“You’ve failed me yet again, Twilight…”
“All you do is wipe the smiles from everypony’s faces…”
“The farm is gone and it’s all your fault, Applejack…”
“I’m sorry, Miss Dash, but you’ll never be able to fly again…”
“I don’t need anything from you, you pathetic excuse for a dressmaker…”
“You can’t stay here anymore. You’re scaring all the animals away…”
“Spike?! SPIKE!”
Spike was jolted awake by his adoptive sister’s irritated voice. What did he do this time? Twilight had never sounded this cross with him for oversleeping. Heck, she expected it so much, she kept it on her daily itinerary.
Come to think of it, why was he so tired? Wasn’t it his day off yesterday? Or was it tomorrow? And even then, there was that awful dream…
He’d dreamt before, but never with so many voices going on at once. In his sleep, he was usually limited to trips to lands made of candy and ice cream (with or without Rarity) or repeating the day’s events in random sequence. He wasn’t gifted with lucid dreaming like Twilight – stories about dream-weaving typically ended with a disappointed sigh from her.
“Are you STILL in that basket of yours? Get up before I throw you out with it!”
“Alright, I’m up, I’m up!,” he replied as he scrambled out of bed. Oddly enough, he wasn’t beside Twilight’s bed – his basket was placed inside the kitchen.
The terrible-smelling, dilapidated kitchen. It felt damp and reeked of mold and wet dog.
“You lazy, little freak. You’re never good for anything. Be glad the princess exiled the both of us out here. If it were all up to me, I’d have kicked you out months ago.”
Spike whirled around to look Twilight in the eye. He wanted to see her face as she said those painful words. She had never once spoken to him with such disdain.
Her voice had been so icy… so guttural… so…deep?
The baby dragon regretted his actions immediately. Before him stood a warped version of the mare he once knew. Her horn was snapped off at the base, blood caked on her face. Her mane and coat were dull and unkempt, like she had been living in the worst possible conditions. The most striking feature were her eyes, pitch black and sunken, leaking green mist from the outer edges.
“I HATE YOU, SPIKE! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME!,” it shrieked as it lunged at him with wild abandon.
“Gah! Get away! Leave me alone!”
Spike found new strength in his legs, jumping out of his basket and making a mad scramble for the door. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the Twilight monster shambling in his direction. While not particularly fast, its menacing form was more than enough to cause the dragon to re-double his efforts to escape.
Spike nearly crashed through the front door of the library, fear engulfing him. His breath was ragged and his eyes started to burn, his vision slowly blurring. As he continued to run away from the library, he couldn’t help noticing the terrible state of the village. Houses appeared to be collapsing under their own weight, the trees appeared jagged and blackened, and the ground was covered in rocky outcroppings. The few ponies out in the open looked as feral as Twilight had been, only they were covered in chains and focused completely on digging into the hard rock they stood on.
Focusing his gaze upward, Spike was startled to see the sky’s orange hue untouched by all the malice around him. Instead of blanketing the horizon like usual however, it had been confined into a tiny circle. The borders of this new atmosphere looked similar to the mouth of a predator, sharp rocks mimicking the teeth of a timberwolf. Tall spires of rock and grime surrounded all of Ponyville, reaching their apex in the great maw that appeared to consume the sun.
As scared and confused as he was, Spike noticed that his vision cleared up almost immediately after he looked up. Maybe if he could get everypony to do the same, he might get some much needed aid. He had skidded to a halt, just short of the middle of town.
“I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE, DRAGON! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME!”
The monster from the library didn’t sound any closer, but it had dropped all pretence of pretending to be Twilight Sparkle. The menace in its voice sounded raw and unfocused – like it was in pain.
With no real plan, Spike decided to enter the tallest building in Ponyville – Town Hall. “If I can make it outside, maybe I can get some help! Yeah! The princesses are on their way with the Elements! They’ll figure something out! Yeah!”
He pushed the heavy doors open, almost getting flattened by one as it fell off its hinges. His plans fell short immediately however. In the middle of the room was another monstrous mouth of stone. Peering into the darkness, Spike saw some figures moving around the prison, shuffling about aimlessly, raising their heads to moan silently into the sky.
Making his way forward to get a better look, Spike braced himself for the worst. The still very clear memory of the pseudo-Twilight was burned into his mind. It’s terrible eyes, unseeing yet focused wholly on his tiny frame, the drool pooling from out its gritted teeth…
“No!,” he said. His voice echoed through the empty building, repeating his own message back to him. “I have to be brave. I’m the only one who can stop all of this. My friends are counting on me. Everypony is.”
With newfound resolve, Spike stepped closer to the central structure. He almost dropped to the floor from what he saw.
Rarity. Applejack. Pinkie. Rainbow. Fluttershy. And yes, even Twilight. They were all inside, moving around with no direction, their eyes dull and streaming constantly with tears. Their faces were a mixture of depression and horror. Every now and again, they would stop dead in their tracks to howl silently in anguish.
“What could possibly do this?,” Spike said as he recoiled.
“NOT ‘WHAT.’ ‘WHO.’”
Spike spun around, coming face to face with the fake Twilight. Its face, while no longer contorted into a mass of hysterical rage, was still wearing a terrible scowl. Black crystals had taken the place of its coat and its mane was receding, giving way to a plume of black smoke. It no longer had hooves, instead sporting jagged talons on massive paws. The ground it stood on continually birthed small spikes of rock and crystal.
“Forgive me,” it boomed, its voice laced with poorly hidden malice. “I couldn’t help myself. Part of me really wants to kill you.” Speaking, it gave Spike full view of its sharp fangs.
“A-are you a… a d-diamond dog?,” Spike asked. “Stall and buy some time, find out what this thing wants,” he thought to himself.
“I am and yet, so much more. As you can see, I have harnessed the dreaded magic of the unicorns. I am more powerful than any of my kind there has ever been.” It grumbled a steady laugh, its mask falling completely off. It now had the long snout of a timberwolf, made of rock and debris. Its eyes, cold and gleaming, betrayed both cruelty and rationality.
“I left the caves in search of treasure. Instead, I found cold and was almost claimed by death. Instead, I discovered power. The power to take what I deserve. All the gems and crystals I could get my claws on.”
Its ethereal mane pulsed with glee. It leered at Spike, flaring its fangs at him and began to drool again. “You. I don’t like you. You make me feel… make me remember bad things.”
“Bad things?,” Spike found himself asking. It was speaking its monologue so well just some minutes ago. Even its posture had changed, hunching over while it glared at him with those eyes.
“My pack spoke of this place - how it has ponies that take our jewels. They passed around stories of six: a fast flyer, an animal caretaker, a farmer, a bookworm, a baker, and the dreaded dressmaker.” Sparks of magic came out of its eyes, making the cornered dragon press his back into the rock prison behind him. The beast came close, its crag lips curled back eerily far along its snout.
“I took them for my pack. Used my power. But then they laughed." The creature flinched, a sudden pulse of energy streaming down from its smoky mane. "Laughed at me. Say me wrong. Say me have bum nose and me useless,” it said, closing its eyes tightly. “But me show them! Me make all caves mine! All jewels mine! Then come back and fix what me do!”
Its speech degenerating, the monster seemed to ignore the purple dragon inches from its muzzle; Spike began to look around for a means of escape. He couldn’t do anything for himself or his friends from inside this thing’s belly. The banisters hung low, but not enough for him to climb. The doors and windows were so far away. Given how this thing snuck up on him, it was going to be impossible to get away from it for long.
“Me make whole village mine! Sniffles deserve it! TAKE IT ALL!,” it cackled loudly, laughing like a rabid beast. The sombre tone it had was replaced my high-pitched giggling. Mad laughter echoed through the structure…
And stopped.
The beast had frozen in place, head thrown back and its mouth frozen open in glee. Smoke continued to pour out of its eyes.
Spike approached it and gave it a wary push. It didn’t even budge.
“Oookay. That was… insanely scary.”
“Spike? Spike, is that you?,” came a familiar voice from behind him.
“Twilight?! Are you alright?”
“Spike, I’m s-scared. I c-can’t see anything!” Twilight’s voice didn’t have its normal tone. She was whimpering, barely able to string her words together. “I disappointed the princesses…”
“Twilight, you’re trapped in some sort of creepy spell! Snap out of it!,” Spike shouted, clawing at the crystals that trapped his friends. Twilight gave no answer, having slid back into simply shuffling about and screaming in silence.
“No… Twilight…”
“So… hungry…,” came a new voice. The baby dragon turned to see that “Sniffles” had again changed. His body was thin and skeletal, leaking black smoke from every orifice. Its teeth had grown even further, changing its mouth into a tangle of pointy rocks. Its eyes now burned red and green, all attention focused on the defenseless reptile in front of him. Most strikingly, it had grown a new appendage.
Spike could hardly believe what he was seeing.
The monstrous creature had King Sombra’s red horn affixed to its forehead.