Ever since Princess Celestia banished her sister for her crimes as Nightmare Moon, there has been peace for over a thousand years. And even now that she is back, peace still reigns supreme. All evil is kept at bay by a single group of four individuals. This special team of villain hunters is under direct supervision from Princess Celestia herself. They handle all of Equestria's not-so-simple problems. They protect the citizens from problems they have yet to know about. They operate in the shadows and are the first and last line of defense in the case of an extreme emergency. They act according to the rules set by their own honor. These rules are etched into the hearts and minds of all members of the organization. The life they live and the way they live it is all governed by one single thing. That is...The Dragon Code.
Spike wakes up tired, as was usual for him at this point. He's always like this in the morning. He never gets proper sleep because of his secret. He does manage to rest throughout the day though. His current "schedule" is at least two hours at night, followed by whatever hours he's able to steal from father time in the morning, which usually consists of directly after he wakes up, whenever his friends are distracted, and surprisingly, before a mission. The princess is kind enough to make sure he knows about it well in advance.
Despite his sleepy demeanor being the truth, it is because of this that it also serves as the perfect lie. It is a deterrent against prying eyes who are snooping around for secrets. He has to keep what he does in the dark, for if it ever got out that there were threats out there besides Nightmare Moon, the world would fall into panic again.
Spike and his team were forced to leave Nightmare Moon's defeat to the Elements of Harmony. When Celestia banished her sister, she sent her to the moon. But what she did not say, was that she sent one of them with her to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't escape.
They were under orders not to kill her from Princess Celestia herself. Spike understood. After all, she was her sister.
Unfortunately, she escaped when the stars aligned and returned to Ponyville, where she was defeated by Twilight and her friends.
She was returned to herself by the Elements and returned to ruling alongside her sister.
Spike got up and went to the bathroom, where, after he finished the daily routine, he splashed his face with water so that he could fully wake up, and then smiled, remembering his victory over Discord.
It had been a while since anything happened after that, and Ponyville returned to peace.
His day, just like all of his days off, was uneventful, if not boring.
For him it was just the usual. Help organize Twilight's library, hang out with her and her friends, solve a daily problem or two. Maybe even grab a new comic.
He may have been using it as a cover for his true identity, but he really did love those comics.
Then he would just go to sleep, grateful to Equestria for allowing him an actual day of rest and recuperation.
Except this was not a day off. This was a day where he would be busy once more. Or more accurately, a night, for as soon as the sun had officially set for the day, allowing the darkness to take it's rightful place in the sky, he recieved a letter from Celestia.
"Dearest Spike, how are you? It pains me to be so blunt and straightforward to a friend such as yourself, but I am worried. I have need of your strength once again. Queen chrysalis has made her move. She plans to overtake Equestria and fill it with changelings in an attempt to confuse and disorient us. After all these years, does she really think she can pull one over on me?
"I have a plan in place for this. Now, please listen closely..."
After Spike read the letter, he quickly made his way to Canterlot Castle, where the princess and his partner were waiting. Once there, they were all briefed on the mission once again before Celestia saw them off on their journey to the badlands, where the two then had to traverse the desert just to make it to the entrance to the changeling hive.
It took them a while. Quite a while. But eventually they made it to the hive, and were now standing outside of the entrance, confirming each other's resolve and level of prep.
Once they were sure they were ready, they made their way in to confront the plotting Changeling Queen.
Dragon Code Log- Mission #2: Queen Chrysalis
"Great news, Princess. Your plan worked. By pretending to be captured, you were able to distract her long enough to allow us to sneak up on her. We made our way through the changeling hive relatively unhindered, save for the maze-like structure of the place. I'm sorry we took so long to get there, even after you teleported us there. If it weren't for you distracting her, we would've taken even longer.
"That reminds me, we caught her in the middle of a monologue! Considering the situation she had yet to figure out that she was in, that was hilarious! We almost got caught because we couldn't help but laugh at her.
"Anyway, it was also because of her little 'victory' speech that we didn't get caught. We know about the hive mind, which means we also knew that if she wasn't so busy stroking her ego, we would've been surrounded and the plan would've failed. The Queen and her changelings were too busy celebrating to notice.
"Not that we would've had too much trouble. Changelings are easy to defeat. But if there's one thing they are good at, it's deceit. They are masters of trickery.
"Emerald Rose had no trouble blasting her into a nearby wall, thus blowing our no longer needed cover and alerting her, and the whole hive, to our presence.
"Chrysalis turned around and glared at us, charging up her horn and firing her own little blast of magic at us. We dodged away from the cover we were using and I blasted back at her with my fire. She put up a barrier to block it. The fire bounced off and spread into embers that scorched the throne room a bit.
"We continued this shootout for a while until I decided to get up close and personal. I charged her and she smirked, not even bothering to put up a barrier. I had to wonder what she was planning. I raised my bladed claws to strike her across her abdomen, but upon making contact with her skin, my claws bounced off.
"Chrysalis simply smiled even wider, a smile I have to admit I would've liked a little bit, if not for the fact that I had to kill her. My attack had bounced right off of her like it was nothing. Add tough skin to the changeling repertoire. It felt like armor.
"Good thing we had just the thing for that. Emerald enchanted my sword, which was the next thing I planned on using if my claws didn't work. It helped quite a bit, as the next slash I managed to connect cut a gash in her side.
"I say 'managed' because by the time my claws proved useless in the fight, she began flying around. I had to resort to my fire once again, shooting fireballs in tandem with Emerald's magic blasts to pressure Chrysalis into feeling nervous.
"It worked as we managed a combined attack that knocked her out of the air. But, just as I was about to deliver the final blow that would end this fight, I was knocked into a wall by a force that felt like a flying train had just slammed full force into my side.
"I was in pain all over, bruised and bloody and tired. Emerald hid behind cover while the queen was distracted with me. She was now slowly healing me. My injuries were many, and it would take a while for me to be completely healed. Even so she tried.
"After a while she stopped. I wasn't completely healed, and she knew it, but we had a fight to win. I had to rely on her this time again.
"I joined her behind cover while the queen and her changeling guard were busy glaring at us/recovering.
"Emerald stepped out from behind the cover we chose and cast a spell, enhancing her speed and strength as she charged at the changeling guard, sword drawn. She knew about the armor-like skin and cast the same spell she used with mine on her own sword, cutting the changeling in half with a single slash. She stood in front of the changeling queen with a glare and a battle stance, ready for anything she could throw at her.
"Chrysalis, furious and saddened at the death of one of her beloved changelings, stood up and then began to float high into the air, green aura swirling around her. Her eyes began to glow and the magic surrounding her expanded, spreading out to cover more ground as it pushed us back, forcing us to move back into cover. But sadly, that cover was soon blown away, along with us, as we were pushed into and then bashed further, into a wall.
"We were both badly hurt now. Emerald Rose tried to heal us both, but using her magic on multiple targets has always been a weakness of hers. That, combined with her injuries, made it very hard to do.
"I, already having been injured once, was now worse. If Emerald couldn't use her magic, then It was my turn. I pulled out a green crystal and burned it with my fire before throwing it up in to the air above us and letting it wash over us like falling snow. Within seconds we were back to full strength with no injuries to speak of.
"The attack kicked up a lot of debris, and when the dust cleared, what we saw surprised us. Chrysalis was standing there with an army of changelings in front of her, ready to fight and die for her.
"You may have defeated one of my children, but let's see how you do against one hundred!" she exclaimed.
"We were surrounded by changelings, and even though we were okay now, we were still vastly outnumbered. Their attacks began. One after the other they charged. It became herd to tell where they were coming from, and we got hurt, but we still managed to defeat them all and come out the victors.
"In the final strike, taken while queen chrysalis was stunned from shock at how we managed to win against so many of them, we stabbed her with our magic enhanced swords, right through her front and back and out the opposite ends. She went limp after that and the deed was done.
"We left her hive and returned to Ponyville."
"With that, my report is done. Your faithful knight, Spike."