Friendship is Card Games: The Isle of Scaly

Ten years of card games. And friendship. Quite the milestone. And just in time for the last wave of Make Your Mark content, which…

… Huh. Well. I was expecting more than a four-episode chapter with a two-parter smack in the middle. I can’t help but wonder if they got the news of Make Your Mark getting shuttered halfway through plotting this part. Let’s see if anything like that comes across in this episode.

I’ve seen it said that the Marestream exists mostly to let the writers stop worrying about travel logistics. In this case, it does nicely expedite things… but at the same time, a season-long expedition to the Dragonlands, encountering wondrous new discoveries along the way, would’ve been great. Assuming the budget could have withstood all that new scenery, which it absolutely could not.

I swear, if Pipp makes them crash by being an oblivious screenbrain…

“It’s so tense in here.”
It’s called reading the room, Pipp. Try it some time.

Mind you, Hitch’s concern feels a bit counterintuitive. Why worry about what you may find when last time, there was a notable absence?

It’s a very good thing that convenient tunnel never narrowed.

Huh. Getting. better look at the map, there’s a lighthouse on it, presumably representing Maretime Bay. Which raises the question of how old the town is. Moreover, the Dragonlands are an island (the titular Isle of Scaly, presumably) rather than part of a larger, Eurasia-equivalent continent. This may actually explain the surreal, quasi-Mesozoic flora in the area; the Dragonlands we know could be a completely different part of the world.
(That or the map isn’t wholly accurate and it left out the dragon-free regions of the world. It’s not like there’s a scale on the thing.)

“Hold onto your cutie marks!”
Ah, foreshadowing.

Also, aside from the unexpected cliff, is there any reason why they had to take the tunnel system rather than just double back and go for a steadier climb to the actual surface?

… Okay, so Pipp didn’t cause the crash through her playlist. This is still deeply bothersome.

They have the prisbeam lantern glowing in one shot during the freefall. They literally caused a continuity error by putting in more VFX than they needed to. Incredible, truly.
(Or the issue is elsewhere in the Marestream, but when the show makes a point of showing the lantern going dark...)

Izzy keeps balloons stashed all over her never-you-mind. In case of balloon emergencies.

Sure, wake up the sleeping dragons. Great plan. Can’t possibly go wrong.

Well. That escalated quickly. And then de-escalated quickly. Don’t suppose the dragons are, you know, curious about what woke them up? What’s happened to the world in the interim? Any particular opinions about ponies in general? Anything they want to do about the trespassers before just… leaving them to their own devices? Also, where’s Sparky during this exchange? I imagine the dragons would have a lot to say about a hatchling who imprinted on a pony.
Also, from the manes to the “stick toes on hooves and call them dinosaur feet” approach to the limbs, the dragon designs are very clearly reskinned pony models and it’s downright sad. (Also also, the dragons have paws, which is just plain bizarre.)

You’re the leader whether you like it or not, Sunny. Though I do wonder who she’d say the leader really is.

Good thing Izzy guessed right on the size for the charms she made for the dragons… or she made some last-minute adjustments once she saw how big they were.
Also, I have to wonder where and how the ponies’ names are on those things.

Blaize, Luxe, Leaf, Fountain… Interesting to see this greater thematic diversity among the dragons’ names.

Pipp. You are literally further from Zephyr Heights than you have ever been in your entire life. You are not going to get a reliable signal.

“Name: Tumble. Age: ‘Dragon Age.’”
Very helpful, Zipp. Excellent interrogation.

Ah. Opaline’s already been by, and has kidnapped a few dragons for her trouble. I’m very surprised they’re as welcoming as they are. Seriously, I’d expect an air patrol to shoot down the Marestream, no questions asked after that. (Obviously not anything as pitiable as asking for help from random ponies. Dragons have their pride.)

“Our shimmers haven’t been too bright since then.”
This would probably mean a lot more to me if they ever pinned down what that actually mean. And what the dragon was trying to do just then. Seriously, if the show had spent half as much time exploring what “sparkle” actually means as it did on Sunny’s grand quest to establish a community garden or Pipp’s better disasters through chemistry… Ah well, too late now.

And it does appear that dragons have cutie marks now. I hesitated to call that out in “Lavarynth” since it was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail, but yes, they decided to slap them on the dragons now. I have numerous questions and concerns.

Opaline having the Dragonstone orbit her rather than simply holding it is an interesting choice. Using the ancient artifact as a fidget toy makes for an intriguing flourish.

Yeah, anyone who’s going to try to subjugate dragons will be prepared for the flames. Still, good on Lava for trying.

… Okay, is the mesmeric lullaby cutting out for anyone else? For that fraction of a second when the camera goes back to Lava and Jade, the music goes dead. I can’t tell if that’s intentional or a bizarre oversight by the audio editor.
There it is again! What the heck?

I do appreciate the dragons not knowing what to make of the villain song. Or the Dragonstone being shoved in their faces. I feel like every being involved is confused in one way or another, including the writing staff and myself.

Ah, shades of “A Better Way to be Bad” with effigies of the main cast. Reminding me of a better villain song may be the best this one can hope for.

Hybridized pony and dragon magic put to sinister use is an intriguing plot, but knowing that there are only three episodes after this one to explore it leaves me a little cold.

Ah. I suppose Sparky would have complicated the delicate negotiations… which, of course, means he shows up at the worst possible time. (Never mind how bringing a kidnapped dragon with them to the Dragonlands would be the stupidest thing possible…)

“There hasn’t been a baby dragon around here in a volcano’s age.”
Ah. So every species has been suffering from a population crash since the Twilit Era. Remember how many hatchlings there were in “Sweet and Smoky”? (Though, again, the idea that the Isle of Scaly isn’t actually the Dragonlands we know is still on the table.)

“I still don’t understand why they came out here.”
… Then what was the purpose of your one-on-one talk with Sunny? The heck did you even do besides leave the scene for a brief window of character establishment for the other dragons?

… So if Blaize isn’t the Dragonlord, by what authority has she been leading these negotiations? Not the time to ask that question to her face, of course, but that also means she doesn’t have the right to dismiss literally every other dragon’s approval.

“I will find some residual pegasus Wi-Fi to make a call for help!”
1. If Pipp actually manages to pull that off, I may scream.
2. How does she plan on the help getting here when it took a dragon magic-fueled map for them to get here in the first place? Yes, this is probably just an excuse for her to get her social media fix, but it’s insultingly absurd.

I appreciate how even Sparky disapproves of Hitch’s terrible pun. But hey, he wasn’t incinerated on the spot. I call that progress in the diplomatic process!

Okay, good, we’re getting some details on the magic situation. Less than I want, more than I feared.

“I just know we’ll be better together, I can feel it!”
Yeah, teaming up with dragons tends to go fairly well for any other species that, you know, survives the process. Also all of Argyle’s notes on how well ponies and dragons worked together. (It’s sincerely sad how this is something I’ve been wanting see, Sunny reuniting all the disparate creatures of Equestria who have drifted apart, yet it’s so late and lukewarm that I just can’t muster much enthusiasm for it.)

“So what are you, the leader of the ponies?”
“No, um… I just like to plan what we do and support my friends and be an ally for anypony who needs it!”
Ah, blinding humility. A must in any disciple of Twilight.

We’re calling it “the Hope Lantern” now?
Oh! It’s a general energy drain. This highlights a problem with G5’s writing; I have so little faith in Pipp that I thought the earlier phone issue was just a matter of her not charging it before they left rather than a bit of foreshadowing.

“We weren’t trying to eavesdrop.”
“We were actively doing it.”
Okay, I like Leaf.

… What exactly did Tumble do? Is that a swarm of birds or insects or something around that fireball?

“Fountain can bend and spray water with her fire.”
Read that again, slowly. Then come back to me with something less stupid by the end of the day.

I do appreciate the sculptures reminiscent of the Dragonstone before the Dragonlord’s lair. (Also, have any of the dragons noticed the stone’s gone missing? I feel like that might be an important point.)

And of course it’s Spike… though trying to reconcile his appearance with G5’s dragon aesthetics ends up feeling very divided. With the cookie cutter equinoid dragon designs, Spike’s spines and fin ears stand out all the more… and call the others into further question. And despite the superlatives Blaize heaped on him, he doesn’t actually seem any bigger than his subjects.
… Ah, about a head taller. Still underwhelming.

Centuries of hibernation will do a number on the old noggin, as Sombra could attest. This does explain why Spike isn’t lapping up praise from a pony as I’d expect… though it could also be that since taking the title Ember had been keeping warm for him, he’s outgrown that need for validation.
Also, a convenient way to keep any copyrightable specifics from crossing Spike’s lips, since again, Hasbro does not actually own the IP rights to Friendship is Magic. Discovery Family does. And they still decided an intergenerational tie-in was a good idea. A+ forethought, guys, really knocked that one out of the park.

“Your Spikeness”
Your Spikeness
I sincerely cannot tell if that was Spike’s idea or not.

Interesting to note that Spike does not have a cutie mark, which has a number of curious implications. That is definitely a recent development, and likely one with a biological component that could not retroactively apply to dragons of Spike’s generation. This is legitimately fascinating.

As is that the dragons’ hibernation was externally and artificially imposed. Was this part of Twilight’s spell, or something else?
… Ah, part of Twilight’s plan. But she couldn’t foresee everything.

Funny how the battery on Zipp’s phone has been fine. I suppose she doesn’t have a dozen social media apps running on it 24/7.

I’m still taking Spike’s retelling of the end of the Twilit Era with a grain of salt, given his continued post-hibernation brain fog. It’s still fascinating, especially how Opaline’s exile from Skyros was apparently a recent development. (The land of the alicorns has much to answer for.) Spike’s confusion over ponies losing magic is especially bizarre; apparently that wasn’t part of the plan, but as we’ve seen, sufficient disharmony between the tribes cuts off the flow of magic. The Dragonstone doesn’t seem to have the same issue, though there are further questions there.
Also, Opaline becoming a fire alicorn after her banishment raises some questions. I have to wonder if it’s the closest they can come to saying “demon.” Where’s Sunset Shimmer when you really need her?

“When you have hope, it’s never over. And I know you still have a shimmer of it.”
I swear I didn’t plan this. Especially the orange alicorn with energy horn and wings saying that.

So the fading light of hope was due to… well, the fading light of hope. The lantern just acted as a sort of “elpisometer” reacting to the local malaise.
Or it’s something more sinister. We’ll see when they cut back to the Marestream

Ah. Sparky is a young adult novel protagonist, as if being raised by more mundane creatures weren’t enough evidence there. But we just had to throw the extra-special magic spoken of only in legends.

“You remind me of somepony I once knew.”
Aw, that’s sweet.
“Twilight.”
And you ruined it. Let the implication hang. The target audience could’ve picked up that one.

Okay, the Hitch-Spike interaction is legitimately heartwarming. I cannot and will not complain about this bit, and I’m sincerely glad they included it.

Nope, looks like getting the Marestream up and running will take a little more than that.

That is a lot of stolen cutie marks. What have ponies been doing all this time? Has there been any effort at resistance at all? Yes, going hoof-to-hoof with Opaline isn’t a promising proposition, but getting at least a glimpse of how she got to this point would have been nice.

I’d ask who Opaline is talking to, but evil monologues are hardly her craziest tic.

As I noted, this is exactly what I wanted from G5, but too little, too late. This feels like scrambling for lost time, and it is. There are some genuinely fantastic moments here. I just wish we could have gotten to them sooner, especially when some of the plot elements coming to fruition now were first put into place in the earliest parts of Make Your Mark.

Still, pacing issues aside, it’s nice to see Spike again, especially in time for the tenth anniversary card blog. Let's see how I can welcome him back:

Reaffirmed Bond 1W
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures. If either of those creatures is a Dragon, both gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
“Times may change. Caring for your little buddy never will.”
—Dragonlord Spike

Rekindled Hope 1W
Instant
Choose one —
• Untap target creature. That creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
• Return target artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
When all seems lost, turn to the Starscout.

Banish from Skyros 4W
Instant
This spell costs 3 less to cast if it targets a God, Demigod, or creature with alicorn.
Exile target nonbasic permanent. Its controller creates a 1/1 white Pony creature token.
Star Swirl modeled his magic on the great alicorns’, with all the same oversights.

Sunscale Dragon 4WW
Creature — Dragon
Flying, vigilance
When Sunscale Dragon enters the battlefield, destroy target tapped creature an opponent controls.
Her breath is nothing compared to what her hide can do to sunlight.
4/4

Screen Addict 2U
Creature — Pegasus Artificer
Flying
Screen Addict can’t attack unless you tap two untapped artifacts you control. (This cost is paid as attackers are declared.)
It’s hard to explore when you can barely live without your favorite streamers.
3/3

Dragonlord’s Presence 3U
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may reveal a Dragon card from your hand.
Tap up to three target creatures. If you revealed a Dragon card or controlled a Dragon as you cast this spell, distribute three stun counters among any number of those creatures. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)

Ashes of Defiance 3UU
Enchantment — Aura
This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets a red creature.
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
Between the Dragonstone and her own scorched soul, Opaline can easily bend any being of fire to her will.

Geyserbreath Dragon 4UU
Creature — Dragon
Flying, ward 2
When Geyserbreath Dragon enters the battlefield, tap target creature. That creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step for as long as you control Geyserbreath Dragon.
At least you’ll have time to work out the paradox.
4/4

Soul Hoard 1B
Enchantment
Whenever a creature dies, put a soul counter on Soul Hoard.
B, Remove X soul counters from Soul Hoard: Return target creature card with mana value X from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control with a finality counter on it. Activate only as a sorcery. (If a creature with a finality counter on it would die, exile it instead.)

Fading Sparkle 2B
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player’s end step, that player loses 2 life unless they sacrifice a nonland permanent.
Like a bloated tick, Opaline siphoned magic from the entire world, leaving it dull and withered.

Glittering Catacombs 2B
Enchantment
At the beginning of your end step, if you descended this turn, create a tapped Treasure token. (You descended if a permanent card was put into your graveyard from anywhere. A Treasure token is an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
WUBRG: Transform Glittering Catacombs.
Forgotten Hoard
Land — Cave
T: Add B.
2, T: Create X Treasure tokens, where X is the number of times you’ve descended this turn.
Beneath the Dragonlands, it’s hard to say which gems are newly formed and which belonged to forgotten dragonlords.

Sootheart Dragon 4BB
Creature — Dragon
Flying, menace
When Sootheart Dragon enters the battlefield, choose one —
• Target opponent sacrifices a Dragon.
• Target opponent sacrifices a non-Dragon creature.
Fear the dragon who has lost her pride.
4/4

Drowsing Dragon RR
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Drowsing Dragon enters the battlefield tapped with X stun counters on it, where X is four minus the number of other Dragons you control.
Whenever another Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, untap Drowsing Dragon.
5/5

Feed the Flames 2RR
Enchantment
Whenever a player casts a red spell, exile the top card of that player’s library. Until your next end step, you may play that card.
“Thank you for your contribution.”
—Opaline, the last alicorn

Infernal Punishment 3R
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever enchanted player casts a noncreature spell, put a blaze counter on Infernal Punishment, then Infernal Punishment deals damage equal to the number of blaze counters on it to that player.

Singewing Dragon 4RR
Creature — Dragon
Flying, haste
When Singewing Dragon enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to target opponent.
Dragons are slow to trust anyone flammable.
4/4

Growing Power 1G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on enchanted creature.
“I too believe in unity, for all magic should be united under my command.”
—Opaline, the last alicorn

Scaly Ambassador 2G
Creature — Pony Advisor
Dragon spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
Creature spells with mana value 6 or greater you cast cost 1 less to cast.
“That was a good nap. It’s time to rejoin the world.”
—Dragonlord Spike
2/2

Twilit Memories 3GG
Sorcery
Return up to X target cards from your graveyard to your hand, where X is the number of creatures in your herd as you cast this spell. Exile Twilit Memories. (Your herd consists of up to one each of Bat, Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn.)
Spike beheld familiar souls in new bodies.

Groveclaw Dragon 4GG
Creature — Dragon
Flying, trample
When Groveclaw Dragon enters the battlefield, each opponent sacrifices an artifact or enchantment with the greatest mana value among artifacts and enchantments they control.
Dragons are always surrounded by fragility.
4/4

Dragonlord’s Throne 3
Artifact
T: Add C.
T: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a Dragon spell or activate an ability of a Dragon source.
Sacrifice Dragonlord’s Throne: Add one mana of any color.

Freefall 2UR
Instant
Cast this spell only before attackers are declared.
Creatures without flying gain flying until end of turn. At the beginning of the next end step, Freefall deals 3 damage to each of those creatures.
It’s fine until the sudden stop at the end.

Dracomorph 3UR
Creature — Dragon Shapeshifter
You may have Dracomorph enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it’s still a Dragon and it has flying and haste.
The mutability of the dragon genome has gone in some truly bizarre directions.
0/0

Spike, Fabled Dragonlord 3URW
Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon
Flying, double strike
Ward — Have Spike’s controller draw two cards.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue and red Dragon creature token with flying, where X is that spell’s mana value.
3/5

Comments

[hawthornbunny]

A very happy decade of cardage! 🎉

“You remind me of somepony I once knew.”
Aw, that’s sweet.
“Twilight.”
And you ruined it.

The delivery of this terrible line was so good, I had to pause the episode until I stopped laughing. It takes a special kind of effort to ruin a moment this way.

choose one —
• Target opponent sacrifices a Dragon.
• Target opponent sacrifices a non-Dragon creature.

Isn't this equivalent to "Target opponent sacrifices a creature"? Or is the choice for thematic purposes?

[DangerDean]

The ability on Spike is like Shark Typhoon but with dragons

[Rune Soldier Dan]

Izzy keeps balloons stashed all over her never-you-mind. In case of balloon emergencies.

It's nice to know there's at least a little continuity from G4 in this setting!

Although man, my biggest hang up is how bad Opaline's MYM song is compared to TYT.

[Ghost Mike]

I will be fair and say, having seen what CG dragons look like in recent Barbie shows, among other low-rent children's CG, they could have looked a lot worse.

this is exactly what I wanted from G5, but too little, too late. This feels like scrambling for lost time, and it is.

Literally my first note after watching this (just yesterday, so the memories are super fresh for once) was that it is one of the least-draggy episodes in the show, but only by virtue of having exposition and plot progression the show literally cannot put off any longer. We see this in the awoken dragons just showing up mere seconds after landing (the first sign that no attempt to elicit genuine fantasy awe will be made), and it's to the point that at least two plot-pivotal action scenes – Opaline stealing two dragons and getting enough cutie marks to decorate her Together Tree – are altogether offscreen. Which is also for budget reasons, granted.

Plus non-starters like Sunny and Blaize's talk being offscreen and nothing seemingly coming of it. Outside of the interaction between Hitch and Spike, it's all just flat, indifferent execution of material that should ostensibly be dramatic but which this show's fluffy, light, breezy tone is not remotely equipped to pull on. I will be fair and say the reveal of Spike is decently well executed, and had it not been spoiled, would have been something. All the absorbed magic giving Opaline's chest the vein-glowy aesthetic at the end is a visual touch I liked too.

I think by now I'm so numb to the typical failings of MYM that the numerous bad writing/visual execution choices here barely register. Pipp being Pipp, Opaline's generic villain song (not a patch on her one in TYT) let down terribly by the staging, layout and character models (the same song animated in FiM's animation would have been much better, though still a nothing burger – just reuse her TYT one, seriously), the non-starters at the personalities for the dragons, two of them being totally forgotten in going to Equestria at the end (and not being seen or mentioned thereafter), Spike feeling totally incompatible with his old self (perhaps a good thing, as my memories didn't suffer as a result), Sunny's "am I a leader?" arc having no resonation due to being a thing in maybe 15 minutes of the whole series… all same old, same old.

Let's just put this horse out of its misery with these last few episodes across the next few weeks.

[Herald of Opera]

Funny how the battery on Zipp’s phone has been fine. I suppose she doesn’t have a dozen social media apps running on it 24/7.

And she preemptively turned it off because she realized she wouldn't get a signal in a place that no pony has been to since before cell phones were invented. Something Pipp, the one who actually uses her phone regularly, somehow did not. Yeah, you've pointed out how everything in this generation is 120% stupid but that just means this argument works.

Seriously, if the show had spent half as much time exploring what “sparkle” actually means as it did on Sunny’s grand quest to establish a community garden or Pipp’s better disasters through chemistry…

Basically as soon as we heard about it, I had Izzy quoting Superman to explain it: "You're wrong. I can see your soul." Nothing since has contradicted that idea.

Let's see how I can welcome him back:

Stupid Complicated Game Alert: The exiling replacement of finality counters means that creatures with them don't technically "die" for the purposes of Soul Hoard. If you want to pull that cycle you'll need some way to remove counters. Which exist.

5756687

Isn't this equivalent to "Target opponent sacrifices a creature"? Or is the choice for thematic purposes?

Stupid Complicated Game Alert: you choose whether the targeted opponent sacrifices a dragon or a non-dragon. That opponent chooses which specific creature they sacrifice, which if you're doing things right is not an actual choice. The wording FoME chose makes it slightly easier to do things right than with a straight edict.

[_Undefined_]

Okay, the tunnel was actually marked on the map. Given the way the character has been portrayed, it honestly wouldn't have surprised me if Zipp had decided to fly a jet into a narrow space with no guarantee the path wouldn't just suddenly end in a wall. And wait -- does one of the other cave paths lead to Steven Magnet? That's totally Steven Magnet depicted down there, isn't it? At least there's one artist at the studio who's having fun.

Also, from the manes to the “stick toes on hooves and call them dinosaur feet” approach to the limbs, the dragon designs are very clearly reskinned pony models and it’s downright sad.

I guess there wasn't room in the budget to build a brand new dragon-shaped rig (and I guess Sparky's body was too squat to scale up to a proper dragon size?). Yet another consequence of commissioning the series in 3-D without providing a sufficient 3-D animation budget.

Okay, is the mesmeric lullaby cutting out for anyone else? For that fraction of a second when the camera goes back to Lava and Jade, the music goes dead. I can’t tell if that’s intentional or a bizarre oversight by the audio editor.

An instrumental version plays during the credits with similar audio drops. So it appears to be intentional.

"I'm a Villain" showed potential by starting with "When I walk past a mirror, I scare myself," but the rest of the lyrics are so very, very generic. "Don't you cry now, it will all be fine"? That's it? Add a beat, then finish the line with "for me" -- that would get closer to Opaline sounding properly evil. So much of the writing in this series has felt like a first draft that no one had time to revise.

I get that dragons have a very long lifespan, so their sense of time is different than the other characters', but it still seems like a bad idea for a people's leader to fall asleep for consecutive centuries. Yes, I know it's because the story requires Spike to not be aware of what's going on in the world, but in that case, why bother bringing the character back at all? They've already written out glossed over the absence of the probably-should-still-be-around Twilight (and Celestia and Luna); they could have done the same with Spike.

I was going to suggest that the dragons' cutie marks were artificial rather than organic like the ponies' marks -- after all, they appear to be adhered atop the dragons' flanks as opposed to a color change directly on their scales. But then the patches started glowing for vague reasons, so who knows what those are supposed to be? No, seriously -- who knows? Does anybody on the show's staff have an answer? Will they be telling the audience?

[hawthornbunny]

5756709
Ah, that makes sense! Thanks

[TCC56]

As I noted, this is exactly what I wanted from G5, but too little, too late.

Oh boy are you not going to like the next episodes.

[iisaw]

i.ibb.co/vJC86kW/No-They-Did-Not.jpg

[Lurks-no-More]

"...Huh. Well." does seem like about the best positive-ish reaction to this, sadly.

[The Iguana Man]

Ah, shades of “A Better Way to be Bad” with effigies of the main cast. Reminding me of a better villain song may be the best this one can hope for.

It truly is sad when a villain so desperately wants to be Lord Dominator, but can't even reach the level of Chrysalis.

“There hasn’t been a baby dragon around here in a volcano’s age.”

"Well, we did have some eggs, but then this weird bunny girl and some rhino people popped out of the ground and, well, that was kinda that."

(Sorry, the setup for the reference was just too perfect.)

Honestly don't know how I feel about Spike making an appearence. Like, yeah, it definitely rings pretty hollow, but at least it seemed like they wanted to do something with that. But, well, it seems painfully clear at this point the writers have never been given enough time to really make something of what they're putting out there, and with the show's cancellation, the time crunch has been squared.