//------------------------------// // Not So Secret // Story: The Emerald Dragon // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "I thought that you said that you weren't going to tell anypony!" Spike yelled as he threw his arms in the air, not believing that Twilight had broken her promise to him. "By anypony I meant the ponies of this town! Of course I'm going to tell the leader of the land that my assistant has one of the most powerful and dangerous weapons that Equestria has ever seen!" Twilight shot back, rolling her eyes at the fact that Spike took this as a shock. She reported everything that happened to the princess, why would this be any different? And all the while the two argued Princess Celestia sat at Twilight's table drinking tea, looking back and forth between the two as they continued their heated debate. "We agreed to keep this a secret! You promised that you wouldn't reveal the fact that I had the ring to anypony!" Spike said again with just as much annoyance. "And out of all the ponies you could have told, you tell the most powerful alicorn in all of Equestria who specializes in destroying anything that might hurt her subjects?! Twilight, if you hated me you just had to say so!" "He has a point there, Twilight," Celestia said with a small smile. "But I have to tell the princess Spike. You saw what one of those rings could do if they fell into the wrong hooves!" Twilight said, trying to reason with the dragon. "We are still repairing the town from the damage that was caused when your ring and the orange ring collided. She needs to know so that we can be ready in case another ring shows up." "And what do you think of that Spike?" Celestia asked, secretly enjoying the debate. She should be in her castle right now discussing a new tax law with her advisors, something she greatly hated. So she took any excuse to escape the castle and a letter from Twilight saying that Spike had a dangerous weapon was a gift from the heavens. "I think that she could have at least told me that she was going to tell you instead of leaving me in the dark like she normally does," Spike said with a huff as he sat down and folded his arms, avoiding looking at Twilight. "I'm really getting sick if being left out of the loop." "I was going to tell you, but you didn't come back from Rarity's until after I had already sent the letter via derp mail," Twilight explained as she tried to get him to face her, but he turned away each time she tried to get close. "The other ring seemed to come for you along with the green one. With Celestia in the know, she can help keep you safe. Can't you see that I'm trying to help you?" 'She brings up valid points,' the green ring on Spike's right claw interjected. "You stay out of it," Spike grumbled back, while Celestia raised her eyebrows at the fact that the ring could apparently talk. "If I may," Celestia began as she placed her cup on the table and rose up, her regal appearance distracting the bickering duo long enough for her to speak. "I do agree with Twilight in saying that it was wise to alert me to the rings and their powers. When I saw the destruction the other day I thought that Sombra might be back again. However Twilight, you should have told Spike what you were planning to do before you did it. The two of you should be able to trust each other as a family, not having to argue about ever decision one of you makes. Now please apologize to each other." Spike rubbed his arm as a bit of guilt coursed through him while he looked at the floor, Twilight having similar feelings. "...Sorry that I got mad at you Twilight. I just don't like not being told things," he said with guilt in his voice. Twilight sat behind him and wrapped a wing around his shoulder, pulling him into a hug. "And I shouldn't have brought the princess down here without telling you," Twilight said as she gently nuzzled Spike. "I need to remember that you aren't as young as you used to be and I might need to start treating you as an adult dragon soon. Forgive me?" "Sure." Celestia smiled as the two tightened their grip on each other as a certain owl who had just woken up fluttered down from his perch and landed on her should, looking at the two with somewhat bleary eyes. "Hoo," he said with a small nod of his head. "You said it," Celestia responded as the dragon and alicorn let go of each other, both facing her as she cleared her throat. "Now that the two of you have made up, may I please see the ring that has caused all this fuss?" Spike stood up and held out his right claw, allowing Celestia to bring her face close to his claw to see the green ring with the strange symbol in the center which caused her to furrow her brow. "Yes...this is definitely alien in design, but I have no clue as to where it might be from. Spike, in Twilight's report she said that you can do anything with the ring, correct? Can you give me a demonstration?" Spike nodded and pointed his ring in the air, smiling as Celestia's eyes widened when a small green dragon appeared and started to fly around the room. "Pretty cool, huh?" he asked as Celestia blinked twice to make sure that she was seeing things clearly. "The ring told me that if I will it, it can happen. So far there hasn't been anything that I can't do with it, except get out of cleaning the library." "Oh don't give me that, I only ask you to clean it once a week," Twilight shot back, the two of them starting to bicker again as Celestia held out a hoof to allow the small, snake like dragon to land on her hoof. She frowned slightly as the creature swayed back in fourth in her hoof, not liking the feel of it. It definitely felt foreign to her, like something that didn't belong in this world. Spike said something to Twilight that distracted him from the construct and the green dragon vanished from Celestia's hoof in a green light, leaving the alicorn princess worried. "Twilight. Spike," Celestia said in her serious tone, causing the two to stop fighting and to turn their attention to her again. "I do not know what these rings are, but they are indeed a source of great power. Twilight, from what you told me Spike has been using the green one in a responsible manner, so I see no need to take it from him. I do want the orange one that was trapped by the Elements to come back with me to Canterlot for closer examination however. Is this okay with the two of you?" "Sure, that rings caused nothing but trouble," Spike said with a frown, remembering how it had taken control of him. "Hoo," Owlicious said as he floated near the clock, reminding the small dragon of a certain appointment that he needed to keep. "GAH! I'm late for Rarity's again!" Spike said as he shot into the air and flew to the door, barely remembering to land before he threw the door open to leave. "By Twilight deal with this for me thanks bye!" he yelled all at once as he sprinted out the door and down the streets, leaving Twilight to growl in frustration. "Sure, he'll run down the street as fast as he can to help Rarity, but the moment I need his help he'll do anything to get out of it," she grumbled as she levitated the ring covered in stone up from the basement, walking over to Celestia with it. "I know he likes her, but despite me raising him he won't race like that to reorganize some books for me. Why do you suppose that is?" Celestia gave Twilight no answer as she looked down at the small ring that floated before her, liking this one even less than the green one Spike had held. The green one had filled her with determination and the will to do, even making her think that the taxes weren't so hard. But this one was different, this one made her feel like she should take everything in the kingdom as her own. And that was with the Elements blocking out its true power. "I do not know Twilight, but I hope that these are the only two of the rings that we have to deal with," Celestia muttered to herself as Owliscious sat back down on her shoulder, looking at the ring with a cold stare. IOI Spike hated running as he saw it as a pointless exercise that only ponies that couldn't fly or be carried someplace else should have to do, but he had no issues running as fast and tiringly as he could to his beloved. Any fatigue he had melted away when he saw her beautiful eyes and majestic mane. So he didn't care that all the ponies looked at him funny as he zipped in between them or that he occasionally stepped in a mud hole that slowed him down. It was all worth it. In fact, he could feel his fatigue already beginning to fade away when he saw the front doors of the Carousel and from the quick glimpses of a white mare running back and forth inside, he knew that Rarity was there. "Rarity, I'm here!" Spike sang as he threw open the doors and ran inside, a huge smile crossing his face when he saw Rarity turn to look at him with relief spreading across her face. "Oh Spikey-Wikey, thank heavens that you are here," she said as she rushed up to him, her mane once again frizzled and the bags under her eyes telling him that she had gotten no sleep again. "I desperately need your help." "I live to serve," he said in a deep voice as he bowed. "What do you need?" "Well, I was going to reorganize all of my material today, but then I remembered that I had Pinkie promised Pinkie that I would help her decorate the Cake's store since it has finally been rebuilt from that horrendous fire. And you know what would happen if I broke a Pinkie promise, don't you?" Spike shivered and held both his claws to his ears as he tried to silence the screams that echoed across his memory. "I remember," he said in a whisper as the ghost went away, shaking silently. "Then you'll reorganize the place for me?" "Yeah, don't worry about it. Go help Pinkie." Rarity gave a squee of delight and shot out of the Boutique, leaving Spike to look around the room with a look of pain on his face. It looked like two tornados had hit the place and decided that they didn't like any of Rarity's things, since practically everything she owned was thrown around the room. "Spike, why do you keep getting yourself into these kinds of messes?" he asked himself as he pointed his ring at the first clump of fabrics, willing a claw to pick them up for him. He sighed as he created a second claw that pulled open a drawer where he began to place the fabrics inside one at a time by color. "I swear that this ring makes everything easier," he muttered to himself with a small smile as he continued to work, quickly doing what would take him an hour in a little under ten minutes. "How I organized the library on a weekly basement without you is just-" Spike spun around with his ring claw extended as his eyes looked around the room, listening closely for a sound. He thought that he had heard something from the room, but he wasn't sure. "Ring, scan the room and tell me if there is anything alive in here." The ring let out a green light that slowly went around the entire room, not missing an inch of it. 'No other life forms detected,' it eventually said, allowing Spike to let loose a sigh of relief. 'Must've been my imagination,' he thought to himself as he went back to work, stacking boxes as he saw fit and fixing pictures that had somehow managed to get themselves lodged in the ceiling. He wondered sometimes how the place got that messy when the owner could be so artistic and find the perfect place for every strand of silk. He had to use multiple green claws to pick up all the pieces of paper of flawed designs, but he figured that he was just about finished with the- TINK! Spike swung his head to the side so quickly that he was certain that he had given himself whiplash, but that wasn't his biggest concern at the moment. What all his attention was focused on was the small white filly that was standing at the bottom of the stairs staring at him with a hot water bottle on her head and a towel that was wrapped around her body, a thermometer lying on the ground from where it had fallen from her awe struck mouth. Spike didn't know if his or Sweetie's eyes were wider at the moment, but he did know that her eyes were on the multiple green claws that were holding up the pieces of paper. 'It seems that you have been found out,' the ring said, breaking the awkward silence. "Oh my Celestia," Sweetie whispered as she slowly walked forward, sliding the water bottle off of her head and looking up at the green claws that followed her with nothing but awe on her face. "You're the Emerald Dragon!" she screamed excitedly, before a bolt of realization hit her. "...Of course you’re the Emerald Dragon, you're the only dragon in all of Ponyville. How did we miss that? Oh who cares, you're a superhero!" "Sweetie, I know that this must be a big shock and that you want to go tell everypony about it, but you need to promise me that you won't," Spike said quickly, retracting all of the claws back into the ring and rushing to the windows to close the blinds. He spun around once he had done so and glared down at his ring. "What the heck ring? You said that there wasn't any other life in the room?!" 'There wasn't. You asked me to scan the room for life and I did so. You did not ask me to scan the entire structure.' Spike slammed is face into his hand as the ring said this, but he had to focus on the fact that another pony had figured out what he had. He looked up at Sweetie Belle, who seemed to be trying (and failing) to contain her excitement. "I can't believe that the only dragon I know happens to be the new hero in Equestria!" she squealed as she started to bounce up and down excitedly with a huge smile on her face. "Rarity is going to freak when she finds out! I can't wait to-" "Sweetie," Spike interrupted quickly before she could finish that train of thought. "You have to promise me that you won't tell anypony about what you found out." "Why?" she asked in confusion. "If I was a hero I'd want everypony to know. You're everyponies hero! Heck, you're my hero!" "I know that it would be cool but...I just want it kept secret for a while, until I'm ready to tell the others. Can you please keep it a secret?" Spike asked, practically begging at this point. The green ring was the only good thing to happen to him in a while and while Twilight and Celestia might be fine with him having it, he wasn't so sure that the others would be, especially after the incident with the orange him. Sweetie placed a hoof under her chin and thought about it for a minute, a minute that Spike had to spend waiting while wringing his tail in his claws. "...Alright, I'll keep it a secret," she eventually agreed, letting Spike sigh in relief. "But..." she began quickly as she walked up to him with a smile on her face. "I want you to show me how the ring works. Or else I may let it slip that Spike is-" "Okay, I'll show you," Spike grumbled as a question came to mind. "Why are you here anyway? Don't you have school today?" "Yeah, but I woke up with a bad cold this morning, thanks to the rain we both got stuck in last night," she said with a bit of a cough as she pointed to the hot water bottle that lay on the floor. "Ugh...and now that the adrenaline’s worn off, I'm starting to feel terrible again. Whatever, just show me how the ring works!" Spike sighed and willed the ring to construct Twilight. "The ring works by willing whatever you want to appear," he said as the full scale Twilight walked up to the amazed Sweetie and smiled before vanishing in a green light. "As long as I have the will to do something, the ring will do it." "That is so cool! Can I try?" she asked him with a huge smile. "Sorry, but the ring only works for a pony who it's chosen," Spike said quickly, glad that the ring had that rule or else he'd have to hand a weapon of unbelievable power to one of the filly's known for her destructive powers. "And I'm the only pony...dragon that it has chosen. So even if I gave the ring to you, it wouldn't work." Spike felt a quick twinge of guilt at the lie, but Sweetie staggered a bit and would have fallen over if he hadn't caught her. "Ugh, I'm not feeling so well," she said weakly as she struggled back to her hooves. Spike rolled his eyes and figured that the sudden shock of finding out his identity had drained her. So he used the ring to construct a green bed for her to rest on as he walked her back up the stairs and to her room, placing her gently back in her bed with a shake of his head. "Okay, you should probably rest up for a day or two. Trust me, when Twilight works herself to the point where she collapses, rest is the only answer." Sweetie mumbled in response and rolled over in her bed before she began to snore, telling Spike that it was time to leave. He left the room and closed the door behind him, sighing again as he looked down at the green ring. "And another pony figures out that I have you. Can't you make yourself invisible or something?" he asked it. 'I have no such feature.' "I figured as much. Come one, let's head home. I've picked up and I really don't feel like waiting for Rarity right now," Spike said as he headed down the stairs and for the door, never seeing the small smile that Sweetie had fallen asleep with. IOI Spike had thought that he had reached a new low upon being found out so easily and that his day couldn't get any worse. As usual, he was wrong. Upon leaving the Carousel, he had decided to clear his head by using the ring to fly, something that he hoped would clear his head. In a flash of green light he had donned the green suit of his corp and had taken to the skies, flying over the town and looking down on the ponies below, making sure that he made his light bright enough so that they could see him. A lot of the ponies waved to him, most of the foals actually tried to chase after him with excitement, but soon gave up when they realized that it was pointless. But just as he had expected, some of the ponies looked around at the destruction of their village and looked up at him with a less than friendly gaze, telling him that not all was forgiven. 'You'll have to find a way to make up to them Spike,' he thought to himself as he looked ahead to what looked like trouble. In the center of town, a griffon that he hadn't seen in a long time was yelling at a group of ponies that were cowering from her wrath. Spike was about to interfere when he saw a blur of rainbow below as a certain mare decided to get involved. "Don't you get tired of being a bully, Gilda?" Rainbow Dash asked as she skidded to a stop in front of Gilda, who looked down at the rainbow mare with a growl. "Get out of her Crash, I don't have time to see your ugly mug," Gilda growled as she went to walk by RD, but the mare moved in front of her with a defiant glare. "I don't like it when you pick on others Gilda. Didn't you learn your lesson last time?" Rainbow asked with a growl as she cracked her shoulders in preparation of a fight. Gilda growled and leaned her face in close to Rainbows so that she was glaring into her eyes. "Out of my way." "No." Gilda growled and brought her claws back to strike down Dash, but a gasp escaped from both her and the ponies that had gathered around as a green clamp attached itself to her arm. All of the ponies and griffon turned to see the green clad figure float down in front of them, pointing his ring at Gilda's arm. "You don't want to do this," he said in a deeper voice than his own, watching as Gilda struggled to break free. "No...green wearing freak is going to hold me down," she grunted as she started slashing at the clamp with her other paw, but the construct held strong and refused to break. "I will break free!" "By all means try. I have all day," the Emerald Dragon said with a smug smile, watching as Gilda tried to break free with no success. When she came to the realization that she couldn't get free, she looked at the Dragon and Rainbow with loathing in her eyes. "Let me go," she growled. "Not unless you promise to leave now," the Dragon responded, tightening the clamp to tell her that this was not open for debate. Gilda begrudgingly agreed and the Emerald Dragon released the clamp, allowing Gilda to turn around and skulk out of the town with one last glare at him before she left. Once she was gone, the ponies all gathered around him and started to thank him, but RD pushed her way to the front and narrowed her eyes at him. "Thanks for the help, but don't think I've forgotten what happened the other day," she said with a hint of a threat in her voice. "You caused a lot of damage." "And I'll make up for it," the Dragon said before he pointed his ring to the sky and flew off, leaving a green trail behind him as he did so. He came to a stop above the clouds, sighing as he sat down on one of them. "Well Rainbow doesn't like me." 'You did destroy her home,' the ring said. 'Why did you interfere when she had the situation under control?' "I just want to try and make up for what I did," Spike said with a sigh. "Hope Gilda's not too mad." 'Ring in need of recharge.' "Shut up." IOI "Stupid, no good, HERO!" Gilda spat as she slammed her paw into a tree, hearing the bark crack from the force of the blow. "Rainbow takes away my status as top griffon in Ponyville and now a hero takes my pride! He thinks he's so high and mighty with that special ring of his, but he's nothing. If I had a ring like that, I’d show both him and that rainbow mane loser who the real strongest was!" Gilda continued to grumble to herself as she walked further away from Ponyville, not coming to a stop until she noticed something floating down the road from her. "Wait a minute, is that...one of those rings?" She screamed as the red ring flew up to her and came to a stop in front of her, as if scanning her for a reason. 'Gilda of Equis, you have a great rage in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps.' Before she could say anything in response, the ring shot onto her front paw and attached itself to one of her fingers, letting out a crimson red light as it did so. She looked down at it in confusion before a brief second before she screamed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at her heart with one paw. Agony surged through her body as it felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, causing her to begin to cough up blood. She knelt on the ground vomiting blood for only a few seconds before the pain began to fade a bit, allowing her to slowly get back up. The pain had not completely gone away, but she just no longer cared about it. Only one thing went through her head right now. Rage. Gilda turned with a snarl to the town that she had just been kicked out of, remembering the two that had done it. She let loose a beastly roar to skies before throwing herself towards the town, the all-consuming rage flowing through her body. 'Burn them all with your hate.'