//------------------------------// // The Nature of Harmony // Story: Where Spike came from // by Billy G Gruff //------------------------------// Spike was floating in a black void. He had no idea where he was and that frightened him. He felt something there with him, something that had been slumbering for a long time and had awoken with rage in its heart. "T...Twilight?" he called out. It echoed feebly into the endless darkness. "Rarity? Rainbow Dash? Anyone?" Two large green lights fired off behind him. He swiveled around to see the face of a massive Dragon clad in black armor staring right at his tiny form. Those emerald eyes that broiled with magical flame seemed so foreign and yet so familiar to him. He was so small in comparison to this titan that he wouldn't even suffice as a snack to it. It could eat him and get him stuck in his teeth and would be none the wiser. "Please don't hurt me!" Spike yelped, shielding himself with his arms and curling his tail between his legs. "What have they done to me..." the voice of the elder dragon rumbled. Spike peered over his arms and saw the rage and sadness in his eyes were not really directed at him. "Y...you're me...." "I am The Dragon Lord....you are a wretched slave who kisses the hooves of his pony masters." Spike's cheeks burned at that, he screwed up the courage to yell at his elder counterpart, "Shut up! You don't know me!" "YOU DO NOT KNOW YOURSELF!" The Dragon Lord roared out, causing Spike to yelp in fright. He wanted to go home and forget about all this. He wanted to curl into a ball and make this giant go away. He jumped in fear as he felt his body taken into the massive claw. The palm of his hand could have flattened all of Ponyville. The Dragon Lord brought the shivering baby close to his face, making Spike’s heart nearly thump out of his chest as tried to fathom how something so large could possibly exist. "What happened to me is entirely unnatural. No living thing should be forced into their egg twice in one lifetime. You are the result, a hollow shell of my former glory -- groomed to believe yourself inferior to ponies and serve under them without a second thought. You never questioned your place in their society once, you just did what you were told and ate out of their hooves like you were some pet. They even turned you into a dog and you felt no shame for it." Tears rolled down Spike's cheeks as he trembled under the crashing voice of The Dragon Lord "N...no...you are wrong...Twilight loves me..." The behemoths face contorted in rage as his eyes blazed even brighter "SHE LOVES YOU AS ONE LOVES A DUMB ANIMAL. YOU ARE NOT HER EQUAL, YOU ARE HER INFERIOR. WE'VE ALREADY BEEN THE INFERIOR TO ONE MAMMAL IN ONE LIFETIME. ONE IS ENOUGH!" "She isn't like Tirek! She is a good pony!" "So its alright to be a slave as long as the master gives you a hug and tells you she cares about you every now and then? Is that what my reincarnation is feeding me as an answer right now?" "I'M NOT A SLAVE!" They stared at each other a moment, watery childish eyes glaring into ancient experienced orbs. "What is your greatest fear?" "W...What?" "The Crystal Empire, you rushed down after Twilight who had been staring at a door. A door that King Sombra created to reveal the greatest fear in one's heart. Guess which one came from yours..." "B...Be quiet..." A spark of flame erupted next to the little dragon on that palm, and it's smoke revealed the sight of Spike standing outside of Golden Oaks Library, his bed and his meager collection of belongings tossed outside the door. Twilight was still a Unicorn and pointing a hoof away from her home. "It's time for you to leave Spike." The vision of Twilight said. "What? But I don't want to go!" The little dragon pleaded in the apparition. Spike wanted to look away from what The Dragon Lord was showing him. It still hurt to think about that vision the dark magic had pulled out of him. "I don't need you anymore, you are useless to me now. Leave my sight and never come back." With that Twilight closed the door. The Spike in the vision pounded on the door before him pitifully, even as he heard the door lock. "Please, Twilight! Don't leave me!" Spike angrily waved his arms through the smoke and stomped out the green fire, he didn't want to see that ever again. The Dragon Lord looked on impassively as Spike nearly started to bawl. "You tell me you are not a slave, and yet you fear Twilight having no use for you anymore." "She said that would never happen!" The massive dragon laughed. "To think I could be made to be so gullible... I am almost glad Tirek was my first master, If he had coddled me as this Twilight has I may never have had became the Dragon I was. You make me sick with how pathetic you are." "What makes you so much better than me!? The Princesses and Twilight have been nothing but good to me..." "You want to know my tale then....Well considering your oh so 'good' Princesses have locked our minds in this state until they figure out what to do with us I say we have time..." "They...what?" ----------- Spike tossed and turned in his shackles as he fitfully slept in the cage. Twilight’s nostrils flared as she thought about the way he was being handled. What right did they have to treat her Spike like that? She had reluctantly left that cage deep below the castle in order to talk to the Princesses in the throne room. Never before had she wanted to strike out at them as much as she did in this situation. "Why was Spike saying those things to you, princess? Why is he in a cage like that? What is going on?!" Celestia breathed deeply and hovered over a pot of tea and some cups. Twilight smashed it with her hoof, "NO! ANSWER ME NOW! THIS ISN'T A VISIT, I WANT TO KNOW WHY MY DRAGON IS LOCKED UP DOWN THERE! HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!" "Calm yourself, Twilight, use that breathing technique Princess Cadence taught you. You need to have a level head as a Princess of Equestria." They stood there in silence over the broken porcelain and spilled tea until Twilight relinquished and went through the calming motions. Celestia settled down on her throne and Luna sat at her side. The Princess of the sun seemed to need to take a calming breath of her own as she looked down at her former student. "You recall the tale of Hearth’s Warming I trust. Your friends and yourself performed the play depicting it, after all." "Yes...but what does this have to do with Spike?" "Hearth's Warming is the story we tell to the public. It is a...romanticized version of the events that took place. In truth the transition from the warring tribes to a unified race of ponies was not without its struggles. We owe much to The Tree of Harmony in this regard." Twilight said nothing, but there was something that was starting to click in her mind. "The Tree of Harmony...it's a very intelligent and powerful being. It had...It had been the real reason the Windigos left us alone. Without it we would surely have become extinct." "I thought Friendship did it." Twilight said with unease in her voice. "That isn't a lie, per se.... The Tree of Harmony's goal is to bring unity to the world. It chose us as the arbiters of this mission. It wanted to prove that even an unrepentant, self-destructive species like ours could be made to follow the tenets of its beliefs. That’s why it bestowed cutie marks onto our race." "Wait... we didn't have cutie marks before Equestria...and again what does this have to do with Spike?" "Patience, young one." Luna said in a placating tone. "The cutie marks we have now are different from anything we had before. They were meaningless marks before this. These marks...encourage ponies to follow what they are good at and behave harmoniously. Its effects are non compulsory, and you can behave in a disharmonious manner, but that has side effects. "Side effects that strengthen if you are particularly close and trusted by the Tree of Harmony." Luna added, looking away from the two of them. Twilight tried to pay attention to what they were saying but her patience was growing thin. Celestia saw this. "The Tree made an offer to the two of us, the last remaining Alicorns among all of ponykind. It offered us the power to unify our kind, to defend them against any enemy that may come our way, to bring Harmony to the place we would call home...that we would call Equestria." She breathed in and out again. "It's only stipulation beyond obedience to its commands when it gave them was...The Dragon Lord had to be defeated." "Who?" Twilight asked with a look of confusion on her face. Before they could answer however one of the last things the possessed Spike had yelled at Celestia rang back into her mind. " I WAS A GOD BEFORE YOU STRUCK ME DOWN, DAMN YOU!" "Spike...The Dragon Lord was Spike..." she said putting the pieces together. "You... you attacked Spike with the Elements of Harmony in order to found Equestria...and ponies only behave the way they do today because it changed our cutie marks to be...behavioral control mechanisms of some kind?" Disbelief and incredulity filled her voice as she said this. She wanted to be corrected. To be told that she had heard them wrong and that there was a much simpler explanation. "His brood were terrorizing ponies Twilight, They were scorching our villages and making us hide in caves." "Were they here first?" "Twilight..." "Were they here first!? Were we invading their... Princess... What did you do to Spike?" "We kept his egg safe. The tree told me, after it had taken the Elements away from us, that the next bearers of the Elements would appear on the same day his egg hatches, and that baby would go to the one who opens the egg. It told me that the one who opens the egg would become the leader of its next arbiters...that castle it gave you is a sign that it's ready to give you orders directly instead of through me." "Are...are you not even the rulers of Equestria? Do you just follow what it says?" "Twilight...There is a reason we are called Princesses and not Queens. The Tree has always had dominion over these lands." Twilight felt something on her flank. She turned to see her cutie mark glowing and pulsating. She had wondered after the Tree had given her and her friends the power to topple Tirek if there would be any changes to her body. This was not what she had been expecting. "You are its chosen now, and it is calling you to your castle, most likely with your friends." She felt her skin crawl. Was it...was it listening to them right now? Was its magic just under her skin, influencing her behavior? How much control did it have over her? Twilight's eyes widened in panic as pieces began to fit together. She had been so happy that day. The last day she had been a unicorn. It had seemed like a perfect day until she realized Rarity had the wrong cutie mark. The fashionista had been making patterns with clouds in the sky because she had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. She believed she always had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. It wasn't just her. They all believed Rainbow Dash lived in Fluttershy's cottage. They believed she had always lived there, taking care of animals. All of Ponyville walked around like nothing had changed, because their minds had been altered to believe that was exactly the case. "It's what my cutie mark is telling me..." Twilight began to panic as the vibrations and pulsations of her cutie mark became all the more apparent. Their minds had all been altered based on their cutie marks, it just wasn't apparent until they had had switched them around. "Twilight, I need you to calm down" Celestia said slowly. Twilight's legs were shaking as more pieces were coming together. Rarity had told her that one day her horn started glowing and dragged her to a giant rock, where she saw the rainboom Rainbow Dash made. Did...Did the Tree of Harmony plan that? Did it...did it just have its magic in everypony, telling them where to be without anypony even being aware of what was happening? What was going on? "G...Give me Spike back..." "Twilight...we have already had so many of our enemies return from one thousand years ago. We don't want to have force you to turn on Spike if he becomes an enemy of ponies once again.' "WE ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF SOME KIND OF THING AND YOU WANT ME TO BE OKAY ABOUT SPIKE BEING IN SOME CAGE IN CANTERLOT RIGHT NOW? WHAT IS GOING ON? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ANY OF THIS?" "This is the price we paid for the life we live today. We have never had a more peaceful time in history than we had at this moment. You have to understand—" "NO!" Twilight retched out of her throat, tears flooding down her cheeks. "What kind of sick twisted thing is this? Is this what Harmony is supposed to be?" ---- Spike found himself in a strange place with a chain around his throat. There was a Minotaur yanking him by that chain out in front of a red Centaur that sat on his throne. His beard was well groomed and pitch black and he looked far younger, but it was unmistakably Tirek. The place was foreign to Spike. It was hot and arid and covered in sand from what he could see out of the Centaurs ornate open windows. They were in some kind of city in the middle of a desert wasteland, probably in another part of the planet entirely. Tirek looked at the little purple body of Spike with disdain and then shot his gaze back up at the Minotaur. "What is this little thing? How do you dare bring me such a pathetic looking dragon Minotaur?" Spike had blown emerald flames on from his tiny body in defiance at the Centaurs face. Tirek blinked, and then smiled before busting out into hearty laughter. "How much do you want for the lizard, Minotaur…? He amuses me..." The Minotaur grinned broadly at this. The scene dimmed and froze, a much smaller version of The Dragon Lord appeared before the chained-up Spike. "Welcome to my first memory Spike, my True first memory." end of chapter 4