Celestia ran over to Eternal Flames, snatching the torn page from him with her magic and held him in her hooves, trying to stop the dark magic from taking her son. She had her son face her eye-to-eye and was stunned at the sight of his eyes blinking and changing colors from sapphire blue to a very nasty crimson red, meaning the dark spell almost had him. The princess of the sun lit up her horn and casted a purification spell, driving out all negativity from Eternal Flames and saving him from a terrible fate.
Eternal Flames groaned, placing his hoof over his head. "M-Mother, what happened?" he asked. He was clueless on what the spell was doing to him, but now that the spell was no longer trying to control him, he was now able to come to his senses. He looks up at Celestia, thinking she was pretty upset with him for what he almost did and hung his head in shame. "I apologize for this." he says wholeheartedly.
"We'll talk about it later. Right now, I need you and Shadow Force to come along with me. And we'll bring along this page so the others'll know what's going on." Celestia replied, levitating the torn page close to her. Shadow Force wakes up from his nap and stretches his hooves out with a yawn. He looks in the direction of the princess, curious of why she's here and so he walks up to her.
"Heya, princess. What's going on?" Shadow asks, half-asleep.
"Sunset has made a discovery about Starswirl. I've asked her and Twilight to gather the girls together while I went to get you and the rest of your friends. The others are waiting outside the castle. Now follow me and I'll explain everything to you all." She ordered. Eternal and Shadow nod and approach Celestia. She lights up her horn and in a flash of light, she teleports herself and the two stallions to the entrance outside.
There, Eternal's other friends, including Melodia, were all patiently waiting for them. With all of the stallions, including their pony/dragon hybrid friend, now gathered around, Celestia teleported herself and the entire group back into Ponyville and end up surprisingly in town square. Celestia's eyes caught sight of Twilight and her friends all waiting near the fountain. Celestia signals the group that's with her to follow her and did so without speaking one single word.
"Twilight." Celestia calls out, closing in on her former student. Twilight looked over at the princess and walked over to her with Sunset next to her.
"I've gotten everypony with me, Princess. But what is it you wanted to tell us?" Twilight asks. Celestia says nothing at first and shows Twilight the missing torn page from the spell book Sunset had found. The sight of the torn page made her gasp. "Princess Celestia, is that the...?"
"Yes Twilight. It is the missing page. And I think it's time I told you all the truth." Celestia starts off. Both Twilight's and Eternal's friends all gathered together, opening up their ears to what she has to say. "You see, this particular spell, which was discovered by my son, Eternal Flames, is actually an alicorn transformation spell created by the one and only Clover the Clever, one of the co-founders of Equestria."
"WHAT?!" the guys asked, surprised.
"A long time ago, Clover had developed this particular spell against her former master's orders. When she had completed and performed the spell herself, the results to her brand new form had brought more conflict to everypony, especially with Starswirl the Bearded. Because of this atrocity, there was no way to change her back, nor could the darkness be driven out of her. As a result, Starswirl had expelled her as his student, but it didn't matter to her, for she felt like she had all the magical power she needed in order to take control of the entire kingdom of Equestria for her own selfish desires." Celestia keeps explaining.
"But if there wasn't a way to bring her back, what did Starswirl do?" Twilight asked.
"While she couldn't be changed back into who she once was, Starswirl did find a transformation spell that also acted as a containment spell. But he wasn't strong enough to do this on his own, so he asked for me and my sister to put an end to Zoor's rein of destruction. Altogether, my sister, Starswirl and I combined our magic to seal Zoor away into her tiny Alicorn Amulet prison. Since then, she was seen or heard from ever again. And as of earlier today, Eternal almost made the same mistake back at the castle."
Eternal hung his head down in shame with his eyes closed. Even he regrets listening to his curiousity. "Again, I deeply apologize for my reckless actions. If it weren't for my mother, I'd have become a monster just like Zoor is right now." Eternal says, wholeheartedly.
"It's alright son, but I want to ask you: Did you read it out loud or in your mind?" Celestia asked.
"Hmm, I definitely read it in my mind." he responded.
"I see. Well I should let you know, the message was actually trying to warn you not to read the message out loud OR inside your mind. The result will always be the same. Now you know that this magic spell is extremely dangerous, it's time that I dispose of it... like so." Celestia's horn glew and let out a spark of fire, near the page she still had in her magical grasp and used her fire magic to burn the page until nothing but ash remains.
"Well, now that we've taken care of that problem, what should we do now?" Eternal asks.
"There is one thing I'm planning on doing. But first, I'll have to bring you and the other boys back to the castle before I take your father with me to the Dragon Kingdom." Celestia replies.
"What?!" everypony shouts in shock and surprise.
"You can't be serious! Those dragons might be hypnotized already! If you go there, you'll just end up getting your biscuits burnt to a crisp!" Ground Breaker says.
"He's right, Princess Celestia! It's just not safe to travel to the Dragon Kingdom. Even if Blaze Burn is coming, you'll just get yourselves hurt." Fluttershy implies.
"I understand your concerns for me, but I have to do this. There's no telling what kind of scheme Zoor might be planning with her new army. That's why I'm taking Blaze Burn with me to the Dragon Kingdom to observe them from a distance. Do not worry, I'll be sure to make it back." Celestia replies.
"And what's the plan if we find out what they're up to?" Spark Burst asks.
"It all depends on what Zoor wants. In the meantime, all of you can head back to your homes. That's all the information I can give you all for now." Celestia says.
"B-But, Princess Celestia, what about Spike? Was there anything in that page that gave you a hint on how we can bring Spike back to us?" Rarity asks.
"No. I'm sorry, Rarity. If I did, I'd tell you without hesitation." Celestia says, regretfully. Rarity felt like her heart had been hit by a ton of bricks. With no idea on how to break the spell, Rarity felt the tears flowing out of her eyes, ruining her mascara. Twilight walks over to Rarity and gives her a comforting hug.
"I know it's a hard to take in. Even I'm upset about it. But still, I know for a fact that Spike doesn't want us to give up on him or lose hope." Twilight says. Rarity said nothing but gave Twilight a simple nod and a weak smile, still unsure of whether she was right or just trying to comfort her. It might seem like she's leaning towards the latter, but at least she was being a good friend about it.
The whole time, Eternal witnessed Rarity's behavior and got curious if Spike was actually the one crushing on her or if it was the other way around. One thing's for sure, he wanted to know the whole story and there was only one pony who would tell him the whole story.
"Twilight, I'd like to have a word with you if it's not too much trouble. Something's been peeking my curiousity and I need to get it off my chest." Eternal explains. Twilight wasn't sure what he wanted to ask.
"Umm... sure, I guess." Twilight says, unsure.
"Alright. Mother, if you don't mind, I'm going to be staying in Ponyville for a bit longer than expected. You can go on ahead and take the guys back to the castle without me." he says.
"Uh, Eternal, is there something troubling you?" Tidal asks.
"Just a few questions I need to ask Twilight. It's nothing too serious, I can assure you." Eternal replies.
"Hmm, strange, because the last time I checked, with you, everything's serious "Your Highness." Melodia retorts, walking up to Eternal Flames with a smirk. Eternal glared at Melodia.
"Do NOT call me "your highness!" My name is Eternal Flames, so get it right or ELSE!" Eternal threatened.
Melodia gasped dramatically. "I had no idea a royal young prince like you even had a name! Let me offer my thousand apologies, "your highness." she replies with a chuckle.
"WHY I OUGHTA...!!!"
"Both of you stop it right now!" Celestia scolded. "You can bicker about these silly arguements later when we're not in a moment of crisis, do you understand?" Eternal flinched and backed away from Celestia while Melodia rolled her eyes, giving off her usual smile.
"But of course, princess." Melodia replies without a care in the world.
"Y-Yes mother." Eternal replies.
"Mama's boy." Melodia said, quietly. Celestia still heard her and levitated her up to her eye level and Melodia stared into the eyes of the angry and frustrated sun princess.
"Melodia, you are treading on very... thin... ICE!" Celestia warned. Melodia sighed.
"Oh alright, I'll lay off." Melodia replies.
"Good. Now Melodia, you and the rest of the boys will come with me back to the castle. And Eternal, whatever it is you wish to speak to Twilight about, let me know via message whenever you're done with your little chat and I'll go ahead and send a chariotte for you."
"Fine by me. But keep in mind, I might be talking with her for a quite a while, so I might be arriving back at the castle a little later than expected." Eternal responds with a straight face. Celestia nods and goes over to give her son a small hug before she signals the others to come up to her. Melodia and the guys approach the princess and watch as she lights up her horn, and in a sudden flash, she teleports them back to the castle while Twilight's friends all went back to doing their usual things.
"Eternal, why did you want to talk to me?" Twilight asks.
"I'd rather not say out in public. If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you back at your castle. I just need to clear up a few things with you about Spike." he replies.
"Oh. Well, if that's all you needed to know, I don't see why I shouldn't fill you in. Come on and follow me, I'll fill you in on all the details you need to know." Twilight turned around and walked down the path with Sunset next to her and having the young stallion follow her close behind. As they walked back to her castle, Twilight was filled with several different questions.
For one thing, she was curious about why Eternal wanted to talk about Spike. He could've just asked Princess Celestia a few things about Spike. But then again, Twilight easily forgets that Eternal's well aware of how Spike spent the majority of his life being cared for by her. For another thing, she's curious of whether or not it might help him and the others find a way to snap him out of his hypnotic trance.
But that idea was probably unlikely. However, she still remained open-minded on what he had to say. Moments later, they reached the castle and opened up the door, stepping inside and closing the door behind them before walking over the library and took their seats at the table.
"So, what'd you want to know about Spike?" Twilight asks.
"Well..."
Back at Canterlot Castle, everypony was in their guests rooms, unsure of what they could do. Everypony except for Tidal Wave and Melodia, who took their time to read a few books on Equestrian history. Tidal Wave was a pretty fast reader, so it didn't take long for him to keep his eyes on the same page for long periods of time, unlike his close friend, Melodia.
She took on a more patient approach and would picture the events as she was reading through the book carefully even though she hated reading. She lets out a sigh of boredom as she turned the page and began reading in her usual pace until her eyes locked on a sentence that jolted a past memory.
"Tidal, take a look at this!" Melodia says, pointing at the sentence in the book. Tidal looks at the part of the book that the pony/dragon hybrid was point at. He becomes confused of what Melodia was trying to show him and of course he's a bit curious about it.
"What's this about?" he asks.
"Ugh." Melodia says, annoyed. "Here, let me explain it so you'll understand! This entire page tells about the main reason why so many dragons fall under the hypnotic spell of the Song of Dragons. For obvious reasons, it affects dragons because of how their hearts are driven by greed. While it is unsurprising that over 98% of dragons easily become bound to whoever sings this tune, only the very first dragon lord, and possibly an heir have the ability to use this singing technique."
"I can understand that. I can even understand that you're the daughter of the very first dragon lord, but what else did you want to tell me?" Tidal asks.
"There was only one other time and ONLY once when a dragon was overtaken by anger from the Song of Dragons, not by his own greed... but a broken heart. It's a very rare occasion that only happens when there was somepony they fell in love with but never got the chance to be their destined one. No pony ever knew who this one dragon was, but the result of the Song of Dragons caused that one dragon to not only fall under the spell, but also let his anger cause havoc and destruction around him."
The shocking truth the both of them found out gave Tidal Wave a bad feeling . "Melodia, do you think Spike could be the second dragon to fall under the 2nd effect of the Song of Dragons?" he asks.
"I don't know, but it's a strong possibility. But I think it's best we let Princess Celestia know about this. We can't just keep this secret between us."
"You're right. I'll go alert the princess about this."
"Excuse me, but what makes you think you'll go on your own?" she asks, offended.
"Okay fine, you can come along, will that satisfy you, dear princess?" he retorted, annoyed. Tidal gets pulled into Melodia's grasp and got a noogie from her. "OWOWOWOWOWOWOW OUCH!!!"
"Be careful with what you say, my little pony. You forget that I'm still the daughter of the first dragon lord!"
"Well excuse me, princess, but this happens to be a serious matter!" Tidal rubbed his head. "Now would you kindly please let go of my neck, I can't BREATHE?!" Melodia didn't even reply, she just chuckled at his expression before releasing her grip on him. "Sweet Celestia, you almost choked me to death!"
"But you're still alive right?"
"Just barely, but don't ever do that again! Now come on, we're wasting time here." Tidal Wave walked over to the exit of the room and opened up the door. He stepped out of the way, allowing Melodia to walk out before him and followed her throughout the castle.
"Well, Twilight... I want to know everything there is to know about him and everything that's happened up 'till now and I want to know the whole story." Eternal says to the Princess of Friendship.
"If you say so." Twilight says, before she begins. "I had hatched Spike from a little dragon egg when I was just a filly because he was part of a test to become Princess Celestia's pupil. When he was hatched, he was always raised by me and Princess Celestia at the time. I guess you could probably say he was like my little brother and Princess Celestia was like his mother. He's always been there for me, growing up and becoming my number one assistant back in Canterlot and in Ponyville."
"Go on..."
"When we moved here to Ponyville, he was so high-strung about me making new friends like Princess Celestia wanted me to back when I was just a unicorn. Back then when we first met the girls, he just couldn't stop falling for Rarity even though I thought he wouldn't have a chance with her."
"Why? Because he's a dragon and she's a pony?"
"Well... I guess so."
"He's probably not aware that a pony loving a dragon isn't a taboo. It use to be thousands of years ago, but it's considered a blessing now."
"How do you know, Eternal?"
"I might not be able to do the spells that you can do, Twilight, but I've done my homework on the history of Equestria when the war between ponies and dragons took place and after it ended. Anyways, enough about that, has Spike ever gotten into any kind of trouble when he was little?"
"Well... there was this one time when I had Owlolicious help me out on a few things. My friends all thought he was being left out or replaced, but I just blew it off like it's nothing because I know he's a great big help and he could never be replaced. Of course he ended up giving into his jealous and was trying to pin the blame on Owlolicious and I told him I was disappointed in him."
That's when Eternal felt a bit upset, but kept his anger in. "Twilight, if you were so confident about that, why didn't you just sit him down with you and talk to him instead of trusting your instincts? If you had sat earlier and talked to him beforehoof, he wouldn't have given into his jealousy! You were suppose to be his legal guardian and yet you failed to do something so simple to any parent/older sibling."
Twilight felt offended. "Hey! I apologized to him after me and Owlolicious saved him from this bigger dragon that lived in a cave when he ran away."
Eternal felt more angry, but tried not to blow off on her. "You nearly got your so-called little brother killed and that's hardly something to brush off! I might not know Spike all that well, but I do know that when a younger sister or brother is feeling like they're being replaced, events like what you told me can easily be avoided if you had just sat down and explained him: Spike, you should know that I could never replace you, you always have and always will be my number one assistant."
"I DID tell him that!"
"That was AFTER he ran away! NOT BEFORE!"
"Both of you, stop fighting!" Sunset got in between Twilight and Eternal before they went at each other's throats anymore than they were now. "Now, I'm not taking one side but will point things out: Twilight, Eternal has a point when you should have talked to Spike before you made him feel replaced."
"I... I didn't mean to." Twilight had never felt so much regret in her entire life.
"Finally, somepony who agrees." Eternal sounded less irritated, but still a bit mad. Sunset looked over at him with a stern glare in her eyes.
"No so fast, Eternal. While you do have a point, you can't just go ranting on, telling her she's a bad guardian, I mean yeah, I would be upset if she let Spike get killed by this dragon, but she still made an effort to save him in the end and straightened things out with him, so drop it." Sunset scolded.
"Ugh, fine. But I don't have to like it. Go ahead and continue, Twilight." Eternal replies, a bit calmer.
"Good." Sunset says.
Twilight sighed. "Well, there was also the time when we first went to the Grand Galloping Gala."
"The what-now?" Eternal asks?
"It's a big fancy party that's held in Canterlot once a year. Spike had plans for how to celebrate the best night ever, but of course, the girls and I... well... please don't blow off any steam when I say this, but me and the girls all split up and left him behind to do our own things." Twilight stopped and saw Eternal twitching his left eye, trying his best to hold in his anger.
"Explain." he says through his teeth.
"Pinkie wanted to party hard like she usually does, Rainbow Dash wanted to spend her night hanging out with her idols, the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy ran off to the private garden to see those exotic animals, Applejack went to set up her food stand to raise money for the farm, Rarity went to see Princess Celestia's nephew and tried to win his heart and affections while I wanted to stay by Princess Celestia and talk with her about all the things I've learned about friendship."
Eternal took a deep breath and spoke. "I can understand why Applejack needed to do what she needed to do, what the others did was inexcusable. Still..." Eternal's curiosity overcame his anger for the moment about what Twilight mentioned. "Since when did mother have a nephew?"
"I'm not even sure, myself. But I do know he's a spoiled brat. Rarity told me how he would always think about himself and hated common foods. He even hates to get his hooves dirty. I believe he went by the name of Prince Blueblood if my memory serves me right."
"He calls himself a prince, yet he's a selfish spoiled brat." Eternal says unamused. "What a pity. Even my little brother could make an even far better prince than him, even though I've never met him. But back on the subject at hoof, when this Grand Galloping Gala starts, the guys and I are going there with Spike and..."
"Let me guess, you're not leaving his side like my friends did? If it'll calm your nerves, we spent the last our time with him at a donut shop." Twilight said, annoyed.
"Maybe you did, but we're spending the entire night at the Gala with Spike."
"Why are you so upset with me? I've made mistakes, I'm not gonna lie, but you don't have to rub it in my face to get your point across."
"I'm just saying what my heart's telling me: Spike is like my little brother, too."
"Anyways, there this one time back when I asked Princess Celestia to let Rarity stay at the castle for a while until the day my birthday was coming. Rarity made me a dress by the time me and the girls went to Canterlot to check up on Rarity and she was really surprised."
"Did Spike tag along for the party?" Eternal asks.
"No." she said casusually, only later realizing what she just said. She let out a groan. "Go ahead and yell, I'm not even going to stop you."
"What kind of a sister doesn't invite her little brother to her own BIRTHDAY PARTY?!?!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I really am!"
"What did you have him do while you left him?!"
"I... I..." Twilight paused and let out a sigh of defeat. "I had him clean the library."
Eternal said nothing. Nothing could even begin to describe how angry he was at Twilight. But in the process, he said nothing and walked out of the library, making his way down the stairs to where the front door was, unaware that Sunset followed him close behind.
"Wait, Eternal!" Sunset says, making him turn with a glare. She backed up. "Twilight loves Spike, she never had any intention on hurting her little brother."
"Little brother?" Eternal asks through his teeth. "PAH! Sounds more like he's been treated like a slave than anything else, I'm done listening to reason." He opens up the door and starts walking away.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
"I'm going to the Dragon Kingdom. I can't stand being here for another second! Not after what she did to him and all the good things he's done for her and her friends!" with those last words, he ran off into the distance, leaving Sunset speechless about what he said. In a fit of anger, she slammed the door shut and went back over to the library where Twilight was, to her suprise, not reading a book, but instead, looking over a photo album of her and Spike when they were growing up.
Twilight had tears running down her cheek. Some of her tears landed on some of the pictures. She sniffled as she slowly turned each page.
"Twilight... I'm sorry if he hurt you." Sunset says, hugging her.
"No, he's right. I shouldn't have been so cruel to Spike." Twilight replies, choked up. "He's done so much for me and my friends and what did I do?"
"Well for one thing, you gave him a home." Sunset was trying her best to cheer Twilight up, but she still felt like she had betrayed her little brother. "Twilight, listen to me. You and Spike are like family and no matter how hard life has been for you and him, he never stopped loving you just as much as you never stopped loving him up to this day and you should never doubt yourself."
Her kind words seemed to calm Twilight down a little, but she still had tears in her eyes. She looks at Sunset and gives her a sad smile before she begins sobbing uncontrollably and hugs her. Sunset didn't mind it at all and wraps her hooves around Twilight, letting her get it out of her system.
Over in the Dragon Kingdom, Zoor had her dragon army assembled and stood at the top of a tall rock with all the dragons' eyes looking at her. She stares down at the hypnotized dragons with an evil grin and lets out a wicked chuckle before she finally speaks.
"At long last, Equestria will finally be all ours for the taking and all of you are going to help me turn that dream into a reality, AM I RIGHT?!" Zoor boomed the last part out loud.
The dragons all roared, breathing out fire from their mouths. But a certain dragon next to her shot out the mightiest breath of green flames as he roared. Zoor looked up to her right at the dragon in question, who had purple and green scales with dark green spikes that went from the top of his head to the tip of the tail and had grown quite a bit from his uncontrollable hatred and greed,
He seemed to reached half the height of the former Dragon Lord Torch. This was Spike. Zoor was pleased that he was first to grow so tall in such a short amount of time. "Very good, my little slave! Now all of you, take flight and wreak your havoc and destruction upon the world of Equestria! But I only want you..." she says to Spike "... to only bring destruction to the city of Canterlot and Ponyville!"
Spike roars out loud, unfolding his wing and taking to the sky. The rest of the dragons all took flight as well, splitting up into large groups, ready lay destruction upon Equestria. Meanwhile, Zoor stayed behind while her dragon army went to do her dirty work. But when Spike took to the sky, he immediately went after a secret treasure hoard hidden inside one of the dragon's caves and ate up every last bite and felt his size grow even bigger until he became the same rampaging dragon he was years ago.
He lets out another frightening roar and flies into the direction of his hometown. On the way there, he catches the attention of a certain white and red unicorn who was on his way to the Dragon Kingdom, but soon, Eternal stop and sees what has happened to him.
"HEY!" Eternal shouts. Spike stops and looks down in his direction. He emits a low growl and roars at Eternal before he sped down towards him, roaring and shooting his mighty flames. Eternal tries running out of the line of fire, but Spike kept on shooting his flames in Eternal's direction until they hit their mark, or in his case, grazed him and left him with a singed mark on his left side. "AAGH!!!" he shouted in pain.
Spike wanted to finish the job, but spared him and kept flying into the direction of the rich city. Eternal barely managed to stand up and was barely able to walk. "Gotta... get back... to town! Mother! Father!" he struggled to say as he walked back.
