> The New Bearers
>  by PioneerofImagination
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Problems with Change
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Land of Equestria a place where ponies live together in perfect harmony, well not perfect there's quite a few trouble makers that run around from time to time. Also it's not just ponies that live here I'm a bit of an exception. My name is Spike and this is the story of an amazing adventure I went on, well it was more than 1 and it wasn't just me, uh you know what let me start from the beginning. It all started after Twilight and her friends defeated a creature known as Tirek and a castle came out of the ground thanks to the Tree of Harmony. Twilight had adjusted to living there but one day when I was cleaning a bit and found a big surprise.

"Geez how the heck does this place get so dirty?" I asked as I kept sweeping but shortly afterwards I put the broom away to take a break. I walked down to the castle and passed the library as I looked over at the Elements of Harmony for no apparent reason. I thought I was in the mood for some pancakes and maybe a few gemstones to go with them. "Wait a minute?" I asked as I ran back to the library section of the castle and went inside for a closer look. 

"What are the elements doing here?!" I said as I almost screamed, when the Everfree Forest tried to invade Twilight and her friends had to give their elements to the Tree of Harmony to stop the whole thing. "None of this makes any sense, I gotta find Twilight maybe she'll know what's going on, I mean with all those books she reads she's gotta know something." After that I made my way around the castle trying to find Twilight but she was nowhere to be found and I wouldn't have time to look for her long, as there was a knock at the door before I could answer it though the pony on the other side opened it by themselves.

"Twily?" A certain unicorn stallion that I'll get to in a minute said as he walked in to look for the same pony I was. When he saw my shadow he mistook it for Twilight's for some reason even though we look nothing alike and ran over to greet what he thought was his sister. "Surprise!" Hearing that made me almost jump out of my skin.

"What's with the sudden heart attack?" I asked as I turned around.

"Oh it's just you."

"It's nice to see you too Shining Armor," I answered. Like I already said this is Shining Armor Twilight's older brother, I don't really like him very much. Why? It's kind of a long story. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see how my sister was doing to surprise her so where is she?" 

"I don't know I'm trying to find her too so I can tell her about the Elements of Harmony coming back."

"What?" Shining Armor asked and after I explained more he went to see the Elements themselves but when he did the Element of Magic flung itself to right on Shining Armor's head. "What the? What's going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know," I answered. Now there were 2 mysteries: why are the elements back and why did it just stick to Shining Armor? No 3 mysteries where is Twilight because she isn't usually this hard to find, something or rather several somethings weird was going on and I was going to get to the bottom of this. After I looked around a bit I was sure Twilight wasn't there, so I headed out to look for her. I decided to head to Rarity's first since I was planning on visiting her anyway since I'll use any excuse to go see her. 

Ah Rarity when I first set my eyes on you I knew I found the most beautiful creature that ever lived, oh Rarity if you only knew how much I cared for, uh going to go visit Rarity and ask if she saw Twilight to right!

Note to self edit that out later.    

"Spike, wait up where are you going?" Shining Armor called out as he ran after me a bit and still had the Element of Magic on him. I told my plan to see Rarity and he wanted to come with me but when we got there she wasn't home either and this was when I was starting to get worried. 

"This doesn't make any sense Rarity wouldn't just leave her store unattended like this," I said trying to see if she left a note or something but there wasn't one. "I don't like this. I don't like this one bit where has everypony gone off to?" 

"Look we're going to figure this out," Shining Armor told me in surprisingly a rather caring tone. 

"Yeah you're right we got to head back to the castle."

"Why is there something you forgot that could help us out?"

"Yeah I forgot to have breakfast."

"Are you serious?" 

"What you can't solve a mystery on an empty stomach, gotta have calories." I made my way back to the castle where I was going to have the pancakes and gemstones I planned on getting when we received yet another surprise. 

"SURPRISE!" Cheese Sandwich of all ponies yelled out when we got inside spooking me but flipping Shining Armor on his back. "Hey you 2 aren't Pinkie Pie, doesn't she live here?"

"No," I answered.

"Dang I was 17% sure she lived here? By the way, and I probably should have asked this first, why won't this come off?" Cheese Sandwich then showed he had the Element of Laughter on him and he couldn't get it off.

"Why is that on you?!" Shining Armor asked as he got back up but was breathing rather hard as the surprise still had spooked a bit which honestly I found rather funny.

"Beats the heck out of me I was hoping you'd know," Cheese answered I was about to say something when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door and when I answered Soaring flew in.

"Hey, have any of you seen Rainbow Dash?" Soarin asked. 

"No," we all answered to Soarin's clear frustration. 

"Shoot," he replied. "I was supposed to train her a bit to help her move up in the future Wonderbolt pecking order but she wasn't at home." 

"Rainbow Dash is missing too?" I asked as I was starting to panic a bit.   

"Yeah that's why I came here, well first I went to her old friend Fluttershy's cottage and then Sugarcube Corner to ask if Pinkie Pie saw her, and to get a pie. But neither of them were there, are you sure Dash isn't here mind if I take a look around?" Soarin then flew around before any of us could ask and when he arrived back he had the Element of Loyalty on him and like the others it wouldn't come off.

"Okay I don't want to freak out but this won't come off. What the heck is going on here?" Soaring asked. 

"That's what we need to find out," I said, getting everypony's attention. First I had my breakfast as I was getting rather hungry and I even made some for Soaring and Cheese Sandwich as I could tell they were rather hungry. Shining Armor on the other claw just stood around trying to think up what to do. After I finally got something to eat I got up and then grabbed the remaining elements so any other ponies that felt like visiting the castle wouldn't have them get stuck to them as well. We then made our way to Sweet Apple Acres in hopes that Applejack was there and that she might be able to provide info on just what the heck is going on. 

When we got there we came across Big Macintosh and Cheerilee who were returning to the farm around the same time as my group. Before I could say anything to either of them Apple Bloom ran over to them. "Well did you find Applejack?"

"Nope," Big Mac said.

"I'm sure she's all right, your sister is a tough pony," Cheerilee added.

"Eeyup." Hearing that I made my way to the 3 of them when suddenly the elements of kindness and honesty flew off as if they had a mind of their own. The ladder put itself on Big Mac while the former went on Cheerilee who like the rest of us were quite puzzled. 

"Hey what's going on?" Cheerilee asked as she tried to get the Element of Kindness off but like the others it stuck like glue. "Do you know what's going on?" 

"Nope," Big Mac answered. 

"Again?!" I said about to flip my lid. "What the heck is going on around here?!" I asked as I started to stomp around a bit. 

"I can explain it all to you I bet and now with me here we have a complete set," Zecora answered and as she approached the final element the Element of Generosity connected itself to her. 

"Well at least I don't have to carry the elements around." 

"Okay about that," Soarin said. "I thought Dash said the elements were given to the Tree of Harmony after she fought off a series of roots to protect her friends."

"Wait, Rainbow Dash said what?" I asked before I shrugged it off. "You know what, never mind it's not all that important right now Zecora what is going on?" 

"This is something rather hard to be exact but to help restore balance the elements of harmony needed to come back."

"Oh yeah, balance, that can be really tricky," Cheese Sandwich said. "I've tried balancing on a unicycle while it's on top of a large ball, let me tell you it was not easy."
 
"Balance? balance of what?" Cheerilee asked.

"Balance of forces that are in need of a fix and so to do just that the elements have chosen a new 6."

"Did Twilight explain all of this to you or something?" I asked.

"Twilight sensed the imbalance from far away so she and her friends went to check it out and see if they could keep the forces at bay. Twilight now an alicorn sensed something amiss and came to me to ask for help with the others who some call the mane 6."

"Uh who calls them that exactly?" I asked.

"I think she just needed something to make the sentence rhyme," Cheerilee said to me. 

"They went off to see what the balance lacked but as of yet they have not come back." Zecora then showed us a map that she showed Twilight and I saw an x and figured that's where Twilight and the others went. 

"All right thanks Zecora now I know where I can find Twilight." I grabbed the map and was about to head out when suddenly  Cheerilee grabbed me by the shoulder. 

"Hold on Spike, that's a rather far away location you can't be thinking of just going off all alone?"

"I can handle myself," I told her as I removed her hoof.

"Handling yourself is one thing but you have no idea what's out there," Soarin said.

"Indeed perhaps we were chosen to do this task together with our combined forces we might be able to handle any endeavor." After that we wasted no time in getting ready to head out to where the others went as we wanted to get them back as quick as possible as well as get to the bottom of what the heck was going on. Apple Bloom wanted to come along as well but Big Mac told her she needed her to stay at Sweet Apple Acres to take care of things and in case Twilight's group returned before we did.

"Can we get a move on?" Shining Armor asked.

"Almost done, we just have a few things to load on the wagon before we head out," Cheerilee answered. "It is just a few more things right Big Mac?"

"Eeyup."

"Do we even need all of this stuff?" Shining Armor asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered.

"Is that wagon even going to be able to hold all that stuff?" Shining Armor asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered a little annoyed now.

"For that matter are you sure you're strong enough to pull the wagon, all of that stuff, and us?" Shining Armor asked. 

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered yet again but this time with a rather loud groan first.

"Okay okay Big Mac no need to get upset," Cheerilee said. "And Shining Armor it's rather frustrating to others when you ask question after question one right after the other."

"I just want to get going. My sister could be in serious danger for crying out loud and he's putting half the farm on that wagon."

"This is the last thing you wanted me to get Big Mac," Soarin said who gathered the things Big Mac thought we'd need for our trip in hardly any time since he was a Wonderbolt. He dropped the said item into the wagon and then we set out to find Twilight's group. As we headed out I thought about Twilight but I also thought about the others most of all Rarity for reasons I don't want to explain because I already have one spot I need to edit later already. The funny thing about this is that I thought we were going to run into a couple dangerous obstacles on our way but it wasn't until we were around halfway there that we ran into what you could consider an obstacle, the changeling hive. Nasty creatures that tried to take over Equestria once but thanks to Shining Armor and Cadence but mostly Twilight because she saw through the queen they were stopped, but now we somehow came across where they live. 

"Changelings huh?" Cheese Sandwich said as I could tell he was trying to think of something funny to try and lighten the mood. "Well maybe things will change for the actually you know what never mind that's just way too easy."

"Well I was hoping that this was just going to be a simple road trip," Cheerilee said. "So much for that."

"Your optimism and hope was not misplaced, I find that to be some of your best traits," Zecora said.

"Eeyup," Big Mac added.

"Do you think Dash and her friends might be in there?"

"I suppose it's quite possible Twily and her friends looked for what the heck they're looking for and then the changelings attack them out of nowhere," Shining Armor said. "Then after capturing them they get dragged here."

"But how do we know for sure?" I ask as I started to worry again.

"I could ask them if they have them in there or not," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Ask them, are you kidding me?" Shining Armor said to Cheese Sandwich. "After what they did there's no way they're going to help us out." 

"So what are we going to do?" Cheerilee asked.

"Simple," Shining Armor asked with a cocky smile. "I'll take them all out like I did last time."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Big Mac asked which was a big surprise on my part because he wasn't really much of a talker. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shining Armor asked.

"I'm just saying that's kind of a tall order. There's probably a lot of changelings in there, too much for you to handle on your own."

"I'll have you know that I'm captain of the royal guard," Shining Armor said as he got right in Big Mac's face.

"But you're still only one pony and one pony plus loads of changelings don't add up-"

"Fine," Shining interrupted rather rudely as he began to charge up his horn but when he performed the same spell he used last time to defeat the changelings it didn't go anywhere near the hive. "What the?" Shining Armor said confused at what just happened he tried to fire a much smaller spell but the beam of magic disappeared as quickly as it finished.  

"Your magic cannot seem to get far, that is no doubt something most bizarre," Zecora said.

"Yeah what the heck is going on?" Soarin said as he flew to where the spell disappeared then grabbed a rock and held it over his head. "Shining, try to get this rock." Shining Armor tried to but his magic didn't reach it no matter how many times he tried. "This just doesn't add up."

"Something is blocking Shining Armor's magic," Cheerilee said. "The changelings must have some sort of artifact that blocks your magic."

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed. 

"So what are we supposed to do if Shining Armor can't use his magic we can't fight all the changelings?" I asked.

"Nope," Big Mac replied.

"Anypony got any ideas?" Cheerilee asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac replied as he used his hoof to draw a plan in the dirt. Big Mac had a plan for us to sneak into the hive and see if Twilight and the others were there. If so we would cause a distraction and break them out and escape in all the confusion, if not we'd leave as quick as we entered and continue to search for them elsewhere. We quickly made our way down, there wasn't anyplace to hide behind but we were able to get to the hive though that was the easy part. Turned out that the hive was constantly changing making it almost impossible to not get lost but miraculously we were able to get around. Thankfully before long we were able to find just the ponies we were looking for all together locked in a cell.

"TWI-" I was about to yell out Twilight's name but she quickly gestured me to be quiet as well as others so I did. They all then pointed to the right and to our collective shock saw the queen of the changelings sleeping not too far away. We quietly made our way over to the cell where I hugged Twilight and Shining Armor did the same with Cadence. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that didn't I? Shining Armor mentioned earlier how Cadence went to surprise Twilight with a visit and apparently ended up going with her.

"Spike what in the name of Equestria are you doing here and why do you have the elements?" Twilight asked.

"We came looking for you, as for the elements they just came with us," I answered. "But how did you get here?" 

"We went to investigate a strange magical imbalance but when we went out the changelings attacked us and locked us in here." 

"Guess you call it right," Cheerilee said to Shining Armor.

"Well don't worry we'll get you out, does somepony have anything that will pick the lock?" Soarin asked.

"We tried that already," Fluttershy said.

"Yes nothing worked unfortunately," Rarity said. "Forcing our group to stay in such a horrid and colorless environment," Rarity added with a rather rich vocabulary which I admired affectionately. How could she make me love her just by using rather big words? Perhaps it was simply the beautiful voice that said them and how she does that beautiful thing where she moves her curls a bit and, oh gosh I'm doing it again I'll have to remember to edit this out later too. Where was I oh right. 

"When we first got here I tried to use my magic but nothing worked," Twilight said. 

"I had the same problem," Shining Armor added.

"I overheard the changelings talking about how Chrysalis's throne blocks all magic except for changeling magic," Cadence said. 

"There is a way for you to escape that I see we can open this lock by simply locating the key." 

"We already did Zecora," Twilight said as she looked over to the sleeping changeling. "The key is around her neck."

"Oh, that's gonna be a problem," Cheese Sandwich said.

"But if somepony could get it we can all get out of here," Cheerilee said. 

"I could try," Soarin said. "I could quietly glide over to her and grab it."

"No you can't Soarin," Rainbow Dash to him rather protectively I noticed which makes sense considering what happens later  but I'm getting ahead of myself. "What if she wakes up and sees you?" Everypony then exchanged ideas trying to figure out what to do but we couldn't seem to figure out a good plan.

"I'll get the key," I said to everypony's shock most of all Twilight.

"Spike no you can't!" Twilight said, trying to grab me through the bars.

"If she wakes up I'll make up something about how I wandered in to look for treasure if anypony else tries she won't buy it, since you're all ponies."

"Oh, that makes sense," Cheese Sandwich said. Twilight still tried to talk me out of it but I went ahead and told the rest of my group to hide in case Chrysalis woke up. They didn't like it but did it anyway because time wasn't on our side, she could wake up at any minute and we couldn't think of another plan. 

"Oh Spikey Wikey this is so brave of you," Rarity said which made me blush a little as I was already making my way over. Needless to say I was rather terrified but I kept getting closer and closer to the sleeping queen. When I got close enough to see the key around her neck I jumped back when Chrysalis snorted as I thought she was going to wake up. I froze for a moment, a rather long moment but then I started to move again, though at that moment I really wish I had psychic powers that would lift the key up for me. 

"Well he's doing good so far," Cheerilee said while with the others that I could barely hear. 

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed that I was able to hear a little better. I made my way up the throne Chrysalis was sleeping on and grabbed for the key but Chrysalis moved around and I had to duck a bit to avoid one of her legs bumping into me and waking her up. I raised my head up and made sure to take quick and very quiet breaths then I slowly reached out again and I could feel everypony's eyes on me as I did. I was about to grab it but Chrysalis moved again and grabbed me which nearly made me scream like a little filly. Luckily she was still asleep but I had to be careful and think fast. So that's just what I did, I reached out to slightly tickle one of her ears which made Chrysalis rub it but her leg returned to where it was.

"Come on," I said in a whisper under my breath as I tickled her ear again. She did the same thing so I tickled more the third time and faster making Chrysalis rub it with her leg but more which gave me the extra seconds I needed to finally grab the key. Chrysalis then turned over just as I got the key which made it easier to get out from under her as I once again made sure not to bump into her, after that it was just a matter of climbing down. Once I did I held the key up and everypony smiled at me even Shining Armor while justly proud of what I did I still made sure to walk back quietly. 

"Way to go little guy," Cheese Sandwich said. 

Okay almost out of here, I thought to myself. Just need to get to the cell and get us all out of here before Chrysalis- my train of thought was shut down so to speak when I was lifted up in a green aura and pulled back to the throne with a very angry queen looking right into my soul. Wakes up, I thought deciding to finish my thought while the others hid and most likely tried to figure out what to do.

"What are you doing in my hive little dragon?" She asked.

"I-I came looking for treasure," I lied, falling back on the idea I had earlier. 

"Oh really?" Chrysalis asked with a very doubting look as she took the key back. "Does this look like treasure to you?"

"Y-yeah I thought it looked pretty."

"This is bad, I don't think she's buying that," Soarin said. 

"Nope." 

"We have to help him but how?" Cheerilee asked.

"We'll need some sort of diversion," Shining Armor said.

"Diversion right," Cheese Sandwich added. "Uh let me see." Cheese Sandwich tried to think but accidentally pushed the button of this strange party machine he brought with him planning to use it as a diversion but not right now. 

"NO!" The others said together as Cheese pounded on the machine trying to get it to stop which he did eventually.

"Heh heh, I-I'm sure none of them heard that," Cheese Sandwich said when suddenly he and the others were teleported out of where they were hiding by Chrysalis with an army of changelings surrounding them. "Yeah, yeah they heard it."

"I hate you so much right now," Shining Armor replied. Chrysalis then approached my group while carrying me with her magic. 

"Well well well my almost husband, what are you doing here come to ask for my hoof in marriage in equine?" Chrysalis asked as she laughed a bit. 

"Not if you were the last mare on the planet."

"Ouch," Chrysalis said as she slowly made her way around the changelings between us and them. "Quite a nasty temper you got there don't you perhaps I dodged a bullet when a certain unicorn spoiled my, wait a minute," Chrysalis said as she turned and stared at me. "I thought you looked familiar to me, you're that little dragon that was at Canterlot when my army invaded."

Busted, I thought as Chrysalis put me with the rest of my group. 

"I see now you came here with the rest of this lot to help out the other ponies I captured," Chrysalis made her way over to the cell. "I've been keeping an eye on you for a while. I'm surprised I didn't recognize you right away perhaps because I was half asleep." Chrysalis then made her way to the cell and gently held Twilight's head before pulling her forward and making her slam her head against the bars.

"What are you doing?!" Shining Armor and I called out at the same time.

"You lot are going to answer everything I ask or I might have to take out my frustration on her."

"No don't!" I said as I tried to force my way through the other changelings but was having no luck there whatsoever. "Please, I'll do whatever you want!" Saying that somehow got Chrysalis's attention as she let go of Twilight and had some of the changelings move so she could get closer to me.

"Whatever I want?" She asked me as she bent down to look me in the eye.

"Y-Yeah," I answered. "I'll do whatever you want just please don't hurt Twilight, don't hurt anypony." Chrysalis then stood up and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Follow me," Chrysalis ordered. "But the rest of you stay here."

"No!" Twilight said, putting her forelegs on the bars trying to break them. "Don't listen to her Spike! Who knows what she's going to do to you!"

"I'm not giving you a choice now, do as I saw or I might get frustrated." I decided to listen to Chrysalis while smiling at Twilight trying to show her I'd be okay. Chrysalis led me to a chamber that had a surprisingly large map on it. "Have you ever traveled beyond the borders of your land?"

"Not really, except for this one time I went to the dragon lands. It wasn't all that pleasant, though there was this one time where we went to the Crystal Empire where I became quite a big deal. They me Great and Honorable Spike the brave-"

"Do you expect me to care about such things?" Chrysalis interrupted. 

"S-sorry." Chrysalis then showed me this part of the map that was right on the edge of it passed the Crystal Empire. 

"Not too long ago I sensed a strange magical imbalance in that area, I was going to investigate some time but perhaps you could do it instead."

"Well okay we were kind of doing that already."

"Were you now?"

"Yes, but look if I do this to you, will you let the others go?" After asking that Chrysalis stared at me for a minute which may have sent a chill down my spine.

"You actually think you can negotiate with me?"

"Well if we're doing something for you you doing something for us is only fair."

"Fair you say? Do you remember the way back to the others?"

"Yes," I answered. 

"Go there I'll gather some things for your journey," Chrysalis said and then flew up. I decided to do what I was told and made my way back.

"Spike darling you're back," Rarity said.

"What did that queen do to you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"She wants us to investigate the magical imbalance," I answered.

"What?" Cadence answered surprised. Shortly after that Chrysalis came back with a rather small bag and bracelets with shining greens balls. 

"Put these on," Chrysalis told us.

"I'm not much for jewelry," I said.

"I'm not asking." Chrysalis replied and so we did as we were told. 

"Oh cool I like how mine glows," Cheese Sandwich asked, making the others even the changelings stare at him. "What?"

"They all glow," Soarin pointed out.

"Yeah but I like how mine does too."

"Please be quiet," Shining Armor said.

"Well weird as it might be it's still a nice gift."

"It's not a gift you stupid little dragon it's so I know where you all are at all times." Chrysalis then showed us the map and we saw 7 green dots all together where the hive was located. "Those bracelets are trackers for you misfits, it will let me know for sure you're going where you're supposed to instead of getting backup, or something else foolish."

"You have clearly made quite the fuss to show us your lack of trust," Zecora added, who I realized hadn't talked for a while.

"So what are we doing exactly?" Cheerilee asked.

"You go to where I sensed the imbalance," Chrysalis answered as she pointed to where she sensed it. "Then you come back here and tell me what you saw."

"And if we do, will you let my friends go?" I asked.

"You have my word," Chrysalis answered for a short pause, as if I wasn't having enough trouble trusting her. 

"All, all right," I answered.

"Don't trust her Spike," Twilight said. "She's going to-" Twilight was cut off when Chrysalis gagged her with a magic ring across her muzzle. 

"Quiet! And one other thing, don't even think of taking the bracelets off and putting them on a bird or something they'll break if you try to take them off. When that happens one of the dots disappears, and if that happens I'll snap Twilight's neck myself."

"You wouldn't!" I said hoping she was just trying to scare me. 

"Break a bracelet and find out I'll leave the body outside." Chrysalis then teleported my group outside her hive with the map and Cheese Sandwich's strange device. 

"Well that could have gone better," Cheese Sandwich said trying to lighten the mood, it just made it kind of worse. 

"This is just great!" Shining Armor said while saying a few other things I'd rather not repeat. "We were supposed to rescue my wife and sister but we end up being forced to do the dirty work of the creature that nearly ruined my wedding."

"Uh there were more ponies in that cell," Soarin said.

"Not the point!" 

"Don't take that tone with me!" Soarin said as he flew right in Shining's Armor's face.

"Get out of my face before I send you back to Ponyville!"

"How the heck are you going to do that you can't use magic this close to the hive remember?"

"I don't need my magic," Shining Armor answered as he raised his hoof. But then Big Mac and I got between them to push them back a little, well Big Mac mostly did that part.

"Nope." 

"Come on, let's not argue amongst ourselves, it isn't going to solve anything," I said, trying to keep the peace. Or what little there was.

"Oh of course you'd say that!" Shining Armor said, looking at me.

"What?"

"You're the reason we're in this situation in the first place."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're the one that woke up Chrysalis!"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"Well whose fault is it?!" Shining Armor asked as he got in my face or at least he would have if Big Mac didn't get between us.

"Stop getting in my way!" Shining Armor almost ordered.

"That's enough, both of you," Big Mac said as he looked back at Soarin then back to Shining Armor. "You're angry I get it but this isn't anypony or dragon's ideal situation, none of us asked for this but we're gonna have to make it through it. We can't do that if we go at each other's throats so let's all stop arguing to make it easier to get through this and go home!" After finishing Big Mac breathed rather heavy and we all settled down I think and without another word from any of us started to head out.

"For the record I thought you were very brave," Cheerilee said to me as we walked away from the hive. 

"Thank you," I said as I held the hoof she put on my shoulder. After all that we made are way to where Chrysalis ordered us to go without getting back on the wagon figuring it would slow us down, what with the rouge terrain and all. I'm going to skip ahead a bit mostly because I'm kind of running low on paper and I guess I'm too lazy to get some more at the moment, though to be far what happened directly next isn't all that interesting. It was basically us traveling and helping each other along the way, it was like Big Mac said because this was none of our ideal situation we knew we were gonna have to be a team and work together. About a day later we were able to get to where the imbalanced was sensed, and what we found was something I don't think I'll ever forgot for as long as I live and being a dragon that might be quite long.

"Are those, Wendigos?" Soarin asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered.

"Are those dead Wendigos?" Cheerilee asked.

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered again. After that we all kind of looked around and got closer but not too close for obvious reasons. 

"This just doesn't make any sense," Shining Armor said.

"Indeed these are creatures of powerful magic. How could they have met an end so tragic?"

"Does she do that on purpose or is it just luck every time or something?" Shining Armor whispered to Big Mac that I was able to overhear. 

"No idea," Big Mac answered. 

"Should we bury them?" Cheese Sandwich asked. "I mean that feels like the right thing to do doesn't it?"

"Can we even do that?" Soarin asked in return. "I mean they're like ghosts made of snow or make snow or how does that work again?"

"Well however it works we finally know what caused the imbalance or at least somewhat, somepony or something killed all these Wendigos." 

"But that just raises more questions than it does answers," Shining Armor said. "What could have had the raw power necessary to do something like this and why were they attacked? Were they acting in self defense or did they try to go after something?"

"I don't know but I doubt we're going to figure that out just by standing here," I said. "Maybe Chrysalis knows something that could have done this." 

"Yeah you're right," Shining Armor said as he walked over to me. "Figuring out what happened here isn't as important as rescuing my wife and sister as well as her friends." After that we all agreed to head back to the changeling hive and made sure to get back as quickly as possible as seeing all those dead wendigos made us all feel unsettled. It was so hard to believe, I just hoped Chrysalis would believe us when we got back to her.

"Well we're back," Soarin said as we gazed at the changeling hive once again. Nopony said it but I could tell we were quite unsettled as to what Chrysalis would do. Would she keep her word or would she not believe us when we told her what we saw and make us do something else. Either way we weren't going to find out by just standing so I made my way to the hive and got the others to do just that. 

"You really are quite the brave little dragon," Cheerilee said as she walked next to me. She had such a sweet smile she reminds me of Twilight or Rarity that way.

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed as he was walking on the other side of me. While he wasn't the most talkative pony he was a nice stallion that I had started to hang out with quite a bit and would plan to hang out with a lot more when all this was over. As we made it about halfway to the hive a squad of changelings made it to us explaining they were ordered to take back to their queen. I didn't quite like the idea of being led back in but it would make navigating through there much easier. 

"Well well well back so soon?" Chrysalis asked when we were brought to her. "So what do you have to report?"

"The imbalance was a bunch of dead wendigos," I answered. I could see Twilight was about to say something but a glare from Chrysalis made her stay quiet. 

"Wendigos you say, what killed them?"

"We don't know."

"How were they killed?" 

"We don't know."

"What were they doing before they were killed?"

"We don't-"

"You don't seem to know anything useful do you?"

"Well it's not like we could have asked the wendigos," Cheese Sandwich said trying to help me.    

"I suppose you have a point there," Chrysalis said.

"Yeah and we did what you asked so let our friends go," I said to her, almost making it sound like an order trying to sound tough.

"Very well I did give you my word, I'll be letting them all go from one cell to another in the dungeons of Canterlot." Before I could even say anything we were restrained by changelings that swarmed us. 

"Don't think me ungrateful," Chrysalis said. "Thanks to you and your group I now know the imbalance I sensed isn't an immediate threat to my kingdom. It does however need looking into later but I can deal with that after we take Canterlot."

"You actually think Princess Celestia and Luna will let you do that?" I asked and Chrysalis gave a sinister smile then pointed up. I looked and saw Celestia trapped in a cocoon like she was at the wedding but now she was joined by her sister.

"With you taking the Elements of Harmony away from Canterlot it made it all the more easier to grab them, we thought too small last time 1 ponynapped princess wasn't enough with all the most beloved ponies of Equestria taken care of nopony can stop us."  

"Wow you know we probably should have seen this coming," Cheese Sandwich said. The changelings then grabbed Twilight and the others from out of their cell when suddenly the changelings were forced off. I don't know who started it but whoever started it made us all join in so much happened so fast when I saw Chrysalis was attacking Twilight.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" I yelled as I made my way to Twilight but by the time I got there Chrysalis blasted Twilight across the room and she slammed against the wall. After seeing that I made my way right to her as well as Shining Armor and Cheerilee.

"TWILY!" Shining Armor said. 

"Oh gosh, this doesn't look good, getting slammed against the wall broke her neck," Cheerilee said.

"No, Twilight," I said as I could feel the tears pour down my face like 2 waterfalls. But beneath my sadness I could feel another emotion buried deep under it that was quickly rising to the surface, it was rage. "I'LL KILL YOU!" I screamed out as my eyes became the most concentrated red anypony saw, or so I was told I'm kind of going by other's notes for this part. After I screamed that out I grew into a giant dragon and would go after Chrysalis but made a mess along the way. 

"Ah gosh this just went from bad to worse," Soarin said as he got Cheese Sandwich and Zecora out of the line of my fire. "What even made Spike do this?"

"Some time ago he gave into greed and became large quite indeed, but there are instances when a dragon is in this stage but not out of greed rather when they become consumed with rage."

"So if we can just calm him down he'll go back to normal?"

"I believe so but I don't know just how to do so," Zecora answered.

"Did you just rhyme so with so?" Soarin asked.

"There's a giant ferocious fire breathing dragon right over there, give me a break!" 

"But how do we calm him down?" Cheese Sandwich asked. As they tried to do just that I attacked Chrysalis and along the way I destroyed the throne as well as break open the hive allowing me to stretch out my newly acquired wings and breathed fire into the sky. As I did that the Elements of Harmony shined while they were on the rest of my group, though they didn't realize it right away. Thankfully when I broke open the hive Celestia and Luna were freed from the cocoons and pointed it out, as well that Twilight was still alive.

"She is!" Shining Armor said happily as he could. 

"Yes but her neck is broken and she can't move," Celestia said.

"But she can't stay here," Luna said as she pointed to me still attacking. Celestia then flew above to try to talk to me.

"SPIKE!" She called using the royal Canterlot voice. "TWILIGHT IS ALIVE SO STOP YOU DON'T HAVE TO-" She stopped when I tried to swat her away and she flew back down. "It's no use he's blinded with rage, I don't want to but I fear we may have to attack him. Not too much, just enough to stop him if he keeps this up who knows how much trouble he'll cause."

"Wait the Elements of Harmony," Luna said. "What if they were used on him would that stop him?"

"I do not know but perhaps it's worth a try, but I don't think Twilight can use it in her condition." As the rest of my group went over to Twilight the elements started to glow and they saw perhaps they could use them instead there was no time to argue whether it would work or not because I was getting more crazy by the second. They got together and the elements shot out a rainbow to everypony's surprise and then to their greater surprise when it hit me I was transformed. While much smaller I was still bigger I actually looked like how I envisioned myself in my dreams.

"What happened? what's going on?" I asked as I finally came back to my senses but as Chrysalis and the changelings rose I could still sense the remaining anger in me, and then as almost as it was instinctive I summoned the power that the elements shot into me and redirected to not only Chrysalis but her entire army. They were all trapped in magic rainbow bubbles and would stay there until the princesses placed them in a special prison. 

"This is just the icing of the cake of this very strange adventure," Cheese Sandwich said to which everypony nodded. After that I returned to my normal form and nearly did a backflip when I heard that Twilight was still alive.

"TWILIGHT!" I screamed as I ran over to her but Princess Celestia stopped me when I got close, it was actually quite a shock she didn't just stop me she picked me up with her forelegs.

"No Spike, don't! Don't touch her!"

"Spike,"  Twilight said to me in the faintest whisper I've ever heard. 

"Yes Twilight," I answered as I gestured Princess Celestia to put me down. She did but she still held on to me by the shoulders. 

"Chrysalis," Twilight said louder but still rather in a faint whisper. "She, the moment you all left she sent a squad to capture Celestia and Luna. She told us to be quiet about the whole thing when you got back or she'd bite your head off right in front of me. I'm so sorry you all had to go through something like this because I let myself get captured."

"That wasn't your fault," Cadence told her as the rest of us gathered around her. "We were all responsible, we all should have been more careful." 

"Sister, perhaps we should discuss this later, Twilight needs immediate medical attention," Princess Luna said.

"Agreed," Celestia said as she finally let go of me. "But we need to be careful we can't pick her up even with her magic if we move her neck even just a little bit she could die."

"How do we do that?"

"I, I don't know Luna perhaps-"

"I have an idea!" A voice called out and when we turned around we were all surprised to find there was one changeling left that for some reason wasn't imprisoned and, oh gosh this is the only piece of paper I have left okay I'll try to go a little faster. We didn't trust him at first but figured the elements didn't imprison him for a reason, so we decided to trust him. The changeling named Thorax made some of that changeling slime seriously what is that stuff, actually maybe it's best we don't know. He used that stuff to help make a neck cast for Twilight to secure her neck after that we used nearby plants to make sort of a bed for Luna and Celestia to carry Twilight in.                

"This should work Celestia."

"Let's hope so Luna, careful gently gently." After Twilight was secured she was teleported to Canterlot.  After that we decided to make our way back home but before we headed out Shining Armor grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Nice work kid."

"Thanks," I replied. 

"Listen, I was a jerk earlier, I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"No it's not. I was frustrated by the whole thing and I took it out on you. That was wrong and I apologize." 

"Thanks, I appreciate that." We left and decided to take Thorax with us though there was a bit of trouble when the wagon broke. However we eventually made it back home, Twilight was released from the hospital but would have to stay in bed with a neck brace on her.

"Thank you for breakfast Spike," Twilight said to me on the first day she returned to the castle. 

"Thank you," I said. I was determined to make sure she would make a safe recovery.

"I'm surprised that I got sent out so early, maybe I should go back." 

"I'm sure you're going to be alright Twilight, you're safe here."

"Does that mean you're going to take down the electric fence you put around the castle Spike?"

"Uh," I paused as I looked out the window and somewhat admired my work. "Maybe tomorrow," I answered as I faced back to Twilight then continued to feed her breakfast in bed. I thought this was the end of our wacky adventures but little did I know it was just the beginning for out in the frozen north a shadowy unicorn made his way out of the snow.

"Crystal Empire."
> The Return of King Sombra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the defeat of Chrysalis and her army with the exception of Thorax things had started to settle down once again. Though things weren't quite back to normal as a result of the Element of Harmony I could change into a bigger, stronger, and if I do say so myself handsomer version of myself. While it came in handy I had trouble controlling it at the point in time in which I'm writing this, mostly because I was more focused on making sure Twilight was all right. I hardly took my eyes off of her as I wanted to make absolute sure she would make a full recovery. Twilight took care of me since the day I was hacked from a little purple and green egg, helping her like this was the least I could do.

My relationship with Twilight became rather harder to understand as I got older even as I'm writing this down now. She's my best friend but also like my big sister and mother all wrapped into one. I wasn't alone in her recovery all of Twilight's friends even other ponies in town like the Cakes came to help who brought over a get well cake, no surprise there.

"Thank you so much for bringing me this Mr. and Mrs. Cake," Twilight said as I brought the cake over to her. "It looks delicious." 

"Well when we heard what happened to you we wanted to give you something that will help ease things a little," Mr. Cake said. "We hope you get better real soon."

"Well with everypony coming over to help I'm sure I will. Especially Spike," Twilight said which rather warmed my heart. 

"Yes we heard from Pinkie that he's hardly left the castle so he could take care of you," Mr. Cake said. "I think it's rather noble that you're looking after Twilight so well Spike," he added which again warmed my heart. 

"Yes, though the security check when he let us through that electric fence was a bit much," Mrs. Cake said.

"Now dear he's just protecting his precious princess." Little after that the Cakes made their way out of the castle but that wasn't the end of of Twilight's visits.

"Oh darling that neck brace simply does not go with your mane," Rarity said as she came to see how Twilight was doing.

"Well it's not suppose to go with my mane Rarity," Twilight replied. "It's supposed to make sure my neck heals."

"Yes of course darling but I don't see why they can't make them a bit more glamorous." As Twilight and Rarity continued to talk I came by with some tea for the both of them. 

"It's so nice of you to be watching over Twilight Spike," Rarity said. "Though it might be a bit much for just one little adorable dragon to handle perhaps I can stay at the castle and help him until you recover."

"Oh Rarity," Twilight said. "That's-

"That's a great idea!" I said as I hugged Rarity's left foreleg. "It would be wonderful for you to stay here wouldn't it Twilight?"

"I'm sure you'd enjoy that Spike but you're more than capable of handling everything," Twilight told me.

"Oh but Twilight I'm not saying he can't, I simply saying I can lift a bit of the burden."

"Which I think is a great idea," I said. "She can even stay in my room." Before long Twilight agreed to let Rarity stay but she stayed in a different room, which may have been for the best if I stayed that close to Rarity for that long I might not be able to control myself. Oh Rarity you're like a precious treasure that

Oh for crying out loud I did it again something else I need to edit out later, why am I even writing this part down? Maybe I should skip ahead to when we went to the Crystal Empire.

When Twilight's neck fully healed Shining Armor invited her to the Crystal Empire as sort of a vacation for her to take her mind off of the stress of what she'd been through. I decided to come along as well as being a hero of the Crystal Empire I take every opportunity I can to come by there and be appreciated for my heroic deeds. Though this time my main reason was that I wanted to make sure that Twilight was going to be okay. "Twilight don't!" I yelled at her while we were on the train to the Crystal Empire.

"What?" Twilight asked as I ran over to her.

"Don't stretch your neck you just got your neck brace off!" I answered as I placed my claws on her neck trying to make it hold still.

"My neck is fine Spike," Twilight answered as she used her magic to make me let go of her neck. "I keep telling you I'm all right."

"I'm sorry Twilight it's just ever since you almost, almost,-"

"Died." Twilight answered stoically. 

"Yeah, I haven't been able to get that out of my mind, I know I've been crazy with the electric fence and patting down Mrs. Cake. It's just I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I understand Spike, wait you patted down Mrs. Cake?"

"It was a security precaution," I answered which made Twilight sigh then she picked me up with her magic and made me sit down right next to her before wrapping me in a hug.

"As I was saying I understand how scary that whole ordeal was but you can't let fear control what you do. There's nothing wrong with being afraid Spike, just as long as you don't let it change who you are." Not too long after that I feel asleep as Twilight was still holding me and dreamt of the time Twilight brought me with her to the Castle of the 2 Sisters and it was not a pleasant field trip, for me at least Twilight was having the time of her life. Just about everything in the castle scared me and Twilight didn't seem to care which rather upset me until.

"Twilight can we please leave I don't like this place," I said to her as she was sitting by the table.

"There's nothing to worry about," Twilight said to me.

"Nothing to worry about?" I said as I started to freak out even more I felt like I might have a heart attack. "There's trapdoors, that scary music, and who knows what else for all we know some monster is waiting to pop out and attack us." Suddenly Twilight got off the table and she walked over to me with a peaceful smile on her then she pulled me into a hug using both of her forelegs and even her wings.

"Spike," Twilight said in a gentle tone. "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of you're perfectly safe, I wouldn't bring you here if it was dangerous."

"Really?"

"Of course Spike and if there was, I won't let anything happen to you." Hearing that made me feel a lot better as I returned the hug as all the fear I had just moments ago melt away. Before long I woke up and saw we arrived at the Crystal Empire, Twilight was just outside hugging her brother Shining Armor who was waiting right at the train station with Princess Cadence to greet her. I got up from my seat and saw a bag that Twilight must have left on the train as she wanted to see her brother and sister in-law, so I picked it up and brought it off the train.

"It's so great to see you again Twily."

"It's great to see you too BBBFF," Twilight said as I brought the bag out which got Shining Armor's attention.

"Oh," he said rather disappointed. "You brought him too, was that necessary?" After that Cadence responded by whacking the loudmouth in the gut rather hard with her wing. 

"Shining," Cadence said in a rather demanding tone. "Be nice to Spike."

"(sigh) Hello Spike it's nice to see you," Shining Armor said with a dull tone causing causing Cadence to smack his gut once again.

"Now I know you can be nicer than that, especially to the dragon that saved us from the changelings."      

"Hey I helped too," Shining Armor said rather defensively. 

"Oh you did?" I asked. "I don't think I noticed," I added. After that we made our way to the castle but stopped when a group of crystal ponies asked for my autograph which I was more than happy to give them.

"Twilight seriously why did you bring them?" Shining Armor asked thinking that I didn't hear him. 

"Shining what did I tell you?" 

"I didn't mean it like that Cadence, when I invited Twilight over the invitation was just for her."

"I know," Twilight said as she, Cadence, and Shining Armor were still waiting for me to finish signing autographs. "But I don't think it would have been a good idea to leave Spike alone right now." 

"No kidding when he saw what happened to you, I've been having trouble getting that out of my mind I can't imagine how hard it's been for him. Maybe if he stays here for a little while it can clear his mind, maybe I can take him to the spa that always helps me relax," Cadence said with a smile that I couldn't help but appreciate. I may have issues with Shining Armor but I always liked her, as well as see why Twilight admired her so much. 

"Can I get a picture with you too," one of the crystal ponies. "Please oh please oh great and honorable Spike the brave and glorious."

"All right one photo," I said because after all how could I disappoint such a loyal fan. After he and the other crystal ponies got together for a group photo with me I meet up with the others and we got back to walking to the castle. 

"So I see you still can't get my element or rather my former element off of you Shining Armor," Twilight said. 

"No, but not for a lack of trying mind you," Shining replied. "This thing just won't come off, I don't suppose you read anything that might be able to help us."

"No luck there BBBFF," Twilight answered. "This whole thing is new to me, I asked Princess Celestia and Luna but they don't know either."

"Well maybe when we get back to the castle we can look into some ancient history of the empire, that might be able to help me get this darn thing off." When he got to the castle I was surprised to see Soarin as well as some of the other Wonderbolts practicing there, Shining Armor explained that the Wonderbolts were invited to do a special show for the crystal ponies. 

"Yo Spike," Soarin called out to me as he finished a routine the Wonderbolts will be doing for the show and was told by captain Spitfire he could take five. 

"Soarin it's nice to see you again," I said to him when he flew down to greet me. 

"Same here Spike same here," he told me as he rubbed my scales a bit.  I'm going to get a snack you want to come?" 

"Okay." Soarin then put his stomach to the floor so I could get on his back and then he flew up allowing my to get a bird's eye view of the Crystal Empire. "Wow this place really is beautiful," I said in awe.

"Yeah it really is," Soarin agreed. After that Soarin found just the kind of shop he was looking for and bought a big apple pie, he really loves pie. He also treated me to a few sweats as well. 

"So that Element of Loyalty is still stuck on you," I pointed out. 

"Yeah but it's not so bad I kind of like it, looks good on me."

"Yeah it kind of does," I couldn't help but out. After we finished he gave me another lift and I couldn't help but notice that he suddenly looked out towards the empire.

"Uh Spike I think we may have some sort of problem," he said as I started to look out to where he was and saw a large black storm cloud.

"Uh Soarin, I think you may be right," I said back when suddenly the storm cloud made it's way into the Crystal Empire and as it did black crystal pillars started to rise out of the ground. Then a shadow appeared by then and formed into a dark unicorn. "Sombra," I whispered. "Soarin get me down there right now."

"Huh?"

"No time to explain," I told him. "Get me down there right now," I said and afterwards Soarin did as I asked. When he got to the ground I jumped right of ready to fight if I had to. I probably would. "Soarin get back to the castle and get backup."

"All right kid," Soarin said as he flew up.

"Look it's Spike! The brave and glorious!" One of the crystal ponies said happy to see me.

"He's come to save us yet again!" Another one added. 

"Brave and glorious huh?" King Sombra asked as he faced me. "I remember you, you're that dragon that brought down the Crystal Heart and took away my victory."

"Get out of here Sombra, or you'll have to face me," I told him trying to act tough but he just laughed.

"I'm not afraid of you," he said as he continued to laugh but his smile quickly disappeared as I changed into my new form.

"Let me see  if I can do something about that." Sombra fired a spell at me but I dodged then charged at him giving him the strongest punch I could, he didn't take it very well. Sombra summoned more pillars but after one punch from me they shattered into pieces. 

"Why you little!" Sombra said as he tried to blast me away with a spell, it hit me dead on but I was more than able to endure it. 

"I'm not so little anymore," I told him as I used my fire breath to push him causing him to revert to his shadow form. Around this time Soarin came back with Shining Armor, Twilight, and quite a couple royal guards there to give me some probably not needed back up. When I saw them coming this way it distracted me and Sombra took advantage of it, he literally flew right through me, can't even begin to tell you how strange that felt, and made his way deeper into the empire.

"Was that Sombra!?" Shining Armor asked. 

"It was," Twilight answered. 

"Why would he go further into the empire if he's trying to retreat?" Soarin asked. 

"He's not," Shining Armor said figuring out Sombra's plan.

"He's heading for the Crystal Heart," I said also figuring out what he was planning and flew straight to the castle while Twilight Shining Armor teleported his group back to the castle to cut him off. 

"The heart will be mine," Sombra said as he charged right at it. But Shining Armor put a barrier around the heart to stop him from getting it. "And that isn't going to stop me," Sombra also said confidence he could break through the barrier, but he wouldn't get the chance as I cut him off by punching him again and forcing him to the ground. 

"You meddlesome dragon!" Sombra said as he picked himself up no longer in his shadow form. He charged at me but like last time I was ready. He gave me quite a few powerful spells and hits, but I endured and gave the shadow pony a brutal beating. 

"Had enough?" I asked Sombra as he was on the ground taking long deep breathes.

"I have not yet begun to fight, I underestimated you as well as overestimated myself. My full power hasn't returned just yet but it will, and when it does I will rob this empire of it's most precious treasure." And with that Sombra disappeared, like a phantom in the night. After that I went back to my normal form and took a knee.

"Spike, are you all right?" Twilight asked as she helped me get up.

"Yeah, I'm all right," I answered. "I guess he hit me harder than I thought." Twilight then lowered herself like how Soarin did earlier and I got on her back. She was about to take me inside the castle when suddenly Twilight was surrounded by a group of crystal ponies.

"Spike stopped Sombra!" One of the crystal ponies said. 

"He saved us for the 3rd time!" Another one said.

"He truly is brave and glorious!" The crystal ponies then took me off Twilight's back then they all started tossing me up repeatedly.  

"SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE SPIKE!" They continued to chant until Twilight teleported me back on her back.

"Hey we weren't done smothering him with love and admiration."

"I'm sure they'll be time for that later," Twilight said to the group. "But for now our little hero needs to come with me." Twilight and her brother went into the castle to tell Princess Cadence everything.

"King Sombra, are you sure?" 

"Trust me you don't forgot a face like his especially with those flaming red eyes and that voice of his when," Twilight answered.

"We should send word of this to Luna and Celestia," Cadence said.

"In the meantime though maybe we could try to strengthen the empire's defenses," Shining Armor suggested. "Just give me a minute and I'll have my spell around the entire Crystal Empire."

"No," Cadence answered. "If you do he'll just ware you out until you're exhausted like he did with me, on top of that he'll still  find a way to attack, again like he did with me." 

"So what do you suggest?" 

"I'm not sure Shining Armor," Cadence answered. 

"Well then I guess I'll have to think of something," Shining Armor said.

"Don't hurt yourself," I said as I jumped off Twilight's back and almost fell over from lack of energy.

"Spike don't overdo it," Twilight said. "Maybe you need rest." 

"I'll rest when we take care of Sombra."

"Well as long as we have the Crystal Heart he won't be able to stop us," Shining Armor said. "I'll be keeping on eye on it to make sure he doesn't go anywhere near it." 

"Well something tells me you might need some help," I said. 

"You want to help me guard the heart?"

"Well not exactly," I answered and just as I did Soarin came in or rather flew in and even did a flip right before he landed on the floor. 

"Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, I know the Wonderbolts are just known for flying routines and the occasional derby. But if we can help in anyway we're all for it."

"Perfect timing Soarin I was just about to come get you," I told him.

"You were?"

"Yeah and there is a way you can help."

"There is?"       

"Yeah," I told Soarin. "Can you fly all the way to Ponyville and back? I think this whole King Sombra thing calls for getting out little group back together."

"I can be there and back here in a flash," Soarin said as he clued in right away to I had planning. Not long after that Soarin headed for Ponyville to get Big Mac, Cheerilee, and Zecora while several other Wonderbolts would look around for Cheese Sandwich to help us. Though I'm quite sure I could have handle the whole thing all on my own, I had no idea how wrong I was. 

"Special delivery," Soarin said as he arrived back at the castle with Cheerilee, Zecora, and Big Mac all of whom were standing on a small cloud that Soarin was pushing. They were able to stay on the cloud because Twilight who knew a spell that could allow non-pegasus to do that cast it in a bottle for Soarin to use on them when he found them, yeah I didn't know unicorns could do that either, maybe because she's an alicorn. 

"Wow this place is beautiful isn't it Big Mac?"

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered as they got off the cloud. 

"This empire is quite the sight to see, that is quite the compliment coming from somepony like me." Not too long after Soarin returned the other Wonderbolts returned as well with the unfortunate news that they weren't able to find Cheese Sandwich.

"You couldn't find him anywhere?" Shining asked and the Wonderbolts whose names escaped me shook their heads. "Can we just use the 5 we already have?" 

"It doesn't work that way BBBFF, you need all six of them together or it doesn't work, trust me I tried with only five." 

"You did?" Shining Armor asked. 

"Yeah she did," I added. "Don't ask."

"Well what are we going to do?" Shining Armor asked. 

"Well don't worry just yet, Sombra hasn't made his attack we have time to make a plan maybe we can find some kind of locater spell or maybe we could send out more Wonderbolts-"

"Hi Spike."

"Hi Cheese Sandwich, as I was saying there's all sorts of ways that, Cheese Sandwich."

"Hello!" He said with a wave.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. 

"I got a powerful dozy from my cheesy sense that this here empire is gonna be in powerful need of a party, and I'm just the pony that can give it. I even got a brand new party cannon just for this dozy." 

"Well, in any case now we have all six elements here." I then started explaining everything to Cheese Sandwich as well as the others. 

"Oh my I don't know about this Spike," Cheerilee said. "I mean don't get me wrong I know ponies like Sombra can't have their way but I'm a lover not a fighter."

"You don't have to fight Cheerilee," I said. "You just need to use your element if you have to." We talked a little more but the stuff we mentioned wasn't all that interesting so I'm skipping that, later we got ready to look after the Crystal Heart Shining Armor, Big Mac, and I stayed right where the heart was with Soaring up above keeping a higher lookout for Sombra with the other Wonderbolts. Cheerilee and Zecora stayed inside with Twilight and Princess Cadence to figure out what else we can do, and Cheese, Cheese just kind of did his own thing.

"Check me out guys," Cheese Sandwich as he was balancing on a large ball.

"Cheese this isn't the time for that," Shining Armor said.

"What, I'm keeping an eye out, Pinkie even let me borrow her night vision goggles," Cheese replied as he put on the said goggles. "O-o night visiony, Cheese said but bumped into a part of castle, oh it least he would have but he stopped himself and backed up. But as a result he tripped over the ball he was on moments ago and fell on his back.

"Moron," Shining Armor said resulting in Big Mac smacking him in the back of the head, rather hard too, I could tell.

"When did Pinkie give you those goggles?" I asked. 

"It was when we brought everypony back to Ponyville," Cheese answered. "That might not have been the most fun experience, but at least the way back was kind of fun."

"Fun?" Shining Armor asked. "You got to be kidding me."

"Oh come on, you got to admit it was fun on the wagon trip back to Ponyville the songs and all that, don't you remember?"

"Well I remember the wagon breaking," Shining Armor said. "Then us having to make it into a raft, would have worked better if we had a boat, bout the only thing that didn't get packed." After saying that Big Mac got right in Shining Armor's face and it looked like I was going to have to play peacemaker. But suddenly Cheese Sandwich got between them and did this strange dance with a rubber chicken that had the number 2 on it, It didn't really make anypony laugh but I guess it stopped them from going at each other so there's that. After that we all continued to keep an eye out when suddenly we heard a scream that came from inside the castle.

"The castle!?" I asked. "But how?" I didn't have time to ask more questions as Big Mac picked me up and put me on his back before running into the castle with Cheese Sandwich and Shining Armor not too far behind. Soarin stayed behind in case the heart needed protection, when the rest of us entered the castle we saw more of the dark crystals that I saw when I fought Sombra.

"How could he have gotten into the castle?" Shining Armor asked. "Did you see anything that might have remotely looked like King Sombra?"

"Nope."

"Oh wait, you never saw King Sombra before have you?"

"Nope." As we made our way further into the castle we meet with the others.

"Oh, Big Mac thank Celestia you're okay," Cheerilee said as hugged Big Macintosh rather affectionately I couldn't help but notice, you know because I was still on his back. 

"What happened?" I asked.

"The shadow king had returned and attacked all around, but thankfully I believe that we are all sound."

"Wait where's Twilight?" I asked as I jumped off Big Mac to look around for her. 

"It's okay Spike I'm here," Twilight said as she came around the corner but I was shocked to see that she was limping. I tried to run over to check on her but Shining Armor beat me to it knocking me down in the process I might add. 

"Twily are you all right!?"

"Yeah I'm fine Shining Armor Sombra managed to sneak through here the castle I tried to stop him but he fired a spell at me before I could. Luckily it just grazed me but it forced me to the floor and when I got back up he was gone. But I saw him head for the throne room."

"Then that's where we're going," he said as I got back up mad at him for knocking me down. I wanted to go over to him and give him a piece of my mind but Big Mac placed a hoof on my shoulder and shook his head, his way of telling me that now wasn't the time for that. We made our way to the throne room which didn't really look all that bad aside from more of the dark crystal pillars.

"Wow you think he would have made more of a mess when he got in here." Cheese Sandwich said which nearly made me jump back on Big Mac's back, seriously how did he just appear like that is he a ninja or something?

"As far as I can tell he didn't take anything," Shining Armor said as he was looking around. But despite him saying that I had a bad feeling that I couldn't shake at all. As I walked around a bit I came across something that confirmed the feeling I couldn't shake. 

"Are you sure he didn't anything?" Twilight asked as she was still limping.

"I've been in this throne room long enough to know if there was something missing," Shining Armor answered. 

"There is something missing," I said which got the attention of everypony in the room. 

"Are you sure Spike?" Twilight asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"What did he take?" Shining Armor asked. 

"Your most precious treasure," I answered as I lifted up what I found, that being the metal shoe of a certain alicorn. Shining Armor's eyes nearly grew to the size of plates and his jaw nearly hit the floor as he stood by Twilight who had a similar face.

"No," Shining Armor said before running out of the throne room to look all over the castle for Cadence. But she was nowhere to be found and soon news of that spread throughout the entire Crystal Empire. When morning came and the crystal ponies learned that their princess was gone, honestly they handled it much than I thought they were going to.

"THE PRINCESS IS GONE!" One of them yelled out.

"What are we going to do!?" Another said.

"I don't want Sombra to enslave us again," a third said as he actually started to run around in circles. Twilight wanted us to get together to make a plan to find Cadence and stop Sombra but when I saw that guy I had to do something to help him.

"Hey now don't panic," I said to him when I made my way over to him. "He hasn't taken control yet."

"You're right and he won't," that crystal pony said as he stopped running showing a big hopeful smile. "Not with you here, I was so scared I forget you were here."

"That's right," one of the other crystal ponies from before said as she and several others came together around me. "With the great and honorable Spike the brave and glorious we have nothing to be afraid of." 

"What's your plan how are you going to stop Sombra again?" Before I knew it the crystal ponies got around me yet again. There was so many Twilight had to use her magic to float me out of there and placed me on her back.

"Sorry everypony, Mr. brave and glorious over here has to help me and the others make a plan to stop Sombra."

"But don't worry with me around, Sombra won't stand a chance," I said with a rather cocky smile. Granted at times I got a little big for my breeches but it gave the crystal ponies hope. Twilight then brought me back with the others once again to make a plan on stopping Sombra and rescuing Cadence, however I had trouble following her plan because Twilight has a habit of really overcomplicating things. In fact none of us were able to follow what she planned out, but it wouldn't matter as Sombra who somehow gotten much stronger in such a short amount of time already put yet another attack plan into action, one that would prove to be much more effective than the previous one. 

"Before the sun sets on this day the empire will be mine," Sombra said to himself as he summoned tall dark crystal pillars like before. Some of the guards tried to get to him but he used a spell that would put them under his control and force them to do his bidding. Sombra with his forcibly acquired backup quickly made his way to the castle even making more dark crystals to make him take a high trail to it. The new bearers got together but before they could the elements Sombra took out a beam that hit Big Mac's element and spread to the others making their colors change before the colors faded out. 

"What the? What did he do?" Soarin asked.

"I think he shut off the elements," Cheerilee said and when they tried to use them on him nothing happened showing she was right. 

"When the heck do he learn to do that?" Cheese asked.

"No time for questions, we have a tyrant to stop," Shining Armor said ready for a fight when suddenly he created a labyrinth not only outside the castle but in it as well separating everypony. 

"Well," I said to myself. "I guess once again it's up to Spike the brave and glorious to save the day." I then once again transformed ready to take on Sombra. 

"Spike no!" Shining Armor said just as I was about to fly over to Sombra. 

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. 

"Get everypony out of his maze and away from danger," Shining Armor ordered. "I'll deal with Sombra." Before I could say anything Shining Armor made his way over to the shadow pony so I decided it was best not to argue and do what he said. 

"It's about time for this king to really get crowned," Shining Armor said that I overheard. He should really leave the one liners to me.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Sombra asked with a smug tone and a face to match. 

"I am Shining Armor prince and captain of the guard of the Crystal Empire. Last time you tried to take this empire I could barely do anything to stop you but this time I'm going to make sure I stop you myself."

"Last time?" Sombra asked as he tried to remember. "Ah yes that was you, that simple unicorn stallion whose magic I managed to block by cursing his horn." He then started to laugh. "You're the prince and captain of the guard, what a joke, I might actually be doing the Crystal Empire a favor by taking it over." 

"Oh yeah!" Shining Armor said as he teleported over to Sombra and punched him right in his smug face forcing him back a little. Shining Armor actually did a good job of holding his ground against Sombra. They exchanged blows both physical and magical Sombra wasn't able to curse his horn this time around but Sombra was strong enough to resist his barrier spell stopping him from being rejected out of the empire he wanted so badly to conquer. By the time I emptied out the labyrinth Shining Armor and Sombra where by the Crystal Heart their horns rubbing against each other. While they were doing that the other element wielders were trying to get to Shining Armor but were cut off by the possessed ponies.

"You want some more?" Soarin asked and he forced several of the said poor possessed ponies into a pile of hey while Big Mac forced several others into the labyrinth wall.

"Remember try not to hurt them," Cheerilee said. "It's not they're fault, they're being forced to fight and act against their will."

"It seems we are evenly matched," I overheard Sombra say to Shining Armor as I was getting the last few of the ponies out of the labyrinth before meeting up with the others. 

"Yeah we are," Shining Armor replied. "I hate to say it but you are a capable fighter."

"Fighting you is just going to make it all the more sweeter when I take that Crystal Heart."

"Over my dead body!" Shining Armor said ready to keep fighting before Sombra back away getting some space.

"I had a different deal in mind," Sombra replied as he made a sphere appear above him that contained a certain somepony.

"CADENCE!"

"A trade. Her life, in exchange for the Crystal Heart."

"What?" Shining Armor said suddenly the rest of us that saw what was going on tried to make our way over to Shining Armor to help, but were cut off by more black crystal and possessed ponies stopping us from getting to him in time. As Shining Armor tried to think of a plan the sphere holding Cadence started to slowly shrink causing her to scream out of the fear of being crushed.

"SHINING PLEASE DO SOMETHING!"

"CADENCE! NO SOMBRA DON'T! I'LL DO IT!"   

"What?" He asked as he made the sphere stop. Around that time all of us managed to get to the three of them but none of us dared to make a move afraid of what might happen to Cadence. 

"You win it's a deal, I'll give you the Crystal Heart. Just please don't hurt Cadence."

"No Shining Armor!" Cadence called out. "Don't do it I'm not worth it!"

"Yes you are," Shining replied as he looked up at her before grabbing the heart and offering it to Sombra who gladly took it.

"With the Crystal Heart now is my possession, there is nothing to stop me from ruling the Crystal Empire."

"All right now it's your turn," Shining Armor said which seemed to have confused Sombra.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I gave you the heart now let Cadence go."

"Oh I'm sorry, I don't think you understood. I said the heart in exchange for her life, not her freedom." Sombra then laughed wickedly as he, Cadence, and the Crystal Heart vanished in a puff of shadows. Shining Armor jumped to try and grab Sombra but he just went threw the shadow just before it vanished. Sombra then took Cadence and the Heart to the throne room then proceeded to sit on the throne. "Ah, love live the king."

"Wow that's gotta suck," Cheese Sandwich back where we were. "And I think it's about to suck even more," he said as he pointed out numerous possessed ponies that had surrounded us. Shining Armor and I got ready to fight but I suddenly shrunk back to my normal size and his horn could barely make a spark because we had used up nearly all of our energy already. 

"Yeah definitely gonna suck even more," Soarin said.

"While as much as I know we wish to help and stay, it might be best for now if we run away."

"Zecora might be right," Cheerilee said. "But I don't see any openings."

"This is bad," Shining Armor said. "We're low on stamina and highly outnumbered."

"And we can't hurt them, well we can but we'd feel real guilty about it because these guys are just as much the victims as we are," Soarin said.

"Eeyup." 

"We need a miracle," I said as we started to panic when suddenly the seven of us as well as the other Wonderbolts were teleported not only away from the castle but all the way to the train station.

"Huh?" We all said at the same time.

"Shining Armor did you do that?" Soarin asked.   

"No I don't have the energy right now, maybe it was Twily."

"Not quite," a voice answered, one that was all too familiar to me. Well maybe not all too familiar I just thought that sounded cool. We all looked up to see the voice came from to see that it was indeed Discord.

"Discord, what are you doing here!" Shining Armor said as he got in an attack stance, not that I blame him that last time these two talked it wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Well that's certainly an interesting way of saying thank you for helping us all get out of there," Discord answered. 

"Thank you so much for helping us Discord," Cheerilee said. "You really pulled our rumps out of the fire."

"No kidding," Soarin said. "For a moment it looked like our apple pie was cooked." 

"Yeah it did, I owe you a party after all this," Cheese Sandwich added.  

"Sombra's terror has spread for all of the Crystal Empire to see, but thanks to you we can still help it once again be free."

"Eeyup."

"That's better," Discord said. 

"But that still doesn't answer what exactly you're doing here," I asked.

"I sensed a magical imbalance and what an imbalance it was Sombra is back and he's making quite the mess isn't he?"

"Mess is the nice way of putting it," Cheese Sandwich said.

"And those poor crystal ponies," Cheerilee said. "If it's this bad for us I can only imagine how horrible it is for them, they're the real victims in all this."

"Eeyup." 

"And what's worse, when Sombra is done with the empire what's stopping him from moving on to Equestria?" Soarin asked.

"He's right," Shining Armor added. "We have to stop him and we have to stop him now." 

"But how are we going to stop Sombra he has an army?" Soarin asked. "Zecora, do you know something that can free all those possessed ponies?"          

"It may take me about a day but I know a potion to make, but by the time it's ready I may be too late."

"No kidding by then Sombra could take control of Equestria!" Soarin said starting to panic.

"This is bad," Cheese Sandwich said also starting to panic. "If everypony else is brainwashed who will I throw parties for?" 

"That's the least of our worries," I said as the panic started to spread to our whole group as well as a few arguments like why didn't they use the elements sooner when suddenly chocolate milk was poured on all of us. "What the? Are you kidding me?"

"Thought that might help you all calm down," Discord said. 

"Of course Discord," Cheerilee said. "You can help us. Not even Sombra would stand a chance against your chaos magic. You could probably stop him all by yourself."

"But that doesn't mean we can't help right?" Cheese Sandwich asked.

"Eeyup, Zecora if the Wonderbolts and I help can you make your potion faster?" 

"As sure as I can finish this sentence with a rhyme, with your support I can finish it in much less time," Zecora answered.   

"And in the meantime we can send in the spirit of chaos to do some real damage," Soarin said. 

"Or he could teleport over to Canterlot and get the princesses for backup," I said.

"Oh please Spike," Discord said. "You know my magic is greater than theirs." 

"All the same maybe you should go after them so they can send an army of guards or something."

"My chaos is all the army you lot will need."

"Well maybe you can use it to but a barrier around the empire or something to stop Sombra's forces from getting away, or something." 

"What are you talking about Spike how are going to stop Sombra without my help?"

"WELL MAYBE THAT'S A BETTER RISK THAN TRUSTING YOU, WE TRUSTED YOU WITH STOPPING TIREK AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED THERE!" I yelled out surprising everypony, most of all me. 

"Oh," Discord said breaking the awkward silence. "So that's what this is about."

"Discord, I didn't mean to-"

"No no, "Discord interrupted with his paw and claw up in the air. "I get it, I was a jerk. I put all of Equestria in danger and I let everypony down. I don't blame you for not trusting me, but honestly I still feel really guilty about that and have been looking for a way to make for what I did."

"Spike can I talk to you in private for a second?" Shining Armor asked me and I agreed. He then used his magic to make a bubble of silence around just the 2 of us. "Look I know you and I have never, and will probably never be friends, but we both care about Twily, and we both know we have to stop Sombra. Discord might be our best chance to do that, sometimes fighting great evils mean having to take risks that could really bite you on the rump."

"Your right," I said as I didn't want to argue anymore and waste what little time we had. Shining Armor then popped the bubble and I walked over to Discord offering him my claw showing him that I trusted him. He shook my claw with his and we got to work making a plan to stop Sombra. "We're coming Twilight."


***
 

Morning came and Sombra had gotten nearly all of the ponies of the Crystal Empire together as he lead them outside the said empire. "Come my loyal ponies, now that I have taken the Crystal Empire I shall do the same to Canterlot and then all of Equestria," he said with a wicked laugh. 

"Not on our watch pal," Soarin said as he flew down but still much higher than Sombra. "Oh and by the way I'm using the term pal very loosely."

"And what do you think you're doing here?"

"I came to thank you for gathering your army together like this." 

"What? Why?"

"Because it'll be easier to do this!" Soarin then flew above the army towards a large cloud he and the other Wonderbolts made that Zecora's potion was poured in. They then made it rain and the said rain mixed with the potion fell on the army freeing them from Sombra.

"NO!" Sombra called out then tried to blast Soarin out of the sky but being a Wonderbolt he made his way out of there. Despite gathering an army quite a few other where still in the empire standing guard in case of an attack. Sombra retreated back to gather those ponies but while he did that Cheerilee and Big Mac helped Zecora give out more of her potion to possessed ponies still in the empire while Discord teleported Shining Armor and myself inside the castle. When we got there we found Cadence trapped in a cage with possessed Twilight watching over her. 

"Care for a surprise rescue?" Discord asked. Twilight was about to attack us but Discord made her horn disappear and in the confusion I sprayed Zecora's potion on her and she came to her senses, while I did that Shining Armor freed Cadence from her cell.

"Huh? What's going on?" Twilight asked as she put her foreleg to her forehead. When I saw that she was okay I hugged her right on the spot.

"It worked, oh I'm so happy you're back to normal." Twilight then returned my hug and I explained everything to her.

"Well nice work," Twilight said to all of us after being caught up. 

"Yeah nice work," Cadence said. "But we aren't done just yet," she added making it clear she didn't want to waste anytime and made her way over to the Crystal Heart. "We need to put the heart back right away and stop Sombra, hopefully once and for all." 

"But Cadence," Twilight said but that was about all she had time to say as when Cadence flew up to the heart and grabbed it a seal below it forced her to the ground and was surrounded by dark crystals.  

"I was going to say-"

"Sombra probably booby trapped the heart," Cadence finished for Twilight. "Yeah I should have figured that out, this is so embarrassing."

"Yeah I know how you feel don't worry I'll help you out, why isn't my magic working?" Twilight then tried to feel her horn but was shocked to learn it was gone. "What happened to my horn?!"

"Oops sorry, forgot to put that back," Discord said but before he could put it back Sombra had appeared, having sensed Cadence trying to take the Crystal Heart he made his way to the castle. Sombra then fired at us but Discord snapped his fingers and turned his magic into flowers. Sombra tried time and time again but none of them worked and while Discord had Sombra distracted Cadence teleported the heart over to me and I knew right away what she wanted me to do. I changed into my bigger form and flew out the window with the heart in one claw and Twilight in the other, I wanted to bring the others but Cadence was still stuck and Shining Armor refused to leave her. 

"Do you think Cadence and Shining Armor will be all right?"

"Don't worry Twilight, Discord should keep Sombra busy long enough for me to save the Crystal Empire yet again." I planned to glide right down and put the heart back but when I got down there numerous ponies still under Sombra's control. I thought of forcing my way through there, sure it might hurt them a bit but wouldn't it have been worth it if it meant Sombra would have been stopped? However before I could figure that out I saw Discord get blasted out of the castle and forced through a building, he was out like a light. Sombra then appeared in his shadow form and charged at me, I needed to think of something and fast.        

"Spike!" Soarin said as he called out to me while waving his forelegs back and forth. "I'm open I'm open!"

"Go long!" I said as I threw the Crystal Heart as hard as I could figuring that would give Soarin all the time he needed to grab it. Sombra then went after Soarin which allowed me to put Twilight in down. "Go see if Discord is okay."

"Right," Twilight said before running off. While that was going on Soarin had caught the Crystal Heart and made a U-turn to bring it back to the castle. 

"Give me that heart!" Sombra ordered. 

"You'll have to catch me first," Soarin replied. "And by the way nopony catches the Wonderbolts." Sombra then made copies of himself and they all tried to circle around him but Soarin continued to fly faster. "You. Won't. Catch. Me!" Soarin said as he pushed himself to go even faster then to the surprise of everypony made a sonic rainboom, when he did that it forced Sombra and all of his copies away from Soarin. 

"Did he just do a sonic rainboom?" Cheerilee asked.

"Eeyup."

"Did I just do a sonic rainboom?" Soarin asked himself. "I DID A SONIC RAINBOOM!" He said filled with pride, honestly I couldn't blame him but he was so proud of himself he didn't realize he was getting too close to the castle until it was too late. He saw he was about to crash into it and while he moved he clipped his wing forcing him to go down. "AH, NOT AGAIN!" 

"SOARIN!" I called out to him. 

"Spike catch," Soarin said as he tossed the Crystal Heart back to me. My reflects kicked in and I managed to catch it but I wanted to do the same for Soarin, luckily Big Mac jumped over to where Soarin was going to land and cushioned his fall. "Thanks."

"No problem." 

"All right time to stop Sombra and become an even bigger hero of the Crystal Empire," I said as I was just about to put the heart back when Sombra appeared between me and where the heart belongs.

"I won't give up the Crystal Empire that easy."

"You think what we had to do was easy? Anyway if you want to fight bring it on!"

"As you wish," Sombra answered with a sinister smile. Sombra then teleported a few feet away but not before breaking the part of the castle the Crystal Heart goes so that he wasn't below the castle then made his horn glow. I was confused at first when suddenly just about every single dark crystal he summoned flew towards him and despite the vast number of them they all surrounded him in mere seconds forming a giant dark crystal version of himself.

"Well that is definitely something you don't see everyday," Cheese Sandwich said. Without even thinking I flew up and gave the crystal Sombra the mother of all uppercuts after putting the heart down, I figured if I attacked him he'd fight me and wouldn't go after the others and they could somehow use the heart to beat him, okay so I guess I was thinking a little. Sombra then raised a foreleg to punch me to the ground but I caught it and tried using my fire but it wasn't very affective on the crystals. 

"I guess I'll have to try something else," I said to myself as I punched his hoof causing it to brake but it just pulled itself back together. Sombra then summoned several super tall dark crystals probably to force me to back up but instead it gave me an idea, I flew to the bottom of one and punched it breaking it off then grabbed it and swung it at Sombra as hard as I could. The crystal broke on impact as did half of Sombra's face right before he was forced to the ground but I flew around him and  punched him so hard he fell where he wouldn't on anything but the crystal ground.

"Annoying, meddlesome, dragon!" Sombra then got back up ready for more which was fine with me, I broke off another tall crystal and put it in a swinging position. 

"Batter up!" I said. While that was going on the others were watching me slap Sombra silly, huh say that 5 times fast. 

"Come on, we have to help Spike somehow," Cheerilee said refusing to let me do all the work. 

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed as Cheese Sandwich smiled. 

"Hey everypony," Cheese said getting their attention. "I have an Eye-dea, I'll explain when we find Shining Armor." Basically his plan was getting out this giant rubber band he had then firing Shining Armor right at Sombra's head who'd blast it from the inside while I kept him busy. Long story short Cheese's plan worked, sort of. While the others were able to fire Shining Armor right in crystal Sombra's eye and knock him to the ground, again I made sure nopony got hurt he just started to put his head back on.

"No it didn't work!" Cheerilee said but just then I flew up to where they were with Shining Armor, while Cheese's idea didn't work it gave me one that would work. Shining Armor would uses his barrier spell on me to coat me like a suit of armor, then I'd get fired right into Sombra's chest where the real Sombra was, thereby finally stopping his giant crystal doppelganger.

"Are you this is gonna work Spike?" Shining Armor asked as he used his magic to make the magic coat extra thick while standing beside me though I few feet away to not get in the rubber band's way.

"It has to I don't know why much longer I can stay in this form," I answered as I was pulling back the rubber band with Big Mac's help on the other side. Cheerilee and Cheese Sandwich were holding both ends on a large castle window while Zecora, Discord, and Soarin where keeping a few possessed ponies back that made their way into the castle.

"Don't push yourself Discord," Cadence said to quite injured but still fighting chaos spirit as she was flying above Big Mac while Twilight was flying right atop the window. 

"3 degrees west," Twilight said and Big Mac moved 3 degrees west, we needed to make sure we got Sombra otherwise I doubt we'd get another shot. Especially when he got back up and charged right for the castle when he saw us. "READY, AIM, FIRE!" Big Mac then let go and I was flung right to Sombra.

"What the?" Sombra said just before I pierced him and made my way right to the real Sombra. "What are you doing?"

"I think things are finally heating up for you Sombra," I answered as I let out a fire breath so large it spread across the entire crystal Sombra. After that the entire crystal Sombra fell to pieces and I'm pretty sure I blacked out because the next thing I remembered was waking up in my normal body with barely enough energy to stand close to where I left the Crystal Heart. Discord then teleported to where I was with Twilight.

"Spike! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered while fighting the urge to vomit out blood. "Never better."

"He did it," one of the crystal ponies said if fact it was the one that was running around in circles earlier. When Zecora's potion freed ponies quite a few of them wanted to fight back with the others helping them. They had made their way to the castle around the time I beat Sombra. "Spike the brave and glorious has saved us one again." But just as he said that to our horror Sombra forced his way out of the dark crystals with a blood chilling scream that made the crystal ponies scream in terror. 

"No," I whispered as Sombra made his way down to me. "WHY DON'T YOU JUST GIVE UP!" I said to him as I tried to hit him with fire again but I barely sent out enough to cook marshmallows.

"Why don't you?" Sombra replied as he punched my in my cheek forcing me to the ground.

"SPIKE!" Twilight said as she wanted to run over to me but Sombra hit her with a stun spell then blasted Discord away. The crystal ponies wanted to help but just seeing Sombra filled them with fear that froze them in place.

"This really is too bad, I actually feel sorry for you," Sombra said. "You tried so hard but you still lose." Sombra then spread out the dark crystal pile around the castle making it look like a dark crystal itself. "That should keep the rest of your allies from helping you. So it's just you left to deal with, but perhaps I should deal with her first just in case."

"Leave her alone!" I said as I stood up and got between him and Twilight sticking my arms out. I tried to change into by bigger form but I barely even had to energy to stand. Sombra then punched me in the stomach with a spell that brought me to my knees. 

"Yes kneel before Sombra."

"No!" I told him as I got back up to his surprise. 

"Run Spike," Twilight said still stunned. "Go get help."

"No, I won't leave you."

"No? Aren't you afraid?"

"Yes, probably more than I've ever been. But I refuse to let my fear tell me what to do." 

"Spike," Twilight said as I could tell she was scared of what might happen to me.

"Don't worry," I said as I looked to her with a smile. "I won't let anything happen to you." Sombra then charged his horn ready to attack me again and I stood my ground ready to defend Twilight. I thought I was a goner when suddenly Sombra was bombarded by the crystal ponies that saw everything.

"What the get off me! I command you!" Sombra tried to fight them off but he was hopelessly outnumbered not to mention exhausted and before any of us knew it he was overwhelmed. Seeing that made me so happy that I didn't even mind falling down.

"Looks like they aren't afraid of you anymore," I said right before blacking out again, I woke up in the castle where Twilight still without her horn for some reason explained what happened. I may not have beaten Sombra but I tired him out enough for all crystal ponies to overpower him. The Crystal Heart was finally put back in place after Discord repair said place undoing everything Sombra did to the empire. Discord also imprisoned Sombra who would soon be taken to a special prison.

"So what are you in here for?" Chrysalis asked.

"I tried to take over Equestria," Sombra answered.

"Yeah been there done that." Back at the empire I taken outside on Twilight's back to see the others who were glad to see I was okay, even Shining Armor.

"Take goodness, we were really worried about you," Cheerilee said. 

"Eeyup."

"It's nice to know we made it out okay again," Cheese Sandwich said. 

"One thing I don't get is why Sombra got beaten so easily by the crystal ponies?" Soarin asked who had a cast around his wing. "Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining I just don't understand."

"It's because they weren't afraid," I answered as everypony looked at me. "I figured it out just before I blacked out, that was why he took Cadence he wanted to make the crystal ponies afraid, like he somehow feeds off it. So when they stood up to him their bravery cut off his power supply or something like that."

"Yes it's true," one of many crystal ponies said as they did what they did best, swarm around me. "Thank you so much great and honorable Spike. You truly truly truly are brave and glorious."

"So brave it inspired us to be brave."

"You're the greatest hero this empire will ever know."

"Uh we helped out too," Shining Armor said as the crystal ponies picked me up and started to walk off. "Seriously he didn't do this all by himself we had his back I even had to convince to trust Discord who also, ah forget it."
> You're Only Humanoid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Picking off not too long after the last chapter ended after my victory with Sombra the crystal ponies wanted to throw a party for me in my honor. To thank me for all the times that I've saved them and the empire, and despite me pointing out that they were the ones that beat Sombra in the end they still insisted this was one of those times. Though you wouldn't have seen me complaining, well actually you would have but for different reasons. When I defeated Sombra (for the most part) it took a toll on my body and Twilight placed me right in bed almost the second she saw me cough out blood.

"The great and honorable Spike the brave and glorious needs a doctor," one of the crystal ponies that saw me cough out blood said. I never get tired of being called that.

"And we'll get one to look at him at the castle," Twilight said as she tried to teleport me back to the castle, but couldn't. "Right still don't have my horn." After that I was taken to the medical wing and Twilight pretty much put me on strict guard.

"Come on Twilight," I said to her. "I told you I'm all right," I said while also being very aware of the irony of my current situation. 

"No you aren't Spike, and you aren't getting one claw out of that bed until you convince me otherwise." I decided it was best not to argue with her for the moment as I could actually use some rest and Twilight had something else to deal with. After Sombra's attack or rather during it he did something to the Elements of Harmony.

"So they don't work at all now?" Twilight asked her brother.

"No they don't," Shining Armor asked. "So now on top of these things being stuck on us we can't even use them."

"Well we don't know if they're completely useless," Cheese Sandwich said. "We tried using them on some rocks is all, but for all we know they might still work on something evil. And as far as I can tell those rocks weren't evil, though that last one kind of sent off anti-hero vibes."

"Uh, right," Soarin asked who now had a cast around one of his wings. 

"Though these element not working at all might be what we know, for the gems that once shined somewhat bright have lost their glow," Zecora added as she pointed out the color in the elements had still faded. 

"Do you think you can fix it Twilight?" Cheerilee asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe Sombra used some sort of curse like when he made the empire disappear for 1000 years. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna might know." Shortly after that Twilight had me send the royal pony sisters a letter telling about what happened at the Crystal Empire. Twilight would also lead the Wonderbolts still at the empire with the exception of Soarin for obvious reasons to Ponyville to pick up her friends. Originally she was just going to get Pinkie Pie to help Cheese Sandwich with the party because as she put it a party the size of an empire is too big for any one party pony, but when the others heard what happened they wanted to come as well.

"I figured as much," Twilight said to them. "That's why I asked the Wonderbolts to come so they could give you a lift."

"Uh excuse me but I don't need a lift anywhere," Rainbow Dash said who was the first to make it back to the empire. When she did she went to check on Soarin who told her more about what recently happened. "You did a sonic rainboom? Oh please, give me a break."

"No really I'm serious," he said but Rainbow Dash wasn't buying it which Soarin could tell just from the look on her face. 

"Uh-huh," she replied. Not too long after she showed up the others arrived as well, Pinkie got right to helping Cheese Sandwich while Applejack and Fluttershy helped with a few other things like setting up booths and stuff. While they did that Rarity made her way to me when she heard about the blood she was almost as worried about me as Twilight was.

"Are you okay Spikey Wikey?" She asked as she was sitting on the side of me bed.

"I'm better now that you're here," I answered her as I gently grabbed her hoof with my claw. 

"Oh thank you Spike that's so nice of you to say, you really are the sweetest little dragon. How about I get you another pillow and then fluff both of them?"

"That would be nice," I said and Rarity reached into her saddlebag to pull out the said pillow.

"I had a feeling you were going to say that." 

"You know me so well," I told her. The next day Princess Celestia and Luna arrived to look over the empire but also wanted to make sure that I was okay as well. 

"Well he seems to be making a good recovery," Princess Celestia said as she and Princess Luna sat next to Rarity by the side of my bed.

"Yes, he'll be okay, dragons have always been rather tough creatures," Princess Luna said.

"You better belief it," I said as I sat up to show the muscle on my arm but that caused a serious ache in my chest making me grab it as a result. It also worried my guests as all three of them reached out to me but Rarity being the closet got to me first, she protectively placed one hoof over the claw that was holding my chest and the other around my head. 

"Spike darling you mustn't push yourself after such an ordeal," Rarity told me as she tucked me into bed placing an extra blanket she found over me. "I'm going to see over the party is going, now you promise me you'll stay here and not push yourself."

"I promise," I told her as I decided to take a nap figuring or rather hoping I'd feel much better when I woke up. After seeing I was doing all right Celestia and Luna went to see the other creature making a recovery. 

"So it's true, you did take quite a beating helping out," Princess Luna said to Discord. "You'll forgive me if I tell you that when I first heard about it I had my doubts." 

"I had rather similar doubts," Celestia said. 

"Oh that's nice talk," Discord said as he was in bed as well with Fluttershy there helping in his recovery. "Rather insulting even."

"Please don't take it to personally Discord, we were surprised but we also thinks it's great that you were helping out so much," Princess Luna said.

"Yes from what Spike told us you really pulled him and the others out of a jam," Princess Celestia said.

"He did did he?" Discord said. "He brought up the incident with Tirek," Discord replied with a somber tone. "I told him how I still felt bad about that, but what I didn't tell him is that I wanted to stop Sombra on my own to make up for  that incident."

"Wow," Twilight said. "That's actually pretty noble of you Discord, which is really surprising coming from you."

"Oh ha ha," Discord said sarcastically. "Laugh it up you three."

"That said I'm still quite grateful that you were able to help us, and it looks like you're making a full recovery."

"Yes I do feel much better, another thing that I feel is my magic. Sombra used some sort of spell on me similar to the one he used on the Elements of Harmony. It messed with my powers but I can feel them slowly returning."

"Does that mean that you can use your chaos magic again?" Twilight asked. 

"Yes I can, why is there something you want?" Twilight just stared at him. "Oh right." Discord then snapped his fingers and at long last Twilight got her horn back.

"Ah finally!" Twilight said excitedly as she ran off, but quickly came back to use magic to summon some get well chocolate on Discord's stomach. "Get well soon see ya gonna help with the party the crystal ponies said they wanted my help bye!" Twilight then ran off to do what she said.

"The crystal ponies asked for my help too," Fluttershy said. "Can I get you anything else before I go?" 

"No it's quite all right go on ahead much like last time having you here already made me feel much better," Discord answered.

"All right then get well soon, I know Twilight already said that but I wanted to say that too."

"I think we should help as well sister," Princess Luna said. "I think it would be fun and maybe help us get closer to the Crystal Empire."

"You go on ahead Luna I'll catch up," Princess Celestia said. Fluttershy left with Princess Luna then Princess Celestia approached Discord who was still resting on his bed. "So Discord, you wanted to make up for what happened with Tirek?"

"Yeah I know I'm not all that good at being straight forward but I still feel rather bad about it, did I say that already?"

"I think so."

"I guess I hit my head harder than I thought, much harder probably." Princess Celestia then made an ice pack appear above his head. 

"Does that help?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Good, and listen don't feel too bad about what happened okay, it wasn't entirely your fault he tricked you and manipulated you."

"But looking back it seems so obvious, I feel like such an idiot for not noticing something going on right under my nose."

"I know how that feels, trust me. We all make mistakes but we can learn from them and be able to do better next time. You know this is a really personal story but the stuff I heard about Sombra kind of reminds me of something that happened to me long ago. Even before I met you, when I met Sombra, a different Sombra. Would you like to here about it?" 

"All right," Discord answered as he got comfortable. The next day I woke up surprisingly feeling much better.

"Spike darling you look so much better," Rarity told me who was the first thing I saw when I woke up. I rather liked that. 

"I feel a lot better too," I said as I jumped right out of bed which I could tell rather worried Rarity. 

"Spike! You shouldn't push yourself like that," Rarity said as she went over to me and picked me up. "You should rest some more, come on let's get you back in bed." 

"I don't need anymore rest I'm Spike the brave and glorious," I told Rarity when I got her to let go of me. "Not to mention the hero of the Crystal Empire, and a hero can't just lay around in bed when there's going to be a party in his honor am I right?" I asked Rarity while giving her an admittingly cocky smile while raising one of my eyebrows several times.  

"Well you do seem to be at 100%, but are you sure you're all right and back to your normal self?" 

"I'm even better than my normal self," I answered and then picked Rarity up with my bare claws which rather surprised her.

"My my you are quite strong aren't you," Rarity said and I could tell by her tone of voice that she was rather impressed as I continued to hold her in my arms. "Uh you can put me down now if you want Spike I, might be rather heavy for you," she said with a blush.

"Nonsense Rarity, you are as light as a feather," I told her which made her blush even more. She tried to look away as she blushed more but I could still see it.

"Thank you," Rarity said. "Now can you please put me down now darling, you've made your point."

"Oh sure," I said to her as I did as she asked. "You want to go see how the party is going?"

"Of course Spikey Wikey," Rarity said as she got on her stomach and I knew what she was doing. So I got right on her back and she stood up to carry me to the party, but as she went off she went left at the end of the wing when she should have went right.

"Uh, Rarity you went the wrong way."

"Don't quite Spike, I just decided to take the long way."

"Really?" I asked not minding one bit if she wanted some more alone time with me. 

"Yes, I want to have a little talk with you," she said to me as she turned her head to look at me. "Spike I feel I should really say this as your friend, I think you've been getting a bit too big for those adorable little britches of yours."

"Oh come on I saved the Crystal Empire again and now it's throwing me a party in my honor, don't you think I can allow my head to get a little big?"

"Well perhaps but please take what I said into consideration, pride cometh before the fall and all that."

"Okay Rarity. Anything for you," I said to her. When we got to the party pretty much everything was ready, Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich really know what they're doing. When the crystal ponies saw me they took me off Rarity and put me on a throne that they made for me. The crystal ponies showed me several acts that prepared for me like a juggling act, a magic show, and even a chef that I watched make me a gourmet meal with some of my absolute favorite gems.       

"This party is going great," Princess Luna who I saw and heard saying that to Pinkie Pie. "I must give credit where credit is due, you and Cheese Sandwich are quite talented as this."

"Ah thanks," Cheese Sandwich said. "You know Pinkie Pie inspired me to become the party pony I am today," he added as he pulled Pinkie into a hug. 

"Is that a fact?" Pinkie Pie nodded. "Well how about I help you two enjoy the party you went through all the trouble of planning."

"Sounds great to us," Pinkie Pie said. 

"Yeah me too," Cheese Sandwich said. "By the way is your sister here?"

"Yes she's helping Discord enjoy the party."

"This party is going wonderful darling," Rarity said as I was eating a crystal cake before she put a hoof to my claw. "Darling save some room for later."

"Yeah I guess you're right," I told her as I looked around and saw quite a few couples dancing like Shining Armor and Cadence and Big Mac and Cheerilee, even Soarin and Rainbow Dash. "Hey Rarity," I paused but not for too long. "Would you like to dance?"

"Dance? You know what, I think that would be just fine." 

"Rarity?" I said to her after we danced for a little bit.

"Yes Spike?" Before I could continue however there was a loud crash, I reluctantly turned away from Rarity after looking at her for a moment before I turned into my bigger form and went off to where the noise came from. 

"What's going on?" Twilight asked when she went over there as well.

"It is something that has interrupted quite the wonderful party, and something tells me that it is not somepony that is simply tardy," Zecora said, gotta admit not her best rhyme. 

"It came from that crater," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Nope," Big Mac said. 

"It made the crater," Cheerilee finished for big mac as the creature that made it was still in it stood up and walked over to them.

"What is that thing?" Shining Armor asked.

"I'm going to guess trouble," I answered as I shrunk down to my original form since this whatever it was wasn't fighting.



"Who are you?" Soarin asked. 

"What are you? I think that might be the more important question here," Rainbow Dash said. 

"I am Humanoid," the creature answered.

"Wait is that an answer to Soarin's question or my question?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes," Humanoid answered which just confused us even more. 

"I knew it would only be a matter of time before you showed up," Discord said which caught us all by surprise. 

"Wait, Discord you know him?" I asked.

"Oh yes we go way back don't we Humanoid?" Discord asked the strange creature who replied with a long yawn.

"Discord is that you?" Humanoid asked as he yawned again.

"Yes in the flesh I might add quite a pleasant feeling. How have you been?"

"Eh," he answered while he looked around a bit as if he forgot what he was doing, or that his brain was half asleep. He reminds me of the times that I wake up but I can practically hear my bed calling out to me to come back to bed. "You look different Discord." 

"I do?"

"Yeah, you have a crush on someone don't you or is it somepony?"  

"Discord how do you know this guy?" I asked not so much out of curiosity but to change the subject as the matter of whoever we have a crush on is quite private. 

"Oh like I said we go way back I knew this guy back when I was running Equestria even before that actually. I thought he was quite the interesting guy but one day he just disappeared, though I always had a feeling that if he ever returned he would show up at the Crystal Empire.

"Why is that?" Princess Celestia asked who was standing right next to her sister Princess Luna.

"Because he was the one that created it, in a sense that is," Discord answered which utterly shocked pretty much all of us. "You see long ago back before Equestria was founded the crystal ponies weren't crystal ponies, they were just a large group of settlers that traveled far up north. Humanoid here made them all glow and their buildings crystal like because he thought it would be funny." 

"Really Discord I did that?" Humanoid asked.

"Yes, so where have you been all these years did you get turned to stone too?"

"No," he answered with yet another yawn at this point he was kind of making me tired as well. "I was sleeping."

"No kidding," I said. 

"A dragon?" He asked as if he just noticed me know. "You are different than the other dragons, there's something special about you."

"Well I am the great and honorable Spike the brave and glorious." 

"Who gives their kid such a ridiculously long name?" Humanoid asked.

"What? No my name is just Spike, but I'm great, and honorable, and brave and-"

"We get it Spike," Shining Armor interrupted. 

"And what's so great and all that other stuff about you?" 

"I'll have you know that I'm the hero of the Crystal Empire."

"Yeah and to thank him all of the crystal ponies have thrown him this huge party, that I and my friend Pinkie Pie got to help plan."

"So you're the one that's responsible for the noise and woke me up," Humanoid said as he got a bit closer to me. "What's so great about you anyway? And what's so great about a party anyway too?"

"What's so great about a party?!" Cheese Sandwich said shocked. "Haven't you ever been to one?"

"No," Humanoid answered which made Cheese's mouth nearly hit the floor.

"Well let me show you, come on and join us we'll have a blast and speaking of blast." Cheese Sandwich then got out his party cannon and fired it, a costly mistake. When he fired the cannon Humanoid put his hands to the sides of his head and then let out a roar that made the rest of us do the same.

"ALL THE NOISE!" He roared in anger now acting like he's fully awoke. "ALL THE NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE!  All I want to do is sleep it's all I've ever wanted but now I can't, not anymore, why did that tree have to give out?"

"Tree?" Soarin asked. "Do you know what he's talking about Big Mac?" 

"Nope." After that Humanoid rabbled a bit when suddenly he said something that caught my attention.

"If it's not one thing it's another this party those annoying ghost ponies that wouldn't leave me alone."

"Ghost ponies," I asked when suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks. "It was you. You killed the wendigos."

"Wendigo what's that, some sort of pegasus delivery system?"

"No!" I said with anger. "Do you have any idea what you did, what you set in motion? 

"No," he said with no emotion to it which just made me more angry. 

"Well let me let you, my friends got captured by the changeling queen, if it weren't for you they wouldn't have been captured, because of you Twilight almost died!"

"Twilight? Who's that somepony important? Am I supposed to care about her?" When I heard that I just snapped I turned into my large form again and jumped over to him hitting him in the face as hard as I could which sent him flying out of the empire. But that wasn't enough for me as I made my way to where he went and found where he landed.

"There you are!" I said breathing fire out a bit but let out a lot more when I was right on top of him.

"You are special," he said as the fire cleared he didn't look remotely hurt, not even a scratch, but I didn't quite notice that at the moment. "You're like the tree."

"The tree?" I asked while still upset at him and once again it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Do you mean the Tree of Harmony?"

"Is that the crystal one?"

"Yes."

"Then yes."

"Did you do something to the tree as well?" I asked while still ready for a fight.

"No you're friends did something to it, I was sleeping so I guess if Light Star was involved it was her own fault she almost got killed." Hearing that I was almost possessed by anger and gave him about a million and a half punches so fast he couldn't dodge or block any of them. But when I finished he raised his fist and punched me right in my cheek and everything went black. 


***  


When I woke up I was back at Twilight's castle resting in her bed and shortly after that Twilight came in to tell me what happened. After knocking me out cold Humanoid set his sights on the Crystal Empire taking it over all by himself, the others tried to stop him but it was no use. In the end they had to retreat back to Ponyville and not just them but the entire Crystal Empire, when I heard about that I threw up blood again as that one punch did quite a lot more than I thought. After that I decided to take another nap mostly because of the pain from Humanoid's punch. But it was more mostly because I couldn't muster any energy after learning I let everypony down, that I let the crystal ponies down, that I let myself down.

I had gone from a hero to a zero, and so far this is my least favorite chapter that I had to write down.
> The Trio of Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After my defeat at the hands of Humanoid for one reason or another I hardly left my bed. Even now as I'm writing this, I couldn't believe that Humanoid was tough even to endure all of my attacks, then take me down with just one of his. The others would come to see how I was feeling, most of all Twilight , actually it was a tie between Twilight and Rarity. Twilight would make some food for me while Rarity would just stay with me if I needed anything. "Thank you for everything," I would say to both of them.  

"Oh it's nothing Spikey Wikey," Rarity said with a wave when I said it to both of them at once.

"Yeah with all the stuff you've done lately, this is the least we can do," Twilight added. After a while Twilight left to talk with Cadance and her brother, leaving me alone with Rarity. She came by the bed and gently placed her hoof on my cheek as I was still laying on the bed, which rather made my heart beat a bit faster. 

"Spike," Rarity said to me so gently as I looked into her beautiful eyes. "Would you like to come to the gem cave with me? I want to make more dresses with them, and I need a little extra help from my favorite dragon."

"I don't know Rarity, maybe you should ask Twilight, or Princess Cadence. They might be able to handle it better than I could."

"Oh Spikey Wikey don't talk like that, of course you're the best for the job. Why don't you help me with a dress I'm already working on before we go?" Rarity asked me as she batted her beautiful eyes at me, how could I have possibly said no. 


*** 


"So how is he Twily?" Shining Armor asked.

"Well he's gotten out of bed a couple times," Twilight answered before she sighed. "But I can tell he's still depressed." 

"Yeah I don't think I can blame him," Shining Armor said. "Humanoid really hurt him."

"Despite his incredible strength, he only punched him once. He should have recovered from that by now," Cadence said.

"No Cadence," Shining Armor said. "Humanoid hurt his pride, that pain isn't going to fade as quickly." 

"He's right," Soarin said as he and the other new bearers joined the others. "A warrior's pride is not so easily mended." 

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed. 
"I don't quite understand," Cheerilee said. 

"It's a stallion thing," Cheese Sandwich added. 

"Regardless of what is to be Spike's fate, there is another matter to deal with before it is too late."

"Eeyup, Humanoid." 

"Zecora is right, and so is Big Mac," Cheese Sandwich said. "How did that guy get so strong? I wanted to ask him that at the Crystal Empire, but I was too busy running for my life." 

"Even if you weren't, he always has rather hard to figure out," Discord said as he appeared out of nowhere as he usually does. 

"Right Discord," Twilight said. "You knew him. What exactly is he?"

"You know, I could never quite figure that out. I just kind of hung out with him because he was strange like me. I also admired his feats of strength." 

"We kind of saw that when he overtook the Crystal Empire," Shining Armor said. 

"He didn't directly say it," Twilight said. "But he was the one that killed the wendigos, is he strong enough to do something like that on strength alone?"

"I doubt it even for him, though he still has his magic. Somehow he was able to use his magic to mess with other magic."

"What do you mean?" Cheerilee asked. 

"He could somehow make it so that the magic of others don't work, or at least not the way it's supposed to."

"He can interfere with the magic of others?" Shining Armor asked. "You mean kind of like how King Sombra made it so our Elements of Harmony couldn't work?"

"Exactly," Discord answered. "That was something Humanoid could do as well."

"Does that mean Humanoid taught him how to do that?" Soarin asked. 

"I doubt it, he's not really the teaching type," Discord answered.

"Sheesh," Shining Armor said as he started to pace back and forth. "One question gets answered and two more take its place.
"Yeah I'm getting a headache just trying to make sense of all this," Cheese Sandwich said. 

"This is all too much to handle right now," Cheerilee said. "Maybe if we give this problem some space an answer will come to us. Besides, I really want to do something to cheer up poor Spike."

"Yeah," Cheese Sandwich said. "Let's throw him a party, like the one the crystal ponies were about to throw for Spike before Humanoid. Uh never mind, let's try something else."

"How about we bake him a giant cake?" Soarin suggested. "And maybe a pie, not for him but for me. All that stuff in the Crystal Empire really worked up an appetite. Might also be because of all the stress I haven't found the time to eat."

"That happened to me once," Cheese Sandwich said. "Only instead of food it was sleeping. I was working on so many parties I forgot to do that and the next thing I knew, I blacked out and woke up a week later in a hospital."

"Uh, okay," Cheerilee said,

"Actually, I'm pretty hungry too," Shining Armor. "Maybe if we get a bite to eat it'll help us figure something out." 

"We can get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner," Cheerilee said. "They always have the sweetest desserts."

"Like pie!" Soarin said as he flew over to Cheerilee. Sheesh what's with him and pie anyway? I mean I like it fine, but personally I'd much prefer a large and crunchy bowl of colorful gemstones. Speaking of which, Soarin went with Cheerilee to Sugarcube Corner while I was out with Rarity who was treating me to several of those delicious said gemstones. 

"Are you sure I can have these Rarity? We just started looking for the gems you need." Rarity then placed another gemstone in my mouth while I was sitting by the wall of the cave.

"Oh of course, my dear Spike," she answered. "There's plenty more gems to get in the cave. Besides, I wanted to cheer up my favorite dragon. Do you feel better Spike?"

"Yeah, a little bit," I answered. 

"That's good, do you still want to help me get the gems for the dress?"

"Of course, anything for you Rarity," I answered as I stood up. 

"That's good too, because I need your strong dragon arms to carry all of the gems." Rarity and I then made our way into the cave and gathered all of the gems Rarity wanted. "Well, I think it's fair to say I got all the gems I'll need to make those dresses absolutely fabulous," Rarity said as we made our way out of the cave.

"If you're the one that's making them, then there's no way the dresses won't be."

"Oh Spike, you flatter me so," Rarity said as I saw her blush a bit. 

"No really," I continued. "You're such an amazing pony. You're strong, beautiful, gorgeous even, talented, smart, and even an Element of Harmony. Or were or will be after it's all figured out, still don't know about all that," I said as I scratched the back of my head.    
 
"Yes, that is rather confusing," Rarity agreed with me.
 
"Anyway," I continued, again. "You're amazing. And, and there's something I want to tell you. Something that I wanted to tell you back at the Crystal Empire, something that I've wanted to tell you for the longest time, since the day I met you."

"Yes Spike," Rarity said as she put her hoof to her chest. Perhaps knowing or at least highly suspecting what I was about to tell her.

"Rarity I, I," I paused as I could hear my own heart beat. "I love you!" I nearly screamed as my confession echoed throughout the cave. 

Oh dear, Rarity thought. I, I don't know what to say. "Oh Spike," she said as she placed a hoof to my chin.

"Yes Rarity."

"Please understand, I do care for you a great much. You're always such a wonderful help around the shop or getting gems or anything really. I couldn't ask for a better friend."

Friend? I thought. 

"But, you see. You and I are just too different, I mean I'm a pony and you're a dragon and, and well-"

"I get it," I interrupted Rarity as I got her point and couldn't really take much more of it. "I'm sorry Rarity, I shouldn't have shared how I feel about you. I'll, I'll go now," I said as I walked off even more hurt than when Humanoid knocked me out and took over the Crystal Empire.

Oh my beloved little Spikey Wikey, don't go. Please don't go, Rarity thought as I made my way out of the gem cave and back to the crystal castle. 

“Spike wai-” Rarity called out before she was cut off and I was too far away to hear her.

***


As I made my way back, Twilight was in the middle of a rather intense conversation with Shining Armor. 

"What the heck are we going to do? That Humanoid creature is way too powerful for us to handle, we can't even use the Elements of Harmony because I still can't figure out how to undo what Sombra did to them."

"Take it easy Twily, you're going to wear out the floor."

"I'm sorry I'm just so stressed."

"Cadance and I are the ones that should be stressed. We lost our entire kingdom. I wanted to help Spike fight that guy. When Spike told him all the things that happened to you and your friends and he acted like he didn't even care one bit. I wanted to blast that guy point blank, but Spike beat me to it." 

"That might have been for the best, if Spike got knocked out with just one punch, he could have done much much worse to you. No offense."

"None taken," he said calmly. "As much as I didn't want to, retreating was our best option."

"He who turns and runs away can live to fight another day," Zecora said as she entered the room with the rest of the new bearers. 

"Yeah exactly," Shining Armor said. "He may have won the battle but we won't win the war." As they talked a little more I made it back and Twilight stopped chatting with the others to check on me. 

"Hello Spike, did you have a good time with Rarity at the gem cave?" 

"Yeah, listen Twilight, I'm really tired, I think I'm gonna go take another nap." 

"Oh okay," Twilight said, showing her concern for me as she usually does but decided to give me my space. After I woke up I thought a bit about Humanoid and after that I turned into my bigger form to do a bit of a workout. I don't usually do that sort of thing. Maybe it was because of everything that I'd been through recently. I thought that if I was stronger I would have stood my ground against him a little more and maybe I could have stopped him. After I did that for a little bit I smelled dinner, which was pretty good timing as that workout worked up an appetite.

Wow that was really clever wordplay and it just came to me out of nowhere.
I changed back into my regular form and looked at a nearby mirror which I couldn't help but admire myself in. "Looking good Spike, looking real good," I said as I flexed my arms a little bit. I made my way down to the kitchen and saw that Cadence and Shining Armor were there as well.

"Oh Spike you got here just in time for dinner, I made your's special," Twilight said as she placed my plate where I sat down. 

"Thanks Twilight," I said as I started eating a little bit. "But what's he doing here?" 

"Well," Twilight said as she sat next to me. "Since Humanoid took control of the Crystal Empire Cadence and Shining Armor will be needing a place to stay until we can figure out how to get it back. However long that might take."

"So he's staying here in the meantime? Why not, I don't know. Anywhere else?"

"Spike, be nice to Shining Armor," Twilight told me. After dinner Twilight asked me to show Cadance and Shining Armor to their room. Which of course was right next to mine, why can't I get a break?

"Thank you for the help, this castle is rather easy to get lost in." Cadence said to me before entering her new room.

"Yeah thanks Spike," Shining Armor added. 

"No problem," I answered as I started to walk off.

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

"Look I know you're trying to be nice but just stop Shining Armor," I interrupted. "It's not going to cheer me up, and you and I are not friends. You made that very clear a long time ago." I then made my way down the hall as Shining Armor stayed there trying to think of something to say, but said nothing. As I continued walking I came across Twilight who as quick as I saw her pulled me into a hug.

"Spike, I now you're upset at yourself-"

"I'm not mad at myself Twilight, I'm mad at Humanoid."

"And you're mad at yourself because you couldn't stop him right?" 

"Yes," I answered Twilight after about 10 or 20 seconds of silence, a rather awkward silence.      

"We'll figure something out, but stop being so hard on yourself okay?" Twilight asked as she looked at me while pulling away from the hug.
"It's not just Humanoid," I replied.

"It's not," Twilight replied. "Is there something else? Well I mean of course there is otherwise you wouldn't have just said that? What is it?" It was my recent conversation with Rarity, but that's not exactly something you want to tell, anypony.

"I'd rather not talk about it?" 

"Is it something about your body? I mean what your recent transformation powers that might be a little hard to deal with or understand."

"It's not really a body problem, well it kind of is but, I really don't want to talk about that right now."

"All right Spike," Twilight said as she pulled me into another hug. "But I'm always here if you want to talk."

"I know, thanks Twilight." Twilight then made her way to her room something about making a few fun activities to do with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor while they were here, I wasn't really listening. 

"Maybe I can think of something that Spike and Shining Armor would like to do together, maybe something comic relate-mmph"


***


Not too long after I talked with Twilight I went to bed, I woke up and decided to make myself into the kitchen and eat some special gems I've been saving for a special occasion. I guess having a fatal blow be struck to my ego counts as one. As I made my way there Cadence made her way over to me. "Spike, has Twilight come back from the store?"

"What do you mean?" I asked after a confused pause.

"Well I went to her room to wake her up for breakfast but she wasn't there, then I looked around the castle but couldn't find her. So I just assumed she went to the store or something," Cadence replied. Isn't there a saying about why ponies shouldn't assume?

"Well, I don't know, I haven't seen her today. I just woke up." A moment of silence passed between us as we both started to get the same bad feeling. Cadence bent down and I know exactly why, so I jumped on her back and she flew out of the castle to look for Twilight.

She was nowhere to be found.

"Excuse me," Soarin said as he caught up to Cadence who was in the air looking for Twilight with me still on her back. "Pardon me your majesticness or your graceful highness, your-"

"Cadence," she interrupted. "Just Princess Cadence.”

"Oh okay, have you seen Rainbow Dash by any chance? She's not at her house."

"You gotta be kidding me," I said as I put my claws to my head. "This cannot be happening again!" Soarin and Cadence then looked around for the rest of the "mane 6" as Zecora called them but we could find them either. It was happening again.

Aw nuts I mispelled main I'll have to, oh wait a minute mane 6, that's actually really clever. 

Why am I writing this down?

Cadence then made her way to Zecora when I suggested it thinking or hoping no more like praying that she'd know where to find them like she did last time. 

"Twilight and her crew are gone, what are we going to do?"

"Wait do doesn't rhyme with gone," Cadence commented.

"But it does rhyme with crew," I said.

"But that's-" I claw gagged Cadence and she nodded figuring out why I did it right away. "Not important right now,” Cadence said when I ungagged her “You're right sorry Spike."   

"It's all right. Zecora, do you know how we can find Twilight?" 

"I've no info this time around, have they all once again gone out of town?"

"No, Twilight," I said as I put my claws to my head again in panic.

"Don't worry Spike, I'm sure she's all right," Cadence said, trying to get me to calm down. But it wasn't working. Last time this happened I almost lost Twilight. 

I refuse to let it happen again.  

"I'm more than sure that Twilight and her friends any storm they can weather, but perhaps we should get our group back together." 

"Zecora might be right," Cadence said and I agreed so we wasted no time and we flew back into Ponyville where we saw Big Mac and Cheerilee heading to the castle. We came across Soarin again as well in the sky and told him to find Cheese Sandwich. He wasted no time and flew off to do just that while Cadence went down to the castle where we quickly ran into Shining Armor.

"Uh Spike, why are you on my wife's back?" Shining Armor asked. 

"Is Princess Cadence offering free rides?" Cheese Sandwich asked. "Can I go next? I've always wanted to ride something that could fly." 

"Something is going on though, isn't it?" Cheerilee asked. 

"Eeyup," Big Mac answered as he could just tell something was up. Not too long after that Soarin brought up the unfortunate news that all of Twilight's friends were missing as well, not just Rainbow Dash. When he went to find Cheese Sandwich he looked for Twilight’s friends but they were gone. 

"You gotta be kidding me," Shining Armor said. "This cannot be happening again." 

"Did Twilight go on some sort of adventure again?" Cheese Sandwich asked.

"I think it might be something like that," Soarin answered as he got out a piece of paper. "I found this when I went to the top of Sugarcube Corner, the place was a bit of a mess, like there was some kind of fight."

"Fight?" I asked worried, I jumped off Cadence's back and made my way over to Soarin to read the note. I was half expecting it to be some sort of ransom note, but instead I wasn't quite sure what it was.

Honestly I kind of had no idea.

"What does it say? Cadence asked. 

"The dragon mountain?" I answered not sure what that meant. 

"Dragon mountain, is that a thing?" Cheese Sandwich asked. 

"Nope.”

"Wait a minute," Cheerilee said, getting all of our attention. "I just remembered. A while back, there was a dragon that was taking a nap in a mountain not too far away from here. His snoring was so bad that it caused his smoke to spread all the way to Ponyville, maybe that is what the note is talking about."

"I guess it could be," Cheese Sandwich said. 
"At the very least it's worth looking into," Soarin said. We then went outside to go get Zecora but were surprised to see several ponies arriving at the castle to talk about how they also noticed that Twilight's friends had gone missing. Several ponies went to Rarity's shop for a dress, Applejack was supposed to help round up some animals just outside of Ponyville, and Fluttershy had several appointments with the vet. Princess Cadence didn't want to waste any time and decided to talk to the crowd while we went to collect Zecora and head for the mountain. 

"So it seems we have found a clue that will help us figure out just what to do," Zecora said when we came back to her hut. "I should not delay, you might need my help so I cannot stay." 

"Uh, about that," Soarin said. "Ever since that whole mess with Sombra, we haven't been able to get the Elements of Harmony to work. Not even once."

"If it means rescuing Twilight, Rarity, and the others I'll fight whatever might have taken them. Even if it's Humanoid." Soarin then flew over to me and gave me a playful bump to my arm. 

"That's what I'm talking about," Soarin said, clearly admiring my spirit. "But without the elements we're gonna have to be a bit more careful."

"Yes, a little more stealth and caution perhaps,” Cheerilee suggested. 


***


We quickly made our way to the mountain and while we had a few problems here and there, such as walking around what was an avalanche. But it was nothing we couldn't handle. Before long we made it to the top where we were starting to think maybe this was some sort of wild goose chase when suddenly-

"What the heck are we going to do now?" A voice I never heard before called out.

"How should I know?" Another voice which I also never heard before said.

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?"

"Heaven knows you act like it all the time," a third voice that surprise surprise I had never heard before said.

"Well what are we going to do with these ponies?" The first one asked and we all jumped a bit as the mane six were indeed taken here. "Can we just put them all back?"

"We can't do that?" The second voice said.

"Why not?" The third asked.
"If we just put them back they'll just tell the other ponies what happened, and actually this might be a good idea. They could tell the ones that actually do have the elements and then we can take them then."

"Actually that could work," the second voice said. The trio of voices continued to speak but we didn't quite hear them as we started talking. 

"They want the Elements of Harmony?" Cheerilee asked. "Something really weird is going on here."

"Eeyup." 

"Maybe we can offer a trade, the elements for our friends," Cheese Sandwich said. "Actually they're more like acquaintances, except for Pinkie." 

"That won't work Cheese, we still can't get these darn things off," Shining Armor said. 

"Maybe we can use them to threaten them," Soarin said. "Give us the others back or we'll blast you!"

"That won't work either," Shining Armor said. "They don't work, remember?"

"Yeah, but they don't know that."

"I guess it could work, and I rather like the idea of solving the problem without having to resort to violence," Cheerilee said.

"Well whatever we're going to do we need to figure it out fast, who knows what they might do to our friends," I said.

"Again, they're more like acquaintances, except for Pinkie Pie. But he's still right let's go."    

"I want to rescue my sister, but we can't be reckless. We don't even know what we're up against."

"Yeah but we're not gonna stop them just by standing around and talking," I said and I could tell just by looking that they agreed. "Maybe I could sneak in and see what's in there?"

"RIght because that whole stealth mission idea worked well the first time right?" Shining Armor asked and honestly I couldn't tell if he was trying to make a point or if he was just being a smart alec. Sometimes he makes it very hard to tell. 

"If you have another idea, I'd love to hear it Shining Armor," I said to him.
"You could both go," Cheerilee suggested, making us both look at her in confusion. "Spike could lead the way since he's small and hard to spot but if he does you could just teleport him out." 

"That's actually a rather good idea," Soarin said.

"Eeyup.” 

"And while you two are here we can think up a couple other ideas," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Eeyup." After that I made my way into the cave with Shining Armor close behind me, the cave was quite large and surprisingly quiet. 

The voices stopped talking.

"I don't like this," I said. 

"I know it's quiet, too quiet," Shining Armor replied. We made it deeper and deeper into the cave, carefully looking around every corner. "They should be here if we heard them from outside they must be close."

"Unless they went deeper into the cave," I answered. After a bit more searching and more awkward silence than I'd like to admit we found them, trapped behind some sort of wall that looked like it was made of foot long thick glass, but upon closer inspection was clearly made of some sort of magic. "Rarity, Twilight," I said as I went over to the wall. "You're safe."

"Are you hurt Twiley?" 

"No Shining Armor I'm all right, but please tell me you two didn't come here alone."

"We didn't, the rest of our group is just outside the cave, but what happened to you and your friends?" 

"Uh can ya'll get us out of here first?" Applejack asked. "It's rather cramped in here."

"I agree," Rarity said. "Don't get me wrong I adore spending time with you all, but a lady needs her alone time."

"Plus there's hardly any space to fly."

"Or throw parties."

"And there are no animals to talk to or hug or hug while talking to them." Shining Armor then teleported out of the cave and as quick as he left he came back with the others, figuring that all of us working together would have a better chance of freeing the others.
"Uh, couldn't you just teleport them out?" Cheerilee asked when the situation was explained.

"Rarity and I tried that, but it didn't work, something is blocking our magic." Big Mac then tried to kick it hoping that the wall would break, but there wasn't even a single scratch. 

"That's some tough magic," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Eeyup." Shining Armor then tried to blast the wall with honestly what looked like a pretty powerful beam. But like before it did no good. 

"Who or whatever put this wall up is powerful indeed, to free the others it's a plan that we need."

"Zecora's right we need to think of something fast before those who ponynapped you all return," Cheerilee said. 

"Who did take you all anyway?" Cheese Sandwich answered.

"Those guys three right behind you," Pinkie Pie answered. Suddenly the others behind the wall noticed as well, my group turned around fast and were quite shocked at what we saw to say the least. 



"Hello," the creature on the left side who had the first voice that we heard. "I'm Slapstick."

"What do we have here Satire?" The one on the right said who had the third voice we heard.

"It seems we have some visitors, Mudslinger," the middle one who had the 2nd voice we heard. 

"YOU!" I screamed out, shocking the others before I transformed and punched the one in the middle as hard as I could. As you could probably guess, I thought they were Humanoid, I was so shocked by seeing three of him or what I thought was the three of him at the time I got confused. 

"SATIRE!" The other two called out at the same time as Satire was forced to the other side of the cave. 

"Hey you can't do that to my brother!" Slapstick called out. I decided to respond by attacking him next. I gave him a series of punches and while they hit dead on much like Humanoid they didn't seem to be doing much damage. I would have given him more punches but my fist was caught by what I thought was the third one, but instead was me.

Yeah imagine how shocked I was to see that.  
"Why don't you pick on somecreature your own size?" The other me asked before he tossed me. I was able to catch myself in the air with my wings and I saw the other me turn into the one that's called Satire. I was about to fly back at those two when I changed back into my regular form all of a sudden.

"What the?" I asked before I fell and hit the ground, or at least would have if Big Mac hadn’t caught me with his back. "Thanks Big Mac."

"No problem Spike." 

"That's where you're wrong, big sack," Mudslinger said. "You got a problem and a big one, it's three big ones."

"Yeah, they're us."

"Shut up Slapstick!" 

"Well if we're gonna fight I have a little something I've been saving," Cheese Sandwich said as he revealed another one of those large party cannons. I'm pretty sure he has more than one.

"Wait a minute," Slapstick said. "That something isn't little." Cheese Sandwich then got ready to fire the cannon but Slapstick lifted it up before he had the chance to do just that. Cheese tried to fire anyway but he only managed to shoot the walls of the cave. Cheese then got careless and fell off of his cannon and when he fell Slapstick threw the cannon deeper into the cave. 

"Wow you are really strong," Cheese couldn't help but admire. 

"Thanks, I don't even exercise," Slapstick answered and then suddenly stared at Cheese Sandwich's element. "Huh? Hey Satire, Mudslinger."

"Kind of busy Slapstick," Satire said, who managed to turn into a large dragon that looked rather similar to one I found in a gem cave. Actually he found me but that's not really all that important. 

"But I found an Element of Harmony," Slapstick said as he approached Cheese Sandwich and grabbed the Element of Laughter. "Now we can, can," Slapstick stopped when he struggled to remove the element but of course, it wouldn't come off. "How do you get the darn thing off?" Slapstick asked as he swung Cheese Sandwich around more trying to get the element.

"We don't even know?" As Slapstick tried harder Shining Armor, Big Mac, and I fought Satire while Soarin, Cheerilee, and Zecora kept Mudslinger at bay. We only started but Cheerilee already figured out that Mudslinger could somehow interfere with other creatures' magic. I'll have to remember to ask how she figured that out so fast.

Maybe she's a detective in her spare time. Though now that I’m writing this down there was this part I forgot to write down where I tried to help Cheese and got big, but I shrunk several times. So it might have been then.

Anyway she had the idea that her group would keep Mudslinger busy so the rest of us could focus on Satire then help Cheese Sandwich with Slapstick. Satire was changing his form so much I felt like I was fighting Chrysalis. Eventually he turned into me in my transformed state again as the two of us grabbed each other's claws and exchanged fire shots.

"Spike!" Rarity called out as she was still trapped behind the wall. "Leave him alone, I'll rip you to pieces if you hurt one scale on his cute little head!" I then pushed back but Satire was holding his ground.

“That’s not going to be enough,” Satire said as he forced me back and forced me to take a knee.

"You can do it Spike!" Rarity called out as she jumped up a bit and placed her forelegs on the wall. Hearing the most beautiful pony in Equestria root for me gave me the strength I needed to stand up again and push Satire back.

"What's going on?" Satire asked. "Did you suddenly get stronger somehow?"

"Yes I did!" I then got my claws free and blasted Satire head on with my harmony powers that forced him through the cave. After getting rammed through that he changed back to his regular form, out like a light. 

"Hey you can't do that to my brother!" Mudslinger called out as he charged past the others and right to me with Slapstick right behind him who was still holding on to Cheese Sandwich. 

"Hey and you can't do that to my brother either!"

"Shut up Slapstick!" Mudslinger then forced me to return to my normal and was about to hit me with what looked like a powerful magical blast from his claws, but Shining Armor blasted him back before he had the chance to do just that. Slapstick then grabbed and picked Shining Armor by the mane and horn but I transformed again and grabbed him by his legs making him let go of Shining Armor and Cheese Sandwich who were caught by Soarin who was so fast he managed to catch them both. 

"Hey put me down, I can't walk on air, trust me I tried."

"You know something tells me you got a thick head," I told him.

"That's what my brothers say a couple times," he answered.

"That gives me an idea. Twilight you and everypony get away from the wall." They did as I asked and I started to spin him around rapidly. 

"Hey what are you doiiiiiiing?" He asked as I let go near the end of his question causing him to fly right at the wall and he crashed right into it. The wall broke into pieces freeing the ponies that were taken, I felt pretty good about myself. Our friends were rescued and all three of the threats were defeated, but before I could really enjoy that I once again went back to my regular form and suddenly coughed out quite a lot of blood. 

"Spike!" I heard Rarity yell out before I blacked out.


***  
           

I woke up with my head resting on Rarity's stomach in between her fore and back legs, her head right next to mine. She smiled a smile that melted my heart as she was very happy to see me wake up. I was about to get up but Rarity gently pressed a foreleg on my chest and forced me back down.

"No Spike, don't move," Rarity said. "Zecora needs to give you something before you can get up." Suddenly almost as if on cue Zecora came over with a party cup Cheese Sandwich brought, don't ask me where he was keeping it. She sent Soarin and Rainbow Dash to collect some things she needed and she was able to make them into that drink, again don't ask me how.

"The fighting from here nearly tore you apart, but this will help you with your heart." Zecora then offered me the cup and Rarity helped me drink it before helping me to my feet after a minute. 

"You did amazing Spike," Twilight told me. "The way you freed us, you're a real hero Spike," Twilight answered and the rest of her friends backed her up on that. 

"Thanks Twilight, I'm just glad you're alright," I said when I saw the rest of my group and made my way over to them with Rarity on my left and Twilight on my right. "Shining Armor."

"Yeah," he replied.

"I just wanted to thank you for blasting Mudslinger before he had the chance to blast me."

"Oh," he said, surprised. Not that I blame him, I think that was the first time I ever said thanks to him. "Your welcome, thanks for helping me when Slapstick tried to attack us. You really had my back."

"Yeah, well you really had mine," I said as he and I actually started to have a moment. But it didn't last long as those three brothers got back up looking like they were ready for a fight. Actually it was just Mudslinger and Satire at first.
Also if you're wondering why we were still there, it was because Zecora thought it best to help me right away with my heart condition. I later asked why they didn't just teleport me to a hospital and Zecora said (in her own way) that my heart problem was an, I can't remember the word but it's like mystery. Meaning that the hospital most likely wouldn't be able to help me. Anyway, Satire and Mudslinger got back ready to fight.   

"Get up Slapstick!" Mudslinger called out. 

"Oh," Slapstick said as he got up looking like he took no damage whatsoever. 

I mean seriously I made him break the wall with his head and he gets up like it's nothing. What is he made of? 

"Sorry," Slapstick said after getting up. "I didn't want to get up until I thought of something to help us fight."

"It could take days for you to think of something!"

"Oh honestly, knock it off Mudslinger, you're always sniping at him. These ponies are strong so we're gonna have to work together to take those elements and finally get revenge on Humanoid." Hearing Satire say that shocked every single one of us. 

"Wait, you want revenge on Humanoid?" Soarin asked.

"Yeah, why do you know him?" Slapstick asked.

"Yeah, and we want revenge on him too," I answered. 

"You do?" Mudslinger asked. 

"Yeah, he took over the Crystal Empire and made a fool out of me," I answered again. 

"Well he kind of did that to all of us, but yeah Spike especially," Cheese Sandwich said which rather annoyed me. 

"Wait, I'm confused," Soarin said. "Why did you need Rainbow Dash and her friends for your revenge?"

"We didn't need them, we needed the Elements of Harmony," Slapstick answered. "But when we took them here they didn't have them. I didn't really like taking ponies against their will, but my brothers said it was the only way we could finally get our revenge."

"Why didn't you just ask for help?" Cheerilee asked. Slapstick then raised one of his claws up but then stopped with his mouth open.
"Why didn't we do that Mudslinger?"

"Why are you asking me? Ask Satire he's supposed to be the smart one?" 

"Well we know you aren't the smart one. And you're definitely not the cute one!"

"Am I the cute one?"

"Hang on a minute!" Twilight said which got the attention of the brothers. "I have so many questions right now, but I still need to get Spike some rest as soon as possible so I'm gonna try to cut to the point. Can the Elements of Harmony defeat Humanoid?"     

"They can help us beat him," Satire answered.

"Well that's good to hear, or at least it would if it weren't for Sombra," Shining Armor said. 

"What do you mean?" Satire asked as he approached Shining Armor. 

"Before Humanoid forced everypony out of the Crystal Empire King Sombra tried to take it over as well. He did this weird thing to the Elements of Harmony and they haven't worked since." Mudslinger then approached Shining Armor and looked at his Element of Harmony and suddenly, it came right off. 

Once again we were all shocked.

"It's off!" Twilight said. "Mudslinger, how did you do that?" 

"This Sombra can do something similar to Humanoid and interfere with magical properties. But I can do that too, so I canceled it out so to speak."

"Can you get mine off too?" Soarin asked as he flew over to Mudslinger. "I think I'm starting to get a rash." Mudslinger then got the elements off of the others and brought their glow back as well. 

"Well it looks like this unpleasantness wasn't so unpleasant afterall," Rarity said. 

"This trio I was starting to despise, but meeting them is perhaps a blessing in disguise." 

"It's so nice to have that element off Big Mac," Cheerilee said. 

"Eeyup, Applejack didn't want me to bathe with that on."

"Eww are you serious?"

"Heh heh, nope." 

"Thanks so much for getting these off," Cheese Sandwich said. 

"All right let's get these elements back to my castle, and Spike into his bed."

"I'm fine, besides I want to hear about your revenge plan on Humanoid." 

"You do?" Satire asked.

"Yeah, I want in."

"You do?" 

"After everything he did and the harm we caused my friends it's the least I owe him."

"I don't agree with revenge, but we can't let him get away with what he's done," Cheerilee said.

"On that you and I can agree," Mudslinger saind. 

"All right and we can talk more about it later, come on Spike maybe I can help Zecora make something else to help with your heart."

"Twilight I'm fine I'm ready for a fight," I said as I transformed again but doing that made me cough up blood again. "Yeah okay let's do your idea," I said as I changed back to my normal form. After that we all left the cave and I got a little rest and during my recovery I talked more with Slapstick, Mudslinger, and Satire. 

Before long a plan was made and we made our way to the Crystal Empire.


*** 
  

The Crystal Empire, a once beautiful place that literally shined, but was now all but buried in snow. Humanoid was right in the center of it sleeping right under the Crystal Heart, snoring like a helicopter engine that won't start.

"All right Humanoid it's time to make you pay for all of the misery that you caused not just me, but all of my friends," I called out ready for battle. But to my annoyance he was still sound asleep, so I gave him a very rude awakening by stomping on his stomach as hard as I could. It woke him up and he hit his head on the Crystal Heart which for some reason seemed to hurt him even more than my stomp. 

"Oh, you again," Humanoid said as he got back up and rubbed his head. "What did Sunlight almost get herself killed again?" He asked. For reasons I'm sure you understand I punched him as hard as I could, and this time it looked like it hurt.

"It's Twilight," I replied, but I doubt he heard me as my one punch sent him all the way to the other side of the Crystal Empire. Compliments of Mudslinger, turns out he can not only interfere with other creatures' powers, but enhance them too. I was so strong that after that I could pick up a mountain, literally I tried.

Princess Celestia told me never to do that again. 

"You got stronger," Humanoid said as he made his way back to where I was. He then tried to knock him out again with his punch but this time I was ready for it. As Satire pointed out, Humanoid is strong but he's slow, if I read his attacks I'll stand a much better chance, and after a few dozen sparring matches with Slapstick I was able to do just that. As well as take a punch a lot better.

Mudslinger enhanced my strength, Satire sharpened my mind, and Slapstick helped me raise my endurance. I was three times stronger than the last time I fought with him. I dodged nearly every attack he threw and the ones that did hit weren't nearly as bad as last time. I hit Humanoid with everything I had and forced him to the ground several times. 

"Not just stronger," I said after giving him the beating he deserved. "Faster, tougher, and smarter too."

"From the sound of your voice you've made some new friends," Humanoid said after charging at him and we grabbed each other's claws. He tried to push me back but before long he took a knee, he took both of them actually. Humanoid then looked up and noticed my new necklace also compliments Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick with a little help from Zecora and Twilight. It looked a lot like the fire ruby necklace Rarity made only the "ruby" was black. "What's that?"

"A gift to help me beat you," I answered as Humanoid got even weaker and to help with that I blasted him with a harmony beam which would normally mean we won but it just weakened him, I'll explain how that and a few other things work in the next chapter but I wanted to get right to the part of the story where we give Humanoid what for. Humanoid's powers were getting sucked away into the amulet, but he figured that part out not too long after he saw my necklace and jumped back. Suddenly an aura or pure rage surrounded Humanoid and long black spikes popped out of him or rather the ones that were already there got longer and sharper. It was kind of hard to tell, he was spinning around.

"Round 2," Humanoid said as he stopped spinning, sounding rather serious actually. He charged right at me and suddenly he became a much more capable fighter. I was barely able to dodge or counterattack then he grabbed and then threw through about a dozen houses then jumped up before falling from the sky like a ten ton brick, landing right on me.

Yeah that hurt.  

"I guess turnabout is fair play huh?" I asked as I tried to get his foot off of my stomach. "Didn't expect you to have a power boost as well."

"I'm full of surprises,"

"Well so are we."

"We?" Humanoid asked when suddenly Cheese Sandwich set off a bunch of party cannons he set up around the castle with Soarin’s help. One of quite a few contingency plans we thought about. Hearing all of those made him made Humanoid once again grab his head looking as if his head was going to split right in half. I used that to force him off of me. I then breathed fire right on him and while he seemed to endure it more, it still hurt him quite a bit. 

"There's plenty more where that came from," I said before breathing some more fire, kind of goading him into attacking me. And that's exactly what happened, Humanoid jumped through the fire and tightened his fist so hard I swear I saw blood dripping down his fist. But before he could do that Shining Armor put a magical square between Humanoid and I, and by the way the square was solid magic, unlike the barrier he once put around Canterlot the inside was filled with his magic as well, making for a pretty powerful defense. 

So powerful that Humanoid screamed in pain and grabbed his claw like it was broken and Shining Armor used this as an opportunity to blast Humanoid point blank making him land on his back. I took that as an opportunity and fired a beam of my own, another harmony beam that hit Humanoid dead on, weakening him even more. 

"I got your back Spike," Shining Armor said as he stood next to me as Humanoid was slowly getting back up.

"And I got yours," I said to him as we were both ready for a fight. Humanoid got back up and stared straight into my soul. Humanoid said as he fired a dark beam up into the sky. But it didn't even leave the Crystal Empire as Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and even Discord were outside making sure that a powerful barrier they put over the Crystal Empire would stay there. 

As you can probably tell by now we thought of everything. 

"A barrier?" Humanoid asked. "No matter, if I can't use the mountains, I'll use the castle." Suddenly the castle of the Crystal Empire started to move on its own when the beam hit it instead. But before the castle got far Soarin flew in behind him while also getting everypony together. Shining Armor then teleported to join the group and they blasted Humanoid with the Elements of Harmony. 

"Direct hit!" Cheese Sandwich said. But like before it didn't finish him off, it just weakened him. But he was still able to fight as he used whatever powers he had left and that wasn't absorbed by the amulet I had to become a giant, breaking the barrier from before. Luna and Celestia tried to keep him contained but he forced his way out pushing both of the princesses back. Luna brought her guards with her who managed to catch her while Discord caught Princess Celestia. 

"You okay, your highness?" 

"Yes, thank you Discord," Princess Celestia said very grateful.

"No problem, I got your back," Discord said as he was holding her wings and back with his arms while Humanoid let out honestly a pretty blood curdling roar. "Hang on a minute," Discord then snapped his fingers and suddenly an anvil the size of the Crystal Empire landed right on Humanoid's head. 

After the impact the anvil split clean in half and Discord turned the two halves into bubbles before it could land on the empire and Humanoid shrunk back down to his normal size and collapsed. As he shrunk so much of his magic spread across and past the empire, so much of it that I wasn't able to absorb it. But even after losing all that he was still able to fight, blind with rage he attacked randomly but that didn’t work. 

Soarin was too fast for him and Cheese pulled a disappearing act, is he a magician too? Zecora dropped a potion on the ground which made a horrible smell that forced him to back off. Shining Armor put a barrier around himself similar to the spell he used around Canterlot. Humanoid was so weak he couldn’t break the barrier and when he got tired he removed the barrier and blasted him again. Cheerilee grabbed his arm and flipped him so his head got to meet the ground. 

“Wow Cheerilee,” Shining Armor said surprised. “Where did you learn to do that?” 

“My sister is a professional wrestler,” she answered.

“Are you making that up?” He asked after a pause. “I feel like you're making that up.”

“No really,” she answered. Humanoid then got up but Big Mac jumped off a cannon Cheese brought and double bucked him in the face knocking him to the ground, but he still managed to get back up.

“Time to end this, everypony get back!” They did as I asked and I gave Humanoid the hardest uppercut I could and he flew higher than the top of the Crystal Castle. “Going up,” I said before flying straight up to meet him face to face. “Going down!” I blasted Humanoid point blank with another harmony beam that sent him back to the ground at lightning speed. As I made my way down I sent a concentrated blast of fire that only hit Humanoid and lowered me to the ground slower. 

“Wow, I’d hate to be Humanoid right now,” Cheese Sandwich said as Humanoid screamed in pain.

“Eeyup.” I made my way to the ground and stopped my fire and changed back to my regular form then collapsed rather exhausted. Shining Armor rushed to me and helped me sit down which I really appreciated and would make sure to tell him that later. With humanoid defeated we all gathered around him including Satire, Mudslinger, and Slapstick.

"Well well well, I supposed I should have figured you three were involved when I saw that dragon wearing the amulet that was taking my magic."

"Don't act like you're surprised," Satire said. "Considering what you did to us."

"I expect nothing else." 

"Well whatever you have to talk about, you can do it after we put you in a special holding cell," Princess Celestia said who also made her way over to us.

"I'm sure Chrysalis and Sombra will love the company," Princess Luna added. 

"So that's it, get locked up in a cell and rot?" Humanoid asked.

"It's the least you deserve," Mudslinger.

"Sorry Humanoid," Discord said. "But your mischief went too far, and yes I realize the irony in me saying that."

"I don't think so," Humanoid said right before he made the snow around the Crystal Empire surround him like a tornado, and when the snow settled he was gone.

“Bye,” Slapstick said with a wave.


***   
    

With Humanoid gone the Crystal Ponies were finally able to return home and they were so happy they threw a huge party for me, plus they still wanted to throw me the party they wanted to earlier. 

It was a blast. 

"Three cheers for the great and honorable Spike the brave and glorious," a crystal pony said and all the others there cheered. 

"Thanks everypony," I said as I sat on a party throne. "But you know I couldn't have done any of this without my friends." I then jestured them to come over and they did, even Shining Armor. "I had quite a bit of help from them and others, these ponies though had my back even before Humanoid came along. Well technically we got together because of him, but that's a long story, one I've kind of been thinking about writing actually."

Heh, hint hint.

"But the point is, we're a team, and I couldn't have done it without any of them."

"Wow, thanks Spike," Shining Armor said, really heartwarmed. The others were touched by that as well but him especially. After that they got treated like heroes, but also not forgetting to join in the party. The princesses even joined in the fun as well.

"Um Princess Celestia," Discord said as he approached her kind of out of nowhere. "Would you like to dance?" He asked which quite shocked the others around her. "I know it's sounds weird but it is a party and-" 

"I would love to dance with you," Princess Celestia replied and they quickly made it to the dance floor. I didn't see much of that because Rarity took me inside the Crystal Castle not long after I saw that. 

"All right Spike, that's enough partying for now you may be a heart hero, but you're still just a little thing. You need rest, especially after such a fight with such a ruffian," Rarity said as she brought me into a bedroom in the Crystal Castle. 

"Oh can't I party a little more Rarity? It's not everyday we get a party like this."

"Trust me Spike it's not going to wrap up today."

"Okay, but before I go to sleep Rarity," I said as I wrapped the back of my head. "I want to apologize, about what happened back at the gem ca-" Rarity cut me off by placing her hoof to my mouth.

"Oh Spike, you have nothing to apologize for. If anypony should, it's me. You were opening your heart to me, and it was so of me to turn you away so quickly the way I did. It Many ways Spike you and I are not all that different," Rarity said as our faces got closer and I could see her face turn red a bit.

"We're not?" I asked as I stared deep into those beautiful eyes of her's, they were like a pair of perfect gems stones, everything about her is perfect in my eyes honestly.

"No, we're not. And the truth is Spike, the truth is that I, I," Rarity then leaned down a little bit and placed her lips gently yet passionately on mine. Without hesitation I returned the kiss and like her was gentle yet passionate. We then closed our eyes and got closer pulling each other into a snug and warm embrace neither one of us breaking away from the kiss.

I wouldn't have minded if that moment had lasted forever.
> Magic Hunt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After defeating Humanoid and bringing the Crystal ponies back to their home as well as the huge party that lasted almost a week, some of us, most of us actually, thought we could finally relax. But we weren't there just yet. While Humanoid was defeated and most likely very weak his defeat brought a series of messes that we would have to clean up. But before we dealt with that we were still at the Crystal Empire finishing up the long party. 

"I've been to a lot of parties in my time, but this one is easily top tier," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Well that's because these Crystal Ponies had you to help them out with Cheese," Pinkie said.

"Me? Oh please," Cheese Sandwich said with a wave. "You were the one that made this party the top tier masterpiece party that it is."

"Ah shucks," Pinkie said as she then gave a wave of her own. 

"You both did wonderful in my opinion," Rarity said as the three of them were helping with the cleanup of the party. "As much as I'd love to stay here and enjoy the utter beauty of the empire, I simply must get back to my boutique as well as my fashion. Seeing all the empire has to offer has inspired me something fierce."

"Ah on the other hoof gotta get you back to the Crystal Empire," Applejack said to Big Mac. "We need to get to bucking all the apples at Sweet Apple Acres that need bucking."

"Eeyup."  

"Maybe I could come by there as well and help you out," Cheerilee said. "Would that be okay?" 

"Eeyup." Cheerilee, Applejack, and Big Mac helped with the clean up. Zecora was giving me a bit of a check up with Rarity and Twilight close behind her.

"From the feel of things your heart is quite strong, of this I quite doubt that I am wrong."

"So Spike's going to be alright?"       

"Yes Twilight, you have nothing to fear, the end of Spike's problems are quite near."

"Well that's certainly good to hear," Rarity said as she came over to me and rubbed my chin. "I've been so worried about you, Spikey Wikey."

"She's not the only one," Twilight said as came over to me as well and placed her hoof on my chest to feel my heartbeat. "I'm so glad you're alright Spike." 

"She's not the only one." Shining Armor said as he entered the room with Princess Cadence and to my surprise Shining Armor was carrying an entire basket filled with some of the most delicious gemstones I ever laid my eyes on. "Hey there Spike, look what I got you." 

"Are those all for me?"

"You bet," Shining answered as he put the basket right in front of me. "My wave of saying good job on giving Humanoid exactly what he deserved. Listen Cadance I'm going to go see how the guard patrols are doing but you can stay here and visit Twily for a while if you want."

"I think that would be a great idea," Cadance said as kissed Shining Armor who made his way out. But not before rubbing my head and telling me to take it easy. I honestly didn't know how to respond and Twilight and Cadance were kind of in the same boat. 

"Cadance?" 

"Yeah Twilight?"

"Have you noticed how nice Shining Armor is being to Spike?" 

"Yes Twilight, I have."

"Did you say something to him?" I asked Cadance.

"Well, not recently." 

"Does Shining Armor have issues with dragons or something Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"No," Twilight answered. "It's a long story, but to get the point Spike and Shining Armor never really got along."

"Perhaps he wishes to make his bond with you better, do matter how much that might be an endeavor." 

"Well for now Zecora is there anything else we can do for Spike?" Twilight asked.

"More rest might be for the best."

"That's true, you may have won the battle with Humanoid but you shouldn't push yourself," Twilight said. "You should take it easy for a while and not transform."  

"All right then," Rarity said as she put her foreleg around my shoulders. "Come on Spikey Wikey, I'll tuck you in."

"I guess that's all right," I said. I wasn't really all that tired but Rarity makes it really hard to say no to. As I got some rest Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick had a conversation with Discord and the princesses. 

But before I get to that I need to backtrack a little bit to the stuff I said I'd cover in this chapter.


*** 


After the rescue of the mane six and learning that Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick aren't so bad, we got back to Ponyville and stopped at Twilight's Castle. Twilight wanted to get me in my bed because as you can probably imagine seeing me vomit out blood, really made her freak out quite a bit. 

"Are you alright Spike?" Rarity asked as I was placed in my bed. 

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Am I all right? Of course I'm okay Spike, it's you that we're worried about. You have no idea how scared I was when I saw that blood." Rarity said as she sweated a bit while remembering what happened. 

"I'm okay Rarity," I said as I placed my claw on her hoof to help calm her down. It worked and while we didn't talk there was a surprisingly sweet moment between us. 

"Um," Rarity said as she pulled her hoof away gently. "Would you like me to get you something to eat?"

"I have a box of gems over there." As Rarity got the gems, Twilight went to talk to the trio that took her and her friends. The others wanted to get down to business right away and figure out what they knew about Humanoid, but Pinkie Pie wanted to throw them a, and I'm quoting her here "a you were bad but now you're not so bad after all party." And Cheese Sandwich wanted to help her because, well he just wanted to throw a party with Pinkie. As we reached the end of the party those three were sitting by the table.

"So how is the cheesecake Slapstick?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I can't taste it." 

"Huh?" 

"When I was rather young, I hurt myself quite badly. So Humanoid made it so that I couldn't feel pain anymore, but that also meant that I can't taste anything I eat or drink. I can't even feel a gentle breeze."

"Couldn't you just have asked Humanoid to take it back?"

"I did, but he refused. Mudslinger and Satire may have their issues with him, but personally I just wish he was a more attentive and caring father." 

Yeah, you heard right father. 

After Slapstick said that it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. "Oh," Slapstick said, surprised by the others' response. "Did we not mention that before?" After that everypony understandably had quite a few questions. Such as why would they want revenge on their own father. But basically as Satire put it, again I'm quoting here "He was our father and at first he took that role rather seriously, but after a while he told us he found fatherhood rather on the boring side. So he threw us out and we haven't been able to find him since then." 

"Oh you poor things," Cheerilee said as she went over to Slapstick, Mudslinger, and Slapstick and gave each one of them a hug. Not too long after that we got to work on training to take down Humanoid. 

What they told me is kind of complicated but I'll try to keep it simple. So while Humanoid is powerful, his magical energy is also very unstable. If he gets into an intense fight with somepony or in this case some dragon his energy gets released, when that happens too much he tires himself out and becomes weak. Also when his energy is released, other creatures that run into it can absorb it and use his powers. Which is how Sombra was able to cancel out the magic of the Elements of Harmony. 

Speaking of which, while the Elements of Harmony usually defeat the enemy in one blow, Humanoid's magic is also kind of like a suit of armor that protects him. Which is why it took so much to defeat him, but before we got to that I had to go through quite a lot of training. Since Slapstick felt no pain he was the perfect sparring partner.

"Wow Spike you're really beating me up," Slapstick said to me one time while we were practicing after I knocked him to the ground. That doesn't add much to the story, it was just funny. The three helped out quite a bit, and not just what I wrote about in the last chapter. They really helped me improve my fighting abilities and they became fast friends with not just me, but with the others too.   

"So this is a library?" Slapstick answered as he and his brothers were brought to the castle.

"No," Twilight answered. "It was a library but it was destroyed by Tirek then it became this castle, but it still has a fair share of books in it."

"So this is a book?" Slapstick asked as he grabbed one of the books off of the shelf and started to flip through the pages. "Wow cool, I bet I'd used this all the time if I knew how to read." Cheerilee was visiting Twilight at the time and was shocked at the very least to hear that. She insisted that not just Slapstick but Mudslinger and Satire be part of a private class so Cheerilee could teach them how to read as well as a few other things. 

I'll kind of skip that part, but they did rather well and on top of helping me get stronger they also befriended the other new bearers too. Doing that really helped them form a master plan for taking back the Crystal Empire. All of this led to the fight and defeat of Humanoid in the last chapter, and now that he's been dealt with for now it was time to focus on the magical energy, well all of us actually.

Something I almost forgot, Twilight and the other previous bearers stayed outside the Crystal Empire, or rather on the edge to try and collect Humanoid’s magic. And while they got quite a bit, quite a lot escaped the empire. 


***


So now we're back to when I was getting some rest and Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick had a talk with the princesses and Discord. There they told them the stuff I said about Humanoid and his magic.

"I figured Twilight and the others would have trouble getting all of it," Princess Celestia said to the brothers.

"Our father’s magic could pose quite a problem," Satire said.

“Indeed," Princess Luna said.

"We've already seen the damage of what his magic can do, not just from Humanoid, but from Sombra," Discord said. 

"Yeah, but that's okay because we can just absorb it with the amulet we helped make," Slapstick said. 

"But that's only half of the problem," Princess Luna said. "We still need to find where the magic is before we can absorb it."

"I can help with that," Discord said. "I can sense abnormal magic, remember? And Humanoid's magic can't get any more abnormal."

"True, but what about Humanoid himself?" Princess Celestia asked. "He may have fled the Crystal Empire but he's still out there somewhere."

"And he's probably taking a nap," Mudslinger said with a huff and his arms crossed. "It's what he does best." 

"Even if our dad is still out there, he won't be bothering anything for quite a while," Satire said. "We'll have more than enough time to make a plan if or more likely when he comes back." 

"No kidding," Discord agreed. "How could he not want revenge after a defeat like that?" 

"All right then for now we'll focus on dealing with Humanoid's magic rather than dealing with Humanoid," Princess Celestia said as she looked over to her sister Princess Luna who nodded in agreement. Discord would help with the magic like he said he would, but Twilight wanted to help contain the magic as well and that made her friends join in as well because there's no way they'd let her do something like that alone. 

Despite focusing on collecting Humanoid's magic Twilight and her friends had a few other things to deal with, such as the map sending her and her friends to solve some sort of problem. They went off but after a while I got worried, and in all honesty could you blame me? Last time this happened she almost died. So I went off to where they headed and the New Bearers came with, we still called our group that. Though they didn't bring the elements, figuring all they wouldn't need them. 

As we made our way to where Twilight's group went. Turned out to be a small village and, yeah, it was rather disturbing. Cheese Sandwich didn't like it either, thinking the smiles there weren't real smiles. 

Whatever that means. 

"So where do you think Twily and her friends are?" Shining Armor asked as we sat down to eat some muffins.

"Eugh," Soarin said as he ate one of the muffins. "Who in Equestria could eat something like that?" Suddenly Soarin got his answer as he saw Cheese Sandwich eat several like it was no problem. 

"What?" he asked.

"I can help you find the others, come inside before you go," a pony named Sugar Belle said before she went back in. We decided to trust her if it meant we would be able to find the others.

"I have an idea," Big Mac said. 

"You do?" Shining Armor asked.

"Yeah, but Cheese Sandwich, you need to eat all of those muf-" Big Mac was cut off when he saw that Cheese Sandwich had already eaten the muffins that we got. He hardly even left a crum.

"What?" Long story short we found our friends but we lost our cutie marks. Well they lost them, we got locked in a small cottage with the others who also lost their cutie marks. 

"Rarity! Twilight! You're safe!" I then ran over to both of them to give them a hug.

"Spike, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"We'll explain later," I said. "Right now we need to get you all out of here." 

"We tried darling, with our marks gone we aren't strong enough to escape and since the rest of you don't have your marks either, you're stuck too."

"Not for long Rarity, once I transform-"

"NO!" Rarity yelled, Twilight was about to do the same thing I could tell, but Rarity beat her to it. "I won't have it Spikey Wikey, you need rest, you're still recovering."

"But Rarity-"

"I won't have it Spike, it's not worth your insides ripping themselves apart so we can get out. Now promise me you won't try it."

"Okay," I said as I looked into her eyes. Again she makes it very hard to say no. Rarity then embraced me before we kissed. 

"I think I'm going to be sick," Cheese Sandwich.

"Oh come now Cheese," Rarity said in my defense. "Sure there might be a bit of an age gap but-"

"No no I mean I those muffins aren't sitting too well," Cheese corrected as he grabbed his stomach with both of his forelegs. Suddenly he tossed his cookies or rather his muffins all over the floor, forcing all of us to get to the very edge of our very small prison. Yeah I'm just gonna skip ahead to when we found a way to bust out of there and got ready to deal with the pony that ran the village, Starlight Glimmer.


*** 


Zecora, being the only one besides me that wasn't affected by Starlight's spell, decided to go into action and stop her before she ran off with the cutie marks of both groups. "If you were to have your way it would be quite tragic, so allow me to give you a taste of zebra magic."

"O-h, I'm so afraid," Starlight said in a very sarcastic tone. But soon she wouldn't have anything to say as Zecora reached into her saddle bag that she brought with her and pulled out a rather large bottle with a red liquid and threw it on the ground. At first it didn't really do anything but suddenly the vegetation around the mountain grew rapidly and wrapped itself around Starlight. bounding and gagging her while also wrapping around her horn so she couldn't use her magic.

After that Zecora freed the cutie marks and Starlight was sent to a certain place to think about all that she did.

"No please!" Starlight called out as she was locked up screaming out to us as we walked off. "Please! I don't belong here!" 

"I don't belong here," Chrysalis said as she turned herself into Starlight, clearly mocking her. "Oh my gosh what a winer."

"Indeed," Sombra added. 

My group went off to drop off Starlight while Twilight's group stayed behind because she sensed an imbalance by the mountains. As it turned out she was right, though it wasn't nearly as bad as Sombra. Just a few creatures that lived in the mountains and somehow collected the magic similar to how the amulet works. It wasn't all that hard, well it took a while to round them all up but they didn't put up much of a fight. Something that did put up quite a fight was the dread Maulwurf.

That was a rather large creature that was bothering the changelings, though maybe I should explain a little bit about the changelings. After the whole thing with Chrysalis Thorax spent some time with ponies and even Slapstick, Satire, and Mudslinger. He learned to share love, not just take it. Eventually he learned to teach that to other members of the changeling, something that Mudslinger, Slapstick, and Satire helped with as well. The changelings now different reworked their old hive and since they didn't feed on love anymore all the plant life was coming back. (Apparently plants feel love too, who knew?)

So anyway the whole thing with the dread Maulwurf, it's kind of hard to describe so imagine something that's half bear half mole half ragging pile of claws. Geez those claws, I'm just glad I have such thick scales. It had been causing some trouble for the changelings and when we sensed there was also an imbalance near the hive we put two and two together. The magic it absorbed also enhanced its strength, the thing almost flipped over the entire hive, well what was left of it but that's still rather strong. He put up quite a fight but compared to Humanoid, it was nowhere near something I couldn't handle. 

But it wasn't easy either.  

After stopping the maulwurf the changelings considered me a hero, much like the Crystal Empire. While Discord was more than capable of dealing and tracking with these things Twilight insisted on tracking them down. I think it was because this provided her with a rare chance and honestly pretty bizarre magic. Twilight was on quite the hunt for the rest of Humanoid's magic, again to study the strange magic. 

"Twilight, don't you think we should take a break?" I asked Twilight after a magical hunt involving a glue gun, a sentient rock, and some flash bees. You don't want to know, just try me.

"No way Spike, the more magic we collect the less likely we'll have another Sombra on our hooves, or in your case claws," Twilight answered. And she had a point, but eventually she had to put it on hold and allow Discord to handle some of it so she could focus on her princess duties. Such as helping a convention in Canterlot, but she was up for three days to plan it. Yeah, you read that right three days. So of course Twilight was going to need her rest, and I was put in charge of making sure that she got her rest. 

But that proved rather difficult as a group of ponies wanted to ask her about quite a few things. Such as this one really annoying pony that wanted to bug Twilight about something about his friend taking his seat.

"Uh yeah, I don't care what some random dragon has to say, I want to know what Princess Twilight thinks," he said when I tried to tell him to just forgive his friend. And needless to say I did not care for that statement. So I turned into my bigger form and that got him to back off quite a bit. 

"Don't you ever call me a random dragon, you got that!?"   

"Yes sir," he answered.

"Now get out of here and go forgive your friend, got it?!" 

"Yes sir," he answered right before taking off. And the others took off with him. There was also this part when I was summoned to the dragon lands and a certain dragon I came across gave me some certain trouble. 

"Well well well if it isn't our little pony pal Sparkle Warkal," the said certain dragon said. 

"It's nice to see you too, Garble," I told him.

"I didn't say it was nice to see you," Garble said back. Sarcasm is a foriegn language to him. "Didn't I make it clear, I don't like you." Garble then pushed me off a rock that was actually Twilight and Rarity in disguise, long story. After that I transformed which I could tell just from the look on Garble's face scared him quite a bit.

"And I don't like you, did I make that clear?!" 

"Y-yes."

"Yes what?" I asked as I stepped or rather stomped closer making Garble and his friends back away in fear or rather sheer terror. 

"Yes Spike," Garble replied right before I grabbed him by the neck.

"Good," I said right before I threw him as hard as I could. He had wings so I wasn't too worried he would get hurt, and looking back as I'm writing this I doubt it was as hard as I could but enough to give him a good scare and teach him a lesson. 

Neither of these have anything to do with the story, they were just rather fun and nice to somewhat relive. 

Well actually the last one was kind of relevant because after dealing with him and winning a certain Gauntlet of Flame, I got to know another dragon along the way, Princess Ember. I may have won but I decided to allow her to be the leader of the dragons, and she would make sure the dragons wouldn't cause any problems whatsoever for ponies. Quite a few dragons weren't on board for something like that but after a giant golem made entirely of lava appeared that I made short work of, they didn't have a problem whatsoever.

So on top of making a better relationship with ponies and changelings I also made a better relationship between ponies and dragons. 

That felt good. But not as good as dating Rarity, it really is the simple things in life that matter.

"Oh I'm so proud of you Spike," Rarity told me as we were enjoying a picnic that I prepared for the two of us. "You're becoming a hero not just at the Crystal Empire, but kind of everywhere."

"Yeah," I said. "Well it's not that big a deal I just happened to be the one that could handle all those problems." 

"Oh please Spike," Rarity said as she waved her hoof at me. "Sure you had a bit of an ego problem before, but you've accomplished so much. Don't be so modest."

"Well, now that you mention it I have become pretty amazing lately. I'm the second most perfect thing in the world." 

"Second?" Rarity asked. "What's the-" Before Rarity could answer I placed my lips right on hers answering her question.  When we locked lips Rarity pulled me in closer and while she did that I started to stroke her mane quite a bit, But after doing that Rarity gently pushed me back. "Easy Spike, let's not get my mane out of place I just grew it back," Rarity said to me as she was getting her mane back into place. 

"Oh right, the whole thing with the shampoo." There was some sort of mix up with Zecora and Rarity lost nearly her entire mane. 

She did not handle it well. It wasn't easy for me either because I couldn't stand to see her so sad. But Rarity was able to overcome it by giving her mane quite the new look. But as much as she made it look she was so happy when her mane grew back, and I was just happy she was happy. 

"So Spike have you dealt with any more of those magical imbalances lately?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, Satire says it shouldn’t be that much longer to deal with.”

"That's good, because it'll be quite nice to put this mess behind us."

"Yeah, but in all honesty it hasn't been that bad."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I mean getting beaten up by Humanoid was not fun at all. And the other stuff was pretty stressful as well, but those things kind of gave me the courage to finally tell you how I feel." I then transformed and picked up Rarity, surprising her. 

"Oh my, you certainly have become quite bold haven't you? Lucky for you I like bold stallions, er dragons." I then placed my claw on her cheek and started to gently place my claws through her mane, but quickly stopped after remembering what just happened.

"Oh it's all right Spike," Rarity said. "I think I can trust you with my mane, but try to be careful all the same."

"I will Rarity I will." Yeah things were going rather well, and not just for us love was in the air. From Ponyville and all the way to Canterlot, not too long after my picnic with Rarity, or was it before? Anyway it was somewhere in that time period Mudslinger, Slapstick, and Satire were planning a little surprise for Discord and Princess Celestia at the royal gardens.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mudslinger asked.

"I don't know," Slapstick answered. "I don't think I actually ever had an idea before." Did he actually say that?

"Those two have something going on, if we just give them a push in the right direction they'll see just how much they really like each other," Satire said. "Discord is fun and chaotic; he's the perfect match for Princess Celestia." After Satire said that Discord appeared out of thin air as if on cue. 

"I still don't sense anything," Discord said, who was told there was some sort of imbalance at the garden. 

"Are you sure?" Slapstick asked.

"Yes." 

"But are you really sure?" Slapsticked asked. As he asked, Princess Celestia arrived which thankfully stopped Slapstick from needing to stall. "Oh look here's Princess Celestia," Slapstick said as he not so subtly pushed her right over to Discord. "She can help make sure that you're sure."

"What?" She asked.  "I thought you wanted me to tell you which flowers were which."

"Well you can always do that later," Mudslinger said. "You two should concentrate on making sure there's no imbalance here."

"And here's some things that will help you sense it if it's here," Satire said as he placed a picnic blanket with a basket and record player. The three of them sat them down on the blanket and played the music before they left, leaving Princess Celestia and Discord quite confused to say the least.

"Beautiful weather we're having," Princess Celestia said to break the silence.

"Yes I suppose," Discord replied as he looked up. "Could use a couple cotton candy clouds."

"Discord!" 

"I'm not gonna!" 

"Okay then, do you have any plans for the weekend?" 

"Well, I was planning to mix up my house a little bit."

"Really? How exactly?" 

"I'm just literally going to flip it upside down."

"Oh, I see." 

"Would you like me to leave?" Discord asked, which rather shocked the princess. 

"N-No," Princess Celestia answered, which rather surprised Discord. "I want you to, that is to say. I've grown rather fond of you recently."

"Really?" 

"Yes really," Princess Celestia answered as she turned her head to hide a blush. Once the blush vanished she faced Discord once again to continue talking. "And I've really appreciated all the things that you've done lately, not just sensing out and helping find the magical imbalances. But also how you helped Spike and his group when Sombra took over the Crystal Empire, and when you helped Spike and the others including myself take the Crystal Empire back from Humanoid."

"Well when you put it like that, I guess I have been doing a lot lately," Discord said as he rubbed the back of his head. "You know, I've grown very fond of you too."

"You have?" 

"Yeah, I've always liked how you somehow got your mane to move all on its own. Honestly I just like your mane in general."

"Oh thank you," Princess Celestia with a blush she didn't try to hide this time. Suddenly Princess Celestia and Discord pulled their heads towards each other and they kissed each other. 

"AH YEAH!" Slapstick shouted as he popped out of a nearby bush but was quickly pulled back under it by his brothers. Which both Discord and Princess Celestia couldn't help but laugh at. Yeah love was kind of flying all over the place, not too much longer after what happened with Princess Celestia and Discord I learned that Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich were dating. 

"You are?" I asked when they told me.

"Yes," Cheese Sandwich said to me.

"Really?" 

"Really."

"Come on Spike, don't be so surprised," Rarity said to me as she stroked the scales on my head and down my back.  "They do make quite the match, not as much of a match as you and I. But still quite good."

"You know what Rarity, we should double date sometime, that would be loads of fun," Pinkie Pie said and we agreed to that almost right away. But despite all the fun we still kept focus on not only the magical imbalances but a few other things that came our way as well. Such as this journal I found after I stopped an imbalance that turned a caterpillar into this giant worm thing that Twilight told me she and Cadance fought when they traveled to the very edge of Equestria.

Long story.

Anyway after returning it to normal I found this old journal in a broken barrel that was written in old ponish, but luckily Cheese Sandwich was able to read it. Yeah he's just full of surprises isn't he? The journal talked about a certain pony you may have heard about, Starswirl the Bearded. He and his friends locked away the Pony of Shadows but had to lock themselves up with it. Twilight quickly put a plan in motion to free Star Swirl and his friends from Limbo. The Pony of Shadows was freed but I dealt with him no problem.

Turns out that he was actually a regular pony and the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding. After it was all settled Star Swirl was quite curious about my abilities and Twilight explained everything to him. 

"I see, so Humanoid is up to his old tricks," Star Swirl said and it was quite the shock that he knew about him too. "I've actually studied his unusual magic for a bit." After telling us that we explained to him about the magic imbalances and also how the Elements of Harmony were affected by one which started all this, yeah Twilight left that part out. "I see," Star Swirl said as he rubbed his chin. "Perhaps that is worth looking into as well." 

"What do you mean?" I asked. Star Swirl explained that the elements should be placed back into the Tree of Harmony which as it turned out was created by him and his friends who are known as the pillars. As it turned out they took a part of themselves to create the Tree of Harmony which in case you didn't know was what the Elements of Harmony came from. Anyway, Star Swirl said that placing the elements back into the tree would allow Twilight and her friends to be the bearers again because it would remove the remnants of Humanoid's magic that caused my group to be the new bearers. 

I talked to them about it and they were all fine with it. The less of Humanoid's magic running around the better. And besides, even without the elements those ponies are quite reliable. 

"So you're sure this is going to work, Star Swirl," I asked.

"Of course he's sure Spike," Twilight said to me with a rather intense and crazy tone in her voice. "He's Star Swirl the Bearded!"

"Yes," Star Swirl said. "But Humanoid is quite powerful and his magic will take time to remove from the elements."

"So Star Swirl," Shining Armor asked. "How long until my sister and her friends can use the Elements of Harmony?" 

"Let's just say that I hope you've made some backup plans for protecting Equestria while we were gone," Starswirl answered. "In the meantime I should look more into Humanoid's unique magic, but I'm going to need a sample of Humanoid's magic and somepony knowledgeable in the ways of magic to help me-"

"I'LL DO IT!" Twilight said as she ran right over to Star Swirl with the biggest smile I ever saw in my life. "I'd be honored if I could work with you on, anything." Twilight being who she is was a very helpful aid to Star Swirl.

Not too long after that Big Mac proposed to Cheerilee.

“Cheerilee,” he said to her. “Our relationship had a unique start to say the least. And despite all the other unique things we’ve been through, we’ve stuck together. And that’s exactly what I want to do: stick together, Cheerilee, will you be my bride?”

“Oh Big Mac, how could I possibly say no?” Cheerilee said as she accepted. 

“Love’s really been spreading all over hasn’t it?” Shining Armor asked.

“Yeah, so maybe Soarin will finally ask Rainbow Dash out,” Cheese Sandwich said.

“What are you talking about?” Soarin asked embarrassed as he blushed a bit and brushed his forelegs through his mane. “I mean, who am I kidding?” Soarin asked as he calmed down and dropped his forelegs. “It’s that obvious isn’t it?”   

If it was, I didn’t notice.

While all that love was spreading around, Twilight opened up a School of Friendship. We all thought that was a great idea and it wouldn't just be for ponies but all creatures. Dragons, Yaks, seasponies, griffins, and even changelings. 

But sadly not every creature would come there to learn how to be a friend or how to be a better friend. A young filly by the name of Cozy Glow came in and tried to steal all the magic in Equestria, yeah you read that right, all of the magic in Equestria. But thankfully she was stopped by students who actually did understand what Twilight and the rest of us were trying to teach and that special prison would soon be getting a new member.

"Come on, let me out of here already," Starlight said when I helped escort the guards to drop off Cozy Glow. "Wait, is that a filly? You can't leave a filly here she'll get scared.” 

"Hello there," Cozy said to Starlight. "Wanna be friends?" Cozy asked with a sinister smile. 

"Uh Chrysalis?" Starlight said after a pause. "Can I come into your cell for a bit?" 

While Cozy Glow's plan was quite the close call to say the least it turned out to be quite the blessing in disguise. Star Swirl with the help from Mudslinger, Satire, Slapstick, and Twilight he reworked the portal to seal away the remaining magical imbalances. Except one. Cozy used several artifacts as some sort of nexus for her portal, so Star Swirl used the amulet for the nexus of his portal. And with one imbalance left headed out to take care of it and put this whole thing behind us.

And I think that's a good part to stop this chapter. I know I've kind of been all over the place with this chapter, but I wanted to do something simple and not as intense as the other ones. A calm before the storm is probably a good way to put it.
> The Final Imbalance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A while back you might recall that I wrote down about how a centaur by the name of Tirek destroyed Twilight's library. He was quite the troublemaker and when he somehow got hold of the last of Humanoid's magic that was set loose he used it to free himself from Tartarus and once again set out to take the magic that rightfully belonged to ponies. But since he sticks out like a sore thumb it wasn't that hard to track him down before he did too much damage. 

"What the?" Tirek asked when he saw me show up to stop him from taking more pony magic. I then tighten my fist as I got ready to give this guy exactly what he deserved. 

"This is for what you did to the library." I punched Tirek so hard that he fell flat on his back. Let me tell you, that felt good, not as good as when I punched Humanoid but still good. I made short work of Tirek and took him to a special place that I'm quite sure at this point you can guess where.

"What's this? Some sort of new Tartarus?" 

"I guess that would be a pretty good way to look at it," I answered as I dropped him off. 

"Hi Tirek," Cozy Glow said. 

"It's Lord Tirek." 

"Well here it's just the latest bad guy to get locked up here," I said. 

"Spike?" Starlight called out. "Can I come out of here now please? I'm really really sorry for what I did."

"I'm really really sorry for what I did," Chrysalis said in a baby-like voice while once again turning into Starlight. "Oh my gosh you are pathetic."

"Indeed," Sombra agreed. "You could at least have some dignity." 

"Please Spike," Starlight said as I could see she was on the verge of crying. Twilight was with me as well as the New Bearers in case I needed some help so I turned to them. 

"What do you all think?" 

"She does look like she's really sorry," Cheerilee said. 

"Eeyup." 

"If the rest of you think she's learned her lesson then let's get her out and get going." Soarin said. "I got to get to Wonderbolts practice."

"And I have a date with Pinkie Pie," Cheese Sandwich said. 

"I sense she truly wishes to atone for cries for redemption are overblown. Let us allow her to amend her sins and if worse comes to worse I can put her back here again," Zecora said.   

"Plus she does seem rather gifted in magic, kind of like a certain special pony I know," Shining Armor said as he rubbed Twilight's a little bit. 

"Shining Armor knock it off," Twilight said with a laugh as he pushed his foreleg off. "But I think you may have a point." 

"YES! YES HE DOES!" Starlight said as she smiled and rocked the bars that separated her from us. 

"All right fine," Twilight said. "I guess she has been in here long enough." We then got her out and escorted her out of the prison to leave the four villains to get to know each other or so that's what I thought at the time. 

"You know not to sound ungrateful or anything," Starlight said as we left the prison. "But you really should have gotten me out of there sooner. I mean yeah what I did was wrong but I wasn't as bad as the others especially that creepy filly," Starlight added as she shivered a bit. "I mean you could have just given me community service or something, I should not have been in that prison at all you should have gotten me out of there sooner so-" Starlight was cut off when a large explosion nearly made her pop right out of her coat. And it nearly made me pop out of my scales. 

"What in Equestria?!" Twilight said. We turned around and saw that the explosion was from the prison and now it was barely standing. 

"You know," Starlight said. "I'm just glad that you decided to set me free. I promise I'll prove to you you made the right decision," Starlight said as she bowed to Twilight. I made my way back to the prison to see how the four prisoners were doing but to my surprise, well I think the better word is shock. 

They vanished, like phantoms in the night. 

"They're gone?" Shining Armor asked when I came back. 

"Yeah there wasn't even a trace," I answered. Shining Armor couldn't believe what he just heard and I couldn't blame him. I could hardly believe it too and I saw it myself, it was that much of a shock.

But it was nothing compared to the shock that I was in for later.


***
    

"An explosion!" Rarity said when I explained to her what happened after she stopped by the castle to see how I was doing. "Oh Spikey Wikey that must have been so frightening," she added as she pulled me into a hug. 

"Oh it wasn't too scary, I knew Twilight and Shining Armor were there to have my back if I needed it. As long as we stick together, there isn't anything we can't handle."

"Brave, adorable, and wise. You really are the full package Spike." 

"Thank you Rarity, that means everything coming from you," I said to her. Just as we were about to kiss we heard several screams coming from outside the castle. 

"Good heavens. You don't suppose that those ruffians came here for revenge do you? Rarity asked and just as I was about to answer Twilight came into my room with a look that seemed to be a mix of shock, confusion, and curiosity. 

"Spike," Twilight said. "There's several someponies here to see you." 

"Who?"

"It might be easier for you to see for yourself." After hearing that I decided to take her advice and made my way outside the castle because that's where Twilight said the visitors were. When I made it outside I saw them and it was just about the most jaw dropping experience I ever had.

"Wendigos?" I asked. Yeah that's right wendigos imagine how that feels seeing creatures from an old story that nearly flooded Equestria in eternal snow right outside your front door. I didn't even know how to respond or if I even should, thankfully they were the ones that broke the silence. 

"Spike the dragon," one of them said. 

"We meet face to face at last."

"You, know who I am?" 

"You've made it quite hard not to," another replied. "You have built quite the reputation for yourself." I guess I was more famous than I thought if even the wendigos know who I am. 

"But how are you even here? Humanoid killed you guys."

"We are forces of nature," the third one answered. "Death and rebirth is as part of nature as it is of us." 
Whatever that means.

"What are you lot even doing here?"

"We have come to warn you that a great imbalance is coming and you must prepare."

"A magical imbalance, but that can't be. We contained all of Humanoid's magic that he released during our last fight with him."

"But you did not contain Humanoid, Humanoid himself is a magical imbalance." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Humanoid's magic interferes with the magic of others, such a great power cannot be trusted in the claws of one so unstable."

"Well I guess I can't argue with that, but it is really fair for you to call him a threat considering what you tried to do to Equestria so long ago?"

"What we do is in our nature, we are drawn to those with coldness in our hearts to show them what they are within looks like without."
   
"And it was our actions that allowed the ponies of your precious story to come together and allow warmth to at last come into their hearts."

"Uh, okay I guess you have a point, by the way. Why did Humanoid kill you lot in the first place?''

"He just said we woke him up and he attacked us. He quite surprised us, for not even we could compare to the cold that lies within that creature's heart."

"We tried to defend ourselves and we nearly succeeded in freezing him in ice where we planned to make sure he stayed."

"But he broke free and then overpowered us, using our own magic against us. But the seasons pass and we become born anew." 

"That sounds like him, do you know where he's hiding?" 

"No," they answered at the same time and proceeded to talk that way. "But we can sense a chance coming in the wind that will be caused by him, he's planning something that will affect this world even more than we can hope to."

"Is that why you came here? To warn me about something Humanoid is planning?"

"That and to present you with this," they answered once again at the same time before they presented me with, well maybe I'll save that for later. In the meantime Humanoid was indeed planning something wicked.


*** 


When the prison was destroyed the four prisoners found themselves somewhere they had never been before and they were quite confused to say the least, not that I can blame them.

"Well this is unusual," Cozy Glow said while they looked around a bit. "But at least we finally got out of that prison."

"I don't know how you can talk like that when you hardly ever spent any time in there," Chrysalis said as she was flying around a bit to try and figure out where she was. "I was the one that got locked up in there first."

"Did your changeling army get us out of there somehow?" Tirek asked.

"No, I did," Humanoid answered as he walked through a waterfall and made his way towards the others. 

"Who or what are you?" Tirek asked. 

"Wait a minute," King Sombra said. "Are you Humanoid?" 

"Yes."

"How do you know who he is?" Cozy Glow asked.

"Wait Humanoid?" Chrysalis asked as she put her legs on the ground. "The Humanoid?"

"So you aren't just a legend afterall," Tirek added.

"I don't know what I am anymore," Humanoid replied. Wait, he really said that?

"Okay, so how do you all know who he is?" Cozy asked.

"He was the one that took over the Crystal Empire and forced everypony there out," Sombra answered. "News of that traveled all the way to where Chrysalis and I were being held, it was that big a deal."

"Yes, but when I first heard about that I wasn't entirely sure that the actual Humanoid was the one behind it. I suppose I was wrong," Chrysalis added. 

"He was a powerful creature that nearly remodeled the landscape of Equestria," Tirek answered. "He was on par with Grogar the father of monsters in his prime, before he just disappeared."

"Grogar, there's a name I haven't in a long time," Humanoid replied and then laid down right on the ground. "Nighty night." 

"Wait what?" Cozy Glow said as she flew over to him. "Uh, are you going to sleep?" 

"Yes, that's why I'm not standing. I could sleep while I stand but that's not nearly as comfortable."

"Okay but there was a reason you brought us here right? Right? Hello?!" Humanoid then grabbed Cozy Glow and held her super close to his face like she was a teddy bear. "Uh a little help here, please, this guy's claws are really sharp. Seriously they're digging right into my coat and I think one of them is poking a vital organ."

"Figure out how to escape yourself brat, we need to figure out where we are," Tirek replied.


***


Eventually Cozy got her way out of Humanoid's grip and explored the place she was brought to along with the other rogues. Eventually though they figured that they should see why Humanoid who was still sleeping brought them there. 

"Hey Humanoid," Tirek said as he was tapping right on his head but got no response. "Hey come on, wake up, wake up. WAKE UP!" Suddenly Humanoid opened his eyes, but not before one of his arms reached out and grabbed Tirek by the throat, kind of wish I saw that actually.

"What do you want, you spoiled brat of a prince?" Humanoid asked as he got up. Tirek tried to somewhat fight back by trying to steal his magic but the magic he removed also went around his neck, kind of wish I got to see that too. 

"Uh, a little help here," Tirek cried out hoping the other bad guys would help. 

"Figure out how to escape yourself brat, we need to figure out where we are," Cozy replied who I'm pretty sure was very happy to throw Tirek's words back at him.

"We want to know why you brought us here," Sombra replied. 

"Isn't it obvious?" 
"The only thing that's obvious is how little oxygen Tirek is getting," Chrysalis said as she pointed to the said centaur whose face went from red to blue. Humanoid then finally let go, dropping him to the ground gasping for air while Humanoid reabsorbs what little magic Tirek took. 

"Cozy Glow was right, those claws are sharp," Tirek said as he was able to stand up once again. 

"Told you," she said. 

"To get to the point, mostly because I want to get back to sleep," Humanoid said. "I got a plan to make sure no creature or anything will ever wake me up ever again. And you lot are going to help me."

"And what exactly makes you think that we're going to do that?" Tirek asked.

"Because I'm not giving you lot a choice, would you rather I send you back to that prison I went to all the trouble of getting you out of?" Humanoid asked the others were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. "Didn't think so, now listen up because I'm not repeating myself, well maybe after my nap." 


***  


Meanwhile back in Ponyville I was spending quality time with Rarity who was feeding me gems, but not just any gems. Special gems that she found, polished, and aged just for me. 

Isn't she just wonderful? 

"Oh no," I said to her with my mouth kind of full of those delicious gems that I was just describing. "Please Rarity, I couldn't eat another bite." 

"Well all right Spike if you insist. I'll just save the others for later," Rarity said as she put a few of the said gems she had in her hoof into the basket with the rest and levitated the basket into an open drawer before closing it with her magic. "I suppose that is for the best Spike. After all, we wouldn't want you to lose that incredible physic," Rarity said as she tapped my stomach a little bit."

"Uh come on we both know I'm way more good looking when I transform," I said.

"Oh Spike you shouldn't sell yourself short like that," Rarity said. "After all that form is just an extension of who you are."

"What do you mean Rarity?"

"I mean that you shouldn't sell yourself short even when you compare you to you. Everything that makes you a great hero is right here," Rarity said as she gently placed her hoof right on my chest. Where my heart was. 

"Oh Rarity you why is it you always know what to say or do to melt my heart."

"Call it my femenin charm," she answered as she batted her eyelashes, gosh I love it when she does that. I then leaned in and kissed her which she gladly returned, another thing she does that I love. I wish I could focus more of that stuff but you're probably more curious about what Humanoid is planning.

It all started when we came to Canterlot for a special celebration. We were so excited but the excitement quickly vanished as the bad guys that Humanoid broke out of prison attacked. Discord actually warned us about this ahead of time because he could still sense some of Humanoid's magic when he tried to see what happened to the prison. So we tried extra hard to be on guard against him as well as the others because it was a sure bet he was going to force them to help whatever plan he had cooking. Twilight even thought a few plans to help us prepare for whatever was to come, we thought we could handle anything.

We were wrong. 

Even though I remember it all clearly in my head it still seemed too fast to keep track of everything. Humanoid himself attacked the Tree of Harmony that Discord actually tried to protect but even he couldn’t protect it from Humanoid’s reach. Sombra attacked the Crystal Empire once again and managed to break through even when the Crystal Heart put up a barrier, Tirek attacked the pillars and drained them of their magic except for Starswirl who managed to escape and warn the others, Chrysalis attacked Twilight's school and took out Starlight when she tried to stop her, and Cozy Glow attacked Canterlot Castle making it through all by herself. She had become an alicorn which was why she was able to get through the castle security. 

"Stand down Cozy Glow," Princess Celestia said as she and the others got ready to fight. Her request or rather an order that sounded like a request was turned down. I think Princess Celestia knew that was going to happen but she wanted to give her a chance. Cozy Glow continued to fly around making a mess and when Twilight tried to stop her she got her magic stolen. 

"That's the problem with you magic types," Cozy said after taking Twilight's magic with Grogar's bell. "You're so reliant on your special power, you forget to use your brains." Also I should probably talk about the bell. 

When Humanoid brought the rogues gallery together he also made his way up Mount Everhoof to retrieve a magical bell that belonged to Grogar himself. He was known as the Father of Monsters and had a bell that could steal magic until ironically it was stolen from him. When Humanoid got it back he used it to power up the others which helped them in their attacks. 

Okay so now that you're caught up we tried to get the bell from Cozy Glow but by the time we were about to get it, the others showed up to back her up, including Humanoid. 

"Humanoid," I called out.

"What?" He asked.

"I figured you were the one that was behind all of this."

"Then you figured right," he replied. "But I doubt that you have something that's going to help you stop me this time. And if you’re thinking of using this bell against us,” Humanoid added as he grabbed the bell from Cozy Glow. “Think again.” Humanoid then absorbed the bell into his body so we wouldn’t be able to reach it. 

"We beat you before we can do it again."

"Yes, you in some way or another managed to defeat every single one of us. But that was when we were on our own, now we're together and we're much more powerful together than we are apart. Especially with me."

I guess there's some ego underneath all that laziness. 

"Enough talk," Sombra said who looked the most eager to get back to their little revenge scheme. "Victory is almost within our grasp, let's not waste time chatting away." The rogues then made their attack and I tried to help them but Humanoid grabbed me and threw me out of not only the castle, but Canterlot. Humanoid then quickly made his way over to me with Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick not too far behind and very eager to get even with dad.

"Let's get him," Mudslinger said.

"Yeah," Slapstick said as he ran up to his father and hugged him which stunned us, most of all Humanoid.

"That's not what he meant," Satire said. 

"Oh, okay," Slapstick said as he was still holding on to him. He then tightened his grip and lifted his father over him, flipping him over his head and slamming Humanoid on his head. Humanoid then got back up after pulling his head out of the ground.

"You got stronger my son haven't you?" Humanoid asked.

"I also learned how to read," Slapstick answered. Humanoid then grabbed Slapstick and threw him through the wall of the building that raises and lowers the drawbridge to Canterlot and I decided to fly right to him and stab him right through his chest. 

Yeah, remember when I said that the wendigos gave me something? It was a silver sword hilt that was snow white on the top and the bottom that they formed from the ice stones, I have no idea what those are. But anyway the hilt was a special item they made for me that can channel the magical energy inside of me and use that to form the blade for it. When they showed up I was understandably hesitant to trust them but when they explained that all to me the concept alone was incredible. They said that it would be the perfect thing to help me defeat Humanoid once and for all because the magic I got from the Elements of Harmony can be all the more effective when concentrated through the hilt.

"What the heck is that thing?" Humanoid asked after he got impaled. "And why in the world does it sting so much?" 

"It's a gift from the wendigos," I answered as I pulled the sword out of him and wasn't all that surprised when the injury healed almost right away. 

"That hurt more than getting my head planted into the ground."

"Well you have a lot more pain to look forward to," I said as I swung the sword around a little as I couldn't help but show off.

"I look forward to pain every single time I open my eyes," Humanoid replied.

"What?" I asked as that rather surprised me.

"But that will be coming to an end for not just me, but all who walk on this world. So for that I can endure the pain a little longer, especially when it means I found what I was looking for."

"Was it us?" Slapstick asked. "Did you want to finally see us again dad? Do you want to try and be a family again?"

"No," Humanoid answered bluntly and wow I bet even the other bad guys would have felt sorry for Slapstick if they heard that. "I came because I sensed a powerful magical artifact somewhere here and now I found it."

"Well if you want it," I said as I jumped up and tried to slash him but Humanoid grabbed the blade with his claws. "Then you'll have to take it from my cold dead claws."

"Are you always this intense?"

"Only when I come face to face with a jerk like you."

"Must be hard to only seldom be able to get to reveal your true nature," Humanoid said to me before he squeezed the blade more causing it to crack and then utterly shatter. "It feels like my claws are going to drop off but it was worth it because now I don't have to worry about your special toy."

"Guess again," I told him before charging my magic through the hilt once again and made another blade appear which made even Humanoid's dull face drop his jaw. "You see Humanoid this sword is-"

"Don't care!" Humanoid said as he attacked me and I countered with more slashes of the sword. In case those of you reading this are wondering, I said before that I channel my magic through the hilt and that's where the blade part comes from. Even if Humanoid or anycreature really, breaks the sword. I can just channel my magic and remake it again and again.   

So yeah, probably the best gift I ever got. I may actually thank the wendigos for this. 

"Well you're gonna care when I use this to cut you clean in half," I said to him as I actually almost did that. If it sounds like I'm being rather violent I'm not, my magic is based on the Elements of Harmony which simply stop bad guys or imprison them. Besides, even with how strong I've become I doubt that I could kill a creature like him even if I tried. 

"I'm so tired," Humanoid said as he managed to punch me right in the gut but I was able to quickly get myself back up. Humanoid would have attacked me during that time but Satire stopped Humanoid in his tracks once again when he grabbed his wrists and forced him back. He would have joined the fight earlier but he and Mudslinger went to help Slapstick unstuck from the inside of the tower. 

"Stop this father," Satire said. "Just stop all of this, how much damage do you have to cause before you finally decide that it's enough?"

"It will be enough after just a little more, after all it will be enough for all of us," Humanoid answered and after doing so Slapstick grabbed him by the waist and once again pulled him over and forced his head into the ground. 

"The sad thing is this is the closest thing we've done to bonding in I don't even know how long," Slapstick said. 

Wow, that is sad. 

"Well then let's try to make this as memorable as possible," Mudslinger said as he picked Humanoid up and then swung him around so hard I thought he was going to throw up before he let go which resulted in Humanoid going right through the other tower.

"What?" Mudslinger said as the rest of us stared at him for a little bit. "You weren't the only one that went under quite the workout Spike."  

"Well if it makes it all the more easier to defeat Humanoid," I said while I shrugged a bit. 

"It's not going to be easy to take down our father," Satire said and as if on cue Humanoid made his way through out of the wall he was knocked through ready for more of a fight. 

"It seems my children have started to grow up. On top of that your sword is really quite painful, I figured that Grogar's Bell would be enough to counter it but now it's gone missing. I must admit I think you can beat me. Too bad that's not going to happen."

"And why is that?" I asked as I tightened my grip of the hilt ready to prove him wrong. But suddenly Humanoid made a blizzard come from right out of his claws that spread all over the mountain.

"I didn't know dad could do that," Slapstick said.

"I guess he must have learned a new trick," Satire said.

"Which just means that he's gonna be all the more harder to take down," Mudslinger said.

"Well look at the bright side," I said. "He was going to be hard to take down either way."

"How is that a bright side?" Slapstick asked.

"It was a joke Slapstick," Satire explained.

"Oh, well then I think I don't get it."

"Well then I'll explain it to you after I take down your father," I said as I leaped to Humanoid and got him with my sword a few more times.

"That toy of yours is a serious pain on my nerves," Humanoid said.

"Oh really that's kind of funny."

"Why?"

"Because that's exactly how I feel about you," I answered before I leaped over to Humanoid and stabbed him right in the chest. 

"That hurts," Humanoid said. "I really wish I could just go to sleep right now."

"Well then why don't you?" I asked as I drove the sword deeper in before he managed to break it once again. 

"Because If I do you'll just wake me up again," Humanoid answered as I formed the blade of the sword once again. But not before getting a painful strike from Humanoid that forced me off the mountain and slammed into the ground and formed a crater. "But after today that will never happen again."

"Why?" I asked as I picked myself back up.

"If I told you it would just make you want to stop me even more, and you're motivated enough already." Humanoid was then cut off when he was hit in the face with a snowball of all things. 

"Hey dad," Slapstick said, who once again managed to catch up to us along with his brothers. "You wanna have a snowball fight?" 

"Okay," Humanoid said after a short pause which actually brought a smile to Slapstack's face.

"Really?!"

"Really really." Humanoid then summoned a giant snowball and slammed it directly on top of Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick then rolled it away. When I saw that I was almost engulfed with rage. So I charged him and started slashing like crazy, I got a few hits but most he blocked or countered with his spikes. I did however manage to hit him dead on with a harmony beam that sent him flying and when I caught up to him I slashed him across his chest. 

"How can you be so cruel to your own children!?" I asked as I tried to slash at him but he caught the blade once again. 

"Despite all you've recently accomplished, you are still just a child. You couldn't understand what a father has to do for his children."  

"What so you justify the way you treat them because it toughens them up?"

"Something like that," he answered as he broke the blade again but jumped back as he had to heal his claws so they would stop bleeding. He was trying to hide but I was giving him a serious beating, and I didn't plan on stopping. "But after I'm done with you no creature anywhere is going to need to be toughened up and if you're friends don't like that I'll get them out of my way too, starting with that tramp Rarity." Humanoid probably said something else but if he did I didn't hear it. 

After what he said about Rarity I grabbed him by the throat and blasted him at point blank range with another harmony beam. It sent him flying once again and I flew over to where he landed once again and impaled him before he even got up. 

Nopony and no creature says anything bad about my mare.

"I'm not going to tell you this again," I said as I drove the sword deeper into him. "Don't ever talk about Rarity that way."

"Hey? You think she actually cares about you?" Humanoid said as he forced me off by blowing out a powerful gust of wind. "You're just her latest toy," he said as he got back up. "Something to play with and toss out when she gets bored or finds something new, or both. You probably think she's a princess or something like that. But she's nothing but a slut."

That moment I wanted to snap his head right off of his shoulders.

"What did I tell you!" I said as I grabbed his head by his fat mouth and forced yet another harmony beam on him once again at point blank range. I managed to hold on to him the whole time and only let him go afterwards. At first I thought he was going to throw up but instead he just laughed and I didn't understand why until I shrunk down to my original form.

"Looks like you're out of magic," Humanoid said as I finally figured out what happened. He purposely got me mad so I would attack him more and use up my magic. On top of that the blade disappeared and before I could do something or try to find help, you guessed it I coughed out blood. So much in fact I collapsed to the ground.

I was in serious trouble. 

"Game, set, match," Humanoid said as he picked me up. I tried to fight back as he looked like he barely had a leg to stand on but I couldn't even use my fire breath. 

"It looks like all the fight in you is gone, rest now soon all the others will follow you," Humanoid said.

"NO!" I screamed as I suddenly got a second wind. "Come on one last big push." Suddenly I was able to transform once again to Humanoid's surprise. I tried to blast him or something but he beat me to it by hitting me point blank with a beam of his own sending me flying for a change.

And once again, everything went black.
> The Final Battle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That doesn't count as cheating on her right?

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

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

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


***


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

"Where am I? And who are you?"

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

"I was?"

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

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

"You may call me Grogar."

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

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

"Wait, that's it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's with the drawing of me?"

"Look closely little drake."

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

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

"Humanoid."

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

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

"I see, that is actually quite impressive."

"It is?"

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

"Is that bubble some kind of barrier?"

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

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

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

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

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

"But what about my friends?"

"What about your friends?"

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

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

"Where did you get that?"

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

"What do you mean?'

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

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

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

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

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

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

He's pretty fast for an ancient ram.

"Uh Grogar?"

"What is it Spike?"

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

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

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

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

"Humanoid's been busy."

"Yes, where would I find your friends?"

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

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

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

"If they did, where would they go?"

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

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

"You know them?"

"I know many things."

"Do you know how to help them?"

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

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

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

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

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

"Do you think it'll work?"

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

"Milady?"

"She's my very special somepony."

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

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

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


***


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

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

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

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

"Correct little one."

"Can you please just call me Spike?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What do you mean?"

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

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

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

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

I actually thought that was really clever.


***


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Neither did I," Princess Celestia said.

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

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

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

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

"Yes, pretty much," Grogar answered.

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

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

Wow I actually feel sorry for Humanoid, I thought.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I have it," Slapstick said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ouch.

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

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

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

"Right, sorry."

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

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

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

"That centaur is going down," Soarin said.

"Eeyup."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Fine with me," Satire said.

"Ditto," Mudslinger answered.

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

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

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

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

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

"Not for me," Mudslinger said.

"Ditto," Satire said.

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

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

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

"Shining Armor?"

"Hey Spike, can I come in?"

"Uh sure?"

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

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

"Yeah thanks Spike," Shining Armor added.

"No problem.”

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

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

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

"Really?"

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

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

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

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

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

"I think that would be great."


***


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

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

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

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

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

At least his heart is in the right place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We need to stick to the plan."

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

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

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

This provided us with a rather useful distraction.

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

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

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

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

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

"What?"

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

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

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

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

"Wow, nice work Starswirl," Starlight said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Interesting," Starswirl said.

"What's going on?" Starlight asked.

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

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

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

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

"I beg your pardon?"

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

"What?" Satire asked.

"Oh my gosh," Mudslinger said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It kind of did," Slapstick said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You had a wife, Grogar told us."

"So?" He asked after a pause.

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

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

Thank God for my thick scales.

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

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

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

"Anything else?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At least something got through to him.

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

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

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

"Why can't you just give up?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How did I never think of that before?

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

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





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

"What happened?" I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

"Huh?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What are you doing?"

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





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

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

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

"Killing our dad?" Satire finished for me.

"Yeah."

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

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

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

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








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

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

Another long story.

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

"Hello,” she said back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But that’s another story.


***


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

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"What did you think?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twilight's jaw almost hit the floor.


***


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Have you got the rock?" Rarity asked.

"What?"

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

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

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

"Then by the power invested in me-"

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

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





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

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

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

"Why is that?"

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

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

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

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

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

"No."

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

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


The End