Earlier that morning:
Spike had indeed been on his way back home, even waking up early so he could get a good head start and dreaming of gem-crusted pies and his not so adventurous adventures in the wilds of the safest woods in all of Equestria. So he decided to make some stories up about them as he walked. He'd never tell such tall tales to any of his friends, but he thought he might write a few down as stories for later. He was making good time, and doing some heavy mental editing on the part with the 600 quarry eels and him with just a broken stick when he decided to break for a quick snack, and to get his mind back on the trail. If he kept daydreaming, he'd likely walk right into a tree or four.
As he crunched down a few tasty gems, he thought about how it was going to be later on. How Twilight was going to start giving him more and more responsibility around the Library, and maybe put him in charge of certain sections. He could handle it, he knew about as much about the place as Twilight herself did. Who knew maybe if Twi took a vacation sometime...
Nah, he thought. One, she'd never take a vacation. Two, he'd want to go with her. Surely she wouldn't leave him behind. He started to take his last bite of food when he heard a branch breaking not far from him. He paused and heard another heavy footfall, then several others. Quickly, he dashed into a nearby bush and up a tree. One large creature might mean trouble. A pack of them would most likely mean trouble. He was hoping they weren't Timberwolves. He stayed quiet and clung to the limb he was on, hiding in the foliage.
Oh, sweet Celestia, he left the basket down there! That was okay, he thought, it didn't really give off a strong scent, maybe they'd pass it right by....
The three creatures that stalked on to the path were something he hadn't seen before. They were vaguely Timberwolf shaped but much more twisted, sleeker, and not made of wood. They were shadows in red flames, blood red flames, and the shadows they were made of were veined in the same sinister glowing scarlet. He was even more scared when they started to speak.
"He's supposed to be on this path." The voice was deep and hollow, almost echoing in its own body. This was the largest one, and he scanned the path up and back.
"The only thing here is a basket," another said, approaching the object and batting it over a few times. "Nothing in it."
"We're not picnicking, are we?" the larger one snarled. "Master said he was coming this way. Spread out and find him. How hard can it be to find a purple dragon in the woods?"
The last one seemed to laugh to itself, or it made a sound similar to a laugh.
"Shut up," said the larger, obvious leader. "You." He nodded toward the laugher. "North. You." To the other one. "We're going further back down the trail. He's probably dawdling."
As they started to separate, the big one growled, "Find him. And make sure no one else ever does."
Spike hoped his shivering wouldn't give away his position when he heard that last part. The beasts separated and stalked the trail.
Spike stayed where he was, trying to figure out what to do. These things were here to kill him, and he had no idea why. He didn't rate a death sentence as far as he knew. He was a little dragon who worked in a library, didn't even run the place, he was just an assistant....
He was.... Twilight's assistant. Spike's eyes widened as he puzzled it out. These things knew where he was going to be. Who or whatever sent them knew he was going to be by himself. Knew he was out on an errand and when he was coming back today. For him to be killed was bad. But there had been the other part of it: he wasn't supposed to be found. More than that he had no more information to go on, but he knew he had to get back and tell Twi and the other ponies. Still terrified, he eased out of the tree and slowly crept into the underbrush. He was, indeed, a purple dragon in a green forest, but the advantage of knowing that you knew how to hide better than a creature who blended into its surroundings, and where to hide better. He was also small and moved quietly. These things that were looking for him apparently weren't hunters, since they hadn't smelled for him; they were simply creatures sent to a designated spot to do one simple task, in this case, the slaughter and devouring of a young dragon.
The thought flashed quickly and he suddenly wished he hadn't had it. If he hadn't picked that spot to eat his snack, they'd have definitely had a much better chance to ambush him. Thank Celestia, Luna and whatever good powerful creatures there were for that bit of luck, but he was going to need more to get past the monster that lay ahead looking for him.
Spike hated moving so slowly when he knew Ponyville might be in danger, but if he was reckless, he wouldn't make it there at all. He moved through underbrush as much as he could, watching for the beast on the road. A few times he had to risk crawling in the open, but then he moved slowly and silently, knowing motion would be his biggest enemy here. One flash of his hide would draw his hunter's eye, and it would be all over.
At last, the flickering red flame was visible. It was an impatient creature, either by its nature or it's master's order. It paced rather than stalked, and that was going to help Spike. Attention that wasn't focused was less attention paid to the hunt. Spike moved slowly, but the Great Princesses granted him another boon: the beast was growling to itself in its impatience, helping to cover his more distant movements. Spike felt he could move a little easier as long as his body wasn't seen. Then he moved through a bush that was not as high as he thought it was, and rustled the short stiff branches.
The shadowy monster perked up. Spike froze solid, which wasn't as instinctive as it was through total unadulterated fear.
The red eyes narrowed as they scanned the area, focusing on the moving bush.
Spike looked around desperately. If the monster investigated....
It took two steps toward him, lowering its head. It looked like it was going to be a confrontation. Two more steps. Another four feet and it would see his hide contrasted against the forest canopy. Another step.
Then the sound of rumbling. The monster's head cocked back up, listening. It turned back to the bush again, then back toward the increasing sound, distant but nearing. It stepped back to the path, considered in a long, almost stupid manner, then went back up the path.
Spike waited. And waited some more, trying to get his bearings on where he was. Finally it occurred to him. He was very close to the edge of the forest, and he could remember where Ponyville was from here, and his heart sank.
It was also in the direction the ever approaching rumbling was coming from. He moved a little quicker through the foliage and when he broke the cover into a field he could see what he realized he could already smell.
Smoke was rising from Ponyville, and in the distance he could see the town, and something very big was down there. Spike panicked and ran toward his home.
He was very fortunate that the monsters were a kill squad and not hunters or they would have chased him down across the open field. As it was, Ponyville never seemed to get any closer to him as he ran as hard as he could toward it, but horrifically, the creature in its midst seemed to come into sharper relief with every step. His heart was pounding in his chest because he knew what the other ponies would do if they thought it was him, and what would happen to them just for thinking they were helping a misguided Spike again when it wasn't him. He started to scream because that it wasn't him, even though he knew they couldn't hear him yet, screaming because it was all he could think to do, he wasn't moving fast enough, and he could barely think of what he was screaming...
Until he saw he was in town, still running, barely even noticing the bright coats of his friends outside the Library out of the corner of his eye, seeing the dragon pause in the cloud of dust and debris and look down, he saw the small purple shape so small before it, and all he could was shriek in his fear because he knew what she was doing....
"GET AWAY FROM HIM, TWI! RUN! IT ISN'T ME, TWI!! IT ISN'T ME!!!"
She looked at him and he saw her mouth his name, saw the dragon draw a swift claw forward and before he could scream for her to move, it hit Twilight.
The only thing that saved her from a fatal blow was the warning Rainbow Dash had given her, but it was a near thing. Her peripheral vision caught a motion and knew it for what it was, and wisely, she stepped forward and ducked: should she have gone the opposite direction, the talons would have raked her head from her body. As it was, the blow was vicious enough, and the hand caught her, throwing her unconscious and bonelessly crashing into a nearby house where she crumpled in a heap.
Spike and the other ponies screamed her name. Dash and Fluttershy started to take to the air when they heard Rarity draw a sharp breath and put a hoof to her mouth. She was staring past Twilight where Spike was standing.
Something was happening to him.
When the monster hit Twilight and sent her flying, Spike only had time to say Twilight's name. After that, he felt a massive tug in his mind, something he'd never experienced before, from a part of him he never dreamed existed. It was rage, and although most of it had been what the dragon had just done to Twilight, there was something different to it, something beyond even the feeling of sliding into draconic greed. It was sudden and he could feel the sweet little Spike draining away. The ground was getting further away from him, his body tightening in spasm, his mind turning toward primal fury that was even older than greed.
Spike was growing, much faster than the last time he transformed, but very much the same. He was growing longer, sleeker, muscles cording under his hardening scales. His snout extended and sharpened, his back spines elongating, and here the changes did become different: where the the Greed Spike was large and muscled, he also had something of a glutton's look. This Spike was tremendously more well cut, with heavier arms and legs, talons more defined and curved. His scales seemed denser, and the plating on his chest and back looked harder than a hundred shields. He didn't look greedy. He looked ready for war.
The other ponies heard Honeywing scream at the appearance of another dragon and she hid her head, shaking. Pinkie tried to comfort her. "It's okay, that one's on our side!" She mewed, as cheery as she could, then looked to the others. ".... Isn't he?"
Applejack saw the new Spike look down at Twilight's limp body for a moment, then glare up to the evil one. In two large steps, Spike was in front of her, and the other dragon, taken aback by his sudden appearance, took a step or two back as it sized up the situation. Spike put a claw in front of her, and AJ saw it was blocking her, protecting her. "Yeah. Yeah, I think he is, Pinkie!"
Spike drew a breath and bellowed a roar at the imposter that shook the very ground they stood on. It was unmistakably a roar of challenge and defiance to the interloper, and charged into his enemy.
The crash as they came together shattered glass all over Ponyville, hard scale to hard scale and the monster dragon went backward into the path of its own destruction, raising another huge cloud.
"YEAH!" Pinkie cried out, hopping into the air with a raised hoof. "Go get 'em, Spike!"
"C'mon!" Dash said to Fluttershy. "Let's get Twilight while they're busy!"
The two flew down quickly, mindful of the two giants battling nearby. They hooked Twilight's front hooves over their shoulders, thankful to hear her groan after the brutal hit she had taken, and moved her quickly but gently back to the Library.
Spike slashed at the dragon, but it was aware now and dodged, moving in on him. It locked up with him, matching strength for strength, but the imposter was cunning and used the rubble to its advantage, maneuvering Spike into a crumbled building, throwing him off balance enough to let the evil creature slap him with its studded tail. Spike roared as it drew first blood on him, then returned with an upward swing with the bony top of his head, catching the beast under the shelf of its jaw, breaking off the test of strength.
Spike's mind was buried inside his new form. Now he was moving predatorially, a dragon protecting his lair and everything in it from this intruder that disturbed its home and threatened its own, and like a protector, he would not willingly destroy what he was trying to save. He circled the enemy, as it did with him, but the circle was not simply to find an opening; he stepped further toward the town outskirts with every rotation, and the other dragon, the invader, followed suit, not realizing what Spike was doing. It was a monster born of evil and chaos, with nothing to protect and didn't even consider the deception.
It snapped its jaws at Spike, attempting to goad him into an attack, but although he was now primal in action, Spike was also a cunning creature. He swiped a claw at the snapping head, but the swing was simply to try to draw it closer, to test its cleverness as well. It didn't take the bait.
The ponies at the Library were watching wide-eyed like spectators at a gladitorial event as the opponents felt each other out. Dash kept looking to the sky, fearing to see the approach of the cavalry, then back to Spike's life or death struggle.
"Come on, come ON, Spike," Applejack said through gritted teeth, "Take the critter out!"
Rarity was tending to Twilight, but it was hard without magic. The purple pony kept moaning, but wasn't coming around.
The battle had joined again. The dark dragon swung low, then spun with its tail. Spike took a glancing slice from the talons, but stepped into the arc of the tail's swing, taking a much lessened blow, which he used his shoulder to block. He grabbed the offending tail and slung the dragon to the ground, but he was too close when he did, and the monster's claws pulled across his side as it tried to arrest its momentum. Three long gashes opened on Spike's ribs and the dragon was smashed into the ground with terrific force. Spike had not thrown it away from him, but right at his feet so he could stay on top and not give the intruder and time to plan. He clawed at the creature's neck and opened bloody grooves there, but the other responded as well, digging claws into Spike's stomach and ripping downward. Spike roared and Rarity screamed. It was a horrific wound and blood gouted from it, but Spike gave back a strong blow that caught the other dragon in the face. The first pony to see what the blow had done was Fluttershy. Even before the bloodspray had reached the ground, she could see that one of the bad dragon's eyes was destroyed by the attack. It howled and rolled away from Spike and it took another claw across its back as it tried to get away and regroup. Spike lumbered after it, but the uneven ground made it easier for the dragon to crawl so he could mount a decent attack. He tried to clamber back to the attack and managed to open another deep series of wounds on his enemy's back, but then it rolled and fired a jet of flame at Spike's head. He managed to dodge most of it, and his draconic skin was singed, but his eyes shut tightly, temporarily blinded by the intensity so close up. He pushed off, shaking his head and the dragon saw its opening.
Everypony saw it and either gasped or screamed at the brutality of the strike. The imposter's talons swung in a blow that would have left it wide open if it had missed, but with a blinded opponent....
The claws bit deep into Spike's chest and then tore sideways. Spike roared in anger and agony.
Twilight's eyes opened. "S- Spike?" Then they shot open widely as if the claws had hit her own hide. She didn't see him, but she knew. "SPIKE!!"
Spike fell away, crashing into the ground heavily and seemingly in slow motion. He growled, the hard breath stirring dust clouds where he lay.
The ponies were shocked still, Rarity bursting into tears and screaming. Dash and AJ stood frozen, Pinkie and Flutter wide eyed and Honeywing hiding her face and crying. Twilight was screaming his name.
Spike slowly slid his head along the ground, looking to the Library through the dust, blinking weakly.
The invader stepped over him and grabbed his snout.
This was his home. THEY were his home.
The dragon turned his head to expose his neck.
HIS home.
The dragon opened his jaws. Its hot spittle dripped on his throat.
HIS friends.
The dragon bent closer, the fangs near his skin.
HIS family.
There was a loud crunch.
The ponies screamed as the dragon leaned back up.
It was over. Twilight collapsed in tears.
Then Dash saw it and screamed, "LOOK!!"
When they did look, AJ let out a whoop of exasperated relief and Twilight's eyes widened.
The reason the dragon's head was reared was that Spike's talons were embedded in its jaw and pushing it back from him. He held it at arm's length as it struggled against the hooks deep in its skin, but Spike had it tight and twisted the neck. It had no chance to resist.
Spike placed his free hand against the dragon's jaw and simultaneously shoved the head as he tore his claws free, ripping the throat out of the monster and contemptuously throwing the body away from him as a huge fan of blood erupted from the wound.
Spike let out a victory roar that echoed off the hills as his opponent breathed its last.
Twilight and Rarity's horns immediately burst into magical glows.
Leagues away, the dark shadow was slung back in its throne from the magical backlash. When it stood, it immediately opened a scrying portal and turned its eye toward Ponyville, knowing that with the dragon dead, its magic dead aura faded with it. It saw the dragon, dead, with its progenitor standing over it, bloodied but victorious and its eyes widened. It had never expected such a thing, that the pathetic little dragon was a Lair Keeper. Its frustration built until it howled its anger and fell back into its shadow throne, defeated. It sat in its brooding darkness, its more powerful magics exhausted for a long, long time.
Dash and Flutter were the first ones to him. He had fallen back on his haunches and was barely able to move, his head lowered and arms slack. He turned his massive head toward them. His family. And he had protected them.
Dash could see he was healing rapidly, but he was also seeming to diminish, and the wounds in his side weren't healing fast enough, and they were still pumping out blood in terrifying amounts.
"Spike." She said. "Lie down, all right? You need to rest. It's all over, you saved us. Just rest."
Flutter was crying at how bad he looked, and how he was slowly turning back into little Spike, the wide-eyed dragon they loved so much.
Spike did as he was bade, his head in front of them. Dash put a hoof to his face. "You just rest, all right? Twi will be here in a moment."
And a moment it was. All the others galloped up and surrounded the shrinking dragon. Twilight and Rarity hugged him, letting him grow smaller in their arms. Twilight did her best to magically stop his bleeding but she was terrified by how much it had slowed down. He was bleeding out faster than he was regenerating. "It'll be okay, Spike. We'll get you all fixed up, okay? All fixed up and good as new... " She was rocking him as she talked, his size now down to one of the two-story houses in town.
Dash looked at Flutter decisively. "See if you can find the doctor. I'll go get Zecora." Flutter nodded and they both flew off at top speed.
Spike's features were definitely becoming his familiar ones now, and he was down to about Celestia's size now.
Pinkie was biting her lower lip, next to a worried looking Applejack. "He's gonna be okay, right? I mean, this kind of stuff doesn't happen after you save the town, does it?"
AJ said nothing, just put her leg over Pinkie.
Spike had finally reached his normal form and Rarity reluctantly let Twilight take possession of him, kissing him softly on the forehead.
"It'll be fine, Spike," Twilight cooed. "I'll take care of you, as long as it takes." She cradled him, unaware or uncaring that they were both covered in blood. After a moment, Spike's eyes opened weakly. He looked from Twilight to Rarity, his eyes a bit dull.
"Hey... Twi... hey, Rarity..." he managed. A little rill of blood was on his cheek and Twilight wiped it away, a tearful little laugh escaping her at his greeting.
"Hey, Spike," She said, her eyes glistening.
He tried to sit up, but Twilight held him and Rarity placed a gentle hoof on his head. He seemed completely unaware how badly he was hurt.
"I--I'm sorry, Twi..." he said.
"What? There's nothing to be sorry for, Spike," Sse said, taken aback.
"I---- I think I left your basket in the woods..." He tried for a sheepish grin, but he didn't have the strength.
Twilight couldn't think of anything to say. She pressed her cheek to his and he coughed a little laugh. "Wow..."
"What, Spike?" she whispered.
"I'm--" he coughed. "I'm gonna lose stuff.... more often."
Twilight laughed as she held him. "You could lose the Library right now and I wouldn't care!" she said giddily.
He didn't say anything.
"Spike?" she asked, scared all over again.
She noticed now the limp weight of him in her hooves.
"Spike?!" She looked at him, his eyes were closed and he didn't respond to her. She gave him a gentle shake and his head fell forward bonelessly onto his chest.
"SPIKE!!!"