Prologue

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The Celestia’s sun punished mercilessly the desert area with its heat. The sand was scalding under the hooves of the strange pony-like creatures walking on it.

These creatures resembles ponies, but they had no fur, their faces resemble insects, they all had horns and insect-like wings and all of them had some holes on their bodies. Also, their size was very similar to an average pony.

They are called Changelings. The reason for this is because they have the unique ability to shape shift into any creature they set their eyes on.

A group of approximately 100 of these creatures followed a much bigger changeling, their queen. She had blue mane, green eyes and had much more holes in her body, wings and even mane than the other changelings.

Also, she was incredibly more powerful than the others.

The group was carrying several good stolen from a gryphon settlement near an oasis. The queen had a thrown on her face, spite of the fact that her raid had been successful and no gryphon was left to tell others about what had just happened, which was one of the traits of their attacks.

She was upset was because she hated living on scraps. The queen had to organize and lead several attacks to many small camps or villages to get the supplies for her people.

Her kind was feared. But in a “palpable” way. Stories are told about strange beings that can turn into other creatures to lure children of many species away from their parents.

In another words, her kind was reduced to be treated like a spooky story for kids.

The queen, named Chrysalis, hated that. She wanted to make her people known. To be respected. To be properly feared by adults and children alike. But she couldn’t risk it.

In case she made her presence well knows, she was sure the goddess of the Sun, Celestia, would bring forth a huge army to crush her and her people. Her kind was numerous, but nowhere near as the number of ponies.

The changelings knew magic and could fly, so, technically, they could be treated as alicorns, but their magic power was no match for an experienced unicorn, much less a proper alicorn, like Celestia or Cadence.

Chrysalis led her people through the sand lost in her thoughts until she heard the sound of one of her minions falling down.

The changeling was carrying the food inside of a white big bag over his back and the stuffed bag almost opened as the pony-like creature fell on the ground.

“Be careful to not spoil the food. Or else I’ll have you served in a plate instead.” She growled. She never used to threaten her own kind, but sometimes it was necessary to keep order in her little ‘hive’.

The changeling quickly got up and quickly bowed and said closing his bright blue eyes “I’m sorry, my queen. I just tripped on a rock. I promise I’ll be more careful, I promise.”

“You better be…” she said as she noticed the so-called rock her subject had tripped on. It was round and it was light purple with darker shade purple dots on it.

She got a bit curious about it and used her magic to take it off the ground. The object was concealed in a dark green aura and levitated off the sand. She was surprised by how light it was and by the fact that it was an egg.
The changelings were also a bit surprised by that.

“Did the gryphons abandon it? I mean, in this desert, I guess it would be troublesome to have one extra mouth to feed.” Said the same changeling who had tripped on it. He was actually astonished he didn’t break the egg when he hit it.

“This is too big to be a gryphon egg…” Chrysalis said bringing it closer to inspect it. She had never seen an egg like that before. She pondered for a while and decided she was curious enough to see if something would come out of it.

“I’ll take this with me. If this turns out to be a dud, I can always eat it.” She mused.

The changelings didn’t really have anything to comment on it. Their queen’s desires were absolute, even it was something as frivolous as hatching an egg. Although, some of them were also interested in what could come out of it.

The group walked towards a big rock in the desert. The queen then used her magic to levitate the rock, which revealed a big tunnel underneath it. Her subjects then started to flying into the tunnel and when everyling got inside of it, she got inside as well and then blocked the entrance to the tunnel with the rock using her magic.

The tunnel led a series of forked paths. However, they all knew the proper path to their kingdom. The queen only had to come along the raids when the cover to their tunnels required a huge amount of magic to be moved. Also, she had enchanted the area to allow the changelings to move faster through the tunnels that connected through many distant areas on the continent.

The queen then ordered the other changeling to take their loot to the deposit so it could be properly be divided among the rest of her people.

Her rules were quite simple: leave no witness of your true form, always support the “hive”, don’t trust any outsider and if you wanted to eat, you have to work. And all these rules also applied to her.

She didn’t like to, but it helped to keep the balance of power because it made her earn the respect of her people. Besides, she treated her people fairly, which prevented any kind of riots. Plus, she knew that her rules also helped to ease her people.

By attacking mercilessly other races, it helped the changelings to release some of the frustration of having to live in a land that could barely grow anything and to live in secluded from the rest of the world.

Her kingdom was entirely underground. But most of it was because it was safer this way. There was a small castle, but it was amidst a swamp area. She liked to live in that castle because it gave her some fresh air and because it made her feel a little more like royalty.

She didn’t force any changeling to live underground. She wouldn’t mind to expand the above ground area if more of her subjects wanted to live there, but most preferred the safety of being underground.

She could easily close the underground entrance, which was hidden in the basement area of the castle, from the inside if she needed to escape in case her castle was ever discovered and flee with her people through the tunnels, while the trespassers lost time trying to figure it out where they were.

Chrysalis then took the egg to her room inside of the castle and ordered for some changelings to bring her some hay and a table to her room.

Once the changelings brought what she had asked, she placed the table on her room and used the hay to form a small nest for the egg. She then conjured a small ball of yellow light to keep the egg warm.

She wasn’t sure of the proper temperature she should use, because, after all, the egg was found in the middle of a desert and didn’t hatch. But, again, she didn’t even know how long has that egg been there, much less the species it belonged to.

She then tried to keep the temperature a bit cooler than the desert heat, because she didn’t want to cook the egg by accident. The queen then left the egg alone only renewing the magic every day to check how it was doing.

Weeks passed by and her patience with the egg was leaving her at every day. She had tried to see through the egg, by placing it against the light to see if something was developing inside of it, but the shell was too dense for this trick to work.

Four months after she had found the egg, Chrysalis finally lost every bit of interest and patience she had with the egg. According with her knowledge, no creature should take so long to hatch. Even gryphons only took two months to hatch.

She then took a hold of the egg with her magic and stared at it with a frown.

The changeling queen gritted her teeth and decided to bring an end to this experiment. She decided that the egg was indeed a dud and she also didn’t feel like trying to eat it. The changeling queen then concealed the egg with her magic and it glowed stronger and stronger. She wanted to make the egg explode hoping it would subdue her anger.

She focused her magic trying to make the egg burst, but nothing happened. She focused harder and harder and not even a crack appeared in the shell. She stomped on the ground angrily. It was almost like the egg was mocking at her attempts to destroy it.

The changeling queen gave a groan of frustration as she focused all her power on the egg. She didn’t care if the explosion scattered the egg all over her room.

“BREAK ALREADY!” She shouted as a dark green beam of energy came out of her horn connecting against the egg.

The purple egg started to resonate with the energy Chrysalis was sending it. The egg vibrated midair and it started to crack. She, however, didn’t notice it and simply kept sending the egg energy until the egg shell exploded with the magic outburst.

The changeling queen was sent flying against the wall causing her to yell in pain a little bit. Her eyes were closed as she was sent flying until she managed to get up once more. But when she opened her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she saw before her. A purple dragon with no wings and green spines on the back and one small green fin on each side of the head to the small sat over the remains of the egg.

The little dragon opened his eyes to reveal emerald like eyes like Chrysalis’. The small creature smiled as it stared at Chrysalis with a smile. Suddenly many changelings burst through the door of their queen’s chambers asking if she was alright.

She, however ignored them as she slowly walked near the infant. When she got close enough, the baby managed to crawl near her and used its small chubby body to hug her front leg while looking up to meet with her green eyes.

Chrysalis couldn’t believe she had just hatched a dragon.

To Raise a Dragon

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What do dragons eat?

That was the question that plagued Chrysalis mind at the moment. She had seen just a few dragons before and, sadly, she couldn’t see their eating habits while running away from them.

She rolled her eyes at the memory trying her best to calm down the yelling baby dragon in front of her by using her magic to rock the dragon in the air. She had tried to give him some bread and fish from their storehouse, but he didn’t want to eat them.

She then asked a guard there to bring her some fruits. The changeling nodded and complied with the task.

Chrysalis gritted her teeth barely withstanding the yelling anymore. She wondered if that’s how parents of newborns felt. She suddenly started to respect parents of any species a whole lot more.

But that didn’t mean she enjoyed it. When she first met the drake, she started to create several plans. If she could raise her own obedient dragon, she could easily use him to easily overthrow cities during raids and maybe even use him to defeat The Sun Princess once he reached full size.

But instead of a might dragon, what stood in front of her was a screaming and hungry baby. Chrysalis’ frustration got to a level, she didn’t want to hear the little dragon anymore until her subject came with the fruits she had requested.

The changeling queen then concealed the baby in a green bubble of energy to block the sound from the crying.

“Finally peace…These were the worst three hours of my life…” She whispered.

She walked towards her bed, which was quite large and it was round and had dark green cover with some blue pillows over it. She was about to lay down on it, when she gave another look at the little dragon inside of the bubble.

He wasn’t crying anymore.

He just sat there sobbing with his chubby hands touching the magic bubble. He moved his hands as if he was trying to dig out of it.

Chrysalis groaned and asked: “What do you want now?”

The baby dragon let his tears flow through his cheeks and she could see him opening his mouth and closing it. He was just making some noise, which was unheard by the female because of the spell.

But she somehow knew what he wanted. She didn’t know why, but she knew. He wanted her. He wanted to reach her.

She wasn’t very comfortable with this idea and tried to take it off her head. She then proceed to lay on her bed and wait for the fruits she had requested. ‘Yeah. Food will calm him down.’ She thought.

She closed her eyes and tried to rest a little bit and ignore the baby dragon. But she was very annoyed. She couldn’t hear him, but she could feel like she was being watched desperately. She quickly opened her eyes and stared at the energy bubble.

The little dragon’s eyes were puffy and red. He just stared while sobbing with both of his hands touching the magic ‘wall’ in front of him.

The changeling queen gave a load groaned and muttered: “I’m so going to regret this.” Then her horn glowed once more and she brought the magic bubble over her bed and removed it.

Once the bubble popped and the baby dragon was free, Chrysalis said with a serious tone in her voice while glaring at the dragon “Don’t make me regret this decision.”

Spike just looked straight into her eyes and then crawled near her and hugged her on the base of the neck. She startled by the sudden affection display and she immediately used her magic to grab the dragon and move him away from her.

He made a face that indicated he was going to start wailing again. She cringed and desperately looked around to find something she could use to distract the baby dragon. She opened a chest on the other side of the room with her magic and picked a few gemstones form it, two sapphires and a ruby.

The changelings had a quite big stock of different gemstones. She often used them as trade currency with ponies and gryphons whenever she came across a big town, which couldn’t be subdued by brute force. Other times, she just used them as jewelry material.

‘I hope this is shiny enough to distract him’ she mused in her mind as she dangled the gems over the drake’s head.

The dragon, as soon as he saw the gems, tried to pick them up from the air. Grinning with satisfaction, Chrysalis decided to give the baby one sapphire to play with and prevent him from bugging her.

For her surprise, instead of playing with the blue gem, the baby was trying to munch it. She saw that the drake was nibbling the sapphire, but couldn’t crack it much.

She was astonished that he was trying to eat the gemstone. She had heard stories that dragon liked to eat gems, but she dismissed it as being another one of the myths ponies created about creatures they knew nothing about.

She still remembers that some ponies think that changelings like to eat mud, others think that they are complete savages that can’t think. She had to use all her self-restraint to not blow her cover during missions whenever she heard a ridiculous story about her kind.

She then used her magic to yank the blue stone away from the dragon, who was going to start crying again, at her gesture. “Come on. I’m trying to help you!” she told him sternly, but then she thought that she should have tried to take the stone more gentler. However she just shook her head and proceeded with her plans.

She crushed the sapphire with her magic and then picked one spoon and empty bowl that was left over the table on the previous attempt to feed the dragon a couple of hours ago and placed the crushed gem inside of the bowl and used the spoon to feed the drake, hoping it would work.

The changeling queen grinned with relief that her plan worked. She was starting to worry that the dragon might have ended up dying of starvation. She continued to feed him with the sapphire and then she crushed and repeated the process with the ruby and other sapphire.

Assuming that the baby was now full, she thought about what to do next with him. ‘Should I try make him burp? Does that even work on baby dragons? I don’t want to get dirt in case he vomits.’

She stared at the dragon, who was slowly crawling towards her left front leg. He then held her leg and tried to shove his face through one of the holes.

Chrysalis just stared not knowing how to react to this since the dragon was starting to giggle at his attempt to fit though one of the holes in her leg. She couldn’t see what was so amusing for the dragon in this little ‘game’.

After a few minutes trying the dragon took his face from the hole and stared at the queen of the changelings. ‘His eyes are quite pretty.’ She thought. Most of changelings had blue eyes and rare were the ones with a different color. Aside from her, the little dragon was the only other creature in her domains with emerald eyes.

After thinking that she quickly shook her head trying to dismiss the thought, however, se smiled slyly and raised he right front hoof and started to tickle the baby dragon on his tummy.

“Who is my little killing machine? Who is it?” Chrysalis said as she tickled the drake’s belly.

She grinned alongside with the dragon’s constant laughter at her play, but she suddenly stopped as she heard a loud “Ahem”

Her body flinched right before she looked at the door and saw her subject levitating the plate of fruits she had requested.

The changeling didn’t even know how to react to this scene, but he started to fear when she heard his queen yelling at him.

“Don’t you know how to knock?”

The changeling tried to recover his composure and said: “But, your highness, I did know. Several times. And I even called your name. I got inside because I was getting worried.”

Chrysalis was blushing red because she was seen playing with an infant, but she could tell that her subject wasn’t lying either. As much as she wanted, she couldn’t punish him for seeing her like that.

She then told him to leave the fruits over the table because she would see if the dragon could eat them later. The subject did as he was told, but then he just stayed there looking at his queen uncomfortably.
She frowned a little and said: “You may leave now.”

He then looking around nervously and said: “There’s another thing, my queen, General Nocturne is back and he wishes to talk to you.”

‘Was the sight of me playing with this dragon that disconcerting?’ she thought, but se decided it would be better to not voice it. “You can tell him, he may come inside.” She said simply.
The changeling bowed respectfully and left the room to obey the command. The moment he left the room he gave a deep relieved breath. He feared he would be punished for interrupting his queen. But he was glad she didn’t do anything.

After a few minutes a bigger and stronger looking changeling came inside of the royal chamber. This changeling had a scar over his muzzle, which couldn’t be removed from his face because changelings can only change their appearance when they fully turned into other creatures. They couldn’t handpick traits when they were in their original forms.

“Good afternoon, General Nocturne. I hope you brought me good news.”

The changeling then bowed respectfully to his queen and said: “I’m back from the raid, my queen. Thankfully, we managed to get many supplies when we attacked an early pony settlement, but it’ll be better for us to stay low for a while because we also had to attack and kill some royal guards who were there. We tried to make it look like the settlement was attacked by feral beasts, but we stole more than just food and this might rise some suspicion.”

Queen Chrysalis pondered for a while. A distant settlement being crushed couldn’t arise much suspicion, but when royal guards disappeared, it would make Celestia want to investigate since she probably send them there for a reason.

Thankfully, Celestia was unaware of their existence and their plans. So if they avoided attacking pony lands for a while, the should be okay.

She then told her thoughts to her general and added: “Also, with a bit of luck, she might blame the gryphons or even dragons.”

Nocturne nodded and said: “Let’s hope so my queen. We lost a few of us during the battle and we had to bring them here to be buried.”

Her expression softened a little and said while looking at the dragon: “Losing members of our kind is never easy. But this might change in the next years.”

Nocturne then noticed the infant next to his queen and said: “Is that the baby dragon everyling is talking about?”

Chrysalis hoped that by ‘talking about’ didn’t include her playing with the drake. “Yes, it is. I have some big plans for him.”

Nocturne tilted his head and asked: “How so, my queen? I know that we have no animosity towards dragons since they had never done any wrong towards our kind, but do you think he can do us any good?”

Chrysalis chuckled and said: “True. But I think he can be trained to think like us. I want him to be educated as if he were a changeling. An honorary changeling so to speak. I want him to be one of us. I bet he’ll do great things for our people in the future.”

Nocturne merely added: “Let’s hope so, my queen.” He wasn’t very happy about letting another species live with them. But, if his queen was right, the dragon could become a powerful ally in the future.

“So…did you choose a name for him, my queen?” Nocturne asked after a brief silence.

Chrysalis then stopped and examined with just her eyes for a bit and then she smiled slyly and said: “I think I’ll call him…Spike.”

Time Flies By 1

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Six years passed at a blink of an eye. During this time, surprisingly, baby dragons didn’t really require any special treatment that changelings couldn’t give. But Chrysalis struggled a bit to raise a baby dragon, regardless of that. Spike was a very energetic baby and she would have to often use magic to prevent him from escaping his crib and when he did, she had to run after him.

Being a parent wasn’t an easy thing.

However, for some reason, while she hated the trouble he gave her, she loved seeing him smile and she started to get fond of the affection displays he gave her. Not just because, the love Spike gave her boosted her own power.

Changelings had their powers boosted by feeding off from love of other species. Chrysalis lost count how many times she repeated the process of kidnapping a female and shape shifting into her to gain the affection of her boyfriend or husband.

The men she had fed on were left in a catatonic state after she had drained their energy dry. She only did this with ponies, because at least they resembled changelings a little bit in body type. But not all members of her kin weren’t as picky as her.

The changeling queen had never loved or cared about any of her previous victims. They were just energy supply to her.

However, when Spike started to speak, at the age of three, his first word was “mama”. She didn’t really know how to react or feel at his statement. It was the first time she ever hugged Spike back. But she assumed she did this purely on instinct, after all changelings weren’t creatures devoid of emotions as some myths say about them.

Parents love their children. Brothers can love each other, friends can love each other and even lovers love each other. However, for some reason unknown to them, the love they feel towards the members of their own species do not give them any power boost.

Chrysalis had never imagined that she would feel parental love in her life. The other thing that baffled her was that his love towards her, gave her a big boost of magical power, but it felt different from the other people.

She hadn’t fed on his energy like she did with others. It was almost like the energy passed on naturally and, even more surprising, it had absolutely no side effect on Spike. The baby dragon was still as cheerful, healthy and energetic as always and he didn’t show any symptom like any changeling victim would feel.

However, his existence there wasn’t welcome for all changelings. A few of them opposed the idea of allowing a member of another species to be raised among them. After all, the changelings were fighting for centuries to survive and slowly climb their way to the top.

Thankfully, two explanation came up that helped to prevent any incident and calm down the opposition. The first was a speech made by Chrysalis. She said that he was something she decided to raise out of a whim and if the dragon ever did anything that harmed the changelings, she would dispose him. She had to say this to her people in order to assure them and she was also serious with her threat towards Spike, but, for some reason when she said that, her heart ache felt like something was constricting it. She was also glad the baby dragon didn’t hear any of it.

Chrysalis would make sure to raise him as a honorary changeling and he would make her and every other changeling proud. The other explanation didn’t require any kind of speech from Chrysalis. It came up on its own. And it was that dragons were natural enemies of ponies, gryphons and the “lesser” species, however, there wasn’t a single incident of a dragon harming a changeling of any way and because of Spike’s presence there, some even started to talk about the birth of a Dragon-Changeling alliance to rule the world.

Things kinda worked on their own after that.

Spike was taught how to speak and the alphabet. He was quite sharp for a child, by some private tutors Chrysalis requested. But she knew that it wouldn’t be healthy for him to stay crammed inside of the castle for his entire life. Sure, she could ask a few scholars to teach him, but she felt like he needed to have contact with changelings of his age and maybe even make some friends.
The queen was also thankful for all the assistance her chamber maid, Hecate, gave assisting her leader to raise Spike. The dragon even started to call her “aunt” after he learned how to speak. The chamber maid, while very similar to all changelings, had yellow eyes, instead of the usual blue ones.

Hecate didn’t mind all that much. In fact, she found it quite cute. She had a daughter of the same age as Spike, named Bella Noche. She would be starting school soon and Hecate suggested to her queen to enroll Spike at the same school.

“Maybe our kids can get along quite well.” Hecate commented.

Chrysalis had frozen at that comment. ‘My kid?’ she thought. Sure, Spike called her mother, but she thought it was mostly because she was the one who hatched him. She was shocked when she started to consider that maybe…she saw Spíke as her own son.

She grew fond of the baby dragon as time passed and she felt surprisingly relieved when she accepted Hecate’s advice to enroll him into school in the near future. But it was mostly because school and friends would distract Spike from the times when Chrysalis had to leave home to go on missions or when she was in meetings to manage her kingdom.

Hecate had told Chrysalis, the baby dragon used to sob and even refuse to eat while their queen was away. Also, following the queen’s orders, Hecate and any changeling else didn’t tell Spike what exactly they did on missions. The only thing Spike knew they did was that they were out there to get supplies.

Chrysalis always made sure to bring a good amount of gemstones for the dragon. He could eat fruits and he started to eat fish, but gems were still his favorite food. She also decided to place a certain spell on her “son”. A spell that allowed her to communicate directly with him and vice-versa.

This way, they could communicate even when they were far away from each other. Chrysalis crafted a green opaque orb around the size of an apple. She also had one with her and when the queen activated the orbs, her image would show up on Spike’s orb and his would should up on her orb, as long as they looked directly at it.

The spell on Spike also had a few other perks. For example, she could send small objects like letters through him. But she had to be careful. When she first sent the orb through Spike, he choked on it for a good minute, for her desperation. She apologized to him and told him she would be careful with the size of the objects she sends him.

Also, the baby dragon could send her objects as well. It was part of the enchantment that, when he focused, he could send an object using his green flames instead of just burning it.

Spike had first discovered he could breath fire at the age of four, when he sneezed after catching a cold. Chrysalis had to explain him that his fire breath was no toy. He could end up burning down the castle or hurting someone.

The only place where, the changeling queen allowed Spike to use his fire breath was in the bathroom to heat the bathtub water.

The drake also ended up liking to ‘work’ as a messenger when he received a letter from his ‘mother’ to some army officials at the castle. The reason was that it made him feel useful to his mother and he wanted to help her the best way he could.

After all, he loved her.

A few days after Spike’s sixth birthday, during dinner, Chrysalis told him: “Spike, I’ve finally decided to enroll you into a school. Your classes will start tomorrow.”

Spike knew what school was. His mother explained to him it was a place where many kids of his age got together to learn and have some fun. He was looking forward these two aspects of it, but he was unsure if he liked the part where he had to stay away from home for so many hours a day.

Once he voiced his concern, he shoved a spoon full of soup, with diamonds floating on it, inside of his mouth. Chrysalis merely chuckled at that and said: “I think it’ll be better than just sit around playing alone, don’t you think?”

“I guess so…Will you take me there tomorrow and pick me up, then?” The young dragon asked.

Chrysalis finished levitating her spoon full of vegetable soup and waved her hoof. She swallowed the soup and replied: “Sorry, killer, but I’m very busy early mornings. You know that. Hecate will be the one to take you to school and pick you up because her daughter is also will attend the same school as you.”

Spike then looked down at his plate a little sad and not really wanting to eat anymore. “Lately, we can only talk during dinner and before I go to sleep…” He murmured.

Picking up what he had just said, Chrysalis spoke: “I have a kingdom to rule, Spike. I have things to take care of. Once you grow older will understand that.” Then she saw that he still looked at his plate just moving his spoon on his soup, she quickly added “ But doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me. I’ll have plenty time for you to tell me how your day was even if it passes your bedtime a little bit.”

The drake smiled softly at his mother and finished his food imaging how school would be like. If he would make many friends and all the stuff he would learn.

After dinner, Chrysalis took some time to play hide and seek with Spike. At first she thought it was just a pointless and childish game, but she started to like it little since he always managed to escape from her whenever she didn’t use magic.

The hours flew by and after Chrysalis bathed Spike she took him to his room, which was built next to hers and watched as he climbed on the big bed with a green pillow and purple cover. The colors were Spike’s choice.

After Spike laid his head over the pillow, Chrysalis used her magic to cover him with his purple blanket.

“But, mommy, I don’t wanna sleep…” Spike said as a yawn escaped, betraying what he had just said.

“Now, now, Spike. You have a very busy day tomorrow. It’ll be your first day of school.” She said as she smiled evilly and
teased him: “Besides, if you don’t go to sleep, the big mean Celestia will appear and banish you to the Moon.”

The baby dragon quivered at hearing the name Celestia. He had heard many stories about her and none of them were nice. He sincerely hoped his mom would become strong enough to defeat her someday.

Chrysalis chuckled and said: “Don’t worry, killer, I would never let her touch a single scale of your head.”

She then lowered her face and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Have a good night, Spike.”

He yawned and said: ‘Good night, mommy.”

She then blew the candles and left to her own room.

And so Begins the School

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On the following day, Spike got up quite early to get himself ready for school. He checked his green bag, where he kept his pencils, notebook and a few gems for a snack during recess to see if there was anything missing.

After triple checking it, he picked it and went to his mother’s bedroom and he saw that she was already up.

She looked at him and said with a smile: “Someone is excited for the first day of school.”

The little drake grinned widely and simply said: “Yes!” then he approached Chrysalis and gave her a hug on her front legs “I hope you come back home early today. I want to tell you everything!”

She then used her free hoof to hug him back and told him: “Let’s go get breakfast first. You can’t go to school with an empty stomach. The classes start at 7:30 am, but you need to get there a bit earlier because of the opening ceremony.”

Spike nodded and both went to the dining hall to eat something. After that Chrysalis told Spike she had to leave to take care of some ‘royal business’ and told him to wait for Hecate to pick him up.

After the changeling queen left, Spike just waited in the first floor of the castle. He was in a front hall of the castle. It had a big door that led outside and some furniture that didn’t really seem to match with one another. He got on a chair that was obviously too big for him and he started to move his legs, which dangled from it while he hummed and looked around as he waited.

It didn’t take long for Hecate to arrive alongside her daughter though the front door. “Good morning, Spike, are you ready to go to school?” she asked with a smile.

“Yes, I am, aunt Hecate.”

The dragon nodded and jumped from the chair while carrying his bag, when he got near both changelings and could see the small changeling which was about his size and was carrying a yellow saddlebag on her back. Hecate then introduced them to each other.

The young changeling had peculiar eyes as well. But unlike her mother, only Bella Noche’s right eye was yellow, while the left one was blue, but each eye had lighter and brighter shade than Hecate’s or other changelings Spike had seen.

“Wow. Your eyes are pretty.” Spike said amazed and with a smile.

Bella Noche smiled back and blushed a little: “Thanks…You are dragon, right? My mommy told me a little about you.”

“Yes. It’s to meet you, Bella Noche.” He replied cheerfully.

Hecate however had to interrupt them and said: “You two can talk while trot to the school. We don’t want to be late for your first day, don’t we?”

The two agreed with the older changeling and then followed her. Bella Noche and pike chatted a lot during their walk.

“What’s your favorite color or colors? Mine are purple and green.” Spike asked.

The young changeling replied: “Mine is pink. Is it true that dragons come from eggs? I’ve heard some stories about them. Do you breath fire and eat stones?”

The baby dragon nodded and replied: “I did come from a purple egg and I can also breath fire. But I only eat gemstones, not regular stones. Normal stones taste bad.” Spike finished his sentence by sticking his forked tongue out to emphasize his statement.

“What’s your favorite game?” Spike asked.

“Hide and seek.” She said.

“Mine too! Wanna play with me later?” the drake beamed.

She smiled back at him and said: “Sure!”

Hecate merely smiled as she heard the young ones chatting. She was glad that they were getting along. She hoped things would be the same in school.

They had walked through a secret entrance under a rock on the courtyard of the castle. It had some stairs that led to another series of tunnels. When they got there, Hecate said: “Make sure to learn the proper paths in these tunnels. I’ll take you and bring you back every day, but eventually the two of you will have to walk here on your own and there is no signals telling which way leads to where. You have to either memorize it or use a localization spell. But It’ll take some time for you learn the latter.”

Spike looked around a bit amazed. He had been brought to underground before by his mother a few months ago, but it was from a different entrance. She had brought him there to attune him with the enchantment she had placed on the tunnels so he could also move faster there. She didn’t need to redo the spell for other changelings, since it covered their entire species, while Spike was the only exception.

For Spike, they had walked at a normal speed, but it felt almost like the tunnels moved alongside them to make the path shorter. He was amazed by how powerful his mom was to create such a spell.

It took them about 10 minutes for them to arrive at a gate. There were four changelings standing in guard there and when they arrived, Hecate announced herself and the two children next to her. The guards looked at Spike and it took them a good minute for them to remember that their queen had adopted a dragon. They didn’t mind him that much and opened the gate for the three come inside.

When they got inside, Spike’s jaw almost dropped. It had a quite nice architecture crafted on stones. Statues of different changelings alongside others in high-relief on walls. They even had a life-size stature of his mother at the entrance.

The baby dragon noticed that the place was swarming with many changelings, old and young. Spike assumed pretty much every parents brought their kids there. Spike felt a little sad because his mother couldn’t attend, but he tried to shrug it off.

He also had to adjust his breathing a little, because he was a bit overwhelmed. Changelings are usually very similar to one another. Sure, many had their unique traits like being a bit taller, smaller, chubbier, more athletic, some had a different eye color, but they are still very similar in their appearance. Thankfully, their kind didn’t have to worry about that. They could still distinguish each other even if they were disguising themselves. There were two reasons for this: Body odor and magic imprint.

Each changeling had a unique smell which distinguished them and their noses were sensitive enough to tell each one apart just with that even in a room full of them. The other trait was the fact that each changeling magic gave away a kind of magic aura around them, which could be picked up by any changeling since they all possessed horns to detect their magic auras. Thankfully, Spike’s nose was also sensitive enough to tell them apart, but he had a bit of hard time with so many of them in the same room, but he dismissed it thinking that all he needed was to get used to the smells. But, unfortunately, he didn’t know if he could ever use magic or not like other changelings.

Sure, his fire could send and receive objects through magic and he could walk faster on the tunnels, but they were his mother’s spells, not his own.

As the trio walked, magic changelings looked at them and started to whisper things like

“Is that the dragon everyling is talking about?”

“So, is he, like, our prince?”

“Will he get the other dragons to join us?”

Hecate frowned a little bit as she heard some changelings thinking of him as nothing, but a weapon. He was just a baby, for dragon standards, and throw this much weight on him seemed unfair to her. But at least she was thankful nobody seemed to think ill of him, since her kind disliked pretty much every other species.

But then their attention was brought upon a much older looking female changeling who was over some kind of stage and behind her many adult changelings standing behind this older changeling.

The older changeling’s horn glowed and it enhanced her voice so she could be heard by everyling there: “Your attention, please. For those who still don’t know, I’m the director of the school number 56, Walpurgis. This is the beginning of a new year for learning for you all, for those who are just starting school and those who are in the more advanced grades. I thank your presence here. It brings me joy to see many new young changelings learning and helping us preserve our culture and help our kingdom to flourish...”

While Spike was kinda interested in what she had to say, she started to ramble on and on about the time when she was young and she ended up not losing Spike’s attention, but also most of the young changelings and most of the parents and teachers. Apparently, she gave the exact same speech every single year.

She wasn’t a bad changeling. Everyling there knew that Walpurgis was a great principal and worked very hard, but she had a bit of a narcissistic side.

“…And I hope you’ll stay with us all the way until graduation. I hope you have a wonderful first year of school.” She finished her speech, which was the cue for the changeling to clap their hooves.

But then she added: “That’s right, I’ll now introduce the teachers this year. Once they announce themselves, please accompany them.”

A male changeling then walked in front and used the same spell to make his voice louder. He was looked like a regular changeling, just a bit shorter than the average ones: “Good morning, everyling. My name is Cornelius and I’ll be the homeroom teacher of the first grade, those who are at this grade, please accompany me.”

He then got out of the stage and waited for his students to gather next to him for him to take them to the class, and when he did that, another etacher approached to call for her class.

“Now, you two, I’ll be back at midday to get you two home for lunch. Listen to your teacher and be nice, okay?” Hecate said gently.

The two kids nodded and then Bella Noche said: “Come, Spike, they are starting to move.”

The drake then followed his new friend in a hurry towards the class. The group who followed Cornelius consisted of 23 students and as soon as Spike and Bella Noche caught up with them, the students started to bombard Spike with questions.

“Are you really a dragon?”

“My daddy said that dragons are the only other race that aren’t bad to us, is it true?”

“What do you eat?”

“Are you really the prince?”

Spike felt a bit discomfortable with all those questions. He tried his best to answer them all. But he didn’t know much about dragons. He just told them what his mother had told him. He also said that he didn’t find comfortable to be called ‘prince’. They could just call him Spike.

Cornelius smiled to see that his students were getting long. He was honestly worried when he had been briefed that Spike would be attending his classes. But it now seemed that his worries were unfounded.

Once they got to the class, it was quite spacious and had 30 chairs there, there was also a black board, some chalk, a bureau and a painting rack next to it and on the rack many sheets of white paper, but only the first one was blank.

The teacher then said: “Pick any seat you desire. We’ll begin class shortly.”

Spike and Bella Noche sat down next to each other on the first seats of the first and second rows of the right side. Before sitting, every student took their saddlebags and hanged on their chairs. Spike did the same with his bag. They all also took their notebooks and pencils from their sadlebags.

“Since this is the first class, let’s begin introducing each other. After all you’ll probably be classmates until graduation.” The teacher said with a smile.

Every student then started to introduce themselves, Spike tried his best to memorize everyling’s name. He felt like it would be awkward to ask their name again.

After that the teacher then told them to get their notes and pencils because the classes were about to begin. He then turned back to the blackboard and levitate a chalk and started writing on it.

Everyling there collectively groaned when the teacher started with math. Cornelius couldn’t help to chuckle a little, because he got the same reaction every year.

One hour and half passed by as he taught students about math and when he got to the History class, he approached the wooden rack and said: “I think I should start by the very beginning. For those who wondered, at some point, we, changelings, are somewhat similar to ponies.” The teacher then flipped the first piece of paper on the wooden stand revealing drawings of three types of ponies.

The thee ponies were all drawn with a black brown ink and have minor differences. One had wings, other had a horn and the third one didn’t have either. The teacher then proceeded to explain: “The one with horns is called unicorn. They can use magic pretty much the way we do…”

Then suddenly a changeling at the back of the class, called Ion, raised a hoof and asked: “Talking about magic, when will we learn how to use it?”

Cornelius smiled and told him: “Patience, young one. You all will learn about it this semester, but it’s only the theory of it. You’ll learn the practical side of it only next semester. We don’t want accidents to happen.”

The changeling who had made the question pouted not really satisfied. He wanted to perform magic. Sure he could use it to levitate objects, but there is more to it than just levitation. There’s shape shifting, barriers, teleport, among other things.

“Well, continuing. Aside from the unicorns, the ones with wings are called pegasi, plural of pegasus, by the way. So, please don’t start saying pegasusus” the teacher then chuckled at his own words along with some students and then continued “They can fly and use a little of magic to control weather and stand on top of clouds. The third type is the earth pony. This kind had no wings or horn and they an innate magic that helps crops to grow faster. You’ll learn more about their biology in later grades.”

“But a small curiosity about them is that they have a tattoo on their flanks and they call it ‘cutie mark’. They appear naturally on them and it is supposed to mean their special talent. Because, you know, they need a magic tattoo on flank to tell them what they are good at.”

The students then giggled and Cornelious resumed the class. The teacher then resisted the urge to frown as he turned the next page that displayed a picture of the goddess of sun, Celestia. “She is Celestia. The ruler of Sun. She possesses both wings and horn and is much taller than the average pony. One could say that she is on the same level as our queen. But she has some objects called Elements of Harmony. They are tools that can be used to crush all her enemies.”

Cornelius then looked at their students and he could see that many had already heard stories about Celestia and her reign of terror, Spike included, but he had to explain them what gave birth to the stories.

“It all begun 1100 years ago. Our people lived in a fruitful area next to a mountain and river. We had farms and managed to trade goods with other races. Bu then everything changed when the ponies attacked. They were being led by Celestia’s sister, another alicorn, the ruler of the night, named Nightmare Moon.”

He then flipped the paper to show them another dragging of another alicorn, but instead of white fur and a rainbow mane, this one had black fur, helmet and a purple mane.

“She led her army expelling our kind from our land and claimed it to her own. The sister than nominated the place Canterlot and now is the capital of the kingdom of Equestria.”

With a heavy sigh the teacher continued. It’s painful for him to know that his people endured so much, but he had to leave out the most bloody details of the story, because, after all his class consisted of little children. He couldn’t tell them things like the number of changeling deaths and how brutal their deaths were.

“We tried to ask for help from other kingdoms, like the gryphons’ and pelican’s, but they had become allies of the ponies and refused to help us, in fact they even helped the ponies to banish us.”

He then flipped the paper to show then what Gryphons and pelicans looked like. He also showed them many other drawings of other species, like buffalo’s and even dragons.

“The only species that hadn’t done anything to cause us harm were dragons, but since they like to live secluded in mountains, asking them for help was impractical for us.”

“Our people had to wander through many places. We couldn’t stay put for long because the kingdoms were always expanding. Thankfully, we had met other changelings form other areas and we had to stick together to survive since they were meeting the same issues as the ones form the area know known as Canterlot were facing.”

“Because of brave changelings who disguised themselves as ponies, we also learned that, one thousand years ago, in an act to seize power just to herself, Celestia banished her sister to the Moon and now she is the sole ruler of the ponies by using six objects named, ironically, as Elements of Harmony. As you can see she is conceited to the core…”

The teacher then smiled a bit as he explained: “Thankfully, 900 years ago, our queen, Chrysalis has been born and she was filled with power. Power that could rival Celestia’s. But, sadly, as long as Celestia has the Elements of Harmony, we stand no chance.”

“However, our queen also broke the barriers of age and obtained immortality as well and she managed to guide us to this area, where we slowly managed to build our own kingdom away from the eyes of every other race and as we build our own forces and slowly decrease the enemies’. It’s also joyful to know that our queen managed to gather all missing members of our kind who struggled to survive against prejudice across the continent.”

Then, the teacher realized how late it was and it was when he looked at the clock on the room, which was almost hitting 10 a.m. almost time for recess. “Well, children, it’s almost time for the recess. Along this year and the following ones, you’ll learn more about how our lives were and all the important events through the changeling history. Today’s class was just the appetizer. I hope you have some fun and in half an hour and we’ll get to the last lesson of the day…more math.”

The students then collectively said “NO!”

The teacher laughed and said: “I’m kidding. It’ll be grammar. Now go have some fun.”

Friend

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Spike and Bella Noche exiting the classroom last, thinking it would be for the best to wait for everyling to leave before them to prevent being trampled by the others. Spike had picked a small gray pouch from his bag, which held a few gems, as Bella Noche used her magic to take an apple from her saddlebag.

The two then left the classroom and followed the signals on the walls to their recess area. There was a small playground inside of the gray cave for the young students to exercise and run off their excess energy, having several different chambers like the one before but varied in size and equipment according to the grade.

For the first year students, there were chairs, tables, slides and swings, even small sized seesaws. The changelings tried to train as many as possible for military purposes, however, that didn’t mean that they coerced the changelings to join the army, much less deny them a happy childhood. But they tried to incentive them to join the military as much as possible.

The drake and his new friend then picked a table with two chairs and sat down together. Spike then picked a ruby from his pouch and started eating it. The changeling took a bite from her apple and after she chewed it, she asked: “How can you eat stones?”

Spike suddenly swallowed his gem and turned to her and replied raising an index finger to object what she had just said.

“I don’t eat stones. I eat gemstones. There’s a difference” he lowered his finger and started his rant. “They’re great! Sapphires are sweet and juicy, emeralds have a crunchy texture with a slight bittersweet taste, and Rubies are soft and practically melt in my mouth and…”

Bella Noche giggled and said “Only emeralds are crunchy?”

“Well, emeralds are crunchier than the other gems” he replied.

Bella Noche just blinked and continued to munch her apple as she watched Spike munch down on his gemstones. She wasn’t the only to watch the scene, however, many of the changelings there also found amazing that a creature could bite into stones like that.

Spike shoved another sapphire into his mouth and his friend couldn’t help but smile.

“Hey, Spike, don’t you think you are eating too much? We’ll have lunch in a couple of hours.”

The drake finished chewing his sapphire and picked an emerald from the pouch and replied with a smile.

“It’ll be future Spike’s problem”

She giggled at his response, which made the dragon smile too, but shortly after their attention was directed towards another changeling, named Ixion, who approached them.

“Hey, would you two like to play with us?” He asked with a nervous smile.

Spike and Bella Noche nodded but as they got out of their chairs, they heard another changeling whine.

“I don’t want to play with the freak!” said a changeling named Ifrit.

Spike frowned, replying “I’m not a freak. I’m a dragon!”

“I know that! I was talking about the two color weirdo there.” Ifrit replied pointing his hoof to Bella Noche.

The female suddenly looked down with a deep frown plastered onto her face. She suddenly wanted to go hide somewhere, away from the changelings that didn’t accept her.

Spike, however, would not let anyone put down his friend “She is not a freak! Her eyes are pretty! And I don’t want to play with you!”

“Whatever, prince, enjoy being a freak lover.” Ifrit laughed along with the other changelings around him before they left.

“He’s a big meannie and he only acts this way just because his dad has some high rank in the military, so he thinks he can get away with anything” Explained a new voice. A small changeling called Crimson Veil approached the two, amazing Spike and Bella Noche with her peculiar red eyes.

“How do you know?” asked Ion, taking a seat across the table.

She sighed and said: “We’re neighbors…”

Another female changeling, called Dalia, joined the group and added in “Must be awful having to deal with him every day.”

“Tell me about it…” Crimson Veil replied rolling her eyes. But then she smiled as she looked at Bella Noche looking at the floor “Hey, don’t let that meanie get to you. Let’s play something before class starts.”

Bella Noche looked up and smiled a bit and agreed, but Spike continued to frown because he couldn’t help but feel that her smile was somewhat forced.

They played for a while before the bell rang; signaling that the classes were about to start and for everyling to trotting back to their classrooms.

Cornelius proceeded with the grammar lesson, which was about basic verb conjugation, but Spike didn’t pay much attention to it. He could see that Bella Noche wasn’t paying attention either and she seemed quite sad.

Spike then turned his attention to Ifrit, who was at the other side of the classroom and the dragon noticed that he wasn’t paying attention to class either, but because he was drawing on his notebook.

The drake stared angrily at him for a while, not comprehending how he could mock Bella Noche just because her eyes were a bit different from the others. Spike got a little bit satisfied when the teacher noticed that Ifrit was just drawing instead of paying attention and told him to stop because classes are important. But he couldn’t help but to flinch when the teacher glared at him as well, reminding the students that classes are important and they should all pay attention.

Before Spike could realize it, the bell rang indicating that classes were over and once again he and Bella Noche took their time packing their stuff instead of using magic to just levitate them, as others did, while they waited until everyling stormed out of the classroom before they left themselves.

The duo walked together and once they got out of the school grounds, they’ve met Hecate, who had just gotten there.

She smiled at them at asked “Did you two like your first day?”

Bella Noche tried to force a smile and said: “Yes, mom.”

Before Spike could say anything, Hecate sighed and asked with a worried expression “You don’t have to lie to me, my dear. What happened?”

The older changeling could see through her daughter quite easily. She had a feeling she knew the source of the issue, but she waited for the confirmation first.

Bella Noche didn’t reply and just stared at the floor as if she was ashamed of something. Spike decided to speak on her behalf “A guy at our class called her a freak just because she has two eye colors.”

Hecate’s worries were confirmed by this and she raised her hoof and gently raised her daughter’s face. “You don’t have to be embarrassed by your eyes, Bella Noche. They are beautiful.”

“Yeah! I also think that! Don’t care about what he said!”

She smiled softly and thanked them. As they walked, Hecate inquired once again how school was and the two, this time, told them about what they had learned that day.

“How can those ponies be so mean, Aunt Hecate?” Spike asked.

Hecate shook her head and said “I don’t know, Spike. They drove us out from our land and forced us to live in a place where nothing grows. If it weren’t for the expeditions to gather supplies, we wouldn’t have been able to have food or any kind of comfort.”

Bella Noche then said with a proud smile “My big brother is going to join the army soon. He’ll be part of the expeditions to teach ponies, gryphons and any other bad creature a lesson about changelings.”

Spike then asked surprised “You have a brother?”

Hecate then replied in her place “Yes. His name is Raizel. He’s seventeen years old. He said that when he turns eighteen next year he’ll join the army permanently.”

Spike couldn’t help but to ask “Permanently? Why do you mean?”

Hecate turned to him and explained: “You see, Spike, when a changeling turns thirteen years old, they can enlist as helpers during expeditions and be able to disguise themselves as children from other species. It helps the army to blend better into the enemy grounds by pretending, for example to be a lost family member. It’s hard for an adult to change his body to make them look like a kid. Changing species is quite easy, but when we do shape shift, we usually translate our age as well, allowing us to only vary the age just a little bit as this magic tampers with our body structure. However some skilled changelings can even turn themselves into toddlers, which require a lot of training. But even though the army allows young changelings to participate of missions, they make sure they don’t do any actual combat and remain safe. There hasn’t been an incident involving young changelings getting killed for a few centuries, but some do end up getting a bit hurt though nothing serious, thankfully.”

The drake could see that his aunt had a very worried expression in her face “What’s wrong, auntie?”

She smiled weakly at him and replied “Sorry, Spike. It’s just that I worry. My boy is going to join the army just like his father and my husband, who unfortunately died four years ago during a mission in the gryphon lands. I tried to convince my boy to be something else, but he insists to join the army…”

“But, mommy, Raizel is very strong. He won’t lose to anybody.” She stopped for a while pensive and asked “Did I use that word correctly, mommy?”

Hecate chuckled and said: “Yes, you did. When you talk about just changelings, you use the suffix ‘ling’, but when you refer to other species or more than one, you use the suffix ‘one’ in certain words.”

“Oh, ok.” The young changeling said.

By that time, the trio finally got back to the castle and Hecate told the two that they were going to share the afternoons together as Hecate couldn’t leave her daughter alone at the house since her brother had been selected to do military training during the mornings and afternoons. So he couldn’t babysit Bella Noche.

The young changeling was a bit sad because her brother would be leaving soon, but at least she was able to get to know Spike a little bit better. Also, Chrysalis said it was alright for Hecate to bring her daughter over to spend time with Spike. He needed friends of his own age, after all.

Once they got inside of the castle, Hecate told the two to go wash themselves while the checked if their lunch was ready. Spike then told Bella Noche “I’ll show you were the bathrooms are. Follow me.”

The kids then rushed to a bathroom and Hecate couldn’t help but to smile seeing that the two were getting along.

Later, during lunch, the two were pretty much shoving the food down their throats. They were eating some fruits, fried fish and bread.

Hecate blinked a few times before saying “What’s the hurry, you two. The food won’t escape, you know. Besides, it’s not good for your health to swallow food without properly chewing it.”

Bella Noche swallowed the food in her mouth and said “But, mom, Spike said he’s going to show me the whole castle.”

Hecate chuckled “The sweet time when we didn’t get homework…But it won’t take long until you are swarmed with papers and exams…”

The two then swallowed dry at her sudden chuckle like what she had just said was something menacing. Suddenly school didn’t seem that fun…

Hecate, seeing their worried faces said “I’m just teasing you two. But, really, you’ll be spending almost every afternoon together. You should take your time and appreciate the food too, you know. There’s plenty of time for you to play.”

The two nodded and after some time, they finished eating. Then, Spike told Bella Noche to follow him around. The young changeling smiled and followed the dragon, while Hecate picked up the empty plates and glasses.

Spike decided to show her the ballroom first, since it was one of the prettiest rooms in the castle. It was huge and quite decorated. The walls were covered with mirrors which were gave quite the optical illusion to make the room seem even more full of changelings during parties. The floor was decorated with some green, red and black stones, which glowed a little bit under the light.

The room was empty since there was no party scheduled and they could run around giggling while playing tag and kept doing this for a few hours or so. Finally when they got a bit tired, Spike then offered her to show her his room.

Spike wasn’t really allowed in all rooms of the castle. Places like the dungeon, weapon storage, or rooms used for military officials were all forbidden for him because Chrysalis didn’t want Spike to get hurt or interrupt any important meetings.

They passed through many guards as they walked, who simply glanced at them. Most were indifferent to the young dragon, but some were fond of him since he livens up the place, also because he actually made their queen give warm smiles instead of the creepy ones she only gave when her plans went right.

Once they got to Spike’s room, the baby dragon opened up a chest that had a few toys and he picked up a few board games for them to play.

After a few hours of fun Bella Noche decided to ask a daring question “Do you really like my eyes?”

Not really understanding why she would bring out so suddenly, he saw that she started fidgeting on the board of the previous game nervously and decided to answer “Yes, I do. I’ve told you before, they are pretty. Why are you asking me this?”

She looked down and replied softly “Because, only my mom and brother said they liked them before. Pretty much everyling made fun of me because I have two different eye colors.”

Spike had simply thought it wasn’t such a big of a deal and he told her that. She then raised her eyes from the floor and then thanked him. “Will…you be my friend, then?”

Spike blinked a few times and said “Huh? I thought I was your friend already.”

Bella Noche blushed and said meekly “Sorry.”

The dragon smiled back at the young changeling and replied “It’s okay. Do you want to play hide and seek, instead?”

The changeling gladly accepted the offer and Spike quickly told her which parts of the castle were okay and which weren’t. Pretty much every part where he wasn’t allowed, she couldn’t hide either, but she couldn’t also hide in his mother’s room, since she didn’t like when other people got inside without her permission, Spike being the only exception of that.

Then they played for a couple more hours before they felt too tired to keep playing and the two of then fell asleep over Spike’s bed until it was time for dinner. They had some sandwiches along orange juice and after so, another chamber maid came to replace Hecate. Spike was a bit sad that the two had to go so early, but Hecate had to tend her own home and Spike could understand that.

The baby dragon remained in his room playing with some toys until a guard knocked at his door and told him that the queen had just arrived.

Spike thanked him and went running to the front hall to greet his mother.

“Mommy!” Spike yelled cheerfully as he rushed towards Chrysalis giving her a hug around a leg.

The changeling queen used her free front leg to hug Spike back and said “It’s good to see you too, killer. How was school?”

Spike smiled and said: “It was really fun. We learned a lot of stuff, even about meanie Celestia…” his smiled faded a bit as he continued, “But somelings started to mock Bella Noche just because she has two different eye colors. Why did they do it? I couldn’t bring myself to ask Auntie Hecate about it…”

Chrysalis sighed and used her magic to levitate her son and placed him on her back. She started to walk towards the dining hall, as she tried her best to explain to him “You see, Spike, as much as we try to remain as a united front against the other species, some of us let petty things get in the way of it.”

The boy carefully crawled nearer of her neck and asked “What does ‘petty’ mean?”

“It means something insignificant, stupid. They see someling slightly different and they, for some reason, find it a motive to make fun of others.

All he could reply was “I see…”

Chrysalis sighed once more as she continued “It’s not something easy to fully apprehend, Spike. It baffles even me that some changelings act this way.”

The baby dragon couldn’t help but to ask once more “What does apprehend mean?”

Chrysalis chuckled and started to explain him.

Magic

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After his first few weeks, it became a routine for Spike to wake up early every morning, say goodbye to his mother, and accompany Hecate and Bella Noche to school, even Bella Noche would come to Spike’s home and the two would play the entire afternoon in the castle in routine.

The two would play so much during the day; Spike started going to sleep earlier than usual, but as the child he was, he refused to do so until he told his mother everything he had learned in school and with his new friends. However, Hecate only allowed them to play to their heart’s desire after they finished with their homework.

Spike and Bella Noche ended up befriending Crimson Veil, Ixion, Ion and Dalia and the six of them would start playing with one another during their recess, and Spike even invited them to the castle, with the permission of his mother, of course.

However, things didn’t go as smooth as Spike wish they had been. There were a few changelings, led by Ifrit, who constantly tried to mock Bella Noche because of her eyes. One day it even got to the point of them leaving mean notes on her notebook while they played, discovering them when class resumed.

Bella Noche plunged into sadness as she read each note.

Disappear!

Go away, freak!

Why don’t you go join ponies?

Noling likes you!

Spike picked the note and yelled, demanding to know who put the notes there, but most of the class was silent until Ifrit spoke “Oh, look. The prince is defending his giiiirlfrieeend. The freak is a dragon lover too!”

He then started to snicker at his own joke, while Spike clenched his fists, crushing the paper he was holding. Bella Noche tried to calm him down “It is okay, Spike, really. You need to sit down before the teacher gets here.”

But the dragon’s anger escalated at the continued snickering of the mean changeling, getting to the point that the paper in his hands lit with green fire, burning it to ashes.

While it was an accident, everyling paused at the sight. Even Spike was awestruck at the burning ashes, he didn’t know he could burn object just by touching them. The drake looked around the room; he could see that some of his classmates were a bit scared of that display.

However, Crimson Veil tried to intervene to remove the attention from the baby dragon by saying “That’s enough, Ifrit. Everyling knows that it was you and your friends who did that. When the teacher sees the notes, he’s-”

“What notes?” Ifrit interrupted her, feigning innocence. He had to admit that Spike burning the notes was a fortunate accident. The bully had to make a mental note to be more careful about evidence that can be tracked.

“You…” Spike hissed, but he felt a hoof on his hand and when he looked it was Bella Noche. She looked quite scared, which quelled the drake’s rage.

“Please stop, Spike” She said softly.

“Sorry, Belle, I didn’t want to scare you, this never happened before” he replied looking at her.

“I just don’t want anyling fighting because of me again” She spoke as she let go of Spike’s claw.

Spike wondered what she meant by ‘again’, but he agreed with her and reassured her that he would not pick a fight with Ifrit, for now.

She smiled and was somewhat glad that things were resolved, but was still hurt by the things Ifrit and his friends keep telling her. The last thing she wants is to drag down her friends with her.

Cornelius came to the classroom in a hurry and quickly said “Sorry, everyling, I had some important business to attend to and lost track of the time. I’ll try not to let this happen again”

After saying that the teacher added in his mind ‘This is the last time I’ll ever eat this new gryphon food called taco.’

But then he sniffed the air and smelled that something had been burnt, and then looked at the students, suspicious that something had happened and quickly asked the students if something was wrong.

They all looked at each other worriedly, but Ifrit spoke up and told his teacher nothing was wrong.

Cornelius narrowed his eyes and waited for someone to deny the boy’s claims, but decided to let it go given the fact that no one else did. Since nothing was on fire and seemingly no one was hurt, he sighed and then told his students “Very well, class. Let us begin the introduction to magic.”

He turned and used his magic to levitate the chalk and write on the board a simple outline of a changeling.

Cornelius then began his lesson “Changeling magic is very interesting. Our bodies produce magic on a daily basis and replenishes naturally after we use it. Many of you must have already discovered that when you use too much magic you may get tired. It is because your magic drains energy from your very muscles, then moves this energy to the horn”

He said as his own horn glowed levitating some of the chalk in front of him. “You see, children, for us, the horn is the most important organ in our body. Without it we cannot channel magic or use it in any way. It’s because our horns are the medium of our magic, just like unicorns as we discussed before” his face turned serious as he continued, “However, don’t think that unicorns are the only ponies to have the power to use magic. While in a much lesser extent, earth ponies and pegasi also have magic in them, however, their use is very limited because their medium cannot fully control the magic inside of their bodies and their magic has adapted to specific purposes”

The teacher then turned to the blackboard once more and drew a simple picture of a Pegasus above a cloud and an earth pony next to a sprouting plant, “Pegasi may use their magic to manipulate the weather and even stand on top of clouds as if they were solid. As for earth ponies they have a strange affinity with agriculture, mainly because they pour their magic on the seeds to make them grow faster and stronger” he then turned back to his students and continued, “We’ve studied the bodies of several pegasi and earth ponies and inquired many, as well about their abilities. The result of the research showed that their magic happens involuntary. It’s almost like they use their magic on a subconscious level. Most didn’t even know that what they deemed as something mundane or normal for them, was actually a product of magic. They don’t have to actually focus and manipulate it like changelings or unicorns have to”

“It is believed by many researchers that this happens because earth ponies and pegasi lack a proper medium to catalyze their magic and fully manipulate it. It’s also a popular belief that the two pony princesses were originally unicorns or pegasi who somehow attained the power of the other two races, and with the magic of the three races combined plus the horn as their medium, they became very powerful. That is why none of you should ever underestimate any pony race. Any questions so far?”

Spike then raised his arm and Cornelius allowed him to speak “Can dragons use magic?”

The boy had expectant eyes, but the teacher slowly shook his head “I’m sorry, Spike, but I’m afraid that I lack the knowledge about dragon magic”

“Oh…” It was all Spike could say looking at his own desk feeling a little sad. No changeling he encountered so far knew much about dragons, he also feared that he had burned the pieces of paper by using magic, but he wasn’t sure. In fact, most of the stuff other changelings explained to him about dragons Spike already knew. It was because most of the knowledge they had, which wasn’t much to begin with, came from observing Spike.

Seeing the boy’s face Cornelius tried to reassure him “Well, I’m not sure if dragons can or cannot use magic, but maybe if you can find a medium or catalyst to focus, you might be able to manipulate magic or even freely use magic like changelings, maybe you can indirectly use magic like pegasi and earth ponies.”

Ifrit had to bite his tongue to not make a comment about Spike being a pony lover. If he had made such remark he would have been grounded for sure.

Spike then remembered that he could send and receive objects through his fire and he knew that he could switch between actual burning fire and his magic one, but frowned again because it wasn’t really his magic, but his mother’s.

After that, Cornelius continued his class about the basics of changeling magic and how it flows through the horn. The teacher left out on purpose the bit of information about his kind being able to feed on love from other species to get stronger because he didn’t want to give his students any wrong ideas about trying to feed from Spike to boost their own magic. Besides, they would learn more about it in the future grades and they would be much more mature to handle this information, or so he hoped.

At the end of the class the teacher assigned the homework and ended the class. The students then left the room as usual. However, Spike and Bella Noche walked a bit slower.

Before they met with Hecate, Bella Noche made Spike promise her to not tell her mother about the incident at school.

However, Spike didn’t want to keep such a thing as a secret. “Why do you want me to do that? Maybe auntie Hecate or even mom can do something to make them stop being so mean to you”

“You don’t understand!” She said almost whimpering.

The baby dragon was taken aback by this and looked worried at her “What’s wrong? Please, tell me.”

She looked at her friend and confided him “This is not the first time I’ve been made fun of, in our old home many older kids mocked and insulted me and when I told my brother, he got into a lot of trouble because he ended up in fights to defend me. My family had to move to another place because of that; I don’t want others getting hurt trying to protect me again”

Spike lifted his claw and placed it over her back, letting her continue “I don’t want to move again or change schools. I have friends now, and I don’t want to lose you or the others.”

The drake looked at her pleading face, conceding to her wishes. He didn’t want her to go away either, but he also didn’t want to just stand by and let other changelings treat her so badly for such idiotic reason.

But now, they had another problem, tricking Hecate. They tried to breath to calm themselves before they met her with a couple of forced smiles. They thought it was a solid plan.

Which crumbled as soon as Hecate saw them.

She asked what was wrong and why they were smiling so forcefully. The two then told her the truth, not all of it, just enough that Bella Noche has been mocked again, but it wasn’t anything to be worried about.

Hecate sighed at hearing this and she wondered if she should speak with the principal Walpurgis about this, but as soon as she said that, her daughter begged her not to.

“They would be very mad at me if the principal punishes them.” Bella Noche cried.

“I can’t just stand quiet as my daughter is insulted by poorly educated changelings.” Hecate said angrily as they walked towards Spike’s home.

The young drake then tried to intervene “Don’t worry, Auntie Hecate. I’ll protect her!”

His friend, however, gave him a worried glare. “I told you, I don’t want you to get in trouble, Spike.”

Hecate couldn’t help but to smile a bit because of her daughter’s good friend “Thank you, Spike. I really appreciate it, but I wouldn’t be happy either if you were to pick any unnecessary fights. I’ll try think of something, I promise”

And so the trio marched towards the castle in an awkward silence. Hecate only hoped that whatever happened that day wasn’t something grave, but again, if something really bad had happened the school staff would have contacted her or Chrysalis.

When she remembered her queen, she turned to Spike and told him “Oh, yes. I almost forgot, Spike. Your mother will arrive home early today. She only has a meeting with her generals today and after that she’s free to come home.

This news certainly improved Spike’s mood greatly. While he liked school and playing with his friends, he didn’t like that his time with his mother had been reduced to a few hours per day during the week. Thankfully, he had the weekends to spend more time with her.

Bella Noche liked Chrysalis, she had met the queen a few times and, while the queen of changelings treated her nicely, she still looked rather imposing given her big size to the young one.

The young changeling had heard stories about dragons, but she found hard to believe that Spike, one day, would be of the size of the castle. She secretly hoped that the size would never alter her friend’s behavior.

The rest of the day proceeded the same as usual; lunch, homework and a few games between the two friends.

Chrysalis finally arrived home later that evening and found the two kids playing a board game in Spike’s room. As soon as the drake saw his mother he gave a big smile and rushed to hug her.

The queen returned his affection and also greeted Bella Noche “How are you two doing? I hope you’ve been taking care of killer here, Bella Noche” She said jokingly with a smile.

The young changeling smiled a bit and said “We are fine, Spike doesn’t need anyling to watch over him. It’s him who takes care of me” She ended up saying by accident and she blushed as she spoke.

The queen smiled mischievously also watching her son blushing a bit as well, “I’m glad you two are getting along. I’ll be downstairs talking to Hecate. If you two need anything come talk with me”

Spike and Bella Noche then resumed the board game, which ended with Bella Noche’s victory. Once they finished, the dragon suggested to go downstairs too and ask what kind of things his mother was discussing.

The duo then did as planned and Chrysalis gladly started to give them a long talk about the bureaucracy aspect of the meeting, paperwork and other bothering aspects of it.

After a few minutes of listening, Bella Noche then suggested “Wanna go play hide and seek?”

Spike quickly agreed and left with her.

Hecate couldn’t help, but to chuckle watching the two leave. “You sure know how to keep them safe.”

Chrysalis smiled softly “Yes, I don’t want to tell them about the battles and bloodshed. If they hear too much about it, they would think it’s all clean, tidy and completely one-sided victories for us. And we both know that while our cause is just, many of our kind get hurt or worse”

Hecate heavily sighed as she remembered her husband. “But you do intend to use Spike in the war against ponies, don’t you?”

It was Chrysalis turn to lose the smile “I admit that once I hatched Spike, my first impulse was to use him as a weapon and weapon only, but now, I don’t want him to get killed out there. If he’s to leave and fight, I want him to be at least a full grown dragon. This way, no pony or gryphon would stand a chance in so much harming him. But”

“He can still get hurt.” Hecate finished her sentence.

The queen them honestly answered her: “I’ve decided a long time ago, that I won’t coerce Spike in joining the military. I know most, if not all, my generals would have a heart attack if they hear this.”

Hecate chuckled lightly “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me, my queen.”

Chrysalis smiled back at her and thanked her.

Later, after dinner, Spike said his goodbyes to Bella Noche and Hecate as they left back to their home.

Once Chrysalis and Spike were alone, the queen picked her son up with her magic and placed him on her back. She wondered for long she would be able to do this with him. But she guessed she could still carry him on her back for some more years before Spike got big enough to carry her on his back.

This thought got a chuckle out of her.

But then she heard her son speaking to her as she walked to her room. It was pretty much a tradition to spend the evenings there in privacy now that Spike’s classes had started.

“Mom, do you think I can use magic?”

Chrysalis halted her movement and turned her neck to look at her son. She wondered many times if the boy would ever be able to use changeling magic. If he couldn’t then he would certainly feel singled out from the other kids. Also, without being able to use shape shifting magic, he would completely lose any surprise element and would have a much harder time to either initiate an attack or escape in a difficult situation.

Spike then told her what happened in the class and how he burned a bunch of nasty notes to Bella Noche just by holding them, without actually breathing fire on them, followed by Spike begging his mom to not tell a thing to Hecate because he didn’t want Bella Noche to go away.

While she could understand why Spike wanted to keep this a secret from her chamber maid, but this could escalate out of control if left alone. She trusted that her son would never do anything wrong and would protect his friend at all costs. This was a very noble and admirable thing.

However, this could lead to other changelings to stop accepting Spike as one of them.

She didn’t wanted that to happen, but she also tried to image how she could help the situation without causing an incident that would hurt Spike or Hecate’s family. However, what made her think more was the name of the young boy who bullied Bella Noche. She had heard the name of a young boy named Ifrit before, but she couldn’t place her hoof where.

But she decided to leave that to some other time.

She then resumed waling and told her son: “Maybe your fire is your medium.”

The boy looked pensive for a second and asked “How can my fire be my medium? It’s not a part of my body, it’s something I produce. You even had to enchant my fire for me to be receive and send messages”

She smiled and said: “True, but if could enchant any fire, I would have done it a long time ago, Spike. There was something special in you that had affinity with magic and allowed me to place this particular spell on you. I think I have a few ideas about how you can use it.”

Spike’s eyes beamed in joy thinking that he would finally be able to use magic like everyling else and said “Please, mommy, let’s try it now”

Chrysalis gave a light hearted laughter at how eager her son was to learn magic. “I need to have to consult a few friends first, killer. I have a general idea about how you can use your fire as medium, but I need to check if it’s possible first. I don’t want you to hurt yourself by accident again.”

Spike shrugged a bit as he remembered the incident when he received an object bigger than his throat once. It really was an unpleasant feeling. He knew that it was an accident and ended up accepting to wait not-so-patiently for his mother to come up with a way for him to use magic.

The Ball

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A few months passed by as Spike tried to apply what his mother had taught him. After talking with a few magic specialists in her kingdom, she discovered that Spike could indeed use magic by channeling his fire as a medium.

However, the kind of magic he could perform would be very limited and the boy would have to learn to adapt to changeling magic if he wanted to cast any spells.

For the drake, he couldn’t help to feel a little sad that things, like telekinesis, were out of question to him. He couldn’t simply cover an object in fire to move it, mainly because it would destroy the object in the process.

Chrysalis also was not going to teach him about love stealing to use as fuel towards his own power because, while having ties with their magic, theirs was much more connected to the changelings’ biology, which made impossible for Spike to learn as well.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn other forms of magic. Chrysalis had started coaching him on the fine art of shape shifting. In order to change one’s appearance, the changelings must have a clear mental image of the creature they want to mimic, including voice, otherwise the disguise would be revealed, however, they only needed to change their voices when they were trying to impersonate another creature.

Spike trained hard every night with his mother to control his magic, inside of her bedroom. He had to summon fire around his hand without breathing on it and try keep it lit for as long as possible.

Fortunately, Chrysalis had discovered that dragons were immune to fire and heat in general. It was during Spike’s third birthday when the little drake started to play with the fire on the candles. She almost freaked out when he shoved his small hands into the fire, but he was unhurt and was simply giggling along happily

‘I should have known that a fire breathing species would be immune to its own attack.’ She had mused, while rolling her eyes, back then.

“Now, Spike, try to focus some more. Try imagining the hoof of changeling, molding it around your arm.” Chrysalis encouraged him.

The drake nodded as he bit his lower lip as he focused hard on his right arm, which was covered by green fire. He had attempted it many times without success, but that didn’t stop him from trying.

The two of them looked expectantly as the fire started to stir and spin around his arm suddenly extinguished itself. However, in the place where Spike’s draconic arm was, now stood a changeling foreleg.

“I did it!” the boy shouted in success, but as soon as he did so, he broke his concentration and the magic disappeared and his arm returned to its normal self.

“I was so close!” the baby dragon said with a sigh, deeply disappointed.

The changeling queen chuckled softly as she called to her son, “Don’t be sad, killer. You improved a lot lately. All you have to do is to improve your focus. No changeling masters shape shifting overnight. With practice, you might shape shift and sustain it as easy and naturally as your breath.”

The boy blinked thinking about what his mother had just told him and couldn’t help but to ask “You mean my fire breath or regular breath?”

She laughed light heartedly at his confusion and replied with a smile full of mirth “Both.”

Spike gave her a sheepishly smile and then tried to focus again to make his arm look like a changeling’s foreleg, but realized he couldn’t muster any more fire around his arm.

This didn’t go unnoticed by his mother. She could see that his breathing had become more fast and there was some sweat forming on his forehead.

“I think it’s time for us to stop today’s lesson, Spike” She said with a serious expression.

The boy looked at her with a pleading face and replied “But, mommy, I can practice some more!”

“No, Spike. You’re getting too tired” She said sternly at first, but then her expression softened as her son looked disappointed. “I know you are eager to learn how to use your magic, killer, but do you remember what your teacher taught you?”

The drake looked away and mumbled “That magic drains energy and once it depletes, it starts draining energy from the muscles and then it can hurt the user”

Chrysalis then approached him and nuzzled against his face gently. “You don’t have to hurry things up, you know. You are still learning magic. By training it, you’ll become stronger and be able to do more things without getting tired quickly. However, if you push yourself too hard, you’ll get hurt. Try remembering this, okay?”

The boy simply nodded while holding his mother’s face and returned the affection.

“Once you get stronger, killer, I’ll teach you how to transform objects as well. It’s a really nice trick and can be very useful depending of the situation” She explained to him separating from the hug.

She had, once again, felt her own power growing when Spike gave her affection. She had formulated a theory that the reason of why it happened was because he truly loved her. Her true self, that is.

The queen of changelings didn’t have to resort to disguises or treachery and because Spike truly loved her, she didn’t have to use her power to forcefully extract the love nor it hurt the little boy

It gave a whole new perspective to her.

But she snapped from her thoughts once she saw Spike yawning in front of her. She smiled and said “I guess it’s getting quite late”

“Nuh-uh. It’s just 8 p.m. I can be up for one more hour” Spike said pointing to a clock hanging on the wall.

His mother chuckled and replied “True. But do you remember what we have tomorrow?”

The dragon blinked a couple of times and then remembered about the big party they would have on the castle on the following day to celebrate a crushing victory against the army of a gryphon general. Spike heard that they managed to get a huge amount of “stuff” from the bad guys they defeated.

The young drake had no idea about what were the things they’ve gotten from the battle, but he knew that the changelings needed to fight bad guys to get food among other supplies to keep living.

The boy admired the army because of that.

“And don’t forget that Bella Noche will come too and you’ll be able to be up until a bit later than your bedtime because it’s a special occasion” She added with a smile.

That managed to change the baby dragon’s mind and he agreed to be tucked in earlier that day. Since the part would be on Saturday, he would be able to sleep in on Sunday after the festivities. He wondered if Bella Noche would stay for a sleep over.

After he asked that to his mother, Chrysalis replied to him that if Hecate were okay with it, Bella Noche could stay with them that night because the party would probably end quite late and it would be easier if they stayed at one of the guest rooms.

His mother then took him to a bathroom and gave him a quick bath to get rid of the sweat. The boy had to admit he felt much more relaxed after the bath, and even though he was excited for the following day, he didn’t take long to fall asleep after his mother tucked him in.

On the next day, the castle was overcrowded with guests to celebrate the victory and the return of many soldiers.

The campaign was responsible for the destruction of several griffin cities and the supplies obtained from this attack were enough to sustain the changelings for some months. As a ‘bonus’ the changelings made the attack look like ponies had done it.

Many important changelings were invited there. However, the party was mostly dedicated for the brave soldiers who risked their lives for the glory of the changelings.

There was music and waiters served food for the guests, who were both inside of the ball room and outside at other areas, also decorated for them because of the huge number of guests.

In the ball room, which was the one full of mirrors, several tables were set along many chairs for the guests. In the center there was a much bigger table which was reserved for Chrysalis, her generals and their families.

All the generals were there, but there was a big regal seat reserve for Chrysalis, which was still empty.

The two generals, named Fenrir and Shadow Blade, which whom were responsible for the recent attack, kept boasting about their accomplishments to the others, telling them all about the fight and how their brilliant strategy completely crushed the gryphons.

Most of the other generals didn’t pay much attention to the story. Only a couple actually listened to them and the ones who did were Nocturne and Desolator. Nocturne was accompanied by his wife, Valkyrie, and even brought his son with them, who was now playing around the castle.

Desolator, on the other hand, was single. He also didn’t have his right eye because he lost it in battle when he was younger, which may or may not be the cause of his lonely life.

Pretty much all generals were bigger and stronger changelings than the average ones. But, while they were still half the size of their queen, their strength wasn’t the only factor that made them obtain their position. A sharp mind was also necessary given the stealth needed by their attacks.

“How did you prevent any gryphons from escaping? A city of that size surely must have had tunnels.” Nocturne inquired. A single survivor, just one would be enough to alert the others about the changelings and ruin their entire plans. That’s why he was so against attacking big cities because it is so much harder to surround it and keep track of all possible targets.

Shadow Blade chuckled as he took a sip on the wine in his glass “You shouldn’t fear about that. The gryphons are too prideful about their ability to fly. They didn’t even bother to create underground escape routes for them. They simply thought they could soar in the skies and be free, too bad for them that I had some member of my elite force camouflaging in the sky to ambush them all.”

Raising an eyebrow, Nocturne pressed a little bit “So, I take you left no stone unturned as you pillaged the place. You know how important it is to-”

This time it was Fenrir who interrupted “You worry too much, Nocturne. We know how to do this job. I guarantee you, no one survived, adults and children alike” He ended that phrase with a wicked smile.

Unknown to the others, the duo had ordered the death of the children in front of the parents to see them suffer and they made sure the deaths were as slow and painful as possible.

Even though their missions required them to kill all enemies in the villages, settlements and cities they raided, the others made sure to kill everyone as fast as possible. Not all of them took pleasure in killing children. But it was necessary to ensure the safety and growth of their kingdom.

“But enough business chatter. Where is our beloved queen? She usually isn’t late for the parties” Fenrir asked looking around.

“She must be helping to dress her son to the occasion, I guess” Nocturne stated as he drank his own wine.

Most of the single generals frowned at that comment. They’ve heard about the dragon and were eager to have one as a weapon, but they repulsed the fact that the queen allowed it to be treated like her own son.

These same generals always tried to court their queen in hope she would choose one of them as her mate and king. However, while Chrysalis had had several suitors/boyfriends in the past, she never had any serious relationship with anyling else and the presence of Spike apparently made things even harder to them.

Shadow blade gave another creepy smile, which made Desolator shrug a little bit and, and said “You don’t have to address that thing as her son between us, my dear Nocturne. We all know here that this Spike is just a weapon. Our beautiful queen only lets him get all cozy to her just so she can suck the love from him and get stronger. But she doesn’t do it often otherwise he would be useless for us”

That comment earned a chuckle out of several generals, while Nocturne glared daggers at him for saying that. The queen was happier with Spike around and she had confided Nocturne that Spike’s love made her stronger, but she had never sucked love from the baby dragon.

But the general decided to keep quiet. He silently hoped to see their faces when Chrysalis rejected them all.

After some time, Chrysalis appeared displaying a quite simply grey dress. She was never much into dressing herself. Sure, the changelings only did this during formal occasions like this one, but she never cared about clothing in general.

And her son shared the sentiment with her.

It was quite difficult to dress the young drake with his tuxedo. He kept complaining about how uncomfortable it felt and kept begging to let him just go there without those fancy clothes.

But after insisting a lot, the boy finally accepted his fate and put on the formal clothes. He even had a small red bowtie, which Chrysalis thought looked cute on him, but Spike had said it felt like it was strangling him.

Now that they got inside, Chrysalis quickly pointed the table where Bella Noche and Hecate were and she told him to go there and have a good time.

The boy thanked his mother and rushed there.

Chrysalis watched her son go as she walked towards the reserved table for her. ‘A whole night of idiots trying to win me over. Yay…’ she thought forcing a smile as she greeted them all.

There were some generals she liked, like the ones that actually did their jobs because they felt it was their duty and not to get on her good side. If she removed the ones she disliked from the table, the party would be much more pleasing to her. But she had to put up with them because, she liked or not, they always did a good job, not matter their reasons behind it.

As she took her seat, she cringed inside as some generals started to boast and try to praise her to no end. But this time she had a plan to minimize it. She then started to talk about business, spy attempts and future attacks to other areas far, far away from their castle.

The adulators started to offer themselves for the campaigns before they realized that the missions she had mentioned would take months to complete. She, Desolator and Nocturne smiled in satisfaction to see their shocked expressions.

The conversation then went on about several subjects, politics, leisure, how to spend the resources in a fair way, among others.

However, there was news that Desolator had to share with the others at the table. “My spies at Canterlot have gathered some interesting news, my queen. It seems that another alicorn has been born.”

The others gave him a shocked look.

“It can’t be! Are you sure about this, Desolator?” another general named Battle Fury asked after almost spitting his wine after hearing the news.

Desolator nodded and continued “Apparently, her name is Mi Amore Cadenza and she is royalty. She moved to Canterlot a few weeks ago.”

Chrysalis eyebrows creased as she spoke “Did Celestia have a secret daughter?”

Desolator shook his head and continued “This is the weird part, your highness. Our Intel could gather that she isn’t blood related to Celestia. She is either a descendant of Nightmare Moon or came from one of those nobles that call her ‘aunt’ for some reason. However, how she obtained her horns and wings is unknown to us, and she seems to be just a young alicorn. She’s even attending school like normal ponies”

Fenrir then spat “Just great! When we started to mass a good number of soldiers, Celestia suddenly obtains another alicorn to help her. We need to be much more careful now…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we might have to wait some more to reformulate our strategies before we strike against Celestia”

Shadow blade then suggested “Can your spies kill her? I doubt that even a young alicorn can pose much threat during her sleep”

Desolator shook his head and said “I only have two spies there. She has a big security around her given her ‘status’. I’m afraid I won’t risk the lives of two agents on something that has over 90% of failure and lose our source of information”

While they decided on what to do, Chrysalis saw Spike and Bella Noche leaving the ball room. She smiled internally knowing that at least her son was having some fun at that party.

After thirty minutes, Nocturne excused himself to go to the bathroom, soon being followed by Shadow Blade for the same reason. The conversation, sadly, returned to the same old excessive, and obviously forced, flattery towards Chrysalis as she used all her strength to not groan out loud.

It was then when one of the changeling waiters approached Chrysalis and whispered to her: “You’re Majesty, please come quickly. Your son is in the middle of a fight. He’s upstairs on the right side.”

She excused herself and stormed outside of the ball room, but a few generals then decided to see what was that all about and followed her.

Earlier, as soon as Spike and Bella Noche left the ball room, the duo ran around dodging the older changelings while giggling. They had never seen the castle so full and cheerful before. The wondered if they could find the other kids Chrysalis mentioned that were coming around the castle.

As they walked though one of the few empty halls of the castle, they’ve heard a familiar voice mumbling as it approached from the other side. “I can’t find anything in this castle. Can’t they place some signs around here?”

It was Ifrit.

Bella Noche instantly hid behind Spike as the dragon asked frowning “What are you doing here?”

Ifrit looked at them with disdain and replied “I was invited, of course. My whole family is here. Believe me; I’m not happy to see the two weirdoes”

The male changeling had toned down his insulting towards Bella Noche after the note incident, but he liked to insult them once in a while when there was no other changeling around to serve as witness. And this seemed the perfect opportunity to vent some of his frustration.

“So, are you here dating? I guess you two do make a nice couple. Freak show and the changeling wannabe” Ifrit taunted.

Some fire came out of Spike mouth “You”

But then Bella Noche whimpered “Please, Spike. Let’s just leave. Let’s go back where mom is”

“Yeah, go running to her. You’re a simpleton who doesn’t even deserve to be here” Ifrit laughed.

Spike’s eyes became more and more reptilian like as the changeling continued.

“And as for you, prince, how long do you think the queen will keep you. You are just a pet waiting to be used. As soon as you accept that you are a servant to us, the better for you.”

“My mother loves me” Spike said venomously.

Ifrit just smiled “Yeah, right. I’ve heard the generals talking. She had never loved anyling. What makes you so special? Accept your role as a weapon for us or you’ll be killed”

“How could you? The queen loves Spike. You shouldn’t say those mean things. I’ll tell my mom and the queen too” Bella Noche said gathering courage as she moved from behind Spike. She wasn’t going to let her friend to be insulted either.

Ifrit raised a hoof to them and then towards himself as he spoke “Do you think anyone that matters would believe two nobodies? I, on the other hoof, am import-”

But he never got to finish the speech. Spike launched himself against the other changeling and started to claw his face. The drake managed to draw some blood from Ifrit who shrieked in both surprise and pain. The changeling gathered his magic and pushed Spike away hard enough for him to hit the opposing wall.

Bella Noche screamed for someling to help them as Spike recovered and jumped on Ifrit once more punching him on the face. Ifrit then retaliated thrusting his hoof against Spike’s soft belly. The drake winced in pain. The male changeling saw this chance to hit again with a head-butt on the drake’s face.

The dragon fell on the floor with his nose bleeding. Ifrit was going to stomp Spike’s stomach, but Spike barely managed to roll away and quickly got up. The baby dragon used his hand to hold Ifrit’s horn and he ignited it, burning the horn a little bit, which cause the young changeling to yell in pain.

Spike knew that with his horn in pain, he wouldn’t be able to use magic, so he let go and tackled Ifrit and started to punch him. Ifrit started to yell for someling to help him too, without realizing that Bella Noche had left to find someling.

She came back with some adults who told the two to stop and separated Spike from Ifrit by using telekinesis to take the angry dragon off him.

“He’s a freak. He attacked me out of nowhere!” Ifrit bellowed.

“Liar! You insulted us many times. I’ve had it with you!” Spike shouted as he was put on the floor, but still being held by the magic of one of the castle servants.

However, Spike’s ire seemed to dissolve, along the spell that held him, as he heard a changeling coming from behind the crowd that formed there.

“My, my…If the dragon is raising his claws against us now, who knows what he might do in the future. We can’t risk the safety of our home. This whelp is even coercing this poor girl into defending him. He needs to be educated or dispo-” Shadow Blade spoke feigning a concerned face.

“Maybe I can start with you, Shadow Blade” Said a venomous voice from behind him.

The general and the other changelings turned and saw their queen staring at him with hate. The general swallowed dry and tried to explain himself “But, my queen, this whelp, assaulted an innocent changeling. It can’t go unpunished”

The crowd nearby started to murmur agreeing with Shadow Blade. Ifrit then started to relax and smile with satisfaction thinking that not only he was off the hook, but Spike was in deep trouble for attacking him. The changelings are much more inclined to believe him than a dragon or the daughter of a maid. Or so he thought.

“Ifrit is hardly innocent on this one” Said a new voice showing up from the other side of the hall.

“D-dad!” Ifrit exclaimed surprise.

It was Nocturne who just showed up. He had an angry expression in his face as he slowly walked near the kids. Ifrit got up and tried to repeat his lies “Dad, he-”

“Be quiet!” Nocturne snarled. “I thought your mother and I raised you better than this. I heard this quarrel from the beginning. You disrespected this young girl several times from what I’ve heard and Spike merely tried to defend her!”

Ifrit trembled at his father’s words and still tried to dodge the subject “But dad…if you saw us fighting, why didn’t you help me?”

Nocturne narrowed his eyes and snarled “You mean I should have stopped a one-on-one fight between two men of the same age and pretty much same size? Let’s also not forget that you were the cause of this mess. Insult a young lady because of her colors is one of the most stupid things you could have done!”

The general then turned to Hecate, who was embracing Bella Noche with a foreleg, and said softly “I’m deeply sorry for his actions. I guarantee he won’t cause any further problems to your daughter.” He turned to the prince and said “I’m sorry too for the things he said, prince. I assure you that he was lying” He then finished giving his son an angry and disappointed look.

Hecate just looked at the general without replying. Nocturne could tell that the chamber maid was angry and hurt that something like that happened to her daughter. The general couldn’t blame her in the slightest. He wondered if it was his fault for not being at home very much, but whenever he spent time with his son, he tried to teach him how to be a proper changeling, but, apparently, his lessons didn’t have much effect on his son.

“We’ll get your mother and go back home. We’ll have a long talk about what you’ve done” He told his son before turning to his queen “Your highness, may I have…”

“You can have a paid month off, Nocturne. I know you need to take care of your family. Don’t worry about that” Chrysalis finished softly.

Nocturne bowed and thanked her and told his son to follow him to the ball room to get Valkyrie.

Chrysalis finally remembered where she had heard the name Ifrit before. Nocturne must have mentioned him during the talks about family in the past. She cringed because if she had remembered about him sooner, maybe this whole mess would have been avoided.

Nocturne then left with his wounded son and Shadow Blade decided to quickly excuse himself as well in order to not draw the ire of his queen.

The Queen told the others to leave and continue with the party as she approached her son, but there was still Hecate, Bella Noche and a young adult male changeling.

The drake couldn’t look at his mother’s eyes and he just stared at the floor “He said horrible things about me and Bella Noche; he even said you didn’t love me and wanted to use me”

Chrysalis halted her movement briefly; her anger from the comments of the other changelings disappeared from her face.

She then approached her son and said “I love you, Spike. Nothing anyling says will ever change that. Unfortunately there are those among us who are jerks”

She then kissed his forehead softly, which made Spike gather courage to look at her. “I’m very proud of you, son. You did a very noble thing to defend your friend”

Then, the other changeling, who had a strong musculature and blue eyes approached and told him “Thanks, for defending, my sister, little dude. I don’t think I would have been gentle with him either if I heard him saying all those things to her”

Spike’s mouth opened in realization as he discovered this new changeling was Bella Noche’s brother, Raizel. He had been with his friends at another room when he heard of the commotion. He had completed 18 years old on the previous month and he had been assigned to a squadron since his training was complete.

Hecate also spoke “Thanks for defending her, Spike. But I don’t want to create trouble for you, maybe we should have moved again…”

This time Bella Noche interrupted “Mom! I don’t want to move again. Please! I have friends here. I don’t want to lose Spike”

Chrysalis, Raizel and Hecate had to hold their giggles because Bella Noche was still too young and innocent to realize what she had just said.

The queen recomposed herself and said “I would feel offended if you had to give up on your life here just because of a bratty kid. You have my word that there’ll be no repercussions whatsoever against you or your family. I’m quite sure Nocturne won’t let his son go unpunished after that. But if he still causes you any trouble, tell me. I’m your friend, Hecate. I don’t want to lose your friendship either.”

Hecate felt her eyes watering a little bit as she thanked the queen. Bella Noche then approached Spike and gave him a hug to thank him as well. The dragon even got a gently pat on his back by Raizel.

The male changeling then said with a nervous chuckle “I hope General Nocturne won’t be too mad. My squad has been assigned under him”

Chrysalis then assured him “Nocturne is a very fair changeling. I’ve known him since he was a child. He would never let that get in the way. Plus, he hates wrongdoers, even when the bad one is his own son”

She got up and tried to convince them to enjoy the party while she tended Spike’s injuries before going back to the ball room. Hecate agreed and she walked right beside Bella Noche. The young changeling had lost almost all motivation to go out playing. Her mother, however, hoped that she would cheer up a little, but she couldn’t blame her for feeling this way.

But before he left, Raizel spoke to Spike “Thanks for standing up for her, little dude. I’m really happy and glad that she made a good friend. I was very worried about her, but now I know that after I leave for the missions, she’ll have a good friend to rely on and help her gain more self-esteem. I would like to see her grow into a fine and strong changeling. But I’ll spend most of my time away. Can you help me with that?”

The baby dragon then replied with a big smile: “You can count on me!”

“Thanks, man! It means a lot to me.” Raizel spoke before giving Spike a hoof bump against Spike’s closed fist. He left after that to join the others. He wasn’t going to tell them much about what have happened, but he feared that they must have learned by that point. Gossips tend to spread fast, especially in closed and crowded places. Raizel just hoped they wouldn’t think poorly of his little sister or Spike.

Chrysalis had a warm smile as she took Spike to an infirmary to tend some scratches he had. She was glad that her son was brave and chivalrous, but she worried a bit that what others changelings would think after this episode.

Spike was in the right and did nothing bad, but many would think that he attacking another changeling was a sign that he was too dangerous to be allowed in their society.

She could only wait and see the results and how the others reacted before she took any action

The Test

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In the capital of Equestria, Canterlot, the sun shone brightly which indicated it would be a great day.

Except for one particular unicorn filly.

She had a purple fur and her mane was a darker shade or purple with a stripe of pink. She was named Twilight Sparkle.

The filly slowly walked beside her parents towards the great castle, where their ruler lived.

The father had a blue fur and a darker blue mane, while the mother had a grey fur and her mane and tail had light purple and white striped. Their names were Night Light and Twilight Velvet, respectively. And both were also unicorns.

The couple was going to the castle to take their five year old daughter for a test. If the filly manages to pass, she would be admitted in the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

The young filly had always displayed interest in learning more about her magic and they thought this would be the best place for her to hone her skills and become a talented unicorn. There was a problem, thou.

The school had a famous strict entrance exam for all new students. The test was the same every year. However, what worried the young girl the most was that princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, always supervised the exam herself.

The little filly did well on the written exam, her parents were amazed by how much their daughter studied and learned, but Twilight was obviously nervous for encountering her sovereign, just like Night Light and Twilight Velvet were, but the couple did their best to remain calm to tranquilize their daughter.

When they got to the castle, there were two guards at the entrance. One was a grey Pegasus and the other a yellow earth pony, both wore golden armor and carried spears.

“State your business.” The Pegasus asked with a firm stare.

Night Light then used his magic to take a scroll from a saddlebag he was carrying and showed the guards. “We’re here to take our daughter to the exam in the castle. Can you tell us which room is it?”

After examining the document’s authenticity, the Pegasus said “You can fold it now.” And as Night Light folded the scroll and placed it inside of his saddlebag, the Pegasus continued “From the entrance of the castle go straight, then pick the first row of stairs on your left and near it’ll have another row going up. From there go right and it’s the second door to your left.”

Night Light nodded and replied with a smiled “Thank you. Have a nice day.”

The Pegasus merely nodded in reply as the earth pony opened the door for them.

The family followed the instructions they were given as they trotted through the castle. Twilight’s jaw dropped in awe with the beauty of the castle. They walked on soft red carpets with golden details, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the walls were white and decorated with paintings, crystal lamps and even the windows were beautiful.

There were a few statues near the walls and many stained glasses with several ponies displayed on them. Twilight couldn’t recognize most of them. She saw one stained glass, divided in half, with two tall mares. On one side there was a white pony with wings and a horn. On her side there was a Sun and it was quite bright.

On the other half there was a black alicorn and above her there was a moon and stars. While her side was a bit darker to contrast, it was very beautiful to look at.

She recognized the white alicorn as Celestia and by her side another alicorn, but her fur was dark like the night. She wondered who she was. The young unicorn also wondered why some of the windows’ glasses were common transparent glasses. ‘Maybe the princess wants some ideas for pictures.’

It didn’t take long until they found the correct door. It had a sign saying ‘Tests for the School for Gifted Unicorns inside’.

Night Light opened the door and there was a quite big waiting room. It had some wooden bench rolls and sitting on them there were many young fillies and foals alongside their parents waiting for them to be called.

The family sat on the bench provided.

“Thankfully, we got here early. Does the letter say when it’s Twilight’s turn, dear?” Twilight Velvet asked.

Her husband promptly picked the letter once again and after re-reading it “They’ll be calling the children alphabetically and only one will take the test at a time.” he replied

“Oh” Twilight Sparkle said swallowing dry. It meant that she would be one of the last fillies to take the test. This made her even more nervous.

“Look at your future classmates, dear. You’ll be making many new friends.” Velvet said trying to calm her daughter.

Sadly, it didn’t work.

The young filly hopped out of the bench and started to walk in circles in front of her parents. The couple looked at each other and Velvet levitated her daughter near her and wrapped her around her forelegs.

“Relax, sweetie. You’re going to be fine. You studied and practiced a lot. You’ll be great” She said nuzzling her daughter’s face.

“But, what if I fail? What if the test is too hard?” she whimpered while looking down.

Night Light approached and used his right foreleg to raise his daughter’s chin and said “As your mother said, you’ll be fine, Twilight. If you get too nervous, it’ll get in the way”

She looked at her father and said again “But what if I fail? I don’t want to…”

He smiled softly and nuzzled her as well. “Look, Twilight, even if you fail everything will be alright. There are many good schools you can enroll. Just try to calm yourself, okay. As your mother said, you can’t think straight if you get all nervous”

She relaxed a little at her father’s words, but she tensed once again when an adult male unicorn with light blue fur and white combed mane wearing a suit came out of another door. He was using his magic to levitate a long piece of paper and after he scanned the people inside, he said with a monotonous tone “We’ll now begin the evaluation of the candidates. Please come as we call for your name.” he then looked at the paper next to him and called “The first one is Ascending Star. Please come forward. The family can accompany as well.”

Then a young foal with brown fur and shiny grey mane got out of the bench and went inside of the room. After twenty minutes, he got out and he looked very happy.

Seeing the foal and his parent’s happiness, Twilight Velvet whispered to her daughter, who still was being hugged “See, dear. It doesn’t seem to be very complicated”

The same blue unicorn then got out and summoned the other candidates one by one. After a couple of hours, Twilight returned to be pacing around nervously, especially now that she was the last filly in the room.

Twilight Sparkle wondered why it was taking too long for them to call her into the room since the previous foal had left some time ago. She started to worry that she had been disqualified already, but her parents assured her that it was probably some issue that had showed up and they were fixing it before calling her.

She almost jumped when the door opened and that same unicorn called her name. Twilight Sparkle breathed deeply as she walked to the door. The instructor of the exam simply raised an eyebrow at the filly and said nothing, while the couple looked at each other nervously.

The room was quite large. There was a small stairs that led to a series of row of chairs. Twilight then understood that the room was some kind of classroom given the existence of a blackboard on the opposite side of the chairs.

“Stay next to the crystal in front of the board” informed the instructor as he closed the door behind them, climbing the stairs to join the other instructors. All unicorns wore formal clothing and had stern expressions.

It was then that the lavender unicorn noticed over a desk in from of the blackboard, a big red crystal. Twilight Sparkle did as she was told while swallowed dry and feeling her legs tremble. She then gave a nervous look towards her parents who tried to make her remember to smile a little bit with a gesture.

The filly ended up giving a quite disturbing forced smile which quickly disappeared when she saw that the instructors weren’t amused by it.

Suddenly, a burst of light appeared right next to Twilight, making her sit startled.

“Sorry for taking so long. I should have remembered to get more ink for my quill before the exams started. I apologize for the inconvenience” Said the voice of a beautiful mare who was very tall and had not only wings, but also a horn. She then placed her ink and quills over a desk on the first roll and then realized that she had startled the young filly next to her.

“P-Princess Ce-lest-ia!” Stuttered Twilight.

The alicorn smiled softly and said “I’m sorry if I scared you.” Then she noticed that the filly was nervous to the point of trembling. She then continued “Don’t worry. Just do your best”

The Princess of the Sun then pointed to the crystal and explained “Make your magic channel through the crystal and we’ll see how it reacts to it. If you make the crystal shine brightly, you pass”

Twilight slowly nodded and got on her hooves and walked towards the crystal. She then gave another look to all the ponies in the room and started to try to channel her magic through her horn, but it frizzled a little and a couple of sparks came out of it.

Her parents cringed seeing that their daughter was letting her nervousness overcome her. They knew that Twilight could levitate some light objects. They feared how their daughter would feel if she failed the test.

The filly then tried to make several gestures and run around the crystal, trying to make her magic to come out, but it was futile.

The four unicorns on the chairs gave her a disapproving look and when Twilight looked at them she knew she had failed. She looked down at the verge of tears as she spoke “I’m sorry for wasting your time…”

Princess Celestia wanted to comfort the young filly when suddenly she saw a rainbow-colored shockwave through the window. However, her attention quickly went back to the child when she saw that Twilight’s eyes started to shine brightly and her body was enveloped with raw magical power, making her float a couple of feet above the ground.

Everypony there looked aghast by this, but couldn’t do a thing as Twilight fired magical beams. One of them hit her parents turning them into plants in a jar. Another hit the four instructors who were encased in a magic bubble and started to float. Other beam hit the crystal making it shine like a lighthouse before shattering. And the last one was about to hit Celestia as well, but the princess managed to shield herself in time.

The alicorn looked with wide eyes as the young filly’s magical surge slowly died down and settle down on the floor. The lavender unicorn blinked a few times trying to understand what had just happened. But her attention was diverted to another thing. Her flank started to glow and a big purple star surrounded by a white one and with five smaller stars around it appeared on her flank.

She couldn’t believe she had just received her cutie mark.

Celestia somehow felt the same.

‘Could she be the…’ the princess wondered. But then she quickly shook her head as she realized she had to fix the damage the young filly had just caused.

Her horn emitted a golden glow creating a shockwave of her own. She reverted Twilight’s parents transformation, who were feeling quite dizzy, and destroyed the bubble trapping the four other unicorns, who were rightfully confused by what had just happened.

It didn’t take long for Twilight to realize she was the one responsible for doing all that and also for destroying the crystal.

“I’m sor…” She started saying at the verge of tearing.

However Celestia smiled and interrupted “I guess miss twilight Sparkle passed with flying colors.”

Twilight’s tears streamed a little bit and she asked confused “Huh? But I…”

Celestia lowered her neck to look straight into Twilight’s eyes. The princess had a serene and peaceful look as she spoke “You just displayed a magical surge. All unicorns are susceptible of having one when they’re young. You have an amazing talent, twilight. It would be an honor if you became my student. I’ll personally give you some private lessons after school to help you further develop your talent. That is, if your parents agree. I won’t force you to anything” She finished looking at the couple.

“Me…your personal student…But what about the crystal?” twilight repeated not really believing that her sovereign chose her for this position among all other fillies and foals.

The princess chuckled and replied: “Don’t worry about the crystal. It can be replaced. Also, there are no more candidates after you. So fear not, child”

The couple looked at each other worried a little bit and after briefly discussing it between them, Night Light asked “When we enrolled Twilight, we read that the School was during 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Which time would your lessons be and what kind of lessons she’ll have with you? We don’t want to put too much weight on our daughter. She’s just five years old”

Celestia nodded and said “I understand your worries. I’ve seen your Daughter’s written test exam and she got the highest grade and she displayed a huge magical talent. My private lessons will be as light as possible and they’ll be for just a couple of hours per day after lunch.” She then thought for a while and decided to clean her schedule a little bit to adjust to her lessons “They’ll be from 1 p.m. To 3 p.m. I assure you that your will be in good hooves and after my lessons, I’ll have her escorted back to your house by my guards”

The couple looked at each other, still thinking about refusing it, when their daughter rushed to them jumping in joy as she repeated: “Please, mommy, daddy. Let me have those lessons! Pleaseplasepleaseplease!”

The filly was very excited to learn and hone her skills. And the princess herself was offering to teach her personally. Twilight was in heaven after hearing all this.

The couple looked at each other and murmured between them for a while once again. They decided that if Twilight can’t handle all this, they would gladly take her out of the school and enroll her in another one.

This time Velvet said “We agree. Just, please, don’t push her too hard. She’s just a young filly.”

“Yaaaaayyy!” Twilight exclaimed in join.

“You have my word your daughter will be well taken care of” Celestia assured them truthfully.

The instructors on the chairs, however, felt like Celestia had trampled over them a little. Before the surge, they had given twilight an ‘F’. And they thought Twilight’s power to be a little bit too much and if she couldn’t control it, she could hurt the other students.

But then, they thought that Celestia decided to have her as a personal student to prevent any unfortunate accident. So they decided to leave the matter at Celestia’s hooves.

The princess personally accompanied the couple and their giddy daughter to the exit of the castle. The three unicorns bowed respectfully before they headed back home to celebrate.

Celestia’s smile then was reduced to a simple outline on her face as she returned back into the castle.

That night, at a balcony that was connected with her personal chambers, she looked straight at the moon sighing heavily. She missed her sister so much, but she dreaded the day she would leave her prison. But then, her hopes started to arise with the young filly whose limits were unknown even to Celestia.

The Princess of the Sun then levitated the shards of the red crystal and looked at it in admiration. No foal could have the magic strong enough to destroy this crystal. Celestia herself grew this gem and molded it to be resistant and to react to magic, somewhat like a dragon’s egg.

The thought gave Celestia a sad expression. She had promised Fire Storm she would rescue her eggs at that fated day, but when she got to the nest, all eggs had been destroyed.

‘I should have been faster…’ She thought as she closed her eyes. It has been over sixty years since some rogue gryphons attacked her only dragon friend after her hoard. She had received a distressed letter, but she got there too late. She could only beg for forgiveness for not being able to help them.

However, unknown to Celestia, one egg did survive. It had been taken by one gryphon in secrecy from the others hoping to make some good money from selling it. However it fell from his bag as he flew over a desert. Thankfully, he wasn’t flying too high and the egg didn’t smash upon impact.

Modus Operandi: Trojan Horse

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How is everything going, Shining Armor? Are you eating well? Sick? Any injury? Your father and I have been worried about you ever since you finally joined the army.

We know this is something you dreamed of for some time ever since you left high school. Speaking of which, have you contacted that marefriend of yours? A mare doesn’t like when her coltfriend doesn’t write her often when he’s away, you know.

Everything is fine around here. Well, your sister is still the ever diligent student as always. She is scoring ‘A’ in pretty much every test in her school. We are really proud of her (and you too). But, one thing worries us about Twilight.

Other than us, her teachers and Princess Celestia (I still can’t believe the Princess is giving our little filly private lessons for years now) she doesn’t speak with anypony else! At first we thought that she was being bullied, but it’s not the case. From our “investigation” (well, we asked the teachers and even Celestia herself) all her classmates invite her for parties, sleepovers, play after school, but she simply refuses it all claiming that “she has a lot to study”.

The only time we remember of her going out to have fun was when you were still here and played with her. It’s good that she is such devout student, but we want her to have a nice childhood as well. We don’t want her trying to compensate it after she’s an adult.

Surprisingly, when we talked to her about it she replied “I don’t have time for having friends, I need to study and learn a lot to make Princess Celestia proud.”

We thought about asking the Princess to stop with her lessons in order to encourage Twilight to hang out with fillies and foals of her own age. But we believe that this would do more harm than good. Twilight idolizes the Princess and she is great to our daughter. We don’t really want to take them apart.

The reason why we even cogitated that was because when we asked her Highness to encourage Twilight to have friends, all we got was “She’ll have some good friends in the future. I’m sure of that. I asked her to bond with her classmates, but she simply isn’t interested.”

I don’t want to sound rude, but we are getting worried about your sister. It’s not healthy for a nine year old to not have any friends. She barely even leaves her room when she’s home.

Yeah…I’ve heard some other parents saying that we’re lucky Twilight is so focused on her studies unlike their children, but it’s just not healthy to live on extremes (either a party animal with F grades or hardcore student with no social life).

Next time you are on vacation, can you talk to Twilight? Maybe she’ll listen to you. You two were always close. She still calls you her BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever) and asks when you’ll come back home. I hope you can come to Hearth’s Warming this year. It’s just not the same without you.

We know you’re an adult and brave stallion, but, for us, you’ll always be our baby.

Please be safe.

With love,

Twilight Velvet.

An unicorn with white fur and dark blue mane was lying on his bed with the letter floating with his magic above him. After he finished reading it. he folded it and levitated a box next to his bed. And placed the letter inside of it. Inside of this box were several letters from home.

The stallion sighed heavily as he heard the rain assault his quarters. It was small, but had everything he needed, like a bed, a desk with drawers for him to do his work, a chair, among other things. Well, except for a bathroom, which was outside and for everypony to use. But those who had the rank of Sargent and onward had quarters big enough for his or hers own bathroom.

At least he didn’t have any roommate to peek at his letters like when he was still a cadet. He was getting a bit tired of the constant teasing from other soldiers because his mother still referred to him as a child. ‘One of the few perks of being Second Lieutenant.’ he thought.

However, Shining Armor did not mind how his mother treated him.

The letters reassured him that his family was well and still cared about him. He loved hearing news from home. But he grew worried about Twilight. He had left to the army about a year after she passed the exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

Before he left, the two always hanged around in Canterlot, even if most of the times were from Shining Armor’s initiative. But, without him, Twilight seemed to have shut herself in.

He remembered how Twilight always thought it was unnecessary to meet new people, but he did manage to convince her of otherwise a few times, like, for example, with Joe, the owner of a donut shop. But even so, she didn’t try to actively talk to him, but instead use his shop at as a place to eat and study at the same time.

The shop owner once told Shining that he was amazed how the filly could focus even with the noise of his shop.

Yet, Twilight still refused to talk with other foals and fillies of her age. But the Second Lieutenant would at least try convince her again of making friends once he got home.

It hurt him a little that his young sister didn’t consider anypony else as her friend, other than him.

When he glanced at the clock he saw that it was 6:22 p.m.

It was almost time for his night shift. The stallion the used his magic to levitate his golden armor and wear it. On the breastplate there was two small bronze stars which symbolized his ranking of Second Lieutenant. The First Lieutenants had one big blue star and other rankings had a different armor color.

After he placed his armor on, he levitated his spear and took it with him. He got out of his quarters immediately groaning because of the rain. He considered creating a shield above his head, but continuously creating one would be tiring for him, besides, he didn’t want to show off in front of the other soldiers.

“Suffering builds character!” is the motto of the Sargent in charge of the outpost, a yellow unicorn with his green mane almost entirely shaved called Iron Teeth.

Shining Armor’s outpost is located at the border of Equestria. It was located on a cliff area that had a few rivers on the bottom and a long bridge connecting with the gryphon territory. Their job was mostly welcome visitors, merchants and even diplomats who decided to take that route.

Also, not only gryphons liked to use the route, ponies and other species, like pelicans, also used it for going back and forth between kingdoms.

Their main job was secure and guard the area from possible invasions and also conduct researches to prevent any kind of contraband or commerce of illicit items.

The outpost had about 300 pony soldiers working there. They always had some fast pegasi ready to fly to the nearest base in case of invasion. And for that reason the pegasi chosen for the messenger duty were stationed at the back side of the outpost in order to give them time to fly away and prevent being caught immediately in case any invaders from gryphon kingdom decided to strike.

They always did drills to keep in form. However, the place was quite peaceful, aside from some smugglers and occasional criminals trying to cross the border to escape from justice form their respective nations.

As Shining Armor walked he saw a small commotion at the bridge that connect to the Gryphon Nation. He then approached a cadet, who had a spear resting between his forelegs. He was the Second Lieutenant’s friend since the training to be qualified to enter the army. His friend was an earth pony called Damp Rock. His parents chose such a name because his fur and mane were both a mix of grey and green, but his mane had a darker tone.

“What’s going on over there?” Shining Armor asked from behind him.

The other pony turned and saluted his superior with a grin “Sir, it appears two groups of merchants had arrived. One is a gryphon trying to sell artisan crafts and the other is just a pony group returning home after selling their products at the Gryphon Nation, sir!”

Damp Rock knew that Shining wasn’t used being treated with formalities since Shining Armor had been promoted just a few weeks ago.

The unicorn cringed and said: “You don’t have to treat me like that when we’re alone, Damp.”

The earth pony just grinned wider and said: “You’re just too fun to tease, Shining. Try relax a bit. The higher you go, more ponies will respect you.”

The unicorn sighed and tried to change the subject: “Do you know how many are there?”

Damp simply shrugged and replied: They’re about twenty gryphons and, as for ponies, they’re a group of forty, including children. Apparently, some of them dragged their entire family to enemy territory. I bet he’s doing it to his own people just to provoke them to go to war against us.”

The unicorn glanced his friend and scowled: “The gryphons aren’t our enemies. The problem is that rogues from both sides are trying to drag down our countries to a war. It’s not some conspiracy from the gryphon king.”

The earth pony simply glanced at him and replied: “Yeah, sure. A bunch of random rogue ponies can take down one of their most fortified cities. If that’s the case, then they’re more pathetic than I thought. Let’s not forget that our people is also dying by the hands of gryphons.”

“I know…I’ve heard that Celestia and Icarus were almost at each other’s throats after he accused Celestia of waging war against his kingdom.” The Second lieutenant said giving a few steps forward trying to see what’s going on, but the rain made it difficult.

He couldn’t see, but guessed correctly that the groups were having their tax documents and merchandise were according with the law.

“Our princess shouldn’t be so kind with that king. She would never harm an innocent soul. She has been like this for over a millennia. Why she would attack now when there were so many better chances to do so in the past?” The earth pony said before walking right beside his friend.

Shining Armor turned and nodded: “Exactly! It makes no sense. It would need an organized army to do that much damage. But I wonder why would some ponies do it? I mean, there were some…pony bodies whenever a gryphon city or settlement is attacked. The same goes when we find dead gryphons when our villages and groups are attacked.”

“War is just crazy. At least we know that those brave ponies didn’t go down without a fight…But it disgusts me that they don’t even spare children. Tartarus, even is gryphon children were slaughtered.” He finished closing his eyes a little bit. He also had siblings. He knew all too well that he would lose his head if any creature dared to touch a single hair of their mane.

“Yes...” Shining said solemnly as he felt the water run through his fur and armor. Then he told his friend: “I’ll see if they need some help over there. You know, before Iron Hoof has another heart attack.” He finished with a smile.

His friend snickered and replied: “You’ll be demoted if he hears you saying that nickname of his. That o he’ll make you give 100 laps around the outpost. Going up and down the hills.”

Shining shrugged and said: “Yeah…He would be capable of that. See ya, Damp.”

Then the Second Lieutenant walked to the where the two groups were, next to the bridge that connect to the Gryphon Nation. As he approached he heard the Sargent Iron Teeth looking at documents being levitated and protected from rain by some of the soldier unicorns.

“The documents are in order.” Iron said signalizing for the unicorns to return the documents to the respective owners. Then he turned to the other soldier who were finishing inspecting the merchandise and carts both parties were carrying. “Is everything in order?”

The soldiers then replied finishing up: “Yes, sir! Everything is checked and according with the trade laws, sir.”

The Sargent nodded as he glanced the gryphons, who were obviously not very happy to have a bunch of ponies to go through their stuff, but given the animosity between the two nations, the gryphons decided to not complain unless the ponies crossed some line.

But then an old stallion, with black fur and green mane, stepped forward and asked the Sargent: “I don’t want to be demanding, sir, but do you think it’s possible for us to spend the night here? It’s getting late and it’s raining a lot. I think we all would be safer if we spent the night here. We’ll pay for the lodging of course.”

Iron Teeth shook his head and said with a barely noticeable smile: “You don’t have to pay for anything, unless you need to buy food dirty the place or break something. We have special quarters for situation like this. But it might be a little crowded given your numbers.”

He then turned to the gryphons and said, but more serious: “The offer applies to your people too. If you excuse me, I need to fill some reports at my quarters about your arrival.”

The gryphon leader of the group, who had brown feathers with a golden tail, felt like refusing the offer, but even he had to admit that traveling in another nation in the dark while raining would be rather dangerous. So he decided to take the offer as well.
The Sargent then ordered two soldiers to escort both groups to the guest quarters in the outpost.

As they walked that same old pony asked: “Life here must be hard here, right?”

The soldier, who was a white earth pony, shrugged and said: “Sometimes, yeah. Especially when Gryphons around…”

The black stallion nodded and replied: “I agree…I fear that they will sneak attack us while we sleep and use this as a pathway to invade Equestria.”

The earth pony smiled and assured him: “Fear not. In case any gryphon try any funny business here, our pegasi messengers will quickly fly to Canterlot to warn Celestia about their treachery.”

The other stallion pondered for a while and asked: “But won’t they be attacked first? How can they fly before the gryphons reach them?”

The solder replied: “Our pegasi are very fast, mister…”

“Night Desire. And your name, soldier?”

“Grand Stomp.” The soldier replied before continuing: “Our pegasi are at the very back of our base. The moment they realize that we are being attacked they’ll fly as fast as they can. So, they’ll have plenty of head start.”

The other pony then sighed in relief and said: “That’s good to know. Thanks for reassuring us.”

The soldier smiled “You’re welcome.”

After that, the ponies, for being in a bigger number, were led to a bigger quarters than the gryphons. While it was tight for both sides, they could at least have some rest. The ponies ended up buying some food with the bits they had bought, while the gryphons ate the food they had brought with them due their fear of probable poisoning.

Night Desrie ended up inviting Grand Stomp to share some food for a quick night snack. The soldier ended up accepting and entered the quarter as well.

After a couple of hours, the intensity of the rain only increased for the annoyance of the soldiers. Some soldiers even tried to convince some of the pegasus soldiers: “Come on, guys, it’s not enough to have to endure to live in this forsaken place and we have to endure this as well? Go up there and clean the sky a bit, will you?”

The winged ponies were about to agree when they saw their Sargent coming from behind them and with a very stern expression he said: “It’s just water! If you can’t stand it, why did you even join the army, soldier? I’ll also not let them meddle with nature over something that’ll disappear in a fear hours.”

The soldier who had suggested grumbled under his breath and said: “You ordered them to move away the clouds before when some nobles passed by…”

With a huge scowl on the face the Sargent threatened: “Listen. I’m going to let this go now, but don’t question me again, understood?”

The guards swallowed dry and replied in unison “Sir! Yes, sir!”

“Good” Iron said before starting to walk towards the back of the outpost. He was soon followed by a group of ten pony soldiers. One of them asked: “Everything, alright, sir?”

Iron Teeth nodded and replied: “Yes. Let’s check on the pegasi.”

The others merely nodded and followed the Sargent to the place where the pegasi were supposed to be. It was an area with a few high towers with some pegasi on the top of them.

“Attention all soldiers, please assemble for inspection!” Iron said loudly while the other soldiers on his side scanned the area to make certain that nopony had heard him or was watching. The rain and nighttime made it hard for any pony to see anything from distance.

Five pegasi flew from the towers and assumed position in front of their commander. “Sir, is anything wrong?”

“No. This is just an inspection.” He said coldly. After scanning them he said: “Is everypony here?”

The pegsai looked at each other confused and one of them, with a white fur, replied: “Yes…We are just five. You chose us yourself, sir.”

Iron quickly nodded and replied: “Right. I’m sorry. We just received about sixty guests and I had to fill the paperwork about them. I apologize.”

That got from them a weird look since they had never heard the Sargent apologizing for anything before.

“Anyway, give your weapons and gear to us for inspection. We might have to replace them or have them sharpened.” The Sargent explained.

They thought that such request was bizarre, but they decided to not complain to not draw the infamous wrath of their commander upon them.

The pegasi used their wings to remove some daggers from some sheaths attached to their armor and delivered to the other ponies next to the Sargent, who quickly grabbed them using magic.

What shocked them the most was that only a two of them were unicorns. Before they could even ask what was going on, their own daggers moved swiftly and cut their throats blocking them from screaming or warning others. Then the daggers moved with sudden strength to pierce the exposed areas around their neck. It didn’t take long until all pegasi were killed. Their eyes were filled in horror as they watched their commander merely staring at them with a serious expression. It was almost almost like he didn’t even care.

Their last thoughts were condemning Iron Teeth to Tartarus.

“Take their bodies back to the towers quickly, while others cover the ground with dirt to hide the blood.” Iron Teeth said.

They nodded and replied: “Understood, general Nocturne.”

Half an hour after the incident, Shining Armor was patrolling the east side of the outpost, when he had to leave quickly to attend nature’s calling. He told another soldier that he would come back shortly.

He then went to the bathroom, which was located past the quarters were the gryphons were staying. After he left, he saw that what seemed to be a guard leaving the gryphon quarters through the door, slamming it shut very loudly with magic.

The Second Lieutenant blinked a few times finding it strange because the gryphons had made clear they desired no pony assistance for the night. He even started to worry if they had been fighting with the soldiers. He then decided to check if everything was alright, but the last thing he wanted was to cause a war between the two nations.

He got to the door and breathed deeply hoping that the avian would forgive the other soldier for being rude and he opened the door, he couldn’t see well given the lack of light in the room.

“Hello, there. I’m sorry for barging in, but…” he started to say as he walked inside and heard a few *splash* sounds as he walked. “Huh?” was all he could say when he felt his hooves hitting something wet on the floor.

He lit light on his horn to brighten the room and his jaw fell and eyes went wide in horror. All twenty gryphons were dead and their blood was splattered all around the floor. He could see that their throats were slit and then he quickly turned and quickly started to yell: “HELP! HELP! SOMEPONY KILLED THE GRYPHONS! HURRY!”

He was both confused and angry, because a guard had done it. He had seen one leaving the place right before he got inside. The second lieutenant decided to wake the other soldiers from the day shift to help him, but when he burst through the door to tell the emergency, he was greeted by the same scenario, but, this time, the victims were his brothers-in-arms.

His breathing started to increase as he went outside screaming for help. He had never seen anything like that. All his previous combat experience had been chasing after some smugglers who couldn’t even put up much of a fight. The unicorn had never even taken a life away before and what had just happened overwhelmed in in a horrible way.

He started to cogitate what was going on. Insurrection? Those ponies who came along with the gryphons? Other gryphons? The rogue ponies?

His mind raced to find the other soldiers, but for his further horror, he saw nopony else, but a bloodied Damp Rock. Shining Armor gasped and rushed to his side.
Before Shining could even ask, his friend said with distress in his voice.

“We need to run away! The guards started killing each other. Everypony got crazy! We need to go warn Canterlot, the higher ups, anypony!”

Shining quickly looked around and then at his friend again. He couldn’t tell where he was hurt, but he could see that his right foreleg was hobbling, plus he was covered in blood, which was slowly being washed away by the soft rain.

“Let’s try go down the slope. We might lose them while it still rains.”

“Okay.” Damp said making a face making a painful face as he trotted the fast as he could with his limping leg.

Shining thought about levitating his friend alongside him, but that would deplete his magic if he did it for long and he didn’t know he would fight. He still levitated his spear next to him as he trotted next to his friend in order to protect him from any attack.

They ran for several minutes, going though a small forest on the area, until the got to a cliff area with a descending slope. On the bottom there was a river, but they could walk on the margin of the river, even under the rain, the river was too wild. But the problem was the wet slope. Shining thought that the only option left was indeed levitate his friend to safety. He thought about teleporting himself, but he wasn’t very good at that.

“If we follow that path, we’ll reach The Big Apple city. It’ll take some days, but we’ll make it.” Shining said pointing to the path.

Suddenly, Shining turned to the forest when he heard the sound of hustling bushes. “We’ve been followed! Don’t worry, Damp, I’ll take us out of here!”

But when he turned to see his friend, he wasn’t there anymore. It was a black pony-thing with both a horn and insect like wings and he also had two big bright blue compound eyes.

“Sorry, but your friend and all other soldiers are already dead. But soon you’ll be. Thanks for the instruction, thou.” Said the creature. Levitating a dagger out of Damp Rock’s former armor.

Shining Amor could barely process what was going on. But he could understand three things: that this thing wasn’t his friend; his friend was dead alongside everypony he knew at the outpost; and that he wanted to kill him.

The unicorn snarled and quickly created a shield around himself repelling the knife, for the changeling’s surprise. The shape shifter didn’t expect him to react so quickly.

The Second Lieutenant levitate his spear and threw it with all his power against his enemy piercing him on the chest.

The changeling yelled in pain as he fell on the ground whimpering trying to remove the spear from his chest. Shining armor undid his shield and he used his magic to make the spear go deeper inside of changeling making him yell.

The unicorn saw red as he looked at this….monster. He then levitated the dagger that the changeling had tried to use against him intending to end him right there.

But then he heard a voice of a child, making him turn his head.

“Leave him alone!” Shining Armor saw a purple unicorn foal with green mane trotting towards him.

“Get out of here, kid!” Shining Armor said not believing what was about to happen.

The foal’s body was covered in green fire that made a sizzling sound as the rain evaporated as it touched it. Before the soldier could react, the ball of fire tackled him hard, burning him and shoving him out of the cliff.

Shining yelled as he fell making a loud ‘splash’ sound when he fell on the river on the bottom.

The fire then died down to reveal a very distressed young dragon was about seventy centimeters tall. The dragon didn’t know what to do. But then when he heard other changelings approaching, he yelled: “Someling, help! Raizel needs a doctor!”

Raizel however, coughed some blood: “Please don’t let my sister see me this way…Please, Spike…Take care of her for me, okay…” he managed to utter to the dragon who was now crying and begging for him not to die.

However, as some changelings approached, Bella Noche included, Raizel closed his eyes for the last time. His little sister kept screaming for him to not leave her. Spike kept sobbing quietly and apologizing for being so late to help him.

In fact, Spike had wanted to be by Raiel’s side when he approached the last remaining pony to dig out any other possible escape route in the area. But Nocturne had forbid it because it would be too dangerous for a twelve year old and they wouldn’t risk the life of a child in their very first mission.

But Spike, Bella Noche and some other adult changelings had to follow the two from afar and check that everything would be in order. None of them expected to see a pony outfighting a changeling in a surprise situation.

They also figured that the pony who fell down was pretty much dead because if the water impact didn’t kill him, he would certainly drown.

However, there was nothing they could do to consulate the two kids in front of them.

An earth pony couple was filling some buckets of water, at the river, for their home. Both had brown fur, but the stallion had a darker shade and his mane was red, while the mare’s mane was pink.

They were finishing the job when they saw something weird being dragged by the water. The stallion gasped and let go of the bucket and jumped into the river.

“Earth Explorer!” the mare shouted seeing her husband suddenly jumping. But she then noticed why he did it.

Her husband had rescued a pony from the river. He was an unicorn with white fur with some burn marks on his fur.

“We need to take him home fast.” Earth said while trotting as fast as he could.

Burial and Suspicions

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The changelings considered the destruction of the pony outpost a huge victory. The soldiers had some trouble, but managed to move the corpses of the gryphons around in order to make it look like they were the ones that killed the ponies. Their plan was to stir an all-out war between ponies and gryphons, distracting two major powers as the changelings came in to eat.

They wondered why Celestia hadn’t charged against the gryphons, or even the gryphons onto the ponies, the only explanation they could think of was that both kingdoms wanted to plan their assault, a false move could make their armies go into disarray and cost them the war. There will come a moment when neither Celestia nor Icarus will accept more attacks ‘from each other’.

However, not everyone had a cheering mood, for some it was a moment of sorrow. Several changelings gathered around in a graveyard to burry another brave soldier who died in the front line.

There were many soldiers, Raizel’s brothers-in-arms, who wanted to pay him a last homage, alongside with Raizel’s family and friends.

Even the Queen was there, even though she never really talked much with Raizel, she wanted to be there to support and comfort her best friend, her daughter and Spike as well.

The baby dragon barely slept ever since the incident. He blamed himself for not being faster and for not staying by Raizel’s side when he lured that unicorn. He cried a lot as he begged for forgiveness to both Hecate and Bella Noche.

The two assured Spike that it wasn’t his fault. Mother and daughter held no grudge towards the dragon, in fact they were thankful that he was the first to try to help and save Raizel. Both Spike and Bella Noche had been ordered to not go with Raizel. But this didn’t make the little drake feel any better.

The baby dragon had spoken many times with Bella Noche’s brother and he grew too really like him. The dragon listened in awe about the adventures the older changeling had during the campaigns and it made him sure that he should join the army to help the changelings.

Hecate, however, felt even more determined to prevent her daughter from ever joining the army. She felt devastated once when her husband died and now her son. She held Bella Noche between her forelegs with tears streaming from their eyes as they watched the ceremony started.

The coffin was lying on the side of a hole on the ground. Over it there was a green flag with three circles in the middle circumscribing one another. The outer one was black, the middle one was red and the inner one was blue. Over the flag there was a crown made of red flowers. On the sides, there were many soldiers gathered bearing solemn expressions.

That wasn’t the first military burial Hecate had attended to and it only brought up many more painful memories. The changeling closed her eyes but then she felt a gentle hoof on her back. She opened her eyes and saw Chrysalis comforting her.

The Queen didn’t know how exactly her friend felt. But she had a quite a good idea how horrible it must be. The mere thought of losing Spike sent a cold shiver through her spine and she even had to admit to having nightmares about it as soon as she had heard the news.

She too had thoughts about withdrawing Spike from the military altogether, but then she remembered about the reason why her people even accepted Spike among them in first place. She didn’t want to have to choose between her own child and the peace in her kingdom.

She looked down at her son, who was being held by his mother in a similar way as Bella Noche was. He couldn’t even raise his stare from the ground. She knew that he was bound to see the death of his friends in a battlefield and she tried to formulate many different talks to have with him to cheer him up. But words failed her. All she could do was to assure him that none of it was his fault. It pained her to see her child and friends filled with so much sorrow.

Chrysalis was a higher kind of changeling. She had lived for many centuries and she had seen many friends die, whether by old age, disease or even in battles. But every time felt like a jab to her.

‘I guess there are things you never get used to…’ she wondered.

Everyone’s thoughts were broken when Nocturne moved to stand in front of the coffin as he began his speech: “Today we are reunited to say goodbye to a brave soldier, Raizel. While he was young, he was an exemplary soldier. He always cared for his brothers-in-arms and helped us in many battles…”

As the speech went on, there were some in the crowd that made several murmurs on the matter.

“I heard that he died during a fierce battle, like a true hero.”

“Really? My brother served in the same unit. He told me that he died because he was stupid enough to release his disguise before killing the pony.”

“If that’s true then he kinda deserv-”

“Be quiet! He was the son of the Queen’s best friend. She can have you killed or thrown into jail for saying that.”

“You’re right…But you have to admit that it was a very idiotic mistake.”

“True. But don’t say that in public!”

“By the way, did you guys hear that the Prince actually killed the pony that killed Raizel?”

“Yeah. I guess, we now are sure that having a dragon on our side was an amazing idea.”

“Once he grows up, Equestria will fall. It’s a good thing Queen Chrysalis trained him well.”

“I still think that the dragon shouldn’t address our Queen as ‘mother’. It’s weird.”

“Not really. Being fully accepted and well raised by changelings will open the doors for a dragon-changeling alliance. I can’t believe that there are still changelings who dislike the Prince. He hasn’t done anything bad, quite the opposite actually.”

“I’m not saying I don’t like him. I just think that the Queen should have a changeling child and maybe marry another from the same species. It’s a bite bizarre.”

“You are crazy. I wouldn’t wish for another Prince. He behaves better than many changelings I’ve seen. He had never even tried to use his status to mock us.”

“True. I’ve seen plenty changelings using their position to get advantages. At least, so far he didn’t.”

“Agreed.”

These conversations didn’t manage to reach Chrysalis, Hecate, Spike or Bella Noche, who were all paying attention to Nocturne’s words.

“…And that’s why we salute you, Raizel for your service and dedication to make our kind prosper. You mean rest in peace and be reunited with your ancestors.” As the general finished, all soldiers gave a collective salute.

Another changeling levitated the coffin and slowly placed it inside of the hole. As soon as he finished it, the same changeling started to use his magic to throw dirt back to the hole, covering the coffin.

Raizel’s grave was right next to his father’s. Spike looked at both of them with sadness in his eyes as he read Raizel’s tombstone.

HERE LIES RAIZEL.

BRAVE SOLDIER

BELOVED SON AND BROTHER

Friends and fellow soldiers came one by one to pay their last respects to Raizel before going back to their homes.

Nocturne came once more to Hecate to tell her and Bella Noche that he was very sorry that his strategy had failed and the worst had happened.

“It tears me apart that I lost my child…” as she said, she hugged Bella Noche tighter “But I know that it wasn’t your fault, General. It was noling’s fault. It was a pony who killed him. I know he was very brave. He was always like this ever since he was a small kid. But I…”

She closed her eyes tightly as more tears came out “I wish I had stopped him from joining the army. Had I been stronger, I wouldn’t have let him…”

Nocturne just looked at her softly and replied: “I know you are in pain, madam, but please understand that he wanted to become a soldier. He was an adult. I know these words may hurt you, but he did play many important roles during this war and we could have lost many times without him. I can’t say I feel your pain. I’m a parent myself and I hate to think what I would do if either of them died. We try to make sure all soldiers come back home safely, but, unfortunately, we do have some casualties.”

He gave a short pause as Hecate opened her eyes to look directly at the general. He then continued: “But one thing I’m sure of. I don’t think your son had any regret in assisting our Kingdom. He always raised our troop’s morale during long campaigns and looked after your daughter and Prince Spike all the time they were with us. I wish he were still alive to receive the bravery and duty medals. By your wish, we didn’t bury them with your son. So, please come to the army stronghold in order for us to …”

Hecate then shook her head and replied “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, general. I really do. But I don’t think I can handle the formalities of another ceremony like the one I went to when my husband died. It’s just too painful for me…”

Nocturne nodded “I understand. I’ll be sending the medals in a case for you as soon as I can then.”

“Thank you.” was all Hecate said.

Nocturne gave her a respectful bow with his head and said “Once more, I’m sorry this happened, madam.” He then turned to his Queen, bowed to her and then excused himself to attend other matters.

Chrysalis opened her mouth to ask if she was alright, but then closed it. ‘Of course she isn’t alright. What a dumb question…’

“If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate in asking.” She decided to say instead.

Hecate weakly nodded as Bella Noche slowly walked from her mother’s embrace towards the young drake.

Chrysalis let go of Spike just so he could approach her too. The dragon had puffy eyes just like the young changeling. They stared at each other for a few second until Bella Noche suddenly embraced Spike, who returned the gesture.

“I miss my brother…” she whimpered softly.

“He was a great guy…” he stated feeling even worse for using the past tense.

Spike was about to apologize once more, when Bella Noche, somehow sensed it and hugged him tighter. “Don’t blame yourself. Please. There was nothing we could do. I don’t like seeing you like this either. I don’t want to lose anyling anymore.”

Spike closed his eyes and clenched his teeth and thought determined: ‘I promise you. I’ll do everything I can to make all the bad ponies and gryphons pay for the horrible things they had done. I’ll put an end to this.’

Shining armor groaned as he turned his face to the sides almost violently as his dreams were plagued by the memories of what had happened din his outpost. It replayed the moment of the black creature attacking him many times. But it varied. Because one time, in his nightmares, he was not killing a unknown creature, but his friend.

“Why, Shining?” ‘Damp Rock’ asked him as he was pierced on the chest by Shining armor’s attack.

The horror in the Second Lieutenant’s face was enough to force him to wake himself up. The unicorn suddenly opened his eyes and sat on the bed. He was panting hard and his body was drenched in sweat.

But he soon regretted it because the sudden movement made his left side ache. He realized he had some bandages and under them, he felt like something had burned his skin.

It took a while until he realized he was at somepony’s home. He looked around and tried to get out of the bed. He soon regretted it because he then felt his muscles were a bit sore. He wondered if it was because of the impact of because he probably spent a long time without exercising.

He opened the door of the rom he was and he found himself in a living room where a couple of earth ponies were eating breakfast.

The stallion then said with a smile “You’re awake! Thank Celestia! You’ve been sleeping for ten days now.”

The unicorn flinched surprised and shouted “TEN DAYS?”

“Honey, don’t scare him like that. Please sit down. I’ll prepare something for you. Do you like daisy sandwich?” replied the female one.

While Shining armor wanted to run as fast as he could back to Canterlot, his stomach grumbled. He blushed a little for the indiscretion and then replied “I like it. Thank you ma’am.”

Shining moved and sat on a spare chair by the table. He then turned to the stallion and asked “What is your name? Mine is Shining Armor, Second Lieutenant of the Equestrian Army. Does this town have fast couriers? I need to deliver a very important message to Princess Celestia immediately.”

The earth pony blinked a few times and said “My name is Earth Explorer and my wife if Lilly Garden. This is a small town called New Hope, but we do have some pegasi that deliver letters and packages across the region, but Canterlot is quite far from here.”

Shining was distressed by this news. He did hear that some new settlers were building new towns across the kingdom, but he had no idea where he was geographically, but knowing that he was far from his objective made him even more worried.

His thoughts were interrupted when Lilly brought him a plate in her mouth and gently dropped it on the table in front of him. “What happened, exactly? We kinda figured it out you were from the army because of your armor, which is stored in our closet, by the way.”

“I worked at the outpost on the border between our kingdom and the gryphon’s when we were…attacked.”

The earth pony couple’s eyes went wide. Earth explorer then questioned “You worked there? You’re lucky to be alive! Those damn gryphons are growing bolder. I can’t believe Princess Celestia hadn’t authorized an attack to them yet.”

“Gryphons?” Shining Armor found himself questioning out loud.

The other colt blinked a few times thinking that the soldier probably had a short memory loss because of the impact and for almost drowning. Then he replied “Yes. It was over all the newspapers. About how several gryphon corpses were found after battling with you guys. The army stipulates that it was the work of about a few hundreds gryphons. But with your testimony, Princess Celestia will surely not ignore the threat anymore.”

The unicorn quickly shook his head and said “Why are you saying that the gryphons did it? There were only twenty of them they were all slaughtered when I found them in the place where they were sleeping. Plus, they were all merchants and had no weapons. All the gear had been searched.”

Shining sighed heavily and explained what he saw at the outpost. About how he found the gryphons, but leaving out that a soldier most likely did it. He wasn’t even sure if that was really a fellow soldier. Then he told them how suddenly pretty much every soldier suddenly disappeared and about the strange creature that changed places with his friend out of nowhere.

The couple was confused, scared and somewhat skeptical. “A pony looking insect that had both horns and wings?” Lilly found herself repeating those words. “Are you sure you are well?”

Shining then bellowed “Of course I’m not. But I know what I saw. Somehow that thing managed to pretend to be my friend and then a foal came to me charging and then became some kind of ball of fire and then hit me on the side, which knocked me into the river.”

Lilly frowned believing that the stress was just playing tricks to the soldier’s mind, but before she could voice it, her husband said “A ball of fire tackled you?”

Earth Explorer looked at the wound on the unicorn’s side and remembered that not only it was quite burnt, but also had a big hematoma as well. “I guess there is some truth in that. But if you’re right, what was that creature you saw?”

Lilly also remembered about the burnt wound the unicorn had and started to question if what she had heard might be true as well.

Shining had no idea and he said so to them. But then he said “Even if the pegasi here aren’t that fast, I need to send a letter immediately anyway. The gryphons were not responsible for the attack and I can’t let the princess to wage war because of it.”

“I understand what you mean, but what if your memories are indeed damaged? Don’t get me wrong, some of the things you said make sense, but think. What if that creature you were fighting actually worked for Icarus? Maybe they were ready to kill their own kind just to drop our guards.”

The soldier stopped himself and had to admit that this was a plausible explanation, but he had no way to confirm if the creature was allied with the gryphons or not.

“I’ll send a letter anyway. Even if my hunch is wrong, at least I’ll make sure to let my family know I’m still alive. As soon as I recover some more, I’ll go straight to Canterlot to talk to the Princess. I believe she’ll know what to do with this knowledge.”

Shining then levitated his sandwich and gave it a bite determined to gain his strengths back.

Skeletons in the Closet

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A week has passed after Raizel’s burial and it was still fresh in his friends and family’s memories. Although they missed him, the daily routine seemed to distract them from thinking too much about him.

Spike and Bella Noche didn’t have school that day since everyling of their age had a month long recess given the fact that most of them were sent in expeditions alongside the army. It wasn’t mandatory, but about seventy percent of the changeling of that generation chose to do so. The reason behind such “vacation” was to give the changelings who chose to experiment a real mission a breather and assimilate all the things they’ve seen and did.

The teachers gave some assignments for the ones that didn’t want to join the army for a mission while the ones who did go had to write a report about what they had experienced.

Needless to say, neither the dragon nor his friend were eager to write, but they did it so eventually.

They were gathered at a newly opened area underground, called "The Cove" to gather young changelings for relaxation, food and fun. The idea was straight up copied from a pony town a group of changelings passed through. Also, the only reason why such place was allowed to be built was because the attacks to other nations were doing very well and it greatly improved the Changeling Kingdom’s resources.

In that place there was also something that resembled a food and drink counter for the kids and teenagers to buy. There was also several tables, chairs and even a device that played music However, while said device was indeed a “spoil of war”, it was studied and it played music done by changelings, and not by ponies.

Spike, Bella Noche, Ixion, Ion, Dalia and Crimson Veil were together in a table drinking juice and enjoying some fried fish. The last four changelings had just gotten back from the expedition and each one was telling their own story of what had happened.

Dalia and Ion were sent with a group to a gryphon settlement to secure a recently discovered iron ore mine. According to them, they were all disguised as lost gryphn travelers seeking for temporary shelter at during the night. When it arrived, everything was all done fast and painless during the night. The adults had slit the throats of every gryphon while they were sleeping. As they spoke, a larger group of changelings was draining the mine of every drop of resource as fast as they could before the gryphons suspected of what had happened.

As for Ixion and Crimson Veil, they had to admit they saw no blood or action of any kind. Their expedition group had a last minute change of objective and take the a large sum of pony currency, which was gathered from every corpse and house looted, and trade them for goods, since the money was worthless inside of the Changeling Kingdom. Their commander had said that while the task of walking inside of enemy territory for shopping wasn’t glorious, it was still a vital part for their survival. They had to admit it was a good experience because they had to learn to keep their cool near those “backstabbing” ponies.

“Imagine their nerve. They live in a town where they can grow crops, walk under the sun any time they want and act all high and might while we have to live here. I even bet that they only pretend to care about each other. I’ve heard tales of constant backstabbing and even plans about to dethrone their own ruler from our commander, Katana. That whole place is a mess.” Ixion said before shoving another piece of fish into his mouth.

“What did you expect? They shamelessly steal from others. Why shouldn’t we treat them the same way?” Dalia added.

They all continued to talk and throw insults at other races, not because they were different from them, but because of the things they’ve done. Over a thousand years ago. Wounds done to their kind are still treated as if they are fresh.

“I…don’t think I want to be a soldier anymore. I don’t know what I want to do anymore…” Bella Noche said.

Everyone there knew and understood her reasons for that. “Well, we are still young. I personally tink you would be a great teacher, Bella. But who knows what the future holds.” Spike said trying to cheer her up.

Bella smiled weakly in response appreciating her friend’s words.

“So, what about you, Spike? Are you going to become a soldier?” Crimson Veil asked.

The drake nodded and replied: “Yes. I know that everyling has great expectations of me and I do want to help the best I can. Imagine this: once we defeat Celestia, the gryphons, pelicans and every race that turned their back to us, we’ll finally be able to come out of hiding and enjoy our rightful place under the Sun.”

His friends were both amazed and a bit wary of Spike’s speech. They worried because they didn’t want his friend to get hurt, but it was clear for them that being a soldier meant to put the well being of those you care about more than your own.

However, on the other side of the room, unknown to them, Ifrit and a few of his friends were sitting on a table eating as well. Ifrit couldn’t help but to overhear everything that Spike said and scoffed it.

He had plenty of witty remarks to make about Raizel’s death and how Spike would utterly fail, but he kept quiet. He learned to keep every nasty comment about others only to himself. It was a painful lesson he had learned years ago, after the Ball incident.

He wouldn’t even dare to voice it to his friends. He didn’t know if any of them could rat him out to his father. It had happened once when he commented about how it was unfair that he had to change school and insulted Bella Noche and Spike a lot to one of his new classmates expecting them to take his side. They did agree with him, but they had made the mistake of commenting this with their own parents and, eventually, the word got to Nocturne and he was even more punished.

He hated it. He adored his father. He was his hero. But he was refused to participate in his debut mission alongside him, because Spike and Bella Noche would be there and Nocturne’s words were “You can’t fool me, boy. You still bear hate towards them. You act like a petulant child by hating others for rightfully defending themselves from your unfair attack.”

So, in order to avoid conflicts that could endanger them all, Nocturne placed his son under Shadow Blade’s team. The mission was a success, but he loathed it because his father didn’t trust him. Yes, he hated Spike and Bella Noche, but he learned how to control his tongue. He had no idea how his dad knew about his feelings.

However, he found it ironic to say that a changeling performing unfair attacks is wrong, while they do it to others. Kill other races while they sleep is hardly a noble thing to do. Necessary, but he was aware that there was no honor in that. He wouldn’t dare to call him a hypocrite, thou.

Ifrit simply decided to ignore them for the time being. ‘Who cares if the prince fails or not. If he fails, great. He’s gone forever. If he succeeds, then we get a huge advantage, only at the price of having to stare at his smug face…I think I can live with that.’

After drinking some juice, not paying any attention to what his friends were talking about, he pondered: ‘But if he so much tries to screw us, I’ll personally kill him for endangering my kind.’

Shining Armor tried to rehearse many times in his head what he was supposed to say to his Princess. After a week of non-stop traveling he was finally arriving at Canterlot. The first thing he wanted was to stop b his house and make sure to tell his family he was alright, but he knew he had a duty to fulfil. The warming embrace of his parents could wait for a few more hours. Besides, he did send a letter to them as well when he had written one to Princess Celestia.

He sighed heavily as he looked through the window of the train. It was raining softly. The vehicle wasn’t very crowded, so he at least the place was quiet for him to think. But no matter how much he did, nothing that had transpired at the outpost made sense. He came up with theory after theory and each one was more ludicrous than the previous one.

The stallion then decided to relax a little. ‘No point being tired to the point I become a being a nervous wreck in front of the Princess, right?’ he thought as he closed his eyes and tried to focus solely on the sound of the wheels moving on the track.

A few hours later he arrived at Canterlot’s station and he rushed to the Castle. At the entrance, he talked to the guards about his appointment with Celestia and after checking with their superior, they discovered that an white unicorn named Shining Armor was to be brought immediately to the Princess, but they weren’t told why, though.

Shining could understand why it took so long for them to let him in. The security has to be tight and they simply couldn’t simply let anyone in just because they were wearing army armor.

After he was allowed inside, he was escorted by two pegasi guards to Celestia’s throne room. One of them had grey fur and the other had an orange one. Shining couldn’t tell the color of their manes much less their cutie marks because of the armor, but, by judging from their faces, the grey one was older.

“You’re that survivor from the outpost attacked recently, right? Man, I can’t wait until Princess Celestia uses your testimony to attack the gryphons.” The orange one said with a grin expression.

The grey one sighed and replied: “You really shouldn’t let your anger dictate your actions.”

The orange one stopped and snarled at the older soldier: “Those scum killed my sister when she was simply trading spices between the two kingdoms.”

Shining Armor stopped walking and said abruptly: “Hang on a second! I’m really sorry for your sister, but didn’t the princess tell anyone here? I mean, the gryphons weren’t the ones to attack our outpost. There were some members of some strange species I’ve never seen before there. One almost got me killed. I’m not even sure if they are allied with the gryphons or not.”

The orange pegasus then continued lashing out his anger: “They’ve robbed her clean and cut his head off. How do you expect me to be kind to those gryphons, plus there was enough evidence of who did it.”

The unicorn cringed at hearing this. He truly felt sorry for the guy’s loss and he wished to find a way to make this mess stop. But before he could come up with anything else to say the grey Pegasus interrupted them: “This is not time for this, Magnus. Despite of the things that happened we can’t jump into war because of what some random rogues did.”

Magnus scoffed and replied: “easy for you to say, Wind Breaker, you haven’t lost anyone because of the gryphons. And if their king won’t do anything to hunt them down it’s because he approves what has been happening to our people.”

Wind sighed and replied doing his best to not let the younger one’s low blow affect him: “Look, just don’t forget that some ponies are pretty much doing the same to them. Let the Princess decide whether or not this is an act of war, alright?”

This seemed to quiet Magnus down for the moment. Without adding words the grey Pegasus continued leadin Shining Armor to the throne room. Once they arrived the Sun Princess said: “Thank you for bringing him to me. Please leave us alone, we have plenty to discuss.”

The two pegasi bowed respectfully and left. Once they were alone, Shining Armor fidgeted a little in his place. He was a bit nervous to be in her presence alone. It was like she radiated a both elegant and commanding aura.

Noticing that the soldier was stiff, she quickly said with a gentle smile: “Don’t be like this, Shining Armor. May I call you Shining Armor instead of the rank? I’m your sister’s personal teacher. Just because I’m the Princess it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try feel comfortable near me. Have you visited your family yet?”

This did help the unicorn to relax a bit, but he found it to be odd for the Princess to be so casual with him, a mere soldier. He wondered if it had anything to do with his sister. “Uh…yes, you can call me that…I guess…*ahem* I intend to do so as soon as our meeting is over, your majesty. I’ve only sent a letter to them when I sent you yours…”

Celestia couldn’t help but to feel a bit uncomfortable herself. ‘Why does everypony act like I’m going to throw them into a dungeon if they talk to me like they would talk to everypony else…’

She also recorded how Twilight felt when she had heard the news that the outpost Shining was assigned to was destroyed. It broke her heart to see such young filly in so much pain. She even suspended the extra lessons and visited twilight daily to check how she was faring. But when she got her brother’s letter, she cried again, but this time it was of happiness.

“Then let’s hurry. I don’t want to keep your family waiting for you.” She started saying with a gentle voice, but her face became more serious as she continued: “Can you give me the full details of what happened. You mentioned seeing a species you’ve never seen before, correct?”

Shining Armor nodded and told her everything from that night with as much detail as he could, even about how a foal turned into a fireball and tackled him off the cliff.

Celestia didn’t interrupt him not even once. She paid attention to every word. She was very concerned about the description of the creature the Second Lieutenant found. The way he described him gave Celestia a sense of déjà vu. She had seen a creature with that appearance, but she couldn’t remember where. Besides, she was mystified that it could use magic as well.

‘An illusion spell? Those are very hard to pull off.’ She wondered after Shining Armor finished speaking. “What do you think of all this, Shining Armor?” She asked.

“I have a few theories myself, your majesty. Those creatures might be working with the gryphons, but it wouldn’t make sense to kill them. I mean, I doubt they were killed by the others soldiers there. I have no idea if Icarus is capable of ordering the death of his own people or not.”

Celestia then interrupted him raising the left hoof: “You say ‘they’. How do you know there were more?”

The unicorn replied: “Well, I have reason to believe that the foal who tackled me was one of them. Plus, I don’t remember seeing any body of civilian pony there...but it was raining and dark and I didn’t look around that much…But that foal, or whatever he was, was definitely protecting the creature.”

Celestia only hummed at the implications. The Second Lineament was right about one thing: there was no definite answer yet, however she had a pretty good guess that she was being toyed with somehow.

“Princess…do you know what those creatures are? I mean they look like ponies, but they have both horns and wings and had a bug face. Are…they like you? Oh…I’m sorry please…I…” he finished saying clearly in panic. He thought he had insulted Celestia somehow.

She suddenly snapped from her thoughts and said: “oh..uh…Sorry, Shining Armor. Don’t worry about that. I understand what you mean. I’m fairly certain they aren’t alicorns like me. I believe they’re something else. I have to check some old diaries in order to sure. I believe I’ve documented about them somewhere.”

The soldier relaxed a bit, but he reminded himself to watch his tongue in the future. “Is there anything else, I could help you with, your highness?”

The alicorn mused for a second and replied with a mischievous grin; “Yes. There’s a certain filly who misses her older brother very much. Could you go there and give her a hug?”

Shining Armor smiled softly and said: “With pleasure, your majesty. If you excuse me…” he said as he left the room.

Celestia’s smile faltered as she reminded herself to take a look at her journals. She truly didn’t want to read some of them because they also contained some painful memories she wanted to forget, but she always kept them because she didn’t know whether or not these memories would be useful.

As for Shining Armor, he did his best to hide his contempt for finally returning home after so long. Thanlfully he wasn’t stopped by curious soldiers who wanted to know about his meeting with the Princess.

The unicorn trotted as fast as he could back home and when he finally arrived he used his right hoof to knock the door as he said: “Mom! Dad! Twilie! I’m hom…” Shining Armor tried to say, but he was cut by the door suddenly opening and a quick tackle from a purple furred filly.

The two laid there on the floor for a few minutes. The small filly was crying softly on her brother’s fur. Shining hugged her back the whole time as well.

“Don’ scare me like that…” she said with a muffled sound because her muzzle was still pressed against the older unicorn’s chest.

“I’m sorry I worried you.” He spoke softly.

Soon their parents showed up at the door and Night Light said: “Welcome home, son.”

Doubt & Discovery

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A couple of weeks passed by quite fast and the classes for the changelings and Spike had just resumed their normal schedule. Spike found himself surprised for liking to resume his classes. It helped him readjusting better. It also helped Bella Noche as well. She was determined to try to live to honor her brother. She doubted he would be happy to see her depressed.

He beamed with joy when he managed to make her laugh and smile again after so much time. She had the support of all her friends and soon things seemed to be going back to old routine.

One day, after school, Bella Noche and Spike went to his home to do some homework and then leave to have some fun with their friends. The prospect of having fun with little adult supervision motivated the young teenagers to keep their school duties up to date.

But Chrysalis couldn’t help but to worry when her son went out of home with just his friends. She would almost always bombard him with questions about where he was, who he talked to. Spike found it a bit weird, but Bella Noche assured him that’s something all mothers did. She had seen Hecate doing it with her brother.

Speaking of which, Hecate kept assuring Chrysalis that Spike was teenager now. It’s only natural for him to want a bit more of freedom. The key was to give him the right amount, ground him in case he misbehave and don’t overly suspect of him unless he gave her a reason to.

After the teens arrived, they’ve gone upstairs and found Chrysalis, Hecate and a couple more of changelings moving some furniture around with their magic in order to clean under them. Once they’ve seen the two, the workers respectfully greeted them. The duo also replied to them politely. Spike and bella Noche then gave their respective mothers a hug.

After eyes the scene for a moment, Spike asked: “Can we help with anything?”

Chrysalis chuckled and replied half-jokingly: “Thanks, Spike, but some of the furniture here is heavy and we can’t have you sneezing with the dust. Imagine the damage.”

Spike blushed as he recorded a small incident when he was reading an old dusty book and he sneezing right over it, destroying it with fire. Thankfully it was just a story book and not anything or great importance. But Spike wanted to know how it would end…

“Maybe I can help, then!” Bella Noche offered as she levitate a couch off the ground. “Where do I put it?”

One of the janitors blinked surprised and pointed to the other side of the room. While the other just said: “Wow, kid. You are pretty strong!”

Bella Noche just blushed at the praise.

However, Hecate and Chrysalis looked at each other and, after whispering a little to each other, the Queen said to them: “Please, continue with the work. I’ll be back in a moment to assist you. Spike, Bella Noche, could you accompany us for a moment?”

“It’s okay, your Highness. We can handle it.” Spoke the first janitor with a grin.

However, the two teens were suddenly worried if they had done something bad. Once they all went to a separate room, away from everyling else’s ears, Spike asked: “Is this because I ate a full basket of diamonds yesterday? I promise to never do that again!”

Hecate chuckled and replied: “Well, you should learn to not spoil your appetite, Spike.”

“But I even asked for seconds yesterday!” spike replied raising his index finger from his right claw.

Chrysalis gave a light-hearted laugh and said: “It’s true. My son has a little vacuum inside of his stomach.” But then her face turned a bit serious and continued: “But it’s not the reason why I called you here.”

Then it was Hecate’s turn to ask: “Bella, dear, how long have your magic been this powerful?”

“I don’t know…I feel stronger at every year. But I seem to have some weird power surges in my magic form time to time.” Bella Noche said not really understanding what was happening with her body.

But Chrysalis and Hecate knew, while the other adults only suspected it. ‘This is it…There’s no way I can hide it from them anymore. If they don’t learn about it now, they’ll learn in school. How can I explain this…’ Chrysalis thought worried about what Spike’s reaction might be.

Spike tapped on his chin pensive and then replied: “Maybe it’s because of love magic.”

“Wait, what?” Chrysalis ended up blurting out as she looked shocked at her son.
Spike looked at his mother a bit confused, but then explained to his friend: “I’ve read about it somewhere when I was looking for ways to do magic years ago. Love is supposed to boost a changeling’s power. That’s why, during some missions, changelings kidnap other species and assume their form to suck the love out of them and further boost his or hers own power.”

Bella Noche seemed a bit distressed by hearing this: “But I don’t want to drain love from you, Spike! What if you get hurt?”

“I’ve read that there are some bad side effects when a changeling sucks love from another, like having headaches, that white part on the eyes turns green, they start acting like idiots and so on.” Spike replied trying to dismiss any worry from his friend.
Chrysalis simply stared at her son for almost a minute not knowing what to reply. But then Hecate decided to step in and talk to the kids: “You are quite correct, Spike. The reason why you feel no bad symptom is because you give Bella Noche, your mother and everyone you care about true love. That’s why we got a little more powerful over the years. We also love you and that’s why no harm had even come to you.”

After saying that Hecate looked at the Changeling Queen as if cueing her to say something. The two had discussed the about love magic and how it would affect Spike and came up with that theory. Their biggest worry was that Spike could think that he was being used in order to make them feel stronger, which was not the case. They deeply cared about the drake, but they could not blame him if he had misunderstood about the situation.

Chrysalis walked near her son and lowered her head to be near his and nuzzled him softly. A s he hugged her to respond to the affection, she spoke: “You see, son, changelings feed on love because it helps us feel complete. But, for some reason unknown to us, it doesn’t work when we love members of our own species. Some researchers even contemplated it’s because of those holes in our bodies, but they’ve arrived to no definite answer. It also boosts our power, but we would have to resort to trickery in order to get some from other species, as you know.”

The queen broke the hug to look straight into her son’s eyes and say: “It hurts them because they give us false love. We are not the ones who are truly the object of their affection and because of that we have to forcefully drain the love from them. It doesn’t hurt you because you truly love us and we truly love you back. This made us stronger without us even realizing.”

Spike pondered at his mother’s words, but Bella Noche was the first to ask her, with a fearful voice: “Uh…does that mean ponies, pelicans, gryphons, donkeys and all of all enemies can…love? I mean, how can they feel love if they are so cruel?”

Chrysalis looked at her and replied with a serious tone: “They are self-righteous creatures, Bella. They care for nothing but themselves. So they have their own twisted version of love, which probably part of the reason why it hurts them when we drain it. We fight them not because they are from a different species, but because those species had done irreparable harm to us. I know it sounds confusing, my dear, but just because they can feel some basic emotions, it doesn’t make them innocent.”

The little drake was amazed by his mother’s wisdom. He hated to admit it, but he did wonder if their enemies could feel love, hate, happiness, sorrow, among other emotions. But, after hearing that…and after Raizel’s death, he had to agree that others were vicious beings that couldn’t feel proper love towards others. But still…

“So…I get more powerful for being Spike’s friend?” Bella Noche asked, still uncertain.

Hecate nodded: “Yes, but it only works if what you feel toward each other is genuine. And I hope you two can be friends for life.”

The two teens nodded with wide grins. “Nothing would separate us! This is actually a good thing. Because my friends and family get to be stronger and defend themselves.” Spike boasted.

Chrysalis couldn’t help but to smile warmly and nuzzle her son’s face once again, trying to hold back the tears. “Now, the two of you should finish your homework and then you can go have fun. But remember to come back for dinner.”

Spike nodded and took his friend to his room to answer all those math problems.

After Chrysalis and Hecate were alone, Hecate spoke: “They grow really fast, don’t they…”

The Queen couldn’t only nod, letting her tears finally flowing. She felt very relieved to have this weight out of her chest. Her best fridn stood there comforting her and assuring everything would be okay.

At night, after he was lying on his bed, tired from the busy day, Spike couldn’t help but to think what his mother had explained to him about other species. He tried to dismiss it many times, but it always comes back to his head. He hated it.

The prince sighed and he turned to his side and closed his eyes. Then after a moments he opened them, but only halfway. He had never dared say anything before, but he too had a few doubts. His mother had cleared many of them, but there were a few left. He was absolutely sure it was necessary to take down all evil kingdoms and retake their homeland and teach everyone a lesson about not mistreating others. He would be by the changelings side to slay the enemy soldiers and protect his loved ones.

But what would happen next?

Would they kill the civilians too? Were the civilians evil? Did the civilians help and support the policy of the kingdoms to exclude other races?

‘They probably do think like that. I mean, what kind of evil dictatorship would be sustained when there are good citizens to fight against it. If they don’t fight against the evil things their kings, queens and other royalty do, then they are as evil as them…’ He thought sighing.

‘But…could they learn how to love?’ He wondered finally closing his eyes drifting to sleep.

Celestia had spent several nights rereading all her old journals. She used to make one journal per year, so she had quite the sum of books to read again. For a minute she thought of asking for help, since it would make things much faster. She chuckled at the thought of a certain filly who would be thrilled to take a look at everything Celestia had written in her life.

However, she could not ask anypony to help her. The reason was that she kept many secrets, letters, treaties, spells she had researched, dirty secrets from some previous kings from other nations, who threatened invade Equestria, how the defenses are to be organized in her own country, among other things.

She simply could not risk any of those secrets leaking out.

There were also tales of the times she had failed to defend those she cared about, like Fire Storm, the crystal ponies form the Crystal Empire who were now gone thanks to a maniac called Sombra and other dire happenings like the fall of her sister, Discord’s mean pranks, Tirek’s rampage and many others.

Celestia knew she had a quite good memory, so she must have met those creatures many centuries ago, which narrowed down her search, but it didn’t even half the amount of books she had to read.

So, she decided to start from the very first journal, when she was 145 years old. She smiled as she remembered how hard, yet gratifying, it was for her. She had just finished talking with the many representatives from the pony species ad started to discuss how to form Equestria ad unite all ponykind. She was a being much more powerful than any unicorn, earth pony or Pegasus since that age. Luna wasn’t far behind and she was 100 years younger than her.

At that time, her parents were still alive, who were also alicorns. The name of her mother was Galaxia, an alicorn with a golden fur and somewhat blinding shining mane, while the father was called Constellation, who didn’t even seem to have fur at all. His entire body was like a night sky with several stars literally moving around his body and mane.

The four of them were he last alicorns alive. The majority died trying to defend the world from the abominations from Tartarus, locking them away there. Unfortunately, the same fate eventually befall upon the couple, who fought bravely to stop a fell dragon, who had done a deal with the monsters in Tartarus to destroy the last living alicorns and release them all in exchange of power. The dragon become so powerful he could decimate villages with a single swoop of his claw.

She remembered with great grief as she had to bury her parents. The entire world rejoice their victory, but it was a grim day for her and Luna. The sister had placed upon themselves to create a nation strong and safe for the ponies. But they would always welcome any creature that chose to live there as well. The reason for that was that Celestia felt like she should be their protector. She was blessed with more power than the others, but she also knew that she should teach them how to live by themselves. She felt, and still does, like a teacher. It always make her full of joy when she sees her students overcoming difficulties all by themselves, and their friends of course. She tried only to intervene when it was matters related to politics or if a threat was too big the the average ponies to handle.

That’s the reason why she and Luna took upon themselves the task of controlling the Sun and the Moon, which was something that required the power of hundreds of unicorns.

It took them a few centuries to gather everypony who wanted to come with them to the land of Equestria, after all she wasn’t going to force anypony to join them if they were happy where they were. Because of that and also because of Celestia and Luna’s bravery, competence and power to be leaders, the ponies, almost unanimously nominated them their princesses. And the ones that had helped them leading each race eventually received noble titles given the proximity to the sisters in the chain of command.

Celestia chuckled at the memory of being so nervous when she had to command the ponies from the throne in a castle built in the area that is currently known as Manehattan. She could also tell that Luna was also very nervous, but she had assured her sister that everything would be fine.

Things were fine for a couple more centuries. But things started to get ugly when the pelicans waged war on the ponies to make them their slaves. There was even an entry in the journal saying “Why do some creatures want to feel superior in such twisted way?”

And up to this date, Celestia couldn’t find an answer for that question.

The ponies eventually won the war, but at a huge price. The pelicans had invented bombs and they almost completely destroyed their castle, homes, and even the agricultural fields in the area.

It had been Luna’s idea to move and find a better place to rebuild. While Celestia didn’t like the idea of leaving a place where she had lived for so long, she had to agree with Luna’s reasoning. The lands were scorched, nothing would grow there for a long time and it would be tremendously expensive to keep living there when they could try find a better place for their new home.

But that’s also when Luna started to show resentment against Celestia. The Sun Princess always suspected Luna’s resentment wasn’t solely related to the fact that she could barely interact with her subjects. There were plenty of times when Luna would be…too commanding with her ‘royal voice’ and it would scare others. Celestia did try to tell her sister to change the way she spoke, but it fell into deaf ears.

Not only that, even when both were side by side, the citizens always favored Celestia over Luna because the former treated the subjects in a much kinder way than the later.

Every attempt of conversation was usually quickly dismissed, which made Celestia worry even more. But the Sun Princess only started to fear her sister when she started to wear a strange blue armor and change her name to Nightmare Moon in order to “strike fear into the enemies hearts so they wouldn’t dare launch another attack like that against Equestria”.

They’ve wandered for many places around their nation, which was still full of undiscovered and unmapped places. Celestia used that opportunity to ask some ponies map the entire place, even if they wouldn’t be living there permanently.

One day Luna/Nightmare Moon left with an army and didn’t send any news for a long time. However, when they did, all it said was: “I’ve found the perfect place for our new castle, sister. It’s high in the mountains, but with escape routes and perfect view from afar if any enemy dares attack us. Follow the instructions and bring everypony with you.”

Celestia was actually relieved that their search had come to an end. Many of the survivors of the old Manehatan had left the group in order to join some other villagers they’ve met or even founded during the brief stay. But they still had several hundred ponies to help building the new capital city.

After they’ve arrived on the location, Celestia was amazed. It was a very beautiful place. She had left to explore on her own and found some strange oddities, like a few destroyed wood planks. She had once wondered if Luna had ordered building something and then giving up.

But then after a couple of days, after everything was in motion to construct the city of Canterlot, Celestia had gone flying to check the exits. Everything was very secure and all the vegetation was cleaned from the area giving a free path from every route. Everything was very nice and tidy. Celestia had been very impressed about how fast Nigh…Luna had worked.

There were fences to protect anypony from falling from the cliffs all the way down and she could see some piles and piles of already cut wood stored at the other side of the mountain, by its foot, when she checked. So, far she had liked the area.

But then, not too far from the wood she noticed some blood drops on the grass leading to a forest not far from there. She quickly went to investigate to see if anypony had been hurt, but what she found lying by a tree wasn’t a pony.

It was a…creature that had the general body structure of a pony. It had a horn, some insect wings and several holes on the legs. She had immediately thought some creature had made those holes, but upon inspection it seemed almost like this new species body was supposed to be this way.

She felt sorry for the poor thing and buried it in a piece of land where she thought it would be good for a cemetery. After she placed a tombstone before the buried stranger she stopped herself. She had no idea of what his name was.

She then had the idea of asking the ponies from Luna’s army or even Luna herself if she knew of any attack from wild beast and if they had seen some new species that looked like a pony.

The Sun Princess had even written in her journals that she had had asked those things in that order. The guards had no idea what Celestia was talking about when it came to the attack of some wild beast or new creature. But rereading this bit triggered her memories and she remembered that they had staggered a bit when asked about the pony-like creature.

Luna even looked especially cold when she replied that the land was empty, giving a weird emphasis on the word “empty”.

The Princess stared at her journal in horror as she finally realized another crime her sister had made. Her expression was painful like many old wounds had opened again.

“Oh…Luna…” Celestia couldn’t help but to mutter as she finally started to understand what her sister had done a millennia ago.

Time Flies By 2

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The couple of years that followed were quite full of interesting moments for Spike. He had continued following the army in missions, but they were mostly for recognition, scouting and even to trade goods.

The drake, now at the age of 15, had grown up a bit. He was about 10 inches shorter than an adult changeling and he also was developing a firm musculature given the strict exercises he had to perform every day at school. He had heard stories about how big dragons get. He shrugged to think how he would even fit inside of a home if he got too big. He didn’t want to have to live in a cave.

The drake also wondered why he hasn’t participated in more attack missions. He only participated in just another one and this time he was allowed to see the changelings killing some pelican travelers. His stomach knotted to see them killing them while they slept. He knew their actions were justified. He knew. He knew…

‘Man…I hope I don’t chicken when the time comes for me…’ Spike wondered as he reminisced the scene.

His relationship with Bella Noche had started to become…complicated. But not in a bad way. He started to think more and more about her every day. And he started to blush whenever the two touched.

‘She’s my best friend for crying out loud…’ the drake thought as he started to realize that he was feeling more than just fraternal love towards her. He didn’t even know what to say to her about it. Should he confess? Should he ignore this as if it were a temporary thing? He didn’t know.

‘What if she only wants to stay as friends? I could end up ruining our whole relationship.’ He thought as he walked alone towards the Cove.

Bella Noche had been sick that day, so she couldn’t attend school. Spike had plans of visiting her after he grabbed something for him and her to eat.

Spike arrived at the Cove and saw that the place was swarming with changelings. The dragon wondered if he was even going to find a place to sit there. But he first went to the counter to buy some fried fish on a stick. He stood at the line for twenty minutes until he managed to buy two and a apple juice. He intended to take some food afterwards to Bella Noche. ‘She might feel better after eating something tasty.’

But once he got his snack he almost dropped them when he didn’t find any empty table to sit. He walked around the place trying to find at least a table with a spare seat and ask if he could sit there.

His search paid off when he saw a small table with two seats and only one was being occupied at the left corner of the place. The changeling sitting there only had a beverage with a straw resting over the table while he read a…newspaper, which was floating right in front of him thanks to his magic.

Spike couldn’t exactly see who the changeling was, but the smell and magical field were familiar. He then approached and asked: “Hey…uh…do you mind if I sit here? The place is crowded. I promise you I won’t be a bother.”

The changeling, who didn’t care to put down the newspaper, simply replied also not seeing who was in front of him: “Sure. You can sit.”

“Thanks, man.” The prince replied happily taking the seat on the other side. Spike took a bite on one of his fish sticks as he read the cover of the newspaper, which said “New Colony Has Been Founded! Find More About It And What It Promises To Our Kind on Page A-5”

Spike had heard about the expansion of their kingdom from his mother. He had even asked his mother why they should invest so much expanding this place when their goal was to take their original land back. Her reply was “We don’t know when we are going to strike, Spike. And our people is always growing in numbers. We simply need more space.”

Although Spike admired General Nocturne, he still had a horrible relationship with his son. Every time the two met each other it was to death glare one another form across the room and then move on. Spike kinda hoped Ifrit would move there to be far, far away from…’well, crap.’

The changeling started to fold his newspaper only find out who was sitting in front of him. It was none other than Ifrit himself. Both teens just stood there staring at each other without actually saying anything.

But, after a while, Spike finally said starting to get up: “I’ll be on my way then.”

“You can stay. I’m not kicking you out of the table.” Ifrit said growling. The last thing he wanted was for the dragon start telling everyling about ‘how he was rude’. True, he wanted to tell the dragon to scram, but he knew of the consequences.

All Spike could say was “Huh?” with a confused expression.

“You know that we don’t have to talk to each other, right?” Ifrit spoke flatly trying to cut off any attempt of conversation from Spike.

Spike frowned. He really didn’t want to sit there, but there was nowhere else for him to sit. And he wouldn’t be able to carry his food and Bella Noche’s with his hands. So he decided to eat as fast as he could and then leave there.

Ifrit simply unfolded the newspaper and stared at some random page waiting for Spike to leave. He had already finished reading, but he would rather stare at the pages than at the dragon.

For some reason the silence bothered Spike. He honestly expected some kind of insult or comment from the changeling, but there was none. He should feel glad that he didn’t have to fight.

But still…

“Why are you reading a newspaper?” Spike asked, actually curious.

“To read the news?” Ifrity replied flatly turning a page to emphasize his pretend that he was reading.

Spike frowned and asked: “I could understand a magazine. But isn’t newspaper something only adults read? And you read it at a noisy place like this.” Spike was fully aware that newspapers were important for information, but they rarely brought any news and the way it was written always bored the hell out of the drake. Besides, his mother would tell him any important information.

Ifrit immediately lowered the newspaper and looked at the dragon dumbfold. “Seriously? The newspapers are important! You should know that! I just happen to be interested at what’s going on in our kingdom. Maybe you should start too.”

Spike then assumed a defensive instance: “I know they are important. But they are boring to read. I can get any important news elsewhere.”

The other teen opened his mouth and then closed it again. He really didn’t want to clash with Spike again. He simply raised the newspaper back again. After a minute, he heard the prince say: “It’s upside down?”

“What?”

Spike pointed to the paper and said: “Your newspaper. You’re staring at it upside down.”

Ifrit flustered and put the newspaper at the correct position and kept staring at it.

The drake’s frown deepened when he finally asked something that bothered him for a long time: “Why are you such a jerk?”

Ifrit almost slammed the newspaper on the table as he stared angrily at Spike. “I’m a jerk? You are the one who can’t keep the mouth shut for five minutes.”

“At best, or worse, depends on how you view it, I’m being merely impolite.” He said in his defense. “And I’m not talking about what’s going on here. Ever since we were kids you hated Bella Noche and I for no reason! And every time we meet each other, you look at me like I’ve done some kind of crime! I want to know what’s wrong with you!” Spike said almost shouting. Thankfully the place was crowded and his voice was muffled for everling else’s ears, but Ifrit’s.

“First of all, keep your voice down. The last thing either of us need is to make a scene here.” Ifrit hissed at him, then he semi-lied: “Second, I have nothing against your girlfriend or you anymore.”

Spike blushed a little bit, but then he said: “She is not my girlfriend…And I know you have something against us. Just spill it already.” As he finished saying it, he shoved both fish sticks inside of his mouth and ate them both without actually savoring their taste.

“Please. I don’t think she’s a bad changeling. I just think that she’s...” Ifrit started saying immediately stopping when he saw Spike’s angry look. But he then continued: “Imagine this, what if you saw a changeling with an extra eye, horn, wings, legs, head, etc.? Would you say, no matter what that they are pretty to look at?” Ifrit replied.

Spike growled and replied: “To begin with, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Second, even if I didn’t find someling ‘pretty’ I would never do anything bad to them just because of how they look.”

The changeling resisted the urge to roll his eyes and replied trying to mock the dragon subtly, but not actually managing to: “You’re a saint, prince. Why are you even in the army considering what they do.”

“What they do...” Spike found himself repeating what the other teen had said. “They fight bravely to defeat our enemies. Sure, it’s dangerous, but if we don’t do it, then we would starve to death.”

Ifrit held back his laughter at the mention of the word ‘bravely’ and simply replied: “Whatever floats your boat.”

Spike couldn’t understand that guy. “What do you mean? Aren’t you part of another squadron yourself? I’ve heard it from your dad.”

The changeling gritted his teeth as he hissed: “Don’t you dare talk about my dad with me.”

The other teen was confused at his words and asked: “What do you mean?”

Ifrit was panting at this point. His head told him to stop, but his heart wanted to let it all out: “You stole my dad’s respect from me. I hardly earned a praise or a smile ever since we thought all those years back. No matter how hard I try to mend myself. It’s never good enough for him. To make things worse, you get to be on his squadron and not me!”

Spike looked baffled at the changeling, who was panting by now. But then, the prince’s expression became serious as he said: “This is not my fault! How can you blame me for this? I merely defended myself and my friend from an unfair attack from you!”

“I know that I shouldn’t have insulted her now. No matter how weird or ugly someling is, it’s not reason for me to insult or do anything bad. All I have to do is not interact with them or maybe look at some good quality on them. I know that now. I’ve heard this speech a thousand times. I don’t hate her. I hate you. My dad is always praising you. I’m always being compared to you and having to hear about how much better you are than me. It’s almost like you are his son and not me!”

Spike was speechless. He didn’t know that things were like that with him. But he had to say “It’s not my fault if you dad acts like that at home, Ifrit. And both of us know that any harsh treatment only happened because you crossed the line back then. ”

“So my life has to be ruined because of one dumb mistake I did as a kid?” He mumbled to no one in particular.

“You could…Maybe just do your best. If your dad doesn’t recognize your efforts, at least you know you are doing your best and that’s what matters at the end, doesn’t it?” Spike tried to console him.

The silence that came after that was a bit too awkward for Spike, who couldn’t help but to feel a bit of pity for him. He picked his beverage and started to drink it. Then he remembered that part of the conversation remained unanswered, so he asked: “What did you mean when you said ‘considering what the army does’ back then?”

Ifrit glared at Spike as if he admitted defeat then said: “I do what is necessary for us, as you said. But, at the very least, my dear prince, I don’t go around spewing nonsense about bravery and honor when there’s none.”

Ifriti immediately bit his own tongue. He had let his anger and sorrow to get better of himself and he said something that could cost his very life to the prince. ‘I’m dead…this guy is surely going to tell everyling that…’

“What do you mean?” Spike whispered back frowning a bit.

“Nothing!” Ifrit quickly replied.

“You don’t think our duty is honorable?” Spike insisted. He knew he shouldn’t press this matter, but he wondered how the son of one of the most respectable generals thought such a thing. He thought he was the only one…

Feeling between a stone and a hard place, Ifrit pondered his options. He could try dismiss what he had just said and play dumb at the risk of the drake making a scene or he should tell the truth at the risk of the dragon rating him out. ‘I hate my life…’ the changeling thought.

“How can you call killing during their sleep, fool them long enough to backstab, among other tactics you are probably aware by now, honorable? If we were to fight head on with them it would be better, in the moral sense. But we aren’t that numerous to wage such a war against several nations, so it’s understandable that we use such tactics. Besides, we kill people not even related to the army, the royalty, including children. I know that they are guilty of perpetuating our exile from our rightful land, but kill others who don’t even know a thing about what was done to us?” Ifrit muttered. If he had to be killed for his words, at least he would do so with a clean conscience.

Spike stood there silently for a few minutes as he pondered what he had just been told. “But…aren’t they all evil?”

Ifrit was honestly surprised by this. “That’s what everyling says. But I’ve seen them caring for each other. I even wonder if some of them would even take our side if they were to know what had happened. We didn’t exactly lived in secrecy. We had trade routes with a few nations, but they all refused to help us when Nightmare Moon started persecuting us. So they all have their share on the blame. But, the thing is that the ones that did horrible things to us are already dead.”

“Yeah…” Spike found himself agreeing with him. But then he turned to him and said: “So…do you think they could learn? I mean, maybe we can get some ponies and…I dunno…maybe talk to them or even force them to respect other species if they happen to be mean.” Spike suggested shrugging a bit.

Ifrit sent him an annoyed glance. He sighed and then replied: “Keep some people from other species? As in slaves? It wouldn’t work. Why do you think we never made any prisoners? It’s because it would be our doom.”

Spike didn’t quit understand what he was talking about and asked: “Care to elaborate?”

Ifrit resisted the urge to groan and then replied: “Think about it for a minute. If we kept ponies, they would try to revolt. Plus, even if we get a small number, they would have children and, one day, they might be numerous enough to overthrow us. Even if we were to keep their numbers low, it would still damage us. We would impose on them the hard labor, which not only would cause unemployment among us besides the fact that it would make us lazy, while they get strong. So, this way, even in a small number they might still cause a huge damage.”

“Oh…” It was all Spike could say as he looked at his beverage. The silence was thick for a few seconds until the drake spoke again: “Did they teach you that at your school?”

Ifrit shook his head and spoke without thinking: “No. I’ve asked my dad why don’t we make prisoners and make them pay for their crimes with labor than with their lives. That was what he told me.”

“Why were you curious about this? You think we can end up making truce with the other nations too?” Spike asked interested. Before that moment he had never thought Ifrit had a conscience before.

“Says the prince. You know that speaking in favor of the enemies, can be seen as high treason, right? We aren’t kids anymore. We would be executed on the spot. Don’t think that just because you’re royalty, you’re immune.” Ifrit spat being careful to not shout.

The drake once again frowned. Not just because of his tone, but also because he was partially correct. Spike’s heart was 100% on the changelings side, but he knew that some might take it the wrong way if he tried to come up with some sort of pacific solution.

“I guess you are right…” Spike muttered feeling a bit down. “Some of them really deserve what we do to them. But, who knows, maybe mom will think of something once we dethrone Celestia. She would never cause mass genocide of many species different species after we won and subjugated them. Maybe some form of banishment and constant vigilance so they don’t try to harm us again.”

“You know this is very unlikely to happen, right?” Ifrit spoke surprisingly trying to think of a way to make Spike’s idea viable. He shook his head trying to force himself to remember who he was talking to. The last think he wanted was to actually to start liking the dragon.

The prince then looked at the clock on one of the walls and saw it was getting late already. “Hey, Ifrit, I need to be heading home. It was…interesting to talk with you.” He said chuckling, but he then immediately regretted it thinking that the changeling might take it the wrong way.

But to the surprise of them both, Ifrit smiled back and replied truthfully: “I can say the same towards you, Spike.”

“See ya some other day?” Spike asked.

The changeling nodded “Sure…I guess…”

Then, after that, Spike got up to buy Bella Noche some apples covered in honey and chocolate, her favorite snacks before leaving towards her home. Not too long after that, Ifrit got up and headed towards his home.

‘I guess he isn’t so bad after all.’ They thought in unison.

Not So Hidden Feelings

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Spike had taken the food he had bought from the Cove and walked straight to Bella Noche’s home. The short travel had been uneventful, expect for the thoughts he had about his earlier talk with Ifrit.

While he was glad to put behind him the past animosity he had with the changeling, he was doubtful he could even talk with others about the subjects he had discussed with him. He knew he could trust Bella Noche, but Ifrit had indeed hurt her when they were younger. So, the drake decided to wait a bit more before he could bring up the subject that Ifrit may not be an obnoxious guy anymore.

Once Spike arrived, he looked around if there wasn’t anyone near and then he moved a loose stone from the floor to reveal a hole in it and inside of it there was a key. The drake had been told about the secret hiding place of the key in case of emergencies and, for the young dragon this was one. Sort of.

Hecate was at work and Bella Noche was on her bed, resting. He didn’t want to force his friend to get up to answer the door. He opened the door, looked around once more and placed the key back to its original place. He got into the house and locked it form inside and resisted the urge to sprint to her bedroom. He didn’t want to cause a ruckus. If she were sleeping, he would simply to lave the snacks there alongside a note.

In front of her room he knocked the door and asked, “Bella? Are you awake?”

He beamed when he heard the reply from the other side, “Spike? Please come in!”

The dragon opened the door and saw his friend lying of her bed, covered with a green blanket. Her bedroom had a two chairs next to a quite big desk, which had a candle, books and pencils over it. There was also a bedside table, a wardrobe and a few pictures hanging on the walls. There was a picture with Spike and her playing under the rain, when they were eight years old.

The drake smiled at the memory he had had a lot of fun with his friend, too bad both of them got a cold on soon after that.

“Hey, Spike,” she then coughed a couple of times before continuing, “How are you doing?”

He turned his friend and asked, “I’m doing great,” but his face showed concern as he walked next to her and sit on the edge of the bed, next to her, “But, more importantly, how are YOU?”

She sat down on the bed as well and made a silly pouting face as she said, “It’s just this stupid changeling flu that is taking so long to go away. You are so lucky for being immune!” She then stretched her tongue to mock him a little bit.

Spike laughed and replied, “Yup. You must be feeling much better.”

Her face softened and smiled back, “Yeah. My throat is better, but I still have a fever and this cough won’t let go.”

She coughed a few more of times then looked at her friend holding a paper bag. “What is that?”

Spike remembered of the snacks and replied opening the bag and picking one of the apples covered in chocolate and honey. “I’ve brought this to you.” Then he swelled his chest and changed the tone of his voice to sound more adult, “You need to eat well to recover faster! So, gobble up!”

She giggled before she replied, “Oh, really? A responsible adult would offer me a more healthy food, you know.”

Then she saw the apple very near of her face. She looked at Spike’s emerald green eyes and almost felt lost in them until she remembered the snack in front of her and opened her mouth to bit it.

She chewed a few times and displayed a satisfied grin. She loved this candy. The changeling stared back at Spike who was now showing a concerned expression, “Are you feeling well? You face got much redder suddenly. Where is the thermometer?”

Bella Noche realizing that she was actually blushing and Spike obliviousness only made it much more embarrassing. “No, no. I’m okay, really.”

The drake tilted his head, not convinced, “You sure?”

“Yes!” she quickly replied, using her own magic to levitate the apple out of Spike’s hand and be able to eat it herself.

The drake was a bit confused, but he paid no mind to it. He was glad that his friend was eating the food he had brought. He found it fascinating to see her eating well. He couldn’t wait for her to get well so they could have fun together again soon.

Once she finished the apples, Bella Noche let out a sigh saying, “I feel full.”

Spike chuckled and noticed that there were a few crumbles next to her mouth. He got a bit closer and used his claws to gently wipe them from her face.

This caught her by surprise and made her blush even harder. This time Spike notice what her reaction actually was and he blushed as well, embarrassed. “Ah…I’m sorry, Bella.”

She didn’t reply. Their eyes simply locked on each other and both didn’t know what to say.

‘Has she always been this beautiful?’ Spike thought. Part of his mind was screaming, saying that she was his best friend, while other wanted them to become something more.

There was something in Bella Noche’s chest that ached, that longed, for some time now, as well.

She didn’t think. She simply leaned forward and kissed Spike on the mouth. The dragon was startled at first. This was a whole new sensation for him. That had been their very first kiss.

When they broke the kiss, they were both panting. Bella didn’t know what came over her. ‘When did I become so bold?’ she wondered.

“Spike, I’m sorry…I don’t know what came over me.” she tried to apologize, hoping that he wasn’t mad.

“I…uh…” Spike wasn’t even sure what to say, “It was sweet…that the taste that is…”, then he quickly added in his head, ‘DUMB! DUMB! DUMB, SPIKE!’

“Ah…” she said remembering that she had just eating a very sweet food. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be! I mean, I liked it. I mean…geez!” Spike scratched the side of his head trying to think of the right words as he blushed as well. He gathered all the courage to be able to blurt, “I like you very much, Bella.”

‘Why does this have to be so awkward?’ he said in his mind.

She tried to look away, before saying, “I like you too Spike. I’m sorry for kissing you so suddenly. It’s just…”

Spike then placed his right hand under her chin and carefully turned her head so their eyes could meet. “I’ve also been thinking about this lately. I mean, we’ve been friends since, like forever and I’ve been struggling with these feelings. Do you think, we should give it a chance. Us, I mean.”

“Do you really mean that?” She asked, hopeful.

Spike pushed aside his uncertainty. He truly cared for her and he loved her very much, “With all my heart.”

Then, this time, Spike was the one to kiss her and they remained like that for a few minutes.

Both of them wanted that moment to last forever.

My number one dark knight

by Angelus Alvus

Prologue

To Raise a Dragon

Time Flies By 1

And so Begins the School

Friend

Magic

The Ball

The Test

Modus Operandi: Trojan Horse

Burial and Suspicions

Skeletons in the Closet

Doubt & Discovery

Time Flies By 2

Not So Hidden Feelings