Spike
This is what I was falling towards. This...right here! Whatever it was radiated a feeling of darkness and desolation. As I sped towards this thing, my mind reflected back on how much of an ass I was to Luna back there. Sure, she was keeping that secret from me all this time. THing is, I’m not even mad anymore! If Celestia wasn’t there, we could’ve talked things out and been on our merry way (hopefully) to Griffalia! But NO~~~!!! Instead, i’m probably falling into the Netherworld right now!
Before I reached the part that looked transparent, my body slowed down in its descent. My face skewed in confusion and angst as I was involuntarily stopped. Right above the thing, no less. It was the only source of color in this blackness that seemed to stretch on for eternity and a half. It gave the appearance of a safety net to protect me from an endless plummet.
“What the buck is going on?” I tried moving my hand, but I couldn’t feel a response form my extremity. That’s certainly unnerving! I frantically ordered different parts of my body to move, seeing if any of them will respond! To my dismay, however, none of them felt like they were moving. I was perplexed at how this was possible. but I guess anything is in the afterlife! I mean, what other explanation is there for my predicament right now!? I took a combine ray of magic from Celestia and about ten other unicorns in that dining hall! There’s no way in tartarus that I should be alive!
“True; young fool, you shouldn’t.” That voice...please be a sick joke!!!
“Unfortunately for both of us, this is no joke. You see, I don’t need to explain who I am to you. You already know who I am.” The ominous voice echoed throughout my mind as the blue net in front of me me pulsed. Now that I think about it, the thing was pulsing just how Krystal would when she talked.
“Why do you say this is unfortunate? Did you perish also?” I asked with pure curiosity. I snorted in growing anger as a maniacal and quick laughter made fun of me. Ii sounded exactly like the first time we met in that forest all those years ago.
“No Wyrm,” Her voice dripped with amusement, “We did not perish. Neither did you, for that matter. In fact; you’re very much alive...but not for long.” The way she said that made a shiver go up my spine. At least, I think it did. Can’t feel my limbs, remember?
“W-what do you mean, not for long!?” I asked with growing anxiety.
“Obviously, your brain is still experiencing a case of the dumb. The blast; due to you being a dragon, didn’t kill you but knocked you unconscious. If you do not regain consciousness in time, you’ll eventually be found in the smoke the blast created and be killed by Princess Celestia. That’ll make for a sad ending to this story, wouldn’t it?” The voice called out before I felt my body drift onto the blue net of whatever below me, right in the center. I can only describe the feeling as laying on fun slime, the kind kids get and make fart noises with when the press it into its container. If you’ve never played with fun slime, then you haven’t had a decent childhood.
“Woah. What the tartarus is this stuff, it feels awesome!” I exclaimed as my body began rocking along the currents being pushed out from the center. I can liken the sensation to laying on a waterbed, which has always and forever be my favorite type of bed. I had my first experience with one of these babies during my days with Luna in Canterlot. I had been roaming the halls and stumbled upon a room with an open door and weirdly shaped bed. I was already tired, so I decided a nap couldn’t hurt that much. Needless to say, watching Blueblood walk in with that mare was odd. Especially, when he was dressed in leather bindings and...Ugghh!
“That; Wyrm, happens to be my Magical Core. I highly advise you not creating so many...” The voice broke out into a fit of giggles as I went against its wishes. “...S-stop that! *snort* I said s-stop! Please! It t-tickles!!! *snort*.” Those snorts were godlike in adorableness! I began moving more violently, earning more snorts and giggles from the world around me. I also began to see the Magical Core brighten gradually, making me shake myself even harder. “STOP!!! HAHAHAH!!! ST-STOP PLEASE!!!” I did as the voice asked, letting the rocking motion of my body die down. The voice let out a breath of relief.
“I take it you enjoyed yourself?” I asked smugly. What I didn’t see, was a solid blue tentacle of magic creeping up on me.
WHACK!
“OW!” I yelled in pain as the tentacle slapped me in the back of my head. But I definitely deserved that, so I laughed the pain off with a chuckle.
“The time for games is over, Spike! Listen close! I was sealed in here by Luna in order to be used as a last effort against Celestia. Guess who came along and screwed that up?” I was about to reply, but then noticed how the question was rhetorical. “That’s right, you. So where does that leave us now?” The voice sounded as if it wanted me to answer, but it kept talking. “I’ll tell you where it leaves us. Out of options. Which means, we have to fuse.”
“No way no how am I fusing with you, Nightmare Moon!” I said defiantly, making the vocie growl.
“You don’t have a choice! You’re unconscious right now and Celestia could find you any minute! There's no time for defiance when together, we could be free with Luna! I don’t want to die and I know you don’t want to either! Because I haven’t been free, my magical prowess has become a fraction of what it used to be! But I know; with our combined power, escape is achievable easily! You have nothing to lose!” Nightmare reasoned, making me do a double take for I found no flaw in her logic. She’s definitely right, seeing as how I have no real magical abilities other than my Spike Fire. Her logic is sound in every way, So I guess....
“Alright,” I said with finality, “Then I; Spike the Dragon, hereby offer my body as substance for you! Become a part of my life and help me escape!” I demanded, feeling a burning sensation pierce my body from the chest down. I could feel an immense magical power enter my being, filling me up with raw energy of the dark sort. It felt as if someone was stabbing at every muscle in my body with a sword, grating it slowly across my innards as it pierced them. So, I did the one thing someone would do when presented to a situation like that.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed in agony. All this power being absorbed in one go hurt like nobody’s business!!! Now, it felt as if a fire was lit next to my heart. Not a fire that could cause immense pain, but enough pain to let me know that it was there. For some odd reason, the world around me lost that vibrant blue hue from earlier, and I also felt a sudden...fullness, in my head. If that makes sense. I could see in the darkness perfectly though; almost as if everything was accented by blue and green hues of color.
‘Alright, looks like the fusion went without a hitch. Now, we’re going to need a plan of action for when we return to your body. Question is, what is it?’ Nightmare’s voice was quite relaxing, filling me with a sense of ease that only Luna could manage to do nowadays. So apparently, all that pain was for a stupid fusion!? Really!?
‘Shut up and prepare to wake up. I say we arise and instill as much fear as possible in her, then grab Luna and escape. Fighting Celestia as is will only serve to get us killed. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to die now.” Once again, her plan beats mine.
‘Yeah, lets get this party started!’ I said with a large amount of enthusiasm. Following my thought; a seismic headache throbbed assaulted my brain, making me wince in agony. ‘OW!’
‘Make another comment like that again and I’ll deep-fry your brain.’ Nightmare said with a haughty attitude, similar to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Whatever. She’ll just kill herself if she does that. My face skewed in agony again as I felt something sharp slice against my left eye. I reflexively held a claw up to the offending pain, hoping to stop it with physical contact. What the hell was that!!??
Life Insurance. Now let’s get going.’ Nightmare responded dryly as I felt my body rocket forward into the void around me. In a couple of minutes, I could begin to see a white orb form in the distance with a green neon sign over it. It said, Spike’s Body, in letters made with glowing green circles. I didn’t have enough time to question it before the white encompassed me, flooding my senses with numbness.
---
“There, that should be the end of it.” I could make out that voice clearly. That was Celestia’s annoying voice. She’s already decided that I’m dead, which will make the surprise all the more fulfilling!
“HEARTLESS BITCH!!! HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM!!!???” I picked myself up from the ground as quickly and as quietly as I could, having heard the anger in Luna’s voice. I could see her clearly through the smoke encompassing Nightmare and I. Her face eyes were blood-red from crying, the makeup she always wore was running along her face as the tears kept coming. I don’t know how long I was out for, but she’s suffered enough.
“You will, address me with respect Luna!” Celestia turned on her hooves so that her gaze was on Luna and Luna only. Perfect.
“BUCK YOU CELESTIA!!! I....I HATE YOU!!! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!!!” Celestia recoiled from the sheer force of her words and their implications.
“WAS HE THAT PRECIOUS TO YOU THAT YOU WOULD DENY YOUR OWN SISTER!!!???” Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice easily dwarfed Luna’s in force and volume. I coughed quite audibly into my hand, earning the attention of everypony in the room. They couldn’t see me, but they could probably see my silhouette through the dust cloud. “Impossible. I refuse to accept this as reality! You should be a black mark on the floor!!!” Celestia grinded her teeth together as her stare bore holes into my eyes.
“And yet, I’m not. Honestly; do you ever grow tired of, you know, failing.” Celestia snorted in irritation as she launched a yellow beam of magic into the smoke, thinking she hit me as the silhouette jumped back as if it was hit. That silhouette was the plan of action Nightmare and I had thought up, making Celestia believe she actually killed us. I even yelled in pain as the silhouette was blasted to bits.
“Hah! Now who’s the failure?” Celestia declared smugly as she turned her nose up.
“Still you, Wide Flank.” She peered with renewed anger into the black dust cloud, looking for any sign of my presence. She wanted a target...I’ll give her one!
“You have your target...hit it.” I dared her. It was all the incentive she needed. A volley of yellow and white beams exploded forth from her horn as she tried to obliterate me. Thanks to Nightmare’s Synchronization, I could easily dodge the blasts as they entered the smog. Little did Celestia or her guards know, I was sneakily undoing Cadence and Luna’s bindings. How Celestia was unable to feel me release her magic was a mystery, but I’ll just chalk it up as one of Nightmare’s latent powers. As Celestia continued firing and I; dodging, Luna and Cadence slowly picked themselves up and aimed their horns at the guards. One moment there were ten guards, in the next moment there were ten unconscious guards.
Celestia stopped firing as she heard one of the guard’s body slump against the ground. She eyed it warily before her face lost all color. She slowly turned her head to find Luna and Cadence looking down on her from their flying position in the air. Their faces radiated a wrath so pure that it made me shudder. Nevertheless, I calmly strode out of the smoke/dust/smog cloud while clapping my hands in amusement. A smug smile that I can only give credit to Nightmare for worked its way across my face.
“You know, I’ve always been the screw up among my peers. It’s not all that bad, really.” Celestia didn’t know who to face, granted any of us could blast her face off at any moment. She kept alternating her glances between Luna; Cadence, and myself.
“You think you’ve won!? Why? I still have the upper hoof!!!”
“How so? You’re clearly outmatched right now. It’ll take a miracle for you to even limp out of this castle by the time I’m done with-” The air became hot. Like...unbearably hot!!! My lungs felt like they were on fire again, the feeling from my time on the Canterlot Train Station returning. I began coughing blood into my hand as I dropped to a knee. Cadence and Luna were distracted by my fit long enough for Celestia to turn on them with a shockwave of her magic, blasting them through the air and into the wall on the far side of the dining hall. Not being wasteful of the opportunity that just presented itself, she promptly teleported out of the room to who knows where.
It was after a couple of minutes that my coughing fit died down, my hand completely caked in dry and drying blood. I was wheezing heavily as I collapsed upon the carpet below me.
‘You never told me that a curse was put upon you!!! For how long has these fits been going on!?’ Nightmare sounded generally worried. It was only for about three days that these fits occurred. ‘Don’t panic, but I think you may die in about four days if we don’t see someone gifted in lifting demonic hexes.’ WHAT THE BUCK!!!??? ‘I said don’t panic! Get up! We need to see this Sunshine Shimmer as soon as possible! Griffalia is a three day trip by Friendship Express, which means you’ll only have twenty-four hours to find her once you arrive! GO GO GO!!!’
When one is told that their life is on the line; it’s rather impressive on how much pain they're willing to stomach in order to live. That being said, I wasted no time in picking myself up off the ground and running over to Luna and Cadence. I grabbed them both, for they were knocked out and ran out of the dining room and down the hallway. I stopped by the throne room and dumped the unconscious Cadence onto her throne and quickly ran out the room, a loud thump indicating she had fallen off her seat of power. Wasting no time, I immediately found the main doors and bolted through them with my shoulder as the battering ram. I skidded to a halt as a contingent of guards and Celestia leered angrily at me. I had no time for this!
‘Nightmare do something!’ I mentally screamed as a lot of horns began charging their own type of magic color.
‘Remember that insurance?’ She replied with a bemused voice.
‘Yeah?’
‘Blink with your left eye.’ She continued in her emotionless voice. I did as I was told and felt a large amount of power surge from it. My face skewed in terror as the area where Celestia and her guards had been standing was instantly consumed in purple and black flames. Screams of anguish could be heard as I made a mad dash through the raging inferno I had created, not being hurt at all as I barreled through.
I quickly made my way through the winding streets of the Crystal Kingdom and practically jacked the Friendship Express. The same conductor from earlier was almost roadkill as I plowed through him with Luna over my shoulder. I gripped him with my other hand and yanked him aboard his own train. Before he could protest, I leered at him with my Nightmare Eyes. “Get this train moving or I’ll sodomize you with your own DAMN COAL!!!” He took off towards the front of the train as the doors closed. I sat down in one of the seats and sighed deeply.
‘That was bucking awesome, Nightmare! I can’t believe we made it.’
‘Don’t get too comfortable. I don’t think Celestia’s gonna let you go so easily!’ The way she said it made me look out one of the train car’s windows. I could barely believe what I was seeing.
“You’ve got to be bucking kidding me,” That idiotic princess was charging the car we were in with yellow magic surrounding her body. She looked like a bucking comet! “How in the name of Topaz are supposed to stop her!? She’s gonna level this car and us with it!” I said frantically just as I felt the train begin to move.
‘Easy Wyrm, don’t let despair take you just yet. Remember that insurance form earlier?’ Nightmare’s voice was too giddy for my liking. I had already used it, so what could she mean by ‘insurance’?
‘What about it? If you recall, I used it to get past that wall of guards earlier! We’re sitting ducks if this train doesn’t get moving!’ I said frantically, watching as the white eyes of Celestia’s solar-fire encased body rocketed towards us. I never imagined I would go out in a blaze of glory!
...Right, bad joke.
‘Think about the train, Wyrm! Coal is fed into the furnace and that helps with the motion, yes,’ I nodded in understanding; although I wasn’t quite sure on where she was going with it, ‘So if you erupt those flames in the furnace...’ She’s a bucking genius!
I focused on what the furnace may look like, seeing as how the magic won’t work unless I’m familiar with the object. My mind wandered back to the time the girls and I had that little detective spiel aboard the Friendship Express, instantly seeing the furnace and its shape.
“So what,” I said as I closed my eye, feeling Nightmare’s magic flow from the scar into it. “Do I just open it back u-” I opened my eye and was instantly cut off as the train rocketed forward without warning, causing me to fall back onto my rump with wide eyes. “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH...” I screamed as we tore down the track at a supersonic speed, everything outside zooming by as colorful blurs. I looked at the spot where my car was to see another car become vaporized by the comet that was Celestia.
As I calmed down from my screaming, I looked over to the resting form of Luna. She was still unconscious and will probably remain that way for some time. I couldn’t help but feel worried, seeing as how her face was skewed in pain.
‘Hey, Night? Go in her head and wake her up.’ I could feel Nightmare’s chuckle from inside my head, making me pout in annoyance as she refused my order without words.
‘You know what’s going to happen if I enter her...right? She’s gonna try to fight back with all her might. If I’m rejected by her body, I’ll die. Need I remind you of my desire to stay alive?’ Nightmare shouldn’t have become a villain, but should of instead became a lawyer or debater. She could beat anybody into the the ground with her arguments! ‘I never had the option. I was born from Princess Luna’s jealousy and hatred for her sister. She needed a facade to hide behind while she achieved her “sweet revenge”. I was that facade. She felt as if it was me doing the deed, then she wouldn’t be haunted by regret later on. In layman's terms, she didn’t want the blame.’ I know I shouldn’t have found that funny, but it sounded exactly like something Luna would do.
My joy was interrupted as the conductor barreled into my train car with an angry look on his face. “Slow the train down! I don’t know what you did, but we lost half of the train thanks to something flying at us. Do you know how long it’s gonna take for all of this to be repaired!? Do you even know how much train repair costs!!?? I should-” He kept walking towards me while he continued his rant. I waited until he got a little bit closer before lashing out with a quick jab. It landed square on his jaw, slumping him against the floor immediately. I shook my head at what I just did. I blame Nightmare for my sudden streak of violence.
‘And just how is this MY fault!? You’re gonna have some explaining to do when that guy-’ She didn’t finish her sentence as I put my hand on Luna’s forehead and thought, ‘OUT!!!’. I felt her presence leave my body and filter through my hand into Luna’s head. For the life of me, I couldn’t tell you how I thought of doing that. It just sort of, came to mind. I’ll just chalk it up as instinct.
Finally have some time to mill about my own thoughts in peace, I focused on thinking of a world map. The Friendship Express only runs through Equestria, which is to the south of Griffalia. The closest we could get to Griffalia before the track looped was the Fridge, which is nothing but a two-hundred mile hike through pretty much the coldest place in the world.
Thankfully, there’s a train that picks up ponies and or gryphons form a train station right on the border of the Fridge. The only problem is, I don’t know when the train is scheduled to arrive. I should have thought things through first, seeing as how I might end up wasting a day for a train that won’t come. I couldn’t help but get worse as I thought about the curse Lucian put on me, and how little time I had left to find Sunset Shimmer and have her remove it.
A sigh steeped in hopelessness escaped my mouth. Even if I get there and a train is available to take me to Griffalia, I still won’t have a single clue on the whereabouts of Sunset Shimmer. Griffalia isn’t small; in fact, it’s the third largest country in the world! How I was going to find one pony in a land of that size was eating me away inside. I felt a tear run down my face, betraying the angry expression I had on. All of this running could be for nothing, if it meant that I was just going to die from a stupid curse! Another tear escaped before I gave into my sobs and fell against the floor, to lost in despair to contain my emotions any longer.
With the last bit of hope in my body shredded, I cried myself to sleep...
