The Legend of Spike: Discord's Mask

by DiabloGuapo


Acceptance Cycle: Day Two

Dawn of the Second Day- 48 Hours Remaining

Spike slid the stone door to the tomb open. He slowly stepped out into the graveyard. There were no signs of the undead Crystal Ponies, but Spike remained on edged. They had been scratching at the walls of the tomb all night and had only recently stopped their attempts to get the dragon. Spike saw the sun rising over the rocky cliffs of the valley. The creatures of darkness must have retreated back into their graves when the sun rose.

As Spike walked through the cemetery to return to the main road, he saw a flock of crows pecking at a skeleton and a shredded dragon costume. The zombie ponies devoured the flesh of the Earth Pony and the crows had removed any remaining scrap of meat that may have been left on the bones. Spike suppressed the urge to vomit and hurried out of the graveyard.

The young dragon returned to the main road and followed it further into the desolate valley. As he traveled down the path, he would pass under the crumbling ruins of once grand archways and through broken battlements. The iron gates of the walls had rusted away long ago. Spike could tell that these must had been the outer walls of the royal place. He could only imagine what it must have been like to walk the streets of the former capital of Trotina when it was still a magnificent city. It was hard to imagine that Princess Celestia still made her residence in this lifeless place.

After passing through the outer walls, Spike came to the famed eastern canyon. The road came to an end at the edge of a canyon wall. He could see the remains of a large stone bridge that once spanned the width of the canyon. It appears that the bridge had collapsed a long time ago. He could see a trail leading down to the river below. There was a newer looking wooden bridge that crossed the river and another trail that led up the other side of the canyon up to the other side of the fallen bridge. Spike looked over the edge at the river below.

Talk about a moat, Spike thought.

That’s a long way down, commented the other Spike.

Eeyup, agreed Big Macintosh.

It must take a long time to make it over to the castle going the long way, Soarin added.

“Enjoying the view?” a raspy voice asked from behind the young dragon. Spike yelped in surprised and spun around and came face to face with an old mare wearing a dark cloak. Her coat was a dull gray, she had a scraggly, white mane, and wore rusty horseshoes. She looked at Spike with one squinty, red eye.

“Gah!” Spike shouted and almost fell into the ravine after seeing the mare suddenly appear behind him, her face only inches away from his.

“Yee-hee-hee,” the crone laughed at the startled dragon. “What are you doing in a place like this? This a land of spirits with troubles and lingering regrets. Have you come to give peace to their wandering souls?”

“Y-yes,” Spike answered, intimidated by the pony. The old mare cackled at his response.

“How do you plan to do that?” she questioned. “You’re as cowardly as a rabbit!”

“Hey! I’m not a coward!” Spike retorted defensively.

“Oh? Think you’re brave do you?” the mare leered. “Tell me, how do you plan on doing when you get over there? The place is filled with the undead.”

“I got it covered,” Spike growled.

“Very well, but what are you going to do… about… THIS!?” The flesh on the pony’s face pulled away, revealing a bare skull. Spike screamed in terror and the ghoul laughed as it vanished into thin air. Spike panted to regain his breath and he could still hear the cackling laugh echoing in the air.

What am I getting myself in to? Spike thought.

This is like something from a horror film! Soarin exclaimed.

Ghosts or no ghosts, we have a job to do, Big Macintosh declared. Spike reluctantly had to agree and then called upon the power of the Pegasus Mask to change into Soarin. He took off and flew to the other side of the canyon. When he landed on the other side of the broken bridge, he changed back into a dragon and turned around when he heard the sound of flapping wings. He saw a griffon land by the river below and walked around the bend.

Why’s a griffon here? Spike asked.

I don’t know, but we can’t worry about it now, replied the other Spike. Ignoring the griffon, Spike continued up the trail towards the castle. Defensively speaking, it was in an ideal location, protected steep mountains to one side and a canyon to the other. Unlike the rest of the buildings that Spike passed on the way, the castle was in a good condition. It must be due to the fact that Celestia still lived there. The castle walls bared the crests of the sun and moon; the insignias of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Behind the castle was a dark, crystalline tower. It stood out from all the other buildings in the region, for it was of a conflicting design. Dark clouds swirled around the monolith, graying the skies over the castle. Spike figured that the element of loyalty would be inside there. In the middle of the courtyard, there stood a cabin. It looked so out of place amongst the ancient city.

This must be the home of the rock farmers, Spike concluded. He walked up to the house and knocked on the door.

“Go away!” a familiar voice screamed from inside. “You ghostlies aren’t welcomed here!”

“Pinkie Pie?” Spike asked, recognizing the voice of the pinkie Earth Pony.

“No! You’re not tricking me!” she hollered. “I won’t let you in!”

Spike decided it was best to let her be for the moment. He walked around the house and saw the cave that Octavia described to him. Inside, he knew that a vampire was waiting for him. He went over the song he was to play in his head as he walked towards the cave.

The only thing he heard when he entered was the dripping of water and the squeaking of bats. Spike looked around the cave’s walls and the hanging stalactites, searching for the vampire.

“What do we have here?” a voice asked from the darkness. From the roof of the cave, a dark figured dropped down and landed in front of the dragon. It was a Unicorn mare with an electric blue mane. Her coat was white and she wore a black cloak that billowed around her. In one hoof, she carried a scythe. She smirked, showing Spike her two pointed teeth. She looked over her purple shades and he saw her glowing, rose colored eyes. “A visitor.”

“You must be Vinyl Scratch,” Spike said to the vampiric mare.

“Yes I am,” she confirmed. She smile changed into a snarl. “And you’re just in time for lunch!”

Spike had thought that the zombies were bad, but this was far worse. In the movies, vampires were always portrayed as smooth and charismatic, but they failed to accurately portray the true face of the evil that now stood before him. Vinyl’s face contorted from that of a reasonably attractive mare to the face of a demon! The ridges of her brow and cheekbones protruded and her eyes sank in, almost making her face skull-like. Her lips curled back into a snarl, bearing her teeth at him. The gums receded and the teeth lengthened and sharpened. Instead of two fangs, she had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth! The whites of her eyes became black and her irises glowed red. It was though Spike was staring into the abyss and could see the flames of Tartarus burning in the darkness.

The demon unleashed a feral roar and spittle flew from her maw as her jaws unhinged like a snake’s as she prepared to rip Spike’s throat out. She raised her scythe and lunged at the dragon. As she rushed towards Spike, he started to play the song that Octavia had taught him on his flute.

The scythe’s point stopped a hairsbreadth away from Spike’s torso and the vampire’s dark eyes widened. She dropped the weapon and backed away from her target. As Spike played the Song of Storms, thunder could be heard coming from outside the cave. The dark clouds above the castle unleash a heavy downpour, watering the dry ground of the valley.

“T-that… that song…” Vinyl stammered as her monstrous features reverted to that of what she looked like when Spike entered the cave. “We discovered that song together, Tavi and I… Tavi…” She looked down at the dragon that she tried to kill and began to cry tears of blood. “Oh, Tavi, what have I become? I’m so sorry!”

Despite the fact that she just tried to drink his blood, Spike placed a comforting claw on the crying mare’s shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re going to be alright.”

“Thank you for stopping me,” she said as she got a hold of herself. “Ever since I was changed into… this… I haven’t been thinking clearly. I’ve been trying every day to get in to that pink mare’s house, but she wouldn’t let me in. Vampires can’t enter homes unless they’re invited.”

“So that’s why she wouldn’t let me in,” Spike remarked.

“Could you do me a favor and check on her?” asked Vinyl. “When I would go over there, I would hear the sound of moaning. I think there’s something else in that house with her.”

“You got it.”

“Thank you,” she said as she fled back into the shadows once more. Spike exited the cave and headed back to the house. As he walked around the side of the building, he spotted Pinkie Pie standing outside, investigating the storm. It hadn’t rained the entire time her family where in the valley and now there was a thunderstorm. Spike noticed that her normally curly mane was now flat. He remembered that his world’s Pinkie Pie’s mane looked like that when she thought that her friends didn’t want to be her friends anymore.

Spike was about to call out to her, but he heard a noise coming from behind him. He turned around and saw that the door to the house was still open. Curious, Spike took a peek inside to see where that sound was coming from. He saw the door to the basement shake as something banged against it. Spike jumped back as the door burst open and five moaning Earth Ponies came lumbering out! There was a brown stallion and four mares that were different shades of gray. Bandages were covering parts of their limbs and bodies. The linen wrappings seemed to be alive and were growing, slowly consuming the ponies’ bodies. What caught Spike’s attention was that their glossed over eyes seemed to be pained, as though they were suffering from their condition.

This is what Octavia must have meant when she said that they were cursed! Spike thought as backed away from the advancing mummies.

The Song of Healing! exclaimed the alternate Spike. They’re only partially cursed, maybe it can heal them before it’s too late!

Right! Spike pulled out his flute and played the soothing song spell.

The five bandaged ponies halted and grabbed the sides of their heads. They shook their heads back and forth as the wrappings receded from their bodies, freeing them. The five Earth Ponies’ eyes became focused again and looked around their surroundings in confusion.

“… Mom? Dad? Maud? Marble? Limestone?” Spike heard Pinkie Pie say from behind him. The pink mare ran past the dragon to her family. The family of six rock farmers held each other in one another’s forelegs as Pinkie cried into her father’s chest. “Mom! Dad! Sisters!”

“What have we been doing this whole time?” he asked as he stroked his crying daughter’s mane. His eyes looked into the distance as he struggled to recollect the events of the past few days.

“You… haven’t been doing anything…” Pinkie told him as she cried, trying to spare them from the awful truth. She couldn’t let them know that they had been trying to eat her and she had to keep them locked in the basement so she wouldn’t have been killed by her own family. “You all had bad dreams. You were all just having little nightmares.”

“… Pinkamena” her father said softly as he held his crying daughter close. In spite of what she had said, her family knew something terrible must have happened to upset Pinkie this much. She was always so full of joy and laughter, to see her so sad pained them all.

As Spike watched the tearful reunion, he noticed something on the floor. It was a mask that resembled a mummy. If it did what he thought it would do, then Spike didn’t want to even touch it. He already had three spirits in his head; he didn’t want a monster in there too. With a shaking claw, he reached out and picked up the mask and then… nothing. The mask didn’t absorb into him like the other masks had done before. Confused, he examined the mask. It really looked like the face of a mummy.

Spike looked back to the crying family and decided it was best to leave them be. He still needed to find the Element of Loyalty. He guessed that it must of have been in the crystal tower, but he didn’t see a way to get there.

Maybe there’s a way there from the castle, Soarin suggested.

Good idea, Soarin. Let’s find an entrance, Spike said in agreement. Spike headed to the main gate of the castle’s inner wall. As he approached the opened gate, a row of black crystal shot out of the ground to bar his way. He stepped back from the crystal and realized that Sombra was protecting the entrance from intruders with his dark magic. I got it! Spike changed into Soarin and flew over the castle wall. As soon as he landed on the courtyard, his body was surrounded by the purple and black aura of the dark Unicorn’s magic and was teleport back to outside the castle gates. Spike changed back into a dragon and looked at the castle walls, thinking of what he should do next.

Okay, I can’t go through it or over it… Spike noticed a well located a little further down the length of the wall. How about under it? Spike headed over to the well and looked into it. He could only that there was no water at the bottom and appeared to be the start of a tunnel. I wonder if it leads inside the castle.

Are you suggesting that we go down there? the other Spike asked incredulously.

Come on, Spike. Who knows what’s down there, added Soarin.

But it’s the only choice we’ve got, Big Macintosh pointed out. The others grumbled, but conceded and Spike climbed down the wall of the well. When he reached the bottom, he saw that there was indeed a tunnel and it was headed in the direction of the castle. Gulping a bit, the young dragon headed into the dark passage. Thanks to his draconic sight, he could see where he was going. Apparently, the well was connected to the castle’s catacombs. The remains of ponies were lying on shelves in the wall. Spike strongly wished that these bodies won’t suddenly come to life like the ones from last night.

Last night… Spike thought. What time is it?

The sun was going down when we climbed down… the other Spike started to say, but then realized what it meant.

Oh pony feathers! all four minds said in unison. As they did, the corpses began to tremble. The bones of the skeletons rattled and reassembled. Mummified bodies stirred and began to rise. Spike turned to run back to the well, but he saw that a dozen zombies blocked the way. Turning the other way, he saw more zombies and mummies blocking the path. Desperately thinking of a plan, Spike looked at the mask in his claws and wished that his outrageous idea would work. He put on the mummy mask and nervously looked through the eye holes. A mummy approached the sweating dragon and leaned over him. He could smell the rotten breath of the corpse as it eyed him with its glowing red eyes. Spike waited for it to attack, but was surprised when the mummy moved on.

It… It worked? Spike thought in amazement. The undead ponies really were fooled by the ruse. These guys must be dimmer than the Diamond Dogs.

Not by much, though, remarked Soarin.

Eeyup, agreed Big Macintosh.

Well, let’s make this most of it and move on, suggested the other Spike. The masked dragon cautiously made his way pass the zombies, careful not to touch them. Spike didn’t even want to go near the rotting ponies. Even though the zombies didn’t realize that Spike wasn’t one of them, he wanted to be free of their company as soon as possible.

Time seemed to move at a snail’s pace and the catacombs was a complex maze of passageways and corridors. Spike came to a room that had a door leading out in every direction. The dragon saw a torch on the wall and lit it with his green flame breath. He stood in the center of the room and looked at his options: left, right, straight, or back the way he came.

As he thought of which direction he should take, Spike heard a sound. It sounded like howling wind, but there wasn’t a breeze in the catacombs and it sounded like it was getting closer. Spike looked around and noticed that his shadow was getting larger. Wait, that wasn’t Spike’s shadow; something was about to fall on him! Spike jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being flattened by a giant severed hand. The flesh of the hand was putrid and purple with decay. Black veins marbled the skin which had peeled away in places, revealing the gray flesh underneath. Bones stuck out where the hand was cut off from the arm of whatever creature it belonged to. The hand rose up onto its black, claw-like fingernail and started to crawl towards Spike like a giant spider.

Spike tripped and fell onto his back. He crawled backwards as the thing scurried towards him. It sprung at him with its fingers spread open. The hand grabbed Spike with a vice like grip and started to lift Spike to the darkness of the ceiling. Spike struggled to pry the fingers of the foul hand off him, but the creature continued to slowly rise to in the air. The young dragon took a breath and unleashed a jet of flame onto the hand. The creature’s fingers snapped opened, and dropped Spike to the floor. Spike scrambled to his feet and the hand fell to the floor. On impact, the hand broke into a dozen miniature hands. The little hands scurried across the floor like a swarm of cockroaches. Spike breathed green flames onto the hands and they shriveled into ash.

Spike caught his breath after the battle was over and noticed something from the corner of his eye. He looked down one of the tunnels and saw light coming from one of them. He headed towards the light and saw that it was coming from a stairwell. Relieved to find an exit from the nightmarish catacombs, Spike made his way up the stairs.

Ponyville- Day 3, 2:00 P.M.

“Well, what did the Princess say?” Twilight sparkle asked Rainbow Dash as the group of six friends met together. She sent her blue Pegasus friend to Canterlot to ask Princess Celestia for help. Without Spike there to use his fire to magically transport letters to the Princess, they had to rely on the fastest flier relay the message instead.

“I told her what was going on and she tried sending a letter to him,” reported Dash with a distraught look on her face. “When she used her magic to send a letter to him, nothing happened.”

“Why didn’t it send?” asked Applejack.

“She said it meant that Spike isn’t in this world anymore,” Rainbow Dash explained. It would be difficult for her to tell them the next part.

“What does that mean?” asked Pinkie Pie with a worried look.

“It means…” Rainbow struggled to say. “That Spike… is mostly likely…”

“Oh my goodness,” Fluttershy whispered as she covered her mouth with her hooves, tears forming in her cyan eyes. Rarity also covered her mouth with a hoof and began crying. Pinkie Pie’s mane flattened. Applejack took off her hat and placed it over her heart.

“… Dead. Spike’s dead…” Rainbow Dash started to breathe faster. She had always tried to act tough, but the sudden loss of one of her closest friends was a hard blow. When Princess Celestia had explained it to her, she couldn’t believe it. As she flew back to Ponyville, she dreaded the thought of having to tell Twilight the information. “I-I’m so sorry, Twilight… I’m so sorry.”

Twilight didn’t react. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even blink. She just stood there with a distant expression on her face, her mouth agape. Her friends looked to her to see if she would do anything or say something, but all she did was turn around and slowly walk back to Golden Oaks Library. Rainbow Dash started to follow her, but Applejack stopped her by placing a hoof her shoulder and shook her head. Twilight entered the library, locked the front door, went upstairs, laid on her bed, and broke down crying.