As they stepped through, the air took on a pressure it didn’t have before; Spike winced at the change. It felt almost warm here, and that was something that he didn’t like one bit.

Walking down the claustrophobic tunnel, Spike took a few breaths to try and calm himself, the world feeling alien, predatory.

“You’re ok,” Pinkie encouraged, not a question, but a statement of fact.

“Yeah,” he reflexively said, grateful at the words, frustrated that he was always keeping the others held back. Even know he could see the small flicks of concern between the others as they each spared him a glance in turn.

He wanted to be a man. Be as dependable as Jack was and strong like her too. But he wasn’t sure if he could. Or if he could, it’d be years from now, years after Jack, after Rarity, after Pinkie were gone and buried. There he’d be, a king of ashes. His body wouldn’t catch up with his mind for years, the longevity of his half-blood feeling more like a curse every day he lived with it.

They came to a split in the tunnel’s path. Jack looked between the two possible points and shut her eyes for a moment. There was the faintest breeze to their right and she nodded, confirming that was their direction.

“Why’d you…?” Spike asked; Jack answered, seeming to predict the boy.

“Other way I think’s a dead end, if no air's passin' through. This way’ll maybe lead us ta a door.”

“Oh.”

Spike had a feeling of wrongness, stronger in him now as they pushed forward, base instincts screaming at him to think. Something was wrong. Something that he couldn’t figure out.

When his foot depressed farther into the hard ground, the alarm was so loud within him that he instinctively jerked backwards, colliding with Pinkie.

Just ahead of him the floor gave away, opening like a door from either side of the corridor and revealed a set of barbed spikes a few feet down below. Jack let out a surprised swear; only her lightning reflexes let her twist and grab the edge of the path with her hand as she nearly fell in. Rarity was by her side instantly, reaching down to help hoist the woman up. As she was pulled back on her feet there was a deafening groan of metal, the two flaps slowly rose up together, growing flush with one last loud click.

Jack nearly slumped to the ground in relief, taking deep breaths to calm herself down after the near-miss.

“You’re fine,” Rarity reassured, worry in her tone despite the words. “You’re fine.”

“I’m sorry,” Spike blurted out. “This was, I did it. I was thinking about traps even though we’re not supposed to be thinking of anything and—”

“Ain’t yer fault. Don’t ya worry ‘bout it,” Jack said, taking in one more breath before regaining her legs. “It was bound ta be one of us, surprised it wasn’t me first.”

“We’ll simply take things slower here on out,” Celestia said, giving a gesture to the orb of light she was traveling with and letting it rise more to the ceiling. “Keep your light lower, Rarity.”

The soul-folk nodded, following through with Celestia’s orders and inching the light along the stone floor.

“What should I do?” Spike asked.

“Mirror our footsteps,” Jack instructed. “An’ listen.”

The dragon-folk sighed, but nodded in agreement to the words, her suggestion complementing his thoughts from earlier.

He was powerless here.

Do you have to be? a voice, not his own, rang to life within his head, the intrusion so instant and alien that he paused mid-step as the others began to press ahead further within the cave.

I know the blood that pumps in your heart. The seed you grew from. There is no need to hide away, dragon.

“Who’s there?” Spike blurted out, turning behind him then glancing at the ceiling. Darkness there, nothing more.

Pinkie, lagging a bit behind the other three herself, overhead him and gave a smile that was reassuring.

“Nobody, silly,” she exclaimed. “You’re just hearing things.”

Correct things, It said from… wherever it resided.

“You two catch up!” Jack’s unmistakable drawl called. They shared a look and ran towards her voice.

“But we gotta be careful!” Pinkie whined, holding onto Spike’s arm and watching her own steps as best she could.

The tunnel turned sharply left and then opened into a room with dozens of raised points on the ground, each about a foot’s width across. Past that, a pit filled with darkness and a ivy rope hanging from a rafter above.

“This is lookin’ more an’ more like those Duran Du books Dash reads,” Jack commented.

“Thankfully we have someone that doesn’t have issues with conjuring wings here,” Rarity said, giving a nod in agreement.

A pause from the group and Rarity looked them over.

“What?” the soul-folk asked with a scoff, looking towards the ground in disdain, “every book I’ve read has Duran under some curse or injury that stops her from conjuring her wings. She’s almost as grounded as Chylene, the poor dear. At least here we have Celestia.”

“So instead of one person being grounded, we have four!” Pinkie replied, beaming at Rarity.

“Four that can be hauled,” Jack replied, crossing her arms and looking across the pit. “If her highness is willin’.”

“I suppose going from a ruler to a ferry is quite the promotion,” the all-folk in question remarked, her genuine smile cutting back on the dry tone her words held. She shut her eyes and out from her back erupted a pair of beautiful dove wings, haunting within the divine luminescence they held, more beautiful than any normal sky-folk’s wings. She gave a flap of them and easily floated above the ground.

Spike blinked. “So we’re just passing this by?”

Jack scratched at her neck. “We got the means ta. If ya ain’t cheatin’, boy, ya ain’t tryin’.”

“Cheating kinda means it’s all a game anyway.” Pinkie glanced around at the darkness that threatened to envelop them. “And this ain’t no game I’ve ever played.”

This could all be a game to you, The Voice, It, remarked, disdain obvious at Spike. Just use it.

“I can’t,” Spike muttered. To himself? To whatever was speaking to him? He didn’t know, he felt like he was walking inside a cloud, everything seemed weightless and heavy at the same time. He had never been blackout drunk, but he assumed it was probably something like this.

“What was that, Spike?” Pinkie asked, hopping down to meet his eyes, dimples forming in her cheeks. “We’ll be fine, don’t you worry! Celestia’s powerful enough to carry all of us and then some!”

And you could be more powerful still.

He ignored Pinkie, instead waiting for the words, The Voice, to finish a thought that seemed to toy with him, pulling Spike along like a puppet on a string.

You wouldn’t have to worry about hurting anyone. If you had the grail.

Spike froze, realizing how true that was.

If he had the grail, or Celestia shared its powers with him, he could get rid of his taint. Or discover a way to ensure that alterations to his body when he transformed wouldn’t mean alterations to his mind. He could be as strong and as brave as anyone he knew without fear of hurting people. Of hurting Diane.

It was so simple, he felt stupid that it just now dawned on him how Celestia housing the grail could benefit him too.

On seeing Pinkie still looking at him, he gave a nod, not even focused on what she had said earlier.

“Great!” Pinkie chirped, rising and ruffling Spike’s hair with the motion. Turning, she gave Celestia a thumbs up along with a wink. “We’re ready when you are!”

“Then we’ll start with you, Spike,” Celestia said. She held out her hand to the boy; he took it and with one lift of her wings she was off, carrying him across the raised grounds and past the pit, before putting him safely on the ground. Her hand lingered on his and she bent her back, coming to meet his face, where she tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear.

“I’m proud of you,” she remarked from no provocation of Spike’s own.

“What was that for?” he asked, a bit embarrassed at the doting of the all-folk.

“A bit of everything, Spike. A bit of everything.” With that she moved to the edge of the ground, leaving Spike with his thoughts for a moment longer, the consideration of the grail all but swallowing him whole now in his single-minded need for it.

“Our turn now?!” Pinkie called out from across the pit, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Celestia nodded, lifting herself into the air and making her way to the others with one flap of her majestic wings.

Farther into the darkness, Spike caught sight of something he hadn’t until now. A door, black as midnight, and he approached it, gripping its knob surely in his hands, no longer timid on what needed to be done. As soon as the others came, he twisted it and stepped through.