//------------------------------// // A Chase Down Below // Story: Beyond My Grave: Night Terrors // by AnnEldest //------------------------------// Spike got off the floor and wiped himself off. He rubbed his eyes and cracked his back. He then ran over to a shelf in his room leaving Discord there to watch him, not knowing once again what he was up too. He pushed a small hidden button on his wall which opened a small secret cubby hole on the wall. This was where Spike kept his most prized and secrets at so that nopony including Twilight could find or know about it. I guess even a dragon has secerts Discord thought to himself. "Spike?" Discord asked as he watched Spike. "What in Equestria was that?" "It was your dream Discord,'' Spike answered quickly, not even turning his head. "But you were there with me. How'd you even do that?" Discord asked standing up. "I started reading up on a lot of dream "techniques" even since our last incident. You can thank Luna for that one." Discord shooked his head in disbelief. He knew that Spike had done a lot reading about this kind of stuff for a while now but he didn't realize how far he went. "So that was you in there? Like it wasn't a dream version of you or anything?" Discord walked up to Spike. Spike pouted loudly. "Yes, unfortunately, it was. And for the record, that was the most horrible experience I have ever had. Don't expect me to do that again." "Trust me when I say I never even expected myself to do that again, yet here we are." Discord through his hands in the air. He groaned at the thought as he snapped his fingers using his magic to make a table on the ceiling. He sat down on one of the chairs, which was a giant frog, and started eating an unknown substance. That Spike didn't dare to ask what it was. "What are you doing anyway?" Discord asked. "Well, clearly there is a story to be told about everything we just saw. We need answers." Spike continued to look throw his cubby hole. "No argument there. Do you recognize anything we saw, cause I sure didn't." Discord continued to eat. Spike shook his head as he wasn't sure he had ever seen anything like that. He was always kind of in the background. Seeing the dream first hand was a new and rather horrifying experience. He knew it wasn't going to easy seeing what Luna went through when going to pony's dream but he didn't expect it to be that real to him. How do you do it, Luna? Spike thought to himself. Discord took a final swallow before he spoke again, "So how do we explain anything we saw. I didn't recognize where we were or anything." "Neither did I but I did see a sign that could point us to a start." Spike finally pulled out a notebook from the cubby." I need to write it down before I forget it." "Forget what? What did the sign say?" Discord asked "That's the thing. I don't know. It wasn't any symbol or language I've ever seen," Spike said as he continued to write it down. Discord snapped his fingers, making a cup appear. He drank the cup before speaking. "So what makes you think it was anything important?" At that moment Spike got done with what he was writing. He looked back up to Discord and showed him what he had done. The picture was clearly rushed but small marks and labels painted what it was supposed to look like. It was seven dolls in a line with their hooves locked together. They had symbols above their heads. Then there was some kind of writing at the bottom. One of the scribbled drawn dolls was circled green. Discord flinched at the unusually drawing. He had no idea how this was supposed to help them. It just made him more confused at what he was actually looking at. "Well, this looks... awful," Discord scoffed. "Well, you see the one I circled," Spike asked pointing to it. "Yes, so what? What about it?" Discord snapped. "That's the doll the mare was holding. I'm guessing it was her baby's doll." Discord looked at the picture remembering the scene. The mare crying holding on to the doll as her baby was hung from the ceiling. It's insides hanging. It wasn't much to go on but it was a start. "So what do you have in mind? How does this help us?" "I have no idea what the sign says, but if we find out then it could help us put us in the right direction. Plus I might have an idea who could possibly read this." Discord smirked. He already knew where this was leading up to. "Do I know who and how? Spike chuckled with guilt. The idea was pretty stupid, but it was an idea and it did go out exactly how they expected it to go. Caught by dragons, beaten by dragons and kidnapped by dragons. Just another normal day of sneaking into Shredder's bar. There stood Shredder looking down at Discord and Spikes beaten down bodies. He sighed. He thought he wouldn't have to deal with those two so soon. "I thought that after the last time you two would have figured out that trying to sneak in was generally a bad idea." "Yes, we know, but we needed the fastest way to see you and this turned out to be it," Spike said cracking his back." We need your help badly." "You should know that I'm a very busy creature. You can't expect me to drop everything to come to your aid," Shredder said. "No, we don't need anything big like that. Nothing like last time. All we need your help on is reading something." Discord explained hoping that would convince him enough to help them. "You need my help reading? Reading what exactly? I figured you were old enough to read Discord," He teased Discord with a calm voice. "Well, there's a lot you don't know about me. Like the fact that I don't read gibberish," Discord said as he held up Spike's drawing. Shredder grabbed it as he looked at both of them. He really didn't want to get too much involved. He had too much on his mind at the time to add anything else to his agenda. However, he knew if they needed help that meant Luna must be dealing with something not alive as well. He took a seat at his desk and looked over at the chaos that was the drawing. It came from Discord he thought at first sight. It was hard to make out everything and he couldn't make sense of it. He did, however, recognize the strange writing on the drawing. "So can you read it? Spike asked. "I mean Discord needs to work on his drawing skills, but yes I can read this." He pointed out the strange language." This is what you two were asking about, correct?" "First of all," Discord said standing up." Yes, that's what we're here for. And second of all, I'll have you know that I am an exceptional artist. Spike drew that." "Oh, I see. " He turned to Spike and gave him a friendly smile. "Well then, not bad Spike. For being completed in a short amount of time, it's rather densely drawn," Shredder said enjoying Discords annoyance. Discord rolled his eyes." Ya, ya, whatever. So can you tell us what it said or not?" Discord scuffed. "Of course I am able to. To answer your question, it's just an advertisement for a Smiley Sally Doll." "What in Equestria is that?" asked Spike. "Without going into details, it's just a really old doll brand that shut down a very long time ago. They used to be popular for their unbelievable stories." "Like what?" Spike asked. Shredder opened a drawer and pulled out a book. It was covered in dust from age and not being used. He blew on the book causing the dust to be blown toward Spike and Discord. Discord coughed as Spike covered his nose so he wouldn't breathe the dust in. When Shredder thought the book was cleaned enough, he opened it and turned to a page in which the dolls were shown on. He set the book on his desk for Discord and Spike to see. "One of the most well-known ones is that a witch made the dolls to cruse any bad parent or child. If a parent abused a child in any wrong way, they would suffer a consequence. Some were more damaging than others. Others say that the dolls could be controlled by the spirits of past dead children. In fact, some even say that they were made with a dark spell so that a parent could control the emotions of the child," Shredder told them. "Of course those are just stories. None were ever proven to be true. They are no longer made however they're quite valuable now." Spike and Discord looked at each other. They knew that it was the type of doll that the mare had. The problem was they didn't quite know how that could help them. "Well, that doesn't exactly help our current situation," Discord said starting to walk away. "Wait, Discord maybe it could," Spike said turning to Shredder. "Where does this language come from?" "Not in Equestria. There are certain places just outside of Equestria that do however speak it." "See, Dizzy, if we go there then maybe it can lead us somewhere." Discord rolled his eyes. "I told you before not to call me that." Shredder held his hand put. "I must warn you though, these places aren't very friendly for Equestrians," Shredder said getting up from his chair. Discord put his hands in a snap position. "We dealt with those before. I think we can handle it. Just tell us exactly where we're heading." He put both hands on his head as if he was getting a headache from all of it. "Wait, seriously? You are willing to get up and leave so unprepared with the lack of any proper information just like that?" "Absolutely, it's not like Cadence has limited time and is in danger right now?" Discord said sarcastically. "I don't know, Discord. I'm just not looking forward to traveling out of my home to an unfamiliar place," Spike spoke was a scared tone and agreed with Shredder. "Ya, I feel the same trust me. But I don't want things to hit the fan. Let's just go and get back. It'll be easy and quick. We do need to get back to Luna soon. She does need our help too." "Just as I figured," Shredder said to himself as he sat back down. Spike thought about it and sighed. "Okay, let's do this." The trip was easy and quite fast. Discord simply snapped his finger all the way out of Equestria. They ended up in a desert, hot and void. The town they were looking for lay just way out in the desert. It wasn't a charming town. Shredder warned them that there was a lot of trading and selling. The problem was that people would try to sell them as well. There wasn't any laws or rules or anything. It was filled with stands and shops from head to toe. Everywhere they looked, something was being sold. The houses were plain, colorless, and they stacked up high on top of each other. In the distance they saw a large old wooden windmill, it was charming. Spike didn't like the scenery at all. He was speechless and very uncomfortable. It was very different from his home town and it made him feel out of place, like a polar bear in the jungle. Discord, however, was perfectly fine. Sure it wasn't Equestria but at his age, he had seen the ins and outs of just about anything. He used to dry old crusted places. He knew the horrors that Equestria was fortunate enough to live without. He felt right in place. Surely many there would have loved to get their hands on either of them. A growing dragon could've gone for a lot out there. Discord was practically a diamond wrapped in gold and silver served in a giant platinum bowl. He was very valuable, and he wasn't oblivious to it at all. His magic served as his means of protection though, many were very clever there and could've possibly found a way around it. Of course, he too knew this, so he was watching every creature closely. He was looking for con artists, the smart ones that would have posed a threat to them. Shredder had given them a bit of instruction on where they would want to look. He had told them about an old store that had been around when he had lived there. The store's sign had the same language written on it, so it made it easier to locate. They looked around observing the "beautiful" cute. Many creatures took interest in them. "How much for the winged lizard?" One creature asked. "I'll trade you this snake for the chameleon." Asked a random griffin. Discord has been offered drugs for a bit of his magic. He had respectfully declined. It was nothing compared to when some creature asked him if he wanted "a good time" for a price. He once again respectfully declined. They weren't in Equestria anymore. This was the badlands. "Alright, where exactly are we heading Discord? I can't take it anymore. If even one more creature wants to buy me then I'm gonna start throwing pun…. Fire." "I thought it would be easier to find our way around here. There's no labels or signs or anything. How does anyone navigate around here?" "Well, I bet someone would be more than glad to tell us, for a small "donation". You could cover that right?" Discord rolled his eyes knowing that it was the truth." Ya ya, let's just go and get this over with." Discord scuffed. They walked up to a random stand where a lizard-like creature was selling food. It wasn't normal food, however. All of it was fresh, like freshly killed fresh. Body parts were spread out all over the table. Many were hanging. "You two lads looking for a decent meal?" The lizard asked." We have griffin, chicken, alligators, sharks, snakes, buffaloes, and for are special we have unicorns." Discords eyes went wide open. He was discussed. The lizard put some unicorn mean on the table. It was more than enough to make Spike run away to throw up. Discord froze staring at the carcass of the poor purple unicorn before him. He had to hold his mouth to help with his nausea. Discord looked at a mirror behind the stand. In the mirror stood C.D who still held a phone. "So the mortician has it all set up. The problem is that he's not sure how you're gonna get buried once you two are in your coffins. He offered to help put your coffins into your graves himself, for a small "donation" of course. What do you say, Dizzy?"