Severing the Blood that Binds
Way up north, the Dragons had even managed to reach Yakyakistan, the home of the Yaks, but upon arriving there, they found not a single soul within the wooden walls of the village. There wasn’t even anything there for them to demolish as all the homes and buildings were already in ruins like some other invading army had beat them to the punch. With their objective already met and no other orders to follow, the Dragons simply remained idle in the ruined village.
Meanwhile, a short distance away, the Yaks were hidden away in a series of ice caverns. A few guards watched the entrance, standing strong against the arctic chill as it blew through them. The rest of the Yaks remained inside, looking quite content despite the loss of their village. “That was fun,” one of the Yak children told their parent. “Can we smash up village again after we rebuild it?”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but this was, uh, special occasion to smash stuff,” his mother answered, giving him a smile, happy he and all the other children were unaware of the danger they had narrowly avoided.
Sitting alongside the warrior Yaks was the leader of them all, Prince Rutherford. He, like all the other Yaks had on heavy coats of brown hair that helped keep them comfortably warm in the frigid climate. It even covered over the top of his head, covering over his strong, green eyes. “Hahah,” he laughed in a triumphant voice. “Dragons stand no chance against special Yak preemptive strike. I wish I could have seen the look on their faces when they made it all the way here and found Yaks smashed their own village better than they could have. Yaks sure showed Dragons.”
“But what Yaks do now?” one of the others asked. “Do Yaks just wait here till Dragons leave, then go to rebuild village?”
“That big plan,” Rutherford answered, though the others didn’t look so content to avoid a confrontation in such a manner.
“But what Yaks do about Dragons?” they asked. “Yaks can’t let Dragons get away with this.”
“Yaks should fight back. Show them what Yaks are made of.”
“Yaks should invade Dragonlands. Smash Dragon homes. Show the might of Yaks and become Honorary Dragons.”
“Enough!” bellowed Prince Rutherford, his voice echoing throughout the entire cave and silencing all the others. “Purple Princess Pony give us early warning so all Yaks get away safely. We wreck village so Dragons can’t. Yaks bear no ill will to Dragons. Only thing Yaks need be concerned with is rebuilding village and helping Pony friends out afterwards. Any Yak have even better best plan?” Looking around, none of the warriors were raising an objection now. “Then all Yaks in agreement and now Yaks prove they not only best at war tactics, but best at waiting too.”
Meanwhile, in a much warmer climate, another group of Dragons were in the midst of attacking Griffonstone. Homes were ablaze or already reduced to rubble while thick black smoke filled the sky above. Fortunately, like all the other creatures in Equestria, they were given advanced warning of the impending attack and quickly fled the city to escape from the invaders, most of them anyway.
“You think you are so tough!” ranted Grampa Gruff, an elderly Griffin with one blind eye, mostly bald of feathers from his neck up and wore a fez atop his head. The rest of his body was still covered in dark gray hair and his feathered wings were a few shades darker gray. Shaking his eagle-clawed fist in the air, he continued to verbally lash out while the Dragons kept causing havoc. “You all are just a bunch of overgrown lizards belching smoke!”
His insults soon caught the attention of a large green dragon that gave him a retort by opening her maw to unleash a torrent of fire to roast him alive. Fortunately, another griffin, Gilda quickly pulled him out of the way of the flames just in time. Gilda had white feathers from her neck up with purple highlights around here yes. The rest of her body was covered in brown hair all the way to the end of her tail that had a tuft of it on the tip. “Are you insane?” she snapped at him.
“Legally and clinically,” he answered. “But I’d rather be tarred and feathered before letting them torch our home.”
“It’s a little late for that,” pointed out Gilda looking at the devastation that was caused in practically no time at all. “I guess this is to be expected when you build your home centered around a giant tree. This is all like some horrible nightmare.”
“What does a spring chick like you care?” he scoffed at her while she practically had to drag him out of the kingdom like a child refusing to leave a toy store. “All you younguns talk about is flying out of this dump heap at the first chance you get. I’d say Dragon attack reducing this place to a pile of ash is a darn good chance if you’d ask me.”
“Maybe a short while back,” she admitted. “But I’ve just started to actually like living here. Griffons have been buying my scones as fast as I can make them. Greta and I have been hanging out a lot too. Ugh, why do things have to happen when I don’t want them to?”
Hearing her cry out, another Dragon turned at the two Griffons, attempting to roast them alive. Gilda moved quickly to lead them both out of reach of its flames, getting away with only a few scorched hairs on the tip of their lionish tails. Taking cover behind a still standing wall, Gilda blew out the smoke from her tail before it could get any worse.
“What are you two still doing here?” asked a griffin with pale green feathers on her neck and head, brown hair on her body and reddish brown wings. Around her neck she had a gray scarf with a golden crescent moon pin on it.
“Greta?” asked Gilda, surprised to see her. “I thought you were leading the others somewhere safe.”
“I was, but I got worried that you might have run into so trouble so I came back,” she explained. “So, I left Gabby in charge. Now, let’s get out of here before we’re spotted again.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” she agreed as the three Griffons snuck their way out of kingdom, managing to any further incident. “Oh, and thanks for coming back for us. I was a bit surprised. Normally, it’d be every Griffon for themself the second things got bad.”
“It almost was,” Greta replied. “But you were the one who gathered everyone together to lead them out in the first place and went back when you realized the old buzzard was missing. That was never the Griffin thing to do before.”
“You both still remember I’m right here,” Grampa Gruff spoke up.
“I know,” nodded Gilda. “It’s feel like baking soda was added to me.”
“Uh, baking soda?” questioned Greta.
“It’s just like when Pinkie Pie helped fixed my scones,” she elaborated. “Before, they were hard to the core, inedible and, well, nobody wanted them. Now, they are light and fluffy, and I have to close up shop to bake more before the demand from the lunch rush.”
“So, you feel all light and fluffy now?” concluded an unsure Greta as they reached the base of the tree their kingdom stood upon and took to the sky, certain they were far enough away now that the dragons wouldn’t pursue them.
“In a way,” she nodded. “I don’t feel so crabby anymore and other Griffins are happy to see me. I’m even happy to see them enjoying my scones. The Bits are pretty much an afterthought, if you can believe it.”
“I can see it makes you talk in weird metaphors,” she joked.
“A side effect, but one I think I can live with,” Gilda added with a smile on her face. “Uh, the sunny disposition is another side effect. Let’s just find everyone else before we get any sappier than we've already been.”
The shock of Spike’s death left all the Dragons at the base of the Throne of the Dragon Lord in absolute shock. The only exception was Crag, who moved about at his leisure, cackling triumphantly over the young Dragon’s corpse. As his laughter started to fade, he spoke in a tone that carried a sense of achievement on it. “At last, that nuisance will no longer be a hindrance to his own kind. Maybe now, I can finally lead the Dragons onto their proper path.”
“Proper path?” growled Ember, her shock being replaced with growing anger.
“It can’t be,” cried Smoulder, looking at Spike on the ground. Tears ran down her face and she couldn’t get them to stop. “No. Not him. He can’t really be gone.” As much as she tried to hold back the tears, they just kept on flowing, soaking into the dry ground beneath her chin. Ax, Tia, and Gorge were stunned with disbelief, that everything that had transpired over the last few days had comulated in the scene before them. They were at a loss for words at the insanity of the scene before them that was burned into their memories.
“Ugh, no,” growled Garble, holding his brother in his arms, attempting to comfort him as best he could and wished someone could have done the same for him. “I didn’t want this. He tried to help me and this is how I repaid him?”
“B-Brother?” asked Spark, his voice shaking as was the rest of his body. “Spike will be okay, won’t he? Dad didn’t really kill him, right?” He waited for Garble to answer him, to lie and tell him what he had witnessed with his own eyes didn’t actually happen. Spark wanted to wrap himself in that delusion, but his older brother just stared on ahead his insides twisted into knots from his own involvement. Tears began welling up in Spark’s eyes. A few fast blinks and they were streaming down his face, along with some snot from his nose. “No! I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna lose anyone else!”
“What’s with all the sadness?” questioned Crag seeing the sorrow all around him. “I did what was best for all Dragons, including all of you.”
“Aren’t you going to just kill us all too?” questioned Smoulder. “I don’t see how that is in our best interest.”
“With the source of the problem gone, that might not be necessary,” he explained. “Merely put this small blemish on the grand history of Dragons in the past and move on with me as I lead us to a brighter tomorrow. Refuse… and I would be more than happy to let you join him.”
“Move on and just forget about him?” asked Ember, forcing herself to her feet in spite of the power of the Bloodstone willing her to be on her claws and knees. “Do you think we would follow you or any Dragon would, for that matter? This bright future that you have envisioned, it’s just like Spike said, the only one who even wants that is you.”
“I am doing this for everyone’s benefit,” he argued. “All my life, I have dedicated it to our kind. I have endured countless battles, the scars covering my body a testament to my dedication. I have lived a long life and it has all been to create a better world for us all.”
“And yet, Spike has done more for us in the little time he’s had than in all the decades you have,” she countered. “Compared to the world he’s helped open us up to, you’ve just been wasting your time!”
“It was not a waste!” he snarled. “I won’t let it be! And if the runt’s convictions live on in all of you then I’ll have to kill you and every last Dragon that feels the same. Now, get back on the ground and grovel with the rest! I’ll end you all quickly.”
“N-No,” Ember protested, refusing to yield as she took a step forward. Her blood boiled and her whole body ached, but she ignored it to approach the current Dragon Lord.
“Heheh, not that it matters,” he taunted her as the slender, blue Dragon swung her fist at Crag. With ease, he caught it and did the same when she threw a punch with her free hand. “Even together, none of you stand a chance against me.” Smirking down at Ember, he savored the frustration as she scowled hatefully at him. “It is foolish of you to even tr- gah!”
Without warning, Ember opened her maw and belched a blast of flames right in the big Dragon’s face. Wailing loudly, he rubbed at his eyes with his claws, trying to remove the searing pain from them. As he did, Ember took the chance to snatch away the Bloodstone Scepter, but just as she grabbed at what remained of it, Crag managed to come to his senses enough to backhand Ember away and onto the ground.
“Almost had it,” she groaned, trying to get up again, only for Crag to kick her back towards the others.
“It really is a shame,” scoffed Crag. “Such determination, yet so tragically misguided.”
“That’s more a matter of perspective,” she groaned, trying to get up again, but Crag looming over her, was ready to knock her down again.
“If none of you will do as I ask, then you leave me no choice,” he spoke. “You will all share in Spike’s fate, death by the decree of your Dragon Lord.”
“Ugh,” groaned a voice that was very quiet compared to Crag’s loud bellowing. However, they all heard and knew it very well. Turning their gaze to their green-spiked friend, they watched in awe as he slowly picked himself up off the ground and rubbed his nose. “That really smarts.”
All the Dragons continued to stare, maws agape at what should have been impossible, Spike, alive and well. As the shock faded, smiles and tears of joy replaced their sorrow. However, none of those happily surprised expressions could compare to Crag who looked like he was staring at his worst nightmare incarnate. He trembled fearfully and sweated at the sight of Spike as he got up and approached Ember. Crag backed off, almost stumbling as he kept his distance from the little, purple Dragon.
“Are you okay?” he asked, seeing her on the ground, roughed up.
“Am I okay?” she repeated. “What about you? You just died! Crag just commanded you to.”
“Did I?” wondered Spike. “Memory is a little hazy. I remember him going on for a while about severing my bloodline or something like that and then I just blacked out from the pain.”
“Then, you’re okay?” questioned Smoulder.
“I feel a lot better now,” he nodded before wincing and rubbing his sore wing. “Ugh, well a bit better anyway. I’m still aching from head to tail.”
“H-How is this possible?” stuttered Crag when he gained enough composure to speak. “You were dead! I commanded it. You should be a lifeless corpse now.”
“Well, thank Celestia, I’m not,” replied Spike turning his attention once more to Crag.
“If killing you once wasn’t enough,” he snapped. “I’ll kill you again and again. As many times as it takes!”
“Spike, cover your ears!” warned Smoulder. “You can’t listen to what he says.”
Before the purple Dragon was able to do so, however, Crag shouted out his command, with the Bloodstone Scepter in hand. “I command you to die now, Spike.” His words were loud and clear enough for them all to hear.
All eyes became fixed on Spike, waiting for what was to come, but he just stood there, unmoving and completely unaffected. “Spike?” asked Ember. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he answered. “My scales aren’t burning or anything.”
“Ugh!” growled Crag, in disbelief at what he was seeing. Immediately, he began snapping out more commands. “Die! Die! Die!” However, his mad ravings had no more effect at killing Spike than the ones to come before it. “How? Why? Why won’t you die?”
“Maybe it’s broken,” suggested Spike. “Meaning, you have no power over us anymore.”
“No, that can’t be,” sweated Crag, growing more anxious as he saw Ember and the others rise to their feet, becoming emboldened to stand beside Spike. Panicking, he shouted out, “Back! Stay back, all of you!” At once, that same glow wrapped around the Dragons as their blood boiled till they were forced to obey and stepped back. The only exception to this was, once again, Spike, who looked back at the others, confused.
“Ok, maybe it isn’t broken,” he pondered.
“Why isn’t it working on you?” cried Crag. “You’re a Dragon! The blood of your ancestors is contained within the Bloodstone.”
“Why isn’t it working on him anymore?” thought Ember as she played back everything that had happened and something came to mind. “Crag, when he was grandstanding before, what did he say before he gave the command for Spike to die… he talked about severing Spike’s bloodline. He meant through death, but could he have accidentally freed him from its control?”
“M-Monster!” cried Crag, backing away as Spike kept walking towards him. He spat out one command after another at Spike, but nothing he said was working on him. “You aren’t even resisting its power. It’s just not working. Why? Nothing should be able to break the magic of such an ancient and powerful artifact!”
“Nothing except itself,” realized Ember as she watched Crag become more hysterical over the Bloodstone Scepter’s ineffectiveness. He had completely forgotten his vast superiority in strength as he attempted to make the Bloodstone work. He tried everything, from shouting at it to waving it about wildly, but nothing helped. Spike kept taking more steps forward.
“Stop! Stop!” he said almost beggingly as he tried jabbing at Spike with the scepter now. This didn’t work either, but it did provide Spike the chance he needed to grab at the Bloodstone. When Crag attempted to pull it away, the gem of Dragon blood broke off of what remained of the scepter and was now in the purple Dragon’s possession. “Gah! No! The Bloodstone!”
“I got it,” spoke Spike softly, looking down at the red jewel with little satisfaction on his face. He clutched it tightly in his claws, and gritted his teeth in frustration. “But what good is it? I can’t make the Dragons stop attacking with it.” The others heard this, but had nothing they could say to comfort him. “I managed to get it, but what good did that do? Equestria is still in trouble. Ponyville… my friends… Twilight… what’s going to happen to all of them… all because of this stupid gem!”
“H-Hey!” warned Crag. “Careful with that. The Bloodstone is more than Dragonkind’s most ancient treasure. It is the very glue that binds us as a race.”
“I know the story,” answered Spike. “Can’t say I cared for it in the least, especially now. The Bloodstone is causing so much trouble and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Well, if Dragons still have to rely on a dumb rock to have any sense of unity, then maybe we don’t deserve to be united at all!”
“Wait, what are you,” Crag began to say before his eyes bugged out at what he saw Spike was doing. Opening his maw, he brought the bright, red gemstone up to his fangs and bit down on with all his might. “NOOO!!!” cried Crag as he dove at Spike, attempting to stop him when he was already too late.
“CRUNCH!!!” went the Bloodstone as Spike’s teeth shattered it to pieces in one big bite. As it turned into shards, a powerful energy burst out of it, swallowing up both Spike and Crag within a brilliant, red light that shot straight up into the sky like lava from an erupting volcano. The others could only gaze at the power that Spike had unleashed, bright as the flames of the sun and it let out a noise that sounded like the fiercest Dragon roar any of them had ever heard before.
Twilight, Starlight, and Celestia fought with all their might to maintain the barrier containing the group of dragons within it as the large beasts fought to break free. Large waves of fire gushed from some of their maws while others scratched and slashed with their claws or hacked away with their weapons. Others just slammed their bodies at the barrier, putting all their weight behind it. All this strained the magic cast over such a large perimeter, creating cracks at every point or stress.
For a while, the three powerful Ponies had managed to repair the damage as it was made. However, over time, as their stamina neared its limits, the Dragons finally began to break free. They couldn’t keep up with enforcing where the cracks formed and pieces of their barrier chipped away. At best, they were able to buy more time by compressing the barrier smaller and smaller. This tactic only helped a bit, at best, as the Dragons’ attacks started to become more concentrated, with the limited space left to them.
“We can’t keep this up forever,” Starlight told the other two as she could the inevitable was coming quick. “Maybe we should drop the barrier in favor of helping the Pegasi on the offensive.”
“They’re barely managing against the ones that we’re not holding,” Celestia informed her. “If these ones get out they’ll break through and reach Ponyville, if they don’t come after us, out of anger for confining them, first.”
“It doesn’t look like we’ve got much of a choice,” warned Twilight as she watched their barrier start to shatter like a crystal vase dropped on the ground. Even with some strength left to keep the barrier up, they strength of the Dragons had won out and they were free to join the others in causing havoc.
“They’re coming right for us!” cried Starlight as she and Celestia flew away as to avoid a head on collision with the Dragons they would undoubtedly lose. Twilight, however, remained fluttering in place, rubbed her head, dazed after their magic had been broken so forcefully.
“Twilight! Watch out!” shouted Celestia as an orange dragon flew at the Princess of Friendship. Opening his maw, he unleashed a blast of flame at the purple Pony.
“Huh, wha?” mumbled Twilight as she came to her senses and saw the danger she was in. Barely managing to focus, Twilight created a barrier in front of herself to disperse the flames around her. The Dragon, still charging forward, broke through her fragile defense. In doing so, Twilight was startled into tumbling out of control and dropping right out of the sky.
“Twilight!” Starlight and Celestia cried, trying to fly down to rescue her, but the Dragons closing in on the two were giving them enough problems. Opening their maws, they readied their flame breath. Starlight and Celestia prepared themselves for it, not sure how to proceed from here or what options were even left available short of surrendering.
“Can this really be the end?” Starlight questioned, the scent of Dragon breath thick in the air as they prepared to attack.” Looking to Celestia, hoping that she had some magical spell she had been saving or even a few words of encouragement, the look of dread on her face only further proved that they really were out options.
Then, a fierce draconic roar erupted forth from the distance, like a powerful gust of wind sweeping across the land and blowing through everything in its path. After it sounded, all the Dragons closed their maws and simply maintained their altitude. The expressions each of these fearsome beast wore changed to ones filled with sadness and shame. This was a great relief to both Celestia and Starlight, no longer detecting any hostility from the scaly invaders. The same was true for all the other airborne Ponies who suddenly found the fighting had been brought to a complete stop by that roar.
“Uh, does this mean Spike did it?” wondered Starlight as they looked at all the Dragons, many tearing up now that they were free of the orders given to them by the Dragon Lord.
“And not a moment too soon,” Celestia took a breath of relief and looked down to where Twilight was, held securely in the arms of the orange Dragon that had sent her plummeting to the ground in the first place.
“W-W-Wings… and a horn,” stuttered the Dragon as he took note of Twilight’s features. “Y-You’re an Alicorn.”
“Uh, yeah,” nodded Twilight, confirming what he suspected.
“Then you’re a princess, right?” he asked her, his whole body trembling.
“That’s right,” she answered. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Frien-”
“I’m so sorry,” he wailed, shockingly emotional now. Tears ran down his face and onto her coat. It was a drastic change from the ferocious beast he had been before, but a change that was preferable. “Please forgive me!!!”
“It’s okay,” Twilight told him as he hugged her tightly, almost crushingly so as he begged to be forgiven. In spite of this, Twilight smiled, as she thought, “Spike, you really did it, didn’t you?” Then, as she started losing feeling all over her body due to the Dragon’s hugging, Twilight desperately had to get him to let go.
As quickly as it happened, it came to an end as the red energy dispersed with a mighty BANG! sending Spike and Crag flying out of it in opposite directions like they had been shot out of a cannon.
“Spike!” everyone cried, seeing him fly towards them. They tried to scramble to catch Spike, but it was Garble who had gotten up first to intercept him, cushioning him with his body and wrapping his arms around him to hold him still. His feet scraped across the ground and his wings were wide open as he tried to bring him to a stop, till his legs lost traction with the ground and they were both sent tumbling on the ground. Even while this was happening, Garble kept Spike safely against his body, till they came to a complete stop.
Crag wasn’t as fortunate to have someone in his corner to help him out. He flew straight towards the Throne of the Dragon Lord and smashed right into it, leaving a deep imprint in it with his body.
Atop the throne, the Dragons that were keeping guard over Chrysalis lowered their guard as the power of the Dragon Lord wore off on them. Seeing her chance, the former Changeling Queen took to the air and made her escape from the Dragonlands. “This whole thing has just been a complete waste of time,” she complained to herself. “I should have known better than to align myself with a bunch of overgrown lizards.”
“Spike! Garble!” cried Spark as he and the others hurried over to see them.
“Are you two okay?” asked Smoulder.
“Ugh, remind me not to do something like that ever again,” groaned a very woozy Spike. Slowly, he managed to come back to his senses and saw he was sitting atop Garble. “Uh, what did I miss now?”
“After you broke the Bloodstone, you went flying and Garble, he, got in the way to catch you,” answered Ember.
“Garble did that?” replied Spike, quite surprised. “He saved me?”
“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” he replied sitting up.
“Why?” asked Spike. “I didn’t say ‘thank you.’”
“Why you ungrateful, lil-” Garble began to say, but recalled a similar incident between them during the Gauntlet of Fire. “I guess I deserved that and plenty more.”
“I’m just kidding,” Spike told him. “Thanks, Garble. I guess you can be a good guy, after all.”
“When I feel like it, maybe,” he said trying to not look as happy to hear that as he was. It became even more difficult when Spark came over to hug him.
“You were amazing, Garble!” the young, yellow Dragon praised his big, red brother.
“Shouldn’t you be fawning over Spike, your hero?” he asked.
“Spike was great too, but he’s a hero so he’s used to doing things like this,” he explained. “Even though you aren’t a hero you fought so hard to protect me and Spike. I can’t think of anything more amazing than that.”
“How about how many of your bones I’m going to break when I get done with all of you?” snarled Crag as he pulled himself free from the throne. “I think the number will be very amazing.”
“Does nothing stop this guy?” asked Smoulder, as she and the others watched Crag approach them looking especially livid now.
“We could really use a rainbow laser right about now,” gulped Spike.
With only several meters separating them, Crag stopped and started to take in deep breaths to attempt to calm himself. “You may have destroyed the Bloodstone, but even that has merely hindered my plans,” he told them. “If I can’t make them follow my orders with magic then it just means I’ll have to use brute force instead. It’ll take some time to accomplish, but I AM A PATIENT DRAGON, AFTER ALL!!!” His attempt to calm himself failed.
“You just don’t know when to call it quits,” Ember retorted, as she stood in between him and the others. Garble got up too, as did Smoulder, Ax, Tia, and Gorge. Even Spike managed to get to his feet with some support from Spark. “Face it, you’ve lost.”
“No, all of you have,” he countered. “The Bloodstone was your only means of stopping me and with it gone I’m the biggest, toughest dragon around. Nobody can stop me now, but if you all think you can, give it a try. COME ON!” he taunted them, ready to fight tooth and claw against them all. “BRING IT…” Crag noticed a large shadow was suddenly cast over him, something that was normally impossible, mid day, in the Dragonlands, with its typically cloudless sky. Looking up, he saw what had created such a huge shadow. It was Torch looming over him, not the least big happy, as he pulled back his arm for a punch. “...on…” His voice cracked.
The mighty fist of the giant Dragon came down and even before it did, Ember and Garble were well aware of what was to come. Grabbing Spike and Spark, they started to run and Smoulder and her friends were quick to follow after them, moving as quickly as their legs could carry them. Crag was not so lucky as to have such an option as the larger than him fist flew at him like a meteor crashing down on the planet. Holding his arms up, he did the only thing he could do and attempted to use all his strength to catch the attack. Whether or not he could have managed this, it didn’t matter as the ground beneath his feet couldn’t take the immense force applied to it and crumbled away, allowing Torch to punch straight into the ground and take Crag along for the ride.
The intensity of the attack caused a quake, splitting the ground all around. A powerful shockwave was also unleashed in every direction, hitting Ember and the others as they fled, knocking them to the ground while they were already off balance from trembling Earth. As they fell to the ground, they got covered in bunch of dirt that had unearthed from that explosive punch. Fortunately, they had made it just far enough away to escape the worst of the damage that now had a billowing mushroom cloud in the epicenter.
“That works too,” spoke Spike as he emerged from the pile of dirt with the others. Looking at Torch’s arm plunged into the ground almost up to his shoulder sent a chill down everyone’s spine at the thought of being the one taking such an attack.
“Dad,” called Ember as they approached him.
“Sorry if I interrupted your battle,” he apologized. “But I was getting tired of this guy running his mouth on and on without end. I can’t think of anything more annoying than someone who just doesn’t know they drone on far too long.”
“Well, you shut him up just in time to save us,” she told him. “And the fact that you were able to get here must mean that the effects of the Bloodstone Scepter faded when it was destroyed.”
“Then the other Dragons were probably freed from it’s control as well,” stated a hopeful Spike. “But did we make it in time?”
“Whether we were or not,” commented Ember. “All this is going to reflect very poorly on Dragonkind in the eyes of the other creatures. I don’t think a simple, ‘I’m sorry’ will be able to make everything better.”
“Then what are we gonna do?” asked Smoulder.
“Well, this is a matter for the leader of the Dragons,” she pointed out. “And since Spike held onto the Bloodstone last, for all of ten seconds, that’d be him.”
“I gotta sort all this out?” he sweated at the thought of trying to handle this mess. “Where do I even start?”
“Relax,” chuckled Ember. “Just a little Dragon humor. If there are no objections to allowing me to stay in charge even without the Bloodstone Scepter I’ll handle damage control.”
“You got my vote,” voiced Spike.
“Ours too,” added Smoulder with a nod from her friends in agreement.
“I never even really wanted to be Dragon Lord in the first place,” stated Garble.
“Ok, then next we’ll need to hand over those responsible for this mess to face punishment,” she told them. “Unfortunately, I saw Chrysalis flee and she probably gotten far away while we were still dealing with Crag.”
“We’ll have to deal with next time she surfaces,” figured Spike.
“Then,” the reinstated Dragon Lord continued. “That just leaves Crag and-”
“And me,” finished Garble, well aware where all this was going.
“Oh, no,” cried Spark as he hugged his brother. “You did this all for me. It’s my fault. I should be the one to make up for this.”
“That’s absolutely not true,” Garble told him, kneeling to pet his head. “I was dumb and weak so I allowed that ugly bug lady and dad to use me. All you did was care for me and there is nothing wrong with that at all. I’ll take my punishment and I promise to be a better Dragon because of it when I return to you.”
“Brother,” sniffled Spark as the little yellow Dragon was hugged by his big, red brother.
“Now, for Crag,” continued Ember as she turned to where he still was, crushed deep in the ground where her father still had his arm impaling the Earth. “If he’s still alive. Uh, dad, could you…”
“I’m… ugh… trying,” he groaned as he struggled to free his arm. “Just a little… ugh… stuck, but one more… good pull… ought to do… IIIIIIIT!!!” With all his might, the former Dragon Lord managed to dislodge his arm from the Earth, along with considerable amount of ground in the process. Flexing his arm and claws, Torch smiled then brushed the dirt from his scales.
“That is the biggest hole I’ve ever seen,” commented Spike as they stared down into the abyss.
“Are you still alive down there?” called Smoulder. They all listened and a very pained and weak moan reached their ears. “Yup, he’s still kicking.”
In time, the Dragons that had left to start a war returned to their home in the Dragonlands, but they were not the only ones to do so. Twilight had come, naturally to find Spike, and several others had joined her, including that orange Dragon that was refused to leave her side till she agreed to do something for him. Celestia and Luna had arrived to handle the aftermath of the incident with the Dragon invasion and report to the other creatures on it, later on.
Along with them, they brought a number of the royal guard and a rather familiar looking Pony, to Twilight, with a pink and purple curly tail and mane, a pale yellow body, and a Cutie Mark of three candies in blue wrappers. She had on a white collared shirt with a black tie and coat over it. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of black glasses. Though Twilight was certain it was Bon Bon from Ponyville, the “special agent” that Celestia introduced to her was called, “Sweetie Drops.”
Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Ocellus, and Yona also arrived, concerned about their friend, Smoulder. Despite Twilight’s reluctance to bring them along after everything that had happened, she couldn’t refuse them for wanting to be with their friends. With Starlight as a chaperone, they all went together to the Dragonlands.
Upon their arrival, they managed to quickly meet up with Ember, Smoulder and her friends. When Twilight didn’t see Spike around, she quickly grew worried. “W-Where’s Spike?” she asked Ember scanning the area for her purple and green assistant.
“He was roughed up quite a bit in the battle,” she explained. “He’s fine, but I told him to take it easy and rest. He’s in that cave over there if you wanna-” Before she could even finish speaking, Twilight was dashing off toward Spike. “-see him.”
“While Twilight is taking care of Spike,” suggested Celestia. “Why don’t we discuss what has happened today.”
“Yes,” agreed Luna, an Alicorn with a dark blue coat and a mane and tail like the star-filled night sky. Her Cutie Mark was of a crescent moon. “This matter must be handled as quickly as possible to avoid further fallout. We trust you prepared?”
“I’m ready to take responsibility for it all,” nodded Ember. “Come with me and I’ll fill you in on the whole matter.”
“Smoulder!” called out Sandbar as he and the other students hurried over to her. “We’re so glad you’re alright.” Starlight followed after them, letting them have their reunion while still keeping an eye on them.
“Thanks, but there was nothing to worry about,” she told them. “Us Dragons, we’re made of tough stuff.”
“Still,” cried Silverstream happily hugging the orange Dragon. “We’re just so glad you’re okay!”
“Yona happy too,” the young Yak agreed, joining in on the hug.
“Glad I’m not the one getting crushed in a hug sandwich,” commented Ocellus, smiling contently to be there alongside her friends.
“So, what exactly happened over here?” wondered Gallus, trying to help free Smoulder from being hugged.
“I’ll get to that,” she groaned as she waited for the hug to end. “But, first, I have something I wanna my friends, both you and them.”
“Them?” asked Gallus, looking to see Ax, Tia, and Gorge who had been watching them curiously since they had arrived. “So, those are your friends from the Dragonlands?”
“Yep, so go get acquainted and I’ll be right back,” she told them as she grabbed the box with her dress in it and hurried out of sight, leaving her friends to try and break the ice themselves.”
“Spike? Spike?” called Twilight as she entered the cave in search of him. “Where are you?”
“Twilight?” she soon heard him call back to her and hurried over. “Is that you?”
“Spike!” she exclaimed excitedly as she finally spotted him and the two were once more together.
“I’m so glad you’re alright, Twilight,” Spike told Twilight as they shared a hug with one another, something they both yearned for, for quite some time. Their eyes watered up, as well, and they both shed tears of joy.
“I’m the one who should be saying that to you,” she replied to Spike as she affixed a bandage to his cheek from some nearby medical supplies that had already been used to treat him. She then applied a few more on the many minor scrapes he had on his body that were nothing compared to the ones treated before she had arrived. “Look at how hurt you are.”
Spike had one arm in a sling while his opposite foot had a brace on it. Some bandages were wrapped across his chest and one of his wings had an ice pack wrapped on it and taped to his back. Twilight, by contrast, had only a few light scratches on her body and some singed hair.
“Please, try to to move around too much.”
“It’s not that bad,” Spike explained. “I’m mostly just sore and have some sprains. Save for my wing, that’ll need about a month to heal, I’ll be all better in a week’s time, though I’ll probably be just fine after a good night’s rest.”
“In that case, you can get back to your chores tomorrow,” she teased him.
“Please, remain still.”
“Then again, it’s the doctor’s orders that I take it easy for a week,” he amended. “I wouldn’t want to hurt myself more washing the dishes, after all.”
“Oh, Spike,” she smiled, so delighted to hear his snark. She added a pink bandage on to his nose, despite there being no sign of injury there.
“Stop moving!” cried the orange dragon as he was in the midst of sculpting a life-sized figure of Twilight out of glass. He had tagged along with Twilight into the cave and as soon as they had found Spike, he had gotten to work. Already, he was making great progress, creating a basic Pony shape of glass in mere minutes and proving his mastery of the craft. “P-Please forgive me, Princess. I am just very eager that I have gotten such a rare opportunity like this to create a figurine of you, out of glass. Chances like this are incredibly rare.”
With some flames to keep the glass soft, he adjusted the shape to properly match Twilight’s proportions, till it was just about as tall as her. Then, with the very tip of his claw, he scratched her Cutie Mark onto the flank with great care and precision.
Just watching him work so diligently, distracted Twilight and Spike for a moment as they marveled at how he poured sand from his claws over the head of the figuring and then began to mold it into Twilight’s mane. As he did this, he was careful to keep the glass in a hot, malleable state with his fire breath. While one hand molded and the other held grabbed sand from a nearby pouch to be turned into more glass as needed.
“Uh, new friend of yours?” wondered Spike.
“Oh, um, sorry,” apologized Twilight as she tried to continue her reunion with Spike while staying still enough for the Dragon to continue to work. “He was incredibly determined to add me to his collection and he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“Wait a minute. I remember you,” Spike recalled. “You were the Dragon from glass sculpting demonstration.”
“And you are that little purple Dragon who volunteered to take part in it,” he replied as he skillfully styled glass Twilight’s mane exactly as the real one wore it. Then with some more sand, he melted it with fire over the figuring’s forehead and began to add her horn. “I don’t think I properly introduced myself. The name’s Flare.”
“You’re amazing,” Spike told him, staring at Twilight’s likeness. “I think you had little ones of Celestia and Luna on display at your demonstration too.”
“Yeah, but I have life-sized ones of them in my cave,” he said braggingly. “I just love princesses, so regal and majestic, the Alicorn Princesses in particular and, with this, I have three of the four. Now, if I can just get an audience with Princess Cadence I can have them all.”
“Cadence is actually my sister-in-law,” Twilight informed him. “And, technically, there are five with her baby daughter, Flurry Heart.”
“There’s another?” he gushed with even greater eagerness. “Please say you’ll introduce me.”
“Sure,” Twilight answered a bit hesitant to see such a purely happy expression on a pointy-toothed, scaly-faced creature that wasn’t Spike. “I’ll ask her next time I see her.”
“Thank you sooooo much!” he answered giddily.
“Oh, I just remembered,” spoke Spike, seeing this as actually a great opportunity. “That glass star you helped me make, for Twilight, it got broken. Do you think you could help me fix it?”
“Oh, you made me a present,” smiled Twilight, moving to hug Spike, but a huff from Flare got her to remain still.
“Sure,” he nodded, as he carefully scratched out the spiral on the glass horn and moved over to help Spike out before he continued with his sculpture.
With his backpack retrieved after the battle against Crag, Spike took out the pieces of glass and held them out for Flare to pick up. “I was very careful with it, but, even so, it still ended up breaking.”
“These things can happen, even when we do our best to avoid them,” he stated taking the pieces in his claws. “But, luckily, things like this can be easily repaired. With a quick breath and some movements with his claws, he made the pieces whole once more. Opening his hands, he revealed the six-pointed star was good as new.
“Thanks,” smiled Spike as he took it to give to Twilight. “I just hope things with the Dragons can still be fixed after this.”
“I showed Celestia and Luna that second letter you sent, regarding the ones who caused all this trouble. They’ll make sure that the other creatures understand the Dragons were not doing any of this under their own free will and that most of the ones responsible have been apprehended. As for Chrysalis, she’s already on the Most Wanted for all the trouble she’s caused in the past so there is not really anything more we can do than what we’ve already done.”
“What about Garble and Crag?” wondered Spike. “What will happen to them?”
“Tartarus,” she answered. “And probably for life considering the scale of damage caused. Ponyville avoided the worst, but places like Appaloosa and Griffinstone were badly damaged. Forgive and forget won’t work here.”
“I just wish that Garble didn’t have to be punished,” sighed Spike. “At least not like this. He might have been a part of the problem, but he made the right choice in the end. He doesn’t deserve to spend the rest of his life in Tartarus, away from his little brother.”
“Well, you saved the day once, today,” Twilight told him. “If you wanna do it again, you’d better hurry. Celestia and Luna are probably getting ready to send them there very soon.”
“Then I’d better get going,” stated Spike as he hurried off as quickly as his bandaged body could move. Twilight started to go after him, but Flare cleared his throat to remind her of her current commitment and then got to work on making her wings.
“So, you’re Smoulder’s new friends?” asked Ax with a bit of a smirk on his face as he spoke with Gallus and Sandbar. “I kinda thought you’d be cooler.”
“That’s my line to say to you,” Gallus retorted.
“Come on guys,” Sandbar mediated them. “Smoulder wants us all to get along.”
“So, Smoulder says there’s a ton of fun things you guys do,” Ax recalled. “Like what?”
“There’s all kinds of things we do,” answered Sandbar. “Sports and games in the gym, the occasional field trip and there’s almost always something cool going on in town.”
“But the most fun usually comes during the times we’re in danger of bodily harm or worse,” Gallus chimed in, getting a chuckle from the Dragon. “Seriously, we almost got turned into pincushions by little woodland critters during our first week and that is not even the close to being the most dangerous time.”
“Nothing you guys did could possibly be as crazy and dangerous as the crazy adventure we’ve been on with Smoulder these last few days from going lava surfing to throwing tar balls at the then Dragon Lord. We even got to see Smoulder with a dress.”
“I saw her in one when we were forced into a trial by a sentient friendship tree,” Gallus said, trying to one up Ax. “Then there was the time we almost blew up the school when all the magic in Equestria almost all vanished into a black hole.”
“That’s nothing,’ Sandbar chimed in. “How about I tell you both of the time I almost got lost… in Manehatten.”
“Uh, sounds like there’s quite a story to be told there,” commented Ax, not sure how that compared to everything else they were talking about.
“Prepare to be surprised,” replied Gallus, certain this would turn out as anticlimactic as all his other “almost” stories.
“So, yesterday my name was Tia and today I’m thinking of calling myself, ‘Rose.’” the Dragon formerly known as Tia told Silverstream and Ocellus.
“Wow! That’s a great name,” the Hippogriff told her. “ And what are you going to call yourself tomorrow?”
“Uh, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Rose admitted.
“How about Bermuda or Zelda,” suggested Silverstream. “Oh, how about Skystar, she’s got a great name!”
“It’s okay,” she blushed, surprised to find someone more into her constantly changing name than herself. “I’ll figure it out.”
“But why do you even need to keep changing your name?” wondered Ocellus. “What’s wrong with your regular name?”
“I want a name that makes me sound cool, cooler than my original name,” she explained. “So, I’ve been trying different names, but none of them have really worked for me.”
“And you only try a name out for one day?” questioned Ocellus.
“Well, I used to do it a name a month, then somewhere along the line every week and now pretty much every day, but none of them feel like the right name for me.”
“Take this from someone who knows all about changing,” the little love bug explained. “Changing your name has nothing to do with who you are. I can change into things big, small, scary, or cute, but underneath it all I’m still the same.”
“Me too,” added Silverstream happily. “Hippogriff or Seapony I’m still me through and through. I’m the same no matter what creature I am. I love things like stairs and bendy straws.”
“I’m not gonna argue with you there,” Rose admitted.
“What about you? What do you like to do no matter what your name is?” asked Ocellus.
“Well, I do like to scribble a little,” she admitted and looked around. “Um, uh…” Seeing a smooth, flat wall nearby, Rose got to work digging a claw into it. Silverstream and Occellus took a peek from either side of her as she worked quite intently on the wall.
“Wow, you’re really good at drawing, uh, scratching,” Ocellus told her.
“That looks so great!” exclaimed Silverstream. “That’s us, right?”
“Uh huh. It’s just a quick sketch,” she admitted as she looked at the drawing she made of the two of them. Despite being quickly done and just meeting the two of them for the first time, what she had carved into the stone was a crude, but rather detailed likeness of the two of them. “But I’m glad you like it. If I can get some paper later, I can try to draw you two on that.”
“Oh, and you gotta draw Gallus and the others too,” smiled Silverstream, hugging Rose. “You’re so great Tia or Rose or whoever you are!”
“R-Ruby,” she told them.
“Huh?” asked Ocellus.
“My name… my real name, it’s Ruby,” she admitted to them. “It’s a nice name, but nothing particularly special or rare in the Dragonlands.”
“I think it’s actually a really wonderful name,” Silverstream replied to her. “It’s so nice and pretty and so you. Ruby. Ruby. Ruby!”
“It’s actually kind of nice to hear that name after so long,” Ruby admitted. “Maybe I could stick with it for a while.”
“So, is true what I heard about that castle, in Ponyville?” asked Gorge, once more pigging out on gemstones. “Is it really made entirely out of crystal?”
“It is,” answered Starlight, not certain that telling a gluttonous Dragon about such a thing was a good idea. “But it for living in, not for eating.”
“I wouldn’t eat all of it,” he replied, the amount of drool running down his chin telling Starlight the contrary.
“There’s plenty more to the school than just… uh, lunch period,” Starlight reminded him. “And I’m certain your eating habits likely stem from some sort of anxiety you have, kind of like when Rarity has one of her ice cream depressions. As your soon-to-be guidance counselor, it’ll be my job to help you become the best you, you can be. So, tell me, what sorts of things trouble you.”
“Nothing at all,” he admitted. “I got a cozy place to crash and all the gems I could possibly want.”
“Obviously,” she noted as he stuffed his face with gems like they were popcorn.
“What more could a Dragon ask for?” he asked.
“I think I understand,” she analyzed with a smirk as her horn glowed and she lifted up his stash of gems out of reach.
“Hey, those are mine!” he cried attempting to jump up after them, but to no avail. He could have used his wings to fly, but, instead, just sat down and gave up trying. “I’ll just get some more back home, later.”
“Just as I thought,” she replied seeing him try to snatch his gemstones. “You lack proper motivation. It’s not uncommon for a Pony, or, a Dragon, in your case, to become unmotivated when they live a life that is overly secure. Typical signs of this are a slothful attitude, quick to quit at tasks, and, in some extreme cases, the inability to see your own feet.”
“Hey!” he snapped trying to look down at his toes, but his oversized stomach blocked his view. He tried sucking in his guy and pushing it out of the way, but it didn’t help. “I can see my feet just fine. They’re attached to my legs like they’ve always been.”
“I can already tell that you are going to be a long-term project,” she observed. “But, Guidance Counselor Starlight knows the cure. A little adversity can sometimes be the best fertilizer for growth and that’s exactly what you need.”
“I’m not a plant!” complained Gorge, seeing this as his chance to make a move while her guard was down. As quick as his sluggish body could move, he tried flying up to grab at his gems. Just as he was in claw’s reach, Starlight was quicker to move them out of the way, making the hungry Dragon grab nothing but air before crashing to the ground with a flab-jiggling thud.
“It’s a metaphor from a psychology book Twilight had me read,” she explained. “And I’d say the perfect bit of adversity would be double beneficial if it could help you shed a few extra pounds. Yona, can you lend me a hoof?”
“I don’t think I‘m going to like this,” worried Gorge as he saw Yak hurry over. Comparing size, the two of them were close in proportions, though Yona was clearly more muscular while Gorge was mainly comprised of softer stuff.
“Did you need something Guidance Counselor Starlight?” she asked.
“I need you to help our new friend here,” she explained. “Think you could chase him around a bit… in a motivating way?”
“Of course,” she nodded and snorted before digging her hooves into the ground, readying to charge forward. “Yaks best at motivating.”
“I know I don’t like this!” Gorge cried as he turned to run as Yona pursued him. She didn’t even have to move quicker than a leisurely jog to get the out-of-shape lizard to work up a sweat as he waddled as quickly as he could manage.
“Another successful therapy session,” Starlight said, patting herself on the back.
“O-Okay,” spoke a very timid-sounding Smoulder. “I’m ready everyone.”
“You hear that?” called Sandbar. “Smoulder’s ready. Uh, ready for what exactly?”
“Just take a look and see,” answered Ocellus and she and Silverstream moved to the front, after spotting Smoulder in her dressed, that reminded them of the secret tea parties the three of them had from time to time.
“We-Well, how do I look?” she asked as she approached the group, fully garbed in her dress.
Sandbar rubbed his eyes in disbelief that Smoulder was wearing a frilly blue dress and pulling it off quite nicely. “Whoa, you look totally regal in that.”
“Maybe the tiara is a bit too much,” she blushed. “Too princessy, I guess. Perhaps I should take that off.”
“No, it’s all perfect,” Silverstream assured her. “Embrace your inner princess.”
“Princess Smoulder does have a nice ring to it,” agreed Ocellus.
“What do you think, Gallus?” wondered Smoulder. “You were the first to see me wearing a dress before.”
“Well,” he answered averting his eyes as he blushed a little. “I didn’t have time to really appreciate it while we were attempting to escape the school’s catacombs, but you’re rather… cute dressed like that. This isn’t just a one time thing, right?”
“I’d say mostly for special occasions and when I wanna feel pretty,” she smiled looking more comfortable wearing her dress the more they talked.
“Um, well, I was thinking of wearing some nice dresses too,” Silverstream told everyone with a slight hint of jealousy in her voice. As she announced this, she was looking at Gallus in particular. “Maybe something pink with sparkles. What do you think, Gallus?”
“I th-think that’ll look really nice on you,” he answered, feeling the pressure of her gaze on him.
“I didn’t expect that kind of reaction, but I like it,” Smoulder chuckled. “But probably something I should expect from you two love birds.”
“Hey, we’re not-” protested a flustered Gallus, his face red with embarrassment like Smoulder thought she’d have been.
“How about you guys?” interrupted Smoulder as she turned to ask the others.
“Huff! Puff! Puff!” wheezed Gorge as he ran out of steam and collapsed on the ground nearby, drenched in sweat. “It… matches your eyes nicely.”
“Yona give it too Yak hooves up,” Yona stated. “No better praise than that.”
“I still don’t get what the big deal if of wearing soft frilly fabric,” commented Ax. “It isn’t even close to being as hard as Dragon Scales so it does nothing for protection and I can’t see myself in something like that. But, if you like it, then who am I to question it?”
“I’m sure after a bit of time in Ponyville, you’ll get a better appreciation for more leisurely wears,” Starlight told him. “And our friend, Rarity, would be more than happy to make you something more akin to your tastes.”
“I guess,” he conceded as he scratched his head. “What do you think, uh, Rose, today, right?”
“Nope, I’m thinking of trying out Ruby again,” she replied. “And I wonder what kind of dress would look good on me.”
“Isn’t that your real name?” asked Smoulder, able to vaguely remember it beneath the dozens of other names she had used over the years.
“Yeah, it is,” she nodded. “We were just talking for a bit and they just convinced me to give my name another try.”
“They’re not as lame as I thought they’d be,” joked Ax.
“You aren’t so lame yourself,” agreed Gallus.
“Well, this certainly worked out a lot better than I hoped,” Smoulder breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to know everyone’s getting along before we get back to the school.”
“All of Equestria was nearly engulfed in a war that could have destroyed everything and you were still worried about how your new friend and old friends would get along?” asked Starlight.
“And about me showing off my new dress and embracing my girlish side,” she added. “Compared to that, armageddon doesn’t seems so bad.”
“I can’t deny I’ve been myself,” Starlight admitted with a smile.
Led by Special Agent Sweetie Drops, a group of Pony soldiers walked on either side of Crag and Garble as they proceeded towards a portal leading directly to Tartarus. Garble had a number of bandages wrapped on his body, most on his face where his father had kicked him during his struggle for the Bloodstone Scepter. His arms and legs were shackled while his wing were restrained against his back to ensure escape was impossible.
Crag was in far worse shape, his entire body was wrapped in bandages. He a broken leg and arm wrapped in a cast and used a crutch to help him walk, in spite of the offer to carry his bruised and broken body towards his confinement.
Overseeing their transport was Celestia, Luna, Ember, and Torch. In her hand, Ember had a new scepter, albeit one that was hastily made with a gemstone wrapped onto the end of a stick with a rope. And instead of a magical, red Bloodstone, a normal green emerald was used. Spark was there too, watching sadly as his brother was being taken away. Beside him was the blacksmith, Hammerhead, patting his head to try and comfort him.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay taking in Spark?” asked Ember.
“I’m more than happy to,” replied Hammerhead. “I met the little fella just the other day and I can’t deny that I’ve gotten a little attached to him. Sides, he needs someone to look after him and if he’s content with such an arrangement then I’d say we’re good to go.”
“It’s fine,” agreed Spark. “But...what about my brother?”
“I’m sorry,” apologized Ember. “But it can’t be helped, after all the trouble he’s caused.”
“It’ll be okay,” the large Dragon told the smaller one. “We’ll go visit him every chance we can. It’s not much, but it’s at least something.”
“Yeah,” a sad Spark sniffled.
As Crag neared the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, he stopped walking forward and turned to them. “Princesses,” he spoke rather casually. “Been a while, Celestia.”
“Uh, I guess,” she replied with uncertainty in her voice.
“Luna, a shame you weren’t around when I was causing havoc,” he chuckled. “The old glory days would have been even more spectacular.”
“Um, I’m sure they would have,” she answered for lack of a better response. She turned to Celestia to whisper to her. “Have you two met before?”
“Apparently,” she whispered back. “Hard to tell under all those bandages.”
“You certainly seem awfully cheerful for someone who is about to spend the rest of his days in Tartarus,” Ember told Crag. “And that is an especially long time for a Dragon.”
“It won’t be all that long,” he answered making what could barely be made out as a smirk.
“Ember!” called Spike as he hurried over, as fast as his bruised body could carry him. He stopped quickly when he saw Crag and decided to keep his distance. “Oh, good, I’m not too late. We need to talk.”
“In a minute,” she told him before returning her focus to Crag. “What do you mean, ‘it won’t be that long?’”
“The Bloodstone Scepter is gone and there is no means to recreate such ancient magic,” he explained. “In time, the fragile peace residing in the Dragonlands will crumble, now that the title of Dragon Lord is nothing more than that. Without any means to unite our kind, the Dragons will battle for territory and power once more and without Critias this battle will spread out across Equestria. In truth, the war to be waged across Equestria has not been stopped, merely delayed and rather than it be shared amongst the Dragons, it’ll all be burnt black by their all consuming greed to possess it all for themselves.”
“A riveting speech, but what does that have to do with your early release?” she questioned him.
“How else do you plan to restore the peace other than me, the one with the strength and drive to bring order amongst the chaos,” he told not just Ember but everyone. “It’s only a matter of time and I’m a patient Dragon. I can wait.”
“I can’t believe out of all the parts of him I broke,” commented Torch growing tired of him prattling on. “His mouth wasn’t one of them.”
“I’ve said my piece,” Crag assured him. “Till then, I’ll see you all soon.” He then resumed walking to the portal, not stopping anymore as he neared it. However, just as he was started to walk through, he turned his head to look back and looked directly at Spike, filling the young Dragon with a feeling of dread as he stared back. Fortunately, Crag vanished into the portal a second later, but the knots in the purple Dragon’s stomach remained.
“Did I really do the right thing?” wondered Spike. “When I destroyed the Bloodstone Scepter?”
“Of course you did,” Ember assured him. “We’re better off without it.”
“Then why do you have that?” questioned Spike, pointing at her replacement scepter.
“I kind of got used to carrying it around while being the Dragon Lord,” Ember admitted. “This is more a decoration.”
“Still, can you keep order without the real thing?” he asked.
“Well, I never liked using it in the first place, but just having it probably did help,” she admitted. “It’ll be hard for one Dragon to keep order over all the others, but, fortunately for me, I’m not alone. I have plenty of supporters, plenty of friends in the Dragonlands who will help me. And I know if I need your help, you’ll be there for me too, Spike.”
“Of course!” he nodded.
“Me too!” agreed Spark. “You’re the best Dragon Lord ever!”
“Heh, I gotta agree with the little guy,” added Hammerhead.
“Don’t forget me,” stated Torch. “Anyone who tries to cause trouble, well, just show them Torch’s Crater and I’m sure that’ll put an end to the problem right then and there.”
“Did he name the hole he punched into the ground?” asked Spike to Ember who gave him a nod. “Yeah, that’d do it.”
“And you have our support as well,” spoke Celestia.
“Indeed,” agreed Luna. “This could have been a great tragedy, but we can see the ideals of peace and friendship you have bestowed upon your people has not fallen on deaf ears.”
“Rather than continue to attack even after they were freed from the power of the Bloodstone, they chose to stop and return home. Clearly, this is the fruits of all your hard work and for that, we are all extremely grateful.”
“Thank you,” smiled Ember, true relief in her voice. “But we still caused a lot of damage, some we might not be able to undo, but please allow us to help fix what we can. Not just for all of you, but for every creature we’ve attacked.”
“They’ll all be delighted to hear that,” Luna told her. “We couldn’t ask for a better Dragon Lord or friend.”
“I’m glad everything is working out,” Spike commented upon hearing all this.
“Oh, didn’t you have something you wanted to talk to me about?” questioned Ember.
“I did?” he pondered for a moment before recalling why he originally ran all the way over. “Garble!” Turning to look, he saw the big, red Dragon was about to join his father in Tartarus. “Wait!” Spike called out, stopping Garble before he took his first step into his new home for life. “You can’t send Garble to Tartarus.” Hearing this, Garble stopped and turned back to listen.
“Spike, the matter is already closed,” Ember told him. “For his crime against all of Equestria, Garble has to face punishment.”
“But it was his father’s influence on him and Chrysalis who tempted him,” he tried to reason with her. “And maybe a bit indirectly from me as well. I tried to help him, but I just pushed him over the edge. If not for me, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Spike, it wasn’t your fault,” Ember assured him.
“Of course it wasn’t,” agreed Garble, as he walked back, the guards at the ready in case he tried anything. “I ended up like this because of me. I caused all this trouble cause I couldn’t adjust to acting like a namby pamby Pony and singing songs and whatnot.”
“It isn’t as bad as you think, Garble,” Ember told him. “You don’t have to be a friend like them, just be a friend in your own way. I’ll admit I am not a fan of everything Pony, especially when they spontaneously break out into song, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. You’d see that too, if you could give it a chance.”
“Well, a little too late for that, now,” he pointed out. “I’m stuck in Tartarus forever.”
“Oh, Garble,” cried Spark, unable to restrain himself while his brother was so close. He wanted to go up and hug him, but he couldn’t get near while the guards were in his way. “I don’t want you to go!”
“I’ll be fine,” he sighed. “You can come visit me… when you feel like it, of course.”
“Every chance I get,” Spark sniffled.
“This is what I mean,” Spike stated. “I don’t want to send Garble to Tartarus, if not for his own sake, for his brother. Can’t we punish him some other way?”
“Well… maybe there is one way, but it’ll require a unanimous decision from all the leaders of Equestria… and you’ll have to agree to something as well.”
“Of course! Anything!” agreed Spike as he watched Ember discuss the matter with Celestia and Luna. He listened as best he could, but only managed a few words while the rest only sounded like mumbling. Finally, they turned back around to give their answer. “Well?”
“Garble,” spoke Celestia. “We still need to discuss the matter with the others, but, for the time being, your eternal stay in Tartarus will be suspended. Instead, you will be sent to Ponyville to be taught about friendship to help better yourself and you will remain there until you have properly graduated. You will also be required to take some counseling to help you better manage your anger and aggression. Do you accept this? If not, we will have no choice but to unsuspend your stay in Tartarus.”
“Both sound like horrible options,” he tried to sound cool as he considered them. “But… it’d probably be a bit easier for my kid brother to see me in Ponyland, so why not. At least I’ll be the biggest, baddest one there.”
“And to make certain you won’t be causing trouble, Spike will be your parole officer to keep you out of trouble,” Ember added.
“I will?” asked Spike, not certain how he got such a role.
“It’s what you agreed to before I could even tell you what it was,” she pointed out. “While he’s in Ponyville, Garble will be your responsibility.”
“Great,” worried Spike, thinking he would quickly regret putting his two bits into the matter.
“This really is great,” cheered Spark as the guards were now able to let him through to hug his brother. “You got a second chance, thanks to Spike. Isn’t he a great hero?”
“He’s not so bad,” commented Gable a little smile on his face as tears ran down his cheeks. “I’m starting to see that now.”
Seeing the two of them smile, Spike couldn’t help but smile too. “I’m starting to see that too.”
“Hey, dude,” commented Fume as he and Clump relaxed in a lava pool. “Do you think it’s all over yet?”
“Not sure,” Clump replied, rubbing his thick chin as he looked around. “There was a lot of noise earlier, but now it’s gone all quiet. Maybe it is.”
“Guess we don’t have to, ‘keep looking’ anymore,” Fume stated. “...But, it might not be a bad idea to stay in here a while longer.”
“Good idea,” agreed Clump and the two Dragons continued to goof off.
With Garble spared his one way trip to Tartarus, Spike made his way back to where Smoulder and the others were. As he arrived, he saw that Twilight had finished modeling and was now talking with Starlight. Smoulder was also there too, hanging out with all her friends. She had already put away her dress and had on her backpack as they were getting clos to wrapping things up on their end too.
“Hey, here comes Spike,” Starlight said as she spotted their purple-scaled friend approaching.
“Hi everyone,” greeted Spike, waving as he approached.
“How did everything go?” wondered Twilight. “Did you manage to help Garble?”
“Sort of,” he answered. “It looks like we’re gonna get another Dragon student joining us next semester and he’s going to need a fair bit of help from our trusty guidance counselor too.”
“Oh, wow,” marveled Twilight upon hearing the news. “To go from one Dragon student to five is incredible. I bet every other creature is going to wanna send us more students too. This is so great!”
“So, Garble is in need of some therapy?” wondered Starlight. “About dealing with his villainous past? Well, that is my specialty.”
“Maybe some of that,” Spike informed her. “ But mostly about helping with his anger and aggression. Oh, and he’s got some daddy issues too.”
“Daddy issues, huh,” she replied with a sigh as she remembered her own struggles with her father. “Well, those are my other specialty. As soon as he gets settled into the dorms, I’ll schedule a session with him.”
“Actually, Ember wants me to be his parole officer,” Spike continued to explain. “ So, it looks like he’ll be stay in the castle with all of us.”
“Hopefully he won’t see it as an all-you-can eat buffet,” commented Starlight as she turned to Gorge, completely exhausted after being chased by Yona. “We don’t wanna literally be eaten out of castle and home.”
“Do it for the castle,” Gorge groaned. “ Do it for that tasty, delicious castle.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about all that till the new semester,” yawned Spike as he rubbed his eye.
“Looks like someone’s in need of a nap,” Twilight stated, seeing the fatigue on his face.
“Can’t blame him after everything he’s been through,” added Starlight. “I think we could all use some rest after today.”
“It’s a shame the Festival of Dragon Lords had to end this way,” sighed Spike as he let out another yawn. “But there’s always the Feast of Fire, coming up, to look forward too.”
“That’s a positive way of looking at things,” agreed Starlight. “I’ll just go gather the students and then we can be off.”
As Starlight made her way over to Smoulder and the other students, Twilight helped Spike onto her back so that she could fly him home. “I already got your backpack,” she told him. “So, are you all set to go now?” Spike didn’t answer. “Spike?” Turning her head, she couldn’t help smile, seeing Spike already fast asleep, a light snoring escaping his maw. “Heheh, rest well, my chivalrous lil knight. We’ll be home before you know it.”
“This is completely out of the question,” snapped Smoulder as she noisily made her way over to Spike and Twilight. “When Dragons do things, we have to see them through to the end, no matter what.”
“Shh,” hushed Twilight. “Spike’s asleep.”
“Oh, sorry,” she apologized much quieter. “But Spike and I can’t just go home like this.”
“What do you mean?” wondered Sandbar as he and the others walked over.
“When Dragons set out to do something, we follow through till it’s done. The two of us came together to the Dragonlands and we planned on going home just the same. So, we have to go back home just the two of us. Also, don’t you all have to get ready to jump out and surprise us for our ‘Welcome Back Spike and Smoulder’ party? Pinkie Pie is setting one set up for us, isn’t she?”
“And after this whole ordeal,” added Ocellus. “She’s making it a ‘Welcome Home Heroes’ party and the entire town is going to celebrate your return.”
“So much for a little peace and quiet after all this,” commented Smoulder with a little smile.
“Since when is a quaint, little place like Ponyville known for being peaceful and quiet?” Gallus reminded her.
“Good point,” she conceded, but a short flight and train ride will probably give us a couple of hours more to rest first.”
“I don’t know,” admitted Twilight. “Are you sure you’ll be okay taking Spike back on your own?”
“Dragons travel light, taking only what’s absolutely necessary,” she explained, carefully picking Spike off of Twilight’s back and cradling him in her arms. “But what we do bring, we do our best to take care of. I promise you, Spike will be in good claws.”
“Then, I’ll trust him in your care,” Twilight told her.
“If all that’s settled we’d best hurry on home,” said Starlight. “Every creature, gather around and I’ll teleport us all back to Ponyville.”
“See you for your not so much of a surprise, surprise party,” Silverstream waved goodbye.
“Ready, everyone?” announced Starlight as her horn glowed brightly. “Here we go!”
“And have fun flying back home with your boyfriend,” teased Gallus, waiting for the last second before they all vanished in a flash of light, leaving Smoulder, Spike, Ax, Gorge, and Ruby behind.
“H-He’s not my boyfriend!” cried a flustered Smoulder, her face bright red now. Turning to her three Dragon friends, she was at a loss for words to say after that. Ax and Ruby just smirked at her, her expression saying plenty. Gorge was still too tired to do much else beside lay on the ground. “Uh, well, we should get going. Gotta a surprise party to get to.”
As her friends waved goodbye, Smoulder took to the air, making her way towards the train station in Appaloosa. She had Spike securely in her arms as they made for the border of the Dragonlands. As the sun began to sink over the horizon and paint the sky an orangish golden hue, Smoulder took a moment to admire it and then looked back down at Spike who continued to sleep with a peaceful look on his face. She smiled too, recalling all that they had been through on this crazy adventure and how heroic Spike had been. She also thought about the night they had spent together, the pain she felt in her heart when she thought he was gone and the relief when she found that wasn’t true. Without realizing it, she had started to cry a little.
“I guess stories with happy endings can be nice too,” she thought.
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*big applause* Holy Crap, that was intense & I loved every minute of it!
Really felt so good seeing Crag his just desserts at Torch's fist, very satisfying! Would have loved an epilogue of my fave dragon pair getting a heroes welcome at Ponyville too. Also glad that Garble got something of a second chance here, you made me feel sorry for him & that's no easy task.
I have to agree with Torch here as well.
Great story all around & just in time for the final season to start next week, till your next tale!
9536373
I’m glad you enjoyed it and happy I got it done just in time before the start of season 9.
I definitely enjoyed Torch punching Crag into the ground. A very fitting way for someone who values power over all else to be defeated. Also, Crag did tell Ember, the last time they met that if Spike didn’t return Spark to him, he’d better dig the biggest hole he can and hide in it before he got his claws on him.
I’m glad to give Garble more depth to his character, something he’s been lacking in the show and not sure how much that can be done for him in this final season.
As for the welcome home party, I’ll just leave that for the readers to imagine.
*thinks back to the chapter where Torch bored everybody to sleep with tales of his past exploits*
Altogether, a nice little tale.
I'm amused to see that Spike's plea for leniency on Garble's behalf has come with some unexpected consequences for the little dragon. That's the way this process works in Equestria, Spike. If the villain of the week is remorseful, they can be reformed and spared imprisonment or death, but the one who's willing to take that gamble is personally responsible for keeping them in line until their sentence is up. Unless you have Princess Celestia's massive social standing, then you can pawn that responsibility onto somepony else like she did with Fluttershy and Discord.
Garble and Spike have your classic macho, bro jock and sensitive, thoughtful nerd dynamic, with an added dose of moody teen and precocious pre-teen, so it's interesting to consider what their relationship will be like now that Garble has started to soften and mature a bit. At the very least, Spike can always point to the events of these last few chapters when he needs to keep Garble's hotheadedness in check,
9590591
Glad you enjoyed it. ^^
Yeah, it would be nice to see more of Torch and the lore behind the position of Dragon Lord. From the show, we only got to see him in Dragon Quest and as a cameo in Campfire Tales. I have my head cannon in which he became an honorary buffalo through battle/all night partying, long ago as a great achievement during his time in charge, which is why they respected Spike in Over a Barrel.
One of my favorite fan fics by far! Top 10 maybe even top 5!
9641758
I’m really glad you enjoyed it.
9641773
Make a sequel. Make a sequel!
This story is so good!
That was all INCREDIBLE. And I almost got a heart attack from reading his death.
"My death was... greatly exaggerated." Thank goodness for loopholes.
Seeing (or reading) Torch crashing his fist onto Crag, obliterating him down into the ground, was satisfaction undaunted. Everyone agrees Ember is right to remain Dragon Lord. The war ended as soon as it started. Smolder's 2 friend groups finally meet. Hooray, Garble's gonna get a pardon for his crimes, by attending the School of Friendship.
Man, I can already imagine, Epilogue Future, the dragon-friends decide to pay Crag a little visit, and he sees them all grown up and successful-looking, while he's all alone and miserable.
Oh my Celestia, yas!
Spike and Smolder is a nice ship indeed. 
I didn't like this story very much. It was alright until Chysalis got involved who was not in the Dragonlands for any reason at all. The explanation to stop Discord from solving everything was not a plausible one either.