The Binding of Spike

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..."