Spike listened to the wind whistling past his ears as his body reached terminal velocity. He was a thousand feet off the ground with no idea how he got there. Making his best involuntary effort to close the distance, he cursed whatever cruel twist of fate had made him a wingless dragon. With his inevitable end drawing ever closer, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd been there before. He had, of course, but the mind is not always at its sharpest in times of life and death. His adrenaline-addled state didn't change the evidence strewn over the ground, though.
He saw Ponyville—not the peaceful farming village where he'd spent the past two years, but the blasted wreck it had become in the wake of his greed-fueled transformation into an adult dragon. The collateral damage hadn't been so bad that time. This time, there was no rhyme or reason. Only wanton destruction.
Golden Oaks Library had been ripped out of the ground and hurled into the Everfree Forest. A clawed footprint was stamped into the remains of Fluttershy's cottage. The animals were gone. The town must have been evacuated, for the ponies were gone too. Nopony would come to his rescue this time.
Carousel Boutique was the only building that hadn't been reduced to rubble or consumed by the spreading yellow-green inferno. He couldn't see it without straining his head and neck back against the air pressure, but when he did, he saw that the door was open. Standing out front was a white-coated unicorn whose royal-purple mane and tail formed long, elegant curls—Rarity.
If her wide blue eyes and the hoof she held over her mouth to suppress a scream were any indication, she saw him too. He knew she couldn't save him. She probably knew it too. He doubted even Twilight had the magic to break his fall. He called out anyway, but his words were lost to the wind as he drew ever closer.
He saw Rarity clearly. His eyes fell to the fire ruby adorning the base of her neck. He remembered the day he gave it to her. He remembered her kiss. Smiling, he reached out. The earth embraced him.
The darkness was absolute. He'd expected as much. He didn't expect his eyes to adjust, revealing a carved granite ceiling. The warm body pressed against his side was another surprise, as were the hooves wrapped around him as if he were a teddy bear. He could hear the slow, steady rhythm of a changeling's heartbeat. He bolted upright and looked around. He saw the table off in the corner. The candle had long since melted over the candlestick and burned out. Surprise became relief as he remembered where he was.
He hadn't expected to wake up so intimately close to Aurelia. With all the thoughts racing through his head after Cassius's visit, that he'd managed to fall asleep was a wonder in itself. Not that he'd gotten much rest. His nightmares, many involving Rarity, saw to that.
He hadn't mentioned his crush on Rarity. It wasn't important. Then again, his feelings for Aurelia weren't much deeper. The difference, he reminded himself, was that Aurelia had feelings for him too.
He hadn't told her about the time he became an adult dragon, either. He grimaced, Cassius's words coming back to him. He couldn't help being a dragon, but that didn't mean he had to let base instinct enslave him. He could become the monster from his dream; he could even strike fear into the Princesses' hearts, but that wasn't the life he wanted. The adult dragons he'd known were spiteful, solitary creatures. Contrary to Cassius's belief, being raised by ponies had made a difference. They'd taught him the value of friends, of family. Then again, he'd already thrown away the closest thing to family he'd ever had.
He was a traitor. There were no two ways around that. He looked at Aurelia, who still lay on her side, fast asleep. Regardless of what good came of his short-sighted attempt to set things right, a lot of bad came of it too, and he couldn't live with that on his conscience. Cassius deserved whatever fate he got. Shining didn't.
Spike doubted he could save himself, much less anyone else, but he had to try. He might be able to convince Aurelia to help, but she might try to stop him. She might succeed. He couldn't afford that. He had to leave her. He reminded himself more than once that he couldn't let his feelings for someone he'd just met get in his way, but the voice in his head still nagged him for turning his back on the sole silver lining his predicament had brought. At length, he told that voice to shut up and pulled himself out of Aurelia's embrace, his claw brushing her hooves.
Aurelia giggled in her sleep. Her face took on its former serenity as he ran his claw down her neck, pushing aside a few strands of her silver mane.
He considered giving her the neck massage he'd promised, but he was certain that would wake her up. With a sigh, he got up and went to take the quill, ink, and parchment. The ability to get a message to the outside world could be invaluable.
He considered leaving Aurelia a note, but as he turned the parchment over in his hooves, he saw lines sketched over the back. He wasn't sure what he was looking at until he saw the compass rose in the corner. He smiled. She probably hadn't intended to give him a map, but he wasn't about to turn away the small blessing. He tiptoed to the entrance and took one last glance over his shoulder.
Aurelia was still sleeping, though not so peacefully. She was shivering, curled into a ball with her hooves pulled against her chest.
Spike felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't noticed the draft when they were snuggled together. Leaving the writing supplies in a pile by the door, he walked across the room, took the checkered tablecloth, and laid it over her like a blanket.
Aurelia relaxed; her shivering ceased.
Before leaving, Spike leaned in to whisper in her ear, "I'm sorry, Aurelia, but I need to set things right. It really was a pleasure meeting you."
Aurelia slept soundly until the first beams of golden light shined through the hole in the ceiling and alighted on her face. She rolled onto her stomach and stretched out her limbs. Changelings often slept on bedrock, but that didn't make them any less stiff afterward. Pulling her forelegs under herself, she rose to a sitting position, pushed her bangs out of her eyes, and gazed out the impromptu skylight. She'd never been beyond the fog, so the little glimmer of cloudless blue and the light that trickled through were like nothing she'd ever seen.
"It's beautiful," she said. When no response came, she looked down to see if Spike was still asleep. She noticed the tablecloth draped over her back.
"Spike?" She twisted around to scan the room. Spike was gone, as were the writing supplies. Not having wanted to keep the Equestrian ambassador waiting, she had grabbed the first sheet of parchment she could find. That happened to be a map of the lower level of the hive. It hadn't seemed important at the time, but as snippets of their altercation with Cassius came back to her, so did a familiar constriction in her chest. "Oh Spike, what have you gotten yourself into?"
She bolted out of the cavern. She couldn't impress an earth pony with her magic, but she was nothing if not athletic. By the time the tablecloth settled to the ground, she had already disappeared down the tunnel.
***
Spike didn't get far before a patrolling group of guards spotted him.
To his bafflement, they didn't try to stop him. They hardly noticed him.
The one that did wore an expression of such utter disinterest that a dragon sneaking through their hive must have been the most mundane thing she'd ever seen.
Spike felt insulted. Either the guards didn't consider him a threat or they hadn't received word yet. Then again, Cassius had said they would be looking for Spike and Aurelia. Maybe leaving her behind was for the best. As more patrols came and went without incident, Spike stopped trying to hide.
Passing through several more winding tunnels, he realized the map didn't correspond to any of them. Seeing a lone changeling curled up against the wall, Spike asked him how to get to the dungeon.
The changeling said the map was for the bottom level, plucked a still-glowing mushroom off the wall, gave Spike directions along with the mushroom, and went back to sleep.
Several miles and crude flights of stairs later, Spike found the dungeon entrance. He crumpled the map over the mushroom and peeked inside. The darkness was almost absolute, but his reptilian eyes could still make out rough shapes, none of which were guards. He uncovered the mushroom, held it up like a torch, and entered.
The patter of his scaly feet against bedrock broke the deathly silence as he walked along the row of cages lining the far wall. Most were empty, but a few harbored equine skeletons. No flesh clung to their bones, but the ways they were broken spoke of the violent deaths their owners had received. Further down, he saw a lumpy shadow. As he got closer, he began to notice a curious smell. He didn't recognize it until the light from the mushroom washed up against a disfigured corpse. Recoiling, he threw the mushroom away. His stomach tried to clamber out his throat. Had it succeeded, the sight would have paled in comparison to the spectacle that had just etched itself into his retinas.
From what he gathered, the corpse had once been a cream-coated pegasus pony mare. Magic had seared off her cutie mark and much of her fur, leaving bubbly, blackened skin. Stubs of bone caked with dried blood stuck out where her wings should have been, and her head was twisted at an unnatural angle, her face forever locked in wide-eyed, open-mouthed terror. Worst of all, he knew the same fate would befall Shining if they didn't escape.
Spike resorted to clinking his claw against the bars in hopes of waking any prisoners that might still be alive, for much of his visual acuity had gone the way of the mushroom.
Finally, at the far end, a silhouetted unicorn stirred.
Spike didn't notice until he heard hooves clopping against stone. Turning around in time to see the unicorn stand, he asked, "Shining?"
"Yeah," Shining said. "Who are you?"
Spike remembered how limited ponies' night vision was, as evinced by the many nights Twilight had planted her face into the library's bathroom door when she'd forgotten to cast an illumination spell. "It's me, Spike. I'm—"
"Spike? What are you doing here? Don't you know what Cassius will do if he finds us?"
Spike shuddered at the vivid memory of the pegasus pony mare. "Believe me, I know. That's why I can't leave you here. Now tell me how to open this door."
Shining sighed. "There's a set of keys on a rack by the entrance."
"Got it." Spike sprinted to the entrance. The mushroom had landed nearby. Its glow was fading, but enough remained to reflect off the loop of wrought-iron keys that hung from a rusty hook in the wall. He snatched the keys, raced back to the cage, and scrambled to open the lock. He tried one after another, but none of them fit. Finally, he got the door open. He ran inside and hugged Shining's foreleg, only to realize that it was still shackled.
"Well done, Little Brother," a magically amplified voice came from everywhere at once, "but how do you intend to get those shackles off? You won't find the keys down here, I'm afraid."
Shining winced as the din drove another railroad spike into his aching head. Not one to be outdone, he stepped out of the cage and roared, "Show yourself, changeling scum!"
Spike followed, staying by Shining's side.
Malicious laughter filled the dungeon, slowly dying as the amplification faded and the source was revealed. Cassius stood by the entrance. The glow from the discarded mushroom painted ghoulish shadows on his face as he spoke. "Here I am, Shiny Dearest. Come and—"
A rock cracked him on the back of his skull with a hollow thud. He crumbled to the ground as a changeling stepped over him.
Another followed and said to the first, "Thank you."
"My pleasure, Ma'am," he replied. He dragged Cassius's unconscious form to the side and took position by the door
The second changeling turned to Spike and Shining. Her horn lit up with an illumination spell, revealing her braided, silvery locks.
Shining held his ground but said nothing.
Spike grinned. "You're a sight for sore eyes, Aurelia," he said. "If you hadn't—"
"Free Shining and let's get out of here," Aurelia said. With her magic, she tossed him a loop of polished steel keys.
Spike caught the keys and set to work. "I'm sorry I left you, Aurelia. I—"
"I'm not ready to forgive you, and Cassius could wake up at any minute."
"You know this changeling?" Shining asked. His hooves were free.
"Long story," Spike said. When he got to Shining's horn, he saw the spider-web crack running up the base. Cassius had mentioned it, but seeing it was another matter. "Shining, your horn..."
Shining winced as Spike removed the clasp. "Yeah, it's about as bad as it looks, but I'll be fine. I just have to lay off the magic for awhile."
Aurelia trotted over. "Ready?"
"Yeah, we're ready," Spike said.
"Good." Aurelia turned to the side. "Get on."
"What?"
"I'm not letting you fall behind and get captured while you still owe me an explanation. Get on my back and I'll carry you."
"All right." Spike climbed on. Aurelia's smooth chitin didn't lend itself to traction, so he had to cling to her neck to keep from falling off. "Listen, Aurelia, I really am—"
"Spike?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up." Aurelia galloped out of the dungeon and down the tunnel.
Despite his fatigue, Shining followed close behind.
Cassius staggered to his hooves seconds too late. He saw the changeling guarding the door and asked, "Where are the prisoners?"
"They're escaping with the Ambassador, Sir," the changeling replied, steeping the last word in sarcasm.
"What?" Cassius couldn't have heard that right. "Why aren't you chasing them?"
The changeling looked him in the eye and smirked. "Cassius, you don't pay me enough to chase prisoners."
"Damn every one of you!" Cassius shouted, cantering out of the dungeon.
***
With Spike on her back, Aurelia lead Shining through the hive toward the abandoned tunnels that housed the embassy. If the maps she'd seen while rifling through Cassius's quarters for Shining's shackle keys were to be believed, the long, straight tunnel that lead past the embassy opened into the mouth of an old mineshaft on the Equestrian side of the Badlands. Cassius having maps in the first place meant he was unfamiliar with the upper level of the hive. If she was lucky, he hadn't had time to study them.
Emerging from the narrow cave after prying apart the weathered planks that blocked the exit, she made a dash across the barren plain toward the distant tree line.
Shining followed close behind.
Aurelia was amazed that he'd kept pace despite his injuries. He hadn't been named Captain of Celestia's Royal Guard for nothing. They might have enjoyed a race had they met under better circumstances.
She dove behind a bush and poked her head out to scan the area for any sign of Cassius or his guards. When none was forthcoming, she let herself relax. Her eyes began to adjust to the bright, natural light radiating from the afternoon sun. She noticed her surroundings.
The sky she'd first seen from that little crack in the embassy ceiling now covered everything above ground level. The great circle of light was the first particular to catch her eye, but she soon learned what a poor idea staring at it was. The afterimage stayed in her retinas as she looked around at the wispy white clouds drifting overhead.
She followed one as it became thicker and wrapped around the tip of a bleached orange peak, one of the many that formed a long, jagged mountain range as far as the eye could see. The Badlands were the only sight she recognized, but even they showed a side she hadn't seen before.
Further down, she could make out the tiny crack in the cliff face from which she'd come. The savanna extended a short distance before blending into the flora where she stood. The trees, grass, and bushes all looked lifeless compared to what she'd seen in the fog. When none moved save for the wind's encouragement, she was sure some plague had passed over the region and wiped them all out. That would explain why she couldn't find the analogues for the more exotic plants.
Had she been familiar with the passing of the seasons, she'd have recognized the beginning of autumn. Nevertheless, she soaked in each unfamiliar sight with wide-eyed wonder.
Spike had dismounted and propped himself up against the base of a tree. He dropped the writing supplies by his side, put his arms around his knees, and checked his traveling companions.
The flood of adrenaline gone, Shining had collapsed to the ground. He lay panting and wheezing. The crack on his horn was less pronounced now that the light had washed away the shadows.
Spike didn't know how horn injuries differed from those of other bones, but the situation looked hopeful. He turned to Aurelia, who was still gazing in silence at the mountains, sky, and trees like the Cutie Mark Crusaders had the time Twist found that white-spotted-red mushroom and they decided to see if it tasted like peppermint candy.
Aurelia hadn't started contemplating her hooves yet, so he assumed there was a more mundane reason. Perhaps the scenery was just that interesting. He looked around. That he recognized the mountainous region to the south came as no surprise, for he'd been there during the last dragon migration. What did come as a surprise was that he was in the very same forest where he'd found his pet phoenix, Pewee.
Having caught his breath, Shining was the first to break the silence. "Hey Aurelia, you all right?"
"Yeah," Aurelia whispered. After a few seconds, she turned to face him. "This is all so new. Mother always told me the world beyond the fog was dangerous."
"She was right. The dragon migration has passed, but a few stragglers still live in those mountains." Shining gestured to the Badlands. "I doubt Cassius will let you back, so if you plan on going any deeper into Equestrian territory, you'll want to put on a disguise."
"About that..." Aurelia mumbled something incomprehensible and hung her head.
"I didn't catch that."
"I can't."
Shining's brow furrowed. "Why not?"
Aurelia looked aside and ruffled her wings. Her ears drooped. "I don't know how."
Shining opened his mouth, but whatever words he had died in his throat. All changelings knew illusion magic. It was one of their natural abilities like pegasus ponies' weather magic.
"That's why Chrysalis kept you inside," Spike said.
Aurelia glared at him. "She wasn't keeping me prisoner, if that's what you're implying. She was trying to protect me."
"I wasn't—"
"Thank you, Aurelia," Shining said. Pounding his hooves against miles of bedrock had done nothing to ease his headache. If Spike and Aurelia wanted to bicker, they could wait until Shining was out of earshot.
Aurelia stared at Shining in confusion, her indignation forgotten.
"For saving us," he added. "We'd both be at Cassius's mercy if not for you."
Aurelia blushed. "Oh, well, you're welcome."
"That said, you and Spike are still enemies of Equestria. As one of Celestia's Royal Guards, I'm obligated to place you under arrest."
Aurelia felt her heart sink. She contemplated fleeing but remembered she had nowhere left to go. Even if other changelings disagreed with Cassius, there was no place for her back home while he was still in power.
"So that's how it is," Spike said. "We busted you out of jail, and now you're going to arrest us."
"No," Shining said. "I'm going to return to Canterlot and report to Princess Celestia. I'll tell her my injuries prevented me from apprehending you before you could escape. After that, I'll file my resignation."
"You'd give up your life's work to save us?" Aurelia asked.
"I'm not doing this for you." Shining sighed. "I'm doing this because it can't be any other way. Being locked away in Cassius's dungeon gave me a lot of time to sit and think. I thought about why Twilight would oppose me, why Spike would betray me, and why I would suggest this mission in the first place. In the end, I realized I was no less monstrous than Cassius."
"What do you mean?"
"You may not know what war looks like, but I do, and this isn't it. The only real battle was during my wedding, and that was before Cassius came to power. Celestia saw him as a terrorist. Nothing more. As for me, I saw him as another bug to be squashed. Killing Chrysalis wasn't good enough. As long as there was still someone to follow in her hoofsteps, my revenge felt empty."
Aurelia had put two and two together once Shining had acknowledged that he was the groom at the royal wedding. His casual mention of having killed her mother only rubbed more salt in the wound. Aurelia considered herself a pacifist as changelings went, and while she knew both what her mother had done and why, all Aurelia's willpower was barely enough to resist the urge to thrust her twisted horn through his neck. Aurelia ground her hooves into the dirt, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and said in a low, cold voice, "I think you'd better go."
Shining kept his eyes on Aurelia and took an involuntary step back. "I know it doesn't mean much now, but I'm sorry. I wish I could go back and do things differently, but I can't. None of us can. That's why I'm giving up my life's work."
Aurelia was on the verge of tears. "Please, just go."
Shining nodded, turned, and didn't look back as he began making tracks toward Ponyville, where he hoped to find a guard patrol and take the next carriage to Canterlot.
Aurelia lay down in the dry, crinkly underbrush, rested her head in her hooves, and stared off into the distance.
Spike, who had been watching in silence as the scene unfolded, went to offer her a hug.
Aurelia buzzed her wings in a warning gesture. "Stay away from me."
Spike walked around and sat in front of her. "I'm sorry."
Aurelia got up and walked a distance into the forest. Her gaze fixed on a bird's nest tucked into the branches of a bronze-leaved tree. "I know you are, and I know you didn't want to, but you did, and that's not going to stop hurting anytime soon."
Spike got up and crossed his arms. "What do you want me to say?"
Aurelia turned around. "How about why you abandoned me?"
Spike stepped forward so he had to crane his neck to meet her eyes. "I was fixing my mistake. Had I known what a rapid dog Legate Cassius was before I sent that stupid letter, he'd have been put down, Shining would be going home to Cadence in one piece, I'd be helping Twilight write a friendship report or something, and you'd be leading the hive however you saw fit."
Aurelia walked around him toward the tree line. "I could have let Cassius get killed too, but I didn't. Mother wouldn't want that. That's not what I asked, though. I want to know why you didn't take me with you. If I hadn't come looking for you, Cassius would have drawn and quartered you and Shining."
"How was I supposed to know you wouldn't interfere? I couldn't risk that."
Aurelia gave Spike an incredulous look. "You're a horrible judge of character if you thought there was the slightest chance of me trying to stop you."
"That's not true."
"Oh, so you don't trust me. Is that it?"
"I do trust you!"
"Your actions say otherwise. If that's what you think of me, fine." Aurelia spread her wings. "You'll never see me again."
"Aurelia, wait!"
Aurelia took off into the clear blue sky and soared over the peaks of the Badlands. Going back through the tunnel would have been safer, but Spike might try to follow her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blur of motion coming up on her right.
"Aurelia!"
Before Aurelia could berate Spike for following her, she remembered he didn't have wings. She looked toward the oncoming creature. It was a red teenage dragon with an orange Mohawk, eyes of hellfire, and glistening fangs. Her wings locked up.
The dragon snatched her in his claws, breaking her fall.
Aurelia screamed.
Spike could only watch as the dragon carried her off into a mountain cave. Later, he could decide whether this too was his fault. First, he had to get help. He looked around for the writing supplies. They were at the base of the tree where he left them. Thanking Celestia for small favors, he ripped the map into strips along the lines where he'd folded it, swished the quill in the ink, and wrote a note. Without bothering to proofread, he enveloped the note in yellow-green flames. A heap of ashes fell to the ground.
"That's weird." He frowned. "I guess my focus was off." He still had three strips of parchment, so he scratched another note, took care to focus on no one but Twilight, and sent it to its destination. Another heap of ashes joined the first before a biting wind blew them away.
"Why isn't this working? The only other time..." Realization hit him like a hoof to the stomach—something was blocking his magic. Celestia had said she would fortify the guard in Ponyville. She must have cast a ward on the entire area. His claw shaking, he scribbled another note. Not caring that his writing was nigh illegible and rife with errors, he blasted the note with ethereal fire while he was still holding it. His fire-proof scales prevented his claw from getting burnt just like the ward prevented his message from getting through. Ashes sifted through his talons; tears poured from his eyes. He slammed his fists into the ground, howling curses that would make the most hardened sailor blush.
The racket drew the attention of a nearby phoenix, who alighted on the ground in front of him. She cooed at him with the soft firmness of a parent soothing a distraught child.
Spike raised his head. Her fiery plumage entranced him, halting his verbal assault on the hand of fate. Looked into her radiant yellow eyes, he recognized her as Pewee's mother.
The phoenix gestured to the last strip of parchment and cocked her head.
Spike grinned and hugged her.
The phoenix patted his shoulder with her wingtip before withdrawing.
Spike scratched one more note, slightly more legible than the last, folded it, and offered it to her. "Take this to Twilight Sparkle at Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville."
The phoenix nodded and took the note in her claw.
Spike smiled and wiped away a few stray tears as she spread her beautiful wings and shot into the northern sky like a firework. He wasn't out of the woods yet, literally or figuratively, but for the first time in days, he had a feeling things might turn out all right.