//------------------------------// // Down In Flames // Story: The Emerald Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "MY BABIES!" Mrs. Cake cried as she pulled herself out of the grasps of the fireponies and barreled into Spike, grabbing her children out of his claws while knocking him into the dirt, face first. She clutched them close as they giggled at Spike, who sighed into the ground. Spike pulled his face out of the dirt and rubbed it off as he got back to his feet, looking around to realize that the crowd of ponies were all looking at him with awe in their eyes. Spike didn't know what to say to them, although he was a bit afraid that they'd recognize him, not knowing that the ring had re-constructed his green mask back onto his face. The crowd of ponies looked at him in awe for only a minute before Spike found himself surrounded by a swarm of ponies, each of whom was asking him a different question. "Who are you?" one of them to his left asked. He tried to answer but was cut off by another question. "Are you a super pony?" another asked. Again he tried to answer, but was once again cut off. "Why are you wearing all green?" Spike was now completely swarmed by the ponies who were all either trying to get into his face or poked at his suit, scaring him a little but also making him angry. "ENOUGH!" he yelled with a bit of rage, as he willed a shield to push all the ponies back, the ring doing as he willed. The large crowd shrieked as the green energy burst from his ring and formed a barrier around him, that quickly removed them from his personal space. Once they were all away from him, Spike let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. Now you can ask your questions." "Who are you?" was the first question that was yelled out from the crowd, the question being asked by a unicorn reporter that had forced his way to the front of the crowd. "Are you a super pony or what?" Spike looked down at his ring, wondering if having this power actually DID make him a super pony...dragon. But if he were a superdragon, then he would need a cool name. What had the ring said he was a part of again? "Call me...the Green Lantern," Spike said with a smile as he held up the ring for all the ponies to see, letting it glow with power. The crowd went silent for a minute before they began to laugh. "What's wrong with Green Lantern?" Spike asked softly as he felt his face go red under the green mask as the crowd laughed at the name. "No, that name won't do," the reporter said as he leviated the notepad in front of him, placing his pen under his chin as he started to think. "Well after that display and the fact that you're a dragon, how about you call yourself...the Emerald Dragon." The reporter looked to Spike for some sign of praise, but Spike had begun to laugh at the name just as hard as the crowd had at his name. "What's wrong with the Emerald Dragon?" "It sounds like something out a bad comic," Spike said as he tried to wipe a tear from his eye, only to be stopped by the mask. "Thanks for the suggestion, but I'll stick with the Green Lantern." The reporter shrugged and decided to write down the Emerald Dragon for his column anyway. The crowd had gathered around him again to continue their questioning, but they were all interupted by Mrs. and Mr. Cake, who pushed their way to the front. "Um, can I help you two?" he asked them nervously, hoping that they wouldn't see through his disguise. "We...just wanted to thank you for rescuing our children," Mrs. Cake said with a soft smile, watching as her two foals tried to crawl off her back to get to Spike. "They mean everything to us, and to think that we almost lost them in the fire..." Mrs. Cake teared up at that part and couldn't continue due to emotion. Spike smiled at the foals before he looked past them towards the buildings that were still a smoldering mess, sighing sadly at the sight of what used to be everypony's favorite place to hang out. "I'm sorry about your home," Spike said with guilt, upset that he hadn't been able to save the homes or the ponies that had been trapped inside. "If I had arrived sooner, I would have been able to help more." Mrs. Cake hoofed the babies over to her husband before placing Spike in a hug. "We can live without our home for a while," she said with a smile, gently hugging him. "But I wouldn't be able to live without my babies. Pumpkin was only supposed to be teleporting, but then she started shooting fire and...Thank you for saving them. It may not be much, but here." Spike looked at her hoof with wide eyes, not believing the sapphire that she was offering him. It was incredible, something that he had only dreamed of seeing in his lifetime. "It was given to me by my mother, but I think you should have it for saving us." He looked up at her to make sure that it was okay and gently held it in his claws when she nodded. He used the ring's power to levitate it in the air beside him before looking around at the crowd, all of them looking at him while waiting to see if he'd do something else incredible. He decided that it was time to leave and head over to Rarity's, so he raised his ring into the air and willed a flash of green to go off. It did so, causing the ponies to scream and cover their eyes to protect them from the green light. When the light died down and they were finally able to see again, they found to their disappointment that the dragon was gone. IOI Spike had flown off the moment that the flash of light had gone off, heading back home to recharge. He landed behind the three after looking around to make sure that no other ponies were around to see him and his secret. He willed the suit back into the ring and smiled to himself when he watched the green suit become one with the ring. He looked down at himself, just to be certain that the green suit was gone, before he headed to the front of the library, opening the door and going inside, careful to keep his sapphire out of sight. "Well that was something," Spike said to no one in particular, as he placed his back on the door and slid down to the floor. Spike closed his eyes and began to rub them, trying to get the smoke out of his eyes. Only now after everypony was safe did Spike finally begin to panic, panicking about the fact that he had thrown himself into a raging inferno! 'Who in their right mind does that?' Spike asked himself as he placed his hands on his head and began to rock back and forth, unaware of the fact that his fear had broken the ring's hold on the sapphire and had dropped it to the floor. "Woo?" Owliscious asked as he opened an eye at the sound of the gem hitting the floor. Owliscious stretched his wings while cracking his neck before he flew off his perch and gently landed next to Spike, looking at him with a curious look. "Woo?" he asked Spike again, pecking his foot with his beak and startling Spike out of his panic attack. "Oh, sorry about that Owliscious, I guess that I panicked a bit," Spike said with a shaky laugh as he got back up and began to walk over to his friend. "I'm really lucky that I had the ring with me, or else I would have been a crispy dragon," he said with a small laugh as he showed Owliscious his ring. The owl tilted his head to the side as he looked at the ring with interest, the green glow of the ring reflecting in his eyes. "Woo?" he asked Spike as he titled his head to the other side, changing his gaze from the ring to Spike and giving him a curious glance. "Yeah, this is what I used to save the foals, although I couldn't completely save the buildings," he said with a sad sigh, turning his fist towards him and looking at the ring with a confused look. "Although there is one thing I didn't get. Why did you create that massive dragon when I didn't will it? I thought you only listened to me?" 'You willed to save the young ones, but you did not specify how. I simply turned that will into a construction of your inner self,' the ring explained, causing Owliscious to hop over and look at the ring with narrowed eyes. Spike had to pull the ring away when Owliscious began to peck at it, Spike assuming that he didn't like the ring. "Leave it alone, it won't hurt you," Spike said as he used his hand to try and keep Owliscious away from the ring. Spike was amazed though, that the ring had actually converted his sheer willpower into the dragon he had always dreamed himself of being, even if he wasn't sure he liked the fact that it could do that without his approval. But at the moment, he had more pressing matters to attend to, the other matter being the sapphire that he had been given by the Cakes. It was a thing of beauty, truly something that he would treasure for all time. But what interested him was that normally Mrs. Cake would fight tooth and nail to protect this, but she just gave it away when he helped her family. Spike looked at the jewel in his claw, a thought beginning to come to him. If he was rewarded this handsomely for saving two foals, what else could he get for helping others with his new powers? He looked from the sapphire to the ring, realizing that this ring might have been the best thing to ever happen to him. "Oh crap, I'm going to be late for my meeting with Rarity!" Spike yelped in realization, snapping his thoughts away from his ring and scaring Owlscious into jumping off the floor. He used his ring to encompass the sapphire and moved it up the stairs to his room. "Bye Owliscious, I promise to let you fly around outside when you get back!" he yelled to his friend as he threw open the door and raced out into the streets, leaving Owliscious to close the door behind him. Owliscious hooted as he shut the door and flew back to his perch near the window, closing his eyes and trying to ignore what he had just seen. It was weird, since he didn't remember Spike having orange eyes. IOI Spike raced down the street on cloud nine as he headed towards Rarity's house, his heart already feeling better about the day and the thought of being re-united with her again. He was practically skipping down the street with joy, gaining him some odd looks from the ponies, considering the fire that had nearly burned down the town. He tried to ignore the looks and the destruction as he finally came to a stop out front of the Carousel Boutique, slicking his scales back so that he looked good and turning the ring inward so that she didn't get suspicious. He then gathered up his courage and grabbed the door handle, opening the door to heaven. "Rarity, I'm..." Spike began as he ran into the store, but his words came to a stop as he saw what the place looked like. The store looked like a hurricane had run through it and personally re-located all of Rarity's material all across the shop. Thread was strewn across the ceiling like rainbow-colored cobwebs, while most of her fabrics were ripped to shreads on the floor. A normal pony would have thought that something had happened, but Spike spent most of his time around Rarity and knew that all of this chaos ment that she was on the verge of an idea. The shop never stayed clean, no matter how hard Rarity (and Sweetie Belle) tried to keep it clean. Spike began to tread carefully through the minefield that was her store, making his way to the back where Rarity should be hard at work. Just as he had suspected, he found Rarity running back and forth, levitating a number of materials and items with her magic as she seemed to be completely freaking out. "AUGH! There simply isn't enough time!" she screamed to herself, as she tossed a number of fabrics onto a sewing table and began to tear them apart with her scissors, her bloodstained eyes constantly looking back up at the clock in the corner of her room that was going fast just for her. "With that monstrous blaze earlier, I haven't been able to get anything done. Oh, why in all of Equestria did Sapphire Shores have to pick tomorrow of all days to show up?" Spike watched her panic from the doorway, a stupid smile plastered on his face as he watched the beauty that was Rarity. Everything about her was beautiful, from her frazzled mane to her worried expression. Minute after minute went by, with Spike just staring at her before he snapped out of his stupor and remembered the reason that he had come here in the first place. "Rarity, your help has arrived!" Spike proclaimed as he stepped out from behind the doorway in a triumphant voice, smiling at her with his chest held out. All of his bravado was immediately ruined by the fact that Rarity didn't notice him, since she rushed right by him and started to try multiple different hats on a model with a very odd dress on it. Spike stood silently with his chest still stuck out, hoping that Rarity would notice him. After five minutes of waiting, Spike's chest (along with his ego) deflated like a balloon, and he let his arms down with a frown. He then walked over to Rarity and gently pulled on her tail to gain her attention, which had the unintended consequence of freaking her out. "O-oh, I'm sorry Spikey-Wikey, I didn't see you come in," Rarity said as she clutched her chest, her heart beating fast. "I've just been so busy with my work of late, that I haven't been able to get much sleep, and so I'm a little tired." "I can see that," Spike muttered, as he looked at her mane and the bags under her eyes that he hadn't noticed until he had gotten close to her. "But fortunately for you, your knight has arrived to help you out!" he said with a huge smile as he puffed out his chest again. Rarity, in her tired state, once again walked right by him and back to her sewing machine, causing Spike to roll his eyes with a sigh. "Rarity, do you need any help?" he asked as he walked up beside her, waving his hand in her face to gain her attention. "Help? Why yes, that sounds lovely," she said , giving him a grateful smile so beautiful that it nearly melted his heart. "How about you go get the boxs of thread from the top of the wardrobe in the other room. I seem to have run out." Spike did as she requested, but as he walked out into the other room, he noticed with a sigh that the thread that was supposed to be in the box was still all over the ceiling. He placed his hands on his hips and looked up at the thread with a frown, wondering how he was going to get all of it down. He normally would use a ladder, but he stopped trusting those years ago. Then he smiled to himself, wondering what he was thinking. Somepony like him didn't use ladders. Spike held up his right hand and flipped the ring around so that the symbol was facing forward. He then pointed it at the ceiling, aiming with one eye closed. He willed a giant pair of green scissors into the ring and smiled as they formed in front of him. With three well place cuts and a bit of pulling, he managed to make most of the thread come down into one giant bundle. "Ha, that was a lot easier than usual," he said with a grin as he turned around and headed back to Rarity, holding the massive bundle of thread in his arms. Since there was so much thread, he actually had trouble seeing where he was going and ran into a wall twice, before he managed to make it through the door frame. "Rarity, I got the thread like you wanted!" "Thank you, Spike. Um, why are almost all my threads cut?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow, to which he responded with whistling and avoiding her gaze. She sighed as she levitated the thread from him and headed back over to the sewing table, placing the threads down and starting to get back to work. "Ugh, I wouldn't be this far behind if it hadn't been for the blaze that nearly burned down the town. But I am glad that nopony got hurt," she quickly added with a blush. "Fortunately, there was that Emerald Dragon that everypony's talking about there to save the foals." Spike's ears pricked up at the sound of Rarity mentioning his...well, his alias' name. "So...you've heard about the Emerald Dragon, huh?" he asked her nonchalantly as he sat down on a chair while avoiding her gaze, but looked over at her when he hoped she wasn't looking. "What do you think of him?" "I think that it's amazing that Ponyville has its own hero again," Rarity said with a sigh as she walked over to her window, looking out of it as her fatigue faded away at the thought of the hero. "Yes, a hero that's kind and strong. Oh, how I've wanted a pony like that to come and sweep me off my hooves for the longest time," she whispered to herself with dreamy eyes. Spike could barely hold back his excitement at what he was hearing, not believing that Rarity had fallen for the Emerald Dragon. This could finally be his chance. "Rarity, I kinda have something to tell you," Spike began as he hopped off his chair and slowly powered up the ring to show her. That's when Rarity let out her sigh of frustration. "But why did he have to wear green?" she groaned to herself with a huff, a huff that stopped Spike in his tracks. "Oh, he would be the perfect stallion...dragon for me...if only he didn't wear the color green." Spike looked down at the green ring, his face and hopes falling at what Rarity had said. She hated the color green, which happened to be the same color of his ring. "Is the green really that bad?" he asked her, trying to see if he had a chance. "Of course, Spike. You remember what Trixie did to me back when she first arrived here, don't you?" Rarity reminded him with a look of rage, remembering that shame and humiliation that had been cast upon her. Spike saw the familiar fire in her eyes and decided that even with his ring, pushing this conversation further would most likely get him killed. Fortunately, he was saved from a rant from Rarity by the sound of the front door bursting open, and what sounded like books being thrown to the floor. "That would be Sweetie Belle...and from the sound of things it sounds like another bad day," Rarity said with a groan as she placed her hoof to her forehead. "Let us go see what is the matter this time." Rarity walked out of the room with Spike closely following her, as the two of them went to check up on Sweetie. Rarity shook her head when she saw Sweetie's books strewn all over the living room, before noticing that there was a yellow note on the rug as well. Rarity levitated it over to her and quickly read it, shaking her head with a sigh when she finished. "What's wrong?" Spike asked her as she set the note down and walked over to the kitchen, where the sounds of pots crashing onto the floor and doors being slammed could be heard. "Nothing that you need to worry yourself over," she told him with a tired sigh, as she walked into the kitchen and closed the door behind her while Spike stood behind the door, pressing his ear against it so that he could hear what they were saying. "Sweetie, why do you have this note from your teacher in your bag?" Spike couldn't hear Sweetie's reply since her voice sounded muffled, but he could hear a bit of sorrow in her tone. He could hear Rarity sigh in response which was followed by the sound of a chair being pulled across the kitchen. "Sweetie, I know that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon can be mean sometimes, but violence isn't the answer. There's nothing beautiful about violence," Rarity said to her gently, followed by more mumbling from Sweetie. "Yes, I know that as the Elements of Harmony we sometimes have to use violence, but that's only as a last resort--and not because we were called a blank flank or a failure. We are sophisticated ponies; we must act better than that." Spike frowned when Rarity mentioned Diamond Tiara, because Scootaloo and Applebloom had both said that they had been having problems with her as well. He wasn't paying attention as Sweetie jumped out of her chair and stalked over to the door, kicking it open and right into the purple dragon's face. "OHMYGOSH! Spike, are you alright?" she asked him with a sceam as he fell flat on his back. The designs that Rarity had crafted onto the door were now ingrained on his face. Sweetie and Rarity both rushed to his side as he slowly started rubbing his head, blinking as he saw little spots flashing before his eyes. "I am so sorry, I didn't know you were there," she said as she and Rarity helped him to sit up, wincing at the marks on his face. "That's...alright," he said weakly as the two mares helped him back to his feet, staggering a bit as he rubbed his eyes to help clear his vision. While Rarity was too busy looking over his face to make sure that nothing was broken, Sweetie looked down at his hand and noticed a small green ring with an odd symbol on it. She only had a second to look at it before Spike placed that hand behind his head and started to rub the back of it, while bashfully smiling as Rarity started to mend his wounds. "Aw, come on Rarity, you really don't need to do this. I'm fine, just hurt my nose a bit." "Poor Spikey-Wikey. I'm terrible sorry this happened," Rarity said sympathetically, casting a mad glance at her sister and indicating that she apologize again. Sweetie shuffled her hooves and looked away from Spike's eyes. "S-sorry about that, Spike," she said sadly. "I didn't mean to hit you." "That's alright, dragons are tough anyway," Spike said with a grin, trying not to blush at the fact that Rarity was putting banadages on his face. Rarity finished up and backed away with a sigh, looking over his face to make sure that she hadn't missed a spot. "I think that I got all of the scratches, so you're good to go," Rarity said with a smile, which quickly turned into a frown when she turned around to see all the work she had left to do. "I'm never going to finish all of this work in time," she said with a groan, putting both hooves over her eyes. "I'll help you Rarity!" Spike said eagerly as he raced to her side. "Thank you, Spike, but I couldn't ask you to..." she began to say, but the desperate look in his eyes convinced her that maybe she could use his help. "Very well, but I don't want you to overtax yourself. As for you Sweetie," Rarity said to her sister, turning her head to catch Sweetie Belle, who had been trying to sneak out of the room. "Your punishment for getting into a fight at school and for smashing Spike's face in with a door, will be to help me and Spike with work tonight." "But tomorrow, me and the girls were going to..." Sweetie began, but a look from Rarity silenced anything she was going to say. Sweetie gave a defeated sigh with a hang of her head and walked over to join the two. Rarity began to order them around as she started constructing the lower half of the dress on which she had been working. Spike started working with a smile, turning himself into a pin cushion while holding a huge stack of fabric for Rarity. Sweetie started working with a sigh as she gathered up sewing needles, but watched Spike the entire time they worked. She was wondering why he had a ring like that or why it was so odd. She shook her head with a sigh as Rarity called out for her to join them in the crafting room, and she yelled out that she was coming, all thoughts of the green ring leaving her mind for the time being.