Spider in Equestria

by DarkSpider


53. Stone Garden Zone Act 3: Stage Clear

“-no need to be so mad, they stopped the bad guys!” 

“No need?! Holder’s Boulder is gone! And Marble is shaking like a leaf in the corner of the room!”

Dark frowned, the sound of multiple people yelling slowly waking him up. 

“Well at least the robots are all gone, right?” Dark was able to recognize the voice as Pinkie’s. 

“So what?! They still wrecked the farm! And now we have a huge mess at the front yard!” The voice of Pinkie’s elder sister echoed through the room, causing Dark’s still form to twitch. “Just what are we supposed to do with that frozen pony, or what about all of the metal just lying around?! And what about that destroyed giant metal golem sitting in front of the house?!”

"Oh calm down," Dark heard Cece replying. "Be happy your house is still standing and that you're still alive!"

“Calm down?!” Limestone shouted. “Easy for you to say! I don’t know how often you guys get attacked, but most of us had never been this close to a fight! And just what’s going to happen if they come back?! They had you all beaten before that guy went berserk! If you guys had just given them what they wanted in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

"And how do you know that they would've let us go? I'm pretty sure they would've still attacked if we gave them the Emerald."

"Besides, once the Emeralds are away from here, I'm pretty sure they won't bother you guys," Screwball commented. "I mean, what reason will they have to bother a bunch of boring earth pones who had nothing to do with the fight or the ones who were in the fight."

“Just what’s so special about these gems anyways?!” Limestone demanded. “What’s so great about them that you guys had to fight an army of metal bugs and golems just so you could keep it away from them?”

"We told you. The Chaos Emeralds hold immense power inside. To the point that people say that all 7 can cause great miracles. And if someone like Eggman gets his hands on them, the whole country, if not the world, will become a metal dystopia with him in charge."

“If that's true, then why is it now that trouble started showing up? We’ve had that emerald for years, since Marble and Pinkie were fillies, and not a single thing happened. Nopony even came to the farm to ask about it until you guys showed up!” Limestone yelled angrily. “Pinkie may trust you guys, but I don’t! It seems awfully convenient to me that those guys all showed up at the same time you guys did! Heck, that light show you guys made with the emeralds is probably what caused them to all show up!” 

"Well I can't deny that. Especially if they're aware of what the beacon means…"

Dark shook his head as he tuned out the conversation. With more effort than he expected, he sat up. To his confusion, he noticed that something was on his chest and lap, with the former feeling rather wet. Opening his eyes, he saw Bri clinging to his chest with tears on her face and Peter on his lap.

The pair looked up at Dark and Bri let out a whine before crying into his chest while Peter in turn had a concerned look on his face. Dark lifted his hands and placed both of them on Bri and Peter's heads.

"Don't worry guys…" Dark told them. He then slowly picked took them off him before weakly standing up. Hearing the arguing getting a bit louder, he sighed and began walking towards the other room where everyone else was at. He grimaced when he felt a sharp pain in his back, he did his best to ignore the soreness of his body. Finally stepping into the other room, he looked around and spotted Marble huddled in the corner of the room, her mother doing her best to comfort her, and at the center of the room was Limestone scowling at the others as they tried their best to calm her down.

Before Dark could say anything, his head immediately hurt and he placed a hand on it while he leaned towards a wall, which led to him getting everyone's attention.

"Tito!" Rainbow shouted before Cloud Dashing to his side and putting one of his arms over her shoulder to help him stand.

"You okay?" Screwball asked as she, Pinkie, Mike, Emily, and Cece walked towards them.

"I'm fine…" he muttered. After removing his hand from his head, he asked, "What happened?"

Cece shrugged. "Not entirely sure. When I came to, you were unconscious and the mech was torn up. But according to the gray bitch here-"

“Well excuse me for being worried about my family’s safety you short bitch!” Limestone scowled, being held back by her pink energetic sister. 

Pinkie Pie laughed nervously, “Hey now, no need for name calling! I think if we all just take a deep breath and relax, we’ll be able to come up with a solution that will make everypony happy!” She said giving everyone a shaky grin. 

Before Limestone could reply, an amber furred hand landed on her shoulder. Igneous Rock shook his head before turning to the others. “Pinkamena is right, alloweth's all taketh a breaketh so we may all collecteth our thoughts.” Limestone gritted her teeth in frustration before nodding, turning away and following her father out of the room. 

Pinkie looked back and forth between her friends and family, biting her lip, she slowly made her way to her family. “I’m going to check on Marble, I’ll be back soon.” She said, following the others out of the room. 

Dark shook his head before looking back at his sister. "You were saying?"

Cece sighed and turned back to face him. "According to her, you went nuts and ripped the thing apart."

Dark blinked. "I what?"

"You don't remember?" Rainbow asked.

Dark shook his head in response. "After you all fell, I just remember getting pissed. After that, it's all a blank."

"It was pretty scary…" Screwball said. "You were basically acting like an animal, screaming and growling and running on all fours."

Dark rose an eyebrow. "I did all that?"

Screwball nodded. "It was nuts. But whatever it was, it's what beat the mech."

Dark blinked again. "What the hell happened…"

"That's what we wanna know," Cece commented with her arms crossed.

"I'm sorry but I truly can't remember."

"What about the other one?" Rainbow asked. "Venom?"

Dark frowned. "I...I haven't heard from him since I woke up…"

"Is that bad?" Screwball asked.

Dark shrugged. "I don't know. I just grown used to hearing him." He removed his arm from Rainbow's shoulder and stood up a bit straighter. "But we have more important things to discuss."

"Like what?" Cece asked.

"Eggman."

Rainbow frowned. "You said that name when the bot showed up. You know him?"

Dark took a brief glance at Cece. "Yeah. He's the nemesis of Sonic The Hedgehog. And the main villain of the game Amy is from."

Rainbow tilted her head in confusion for a second before looking at Cece and remembering where she heard the name from. "Oh."

"You think it's another Displaced?" Cece asked.

Dark nodded. "The bot recognized you as Amy. There's no way a native would know about that."

"So what are we dealing with?” Rainbow asked him.

"Given the right resources, he can be incredibly dangerous," Screwball answered. "The dude is possibly the smartest guy in the games."

"Possibly?"

"He's said to have an IQ of 300 but he almost always loses to Sonic and he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Only true win I know about was that racing game and he didn't even know the extent of his prize."

"Plus he has a seriously bad habit at trying to control forces well beyond his understanding," Dark added.

"What was with the animals that came out the machines?" Rainbow asked.

Dark hesitated for a moment before saying, "If I remember correctly, Eggman uses animals as living batteries for his robots. Destroying the bot frees them."

Rainbow's eyes widened when she heard that. "Ooookay… let's not tell Fluttershy that. At all. Don't wanna imagine how she'd react…"

Screwball nodded. "But this… This was unexpected. Heck, if it wasn't for whatever happened with Tito, you'd all be dead for sure…"

"Why's that unexpected?" Cece asked.

"Normally a robot takes a couple of hits in the games and shows I've seen," Dark responded. "But these things were tougher. And despite how many of us where fighting, we still almost lost. There's a chance that it's just that that bot was super competent, but I don't wanna take any chances."

Cece pinched the bridge of her nose (or where it would normally be). "You gotta be kidding me. Now we have to add a robot army to the stuff we need to worry about?!"

Dark sighed. "Three different problems, each with their own strengths. And no idea when any of them can strike."

Screwball looked at the trio. "So what do we do?"

"We train," Rainbow answered. "If we wanna deal with all this and win, we have to get better at fighting. All of us."

Dark sighed. "While you're right, it'll take more than a handful of people to take down all these threats. And several of our friends aren't exactly fighters."

Rainbow shrugged. "Then we find ponies who can help. We've done that before you guys came."

"Oh yeah sure, let's find ponies willing to help two aliens and a mutant fight robots, living shadows, and a cult," Cece replied, sarcasm thick in her voice. She then frowned. "Who in the world will be insane enough to do that?"

Screwball shrugged. "You never know Cece. Heroes can come from anywhere."

“Excuse us,” Igneous called out, grabbing their attention, behind him was the entire Pie family present. “We were talking and before any of us can concur to a decision we might not but knoweth. If 't be true we surrend'r the em'rald to thee, shall yond guaranteeth us we shall beest hath left alone?”

While Cece looked at him with a confused expression, Screwball nodded. "Yeah. Like I said before, there's no reason they'd come back for you guys. You didn't have any part of the fight. And without the Emerald, they have no reason to even pay attention to you, let alone attack you."

“I seeth,” He let out a sigh in relief. “Well yond is certainly valorous news.” Stepping to the side, he allowed the youngest Pie sister to step through. Marble glanced at them with a nervous gaze, in her hands was the bright grey chaos emerald. “Prithee taketh this, I only desire yond what thee toldeth me is true” Letting out a shaky sigh, Marble presented the group with the emerald, waiting for them to take it.

Dark walked to her and slowly grabbed the Emerald, trying his best not to scare her. After he was done, he took a step back and looked at it.

Limestone scoffed, crossing her arms. “All that damage and noise just for a single magic gem. It's going to take forever to clean up this mess. Where are we going to put all that scrap metal anyways?”

“Anon Limestone, we'll findeth somewh're to putteth t all. This isn't their fault.” Cloudy Quartz spoke up in a scolding tone. 

"Don't worry about it," Screwball said before immediately snapping her fingers. "There, all fixed."

“All did fix? What doth thee cullionly?” Igneous said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Check outside."

Listening to the filly’s words, Igneous and Limestone went outside, both of them gaping in surprise at how all of the damage of the attack being gone. “But… how?” He questioned.

Pinkie squealed in happiness, hugging Limestone. “You see! Now the entire mess is gone now!”

Screwball did a small bow. "Name's Screwball, daughter of Discord and the princess of chaos. I'm not allowed to help in fights but clearing out debris and fixing a boulder? Too easy."

“A princess you say?” Igneous bowed his head. “Well thee has’t mine thanks.”

Screwball shrugged. "Don't mention it. Least I can do for your cooperation. Now that that's over with, we'll be on our way."

"And if you're lucky, you'll never have to see any of us again," Cece muttered. "Besides Pinkie."

Igneous raised his hand, as if remembering something. “Waiteth! Before thee wend. Thou might wanteth to taketh this.” He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small golden ring. “We hath found it floating 'round the backeth just a few days after we hath found yond gemstone, though it wast much bigger before it shrunk.” He explained, frowning as he turned the ring around in his hand. “I has't a humour yond its did connect to the gem in some way, and if 't be true, I'd rather not has't it around lest those things cometh backeth to taketh it.” 

Dark blinked in confusion before taking the ring and examining it, seeing nothing special about its appearance.

"Some generic ring? Really?" Rainbow asked.

"Wait...why does that look familiar…?" Cece said as she stared at the ring.

Dark blinked as he recognized it. "It can't be…"

“You know what it is?” Limestone asked, her eyes narrowing. “We were never able to figure out what it was, just knew it was magic in some way. When we first found it it was floating and spinning around slowly, and as soon as we got close it shrunk down to the size of a normal ring.” She scowled, crossing her arms. “If that thing is connected to that gemstone then just keep it. Rather not have those things come back for it.”

Dark looked at the ponies. "I can't say I know why that happened, but if I'm right, this thing does have a connection to the Emeralds, and by extension my sister and Eggman." He looked at the ring again. "Though no idea how much use it'd be. Not like any of us can absorb it…"

Rainbow rose an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"It's very likely this is the same as the rings from the franchise Amy Rose and Eggman are from," Screwball explained. "And in those games, rings were used as a way to protect the player from dying upon getting hit by an enemy." She then looked at the ring herself. "Rather strange that they might exist here."

Dark shrugged and tossed the ring as if flipping a coin before catching it. "Meh, doesn't matter. We got what we came for. Let's leave now before anyone else shows up for the Emeralds."

Screwball nodded before looking towards the Pies. "Well it was nice meeting you all. And see ya later Pinkie." With that said, she snapped her fingers and all the visitors sans Pinkie were suddenly back in the throne room of Twilight's castle, scaring Twilight who was sitting on her throne reading some notes.

Dark looked at the filly. "Why did you leave Pinkie?"

"We talked while you were out. She said she wanted to stay with her family for a bit after that...mess."

At that moment, Twilight spoke up. "What's going on?"

"We found another Chaos Emerald at Pinkie's family's rock farm, Tito, Cece, Dash, Mike, and Emily fought a bunch of robots, Tito went berserk and destroyed a mech, and we got the second Emerald and a ring," Screwball summarized. "Rather long day."

Twilight blinked in confusion before shaking her head and placing a hand on her temple. "Okay, I'm gonna need more details later. But what's this about robots?"

Dark sighed and sat on one of the thrones with Bri putting herself on his lap. "We ran into someone who knows about the Emeralds."

"Or more accurately, some of his flunkies," Cece commented.

Dark nodded. "A man known as Eggman. I don't know the full details right now, but someone very much like him knows the Emeralds exist and is after them. Even had a bunch of robots ready to take it."

"And I'm guessing it didn't go well?"

Screwball shook her head. "No. They all fought the bots, but if it wasn't for something happening with Tito, they would've lost. If anything, today's fight ended in a draw."

"What happened?"

Dark shrugged. "I honestly don't know. Heck, I don't even remember that part of the fight. All I do know is I went nuts and I took down a mech. After that, I knocked out."

Twilight blinked in surprise before shaking her head and sighing. "Okay, forget what I said. I need to know the details now. Tell me everything that happened from the moment I left."


Dark sighed as stared at the Emerald in his hand while sitting out at one of the balconies. He was about to put it away when he heard a voice.

"Man that sucked…"

Turning around, he saw Venom, with bags under bloodshot eyes for some reason. "Hey."

"Hey…"

"Why the look? I thought you can have your appearance be anything you want."

"This is how I feel. So what I miss?"

Dark put the Emerald in his bag as he explained everything that happened after he woke up. When he was done, he said, "Twilight said she'll send a letter to the Sisters before she and Spike go to sleep."

Venom nodded before looking up at the night sky. "Wild couple of days, huh?"

"At this point I think it's par for the course for Displaced."

"Most likely."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Dark decided to ask, "So do you know what...that was all about?"

Venom shook his head. "Not really. All I know is we were both incredibly pissed at that oversized sheet of scrap and then something in you snapped. It definitely affected me though since I couldn't think of a single coherent thought besides ripping that thing apart."

Dark sighed. "That's helpful…" he muttered sarcastically.

"It's better than nothing. And at least it helped us. Whatever it was." After a few more minutes of silence, Venom sighed. "Okay, final question. What are you going to do with that ring?"

Dark blinked before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the ring that Igneous Pie gave him. "I honestly don't know. Not throwing it away through. It could be useful. Even if I don't know how yet."

"So you're keeping it?"

Dark shrugged in response. "I guess." He then looked down at the piece of jewelry. "Though I'm not a big fan of wearing rings. Especially with the fact I always wear glo-" he immediately stopped talking as the ring suddenly expanded in size, as if in response to his previous comment. Dark blinked in surprise before looking at Venom, who shared his expression before calming down.

"Okay then. Looks like you don't need to wear it like a ring."

Dark stared at the item for a few seconds before slowly putting his left hand through. When he reached his wrist, he stopped and a moment later the ring contracted around it until it reached his arm, to which it stopped.

Dark looked at his arm for a few more moments to see if anything else would happen. When nothing did, he looked at Venom. "Well...didn't expect that…"

Venom shrugged. "Well now you have a new bracelet." He then looked up at the sky again. "You should probably go to bed. It's been a very long day for both of us, you more so. Plus I doubt Bri will be very happy if she woke up and you aren't there after what happened today."

Dark nodded as he got up and left for his room.