> Surrender Dragons
>  by Brass Polish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 The Burdening Spell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sunset Shimmer had no idea where Garble had just come from, but there was nowhere for him to run now.
“Gotcha!” she hissed as she jumped him and pinned him down on the concrete path. “You’ve had us all worried, you know!”
Garble knew he was no match for Sunset on his own, so he didn’t resist as she picked him up and held him in one arm. With her free hand, she took out her cellphone and dialled a number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Fluttershy. Sunset here,” said Sunset. “Good news. I found Garble.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” exclaimed AltFluttershy’s voice from the phone. “Thank you so much, Sunset!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sunset smiled.
She looked down at Garble, who’s head was turned towards the unopen portal to Equestria.
“Say hello to Fluttershy,” said Sunset, holding her phone in front of Garble’s face.
Garble barked twice.
“Hi, Garby,” cooed AltFluttershy’s voice. “Who’s a good boy, huh?”
“Good boy?! Yeah right,” Sunset held her phone back to her ear and looked at the red evening sky. “I’ve been chasing him for over an hour. The shelter must be closed by now.”
“It’s not quite 7 o’clock,” said AltFluttershy’s voice. “Maybe you can make it before they lock up. If you don’t, just bring Garble to my place. I can look after him until tomorrow.”
“Alright,” said Sunset. “I’ll call you later.”
And once they’d exchanged quick goodbyes and hung up, Sunset hurried away to the Canterlot Animal Shelter carrying Garble in her arms.

Sunset was sure she hadn’t made it before 7PM, but when she tried the door, it opened without problems.
“Perfect,” she grinned. “I’ll just put you back in your cage and be out of here before closing.”
Garble frowned up at Sunset as she entered the dark building.
“Why are all the lights off?” asked Sunset. “Did the last one here just forget to lock up? I guess I’d better do it when I…”
Sunset had carried Garble into the dog habitat, wherein sat dozens upon dozens of large empty cages. The trouble was there were meant to be a minimum of one dog in each cage.
“What happened?!” cried Sunset Shimmer.
“Did you hear that?” came a voice.
Sunset looked around. The voice had come from the door on the other end of the room which led to one of the interactivity rooms.
“Garble must’ve come back,” said another voice. “Good. That means the portal’s open and the way’s clear.”
Sunset was sure she was hearing wrong. The portal to Equestria couldn’t be open. Sure, there had been a full moon out since last night, but it hadn’t been even close to thirty moons since the Fall Formal.
“Looks like we’ll finally get to invade Equestria,” said the first voice.

Sunset knew she had no time to find out who was speaking in the interactivity room. She had to go and see for herself if the portal was open and do something to prevent whoever wanted to invade Equestria from doing so. But she hadn’t even turned around when Garble barked so loudly, the nearby cages rattled. Sunset dropped Garble in fright, and watched as the interactivity room door was thrown open. Two other dogs bolted into the enclosure. Sunset knew who they were. They’d been named Wrecks and Sinomen by the shelter. They’d been here since she’d first entered this world from Equestria.
“It’s one of the volunteers!” shouted Sinomen.
Sunset gasped. The only dog she’d ever heard talk in this world was Spike, who she knew all too well was a dragon by birth.
“Get her!” yelled Wrecks.
Nearly a hundred dogs erupted from the interactivity room and charged at Sunset Shimmer.

“Twily?”
Shining Armour stepped onto the Crystal Empire Station platform and walked up to Twilight.
“What are you doing here?” asked Shining Armour. “Applejack won’t be coming from sheep sensitivity training until tomorrow.”
“I know,” said Twilight. “I was supposed to meet an entertainer who wants to try out for the Crystal Fair. But I don’t think she’s coming. I’ve been waiting for an hour and two trains have come and gone.”
“Maybe she missed her train,” shrugged Shining Armour. “Anyways, it’s getting late. Maybe we should head back to the castle.”
Twilight looked up at the full moon and had to agree with her brother. However, Shining Armour was dreading his own suggestion.
“If there’s one thing I don’t like about this empire, it’s how far away the station is from the city,” he said. “How about you teleport us back to town.”
Twilight looked ahead towards the entrance to the Crystal Empire.
“I could teleport us to the front gates,” she said. “I can’t take us to the center of town or the castle. I have to be absolutely sure the place I’m teleporting to is completely empty if I can’t see it.”
Shining Armour was satisfied, and stood right next to Twilight as her horn began to glow.

Spike was looking for Twilight as well. He had just stepped out of the Crystal Empire in his search when he saw a flash of light coming from the distant train station. Then he had to jump to his left because another flash of light was appearing right next to him. Next second, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armour were standing inches away.
“Oops!” gasped Twilight. “I’m sorry, Spike!”
Spike could only chuckle. “I love it when ponies ask you to teleport them. They just don’t get it.”
“So this is why the place has to be empty,” remarked Shining Armour. “So we don’t appear where someone’s standing.”
“Then you’d never be able to get rid of me,” grinned Spike.
“Oh come on, Spike. You know I don’t want to get rid of you,” Twilight said. “Um, I take it you were looking for me too.”
“Yeah. I have good news,” said Spike. “The engineering team you hired have the Mirror Portal set up.”
“That’s great,” smiled Twilight.
“So Cadance was right,” said Shining. “You did invite Sunset Shimmer to the Crystal Fair.”
“Well we’ve been pen pals for a while now,” said Twilight, “and she said she kind of misses Equestria and being equine. And since the next Crystal Fair is coming up…”
“So the portal’s back in the Empire?” asked Shining Armour.
“Yep, but one of the Royal Guard members said he put a burdening spell on it for security reasons,” said Spike.
“Oh, good,” Shining Armour said approvingly. “That way if there are any thieves or vandals around trying to meddle with the portal, they won’t be able to lift the mirror.”
“I really should learn that spell myself,” said Twilight. “So it’s ready to go?”
“Uh, huh. All you have to do is cast your magic on it to open it,” Spike nodded.
“Alright, why don’t we do that right now and try it out?” suggested Twilight. “If everything goes well, we’ll open it in two days so Sunset can come to the Crystal Fair.”

With that, Twilight and Spike headed for the room where they’d first encountered the Mirror Portal, while Shining Armour went to inform Cadance that he’d found her sister-in-law.
“Do you think Sunset will want to visit her family?” asked Spike.
“Um… I don’t know,” shrugged Twilight. “We never really talked about our families.”
“I can understand that,” said Spike. “I never knew my family. I mean, I know you and your friends are the closest I have, but whenever I meet someone and they ask me about my family, they’re never satisfied with my answers. All I can tell them is I was given to you as an egg.”
They arrived at the door they were looking for, but Twilight stopped right outside it.
“Funny how I met you during my entrance exam,” she said. “Now that I think of it, I don’t know anypony else who had to do that.”
“Well, you didn’t talk to the other students much,” said Spike. “You were Princess Celestia’s private student. You didn’t really have friends back then.”
“That’s true,” nodded Twilight, opening the door. “I never really asked anypony else what they had to do for their entrance--”

The Mirror Portal sat in the spot where Twilight had first seen it, this time with all the equipment she’d used to open it with Sunset’s book in order to enter the alternate world and help Canterlot High deal with the Sirens. Twilight had not activated it since then, and yet when she and Spike walked into the room and saw it, they could plainly see that the reflective surface of the mirror was rippling.
“Is it… on?” Spike asked.
“No,” Twilight said without a moment’s hesitation.
A second later. A sledgehammer came soaring out of the portal. Holding the handle was Sunset Shimmer, who sailed screaming into the room after it.
“What?!” exclaimed Twilight.
The sledgehammer crashed into a display case on the other side of the room, sending it toppling over. Sunset had let go of it beforehoof and was now picking herself up off the floor. She was scratched in several places and her mane and tail were ruffled. She turned towards the Mirror Portal.
“It’s indestructible!” she cried. “Rats!”

She spotted Twilight and Spike.
“Twilight, turn off the portal!” she urged. “Quick!”
“But, but, but,” stuttered Twilight, “But I haven’t turned it on!”
“Well turn it off!”
Twilight cast her magic on the book sitting atop the apparatus. Bright purple light gushed from it, slithered through the contraption’s workings, and rocketed into the center of the mirror. The flat glass surface no longer reflected the faces of a baffled ponies and dragon. It was solid red and looked like a sideways cyclone. Spike ran up to it and stuck his claw through it.
“It’s still on!” he exclaimed.
“Do it again!” Sunset hissed to Twilight.
Twilight did so, but when the red swirl disappeared from the mirror, Spike could still reach into it.
“How can it be on?!” cried Twilight. “It hasn’t been anywhere near thirty moons since it last opened on its own!”

Sunset was trembling. “We’re in big trouble.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Twilight.
“I just escaped from the Canterlot Animal Shelter,” said Sunset. “I heard a bunch of surrender dogs saying they were gonna come and take over Equestria.”
“Dogs are gonna invade?” asked Spike. “That doesn’t sound too hard to deal with.”
Sunset slapped her forehead. “Don’t you remember what you turned into when you went through that portal?!”
The realization hit Twilight and Spike like a sack of cat litter.
“How many dogs were there?!” asked Twilight.
“About a hundred.”
Twilight shrieked. “We’re gonna be invaded by dragons! Quick, Sunset. Help me smash the portal!”
“I tried that! It’s indestructible,” Sunset indicated the sledgehammer she’d been wielding, which had only managed to destroy the display case in the room.
“Let’s tip it onto the floor!” said Spike. “They can’t get in if the entrance is blocked.”
“But this floor’s made of crystal!” objected Twilight. “This whole castle’s made of crystal! The dragons will smash it! The whole castle could collapse!”
“OK, OK, we’ll take the portal outside and pin it against the ground,” decided Spike.
“That works,” agreed Sunset, lighting her horn.

Spike lifted the bottom of the mirror manually while Twilight and Sunset held it with their combined magic. It was at this point that Twilight and Spike remembered the burdening spell that had been put on the mirror.
“It’s… so… heavy…” strained Sunset.
“Come on!” Spike urged, slowly walking towards the door.
The trio managed to force the heavy mirror out into the corridor, but they were already exhausted and starting to sweat.
“We need help,” panted Twilight. “I’ll go get a guard.”
Without Twilight’s magic, the Mirror Portal was scraping the floor as Spike and Sunset struggled on. Twilight ran down the hall shouting at the top of her voice. When she turned the first corner she came across, she bumped into one of the royal guards. She was hoping to find a unicorn, but she wasn’t dissatisfied with a pegasus.
“Flash! We need your help to get the Mirror Portal out of the castle!” Twilight ordered, turning back the other way without waiting for a response.
“Aye, aye, your highness,” answered Flash Sentry, following on.
The portal was quickly brought to the first window Spike and the ponies found.
“Hurry!” pressed Sunset. “The dogs are on their way!”
Spike punched the window open. Twilight grabbed on side of the mirror, Flash grabbed the other, and they both flew out of the castle carrying the heavy portal with them. Both sets of wings were beating furiously and Twilight’s magic aura surrounded the mirror.
“We’ll set it down over there!” Twilight called hoarsely, looking at a flat grassy area outside the city limits.
“Got it!” replied Flash in a strained voice.
They didn’t quite make it that far.
> 2 Blue Giants
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It felt to Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry that they were holding an erupting volcano. The mirror they’d been hauling was spewing dragons of all varieties and sizes. Spike and Sunset watched aghast as the moonlit sky was darkened by almost a hundred dragons. Most of them had wings, and the ones who didn’t have wings were being carried into Equestria. Suddenly, the mirror jerked violently as a particularly large dragon passed through it. Flash and Twilight were separated and thrown aside. Twilight’s right wing was knocked away by another dragon, and she began to fall. She flapped her left wing to prevent herself from dropping like a stone. She was sure the mirror was plummeting and she hoped that Flash hadn’t been injured as well.
“This isn’t the capital!” Twilight heard a dragon say as she descended towards the ground.
“Give it the Horeb Fire anyway!” shouted another dragon.
Right away, the whole of the Crystal Empire knew there was trouble. Citizens were witnessing the invasion from down below, and almost instantly, the Crystal Heart lost momentum. Members of the Royal Family, Taskforce and Guard were rushing to their windows, and the situation was quickly sized up. Other pegasi guards were taking to the air towards the invasion, unicorn guards backing them up within the open windows. But very few of the pegasi made it too far. Three of the dragons were shooting bright yellow fire at the castle. It was quickly trapping the royals, the guards, and Twilight’s friends inside with its intense heat.

Sunset acted quickly, yanking Spike onto her back and teleporting away from the window before the yellow fire reached the spot where they’d been standing. Twilight’s left wing was losing strength, and she could see a dragon had spotted her falling. But before he could attack, Sunset and Spike appeared right beside Twilight. Spike reached out, and when he had both ponies’ forelegs in his clutches, Sunset cast her teleportation spell again. Next second, Twilight felt her hooves on the ground, Spike and Sunset standing beside her.
“Thanks!” she said before having to dart away to avoid another dragon.
Both Twilight and Sunset attempted to teleport themselves and their scaly little companion out of harm’s way, but everywhere they went, there were dragons ready to strike.
“We’re surrounded!” cried Spike as they began to run out of options.
Despite this, Twilight had to teleport the trio to another spot to avoid a burst of pink fire. Now they were close to the train station, and there was no shortage of foreign dragons in that area. Three of them saw where they’d apparated and were charging towards them.
“Twilight!” a familiar voice called.
Twilight jerked her head towards some crystal rocks. There, waving franticly, eyes wide and pupils tiny, was Trixie Lulamoon.
“Come here!” she yelled. “Hurry!”
With no hesitation at all, Twilight, Spike and Sunset bolted towards the rocks. The three dragons followed, gaining on them, claws outstretched. Trixie climbed onto the rocks as Twilight, Spike and Sunset approached. Then, as soon as they got to the rocks, Trixie’s horn exploded with violet light.

This was perhaps the most teleportations Twilight had been through in the span of two minutes. When she saw where they’d gone now, she felt a tiny amount of relief because it looked like they wouldn’t have to do anymore teleporting for the time being. Trixie had taken her and her companions to an old farm. There were fields as far as the eye could see, but there appeared to be no crops. A two level house with peeling paint lay to the right, a barn with a roof full of holes lay to the left, and a rusty shed was behind them.
“Haha! The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie has rescued the princess and her soldiers!” bellowed Trixie, quite suddenly appearing more brave than she had been at the scene of the invasion.
“Thank you, Trixie,” said Twilight, sitting down to catch her breath along with Spike and Sunset. “But what were you doing there? W… were you the entertainer I was supposed to meet?”
“Correct,” Trixie grinned. “I went to Crystal Empire not knowing I would be doing more significant things than auditioning for a festival, such as rescuing an alicorn princess from the clutches of attacking dragons.”
“But why didn’t you meet me at 6:30 like we’d arranged?” asked Twilight.
“Last second butterflies in my stomach,” Trixie answered as though she was describing a sudden illness. “I couldn’t possibly demonstrate my show-stopping abilities in that condition.”
Sunset looked intently at Trixie. “Did she…?”
“No, no,” Spike quickly realized what Sunset was thinking. “She’s from this world.”
“She is?” asked Sunset.
“Here. There’s a simple test,” said Twilight. “Trixie, do you like peanut butter crackers?”
Trixie blinked. “Never heard of that.”
Sunset nodded, but didn’t feel relieved. Surely equine Trixie wasn’t too different from human Trixie.

Spike suddenly gasped. “Those dragons set the castle on fire! What’s gonna happen now?!”
“I- I don’t think anypony inside is in a lot of danger,” stammered Twilight. “I heard one say the word Horeb.”
“Horeb Fire?” asked Trixie. “I know about that.”
“What is it?” Sunset asked.
“It’s a magic fire that doesn’t actually burn things or create smoke,” answered Trixie.
Twilight nodded. “It won’t burn the castle down, but nopony will be able to get out. It’s an intensely hot fire, so you can’t get too close to it.”
“So the princesses and our friends are just trapped in the castle,” said Spike. “That’s not too terrible.”
“Your friends were there?” asked Trixie. “Then why did you not stay with them and banish the intruders with your Rainbow Power?”
“Applejack isn’t there,” replied Twilight. “She’s in Fillydelphia. Without her, our Rainbow Power won’t work.”
“Let’s hope she has time to hide before the dragons spread out over all of Equestria,” said Sunset.
“Yes. We’d best hide as well,” insisted Trixie. “We…”

“Whatcha up to there, Trixie,” came a voice from around the shed.
Twilight, Spike and Sunset watched an old bearded unicorn stallion walk around the corner.
“Wa-hey!” he exclaimed. “More magic’ns.”
“Evening,” Trixie grinned. “This is Farmer Smokey, ladies and dragon. He lets me live here and practise my craft so long as I tend to his goat.”
Farmer Smokey stared at Twilight and Sunset for a moment. Twilight thought Sunset was looking at Smokey the way she looked at Trixie, as if she recognised him.
“So, are you three here to work on your magic abilities too?” asked Farmer Smokey. “Ain’t no better place. Know what we grow here? Tell ‘em, Trix.”
“This is a private Blue Giant Vegetables farm,” Trixie told them, indicating the seemingly barren fields. “It grows in the ground, like turnips. It’s a magic enhancer.”
“Oh, so that’s how you managed to teleport us all from the Crystal Empire,” said Spike.
Trixie was about to object, but Farmer Smokey spoke first.
“I take it your audition didn’t go nowhere?”
“There was no time for auditions,” said Sunset. “There’s an emergency, Smokey. Dragons have invaded Equestria from an alternate world. They have all but one member of the Royal Family trapped in the Crystal Castle.”
“Is that right?” Farmer Smokey’s eyes widened and he shot a glance at Twilight. “Would you be that missing member? Oh, yes. You’re the most recent princess. Twilight Sparkle.”
He bowed for a second.
“Well, you better get in the shed and eat up all the Blue Giant Vegetables you can if ya wanna chase away the dragons,” he continued.
“Um, I’m not one of the…” Spike began to speak.
Smokey didn’t seem to question the fact that there was a dragon amongst them at all, even after hearing about a dragon invasion.
“Go ahead and eat away,” he said, waving Spike and the magical ponies into the shed. “Don’t matter about cutting into profits. Needs must in a crisis.”
“Thank you so much,” Twilight smiled despite her curiosity. She’d never heard of Blue Giant Vegetables before, and she would certainly have liked to hear about the trade.

Farmer Smokey’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. No sooner had Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie gone into the shed when two winged dragons appeared in the sky over the barn and swooped down towards Smokey. They touched down and walked up to the farmer. Everyone inside the shed hid themselves behind a stack of wooden crates.
“Good evening, Mr unicorn,” said one of the winged dragons.
Farmer Smokey feigned a startled expression.
“That’s right. Equestria is run by dragons now,” smiled the dragon, her companion standing beside her with an intimidating scowl.
“A-are you serious?” asked Farmer Smokey with a fake stammer.
“Yep. Your government’s been mostly overthrown,” nodded the first dragon. “We’re missing a few ponies of interest though. Our leaders say their names are Twilight Sparkle and Applejack.”
The other dragon, his scowl never wavering, exhaled a cloud of purple fire. A scroll appeared in front of his face, and his friendlier-looking fellow grabbed it before it dropped.
“Here’s a composite sketch for you,” she said. “Most of us hate these kind of posters, but I think they can be useful. So if you see any ponies who look like these two…”
She passed the scroll to Smokey, who magiced it open and looked at the drawing of Twilight and Applejack.
“Be sure to report them right away,” continued the politer dragon. “And don’t try to hide them. We’ll be planting lookouts all over this country. Have a nice evening.”
And the two visiting dragons took off.

Once the dragons were out of sight, Farmer Smokey went into the shed and peaked around the crates.
“How about you go to the barn?” he suggested. “You’ll have more room to prepare for battle there and there’s a supply of the magic vegetables there. Just send my goat to the shed. I like to eat my Blue Giants with cheese, like cauliflower.”
“Yes, sir,” Trixie nodded. “And thanks for covering us.”
“It weren’t nothing,” smiled Smokey.
Sunset watched as the farmer exited the shed.
“Where’s he going?” she asked.
“I don’t think he’s quite as spry as any of us,” replied Trixie. “He obviously has faith in us. So please, do me a favour and don’t tell him I’ve lost his goat.”
Twilight and Spike had to stifle back bursts of surprise.
“You lost his goat,” groaned Twilight.
“Lost sight of him just before I left for the Crystal Empire,” admitted Trixie. “Lucky thing Farmer Smokey hasn’t noticed yet.”
“Good luck finding him with dragons looking for you,” frowned Spike.

Spike volunteered the look out of the shed to see if there were any dragons around.
“The coast is clear,” he said to his pony mates.
With the all clear given, Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie sprinted from the shed to the barn. Smokey had dropped the composite sketch outside the shed, and Spike picked it up along the way. Trixie opened the door. There certainly was more space in here. There were also more puddles of water on the floor. A stack of Blue Giant crates was lined up against one of the walls. And standing in the center of the barn was a goat.
“Ah. There he is,” sighed Trixie.
“Great. Smokey won’t have any reason to kick us out,” said Spike as the four of them walked into the barn.
“Alright. We’ll have ourselves a meal of all the Blue Giants we can eat without getting sick, and then we’ll practise stunning spells,” declared Trixie.
“That would be great,” said Sunset. “I hardly ever use magic nowadays. But can I ask how long you’ve known Smoke-- uh, Farmer Smokey?”
“Not long,” answered Trixie. “But I’ve lived with him long enough to have enough Blue Giant to bolster by magic prowess.”
“I’ve never heard of Blue Giant Vegetables,” said Twilight. “Do they really get exported?”
“As far as I know,” replied Trixie.
Spike looked at the composite sketch. “Those two dragons said they have leaders. Any idea who they are, Sunset?”
“Yes. I heard them talking in the animal shelter,” said Sunset. “Their names are Wrecks and Sinomen.”
“How do they know who Twilight Sparkle and Applejack are?” inquired Trixie.
“I don’t know,” said Sunset. “I didn’t even know dogs could talk in that world.”
“Sounds like they’ve been hiding it for a long time,” Spike suggested. “So what kind of dogs are…?”

Without warning, Twilight grabbed Sunset with one hoof, Trixie with the other hoof, Spike with her teeth, and carried them up into the rafters. A split second later, a large chunk of ice appeared where they’d been standing. Twilight had seen something reflected in a puddle of water. A pale-coloured dragon with a face like a rat was perched in the rafters puppeteering a fake goat. Having narrowly escaped its ice beam, Twilight tossed her comrades aside into bales of hay and fired a stunning spell at the rat-faced dragon. It dodged and fired another beam of ice. Twilight shattered it with her next spell, but almost instantly, another beam was fired and it caught all four of Twilight’s hooves. Her right wing was still in pain and she was still worn out from the escape. Her left wing stood no chance of making her fall any lighter, and even though the ice broke when she hit the floor, the rat-faced dragon had fired another ice beam and concealed Twilight inside a capsule of ice.

The whole ordeal had gone by quickly, and Sunset had only just picked herself up from the pile of hay she’d been tossed into. With a groan of exasperation, she aimed a stunning spell at the dragon. It hit, but it had no effect at all. The rat-faced dragon looked up and shot an ice attack at Sunset. Sunset dropped to the floor encased in ice and landed with a clunk next to Twilight’s ice block. The dragon looked up. He knew there was one more pony up there. Trixie was keeping hidden in her pile of hay. Spike had gotten himself stuck in a bucket and couldn’t contribute at the moment. The dragon flew up to the rafters and looked from one hay pile to the other. To Trixie’s delight, he picked the wrong one to search. As soon as his back was turned, Trixie shot a stunner at him. He jolted and lost his grip on the loft. He slid off the ledge and landed flat on his back on the barn floor.
“Victory!” roared Trixie before the rat-faced dragon shot an ice beam up and enveloped her.
Spike had extricated himself from the bucket just in time to watch Trixie’s ice block fall to the ground against the wall of crates.

The rat-faced dragon groaned as he stood up. He wasn’t very big, and his claws were nowhere near big enough to grab the chunks of ice containing the trapped ponies. But before he could do anything, Spike hopped down onto Twilight’s ice chunk and eyed the ratty dragon with his most threatening gaze. The rat-faced dragon looked surprised. He hadn’t really been listening to the conversation his prey had been having and had no idea that the tiny dragon before him was amongst them.
“Where’d you come from?” he asked.
“Up there,” Spike replied angrily, pointing up at the rafters. “Now…”
“OK, you guard those ponies while I get Wrecks and Sinomen here,” the rat-faced dragon said, turning around.
Spike blinked and watched the dragon take off, making a fresh hole in the roof.
“Huh. I guess he thought I was part of the invasion,” Spike shrugged.
He quickly blew a stream of fire at the ice around Twilight’s horn. It melted quite easily and when her horn was exposed to air again, she cast a spell that cracked all the ice blocks and split the three of them apart.
“We gotta hide somewhere else!” said Spike. “That guy’s gone to get the leaders of the dragons!”
“Trixie, can you teleport us somewhere you’ve never been to before?” Twilight asked.
“Shouldn’t be too difficult for a unicorn as great and powerful as me,” nodded Trixie. “But remember. It has to be 100% guaranteed to be empty.”
“Good. I thought of a place for us,” said Twilight. “It’s a cavern beneath Canterlot. When the Changelings invaded, their queen foalnapped Cadance and imprisoned her in those caves. She said there’s almost no one who knows about them.”
“Caves beneath Canterlot. Got it,” said Trixie. “Blue Giant, don’t fail me now.”
Trixie beckoned Twilight, Spike and Sunset to stand close to her. When they did so, Trixie’s horn lit up the whole of the barn.
> 3 Another Growth Spurt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Success!” Trixie’s voice echoed around the very cavern Twilight had described.
Sunset attempted to look around, but nearly hit her head on a large wooden object.
“Hey, you brought a Blue Giant crate!” she exclaimed.
“Of course,” Trixie grinned. “That army of dragons is spreading across Equestria. We’d be doomed without these vegetables.”
“And that dragon who froze us knows you three are with the pony they’re after,” said Twilight. “We really should…”
She stepped on something and slipped. She looked down and discovered that she’d trodden on some rubies.
“Oh. Gemstones,” she smiled. “You’ve got something to eat as well, Spike.”
When her eyes found Spike, her jaw dropped. Spike must have been face to face with a mountain of jewels since they’d teleported into the cave. Queen Chrysalis had said that these caves were once used to imprison a group of thugs who’d stolen a plethora of gemstones. Twilight hadn’t seen them when she’d found Candace before the Royal Wedding, and she never imagined that there were this many in here.
“Dibs!” Spike yelled in a deep voice.
Twilight’s heart raced. Surely Spike wasn’t going to go through a maturity spurt again.
“What’s this?” asked Sunset.
“Dragon’s get bigger and greedier as they age!” Twilight cried. “He beat his genetics once before, but…”

It seemed Spike stood no chance of controlling his sense of greed with a pile of shiny gemstones the size of Dodge City twinkling in front of his face. Not even when they’d encountered the Diamond Dogs had he been in the vicinity of so many rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Right before the ponies’ eyes, he increased in size as he continued to gaze at the wall of jewels in front of him.
“I’m king of the hoard!” he roared at the top of his voice.
Twilight shook. Her right wing was throbbing, her horn was aching, and from what she’d seen from within her icy enclosure, any spell from Sunset would probably be ineffectual. As for Trixie, was taking evasive measures behind the Blue Giant crate. So Twilight did the only thing she could think of in the face of her massive baby dragon pal.
“Sure! They’re all yours!” she called. “We don’t want them! You can have them! You can have them all!”
The last time Spike had succumbed to congenital dragon greed, Twilight and the others had tried to prevent him from hoarding so many things, and this seemed to aggravate him and turn him against his friends. This time, when Twilight told him he could have what he wanted, Spike’s smile wasn’t nearly as disturbing as it had been the first time he’d expanded.
“Thanks, Twi,” he said in his deep, maturer voice.
Then, as soon as Twilight realized there was an addition to the huge list of risks in her plan, it happened. Spike’s large green eyes fell upon the crate of Blue Giant Vegetables. But then he looked around at his sea of gemstones again and waved his hand in an indifferent manner.
Twilight perked up. “Can we… do you mind if we keep those vegetables?”
“Sure,” Spike purred. “I’ve got everything I want already.”
Twilight exhaled a relieved sigh. Spike seemed to be in check despite his greed transforming him.

Sunset watched and Trixie peaked around the crate as Spike began to munch on some assorted jewels.
“What now?” asked Sunset.
“Maybe…” thought Twilight. “Maybe he could help us take on the invaders. Maybe he could cover us while we go to the Crystal Castle and free everypony inside.”
“I could do that,” boomed Spike, his mouth full of semi-chewed amethysts.
“Would you?” asked Twilight, putting on his sweetest smile.
“Why not? Hey, you three can practise your stunning spells on me,” Spike offered.
“Oh! Are you sure?” Twilight asked.
“You could use the practise,” nodded Spike. “Especially you, Sunset.”
Sunset went a bit red. “Well, I did say I’m kind of out of practise.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Twilight. “You’re teleportation spells were done very well.”
“Stunning spells are harder,” Sunset replied. “I do need to work on mine. You’re sure you’re OK with us attacking you, Spike?”
“Hey, you guys let me have all these delicious gems,” shrugged Spike.
The giant baby dragon clambered down the mound he’d been sitting on and stood before the ponies.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Hit me with your best shot.”
“Ah!”
Trixie stepped out from behind the crate and walked towards Spike with a cocky smirk.
“Let’s see if the Great and Honourable Spike the Brave and Glorious can withstand the might of the Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie!”

Twilight and Sunset gasped as Spike staggered backwards and partially disappeared in the pile of jewels.
“What in Celestia’s name are you doing?!” shrieked Twilight.
“I merely accepted his challenge,” insisted Trixie.
Some gems were sent flying from the pile and a massive purple thumbs-up popped up.
“He’s alright,” said Sunset.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Spike said from within the pile. “Give me a minute before whoever’s next takes her turn.”
They heard crunching and knew Spike was eating more gems.
“Spike,” said Twilight, walking up to the pile. “If you’re really OK with us shooting spells at you, then I think we’ll wait for a bit before more practising. Some of us need to rest.”
Spike sat up, the faintest bruise visible on his chest.
“Oh, that’s right. How’s your wing?” he asked.
“Still sore,” said Twilight, rubbing her right wing.
“OK, sure, have a rest,” said Spike. “And get your hooves off my jewels!”
Twilight realised she was standing on a flat sapphire and promptly stepped backwards.
“Thank you,” said Spike more calmly.
Twilight looked at Spike. She had a horrible feeling that she might not be able to keep Spike’s usual personality from dissolving if she let him embrace his dragon genetics. But as Spike’s demeanour was much more subdued than it had been last time, she thought she’d absorb the risk.
“So, I hear you’re a good cook,” Trixie spoke up.
She magiced the crate open. At first, they all thought it was empty.
“I think you took the lightest load,” Sunset remarked when she peered inside and saw less than twenty blue vegies sitting inside the crate.

Despite the crisis, the Royal Sisters hadn’t neglected their duties. Through the haze of the Horeb Fire engulfing the exterior of the castle, Luna and Celestia could see the moon in the early morning sky. Luna’s magic lowered the moon, and Celestia’s magic raised the sun. When they looked down, they thought they saw the Crystal Heart spin just a little faster. But with an army of dragons around, there was no way the crystal ponies were anywhere near content.
“Keep it up, you two,” came a voice.
Sinomen’s face filled the gap between Horeb flames.
“It’s all you’re good for now,” she sneered. “We’re running this land now. We’re gonna find Princess Twilight and Applejack. You’ll be all be stuck here for the rest of your lives.”
Celestia’s and Luna’s faces fell as Sinomen clambered back down from the tower. The royals and the guards had made a valiant effort to fight off the dragons as they imprisoned them in the castle, but the Horeb fire was so hot, and they were outnumbered four to one. The temperature was making everypony sweaty, and all the food supplies they had in the Crystal Castle were getting cooked. And the chances of the dragons reimbursing their captives were zero. The situation for Cadance and Shining Armour was much like it was when King Sombra and the Crystal Empire returned. Cadance was using her magic to spread love and light to the crystal ponies so that their morale wouldn’t be completely destroyed. And Shining Armour was trying to cast a force field spell not to keep creatures from entering, but from leaving. Nopony wanted the invaders to spread out beyond Equestria and recruit native dragons to build up their army. Surprisingly, it seemed to be working. They have heard dragons reporting to Wrecks that they cannot seem to leave the country. It seemed Shining’s shield spell was a force to be reckoned with. Despite this, escaping the fire-enclosed castle wasn’t a good option. The castle was still being watched by dragons around the clock.

A scroll appeared out of nowhere in front of Princess Celestia. Her face lit up for the first time in hours.
“A message from Twilight,” she beamed at her sister.
The sisters walked away from the hazy window so as not to be spotted by any dragons, and Celestia opened the scroll. At first, it appeared to be one of the dragons’ composite sketches of Twilight and Applejack. But when they turned the sheet over, there was a message written in some sort of blue liquid.

“My dearest Princess Celestia,
I hope with all my heart that no one in the castle and the Crystal Empire has been harmed by this invasion. I am safely hidden with Spike, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie Lulamoon. We are all recovering and working to fight off the dragons. In case the invaders get a hold of this message, I won’t say where we are or what we’re doing to strengthen our magic. We have not been able to figure out why the portal opened, but with any luck, we’ll be able to take on the dragons and send them back where they came from. Goodbye and stay safe.
Your faithful and loyal friend,
Twilight Sparkle.”

Unfortunately, Princess Celestia’s spirits weren’t lifted too high. After the dragons had secured the castle, one of the smaller dragons walked through and removed all the paper and quills in the building. Twilight’s message and the composite sketches had taken up this whole sheet. There was nothing they could use to send a reply to Twilight.
“I shall have to wait until Twilight Sparkle is asleep and fill her in on news from our end in her dream,” said Luna.
“It seems this is our only option,” nodded Celestia. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I shall pass this news on to Twilight’s friends.”
“Funny,” Luna said before Celestia walked away. “She says she does not know why the portal is open. A judgemental pony might say that she herself is responsible for it.”

“Well done, Spike,” Trixie complimented. “These vegetables are much more befitting. Without your flavourful fire, they normally taste like apple skins.”
“What’s wrong with that?” asked Sunset.
“EVERYTHING!”
The ponies had Blue Giants for dinner last night and now for breakfast this morning. Spike had been helping himself to fistfuls of gemstones at his leisure. Twilight’s wing was now feeling much better. They were using the wood from the crate as kindling for their bonfires, and whilst breaking it apart, Sunset found a sheet of paper on which manufacturing information was printed. The back was blank, so they had a second sheet they could use if they needed to send another message to Princess Celestia.
“Alright, we’ve rested enough,” decided Trixie now that they’d finished all but nine of the Blue Giants. “Shall we begin training?”
“Yeah, I’m game,” said Spike after swallowing the diamonds he was chewing. “Twilight, how about you go first?”
“Spike, I’m having second thoughts,” admitted Twilight.
“Come on, Twilight. I don’t mind you attacking me,” insisted Spike. “Look at me. I’m indestructible now. Trixie’s spell last night didn’t really hurt me. I know you’re like ten times more powerful than her…”
Twilight avoided looking at Trixie.
“But like I said, you need to practise if you’re gonna stand a chance against all those dragons,” Spike finished.

Nothing anyone could say made Twilight feel less weird shooting a stunning spell at her trusty assistant, but no matter how many times she did it that day, Spike didn’t get severely injured or so angry he went on a rampage. The results of Twilight’s Blue Giant consumption were evident in the ferocity of her attacks. Trixie, who’d been eating those vegetables long before now, was definitely producing the most effective stunning spells. But every time Sunset’s turn came about, Spike never so much as said “Ow.”
“Tell you what, Sunset Shimmer,” Trixie grinned. “You shall take two turns in a row each round.”
“I don’t care,” Spike said, picking himself up after a blast from Twilight.
“I guess you do need more training than us,” Twilight agreed.
Sunset said nothing. She just fired another lackluster stun spell at Spike, who shook it off as though he’d had a clump of flour thrown at him.
“You’re sure we’re not hurting you, Spike?” asked Twilight for the umpteenth time.
“I’m not,” sulked Sunset.
“All you’re doing is knocking me down,” Spike replied. “And that’s all you gotta do when you’re up against the invaders. Relax.”
With that, Twilight waited for her next turn and shot another stunning spell at Spike. This time, Spike yelled out as he fell on the heap of jewels behind him.
“Oh, no!” cried Twilight.
She ran to the sprawled dragon.
“Get away from my jewels!” barked Spike.
Twilight backtracked at once and watched nervously as Spike sat up.
“I keep telling you. I’m fine,” Spike hissed. “Don’t worry.”
You’re not fine, thought Twilight. You’re about to burst. I can feel it.

Trixie knew the same time-keeping spell that Minuette did, so she was able to tell everyone how long they’d been training. When evening came, the ponies stopped what they were doing and had themselves a dinner of two Blue Giants each, having decided to save the last three for breakfast the next day before coming out of hiding and taking on the dragons in the Crystal Empire. Despite her lack of progress, Sunset didn’t take Twilight or Trixie up on their offers of extra veggies. Twilight had an awful thought before they all turned in. What if giant Spike was too obsessed with his mountains of gems to leave the cave, and Twilight, Sunset and Trixie had to head for the Crystal Castle themselves? She didn’t say anything on the subject though as she, like everyone else, was exhausted and wanted to get to sleep.

With so many thoughts swirling around in her head, Twilight’s dream was rather nondescript until Princess Luna appeared.
“I commend you for avoiding capture, Twilight Sparkle,” she smiled.
Twilight beamed. “Thank you for coming, Princess Luna! How are things at the Crystal Castle?”
“Not good, but not bad either,” answered Luna. “Firstly, nopony has been attacked directly. In the castle, we’ve been separated by Horeb Fire. Myself, Celestia, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are on one side, Shining Armour, Cadance and Pinkie Pie are on the other. I believe the dragons are dividing our imprisonment so that you and your friends cannot use your Rainbow Power if they manage to capture you and Applejack.”
“What about the Crystal Heart?” asked Twilight.
“It is perhaps spinning at its slowest rate ever, but do not despair. It hasn’t stopped,” Luna replied. “Cadance’s magic is still holding out. The same goes for Shining Armour’s magic. It would appear as though he alone is keeping the dragons from looking for others to join their ranks.”
“Wow,” remarked Twilight. “I never doubted he deserved to be the Captain of the Royal Guard, but I never knew his shield magic was that good.”
“Nor did he,” Luna said. “He is surprised, but not disappointed. Now, you said in your letter that you do not know why the portal to the alternate world is open.”
“That’s right,” nodded Twilight. “Have you figured it out?”
“I have. I am sure you recall what happened to the moon with the interference of Tuckaway, Golden Oaks’ former librarian,” said Luna.
Twilight remembered the long-lasting night that had driven everypony crazy.
“The moon’s cycle went wrong because it was stuck in the sky for over a week?” she asked.
“Indeed,” said Luna. “The cycle has gone awry and now the portal will be open for another d--”

“Twilight!” hissed Sunset’s voice. “Wake up.”
Luna disappeared. In her place were Sunset and Trixie. Spike was standing up behind them and looking over their heads at Twilight as she was jerked out of sleep. She saw that all three were looking alarmed.
“They’re coming,” Sunset hissed. “Wrecks and Sinomen. I heard their voices. They’ve found the cave. I think they might be gem hunting or something.”
“You three gotta hide,” said Spike softly. “Get behind that pile. But don’t take any jewels.”
“We won’t,” whispered Twilight as Trixie and Sunset ushered her behind a pile of glittering gemstones.
“I’ll try telling them I live down here and let them know that this is my hoard,” Spike whispered to the ponies before they were out of sight.

About a minute after Twilight, Sunset and Trixie were hidden and Spike had kicked the leftover kindling and Blue Giant Vegetables away, Rarity appeared from behind a corner. Spike’s pupils inflated like half-chewed unripe zap apples. Rarity had plainly been coerced into using her gem-finding spell to locate food for the invaders. Her horn was emitting a bright blue light.
“Yes, there are thousands of gems down here,” Spike heard her call in an aggravated voice, “but I believe someone is living here.”
She didn’t recognise giant Spike before, and she didn’t now.
“Go away!” Spike called, deliberately making his voice deeper than it already was.
Rarity started to back away, but two dragons appeared from around the same corner and pushed her forward.
“Any dragons in here?!” they shouted.
Sunset risked a peak around the pile of jewels, and after confirming with a visual sighting, she looked at Twilight and Trixie and whispered “That’s them.”
“Yeah, I’m a dragon!” Spike spat. “Now get out!”
“Don’t get snippy!” retorted Wrecks. “We’re dragons too.”
“I don’t care! You can’t come in here!” Spike stood up and walked towards Wrecks and Sinomen with an angry expression.
“We own this place now!” growled Sinomen. “We can do whatever we please.”
“I don’t care if you’re the owners of the whole world!” Spike barked. “You’re not getting any of my gems!”
Rarity practically exploded when she finally realized who they’d walked in on.
“SPIKE?!”
Spike tried not to show any emotion so as to keep up the façade that he was a stranger, but Wrecks and Sinomen appeared to be more surprised than he was.
“Spike?” repeated Wrecks. “I’ve heard someone say that name before. Were- were you Princess Twilight Sparkle’s scribe?”
“No,” Spike lied. “Um, but what if I was?”
“If you were,” said Sinomen, “you might be our son.”
> 4 Hungry for Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike shook his head. “No way.”
Twilight shook her own head. No way.
Spike looked at the two dragons before him. He could see there was a likeness. Both Wrecks and Sinomen had no wings. Wrecks had green eyes, and Sinomen had green spines. Although neither of them had purple scales. Wrecks did have the same triangular point on the tip of his tail. The end of Sinomen’s tail had five long green nails, almost like a claw.
“Our first egg was taken from us by some unicorn stallion,” said Sinomen. “In this very cave.”
“I’d have thought he’d steal our gems as well, but clearly you’ve reclaimed them,” grinned Wrecks. “Good boy.”
Twilight was looking for a gemstone she could see Spike’s reflection in, and when she finally saw one, she was disheartened to see that he looked happier than she’d ever seen him.
“I finally know where I came from!” he cried. “Now I know who I am! My life’s complete! Yes! I found them! I found my parents!”
He charged towards Wrecks and Sinomen and hugged the two of them. Rarity couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.
“Oh, Spikey-Wikey?” she spoke up tentatively. “They only said you might be…”
“Don’t call me Spike!”
It seemed that even the sight of Rarity could make Spike remember his true colours.
“From now on, call me… uh… what is my real name?” he asked Wrecks and Sinomen.
Neither of the invasion’s leaders answered right away.
At last Wrecks said “Unfortunately, you were stolen from us before we could even name you. And he sent us packing to the alternate world right after that.”
Spike growled. “When I find out who stole me from my parents…!”
“We could help you find him,” grinned Wrecks.
“Will you join us, Spike?” asked Sinomen.
“Yes!” Spike almost screamed.

Twilight started to sweat. Her hooves were shaking. Every bit of her was screaming at her to run around the pile of gems and stop Spike from leaving. Sunset and Trixie knew that she’d be playing into Wrecks and Sinomen’s claws, and kept their eyes on Twilight in case she tried to show herself.
“Spike, don’t you know who your friends are?!” cried Rarity.
Spike glared at Rarity. “Get away from my jewels.”
Rarity was horrified at the tone Spike just took with her, but she quickly backed away from the emeralds she was standing a little too close to.
“Guess we oughtta leave these gemstones alone,” chuckled Sinomen.
“No, no, you take what you like,” said Spike. “You collected them for me even before I was born.”
The pit of Twilight’s stomach was aching.
“Let’s just make this our secret stash,” smiled Wrecks. “We can come here whenever we like and stuff ourselves ‘till we drop. How’s that sound?”
“I’ve never been so excited!” Spike began to bounce.
The crate manufacturer’s document wafted towards Sunset, who got an idea to make this situation slightly less problematic. She grabbed a Blue Giant and a sharp gem, and quickly wrote a message to the prisoners in the Crystal Castle.
“Let’s had back to the Crystal Empire,” suggested Sinomen. “It’s late and we really need to be there in case anyone tries to escape from the castle.”
“Sure, Mom,” said Spike, who could have fit the whole of his gem collection in his smile. “I finally get to call someone Mom!”
Sunset looked in the same gemstone Twilight had used to view the reflection of the abrupt reunion. As soon as everyone had turned around, she magiced her rolled up message into Rarity’s mane. Rarity didn’t see or feel a thing. She was desperately trying to think of something to say or do to change Spike’s mind about switching sides. She’d attempted to charm Wrecks and Sinomen earlier, but since she’d been gem hunting for them all day, she knew by now that even giant Spike wouldn’t be swayed.

Trixie and Sunset peeked around as Wrecks and Sinomen led Spike back to the way they came. Twilight didn’t want to look. She only listened as the three dragons were talking animatedly. Slowly but surely, the happy voices faded away.
“Well, there goes our shield,” moaned Trixie.
Twilight and Sunset ignored her.
“He was stolen… from his parents… by a unicorn,” Twilight was mumbling. “Is that… how they get eggs… for the entrance exams?”
“No, it isn’t,” Sunset spoke up, sitting down in front of Twilight. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you this earlier. It’s my fault. I’m the reason Spike came to the school.”
“What?!” spluttered Trixie.
“And I got help from the pony you’ve been living with,” Sunset said to Trixie.
“Huh?!”
“His name is actually Smokescreen,” continued Sunset. “He was one of Celestia’s guards. He specialized in subduing large creatures. He was probably the best match for a dragon because he could make a good shield spell, and he could turn himself into smoke and be completely unharmed by fire. Anyway, back when I was Princess Celestia’s pupil, we met at a formal event and…”
Sunset paused.
“We became friends, I guess,” she said. “He was sure I’d become something amazing. But then when I started complaining that I wasn’t getting anywhere fast enough and Celestia dismissed me as her student, I told Smokescreen and he was just as disappointed as I was.”
Twilight had only been half-listening up to this point, but Sunset’s story started sucking her in.
“I’d heard rumours that he fought dragons on a daily basis,” Sunset went on. “I don’t know if it was every day, but he definitely took on dragons because when I came to him freaking out because there was a unicorn filly looking to enter the school with a really good oral entrance exam, he showed me a dragon egg and told me to leave it to him.”

Twilight looked up. “A really good oral exam? Was it me?”
“Yeah, it was,” nodded Sunset. “I was worried about somepony outshining me and when I snuck into the room where the applications were and saw a score better than mine, I was worried you’d take my place as Celestia’s student. So when I complained to Smokescreen, he said he could sabotage your practical exam by subjecting you to an illegal test.”
“An illegal test?” Trixie interrupted. “How did nopony catch that?”
“I felt really lucky at the time. There was a staff strike shortly after the headmaster at Celestia’s school scheduled Twilight’s entrance exam,” Sunset explained. “All the ponies who were watching were scabs. And they must’ve heard the rumours about the crazy magical experiments that go on in that school because apparently they didn’t bat an eye when someone rolled a cart with a dragon egg on it into the room.”
Twilight said nothing, but her look told Sunset to carry on with her story.
“Well, you know how your practical exam went,” said Sunset. “Smokescreen fled after Celestia saw what you’d managed to do with your magic, and so did I. I found the Mirror Portal and the alternate world, but I didn’t know where Smokescreen went until we ran into him at the Blue Giant farm.”

This same story was being told by Princess Celestia when Rarity was returned to the Crystal Castle and had jabbered on about Spike becoming enormous and joining up with the invading leaders because they might be his parents. Her only audience was Rarity, Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were all in awe.
“Mind if I ask why you never told anyone this?” asked Fluttershy.
“I assure you, I did,” Celestia insisted. “Spike had sent me a letter during the dragon migration a while back asking me if I could tell him anything about where he came from. And you can take my word for it that I sent him a reply shortly after receiving his questions telling him everything I’ve just told you.”
Then Rarity and Rainbow Dash remembered what had happened during the belching contest in that volcano.
“Your highness,” said Rainbow Dash, “he didn’t get that message. A teenage dragon he was hanging out with grabbed it and threw it into a lava puddle after it came out of his mouth.”
“Oh,” Celestia said slowly. “So this whole time, he was completely in the dark.”
“That must be why he’s so willing to take Wrecks and Sinomen’s word,” said Luna. “He surely would have ached for answers despite what he’d learned from his experiences with the migrating dragons.”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Have you read our letters too?”
“Some of them,” Luna answered. “It’s a shame my conversation with Twilight was interrupted. I’ve lost my chance to ask her how she, Trixie and Sunset Shimmer were trying to boost their magic. I could have warned her that Spike might be vulnerable if she let his inherited greed take hold of him.”
“You’ll just have to wait until she’s asleep again,” said Celestia. “If sleep manages to find her.”

“What’s that in your mane?” Fluttershy asked Rarity.
Rarity looked and found a rolled up sheet of paper. She magiced it out of her mane and unrolled it.
“Oh, my!” she gasped. “I think Twilight, Sunset and Trixie must’ve been in the cave when we found Spike.”
She showed them the message. It had clearly been written in a rush, but it was pretty blunt. Sunset was asking Fluttershy to try and get the dragons on the ponies’ side.
“How can I possibly do that?” shivered Fluttershy.
“She says they’re really just dogs,” said Rainbow Dash, tapping the writing on the paper. “And I know you’re not scared of dogs.”
“I am when they’re scaly and over twenty feet tall and burp fire and wanting to throw everypony out of Equestria,” she said.
Princess Celestia approached Fluttershy. “Remember when I singled you out when I asked you and your friends to reform Discord?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I know we are dealing with one of your biggest fears, so I will not do that this time,” Celestia finished. “It’s your choice.”
Fluttershy looked towards a hazy window. She walked as close as she could to it without being burned by the heat of the Horeb Fire, and looked out at the Crystal Empire. She gasped.
“I think she’s made her choice,” sighed Rainbow Dash.
“It’s Applejack!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Celestia and Luna joined her and looked out of the window.
“They caught her,” groaned Rarity.

Pinkie Pie had been devoting her time to keeping up Cadance’s and Shining Armour’s spirits as they worked their respective brands of magic. She was just in the middle of a witty limerick when they heard the thunderous sound of castle doors opening and closing. Pinkie went out into the hall to see what was going on while Cadance and Shining carried on with their spells.
“AJ!” Pinkie cried.
There was Applejack in the corridor pacing around and not looking very happy. Pinkie Pie bounced up to her and it was clear that whatever was bothering Applejack didn’t ruin her mood for a hug.
“It ain’t no fun getting captured,” said Applejack, “but at least I get to be with my friends.”
“Well, it’ll just be me, Shining Armour and Cadance,” Pinkie blurted out. “Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and the Royal Sisters are separated from us in this castle. And Twilight’s still on the run.”
Applejack threw her hat to the ground and sat on the floor in frustration.
“So how’d you manage to stay hidden for this long?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Well once we in the Fillydelphia community center knew that dragons had invaded Equestria, the curator and some other staff members sent me to a hiding spot right away,” Applejack explained. “But I was in the middle of a class when it happened, and there was a sheep there when I was escorted out. I spent a whole day in the community center basement and ponies were visiting me with food and news, but then this snakey dragon comes down and carries me out the basement, out the community center, and outta Fillydelphia.”
“How’d they find you?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Those darn sheep turned me in!” growled Applejack. “Jeez! Ya try and make an effort to learn to be gentler and less rough with livestock, and where does it get ya?!”

Sunset understood why Twilight had been so silent after she’d made her confession, but she certainly hadn’t expected a hug to be the response.
“You gave me my first real friend,” Twilight was trying not to sob.
“Well, I wasn’t trying to…” Sunset stammered.
“I know, I know,” Twilight let go of Sunset’s shoulders. “I just wish I’d appreciated him more. I always thought he made a good companion, but I got so absorbed in my studies, I started thinking of him as just my assistant. I couldn’t possibly have been any kind of replacement for parents. I wasn’t even old enough to be a mother.”
“So why did Princess Celestia let you have Spike?” asked Trixie.
“Well, I felt really proud of making Spike hatch after everything Celestia offered me,” Twilight looked down at her hooves. “I guess I wanted him around so I’d never forget my accomplishments.”
She buried her face in her hooves.
“Sometimes I wish I hadn’t learned so much about friendship,” she moaned. “Because I keep remembering how little I used to know and what a shut-in I was.”

Sunset looked around at the mountains of jewels.
“We should probably find another place to hide,” she said. “The dragons know about this place now and we shouldn’t risk staying.”
Trixie sighed. “Where to next?”
The three ponies thought for a while about where they should go, bearing in mind that it had to be guaranteed to be empty. Twilight considered using the pit where the Mirror Pool was at one point. Trixie, who knew the stories, liked the idea and suggested making clones of themselves so as to really stand a chance against the dragons. But Twilight knew that it would only end in confusion whether or not they succeeded. So when the Mirror Pool idea was discarded, Sunset thought perhaps they ought to try and get to the Crystal Empire and go through the portal to the alternate world. This way, they could be hidden and alert the Canterlot animal shelter on where to find the escaped dogs when they are eventually returned. Twilight and Trixie knew it was risky because the Crystal Empire would be heavily guarded and Twilight hadn’t seen where exactly the Mirror Portal had landed.
“How about somewhere in the Everfree Forest?” asked Trixie.
Twilight thought about it. Zecora’s hut might do, but there was no guarantee it’d be empty, so teleporting into it would be dangerous. The Blackout Shelter had collapsed, which was really disappointing to Twilight, as it would have been the perfect place to hide. The Castle of the Two Sisters would surely be empty, but it stood out like a purple squirrel.
“I know!” Twilight burst out. “The pit beneath the castle where the Tree of Harmony is.”

Nopony had stood before the Tree of Harmony since Tirek’s defeat. But now, there was Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Trixie, one punctured Blue Giant, and two intact ones.
“So what now?” asked Sunset once Trixie stopped bragging about their successful teleportation. “Our action plan’s out the window now.”
Trixie yawned. “It’s still night-time. Perhaps we should go back to sleep.”
“Oh! Yes,” said Twilight. “I just remembered what was going on in my dream before you two woke me up. Princess Luna visited me and we were exchanging information.”
“Alright, maybe we should go back to sleep,” agreed Sunset.
However, within minutes of lying down, Trixie and Sunset could tell that Twilight would have a hard time getting to sleep no matter how tired she was.
“Try not to think about Spike,” said Trixie.
Sunset looked around and got an idea when her eyes found the Tree of Harmony.
“Maybe those will give you some pleasant thoughts,” she said, pointing to the fruit the tree bore.
Twilight looked up at the Elements of Harmony. Many happy memories came back to her about the adventures she and her Ponyville friends had shared, but also the realization of how little she used to know about friendship cropped up again. Despite this, Twilight managed to settle down, and after Trixie and Sunset drifted off to sleep, she was not too far behind.

Soon a dream spread across Twilight’s closed eyes. She was somewhere dark. It was either a cave or an old, abandoned castle. She couldn’t tell. But she could see a shadow ahead coming from around a corner. She walked forward and her heart raced when she saw the shadow’s source. It was Spike. He was the way Twilight remembered him. Small. Roughly as tall as Apple Bloom. They stared at each other for a while.
“Twilight?”
The alicorn princess’ face lit up when she heard Spike’s voice was not deep.
“Yes. It’s me,” she said softly.
She held her breath as Spike took a step towards her. But then he quickly turned tail and ran in the opposite direction. Twilight had sensed a disturbance behind her and spun around to see what had caused Spike to flee.
“I must apologize for this,” said Princess Luna. “I’m sure you would like nothing better than to reunite with the Spike you know and love.”
Twilight sighed. “It’s alright, Princess Luna. I know we have a lot of important things to discuss.”

Twilight was sorry to hear that Applejack had been captured, but was impressed to hear that Fluttershy had resolved to take Sunset’s suggestion to try and get the dragons on the ponies’ side. She hadn’t done anything yet, but she had gone around the castle looking for things giant animals could play fetch with, and she asked Rarity to use her pony signal as a laser pointer. They would be implementing these in the morning after they’d gotten themselves a decent amount of sleep. Twilight was also happy when Luna told her that Impulsoria, the Crystal Dragon who lived in a cave close to the boarder, had not consented to join the invading dragons, but was forced to ration out her gemstone collection. She had been confined to her cave and was being guarded just like the ponies in the castle.
“Next,” said Luna, “I would like to know if you have any ideas where Discord might be.”
“Discord?! He could easily help us send those dragons back to the alternate world,” said Twilight. “I should’ve sent him a message too.”
“So I take it you have no guesses where he’s gone to?”
“I’m afraid not,” sighed Twilight.
“Never mind,” said Princess Luna. “I’ve covered everything I wanted to say. Is there anything you wish to tell me?”
“Yes. I have a question for you,” said Twilight. “Have you ever heard of a vegetable called Blue Giant?”
“Yes, I have,” nodded Luna. “It would be a sufficient way for a unicorn to power up their magic ability if it weren’t for the health risk.”

Twilight gulped. “Health risk?”
“Blue Giant contains a virus that gives one third of ponies who catch it a form of pneumonia,” Luna told Twilight. “I take it by your expression that you’ve come across some of these outlawed vegetables and that was the method of boosting you magic you spoke of.”
“I didn’t know!” Twilight insisted.
“You needn’t worry about being charged,” Luna assured her. “But if you and your two unicorn friends have been eating Blue Giants, one of you will surely be unfit for battle when the time comes.”
“Well, Trixie’s been eating Blue Giants for months now,” said Twilight. “So it’ll be either me or Sunset who’ll get sick.”
“Either way, I would strongly recommend that none of you eat those vegetables anymore,” said Luna.
Twilight sat down. “I hope…”
“You hope what, Twilight?” Luna pressed.
“Well, I… I hope Sunset hasn’t got that virus,” said Twilight quietly.
“You would rather you had it?” asked Luna. “But if you get sick, you will not be able to make your contribution to the Rainbow Connection when the time comes.”
“I know… but Sunset hasn’t made much progress with our training,” said Twilight. “I’m really worried that it’s an early onset of the virus.”
Luna knelt down to Twilight’s level. “With the information you’ve given me, I must suggest that you and your companions endeavour to make your way to the Crystal Empire well before midnight tomorrow night. It would be better if you got to the castle and reunited with your friends before the virus takes hold of one of you.”

Twilight felt something poke her foreleg. She looked to her left. There was Spike again. Small, big-eyed, and looking really pleased to be there.
“Twilight?” he asked.
“Yes,” Twilight gave him a smile.
“Are you…? Am I…? Do you…?” Spike seemed to be having trouble asking what he wanted to ask.
“What is it, Spike?” asked Twilight softly.
Spike shuffled. “I just want to know if you want me back.”
“W-- Of course I want you back, Spike,” breathed Twilight.
Spike beamed and jumped into Twilight’s hooves. Twilight choked back a sob.
“You’ll have to excuse me, Princess Luna,” she said, shutting her eyes as Spike nuzzled her. “I want to enjoy this dream for a little while.”
“You’re not dreaming, Twilight,” said Sunset.
> 5 A Reprieve
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight opened her eyes and looked around. Sunset and Trixie, still lying on the ground like she was, were awake and looking at her. The Tree of Harmony was still casting a dim, eerie, silvery light around the cavern. And, most surprising of all, there really was a tiny purple and green dragon in Twilight’s clutches.
“Spike! You’re actually here!” cried Twilight. “You’re back to normal!”
Spike looked up with a confused expression. “Back to normal?”
“Just a minute, Twilight,” said Sunset, standing up. “I think he might be from the alternate world.”
“Huh?”
“Um, Spike,” Sunset knelt down to the baby dragon, “did you come here with a bunch of dogs?”
“Yeah,” answered the alternate Spike.
“Oh,” said Twilight. “He’s the alternate Sp-- wait a minute… you can talk. Does that mean dogs can talk in the alternate world?”
“Well…” AltSpike looked nervous. “We can… but the humans don’t know we can. We only bark around them. It’s instinct. Humans get scared when animals other than them can speak.”
Sunset went very wide-eyed. She could only imagine how AltFluttershy would react if she found this out.

Twilight grinned a bit. “The Pinkie Pie from the alternate world did say that there was a girl who looked like me in Canterlot, and that she had a pet dog. So you thought I was her?”
“You look a lot like her,” smiled AltSpike. “Or… well, from what I remember. I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Why not?” asked Twilight.
“She’s been so busy lately,” said AltSpike glumly. “She’s got some kind of big project going on. Something to do with red squiggly lines. I don’t know. I wasn’t listening.”
The similarities between the two Spikes were making Twilight miss her trusty assistant even more.
“But the last time she mentioned it, she started ignoring me,” AltSpike went on. “I was starting to think she’d forgotten about me. So I left home to see if she’d notice I was gone. I’d heard that when dogs go missing, their owners put up posters asking if anybody had seen them. I wandered around the street, eating out of trash cans, and looking at all the trees and poles. After a while, I didn’t see one poster asking about me.”
Twilight was outraged… at first. Her alter ego seeming to have shut AltSpike out of her life wasn’t too dissimilar to having to let giant Spike go with Wrecks and Sinomen.
Twilight blinked. “Is that when you met Wrecks and Sinomen?”
“Uh, huh,” nodded AltSpike. “They said there were tons of surrender dogs who’d been abandoned by their owners at the animal shelter.”
“Hmm. Canterlot’s animal shelter sure did get full of dogs awfully quick,” said Sunset thoughtfully.
“I’ll bet Wrecks and Sinomen took a particular interest in you,” said Trixie, who was still lying down. “Since you were their son’s doppelganger and all.”
“Um,” AltSpike looked thoughtful. “Come to think of it, we haven’t talked much since they asked me if I wanted to join them on the trip to this world.”
Trixie sniffed. “It sounds to me like they only wanted you for their army.”
“Oh,” said AltSpike. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter?” asked Twilight. “Why doesn’t it matter?”
“I have you now,” smiled AltSpike.

Twilight’s heart nearly burst. Sunset and Trixie merely watched for minutes on end as she and AltSpike hugged. Sunset thought better than to interfere, and instead walked over to where Trixie had left the three Blue Giants they had left. The sound of Sunset’s hoof prodding the vegetables snapped Twilight out of her happy embrace with AltSpike.
“Don’t touch those!” she cried.
Sunset backed away from the Blue Giants.
“Princess Luna came into my dream again,” said Twilight. “She told me one third of ponies who eat Blue Giants get an illness like pneumonia.”
Sunset gasped, but Trixie scoffed.
“Been there, done that, got the merchandising rights.”
“What, you’ve had it?!” exclaimed Twilight, standing up.
“Nearly did me in, but like butterflies in my stomach, the Great and Powerful Trixie overcame it!” boasted Trixie.
Twilight heaved a heavy sigh. “This is great. We should have no trouble taking on the dragons.”
She turned to AltSpike.
“We want to send all the dogs back where they came from,” she told him.
“But most of their owners don’t want them back,” frowned Spike.
“I doubt that,” said Twilight. “I’ll bet they all miss you guys.”
“Why do you think that?” asked AltSpike.
“Because I miss you alter ego,” said Twilight. “So much.”

Sunset asked AltSpike if he’d breathed fire since coming to Equestria, and when he showed them what he’d learned, she asked him to light a fire for them so they could cook their Blue Giants. Soon, there was a bonfire crackling before the Tree of Harmony.
“Ow!”
Trixie shifted over and reached underneath herself. When she extracted her hoof, she was holding a round green gemstone.
“Huh. You must’ve brought that with you when you teleported us here,” said Sunset.
Trixie’s face contorted.
“It looks like a wheel.”
She tossed it away. Twilight caught it with her magic and looked at it for a moment. It had six round indents on either side, which were evenly spaced. To her, it looked more like a license tag than a wheel.
“Here, Spike,” said Twilight. “You can join us for breakfast.”
AltSpike took the green gemstone Twilight offered him and gleefully took a bite.
“Ow!”
No matter how many times Spike tried, he could not make a dent in this gemstone.
“That’s strange,” said Twilight, looking over the gemstone again. “Sorry about this, Spike.”
“It’s alright,” shrugged AltSpike. “I’ll keep it anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because you gave it to me.”
Twilight went all gooey.
“Technically, I gave it to you,” said Trixie.
No one was listening.

Before long, the three remaining Blue Giants had been roasted and eaten. Before the ponies could discuss their next move, AltSpike sat upright and looked with fright at the entrance to the cavern.
“Oh, no,” he squeaked. “They’re looking for me.”
Then Twilight, Sunset and Trixie heard what he heard. Heavy footsteps.
“They brought me to this forest and left me here to look for other dragons to join them,” moaned AltSpike, inching closer to Twilight. “I don’t want to go back with them.”
“Where can we go?” asked Trixie.
“What options do we have left?” asked Sunset.
“The Crystal Empire, I guess,” said Twilight.
“It’s crawling with dragons,” protested Trixie.
“You turned Rarity’s mane green once,” said Twilight as the footsteps grew louder. “You do the same with us, right?”
“Why do we need to be green all over?” asked Sunset.
“The field around the Crystal Empire should be empty,” said Twilight. “We can camouflage ourselves and find the Mirror Portal.”
Trixie winced “We’re going back there already?”
“If we get spotted,” said Sunset, her face set, “we’ll have to charge at the castle. Trixie and I will take one side, Twilight will take the other. Whichever side we get into, we’ll teleport whoever we find to Twilight’s side. Then she and her friends can activate their Rainbow Power and send all the dragons home.”
“We- we’re really doing this?” asked Trixie nervously.
“Come on, Trixie. You’ve wanted to play the hero since that Ursa Minor incident. Now’s your chance,” encouraged Twilight.

The sun was up and the Crystal Empire was glimmering. Most of the dragons on guard where either chasing a trio of blue shiny diamonds across the sky above the castle, or retrieving a large chair that had been tossed out of a window. The grassy fields around the castle were devoid of dragons, however one area was completely crowded. Twilight, AltSpike, Sunset and Trixie all nearly yelped when they appeared, green all over, in the field and found themselves inches away from a flock of sheep. One of them goggled at the four visitors. Twilight recognised him.
“That’s Heavy Light,” she whispered to her companions.
Before she could whisper anything else, the sheep they were talking about looked sharply to the sky. AltSpike and the ponies looked up too. They could see little dark figures in the distance, which were no doubt dragons exploring the sky. There was no way they could spot them from that distance, especially when they blended into the grass so well. Heavy Light walked up to Twilight.
“I swear, we didn’t all want Applejack to get caught,” he whispered. “Just him over there.”
Heavy Light nodded towards another sheep Twilight remembered. Square Peg was yards away picking at the grass and looking quite content. He had not spotted the green intruders.
“He just refused to forgive Applejack and her family for their rough treatment even though the rest of us have,” whispered Heavy Light.
“What are you all doing here?” asked Twilight.
“Well after Peg blurted out to the sky that Applejack was in the community center,” Heavy Light hissed, “the dragons decided to reward all of us with this field. They agreed to leave us alone here. So you four should be safe as long as you keep your voices down. You don’t need to stay all green.”
“Are you sure?” asked Twilight.
“We’ll cover you,” nodded Heavy Light.
The ponies looked around. The other sheep who’d seen them coming nodded as well.

After Trixie had restored their rightful colours, Twilight asked Heavy Light if he could tell them where the Mirror Portal was.
“That way,” Heavy Light pointed behind him. “It’s lying face down. I guess the dragons like it being blocked up, so they left it there.”
“Good,” said Twilight, turning to Sunset and Trixie. “We’ll go to it, lift it up and alert the Canterlot animal shelter to get their staff to the school yard.”
“Then we’ll charge the castle and get you and your friends back together,” said Sunset.
Trixie looked towards the castle.
“Looks like they’re doing well buddying up to the dragons,” she said.
Twilight looked around.
“Can anyone see Spike?” she asked.
“I’m right here.”
Twilight looked down at AltSpike, who was holding the green gemstone she had given him.
“Oh you mean your Spike,” he said, going a bit red.
“Maybe he went back to the caves under Canterlot with Wrecks and Sinomen,” said Sunset.
“Canterlot?” repeated a sheep. “Isn’t that where you guys are going?”
“No, it’s a different Canterlot,” said Sunset. “It’ll take too long to explain.”

Twilight, AltSpike, Sunset and Trixie slowly made their way across the herd of sheep towards the Mirror Portal. Twilight and AltSpike kept watch over the dragons around the Crystal Castle. Sunset and Trixie kept looking back to see if any of the dragons in the distant sky were approaching. It looked as though they would have no trouble getting to the portal. The sheep all stepped discretely aside when they saw AltSpike and the ponies walking towards them. Before long, they saw the portal.
“It doesn’t look like it’s broken,” Twilight said quietly.
“If a sledgehammer couldn’t destroy it, then neither can a 50 foot drop,” said Sunset.
“It’ll still have the burdening spell on it though,” said Twilight. “Do you know a counter-spell for that, Trixie?”
“Yes I do,” smiled Trixie.
Once they were all standing in front of the mirror, Trixie’s horn glowed and a violet aura surrounded the portal.
“There,” she Trixie. “Go on. Lift it up.”
Twilight and Sunset stepped forward and lifted the top of the mirror with their own magic. A Discord’s head popped out of the glass.

No one gasped, but Twilight and Sunset let go of the mirror in their surprise. Luckily, Discord had stuck his arms out from the glass and lied down on the grass, half of him obviously not entirely in Equestria.
“Good morning to you, Princess Twilight,” smiled Discord. “And to you, Great and Powerful Trixie and Sunset Shimmer the, um, ambassador to the alternate world.”
Twilight was trying not to splutter in exasperation. “What were you doing in that world?”
“Uh, you sent me there,” replied Discord.
“I did not,” objected Twilight.
“Well, when you dropped this mirror on me, I naturally assumed I had no choice but to go there,” said Discord.
“You were in this field when the dragons invaded? What were you doing here?” demanded Twilight.
“Would you believe I was going to prank the crystal ponies by making a crop circle?” asked Discord.
Twilight sighed. “I’ll take it.”
Sunset had never spoken to Discord before, but she didn’t hold back her question for him.
“What did you become when you were in the alternate world?”
“I have no idea,” shrugged Discord. “Here’s a picture. Maybe you can figure it out.”
The Draconequus showed the ponies a photograph of him in his alternate form. They hadn’t a clue what they were looking at. Trixie kept tilting her head and squinting.
“I just hope nobody saw you,” Sunset said at last.
“Not to worry. I’ve been lying low,” said Discord. “Much like I’m doing now.”

“Wait, how is this picture showing you this way when it’s here in Equestria?” asked Twilight.
Discord held out his lion’s paw. “Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Discord, the Spirit of Chaos.”
“Alright, alright,” Twilight said impatiently.
“Nice to meet you, Discord,” said AltSpike, shaking Discord’s hand.
“Come on, Spike. It’s not fun when you play along,” groaned Discord.
“Um, actually, this really is his first time meeting you,” said Twilight. “This isn’t my Spike. He’s from the alternate world.”
“Oh, I see,” grinned Discord. “Now that I’m really looking at him, he’s the spitting image of this little guy.”
Discord reached into the mirror and pulled out a sheet of paper. One look at it left no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was a lost dog flier. AltSpike gazed at the photograph of himself as a dog. The information underneath the picture was even in the handwriting he recognised as his owner’s.
“Twilight… did miss me,” he gurgled. “Did you find it stuck to a pole or a tree?”
“No, I found a pile of these in a cage in the pound,” said Discord.
“What? His lost dog fliers were all in the animal shelter?” asked Sunset.
“Not just his,” said Discord. “There was a bunch of others.”

Trixie looked towards the Crystal Castle. The dragons on guard were still fooling around with Fluttershy’s diversionary tactics.
“Wrecks and Sinomen ran around town and stole all the lost dog fliers to make all the dogs think their owners didn’t want them anymore, didn’t they?”
“So that’s why the animal shelter was so full of dogs,” groaned Sunset. “Wrecks and Sinomen tricked them all. I’ll bet he told them to get rid of their collars and tags so the shelter employees had no addresses to call.”
“Makes sense,” said Discord. “I found tunnels in the garden outside the pound that led to two dog cages.”
“Wrecks and Sinomen dug those?” goggled Sunset. “No wonder they managed to steal those posters”
AltSpike dropped his gemstone in shock. “Does this mean…?”
“That we don’t have to fight the dragons after all?” interrupted Trixie. “Yes.”
“No, no,” Twilight waved Trixie’s comment away. “It means the Twilight you know does want you back, Spike.”
“They’re both right,” said Sunset. “Maybe we won’t have to take on the dragons. Discord, can you collect the rest of the lost dog fliers and bring them to Equestria? If we can show them to the invaders, they’ll realize that Wrecks and Sinomen tricked them and they’ll want to go back home.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Discord. “You four stick around here and I’ll come trapping when I’m ready for you to lift the mirror up again.”

Discord began to recede into the portal.
“Wait,” Spike said. “I want to go with you. I want to go home.”
“Uh…”
Twilight was dismayed. AltSpike seemed like the closest she could get to the one she knew and loved now. But she knew in her heart that her alter ego would like nothing better than to have her dog back.
“It was pretty cool meeting the pony version of my owner,” AltSpike said, turning to Twilight and smiling. “You’re just as nice and smart as her.”
“Thanks, Spike,” smiled Twilight, pulling AltSpike into a hug. “Go on and make Twilight happy.”
“See you soon, Spike,” Sunset waved.
“Huh?”
“I live in that world too,” said Sunset.
“She’s from here though,” put in Trixie. “Farwell, Spike.”
“Bye, girls,” said AltSpike.
“Onward to wherever the other Twilight is,” said Discord.
“Don’t worry, I know my way home from the statue,” AltSpike grinned.
Twilight was upset to see the little dragon walk away and join Discord as he disappeared into the mirror’s glass. The frame dropped gently to the ground and lay flat on the grass once again. Twilight looked down at her hooves.
“Oh, no! He forgot his gemstone!”
Panic welled up in Sunset and Trixie as Twilight picked up the round green jewel with her magic. They both grabbed Twilight and covered her mouth with their hooves before she could get to the portal. Twilight realized what she’d done at once. All three ponies stood still and silent for a moment listening to Twilight’s yell echo around the flat land. Then they heard Heavy Light’s voice.
“RUN!”

Twilight, Sunset and Trixie looked back, and then bolted towards the Crystal Empire city. The tiny silhouettes of the distant dragons were growing larger and clearer. Twilight clenched the green gem under her wing as she sprinted away.
“I see her! The fourth princess!” they heard a dragon call.
“Hurry!” cried Heavy Light as the sheep scattered to avoid the oncoming dragons.
“Grab her! Grab those other two! Grab them all! Throw em into a pit of lava!” roared the dragons.
Twilight, Sunset and Trixie raced towards the city, but the dragons guarding the Horeb Fired castle were distracted from their larks with the prisoners. Twilight looked back at the gang from the distance, who were rapidly catching up.
“Turn right!” she ordered Sunset and Trixie. “I’ve got an idea!”
She veered away from the city. Sunset and Trixie followed right behind. As they began to run away from the castle, the guard dragons joined up with the distant dragons. In seconds, a total of twenty-two dragons, all of whom had wings, were after Twilight, Sunset and Trixie.
“What’s the plan?!” shrieked Trixie.
“This!”
Twilight’s horn glowed. Three sets of four hooves were glued to the ground. Twilight, Sunset and Trixie lurched forward, their heads almost hitting the ground in front of them. Seconds later, their manes and tails were whipped around as all twenty-two of the dragons chasing them flew over their heads. Completely put off by the ponies’ sudden stop, the dragons gradually began to slow down to try and figure out what the flying feather just happened.
“Now let’s charge the castle!” called Twilight, taking the sticking spell off their hooves.

The first thing they saw when they turned back towards the castle was giant Spike. He stomped towards them growling like a rabid beast. Trixie, who was closest to him, froze in terror. Spike had definitely grown since she last saw him and she’d gotten used to the size of AltSpike.
“Watch out!” cried Sunset.
Too late. Spike reached out and grabbed Trixie by her horn, lifting her off her shivering hooves.
“Got one!” Spike growled over his shoulder.
Twilight and Sunset looked and saw Wrecks and Sinomen coming from around one of the buttresses that held up the center of the where the Crystal Heart was spinning at a creeping slow pace.
“Good boy!” called Wrecks.
“Twilight, Sunset, help me!” cried Trixie in utter panic.
Sunset put every ounce of magic in her into her stunning spell and hit Spike square in the chest. Spike barely even swayed. Twilight began to light her horn, but it quickly fizzled out.
“I…”
Spike turned towards Twilight and Sunset. Twilight looked into his monstrous face.
“I…”
Sunset didn’t give up. She shot stunner after stunner after stunner at Spike. Spike wasn’t really harmed, but the attacks were annoying him.
“I can’t!”
Twilight stumbled backwards over nothing and let the green gem drop to the ground next to her. Spike looked ferociously at Sunset first, then to Twilight. For a moment, no one moved accept for Sunset, who was still trying to subdue Spike with a stunning spell. Twilight could almost feel giant Spike’s cold gaze upon her. Despite his size, all she could see was the little dragon she knew all his life looking down at her.

Then, in one swift movement, Spike grabbed Twilight with his free claw and Sunset with his tail, shifted his grip on Trixie from her horn to her back, and threw all three ponies towards the Crystal Castle throne room. Twilight, Sunset and Trixie screamed as they sailed towards one of the windows. None of them were going anywhere near fast enough to create a Sonic Rainboom, but they were at least able to avoid severe burns from the Horeb Fire as they crashed through the glass. All three of them landed hard on the throne room floor. All of their manes and tails were singed, and they were covered in cuts from the broken glass.
“Good going, Spike my boy!” they heard Sinomen yell.
“We got them now!” called an unfamiliar voice.
Sunset and Trixie stood up and looked towards the window. The dragons they’d eluded had turned around and were now soaring towards them. Twilight looked towards the throne.

“They’re trapped in the throne room!” Sinomen called. “Surround them! Keep them in there!”
The dragon in the lead flew through the broken window. She looked around.
“Huh?!”
There was no sign of Twilight or Sunset or Trixie.
“They went out the balcony door!” she cried, running towards the end of the room.
But a dragon entering the room through the balcony door seconds later told her otherwise.
“Where’d they go?!” he asked.
Other dragons entered the throne room. Some through doors, others through the broken window, and others broke some other windows. They looked behind the curtains, behind the throne, and even under the carpet. Twilight, Sunset and Trixie were nowhere to be found.
“Well?!” called Wrecks.
“They’re gone!” called the winged dragons.
“What?! That’s impossible!” cried Sinomen. “Spike just wringed Trixie’s horn. She couldn’t have teleported them away!”
“Search the city!” Wrecks ordered.
“Send for the other dragons spread out across Equestria!” Sinomen called. “Bring them here to patrol the boarder!”
> 6 Plagued by Choice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight had used the spell Celestia had taught her to open Sombra’s secret passage to the helical staircase below the throne room, and had closed the opening again after she, Sunset and Trixie had dived into the pit. Now they were staggering down the stairs away from the floor above them. They could hear the dragons’ frustrated yelling, which faded away as they descended. Sunset was casting a light with her horn, but Trixie’s horn was still sore from Spike’s tight grip, and Twilight wasn’t feeling up to casting a light of her own at the moment. At last, the three stopped walked and sat on the stone steps looking themselves over. Trixie was fuming when she saw the burnt tip of her tail.
“Grr! I’ll never forgive that monster for what he’s done to me!” she snarled.
“You…!”
Twilight faltered, then slammed her hoof on her step.
“You’re right,” she choked. “Spike’s a monster. I’ve turned Spike into a monster.”
“No you didn’t,” objected Sunset.
“He turned into a greedy behemoth!” cried Twilight. “I did that to him. I didn’t try to stop him. I let him grow into a monster. And now he doesn’t even know who I am.”
Despite the state of her tail (which was still smoking), Trixie softened a little when she saw Twilight crumple miserably on her step.
“I could never do anything to control him when he caved in to dragon greed,” Twilight sighed. “Trying to stop him from collecting things didn’t work. Letting him collect things didn’t work. I just can’t keep him from going astray no matter what I do.”
“That’s not… you don’t…” Sunset struggled to find the right words to console Twilight.
“I try,” sobbed Twilight.
The right words came to Sunset. “Well… that’s what matters.”

“That’s what matters?” repeated Twilight.
“Nopony can say you didn’t do your best,” nodded Trixie, who suddenly looked quite solemn herself. “Same goes for you, Sunset. As for me… well, I’m…”
“Scared?” asked Sunset.
Trixie winced, then nodded again.
“At least your magic can do something,” sighed Sunset. “I’ve been away from here for so long, my magic’s next to useless.”
“All the more reason we get you home as soon as possible,” said Trixie.
“Home? But…”
“You’ve got friends in the alternate world, right?” asked Trixie.
Sunset and Trixie both smiled, but Twilight remained crestfallen.
“I just can’t bring myself to do anymore damage to Spike.”
She rolled onto her side and shut herself off from Sunset’s and Trixie’s attempts to talk her out of her misery.

By now, every invaded dragon had been summoned to the Crystal Empire to hunt for Twilight, Trixie and Sunset. The Crystal Castle was still being guarded and all the prisoners knew that Twilight had been there. As the hours passed, Wrecks and Sinomen circled the castle impatiently watching every entrance and barking orders at their army. Fluttershy knew it would be a bad idea to carry on with their diversionary tactics with Wrecks and Sinomen walking around constantly on the alert.
“If we don’t find them by the end of the day, we’ll start searching the crystal ponies’ homes!” Sinomen declared. “That Crystal Heart can shatter and sink in a ditch for all I care.”
“And remember! You’re all free to find your own homes in Equestria and do what you like once we’ve banished all the ponies!” called Wrecks.
The entire time the search was going on, Wrecks and Sinomen never noticed what Spike had been doing since he’d tossed Twilight, Sunset and Trixie into the throne room. He had picked up the green gemstone that Twilight had dropped. It looked an awful lot like an egg to him. Especially when he’d been looking down on Twilight sitting next to it.

Twilight hadn’t budged in hours, but before the day was over, she finally snapped out of her misery when she heard the distance echo of Trixie’s voice.
“Twilight! Look what we’ve found!”
Twilight looked up. Trixie and Sunset had clearly left her to brood. Then she realized that the voice came from down below. She sat up in alarm.
“The door!”
She spread her wings and dived down through the center of the helical staircase.
“Don’t open the door!”
She reached the bottom of the stairs, and was surprised to find that Trixie and Sunset weren’t talking about the door. They had found something much more interesting.
“Smokescreen!” she snapped. “The dragon egg thief.”
“Don’t start with me,” said Smokescreen threateningly. “If I hadn’t taken that egg and sent those two dragons away, they’d have built up in army down in those caves and taken over Equestria just like they’ve done now.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Do I have your word on that?”
“I suppose Sunset here told you I was routing for her as Princess Celestia’s protégé,” said Smokescreen. “But I really don’t have anything against you.”
“Is that why you left us with a supply of Blue Giants without telling us about the health risk?” Twilight tilted her head.

Before Twilight, Sunset or Trixie could stop him, Smokescreen turned himself into smoke and began swirling around the bottom of the staircase.
“I might add that if it weren’t for me, Shining Armour’s force field would have failed on its own!” his voice surrounded them. “Believe me when I say I’m on the side of the Equestrian citizens.”
“Then come down and join us!” shouted Sunset.
“I’m not going to prison for setting up that illegal exam!” insisted Smokescreen’s voice. “I won’t go to prison! Forget about me. But bare this in mind. I have just reduced the size of my force field now that all the invading dragons are back in the Crystal Empire. Now all that’s left is for you to drive them into the portal.”
“But we can’t get to the portal with every dragon searching the empire,” objected Trixie.
“That’s no reason not to try,” were Smokescreen’s final words before his translucent smoggy form disappeared from sight.

As the draft Smokescreen had created died down, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie saw something blowing around. Something dark pink and flat. Twilight saw that Trixie had recovered from her injury as she magiced the mysterious object still.
“What is this?” asked Trixie.
All three of them examined it.
“Wait…” Sunset glared at the floating pink thing. “That looks like a flower petal. From… the flower that came from the Tree of Harmony. Trixie, did you sit on that flower or something?”
“I don’t know,” shrugged Trixie.
“There’s a silver hair stuck to it,” Sunset pointed at the singed strand on the petal. “You must have rolled over in your sleep and crushed the flower.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open.
“What is it?” asked Sunset when she noticed.
“That gem…” said Twilight. “Could it have come from the flower?”
“No,” Trixie waved a hoof. “I found that gem wedged in the ground beneath me. It couldn’t have come from the flower.”
“Then it’s the other way around,” said Twilight. “The flower came from the gemstone. It could be… some kind of… magic element.”
“You mean it’s another Element of Harmony?” asked Sunset.
“Well…” Twilight thought carefully. “It would be a seed rather than a fruit like the Elements of Harmony we know about. But if it is a magical item, what would have activated it to make that flower grow out of it?”
“Well, we can’t figure it out if we don’t have it,” sighed Sunset. “We’ve left it behind. I guess the only thing left for us to do is try and get to the portal and let Discord in so he can show all the dragons the lost dog fliers.”

Their only exit was the door at the bottom of the stairs, which was surely the only way Smokescreen had entered this chamber. When Twilight remembered that Sombra’s dark magic would no longer be contained in it, she edged towards it and slowly opened it. Heat poured into the room. The Horeb Fire was still going. They couldn’t get too close to the door. They would have to charge out to avoid getting burns. That would hinder their chances of going undetected. The first thing Twilight saw was that night had fallen. The full moon looked like it was on the verge of reaching its peak.
“We haven’t got a lot of time,” she whispered to Sunset and Trixie.
When she pushed the door a little further, she gulped.
“It’s Spike,” she said hoarsely.
“What’s he doing?” asked Trixie.
“Um… he’s looking down at something. Wait… it’s the gemstone.”
Sunset and Trixie looked through the crack in the open door along with Twilight. Spike was still as massive as he had been when he tossed them away, but his face didn’t look anything resembling monstrous. They didn’t know what he was thinking, and they didn’t know how to proceed.

Spike wasn’t sure what he was thinking either. His perspective on everything had changed after he saw Twilight sitting before him with the round, green object lying next to her. When he’d been looking down at her, she looked like a filly with an egg. He had never actually seen the egg he’d come from and he could never be consistent about the subject of its colour whenever he told anyone absolutely everything about himself. In any case, much like seeing a specific pony and a specific object had triggered significant memories about his true nature before, Spike was once again recalling memories of his past in which he’d bonded with a pony in a meaningful way. Despite his experiences with those teenage dragons he’d met, not knowing who his parents were had still nagged at him the same way not knowing for certain whether or not she was related to the Apples nagged at Pinkie Pie from time to time. Spike had thought that he could not be happier that Wrecks and Sinomen had found him, but now that he was looking at them, they didn’t seem all that interested in him. They’d chattered happily all the way from the caves beneath Canterlot to the Crystal Empire, but after they’d arrived, they’d hardly exchanged any words or even seen each other. Come to think of it, all Wrecks and Sinomen had actually talked to him about was their army of dragons. He was wondering if Wrecks and Sinomen were more concerned with their numbers than their long-lost baby. He looked around. Wrecks and Sinomen were close by gazing up at the dragons who were patrolling the city.

Twilight, Sunset and Trixie looked down at the streets. They couldn’t see the Crystal Heart, but when they saw some of the smaller dragons entering and exiting the buildings, they were sure it must be revolving once per hour.
“I hope Cadance doesn’t wear herself out again,” groaned Twilight.
“Hey!”
Twilight jumped. She and Sunset backed away from the door.
“Don’t worry,” whispered Trixie. “He’s not looking at us.”
Twilight and Sunset looked out of the door crack again. Spike was looking at his parents, who were facing the other way. It seemed they hadn’t heard Spike.
“Hey!” called Spike again. “Mom! Dad!”
Sinomen turned around. “Oh. Wrecks, Spike’s talking to us.”
They both walked towards Spike.
“What is it?” asked Wrecks.
“I want to know if you really care about me,” said Spike.
“Sure we do,” said Wrecks. “We’re your parents.”
“You might be my parents,” said Spike.
“We did have an egg stolen from us in that cave,” insisted Sinomen. “And you said you were given to Princess Twilight as an egg. What else do you want?”
“I want… to be your son. Not just part of your army.”
“Oh, is that what’s bugging you?” asked Wrecks. “Look, we’re just busy trying to round up all the ponies who can stop us before we can settle into this place.”
“Well, I’ve got issues with that, too,” said Spike.
“Why? It’s because of these ponies that you never knew us,” stated Sinomen.
“Maybe, but I’ve got an interesting story to tell you,” said Spike, smiling. “My earliest memory.”

The memory Spike spoke of was fuzzy, but there were a number of things he could recall clearly enough to describe, and Twilight had filled in several blanks on a previous occasion. He’d hatched barely an hour ago. He’d never left his cart. He was being wheeled down a hallway by somepony he hadn’t seen since. There was yelling coming from the door they’d just gone through. Twilight, as young as Apple Bloom currently was, bounded into the hall.
“Wait! Where are you taking him!” she shouted.
“I am taking him to the lab,” replied the scratchy voice of the pony pulling the cart.
“You’re not gonna hurt him, are you?!” asked Twilight, slightly hysterically.
“We may have to if we want to find out…”
Twilight started shaking. “But he’s just a baby!”
Princess Celestia entered the hall.
“Twilight?”
“Princess Celestia, I don’t want that dragon to be given harmful tests,” said Twilight.
“I’ve told you, Twilight,” Celestia said. “You’ve been subjected to an illegal entrance test. If you want to know, I am mortified that a foal has been exposed to a dragon here in my own school.”
“I was mortified, too,” said Twilight. “I made him grow huge! But I think he’s totally harmless. And he could stay that way if we let him stay in Equestria.”

For a second, Twilight had a knot in her stomach. She’d actually had a hoof in Spike becoming a huge dragon three times. But then she spotted what Sunset, Trixie, Wrecks and Sinomen had. It was happening so gradually, that no one had seen it until now. As Spike was reciting his story to the audience of dragons, he was shrinking. Wrecks and Sinomen were pretending not to notice.
“So you were taken from Twilight as well as us,” said Sinomen, one eyebrow lowered. “Then you were returned to her, and then we found you. So what’s the difference?”
“The difference,” said Spike, continuing to decrease in size, “is that after Princess Celestia decided to let her keep me and I was given to her, she didn’t leave me for weeks. I was always with her. She loved me. I’d only been away from her one day while Celestia discussed things with some of her advisors. Whereas you two haven’t seen me in years, but you keep wandering off to talk to your oh-so-impressive army.”
As Spike became smaller and smaller, the green gemstone he was holding became more pronounced.
“What’s that you’re holding?” asked Wrecks.
“Something that helped remind me who I really am,” said Spike confidently.

The last time Spike had reverted to his normal size, he’d gone airborne where his large head had been. The same was happening now even though he had been shrinking at a slower rate. At last he noticed he’d shrunk. He was about to fall just like last time, but he was close enough to the ledge that he could catch it. He clambered onto the flat surface and could hear laughter coming from below.
“You really want to go back to living with ponies?!” jeered a familiar voice.
Spike, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie saw the rat-faced dragon that had nearly caught them in the barn.
“They’re just like humans,” he went on. “They forget about you after a while.”
The other dragons nodded and voiced their agreement with the rat-faced dragon. Wrecks and Sinomen didn’t look so amused. Suddenly, they each raised a claw and thrust it into the castle walls, which were still flaming. They retracted their claws just as quickly. Spike gasped. Wrecks had Rainbow Dash in his clutches, and Sinomen had Applejack in hers.
“You only think these ponies know the right way to act because they control some magical artefacts that make life more comfortable for themselves,” growled Wrecks.
“Can you honestly say that you’d rather side with them than your real family?” asked Sinomen, shaking Applejack about so much that her hat fell off.
“Put them down!” Spike shouted, pointing at Sinomen with the claw he was holding the green gemstone with. “They’re my friends and I’m on their side!”

A beam of green light burst from the gemstone Spike was holding and hit Applejack, who began to transform. Everyone watched in shock as, right there in Sinomen’s claws, her mane and tail lengthened and her cutie mark expanded. Then, a trickle of orange light slid up Sinomen’s arm and a white aura surrounded her. Sinomen shut her eyes tightly, and then they flung open.
“You’re completely right!” she called out in a loud yet monotone voice as though she couldn’t help herself. “Me and Wrecks wanted an army more than we wanted children!”
“Shh!” hissed Wrecks, still holding an utterly bewildered Rainbow Dash.
“We’d been hiding in the caves beneath Canterlot because we wanted to raise our children to become big destructive dragons so we could take over Equestria!” Sinomen carried on talking loudly. “That’s why there are so many gemstones in that cave! They’re not lost treasure from plunderers or whatever the story is!”
“A-ha!” called Spike triumphantly. “And what about your army?”
“Don’t tell them!” Wrecks hollered.
“We tricked all these dogs into joining us by stealing the lost dog posters their owners made to make them think they were unwanted!”

As if on cue, the Crystal Empire was suddenly blanketed in lost dog fliers. The first to find one pertaining to himself was the ratty dragon.
“Well if that don’t take the biscuit!” he exclaimed. “Silver Spoon has been looking for me.”
From Sombra’s door, Twilight, Sunset and Trixie watched as, slowly but surely, each of the almost one-hundred dragons was finding their own reward poster and discovering the truth Wrecks and Sinomen had concealed from them. Then they heard whistling and looked up. There was Discord flying above the city carrying the Mirror Portal.
“Who wants to go for a ride?!” he called to the dragons.
“How in Tartarus did he get out?!” asked Twilight.
Trixie saw that Discord had a passenger clinging to his back. Heavy Light.
“The sheep lifted the mirror for him!” she exclaimed.

Applejack had just slid out of Sinomen’s grasp. She gently floated down to the ground and then returned to normal. She ran briskly away from Sinomen, who was still wide-eyed, but didn’t seem to know what was happening.
“Sinomen! Look what you did!” shouted Wrecks. “They’re leaving!”
Sinomen blinked, rubbed her head, and looked around. Dragons were flying up to where Discord was carrying the Mirror Portal. Many of the winged dragons were carrying the ones without wings into the sky. Three of them approached the castle and took deep breaths. The Horeb Fire that covered the castle was sucked into their months.
“So long, liars!” said one of them as the three of them went to join the throng of departing dragons.
Sinomen shot Spike an enraged glare.
“You and your stupid ponies cost us our army!” she screamed.
Spike yelled in fright as the inside of Sinomen’s mouth glowed red. Twilight, no longer barred by the Horeb fire, shot out of Sombra’s door and cast a force field spell between Spike and Sinomen just in time. Sinomen snarled and shot more fire. Twilight stood boldly in front of Spike and kept up her shield. Sinomen’s attacks came at them in quick bursts. They could feel the ledge shake.

Trixie looked up.
“Sunset, you have to get through the portal too! The moon’s gonna change any minute now! I’ll… I’ll cover you!”
Sunset gasped as Trixie charged out into the open and fired stunning spells at Sinomen. Sinomen was able to block the spells with her fire, which carried on rocketing towards Twilight’s force field. Sunset could see that roughly half of the invading dragons were left and were flying up to the portal Discord was holding. But she could hear Trixie whimpering despite the intensity of the stunners she was shooting at her opponent. She knew she couldn’t leave now. She too jumped onto the cracking ledge and joined the battle. Between Sinomen’s fire blasts, Twilight’s force field being hit, and Trixie and Sunset shooting stunners, there was a great deal of noise.
“Stop or I’ll crush her!” Wrecks voice could be heard above the bangs and pops.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“Ow!”
Spike and the ponies were alarmed. Wrecks was still holding Rainbow Dash, and was squeezing her tightly.
“Sorry, I meant stop AND I’ll crush her!” snarled Wrecks, ignoring the sight of his precious army flying away from him.
“OW!” Rainbow cried, Wrecks’ grip tightening. “Stop him, somepony!”
“Don’t none of you move!” Wrecks barked threateningly.

Spike didn’t have to move. A green beam shot from his gemstone. This time, it was deliberate. Spike had aimed right at Rainbow Dash, whose hair lengthened and cutie mark expanded. A thin red light crept up Wrecks’ arm. Wrecks shut his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them again.
“Now let’s see for sure who he really is loyal to,” Spike said quietly to Twilight, Sunset and Trixie.
Wrecks let go of Rainbow Dash, who flew away from him and reverted to normal. Sinomen stared at Wrecks, who was watching his army enter the portal one by one.
“Wait!” he cried.
Discord was flying low enough for Wrecks to reach the portal with a single bound.
Sinomen spluttered in fury. “Alright! I’m leaving! You win, ponies!”
Nearly all the dragons had left now. Sinomen spun around and knelt down to take her own jump into the portal the next time Discord came around with it. But as Sinomen turned, she stretched her tail sharply towards Spike. With her claw-like nails, she grabbed the green gemstone off of him, jumped, and disappeared into the mirror.
“She took the gem!” exclaimed Spike.
There was a crack as the weakened ledge finally gave way under the weight of Twilight, Spike, Trixie and Sunset. Trixie managed to step back into the staircase chamber, and Twilight flapped her wings to stay airborne with Spike grabbing her hoof, but Sunset dropped like a rock. She was about to teleport herself to safety when she heard Discord shout “Last call!” The Draconequus slithered down through the air towards the base of the tower and held the mirror beneath Sunset like a net.

CLUNK.

The glass was solid. Sunset looked up at the sky. The moon was no longer perfectly round.
“Oopsie,” said Discord. “Looks like you’ve missed your chance.”
Sunset teleported down to the ground. Her heart sank. She knew she’d risked being stuck in Equestria and being unable to return to her friends at Canterlot High, and for one shining moment, she thought she was going to make it.
“Thirty moons,” she groaned.
Twilight flew down to Sunset, Spike riding on her back. Trixie teleported close by and walked up to them.
“Sunset, don’t forget our books,” said Twilight.
Sunset stared, then she smacked her forehead.
“Of course!”
“But please, do not leave us just yet!” came two voices.

Everything seemed to happen at once. Princesses Celestia and Luna flew down and walked up to Twilight, Spike, Sunset and Trixie looking happier than any of them had ever seen them.
“How are Cadance and Shining Armour?” Twilight asked right away.
“They’ve both dropped off to sleep,” replied Luna. “They’ve had a trying time keeping up their magic nonstop.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash stormed up to Twilight and Spike.
“Way to go, guys!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“I dunno what the heck y’all did to us,” said Applejack, “but I’m sure glad ya did it!”
“What was that thing anyway?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Before Twilight could attempt to answer, two loud noises filled the air. One was the sound of cheering. It was coming from the buildings around the castle. When Twilight and company looked, they saw crystal ponies exiting their homes and shouting ecstatically about finally being free from the dragons. The other noise was a whirring sound. Everyone looked towards the Crystal Heart. It was picking up momentum at a tremendous rate. Within seconds, multihue light burst from it and spread across the city and the sky above. The ponies became crystalized. Everypony was glistening, and very happy.

Morning came. Trumpets sounded.
“Her Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” announced Flash Sentry. “And the Great and Honourable Spike, the Brave and Glorious!”
Twilight and Spike stepped along the red carpet towards the throne. They bowed to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour, who were both pale and baggy-eyed despite being rested up. The two rulers of the Crystal Empire bowed back to Twilight and Spike, and stepped aside. Twilight faced the crowd. Some were crystal ponies, others were not. She and the other ordinary ponies who’d been in the Crystal Empire when the dragons were sent away had long since returned to normal.
“Mares and Stallions,” Twilight said to the crowd, “having assurance from Princess Celestia that I have the power to do so…”
She saw her old mentor standing off to one side, who nodded once.
“I am honoured to confer knighthoods upon two ponies who have courageously risked the very things they live for for the sake of contributing to the offence against the invading dragons,” Twilight went on.
The trumpets sounded again.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie!” announced Flash. “And Sunset Shimmer, the Ambassador to the Alternate World!”
Trixie and Sunset were both red in the face as they walked along the middle of the cheering crowd.

Twilight smiled as Sunset and Trixie walked up to her and knelt down. Spike exhaled some green fire, from which dropped two shiny gold medals. He held them to Twilight, who magiced them into the air in front of Sunset and Trixie.
“For your help in discovering more to the Elements of Harmony than has been known before, and for your devotion to atonement for past illegalities and to averting a national crisis,” said Twilight, “I hereby grant you, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, the title of Knights of Harmony!”
The throne room echoed with cheers and applause as Twilight placed a medal each on Sunset and Trixie. The two newly knighted unicorns stood up and faced the crowd.
“I shall uphold this title by finding the mysterious object that was found beneath the Tree of Harmony, and returning it to Equestria!” Sunset declared.
A round of applause greeted this statement.
“As for me, my first act as a knight will be to seek out the unicorn Smokescreen and bring him to Princess Celestia so that he can be sentenced accordingly for theft, evading arrest, and production of illegal goods!” Trixie proclaimed.
Another round of applause. Princess Celestia stepped forward.
“Now, to reward Princess Twilight, her scribe, and her Knights of Harmony…!”
Celestia’s horn glowed. A curtain on the wall fell. There for all to see was a stain glass window depicting the defeat of Wrecks and Sinomen by Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Sunset Shimmer, and Trixie Lulamoon.