//------------------------------//
// The First Of Many Dark Tales 
// Story: Season Spike 
// by Haoryu Changer 
//------------------------------//

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

Doctor Hooves looked down at Spike with a face full of sorrow. "I really don't. Apologies, Spike. When I first arrived here and saw this catastrophe, I immediately panicked and traveled back to our timeline."

"There isn't anypony around..." Derpy said, a bit scared. "Could it be that they're all..."

"No!" Spike shook his head in disbelief and ran down the cracked streets in search for anyone. Pony, dragon, griffin, or any living creature. He sprinted down street after street, finding nothing but destroyed homes, shops, and other buildings. 

Then, Spike came across something that both shocked and confused him. His good friend Pony Joe had a donut shop placed in Canterlot. And he just found it intact in between two destroyed shops, like is was protected by a shield alone.

The dragon ran into the building, slamming open its doors and looking around. Inside was a mess. The small restaurant's tables were all broken and cracked. The front counter was split in half and there was no one in the place. 

At least in the front.

Spike ran through the split counter and went to the back of the shop. He was now in the office and before him was Pony Joe himself snoring fast asleep on a couch against the right wall. "I knew someone had to be alive!" He immediately zipped towards him and shook him madly. "Joe? Joe! Wake up!" Spike cried out. But with no success, Joe didn't even give off any signs of waking.

"Come on man! Wake up! Please!" Spike kept shaking him for minutes, but there was still no progress. It was like a torturous, repeating slide show that would never end.

"Please..." Spike was confused, angered, and saddened. Whoever caused this was going to pay the price. No pony deserved this. Equestria didn't deserve this.

"There's some kind of spell on him."

Spike could tell by the voice to know who it was. 

The doctor kneeled down beside him, holding a device from a long handle in his right hoof that had a lens on top to which he looked through with his right eye. Spike saw that the lens had some code within it that he couldn't recognize. He surmised that the doctor was using it to inspect Joe. "I'm guessing it's some kind of eternal sleeping spell."

Spike heightened his dragon senses and sensed the dim spell around Joe. "It's too powerful, even when it looks like it's been active for a while. I won't be able to take it off."

"Once we find whoever put the spell on him, we could deactivate it." Doctor Hooves said.

Someone put this spell on him. Why?

Spike gritted his teeth and growled in anger, and he gripped his claws into fists. And before the doctor could say anything else, Spike bolted out of the store, passing Derpy who was about to head into the building but stopped and stared at him in pity.

The small drake had his destination set in his mind, Canterlot Castle. He arrived fairly quickly thanks to his speed, sprinting through the massive hole in the front door, caused by whatever monster destroyed Canterlot. He didn't bother checking every room in every floor. Instead, he headed straight for the throne room. Even if the castle was in shambles, some debris blocking hallways, Spike knew the castle layout well with his past interactions with it. Royal meetings, paperwork, helping Twilight and the other princesses. He knew this castle more than all the guards even, and it made it much easier for him to traverse around.

While Spike was sprinting across one more hallway, he clenched his teeth tight and growled under his breath when he saw the throne room doors broken off and on the floor. He activated his wings and was about to cut through the air but felt something touch them, he looked back and remembered he still had his cloak on with his hood up. The cloak the doctor gave him. 

He stopped sprinting.

The cloak reminded him something important. The doctor gave him a chance to fix all of this, and Spike knew that he would stop at nothing to do so. Doctor Hooves and Derpy was counting on him to fix this timeline. He knew he could not disappoint both those two and this Equestria's Twilight, Spike, and the rest.

He sighed, telling himself to calm down. He deactivated his wings and began to quietly walk into the throne room, the only noise being his small steps.

He looked at the large room in mournfulness. The red carpet leading to Princess Celestia's throne was torn all over by what seemed to be a savage beast. The red and gold throne itself was in no better shape. The back of the throne was cut off by a diagonal cut, and the extended golden marble to let one stand was in crumbles. Spike remembered all of the times when he would attend royal meetings, standing beside a bored Princess Celestia, who would be lazily resting her back on the back of the throne, with a scroll in his claw. He would leave Twilight home to attend these important meetings, and he now just realized how mature he must have looked.

What got Spike emotional the most was the symbolic stained glass windows on each side of the throne room. Most of them were shattered. From Discord's first defeat to Spike saving the Crystal Empire from King Sombra. To Spike, it seemed the latter was dealt the most damage. He was in too much pain to realize that the window holding the time when Twilight and her friends stopped Tirek was either not there or was never made at this time.

Spike walked down the long red destroyed carpet, all the way to Princess Celestia's throne. He then stopped. "N-no..." He sprinted toward the throne and kneeled down to pick up not one, but 4 royal crowns. "W-what the..."

The small drake was completely still for a few minutes. Taking in the depressing atmosphere. Soon, he choked a sob and looked down to his feet, letting loose a few tears.

"Twilight... Princess Celestia... Girls..." Spike then let out a loud sob. "Sweetie Belle... What happened to all of you?" He fell to his claws, gripping the ground like he wanted to dig into it. Soon his sadness turned into anger, he gripped his claws into fists and he raised his right fist, dropping it down with massive speed and force, hitting the throne room floor and creating a little crater.

He breathed heavily, feeling a hoof fall upon his shoulder.

"Stay strong, Spike. We need your help to fix all of this." Doctor Hooves said.

Spike continued to breathe for a couple of seconds before saying. "We can go back in time and fix this, right?"

"That would just create another timeline. It wouldn't help this one at all." The doctor said sadly.

Spike turned to look at Doctor Hooves, his teary eyes being hidden beneath the hood of his cloak. His stressed voice, however, didn't help mask his pain. "Then what's the plan?"

"First, we must gather some information before we make any sort of plan. What's the current situation for the ponies? What or who caused all of this? And how we can repair the damage it's caused."

Spike nodded, more determined than ever to mend this timeline.

"Let's head back to the front of the castle. Derpy was watching the area to warn us about any sudden danger."





Spike and Doctor Hooves appeared in their anonymity cloaks in front of the obliterated Canterlot Castle. Derpy came out of her hiding place within some debris of the castle to trot over to the two. After the doctor explained that they didn't find anything but the four royal crowns in what's left of the castle, they started to walk around the city that was once astounding to stare at in their cloaks.

"We must find any survivors in Equestria, and find out what specifically occurred. Maybe then we will find out how to return Equestria to the way it once was in this timeline."

"How about we check Ponyville?"  Derpy suggested. "It's the closest town to Canterlot."

"Yes. And it also holds some great possible sources of information. The Elements of Harmony, including Princess Twilight Sparkle – if any of them survived – should have some insight of what went on." 

That last part really ticked Spike off. "They did survive!" He said, full of rage. "...They have to be alive somewhere..." He really started to miss Twilight back at his own timeline. What if she needed him? But he couldn't worry about that. All of Equestria in this timeline needed help.

Suddenly, the trio stopped in their tracks when they noticed something far ahead. It was really hard to see down the street, but colorful dots in the middle of a gray city only meant one thing.

"Ponies!" Spike shouted.

"And there is many of them!" Derpy said, equally surprised.

Before the doctor or Derpy could react, Spike started to sprint towards them. "Spike! Wait!" The doctor failed to command.

Spike didn't listen. This was his first step into saving this timeline.

A purple unicorn mare, in the middle of the group of about 5 other ponies, was the first one to notice Spike and she screamed. The dragon running towards her saw the most frightened look he's ever seen in his life.

He mentally slapped himself in the head. Whatever happened to these ponies all around Equestria scarred them for life, he was certain. Someone in a cloak that completely covered their face sprinting towards them was no doubt going to frighten them.

Once the rest of their group noticed what the purple mare was yelling about they too started to lose it. Then one by one they squirmed and held themselves to their chest low to the ground.

Spike expected them to run, or even fight back after his stupid decision, but he didn't expect them to lose all hope so fast. He sighed to himself and stopped his sprint, coming to a slow walk. He came up to the group of ponies as they quivered.

"Uh... Hi, ther—"

"Were we late?! We're so sorry we're taking long to get back to the Grand Emperor's kingdom!" The purple mare yelled, cutting off Spike.

Spike just stood wide-eyed staring at the unknown pony.

"We were just heading back! I'll take full responsibility! Punish me, not them!" She shut her eyes in fear, dropping low to the ground.

Spike realized that these ponies... were broken. All of them, not even trying to get away or fighting back, thought that their fate was decided right then and there. This drove determination into Spike. He had to fix this world, and this was the start. "...Um. I'm really sorry for scaring you. I didn't come rushing here to... punish you."

The mare and her group opened their eyes and looked up in confusion while still terrified. "There's no need to try and trick us. We know we've done wrong by delaying the Emperor."

Spike had a feeling this Emperor was the key to finding out everything. "I'm not trying to trick you or hurt you! In fact, my two friends and I have come to help this timeli— I mean to help Equestria." 

Doctor Hooves and Derpy arrived behind Spike with their respective cloaks on, blocking all vision on them.

"We've come from a very far place and really want to help all of you. We can fix this, all we need is to know what really happened here. Please trust us."

A dark blue mare leaned into the purple one and said. "Just tell them what they want. It's not like we can do anything about it anyways..."

The purple one looked at her with sadness and nodded in agreement. She got up and said, "I-I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Doctor Hooves spoke up. "Do you know who caused all this?" He gestured to Canterlot's ruins.

"How don't you know? The Grand Emperor is the most feared person in the world!"

This Grand Emperor must be strong, Spike thought. If this person defeated Equestria and took it over could Spike really challenge him? He didn't know, but he had to try.

"Who exactly is the Grand Emperor?" Doctor Hooves pressed on.

She shook her head in response. "There's only a few who know his identity, most of them vanished or is too broken to speak. We even question his gender sometimes even if he has a stallion's voice. He's a mystery that's hard to solve in every pony's minds." She explained.

"Do you know how he caused this horror?" Derpy asked.

The pony again shook her head after looking back at the rest of the group for any answers. "All I know is that he single-hoofly took over a town named Ponyville before invading ours and many others."

"Ponyville? Why there? And why did this Emperor destroy Canterlot?"

"I don't know. He turned Ponyville into his kingdom that is now the most feared place in Equestria. Possibly the world."

"If you can. C-could you tell us about his invasion on your village then?" Spike asked kindly, feeling bad that he had to ask her to explain possibly this mare's most frightening moments in life.

"Of... course..." The mare said looking empty before staring down at the dirt.





This horrifying day can't get out of my head. Every night when I go to bed I dream of this nightmare, reminding me again that it's useless to fight back. It just won't stop... And Princess Luna's nowhere to be seen. To protect me and every other pony from these horrible scenes.

I was just about to hold a big announcement for the village from upon a stage...

But as I was about to say my first words, all Tartarus broke loose.

Several mares in the back of the audience screamed and everypony turned, wondering what was going on. I couldn't see much, being so far away. But I took initiative and started to make my way over to the incident. I thought it would help my image to the townsponies.

I was wrong.

As I galloped towards the commotion, passing many ponies who were evacuating in fear, I saw glimpses of the one they were running from. Soon I stopped.

Right in front of me was... I actually can't remember who it was, and that's the only part of my dream that's a blur. Who was our invader? The invader was the Grand Emperor himself. But it confuses me and everypony that most can't remember who exactly he is.

(Theme: Start)

He was standing right in front of me, casually blowing up buildings left and right with such powerful magic. 

I looked around and saw many ponies were trying to escape, but there was just one huge problem. There was a magical dome around the village, there was no escape.

I looked back at... him and I could still remember his malicious smirk. 

I wasn't thinking straight, my anger was controlling me. He was ruining everything!

I charged him, forgetting his display of magic, intending to attack him with my own magic. And he too started to engage me.

It was useless. I failed.

I was quickly pinned to the ground after useless minutes of fighting. He didn't even use any of his magic on me and I was defeated. As I was under him, utterly beaten, I began to realize it was hopeless to try and fight back, he was on a completely different level than me or any alicorn for that matter.

Then he said something to me that I still remember to this day. "Gather the rest of you. I see you are the leader of this village so they will listen to you. Once you gather them, we're destroying this village and going back to my kingdom. You will follow all my orders and treat me with respect. You will be loyal to me and I will not hurt you. This goes for the rest. Understand?"

I knew I had no choice that day, and I cried. After he got off of me, I laid there on the ground where he pinned me for minutes in a depressed state.

I got up weakly with tears in my eyes, my face a mess. And I started to slowly and sluggishly walk around the village. One by one I either teleported ponies to him or throw them to his location with my magic, mentally counting all of them. Each one of them held a face full of fear. Each one of them gandering at me and examining my face, telling them it was hopeless to fight. And every time I did so to a pony, I saw a flash of his frightening smirk, forcing me to continue in fear. It was like a horrifying dance I was forced to perform.

Mares, stallions, fillies and colts alike. This was best for them, and I knew it. It was better than running hopelessly. He was going to catch them no matter what. It would be useless trying to run. 

But I was saddened. I was about to change these ponies' lives. They would have lived equally among each other. It would have been glorious. That was never going to happen now...

Some ponies were hiding rather than running, that would do them no good. I quickly found them by using a heat scanning spell. They too were moved to his position in the middle of the village.

I was eventually finished after I teleported a white stallion. He saw my broken expression and he started to look downcast as well. He took his teleportation without a word.

I teleported myself back to the one who did this to our village. It was silent.

He just sat there, in front of all the villagers with a large terrifying smirk on his face. The villagers all sat down, looking hopeless, unable to do anything.

"You will all come with me to my new kingdom. You are all my slaves, I own you now." He said darkly, turning to me afterward. "You!" He called. "You have potential. You will be the leader of this group," He gestured to the townsponies. "...who is now a squad of mine. You will get your orders when we get back to my kingdom." 

I looked at him with no expression on my face. "Who are you?"

"You will call me the Grand Emperor. I am the new ruler of Equestria. May I ask for your name."

I looked down at my hooves. "...Starlight Glimmer."

He then took us to the outskirts of the village, and with cruelty, he forced the whole village to watch as he demolished our home in one magic blast.

(Theme: End)





"It's a blur to me on how he looked, we just follow his orders. Unable to do anything against it."

Spike looked at this purple unicorn with pity. "Starlight... I-I'm so sorry..."

"It wasn't your fault." She said with no clear emotion. "Anyways, we have to go. We had a mission to collect anything found in Canterlot and we can't delay him any longer. If you truly came to try and save Equestria, I would advise turning back now and heading back to wherever you came from. Live in peace for as long as you can before the Grand Emperor arrives and takes your lives away too." The group started to trot away, and Spike wanted to stop them. 

"No." 

Spike looked back at Doctor Hooves confused. "What?"

"I know what you want to do. But you can't." 

Spike turned away from the doctor, a bit of irritation towards him, and stared at the retreating group of ponies. 

"We have to act smart." The brown stallion continued. "If this Grand Emperor found out that this group was missing, he would try to find out where they were. Then he would find us before we have the chance to look at the situation. I don't think it'll be as easy as you think to stop him. Ruling all of Equestria by yourself is not a simple task."

"I suppose... but they are going back to him. Shouldn't we stop their torture?"

"It wouldn't help them." Doctor Hooves shook his head. "In the long run, it might end up hurting them instead."

Spike knew that the doctor was right. If they failed in saving Equestria then these ponies would suffer forever, but it didn't feel right letting them go off like that.

"We must head to Ponyville, and we will see what occurs there. We must stop the Grand Emperor."

Derpy nodded in determination, and without a word or looking back at them Spike began to lead the way towards Ponyville.

It would take them about half an hour to get there on foot, and Spike knew one thing for certain.

The Grand Emperor must fall.