Journey of the Noble Dragons

by closet brony 77


Baltimare blitz, part 2

Starlight slammed open the door to Twilight’s room which prompted the purple alicorn to pull the covers over her head, a groan escaping her lips. Starlight rolled her eyes and used her magic to yank the blanket off the bed.

“Come on Twilight you need to get up!” shouted Starlight

“Just a little longer.” whined Twilight

“First of all, it’s almost noon. Second of all, you shouldn’t have stayed up so late in the first place. And finally, as much as it pains me to remind you, it’s reshelving day and you never miss that.” Starlight replied in a tone similar to a mother scolding a bratty child.

Twilight sat up and rubbed one of her eyes with a hoof, glancing out the window she saw that Celestia’s sun was indeed high in the sky; meaning that she had slept most of the day away.

“Oh, I guess I did kind of sleep in today. Spike is usually the one to wake me when I….” the princess trailed off as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Starlight preemptively grabbed a box of tissues right as Twilight began bawling.

“W-W-W-WE LOST SPIKE!!! HE RAN A-A-AWAY AND WE CAN’T FIND HIM!!!!” Twilight blubbered between sobs. “OH IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!! I SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE ATTENTION TO-” Twilight never got to finish her sentence by a sharp stinging pain that came across her face as her head jerked violently to the side.

Once she recovered, Twilight looked at exactly what the offending object that had struck her was: apparently Starlight had just back hoofed her across the cheek.

“Stop it.” she said with a firm and authoritarian tone “you can cry over losing Spike, heck I want to too. But don’t ever blame yourself, none of us could have seen this coming, none of us kicked him out, and it’s not our fault things have turned out the way that they did. Anyway how about we get to reshelving? That always cheers you up.”

Twilight honked her nose into a tissue, clearing out the very last of the snot built up in her nose “okay….yeah, maybe a bit of reshelving would make me feel better.”

“That’s the spirit” replied starlight “but first let’s get some breakfast in you, since neither of us can cook we should head out to sugarcube corner for some pastries.”

“A donut would hit the spot right about now” said Twilight, following her student out the door.

**********************************

One of the windows to Sugarcube Corner was shattered by a large table flying through it, landing directly in front of the princess of friendship.

If one was to look around the surrounding area they would see a crowd of ponies gathered around the bakery, either mumbling to themselves or cowering in fear at whatever beast was causing the ruckus within the building itself; the sounds of screaming and furniture crashing against walls among other things were resonating outwards from it. Amongst the crowd were the owners of Sugarcube corner, mr. and ms. Cake with their children Pumpkin and Pound, all of whom were shaking in fear.

And here Starlight was hoping for a semi-peaceful morning for a change.
“Do I even want to ask?” said Starlight.

The Cake family turned around and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the princess of friendship and her apprentice.

“Oh thank goodness you’re here, you have to do something!” said Carrot Cake

“About what?”

“Pinkie Pie!” shouted Cup Cake “we don’t know what happened! One minute she’s as bright and cheery as she usually is, and the next minute she just goes berserk and starts breaking things!”

“How long has this been happening?” asked Twilight

“Over an hour now, I thought that she would have burnt herself out by now but she’s still going strong”

Starlight just gave the bakers ‘the look’ “really? You thought Pinkie Pie would burn herself out?”

Carrot Cake just focused his vision at the ground, awkwardly kicking his hoof against it. “Point taken… but regardless, you’re still her friends! There must be something you can do!”

“*sigh* give us a few minutes” said Twilight, leading her friend into the bakery to confront the raging pink tornado that was currently occupying it.

The inside of Sugarcube Corner didn’t look much better than the outside, the earlier metaphor of bright pink tornado certainly fit: chairs and tables were either overturned or in pieces, the display cases were shattered, and various treats were splattered across the walls like a modern art masterpiece.

As the alicorn and the unicorn surveyed the damage, a series of crashes followed by yells of anguish echoed from the kitchen. Twilight and Starlight merely gave each other a nod as they pushed their way through the double doors.

The kitchen was in a similar chaotic state: food painting the walls, various utensils strewn about, and a sink that had been ripped from the wall and thrown to the floor. In the center of all the chaos was Pinkie Pie, curled up into a ball and rocking back and forth; from where they were standing, Starlight and Twilight could almost see their friend seething with anger.

“Pinkie?”

“WHAT?!!” the pink earth pony barked out, spinning around to face the pair.

Twilight took a step back from pinkie, purely out of fear for her own wellbeing. Pinkie was completely red in the face, muzzle curled up into a violent frown, nostrils flaring like a raging bull, and her eyes were that of a manticore just before it went berserk; the creature in front of her wasn’t the fun loving Pinkie Pie, it was a beast of pure unbridled rage.

“Are….are you alright?” Twilight asked cautiously, only for Pinkie’s glare to intensify.

“DO I LOOK ALRIGHT TO YOU?!!” Pinkie Pie shouted back “TO ANSWER YOU, NO! NO I’M NOT OKAY!”

Pinkie then picked up a large cooking pot and proceeded to chuck it through one of the few remaining windows that had not yet been shattered.

“AND IT’S ALL SPIKE’S FAULT!!! HE THINKS HE CAN JUST UP AND LEAVE US LIKE THIS FOR SOME STUPID SELF-HELP QUEST. WELL I WON’T STAND FOR IT, OR MY NAME ISN’T PINKIE DIANE PIE! YOU CAN’T JUST CHECK INTO SOMEONE’S LIFE AND CHECK BACK OUT AGAIN, I’M NO HOTEL!!!” Pinkie bucked a nearby counter for emphasis, shattering it into pieces.

“LIKE IT OR NOT I AM GONNA FIND THAT DRAGON AND GIVE HIM A PIECE OF MY MIND AND A HOOF CUPCAKE TO THE FACE!!”

After finishing her rant, Pinkie returned to trashing the kitchen in a blind fury.

“Oh I think I see what’s happening here.” said Starlight.

“You do?”

“Pinkie must be going through the seven stages of grief, she passed through the first stage this week: denial. Now she’s moved onto anger, I never knew it would be this violent though.” Starlight ducked down as a cupcake tray sailed over her head.

Looking back, Twilight realized that it was pretty obvious: all week Pinkie had been asking Twilight why Spike didn’t come around for his usual gem cupcakes, ‘pretending’ that Spike was just playing hide and seek, and pestering the others over why she hasn’t seen her little dragon buddy lately; but Twilight just brushed it off as Pinkie being Pinkie”

“Well then there’s clearly no reasoning with her at this point” remarked Twilight as Pinkie tore off the door to one of the ovens “this is a grieving process for her, so we’ll just have to put her somewhere where she can’t hurt anypony or herself”

With that, Twilight’s horn began to glow as she formed a sleep spell; casting the bolt of magic out, it hit Pinkie dead on causing the earth pony to freeze mid air and just stay there for a few moments before gravity kicked back in sending her to the floor, the series of snores that escaped Pinkie’s lips signified that the spell had done it’s job. Twilight then hoisted one of her friend’s hooves over her shoulder while Starlight took the other one and they dragged their friend out of the shop.

Once outside, the crowd flinched slightly at the appearance of the pony that had caused all the damage but seeing her out cold put them all at ease and the ponies dispersed seeing that the show was over, apart from the Cakes of course.

“Sorry this had to happen, it’s been rough ever since last week when Spike left. Send me the bill for repairs, I’ll cover it all.” said Twilight

The Cakes just gave a weak smile “thanks Twilight, and sorry about what happened with Spike. I know you and the girls were pretty close to him, best of luck in your search.”

“Thank you.”

As the trio walked the streets of ponyville, or rather as the duo dragged their third wheel through town; Twilight let out a sigh. The others hadn’t been doing any better than Pinkie since their meeting with Celestia, after all if the princess of the sun herself didn’t know anything about these strange dragons then what chance did they have of tracking them down?

Rarity’s creative spirit seemed to have been shrunken slightly, given all her designs were still beautiful but they just seemed a bit less dazzling, a bit less eye popping, a bit less….like Rarity. Only those close to her could really see the difference.

Applejack had chosen to numb the pain the only way she knew how: hard work. She started doing anything and everything she could on the farm, refusing any sort of help. Her family was forced to intervene when she was nearly crushed by a barrel of cider after dropping it when she passed out from pure exhaustion.

Rainbow dash, the jock everypony knew and loved, coped about the same way as her farmer friend but rather tire herself out with work she did it with exercise instead. Three-hundred wing-ups, three-hundred sit-ups, three-hundred squats, and three laps around a one-hundred mile course. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Nopony could see it as Dash sped by in a blue blur, but she was running herself ragged out of grief.

Fluttershy had withdrawn from her social life, true she still did things with her friends from time to time, but she had spent most of the week locked inside her cottage; silently sobbing over the loss of a friend while the creatures of the forest tried in vain to cheer up their caretaker to no avail.

But regardless of how they were affected by the disappearance of their dragon friend, they all had the same question on their mind: Was Spike okay?

Pulling Pinkie Pie closer over her shoulder, twilight grumbled “the worst part about all this is that we don’t even know what these dragons have planned for Spike, they could have been lying about his parents to gain sympathy. For all we know they could be planning to use Spike against us to take over equestria.”

“Well they haven’t sent us any sort of ransom note or threat letter so there’s nothing to worry about at the moment.” replied Starlight.

“Nothing to worry about?! What if-” but Starlight silenced the princess of friendship

“Listen Twilight, these are just teenage dragons, strong ones but still teenage dragons. Not to mention we’ve essentially forced them into hiding, if something does go wrong we can handle it like we always do.”

Twilight nodded, Starlight did have a point. While things have looked bleak in the past, her friends always came through in the end. Then all of a sudden an idea popped into her head, one that could possibly solve their current problems.

“Wait what did you just say Starlight?” asked Twilight.

“These are just teen-”

“No before that”

“They haven’t sent us a ransom note or threat letter?” said Starlight in a confused tone.

Twilight’s eyes began to sparkle as the many gears in her head began to turn. “THAT’S IT!” without so much as another word the princess disappeared in a flash of light, dropping her pink friend to the ground and leaving Starlight all alone.

“OH DARN IT TWILIGHT! *sigh* well I guess I have to pick up the slack, like usual.” said Starlight, hoisting Pinkie Pie onto her back.

******************************

Twilight was rushing around her personal library, throwing books of the shelves so quickly one would think there was a poltergeist in the room with her, rushing from text to text in excitement; she had figured out how to find Spike, all she needed to do was to find the item she needed to do it.

“WHERE IS IT?! WHERE IS IT?!” shouted Twilight, throwing the complete history of yarn vol.5 to the floor.

The door slammed open, revealing a still asleep Pinkie Pie and a very tired and very displeased looking Starlight Glimmer who immediately dropped the former to the floor in a heap.

Twilight barely even spared either of her friends a glance, the only acknowledgement she gave was a quick look over her shoulder to pinpoint the source of the noise before resuming her search for whatever it was she was looking for.

“I’m so sorry Starlight, I didn’t mean to leave you in the middle of ponyville all alone forcing you to drag Pinkie all the way back to the castle” said Starlight, imitating her mentor “oh no problem Twilight, thank you for apologizing I’m sure you had a good reason for it.”

Twilight didn’t even pick up on Starlight’s comments, she just kept on rooting through her bookshelves; even going as so far as to accidentally hit Starlight in the face with an encyclopedia through careless action.

“Yes! Finally!!!” Twilight exclaimed in elation, for she had finally found the one object that would allow her to pinpoint the exact location of her lost assistant.

“TWILIGHT!!” Starlight shouted.

Pulling her attention away from her prize, Twilight noticed starlight standing there for the first time but also failing to see the massive black eye developing on her friend’s face.

“Oh hi Starlight, when did you get here? Never mind, listen I think I found out a way to find Spike; all we’ll need is this” said Twilight holding up the item in question.

For a normal pony, tracking down where a specific creature is at during an exact moment in time would require a very powerful spell or magical artifact. But Twilight is anything but normal, which likely explained why that the thing she had searched so long and hard for was nothing more than a simple paper scroll used for relaying messages to and from Princess Celestia.

“And how exactly does this help us?” asked Starlight

“Simple, Spike’s fire magic allows him to send and receive messages from the various princesses, myself included, at any given time. As far as I know he can’t prevent the messages from going through, even when he wants them to. So all I have to do is place a tracking spell on this scroll and send it to him, once it remateralizes on the other end we’ll know exactly where spike is right now.” replied Twilight, eyes gleaming with excitement

Starlight just stood there, letting the words of her mentor sink in. She had been pretty conflicted over the past week regarding the recent events; on the one hoof, it hurt for Spike to leave the way he did, it hurt to watch her friends get hurt by his actions and she wished he would come home; but on the other hoof, Spike didn’t leave out of spite, he left because he wanted to discover himself, to become stronger to protect those whom he loved so who was starlight to stand in the way of that? She was caught in a crossroad, both sides would lead to pain for one said but she didn’t know who she could live with hurting.

Quickly making up her mind, Starlight decided to keep her intervention in this endeavor at a minimum: “are you sure this is a good idea Twilight?”

“What do you mean? Of course this is a good idea, we’ll be able to find Spike!”

“I know that but, what if...what if he doesn’t want to be found? The letter he left was very clear that he didn’t want us to look for him no matter how badly we wanted to, is it really okay to go against him like this?”

Twilight just dismissed Starlight’s concerns “even if that were somehow true; Spike’s just a baby, not to mention he tends to make rash decisions a lot without thinking things through. Remember when Thorax and Ember came to visit ponyville? When we find him we’ll all show him why he should stay with us, why he needs to.”

“Alright, but if this blows up in your faces don’t say I didn’t warn you” remarked Starlight, as she watched Twilight prime the spell.

Soon enough the paper began to glow as the first bit of magic was applied; then with a bright flash, followed by a stream of smoke flying out the window the scroll was gone. Twilight kept her eyes closed in concentration, trying to keep her focus on the quick moving scroll as it soared over the landscape so that she didn’t lose track of it’s location. After a few short minutes she opened her eyes and smiled.

“Got him. He’s in Baltimare, get the girls together while I contact the royal guard troop. We’ve got a friend to rescue.” said the princess of friendship.

*********************************

“Draw two” said Spike

“Darn it, fine I’ll just put down my purple skip so Griffith doesn’t get his turn” said Connor.

The group was currently playing a game of ‘ONE’ the classic card game where you had to get rid of all the cards in your hand by playing one down that was the same color or number while preventing your opponents from doing the same by making them draw more cards. Griffith currently held the lead with Spike close behind, placing Connor in third and Yam in dead last.

So far their stay in Baltimare had been completely and utterly uneventful. Sure a few small groups of ponies may have ventured a bit close to their hideout but none dare entered, they barely even gave the dilapidated building a glance. By the looks of things they would be on their way to the Vlemm enclave without any incident.

“And with my orange three down it looks like I win” said Spike triumphantly while the rest of the noble dragons threw their cards down in frustration.

“Five times in a row, how are you so good at this dude?” asked Connor

Spike just shrugged “I guess I just have magi-*hic*”. That little hiccup made Spike blink in confusion “I said I have ma-*hic*, m-*hic* *hic* *hic*” soon enough a series of rapid hiccups began to burst out from the dragon, like a river dam that just gave way.

Griffith patted his older brother on the back “you alright?”

“I *hic* can’t *hic* stop *hic*” replied the dragon.

“Maybe he just needs a drink of water, I’ll go get one” said Yam.

Before she could even stand up however, Spike’s cheeks puffed up and he let out a long and loud burp of fire. One that materialized a small glowing scroll.

“What’s going on here?” said Saphria

“I’m not exactly sure” said Yam “but it looks like Artair just burped up a scroll”

“Alright but why is it glowing?”

Griffith picked up the scroll and began to fiddle with it in his hands, he could tell there wasn’t anything written on it so why was it here? It wasn’t normal even for a noble dragon to just burp up random objects. Using the robotics in his prosthetic arm he did a minor scan of the scroll to try and detect any magical effects on it. When the results came back his eyes widened so much that they might as well have popped out of their sockets.

“We need to leave.” said Griffith.

“What?”

“NOW. this scroll has a tracking spell on it, from big bro’s old friends no doubt. Chances are once they zero in on it they’ll be here within minutes.” Griffith explained, tearing up the scroll to break off the spell

“But you said that the rescue won’t arrive for another few hours!” shouted Yam “what are we supposed to do?!”

“I call them and tell them that their later has to become a now, but apart from that we have to run and evade until they arrive.” said Griffith “it’ll be hard since we’re in unfamiliar urban territory but with a bit of luck we might just be able to make it.”

“Alright you heard the drake!” shouted Saphria “MOVE IT EVERYONE!”

The dragons quickly sprung into action, packing up all their stuff as fast as they could. Getting caught would have dire consequences for them all. After they had collected themselves they snuck out the back door into the alleyways of the city, crossing their fingers that nopony would see them.

*************************

The royal guard smashed in the doorway to the warehouse, the mane six soon following after.

Upon hearing that Twilight had managed to track down Spike, everypony dropped what they were doing to come after them and as an added bonus they got to Baltimare within record time.

“SPIKE! WHERE ARE YA?!” shouted Applejack

“YEAH YOU’VE GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!” shouted Pinkie Pie, throwing aside boxes to see if the baby dragon was hiding behind any of them.

“It doesn’t appear as though anypony has been here for ages. Twilight are you sure this is where the scroll went?” said rarity, flinching away from the dusty crates.

“Positive, I never lost focus for a seco…..oh darn it.”  said Twilight, holding up the shredded pieces of parchment “they must have caught onto what we were trying to do and slipped away.”

“Well they didn’t seem ta get far” said Applejack, pointing at the footprints leading out the back door.

Fluttershy walked up next to her farmer friend and examined the prints, “these are still fresh. They might still be nearby.” she said with slight excitement.

“Well what are we waiting for?!” Rainbow Dash shouted “let’s go!” the pegasus quickly darted out a nearby window into the city scape. Her friends and the guards quickly following

Addressing the guards, Twilight spoke in a tone of regality “you are all to spread out and search the city in pairs. Keep an eye out for a group of teenage dragons, and be careful as they appear to be very strong.” the guards saluted the princess and took off in various directions.

‘Soon we’ll get Spike back, soon everything will be okay again…..I hope’ thought Twilight, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of Starlight’s words in the back of her head.

***************************

“Perfect, now they’ve got the royal guards involved with this. I guess those ponies had more pull in their government than I thought” said Saphria, peering at the patrols from behind a dumpster.

“Well to be fair one of them is the princess of friendship. It’s only natural that she would have her own royal guard squads.” commented Griffith.

They had only managed to move across five city blocks before the group was forced to duck behind cover when a squad of pegasi guards flew overhead.

“Well that isn’t the only thing” said Spike.

“What do you mean? Artair have you been keeping a secret from us?” accused Saphria.

“See the thing is when Twilight hatched me all those years ago, she was still too young to take care of me and I was placed in Princess Celestia’s hands.”

“The sun goddess?” said Connor

“Yeah, as she took care of me she grew attached and sort of adopted me as her son.”

The rest of the group just stared at Spike as if he had sprouted a second head right then and there.

“So what you’re saying is that you’re the adopted son of the sun goddess and therefore a prince of Equestria?” said Yam “because that certainly complicates matters.”

Saphria just clutched her head in frustration “any reason that you didn’t feel the need to share this earlier?!”

“Well first of all you guys never asked me. Secondly it didn’t seem important at the time.”

“He does have a point there Saphi. Can’t fault the little guy for that.” said Griffith.

Saphria sighed “you know what? Fine, whatever. The past is the past, we’ll deal with it. Speaking of which I see an opening, follow my lead.”

The five dragons dashed their way across the street, hoping to get over to the next alleyway. Unfortunately dear old Murphy decided to join them on their little jaunt.

“HEY THERE THEY ARE!!!” shouted a gruff female voice.

The five of them comically pausing mid stride to look at the pony in question, it was Rainbow Dash flying several feet above ground level looking very angry.

“Oh not her again.” muttered Saphria “I thought she would have learned her lesson by now.”

“Perhaps she forgot about what you did.” Yam hopefully said.

Those hopes were quickly dashed as Rainbow Dash cracked her hooves and said “and you! It’s time for a rematch!” charging at the group like a raging bull.

History repeated itself however, as by charging forward she left herself wide open to projectiles. Like the stun device Griffith threw at her, nailing the pegasus in the chest the device administered a controlled shock that paralyzed her, making her limp body crash painfully down onto the asphalt.

“Wow you were right. This one doesn’t really think things through, anyway let’s keep moving before her friends show up.” said Griffith

“Too late” said Spike, pointing at the herd of angry ponies galloping towards them.

Jumping through the window of opportunity, the group ran off into the adjacent alleyway and the chase was on.

While Twilight’s gang was clearly faster than the dragons by running on four legs as opposed to two, the lean build of the teenage dragons gave them the agility they needed to keep ahead; even Spike showed that he was actually fairly athletic despite his pudgy appearance.

They ran all over town: hopping over carts, pushing ponies aside, cutting through buildings, trying anything and everything to stay ahead of their pursuers.

Luck wasn’t on the side of the dragons today and Saphria made a wrong turn and led them directly into a dead end of walls and locked doors. Swallowing the lump in her throat, the ninja was the first to turn around and face her aggressors.

“We have you now!” said Twilight.

The noble dragons darted their heads around, looking for any sort of escape route that would get them out but sadly they were cornered; it looked like the end of the line for them. Resigned to their fates, the rest of the noble dragons followed Saphria and faced the ponies. For a few moments there was nothing but silence between the two groups apart from the gasps as they tried to catch their breaths, waiting for the other to speak first.

“Well you got us? Now what?” said Connor “are you gonna execute us? Torture us? Throw us in a dungeon? What it’s gonna be?”

Sucking in a breath of air, Twilight beat down the whirlwind of emotions flowing through her at the sight of her assistant. “Alright here’s the deal. You’ve caused a lot of trouble for me and my friends, enough to put you all away for a long time. But I’m willing to give you an allowance.”

“An allowance?” asked Saphria

“Yes an allowance. As in I’m ALLOWING you all to go free and I’m ALLOWING you to be spared from Celestia’s wrath. All you have to do is hand Spike over to us right now.”

Saphria’s face scrunched up “out of the question! Even if I did believe that you’d keep your promise I’d never betray Frinad and Layla like that! You want us, fine! But we won’t go down easy.” the ninja quickly drew her blades out.

As twilight was about to give the orders to the guards to seize the group, Griffith spoke up “wait hold on a minute maybe she has a point. Even if the deal is a bit cold.”

“Are you listening to yourself Griffith?! They’re going to arrest us no matter what we do, I’m not giving up my honor just so you can avoid a confrontation!”

Griffith gave a cheeky smile “I dunno, it seems like a bright idea.”

Saphria’s expression changed when she realised what Griffith was trying to do. So she let out a mock sigh and sheathed her weapons “I suppose you’re right Griffith, we’re clearly outmatched and there is no shame in a tactical surrender” she kneeled in from of the ponies and held out her wrists as Griffith did the same “go ahead, take us away.”

Twilight blinked in confusion, this had actually never happened before; a villain outright surrendering in such a way, especially after such an impassioned speech. Something was wrong but she couldn’t put her hoof on it, shrugging it off she motioned for the royal guard to slap the hoof cuffs on the dragons.

But she made the amature mistake of letting her guard down against a crafty opponent; as when the guards got close enough, Griffith pressed down into the palm of his prosthetic arm with his thumb and a series of faint beeps sounded off. Even if the guards knew what was going to happen next, it was doubtful they would have gotten away in time; the entire alleyway was consumed by a bright flash, blinding the ponies but leaving the dragons unharmed.

“NOW YAM!” shouted Griffith.

The blue dragon nodded and shot out a flurry of snow at Twilight’s group, scattering them as well as further stunning them. Once the way had been cleared, the dragons dashed off leaving a very ticked off crew of ponies in their wake.

“WHY THOSE DIRTY LITTLE!” shouted Pinkie, still in rage mode “GET BACK HERE! WE’RE NOT DONE YET!” She was the first to recover and resume the chase after the dragons.

Twilight popped her head out of the mound of snow and looked around. Her friends were still able to get back up but the royal guards had been completely taken out of action.

“This is going to be harder than I thought” said Twilight.

Further up the road the dragons were still running as if their lives depended on it, and given that they were being chased by a raging ball of pink energy they might as well be.

“HURRY UP SHE’S GAINING ON US!!” spike shouted, having been placed on Connor piggy back style the moment he started to fall behind.

“I CAN SEE THAT ARTAIR!” Saphria shouted back, throwing a trash can towards the party pony.

As they dashed through the streets in a blind panic, the group inevitably stumbled into one of the more hustling and bustling parts of the city and of course a group of teenage dragons running like a bat out of Tartarus didn’t go unnoticed.

“Are those dragons? In Baltimare?!”

“And the elements of harmony are following them?”

“Isn’t that Spike from the Crystal Empire?”

“Has anybody seen my Appleloosa victory hat?”

All of the questions were ignored as the two groups pushed their way through the crowds in an attempt to gain ground but it quickly got difficult as more and more curious and slightly panicked ponies began to gather around them.

“Gah! There’s too much foot traffic around here! We need to get off the street and out of sight!” said saphria as she was roughly pushing ponies aside, she swore one stallion actually tried to cop a feel.

“Quick into that mall! We can lose them in there!” shouted Griffith.

Saphria took the lead and grabbed spike out of Connor’s arms and lept on top of the swelling crowd, using their heads as stepping stones to get around them. She was forced to duck and roll however when an angry blue blur darted straight at her.

“GIVE ME MY FRIEND!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“SCREW OFF! THE PRINCE BELONGS TO NO ONE!” shouted Saphria, landing a lucky kick to the mare’s face and then proceeding to dart inside the mall with Spike in tow; failing to notice that all of her friends had fallen behind and were now engaging the elements of harmony in combat.

The mall actually wasn’t much better than outside, since most of the stores were having massive sales which caused a massive influx of ponies to spend the day in the mall. To this, Saphria huffed in annoyance; she couldn’t seem to catch a break today, it was just one screw up after another.

“STOP RIGHT THERE YOU DRAGONNAPPER!” shouted a female voice

Turning around Saphria was met with the sight of one VERY angry party pony who had a look of death in her eyes; a look she hadn’t seen since….the incident, but that was a story for another time and place; right now, Saphria had to run for her very life.

Dashing further into the mall Saphria began to make use of her ninja aura to further increase her speed and agility, she couldn’t risk capture or worse death; with this pony it was truly up in the air. Thankfully she seemed to be gaining distance.

Meanwhile the baby dragon clutched in her arms was squirming and kicking in fear, shouting at Saphria to go faster. Because if there’s one thing that he feared above all else, it was an angry Pinkie Pie. This wasn’t a broken pinkie promise mad, this was an entirely new level of mad, one that he had never even seen before in his life.

“GO GO GO! SHE’S GONNA KILL US!” screamed Spike as Saphria jumped up to the second floor.

“Will you be quiet!!! I need to focus in order to stay ahead of the-” Saphria said before a pink hoof nailed her square in the face.

The force behind the blow was massive, sending the poor dragoness flying through the air and skidding on the tile floor. Looking up she saw that the party pony had somehow caught up to her during the moments she had paused to speak to Spike and was now standing above her with an unhinged grin.

“So, you think you can just waltz into Ponyville and take our friend away from us? Away from me? Oh I don’t think so.” said Pinkie Pie

Saphria pulled out one of her knives but Pinkie effortlessly swatted it away.

“You’ve hurt my friends, made them cry and made me one angry pony.” said Pinkie Pie, gritting her teeth “now you’re gonna pay...FOR.EVERY.LAST.SECOND.OF.IT”

In the blink of an eye Pinkie had lept on Saphria and began to beat the everliving snot out of her, mercilessly smashing her hooves into the dragon so hard that bruises began to form.

Saphria tried to fight back but the disadvantageous position combined with the fact that this pony was somehow physically stronger than her made it next to impossible, all she could do was try in vain to brave the blows.

Eventually, Pinkie’s rage induced assault wore down Saphria and she collapsed from pain; leaving her on the ground and on the verge of blacking out. But it wasn’t enough for Pinkie, as she pulled out her party cannon and positioned Saphria so that she was point black to the mouth of the weapon. Yanking the string, the ninja dragon was sent sailing over the railing and down to the first floor with an audible thud and several party favors.

Sucking in a deep breath, Pinkie turned around to face Spike who was cowering behind a plant; he had wanted to help Saphria but he was too paralyzed with fear to do anything and now the only dragon who could save him from Pinkie’s wrath was out cold. He was promptly broken out of his stupor as Pinkie began to stroll towards him, making Spike back away in fear.

“And you. Do you have any idea what you’ve done to us? To me? We’ve been worried sick about you! We felt like we failed as friends! All because you wanted to ‘find yourself’?” Pinkie snapped.

Spike bumped up against the wall, this was it, end of the road, he was cornered.

“Don’t you get it?! We need you! And no punk dragons are gonna change it! So now I’m going to drag you all the way back to Ponyville, kicking and screaming if I gotta! Then we’re gonna deal with your dragon friends and all the trouble they caused!” she spat in the baby dragon’s face “so be a good dragon and come with ma-OOF!”

Her rant abruptly ended when she ended up bowled over by a flash of red. Quickly hopping to her feet, Pinkie tried to get a look at what the heck had hit her; but she never got the chance as whatever it was came back and struck her again from behind, sending her sprawling once more. This process was repeated as she was hit again and again and again by this mysterious force until two finishing blows were landed: one sent her into the air, the other caused her to fly into a china shop with a loud crash followed by screams of anguish from the shop owner.

At last, Spike was able to bear witness to what exactly had just saved him: it was another teenage dragon of the female variety, this one had bright red scales and a neon yellow fin running from her head down to her back along with an underbelly of the same color, no wings and a tail that was long and thin like a whip with a spear like end, black tribal tattoos adorned her arms, her legs, and her tail along with a set on her cheeks, her torso was covered by a white tank top with the words ‘party dragon’ written in red and her legs had what looked like skin tight runners leggings.

The dragon turned around and smiled at Spike, before scooping him up without a word.

“Hey what are you-” began spike only for the red dragon to press a claw to his lips.

“Shush baby, we can get our introductions out of the way later. Right now all you need to know is that we’re on your side. Now let’s haul tail!” said the dragoness rather quickly.

Before Spike could even blink he felt a rush of air and found that they were now standing in front of an unconscious Saphria, who the red dragon picked up and hung over her vacant shoulder.

“Oh and before you ask, my aura gives me super speed. NOW LETS-”

“WAIT! What about the others? They’re still all out there!” Spike protested.

“Oh you don’t gotta worry about them Crystal has their backs.”

“Crystal? Who the heck is CrystaAAAAAA!” Spike screamed as the dragon began to dash forward, turning their surroundings into nothing more than a blur of colors, leaving behind a cloud of dust in their wake.

*****************************

The others outside hadn’t been doing too well.

In an urban environment with very little plant life had left Connor more than powerless and applejack easily knocked him down when he couldn’t get to his seed bag.

Yam was the next to go as the ponies constantly bumping into her kept throwing of her focus and Twilight managed to neutralize her with a flame spell.

Now it was just down to Griffith who was barely holding his ground with a small forcefield that acted as a shield and a laser pistol; but even he knew that he was fighting a losing battle against the ponies.

The mane six kept inching closer and closer to him as he kept firing shots that kept on missing (he wasn’t exactly the best shot on the Vlemm enclave) and if things couldn’t get any worse the gun burst into flames in his hand forcing him to drop it

Seeing that the technowizard was now defenceless, Fluttershy rushed the poor guy and sacked him; forcing him to the ground with his arms behind his back.

“I have you now you big meanie!” said the animal lover “any last words?”

If anypony had been paying a bit more attention they’d have noticed that Griffith wasn’t looking at Fluttershy at all and instead was gazing at a building on the end of the street, specifically the roof. If anypony had followed his gaze they would have seen a lone figure positioned on said rooftop with a drawn bow and arrow ready to fire. If anypony had been looking at that figure they would have seen them fire the arrow and watched it fly through the air.

But nopony aside from Griffith was watching so they were all caught completely off guard when a blue arrow with a fat tip landed dead center in the crowd. Before anypony could utter ‘what the buck?’ the arrow exploded into a sickly green gas that swallowed up the town square.

Griffith was familiar with the gas, he had helped make it after all. It was a specially designed tear gas, harmless to dragons but extremely effective against all other species. Which is why he was easily able to kick Fluttershy off of him as she was too busy coughing and trying to get the tears out of her eyes to keep him pinned, the same went for the rest of her friends and the innocent bystanders unlucky enough to get caught in the blast.

Griffith also knew exactly who had fired that mysterious arrow, after all there was only one dragon he knew who was that good with a bow; Crystal, seems that the cavalry had arrived.

“RIDE’S HERE GUYS! MOVE OUT!” shouted Griffith.

The three of them emerged from the gas cloud and soon slipped away under all the confusion, local law enforcement was too busy trying to calm down the riot that had now broken out downtown to even attempt to stop them and the mane six had been totally incapacitated.

They had ducked into a nearby alleyway when the figured hopped down in from of them.

“Sorry for being late to the party, traffic was a nightmare. But at least I made sure you all had a GAS.” said the figure.

“I never thought I’d be so happy to hear one of your puns crystal. Where’s the ship?” asked Griffith.

“Only a half mile from here, we’d better get moving before those ponies CATCH WIND of what we did” Crystal said, motioning for them to follow.

Within minutes they had arrived at an abandoned apartment building, nopony was left to stop them so the jaunt was quick and easy. The red dragon, Spike, and Saphria (who was now recovered) were waiting for them on the roof.

“Gee about time you slow pokes got here. I was starting to get bored” said the red dragon

“Hey don’t blame me for wanting to get the money SHOT” replied Crystal. “But I think we’ve HIT THE TARGET for our chaos quota today so let’s not dawdle anymore.”

Right as she said that a massive airship appeared above the building, seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Another dragon waiting at the top tossed down a ladder and immediately the group began to climb up to their salvation.

The dragon waiting for them gave a relieved smile to each and every one of them as they got on top of the ship until spike came; then the dragon’s smile turned into an unimpressed frown.

“You? You’re the legendary artair I’ve heard so much about?” he said with a slight snark.

“Yeah?” replied spike.

The dragon looked him up and down, his glare hardening “I imagined you’d be taller and a whole lot more impressive for a dragon who not only survived the gauntlet of fire unscathed but also took down sombra. I mean you’re a little-”

“DYLAN! NOW REALLY ISN’T A GOOD TIME!” shouted saphria.

“Alright alright, let’s blow this dump of a town.” said the dragon known as Dylan grabbing the vessel’s wheel, fiddling with a few switches on the command console

The airship began to climb higher and higher into the sky, soon disappearing behind a set of clouds away from prying eyes.

Meanwhile back on the ground, the gas cloud had finally dispersed and Twilight managed to regain her sight. Looking around she saw that all of the dragons they had managed to corner had completely disappeared, likely slipped away under all the chaos. Not only that but she could see that the press had arrived on the scene to cover the disaster and would likely be asking numerous questions about what had just transpired which was a nightmare in itself. Combine that with the pain in her throat and in her eyes left Twilight with only one thing left for her to do.

The princess took in a deep breath and shouted in frustration to the heavens in her royal Canterlot voice:

“CELESTIA BUCKING DARN IT!!!!!”