//------------------------------//
// Ryu Arrives in Ponyville 
// Story: Forever Lasting Bonds 
// by SonicSpeed Kaleb 
//------------------------------//

The entrance to Ponyville was shown with a black teenage dragon foot shown to step on the ground and take over the show. The camera then showed the full body of this dragon, revealing it to be Ryu, the dragon Spike spoke to two months ago regarding the mark on his palm. He looked at the village and thought to himself about what would go down while looking a little anxious. 'Alright Ryu. You've lacked direct conversations with one being for years, but that shouldn't hurt you. Just be as normal as you can possibly be.'

Ryu went into town with some of the ponies noticing him and having their attention caught by him. Pretty soon, everyone in the entrance plaza started to see him and wonder what he was up to. It wasn't that they were against dragons, since Spike was a well known resident by now, but they wondered if Ryu was good like Spike, or bad like some other dragons may be. Ryu hid his concern fairly well, but he still had to keep his cool. 'They're just cautious Ryu. Don't attack unless you have to.'

Ryu continued to walk around as he then realized that he had no idea where Spike lived and got a little annoyed by that. 'The kid could've at least given me an idea as to where he was. And none of these ponies seem as if they'd be owning a dragon judging by how they're still gazing at me. Guess I'll have to ask questions.' Ryu saw Lightspeed looking into a mirror, seemingly rehearsing for something and heading over to him in the hopes that he wouldn't be disturbing him too much.

Lightspeed was heard rehearsing by the mirror, trying to find the right words to say at the Gala. "Perhaps you'd like to see one of my gadgets sometime? I haven't shown many of them off yet, so it'd mean a lot to see the Queen enjoying them. (Flinches) Wait, there's no guarantee they'll like it." 

Lightspeed then noticed Ryu walking over to him, and Ryu jumped right to the point. "Do you know Spike?"

Lightspeed was concerned after hearing this, hoping his response wouldn't put Spike in danger. "Why do you ask?" Ryu showed Lightspeed the mark on his paw, hoping it would be a good explination, and then Lightspeed looked in awe before giving a look of determination and speaking up. "Yeah. (Nods his head yes) I can take you to him."





All kinds of moments from season one were shown as Twilight was heard singing the main theme of the show, My Little Pony Friends. "For every day, I look around me, for every time I see you near. I thank the stars, whose light surrounds me, I thank the earth that keeps you here. Cause I will only follow, my true heart. And I can see it clear now, right from the start. You were my little pony. I used to wonder what friendship could be; my little pony. Until you shared it's magic with me. My little pony. I used to wonder what friendship could be. My little pony. Until you shared it's magic, with me.





The Golden Oak Library was shown with Lightspeed and Ryu walking over to it as Lightspeed showed concern for Spike. He didn't know what Ryu was planning on doing with him, but he also didn't want to assume that he was up to anything dangerous. Ryu saw his concern and assured him that he wasn't going to hurt Spike. "Relax. I'm just responding to this call Spike made to me a while back." Lightspeed was surprised to hear that, but at the same time, he was glad that no one was going to hurt Spike.

Spike was in his room playing video games as someone then rang the doorbell. "Hey Twilight, can you get the door please!? I'm on the penn-ultimate boss of Angel May Die 5 and I've been stuck on him for days!" Spike continued to face off against the boss he was stuck on, managing to bring him back down to his last dosage of HP while being as invested as he could possibly be. "Cmon, cmon, cmon." Spike managed to lay the final sword stab on the boss he was on, cheering as he threw his controller into the air as he jumped up without noticing. "Yes!" Someone knocked on Spike's door and the dragon caught his controller just as he heard. "It's open!"

Twilight entered Spike's room as he saved his game, knowing that he was going to be excited for who came over. "Lightspeed's here. (Spike's face perks) He's with-"

"Lightspeed!?" Spike dashed out of the room after pausing his game, going at super high speeds and arrived at the door all excited, making Lightspeed laugh a bit as he talked all happily and without a care. "Lightspeed; I didn't know you were comin' over! Perfect timing though. I finally beat that-' Spike stopped talking once he noticed Ryu, who gave an awkward smile and wave to Spike, showing his lack of social interaction as Spike put his thumb and index finger under his chin. "Do I recognize you?"

"We might've met once before." Ryu answered, having realized that he recognized Spike a lot more than Spike recognized him. "Let's say...last fall, you called me with your darkness mark." Spike looked at the mark on his palm and started to remember who Ryu was, knowing why he was here and hoping he could give him the answers he sought out. "If you don't mind, I'd prefer we discuss this in your home. I haven't been in a crowd in years."

Spike had to admit that he found Ryu to be a little awkward, but he also knew that he was well intended with his request, and also his reason for coming to ponyville. He gave his usual carefree smile and obliged with his request. "I don't see why not. You came all this way just to answer a few of my questions after all. That can't mean nothing." Ryu was glad Spike respected his wishes with Lightspeed seeing that Ryu was one of the less violent dragons present in the world.





Spike, Lightspeed, and Ryu were in his room with Ryu questioning what Lightspeed was doing there. He didn't want to sound rude, but he felt this was something that he and Spike had to do alone. "I hate to be the rude one, but does the Pegasus need to be here for this?"

"Well I still don't know for sure what you're planning yet." Lightspeed pointed out, not wanting to sound harsh when saying what he said next. "And I can't just blindly believe you when you say you come in peace."

Ryu understood that Lightspeed was just being cautious and felt that he wouldn't be much of a threat even if he fought back. He decided that he could stay, but he wouldn't hesitate to fight back. "Fair enough." Ryu walked up to Spike and gently grabbed his left claw, looking at the mark and finding that it wasn't that new anymore. "How long have you had the mark for?"

"I wanna say...four months?" Spike answered, having to admit that he never actually kept track of how long the mark has been there for. "It was just randomly going off the day I met you but it's been quiet almost every other day ever since. We met with Zecora and she tried to help us, but I forgot part of what she said about it. Something about destiny?"

Ryu inspected the mark and put his right claw over Spike's left claw, which caused the two of them to glow together. Lightspeed was alerted by this, stepping closer as he asked what was about to happen. "This isn't gonna hurt Spike, is it?"

Spike didn't feel hurt by what Ryu was doing, indicating that this was just a reaction of two marks being close to one another. "We must be connected somehow."

Ryu pulled his claw away from Spike's as he backed up, aiming his mark into the air and spawning some darkness orbs that flew around the room. None of them damaged anything, but some of them did phase through Spike's stuff, and one of them even went through Lightspeed, giving him chills. This caught Ryu's attention as he assured him that it was an accident. "Sorry. It's been years since I've been around other beings for longer than a few minutes, so I never got to controlling this power around them too often."

Lightspeed nodded in underrstanding as Spike got a good look at the power, leaving him and Lightspeed to look around in amazement as every angle of the room was shown. The darkness orbs, despite their presence of dark magic, were beautiful to look at, and they flew around with grace and brilliant formation. Ryu put his claw down as he then explained what the power was about, catching notice to Spike's desire to know more. "You can pull this off too."

"I can!?" Spike answered after turning to Ryu in amazement, causing Ryu to flinch as he snapped his fingers and caused the darkness orbs to vanish. This led to Spike stepping over to Ryu, looking at him with a look of amazement as he made a request. "Tell me more!"

Ryu saw that Spike was more fond of this power than he himself was, not wanting to hurt him, but still telling him some more stuff about this power. He took a couple steps back and started with the origin of the mark for anyone who has one, feeling that it was the best place to start. "You probably already know this, but this mark is given to someone who experiences a large amount of dark energy, and instead of getting hurt by it, they absorb it."

Spike thought for a moment and then looked surprised as he flashed back to when Luna blasted him with her magic when she was Nightmare Moon. He remembered absorbing the magic and taking the hit as opposed to being harmed by it like most others would be. When the flashback ended, he explained this scenario to Ryu. "My friends and I managed to revert Queen Luna back to her former self. When she was still Nightmare Moon, she blasted me with the dark magic she still had in her."

"And you weren't as hurt as you should've been." Ryu finished, having put two and two together with Spike nodding his head yes with Ryu then wanting to know more. "Then what happened?"

Another flashback came to Spike as he explained another part of the story. "Then when she tried to attack my friends after we got all the Elements of Harmony in check, I jumped in front of them and this giant shield spawned." The flashback ended with Spike looking at his mark, wondering if he could ever make it happen again. "I haven't been able to do that since. Actually, I'm pretty sure I already pointed this out, but it's been months since anything happened at all."

"Then the day you called me must've meant your magic was acting up." Ryu suggested, leaving Spike and Lightspeed to remember when Spike started attending the Ponyville middle school. "My mark was a lot more active than yours after I had MY acting up day. I hate to leave it at that, but I don't remember how mine came to be. It just...happened, and that was that."

Lightspeed had a question in mind regarding this power, wondering if something could cause Spike's mark to act up again. "Is there anything that could cause Spike's mark to act up again? (Spike and Ryu look at Lightspeed) Like if someone dangerous came to Ponyville and started attacking everyone. Would his mark come back to full power then?"

Ryu considered the possibility, liking the theory that Lightspeed was making in his mind. "It's not out of the question. Too bad it'd be wreckless to test it out on anyone." Spike clenched the claw with his mark on it, hoping that he could get this power down someday. And by someday, he meant before it forced him to cause armageddon.





A wasteland was shown with a blue skinned dragon with an orange cloak surrounding him looking into it. He was looking into a crystal ball, and it showed that he was currently watching Spike, Lightspeed, and Ryu as they discussed the mark on Spike's claw. As the dragon continued to watch this conversation, a cold female voice was heard from behind them. "Is it him?"

The dragon turned around, making sure not to knock the crystal over as they confirmed that it was who the other one sought out. "Yes, it's him. It has to be. He's the same color as the egg."

A purple dragon foot stepped forward in a menacing way, leading to a slender, elegant looking, female purple dragon emerging from the darkness. She had the same color pallet as Spike and had blood red scaled going from her chest to the tip of her tail, and she had a calm, but menacing look on her face, walking up to the crystal ball and getting a look at Spike. She was at first unimpressed by his design, but then she saw the mark on his claw and gained a look of rage. "Just as I suspected. He has Nightmare Moon's darkness in him."

The blue dragon tried to convince the purple one not to go through with her plan, hoping that she could be convinced to go down a lighter path. "Please Queen Claws. Perhaps we could find a peaceful way to spare your son? (Claws glares at her minion, making them flinch) It just seems cruel to kill your own Kin!"

Claws grabbed the blue dragon by their chest as she then told them why peaceful solutions wouldn't work in her mind. "Listen closely Rumble. My husband was killed by the same magic that Nightmare Moon carried inside of her. I refuse to let anyone whom holds said magic live. "Claws dropped her Rumble, informing them that objecting to her plan was a bad idea. "And if you ever object to my methods, you won't live to see the outcome of my victory."

Rumble nodded, backing up a bit as Claws looked into the crystal ball, knowing that her time to attack would come soon, and that it would be a glorious moment for her while giving a cold, sinister grin. "Two kills for the price of one. Brilliant."





Spike, Lightspeed, and Ryu were still in Spike's room as Ryu's stomach growled, leading to him holding it as he asked Spike a question. "You have food, right? I skipped breakfast."

"Yep. Kitchen's downstairs, same room as the living room." Spike guided Ryu, who went downstairs to get something to eat as Spike then turned to Lightspeed, knowing that he was concerned about the situation regarding Ryu. "Cmon Lightspeed. We both know you've got something to say."

Lightspeed sighed knowing he couldn't bring himself to lie to Spike about anything, so he decided to just say what he wanted to say. "I just don't know if we can trust him. Yeah he hasn't done anything yet, but what if the mark affects those who have it in different ways? What if it turned him into a master manipulator who's out for blood and chaos or something? (Spike starts to look concerned) I don't want him to hurt you Spike. It'd destroy me if that happened."

Spike was touched by the fact that Lightspeed was looking out for him, but he couldn't sense any evil in Ryu. He didn't know how he could say that, he just felt that Ryu had good intentions."I think we can trust him. (Smiles) And if he IS a bad guy, I'll just (Punches palm) black him out." Lightspeed always admired Spike's confidence as Spike then got real with Lightspeed. "Listen dude. You don't have to LIKE Ryu, but the only other source of info I have is Queen Luna, and she'd get torn up if we told her about this. So ignoring Ryu isn't an option for me."

"I get that." Lightspeed responded with a nod, putting a hoof on Spike's shoulder as he expressed concern for his well being. "I just want you to be careful. We just met this guy and we don't know what he's capable of. And, I hope this doesn't come out wrong, but I heard that dragons are pretty vicious creatures."

Spike thought about what Lightspeed just said and realized that he didn't really know much about his own kind. "Well let's hope your source was reliable, because I don't have the knowledge to confirm or debunk it." Lightspeed felt Spike having a sense of ignorance with that one in regards to what he knew about dragons, heading downstairs with him when he walked off. "Cmon. Let's check on Ryu. Maybe he's cookin' us some grub."

Spike and Lightspeed went downstairs to find Ryu and Twilight in the kitchen as Twilight was heard giggling in response to something. "You can stop apologizing now. Trust me; this is child's play compared to Spike's baby messes."

Spike and Lightspeed nodded to each other with Lightspeed still being worried about what Ryu planned to do, but Spike put on a smile as he spoke up when they walked over to Ryu and Twilight. "You and my sister havin' a fun little conversation about how gross I am?"

"Spike, come on." Twilight responded, assuring Ryu that it wasn't out of spite. "He just does this to be funny. Don't take it to heart."

"I don't see why I would." Ryu replied, feeling that Spike's comment went through with him perfectly fine. "It's not like we were talking about ourselves earlier."

Twilight shrugged, finding that everyone had their own ways of responding to Spike's methods of wit. "Well anyway, I'm gonna go finish up the pasta sauce. (Walks over to the kitchen) You'd love the recipe Spike made for it."

Twilight went back to making the pasta sauce with Ryu looking at Spike and Lightspeed with a comment on his mind. "I know you're struggling to trust me Lightspeed. (Spike and Lightspeed become surprised) I guess I would be too under the same circumstances."

Spike and Lightspeed looked at each other with Lightspeed wondering how Ryu was able to tell what he was thinking. "How did you know what I thought about you?"

"Not sure. I just felt it." Ryu admitted, and then he started talking about training Spike with his magic. "Anyway, I still have some basic stuff to tell Spike about the mark on his palm, and after that, I was thinking of training him in the power of darkness to use it for pure actions." Spike was ready for whatever came his way, finding that Ryu could become a useful ally if he stayed after training.





Twilight was serving all four of them the spaghetti and tofu balls she made with Twilight commenting on Spike's sauce recipe again. "He was able to find a kind of vegetable that tasted exactly like the kind of meat that could work perfectly with this stuff! It's amazing too, since we don't have a lot of knowledge on dragons. (Beams a bit) Ooh, we'll have to research that."

"That'd be cool." Spike admitted, finding that the vegan sausages were mixing in as perfectly as he'd hoped with the spaghetti, and making him even more happy than what Twilight said made him. "Getting to learn about my culture would definitely help us if we ended up meeting with some of them at some point."

Ryu felt that he could be of use in the regard of dragon knowledge, seeing as he was a dragon himself. "Maybe I could help. (Spike, Lightspeed, and Twilight look at Ryu) I'm a dragon myself, and I could fill you in on some of the things we typically do when we're not domesticated."

Spike snickered a bit, finding that wording to be quite funny as Ryu then looked at Twilight and Lightspeed with confusion as the latter explained the scenario. "The way you worded that made it sound like Spike was Twilight's pet as opposed to the family member that he actually is. (Ryu flinches) Wait, pets are family too."

"No, I get it." Ryu assured Lightspeed, giving the spaghetti a try and falling in love with it, particularly the sauce, which oozed in his mouth like a mixture of immortality goo. "I apologize for what I'm about to do!" Ryu started gobbling down on the food with the others laughing at the sight of it, finding the moment of Ryu going from polite and shy to not caring what anyone thinks about his eating methods to be rather charming.





Spike and Ryu were in Spike's front yard as Ryu was explaining to Spike how spawning a dark orb from his mark was supposed to work. "The idea behind forming a darkness orb from your mark is that you're spawning just enough darkness magic to be able to defend yourself, but not too much, so you don't use any more than you intend to. Try forming as much darkness magic as you think you need to create an orb."

Spike got a good look at his mark and tried to channel his energy, focusing as hard as he could to bring up just enough for an orb. He found himself struggling however, and as he could only spawn a little bit fo darkness magic from him, and not enough for an orb at that. Ryu could tell he was struggling and when Spike stopped focusing, he spoke up about it. "It'd be a little easier if my mark wasn't the closeted type."

Spike knew that he'd get better with time, but he didn't know how much time it would take before he could control his mark. "This isn't gonna take me a super long time now, is it? Cause I have a life, and I'd prefer if this were simply a PART of that rather than the whole thing."

"Don't worry, it won't take over." Ryu quickly assured Spike as he laughed casually at his remark, standing up to show him how it was done. "Watch me." Ryu focused his dark magic and quickly spawned the darkness orb, leaving Spike impressed as Ryu then gave him another instruction. "Now try it again. Maybe seeing an example will help your progress."

Spike attempted to focus his dark magic again, doing a little better than last time, but still failing to spawn a darkness orb. He then felt himself become a bit overwhelmed in power as he then felt to his knees and breathed a little heavily as Ryu checked to see if he was okay. Spike looked at Ryu with determination, willing to do anything to master this power. "If it's me that's the problem, you can look inside of me to find what's going on."

Ryu scratched his head nervously, not sure that his best method was really the best for a beginner like Spike. "Well body searching is kind of dangerous, especially on beginners, but I'll see what I can do if that's the case." Spike nodded in understanding, holding his claw out for a fist bump due to him respecting Ryu. Ryu was surprised by this, and when Spike smiled, he knew it was for real. Ryu smiled back and happily fist bumped Spike, having a feeling that they were going to be good friends in the future.





Lightspeed was in Spike's room, getting a look at his things and noticing a teddy bear that was lying beside his pillow. He'd never seen this before, but that could be because he hadn't been in Spike's room that often. At least not by himself. As he picked the teddy bear up, Spike and Ryu entered the room with Spike taking notice to the teddy bear and walking over casually before grabbing it gently out of Lightspeed's hooves. "I see you met Berry Nice. (Holds Berry tightly and gives a blunt look) To be clear, Twilight surprised me with him as a baby."

Lightspeed laughed a bit at Spike's attempt to hide his soft side, finding that it didn't take away from how he saw him. "You can cut the act Spike. There's nothing wrong with having a comfort toy." Spike was glad to hear that, but still held Berry tightly as Lightspeed decided to change the subject, not wanting to make Spike feel nervous. "So where's Ryu?"

"He'll be staying on our couch for the time being." Spike explained, feeling that having Ryu as a roommate could be nice. "I offered him to sleep in my room since I have bunk beds, but he felt he'd be better sleeping by himself."

Lightspeed found that to be interesting, and then he looked at his watch and realized how late it was, starting to panic as he started to rush home. "Oh crap, it's almost ten! (Rushes past Spike) I gotta get home!"

"Lightspeed, wait!" Lightspeed stopped and looked at Spike, who was trying to find the right words to say what he wanted to say, while still making sure he saved his confession for when the gala came. "Do you...wanna spend the night here? I'm sure Rainbow Dash wouldn't mind." Lightspeed smiled instantly, not even needing to think about how much he loved that idea.





Lightspeed was talking to Rainbow Dash on the phone (Making sure Spike wasn't in the same room of course) as he explained his plans for tonight while hiding his excitement. "And if we ever become a couple in the future than it'll be important that we get used to being in the same room."

"Save the explanations dude, I get it." Rainbow Dash responded in a chill manner as she got a soda from the fridge and slammed the door with her butt. "Go make out with your future dragon boyfriend."

Lightspeed chuckled a little nervously at Rainbow Dash's joke despite knowing she wasn't being serious. "It wasn't a date, but thanks. Love ya sis."

"Love you too." Rainbow Dash hung up and cracked open her soda before giving a smug grin to the audience. "Yeah; I made my cameo in this episode. (Points to the screen) Pay me."

Lightspeed went into Spike's room as the latter was looking at his mark, and Lightspeed instantly took notice to his determined expression. He walked over to Spike, who noticed him instantly and asked him what he thought about the situation. "What do you think Lightspeed? Do you think I've got a good chance at getting good at using this power?"

"Of course!" Lightspeed enthusiastically assured Spike, knowing that he would find a way to master the power of his darkness mark one way or another. "I think it also makes sense that it's not working right away. Big things like this take time to master."

"Can't argue with that." Spike admitted, still wishing that he could master his powers faster. "I just hope it doesn't take TOO long and I end up getting my friends killed."

Lightspeed put a hoof on Spike's shoulder, looking into his eyes as he comforted him in the regard to what he just said. "That's not gonna happen Spike. I know that when the time is right, you'll find what you need to find to use this power in the way that you need to." 

Spike was grateful for Lightspeed's support, and was also ecstatic to find that they were making contact in a way. He wanted to hold Lightspeed's hoof, but he hesitated, feeling that it'd be too soon as he then smiled and made his response. "Thanks dude. Let's hope the training pays off." Lightspeed smiled back, knowing that the training would in fact pay off.





The next morning...

Twilight's bedroom was shown as Spike then knocked on it, waiting patiently as Twilight then answered seconds later. She noticed Spike's nervous expression as the young teen dragon tried to do what he came to do without messing it up. "Hey Twilight. I need some older sibling advice. Preferably before Lightspeed and Ryu wake up."

Twilight understood Spike's request and knew that he needed help with whatever was bothering him. "Of course. Come into my room. It'll be more private in here."

"Thanks." Spike entered Twilight's room and she closed the door before turning to Spike to see what he wanted to say. "Okay Twilight. So I know you're Asexual, but I could really use some help with showing Lightspeed how I feel about him, since as you already know, I'm hoping to ask him to officially be my boyfriend at the Grand Galloping Gala next month."

Twilight understood what Spike was getting at, feeling that she could be of some use to him in that regard. "Are you trying to figure out how to behave around him so he gets the right idea when you ask if he wants to start dating you?"

"Yeah; you got it!" Spike responded happily, glad to see that Twilight was on the same page as him, but then he scratched the back of his head nervously as he continued his explanation. "I hesitated when I saw a chance to hold his hoof last night, (Puts arm down and rubs paw) and I'm worried that I'll screw something up and he won't wanna see me anymore."

Twilight knew that what Spike was feeling right now was genuine worry, so she decided to give him the best advice she could. She probably wasn't the most fitting help, but being that Spike was her younger brother, she felt she could still have some good word to share. "Just don't overthink it. You'll both start when you're ready, and that should hopefully be the night of the Gala." Spike felt that Twilight's advice could work for him, since he was used to not overthinking things. He was still unsure if Lightspeed was an exception though.





Claws was looking into the crystal ball again as she gave a cold smile in regards to what she just learned. "So the young dragon has a love interest, does he? (Walks off) This should make things more interesting." Claws went into her cave with delight, knowing that her plans were going to be far more interesting now. She wasn't just interested in overpowering those who opposed her. She was also interested in messing with them mentally. As she went inside, she stood over a ledge and looked down at her subjects. "Subjects, stand!"

An army of dragons rushed over to the area under the ledge Claws stood over, giving her their full attention as they allowed her to explain what she had to explain. Claws always enjoyed this, making her subjects look towards her with fear and forced loyalty. She knew she'd love this until the day she died. "I just found out that Spike is interested in a male Pegasus who's the same age as him. We will use that to catch him off guard so we can kill him and expel his darkness from this world, further purifying it to no end!"

Some of the dragons were skeptical with Claws instantly taking notice, looking down at her army with a cold, ruthless stare that made them stand up and charge towards those who were skeptical. The skeptical dragons became surrounded and were overtaken with fear, leaving Claws to announce another part of her plan. "Anyone who opposes me will die. We have one month to prepare, (Holds up claw) so use it...(Clenches claw) wisely." The dragons who weren't surrounded all cheered for Claws, who gave a cold grin to the audience as the screen faded to black, ending the episode off.





An instrumental version of the main theme played during the credits.