Flash Sentry Chronicles: Dragon's Awakening

by Banshee531


The Egg's Truth

It's strange what an hour can do for a place. One hour ago, Ponyville had been a peaceful place anyone would have wanted to live in, but now it was a living disaster. Houses upon houses were either damaged or destroyed, the roads upturned and its many trees now burnt. Sweet Apple Acres had managed to be spared, along with the Everfree Forest, but that was the only place that hadn't been attacked.

Then there were the ponies, all either traumatized or injured. "Augh!" Grand yelped as he woke up, now feeling the bandages around him, Rainbow, Skybreaker, Starlight and Springer laying beside him.

"Grand!" He turned to see Flash along with some others beside him, now seeing he was inside the Castle of Friendship's entryway. "You okay? That was a pretty nasty hit you took."

"I'm...fine," He grumbled before glancing down at his body. "I think. What happened? I remember that dragon that fired that hurricane of leaves but..." He looked back at Flash, "The dragons-"

"Are gone," he turned to Twilight as she interrupted him, "They took off back through the portal and disappeared." The others were beginning to come round as she said this, the group hearing Grand as he asked the obvious.

"Something happened, didn't it?" He said as she saw Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity with upset looks on their faces. The pegasus and unicorn were close to tears, making him grimace till he asked, "Wait...where's Lightning? And Iron?" Skybreaker went wide-eyed at this, both glancing around as they saw that the ponies were missing.

"They're gone," Flash sighed, "That big dragon took them. Lifted them up and pulled 'em through that portal." His entire body shook at this, growling, "I tried to save them...but I wasn't fast enough."

Grand shook his head at this, slowly getting up, "Don't. It wasn't your fault Flash. Whoever did this attacked with no warning or explanation. Anypony would be caught by surprise. Though, do we know who did this?"

"His name is Malafear." They turned to see Ember leaning against a wall, her arms crossed. Those that had just woke up tensed up, but Twilight jumped in front of them.

"It's okay," she responded, "Ember's on our side. She's the Dragon Lord."

"Former Dragon Lord," Ember corrected, "That dragon beat me and took the staff, which allowed him to take control of the dragons. And he did because he could somehow use magic."

"Magic?" Skybreaker asked, "Since when can dragons use magic?"

"No idea." Ember sighed, "I don't know how, but whatever magic he used seemed to be undone when Spike spoke to me." She glanced away at this, "I was trapped in my own mind, unable to control myself. But then I heard Spike's voice and it allowed me to break free of Malafear's control."

"But that just made the guy angry," Soul added, "And he...he..." She teared up, Heart patting her on the back.

"He what?" Springer asked.

"He took him!" Twilight almost cried, "He used some kind of spell that sucked Spike into the book he was holding! And then he went through the portal..." As they heard this, frowns and lowered ears following this. Twilight began to tear up as Flash placed a wing on her back, pulling her closer to him. She placed her head on his shoulder, all now letting this information sink in.

It was here that Skybreaker broke the silence, groaning as he stood up. "I know we're all upset about what happened, but sitting around doing nothing isn't going to help us. He have to find out who this Malafear is and get our friends back." He then turned to the exit, now seeing the damage that had done to the town. "We can't let this happen again."

"I agree." Grand added, "Though that begs the question...what do we do now? Do we have any idea where they went?"

"They had to have gone back to the Dragon Lands," Ember responded, "That's where we were before my brain got hijacked, so that must have been where we came from."

"So then what are we waiting for?" Rainbow chimed in, "Let's go save our friends!" But before she could fly off, Twilight magically grabbed her by the tail.

"Hold on Rainbow. I wanna save Spike too, but we have to face the facts. We can't go up against them all by ourselves. We need help."

"We're up against an army, which means we need an army," Grand grumbled while crossing his hooves, "We need the Equestrian Guard."

"Which means we need to talk to Celestia," Flash added, the others nodding, "Then let's get to Canterlot as fast as we can."

"There's no need." The group jumped at that voice, looking up to be greeted by the sight of a pegasus drawn carriage flying down. Celestia, Luna and even Trixie were sitting on it, all showing frowns as they stared at the destroyed down. And as they landed, Celestia turned to her former student, "Twilight, what happened here? We saw the portal from Canterlot and what appeared to be a giant dragon. Did it do this?"

"Not alone," Twilight replied.

"Maybe I should explain," Ember added, the princesses turning to her with raised eyebrows. And after an explanation from Twilight on who she was, they agreed to talk inside the castle. Twilight responded by being okay with this, but also asked some of her friends to try and help with the reconstruction of the town. Starlight agreed along with Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie and the younger jakhowls.

The rest headed inside, moving to the Cutie Map room where Twilight conjured up a few extra chairs for the extra ponies. Celestia and Luna sat in Rainbow and Applejack's thrones while Ember sat in Pinkie's. The former Dragon Lord then explained everything that happened in the Dragon Lands, with the others taking over to explain the attack on the town.

"This is serious," Celestia grimaced.

"This is an act of war!" Luna declared. "Attacking without probable cause or warning...this act of aggression can not go unanswered!"

"But it's not the dragon's fault," Heart countered, the princess turning to him, "They're being controlled."

"The one to blame is this Malafear that is controlling Flicker," Ember added, "I know him, and Flicker wouldn't do this. Not if he had a choice."

Celestia nodded at this before shaking her head, "That may be true, but that doesn't change the fact that the dragons pose a serious threat. They attacked once, so who's to say they won't attack again? And with that larger dragon, they could wipe out any place they choose to attack."

"Where the heck did that dragon even come from?" Springer asked, "I never saw it when Spike and I went to the Dragon Lands."

"I am unfamiliar with that species of dragon as well," Luna continued before they all turned to Ember.

The former Dragon Lord crossed her arms and shrugged. "Sorry, can't help you with that one. Never seen a dragon like that before. And it wasn't in the Dragon Lands when Flicker took control of me. Whatever that thing is, it must have shown up after I got taken over."

"That doesn't help us," Trixie grumbled, "I mean, what kind of dragon breathes leaves and has vines for hair?" As she said that, Heart and Soul slumped over in their seats. The twins had been mulling over that dragon's appearance ever since they saw it, a feeling of recognition flowing through their brains whenever they thought about it.

"I feel like I've seen that dragon before," Heart sighed as he slammed his head on the table. "But every time I try and remember, I draw a blank."

"Why would you recognize the dragon?" Trixie asked him, "Aside from Spike, when have you actually met another dragon?"

"We went with Spike to the dragon lands," Soul replied, "That's where we met Ember and Flicker when they-" She stopped as her eyes went wide, a look of shock on her face before letting out a gasp. "THAT'S IT!" They all jumped before she leapt out of the throne and flew out the room, "Give me a minute!" With that, she was gone, the others only able to stare at one another in confusion.

A minute later, she flew back in with one of her sketch pads. She sat back in her chair and started flicking through the pages. "I know it's in here. No, no, no, no, YES!" She flipped it around and showed it to the others, Twilight floating it over to her.

The images showed a collection of different dragons with a pony at the bottom of the page, but one of the dragons caught her attention. It wasn't exactly the same, but it had the same body structure and was covered it flowers and other vegetation. "This is the same dragon that attacked us."

They all turned to Soul, the little alicorn replying, "I drew that after getting back from the Dragon Lands. We found a wall with that image under the Flame-cano with Flicker."

Twilight showed the others the sketchpad while Heart's eyes went wide. "Yeah! That mural had the same dragon on it!"

"But what about these other dragons?" Grand asked. "What do they have to do with this?"

"Maybe nothing," Twilight responded.

"I just remembered seeing that dragon on the mural," Soul continued as Heart took the sketch book.

"Hey..." he turned to his sister, "Weren't there markings on those dragons?"

Soul bit her lip at this, only to nod, "Oh yeah. But I couldn't remember what they looked like, so I left them off."

"Markings?" Celestia asked, the twins turning to nod at her.

"Each of the dragons had a symbol on them," Heart replied, "Flicker said they were ancient draconic." He pointed at each dragon on the page, starting with the one they had all focused on, "He said this one's symbol was 'tree'."

That made everyone raise eyebrows, Soul then pointing to the others, "The others were storm, light, metal and shining earth."

"Interesting," Luna rubbed her chin. "I wonder if each symbol was meant to represent the element that particular dragon wielded." She then pointed to the last two, "What of them?"

"Flicker said those were weird." Heart replied before pointing to the one at the bottom. "This one was storm, but it had another symbol for magic."

Soul then pointed to the central dragon, "And this one was magic and shadow."

"Magic?" Celestia asked.

"Flicker was able to use magic somehow," Twilight chimed in, "But it wasn't really him. It was like he was harnessing magic from the book he had." This made her brain click, "Hey...maybe if we get the book away from him, he won't be able to use magic anymore. That means the magic he was casting to control the dragons will vanish too."

"And maybe we can free Spike as well," Flash finished, Twilight rapidly nodding at this.

"But...I still don't get why he took Spike," Rarity added, "Was it just because he couldn't control him?"

"I think it was more than that," Fluttershy said, making everypony turn to her, "Was it just me, or did he seem to recognize Spike?"

The others exchanged glances, only for Ember to speak up, "He did talk to him like they'd met before. Talking about teaming up with ponies again, and how he wouldn't get in the way this time. But he called him something else."

"Silverbolt..." Flash remembered. "That's what he called Spike. And he said that Spike changed his appearance."

"So what are you saying?" Heart asked, "That Spike met this jerk before and changed his name and what he looked like afterwards? How does that work?"

"It doesn't." Twilight replied with crossed hooves, "Spike's been with us since the day he was hatched. He's always been called Spike, and always looked the way he does. There's no way he could be anypony else."

"I used to think dragons couldn't wield magic, or breathe fire that teleport scrolls," Ember countered, "Who knows what kind of dragons we're dealing with."

"She's right," Trixie nodded. "What if Spike was somepony else before you met him? We know age spells exist, so what if he had one used on him and he got turned back into an egg?"

Twilight blinked at the suggestion, humming for a second, "I...guess that's possible? Maybe he was reverted back so far his brain wasn't able to hold his memories, which is why he didn't remember anything when he hatched."

"But how did he end up with Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, the others turning to her before slowly going over to the alicorn that was responsible for Twilight and Spike's meeting, as it was her school that made Twilight hatch him.

Celestia saw every eye on the room was upon her, "Your majesty?" Skybreaker asked.

"I always meant to ask," Twilight added, "But whenever the question popped into my head, something else was going on, so it wasn't a good time."

"How did Spike's egg become part of Twilight's test?" Flash continued, Celestia and Luna sharing a glance.

"Maybe it is time, sister."

Celestia nodded before turning to the others. "Spike's egg was given to Luna and I to protect by our mentor, Starswirl the Bearded." This statement made everypony go wide-eyed, only for Celestia to continue, "It is...an unusual tale to say the least, which begins back when Luna and I were but little fillies."


Many centuries ago...

It had been several years since Starswirl found the alicorn sisters at the lost city. In that time, the pair had learned much from the unicorn mage. They had mastered raising and lowering the sun and the moon, and were well on their way to becoming ponies worthy of being the rulers of Equestria.

But as this happened, one particular day came as Celestia and Luna were reading in the library of the currently un-destroyed castle of the two sisters, both working on an essay their teacher had assigned them. It was here that Starswirl opened up the library doors, now carrying a chest.

"Starswirl?" Celestia asked as she and Luna got up, "What's that?"

Starswirl carefully placed the chest down, "Something very precious. I've safeguarded it for many a year, upon request of someone very special. And while I had hoped to remain its guardian until it hatched, I think it would be best if I entrusted it to somepony else. Or a pair of someponies."

"Us?" Luna replied, Starswirl nodding before he magically unlocked the chest. It opened to show a light purple egg with dark purple spots inside. "An egg?"

"A very special egg," Starswirl corrected, "One that might not hatch for hundreds of years. Not until the dragon inside is ready."

"So what do we do with it?" Celestia asked, with Starswirl levitating it before gently placing a hoof on it.

"Carefully place your hooves onto it." The sisters shared a glance before doing as requested, the pair holding up their hooves and placing them on the egg shell. "Now, whatever happens, don't pull away." The pair nodded and not a second later, a strange green glow began to emit from the egg and wrap around Starswirl's hoof. But the light then retracted from the unicorn and flowed through the egg before coming out the other side...and into their hooves. The pair gasped, but did as instructed and kept their hooves on the egg. And after a few seconds, the light vanished and Starswirl pulled his hoof away.

"There. Now the egg knows you are its protectors. When the time comes, the egg will tell you when it is ready to hatch."

"How?" Celestia asked, "I thought dragons didn't have magic?" Luna nodded as well.

Starswirl chuckled at this, "That...is a long and complicated story." He placed the egg back into the chest and closed the lip, pushing it toward the girls. "When I return, I promise to explain everything to you. But for now, just keep the egg safe until I return, or it hatches." The girls nodded and took the chest, Starswirl giving them each a hug before trotting out of the library.

"But Starswirl never returned. He vanished without a trace and left Luna and I to safeguard the egg. It remained in a special room we used to keep it warm and filled with blankets. And when Luna became Nightmare Moon, our battle shook the castle and almost destroyed it. The room survived, but it was only by luck that it wasn't damaged. I knew that the egg must be kept someplace more secure, so when Canterlot Castle was built, I placed it in the magically protected vault I would later use to store the Elements of Harmony.

Every day before starting my royal duties, I would go to the vault and check on the egg. I would place my hoof on it, asking if it was ready to hatch, but it never did. Until one day, a thousand years after receiving it..."

Celestia opened the vault, now face to face with the chest holding the dragon egg, which had remained in surprisingly good quality over the thousand years. "Hello there little one." She reached out and placed a hoof on the egg, gently rubbing the shell. "I don't suppose you feel like coming out today?"

She waited several seconds, but the egg remained unresponsive. A long sigh escaped her lips, shaking her head. "Its seems not. Even after all these centuries..."

But as she said this, the egg suddenly shined a familiar green glow. "What?" She responded as she kept her hoof on the egg. The light continued to shine, only for it explode with light. When the green flash struck her eyes, Celestia found herself seeing visions of a place she knew all too well. Her School for Gifted Unicorns. And there she saw a poster on one of the doors that stated the day was for entrance exams, something that would be happening in three days.

But no sooner had she seen it, that the image disappeared along with the light from the egg. The alicorn gasped, blinking rapidly before staring down at the egg, "What...was that?!" She kept staring at the egg, only for Starswirl's words to appear in her head, "Little one...are you trying to tell me how to hatch you?" The egg didn't respond, instead just laying in its chest while Celestia stared at it.


"I had no idea what it was trying to tell me," Celestia continued, "But I believed in the images I saw, and gave the egg to the examiners, telling them to make it part of the test. We all know what happened next."

Everypony was completely silent as they let this information sink in, Springer whispering, "Spike's even older than me? And he was stuck in an egg for a thousand years? Huh."

"I guess that proves Spike really is more than just a normal dragon," Ember chimed in, "If he wasn't, he should have died a month after being laid."

"It must have had some kind of stasis magic on it," Twilight added, "Either somepony cast it on him, or it was self cast by him inside the egg. And if it's the second option, and Spike really does have special dragon magic, it would explain why he can do things other dragons can't."

Heart nodded at this, "Flicker said Spike's dragon mail ability wasn't something he had ever heard of until we told him."

"Wait...so that's why Malafear took him?" Flash asked, "But that's just mail. Why would that be important?"

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought, "There must be something we're missing with Spike. If only we knew who this Malafear really is..."


The Dragon Lands...

The normally chaotic land of dragons was almost orderly at the moment, not a single dragon randomly flying around, fighting or diving into lava. Instead, most of the smaller dragons were standing in place, their eyes continuing to glow red. Meanwhile, the wood dragon was behind them, curled up and resting. They were all gathered around a large crater, which Flicker was standing on the edge of. He was pointing his staff into the crater as it unleashed a giant bolt of black lightning into the pit, the light illuminating to the whole thing. Inside the darkness from the lightning, none could see inside, but a pair of screams could be heard as the lightning continued to surge into it.

And when Flicker stopped unleashing the magic, pulling his staff back, the lightning continued to spark inside the crater while the screams carried on. He then turned to a nearby mountain, which had many larger dragons surrounding it. He tapped his staff onto the ground, forming a portal big enough for him to fly through, the dragon doing so and finding himself halfway up the mountain.

He watched as the bigger dragons unleashed burst of flames that struck the rocks around them, causing them to heat up and melt, allowing other dragons to scoop the rocks up and throw them away. "Keep working!" He yelled as he saw a few slowing down, "Don't stop until its completely uncovered!" The dragons tried to speed up, now breathing more fire while scooping up the lava it created. "It's here. I know it is." He placed a claw onto the mountainside, "I can feel it."

It was here that he heard a roar, looking up at a dragon that would look quite familiar to a certain group of ponies, who jumped away from the mountainside and roared again. Flicker flew up, staring at the section of mountain as a smile formed on his face.

Freed from beneath the mountain was a kind of rock that was flat and smooth, with something carved into the rock. It was a circle roughly five meters in diameter, with a symbol of carved into it. He placed a claw onto it and smirked, "Lightning." He turned to the rest of the dragons, "There are four more hidden here! FIND THEM!" The dragons got back to work as Flicker created another portal, soon arriving back at the crater.

As he arrived, the black lightning had stopped as his grin grew, "Second by second, my triumph grows closer." As he said that, two somethings roared from out of the crater. And along the edge of the crater, a large gunmetal gray arm with four bright silver claws came out, clawing the ground while a giant yellow bat wing with a white membrane and a large spike coming out of it did the same. Another pair of roars left the crater, cracks forming as the ground began to shake. The wood dragon also awakened at this, unravelling itself before taking to the air.

Flicker turned to the rest of the dragons, raising his staff. "Prepare for battle! We head out to our next target as soon as these two are ready." The dragons all roared back as Flicker glanced at the book in his claws. "And this time, you won't be there to stop me."


Meanwhile...

Spike was now walking through the white void, unsure if he was even moving with every step he took. "Hello?!" He called out into the void, only for no response. The drake let out a sigh at this, "Alright Spike, think. What's the last thing you remember?" He closed his eyes, the memory of Ponyville being attacked coming in nice and clear. "That's right," he opened his eyes. "Flicker...or something controlling him, attacked and sucked me into a book." He glanced back at the white void, "So its like the Power Ponies thing? Well, at least this one doesn't have any insane mane controlling ponies attacking me. But why is there nothing here?"

He continued walking, unsure how long he actually did so. It could have been minutes, hours, days or longer, as everything was a blur to him. "Gyah! Is there anything here?!" He screamed, "Heck, I'd settle for a freaking book to read!"

But as he yelled this, a flash of light suddenly shined in front of him. He was blinded for a second before his eyes adjusted, now seeing the light form into...a book.

Spike blinked at this before looking up, "Wait...I could just ask for something like this? Um...I'd also settle for a video game!" he exclaimed...only for nothing to happen, "Dang it!" He glared back at the book, "Fine..." He grabbed the book, opening it up, only for another blinding light to explode out of it. "Gyah!"

A few seconds later, he blinked as the light vanished, the dragon getting the specks out of his eyes. When they did, he saw the white void was gone...and he was now in the Dragon Lands.

"Whoa...wait, did I get free?!" He glanced around, but didn't see anypony else. "I gotta find something to send to Twilight and tell her where I am." But as he said this, a new sound rang out.

Turning to it, he saw it was a pony walking up, a gray unicorn with a white and blue mane that had large muttonchops on the side of his head. He was also wearing a blue cloak with stars and moons on it. "Hey!" Spike called out to him, walking up to the pony, "Hey there, I'm Spike. Can you-" He didn't get to finish as the pony walked into, and then through, the dragon, making the drake let out a yelp, "Eep!"

He shivered at this, slowly turning back to the pony as it started to walk away. Spike ran up to him, trying to grab him and saw his claw go through. "I can't touch him..." As he said this, a new memory flowed in his brain. The stories Flash, Twilight and Springer had told him about their visions of the past. "I'm in a memory? But how did I-"

But before he could finish asking himself, the ground around him started to shake. "WHOA!" the pony yelped, Spike glancing back at him as the ground in front of the pony began to shake before completely splitting apart. Between the cracks, lava bubbled up and pushed the rocks further apart until they created several islands surrounded by lava. Spike found himself on one island and saw the pony on another island, looking like he was in trouble.

"Not good," the stallion gulped as the island began to break apart. He turned to another island and sparked his horn, causing him to teleport over. He panted at this, then teleported again to another island, only to fall to his knees, gasping for air as the lava started drawing closer.

He then closed his eyes, as if accepting his fate.

But as he did this, a roar filled the air. Spike and the pony looked up and saw a dragon flying down toward the pony, this dragon only being about half the size as Torch or the dragon that had once napped near Ponyville. His scales were a combination of sliver and green, with its lower mouth, neck, chest, waist, tail bottom and the inside of his wings being green while the rest was silver. Along his head, neck and back were a series of green spikes that were lightning bolt shaped, and his eyes were also green.

The dragon swooped down and opened his mouth, green lightning sparking within. He let out a roar, lightning now shooting out and hitting the lava. The bolts hit them, somehow causing it to solidify upon impact. Within seconds, the entire lava lake was turned into a very hot rock bubble.

The dragon landed on the edge of the bubble before using his tail to reach over and placed the end in front of the pony. "Hurry!" The pony ran up the tail and once he was over the bubble, leapt down. Seconds later, the bubble began to crack and lava leaked out. The two ran as fast as they could and not a minute later, the bubble exploded and the lava flew free.

Once a safe distance away, the two sighed in relief and the pony turned to his saviour. "Thanks."

"No problem," the dragon nodded. "But this place is dangerous." He spread his wings, "You shouldn't be around here."

"Wait!" The dragon glanced down at him. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That lightning."

"I'm a lightning dragon," he replied, "Shooting lightning is just what I do."

"But the last I checked, lightning doesn't turn lava to rock. That was magic. And I should know, since I'm pretty much a prodigy when it comes to the art."

The pony smirked as the dragon stared at him, making the dragon sigh, "Alright Chops, do you really want to know?"

"I do. And don't call me Chops," he glanced at the muttonchops he was sporting. "My name...is Starswirl."

Spike's eyes went wide at this, gasping as he now saw the similarities to Twilight's idol. But before he could do anything, the dragon replied to the unicorn, "Alright, Starswirl. My name is Silverbolt." Again, Spike's eyes went wide at hearing that name. "And I am a Mystic Lightning Dragon."

Both Spike and Starswirl tilted their heads at this, "Mystic Lightning Dragon?"

"I guess you could say we're the unicorn versions of dragons. I'm not surprised you haven't heard of us. Mystic Dragons are very rare. In fact, I've never met another Mystic Dragon in my entire life."

"So...you can do magic?" Silverbolt nodded, "Fascinating."

Silverbolt shrugged at this, "Alright, I've answered your question. Now, you answer mine. Why are you here?"

"I...only wanted to learn about dragons. Other ponies fear them because they know so little about them. I thought if I could learn more, then maybe I could find a way to bring peace between ponies and dragons." Silverbolt stared at him for a few seconds, only to smirk before the lightning shaped spike on his head began to spark.

Starswirl raised an eyebrow at this, only for lightning to shoot out of the spike and hit Starswirl, who flinched...only to find he wasn't hurt. The next thing he knew, he was being lifted into the air and placed on Silverbolt's back before the dragon took off. "If you want to learn about dragons, I'll take you somewhere you can meet many different dragons."

"Meet?" Starswirl asked as he held on tightly, "I was thinking this would be more of a distance expedition, where I observe them from a safe distance away."

"Don't be ridiculous. The only way to learn about dragons is to get up close and personal." With that, the two dragons flew off, Spike trying to follow them. But before he could, the word around him began to melt. Within seconds, everything around him was sucked into a single spot, Spike now seeing it was the spot the book was at from before.

The memory was pulled inside the book, placing Spike in the white void again, the book slamming shut. Spike stared at the book, wanting to open it up again, only to flinch. "That...was weird."

The thought of the memory replaying now going through his head, he decided to not open the book again, only to see another light off to his left. There he saw another book appear, the drake walking up and grabbing it. "Huh. Twilight told me the memory stuff just sorta happens all at once. Guess I can just choose when I want to see these?" He looked up from the shut book, glancing around for any other books. Shrugging at this, he opened the book, only to be blinded by light again. "Gyah!"

The void disappeared again, now morphing into a terrain filled with dragons. While most of the dragons appeared to look like the ones Spike was used to, others looked very different. Some looked like the ones he had seen in his dream, though not exactly the ones he had seen in his dream, along with others that he had never seen before. There were dragons that appeared to be made entirely out of rocks, ones in a nearby body of water that looked more like giant fish than dragons, ones covered in feathers rather than scales, and so many more.

It was then he heard laughter, now turning to see Starswirl and Silverbolt, sitting on the edge of a canyon. "So?" Silverbolt asked him, "Glad you didn't keep your distance?"

"Oh yes," Starswirl nodded. "I've learned so much. I can't wait to get back home and tell my student all about this."

"Student? You barely look old enough to be a student yourself," Silverbolt laughed.

"I told you I was a prodigy," Starswirl barked back, "Besides, Clover's more of a study partner than anything."

"Clover, huh?" Silverbolt gave him a grin, shifting his eyebrows up and down. "I bet you two have had lots of late night study sessions."

Starswirl rolled his eyes, "Knock it off." Silverbolt let out a cackle, "Anyways, she would have come, but she couldn't leave her job as Princess Platinum's advisor. Especially with everything that's been happening with the weather lately. That's why I have to learn as much as I can about dragons and write it down so she doesn't feel like she missed out." He replied while closing a book in his hooves, "Though I must say, one of the things I've noticed is that there seems to be a lot more Flame Dragons then the others."

Silverbolt nodded. "Yes, that's because they're able to hatch more eggs than other species." Starswirl turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "Dragons require large amounts of their elements to hatch. Flames dragons need intense heat, while lightning dragons need to be charged by lightning and wind dragons need to be bombarded by powerful winds. Most of the time, a parent will do it themselves, but the amount they need exhausts them. In fact, only one egg in three usually hatches."

"But Flames Dragons..."

"Natural elements can work as well, so Flame Dragons use the heat of nearby lava. But other dragons don't have much luck finding natural source of elemental energy. Lightning storms, tornadoes and other stuff..."

Starswirl tilted his head at this, "I get that, but what about Mystic Dragons? Do they have any special requirements?" Silverbolt frowned at this, opening his mouth to reply, only for something to catch his attention. Starswirl followed his gaze and saw a purple Flame Dragon with red spines fly down and land. The dragon glanced at him, smiling with a wave before walking off.

Silverbolt waved back, a goofy smile on his face, "Oh?" he turned to Starswirl and saw him smirk. "And you were having a go at me." Silverbolt raised an eyebrow before Starswirl gestured to the dragoness.

"Wha...Fira? We're just friends!"

"Sure you are." Starswirl chuckled before getting up. "Then you won't mind if I go talk to her then?" Silverbolt's eyes went wide as Starswirl spun around, now trotting toward Fira. Seeing this, Silverbolt quickly flew past him, only for both to reach Fira as she finished snacking on a gem.

She glanced back at them, her bright red eyes fluttering at the sight of him. "Hello Bolty." Starswirl smirked at him, "Who's this? I didn't know you knew any ponies." Spike watched the three talk, the sight making him both wonder why he was being shown these images, but also seeing himself, remembering all his pony friends.

"I hope they're alright."


Back in Ponyville…

Several hours had passed since Celestia and Luna had arrived. The pair had begun making plans with Ember about what to do about Malafear while Grand and Skybreaker stayed to give their suggestions. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others had headed back out to help with the repairs to the town.

With Twilight, Starlight, Script and Trixie's magical help, many of the houses were restored to their normal forms faster than it took to destroy them. But while the outsides were repaired, the insides would take much longer.

"Careful," Pinkie told Flash and Rainbow as they lowered a large section of a house roof, "Careful...careful...just a little more...Good! Stop." The pegasi flew in place as Pinkie hammered the roof section down, both unclear how nails worked on hay, but didn't question it. "Alright, you can let go now." They then flew off to another task, and as they did this, Flash stared down and saw Twilight using her magic to lift up and repair a wall that had been busted through. But despite doing a good job, Flash could tell she was barely focusing.

He flew down and called out, "Twilight!" The alicorn didn't respond, instead fixing up the last bit of the wall. But as she did this, the frown on her face grew as Flash landed, "You okay?" Twilight winced at his question, only to feel Flash put his wing on her back. "Twilight?"

She turned to him, the defender now seeing her bite her lip, "What if...what if we never find him?" She asked, now seeing tears form in her eyes, "He could have taken Spike halfway across the world by now! What if he lets Spike go from the book but traps him inside a cave he can't get out of or inside of a roc or hydra nest. What if Spike's dragon mail can't reach this far and he can't even tell us where he is. What if-"

"Twilight!" Flash barked, making her pause before he put both his hooves on her shoulders, "Relax. You can't get worked up like this. Thinking about what you can't do isn't going to help Spike or anypony. We'll find him and the others, I promise."

"But...but...how can you be so sure?!" Twilight yelped, "Spike is gone and we might never see him again!"

Flash grimaced at this, only to let out a sigh, "Because Flicker...Malafear wants me for something." This made Twilight raise an eyebrow. "Remember? He said I would soon be working with him before he zapped me with that weird lightning. If I hadn't summoned my Sacred Light to stop it, I probably would have been hypnotized into working with him like those dragons. But he failed, so that means he's gonna come after me again."

"You really think he wants you?" Twilight asked, "But...why? And what if he just thought you were too powerful and took Iron and Lightning instead because of this?"

"Then why didn't he take Springer, Grand, Skybreaker or Starlight?" Flash countered, making Twilight blink at his statement, "They were all knocked out, but he only took Iron and Lightning. You're just as powerful as I am, but he didn't try to take you either."

"So...he was after you three?"

"Yup. Which means he'll be back," Flash replied before turning to the town they were rebuilding. "It might be a good idea for me to not be in Ponyville for a while. At least until we stop all this. The town might not survive another attack."

"Flash..."

The defender shook his head, "Don't worry Twilight, I won't abandon you all."

"I know, but we should tell Celestia and the others this." Flash nodded and they headed for the castle again. But as they made their way, Twilight let out a sigh, "Flash...I just can't help but wonder if we'll be able to stop Malafear. He beat us so easily."

"He took us by surprise last time," Flash added, "Next time those dragons attack, we'll be ready." Twilight looked up at the pegasi's face, seeing a giant confident grin on his face. The sight made a smile appear on her lips as she nodded in agreement.

"You're right. We'll beat Malafear, save Spike and free Flicker from whatever that thing controlling him is."

And as Flash began to reply, the castle doors suddenly shot open. "TWILIGHT!" Celestia screamed in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight gasped, "What's the matter?"

"We just got a message from Cadance and Shining Armor!" Celestia held up a scroll as Luna, Grand and Skybreaker ran out of the castle, the rest of their friends coming over to the castle after hearing Celestia's voice. "Dragons are attacking the Crystal Empire!"