As we walked down the hallway where I think the Crusaders went, my mind repeatedly fell back to Spike. I wasn’t stupid enough to think those things out loud, but I was constantly wondering how he could now hear me as I explained the whole Star Swirl thing to him.
“The one and only Star Swirl the Bearded gave you his magic?” he asked as if I was lying. “Uh huh...” he looked at me with a raise eyebrow.
‘Spike, I'm telling you the truth. We've went over this five times now.’ I said, stopping in the middle of the hallway, ‘Let's shorten it up and cover the bases. I was always smart as a kitten and could understand you.'
“Uh huh.” he nodded his head.
‘When we came to this castle I was given powers by Star Swirl after he knocked out both Rarity and me.’
“Uh huh.”
‘Then I spent a little bit learning the powers and am still doing so.’ I stated before adding, ‘I only just now learned if I pour enough magic into my eyes when I'm mentally talking to someone it will make the mental connection permanent... or, that's what I think happened.’
“Uh huh.”
...
...
‘Did you follow any of that?’
“Yeah. You were smart before and now a dead unicorn that Twilight practically idolizes gave you powers after knocking both you and Rarity out.” he said with a straight face, “Seems pretty straightforward to me.”
‘Uh huh.’ I doubted he believed me, it sounded crazy to me and I lived it, ‘Wait, Twilight idolizes Star Swirl? Wonder if she knows he was here as a ghost.’
“If she did we probably would of moved in here after Nightmare Moons defeat.” Spike laughed.
‘You know, you're awfully calm about all of this...’ I said as I started to walk again with Spike to my side.
“It’s not the weirdest thing to happen to me this year.” Spike said as we turned another corner, “That had to be either the Changelings invasion or the treaty signing.”
... It took a minute for that to register, ‘These Changelings invaded and Equestria signed a treaty with them in the same year?’
“We did a lot more than that in one year.” Spike said as if he was proud of it, “We stopped Nightmare Moon, played a game with the Discord for the fate of Equestria before resealing him in stone, and helped stop the Changeling invasion and that was all last summer.”
‘Wow, and here I thought I was going to have a calm life as the pet of royalty.’ I shook my head as we turned a corner.
“Around Twilight and her friends, it’s anything but calm.” Spike laughed, “Oh, and after winter we saved the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, Reformed Discord, and Twilight took on Tirek to save all the magic in Equestria.”
‘Wow, sounds like you get into a lot of adventures.’
“You were around for that last one, but it was sheer dumb luck that Fluttershy had asked to keep you to try and get you to be nicer to her. You would of been in the library when it blew up otherwise.”
‘Oh yeah, I hated that weekend... Wait, the library place got blown up!?’ I mentally yelled, ‘How did that happen?’
“It actually-”
KUCH-WH-BOOM
The floor under us suddenly swung open, ‘I hate this castle!’ I screamed in my head with Spike as we fell down into the abyss below.
There was no slick surface this time, just a long dark drop into nothingness. We flew past what I think were the remains of a floor before the walls to our sides disappeared and we were surrounded by inky black.
I felt Spike grab me just before we hit something. It soon gave in and we hit another one, our momentum considerable slowed. The next one we hit gave a little before slowly going back to it original position with me and Spike on it.
“Huh, is... is it over?” Spike asked as he looked around.
My eyes lit up as I pushed some magic into them. I could see the walls of the room easily all around us. A quick glance over Spike’s side showed me the floor a considerable ways down, as well as something far more unsettling.
We were on a giant web.
‘Giant spiders, why is it always-’
“What!? What giant spiders!?” Spike yelled as he started to wiggle around, “Why can’t I move!?”
‘Stop or else you're going to-’ a light flashed over us and stayed on Spike’s back. I looked over to see three familiar little fillies with a camera and a flashlight standing on the ground floor, just inside a hole in the wall.
“Hey Spike!” Sweetie Belle called up to us.
“What are ya doin way up there?” Apple Bloom yelled next.
I cut off the magic to my eyes as Scootaloo started to talk, “Are you stuck in the web?”
“Uh... maybe.” he called back.
“Don’t worry, they’ll get you down just like they did for us!” Scootaloo called happily back.
‘Who's they?’ I asked Spike and he repeated my question to the girls.
“Just don’t scream! They’re actually really nice!” Scootaloo yelled before I heard her and the other start to laugh.
‘I don't like how she's laughing...’ I moved back away from the edge of Spike and made my eyes glow again. Allowing me to see them.
Four spiders bigger than a pony. Dark purple in color with bright blue eyes and a similarly colored star on it’s back. My eye twitched as I fought every urge to scream. These things made Spike look tiny and I could be held against his chest easily.
‘Help us.’
My paws shot to cover my ears as Spike started screaming. He held me tight as one of them lifted us up off the web. It was around the time that I heard the crusaders laughing their tails off that I realized that we weren’t in any danger.
“Spike calm down! They’re just getting you off their web!” Sweetie Belle yelled up.
‘Help us.’ I looked around as I thought I had heard something.
Spike had stopped screaming and actually hazarded a look around. He gulped loudly, “I-I knew that...” his teeth where still chattering loudly. The spider sat us down on the floor near the crusaders and Spike quickly moved to get us away.
“Hey Spike, you’re supposed ta say thank you after somepony helps ya.” Apple Bloom commented as Spike and me joined them in the hole in the wall.
‘Help us.’
As Spike said his stuttery thank you I heard the voice again. My eyes locked with the Spider that had lowered us from the web, ‘Are you saying that?'
“What?” Spike looked down at me.
“What’s wrong Spike?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Oh huh, nothing.” he said as he turned away from the Spider, “Just thought I heard something.”
“Like a ghost!?” Scootaloo asked as she quickly pulled up her hoof-held camera and looked around.
‘Spike ignore what I'm saying and about to say.’ I locked eyes with the spider again, channeling a little magic into my eyes, ‘Are you the one asking for help?'
‘Yes.’
A grin spread across my face as I cut power to my eyes, ‘Spike, we got ourselves an actual quest.'