After a magical experiment gone awry, Spike disappears into another universe . When Twilight creates a spell to help them find him, this is what they see.
Spike should have never set foot in the same room as Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie's new teleport portal, let alone volunteer to test it. When it goes horribly wrong, Spike is left stranded in another world. A year passes as Twilight and co search for a way to bring him back, eventually creating two spells, one that allows them to see where he is, and what he is doing, and another to teleport him (though it requires a lengthy charge up time). This is the story of what they see.
Crossover with Tomb Raider (2013) Full list of ponies reacting: Mane 6 Starlight and Trixie Shining Armour The other princesses Ember and Daring Do
"Are you sure about this?" An extremely hesitant Spike asked the trio of ponies currently checking their notes for any errors in their calculations.
"Spike, there is absolutely nothing to fear." Twilight assured him, "The chance of anything going horribly wrong are as low as a Diamond Dog cave system."
"Yeah Spike, we've checked our notes a dozen times, we wouldn't risk hurting you if the odds were even what we'd consider low." Starlight interjected, not even turning to face the young drake. Instead, she and the others got into position, Starlight and Trixie on one end of the room, Twilight on the other.
"You guys know that at this point you're seriously tempting fate don'tcha?" Spike snarked with a hint of trepidation in his voice.
"Come on Spike, we need someone to test our teleporter bridge and everypony else is busy." Trixie replied, "If this works we can prove it's possible to create linked teleport portals. Can you imagine how much we'll be able to cut down on travel times!"
Twilight soon came to support Trixie, saying "She's got a point Spike. We could set portals up all over Equestria and beyond. We wouldn't even need to take a train to get to Canterlot, or the Crystal Empire! We could visit whenever we wanted to."
Seeing the look of Twilight, clearly excited by, most likely, the chance to visit Shining and Cadence whenever she wanted, Spike withdrew his complaints, unable to deny her. "Ok, ok. Let's just get this over with."
Twilight squeed in joy, giving Spike a quick hug in thanks, before trotting off to her end of the room, opposite the unicorn duo. "Ok, final checks; room is clear, magic is primed, everyone is in position. Does everyone remember their roles?"
"Create the portal on our end for Spike to enter." Called Starlight.
"Keep it steady and open 'till he exits your portal." Continued Trixie.
"Create and maintain the portal on my side and link it to yours until Spike comes through." Came from Twilight.
"Run at the scary glowing portal and hope I don't die?" Spike mumbled rhetorically, the group either with gnoring him or not hearing him.
"Ok you guys, let's get started." With those words Twilight and the others started to charge their magic, sparks dancing over their horns, before they were encased in their respective glows. There was a flash as at either sides of the room, two large semi circular portals appeared, their green bubbly glow illuminating the room. For a second a thin strand of light could be seen connecting the two, before fading away as the link was made. A harsh crackling filled the room, the gateways being the source. "Ok Spike!" Twilight yelled over the noise, "The portals are open, just go ahead and run through!"
"Got it!" Came Spike's loud reply. Turning to face Starlight and Trixie's portal, he took a nervous breath, before dashing towards the portal, not giving himself time to think about the consequences of dangers of his choice. Within a few moments he had reached the portal threshold, and leapt in.
The group waited for him to appear at Twilight's end. After a minute they started to worry a little. After 5 minutes they were in a full blown panic, with Trixie's magic running low from the exertion of mainting her and Starlight's portal. If it closed, the link would break, and none of them had any knowledge of what would happen when that happened. They only knew it wouldn't be good.
"Spike!" Twilight called, her voice wavering in worry. She cried out in alarm as the unicorn duo's portal warped, losing it's shape for a few moments as Trixie dropped to her knees in exhaustion, leaving a quickly tiring Starlight to try to power and maintain the portal.
However, it was not to be, as the portal continued to break down despite Twilight and Starlight's attempts to fix it. The portal collapsed, sending a shockwave through the room, knocking all of them to the floor.
When the dust settled, the group got up on weakened legs, still in shock over what had happened. "S-S-Spike?" Twilight breathed, tears welling in her eyes.
Not 30 seconds later, all of Ponyville heard her distraught cries, as the loss of her assistant finally registered.
The next year was hard on everypony. When Twilight's friends heard her cry, they dropped what they were doing and rushed right over. When they heard what had happened, the group denied it at first, only for Trixie and Starlight to back up her story.
Twilight took it the hardest, locking herself away in her room for days on end, bawling her eyes out and bathing in her own self-pity, blaming herself for causing Spike's apparent death. Trixie tried to convince her otherwise, saying that it was her who caused the portal to collapse, so she was to blame. This didn't break her out of her depression though. It took a visit from Twilight's whole family, her friend's, and Celestia to break her out of it. After that she turned her entire focus to finding a way to bring back Spike, having gotten the idea after a throw away comment from Celestia, who said it was entirely possible that Spike had simply wound up someplace else in transit.
Her friends continued to help her out, mainly through dragging her away from her research long enough to eat, sleep, bathe, and relax, claiming that Spike wouldn't want her to end up a mess.
Rarity took the news almost as bad as Twilight did, having much the same response she had had, coping through crying, but also through liberal amounts of ice cream. She had come to garner a small crush on Spike as time had gone by, finding the young dragon charming and just a little handsome, not to mention his dedication to her. When he had disappeared it broke her heart, knowing she never told him her growing feelings for him. Unlike Twilight, Rarity had to care for her younger sister, as well as run a business, so Rarity soon shifted her coping method to working and looking after Sweetie Belle. Somewhat ironically, she ended up creating some of her best work after Spike's disappearance, using her grief to fuel her muse. Her dresses were praised as 'hauntingly dark', and created a month long fashion craze. All throughout, she found herself thanking Spike, who even though he wasn't with her, continued to find ways to help her.
The rest of the gang, despite not being as close to Spike, were still torn up over his apparent demise. Rainbow almost completely stopped practicing her flying stunts, even having to take temporary leave from the Wonderbolts to grieve. Fluttershy only kept herself together through working with her animal friends, though the stress and grief made her snap at them more than once, leading to a more subdued and understanding menagerie. Pinkie Pie didn't throw a party for more two months, her mane remained as flat as her sister's, and her baking suffered greatly. Like Rainbow, she was given time off from working at Sugercube corner by the Cakes so she had time to grieve. Applejack was the strongest of the group, having experienced similar loss before with her parents. She didn't allow herself to be too affected, but her siblings let her end her days early so she could aid her friends with their own depressions.
The group had tried to call Discord for help, however even he had no clue as to where Spike was, let alone how to bring him back. They had attempted to use the portal to the human world as well, in case Spike had ended up there, but the portal was acting up, and Twilight was too afraid of a repeat of what happened to Spike to try it in it's current state. Starlight and Trixie had taken it upon themselves to attempt to fix it, providing their own way to help cope with what had happened.
Though it took her many months Twilight was eventually able to develop 2 spells that would enable them to find the wayward dragon, and bring him back to them. Having checked her notes for any errors over a dozen times, she collected her friends, her brother, and her fellow princesses (who had also had their own, albeit smaller, worries for Spike), and brought them to the castle.
They had all gathered in a specially furnished room, filled with comfortable seats all pointed towards a shimmering green crystal. Each taking a seat, Twilight explained that the first spell was designed to locate a being, and allow others to view what they were doing. Strangely, Discord had helped her create the spell, as they had to take into account the possibility that Spike had ended up in another world or universe, as her magic was incapable of searching that far without the aid of a little chaos magic. The second spell was far less complex, allowing the user to lock onto a being and teleport it, only over far greater distances than the regular teleport spell. This still required Discord's help, though Twilight found her own way of powering the spell without draining anyone of the magic required for such a teleport. By anchoring the spell to a magic absorbing crystal, she could set the spell to absorb and use ambient magic. It would mean a slow charge, but no one would be hurt as a result of a loss of power.
And so it was that the group sat themselves down, Twilight cast the viewing spell (linking it to the viewing crystal so that the others could see as well), and the group braced themselves for what was hopefully their first look at Spike in over a year.
Before the crystal screen could even begin to play, the group was interrupted as an almighty CRASH filled the room, along with the sound of falling debris, coughs and gasps for air, and of multiple bickering voices. Using a spell to banish the dust, Twilight and the group were greeted with the sight of a large hole in the castle, and of a certain dragon queen rubbing her head in pain while arguing with a tan Pegasus adventurer.
"Geez, watch where you're flying ya overgrown lizard, you coulda killed us!"
"Hey don't blame me! You're the one who told me to drop without giving me time to check if we were gonna hit anything!"
From there the duo continued to go back and forth, while the room's occupants watched in shocked silence. As the mare and dragoness' voices grew steadily louder, the group finally registered just who the pair was.
"EMBER?/DARING DO?"
The group's startled cry stopped the two in the middle of their argument, as they turned to look at the gathering of ponies, blushing in embarrassment. "Oh, hey guys." Ember said, trying to play it cool, as if she and Daring had never crashed to begin with.
"Ember, what are you doing in Ponyville? And why are you with Daring Do? And why wasn't she flying on her own?"
As Twilight continued to question the pair, they simply shared a look and replied in unison "It's a long story."
Before any of the ponies could begin to question them again, Daring decided to ask her own questions. "So, uh, I'd really like to know what we crashed into that's so important it's got all of Equestria's rulers here for it." There was a hint of worry in her voice, tinged with excitement, the idea of some kind of threat to Equestria floating across her mind.
Celestia, most likely recognising her worry, sought to relieve her of it, "Miss Do, do not fret, there is no plot transpirering against our country that needs your attention. We are simply here to find out about what has happened to poor Spike."
Ember turned sharply to face the group upon hearing the young dragon's name. "You found him?!" She asked, her eyes glinting with something the group couldn't quite pin down.
"Yes, Twilight's spell should allow us to see where he is and allow us to bring him back to us, once the spell has full charged of course."
After Celestia's explanation, Ember was shaking in excitement. "I'm staying." She declared as she strode over to an empty seat, the idea of finding out where her first true friend had ended up too much to pass up.
Daring sputtered, seemingly both surprised and annoyed by the dragon's decision. "But-but what about-"
"If it matters that much to you, stay here with us, I'm not leaving till Spike is here again. Besides, we were weeks ahead anyway." Daring attempted to come up with an argument, but a look at the steely eyes of the azure dragon queen had her planting her face in her hoof and sighing in exasperation, before taking her own seat, grumbling all the while.
After a few seconds of silence not being broken by any other strange happenings, the group turned to the crystal screen, as images finally started to appear on it.
A large ship sailed out into the ocean, a port visible in the background. Bold white lettering on the front identifies it as the 'ENDURANCE'. A young male voice began to narrate. "A famous explorer once said," The scene shifted to show a bipedal creature a little under 6ft tall, with bright green hair, clad in a tank top and brown denim trousers. The creature walked towards a desk, shuffled a few of items around before picking up a photo. "...that the extraordinary, is in what we do, not who we are."
"Hey, that's one of mine!" Daring blurted out, recognizing the quote from one of her earlier works. This earned her a few 'shush'es from the group, while a few realized just what it meant.
'It's gotta be him.' Twilight though to herself, 'Please, please, please let it be him.'
The creature opened up a nearby locker, and pinned the photo, which showed an atlas style depiction of an island, on the inside. Just next to the island photo was another picture, showing the creature alongside another, both dressed in long black gowns with square hats on their heads. "I'd finally set out to make my mark; to find adventure." The creature then closed the locker, revealing a mirror on the outside of the door. The reflection showed that of a young, fresh face, a small nose, a cleanly shaven chin, and bright green eyes. The creatures' skin, while mainly peach colored, held an almost invisible purple tint to it.
"It's him!" Twilight shouted in glee, easily able to recognize her assistant, even if he no longer appeared to be a dragon. The rest of the gang shared in her happiness, tears welling in their eyes as they took in Spike's more mature features. All except Dating Do, having never quite met the drake beforehand, who was more confused if anything.
"Wait, wait, wait!" She called out, stopping the ponies in their tracks, and trying not to pay attention to the floating confetti that had blasted out of Pinkie Pie's mysteriously appearing cannon. "First off, what the heck is that thing, and second, how can you tell it's this Spike kid?"
"Oh, um." A flustered Twlight responded, not entirely sure if she should be telling either Daring or the just as curious Ember about the portal to the human world. "Well, Spike seems to be a human, not entirely sure how though unless he ended up on the other side of the mirror" She said, muttering the last part to herself, "And I'd recognise Spike anywhere!"
"Plus they have the same colour schemes." Pinkie cheerfully added.
"Hu-man? Never heard of 'em" Daring asked doubtfully.
"Trust us Miss Do, there are many undiscovered elements in our world. You as an adventurer should know this better than any of us." Luna said, hoping to placate the mare so they could get back to the one interesting thing that had happened in the past year.
Daring mumbled her apologies, a faint blush on her cheeks as Ember chuckled beside her.
With Daring no longer questioning them, the group was free to take in Spike in his new human form. "You know..." Rarity announced slowly, "I think this new Spike is rather dashing wouldn't you say so?"
"Eh, he's OK." Rainbow responded, personally thinking that his new looks were enough to get her curious, though not incredibly interested.
"Seems quite a bit smaller than what you said humans were Twi?" Applejack questioned.
"Well Spike was always tiny AJ." Pinkie responded in Twilight's place.
"Yeah, but here's the thing." Twilight perplexed, "Spike was only about 14 when he disappeared, but he looks like a full grown human male, albeit a little shorter."
This garnered her a number confused and wondering glances, everyone wondering how Spike had aged so rapidly in only a year. "Maybe time runs differently there?" Starlight proposed.
"Hmmm. Maybe" Twilight considered. "But when I went to the mirror world time ran the same there as it did here."
"So what do you think happened?" Shining asked, ignoring the sputtering and utterly confused faces that Ember and Daring were making as they tried to figure out what Twilight had meant by "the mirror world".
"Honestly I have no clue. Maybe when we get Spike back we can ask him."
As the group turned back to the screen, they noticed that the scene had not changed at all throughout their conversation. When Cadence brought it up Twilight guessed it was probably a quirk added by Discord, as she certainly didn't add it in.
Spike stared at himself, his eyes filled with steely determination as his narration continued. "But instead," the screen cut to black "adventure found me."
"Well that doesn't sound ominous at all." Luna sarcastically said aloud.
"Eh, can't be too bad. Half the adventures I go end up going on are complete accidents." Daring replied, giving Ember a meaningful look.
The screen fades in to show Spike sitting on a bunk bed, leaning his back up against the wall as he nodded his head to the sound of music, a pair of earphones attached to a phone he mindlessly scrolled through. Appearing on the side of the screen, are the words: Dragon's Triangle, South of Japan Endurance Expedition - Day 22 23:00 hours
"Japan? I wonder if that's the human equivalent of Neighpan?" Celestia, who had been relativity silent so far, considered.
There was a flash of lightening as Spike's room shook, the scene changing to show the ship being battered by heavy winds, pelting rain, and crashing waves. Cutting back to Spike's room, he pulled out his earphones and swung his legs off the bunk bed, only to be thrown violently off and into a wall with a cry of pain as the ship shook once more.
The group gave a collective wince at the dull ring as Spike's head made contact with the metal wall, his grunts of pain worrying to them.
Crawling to his feet, Spike stumbled out of the room, gripping his aching head. However, he was soon swept up by a river of water rushed down the corridor, carrying debris and what appeared to be a crewman with it. Spike attempted to sat standing, fruitlessly raising his arms as he screamed in terror. Dragged under water, Spike impacted a ladder, gripping on it for dear life. "In our darkest moments..." Breaking the surface of the quickly rising water, Spike gasped for air. Clambering up the ladder, he reached the top only for it to be blocked by a locked hatch. Banging his hands against the latch's window and screaming for help, his pleas went unanswered. "When life flashes before us..." The water finally filled the pocket of air Spike had, as he coughed and spewed out water. "We find something;" Screaming one last time, Spike looses all the air he had left in his lungs and begins to sink, losing consciousness.
"No," Twilight whispered, her body shaking as tears ran down her face as she was forced to watch her one of her oldest friends drown right in front of her. Everyone else was in similar states of shock and disbelief, either holding back tears or rooted to the spot, unmoving, too horrified to do anything. Pinkie Pie's hair had deflated, Fluttershy had hid herself behind her wings crying softly, and Rarity was so distressed she forgot to faint. The rest of the gang had either pulled each other close for support (Cadence with Shining, Celestia with Luna), or were looking away, unable to watch.
"Something that keeps us going..." With a metallic groan the latch was forced open, a hand shooting out to grab Spike's and pull his half drowned self out of the water. Coughing and sputtering, Spike lived.
Hearing Spike's attempt to clear his lungs of the water that had filled them, many of the group looked up with astonishment, mixed with hope and insane amounts of joy. "Yes!!" Twilight cheered, latching onto the closest person, which happened to be an equally happy Rarity, and squeezing them tightly. Pinkie Pie did the same with Fluttershy, her mane poofing up once more, while AJ and Rainbow hoof-bumped as they let out sighs of relief. Shining was reassuring Cadence as much as she was reassuring him, while Celestia and Luna wiped away the tears they had been holding back. Starlight and Trixie had quickly parted from the supportive hug they had been giving each other with light blushes on their faces, embarrassed at their actions.
Noticing that Ember and Daring hadn't been nearly as effected as the rest of the group, Trixie asked "Hey, aren't you upset that Spike almost died!"
Ember scoffed, saying "Eh, he's a dragon, he can take a little drowning." However internally she had been incredibly scared for Spike's well being. Dragon's like her and Spike were too heavy in proportion to their size to swim properly. Heck, they couldn't even fly without the use of their natural magic. But what made it worse, was that she knew nothing about these 'humans' that Spike had somehow become, and whether or not they were just as bad a swimmers as most dragon's were.
Daring merely replied "I don't even know this kid! Sure I don't want to see him die, but I'm not nearly as close to him as all of you." While a reasonable explanation, Trixie couldn't help but feel a little bitter towards the adventurous mare.
Vision blurry as he blinked away the water that stung his eyes, Spike looked up to see that the boat had been torn in half. On the other side of the ship, a grey haired, grizzled older man stood, gripping onto a nearby pipe with one arm, while yelling and waving towards Spike desperately. "Something that pushes us." Closing his eyes and taking a moment to steel himself, Spike pushes off the ground making a mad dash towards the older man. Stumbling from the rocking of the ship and slipping sightly from the soaked deck, Spike throws himself across the growing gap between the two halves of the ship. He seems to fall in slow motion towards the other man, who reaches out in time to grab Spike's outstretched hand.
Spike's epic leap is met with cheers and hoots from the group, impressed with the sheer distance Spike managed, and sure that he was safe.
However, the wind and rocking of the boat, mixed with the slipperiness of the pair's hands and the forwards momentum of Spike's leap, causes Spike's hand to begin to slip from the mature man's grip. They both cry out as Spike's hand slides out of the grizzled man's, and he plummets down to the raging water below.
The emotional whiplash has the group chocking on their words, unable to form a coherent sentence. All except Pinkie who manged to shout out an enraged, yet teary "Stop sending us on this roller coaster of emotions!".
The screen cuts to show Spike struggling to kick his way to the surface, eventually doing so. He coughs and spits out the water he had been chocking on, only to be dragged back under. For the next minute or so, he was continuously brought back under only to swim his way free and repeat the process. Soon though what appeared to be a beach came into view, and Spike pushed himself towards it, clambering ashore.
"Ok, now he's safe right!?" Rainbow asked aggressively, sharing Pinkie's distaste for the rapid mood swings of Spike's current predicament.
"Consarnit Rainbow, do ya have to go temptin' Murphy?" Applejack said, lightly slapping Rainbow on the back of her head.
Turning onto his back, Spike began to hack up even more water that had filled his throat and lungs. A female voice called out "This one's bleeding out!", drawing Spike's attention.
Turning his head to face the direction of the voice, Spike was able to make out the glow of a fire and a few figures in the darkness as he yelled out "Hello!?". However the howling wind's drowned him out.
"C'mon Applejack there's a bunch of 'em, one of 'em will help him!" Rainbow protested.
"You're just digging him deeper!"
The screen changed perspectives to the group, showing the owner of the voice, a dark-skinned woman with an afro hair-do, wearing a dirty white sleeveless jacket, barking out orders. "Put some pressure on it!" She yelled to an unseen person. Another crew member ran past, a much larger man, clad in a red shirt with the sleeves ripped off, showing his tattooed arms, as he shouted something unintelligible.
To the left of him was two others, one laying unmoving while the other, whose only clear features was that he was wearing glasses and a backpack, was desperately giving him CPR and mumbling "Come on...come on! Breathe, goddamn it!"
The display cut to the woman and another male, a blond man wearing a blue shirt, over which was a grey jacket. "We've got wounded!" the woman exclaimed as the man paced aimlessly, his hands dragging over his face.
"I knew this would happen!" The man said bitterly.
"Come on, doctor!" The woman begged, trying to snap him out of his inaction.
However the man didn't seem to here her, continuing with his rant "Where the hell are we!?"
"Help us out here!" The woman made another attempt but failed as the man walked off, leaving her alone.
"I don't know why you're so worried AJ, they've got a doctor with them, Spike'll be fine!"
Sighing, Applejack lowered her hat, not wanting to see what was going to happen as she said "I'm not even gonna dignify that with a response." She wanted to point out that the doctor didn't seem to be helping anyone at the time, but couldn't care enough to begin another argument with Rainbow to do it.
"Reyes! Jonah!" Spike screamed, hoping to be heard, but the wild weather along with the group's panicked state meant they didn't hear their fellow crew member's plea for help. "I'm here!" Stumbling to his feet, Spike held his upper body up by supporting it with his arms on his knees. Looking around, Spike was caught completely off guard as an unseen figure snuck up behind him and delivered a hard punch to the back of his head, quickly rendering him unconscious. The screen cut to black almost instantly and didn't change.
While most of the group was crying out in surprise or concern for Spike, Applejack merely turned to face a shocked still Rainbow. With a blank face and a flat tone, hiding her smugness so as not to appear rude, Applejack told her "I told ya so."
After a few minutes of the screen not changing, everyone was starting to get uncomfortable, shuffling in their seats. "Uggghhh!" Rainbow sighed out in annoyance. "C'mon, work you stupid thing!"
"Maybe it's not showing us anything because Spike's unconscious?" Celestia proposed.
"So how long are we gonna have to wait then?!" Daring Do demanded.
"Who knows, a few minutes, a few hours?" Twilight guessed.
"Well then, we" Daring Do said, getting up from her seat and grabbing Ember by the arm, "have to go." She made to leave, but found she couldn't tug Ember from her seat.
Barely straining a muscle, Ember remained sitting. "Nu uh, I said I wasn't leaving until Spike was back, so I'm staying right here thank you very much."
"But what about the-"
"Hey Twilight?" Ember said, turning her attention away from the increasingly frustrated pegasus beside her, "If this thing is gonna take a few hours to start working again, mind if we stay the night?"
"Oh sure, go ahead." Twilight gleefully responded, giving her directions to the guest bedrooms. The other princesses along with Shining followed suit, claiming that it would be easier to stay the night rather than travel all the way back to their respective homes and then back, especially if the spell started up again in the middle of the night. The rest of the gang went their own ways, Trixie and Starlight heading off to do some late research on the mirror to the human world, believing themselves close to a breakthrough. Twilight bid the rest of her friends goodbye and set off for her own bedchambers, inviting Daring Do to stay the night along with everyone else as she passed. Soon enough, everyone was asleep, albeit not so soundly, their dreams plagued with worries for Spike.