Twilight had used the spell Celestia had taught her to open Sombra’s secret passage to the helical staircase below the throne room, and had closed the opening again after she, Sunset and Trixie had dived into the pit. Now they were staggering down the stairs away from the floor above them. They could hear the dragons’ frustrated yelling, which faded away as they descended. Sunset was casting a light with her horn, but Trixie’s horn was still sore from Spike’s tight grip, and Twilight wasn’t feeling up to casting a light of her own at the moment. At last, the three stopped walked and sat on the stone steps looking themselves over. Trixie was fuming when she saw the burnt tip of her tail.
“Grr! I’ll never forgive that monster for what he’s done to me!” she snarled.
“You…!”
Twilight faltered, then slammed her hoof on her step.
“You’re right,” she choked. “Spike’s a monster. I’ve turned Spike into a monster.”
“No you didn’t,” objected Sunset.
“He turned into a greedy behemoth!” cried Twilight. “I did that to him. I didn’t try to stop him. I let him grow into a monster. And now he doesn’t even know who I am.”
Despite the state of her tail (which was still smoking), Trixie softened a little when she saw Twilight crumple miserably on her step.
“I could never do anything to control him when he caved in to dragon greed,” Twilight sighed. “Trying to stop him from collecting things didn’t work. Letting him collect things didn’t work. I just can’t keep him from going astray no matter what I do.”
“That’s not… you don’t…” Sunset struggled to find the right words to console Twilight.
“I try,” sobbed Twilight.
The right words came to Sunset. “Well… that’s what matters.”
“That’s what matters?” repeated Twilight.
“Nopony can say you didn’t do your best,” nodded Trixie, who suddenly looked quite solemn herself. “Same goes for you, Sunset. As for me… well, I’m…”
“Scared?” asked Sunset.
Trixie winced, then nodded again.
“At least your magic can do something,” sighed Sunset. “I’ve been away from here for so long, my magic’s next to useless.”
“All the more reason we get you home as soon as possible,” said Trixie.
“Home? But…”
“You’ve got friends in the alternate world, right?” asked Trixie.
Sunset and Trixie both smiled, but Twilight remained crestfallen.
“I just can’t bring myself to do anymore damage to Spike.”
She rolled onto her side and shut herself off from Sunset’s and Trixie’s attempts to talk her out of her misery.
By now, every invaded dragon had been summoned to the Crystal Empire to hunt for Twilight, Trixie and Sunset. The Crystal Castle was still being guarded and all the prisoners knew that Twilight had been there. As the hours passed, Wrecks and Sinomen circled the castle impatiently watching every entrance and barking orders at their army. Fluttershy knew it would be a bad idea to carry on with their diversionary tactics with Wrecks and Sinomen walking around constantly on the alert.
“If we don’t find them by the end of the day, we’ll start searching the crystal ponies’ homes!” Sinomen declared. “That Crystal Heart can shatter and sink in a ditch for all I care.”
“And remember! You’re all free to find your own homes in Equestria and do what you like once we’ve banished all the ponies!” called Wrecks.
The entire time the search was going on, Wrecks and Sinomen never noticed what Spike had been doing since he’d tossed Twilight, Sunset and Trixie into the throne room. He had picked up the green gemstone that Twilight had dropped. It looked an awful lot like an egg to him. Especially when he’d been looking down on Twilight sitting next to it.
Twilight hadn’t budged in hours, but before the day was over, she finally snapped out of her misery when she heard the distance echo of Trixie’s voice.
“Twilight! Look what we’ve found!”
Twilight looked up. Trixie and Sunset had clearly left her to brood. Then she realized that the voice came from down below. She sat up in alarm.
“The door!”
She spread her wings and dived down through the center of the helical staircase.
“Don’t open the door!”
She reached the bottom of the stairs, and was surprised to find that Trixie and Sunset weren’t talking about the door. They had found something much more interesting.
“Smokescreen!” she snapped. “The dragon egg thief.”
“Don’t start with me,” said Smokescreen threateningly. “If I hadn’t taken that egg and sent those two dragons away, they’d have built up in army down in those caves and taken over Equestria just like they’ve done now.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Do I have your word on that?”
“I suppose Sunset here told you I was routing for her as Princess Celestia’s protégé,” said Smokescreen. “But I really don’t have anything against you.”
“Is that why you left us with a supply of Blue Giants without telling us about the health risk?” Twilight tilted her head.
Before Twilight, Sunset or Trixie could stop him, Smokescreen turned himself into smoke and began swirling around the bottom of the staircase.
“I might add that if it weren’t for me, Shining Armour’s force field would have failed on its own!” his voice surrounded them. “Believe me when I say I’m on the side of the Equestrian citizens.”
“Then come down and join us!” shouted Sunset.
“I’m not going to prison for setting up that illegal exam!” insisted Smokescreen’s voice. “I won’t go to prison! Forget about me. But bare this in mind. I have just reduced the size of my force field now that all the invading dragons are back in the Crystal Empire. Now all that’s left is for you to drive them into the portal.”
“But we can’t get to the portal with every dragon searching the empire,” objected Trixie.
“That’s no reason not to try,” were Smokescreen’s final words before his translucent smoggy form disappeared from sight.
As the draft Smokescreen had created died down, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie saw something blowing around. Something dark pink and flat. Twilight saw that Trixie had recovered from her injury as she magiced the mysterious object still.
“What is this?” asked Trixie.
All three of them examined it.
“Wait…” Sunset glared at the floating pink thing. “That looks like a flower petal. From… the flower that came from the Tree of Harmony. Trixie, did you sit on that flower or something?”
“I don’t know,” shrugged Trixie.
“There’s a silver hair stuck to it,” Sunset pointed at the singed strand on the petal. “You must have rolled over in your sleep and crushed the flower.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open.
“What is it?” asked Sunset when she noticed.
“That gem…” said Twilight. “Could it have come from the flower?”
“No,” Trixie waved a hoof. “I found that gem wedged in the ground beneath me. It couldn’t have come from the flower.”
“Then it’s the other way around,” said Twilight. “The flower came from the gemstone. It could be… some kind of… magic element.”
“You mean it’s another Element of Harmony?” asked Sunset.
“Well…” Twilight thought carefully. “It would be a seed rather than a fruit like the Elements of Harmony we know about. But if it is a magical item, what would have activated it to make that flower grow out of it?”
“Well, we can’t figure it out if we don’t have it,” sighed Sunset. “We’ve left it behind. I guess the only thing left for us to do is try and get to the portal and let Discord in so he can show all the dragons the lost dog fliers.”
Their only exit was the door at the bottom of the stairs, which was surely the only way Smokescreen had entered this chamber. When Twilight remembered that Sombra’s dark magic would no longer be contained in it, she edged towards it and slowly opened it. Heat poured into the room. The Horeb Fire was still going. They couldn’t get too close to the door. They would have to charge out to avoid getting burns. That would hinder their chances of going undetected. The first thing Twilight saw was that night had fallen. The full moon looked like it was on the verge of reaching its peak.
“We haven’t got a lot of time,” she whispered to Sunset and Trixie.
When she pushed the door a little further, she gulped.
“It’s Spike,” she said hoarsely.
“What’s he doing?” asked Trixie.
“Um… he’s looking down at something. Wait… it’s the gemstone.”
Sunset and Trixie looked through the crack in the open door along with Twilight. Spike was still as massive as he had been when he tossed them away, but his face didn’t look anything resembling monstrous. They didn’t know what he was thinking, and they didn’t know how to proceed.
Spike wasn’t sure what he was thinking either. His perspective on everything had changed after he saw Twilight sitting before him with the round, green object lying next to her. When he’d been looking down at her, she looked like a filly with an egg. He had never actually seen the egg he’d come from and he could never be consistent about the subject of its colour whenever he told anyone absolutely everything about himself. In any case, much like seeing a specific pony and a specific object had triggered significant memories about his true nature before, Spike was once again recalling memories of his past in which he’d bonded with a pony in a meaningful way. Despite his experiences with those teenage dragons he’d met, not knowing who his parents were had still nagged at him the same way not knowing for certain whether or not she was related to the Apples nagged at Pinkie Pie from time to time. Spike had thought that he could not be happier that Wrecks and Sinomen had found him, but now that he was looking at them, they didn’t seem all that interested in him. They’d chattered happily all the way from the caves beneath Canterlot to the Crystal Empire, but after they’d arrived, they’d hardly exchanged any words or even seen each other. Come to think of it, all Wrecks and Sinomen had actually talked to him about was their army of dragons. He was wondering if Wrecks and Sinomen were more concerned with their numbers than their long-lost baby. He looked around. Wrecks and Sinomen were close by gazing up at the dragons who were patrolling the city.
Twilight, Sunset and Trixie looked down at the streets. They couldn’t see the Crystal Heart, but when they saw some of the smaller dragons entering and exiting the buildings, they were sure it must be revolving once per hour.
“I hope Cadance doesn’t wear herself out again,” groaned Twilight.
“Hey!”
Twilight jumped. She and Sunset backed away from the door.
“Don’t worry,” whispered Trixie. “He’s not looking at us.”
Twilight and Sunset looked out of the door crack again. Spike was looking at his parents, who were facing the other way. It seemed they hadn’t heard Spike.
“Hey!” called Spike again. “Mom! Dad!”
Sinomen turned around. “Oh. Wrecks, Spike’s talking to us.”
They both walked towards Spike.
“What is it?” asked Wrecks.
“I want to know if you really care about me,” said Spike.
“Sure we do,” said Wrecks. “We’re your parents.”
“You might be my parents,” said Spike.
“We did have an egg stolen from us in that cave,” insisted Sinomen. “And you said you were given to Princess Twilight as an egg. What else do you want?”
“I want… to be your son. Not just part of your army.”
“Oh, is that what’s bugging you?” asked Wrecks. “Look, we’re just busy trying to round up all the ponies who can stop us before we can settle into this place.”
“Well, I’ve got issues with that, too,” said Spike.
“Why? It’s because of these ponies that you never knew us,” stated Sinomen.
“Maybe, but I’ve got an interesting story to tell you,” said Spike, smiling. “My earliest memory.”
The memory Spike spoke of was fuzzy, but there were a number of things he could recall clearly enough to describe, and Twilight had filled in several blanks on a previous occasion. He’d hatched barely an hour ago. He’d never left his cart. He was being wheeled down a hallway by somepony he hadn’t seen since. There was yelling coming from the door they’d just gone through. Twilight, as young as Apple Bloom currently was, bounded into the hall.
“Wait! Where are you taking him!” she shouted.
“I am taking him to the lab,” replied the scratchy voice of the pony pulling the cart.
“You’re not gonna hurt him, are you?!” asked Twilight, slightly hysterically.
“We may have to if we want to find out…”
Twilight started shaking. “But he’s just a baby!”
Princess Celestia entered the hall.
“Twilight?”
“Princess Celestia, I don’t want that dragon to be given harmful tests,” said Twilight.
“I’ve told you, Twilight,” Celestia said. “You’ve been subjected to an illegal entrance test. If you want to know, I am mortified that a foal has been exposed to a dragon here in my own school.”
“I was mortified, too,” said Twilight. “I made him grow huge! But I think he’s totally harmless. And he could stay that way if we let him stay in Equestria.”
For a second, Twilight had a knot in her stomach. She’d actually had a hoof in Spike becoming a huge dragon three times. But then she spotted what Sunset, Trixie, Wrecks and Sinomen had. It was happening so gradually, that no one had seen it until now. As Spike was reciting his story to the audience of dragons, he was shrinking. Wrecks and Sinomen were pretending not to notice.
“So you were taken from Twilight as well as us,” said Sinomen, one eyebrow lowered. “Then you were returned to her, and then we found you. So what’s the difference?”
“The difference,” said Spike, continuing to decrease in size, “is that after Princess Celestia decided to let her keep me and I was given to her, she didn’t leave me for weeks. I was always with her. She loved me. I’d only been away from her one day while Celestia discussed things with some of her advisors. Whereas you two haven’t seen me in years, but you keep wandering off to talk to your oh-so-impressive army.”
As Spike became smaller and smaller, the green gemstone he was holding became more pronounced.
“What’s that you’re holding?” asked Wrecks.
“Something that helped remind me who I really am,” said Spike confidently.
The last time Spike had reverted to his normal size, he’d gone airborne where his large head had been. The same was happening now even though he had been shrinking at a slower rate. At last he noticed he’d shrunk. He was about to fall just like last time, but he was close enough to the ledge that he could catch it. He clambered onto the flat surface and could hear laughter coming from below.
“You really want to go back to living with ponies?!” jeered a familiar voice.
Spike, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie saw the rat-faced dragon that had nearly caught them in the barn.
“They’re just like humans,” he went on. “They forget about you after a while.”
The other dragons nodded and voiced their agreement with the rat-faced dragon. Wrecks and Sinomen didn’t look so amused. Suddenly, they each raised a claw and thrust it into the castle walls, which were still flaming. They retracted their claws just as quickly. Spike gasped. Wrecks had Rainbow Dash in his clutches, and Sinomen had Applejack in hers.
“You only think these ponies know the right way to act because they control some magical artefacts that make life more comfortable for themselves,” growled Wrecks.
“Can you honestly say that you’d rather side with them than your real family?” asked Sinomen, shaking Applejack about so much that her hat fell off.
“Put them down!” Spike shouted, pointing at Sinomen with the claw he was holding the green gemstone with. “They’re my friends and I’m on their side!”
A beam of green light burst from the gemstone Spike was holding and hit Applejack, who began to transform. Everyone watched in shock as, right there in Sinomen’s claws, her mane and tail lengthened and her cutie mark expanded. Then, a trickle of orange light slid up Sinomen’s arm and a white aura surrounded her. Sinomen shut her eyes tightly, and then they flung open.
“You’re completely right!” she called out in a loud yet monotone voice as though she couldn’t help herself. “Me and Wrecks wanted an army more than we wanted children!”
“Shh!” hissed Wrecks, still holding an utterly bewildered Rainbow Dash.
“We’d been hiding in the caves beneath Canterlot because we wanted to raise our children to become big destructive dragons so we could take over Equestria!” Sinomen carried on talking loudly. “That’s why there are so many gemstones in that cave! They’re not lost treasure from plunderers or whatever the story is!”
“A-ha!” called Spike triumphantly. “And what about your army?”
“Don’t tell them!” Wrecks hollered.
“We tricked all these dogs into joining us by stealing the lost dog posters their owners made to make them think they were unwanted!”
As if on cue, the Crystal Empire was suddenly blanketed in lost dog fliers. The first to find one pertaining to himself was the ratty dragon.
“Well if that don’t take the biscuit!” he exclaimed. “Silver Spoon has been looking for me.”
From Sombra’s door, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie watched as, slowly but surely, each of the almost one-hundred dragons was finding their own reward poster and discovering the truth Wrecks and Sinomen had concealed from them. Then they heard whistling and looked up. There was Discord flying above the city carrying the Mirror Portal.
“Who wants to go for a ride?!” he called to the dragons.
“How in Tartarus did he get out?!” asked Twilight.
Trixie saw that Discord had a passenger clinging to his back. Heavy Light.
“The sheep lifted the mirror for him!” she exclaimed.
Applejack had just slid out of Sinomen’s grasp. She gently floated down to the ground and then returned to normal. She ran briskly away from Sinomen, who was still wide-eyed, but didn’t seem to know what was happening.
“Sinomen! Look what you did!” shouted Wrecks. “They’re leaving!”
Sinomen blinked, rubbed her head, and looked around. Dragons were flying up to where Discord was carrying the Mirror Portal. Many of the winged dragons were carrying the ones without wings into the sky. Three of them approached the castle and took deep breaths. The Horeb Fire that covered the castle was sucked into their months.
“So long, liars!” said one of them as the three of them went to join the throng of departing dragons.
Sinomen shot Spike an enraged glare.
“You and your stupid ponies cost us our army!” she screamed.
Spike yelled in fright as the inside of Sinomen’s mouth glowed red. Twilight, no longer barred by the Horeb fire, shot out of Sombra’s door and cast a force field spell between Spike and Sinomen just in time. Sinomen snarled and shot more fire. Twilight stood boldly in front of Spike and kept up her shield. Sinomen’s attacks came at them in quick bursts. They could feel the ledge shake.
Trixie looked up.
“Sunset, you have to get through the portal too! The moon’s gonna change any minute now! I’ll… I’ll cover you!”
Sunset gasped as Trixie charged out into the open and fired stunning spells at Sinomen. Sinomen was able to block the spells with her fire, which carried on rocketing towards Twilight’s force field. Sunset could see that roughly half of the invading dragons were left and were flying up to the portal Discord was holding. But she could hear Trixie whimpering despite the intensity of the stunners she was shooting at her opponent. She knew she couldn’t leave now. She too jumped onto the cracking ledge and joined the battle. Between Sinomen’s fire blasts, Twilight’s force field being hit, and Trixie and Sunset shooting stunners, there was a great deal of noise.
“Stop or I’ll crush her!” Wrecks voice could be heard above the bangs and pops.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“Ow!”
Spike and the ponies were alarmed. Wrecks was still holding Rainbow Dash, and was squeezing her tightly.
“Sorry, I meant stop AND I’ll crush her!” snarled Wrecks, ignoring the sight of his precious army flying away from him.
“OW!” Rainbow cried, Wrecks’ grip tightening. “Stop him, somepony!”
“Don’t none of you move!” Wrecks barked threateningly.
Spike didn’t have to move. A green beam shot from his gemstone. This time, it was deliberate. Spike had aimed right at Rainbow Dash, whose hair lengthened and cutie mark expanded. A thin red light crept up Wrecks’ arm. Wrecks shut his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them again.
“Now let’s see for sure who he really is loyal to,” Spike said quietly to Twilight, Sunset and Trixie.
Wrecks let go of Rainbow Dash, who flew away from him and reverted to normal. Sinomen stared at Wrecks, who was watching his army enter the portal one by one.
“Wait!” he cried.
Discord was flying low enough for Wrecks to reach the portal with a single bound.
Sinomen spluttered in fury. “Alright! I’m leaving! You win, ponies!”
Nearly all the dragons had left now. Sinomen spun around and knelt down to take her own jump into the portal the next time Discord came around with it. But as Sinomen turned, she stretched her tail sharply towards Spike. With her claw-like nails, she grabbed the green gemstone off of him, jumped, and disappeared into the mirror.
“She took the gem!” exclaimed Spike.
There was a crack as the weakened ledge finally gave way under the weight of Twilight, Spike, Trixie and Sunset. Trixie managed to step back into the staircase chamber, and Twilight flapped her wings to stay airborne with Spike grabbing her hoof, but Sunset dropped like a rock. She was about to teleport herself to safety when she heard Discord shout “Last call!” The Draconequus slithered down through the air towards the base of the tower and held the mirror beneath Sunset like a net.
CLUNK.
The glass was solid. Sunset looked up at the sky. The moon was no longer perfectly round.
“Oopsie,” said Discord. “Looks like you’ve missed your chance.”
Sunset teleported down to the ground. Her heart sank. She knew she’d risked being stuck in Equestria and being unable to return to her friends at Canterlot High, and for one shining moment, she thought she was going to make it.
“Thirty moons,” she groaned.
Twilight flew down to Sunset, Spike riding on her back. Trixie teleported close by and walked up to them.
“Sunset, don’t forget our books,” said Twilight.
Sunset stared, then she smacked her forehead.
“Of course!”
“But please, do not leave us just yet!” came two voices.
Everything seemed to happen at once. Princesses Celestia and Luna flew down and walked up to Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie looking happier than any of them had ever seen them.
“How are Cadance and Shining Armour?” Twilight asked right away.
“They’ve both dropped off to sleep,” replied Luna. “They’ve had a trying time keeping up their magic nonstop.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash stormed up to Twilight and Spike.
“Way to go, guys!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“I dunno what the heck y’all did to us,” said Applejack, “but I’m sure glad ya did it!”
“What was that thing anyway?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Before Twilight could attempt to answer, two loud noises filled the air. One was the sound of cheering. It was coming from the buildings around the castle. When Twilight and company looked, they saw crystal ponies exiting their homes and shouting ecstatically about finally being free from the dragons. The other noise was a whirring sound. Everyone looked towards the Crystal Heart. It was picking up momentum at a tremendous rate. Within seconds, multihue light burst from it and spread across the city and the sky above. The ponies became crystalized. Everypony was glistening, and very happy.
Morning came. Trumpets sounded.
“Her Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” announced Flash Sentry. “And the Great and Honourable Spike, the Brave and Glorious!”
Twilight and Spike stepped along the red carpet towards the throne. They bowed to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour, who were both pale and baggy-eyed despite being rested up. The two rulers of the Crystal Empire bowed back to Twilight and Spike, and stepped aside. Twilight faced the crowd. Some were crystal ponies, others were not. She and the other ordinary ponies who’d been in the Crystal Empire when the dragons were sent away had long since returned to normal.
“Mares and Stallions,” Twilight said to the crowd, “having assurance from Princess Celestia that I have the power to do so…”
She saw her old mentor standing off to one side, who nodded once.
“I am honoured to confer knighthoods upon two ponies who have courageously risked the very things they live for for the sake of contributing to the offence against the invading dragons,” Twilight went on.
The trumpets sounded again.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie!” announced Flash. “And Sunset Shimmer, the Ambassador to the Alternate World!”
Trixie and Sunset were both red in the face as they walked along the middle of the cheering crowd.
Twilight smiled as Sunset and Trixie walked up to her and knelt down. Spike exhaled some green fire, from which dropped two shiny gold medals. He held them to Twilight, who magiced them into the air in front of Sunset and Trixie.
“For your help in discovering more to the Elements of Harmony than has been known before, and for your devotion to atonement for past illegalities and to averting a national crisis,” said Twilight, “I hereby grant you, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, the title of Knights of Harmony!”
The throne room echoed with cheers and applause as Twilight placed a medal each on Sunset and Trixie. The two newly knighted unicorns stood up and faced the crowd.
“I shall uphold this title by finding the mysterious object that was found beneath the Tree of Harmony, and returning it to Equestria!” Sunset declared.
A round of applause greeted this statement.
“As for me, my first act as a knight will be to seek out the unicorn Smokescreen and bring him to Princess Celestia so that he can be sentenced accordingly for theft, evading arrest, and production of illegal goods!” Trixie proclaimed.
Another round of applause. Princess Celestia stepped forward.
“Now, to reward Princess Twilight, her scribe, and her Knights of Harmony…!”
Celestia’s horn glowed. A curtain on the wall fell. There for all to see was a stain glass window depicting the defeat of Wrecks and Sinomen by Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Sunset Shimmer, and Trixie Lulamoon.