//------------------------------// // Warm Heart // Story: Thick Scales, Warm Heart // by Freeda91 //------------------------------// Warm Heart Twilight suffered from a terrible headache as she woke up. She could hear voices calling her to wake up, murmuring something; she couldn’t really tell, it was like her senses were stupid due to her black out. Nevertheless, she managed to open her eyes, and come face to face with a wide smiling Pinkie Pie staring at her with her bright soul piercing eyes that could spread happiness everywhere. Wasn’t Twilight so confused and tired from her headache, she would have jumped back from the surprise. “Oh, thank Celestia you’re up!” Cried Pinkie Pie. Twilight looked around while her senses recovered and everything started to make sense in her head; the pain wouldn’t cease, but at least she could tell where she was. As she suspected by waking up not remembering anything from the previous night and with a terrible pain, they must have lost the bet; and just like she thought, they had been captured and were now in a cold, dark cell. No windows would light the place; the only source was a couple of small torches that barely allowed them to see their faces. Two midsized dragons were guarding the hall; both looked terrified as soon as they saw the unicorn stand up. “What’s with them?” Twilight asked, pointing to said guards. “Stand back unicorn!” One of the guards screamed; his voice broken and filled with fear “And don’t try any tricks, King White made this cell magic-proof.” Why was the dragon so afraid of Twilight? Apparently there was something important that her amnesia deleted from her memory. “What happened last night? Did Spike actually beat the three of us?” Twilight asked. Nor Applejack or Rainbow Dash wanted to answer, they felt embarrassed by this fact; especially Rainbow Dash, once again failing at protecting her friends. Fluttershy was about to answer, when Pinkie Pie cut off. “Of course he didn’t!” She yelled “you went mad and became… wild” she tried to explain in her own pinkie way “launching magic beams everywhere and lightning; then it was like BOOM! And then…” The pink pony tried her best to explain what had happened, but she let her excitement take the worst of her and became completely incomprehensible. Luckily Rainbow Dash was there to block the pony’s mouth with her hooves; Pinkie Pie splitting large quantities of saliva on the pegasus’ hooves. “Thank you, Rainbow” Twilight sighed; then allowed the pegasus to answer. “Fluttershy told me…” Rainbow Dash began “that you went mad from anger, and lost control over your magic. You crashed Spike into the library, and almost hit Applejack and me…” during the last sentence she sounded quite angry; Twilight laughed shyly. “But… I did win, didn’t I?” Asked the unicorn, to what Rainbow Dash simply nod “then why are we here?” “What do you think happened?” asked Rainbow Dash rhetorically before continuing “King White captured us anyway; he cast some sort of spell on you, and you wore out.” “So they’re afraid of my power…” Twilight told herself in a quiet voice when she understood why the guards reacted like the way they did “I wonder if White is afraid to.” Twilight wanted to ask something to Rainbow Dash, but when she turned to face her, she saw the pegasus lying on the ground, playing with a stone. She felt hopeless; they were prisoners now, and all of Equestria would fall under the power of the dragons if they didn’t get out somehow. What else could she do? Without magic, she had no way of getting away from there; and even if they did, they still wouldn’t be able to stop the invasion without a game plan; they didn’t even know where it would be, although it must probably be in Canterlot. That brought another problem; the princesses would be too busy defending the capital and thus unable to rescue them from their prison. Twilight tried using a spell; it didn’t matter which one, it was only to make sure if her magic worked or not. Like the dragons said, her magic didn’t focus at all. Even if she tried her hardest, all she did was tire herself out and strengthen her headache. One last time she used all her focus and incredibly, a small amount of magic focused on her horn. However, it was so little it’d barely be enough to be used as a lightening spell. In fact, it was so small that the dragons that had their full attention on the unicorn didn’t even notice the glow. Defeated, Twilight fell on the ground and decided to take some rest; between the headache consuming her, and the uselessness of her magic, there was clearly nothing else better to do. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day, if there was a tomorrow. Two hours passed and the room was filled with a cold silence that not only made everypony feel uncomfortable, meaning that their opportunity to rest was gone; especially for the debilitated Twilight. All the peace and quiet in the room was suddenly interrupted by a third guard rushing into the hall, panting; he seemed to be really agitated and surprised. The other two offered him a seat to calm down; but this one simply refused. Before doing anything else, like breathing, he explained the other guards that there were intruders in the building. “Intruders?” asked a guard, fear taking over him “Who is it? Is it Celestia?” “I don’t think so” replied the other “but it is a white coated unicorn.” The three guards decided that reprimanding the intruder was far more important than watching over the ponies, so they doubtlessly left the room and closed the door behind them. ‘A white coated unicorn?’ Twilight thought. Could it be her brother that had come looking for her? Had her letter finally reached her destination? She could only hope. Shining Armor was the only one that fitted such a vague description, and powerful enough to come to their aid. Although right now she was just glad someone had come, providing it was a friend of them. “Pinkie, what’s your problem?” Asked Applejack to the shivering pony. She knew the cell was really cold, but Pinkie’s shivers were exaggerated; if it was her Pinkie sense, what was it trying to say? “I-It’s m-my p-p-pinkie s-sense” Pinkie explained in a very noticeable stutter. Applejack rolled her eyes; she already knew that, she only wanted to know the meaning. “I-it tells me there’s going to be a d-doozy” And one heck of a doozy, for Pinkie to shiver so uncontrollably. “Don’t worry” Twilight tried to calm everypony down “If my brother is here, nothing will stop him from rescuing us!” It was at that moment that Twilight’s hopes crashed against the ground. The moment when silence was the only thing that could be heard; even the screaming from the fighting dragons had stopped. Only silence followed the appearance of the giant green flame that blasted the door open, leaving a trace of smoke and small fire trails around. Not even Shining Armor could survive such blast from a full-grown dragon. Apart from the trembling fear Twilight felt when feeling the extreme heat that might have ended her brother, her intuition took over her mind and doubts covered her mind. That blast was obviously from a full-grown dragon, but how and why would a full-grown dragon be inside the building? First of all, it wouldn’t fit; secondly, it wouldn’t fit. Despite being the same reason, it was obvious enough to have in mind twice. As her second suspicion arose, so did a terrible fear; could it have been White? It made a lot of sense. They had never seen the dragon in action despite for his magic, nopony ever saw his fire; and given the fact that he’s all that mighty as he speaks about himself, it could be possible that he could produce a full-grown dragon’s fire breath in spite of his size. It seemed the rest of the ponies, except Pinkie Pie, shared the same feeling of fear; maybe even the idea of White annihilating whoever was to rescue them. From the smoke came a shadowy figure, not as big as they were expecting it to be if it was indeed White, yet it could be because of the smoke that they couldn’t see clearly. It could be seen however, that whoever was coming inside was a unicorn, as they could manage to spot the horn on top of the pony’s head. For a moment Twilight beamed, had her brother succeeded in infiltrating their prison and would come to free them, they would finally be able to turn the tables. Her happiness turned into confusion once again when she saw an even smaller shadow next to the other one; definitely non pony and strangely recognizable. The smaller one was confirmed to be Spike as soon as they heard his boyish voice. “And then she went like…boom!” explained Spike to the other shadow. The bigger shadow made a sigh before saying anything with her sweet, feminine voice. “I’m afraid I don’t follow what you’re saying, also I don’t get how such a small, lovely creature can have such hot flames inside” flattered the bigger shadow. Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all but Pinkie gasped in disbelief as they saw the thought to be dead Rarity coming out of the smoke carrying a suitcase with her magic and followed by Spike. Twilight had just had a terrible dream, and woke up only to think she was still asleep. She pinched herself a couple of times to confirm if it was reality, because it certainly didn’t look like. Or perhaps her migraines had reached a higher level of pain that were causing her to have visions? It was definitely not the case, and unlike ever before they all but Pinkie were completely, absolutely awe struck. “Because my love for you keeps my heart warm…” Spike tried to sound as charming as possible. It worked, for it made a light blush form in the unicorn’s cheeks. “…and I ate a bunch of coal with hot sauce.” …He had to kill the mood sometime. “I’m sorry to interrupt this… awkward situation” began Rainbow Dash; she was the first one to recover from the surprise of seeing Rarity again. All the others but Pinkie shared the same priceless surprised expression; with their mouths widely opened they wouldn’t even react to a fly getting inside their throat. “But could you cut the cheesy stuff and explain us what in the name of Celestia is happening? Also, could you open the cell?” Rainbow Dash asked in her usual angry tone. “I must say Pinkie, I see why you shivered so much” she told her pink friend after taking a quick sigh. Pinkie however, was still shivering and even more. “Are you crazy? T-that wasn’t the d-doozy!” Pinkie explained while shivering at the same time “Everyone saw that one coming!” she finally said. “Everyone?” asked Rainbow Dash once again not following Pinkie Pie. “Spike, did you not tell them?” Asked Rarity to the small dragon beside her. By the looks of surprise from their friends she could tell he hadn’t. “I’m sorry” apologized Spike “but with the other dragons keeping an eye on me all the time and not knowing where they were to send a message I never had the chance to do so.” He laughed shyly and turned to open the gate, when he found out he had forgotten the key. He was about to go fetch it, when he noticed Pinkie Pie shiver even more, and the imprisoned ponies looked terrified; why would that be? “Spike, behind you!” Cried Twilight; pointing to the creature that had lurked into the room without them knowing. Spike turned around, only to see a furiously looking Garble glaring at him, and grinding his teeth. The dragon took a deep breath and everypony knew what was to follow so they prepared themselves to suffer the rampaging dragon’s fire they were currently defenseless to, unless Spike used his magic. “Hey Spike!” the dragon exhaled at once in a loud voice scaring and confusing the locked up ponies “You forgot the key, shrimp” he said placing said key on the baby dragon’s open hand. “Thanks buddy!” before turning around to open the door, Spike greeted the dragon who was now glaring at him once again, and this time seriously. “How many times should I tell you? We are not friends!” Shouted the angry dragons “we’re only allies” After all they had been through together the entire month, Spike didn’t believe his words, but Spike knew the dragon was proud enough to never confess their friendship was more like a rivalry. Now Spike had his magic going for him, so whenever they started a play fight he wasn’t so easy to take on. As stated before, the ponies went from scared, to a deep confusion almost as much as seeing Rarity back. Only this time even Pinkie Pie seemed to be surprised; as a matter of fact, her shivering stopped the very same instant Garble was nice to them. “Well that was a doozy!” she yelled both happily for the stopping of her constant and irritating shiver, and confused because she was terribly so. Spike was expecting to be received by a hit from his friends whenever he opened the door or a simple push away before they ran to choke Rarity in a tight embrace. However, he was rather surprised to see that nopony, except for Pinkie Pie who ran towards Rarity as expected, would do so. Instead, they would just stare blankly at the three of them: the thought to be dead mare, the supposedly traitor, and the unexpected ally. It wasn’t easy for Twilight to confess that Pinkie Pie was right once again, and she was sure she wouldn’t be mentioning it, but sweet Celestia was she glad to see her pale friend once again! She didn’t calmly walk towards her to greet friendly in a properly manner, but copied Pinkie Pie and rushed even faster than the party lover and hugged both Spike and Rarity at once. Neither of them saw that coming, especially from Twilight. After a minute or so of an awkwardly heartwarming embrace, Twilight broke apart and let the other four ponies greet their friend as well. It was incredible how clean she was compared to the rest of them, having no time or place to tidy themselves up, they were a mess. But not so long after they all greeted their dear friend, the question arose: What had happened? “Rarity, where have you been all this time?” asked Twilight “we had taken you for dead” Rarity seemed to be disgusted by her friend’s thought, and in response she deepened her frown at Spike. “Why, I was dealing with some important business with the princess in Canterlot” Rarity answered, not taking her stare from the dragon away, who didn’t seem to notice her indirect. “But I guess ‘some dragon’ should tell all of us how this all started.” Spike turned around to look at Rarity and this time he did notice the hint, so after a quick clearing of his throat he proceeded to answer. “I suppose I owe you at least an explanation” Spike said; everypony nodded in response, including Rarity whose frown wasn’t gone yet. “Then I shall begin:” It all began the night the dragons came to Ponyville. Their invasion had really struck us unprepared, and as you all might remember, King White cornered us. I remember that moment like it was yesterday. When he asked me to join his dragon army as his very own apprentice. Despite the fact that he was oppressing my friends as was bound to do who knew what to you guys, for a bit it seemed like a tempting deal. On the other hand, I was not going to leave you girls; but although my heart wanted to shout ‘no’ right at his face and leave with you, that wasn’t an option either. You girls were captured, so if I refused he’d have simply captured me as well. However, if I did choose to join him I’d have the opportunity to help you guys! The answer was obvious, and even though I hadn’t planned anything in advance, I accepted his invitation and began plotting. If I was to ensure that White was to trust me, I had to fully obey him for a while, and somehow manage to help my pony friends at the same time without arousing suspicion. Firstly, I knew I needed a far better reason to join him than just power; so I let everyone, including you, believe that I was indeed furious at how everypony treated me which, even though just a little, was true. Once I made you cry, I wanted to cry as well; but in the end it turned out your crying was the ultimate proof for him. Again, I’m awfully sorry for doing that. Trust wasn’t such a problem for now, but I still needed to set you free somehow. As a lucky response to that, came the King’s test. He wanted me to kill you; I’d have to find an excuse get out of it, but I didn’t need to. I’m not sure if I was just lucky or not, that Garble interrupted and minimized me; changing the king’s opinion on my test saying I couldn’t even capture you as I was. A brilliant idea came to my mind and I immediately pursued him to challenge me to do so. He felt for it and set you guys free. I still required to catch at least one of you before I could gain White’s approval, so my plan was to do so and somehow rescue her afterwards. Having the two dragons keeping an eye on me I had no choice but to chase the first pony I came across and do my best to capture her. To my dismay, it was Rarity. If anypony I didn’t have any intention of hurting it was her, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to make her feel this betrayed and endangered. Either way, I ended up chasing her until she made it into a house. Obliged to enter, I was surprised to see both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy there. The latter fled instantly, but Rainbow Dash stepped forward and faced my two companions outside; leaving Rarity and me alone. What a perfect moment to explain my…plan in progress. “Spike, why are you doing this?” I heard her say with the most cracked voice she ever had “Didn’t you love me?” I closed my eyes just after catching a glimpse of the tears running down her cheek that tore my heart apart, I couldn’t take it; but I had to. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.” I said coldly having in mind that the dragons might still be able to hear me. To avoid that, I hurried to set the room on fire and took Rarity to another one, far back from were Rainbow and the dragons were. I could tell she was in total shock, following me involuntarily without saying a word; but her tears were calming down. “I’m sorry I made you cry, Rarity. Please forgive me” I begged, literally on my knees. “I-I will, once you explain.” She answered. I stood once again and told her everything I’ve said so far, only at one hundred words per second. Honestly I thought she would follow my crazy story, but she did; how wouldn’t she? She was Rarity, the most beautiful pony ever. She’s best pony! After I finished explaining, and after my twentieth apology, I asked her if she was willing to pass as a prisoner, promising I would be freeing her and making sure she was alright. As much as I disliked it, I had no choice but to use her; I’d have to risk the most important pony in my life. For her part, she didn’t answer. She simply stood there, thinking; she was clearly in doubt, and I couldn’t blame her; it was a crazy idea itself. And she never finished her answer, she never had the chance. From a shadowy corner we saw yet another dragon come out, I never expected to have a third one keeping an eye on me. And as I feared, he had heard my entire conversation. If you think it was Garble, then you’re completely right. He glared at me with marked anger, maybe he was here to finish what he had started and had the proof to make him a hero for assassinating the traitor. “Well, well, well… Just when I thought you’d be joining us for once, you turn out to be pretending?” Asked Garble, making an irritating chuckle. I immediately stepped in front of Rarity, if he wanted to do something to me, fine, but no one messes with Rarity. “Did you actually think I’d leave my friends behind?” I tried to sound intimidating “Of course not! I’d never leave them! And you’ll see how they take care of your king!” I shouted full of anger before throwing my best fireball ever. It was hardly a scratch for him, pretending he didn’t notice the attack and stepping forward even more menacingly. “Tell me Spike, do you really think you have a chance against White?” he asked dangerously close to me. “With the elements of harmony on our side, it is you who should be afraid…” I honestly had no phrases left to use, had he said anything else I’d have verbally lost. “Then let me tell you… that I’m so glad to hear that” He said sighing. I’m not sure what exactly I did in response to what I heard, but I’m certain that not even Pinkie would have seen that coming. There was certainly something interesting happening that was above all the dragon invasion. It was about King White, who was he and what exactly did he want? How exactly did he convince the dragons to invade and what exactly was supposed to be gained from this war. All these questions were answered by Garble, illuminating a whole world, only I would be able to study. “That’s enough Spike” Garble interrupted the young dragon’s tale, pushing him sideways “take a break, I’ll tell this part of the story” He then continued with the reason behind King White. King White was born not so long before me, from an egg hatched by Princess Celestia herself. I didn’t know of the existence or importance of neither of them until a recent event, to be more specific, his awakening. Spike has read an enormous book on White’s origins so he understands this to the perfection, seriously how can he read so quickly? Anyway, what matters right now is who he is. He ruled alongside his brother for a really short time, at least for us dragons, until he was corrupted by a supposedly god of chaos, and almost killed his brother. Celestia and Luna casted a spell on him, and made him fall into deep one thousand years long sleep. Upon awakening, the evil dragon immediately turned up in the middle of our domain and demanded us to listen to him. He began saying how he was the rightful ruler of all us dragons, and all that nonsense. Some old dragons recognized his sovereignty, others however denied it. The ones who didn’t recognize his power and dared to face him, ended up being either controlled by his magic if they were weak minded, or eliminated if they opposed further resistance. Others not as smart were easily convinced with second hand speeches about what dragons really should have, how he could get it and bla, bla, bla…. Others, smart and at the same time not as proud, or loud, such as Spike and myself, pretended to be loyal to him; thus saving themselves and at the same time allowing us the opposition to fight back sometime, somehow. Finally, after White thought he had all the dragons under his command, he announced his plan to take over equestria for ‘gemstones’, although everyone with a dash of common sense can tell there was another reason; us dragons were very well dotted with resources enough for prosperity. That hidden reason, I assume, must be revenge towards the princesses. “Honestly Garble” Spike said when the red dragon finished his tiny part of the tale “nopony was really interested in that… as much as they want to know how exactly Rarity made her way to Canterlot” “Spike is definitely right, er…sugarcube?” said Applejack, unsure whether it was proper or not to call the dragon like that so soon. He didn’t seem to bother; his only problem was when Spike called him ‘buddy’. After hearing Garble’s story, both Rarity and I stared at him, unsure whether he was telling the truth or if it was just a lie to make us lower our guards. I had a shaking feeling that he was telling the truth, though honestly I can’t explain it. But if he was prone to help me, how exactly would he be doing so? “You’ve heard our plan; would you be helping me ensuring Rarity’s safety? That is, if she’s okay with that…” I quickly pointed out remembering she hadn’t given me a concrete answer yet; I realize now I sounded a lot like Fluttershy. By that time we saw the fire I created getting a tad closer to us, so we moved further to the back entrance though didn’t leave just in case there was a dragon to testify our schemes. “I just had a brilliant idea!” Rarity spoke out loud “better than pretending you captured me and keeping me here, why doesn’t Garble take me to Canterlot and you pretend you killed me! I remember hearing White saying he’d prefer you did so. Besides, you ensure my safety and I get to fetch the elements of harmony.” Rarity’s plan was indeed a good one, despite having a couple of flaws. First of all, we weren’t one hundred percent sure if Garble was being honest to us at all. Second, even if he was willing to take her there, how would he ensure their safe trip when there were thousands of dragons lurking the skies? “That is a good plan, I give you my word my lady, that I’ll protect you from any danger the trip might cause.” Garble was actually acting gentlecoltly. To be honest, I felt a little jealous when he spoke like that to Rarity. “But Rarity!” I interrupted “we still don’t know if he’s telling the truth, and how do you pretend he’ll protect you from the thousands of dragons lurking the skies?” Seriously, I was awfully worried for her and actually started to forget about my doubts about Garble’s loyalty and concerned more on the danger of the trip. “Don’t you worry, shrimp.” Answered Garble, overly confident for my liking “I am a great flier and can easily carry her weight without slowing down a bit; also us dragons have the ability to create a cloud of smoke to hide in.” “That sounds safe enough!” Rarity exclaimed cheerfully. Was she thinking about the dangers at all? She sounded too relaxed for a situation like that. “What do you think Spike?” She turned her eyes upon me, hypnotizing me with her beautiful gaze. What did I think? That it was utter madness, on the other hand it seemed like the best option then, and we were running out of time before the fire consumed the building and we had to reveal ourselves. I sighed before giving my opinion “I am terribly worried about what might happen to you, and I’ll miss you… a lot.” I don’t usually cry, but when I do I hardly feel it running through my face because of my thick scales. But this time, I don’t know why, I felt its chilly path on my scales. Rarity hugged me tightly most likely because she could see my concern for her. It felt so warm and calming, that my heart skipped a couple of beats. “Do you believe in my safe return?” I heard her whisper in my ear. “I do, and even in the darkest times I will.” The tear that was running through my face disappeared, as Rarity cleaned it off with her soft and beautiful hoof; then proceeded to give me a small kiss on my wet cheek. “Never stop believing, and I promise I’ll return. Here, have this.” She said cutting a lock of her hair and giving it to me “You can say you burned me, and that you could only retrieve this” That was the last thing I heard her say before they left, riding on Garble’s back and taking off into the horizon towards Canterlot hidden within a cloud of smoke. It would only be temporary; otherwise her health could be in trouble. Before I made my way outside to return to the king to give him my inform, I came across a small sapphire which I found to be perfect for a better fake proof than the lock of hair. Using every second I had before the building fell down, I shaped the sapphire into one of my famous sapphire flowers; considering the small time I used on it, it was good enough to pass for the real one. If I could only get you girls to see me smashing it to the ground into pieces, your expressions would be a perfect proof. When I arrived with King White and saw your illusionary copies there first I thought they were really you. So I made my little show by crushing the sapphire flower into the ground and seeing how White clapped at my achievement. Unluckily he still wanted to kill you, so I panicked and revealed him the element of harmony thing. Upon seeing how my words attracted his attention, I found out he was indeed afraid of such powers, so I made up the thing about the elements passing down on generations and ensured your safety. When you escaped I couldn’t be happier. First, you wouldn’t be hurt at all… at least physically. Second, in order not to kill any element of harmony wielder, dragons couldn’t kill anypony at all, considering they didn’t know who you were at all. The only noticeable pony was Rainbow Dash. During the rest of the entire month I’d do kind of a routine: studying magic with White and by myself, organizing the dragon troops, giving said information to princess Celestia and receiving her answers, making sure every dragon followed the order of ‘only prisoners’, and last but not least, keeping my heart warm as the Sun Celestia rises every day, by believing in Rarity. Spike noticed two things upon finishing his tale: a crying of happiness or sadness or whatever Pinkie Pie, and a sleepy Rainbow Dash. Of course she’d feel sleepy, she found most of his tale nothing else but a Spike and Rarity love story, or at least that’s how she viewed it, with all of Spike’s flattering Rarity. “And how did you get here?” asked Twilight to her unicorn friend “Garble was here last night so it’s impossible that he fetched you” “Oh, I came in a most fantastic way Twilight” The white unicorn answered “by pegasi pulled carriage, accompanied by Princess Luna herself.” She explained “she left to the Everfree Forest just before we came in here; she mentioned something about ‘meeting a friend of hers’.” “Wait a second here, if you tricked him to believe that he shouldn’t kill any element wielder, how did you cover Rarity? I mean, you supposedly killed an element wielder…” Asked Rainbow Dash; waking up from her boredom. “That was no problem at all” Spike quickly replied without much thought “At first I thought I’d simply reject any pony he captured from being the sixth. But then I learned an interesting fact, which had a lot to do with the princesses’ failure in returning White to harmony.” Spike suddenly felt all eyes on him and continued “Neither the princesses or White knew of the existence of the sixth element back then.” “Oh, so he thought there were only 5 of us?” Applejack double checked. Spike nodded in response. “So what now?” Asked Rainbow Dash. “Do we go kick his rear with the elements of harmony?” “That’s the plan” Spike answered “if we get White back to normal, then the brainwashed dragons are sure to calm down and most likely fall asleep in the act. But Princess Celestia told me to wait here until further notice; she said she’d tell me when the best time to come would be. You know, to avoid fighting an entire dragon army” “Wait, Princess Celestia is holding back an entire invasion all by herself!?” Twilight yelled at the poor dragon, whose sudden surprise could be told by his goosescales. Not to mention the fact that Twilight had an even more amazing magical power than what everyone ever imagined; last night Spike experienced it firsthand, and would never want to do it again. “Of course not, Twilight!” Rarity jumped in for Spike; after all, it was her who spent the last month with the princess “During this last month I have been helping princess Celestia form an important alliance with other species.” She explained “The buffalos are protecting Appleloosa alongside their residents, the griffins’ army is doing the same on Manehattan, and we even convinced a group of Diamond Dogs to help protect Blatimare; dragons’ are their natural enemy as they both collect gemstones.” “What about Canterlot?” asked the lavender unicorn “Isn’t that were the dragons are headed right now?” “Yes, it is. But I wouldn’t worry that much. After all, not only they have the entire Royal Guard, but Princess Celestia, Cadance, and your brother himself!” finished Rarity. “That’s right Twi” Spike said “even if they somehow get through your brother’s force field; they still have a great defensive power.” Convinced, Twilight took a deep breath and relaxed herself; she was working herself over nothing. She would be willing to ask how in Equestria they were supposed to infiltrate through their entire army to get close to White. And although Spike told her Celestia would say how and when, Twilight already knew they were going to lift the force field to distract the dragons with a short battle, even if risking themselves in it. “Say Rarity, do you have the elements with you?” Asked Twilight. “Why, yes Twilight.” Replied the white pony levitating the suitcase closer to Twilight “I have them right here.” So what was supposed to happen now? The strategy was pretty straight forward; they’d face White and harmonize his corrupted heart. Yes, it was way too much of a basic plan for Twilight’s comfort; a little more detail on how they were supposed to get even close to him or how they were going to use the elements without White blasted enormous balls of magical fire at them, it certainly wouldn’t be like the time they faced Discord, where he was overly confident and that led him to his doom. By all the things White had done during the entire month, they could tell that unlike Discord he would show absolutely no mercy. A dark blue flash snapped Twilight out of her concerns, for Princess Luna had made her appearance teleporting herself in the desired place. Twilight was deeply grateful to be in her presence once again, though at first glance could Twilight notice that Luna hadn’t had the pleasurable trip Rarity described. Even though not deep, Princess Luna was covered in scratches, whether from dragons or not she was unsure, and her mane was far from as clean as it usually was, for even big branches were stuck on it. Even mud splashed all over her! Seriously, what had happened to her? “We are truly sorry for our lateness, but we got carried away a little by our past” She apologized in her exquisite tone of voice, fortunately not her Royal one. What exactly did she mean, no one knew. “Your highness!” bowed everypony but Rarity, Garble and Spike. Obviously they had met before. “Please my little ponies, no need for such formalities” Luna explained “Spike, has my sister given you the order yet?” “I’m afraid she didn’t.” he replied shaking his head sideways “How has been liberation? You seem awfully dirty from that.” “It’s not exactly wounds from dragons, but I assure you that every dragon has fled with their tail between their legs.” What could Luna’s scratches be from? Spike never had the chance to ask, for the moment he wanted to, a familiar pain in his stomach appeared. His words interrupted by his sudden need to burp, all his friends eyes staring at him once again, expecting him to bring the news that’d notify what was going on in Canterlot. It definitely felt like Luna’s appearance was of no importance, and all they wanted to do was to read Celestia’s letter. From the green flame that Spike burped formed a so familiar scroll with the Royal stamp. Immediately after it appearing, Spike grabbed it and read it for himself before aloud. It wouldn’t have made any difference if he had decided to read it aloud in the first place; his expression showing such fear and confusion seemed to be enough for them to spread alongside the general idea of what could possibly be happening. After finishing a first glance, a loud gasp could be heard just before a ‘oh no’ and if somepony hadn’t guessed from his expression that they were bad news it was now that they’d know. “What is it Spike?” Twilight asked, afraid of knowing the answer. Spike read it aloud. “My Faithful Student, It is common knowledge that your loyalty was not exactly pure, Spike. As well as I now know what your plan was, I know you managed to slip the five Elements of Harmony right past me. So I’d like you to give it a try if you’re dragon enough; that is, if you can get through my full pledged army. As I assumed, Celestia was clearly no match for my renewed power, but I shall give Celestia one last chance to see her subjects die for her before I achieve my ultimate vengeance. And once I see you burn within the flames of my dragons, I shall do the same to all of Equestria. Your soon to be your doom, King White.” “Why do you all look so terrified?” Asked Luna reading the piece of parchment. “I honestly don’t see what the problem is; we still have the elements of harmony to defeat him.” “He’s telling us he has already taken over Canterlot!” Spike explained, not so well. “That means he must have already defeated my brother and the entire Royal Guard!” Twilight added. “And now we need to get through his whole army?” Rainbow panicked a little. Fluttershy on the other hoof, surprisingly hadn’t had a heart attack yet. “They have an army?” Luna asked, raising her eyebrow and grinning a little, trying to hide something. Luna awaited for Twilight to nod at her before she made a loud whistle, what for? Once again who knew? “Twilight please… we have an Ursa!” To their surprise, a sudden shaking could be felt, but it stopped quickly, and then continued, and stopped. It followed a certain rhythm, like it was footsteps; giant footsteps followed by a loud roar very different from a dragon’s one. What’s more, another shaking could be felt as the roof of the building was torn apart. What could be seen looking at them from above, nothing less than the dreaded Ursa Mayor! There was a loud girly squeal, coming from no other than Garble, who was scared to his bones. Every other pony, including Spike, where completely frozen from fear, surprise, and amazement. “I-is this g-good news?” Twilight hesitated to ask. Luna didn’t answer verbally, but flew to match the Ursa’s mouth’s height, to receive a friendly lick soaking all her face in galactic saliva. “I have raised Big Blue ever since it was just a little Ursa Minor” Luna explained, though Big Blue was no longer blue, but a dark purple. ‘Little?’ everypony thought; they had encountered an Ursa Minor and they knew for sure that it was anything but little. “And now I find out she had a baby” Luna smiled “I’m so very happy for her” “So those wounds…” Twilight asked “they are from her?” “Why, yes. After one thousand years of my absence she found herself a new life, and almost forgot about me. So when I invaded her territory, well you can imagine how she received me” Luna said. Wasn’t Princess Luna just awesome? She was the Princess of the night, guardian of the dreams, and tamer of the stars. With this recent addition to the ponies’ small party, the plan was surely to be easier to develop. But it wasn’t all; what’s a mother without her son? Another couple of rhythmical shakings could be felt as a smaller version of the Ursa mayor, this time blue, and particularly familiar to Twilight. In fact, this one seemed to stare at Twilight, in a very… friendly way; why would that be? “Huzzah!” Luna exclaimed “The Ursa has been doubled!”