Nightmare In Minequestria: Book 3 of a Mlp/TC Trilogy

Chapter 11: Strongholds, Of Course

Adam

"Oh my..." Ty trailed off.
The dragon snarled, and smoke puffed out its nostrils.
"Uh...so, c-come here often?" I asked, terrified, to the snarling dragon.
The dragon swung its head in my direction, and bared its teeth, raising its claws above its head. I started to realize that something seemed wrong. Its actions seemed...performed, not genuine. Like it was an act.
"You...you look like a good negotiator. Let's negotiate?" I said to the large dragon, more of a question then a statement.
To my surprise, the dragon stopped baring its teeth and put its claws down. It laid down on its stomach, arms crossed and one hand propping up his chin. He rolled his eyes and spoke, "You guys are far from a threat. What do you want?"
"You are a good negotia-"
"We weren't meaning any harm," Ty cut me off. The dragon raised a scaly brow.
"We...we were sent here. By...uh...actually, I have no idea what that was," Ty admitted, and looked over at me.
"Rarity on crack," I said matter-of-factly.
The dragon blinked. "Rarity?"
"Uh, kind of. We don't know. It was our friend Rarity, but then her eyes went green and she started laughing like an evil villain and green fire was everywhere then we were here and I'm startled," I rambled.
"You're friends with Rarity?" the dragon asked.
"Yeah! We know Rarity. Met her in Equestria. We were ponies at the time. Nice mare. Almost accidentally choked you with your own amulet, right, Adam?" Ty asked me encouragingly.
"Uh...Yeah."
I was on a roll today.
"Adam? Ohh, I know you guys! You were among those seven ponies who were sent to Equestria almost five years ago," the dragon recognized, a lot of his fake hostility gone.
"Yeah. I'm Ty, and this is Adam. Who are you?"
The dragon smiled. "I'm Spike! I, uh, used to be Twilight's assistant."
"Oh yeah, Twilight mentioned you once or twice. Didn't know you were this...big," I said, looking up at the dragon, who was about twice my height when standing up.
"Well...I wasn't this big four years ago," Spike said with a small shrug.
"So, uh, any idea where we are?" Ty asked.
"These tunnels? Nope. Found them a while ago and started to live in them. They're nice and quiet, and no one comes around a lot," Spike explained.
"Follow me, I can show you where I live. Rarity's there, too!"
"WHOA whoa whoa whoa whoa," I exclaimed, holding up my hands. "Did you not hear what we just said? Rarity. Green fire. Bad."
Spike tilted his head. "Yeah, but this is the good Rarity. The amazing one. The non-changeling one."
Something about the way he talked about Rarity made me wonder if dragonxpony relationships were legal in Equestria.
Also-
"Non-changeling?" Ty asked, speaking my exact thoughts.
"Yeah. Rarity and I can explain. Just follow me!" The dragon stood up and began walking down the tunnels. He was big. He was almost twice my height when he stood, and he stood on all fours.
"Should we trust him?" Ty asked me.
"Who else can we trust down here?" I asked with a shrug.
"That rock," Ty said, pointing to a small chunk of stone on the floor.
"Pff. Nobody trusts rocks. Everybody knows they're so quiet because they're planning your slow demise!" I said brightly, kicking the rock down the hall.
"Fine. Dragon it is then," Ty decided, and we followed Spike down the tunnel.
●※●
Several long, crumbling, musty stronghold tunnels later, we arrived at Spike's place, which wouldn't you know it, was the Ender Portal room-or, at least, what would be the Ender Portal room in this stronghold. The thing was, all the lava usually in the room was replaced with stone, most likely cooled, and the portal wasn't activated, obviously. The stone below the portal was holding some kind of nest where Spike probably slept.
"Spike? Is that you?" A familiar voice called, and Rarity appeared from behind the staircase leading up to the dormant portal.
"H-hi Rarity! I'm back, with friends..." Spike greeted, beckoning to us with his tail.
"Adam! Ty! What are you doing here?" Rarity asked concernedly.
Ty glared at the white unicorn while I stood stiffly beside him.
"Erm...are you two alright?" Rarity asked, tilting her head.
Spike looked back and fourth from us to Rarity awkwardly.
"What was wrong with you?!" I exclaimed. Rarity blinked. "Pardon?"
"Rarity, you went all evil and green and took Herobrine's Amulet, do you not remember that?!" Ty asked incredulously.
Rarity's eyes widened. "Oh, dear...d-did she get to you?"
"Define she."
"Shortly after we met up at the statues, I found myself alone, but before I could call out to anyone, I saw a green flash and when I turned to look, another me wad there! Then she surrounded me in green fire, and suddenly I was down here! Luckily, after what seemed like an eternity, I found dear Spike! B-but I didn't know that Rarity was sending others here, too!" Rarity explained.
"So...that Rarity is different from this Rarity?" I asked.
"Yeah! It was probably a Changeling," Spike chimed in.
"Changeling?" Ty asked.
"Evil shape-shifting demon horse that takes the place of others," Spike explained casually.
"Ah."
"Wait...so if you were captured and sent here, and were here all this time, then does that mean the Rarity that's with everyone else right now is a fake?" I asked.
Rarity gasped. "Uh-oh. She's taken my place?" I nodded.
"Do you think changelings took our places, too?" Ty asked.
"Maybe. This is not good," Spike said.
"We need to get out of here. How do we accomplish that?" Ty asked Spike.
The purple dragon blinked. "Uh. That's the thing. That tunnel you were near? The collapsed one? That was the way out."
I sighed. Of course. "I'm guessing you and Rarity were trying to escape when it collapsed?"
"Eyup," Spike confirmed. "I don't really use the tunnel a lot, and I accidentally hit my head on a ceiling brick, so..." he trailed off.
"Well, we could always try and clear the path!" I pointed out.
"True. Let's hope it's not a lot of rubble..." Ty agreed.