Originally published on March 13th, 2018
It's been a wild ride so far, but the ride has only begun. Chapters 1-13 were phase 1, but now with Chapters 14 onward, we enter phase 2, the homestretch, but things are far from over, they're only just getting started.
To recap, Twilight Sparkle and friends had figured out where Spike was hidden! According to evidence gathered by Pinkie Pie, he was taken far up into the Frozen North region by a dastardly group of ponies. In addition, two ponies, Mr. and Mrs. Beam had informed Twilight that one member of that group was their long lost son, Shine Bright Beam. With this new knowledge in tow, Twilight embarked on a journey to Frozen North to find Spike. She flew through the sky while her friends followed behind on land, as Twilight wanted to do this alone. Twilight's first stop was the Crystal Empire, where she planned to meet with Cadance and Shining Armor, before venturing into the arctic tundra in search of Spike. But was it too little too late?
As for Spike, he had grown in size to a large sprawling dragon. The evil pony Henry had manipulated Spike's mind by filling him with greed. It was Henry's ultimate goal to turn Spike into a large vicious dragon, and use him to conquer Equestria.
Dragons are greedy creatures by nature, but Spike was different. He may be a dragon in looks, but living with ponies had taught love and kindness. Dragons naturally aged by gathering as much stuff as they could. But since Spike practiced kindness instead of greed, so he remained small for the most part. Besides that one time in Secret of My Excess, and of course now.
What set Spike apart most of all from other dragons, was a spell that Twilight Sparkle had cast on Spike's egg. Because of the spell, Spike had hyper accelerated growth powers. Meaning, when presented with greed, Spike can grow very large very quick, much quicker than any other dragon. This spell however came at the cost of wings. It is theorized that Spike was prematurely hatched, which explains his odd color and lack of wings, although that's just hearsay.
Henry knew of Spike's accelerated growth powers, and it is this reason that made him coveted. Taming a large dragon was not practical, and raising a smaller dragon to adulthood would take... a very long time. And then there's Spike, a naive, and easily manipulable dragon, with great potential to become large and powerful in only a matter of days, rather than years.
Which brings us to now. Henry figured that just one more fight would be enough to make Spike a full sized dragon. At that point, the invasion on Equestria would begin.
Was all hope lost? After all, Spike's growth is not permanent. A side effect of Twilight's spell, is that Spike's the only dragon who's been observed to age backwards. When Spike went on a rampage in Secret of My Excess, Rarity was able to revert Spike back into a baby dragon. If love could set his heart free once, can love prevail again? Or will hate win this time?
Henry slowly opened door to Spike's room, and entered. Inside, was a large sprawling dragon, who besides sharing name, bared no resemblance to Spike, but nonetheless was indeed Spike, but with his mind corrupted with greed, and his body grown as an effect.
"My gosh you've gotten big." Henry said.
Spike simply growled. Larger dragons aren't known for their speech.
"Today's the big day. The day we've been working towards. Just one more fight, and then the real fun will begin." he said.
Henry pulled on Spike's collar to drag him to the arena. Actually, there was no need, with a push of a button on his remote, it activated the shock collar around Spike's neck, which directed him to follow Henry to the arena, where the last fight would happen.
Henry put Spike in the pit, and met up with Jeff and Sawtooth in a balcony overseeing the large arena.
"So, this is it. Everything we've worked towards, has been building up to this." Jeff said.
"This is only the beginning. The real action starts after the fight, and then prep for the invasion begins." Henry said. "Just one more fight, and one more round of gems, and he should reach his maximum capacity."
"Those ponies won't know what hit 'em." Sawtooth said.
"But why stop now? What is Spike's maximum capacity anyway? In theory, couldn't he keep absorbing greed indefinitely?" Jeff asked.
"It's hard to say. Spike's the only dragon of his kind, so it's not like this has been observed before. We're treading uncharted territory. His capacity could be limitless for all we know, or maybe it isn't. Greed isn't binary after all." Henry said. "Just know this, after this point, he'll be stronger than any dragon in all of Equestria, and those ponies will stand no chance."
"I see..." Jeff said.
"So, who's the unlucky dragon you selected Jeffery?" Henry asked.
"You're about to see him." Jeff said.
Indeed, Henry allowed Jeff to pick Spike's final opponent.
The door opposite Spike opened, revealing his opponent was... Crackle! Not a very climactic last fight. Crackle was not a very capable dragon, in fact he didn't even speak much at all.
"An interesting choice for an opponent Jeff." Henry said.
"Heh, yeah well, I figured since it wasn't super important who his last opponent was, I thought I'd make it an easy one, so he doesn't injure a claw or something before the invasion." Jeff said.
"Smart thinking, for once." Henry said. "Start the countdown Sawtooth."
"The fight will commence in 3... 2... 1!" Sawtooth said.
On that cue, the fight began. I'll spare you the details and just say that Spike won hands down. It wasn't a competition really. Spike had become a fighting machine.
To finish Crackle, Spike lifted him up and over, and threw him halfway across the arena, thus ending the conflict.
Loudspeakers surrounding the arena played an applause, and gems rained down from the ceiling.
"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here til Thursday!" Spike basked in the glory of his latest victory. He grabbed as many gems as he could hold.
"Now then, to finish the job." he said.
"*Hrrgh...*"
"What the...?" Spike heard groaning from Crackle, but it didn't sound like Crackle, it actually sounded even more familiar.
Crackle peeled away his skin revealing...
"TWILIGHT!?" Spike exclaimed and dropped all his gems.
Underneath the fake skin, was Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle? It seemed that that was not Crackle he pounded, but instead a disguise made by Rarity.
"What the hell Spike?! You totally messed up my wing! Ow!" Rainbow Dash said in pain. She trotted off with anger.
"Rainbow Dash wait! I'm sorry! I didn't know it was you!" Spike tried to apologize, but things only got worse.
"I thought you were different from other dragons. I thought you were civilized!" Rarity yelled. "But clearly I was wrong, you're just as savage as any other beast. Good day sir!" Rarity trotted away as well.
Spike was absolutely devastated by what Rarity said, and he hadn't even heard what Twilight had to say yet.
Twilight faced away from Spike, and stared at the ground, intentionally trying not to look at him.
"Twilight... you know I'd never harm any pony on purpose right?" Spike asked her.
Twilight said not a word, she just look down at the ground, so that Spike could not see her eyes, nor could he begin to imagine what she was feeling.
Finally, Twilight spoke.
"If I were you, I wouldn't show your face in Ponyville anymore, or anywhere in Equestria for that matter. Everything I thought I knew, was a lie. I lied to myself for all those years, but today I saw the truth. You're a dangerous dragon that cannot trusted. Consider your status as royal assistant revoked." Twilight said.
Spike could barely speak he was so torn up. Spike ran after Twilight.
"Wait! Don't go! I-I-I didn't mean to hurt you! Really!" Spike said, but Twilight didn't respond.
"I'm so sorry! I've never regretted anything in my life more... but, I swear this isn't who I am!"
"Isn't it?" Twilight held up a mirror, and Spike saw just how vicious and hideous he looked.
"Don't come crawling to Ponyville unless you want to be chased away. And don't ever think you could be anything more than what you are." And with that Twilight flew out of view.
"Twilight! Don't go..."
Spike collapsed on his knees, put his claws against his face, and began to cry. How could he have let himself injure his best friends? Was he really just a savage beast after all?
"Is this who I am...? No, it can't be! No! NOOOO! *ZAP* AAAAAHHHH!" he felt a enormous pain in the form of an electric shock. Spike screamed inside his head.
This shock woke Spike up and temporarily brought him back to reality.
Fortunately, Spike did not actually hurt Twilight, it was just a hallucination. Fighting Crackle brought back memories of that time Rarity, Rainbow, and Twilight, were all disguised as a dragon resembling Crackle, so fighting Crackle messed with his memory, and so he thought he hurt the real Twilight, even though he didn't. Twilight was somewhere else in reality.
Henry meanwhile had zapped Spike with the shock collar. From his perspective, Spike had stopped in his tracks after defeating Crackle, he wasn't even accepting any of the gems, and he was confused why.
"What's going on? Why isn't he taking any more gems?" Henry activated the shock in Spike's collar in an attempt to regain control.
Spike screamed in agonizing pain trying to resist the electricity, whilst Crackle stood in place awkwardly. No matter how hard Henry zapped, Spike wouldn't listen.
"What happened!? Why, isn't, he, responding!?" Henry was growing impatient.
"Uh, I don't know sir. Maybe a malfunction with the collar, or um, perhaps you uh-" Jeff was interrupted.
"You did this!" Henry accused Jeff.
"Uh-what? No no no way boss." Jeff said.
"This is your doing isn't it. You selected Spike's opponent. Something about that dragon triggered a reaction within Spike, and you knew this would happen." Henry said.
"That's ridiculous sir, I would never do something like that." Jeff lied.
"I knew I couldn't trust Ember, but one of my own cohorts? I should have seen this coming a mile away. You're weak, and always hesitant when given difficult commands. You and Ember were in cahoots all along." Henry said.
"Maybe I was, and you know what, maybe I'm done taming dragons! Maybe your promise of 'learning more about dragons' has gone too far!" Jeff stood his own ground.
"So, finally standing up to me aren't you." Henry said. "Tie him up Sawtooth."
Sawtooth growled and beat up and tied Jeff up.
"I'll deal with you later. Right now, I must find a way to salvage this." Henry said.
"Now then, let's turn things up." Henry dialed his remote to near full blast, and Spike continued to scream. But the screaming, didn't stop. Despite the electricity, Spike endured more pain than he normally could. It was almost as if his mind was somewhere else.
"How is he resisting this? What's going on in that dragon's mind?!" Henry asked himself.
Spike went into another trance. He had another hallucination.
Inside of Spike's mind, there was a lot of complicated abstract things going on, so I'm going to visualize it it.
Imagine if you will, Spike, little baby dragon Spike we all know and love for this visual representation, laid inside of a bubble, in a fetal position. Inside the bubble, it was calm, almost too peaceful. And outside the bubble was utter chaos. Hate and anger gathered outside of the bubble. Every negative thought Spike had ever had, or could ever have, manifested outside, and the bubble was the only barrier between Spike and these negative thoughts.
But what force conjured up this bubble? And what was keeping it in place? Why it was his conscience of course. His good conscience to be specific. Good conscience we shall refer to as Angel Spike. Angel Spike quite literally descended from above, and sat next to Spike's bubble to speak to him.
"Spike? It's me, your good Conscience." Angel Spike said softly as to try to comfort Spike. "It's okay Spike."
"Not it's not okay! I hurt Twilight!" Spike raged. "I hurt her because I'm a monster! A cold-blooded scaly slimy monster!"
Spike cried. He covered his face with his claws.
He still thinks he hurt Twilight for real. He had been under so much stress lately, that the line between reality and imagination was blurred, to the point where they felt like one in the same.
The angrier he got, the more violent the outside of the bubble became.
"Why did ever think I could be with ponies?! I'm a dragon! I've witnessed some horrible things in my time here., but it's exposed me to the truth. Dragons are monsters. Ponies and dragons can never live together!" Spike ranted.
"You know that's not true! You're a part of Twilight's family!" Angel Spike said.
"I could never be a part of Twilight's family! I never was in the first place!" he cried.
"That's not true Spike! You ARE Twilight's family!" Angel Spike said.
Devil Spike ascended from the depths below to rain on the parade.
"Greetings wusses." Devil Spike said.
"Go away! We're having a moment." Angel Spike said.
"Listen Spike, why hold back who you really are? You're right, you're an almighty dragon! Your entire life you've been neutered from that reality, and taught to be weak. You shouldn't have to listen to any pony! Not Twilight, not Henry, not any pony at all! Take Equestria for yourself." Devil Spike said.
"That's ridiculous, don't listen to what he said." Angel Spike said.
"Like you said Spike, dragons are terrible vicious creatures. Look at these claws, and those teeth. Truly terrifying. Strike fear in the pony's eyes. Ponies hate dragons, and dragons hate ponies. You have the wisdom of ponies, but the might of a dragon. You have the best of both worlds, and you can rule over all of them." Devil Spike.
"That's not true Spike! Dragons and ponies don't have to be separate! They can join hands and assimilate in peace. You being Twilight's assistant is the first step to that future!" Angel Spike preached.
Spike didn't respond to either of their takes, he just sat in the bubble and remained stressed.
"You're your own dragon, now when you get back out there, I want you to take a stand, state your dominance, and attack those ponies yourself." Devil Spike said.
"I don't know what to believe anymore!" Spike cried.
The anger started to seep through the bubble, and the bubble started to crack under the pressure, like a submarine at the depths of the ocean.
"Spike! I can't hold the bubble any more! It's going to burst! When it does, just remember, Twilight's looking for you!" Angel Spike pleaded.
"Pfft. When you get out into the real world, put on a show. I wanna see sparks fly! Put your foot down and be your own dragon!" Devil Spike said.
"...no... No...! No!... NOOOO!" Spike let out a blood curdling scream. The bubble burst, and the negative aura surrounded Spike. His mind became a void hot it was too bright to see anything.
Outside in the physical world, at that burst of anger, Spike managed to rip the shock collar off of his neck, tearing it to shreds.
"Uh oh." Jeff said.
"That's... not good." Sawtooth said.
"I've worked too hard to let this all go to waste." Henry said.
With Spike now free from the shock collar, and all his anger had built up, he was about to go on a blind rampage.
"This is really frustrating. That dragon possesses so much power, and controlling it should have been a cinch, but instead everything's gone wrong." Henry said.
"What do you suppose we do now boss?" Sawtooth asked.
"Sometimes you just gotta cut your losses and move on." Henry said. "With no way to tame Spike now, it's time for Plan B."
"But boss, Plan B hasn't been tested yet." Sawtooth said.
"Then consider this the test run." Henry said.
"If Spike doesn't want to cooperate, then let's show him the way out." Henry said dastardly.
Meanwhile, at the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Shining Armor paced anxiously at one of the balconies on the castle. Sunburst was there too holding Baby Flurry Heart in his hooves.
They waited nervously for Twilight's arrival. Finally, she had arrived. She came into view, and landed on the balcony.
"Twi-ly, good to see you sis." Shining Armor said.
"Good to see you all again." Twilight said.
Twilight was still in a bit of a sour mood to put things lightly.
"So... how have you been lately?" Cadance asked awkwardly.
"I have been okay, all things considered." Twilight answered.
Cadance and Shining Armor had already been informed of Spike's disappearance. They had been contacted and requested to help ready Twilight for the journey into Frozen North.
"Do you have everything I need?" Twilight asked.
"This saddlebag should have the essentials for traversing the Frozen North." Cadance said.
Twilight looked through the supplies.
"Alright, just as I requested, I got my map, compass, warm coat, rations, mask."
"What do you need the mask for?" Shining Armor asked.
"In case things get... smokey." Twilight replied.
"Do you even know where you're going Twilight?" Sunburst asked.
"After some comprehensive research, we have strong reason to believe Spike is somewhere in this region." Twilight showed them her map of Frozen North, the region she believed Spike was located was circled.
Twilight put on a heavy snow coat, and made sure she had only the essentials, as to not carry too much that would weigh her down while flying.
"Alright, this should be all I need. I think I'm about ready for liftoff." Twilight said.
"So about that..." Cadance began.
"What about that...?" Twilight asked.
"Cadance and I have been talking, and we think that the journey across the icy landscape is extremely dangerous." Shining Armor stated.
"Yes it is, and your point?" Twilight asked rudely.
"And we thought that it'd be wiser to send some royal guards in search of Spike instead, and-" Cadance said before she was interrupted by the angriest Twilight she'd ever seen.
"WHAT?!" Twilight yelled.
"We just feel that it's too dangerous for you to go." Cadance said.
"I can't even believe what I'm hearing. First my friends and now you!?" Twilight said.
"Twilight Sparkle, calm down, let's just talk about this for a second." Shining Armor said trying to ease the situation.
"Yes! Allow me to talk. I'll be fine, I'm adequately equipped! Y'all crazy if you think I'm gonna let anypony else fight my battles! I'm flying north in search of Spike! Alone!" Twilight yelled.
"Twilight, even if we were a bit rash about decision making, you can't just go!" Cadance warned. "At least have some back up."
"Why does everyone feel the need to fight my battles for me?! This is personal, I'm not gonna have a bunch of guards do my job for me!" Twilight said.
"This is Spike we're talking! My life has been so empty and miserable without him! I can't stand the idea of him being held captive for a moment longer!" Twilight tried to speak but couldn't articulate the words she was so teared up.
"We understand how much Spike means to you." Cadance said.
"No you don't! My friends said the same thing, but they don't know, and clearly you don't know either! If you knew, you wouldn't try to stop me from saving him! Can you imagine if something terrible happened to Baby Flurry Heart?!" Twilight said.
Everypony gasped. Even Flurry herself, gave Twilight a pair of sad eyes.
"Oh my gosh, what have I become?" Twilight reflected on her actions since arriving.
Twilight gazed at Flurry Heart, who looked so sweet and innocent. Flurry looked sad about what Twilight had said. Flurry's face said all the words Twilight needed to hear. Her expression said something along the lines of "You're not acting like yourself auntie Twilight."
Flurry Heart smiled at Twilight, filling her with just enough hope, and confidence.
"If this is something you need to do alone, we understand, just... please be careful, please." Cadance said.
Twilight wiped her face.
"Thank you... both of you, for... just thank you." Twilight said. She didn't need an exact reason to thank, she just felt thankful all of the sudden.
"I'm just about packed, I got oats, I got heavy clothing in case it gets cold, I'll be fine." Twilight said.
"Oh and when my friends arrive, tell them I'm sorry for being such a jerk back at the castle." Twilight requested.
"Sure thing." Shining Armor replied.
Twilight gave some last minute hugs, took another look at her map to see where to go, and then was she ready. She got into take off position, took a deep breath, and took flight. She flew into the cold, desolate mountains north of the Crystal Empire, and she knew somewhere, Spike was there.
"Are we really going to let her go alone?" Shining Armor asked.
"We'll give her an hour and then we follow her." Cadance said.
"I hope she knows what she's doing." Sunburst added.
"I hope so too."
Meanwhile, back at the hideout, things were still going pretty catastrophically.
Spike had broken free of the shock collar, and was about to go on a rampage. Fortunately for Henry, he had a backup plan, just in case Spike proved too difficult to tame.
"You ready boss?" Sawtooth asked.
"Absolutely." Henry answered.
"Are you sure about thi-." Sawtooth cautioned.
"Just do it!" Henry said.
With the of a button, Henry's Plan B was in effect. Just opposite of the arena, a large door opened, revealing what Henry had been working on. Now stay with me on this one.
On the other side of the door stood all of the other dragons, except something was different about them. They were geared up with body armor, and wore specially made helmets that controlled their minds. The helmets were still in the prototyping phase, and building one big enough for a larger dragon like a fully grown Spike wasn't yet possible. So Henry had built proof of concepts and controlled the teenage dragons he'd captured. Ember was the first test subject after her betrayal, and after some encouraging results, he built more to control the other dragons.
There stood a weaponized Garble, Fume, Clump, Ember, and many more were all his puppets.
"What do think the ponies will fear more? One large and powerful dragon? Or an army of smaller, but still vicious dragons?" Henry asked.
"The pony who practiced one move 1,000 times is deadlier than the pony who practiced 1,000 moves one time." Jeff said.
"Pff, what do you know?" Henry dismissed Jeff's comment.
The dragon army was a backup plan in case Spike didn't work out, and at this point Henry had given up on raising Spike.
"Attack the dragon." Henry had ordered his armor of mind control dragons to attack Spike.
Things were looking bleak. Spike was on an out of control rampage, and was about to fight against an army of mind controlled dragons.
Meanwhile Twilight was flying through the icy cold of Frozen North, in the hopes of finding Spike. How would Twilight react to what she found? Who's to say she'll even find Spike? Their best guess was just that, a guess based on the best evidence they had. By no means was she certain she'd find Spike there.
The area marked on Twilight's map was a very rough approximation of where Spike could be, and Frozen North was quite an expansive region.
Even if Twilight knew where she was going, Frozen North is a savage and icy cold region. Is Twilight really prepared for the journey, or the destination?
It's the beginning of the end, but the real action is only getting started. You don't want to miss what happens next.
Also, as you may have noticed, from this chapter onward, we will see Twilight and Spike's perspective in the same chapters, rather than alternating like before.