“Get up.” Limba hissed. “Your dreams are pettier than your appearance, and that is a feat unto itself. You have work to do. Rouse yourself.”
Spike sat up on the couch, the blankets falling off of him, cold sweat coating his forehead. He looked around for the source of the voice that had been whispering in his ear, but there was nopony there. He slowly peeked around the back of the couch, suspecting that somepony was playing a practical joke on him. Again, there was nopony that could have possibly been speaking. He shook his head, trying to gather himself. It wasn’t like him to just imagine things for no reason. He had been having a good dream, about him in an infinite field of gems. It was all great; he’d been eating his way through the sapphires when suddenly Twilight was there. She had spoken to him, and then he’d woken up.
“This isn’t a game, you twit.” Limba said again, increasingly annoyed. “Get up and grab the invisibility charm from the desk. You’re being commandeered. You’re now under my command.”
“Twilight?” He asked, still half-asleep. “What’re you doing in my head? And what are you talking about? I was having a great dream…”
“I’m not Twilight. I’m that weak mare’s other half, one that she naturally has as an alicorn. I tried to kill you just yesterday if your memory can even span back that far. I should kill you now, while I can still use your hands as my own. It would be easy. But right now I have a better task for you. Thanks to you I’m also behind schedule. Now, get off the couch and heed to my command. Or I’ll make you obey.”
“Okay…” Spike said, unwittingly playing into the plot of the sociopath that now was housed in his head. “Say, if you were the one who tried to kill me, why don’t I just go upstairs and tell Twilight what you’re doing?”
“Twilight is asleep, and blissfully unaware of my actions at the moment. And if you so much as think about telling her again then I will personally toss you face-first down a flight of stairs. It will be an extremely painful end for you, and just as much of an achievement for me. So if you don’t get up and listen to what I’m telling you, I will take control of you forcefully. It will be… unpleasant. For you, of course.”
Not needing any further incentive, especially with the lingering threat of death by internal bleeding, Spike got off the couch and walked into the center of the room. It was the middle of the day, and Twilight and Luna weren’t going to be awake for another four hours at least. The jade charm was in the bottommost drawer of the desk, and more importantly, locked in. Shortly after he tried to open it he felt the impatient presence of the alicorn in his head, irritated at his failure.
“Breath fire on the lock, and then shove your claw in and twist clockwise.” Limba snapped.
Spike did as he was told, thinking that there was no way on earth that doing something so simple would open a complex, enchanted lock. To his surprise, the lock turned and the drawer opened with no more problem than if he’d had an actual key. The charm was in the bottom of the drawer, glowing an eerie purple, responding to the presence of Limba. Spike felt in his gut that this wasn’t going to end well the moment he saw the charm, which seemed to be quivering on the wooden bottom of the desk. It shook more as he picked it up, and was humming when he put it on. A moment later it turned from a light jade to pure amethyst, corrupted immediately by the dark alicorn.
“Good, that was getting annoying. We can’t have that thing ringing the whole time we’re in the castle. The point of this mission is stealth. Now, head downstairs and await any further instructions. I will still be watching, and if you try to do anything insubordinate there will be immediate consequences. Immediate, painful consequences.”
Spike couldn’t help but glance at the stairs to Twilight’s room, wondering if he could possibly make it if he sprinted. Something inside told him that he wouldn’t pass the third step before he suffered some terrible fate, like spontaneous cardiac arrest or terminal paralysis. Fearing for his own safety, he turned to the flight downstairs and took a deep breathe. He might never get to look at this tower again, but at least he could tell himself that whatever he was doing it wasn’t his fault. He nodded and made his way downstairs, passing the enchanted door and continuing on his way. He couldn’t help but think of all the times that he’d descended those steps, just in the past two weeks. It was almost as if he had lived here his whole life, with how comfortable he’d become. I felt more like home than the library. It was strange to try and describe, but it made sense to him how this life appealed more now than their sedentary existence back in Ponyville. Here they did things, and had adventures, even if they were oftentimes more like misadventures, and often put somepony in harm’s way. It was more lively that way, and he’d grown more there than he had in his year back in the small town.
All of that was on his mind as he walked out the front doors to the tower, the door closing behind him with a soft gust of air. He felt colder all of the sudden, as if without the comforting presence of Luna and Twilight only a single floor away had left him feeling a lot less brave and a lot more vulnerable. He wouldn’t admit it to himself, but he was genuinely scared for his own safety. Limba could do as she wanted with him as long as she was in his head. She could easily force him to jump off a cliff, or commit a crime or do any number of unpleasant things to himself, with no chance of him being able to resist. He suddenly realized that leaving the tower was probably the worst thing he could have done, and that he could have simply screamed for Luna and she would have saved him. But no, he hadn’t thought of that in the heat of the moment, and now he was alone, being directed like a puppet around the castle. He considered turning around, but the probability of him letting him get his hand on the handle of the door were so slim that he would be astounded if he got that far.
While he was still questioning himself, Limba was stirring in his head again, giving him new orders. “Head east until you reach Celestia’s wing. Then, tell the guard that he’s to be allowed in for simple cleaning. He will let you in. Do that and await further orders.”
Spike began to walk down the right-hand side of the corridor and started to realize that, down in the dungeons, and in the storage chambers, it didn’t matter what time of the day it was. It was always dark and cold. The torches and candles on the walls and ceiling’s chandeliers didn’t give off heat from their blue coronas; they absorbed it, making the breeze that cut through the chamber miserably frosty. He soon couldn’t feel his feet as he marched up to a staircase, easily the size meant for an elephant, and began to make his way upwards. He stopped and admired the scale of the stairs for only a brief moment before Limba was spurring him forward again with her harsh words and endless insults for his size, stature and apparent lack of wit. Although he was insulted, Spike was more afraid of Limba losing her temper with him than her ferocious vocabulary hurting his pride. He would rather be left doubting himself than be left with a broken leg.
Soon he came to a section of the castle with many windows, each one letting the sun through at all angles. It was blindingly bright to begin with, and combined with the white marble floors, ceilings and pillars, it was like trying to walk blind. He had to narrow his eyes and use his hand as a visor just so see where he was going. It was giving him a headache, doing his best to focus. Soon he came to a large rotunda, full of stained-glass windows featuring the countryside and city, with one massive artwork between the two detailing Celestia in her full glory, sitting upon her throne. He walked as fast as he could up the doors beneath the window, wanting to get this awful ordeal over with as soon as he could. Once he was clear of the rotunda he saw a massive pair of double doors, with a sun emblazoned on either side of the oak surface, forming perfect symmetry. Two guards were standing stoically at the entrance, making sure no living thing crossed the threshold to the princess’ chambers.
Spike walked up to them and, with a shaking, nervous voice, asked them. “I’m here to help organize the princess’ library… she should have told you I was coming.”
The guards looked at each other and nodded. Both of them knew the young dragon from the times when Twilight was still a student, and visited Celestia’s tower every other week for study sessions. The guards unlocked the door, knowing that he wasn’t a threat to anypony. As they did Spike nodded to them gratefully, glad that they hadn’t asked too many questions when he was gambling with his life, against a mad mare who knew every card he was holding in his hand, and a royal flush in her own. He headed inside, until Limba barked over his thoughts with another raucous commandment.
“Go upstairs until you see a room with a great number of safes. Then, enter the room.” She snapped, in the same irritable manner.
Spike thought that she was either irritated because she was using him for this task, or that she had to share a head with him. Maybe a combination of both. Either way, he had little choice but to go up the stairs, passing a plethora of oddities and rooms shaped in nearly impossible ways. The geometry of most of the rooms didn’t check out, and in others the laws of physics were disobeyed entirely. It was as if the tower was rebelling against the universe itself, striving to be different. In some of the chambers mosses and lichens grew that weren’t found anywhere in Equestria, along with a massive number of vines that moved on a whim to new positions, possessing great dexterity. In some of the rooms there were great waterfalls, that fell upwards, then fell back down in an endless cycle between the pond on the ceiling and the bathing pool set in the floor. He couldn’t fathom how most of these things worked, and would have given anything to explore the rooms further, but something told him that the parasite in his mind would sooner drown him in that pool than see him figuring out the complex magic behind it. So he continued upwards, passing on massive library that was so vast that it stretched for miles, even though the outside of the tower was a mere seventy feet across. Among other curios was a roomful of paintings that moved on their own, a huge alchemy lab full of potions and ingredients from every source imaginable, those living and dead, and a room that was blocked by a massive iron door, chains strewn across it in an attempt to contain what was within.
Spike ignored all of these, doing as he was told. He didn’t know what would happen if he disobeyed Limba but he knew that it wasn’t good. She’d made it as plain as vanilla that she would sooner have him heave himself off the top of the tower than see him explore its entirety. After a great amount of climbing he reached the room that she had described, and in it was a large obsidian floor, and walls lined with thousands of combination safes. He stood on the threshold a second, feeling a strange pulse from the room. It was like it housed something that was… alive. It called to him, like a small foal begging for help on a streetside, asking for money. No matter how hard he tried, and even if he’d have wanted to, he couldn’t ignore the pull of the chamber he was supposed to enter. It had an energy about it that reminded him of Celestia herself, except a different part of her. The part that could show compassion and sympathy, as well as great heartbreak and regret. He took a step inside.
Immediately the taste of metal flooded his mouth, like he’d just run a mile without stopping for a breath. He felt the overwhelming urge to spit, since the taste was atrocious, and the consistency did nothing for the appeal. He swallowed instead, thinking it best to not leave any trace of himself behind. He looked around at the massive space, wondering what could possibly be under so much security. He couldn’t imagine what they could be. Artifacts, scrolls, the answer to life itself, anything could be housed in the immortal Princess’ most secure domain.
“You were right with the second one.” Limba said, stealing his thought pattern. “We are indeed looking for a scroll. But we are also looking for something far more precious to Celestia, a thing that will allow me the leverage to bring her reign to an end. Now, look for a safe with the number 2309721. It holds the first object we need.”
“I need or you need?” He asked, sensing she hadn’t meant to say ‘we’ as if they were united by any common cause other than a puppet and the puppeteer.
Limba was silent, but he felt her rage boiling at the back of his mind. He decided that it would probably be best for him to not look into what she was saying from that point forward and just do as she told him. He wanted to escape this with all of his limbs, fingers, and other extremities all in their proper place. With that last pleasant thought, he began searching for the safe with the proper identification. He kept mumbling the word to himself, reminding him exactly what he was looking for. He eventually traced his claws along the wall, all the way to a safe that seemed to be made entirely of ebony. He paused for a second, then shrugged, thinking that this was nothing new with the rather eccentric princess and her never-ending stream of odd architectural fancies. With that he sighed and waited for Limba to bark another command at him.
“The combination is 20, 42, 8.” Limba said, almost on queue.
Spike spun the dial a few times before he entered the combination, thinking of just what would be so important that it would make Celestia hesitant to challenge Twilight’s darker half. He heard a loud click and the safe door opened on its own weight, revealing an extremely thick scroll that looked very close to ancient. It looked older than anything he’d ever seen, as the long parchment was almost pure amber in color as he picked it up and pulled it out. He didn’t know what was written on it, as it was in a language that he didn’t fully comprehend, but it involved a series of lines all struck through one center line. This puzzled him, but he didn’t think too much of it. Apparently this wasn’t what was so important in the situation.
“Now, head to the safe directly next to it.” Limba commanded, Spike’s claws automatically wrenching over to dial of the next safe.
Spike shook his head, astounded by how impatient she was being. He didn’t even have to do any work as she rapidly spun the dial using his own hand. He noticed that this dial had significantly more numbers to it, ranging from one to one-hundred, and the pinpricks that marked the numbers and pins were so small he could barely see them. It was rather uncomfortable, to feel his own hand behaving outside of his will, but if he’d been putting in the combination it would have taken a year or so, since it had been nearly a minute and Limba was still putting in numbers. It was unfathomable to think that she had memorized so much, just to get one object. After easily seventy different numbers, the safe let out a resounding creak, as if it hadn’t been opened in a millennia, and opened. Inside was a single ruby, one that glowed faintly in the half-light of the dim room. It hummed, and a tiny light was pulsing in the center of it like a heart beating.
“Don’t touch that.” Limba warned. “Slip it inside the scroll, and make sure not to let it contact your skin or scales in any way. If you do, it will transfer the memory inside of it to you. I can guarantee you that nothing in your mind can even begin to handle the thoughts in that gem. The dreams of cruelty and disturbing pleasures she felt in that jewel was enough to drive the most strongly-willed being in all of existence to forget it, take it from her head and put it here forever. It can’t be destroyed, otherwise she would have already. Now, gently use the scroll to slide it into the center, then squeeze the center of the scroll to carry it. Our task is hardly done.”
Spike began to do as he was told, then, with the most maniacally intense speed, he reached out and grabbed the gem, seizing ahold of it with both hands. The logic behind it was that, if Celestia couldn’t have handled it, and he couldn’t understand what was going on, then Limba would be the only one affected by viewing the memory. He was grinning at how sound his plan seemed, at how this would probably rid Twilight of a huge problem, and free him in the process. His grin turned to a completely blank mask as he felt the memory settle in, making its way into the deepest part of his mind. Limba let out a harsh screech and disappeared, leaving him, unable to let go of the stone, unable to move. His face twisted into an expression of horror, seeing for himself, from a first person view, just what Celestia had been responsible for. He couldn’t let go; the images of thousands of years of pain and unrelenting apathy kept running through his head, galloping by but nonetheless burning into his memory so deeply it was as if he had memorized every detail. He stood there for roughly ten seconds, until tears, unbridled, began to run. He had never thought of anything that could possibly make anyone as stoic as him cry, but here it was, in his hands, showing him the untold story of what had truly happened after Nightmare Moon had surfaced. What she’d done to Luna.
As soon as it was done the memory retreated into the gem again, disappearing from his mind, but still leaving a scar from where it had seared his eyes forever. He threw the gem into the scroll, no longer able to control his limbs. Limba was back, and she was furious. She wasn’t in head; she was only controlling his body, as she wouldn’t dare touch his memories at the moment. She was going to kill him when she got the chance, but right now the goal was to escape the tower with the scroll. He had he invisibility charm, but there was nothing more that he would have enjoyed at the moment than to have disappeared forever. Nothing was worth living with the memory that was housed in that gem. No amount of money, or fame or power could ever tell him otherwise. What Celestia had done was the purest of evils, and now he knew the truth. He would never be able to live without telling somepony else, and that somepony was Twilight.