They were in a strange land, with strange people, but most importantly strange food.
"Well, this is just, awful." Discord complained." The food here sucks!"
"Seriously Discord," spike said angrily." That's what you're worried about right now? Not the fact that some creature just tried to serve us our own friends?"
"Yes I admit that it was less than pleasing to have to see that image, but it's just like eating any other thing to these creatures. I'm upset because the rest of our options sucked. We've come a long way to get answers. The least this town could offer in return is a decent meal." Discord responded as he looked through a menu he made appear." Looks like we'll have to settle with a crummy alligator."
"No thanks, I'm really not hun…." Spikes growling stomach interrupted him." Well actually I am hungry but It doesn't matter, because after seeing that I'm not trusting anything here."
"Oh nice, this is where I come in." Said the French narrator from Spongebob Squarepants.
"Wait for what how…." Spike didn't even get to finish his sentence.
"Five minutes later." The French narrator narrated.
"Dang, these alligator tacos are the bomb." Discord murmured as food feels out of his mouth.
After everything that had been going on Spike and Discord really hadn't had time to rest or be at ease for a while. Being able to sit down, kinda relax, and actually eat something was a blessing for them.
Spike had felt much better after getting something in his belly. Even he had to admit that the tacos were amazing. He had rarely seen an alligator, but he had known quite a bit about them. What he didn't know was how delicious they were.
They were still at the stand were the gruesome unicorn scene had occurred, but it had passed and pike was way too hungry to not eat.
Spike had ordered seven tacos while Discord had ordered twelve. They scarfed all of them down in nearly ten minutes. For drinks, they had gotten some kind of red nectar drink. It was sweet yet smooth and light like water. It was the nectar of the gods.
"Ahhhhhh," spikes relaxed voice echoed."I feel way better after that. That was one of the best meals I've ever had."
"Yup, that hit the spot," Discord said finishing up his drink.
"See what did I tell you two?" The lizard creature asked with pride."You want a decent meal you come here. Nowhere better to go when you're starving." The lizard cared a strong particular accent."Others will charge big bucks for trash, but I sell you good food for a good price."
"Yes, you do. No argument there." Discord said with a burp. He snapped his fingers and a bag full of gems and diamonds appeared." Keep the change, my good sir. Bad idea." Discord snapped his fingers and a small black dragon appeared."He'll help you out from getting robbed. Trust me I pity whoever tries."
"Well, I gotta admit that's just what I needed." Spike said with clear relief."So, what's next on our to-do list?"
"Well, I asked Trench about where we could find this store that Shredder was talking about. He said it was located right next to the big windmill."
Spike looked up at Discord." Wait who's Trench?" Spike asked.
"The cook who just made us the best meal ever. Now pay attention please," Discord said in a rush." He said the store had closed down some time ago but it's still there just collecting dust."
"Next to the windmill?" Spike said pointing to the obvious large windmill in the distance." Well, that's comforting."
They made their way to the windmill with surprisingly little resistance. Sure they had a few jerks stop them but as soon as Discord would make Spike turn to is awesome looking unrealistic giant knight form, they were quick to back off. Spike the Knight was to be feared.
They arrived at the old broken down the store. It was covered in rotten wood and moss. The store wasn't collecting dust, it was straight up hoarding it. It had been neglected for many years.
Strange drawings were lining the outside of the building. Broken windows greeted them at the entrance. Discords eye was caught by the door that was full of scratches. Claw marks scared the floor.
"Well, this is the place," Spike said with a nervous gulp.
"Charming," Discord responded.
They walked inside the store. A familiar sight greeted them. Large shelves made a maze in front of them. The shelves were covered from top to bottom with old toys, especially old raggedy dolls.
They both got uneasy as memories of Discords night terror came rushing back to them. They could remember everything from the dream and the store was a perfect match.
"Well at least we know we have the right place," Discord whispered with regret.
The very walls seemed to hold anguish. The rusty streaks down the wall seemed to tell a sad story within them. Something dreadful had happened there, and the very atmosphere reflected it.
The building was overall in good shape. It was just old. Rusty metal, rotten wood, and old smelly toys, but there was nothing that quite suggested a tragic event had taken place. Besides the toys uncanny ability to make their spines quiver, there wasn't much to go on.
"Well this place has to be the creepiest store I've ever been to," Spike said as he picked up one of the dolls." These things are just made of creepiness. I can see why nobody wants to go here.
"Ya, I'm sure that's the only reason why, "Discord said as his claw went across a strange yet familiar symbol.
"A pentagram," They both said in near unison.
They both were fully aware of the "eyes" looking down their backs. The "eyes" that had not looked away since they had walked into the store.
The pentagram was very carefully carved into the wall and was even glazed over. Discord noted the horrific fact that it was unusually hot. The rest of the walls were pretty cold, so it raised a clear red flag. Discord, however, chose to ignore the fact and decided to keep it to himself. A part of him felt that if he didn't say anything then perhaps nothing more would come of it
Looking around some more, they eventually came to the wall were Discords dream had taken off. They both could not have forgotten the treacherous sideshow that was what seemed to have been some sort of glimpse of the past.
The room was more put together than it had been in the dream. That was probably mostly because a deranged mare hadn't attacked them, yet.
"Hey Discord," spike called from across the room." Come check this out".
Discord walked over to Spike as guesses ran through his head on what he was being summoned for. He tried to expect the worst so if it was something gruesome he wouldn't have been too surprised.
"What is it?" He asked with hesitation.
"Does this look familiar to you?"
Spike held up a sign that "somewhat resembled" his drawing. It was clear that Spike had severely rushed to jot down all the details he could. He had missed many details as the sign was decorated on a ridiculous level.
Spike held it up to his drawing. The major details matched up decently well. The biggest of all was the writing. Spike had perfectly copied nearly half of the words on the sign. It was an impressive feat in itself.
"Yup, we're definitely in the right place." Discord said
"Well I remember tripping on this so, I know right where we had our "encounter"." Spike didn't seem so thrilled.
He walked over to the wall that had a familiar little hole in it. They both looked at each other, preparing themselves for what might have been another nightmare.
They looked through the hole and to their surprise, it was just another room full of toys and old shelves. It was not at all what Discord and Spike had expected. They had expected a terrible nightmarish site, but it was quite the opposite. The room had no signs from Discords dream.
"So now what?" Asked Discord." What exactly are we looking for here?
Spike continued to look around. He didn't know what they were looking for. The whole thing had been a wild guess, but he knew that Discord's dream had to have to lead them there for a reason.
"I don't exactly, to be honest," Spike said still not looking at Discord.
"Well, then I have no idea…" Discord was cut off by laughter.
They both had frozen in their tracks as they turned towards a dark long hallway. It too was lined with shelves but the laughter only added to the disturbingness. Neither of them said a word as they were too scared.
The veil of silence was only pierced when one of the laughter could be heard again in the same direction. Spike had begun to walk towards the hallway.
"What are you doing?" Discord whispered aggressively.
"I guess I'm gonna try to check it out."
"Are you kidding me? That's like the worst thing you could do. I think this is a clear sign that we should get the heck out of here."
Discord paranoia was obvious and made total sense to Spike, but it didn't change his mind. He was there to find answers which meant that he was probably gonna have to get his claws dirty.
"Of course it's the worst thing to do," Spike admitted. "But that's exactly why I'm doing it."
"Hah?" Discord responded.
"I've kind of got the picture that if we were gonna have answers then we were gonna have to jump right into the eye of the storm. So, this seems like our only option."
Discord began to follow Spike. As bad of an idea it was, it was the only thing that seemed like it wasn't gonna make the whole trip a waste of time. With a large gulp, he started walking down the hallway.
Discord snapped his fingers at his side just the check the obvious. His magic didn't work, shocker. That confirmed what he already knew.
Spike's attention was drawn to a door that had many scratches on it. He could see that bugs were crawling in and out from underneath the door. He slowly opened the door.
Discords attention was drawn to a strange doll that sat on one of the shelves next to a black door. He picked up the doll as it somehow seemed familiar. He thought as hard as she could. He searched through his memories for several moments until he found a match. It was the doll that the mother mare had in his dream.
Spike had walked into the strange room. He discovered that the door didn't want to stay open. It was heavy and every time he tried to get it to stay open it was quick to shut again. After a few tries, he managed to get it to settle about halfway.
He looked around the room. It was full of empty boxes and course more shelves and creepy toys. Luckily there weren't any dolls, mostly old metal toys, like spinning tops. What stood out was the stairs that led into a dark abyss
Discord was starting to think that it was the same doll and it raised many questions for him. The laughter could be heard again, but this time it was much closer almost in his ear. He jumped back as he looked down both ends of the hallway. It was empty.
"Spike?" Discord called. "Spike?!"
Spike was looking down the stairs trying to see if he could see anything. It didn't take long before he realized that is was gonna be in vain. As he got ready to head back, the door had latched shut. Spike gasped in surprise as he ran to the door. He pulled on it as she tried to turn the knob. It too was in vain.
"Discord help!" The little dragon cried. "Discord opened the door. Please, I'm stuck."
Discord called for Spike but there was no answer. Not even a peep of noise, except for one. The laughter came again. This time it was followed by a black shadow rushed past the hallway. Discord went into full panic mode as he realized that something horrible was unfolding and once again he was alone.