//------------------------------//
// The Help For Something Strange 
// Story: Beyond My Grave: Exhumed 
// by AnnEldest 
//------------------------------//

The morning had been dragging on and on for Spike, as he carted around a trolley full of books through the Ponyville library. He had been at it since before the sun came up, on Twilight’s request that he take care of it while she was out of town on some business doing whatever with a few of her friends, who he couldn’t remember, went along with her.
It had been a dreary day. Looking at book’s numbers, finding the sections that they went to, and arranging them on the shelves by their author. Of all the mind-numbing ways to spend his morning. He hadn’t even been able to get breakfast, because it would have set him back about an hour. What annoyed him the most was that Twilight still treated him like he was a hatchling. After so many years with so many harrowing encounters, he could have held his own on one of those adventures that Twilight and her friends were always going on. Instead, he was relegated to the domestic duties. The kind that came only with the danger of a migraine or a sore shoulder.
During that lonely work, Spike found ways to keep himself entertained. He got a running start and rode the trolley down the length of the aisle, swerving out of the way of the ladders and stools that were placed on either side. He took a book from the trolley and placed it on its spot on the shelf without even stopping. Partway down, Spike pressed the sole of his foot on the nearest wheel, bringing the trolley to a stop. He shook some feeling back into his foot, and collected a stack of books, placing them along the shelves where they belonged.
Spike looked at the load on the trolley, looking for any more that needed to go in that section. Just one more, and he would zoom his way to the next part of the cavernous library to do more of the same. He took the book and pushed it into its place. That was done, so he hopped back onto the trolley to continue his rounds. Until he heard a thud behind himself.
Looking back, Spike saw the book that he had just placed on the shelf lying on the floor. He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t think much else of it as he put it back on the shelf. Just as he was about to turn around to go on his way, the book fell off the shelf again. Spike turned around and looked at the book, then at the shelf. Nothing was wrong with either. No slants. No lubrication. Nothing that would push it back. For all reasons that he could think of, it was just a coincidence that happened twice. He picked the book up again, and placed it on the shelf. The book stayed put. Spike kept his eyes on it for a moment, slowly turned to leave, then quickly turned back around to see the book slide off the shelf all on its own.
“What in the–” Spike started to say, before the book started jumping.
The book flopped around like a fish desperate to find water. Spike hid behind his trolley as the book started to rumble. Then, it started to groan. Finally, the pages opened up and flipped to a picture of a familiar creature. One that reached out of the pages and clawed its way onto the crystalline floor of the library.
“Whew! Home at last!!”
“Discord!” Spike said.
“Hm?” Discord turned to the direction he heard the dragon’s voice, and saw him peering out from behind his trolley of books. “Hey! Spike, right?”
“You know it’s Spike. What the hell are you doing crawling out of books like that!? Twilight’s gonna kill me if you did anything to it!” Spike said, taking the book back and slamming it back onto its shelf.
“Tell the mare to lighten up. It’s just paper and ink,” Discord said, creaking to his feet.
“I’d love to hear you tell Twilight that to her face. In fact, I think I’ll let her know that you’re not missing anymore, just so you can,” Spike said, before getting back on his trolley.
Before he even got an inch away, the wheels turned into cinder blocks, keeping the dragon from going anywhere.
“Let’s not be hasty here! I mean, Twilight doesn’t have to know that I’m back just yet, does she?” Discord said, slithering to the front of the trolley
“Give me one good reason,” Spike demanded, his arms crossed.
“Because, I need help–” Discord reached behind his back, and produced the golden phoenix statuette, “--to find out what this is.”
The moment he laid his eyes on it, Spike felt his dragon-ish desire to take it for himself overwhelming him. He reached out to take it, only for Discord to pull it out of his reach.
“Hey! Let me look at that!” Spike said.
“Oh, no!” Discord said, his palm on Spike’s forehead. “You see what this thing’s doing to you? It’s making you crazy! And I think it’s…” Discord paused to think of how to phrase his next sentence, “I think it’s connected to something else.”
Spike relented his attempt to grab the idol, and realized how he had been acting. He backed away from Discord, keeping his eyes on the phoenix all the while.
“What kinds of things is it connected to?” Spike wondered.
“I don’t really know yet,” Discord lied, “But, I think I have a clue about where to start.”
He waved his talons, and a whole group of bookcases slid over to him. With as much leaderly authority as he could, Discord started walking between the shelves that he summoned. He started throwing books off the shelves into Spike’s waiting claws. “We need to look up everything we can about old stuff like this. Then, we have to find stuff about spooky stuff.”
“Spooky stuff?” Spike wondered, as another book landed on the stack he was holding.
“Yeah. Demons. Ghosts. Curses. Dream. Nightmares. That whole wheelhouse.”
One more book landed on the stack Spike was carrying, making it too heavy for the dragon to carry.
“That’s all great… But–” Spike fell over, burying himself under the stack of books he held, “But, that’s all in a different section. This is all stuff from Twilight’s private collection.”
“Her what?” Discord asked, another book already in his grip.
“Her private collection. The stuff that she thinks I don’t know that she has. The stuff that mares like to call ‘romance novels.’”
Discord looked at the book he held, and saw a picture of a mare and a stallion kissing passionately in front of a bed covered in rose petals. The mare on the cover had her dress nearly slipped off by the muscular hooves of the stallion, almost baring her well-endowed figure to the audience.
“Ooh…Steamy! Maybe I should start reading romance books too,” Discord said, chucking it over his shoulder onto the shelf.
“After we find what you’re looking for,” Spike said, placing the books back on the shelves without any regard to where they went.
“You mean you’ll help?” Discord asked.
“Sure. I at least want to see where you’re going with this. Come on. Paranormal section’s this way.”
Discord was led to where he needed to be, and he and Spike together gathered up as many books on the subject as possible. By the end of it, they had a towering fortress of books built up around themselves in the middle of the reading area where they chose to make their hub.
“Well, this is it. Every book that I can think of that would cover the subjects you want to know about. Where do we start?” Spike asked.
Discord was already searching the upper levels of the fortress walls, reading the titles on the spines of each book. Spike climbed up the steps that were made from more books to help him. He stopped at the top of one of the turrets that they had built, and began reading through the table of contents. There were things about fabled lake monsters in Trotland, alien abductions, and singing stones. But, nothing about what Discord was looking for. He tried another book, which detailed the story of a mare who claimed to have been born an earth pony, before she placed a magic stick on her forehead and became a unicorn. That was complete garbage any way you looked at it, so Spike considered burning that book, figuring it would only make ponies dumber for reading it. But, that was everything that Twilight was against, so he simply threw it onto the top of one of the nearby shelves that he towered over. The next book he grabbed seemed different than the rest.
The only evidence that it had ever been touched was the print of Discord’s paw on the layer of dust. Spike wiped off the dust and saw the image of a symbol that he didn’t recognize. He opened the book, and looked at the table of contents. Each one had a title more foreboding than the last, referring mostly to demons, evil and undeath. Spikes claws flipped through the pages, skimming the words and glancing at the pictures. One chapter he found was titled ‘Dreaming of Demons: The Hell that Follows Into the Waking World.’ Discord had mentioned specifically wanting to learn about dreams and demons, so Spike continued to read.
The picture on the page showed a mare sleeping in bed. But, she wasn’t alone. There was another mare overlooking her from the shadows. A pallid, expressionless thing with solid white eyes. More horrifying still was what laid on her chest. It was a small, hairy, hunchbacked thing with long claws on its fingers and toes, and two impish horns that protruded from its forehead. The picture sent chills down Spikes back, and he covered it up before he read the text.
“Hey! I think I–”
“Find anything!?”
Spike yelped as Discord appeared suddenly over his shoulder, making Spike nearly jump off the turret he was on. Discord caught him before he went tumbling over the side and set him right.
“Thanks,” Spike said, before showing the page he found. “Look at this.”
“What is it?” Discord asked, peering over Spike’s shoulder. “You know, that almost looks as kinky as one of Twilight’s private books.”
“Doesn’t it?” Spike agreed. “But, that’s not the point. Look at this. Apparently, creatures usually dream of demons if it attaches itself to them. They usually stalk a creature in their dreams, before they die in their sleep. And– Are you okay? You look kind of pale.”
“Do I?” Discord asked, his color drained into a pool around his feet, leaving himself stark white. He reached down and pulled his color back onto his body as if he were pulling up a pair of dropped pants. “Wha-What else you got there?”
“Well, in some cases,” Spike said, turning back to the page, “The dreams get projected to somepony. Usually by somepony that’s already been killed.”
“But, why?” Discord asked, grabbing Spike by his shoulders.
“I don’t know. Maybe they want help?” Spike suggested.
Discord absentmindedly dropped Spike to the ground and rubbed the back of his head.
“But, what’s that got to do with the phoenix?” he wondered.
Spike picked himself up from the floor, and he saw Discord slowly descending the flight of stairs made from books.
“Weird dreams…Pallin Town…Killer monsters…Silver Blitz…And now this phoenix,” Discord muttered to himself as he walked directly off the steps down to the floor.
“Alright. What’s all this about?” Spike asked, stopping Discord in his tracks. “You come in here with some weird trinket, then you start making me learn about all this demon crap. Pallin Town? Silver Blitz? Dreams? What’s this all got to do with anything? And why are you dragging me into this?”
Discord looked at the statuette, and recalled his promise to himself to not return home until Fluttershy was safe from whatever was out there. He sighed and his shoulders slumped.
“It’s because you’re the only one I trust to not rat me out,” Discord said. “If anypony else found out about this, they’d panic. Or worse, certain someponies would think it was their ‘responsibility’ to tell everypony the truth about what’s going on. Then everypony would panic. But, I know that if I ask you for help, you’ll keep it between us.”
Like most residents of Ponyville, Spike didn’t have the best relationship with Discord. But, a part of him couldn’t help but be touched by his words. Words with which he could sense pure sincerity. Something that he never expected from Discord.
“Alright. But if I’m gonna help you, you’d better tell me everything. And I mean everything,” Spike said.
Discord nodded and did as Spike requested. As the time passed, Spike’s eyes grew wider and wider. He sat in complete silence, asking only the occasional question as Discord conveyed his tale of the weeping filly, the dreams that led him to Pallin Town, the story of Berry Tarts and the massacre that he left in his wake, the laughing man, trying to free Silver Blitz, finding the phoenix, and finally his escape from the jaws of the serpent, before he ended up back in Ponyville.
When Discord finished his story, Spike sat in terrified awe. Every nerve bristled beneath his thick scales, making him regret his promise to help. Still, he was a dragon of his word, and didn’t want to back out of the adventure that he so wanted. Even if it would be the end of him.
“Alright,” Spike gulped. “S-So, what do we do next?”
“I don’t know. Something is supposed to tie back to this,” Discord said, idly tossing the phoenix to himself. “I just wish I could have asked Silver Blitz what to do. All she said was to find it. Now what?”
“Wait!” Spike said, his eyes lighting up, “You said that you first met her in a dream she sent to you, right?”
“Yeah,” Discord affirmed.
“Then, you need to send her one right back. Just like sending a message!” Spike triumphantly said, collecting his book and running through the gateway arch in the fortress of books. “Come on! I’ll show you what I mean!”
Discord followed Spike through the arch, the very tip of his horn just barely brushing the books at the top of the arch. The second he passed, the arch collapsed and the entire fort fell down like a stack of dominoes.
“Heh…Must’ve been a keystone almanac,” Discord sheepishly said.
“Forget about it. Twilight can just use her magic to take care of it when she gets home. She’s an alicorn anyway. It’ll be, like, two seconds for her. Let’s go!” Spike said, before he and Discord hurried off.