//------------------------------// // A dragon can be cute too // Story: Friendship is absolute chaos: Fixing a distorted world. // by Aether Spark //------------------------------// “Time to hit some home turf!” Spike said pulling out the scale of Smoulder and activating the trace. As it flew off Harmony approached just out of range of hurting Spike. “Your halfway there Spike, but be careful, I fear Chaos may start to notice the trouble we’re causing,” Harmony said. “I’ll keep an eye peeled,” Spike said before flying off, as Spike flew on, Discord flew up beside him. “You're still worried about Gabby aren’t you?” Discord asked. “Well… I mean she was fighting a giant snake when we last saw her, who knows what happened to her,” Spike said. “Well one damsel at a time, let’s focus on the efforts it’ll take to free the first six,” Discord casually remarked. Spike nodded but kept his attention divided between following the trace and watching for any abnormalities. Spike had to take the long way around so Chaos wouldn’t sense him. When Spike arrived he saw the state the Dragon Lands were in. Chocolate erupted out of the volcano’s, the flowing magmatic sweetness looked tempting but he resisted, there’s no telling what could happen. In any case, the dragons suffered a similar fate to the ponies where they were now random objects with limbs walking around and even through the air. One dragon was even walking with his wings… how weird. "Hello Spike! Do you want a hug Spike? They're free!" Cheered a life-size plushie sheep with red fur, waving his hooves. Spike knew that voice.  "Garble?!" Spike exclaimed. "That's me! I'm Garble the Sheep! The Bestest Best Hugger In All The World! You always wanted to be friends! Wanna be friends? Now I don't feel like bullying everything because I'm scared of showing weakness! Now I just wanna give hugs!" Garble said. Spike shook his head. "Okay, what is this? How is this chaos? Being friendly? Wanting to be friends? BEING NICE? Garble opening up about his feelings?! This is crazy!" Spike said confusedly. Discord deadpanned. "Please oh please tell me you just heard yourself."  "But I thought ... friendship is harmony! Shouldn't this be poisonous to chaos or something?!" Spike questioned. Discord shrugged. "Do you think I was poisoned when I became friends with Fluttershy? Have you ever looked at Twilight and her friends? They're as chaotic as me sometimes even before I made our little bet." Discord explained. "No they weren't!" Spike defended. "Want It Need It Spell, Hunger Spell for the Parasprites, the Prank Rampage of Rainbow Dash, Pinkamina,” Discord said with a raised brow. “Ok, point taken,” Spike sighed. “Who are ya talking with Spike?" Garble asked sweetly. “Nobody, hey nice chat Garble but we need to find Smoulder, do you know where she is?” Spike asked. "Ya wanna talk with Princess Smoulder? She's the nicest, prettiest, cutest, most adorable dragoness in all the land! I'm proud to be her big brother!" Garble said happily.  “....What?” Spike said not sure if he misheard or not. “It is as the sheep said,” Discord said. “But Smoulder isn’t like that, she always acts tough,” Spike said. “I suppose she only ‘acts’ tough,” Discord said. "No way! And Garble was really a hug happy sheep deep down?" Spike exclaimed. Garble gave Spike the sad cute eyes and waved his arms a little more.  "UGH! FINE!" Spike hugged the teenage dragon-sized plush sheep. He was so soft and warm, like his basket bed. Spike just wanted to hug him forever...  "Uh, Spike... " Discord whispered.  "Huh! Oh right! Thanks!" Spike said to Discord. "You're welcome!" Said Garble thinking Spike meant him.  “Now will you take us to her?” Spike demanded. “Sure! Just follow the multicolored road to her domain! Passed the Mountain of Sharing, take a 'whatever' at the Lake of Happy Feelings, and through the cave of Emotionally Healthy Teenage Dragons being lovely looked after by their parents even though they have wings!” The sheep cheered. “I’m almost forgetting this place is overloaded with chaotic energy…” Spike sighed. “Cuteness can be chaotic,” Discord said as they followed the sheep down a pathway. Their trip eventually led to the edge of a multicolored brick road. “And this is Smoulder… right?” Spike asked. “Yep!” Garble said. “I’m starting to wonder if she has a repressed side,” Spike wondered. “We all have one,” Discord said. Spike followed Garble into a pathway that led to a mountain that was blue for some reason. “Are mountains usually blue?” Spike asked. “This one is,” Discord responded. Then the mountain moved slightly... and it opened a ruby eye... and Spike realized... this was Ember... the size of Dragon Lord Touch.  "Hello! Princess Smoulder has friends visiting!" Called Garble with a 'Baaaah!'  "YAY! Princess Smoulder has friends visiting!" Ex-Dragon Lord Torch flew down to them... from a life-size doll-house castle at the top of Ember. Except Torch was the size of a Breezie... and had butterfly wings that left sparkles in his wake, and he was wearing a pretty tutu. "Welcome! Welcome everyone!"  Ember opened her mouth... her tongue rolled out to reveal a real red plush carpet with pretty gold tassels, her fangs were Roman-style pillars.  And out came... another Ember... this one normal size, and wearing a maid uniform. She curtsied. "Hello Spike! I see you've moved up in the world! Princess Ember being in charge is the greatest thing that's ever happened! The Dragon Lands are finally nice!" "Best thing ever!" Hopped out another Ember, this one wearing a cute purple cat costume with her face visible in the mouth. "Like! We don't need to lead! Fight wars! Deal with selfish, stupid, ugly, dragons all day! Just happy friendly dragons all around!" She said. “This literally can’t get any weirder…” Spike said with a deadpan. “When are you going to learn Spike,” Discord sighed with a facepalm. Spike noticed at the back of the giant Ember's mouth a perfectly polished stone door with golden engravings of dragons having happy-go-lucky adventures and pretty diamond handles.  "Will you take the elevator up to Princess Smolder, Lord Spike? Or would you like to climb up my side?" the Maid Ember asked.  "You can take the way up me, while you climb up me too!" The Ember in a cat costume blew on her thumb, and ballooned into a dragon/cat/bus balloon, her door slid open. Her face on the front of the bus smiled at her innocently. So was Garble, so was Torch, so was the Maid Ember...  And the worst part was... they weren't the forced mechanical smile Twilight and the others had described with the equalized ponies at Our Town. It was like one of Pinkie Pie's smiling contests!  Spike wondered if his teeth were going to start falling out at this rate. Equestria was legendary for being the nicest place you could live, but this was too much! So much friendliness and unoffensive pleasantness after so much maddening chaos trying to eat him was making him dizzy! “Well, what do we do Spike? Think it could be a trap?” Discord asked. “I don’t know, but we need to find Smolder and they're basically pointing us in the right direction… let’s just trust them for now, especially if it gets them to stop smiling like that…” Spike said a little creeped out. "You don't like me smiling Spike?" Garble's lip quivered.  “Uh… nonono! It’s just… let’s get moving before it gets late,” Spike said trying to avoid a shameful bawlfest from Garble. A chorus of baby dragons lined up and began to sing happily. "It's time to GET moving! It's time to get packing! A trip is always great! Always totally great!"   “I swear if this gets any sweeter and cutesy I might puke,” Discord muttered. "You hang out with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, I can't believe you have room to complain," Spike said carefully under his breath.  “They knew my limits,” Discord said with a shrug as the two walked towards the castle. "Let's hurry can't be late!" Continue the baby dragons skipping along. The sun smiled down on them. "This'll be the day we see something super duper new!"  "La la-la-la-la-lala!" Garble skipped ahead of them without a care in the world.  “Ok, hopefully we won’t be eaten,” Spike said as they walked up to the mouth of the mountain Ember. The cat/bus/dragon open pull with her teeth on her own airpiece, and deflated herself, back to the shape she was before.  As they walked along the sheep, cat and maid Ember’s followed Spike and Discord up to the inside of the mouth and the two made it to the doors at the throat of the giant Ember. The doors, instead of pushing open, slid to the side, like, well, an elevator... and inside another Ember, this one dressed as a bellhop. Except without pants, but who the heck wore pants in Equestria?  "Floor please?"  “Um… the floor where Smoulder is?” Spike asked. “Alright, come on in,” Bellhop Ember said. Spike and Discord glanced at each other and then entered the elevator with the other Embers and the elevator went up. Cutsy music played as they stood there awkwardly   There was a ding, and the door slid open, revealing a beautiful watercolor forest, with a buncha of super cute dragons, including a pink one, a blue one, and a pair of conjoined twin dragons.  "Hi, wanna learn about friendship?" The pink dragoness asked. "Uh, we're fine right now thanks,” Spike said. The door closed downward instead of sideways, and the elevator rose again. Bright colors clashed as wild disco music began to play, everyone began dancing.  "Everything is awesome!" The dragons except Spike sang.  The door slid diagonally... revealing another pastoral landscape with floating jewels and peaceful sheep munching mindlessly on grass... then a young purple dragon with golden horns and wings flew down, burning the sheep who scattered. The dragon waved.  "Howdy! Ya guys wanna collect gems, beat up bad guys, and burn sheep? ... I'm kinda killing time until my next adventure comes along."  “Well, that escalated quickly…” Discord said. “Are we going to get there soon?” Spike asked. “Oh yes, we just have 400 more floors,” The cat Ember said. “WHAT?!” Spike said. "Hey you guys need help?" The purple dragon asked. "Wouldn't be the first time I was dragged into another world to fix someone else's problem." "Thanks, but let's put a pin in that, this adventure is weird enough without any crossovers," Spike said.  "Oh, okay, good luck buddy!" The purple dragon waved as the elevator closed, this time in Tetris blocks falling down and filling in the door, leaving no seams.  "Why couldn't I be as cool as him?" Spike lamented.  "That's what happens when you're a support character in ponies' lives." Discord said patting him on the back. They went to another floor and another and another and another… [1 hour later] The door opened to a blank white room with the words 'Place For Forgotten Characters' glowing in neon lights. A green pony with a pink mane and a candy mint cutie mark turned their way. "Spike? SPIKE! You've come to save me! I knew Pinkie Pie wouldn't forget about me forev-" The door violently shut as she began running towards them.  “...Should we-” Spike asked but Discord just sadly shook his head. The other dragons just kept smiling blissfully as if they hadn't seen a thing.  [2 hours later] They arrived at floor 389 “I feel like I'm dying…” Spike said getting a splitting headache from that one level that had a sun screaming loudly and constantly and another one where jack in the boxes sang constantly. “We’re almost there Spike,” Discord said. “I swear I am starting to question why we didn’t just fly up to her room,” Spike asked. “Because that would be rude,” Cat Ember said. “Still!” Spike sighed. [45 minutes later] “That last one didn’t need to take that long,” Spike said as the elevator dinged again and finally, FINALLY, opened revealing a room full of flowers, bunnies and there were a dozen different Embers, one wearing a jester costume, another in a gardener's hat peacefully tending to the giant smiling flowers, and another in a tutu beautifully dancing on a stage, and another Ember in a chef's hat baking cookies, a stone statue of Ember spitting water in a fountain (also blissfully smiling). Spike stopped counting before he got more dizzy.  “I’m starting to wonder if she has an admiration for Ember like Scootaloo does for Rainbow Dash,” Discord said. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Spike sighed and he went on to walk through the cutesy room full of fluff and flowers. "Garble!" Shouted a plush blue sheep with Ember's voice. "Ember!" The two ran to each other and hugged with an adorable squeak.  "I saw through my sisters you were coming! I told Princess Smolder all about it! She's so happy that Spike got to move up in the world too! Just like she freed us of all our burdens! She's so much better at ruling dragons than me!" "Yes she is! But that's not your fault! You're the bestest best sheep in the whole wide world!"  "No, you are!" "You!" "You!" The two kissed.  “Ok, I am about to just leave if this continues,” Spike said as he approached the two “Hey um, sheep Ember, can you take us to Smolder?” Spike asked. “Sure! Queen Smolder!” Ember happily called skipping off to a fancy table where Smolder was in a lovely dress, and drinking tea with other plush animals. "Ah, Lord Spike, Retired Lord Discord, happy you could finally make it," Smolder said in a motherly sweetly voice. She snapped her fingers, and Spike and Discord were both in formal wear, and were teleported into a pair of fancy chairs.  “Wait… Smolder, your… your using chaos magic?” Spike asked looking surprised. “Yes, I have attuned as well, nice to see you too Discord,” Smolder said. “Charmed…” Discord said. "Smolder, do you realize what's going on? What you're doing?" Spike asked. "I'm having tea with you two-" She snapped her fingers again, and two cups of tea appeared in Spike and Discord's claws. "-remember, pinkies out!" She took a sip. "We're in my castle. And I've taken the Dragon Lands thanks to the power I got because I was able to rise above the rest, and made it to be an ideal place where everything is wonderful!"  An upside-down unicycle walking on a pair of hands wandered by. Smolder point a finger, and it turned into a smiling flower dancing snap-dragon flower with the rest. "I'm still working out the bugs, I'm happy you came Retired Lord Discord, you can teach me and Spike together! Just because Master Chaos has rejected you doesn't mean the Dragon Lands will!"   “Master Chaos? Smolder, it sounds like your actually cooperating with him… you realize what his endgame is right?” Spike asked. "He's going to help Princess Twilight and the other become true gods of chaos now that Discord made it crystal clear he wanted to retire, and double clear now that he's given you his essence, with him now existing as an extension of you, and once they're fully ready, they'll explore the universe looking for a new world to grant the gift of chaos magic to." "Smolder! Are you WILLINGLY serving him?!" Spike accused. "Serve? Spike, I'm calling him 'Master' because it's what his proper title is for granting me magic." "And all the other dragons get twisted around and go crazy while you get to make them all whatever you want because you happened to keep your head above water?" Discord asked. "Spike, I'm doing everything to HELP the Dragon Lands. Just because I'm using chaos magic doesn't mean I'm not helping! Celestia freed Discord because she thought his chaos magic could help right? Why shouldn't you give me that chance too?" Smoulder asked. "It's NOT because you're using chaos magic! Smolder... Ponyville is filled with weirdos, I'm one of them! So why do you think everyone was scared of Discord and he had to MAKE THEM go along with his chaos?" Spike said. "Because they were scared of it." "Because he was FORCING IT on everyone... Did you ever ask Ember WHY she didn't use the Bloodstone Scepter to just ORDER every dragon to be nice and civilized like she wanted?" Spike said. "I... thought the scepter wasn't that powerful." Smolder defended. "Smolder, I've HELD the scepter. I could have ordered Garble to want to be a circus clown and WANT be friends with everypony if I felt like it... but so what? It wouldn't be Garble anymore who changed. He'd have just been my little doll." Spike responded. "You've made the entire Dragon Lands nothing but your giant doll house!"  "Some dragon will never change on their own..."   "That's not the point." "Then what is? Do you want to make Garble unhappy again? Dragons are looking after their hatchlings until they can look after themselves instead of throwing them out the moment they hit molting. Dragons aren't fighting over treasure anymore.... After all... your friends used the Elements of Harmony to make Princess Luna good again. How is this any different?"  “The difference is she was corrupted with dark magic, they saved her and helped her make her own decisions again, you're doing the exact opposite here,” Spike said. Smoulder looked stunned and looked to the side in thought on how she could attempt a rebuttal. Discord said, "Smolder dear, I'd have never expected you to have this much talent in letting chaos flow like this. And you are truly a hidden natural. But you are using chaos magic to FORCE it down a path to a twisted parody of HARMONY. Blech. I can't believe I'm saying this. Your little bugs are never going to go away. Because chaos despises stasis, predictability, staticness. They're going to slowly get worse."  “I… just wanted to make a better world for dragon kind, are you saying it’s all wrong?” Smolder asked. "Smolder, Equus is gonna LITERALLY fall to pieces if everything goes completely to chaos," Spike explained. "And do you call what I've created chaos? I'd say I've SAVED my brother, Ember, and all the rest. You don't need to worry about the world falling apart as long my Dragon Lands exist." "And there's no telling how long until your chaos magic pushes back against... all this." Discord gestured.  "I can handle it!" Smolder said slamming her claws down on the table before realizing what she did. "Oh my! Apologies. A lady should never lose her temper like that dearies," Smolder said.  "Smolder... I've had this chaos magic for only a while... and, yeah, I'm excited at everything I can do with it too. But I'm still not gonna use it to twist ponies and dragons to how I think they SHOULD be." Spike said.  "Ember!" Smolder called. "Yes Your Majesty?" Every Ember in the room turned to her, including the fountainhead.  "Are you happy the way you are?" "Yes, Your Majesty!" They all echoed.  "Would you all like to recombine into Dragon Lord Ember? To exist as just her?" “No Smolder, we don’t,” The Embers echoed simultaneously. "See? You're the one going against THEIR wishes!" Smolder said. Spike sighed. "You made Ember this way... that isn't fair. Especially not to her. She's not thinking clearly. She can't compare to how she is now to how she was. If being this way was really so much better... then they'd all WANT to go back to being this way if you changed them back." "... I split Ember into countless other Embers, they've all been thinking and feeling separate from each other. I gave each of them a shard of her soul, they've all been growing into full souls on their own. I can't just force them all back into one Ember." Smolder defended.  "And they're still answering to you without a second thought. Are they all happy because you've given them these happy lives, or because you've forced them not to have any choice but to be happy... like Discord didn't give my friends any choice but to be selfish bullies?"  "What's the difference?" Smolder asked, growing in size, her dress tearing slightly. "Somecreature gives you a jewel, you're happy, they take away the jewel, you're sad. I give them chaos magic, they're happy!" Smolder snapped.  The Embers actually cowered away from her.  "Those don't MAKE me happy, they give me the chance to BE happy. Your dragons might be MADE to be happy, but they're not BEING happy!" Spike pointed a finger accusingly.  Smolder growled loudly at this and she got larger as her magic grew more chaotic. The table sprouted eyes and looked fearfully at Smolder and inched away. Some of the flowers pulled up from the roots and made for the door.  “Spike, I think her emotions are turning chaotic, we need to calm her,” Discord said getting up. The pretty murals on the walls came to life, the adorable painted dragons fleeing from the thunderstorm that appeared, their little painted houses growing eyes and sharp teeth.  One Ember cried out as her lower body turned into a sword as she fell over.  “Smolder, calm yourself,” Discord said. “Ice cream, we need ice cream!” Spike said before using his magic to conjure some. "Little sister! You're not being happy!" Garble called. "Not being happy is wrong!"  "Shut up!" Smolder yelled. Suddenly Garble's mouth vanished. He held his hooves to his face.  The sheep Ember gasped in shock covering her own mouth. Spike floated up the ice cream with his chaos magic... only for Smolder to breathe blue fire, melting it completely. "Oh dang."  "You said icecream will help Duchess Smolder?" Said the chef Ember as her hat suddenly flew off with a pair of wings. "YES!" Spike shouted. Spike snapped his fingers again, covering Smolder in chains, which she just grew bigger and broke. Spike thought better of trying to chain her again. Spike created more icecream only for it to get melted as well.  “Smolder! You need to eat the ice cream to calm down!” Discord said. “QUIET!” Smoulder growled and breathed black fire at Discord but it went through him because he was a spirit. The chef Ember ran for a fridge, and pulled out a giant plate of ice cream and ran towards her Empress... and suddenly turned into a fridge herself. Her face was visible on the digital display.   "This is my kingdom now! Dragons rule by who is the strongest! I'm now the strongest! So what I say goes! And I say my Dragon Lands is perfect! And if you can't see that, then you're a buncha selfish losers!"  Garble ran straight for Smolder.  "Garble! Don't!" Spike shouted, not thinking to simply teleport him out of the way in his panic.  The plush sheep slid and jumped to dodge Smolder's purple, pink, and plaid flames getting right next to her. He hugged her.  Smolder stopped in her tracks. "That... feels nice." The sheep Ember opened the Ember Fridge and took out the ice cream, and as her Countess was distracted, tickled her.  "Now!" Sheep Ember shouted.  Spike didn't need to be told twice as the entire contents of the giant sundae was dumped down Smolder's gullet.  "Technically you're not supposed to be able to eat and laugh at the same time, but that never stops Pinkie Pie," Spike said.  Smolder looked woozy and shrank down to normal and fell to her knees, when she got ahold of herself she looked around and saw everyone looking at her nervously. “...What…What have I done?” Smolder said tearfully. “You’ve realized that this power is dangerous,” Spike said. “And if you're in a volatile mood, lethal,” Discord added. “Then… what do I do?” Smolder asked.  "Praetor... are you going to snap us out of existence?" Asked the sheep Ember. The other Embers looked equally scared.  “No… I’m sorry, I think I was mistaken after all,” Smolder got up and looked at Spike sadly. "I'm afraid we have a bigger problem," Discord said. "Smolder.. Chaos is FORCING Twilight and the others to be like him. And you and your friends are the only creatures we know who match up with the Elements and have a friendship powerful enough to stop him, and save your teachers and our friends... And you can't do that if you're a god of chaos..."  "But... if I go back to being plain ordinary Smolder... won't everything I've made... everyone... just... disappear?"  “For the most part they’ll return to normal,” Discord explained. The ballerina and gardener Embers hugged each other, locking eyes on the chaos gods.  "But if we go back to being one Ember... isn't that same thing as all of us disappearing?" Asked Chef, now Fridge Ember, her face moving on the screen.  Garble pointed at his mouth. Smolder snapped her fingers, his mouth reappeared.  "But I don't want to go back to being all grumpy all the time!" Garble protested.  "I don't want him to go back to being all grumpy all the time!" said sheep Ember.  "If it's REALLY what you ACTUALLY want, then you won't... " said Discord. "And... if you ladies really do have independent souls, separate from Smolder's magic... then you shouldn't vanish... but finding an Ember to be Dragon Lord Ember is going to be a problem. And this chaos magic can't just vanish... it'll either be reabsorbed by Chaos directly, making him stronger...or it needs a new host. So either one of you becomes a new chaos god... Or Spike takes on her power himself." "Wouldn't she just become another floating spirit in my head?" Spike asked. "She might have attuned to the power of chaos, but she hasn't evolved into a draconequus. She used her magic to change everything around her, instead of herself like Gabby. I wonder what animals Gabby'll make herself up of once she fully evolves... besides the point. The point is... you either get another newbie god of chaos and let this whole mess happen again just with a different flavor of the month. Or you take in Smolder's power so she can touch the Elements."   “Well… I guess only one of those options may benefit us in the long run, Smolder, I am asking you to filter your magic into me, to improve my chances of beating Chaos,” Spike said. “...There really is no other way?” Smolder asked. “No, I am afraid not,” Spike said. "I'm not letting Chaos steal the ponies I love because a stupid bet got out of hoof and he and Harmony couldn't learn to get along!"  “...Ok, I trust at least you Spike,” Smolder said. “Ok, stand next to each other then,” Discord said and the two dragons did so. "My Lady!" Maid Ember quickly said. "Before you do.. I just want to say, on behalf of myself, and all my sisters, and all of Dragon Lands... thank you... for letting us be happy," Maid Ember said. "Thank you." The Embers, Torch, and Garble, all bowed.  "You're... you're welcome," Smolder said before Discord gave Spike the signal and Spike drained Smolder of her chaos magic, it wasn’t painful or slow, but it did feel like her strength left her and as this happened the castle around them vanished and they found themselves on the mountainside. Except now the mountain was a mountain, and not a giant Ember... an Ember now teenage dragon-size without an elevator inside her. She sat limply on her tail, staring blankly at nothing, her eyes empty without a role to fill.  Spike saw his opening and snapped his fingers. The Bloodstone Scepter fell into the blank Ember's claws... She blinked, and her eyes focused.  "Spike! Smolder!" She stood up. "Dad!" She looked up at her mountain-sized father besides the mountain that was herself a second ago, but that was foggy, instead, memories of the original Ember came flooding into her mind. She looked around... seeing herself in dozens of shapes and costumes.  "Don't worry, she won't remember a thing, that's how this always-" Spike began to say.  "I REMEMBER EVERYTHING!" Ember yelled. "Chaos, remember?" Discord said. "Smolder! ... You... Ugh... You... I can't feel too angry at you... ugh! So dang happy!" Ember said looking emotionally conflicted. "I liked it," Garble said back to being a dragon.  "You would," Ember snorted.  The sheep Ember (now flesh and blood) hugged Garble. "Yay! My happy Garby!"  Garble hugged her back.  Ember looked around at the copies, no, not copies, parts of her... her sisters. She raised the Bloodstone Scepter. The other dragon Embers glowed. "As Dragon Lord, I command you all, find your own identities and lives of your own free will." "As our Dragon Lord Commands," the Embers echoed, then shuddered.  The Embers looked at themselves... usure, their role in existence suddenly not so clear.  "I'd... like to dance for more than just Smolder," said the ballerina Ember said at last. The other Ember began to voice other desires, no longer perfectly unified in their need to obey Smolder.  "You guys... just better keep clear of Twilight for a while... just until I explain to her you're not a buncha mirror pool clones," Spike said before he heard sniffling, he turned to see Smoulder looking sad. “Hey Smolder? You ok?” Spike asked. “In one afternoon I lost my cute and happy kingdom and goddesshood, you tell me…?” Smolder said. “You're no less of a dragon just because of this,” Spike said. “Thanks… let’s... Just get going,” Smolder said getting up. “Oh… and if you tell anypony what happened today, I’ll kick your butt,” Smolder said. “Heh, I'm sure you will,” Spike said as he floated into the air and Smolder followed with her wings.  Discord asked, "So... how does it feel having not just my power, but now the power of an 'in-training' god of chaos too?"  “I… don’t feel any different, maybe I-” Spike was cut off as he moved to fly back towards the cave of harmony and he took off like a rocket leaving a beige contrail in his wake. “WHAAAAAAAH!” Spike yelped. “I think he needs to get used to it again…” Smolder said. After hours of trying to find his way back and then making the journey to the cave of harmony with his friends Spike and Smoulder and several other dragons landed at the cave and walked in. “HEY! We got some newcomers here!” Spike called. “Hey guys!” Smolder called. “Hey!” Sandbar ran up to Smolder and tried to hug her but she sidestepped. “Not a hugger remember?” Smolder said. “Sorry,” Sandbar said. “Yeah right, we all know your cutesy fantasy,” Gallus said walking into view. “What?! How?!” Smolder exclaimed. “Forgive me,” Harmony said walking into view as well “I was watching everything and I may have monologued too much,” Harmony said. “Twilight?” Smolder said confused. “While you explain it to her we gotta get moving,” Spike said pulling out the DNA samples again. “Godspeed Spike,” Harmony nodded before gesturing Smolder to follow. “Alright champ, where is our next zany adventure?” Discord asked.