Spike's Doom and/or Destiny

by terrycloth

Is There Any Escape, Period?

Bringing back Bon Bon went smoothly, at least. After the required sum of golz was heaped on what was left of her body, and Derpy made a short prayer to the Great Muffin, she popped back to life in a cloud of ash, the charred remains of her skin and gear exploding off her body as the magic brought them back, undamaged.

Well, mostly undamaged. It was still the basic Raise Dead spell, so she needed a bunch of muffins and cinnamon candy until she was all the way back to normal.

“That could have gone better,” she said, trying to wipe the ash off her face, again, but not having much luck without water. “But at least we found everypony.”

Moondancer stood a ways back from the party. The blistering air stunk like the deepest pit of Tartarus, but she was still soaked in roasted pony juice, and nopony wanted to stand near her. Except maybe Spike, but she didn’t feel comfortable with the looks he kept giving her. “I just hope there’s a way back up.”

“There has to be!” Derpy said.

“Does there?” Spike asked, twisting his tail between his claws. “I don’t think we were supposed to come down here. This isn’t part of the plot!”

Derpy tilted her head at him. “But how else would the demons get up? They didn’t have wings.”

“Good point,” Moondancer said. “I hope there’s way back up that doesn’t involve wading through lava.”

Derpy flitted around the sheer cliff that formed the far wall of their lava-rock ‘beach’, staring into the dark, round tunnels that burrowed into it. “We’ll never know unless we look!”

The first tunnel dead-ended after fifty feet, after narrowing to the point where the ponies had to crawl backwards to get out because they couldn’t turn around. The second tunnel seemed better at first, but quickly turned downwards, while the walls became more jagged – they kept it as a possibility, but backed out to look for one that went in the right direction, or at least was easier to walk through without scraping their skin off.

The third tunnel only went a few hundred feet before emerging into a worked corridor, lit by faintly glowing green gems.

“A dungeon!” Spike said, grinning. “There has to be a way out from here!”

“I just hope it’s in our level range,” Bon Bon said, looking either way down the corridor, warily.

In case it wasn’t, they advanced down the corridor in formation, with their weapons drawn and regeneration candies at the ready. Bon Bon hid in the shadows as she scouted ahead, while Spike and Derpy kept Moondancer safe between them.

“These murals,” Moondancer said, lifting a hoof to touch a mosaic of three large horned quadrupeds surrounding a smaller one. “I think I recognize the worksmanship.”

“What?” Derpy asked. “How?”

“Look at these proportions,” she said, drawing her hoof down the legs. “All four legs are identical in length and width, and there’s no sign of perspective. And instead of eyes, there’s a smiley face drawn on a single tile. And in the background… I think those are supposed to be houses? But the door stretches up into the arch of the roof.”

“Huh,” Spike said, stopping to take a closer look at them – he’d registered them as ‘demonic artwork’ almost immediately and stopped paying attention. “What culture does artwork like this?”

“The Canterlot Schoolhouse,” Moondancer said. “This looks like what my classmates and I drew when we were five.”

Bon Bon appeared behind Spike, a grim look on her face. “Girls… I’ve got some good news, and some bad news.”

“What’s the bad news?” Moondancer asked.

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “The good news is that this isn’t a dungeon. We’re actually in a large underground town, so we should be safe, for the moment.”

“And the bad news?” Spike asked.

Bon Bon shrugged. “You should probably see for yourselves.”

They followed her to the end of the hallway, passing darkened doorways to either side. It opened up into a vast lobby, with a bronze statue of a minotaur holding a flaming sword in the center – flickering with real flames. Bon Bon led them past it to the front door – multiple doors, rather, a whole row of double doors, one of which was open. They emerged into a large open square, set high on a slope in a humongous cavern, the building behind them one of many built into the wall itself. Others covered the slopes and floor and every bit of open space, except for the occasional public square or private courtyard, and the large lake of lava in the center.

The area they stood in was only lightly inhabited, it seemed, but other streets further in were busy – full of creatures walking back and forth on their way to one place or another… but not ponies. Not quite. Yes, there were winged imps, spiky-scaled dragons, and the occasional giant serpent, but by far the vast majority of the inhabitants were nearly ponies, if you ignored the bat-like wings, twisted horns and glowing eyes.

“Are we in Tartarus?” Spike asked. “It looks kind of like Tartarus.”

“I don’t know,” Bon Bon said. “I didn’t really scout around much.”

“Maybe we can ask somepony?” Derpy suggested. “That usually works.”

“Sure,” Moondancer said. “Let’s just walk up and talk to the demon ponies.”

“Then it’s unanimous!” Spike said, sheathing his sword and heading across the square towards the street. “Hey!” he shouted, waving down the pedestrians, “Hey you!”

They got a lot of odd looks from the demon ponies on the street, and the mare they finally approached stared at them in blatant disbelief as they came up to her.

“Hi there!” Derpy said, dashing ahead and holding out a hoof. The demon-mare lifted her own hoof, but instead of clopping against Derpy’s, it split into three clawed toes and latched on, shaking up and down. If she hadn’t been friends with Spike, Derpy might not have recognized the gesture. “My friends and I just got into town and we were wondering, is this Tartarus?”

“No,” the mare said, her voice reverberating strangely as it made its way through her fangs. “Zis is Pandemonium. Vhat… are you? All demons live here, but never haff I zeen ones like you.”

“I’m a pirate!” Derpy said. “Can’t you tell from the eyepatch?”

“I… zee…”

“Do you know where we can find an inn? Maybe a Giant Floating Crystal?” Spike asked. When she just continued to stare at him, he added, “Someplace to rest?”

The demon-pony shrugged, her wings fluttering. “I vas going to ze market later, but ve can go dere now, and find zis place together. All kinds of zings are zold dere, surely rest can be found dere as vell.”

“You really don’t have to,” Moondancer said. “Just pointing us in the right direction would be enough.”

The demon pony tilted her head, and frowned. “You are ze summoner den? To bind me to your vill?” she snapped.

“What?” Moondancer asked.

“She said you don’t have to,” Spike said. “That’s, like, the opposite of binding you, isn’t it?”

The demon scowled. “It implies that she could.”

“I might be able to,” Moondancer said. “I’d need to study the spells first, though.”

“Moondancer, stop talking,” Bon Bon said.

Moondancer stomped a forehoof. “I don’t understand why she’s so touchy! I haven’t done anything.”

The demon’s eyes widened. “Nothing? You deign to permit my actions! Zis is a grave insult.”

“Oh, so it’s weird demon etiquette,” Spike said.

“I think she was just trying to be polite,” Derpy said, moving between the demon and Moondancer before they could start hitting each other. “We’re not from around here so we don’t know how to be polite to demons. But we want to learn!”

“It vould be polite to let us fight,” the demon grumbled.

“Maybe after we find a Giant Floating Crystal?” Spike suggested. “We don’t want her to end up all the way back in Moriaz if she loses.”

Derpy frowned at that, but the demon seemed calmer, so she backed off.

“I vill permit you to live until zen,” the demon said to Moondancer, smiling and showing off her very sharp teeth. “Zat is politeness to you, yes? No?”

“Whatever,” Moondancer said, turning away.

The heroes and their new companion headed down the street towards the city center in uncomfortable silence, for about ten seconds before Spike couldn’t take it anymore.

“So… what’s your name?” he asked the demon-mare.

“Such a forward little dragon!” she said, smiling wide. “Vat vould you pay for such knowledge?”

“What should we call you,” Bon Bon clarified, exasperated.

“Hmmm,” the demon considered, staring off into space for a while. “I cannot resist the pull of your strangeness, even zo it burns my pride. Today, call me Moth.”

===

Moth led them to the marketplace, which was rather bewildering. None of the merchants were selling anything that you might buy in a market on the surface – no food, no clothing, no weapons, not even sundries like rope or nails. Instead, there was a stall advertising nightmares, another supposedly selling memories, and a tiny tent tucked off in a corner whose proprietor claimed to be selling hope. Moth was there for the latter, and in return for exhaling a wisp of emerald light, received a faintly glowing vial, which she jealously tucked away beneath a wing before anypony else could get a good look at it.

“So much for upgrading our equipment,” was Bon Bon’s assessment.

The closest thing to an inn was, as Moth had predicted, a shop selling rest. It had a permanent building, at least, with what could have passed for a skull-and-obsidian-themed tavern in any town on the surface, although there were no other customers, and the shelves behind what would have been the bartender didn’t have anything on them. In the back was the familiar bluish glow of a Giant Floating Crystal, at least.

“Yes! Finally!” Spike said, heading directly for it.

“Wait!” Derpy said, and the others turned to see her still fluttering near the door.

“Come on!” he said, waving her over. “We all have to touch it together.”

“Do we?” Moondancer asked. “The bonds of destiny that link us should be enough to link us all to this crystal. It’s how Derpy’s resurrection spell works.”

“Do you want to test that?” Bon Bon asked.

Moth looked on, confused. “Vat vill touching ze crystal do?”

“It’ll bring us back here when we die, instead of sending us all the way back to Moriaz,” Spike said.

“Ah,” Moth said. “Ve already come back here ven ve die, so ve have no need of it.” She turned towards the shopkeeper. “Vat is zis doing here?”

“It just showed up,” the lizard-like demon behind the counter said, shrugging. “I like it. It’s shiny.”

“Maybe we don’t want to come back here when we die though,” Derpy said. “We don’t even know if there’s a way out.”

“Zere are many ways out,” Moth said. “Take any gate.”

“Cool,” Spike said. “Do any of them lead to the surface?”

“Ze surface of vat?” Moth asked.

“See?” Derpy said. “We don’t need to risk being trapped here anyway. Everypony’s friendly and nopony even wants to fight us –”

“I vant to fight her,” Moth interjected, pointing at Moondancer.

“Most everypony’s friendly,” Spike said. “So what’s the big risk? I mean, we kind of lost the plot by coming down here, but if this is a story-spell we’re trapped in it’ll reroute it to catch us no matter where we are.”

“And if it’s not?” Derpy asked.

“Then there’s probably no way home no matter what we do,” Spike said. “But I’m sure it is!” he added quickly, as Derpy looked like she was about to cry. “Everything’s too convenient for it not to be!”

“It’s like you don’t even care if we ever get home,” Derpy said, pouting.

“I… kind of don’t?” Spike said. “I mean, I have friends I’ll miss but we’ve been having a lot of fun. I’m not in a hurry.”

“I don’t want to stay here forever, but I could do with being ‘trapped’ in an actual city for a while,” Moondancer said. “There’s only one thing I hate more than camping, and that’s climbing mountains. I didn’t know that there was anything I hated more than camping until we had to climb that stupid mountain.” She paused. “I’m lumping ‘wading through lava’ in with the mountain climbing.”

“Staying in one place could help Lyra find us,” Bon Bon said. “She’s got to be here in this world somewhere, and there’s no way she isn’t searching for us. Although… this isn’t really the best place to wait to be found.” She shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll be trapped, though.”

“If you don’t touch it soon, I’m going to fight Moondancer anyvay,” Moth said. “I have been very patient.”

“We have to decide now, then,” Bon Bon said. “Do we checkpoint here, or get sent back to Moriaz? Maybe fail the quest if there’s no other way through, since the mountain is blocked now.”

Moondancer sighed, and closed her eyes for a second. “Derpy, just…” She opened them suddenly. “We won’t be trapped here. I think I know how to get out.”

Derpy hovered over to her. “How?”

“Fire resistance,” she said. “Then we can just fly up the chasm.”

“Oh,” Derpy said. “Okay. I just can’t be trapped here you know? I’ve got Dinky to worry about and Carrot can take care of her for awhile but it’s been a lot longer than awhile and I mean –”

“We won’t be trapped,” Moondancer said. “I promise.”

“Alright,” Derpy said, and landed next to the crystal. Together, they pressed their hooves (and claw) against it, and everything went blue.

When the world came back, Moth looked up from the obsidian table she’d sat down at. “Can ve fight now?”

“Fine,” Moondancer said levitating her staff in front of her. “Everypony stand back.” When the others backed off, she put up a bubble.

Just in time, as Moth wasted no time leaping at her – only to bounce off the bubble and slam awkwardly into some chairs. She shook them off like a dog, and leapt at it again, this time managing to cling to the springy surface. “Raarrr! Even fighting you is frustrating!”

Eventually, she managed to bite and claw at the bubble enough to pop it, at which point Moondancer smacked her in the side of the head with her staff, sending her sprawling again, then took a step back and put up another bubble.

“Woo! Go Moondancer!” Spike said, waving his arms to cheer her on.

“You have my permission to give up at any time,” Moondancer said to the demon, smirking.

Moth’s eyes went flat red, and she started to glow. Faster than the eye could follow, she flung herself towards the bubble headfirst, popping it with her horns – but losing her momentum in the process, leaving herself open for another smack. This time, Moondancer didn’t stop with one blow, whacking the demon over and over each time she tried to get back up.

“Um…” Derpy said, wincing at the sight.

“Stay” *whack* “down!” *whack* Moondancer stood over the twitching demon, pinning her down with a hoof, breathing heavily and brandishing her staff.

Moth coughed, then croaked out, “I yield. Kill me if you vish.”

Moondancer seemed to consider it. Then threw her head in the air with a frustrated growl and backed off. Derpy moved in quickly to offer Moth a muffin.

“Vat is zis?” the demon asked.

“The food of the Goddess!” Derpy said, grinning.

Moth ate it, and soon was able to stand. “You give me mercy. Vat shall I give in return?”

“How about somewhere we can get fire-resistance gear?” Spike suggested. “You’ve been a decent guide so far.”

“Fire what?” asked the shopkeeper, as he set the chairs and tables back in place.

“Fire resistance,” Spike said. “You know, so that you can walk in lava without getting burned?”

“Lava does not burn,” Moth said, looking confused. “Do you mean hellfire?”

“Hellfire?” Moondancer asked.

“It is like fire, except zat it burns,” Moth explained. “Zere is no resistance to it, zo. Zat is vy it is used.”

“We just need to resist normal fire,” Spike said. “I mean, not me, I’m a dragon. But normal fire burns Derpy and Bon Bon there.”

“It would burn me if I didn’t have this armor,” Moondancer said, flicking her tail up to show Moth the leather threaded through it. “It’s made from demon hide.”

“Ah,” Moth said. “I understand. You need to take my hide to make into armor.” She bowed her head, kneeling to Moondancer. “You haff bested me, it is your right.”

“Uh, no,” Spike said. “We need some already made, since we don’t know how to tan hide or make armor.”

“Mmm, a pity,” Moth said, licking her lips as she got back to her hooves. “It has been too long zince I vas flayed.”

That got an awkward silence for a bit, until the shopkeeper chimed in. “Maybe you could check with the cows?” he suggested. “Most of them are into that sort of thing. If anyone knows what to do with flayed demon hide, it’d be them.”

“Ah. I know of zem,” Moth said. “Follow me.”

“Wait –” Moondancer said. “Before we go, I think I’d like to buy some of that rest you sell here. And maybe some ‘cleanliness’ if you’ve got any on tap.”

The shopkeeper tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I think I can scare some up. What are you offering in return?”

“Mercy Muffins?” Derpy suggested, summoning one and hoofing it to him.

He nodded. “You’ve got a deal.”

Comments

[QuartzScale]

This was a good chapter. Glad to see you continuing this. It's one of my favorite stories.

[terrycloth]

9026259
Thanks! I wish I could write faster but I just haven't been able to lately. I just can't force it; I have to wait for some sort of inspiration or else I just end up staring at the screen.

[QuartzScale]

9026331
I get that. I'm more the write stream of consciousness sort of person. As soon as an idea pops up I write down what I thought before I forget. It's what I do for three of the stories I write. The other three require a lot more planning... and a lot of inspiration.

[howard035]

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder.