//------------------------------// // A New Enemy?! // Story: Season Spike // by Haoryu Changer //------------------------------// "...But it appears he has found a way to escape." Celestia explained. The four alicorn Princesses were gathered at Canterlot castle. Celestia and Luna had just recently told who and what this Tirek being was to Twilight and Cadence. "We believe it happened when Cerberus left his post at the gates." Luna said. Twilight shook her head. "But that was a long time ago. Why is he just now starting to steal magic?" She asked. "His time in Tartarus left him very weak. He has just now gained enough strength to use his dark powers." Celestia said as she walked around the table they were all standing around. "So like how it was with Armak?" Twilight asked. "I suppose so." "With each passing moment, he grows stronger still." Luna told. "And I know just the Princess who could stop him." Cadence said with a knowing smile. Twilight spread her wings in determination and said, "Yes! I'll find him and-" "No, Twilight," Twilight looked behind to face Celestia. "I'm afraid I must call on another to stop Tirek." She closed her eyes for a second then said, "Discord." The other three alicorns gasped. "Princess. You're not saying that-" "Yes..." Celestia walked up to the closest window and stared at the bright blue sky. "Twilight, you remember when Discord tracked down Rarity's little sister by sensing her magic. If anyone can track him down, it shall be Discord." "And how do you suppose he tracks him in time. Tirek is still very weak." Luna noted. "He will sense when a there is a magical imbalance. And that's when either he or I will strike." Twilight sighed. "I know you may think this is a risky decision. But I have to make risky plays, or my little ponies will be in great danger." Twilight nodded. Spike and Armak walked side by side. They were approaching another city. "Ugh! How many more towns do we have to go to?! Every single one of them, "you just missed the monster." I say we just sneak back to Equestria and never return!" Armak said angrily. "Come on Armak. It's only been three cities so far." "But we don't even have to do this! I could just sneak back to the portal without any one of them noticing." "Uh, we probably don't have to. But it's the right thing to do. Besides, it's boring in Equestria right now anyways." "This world is even more boring! I want action! I want trouble! I want something to happen-" *BANG!* The area around them shook. "Well, there you go." Spike said with a smile. "Argh! Finally!" *EXPLOSION!* "Let's go stop this thing." Spike and Armak made their way to the city, intent on stopping this creature. They were in the middle of a street soon after. Every corner, another crystal creature was cowering in fear. Spike had sympathy for all these beings. As he too could remember a time where every pony in Equestria was frightened beyond levels. The two males followed the sounds of explosions, and in a short amount of time, they found their monster. "Huh?" Spike's eyes widened. This creature was a tall crystal clear dragon, looking very intimidating. It had a purple scaled body with green spikes on top of its head running all the way down to its long tail, and a light grayish green belly. "It looks like you." Armak said. "But whatever, it's not you." Spike had a flashback to the time his greed took him over. When he rampaged as a full grown dragon and Rarity stopped him. "Spike?" Armak snapped Spike out of it. "Oh! Right. We came here to stop it." The crystal dragon looked behind itself, stopping from crushing another building, and with its emerald eyes, stared down at the two. When its eyes crossed over Armak, it looked surprised. But when it scanned Spike, the look of pure hatred couldn't even begin to describe its expression. It roared powerfully, showing off its two sharp rows of teeth. "Do dragons have two rows of teeth?!" Armak asked, yelling over the roar. "I don't think so!" Spike replied. Once it was done roaring, the crystal dragon rushed Spike and tried to grab him. Spike activated his wings and flew up to dodge the grab. Armak gave a boring sigh. "Time to get this over with." He pointed his horn, charged it, and fired- "Oh wait... DARN IT!" He remembered he couldn't use magic in this world. Spike flew high in the air and flew back down with great speed. He drop kicked the dragon and flew back over to Armak. "What are you doing?" Spike asked. "Well sorry! I was trying to use my magic because I forgot that we couldn't." "...Oh yeah... we can't'." Spike lowered his arm, stopping from trying to fire a magic blast. The dragon picked itself up and looked at Spike. It roared and blew its green fire at him. Spike looked shocked. "It even has my signature green fire?!" Armak flew out of the way and Spike just stood there. "Spike! Look out!" He tried to yell, but the fire hit Spike dead on. "Nooo-! Huh?" Spike was standing there, perfectly fine. "Not even a burn mark on you?" "I'm a dragon." Spike deadpanned. "...And?" Spike rolled his eyes. "Dragons can swim in hot lava. I don't think they'll be affected by fire..." Armak growled. "Well, I didn't know-" *ROAR* "Dragon lessons later, defeating giant dragon now!" Spike and Armak flew up to the beast. It tried its fire again at Spike, but the smaller dragon just flew through it and knocked him hard on its snout. During the battle, the large dragon seemed to be only going after Spike, and not Armak. It was hard for the alicorn to get a hit in. The fire didn't affect Spike but it surely would affect him if it connected. Once he got a kick in, however, the large creature roared in pain and swiped at Armak. The alicorn tried to teleport away but fail miserably. "Oh... drat." The swipe nearly missed however when Spike tackled Armak out of the way. They both landed together on the ground with a thud. "Get off of me!" Armak pushed Spike off. "Your welcome." Spike said, obviously annoyed. "Thank you, sorry. I'm just really frustrated right now." "Ha, why? Because you can't use your stolen dark magic?" Spike laughed. Armak, being the one annoyed now, flew up to the incoming beast and knocked it back, making it drag against the crystal ground. "As soon as we're done stopping this... thing, the sooner we go home!" Spike got up with a grin. "Right behind you!" In a dark alleyway, a grayish blue unicorn stallion with a spiked black mane fell to the floor because of his lack of magic. He opened his colorless eyes and looked dazed as the being, now called Tirek, in front of him sparked with black electricity and grew bigger with a yellow glow. Tirek gritted his teeth and gripped his fists as he grew in size. He soon looked back to see a gray unicorn stallion with a black mane using his blue magic on something down the alleyway. Tirek neared towards the pony, sneaking up behind him. He put his arms out, ready to grab him at any second. A few steps closer and the pony turned to reveal not a pony, but a draconequus. "Tirek, I presume." He said. Tirek looked shocked for a second. He squinted his eyes and inspected the being before him. "Discord. You're... free?" He asked. With a flash of light, Discord turned into a bird standing on a bird stand. "As a bird." He replied. "I commend you on your escape." Tirek said with a bow. Discord flashed back to normal. "I'm afraid the feeling isn't mutual." He snapped his claw. Tirek widened his eyes. He turned angry and tried to break the chain now binding him. After failing, he charged his red magic and fired a tiny plasma beam at Discord, who split his head in two to avoid the beam. "Oh, I should have known you would want to have Equestria all to yourself." Discord was twirling a baton in his paw's finger while wearing a police outfit. He tossed it away and said, "Oh, I'm not doing this for me." The baton landed on the ground making a noise. "I'm doing it for my friends." He went closer to Tirek's face and whispered, "Just between the two of us, it's mostly for Spike and Fluttershy." He squeed silently and gave Tirek his personal space. Tirek caught the name of Fluttershy. "Fluttershy? Spike?" Tirek didn't recognize the pony who had the name of Fluttershy, but he did know that it was a pony name. "You're not saying you're friends with... ponies!" He said, bewildered. Discord popped out of a giant cake that he poofed up while Tirek was thinking. "Surprise!" He yelled. Some of the icing splattered on Tirek's cloak. "I am surprised that someone with your intellect does not see this "friendship" is but a new form of imprisonment." He showed off his new chains. "Clearly you've had to abandon your true nature to stay in their good graces." You could see Discord playing a Lyre with a halo above his head. He threw away the Lyre and crossed his arms. "I have done nothing of the sort." He looked up at his halo and shewed it away. Making the halo fly away. Tirek gave Discord the "talk to the hand" gesture and said, "Oh, please. I've seen this before." He gripped his fists in anger. "But he was always weak-minded." Tirek zipped to Discord and said, "You are Discord. You are legend." He placed a hand on Discord's chest. "You cannot fall into the same trap that claimed my brother." "Help me to grow strong and be rewarded with something far greater than friendship..." His yellow eyes glowed brightly. "Freedom." Discord was taken aback. "Once I have stripped these ponies of their magic, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see their world turned upside down. Who better to do so than the master of chaos himself?" Discord put his talon to his chin in thought. "Join me, Discord, and reclaim your greatness. Unless, of course, "pony errand boy" is the role you've always wanted to play in this world." Tirek snapped causing his hood to come off. Discord looked back to see a nightstand, his nightstand floating in the air holding a picture of himself and Fluttershy, another picture of him and an annoyed Armak with the words "best reformed bad guys" written on it, and a Discord action figure. He put his talon on his chin in thought once again. The crystal dragon roared in pain as crystal scales on his left leg began to tear off. "Ohhh, that's gotta hurt." Spike rubbed his left leg like he was the one losing scales. At another look at the dragon, it seemed as it was growing weaker. "Alright! Spike, time to finish this!" Armak was about to swoop in from above but stopped in shock when he saw that crystal around the area latched on and merged to the dragon, making new scales. "Oh come on!" Armak and Spike yelled in frustration. The dragon growled then roared once again. Spike flew up and rammed into the dragon's stomach. It growled in pain and held its stomach. It gave Spike an angry glare and quickly took hold of him. Armak tried to rush in and help, but the crystal dragon lashed at him with his tail. With its two claws, it started to crush Spike. Spike thought of something. "Wait... Magic can't be used here, but what about fi-" Spike mentally slapped himself as he saw the same dragon in front of him use fire. He opened his mouth and blew his green fire. The flames hit the dragon's eyes. It didn't affect it, but it sure did blind it. Spike used this opportunity and struggled out of the crystal beast's grasp. Right after, Armak flew in from behind and slammed it down, making it lose some more scales from the impact. Spike flew in and kicked where the dragon had lost its scales, the pain was intensifying for it. "That should keep it down for a while-" Armak tried to say. More crystals around the area merged and attached to the dragon. Soon after, the dragon pushed itself back up, looking furious. "Maybe not." "There is no doubt that Tirek is after alicorn magic. With Discord by his side, we will not be able to stop him from taking it." "Once it is in his possession, his power will know no bounds and all hope will be lost." Luna explained. As they talked Twilight wondered, "Where's Spike? And shouldn't Armak be here since he's an Alicorn aswell?" Another block of crystal merged with the dragon, making newer scales. Armak grunted. "That is just... urgh! Spike? Don't dragons normally eat all sorts of gems?!" "Yeah." "Well go on! There's a feast right there!" Spike raised an eyebrow at Armak and dramatically raised his arms up. "Yeah, Armak! How about I go ask him to stay still so I could eat him? I really bet I could eat the whole thing, even with my small stomach! Better yet, I could probably eat it fast so it wouldn't regenerate!" He said sarcastically. "...Well, go then!" Spike facepalmed. "But there is one solution." Celestia spoke up. The older three alicorns, who were standing in front of the castle throne, flew down to stand in front of Twilight. "It is only by making by making this sacrifice that Equestria and the lands beyond it might be saved." Celestia closed her eyes for a mere three seconds then opened them again with a serious look. "We must rid ourselves of our magic before Tirek has the chance to steal it from us." Twilight grew wide-eyed and gasped.