The Binding of Spike

That 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!"