The sun shined over Equestria, including the changeling hive. King Thorax slowly woke up and he noticed that Ember was still fast asleep. She looked to be peaceful so the changeling king walked off to find something for her to eat. He only came back with a bra and loincloth similar to the one the dragoness wore before. Ember was awake by this point and she saw that Thorax didn't look happy.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I can't find anything for you to eat," Thorax replied. "And we used your gems to trap one of the dragons."
"So, what do we do?"
"I guess we'll have to look around the Dragon Lands."
"But... We could get caught."
"If that happens. I'll protect you."
After Ember had change wardrobe, Thorax explained the plan to the other changelings. "You are not leaving again," Pharynx cried extremely furious.
"Pharynx, if we don't stop this Equestria could be at war. I don't come back before sundown, send out a search party for me, and don't use your base forms." Apart from Pharynx, everyone understood the situation. Thorax and Ember took towards the Dragon Lands.
"What do you think they're going to do to Twilight and the others?" Ember asked.
"I don't know. But I'm a bit scared to find out."
The moment they got to the Dragon Lands, something was not right. Thorax had changed into a drake, a yellow on this time, to help blend in but he could see some of the dragons were acting differently. He'd only been here three times at best, not including this time, but he didn't remember the dragon lining up for... Something.
They each seemed to be carrying some gemstones, one of them looked towards the disguised changeling. "What are you doing?" the drake asked, "The king needs his gems."
"Uh, right," Thorax said. The line moved on and the fake drake looked around to see where his friend went. Ember had hidden under some cliffs, where Thorax found her. "Oh, thank goodness. Just... Stay there."
"Got it," Ember replied. The fake drake walked towards a cave, where some dragons were walking out of. Thorax walked into the cave to find Twilight, Starlight, and Rarity mining gems while the mind-controlled Spike and Smolder.
Rarity was panting from the hard work she was doing, let alone so early. "Did we ask you to stop?" Smolder asked cracking her knuckles.
"Smolder, please," the white unicorn said, "You're not..."
"Did we ask you to talk?" Spike asked. Rarity knew she couldn't break through to them without getting hurt so she just kept digging.
Thorax could see the gem pile next to Starlight so he walked over to her. "Starlight," he whispered so Spike and Smolder didn't hear, "It's me, Thorax. I'm here to help you."
"Where's Ember?" Starlight asked quietly.
"Hiding. Look, I'll try and think of a plan. Just hang tight." The fake drake picked up some of the gems and left the cave. The unicorn had a little bit of hope, but even she couldn't stand up to so many dragons.
Thorax looked around to see no one was looking and he ran to Ember's hiding spot. He gave the dragoness the gem and started eating. While she did this, he explained where the ponies were. "So, where's the fake Dragon Lord?" Ember asked.
"I don't know, but I think if I follow the line of dragons I'll find him. Stay out of sight until I come back." Ember gave thumbs up as her friend left.
When Thorax came back to the cave, Smolder was confused. "Didn't you just leave with some gems?" she asked.
"Another dragon overslept and..."
"Look, I don't care. Just give the king his gems." Without question, Thorax picked some more gems, gave a secret wink to the ponies, and walked off. After following some other dragons, he found Pyrite sitting on a large throne with the bloodstone scepter in his claw and Emma and Garnet sitting beside him.
"Keep it coming," the golden horned drake ordered as the dragons placed the gems into a pile in front of his throne.
"Come on, Pyry," Emma said placing the tip of her claw on the fake king's cheek. "You'll feel better when you eat." Garnet picked a gem from the pile and gave it to Pyrite.
"Thank you, girls. This makes me love royal life."
"A life you didn't earn," Thorax groaned under his breath.
"Hey, you. Don't just stand there. Get me more gems."
"But..."
"Did you just backtalk him?" Garnet asked. The fake drake didn't reply.
"I'll get more." He flew off but Pyrite wasn't so easily fooled.
"Why his loincloth look different from the others?" Emma asked.
"I think I know why," Pyrite said.
"Okay," Thorax said to himself once he was alone, "How can I fight someone of his power? He can erase and rewrite the memories of anyone he touches, he has a large army on their side, and he has some of my friends captive. What do I do?"
"Don't move!" came a voice. A large drake nearly tackled Thorax to the ground before he flew off.
"Why did you shout?" Garble asked.
"He's getting away." The fake drake tried to get away but more dragons blocked his path.
"Going somewhere?" Pyrite asked as he stepped towards Thorax, who was quickly grabbed by some dragons. The disguised changeling tried to slip out but he wasn't strong enough. He could see the fake Dragon Lord was reaching for his head and quickly Thorax turned into a breeze to slip out of the dragon's grip.
Many of them were confused but saw some a loincloth being dragged away behind a corner. Some went in to catch him, but the breezie became a minotaur and threw them back. He then changed into a griffon to fly off to Ember's hiding spot but he was smacked to the ground.
"Cute," Pyrite commented before reaching for the griffon's head. In the blink of an eye, the griffon became a manticore which bit down on the drake's arm. While Pyrite stepped back in pain, Thorax knocked him back with his large paws, sending the gold horned dragon into a wall. "Who... What are you?"
"I'm someone who needs to put you in your place," Thorax replied. He tried to hit the diamond in Pyrite's chest, but the manticore was grabbed by his tail and thrown into the air. Quickly, he turned into a bugbear, who cracked all four knuckles.
"No mercy." The dragons all charged towards the bugbear, who prepared for the worst.
Ember was still in her hiding spot. She could hear the fight and peaked her to see it. She saw a bugbear get piled on by several dragons before turning into an Ursa Major. Ember only knew one creature who could do that. Even with his enormous size, Thorax was struggling again the ludicrous amount of dragons. He eventually fell on his back, smashing parts of the land before Pyrite flew onto his head.
"You'll be very handy," Pyrite said before reaching his claw out.
Time seemed to stop for Ember at that moment. Her friend was going to lose his memories and even worse, he was going be control by one who erased hers. Something inside of Ember started building up. She would be afraid about losing something but now, she felt enraged. She charged towards Pyrite and rammed him off the Ursa Major's head.
Before the dragons could question what happened, Thorax changed into a minotaur again to throw some boulders he knocked loose. While he kept the dragons busy, Ember smashed Pyrite into a wall and then dragged him against it.
"Where... Did you... Come from?" Pyrite question as he was dragged. He only got answered by a kick to the ground.
"You've messed with everyone's minds," Ember said landing on the ground.
"Including yours. You should even remember how to fight."
"The memories I got back are little fuzzy but I don't care. It's one thing to mess mine, but it's another to mess with my friends." Pyrite raced forwards as he and Ember promptly got into a fistfight. The drake sent the dragoness into the air via uppercut. Once he did that, he breathed fire at her but Ember countered it with hers. The two were in a deadlock for a bit before the drake flew up to the dragoness who caught his punch.
Ember headbutted Pyrite before punching him in the chest. This caused a large amount of pain to the drake just before he got a roundhouse kick to the shoulder. He blocked some of Ember's punches before grabbing her by the tail and swinging her around and tossing the dragoness upwards.
"I'm already tired of this," he groaned before flying up to deliver some punches to Ember. "Dragons are creatures that need a leader that knows how to dominate."
"You're not a leader," Ember said as she tried to block some punches. "You don't care about anything other than yourself. I would never be able to get here without the creatures I call friends. You won't get here without forcing memories into the dragons' heads." She punched Pyrite in chest cracking the diamond slightly. A bit of light glowed from it.
"No." Before he could react, Ember kicked away before flying into him at top speed and delivered a hard punch right in his diamond.
The gem in his chest shattered as beams of light started flying out of it. One of the beams flew into Ember's forehead. All of her memories started to return. It wasn't just Ember this would happen to, all of the dragons' memories started to return. This luckily managed to stop the fight between them and Thorax.
Once the lights faded, Pyrite fell towards the ground where Ember caught him at the last second. The drake now had a large scar on his chest where the diamond used to be. "You," he groaned as he got back on his feet.
"Yes," Ember said. "That's something I was going to say too. I remember everything, including how you erased my memories. And I think they do as well." She pointed towards the dragons that were closing in on Pyrite.
The drake was in a panic as he looked around until he saw the orange and green dragonesses. "Emma, Garnet, help me out here."
"That's not our names," the orange dragoness said.
"I can't believe you made us think you were our boyfriend," the green one said.
"Wait... You remember that?" Pyrite asked with shiver traveling down his spine.
"Everything," Garble said.
The drake had no idea what to do. "Okay," Ember said, "Why don't you let out some aggression while I find my scepter?" As she flew off, all the other dragons stepped towards Pyrite and beat the snot out of him. The Dragon Lord looked around until she found the bloodstone scepter lying on the ground. "Oh, there it is."
"Ember," Thorax called flying towards her. "Are you okay. I fled once the lights went the dragons' heads."
"Thorax, those were their memories. I would know."
"Wait, you got your memories back?" The dragoness nodded and quickly received a hug from the changeling.
"Easy."
"Sorry, I thought you were more into hugs now."
"Well, kind of. At least more than dress shopping."
"You remember that?" Smolder asked as she, Spike, and the three formerly trapped ponies walked towards them.
"Unfortunately. I feel so humiliated."
"It's okay," Spike said, "You weren't really yourself."
"Though, it was still fun," Smolder said. "Where's that jerk that changed our memories?"
"Over there," Ember said pointing to where the living punch bag was getting beat up.
"Sweet. I'm going to join in." Smolder flew off with Spike shrugging and following behind.
"I'll think we'll go and watch," Starlight said as she walked off. "I'll teleport Spike and Smolder back. You go ahead."
"Thanks for the help guys," Twilight said to Thorax and Ember. "I'm glad this is over."
"Me too," Rarity agreed. "Let's get home. I want to take a shower to help with all this sweat." The alicorn teleported herself and her friend back to Ponyville as the Dragon Lord and Changeling King looked at each other.
"So, you remember everything while we tried to get your memories back?" Thorax asked.
"Yep," Ember confirmed.
"Including the time we spent together."
"Yes. And I kind of... Remember the fuzzy feeling while you were gone."
"You had fuzzy feelings?"
"I hate to admit it, but yeah.
"But I thought you said you were allergic to feeling?" The two shared a laugh.
"Thorax, I kind of want to give you something."
"What would that be?" The dragoness took a deep breath before kissing the changeling's cheek, making him blush as red as a ruby.
"Thank you. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you."
Thorax stared for a minute before speaking. "Bu... Du... Du... Dudu."
"So, since you share love, are you full?"
The changeling gave a nervous chuckle. "In a way. I wish I could stay longer but the changelings are going to get worried about me being gone for so long."
"Well, I hope we can meet up again." The king turned around a waved before getting one last hug from the dragoness. When she let go, Thoax took off. He and Ember waved at each other until the changeling was out of sight. Taking a deep breath, Ember walked off and got back to business.