Spike’s heart pounded in his chest as the sound of the knock echoed in his head. There shouldn’t be anything to knock, he thought. Everypony is asleep, and I thought that the Nightmares didn’t even have physical bodies.
He began to creep down the stairs, going as slowly as possible. Whatever was out there, he didn’t want it to know he was there. At least the lights in the library wouldn’t be a clue. Many houses in Ponyville still had their lights on; their owners had probably still been getting ready to go when the spell hit. Maybe the spell is starting to wear off. No, in real time the spell was only cast half an hour ago. There’s no way that it would wear off that fast.
He peeked carefully down the stairs and sighed in relief as he saw that the curtains were drawn. At least nothing could see inside. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be able to hear much either. As he tiptoed down (taking care to skip over the squeaky step), he heard a voice.
“Spike, are you in there?”
His heart nearly jumped out of his mouth. The voice was Applejack’s, but it didn’t sound like her. It was like the reverse of an impersonation; instead of the voice itself being different but the mannerisms being the same, the voice was unmistakably Applejack’s, but completely devoid of the accent and characteristic twang. Something else was using her voice.
“I told you it wouldn’t work, you idiot,” said another voice. Spike thought it was Fluttershy’s, but it spoke so harshly that it barely sounded like her at all. “Even if he was in there, he’s not just going to come out because you knocked on the door.”
“I thought it was worth a shot,” a third voice said timidly.
Is that Rainbow Dash? Spike thought.
“Well, it failed, so not so much,” said a fourth voice. Presumably, it was Rarity’s, though without the accent it was barely recognizable. “Whatever the case, we gotta get into the library and check to see if that dragon is still hanging around. Bust down the door.”
“Break the door down?” said Rainbow Dash’s voice. “Is that really necessary?”
“What, you have the key?” Rarity’s voice waited for an answer.
“Um, maybe if we checked under the welcome mat-”
“Princess Celestia’s personal student wouldn’t be stupid enough to hide a spare key under the welcome mat.”
Of course not. Spike grinned grimly. We hide the spare key in the flower pot next to the door.
“Now, you, break the door down.”
“Who?” said Applejack’s voice. “Me?”
“Yes, you! You’re the one with the super strong earth pony legs,” Rarity’s voice hissed. In any other situation the sheer aggravation in her voice would’ve bordered on comical. “Use them to get this door out of our way.”
Spike swallowed and clutched the letter tightly in his claws. He didn’t know what they wanted with him, and he wasn’t about to find out. When they broke into the library, he wasn’t going to be there. He turned and headed back up the stairs tiptoeing as fast as he could. Before he had gotten halfway up, he heard the first thump. It didn’t sound anything like he had expected a buck from Applejack. If anything it sound more like a slightly louder-than-usual knock.
“That was pathetic!” said Fluttershy’s voice. “That wasn’t even a kick!”
“Give me a break!” Applejack’s voice said, whining in a way Applejack would never have dared. “I usually don’t even have legs. How am I supposed to kick something?”
Spike sighed in relief. At the very least he didn’t have to worry about getting caught. If the so-called kick was any indication, there was no way that they’d be able to use their bodies effectively enough to actually catch—
WHAM
The walls trembled and a picture next to the door fell from it’s hook.
“That was better,” Fluttershy’s voice said, “but you missed the door.”
“It was a good kick though,” said Rainbow Dash’s voice.
“It’s not really a good kick if it doesn’t hit what it’s supposed to.” It was Rarity again, and she somehow sounded even more frustrated than before.
Spike didn’t stick around to find out how much damage the next kick would do. He had to get out of the library as soon as possible. There was no way he could bring himself to fight them if it came to that, and if they were looking for him, there was no doubt that they were planning to do something to him. But if they couldn’t find him, they couldn’t catch him.
He kept going up the stairs. The only other opening on the first floor was the window in the kitchen, but inside it the sink was filled with pots and pans, and on the outside it was almost completely overgrown with ivy. There was no way he could get it open and squeeze through it without making a racket. The balcony at the back of the tree was a much safer, relatively speaking, bet. He had just oiled the door a few days ago, and he could climb down the clothesline without making any noise. If he was lucky, he would be able to make it out of town before they realized he was gone.
He wasn’t lucky.
As he slid the balcony door open, he found himself face to face with Fluttershy. Or more accurately, with Fluttershy’s body, hovering above the balcony. Whatever animated the body was most definitely not Fluttershy. She would never have had the mix of sadistic glee and hungry ferocity on her face.
“I thought I’d find another entrance,” she said, “but I didn’t think that you’d let me in.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
The glass jars rattled at the sound of Luna’s voice. The Nightmares within shivered, all except for one.
“Whatever do you mean?” it said smugly. It had no real face, but it seemed to be smiling.
“You know exactly what I am talking about!” Luna bellowed. “You have finally put to use all of the magic that you have been gathering and now you will tell me what you used it for.”
“We didn’t use it for anything. We’ve been trapped in your specimen jars this whole time, remember?”
“Do not play dumb. It is obvious that you are in on the plan.”
“Assuming I was,” it said, “why would I explain it to you when it seems to be going off without a hitch?”
Luna breathed deeply before answering. “And how exactly do you know that it went off without a hitch?”
“If it had failed, you wouldn’t be here interrogating me.”
Luna snorted. It appears that the plan was an all-or-nothing affair. If it weren’t, one would think it would at least entertain the possibility that it was only partly successful.
“If it was successful, you wouldn’t still be here,” she said through gritted teeth.
“I can be patient.”
Then the plan isn’t complete. There may still be time to stop it. If only I could figure out what they needed that energy for… I suppose I’ll have to risk volunteering some information.
“I hope you don’t think that we are helpless because you managed to close the portals into Pinkie’s dream.”
“If you’re referring to your young dragon friend,” the Nightmare said with an approximation of a grin, “I assure you that he poses no threat to our plan.”
“You are underestimating him,” said Luna.
“And you are underestimating us,” said the Nightmare. “Did you think we were unaware that he was running around?”
No, but you seemed powerless to do anything about it, Luna thought.
“You certainly seemed unaware that you had left such a gaping hole in your spell,” she said. The Nightmare had done an admirable job at resisting the urge to assert its superiority, but its resolve seemed to be slipping.
“I wouldn’t call it a hole,” it said, in the same tone of voice as a disreputable used carriage salespony. “I’ll admit it was an unfortunate… limitation that we had to leave him out of the spell, but it is hardly something that we couldn’t overcome. In fact, I would say that his interference turned out to be rather helpful.”
“Be that as it may, I fail to see how you can do anything to him now. The spell did not affect him, and you have no influence on the physical plane.”
“That is another limitation that” —the pause was nearly imperceptible, but only nearly— “was so minor as to be negligible.”
“Is that so?” A thought began to grow at the back of Luna’s mind. She smiled. “In that case, you have underestimated us even more than I thought.”
“You have no idea of the full extent of our plan,” the Nightmare said.
“That is an unfortunate limitation,” Luna answered, “and I intend to overcome it.” She spun around and vanished into her dream.
Spike tried to slam the door shut, but he wasn’t fast enough. She was already in the way. He stumbled backward, half out of instinct and half out of a vague idea that the spell might somehow still be active, and that if she so much as touched him, he’d be out like a light.
“Nice try,” the Nightmare said, grinning. “I knew it would be quicker to find another way in than to wait for those idiots to get through the door. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. You were the one loose end we had to take care of.”
It darted forward, so fast that Spike had no time to get out of the way. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. While the Nightmare was more than capable of propelling itself, it evidently hadn’t gotten the hang of steering. Fluttershy’s body careened over his head and into the wall behind him.
“Ow! Stupid wings!” It spun around to see that Spike was already scrambling toward the door. “Oh no you don’t!” The nightmare shot forward faster than Spike had ever seen Fluttershy move. It shot past him again, this time at a downward angle. He rolled backward just quick enough to avoid being run over.
As he got to his feet, he saw that the nightmare had skidded to a halt in front of the door. It gave Spike a smirk as it gave the door a kick. The windows on the door rattled as it slammed shut. He stood with his back to the wall and snatched up the broom that was sitting next to the desk, holding it out as if it were a spear.
“That’s not going to help you,” the Nightmare said as it stepped closer. “All it takes is a touch, and the spell will knock you right out. It might not trap you the same as it does everyone else, but it’ll keep you out of our hair.”
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Spike said, trying to hold the broom as menacingly as possible.
“Oh come on, even with the broom there’s no way you’re going to be able to keep me from at least poking you or something. Besides” —it smiled evilly— “you’d never be able to hit your friend in the face.”
Spike bit his lip. Fluttershy was not the one in control, but it was still her body. He could ward her off, but if push came to shove, he didn’t know if he could attack. And it was only a matter of time before the Nightmare got the hang of having wings and managed to catch him. His only hope was to dodge it and get the patio door open before it could turn around. And he’d have to do it without injuring Fluttershy. He couldn’t imagine that she would get mad at him if she was a bit bruised up when she got her body back, but that almost made it worse.
The Nightmare lunged forward, diving straight towards him. He held the flat end of the broom out and braced himself. He couldn’t bring himself to attack, but he could deflect. He shoved to the side with the broom. The Nightmare tried to bank around it, but it was too close. The bristles caught it on the wing. He rolled away as Fluttershy tumbled past, reaching for him, but just barely missing. There was a crash as the Nightmare slammed into Twilight’s bed, hard enough to knock the mattress off of the frame.
“Sorry, Fluttershy!” Spike grabbed the loose end of the blanket, threw it over the Nightmare, and shoved with all of his might. It rolled off the mattress, tangled in the sheets. He dashed to the door, hoping he could get the latch open before the Nightmare freed itself. “Oh come on.”
The latch on the door was stuck. The Nightmare had kicked the door so hard that it had bent, jamming the door shut. He grabbed it and pulled, hoping that he could muster the strength to bend it back to where it was supposed to be. I just need a few… more… seconds-
“Real clever,” said a voice from behind him. In the glass of the door, he could see the reflection of the Nightmare emerging from the mess of blankets. He had never seen such an utterly hostile look on Fluttershy’s face. “But playtime is over. I’ve got more important things to do than mess with you. It’s time for you to go to sleep.”
The Nightmare charged. He braced himself. There was barely any room to dodge, but if he didn’t, everything would be over.
“Gerughreiugh!” Fluttershy’s body froze in the air with an odd gurgling noise. Her limbs, including her wings, began to flail randomly in every direction, as if some wires in her brain had been crossed. He stared at her face with disturbed fascination. Every part of her face seemed to be trying to express a different emotion. Her mouth alone seemed to be trying to smile, frown, and pucker all at the same time. The noises she was making sounded like someone attempting to simultaneously form words and unsuccessfully imitate the bray of a donkey.
Before he could even begin to consider an explanation, the flailing stopped.
“Spike,” Fluttershy said. Her voice was harsh in a familiar way, but it still wasn’t quite hers.
“Uh…”
“It is I, Luna!” she said.
“Oh.” Spike cocked his head to the side. “Wait, what?”
“There is no time to explain. I will not be able to maintain control of Fluttershy’s body for more than a few seconds. Pinkie Pie is in her ‘Party Cave’ under Sugarcube Corner.” Fluttershy’s face twitched. “Enter her dream, and I will explain more there.” Fluttershy’s whole body spasmed. “Hurry!”
“Got it!” Spike turned back to the door and grabbed the latch. Mustering up as much strength as he could, her pulled. For a second it held, then with a sharp ping it snapped off in his claws. The door popped open. Without a backwards glance, he ran through. He had had a notion of shimmying down the clothesline, but there was no time for that. He leaped off the balcony, aiming for a nearby bush. I really hope this thing doesn’t have any thorns…
Back in the room, Fluttershy’s body flopped onto the bed. It was still for a few moments before it stood and surveyed the room. Then it went out to the balcony and scanned the street. Spike was nowhere to be found.
“I’m never going to hear the end of this,” the Nightmare growled.
Spike’s heart pounded as he scurried from shadow to shadow, slowly but surely making his way in the general direction of Sugarcube Corner. The Nightmares didn’t seem to be around, but he wasn’t about to take chances. By now they probably had gotten the hang of puppeting their bodies, and he didn’t have much of a chance if he had to outrun them.
I should’ve known that Pinkie would be in her party cave. I don’t know why I didn’t check for her while I was there.
He peeked out from the trash can he was hiding behind. Walking through Ponyville had been bad enough when he was alone. Knowing that something might pop out at any moment made it almost unbearable. Sugarcube Corner was just across the street. If they had any idea where he was going, they would be waiting for him. He could see that the front door was open just a crack. He couldn’t quite remember if he had left it open or not.
He took one last glance up and down the street before dashing across, practically diving through the door. Sugarcube Corner was silent, at least aside from the sound of the front door squeaking as he pushed it shut. The Cake Twins were still asleep in their crib, and nothing seemed to have changed since he had been there.
It looks safe enough, he thought. Now, how did the entrance to Pinkie’s Party Cave work, again? Something with one of these bannisters. He examined the ice-cream shaped carving at the end of it. There was some sort of button or lever hidden in there somewhere. The carving turned slightly with a clicking noise. For a second, nothing happened. Then Spike realized the floor had disappeared from underneath him.
“WAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhh!”
Pinkie Pie’s slide spat him out into a pile of streamers and confetti. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t nearly as chaotic as he had remembered. It was a bit cluttered, and nearly everything had a bit of glitter stuck to it, but other than that things were fairly well organized. Maybe Twilight helped her sort through things, he thought. I wonder where Pinkie is…
A loud snore answered his question. Pinkie was curled up on top of a pile of stuffed animals that were probably meant to be the Cake Twins’ birthday presents for the next few years. I guess I should just hop into her dream now. Who knows what’s going on in there. He put a claw on Pinkie’s head and things went black.
“I said, we do not have time for this!”
At the sound of Luna’s voice, the group of ponies who had been competing to hug Spike dispersed.
“Oh come on!” Apple Bloom grumbled. “We just found out that Spike is safe! And it’s the first time that all of us have been together since, uh, whenever all this stuff started.”
“Be that as it may,” a balloon shaped like Luna’s head said, “we do not have time to spend on greetings. We must hurry.”
“But what about Pinkie Pie?” Apple Bloom answered. “She hasn’t even gotten to say hello to Spike yet!”
Luna frowned with a rubbery brow. “Very well. She can give Spike a very brief greeting before we continue.”
“Alright.” Pinkie nodded seriously before clearing her throat. Then she grabbed the dragon and hugged him so hard that his eyes came dangerously close to popping out of his skull. “Spike! I’m so glad you’re alright!”
“Th-thanks,” he squeaked.
“Okay, I’m good!” Pinkie released him and stepped back. “Normally I’d have gone a bit longer, but we’re kinda in a rush, right?”
“Yes, you could say that,” Luna said.
“So what’s going on, exactly?” Spike said. “I was about to send that letter, when suddenly I heard someone knocking on the library door.”
“Who was it?” Applejack asked.
“It was you, actually,” Spike answered. “Or your body, I guess.”
“What?” Everypony gasped out the word simultaneously except Pinkie, who said “Huh, didn’t see that coming.”
“Perhaps I can explain,” Luna said. “At first it was my belief that the purpose of the Nightmares’ spell was to rule over the dreamscape indefinitely and that the magic they were draining from each pony was simply meant to maintain the spell, or to prevent me from interfering. However, it appears that their true motive was to overcome their limitations entirely and take over your bodies to interact with the real world.”
“Wait, you figured all that out before I told you what happened?” Spike asked.
“Well, I did not know exactly what happened, but after… gathering more information, I was at least able to guess that they were using the magic to do something outside of the dream realm. That, combined with the fact that everypony was trapped in Pinkie’s dream, implied that their plan involved the unconscious ponies themselves. I decided to check on your dreams, and discovered that the Nightmares were somehow controlling your bodies from within the dreamscape.”
“And that’s when you started talking through Fluttershy’s body,” Spike said.
“W-what?” Fluttershy looked and Spike and Luna in confusion. “What happened?”
“The Nightmare that is currently inhabiting your body attempted to capture Spike,” Luna said matter-of-factly. “I was able to interfere for just long enough allow him to escape.”
“Well this is wonderful,” Rarity grumbled. “Not only have the Nightmares taken over Ponyville, but now they’ve taken over our bodies as well? And I spent hours getting my mane just right.”
“Your mane isn’t the problem here!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “Do you know how much trouble it could cause if the Nightmares are able to take over everypony’s bodies? They could turn Ponyville into their own little army!”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I don’t believe things are quite that bad yet,” Luna said. “Spike, when you were in the physical world, specifically which ponies did you see or hear?”
Spike thought for a moment. “Only Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, if I remember right.”
“I thought as much,” Luna continued. “It seems that the Nightmares cannot take over the body of anypony they please. That is the good news.”
“Oh great.” Pinkie groaned. “If you say it like that, it means there’s bad news too. Besides the obvious, I mean.”
“It appears that the Nightmares are not as incompetent as we believed. As a matter of fact, we seem to have inadvertently assisted their plans.”
“What?” Applejack stomped her hoof angrily. “How did we do that?”
“Because with all of your consciousnesses here, in Pinkie’s dream, your own bodies were left… available, for lack of a better term.” Luna sighed. “As much as it pains me to admit it, I greatly underestimated them. I assumed it was their incompetence that caused them to leave the portals open for our use, but it seems that in reality, it was bait. They knew that sooner or later I would enlist your help to free more ponies, and as soon as you left your own dreams, they closed off the portals so that you could not return to your own bodies.”
“Ugh, and we fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.” Spike blew smoke from his nose in frustration.
“It is my fault,” Luna said, her voice heavy. “It was my responsibility to keep everyone safe, but I failed to consider the possibility that they were not as foolish as I assumed. My arrogance has put us all at risk.”
“You don’t have to be so hard on yourself, Princess,” Applejack said. “You’ve been doin’ everything that you could to help all of us. None of us saw this comin’.”
“That’s right,” Rarity added. “All of us were perfectly aware of the risk we were taking when you brought us into this dream. You have not put us into any more danger than… Pinkie Pie, this is no time for giggling.”
“I can’t help it!” Pinkie squeaked. “It’s just that we’re being all serious and dramatic and she’s a balloon…”
“We can worry about that later,” Rainbow Dash said. “I wanna know what we’re gonna do now. We’re all stuck in Pinkie’s dream, and I’m pretty sure that the Nightmares are going to be watching to make sure that Spike doesn’t get out of Ponyville.”
“Maybe we could try to get our bodies back?” Fluttershy suggested. “Would that help?”
“Having a body does tend to be useful,” Scootaloo muttered to herself.
“Actually, in this case, it wouldn’t help us much.” Luna’s voice was still heavily apologetic. “Even if we could force the Nightmares out of your bodies, you would all still be asleep. It might be a minor setback for them, but it wouldn’t put us any closer to breaking the spell.”
“What would put us closer to breaking the spell?” Spike asked.
“Only one thing comes to mind,” Luna answered. “We must find a way to free Twilight and Celestia.”
“And by ‘we’ you mean me, right?” Spike said with a weary sigh. “Since the rest of you are all trapped here?”
“Unfortunately, unless we can create a way for everypony else to use the portals once more, they will all remain trapped here.”
“Um, I have a question.” Fluttershy raised her hoof.
“Yes?”
“Is there any chance of the Nightmares trying to take over Spike’s body while he’s in a dream?”
“Fortunately, no,” Luna said, prompting a sigh of relief from both Fluttershy and Spike. “The form of magic that the Nightmares use is inherently incompatible with Dragon magic. Or at least, all signs appear to point in that direction. If he were vulnerable to their spell on a level beyond the purely physical, I cannot imagine a reason why they would not attempt to target him as well. The only logical explanation is that he is more or less immune to most of the effects.”
“Wait just a minute,” Applejack said, scratching her head. “If Spike is immune to the Nightmare’s magic, how’d he end up in the dreams in the first place?”
“The dreamscape is not something unique to the Nightmares,” Luna said. “It is something common to all magically inclined creatures, though most are never consciously aware of it. The Nightmares simply have a greater ability to influence it than most.”
“Is that so…” Applejack furrowed her brow the way she did when she got an idea. “Hmmm…”
“What is it, Applejack!?” Pinkie scurried over and examined Applejack’s face. “You like you just got an idea or something.”
Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie by the tail and dragged her away. “If she does, give her a minute to think it over. It might be important.”
“Yes, let’s be quiet.” Rarity said.
Pinkie nodded in response and pantomimed a series of actions that started with zipping her mouth shut and quickly proceeded to become too complex for any of the other ponies to comprehend. Then she sat back on her haunches and stared intently at Applejack.
“Will you knock it off?” Applejack said. “All the starin’ is almost worse than havin’ to listen to you.” She turned to Princess Luna. “You said that Spike was immune to the magic they used to take over our dreams, right?”
“Yes, it seems so.” Luna raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Well, I was just thinkin’ that Spike might be able to get through the barrier that’s keepin’ the rest of us stuck in here.”
“Oh, I see!” Rarity said excitedly. “He would be able to get into anypony’s dream through the portals without being caught by the Nightmares who are parading our bodies around Ponyville! Good thinking, Applejack.”
“Let’s not get too excited yet,” Applejack said. “I don’t know enough about magic to know if this is something that could even work.”
“It is possible,” Luna said, mostly to herself. “Though obviously we would not know until we try it. It all depends on how the Nightmares constructed the portal system. Spike may be able to bypass the barrier, but at the same time it is also a possibility that his magic makes him unable to use the portals entirely. But if he can, and the barriers were constructed with Nightmare magic, there may be a chance.”
“So are we gonna try it?” Apple Bloom asked, excitement in her voice.
“We might as well. There are not many other options open to us,” Luna said. “Assuming Spike is up to it, of course.”
“Of course I’m up to it!” There was a gulf between the confidence in words themselves and the tone with which Spike said them. “I mean, uh, it’s not like we have any other options, right?”
“Not really,” Rainbow Dash said. “But which pony’s dream are we gonna send him to?”
“We will send him into Twilight’s dream,” Luna said firmly. “As an alicorn, her presence in the dreamscape is instrumental to maintaining the spell. If Spike can manage to free her, the entire spell will almost certainly collapse. However, the Nightmares are certainly aware of that, and as a result, it will be much more difficult to free her. It is an all-or-nothing situation.”
“Yeah, no pressure there,” Spike muttered. “Alright, let’s get the show on the road.”
“I’m tellin’ you, it ain’t that scary,” Apple Bloom said as Spike approached the portal. The longer he looked at it, the less inclined he felt to hop in. “It’s actually pretty fun. Or I guess it would be if there weren’t so much else goin’ on.”
“Apple Bloom, this really isn’t the time,” Applejack said. “This is serious.”
“I’m just sayin’, if he’s gotta go through, he might as well enjoy the ride.”
“Believe me, I wish I could,” Spike said, his eyes glued to the swirling darkness. “So basically, I go through here and Luna will set it up so that it spits me out in Twilight’s dream.”
“Yes,” Luna answered. “Unfortunately, because of the protective spells they’ve put on it, I will likely not be able to contact you once you are there. Find Twilight as quickly as possible.”
“That’s the plan,” Spike said, his voice hollow. “But you can make sure I end up at the right dream, right?”
“Yes,” she said. Then after a pause, “In theory.”
“Oh, in theory,” Spike mumbled. “Everything always works in theory. What if it doesn’t work in practice?”
“Then you will need to get into Twilight’s dream using the same method that you have been using.”
“He’ll have to find his way back to her body?” Fluttershy said. “And he would have to avoid the Nightmares who are using our bodies?”
“Yes,” Luna answered.
“Well, at least we have a plan B!” Pinkie offered with her usual amount of optimism, which was too much.
“I suppose you could put it like that,” Rarity mused. Then she trotted over to Spike and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Spike, after everything that you’ve already done, this should be, to put in terms Pinkie would be well familiar with, a piece of cake. In fact, when you’ve rescued Twilight and kicked the Nightmares out of Ponyville, I’ll give you a whole bucket of gems to bake a cake with.”
“A whole bucket of gems, huh?” Spike licked his lips. “Are we talking rubies and emeralds, or leftover quartz dust?”
Rainbow Dash tapped Spike on the head. “Focus! You’ve got a mission to complete!”
“Rainbow is right,” Applejack said. “You’d better get a move on.”
“Well, I guess then I’ll see you all when we’re back in Ponyville.” Spike turned to face the portal. “Here goes nothing.” He sprinted forward and jumped before his nerves could stop him.
He didn’t land. As he continued to tumble forward, he realized that he had closed his eyes. He opened them, and for a moment couldn’t see anything. Then flashes of light began to zip past him as he hurdled forward. It felt like he was both flying and falling at the same time. The crazy mix of sensations would’ve made him sick, but any dizziness was smashed out of him by an entirely new sensation.
The numerous shimmers of light that had been glittering subtlely around him were blotted out by a single bright flash of light. He couldn’t say what color it was. It felt like it had gone right through him. His entire body was full of pins and needles and he was spinning. Then he heard a loud thud, and everything was still. He groaned. He had felt the thud, too; he had landed flat on his back. He opened his eyes and blinked.
Either Twilight’s dream looked suspiciously like Pinkie’s party cave, or something had gone very wrong.
“How did I end up here?” he asked himself as he gingerly got to his feet. He rubbed his forehead. It ached too much and he felt too tired for this to be a dream. Besides, Pinkie was still snoring away next to him. “Well, that didn’t work. Guess we’ll have to try that again.”
He grabbed Pinkie’s tail and waited to fall asleep. A moment later he was still standing in the basement, wide awake.
“Huh?” He gave Pinkie’s tail a shake. “I could’ve sworn grabbing her tail would’ve done it.”
He shrugged and put his claw on her shoulder. Nothing. He poked her in the flank. He didn’t go anywhere. He put his claw on her nose. She snorted in her sleep and went back to snoring. A chill ran down Spike’s spine.
“Why isn’t it working!?” He started to shake Pinkie, but all she did was roll over. “Well that’s not good,” he said, hoping that the massiveness of the understatement would take the edge off the discovery. It didn’t. He took several deep breaths and tried to think. His brain didn’t really want to think, preferring blind panic, but he forced it into a logical chain of thought.
When I ran into the Nightmare’s barrier, my dragon magic must’ve reacted with it somehow. It messed up the part of the spell that knocked me out when I touched Pinkie Pie. Now what do I do?
He chewed on his claws. Getting out of Ponyville was a definite possibility now. If the spell wouldn’t make him fall asleep anymore, evading the Nightmares would be a lot less dangerous. But what if it still worked? What if he had only been immunized to entering Pinkie’s dream because he had been touching her when he got zapped with magic? If that were true, he could still get into Twilight’s dream. But there was no way of knowing which was the case, and if he picked wrong, he’d be in trouble.
Maybe I could test it somehow. The Cake Twins are just upstairs, and I already booted the Nightmares out of their dreams. I could find out if I’d fall asleep again. But what if I do, and I can’t wake up again? I might not be able to let Luna know that I’m there, and without her I’d be stuck. And even that’s assuming that the Nightmares don’t find out and trap me in there somehow.
“Uggggh! This isn’t fair! What am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit here and do nothing.” His head had started to hurt with the effort of keeping his thoughts straight.
What choice would be the least risky if I guess wrong? If I try to get out of town and get caught, it’s over, but if I try to get into Twilight’s dream and can’t… His eyes lit up. It would mean that the Nightmares couldn’t knock me out and I’d be able to get out of town really easily! And the Nightmares are probably too busy patrolling the outskirts looking for me that they’ll never think of guarding the Town Hall. I should be able to get to Twilight without too much trouble.
He cracked his knuckles. Just having a plan, any plan, was enough to buoy his spirits, at least for the time being. He just had to hope that Luna would be able to figure out what had happened.
“So, did he get into Twilight’s dream or not?” Apple Bloom continued to stare intently at the portal, which looked exactly the same as it had before Spike had gone through it.
“And how do we know if we can follow Spike into Twilight’s dream and help him fight the Nightmares?” Sweetie Belle added. She was staring at the portal too, but didn’t quite have Apple Bloom’s dedication to it.
“We should send somepony through!” Scootaloo said. She had gotten bored of staring as soon as she realized that it probably wasn’t going to look any different. “If they got booted back here we’d know if we could get through!”
“Nopony is going through that portal until I have time to examine just how Spike’s dragon magic affected it,” Luna said sternly. “I will inform you when it is safe. Do not touch the portal before then.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure nopony goes messin’ with it,” Applejack said, saluting. “We don’t wanna cause more trouble.”
“We can only hope that the Nightmares are not watching us too closely now that our trap is sprung,” Luna said. “Our greatest chance will be if they underestimate us as much I underestimated them. Now I will go and continue attempting to determine whether Spike has successfully infiltrated Twilight’s dream. I will let you know as soon as I find anything.”
“And we will let you know if anything happens here,” Rarity said.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash added. “If there’s anything we can do, just let us know. Especially if it involves fighting the Nightmares.” Applejack shot her a glare. “What?”
Fluttershy sighed. “I hope Spike got into Twilight’s dreams okay.”
“Don’t worry!” Pinkie Pie patted her on the head. “I’m sure Spike is booting all of those icky Nightmares right out of Twilight’s head right now!”
“And I thought it was annoying when the Crusaders stole my scrub-brush to clean the hogs…” Spike muttered under his breath.
Getting to Town Hall hadn’t been much trouble. It wasn’t that far from Sugarcube Corner, and it was trivial to make the journey without ever leaving the shadows. But now he was crouched under a decorative hedge at the edge of the Town Hall plaza. Nearly all of the wanton greenery that he had planned to use for cover had been cleared out to make room for the festivities.
Making matters worse, he had finally gotten an answer to the question of whether the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been turned into puppets in the same fashion as the other ponies he had rescued. If the fact that their bodies were patrolling the pathway that led to the Town Hall’s main doors was any indication, the answer was yes.
“I still don’t understand why we had to get stuck with the juvenile bodies,” Sweetie Belle said as she paced back and forth. “These legs are so stubby.”
“You should be happy that you have legs at all,” Scootaloo’s body answered tersely. “Longer legs would probably give you even more trouble.”
Apple Bloom’s body just snorted. “We are senior operatives. I would have assumed that would have at least merited allowing us our choice of physical form.”
“Maybe they gave us the tiny ones because they thought we’re the only ones who could use ‘em!” Sweetie Belle said.
“I doubt that,” said Scootaloo’s body. “They simply needed more of us active after the dragon eluded the original force and those were the only bodies available. I still cannot believe they managed to let him get away.”
“Supposedly, the princess interfered,” Apple Bloom’s body said. “Though considering the difficulty I would hardly be surprised if the story is a fiction made to cover up their incompetence.”
“If catching the dragon is so important, then why aren’t we patrolling with everybody else?” Sweetie Belle asked.
Apple Bloom’s eye twitched .“Because there is a chance, however small, that the dragon will attempt to approach the Princesses, all of whom are inside the Town Hall. The chances of him being able to accomplish anything are slim to none, but the higher-ups want the loose ends tied up.”
“Seriously, don’t you ever pay attention during briefings?” Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie Belle stared at her hooves, looking as if she hadn’t even been listening. “I just hope that when we finally catch the rest of them they let me switch into a bigger body. This one is too small.”
“Quit complaining about the body and just be glad you have one,” Apple Bloom snapped. “And while you’re at it, you should probably get back to patrolling. That is the reason you’re in a body at all, you know.”
Spike couldn’t help but chuckle silently to himself. Even when they aren’t in their own bodies, they’re still bickering. At least that will make it easier to get past them…
He crept along, not quite silently, but as quietly as he could manage. The Crusaders, or their bodies at least, had split up. Apple Bloom was pacing back and forth along the front of the plaza, and the other two were slowly circling the building in opposite directions. It made things more annoying, but not harder, exactly. Eventually they would come around to the front of the building again, and when they did, no one would be watching the back of the building. There weren’t any doors at the back, but there was bound to be a window he could sneak in through.
He would just have to do it quickly enough to avoid getting caught.
It would be easier said than done. There wasn’t a whole lot of cover, but there were a whole lot of windows, most of which would be locked. He knew they wouldn’t all be. Whenever one was fixed, another would break. The problem would be figuring out which one was open. If he guessed right, he’d only have a two or three minutes of freedom to look before the Nightmares rounded the building again, and he’d have to wait until they were gone.
He glanced at the clock tower. It was too dark to see exactly what time it was, but he was quite certain it had been too long. The Nightmares were out of view. Now or never, he thought. The first two windows were locked. The third, he couldn’t tell. It was either locked, rusted shut, or both. Whatever the case, it wasn’t going to open any time soon. He was halfway up the wall to the fourth window, when he heard the crunch of hooves on gravel.
Of course, he thought. There was no time to run all the way back to behind the tree where he had been hiding. There was only one piece of cover close enough to hide behind: a lone shrub growing out of the ground against the side of the building. He dropped from the wall and scrambled behind it just as the Nightmares approached.
“You really think that dragon would be stupid enough to try to get in here?” one of them said. Probably Sweetie Belle, but Spike couldn’t quite see them. “Why wouldn’t he just run away?”
“He probably has. But you can never tell what these ponies might be putting him up to, so if it turns out that he’s still hanging around it could be a huge pain. Especially since we can’t use much of our magic on him.”
“But with the amount of magic we’ve been draining out of these ponies, shouldn’t we have enough power to get him?”
“It’s not a question of power. If that were the only problem we had to overcome, we could’ve knocked him out long ago. Do you never pay attention during briefings?”
“I got that the dragon is immune to our spell; isn’t that enough?”
“He isn’t immune.”
Behind the shrub, Spike scratched his head. If he wasn’t immune to the spell, why hadn’t they knocked him out?
“Wait, what? If he isn’t immune-”
“He isn’t immune, he’s incompatible,” the Nightmare barked. It was definitely Scootaloo’s voice, but it couldn’t have sounded less like her if it had tried. “If he was simply immune, we wouldn’t have had to deliberately exclude him from most of the spell. Incompatibility is much worse.”
“It is?”
“You know so little about magic that it amazes me you were selected for this mission.”
“Oh come on, you know that I’ve never worked on meta-spell construction. That’s not my specialty.” It sniffed in a very Sweetie Belle-esque way. “I would hardly expect you to understand the finer points of actually generating terror. I mean, let’s face it, you really aren’t that scary.”
“Yes, yes,” Scootaloo said begrudgingly. “But even so, I would’ve thought you’d at least understand the basics.”
“The basics of what?”
“How the spell works, you buffoon!” Spike could hear Scootaloo’s body kicking the ground in consternation. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever had to deal with harmonizing magical wavelengths?”
“Magical what?”
“Uggggh,” Scootaloo’s voice somehow sounded more familiar. She had made similar groans on many occasions. “Let me see if I can explain this in a way you can actually comprehend. Every species has different types of magic. Pony magic is… think of it kind of like a plant. It grows slowly by processing energy from its surroundings, but it sort of… gets along with it. You know, one of those weird symbiosis things where drawing out the energy doesn’t really hurt anything.”
“Okay, I’m with you so far, I think.”
“Good. Well, in order to drain all of the magic out of the ponies, the spell has to work sort of the same way, or we won’t be able to get any power out of it.”
Sweetie Belle’s body thought for a moment. “So we’re sort of like a weed, then?”
“Sure, whatever. We’re trying to get the magic out of them by using a similar type of magic. The problem is that dragon magic is nothing like that. Dragon magic is more like… oh, I don’t know, fire. It’s very powerful and very hard to control. Fortunately, it’s also typically dormant, like an ember or a hot coal. So if we leave it alone and don’t mess with it too much, it’ll just sit there and glow a little. But if you start poking at it, it starts to send up sparks, and you know what happens then.”
“Oh.”
“What is taking you two so long back there?!” Apple Bloom’s voice echoed from around the front of the building. “Get a move on.”
The two Nightmares grumbled, but they resumed their patrol. As soon as their hoofbeats were out of earshot, Spike got up. Or he tried to, at least. He tried to lever himself up by pushing against the wall, but instead the wall moved. He fell backward into darkness.
“Ow.” Spike blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he had ended up. The first and most obvious answer to that question turned out to be “on his head”. He righted himself and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The only light he could see was a splotch of dim light on the wall, coming from the hole that he had tumbled through. He sniffed the air. It was dusty and dry, but oddly not unpleasant. It reminded him of the little nooks deep in the back of the Canterlot library where nopony but Twilight ever actually went.
He sneezed. It was no mystery where he was now. He had to be in one of the old file rooms in the Town Hall basement. The bush he had hidden in had grown in front of one of the windows, and nopony had ever noticed and bothered to fix it. When he leaned on it, it had given way.
He squinted. The tiny bit of light that filtered through the mostly-blocked window was just barely enough to illuminate a few blocky rows of half-open file cabinets that were nearly bursting with an assortment of ancient paperwork whose only common attribute was that they would probably disintegrate if anypony touched them. He carefully tiptoed forward and peered around the corner into the hallway.
It was pitch black, but at least that meant that the Nightmares hadn’t bothered to patrol inside the building. It also meant that he had to feel his way forward until he found the door to the stairway. He shuffled slowly down the hallway with his hands outstretched, wishing that he could turn the light on.
His shins found the bottom of the stairs and after pausing to rub some feeling back into them, he crept up the stairs to the door. There was a sliver of light at the bottom of the door. He reached for the knob. He felt almost like he was playing a video game, about to open the door into the final dungeon. The door squeaked as it opened; it probably hadn’t been oiled in years.
The inside of the Town Hall was bright. All of the lights had been turned on, and a few more spotlights had been added to illuminate the stage. He chuckled mirthlessly. It was like the universe was mocking him. In the center of the stage were Twilight and Celestia, spotlights illuminating them as if to make sure he couldn’t miss it. Most likely Twilight had talked her into doing one last runthrough before the festivities officially started. Luna was nowhere to be seen, but he didn’t have the time to spend locating her.
He stepped carefully around the scattered bodies of the ponies who had been making last-minute preparations when the spell hit. There was no way he was going to carelessly torpedo his chances now, not when the possibility of ending the spell so quickly was so close. He climbed up the stage.
Twilight looked so serene, that if he hadn’t known better he would’ve thought nothing was wrong. But he knew that no matter how peaceful she looked, the Nightmares were inside her head. He took a deep breath. If he were lucky, this would be the last time he’d have to dive into a dream, and he could end this entire incident. If not… it would be a long trek to the Crystal Empire.
He sat down next to her, took a deep breath, and put his claw on her hoof.
He fell asleep.