The blue messenger Fluttershy sent off in search of a small dragon had quite a hard time finding its target. A brief flyby of the dragon breeding grounds revealed no such creature. The ones there were often too old or the wrong color entirely. Instead, the recipient was nervously pacing in a circle in one of the many palace gardens.
It wasn't until the bird flew by the dragon to get his attention and perched on a nearby bush that it realized it might have a hard time communicating its message to the creature.
Chirping loudly, it flew towards the ground and carefully began to etch into the dirt between some white flowers the shape of the alicorn it had seen recently.
“Oh! Twilight? You've seen Twilight?” the dragon asked excitedly.
The bird nodded and scratched out another pony with wings, but then picked up a small pebble and poked holes in the drawing.
The dragon gasped. “A changling?!”
The bird spit out the pebble and nodded again.
“Twilight's been captured?!” The dragon looked panicked before blinking and looking back at the bird, a light flashing in its reptilian eyes. “Did Fluttershy send you?”
The bird chipped as it nodded happily.
The dragon's shoulders slumped in relief. “Good. They know where she is. They'll save her,” he murmured to himself, looking over the palace in the direction the bird had flown from. “I just wish I was there instead of here...”
The dragon began to pace once again and the bird simply shrugged and pecked at the ground hopefully for any food.
Spike was uncomfortable enough in the strange place without his constant companion, and practically mother figure, Twilight right next to him. But being summoned suddenly by the emperor was worse than waiting around at their room. Much worse.
The sound of gravel being pushed down by hooves nearly made Spike jump straight up in the air, his nerves were so tight. Instead he turned around as calmly as he could to stare right into the emperor of Sheon's cold eyes.
The tall unicorn smiled, his teeth shining. “You are called Spike, are you not?”
“Uh,” Spike stammered, “Yes! I mean, I am, your highness.” He gave a quick bow, his craws folded together to keep them steady.
The emperor's smile grew wider and he dismissed the two guards at his sides with a shake of his head. Looking back at Spike, he moved forward a few steps until he was only a foot away from the small dragon.
“I have quite a few questions for you, Spike. If you don't mind.”
Spike may have been just as new to politics as Twilight, but he knew a command when he heard one. And this was defiantly a required exercise. Even so, he tried to wiggle his way out of it.
“Oh, uh, sure, your highness, but, uh,” he tried to bounce from his heels to his toes and back again in a casual manner, but found it hard to do so while speaking and thus promptly stopped. “I'm afraid I'm just Twi – Princess Twilight's assistant. I can't speak for Equestria myself, so I'm not all that useful, your highness. But she should be back soon and I'll be sure to let her know you want to talk to her!”
Spike bowed low and in the same instant attempted to rush past the emperor towards the pathway out of the garden. Two guards were blocking his path instantly.
“Woah,” he gasped, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he heard a deep laugh behind him.
“No, no, my friend. You misunderstand me.”
Spike slowly turned to the unicorn ruler, his muscles tense.
“You see,” the emperor explained slowly, “I wish to speak to you, Spike. I have many questions for you and only you can answer them.”
“Oh, really? Huh. That's weird,” Spike murmured, looking around him for an exit. “People rarely have questions for me. I mean, I don't know all that much after all. Nothing at all compared to Twilight. She knows everything. Always reading books and studying and -”
The emperor's deep laugh, a bit rougher and more harsh than before, cut the dragon off. “Ah, but you know things Princess Twilight doesn't. The things I wish to know.”
“Oh? What's that?” Spike asked, swallowing and completely forgetting to add a proper “your highness” to his question.
“Why, questions about you, of course,” the unicorn replied, his smile giving Spike flashbacks to a particularly nasty unicorn ruler who enslaved an entire kingdom of ponies. The dragon did not want to relive that experience.
“Oh, is that all?” He bluffed with a shrug, praying the ruler didn't ask anything he didn't know.
The emperor tilted his head. “It is a great deal to me.” His eyes grazed over the small dragon's form. “And so, firstly, how old are you?”
Spike let out a breath in relief, even giving a small smile. “I'm about six years old now. Almost seven!”
The emperor's eyes squinted at him. “Very interesting. And your wings? Have they begun to come in?”
His relief had come too soon. Spike's claws began to sweat and he wondered in the back of his mind if this was how Twilight had felt about magic kindergarten. He made a note to himself never to tease her about overreacting to those memories ever again.
“Uh, well, I'm sure they'll be coming in... soon!” He grinned.
One of the unicorn's eyes ticked. “Truly,” he murmured, a question left in the form of a flat statement. “And what of your parents? Are they back in Equestria?”
“Probably,” Spike answered truthfully, immediately regretting his phrasing as the emperor's eyes widened slightly.
“Probably?” the male pony echoed. “Do you not know where they are?”
Spike shifted from foot to foot. He hated lying and without any proof that the emperor was an actual bad guy, he knew he was tasked with being the best representative in Twilight's place as he could.
“Well, actually, I... I was hatched by Twilight.” At the shocked expression on the emperor's face, Spike blushed and quickly explained further, even taking a few steps closer to the intimidating unicorn. “See, my egg was all that was found. Though, nopony remembers where it was found. Twilight was the one who made my egg hatch with her magic back when she was entering magic school.”
The emperor's eyes returned to their original size, a smug look slowly spreading over them as he began to pace away from the dragon. “Truly. Well, that is quite a feet. Our own dragon caretakers spend many years learning to do such a thing... Some never do.”
The sick feeling in his stomach was back and Spike was desperate to leave, hopping from foot to foot again. “Well, Twilight's really special. She's super good with magic. It's her special talent you know and -” Spike stopped as the emperor's cold eyes and sadistic grin turned upon him. The dragon's eyes grew wide, realizing with a panic that he had revealed far too much.
“Very interesting indeed,” the unicorn nodded for the guards behind Spike to come closer. “You have told me a great deal.”
“Oh, uh,” Spike waited for the guards to pass him so he could get by, but they stopped mere inches from his nose, stiff and at command. “Well, uh, can I leave now? Your highness?”
The emperor looked at Spike for a moment before turning his gaze towards the guards. “Where is Princess Twilight now?”
“She is still missing, your highness,” one of the guards reported, his face showing no emotion. “Two search parties, including her companions, have been sent out in a search.”
“And she has been gone since last night?” The emperor asked.
“Yes, your highness,” came the formal answer.
The emperor turned his dark eyes onto Spike. “Take the dragon to the breeding grounds.”
Spike's mouth dropped open and terror wrapped around his throat. “Wait, you can't do that!” He tried to stand tall, despite a sudden pull of unicorn magic from the guards tugging on his scales. “I'm a representative of the Equestria!”
The emperor let out a loud, brutal laugh. “You are a dragon,” he sneered. “Dragons hold no citizen rights here.”
Spike's mind raced. “But – but I'm Twilight's dragon! Yeah, that's right. I'm her's. So you can't just take me.”
The unicorn took a few steps closer to the dragon once again. “Your Princess Twilight has not returned, has she?” He smirked at Spike's hopeless expression. “She has abandoned you. I shall be taking over in her stead. You belong to my empire now.”
He turned his back towards Spike, the dragon struggling in the magical grasp of his new captors. “Bring him to the breeding grounds. In the infant barns, with the other wingless newborns,” he ordered.
As the dragon was lead away screaming, a flutter of bright blue flashed overhead, a small bird following the guards to watch over the small creature's fate.