Chapter 3
Spike got out of bed, tired, walked across the floor, tired, opened the door, tired, opened the bathroom door next to his room and picked out his toothbrush, tired. As he brushed he thought about the possible list of things he might need to do but also maybe getting a claw massage or something.
He was missing something, he was sure of it, afternoon naps don't normally leave you this tired. He spat into the sink. That was Starlight's toothpaste. Once he had loaded his own toothpaste onto his toothbrush, he closed his eyes and checked his mental list.
Putting his toothpaste on his brush, check, he tidied the library yesterday, check, he replied to Ember's letter earlier, check. He smelt the air. Something mechanical or metallic, he tasted the bitter metallic taste.
He opened his eyes properly and then they widened themselves. The air was a musty grey colour, an ethereal mix of greens and faded grey.... Why... What in Celestia?!
He dropped his toothbrush and rushed to Twilight's room, she wasn't there, he checked Starlight's room. Then he heard an explosion from the throne room. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.
He ran, as fast as his claws could grip the surface of the smooth crystal flooring.
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When Starlight finally let go of her shield spell, all three ponies them were flung against the nearest walls.
Flash Sentry was knocked out cold by the blast. Twilight was more resilient to beatings thanks to the pony part of being an alicorn. Starlight caught herself with magic just before she hit the wall but then fell clumsily and was sent sprawling across the throne room.
"Starlight!" Twilight cried out across the room.
"I'm fine," Starlight managed to respond, "just don't leave the room yet."
A scratching came from the corridor outside and then loud banging.
"Twilight! Anypony! What's going on!" Spike yelled through the doorway, "Are you okay? speak to me!"
"I'm here spike." Twilight replied calmly.
"You can't open the door, we're sealed in to keep us magically protected.” Starlight's seriousness grew the more she recovered from the beating and magical onslaught. “I’m so sorry.”
If the power she had just protected them from had been as powerful as she felt, anycreature not magically protected would surely be captured or controlled or, maybe even dead in minutes. Starlight felt guilty, she realised Spike was not protected out there. She couldn't protect him in here.
“I’m so sorry.” She repeated solemnly to herself. It was all she could muster. If only she had waited a few minutes to help save Spike. It was as if the shield had leaked some bleak, dark magic through her shield into her psyche.
"What's happening with the air?" Spike called through.
Twilight looked at Starlight, who, although she was slow to respond, her shrug making it obvious that she didn’t really know.
"I don't know Spike," Twilight looked again at the red, green and grey covered map, "but Equestria is in danger.” The first cog in the wheel of planning started turning in her head. ”Wait there a minute!"
"Will he be okay out there?" she whispered to Starlight, Hopefully.
"I don't know..."
Starlight responded a little too slowly for Twilight's liking.
Twilight examined her map again, this time in closer detail. Everything in Equestria was fogged by a red mist, the map itself still shining bright red. There was a deeper concentration of colour surrounding the Crystal Empire. 'It has to be something to do with Cadence!' Twilight thought.
She looked back at Flash Sentry. Starlight followed Twilight's gaze. There was more to be gotten out of the Royal Guard. Starlight went to him and began to examine him for means of faster revival.
"I'm sure it's going to be fine actually Twilight!” Spike yelled from outside. He sounded confident... Why?
A thought suddenly struck Twilight.
"Spike we can no longer use magic as a form of communication, this aurora must be affecting it, maybe even intercepting it! Don't use your fire breath, got it? We'll need a plan of action first."
Starlight cast a basic healing and restoration spell over Flash who seemed to be coming round slowly. Starlight's attention then focused back on Twilight who was addressing everyone now.
"We need to understand what is happening," that seemed obvious but she still didn't understand, "second, how is it linked with the Crystal Empire. Third, why." again... Obviously. She traced the events rather quickly and then enacted events in her head. Her voice softened, she needn't be so commanding.
"Yeah! Go Twilight good plan!" She still didn't understand Spike's enthusiasm but it was no doubt appreciated.
"Starlight, what kind of energy was your shield blocking, could you sense it?"
"I'm not sure, it was strange, it was a power, like a gathering of ponies, almost like just a beacon, but then it slowly felt heavy and dark, like a thick black energy that could stain the soul of anypony that might absorb it."
"Could that be related to the Crystal Empire?" Spike called out from behind the door.
"I'm not sure," Twilight pondered, "It certainly has the power to reflect love across Equestria, but I've never read anything saying it couldn't be used to spread other kinds of magic." She studied the map again. The red glow was fading around the outskirts of Equestria, but the Empire to the north still shone a bloodcurdling red.
"The Crystal Empire is clearly the source, it's glowing bright red on the map Spike." She called through concerned. Before she could chime in another point she was interrupted by the waking of a certain guards pony.
"I..... Celestia" The two purple ponies turned to face Flash who had slumped himself up sitting on the floor, his hooves cracked and mane facing jagged spiteful angles. He moved his hoof to his head and tried to loosen some tension.
"Woah there, hang on, here," Twilight beaconed him to slow down, “have a drink.”
She went over and poured water into a glass from the emergency jug that was kept at the side of the room in-case friendship meetings went on too long. Flash gave a low energy acknowledgment to the kind deed and holding the glass in both hooves took sips till it was almost empty.
He placed the glass underneath him and finally composed the message he had been given.
"Princess Celestia, I heard her talking to Luna. They said Crystal empire and the magic is invading the souls of ponies." he took a breath, Twilight magically grasped his glass and refilled it.
"I was sent to warn you with a small battalion of troops for protection. No pony else has turned up yet?"
"Not yet..." Starlight said, she gave Twilight a look, at least they both knew.., something. At least a little more than they did before the energy wave hit.
"Flash..., where are the princesses?" she asked hesitantly, did she actually want to know. No was the answer.
"I'm not sure, they looked like they were..., fading."
Twilight sank internally like a brick in bottomless pit. She kept her outwards composure as much as possible.
"You mean like an invisibility spell?" Starlight covered for Twilight.
"I cannot say, I’m sorry."
"Limbo" Twilight thought out loud but it was too late, the mood of the room sunk to match Twilight. There was a long pause as they thought about the last time they had encountered Limbo. Starlight perked up a thought.
"When I was at Canterlot High with Sunset Shimmer, and her friends became trapped in limbo and it was because of me being there I could help them... Maybe we should inform them just in case.”
"But I can't get to my diary and even if I could I can't use it, it's communication magic."
"We can't communicate with them but.., we have a mirror." Starlight nudged her head towards the door behind which was Spike.
"Already on it guys I'll be back before you know it". Spike couldn't see them, but he knew them so well. He ran down the halls to the basement library to find the mirror to the other dimension.
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The mirror was cold and hard against the worn claws of the not so young dragon. Last time he was there he didn't have wings. He wondered if dogs get wings in this other dimension like dragons do. Dogs don't here in Equestria, but you never know.
After preparing for his transformation he took a step back, took a deep breath and then pulled a lever on his right. Magic energy split from the reactor, compressed and flowed around the magic mechanism of the machine.
"Haven't done this in a long time," - well I wasn't really allowed was I - he thought to himself. Moving foot by foot up the steps he took in again the metallic taste of air, the musky auras of Equestria and then turned into the mirror.
Which was the worst way to enter the mirror.
His body contorted and twisted in the chaos and instead of being softly pulled through the vortex he was pulled and mangled in the space between two worlds. Thrown about in the chaotic spacial divide, exposed to the multitude of magic colours in the transportation vortex, Spike got.., dizzy. The fact that his scaly body had been twisted upon entrance had created a great woozing sickness in his stomach.
The moment he appeared on the other side, in dog form, on his hind legs, he collapsed onto all fours and threw up all over the cold hard concrete slabs of Canterlot High.
His shoulder blades felt weird. Like he couldn’t move them.
“Aaawww man, no wings?”
Spike was disappointed.
He twisted around to double check either side of his body. It was like his back had been pulled together. Tightened with some kind of torture.
Then he saw his paws.
Fur.
That was it.
He looked at the white concrete floor to reassure himself where he was at.
Quickly he danced back round to the statue where he had just come from. One side of the concrete structure was a little shimmery from the universal transition between it and the mirror. It reflected a distorted image of a blue dog with green stripes in it's fur before solidifying.
“But no wings.” Spike moped about that. “This body isn’t as cool as it used to be.”
Spike started pacing up and down experimenting with his paws and clearing his mindset.
“Not even opposable claws.”
Then he stopped for a moment. He gave a bark at his tail, which made him smile. There was still something slightly fun about being in a different body.
Once he had stabilised himself from the inertia he came to the time. The sun and moon operated independently from human control here so time was of a constant in comparison to Equestria so the two had the potential to be greatly out of sync, time of day wise.
Space time itself is a constant between the two it seems. This thought sent Spike wondering for a second about the melding vortex between the two universes. Then he remembered why he was here and checked the time.
The sun was nearly over the school roof, casting some shadows over the courtyard. That must mean that it had finished for the day.
Sunset Shimmer would be in one of a few places: shopping mall, beach, lakeside park or home. It was cold so he guessed either shops or home were good bets. Without knowing the day it would be impossible to know. Seeing as people never took too kindly to stray dogs when he was on his own at the shops, he took off to find Sunset's home.
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There was a soft breeze blowing his fur as he ran which he quite enjoyed in comparison to his scales as a dragon. Finally he passed the picket fence outside Sunset's house. He ran up and scratched on the door, to both try to open it and make aware of his presence.
No one answered. He then realised that Sunset lived in the maisonette on the top floor.
Last time he had to open a door, he got lucky that Vinyl Scratch was just around the corner and she happened to respond pretty well to his body language. He looked around but there was no sign of anypony... or any...body... did they say here?
Either way, he turned back to the house and his heightened sense of smell caught his attention, another unusual advantage of being a dog he guessed. He was sure that was Sunset's rosy perfume she wore the last time they met.
He remembered people here responded to barking, he gave a few. But then stopped when a window in the house next door was slammed shut. He sat for a second slowly coming to realise a superior sense of hearing had developed drastically since being here.
He tried to listen in carefully to the house, he made out some low moaning coming from a top floor window, a few giggles, definitely Sunset's and then a....
"No flash I didn't do it like that!" whatever that meant. He called out to the open window
"SUNSET IT'S SPIKE I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU"
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Sudden shock and guilt ran through Sunset's body. Using the wall as a stabiliser she pushed Flash Sentry away from her into her kitchen then onto the fire escape.
"Look I'm sorry I'll call you later just go!" She decided the best thing to do was to hide her reminiscent romance with Flash by handing him a fire escape key and telling him to wait five minutes until she had gone to the mall with her friends.
Then she grabbed her dressing gown off the stairs, draped it over her half naked torso and knotted it tightly. Breathed, did a few star jumps so she could legitimately say she was exercising and moved to open the front door.
Spike strolled round from the window to the doorstep.
"Hey Spike!" Sunset said cheerily, was it too cheerily, she wasn't sure, she stopped herself overthinking.
"Hi Sunset!" Spike said eagerly. Sunset went to respond but stopped herself in noticing something she wasn't quite sure of.
"Wait..." she looked again at the dog, wagging his tail. "Spike..." she said slowly lending him a suspicious glance.
"From Equestria!" He retorted with pride. And now Sunset understood.
"Oh Celestia! Spike how are you!? And how's princess Twilight, is she here, where is she?"
"She's trapped in Equestria." Amidst the seriousness of the situation, the light friendly greeting was still welcome to him. Sunset knew that this could mean a multitude of things. But the way the words were spoken sent another mood on the crazy day; from exhilarated to super serious.
"I need to talk to you, well, and all of our friends."