The New Bearers

by PioneerofImagination

The Final Battle

"Oh Spike," a faint voice called out as I slowly opened my eyes. "Get up Spike," the voice called out and this time I was able to figure whose voice it was. It was Rarity. "Come on now my handsome prince, get up it's almost time." I woke up and found myself in a large bed located in a large room, both of which were highly decorated.

"Late for what?" I asked as I could barely open my eyes.

"Why our wedding of course," she answered. Hearing that I opened my eyes as wide as I could. I leaped out of bed and saw that Rarity was dressed in a beautiful wedding dress that made her look like a princess. "Come now my prince, let's not keep everypony wedding, or rather everycreature. Pretty much all of Equestria has showed up for our wedding."

"Our wedding?!?" I nearly shouted. She already said it but I still couldn’t believe what I heard.

"Of course darling," Rarity answered. "You defeated Humanoid and asked me to marry you right before you passed out.”

"What?" I said as I started getting really confused. "But I didn't beat him, and you weren't anywhere near me when I passed out."

"Yes I was. When we defeated the other rogues, we made our way to where you were and you were both on the ground. We captured Humanoid and I went to check on you. That was when you asked me to marry you. So after you recovered we put our wedding into action and here we are."

"But, I don't remember helping with something like that."

"You just woke up from your nap, you'll probably remember all of it later."

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"Come now Spike, why are you stalling? Don't you want to marry me?"

"Of course. I'd love to marry you!" I said with as much passion as I could muster. "Marrying you would be nothing short of a dream come true." Suddenly that's when it hit me like one of Humanoid's punches. "It's a dream."

"Yes, it's a dream come true," Rarity said as she spun around several times. "Now come, our happily ever after awaits," she added as she came closer and wanted to give me from the looks of it a very passionate kiss. And sweet Celestia how I wanted to accept that offer right then and there.

"No it's all a dream," I said as I backed away from Rarity. "This is a trick from Humanoid to keep me from stopping whatever it is he has planned."

"Spike you're talking nonsense, Humanoid has been defeated."

"No not yet," I said as I flew up. "But he will be, if it's the last thing I do." I then transformed and forced the window open to fly out but Rarity grabbed one of my claws hoping to stop me from leaving.

"No Spike! Please! You can't leave me at the altar!"

"I'm sorry dream Rarity, but I have to stop Humanoid." I then kissed the dream Rarity which she returned as passionately as the real Rarity would.

That doesn't count as cheating on her right?

I then flew out of the wedding chapel and dream Rarity probably wasn't kidding when she said all of Equestria might have showed up. But I flew on, and it wasn't long at all before I reached the edge of the dream and got stuck. I tried to get free but the edge was actually holding me somehow.

"Get off of me," I said as I tried to get through the edge, but it felt like I was trying to fly through an invisible wall of glue. I felt like a fly trapped in a spider's web and for some reason I started to feel sleepy. And for the record I have no idea how that works, but I wasn't able to think about it much because within seconds my eyelids felt like they were made of lead. "No, I'm getting out of here, Humanoid's tricks aren't going to stop me." I then used whatever energy I could get to fly harder and faster and even used my fire breath to give me more momentum, but the sleepy feeling wasn't able to go away.

"No, I will get out of here, I will stop Humanoid."

***

I woke up in what looked like a small hut that had a window on one wall that allowed me to see a small garden just outside of the hut. I tried getting up expecting quite a lot of pain but to my surprise nothing hurt when I got up.
"So you're up," a voice I had never heard before said. At first I thought it might be Discord because I couldn't see anycreature inside the hut. "I'm out here, come outside I have something for you." I then made my way outside to see that I was in some sort of swamp or jungle. "It seems that you've made a full recovery," the same voice said and now that I was outside I saw where it was coming from. A rather unusual looking ram, that's a male goat by the way.

"Where am I? And who are you?"

"You were in a crater just outside of the swamp and I brought you here to recover. You were in bad shape but I was able to help you recover, you were also being affected by some strange magic as you were sleeping."

"I was?"

"Yes, but it seemed fate decided to somewhat smile on you today. I was always good at detecting magic, especially if it's unusual. Whatever spell you were put under was very powerful indeed but I managed to weaken it just enough for you to be able to break through and wake up on your own."

"I see, thank you. But you didn't answer my other question. Who are you?"

"You may call me Grogar."

"Wait a minute Grogar? You're Grogar? Like the Father of Monsters Grogar?"

"Long ago that is what I went by, until I was banished by the pony you know as Gusty the Great. Now I am but a humble farmer."

"Wait, that's it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're just a farmer? No great evil plans, no revenge scheme?"

"No," he answered. "After my defeat I turned over a new leaf and changed my wicked and nasty ways. But even with my past behind me I still seeked to atone for the sins of my past, I suppose that might have been why I was eager to help you out right when I found you. Though that begs the question, how did you get yourself involved in such a situation as the one I found you in?"

"Well, it's sort of a long story," I answered.

"I'm not going anywhere," Grogar replied. As you can probably understand I wasn't all too eager to talk to the Father of Monsters, but then I thought that maybe he could help. So I sat down and told him all about my adventures, even the parts about Chrysalis and King Sombra. I suppose it was because getting defeated by Humanoid once again filled me with the need to boost my ego.

Or maybe I just like telling stories, hard to tell.

Eventually I got to Humanoid and how he took control of the Crystal Empire, which Grogar seemed to be rather interested in. As well as how we were able to fight him off.

I skipped the stuff from chapter five because it was just a bunch of minor things put together and got to Humanoid helping the four bad guys escape and defeating me.

"I see," Grogar answered rather stoically. Kind of thought that would leave more of an impression, but oh well. "So the plan to just sleep forever didn't work out after all. I thought I kept sensing his magic." As it turned out Grogar also knew about Humanoid which in all honestly doesn't surprise me, if Discord and Starswirl the Bearded knew who he was, then it also made sense if Grogar knew as well.

"Yeah and I think he's planning something big."

"Whatever he's planning might already be in motion," Grogar said as he made his way around the hut and gestured to me to follow him. Again I wasn't too eager to follow him but something but something told me I should. When we made our way over to the other side of the hut, I saw a rather large blank spot of dirt where he drew a rather accurate drawing of me sleeping.

"What's with the drawing of me?"

"Look closely little drake."

"Actually my name is Spike." I didn't see it but Grogar rolled his eyes. I later found out that drake is a term for young dragons. Grogar then drew a bubble around me.

"I said before that when I found you I sensed a strange magic. Something that kept you sleeping, no matter what.”

"Humanoid."

"Yes, a spell that keeps you from waking, trapping you in your dream, but if I had to guess it wasn't just a dream. What was your dream like?"

"It was an ultimate fantasy. Something that I didn't want to leave but I knew I had to."

"I see, that is actually quite impressive."

"It is?"

"Yes it is, you must have incredible willpower to be able to do something like that. I was able to weaken the magic you were under, but you did the most yourself," Grogar said as he drew a bubble around the drawing of me which I figured was the strange wall I broke through.

"Is that bubble some kind of barrier?"

"Correct, most likely a backup plan. Made to not only keep you in. But remove the memories that helped you figure out how you were in the dream world and make improvements, so you can't figure it out again."

"Wow, how in Equestria did you figure that out?"

"It's how I would have done it," he answered with a rather sinister smile. "Old habits die hard and all that."

"Do you think Humanoid will be doing what he did to me to others as well?"

"That would be a fair guess, but seeing how you woke up from it already you have little to worry about."

"But what about my friends?"

"What about your friends?"

"Humanoid isn't going to stop with just me, he's going to try this with everypony or even everycreature. Including you."

"Not quite, long ago he and I were quite close. But even then I knew to take a few precautions." Grogar then used his magic to bring a lantern that was inside the hut. The lantern had something that I couldn't quite make out, it looked like a piece of a shadow that was cut off somehow. "This is a piece of his essence."

"Where did you get that?"

"I got it long ago when Humanoid became the creature that you know him now."

"What do you mean?'

"That's a story for another time," he answered as he placed the lantern back in the hut. We talked a little more about my friends and how they might be affected as well and I asked if Grogar could somehow help me. And surprisingly he agreed pretty quickly, I guess he was serious about the whole wishing to atone for the sins of his past.

"So what's the plan Grogar? Unlock some sort of ancient forgotten magic? Create a new army of monsters to help us fight off Humanoid and the other bad guys? Train me for years and years and use a time spell to bring us back to this exact moment in time so that I can defeat Humanoid without too much damage getting done?"

"Uh, I thought I'd just take you back to your home and see if we can find your friends."

"Oh, yeah that might be a good place to start," I said with a rather sheepish smile. Grogar then got down on all fours and gestured to me to get on his back. I offered to just turn into my bigger form and fly him back to Ponyville, but he said that I should conserve energy because I didn't fully recover. Yeah remember when I said that I got up feeling alright, well I did feel an ache or two. I didn't think too much about it mostly because I was expecting to feel a lot more.

"Also," Grogar told me. "If I carry you instead of the other way around we'll be less likely to catch Humanoid's attention as well as his minions."

"I guess you have a good point there," I said, deciding to go with his idea. I climbed on Grogar's back and he made his way out of the swamp in no time and before long I started to recognise the landscape.

He's pretty fast for an ancient ram.

"Uh Grogar?"

"What is it Spike?"

"You said earlier you wanted to make up for the sins of your past."

"Yes, that's why I'm helping."

"But something I was wondering is, if you wanted to make up for the things you did long ago. Why didn't you just come to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to tell them that. Or even my friend Twilight, they could have pointed you in the right direction."

"I suppose I could have," he answered as he continued to carry me back towards Ponyville. "I even considered that on much more than one occasion. But deep down I always figured that my chance would find me instead of me having to find it, and low and behold I was right." Before long because again he's surprisingly fast, Grogar was able to get me Ponyville. When we got there I could get a rather good look at Canterlot and saw that it, as well as the whole mountain was covered in snow.

"Humanoid's been busy."

"Yes, where would I find your friends?"

"I last saw them in Canterlot," I said with my voice rather lacking in hope which Grogar could sense.

"I see," Grogar said. "If they're still there it might be a challenge for me to get us there. Do you think they may have retreated here?"

"I suppose," I answered as I looked back up at the mountain where Canterlot stood on and the snow somehow looked like it had gotten even worse. "I hope they did."

"If they did, where would they go?"

"Twilight has a School of Friendship, they might have gone there." Grogar then made his way to where I told him the school was, and as he brought me there we saw various ponies sound asleep on the ground. We entered the School of Friendship and thankfully, well sort of, that was where we found my friends. Twilight and her group, the new bearers, Discord, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Mudslinger, Slapstick, Satire and even Discord. Sound asleep.

"My my, you even befriended the children of Humanoid."

"You know them?"

"I know many things."

"Do you know how to help them?"

"Helping one under such a spell is one thing, helping this many is quite the different scenario."

"So there's nothing you can do?" I asked as I looked at all my friends all asleep, most of all Rarity who I walked over and got on my knees while I slowly stroked her beautiful curly mane. Grogar saw how sad I was as he approached me and gently placed his hoof on my shoulder.

"Well, I didn't say that," Grogar answered with a small yet heartwarming smile. Grogar then got out the lantern that contained the piece of Humanoid's magic (I have no idea where he was keeping that) and placed it on the floor. He then used his magic to pick up the others and placed them around the lantern with them side by side in a rather large circle. "I only have such a tiny sample of Humanoid's magic, most likely meaning we can only do this once, so we're going to do it all at once."

"You mean you're going to wake them all up at the same time?" I asked rather excitedly.

"Something like that," he answered. "If I do this spell right it should take us right into their dreams and once we get there we can break the spell they're under from within."

"Do you think it'll work?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be trying this." Grogar then gestured to me to come towards him and right before I did that I looked once again at Rarity and kissed her gently on her lips. "I'm coming for ya milady."

"Milady?"

"She's my very special somepony."

"Aren't you kind of young to be dating her?"

"It's not that big of an age gap, it's not like she's old enough to see my mother."

"I suppose." Grogar then cast the spell causing the fragment of Humanoid's magic to spread around the others like plant roots and Grogar placed his hoof on the top of the lantern and I placed my claw on top of his hoof. After that the magic which still looked like plant roots wrapped around us forming what looked like a somewhat large birdcage and suddenly everything faded into utter blackness.

***

After that we found themselves in a large purple void that had countless white bubbles with black auras around them. As I looked closer I saw that the bubbles had my friends inside them and when I looked around more, all the bubbles had somepony or somecreature inside them.

"Where are we?" I asked as I looked around more.

"This is the realm of dreams," Grogar answered. "Here we'll be able to interfere with Humanoid's spell more directly. You see that black stuff around the dream bubbles?"

"They're rather hard not to notice, I'm guessing those are the walls that tried to keep me in the dream world."

"Correct little one."

"Can you please just call me Spike?"

"Sorry, correct Spike. And since I've managed to physically take us to the realm of dreams we can or rather you can free them all at once."

"Me?" I asked as I put claws to my chest in shock. "I could barely get out of my own dream prison and even then that was with your help. How am I going to help them all escape?"

"With your little tool of course," Grogar answered as he got out my sword hilt that I forgot about in all the excitement. I have no idea where he kept that either, I don't really want to ask. "This was forged by rather unique magic, I can tell."

"You have no idea," I said to him.

"This should allow you to free your friends, just slash the bubbles and they'll wake up."

"Uh okay," I said rather surprised by how I was supposed to wake the others up. "That's not going to hurt them is it?"

"Well I imagine that they'll have quite the rude awakening, but no harm will come to them. Now hurry up time is running out, the longer we wait, the harder it will be to defeat Humanoid." Grogar made a point. I grabbed my sword and got to work slicing the bubbles causing them all to pop. To be honest I couldn't help but show off a little bit. I even transformed almost right away. "Feeling rather confident are we?"

"Well? Yeah I guess a little," I answered as I blushed a little and rubbed the back of my head. "Well enough of my ego, we still have quite a few ponies to wake up."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean all of the others that were put under Humanoid's spell," I answered as I got ready to slice more bubbles in half but suddenly Grogar got in my way.

"Not a good idea. If we wake up every single one of the ponies that were put to sleep, Humanoid will find out. The element of surprise can be very helpful."

"I suppose you have a point," I admitted as I went back down to my original form. "So what do we do now?"

"For now it's time to stop daydreaming," Grogar answered. His way of telling that it was time to go back to the waking world.

I actually thought that was really clever.

***

We came back and saw that the others woke up just as Grogar had planned and after hugging Rarity and Twilight we explained what happened. Well actually, first I wanted to know how they all got out of Canterlot but the others were much more curious why the Father of Monsters was there. Especially Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick who were very excited to see there "Uncle Grogie" again.
I almost laughed out loud when I heard that.

"It's nice to see you three again too," Grogar said as Mudslinger, Slapstick, and Satire were all hugging him all at the same time, rather tightly. "Put me down now, we have to make a plan now." As the trio did as Grogar asked, he and I explained how we showed up and Twilight explained how they were able to get away when Satire, Mudslinger, and Slapstick combined their powers when the giant snowball Humanoid put them in rolled them all the way back to Canterlot.

They decided to make their way back to the castle and saw that the bad guys had the winning edge, so they combined their magic and reworked the snow storm. Doing this allowed them to distract the bad guys so they, as well as the others could escape. They made it to the School of Friendship and before they could form a plan, they dropped like flies falling into a deep sleep until we showed up.

"How dare Humanoid corrupt the realm of dreams," Princess Luna said as she looked like she was already ready for another fight. "And who knows how the other ponies are taking this."

"I too am quite concerned about our subjects," Princess Celestia said as she placed a hoof on her sister trying to get her to calm down. "But I am also quite surprised to find the Father of Monsters here helping us. I remember how Starswirl would tell my sister and I stories about you when we were just fillies."

"Indeed," Princess Luna said, having calmed down. "I always thought you were just a legend or a fairy tale."

"I am very real. But if you're scared, you need not worry, I'm here to help."

"Oh please I'm not scared. RIght sister?"

"Naturally Luna," Princess Celestia said. "After all we're two grown mares." Suddenly Grogar vanished like a phantom in the night and reappeared right in front of the royal pony sisters and howled like a mad demon with a face to match, which made them fly up in fright.

"Not afraid huh?" Grogar said as his face and voice returned to normal.

"Grogar!" I nearly yelled as I ran over to him while Princess Celestia and Luna flew back down but a couple feet behind from where they flew up.

"Sorry," Grogar said with a bit of a laugh. "Like I said, old habits die hard."

"Well we can worry about that later," Twilight said as he approached Grogar. "We have to stop Humanoid."

"Though before we do that," Rainbow Dash said. "I just gotta know, what exactly is your connection with Humanoid and his kids?"

"I was really curious about that too," Soarin said. "Did you make them or something?"

"Hardly," Grogar answered. "But it's kind of a long story."

"All right story time," Cheese Sandwich said as he and Pinkie Pie got on the floor next to Grogar.

"I," Twilight paused. "Guess it couldn't hurt to hear, we can focus more on the main objective with this over with."

"I'm a bit curious too Twilight," Princess Celestia who walked over next to her.

"Very well," Grogar said as the others gathered around him. "But I'm telling the short version. You may find this hard to believe, but the one you call Humanoid is in fact not of this world."

"You mean he's an alien?" I asked shocked.

"Not in the sense that you mean. Long ago strange creatures traveled to this land from another world." Grogar then used a spell to show what the portal looked like which to the surprise of Twilight and I, looked familiar.

"That's the mirror Spike and I used to travel to Canterlot High," Twilight said.

"Princess Celestia said it was old but I had no idea," I said.

"Neither did I," Princess Celestia said.

"They came to this land little before I was overthrown as the Emperor of all that I saw," Grogar continued. "At first I thought that perhaps I could use them as a means to return to power. I quickly learned however that they would be of little use to me, but I decided to help them out. And in time they saw me as somewhat of a grandfather figure, one pony in particular when they find they simply couldn't return home-"

"Oh yeah because the mirror used to only work every thirty moons," Pinkie interrupted, resulting in her getting a rather mean look from Grogar. "Sorry," Pinkie replied sheepishly.

"As I was saying when they couldn't return home one of the ponies tried to use the various magical artifacts he helped me collect to try and return him to his normal form, instead he transformed himself into the being that you all know as Humanoid."

"Wait," Twilight said. "So Humanoid was a human that became a pony that turned into Humanoid?"

"Yes, pretty much," Grogar answered.

"What happened to the other ponies?" Princess Celestia asked.

"When they saw what he became, they were utterly terrified over what he became and ran off. We never saw any of them again, including the pony he once called his wife. It was shortly after that Humanoid decided to sleep forever and I found a small place to build my little hut and garden."

Wow I actually feel sorry for Humanoid, I thought.

"Well," Twilight said. "I think that's enough story time for now. We should focus on our counterattack. Grogar, do you have any spells that can help us out? I mean, more than you already have."

"I suppose I could if I still had my Bewitching Bell, but I lost it long ago."

"Actually it's not lost," Shining Armor said. "But I wish it was. Humanoid took it."

"Oh that's going to be a problem," Grogar said.

"If only we could have somehow grabbed it," Satire said.

"No kidding, I'd love to turn the tides on dear old dad," Mudslinger said.

"I have it," Slapstick said.

"I don't want to say it but it might be, wait," Satire paused. "What did Slapstick say?"

"I have the bell," Slapstick said. He then reached into his chest similar to how Humanoid put it inside himself but in reverse and pulled out Grogar's Bewitching Bell. "I pulled it out of dad when I grabbed him and forced his head into the ground to make sure he didn't I took it."

"ALL RIGHT SLAPSTICK!" Pretty much all of us said as we circled around him.

"Wow bro," Mudslinger said. "You actually did something smart."

"Don't worry, I won't tell it go to my head." Grogar then took the bell but was only able to return a little bit of Twilight and Discord's magic. The rest of the magic stored in the bell was given to Humanoid and his new minions. But that didn't slow Twilight down as she quickly put a plan into action. We would sneak into Canterlot using the mines beneath them and launch a surprise attack. Then when we got there we would split up and attack the bad guys so they can't back each other up.

"Celestia, you go with Luna to take down Chrysalis but be careful," Twilight said.

"Don't worry Twilight I can handle her."

"No," Twilight said rather demandingly. "You and Luna will handle her, don't fight her head on by yourself. You remember what happened last time.

Ouch.

"Starswirl and Starlight, I want you two to handle Tirek."

"Wow, working side by side with the Starswirl the Bearded," Starlight said. "This is going to be so great."

"Focus young one, this isn't a picnic."

"Right, sorry."

"Twilight," Shining Armor said. "Can I help them fight Tirek? I want to settle the score with that guy," he said as he recalled the time that guy stole his magic when he made his way into the capital.

"Sure," Twilight said. "It's not just going to be you backing them up, it's going to be the rest of the new bearers as well. Work together and have each other's back."

"You got it Princess Twilight," Cheese Sandwich said.

"That centaur is going down," Soarin said.

"Eeyup."

"Grogar, I'd like you to go up against Sombra. Do you think you can do that?"

"Yes, the shadow pony, correct? As long as I have my bell I have nothing to worry about."

"That's what I like to hear, my friends and I will handle Cozy Glow. We almost stopped her before and with the others too busy to help her, we can finish what we started. Finally Spike, you're going after Humanoid."

"Oh yeah, that's what I like to hear," I said as I transformed and got out my sword. "It's time to settle the score with him once and for all!"

"Hope you don't want to hog all the glory because Satire, Mudslinger, and Slapstick will be helping you out."

"You want us to help Spike fight our father?" Slapstick asked.

"Fine with me," Satire said.

"Ditto," Mudslinger answered.

"And finally Discord I also want to help with the fight with Humanoid but also check in on the other fights as well in case any of us need some back up. I know that might be a lot to ask, seeing how you only have a fraction of your powers, but can you do it?"

"I think I can Twilight," Discord answered. "I think I can."

"All right then let's get ready, gather what we need and put this plan in action."

"Um Princess Twilight," Slapstick said. "Do we really have to fight our father?"

"I know that might be somewhat of a problem for you-"

"Not for me," Mudslinger said.

"Ditto," Satire said.

"Look guys I know he's made some questionable decisions, but he's still our dad. Shouldn't we try to make this work between us? We're family and family should be able to talk out whatever problems they have with one another."

"I think we're way past that point," Mudslinger said.

"Yeah," Satire agreed. "Listen bro I get your point, but dad is out of control and we need to put a stop to it." Not too long after that we separated to get ready for the upcoming battle. As I was in my room I was surprised when there was a knock at my door and that Shining Armor was the one who was knocking.

"Shining Armor?"

"Hey Spike, can I come in?"

"Uh sure?"

"Listen," Shining Armor said when he came into my room. "I'll try to keep this quick because of the stuff Twily said." Shining Armor then rubbed the back of his head. "I thought about what you said."

"What do you mean?" Shining Armor then used a spell to show me a past version and himself as well as myself.

"Yeah thanks Spike," Shining Armor added.

"No problem.”

"Really I appreciate all you've done, not just today but in general and-"

"Look I know you're trying to be nice but just stop Shining Armor," I interrupted. "It's not going to cheer me up, and you and I are not friends. You made that very clear a long time ago." After that Shining Armor dispelled his magic causing our past selves to vanish.

"After that I did a lot of thinking. I've been really unfair to you ever since Twily brought you back from the School of Gifted Unicorns. I know this is not really the best time to talk about this but I guess that story Grogar told us about Humanoid and the stuff that Slapstick said. I guess it's made me realize how important family really is, and like it or not we're family. I'm sorry for not treating you like the member of our family that you are."

"Really?"

"Yes I am. When I was a colt I read stories about dragons and how they'd do stuff like guard princesses in a tower until a knight did something about it."

"Not all the stories about dragons are like that."

"I know, I suppose I was worried that one day you might be some sort of villain. But I was wrong, you've proven time and time again that you're a hero."

"Wow, thanks Shining Armor." Hearing that was actually really heartwarming for me.

"You're welcome, listen. Maybe after all this we can hang out and do something together."

"I think that would be great."

***

I'll skip the part where we travel through the mines beneath Canterlot, because this chapter is going to be long enough as is. Discord, while low on chaos magic, was still able to pinpoint where Humanoid and the others were. Which made our counterattack all the more sweeter, at least it would have been if the top of the mines didn’t start to collapse.

"I got a sinking feeling that something went wrong," Cheese Sandwich said. We acted quickly and made our way out of the mines. It was a little intense, but we all made it out all right. As we made our way out of the caves, just in time I might add.

"Well with any luck, that will be the biggest problem we face while we're here," Satire said as he was clearly trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, but it probably won't be," Mudslinger said.

"Seriously?" Slapstick said. "Why would you say something like that? Even if it is true," he added.

At least his heart is in the right place.

"Hello Discord," Humanoid said as appeared in front of our rather large group. "It's a shame I couldn't convince you to join us. You actually tried to fight me when I destroyed the Tree of Harmony. I guess I'll have to take you down as well," Humanoid said as he put up his dukes as they say, ready for a fight.

"I was hoping for some more playful banter but oh well," Discord said as he scattered the group according to Twilight’s plans.

"I don't think so," Humanoid said as he brought everycreature back along with Sombra, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow.

"In the mood for a battle royal are we?" Discord said.

"The sooner you're all dealt with, the sooner I and we can finally go to sleep for good."

"What?" Sombra asked. Clearly Humanoid didn't think it was a good idea to tell his new minions about what exactly he was trying to do.

"We need to stick to the plan."

"On it!" Discord said. “A hero should always have a backup plan.”

"You're no hero," Humanoid said to him.

"I've changed for the better Humanoid," Discord replied. "You should try it." After that Discord snapped his claws and a giant air horn appeared right before Humanoid and after it let out a huge noise, well you can probably guess what happened. Humanoid screamed like crazy, ironically even louder than the air horn. He then ran around like crazy attacking us and almost his allies.

This provided us with a rather useful distraction.

"Come on now's our chance," I said. Grogar separated himself and Sombra to fight one on one. Sombra tried to trap him in a crystal labyrinth, but Grogar wasn't going to fall for it.

"Looks like I really got the short end of the stick," Sombra said. "Having to go up against the Father of Monsters."

"So the king of the shadow ponies also knows of me, then you probably know how this is going to end?"

"Perhaps, but I must admit that I rather like the challenge of facing you."

"I see, you know something Sombra? You remind me a lot of my former self."

"What?"

Meanwhile Shining Armor was working well with the New Bearers ready to settle the score with Tirek. But also had Starlight and Starswirl the Bearded himself. The group circled around him making it hard for him to focus, they also made sure to run around him to make it harder. And with most of them having experience with working with a team, they were quite good at having each other's backs.

"You worthless ponies should just give up and save me the trouble!" Tirek said as he was getting attacked at all sides. He forced the group back with a magical shield but right before he could counterattack, Starswirl surprised him. He surprised them all really when he jumped right on Tirek's face and then used his back legs to force his head into the ground, similar to how Slapstick did that to his father. Starswirl jumped off Tirek right before he collided with the ground, leaving Tirek quite exposed to an attack, Which of course the others more than took advantage of.

Especially Shining Armor who blasted him point blank and nearly knocked them out.

"That was for taking my magic," Shining said.

"Wow, nice work Starswirl," Starlight said.

"There's still some strength in these old bones."

While that was going on Princess Celestia and Princess Luna went after Chrysalis to teach her a thing or two. Princess Celestia was nearly pushed back but Princess Luna helped push her sister's beam forward.

"Twilight was right about underestimating her," Princess Celestia said.

"You really should listen to her more," Princess Luna said.

"Yeah, and maybe I should listen to you more as well," Princess Celestia replied.

Yeah that kind of came out of nowhere didn't it?

Anyway, Twilight and our friends fought against Cozy Glow. A coward by nature ran off to find Tirek with Twilight's group not too far behind. Cozy Glow found Tirek who was on the verge of defeat, but still made quite the troublesome duo. However Twilight's group and Shining Armor's group refused to give up.

"What's going on?" Tirek answered as both groups started to float and glow when the members of both groups came together.

"Interesting," Starswirl said.

"What's going on?" Starlight asked.

"I have no idea, and that is interesting."

"This is bad isn't it?" Cozy Glow asked right before she and Tirek were finished.

That just left Humanoid. He was going down, but he wasn't going to make it easy. And that was just fine with me, but first.

"Dad can you please just stop what you're doing?" Slapstick pleaded, surprising the rest of us.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Dad, when you left us out in the wilderness, you may not have noticed. But you really hurt our feelings."

"What?" Satire asked.

"Oh my gosh," Mudslinger said.

"I did, did I?" Humanoid asked in a tone so sarcastic, even Slapstick picked up on it.

"Yeah," Slapstick answered. "But I don't hate you, none of us do."

"Well I wouldn't go that far," I said out loud,

"I meant my brothers and I," Slapstick replied as he looked at Satire and Mudslinger.

"Oh for crying out loud Slapstick," Mudslinger said as he waved his arms in the air and Satire looked like he was about to do the same. "Slapstick you're being very stupid right now, even for you."

"But he's right," Satire answered, surprising us all, even Humanoid. "I don't hate you. I want to hate you, I really do. But I can't, because I'm more hurt than mad. You're our dad and we're a family, we shouldn't be like this dad. Can't we just talk things out." Suddenly Mudslinger yelled out of sheer anger before punching the wall and crying, surprising the rest of us just like his brothers.

"I don't hate you either," Mudslinger said as he still cried. "When we helped the others fight you and take back the Crystal Empire, we thought it would make us feel better. But it didn't, I hate to admit it but revenge didn't make us feel better."

"It kind of did," Slapstick said.

"Okay yeah a little, but for the most part no. It got me thinking, maybe you feel that way all the time. And that's why I can't hate you, none of us can."

There was a silence so awkward, I doubt even my sword could cut the tension. But before any of us could say anything Humanoid created a trio of giant shadow claws that grabbed them. And while it looked like they were pulled into a black abyss, I would later find out they were pulled into the lower parts of the castle.

"Hate me now?" Humanoid was so focused on his kids he forgot about me which allowed me to sucker punch him right in the face in my bigger form. It hit him so hard he fell into the corner of the room.

"IF THEY DON'T HATE YOU, I DO!"

"And I should care because?" Humanoid asked, resulting in me charging right at him and charging my sword which I was barely able to cut him with before I got a painful sucker punch from him.

Right in the gut too, it forced me back and I vomited blood. Honestly It was kind of a relief for that to happen for a different reason.

Calm down, I thought to myself. He's doing the same thing as last time, making me so mad that I don't think straight and attack too much too early. Maybe I can do that to him.

"What's wrong?" Humanoid asked. "Thinking about that tramp Rarity?"

"You had a wife, Grogar told us."

"So?" He asked after a pause.

"Why did your wife leave you? Did she come to her senses?" I expected Humanoid to charge right at me, but he just stood there and fired a magic blast that I cut in half with my sword. But when I did, Humanoid charged at me right after he cast the blast. I was hit so hard I was forced through a wall but was able to fly back in.

Should have known, I thought. If he doesn't care if his kids hate him, he won't care about his wife. It was worth a shot. But I guess I'm doing this the old fashion way. Humanoid and I charged at each other and exchanged blows, blasts, stabs, cuts, and choke holds. Humanoid threw me to the ground and jumped on me with his backside trying to impale me.

Thank God for my thick scales.

He thought he had me but I forced him off with a harmony blast then flew up and cut off every single one of his spikes. I even stabbed him with a few of them to return the favor. I then grabbed and threw him against the wall and punched him until he went through it then pinned him to the floor and punched him through that too. Just as the floor gave in, Humanoid jumped up and tried to grab my sword. But my tail grabbed it and we exchanged blows, one of which I got from Humanoid was so hard my eye almost came out of its socket.

Humanoid then charged up another magic blast but I countered with another harmony beam and after a moment of exchanging blasts, mine was able to break right through his and forced him out of the castle. I flew after him and slashed at him with the sword like crazy so quickly he couldn't even counterattack.

"This is for killing the wendigos and starting this whole thing," I said as I kept slashing. "This is for letting your magic go free during that so Sombra could take some and take over the Crystal Empire. This is for taking the Crystal Empire after we got it back, this is for being so hard to beat when we fought you again, this is for breaking out the other bad guys, this is for trying to make everycreature fall asleep, and this is for almost getting Twilight killed."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah," I answered before nearly slicing him clean in half. "That was for anything I forgot about." I then stopped as I needed to catch my breath and figured it was the right moment because he was on the ground.

"You don't understand," Humanoid said as he got himself up. "You're just a baby dragon. You don't know a damn thing about the suffering of this world."

"Well you helped me learn a thing or two about suffering," I said as I got ready to fight him more.

"I also offered you a paradise, but you refused to stay." Humanoid then charged his magic once again and I countered with my third harmony beam.

"Of course I refused. It wasn't real."

"So what if it wasn't real? It was a paradise."

"Because what's the point of living in a dream world? Wouldn't you rather want to make your dreams a reality? Aren't dreams all the more better when they become reality?"

"Of course I do, but not all of us are that lucky."

"With all the powers you have you can't get what you want?"

"No! Because all I want is to sleep! But something always gets in the way."

"Sleep?!? Are you kidding me you went through all this for sleep!? What does it take to get through to you?" I asked and almost as if on cue, my harmony beam broke his and practically impaled him.

At least something got through to him.

Come on fall, I thought as I could feel myself shrinking to my regular self. Fall you walking shadow whatever so this can all be over. But Humanoid stood his ground and grabbed me by the neck and knocked the sword out of my head. The blade disappeared as I shrunk, but I guess he didn't want to take any chances.

"Well, looks like this is the end." Humanoid said as he put his other claw on my head. "This time I'm gonna make sure you don't wake up."

"I'll wake up again and stop you once and for all. That's my dream come true!"

"Why can't you just give up?"

"Because I don't just fight for me. I fight for my friends and my home and everything I care about," I said as I started to glow but I didn't care about that at the moment. "I may just be a baby dragon, but I know to fight for what I believe and that being a hero means to do that, even if you have to put your life on the line to do it. I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU NO MATTER WHAT!" Suddenly I glowed even brighter and a burst of energy came right out of me and forced Humanoid back.

"What the?" Humanoid asked. "How did you do that?"

"I have no idea!" I said with gusto as I flew over to my sword and was able to make the blade appear again.

"But how? You reached your limit. How can you still do that?" Suddenly I remembered what Rarity told me the last time we were at her boutique.

"Because what makes me a hero isn't this sword or my powers, it's this," I answered as I put my claw on my heart. The sword then grew much longer when I slashed Humanoin. Humanoid broke the blade but it reverted back to the regular size. I lunged at Humanoid impaling him before punching him to the ground so hard it made a crater. I flew up and knew I had to act fast.

Both of us were on the verge of defeat, I could tell.

So I thought of a plan and thought it up fast, I waited for Humanoid to get close and then I screamed as loud as I could.

How did I never think of that before?

Humanoid covered his head and I slashed him from top to bottom. Suddenly Humanoid fell to his knees and his skin or what I thought was his skin started to come off, eventually it all came off, revealing Humanoid's real form.

Which is rather hard to describe so I just drew it here.

Suddenly he fell to the ground and I dropped my sword as I grabbed onto him and let him rest his head on my lap.
"You did it," he said. "You beat me. You actually beat me."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear me? You beat me."

"I wanted to beat you but I didn't want to do this to you."

"No," Humanoid said as I could hear his voice getting weaker. "I did this to me. I could have stopped this so much sooner, but I was blinded by my selfish desires. You said earlier that you hated me, but you could not hate me anywhere near as much as I hate myself. Can you imagine hating yourself so much that you can barely stand to even look at yourself."

"And the hatred you seem to have for your kids?" I asked, honestly as I'm writing this I don't seem to know why. I guess it just slipped out.

"I wanted them to hate me, so that they wouldn't hate themselves."

"Huh?"

"When I became the creature you saw my children were little more than babies, sick with some sort of plague. I did the only thing I thought to do and did to them what I did to myself. It helped them survive, but we were outcasts."

"So that was the real reason why you abandoned them. You gave them an enemy to plot revenge against."

"As a father you do everything you can for your children, even if it means breaking their hearts. I had to wait until I knew they would be able to take care of themselves. It broke what little of my heart was left, but it was what I thought was best."

"Oh Humanoid," I said as I couldn't help but cry. Humanoid then reached up to my face and wiped away the tears a little bit.

"Don't cry for me, I'm already dead. Who am I kidding, I died long before this. I’m sorry God, I’m sorry Spike, I'm sorry for everything I did to you and your friends." Humanoid then placed his hand on the ground and a magical pulse went across the land. I would later find out it was Humanoid using his powers to not only undo the damage he did, but added some improvements.

The Crystal Empire expanded quite a bit, the prison that he destroyed was rebuilt and made even stronger than before, and the damage to Canterlot Castle was fully repaired.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to do right with the little time I have left, I guess you can say I finally woke up," Humanoid answered with a laugh. He then placed his hand on my sword and I could feel his magic pour into it. "I know this is much to ask, but could you give that to my children? If I can't be there for them, then at least my magic can. May it bring more happiness to them than it ever brought me. Tell them that and, I'm so proud of them and all that they did and accomplished," Humanoid said as the last of his life left his eyes.

Humanoid was buried where I defeated him and I decided to give Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick the sword. As well as told them whatever Humanoid said.

"Thank you Spike," Mudslinger said with tears in his eyes. "He really did love us, I never thought learning that would make us so happy."

"Your welcome, and listen I'm sorry about, well-"

"Killing our dad?" Satire finished for me.

"Yeah."

"It's all right Spike," Satire said. "It wasn't your fault you were just defending yourself."

"Maybe it was for the best," Slapstick said. "Dad finally got what he wanted, eternal rest." The funeral wasn't very long, but quick a few showed up. The princesses, Discord, Twilight and her friends, the New Bearers, the Pillars, Grogar, and Sombra.

Oh yeah didn't mention this, When Grogar fought him he was able to get through to him and brought him over to our side. He even helped undo Humanoid's spell, which showed a great deal that he was willing to change. The others not so much and would be shortly returned to their special prison. Not too long after the funeral Twilight put a plan in motion for Humanoid's kids.

Twilight with help from Grogar and again Sombra managed to rework the spell that made Humanoid Humanoid. I'll skip how they figured that out and the process because honestly , it's confusing.

"Wow," they all said at the same time. After that we went our separate ways. Satire, Slapstick and Mudslinger decided to go to the human world on the other side of a certain mirror.
Long story.

When they made their way there, they came across a trio of former trouble-making sirens.

Another long story.

"Hello," Satire said when he looked into Adagio's eyes.

"Hello,” she said back.

"Going my way?" Satire asked as he extended his arm.

"Mhmm," Adagio replied as she wrapped her arms around his.

"Well we don't exactly know they are," Sonata said.

"But you don't know we aren't either," Slapstick said.

"That's actually true," Sonata said. "You make a good point."

"For the record," Aria whispered to Mudslinger. "It's not all that hard to impress her."

"The same goes for my brother," Mudslinger whispered back which got Aria to laugh and Mudslinger joined in.

"Well let's not waste time laughing," Slapstick said. "Let's get to wherever we're going, but if we end up splitting up we should meet up somewhere. Hey, I said up a lot just then. End up, splitting up, meet up, how else can I use that word? Mix up, goof up, throw up, hurry up, looking up-"

"Shut up Slapstick!' Mudslinger said after slapping his brother on the side of his head.

"Ow! Wow I can feel again, but right now I wish I didn't." As Slapstick finished Sonata slapped Mudslinger's cheek.

"Don't hit my man!" Sonata said before Aria did the same to her.

"Don't hit mine!" Aria said before Slapstick, well you get the picture. The four started smacking each other while Satire and Adagio just watched.

"Wanna get something to eat while they sort this out?" Satire asked.

"Oh by all means lead the way," Adagio answered.

Despite a few problems, those six were going to get along just fine.

When Humanoid used his magic to restore things he also created a couple more magical imbalances. Which Grogar and Sombra went off to take care of. The Pillars and Twilight’s group would continue to do their own thing. As well as the group that earned the same title as this story. After seeing Satire, Mudslinger, and Slapstick off me and my friends went back to Ponyville, so we didn't exactly go our separate ways, at least not fully, but we went on our own adventures so to speak. Such as my romantic adventures with the most beautiful creature in the world.

But that’s another story.

***

With the final chapter of his story written Spike had offered the story of its entirety to Twilight Sparkle to give it a look over.
"Did you finish it?" Spike asked one morning at the castle.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"What did you think?"

"Good," Twilight answered. "Though I do have a few, I guess notes."

"Okay," Spike said, ready to reply to what Twilight had to say.

"First off, you said you were gonna edit out the parts where you talk about how much you care for Rarity, so you might want to get to that."

"Well actually, I thought about it and I want to keep it in. Love if you notice is kind of a major theme in those crazy adventures. My love for Rarity, Humanoid's love for his children, and even the love between friends."

"Speaking of loved ones," Twilight said. "That part where you and Shining Armor finally made peace, I think you should stretch that out more."

"Actually, I thought about that. And decided not to. Shining and I talked more about putting the past behind us after the whole battle and even a bit at the funeral. But he talked about quite a bit of personal stuff, if I wanted to add personal stuff about me that's one thing but somepony else-"

"I understand, that's a good point. There's also a couple grammar problems I want to look over for you. Especially commas," Twilight said as she flipped through the book.

"Yeah," Spike replied, not all that surprised. "I really have trouble with commas. Anything else?"

"Well maybe a couple minor things that I can go over with you as I help you edit. By the way, why did you want to write about all those crazy adventures?"

"The idea just kind of came to me, I know storywise it's probably not a masterpiece. But writing about all that was rather fun. Do what you love because you love to do it and all that."

"I see," Twilight said with a smile. "I understand, a passion project so to speak. But for the record Spike, I think it's quite the story."

"Thanks Twilight," Spike said as he hugged Twilight who happily returned it.

"Your welcome Spike." Twilight then got a quill to help Spike with the editing. "So, Spike? Are you okay with all your adventures being done and over with?"

"Well actually, I'm going to have a private chat with Rarity."

"What does that have to do with your adventures?" Twilight asked when suddenly Spike got out a small box that he would give to Rarity during the upcoming private chat.

Twilight's jaw almost hit the floor.

***

The wedding took place in a Canterlot chapel where all of Spike and Rarity's loved ones appeared to witness their special day. Some faces were quite a surprise, such as Snips who had become a minister and would be the one to union the unicorn and the dragon.

"Dearly behooved," Snips said after clearing his throat with Spike and Rarity in front of him. "We are gathered here today-"

"Hold on, I have your flowers Rarity!" Pinkie Pie interrupted to Snip's annoyance while holding a bouquet of the said flowers.

"I got em!" Pinkie Pie repeated as Snips pushed her out of the way.

"They're gorgeous, now how is my frock?" Rarity asked as Snips cleared his throat again.

"Dearly behooved," Snips started again. "We are gathered here today to-"

"How is my frock?" Rarity asked once again.

"Oh my gosh!" Snips said, putting his foreleg over his eyes. "We're never gonna get through this!"

"You look awesome Rarity," Spike said to his soon to be wife.

"You need more flowers?" Pinkie Pie asked. "I think you need more flowers. I got more flowers for you right here."

"Yes, we need more flowers," Snips said, ironically deciding to humor the Element of Laughter.

"Um," Spike said before coughing to clear his throat like Snips. "I-I don't know what to say but you look beautiful," Spike said as he stared at Rarity like art lovers would stare at a masterpiece.

"Have you got the rock?" Rarity asked.

"What?"

"Have you," Rarity said, talking a little slower. "Brought my rock?"

"Yeah totally! I had some ponies help me bring it in because it's kind of the size of Fillydelphia-"

"Okay we're renting the hall by the hour," Snips interrupted wanting to get the wedding over with. He cleared his throat and got to the I do's which Spike and Rarity clearly answered yes to.

"Then by the power invested in me-"

"Where should I put these flowers Rarity?" Pinkie Pie asked interrupting Snips before he shoved the bouquet down Pinkie's throat.

"Thenbythepowerinvestedinme," Snips said, talking faster. "Inowpronounceyoumareanddrake. You may now kiss the bride."

Spike escorted Rarity outside the wedding chapel where all of their friends and family cheered for them. Rarity then tossed the bouquet and while quite a few mares made a grab for it, the one who caught it was none other than Princess Celestia. It landed right on her horn upside down.

"Well this was quite unexpected," Princess Celestia said with a bit of a blush.

"Yes but it's rather fitting," Discord said.

"Why is that?"

"Well, there's this certain question that I've been wanting to ask you."

"Oh gosh," Princess Celestia said as her whole face turned red. As Rarity and Spike made it to their honeymoon carriage they were surprised to see snow coming down and piling up rather fast, but not enough for the carriage to not be able to ride off.

"Oh is this some sort of surprise of yours Spike?"

"No Rarity," Spike said, just as surprised as her.

"Did somepony or somecreature say they would do something like this?"

"No."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. For some reason I always wanted snow on my wedding day," Rarity said. After that she and her husband got into the carriage that took off, unaware of the wendigos watching from the cloud where they made the snow fall from.

"Thank you Spike," they said all together. "You are the bravest dragon that ever lived," they finished as Spike and Rarity rode off into the sunset, ready to start their greatest adventure yet.

The End