It felt to Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry that they were holding an erupting volcano. The mirror they’d been hauling was spewing dragons of all varieties and sizes. Spike and Sunset watched aghast as the moonlit sky was darkened by almost a hundred dragons. Most of them had wings, and the ones who didn’t have wings were being carried into Equestria. Suddenly, the mirror jerked violently as a particularly large dragon passed through it. Flash and Twilight were separated and thrown aside. Twilight’s right wing was knocked away by another dragon, and she began to fall. She flapped her left wing to prevent herself from dropping like a stone. She was sure the mirror was plummeting and she hoped that Flash hadn’t been injured as well.
“This isn’t the capital!” Twilight heard a dragon say as she descended towards the ground.
“Give it the Horeb Fire anyway!” shouted another dragon.
Right away, the whole of the Crystal Empire knew there was trouble. Citizens were witnessing the invasion from down below, and almost instantly, the Crystal Heart lost momentum. Members of the Royal Family, Taskforce and Guard were rushing to their windows, and the situation was quickly sized up. Other pegasi guards were taking to the air towards the invasion, unicorn guards backing them up within the open windows. But very few of the pegasi made it too far. Three of the dragons were shooting bright yellow fire at the castle. It was quickly trapping the royals, the guards, and Twilight’s friends inside with its intense heat.
Sunset acted quickly, yanking Spike onto her back and teleporting away from the window before the yellow fire reached the spot where they’d been standing. Twilight’s left wing was losing strength, and she could see a dragon had spotted her falling. But before he could attack, Sunset and Spike appeared right beside Twilight. Spike reached out, and when he had both ponies’ forelegs in his clutches, Sunset cast her teleportation spell again. Next second, Twilight felt her hooves on the ground, Spike and Sunset standing beside her.
“Thanks!” she said before having to dart away to avoid another dragon.
Both Twilight and Sunset attempted to teleport themselves and their scaly little companion out of harm’s way, but everywhere they went, there were dragons ready to strike.
“We’re surrounded!” cried Spike as they began to run out of options.
Despite this, Twilight had to teleport the trio to another spot to avoid a burst of pink fire. Now they were close to the train station, and there was no shortage of foreign dragons in that area. Three of them saw where they’d apparated and were charging towards them.
“Twilight!” a familiar voice called.
Twilight jerked her head towards some crystal rocks. There, waving franticly, eyes wide and pupils tiny, was Trixie Lulamoon.
“Come here!” she yelled. “Hurry!”
With no hesitation at all, Twilight, Spike and Sunset bolted towards the rocks. The three dragons followed, gaining on them, claws outstretched. Trixie climbed onto the rocks as Twilight, Spike and Sunset approached. Then, as soon as they got to the rocks, Trixie’s horn exploded with violet light.
This was perhaps the most teleportations Twilight had been through in the span of two minutes. When she saw where they’d gone now, she felt a tiny amount of relief because it looked like they wouldn’t have to do anymore teleporting for the time being. Trixie had taken her and her companions to an old farm. There were fields as far as the eye could see, but there appeared to be no crops. A two level house with peeling paint lay to the right, a barn with a roof full of holes lay to the left, and a rusty shed was behind them.
“Haha! The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie has rescued the princess and her soldiers!” bellowed Trixie, quite suddenly appearing more brave than she had been at the scene of the invasion.
“Thank you, Trixie,” said Twilight, sitting down to catch her breath along with Spike and Sunset. “But what were you doing there? W… were you the entertainer I was supposed to meet?”
“Correct,” Trixie grinned. “I went to Crystal Empire not knowing I would be doing more significant things than auditioning for a festival, such as rescuing an alicorn princess from the clutches of attacking dragons.”
“But why didn’t you meet me at 6:30 like we’d arranged?” asked Twilight.
“Last second butterflies in my stomach,” Trixie answered as though she was describing a sudden illness. “I couldn’t possibly demonstrate my show-stopping abilities in that condition.”
Sunset looked intently at Trixie. “Did she…?”
“No, no,” Spike quickly realized what Sunset was thinking. “She’s from this world.”
“She is?” asked Sunset.
“Here. There’s a simple test,” said Twilight. “Trixie, do you like peanut butter crackers?”
Trixie blinked. “Never heard of that.”
Sunset nodded, but didn’t feel relieved. Surely equine Trixie wasn’t too different from human Trixie.
Spike suddenly gasped. “Those dragons set the castle on fire! What’s gonna happen now?!”
“I- I don’t think anypony inside is in a lot of danger,” stammered Twilight. “I heard one say the word Horeb.”
“Horeb Fire?” asked Trixie. “I know about that.”
“What is it?” Sunset asked.
“It’s a magic fire that doesn’t actually burn things or create smoke,” answered Trixie.
Twilight nodded. “It won’t burn the castle down, but nopony will be able to get out. It’s an intensely hot fire, so you can’t get too close to it.”
“So the princesses and our friends are just trapped in the castle,” said Spike. “That’s not too terrible.”
“Your friends were there?” asked Trixie. “Then why did you not stay with them and banish the intruders with your Rainbow Power?”
“Applejack isn’t there,” replied Twilight. “She’s in Fillydelphia. Without her, our Rainbow Power won’t work.”
“Let’s hope she has time to hide before the dragons spread out over all of Equestria,” said Sunset.
“Yes. We’d best hide as well,” insisted Trixie. “We…”
“Whatcha up to there, Trixie,” came a voice from around the shed.
Twilight, Spike and Sunset watched an old bearded unicorn stallion walk around the corner.
“Wa-hey!” he exclaimed. “More magic’ns.”
“Evening,” Trixie grinned. “This is Farmer Smokey, ladies and dragon. He lets me live here and practise my craft so long as I tend to his goat.”
Farmer Smokey stared at Twilight and Sunset for a moment. Twilight thought Sunset was looking at Smokey the way she looked at Trixie, as if she recognised him.
“So, are you three here to work on your magic abilities too?” asked Farmer Smokey. “Ain’t no better place. Know what we grow here? Tell ‘em, Trix.”
“This is a private Blue Giant Vegetables farm,” Trixie told them, indicating the seemingly barren fields. “It grows in the ground, like turnips. It’s a magic enhancer.”
“Oh, so that’s how you managed to teleport us all from the Crystal Empire,” said Spike.
Trixie was about to object, but Farmer Smokey spoke first.
“I take it your audition didn’t go nowhere?”
“There was no time for auditions,” said Sunset. “There’s an emergency, Smokey. Dragons have invaded Equestria from an alternate world. They have all but one member of the Royal Family trapped in the Crystal Castle.”
“Is that right?” Farmer Smokey’s eyes widened and he shot a glance at Twilight. “Would you be that missing member? Oh, yes. You’re the most recent princess. Twilight Sparkle.”
He bowed for a second.
“Well, you better get in the shed and eat up all the Blue Giant Vegetables you can if ya wanna chase away the dragons,” he continued.
“Um, I’m not one of the…” Spike began to speak.
Smokey didn’t seem to question the fact that there was a dragon amongst them at all, even after hearing about a dragon invasion.
“Go ahead and eat away,” he said, waving Spike and the magical ponies into the shed. “Don’t matter about cutting into profits. Needs must in a crisis.”
“Thank you so much,” Twilight smiled despite her curiosity. She’d never heard of Blue Giant Vegetables before, and she would certainly have liked to hear about the trade.
Farmer Smokey’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. No sooner had Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie gone into the shed when two winged dragons appeared in the sky over the barn and swooped down towards Smokey. They touched down and walked up to the farmer. Everyone inside the shed hid themselves behind a stack of wooden crates.
“Good evening, Mr unicorn,” said one of the winged dragons.
Farmer Smokey feigned a startled expression.
“That’s right. Equestria is run by dragons now,” smiled the dragon, her companion standing beside her with an intimidating scowl.
“A-are you serious?” asked Farmer Smokey with a fake stammer.
“Yep. Your government’s been mostly overthrown,” nodded the first dragon. “We’re missing a few ponies of interest though. Our leaders say their names are Twilight Sparkle and Applejack.”
The other dragon, his scowl never wavering, exhaled a cloud of purple fire. A scroll appeared in front of his face, and his friendlier-looking fellow grabbed it before it dropped.
“Here’s a composite sketch for you,” she said. “Most of us hate these kind of posters, but I think they can be useful. So if you see any ponies who look like these two…”
She passed the scroll to Smokey, who magiced it open and looked at the drawing of Twilight and Applejack.
“Be sure to report them right away,” continued the politer dragon. “And don’t try to hide them. We’ll be planting lookouts all over this country. Have a nice evening.”
And the two visiting dragons took off.
Once the dragons were out of sight, Farmer Smokey went into the shed and peaked around the crates.
“How about you go to the barn?” he suggested. “You’ll have more room to prepare for battle there and there’s a supply of the magic vegetables there. Just send my goat to the shed. I like to eat my Blue Giants with cheese, like cauliflower.”
“Yes, sir,” Trixie nodded. “And thanks for covering us.”
“It weren’t nothing,” smiled Smokey.
Sunset watched as the farmer exited the shed.
“Where’s he going?” she asked.
“I don’t think he’s quite as spry as any of us,” replied Trixie. “He obviously has faith in us. So please, do me a favour and don’t tell him I’ve lost his goat.”
Twilight and Spike had to stifle back bursts of surprise.
“You lost his goat,” groaned Twilight.
“Lost sight of him just before I left for the Crystal Empire,” admitted Trixie. “Lucky thing Farmer Smokey hasn’t noticed yet.”
“Good luck finding him with dragons looking for you,” frowned Spike.
Spike volunteered the look out of the shed to see if there were any dragons around.
“The coast is clear,” he said to his pony mates.
With the all clear given, Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie sprinted from the shed to the barn. Smokey had dropped the composite sketch outside the shed, and Spike picked it up along the way. Trixie opened the door. There certainly was more space in here. There were also more puddles of water on the floor. A stack of Blue Giant crates was lined up against one of the walls. And standing in the center of the barn was a goat.
“Ah. There he is,” sighed Trixie.
“Great. Smokey won’t have any reason to kick us out,” said Spike as the four of them walked into the barn.
“Alright. We’ll have ourselves a meal of all the Blue Giants we can eat without getting sick, and then we’ll practise stunning spells,” declared Trixie.
“That would be great,” said Sunset. “I hardly ever use magic nowadays. But can I ask how long you’ve known Smoke-- uh, Farmer Smokey?”
“Not long,” answered Trixie. “But I’ve lived with him long enough to have enough Blue Giant to bolster by magic prowess.”
“I’ve never heard of Blue Giant Vegetables,” said Twilight. “Do they really get exported?”
“As far as I know,” replied Trixie.
Spike looked at the composite sketch. “Those two dragons said they have leaders. Any idea who they are, Sunset?”
“Yes. I heard them talking in the animal shelter,” said Sunset. “Their names are Wrecks and Sinomen.”
“How do they know who Twilight Sparkle and Applejack are?” inquired Trixie.
“I don’t know,” said Sunset. “I didn’t even know dogs could talk in that world.”
“Sounds like they’ve been hiding it for a long time,” Spike suggested. “So what kind of dogs are…?”
Without warning, Twilight grabbed Sunset with one hoof, Trixie with the other hoof, Spike with her teeth, and carried them up into the rafters. A split second later, a large chunk of ice appeared where they’d been standing. Twilight had seen something reflected in a puddle of water. A pale-coloured dragon with a face like a rat was perched in the rafters puppeteering a fake goat. Having narrowly escaped its ice beam, Twilight tossed her comrades aside into bales of hay and fired a stunning spell at the rat-faced dragon. It dodged and fired another beam of ice. Twilight shattered it with her next spell, but almost instantly, another beam was fired and it caught all four of Twilight’s hooves. Her right wing was still in pain and she was still worn out from the escape. Her left wing stood no chance of making her fall any lighter, and even though the ice broke when she hit the floor, the rat-faced dragon had fired another ice beam and concealed Twilight inside a capsule of ice.
The whole ordeal had gone by quickly, and Sunset had only just picked herself up from the pile of hay she’d been tossed into. With a groan of exasperation, she aimed a stunning spell at the dragon. It hit, but it had no effect at all. The rat-faced dragon looked up and shot an ice attack at Sunset. Sunset dropped to the floor encased in ice and landed with a clunk next to Twilight’s ice block. The dragon looked up. He knew there was one more pony up there. Trixie was keeping hidden in her pile of hay. Spike had gotten himself stuck in a bucket and couldn’t contribute at the moment. The dragon flew up to the rafters and looked from one hay pile to the other. To Trixie’s delight, he picked the wrong one to search. As soon as his back was turned, Trixie shot a stunner at him. He jolted and lost his grip on the loft. He slid off the ledge and landed flat on his back on the barn floor.
“Victory!” roared Trixie before the rat-faced dragon shot an ice beam up and enveloped her.
Spike had extricated himself from the bucket just in time to watch Trixie’s ice block fall to the ground against the wall of crates.
The rat-faced dragon groaned as he stood up. He wasn’t very big, and his claws were nowhere near big enough to grab the chunks of ice containing the trapped ponies. But before he could do anything, Spike hopped down onto Twilight’s ice chunk and eyed the ratty dragon with his most threatening gaze. The rat-faced dragon looked surprised. He hadn’t really been listening to the conversation his prey had been having and had no idea that the tiny dragon before him was amongst them.
“Where’d you come from?” he asked.
“Up there,” Spike replied angrily, pointing up at the rafters. “Now…”
“OK, you guard those ponies while I get Wrecks and Sinomen here,” the rat-faced dragon said, turning around.
Spike blinked and watched the dragon take off, making a fresh hole in the roof.
“Huh. I guess he thought I was part of the invasion,” Spike shrugged.
He quickly blew a stream of fire at the ice around Twilight’s horn. It melted quite easily and when her horn was exposed to air again, she cast a spell that cracked all the ice blocks and split the three of them apart.
“We gotta hide somewhere else!” said Spike. “That guy’s gone to get the leaders of the dragons!”
“Trixie, can you teleport us somewhere you’ve never been to before?” Twilight asked.
“Shouldn’t be too difficult for a unicorn as great and powerful as me,” nodded Trixie. “But remember. It has to be 100% guaranteed to be empty.”
“Good. I thought of a place for us,” said Twilight. “It’s a cavern beneath Canterlot. When the Changelings invaded, their queen foalnapped Cadance and imprisoned her in those caves. She said there’s almost no one who knows about them.”
“Caves beneath Canterlot. Got it,” said Trixie. “Blue Giant, don’t fail me now.”
Trixie beckoned Twilight, Spike and Sunset to stand close to her. When they did so, Trixie’s horn lit up the whole of the barn.