With a crash two of the tanks went flying out towards a scurrying Spike. Neither had wanted to split up but the terrifying, rampaging monster pony forced their claws. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but like all at the time moments hindsight seemed to slap them down. Discord had already lost the sword in the monster went it managed to pierce the shoulder leaving it hanging limply from the wound. It didn’t care one bit.

“Discord! Little help!” Spike looked back to his time in the Gauntlet of Fire and the crystal spike chambers he went through with Ember. With his small size he managed to weave around the fallen debris easily enough to confuse the Glimmer clone. Though the smashing of glass and the screeching tear of metal left a lot to the desire of calmness.

Discord finally answered the plea by tilting over one of the larger tanks on the side. A quick whistle forced Spike to change course as the monster smashed through everything in its way. As it got into position the tank fumbled over forcing the monster to screech to a halt little too late as the metal top smashed into the monster’s head. Spike took a few gulps of air as Discord slid down from the wall he hung onto. While he was elated at escaping Discord didn’t answer his call for a high five. Instead he stared at where the tank fell while Spike clearly looked on in worry.

“You think it’ll get up?” Spike squeaked out. The fear had taken over his voice forcing the two to start walking towards any other door they could find. The door they had come through had been blocked by the thrown debris from their initial escape attempt.

“Yes.” Discord didn’t even try for his usual flair wanting nothing more than to escape from the monster pony or BOW. ‘Wow that is redundant.’

As they ran away from the fallen tank the sound of torn metal forced them to run faster through the warehouse until they reached another door fitted with large deadbolts and locks. Luckily they were unfastened and made easy to open up.

“Ssssssspppppppiiiiiikkkkkkkeeeeee~!”

“Dddddddiiiiiiisssssssscccccccoooooooorrrrrddddd~!”

They only stopped to look back at the monster when they had opened the door. The coat had been torn off and on the monster pony’s chest was a still beating heart with large arteries going through the body forcing what must have been extra blood to pump through it. It wasted no time and charged forward knocking aside any tanks that were in the way of its straight forward path. The two jumped through the door and began to latch everything shut making sure to get the deadbolts first. Then the locks and finally the latches. The crashing sound forced them back as a large dent appeared in the door. It didn’t stop with that either.

Discord grabbed Spike with his tail lifting him up and tapping him on the stomach with one of his claws. Realizing what he meant Spike prepared himself for the eventual breaking point to appear. A claw tore through the center of the metal door. It was pulled back as the upper torso of the monster managed to force its way through. The claws tried to get in as well only to fall short of their goal and get stuck in place. Almost by convenience the heart was actually visible in the door. Discord held Spike closer and out came a long shimmering emerald flame.

While the monster didn’t writhe or squirm out from the hole it visibly started to slow down tearing through the door. Spike coughed out the last of the flame he could muster as Discord made for the next door leaving behind the monster.

It was hurt. It couldn’t feel some of its extremities anymore. It had to chase them, hunt them down, kill them. Too many orders that needed to be followed but unable to follow them caused it to roar. The cries echoed out through the warehouse and the hall the targets had run down. Then the pressure built up and things shifted. The muscles on each leg rippled and tore through the skin. The claws grew longer and sharper acting as individual digits now for the flatness of the hoof. The heart beat erratically enough to cause the tumors to cover one of its eye as it started to grow to Discord’s size. The the shoulder burst open in a shower of viscera and bone. From the recess now formed a giant eyeball formed. As it pulled out the sword it punched the rest of the door off its hinges. It was free and targets needed to be found.

Discord finally took a break from running letting Spike down when they got far away enough. Three halls and a few miscellaneous rooms later he found something else he had only seen in another dimension. Cradling the object in his paw was gun. The barrel was larger than most he had seen before while the grip had a decent heft to it. It seemed like it had a revolving chamber and reached as far back into his memories as was possible. ‘A revolver, right? Seems this world has this level of weaponry, I suppose.’

Spike coughed a bit more breathing out a small burst of fire to calm his throat. He needed to find some food soon. While he could breathe fire easily enough he wasn’t the greatest pool of stamina in a fight. Food would keep him from losing out on the firepower he needed to keep the zomponies away while they ran. ‘Strangely there hasn’t been anymore monsters since that one tried to chase after us. Are they afraid?’

Neither really spoke again after the constant chasing. Discord was more tired than he thought when he stumbled after taking a step. He had been training a bit after the incident with Chrysalis though to his own chagrin it was not sufficiently enough. This floor had pushed him to the limits of his stamina and patience. ‘Those spheres are up to something. It wasn’t trying hard enough to kill us and I know it means something.’

Spike stumbled around the room woozy from the constant running and began searching through the various drawers for anything to munch on. The shield on his back grew heavier with every step as hunger dictated what he needed to do. While he did find some small baubles they were all cubic zirconia. ‘Ech, Diet food. Who wants to eat something like that.’ His stomach decided to answer for him causing him to down the multiple fakes. ‘Phew… filling but leaves much to be desired like all fake gems.’

Discord found the next doorway just as a crash resounded through the halls. Panic took hold as Spike was grabbed in his tail once again and he ran off through the next door into an atrium. Moonlight spilled through the windows illuminating the multiple plants that occupied the area, Amongst the plants were multiple spiders all the size of Luna crawling towards them. Behind them the crashing got louder and in front of them the chittering of hungry spiders got closer.

“Spike, firepower now.”

“Firepower now?”

“Yes now.”

“You sure now?”

“Spike just do it.” Discord facepawed letting it wash down his face as Spike breathed out flames over any spider that got close. The larger ones seemed to be the most foolish as they charged in to apprehend the new meal. The smaller ones recognizing the flame spewing monster in front of them decided to wisely get as far away as possible. The chittering became screams as the fire enveloped the stupider hunters leaving them charred and dead. Then the crashing came to them.

Right on cue the Glimmer monster came out of the woodwork sporting a new look for the pair to deal with. The crashing alerted something else that came out of the underbrush. A much larger spider with blackened fur covering its entire body stepped out. Parts of its body had been charred slightly allowing smoke to wisp off its body but they were old wounds. The flames that were around it couldn’t even touch the large spider merely licking against it then fading away.

“Spiders are safer.” Spike pointed out as Discord ran directly for the creature while the Glimmer clone chased after. The spider lunged for the first pair only to overshoot its mark and hit the lumbering beast behind them. The clone grabbed the spider’s first two legs and ripped them off only to be bit by the spider who refused to back down even missing two of its legs.

Discord ran off for the far wall as the rest of the spiders came together to attack the other intruder. Threat levels made them negligible for the moment. Smaller spiders grabbed onto the clone and held the arms in place allowing for the larger spider to inject more venom into it. Though the clone hardly broke its stride breaking the spiders that would cling to its arms into pulp. As Discord found the next door out the spiders had managed to get their silk around the clone and drag it off somewhere though it didn’t stop the crunching of exoskeletons from ringing out of the atrium. For the most part they slowed down enough to keep an ear open for any more warnings.

“We’re not going to be having an easy time getting out of here are we?” Spike chimed up while looking at the surroundings. Once again they were in another warehouse fitted with strange metal tubes. All of the tubes held a red cap on one end and fins on the other and were about the size of Discord. Discord merely paled at the sight as he scratched at the walls behind him.

“Horseapples… why are there missiles here? Seriously, what the bucking tartarus is up with today and things that could kill us without my magic around. Spike, no breathing fire unless we’re desperate enough to need an escape.” Discord quickly ran for the next door only to stop when he noticed Spike hadn’t followed.

Spike opened the door behind him and rolled one of those things down to face the door. It was heavy to roll but Spike still had enough energy to push them around unlike Discord who had done all the running for them. He managed to wedge it out into the hallway they ran from. Discord took the cue and gathered the carpets and anything made of wood and stacked it around the missile then with enough care they moved the other missiles into the farthest corners of the room. The crunching sound had gotten louder while skittering and screaming came from further back in the atrium echoing through the empty halls.

“What’s the plan anyways Spike? I feel like this is something you cooked up just because of how I looked when I saw these.” Discord held his gaze at the young purple dragon who seemed to be counting something in his head.

“Well a long time ago one of the experiments that I did with Twi involved a timing charge. Basically she tried to make a small spell charging talisman. It exploded and made a large mess which took me ages to clean up. Well when you said that these things shouldn’t be around fire I thought back to that incident and thought, Hm do these things explode or something? From there I thought if we make a small charge time that would allow us to get a few rooms away then we could maybe stop that thing from chasing after us for a while.” Spike twiddled his claws together uncertain of his plan now based on Discord’s patronizing look.

“They do explode but we’re risking a lot here. I don’t have my magic to protect us and I can’t keep running all day. Even with some workout sessions earlier this week I am nowhere near peak stamina that any natural athlete has-” Discord looked towards the atrium when the screaming had stopped. “Light it now. Now. Now. NOW!”

Spike lit the carpets and boxes on fire as he was grabbed by a tail once again. Discord took off running for the far door. The crushing of wood sounded out again revealing the Glimmer clone sluggishly following after them. Green veins seemed to be pulsing all around its exposed body including the heart. As it ambled closer to the missile the magical fires had reached the casing. The missile did explode but with only a small payload the damage was kept to the hallways and the clone. The clone was torn to shreds as portions of its exposed chest were flailed away and the eye was punctured and lost. One arm was cleanly ripped at the shoulder and the clone laid motionless on the ground.

Two minutes later the clone started to rise again. Black tendrils of biomass tore through the body forcing anything inorganic to act as a new limb while a large pus like sphere took its place as the joint. The tendrils managed to fix the eye portion with another sphere of pus glowing bright orange and standing out amongst the skin left on the creature. The mane had also burnt off leaving nothing but tatters and ash. It shuffled past the destroyed hall which only suffered superficial damage. As it made its way into the hangar it noticed a lot of metal around. Shoving its new tendriled fist into the metal it made itself a large set of blades that spun around like a chainsaw. It was ready.

“Ssssssspppppppiiiiiiiikkkkkkkkkeeeeeee~!”

“Ddddddddddiiiiiiiisssssscccccooooorrrrrdddddd~!”

The pair had made it towards a large staircase leading back up into where the mansion was. Discord had examined the revolver he had noticing that it was fully loaded with one in the chamber ready to go. Six bullets as he remembered from one of the other worlds he had visited in his rampages. Spike had pulled the shield back out in front of him readying it for anything that got in their way. Since Discord had lost his sword they were very limited in their combat strength and Discord remained ill at ease with grappling one of the zomponies. Strangely they had not seen any since they had released the clone after them. At least they assumed it was a clone.

“All the zomponies we’ve seen are made up of the shadows, right? That means maybe the one after us is just what happens when we start clearing out these rooms. Do you think that’s how those jerks are playing this game with us?” Spike tried his best to make small talk. His nerves were frazzled and he needed some levity behind him.

“Probably. That does sound like my M,O. indeed but remember there are two of those jerks. It seems like they are splitting the task up for now while they deal with other things. From what I’ve been able to piece so far they have been trying to deal with all nineteen of us throughout multiple worlds. They have stretched themselves too thin so we are probably being left to whatever plans they prepared beforehand. Most likely the plans came from the harmony one. The chaos one would go right off of instinct causing whatever trouble it could think up. Remember roulette is a favorite of the chaos side. I would guess Harmony is a fan of poker.” Discord voice out his opinions once again. It once again made little sense to Spike, at least, the roulette made sense.

“What do you mean?” Spike’s curiosity was now piqued burning the stress he had built up now that there was something to keep his mind off the horror.

“Harmony, I would guess, enjoys poker because it is an orderly game not left entirely to chance but by how well you can figure out your opponent. Treating it like a psych exam rather than a contest of wits and luck. It plays this way not to win but to see what their opponent will do which it will then counter the next chance it gets. It’s not impulsive and has a lot more patience. Which means that it probably won’t act right away and is watching how we interact and work together in this tumultuous situation.” Discord looked around as they reached the top of the stairs. All that was up there was a large metal door with a small code pad on the side. Discord once again typed the password Starlight had left and the door automatically opened.

They were outside once again under a full moon which seemed to glow orange in the night sky. Surrounding them was a wonder in itself as a large fountain and multiple topiary sculptures surrounded an incredible garden. The fountain strangely enough held the figure of Starlight Glimmer holding a similar weapon to Discord in her muzzle as she reared up ready to strike her front hooves down. She looked confident even in stone. On her neck was a necklace with her cutie mark.

“Looks like Starlight was well liked in her world.” Spike stared in awe at the statue which seemed just as impressive as his in the Crystal Empire. ‘Though it’s not as shiny as mine.’

“We should get going still. It’s nice but we still have her doppelganger, clone, or whatever it is still after us. Though it looks like she’s joining the club with Fluttershy and the others.” Discord pointed at the necklace focusing on it instead of anything else.

Spike nodded slightly proud as he walked further through the garden towards the next door. Discord followed after deciding against drawing a mustache on the stone statue regardless of how amazing it would look. There would be time for that later and he would enjoy it with those friends that he made.

The clone had made it up the stairs. Even with all the damage it had recovered from using its various mutations it was still ambling slowly. As it made it to the garden its eyes locked right on the fountain, specifically, the statue in the center. Whatever was going on through its mind was contorted with it grimace. The blades on it’s tendril arm revved up allowing the blades to easily rotate like a chainsaw as it shot out and tore into the statue decapitating it in one blow. Instead of stopping though it kept tearing the leftover debris to bits. It forced its legs back into place and ran faster through the garden to the next door.

They had heard it. The sound of metal tearing through stone. The screeching had halted them in their tracks within another strangely square room. There were no landmarks or furniture within and the only other door out had Starlight’s cutie mark on it. It wouldn’t open.

“Well that’s just great. We can’t run anymore Spikey-boy. Any bright ideas?” Discord finally readied the revolver pointing it at the door the entered from.

“Don’t die? Seriously though that’s all I got.” Spike took point with the shield he had. He was tiny but if need be the shield could buy him some time to burn whatever tried to attack him. The meal at least had assured him that he would die with a full stomach.

“Now let’s see if we can make it that simple ri-” The door burst open and a large collection of blades bore down against them.

Spike braced his back legs and prepared to at least slow the blades from running them through when the shield started to glow. As soon as the blade impacted against the shield it was blown back into the wall above the door. Discord looked on in awe as he finally felt the magic spark within. While the shield was not magical in any way, shape or form the engraving seemed to be giving off a minute measure of mana. They were jewels empowered by magic most likely harmonic magical energy.

“Looks like we have a chance now. Slim one, but a chance at least.” Discord took aim as the beast lumbered in. A single shot tore through the air hitting the beast in the head. While the head flinched back and the damage looked severe it did nothing to deter it from charging into them.

Discord tumbled to the left while Spike went right. It kept charging most likely due to the impaired vision from the hole in its head and the viscera covering the only good eye it had left. Annoyed, Discord shot the glowing ball of pus that made up its joint. A single shot caused it to pop forcing the arm to come off. The arm acted independently of the body and slithered directly for Spike. The main body went for Discord as new tendrils sprouted from the stump left behind and a dull looking claw took it’s place.

‘Ponyfeathers…’ Spike took steps backwards as the mass of tendrils slunk over to him writhing around in grotesque fashion. Readying his shield he thought he could block the assault only for the tendril to juke him out and strike from his side sending him back towards the entrance door. Spike flew upwards hitting a certain jutting brick on the wall. The impact made him cough and sputter while he tried to regain his breath. The tendrils wasted no time in slithering even faster while he was debilitated.

Discord was faring just a little better. Even though he didn’t have his magic to assist him he was still very flexible. A problem soon arose from the dodging spree when he ran out of room. The claw came up slashing along his chest only making a shallow cut but starting Discord enough to roll off to the side to get away. Blood seeped from the wound even though it barely had grazed him. After he had rolled off to the side he saw something that made him extremely worried. The ceiling had started to slowly descend upon the group. Pulling up the gun again Discord shot at the knees of the beast twice. Four shots used up and the beast fell to its knees slightly incapacitated.

Spike rose to his feet and predicted where the tendrils would strike from. With a little foresight and knowing that the tendrils enjoyed to sucker punch their opponents he managed to stop the swing and struck back by breathing a large red cloud of fire over the mass of tendrils. It started to screech in pain and attempted to get as far away as possible only to find it difficult to move. The flames did their job charring the remains and forcing the mass to diminish into nothing. Spike hadn’t noticed that he had also strode right into the center of the room near where the Glimmer clone had been incapacitated.

Discord darted nearby grabbing and pulling Spike away from the monster just as it forced itself to lunge for Spike. The lunge had managed to force it back towards the entrance door. Meanwhile, the ceiling had managed to reach the halfway point still sliding ever further on top of them. Discord took aim for the shoulder just as the monster prepared to lunge for them once again. While in the air Discord took the shot. Time seemed to slow as the bullet cleared the muzzle at the apex of the jump. Spike, in a moment of clarity blew out as much fire as he possibly could slowing the monster even more as the bullet tore through the other pus filled sphere. Just before the body could impact against them Discord grabbed Spike with his tail picking him up against the body. Spike lifted the shield just as the tendriled claw hit the surface of it. The impact shot through the shield and forced the body above the entrance door where it made a squishy sound and slowly trailed down the wall leaving behind a bloody trail of crushed tissue.

“I-is it… dead?” Spike cautiously asked when he noticed the ceiling was getting closer only ten hooves away from reaching Discord’s head. The monster decided to get back up as it started to mutate once again losing all mobility as it turned into a mass of flesh and teeth held together merely by viscera and shadows.

Discord looked around for any exits due to the entrance now being blocked by the bulbous remains of a very persistent stalker. The walls were all bare and the only secret passage looking mechanism turned out to be a ‘rocks fall, everyone dies’ trap.

“Look!”

Discord turned the direction that Spike’s claw was pointing in as the door with the cutie mark was now glowing. The ceiling was going slower now as the monster used the closer leverage to pull itself towards the pair inch by inch. Discord ran for the door while Spike shot out any fireballs he could muster. Discord shot the last two bullets as well mostly in a vain attempt to seriously wound the beast. It ignored every blow and pulled itself nearer. Discord threw open the door jumping out as the ceiling finally gave way and slammed into the monster crushing it to a fine paste while the pair found themselves in a familiar room.

Freya floated above them while the door behind them disappeared sealed forever with the monster finally taken care or. Freya stared at them silently hovering above their heavily wounded bodies.

Spike let out a muffled voice of affirmation while Discord just nodded tiredly. A glow of pink mist emanated from her and seeped into the wounds they had revitalizing them yet they were still tired and hungry. Freya shot out another beam scanning over the two. Her eyes shined between blue and red before settling back down to pink.

Discord chuckled slightly while Spike waved it off. Discord then noticed that his weapon was gone yet the shield was still around. Then it disintegrated into dust leaving the jewel behind. The room glowed an eerie light as the gem floated to a certain spot on the floor. A beam of light shined out and the gem was absorbed into the ground leaving behind an imprint of the cutie mark in the floor glowing at intermittent times. Freya didn’t even notice and went to work on whatever they needed.

“So Spike care to join the land of the living yet? You shouldn’t look so stiff there. You got a good head on your shoulders and we’ve already made enough heads roll. You really heat up the fans don’t ya? Left them a real burning desire to light up the night huh?” Discord stifled his laughter keeping a smug smirk on his lips. Spike looked up smiling but the annoyance was clear on his face.

“You’ve been waiting to use those since we were in there, weren’t you?” Spike glared at him only allowing a small amount of amusement in his grin.

“Tartarus I’ve been wanting levity since we entered that door but can’t always have a gem ready for the witty one liners and suave dialogue. I am an actor here.” Spike just blinked at the statement utterly confused by what he meant then filed it under the Pinkie clause. ‘Don’t think about it. Thinking about it will only lead to migraines and aneurysms.’

Freya came back shortly afterwards. In her magic she held a plate of a vegetarian delight dish. Sauteed to near perfection the two greedily wolfed down every morsel on the plate. She also gave a small bowl of gems to Spike. The assorted collection of rubies and amethysts soon disappeared as well.

The pair looked up to see the door glowing brightly within the darkened room. On the door was emblazoned a cloud with a red, yellow and blue shaped lightning bolt. The next room was Rainbow Dash’s.

Meanwhile…

Deep within the recesses of the crystal tree and its alternate dimensional space two spheres watched in anticipation at the events around them.

The bright sphere with the glowing blue eye stared down the dark sphere with the glowing red eye. It didn’t speak at first sending more energy into the worlds that it associated with. A lot of the allies they had recruited within the worlds had shown that they were ill equipped to deal with a secondary player in the mix and upped the difficulty for all involved just like the other sphere did with its own worlds.

The dark sphere just laughed at the indignation. It finally finished its task bobbing in the air and checking in on Freya. She was a good attendant and was fully accepting the ‘conditions’ they had given her to survive.

The dark sphere reeled back shaking its body as if to released some form of tension it had. It felt the emotion in its voice take on new life and twist what was a mechanical buzz inside to a steady beat.

The bright sphere seemed to chuckle which went from monotonous to dripping with sarcastic delight. It shook the tension out as well but the eye seemed to betray the worry.

The bright sphere nodded but noticed its quip was ignored. Regardless it started to pour its energy into the room the pair were about to enter creating everything they would need to get past. The dark sphere took the time to create something for them to fight back against the tides of creatures. The plan was going through as perfectly as was possible.

Author's Notes:

So I finished this yesterday but decided to give it some time before posting. Seems like I'll be trying to keep a steady schedule of every 2-4 days between chapters. Watch I say that now and I'm going to lose that interest but I won't I promised myself I would see this to the end.