Spike wasn't sure what he was going to say when he got to Chrysalis again, especially since she had just lost her child in a battle with the ponies. As he flew through the underground chambers, the light from his ring guiding the way, he wondered what he would have done if he was in her position. Would he have tried to steal a source of power that could feed a nation or would he have swallowed his pride and asked for help?
'We are there.' The ring's voice snapped Spike out of his thoughts as he came to a stop in front of a pair of massive iron doors, a language carved into them that he had never seen before, but the ring did all of the understanding for him. 'It says, enter at your own risk, for on the other side of these doors is the greatest nation in Equestria.'
"That must have been written long before Chrysalis's time," Spike muttered to himself before the ring told him that the inscriptions were over a hundred years old. He tried knocking, but nopony answered his knock. So with a heavy sigh, he created a crowbar and placed it in between the doors. With a grunt and some effort, he managed to get the doors to swing open. He didn't even have time to think about what to do next as changelings came flying out of the doors and quickly swarmed him, forcing Spike to erect a shield to keep himself safe from the swarm.
"Look, I'm not here to fight!" Spike yelled into the swarm as they threw their bodies against the shield, but none of them bothered to listen as some switched over to magic. With a sigh Spike pushed his way forward, his shield knocking aside the changelings and the spells they cast at him, allowing him to reach the inner city of the changelings. "Good Faust," Spike whispered to himself when he saw not just the state the city was in, but all of the corpses that covered the ground and lined the streets. They were everywhere and he could see that the changelings that weren't dead were the ones carting off the dead. He had to resist the urge to throw up as he floated over the streets, his barrier still protecting him from the attacks of the changelings that were following him.
"Where is the castle?" Spike asked the ring in a disgusted tone as he tried to avoid looking at the bodies, knowing now why Chrysalis had been so desperate. When the ring had located the castle that Chrysalis should be in, he turned around and blasted all of the changelings off of him before flying ahead to a black castle at speeds the swarm could not match. An open window was his point of entry and he boarded it up with his ring before floating through the halls, about to ask his ring to scan for where Chrysalis was located before he could hear for himself where she was.
'She's crying,' Spike thought to himself sadly as he heard the wails of sorrow reaching his ears, giving him a pretty clear idea of where she was located. He quietly floated down the empty, black halls until he came to a chamber where the sobs were coming from. The large chamber was mostly empty, except for a single, large table in the center of it, where the prince of the changelings rested while his mother was off to the side, her whole body shaking as she sobbed at his side. "Chrysalis?" Spike asked, the queen taking a moment to regain control of herself before she looked over at him with sheer venom in her eyes.
"Well, if it isn't the hero of the ponies," she said in a raspy voice filled with pain and hate, stopping Spike in his tracks with a look when he tried to advance towards her. "So what are you here to take from me now? My people? Can't do that, they're all dying of starvation. My kingdom? It's falling down all around you. My children? Your ponies have already taken him. What more do you wish to take?"
"Y-you have the wrong idea, I'm just here to see if you need help," Spike stammered nervously, but the look that Chrysalis gave him told him immediately that he had said the wrong thing.
"Your help?" she whispered as she stood up to face him, rage and sorrow shaking her entire body as she slowly stalked up to him, glaring right into his eyes before she continued speaking. "My heir, my precious son, is dead. My changelings are on the brink of extermination due to starvation and only now, after you and your little filly friend have destroyed what small chance we had of surviving, do you offer help?...Get out."
"But-"
"GET! OUT!" Chrysalis roared as she fired a spell right into his chest faster than he could react, sending Spike flying backwards through the wall and into the hallway, where he had to erect a shield to protect himself from the savage assault of spells that Chrysalis threw at him. He shot a hole in the ceiling and flew out through it, Chrysalis shooting spells at him the entire time until he was out of sight. She said nothing as she watched the light get farther and farther away, waiting until it was completely out of sight before she turned and walked back over to her son, where she once again got down on her knees beside him.
"I am so sorry my son, I did not wish for this to happen to you," she said with bitter sorrow in her voice before she looked up at his body with a disturbing look in her eyes. "But I promise that I will bring you back somehow. Somehow you will live again."
IOI
"So she threw you out of her castle, huh?" Sweetie asked while Spike kept his head down on the table in front of him. After a long flight home, Sweetie had met up with Spike in Sugarcube Corners, where he told her what Chrysalis had told him and how he had to fight his way in and out of the empire. "Can't say I blame her, I know what it's like to lose a member of your family, though not to the degree she did."
"I just wish that I could do something to help them," Spike said as he finally picked his head off the table, his crystal chocolate swirl order arriving along with Sweetie's milkshake. "You should have seen that state her empire was in. The dead were everywhere and the living didn't look much better."
"You offered to help. It was up to Chrysalis to decide whether or not she wanted help and she turned you down," Sweetie said with a sad shake of her head before she grabbed her milkshake and started to drink. "Though you might have wanted to wait until a few days after the death of her child before you showed yourself there. But I'm sure she'll come around eventually."
"You're probably right," Spike said with a sigh before he looked at Sweetie happily drinking away. "You're still being your usual cheerful self, huh?"
"The blue ring helps me to feel hopeful at all times, no matter what I'm doing," Sweetie whispered. "Like on a test I took the other day, when I didn't know any of the answer, I remained hopeful and somehow managed to squeak out a passing grade. These rings are incredible." Spike was going to answer but then he noticed that Pinkie was trying to sneak around the shop and he knew that when Pinkie was up to something sneaky it meant that a party was right around the corner. He took a quick gulp of his drink before walking over to her.
"Hey Pinkie, up to something suspicious?" he asked her once she had come out from the back room. Faster than he could react, Pinkie grabbed him and pulled him into the back room with her. "Kidnapping me huh? Must be something big," he said with a smile, only to be shushed by her almost immediately.
"It's the twin’s birthday tomorrow and they seem to know my every move," she said in a stressed out tone while one of her eyes twitched and she turned around when she heard a foal laugh. "How can I plan a surprise party for them when they seem to know my every move? Even when I'm downtown they seem to know what I'm up to and the moment I bring my bag in they search it for presents," she said in a bit of a crazy tone. "I need to distract them, but nothing I've tried works."
"That sounds rough. Good luck with that," Spike said as he tried to walk by her, but then a light bulb appeared over Pinkie's head and she grabbed him once again, pulling him back while smiling at him with a long smile.
"I have a super, duper, awesome idea!" she yelled in a whisper, Spike slowly backing away from her the best he could. "They love the Emerald Dragon and you just happen to be the Emerald Dragon. You can distract them for me tomorrow while I prepare their party and then I can give them the greatest surprise party that they've ever had!"
"Aside from the being a gross misuse of my powers, what's in it for me?" Spike asked her as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, causing Pinkie to place a hoof under her chin as she thought.
"I'll pay for all of your purchases here for a week," she said desperately, Spike placing a hand under his chin as he thought about it.
"Pinkie?" a foal’s voice said from the other side of the door, causing her to gasp before she threw herself behind some barrels.
"Alright, I'll do it," Spike said with a smile as Pumpkin teleported behind Pinkie and grabbed onto her, causing the Pinkie pony to scream and run out of the room with a laughing foal on her back. "But all of my orders will be super expensive!" He left her to be chased by the foals and thanked Sweetie for meeting him, paying for them both before he left to head back to the library and where Twilight was.
"Back already Spike?" Twilight called out from the basement when she heard Spike enter the library, Owlicious letting out a hoot as he floated down from his perch and landing on Spike's head while greeting him with another hoot.
"Yeah, I need to catch up on my rest," Spike said as he walked over to the closet, where he pulled the green battery out of the closet and placed his ring to it, saying the oath with power as he charged his ring. Once that was done, he placed the lantern back inside and went to head up the stairs until a knocking at the door stopped him.
"Can you get that? I'm working on something!" Twilight called out from the basement, Spike shrugging as he headed for the door and opened it to reveal Zecora standing there.
"Oh hey Zecora, here to pick up some potion supplies from Twilight?" Spike asked as he stepped to the side and allowed the zebra to enter the library.
"How very astute, my little friend," she said with a pleasant smile as she entered. "For the potion that I am brewing I need a special blend." Spike nodded while Owlicious hooted, getting a small chuckle out of Zecora. "And hello to you, my friend of the night. I enjoy seeing you beside when you're in midflight."
"Have a seat Zecora, I'll get you something to snack on," Spike said as he headed off to the kitchen, Owlicious leaving his head and landing next to Zecora, who had taken a seat at Twilight's table. She watched the little dragon walk away, her eyes looking at the small item that he kept clutched in his claws.
"So Spike is the wielder of the green light," she muttered to herself, Owlicious tilting his head at her as she said this. "But can he truly access it's great might?...Forgive me my friend, I was thinking aloud and he has already shown that he cannot be cowed." She smiled to the owl as she said this, but then her attention traveled back to Spike and his green ring, also reminding her of what had happened over the past few days. "These times are becoming increasingly grave. I hope that he and Sweetie can remain brave."
"Hi Zecora, I have the potion supplies that you asked for," Twilight said as she walked up from the basement, Zecora smiling at her as Twilight placed the vials on the table and allowed Zecora to place them in her own bag. "Is everything alright with you in the Everfree forest? You don't really visit as much as you used to."
"I assure you my friend that I am fine and I am quite happy in the dangerous forest of mine," Zecora reassured her as Spike came back out, placing some hay and tea on the table for the both of them before excusing himself and heading up the stairs.
"He's grown so much in the few weeks that...Um, since...Um," Twilight staggered, trying not to give away Spike's secret, giving Zecora some amusement as she to a sip of her drink, waiting to see how Twilight got herself out of this one. "Um...ever since I gave him more responsibility! That's it! More responsibility!" The excuse was comical enough, but the awkward smile that Twilight gave her afterwards forced Zecora to stifle her laughter.
"Thank you for entertaining me, but I must return to my home," Zecora said with another chuckle as she got up, Twilight getting up as well and escorting her to the door. "And do not worry, I promise not to roam."
"I was just looking out for you, sheesh," Twilight said with a good natured smile as Zecora left the house, the smile that was on her face vanishing as she walked on her way back to her hut.
'I hope that I am mistaken, but I have a feeling that something horrible is about to awaken,' Zecora thought to herself on her solitary walk back to her hut, the Everfree forest being surprisingly quiet, almost as if it could feel what she was feeling. She knew this forest well and she could tell when something was upsetting it, so when she heard the lack of noise, she knew that something was amiss. 'But what could be the cause of concern? Surely it could not be because of Sombra's return. Despite his power, he is a foolish foe at best. Why would he make the forest distressed?'
"Whatever the cause, it cannot be good," she muttered to herself as she reached her hut after ten minutes of walking in silence. "Yet the heroes should be able to deal with it, just as heroes should," she said as she entered her hut, taking off her bag and placing it on the ground next to her cauldron, removing the vials and placing them on the shelves next to her other supplies. She took the ones she needed and placed them within the cauldron, mixing up her brew. Yet no matter how hard she tried to distract herself, her mind kept going back to her uneasy feeling and, eventually, to the closet.
'No, I swore that I would never think of it again,' she said with a shake of her head once she had caught herself looking at the door to her closet. 'Not after it cost me everything, including my friend.' Her thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the door, the knocker turning out to be Sweetie Belle once Zecora had opened it. "Hello there, Sweetie Belle. Are you here for more training, pray tell?"
"Yup! And I have great news!" Sweetie exclaimed as she floated behind Zecora's hut to the training ground that the zebra had set up for her. Zecora took one last look at the closet before leaving the hut, her thoughts now only on Sweetie and her training.
IOI
"So you've known almost as long as Twilight?" Spike asked AJ, who nodded before a well-aimed strike knocked all of the apples put of a tree and into the baskets down below. After checking up on the rest of the town, Spike's patrol had brought him to Sweet Apple Acres, where he had been waved down by Applejack. "Guess we can't get anything by an Element of Honesty, but why didn't you tell the other ponies when you had found out?"
"You and Twi seemed like ya wanted to keep it a secret," she said as she picked up the buckets and walked over to the next tree, placing them underneath of it and repeating the kick she just did. "Not mah place to butt in. Ah'm still surprised that she allowed you to keep the ring, especially after the incident with the orange you destroying the town."
"That was my greed given physical form, it wasn't exactly me," Spike said in his defense, getting an "Oh really?" look from Applejack in the process. "And the ring can corrupt even the best of ponies. From what my ring told me, until the orange ring showed up here there was only one wielder of the orange ring, that Larfleeze guy who showed up here with the other Lanterns."
"Speaking of the other Lanterns, why don't ya give...oomph...them a call to help ya in looking fer Rarity?" Applejack asked as she filled another bucket.
"Well...They've each got their own sectors to take care of and despite how important Rarity is to...us, if I take them away from their sectors innocent...aliens I guess, might die." Applejack stopped bucking the trees and turned to look at Spike, confusion on her face as she looked at the little dragon who a month ago would do anything for Rarity, no matter the cost.
"When did you become so grown up?" Applejack asked him.
"When I was chosen to be more than just an assistant to a librarian," Spike responded as he showed Applejack the green power ring. "When everypony on this planet got put under my care. Which reminds me, I had something that I needed to look into and I need to go." AJ nodded and Spike took to the skies, leaving Applejack to watch him go with a shake of her head.
"Amazing what a few weeks with that ring has done to him," she said as she went back to bucking the trees. "Too bad the ring didn't seek out mah sister. She could use a ring like that to teach her some responsibility." As he left the farm, Spike headed off towards the Everfree forest, towards the castle that used to belong to the royal family.
"If there's any place that Sombra would hide, it's here," he muttered to himself as he reached the castle, floating down inside of it and using his ring as a flashlight to look around. It was dark and cold, with statues and pictures of important ponies past all around him, as if their eyes were looking at him the entire time he walked. But he was unafraid and marched on without any fear. 'Maybe there would be a trap door or something that he would be hiding behind,' Spike thought as he pulled down on a torch holder, smiling to himself as a door opened in the side of a wall. He floated down it, noticing from the green light just how old this place was. But to his disappointment, the path was a dead end, leading to a wall that the ring said was solid.
"This is taking forever," he muttered to himself after the third dead end, feeling that he wasn't getting anywhere. "And there's no sigh of a yellow or orange ring signature anywhere in this place, right?" Spike asked the ring.
'I am getting no scans of any ring signature anywhere within this castle,' the ring confirmed for him, causing Spike to sigh as he looked up at the moon, which had just began to rise over a hole in the ceiling.
"I need to be getting home, Twilight will be worried about me," he muttered as he began to float in the air. "Plus, I need to get ready to look after the Cake twins tomorrow while Pinkie prepares the surprise party for them." He took off after saying this, never noticing the small shadow that slinked away after he had flown off. It slinked down in between the cracks of the floor, going deeper and deeper down until it had reached a hidden chamber, where Rarity was waiting impatiently for Sombra, growling at him as he re-materialized.
"You took too long!" she yelled at him, trying to snatch the ring off of his horn, but getting a blast of yellow to her hoof for doing so. "I want to go fight the ponies! I want Sweetie Belle!"
"And you will have her, but first I have to ask. How do you feel about going to a party tomorrow?" Sombra asked her with a wicked smile.
"What do you mean? Will there be cake? I want cake!" Rarity said as she began to pace. Sombra shook his head at her as he walked over to a table that he had set up and placed his power into the spell that was hiding their rings signatures.
"Yes, there will be cake. Four Cakes to be exact," Sombra said with a smile as he used his ring to construct four images of the fours Cakes. "And if we have these Cakes, then the Dragon and his little filly friend will be unable to do anything to stop us. And then we will be able to kill everypony with ease."
"And then it will all be mine," Rarity said as she rubbed her hooves together.
"Yes, it will all be mine," Sombra muttered to himself, knowing that after the Dragon and Sweetie were disposed of, there'd be no reason to keep Rarity around. So he sat back in his chair, planning about how he was going to attack tomorrow, but a small bit of him was thinking about how good it would feel to finally have that dragon under his hoof.
'Yes, tomorrow will be a reason to party.'
IOI
As Sweetie closed the door to the Carousel Boutique, she let out a sad sigh as she saw just how dark and dreary the place had grown to look in Rarity's absence. The curtains were down and the materials that Rarity had been working on before Sombra lay scattered across the floor. But what Sweetie the most sad was that she couldn't hear her sister yelling at three in the morning when she was trying to finish an order or when Rarity freaked out over a mosquito that had managed to sneak inside.
'And those are the things about her than I never thought I'd miss,' Sweetie thought to herself as she slowly walked up the stairs to her room, plopping down on her bed and staring up at the ceiling with sadness in her heart. 'I really miss her, despite what I tell the others. I just hope that she's safe, but I don't know how she could be since she's stuck with Sombra.'
'And despite all of these fears, you still have hope in your sister,' the ring said, getting a smile out of Sweetie.
"Yeah, because I know that even if she's under Sombra's spell, she'll still be a pain for him to deal with,' Sweetie said before yawning and curling up under her covers, snoring slightly a moment later.