> Spike the... WHO?
>  by AngelShy24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Off the Edge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Today was a special day for Spike, the only dragon resident living in the town of Ponyville. In fact, he was the only dragon living in any populated town. It was morning and Spike was up and standing in front of a mirror inside the throne room of Twilight’s castle checking himself over and making a few poses while talking to himself.
“Oh yeah. Looking good, Spike; looking real good. Gotta look your best for when you arrive at the Crystal Kingdom.”
Twilight was out doing some morning errands, and Spike was doing this since he was alone at the time; except for Owlicious who was lightly shaking his head watching the young dragon. But Spike didn’t notice that Twilight came back sooner than he thought; and she saw him and smirked as she said…
“Having fun talking to yourself, Spike?”
“T-T-Twilight!” shouted Spike as he fell back after hearing her behind him, “Heh, I-I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”
“It was just out for a few errands, Spike; and you were asleep when I left. So it's not like I went out for too long.”
After coming in and setting her stuff down, Twilight mentioned to Spike, “I’m all happy for you, Spike; but… you really shouldn’t let this kind of thing get to you.”
“I know, Twilight; but can you blame me. It's one thing to be known by a whole kingdom as a hero. But having a fan club that’s dedicated to you… now that’s something to be proud of!”
“I bet it is,” said Twilight with a light chuckle.
“I made a good impression on them the first time, so I need to make sure that I take things up a notch when I go there today. Can’t let my fans down!”
Twilight just shook her head as she said, “All of that is fine. All I’m asking is that you don’t get a big head. Trust me, it never ends well.”
“Don’t worry, Twilight; you know me. I would never let anything like that happen to me.”
Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the front entrance door,and Spike quickly rushed to it. “I’ll get it!” Once he opened it, two stallions of Celestia’s Royal Guard were standing outside with a carriage awaiting for Spike’s departure. “Looks like my royal cohort awaits.”
“Are you ready to depart, Sir Spike?” said one of the guards.
“You know I am! Just need to grab a few more things.”
Spike rushed back into castle and then came back with three whole suitcases full of belongings. But before he could carry them out, Twilight brought them back with her magic as he told him, “I don't think all of that is necessary, Spike. You’re just going for one whole day. Besides, Princess Cadence will provide everything that you need back at her castle.”
“Heh, alright,” said Spike as he suddenly grabbed one of the suitcases, “I’ll just take this one. It has some of my favorite comics and a few other little things to help bide some time.”
“Sounds reasonable enough to me,” Twilight chuckled.
Spike took his baggage and then hopped in the carriage ready to set off to the Crystal Kingdom. The guards spread their wings and took off into the sky. Twilight called out to Spike to remind him, “Have fun, Spike! And remember…”
“Don’t get a big head and think that you're the king of the world,” Spike stated, “I know; I promise that I won't! But if others shower me with praise, you know I can't ignore it!”
Once Spike and the two guards were out of sight, Twilight just shook her head knowing that Spike had a point. She went back inside her castle to attend to things while as she was wondering of what Spike was going to do with his fans this time.
“Well I'm glad that Spike has his own fan club that admires him. Better for him than me I'll say. That whole ‘Twilight Time’ thing was getting way out of hand.”
---------------- 
After more than an hour passed, The two stallions escorting Spike were finally reaching their destination. Spike could see the kingdom up ahead and he was already getting ecstatic.
“And there it is; the Crystal Kingdom! I never would’ve thought that I would end up saving this kingdom not just once, but twice! I'm still considered to be a baby dragon and yet I was able to to pull off such an amazing feat! It's crazy, am I right.”
“It is definitely… unusual, sir,” said one of the guards.
“Heh, but that's enough thinking about me. It's time to think about something much more important… my fans!”
The two guards couldn’t help but look at each other and rolled their eyes.
As they reached the Crystal Palace, the guards came in for a smooth landing on the castle grounds. Princess Cadence was there waiting for him to show up; and Spike bowed as he came out of the carriage.
“Welcome back to the Crystal Kingdom, Spike,” said Cadence as she bowed back, “It's nice to see you again.”
“Good to be back, Princess Cadence,” said Spike as he began to walk with Cadence, “After all, I have a major duty to perform!”
“And by duty you mean… pleasing your fan club?”
“Well… yeah! Making sure that fans still love for everything you do is very important! But… you know, I'll try to keep it professional; you know, play it cool.”
Cadence then brought up a very important topic, “Just keep in mind that you shouldn't let all of this attention go to your head. Remember the last time when your fans convinced you to reenact the moment when you protected the Crystal Heart with a fake one? Thank Celestia for that.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that,” said Spike sheepishly, “Didn't mean to miscalculate my jump and give you a backache for a week.”
“Well… that’s all water under the bridge. Just don’t give in again, okay?”
“Will do!”
Cadence eventually led Spike near the edge of the castle grounds where Spike’s fan club was laying in wait. They were all so excited to finally see him here.
“Everyone, look; he's here!”
Spike stepped forward towards the cheering fillies and colt feeling honored and proud to be looked up to; but he soon broke the news to them. “Hello, everypony! It's nice to be here, and I’m sure you’re all looking forward to hanging out with me. But just to be clear… there will be no more re enactment of my awesomeness from now on.”
All of the foals groaned in disappointment wishing that he didn’t say that.
“Yeah, sorry; order from the Princess. But don’t worry, isn’t hearing about my feats and hanging out with me and giving me your own opinions about things enough?”
They did all agreed to that though and understood that his only excuse came from Cadence. But suddenly, Spike noticed a certain filly in the group that he never saw before.
“Oh… what’s this? It's seems like we have a new member in this club.”
However, she seemed to be a bit more hyper than the rest as she suddenly got very close to Spike. “Hi, Mister Spike! My name is Loopy Lola! Ever since I learned of what you did, I’ve become a big, big fan of yours! I know who you’re friends with, I know almost everything you have done… through inside sources of course, and knowing you has made me become interested in knowing more of your kind!” Then out of nowhere, she pulled out two plushies that looked very familiar. “Plus, I made a homemade plushie of me… and you; and I pretend sometimes that we kiss and get marry and one day have little pony/dragon babies!”
Spike and the rest of the foals were at a loss for for words staring at weird acting filly. Spike backed up a bit while hesitantly saying, “Whoa… major red flag springing up all of a sudden.” 
“She’s a friend of ours,” said one of the other foals, “She can be a bit… weird about you sometimes.”
“You seem nice and all, Loopy Lola;” said Spike, “but… you might wanna tone down on the loopy just a little bit. You can start by putting those away... and giving me some personal place… please?”
The young filly suddenly jumped back and threw away the plushies as she smiled and stated, “Sure! Anything for you, Spike!”
“Okay then!” said Spike with slight relief, “That was easier than I thought. Now how about we get this day started! What do you foals wish to do first?”
“Spike, you just got here,” Candace chuckled, “Don’t you want to get yourself settled down first and maybe have a little something to eat? And since they’re here, I guess I allow them to follow and join you as well?”
Spike suddenly felt his tummy rumble and was reminded that he never did have anything to eat this morning before he left Ponyville. So he agreed, “Sure, why not!”
And all the other foals cheered knowing that they were going to be able to explore Cadence's Palace with Spike. Suddenly, Spike found the loopy filly close to him again and lightly pushed her away as he asked Cadence, “But, uh… do me a favor and keep an eye on that one for me? I love any fan of mine that comes forth, but she’s obviously named Loopy for a reason.”
“I’ll do my best, Spike,” Cadance chuckled.
-------------------
From that moment, Spike was in for a huge day with his fan club. He showed them his possessions that he brought with him… in which Loopy Lola loved really much, toured the palace, played tag in the crystal park, hung out with Shining Armor and much more. Spike’s fan club didn’t get to spend time with him often; so when they do, they want to have as much fun with him as they could. Spike was used to it now, but having that new member around proved to be a little troubling. He knew that she was going to be one fan that he was never going to forget.
After spending almost a whole day with his fan club and said goodbye to them, Spike was wiped out and crashed onto the bed that Candace had ready for him in her palace. Well… first he had a few gems to tie him over, and then he crashed. There, he slept through the night. The next following day, Spike slept in about 3 hours after 7am before he finally got up from his slumber. He slowly walked through the halls until he came to the room with the dining table where his breakfast was made and all ready for him. He sat down and began digging in before Cadence suddenly walked in and noticed him.
“Morning, Spike. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Like a baby,” Spike replied with a stuffed mouth, “Man… yesterday was so tiring. Wonderful and great, but tiring. Who would’ve thought that it would be so exhausting to be adored so much.”
“Trust me, Spike,” said Cadence, “us Princesses know exactly what you’re feeling; and sometimes we feel like it's like that almost every day.”
“Yes, well… as much as I would love to experience that much dedication every day, I don’t think that I would be able to handle it. I’ll just leave that to the pros.”
As Spike sat there continuing to eat his breakfast, Shining came in unknowing that Spike was in the room and went over to his wife. “Morning, Cadence.” He then gave her a little kiss on her cheek and placed his hoof across her shoulders and said, “I sure hope I made your night a… loving experience.”
Blushing from embarrassment, Cadance said, “Um… honey?”
She pointed behind Shining at the table. He turned around only to find Spike sitting there chewing while arching his eyebrow and waving.
“O-oh… Spike, y-you’re up! I almost forgot that you were… here. Heh… this is awkward.”
Spike just shrugged and said, “Hey, she’s your mare. Don’t let me stop you.”
After Spike finished his breakfast, he spent a little time relaxing and reading some of his comics before gathering his stuff to leave for Ponyville. Cadance accompanied him outside where she had a couple of her royal guards (who were actually the same two from before) waiting for his departure.
“Make sure that he travels back to Ponyville safely, okay?” said Cadance, “Twilight wouldn't be happy if something bad happened to him.”
“Of course, Princess Cadence;” said one of the guards, “we will protect him with our lives.”
“Whoa whoa…” said Spike slightly freaking out, “Heh; I appreciate the dedication to keep me safe, but… no need to go that far. However… there could be some nasty creatures out there who wouldn’t care for the well-being of a baby dragon like me; so I guess protecting me would be good… just don’t lose your life over it.”
“I wholeheartedly agree,” said Cadance, “but I’m sure you’ll be fine overall on the path back to Ponyville. What I said was just a… cautionary necessity.”
Once they were set, the pony guards took off in the air; and Spike was waving at Cadence as he went off. “See ya, Cadence! Thanks again for the hospitality!”
“Sure thing, Spike!” Cadence shouted, “And tell Twilight that I might swing by her place for a visit sometime soon!”
“Will do!”
Shining Armor soon appeared behind Cadence as they watched Spike go off in the distance. He said right beside her ear, “So… he’s finally gone… isn’t he?”
Cadence chuckled as she pushed his snout back and responded, “Don’t even think about it, Shining; I have royal duties to attend to… and so do you.”
“Right right,” said Shining nervously, “But anyway… you wished Spike safe travel back to Ponyville, right?”
“I did, but I don’t think he has anything to worry about. It should be smooth sailing for him.”
As Cadence walk off back into the palace, a certain thought came to his mind that made him curious. ‘But wait… doesn't their path go nearby the… nah! Cadence is right, there’s nothing to worry about.’
--------------
Spike was laying back and relaxing in the chariot enjoying the ride back to his home in Ponyville. However after more than 10 minutes went by, Spike remembered something that was on his mind for a while ever since he was brought to the Crystal Kingdom. He leaned over the front of the chariot and got the guards’ attention.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask… do you two ever smile?”
The two guards looked at each other with arched eyes. Of them then answered, “What kind of a question is that? Of course we can smile.”
“Well… can you two show me one… please?”
“S-s-sorry… Mister Spike,” said the other guard, “but… we can’t. We need to keep a professional profile look at all times.”
Spike then rolled his eyes as he fell back in the chariot complaining, “Ugh, seriously? Do every member of the Royal guard never smile? Isn’t that kinda part of the whole… harmony and friendship deal around here? Sometimes I think you ponies take your job a little too seriously. Who says you can’t smile and look professional at the same time? The only time you should really look professional is when you know for sure that there’s some kind of danger around. A danger like…”
“DRAGONS!” shouted one of the guards.
“Well yeah, I guess dragons would be a good example; but… maybe that’s going a little too far.”
“No, I mean… dragons… right in front of us!”
Spike suddenly got up and looked forward only to see an actual group of dragons flying in their path. Although, they seemed to be facing away from them. “Whoa, that’s a huge group of dragons. It's not already time for the great dragon migration, is it?”
“Defiantly not,” said one of the guards, “These dragons must just be flying off somewhere; and we’re just here at the wrong time.”
Suddenly, one of the dragon sensed them and alerted the others as they turned around and were about attack them. Now Spike was worried.
“Sweet Celestia,” shouted one of the guards, “they’ve spotted us… and are headed straight for us! Hang on to something!”
Spike began screaming while holding on tight to one of the sides of the chariot as the two guards were dodging and maneuvering through the oncoming group of dragons, They were attacking from all sides, but the guards were skilled enough to avoid their attacks.
“Almost out of it! Just a little more…”
But suddenly, one of the dragons made a huge blow from one side so strong that when it connected, it caused the guards to lose control of their flight and began plummeting to the ground.
“Mayday! Mayday! We’re going down!”
They crashed near the edge of a nearby cliff side and tumbled across the ground. After Spike got up, he was wobbling a bit from dizziness.
“Why is everything spinning so much?”
Once he got his bearings, he looked up and saw the group of dragons that attacked them flying off away from them rather than going back at them while they were down.
“Why aren’t they continuing to attack us? They must’ve just wanted to knock us down to have a laugh at our expense. Jerks.”
“Mister Spike, are you alright?!” shouted one of the stallion guards as he came towards young dragon.
“Not to worry, I’m just fine. But you might want to ask him that question.”
Both of them saw the other guard still down on the ground. One of his hooves was majorly swollen and sore for him to walk on. He was trying to not to show any expression of discomfort, but he couldn’t help but lightly groan in pain.
“Your hoof… it looks really banged up from the impact of our landing.”
“D-don’t worry,” said the injured stallion, “it's just a little sprang.”
“A little?” said Spike staring at the swollen hoof.
The injured stallion tried to get up without stepping on his injured hoof, “It's not that bad. But at least I can still fl… AAAAUGH!” But suddenly there was as harsh crack sound when he tried to spread his wings. One of them had snapped and was now broken. He fell back on the ground groaning in pain.
“Ooh… that didn’t sound good,” said Spike.
The other stallion came up to him and looked over the broken wing and noticed what had happened. “Your  left wing is banged up as well. Great now what do we do?”
“I-I-I’ll be fine, just remember our objective. Princess Cadence instructed us to make sure that Spike gets back to Ponyville safely. You must finish that objective!”
“Are you sure you’ll be fine out here on your own?”
“Of course I will, now get going! I’ll be waiting right here when you get back.”
Spike couldn’t believe that this happened. He almost felt responsible for this seeing that it was because of him that they ran into those dragons.
“Very well then. Mister Spike, I’ll be taking you the rest of the way back to…”
“No,” said Spike suddenly.
“What was that?”
“I said no! This dude is seriously hurting even if he’s trying to not show it much; and who knows what could happen to him out here!”
The two guards looked at each other with arched eyes after hearing what Spike said. The one still standing questioned, “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying… you go back to the Crystal Kingdom and get help; and I’ll stay here and keep this one company to make sure he’s safe like the noble dragon I am.”
“But… we can’t,” said the injured stallion, “Orders from the princess…”
“The Princess didn’t take into account for this!” Spike protested, “She’ll understand.”
“You think so?”
“Of course! Um… as Princess Twilight’s royal assistant and the Hero of the Crystal Kingdom, I order you to go and get help while I stay behind! Understand?”
Spike felt kinda proud taking charge of the situation and the two stallion were a bit surprised to see the young dragon give them such a strong order. But then they agreed as the non-injured stallion flew up and started heading back towards the Crystal Kingdom.
“Well… I guess you make a good enough point. I’ll come back as soon as I can!”
“We’ll be waiting right here!” Spike shouted.
After that stallion left, the injured one looked back at Spike and gave him his thanks. “Thanks a lot, Mister Spike. You...could’ve said nothing and just let him take you back to Ponyville, but you didn’t.”
“Yeah, well… I only did what I thought was the right thing to do. Twilight did always tell me to not always put myself before others; but I think I would’ve chose to do this regardless. Besides, it's not like I’m in any hurry to get back.”
Spike then walked over to near the edge of the cliff to stare down a huge forest land down below. But suddenly, a piece of memory came to him as he remembered… “Hey wait a minute… I think I recognize this place.”
“You do?” the guard questioned. 
“Yeah. That forest down there… I remember trekking through it when I was traveling to the dragon lands to find out who I was. No wonder we ran into those dragons, the dragon lands must be nearby here.”
“Well that’s was a bit unfortunate that we didn’t realize that… going to and coming from the Crystal Kingdom.”
Spike was just standing there at the cliff’s edge enjoying the brisk breeze that went by overhead and spreading his arms out, “Well no worries. As long as I’m here, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
But unfortunately for him, he didn’t seem to notice that the foundation under him was starting to crack and give away. The injured stallion did notice but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get to him in time. So he tried to shout out to him.
“Mister Spike, look out! Get away from that ledge!”
“Huh? What was that you said?”
But it was already too late as the ground underneath Spike broke and crumbled down on the cliff side below. Spike suddenly noticed and said, “Oh, that’s what you were talking about.”
In an instant, Spike fell down and out of the stallion’s view; and he began tumbling down the cliff side.
“Mister Spike, no!”
The stallion guard couldn’t do anything to help since he was too injured and he felt like he failed mission. Meanwhile, Spike was continuing to tumble down the cliff side and not enjoying the constant scrapes and bruises he was receiving.
“Ow! Ow! This hurts… so much… more than… I thought… it would!”
Spike was hoping that his rough ride was going to be over; but it was soon going to be as his body bumped against the hump on the that sent him flying through the air and straight for a huge rock. He couldn’t avoid the upcoming impact.
“Whoa, that’s a big rock!” “This is going to hurt!”
The last thing Spike would remember would be smashing into the giant rock head first before completely blacking out into a state of unconsciousness. After that… who knows.
	
> The Wrong Crowd
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the uninjured stallion guard went back to the Crystal Kingdom to get help, Cadence sent out a small medical team to help out the other stallion that was injured. But when they got there, they noticed that Spike wasn’t with him. The injured stallion told them everything that had happened and it was soon reported to Cadence. Immediately, Cadence sent out a search team to look around the place where Spike fell and then went out to scour the forest. Twilight soon heard about it herself and literally transported to the location to help Cadence search for Spike.
They did everything they could to find Spike, but for some weird reason, he was nowhere to be found. Not even Twilight’s tracking spell helped at all. The sun was soon setting and it was beginning to get dark. There was still no sign of Spike and both Princesses were becoming very worried as they were looking over the forest from atop the cliff where Spike fell from.
“I’m sorry that we weren't able to find him, Twilight,” said Cadence, “Somehow… I feel like this was all my fault.”
“Of course it wasn’t your fault,” said Twilight, “How could anypony see this coming? You’re not to blame.”
“Your highness… ess,” said a crystal pony soldier that came up behind them with a few others, “We’ve looked everywhere in this forest, but we still could find anything.”
“We did see a nice waterfall though,” said another, “but… there was nothing behind it.”
“Thanks anyway,” said Cadence, “We appreciate the help.”
Although, Twilight was still itching to continue the search as she hovered off the cliffside, “Come on, we can’t give up. I-I’ll just summon an illumination spell and we can continue to…”
“Twilight,” said Cadence suddenly, “I know you’re worried… we all are; but… we’ve been searching for hours and it's getting dark. I’m sure Spike will be fine. He’s a strong and tough little dragon. You out of all of us should know that. Let’s regroup back at my palace and figure out what to do next.”
Twilight back at the forest hoping that she would see something at the last minute; but she soon gave in and agreed, “You’re right. Let’s… let’s go.”
Cadence signaled the other soldiers to fall back and return to the Crystal Kingdom. And as they flew off, Twilight looked back at the forest in Lament hoping that Spike was okay.
‘Don’t worry, Spike. We'll come back for you… I promise.’
--------------------
“Heh, check it out; he's finally waking up.”
“He’s going to soil himself once he sees us again.”
Somewhere in the forest unknown to any of the ponies, Spike was okay. Although, he was completely unconscious from hitting his head on a giant rock. But after much time went by, he began to wake up. He heard some voices that were around him as he was opening his eyes; but he was groaning and holding his head from a slight migraine. But when he fully opened his eyes, he saw three strange creatures looking down at him with mischievous grins.
“Heya, Spike. Remember us?”
It was three dragons that Spike had encountered from before when he went to the dragon lands; a big brown horned one named Clump, a slightly taller blonde and purple one named Fume, and the main one… a red and yellow one named Garble.
Spike was startled and shouted, “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” as he cowered a bit looking around, “W-w-where am I!? W-w-what’s going on!?”
“What’s going on?” said the one named Garble, “What’s going on here is that me and the boys here found you out cold in the forest out there and then brought you here in this secret cave behind a waterfall that very few know about. So no one knows that you’re here except us. And now that you’re awake, it's time for a little fun; right, boys?”
“Oh yeah!” shouted the other two dragons.
Spike was looking at Garble and the other two dragons and he felt that there was something off about them; but then he lost whatever he thought and scratched his head as he hesitantly asked, “Um… wh-who are you?” Then he looked at himself and became confused as he added, “Wait… wh-who am I? What… am I?”
Garble picked Spike up by the scruff of his neck and held him to his face and said, “Don’t play the dumb card with me, squirt! You know darn well who we are! That’s Clump, that’s Fume, and I’m Garble! You humiliated us with that phoenix egg heist we took you on and got help from those equine friends of yours!”
Once again, Spike said in a confusing tone, “E-e-equines?”
“You made us look like idiots! So now, it's time for some payback! But don’t worry, I’m sure you can take it.”
Garble raised up his non-holding fist and was about to plant it into Spike’s face; but Spike suddenly held up his claws and shouted, “S-s-stop! I don’t know what you’re mad about, but you got the wrong… whatever I am! I seriously have no idea who you are!”
“Don’t listen to him, Garble,” said Fume, “it's probably some trick to get you to let your guard down!”
Garble was looking at Spike’s terrified eyes and partially noticed that it might have been a different kind of terrified. But then he just tossed Spike down on the ground and scoffed, “Y-yeah, of course. Nice try, Spike, but delaying us won’t allow you to avoid your beat down.”
Just then, Spike was taking a closer look at Garble and the others and then looked at himself and noticed that they had a lot of similarities. “Hey, wait a second! You have spines on your back… just like me! You also have a tail… just like mine! And you seem to have sharp teeth and claws… just like me!”
They all looked at him in a confusing manner; and Fume questioned, “What’s he going on about?”
“Beats me,” said Clump, “I think he’s done lost his mind.”
Spike suddenly looked at them with a shy smile on his face and asked, “Hey, since you guys kinda look like me, maybe you can help me in telling me who and what I am! I am totally lost right now and you would be doing me a big favor!”
Garble was beginning to think that Spike wasn’t acting based on the way he was actually acting. He walked up closer to him and said, “So let me get this straight… you have no idea who we are?”
“Nope, no clue,” Spike responded.
“And… you have no memory of who you are or anything else?”
“Pretty much.”
And for the final test, Garble asked, “Not even… your relationship with those… ponies?”
Spike tilted his head and scratched it as he asked, “What’s… a pony?”
A sudden grin came to Garble’s face as he realized what opportunity had here. He grabbed the others closer to him and walked a little away from Spike as he said, “Hey, uh… could you give us minute to discuss something?”
“Sure, take all the time you need,” said Spike with no hesitation, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Garble got the other two dragons in a huddle circle and then told them, “Hey guys, do you realize what’s going on here right now?”
“Um… you mean that this little dragon has a screw loose and needs medical attention?” Clump answered.
Garble smacked him against his head and said, “No, you idiot! What I mean is that I don’t think that he’s playing around. He really doesn’t seem to remember anything about… anything. Do you know what this means?”
Clump and Fume looked at each other and then looked back at Garble as they both shrugged their shoulders. Garble groaned and answered for them, “Amnesia. Spike is suffering from amnesia!”
“Wait, I heard of that before,” said Fume, “Isn’t that when you lose your memory and don’t remember anything that you normally know abo… oh!”
“Exactly! Which means he’s now like a blank canvas just waiting to gain an identity! What’s even better is that he seems to trust us in helping him gain that identity; so we can mold him into anything we want! And best of all… he’ll no longer be friends with those namby pamby ponies.”
“Ah, I see where you’re going with this,” Clump chuckled, “Smart thinking, Garble.”
“I know, isn’t it?”
“Hey, um… excuse me,” Spike suddenly called out, “I-I-I know that I said you could take all the time you need; but… are you almost done with your um… discussion?”
The perfect plot was stirring in Garble’s head and he told the others, “Just follow my lead, boys.” Then all three turned back around to Spike with positive looks on their faces as Garble said, “O-o-oh yeah, sorry about the delay. Anyway… we were talking about things and now that we’re looking at you more closely… we totally made a mistake. It turns out that… you look a lot like… um, another creature that we’ve seen.”
“Yeah, whose name is also Spike for some reason,” said Clump suddenly.
Garble smacked him against the head again, “Idiot.”
“What?”
“So… my name really is Spike,” Spike pondered, “Hmm… well I guess that makes sense. I’m sure confusion like that happens all of the time.”
All three tennis dragon sighed with slight relief; and Fume said, “Well that was a close one… no thanks to you, Clump.”
Wanting to find out more, Spike asked, “So you guys know who I really am, right?”
“That’s right,” said Garble with a hidden chuckle, “You’re a dragon… just like us! We’re super tough, we do whatever we want, and don’t let others push us around!”
“Awesome!” Spike shouted, “Being a dragon sounds like it’s awesome! Wait, I noticed that you guys have those… winged thingies on your backs. But how come I don’t have that?”
“Well… most of us dragons have these so we can fly,” Garble explained, “But unfortunately, some dragons like yourself don’t. But you make up for it because you have sharp claws, strong tails and you can breathe fire.”
Spike was astonished when he saw all three other dragons take a big breath and blew huge streams of fire from their mouths. “Whoa, I can do that? Awesome!”
Spike flexed his claws, and he felt that his tail was pretty strong; but when he took a deep breath and blew very hard, just a small ball of fire came out and quickly dissipated. Clump and Fume softly chuckled to themselves, but Garble shut them up by whacking them with his tail before Spike heard.
“Yeah, um… you’re still young; so we’ll work on that.”
“Right,” said Spike sheepishly as he lightly blushed from embarrassment, “Wow, I’m already learning so much about myself! I wonder where I’ve lived all this time and what I’ve been doing with my life?”
Garble then looked at the other two and gave them a wink before they all turned back to Spike wearing a fake disappointed expression, “Yeah, about that… this is the part that pains us to tell you about.”
Feeling troubled by Garble’s comment, Spike questioned, “Wh-wh-what do you mean?”
“You see… what I'm trying to tell ya is… that you were taken away from your own kind.”
“T-t-taken Away? “
“Yeah,” said Clump, “We heard that as an egg, you were stolen… and, uh… was forced… to live amongst the race of creatures called… ponies.”
“That word again!” Spike gasped while not knowing what that really was, “Ponies… ugh, they sound dreadful.”
“Oh they are,” said Garble, “They center their lives around stupid boring stuff like love, friendship and harmony; but the way they treated you was anything but. When you hatched, they did nurture you and cared for you well; but once you were old enough, they treated you like a slave. You were forced to become a slave labor to a unicorn pony named… Twilight Sparkle!”
Spike gasped again hearing Garble’s lie; but then he froze and then started having a certain thought, “Twilight… Sparkle? Why does that name sound a bit… familiar?”
Even Garble was trying to figure out some to take advantage of Spike was trying to remember; but then Fume quickly said, “Well… b-because it Should! She’s the one that literally owned you! She made you do her chores all of the time, made you clean all around her house, and run many stupid, restless errands! And what's even worse, she even lends you to her friends and let them have their way with you to!”
Spike suddenly forgot was he was trying to remember and actually believed what Garble and his friends told him instead. He became upset a little angry feeling that he was taken from his own kind and was forced to slave labor against his own will.
“I… I-I-I can’t believe it!” Spike exclaimed, “So these pony creatures just took me away from my own kind and made me their… slave?! That’s so not cool! Why didn’t any of you or any other dragons try to save me?!”
Once again, Garble and his companions were thinking of how to counter that question. But then Garble said, “Oh… w-we would’ve, but… once they took you, you were out of our jurisdiction… or something like that. There was nothing we could do! If we did, then… their nasty princess rulers would punish us… severely!”
Spike became a bit frighten by that comment and thought that it was an understandable excuse. “So… what happened? How did I end out here with you guys?”
“We don’t know,” said Garble, “but we’re guessing that you found a perfect opportunity to run away and escape from that town that kept you captive. And somehow, you ended up hitting your head on something while you were trying to get away. That would explain your loss of memory.”
“Wow,” said Spike while pondering on everything that was said to him, “this is all starting to make sense now! I mean… why would I do the bidding of some… pony creatures anyway? I’m a dragon, and dragons do whatever they want, right?!”
“You got that right, Spike!” Garble shouted, “So what are you going to do now that you know the truth?”
Spike thought about it and then came up with a simple solution, “You know what I think? I think we should go down to Ponyville with other dragons like us, capture them and make them work for us! That ought to teach them to mess with my kind! Who’s with me?!”
“Whoa whoa!” said Garble feeling a bit troubled, “Love the enthusiasm, kid, but… why don’t we think on something like that later. Right now we should return to our mainland while there are no ponies searching around for you. Care to see your real home?”
Spike’s eyes suddenly lit up as he said, “Is that a trick question? What are you waiting for?! Lead the way!”
Garble, Clump and Fume a grinned at each other proudly as all three of them got in front of Spike and started leading him out from the cave. Spike boldly followed along feeling eager and excited about seeing a place filled with more of his kind.
“Your plan worked like a charm, Garble,” whispered Clump, “He actually fell for your story.”
“Of course it worked,” said Garble with a mischievous grin, “With his mind being blank, we were able to easily turn that little dragon brain of his against his old beliefs from being friends with those ponies. Will make a real dragon out of him yet.” 
Unknown to them however, Spike still trying to ponder on something on his mind.
‘I’m still curious though… what was it that I was trying to think of before they told me what really happened to me? Heh, oh well. I’m pretty sure it was nothing.’
--------------------
Back at the Crystal Kingdom, Cadence and Twilight Sparkle was recuperating in the throne room at the Crystal Palace after looking long and hard for Spike who to them had suddenly disappeared after falling down a cliff hillside. They were going over everything that they have done so far and were carefully thinking of what they could do next.
“I just don’t get it,” said Twilight while pacing back and forth, “How could Spike just disappear like that. Its not like Spike to not at least try to find his way back. With everypony that was helping us search, I figured that we would find something.”
“What about your tracking spell thing?” said one of the guards, “did that help out at all?”
“It did at first, but that spell only works when the subject is moving on its own. My magic led me from where he fell and it led me straight down that hillside. The trail had ended near the bottom; but I suddenly noticed that my magic picked up a single spot on a nearby boulder where he probably was and another on the ground in front of it. Other than that, my magic couldn’t find anything else.”
“That is rather odd,” said Cadence while sitting in her throne, “Perhaps he was propelled into the air during the fall and then landed on that boulder and fell off of it. Maybe he was… knocked out?”
“I don’t know,” said Twilight, “Just thinking about what could’ve happened to him worries me greatly. But like I said before, I’m not giving up. Spike is my friend, and I won’t stop until I find him… no matter what!”
Cadence smiled as she got out of her throne and walked down to Twilight to give her a little hug to comfort her.
“I have no doubt that you won’t ever give up; but do take my recommendation to rest on it before you continue. Besides it’s like I already said, Spike is pretty tough for his size. He can take care of himself until you do.”
“Heh, of course he is,” Twilight agreed, “He can fend for himself when he wants to.”
“So tell me… what do you plan on doing next in finding Spike?” Cadence questioned.
Twilight did have a few ideas roaming around in her mind, but there was one in paticular that stood out as she gave Cadence a little smirk, “Well… out of everything that we did so far, there is one specific method of finding Spike in that forest that comes to mind; and I know just the pony for the task.”
	
> Betrayal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike the Dragon recently had an accident that involved him falling down a cliff and hitting his head. Because of this, he ended up gaining amnesia. Unfortunately, a gang of dragons that Spike met in the past ended up finding him unconscious before anyone else did and took advantage of the situation. They convinced him that they were his frie… um, bros and ponies were responsible for stealing him as a baby and making him a slave. Spike believed them and was now on their side.
Spike was riding on the back of Garble as he and the other two dragons were flying him back to the main dragon lands. Spike had his arms spread out feeling exuberated from the wind that was blowing across his face.
“Whoo-hoo! So, this is what flying feels like,” Spike shouted, “Awesome! I am so jealous of you guys!”
“Yep. It’s not every day that dragons like you get to fly up in the air like this,” said Garble going along with Spike’s excitement, “Am I right or am I right?”
“If I had wings, I would do this all the time! I’d be a flying a maniac!”
“I just bet you would,” Garble then smirked as he said under his breath, “Geez, what a spaz.”
But while he was feeling the wind in his face, Spike had another weird feeling like he was trying to remember something as he thought, ‘Huh… that’s weird. I don’t know why, but… I feel like I’ve done this before… but with someone else. Why do I keep feeling these things?’
“Yo, Spike, you okay?” said Clump who noticed him, “You’re not suddenly wiggin’ out on us, are you?”
“O-o-oh, sorry about that. I was just… thinking of something that I… thought I knew; but… its nothing. Probably just nothing.”
“Well enough of that,” said Garble, “We’re here.”
When Spike looked on ahead, he suddenly saw a huge volcanic mountain area that was inhabited by many other dragons. Once again, his mind was blown away, “Whoa. So… many… DRAGONS!”
Many of the other dragons noticed them as they were coming in to land in the area; but a lot of them were suddenly turning some glares towards Spike. He felt a little uneasy with all the eyes focusing on him and questioned to Garble, “Why are they all looking at me like that?”
“Oh, um… they’re just… kinda shocked that you’re back is all,” Garble explained, “It’s pretty normal.”
“Yo, Garble!”
More friends of Garble, Fume and Clump suddenly showed up in front of them and greeted them with a fist bump.
“S’up, guys!” said Garble, “Glad to see you’re doing well.”
“On one of your little raid expeditions again? We would’ve been happy to accompany you.”
Suddenly, Spike walked up to one of them and said, “Hey, there! My name is Spike… apparently; and any frie… I mean… bro of Garble is a bro of mine!”
As Spike held up his fist to give a fist bump of his own, the other dragons were arching their eyes at him; and one of them stated, “Wait a minute… isn’t he that dragon that lives with those ponies?”
“Yes! Y-yes he is… that dragon;” Garble quickly answered, “and he sure is glad to get away from them! Right, Spike?”
“You better believe it!” Spike responded.
The other dragons were suddenly feeling that they were missing out on something that they didn’t know and became quite curious. Garble then went over to Clump and whispered in his ear, “Hey, um… do me a favor and take Spike on a quick tour of the place… mostly over there.”
Clump immediately responded and said, “Oh! Um… sure!” He then grabbed Spike and started leading him away from the others, “Come, Spike, uh… let me give you a little tour.”
Spike shrugged his shoulder and said, “Fine by me.”
After they were away, Garble had all the dragons that were there gathered around and told all of them what was going on. He told them about Spike having amnesia and how they were taking advantage of his accident. They all believed him and were on board with his plan.
After a while, Clump brought Spike back from showing him around their place. Spike thanked him, “Thanks for that tour, Clump. This place is awesome! Totally fit for a tough dragon like me!”
Just then, Spike saw many of the other dragons looking at him again; but this time they all had more pleasant expressions their faces. “Wow. What’s this? Everyone’s attitude towards me suddenly changed. Not that it’s a bad thing though.”
“That’s because I’ve told them everything!” Garble exclaimed, “They know who you really are and are now willing to welcome you with open claws!” He then gave Spike a noogie on his head, “Welcome back to the pack, little runt.”
“Cool! I feel so honored! Even though I don’t remember everything, it feels great to be back! Thank you so much, everyone…” Spike then looked over and winked at a couple of female dragons nearby, “That includes you lovely ladies as well.”
The female dragons shared a little giggle together finding Spike’s sudden attitude to be adorable.
“Well this worked out pretty well, Garble,” said Fume, “It’s definitely better now that everyone here knows what’s going on; and Spike still doesn’t have a clue that we’re lying to him.”
“And soon,” said Garble with a smirk, “he won’t be the only one who will have a little revenge on those ponies.”
“So… what happens next?” said Spike suddenly as he came back over to Garble and the others, “Anything special you have planned to do?”
“I’m glad you asked. As a celebration, how about we have a…”
They all then shouted together, “Bro-hangout!”
From there, Garble and the others had Spike join them as they had a little party gathering doing things that dragons like them love to do; like cannonballing in the lava pools, playing punchies, doing truth or dare or anything that would help Spike get in touch with his inner dragon.
Spike was having a blast and was thankful to be around those who he felt really cared about him. Time had passed and it was getting dark; but Spike was still full of life and was ready for anything else that was to come.
“Man, you guys are the greatest! I’ve never been so pumped up in my life!”
“Well, Spike,” said Garble as he chuckled under his breath, “it just goes to show you that when it comes to us dragons… we do what we want however we want whenever we want; and no creature can tell us any different!”
“And speaking of which…” said Spike as a certain thought came to his mind, “how about we come up with a plan to get back at those ponies that enslaved me! That oughta teach them, right?!” 
Garble and the others soon realized that their plan was working a little too well seeing that Spike was already planning revenge in his head.
“Whoa-ho-ho-ho there, Spike; calm down,” said Clump.
“Yeah; let’s not do anything stupid… at least not yet,” said Fume.
Spike felt a bit impatient as he cried out, “Come on! I want to get revenge now!”
But Garble didn’t mind. Spike wanting to gain revenge was exactly what he was aiming for. “Eager, aren’t we? Well we don’t blame you. But tomorrow, there’s something that we know about that might, um… tip the scales in our favor.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that!” said Spike as he rubbed his claws together, “Also, props for that scales joke! That was hilarious!”
-------------
The following day, Twilight Sparkle did not waste any time as she got herself prepared and had immediately headed out towards the forest where her friend Spike was last seen. However, she wasn’t alone. She had brought one of her pony friends along with her. One who had a special gift that could help even up her chances to find Spike.
“Thanks so much for helping me with this task, Fluttershy. It really means a lot.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all, Twilight,” said Fluttershy assuredly, “Spike is my friend too. When you came to my cottage and told me what had happened, I was so upset and was crying so much about it that… that… I-I-I didn’t know what to do!”
“Y-yeah, I know. I was there,” said Twilight awkwardly, “In any case, I'm glad that you could come. Your gift to talk to animals is helpful for this situation. I won't rest until we find Spike and have him back and safe in our hooves.”
“And so will I!
Twilight guided Fluttershy to the very spot where she believed Spike was last seen; and Fluttershy was hoping she would be of more help, “So, this is where you think Spike was last?” 
“As far as my magic showed me… yes,” Twilight responded, “But I can't confirm that for sure. Like I told you; when I casted that spell to help show Spike’s tracks to help me track him down, the signs of him moving ended right here.” 
“And you think that someone… or s-something… took him?”
“That would be my best guess; but that's where you come in! There’s probably many animals roaming around this forest. So, one of them has bound to see what took place here.”
Suddenly, Twilight heard some sounds nearby and noticed some animals that were in that direction, “Ah, over there… a group of gophers. That hole behind them is probably their home. They must've seen something.”
“I guess we’ll see,” said Fluttershy.
Fluttershy calmly walked over to the group of gophers. Although, they didn’t notice her yet, so she quietly spoke out, “Um, excuse me?”
The gophers heard and suddenly turned to her as they curiously listened to what she had to say. 
“I-I really hate to intrude on your little gathering here, but do you gophers think you can help me? A friend of mines went missing yesterday and was possibly last seen in this area. He’s about this tall, he's purple and green with… um, green eyes; and he has spines down his back and his cute little tail.”
The gophers all thought hard, but none of them could recall seeing anyone that had the description that Fluttershy said. Soon, Fluttershy realized a certain piece of detail that she left out.
“Oh yeah, he's a dragon. I should've said that first. So, have any of you seen him?”
Suddenly, all the gophers freaked out and began running away from Fluttershy and towards their burrows. 
“Wait, come back! Was it something I said?!”
All gophers soon disappeared into their burrows and left the Twilight and Fluttershy with nothing so far. Flutterhsy scratched her head as she said, “That’s weird. Once I mentioned that Spike was a dragon, they all panicked and ran away. I think they don’t like dragons very much.”
“Well that’s perfect;” said Twilight, “but that’s okay. There’s plenty of other animals in this forest. I’m sure someone is going to cooperate.”
Twilight and Fluttershy kept on looking around the forest and mentioned about Spike to any animal they came across. To some, they couldn’t help; but to others for the most part, they always went away wanting nothing to do with Dragons. After a while, Twilight and Fluttershy decided to take a break. However, Fluttershy felt upset seeing that nothing they were doing was working.
“This is terrible, Twilight! Every animal that we came across so far have no idea who Spike is or where he is!” 
“Either that or they were all chicken the moment they heard the word dragon,” Twilight suggested.
“I’m sorry. It seems I wasn’t much help after all.”
Twilight placed her hoof on Flutteshy as she said, “Don’t be silly, Fluttershy. I was glad that you came and your talent helped a lot. It just that none of these animals seems to have the answers that we need.”
“But… we’re not going to give up yet, right?” said Fluttershy.
“Of course not. Spike is around here somewhere… he has to be.”
Just then, Fluttershy heard a small rummage sound behind her and looked to see a small brownish bunny looking at her. Twilight heard it chattering at Fluttershy like it was talking to her.
“Oh… hello, little bunny,” said Fluttershy, “Are you trying to tell me something?”
The rabbit continued to chatter towards her. But what it was saying gave her a shock.
“Wait… what was that? R-r-really?! You have?! That’s great! That’s really great!”
Twilight was itching to know what Fluttershy was saying as she strongly questioned, “What’s going on, Fluttershy?! What’s he saying?!”
The bunny suddenly looked at Twilight and scowled at her as it crossed its arms.
“Um, actually…” said Fluttershy, “it’s a she, Twilight.”
“S-sorry,” said Twilight hesitantly, “What did she say?”
“You won’t believe it! It’s the answer we were looking for! She can help us find Spike!”
This was music to Twilight’s ears as she got very excited, “Really?! She knows where Spike is?!”
“Well… not exactly,” Fluttershy responded, “but she says that she could take us to the last place where he might’ve been.”
“Oh well, it’s better than what we had to go with already. Okay then; lead the way… miss bunny.”
The bunny smiled and nodded as she began to hop off and raised her paw signaling them to follow.
“Alright, Fluttershy, follow that bunny!”
Both ponies went off as they were following the bunny who was hopping along and making sure that they were following her. Not long after, the bunny led them to an enclosed clearing that had a small pond with a waterfall. 
“Here we are!” said Fluttershy, “Wait… a waterfall? Why would Spike be here? To stay hydrated maybe?”
At that moment, something came to Twilight’s mind that remembered from yesterday, “Wait a minute…”
She remembered a couple of Cadence’s crystal guards that helped look for Spike mentioning about this very thing.
‘We’ve looked everywhere in this forest, but we still could find anything.’
‘We did see a nice waterfall though, but… there was nothing behind it.’
“Or was there?” said Twilight softly to herself.
“Huh?” Fluttershy questioned, “Did you say something?”
“Yesterday at the Crystal Kingdom, one of the crystal guards mentioned about seeing a waterfall during their search. But he said that he didn’t see anything. However, I have a feeling that he didn’t look enough.”
Twilight led Fluttershy and the bunny behind the waterfall where there was just a stone wall. But Twilight used her magic to scan the wall and found a hidden handle on the far-left side and pushed the wall to the side to find a secret cave entrance.
“Just as I thought,” said Twilight with a smirk, “That’s what happens when you don’t do a thorough check on your surroundings.”
Twilight suddenly activated the same spell that she used yesterday to track Spike’s tracks; and sure enough, she saw a trail of footprints in the cave entrance.
“Yes!”
“Is that what I think it is?” said Fluttershy.
“Yes, it is! They’re faint but those are Spikes tracks! He has been here!”
Fluttershy bent down to the bunny and smiled as she said, “Thank you so much, little bunny.” She then pulls out a carrot and gave it to her, “Here’s something for all of your help.”
The bunny smiled and wiggled her tail in happiness. She then picked up the carrot and went off back into the forest.
“When did you get that carrot,” Twilight questioned.
“What do you mean? I had it the whole time.”
Twilight was curious Flutters pulling out that carrot seeing that she had no bag to carry it in; but she chose to forget it as she proceeded to venture into the cave. Inside, her spell showed them more of Spikes tracks in different places. However, Twilight noticed a cluster of them gathered in the middle of the area.
“By the look of this, it seems like Spike was in some kind of…struggle.”
“A struggle?!” said Fluttershy with a shuttering tone, “You mean like he was attacked or captured by something… ‘Gulp’ or worse?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it’s definitely a struggle of some kind. Let me look around for a bit.”
While Fluttershy stayed put, Twilight wandered around the cave to see if she could find any clues. “Come on, there has to be something else we can find around… AHH!”
But suddenly, Twilight had passed by a certain area in the that caused the magic in her horn to fluxuate and fade. She pulled back a bit and rubbed her horn from the slight pain and was wondering what had happened.
“What the… what was that?”
Fluttershy suddenly called out, “What happened, Twilight?”
Not wanting to worry Fluttershy even more, Twilight responded, “Oh, um… d-don’t worry. It was nothing.”
Twilight walked away from the area back towards Fluttershy; but she couldn’t help but feel troubled about what had just happened to her.
“So, what now?” Fluttershy questioned, “All we have are Spike’s footprints in this cave, and… yeah, that’s all we have.”
Twilight sighed not having much of a clue herself, “Well, it might be all we have, but at least we’ve gotten farther than we were before. We just need to put our heads together and figure out what to do next.”
But before they knew what to do next, someone else had stepped into the cave and said, “Well well well. What do we have here?”
Twilight and Fluttershy quickly turned around to suddenly see three dragons standing nearby at the cave entrance.
The one name Garble said, “You ponies got yourselves lost or something?”
Fluttershy froze with terror in her eyes as she hesitantly stated, “Dra… d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dr-dr-dr-dragons!” She then quickly hid behind Twilight the best way she could… not that it would help much.
“That one is such a scaredy pony,” laughed the dragon named Clump.
At that moment, Garble and Twilight was looking at each other feeling like the one they were looking at looked familiar.
“Hold on…” said Twilight
“Wait a minute…” said Garble.
Then they both gasped as they both shouted out, “Its’s you!”
“You’re those dragons that Spike hung out with when he was trying to find himself!” said Twilight.
“W-w-wait… y-you mean they’re the ones you m-mentioned about from before?” said Fluttershy.
Garble suddenly smirked seeing the opportunity that he had as he thought to himself, ‘Heh, so it’s the princess of Ponyville. This is so perfect. She couldn’t have come at a better time.’ He then said to the two ponies, “So, what brings you pansy ponies to this secret hangout cave of ours?”
While standing tall and displaying her wings, Twilight responded, “Well seeing you dragons here, I’m pretty sure you know why we are here. Where is he?! You better not have done anything to harm him!”
“Oh… you mean your little dragon runt of a friend, Spike?” said Garble in a sarcastic tone, “Well, to be honest… harming him for some payback was the plan at first when we found him. But something interesting happened to him that gave us a… change of plan.”
“What are you talking about?”
Right at that moment, Twilight and Fluttershy heard a voice from behind the other dragons as it said, “Hey, sorry that took a little while, guys.” It turned out to be Spike; the very dragon they were looking for. “But hey… when you gotta go you gotta go, am I right?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as she suddenly shouted with much delight, “SPIKE!!!”
Spike jumped and looked ahead as he saw the creature that called him, “What the…”
Twilight suddenly lifted him up in the air with her magic and brought him over to her as he hugged him very close, “Oh, Spike! You’re okay! Thank Celesta you’re okay!”
“It really is him!” said Flutterhsy feeling excited, “I guess that saves us the trouble of continuing to search for him. What a relief!”
Spike was gasping for air from Twilight’s tight hold, “Holding… too… tight…”
Although, Garble and the others were standing back and chuckling from amusement of they were seeing.
“You have no idea how worried I was!” said Twilight as held she held Spike back out, “I almost thought that I lost you! What were you doing all of this time?!” She then placed him down on the ground to give him some personal space, “N-never mind that. You can fill us in on everything while we go back home.”
Spike arched his eye and scratched his head feeling confused of what was going on. “Um, Garble… quick question. Who the heck are these two creatures; and why do they think I know them?”
“Wait… what?” said Twilight.
“Come on, Spike,” said Garble with mischievous grin, “You mean to tell me that you don’t recognize them; especially the purple one?”
Spike did look at Twilight and Fluttershy again, but he still couldn’t think of anything. However, Twilight felt confused herself as she said, “Spike, it’s me; you’re best friend… Twilight Sparkle?”
Suddenly, Spike’s eyes went wide again with a light scowl in his expression as he said, “Wait a minute… did you just say… Twilight Sparkle?”
“Uh, yes… yes I did.”
Spike’s claws suddenly balled up into a fist as he spoke in a distraught tone, “So... you’re the one these guys told me about. I should’ve known that you would come looking for me; along with one of your… flunkies!”
“F-f-flunkies?” Flutershy questioned.
“Um, Spike… are you alright?” said Twilight feeling a bit concerned.
Just then, a small mischievous smile came onto Spike’s face as he flexed his claws while saying, “Well… you couldn’t have come at a better time! Now I can finally have my revenge for what you did to me; for what all of you ponies did to me!”
Almost without warning, Spike leapt forward and swiped at Twilight; but she and Fluttershy jumped out of the way. Although, that didn’t stop Spike as he kept on going at her.
“Whoa! Spike, get a hold of yourself!” Twilight shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“What have those dragons done to you?!” said Fluttershy.
“All they did was open my eyes to the truth! I lost my memories, but these guys helped me restore them! So, stop acting like you’re my friend… ‘cause you’re not!”
“Did he just say that he… lost his memory?” said Fluttershy.
It was then that Twilight was finally putting the pieces together; that these dragons were using Spike’s memory loss to get him on their side. “Spike, come on! Stop acting like that! Those dragons behind you aren't your real friends! They're just taking advantage of you… somehow!”
Spike attacked Twilight again; but luckily for her she could dodge him easily. “Do you really think that I'd be stupid enough to believe you and not my own kind?!”
“Of course not, Spike,” said Twilight, “You're not stupid at all.”
Garble lightly chuckled to the others as he said, “I'd beg to differ.”
“But whatever they told you is a lie! We're your real friends!” 
Spike just stood there staring at Twilight with his arms folded and angered tears in his eyes. But even so, Twilight smiled and carefully held out her hoof to him.
“Come on;  let’s just… go home.”
Spike looked back at Garble and the others and then looked at Twilight and Fluttershy; and for a second, something familiar clicked in his mind. But whatever it was suddenly went away as he smacked Twilight’s hoof away and scoffed at her.
“Yeah right! Fat chance! It'd be just like you to say all of that just so I would come back and become your slave again! And dragons don't do friendship; ‘cause these guys are my bros. We don't do any sissy trends that you might do. Nice try though; but there’s nothing you can do get me to come back!”
As Spike was walking back to the other dragons, Twilight sadly laid her hoof down. She couldn’t believe that she couldn’t get through to Spike. She knew that him losing his memory combined with being with his own kind proved to be effective against them.
“Now what, Twilight?” said Fluttershy, “I don’t think he’s going to come quietly.”
“Hey, guys,” said Spike while smirking back at the two ponies, “here’s an idea. How about we capture these two and make an example out of them for the rest of their kind?”
Garble smirked as he began cracking his knuckles and responded, “Sounds good to me.”
“Uh-oh,” said Twilight.
Following Spike’s lead, Garble and the others ran at Twilight and Fluttershy to grab a hold of them. Twilight was easily dodging them left and right. She was trying to not start a fight. But at some point, the dragon named Fume ended up grabbing Fluttershy from behind.
“Gotcha!”
“Eek! Let me go!” Fluttershy shouted.
“I got you Fluttershy!” said Twilight as she flew towards her.
However, while she had her back turned, Garble got a hold of her tightly, “Nope, I got you!”
“I don’t think so.”
Twilight suddenly teleported from Garble’s arms causing him to tumble and fall. She then appeared behind Fume and knocked him down with her magic freeing Fluttershy from his grasp. Twilight then transported them both back in front of Spike as she attempted to grab him.
“This is ridiculous, Spike. I’m taking you back to Ponyville whether you like it or…”
But Spike took a deep breath as he was gathering fire in his mouth. Twilight noticed and grabbed Fluttershy and flew out of the way right before Spike blew out a huge fireball.
“Whoa, Spike has really gotten good with that fire breath of his,” said Fluttershy.
Clump tried to grab them again while they were distracted by Spike, but once again Twilight noticed and teleported away from him and then appeared against a wall. They both soon found themselves being surrounded by Spike and the other three dragons as they were creeping closer to them.
“Face it, Twilight,” said Spike, “You’re not taking me back; but now you’re goin to be my slave! But hey, you’re an Alicorn, right? Go ahead and take me by force if you dare!”
“This is getting out of hand,” said Fluttershy as she was grasping onto Twilight, “We’re not going to hurt him, are we?”
“No, we’re not,” Twilight responded, “but we can’t take him back like this. I hate to say this, but… we have to back out for now.”
Once they were close enough, Spike shouted to the others, “GET THEM!!!”
All four dragons leapt at Twilight and Fluttershy only to ram into the stone wall after Twilight transported out of the way again. After appearing on the other side again, Twilight looked back at Spike and stated, “I’m not giving up on you, Spike! I will come back for you; I promise you that.”
With that, she ra off back out into the forest along with Fluttershy. Spike struggled out of the dragon pile and shouted, “No, they’re escaping! Come on, we have to go after them!”
“Oh, calm down, Spike,” said Garble calmly, “Just let them go. You heard Twilight, right? She will come back for you.”
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right. She will come back for me. And when she does, I’m sure we’ll be ready.” 
Spike was brewing all kinds of ideas in his head to get back at Twilight. But a certain problem came to his mind.
“Hold up… we are going up against a… a… whatever magical pony she is”
“An Alicorn,” said Clump, “Remember… you said that like a minute ago.”
“Yeah, whatever. Someone like her has magic; and she’s probably going to bring reinforcements. I hate to admit it; but… won’t we be at a disadvantage or something.”
Garble placed his claw on Spike’s shoulder as he stated, “You leave that to me, Spike. That’s the reason we brought you back here. You know… the surprise.”
“So where is it already?” Spike pleaded.
Garble and the others led Spike to a certain area in the cave unknown that Twilight was there as well. Garble then removed a hidden slab on the ground; and what was underneath brought a huge glimmer to Spike’s eyes.
“Whoa. What are these?”
“These my scaly, reptilian comrade are the keys to my… I-I-I mean our revenge.”
Spike could feel a certain kind of power emanating from what was in front of him. He had a good feeling about this.
“Sweet. So, what do we have to do?”
Garble answered with a mischievous chuckle, “I’m so glad you asked.”
	
> Rescue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was working as hard as she could to find her friend, Spike who went missing almost a whole day. But once she finally found him with Fluttershy, things didn’t turn out too well. Spike had amnesia and was filled with lies about his pony friends being mean jerks who took him from his own kind and enslaved him thanks to Garble and his dragon cohorts. Twilight tried her best to get through to him, but the ego that Spike gain made it difficult to convince him. He even tried to have the others help him to capture Twilight and Fluttershy. In the end, Twilight chose to retreat for the time being until she could come up with a new plan. 

Back inside Twilight’s castle in Ponyville, Fluttershy was sitting in her throne chair semi-calm while Twilight was pacing back and forth constantly in the middle of the circle of thrones. She was analyzing workable solutions in her head and trying to figure what was the best way to go about it. 

“Why… why why why why! Why did this have to happen?!” said Twilight, “I spent all of this time to find Spike only to find out that he lost his memory. And now he suddenly sees us as enemies?!” 

“Well… I’m pretty sure that those dragon meanies were the cause of that,” said Fluttershy, “They must really not like the idea of a dragon being friends with ponies.” 

“I guess his natural instincts as a dragon didn’t help much,” said Twilight, “When Rairty, Rainbow Dash and I went to the dragon lands to keep an eye on Spike, we saw how easily he was getting into the life of a dragon. In the end, he could’ve easily chose to stay with them instead of coming back home; but he chose to stay with us because he felt that deep inside, he didn’t need to do what they did to be a real dragon.” 

“But since he lost his memory,” said Fluttershy, “he’s forgotten about his friendship with us and chose to stay with his own kind. There’s nothing in his mind that gave him a second thought.” 

“Exactly!” 

“So… what are we going to do?” 

Twilight had different thoughts of what she could do; but she wasn’t sure which one would be better, “I don’t know. I mean… I could alert Celestia about this, but… that could be a bit overkill… don’t you think? There’s no need to create too much conflict if it’s not needed, right? All we want is to go back there, grab Spike somehow and escape without being too roughed up by the other dragons.” 

“Don’t forget that we still have to figure out how fix Spike amnesia too,” Fluttershy added. 

“Oh yeah… there’s that as well. Although, it’s too bad that we can’t get our friends to help right now. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are both on individual friendship missions, and Pinkie is hosting a birthday party in Manehattan. It be too much trouble to bother them with this; but… would that be our only option?” 

“What about Rarity?” Fluttershy questioned, “She’s still here in Ponyville; so… maybe she could help us.” 

Suddenly, right on cue, Rarity came busting through the throne doors and shouted, “Did somepony call my name?!” 

Twilight jumped and Fluttershy yelped as she flew behind her throne chair. They both then looked back at Rarity who questioned, “What? Is it wrong if a lady wants to make a dramatic entrance?”  

“Oh… hi, Rarity,” said Fluttershy as came back out, “We were just talking about you!” 

“Indeed, you were. I just thought I drop by to see what you two were up to; but then I heard you mention me as I approached. So… what exactly is going on here; you know, if its any of my business?” 

“It’s Spike,” said Twilight, “Something terrible happened to him.” 

Twilight suddenly had Rarity’s full attention as she zoomed up to her face and said, “Spike!? As in our Spike?! Is he alright?!” 

“Oh, d-don’t worry,” said Twilight as she pushed Rarirty away, “Spike is still alive and well; but… he’s not himself right now.” 

“Not himself? What do you mean by that?” 

“He has amniesia. H-he doesn’t remember who he was or who we are.” 

Rarity felt devastated, “What?! You mean he doesn’t remember anything?! He’s all alone without any friends?!” 

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that exactly,” said Fluttershy. 

“Remember… those dragons that Spike hung out with that time when he tried to learn who he was?” said Twilight, “and then the two of us plus Rainbow Dash witnessed him choosing us over them?” 

“Well of course I did, Twilight,” said Rarity while smiling, “Spike did us proud that day by making the right choice.” 

“Well… those same dragons found Spike in his condition…” 

Rarity suddenly paused in place and looked over at Twilight with slight confusion and said, “What?” 

“…and they took advantage of his lost memory by telling him a complete lie about us and his past… and he believed them.” 

Rarity eyes got wider, “What?!” 

“And since they are his kind, he instantly went to their side.” 

“What?!!” 

“And now Spike hates us and sees us as enemies… and he wants to help those other dragons to… enslave us.” 

“WHAT?!!!” 

“Um… be careful, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “You don’t want Rarity to spontaneously combust.” 

Rarity couldn’t believe anything that Twilight was saying to her. Her emotions were flaring up as she shouted in protest, “I refuse to believe any of that! Spike would never believe anything that those thick-scaled ruffians would say to him; let alone go back to hang out with them!” 

“Well… like Twilight said,” said Fluttershy, “Spike has amnesia. So… he doesn’t remember anything about us or his home or pretty much anything that he knew before he hit his… um, I-I-I-I mean… lost his memory… due to a… um… incident.” 

Rarity looked at Fluttershy with an arched eyebrow and then saw Twilight who was grinning awkwardly. She rolled her eyes and said, “Look, I don’t care how Spike lost his memory. Be it by getting hit with a bat, a stone dropping on him, or even something barbaric like falling off a cliff and hitting his head on a rock; I don’t care! All I do care about is getting Spikey Wikey back! Him going back with those dragons and not even remembering who we are; this will not stand! We need to work on a plan fast!” 

“That’s, um… that’s actually what we were doing,” said Fluttershy. 

“Going to look for Spike and take him away from the other dragons shouldn’t be too much trouble as long as we don’t let our guard down,” said Twilight. 

“Oh really,” said Rarity, “How so?” 

Twilight had to stop and think for a moment again to come up with something. But then she gasped as she suddenly had an idea. “Wait a minute… That’s it!” She then ran off from the throne room for a couple of minutes and then came back with a particular spell as she turned it to a certain page. “I just remembered a pyro protection spell that can protect us from any type of fire! Even dragon fire! So, we can just go there without any worry about being badly burnt!” 

“Sounds a bit dangerous nonetheless,” said Rarity, “but when did that ever stop us? Let’s go for it!” 

Twilight and Rarity both looked at Fluttershy who was a bit shaken up at the thought of their plan, but she chose to not let that change her thoughts, “Normally, I would stay as far away from this plan as possible; but… I’m worried about Spike. So… I-I’m helping to!” 

“Excellent,” said Twilight with a confident smile, “Those dragons may think that things will go their way just because they have Spike on their side, but they couldn’t be farther from the truth. This doesn’t have to turn into something ugly. We go in, find Spike, and then bring him back here. Then, we’ll figure things out from there. Any questions?” 

“Just one,” said Rarity as she raised her hoof, “What kind of attire will I need for this little trek?” 

Twilight just rolled her eye while keeping on her smile. 

“Any chance you might have a back-up plan?” said Fluttershy. 

“Well, I guess I could send a little notice to Cadence to help us in case we take too long; but I highly doubt that it will happen.” 

Twilight then casted her magic to unleash the pyro spell on herself and her friends. Their bodies were now encased in an invisible barrier that would protect them from any kind of heat. 

“Perfect! Now then… lets go rescue Spike!”  
--------------------------------
After successfully activating the pyro protection spell, Twilight sent an urgent message via mail pony to be delivered immediately to Cadence to alert her of their situation. While that happened, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity immediately set out to retrieve Spike. Twilight thought that it wouldn’t hurt if they checked the same cave where she and Fluttershy last ran into Spike and the other dragons. However, once they got there, no one was there as Twilight expected. 

“So, this is where you last saw Spike?” said Rarity as she looked around, “Looks like just a regular old cave secretly hidden behind a waterfall. Nothing unusual here.” 

Rarity suddenly looked over at Twilight who looked kinda down and was wiping some tears from her eyes. 

“Twilight, darling? Are you alright?” 

“Oh… y-yeah; yeah, I’m fine. Being here just reminded me about how Spike was acting and… some of the things he said to me. It was… kinda heartbreaking.” 

“Oh, stop that nonsense, Twilight,” said Rarity as she placed her hoof around her, “You know more than any of us that the Spike who threatened you in this cave wasn’t the real Spike. He would never do any of that if he remembered who we were.” 

“Of course; I know that, Rarity. But… it still doesn’t mean that it hurt just a little.” 

Just then, Flutterhsy called to their attention, “Twilight, come look at this!” 

Twilight and Rarity went over to Fluttershy who was over in a corner staring a cave wall. What she was looking at was a dug-up area that had some small crystal fragments that glowed bright in their dark corner. 

“Whoa, those are some beautiful looking crystals,” said Rarity with shimmering eyes. 

“There’s quite a bit of them,” said Twilight, “Do you think that there’s more of them in here; quite bigger than these?” 

“That’s a possibility,” said Fluttershy, “but… what kind of crystals are these?” 

Twilight approached closer and tried to inspect some of the fragment with her magic. But then she groaned loudly and held her hoof to her head as she felt her magic falter in her horn. She quickly said, “R-R-Rarity, back away!” 

With that, Rarity and Fluttershy backed away from the wall with Twilight who was regaining her stance from her sudden dizzy spell. 

“What happened?! Are you okay?!” 

“What did those crystals do to you, darling?!” said Rarity, “Would they have done that to me to?” 

Once Twilight could speak clearly, she looked over to Fluttershy and told her, “Fluttershy, I didn’t tell you this; but… when we were in this cave before, I felt a slight strain on my horn as I was trailing this same wall… like my magic was being block from being used. I didn’t tell you because I thought that it wasn’t a big deal; but… that definitely felt big.” 

Twilight then floated some nearby rocks and tossed them on top off the wall opening to block off the crystals. 

“I don’t know what those are; but this is definitely something I need to bring up to Celestia later on. But right now, we have a dragon to save. Come on, girls, lets pay a visit to the dragon lands.” 

Meanwhile… 

Princess Cadence had received Twilight’s message of what was going on and was preparing for in case the worst-case scenario happened. However, she knew it would be no problem for her; but she summoned a certain citizen of her kingdom to help her. 

“I have called you here because Twilight Sparkle sent me an urgent message very recently. This kingdom’s hero, Spike is in a very dire situation. I’m pretty sure that hearing this brings you a bit of worry. Well… that is why summoned you; as unorthodox as it may seem. If Twilight and her friends needs help, I have a feeling that you might be able to help somehow. So, are you up to it?” 

After hearing the citizen’s reply, Cadence smiled and nodded her head. 


“Of course. I shouldn’t be surprised.”  
------------------------------------
Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy were making a beeline to the dragon lands with the pyro protection spell still intact in hopes to capture Spike and escape. Twilight was planning to make sure that nothing wrong would happen and that they would return Spike back to normal. 

“Um… Twilight?” said Fluttershy, “How long does this pyro protection supposed to last anyway?” 

“Oh, don’t worry. This spell lasts as long as I want it to; especially with my capabilities.” 

“Good,” said Rarity with relief, “I’m pretty sure that we’ll need it. There is no way I’m going to allow my coat to be singed. Are you ready for this, Fluttershy? You seem calm.”
            “I-I’m good. I’m feeling… confident. A little terrified to, but… I’m confident. I just want to rescue Spike from those meanines.” 

“As do I. The way you two described of how Spike acted, it sounds like this is a lot more serious than I thought.” 

They kept on trekking across the area until they finally got to the familiar area that Twilight and Rarity saw before. Twilight got their attention and said, “Stay on your guard, girls, we’re here.”  

The three ponies were very cautious as they began to walk into the huge gathering area where they knew they would run into many dragons. But much to their surprise when they got there… 

“Um… Twilight?” said Fluttershy, “There’s no dragons here; or anyone else for that matter.” 

“Well… it’s definitely as grim and dangerous as the last time we saw it,” said Rarity. 

Twilight was suddenly confused, “I don’t get it. This is the dragon lands, right? We should’ve seen at least some dragons around here. Where did they go?” 

“Oh no,” said Fluttershy as she panicked, “you don’t think they’ve already left with Spike to try and take over his home; our home?!” 

“I wouldn’t push it past them,” said Twilight nervously, “That group dragons that Spike was hanging out with are real troublemakers. But why would they just outright try to take over a town that has an Alicorn Princess? Even they can’t be that stupid.” 

All three ponies continued to look around but they still had no luck finding anything. Rarity stated, “Well we have to figure out something. Who knows what those dragons are making Spike do right now!” 

But suddenly as they continued to look around, they heard a faint sound of someone shouting, “HELP!!” 

“Wait… did you two hear that?" said Rarity. 

All three of them stayed quiet and listened very closely to see if they could hear it again. Soon enough, they did. 

“Someone please help me!” 

Twilight knew that voice all too well and gasped as she shouted, “SPIKE!!! That was Spike!” 

“It came from over there!” shouted Fluttershy as she pointed to a nearby cave. 

All three ponies had no hesitation as they quickly trotted towards the cave. They looked inside to find Spike tied up and hanging over a giant stalagmite.  

“Oh my stars! There he is!” shouted Rarity. 

Spike looked scared for his life and cried, “Twilight! Am I glad to see you! Please, get me down from here!” 

Without a second thought, Twilight used her magic to break the rope and floated Spike safely down to the ground. After he landed, Spike was brushing himself off without saying anything. 

“Spike, are you okay?” said Twilight, “You didn’t say anything.” 

Spike suddenly looked up at her and acknowledged, “Huh? O-oh yeah, that was a close one! I’m so glad you found me in time!” He then looked over at Fluttershy and Rarity and said with less enthusiasm, “And… you two as well.” 

“That was strange,” said Rarity to herself, “he didn’t sound all that thrilled to see us.” 

“What happened, Spike?” said Twilight. 

“You would not believe it! Just a couple of hours after our meeting in that cave in the forest, my brain suddenly had an epiphany moment. I don’t know how, but… my memory somehow came back! I remembered everything! But then I realized how much trouble I was in; so, I tried to sneak away. Unfortunately, Garble and the others were coming on to me. They weren’t going to let me go so easily. They knew that you were coming back for me, so they tied me up and hung me over that huge stalagmite to make me panic and draw you in here. It was so terrifying!” 

“That’s so horrible!” said Fluttershy, “Why would those dragons do such a thing?!” 

Twilight didn’t care too much about that as she hugged Spike and said, “Well, you’re safe now. I’m not quite sure what happened with you either, but at least your memory is back. That’s all that matters.” 

Just then, Rarity caught Spike’s attention as she said, “Oh, Spike! Is there anything you wish to say to me?” 

She was looking at him with her usual batting eyelashes as she also flipped her mane. Spike just looked at her and then said in a slight awkward tone, “Um… it’s nice to see you again, uh… babe.” 

“Babe?!” 

Rarity was shocked at Spike’s reaction towards her. He was expecting something completely different. But it didn’t matter to Twilight as she said, “So, wait; if they used you as bait to reel us in here, then that means that this is all…” 

“A TRAP!” Fluttershy suddenly shouted. 

They all looked toward the entrance to the cave and saw Garble and his entourage walking in and blocking their way. Garble was smiling and slowing clapping his hand in a cliché fashion as he said, “Wow, you ponies are a lot more predictable than I thought you were. I figured you would come running to the sound of Spike screaming for help, and I was right.” 

Spike suddenly panicked and ran behind Twilight while slightly shaking. Twilight stood her ground as she demanded, “That’s far enough!” 

“Whoa, calm yourself, Princess,” said Garble with an amused chuckle, “We had no intention to harm one of our own. Just like he said, we used him as bait to lure you here into a trap; just like we originally planned. And you even brought an extra friend. Bonus.” 

“What’s the matter, Spike?” said Clump, “You didn’t like hanging around with your spikey friend?” 

Everyone including Garble and the others suddenly looked at Clump awkwardly. Clump hesitantly chuckled as he explained, “Y-you know; ‘cause… h-his name is Spike… and that stalagmite is like a… giant spike…” 

Garble smacked Clump against his head and shouted, “You ruined the moment, Clump! You ruined… the moment.” 

“Listen up, Garble; it’s over,” said Twilight, “Whatever silly little scheme you dragons had planned, drop it for your own sake. Spike has his memory back, and he is coming back with us.” 

“Y-yeah!” said Fluttershy. 

“Tell it like it is, Twilight!” said Rarity. 

Garble and his friends began to laugh out loud not feeling worried at all. Twilight and the others were confused. They were expecting a different kind of reaction seeing that their plan had failed.  

“Sorry, but I’m afraid you got it all wrong, Princess,” said Garble as he took a few steps towards them, “You see… we are totally continuing our plan; and none of you are going anywhere. Isn’t that right… Spike?” 

Spike then slowly came out from behind Twilight with a little smirk as he said, “You better believe it." Then he shouted, “NOW!” 

Right on Spike’s command, some other dragons released a cage from above that slammed in into the ground trapping Twilight and her two friends inside as they were caught by surprise. 

“Sweet Celestia!” shouted Rarity. 

“Oh no, we’re trapped!” said Fluttershy panicking. 

Twilight looked down at Spike with concern and said, “Spike, what’s going on?!” 

Spike looked up at Twilight and then began to laugh, “Oh man, you should see the looks on your faces! It’s priceless!” 

Because of his small size, Spike was able to squeeze through the bars of the cage and walked back over to Garble and his crew. It was then that Twilight realized that they were tricked. 

“I… I-I don’t understand! You mean… you didn’t get your old memories back?!” 

“Why on Equestria would I want my old memories back?!” Spike protested, “As if I wanted to remember all the pain and heartache you’ve caused me.” 

Twilight sighed as she looked over at Rarity and said, “See, Rarity… what did I tell ya.” 

“But don’t worry,” said Spike, “With the help of my bros here, you’re all going to receive the justice you deserve.” 

‘And here I thought we were going to leave here without much conflict,’ thought Twilight to herself, ‘So much for that.’ Twilight then took a deep breath and then showed a little smile as she said, “Well played, Spike. You out-tricked us real good. But unfortunately, it seems that all of you haven’t realized that two of us have magic!” 

Rarity nodded as Twilight looked at her; and then both of them began to gather magic in their horns and were about to blast their way out. But before they could, they both bent down and groaned as their magic faded out. Fluttershy didn’t know what was going on and was hoping that they were going to do something soon. 

“Um… g-girls? Y-you can stop playing around now. Please?” 

Twilight and Rarity tried again, but their magic was not appearing at all. Twilight shouted, “We’re not… ‘ugh’ playing around! My magic isn’t working!” 

“Mines… not working… eeeeeeeeee-ither!” said Rarity, “What’s going on?!” 

All three ponies suddenly looked up and saw Spike and the other dragons standing there smirking and chuckling from the amusement of what they saw. They were wondering of what they did to keep them from using their magic. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to escape. 

“Sorry, Princess,” said Spike, “but I’m afraid that your luck has just ran out.”
> Here comes the Calvary
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight traveled to the dragon lands with Rarity and Fluttershy with a thought-out plan to find and bring back their dragon friend, Spike who was suffering from amnesia. They had to be careful since Spike was fed lies to about them by Garble and some other dragons. However, once Twilight and the other got there, they found him tied up and hanging over a stalagmite. It appeared to them that he had somehow regained his memories again and was trying to escape; but it was all a trick when a cage suddenly fell upon them from above trapping them inside. Twilight and Rarity tried to use their magic to escape, but for some reason their magic was sapped from them; and they couldn’t use any at all. They were indeed trapped.

Once that didn’t work, all three ponies tried to use their raw horse power to kick threw the cage, but it proved to be too strong. Spike and the other dragons were laughing at them and how their efforts proved to be useless.

“What’s the matter, Princess?” said Spike with a smuggled smirk, “You seemed so confident a little while ago. By the way, is there something wrong with your magic or did you just suddenly become too dumb to know how to use it?”

“Spike, stop patronizing me?!” Twilight shouted, “Do you honestly think I’m a mean pony just because those other dragons told you?! I mean… couldn’t you tell that I was concerned when I came in here and saw you dangling over that huge Spike? Um… no pun intended.”

“Yeah, you did seem worried and very concerned,” said Spike as he idly walked back and forth in front of the cage, “or is that you were happy and relieved to see that I was okay… so you could take me back to be your slave again?!”

“You sure got her there, Spike,” said Fume.

Spike gave him a fist bump as he responded, “Yeah, I’m not as dumb as she thinks I am.”

“You dragons are not going to get away with this,” said Twilight as she glared at Garble and the others.

“Get away with what,” said Garble, “telling Spike the truth and opening his eyes to the true life of being a dragon? Yeah, good luck with that.”

Fluttershy suddenly felt so panicked that she was in a corner of the cage hyperventilating. Rarity came over to her to calm her down as she instructed her, “Fluttershy… deep breaths, darling. Deeeeeep breaths. We will get out of this. You’ll see.”

“I-I sure hope so,” said Fluttershy, “I’m not sure if I can handle all of this.”

Twilight wasn’t giving up. She was continuing to try and summon magic from her horn even though nothing was happening. Spike shook his head and stated, “Still trying to use your magic, Princess? Just face it, it’s not going to work.”

Twilight had to stop for a minute to take a break feeling exhausted of pushing herself so hard. “Okay, seriously… how are you doing this? How is our magic not working?!”

“It’s pretty simple,” Spike responded with a smirk, “That cage you’re in isn’t made up of just any materials. The bars surrounding you are made of some special crystals that my friends here found; and they… how should I put it? They kinda take away and absorb any source of unicorn or Alicorn magic that comes near it.”

After hearing that explanation, the truth was suddenly realized. Rarity said, “Twilight, that must mean that…”

“Yeah,” Twilight responded, “those crystals that we saw in that cave. That’s what was happening to us! No wonder they seemed to be so dangerous.”

“Oh, so you did stumble upon them,” said Spike, “Took you long enough to know what they were capable of.”

“And that cave is probably filled with those things!” said Twilight in fear, “With that much, they could probably incapacitate the magic of… of… thousands of unicorns… and other Alicorns!”

“Spike, you wouldn’t,” said Fluttershy with pleading eyes.

“Oh, he totally would!” said Fume, “Isn’t that right, Spike?”

“You better believe it. You see… there’s something important that I learned from these guys. Dealing with only a few of you ponies is piece of cake. But if more and more suddenly got involved, then we wouldn’t stand a chance. But these guys were lucky enough to discover a cave that no pony has ever discovered; and inside were special gems that can block any source of magic. Your magic to be precise.”

“That’s right,” said Garble with a smirk, “It was all us.”

“And with these things, we dragons will finally dish out the justice that we deserve! No one will be able to stop us! We dragons will take over everything!”

The diabolical way Spike was acting was really freaking Twilight out; and Fluttershy wasn’t taking it very well either. But Rarity decided to slam her hoof down and shouted, “Alright, that’s enough! Now you listen here, Spike! You are being absolutely ridiculous! Stop acting like an evil dictator plotting to take over the world! You are Spike! Spike the dragon! You’re Twilight’s assistant; not a slave! And everypony in Ponyville loves you! They’re all your friends! And for pony sake, you have a crush on me! You melt into a bowl of jelly every time we’re in the same airspace together! You always think that I don’t notice, but I totally do.”

All Spike could do was stare at Rarity with an arched eyebrow feeling confused of her words.

“He has a crush on a pony?” said Clump with a chuckle, “How totally lame.”

“Don’t you see, Spike?! You’re believing in lies! The real Spike wouldn’t help hatch such a heinous plan! Now come to your senses and realize what’s real!”

As Spike continued to stare at Rarity, his eyed suddenly widened as he slowly approached the cage. Once up front, he suddenly said, “Hey, uh… Rarity, was it?”

Rarity suddenly felt like she was somehow getting through to him, “Yes. Y-yes, I’m Rarity.”

Spike then said, “For some reason, you do seem somewhat familiar. Come closer so I can get a better look.”

Rarity and the others suddenly gasped and smiled at each other; and Rarity suddenly zipped up to Spike at face level and said, “S-sure. Like this?”

But then without much warning, Spike suddenly smirked as he opened his mouth and let loose a torrent fire that overcame Rarity and left her coat singed and her mane burned. Rarity gasped as she pulled out a mirror and placed it on the ground. Seeing herself in it caused her to freak out dramatically.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! My coat! My beautiful mane! It’s all singed and ruiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiined!”

Rarity then continue to cry as she ran over and laid her head against Twilight as she looked back at Spike and shouted, “Spike, how could you do this to me?!”

“Very, very easy,” Spike responded, “I can’t believe that you fell for that so easily! And me in love with a pony like you?! I wouldn’t try to date you if you were the last creature on the planet!”

“Well done, Spike,” said Garble as he gave Spike a light noogie, “You sure put that pony in her place.”

“Even if we can’t convince you, Spike,” Fluttershy pleaded, “isn’t there some way that you could maybe set us free anyway if we promise to never bother you again?!”

Spike was suddenly in deep thought, “Hmmmmmm… well maybe if you cooperate, I guess we could work something out.”

“Really?”

But it was just a set-up, “Uh… no! Not a chance! You ponies are stuck with us whether you like it or not.”

It seemed like this was it. Unless someone came in to help them right now, Twilight and her friends realized that these dragons might succeed in their plan; and they might lose Spike forever.

“Just give it up, Princess,” said Garble, “There’s no way Spike will go back with you! He’s finally where he needs to be… with his own kind. But don’t worry, you can see him as much as you want once he helps to take over your puny little town.”

“Heh, and then some,” said Fume.

“You guys may have us locked up in here” Twilight exclaimed, “but there is no way that you’re going to get away with this.”

“Yeah, well I believe that our ingenious master plan says otherwise,” Garble responded as he walked up to the cage and booped Twilight's muzzle, “Too bad that you don't have anything to back up your little threat.”

But being caught off guard, Garble suddenly jumped back when Rarity zoomed up to him feeling enraged, “Oh, she is absolutely right! You dragons will not succeed at all!!”

Spike chuckled under his breath while glaring at Rarity and questioned, “Oh yeah, doll face? Says who?”

“SAYS ME!”

Just then, everyone was startled by the loud voice that shouted out so suddenly. They all looked over at the cave entrance to see a figure standing at attention with her wings spread out. A pink alicorn with magic surging through her horn.

“You dragons aren't taking over anything!”

“Princess Cadence!” said Twilight in excitement, “You've finally made it!”

“Oh, thank Celestia!” said Fluttershy in relief.

Garble couldn’t believe their luck; the fact that they were so close to victory, but then someone came to ruin it. “What?! Another princess?! Who invited another princess here?!

“About time you got here!” Rarity whined, “Look what they made Spike do to my hair!”

Spike wasn’t thrilled himself, “Oh great. We should’ve made a second cage if we knew that another magical pony was coming.”

After lowering her magic, Cadance looked over and saw Spike who was staring at her with a mean glare. She questioned, “Spike? Is that you?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Spike replied in a stern tone, “What about it?”

“You may not remember me, but my name is Cadence… the Princess of Love.”

Spike suddenly burst out in laughter, “The Princess of Love? And here I thought the Princess of Friendship sounded lame. Am I right?”

Despite the way Spike was acting towards her, Cadence continued, “I rule over the Crystal Kingdom that was saved from a terrible evil. In fact, the very one who helped save it in the end… was you.”

“Yeah right. I helped saved a kingdom filled with crystal ponies. That’s a good one.”

“Silly me, you’re right,” said Cadnece with a smirk, “In the end, you actually saved the Crystal Kingdom… twice.”

Spike just crossed his arm as he continued to stare at Cadence sternly. He wasn’t buying anything that she was saying as Cadence expected. So, she tried another tactic.

“I-its true! In my kingdom, my subjects worship you as a mighty hero! There’s even a crystal statue of you built in your honor!”

Suddenly, Spike became interested in what Cadence had to say about him, “Wait… seriously?” With a small smile while stroking his chin, he added, “Now that actually sounds pretty nice.”

To Garble and the others, they felt that their plan was suddenly in jeopardy of failing.

“Uh oh,” said Fume to Garble, “it’s sounds like he’s getting curious of what’s she’s saying. This could be a problem.”

“Spike has his own statue that was built in his honor?” Clump questioned, “Lucky.”

Cadence got closer to Spike as she pleaded, “Yes, Spike. The statue… your statue is there in my kingdom. If you let Twilight and the others go, I will take you there so you can see it for yourself.”

For a few seconds, Spike was buying what she was saying to him feeling curious to see himself as a statue that others respected. But he then began to back up away from her while giving her a glare, “Wait a minute. Heh. Nice try, Princess of Love. You actually had me going there for a minute; but this is obviously a trap to take me away from here so you ponies can capture me again! I won’t fall for it!”

“Dragons…” said Cadence as she sighed, “they can be really stubborn sometimes.”

“Cadence!” Twilight suddenly shouted, “Use your magic to get us out of here yourself! We can help!”

“I'd be more than happy to,” Cadence agreed, “but I'm afraid that my magic wouldn't be able to do that.” She then looked at the other dragons, “Isn't that right?”

The dragons paused and thought for a second. Then Garble replied hesitantly, “Uh… y-yeah. Yeah! That's right! You can't do that, can you?”

“How embarrassing for you,” said Spike, “Another princess comes all the way here to save you, and she’s not even prepared to do so. How pathetic.”

Then with a smirk, Cadence told him, “Well, I wouldn’t say that I came totally unprepared. I brought some extra help.”

Then right on cue, another pony appeared from behind Cadence. A familiar earth filly who jumped forward and shouted, “Ta-da! Dramatic entrance! Its meeeeeeee!!!”

Everyone was at a stand still wondering what was happening, including Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Who the heck is that weirdo?” Garble questioned.

Clump and Fume just shrugged their shoulders not knowing themselves.

“A filly?” said Rarity in deep concern, “We need saving from dragons, and she brings a filly?!”

Somehow, Twilight had an idea of what was going on. With a smirk. she said, “I'm pretty sure Cadence knows exactly what she's doing.”

The young filly was Loopy Lola; a rather crazy but respectful fan of Spike from his fan club in the Crystal Kingdom. Gaining his attention, she waved at Spike while shouting, “Hey, Spike! It’s me, Loopy Lola… your biggest fan!”

“My biggest fan?” Spike scoffed with his arms folded, “For what reason?”

“What do you mean for what reason?! I'm talking about all your incredible feats that you've accomplished over the course of all the friendship adventures that you’ve been through with Miss Sparkle and her friends! Not to mention you saving my home, the Crystal Empire twice from certain doom!”

As Lola was getting nearer, Spike kept backing away from her feeling annoyed from her presence, “S-s-stay away from me, you weirdo! I already told your Princess of Love that I'm not falling for any of that nonsense!”

“Oh, Spike,” said Lola coyly, “Cadence warned me that you might be this way. So… let me try to jog your memory.”

“What are you doing?! I said stay… yah!”

Lola suddenly dashed forward to grab ahold of Spike; and she made sure to hold on tight. Spike was slightly panicking while wiggling furiously to try and get free.

“Should we… do something about this?” said Fume.

“Nah,” denied Garble, “There’s no way she’ll get through to him. Plus, seeing all of this is too hard to pass up.”

“I may be your biggest fan,” said Lola as she continued to hold on to Spike, “but you have an entire fan club that's dedicated to you! We love you, Spike! You’re our idol!”

“Let me go!” Spike shouted as he kept trying to get free; but to no avail, “Man, you’re strong for a filly!”

“Well, yeah,” said Lola feeling a bit sheepish, “I do work out a little and I eat my greens. But I guess being an earth pony doesn’t hurt either. We tend to have more muscle and stamina than others. But forget that! You need to remember, Spike! You must remember that you have friends not just in Ponyville, but in the Crystal Empire too! Not to mention other different regions in Equestria! You have friends everywhere!”

“Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking!”

Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy continued to watch this interaction unfold. Even though they had no idea who this filly was, they were hoping that she would be able to do something that they couldn’t.

“Do you think that filly’s encouraging words are getting through to him?” said Fluttershy.

“I don’t know,” said Rarity, “but I sure hope so.”

“Right now, I just wish for anything to work,” said Twilight.

Just then, Cadence shouted out to Lola, “Go on, Lola! Show it to him!”

Lola nodded and then proceeded with the plan, “But you know what’s even better than all of that?!”

“Gee,” said Spike as he rolled his eyes in annoyance, “what could possibly be better than all of the drivel that you just said?”

“Take a look at these!”

Lola suddenly pulled out two stuffed plushies; plushies that looked very familiar. Everyone’s eyes went wide seeing what they were.

“What… the…” said Twilight to herself.

“Remember these?!” shouted Lola in excitement.

All Spike could do was stare at the plushies with a single eye twitching, “Are those… supposed to be… you and me?!”

“They sure are! I made them myself. Completely hoof-stitched!”

Rarity was quite impressed, “Not bad. Not bad.”

“Its because that I’m your biggest fan that I made them! I kinda dreamed that one day we would be married and have kids together!”

“Oh… wow,” said Fluttershy feeling a bit embarrassed for Spike.

Garble and the other two dragons began laughing out loud after hearing all of that. Spike then glared at them blowing some smoke from his nostrils.

“Sorry, Spike,” said Garble, “but that’s hilarious!”

Lola kept her hold on Spike as she kept on talking, “I have told you all of this before and you did mention of how weird this all was; but a young filly can dream, right?”

“Enough!” Spike suddenly shouted as he was finally able to break free from Lola’s hold and held up his claws, “You are stepping way over the line, pony!

“Come on, Spike!” Lola pleaded, “Are you telling me that you don’t remember me? You don’t remember all of this? You must remember something.”

“No! For the last time, anything that you, that pink princess or those three say mean nothing to me! I am a dragon, and I do things my way; and I won’t be controlled by any pony anymore!!!”

“Way to go, Spike!” Garble shouted as he and the others egged him on, “Put those ponies in their place! You the dragon!”

Spike smirked as she folded his arms feeling proud, “Yeah. I am the dragon, aren’t I.”

“Wow, Spike,” said Lola in a solemn tone, “You really aren’t acting like the dragon I came to idolize. Is this really the path you wish to have?”

“What kind of stupid question is that? Of course it is! And by the way, why in the heck would I want to marry you?! I don’t even know who you are! To me, you’re nobody!”

Lola and the other ponies suddenly all gasped in unison hearing Spike’s harsh words while Garble and the other dragons all shouted, “Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!”

Spike then came up to Lola and snatched away her stuffed creations, “And here’s what I think of your stupid dolls!”

Spike then threw them up in the air and then jumped up to shredded them to pieces. Lola just sat there blatantly staring at the falling pieces of cloth and cotton with small tears in her eyes. She couldn’t believe that her #1 idol had destroyed her most dedicated creation.

Spike then walked over to her and said in a mocking tone, “Aw, you gonna cry? Then go ahead; cry like a wittle baby. Just know that once I help my kind seize control of Equestria, I’ll let you have the pleasure of being my personal slave. You know… since you do idolize me so much.”

But right at that moment, Lola suddenly reached out and grabbed Spike from his sides in a tight grip.

“Whoa! What the…”

She then glared at him still with tears in her eyes and began shaking him furiously, “You stupid, dragon! Do you even realize everything that you’re saying?!”

“Put me down!” Spike shouted, “Put me down!”

“I spent so long making those dolls! Even though he found it to be extremely weird, the real Spike would never have done that! Stop acting like a big jerk and come back to us!!!”

Then out of frustration, Lola used all her strength to suddenly throw Spike away from her side only to ram right into a cavern wall headfirst. Spike then fell face down on the ground completely knocked out.

Lola’s eyes suddenly went wide as she gasped, “Oh… my gosh. I think I overdid that just a little bit.”

Twilight and the other ponies saw what happened and were completely shocked and at a loss for words.

“Well that’s going to leave a mark,” said Rarity.

“But… look on the bright side,” said Fluttershy, “if we get out of here, carrying Spike back home will be easier.”

“Well, now you’ve done it,” said Garble to Lola, “You’ve gone and knocked him out. Great job. However, it doesn’t change the outcome of this situation. Once Spike wakes up, we’ll continue as planned.”

“I don’t think so,” said Cadence as she signaled Lola, “Loopy Lola, if you so please…”

Lola smiled as she cracked her forehooves and prepared to take action, “Oh yeah. It time for me to save the day!”

She then took off galloping towards the cage that was trapping Twilight and her friends. Although, Garble and the others weren’t worried.

“Hey, I see what she is doing,” said Fume, “and it’s dumb!”

“Yeah,” said Clump, “I mean how is a little filly going to knock over that cage out of the ground?”

But at her full ramming speed, Lola slammed into the cage and caused it to fly out of the ground freeing Twilight and her friends. Garble and the other dragons’ jaws dropped to the ground as Lola looked back at them while shaking herself off. “Unfortunately for you… I kinda work out.”

“Augh! You have got to be kidding me!” shouted Garble at the top of his lungs.

Twilight and her friends were surprised as well; but trying not to read much into it, Twilight nodded her head to Lola and said, “You have our thanks, Lola.”

“My pleasure, Princess!”

Immediately after that, they all ran over to Spike who was still passed out on the ground. But after nudging him a few times, Spike was finally coming to. He was slowly opening his eyes while groaning; and it brought great relief to the others.

“Oh, thank goodness he’s alright,” said Twilight.

Spike sat up and was looking around while rubbing his head, “Wh-what’s… g-going on?”

“Listen up, Spike,” said Twilight as she held Spike down with her magic, “We understand that you believe what Garble and the others said to you, but its not true! We’re going to bring you back home and figure out a way to help you to remember that!”

But something unexpected happened as Spike responded, “Twilight? Wh-what are you talking about? Where are we?” He then looked over and noticed Fluttershy, “Fluttershy? You too?” But when he noticed Rarity as she came closer, his eyes went wide and then lowered as he showed a shy a goofy smile with hearts fluttering over him, “And… Rarity.”

“Oh my gosh,” said Rarity as she gasped, “he’s looking at me… while acting all dopey. Spike’s back!”

“Wait… what do you mean I’m back?” said Spike all confused, “What happened?!”

Suddenly, Spike found himself surrounded by his pony friends as they hugged him from different sides.

“Okay… kinda feel a little confused here.”

Lola of course was relieved herself to see what had happened despite what it took, “Princess Cadence, look! I think Spike has his memory back! The impact from my throw must have jumbled it back into place! I’m so awesome!”

Cadence smiled seeing the warm moment in front of her, “Well how about that.”

Spike then noticed them as well and felt even more confused, “Princess Cadence? And… Loopy Lola?!”

“Hi!” Lola shouted while waving her hoof.

Garble groaned while clenching his claws as he shouted, “Aw, great. Now Spike got his memory back?! So much for that.”

Spike heard him and then looked over to see him and his comrades, “What the… Garble?!”

Spike was now more confused than ever. The last thing he remembered was falling off a cliff and hitting his head on a rock before everything had blacked out. He forced himself out of his friends’ loving embrace and demanded to get answers.

“Okay… will someone please explain to me what’s going on here?! Ow! And why do I suddenly have a headache?”

“That last one was kinda my fault,” said Lola in a sheepish tone, “But I’ll be more than happy to tell you all that I know!”

From there, Lola told Spike everything that had happened to the best of her ability based on what Cadence had told her, “And that’s pretty much it!”

However, it was enough for Spike to understand.

“Explain to me again why we just stood here while she explained all of that?” said Garble.

“We were curious to see if she knew or not,” said Clump.

Spike couldn’t believe everything that he heard. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, he knew that Lola wouldn’t lie to him, “Seriously? I did all of that? All just because I had amnesia?!”

“Well, to be fair… having a blank mind did make it all the easier for Garble and his… accomplices to manipulate you into believing in their lies,” said Twilight, “And from there, your normal dragon instincts just kicked in… and everything that came with it.”

Spike just then noticed Rarity’s ruined mane and singed coat. He became worried and said, “And Rarity… what the heck happened to your mane and coat?!”

With a nervous expression, all Rarity could get out was, “Well…”

“Wait… don’t tell me that I did that too?!”

“Maybe just a little?”

Spike suddenly clenched his claws and then glared back at the other dragons and shouted, “You! I can’t believe that you made me do all of this! I can’t believe that I almost helped you take over Ponyville! And worse of all… I can’t believe that your brainwashing caused me to ruin Rarity’s beautiful coat!”

“Wait… he thinks that is the worse thing he’s done?” said Twilight.

Rarity smiled and responded, “I won’t argue against it.”

“I can’t believe that you guys would stoop so low as to doing this to me… and my friends! I thought you were terrible before, but that is messed up!”

“Blah blahblah! Whine whine whine!” said Garble sarcastically, “Yeah, everything your little pony friends said to you is true. We did take advantage of you, and we don’t regret it one bit. We were originally going to use those crystals that we discovered to eventually invade Ponyville anyway and then to other pony towns too. Nobody was going to be able to get in our way, not even you Princesses; and we would do anything want, because we’re dragons!”

“Yeah!” shouted Clump and Fume.

“However, finding you in a state of amnesia was just a little bonus. Pitting you against your pony friends was going to be sweet; but I guess now that ship has sailed.”

“You better believe it has!” Spike strongly protested. But then he calmed down and took a deep breath as said, “You know… a dragon being friends with ponies is not a bad thing. Learning about friendship and doing great things without being selfish and needy is great. Just because I’m a dragon doesn’t mean that I have to act like what a dragon would normally act like; and the same goes for you guys as well!”

Garble, Clump and Fume all just stood there staring at him with amused looks on their faces. They really didn’t think Spike was being serious.

“Now I’m not saying that you should stop acting like a dragon. Heck, I still act like a dragon plenty of times! But why not give friendship a chance and learn to be a little nicer to others. That’s sounds nice, right?”

“Wow, Spike,” said Garble suddenly, “That sounded so inspiring.”

“Really?” said Spike.

“Really?” said everyone else.

“Yeah. That really moved us to tears.”

But then, Garble snapped his fingers to signal many other dragons to appear and surround Spike and all of the ponies.

“Perhaps we’ll think on that long and hard after we take over your puny town!”

“I’ll take that as a no?” said Spike nervously.

All the dragons began to enclose upon them as they all huddled up beside each other to figure out their next plan of action.

“Think long and hard about this,” said Cadance, “Do you honestly think that you can apprehend us with two alicorns present? After all, you don’t have any more of those fancy crystals now.”

“Maybe so,” said Garble, “but luckily for us, some of our boys already went back to that cave to get more; and they should be back any moment now.”

Suddenly right on cue, a few other dragons flew down from outside into the cave entrance. One of them shouted, “Garble! Garble!”

“Ah. Right on time,” said Garble with a mischievous smirk, “So, you got the gems ready so we can apprehend these ponies and go through with our plan?”

However, things were about to go completely south for them.

“That’s just it, Garble! The cave with those crystals is… is… GONE!!!”

“Gone?! What do you mean gone?!”

“As in completely gone! Its not there… like it never existed!”

Garble and the others suddenly heard Cadence having an amusing chuckle moment and then stated, “Yeah, about that. That was my doing. I got a certain friend of ours to get rid of that little problem.”

“What?!” shouted Garble in anger, “Who?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Meanwhile in a chaotic reality, we see the lord of chaos, Discord sculpting statues out of the very crystals from the mentioned cave that was now floating around the airspace he was in.

“Excellent! Thanks to Cadence, I’ve finally had the perfect solution to crafting my own crystal statues! Maybe I should host my own statue exhibition and invite all my friends!”

But then he remembered what the crystals were capable of doing.

“Wait, wait. That may not be a good idea. Oh well, at least maybe Fluttershy can see these.”

Back in the cave in the dragon lands, Garble and the other dragons were at a loss for words. There was nothing that they could do now.

“Well well,” said Spike with a proud smirk, “Looks like someone’s plan totally blew up in his face. Serves you right for manipulating me to your own ends.”

“What do we do know, Garble?” Fume whispered.

“I’m thinking. I’m thinking.”

Cadance then stepped forward with magic emanating in her horn causing some of the dragons to back away. With Twilight joining her, she instructed, “Well, here’s an idea for you to think about. How about you let us go on our marry way without the trouble of you and your comrades here to try and capture us. Do this and I promise that I won’t inform my Aunts… as in the Royal Sisters of your attempted plot to overthrow them and many others to take over Equestria. Not to mention of what I might do for manipulating the savior of the Crystal Empire to betray us.”

All the dragons were looking at each other with questionable looks while Garble was cracking under pressure feeling humiliated of being outsmarted by ponies once again.

“So, we have a deal, right?” said Cadence as she held out her hoof, “Unless you would rather face four powerful alicorns Princesses without the use of your magic sapping crystals. Your choice”

Garble was a troublemaker, but even he knew when to quit while he was ahead. He groaned as he shook Cadance’s hoof and said, “Fine! Whatever! You have yourself… a deal.”

“Good choice, my dear dragon. Come on, everypony. Let us take our leave.”

Upon Cadance’s order, Twilight and the others had the clear as they were on their way out of the cave that they were in. Many dragons scowled at them as they went by, but they knew better than to make any action against two Alicorns Princesses.

Spike was the last to head out; but on the way out, he turned to Garble and the others and said, “You know… the truth is that I actually have some vague memories of what I did with you guys and what I did to my friends; but overall, I don’t remember much of what happened after I gained amnesia. But just know that as a dragon… I want to scratch all your faces off! But as the royal adviser of the Princess of Friendship, I forgive you.” Spike then took a bow and left the cave entrance, “I bid you all adieu!”

After Spike and his friends took off and left, all the dragons decided to just forget what had happened and went on about their business. Garble however couldn’t forget about it. He felt like he would never forget about it.

“Wow. That whole plan of yours took an entire 360 turn, didn’t it?” said Fume.

“But on the bright side,” said Clump, “at least that pink princess let us off the hook. Right, Garble?”

Garble blew smoke from his nostrils as he replied, “Shut up, would ya.”
> Life Goes On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With some surprisingly extra help, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity were finally able to save Spike from his amnesia and stopped an attempted invasion of dragons. After leaving the dragon lands, everyone was making their way back to the Crystal Kingdom to recuperate and rest. Once there, Loopy Lola summoned the other members of Spike’s fan club to the throne room of Cadence’s palace to tell them of everything that had happened. She was so excited to tell them, and they were all excited to hear it. Currently, she was telling them her favorite part.

“And then just when all hope seemed lost for Princess Twilight and her friends, I… Loopy Lola revealed myself and was prepared to save the day alongside Princess Cadence herself! Those dragons may have looked intimidating, but I wasn’t scared.”

“No way,” one of the club members protested, “You… saving the day with Princess Cadence? That can’t be true.”

“Oh, but it is! After all, there’s a whole group of witnesses right over there who saw it! Ask any of them! They would totally vouch for me!”

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike and Cadence were all hanging out nearby joyfully observing what was going on before them. Seeing Spike’s fan club in person was a treat in of itself for them and felt proud for Spike.

“They are really getting into her story,” said Fluttershy with a smile, “I guess if I was them, I’d be the same way.”

“By the way, Rarity,” said Twilight to Rarity, “I noticed that you did a spell on yourself to fix the damage Spike did on you. You do know that you could’ve done that when Lola kicked the cage off us, right?”

While combing her mane, Rarity showed a sly smile as she responded, “Well yes; but then I wouldn’t be able to see Spike defend me in front of those other dragons. It was quite charming.”

Spike gasped as he suddenly went in front of Rarity and said, “Ch-charming enough for a… kiss?”

He then leaned forward as he puckered his lips. Rarity then chuckled as she went and kissed Spike on the cheek. Spike’s face fully blushed as he sighed in contempt, “I’ll take it.”

Looking over at Cadence, Twilight stated, “But still, I can’t believe you actually contacted Discord to take away that cave. But then again, I guess he was the best candidate that we had to do it.”

“Of course,” Cadence responded, “After all, his magic is not affected by the crystals at all seeing that he’s not a unicorn. Although, it still makes me wonder why that is.”

“Did you know that it wasn’t going to affect his magic?”

“Technically not, but at least I guessed right. Just don’t tell him that.”

From her sitting position, Fluttershy sighed as she slumped down on her front and said, “Well I’m just glad everything is back to normal. I don’t think I would’ve handled the pressure of being slaves to dragons. I would’ve cracked way sooner than anypony else.”

“I still can’t believe that those guys went so far as to using me to take advantage of going against you guys,” said Spike showing an upsetting expression, “I know my kind can be a bit brutal and… kind of selfish; but if that’s the case, I wish I was never born a dragon.”

“Don’t say that, Spike,” said Twilight, “None of this was your fault. It’s not like one can control what they do when they have amnesia. All that really matters is that you have your memory back, and those dragons no longer have access to those crystals to enslave us.”

Just then, a certain thought came across Rarity’s mind, “But… if you think about it, darling, perhaps this was all a good thing. If Spike didn’t go through all of that and wasn’t found by Garble and his little crew, then we would never know about the crystals and would never know about their plan in the first place.”

“Huh,” said Twilight as she gave Rarity’s comment a little thought, “As much as I would want to deny that, I think Rarity has a good point. I guess we should be kinda thankful that this happened.”

Spike was suddenly getting a swelled head hearing how his mishap may have played an important role in saving pony kind from other dragons, “So, it was all because of me falling down that cliff, hitting my head and losing my memory, and having Garble and the others find me that Equestria is safe from Dragon invasion? Wow, things sure have an interesting way of turning out. Maybe I’m still the main hero of this story.”

The ponies all looked at him with amused expressions; except Twilight who was giving him an arched eyed look.

“What? Just saying what sounds right.”

“Hey, Spike!” Loopy Lola suddenly shouted out from nearby, “Why don’t you come over here and tell every pony about everything that had happen after you left us last time! I already did, but I think we all want to hear about it from you!”

Spike then got up and smirked proudly as he responded, “Well… if you all insist, I suppose I could do my best to re-call that had happened.”

He then looked over at Twilight who was smiling at him and nodded her head for him to go on. But of course, he knew what else she was trying to tell him.

“Just remember, everypony that the true hero of this story is Loopy Lola here.”

“You really mean it?!” Lola said excitedly.

“Of course. I don’t think I would’ve come back to my senses if you hadn’t… thrown me into that wall. It was kind of sudden, but still effective.”

“Spike’s really lucky to have such dedicated admirers,” said Twilight, “Maybe one day I’ll have my own dedicated fan club one day.”

“Be careful what you wish for, darling,” said Rarity, “Fan dedication can be very stressful.”

“Tell me about it,” said Fluttershy.

“But with jokes aside, there’s one thing that I’m still wondering about,” said Twilight, “Even with the chances that they had, they weren’t really that stupid to go through with it, right? Were they given orders by the leader of their own race, or did they decided to act on their own?”

“I don’t know,” said Cadence, “But all I can say is that with those crystals gone, we don’t have to worry about those dragons again; or at least for a long while.”

Over where Spike was with his fan club, Twilight and the others heard one of the kids ask Spike, “So how did you get amnesia again? Something about a cliff and falling on a rock?”

Spike blushed from embarrassment as he said, “Well…”

Twilight then looked back at Cadence and stated, “And for future reference, let’s make sure Spike stay’s clear of all cliff edges from now on.”
Cadence giggled as she responded, “No argument here.”

Back in the dragon lands, it was almost like what took place never happened. Most of the dragons that were involved with Garble’s scheme had decided to not worry about what had happened and went on their daily lives. Garble himself on the other hand was still furious. He was constantly beating his fist on a rock wall while his main entourage was nearby watching.

“AUGH! I can’t believe it!” Garble shouted in anger, “This was perfect! I was going to make dragon history, and it was all ruined by… those stupid ponies! They made me look like a fool in front of the others! I’ll be a laughingstock for the rest of my life!”

“Well… to be fair,” said Clump, “we were kinda asking for this.”

Garble suddenly took a break from pounding the stone wall to turn around and glare and Garble, “What?”

Then Fume added, “Yeah, I mean… plotting something this big without the consultant of the… Dragon Lord? Wouldn’t he like… be completely furious once he found out?”

“No way!” Garble shouted feeling confident, “He would’ve been completely impressed once I carried it out. Discovering those crystals and bending the pony race to our will; who knows. He might’ve been so impressed, he’d make me a dragon general or something.”

A sudden voice then spoke out near them, “Oh I highly doubt that.”

Fume and Garble suddenly gasped as they turned around and saw a sky blue female dragon landed on the ground. They both bowed on the ground knowing that she was no ordinary dragon.

“P-P-Princess Ember!”

However, when Garble turned around, he just scoffed and grunted at her, “Aw great, just what I need. Go away! I’m trying to brood here!”

With a small smirk, Ember responded, “Is that any way to speak to the Dragon Lord’s daughter, peasant?”

Garble didn’t like being called that, but even he knew not to get on her bad side, “What do you want?”

“I was sent here by my Dad, the Dragon Lord to scout out things around here. Word has it that someone planned an uprising against the pony race without his knowledge. So, I’m guessing… that someone is you?”

“Gee, did you figure that out all by yourself, or was it just dumb luck?” said Garble sarcastically.

“Garble!” said Fume and Clump feeling worried for Garble health.

“But don’t worry, I’m in decent mood today. So, I won’t tell my Dad about any of this and just claim it to be nothing but a rumored hoax. Just imagine if you got us all in a conflict with the ponies and my Dad found out that the cause of it was you. He would not be happy, I’ll tell ya that. “

“Yeah yeah,” Garble responded, “I should be enterally grateful that you won’t rat out on me. Thank you or… whatever.”

Ember chuckled seeing Garble act so pitiful. It made her day. But then she began looking around for someone else, “So, where is he? I heard that you made a new bro friend or… whatever you call someone that you hang out with.”

Feeling tire of her company, Garble stated out, “Just forget it. I’m not telling you anything else.”

“Very well. You enjoy the rest of your day, boys.”

And with that, Ember took to the skies and flew away finally leaving Garble in peace.

“Ugh, she irks me so much. She’s lucky that she is the Dragon Lord’s daughter. Otherwise, I would’ve wiped that smile right off her face.”

“So now what?” said Clump.

“I say forget about those pansy ponies and that little Spike runt,” said Fume, “Let them have their friendship and junk. Won’t keep us having a good time! Right?”

“Oh, trust me, I am done… for now,” said Garble as he was trying to calm down, “But make no mistake. I will find a way to get back at those ponies and that little pony loving runt… one way or another.”