Chapter Five: Hooktail Castle
The castle had been a further walk than the trio had originally expected. After finally reaching their destination, they also realized that the castle was a lot bigger up close. It definitely appeared big enough to host a dragon inside, which was saying something. Fluttershy began looking around nervously as they approached the front doors of the castle.
"Um, I think I change my mind. Let's go back. It's probably time for Angel's lunch, anyways! You know how mad baby bunnies can get if you keep them waiting, huh?" She tried to bolt off but was quickly caught by Spike, who had grabbed onto the back of her tail. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.
"Fluttershy, you said it yourself, it would be too dangerous for just the two of us to take on a dragon alone! And- apparently- you've had experience with dragons. We could use you!" Fluttershy looked into Sweetie Belle's eyes, hiding her face in her hair.
"Really? You truly for real think you could use me?"
"Of course! We said we did already!" Spike exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. Fluttershy blushed.
"Alright, if you say so..." She paused to take in a deep breath. "Let's go!"
Spike and Sweetie Belle worked together to open the double doors of the castle. They peered inside to find a large hallway lit feebly with sunlight pouring through the various windows of the castle. Shaking, Fluttershy followed the two as they entered.
"Wow, it's so.... huge." Sweetie Belle was too awestruck herself to point out that Spike was stating the obvious. She admired the architecture of the building.
"Y-yes, and s-so scary...." Fluttershy said shakily, gazing around the room. Spike looked forward at the door ahead, just on top of a staircase.
"Well, let's get going! I bet that dragon will be in one of those towers we saw outside the castle. It would only make sense with how high up those things were!" Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement and they began ascending the stairs.
To their surprise, the doors led outside once again. There were more doors just ahead, but below them laid a raging river with what appeared to once be a bridge jutting out of parts of the river bank. Sweetie Belle sighed.
"Well, now what?" Spike yelled. Him and Sweetie Belle then turned to look at Fluttershy.
"M-me? What could I do?" Spike pointed to her set of wings?" "O-oh, you want me to fly you across, hehe...." She walked over to the edge and peered over, whimpering at the sight of the river. "I guess so...."
Spike jumped onto her back and clutched onto her mane, trying not to pull it.
"Come on, Fluttershy, it's not that far of a flight, just too far to jump." Fluttershy gulped.
"I know, just, what if I mess up and fall? What if....." She shook her head violently. "No, no, I told Angel I'd prove to him that I'm not afraid! I just have to prove myself!" With that she took a running jump and flew into the air. The flight only lasted about five seconds, but the two landed safely on the platform across the river.
"Yeah, you did it Fluttershy!" Sweetie Belle yelled from the other side. Fluttershy smiled proudly as Spike climbed off of her back.
"Alright! Now you just have to get Sweetie Belle across!" Fluttershy's ears folded down as the feeling of triumph fled.
The inside of this portion of the castle was just as big as the other one, but appeared to be more broken down. They walked carefully over sections of cobblestone. Suddenly, Fluttershy shrieked and pointed at something in the distance.
"W-what is that??" Spike bravely walked closer to the shape. He jumped back.
"It's a pony skeleton!" Fluttershy crumbled to the ground, Sweetie Belle running over to her and fanning her with the map in attempt to revive her. Spike swallowed. "It's alright though... I think... it's probably just...." He tried not to finish his thoughts, really thinking that it was probably leftovers from Hooktail's lunch. He returned to Fluttershy, who was waking up. He faked a laugh.
"Maybe it's just some old Nightmare Night prop, eh? M-maybe Hooktail just makes really great haunted houses!" Of course, Spike's attempts weren't fooling anyone, but Fluttershy nodded and stood up, her legs wobbly.
"Right! That's probably it!" Sweetie Belle agreed. They attempted to walk forward again when they heard a rattling noise. They looked at the source to find that the bones they had seen were beginning to rise and reanimate. Fluttershy shrieked again.
"Spike, what do we do?" Sweetie Belle yelled. They began backing away as the skeleton walked towards them. Spike saw the door atop the stairs just ahead of the skeleton.
"Run for the stairs!" Before Sweetie Belle could ask how she was supposed to do that, Spike charged at the skeleton. "Gooo!" He tackled the pony skeleton, scattering the bones everywhere as Sweetie Belle grabbed Fluttershy's wing and pulled her towards the stairs. The bones began moving again in order to reassemble, but Spike had already given himself enough time to run for the door as well.
The three were safely inside the other room, panting as they leaned against the door to hold it shut.
"What was that?" Spike asked. Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders.
"I... I've never heard of ponies reanimating before. I mean, there's no such thing as zombie ponies, right?" Fluttershy and Spike couldn't respond.
The three looked around the room they were now in after they had caught their breath. It appeared to be some sort of prison with multiple cells lining the walls. They also noticed another pony skeleton in the center of the room. This one, though, appeared to be holding something. Spike approached the skeleton.
"It's a letter!" he said back to the other two. He opened it and began reading.
"What does it say?" Sweetie Belle asked. Spike shrugged, tossing the letter over his shoulder.
"Nothing of interest." Sweetie Belle frowned at his actions. As she began walking through the room, she looked into the cells. She noticed something shiny in one of them.
"Hey, look, what do you think that is?" Spike and Fluttershy began to walk over to the cell, but inside the cell suddenly appeared a shadow. When it disappeared, the shiny object had vanished. Spike and Fluttershy examined the inside.
"I don't see anything." Spike said. Sweetie Belle frowned.
"But.. it... it was right there!" They began walking again towards the end of the prison. Fluttershy turned back.
"Don't worry Sweetie Belle. I believe that there was something in there." Sweetie Belle grumbled in frustration and began walking again.
The group continued through the castle. As Spike had thought, they at one point spotted an extremely high tower outside of one of the castle's windows in which Fluttershy stated catching a glimpse of the red dragon. From then on they went to pursue the tower.
As they ventured upwards through the castle, only once did they come across the reanimating pony skeletons again. This time, though, it was in a larger group. They worked together to defeat the skeletons and, upon Sweetie Belle's suggestion, tossed the scattered bones out the window to prevent them from attempting to reanimate again.
Finally, the group came to a standstill.
"Well, I think this door should lead us to the stairs of the tower!" Spike stated once they had reached a door which seemed as though it would go outside. He put his hand on the knob. "Ugh.... ummm.... it won't budge!" Fluttershy timidly walked up to the door.
"Um, it looks like there's a lock on the door, I mean I think so..." Fluttershy said, pointing to an obvious lock on the door. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as Spike laughed awkwardly.
"Oh, I guess so... We should probably start looking for a key then."
"But a key could be anywhere, Spike!" Sweetie Belle pointed out.
"What other choice do we have?" Sweetie Belle wanted to suggest breaking open the lock or picking it, but figured they probably couldn't accomplish either of those tasks.
"Alright... let's start looking then."
After searching for an hour, they still had no clue how to open the door and no key. They eventually had returned to the door.
"Any more ideas?" Spike asked, hoping for suggestions.
"Think there could be anything up there?" Sweetie Belle asked, pointing up at a door high up on one of the walls. The staircase leading up to it had crumbled.
"We could try. Think you could get me up there, Fluttershy?" The pegasus nodded.
"I'll wait here." Sweetie Belle added. Spike nodded and hopped onto Fluttershy's back as before. In no time they had reached the door which, to their relief, was unlocked. They entered to find the room filled with jewels and treasures.
"Wow.... think these all belong to the dragon?" Spike asked, admiring a gemstone. Without another word, he munched down on the delicacy. "What am I saying? A dragon would never keep this many delicious gems stored away!" Fluttershy herself was examining a lovely necklace she had found on the floor. When she looked back up, there was a shape in front of her. She jumped back.
"Greetings, fellow thieves." the shadow said in a familiar voice.
"Hey, we're not-" Spike froze midsentence as recognition took place. "Are you... Trixie? What are you doing here?" The shape stepped out of the shadow to reveal it was in fact the mare who had once shown herself off to- and almost destroyed- Ponyville. Trixie tossed back a lock of her white mane.
"Yes, it is I, Trixie. Trixie is here to collect some of these gorgeous gems and hopefully make a bit of a profit." She smiled as she caressed an expensive looking vase. "Trixie wants to know what you are doing here though. And where is that mare that accompanied you before? Trixie would like to teach her a lesson." Spike glared at Trixie. Before revealing his true intentions for being in the castle, he decided to ask something else.
"In this castle, did you happen to find a key?" Trixie looked Spike over before tossing out a small object towards him. Spike looked down and picked up the key.
"Trixie hopes you mean this. It's all she has." She sighed. "Trixie hoped it would open some chest filled with fabulous riches but, alas, it only opened the door just outside of here. Trixie locked it again before she left." She smiled devilishly, knowing Spike had wanted access to said door. "Well, Trixie will be on her way now. She hopes you have fun... dealing with that nasty dragon." Without another word between the two, Trixie hopped out of the single window. Fluttershy looked out to see her bounding across the roof, using her magic to teleport from place to place safely.
"Oh my.... that looks dangerous." she stated. Spike clenched the key.
"Doesn't matter now. Let's go back to Sweetie Belle."
The stairs leading to the top of the tower seemed endless. They wound the tower on the outside, which made the three all quite nervous, and were very tiring to climb. By the time they had reached the top of the staircase, they were all exhausted.
"Maybe we should take a break before going inside." Fluttershy pointed out. The other two nodded in agreement as they collapsed to the ground.
Spike swallowed as he tried not to think about how a large, dangerous dragon was on the other side of the door in front of them. That was practically all that was protecting them at the moment from potential death. He sat up and looked at the other two.
"You guys ready?" They didn't respond. Sweetie Belle cleared her throat.
"I'm probably as ready as I'll ever be." Fluttershy nodded, agreeing with Sweetie Belle. Spike stood up.
"Well, it's now or never, let's head in there...."
The three adventurers weren't shocked to find that an incredibly large red dragon lay in the back of the room. It eyed them carefully as they walked through the door, not making a motion towards them. The three, trembling, walked to the center of the room, directly in front of Hooktail.
"Um, hello mister dragon!" Spike started. "Umm, well, ahh, I think you may have something of ours, actually!" Spike stopped, leaving an awkward silence. The dragon leaned its head down at looked at the three.
"Excuse me, but did you say mister?" Fluttershy's eyes widened.
"Oh, no, he didn't mean it, m-miss dragon! I promise!" Spike's face flushed bright red. Sweetie Belle smacked her face.
"Hah, well, I see. What is it you request, little dragon?" Hooktail's voice boomed throughout the castle confines. The three were blown back a bit by the force. Spike stepped up again.
"Um, right! Yes! I believe you took something of hers, actually," Spike pointed over to Fluttershy, who shook her head, looking frightened. "Ahh, actually, it's, uh, mine. It's mine." He cleared his throat. "Anyways! Do you happen to have something that looks very similar to her cutie mark?" Hooktail examined Fluttershy. She used all her strength not to cower away in fear.
"Hmm... maybe I swallowed something like that a few days ago...." Hooktail raised her head again. "Why should I give it back to you three?"
"Because it's not yours! It belongs to us!" The dragon breathed heavily, smoke beginning to flood out of her nostrils.
"Oh really now? I believe I took it for myself. You don't have the right to take it back from me now, I believe that one had her chance!" With a sharp talon, Hooktail singled out Fluttershy with a point. "Didn't you, little Pegasus?"
Fluttershy forced herself to look up into the eyes of the dragon. Remembering her strength the last time she faced a dragon, she realized she had to help her friends. She flew up and went eye to eye with the dragon.
"Listen up, missy, you took what was mine and I want it back! I don't care if you're a big, scary dragon, you're going to give it back to me no matter what I say! It isn't yours and stealing things is mean, you hear me?" Fluttershy glared, but the dragon remained unphased.
"You really think I'll give up that treasure after you threaten me? If that can even be called a threat!" Hooktail laughed, causing Fluttershy to become scared again and fly back down to the ground. Hooktail looked at the group again. "Well, at least you three aren't going to be a tough meal to catch. Let's get this over with!" Hooktail roared loudly. She began to take in a deep breath.
"Guys, run!" Spike shouted, recognizing her actions as about to breathe fire. He pushed them out of the way just in time for the fire to envelop him, which luckily didn't affect him. The dragon lowered down to Spike's level.
"Well, well, little dragon, you really think you can take me down? I highly doubt it." Hooktail snapped her jaws at Spike, who narrowly avoided them. He looked over at Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle, who were at the dragon's side.
"What do we do?" he yelled to them. Sweetie Belle racked her brain.
"I know of a particular sound that dragons hate, but there's no way that could help us now!" she shouted back. Hooktail focused back on Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle.
"Now, I know you two can't withstand my fire, can you, little ponies?" Before Hooktail could attempt to burn them again, Fluttershy grabbed Sweetie Belle and flew her into the air, away from Hooktail's aim.
"Well, what is it?" Spike asked.
"Shouldn't you know? You are a dragon!!" she yelled back. Struggling to keep up the weight, Fluttershy landed on the ground again. Spike attempted to distract Hooktail on another side. Fluttershy suddenly jumped.
"Eeek! There's something in my bag!" She reached down into it and pulled out, to her surprise, a small insect. The two stared at it.
"How in Equestria could this kind of coincidence even happen??" Sweetie yelled at no one. She shook her head and grabbed the cricket. "Hooktail, over here!" The dragon turned back to focus on the Unicorn. "Look at what I have!" She bent her head down to see, but was immediately repulsed by the sight.
"Ugh, a cricket! How could you possibly know that-" She stopped to cover her ears as the cricket began playing its song. Spike covered his ears as well.
"Ugh, I forgot about that!" His knees buckled and he fell to the ground, clutching his head. Sweetie Belle frowned.
"Give us back the Element!" she screamed at the dragon. She whimpered in displeasure.
"Alright, alright! I'll give you back the Element, just get rid of that disgusting... thing!" Fluttershy quickly retrieved the cricket, consoling it from being called 'disgusting'. Hooktail, looking dizzy, suddenly coughed up a shiny object. Sweetie Belle ran over to it and found it to be Fluttershy's Element.
"Fluttershy; look!" Fluttershy picked up the object, disregarding where it had come from, and put it into her side bag.
"Oh, thank goodness! I'm so happy!" She smiled and flitted her wings in content. Spike struggled to get over to them. It appeared that Hooktail had collapsed after the event.
"Wow, she took that rather harshly." Sweetie Belle noted, Spike looking rather ill himself.
"Let's... get out of here...." He threw himself onto Fluttershy's back as they quickly exited the castle tower.