> Dragon’s Odyssey
>  by GrumpyMonk97
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Waking Dreams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every night, it’s the same dream. Spike looks around, seeing Canterlot under siege, ponies running and screaming. He knows what he has to do; get to the castle and regroup with Twilight and the others. But he barely has the strength to stand, and his vision is blurry and unfocused. He stumbles towards the castle using what little strength he has until he trips on his own feet, falling face first into the dirt.

“Twilight. I’m… sorry.” He choked out weakly. As he slowly began to lose consciousness, he could faintly hear her calling out as a blinding flash of light erupts into the sky. 

“Spike! Spike!”

“Spike.”

Spike heard a different but still familiar voice calling his name now. He awoke with a start and saw Smolder standing above him, having been the one who shook him awake.

“It’s dawn. We’re getting ready to head out.”

“Right.” He exhaled shakily as he rose to his feet, trying his best to keep the dream out of his mind. It was times like this that Princess Luna’s counsel would have been invaluable, but alas, he’d have to make due with what he had.

One day at a time I guess. Spike thought to himself as he threw on his cloak and followed Smolder out of the cave where they had made camp for the night. It was an overcast day as he stepped outside, a light breeze brushing against his face.

“Garble and Ember already went on ahead. Ember wanted to get a lay of the land before we got moving.” Smolder told him as they moved ahead towards their designated meeting spot.

“She find anything interesting?”

“Guess we’ll find out when we get there.” 

A blanket of silence fell over the duo as they walked. Smolder decided to be the one who broke the ice.

“So, you get any sleep?”

“Not a lot, but I’ll manage.” Spike replied.

“It seemed like you were having a pretty rough dream. Was it about…that day?” Smolder asked with a hint of concern. She could tell that Spike hadn’t been the same since what happened. He looked surprised at first but he steadied himself and turned to answer.

“All of us lost something that day. Wasn’t just me.”

“Sure, we all lost friends.” She paused as she remembered her friends and classmates from the School of Friendship with a heavy heart. “But Twilight and her friends, they were practically family to you. I can’t imagine how that feels.”

Spike gave it some thought. He had been by Twilight’s side ever since she hatched him from his egg. He saw her as a big sister, and her family became his family. And over time, as she got to know the ponies who would become her best friends, they became a part of his family too.

“Yeah. They were practically family. Which is why we’ve gotta do everything we can to set this right. For Twilight, and everypony we lost that day.”

Smolder nodded in affirmation at his declaration. They eventually came upon a cliffside looking out onto the horizon. Spike saw Garble seated on the ground, lightly tapping on his set of bongo drums. He smiled slightly to himself at the memory of the day he found out Garble liked poetry. After that day, he had become much more kind, actually becoming one of Spike’s most trusted friends.

“Oh, hey Spike.” Garble said as Spike approached him.

“Hey Garble. Getting some good rhymes in?”

“Figured it’d help lift the mood, ya know?”

“Aww. You’re so thoughtful Gar Gar.” Smolder said as she playfully punched him in the shoulder. Spike turned and saw Ember looking out on the horizon, the Blood Stone Scepter planted into the ground next to her. After Canterlot fell, Ember had offered Spike shelter in the Dragon Lands. It took a long time to get the Dragon Lands back in order, after which Spike had convinced Ember that they needed to find out who was responsible for causing the pony kinds to turn on each other.

“How we looking Ember?” Spike asked.

Ember kept her focus on the horizon.

“At this pace, we should reach Abyssinia just before midday.” Ember replied as she yanked the Scepter out of its perch and rested it on her shoulder.

“You sure the Cats are gonna be any help?” Garble asked as they all gathered together and started to walk.

“Ever since King Meowmeow got deposed, the Abyssinians have been a lot more friendly. Silverstream always talked about visiting Abyssinia. Said it would be the most adorable field trip ever.” Smolder paused for a moment as she remembered her old friend. She had no idea if she’d made it out of Canterlot or not. Garble placed a comforting hand on his sister’s shoulder and gave her a reassuring nod.

“Well then, we’ve just gotta talk to whoever’s in charge over there now. Maybe they can give us a clue as to how this happened, and potentially help point us in the direction of any survivors.” Ember stated. Smolder looked at Ember confused.

“Why aren’t we flying there? It’d certainly make the trip shorter.”

“Ever since Tartarus got blown wide open, all kinds of crazy creatures have been roaming around. It may not be safe to fly in these parts.”

“Besides, you’ve always been a slow flyer Smolder.” Garble playfully teased his sister.

“Now just hold on a minute!” Smolder and Garble started to roughhouse as Ember tried to maintain peace between them.

Spike, meanwhile, just kept his gaze fixated ahead, only partially paying attention to the chatter from his companions as they continued their trek to Abyssinia. His thoughts drifted back to when he and Twilight first arrived in Ponyville. He remembered how much Twilight stressed about planning for the Summer Sun Celebration that year, meeting everypony involved with the various facets of the festival, and ultimately taking up residence in the Golden Oak Library. He chuckled to himself when he remembered the surprise party Pinkie had thrown for her in the library. She managed to get all the ponies in Ponyville involved. Later that night Twilight had stated, and he quotes, “all the ponies in this town are crazy!” He smiled to himself at the memory but soon the smile faded and was replaced with a look of solemn determination.

We’ll fix this Twilight. I promise.

As he hardened his resolve, the four travelers continued their journey, hoping to find some answers as to how the pony kinds turned on each other, and the identity of the mysterious saboteur behind it all.
> Chapter 2: Path Revealed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had begun to lightly rain as the group continued their journey to Abyssinia. The lack of flight certainly made the journey more difficult, but Ember was right; now that they didn’t have Tartarus to keep the evil creatures contained, the land would be a lot more dangerous. The rain picked up a bit more, which made the cloaks they were wearing all the more useful.

“Man, not being able to fly here is killing me.” Garble grumbled.

“It shouldn’t be much farther now.” Ember told the group as they could see the gates of Panthera just on the horizon. 

Suddenly, a large shadow was cast over the group. Turning to see what it was, they scatter when they are set upon by a Manticore, in which they just narrowly manage to avoid the creature’s assault.

“Aww seriously?!” Smolder exclaimed as the group picked themselves up from the dirt. As the Manticore charged them, Spike managed to catch its jaws before it was able to bite down on him. He gives the Manticore a swift punch to the face, forcing it to stumble back. The Manticore manages to regain its composure and goes to swipe at Spike with its claws but is suddenly knocked off balance when Garble slams into its side with his shoulder. Smolder unleashes a stream of fire breath to keep it pinned down but it suddenly flicks its long scorpion-like tail, sending out a fan of poison thorns that everyone just barely manages to avoid.

“Watch out for the tail!” Ember shouts as the Manticore lunges to take a bite at her. She takes flight to avoid the bite and comes back down, slamming the Blood Stone Scepter into the Manticore’s head. The Manticore then grabs the Scepter in its teeth and attempts to take flight with Ember still holding on.

“Oh no you don’t!” Ember grunts as she kicks the Manticore in the face. After a few swift kicks force it to let go of the Scepter, Spike flies up and wraps his arms around the Manticore’s neck. The two of them struggle for a while in the air before the Manticore nosedives and slams Spike into a large stone, fracturing it apart. Spike drops to one knee in pain, and as the Manticore prepares to take a bite out of him, it is suddenly hit with metal restraints around its muzzle, legs, and wings. Looking up, the group sees a group of Abyssinians surround them and the Manticore. One of them, who Spike assumed was the leader of this troupe, approached them. He was a tabby cat with light brown fur, black stripes across his body, and yellowish green eyes.

“That was a close one.” He said before turning to Ember.

“I am Benga, captain of the royal guard of Panthera. Dragon Lord Ember, the king has been expecting you. Come with me, and I will take you to him.”

Ember gave him a nod and the group began to follow. Spike saw the rest of the guard begin to properly detain the Manticore as Benga led them through the gates into Panthera, capital of Abyssinia. Unlike Equestria, Abyssinia seemed to be doing quite well. Spike saw different Cats having conversations, eating meals, and generally going about their business as they followed Benga to the royal palace. Spike’s thoughts drifted back to a time long ago…

Several moons earlier:

Spike made his way through the palace towards Twilight’s throne room. He had just arrived back in Canterlot from a conference in the Dragon Lands. Ember had taken notice that there was some division among the pony kinds and had called a conference of all the Dragons to discuss if this division would end up impacting the Dragon Lands. Spike assured her that everything would be fine, but he wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince Ember or himself. He stopped and took a deep breath just outside the throne room.

We’ll find out soon enough.

As he opened the doors that led to the throne room, he saw Twilight talking to Gallus, captain of the guard. He couldn’t help but see just how much she reminded him of Princess Celestia right now. 

“It’s been pretty wild in both Ponyville and Canterlot. I’ve had the guards trying to keep things peaceful, but even they’re starting to buy into this nonsense.” Gallus reported.

“Thank you Gallus. Just keep doing what you can.” Twilight responded.

Gallus nodded and turned to leave. He and Spike gave acknowledging nods to each other before Gallus departed from the throne room. Twilight gave out an exasperated sigh before turning to Spike.

“It’s good to have you back Spike. As you can see, things have been a teeny bit crazy around here.” 

“I can imagine. Ember was pretty worried about it too.”

Twilight descended the ramp that led up to her throne and began to pace back and forth, a habit Spike knew all too well as her trying to parse her thoughts.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s been causing all of this. It’s like the pony kinds don’t trust each other anymore.”

Spike gave it some thought.

“Come to think of it, I remember Fluttershy talking about an incident she had in Ponyville not too long ago. It had something to do with this new pony causing a ruckus at the market, saying something along the lines of “unicorns have better things to do than wait in line.” I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it.”

Twilight looked concerned. She remembered just how shocked Fluttershy had been by that incident. Now that she thought about it, everything had been going topsy turvey ever since that incident.

“What’re you thinking Twilight?”

“I’m thinking we need to get everypony here and figure this out, before it’s too late.”

Present:

Spike’s mind returned to the present as the group finally made it to the royal palace. They had made a few stops first, with Benga having to deliver reports and whatnot, and they had decided to stop at one of the local restaurants in town, seeing as they had been walking for hours and had finally exhausted their rations.

“The throne room is on the top floor.” Benga said as the group followed him inside.

“So, whaddya think the king of Abyssinia is like?” Garble wondered aloud.

“I heard he’s really kind and noble. Even gave up his crown to protect his people when the Storm King came knocking.” Smolder answered.

“Ooh, someone’s turning into a bookworm.” Gabrle teased before Smolder grabbed the scruff of his cloak. 

“Watch it buddy.”

Spike and Ember chuckled as Benga led them to the throne room. Opening the doors, the group saw a cat with jet black fur, green eyes, and a purple cape on sitting upon a beautifully ornate throne. Talking to him is a female cat with similar black fur, yellow eyes, and a purple dress on who the group assumed was the Queen. She nodded towards Benga before taking her leave, and Benga stepped ahead to begin a formal declaration. 

“Now presenting his Majesty, King Challa, current sovereign of the throne of Abyssinia. My king, presenting Dragon Lord Ember and her entourage.”

“Entourage?” Garble wondered aloud in confusion.

Ember elbowed him in the gut before she gave a courteous bow, with the rest of the group following suit. King Challa rose from his throne and gave a warm smile and a respectful bow of his own.

“Dragon Lord Ember. It’s been too long. How are things in the Dragon Lands?”

“It took a while, but we managed to get everything back in order.”

“That is good to hear. Though I take it this is not a social visit.”

The group gave each other concerned looks as Ember looked to Spike, who stepped forward with purpose. 

“King Challa, we’re trying to investigate what it is that caused the pony kinds to turn against each other, and possibly search for any survivors of Canterlot’s fall. We thought you might have some insight into that.” Spike told the king, trying his best to keep his emotions in check. Challa rested his paw on his chin in thought before he shook his head.

“Apologies my friend. We haven’t seen any ponies around here for some time. Though, I may have an idea of where to find the answers you seek.”

Challa motioned for them to follow him to a map display in the corner of the room. 

“I’ve heard whispers that the boss of Klugetown may have answers about Equestria’s fall.”

“You mean we gotta get our answers out of Verko? I bet that two bit con artist would try to pawn off our scales first chance he got.”Smolder said with an incredulous look.

“Not Verko. He was removed from power some time ago. From what I’ve heard, the new boss of Klugetown is a mysterious figure known only as the Overmare.” Challa responded.

Spike looked to Challa in disbelief.

“The Overmare? So they’re a pony?”

“I’m not sure. It could just be a name. But be warned, Klugetown has become even more dangerous recently. You’ll have to really watch your backs when you get there.” Challa said with concern.

The four dragons looked to each other as they took in this new information. 

“Oh we gotta check this out. It could be the big break we’ve been waiting for.” Garble said with a toothy grin.

“Oh yeah, who put you in charge all of a sudden?” Ember said with a wicked grin of her own. Garble tried to sputter out a response as Smolder bust out laughing at her brother’s predicament. Spike gave a soft chuckle at the scene before him. He felt very fortunate to have found friends that were still with him in this time. 

Even difficult paths can be made easier with good friends, huh Twilight?

King Challa then clapped his paws together.

“Well, I’m sure you must all be tired from your journey. You are more than welcome to spend tonight here, and you can set out in the morning.”

“That’s very generous of you.” Spike responded with a slight nod. 

“I’ll have one of the guards show you to some of our guest rooms.”

Not even a moment later, a guard appeared and began guiding them to their rooms. One by one, they all turned in for the night until it was down to just Spike. The guard stood off to the side as they made it to the door of the room he’d be occupying. Spike gave him an acknowledging nod and entered the room. As the door closed behind him, he breathed out a heavy sigh.

“Guess I’d better try and get some sleep.”
> Chapter 3: Road to Klugetown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spike shot upright in his bed as he awakened. He breathed out a sigh as he realized that he had been dreaming again. He rubbed his eyes and stretched out his wings as he looked around, remembering that he was still in the royal palace in Abyssinia.

Beats sleeping in a cave.

He threw on his cloak and exited the room, making his way through the halls of the castle until he met up with the others in the foyer. He saw Ember talking with Benga, who issued an order to some of the guards as they took their leave.

“Look who finally decided to join us.” Smolder said sarcastically as she nudged Spike in the side. Benga gave a slight bow to the group.

“I trust you all slept well?”

“Well enough, I suppose.” Spike responded as he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck.

“Good. Since you’re about to head out, I’ve taken the liberty of having the guards fetch some rations for you. It’s going to be a long journey.” Benga said.

“Here’s a question. How’re we gonna go about getting to Klugetown?” Smolder asked as she crossed her arms.

“We’ll walk until we reach the edge of Halflinger Grove, and then we’ll have to fly across the sea to Klugetown.” Ember responded.

“Let’s hope there’s not a Roc or something waiting for us.” Spike stated flatly. He remembered the first time he dealt with a Roc and shuttered. Thank Celestia that Twilight and Zecora were so resourceful.

“Even if there is, we could just beat it up, like we did with that Manticore yesterday.” Garble said with a grin as he pounded his fist into his hand. Benga gave a soft chuckle.

“There’s certainly never a dull moment with Dragons is there?”

Everyone started to laugh as the guards returned with their rations. After loading up and making sure they have everything they need, Benga leads them to the gates of the city. Ember turns to him and extends a hand.

“Guess this is where we part ways. Thanks for all your help Benga. And give my regards to King Challa.”

Benga doesn’t turn to her at first, instead looking out upon the horizon. When he does, he gives a small smile.

“The King ordered me to take a few guards and scout out the surrounding areas for potential survivors. And since it’s dangerous out there, it’d be safer if we traveled together. Guess you’re stuck with me for a little while longer Dragon Lord.”

Ember looks confused but gives a slight grin of her own. “I suppose we are. Whaddya say guys?”

“I’m game.” Smolder retorted with a short wave. Spike simply nodded in agreement while Garble put an arm around Benga’s shoulder.

“If we get attacked, I hope you’re gonna be able to pull your weight in the fight.”

Benga gave Garble a cheeky grin. “Let’s not forget who saved who from the Manticore. My weight will be pulled just fine.”

Garble let out a hearty laugh. “I like this guy! Let’s roll!”

And with that, the group set out across the land. They walked for what felt like hours, and eventually they decided to make camp for the night. As everycreature settled in for the night, one guard noticed something on their watch.

“What is that?” The guard wondered aloud. He focused his sapphire blue eyes on a strange object in the sky. At first he thought it was nothing, until it started heading right for them. He unsheathed his sword and took a defensive position, but it was too late as the creature snatched him up effortlessly and carried him away, his screams awakening the rest of the camp. As everyone jolted awake, more of those creatures descended upon them. 

“Harpies! Everycreature get ready!” Benga shouted as he drew twin sabers from his side. Spike looked to the sky and saw them; flying creatures with bat like wings, razor sharp talons, and long serrated beaks. He remembered Twilight saying that Celestia had once told her about vicious and predatory harpies were.

That’s an understatement.

One of the harpies landed in front of Spike and let out a shrill shriek. It lunged forward with frightening speed and sunk its beak into Spike’s arm as he brought it up to block. Luckily, his thick dragon scales prevented it from doing any real damage, though it still stung a bit. He responded with a swift punch to the harpy’s abdomen, which caused it to let go. It responded by taking a swipe with its talons, which Spike countered by belting out a stream of green fire. It managed to burn away part of one of its wings as it shrieked in pain. More of them descended onto the camp, as one in particular went for Ember, coveting the Blood Stone Scepter as a prize. As it reached out for the Scepter, Ember twirled it in her claws and delivered a powerful swing to its face. As another harpy landed next to Ember, she jabbed it with butt of the Scepter and followed it up by slamming the head of the Scepter down on the harpy’s head with all her might. As one of them went for Smolder, she grabbed it by the throat, lifted it up, and slammed it into the dirt. She let out a stream of flame at another who came charging at her from the air and bringing down both fists on the head of another who came for her. Garble had three harpies on him at once, one on each arm and one clinging to his back. He batted one away with his right arm, punched the one on his left arm, and then propelled himself directly backwards with his wings, slamming with great force into a rock behind him, causing the third harpy to slough off his back. Meanwhile, Benga was surrounded by several harpies, all chirping and shrieking at the prospect of fresh prey. As they began their assault however, Benga twirled his twin sabers with lethal skill, doing flips and twirls as he avoided their onslaught. Their numbers whittled down one by one, until eventually there was only two left. They both took to the air, thinking they had the advantage, but Benga leaped upward and flung both sabers like boomerangs through the air, cutting down both remaining harpies in the process. He landed on the ground in a tripod pose, raising both paws up to catch his sabers. As the battle came to an end, the group took stock of the situation.

“Is everycreature alright?” Ember asked as she looked to everyone who was left.

“Unfortunately, we lost a few soldiers in the initial strike.” Benga responded as he sheathed his sabers. “Many more were injured. I’ll tend to their injuries as best as I can, but in the meantime, we should try to get some rest.”

And with that, everycreature did their best to get some rest, as dawn was still quite a ways off. Smolder, however, found it difficult to quiet her mind. She got up and went over to the fire they had made for the night and saw her brother also sitting next to it, lightly tapping away on his bongo drums. 

“Couldn’t sleep either? That’s the first time we’ve had to fight harpies. It was pretty intense.” Garble said with a slight grin while tapping on the bongos lightly. Smolder said nothing as she just looked vacantly into the fire. Garble’s grin slowly faded to a look of concern when he saw his sister’s expression.

“Hey, you ok? You normally don’t get this shaken up.” He asked as he set his bongos aside. Smolder closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

“It’s just, I can’t help but think about my friends. Even if they got out of Canterlot okay, they’d have to face things like what we just fought. They may not have been prepared. I’m… I’m scared for them.” As Smolder recalled her old friends; Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus, Gallus, and Silverstream, it became harder for her to fight back her emotions. Garble pulled his sister into a firm hug.

“If they’re even half as tough as you, I’m sure they did just fine. But beside that, why didn’t you say anything sooner?” 

“We have an important job to do. We need to be focused.” Smolder responded.

Garble chuckled slightly as he gave his sister a noogie.

“That doesn’t mean hide your problems you dork. You and Spike convinced me to give this whole “friendship” thing a shot, and I gotta say, it hasn’t been that bad. So just tell me if you’re having problems alright?”

Smolder laughed before smacking her brother in the chest.

“Deal.”

Unbeknownst to them, Spike was still awake and had been listening to their conversation. He had no idea this situation had such an effect on Smolder, and he felt bad for not noticing it sooner. His thoughts drifted to all his friends; Twilight and her friends, Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst, Thorax, and so many others. He had no idea what became of them after Canterlot’s fall, and with that thought his resolve hardened as he drifted off to sleep.

We’re going to set this right. No matter what.

Morning soon came, and the group set out once again. Benga had managed to patch up the wounded but had decided to get them back to Panthera for proper treatment.

“Well, I guess it’s goodbye. For real this time. Thanks for all your help Benga.” Ember said as she held out her hand. Benga took it and gave a firm shake.

“You never know. Maybe I’ll catch up with you somewhere down the line.” He said with a sly wink. “Take care, and may you all be safe on your travels.”

Benga turned and took his leave with the rest of his troupe. After parting ways, the dragons walked for a while longer until they reached a cliff overlooking the sea.

“Alright everyone. Ready?” Ember asked as she stretched out her wings.

“Born ready.” Garble retorted with a grin. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” He then took off into the air. Smolder called after him and took off herself. Spike and Ember just looked to each other, chuckled and shook their heads as they too ascended. They flew for quite a while, with Ember occasionally swooping down to run her hand through the water. As they continued to fly, the sky began to grow darker, symbolizing they they were fast approaching Klugetown.

“We should be close now. Get ready!” Ember called to the rest of the group. All of a sudden, Spike was caught by a net and dragged down to solid ground. The others saw this and descended to try and help but they were caught in similar nets and tied up. Spike looked around to see who was responsible, when he saw standing above him a creature with white fur, big muscular arms, and armor covering his body, complete with a mask adorning his face that had strange markings on it. It was carrying what looked like a spear in one of its giant hands.

“A… Storm Creature?” Spike wondered aloud. The creature struck Spike in the temple with the butt of the spear, and suddenly the world went dark.
> Chapter 4: Bloodsport
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Past:

Spike walked through the School of Friendship, taking in all the sights and sounds of the various classrooms and students who were roaming about the halls. Many waved and greeted him politely, which he returned in kind. He had just returned from a conference at the Changeling Hive, and while it was good to see Thorax again, the meetings were boring as can be, and he was certainly glad to be back in Ponyville. He had decided to stop by for something, or rather, somepony. He made his way through the halls until he came to a particular classroom where he found just the pony he was looking for; Sweetie Belle, who was organizing documents at her desk as her students were flooding out of the classroom, her most recent class having just ended. He gave a knock at her door.

“Guess who?” He said as he crossed his arms and leaned up against the doorframe. Sweetie Belle turned and saw him, a big smile creeping up her muzzle.

“Spike!” She exclaimed as she ran over and wrapped him up in a hug. “When did you get back?”

“Just now. Thought I’d drop in and see how everypony’s doing.” 

Sweetie Belle went back over to her desk to finish reorganizing its contents. “Have you gotten a chance to see Starlight and Sunburst yet?”

“I actually just came from their office. Glad to see some things never change.” Spike said

“Ain’t that the truth.” Sweetie Belle stated with a sassy expression. They both laughed at the moment.

“So I actually had something I wanted to ask you.” Spike said as he rubbed the back of his head. He had no idea why he was so nervous all of a sudden. “Are uh, are you free later?”

“Mayyybe. What’s up? Sweetie Belle asked as her curiosity had now been piqued.

“I’ve got some time before I have to be back in Canterlot. I was thinking we could, I don’t know, grab dinner? Maybe go for a stroll in the park afterwards?”

Sweetie Belle giggled as a light blush lit up her muzzle. “My last class ends at 4. Whaddya say we meet up afterwards.”

Spike smiled. “I’ll be there.”

The Present:

Spike began to stir awake as he could tell he was being dragged. He looked and saw two Storm Creatures, each holding him by one of his arms. Eventually, the two guards tossed him into a cage and slammed the door shut behind him. He groaned as he picked himself up from the dirt and looked around for his companions.

“Ember? Garble? Smolder? You there?” He called out, his voice echoing off the walls. He saw someone lift up their head from one of the other cages, and he recognized it as Garble.

“Spike? There you are, man. What happened?”

“I don’t know. It looks like we got ambushed when we got across the sea.” Spike recalled as he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening. 

“This wasn’t exactly the welcoming I’d imagined.” Spike turned and saw another cage that contained Smolder, who was sitting up against the bars of her cage.

“Guess King Challa wasn’t kidding about Klugetown huh?” Ember stated flatly as Spike saw her sitting in yet another separate cage.

“Thank Celestia you’re all okay.” Spike said with relief. “We need to get out of here and find the Overmare.”

“You seek the Overmare?” The group heard an unfamiliar voice call out. They saw a bird like creature sitting in the cage next to Ember with his back turned to them. “They say only those the Overmare deems worthy gain an audience, though nocreature has been able to do that in quite some time. Better get used to life down here in these cages, or get ready to be just another stain on the sands.”

As soon as he said that, the group heard thunderous applause and cheering coming from directly above them. They all looked to each other with concern at the gravity of their situation. Suddenly, the door to the room opened and those Storm Creature guards came back. They were accompanied by a fish like creature who wore a nicely pressed suit and had a pin with a sun like crest emblazoned upon it, which come to think of it looked similar to the symbol painted on the guards’ mask and armor. He rubbed his chin looking over his potential prospects.

“There. The purple one.” The guards grunted to each other in a gutteral language as they opened Spike’s cage and dragged him out by the back of his neck. He struggled against them before they delivered a swift punch to his gut and threw him down onto the ground. 

“Ooh, this one’s got some fight in him. He outta give the crowd a good show.” The bookie stated with excitement. The guards then picked him up began to shove him out of the room. Spike looked back and briefly saw the rest of his group before the door to the cage room slammed shut. He could hear the cheering of the crowd getting louder as the guards led him to an open room with a large metal door. The door behind him closed as he could hear the announcer hyping up the crowd. Eventually, the metal door opened as he walked out into a large open arena and saw bright lights, a stark contrast to the dimly lit corridors he was just being led through. All around him, Spike could see waves upon waves of creatures of all kinds yelling and cheering, ready to see the spectacle that was about to unfold.

“Ladies and gentlecreatures, it’s time for a new challenger to step into the arena! So put your assorted appendages together as we find out if our scaly friend has what it takes to survive against the terrifying, the deadly, Big Braunheim!”

As the crowd erupted into cheers, Spike saw on the opposite side of the arena another large metal door open. His opponent slowly lumbered out, until it eventually stood to its full height. Spike looked shocked as he saw the curved, knarled horns, grey fur, and a singular eye as he realized he was about to fight an Arimaspi, and a pretty angry looking one at that. Meanwhile, the other dragons had been shoved into a large open holding area with other prisoners to spectate the match, and they looked similarly shocked at Spike’s opponent.

“Are you ready!?” The announcer called out as the crowd went wild once again. With the sound of a gong, Big Braunheim charged towards Spike with frightening speed. He managed to just barely roll out of the way as the Arimaspi slammed into the wall. Spike sprinted forward and jumped up to deliver a solid blow to Braunheim’s face. The creature shrugged it off and swatted him away with its giant paw, Spike skipping across the ground in the process. Picking himself up from the dirt, he rolled to the side as Braunheim slammed both fists into the ground. Spike countered by using his wings to propel himself forward and slamming into the back of Braunheim’s knee. His wings then lifted him up to deliver a solid knee into Braunheim’s chin. The crowd was completely ecstatic at this point, their cheers practically echoing off of the walls of Klugetown itself. Braunheim responded by grabbing Spike in his paw and slamming him into the ground, then proceeding to deliver solid punch after solid punch, leaving quite a sizable crater in the ground. Spike could feel himself slowly start to lose consciousness from the beating he took. His memory started to flash to different points in his life; helping to save the Crystal Empire, meeting other dragons for the first time, being appointed Twilight’s royal advisor, asking Sweetie Belle to dinner… he had been able to make all these memories because Equestria was at peace, a peace that didn’t exist anymore. He knew that he had to survive, no matter what, so that he could set everything right. For Twilight, for his friends, for everyone!With that thought, he caught Braunheim’s fist before he could land another blow, and unleashed a torrent of flame right into his face. As Braunheim staggered back, Spike got up from the dirt, launched himself forward, and pummeled Braunheim right in the chest with a lightning fast flurry of blows. He jumped up into the air, grabbed Braunheim by his horns, and did a front flip, flinging Braunheim into the wall of the arena, making a huge crashing sound and leaving the wall weakened and crumbling. Braunheim collapsed after that and was officially out, no longer moving. Spike let out a loud scream, releasing all the pent up rage and anger he had held inside for so long. Ember, Smolder, and Garble were all completely speechless; they had never seen something like that from Spike. The crowd was silent for a moment before they began to cheer, possibly louder than they ever have before.

“Well now, that was quite a spectacle wasn’t it folks? Looks like we’ve got a promising new champion for the arena!” The announcer let out excitedly at the potential profit Spike could bring in as their champion.

“I’m not gonna be your plaything! None of us are!” Spike yelled out as he ran over to where the others were spectating from, having been where he tossed Braunheim and now the wall was weak.

“C’mon guys, we’re outta here!” He said as he helped them pull away some of the rubble so that they could get free. All four of them now stood together in the arena as it started to fill up with guards. The group fought them off as they began their assault. Garble caught two guards at once and clapped their heads together, Smolder punched one off to the side and kneed another in their gut before throwing them across the arena, Ember did a backflip kick on another as it charged her and let out a stream of flame as more charged her, and Spike was throwing punches left and right at the guards who continued to pour in.

“Enough!” A loud voice came from above them, and suddenly all of the fighting ceased. The dragons looked to where the voice came from, and could only see a silhouette as the arena lights shined down on them intensely.

A pony? Spike thought to himself as he could only vaguely make out the figure who had called out.

“Bring them to my office.” The figure told the guards, clearly annoyed at the situation. Suddenly, the group found themselves being shoved to the ground and clapped in irons, having being taken by surprise in the momentary confusion. The crowd had finally started to calm down after what they’d just witnessed, and the four dragons found themselves being taken out of the arena and through the streets of Klugetown. Any passersby gave a wide berth as they saw the enchained dragons being escorted by a large group of guards. Eventually, they came to a large tower in the center of the city, easily the largest building in Klugetown. They went in through the back entrance and up a private elevator. It felt like forever as the elevator ascended to the tower’s zenith, but eventually the doors opened and the guards shoved the dragons into the room. They fell face-first onto the floor in front of a large desk with a chair that had its back turned to them. 

“So, care to explain why you’re causing trouble in my town?” The chair swirled around and the dragons all saw a pony with a pink coat, golden eyes and mane, and a pronounced unicorn horn on her head. Spike’s jaw dropped wide open when he looked upon her.

“No way. Luster Dawn?!” Spike couldn’t believe his eyes. Luster Dawn, Twilight’s foremost student, was the Overmare. She did look a little bit different, as Spike now saw that she had quite a large, pronounced scar running over her right eye and across the bridge of her nose down to her left cheek. She also carried herself differently, as she was no longer the timid, studious unicorn who studied under Twilight. She carried herself with grace and dominance, and her eyes held no fear now, as it was clear to everycreature in this room that she was the absolute authority in Klugetown. Her stern expression briefly dropped to one of surprise as she saw the dragon before her.

“Spike?!” Luster Dawn stated aghast, never expecting to have seen the dragon again.

“You two know each other?” Ember asked as she chaffed against the iron cuffs.

“Yeah. She was Twilight’s student back when she was in charge of Equestria. Had a bit to learn about friendship. It was a whole musical number, you’d have love it.” Spike quipped as he threw Ember a slight grin. Ember gagged a bit at the thought of ponies singing about their feelings. Not really her style.

“Well, it’s good to see you again Spike but I have to repeat my earlier question. Why are you and your little entourage causing trouble in my town?” Luster Dawn asked as she leaned back in her chair.

“I don’t know. Care to explain why you had us tossed in cages to fight for sport?” Smolder snarled. She and Luster locked eyes, clearing not being fans of each other given how the first impressions went.

“My guards can get a bit eh, overzealous when it comes to looking for new talent.” She picked up a device from her desk, tapped on it a few times, and spoke into it.

“It’s me. Tell Torok that Braunheim’s not gonna cut it anymore. We’ll sort it out later, just tell the guards to make sure the current contestants don’t get any funny ideas. We can’t afford any kind of mutiny.” She tapped on the device once more and set it back down on her desk and turned to look at the group once again.

“Well, thanks to all of you, my arena needs a new champion.”

“What do you mean?” Spike asked quizzically.

“Klugetown doesn’t fund itself. Creatures come to the arena for a spectacle, and the better the spectacle, the more likely they are to spend their coin. And the four of you may just be the shot in the arm this place needs. Get them out of here.” Luster responded as she motioned to the guards, who dragged the dragons to their feet and started to lead them out of the office.

“Spike, you know this pony right? Think you could get us out of this? I don’t know about you, but I ain’t exactly down for getting roped into a gladiator pit!” Garble exclaimed as they all tried struggling against the guards.

“Luster, what happened to you? You know this isn’t right. Do you think Twilight be proud of what you’re doing here?” Spike called out desperately. Luster then ordered the guards to stop. She turned the chair back around to face the dragons, and Spike could see something different in her eyes now; a mixture of anger and hurt.

“Would she be proud? Would she be proud?! I did what I had to in order to survive. When that day came, I lost everypony I cared about. Mom, Dad, Twilight, you… So I realized that the only one I had to look out for was me, and I had to climb to the top by any means necessary, even if it meant fashioning a ladder from the bones of my enemies. And besides, what good did friendship do in the end? All that pony had to do was whisper a few falsehoods in the ears of anypony who would listen, and all of Equestria fell apart.” Spike’s eyes widened at the last statement of Luster’s speech.

“Wait. You know something, don’t you? About the pony who caused this collapse. Please Luster, I need to find out who she is and how she did this. We have to set this right, for Twilight.” The guards looked to each other before looking to Luster to see what they should do. Luster Dawn thought about it for a moment before letting out a big sigh, rubbing her temples with her hooves.

“Tell you what, I’ll consider this matter settled if you do something for me. More specifically, I need something retrieved.”

The dragons all looked to each other quizzically before Garble spoke up.

“When you say “retrieved”, we talking like a heist or something?”

“Exactly.” Luster Dawn opened up a map before turning back to look at the group with a devious smile. “The four of you are going to be breaking into the Midnight Castle.”
> Chapter 5: The Heist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the dragons were completely caught off guard by Luster Dawn’s declaration. Garble tried to play it cool and clapped his hands together.

“Break into the Midnight Castle. Great! What is that?” Garble inquired.

“The crown jewel of a far off land. The current lord of those lands recently came into possession of a very interesting artifact, one that I am eager to claim for myself.” Luster Dawn explained. She tapped a few times on her device and it projected an image of said artifact; a spherical glass orb, about the size of a buckball. Smolder raised an eyebrow as she saw the object.

“You want us to fetch you a ball? What’s so special about it?” 

It’s enough to clear your debt immediately. That alone should tell you of its importance.” Luster Dawn said as she shot Smolder a devious grin. Smolder frowned before sticking out her tongue at Luster Dawn. Ember elbowed Smolder in the ribs for her display.

“Guess we’re doing this then.” Spike yawned as he stretched and popped some of his joints in the process.

“One last thing.” Luster Dawn stated as motioned to one of the guards. Suddenly, the guards all slapped strange looking collars around their necks.

“Hey! What gives?” Ember snarled as she clawed at the guard who had just fastened the collar securely around her neck. Spike saw that the collars had a strange red gemstone in the center that pulsed and hummed with a faint glow.

“These are to make sure you don’t wander off task. Stray too far” Luster flipped open a panel on her desk, revealing a bright red button. “And I have those collars take off your heads.”

“Is this really necessary?” Spike groaned as he tugged at the collar. The guard hadn’t exactly been gentle when putting them on.

“Call it an insurance policy. And besides, those collars will also help us stay in contact while you pull off the job.” Luster Dawn pointed out. Spike looked bewildered as Luster tapped on her portable device and sound came out of the collar. 

“How’d you come up with stuff like this?” He wondered aloud.

“Ever since ponies lost their magic, I’ve had to get creative.” Luster Dawn answered.

“Anything else you wanna let us know? I’d prefer not to have anymore surprises like this.” Ember stated with a sneer, clearing not hiding her contempt for the situation.

“Can’t say I do Dragon Lord. On your way now. You have work to do.” Luster Dawn said as she waved them off. With that, the group reluctantly set off to complete their task. It was a day and a half journey to the northwest of Klugetown to get to the Midnight Castle. They alternated between walking and flying, not wanting to stay in the air for too long as to not risk running into any dangerous creatures from Tartarus still roaming the land. As night fell on the first day of the journey, they decided to make camp for the night. As they had finished setting up, Spike and Smolder noticed that Garble and Ember were nowhere to be seen.

“Where could they have wandered off to?” Smolder wondered aloud as she finished making the fire.

“Not sure. I’ll go take a look around.” Spike responded. Looking around, he heard the familiar sound of those bongo drums that Garble always used. He took a peak around a rock and saw something he never expected to see; Garble and Ember were sitting together, Garble tapping lightly on the drums teaching her a new piece of poetry he had come up with. Ember recited part of it before fumbling it, and actually giggled before they both burst into laughter, pushing and shoving each other playfully. Spike was caught off guard, as he had never seen Ember so casual and relaxed before. He knew that she had asked Garble to teach her poetry, and he guessed that in the process, the two of them had become rather close. They certainly seemed on more intimate terms than he remembered. He figured that he didn’t need to hang around and ruin the moment so he made his way back to Smolder and sat down in front of the fire.

“You find em?” Smolder asked as she cocked her head to the side confused.

“I did, but they were in the middle of some “alone time” so to speak, so I just let them be.” Spike answered with a slight smile. Smolder rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Of course they are. Oh well, guess they’ll be back eventually.” Spike chuckled at Smolder’s reaction. He laid on his back, looking up to the sky. To his surprise, he could actually see stars out tonight, as they were far from the murky skies of Klugetown at this point. A few comets flew by in the sky, and seeing them made him think of an old memory, from a time long past…

The Past:

The sun had begun to set as Spike and Sweetie Belle strolled through the park, the street lights starting to flicker on. Sweetie Belle was in the midst of telling a story about an incident at the School of Friendship.

“So there I was, teaching my class like normal when all of a sudden, a giant tree bursts through the wall. And there’s Apple Bloom and all she has to say is “at least now we know what not to do.” They both burst out laughing at the story.

“Oh boy. Apple Bloom, what a character.” Spike managed to get out after the laughter started to subside.

“Starlight wasn’t too thrilled. It took a few weeks to fully repair the wall that Apple Bloom’s newly grown tree knocked out but hey, it was a valuable learning experience.” Sweetie Belle responded with a cheeky grin. Spike took notice of the fact that it had started to get dark, and that caused him to remember the final thing he needed in order to cap off the night.

“Oh yeah. I have something I wanna show you. Close your eyes, and hold on tight.”

“Hold on tight? What do you me- ahhh!” Sweetie Belle yelled out as Spike suddenly scooped her up in his arms and took flight. She let out a happy laugh as the wind rushed past them. Spike could see various denizens of Ponyville below as he flew overhead, eventually landing on a hilltop overlooking all of Ponyville, and with a clear view of the night sky as well. He set Sweetie Belle down and sat down next to her.

“Okay, open your eyes.” He told her softly. Sweetie Belle looked around and saw where they were. She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head in confusion.

“What’s all this about Spike?” She asked.

“Just watch.” Spike said with a soft chuckle. At that moment, the night sky lit up with a soft glow as a meteor shower began. Sweetie Belle gasped and put her hooves to her lips, recognizing it as the once in a lifetime meteor shower she read about in that astrology book Twilight had lent her a while back, the one she had been wanting to see for forever.

“Spike. You remembered.” Sweetie Belle said happily. She felt like she was on Cloud Nine right now.

“Of course. I knew this was really important to you. So, whaddya think? Good, right?” Spike asked while rubbing the back of his head. Sweetie Belle responded by giving him a kiss on the cheek and laying her head on his shoulder.

“The best.” She said with a giggle. Spike put his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“That’s good to hear.”

The Present:

Spike smiled to himself at the memory. That was one of the best days of his life, and one that he’ll cherish forever. He sat up and looked into the fire, his smile fading to a look of anger as he remembered the mysterious alicorn who had caused all this calamity. Her actions ruined not only his happiness, but the happiness of everyone in Equestria. He thought of those who had lost friends, family, loved ones. He thought of the conversation he overheard between Smolder and Garble; about how torn up Smolder was at having lost her friends. And though they didn’t show it, he was sure Ember and Garble carried their own burdens of hurt over what happened. Spike clenched his hands into fists.

It’s my responsibility to avenge them. All of them. I’ll find out who you are, and when I do, you’re mine.

Morning soon came, and Spike was actually the first to awaken for once, having found it difficult to quiet his mind. He saw that the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon, and he saw the last embers of the fire they had made the previous night flickering out. As he stood up and stretched, he saw his compatriots spread out across their camp; Smolder had curled up next to the fire, clutching a small rock in her claws. Garble and Ember were leaned up against a larger stone, cuddled up to each other for support. Spike cracked a small smile at the display; he would have to remember to tease Garble about it later, if Smolder didn’t beat him to it. Speaking of which, Smolder stirred and finally awakened, stretching out before jolting in surprise at seeing Spike standing there.

“Well this is a first. Sleeping Beauty actually wakes up early for a change.” Smolder said sarcastically.

“Haha, very funny.” Spike shot back with his own snark. They both laughed at the small moment. As the sun rose higher into the sky, Ember and Garble both finally awakened and saw Spike and Smolder both looking at them with sly grins on their faces.

“Morning you two.” Smolder teased as her grin grew even bigger. They both fumbled to try and explain the situation, both of their faces lit up brightly by blush. Smolder burst out laughing at their reaction while Spike gave out a soft chuckle. Ember buried her face into Garble’s shoulder.

“How long have you known?” She let out softly, still somewhat embarrassed.

“Since last night. Didn’t wanna ruin the moment.” Spike stated with a smirk. “But seriously, I’m happy for you two.” Ember and Garble looked to each other, Garble giving a big toothy grin and Ember giving a smile of her own, both having gotten over their embarrassment and embracing the choice they’ve made. Suddenly, their collars gave out a static noise before they heard the familiar voice of Luster Dawn come through.

“Touching stuff, but you’ve still got a ways to go before your debt’s cleared. Get a move on.” They had no idea how she could tell where they were or what they were doing, but they decided it was best not to question it. The group set out, with Ember ripping the Blood Stone Scepter out of its perch in the ground. The journey was surprisingly uneventful, as they at least expected to be attacked by monsters or something, though they figured many defenses were fortified around the Castle itself. It was about midday when they finally reached a hill that overlooked the Midnight Castle. Their assumption from before was correct; the Castle was heavily fortified, with guards posted everywhere. Spike tapped on his collar a few times before speaking.

“Alright Luster, we’re here. Now what?”

“It’d be best to wait until nightfall. There’s a back entrance that the guards almost never use, so you should be able to slip in undetected.” Luster Dawn answered.

“Anything we should know about who runs this place?” Ember inquired as she took stock of the guards. Some were centaurs and gargoyles, but she noticed there were a lot of minotaurs.

“The current lord of the Castle is a minotaur named Obsidias. Real piece of work. Back in the day, he and his warband became servants of Tirek after witnessing his power. Tirek left him in charge of this stronghold when he and Scorpan left for Equestria. Also, he has an unnaturally high hatred of dragons.” Luster Dawn explained.

“Lovely.” Smolder retorted with an eye roll. “Send four dragons right into the lair of a guy who hates dragons. What could possibly go wrong?”

“The item you’re looking for is in the deep vaults of the Castle, so you’ll want to search the lower levels.” Luster Dawn continued. “Remember, you do this for me, and I’ll honor my end of our agreement.” The four looked to each other and all nodded in agreement, understanding the task ahead of them. Eventually, night fell over the land, and the four dragons decided to make their move. Making their way around to the back, they saw that there was indeed an entrance that didn’t have much security save for one guard.

“I got this.” Garble told them as he cracked his knuckles. He flew upwards and did a dive bomb onto the guard, knocking him out before he could react. He motioned to his compatriots that the coast was clear, and they made their way inside the Castle proper. The gothic architecture gave off a heavy sense of foreboding, so they made sure to take extra care in avoiding detection. As they made their way through the Castle’s interior, they saw more guards patrolling the corridors. They made sure to duck in and out of the shadows to avoid detection as they made their way to the lower levels of the Castle. Eventually, they came upon a large vault door that was sealed shut, as it seemed that they had found their target. 

“How are we gonna get this door open?” Garble asked as he scratched his head. Spike looked around until he saw two statues facing each other, one of Scorpan and one of Tirek. There was a riddle on a plaque between the statues; the power of the brothers united forges the key that opens the way. Spike suddenly got an idea.

“Garble, gimme a hand with these. Ember, get the Scepter ready.” Spike said as he motioned to the statues. Garble raised an eyebrow but did as requested, grabbing the base of the statue of Scorpan while Spike did the same for the statue of Tirek. Ember readied the Scepter as Spike and Garble rotated the statues to face the vault door. Once they were locked in place, arcane energy started to emanate from the statues, and Ember raised the Blood Stone Scepter into the air.

“Garble, Smolder, keep a lookout for the guards. Something tells me that as soon as we pop this thing open, they’re gonna come running, so we’ll have to move fast.” Spike gestured to the door they entered through. Garble and Smolder nodded in agreement as they moved to block the door. The arcane energy in the statues then shot outward and was directed into the Blood Stone Scepter. Ember struggled to maintain her composure as the powerful arcane energy coursed into the Scepter. Once it was absorbed, she turned around and aimed the Scepter at the vault door, blasting the energy outward and into the large rune on the center of the door, which caused the whole room to ring out with a loud ringing sound. Eventually, the rune on the vault door lit up and unlocked as the door slowly parted to reveal the contents inside. Spike entered the vault and saw gold, jewels, treasures from various lands, and most disturbingly, various dragon skulls set upon various shelves lining the walls. Spike shook it off and eventually set eyes on the object they were seeking; a buckball size glass orb, sitting ominously on a pedestal in the center of the room. 

“Guys, there’s a bunch of guards on their way here. We gotta move!” Garble called from the doorway. Spike ran forward to grab the orb from its pedestal and ran out to rejoin the others.

“Got it. Let’s go!” Spike told them as they made their way out. They found themselves running into a wall of guards however, weapons at the ready. Both groups stared each other down for what felt like forever, until one of the guards let out a fearsome war cry and charged the four dragons. One of the guards took a swing at Spike with a battle axe but he caught his arm before the swing could connect, drove a knee into his gut, and threw a punch into the guard’s face. Ember had two guards on her at once, both gargoyles. They both swung with curved swords that she managed to block with the Scepter. She thrust their blades back and let out a jet stream of fire at one of them, which singed his face and caused him to recoil in pain. The other guard brought up her blade to strike again but Ember swatted it away with the Scepter, tripped her legs out from under her, and bashed her in the face with the head of the Scepter. Smolder was on the back of a centaur guard with her arms holding him in a chokehold. He desperately tried to buck her off his back but she held steady, bringing an elbow down onto his head and driving him into the ground. Garble was locked in a hold with a minotaur guard as they both had each other’s hands locked down. Garble eventually gave him a swift headbutt before giving him a strong kick to the chest.

“This way, quick!” Spike yelled to all of them as they rushed out into another hallway. From the balcony above, a minotaur threw a javelin that Garble had just barely managed to avoid. He saw other guards up on the balcony taking aim with similar javelins.

“These guys are mine.” Smolder stated confidently as she flew up with blinding speed, dropkicking the minotaur guard in the face. Springing back to her feet, she used her wings to propel herself forward and catch a gargoyle guard by the face and throw her at another minotaur guard across the way. She picked up a stray javelin from the ground and chucked it at the last guard standing. It speared right through the wall next to him and left a bit of a crack, catching him off guard just long enough for Smolder to dash forward and ram him straight into the wall, leaving him motionless. The other dragons were completely speechless at how quickly all of that unfolded. Garble gave a thumbs up.

“Nice moves sis.”

“Thanks. Rainbow Dash taught me a thing or two about using your wings to your advantage.” She called down with a cheeky grin. She jumped off the balcony to rejoin the others.

“Hurry, we’ve gotta get out of here before anyone else-“ Before Spike could finish his sentence, he got bashed directly in the face by a rather large centaur guard with a shield as he turned the corner. Spike staggered back as he saw the centaur with a shield in his left hand and a double bladed sword in his right. The guard scraped the blade across the shield as an intimidation tactic.

“Spike, gimme a boost.” Garble called as she charged forward. Spike used his hands to springboard Garble into the air. He then proceeded to divebomb directly downwards onto the guard. He managed to block Garble’s blow with his shield but was too distracted to see Spike running towards him. The guard swung out with his twin blade but Spike slid underneath the blow, leapt back up into the air, and brought his leg down onto the centaur’s back, causing him to crumple down onto the ground. Garble brought his knee up into the centaur’s chin, causing him to be knocked down completely. They stopped to catch their breath for a moment, and Garble gave Spike a high five.

“Solid work, man!” Spike gave him a grin while still catching his breath. Unbeknownst to them, the centaur guard had started to recover and chucked his shield like a frisbee at the back of Garble’s head. Before he could turn around to react, Ember parried the shield with the Scepter and used its head to hit it right back at him, ricocheting it off his head and putting him down for the count. Garble put a hand over his heart.

“Be still my heart. I think I’m in love.”

“You can thank me later.” Ember gave back with a wink.

“Guys. Escape now, flirt later!” Smolder groaned. They all ran for the Castle’s front entrance, pushing the doors open and making their way outside. They were suddenly stopped by an army of guards that had begun to encircle them. They all stood back to back, getting ready to fight as hard as they could to get out of this.

“So, a bunch of filthy dragons are the ones who broke into my treasure vault.” A voice called out to them. The group saw a large minotaur saunter out of the Castle, decorated in ornate armor with dragon skulls as pauldrons. They saw two large, thick horns protruding from his head, and his right eye was blinded and had scars over it. In his hand, he held a menacing looking spiked mace which he rested on his shoulder.

“Obsidias, I presume?” Ember asked, still on the defensive with all the guards surrounding them.

“In the flesh. I see my legend proceeds me. Well, no matter. Because you won’t be leaving here alive. Especially not with that.” He stated as he pointed his mace towards the item that Spike had in his possession. He also noticed the Blood Stone Scepter in Ember’s claws.

“The Blood Stone Scepter. That’ll make a brilliant centerpiece for my collection. That, and the skull of a bonafide Dragon Lord. Hahaha!” He bellowed out a hearty laugh as the other guards joined in. “Kill them.” He motioned to his guards as they moved in for the kill.

“Any ideas guys?” Smolder asked as the guards moved in closer. Ember thought it over before coming to a decision. She slammed the Blood Stone Scepter into the ground.

“Obsidias! I call you to the Dagor Erain!” The guards all paused as they looked to Obsidias, who held a look of amusement with a tinge of contempt.

“What’s that?” Spike asked quietly.

“It’s ritual combat, where the leaders of different clans engage in one on one combat to uphold their clan’s honor. Obsidias’ pride won’t allow him to refuse.” Ember explained in a hushed tone. Obsidias stroked his chin in contemplation before a wicked grin crawled up his face.

“Invoking such an old ritual to try and worm your way of this? That’s cute. Very well, I’ll humor this, and take your heads as trophies in the process.” The guards lit a ring of fire around the two of them and stepped back to witness the combat, chanting and yelling for their leader. The other dragons just stood by apprehensively, unsure about what was going to happen.

“You ready, little wyrm?” Obsidias asked in a mocking tone, garnering laughter from his guards.

“Ready when you are cupcake.” Ember shot back with a taunting grin of her own. Obsidias simply scoffed and cracked his neck. He charged forward and swung his mace. Ember blocked it with the Scepter and pushed him back. She dashed forward and jabbed the head of the Scepter into his abdomen before giving a strong swing into his face. He staggered back briefly before recovering and charging forward. He rammed into Ember and flung her backward but she sprung to her feet and took to the air. Suddenly, the head of Obsidias’ mace shot out and opened like a claw, grabbing Ember out of the air and slamming her back to the ground. She recovered just in time to roll out of the way of another strike from his mace as the head flew out on a chain. Obsidias pulled the head of the mace back and unlocked it again, swinging it in a massive circle, which Ember slid underneath and sprung back up, driving a swift kick into his chin. She then gripped Obsidias’ horns in her hands and delivered a swift knee to his face, breaking off his horns in the process. She picked up the Blood Stone Scepter and raised it high into the air, declaring her victory. The ring of fire that surrounded them died down and the guards were all clamoring and cheering, having gotten to witness a great fight. 

“That was awesome Ember!” Smolder exclaimed as she pulled Ember into a hug from behind. Spike tapped on his collar as he pulled out the glass orb to examine it.

“Luster, we got it. Whatever it is.”

“Good work. Get it back to me and our deal is done.” Her voice came through the collar. As they turned to leave, Obsidias picked himself up from the dirt and called to his warriors.

“My warriors! There’s still time, we can still claim victory! Kill them at once!” The other warriors paused and looked to each other, not wanting to act on his orders after such a humiliating defeat. They simply continued back into the Castle as Obsidias had a look of shock on his face, one that was soon replaced by anger.

“You have robbed me of my army, my status, my treasure! And now, you’ll suffer for it!” He shouted as his mace now did something new; it opened up into its claw form and started to glow with arcane energy that eventually lanced outward in a beam of purple light towards Ember, intending to finish her off while her back was turned.

“Ember, move!” Spike shouted as he pushed her out of the way, and as he did, the beam ran him through instead. He collapsed to the ground, and the other dragons shouted in horror. Garble had a look of anger and turned around to try and find Obsidias, but he was already gone.

“Spike! Spike, stay with us okay?” Smolder pleaded, looking panicked and worried for her friend. Spike felt the wound in his abdomen, and he could hear the voices of his companions growing more faint. He did his best to stay awake, but it was no use, and he eventually drifted out of consciousness.
> Chapter 6: Lifelines
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other dragons were panicking. Spike had just been critically injured by Obsidias, and now they had to figure out what to do. Looking at his wound, it didn’t look normal as it pulsed with that same strange purple energy that was shot out of Obsidias’ mace. Smolder tapped on her collar.

“Luster, you there? We’ve got a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Luster answered.

“Spike’s been hurt pretty bad, and the wound doesn’t look normal.” There was a moment of silence before Luster answered.

“What do you mean not normal?”

“There’s this strange energy pulsing around it.” Garble answered, being the one who was closest to Spike at the time.

“It sounds like a Necrotic Seal. If it’s not treated soon, it’ll spread to his entire body and he’ll eventually die.” All of the dragons looked to each other even more concerned now.

“We don’t exactly have anything for treating that. Do you just expect us to do nothing?!” Smolder asked, her voice showing a hint of anger now. Luster Dawn let out a sigh.

“It might be a long shot, but legend speaks of a place called Gaea’s Grove that resides to the west. The waters there are said to have incredible healing properties. If you want any chance of saving him, it’s there.” The other dragons looked to each other and nodded, setting out to find the fabled Gaea’s Grove before it was too late.

It had been half a day already, and the journey had been a grueling one. Garble was carrying Spike on his back, with Ember leading from the front and Smolder watching their backs.

“How is he?” Ember asked. Smolder moved up next to her brother to get a look at Spike on his back and saw that the purple energy pulsing from the wound in Spike’s abdomen had started spreading up his right side, almost to his chest. Spike was clenching his eyes and gritting his teeth, clearly doing his best to hold on.

“It’s spreading. We need to hurry.” Smolder responded in a worried tone. Garble readjusted Spike on his back and continued to move forward.

“He’ll make it.” Garble reassured them. “He has to.” Meanwhile Spike, being unconscious from his wound, felt himself dreaming of the past once again.

The Dream:

Spike leaned on the railing as he waited at the train station. He saw Twilight fidgeting excitedly, and he couldn’t help but chuckle; Cadence and Shining Armor were visiting from the Crystal Empire for the Festival of the Two Sisters, and Twilight had been acting like an excitable filly ever since.

“You’re gonna rattle apart if you keep fidgeting like that.” Spike told her sarcastically. Twilight shot him a deadpan look before sticking her tongue out at him.

“Oh hush. Besides, I’ve been so busy running Equestria that I haven’t had time to just relax. This is bound to be a great change of pace.” Just as she said that, the train pulled into the station. The doors opened and the royal fanfare began as Cadence and Shining Armor exited the train, and Twilight rushed over excitedly to greet them. Cadence met her halfway and they did their secret greeting, something Spike found greatly amusing that they still did after all this time as he and Shining Armor greeted each other happily.

“Ooh, it’s so good to see you two! And where’s my favorite little munchkin?” Twilight asked playfully, looking for the third member of their group when she was suddenly ambushed in a hug by a little alicorn filly.

“I got you Auntie Twilight!” Flurry Heart giggled happily.

“Yes you did.” Twilight responded playfully as she squeezed Flurry Heart in a big hug. Flurry Heart flew up and plopped herself on Spike’s shoulders and gave him a hug around his head.

“I got you too Big Brother Spike.” She said giggling to herself.

“You sure did kiddo.” He responded with a laugh. They all walked towards Canterlot Castle, regaling each other with stories about what had happened since they last saw each other. Twilight was happy to hear that Spike had taken her advice on showing Sweetie Belle the meteor shower.

“Aww Spike, that’s adorable.” Cadence said as she put a hoof to her heart after hearing the story.

“Are you and Ms. Sweetie Belle gonna get married?” Flurry Heart asked innocently. Spike suddenly got very flustered, with everypony else laughing as his face turned red a bit.

“W-well, that’s uh, you see…” He sighed as Flurry Heart laughed along with the rest of them. Spike just sighed and gave a chuckle of his own as Flurry Heart took off into the air from her perch on his shoulders, flying all around them before Cadence called her back down and she landed on her mother’s back. Spike watched happily as they went on ahead of him a bit.

“Such a lovely family. A shame that your indifference cost them everything.” A mysterious voice echoed out around him as the dream suddenly went black.

Real World:

It was nighttime now, and the group had made it into a dense forest with plenty of cover above. They started a fire and were all just watching over Spike now.

“We’ll have to set out at first light. We don’t know how much time he has left.” Ember informed them. Garble nodded while Smolder looked into the fire for a while before turning her gaze to Spike.

“You better not die on us Spike.” She whispered to herself. They heard howling unsettlingly close and the bushes started rustling, which caused all of them to jump to attention. It was at that moment that they saw blank, featureless green eyes staring back at them, and a pack of Timberwolves emerged from the bushes. There were about ten in total, all looking hungry and ready to strike. They turned their gaze to Spike, who looked like easy prey in his weakened state.

“Of all the rotten luck.” Ember grumbled as she readied the Scepter in her hands. “Make sure they don’t get Spike!”

“Come get some!” Garble taunted as the two groups began to clash.

The Dream:

Spike woke suddenly when he smelled something burning. He recognized his surroundings as Sweetie Belle’s house as he got up and ran to where the smell was coming from. He saw her in the kitchen putting out whatever she was trying to cook. She just groaned and turned to give him a blank stare as he tried to hold back a laugh at her cooking attempt.

“Don’t laugh.” She said as she walked over and plopped her head sadly into his chest. “I was gonna surprise you with breakfast when you woke up. Y’know, do something nice.”

“Well I was technically surprised by the breakfast so, mission accomplished?” He asked cheekily as she pouted angrily before giving him a sassy smile.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, or else I’d have hit you for that.” 

“My charm is natural armor, what can I say?” Spike asked with a toothy grin. Sweetie Belle playfully shoved him as they both started laughing and play wrestling, eventually landing on the couch. Sweetie Belle snuggled her face into the crook of his neck as he held her close. They just sat there for a minute, being content in each other’s presence before the medallion Spike wore around his neck started blinking.

“That seems important. Does Twilight need you for something?” Sweetie Belle asked as she noticed the medallion. Spike lifted his head up and saw it as well before rolling his eyes and taking it off, setting it on a table to the side.

“It’s probably just boring dignitary work. I think she’ll live if I take some time to live a normal life for once.” He responded. He looked concerned when Sweetie Belle got up and moved to look out her window, seeing ponies looking at each other slightly paranoid. “Hey, you ok? What’s wrong?”

“Things have been getting pretty scary out there lately Spike. It’s like everypony’s going insane. Pony turning against pony. I’m just worried is all.” Spike pulled her into a loving hug and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“Everything will be alright. We’ve dealt with this sort of thing before, and we can do it again.” He looked her directly in the eyes. “And I promise that nothing bad is gonna happen to you or anypony else, not while I’m here.”

“Thanks Spike. I really needed that.” Sweetie Belle said as they shared a kiss. As they pulled apart, Spike gave her a smile.

“How’s about breakfast? I’ll cook this time.” She lightly smacked him on the arm with her hoof as he went to the kitchen laughing. As he started to make the food, he could have sworn he saw something out of the corner of his eye as the same voice from before filled the room.

“So this is where you were. At least your happiness was tended to while Equestria burned.”

They suddenly heard a huge explosion and the sound of screaming coming from outside. Spike and Sweetie Belle went outside to check it out and saw a large plume of smoke coming from Canterlot, and Spike found the dream going black again.

Real World:

The Timberwolves had all been dealt with, and the three dragons stood there panting from the intense fight they just had. Ember slumped against the tree and slid down to a sitting position as she caught her breath, looking over to see Garble and Smolder also taking a breather.

“Alright hey, we did it. Awesome work guys.”Smolder wheezed out with a thumbs up as she was still catching her breath.

“You think that was the last of them? Don’t want any sneaking up on us in the middle of the night.” Garble asked as he checked on Spike, whose condition hadn’t really changed.

“We should be fine for now. Let’s try to get some rest. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.” Ember said as she got up and planted the Scepter into the ground. Smolder looked over Spike again, seeing him pinching his eyes shut tighter and clenching his jaw before she curled up next to the fire. Garble took a seat next to Ember and looked up to the sky as he tapped softly on his drums.

“Hadn’t noticed it before, but it’s a pretty nice night isn’t it?” Ember didn’t say anything and just conked her head onto Garble’s shoulder. “Worried about Spike?” 

“He did it to protect me, Gar. I’d feel terrible if we lost him.” Ember replied, showing genuine vulnerability in that moment.

“He’s tough. He’ll pull through.” Garble reassured her.

“You’re not worried?” She asked. Garble stopped playing on his drums for a moment and sighed.

“To be honest, I’m terrified. We’re really in uncharted territory now, and we’ve gotta rely on this magic water to save the guy I can say is my first real friend. And all this time I’ve been trying to keep it under control to make it easier on you. Huh, and after that lecture I gave Smolder about not hiding your problems.”

“I’d say we’ve all got a ways to go in that regard. We’ve gotta be able to lean on each other when times get tough.” Ember said as she wrapped her arms around Garble.

“Spike really did have an effect on all of us didn’t he?” Garble asked as he put his arm around her and rested his chin on her head.

“Sure did. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think you and I would have happened either.” Ember responded with a smile. They pulled away and looked each other in the eye.

“Best thing that ever happened to me.” He told her as they kissed and then cuddled into each other for the night.

As dawn’s first light peaked over the horizon, the dragons set out once more, determined to make it to Gaea’s Grove in time to save Spike. They traveled for what felt like hours, and the woodland got thicker and thicker, to the point where they could barely see the sun. Smolder checked on Spike’s wound and saw that it had spread even more. He looked like he was in excruciating pain, clenching his jaw tighter than ever before.

“Hang on Spike. We’ll be there soon.” Smolder said softly. Garble gave his sister a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder as they continued on.

“Guys, you might wanna see this.” Ember called out from up ahead. Garble and Smolder hurried to join her and saw that the treeline let out into an open area surrounded by cliffs, waterfalls flowing down into a giant lakebed that shimmered with arcane light.

“We made it. It’s Gaea’s Grove.” Smolder said in awe. Suddenly, Spike’s wound gave out a large pulse, causing the energy to spread even more. It now covered a large amount of the right side of his body, even up to his face. He gritted his teeth hard and groaned in pain.

“Let’s get Spike into the water, quickly!” Ember ordered. Garble set him down from off his back, and all three of them picked him up now and gently submerged Spike in the water. And now, all they could do was wait to see if the waters of Gaea’s Grove lived up to the legend.

The Dream:

Spike opened his eyes and saw that he was back in Canterlot and saw a familiar sight, the same dream he had many times before. He hobbled towards Canterlot Castle, barely able to move. He tripped over his own feet and face planted into the dirt.

“Twilight, I’m… sorry.” He choked out.

“Oh you’re sorry are you?” That same voice echoed out again. Spike looked up and saw a figure standing over him. To his surprise, he saw that the figure was a shadow version of himself, who looked down on him with contempt.

“Who are you?” Spike asked as he stood up slowly.

“I’m you. I’m everything you’ve tried to bury all this time. The one, unavoidable truth you can never escape.” The figure responded.

“What truth?” Spike asked, getting slightly agitated at the figure’s implication.

“It’s like I said before, your indifference cost your family everything. You’ve been running from the truth this entire time; had you listened to Twilight’s warning, maybe this could have been prevented. All of this is your fault.”

Spike suddenly felt a pulse inside and he collapsed in pain.

“You say it’s your responsibility to fix this. Is it for justice, to restore peace, or just to ease your own conscious? Face it, when they needed you most, you weren’t there. And after you promised Sweetie Belle nothing bad would happen. Guess you’re not only a coward but a liar too.”

Spike looked up and suddenly saw shadow versions of his other friends surrounding the shadow of himself. They all looked at him with blank, vacant eyes, almost like the living dead.

“Why did you abandon us?” They all said in unison, over and over again. Spike heard it surrounding him as their words repeated. He clutched his head as it became louder and louder until it became almost unbearable.

“Stop it!” He shouted as he pounded his fist into the ground, leaving a sizable crack. He felt his eyes start to well up with tears.

“I… I never meant to…” His tears now flowed freely as his shadow self stood above him.

“This is what you deserve, abandoner.”

Spike closed his eyes and sobbed quietly. He felt the weight of his inner turmoil crashing down on him, and felt that maybe he did deserve this. Everything was starting to go black. But suddenly, he started to see images of many important figures in his life; Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Big Mac, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Starlight, Trixie, Thorax, Ember, Garble, Smolder, Sweetie Belle, and finally Twilight. Their memory is what encouraged him to keep going, to keep fighting. He knew that he couldn’t afford to just let it end like this.

“No, it’s not over. Not by a long shot.” He said to his shadow self as he wiped away his tears and slowly rose to his feet.

“You think this’ll absolve you? That you’ll find peace?” Shadow Spike snarled.

“Maybe, maybe not. But this isn’t about me, it’s about doing the right thing. It’s about putting the needs of others before my own. And Equestria needs peace again, no matter what it takes.”

Spike stared down his shadow self, who looked at him with fury and spite before his anger faded and he simply scoffed.

“Fine then, I’ll play along. You can play savior for as long as you want, but I’m on the inside, and I know the truth.”

Real World:

Spike shot upward suddenly, breaking the surface of the water and surprising his compatriots, who had been waiting patiently to see if Spike’s condition would change.

“Spike!” They all said in unison as they rushed over to his side.

“How do you feel?” Ember asked worriedly. Spike looked down to where his wound was and saw that it had completely healed, and that the strange purple energy was gone too.

“Gotta say, I’m feeling pretty good for having almost died.” Spike said with a slight smile. All of the dragons then enveloped Spike in a big group hug. After a few moments of just taking that in, Spike felt himself get punched in the shoulder by Smolder.

“Oww. What was that for?” He asked. He forgot how hard Smolder could hit.

“Don’t ever do that again. You had us all worried sick!” Smolder exclaimed. Spike chuckled as he rubbed his shoulder.

“I’ll do my best. Scouts honor.” He said as he put a hand over his heart and raised a two finger salute. Their collars turned on once again and they heard the voice of Luster Dawn.

“Good to see you up and about again Spike.” The dragons all looked to each other in shock.

“How are you able to see us? I’ve been wondering that for a while.” Spike asked.

“The collars can do more than just let me talk to you. They let me see you up to a certain distance. Had you gone any farther, I wouldn’t be able to contact you like this.” Luster Dawn answered.

“And you didn’t think to say anything before?” Smolder asked in an annoyed tone.

“It’s more fun to surprise you with it.” She answered Smolder playfully. Her tone then got more serious. “Now, I think you have something that belongs to me.” Spike pulled out the glass orb and took a look at it.

“Don’t worry Luster, you’ll get your prize.” He said before putting the orb away again.

“Be sure that I do.” Luster shot back before her voice went silent again. Spike stood up and stretched out, still a bit sore from the entire ordeal. He thought back on his journey through his memories, his reckoning with his own demons. He had to admit, his resolve was shaken for a bit. He did feel like just giving up and being done with this whole quest. But that would have been an insult to the memory of his friends, to Equestria, and everything it stood for.

Equestria used to be a beacon of hope. And we’ll make sure that it will be again.

“You good to go Spike? If you need to, we can rest a bit.” Ember asked, still a bit concerned over his condition.

“I’m good. Let’s get this thing back already.” He said as he waved the glass orb in his hand. “And, thanks. You know, for going to such lengths for me.”

“It’s what friends do. In times like this, we need to be there for each other more than ever.” Ember told him with a smile as they prepared to set out yet again.

It was a long journey, but the group finally made it back to Klugetown. The streets bustled with all sorts of creatures going about their business, with them even seeing some of the guards escorting a cage that had a bugbear thrashing around inside. They made their way to the giant tower in the center of the city, taking the elevator up to Luster Dawn’s office. The elevator doors opened to reveal that same office room they visited before, and Luster Dawn with her chair turned around facing away from them.

“So, guess I didn’t need those collars after all.” She told them as she turned around to face them.

“Be honest Luster. The exploding collar thing was a bluff, wasn’t it? You weren’t actually gotta blow our heads off if we failed were ya?” Spike asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe, maybe not. Be grateful you never had to find out.” She told him, her tone suddenly going ice cold, indicating that she may not have been bluffing after all, which actually made the dragons a little nervous. “But that’s all in the past now. So, my item?”

“First things first lady. Collars. Off.” Smolder said as she crossed her arms and glared at Luster Dawn. She simply smirked and pressed a button that released the collars from around their necks, causing them to drop to the floor.

Spike pulled out the glass orb and set it on her desk.

“So, what’s it do?” Garble piped up. Luster motioned for them to follow as she led them to a secret room in her office. Inside, there was a contraption that had cables and wires everywhere and a pedestal in the center where Luster placed the glass orb.

“This item you retrieved for me is a Scrying Eye, and it was the final component I needed to upgrade my surveillance system. When combined with this contraption, I can see all the way to Yakyakistan, Farasi, or even Mount Metazoa. There’s almost nowhere my sight can’t reach now.” She explained to the dragons.

“Ok Luster, we honored our part of the agreement. Your turn.” Spike said as his brow furrowed.

“Right, your mystery alicorn.” Luster said, not looking away from her contraption. “Honestly, there wasn’t much to find. She’s almost a complete mystery. But my spies did manage to get a name; Opaline.”

Spike’s hands clenched into fists as he heard the name. The other dragons could tell he was doing his best to keep his emotions in check.

“Any chance that Scrying Eye can find where she’s holed up at?” Ember asked. Luster Dawn thought it over for a moment.

“I suppose I could use it to look. But this is the only freebie you get. Anything beyond this, and we’ll have to talk payment.”

Luster started up the device, and metal rings began to whirl around the Scrying Eye, harnessing and amplifying its power. Eventually, the Eye revealed an image of an alicorn with deep purple fur, covered in a dark cloak and looking as though she was talking to someone. The Eye changed to reveal that she was speaking to a dragon with dark red scales and orange eyes. They appeared to be making some sort of deal, and Ember looked furious.

“Snapjaw, that traitor!” She fumed, looking like she was about to take someone’s head off. “Come on, we’ve gotta get to the Dragon Lands so I can teach that good for nothing traitor a lesson!”

“Why would Snapjaw ally with this Opaline pony? What’s he get out of it?” Smolder asked with a puzzled expression.

“Oh believe me, I intend to find out.” She was still seething but Garble was attempting to calm her down.

“Wait. Before you go, take these.” Luster Dawn told them as she motioned to four of those strange handheld devices. Spike picked one up and examined it.

“What is it?” He asked, having the strangest feeling he had seen them before.

“It’s a communication device. If you touch the screen, it turns on.” Luster told him.

Spike did as instructed and the screen lit up with a bunch of strange icons.

“How did you come up with something like this?” He asked her.

“Before Equestria’s fall, I got a chance to meet your friend on the other side of the mirror. I found their devices fascinating, and decided to take a crack at making some of my own.” Luster Dawn answered with pride.

Spike suddenly remembered who she was referring to.

“Oh yeah, Sunset Shimmer! Haven’t been to that place in a while. Wonder if I’d be a bigger dog if I crossed over now.” Spike wondered aloud.

“I’m sorry, what?” Smolder asked as she looked completely dumbfounded by his strange statement.

“Long story, I’ll tell you later. Anyways, I think we outta get going. Sounds like we’ve got some business to attend to.” Spike said as he took the remaining three devices and handed them off to his companions. Spike thought back to his conversation with his shadow self, and his brow furrowed.

It’s not about me. It’s about making things right.

Pushing his thoughts to the side, he and his companions set out for the Dragon Lands, determined to get as much information as possible out of Snapjaw about the mysterious pony named Opaline, and hopefully learn more about her ultimate goal in the process.
> Chapter 7: Traitor’s Gambit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Past:

Ember had a lot to deal with. She was holding a conference with the dragon elders to discuss the events that had just taken place in Yakyakistan, and some of the dragons were less than satisfied with the results. And ever since she became Dragon Lord, there was one dragon she could always count on to be a dissenting voice; Snapjaw. 

What a pain. Ember thought to herself.

“It’s an insult! That pact was a sacred oath established by Dragon Lord Scintilla! Does our history mean nothing to you?” Snapjaw roared as some of the other dragons agreed.

“We can’t just go burning down villages over a misunderstanding! Prince Rutherford made an honest mistake.” Ember responded with many more dragons rallying behind her.

“A Dragon Lord shouldn’t suffer broken oaths. You should have made an example of the Yaks. Have you gone soft Ember?” Snapjaw mocked. Ember stood up from her chair.

“Would you like to see just how ‘soft’ I am Snapjaw?” Ember growled as she bared her teeth. Snapjaw simply scoffed and leaned back in his chair. The other dragons could feel the tense atmosphere as a result of the exchange.

“My decision is final. If we’re going to interact with the rest of the world, it’s time to let go of the old ways. This meeting is adjourned.” Ember told the dragon elders. Some of the dragons gathered around Ember to ask various questions while others simply took their leave. Snapjaw’s eyes were ablaze with anger as he exited the meeting area, and he pounded a fist against one of the nearby rocks.

“Such weakness will lead us to ruin. I won’t allow for it. Your rule can no longer be allowed to stand, Ember.” Snapjaw said to himself, planting the seeds of a plot to overthrow Ember.

The Present:

There was a tense silence in the air as the group took flight. The immediate area around Klugetown was safe, though they would have to be more cautious the further out they got. Ember kept her gaze fixated forward, brow furrowed the entire time. The other dragons were looking at each other, wracking their brains trying to figure out what to say.

“Uh, Ember? What’s the plan here?” Smolder finally spoke up. 

“Find Snapjaw, and tear him apart.” Ember retorted, her voice dripping with venom.

“We should find out what his connection to Opaline is first. He obviously seemed to have some sort of deal going with her.” Spike chimed in.

“Good point. I’d also like to know why he up and turned traitor.” Ember said, the anger in her voice subsiding. She was mostly angry at herself for not doing something sooner. Snapjaw had always been stubborn and arrogant, but she never imagined he would betray his people. Meanwhile, Spike’s thoughts went back to seeing Opaline in the Scrying Eye, finally putting a name to the face.

We finally have a lead.

The group eventually made it back across the sea, landing just outside the border to the Dragon Lands. They decided to walk the rest of the way, having already come dangerously close to drawing the attention of a couple Rocs and Manticores while flying through the air. As they made their way through to the main gathering hub of the Dragon Lands, the atmosphere felt different. It felt more hostile, almost like they weren’t welcome. As they made their way, they a singular voice booming across the land. They eventually saw a bunch of dragons gathered around a podium, chanting and cheering as several dragons were locked in chains and on their knees in front of a large dragon with dark red scales and orange eyes. He had a plethora of scars across his brow and snout, and his eyes were sharp and focused, that of a warrior.

“Snapjaw.” Ember growled to herself.

“Today, we purge the weakness from our ranks and take what we’re owed!” Snapjaw bellowed out as the dragons surrounding the podium cheered loudly.

“This ain’t good. Ember, what’s the plan?” Garble asked but saw that Ember had already stepped forward to put down this coup.

“Snapjaw! What is going on here?!” Ember roared, and all the dragons suddenly went silent. Snapjaw raised an eyebrow as a smug smile crept up his snout.

“Ah, Dragon Lord, what fortuitous timing. She said you’d be coming.” The group saw themselves start to be surrounded by several other dragons who looked like they were ready to strike at any moment. 

“Why are you doing this? What were you promised?” Spike asked.

“She promised me a way to return dragonkind to its former glory. And it starts with getting rid of all of you. We’ve grown too complacent, too subservient. I won’t allow the next generation of dragons to inherit your weakness.” Snapjaw responded as his brow furrowed. 

“And what about the elders?” Ember asked, pointing out the dragons who were in chains.

“Well, they were a little too loyal to your ideals. So they’ll be joining you soon enough.” Snapjaw replied as more cheers erupted from the dissenting dragons. The group took stock of their surroundings, seeing all of the dragons that were inching closer to strike.

“Think this’ll be a tough fight?” Spike asked.

“Might be tough if one more shows up.” Smolder said with a grin as she pounded her fist into her hand.

“Then that’ll have to be the one I take care of.” Garble said. Ember simply smirked before using her breath to light a small flame on the head of the Scepter.

“Kill them!” Snapjaw roared.

“Garble, slam dunk!” Ember called out. Garble gave her a boost as she leapt high into the air and flung the Scepter downward like a javelin, spreading the flame she lit out into a wide radius  and pushing back Snapjaw’s dragons. Garble then slid across the ground and took the legs out from under one of the bigger dragons. He then flipped back onto his hands and used both feet to kick said dragon up into the air, where Spike flew upward and used both fists to slam him back down to the ground. Ember landed and gripped the Scepter, spinning it in her hand and delivering a home run swing, knocking several dragons in the head. Smolder caught a dragon who was charging her, kneed him in the gut, and wrapped her arm around his neck and slammed him into the ground. Spike contended with three dragons around him at once; he parries one of the dragons who tries to swipe at him with his claws, gets punched in the face by the second dragon but catches the second punch, punches him in the gut, and knees him in the face before jumping up and dropkicking the third dragon.

“Get the elders!” Ember called to the group. Garble and Smolder flew over to the podium and broke the chains off the dragons who were being held prisoner, who thanked them and joined in the fight against Snapjaw’s dragons.

“You see where Snapjaw went?” Garble asked as he looked around. Smolder also looked around and saw Snapjaw making his way through the crowd, trying to get the drop on Ember.

“Think you’re sneaky do you?” Smolder growled to herself.

“You find him Smo-“ Garble started to ask but saw that Smolder had already taken to the air to intercept Snapjaw. Smolder flew like a missile and tackled Snapjaw just as he was about to deliver a critical hit on Ember. They tumbled across the ground until Smolder sprang backward and scraped her claws across the ground. They both rose to their feet slowly, never breaking eye contact as the battle raged on around them, a few of the larger dragons now getting involved and making the conflict more intense.

“Still willing to protect a weak leader like Ember? How far dragonkind has fallen.” Snapjaw said, his voice dripping with condescension.

“She’s stronger than you’ll ever be. And you better believe I’m not gonna let someone like you be in charge!” Smolder snapped back. Snapjaw scoffed as they both stared each other down for a few seconds more before he charged towards her. Smolder ripped out a nearby chunk of rock to block his attack but his fist immediately shattered it and sent Smolder tumbling backward. He tried to stomp on her but she managed to roll out of the way and deliver a few combination punches to his chest as she got up. Snapjaw threw a strong punch that caught Smolder in the face and then delivered a strong kick to her chest which caused her to slide back and buckle over in pain. She was surprised at how fast he was given his size. She leapt up and slammed her knee directly into his chin before spinning in midair and kicking him in the face. He faltered backwards before regaining his composure and assuming his fighting stance once more.

“You fight well for a hatchling. But it won’t be enough!” Snapjaw commented before he rushed forward to try and grab her. She shot out a breath of flame to parry his grab and took to the air, but as she did Snapjaw grabbed her ankle and slammed her back down into the ground. He then swung her side to side, slamming her repeatedly into the ground before he swung her forward and slammed her on the ground hard enough for her to bounce back up. He then caught her in midair with a strong kick that sent her crashing into a rock hard enough to splinter it with several cracks. Smolder coughed and wheezed in pain as she shakily rose to her feet. As she did, Snapjaw had already rushed towards her and grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against the rock.

“Ah, now I remember you. You’re the one Ember sent off to that ‘Friendship School.’ Guess her softness rubbed off on you too. Pathetic.” Snapjaw recalled.

“You’re wrong.” Smolder choked out.

“Hmm?” He asked, intrigued by her statement.

“I used to think the same thing, that all this ‘friendship’ stuff made me soft and weak. But after a while I realized that my friends made me stronger than I ever could have been alone. And it wasn’t until Ember became Dragon Lord that something like that became possible. She worked hard to show the world that they didn’t have to see dragons as monsters.”

Snapjaw growled in anger, his eyes lit up with fury.

“You’re an old wyrm who’s stuck in the past. The only one leading dragonkind to ruin is you!” Smolder roared as she kicked Snapjaw in the chest with both feet, causing him to let go of her. She then sent a flurry of blows to his face, punch after punch connecting with great force. After enough time throwing punches, Smolder then wrapped her arms around Snapjaw and suplexed him onto the ground, creating a small crater and taking Snapjaw out of the fight entirely. She got up and looked around to see that the chaos had started to die down, with her companions bringing the situation under control. Snapjaw began to move to pick himself up but saw that he was surrounded by the dragons who were still loyal to Ember. Snapjaw snorted as he saw that he was outmatched. Ember stepped forward through the crowd and stood in front of Snapjaw.

“Care to keep going with this?” She asked menacingly.

“Not to worry Ember. I know when I’m beaten.” Snapjaw conceded. They suddenly heard maniacal laughter in the vicinity, and saw a pony standing above all of them.

“You made for an excellent distraction Snapjaw. My plan worked to perfection.” Everyone turned and saw the pony, who was surrounded by an assortment of Storm Creatures, each clutching dragon eggs within their hands. But unlike Luster’s guards, their armor and masks are painted with pink and magenta colors as opposed to the golden sun motif on Luster’s guards. Ember’s eyes went wide with horror as she realized what was happening.

“That wasn’t the deal Opaline! You never said anything about disturbing the nesting grounds!” Snapjaw roared.

“Their magic could prove to be very beneficial to me, so I’ll be holding onto these for a while.” Opaline responded as she turned to take her leave. 

“You’re not going anywhere!” Spike shouted as he flew towards Opaline, intending to settle things once and for all. As he tried however, he was suddenly caught in the air and brought back down to the ground. Spike tried to get up but found that he couldn’t get his arms and legs free. He saw that he was wrapped in a snake like coil, eventually seeing a humanoid torso with a snake like face, cobra hood, and hair that was made of snakes emerge and hiss at him, attempting to stare him directly in the eyes. Spike immediately shut his eyes, as he realized that he was dealing with a gorgon and didn’t want to be turned to stone.

“I knew I shouldn’t leave you with nothing, so I do hope you enjoy the company of my pets.” Opaline explained smugly as she ran off. Spike struggled against the grip of the gorgon before Garble shot a stream of fire breath in their direction, which caused the gorgon to uncoil its lower half from around Spike. Spike then punched the gorgon to get it off of him and saw that they were being set upon by Storm Creatures, satyrs, gorgons, and the like. Many of the other dragons joined in the fight as well, determined to not let these fiends overrun their land.

After a prolonged battle against the monsters Opaline unleashed, the dragons finally brought the chaos under control. Spike was sitting on the ground, catching his breath from having to fight two prolonged, intense battles back to back. He looked around and realized that Opaline was nowhere to be seen. He grunted in frustration at having missed his shot at her.

Gotta find her again. He thought to himself. Meanwhile, Ember had just taken a look at the nesting grounds and looked horrified. Many dragon eggs had been stolen, though thankfully Opaline hadn’t managed to get all of them.

“What a mess. We’ve got to get back the eggs she managed to take.” Ember said, a wave of doubt washing over her. She was supposed to protect them, and now something like this happens. Garble pulled her into a hug, doing his best to comfort her.

“We will. I don’t know how, but we will.” Garble said. They spent a period of time in each other’s embrace, not saying anything as they reflected on everything that’s happened.

“We should go find the others.” Ember said after a while. Garble agreed and they made their way back to the main gathering hub, eventually meeting back up with Spike and Smolder.

“So, we’re going after Opaline right?” Smolder asked.

“Definitely.” Spike said. The other dragons could sense his agitation.

“What about Snapjaw? I can’t imagine he’s getting off scott free.” Garble asked.

“Snapjaw may have been a traitor, but he was one of the elders. I’ll have to hold an assembly with the other elders at a later time so we can decide what to do with him.” Ember said. Suddenly, they heard a ringing sound coming from somewhere. They looked all around to find where it was coming from, and Spike eventually discovered it was coming from the device he got back in Klugetown. It vibrated in his hand as he saw the screen had two icons, one green and one red.

“Oh yeah. Kinda forgot we had those.” Garble said.

“How do you make it stop?” Smolder asked. Spike tried shaking it but nothing happened. He then tried pressing the green button, which then caused the screen to change and show the visage of Luster Dawn.

“Good, you picked up.” She said.

“To what do we owe the pleasure Luster?” Spike asked, confused why she would call now of all times.

“Well, the four of you seem to be in a bit of a pickle. Opaline took some of your dragon eggs did she not?” 

“How did you- oh.” Smolder started to ask but then the realization hit her.

“The Scrying Eye you supplied me has been very helpful. Unfortunately, the device its installed in still has some bugs to work out.” Luster told them.

“Bugs?” Ember asked.

“Sometimes the device only displays vague images of what the Scrying Eye sees. But I think I got something on where Opaline is going.” Luster explained. 

“Thought we only got the one favor.” Smolder teased.

“Oh don’t worry, you’ll be paying me back in no time. I’ll make sure of it.” Luster shot back.

“Where is she going?” Spike asked.

“I couldn’t get a read on where she is right now, but the device gave back something about the Kirin. I’d start there.” She then hung up, and the screen on the device went back to its normal display.

“So, what’s the plan?” Ember asked.

“It’s been a long day, so we should probably rest up for the night.” Spike told the group. “Tomorrow, we head for the Perilous Peaks.”
> Chapter 8: Chasing Your Echo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dream:

Spike found himself standing in the ruins of Canterlot once more, his shadow self by his side as usual.

“You tried to tear Opaline limb from limb, and you wanted it to hurt. Not very heroic of you. What would Twilight think?” Shadow Spike taunted.

“Do you ever stop talking?” Spike asked in an annoyed tone. Shadow Spike simply chuckled.

“Is it finally sinking in yet? The only one you’re doing this for is yourself. You didn’t even give a second thought to those dragon eggs Opaline stole. Because they come second to you getting your revenge.” 

“That’s a lie!” Spike snarled, reaching out his hand to grab his shadow self, which just passed through his ghostly form.

“Is it? How long are you planning to keep up this little act of yours?” Shadow Spike asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Spike said, dodging the question.

“Hmph, sure. You keep this up, and it’s gonna eat you alive, from the inside out.”

Real World:

Spike jolted awake, noticing that it was still very quiet, just barely being dawn. He sat up and dragged a hand across his face, pondering his dream and what his shadow self said to him.

I’m doing this for the right reasons. It’s not about me. Spike thought to himself as he looked at his hand before clenching it into a fist. He stretched and went out to take a walk along the grounds, taking in the quiet atmosphere of the Dragon Lands in the early morning. He eventually took a seat on a small cliffside and looked out onto the horizon, seeing the sun just starting to rise and lighting up the Dragon Lands in a soft golden glow. He basked in the warm golden rays, thinking over everything that had happened so far; reaching Klugetown, meeting Luster Dawn again after all this time, nearly dying. He put his hand over his abdomen, feeling the scar and causing his face to drop into a frown, remembering the trek through his memories. He thought about how he shouldn’t have ignored Twilight’s message that day, how maybe things could have been different had he not blown off his duties. He also thought about Sweetie Belle; he missed her smile, her laugh, the way she lifted his mood even on the worst days. 

Wish I could see you Belle. Even just one more time.

Spike’s attention returned to the present as he saw that many other dragons had started to awaken, and he took a deep breath as he stood up and went to find his companions.  Making his way past several dragons who were engaged in conversation, he eventually found Ember talking with one of the dragon elders. They bid each other farewell as Spike approached.

“Hey Ember.” Spike said with a slight wave. He could tell that she was stressed. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I’ve just been talking with the elders about the dragon eggs that were stolen and there’s a lot of pressure to get them back.” Ember told him, rubbing her arm as she did.

“That can’t be easy.” Spike said.

“Definitely not. But we have to do what we can, no matter what.” Ember responded, trying her best to keep the pressure from getting to her. “Come on, let’s go find the others.”

As Ember led the way, Spike’s thoughts drifted once more to what his shadow self told him in his dream.

The only one you’re doing this for is yourself.

Spike shook his head to try and get the thought out of his mind. They walked for a little bit until they finally met up with Garble and Smolder outside in the main gathering area. Garble was entertaining some of the younger dragons with his poetry, while Smolder was simply leaning up against a rock. She sent a wave to Spike and Ember as she noticed them approaching.

“Hey guys. We ready to head out?” She asked.

“Yeah. We need to get to the Perilous Peaks as soon as possible.” Spike responded.

“Yo, Garble! We’re heading out!” Smolder called over to Garble. He bid a farewell to the dragons who were gathered around him, who were disappointed that he had to leave, and ran to catch up with the others. Smolder gave him a grin as he joined them.

“Well, someone’s popular.” She said as she gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. 

“Eh, it’s what I do.” Garble said with a grin. Spike smiled to himself; for the most part, the dragons no longer mocked Garble’s love of poetry. In fact, they had become quite curious about it, especially the younger dragons. Those kids were always super excited whenever Garble started reciting poetry, and it was good to see how much he had grown. On that note, the group set out for the Perilous Peaks, eager to find out what exactly Opaline had planned.

After trekking for quite some time through dense jungles and woodlands, the four dragons finally arrived at a sheer cliffside. Ember did a quick search of the area before landing next to her companions.

“The winds look too strong to fly up there, and the walk doesn’t look any safer.” Ember stated after getting a lay of the land.

“So how do we get up there then?” Smolder asked. Spike started to look around for something specific.

“What’s up Spike?” Garble asked. Spike didn’t answer as he continued to search. Eventually, he found a path that was hidden by some scattered plants.

“I knew it. This way.” Spike called to the others. They all followed and looked surprised when they found what Spike had discovered.

“How’d you know about this?” Smolder asked.

“When Applejack and Fluttershy came back from their first trip here, they talked about a shortcut through the mountains that leads directly to the Kirin Grove. It should help us get around the dangerous terrain.” Spike answered. The group made their way down the alternative path, eventually emerging into the Kirin Grove. Surprisingly though, the grove was completely silent, not a soul in sight. 

“That’s weird. Where is everypony?” Ember wondered aloud.

“Yeah. You’d think we’d have seen Kirin by now.” Garble concurred. Spike saw burns and patches of ice seared into the trees and homes around them. 

“These marks look recent.” Spike relayed to the group. They wandered through more of the grove, still not seeing anyone. It had started to become unnerving. Suddenly, they could hear the sounds of fighting off in the distance and they all stopped in their tracks.

“You hear that?” Garble asked.

“Yeah. Don’t let your guard down.” Ember responded. The group cautiously approached the sounds of fighting, none of them daring to take a breath so as to not draw any unwanted attention. As they drew closer, they eventually came into a clearing and saw two flaming Kirin engaged in a fierce battle against a creature made entirely of ice. The creature shot out a beam of magical ice but one of the Kirin shot a blast of fire from its horn to counter it.

“Woah, what is that?” Garble asked in awe.

“I remember reading about this in a book Twilight had on rare creatures. It’s an ice golem. Supposedly, Grogar figured out how to make elemental monsters and used them to terrorize Equestria during his reign. They must have been locked in a really deep part of Tartarus.” Spike explained as the Kirin sent out burst after burst of flame against the golem, seemingly not doing enough to penetrate the magical ice that composed its body.

“Yikes.” Garble responded as he scratched his head.

“Should we jump in? It looks like they won’t last much longer.” Smolder asked, seeing that the Kirin were barely holding their own against the golem. Ember studied the situation more closely before nodding in agreement.

“Garble, Spike, see if you can get its attention.” 

“Let’s do it.” Garble replied as he gave Spike a quick pat on the shoulder. They both charged out from their hiding spot, with Garble chucking a rather large boulder at the golem. As the rock shattered against the golem’s back, it turned to face the dragons and held out a hand, forming sharp ice crystals that then launched like missiles. Spike and Garble just barely ducked as the crystals wizzed past them, shredding the trees behind them as if they were made of butter.

“What are you doing?! Why are you here?!” One of the Kirin shouted towards them, going on the defensive at what she perceived to be a new threat.

“It’s ok, we’re here to help.” Spike called back. As he did, the golem swiped with its arm, knocking Spike back into one of the nearby trees. Smolder jumped out and shot out a stream of fire breath, which the golem blocked with its arm before thrusting its hand forward, shooting out a charged blast of ice. As it blasted a tree apart, Ember leapt onto the golem’s back and tried to bash it with the Scepter, but to no avail. Suddenly, Ember felt the ice that composed the golem’s body shift and saw that there was an opening beneath her feet. Her eyes went wide and she leapt away as a beam of ice shot out from the opening that had just formed.

“This isn’t working. It’s like our attacks aren’t having any effect.” Ember grunted in frustration. As the dragons and Kirin gathered around the golem, Spike noticed something; as the golem’s form shifted, he briefly caught a glimpse of a glowing blue gem in the center of its body.

“That’s it! We have to destroy the gem inside it.” Spike exclaimed.

“How do you suggest we do that?” One of the Kirin asked. 

“Keep it distracted. I have an idea.” Spike said briefly. The others started pelting the golem with blasts of fire while Spike ran over to one of the fallen trees. He grabbed it and hoisted it onto his shoulder, turning back around to return to the battle. He saw that the others were gathered in a circle around the golem, blasting it with continuous streams of fire. The golem was unable to move from the concentrated assault and it was then that Spike saw his opportunity.

“Now!” He shouted as he charged forward. The others immediately dropped their assault and before the golem could recover, Spike rammed the fallen tree right into its center. It split apart and toppled over and as it did, that glowing blue gem started to float, along with the various chunks of ice surrounding it. Spike knew he had to act fast, so he grabbed the gem from where it was floating and gave a strong squeeze. It took some effort, but Spike finally managed to crush the gem into dust. As he did, the chunks of ice floating around them fell back to the ground, the arcane shimmer on them fading away. Everycreature stopped to take a breath and the Kirin returned to their normal forms, with the dragons finally seeing what they look like; One of them had dark brown fur, yellow eyes, a green mane and tail, and that signature scaled pattern along her back. The other had light peach fur, red eyes, also has a green mane and tail, and also had that scaled pattern on her back. The one with the lighter fur stepped forward.

“Well, I feel like we should introduce ourselves. My name is Spring Leaf, and this is my companion Forest Fire.” She gestured to the darker furred Kirin, who the group now knew as Forest Fire, who gave a short wave with her hoof. Ember stepped forward.

“I’m Dragon Lord Ember. And this is Garble, Smolder, and Spike.” Ember says as she introduces her companions.

“We appreciate the assistance, but what’s the Dragon Lord and her entourage doing out here?” Forest Fire asked as she gave a quizzical look towards the group.

“Before we answer any questions, we should go get the others from the shelter.” Spring Leaf piped up as she headed towards the outskirts of the village, stumbling a little bit as she did.

“No you don’t. I’ll go get the others, you get back to the village and rest.” Forest Fire told Spring Leaf as she helped her back to her hooves gently. “I’m gonna need some help opening the entrance to the shelter. It’s blocked by a large boulder, and I don’t have the strength right now to move it myself.”

“We’ll go.” Smolder told her as she gestures towards Garble.

“We will?” Garble asked with a raised eyebrow. Smolder gave her brother a swift smack in the chest as they followed Forest Fire. “Ow.”

“Oh don’t be such a hatchling.” Smolder snapped as their voices grew more distant.

“Shall we?” Spike asked Spring Leaf as he gestured towards the village. She nodded as she led Spike and Ember back towards the village.

“So, as Forest Fire asked, why are you here?” Spring Leaf asked as they made their way back into the village.

“We’re tracking a dangerous pony who stole a whole clutch of dragon eggs. We were told she had come here for something.” Ember answered, her gaze still fixed forward.

“Oh she was here alright.” Spring Leaf growled.

“What did she want here?” Spike asked.

“I’m not sure. But that hag took our leader, Rain Shine, and left that golem behind to terrorize us.” 

“First the dragon eggs, and now the leader of the Kirin. What is it that Opaline is trying to do?” Ember wondered aloud as Spring Leaf took a seat next to a nearby tree.

“You gonna be ok?” Spike asked. “That was a pretty tough fight.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about Rain Shine. She’s been such a pillar of the Kirin that I don’t know what would happen without her.” Spring Leaf said as she took a good look at her village. Night had just begun to fall, and the grove lit up with bioluminescent lights from the plants. They all sat in silence for a while, Spike and Ember watching in amazement as the forest lit up like a festival. After a little bit, Spring Leaf noticed that Smolder, Garble, and Forest Fire hadn’t returned with the other Kirin yet.

“You think the others are ok? They haven’t come back yet.” Spring Leaf asked.

“Let’s find out.” Spike said as he pulled put that communication device he received from Luster Dawn. “It’s about time I get more practice with this thing anyways.” He fumbled with the device for a bit, still a bit unfamiliar with how it functioned.

Sunset and the others always made it look so easy.

Eventually, he found the button that let him contact someone, and he saw that his contacts were already labeled.

Guess Luster had these in the works for a while.

He pressed the button for Smolder and let it ring for a while. After ringing a few times, the screen changed and showed Smolder fumbling with the device before bringing herself into view.

“Does it work? Is it on?” Smolder asked in a confused tone.

“I can see you. Everything ok over there?” Spike asked.

“Yeah. Took a little longer than expected to get all the Kirin out of that shelter. What’s the situation?” 

“I’ll tell you when you get here. It’s something all the Kirin need to hear.” Spike responded.

“Sounds like a plan. See you then.” Smolder said. She fumbled with the device again, trying to hang it up.

“Oh come on!” She groaned as the screen went back to its default mode. Spike chuckled and put away the device. After a little more time waiting, the other Kirin finally arrived, with Smolder, Garble, and Forest Fire in tow.

“So what’s this big news you had for us?” Garble asked. Spike and Ember looked to Spring Leaf, who took a position where she could address the other Kirin.

“Everypony, I have something to say.” She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before delivering the news. “Rain Shine has been kidnapped.” There was audible gasps from the crowd as they started discussing what to do.

“Everypony, everypony please! I know that this is a shock, but we have to stay strong. No matter what, we’re going to get her back. I promise you that!” Spring Leaf proclaimed to the crowd of Kirin, who started to calm down a bit but still kept some of their chatter going. “Now, it’s been a long and stressful day, so I suggest we all get some rest.” The Kirin all voiced their agreement before turning in for the night. 

“So not to state the obvious, but how exactly do you plan on getting Rain Shine back?” Garble asked as he leaned against a branch, which almost snapped under his weight.

“With your help.” Spring Leaf said. All of the dragons looked to each other confused. “You said she stole some of your dragon eggs, correct? I think this is the perfect opportunity for us to help each other.”

“She has a point.” Spike agreed. The other dragons nodded in agreement.

“You sure about this Spring?” Forest Fire asked.

“I am. Don’t worry, with these four I should be ok.” Spring Leaf reassured her.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to take your advice and hit the hay. That fight with the golem wore me out.” Smolder yawned as she stretched out.

“Same. Let’s turn in for the night and we can set out in the morning.” Ember agreed. As they all went to turn in for the night, Spike mulled over his thoughts. He had missed Opaline again, and now she had kidnapped the leader of the Kirin. He frowned and clenched his hands tight.

You’re one step ahead. But not for much longer.

“Spike, you ok?” Smolder asked as she saw he was lagging behind.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” He responded as he gave a small smile. Smolder grinned and turned to walk ahead once more, and Spike’s smile faded. He followed the group to where they’d be sleeping, though with everything that was on his mind at the moment, he doubted that his rest would be peaceful.
> Chapter 9: Notes from the Underground
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morning crested over the horizon as the residents of the Kirin Grove awakened. The Kirin had begun to make repairs to their homes in the aftermath of the battle against the ice golem, so the Grove was bustling and lively. The group was waiting by the outskirts of the Grove, with Spring Leaf saying her goodbyes to Forest Fire.

“You’re leaving right? You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Forest Fire asked, concern clearly evident in her voice.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be alone. I’m more worried about you.” Spring Leaf responded. Forest Fire pulled her into a hug, which she returned in kind.

“Be careful.” Forest Fire whispered as they parted. Spring Leaf gave her a smile and a nod as she turned to leave with the dragons.

“So, got any leads we can follow up on?” Spike asked as Spring Leaf caught up with them.

“There is one that comes to mind. Autumn Blaze.” Spring Leaf responded.

“Who?” Ember asked.

“She’s a Kirin who’s been scouting the wilds ever since the monsters got released from Tartarus. Apparently, she’s somewhere near Griffonstone right now.” Spring Leaf explained.

“Let’s hope she’s still there by the time we get there. It’d suck to have made that trip for nothing.” Smolder chimed in.

The group began their journey towards Griffonstone, traveling for the entirety of the day before eventually stopping to make camp for the night. They all sat around the fire, having just finished off some of the rations they were given and were now just taking in the warmth of the flame. 

“Man, I could really go for some gems right now. It’s been too long.” Spike groaned as he layed on his back next to the fire.

“I heard that. A shame they’ve been so rare lately.” Garble agreed.

“Gems?” Spring Leaf asked.

“I guess you could say that gems are something of a delicacy for dragons.” Spike explained.

“I see.” Spring Leaf said hesitantly.

“Don’t worry. Most of the ponies in Ponyville didn’t get it either.” Ember said in a deadpan tone. The group fell silent for a moment as they watched the fire crackle and pop.

“So, how far out are we from Griffonstone?” Smolder asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Probably another half a day at most. We made good progress today.” Ember responded.

“You think Autumn Blaze is still there?” Garble asked.

“She should be. Last I heard, she was going to be spending quite a bit of time there, so we should be able to find her. That said, we should get some rest for the journey tomorrow.” Spring Leaf said.

“Agreed.” Smolder retorted. The camp fell silent as the group gradually drifted off to sleep. The night continued to pass but at one point, something ominous stalked the camp. They were all still asleep as the figure slithered around, taking care not to make too much noise. As it rose up from the ground to strike at Smolder, she slowly blinked awake and saw the figure standing above her, ready to go for the kill. At first, she passed it off as a hazy vision from being half asleep but soon her eyes shot open as she realized what was happening. She saw a giant snake creature rearing back its head to take a bite at her, and she shot out a stream of fire breath to force it to back off. The rest of the camp awoke suddenly at the sounds of combat. They all saw the snake creature looming above Smolder, and they saw that it had a strange looking face, one that didn’t look like a snake.

“What is that?!” Spring Leaf exclaimed in shock.

“It’s a Naga. Quick, we’ve gotta deal with it!” Spike explained as Smolder had just moved to avoid the Naga’s venomous spray, which melted away some of the rock it landed on. Spring Leaf shot a blast of magic from her horn, which caused the Naga to slither towards her with blinding speed. It almost reached her when Ember planted the butt of the Scepter into the Naga’s tail, causing it to lurch to a halt. It turned around and spat a glob of venom towards Ember, with Garble just barely tackling her out of the way in time.

“My hero.” Ember said flirtatiously.

“It’s what I do.” Garble gave back with a toothy grin.

“Seriously!? Now!?” Smolder shouted as she ran towards them. Spring Leaf then changed into her Nirik form and started lobbing fire towards the Naga. It slithered out of the way before Spike caught it in the face with a strong punch, sending it flying backwards. It then burrowed underground, away from the group.

“Form up!” Spike shouted. They all stood back to back, the camp only faintly illuminated by the dying fire and Spring Leaf’s Nirik form. They all stood silently, not daring to move or say anything. Time seemed to have stopped. And then suddenly, the ground beneath them began to rumble, and the Naga burst up and scattered all of them. It saw its opportunity as Spring Leaf’s Nirik form had faded, so it slithered towards her incredibly fast. Just as it was about to reach her however, a blast of fire hit it directly in the face, though it hadn’t come from any of the dragons. More blasts of fire pelted it as it shrieked out in pain, eventually falling still. The group looked up and to their surprise, they saw another Kirin. Her Nirik form dropped away as she saw who exactly she had just saved.

“Omigosh, Spring Leaf!? Is that you?” The Kirin called out excitedly as she ran over and pulled Spring Leaf into a crushing hug. “Ooh, it’s been forever. How have you been?”

“Autumn Blaze? Where did you come from? How did you know we were here?” Spring Leaf asked, puzzled by her sudden appearance.

“Well you see, I was out near Griffonstone and I just happened to be making my way back to the Grove when I thought ‘Hey, maybe I should take a breather for a bit’ cause lemme tell ya, it’s a heck of a walk back to the Grove from Griffonstone…” She rattled on and on for some time, to the point where the dragons were having a hard time keeping up.

“Is she always like this?” Smolder asked Spring Leaf.

“Autumn’s always been a bit of a chatterbox. She was the first of us to cure the effects of the Stream of Silence, and sometimes it seems like she’s making up for lost time.” Spring Leaf explained before she tried to get Autumn Blaze’s attention. “Autumn? Autumn!”

“Huh, what? Oh right. What are you doin out here? I figured you’d be helping out at the Grove.” Autumn Blaze asked as she plopped down into a sitting position and waited for an answer.

“Actually, we came out here looking for you.” Spike piped up as he raised a hand.

“Ooh, I don’t think I know you. Nice to meet ya, I’m Autumn Blaze.”

“Spike. I’m actually a friend of Applejack and Fluttershy. They mentioned you the first time they came back from-“ Autumn Blaze gave a sharp gasp.

“You know Applejack and Fluttershy? Well isn’t that something? It’s always good to meet friends of friends isn’t it? Just a shame what happened ya know? With Canterlot, and Tartarus getting busted open and all that. Wish I’d have dropped them a line sooner.” Autumn Blaze trailed off and suddenly got rather serious for a moment before shaking it off. “Anyways, why come all the way out here to find me?”

“We’re looking for a dangerous pony named Opaline who’s been utilizing monsters from Tartarus. We figured you might have an idea where she was heading.” Spike explained.

“Autumn, she attacked the Grove. She took Rain Shine.” Spring Leaf chimed in.

“What?!” Autumn Blaze suddenly looked horrified. “Do you know where she was taken?”

“We were hoping you might have a clue to that.” Ember stated plainly. 

“Can’t say I do. But now that I think about it, I did come across something weird last night on my way here. This pony was meeting with some strange guys. It was dark so I couldn’t tell what they looked like.” Autumn Blaze pondered.

“Where was this exactly?” Spike asked.

“A bit to the east. We could set out first thing in the morning.” Autumn responded.

“That would probably be best. Let’s get what rest we can for now.” Ember said.

Morning soon came, and the camp all awoke and set out for the sight of this mysterious meeting Autumn Blaze had witnessed, and the six of them eventually found themselves in a wide open clearing.

“You sure this is where is was?” Garble asked.

“Pretty sure. This seems like the spot I saw them in. Remember, it was dark when I was here the first time.” Autumn Blaze responded, trying to recall what it was she saw. Looking around, the group didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, that is until Smolder noticed that the ground in one spot looked a bit different.

“Hey guys. I think I found something.” She called to the rest of the group. They all gathered around her to see what she had found. 

“I think if I pull this away…” Smolder trailed off as she started pulling at the loose roots and branches. All of a sudden, they heard a crumbling sound and before any of the dragons could take flight, the ground collapsed underneath them and they fell down a deep hole. They eventually landed, everyone collectively groaning in pain at the big fall they had just taken.

“Everycreature okay?” Ember asked the group. She got grunts and mumbles from the group, signifying that they were okay. Spike took in his surroundings and saw that they were in some kind of underground cavern. He noticed that it looked similar to where he had first encountered the Diamond Dogs, though he could tell that this was something different, as the architecture had much more refined pillars and columns, along with the walls being lined with what he could have sworn was chitin.

“Chitin? This isn’t a Changeling Hive is it?” Spike wondered aloud.

“No. Changeling Hives don’t have this much metal in the architecture.” Smolder answered. Spike cocked an eyebrow at her. “You can thank Ocellus for the history lesson.”

“Ah.” Spike replied.

“What do you think this is then?” Spring Leaf asked. Suddenly, they could hear something coming from the walls. They looked up and saw strange looking beings crawling out of the walls. Before they knew it, the group found themselves surrounded by what looked like praying mantis type creatures with four arms who were brandishing spears. The caverns were filled with clicking and chittering as the group saw that they had nowhere to go. They saw one that was larger than the rest approach them, clicking and chittering as he examined them.

“Take them to the chieftain.” He told the others. They all started shoving the group down one of the tunnels, leading them to whoever this mysterious chieftain was. Along the way, they could see that the walls had been carved out into a maze of tunnels and lined with refined metal and marble, though it didn’t look like it had been done with tools.

It looks like it’s been… eaten?” Spike thought to himself.

After some time being led down various tunnels and pathways, they eventually came to a large room that had displays of various weapons and artifacts. The group saw a throne that had a massive praying mantis creature seated upon it, a guard at each side.

“We caught these ones in the outer tunnels. This one had a shiny trinket on them.” The guard said as he took the Blood Stone Scepter from Ember’s grasp and presented it to the chieftain.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll give that back, bug!” Ember growled.

“What even are you? I don’t think Equestria has anything like you.” Spike asked, genuinely curious about the creatures before them.

“You are correct, dragon. The Thri-Kreen are not at all common in Equestria. As you can see, we’ve made our homes underground, staying out of sight of those above.” The chieftain explained.

“You’ve been down here all this time?” Spring Leaf asked.

“Indeed. But that will soon change. We were promised unimaginable power and control of territories above. All we have to do is protect this.” The chieftain presented his prize before the dragons, and to their shock, it was one of the dragon eggs Opaline had stolen.

“Why did Opaline give that to you? What does she want?” Spike asked, his tone slowly growing angrier.

“The pony did not say. She only said to protect it until it hatched, and that she would come to retrieve it once it did. Regardless, it is now time for The Feast to begin!” The chieftain declared. The Thri-Kreen all chittered and cheered as the group was suddenly dropped down into an even deeper hole. What they saw was a series of tunnels going every which way, darkness blanketing their surroundings. 

“Oh this ain’t good. What should we do?” Autumn Blaze asked nervously.

“Stay close. Anything could be down here.” Ember told them as they could still hear the Thri-Kreen chittering above them. There was a rumble in the walls around them, and a giant insect creature burst from the wall and roared at them.

“Woah. That’s one big bug.” Smolder said as her eyes went wide.

“Move!” Spring Leaf shouted as the creature snapped at them with its giant mandibles, taking a chunk out of the wall in the process. The group all split up down separate tunnels, desperate to try and get some distance from the creature. The insectoid creature then took off after its closest target, who happened to be Spring Leaf. She went into her Nirik form and started blasting it with fire, which seemed to just bounce off the creature’s hardened carapace. It slashed forward at Spring Leaf with its razor sharp front legs, taking sizable chunks out of the floor and wall. Spring Leaf kept running down the winding path of the tunnel, taking pot shots at the creature still rushing furiously behind her and managing to actually put a fair bit of distance between them. The tunnel eventually let out and she saw the others exiting out from their respective tunnels as well, leading out into a central atrium far removed from where they started.

“Not good. What do we do?” Garble asked. Autumn Blaze studied the area around them before her eyes went wide.

“I’ve got an idea!” Autumn Blaze exclaimed, having also changed into her Nirik form. “Pool your fire and aim at the ceiling of that tunnel!” She gestured to the tunnel where they saw the giant insectoid creature barreling towards them quite quickly. They all did as told, pooling their fire into a giant ball and just as the creature approached the entryway, they launched it at the ceiling above the archway, collapsing the tunnel right on top of the creature.

“Great idea Autumn!” Spring Leaf exclaimed excitedly.

“Come on, we’re outta here!” Garble exclaimed before taking a strong leap upward and busting open the ceiling that was already weakened from the fire blast from earlier. They all emerged into the upper level and saw that the Thri-Kreen were already mobilizing.

“We’ve gotta get to the throne room so we can get that egg and my Scepter back!” Ember informed the group.

“We’re gonna have quite the fight ahead of us.” Spring Leaf said.

“We’d better not let up then.” Smolder said as she shot out a stream of fire breath to break apart a crowd of Thri-Kreen in front of them. The group made their way forward as the crowd parted, narrowly avoiding the swipes from the remaining Thri-Kreen and managing to slip into one of the side tunnels.

“If I remember correctly, the throne room should be this way.” Spring Leaf stated as they continued to run. The group stopped dead in their tracks when a blast of energy hit the ground right in front of them. They looked up and saw a Thri-Kreen on one of the upper ledges who had a different styled chitinous growth on its hand charging another blast of magical energy from its hand. Autumn Blaze changed into her Nirik form and shot a blast of flame from her horn at the magic casting Thri-Kreen. As they moved, they were bombarded with more blasts of magic, eventually getting separated in the chaos. Garble found that he was by himself after avoiding the chaos from that corridor, and after catching his breath, he heard a distinct ringing sound. He patted himself down and eventually pulled out that communicator he got back in Klugetown. He pressed the answer button and saw Spike’s face appear on the screen.

“Hey, you ok? It looks like we got separated back there.” Spike asked.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good. Where are you guys?” Garble asked.

“Not really sure. But we’ll be looking for a way to get out of here fast once we get what we need.” Spike explained. Garble peaked around a corner and saw the giant doors they were led through earlier.

“Good stuff, cause I think I just found the throne room. I’m gonna try to get in and get the Scepter and the egg so we can make a run for it.” Garble said, keeping his voice low so as to not potentially attract any more attention.

“Understood. Just be careful though. It could be a trap.” Spike said.

“I’ll be in and out before ya know it.” Garble responded as he ended the call. He approached the large metal doors cautiously, hearing shouting and chittering coming from far down one of the tunnels off to the side. He quickly pushed the doors open to enter the throne room and was surprised to find it empty, with the Scepter and the dragon egg sitting unoccupied on display next to the throne. Garble scratched his head in confusion but made sure to approach carefully in the event that it was indeed a trap. As he reached out a hand to take the items, he could feel a presence behind him. He turned around and saw the Thri-Kreen chieftain emerge out of the floor and take a stab at him with one of his dual sabers. The saber was impaled through the throne as Garble elbowed the chieftain in the face, causing him to let go of the saber and back off. Garble then grabbed it by the hilt and pulled it out of the throne.

“I think you’ve had those for long enough.” Garble stated as he gestured to the Scepter and dragon egg.

“Not so. Once Opaline has achieved her goal, she will grant me unimaginable power.” The chieftain replied as he twirled his remaining saber between his gnarled fingers.

“That’s not gonna happen. We’ll make sure of that.” Garble said with conviction as he took a fighting stance with saber in hand. The chieftain beat his fist against his chest, a rough striking sound echoing from the carapace.

“You’ll have to get past me first!” The chieftain roared as he charged at Garble with his saber. Garble clumsily deflected the strike with his own saber, causing the chieftain to laugh.

“You don’t have much experience with a blade do you?”

“Maybe not, but I’ve got other tricks to make up the difference.” Garble responded as he threw a swift punch right into the chieftain’s chest, only to see that nothing happened. His confident grin dropped as the chieftain laughed once more.

“I have the ability to harden my outer carapace at will. It makes my shell harder than steel!” The chieftain explained as he hardened the carapace around his head and gave Garble a solid headbutt. Garble felt dizzy at the force of the impact but quickly recovered as he took a slash with the saber in his hand. The chieftain parried the blow and threw a solid kick into Garble’s abdomen, having hardened the shell around his leg for extra impact. He then grabbed Garble by the throat and hoisted him up into the air, slamming him on the ground on his back. Garble tried to sweep his leg but the chieftain had hardened the shell of his leg once more so he barely flinched at Garble’s attack. He then grabbed Garble and flung him across the throne room and into the far wall. As Garble picked himself up, he raised his saber to block another strike from the chieftain.

“I must say, you’ve survived longer than I expected. But you should learn to quit when you’re outmatched.” The chieftain chittered menacingly.

“I’m a slow learner. It’s one of my issues.” Garble responded sarcastically as he shoved the chieftain back, knocking the saber out of his hand. He moved to strike Garble with his hardened fist when Garble shot out a stream of fire breath, causing the hardening on the chieftain’s shell to fade slightly. That’s when it hit him.

“Seems like that hardened shell of yours doesn’t hold up well against extreme heat, does it?” Garble asked as he flashed another confident grin. As the chieftain charged towards him, Garble kept pelting him with concentrated fire blasts. The chieftain eventually broke through the assault and grabbed Garble by the throat while using his bottom set of arms to crush Garble in a vice grip.

“It’s over, dragon. Now you die.” The chieftain breathed with sadistic glee as he attempted to choke the life out of Garble.

“Don’t count on it pal.” Garble managed to choke out as he brought down an elbow on the chieftain’s collarbone. He then grabbed the set of hands around his throat and wrenched them away before kicking with both legs so that the chieftain dropped him to the ground. As the chieftain rushed towards him again, Garble belted out the biggest blast of flame he could muster. It covered the chieftain’s entire body, causing his hardened carapace to crack and fade. Seeing his opportunity, Garble wrapped both arms around the chieftain’s waist and power bombed him into the floor, taking him out of the fight for good. Garble stopped to catch his breath for a moment before he stumbled over to the display where the egg and the Scepter were being kept. Grabbing them quickly, he then pulled out his communication device and called up Spike.

“Hey, what happened? I thought you’d just be in and out.” Spike asked once he finally picked up.

“Got a little sidetracked. I’m on my way now, stuff and all.” Garble responded as he made his way to the throne room doors. “Where are you now?”

“If you take the west tunnel, you should find us.”

“Sounds good.” Garble said. As he was about to leave, he heard chittering laughter coming from behind him. He saw the chieftain raise up a hand that started to glow. There was suddenly rumbling in the floor and walls as it started to fall apart.

“I’ll make sure none of you leave here alive!” The chieftain roared as the underground caverns started to collapse.

“You’re insane! Spike, you guys gotta move. I’ll meet up with you soon!” Garble shouted into the communicator before hanging up and bolting out of the throne room. Meanwhile, Spike and the others could feel the rumbling as well as the other Thri-Kreen started to run, though where they would go is anyone’s guess.

“Anyone see a way out?!” Smolder exclaimed. They all looked for any sort of exit until Spring Leaf saw a small opening in the ceiling just above them where daylight slightly peaked in from.

“There!” She shouted as she shifted into her Nirik form and blasted the opening with fire to make it large enough to climb through. They all made their way out of the opening, with Spike and Smolder carrying Spring Leaf and Autumn Blaze as they couldn’t fly. Floating in the air as they witnessed the underground hive collapsing, they all began to worry a bit more when they didn’t see Garble right away.

“You think he’s gonna make it?” Smolder asked out of concern for her brother. Spike simply kept his gaze fixed on the collapsing hive.

Come on man. You believed in me when I was dying, now it’s my turn to believe in you. You gotta make it.

After a few more seconds of waiting, they all saw Garble burst forth from the hive just as it finished collapsing and fall face first into the dirt. The group landed to check on his condition and to see if he had the items. After he didn’t move for a few moments, Spike shook him gently.

“Garble? Hey man, you okay?”

Garble groaned as he picked himself up, and presented his prizes; in one hand was the Blood Stone Scepter, and the other was one of the dragon eggs that had been stolen.

“What’d I tell ya? In and out before you know it.” He quipped as the group all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Ember and Smolder swept him up in a hug while Spike placed an affirming hand on his shoulder. Spring Leaf and Autumn Blaze both stood by the dragons’ side with happy smiles as the group chatted and laughed about what had just taken place. As they did, a mysterious group of individuals wearing cloaks watched from a hilltop above them, being careful not to give away their position. One of the individuals pulled off their hood to reveal the face of a parrot, who pulled out a similar artifact to the dragon’s’ communication devices and called up a mysterious female figure.

“It’s them.” He said in a deep, gruff voice.

“Are you sure?” The female figure asked.

“Positive. I just confirmed it myself.” The parrot replied back.

“Bring them to me. No matter what it takes.” The figure told him.

“Understood.” The parrot gave back as he ended the call. He returned to his partner, who just watch the group of dragons and Kirin silently as they began walking away from the ruins of the Thri-Kreen hive.

“What’d she say?” He asked the parrot, not taking his gaze off the group.

“Said to bring them in. I figure since it was your tracer that led us to them, you should be the one to do the honors Benga.” The parrot said. The other figure then pulled off his hood, revealing a tabby cat Abyssinian with light brown fur, black stripes, and yellowish green eyes. 

“Then we’d better not waste any more time.”
> Chapter 10: Out of the Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Past:

After what felt like forever, Benga and his troupe had finally arrived back in Abyssinia. He made sure to get the injured to the medics, and as he left the medical center, he looked around to make sure nobody was watching him as he ducked into a back alley. He pulled out a communicator and contacted a mysterious female figure.

“What happened out there?” The figure asked.

“We got attacked by a flock of harpies. Some of my men died, others were injured. Didn’t want to risk it.” Benga responded.

“Not a bad idea. But now it’ll be that much harder to find where they went.” The figure responded, a sense of urgency laced into her tone.

“Not to worry. I set a tracer on them. Now all I need to do is catch up to them.”

The Present:

The group had been traveling all day, deciding to head back to the Dragon Lands to return the egg they had retrieved.

“One down, and uh, however many more to go.” Garble stated as he tried and failed to recall how many dragon eggs had been stolen.

“Wow. That was really something. You sure you didn’t hurt yourself?” Smolder quipped sarcastically.

“Yeah hahaha, very funny Smolder. No, my memory is just a bit selective right now.”

“More like all the time.” Smolder retorted, which got a laugh out of the rest of the group. Garble simply scoffed before starting to chuckle himself. He had to admit, his sister got him good.

“You guys are fun. Got any good stories to pass the time?” Autumn Blaze asked excitedly.

“Well, there was this one time when-“ Ember suddenly stopped what she was saying as she listened closely for something.

“What’s wrong?” Spike asked. Ember didn’t answer at first, until she turned around to look towards the direction they came from.

“Whoever’s been following us, you can come out now.” At that moment, two hooded figures that emerged from behind a set of rocks.

“Who are you?” Ember asked as everyone was now on guard. One of them removed their hood and revealed a familiar face.

“A friend.” Benga responded, eliciting shocked gasps from the group.

“Benga!? What’s going on?” Spike asked.

“I promise I’ll explain eventually, but right now there isn’t time. Our employer wants to see you.” Benga responded.

“You don’t say.” Ember said with a raised eyebrow.

“We don’t have all day here Benga. Let’s get a move on!” Benga’s companion called to them. He also removed his hood and the group saw a gruff looking parrot with black and white feathers and yellowish orange eyes.

“Alright Athos, we’re going.” Benga called back. “Suppose we should get moving.” He was about to start walking away when noticed the Kirin that were with them.

“Oh, my apologies. We haven’t been formally introduced. My name is Benga.” He said with a polite wave.

“I’m Spring Leaf, and this is Autumn Blaze.” Spring Leaf introduced the both of them, with Autumn Blaze giving a big smile.

“Gotta say, it’s rare to see Kirin out this far.” Benga said as they started to walk towards their destination. Spring Leaf stopped for a moment and let out a heavy sigh.

“We’re actually looking for our leader, Rain Shine. She was taken by an evil pony named Opaline, and we’ve been traveling with these four in order to get her back.” Spring Leaf explained.

“She also stole a clutch of dragon eggs from the Dragon Lands.” Spike added.

“Well I’m sure that my employer will be more than willing to help you.” Benga responded.

“That reminds me, who is this mysterious ‘employer’ of yours? You’ve been awfully vague about it.” Smolder asked as she raised an eyebrow.

“Remember what we talked about Benga. No more than necessary.” Athos told him. 

“What’s the deal with that guy?” Ember whispered to Benga.

“Athos is a good friend, and reliable in a pinch. But he also tends to be a bit… paranoid.”

The group walked for a few more moments, making their way through a small pocket of woodlands before they finally arrived at an empty clearing.

“I thought you said you had a vessel nearby. There’s nothing here.” Garble said as they all looked around the clearing.

“Oh right. I almost forgot.” Benga said. He held out a hand, which shimmered with magical energy. After a moment, a magical field dissipated and revealed a vessel that resembled a scaled down version of an airship. The whole group looked upon it in awe.

“I definitely need to get one of those.” Autumn Blaze said as her eyes went wide with excitement.

“What is it?” Smolder asked curiously.

“It’s a skiff. Essentially a small airship meant for only a few passengers.” Benga explained.

“How do you even have something like this?” Spike asked.

“It comes courtesy of our employer. They made sure to spare no expense.” Benga replied.

“Let’s move. They’re waiting for us.” Athos said.

“You’re always in such a rush Athos. You need to learn to slow down every now and then.” Benga grilled him sarcastically.

“If we went at your leisurely pace, we’d never get anything done.” Athos responded matter of factly. Benga put a hand over his heart in fake horror.

“You wound me Athos!” He said dramatically, eliciting chuckles from the group as they boarded the skiff. Athos simply rolled his eyes and started up the skiff, ascending slowly into the air.

“Oh right, I almost forgot.” Benga remembered as he reapplied the magical field.

“A cloaking spell?” Spike asked quizzically.

“That’s right. It’s useful, especially now with all these monsters roaming around.” Benga said as he looked out on the horizon.

“So where exactly are we going?” Ember asked. Benga was about to answer before Athos shot him a suspicious look and shook his head.

“Let’s just say, you’ll know soon enough.”

They flew for some time, simply making idle chatter as the time rolled by, and after a while they all noticed how it had started to get colder. They looked out and saw that it had started to turn from woodlands and forests into a snowy landscape, which was only getting more intense as their journey progressed.

“It’s getting hard to see out here Benga. Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Garble asked.

“Trust me. It’s safe where we’re going.” Benga responded back. Athos steered the skiff forward and the group all braced for impact. They pierced through a magical barrier and suddenly there was no snowstorm raging around them. As they opened their eyes, they saw a calm and tranquil landscape, the temperature perfect and crystalline buildings lining the streets. It was then that the realization hit all of them as to where they were.

“It can’t be. It’s…” Spike trailed off as he took it all in.

“That’s right. The Crystal Empire.” Benga finished. Spike couldn’t believe that it was still standing after everything that had happened. Not only that, it appeared to be thriving. As Athos landed the skiff at a nearby port, they could see that there was someone waiting for them.

“Looks like our welcome party’s here.” Athos stated plainly. They all disembarked from the skiff, and their welcome party stepped forward.

“Well well, as I live and breathe. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” Spike’s jaw dropped as he saw who it was. “Well, sore eye in my case.”

“Capper!? Is that you?” Spike asked in shock.

“Might look a little different but yeah, it’s me alright.” Capper responded as he flashed a confident grin. Spike got a good look at him and saw that he had changed slightly; his fur had lost a bit of its vibrancy and his coat looked a little tattered. But most notably, he wore an eyepatch over his left eye. Spike approached him and pulled him into a firm hug, each of them giving each other a pat on the back.

“Seriously though, it really is good to see you. The higher ups around here have been looking for you guys for a long time.” Capper stated.

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve introduced you. Capper, meet Ember, Garble, Smolder, Spring Leaf, and Autumn Blaze.” Spike said as he introduced his entire group.

“We’ve met a few times when I had to journey to Abyssinia for conferences. Good to see you again Capper.” Ember said as she gave a brief wave.

“You too, Dragon Lord Ember.” Capper said as he gave a slight bow. They all started to walk towards the Crystal Castle as they continued to converse. Capper struck up a conversation with Autumn Blaze, and the two of them really seemed to hit it off. They continued their idle conversations until they eventually reached the Crystal Castle, making their way through the halls until they eventually stood right outside the throne room.

“So, this ‘employer’ of yours is just beyond this door I’m guessing? Bird boy over there was pretty reluctant to say anything about it.” Smolder asked as Athos shot her a sideways glance.

“Oh trust me, it’s someone you’re all quite familiar with.” Benga stated as Capper pushed open the doors to the throne room. Inside, Spike noticed how it was mostly the same as it had always been. Though what he wasn’t prepared for was who he saw inside. Engaged in conversation with a couple of crystal ponies, Spike saw Princesses Luna and Cadence.

“P-Princess Luna? Cadence?” He couldn’t believe his eyes. All this time, he thought they had been lost. He felt his emotions welling up inside of him as he approached the two alicorns.

“It’s good to see you again Spike.” Luna said with a smile. Spike wrapped them both up in a hug, with both of them returning it in equal measure.

“How? I don’t even know how it’s possible.” Spike said as he tried to collect himself. He pulled away from the group hug and got a look at both of them; true to their alicorn nature, they hadn’t aged a day, still looking the same as they always had.

“We definitely have a lot to catch up on Spike. But first, I think there’s somepony else who would be very surprised to see you again. Speaking of which, I think that’s her.” Cadence said as she heard the sound of the doors opening once more and a voice calling for her.

“Hey mom, I was looking over the plans for the new scouting party and I was thinking that…” The voice trailed off as everyone in the room turned to see who had just entered. Spike’s eyes went wide with shock as he saw who it was; before them stood Flurry Heart, now a full grown alicorn whose eyes also went wide with shock as she saw that there were a bunch of new faces but her eyes zeroed in on the purple dragon. They both approached moved slowly, each of them trying to find the words to say.

“Big Brother?” Flurry Heart finally choked out as her eyes started to well up with tears. 

“Hey kiddo. It’s been a long time hasn’t it?” Spike asked back. Flurry Heart rushed toward him and gave him a big hug, the tears now flowing freely.

“It’s you, Big Brother. You’re really here.” She said quietly as she sobbed into his shoulder.

“That’s right kiddo. I’m here.” Spike said back as he closed his eyes and held her tighter, the tears now flowing freely down his face as well. Everyone in the room took in the heartwarming moment, with some of them wiping away their own tears that were forming. Ember in particular tried to play it cool, and Garble just put an arm around her and smiled. Once everything had settled down, Spike and company relayed what they knew of the situation, such as the theft of the dragon eggs and the kidnapping of Rain Shine.

“That’s why we were wondering if you knew anything about Opaline’s past or motives.” Spike concluded.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t have any knowledge of this Opaline.” Luna said as she thought it over.

“It’s certainly a surprise to see another alicorn though. And one so malicious too.” Cadence added.

“What about Princess Celestia? I’m sure if anyone knows stuff like that, it’s her right?” Smolder asked. The atmosphere of the room suddenly felt heavier as none of them answered right away.

“There’s a bit of a problem with that. Princess Celestia has been missing for some time.” Benga answered.

“What do you mean missing?” Garble asked.

“Just as it sounds. My sister had initially helped evacuate Canterlot, and helped get us set up here. But one day, she said that she was going to investigate a potential lead, and she simply vanished. We haven’t heard from her since.” Luna explained, the pain in her eyes clearly evident.

“There’s gotta be something about Opaline somewhere. She can’t just be a ghost.” Spike said. Everyone in the room thought it over for a few moments, trying desperately to find some kind of answer to their conundrum.

“Mount Metazoa.” Flurry Heart finally piped up. “Their archives are the most complete collection of information I know of. If anywhere has records about Opaline, it’s there.”

“Then that’s where we’re going.” Spike concluded.

“It’s getting rather late. Why not take a load off for tonight, and you can set out first thing in the morning?” Cadence suggested. Looking out the windows of the Crystal Castle, they could see that the last little bit of daylight had fully given way to night, and the toll of the day was finally setting in for them. They hadn’t rested since escaping the Thri-Kreen hive after all.

“Think we’ll take you up on that Princess. I’m still sore from that fight earlier.” Garble said as he stretched his back out.

“Well then, let’s adjourn for tonight, and continue this in the morning.” Luna said. As everyone started to disband for the evening, Flurry Heart managed to catch Spike as he was leaving.

“So, that was a lot wasn’t it?” She asked him.

“You bet. Today’s been pretty eventful.” Spike answered with a smile. “It’s really great to see all of you. And to know that not everyone was gone after the fall.”

A silence hung in the air for a moment after that, but Flurry Heart perked up as she remembered something.

“Follow me. I wanna show you something.” She said as she nudged him in the side. He chuckled as he followed her through the halls of the castle. They eventually reached a room that had a chest off in the corner that Flurry Heart ran over to and started to rummage through.

“Mom found this a while back.” She said as she pulled out what looked to be a photograph. “I knew deep down that you were still out there somewhere, and I promised myself I’d give this to you once I found you.” She handed it over to him and he saw that it was a picture of him sitting at a table with a large cake in front of him. He was surrounded by all of his friends and there was confetti in the air, as Pinkie Pie had just set off her party cannon as the picture was taken. Immediately on his right side was Twilight, who had a big smile on her face, and on his left side was Sweetie Belle, who had her front legs wrapped around his neck and was in the process of planting a kiss on his cheek. Spike smiled as he remembered that day.

“It was my birthday. Sweetie Belle had spent practically the entire week getting everything ready. I remember that she said it had to be ‘the best birthday for the best boyfriend.’ He recalled.

“You really liked her didn’t you?” Flurry Heart asked. Spike smiled again as he recalled all the memories he had made with Sweetie Belle. Different dates, planning events for each other, and the times where they simply enjoyed each other’s company.

“Yeah. She was really special to me. I’m glad you gave me this. Thanks kiddo.” Spike said as he gave Flurry Heart a pat on the head.

“You’re welcome. I’m just glad you’re back Big Brother.” She said as she gave him a quick hug.

“Me too. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna hit the hay. Seems like we’re gonna have a pretty eventful day tomorrow.” Spike said as he headed out for the night. When he made it to his room, he took one last look at that photograph Flurry Heart gave him before tucking it away somewhere safe. He plopped down on the bed and immediately passed out, the events of the day finally drawing him into a deep slumber.

The Dream:

Spike found himself in a dream once more, though this one seemed a bit calmer. He still felt a sense of unease though, as if it was the calm before the storm. His shadow self materialized next to him once again.

“Why is it that I can’t go one night without seeing you?” Spike asked, clearly not thrilled with the presence of his shadow self.

“You already know the answer to that one.” Shadow Spike stated cryptically.

“Great. More vague statements.” Spike said as he rolled his eyes. He looked around and saw that he was in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Looking out the large window behind the throne, he could practically see all of Equestria, though he could tell something didn’t feel right.

“You found some of your old friends. Such a heartwarming reunion. But it won’t be long before your fear causes you to do something reckless.” Shadow Spike taunted.

“Really? This again?” Spike asked in an annoyed tone.

“I told you before, I’m on the inside. I know the truth.” Shadow Spike continued.

“The truth about what?” Spike snapped, growing even more irritated with this exchange.

“That you’re obsession with Opaline is driven by a desire for vengeance. Not to set the world right or whatever naive sense of justice you claim to cling to. She caused Equestria to fall apart, and you want her to suffer for it.” Shadow Spike taunted once more.

“That’s not true.” Spike shot back, though his shadow self’s words did plant seeds of doubt within him. Shadow Spike simply scoffed.

“We’ll see if you still feel the same when the time comes.” 

Real World:

Dawn soon came and the Crystal Empire slowly awakened with it. In his room, Spike was thinking over his dream from the previous night. He tried to convince himself that he was doing this for the right reasons, though he always felt that small bit of doubt in the back of his mind. Was this pursuit for the right reasons? Spike admitted that he felt no small amount of anger towards Opaline for the damage she caused, though he also felt shame in himself for not being there when Twilight needed him.

Would she be able to forgive me?

Suddenly, there was a knock at his door as he heard a familiar voice on the other side.

“Big Brother? The others are heading out soon and were wondering where you were.” Flurry Heart called from the other side of the door. Spike got up and went to open the door.

“Sorry about that. Guess I overslept again.” Spike responded as he scratched the back of his head, clearly trying to play it off. But Flurry Heart wasn’t buying it.

“Are you alright? You look tired.” She asked in a concerned tone as they made their way towards the castle entrance.

“Yeah I’m fine. It’s nothing to worry about.” He responded as he gave her a reassuring smile. She accepted his answer for now, though she knew that something wasn’t right with him. They eventually reached the castle entrance, where the others were waiting for him.

“Finally. Seems like this is becoming a habit with you.” Smolder said as she crossed her arms.

“Yeah yeah, my bad.” Spike said back halfheartedly.

“It has been a pretty rough couple of days. It’s only natural it would happen from time to time.”Spring Leaf reminded them.

“Yeah, fair enough.” Smolder conceded as her expression softened.

“Well, shall we?” Benga asked.

“Lead the way.” Ember responded. Spike turned back to Flurry Heart one last time.

“Guess you’re heading out then?” She asked.

“Yeah. But don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it.” Spike answered as he gave her one last pat on the head before he left to join the others. As Flurry Heart watched him leave, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something going on with him, though she couldn’t tell what it was. Back with the group, they all boarded the skiff from the previous day and set sail to Mount Metazoa. As the journey progressed, the various members of the group engaged in idle conversation and activities to pass the time, with Autumn Blaze and Benga engaging in a rather amusing game of charades. As the rest of them erupted into laughter as Benga once again guessed wrong, Smolder noticed that Spike was standing at the front of the vessel looking out onto the horizon and went to stand next to him.

“Spike?” She asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped at her touch, having been lost in deep thought.

“Oh, hey Smolder.” Spike said back, clearly getting a bearing on his surroundings again.

“Are you okay? You seem kinda out of it today.” Smolder asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Spike answered, though at this point he wondered if he was trying to convince everyone else or himself.

“Have you been having more of those dreams?” Smolder asked as she leaned against the railing.  Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath before sighing and opening his eyes.

“More or less. But we’ve got a job to do. Can’t have everycreature worrying about me.”

“You don’t have to hide it you know. Ever since the fall, things have been tough for all of us, so we should be here for each other, now more than ever.” Smolder said as they both looked out over the horizon.

“Yeah. You’re right. Thanks Smolder.” Spike said as he gave her a smile. She gave a smile of her own before they saw that the skiff was surrounded by a thick fog.

“It’s getting harder to see! We might have to see if we can land it somewhere!” Athos called as he tried to navigate the skiff through the dense fog. Suddenly, the skiff shook violently as something caught the hull and they started to feel themselves being pulled down.

“Hang on!” Athos yelled as he tried his best to steer them away from any danger. They eventually crashed onto a cliffside and slid to a halt.

“Everyone alright?” Ember asked as she slowly rose to her feet.

“I’m all for excitement, but I’d definitely prefer not to do that again.” Benga groaned as he just lay on his back for a moment. Spring Leaf took a look off the cliff and saw that they had landed on one of the smaller islands in the area.

“It looks like the main archives are just across the way there.” She said as she pointed it out. As they exited the skiff, the dragons also looked out over the cliff and saw what Spring Leaf was referring to. There was quite a large gap between the island they were on and the island that contained the main archives, though with their flight they could clear it easily.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Garble asked with a grin as he took flight.

“You ready Spring Leaf?” Smolder asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Spring Leaf responded nervously. She still wasn’t used to the idea of flight, though she found herself being scooped up by Smolder and taking flight before she could think anymore about it.

“You coming Autumn?” Spike asked.

“I think I’ll stay back and help get the skiff repaired. We’re gonna need it to get back out of here.” Autumn Blaze responded.

“We should sync our communicators to stay in contact.” Athos said. Spike pulled out his communicator and they all synced up together.

“That should do it. Be careful out there.” Benga said to them.

“Right. Shall we?” Spike said as he turned to Ember. She gave him an affirming nod as they both took off to catch up with their companions. The fog was still quite thick, though they managed to make it to the other side and catch up to their companions with relatively little trouble. As they landed, they saw that the others were just staring ahead, looks of shock on their faces.

“What’s wrong?” Ember asked. She looked and saw the main archives of Mount Metazoa, though its appearance had changed slightly since her visit during the Convocation of Creatures. The building had fallen somewhat into disrepair, the walls and windows having been broken down and smashed in with giant crystals and jagged rocks protruding through. As they stepped inside the main foyer, they saw what appeared to be webs strung along the ceiling and walls.

“Those aren’t cobwebs, are they?” Spring Leaf asked nervously as her eyes darted around the room. They all knew the answer to that, as the atmosphere suddenly felt much more dangerous than they were anticipating. Spike turned to Spring Leaf to give the answer they all knew deep down.

“No they aren’t. It looks like Mount Metazoa is infested with spiders.”
> Chapter 11: Lair of the Brood Queen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The group moved slowly through the archives of Mount Metazoa, taking care to try and not alert the giant spiders that had taken residence there.   The atmosphere was heavy and thick, as though they could be attacked at any moment.

“Man this place is creepy.” Garble said as he kept an eye out.

“You said it. I’d rather not be here any longer than we have to be.” Spring Leaf agreed.

“What exactly are we looking for in here?” Smolder asked.

“Anything related to Opaline. Her history, hideouts, personality, and such. If there’s anywhere that has it, it’s here.” Spike replied.

“Let’s hope we don’t become spider food first.” Ember said, causing them all to shutter at the thought. As they continued to traverse the halls, they saw the full scope of the desolation that had taken place. In the midst of all the spiderwebs, they could see crumbling stone and rotting wood, the displays created for the Convocation of Creatures having fallen into disrepair. As Spring Leaf had stopped to study one of the displays, she began to hear an ominous clicking sound coming from above.

“Uh guys. Did you hear that?” She asked nervously, afraid to look above her to confirm her suspicions. They all looked up slowly to see a rather large spider looking down on them hungrily. As it lunged down towards Spring Leaf, Garble stepped between them, catching the spider before it could reach her. He kicked it away before shooting a steady stream of fire, keeping it up until the spider was finally still.

“You good?” Garble asked as he looked back towards Spring Leaf.

“Yeah. We should keep moving.” Spring Leaf responded.

“If we head for the central archives, we should be able to find what we’re looking for. They have a section on ancient history there.” Spike said to the group.

“Alright, lead the way.” Smolder said. They continued through the halls, taking extra care to keep an eye out for any more spiders that may be lurking around them. As they were about to exit out into a large hallway, Ember stopped the group.

“Hide!” She hissed. As they all pressed themselves against the walls, they saw a giant spider about the size of a BugBear crawl through the hall. Everyone in the group held their breath as the giant spider stopped for a moment, clicking and hissing as it looked around for potential prey. After a moment, it finally moved on, and the group all let out a collective sigh of relief.

“This had better be worth the trouble.” Garble grumbled. Continuing through the halls, and keeping an eye out for any more spiders, the group eventually found themselves in the central archives, although they found it in a severe state of disrepair, with much of the wall and ceiling having been broken away. They could see that some kind of large formation sat in the wall, with the archives almost seeming to conform to its shape.

“This place is a mess. How are we supposed to find anything in here?” Smolder asked.

“I didn’t think it had fallen apart this much. We might be in trouble guys.” Spike said. As they looked around the central archives, they could suddenly hear rumbling in the walls and the sound of skittering coming from all around them.

“I think we’re about to be in even more trouble everyone.” Spring Leaf said. At that moment, an untold amount of spiders emerged from the walls, some about the size of Timberwolves while others were the size of Manticores or BugBears. They looked upon the group with a covetous gaze, sending shivers down their spines.

“Could this possibly get any worse?” Garble asked. As if on cue, they could hear more rumbling behind them. The formation they saw in the wall as they entered began to shift and move and, to their horror, the center of the formation parted to reveal eyes. One by one they opened until it revealed a total of nine eyes. What they saw before them was a massive Brood Queen spider, probably about the size of Twilight’s castle. The spider shifted itself to get a more clear view of its guests before letting out a hearty laugh.

“It would seem my children have found a new toy to play with. How exciting.” The Brood Queen’s raspy voice echoed throughout the archives as its breath actually caused them to stagger back a bit. It shifted a bit more, showing the group that what they thought was a fallen pillar was actually one of its massive legs. “It’s unusual that we get dragons and Kirin here. Quite interesting playthings indeed.” The other spiders around them hissed as they began to creep slowly towards the group, looking to ensure that they don’t leave alive. 

“Wait!” Spring Leaf exclaimed. “Maybe you can help us.” The Brood Queen blinked inquisitively at the Kirin’s declaration as the other spiders also paused their advance.

“Oh? And what is it you wish to know, little morsel?” The Brood Queen asked. Spring Leaf gulped nervously as she saw the spiders lingering around them.

“We came here looking for information about a pony named Opaline. She has our leader, Rain Shine, as well as a clutch of dragon eggs.” Spring Leaf explained.

“Ah yes. My children have whispered tales of a wicked pony who roams these lands.” The Brood Queen answered. Spike furrowed his brow and stepped forward.

“What do you know?”

“What does it matter? It’s not like you’ll be leaving.” The Brood Queen responded with a sinister sneer. The spiders that surrounded them resumed their approach as it appeared that there would be no more negotiations.

“Great. What now?” Smolder asked as they all stood back to back. Spike clenched his fists, his blood boiling at being denied answers yet again. It seemed that no matter what, they kept hitting dead end after dead end.

Not this time. He thought to himself.

“Uh guys. We kinda need a plan here.” Garble said as the spiders closed in around them.

“We fight.” Spike said simply as he let out a large blast of fire, causing the spiders to shrink back in fear. The others followed suit as they were able to temporarily push back the large hoard of spiders with their fire. As they got an opening, Ember took flight and swatted away a few spiders with the Scepter and Spring Leaf managed to burn a few of them after transforming into her Nirik form.

“Wretched bugs!” The Brood Queen grunted as she tried to crush Spike with one of her massive legs. He rolled to the side to avoid the strike before plunging his hands into the ground, pulling up a large chunk of rock and throwing it directly at the Brood Queen, shattering against her face and forcing her to recoil in pain. Meanwhile, Garble and Smolder stood back to back punching and kicking spiders away before they both leapt into the air and spun around while belting out continuous streams of fire. The Brood Queen managed to break free of the wood and stone that she was encased in and started to furiously swipe at Spike with her legs. With every strike, the archives rumbled and shook as the Brood Queen moved alarmingly fast despite her mountainous size. Spike regrouped with the others, seeing that many of the other spiders had been cleared away, though there were seemingly an infinite amount still coming. He noticed that some of the spiders were moving to protect the Brood Queen instead of attacking them.

“We need to take down the Queen!” Spike shouted to the others.

“How are we supposed to take down something that big?!” Spring Leaf exclaimed.

“By catching it off balance!” Ember responded as she swung the Scepter to knock away a few spiders rushing towards her.

“I got an idea! Spike, gimme a hand!” Garble said as he breathed a stream of fire to burn away some webs entangling a rather large bookshelf that was almost as tall as the room itself. Spike moved to assist, and when they burned away the last of the webs they each grabbed a side and sprinted towards the Brood Queen. They rammed the shelf into one of her legs, which knocked her off balance.

“Smolder!” Ember shouted as she gestured to another of the Brood Queen’s legs.

“Right!” Smolder responded as she pressed her legs to the wall and used her wings to blast off like a bullet, ramming her shoulder into the Brood Queen’s other leg at the same time that Ember took a powerful swing with the Scepter. As the Brood Queen started to lose her balance, Garble and Spike both leapt up into the air and brought down a rather large chandelier, slamming it down onto the Brood Queen’s head. The force of the impact caused some of the wall and ceiling to collapse on top of her as well. Spike landed in front of her so that he was looking directly into one of her eyes.

“Opaline. Where is she?” He asked in a low, menacing tone. The Brood Queen let out a raspy chuckle.

“You certainly have strength, little one. Very well. My children have heard whispers of a hideout to the south. You will find what you seek there.” Spike gave her a stern look before turning around to join the others. Before leaving, he turned back to the Brood Queen and saw rows upon rows of spider eggs lining the walls behind her.

“For your sake, you better not be lying. Or else, I may just be back to finish the job.” Spike growled menacingly. The others all gave each other a concerned look as they turned to make their exit, the other spiders now hesitantly standing aside due to the thrashing they had just given the Brood Queen. Ember’s communicator suddenly went off, and she answered it to see Benga looking back at her through the screen.

“What’s going on in there? The whole place has been shaking out here.”

“Had a bit of trouble with the locals. Almost brought the whole place down. We’re heading out now.” Ember responded. The group made their way out of the archives, eventually making it back to the skiff. They saw that the three who had stayed behind had fully repaired the skiff and were ready to roll out.

“Well? Learn anything?” Autumn Blaze asked.

“Supposedly, Opaline has a a hideout to the south where she’s holding Rain Shine. If we go there, we may just be able to get her back.” Spring Leaf responded.

“Then I guess we’d better head out. Skiff’s all ready to go.” Athos told the group. They all boarded the skiff and set off towards Opaline’s hideout. As the journey continued, Ember found herself glancing towards Spike with a look of concern. The way he had acted towards the Brood Queen gave her a sense of unease. She didn’t have much sympathy for the spider, but her concern lay with Spike’s increasingly aggressive behavior more than anything else. Garble noticed her unease and took a seat next to her.

“What’s up?” He asked her.

“It’s Spike. Didn’t you notice the way he acted back there?” Ember asked.

“Yeah. He’s usually not that aggressive.” Garble answered. Ember leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“I’m worried about him Gar. This whole hunt for Opaline might be weighing on him more than he’s letting on.” Ember said.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be there for him, just like he was there for all of us.” Garble reassured her as he pulled her into a quick hug, planting a kiss on her forehead. “I’m gonna go talk to him.”

Garble got up and made his way over until he was standing next to Spike, looking out onto the horizon. The sun was starting to set, and they could both see the sky changing colors to a pale tint of orange to reflect the day giving way to night.

“That was pretty intense back there man. You wanna talk about it?” Garble asked. Spike knew that he was referring to what he said to the Brood Queen. He studied his hand for a moment before clenching it into a fist.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what came over me. It was an anger unlike anything I’ve ever felt.” Spike answered.

“Can’t say that I blame you. If I were in your position, I’d probably be pretty angry too. I just don’t want you losing yourself in this pursuit of Opaline, ya know?” Garble said. Spike let out a sigh.

“You’re right. Thanks man.” Spike said with a slight smile, which Garble returned.

“We’ve still got quite a ways to go. I’d recommend getting some rest.” Athos announced to the group.

“Guess we better take him up on that. No telling what we’ll face when we get there.” Garble said as he gave Spike a quick pat on the shoulder. Spike took one last look out onto the horizon before following the others. As he did, he could swear he heard the words of his shadow self reverberating through his mind.

It’s getting harder to deny it. Soon they’ll know what I know.

Spike shook his head and grunted to himself in frustration. He followed the others to try and get some rest, as they would soon reach Opaline’s hideout, and face whatever terrors that lie within.
> Chapter 12: Into the Dark Below
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was now the dead of night as the group progressed towards Opaline’s hideout. They had taken the time to get some much needed rest after the fiasco at Mount Metazoa, and were now simply waiting as the hideout finally came into view.

“We’re close now. Be ready.” Athos reminded the group.

“What do you think we’ll find once we’re inside?” Benga asked.

“She’s probably utilizing creatures from Tartarus as a makeshift defense. And there’s probably lots of traps too.” Ember answered.

“Stay on your toes. We can’t afford even a second of hesitation in there.” Spike said. They all nodded in agreement as the skiff touched down. As they disembarked, they could feel an ominous atmosphere as they approached the entrance to the hideout. It was a building that was well hidden, having been carved into the mountainside as a way to maintain discretion, a large open entryway standing before them. The group tentatively made their way inside, and as they did the torches on both walls lit up, casting thick shadows across the interior of the cave.

“Creepy.” Autumn Blaze commented as her eyes darted around nervously.

“You said it.” Smolder agreed. They continued deeper inside until they came to a large foyer area which branched off into several tunnels.

“We should split up. It’ll help us cover more ground.” Athos suggested.

“Agreed. Let’s do it in four teams of two. And whatever you do, don’t get caught.” Ember said. After they had decided on their groups, they all headed down separate tunnels, with Spike and Benga heading down the center left tunnel. After a few moments of walking, they came to a room that contained a large stone monolith in the center. They saw a robed figure in front of the monolith muttering something to itself, and they decided to enter more cautiously. Suddenly, Spike stepped on a piece of broken glass, making a loud crunching sound. They quickly took cover as the figure spun around, revealing a formless mass beneath the robe with only two glowing purple eyes staring back. It let out a ghostly shriek as it began to look frantically around the room.

“Dear sweet Celestia! What is that!?” Spike exclaimed in a hushed tone.

“No way. It’s a Wight.” Benga said in a mixture of excitement and terror.

“A what?” Spike asked.

“When I was a child, my father would tell me stories about angry spirits called Wights whose sole purpose was to devour life. I never even thought they were real, much less did I expect to actually see one.” Benga explained.

“Must have been another resident of the deep vaults of Tartarus.” Spike said. He peaked out from their hiding spot and saw a doorway across the room, next to the stone monolith the Wight had been occupied by before. “We have to figure out how to get past that thing without getting killed.”

“Definitely. I’m not keen on dying today.” Benga agreed. They moved slowly in a clockwise fashion around the outer perimeter of the room to reach the exit, taking great care not to draw the Wight’s attention. Spike saw that as it frantically clawed at different objects in the room, they would slowly begin to wither and rot away. He shuttered as they saw that they were almost to the door.

“Almost there.” Spike whispered quietly. He reached out and tried to wrench the door open. As it rattled from the force Spike used to try and pull it open, the Wight spun towards their direction, looking around for the source of the noise. Spike and Benga tensed up, knowing that the Wight would catch them before they were able to get the door open.

“I have an idea. I’ll create a distraction while you focus on getting that door open.” Benga suggested as he took a look back towards the Wight, who was floating ever closer towards them.

“Will you be able to get away in time?” Spike asked.

“Not to worry. I’m quick on my feet.” Benga responded with a wink. He moved quietly back the way they had come and leaned down to pick up a loose stone lying off to the side. He got into position and gave Spike a thumbs up as he chucked the stone at the Wight, who quickly snapped towards Benga and began to float ominously towards him. With the Wight now distracted, Spike gripped the door handle once more and began to lurch it open. The structure’s age certainly explained the difficulty of getting the door open as Spike had to yank on it quite a few times in order to slide it open even a little bit. He looked back and saw Benga dodging the Wight’s furious swipes as it tried to catch him in its clutches.

“Benga, it’s open!” Spike called to him. As Benga jumped and flipped over several toppled obstacles in the room to reach the door, the Wight let out a haunting wail and launched some kind of cloud towards them. When it hit the wall beside them, they could see that it started to crumble and decay, causing them to scramble through the door even faster. They both just barely made it through the door as the Wight reached out to grab them, and to their surprise saw that the Wight did not pass beyond the threshold of the door, instead just staring at them with those haunting purple eyes while pacing back and forth.

“It’s not chasing us. Why?” Benga wondered aloud as he slowly stood up.

“It must be that monolith. It probably keeps it contained to that room.” Spike estimated as he caught his breath.

“Lucky for us then. C’mon, let’s hope the others haven’t run into anything like that.” Benga said. Meanwhile, Garble and Athos walked in complete silence down their respective corridor. Garble could tell Athos wasn’t much of a conversationalist, so the atmosphere was awkward to say the least.

“So, got any good stories to pass the time?” Garble asked as he tried to break the ice.

“That is not why we’re here.” Athos responded.

“I’m just saying man, it’d be nice to not walk in complete si-“ Before he could finish, Athos held up a hand for him to stop and gestured to the room ahead. To their surprise, they saw a massive skeleton with chains wrapping around it, the room only barely large enough to hold its massive frame.

“Woah, what happened here?” Garble asked.

“I believe this is what remains of Cerberus. With Tartarus out of commission, it would appear its guardian no longer had a purpose. Perhaps Opaline figured she could tame the beast for her own purposes.” Athos guessed.

“Guess it didn’t go too well.” Garble said as he studied the massive canine.

“We should keep moving. All of these tunnels should lead to an inner sanctum of some kind.” Athos said.

“Kinda sucks leaving the big guy like this.” Garble responded.

“There’s nothing that can be done for it now.” Athos reminded him. Garble took one last look back up to Cerberus before rejoining Athos and continuing on. In another tunnel, Ember and Autumn Blaze walked along in deep conversation, though it was a little one sided at the moment. Ember asked Autumn about how she had met Applejack and Fluttershy, and she quickly learned that Spring Leaf wasn’t kidding when she said Autumn Blaze was an absolute chatterbox. 

“And then, I went into this whole big musical number when Applejack asked about what happened. It was really involved, lemme tell ya. And then, we took everypony to-“ 

At that moment, Autumn’s hoof caused the floor tile she had stepped on to depress into the floor. Ember barely managed to pull her out of the way of the spikes that shot forth from the wall and nearly skewered the oblivious Kirin.

“Whew. Thanks Ember. That was a close one.” Autumn said as she breathed a sigh of relief. Ember took a look at the spikes and saw that a viscous green liquid dripped onto the floor, making her very grateful she got Autumn out of the way in time.

“Yikes. What is that stuff?” Autumn asked.

“Poison. And a powerful one too. Must be an extra security measure. If the spikes don’t kill you, the poison certainly will.” Ember answered, not taking her eyes off the spike. Autumn gulped nervously as she looked on down the hallway.

“Any chance those were the only traps?”

“Not likely. We need to be very careful from here on.” Ember responded. They took careful steps down the hallway, with Ember being able to see that certain tiles were marked slightly differently to determine which ones would trigger a trap. She tested one of them with the Scepter, pushing down on it and watching it depress into the floor just like before and saw a stream of arrows fire off back and forth from the wall ahead of them.

“Hopefully we’re close to wherever it is these tunnels lead.” Autumn wondered aloud.

“You and me both.” Ember said back. In the final tunnel, Smolder and Spring Leaf had just finished a battle against strange stone constructs, though to their surprise they went down quite easily.

“Is it just me, or are these things just like that golem that attacked the Kirin Grove?” Smolder wondered.

“They definitely are.” Spring Leaf responded as she shifted out of her Nirik form.

“I don’t get it. Why would Opaline be trying to recreate those golem things?” Smolder asked.

“It could be that she had read about how Grogar created the golems and tried to make her own foot soldiers. Seems she hasn’t perfected the process though.” Spring Leaf answered. Smolder studied the loose pile of stones that once formed one of the constructs, thinking about what their use could possibly be.

“If she built enough of these, she could have an army large enough to overrun any kingdom she wanted.” Smolder said as the realization dawned on her. Spring Leaf looked ahead and saw a faint light peaking out from the end of the tunnel. 

“That has to be it. The inner sanctum!” Spring Leaf exclaimed. Smolder looked ahead and saw what Spring Leaf was referring to. She saw the same faint light and realized they must be getting close to their destination.

“Well we wouldn’t wanna keep Rain Shine waiting any more than we already have. Let’s go!” Smolder said as she took off down the tunnel, with Spring Leaf following close behind. As they made their way towards the light, they could hear faint voices coming from the room ahead and they immediately took cover. They didn’t see their companions when they looked around the room, but what they did see was enough to elicit shock and horror out of both of them. They saw Opaline pacing back and forth muttering aloud in frustration and in front of her was Rain Shine, who was strung up like a demented puppet for Opaline’s experiments.

“Ugh! I don’t have enough power to absorb the fire element from the Kirin, and I can’t absorb the dragonfire until the eggs have hatched. Blast that Twilight Sparkle, locking away my magic in those infernal crystals!” Opaline grunted in frustration. Spring Leaf gasped in horror at the sight and moved to charge Opaline before Smolder held her back.

“Wait! We can’t just go charging in by ourselves.” Smolder hissed quietly.

“But she’s torturing Rain Shine! We have to do something!” Spring Leaf whispered, clearly exasperated by the situation. From the corner to the southwest Smolder spotted Ember and Autumn Blaze emerging from one of the other tunnels. From directly above them, on the northwest balcony came Garble and Athos, and finally on the opposite end to the northeast came Spike and Benga. They all knew what they had to do, and figured that they were in the perfect position to get the drop on Opaline.

“Tell me, oh honored guests. Were you truly planning on attacking me after I’ve been such a gracious host?” Opaline called out. All of their eyes went wide in shock at the revelation that Opaline was aware of their presence.

“It would seem this hideout has been compromised. And it looks like I’ll need a sufficient distraction in order to make my escape.” Opaline muttered to herself. She reached into a bag she had on her side and tossed out several glowing gems, which interacted with a massive pile of stones as they began to swirl and form together. The group saw that the stones finally formed a massive golem that had various different elements shifting and moving across its body. Spike saw Opaline take her leave as the golem engaged the group with various elemental blasts.

“Not this time!” Spike growled as he took off after her. He could faintly hear the others calling after him, though his focus was directed solely at catching Opaline, giving chase through the winding caverns and dark corridors of the hideout until they were eventually back at the entrance. He leapt forward and managed to tackle Opaline, springing back onto his feet and sliding back until they were face to face with each other. They both slowly stood up as light rain pattered around them, eventually turning into a more steady drizzle.

“Ah, I remember you. Twilight’s little assistant.” Opaline recalled.

“This ends now.” Spike said as he clenched his hand into a fist.

“On the contrary. It hasn’t even begun.” Opaline replied with a wicked smile.

“What did you do with the dragon eggs?” Spike asked, his tone growing ever angrier.

“They’ll stay with me for the time being. Wouldn’t want them falling into the wrong hands now would we?” Opaline said mockingly. At that moment, a massive Roc landed on the ground next to them, as Opaline mounted it and prepared to take flight.

“No you don’t!” Spike shouted as he charged her. The Roc swatted him away, causing him to tumble through the mud. Opaline laughed as Spike picked himself up and gave her a menacing glare.

“If I were you, I’d worry more about those friends of yours. You can’t afford to lose them too, can you?” She asked mockingly as she laughed once more. Spike let out a loud roar and shot out the largest blast of fire he could muster but missed as the Roc quickly took flight and disappeared into the night. Spike huffed as he caught his breath, and suddenly the realization struck him; he had left the others to fight the golem. He quickly rushed back into the hideout, retracing his steps back through the tunnels before he finally got back to the inner sanctum, and what he saw instilled a great sense of horror in him. The room had been completely torn apart, with the golem having finally been reduced to nothing more than a large pile of stones, but his companions looked incredibly rough, and what was worse is that Garble wasn’t waking up. Smolder and Ember shook him to try and get him to wake up, though to no avail. Benga and Athos were leaning against the far wall taking a breather while Spring Leaf and Autumn Blaze tended to Rain Shine, who was still recovering from her own torture by Opaline. Smolder saw Spike enter the room and stomped over to him, grabbing him by the collar of his cloak in the process.

“What’s with you? What were you thinking taking off like that?” Smolder asked angrily.

“I… I was…” Spike tried to say, though he found that he couldn’t find the words. Smolder scoffed and let go of Spike before turning back to Garble. 

“We need to get Garble back to the Crystal Empire. Maybe they’ve got some doctors who can help him.” Spike and Benga carried Garble together as the group made their way out of the hideout, and as they returned to the skiff, Rain Shine got Spike’s attention.

“I didn’t get a chance to say it before, but thank you for rescuing me. I had suffered Opaline’s torture for weeks.” Rain Shine said as they boarded the skiff.

“Did you happen to find out what she was planning to do once she drained your fire magic?” Spike asked.

“I once caught her mentioning something about breaking the barrier surrounding Equestria and taking back her magic, but not much beyond that.” Rain Shine answered. Spike gave it some thought as they set on their course back to the Crystal Empire. Several hours passed as they journeyed back to the Crystal Empire, eventually reaching their destination just as night began to descend on the next day. They got Garble to the Crystal Empire’s best doctors, and they all waited with baited breath as the doctors treated him. Eventually, a unicorn doctor came out to meet with the other dragons, who all stood up at the same time as the doctor approached.

“How is he?” Ember asked.

“He’s stable, but still unconscious.” The doctor said. “We have no idea when, or even if, he’ll wake from this.”

She left them to their thoughts as they pondered what to do next. Spike was mentally kicking himself; he didn’t want his friends to be casualties in his pursuit. They all stayed with Garble for a while before heading back to the Crystal Castle in order to get some rest from their journey. As they entered the castle, Spike felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Capper standing next to him.

“Heard about what happened to Garble. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he gets the best treatment possible.” Capper reassured him.

“Thanks Capper. I appreciate that.” Spike said with a small smile. Capper gave him a pat on the back before taking his leave. When Spike got to his room, he saw Flurry Heart waiting outside with a look of concern on her face.

“Hey Big Bro.” She said with a wave.

“Hey kiddo. What’s up?” Spike asked.

“Mom told me about what happened with Garble and the Kirin leader and everything. It sounds like you guys have been through a lot.” Flurry Heart said.

“Definitely. But I’m hoping Garble makes a full recovery soon.” Spike said.

“What about you Big Bro? Are you okay?” Flurry Heart asked.

“Yeah I’m fine. Why?” Spike asked curiously.

“It’s just, this whole thing seems like it’s really taking a toll on you. I just wanna make sure nothing happens to you.” She answered worriedly. Spike pulled her into a reassuring hug.

“Don’t you worry. Nothing’s gonna happen to me. Scout’s honor.” Spike reassured her.

“You’re right. Thanks.” Flurry Heart said as she returned his hug. “Well, I should let you get some rest. Good night Big Bro.”

“Good night kiddo.” Spike said. He watched as Flurry Heart disappeared down the hallway and finally opened the door to his room. He closed the door and took a seat on his bed, finally taking in the full scope of everything that had happened over the previous few days. Opaline’s words still echoed in his mind, though he did his best to shake them off as he lied down to try and get some rest.

After a few hours, Spike awoke from yet another dream. He ran a hand down his face as he sat up and looked out the window. After a few minutes, he took out his communicator and dialed a certain number. The communicator rang for a few minutes before the familiar face of Luster Dawn came up on the screen.

“Spike. What a surprise. I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again.” Luster said.

“Things have gotten pretty complicated, Luster. A lot more than we anticipated.” Spike said back.

“And what is it that you’re calling me at this hour for?” She asked. Spike took a deep breath as he braced himself for what he was about to say.

“I need a favor.”
> Chapter 13: Memory Thief
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luster Dawn raised an eyebrow at Spike’s request.

“I thought I made it clear that there would be no more favors. If you want my help, we’ll have to talk payment.”

Spike rolled his eyes and let out a hefty sigh.

“What is it you want then?” Spike asked.

“It’s better if we discussed this face to face. If you can make your way to what remains of Sire’s Hollow, we’ll talk terms.” Luster responded as she ended the call. Spike sighed and shook his head.

As cryptic as ever I see. He thought to himself. Making his way out of the castle, Spike made sure to keep his steps quiet so that no one would be disturbed, as it was still the dead of night, only just barely peaking through into the early hours of morning. As soon as he made it outside, he took flight and headed to Luster Dawn’s requested meeting spot. His thoughts drifted back to his companions, and how they had stuck with him through this entire ordeal. And then there was what Opaline had said to him back at the hideout.

You can’t afford to lose them too, can you?

Shaking his head, he redirected his focus to finding his destination. After traveling for some time, he finally saw the remnants of Sire’s Hollow, the early morning just barely peaking over the horizon. A thick fog hung low as he touched down in the town square, with Spike noticing the town’s decrepit and disheveled state right away. He walked towards a building that he noticed had its door open, and looking inside he was surprised to find not one of Luster’s associates, but Luster Dawn herself staring at old photographs that hung on the wall of the entryway.

“Mom always talked about her hometown. Said she avoided coming back here for a long time. I can’t imagine how she’d react seeing it now.” Luster said, her voice laced with regret as her eyes remained locked on the photographs. Spike didn’t say anything at first, letting Luster simply take in the atmosphere of the old decrepit home for a while before clearing his throat.

“You said you wanted to talk terms?” Spike asked.

“If you want my help, you’ll have to do something for me in return.” Luster said as she turned to face the purple dragon.

“Name your price.” Spike said as he crossed his arms.

“An item that needs to be retrieved. An important one.” Luster answered.

“Why not just send one of your associates to do it? Why come out here yourself?” Spike asked.

“The retrieval of this item is… personal in nature.” Luster stated as she shifted her gaze away from him. Spike mulled it over for a moment before giving her an affirming nod.

“Fair enough. Where do we start?” Spike said with a slight smile. Luster gave a nod as she led him out of the house.

“It shouldn’t be too far. We can make it on foot just fine.” She said as they left through the town gates, Luster taking one last look back before leaving the empty husk of Sire’s Hollow behind. It was an overcast day with light rain as they made their way to their mystery destination.

“So, how did this item of yours get stolen anyways?” Spike asked.

“It was a single intruder.” Luster answered. Spike raised an eyebrow skeptically. “I’m serious. And this item was from my personal collection too, which says to me that this thief is quite skilled.”

“Then I’m guessing this thief is around here somewhere.” Spike said.

“Exactly. I got some intel they were holed up not too far from here. If we’re lucky, we can catch them off guard.” Luster said.

“This item must be really important if you came to get it yourself.” Spike said.

“It is. Now it’s your turn. You said you needed my help. Said something about how things have gotten complicated.” Luster inquired. Spike let out a sigh.

“Recently, we infiltrated one of Opaline’s hideouts. I finally had her in my grasp, but now she’s in the wind again. And what’s worse, Garble got seriously hurt and is now in a coma. I need to track her down and end this for good.” Spike explained.

“Well, it’s as I said. You hold up your end, and I’ll hold up mine.” Luster stated simply. They eventually came to a cave that was off the beaten path and saw that it was illuminated by a small fire, the figure sitting in front of it had their back to the entrance. 

“Is that our thief?” Spike whispered.

“It is. Now get ready!” Luster whispered back as she strolled confidently into the cave. Spike reached out to stop her but saw that it was too late as he let out an exasperated groan and joined her inside.

“You have something that belongs to me.” Luster declared.

“Maybe your personal collection should have had better security then, Overmare.” The thief responded as they finished bandaging a wound on their shoulder. They turned to face Luster and Spike, revealing that their face was concealed by a simple leather helmet, though he faintly saw piercing purple eyes peering at them from behind the mask.

“Hand it over, before I’m forced to get rough.” Luster said in a low tone.

“What are you waiting for then?” The thief taunted. They stared each other down for a moment until they heard rumbling above them. A few moments later, they heard a voice calling into the cave.

“Emziko! I know you’re in there! You’ve got a lot to answer for you two bit backstabber!”

Spike and Luster took a look back to the thief, who groaned in resignation and removed the helmet. To Spike’s surprise, it was a female dragon around his age with blueish green scales and purple eyes, a set of orange spines running from her head down the back of her neck. She had a tall, slender frame, being only slightly shorter than Spike when standing at her full height. She reluctantly stepped out of the cave with her hands raised to display that she wasn’t a threat.

“Hey Bhutto. Been a while hasn’t it?” Emziko asked as she chuckled nervously.

“Anyone else in that cave?” Bhutto asked as he brandished his sword menacingly.

“Just a couple of unexpected guests. I think you two should come out. Bhutto tends to get grumpy if you keep him waiting.” Emziko called back to the cave. Spike and Luster shot each other a brief look before stepping out of the cave to see a crew of bloodthirsty Lizardfolk pirates with a particularly large one at the front twirling an ornate cutlass between his fingers.

What did I get myself into? Spike thought to himself as he stifled a groan.

Meanwhile, back in the Crystal Empire, the others were panicking as they had found out that Spike was gone.

“I don’t understand. Why would Spike just take off without saying anything?” Smolder wondered aloud.

“I don’t know. It’s not like him.” Ember said.

“Flurry, you were the last one who talked to him. Did he seem off in any way?” Cadence asked as she looked to her daughter.

“No. He seemed a little tired but otherwise he seemed fine. I figured he would just sleep it off or something.” Flurry responded, worrying greatly about what could have caused Spike to take such action.

“I think I may have a theory.” Luna posited. The others looked to her and waited curiously to hear her answer. “He may have done this out of guilt. He feels responsible for Garble’s current condition, and thus wishes to ensure that no harm befalls anyone else.”

“How can you be so sure that’s what it is?” Smolder asked. 

“Because I know firsthand how guilt can drive one to reckless action.” Luna responded as she recalled her own past and a solemn silence fell over the room.

“Regardless of the reason, we need to get him back. It’s beyond reckless to try and face Opaline alone.” Ember said as she did her best to refocus herself.

“Has anyone tried to raise him on their communicators?” Cadence asked. Smolder pulled out hers and fiddled with it for a moment in an effort to contact Spike.

“Nothing. He’s not answering.” Smolder responded.

“Then I’ll head out and see if I can find him.” Ember stated as she moved to take her leave.

“I’ll go too.” Smolder said.

“No. It’d be better to have one of us here in the event that Garble wakes up.” Ember reminded her. Smolder reluctantly agreed and gave a simple nod in return. Cadence and Luna gave nods of their own.

“Be safe on your travels. And let’s hope you can find Spike, wherever he’s gone.” Cadence said. Ember gave a short bow as she exited the room. She made her way out the front doors of the castle to see Flurry Heart standing there waiting for her.

“I’m going with you.” She announced to Ember.

“No you’re not.” Ember shot back.

“Look, he’s my Big Bro. I’m not just gonna sit here and do nothing. Please.” Flurry Heart responded, practically begging Ember with the look in her eyes. Ember looked away for a moment and let out a heavy sigh.

“I don’t know how I’m gonna explain this to your mother.” Ember said.

“I’m a grown mare. And besides, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Flurry Heart said back with a cheeky smile.

“Fine. Let’s hope you can keep up then.” Ember said with a chuckle as she took off into the air.

“Uh, we’ll need a skiff.” Flurry Heart called. “No magic, no flight.”

“Ah, right. Forgot about that.” Ember said as she slowly descended back down to ground level.

“Don’t worry. I know somepony who can get us a skiff without letting my mom know.” Flurry Heart said.

“Lead the way.” Ember replied.

Back at the cave, Spike and Luster Dawn stood patiently as their thief, whom they had learned was named Emziko, negotiated with the Lizardfolk pirate captain Bhutto.

“You really thought that you could just keep all of that treasure for yourself?” Bhutto growled in anger as he gripped his sword tighter.

“Well not all of it. Just a bit of a finder’s fee if you will.” Emziko responded, desperately trying to worm her way out of the situation. Bhutto scoffed at the claim.

“I don’t take kindly to traitors Emziko. You should have known that when you agreed to the job.”

“I knew it. I just didn’t expect to actually get caught, ya know?” Emziko said. Bhutto started to laugh as the other pirates eventually joined in as Emziko chuckled nervously while her eyes darted rapidly between the pirates.

“So, we’re good right?” Emziko asked.

“Not even close. Boys, clip her wings.” Bhutto responded as he snapped his fingers.

The pirates all cheered and drew swords of their own as they began to encroach upon Emziko, though Spike stepped between them.

“That’s far enough.” Spike said as he looked the pirates dead in the eye.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Emziko hissed.

“Saving your life. Give me grief about it later.” Spike whispered back.

“Guess this dragon wants his wings clipped too. Fine by me.” One of the pirates responded menacingly. As he took a swing with his sword, Spike ducked out of the way and threw a strong punch into the pirate’s face.

“Haha, I like you!” Emziko laughed as she engaged a couple other pirates who rushed at her.

“Oh great.” Luster groaned to herself as she joined the fray. As they started to whittle down the number of pirates in the group, Bhutto began looking more and more panicked.

“This can’t be happening! Get down here and kill them you morons! What do I pay you for?” Bhutto shouted up to the rest of his crew on the airship. One by one more pirates descended upon them, fighting more ferociously than ever at the behest of their captain.

“How many pirates are on that vessel?!” Luster asked as they saw their newfound opponents.

“Clearly more than we thought.” Spike responded, a bit flabbergasted at just how many pirates had now set upon them.

“Now this is getting interesting!” Emziko exclaimed with a hearty laugh. As they punched, kicked, and clawed their way through the pirates, Emziko saw Bhutto riding the ladder back up to the airship.

“Aw, leaving so soon Bhutto? I thought we were having fun!” Emziko called out as she spread her wings and took flight up to the airship.

“Better hang on Luster.” Spike said briefly as he picked her up and took flight as well.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” Luster exclaimed. “Oh fine, but you’d better not drop me!”

Spike caught up with Emziko as all three of them landed on the deck in front of Bhutto. He roared angrily and drew his sword from his belt.

“Fine! Looks like I’ll have to kill you myself!” 

“Bring it!” Emziko taunted with a grin. Bhutto charged forward and took a swing at Emziko, who managed to duck out of the way. As she moved to follow up with a kick, Bhutto swung his massive tail and knocked her back. Luster charged in for a massive sweep with her back right leg, but Bhutto blocked it with his arm before throwing a strong kick of his own directly into her face. Spike rushed in and threw a volley of punches, actually putting Bhutto on the defensive as he blocked the dragon’s punches with his sword before kicking him back and slashing at him with his sword. Sparks erupted from Spike’s chest as the sword scraped across his scales and pushed him back. Now Spike was on the defensive as Bhutto swung furiously with his sword, eventually descending into maniacal laughter as he continued to swing. Spike blocked with his arms but soon found himself pushed up against the edge of the ship, though before Bhutto could deliver the final blow, Luster rushed in and delivered a strong mule kick to the back of his legs. As he buckled over in pain, Emziko tackled him and rolled over while using both legs to spring him up into the air. Spike followed up by leaping into the air, grabbing Bhutto by the throat, and slamming him back down into the airship, causing some of the deck to shatter and splinter at the impact. As they all took a moment to collect themselves, Bhutto reached into his pocket and pulled out a firebomb.

“You’re not getting off that easy!” He shouted as he chucked the firebomb at Spike, who was still standing directly above him. Spike managed to deflect the bomb upward just before it hit him, causing it to explode and take out the zeppelin. Everyone on board started to lose their footing as the airship began to lose altitude.

“We have to get off this thing now!” Luster shouted.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself!” Emziko agreed as she took a dive off the side of the airship. Spike grabbed Luster Dawn and dove off after Emziko, dodging the falling rubble and debris on the way down. When they finally landed back on safe ground, they saw that they had crashed near the border to the Bone Dry Desert. They all sat down to catch their breath as Emziko started to laugh.

“What a blast! Man you guys are fun!” She said excitedly.

“That was certainly an experience, I’ll say that.” Spike agreed. After a few moments, Luster looked to Emziko with determination in her eyes.

“Now then, I believe you still have something of mine.”

“Oh yeah. You totally got my respect now, so you can have it back.” Emziko said as she tossed a small object towards Luster Dawn. “Honestly, the thing was kinda tacky anyways. Not sure why it’s so important that it was in your personal collection.” 

Spike took a look at the item Luster was holding and saw that it was a small locket. She reached into the saddle bag on her side and pulled out a small key that she then inserted into the locket. It opened up to reveal a picture of Starlight and Sunburst, holding what appeared to be a newborn Luster Dawn. Her smile grew wide as her eyes started to well up with tears, which she promptly wiped away.

“Just a little reminder of where I come from is all.” Luster answered as Spike placed a hand on her shoulder. Emziko’s smile faded as the importance of the locket dawned on her.

“Oh, I get ya. So, how’s about I make it up to ya? We’ve done a pretty good job together so far, may as well ride it out for a little while. You two seem like you’ve got some important business, so how’s about I tag along and lend a hand?” Emziko asked as she scratched the back of her head.

“I don’t see why not. Whaddya say Luster?” Spike asked. Luster put a hoof to her chin and thought it over for a moment.

“I suppose. Though our task isn’t going to be an easy one.” She answered.

“I’d be disappointed if it was.” Emziko said as she gave a wide, toothy smile.

“Well then. Spike, you’ve upheld your end of our deal. Now it’s time for me to uphold mine.” Luster said.

“To Klugetown then. It shouldn’t be too far from here.” Spike said. As the three unlikely companions then set out for Klugetown, Spike’s thoughts drifted back to his companions that he left behind in the Crystal Empire. He felt terrible about having left without warning, but he shook his head and continued moving forward.

I’m not letting anyone die because of me. I have to end this before that happens.

With his resolve hardened, he followed Luster and their new companion Emziko as they made their way to Klugetown, where he hoped he could find the answers he was seeking.
> Chapter 14: Sight Unseen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So wait, you’re telling me you were raised by ponies? No kidding?” Emziko asked as the three of them had almost reached the entrance to Klugetown. Spike had been regaling her with stories of his past along the way, including his association with the Princesses of Equestria.

“No kidding. The Princess of Friendship herself was like a sister to me. Her family was my family.” Spike responded as he recalled memories of his past, from when Twilight hatched him from his egg to living with her family in Canterlot. “I didn’t learn much about dragon culture proper until just a few years ago.”

“You and me both.” Emziko said.

“I kinda figured you didn’t grow up in the Dragon Lands. So what’s your story?” Spike asked.

“Well, it’s a pretty typical story. I started off as a…” Emziko trailed off and stopped walking as she saw that Luster Dawn had a look of shock and horror on her face. They all turned ahead and saw that smoke and fire rose up from Klugetown, some of the buildings having been completely demolished. They saw the city’s guards corralling the citizenry, attempting to restore some semblance of order after what had clearly been an attack.

“Lady Overmare.” A voice came from one of the guards, a large Storm Creature decorated in ornate looking armor, signifying his status as a high ranking officer of some kind. His armor was painted with a sigil that resembled Luster Dawn’s cutie mark, and he had a single blonde streak running back across his otherwise white hair.

“What happened here Feros?” Luster asked the guard.

“An attack M’Lady. Ravenous beasts from the depths of Tartarus itself. We fought them off as best we could, though as you can see the results were catastrophic.” Feros responded. Spike felt uneasy as he began to suspect what may have actually happened here.

“They couldn’t have attacked at random. Did they have anyone with them?” Luster asked.

“Scouts reported that the monsters were led by a pony. And that she sought something in the tower.” Feros said. Luster’s face immediately went pale as she rushed off towards the large tower in the center of the city. Spike and Emziko followed shortly after, pushing past the large crowds of creatures as they tried to keep up with Luster. Taking the elevator up to Luster’s office, she immediately bolted out and opened the room containing the Scrying Eye, only to find that it was now gone.

“She took it. Opaline took it.” Luster said through gritted teeth, her frustration clearly apparent. Spike ran a hand across his head as he saw that the Scrying Eye he had nearly died retrieving was now gone. Emziko looked out the office’s window and saw the large swaths of creatures gathered in the streets below.

“Maybe someone found out where she was going. It’s gotta be something to go off at least.” She said, trying to find a solution to their current predicament. Luster thought it over, trying to remain calm even with this significant setback.

“We’ll go speak to the Spymaster. She’s most likely the one who would have seen what Opaline was after.” Luster answered.

“Lead the way.” Spike said. As they descended from the tower once more, Spike couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated. Opaline had always managed to stay one step ahead of them, and while he hesitated to call many of Klugetown’s denizens innocent, they nonetheless had nothing to do with this conflict.

This is all spinning out of control way too fast. This has to end, and it has to be me that does it. Spike thought to himself as his brow furrowed. Emziko definitely took notice of the change in Spike’s demeanor, though she decided to keep her thoughts to herself for now. She wasn’t quite sure she had earned Spike’s trust just yet, and thus didn’t want to push the issue any further.

Somewhere further off, Ember and Flurry Heart piloted the skiff out of the snow laden fields bordering the Crystal Empire. Flurry Heart felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness as she was now venturing out into the wild frontier, though her nervousness was wondering how her mother would react when she found out she was gone. She quickly shook the thought as she knew that she was out here to find Spike, not for anything reckless.

“So, you and Spike seem pretty tight. You called him your big brother?” Ember asked.

“Yeah. Princess Twilight is my aunt, so I took to calling him Big Brother pretty quick. I have to say, I was shocked to see him when you guys showed up the first time.” Flurry Heart answered. 

“I’ll bet. It was something he needed too.” Ember said as she stared off into the horizon.

“What do you mean?” Flurry asked.

“Well I don’t know the full extent of it, but it certainly seems like he’s carrying a lot of baggage over all this.” Ember said. Flurry’s heart sank as she heard that. She could only imagine the toll this was taking on him, especially with how close he was to Aunt Twilight. She shook her head to purge her mind of these thoughts, determined to try and stay positive.

“So, speaking of tight, you and Garble seem pretty close.” Flurry said with a sly grin. Ember blushed and buried her head in her hands.

“It’s really that obvious?” Ember groaned.

“Of all the things that could get the mighty Dragon Lord Ember flustered.” Flurry Heart laughed. Ember raised her head and let out a sigh.

“Okay okay, I’ll give you that one. Honestly, even though he can be kind of a dork, he’s also really sweet.” Ember said. As they continued their journey, she explained the details of how her and Garble’s relationship started, and when it ended Flurry Heart had stars in her eyes.

“Aww, that’s so cute.” Flurry said with wide eyes and a big smile. Ember laughed as she rubbed the back of her head.

“So there you have it. The entire story of-“

Suddenly, one of the engines puttered out and they felt the skiff start to dip out of the sky as it was now falling back towards the earth.

“No no no no no! Don’t start crapping out now!” Flurry Heart said as she fiddled with the engine.

“That guy really gave us one of the junkers didn’t he?” Ember asked as she tried to steer them towards a safer landing.

“It was an old model, so they wouldn’t have noticed it was gone.” Flurry said.

“Hang on!” Ember said as they crashed into the ground, eventually coming to a halt as it slammed up against one of the many trees in the clearing.

“You okay?” Ember asked as she picked herself up from the wreckage.

“I’m good. Just need a minute.” Flurry Heart said as she stretched out and popped her joints. Ember took a look at her surroundings and saw a crashed airship just up ahead, along with several other trees that had been uprooted and knocked over from the airship’s crash.

“That’s certainly not normal.” Ember said.

“We should take a look. It could be a lead to where Big Bro went.” Flurry Heart said as she looked to the wreckage of the airship.

“Good idea.” Ember said. They made their way to the airship proper, doing their best to avoid the debris scattered all around the clearing. Ducking to avoid broken tree branches and scattered shards of metal hanging from the trees, Ember used the head of the Scepter to lift up the tarp that was once the airship’s zeppelin and saw the body of a rather large Lizardfolk dressed in what appeared to be pirate attire, causing both her and Flurry Heart to jump slightly.

“Yikes. Looks like the captain went down with his ship.” Ember said as she set the tarp back down.

“You don’t think Spike did this do you?” Flurry Heart asked, her voice heavy with concern. 

“I don’t know.” Ember answered. She lifted her head and took a look around. She noticed they were on the border to the Bone Dry Desert, and suddenly it clicked. “I think I may have an idea where he might have gone though.”

Flurry Heart looked to where Ember was pointing with the Scepter, seeing that it was multiple sets of tracks leading straight into the desert.

“He was heading back towards Klugetown. And it looks like he’s already got quite the head start on us. We need to get moving.” Ember said.

Back in Klugetown, Spike and Emziko followed Luster as she led them to the nest of Spymaster Carrion, the head of Luster’s scouts, to find out if she knew what it was that Opaline wanted with the Scrying Eye.

“Just a word of caution. Carrion can be a bit… twitchy.” Luster informed them.

“Twitchy?” Emziko asked.

“You know, paranoid. But she’s the best at what she does. Probably best to let me do the talking.” Luster answered. After a few moments, they arrived at the top of the highest perch in Klugetown, and Spike saw a large robed figure looking out onto all of Klugetown.

“Carrion? It’s me.” Luster called to the figure. She turned around to face the group, and it was then that Spike really got a good look at her. She was a bird, though she was a crow rather than a parrot, and she was massive, easily dwarfing Spike himself in height. She carried a simple wooden staff in her hand, and her eyes shined with an arcane glow.

“Lady Overmare. What brings you to my humble home? Who are they?” Carrion asked as she pointed the staff towards Spike and Emziko, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she did.

“They’re with me Carrion, but more importantly, that pony who stole the Scrying Eye. Do you have any idea where she went?” Luster asked.

“We can consult one of my children.” She held out her arm and a crow perched upon it, its eyes shimmering with that same arcane glow as Carrion herself. “But if you want my help, I’ll need something first.”

Luster let out a sigh. “Alright. What is it?”

Carrion didn’t say anything as she approached Spike to get a closer look at him. She circled around him, humming to herself as she looked the dragon up and down. After a moment of examination, she suddenly reached out a talon and plucked a scale out of Spike’s shoulder.

“Ow!” Spike exclaimed.

“This will do.” Carrion said as she pocketed the scale. “Now, about your request.”

She motioned for them to gather around the singular crow that sat patiently on its perch as she reached out and placed a hand on its head. She closed her eyes and silently chanted to herself as arcane light began to envelop her. After a few moments, her eyes shot open and she began convulsing, her eyes glowing brighter than ever.

“What is it Carrion? What do you see?” Luster asked.

“A field, with ritual gatherings. She plans some kind of ceremony.” Carrion answered, her voice echoing as though multiple people spoke at once. She spasmed as her eyes glowed even brighter.

“Should we be concerned?” Emziko asked.

“Don’t worry, this happens. What else Carrion?” Luster said.

“My children have witnessed places unseen. Invisible places. A forest of crystals. A town that boarders the sea. A shining city that stretches towards the heavens. The interloper wishes to have eyes in these places as well. Wishes to have the secrets they hide.” Carrion eventually let go of the crow and dropped to one knee, catching her breath after such a harrowing ordeal. Spike and Emziko both gave each other a concerned look before turning to Luster, who simply waited for Carrion to recover.

“Carrion, where is this field exactly?” Luster asked after a few moments. Carrion shakily rose to her feet, clutching her wooden staff tightly as she let out a shallow breath.

“The field you seek lies somewhere to the northeast. Where it is specifically, I’m afraid I cannot say. This pony, this Opaline, has begun silencing my children. They can no longer see where she is.” Carrion answered.

Spike turned to leave the tower but Emziko grabbed his shoulder before he could leave.

“Slow your roll Spike. You’re not thinking of going there by yourself are you?” Emziko asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking. I’m not gonna let anyone else get dragged into this.” Spike said as he tried to leave again but Emziko blocked his path.

“Well too bad. I made a promise that I’d help you, so you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.” Emziko said as she looked Spike directly in the eye, keeping her gaze defiantly locked with his. He eventually let out a sigh.

“Fine. But it’s probably better if we rest up for the night. We can set out in the morning.” Spike said.

“There’s an inn where you can rest up. Tell them I sent you and they should let you stay for free.” Luster said as they exited Carrion’s nest. Making their way through the town, they eventually found the inn that was mentioned to them before. It looked to be one of Klugetown’s nicer inns, as the sign outside looked fairly new and the outside was well decorated with a nice oaken trim.

“I have other business to attend to. As I said, mention my name and you won’t have to pay.” Luster said simply as she turns and walks off further into the city. Spike and Emziko made their way inside and saw an older Lizardfolk sitting behind the counter.

“How can I help you?” The Lizardfolk asked.

“We’re guests of the Overmare.” Spike said as he and Emziko exchanged a look.

“Right this way.” The Lizardfolk led them up the stairs to the right of the counter, leading them down the hall until they came to two rooms that stood on opposite sides of the hall from one another.

“Here you are. Enjoy the accommodations.” The Lizardfolk said simply before walking back down the hall.

“Guess we oughta get some shut eye.” Emziko said as she opened the door to her room.

“Looks like it. See you in the morning then?” Spike asked.

“You know it. Looking forward to it.” Emziko said as she flashed Spike a grin before shutting the door to her room. Spike shut the door to his own room and saw a fairly nice bed situated directly to his right, with a window looking out onto Klugetown directly ahead of him. Spike sat down on the bed and thought over the day’s events. He felt somewhat guilty about leaving the others without warning, but at the same time he was afraid of what would happen to them after what happened to Garble. His thoughts then drifted to Emziko. He’d only known her for a few days, but he already felt like she was someone he could trust. He chuckled slightly to himself as he remembered how she stubbornly resolved that she was coming with him, regardless of his protests.

She’s a lot like Sweetie Belle in that regard. He thought to himself. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a photo Flurry Heart had given him of him and Sweetie Belle. She was behind him with her forelegs wrapped around his neck and a bright smile on her face while his face had a simple grin. Spike smiled to himself and put the photo away, his thoughts wandering to all sorts of places as he finally drifted off to sleep.
> Chapter 15: Separate Ways
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smolder slowly stirred awake as the sun started to peak over the horizon. She stood up from the chair she had been sitting in and stretched, her joints popping as she did so. Looking down, she saw Garble still unconscious in his bed in the Crystal Empire’s medical ward. Ever since Ember took off to retrieve Spike, she had stayed by her brother’s side, watching for any change in his condition. 

“Hope you wake up soon Gar Gar.” Smolder muttered to herself. 

She walked over to the window and saw the denizens of the Crystal Empire moving in somewhat of a hurry, almost in a panic. At that moment, Cadence burst through the door looking around flustered and panicked.

“What’s going on?” Smolder asked.

“It’s Flurry Heart! She’s missing!” She answered in a worried tone. “You haven’t seen her have you?”

Smolder thought it over for a moment before a realization hit her.

“No, but I have a pretty good idea where she might be.”

“Come with me. We can discuss it with the others in the throne room.” Cadence said. Smolder took one last look over to Garble before following Cadence out of the room. As she left, Garble’s hand let out a slight twitch.

Meanwhile, Ember and Flurry Heart continued their trek into the desert as they made their way toward Klugetown, the heat starting to weigh heavily upon them.

“Why would Big Bro go to Klugetown though? What could possibly be there?” Flurry Heart asked.

“The Overmare. My guess is that her intelligence network could help him find Opaline.” Ember answered. After more time spent walking, the duo finally saw Klugetown over the horizon. As they made their way to the gates, they could more clearly see its damaged and disheveled state and creatures running around all over the place in a hurried manner.

“Hey, watch it!” Ember snapped as she narrowly avoided being knocked over by a guard who was rushing past. The guard simply kept moving, not even turning to acknowledge her.

“What in the world happened here? The place is a mess.” Flurry Heart stated as she took in the sights and sounds of Klugetown.

“Looks like an attack.” Ember said.

“You’re right about that.”

They both turned toward the source of the new voice they heard, and Ember recognized it as Luster Dawn.

“Opaline?” Ember asked.

“Sure was. That harpy apparently led an army of monsters to ransack this place. She stole my Scrying Eye.” Luster explained. Ember groaned as Flurry Heart tilted her head in confusion.

“You had a Scrying Eye? I thought they were all destroyed.”

“Almost all of them. The one I had was one of the last.” Luster answered.

“And where is it now?” Ember asked.

“I’m not exactly sure. But I know that Opaline is preparing a ritual somewhere to the northeast. She likely still has it on her. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to rebuilding Klugetown.” Luster answered as she took her leave. Ember and Flurry Heart flashed each other a look.

“You think that’s…” Flurry started.

“Where Spike is headed? Definitely.” Ember finished. “We’d better get moving if we want to catch him before he gets there.”

Meanwhile, Spike and Emziko continued their own journey towards Opaline’s ritual sight, talking casually about various subjects as they traveled.

“So you mentioned before that you didn’t grow up in the Dragon Lands either. What was it like for you?” Spike asked. Emziko tapped her arm as she thought it over.

“Well, I wouldn’t say my story’s anything special. It’s just the tale of a rotten kid who learned to survive on the streets.” Emziko answered.

“You certainly seem like you can handle yourself.” Spike said. Emziko rubbed the back of her head nervously as her face was flushed for a moment.

“Yeah well, since I didn’t really have parents or anything I took to stealing to make a living. Started brushing up against a lot of criminal groups who needed someone that was good at breaking into places.”

“It must have been hard growing up in that way.” Spike said.

“I got used to it pretty quickly. And you know you can’t trust criminals and all that. I gotta say though, traveling with you has been… refreshing. It’s nice not having to be on guard all the time.” Emziko said as she gave Spike a smile. Spike placed a hand over his heart.

“That may be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” He said sarcastically. Emziko gave him a swift punch in the shoulder, causing him to laugh.

“Yeah well, don’t get used to it. C’mon, we’ve still got quite a ways to go!” She said as she took off ahead of him. Spike chuckled to himself, though his smile faded slightly as he recalled memories from his past. He shook his head and pushed it down as he took off to catch up with Emziko.

Back in the Crystal Empire, Smolder and many other advisors were gathered in the throne room. Smolder had explained to everyone present where it was Flurry Heart may have disappeared to, and now Cadence was pacing back and forth nervously. 

“Why would she just take off like that? What was she thinking?” Cadence asked to no one in particular, her worry for her daughter readily apparent in her voice.

“She seems like she’s gung-ho about getting Spike back. She really does think of him as a big brother doesn’t she?” Smolder retorted.

“Regardless, this stunt was quite reckless. The lands outside the borders of the Crystal Empire are quite dangerous, and without magic, she will be more vulnerable than normal.” Luna stated plainly.

“I can get a search party together in no time Your Majesty. Just give the word.” Benga declared.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary Benga.” Capper chimed in. “Think about it, she’s traveling with Ember, and she’s one tough dragon. As long as they don’t get separated, they should be okay right?”

“That’s a big if Capper. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with leaving my daughter’s fate up to chance like that.” Cadence responded.

“You don’t have to. I can meet up with them out there and get Flurry Heart back home.” Smolder said.

“Not without me you’re not.”

Everyone in the throne room turned and saw Garble standing at the entryway, still looking ragged but surprisingly awake.

“You didn’t think I’d let you do this on your own did you Sis?” He asked. He stepped forward to approach her but quickly collapsed as a pony nurse trailed just behind him looking quite frantic.

“Sir I told you that you need to take it slow. You’ve been in a coma for quite some time now.” She said as she tended to Garble.

“She’s right Gar. Maybe you should take some time to recover first.” Smolder said.

“I’ve been sidelined long enough. I’m going.” Garble shot back with a determined look in his eyes as he rose to his feet. Smolder was actually taken aback as she had never seen such determination from her brother before. The others were also surprised by Garble’s actions, but nonetheless accepted that he wouldn’t be deterred.

“Very well. We shall leave it to you then.” Luna decided. Cadence breathed a sigh as she looked towards the two dragons, still a bit worried.

“Just make sure all of you come back safe.” She says sternly, making sure she got her point across.

“Of course.” Smolder nods. She turns to Garble with newfound determination and asks, “Ready?”

“You know it Sis.” Garble answers as they both head out of the throne room.

The sound of dirt crunched underfoot as Spike and Emziko walked along an old earthen trail. It was about midday at this point and they had already been traveling for quite some time, having decided to stop and take a rest.

“Still got any of that food?” Emziko asked. Spike checked inside his bag and saw they still had some of the fish they had caught earlier that morning.

“There’s still plenty fortunately.” He responded as he tossed her one.

“Sweet.” She breathed a sigh of relief as she let out a quick stream of fire breath, cooking the fish as the delicious aroma permeated the area. Spike could feel his mouth beginning to water as he smelled the fish and decided to reach into the bag and do the same.

“Got really lucky with these didn’t we?” Spike said as he consumed his fish.

“Definitely.” Emziko let out as she swallowed the last of her fish. They both sat in silence for a few minutes, the sounds of nature continuing idly around them before Emziko asked “How much farther do you think we’ve got?”

Spike thinned his lips as he thought it over for a moment.

“I’d imagine not too much farther. We’re heading in the right direction.”

“Mind if I ask you something?” Emziko inquired. Spike raised an eyebrow before giving her a nod.

“Why do you want to do this so badly? This seems to be about more than just putting the world back together or whatever.” Emziko continued. Spike took a seat on a nearby log and thought it over for a moment. He wasn’t sure how exactly to explain to her what this meant to him but after a moment of thinking it over, he figured he owed her an explanation if they were going to be traveling together.

“It is. This pony, Opaline, she’s the reason that everything fell apart certainly, but there’s more to it than that.” He ran a hand across his face as he let out a heavy sigh. “When everything started, I wasn’t there when Princess Twilight needed me the most. I let her down. I let everyone I care about down. And now, it’s my responsibility to set it right.” 

Emziko struggled to find the words as Spike finished his speech. She had a feeling this was personal for him but was shaken to her core when she found out just how personal.

“And when you say set it right, does that mean…” She trailed off, the hesitation in her voice carrying her point across all too clearly to Spike. 

“I don’t know. And honestly, that scares me.” He whispered as he shakily exhaled. Emziko took a seat on the log next to him and put her hand over his.

“Hey. I may not entirely understand what you’re going through, but I want you to know that no matter what happens, I’m here for you.” Emziko soothed. Spike turned to face her and they locked eyes, the whole world seemingly freezing around them for that brief moment in time. They moved closer for but a second before Spike cleared his throat and pulled away.

“We should keep moving.” He stood up quickly and rushed on ahead, leaving Emziko alone on the log. She shook her head a few times before rushing to catch up with him as they still had quite the journey ahead.

Elsewhere, Ember held her communicator in her hand as she spoke with Smolder. A huge smile briefly leaped across her face as she heard Smolder’s news.

“Garble’s awake!?” She asked excitedly before composing herself. “That’s great to hear.” 

“Yeah he’s here. Told him he needed to rest up but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Smolder responded as she stifled a laugh at Ember’s reaction to the news.

“I heard that Sis!” Ember heard Garble call from Smolder’s end, which got a laugh out of both her and Flurry Heart.

“So where are you guys at now? We’re gonna try and meet up with you.” Smolder asked.

“We just left Klugetown and we’re heading northeast. Spike is already about a day or so ahead of us, and if we don’t hurry, it might already be too late.” Ember responded.

“Gotcha. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Ember hung up her communicator as she looked back towards Flurry Heart.

“Ready?” She asked. Flurry Heart nodded.

“Let’s get Big Bro back.”

Their resolve hardened, they continued towards their destination, hoping to catch up to Spike before they passed the point of no return.
> Chapter 16: Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The tension hung so thick in the air it could be cut with a knife. Spike had started acting differently the closer they drew to Opaline’s ritual site, something Emziko had caught onto given the change in his behavior. He had been quieter and more distant, which was similar to how he was when they had first started their journey together. He had opened up to her considerably the more time they had spent together, and she had to admit that she felt a certain bond forming between them. She noticed how he always seemed reluctant to get closer to her, and how it seemed like it was out of guilt rather than lack of interest.

Now isn’t the time for that. Emziko thought to herself.

“So Spike.” Emziko cleared her throat to get Spike’s attention. His focus returned from his thoughts as he turned to address her. “You said that this Opaline is dangerous, but why is that exactly?”

“You’ve heard of alicorns right?” Spike asked her.

“Just stories. They have power that’s pretty close to godlike from what I’ve heard.” Emziko answered.

“Well Opaline is one of these alicorns. And from what I can tell, she’s trying to get her power back from whatever caused all the ponies to lose their magic.” Spike explained.

“Do you think this ritual she’s doing has something to do with that?” Emziko asked. Spike’s face became grimly serious as he gave it some thought.

“Going off of what we learned from Carrion, definitely.” He replied. As they continued, Spike felt a strangeness in the air that felt vaguely familiar but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Woah, what’s with all these plants?” Emziko asked. Spike looked to what she was referring to and saw that the plants were withered and decayed, almost as if something had drained the life out of them. This seemed to stretch on for several acres as the woodland slowly shifted to one of miasma and death. They both heard a ghostly shriek before Spike suddenly tackled Emziko into cover without warning.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?!” Emziko yelped, desperately trying to make the blush across her cheeks less noticeable as Spike loomed over her, his eyes trained directly ahead. She craned her neck to see what he was looking at and saw two ghostly figures floating through the now dead field looking for anything even remotely alive.

“Careful. Wights directly ahead.” Spike whispered softly, not taking his eyes off the dark specters.

“I’ve seen a lot of monsters on my travels but never anything like that. Those things are freaky.” Emziko shuttered.

“We must be getting… close.” Spike trailed off, looking down to see his position. He and Emziko looked into each other’s eyes, being mere inches away from each other due to the confined hiding space they were stuck in. Spike felt his heart beating faster as they seemed to drift closer almost subconsciously, and as they almost closed the gap Spike pulled away, feeling a deep sense of shame in himself.

“We need to keep moving. Seems like we’re close to the ritual site.” He said quickly as he composed himself and moved on ahead. Emziko studied him for a moment before shaking her head and rushing to catch up with him.

As Garble and Smolder continued their flight from the Crystal Empire towards the destination Ember spoke of before, Garble winched as his injuries flared up again, something Smolder definitely took notice of as his pace slowed somewhat.

“Don’t overdo it Gar. You’re technically supposed to be recovering right now.” Smolder reminded him.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, there’s more important things to worry about right now.” Garble shot back. Smolder shook her head and turned her attention back to the ground below. The journey had taken longer than expected due to some kind of invisible force blocking their path, forcing them to take the long way around. She spotted a cliffside that looked to be a safe place to rest.

“Why don’t we take a breather? My wings could use a break.” Smolder said.

“Sounds good.” Garble responded. As they landed on the cliffside, Smolder couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. Her eyes darted every which-way to try and find who was watching them. Just as she was about to pass it off as her imagination, she suddenly felt herself restrained by what looked to be a magical net. Garble was quickly restrained in the same fashion as a gaggle of Minotaurs emerged from within the nearby bushes. Smolder struggled and thrashed to try and break out of the net, even blowing out a stream of fire breath and scorching one of the Minotaurs in the face. He responded by throwing a few strong kicks to her gut and face.

“Easy now boys. Opaline wants these ones alive.” Smolder growled as she heard that familiar voice. She turned her eyes up and saw the minotaur Obsidias standing over her. His horns that Ember had broken had been replaced by glowing purple crystals which shimmered and sparked with arcane power. He dropped to one knee and looked Smolder in the eye, resting the head of his mace on the ground beside him. “They’ll be perfect bait for the others.”

Meanwhile, Ember and Flurry Heart found themselves only a short ways behind Spike, having managed to catch up surprisingly quickly.

“Aww. These plants are all dead.” Flurry Heart commented. Ember noticed the decayed state of the clearing as they continued on, hoping that what had happened here wasn’t what she thought it was. They eventually heard voices from up ahead and took more stealthy positions to see what the commotion was. Peering around an old rotten tree, she saw a squad of Minotaurs patrolling the area and conversing about “the captives.” Both of them quieted their steps, taking a stealthier approach in order to avoid detection. Luckily for them, the Minotaurs didn’t seem to notice their approach as they meandered around the area while engaging in casual conversation.

“Ready?” Ember whispered.

“Ready.” Flurry Heart answered with a nod. Sneaking up behind one of the Minotaurs, Ember gave him a good whack over the head with the Scepter, causing him to fall over unconscious. One of the other Minotaurs took notice and called to his companions for assistance. One Minotaur took a swing at Ember with a large broadsword, which she blocked with the Scepter. She pushed him away and Flurry Heart followed up with a strong mule kick to the Minotaur’s gut, sending him flying backwards. As two more Minotaurs closed in on Flurry Heart, she reached into the satchel at her side and flung out a pair of Bolas, causing the Minotaurs to trip over their own feet.

“Nice moves.” Ember called out as she parried a blow from another Minotaur.

“Thanks. Capper taught me a few things.” Flurry Heart responded with a wink. Ember was suddenly blindsided by another Minotaur who charged her and slammed her into a nearby tree. She responded by shooting out a breath of flame into his face and kicking him hard in the chest with both legs. As the final two Minotaurs charged them, Flurry Heart tossed out caltrops which caused them to lose their footing.

“Nice work.” Ember said as she gave Flurry Heart an encouraging nod. She strolled over to one of the Minotaurs who was still trying to recover and placed a foot on their chest, pinning them in place.

“Where do you think you’re going? I’ve got some questions for you. Overheard you mentioning something about captives. What’s that about?” Ember asked.

“I’d let her know if I were you. She’s not always so nice.” Flurry Heart chimed in.

“Our boss caught a couple dragons a little while back. Said they’d be the perfect bait.” The Minotaur explained.

“Bait for who?” Ember asked, a slight growl edging its way into her voice as she pressed her foot down harder.

“Some purple dragon or something. Obsidias told us the pony wanted the purple dragon. I don’t know why.” The Minotaur choked out as Ember applied more pressure.

“Wait Obsidias!? And he’s working for Opaline now?” Ember slapped a hand to her forehead as she recalled their last encounter with Obsidias.

“You know him?” Flurry Heart asked.

“Yeah. A real piece of work we got involved with a little while back. Best part, he hates dragons.” Ember explained.

“And it sounds like he’s laying a trap for Big Brother. We need to hurry.” Flurry Heart said as her eyes went wide in realization.

“Agreed.” Ember concurred as she slammed her foot down on the Minotaur’s head, knocking him unconscious. She pulled out her communicator and held it in her hand for a moment before dialing Spike’s communicator.

It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try. Ember thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Spike and Emziko had taken shelter in a small cave only a short ways ahead. The monster presence had greatly intensified the further they went, a sign that they were definitely close to Opaline. Spike had also noticed an unusual amount of Minotaurs in the area who almost seemed to be looking for something, or someone. At that moment, they both heard a muffled ringing sound echo through the cave they were hiding in.

“What’s that?” Emziko asked as they looked for the source of the noise. Spike patted himself as he could tell the noise was coming from his communicator, eventually pulling it out and seeing that it was Ember.

“Oh no.” He said nervously under his breath. His head dipped in shame as he recalled how he had left the Crystal Empire without warning.

“What is it?” Emziko asked.

“An old friend. And a conversation I’m not sure I’m ready to have.” Spike responded. Emziko placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You can do this.” She said. Spike gave a nod and a small smile as he answered his communicator, being greeted by Ember’s visage as he did.

“Hey Ember. Been a bit hasn’t it?” Spike said nervously.

“Spike!? Thank goodness. Listen, where are you?” Ember asked frantically. Spike was a bit taken aback by her statement. He had at least expected some kind of lecture.

“Uh, we’re in a cave somewhere close to Opaline’s ritual site. It’s to the northeast of Klugetown.” Spike relayed to her.

“Great. We’ll be there soon. There’s something we really need to talk about.” Ember said seriously.

“Alright then. See you soon.” Spike responded. As the communicator hung up, Spike leaned back against the wall and let out a heavy sigh.

“I take it we’re about to have company?” Emziko asked.

“Count yourself lucky Emziko. You’re about to meet the Dragon Lord.” Spike said with a slight grin. Emziko’s face changed to a look of surprise as she let out a nervous laugh. Spike’s grin belied the sinking feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. He abandoned those who had agreed to help him in his mission. He let his fear get the better of him.

I suppose I have some time to think about what I’m gonna say when she gets here.

After some time had passed, Spike heard someone approaching the entrance to the cave. Lifting his head up, he met Ember’s gaze as she stepped inside. He gave her a brief wave, still feeling a bit nervous about how he had left things last time they were together. Ember gave him a small smile but chose not to say anything just yet, simply taking in each other’s presence for the time being.

“Big Brother!” Flurry Heart cried out as she dashed into the cave and enveloped Spike in a hug. Spike let out a gentle laugh as he hugged her back.

“Hey kiddo.” He said quietly.

“You had us all worried sick! Why did you just take off like that?” Flurry Heart asked, her face a mixture of anger and worry. Spike averted his eyes in shame but before he could answer, Emziko cleared her throat.

“So Spike, you gonna introduce me to your friends or what?” She asked as her eyes darted between the two strangers.

“Oh, right. This is Princess Flurry Heart and Dragon Lord Ember. Guys, this is Emziko.” Spike gestured towards Emziko, whose eyes went wide as she learned that she stood in the presence of royalty.

“Woah.” Was all she could muster as she soon composed herself.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Ember said as she gave Emziko a small bow. “Spike listen, as much as I’d love to hash everything out, we have a problem. Smolder and Garble have been captured. Obsidias is back, and now he’s working for Opaline.”

“Obsidias? As if we didn’t have enough problems.” Spike groaned as he ran a hand down his face.

“Somebody you know?” Emziko asked.

“A Minotaur who hates dragons. Nearly killed me when we ran into him a while back.” Spike explained. He pulled back his cloak to show the scar that remained on his torso from Obsidias’ mace.

“Yikes.” Emziko said.

“And now he’s got two of our friends as prisoners. Celestia knows what they’re planning on doing with them.” Spike continued.

“Which is why we should set out as soon as possible. Emziko, how good are you in a fight?” Ember asked.

“I can hold my own.” Emziko answered as she puffed herself up slightly.

“Good. Cause something tells me we’re gonna need all the help we can get.” Ember said. She gestured towards the entrance to the cave. “Shall we?” 

“Well, guess we oughta get to it.” Flurry Heart said as she made her way out of the cave. As Spike made his way out, he was stopped by Emziko, who wore a sly grin on her face.

“Never pegged you as the doting big brother type.” She said.

“I’m full of surprises.” Spike responded with a grin of his own.

“I can tell. I think it’s cute.” She said as she gave him a nudge in the ribs. They shared a laugh as she walked ahead of him out of the cave. Spike soon followed after, and as he passed by Ember he saw that she had an eyebrow raised and the remnants of a smile threatening to creep their way up her lips.

“What?” He asked.

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.” She said happily as she exited the cave. Spike shook his head as he followed after her. He had to admit, the time he had spent with Emziko made him the happiest he had been in a long time. There were some days they spent together where he didn’t think about Opaline or this whole quest at all. He just enjoyed her company. As he recalled these memories, his smile slowly faded to a look of worry as a new feeling overtook him. He pulled out that picture Flurry Heart had given him, the one he had taken with Sweetie Belle. He smiled as he looked upon it, only for a single tear to roll down his cheek and a single thought to cross his mind.

Would she be angry with me?
> Finale: The End is Where We Begin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world felt like it was spinning as Smolder slowly stirred awake. As she tried to stand, she felt something yank her back and looked down to see herself encased in sturdy chains looped around a very large rock just behind her. Looking around, she saw that Garble was chained to another rock directly across from her, his head hanging down as he was still unconscious. All around her she saw several of those same Minotaurs that ambushed them earlier, as well as a few Wights that floated ominously all around the ritual site. She heard heavy footfalls and eventually saw Obsidias’ head poke around the rock, resting his mace on his shoulder as he knelt down next to her.

“Enjoying your new accommodations?” He asked smugly as he knocked on the rock.

“Oh yeah. Nothing like being chained to a rock by a literal psycho.” Smolder spat sarcastically.

“Unfortunately for me, I have to keep you alive. Opaline says you’ll be the perfect bait for the others.” Obsidias said, a grimace forming across his face. Smolder heard the chains on the other rock rattle as she saw Garble start to stir awake.

“Woah, my head’s killing me.” He groaned as he blinked rapidly, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings. His face dropped to a frown once he laid eyes on Obsidias.

“Great. You again.” He said in a deadpan tone.

“Oh look, now the other one’s awake. Charming.” Obsidias gave back.

“What’s Opaline planning? Why use us as bait?” Smolder asked as she struggled against the chains.

“Why, to gather all the major players of course.” They all turned and saw Opaline strolling up towards them with a wicked grin on her face. “And after you’ve all served your purpose, I’ll take back what’s rightfully mine.”

Meanwhile, the group consisting of Spike, Ember, Flurry Heart, and Emziko had managed to find a safe spot to hunker down as night had fallen on the land, which meant that the most dangerous monsters would be roaming about and inhibiting their travel. They all jumped as a loud shriek echoed into the cave, keeping an eye on the cave entrance to make sure nothing would follow them inside. After a moment of waiting, they all let out a sigh of relief as nothing wandered into the cave.

“Some of those monsters are freaky. Mom never mentioned anything like that being locked up in Tartarus.” Flurry Heart shuttered as she settled in for the night.

“Tell me about it. Even after having been to a lot of different places, I’ve never seen anything like that.” Emziko chimed in. As they engaged in idle conversation, Ember noticed Spike staring blankly into the fire they had started, occasionally prodding it with a loose log that had rolled out of the fireplace.

“Got a lot on your mind huh?” Ember asked as she sat down next to him.

“I’ve been working towards this goal for a while now. But now that it’s in reach, I’m afraid of what comes next.” Spike answered, his gaze remaining unbroken from the fire.

“What do you mean?” She asked. Spike exhaled a ragged breath as he prodded the fire once more.

“It’s just, once this is over, what do I have? Can I even go back to a normal life after this?” He said as his gaze drifted over to Emziko, who was playfully teasing Flurry Heart and laughing as she prodded her back.

“You know you didn’t have to run off like you did.” Ember said softly as she also stared into the fire. Spike’s head lowered in shame as Ember’s words sank in. “You did it because you felt guilty about Garble right?”

“I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt because of me. The stakes have only gotten higher, and there’s no need for you to risk everything for my sake.” Spike explained.

“Spike, we followed you on this journey because you’re our friend. If you need us, we’re there.” Ember said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. Spike gave her a nod and a small smile.

“You’re right. I should have been more honest with all of you.”

“Well, it’s getting late and we’ve got a big day tomorrow. See you in the morning.” Ember said as she gave him a pat on the shoulder. Spike nodded as he noticed the others already beginning to drift off to sleep. He rolled over onto his back next to the fire and stared at the cave ceiling, reflecting on the events that brought him to this point; Equestria’s fall, his recovery in the Dragon Lands, and ultimately the decision to pursue Opaline. He thought of the different individuals he had with him along his journey, both old and new. His mind flashed with images of his companions who had stood by his side through this journey.

Smolder. Garble. Ember. They’ve been with me through thick and thin.

He smiled to himself as he felt his eyelids getting heavier. His thoughts then drifted back to when he first met Emziko, causing his smile to grow wider, though it was quickly replaced by a growing unease in the pit of his stomach as he drifted off to sleep.

Spike’s eyes opened and he found himself in a familiar setting. He stood up from the bed and realized he was back in Sweetie Belle’s house, and he heard faint noises coming from downstairs. As he descended the staircase, he stopped dead in his tracks as he saw not Sweetie Belle, but Twilight standing in the main living space. Spike’s jaw hung open as he struggled to find the words, his hands clenching and unclenching as he wrestled with his emotions.

“It so good to see you again Spike.” She said with a smile.

“I-I don’t know what to say.” Spike walked slowly towards her, his hands still clenched at his side and his head hanging low.

“You look sad. What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“It’s just that… I let you down. I wasn’t there when you needed me. And all this time, I’ve never been able to forgive myself. I’m sorry Twilight.” Spike’s voice cracked as tears began to roll down his cheeks. He felt himself enveloped in a hug as Twilight helped to calm his emotions.

“Oh Spike. You’ve been carrying such a heavy burden for so long. But I want you to know I’ve never blamed you, and you don’t need to punish yourself any longer.” Twilight soothed him. “And there’s somepony else who feels the same.”

Spike turned his attention to the door as he heard it open and saw Sweetie Belle enter the room. She gave him a soft smile as he collected himself and slowly approached her, placing a hand lovingly on her cheek as he looked her in the eye.

“Seems like you’ve been through a lot recently.” She said as she placed a hoof to his cheek.

“You could say that yeah.” Spike responded with a nervous laugh as his hand dropped and his gaze drifted towards the floor.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. Spike let out a sigh as he lifted his head to meet her gaze once more.

“I made a promise to you a long time ago that we would live a long and happy life together. But recently I feel like I’ve betrayed that promise. I betrayed you.” Spike explained, his eyes full of shame and regret.

“It’s about that other dragon isn’t it?” Sweetie Belle asked. Spike’s expression changed to one of shock before he gave a simple nod. “I know we made that promise, but you can’t let the fact that I’m gone stop you from living a happy life. Open your heart to her as you opened it to me all those moons ago and you’ll find that long and happy life with her.”

“She’s right Spike. And don’t forget, you have other friends who need you now.” Twilight and Sweetie Belle both embraced him as Spike now felt fresh tears roll down his cheeks. But this time, they were tears of joy as he held them both close as he recalled all the memories of his friends, how they laughed together, cried together, and how much they trusted in each other when all hope seemed lost.

As the world shifted and changed around him, Spike awoke to find himself back in the cave they had make camp in. He sat up quickly, his eyes darting around the room as Twilight’s voice echoed in his mind with one final message.

Don’t forget. Wherever you go, we’re always with you.

He chuckled to himself as he wiped his eyes and gave a content smile.

“Thanks everyone.” He whispered to himself. His attention returned to the present as his companions began to awaken as well.

“Spike? What’s wrong?” Ember asked drowsily as she slowly awakened.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Spike responded. “Nothing at all.”

The rest of the group awakened not long after and they soon made ready to depart, drawing ever closer towards Opaline’s ritual site.

“Hey, Emziko.” Spike called out. She stopped and turned back to him as they exited the cave.

“What’s up?” She asked. Spike rubbed the back of his head as he tried to find the words.

“Look, there’s something I need to tell you. Something I want to tell you. I just, never knew if it was the right time because-“

Emziko placed a finger to his lips in order to silence him before he could say any more.

“Tell me once all this is over, okay?” She said with a smile. Spike gave back a smile of his own.

“I will.” He said softly.

“Hey! What’s the hold up guys?” Flurry Heart called to them from up ahead.

“Coming!” Spike called back as the two of them rushed to join their companions.

The air crackled and hummed with power as Opaline prepared her ritual. Smolder saw twelve dragon eggs situated in perfect symmetry around her as her eyes were closed and she appeared to be chanting to herself.

Gotta get out of these chains. Smolder thought to herself as she struggled against her bindings. She saw Garble attempting to do the same with little success, the both of them exchanging knowing looks at the gravity of their situation.

“Struggling won’t do you any good.” Opaline called to them as she temporarily broke concentration on her ritual. “Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

“Yeah right lady. I ain’t down for being bait!” Garble snapped back as he struggled even harder to no avail. Opaline sighed and rolled her eyes as she went back to focusing on the ritual. A few moments passed before Opaline was approached by Obsidias.

“Got word from some of my boys. They’re close.” He said in a low tone.

“Excellent. Be sure to give them a warm welcome.” Opaline responded.

Spike and the others noticed just how strange the atmosphere felt. They knew they had to be almost at the ritual site, and yet no monsters were there to greet them. 

“It’s too quiet. I don’t like this.” Ember said.

“No kidding. You’d think we’d have seen at least something by now.” Emziko added. Spike could feel a strange energy in the air, almost as if they were being watched. Suddenly, they found themselves surrounded by Minotaurs who emerged from behind bushes, from the tree tops, and even from the very ground beneath them.

“Looks like our escorts are here.” Emziko said sarcastically.

“Get a move on. You’re expected.” One of the Minotaurs grunted as they roughly shoved each of them forward. Spike growled to himself but ultimately bit his tongue. He knew these Minotaurs were going to lead them to Smolder and Garble, and ultimately to Opaline.

The air hummed with magical energy as the ritual neared completion. Opaline’s concentration was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps as she turned to see the scouting party she had sent out returning with three dragons as well as a young Alicorn princess.

“Well well. Looks like everyone is finally here.” Opaline’s attention was drawn to the young Alicorn among the dragons and gave a slight smirk. “Take the pony away. Leave the dragons.”

“Flurry Heart!” Spike yelled. Flurry Heart kicked and thrashed as a couple Minotaurs dragged her away, the others being left to keep Spike and the others in place.

“She’ll get what’s coming to her later. I can’t afford to tolerate rivals.” Opaline said.

“Why steal the dragon eggs? What do you need them for?” Ember asked angrily.

“For the dragonfire of course. It’s much easier to take from dragons who can’t fight back after all. Though now that I have you right where I want you, I can take your dragonfire as well.” Opaline explained as a wicked grin spread across her face.

“You little…” Ember growls.

“And once I have it, I’ll reopen the way to Equestria, and retake what’s rightfully mine. What that wretched little Twilight Sparkle stole from me!” Opaline seethed as she recalled her original defeat by the Princess of Friendship.

“That’s not gonna happen.” Spike said defiantly.

“Really? And what makes you say that, little dragon?” Opaline asked snidely.

“Because I made a promise to make sure Equestria was safe.” Spike responded, causing Opaline’s grin to drop to a snarl. “So if you’re planning on causing trouble, you’ll have to go through me!” 

He threw an elbow into the face of the Minotaur standing directly behind him as Ember and Emziko followed suit and broke free from their captors. Spike shot a breath of flame directly towards Opaline, though he was caught off guard as Opaline’s jaw hung open and absorbed the fire in an instant. Magical energy flashed across her body and eventually flowed to her wings as she began to laugh manically.

“Keep them busy you idiots! I need time to complete the ritual!” Opaline yelled to the Minotaurs. At that moment, Spike felt himself get knocked onto his back as he saw Obsidias standing over him.

“Time to die, wyrm!” He roared as he took a swing with his mace. Spike rolled out of the way just as the mace impacted the ground and left a sizable crater in the dirt before shooting out a stream of fire, blasting Obsidias in the face. He then dashed forward and rammed his shoulder into Obsidias’ chest, sending him flying backwards before he slammed the head of his mace into the ground to stop his momentum.

“So you joined up with Opaline huh?” Spike sneered.

“She’s given me a chance to take another shot at you, and I’m gonna enjoy making sure you actually die this time.” Obsidias growled.

“Take your best shot then.” Spike responded in a low tone as he put up his hands. Obsidias’ horns glowed brighter and sparked with magical power as he let out a ferocious battle cry and charged forward, taking a swing with his mace at Spike’s head. As Spike dodged out of the way, the impact from the mace managed to split the ground apart, the earth crumbling into a seemingly bottomless hole in the process. They both stumbled for a moment before regaining their footing, Spike using his wings to his advantage. As Obsidias shot the head of his mace out to grab Spike, it was suddenly deflected as Ember landed in front of Spike with the Blood Stone Scepter held out in front of her.

“Can’t let you be the only one getting a crack at this guy. I owe him another beating for last time.” Ember said without breaking eye contact from Obsidias. “Go, take care of Opaline. This guy’s mine.”

Spike did a double take at Ember’s statement before giving a firm nod and running to stop Opaline’s ritual. Ember and Obsidias stared each other down for a moment, neither one daring to move as they clenched their respective weapons tighter in their hands.

“I still owe you for my horns Dragon Lord.” Obsidias growled.

“Let’s have it then.” Ember shot back as she readied the Scepter in her hands. They both charged each other as their weapons clashed, resulting in a loud clang that echoed across the field.

Meanwhile, Spike rushed back towards where Opaline was conducting her ritual and saw her beginning to absorb the dragonfire from the eggs that were situated around her.

“No!” He shouted as he flapped his wings and sped towards Opaline like a speeding bullet, ramming her with his shoulder and knocking her out of the ritual circle. He moved to land another attack only to be stopped dead in his tracks by a Wight, whose touch sent a devastating chill throughout Spike’s body. As he felt the life being drained out of him, the Wight was suddenly blasted by simultaneous streams of fire, which caused it to release its grip on Spike. Releasing a huge gasp of breath, he looked up and saw Smolder and Garble standing over him.

“Need some help?” Garble asked with an outstretched hand and a grin on his face. Spike gave back a smile of his own as he took Garble’s hand and hoisted himself onto his feet, pulling Garble into a hug as he did.

“It’s good to see you man.” Spike said in relief as they gave each other a firm pat on the back and released the hug.

“You too. Sorry for giving everyone such a scare.” Garble said back.

“How’d you guys get free anyway?” Spike asked quizzically.

“You’re welcome!” Emziko called as she threw a punch into the face of a rather large Minotaur. Spike chuckled to himself as Smolder raised an eyebrow.

“Who is she anyway?”

“Long story. I’ll tell you later.” Spike answered. All of their heads snapped towards Opaline as they heard her cackle maniacally as she rose from the dirt.

“Now that you’ve all had your fun, it’s time for me to take back what’s mine!” She roared as she stamped her hooves into the ground, sending forth a magical shockwave that threatened to topple them all over. She shimmered and glowed with a magical aura that soon coalesced into her curved horn as she shot forth a blast of energy that knocked them all prone.

“Aww crap. That hurt a little bit.” Garble groaned.

Meanwhile, Ember and Obsidias were locked in combat, their weapons colliding fiercely as neither one of them planned on backing down. Obsidias swung downward with his mace, a blow which Ember blocked with the Scepter before shooting a stream of fire right into his face. As he roared and charged her once more, Ember swept his legs out from under him and swung the Scepter downward, splitting the already fragile ground apart even more until eventually it gave way entirely. Obsidias scrambled to try and get one last hit in but was unable to regain his footing as he fell through the cracks and tumbled down into the bottomless hole below. She dropped to one knee as she took a moment to catch her breath.

I forgot just how tough Obsidias was. Ember thought. Her attention was drawn to the sound of explosions and flashing lights in the distance, causing her to quickly pick herself up and rush towards where her allies were engaging Opaline.

Spike struggled to get to his feet to fend off Opaline’s assault as Smolder, Garble, and Emziko all tried to land a few blows of their own to no avail. It was honestly frightening just how proficient Opaline was with magic, and this was merely with the small amount of dragonfire she extracted from the eggs.

If she was able to get her full power back, it’s possible she could even rival Princess Celestia. Spike thought. As he sprinted towards her and took another swing, Opaline used magic to bind him in place, forcing him to his knees in the process. She did the same to his companions one by one until they were all incapacitated.

“It’s clear how outmatched you are. Now sit there like a good pet while I take back what’s mine.” Opaline said smugly as she walked back towards her ritual circle. As she did, the Blood Stone Scepter was impaled into the ground in front of her, causing her to look up and see Ember floating above her with a scowl on her face.

“Hope you didn’t forget about me!” She called. As she flew down to strike at Opaline, she suddenly found herself bound by magic as she dropped to the ground like a rock. Opaline used her magic to slam Ember into the ground a few more times before placing her under the same binding spell as the others.

“I most certainly didn’t.” Opaline responded. She moved back into the center of the ritual circle and coalesced magic into her horn once more. She sent a beam of magic forward, and all the dragons saw as the beam collided with a magical barrier. Opaline struggled against the barrier as she tried with all her might to shatter it, feeling it begin to crack under the pressure while also feeling some of her power begin to slip away. At the same time, Spike felt the magic binding him in place begin to fade as he slowly rose to his feet once more and saw the barrier phasing in and out of visibility at Opaline’s repeated attempts to bring it down.

Did Twilight do this? It doesn’t matter. I have to stop Opaline, no matter what it takes! He shook the thought from his mind and took off in a sprint.

“I won’t let you take over Equestria! Not if I have anything to say about it!” Spike bellowed as he took flight, summoning as much fire in his chest as he possibly could.

“It’s a good thing it won’t be up to you, dragon!” Opaline roared back as she stopped her work on the barrier and coalesced magic into her horn once more. They both let out a ferocious roar as they shot their respective blasts towards each other. As they collided, the blasts erupted into a huge explosion which blinded everyone in the vicinity. When the dust settled, Spike saw that Opaline was nowhere in sight and that the ground had given way where she once stood.

“Spike!” He heard Ember call.

“Spike, you good man?” Garble’s voice came next.

“Spike! Where are you!” Smolder’s voice echoed.

“Spike! If you’re dead I’m gonna kill you!” Emziko’s voice came, a slight hint of panic in her tone.

“I’m okay!” Spike called to them. The other dragons all let out a collective sigh of relief seeing that Spike was okay.

“Where’s Opaline?” Ember asked as she looked around.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if she got away, or if she…” Spike trailed off.

“Hey, no need to go there. We stopped her for now, and that’s all that matters.” Smolder reassured him. Spike looked ahead and saw Emziko keeping a bit of a distance from the rest of the group.

“Get a move on slugger. She won’t wait forever.”Garble said as he nudged Spike’s shoulder. Spike let out a chuckle as he waved Garble away.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

He approached Emziko slowly, a smile growing across his face the closer he drew to her.

Open your heart to her.

Sweetie Belle’s words echoed in his mind as he finally stopped just in front of her.

“That was some fight wasn’t it? Things always get this crazy around you?” Emziko asked with a laugh.

“Not usually, though I guess this is the new norm now, isn’t it?” Spike chuckled. They both shared a laugh as they nervously shuffled in place.

“So, you had something you wanted to tell me?” Emziko asked as she rubbed her arm.

“Yeah, I did. But I think I’d rather just show you.”Spike pulled her close as they locked into a deep kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck in the process. They pulled apart and rested their foreheads against each other.

“I think I can get behind that.” Emziko quipped with a grin as they looked into each other’s eyes, their smiles growing as they did.

“Hey! Anyone out there?” Spike was surprised when he heard Flurry Heart calling out.

“Over here Flurry!” Ember called. Flurry Heart galloped over to where all of the dragons had congregated and saw Spike and Emziko still locked in their embrace.

“Oh. Am I interrupting?” She asked slyly. Spike and Emziko broke apart and tripped over their words as they tried to explain the situation, causing Flurry Heart and the other three dragons to let out hearty guffaws as a result.

“You’re okay right? How did you manage to escape?” Spike asked.

“It was pretty easy once I learned my guards were total idiots. Getting the drop on them turned out to be pretty easy stuff.” Flurry Heart explained with a sassy look on her face. “What about Opaline?”

“I don’t know. She may have gotten away, and if that’s the case, we need to be ready for whatever her next move is.” Spike said.

“I agree. For now, we should probably get you home. And also get these dragon eggs back home too.” Ember chimed in. Spike saw that both her and Garble had their arms full of dragon eggs. As they all walked away, a white dragon egg with purple spots was shown floating away on a nearby river.

Opaline let out a panicked gasp as she emerged from below the earth. She looked around frantically and saw that her back was up against a wall of some kind. She put out her hoof, only to have it connect with a magical barrier.

I did it! I’m on the other side of the barrier! Opaline celebrated internally. But now my power is tapped out and I’m all alone. I’m going to need better servants if I’m going to reclaim my power.

As she processed her thoughts, she heard the sound of crying coming from nearby. Opaline scrambled to where the sound was coming from and heard it beneath a pile of rubble. She moved it out of the way to reveal a small unicorn filly, who wailed and cried as she had been left all alone. Her fur was a light blue color, and she had kinky navy blue hair with teal highlights that swept to the right side of her head. Her horn was a light blue color with a pink gradient towards the tip and pink swirls all across the horn. Her eyes opened to reveal teal-green orbs that looked up at her curiously, and suddenly Opaline had a brilliant idea.

“Yes. What I need from a servant is complete loyalty. I’ll conquer the lower ponies with one of their own. And soon, all of Equestria will be mine!” Opaline cackled maniacally as she carried the little filly away.

Moons Later:

“Hey, wake up sleepyhead. We’ve got a lot of important stuff to do today.” Emziko said as she poked Spike’s face in an effort to wake him up. Spike groaned as his eyes slowly open and saw the crystalline ceiling of the main palace in the Crystal Empire. His mind raced as he remembered that they had an important meeting with Cadence today to discuss the Dragon Lands joining in on the trade agreement between Klugetown and the Crystal Empire.

“Alright alright, I’m up.” Spike groaned as he sat up out of the bed and stretched.

“Hey you.” Emziko said as she planted a kiss on his cheek. “Come on. We don’t wanna keep Cadence waiting.”

“That’s true. We’ve got a lot of important issues to discuss don’t we?” Spike said with a smile.

“Sure do.” Emziko said as she gave him a light boop on the nose.

They both exited out of their guest room and into the main corridor of the palace, where they met up with Smolder, Garble, and Ember, who were already waiting for them.

“Bout time. Was starting to worry you two would sleep through the whole thing.” Smolder stated.

“Well not the whole thing. Only part of it.” Emziko quipped sarcastically.

“Oh very funny.” Ember chimed in while Garble chuckled at the scene. “You two have certainly gotten familiar over the last several moons.”

“I could say the same about you two.” Spike gestured between her and Garble. “It’s a boy, right?”

“That’s right. I’m gonna make sure he grows up nice and strong. Just like his dad.” Garble stated as he flexed.

“Oh boy.” Ember ran a hand down her face while everyone chuckled.

“Come on. We don’t wanna be late.” Spike gestured ahead as he adjusted the strap that ran across his chest to the single pauldron on his right shoulder. In the wake of their battle against Opaline, Princess Luna decided to create a task force of sorts to help restore order to the world, the Knights of Harmony, of which they had all been made members. They each bore the sigil upon similarly designed pauldrons that they had all donned for this important occasion. As they passed by an open window, Spike looked out and felt a strangeness in the air, as if something groundbreaking was about to happen.

“Yo Spike, you good?” Smolder asked. All of a sudden, a bright flash of rainbow light shot outwards in a wave across the sky, alerting all of the residents of the Crystal Empire. The rainbow lights hung in the sky as many of the pony residents made a startling discovery; their magic had returned. Spike looked to the others as they all exchanged knowing nods.

“Looks like our meeting just got a lot more interesting.” He said as he looked back out the window.

Elsewhere, Opaline watched out the window of a mysterious dark castle as the rainbow light shone across the sky.

“Uh Opaline? What happens now?” A light blue unicorn mare asked nervously.

“Now Misty, the game truly begins.” Opaline responded, a wicked grin lighting up her face as an evil laugh echoed throughout the halls of the castle.

The End.