//------------------------------// // The Dangers of Love // Story: SpikesXLuna the Sequel // by Faithful Brony //------------------------------// "Are you his immediate family," the lead surgeon asked the ponies in front of him while wiping some sweat from his brow. Luna stepped forward with Celestia next to her. "Yes, is he alright," Luna asked on the verge of an emotional break down? The doctor motioned for Celestia Twilight, and Luna to follow her to another room. the room they went into was empty save for the two hospital beds. "What is with the secrecy Doctor Stitches," Celestia asked confused? The doctor had a serious look on him, like he was playing poker. "I will answer everything first," he turned to address Princess Luna. "I want to assure you that he is fine, it was touch and go for a while. Thanks to some very complex healing magic and the skilled work of my surgeons he pulled through. I must say, his will is strong. I have never had a more determined patient than Spike. He has shown amazing strength pulling through this injury. Unfortunately I must speak to you on another matter," the doctor said with a more somber attitude. "What is the matter, what have you discovered," Twilight asked with her fear now returning? "As you know, dragons posses a natural hide that cannot be broken by any ordinary steel weapon on this planet. The only thing that can hurt a dragon is a weapon that is enchanted with magic," the doctor explained as he stated the fact. "I don't think what your suggesting is possible Doctor Stitches, my sister and I gathered up and destroyed all enchanted weapons after we made peace with the dragons a long time ago. We even had the spell destroyed so no pony could ever use it again," Celestia said now even more confused than before. "I found this note in his scale pocket and its a pretty confident threat towards him. All I can tell you though is that the weapon that was used on the attempted murder of Spike, was in fact enchanted and jagged by the looks of his wounds." Doctor Stitches showed the princesses and Twilight what he found during the procedure. The three read over the note with complete shock. "This doesn't make any sense. The only ponies who knew this particular spell of enchantment were me, Celestia, and a few ancient spell casters who are long dead," Luna said now thoroughly confused and more scared thanks to the gruesome message. "Is it possible that one of them taught their children," the doctor asked, making a suggestion? "Not possible, we made sure that none of them had children, we could not risk that knowledge getting out so we made all of them infertile," the elder princess said solemnly. "Well obviously this situation, is telling the contrary. I hope you can figure this out and I will update you on his health as it progresses, but we have another problem at hand," the doctor stated. "What is it doctor," Luna asked, not wanting to have more bad news told to her. "This pony who committed the crime probably believes that Spike is dead. even though he's stable, he is still in a coma. If word gets out to the contrary, I'm sure the assailant will attempt it again. And in the state the little dragons in, he will surely succeed," the doctor said finishing what he had to say. "What can we do, I'm in an impossible situation and I don't know what to do, I don't want to lose Spike, I love him to much, what do we do sister," Luna asked Celestia in a panic. "Here is what we will do, doctor, I want you to pronounce him dead, tell only your most trusted nurses the real story," Celestia said with the tinniest bit of anger present. The doctor immediately went out of the room to do the job assigned to him. "Luna I promise you that no matter what, we will find the culprit and bring this pony to justice. Spike will not die if I have anything to say about it," Celestia said with energy. Luna stood up and turned to Celestia while exhaling. Luna knew that her sister could not pursue this endeavor as she had more important matters. Matters that could not be postponed "I'm going have to figure this out myself Celly," Luna said with a reserved sadness from the solemn mood "What do you mean Lulu, he is my responsibility since I'm his Aunt," Celestia said questioningly. "The kingdom needs to be run and you cant do both of these at the same time. That's to much, even for you Celly. I will conduct this investigation. I will even put together a team if that suits you," Luna said adamantly. Celestia finally gave in. "All right then, you can do this on one condition. I want Twilight to be on this team, you assemble. She may come in handy," Celestia said before leaving the room. "So who are we going to put in this team of ours," Twilight asked generally curious? "I have a few calls in mind, I must send a few letters. I will need you to go pick up a few things while I do this," Princess Luna said then summoned a list of things handing it to Twilight. Twilight then ran out to complete the task. Making sure that no pony was looking, Princess Luna teleport to another room in the hospital. Looking around she immediately spotted what she was looking for. Laying in the hospital bed clinging on to life was her lover Spike. She walked up to the bed and took his hand in her hooves with the gentlest touch as if any more pressure would make him shatter. "My love, how could anypony do this to you. I'm so scared," Luna said with nothing but love in her voice. "I promise you Spike, with every ounce of power I have. I will find out who did this to you," Luna than gave a most terrifying glare, directed at no pony in particular. "I will trap them on the moon for all eternity for their crimes," Luna awakened a seemingly infinite source of resolve within. Leaning over she planted a kiss on his forehead and held it there for a few seconds before removing her lips from him. The princess stood there looking at him for what seemed like a long time, then teleported out of the hospital and into her room at the castle. Taking a few scrolls of paper, she began writing on them. After an hour she was done, she then charged up her horn and the papers disappeared to wherever their destinations were. Twilight came galloping through the door with the items Luna had requested. "Here Princess Luna, I got what you asked for,' Twilight said after catching her breath and composing herself. "Good, its about time to begin the hunt," Luna stated simply. "Tomorrow the rest of the team will arrive and then we will begin tracking down the bastard pony that did this to Spike," Luna stated with a fierce energy. "Twilight, I must train you in more realistic combat spells if you are to truly be ready for battle. we will begin with elemental spell," Luna said levitating out some rather old books. "These books contain the many combat spells that was used during times of war. You may want to study up on these," Luna explained as she hoofed over the books to Twilight. "I will begin studying immediately," Twilight said as she ran to one area of the room, sat down, and began reading. The Princess and the unicorn trained through out the night, only stopping when it was late into the morning to catch some sleep before the gathering begins. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The next night, Luna and Twilight were waiting on top of the Lunar Tower for the rest of the party to arrive. In just one day Twilight had managed to read every book that Princess Luna gave her which shocked the Alicorn. She had a hard time just finishing one book inside a day, her mind always was more the adventurous type. "Well it looks like we are ready to begin," Luna said as a group of shadows were flying towards them. When the unknown things finally landed, Twilight was able to figure what they looked like. The first was a griffon, rather large in size who carried heavy armor and quite an arsenal of weaponry. The next was a Pegasus, he had a dark blue coat with a black mane and tail. He carried razors on his wings that were sharp as any blade a pony could forge. The next was an dragon, not big but very lengthy. She had what could only be described as reflective scales that if looked at a certain way would look invisible. The last member was an earth pony that jumped off the dragon. She was carrying several pouches and had a mask on her face. "that's quite a group you got there," Twilight said a little nervously. "Twilight I would like you to meet the elite special forces squad, they are trained in a long line of mercenaries that date back to the founding of Equestria. This is my sisters apprentice everyone, please introduce yourselves to her," Luna said stepping aside so they could proceed. "I'm Grondar, an expert of all fighting styles and master weapons user," the griffon stated with a flex of his talons. "I am Shadowfoot, I'm a master thief and an expert in potion making," the earth pony said stomping her hooves on the ground. "I'm Abbadon, I'm a master in espionage and stealth," the dragon said with no expression of interest. "I'm Ashcloud, I specialize in tracking and interrogation," the Pegasus said flapping his wings. "They all can handle themselves pretty well in any situation," Luna turned to face her group. "Since you are probably wondering why your here, I will be brief. My dragonfriend, Spike, was recently attacked by an unknown pony who is racist and somehow possess an enchanted dagger. I'm going to assume that based off the information we have so far that the pony is a unicorn. Most likely a descendant of one of the original spell casters from the pony dragon wars. This pony may or may not have supporters. We need to figure this out and if so, how large it is, that is why I called you. Each of you has a gift or skill that makes you uniquely equipped for each stage of this investigation. We will begin at the scene of the crime," Princess Luna said before turning to take flight. Abbadon approached Twilight. "You may ride with me, get on," The she-dragon said to Twilight lowering her wing to allow her access. The unicorn slowly got on her back and the rest took flight with the Princess. The group flew to the building in which Spike was roped to. Landing, the group began searching for clues to the culprit. "The report says the murder was attempted elsewhere. The amount of blood loss was to much for the quantity at this location. Begin looking for anything that can point us to that location," Princess Luna stated before picking a section and started searching. The rest of the group began looking as well. Abbadon and Twilight chose to search around the front of the building. Grondar and Ashcloud searched the rooftop, which left Luna and Shadowfoot to search around the sidewalk and streets. Shadowfoot was searching the street for a few minutes before she noticed something in the storm drain nearby. Walking over to get a closer look, she discovered it was a bright green feather with a bit grease on it. "I think I found something," Shadowfoot said as she called the group over to her. Ashcloud took the feather in his hoof and looked at it for a few seconds. "Which way was it laying," the Pegasus asked giving it back to the earth pony. She laid it down with the stem of the feather facing north towards the Restaurant District. they all got back into the air as they followed the Pegasus to an ally way behind the building, Red Ponies. Luna lit up her horn to illuminate the dark area and they immediately saw huge amounts of blood all over a piece of the wall and a dumpster. Twilight had to turn away to keep herself from vomiting at the sight. "A little squeamish are we," Grondar said in with a bit of amusement in his voice. "I've never seen so much blood at one time, it sickens me that somepony could do this to my brother," Twilight said with a bit of sadness in her voice. Luna went to comfort her while Ashcloud searched the crime scene. Ashcloud returned with a receipt in his hoof. "This receipt is to a very popular bar in the south district of this fine city, its called the Grey Stallion," the Pegasus said as he looked over the paper. "Its a very popular place for criminal organization members to hang out. This receipt belongs to a pony named Blackstone," Ashcloud said finishing his analysis of the paper. "Well, it looks like they will have to make an exception this once for a princess," Luna said as she glared angrily off into the distant south end of the city.