike!" He dove out of the way of the knife, wishing there was some way to get the thing away from her. It whittled a large chunk from the wooden table and redirected its course towards Spike. He had to get away somehow, but what made it all particularly difficult was his unwillingness to harm his guardian. 'Think Spike think.' He searched everywhere he could in his head, but nothing seemed like it would work. 'She's blocking the exit, so I can't leave... Where else can I go? Aha!' Below the stairs, there was another door. The door down to the basement. 'Twilight told me not to go down there by myself, but I think it's worth a shot.' He made a fake lunge to the right, sending Twilight's focus off as he quickly turned to dash for the basement. "There, Spike should be getting my message soon. I only hope it's not too late." "I pray for his sake that your student has acted rationally." "I have to believe that she would never go through with it. Please Twilight, do the right thing... Oh, what's this?" A scroll materialized in a lick of green flame before Celestia. Without skipping a beat, she had the thing open and laid out in front of her. "What is it, sister? Has she passed your test?" Celestia's expression could only be described as one of absolute, unfiltered horror. "Tia, don't tell me she-" "I need to go. Now!" The princess of the sun leaped from her sitting position and out the window, disappearing in a burst of white light. Luna turned her attention to the note on the floor. "This can not end well..."
2. Where Is The Lamb?The old steps creaked under Spike's feet as he rushed down into the inky black depths of the library's basement. On any other day, he might have been more cautious of what he might find, but today was no ordinary day. Rather, he threw caution to the wind and escaped to what was sadly now the safest place for him to go. The sound of halfhearted hooves behind him also descended the stairs, but slower. He was, at the very, least getting ahead. 'I need to find the lights. I can't see a thing down here...' Once Spike felt his claws on solid ground, surprisingly cold solid ground, he began his search along the walls to find a switch. After a few seconds of fruitless investigation, he remembered the reason why he was told not to come down by himself. 'Right, the only lights down here run on magic... I need something...' He scratched one of the frills on his cheek while he tried to get his mind in order. Needless to say, thinking straight was a little difficult. 'Wait, do I still have...' He pounded a fist against his belly and belched out a puff of fire. Out of the fire came a rolled up piece of parchment. 'If Twilight knew I was using her notes as a torch, she'd kill...' He let that thought die off, gulping audibly at the sobering reality of his predicament. Another swirl of heat swam from his mouth to engulf the end of the scroll. It didn't provide a lot of light, but it was enough to see at least. The sound of hoof steps caught up to him, reminding him that he still wasn't alone. Spike's feet lifted him into the air in a startled hop, and then carried him down an aisle through the dark. On both sides of him were tables, though he couldn't see what was on them. He assumed that they were probably lined with chemicals and notes. His attention was taken away from his path for a little too long however, and he found himself pressed up against an odd machine. It appeared to be a monitor of some sort, connected to a dome covered in bulbs and wires. 'It's just the brainwave monitor... Nothing I haven't seen before.' "Are those my notes?" "EEP!" Spike threw the flaming scroll behind him towards the source of the voice and jumped in no direction in particular. It was far too dark to make an educated decision, and he was far too scared to care. Twilight swiped a hoof at the burning parchment which had landed on her mane, brushing it to the ground. She looked around her, illuminating the area before her with a night vision spell. "I appreciate you trying to make this easier for me, it means a lot." She felt her heart sink at reminding herself of her grisly task. She hadn't forgotten, and she probably never will, but saying it out loud still hurt. "But burning my notes isn't necessary." Spike curled up as small as he could under a low table, hidden by a safety apron hanging off of the side. He rocked back and forth, hoping that she wouldn't find him, but it took all that he had not to make a sound. Between his throat knotting up and his nose running, he was a mess. Every nerve in his body lit up with anxiety as he watched the purple hooves of his tormentor step closer and closer. 'Stay quiet Spike, she won't find you. Stay here and you'll be just fine.' "Come out Spike, there's nowhere for you to go." Twilight began looking under tables, one at a time, expecting Spike to be underneath any one of them. He watched as she got closer, two tables down, and making fast progress. His heart felt like it would jump out of his throat as a hoof began lifting the apron which hid him from sight. "There you are. I promise you this won't hurt." "But this will!" In desperation, Spike summoned up as much pressure as he could in his stomach, and unleashed a wave of scorching emerald fire. "Ah!" Twilight screeched, rearing back at the intense heat in her face. It wasn't enough to burn, but she was certain that Celestia might be receiving a decent chunk of her mane very soon. Spike dove forward, tackling the unicorn to the ground. Once he was sure she was down, he hopped back up and ran, not knowing what else he could do. "Spike, I know you're upset with me, but you know I still love you!" Twilight followed the sound of claws clacking against the floor tiles the best that she could. "I'm just as upset about this as you are! Please stop running." "If you're upset, then stop! We can talk to Celestia and explain!" Spike was sure she could hear him already, and wasn't too worried about yelling. In his blind escape, he felt his claw catch on a wooden rise in the floor, sending him to his face. "I have to do this, Spike! I'm sorry, I really am. Please believe me!" It was particularly hard for Spike to stay upset, hearing the pony who had raised him and loved him for his entire life so pained. Still, he had to get away. He felt around on the wooden platform that he was now laying on. It was un-sanded, splintery, and oddly sticky on certain spots. Most notably, there was what felt like a brass handle on one side of it. 'Is this... It is!' The hinges protested as Spike forced open what he found to be a hatch. The grinding and squeaking resonated throughout the room, which seemed incredibly large for a basement. "Wait. Is that..." Twilight knew immediately what that sound was, and pointed her nose towards one part of her lab that she could find with her eyes closed. "Spike, don't go down there!" "Why, so you can kill me?!" "No! That's the-" Her explanation was cut short by the heavy slam of wood against tile. "That's the disposal chute..." The market was bustling, ponies bartering and exchanging greetings just like any other day. Nopony was expecting what came next. In a blinding flash, the princess of the sun stood among them. Everypony shielded their eyes from the flare, but as soon as their vision returned they all bowed down to their goddess. "Rise, my little ponies," she demanded briefly, before taking off at a full gallop towards the library. A few confused locals shared looks of concern, and a few began making their way home. The princess seemed to be troubled, and that couldn't be a good thing. Celestia had to blink a few times, seeing what she thought was a shadowy aura rising from the large tree house. It was her imagination of course, dissipating after clearing her eyes a little, but it was still conceptually distressing. The door was already slightly ajar, and a voice could be heard from inside. "Twilight stop!" "I'm not Twilight, silly! Oh pickle frosting, I mean your majesty!" Pinkie Pie, who had been sitting in one of Twilight's chairs, dropped to her knees. "I didn't know you were coming!" "It is ok Pinkie Pie, you may stand. Where is Twilight?" "I think she's upstairs, I 've been waiting to ask her for a book for practically ten minutes!" Without a reaction, Celestia flew up the stairs and to the door to Twilight's bedroom. In her head, she imagined a scene of terror. In her imagination, Spike was lashed to an alter, surrounded by burning timbre and salt. Above him loomed Twilight, readying the knife to plunge into his soft, exposed belly. "Stop!" She used her royal voice, which was uncommon for her, as she kicked down what was remaining of the door. Nothing. Celestia grunted in frustration as she kicked a chip of door towards the window. "Pinkie Pie, did you, actually see Twilight Sparkle upstairs?" "Well no, but I figured that's where she would be. Where else would she be?" "You have an extra strong sense of your surroundings. Tell me, do you sense anything right now my child?" Pinkie tilted her head in confusion, regardless of knowing exactly what she was being asked. "Nothing in particular. I got a bad shiver earlier but I think I was just cold..." Celestia looked around at the walls, the shelves, everywhere to find something. There was one spot underneath the stairs that seemed out of place, but it could just as easily be an irregularity in the wood. "Tell me Pinkie Pie, do you remember Twilight having a basement?" Her eyes didn't want to leave that odd spot, feeling like there was something amiss. "Yeah, I've been down there before! It's really big, and filled with glass tubes and liquids and stuff! It's really cool!" "Where is it?" "It's right... Huh." Pinkie pointed a hoof towards where she remembered the door being, but it was nowhere to be seen. "I could have sworn it was right there, under the stairs." "Thought so." Celestia walked over and placed the tip of her horn on the irregular spot, illuminating the shape of a door. "She removed the door. They must be down there." "Oh, I'm getting something!" Pinkie jumped a little, feeling a tingle in her backside. Suddenly, her tail began twitching wildly. "Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!" "What is twitchy tail? What does that mean Pinkie Pie?" "It means something's about to-" "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" Spike screamed as he plummeted deeper into a subterranean chamber somehow darker than the room above it. The fall seemed to go on forever, and he was sure that he'd be dead upon hitting the ground. A fall like that, there was no way he could survive. But he did. His impact was rough, knocking the wind out of his lungs, but that's about all it did. The ground below him was malleable, wet, and smelled of waste. "I thought for sure I was toast... I must be pretty deep." Spike looked around himself, trying to make out any outlines of anything in the darkness. Before he could summon his own means of lighting the place, he felt a letter emerge from the furnace in his stomach. Out popped a scroll, bound by the royal seal of Celestia. "From Celestia? Surely, she knows what I need to do." His claw cut through the seal with ease and he unfurled the parchment. A bright sun insignia on the top of the page illuminated the space around him. "My Dearest Student, Twilight Sparkle. It was wrong of me to send you that last message. It was all fake, I was only trying to test your judgement, but Luna has reminded me of the severity of what I have asked of you. Please..." Spike clenched his jaws out of rage and crushed the paper in his hand. "Disregard that order?!" He crumpled it into a ball and threw it across his new prison. "She couldn't have sent that sooner?! AUGH!" He slammed his fists against the ground as hard as he could, frustrated by the events of the day. It seemed as if he went from dusting books to running for his life in only an hour. He continued to pound away at the soft, squishy bed that he felt uncomfortably suctioned to. Then it dawned on him that the insignia on that letter could light the room for him. "Where did that thing go..." He pulled himself out of the pile of whatever it was, probably mud, that he was in and walked in the direction of his toss. The paper was still there, though a little damp, and a soft glow emanated from it. "I guess this isn't a total waste." Spike began opening the paper back up, only to ball it up once again with the insignia on the outside. It now provided enough light to act as a flash light of sorts, which would do just fine. The smell of the room began attacking Spike's nostrils with an almost acidic pungency. He returned to the awkward, yet somehow soothing pile of softness that he had landed in and turned the light towards it. 'Probably just mud,' he told himself, trying to get a look at it in the low light that he had. It looked like mud for sure, but the color was a little off. 'Mud isn't red...' He turned the light to the side, but then felt something that sent a chill up his spine. Something was moving under his feet. "Who's there?!" Spike directed the light to the ground to reveal a couple of worms crawling around where he stood. "Oh good, just worms." He wiped a relieved claw across his brow as he continued to search. His aim was sent higher, illuminating more of the mess. "Hey... Did this mud just move?" Aiming a little higher, Spike dropped the wadded up paper and skin lost all of its color. His jaw hung limp as the image before him confirmed that he still wasn't safe, not even down here. It was a face, badly disfigured and partially melted. One of its eyes hung out of its socket, and the other had burst into a bloody, pulpy mess. The depression in its shape indicated that that was what Spike had landed on. It opened its mouth slowly, looking to be in pain, as Spike backed away slowly. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but he knew that would be too kind. No, this was real. He could hear just barely as the blob of organs forced words from its mouth. "Kill... Me..."
3. As Numerous As The Stars In The SkyThat instant felt as if an eternity. Spike felt as his life force tried, screamed, to free itself from that locked state, but terror froze him still. He wasn't sure what was more distressing; that he was staring at a living pile of bile and organs, or that Twilight had dumped it down here. "What..." "Kill..." the thing continued to say again. It was eager for death, and Spike couldn't blame it. It appeared to be in pain, but still it was hard to find pity for this abomination. "W-w-what are y-you..?" Spike shuffled his claws backwards, slowly so as to not startle his unfortunate host. "Please... Kill me..." It convulsed, giving rise to what must have been its stomach. The empty sockets where its eye should have been twitched as a putrid torrent of brownish-red erupted from the chasm of its mouth. Whatever it was, it smelled of rot and disease. Spike stood and watched as his veins grew cold, unable to comprehend the poor blob vomiting its innards onto the floor. It was quite a task to not empty his own stomach at the sight, but he was far too busy re-evaluating his life to feel sick. The appalled lizard took a careful step back, feeling with his feet to make sure he didn't step on anything that would eat him. 'Just run Spike, run like there's no tomorrow and it won't get you.' His eyes shifted back and forth, but still the all consuming darkness hid any escape routes from his vision. Subconsciously, his backwards movement was already speeding up. "Don't go..." the blob pled, but that only proved to nail the panic into Spike's mind. It wanted him to stay, it needed him, and that was a level of unsettling that the baby dragon had only recently learned existed. His optic nerves ran circles around themselves, trying to piece together an image just for something else to focus on. It was at about this point where Spike's body left his mind behind. Before he could come up with an answer, he turned and ran. Much to his misfortune, he was unable to continue for long, running directly into a wall. The wall was moist, sticky like the floor, and smelled just as acidic as the blob's bile. The aroma was enough to finally trigger the gag reflex, emptying his lunch onto the wall. He belched flame between mouthfuls of his own regurgitation. The vomiting stopped, but the heaving didn't. Spike remained doubled over as his throat felt as if it were peeling itself apart. "What is this place?!" "Hell." Spike turned to see that the blob had made its way over to his feet like a lost puppy. His gut reaction was to defend himself, though the fleshy sack of misery had yet to prove itself dangerous. A jet of flame burst from Spike's throat, and to his surprise caused more damage than he had expected. Whatever this thing was made of, it was flammable. It screamed under the intense heat while a sea of green engulfed the trail left behind the monster. The room illuminated with chartreuse light and the agony of an already agonizing wreck. Spike watched as the thin flesh covering his new friend boiled and stripped away. It didn't take long for the entire room to be ablaze. 'I have no idea what Twilight's been dumping down here, but I think I've seen enough to know...' The fire began to die down, leaving one area of the wall still burning. 'To know that there's a door! There has to be an exit, or some way out.' The blob at his feet was gone by that point, boiled and charred to the floor. Spike carefully stepped around on the almost painfully hot ground towards the door. "Twilight I demand to speak with you!" Celestia's booming voice echoed down the winding stairs, having dispelled the door illusion and beginning her descent. "Twilight Sparkle, cease at once!" Nothing. Again, her voice echoed throughout the large room at the bottom of the stair well, but there was no indication that anypony was there. "Answer me Twilight Sparkle, are you down there?" Still nothing, save for a few glasses rumbling from the reverberation of her voice. At the bottom of the steps, her vision was obscured by blinding darkness. "A dark room spell... Why ever would she need one of those down here?" With barely a thought, Celestia's horn lit up to dispel the unnatural darkness around her. What she saw wasn't particularly unsettling, just a lab. There were a few liquids that she couldn't identify by the looks, but otherwise it was a typical workplace for a scientist. "Nopony is here..." Sure enough, the room was empty. Celestia stood alone, searching every inch that she could with her eyes. "Did you find her? I really need, like I mean really need that book!" "Stay up there Pinkie Pie, she is not down here!" A quick walk around the large laboratory didn't reveal anything unusual, just the normal things. A bunch of tables, lots of notes, a couple of machines, and a wooden hatch in the floor. "Wait a minute... That hatch..." Upon closer inspection, she could see that a few flakes of rust had been chipped from the hinge, something that Twilight would never allow in her work space. No, that had to be recent. The other odd thing about it was, well, that there was a shoddy wooden hatch in the middle of an otherwise surgical white tiled lab. She placed a hoof at the edge and began to lift it, revealing the dark interior. "A disposal chute, clever. I shudder to think what the conditions down there would be like." The thought froze in her mind. Given the nature of Twilight's studies, there was sure to be corrosive acid down there, as well as highly alcoholic cleaners and poisonous fumes. Anypony desperate enough to seek refuge down there would surely meet their demise shortly. As terrifying as the thought was, it was only made worse knowing that this was most likely the escape route used by Spike. "For your own sake Spike, I pray this was not your course of action..." "I mean, I guess I could just wing it, but pufferfish is pretty nasty if done wrong!" "Pinkie Pie there are more important matters at hand!" "Fine, I'll just wing it! Tell Twilight that I was here. Oh! And tell her that I'm making pufferfish and she should totally come try some!" There was that nuisance gone, but that didn't help her find her student. In her frustration, she stomped the ground and shattered the tile under her hoof. The force of the stomp shook her entire body, causing the crown to dislodge itself from her royal head. She watched as it tumbled through the air, and directly down the disposal chute. "Oh that's just perfect! Where could she have gone?!" Gritting her teeth, she looked anywhere but at the all consuming hole in the ground. Eventually, she found herself looking at another door that hadn't been there before. There was also a white tarp at the base of it. "Are you kidding me? A tarp? Twilight couldn't use a spell to remove this one?" The force of Celestia's stomp had also apparently dislodged the tarp from its place, hanging in front of another door to hide it. "Well at least I have another lead. Dearest Spike, I shall not be long. Hold on!... Wait did Pinkie say she's cooking pufferfish?" Bonk "What the hay?" On the floor before Spike laid a most welcoming sight. Princess Celestia's own crown had just cracked into his head from above, and it held a soft yellow glow that sent warmth into his body. "Celestia! She must be up there! Celestia!" Nothing. Either she couldn't hear him, or she had already gone. "Horse feathers... At least I have you." His eyes stung with an uncomfortable dryness from the air around him, and he could see the puffy red rings around them in his reflection. He could have sworn that some of his scales were going grey. Either way, this was a small beacon of light and he had to be thankful for what he could. Placing the crown on his head, he felt a familiar fire swirling through his skin. It was like a mother's embrace, keeping him warm and safe from the world around him. The feeling, however, was only a comfort and not an actual deterrent. Spike forced himself to continue walking despite his fatigue. He could almost feel the scales on his feet being eaten away by the acidic mush beneath them. The next room he found himself in was rather empty, as was the next. The doors had become much easier to see with the new light of his crown, which he was happy for. He was also happy that no more blob monsters had clung to his feet, but being away from the chute surely had an impact on how much waste was scattered around. The air was still pungent and the ground was still moist and sticky, but Spike decided to take the bad with the good at this point. "Just how big is this place?" He stopped in the center of another empty room, identical to the other five or six behind him. He also had to decide which door to take this time. There were two different paths. "Who even built this place? Was this really all for disposal?" Left it is. Spike walked through the door on the left, revealing a room a bit different than the others. It was empty, and box shaped like the others, but there was a massive hole in the wall. A hole that seemed big enough for a growing dragon. Spike was left uneasy at the sight. Placing a tentative claw on the edge of the hole, Spike lifted his body just enough to look inside. It looked hollow, and the air coming from it was stale rather than acidic. In a sad twist of fate, it almost seemed like a better place than his current prison. "Hello?" He called out, hoping that if there was anything or anyone in there, he could get it out of the way before he got too far. "Is anypony in here?" No answer, it was safe. He climbed up into the cave to face a new darkness. His foot sunk down into the muddy surface of the hole, creating the faintest plopping sound. As soon as his second foot made its way up, an odd wave of stench wafted out towards Spike. It smelled like somepony's breath, had they been living on a diet of filth. Spike blinked, hoping he was wrong about that analogy, but his fears, like so many other times today, were confirmed. The darkness blinked at him. "Did this cave j-just... B-b-blink?" An ear shattering roar reverberated out from the depths as the "darkness" forged its way toward the petrified dragon. Spike couldn't run fast enough to feel safe, but he did his best. The sound of rocks and mud being displaced behind him was enough motivation. His biggest mistake was looking back to see what it was. "WAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, reigniting the fire in his voice that he thought had been stretched to its limit. Chasing uncomfortably close behind him was a large worm like thing, but it was obviously bigger than a mere worm. Rather, one of its eyes was the size of Spike, and it had rather beady eyes. Its mouth was stretched wide in what looked like a stupid grin, giving it a strangely un-menacing expression. That is, except for the needle like teeth lining its jaw. Another roar coaxed Spike into double time, peddling his legs at double the rate he had thought possible, until one of his claws struck something solid and cold. He dove face first into the squishy ground below him, getting a mouthful of putrid mud. Flipping over to see that monster lording over him like a lion taunting its pray before killing it, Spike also noticed what he had tripped on. It was a crystal, which shone a mystic purple, almost black. Had he been in a calm state of mind, he might have thought 'Hey, that looks like one of those crystals that surrounded King Sombra. I wonder what that's doing here,' or he might have remembered 'I think I remember Twilight bringing one of those home for inspection. Maybe she threw this one down here by accident.' Rather, he grabbed the jagged rock and clung to it like it could rescue him. 'I'm going to die here, I'm going to die here, I'm going to-wait a minute, maybe if I eat I can get enough energy to run!' Spike opened his mouth wide enough to engulf the tip of the crystal and crunched down as hard as he could. It was delicious. "Enjoying your snack, knave?" "W-what?" Spike whipped his head around to see that his surroundings had become dark, an ominous shadow swirling his vision. He was surrounded by those very crystals which he had just eaten. The worm monster was no longer in view, but he was not alone. Before him sat an armored unicorn, one whom he remembered quite well. "S-S-Sombra?!" "That is King Sombra to you!"
