Frustrated but determined the two rose from their break and looked around the quarry for any access point into the factory. The entire area seemed to be leaking with oily looking water which pooled into the crevasses that were left behind from what was most likely mining machinery. Spike gritted his teeth from the destruction. The quarry could have had gems which he could have harvested in some fashion to supplement his own gem supply. Rarity’s power did need to be put through its pace most of the time.

“I don’t wanna teleport. Throwing that out there right now before you say anything Discord.” Spike intoned stopping Discord in his tracks from even mentioning his warp ability.

“True. We did just eat and I’d prefer that the meal stays inside me. Still that artifact is somewhere inside that factory. It’s pretty fear inducing isn’t it?” Discord quipped and Spike couldn’t help but think that there was a reference in there somewhere. Taking a deep breath the pair made their way around the edge looking for any paths they could take to get into the facility.

It took several hours of walking just to find a small metal bridge that led into the quarry to a smaller facility below the ruined factory. Discord quietly checked the structural stability of the bridge before Spike could walk on it if only because he wanted to check if it could support his weight. Satisfied, he bravely walked forward leading the pair down into the depth of the side factory. Spike looked over the edge into the pits below noticing that the water was rising albeit slowly and it seemed to grow darker still. The smell in the air also felt off like burning rubber yet nothing was on fire.

“I don’t think this place is safe Discord… Let’s rush through this junk pile before that smell gets to be unbearable. I’m thinking I won’t be able to breath fire here and I don’t know why.” Spike intoned while biting at his claws. His own anxious actions slightly annoyed Discord.

“Spike, you’re a fire breathing dragon. You can survive fire plus I can make chocolate rain wherever I want so a little fire won’t do us any harm. Besides you have ice breath and water breath so there should be no need to worry in the first place.” Discord tutted at Spike waving a talon in his face dismissively.

The door into the building had rusted off it’s hinges and fell onto the floor. The hallway was darkened with only the sight of low level lights flashing off in the distance. Spike took the first step inside while Discord kept an eye out staring around at the decor. Several of the walls had scorch marks while several holes had been torn into the walkways around them. Somehow in the distance several barrels full of oil hung precariously in mid air with no discernible way that they were held up.

“I thought I wouldn’t see true chaos like this in a world like this. No traceable magic yet things are still floating in the air. ‘Sniff…’ It’s so beautiful.” Discord wiped the tear from his cheek while Spike kept his scoff to himself alongside the slight panic at things floating in mid air not making any sense.

“That’s nice and all but maybe we should find that artifact. I’d rather not get blown up if any more of those orangutans show up. Nearly lost my hearing to those explosions… “ Spike muttered out while Discord led the way towards the floating barrels.

“Seriously?”

“Yup. Gotta use those barrels to get forward. This will be fun won’t it?” Discord chuckled darkly as he settled into a low groan. The barrels were really far apart and almost impossible to make the jumps at least regularly. Gripping Spike in his tail Discord reached out for the first barrel and climbed atop it.

“Not too bad so far…”

The second barrel was slightly out of the way but a quick jump allowed the two to make it. Spike was sweating bullets after each jump. Discord ignored the feeling in his gut and how easy it would be to teleport over the gap… mainly because he couldn’t see the place he needed to teleport to. While he was sure it would work the small part of his brain that held his serious side actually managed to convince him that it would end poorly for them.

Seventeen barrels went by with several cotton candy structures between them allowed the pair to make it higher into the facility. Strangely enough there were no enemies to attack them unlike out in the jungle area. That still didn’t make either of them ease up on their stance. The last time they had taken it easy had left them nearly taken out by a possessed skeleton man. After the twentieth barrel the two finally reached a stable platform that didn’t look like it was about to fall into the abyss. Discord gripped the edge pulling the two up onto it and laid haphazardly on the platform breathing heavily while Spike climbed out of his tail and sat on the platform gripping one of the railings as tightly as possible.

“You know… Flight isn’t so bad when you know there’s no chance you’ll fall and be flattened into a pancake…” Discord muttered out as the rainbow mark on his back finished refilling itself.

“I get the feeling… Though that one face off against Sombra taught me to get over heights. Even so… I still don’t like heights. Maybe if I grow up with wings, sure I’d like it, but right now not so much…” Spike wheezed out. The anxiety was going to kill him at this rate and this was the world Vinyl was in. ‘She must be having the time of her life at this point.’

After a few minutes to gather their spines the two pressed on walking out onto a catwalk hovering over the quarry. Somehow they were outside but at the same time there was no light coming for them from the sun nor the moon. Edging slowly across the two noticed that several of the barrels that were floating in mid air were also around the catwalk. The only difference was that they would burst into flames for a few seconds only to retreat back disappearing from the tops of the barrels. The trek across had been led by the fire making the darkness more ominous than it really should have been.

“So we found the broken ones at least right? I know there’s gonna be more now…” Spike groaned as he rubbed his eyes from the frustration. Fire wasn’t the problem. The problem now became getting Discord across without him burning. Even with Ice breath he only had three shots before his body decided that he needed to rest.

“Unfortunately we still need to head that way anyways. Guess we got lucky on the approach now we gotta work on the speed. Dash or Fluttershy would be overkill on this world wouldn’t they?” Discord chuckled and walked ahead feeling the pulse of his artifact from further beyond the door. The closer they got the stronger the pulses felt to him. Several of the platforms they passed didn’t even get near the barrels or lead onto pitfalls. Spike ambled behind him keeping an eye out for anything that could get in their ways.

The darkness had been creeping in once again only instead of silence the two could hear buzzing out in the distance. Spike instantly shot out a fireball into the sky illuminating the entire area. In the flash of light thirty seven bees of various sizes had come out of the cracks in the factory’s walls. The pair of intrepid adventurers didn’t move. The bees were aimlessly buzzing around keeping to small patrol paths.

“We got the chance let’s get further away.” Discord whispered out. Gripping Spike in his tail and pointed up in case of mishaps Discord got on all fours and slithered across the platforms keeping out of range of the lit flames from the oil barrels. Every few seconds a bee would come dangerously close to the platforms and zoom over them yet they couldn’t see the pair. The most horrifying part was that each of the creatures had glowing red eyes showing clear signs of possession. Every couple of seconds one of the bees would spasm in mid air looking like they were falling into the abyss but then they would correct themselves and continue their patrol.

“I don’t think they like being possessed.” Spike muttered out lowly. Those several close calls had gotten him to ready his ice breath. Amongst several of the yellow bees were the nearly invincible red ones seemingly being the commanders of their patrol groups. They directed their groups in tight formations while Spike kept watch.

“They’re starting to make patterns. That group makes an ellipse and that group goes into a letter ‘K’ shape. We’re gonna need to time it for the next one. That last group zig-zags over the entire room and it’s only through sheer luck that it hasn’t seen either of us.” Spike hissed out the plan… a little too loudly. Several of the drones buzzed over their position forcing Discord to hustle past the elliptical group which still didn’t see them.

The darkness had been a blessing throughout tense moments. Several of the bees would keep getting closer only to pass by without seeing the pair. Spike had several moments where he wanted to blast away the bees with his own dragon fire but the sheer size of the hive they were facing made him hesitant. Discord also would move him out of the way whenever they got to close so he wouldn’t have a decent shot.

“Don’t waste your chance. We only have one.” Discord muttered so only Spike could hear. Only three more platforms until they could reach a somewhat lit up doorway. Spike huffed a bit but he knew that they were out numbered. Fluttershy’s power was useful and the only thing that could affect the red bees. The problem was that it could only be used three times to switch and use said breath weapons.

“You’d think they’d give us no limit on our abilities. Think they’re afraid of us?” Spike wondered aloud mostly to distract himself from the buzzing that permeated the air around him.

There were few things that Spike took pride in. Being the savior of the the Crystal Empire was a wonder and delight but at the same time he knew most of the ponies there were hero worshipping him never truly knowing who he was. Though after getting Thorax to be accepted he had personally talked to many of the Crystal ponies just to get to know them on a personal level. Yet, as a dragon Spike wouldn’t minded of being feared like other dragons were, at least, to his enemies, if he had any.

“No. They know we exist and they know what they want with us. We’re playing into their hand in the off chance that we can get lucky enough to surprise them and maybe, just maybe get out of this predicament. We’ve examined our powers and gotten a good grasp on how they work but even then we are skating on really thin ice. It’s enough to make me serious as well. Right now even if we were to go all out and attack them we would maybe last two hours. That’s being generous.” Discord hissed the last part though he kept his voice down. Several bees had strafed through their position and they were still a platform away from the exit.

Spike gulped and thought back to all the monsters they fought. Even at their luckiest the only reason that they survived Zero was that Freya intervened and they only had a single ability each at that point. It had almost killed them. The incident with the space octopus ghost being also had them almost die as well. After that the enemies got somewhat easier with a few twists every time they got complacent. The robots had been tougher than they looked because of the harmony magic that had been affecting their bodies. They knew who to target and when.

“Need you to get ready for ice. We open the door and everything will hear us.” Discord spoke a bit louder as he readied to rush the door. Spike nodded wordlessly and took a deep breath.

A quick jolt moved out of the shadows for the door. The bees took noticed from the noticeable sound of hinges squeaking open and openly raced for the two near it. Discord kept his full strength on the door pushing against the rusty mechanisms that kept it shut. Inch by inch the door opened wider and wider while the buzzing bees got closer. A large deluge of ice shot out hitting several of the bees as Discord stepped through the door. Using his tail he lifted Spike up and aimed him at the door frame. The ice built up creating a large covering of ice while the mark on Spike’s back slowly emptied.

“You can stop now Spike.” Discord spoke normally allowing the small drake to take another breath and relax from forcing that much ice out of his mouth. His lips trembled from the shift in temperature keeping his eyes clenched from the sensation.

“Eberything ib colb.” Spike uttered as the numbness spread through his lips. He had kept his breath trained for at least a minute or so. As his eyes focused on the door he froze to the sight of a large sheet of ice covering the opening. Several stingers were stuck in that ice including the three that were almost directly in front of his eyes.

“Didn’t understand a word you said but I get your point. We’re seeing eye to eye now. Yes the puns were necessary so don’t grouse about it now.” Discord chuckled mercilessly while Spike extricated himself away from the stingers.

“Yeah, yeah. It is to laugh. Ha ha ha… Let’s just hope there aren’t anymore bees. I hate facing bees.” Spike groused regardless of what Discord wanted.

“I’m more surprised you didn’t go ‘ Not the bees! Oh god not the bees!’ then yell as they came to attack us.” Discord pensively stared off into the distance as if reliving one of his many memories. Spike waited till he came back to the land of the living both because being alone was a death sentence whenever a new world was entered and without Discord leading the way he had no idea where the next artifact was located.

Discord shook his head returning back to lucidity and felt around with his paw. There were slight pulses from the artifact but he couldn’t feel where they were exactly coming from. The general direction led him onto another set of platforms hanging over what could be misconstrued as a bottomless pit. The two carefully ambled across the makeshift bridge while Spike mumbled something about the feeling in his lips returning.

“Rarity will be so pleased right Spikey-Wikey.” Discord smirked when the words left his lips. Spike froze instantly and turned red. Sighing more to himself than at the situation Spike took the comment well.

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT! OH LOOK A DOOR!” Spike raced ahead leaving a laughing Discord to catch up. At the door Spike kept his eyes turned away while Discord’s smug smirk was still painted on his face.

“We should talk about it at least once. Guys do that right?” Discord asked sounding almost genuinely curious. Spike took a deep breath and weighed his options. They didn’t have much else to deal with until another enemy appeared and the next room seemed almost similar to the last one they had passed already.

“Fine… well I do like her still but it’s… what’s the word… not as strong as it used to be. I think I stopped looking at the ideal and saw the real pony beneath the glitz and glamour I saw before. That’s not to say that I don’t like her anymore it’s just I know there are other options out there.” Spike admitted out loud shaking his head in disbelief that he actually said it.

“Neat. So Schmarity was just a slip of the tongue then?” Discord rolled his eyes to that revelation. Even he thought that it was weird. Though to him it wasn’t the species barrier that got to him. The problem was more along the lines of them actually having anything in common.

“Yeah.” Spike whispered out forcing Discord to strain his ears just to hear.

“You do know I don’t see how either of you have anything in common right? I mean not just in terms of eventual romance but more along the lines of being compatible in general.” Discord uttered out seriously and looked Spike straight in the eyes so Spike knew he meant what he said.

“You see that too huh?” Spike nonchalantly answered back surprising the draconequus. Discord, not backing down, wondered aloud how he figured it out.

“I wonder who told you that in the first place?” Discord peered up while the two talked down the next platform. The darkness had returned and the intermittent lit barrels were the only source to see where they were going in the first place. Luckily all the platforms had guard railings.

“Myself. After the Gauntlet of Fire I looked back on everything I’ve done with my time in Ponyville. Some moments were more petty than others but every single time I was with Rarity seemed to be filled with work rather than talking with each other. I’m diligent and hard working most of the time but even I prefer to get dirty more often than I want to admit.” Spike mused.

“Seems like you grew up didn’t ya?” Discord showed off a mischievous smile

“Yeah. I wonder what I missed being when I was younger…” Spike despondently responded. So much he wanted to do yet so little time.

The two entered the next room only to balk at the sudden appearance before them. The room was a rounded arena with a strange giant barrel in the center. The barrel seemed to be ruined beyond all conceivable methods of thought. The outer casing had torn and sheared into a mish mash of debris scattered both inside the barrel and outside. In the center of the barrel was a small speaker the same size as Spike. He decided to take the first step forward when Discord stopped him with his tail.

“You know this is a prime arena for a boss battle right? I mean seriously the moment we take a few more steps forward it’s gonna get back up and attack. Not very original if you ask me.” Discord slightly ranted though kept his voice down in case the boss was activated by sound.

“Probably but if that’s the case we should spring the trap and do this to ourselves instead of letting the monsters of this world get the best of us. We have enough firepower to take care of it now right?” Spike looked back at Discord only to see him furrow his brow. Rarely Discord would be serious, very rarely he would be apologetic for following his chaotic tendencies when Fluttershy wasn’t around, and near impossible were the times when he actually looked worried. A worried draconequus meant that the threat was Tirek level bad.

“I’d say we got a sixty-forty shot at this point. We’re the sixty but that’s only because your changeable breath weapon is only reliable when you have a full charge. You choose the right one and we might have a shot. Waste it and we’re mulch. You should charge up some gem shields.” Discord spoke in low tones as he looked over the arena. He could feel the pull of the artifact but something else was mixed in with it.

Spike, heeding his advice, took out six gems and slowly made them into collapsable shields. It took every drop of power from his mark to make them but luckily it didn’t make him too exhausted. Discord kept watching over the destroyed barrel and allowed Spike to rest in his tail. They were both tired but they needed the advantage of a mobile artillery.

“So do we have a plan? Or are we winging it?” Spike dryly pointed out knowing the answer in advance.

“The second obviously. I’m sure you figured out what we were going to do before hand.” Discord retorted in a mockingly offended tone. Then he chuckled before zooming into the arena.

The two of them made it to the barrel without running into any problems. They climbed up into the hole and grabbed the artifact. The barrel remained motionless as well. As they jumped out they turned around to see that the barrel was still destroyed and nothing bad had happened. Confused but optimistic, the two walked for the next door that didn’t lead back to the room with the hive of bees patrolling it.

“Well that was disappointing…” Discord pouted but a part of him kept hold of Spike. He was genre savvy enough to know that sometimes the unexpected happens when you turn your back on the enemy.

“At least we’re not dying? I don’t know actually. I was expecting something… just not this kind of something. Feels like the things that took us have lost their touch.” Spike muttered while keeping his eyes trained on the barrel.

As they reached for the next door it immediately shocked Discord away from it. Chaos magic blew into the room engulfing it in a hazy mist of random happenstance. The pieces from the barrel reformed and reattached to the main body revealing the design of a skull with glowing red eyes and crossbones on it. Even more chaos magic flew into the barrel filling it to the brim before sealing itself off. The barrel floated up into the air and turned to face the pair.

“I can’t tell which ways the front end…” Spike muttered while Discord hastily nodded in agreement.

“I figured it would be something interesting to fight but this seems insulting. It’s just a barrel.” Discord mocked the floating barrel blowing raspberries at it.

For all the harsh words the barrel didn’t react at all. It calmly floated in one spot before disappearing. It reappeared above the pair and instantly slammed down on them. Spike threw up one of his gem shields at the last second causing the barrel to bounce off and giving Discord enough time to jump out of the way.

“I think we shouldn’t mock the barrel…” Spike gritted his teeth and lobbed a trio of fireballs at the now exposed barrel only for them to bounce off.

Before Discord could answer the barrel floating back up and turned upside down and began the shake. From the depths of the chaos magic two figures popped out. They looked very familiar, in fact, they were ponies they both new very well. Out of the barrel came a darkened oil based version of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Without waiting for a reason Discord trapped the oily Rainbow Dash in a cotton candy cloud.

“I’m not dealing with a speed demon again. One robot was enough.” Discord snapped while Spike charged up his flame into a beam and incinerated the copy. The oily Applejack sprung into action and ran towards the two. A quick buck sent Discord back quite a bit and forced Spike out of his tail.

“Oh my aching head…” Spike groaned as he got back to his feet. His head was killing him from the fall. He didn’t get the time to react as Applejack bucked him much harder. He flew quite a ways and slammed into the walls. Luckily, Starlight’s ability kept him from going unconscious. It also left him open to being slammed by the barrel.

“Horseapples…” The impact shook the room.

Discord managed to get back to his feet at that exact moment holding Spike once again in his tail. Spike looked around in confusion. First at Discord then at the copy then at the barrel then back towards Discord until it all made sense.

“Pinkie Sense?” Spike asked.

“Pinkie Sense.” Discord answered.

“Right… Trap the copy please and I’ll burn it out.” Spike pointed at the copy which was now racing towards them.

With a snap of his talons the copy was trapped in a cloud then electrocuted until it actually caught fire. The slick chaos magic burst into cinders and faded from existence. The barrel did the same procedure bursting out three different copies. One was Rarity who was somehow still majestic even though she was made of oil. The other was Fluttershy who jumped high into the air and stared down at the two. The last was Pinkie Pie who merely waved at the two.

“Hi guys look at me I’m made of oil and chaos magic now!” The copy shouted and waved at the two. “Sorry but I gotta take care of you… PARTY HARD STYLE!” The copy somehow cracked her hooves before a blast of fire stopped it.

“No. Just no I’m not ready for that.” Spike scolded the barrel which did absolutely nothing but make him look foolish. It was for his piece of mind.

“Oh what a world, what a world! I’m melting, I’m melting! Well not really silly I’m being turned to ash then being swept away by the cross breeze-” The copy was stopped by the Rarity copy who seemed very annoyed. Unfortunately, that cost the copy it’s form as it burst into flames. It still looked like it accomplished something to be remembered for for ages.

“I’m really glad that their quirks are being useful today.” Discord dubiously snarked feeling a little apprehensive of how simple the foes were being until the barrel tried to slam down on his tail where Spike was at the moment. The timely use of a jewel shield allowed him to jump out of the way.

As they rolled back to a standing position a tornado formed below them and forced them into the air. The Fluttershy clone managed to sweep them up into the air and as they reached the apex of the eye of the storm she slammed the two down on the floor. Her eyes held no warmth at the two bodies rolled off to the side from the impact. Strangely enough they rolled hard enough to avoid being crushed by the barrel again. A quick snap of talons on the copy’s wings stopped that rain of thought then the burst of fire incinerated what was left of the problem.

“ I don’t know how I feel about that…” Discord looked down at his talons while Spike sheepishly brushed the back of his head.

The barrel stopped their talk as it moved faster and chased after the two herding them into the center of the arena. Several slams purposely missed just to get them into the right positions. Not feeling like being bait the two of them fired their abilities with full gusto. The cotton candy did nothing to stop it and the bursts of electricity coalesced around the barrel flying off in random directions. The chaos magic had somehow shielded the barrel from extensive harm. The blasts of fire did better but not by much. While they still slid off the flames ignited some of the oil that was still leaking out of the top. Small cracks reformed in the same place they had repaired earlier. The darkened body and flowing chaos made it impossible to tell if there was any effect.

“This is getting a little ridiculous. How does this thing have better protection than the other two bosses we fought?” Spike groused and complained when the barrel tilted over releasing three more figures. On the left was Starlight somehow sporting her original mane style. On the right what Vinyl Scratch bobbing her head to an unheard beat. In the center was a very pissed off Twilight Sparkle readying her magic. All were made of the same chaos oil.

“Ponyfeathers…” Discord snapped his claws enveloping the Twilight copy only to watch the cloud dissipate from the burst of magic. Spike responded with a fully powered beam of fire courtesy of Applejack, A shield popped up from the other two unicorn copies only to break upon impact incinerating the Twilight copy.

Dazed and confused, Spike stumbled backwards into Discord’s waiting tail. The other copies wasted no time and shot more magic at the two forcing Discord to bound off on all fours again. While he was probably tough enough to tank all the magic at that point he still didn’t like to be hit. Gracefully, he tumbled and weaved around the magic until the Starlight copy levitated it’s own body and flung themselves at the pair. While successful at dodging the physical blow Discord took the brunt of the copy Vinyl’s attack. The barrel nearly hit them again were it not for the intervention of another gem made shield.

“I hate tumbling now…” Spike mustered up his strongest voice but the constant spinning forced it out with a moan of sickness. ‘Shouldn’t have eaten…’ Spike stumbled with his thoughts before steadying himself once again.

“Hurry up with your lunch and get the copy that’s broken on the ground!” Discord yelled out while lifting Spike up a bit. Barely able to manage it Spike burst out with a small blaze and managed to get the copy that was currently buried partially into the ground. It was still trying to force its body back into the fray but the spreading fire turned it to ash.

The Vinyl copy swung back into action and actually attempted to tackle Spike out of Discord’s tail only to fall flat on its face every time. He lifted his tail at the last second every time. After messing around with the copy Spike let loose a torrent of flames burning the copy away.

The barrel took exception to this and chased after the pair. Like the head of a hammer the barrel slammed down on the pair barely missing by a few inches every swing. Discord attempted to trap the barrel in a slab of cotton candy only for the barrel to break off the sticky mess completely spotless. Discord groused at the misuse of chaos magic to be used to make itself clean. Spike, on the other hand, blasted it with flames.

‘Water wouldn’t do anything against it and neither would wind or poison. Ice would be crushed and electricity just bounces off the damn thing. I got nothing left to rely on but fire and Discord still hasn’t tried out the speaker. I’m pretty sure that the artifacts work regardless of whether they’ve given us their marks or not. Still we haven’t even put a scratch on this thing.’ Spike frustratedly whimpered before firing another charged shot at the barrel enveloping it in more fire.

“We’re not doing anything to it at all are we?” Discord muttered as he dodged another blow. The barrel hadn’t tried to make any more oil copies and kept it’s chaos magic trapped within. The field of chaos magic swirling around it did nothing but hide the cracks that had fully reformed on the barrel.

The fight, if it could be called that, raged on. Though at the end of the day it was merely a very long game of keep away. Discord and Spike kept away from the barrel to not die while the barrel didn’t want them living anymore.

“This is getting old real fast…” Spike mused as he flung another fully charged fire beam at the barrel. Finally after several minutes of flames licking the barrel the cracks visibly shattered causing the barrel to slam against the far wall and melt into a pile of slag. Discord fell to the floor as his paws and claws visibly throbbed from the constant escaping while Spike started coughing boisterously as if hacking out a lung.

“I hate fighting magically enhanced bosses…”Spike coughed out. Discord hastily shook his head in affirmative when the door appeared in the arena. With shaky determination Spike managed to pull Discord through the door away from the world they had finished.

“Spike… When you see the jerk who sent us there… Tell them to go buck themselves. To buck themselves so hard that everything is flipped inside out…” Discord moaned before passing out on the ground as the door closed behind them. The hive of bees had finally broken in to find nothing but a destroyed barrel and several piles of incinerated oil.

“Yeah sure… Got it.” Spike croaked in response. Freya floated in and picked the two up depositing them in their respective beds. Spike merely looked annoyed but accepted the bed as an old friend snoring just as loudly as the Lord of Chaos. At the last moment the Speaker that was nearly attached to Discord floated over to the other pillars of light and the mark appeared on his back.

Harmonia radiated an intense light smacking Angra Mainyu for it’s rash behavior. The chaos being merely laughed at it.

Angra Mainyu cackled uproariously exploding with chaos magic that made Harmonia slightly sick even if it had no stomach to be sick with. Rolling it’s eye, Harmonia floated off to check on other things while the chaos got ready to deal with the next world and return the proper order of possession to their little game.

Author's Notes:

Boss is from DKC. The first one. It's from the Kremcroc Industries hub world.