Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar

by Blackdrag-rose

Equus: Old Friends

It took some time for Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the rest of the group, who were now heavy three Diamond Dogs and knew that they had some allies that were living a good distance away from where Ponyville rested, to emerge from the cave system which contained the tunnel they had been walking through, where they stared at the sunlight and found that it was still day out, though due to the fact that the sun and moon didn't move without magic it was hard to tell the time, but Spike was sure that they had only been underground for about two to three hours, maybe four, though Rarity was happy to be out of the caves at long last. The three Diamond Dogs, who they had learned were called Rover, Fido, and Spot, were fine with the sunlight, which made sense when the group considered the fact that the dogs had been the ones who kidnapped Rarity at one point in time and pulled her underground, even though that backfired on them in due time, though the dogs did seem worried about what was going on and the fact that they were heading towards Ponyville, no doubt due to the fact that ponies and dogs didn't know much about each other and what both sides knew was from their brief interactions, which Spike and the others knew they might have to address at some point. As the group considered everything that had happened since they headed into the cave, and found the hidden passage that brought them down to where Diamondia rested, one thing all of them agreed with was the fact that the Council of Three Paws were far more understanding than what they had been prepared for, as they knew of what Equus told the group earlier and, as soon as they learned of the threat the world faced, they were quick to promise allies to the cause and were likely preparing several guards, those that they could spare, for a future force to join Rover's group and learn the skills that Ember had picked up in the past. The entire adventure underground had raised numerous questions, answered several of them as well, and left Spike with a desire to head back to the hidden city, as there was a treasure trove of tomes and knowledge for them down there, knowledge that he was going to get his hands on at some point in the near future, as he was sure that the moment Daring Do learned of several Diamond Dogs emerging from their underground home she would be quick to jump at the chance to ask them whatever questions she had in mind, even though it would end up in her learning about the city as well, something that would excite her to no end, if Spike's thoughts were right about her.

Their thoughts were stopped in their tracks as they noticed that there were two ponies coming their way, both mares from what they could see at the moment, though Spike quickly recognized them as they approached him and the others, due to the fact that one of them had a brilliant gamboge coat, while her mane and tail were a light grayish olive color and she had a light brown stetson hat on her head, while the other mare had a light grayish gold coat, with her mane and tail being a light grayish rose color, though while the former was an Earth Pony, like some the group had seen when they explored Ponyville earlier, the latter was a Pegasus.

"Rarity, there you are! You had us worried when we reached the castle and didn't see you anywhere," the Earth Pony said, where Spyro and the others discovered that she had an accent that reminded them on the country folks they had helped in the past, even though they found that Spike and Ember seemed to know both of the ponies that were in front of them, which was understandable given what they had discovered so far, and Rarity nodded her head to show that she was just fine, even though the pair did pause for a moment as they noticed who was with the group, meaning the Diamond Dogs, and that caused the Pegasus to hide behind her friend for a moment, "Ugh, sugarcube, you are aware that there are three Diamond Dogs, in armor and carrying weapons, walking behind you, right?"

"Yes, Applejack, I am aware. They are our allies, picked by the Council of Three Paws to be the start of the dogs that will be joining Ember's training," Rarity replied, revealing the name of the pony that was standing in front of them right now, or at least the Earth Pony that had spoken to be exact, though even as she said all of that both she and the others noticed that the pair seemed confused about what they were hearing right now, to which Rarity sighed for a moment and considered what they needed to do next, before an idea came to her, "Applejack, why don't you and Fluttershy follow us back to the castle, so we can explain everything to you in the safety of Twilight's castle, just in case Sweetie and her friends are near us, as this isn't suitable for their ears... and it might cause a bit of panic if they eavesdrop on our conversation and tell the rest of the town about what we talk about."

The pair seemed to take a moment to think about what was going on, even though Applejack and Fluttershy glanced over to Spyro and the rest of the group for a moment and realized who was standing nearby, before eventually nodding for a few seconds as they turned around and started to head back to the castle, where Smolder had to be waiting, bored out of her mind since everyone had been gone for a longer period of time than what they had said earlier, though now they had at least four confirmed trainees for Titan and the other Peace Keepers to train, with both Torch and the Council of Three Paws determining how many more to send to the group. One thing that the group found was that some of the ponies that they passed by, as they headed for the castle, were surprised by the arrival of three Diamond Dogs, but instead of being a little bit worried and causing some panic, like everyone was expecting, they seemed to be just fine with what was going on at the moment and went about their business like nothing was out of place, which like of surprised Spyro and the rest of his group, the ones from his world to be exact, while Spike and Ember weren't even a tad bit surprised, as it seemed that all of the ponies of Ponyville assumed that since the dogs were with the group that they had to be friendly, or something like that at the very least. As such no one stepped out to stop them as they made their way through the town and headed for the castle, where they found Smolder standing outside the front door of the structure, possibly due to not wanting to be near Discord for an extended length of time, since he should be somewhere inside the castle, and when she noticed the group she started to move towards them, only to pause when she noticed the Diamond Dogs and raised an eyebrow, just in surprise based on the look on her face right now, but she said nothing as Spyro and the others entered the castle, even though the first thing he did was make sure the dogs had a room near Smolder's, for the time being anyway. Rover and his friends decided that they would be contained inside the couple of rooms in question and closed the doors as they waited for whatever Ember had in mind for them, like they were brooding or something, though the group guessed it made a bit of sense due to the fact that the trio of dogs might be thinking this was a punishment for what they had done in the past, both to Rarity and any other ponies they had encountered or due to messing up so many times before this point, but even if that was their thoughts on the matter Ember was going to drill the lessons of the Peace Keepers into them, and she was sure that Titan and the others would share her thoughts on the matter.

Once Rover and his friends were taken care of, for now anyway, the group gathered inside the larger room that they had used earlier when they discussed everything that they knew about Twilight and the rest of the displaced, not to mention the other things that had been talked about, where they found that Rarity was sitting near Applejack and Fluttershy, who were curious as to what was going on and why the group had returned with a couple of Diamond Dogs, even though that didn't count the fact that this was the first time that Applejack and Fluttershy had met Spike and Ember since they came back from Spyro's world, so they had even more questions than before.

"So, ugh, you guys seem different," Fluttershy said, where she seemed nervous about talking to the group, because while she might recognize Spike and Ember, given that she spent a decent amount of time near Twilight and was used to Spike while having a few instances where she and Ember had seen each other, but she was referring to the fact that they were both different from the last time everyone had seen the pair, as Spike was older, taller, and seemed more magical than she remembered and Ember seemed to be more of a warrior this time around, and that wasn't counting the rest of the group that they had returned with.

In that moment Spyro warned the pair that this was going to be a somewhat long story and dove into the tale of what he, Spike, and Ember had done since their first adventure, taking down Gnasty Gnorc and restoring order to the five lands of the Dragon Realms, which eventually brought about the rise of the Machinists, but he delved into the second adventure, where they were brought to Avalar and met Elora, Hunter, and the Professor, not to mention a number of other friends while they tackled Ripto and dealt with the threats that the realms faced, including a greedy gem hoarding bear who did a number of incredibly terrible things for gems. Applejack seemed surprised by that and said that Moneybags reminded her of a pair of ponies she and her friends had encountered in the past, a pair of Unicorn saleponies who were called Flim and Flam, or the Flim Flam Brothers to some, and were better known as tricksters or scam artists, though in that sense the pair were basically an incredibly watered down version of the greedy bear, who the group eventually exposed to Elora and the rest of Avalar, to the point where they seized his assets, distributed those items back to those that they originally belonged to, and imprisoned the bear in a jail cell so he wouldn't be able to do anything like that again. Of course Ember then told the newcomers that such a thing wasn't the case, as when the dragon eggs were stolen they found that Moneybags, in an odd twist of fate, had been freed by the third villain they took down, who had been looking for the Dragon Realms and had accidentally sprung the bear from his cell, who put him to work for her and he tried the same tactics the last time the trio and their friends had seen him, where the third adventure ended in them bringing down Morrigan, who they knew as the Sorceress, and imprisoned both her and Moneybags in crystalline statues. After that they had to deal with tracking down an odd icon on a globe of the world and it brought them to where Cynder and her father, Malefor, the first purple dragon of Spyro's world and the greatest hero before the group came around, had been living in with the rest of the dragons who called the city of Warfang and the continent of Doxantha home, even though that adventure involved calling forth a bunch of soldiers and allies to deal with Gaul's forces, as he intended on destroying the entire world because he hated dragons for some odd reason, and they stopped him from doing that. Some time after such an event the group found Ripto had returned and tried to take over the Dragon Realms, in a different part of it that the group had only just discovered, and it was during that adventure that the group discovered that Moneybags had been broken out of his magical prison and that his mind had been, well, shattered, creating a new personality that actually helped them to the best of his ability, though the adventure ended with Elora transforming into her current form, something she was totally fine with.

The last adventure they went on involved saving the lands that Flame and Aurora called home, where they found Gnasty Gnorc had been freed as well and sealed him away once more, before eventually finding and dealing with a terrifying and evil being called the Dark Master, the strongest foe they had faced and he even withstood a blast from the faux Elements of Harmony that Spike eventually created, gemstones that were near perfect replicas of what Applejack, Fluttershy, and the rest of their friends used a few times in the past, before Malefor took him down forever... and then, once they made sure their foe was taken down, the group rested, went about their lives, discovered some new things, and then matured into adults, or at least they were adults in Spyro's world, before Discord found them and the Professor opened a portal for them to come home, only to discover there were more displaced out there.

"It sounds like you've been busy, and yet you aren't slowing down at all," Applejack commented, though that was a lot for someone to take in, as it was hard to imagine spending fifteen years in an entirely different world and have no memories of the life that the individual had lived before being displaced, meaning that they lost all of their experiences and created new ones until a certain point in time so the two lives became one, where she felt sorry for the rest of the displaced that had gone missing, especially Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow, but there was something about this that bugged her, and she was sure that there was a reason behind why the group had remained silent about it, "but why did you and Ember just suddenly vanish like that, as Twilight was worried about you? And why did Twilight and the others disappear as well, as I don't understand why it happened to her, not to mention the others that no one has seen in the last week or so, because I'm sure that most of them weren't in the same area that you guys were in, which seems to be that cave we returned the Elements of Harmony to some time ago."

"Well, Twilight was trying to understand if dragons could tap into the power of Harmony, or something along those lines... which reminds me, I need to ask her what experiment she was doing," Spike replied, as he now sort of understood what all three of them had been doing in the cave with the Tree, as in he, Twilight, and Ember to be exact, though to truly figure it out he was going to have to ask Twilight what she had been trying to accomplish the next time he saw her, before he took a moment to think about what Applejack wanted to know and sighed, because if he and the others didn't tell her now he had the feeling that Rarity would go out of her way to make sure Applejack, at the very least, knew what was going on and why they hadn't said anything, before he focused on who they were talking to right now, "as for why we were displaced, and I'm referring to the others in this statement, its because our planet figured out that there is a force of demons out in another part of the universe, ravaging another world, and that we'll soon be under attack, so she started channeling what power she had and displaced a number of heroes, villains, and bystanders to other parts of our universe, to gather power and allies for what's coming our way... and the reason that Ember is recruiting allies for our cause is so that we can have a line of defense in case the demons arrive sooner than what we're thinking."

"We're training to fight demons? That sounds awesome." Smolder said, as she had been patiently waiting to figure out if Ember was going to be teaching her anything during her first day in Ponyville, to get a head start on whoever else would join her and the Diamond Dogs, but hearing that they were training to fight creatures from Tartarus, or at least that was her thoughts on the matter since she hadn't seen what the group had seen earlier, made her excited and now she wanted to get started with her training, which might be another day or two away, causing her to think of something else while the group was in front of her, "So, who else are you guys recruiting into our forces?"

"Tomorrow we're planning on heading to the Crystal Empire to talk with Cadance and Shining, to tell them the news that we just shared with all of you, and hopefully find Thorax along the way," Spyro replied, as that was what he and the others had agreed on before they returned to Ponyville, as Shining would be able to convince some of Canterlot's guards to come and help them, Cadance could do the same with the guards of her empire, and Thorax should be able to convince some of the Changelings to come to their aid, even though they were going to have Discord send letters to the other races of their world, like the Griffons of Griffonstone, the Yaks of Yakyakistan, the Zebras of Farasi, or at least that was according to what Spike had found out, and every other race that was capable of helping them out, "oh, and before you ask, Spike took a few moments to feel the power that was used to displace the others and determined that we can't override it and return those that have gone missing, so we'll just have to wait for Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and the others to return on their own time, hopefully with allies for when the demons come to attack us."

"Also, we need you guys to keep quiet about what you just learned," Cynder added, as she had been rather quiet lately, all so Spyro and the others could focus on making sure Rarity and the others understood what was going on and that none of them could say anything about what they had been told, given that two of them were sisters of the three fillies that Spike was worried about, because if one of those three happened to learn about the demons and the upcoming threat it was totally possible that they would say something and cause panic to Ponyville, "just for now, anyway, because I'm sure that once a significant number of the displaced return someone will figure out that something's coming our way, with all of the forces that we'll be gathering during our adventures, and the beans will be spilled once that happens, so just wait until that point and then we can warn everyone about what's coming to attack Equus... hopefully, when that time comes, we won't have ponies and other creatures panicking when they're given the news."

Rarity and Applejack said nothing to that, while Fluttershy seemed to be doing her best to ignore what they had heard, but in that moment Spike remembered why they had gone to the outskirts of the Diamond Dog empire, even if none of them had known the city was close to where the caves were located, and pulled out the Bag of Holding that contained all of the gems they had collected, where he poured it out and revealed the trove to their friends, even though most of it was going to be given to Rarity since the rest of the group didn't need it at all, though Cynder took a few, just four to be exact, while at the same time Spike and Ember took a few for themselves. Cynder found that the gems of Equus were similar to what they had back home, because they appeared to be just as hard as the gems she, Spyro, and the others had collected over the course of the adventures she shared with them, but they also appeared to be soft in some cases, as Spike picked up a small sapphire, which was perfectly cut and was twice as thick as one of his fingers, and bit into the gem like he was eating a snack, leaving a crescent indent that showed where his teeth had been, and he noted that it tasted like blueberries, an odd flavor to be sure, while the green one Ember tried seemed to be more like watermelon, as if the gems were more like candy and less like stones. What surprised Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy was that Spike and Ember didn't seem to care all that much about eating gems at this point, showing them just how much they had changed by being sent to another world and growing up in a different manner than what a dragon from Equus was supposed to, though both of them noted that if this was the only thing they could eat, in a significant distance, than the gems would be eaten without delay, though at the same time Spike noted that there had to be a few nutrients inside what he and Ember bit into, no doubt necessary for an Equestrian dragon to grow, but for the most part they were both fine with Rarity taking the gems she needed, as neither of them needed any of the gems right now. The only thing that Cynder didn't like about what they were seeing was the fact that the gems from Equus came out already cut, either by the process that formed them or by some magic that was part of this world, meaning that she couldn't take them and practice her trade on any of the couple of gems that were in front of her, to which she added them to what Rarity had after Spike and Ember finished sampling the ones they had taken for Spike's experiments, which included writing down what he assumed the flavors were, even if he might be wrong if he asked another dragon about the flavors.

Once they were done talking and going over what Spike wanted to do with the gems, which wasn't all that much when he thought about it, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy excused themselves and revealed that Discord was in the middle of what he had done earlier, changing day to night, to which they made sure to get some food from the dragons on the other side of the Professor's portal, ate dinner in peace without having to worry about freaking out their friends, and then, after the dishes had been taken away, Spike and the others found the rooms that they would be sleeping in, Spike finding his old room and his small bed, something that caused him to chuckle as he manipulated it into an actual bed this time, and just turned in for the night, so they could get some rest for what the morning held for them.

---

When morning arrived the group did what they had done the last time they woke up in Equus, they got some food from the other side of the portal and made sure to have a good breakfast before doing what Spike and Ember felt like doing, as it was something that everyone else agreed with and were interested in doing, due to the fact that they were interested in seeing the Crystal Empire with their own eyes, even though the pair would be keeping an eye out for the area that Thorax and the rest of the Changelings resided in, the Changeling Kingdom to be exact, as both of them were sure they could find a few allies in that area. Spyro and the others nodded their heads, since the pair were more familiar with this world and if they said that Thorax and his race could be allies for the incoming invasion, like what they happened to be doing with the other races they were currently gathering, then it was worth finding the Changelings and convince some of them to join the task force that Ember was currently building, of which Smolder would be the first among them all, before they made sure to finish off the food that they had been eating and cleaned off the plates so they could be taken back to the dragons on the other side of the Professor's portal, which was when they discovered that he had shrunk it so it was its original size once more. Once the food was taken care of, and the plates had been cleaned off, the dishes were taken away and it only took the Professor a few moments to return to Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and the others, which was when they headed outside and made their way over to where Hunter had parked the Jupiter 2 upon their return from the Dragon Lands, though that was when the cloaking device shimmered for a moment as the ramp descended and opened the way for the group to climb aboard the vehicle once more, something that allowed most of the group to take their seats in the center of the ship while Hunter and those he wanted in the cockpit did the same thing. As soon as everyone was sitting down in their seats, and Smolder had joined them mostly because she didn't want to deal with the Diamond Dogs, who were still resting inside the rooms and didn't seem all that interested in leaving just yet, so they were leaving Discord to deal with all three of the dogs in case they acted up, Hunter flipped the switches and powered up the ship like he had done in the past, before he pulled the vessel into the air and headed to the north, as that was the direction that the Crystal Empire was in, according to Spike anyway, and he was going to follow the directions he had been given.

This time around the trip was going to be much shorter than the trip from Ponyville to the Dragon Lands, meaning they wouldn't have to spend so much time in the spaceship as they traveled to where Shining and Cadance called home, but one thing the group found while they were traveling was a large city that happened to be sitting on some clouds and was resting in the air, where Spike revealed that it was Cloudsdale, a place many Pegasi called home, since they were the race that could walk on clouds and preferred to live in the sky, which was why there were a few cloud houses near Ponyville, or one large one and a few small ones, with the largest being Rainbow's house and the others belonged to some of the other Pegasi who called the town home. Spike also revealed that Earth Ponies and Unicorns didn't have the power to walk on all of the clouds, which made sense due to the fact that they didn't have wings of their own, so they usually didn't visit both Cloudsdale or the cloud homes of the Pegasi, though Twilight had discovered a few spells in the past that granted a pony temporary wings, something that had been tested on Rarity and consumed a decent amount of power to cast, or gave the user the ability to walk on clouds, which was what she used on herself and the others after using the wing spell on Rarity, to give her and the others a chance to see the flying competition that Rainbow had been taking part in. Of course Alicorns, who were a mix of the three races of Equestria, also had the power to walk on clouds thanks to their Pegasi traits, which gave the group an idea of what the races of the land were capable of, without being displaced to be exact, since Spike was sure that the process had awakened some slumbering powers within him and Ember and was sure it would apply to the rest of the displaced, though they were impressed by how much Spike had remembered from the last time he had been in this world, before he and Ember went missing, especially when they learned that he was different from what they were used to, which was around the point that they focused on the area that Hunter was heading to, which appeared to be a snowy area from what they could see right now, and wondered if they needed Spike to add one of the runes to them like he did in the past. This time around, however, Spike told the others that such a thing wasn't necessary, which was due to the barrier that rested around the Crystal Empire and kept the cold out, which was just him reminding the others of what he had said before this point, especially after discovering the underground city that the Diamond Dogs called home, which Rarity had been coming to terms with and both Applejack and Fluttershy had been caught off guard by when they heard of the news, before they focused on what was in front of them as Hunter headed for their destination, knowing that he would get them to the Crystal Empire without much delay.

After all of Spike's explanations the group finally found the city that they were heading towards, a large place that just so happened to be made out of crystal, as the houses and structures were literally made out of the material, not to mention the massive palace that had an arched bottom, an area that rested in the direct center of the empire, and sure enough the barrier that resting around the empire, just like the one they had found around Diamondia, came into view, where Hunter took a moment to slow down and tried something as he edged the Juipter 2 through the edge of the barrier and found out that he was able to bypass it, allowing him to get them through the barrier and set it down on the outskirts of the empire, to which he made sure to power up the cloaking device once more before opening the ramp.

"So this is the Crystal Empire," Bianca said, where she and the others walked down the ramp and stared out at the large city that rested in front of them, even though it was easy to see that the Crystal Ponies, as Spike called the residents of this place, had the same idea as the Diamond Dogs and had what appeared to be several farms growing on the outskirts, all of them separated by what they were growing, and Hunter had made sure to put the ship down away from the farms, so he didn't damage what the residents of the city had been growing, and all of this came from what they were seeing right now, even if they might find more in due time, "it looks like such a wonderful place, so I can sort of see why Princess Cadance and Shining Armor would call this place home, instead of resting in Ponyville or Canterlot."

"Indeed it is, though don't mention King Sombra to the Crystal Ponies, as many of them are still traumatized by what he did to them in the past, not to mention banishing the empire for a thousand years," Spike replied, figuring that he might as well give the group a short explanation on what happened to this place and why it was a good thing to say nothing about the dark stallion who had controlled the Crystal Empire at one point in the distant past, roughly a little over a thousand years ago, something that made him wonder what else had happened during that point in time to cause everything that he and the others were discovering, before he shook his head and focused on what was in front of them right now, as he was eager to see Cadance and Shining once more, so they could get to the reason they were here and then go find Thorax so they could recruit some Changelings into Ember's new task force.

The group glanced at each other, as that wasn't something they were expecting to hear, that one of the displaced had the power to banish an entire empire for a thousand years, before deciding to follow Spike's suggestion and not mention King Sombra to the Crystal Ponies, to which they walked away from where the Jupiter 2 was resting and started to make their way to the edge of the city, where Bianca and the others quickly found that the name of the residents of the Crystal Empire was more accurate than what they were assuming, as every pony that was in front of them had a crystalline shine to their bodies. It was rather interesting to see, since Spike and Ember had said nothing to Spyro and the others about what they were going to find inside the Crystal Empire, especially with the translucent colors that the ponies had, where every Crystal Pony had gradient manes and tails that shined, while their eyes had a polygonal look to part of them, which told the group that they were somewhat different from the ponies they had encountered in Ponyville, though they weren't the only ones who noticed what was around them, as several of the Crystal Ponies waved at them and said it was good to see Spike once more, which caused Flame and Aurora to raise their eyebrows for a moment. Spike explained the situation to the rest of the group, as the Crystal Ponies considered him a hero for his role in bringing down the one he asked them not to name, which was a way for them to mention Sombra without actually saying his name, and the group understood him, before he went into the fact that, after the empire had been saved from darkness, the Crystal Ponies had built a statue of him while he was holding the Crystal Heart, the magical gemstone that powered this city's barrier, like the Diamond Prism that they found inside Diamondia, hence why he was being waved at as they headed towards the palace. After he finished telling his friends about what happened in the past, something he was happy about since they had saved the day and stopped a dark being from taking over the empire, he and the others paused for a moment and focused on what they were seeing at the moment, as there was a Crystal Pony talking to a pony-like creature that was the same size as he was, where they found that it had a cyan blue colored body and legs, while the underbelly was a turquoise blue coloration, its back was light blue, and its neck, eyes, and ears were orange colored, with the neck being faded, before they noticed that it had a Unicorn horn that was curved and it had transparent insect wings.

Spike explained that what they were seeing was a Changeling, though this was the newer form that they had unlocked due to Thorax doing something different than their Queen did, which caused him to transform into a brand new Changeling in the process and took away their hunger for love, the emotion that they fed on, but he was surprised to see one of them hanging out in the Crystal Empire, since he had been sure the race of shapeshifters would have been putting the pieces of their home together after the defeat of Queen Chrysalis, before they found a tall Changeling nearby whose chitin was dark cyan with a moderate amaranth colored chest, not to mention a pair of small horns, which were as tall as the curved horn the other Changeling had, while his tail and wings were also a moderate amaranth coloration.

"Pharynx? Is that you?" Spike asked, as he felt that he knew the Changeling in question, due to the fact that he and many of the others had witnessed the Changelings take on their new form, save for their former Queen anyway, though the group remained silent as they approached the area that the creature in question was standing, who turned to look at them, even though that allowed them to notice that his eyes had a moderate blue violet to them, before Spike smiled for a moment as he came to a stop in front of the being he had named, while the rest of the group remained silent as they stopped behind him and focused on the Changeling, "It is you! How are you doing?"

"Fine, all things considered," Pharynx replied, though he was surprised to see that Spike was here, as he had been under the impression that he was either one of the missing, due to the fact that his brother had learned about the 'displaced' and told him about those that had vanished, or had gone into hiding for some odd reason, though based on what he was seeing at the moment he realized that it was the former and that Spike, not to mention Ember, had returned with a bunch of new individuals and were possibly stronger than they had been earlier, before he gestured to the palace with his head for a few seconds, "though I'm mostly here to make sure my brother is safe, despite the fact that he, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor are currently discussing things and he wanted me to go enjoy myself... but, now that you and Ember have returned, he'll likely want to talk to you before you do anything else."

"Good, because we were hoping to talk with him as well," Ember stated, where she had to admit that it was rather odd that they were running into a few Changelings as they were visiting the Crystal Empire to talk with Cadance and Shining Armor, especially since Thorax and Pharynx were here as well, but she wasn't about to argue with what was going on right now, as this allowed them to knock out two birds with one stone and figure out how many additional forces would be added to Smolder and the three Diamond Dogs they had gathered so far, which wasn't counting everyone else from the other races they had talked to so far, as she was sure that her father would bring more dragons in the future and that the Council of Three Paws would do the same, "its about the displaced and something we learned after we returned from our adventure with Spyro and the others, which is a grand adventure when you hear about what we did and what we had to overcome to get to this point."

Pharynx seemed interested in what Ember might be talking about, since he had only been informed about a few things in regards to what had happened to the displaced, before nodding his head as he turned towards the palace and joined the group as they continued walking towards their destination, because with him joining them there was a good chance that Cadance, Shining, and Thorax would see them instantly, instead of forcing them to wait for sometime before being able to see them, and as they approached the palace the guards simply nodded their heads and allowed the group to move into the structure, before eventually making their way to where the throne room rested, as that was where they would find the group that Ember wanted to talk with, and Pharynx quickly opened the door with his magic.

"Brother, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, please excuse the interruption," Pharynx said, where the group could see that both Cadance and Shining were sitting at a table near the area the throne rested in, while there was another large creature near them, a Changeling that was slightly taller than Pharynx was, even though he had light lime green colored chitin with an orange chest, with an emerald green underbelly, a moderate blue violet tail, a pair of dark fuchsia colored wings, or a dark red to be exact, and a pair of orange horns that looked like beetle-like mandibles, though he had three small white oval shaped gems on his neck area, similar to Pharynx, before the trio glanced at the doorway for a moment, "but I found Spike, Ember, and their new friends outside the palace, or rather they found me while I was waiting, and they informed me that they were hoping to talk to you during their visit to the Crystal Empire."

"Its fine, we were wrapping up our discussion anyway," Cadance commented, because Thorax had come to talk to her and Shining about the relations between the Changeling Kingdom and the Crystal Empire, something that they had wrapped up before Pharynx had opened the door, which she really needed to post guards at in the future if Chrysalis' kidnapping her and her husband, including Flurry, was anything to go by, though she had to smile as she spotted the group that had just been announced by the Changeling that was Thorax's brother, "So, Spike, what can we do for you, Ember, and all of your new friends?"

"We came to apologize for not telling you and Shining everything when you were in Ponyville, as there is more to Flurry and the rest of the displaced than what we said," Spike said, because in order for them to convince the two kingdoms to do what the Diamond Dogs and the other races had done so far, in pledging individuals as a starting point for the training that Ember would be offering in the near future, they needed to tell Cadance and Shining what they were facing, and with Thorax and Pharynx here they wouldn't have to repeat themselves again when they figured out where the Changelings had their home, as that part was kind of sketchy in his memories, "while we haven't determined which worlds they have been sent to, and when they'll come back with their new friends, family, and allies, the Tree of Harmony that is in the cave below the old castle that Celestia and Luna used to live in showed us another image, in addition to who the displaced are and where they might have been sent... we discovered that there is a force of demonic creatures making their way to our planet, a force that we don't have the power to fight right now, and that we would have been wiped out when they arrived, so Equus, the spirit of our world, displaced us to gather power and allies for what's coming our way, and Ember is in the middle of putting together a task force and training them to fight like true warriors."

"So we're facing a force that's like what might be inside Tartarus?" Shining inquired, though this was definitely bad news for all of them, especially if the planet couldn't survive without the forces that would eventually be brought back by their daughter and the rest of the displaced, but even as he thought about that he realized why Spike and the others had said nothing about this the last time they talked to each other, given that panic could have happened if he and Cadance had talked about it on the train ride home, by ponies eavesdropping on them to be exact, before he understood what Ember was asking of them, even if she hadn't been the one to say anything about potential recruits, "Twilight would be proud of you, I'll say that right now... and, upon thinking about it, I'm sure that I can convince some of the guards in Canterlot, as in some of my old buddies, not to mention some of the older guards, to join your training program and ready themselves for whatever is coming our way."

"And maybe we can do the same with the Crystal Ponies, find some guards that are willing to learn a thing or two from a total stranger and help defend their home," Cadance added, but she had a hard time imagining just how bad things had to be for their very planet to send so many individuals out into the depths of space, including paring their daughter with the former Queen that tried to wreck their wedding and take over the world, though she still understood the reason that she and Shining had been given when she asked Discord to find Flurry and bring her home, "it might be hard to convince a few of them, given everything that they faced in the past, but this might be a good way to help them cope with the past and make a brand new future, and friendships with their fellow trainees."

"I'm sure that Pharynx and I can find a few other Changelings to join the cause," Thorax said, because while his kind were no longer fighters and spies, who lurked in the darkness to gather information and love for the Hive, his brother was still the head of the patrol, basically the captain of the guard if he thought about it, and that meant that he had to know who had been either the royal guards or the normal guards during the reign of Chrysalis, before he thought of something that he should tell Spike, Ember, and the rest of their group, "also, we were able to identify the other two Changelings that you say in the images earlier: one of them is an infiltrator, who stayed loyal to the old ways and didn't reform like the rest of our kind, whose name is Amaryllis, while the other one, who Shining said was a 'Changeling version of Twilight' when I told him and Cadance about her, is called Crudelis and, more importantly, she's Chrysalis' daughter... and no, she's not my daughter, since I know someone would have asked since I'm the King and the Queen used to be Chrysalis... trust me, she was married to no one when she was dethroned."

"Crudelis... that's an interesting name for a daughter," Bianca commented, as the name implied that the Changeling that had been mentioned had been like her mother before being displaced, or at least that was her assumption on the matter since they didn't have a lot of information on the Changeling in question and it would take too long to figure out what she had been like before the magic had knocked her to whatever world she had been sent to, though as she said that both of the reformed Changelings chuckled for a moment, as if they found something about her comment to be funny, to which she hoped that they explained things to her.

"Oh, Chrysalis planned for Crudelis to be a warmonger, to be a worthy heir to her throne, and what she got was possibly one of the most kindhearted Changelings in the entirety of Equestria," Pharynx stated, as the former Queen's daughter was nothing like her mother, so much so that it ticked Chrysalis off to no end whenever she tried to convince her to do all of the simple tasks that a royal heir was supposed to do, and he recalled the days where he was assigned to watch over her, either from afar or from around the corner of a library, before he glanced at the group for a moment, "in fact, one of the most interesting things about her was that she absolutely hated her name, so much so that she had the rest of the Hive refer to her by the name of her favorite disguise, a Unicorn she called 'Wind Rose', if my memory is right... we always said that it sounded more like a Pegasus name, but she liked it and we decided not to argue with her."

The group glanced at each other for a moment as they heard that, as it was odd to hear about something like that, before they closed the door behind them and approached Cadance, Shining, and Thorax, as there were things that they needed to go over, about how many each of them were going to try and recruit for the task force Ember was building, which also included sending letters to the leaders of the other provinces and races, to see if they could convince the Griffins, Yaks, and the other races to join Ember's forces and train up to defend themselves, all while preparing themselves for what the future held for them and their allies.

Comments

[Comickook]

LOVE the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Absolutely adored the reunions with Applejack, Fluttershy and the Changelings. And, yeah, loved how they cautioned AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Shining, Cadance, Thorax and Pharynx to watch what they say around anybody who might say the wrong thing at the wrong time (ESPECIALLY the Crusaders). And, yeah, I can definitely see Bianca noting how Crudelis's relationship with her mother was a lot like HERS with Morrigan.

VERY definitely looking forward to more of this.

[Night_Moon60606]

of the Gryphons...fairly sure that Gallus and maybe Gabby or Gilda or both, will be on the team...Yona will represent the Yaks well...failing that, call in some OCs

[badninja]

Now everyone is accounted for I wonder if we will be getting multiple stories at once once this one finishes or only one story at a time?

[zachary12]

nice work.

[PrismStrike]

very nicely done with this one. I know what I had said in my last one about this feeling like it was dragging on a little but this chapter was perfectly placed and gave the right amount of future set up. I Even enjoyed the groups reactions to the crystal empire. Crudelis though eh, I like the reforming of the name from your previous series and if that one could see what this one was like based on the description of her personality she would probably rise from her grave once more lol. Really looking forward to getting out into the rest of the series though. As always another great chapter, Looking forward to whatever will be next. Keep up the great work

[Xarmar13]

Are we certain that the coming demonic force isn't the Burning Legion? Another Warcraft reference here would be the spirit of Equus which could be viewed as the World Soul of Equus. This seems to infer that Equus is a developing Titan.

While the U13 saga was centered around the Dragonball Universe since the ToP was where the saga ultimately led to, the references that are being made in this story tells me that the Demon War saga might be centered around the Warcraft Universe.

Or maybe this is just a coincidence.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10906739 As much as I want to say that the Demon War Saga is centered around the Burning Legion and the Warcraft universe, the reality is that its just a coincidence this time.