When the universe sprang back into existence, Spike only had a moment to gather his bearings before there was the sound of splintering wood and he found himself falling again.
This time, though, it was only a drop of a few feet, and he was able to stay upright when he hit the floor. Discord had somehow managed to materialize the four of them directly on top of a large, circular table which was, in turn, located in the center of a large, circular room. It had then promptly given way under their combined weight, leaving the four of them in a heap of wood, scales, papers, and hooves at the center of the wreckage. They were surrounded by silent, gaping ponies. Every one of them was wearing a military uniform.
Spike wondered whether or not Discord had planned this. It fit his idea of humor.
The ponies around them were shouting now, and a good number of them were getting to their hooves. A few had sprinted for the exits, where even more were attempting to force their way in. Those ones were wielding spears, so he assumed that they were guards of some sort.
He groaned and attempted to get to his feet again, only to be stopped by a pained groan from behind him. Pith Helmet had landed badly, and was now curled up in a sort of defensive position around his broken leg. Spike's movements had jostled it sharply. The stallion had his teeth clenched hard and was taking light, rapid breaths, almost gasps.
Tailspin was the first to get herself upright, and she turned immediately towards the onrushing guards. "Wait, wait, wait!" She raised one hoof. "Scout First Class Tailspin!"
The guards arranged themselves in a semicircle around the four new arrivals and leveled their spears at them. One of them, an earth pony mare who was rather larger than the rest, said, "Passcode?"
Tailspin blinked. "What day is it?"
"Thirteenth."
"Diamonds, then." Tailspin shook her head as the guard grunted and looked over her shoulder, towards the crowd of watchers.
"Captain? One of yours?"
A familiar-looking stallion with an orange coat stepped out of the group. Spike recognized him almost immediately as Long Road, but he looked rather more formal than he had before. He gave the three of them a critical look, frowned, then nodded to the guardsmare.
As one, all of the guards brought their spears back to a more neutral position. Spike gave a sigh of relief.
"What is the meaning of this, Captain?" An older-looking stallion with a set of stars across his lapels had stepped forward as well, and was eyeing the four of them critically. "I wasn't aware that the Reconnaissance Corps had any dragons among its ranks."
Long Road saluted smartly. "No, sir, General," he said. "This is the dragon that I reported having arrived at Fort McHoofry, sir, along with the scouting party I dispatched from same."
"Captain," Tailspin interrupted, as she helped Pith to his feet, "I apologize for interrupting, and I'll be available for debriefing in just a few minutes, but we're all in need of medical attention here."
"Understood, Scout." Long Road nodded curtly to her. "We'll get you all to the infirmary as soon as possible. Debriefing will be in half an hour."
"Might want it to be sooner than that, sir," grunted Pith. He was standing awkwardly, trying to keep any weight off of his broken leg. Spike saw that the splint had come loose, leaving it bent in several places that it shouldn't have been. The stallion had a glassy look in his eyes as he attempted to remain upright. "We have critical information regarding the changelings."
The general narrowed his eyes and gave Pith a suspicious look, then turned to face the rest of the assembled ponies. "I think we'll need a moment to get this room back in order anyway," he said sharply. "All of you, dismissed for now. Reconvene here in one hour. Communications has orders to remain open for you around the clock, so take this time to send whatever orders you need to."
They all saluted, though Spike noticed that quite a few were looking uneasy and confused as they turned to leave. After a few moments, they were left alone with the general, Captain Road, and a few guards who had remained by the doors.
"Right," said the general, turning back to them. "Medical it is. We'll debrief you there, assuming you don't have to be put under for treatment. We're a bit short on time here. Can he walk?" The last was accompanied by him pointing to Pith, who nodded.
"Yes, sir," he said. "Slowly, but I can, sir."
"Good." The old stallion nodded, turned, and headed for the door. "This way, then. I want to know what's going on here."
Fort Maneholdt was a much more impressive construction than Fort McHoofry. Even in the scant few minutes that Spike had spent outside, he had seen a marked difference between the two. Fort Maneholdt, for one, was more crowded, both in terms of ponies and in terms of buildings, and the buildings in question were much larger than the ones he had seen before. Several of them were even made out of stone rather than wood.
They had been led immediately to an operating theater, accompanied by the sound of a unicorn's magically-amplified voice letting the rest of the encampment know that the dragon was not a threat. Now, Spike was lying on his side on a table while ponies in white uniforms busied themselves around him.
He had seen more operating rooms through other doors when they had entered; Fort Maneholdt's medical division seemed to have more resources than Fort McHoofry's as well. There were more doctors on hand as well. Three of them were around him alone, with at least one more checking up on each of his companions. Pith had two of them busy with his leg.
One of the healers assigned to Spike was a unicorn. He could feel their magic probing his wounds, studying him for any injuries hidden beneath the scales. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, exactly. Just unusual.
He kept his good eye focused on Captain Road and the older stallion. He was called General Tempo, and Spike noted with some interest that the stallion's cutie mark, rather than being anything military in nature, was a conductor's baton.
The general was scowling at Captain Road now. The captain, for his part, was trying to remain upright and composed when he very obviously just wanted to bolt for the nearest door.
Tempo gave a snort. "So you sent these three off on a 'routine' scouting mission," he said. "I suppose you didn't think it necessary to report that they were explicitly accompanying the dragon, and this entirely routine scouting mission was taking place to investigate intel received from said dragon?"
"Sir." Road saluted, keeping his gaze determinedly fixed on a point some distance above the general's head. "No, sir. The dragon left on his own account. I merely authorized a scouting expedition on my own initiative, sir. We have very little intel on the mountains, and-"
"Stow it, Captain," snapped Tempo. "I'm not here for the runaround. You gave an incomplete report because you'd have been tied up in red tape for six months before this ever got authorized above-board. I know it, you know it, so stop trying to hide it and just give me the facts. What were they actually looking for?"
Captain Road opened his mouth, obviously searching for words, but didn't say anything for several seconds. Spike, more to spare the stallion any further vitriol from his superior than anything else, said, "Canterlot."
Tempo rounded on him. "And what," he said, "is Canterlot?" His voice was less angry now, but he still sounded as though he wasn't about to react kindly to any further stalling attempts.
"A city," Spike answered flatly. "From when I was young. It used to be the capitol of Equestria." He paused. "That's what we used to call this place. Canterlot was the center of magical learning back then. We thought we might find something useful there, to stop the changelings."
"Did this 'something useful' turn up to actually be there, then?" asked Tempo, raising an eyebrow. "You did say you had critical information."
Spike paused, then said slowly, "Not... exactly." He was about to continue when he heard the doctors moving around him begin to whisper among themselves. A moment later, there was a sudden, intensely relaxing sensation enveloping his body. It reminded him of the times that Rarity had dragged him to the spa. All the aches and pains that had been building up for the past few days seemed to melt away in an instant. He couldn't stop his gaze from drifting out of focus, or the contented sigh that followed.
The general stamped a hoof. "Get on with it, colt," he said sharply. "We're on a strict time limit here. You and your associates turned up in the middle of a war council, in case you hadn't noticed. We've got a defense to plan. Talk fast."
Spike blinked rapidly for a moment, then shook his head. He could feel the swelling around his left eye receding. For the first time in what felt like forever, he had his depth perception back. It was so tempting to just lie down and go to sleep while the wonderful, warm sensation coiled around him, but he forced himself to focus.
"It wasn't," he said. "We were there looking for the Elements of Harmony. Long story short, a powerful weapon from my time. There are six pieces, each of which can only be used by a single pony. They're selected by magic. Don't ask me how. If you have all six of them, though, and each is held by their chosen bearer, there's almost nothing they can't do. Queen Chrysalis wouldn't even have been a threat."
Tempo frowned. "But they weren't there," he said. "So what's this critical information?"
Spike let out a low rumble as something in his right arm, something that he hadn't even realized was dislocated, popped back into place. "Two things," he said, as he flexed his fingers experimentally. "One, we found out who can use the Elements." He tilted his head briefly towards the beds that the other three were lying on. "Compass, Pith, and Tailspin are each bearers for two of the six, so if we can find them, we'll be able to put them to use."
The stallion made a thoughtful sound. "Noted. What's the other thing?"
"Getting to that." Spike arched his back slightly as he felt some of his broken scales begin to knit themselves back together. Then he winced as there was a brief, sharp pain in his broken wing. One of the doctors mumbled "sorry", and it was immediately replaced with more of the relaxing sensation.
"We didn't find the Elements," he continued, "but we did find something else. Er. Somepony, I guess I should say. An... ally."
Captain Road blinked. For a moment, it looked as though he was about to say something, but he stopped and looked to Tempo instead. The older stallion just stood there, obviously waiting for an explanation.
Spike sighed. "His name," he said, unable to keep the note of reluctance out of his voice, "is Discord. And he's from... my time. Before my time, even. He's one of the few things in the world I think is actually... well, eternal, I guess, or close to it."
More patient silence from the general.
"He's the spirit of disharmony," Spike went on, after a moment. "And he's... strong. Very strong. 'He can bend the world to his whims' strong. Or he was, anyway. He's a bit weaker now."
The stallion's eyebrow raised itself a little higher.
"But he's on our side," the dragon went on, a bit hurriedly. "And he can stop Queen Chrysalis if we buy enough time for him."
Now the general's eyes narrowed. "If he's so powerful, why do we need to buy time?"
Spike sighed. The warm feeling was running itself over his wings now. He didn't dare turn his head to actually look - some part of him felt that this would somehow jinx it - but he thought he could feel his ruined wingflaps being stitched back together by the doctor's magic.
"Because he's weaker than he used to be, like I said," he explained. "He's up in the mountains right now, healing himself. He's... eating the raw magic that's all trapped up there, or something. I don't know exactly how to explain it."
"Sir, if I can speak freely," said Tailspin, raising herself up onto her forelegs, "I think that I can explain this. I know what sort of questions you're going to want to ask."
Tempo nodded to her. "Go ahead, Scout."
Tailspin saluted. The doctors around her had moved away to join those at the other tables, apparently satisfied that she was in no real physical distress. "Spike is over eight hundred years old at the minimum, sir. Probably much more than that. As strange as some of this might sound, I've seen the evidence of it personally. Everything he's said, I'll back him up on."
She took a deep breath. "Regarding the Elements: they exist, they are strong, and I've seen some things that confirm that we have some ties to them. Some old enchantments reacting consistently to my presence, for example. And Discord himself confirms that we are the bearers. Regarding Discord: he's real, he's essentially a god, and yes, from what I can tell, he's on our side, even if he's a bit... crazed." She shook her head. "We don't know how long it'll take for him to gather up all the power he needs, but once he does, I don't think there's a single thing in the world that could possibly stop him, General. The changelings won't stand a chance. As for how he got weakened, and how I can convince you that he's on our side, well, the one who took away his powers was the Mare in the Moon."
Tempo blinked at that, but Tailspin didn't pause. "Spike knew her personally, sir. The Mare, I mean. Before she became what she is. She used to be one of the rulers of Equestria, but there was an... incident with dark magic. If it weren't for Discord, the entire world would have been destroyed. But Tw- the Mare in the Moon went insane as a result, and cast a spell that locked him up and stripped him of his powers. She's his enemy as much as she is ours, sir. He wants revenge on her, and he's willing to help us because he thinks we can help him get that."
Spike lifted his head and glared at her. "Twilight is not our enemy," he said. It came out more harshly than he had intended.
Tailspin shot him a look of warning, but Tempo had already raised a hoof. "'Twilight'?"
"That's her name," Spike said, swinging his gaze around to face the old stallion again. He didn't feel relaxed any more. Tension was building up in his muscles, despite his best efforts to force it down. "She isn't your enemy. She isn't anyone's enemy. She's one of the greatest ponies I've ever known. She needs our help." He looked back to Tailspin. "If Discord thinks I'm helping him do anything to harm her, then he's going to be very disappointed." He clenched his teeth, too distracted to notice the fact that they were whole once again. "I'm here to help Twilight, not to hurt her."
Slowly, he became aware that every pony in the room was staring at him. Tailspin was wearing a pained expression. Compass looked concerned, Long Road looked almost frightened, and Pith just looked blank. Tempo was just giving him a long, appraising stare, as if sizing him up.
Spike opened his mouth to say something, found that he didn't have any more words, and shut it again.
After a few seconds, Tempo just grunted, then turned away and trotted off towards the other three. "Right," he said flatly, as if Spike's outburst hadn't happened. "Let's assume that this Discord is trustworthy, and as soon as he's got whatever he needs, we're home free. How long does he need?"
"You'd have to ask Compass Rose about that, sir," said Tailspin, saluting. "She was the one who came up with this plan."
The general turned to face Compass. "Well?"
The unicorn pushed herself upright and brought up a leg for her own, rather clumsier, salute. "I don't know exactly, sir," she said, frowning. "I don't think even he knows. He said 'as long as you can give me'. My plans were more along the lines of... theoretical battle plans, I suppose. Trying to maximize how long we can hold out, rather than attempting any sort of direct confrontation in an attempt to repulse the attack on their terms."
Tempo raised his eyebrow once again. "And you came up with...?"
"That depends entirely on how many unicorns we have capable of casting the changeling-shield spell that we believed would be found in that spellbook," said Compass. "You got a cop-"
"Yes, yes, I got a copy," said Tempo flatly. "Every outpost from here to the badlands did. And we found the spell. The problem is that we've only got six unicorns who are capable of casting it, and they can only maintain it for a few hours at a time."
Compass blinked, then bit her lower lip, looking worried. "Oh. I thought there would be more than that."
"Of course not." The general stamped a hoof. "That would imply that we might ever have something go in our favor here. I'll take it your 'plan' revolved around keeping the outer fortresses protected by those shields and funneling the battle inward, towards us?"
She nodded. "Where the fortifications are strongest," she said. Her eyes went slightly distant, and Spike had yet another flash of deja vu for the times that Twilight would get completely absorbed in a logic puzzle or discussion of magical theory. "Using the foothills to the north as a natural shield, with more spellcasters down to the south so that they can't just march across the fields and-"
Tempo snorted. "Yes, we thought of that. Even if we're not trying just to delay them, forcing them into a fight on our terms is our best bet. That means getting them here. But we don't have the spellpower necessary, and if this 'Chrysalis' thing is as strong as your initial reports said it is, then if those insects have any brains, they'll go anywhere but here. We just don't have the raw numbers to hold the outlying forts. We've already called all personnel away from McHoofry and all positions south of it. We're evacuating civilians from those areas as well. And we're still stretched too thin."
Spike cleared his throat, and the general swung around to glare at him again. "What?" he snapped.
The dragon raised a claw. "I think I might be able to help with a part of that, at least," he said slowly.
"How?" Tempo straightened up and gave him another appraising look. "You gonna go out there and take them all on?"
Spike laughed. "No," he said. "Not exactly. But the whole reason Chrysalis is doing this is because she's angry at us, right?" He pointed to the other three. "More specifically, because she's angry at me. She doesn't need to attack you, so far as I can tell. She's been living in the Tangle and just living off of raids. They aren't starving. They're not after food, and she doesn't want to just throw her 'children' to their deaths."
"So what are you proposing?" Tempo tilted his head to one side, frowning.
"Simple." Spike drummed his claws on the surface of the table and grinned. "She's after me. So, if you want to draw her here, to where you can fight on your own terms... let her know where I am."
The gaping rents in his scales throbbed as he said it. Even with the doctors still spreading their healing magic through his body, those remained unchanged, and as painful as ever. But he still couldn't stop the grin on his face from spreading wider, exposing more and more of his fangs. Nor could he stop the low growl that bubbled up from inside his chest at the thought of seeing her again.
"I've faced her before," he rumbled, "and I survived. I can get her to come here, to get another shot at me. I can buy you the time you need."