Everypony seemed to make a stop in the Library after the fourth day of Spike's jaunt. He was expected back within four to six days, depending on how tough some of the ingredients were to find. Some of them wanted to see if Spike had returned and how roughing it had been on him. Some wanted to see if he'd seen anything new in his travel. Most however, knew that 'Mama Hen' was going to be getting even more worried than usual as the fourth day dragged out. High strung already, she was a little short-tempered that, like Applejack had suggested, Spike just hadn't magically appeared when he picked the last item on his list.
Her friends helped calm her down and sat with her, patiently dealing with her ever-thumping nervous hoof as she chatted. Rainbow Dash didn't mind it so much, but at one point, Applejack, while talking confidentially, put one hoof on her leg as if it were just part of the conversation and exerted a little more pressure than the comforting hoof necessarily had to be. Thank Celestia for five minutes with no rhythmic thumping, she thought.
Twilight kept having tea all through the day, and after the sixth pot or so, she was surprised she could still see her hooves, she felt so swelled from it. During the lulls in visits, she worked on her studies and tried to absorb herself in them. At one point she succeeded, and after a solid hour of reading, said, "Spike, will get me that book on the third royal line?" She paused, looked up and realized what she'd said, and dropped her head on the book. She couldn't wait for Spike to get home. First she'd hug him.
Then she was going to tie his scaly tail into a square knot.
Rarity was going over some patterns and looking at herself in a mirror as she compared color combinations. "No. No. No." She let out a sudden gasp as a particularly horrid mismatch passed before her tender eyes. She cast the two garments away and briefly considered setting them on fire when there was a knock at the door. "Come in, darling!" she sing songed. Rainbow Dash stuck her head into the mirror's view behind her.
"Oh, hello, Dash!" She welcomed with a winning smile. "I was just going over what I'm going to wear when Spike gets back. It's going to have to be something bright enough to add to the cheer, but not too much so it will overpower the moment...."
Dash's blank look in the mirror told Rarity she was probably talking to the wrong pony. She turned to face Dash. "He's not back already, is he? Oh, I should have been working on this yesterday, but I was sooooo busy with..."
"Do you think I should go look for him?" Dash said suddenly.
"What, darling?"
"I mean, I told everybody I wouldn't. It'd just embarrass him if he knew we wanted to check up on him. But you know, if he ran into trouble in the woods or something..."
Dash had begun to pace about in a small circle and wasn't looking at Rarity, who suddenly looked a little nervous at the prospect of Spikey-Wikey being in danger. "Dash..." she said quietly.
"I mean, it's not like there are manticores out there or anything..."
More nervous. "Daaash...."
"And I KNOW there aren't any dragons in those woods..."
Nervous overload. "DASH!!"
She stopped pacing. "What?" she saw Rarity's eye twitch. "Oh. Sorry. I'm sure the little lover-dragon's fine, Rar. He'll probably float back if you went out and called his name."
Rarity blushed. "Oh, you know better than that. He's just a friend, darling."
Dash laughed. "Uh huh. Let me know when you really start believing that."
Rarity sniffed. "The boy simply has marvelous taste in ponies."
"I wasn't just talking about him."
Rarity was thinking of something to say when her horn suddenly stopped glowing and her levitated clothing fell to the floor.
"Aha!" Dash said triumphantly. "See, you can't even concentrate on your horn!"
Rarity was scared, truly scared. "I--- I didn't do that. My... my connection is gone!"
And that was when they heard the first distant rumble. Something huge, far away. Then another, then more. Getting closer every time.
Twilight felt her magic vanish as well, and the books she'd been organizing crashed to the floor. Her mouth dropped open at the feel of the severing, like a piece of her mind had been stolen or shut away. She was in such shock she didn't hear the approaching rumbles for nearly five minutes. When she did, she ran to the door and looked out. She was the last one to see the danger, but she was the one pony the sight frightened the most.
The monstrous giant caused everyone in Ponyville to panic. Anypony with magic ability was terrified at the loss of their connection, and even more so by the appearance of the creature that seemed bent on attacking the town. It was massive and each step it took made the ground quake and the houses and businesses shudder. They had seen this monster before and knew what it could do. Only now, it was far more deadly looking.
It was Spike in his massive dragon form, but now he looked much crueler. His lavender scales were a darker purplish color. His long green dragon crest was sharper and likewise darker and the fins on his jaw were longer and viciously curved, blackish-green now instead of the light green Rarity had been fond of sometimes teasing him over. On his elbows and knees the same type spikes protruded. The tail was also studded with the evil protrusions, his fanged mouth snarled in an eternal growl and his eyes were too horrible to look at for long. There was no light in them, not even a spark in the dark depths. And on he came, ignoring the things he had coveted when greed had overtaken him. He smashed carts and houses now, not accidentally through his massive size, but wantonly, and trying to attack the fleeing ponies in his wake.
Twilight was too shocked and afraid to scream.
Spike smashed the outlying houses, and it was simply luck that ponies were dextrous or fortunate enough to avoid the rubble or its footfalls. He did not cut a straight path into town, but reveled in the damage and pain he was causing. He burst forth with a long jet of flame that consumed some of the small outlying fields where ponies grew things for their own use, destroyed gardens and play yards, and it was obvious to all that kept their wits about them that it wasn't just a chaotic, mindless rampage: the dragon wanted to destroy, to ruin and cause pain.
Twilight's five friends gathered next to her as if by instinct, almost as shocked as she was.
Rarity was almost as terrified as Twilight was. "What's-- what's happened to Spike?!" she nearly shouted. "He got over that greed curse, didn't he?!"
Applejack's country pony sense kept her more grounded. "That ain't the same thing."
Pinkie Pie's personality couldn't keep her from speaking the first thing that crossed her mind. "What in Equestria did he go out and pick?!"
AJ gave her a sharp look. "Never mind that, what're we gonna do to fix him?! Twilight!!" She shouted at the shocked mare. "Snap out of it, willya?!"
Twilight spoke, but flatly. "I just sent him out for herbs and berries..."
Rainbow Dash moved decisively and clouted a hoof at Twilight's jaw, not too hard, but not gentle, either. "Twilight, come on! Herbs and berries didn't do that to him and you know it!"
Twilight shook her head at the strike and her eyes seemed to clear some. "No... no, it's not. Nothing he went for would do anything like that to a dragon... that I know of. They were all inert ingredients. But.. I've never read or even heard stories about anything like this before!"
A few pegasi were harrowing Spike, flying about him and trying to get him to follow them out of town. He ignored them mostly as they were staying out of reach of his talons and tail, but he breathed at them a couple of times which they either handily or narrowly avoided.
Rarity, barely audible, whispered, "He's... really trying to burn them."
Spike smashed another two story building with ease and crushed it down so he could maneuver a little better. He crouched lower as if he were preparing to spring into the air after the flying annoyances and a few prepared to dodge the easily avoidable attack and shifted their patterns. Dash could see differently from his body posture that wasn't the plan at all.
"No!" She shouted, and flew toward the fight as fast as she could, but she knew it would be too late. "He's faking you out, don't..."
That was as far as she got, as Spike sprang his trap. He had never intended to leap: it was far too easy to dodge a giant dragon's body as long as it couldn't fly as well. But dodging a volley of debris was different. Spike stepped widely to one side for more velocity on his swing and his tail eradicated another building, sending a shotgun blast cone of rubble at the pegasi. A few took minor hits, but a filly named Honeywing took a glancing blow to the head and spiraled to the ground, stunned.
What happened next chilled everypony's blood in the second it happened: Spike turned to the fallen pony staring at her as she gaped up at him in horror. He wanted her to see him and see how powerless she was before him, a perfect victim.
He smiled, a cruel parting of the purple-black lips tos reveal even crueler fangs.
He raised one taloned claw over her. This was not going to be an accident. He planned on crushing Honeywing into oblivion.
Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie all screamed, "SPIKE!!!" as he struck downward.
The claw devastated the cobblestones, buried nearly a foot into the ground and screams erupted from everywhere at what had just happened. A half second later, a blue streak erupted from the cloud of dust and shot upwards. Dash was certain that she had lost the last inch of her rainbow colored tail, but she felt the assuring weight and shivering of the girl under her that she was indeed alive, though Dash was fairly certain they'd both just dropped a few years off the ends of their lives just then.
"She's okay!" Dash yelled to the other pegasi as she circled around to take Honeywing back to a safe distance.
"We've sent our fastest to Canterlot!" said one of the others. "Thank Celestia one wasn't you or else she'd be--- " She blanched at the thought. "We're requesting a Code Epsilon!"
Dash was shocked still for a moment, only hovering, unable to speak, then flew back to the other five.
"Huh-huh- he was g-gonna k-kill me...." Honeywing sobbed, wide-eyed with fear, still shaking in Dash's grip. Dash couldn't answer. She knew it was true. She was also still stunned by what was most likely coming.
She hovered and let Rarity and Applejack ease the terrified pony out of her grasp and cover her up.
"They're... they're going to get help from Canterlot." Dash's voice was oddly flat and she seemed even paler than her light blue coat, almost as white as Rarity.
Fluttershy breathed a sigh. "That's good, maybe we can--"
"They're asking for a Code Epsilon." Dash went on, eyes staring into nothing. "That means... no holds barred."
Twilight completely misunderstood, worried about the scene of destruction before them. "If they can capture him safely, it'll give more time to find out what happened to him!"
Dash turned toward Twilight, seeing her but almost as if she were also looking far beyond her. "Code Epsilon is not like that. It's a last resort.
"Twilight.... when they get here.... they're going to kill him!"
All the ponies were stunned at that.
"Kill Spike?!" Pinkie Pie said breathlessly. "KILL SPIKE?!" she said louder, almost screamed.
"Or he'll kill them," Applejack said dully, watching as Spike kept on his destructive path. "A thousand pony lives or one dragon's...."
Twilight turned a furious teary glare at AJ. "You WANT them to kill him?!"
AJ turned, angry as well. "Did ah SAY that? No, that's what THEY'RE thinkin'! If we don't do somethin' and right quick, Ponyville's gonna be a battleground and there ain't gonna be any winners!"
Twilight started to run down the path toward the dragon and Flutter and Dash stopped her. "Twi, wait... we gotta come up with a plan.."
Twilight screamed, "We don't have TIME for a plan! Every second we make a plan is how much closer Spike gets to getting killed! We don't have any magic and you just saw what happened to the pegasi plan! I know you're fast Dash, but there's always a chance..."
Dash was talking now, just as loudly, "And you saw what he almost did to Honeywing!"
"You make it sound like you're scared to go help him!" Tears were flowing freely down Twilight's cheeks now.
Dash looked offendedly hurt for a moment and screamed back, "Yeah! Yeah, I'm scared! Didn't you see his face? He WANTED her to see it coming! He WANTED to turn her into pony paste!"
Twilight hesitated, trying to think. "It must be because he didn't know her! He needs to see someone he knows! Maybe that's what he needs, something to remind him of home!"
Dash was surprised by the lack of logic in that and who was saying it. "That's a lot to be riding on a 'Maybe', Twi!"
Rarity spoke up, and although she was quiet, everyone heard her. Her voice was eerily calm. "We have to let her try, Dash."
AJ turned to Rarity. "Say what? She might get herself squashed while she's trying!"
Rarity looked at the massacre. "He's not stopping. All that's going to be left of Ponyville in a little while is smoke and rubble. Then he's going to go after the ponies. You saw him. All he's doing is..." her lip trembled and the standing tears in her eyes fell, "... hurting everything. He's just going to go on and on. Oh, Spikey-Wikey, what happened to you?" She collapsed in a heap of sobs and AJ went over to her and put a hoof around her.
After a moment, the country filly said, "She's right. There ain't a thing we can do 'cept wait for him to start a'huntin' ponies after he finishes the town. If there IS anythin' of the ol' Spike left, Twi's the best one to find it." She looked to Twilight. "He always listened to you. You're about our best shot at this, 'cause we sure ain't gonna lasso him down."
Dash and Flutter looked at each other and sighed, knowing AJ was right. "Be careful, Twi." Flutter said, and the two ponies stepped aside.
"Be ready to move fast." Dash said. "Say what you have to, but be ready."
Twilight nodded and gave the others a sad smile of cheer she tried very hard to make as realistic as she could. "Everything will be fine. Spike will never hurt me." She galloped toward the dragon she loved so dearly to try to save his life.
Spike had begun to take his time, seeming to play a macabre shell game, tearing roofs from houses to try to find living occupants, was AJ's best guess, and the passing thought made her shudder. He had all the time in the world to cause all the chaos and destruction he wanted. If a house or business was unoccupied, he smashed it in frustration and went to the next. He was obscured at times by large plumes of dust and smoke, his hazy shadow just visible within. He smashed two more buildings before his attention was arrested by the youthful but strong voice just ahead of him.
"Spike! Spike, it-it's Twilight! Please tell me you can hear me, Spike!"
Twilight was shaking in the middle of town square. Something about this didn't feel right, and it wasn't just because she couldn't feel her magic. The situation itself didn't feel right, nothing did now that she was close and looking at the vague shadow impression that turned toward her.
"That's right, you can hear me, let me talk to you, Spike, we can figure out what happened!"
The brown cloud seemed to part and the horrid face of her now-monstrous assistant loomed out of it, frightening her badly. This close, he WAS monstrous, and not just his size or face. His eyes gleamed, not like his old curious little emerald gaze, but hellishly, like knowing that when you look into the dark, it will be looking back. She inadvertently took a step back.
"S-Spike." She said his name to give herself another moment to think. "I know you. And this is not like you. No, I mean it's NOT you. You'd never hurt anypony."
There was a sound far off, but she wasn't paying any attention to it at all, too focused on Spike, like the others were, the sound just a far off buzzing to them.
"I know you'd never hurt me, or Rarity, or AJ... any of us..."
As the sound grew closer, it began to become more distinct. Someone shouting, maybe. Still, it was far enough away that it didn't really register to any of the ponies.
Spike's massive head drew closer on the serpentine neck. Twilight smiled. She was getting to him. Soon those big eyes would begin to soften.
"See, you remember... just listen to me... everything's going to be fine...."
As the voice grew clearer, Dash's sharp ears were the first to pick it up. Her right ear twitched and she turned her head toward it. Even at a distance, she saw...
"What in the name of Equestria?!" She sighed, not able to understand what she was seeing. Flutter and Rarity, right next to her heard and looked where she was staring.
Rarity gasped and the last two ponies finally looked, none of them believing their eyes. Finally they could hear what was being shouted. and it took them a moment to process it.
"Come home with me." Twilight said soothingly. She had time to say "Come home with--- " when the shout, the shriek in fact, finally broke into her thoughts. She turned and saw a familiar face running toward her, utter panic etched on the face.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM, TWI! RUN! IT ISN'T ME, TWI!! IT ISN'T ME!!!"
Her brow furrowed as she said, "Spike?"
And the giant dragon struck.